Friday, June 25, 2010

Why Helen Thomas was Right about Israel

When Helen Thomas dared to criticize Israel, America's sacred cow, her decades-long career as a journalist was summarily brought to an end with the predictable false claims of anti-semetism. To do this she was of course taken out of context when she said “Jews should get the hell out of Palestine.” When asked where they should go she said they should “go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else.”

Obviously she was refering to the tens of thousands of Jews who immigrate to Israel every single year and the implication that has on the single biggest stumbling block to peace, Israel's continuing refusal to stop building settlements on Palestinian land and carving up their country. Helen Thomas dared to put her finger on the problem and got burned.

The Israeli people want peace, but they're held hostage by the ultraorthodox (fundamentalists) who, like all nationalists, believe that they hold claim all the land that was under their rule at any time in history, by god! It appears that the Palestinian people are also held hostage by the fundamentalists in their midst and want to move forward to peace.

From yesterday's Democracy Now! http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/24/headlines
(emphasis added)

A new poll shows a majority of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories support reaching a peace agreement with the Israeli government. According to the Norwegian-based group FAFO, 73 percent of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza say they support negotiations with Israel but that the talks should be preconditioned on a settlement freeze. The poll also shows growing support for nonviolent resistance to the Israeli occupation, with the number of Palestinians who oppose rocket attacks from Gaza increasing to 61 percent from 53 percent. Israel has refused a settlement freeze while also rejecting any peace agreement that would involve giving up its large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.

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