795 Israeli settlements redux
A couple of weeks ago I wrote my blog 782 about Israeli settlements. Is there more to say on that issue? Oh yes, just ask Mark Kenny of the SMH ...
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Update: In the news today (SMH): Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Australia is opposed by 60
prominent locals ...
In a joint
statement, 60 prominent Australians ... say Mr Netanyahu's policies
contravene international law
"Mr Netanyahu's policies consistently
aim to provoke, intimidate and oppress the Palestinian population which
increase that imbalance, thus taking Israel irretrievably further from
peace," the statement, organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy
Network, says.
"These policies
are inconsistent with Australian values and beliefs and we should not welcome
him here."
Bishop Browning said
Mr Netanyahu "deserves a red card, not a red carpet".
The letter says his
government's policies "build understandable resentment, anger and
desperation amongst Palestinians" and calls on the Turnbull government to
"rethink its one-sided support" for Mr Netanyahu.
Furthermore
(SMH): Kevin Rudd calls for Australia to recognise Palestine after Donald
Trump's dalliance with one-state solution
Former prime minister
Kevin Rudd has added his voice to the list of Labor party luminaries calling
for Palestine's recognition.
In powerful comments,
Rudd tells me his "deepest fear" is the disintegration of an
independent Palestine, which he says would fuel new radicalisation in
the Middle East.
As I like to do on
this subject, I seek counsel from Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi (see also my blog
715), who said in response to the blog below:
Yes I do agree. Hamas does not reflect the views of the majority in Palestine and the main reason they won in the last elections is that the votes were spread for Fatah who had more than 400 candidates for 132 seats in the Legislative Council while Hamas had only 132. They were well financed and better organized but their ideology is not widely accepted in Palestine.
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... on that SMH page is a video with a short excerpt of the press conference in the US with Don Trump and Ben Netanyahu (a larger excerpt below). Trump talks about one-sided & unfair actions by the UN against Israel. Says Netanyahu "... our values & interests are under attack from one malevolent force: radical Islamic terror ..."
Nothing new there, except, one may ask, why do we have radical Islamic terror? Could the occupation of Palestine and especially the Israeli settlements have anything to do with it? Do read Mark Kenny's article.
However, beyond the extremely urgent issue of the settlements, there is one aspect of the discourse between Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, and the American public - as documented in that joint press conference with President Trump - that irks me immensely. At 12:55 minutes in the video below Netanyahu says, as regards the impediments to peace in the Middle East ...
"... first, Palestinians must recognise the Jewish state, they have to stop calling for Israel's destruction ..."
He then goes on to explain in a torturous monologue that the cause of the conflict is the persistent refusal of the Palestinians to accept that the ancestral land of Palestine belongs to the Jews, since it is the land of Judaea. You have to watch this to try and comprehend that warped logic ... it is incomprehensible that this man gets away with this nonsense.
Netanyahu likes to take the high ground and talk of "the truth". But he is a liar and an opportunist. Israel is in existence because of a UN resolution, the same UN resolution that attempted to guarantee a two state solution, with the establishment of both Israel and Palestine.
What galls me in particular about the dishonesty of Netanyahu is that he knows perfectly well that it is only Hamas, a minority in Palestine, who indeed call for the destruction of Israel. The Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas, are the majority of Palestinians and it is they who are recognised as the State of Palestine, and it is they who are accepted by Israel as their negotiating partner ... and it is they who accept the legitimacy of Israel.
Like I said, Netanyahu is a liar and opportunist, beholden to the very right wing of Israel's politics and the Settler movement.
And don't forget to read the Mark Kenny article in the Herald; and why am I so concerned about all this - Israel, Settlers, Palestinians? I hate injustice.