My letter to the Boston Globe RE The U.N. gives peace a chance by James Carroll

RE: The U.N. gives peace a chance by James Carroll
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/10/04/the_un_gives_peace_a_chance/

Dear Editor,

“We can read familiar lists of grievances. We can table the same resolutions. We can further empower the forces of rejectionism and hate. Or we can say that this time will be different.’’ (James Carroll quoting Barack Obama in "The U.N. gives peace a chance")

Yes indeed this time really will be different for this time all the world is now fully armed by the information age and the obvious ability to better identify and understand manipulative Zionist lies and propaganda- as well as an awareness of the perils of religious tyranny and extremism of any type. Advocating and supporting a FULLY secular two state solution based on FULLY respecting international law and basic human rights (including but not limited to full respect for the Palestinian refugees very real right to return to original homes and lands) is the only possible path towards a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

"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

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

"In 1991, when the first Bush administration was coaxing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, 90,300 Israelis lived in settlements across the West Bank. Today there are 300,000 — and their population is growing by 5 percent a year, more than 2 1/2 times the growth rate inside Israel." Peace talks come and go, but a settlement grows

"Earlier this week the Secretary-General expressed disappointment that Israel had not moved to extend the moratorium on the building of Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. Mr. Ban reiterated that settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law. He urged Israel to fulfil its obligation under the Roadmap obligation to freeze settlement activity." UN chief presses Middle East leaders to find a way forward

"WEST BANK, Occupied Palestinian Territory, 1 October 2010 – Ask principal Hanan Awwad what it is like to head the Khan al-Ahmar elementary school and she will reply that she feels “fear and exhaustion” – but also great pride. The Ms. Awwad is afraid that her five-room school building could be demolished at any moment. Khan al-Ahmar – an ecologically-friendly school constructed two years ago by the non-governmental Italian Cooperation – was built in an area of the Occupied Palestinian Territory where building permits are rarely granted to Palestinians. Now it has been ordered demolished unless international pressure and court appeals can prevent its destruction." Through conflict and poverty, students in the Occupied Palestinian Territory struggle to learn

"At the end of the day, this is what we know: Israel continues to occupy the Palestinians and their land, it continues to expand illegal settlements and it continues to maintain the self-granted prerogative to bomb, arrest, kill and harass Palestinians at will. In the meantime, the Palestinians continually find themselves on the defensive, having to counter this lopsided image of Israel as the victims (of Palestinians but also of history) at every turn." Israel Needs to Stop Playing the Victim By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH , The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.

"Palestinian Ahmed Elaian, 86, shows the keys of his home in Israel, abandoned during the 1948 Mideast war, on the 57th anniversary of Al Naqba, or day of catastrophe in the Kalandia refugee camp near the West Bank town of Ramallah. An Israeli high school principal has been summoned for a hearing by the country's Education Ministry for using a textbook presenting the Palestinian narrative about events surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, officials said Friday, Oct. 1, 2010. Israeli Jews celebrate 1948 as the year of their independence, while Palestinians and Israel's Arab citizens mourn what they call 'al-naqba', the catastrophe, the year of their defeat and mass exodus" (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen, File)

Growing Gardens for Palestine

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you