ConSiences of Humanity

Thomas Merton wrote:  "Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it – because he is out of place in it, and yet must be in it – his place is with those others who do not belong, who are rejected because they are regarded as weak; and with those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, and are tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst."

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John Kerry is delusional if he thinks he can temporarily curb the appetite of those who believe in an ideology of conquest, subjugation and exceptionalism (“chosen people”) to save “Zonism”. His claim that Shimon Peres told him that 78% of Palestine is enough and that they should let the Palestinians have the other 22% is simply not believable. Shimon Peres never changed his views from his youth as a disciple of Ben Gurion (Rabin and the two of them masterminded the ethnic cleansingand destruction of 500 towns and villages between 1948 and 1950). To his last breath Peres was a racist, a bigot, and an unrepentant war criminal (not to mention his build-up of Israel’s arsenal of WMD). He always believed Jews are smarter, chosen, and are entitled to rule over geate Israel and like his mentor, he thought a two-state support is mostly for propaganda. Like his Zionist colleagues whether they believed in God or not (and most of them did not) or they were “left” or “right”, he believed in something they consider more important than all of that: the unity and destiny of the chosen “Jewish people” (a myth no more true than “the Muslim people”, the “white people” or the “Christian People”). This tribal racist thinking infects “left” and right Zionist Jews alike. The only difference between left Zionists like Kerry and Right Zionists like Trump’s son-in-law is merely over tactics (such as timing of applying force and timing of applying diplomacy) not ultimate goals. The even bigger delusion is that it is possible to exploit the differences between the Zionists over tactics to save Israel from historical trends that are inevitable and as predictable as sunrise.

We heard the delusional parameters Kerry copied from the Clinton parameters which in turn were ones with a genealogy that goes back to Ben Gurion of the 1920s (public speeches not his private diaries and letters to his son where he articulated the same vision of greater Israel as his right wing critics and explained that speaking of partition is merely for outside public consumption and that actions on the ground is what matters to achieve the goal of a Jewish empire/Greater Israel). Now here are six parameters based on reality instead f the Kerry delusional parameters:

1) There never is and never was any justification for colonialism whether Jewish colonialism here or white colonialism in South Africa. Corollary is that Zionism is racism and is not compatible with peace.

2) There are 12.5 million Palestinians (50% inside Palestine) in the world and no peace can happen without return of refugees, self-determination and full equality (negated by a concept of a Jewish state or a Muslim state or a Christian state for that matter).

3) Colonialism has one of only three outcomes/models: a) win by the natives at great cost (Algerian model), b) genocide of natives (Australia, USA, New Zealand model), c) integration in one country for all its inhabitants (including descendants of the colonizers). Since options (a) and (b) are virtually impossible here and now (21st century) that leaves option (c) which is in any case the most common outcomes in similar cases. Dozens of countries in central and south America, Canada, Southeast Asia, and South Africa follow that pattern. A “two-state” mirage is just that and will never happen/can never happen (see my book “Sharing the Land f Canaan” to explain why, it is available at http://qumsiyeh.org/sharingthelandofcanaan/ ).

4) Zionism existed before creating the “Jewish state” and will survive after it is ended and becomes a democratic state for all its citizens and the returning refugees. It is an ideology of parasitism and “chosenness” that transcends geography and speaks of contentedness of all Jews around the world and their mutual interest and bonding. Zionists who live in other countries (including those that shape US’s foreign policy whether executed by a democrat or a republican) readily tell you that Israel is their insurance policy that they could always go to if there are “troubles”. It is sort of like the island of the pirates of the Caribbean that was a safety net. Any Jew who challenges such notions and believes that Jews can be American or German and should be loyal citizens of their own countries first or that Israel should be treated like any other country and and forced to comply with International law (including allowing Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands) is looked at as a self-hating Jew. Hence John Kerry and Madeline Albright and people like them who “discover” their “Jewishness” would not want to be called “self-hating” and they do everything to help Zionism (ofcourse from the “left” angle of tactics as Trump will do it from the “right” angle).

5) In the near future, US policy will continue unchanged as it was since 1967 and the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty (Israel lobby ensured scuttling the fact that it was a deliberate attack). The US has been and will continue to subvert US interests in favor of Zionist intersts. That the mainstream  media and Hollywood are managed by zionists (whether "left" or right) will probably help this trend continue until the US declines as a world power significantly more (largely due to this Zionist parasitism). The Palestinian and Arab leadership would be wiser to hitch their wagons to different horses before they end-up like Saddam Hussain and Qaddafi. China, Russia, and Iran are certainly not the most desirable countries but at least those horses are not chained by the Zionist masters and watch their own interests instead of Israel's. The big fuss over Obama's abstention and Kerry speech is blown out of proportion: Since 1967, every US President has allowed a very few/rare UN Security Council Resolutions directed (mildly and without sanctions) against Israeli policies. Obama has allowed the fewest (one in 8 years) Carter allowed the most (14 in 4 years): LBJ 7 , Nixon 15, Ford 2 , Carter 14 , Reagan 21, GHW Bush 9, Clinton 3 ,GW Bush  6, Obama 1. None of these had any significance in changing the steadfast policy that the US supported Israel, shielded it from |International law, and funded its aggression. You cannot credibly claim you do not like your son beating other children with clubs that you keep buying for him!!

6) You can fool all the people some of the time or some of the people all the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time. The internet has begun to fray the Zionist hegemony of the media. Note that even in the most moderate of media outlets like PBS, they bring left and right Zoionists to argue but they never allow you to hear from antiZionist or post-Zionist. Other media outlets are owned and operated by either left Zionists (e.g. New York Times, CNN) or right wing Zionists (e.g. Fox News). But more and more people are seeing this and the jig is coming up and that is why Zionists moved to using their lobbies to legislate silence (criticism of Zionism becomes “anti-Semitic”). In doing so the Zionists do not care that they are moving Western governments to become undemocratic (curbing free speech). Their short term calculations that this helps their cause will just as surely backfire as their pushing the US to enter World War I in exchange for getting the Balfour and Cambon declarations or pushing the US to go to war on the Iraqi people. The former partially led to WWII which was not good for anyone and the latter cost US taxpayers $3 trillion and ended up benefiting Iran. Before that the push for the war on Lebanon strengthened Hizbollah. After that came the Zionist push for the war on Syria (ostensibly to break the Shia crescent of Lebanon-Syria-Iran) and Yemen hoped to “win” and drive Arab states into the lap of Zionism. But every push has a counter-push and every action has a reaction (basic physics as basic human psychology).

Some Zionists can *talk* about partition but show me one of their leaders who publicly acknowledge that we native Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) have rights of sovereignty. The reason they can’t is that if they recognize our rights even just over Ramallah, their whole ideology collapses. After all, what is the difference between that and recognizing our rights in Haifa, Jaffa, Nazareth etc  Hence the two state idea remains a figment of an imagination to lead to peace like the mirage of the desert will not lead to water.

What does it take to change dynamics? Challenge both versions representing Zionist interests: Clinton’s and Trump’s (Peres’ and Netanyahu’s). Work for a global uprising against those who actually appoint such puppets. That remains the 1% versus the 99%. Our message to all people (starting with Jews and Israelis who still support Zionism): end your delusions, join the 99% and let us work for a better world where justice prevails and all are treated with dignity and respect regardless of their religious belief (or lack thereof). As Martin Luther King Jr once said “w eiter live together as fellow human beings or perish together as fools.” 

For an example of real mobilization for change, see the Zapatistas.

 ConSiences of Humanity Conference organized by Zapatistas. A great step in what we have always called for a global intifada against the racist capitalist systems

https://floweroftheword.wordpress.com/2016/12/29/ezln-inauguration-of-the-gathering-the-zapatistas-and-consciences-for-humanity/

Is Team Trump Instructing this New Year’s Grinch OFAC to Destroy JCPOA? by FRANKLIN LAMB
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/27/is-team-trump-instructing-this-new-years-grinch-ofac-to-destroy-jcpoa/
[OFAC is  Office of Foreign Assets Control in the US Treasury Department run by a Zionist and JCPOA is now commonly referred to by Zionist media as the Iran deal]

Why Obama waited 8 years to take on Netanyahu http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/obama-waited-netanyahu/

A videotape from 1961 where Benjamn H. Freedman (a Jewish American who converted to Christianity) tells a bit of history that is relevant to current events https://youtu.be/x8OmxI2AYV8

UNSC Vote

Will Mahmoud Abbas turn success into failure (again) or will he finally show backbone to use the UNSC resolution to save what remains of Palestine? By Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, Bethlehem, Palestine

DEDICATION: This post is dedicated to Mohammad Al-Ghaz and all similar suffering children of Gaza. Mohammad was interviewed a year ago while selling newspapers in the streets. He was asked what he wishes for the new year 2016 and he impulsively answered “like die.” He went on to explain that his life is so miserable and he cannot go to school and has to work hard to find food for his family. Mohammad got his wish this Christmas season as he slipped on the roof of a four story building as he was trying to get some wood (video in Arabic here http://bit.ly/2hqYUPh ). The UN says Gaza will be uninhabitable by 2020. The two million people of Gaza including 1 million children are threatened with massive deaths (genocide). Please remember these one million children who are losing hope in humanity and do something to end Israeli apartheid. And of course the over 400 million children in the world who go to sleep hungry like those Palestinians in Gaza.

Fatah joined the PLO in 1968 and at the same year, there was the first conflict in which Zionist colonial military had to retreat (at Karama through Jordanian and Palestinian resistance). What quickly followed is a defeat in 1970 that was due to lack of knowledge and strategizing and understanding the nature of the society and government in Trans-Jordan at the time. So the PLO was kicked out of Jordan and went to Lebanon in 1970. The only silver lining was that the Palestinians in the 1967 occupied areas started to depend on themselves forming unions and other organizations that developed into the 1974 uprising. The 1973 October war was almost a success militarily except for the US interventions under Zionist Henry Kissinger de facto presidency in foreign affairs (Nixon was too busy with Watergate etc to be an effective president).1973 remain the only real war between contending armies Arab and Zionist (others Arab armies did not fight and in many cases were colluding like in 1948). But the success was political in showing the Israeli state as vulnerable. A 1974 uprising cost Israel a near total collapse of its economy.  But as will happen later, the PLO leadership of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas turned success to failure by pushing the 10 point program in late 1974 which in essence contradicted the PLO charter and accepted partition (UN general assembly “recommendation” 181 and 194). In exchange for this "compromise" (capitulation), Palestinians got assassinations, a right wing government in Israel in 1977, increased colonial settlements, and the Egyptian government betrayal.

But again we Palestinians picked ourselves up and resumed the struggle which culminated in a major uprising in 1987 that again shook Israel to its core. Instead of capitalizing on this success, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas pushed for a meaningless “Declaration of Independence” that basically recognized oppressors' legitimacy (under the guise of accepting UN resolutions). Thus the UN could not be holier than the Pope and rescinded its 1974 resolution that equated Zionism with racism (which it is). This capitulation led to Oslo accords harvesting not even low lying fruit but rotten fruit from under the tree. This again saved the Zionist project and more than 50 countries that did not recognize Israel before did so after Oslo. Oslo II agreement in 1994 especially made sure that the Palestinian Authority becomes a subcontractor for the occupation. And between 1993 and today, the number of colonial settlers in the West Bank went from 150,000 to 750,000 (more per square kilometer than inside the Green Line). These were all by Palestinian leadership decisions. Palestinian technical experts (legal, mapping, historical, locals who know the terrain) who were in the negotiations all tell the same story of ignoring their council and forging ahead by the hierarchy. All agree that much more could have been obtained. Many quit in disgust. This is snatching failure from the jaws of success. The pattern repeated with International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN etc for example after Goldstone report (withdrawal), after the BDS call of 2005 (Abbas did not support it and actually spoke against it insisting that only settlement products should be boycotted).  The list goes on and on.

 The UN Security Council (UNSC) issued a resolution in 1980 condemning the settlements in the occupied territories as contrary to the Fourth Geneva conventions. But as capitulations continued (see above), the US got emboldened and started to veto every resolution that was clearly based on International law vis a vis Israel. The USA used its veto power or the threat of veto to thwart any attempt to make Israel comply with human rights and International law. After 36 years and in the last month of President Obama, the USA decided not to veto and simply to abstain (all other 14 members of the UNSC voted with the resolutions. Donald Trump, Egyptian military dictator Sisi, and the Israeli puppets in Congress failed to dissuade Obama from this partial decency (should have voted with to make it unanimous). In any case most analysts consider this resolution a success even though it a) has no enforcement mechanism, b) also equates violence of colonizer with “violence” of colonized, c) does not even mention the word Palestine,

Now, what will happen with this latest resolution? ssuming it is not "too little too late" and regardless of the reasons Obama allowed it passage it after thwarting similar resolutions, two and only two options are before us:

Option 1: The PA goes on in the same pattern as before (especially its security collaboration to protect Israel from any form of meaningful resistance that impacts a cost). Israel already rejected the resolution and is proceeding with colonization activities.  Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian Negotiator simply told journalists that he wishes 2017 s a year of ending the occupation and that they will approach the US under its new administration as well as other countries and “ask” that they do something. Israel will annex Maale Adumim consolidating apartheid further (e.g. http://shabiba.com/article/167492 ). PA official speakers from Abu Mazen down to mayors and Fatah revolutionary council members will recite the same scripted speeches over and over again (we want a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital; those who are a little, not much, braver, will say that and implementing UN resolution 194 on refugees; none will dare say anything about the 50 laws that discriminate against Palestinians living inside the green line). This is hoping some savior comes (sorry, Jesus Christ came and Mohammad was recognized the last prophet and we do not anticipate more now).

Option 2: The PA tells the International community that as of a particular date (say in two weeks) unless Israel announces and implements a total freeze (under UN supervision) on all buildings in all the occupied territories and lifts the siege on Gaza, the PA will stop security cooperation. As Israel will not do this and will retaliate, things will get worse but this is a desperate situation and delay cannot happen this time. It is an opportunity that cannot be lost in the middle of transitions between Obama and Trump. Obama will have to deal with it and so will Trump (and us and Israel). It might be actually the last chance for leadership of Fatah to show some new backbone that salvages the Palestinian cause. If not I am use that following option 1 will result in a new grass-root liberation movement to come before 2020 that will reinvigorate the mission of a pluralistic secular democracy (original PLO Charter) in all of Palestine which will eventually succeed (there are already 6.2 million of us here, more than 50% of the population). History will not be kind to those who miss this opportunity at best they will say that their incompetency caused too much suffering or that they were outright traitors for putting personal interest ahead of public interest. It is never too late to correct a mistaken course. It takes courage to admit mistakes. Being humble as the Buddhists say is the first step to greatness.