My letter to the NYTimes RE Before a Diplomatic Showdown, a Budget Crisis

RE: Before a Diplomatic Showdown, a Budget Crisis
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/world/middleeast/28palestinians.html?_r=1

Dear Editor,

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict is a win-win situation for everyone's sake.... except religious freeloaders and charlatans who want to force tax payers here there and everywhere to fund their religious wars.

In my opinion friends don't goad friends into driving drunk: I think far too many people including many supposedly "pro-Palestine" pundits have been pushing Palestinians (and pro-Palestine supporters) into empowering and/or excusing Islamists in one way or another.

Hamas could and should volunteer to step down for Palestine's sake. Want to force Israel to seriously negotiate a just and lasting peace ASAP- then firmly and clearly denounce Islamists, militancy, terrorism, and anti-America rhetoric... for Palestine's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

"The truth elided by both parties is that the Palestinian and Israeli identities are 20th-century phenomena that emerged in parallel and in contradiction to each other. One hundred years ago, the words “Israeli” and “Palestinian” were meaningless. This is not to say that Arabs and Jews don’t have deep histories, but both political identities are recent constructs, forged in the context of the ongoing conflict." Hussein Ibish: Two Narratives for Two Peoples

The Long Overdue State of Palestine

In Congress, Palestinian students call for state: "I want to be a Palestinian coming from an independent Palestinian state."

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

"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