Friday, April 23, 2010

My letter to the NYTimes RE Israeli Unassailable Might and Unyielding Angst By Roger Cohen

RE Roger Cohen: Israeli Unassailable Might and Unyielding Angst, It's not easy to parse fact from fiction, justifiable anxiety from self-serving angst, in the pervasive Israeli narrative. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/opinion/23iht-edcohen.html?ref=opinion

Dear Editor,

While Cohen focuses all of his concern on Israel's angst and survival I can not help but worry more about "putative Palestine hanging in limbo
"... and about how the Israel/Palestine conflict has morphed "from Arab armies to Palestinian militants to Islamic jihadists " in part because of Israeli policy: "Settlers are the direct beneficiaries of a state policy that says it is OK to occupy and steal another people’s land, to demolish their homes, to steal their water, to construct segregated roads and build entire cities behind the walls of an apartheid system that promotes settlements by stripping Palestinians of their basic rights and freedoms." Saeb Erekat Settler violence reflects Israeli policy http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=278297

Narratives can and do change with time, and so do sovereign nations... but facts remain facts: I very much hope that Palestine has a chance to move beyond being putative and oppressed- and tortured from within by various religious extremists, angry radicals, and hate mongers on both sides who thrive on the continuation of the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem...

  • "Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world." Eleanor Roosevelt

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