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| New York Times Op-Art |
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/opinion/the-coming-intifada.html?ref=international
Dear Editor,
There are many amateur international activists 'for Palestine' who welcome the idea of negotiations breaking down. They are fantasizing that the tragic mess that is the Israel-Palestine conflict will become an eventual transformation of Israel into Palestine.
Meanwhile Israel has plans- and back up plans plus the sovereign ability and financing to make those plans a reality. Palestinian violence plays right into the most punitive Israeli plans, and so does the monster called Al-Qaeda.
Ending the Israel-Palestine conflict with sovereign Israel and sovereign Palestinian statehood based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights might actually help stop the monster that is Al-Quaeda. But there are no guarantees. There is only the hope that real freedom, dignity, and security with citizenship rights and responsibilities will help turn the tide away from escalating religious extremism and sectarian strife all through out the region.
Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
NOTES
Hussein Ibish writes in his most recent op-ed The monster that won't die - How and why Al-Qaeda is making yet another appalling comeback that "There have always been differences within al-Qaeda, those who have either successfully seized or been granted permission to use the name as a kind of franchise, and other salafi-jihadi or "takfiri" groups. But while the parent organization based in Pakistan and Afghanistan seems to be increasingly irrelevant, the political ideology and program of mass murder that are now synonymous with al-Qaeda seem at least as robust as ever, if not more so. It is the monster that, for the past decade, simply will not die." https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/527155-the-monster-that-wont-die
- 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
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
Now is the time for negotiations and negotiations need clear, easy to understand assessments of the situation:
Two fully secular, fully independent and secure sovereign nation states- both FULLY respecting universal basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws, allow for a transition away from the nefarious bigotry and injustice and intransigence and grandiose delusions that have been galvanizing religious extremism and violence on both sides.
Two states, with Palestinian refugees able to return to original homes and lands in Israel, or resettle in the New Palestine, or move on and away.
Two states, as a gateway to a future where tourists, teachers, students, workers, family members, friends, artists, poets, filmmakers, researchers, archeologists,(...etc...) will be able to travel back and forth knowing that their home and their garden and their loved ones, who ever and wherever they might be, are safe from destruction.
Two states with every citizen free to find ways to make diplomacy and compassion an every day endowment for everyone's sake.