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RE: Jackson Diehl's Obama’s myopic worldview
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jackson-diehl-obamas-myopic-worldview/2013/09/26/24670492-26c8-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
Dear Editor,
Worldwide religious bigots, tyrants and terrorists of all types have been thriving on the continuation of the Israel-Palestine conflict. This is a horrible situation that is bound to only get worse with time, with many more negative ramifications.
Tragically, because the fourth estate plays a crucial role in our democracy and decision making abilities, the Washington Post - and Jackson Diehl - tend to be quite myopic when it comes to the Middle East and priorities- and peace.
There is nothing at all myopic about Obama's foreign policy priority in " striking an agreement with Iran that would curtail its pursuit of nuclear weapons and brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord."
An arms race in the Middle East will most definitely further endanger as well as impoverish many people. Education and diplomacy are a much better investment- for everyone's sake.
And an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights, will make a huge difference in calming down the entire region, and ushering in a Golden Rule age of co-operation and co-existence- for everyone's sake.
Sincerely
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet
NOTES
Remarks by Palestine's President Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly..."The hour of freedom for the Palestinian people has rung. The hour of the independence of Palestine has rung. The hour of peace has rung."
Obama urges world to take risks for Mideast peace... "All of us must recognize that peace will be a powerful tool to defeat extremists, and embolden those who are prepared to build a better future," he said.
Announcing ATFP Gala Silent Auction ... Featuring Arts, Calligraphy, Photography, Manuscripts, Lithography, and Maps [ATFP seeks to support good governance and living standards for Palestinians, and to bring Palestinians and the United States closer together at every level]
Remarks by President Obama and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority Before Bilateral Meeting
"I sit in preventive detention... The reason, sir, is that I am an Arab." Fouzi al-Asmar (1937-2013)
Palestinian Journalist/Author/Poet/Activist Fouzi El-Asmar, R.I.P... El-Asmar was a doting husband, father, grandfather, a devoted friend, and a respected journalist who died this month at age 76, three weeks after the passing of his wife: He had asked to be buried in his native land.
UNHRC Discusses Human Rights Situation in Occupied Palestinian Territories
Definition of Irony: why “end times” believers might actually trigger the end times
Arab Myths Distort Understanding Of American Policy
Newspapers Review: Killing of Soldier in Hebron Focus of Dailies ... & EU Warns Violence Could Undermine Negotiations (Israeli Army Kills six Palestinians last month & this month in Qalandia & Jenin refugee camps- prompting protests)
Israeli soldiers assault Palestinian farmer near Hebron
Israeli Settlers Destroy 20 Dunams of Land near Nablus
"The occupation is an emergency, not a macro- or trans-historical
problem, particularly for the millions of Palestinians living
under its oppressive rule. They, especially—but we too—do not have
the luxury of waiting to see what the next hundred years of
history will bring us, good or bad. On the contrary, we must have
the courage to act now, and with urgency, within the existing
realities, however difficult, to try to create a working solution
to a situation that is both intolerably unjust and regionally (and
to some extent even globally) destabilizing."Hussein
Ibish & Saliba Sarsar of ATFP...
ATFP provides an independent voice for Palestinian-Americans and their supporters and advances human rights and peace. It categorically and unequivocally condemns all violence against civilians, no matter the cause and who the victims or perpetrators may be.
***
The Promised Land: In Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Peace Day...Ibrahim's Estate... a poem
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1
The Promised Land: In Celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & Peace Day...Ibrahim's Estate... a poem
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Article 1
- All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should
act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Palestinian Refugees (1948-NOW) refused their right to return... and their right to live in peace free from religious bigotry and injustice.
Dear President Obama... Let Freedom Ring
194
Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land
Globalizing Martin Luther King, Jr.
*********
The Arab Peace Initiative
1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.
II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.
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:
"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
Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the
world as a fundamental human right and as a source of
stability for all countries
"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
".... it being clearly understood that nothing
shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious
rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine....
"In
1949, the international community accepted Israel's UN
membership upon two conditions: That they respect
resolutions 181 (two states) and 194 (refugee rights).
Neither has been honored. In fact, 65 years later, Israel
has not even acknowledged what it did in 1948." Saeb
Erekat
11
December 1948 UN Resolution
194:"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"
The
Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you
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