Middle East Peace

Once again I am motivated to address a subject that seems to have fallen off the radar screen of many of our citizens. The subject is Middle East Peace.

I am going to address this subject from my developing opinion that the right wing within Israel (and my own nation, the United States) are as much an obstacle to a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as is Hamas.

I am not going to try and defend Hamas. Neither am I going to try and condemn the organization. As far as I am concerned, the Internet is awash with English language condemnations of Hamas. However, what our side still seems to lack is condemnation of our own actions. Voices that scream we need to stop being hypocrites. If there were enough voices speaking from this viewpoint, our actions would match the words of existing voices. Perhaps what the world needs is just one more voice, and one more vote, against hypocrisy.

What is the hypocrisy?

The Israeli right wing takes regular advantage of how the Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of Israel. The Hamas Charter is unreasonable. However what does the Israeli right wing stand for? Will the Israeli right wing be willing to accept "Two States for Two Peoples" or are they as much a part of the problem as is Hamas?

It is my opinion that every criticism of Hamas can also be laid directly at the feet of the Israeli right wing. What would I point to as evidence in my opinion? The record of unrelentless expansion of Israeli settlements even DURING peace processes.

Now I am not completely condemnatory of most Israelis. It is my opinion that most Israelis really are moderates who would be willing to trade land for peace. However these so called moderates keep allowing the right wingers to incite the desire for vengeance even from moderate Palestinians.

Even while the withdrawal from Gaza was conducted, the expansion within Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) continued. One Palestinian cheek was stroked while the other was slapped.

Just how unreasonable can the Israeli right wing be? Just how intolerantly tolerant can the Israeli moderates be? Let's look at the peace efforts of my own at least right of center President of my nation (George Dubyah Bush) and what the right wing promises to him in the wake of his opening gambit back at Annapolis.

From israelnationalnews (Arutz Sheva) comes (this piece) by Ezra HaLevi that promises defiance of President George Dubyah Bush's efforts for a peaceful settlement.

As Arutz Sheva reports:

On Tuesday, January 8 – the day before the projected date of Bush’s Jerusalem visit – a massive building campaign in Judea and Samaria will be kicked off in Jerusalem’s southeastern Har Homa (Homat Shmuel) neighborhood. There, leaders and activists will declare Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem and in the entire Land of Israel.

From there, activists will leave, with vehicles loaded with building materials, for points throughout Judea and Samaria.

The leaders of the umbrella organization of several extra-parliamentary groups that have taken part in various grassroots activism since the 2005 Disengagement, say they intend to thwart plans to establish a Palestinian Authority state by creating new Jewish communities.

Now I think it is important to point out that the activities of settlers have incited violence. While they have quietly been teaching their kids how to deal with "them damn Arabs" their ever lasting expansion has served as proof of how evil "them damn Jews" are to Palestinian right wingers who are also raising their kids.

I will note the organizations that are seeking to provide the manpower and funding for their defiance. Arutz Sheva reports:

Participants include the Land of Israel Faithful, Youth for Eretz Israel, Women in Green, Homesh First, The Committee to Save the People and the Land, Komemiyut, Maginei Eretz, Mattot Arim, Land of Israel Forum, VeYirashtem Otah, local Action Committees and the Committee for the Expansion of Homat Shmuel (Har Homa).

Perhaps these organizations should be added to terrorist lists, and deservedly so, just like Hamas?

Quoting again from Arutz Sheva as it urged on supporters of the defiant:

Supporters the world over are being given the opportunity to purchase cinder blocks, cement, generators, tools, sand, gravel, pipes, chemical toilets, doors, windows, tin roofs, cement mixers and other building materials.

I guess we are supposed to believe that a relentless supply of an invasive quantity of bricks and mortar are less inciteful to violence somehow. "We're only building homes" they scream. Yeah, but, just who's property are you building on?

The above rant is going to do little to resolve the problem. The problem is that we have two groups of people that believe they have a God given right to the land. We have two groups of people that are willing to visit inhuman levels of suffering on the humans that oppose them in achieving their "God given rights".

I would only ask that my side be willing to wear some of the paint that splashes back at them while they attempt to color their opponents with a broad brush.