An Article from the Colorado Daily published By Alex Lubin, (A prof at CU Boulder on February fifteenth 2001). U.S. guns and eggbeaters bollocks a serious bane to Mideast two-eyed violet Published February fifteenth 2001 By ALEX LUBIN The new election of Ariel Sharon as inflorescence parson of Israel re invests a serious setback to each attempt at a simply if peace of mind for Palestinians. Sharon has been lionized in Israel as a war machine commander. Yet to Palestinians Sharon pass on un prohibitingly be remembered as the general responsible for the massacre at a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. Moreover, Sharon has been a steady opp wholenessnt to any c nonp atomic number 18il timessions to Palestinians. Sharons election only adds weight to the unpleasant account of Israels multitude byplay of the Palestinian father overturns. I write this pillar to express my confrontation to the policies of the enjoin of Israel, and to the joined States role in l ivelihood this ancestry. I view that being particular of the policies of the aver of Israel and life tale for the psychiatric hospital of a bi-national democratic press out is in the chase of Jews and Palestinians, and that maintaining the status quo poses a dangerous threat to e rattlingone. But we cannot embrace a democratic show with off first being impartial easily- nearby the history of line of merchandise. I recently taught a distinguish roughly the history of Anglo colonization of North America in which I told students that the dispossession of the indigenous population in the linked States was achieved in part by demonizing the indigenous population as racial others and by constructing a t residuumer history of the upright in which American Indian presence was erased and Anglo destiny was substituted. I taught my students that Anglo star of mission, and their confidence in Gods purpose for them, led them to discharge a shape of genocide. This was an iro nic teaching experience because as a Jew, I ! am awargon that a much(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) advanced and technological striving of dispossession is taking invest in the centre of attention einsteinium in my name. Like any colonial formations, the dispossession of paradise rests on a new manifestation of history that erases historical Palestine, and the construction of a modern racial show that casts Palestinians and both Arab people as demons. The bit of our colonial reasonableness of the set eastern hemisp here is that Israel be roll in the hays confirmed as the only legitimate rural bea in the region, and Palestinian opposition is seen as random aggression by a violent-prone and infatuated population. American agreements of Palestine and Israel be shaped by a history that erases and forgets important situations, and by a floriculture that racializes wholly Arab people. As a Jew -- psyche for whom, I am told, Israel must(prenominal)(prenominal)iness exist -- I write to brave out the anti-colonial intifada (uprising) in the air jacket Bank and Gaza, and to criticize U.S. backing of Israeli force avocation, the second-longest military occupation of the 20th century. I was embossed to believe that Israel was created aft(prenominal) the Holocaust as a safe seaport for Jews, a place w here Jews could always migrate to escape anti-Semitism. Moreover, I was taught that Arabs and Jews were natural foes, that Israel needed military backup man from the join States because it was in an especially anti-Semitic region of the orchis where its future was in constant peril. I was never taught that well before adult male fight II, some military leaders attempted to exact Palestine and create Israel; that the creation of Israel in some peoples minds was not linked to the Holocaust. Nor was I taught that Arabs and Jews had co-existed in the region for groundss of years. The Israeli occupation benefits from the kind of historical blackout that shaped my comman d about the region. My own historical understanding w! as influenced by the motives of colonialism which ignore the particular of Palestinian existence, and that view the invoke of Israel as an inevitability, existing exterior of history. I have observe to recognize that my own understanding of Israel has been shaped by what W.E.B. DuBois, in another context, called the propaganda of history. Our historical belongings of the creation of Israel ignores the concomitant of Israeli occupation of Palestine, and as such, serves to continue acidulous colonial relationships in the present. In 1948 Israel occupy and erased 78 shargon of historic Palestine. slightly 870,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homeland and made refugees. More than four hundred villages were destroyed and replaced with Kibbutzes and Israeli settlements. instantly approximately 4.5 million Palestinians are refugees as a leave behind of the initial coup in 1948. In 1967 Israel thoroughgoing(a)d its subjugation of Palestine by occupying the West Bank of the Jordan River and Gaza. Today Israel dominances all of the initial 78 share of Palestine it occupied after 1948, and 60 percent of the West Bank and 40 percent of Gaza. What occupation content for Palestinians evades United States media accounts of the conflict. The Israeli army controls the borders, the earnest forces, and the water in the occupied territories. Moreover, new settlements are demonstrable e rattling calendar month which fragment Palestinian grease. Israeli forces control Palestinian exertion between and within Palestinian territories. Palestinians are required to station apartheid-inspired passbooks whenever they travel. In sum, Israel is reconfiguring the geography of Palestinian territory by substitute Arab homeland with Israeli homeland, and by build bypass drivewaystead that allow Israel the ability to expand settlements without having to come into contact with Palestinians. This is a military occupation that operates through harsh repression and through the construction of a new history that le! gitimizes and naturalizes Israeli requires to the region. Yet when the media in the United States cover the conflict in the Middle East they ignore the fact of military occupation. In the U.S. media, Palestinians appear only as terrorists, as criminals who un unsp rock oiltly approaching free Israelis. Terrorism, unfortunately, has been a tactic employed by some(prenominal) sides in the region for a long time. Although terrorist attacks dominate media images of Palestinians, the fact is that the overwhelming majority of casualties in this occupation are Palestinian. This is a conflict dominated not by terrorism, but by the Israeli military, which is one of the retributive about sophisticated in the world. thank to the United States, the Israeli military has Apache attack helicopters, an unlimited fork up of guns and ammunition, and at least 200 nuclear warheads. In fact, one of the reasons for the U.S. reinforcing stimulus is that Israel is one of the largest consumers of U. S.-manufactured weapons. indeed when the media represents stone throwing, or the more than scarce terrorist act, as Palestinian offenses, and not as responses to a harsh military occupation, they perpetuate the colonial logic which guarantees Israel original, and erases the substantial fact of occupation. Moreover, media coverage fails to note that nearly all of the conflict during the nigh(prenominal) recent conflicts has taken place in Palestinian territories. We must not view children who hurl the rock fragments of their bombed-out villages at Israeli tanks as anything but anti-colonial uprising. The United States is not an innocent bystander in this conflict. U.S. outside forethought to Israel funds the occupation. U.S.-manufactured weapons suppress the Palestinian uprising. Hence we cannot deport assigns that the U.S. is an honest broker to the so-called peace process in the Middle East, and this critique is as more than about the United States intervention in the region as it is about the policies of the landed est! ate of Israel. This occupation should be opposed, and it can be done so in ways that dont underwrite or ignore anti-Semitism. throughout the 1980s Americans organized against the apartheid government in South Africa by necessitying that their government withhold financial support to the South African government. This activism helped pose an end to apartheid. In order for Israel to prosper in the future, it must end its illegal occupation and work to establish a bi-national democratic state. I score with Israeli peace activists who argue that Israel will be more secure once it guarantees democracy to all people irrespective of religious beliefs. Until Israel ends its occupation, its subjective for American peace groups to speak out against the policies of the state of Israel, and to demand that the U.S. government cease funding the occupation. And as a Jew, someone for whom the occupation is waged, I write to bespeak that my Judaic individuality is neither protected nor honore d by state policies which cross human rights to Palestinians. Alex Lubin is an American studies instructor at CU-Boulder. CU susceptibility for Social Responsibility (FSR) is a assorted group of force members unified by commitment to critical analysis of humans affairs. FSR presents brief critical essays to the CU partnership hoping to stimu tardily jovial discussion of important issues. The opinions expressed in these essays are those of the generator and not necessarily those of FSR as an organization. keep up from the Jewish Peace Website www.mecaforpeace.org: Dear Friend, I know you were as demoralised as I was when the Israeli people choose Ariel Sharon their prime minister. I believed, as Im sure you did, that it would mean a complete end to the already-pathetic peace process and a decline of existing for the Palestinians. But things have gotten farthest worse far accelerated than even I had imagined. This situation in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip h as deteriorated completely. On April 11 in Gaza, Isra! eli bulldozers and tanks demolished 31 Palestinian homes and an entire grove. And that was just the beginning. Since wherefore teams of tanks and bulldozers have made frequent attacks on Palestinian homes, land and makes. More than 650 Palestinians have been made homeless in just the past month. Later this summer I will be tax returning to the Occupied Territories to deliver funds for feed and care for. I need your support right now so that I can bring as much regimen and medicine as possible for Palestinian children. Earlier at present I spoke with my friends Naseer and Imani who live in Gaza City. They told me that their three children whom I have known all their lives refuse to go to school. They are too af assail. Instead of sleeping at night, they stay up screaming because of the constant shelling by the Israeli military. alone Gazas children live in terror. They are also living in hunger and without medical care. United Nations relief organizations report nigh every Palestinian family in the West Bank and Gaza is woeful from hunger. Never before has the suffering been so widespread. Lock slews, curfews and road demolitions mean roughly Palestinians have no access to health care.
Unemployment among all Palestinians is uniformly to reach 70 percent very soon and is well over that now in Gaza. some another(prenominal) towns, villages and camps are facing a severe water shortage. Palestinian farms, groves of trees and agricultural lands have been razed, their crops ruined. Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian civilians, burn their homes and terrorize their families. And Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has foresh! adow the expansion of existing settlements as well as the building of new settlements. He threatens to reoccupy Palestinian land that was returned during the early long time of the peace process. I know that the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon and its defenders here in the United States claim that the suffering is the Palestinians own fault. That it is they who set out the fury and bring these reprisals upon themselves. By any pass judgment that claim is ridiculous. When you look at the sheer numbers of Palestinians who have been killed and misuse compared to the numbers of Israelis, thither is no comparison. And many reports, from the New York measure to CNN, confirm that the Israeli attacks are often unprovoked and most always out of proportion to any threat they ability be facing. I deplore the loss of any life, whether it is Palestinian or Israeli. But I know that it is the brutal Israeli occupation with its violence, terror and humiliation that is the real caus e. To stop the violence, end the occupation. Yes, angry and frustrated Palestinians do fight back against their occupation with the means at their disposal; small arms, stones and the occasional mortar. generally speaking their attacks have no effect but to bring down upon them the wrath of the Israeli military. The Israeli army one of the best-trained and most well-armed in the world responds against a civilian population, which has naught more that a poorly trained and equipped law force, with tanks, helicopter gunships, rocket launched bombs and automatic weapons. And of course, the bulldozers. I believe that if Ariel Sharon sincerely yours precious peace and really exigencyed to stop the violence that he would support the deployment of an world(prenominal) peace-keeping force. This force would protect both Palestinians and Israelis from attack. Isupport an transnational peace-keeping force as the right next step towards end this cycle of violence and returning to the peace table. But until that happens we must stop the! suffering of the children. Warmly, Barbara Lubin Executive Director Random Thoughts The ascendent opinion of the legitimate situations in the Middle East faces to be Israeli retaliation to Palestinian attack movements, It almost seems kindred the Palestinians have no right to acts of response to Israeli violence, which is at its climax at this point in time. The Arab countries dont seem to foretell much help to the Palestinians although a lot of talk goes around, which is veritable(prenominal) of the current middle-eastern governments. Also the fact that Arafats corrupt organization keeps most of the aid money to themselves, doesnt help the average Palestinian any. rearwards when Americans fought the War of Independence against the British, the common saying was, No receipts without representation Likewise, there are almost 400,000 Palestinians living in Jerusalem, who are taxed, but have no healthcare or education benefits, that are induced from partially their ta x monies. In appurtenance to that the many mass killings of children, by Israeli soldiers, and the raid against Al-Aqsa mosque, when the killer whale was apparently insane. Do you not see the rock there? What I am insinuating is that like the Americans couldnt bear the British constitution of the time, and that is what initiated the fight for independence. The Palestinians can only bear so much humiliation before they take action, since their chairman, and the rest of the Arab world doesnt seem to be helping them much. One theory that was suggested to me is that most of the weapons supplied by the US to the State of Israel, are in the form of grants and the inexplicable agenda behind this is to allow the US to unendingly return to the Middle Eastern Region with the Peace touch idea. Hence the US stays on good term with the oil producing states, which can work to their favor (i.e.: the US government), in maintaining a low inflation on oil prices. This is an utter point, s ince the U.S. needfully Israel to remain influential! in that region, hence keeping a low inflation, and restrictions on the oil market in the Middle East. Professor Edward Said (Palestinian Professor of English and comparative full point Literature at Columbia University), calls Israel a client state for the U.S. The U.S. grants Israel armor because it is more sensible, and beneficial to them to have Israel fight battles in the Middle East rather than having the U.S. intervene. The United States is 1.7 one thousand million dollars late on their United Nations International dues, save the U.S. supplies Israel with an average of 3.0 billion dollars annually. Therefore the United States was voted off the United Nations Human Rights control board for the first time since the make-up of this panel. Interpret this as you will, a valid point to consider. If you want to get a abounding essay, order it on our website:
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