The DISH

Unbossed and unbought news and information you can use

Vol. 14 No. 37…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 12, 2011

Intuit's Vibe

Gaza's Iliad

Following the May 31, 2010 Israeli attack on the Gaza peace flotilla, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, published a poem in Al Khaleej daily criticizing Israel's blockade and urging Arabs to come to the aid of the captive territory.

Shaikh Mohammed's poem harkens back to Greek and Roman verse; its title is reflective of Homer's Iliad and the siege of Troy.

In "Gaza's Iliad," Mohammed condemns the raid in which nine Turkish activists were killed and likened it to the famous siege in Troy and how it lasted 10 years.

In the legends associated with Troy and its years under Agamemnon much is written about the substance of heroism and its texture. Shaikh Mohammed picks up the same thread and calls for that sort of heroism and togetherness that was shown by the warrior Achilles.

"Gaza is an exam," he says, "A test of the times for us. They turned the aid ship into fire," Shaikh Mohammed has written, adding that "history will remember that we let down Arabs like ourselves when they called for help."

Mohammed questions the refusal to face facts. "Wherefore denial and the keeping of the blind eye? Oh, people of the world, give an ear to their plight"

Shaikh Mohammed also described the "call for peace without taking action a lie," and criticized the UN Security Council's silence on the blockade.

His lyrics underscore the suffering in Gaza and question the silence of the international community. "What cardinal sin has Gaza committed…without any pretense a people are ruined…the call of peace is made but no action follows it. What is going on, Security Council? Why the silence?"

In the original Iliad, too, there was this conspiracy of silence and he has deftly brought it into the modern context and shown that there is a time to be quiet and a time for action.

"History shall show we let them down, they are Arabs like us and they need our protection." This is clearly a call for action, both collective and concerted. (Source:www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/June/theuae_June486.xml&section=theuae)

Bit of History

Freedom-Seekers America Ignores

By Rashid Khalidi

One of many constants in the Middle East over nearly a century is the denial of the Palestinian people's desire for statehood and independence. The current Israeli opposition to the PLO's effort to obtain United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state is but the latest iteration of longstanding obstruction of the Palestinian search for statehood, self-determination and recognition.

Like so much else in the modern Middle East, this obstruction started with Britain, which controlled Palestine from 1917 until 1948, and which never fully accepted that the Palestinian Arabs were a people entitled to statehood in their own land. The 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, hand-crafted by the British to suit their own desiderata, and repeating the wording of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, explicitly recognized a "Jewish people" who were entitled to a "national home" in Palestine. While the Palestinians formed over 90 percent of the population, their existence and their national and political rights were never mentioned in this document, which formed the basis for British rule of the country. Even when the British offered "concessions," these always involved Palestinian acceptance of superior rights for another people in what Palestinians considered their homeland.

This same two-tier rights principle was at work in the United Nations General Assembly partition resolution of 1947. Instead of Palestine becoming an independent state with a one-third Jewish minority, or most of it going to its Arab majority, the U.N. mandated that over 55 percent of the country -- only 7 percent of which was Jewish-owned at that time -- should become the state of that minority. The Arab state called for under the plan, however, would have been divided in four pieces, would not have included Jerusalem or Haifa (two of the three cities with the largest Arab populations), and embodied numerous other injustices. The gerrymandering necessary to give the Jewish state most of Palestine was so grotesque, in fact, that it would have had nearly as many Arabs as Jews in its population.

Perhaps because of revulsion at (and guilt over) the just-revealed horrors of the Holocaust, these provisions were all presumably considered acceptable to the great powers, headed by the U.S. and the USSR, which rammed this resolution through the General Assembly. The Palestinians, shattered by British repression of their desperate anti-colonial revolt at the end of the 1930s, divided, and leaderless, never reacted coherently to this unjust plan, except to reject it. But it was superseded long before it was due to be implemented in mid-May 1948 by successive offensives of well-organized and well-armed Zionist forces, which took over vast swaths of land that had been allotted to the Arab state. The great powers did nothing to prevent this from happening, or later to ensure that a Palestinian state came into being. This is not surprising, as most of them, as well as Israel and Jordan, were in fact opposed to the creation of such a state, and connived in Jordan's absorption of most of what remained after Israel had expanded its control to 78 percent of Palestine by the time of the 1949 armistice accords.

Statehood and self-determination continued to elude the Palestinians in subsequent years. Once again facing daunting odds, as in the past, Palestinians often did not maximize their opportunities due to poor leadership, incoherent strategy and a limited understanding of the politics of the great powers, both domestic and external. It took nearly two decades after the debacle of 1947-49, which shattered Palestinian society and turned over half its people into refugees, to rebuild a coherent Palestinian national movement. It took Palestinians even longer to formulate an unequivocal demand for a state on the 22 percent of Palestine not incorporated into Israel after 1948. After a decade and a half of movement in this direction, the PLO finally issued its 1988 declaration of independence, ironically basing the claim on the 1947 partition resolution.

Irony, it seems, is the constant companion of Palestinian history, as by 1988 Israeli annexations, colonization and land expropriations in Jerusalem and the West Bank had already begun to make this solution impossible. Today, after 44 years of such ceaseless effort, it is highly questionable whether this process can be reversed. Few people who understand the powerful forces behind this effort within Israel, or who have closely examined the situation on the ground in the occupied territories, believe that it is any longer possible. Even President Obama, in his modest attempt to freeze settlements last autumn, witnessed the momentous obstacles to any and all challenges to the status quo, no matter how reasonable or feasible they may be. One of the greatest of these obstacles is the U.S. Congress, 81 of whose members are this month going on a "magical mystery tour" of Israel sponsored by an AIPAC offshoot, where they will be sure to be shown nothing that would disturb that body's smug pro-Israel complacency.

Today, the PLO proposes that the United Nations recognize a state within the 1967 borders whose creation has already been preempted by systematic Israeli actions that were intended to prevent just such an outcome. President Obama, Congress and other unwavering supporters of Israel insist that the Palestinians refrain from seeking a U.N. resolution recognizing such a state and that they can only accede to statehood through negotiations with their occupier and tormentor. In this regard, it is worth recalling further the events of 1947-48. Then no one demanded that the Jews in Palestine refrain from going to the U.N., that they negotiate with the Palestinians or jump through any other hoops in order to obtain statehood: indeed, their state obtained its legitimacy through a General Assembly resolution (the 1947 partition decision), and in 1949 was accepted as a member state by the General Assembly, just as the PLO currently proposes to do.

About Me: Rashid Ismail Khalidi is a Palestinian-American historian. He is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. Read this article in its entirety at www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/08/14/khalidi_israel/index.html.

Politics Y2K11

Turkey-Israel Diplomatic Spat Intensifies

Turkey has expelled Israel's ambassador and suspended all military agreements over its refusal to apologize for last year's raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. This comes a day after a leaked UN report said Israeli commandos used excessive force when they boarded the Turkish-flagged ship, Mavi Marmara, the lead vessel of the six-ship flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory. The incident occurred in international waters on May 31, 2010. Eight Turkish nationals and a Turkish American died in the raid.

Israeli deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon said his country had nothing to apologize for and accused Ankara of raising tensions for its own reasons. Ayalon told Israeli TV, "The problem here is on the Turkish side …. They were not ready for a compromise and kept raising the threshold. I think we need to say to the Turks: as far as we are concerned, this saga is behind us. Now we need to cooperate. Lack of cooperation harms not only us, but Turkey as well."

Once Israel's closest ally in the Muslim world, Turkey has been increasingly critical of the Jewish state since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002. Smarting from the continued refusal of Israel to apologize for its illegal and lethal actions, Erdogan told reporters, "We are totally suspending our trade, military, defense industry relations." He indicated that "further sanctions" against Israel will follow.

In referring to Israel's attitude towards the Palestinians, Erdogan declared, "Israel has always played the role of a spoiled child," a statement certain to escalate the diplomatic spat. Moreover, while details remain sketchy, Erdogan said he may pay a visit to Gaza, entering via neighboring Egypt. Even the suggestion of such a visit is bound to infuriate Israel and further sour diplomatic relations between the former allies.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sought to defuse tensions between the countries, urging both to accept the recommendations of a UN report, which is based on an investigation chaired by Geoffrey Palmer, a former New Zealand prime minister, and which focused on the events aboard the Mavi Marmara. According to a UN spokesperson, the report was delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office on Friday and would soon be published officially.

The Israeli government has accepted with "reservations" the UN report, which it considered "professional, profound and serious." While the report found Israel used "excessive and unreasonable" force in stopping the flotilla as it approached Gaza, it found that Israel was justified in maintaining a naval blockade on the Palestinian enclave to prevent arms from reaching Hamas, the democratically elected group that seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Highly critical of the report, Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said the investigation contradicted an earlier report by the UN Human Rights Council in September, which found Israeli forces violated international law, "including international humanitarian and human rights law". He declared that it was "time Israel pays a price for its illegal actions" and warned that Israel risks alienation among Arab nations by resisting an apology. Davutoglu declared, "If Israel persists with its current position, the Arab spring will give rise to a strong Israel opposition, as well as the debate on the authoritarian regimes."

Turkey has announced its intention to begin legal proceedings next week to challenge Israel's blockade on Gaza at the International Court of Justice. And, Turkey will escort aid ships traveling to Gaza in the future. (Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14762475)

Venue for an Artist

Israeli Protests Give Masses a Reason to Speak Out

By Gal Beckerman

If you've ever been to Tel Aviv's Kikar Hamedina, the circular public plaza in the north of the city, you'll know just how utterly large it is. It's a massive, usually empty expanse ringed by posh stores like Louis Vuitton and Gucci -- the epicenter of Israeli capitalism, if you will. And so it was with some shock that I saw the images of the space packed to the gills with warm, agitated bodies, with protesters present for the concluding demonstration in Israel's summer of social justice. Six percent of the country's population, 450,000 people, showed up to chant and to demand change. If that proportion of the United States took to the streets all at once, we would be talking about 18 million people.

What was on display was passion and engagement by a portion of the population always considered a silent majority -- the secular, city-dwelling, middle-class Israelis. It is this group that the polls refer to year after year when they cite that 70% of the population is prepared for a peace agreement. We know they exist, but who could even begin to hear them when you've got the angry, loud constituencies of the right, ready to lie down in the streets for their beliefs? The only time I ever remember this population acting like a collective during my lifetime was after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and that was to mourn together. But the issue that finally got them out was not the "situation." It was self-consciously not, as the organizers of the protest put it, about "politics." The issue was the high cost of housing and the neo-liberal economic policies that have caused wealth to pool at the very top.

The Israeli left, in fact, has been watching what occurred this summer with their mouths agape. For years, activists and politicians from parties like Meretz and what is left of Labor have dreamed of building such a constituency. And those on the further left, who can't believe that any issue besides the occupation should matter, have pooh-poohed the demonstrations as simply an exercise in self-absorption and, as one article in the lefty Web magazine +972 superciliously put it, a "fictitious revolution."

I want to see the Israeli government back up its supposed willingness to negotiate with the Palestinians with more good faith and urgency. And so I, too, felt a pang of regret watching these protests and wondering what could have been if this pressure had been brought to bear on the issue of settlement expansion, for example. But I am also realistic. And there has to be a reason that Israelis mobilized around this issue. Early this summer, when the Knesset passed what many observers thought was an anti-democratic legislation making any speech in support of a boycott liable for prosecution, the silent majority did not care. A spontaneous protest in Rabin Square drew 50 people.

What made the housing protests different might be quite simple and maybe even obvious, but it's something the left would do well to internalize if it ever hopes to attract such numbers and such thrilling support. The demonstrations were driven by self-interest. These "average" Israelis who don't usually lobby for special religious dispensation or approval of more housing blocks in East Jerusalem were unabashedly demanding something, a redistribution of wealth toward themselves. Bottom line, they wanted more of a say in how money is allocated and what their society does for them.

It's a reminder to the left and to all of us striving for some kind of change -- of how human nature actually works. It would be a wonderful thing if Israelis were motivated by the suffering of Palestinians or the continued human cost of conflict and occupation. But for the most part, they are not. They have their own worries (pricy housing, apparently, among them). The lesson here is this: The cause of ending the 100-year war with the Palestinians has to be framed in different terms if it is to earn a constituency. It has to be presented as being in the self-interest of this silent majority.

There was great power displayed the other night in Tel Aviv. The left can harness it. But first, lessons must be learned. And the most immediate is this cold truth: Mobilizing the masses means first giving them a personal stake in success.

About Me: Gal Beckerman is the Forward's opinion editor. Contact him at beckerman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter@galbeckerman. Read more at http://forward.com/articles/142437/#ixzz1Xfgg27lg

Hood Notes

US Asks Palestinians to Abandon UN Bid

By Steven Lee Meyers and Mark Landler

The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation over a plan by Palestinians to seek recognition as a state at the United Nations, but it may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats

The administration has circulated a proposal for renewed peace talks with the Israelis in hopes of persuading Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to abandon the bid for recognition at the gathering of world leaders at the UN beginning September 20.

The administration has made it clear to Mr. Abbas that it will veto any request presented to the UN Security Council to make a Palestinian state a new member outright.

The US does not have enough support to block a vote by the General Assembly to elevate the status of the Palestinians' nonvoting observer "entity" to that of a nonvoting observer state. The change would pave the way for the Palestinians to join UN bodies and conventions, and strengthen their ability to pursue cases against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Senior officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the US and only a handful of other nations in the opposition. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they feared that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is already in tumult. President Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the US.

While some officials remain optimistic that a compromise can be found, the administration has simultaneously begun planning to limit the fallout of a statehood vote. A primary focus is to ensure the Israelis and Palestinians continue to cooperate on security matters in the West Bank and along Israel's borders, administration officials said.

"We're still focused on Plan A," another senior administration official said, referring to the diplomatic efforts by the administration's new special envoy, David M. Hale, and the president's Middle East adviser on the National Security Council, Dennis B. Ross. Mr. Hale replaced the more prominent George J. Mitchell Jr., who resigned in May after two years of frustrated efforts to make progress on a peace deal.

The State Department late last month issued a formal diplomatic message to more than 70 countries urging them to oppose any unilateral moves by the Palestinians at the UN. The message, delivered by US ambassadors to their diplomatic counterparts, argued that a vote would destabilize the region and undermine peace efforts, though those are, at least for now, moribund.

Two administration officials said that the intent of the message was to narrow the majority the Palestinians are expected to have in the General Assembly. They said that and the new peace proposal -- to be issued in a statement by the Quartet, the diplomatic group focused on the Middle East comprising the US, Russia, the European Union and UN -- could persuade supporters to step back from a vote on recognition, and thus force Abbas to have second thoughts.

In essence, the administration is trying to translate the broad principles Obama outlined in May into a concrete road map for talks that would succeed where past efforts have failed: satisfy Israel, give Palestinians an alternative to going to the UN and win the endorsement of the Europeans.

Diplomats are laboring to formulate language that would bridge stubborn differences over how to treat Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and over Israel's demand for recognition of its status as a Jewish state. A statement by the Quartet would be more than a symbolic gesture. It would outline a series of meetings and actions to resume talks to create a Palestinian state.

The Quartet's members are divided over the proposal's terms and continue to negotiate them among themselves, and with the Palestinians and Israelis.

Among the issues still on the table are how explicitly to account for the growing settlements in the West Bank. The question of Israel's status is also opposed by Russia and viewed warily by some European countries. The Palestinians have never acceded to a formal recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, in deference at least in part to the Palestinians who live in Israel.

The Israelis have so far responded positively to the draft, but the Palestinian position remains unclear. Two administration officials said that Mr. Abbas had recently indicated that he would forgo a UN vote in favor of real talks. But a senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, angrily dismissed the American proposal as inadequate and said a vote would go ahead regardless.

"Whoever wrote this thought we are so weak that we cannot even wiggle or that we are stupid," he said in a telephone interview from Ramallah in the West Bank. He added, "Whatever is to be offered, it is too late."

Within the administration, there are different views of the situation's urgency. Some officials believe the US can weather a veto diplomatically, as it has before, and politically at home because of the strong support for Israel in Congress. But others view the Palestinian push for recognition as deeply alarming, raising the specter of new instability and violence in the West Bank and Gaza. (Source: www.truth-out.org/us-asks-palestinians-abandon-un-bid-statehood/1315149603)

Disgruntled says: This week President Obama unveiled his jobs plan before a joint session of Congress. Nothing in the package of tax cuts, credits and spending specifically targeted the depression in the black community. Just prior to Mr. Obama's speech, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) made the cogent suggestion that the president treat blacks like Iowans. She made the point that roughly three million black Americans are currently out of work, a number equal to the population of the state of Iowa. If these were unemployment Iowans, the president would come up with a plan to mitigate their suffering. He should be just as willing to do the same for black Americans. Waters is right! Just because these out of work Americans are not white is no reason not to act with targeted programs to specifically address their plight.

Disgruntled wants to know: Western mainstream media have devoted a great deal of coverage to the Arab uprisings. However, unless you read alternative media and keep track of events via the Internet, you would not know that there have been massive protests in Israel. For months, hundreds of thousands have gathered in the streets demanding "social justice" in the face of growing economic disparities between the upper and lower classes. There are those who believe Israelis are protesting the cost of housing and demanding better living conditions. Others see a demand to end Zionist exploitation and colonization, which include the plight of Palestinians in the occupied territories. With so little coverage of the Israel uprising, one cannot help wonder what lies behind the deafening silence?

Disgruntled feels: Perplexed! President Obama's jobs plan contained elements that are truly disturbing, unless his plan is to kill Social Security. There is all this talk about reigning in spending by cutting entitlements and dumping Social Security, which has not contributed a dime to the debt, into the mix. Top this off with Obama's payroll tax cut proposals that will surely undermine its long-run financial health and this becomes a stealth attack. Many of us are simply perplexed because Obama is supposed to be a Democrat.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

Email http://news.yahoo.com... An Israeli TV news chief has resigned because his channel agreed to apologize for a report critical of a U.S. casino mogul who is a close associate of Israel's prime minister, the station said Thursday. The Haaretz newspaper said Sheldon Adelson had threatened to sue Channel 10 if it didn't apologize for its profile of his conduct and business dealings. The case highlighted fears that wealthy people with good connections could compromise journalistic integrity, among other ways by threatening expensive lawsuits. A statement from Channel 10 confirmed Reudor Benziman's resignation and said he had sent a statement to colleagues explaining that he was resigning because he "cannot live" with the apology. "I see no option besides tendering my resignation," Benziman's statement said. Benziman had been the station's news chief for 3 1/2 years. Haaretz cited unidentified people at Channel 10 as accusing shareholders of interfering in the news division's editorial content. The TV station is owned by Israeli business magnate Yossi Maiman, Arnon Milchan, an Israeli Hollywood film producer; and Ron Lauder, another U.S. businessman with close ties to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Adelson owns a free newspaper distributed in Israel, Israel Hayom, that is sympathetic to the Netanyahu government.

Email www.jpost.com...Palestinians Hope Social Protests Will End Occupation...By Ruth Eglash and Nida' Ibrahim...Left wing groups issue statement backing J14 movement. "We hope Israel will stop supporting settlements, focus on middle and lower class." A group of Palestinian organizations - with a sprinkling of left-wing Israeli NGOs - has issued a joint statement of support for the J14 social protest movement in Israel, including expressing hope that the recent wave of mass street protests here will also bring an end to the "Israeli occupation." "We believe that what is happening in Israel is similar to what is going on in the Arab world," commented Khaled Mansur, a member of political bureau of the Palestinian People's Party, which was one of more than a dozen left-leaning Palestinian groups that sent out a statement with left-wing Israelis supporting the socioeconomic protests that started on July 14. "Of course there are obvious differences, but in terms of the social and economic problems there are similarities." He added: "We are hopeful that the State of Israel will stop supporting the settlements and instead focus on taking care of the middle- and lower-class people who took to the streets to ask for justice."

Email http://rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com...The congress is in session, it turns out … in Israel...Posted By David Rothkopf ....Wednesday, August 10, 2011...This week's reports that 20 percent of the U.S. Congress will be visiting Israel this month are stunning. Eighty-one members of Congress -- two thirds of them Republicans, 47 of them freshmen -- apparently think it is more important to be visiting Israel than it is to be at home dealing with the worst economic crisis in modern memory. America's economy is in flames and these guys are taking lobbyist-funded trips to what, watch Israelis take to the streets to protest the high-cost of living in that country? This Jewish, Israel-supporting, foreign policy specialist says, "It's time to come home, ladies and gentlemen." While such visits are important and there is certainly a place for them in the lives of American legislators, now is not the time. The political objectives behind these Israel trips are clear and they reveal the opportunity costs to the American people associated with campaign season. Every moment spent jumping through a hoop for a potential group of supporters is a moment spent failing to address one of the many urgent issues confronting the United States. When will these pretenders grow up or make way for serious, committed adults who have the appetite and the spine to grapple with our current challenges? When will American voters demand better, or at least start paying attention?