My letter to the IHT RE An Israeli Case for a Palestinian State By Yossi Alpher

RE: An Israeli Case for a Palestinian State By Yossi Alpher
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/opinion/12iht-edalpher12.html

Dear Sir,

Yossi Alpher's "new peace paradigm" totally ignores the vital importance of fully respecting universal basic human rights including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees inalienable right of return to original homes and lands. Alpher's approach is most certainly not a new paradigm- it is the same insanely cruel tactic and mistake Israel has been making all along in systematically impoverishing, oppressing and displacing the people of historic Palestine.

State funds and tax payers money should not be used to fund bigotry, militancy and religious extremism on either side of any border. A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict ASAP really is the best way forward.

Israel and Palestine can and should live side by side in peace, in a win-win situation with two sovereign secular nation states each providing a diverse crowd of citizens with the tools and support and freedom all people need to survive and thrive in this modern age of passports and computers.

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 Golden Rule

Growing Gardens for Palestine

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

"Palestinian refugees must be given the option to exercise their right of return (as well as receive compensation for their losses arising from their dispossession and displacement) though refugees may prefer other options such as: (i) resettlement in third countries, (ii) resettlement in a newly independent Palestine (even though they originate from that part of Palestine which became Israel) or (iii) normalization of their legal status in the host country where they currently reside. What is important is that individual refugees decide for themselves which option they prefer – a decision must not be imposed upon them." http://plodelegation.us/palestine/core-issues/