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Monday, January 5, 2015

My letter to the NYTimes RE Dennis B. Ross: Stop Giving Palestinians a Pass

A Palestinian boy looks out through a hole in his family house, that witnesses said was damaged by Israeli shelling during the July-August war between Israel and Hamas-led Gaza militants, in the east of Gaza City January 4, 2015. PHOTO OF THE DAY (REUTERS/Suhaib Salem)
RE: Stop Giving Palestinians a Pass
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/05/opinion/stop-giving-palestinians-a-pass.html?ref=opinion

Dear Editor,

As Hussein Ibish, of the American Task Force on Palestine, succinctly points out in his recent column on the Israel/Palestine conflict: "Palestinians and their profoundly moral cause are in deep trouble."

Ross is right that "Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anticolonialist bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate. Compromise is portrayed as betrayal, and negotiations — which are by definition about mutual concessions — will inevitably force any Palestinian leader to challenge his people by making a politically costly decision."

But Ross is very very wrong to insist that there needs to be "a resolution of the Palestinian refugee issue that allows Israel to retain its Jewish character."  Religion should be a personal private matter, not a state funded mandate. Please don't give Israel a green light to define its supposed Jewishness by perpetually pushing indigenous non-Jewish men, women and children into poverty and forced exile.

Do you really want to live in a world where religion or race dictates who gets citizenship rights and respect? Do you really want to set that formal official legal precedent for Da'esh (ISIS), Hezbollah, & Hamas!

The hard choice is not about refugees' return, for international law already clearly affirms the universal right to return to live in peace. The hard choice is to accept that Israel will remain Israel, and the process of refugee return and reparations will take time, and good will on everyone's part... Refugee resettlement and relocation in a sovereign Palestinian state, or elsewhere, should be encouraged and empowered not to affirm Israel's supposed Jewishness, but so that the people of historic Palestine can be free to find jobs and security and a better way forward for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
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Hamas confirmed on Sunday that it has banned a visit by Palestinian orphans from the Gaza Strip to Israel because it was in the context of “normalization” with Israelis.

During World War II, the Allies adopted the Four Freedomsfreedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom from want—as their basic war aims.... The United Nations Charter "reaffirmed faith in fundamental human rights, and dignity and worth of the human person" and committed all member states to promote "universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion".

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 “Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.” Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), born in Lebanon, immigrated to the United States in 1895 where he grew up to become a beloved poet and respected writer.

"There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies" Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968) American minister, humanitarian and social activist- a cherished leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, whose inspiring words continue to influence and empower diplomatic efforts to bring more justice, more security, more peace and more jobs to more people, every one and every where.