My letter to the LA Times RE Maen Rashid Areikat's Moving past stalemate in the Middle East: The U.S. must push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not just manage it.

 Martin Luther King Jr

RE: Moving past stalemate in the Middle East: The U.S. must push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not just manage it. By Maen Rashid Areikat
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-areikat-israeli-palestian-talks-20130219,0,7659433.story

Dear Editor,

Delighted to see Palestine's Maen Rashid Areikat diplomatically reaching out to America in hopes of inspiring sensible American support for international law and basic human rights- and a fair and just negotiated settlement to once and for all end the Israel Palestine conflict.

Hussein Ibish (of the American Task Force on Palestine) wisely points out in a recent article The American diversity Rubicon is crossed that "The quiet tsunami of diversification in American society and power structure might mean that what many think they know about the United States and how it works is, in fact, completely wrong. If so, not only is reconsideration necessary to avoid miscalculation, it's also required in order to follow a damn good example."

While our civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr successfully helped create a more real democracy here in America, Israel choose to go in the exact opposite direction by cruelly persecuting, oppressing and forcibly displacing countless native non-Jewish Palestinians, a nefarious practice that continues to this day. 

As America has been steadfastly promoting and investing in true freedom and equality and respect for 'others', Israel has been actively promoting and investing in Jews-preferred narratives, housing and jobs and pursuing a plethora of punitive anti-Palestine policies.  That truth is not an excuse or even a reason to call for erasing or destroying Israel, because ending slavery and Jim Crow laws certainly did not destroy America... That truth should simply help more people worldwide understand the crucial importance of promoting and investing in a fully secular two state solution to actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict- for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"The Israeli occupation has lasted too long. Hollywood gets it; Washington should too." Palestine's Maen Rashid Areikat... The U.S. must push to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not just manage it.

Outcry over Israeli soldier's photo of boy in crosshairs: "Every Palestinian mother is concerned for her child ..."

Beltway Foreign Policy

My Bittersweet Homecoming to Jerusalem by Mayse Jarbawi for MIFTAH

How long can this charade continue to function politically?

Israeli settlers pump sewage into ancient Palestinian village

Economist: An Arab village is asked to bow to the wishes of Israel's Jewish settlers

The American Task Force on Palestine today warmly welcomed reports that following a year of holds and delays, Congress appears to be preparing to release all outstanding US aid, totaling more than $500 million, to the Palestinian Authority.

"I have no memory of a time without struggle" Emad Burnat is a Palestinian farmer and director of the Oscar-nominated documentary "5 Broken Cameras"...  "As the world listens, Gibreel, I want to say to you: I am from Palestine. I have lived my whole life under military occupation, and I have no memory of a time without struggle. But you, son, you will know better times. Someday, you will make new, happy memories.... And that will be the true award."

Global hotspots top agenda as UN chief meets with new US Secretary of State: "We all need to make special efforts to forge a two-State solution "
 
Rising From Ruins: Even as Israel neglects a major archaeological site in the West Bank, it is preventing the Palestinian Authority from tending to it.

Kerry seeks to unblock $700 million in aid for Palestinians

Pope Benedict tells Abbas that hope for Mideast solution is "a fair and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which may be reached only by resuming negotiations between the parties, in good faith and according due respect to the rights of both"

ATFP News [& Commentary] Roundup, February 11, 2013: Pres. Obama's upcoming Middle East trip stirs hopes for peace.

Amidst a brutal war, Syria’s Palestinian community finds itself seeking refuge yet again—this time, in Lebanon’s famous Sabra and Shatila camps.

Number of Palestinian refugee deaths in Syria increasing, UN agency warns

Palestinian family home demolished by Israeli forces in Jerusalem

Letter sent to my elected leaders: Peace and Palestine need to be taken seriously by American leadership now more than ever.

Palestine's Amb. Maen Rashid Areikat: Bias against Palestinians on display at congressional hearing

ATFP Hosts Washington Briefing on Israeli and Palestinian Schoolbooks

Palestine developing school curriculums that teach coexistence, tolerance, justice, and human dignity

Palestinian leadership on Wednesday welcomed US President Barack Obama’s announced plans to visit the region in March.

RAJA SHEHADEH: More Than a Land Grab ...Settlers increasingly impinging on Palestinian lives: Jewish settlers aren't just taking empty space, they're destroying Palestinian property and threatening their lives.

Israel demolishes yet anouther Palestinian home in East Jerusalem

Foriegn Policy: An interview with Palestinian negotiator-in-chief Saeb Erekat 

PBS: Mariam Said on the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

*******

The Balfour Declaration of 1917

".... it being clearly understood that nothing
          shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
          rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine..."

"Legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Thomas Jefferson

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/)   Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

Palestinian Refugees(1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.

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

Empowering Peace & Palestine

"The only way to honor our tragic histories is to create a future for our children free of man-made tragedy. This means making peace fully, completely and without reservation, between Israel and Palestine."

The Arab Peace Initiative

What is an Israeli settlement

Refugees and the Right of Return

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.

UN Resolution 194 from 1948  : The refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.