Sunday, October 5, 2014

My letter to the Guardian RE Netanyahu says US criticism of settlements is 'against American values'

Champion of Human Rights
America's Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)

RE Netanyahu says US criticism of settlements is 'against American values'
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/05/netanyahu-says-us-criticism-settlements-against-american-values

Dear Editor,

“The idea that we’d have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it’s anti-peace.” Yes indeed Netanyahu has a point about peace and American values, but he fails to apply the same exact logic to Israel's brutal mistreatment of the native non-Jewish Palestinians who have been refused their inalienable right to return to original homes and lands since Israel first started pushing them into forced exile more than sixty years ago.

Hussein Ibish points out in his most recent op-ed, US has a responsibility to rein in Israeli settlements http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/us-has-a-responsibility-to-rein-in-israeli-settlements, that "Hamas at least can claim to have established agency, initiative and momentum. Israel’s latest settlement activity seems almost calculated to play into their hands. It certainly delivers another brutal blow to Mr Abbas and all those who seek a negotiated agreement. It undermines the credibility of potential negotiations, and of the negotiators themselves."

Israel is playing a very VERY dangerous game of exasperating despair as well as religious extremism on all sides.

As Ziad Asali points out in his most recent op-ed Confronting ISIL: The Day and Decade "After"  "There is a vicious circle of mutual self-reinforcement between state and society failure on the one hand and the rise of extremist non-state actors on the other."

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict ASAP is the best way forward. No more dithering, no more distractions, no more red herrings, no more shell games: Religion should be a personal private matter, not a state funded dictate determining who gets freedom, jobs, subsidized housing, security, justice, peace, and praise.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker & poet

NOTES
Tala Haikal: "It may not be possible to immediately free all the kidnapped girls and women due to the scope of the conflict with ISIS and the geographical dispersal of the captives in various locations. Some of these women and girls can be freed only once ISIS is destroyed."

UN report spotlights 'staggering' Islamic State atrocities in Iraq... "The group, which is fighting in Iraq and Syria, has carried out a wide range of atrocities, including mass executions, abductions, rape and other forms of sexual and physical violence against women and children"

"There is a vicious circle of mutual self-reinforcement between state and society failure on the one hand and the rise of extremist non-state actors on the other." Ziad Asali: Confronting ISIL: The Day and Decade "After"

USA Today... Sweden PM says nation will recognize Palestinian state: "It doesn't change a thing on the ground," Ibish said. "It changes the number of countries that have recognized the Palestinian state. It changes the Western commitment to a two-state solution, (and) it does put more pressure on Israel to make concessions."

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STAY CONNECTED... 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

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1948

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"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

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America/Israel/Palestine 1948: 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.

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

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