My letter to the NYTimes RE One Step Forward, The Arab League offers an improved proposal for peace in the Middle East, a welcome announcement.

 Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world...

In 1950, on the second anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, students at the UN International Nursery School in New York viewed a poster of the historic document.   After adopting it on December 10, 1948, the UN General Assembly had called upon all Member States to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."  (UN Photo)

 RE One Step Forward
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/03/opinion/one-step-forward-for-the-israelis-and-palestinians.html?ref=global

Dear Editor,

In 1948, Martin Luther Kings was fifteen years away from articulating "I have a dream" making America a more real democracy.

In 1948, after the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust, the idea of creating a country called Israel specifically as a Jewish homeland probably seemed reasonable.  That was then, this is now... Now after the longest running refugee crisis in the world today only grows more catastrophic for the native non-Jewish population of the land that Israel currently rules with an iron fist, and now as Islamists clamor to gain power, I think we must conscientiously refuse to underwrite religious tyranny of any type: Taxpayers here and there should not be funding religious 'scholars', settlements and further conflict.

Fair and just laws and respect for universal basic human rights are the tools to keep Jewish people (as well as Muslims and Christians and everyone else) safe, secure, gainfully employed, able active citizens contributing to the common good. Two fully sovereign secular states, one Israel and one Palestine living side by side in peace is the best way forward- for everyone's sake.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
Fayyad Steps Down, Not Out

The Economist: Squeeze them out... As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away

'Quiet man' Kerry's strategy for Middle East peace

Vatican urged to act after nuns, landowners lose Israel wall challenge After a seven-year legal battle, a group of Palestinian landowners and Catholic nuns this week lost an appeal against Israel building its separation barrier on their land.

Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on 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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

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

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.

The Economist: Squeeze them out... As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away

A barrage of reports by the UN, the European Union and assorted charities has repeatedly warned that the Palestinians in Area C are under threat. Some 350,000 Jewish settlers now inhabit over 200 settlements and outposts in the same area, usually on the high ground, twice as many people as the Palestinians in the land below.

May 4th 2013 

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21577111-jewish-settlements-expand-palestinians-are-being-driven-away-squeeze-them?frsc=dg|a 

 

IT WAS just another day for the Israeli army on the West Bank. Having parked its jeeps in the hills south of Hebron, a unit of soldiers checked the papers of the Palestinians who lived there, confiscated one or two, and then herded the people and their flocks off a hilltop which a nearby Jewish settlement, called Susiya, has been eyeing with a view to taking it over. “Military zone,” tersely explained an Israeli officer, who had just received a warrant declaring it such. “Off you go.”

Taking time out from their Saturday morning prayers, a few settlers looked on approvingly. “Don’t argue,” replied the officer, when a Palestinian shepherd asked why the soldiers were moving Arabs out of the newly acquired military zone but not Jews. “You have a minute to move or I’ll arrest you,” said the officer.

“Settlers are just off-duty soldiers,” mumbled the shepherd to his sons as they stubbornly continued to tend their sheep. A Palestinian mother picnicking with her two toddlers is hauled away by Israeli soldiers, while villagers plead for her release.

The signs of previous bouts of displacement ring the adjacent hills. Mobile homes for young Jewish settlers sprout on the hilltops. Armed with a list of military orders, Israeli soldiers are herding the West Bank’s Palestinians out of the rural 60% of the territory, officially known as Area C, where Israel has full military and civilian control, and into cities. On some days the Israeli army declares a patch of land to be a live-fire military zone. On other days they say the Palestinians must move because of an impending archaeological dig. The erection of hilltop stations to provide antennae for Israeli mobile phones (but not for Palestinian ones) is another oft-cited reason for pushing Palestinians out. Eight Palestinian hamlets around Susiya face demolition.

Armed Jewish settlers assist the clearance. Soon after the army did its job, a Jewish shepherdess from Susiya brought her flock onto a Palestinian field of wheat to let it graze. Someone had scratched out all the Arabic road signs...READ MORE

My letter to the Washington Post RE Netanyahu cool to Arab land-swap initiative [Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.]

Liberty Enlightening the World

The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy... The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law)

RE: Israel’s Netanyahu responds coolly to Arab League support for land swaps

Kerry this week praised the League for backing land swaps as part of Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/netanyahu-cool-to-arab-land-swap-initiative/2013/05/01/b695449c-b282-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html

Dear Editor,

The US State Department has clear goals and priorities- one of the most obvious is to "Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries" http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/  

Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel's right to exist is a very different thing than Palestinians refusing to recognize Israel as Jewish, or as Netanyahu phrases it to "recognize Israel as the national state of the Jewish people". 

Israel's Jewishness is none of our business. It is not America's job to define what is Jewish or who is Jewish or where Jewish people should live and who they should be allowed to marry.

Our efforts to help end the Israel-Palestine conflict need to be in line with our ideals.  America should not be advocating (or funding) official state religions. Nor should Palestinians be forced to endorse and empower the institutionalized bigotry that already exists in Israel.

A fully secular two state solution to once and for all actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict is the best way forward. Tax payers (here and there) should not be coerced into funding creeds and cults and religious tyranny of any type.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
'Quiet man' Kerry's strategy for Middle East peace

Vatican urged to act after nuns, landowners lose Israel wall challenge After a seven-year legal battle, a group of Palestinian landowners and Catholic nuns this week lost an appeal against Israel building its separation barrier on their land.

Youth voice hope for change in static Palestinian politics

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on 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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

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

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.

My letters 4-21, 4-24 & 5-1-2013 RE Salam Fayyad's state building efforts & The Arab Peace Initiative

RE Kerry makes headway with Middle East peace, but violence flares
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2013/0430/Kerry-makes-headway-with-Middle-East-peace-but-violence-flares?nav=87-frontpage-entryNineItem

Dear Editor,

The Arab Peace Initiative is sensible, realistic and an admirable first firm step towards actually ending the Israel-Palestine conflict and all the many negative ramifications created by that conflict.

Kudos to all who are courageous and compassionate enough to help shape and sustain a just and lasting peace with real security for all, regardless of supposed race or religion.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on 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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

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

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.

*************



RE: Goodbye to All That by Thomas L. Friedman
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/opinion/friedman-goodbye-to-all-that.html

Dear Editor,

There are many nails in the coffin of the two-state solution and the cherished dream of a free Palestine.... and the cherished dream of a just and lasting peace here there and everywhere.

The insulting assertion by some that Fayyad was a "stooge" for America helps hate mongering anti-Palestine activists and agent provocateurs lay the groundwork for mainstream America and our leadership to become even more alienated from Palestine. 

Anti-America rhetoric has serious ramifications beyond merely hurting the feelings of Americans, and jeopardizing future funding of Middle East state building efforts and UNWRA.

Anti-America rhetoric, as well as anti-Israel rhetoric, fuels terrorism... " What makes young men, in the prime of their lives, believe that killing others, including at a sports event, is some kind of sacred duty? And can they really identify with an imaginary "nation," one that transcends boundaries and ethnicities, no less? And what will it take to make people on all four corners of earth unite in putting an end to this barbaric pattern and bringing such young men to their senses?" Hassan Khader: Mourning Martin Richard

Fayyad was good for Palestine, not only because of his non-corrupt, institution-focused leadership, but also because he was a darn good diplomat and role model.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"When concepts such as democracy, secularism and liberalism are stigmatized and discredited as products of an alien and hostile culture, their Arab advocates are crippled from the outset... A basic decision needs to be made. We can resign ourselves to downplaying and shortchanging these concepts. Or we can reassert and redefine them by demonstrating in practical terms how these values -- along with our system of entrepreneurship -- have informed American success and are fueling growth and progress around the world." Dr. Ziad Asali

ATFP Thanks PM Fayyad for his Service, Reiterates Importance of Institution-Building

April 15, 2013

At Cornell, Panelists Call for Solution to Conflict in Middle East

Hussein Ibish: Fate of Christians will define the Arab future: "States will become, at best, merely the geographical battlegrounds and, at worst, the principal weapons of repression between battling groups of intolerant religious fanatics."

Gifts of Glass

Our words have a way of echoing out into either war or peace....

Growing Gardens for Palestine: Nominating a hero

"Resuscitating the peace process"...excellent cartoon from the Baltimore Sun

HEAR PEACE - SEE PEACE - SPEAK PEACE.... be peace

 
Crowdsourcing Peace: By going over the heads of Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Obama is demanding that their people step up.

LIKE ATFP - The American Task Force on Palestine

"I come from there and I have memories... "

*******
"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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace

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..."

What is an Israeli settlement

"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

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.

The Arab Peace Initiative

Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

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.

4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.

5. Calls upon the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.

6. Invites the international community and all countries and organisations to support this initiative.

7. Requests the chairman of the summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the secretary general of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim states and the European Union.

 

**************

 

 

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-fayyad-20130420,0,2859547.story 

 

I totally appreciate and agree with your pro-Palestine editorial- and I think that it is a huge shame that so many people  sabotaged and/or scapegoated Fayyad, rather than appreciating his wisdom and his many positive contributions to Palestine.  He is indeed a hero.

Kerry backs moves to revive Arab peace initiative... Addressing reporters after the talks, he said he had reaffirmed the vision of President Barack Obama of "two states living side-by-side in peace and security, brought about through direct negotiations between the parties."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani deliver a joint statement after a multilateral meeting with the Arab League delegation at the Blair House in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2013. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=590774

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US Secretary of State John Kerry made a fresh push Monday to relaunch the moribund Middle East peace process, meeting top Arab League officials in a bid to revive a decade-old Saudi plan.

Far from the cameras, the new top US diplomat held talks with senior ministers from the Arab League, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Palestinian territories to discuss the Arab Peace Initiative.

The ministers, meeting in the privacy of Blair House just a stone's throw from the White House, were also joined by Vice President Joe Biden, for what Kerry called a "very positive, very constructive discussion."

Since taking office on February 1, Kerry has plunged into the maelstrom of Arab-Israeli politics hoping to break an impasse and resume the vital Palestinian-Israeli talks which collapsed in late 2010.

After his discussions, he praised "the Arab League's very important role... in bringing about a peace in the Middle East, and specifically by reaffirming the Arab Peace Initiative here... with a view to ending the conflict."

Kerry has suggested the Arab Peace Initiative -- unveiled in 2002 by Saudi King Abdullah in which 22 Arab countries would normalize ties with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands -- could provide a framework.

Addressing reporters after the talks, he said he had reaffirmed the vision of President Barack Obama of "two states living side-by-side in peace and security, brought about through direct negotiations between the parties."

Kerry has already traveled three times to the region, meeting senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, pursuing what he has called "a quiet strategy" in an ambitious bid to revive the talks and achieve a peace treaty which has eluded successive American administrations for decades.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim, chair of the Arab Peace Initiative follow-up committee, headed the delegation, which also included Palestinian foreign affairs minister Riyad al-Maliki and Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

"Peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis ... is a strategic choice for the Arab states," Jassim said after the talks.

He agreed that any deal should be based on a two-state solution, with the borders defined by the June 4, 1967 borders, before Israeli troops seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

But Jassim backed Obama's proposals for a "comparable and mutual agreed minor swap of the land" between Israelis and Palestinians to reflect the realities of the burgeoning communities on the ground.

Earlier, Jassim had welcomed the talks saying he believed it was "an important meeting, an important era, which we hope will lead to peace, a comprehensive peace between the Arabs and the Israelis."

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr also attended the talks, along with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa and top Saudi and Lebanese officials.

The talks came after a "series of productive conversations by the secretary to explore how we can best move regional peace efforts forward," deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told journalists.

They also focused on new proposals from Kerry to promote economic development on the West Bank -- a scheme in which he is hoping to attract private sector investment to boost Palestinian trust.

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance ... Salam Fayyad "This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance."

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad inaugurating olive harvest season in Jayyous village, Qalqilia on 10 November 2012. Photo by photojournalist Mustafa Abu Dayya, Office of the Prime Minister.

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Palestinian Institutions A Story of Perseverance

 http://www.thisweekinpalestine.com/details.php?id=3981&ed=217&edid=217

By Salam Fayyad

In late August 2009, the Palestinian government introduced a state-building plan that set ambitious goals for Palestinian institutions and sought to arrive at a point of institutional readiness on a par with established states. This plan included the implementation of hundreds of projects, such as schools, healthcare facilities, and other infrastructure. The government also implemented far-reaching reforms in the financial, judicial, governance, and security sectors with efficacy.

In conjunction with the reforms and state-building effort, the government decreased its reliance on outside assistance by 60 percent in five years, in relation to the GDP, by improving tax collection and enacting serious fiscal reform, as well as creating the legal and institutional framework to encourage private-sector-led development. In addition, per capita income returned, in real terms, to its pre-2000 levels. In other words, the Palestinian economy recovered from the output losses sustained as a direct consequence of the tightening of Israeli restrictions during the years of the second Intifada.

But conceptually, the significance of this enterprise lay in the translation of the Palestinian political context and agenda into reality by building efficient, accountable, and responsible institutions of the state that can provide citizens with the best services possible, despite the limited means.

This was not about roads, buildings, or infrastructure, despite their importance. This plan was about statehood, citizen participation, and enfranchisement. It was based on the vision of establishing a functional framework where government is accountable and citizens participate in the widest and most effective way possible in decision-making and governance.

As political and diplomatic efforts were to advance the political agenda to end the occupation and establish a sovereign state on the land Israel occupied in 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the government was to create the needed institutional framework to carry out the responsibilities of a full-fledged sovereign state.

This vision, with all that it entailed by way of self-imposed benchmarks and priorities, was not adopted because its elements were prerequisites to Palestinian statehood. The right to live as free people, with dignity, in a country of our own, is an absolute, natural, and national right of the Palestinian people that enjoys unanimous recognition from the international community. We unilaterally set these goals in order to create institutions capable of performing to the satisfaction of our public and in a manner worthy of their sacrifices in our long struggle for freedom. The concept was to create enough positive momentum to push the world to take practical steps to help end the occupation, which would enable us to fulfil our potential and enjoy our right to live in our sovereign state.

The State of Palestine is now a regional leader in the areas of fiscal transparency, fighting corruption, and social assistance programmes. In the public sector, women have taken their rightful position in leadership and decision-making positions, including the police and judiciary. Women also head significant and world-acclaimed public institutions, such as the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Capital Market Authority, and for the first time, a woman became a Governor and six women assumed key cabinet positions, and in the process, made the Palestinian government, at least in this sense, the most progressive in the region.

In line with these institutional achievements, the level of international awareness and engagement rose. Countries and regional blocs, such as the European Union, adopted progressive positions regarding occupied East Jerusalem and Palestinian statehood. 

Of equal significance, the international donor community adopted the Palestinian government’s development priorities, affirming its commitment to investing in areas classified as C, which make up more than 60 percent of the West Bank, and supporting Palestinian development and perseverance in East Jerusalem. This supports our standing position: that such development efforts are essential to contributing to rolling back the occupation and realising Palestinian sovereignty.

These international positions and actions, among others, are steps in the right direction because they align policy with practice and bring both into harmony with international law and the standing legal and moral obligations that states have towards enabling us to establish our own state.
 
Two years ago, the international community recognised our efforts and stated unanimously that Palestine boasts the institutions of a functional, established state. In addition to this recognition, the international community and specialised agencies also recognised what we have affirmed all along: in order for us to protect what we have achieved thus far and develop further, as is our right, the Israeli occupation must end.

The punishing, unnatural condition of living under an oppressive occupation denies us our inalienable right to live in a free country of our own, empowered to develop our lives and economy to their full potential. That has been our message all along and for the past two years, it has been the world’s standing position.

Ironically, around the time we succeeded in getting world recognition of our institutional readiness for statehood in early 2011, the Palestinian economy was beginning to suffer the ill effects of financial difficulties, which subsequently turned into a deep financial crisis. This was due to a shortfall in foreign aid and it was further vastly complicated by Israel’s withholding of our tax revenues.

Sadly and wrongly, some claimed that the ensuing failure on the part of the government to meet its financial obligations on time reflected a lack of readiness for statehood. I say “wrongly” because this claim disregards the fact that sovereign and developed states that have been around for centuries could face, and in fact have faced, serious economic and financial crises. But in no way and at no point did such financial crises form a basis for asserting that any one of these countries no longer qualified for statehood.

In our case, we said all along that a distinction needs to be made between lack of functionality due to financial difficulties, on the one hand, and lack of institutional capacity causing dysfunction, on the other. I maintain that the financial difficulties we have faced and continue to face in no way detract from our institutional readiness, which has been acknowledged universally, including in the landmark resolution adopted by the United Nations General Assembly last November.

For despite the deep financial crisis and the government’s inability to meet its financial obligations towards its employees and partners on time, Palestinian institutions exhibited resilience and determination. Our institutions continued to provide vital services to the public, despite disruptions and unrest, including a devastating storm, the likes of which Palestine had not seen in six decades.

This crisis risked striking at the Palestinian spirit, which insists on building and moving forward towards freedom. It risked implanting despair and frustration as well as paralysing the functional and accountable institutions that Palestinians have built. That must not be allowed to happen. We are determined to protect our right to establish a sovereign state whose institutions are ready and capable to tap into the potential we have been unjustly denied as a people.

Palestinians have a long and prosperous history of entrepreneurship and success that often seems to be achieved against all odds. As far back as the mid-1800s, Palestinian educators, artists, journalists, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs made an indelible imprint on their fields in the region and worldwide. Since the Nakba 65 years ago, our resilience and innate optimism have been key to our people’s survival and perseverance. And while the reality of occupation and the absence of a political horizon inevitably cause frustration and may even produce despair, they cannot in our case lead to a sense of surrender to circumstance or defeat.

The State of Palestine will materialise. This is an historic inevitability whose achievement we, as a people, have helped accelerate by staying steadfast and deeply rooted in our homeland, building where the occupation demolishes and planting where it uproots.

Institution building in Palestine was and will continue to be about reflecting our people’s unassailable spirit and determination to realise and enjoy freedom and provide them with nothing less than what they rightly deserve: excellence. That is why it is a continuing effort, one that can and will withstand adversity. This is an endeavour motivated by the most powerful and universal of all ideas: freedom and our natural right to enjoy it.

His Excellency Salam Fayyad is Prime Minister of the State of Palestine.

Israeli forces uproot 700 olive trees near Jenin

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=589385

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces on Thursday uprooted over 700 olive trees near Arraba village in the northern West Bank, Palestinian Legislative Council member Najah Abu Bakr said.

The trees belonged to Palestinians in Arraba, south of Jenin, close to the Israeli settlement Mevo Dotan, the MP said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces destroyed over 1,300 olive trees in the south Hebron hills of the southern West Bank.

CNN online Dean Obeidallah: I'm Muslim, and I hate terrorism

Dean Obeidallah

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/24/opinion/obeidallah-muslims-hate-terrorism/index.html

Wed April 24, 2013

Editor's note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is a political comedian and frequent commentator on various TV networks including CNN. He is the co-director of the upcoming documentary "The Muslims Are Coming!" and co-host of a new CNN podcast "The Big Three" that looks at the top three stories of the week. Follow him on Twitter @deanofcomedy. 

(CNN) -- I'm an American-Muslim and I despise Islamic terrorists. In fact, despise is not even a strong enough word to convey my true feelings about those who kill innocent people in the name of Islam. I hate them with every fiber of my being.

I'm not going to tell you, "Islam is a religion of peace." Nor will I tell you that Islam is a religion of violence. What I will say is that Islam is a religion that, like Christianity and Judaism, is intended to bring you closer to God. And sadly we have seen people use the name of each of these Abrahamic faiths to wage and justify violence.

The unique problem for Muslims is that our faith is being increasingly defined by the actions of a tiny group of morally bankrupt terrorists. Just to be clear: The people who commit violence in the name of Islam are not Muslims, they are murderers. Their true religion is hatred and inhumanity.

The only people terrorists speak for are themselves and the others involved in their despicable plot. They do not represent me, my family or any other Muslim I know. And believe me, I know a lot of Muslims.

We hate these terrorists more than non-Muslims do. How can I say that? Because they harm innocent people in the name of our religion and consequently we suffer a backlash because of their acts. It can be anything from a spike in hate crimes to people viewing Muslims as less than fully American because of our faith. We are the ones called to answer for the sins of people we detest.

Since the Boston bombing has renewed for some concerns about Muslims, I wanted to candidly answer three questions I have been asked repeatedly over the years...READ MORE 

Hassan Khader: "Here's how we really should frame the relevant questions. What makes young men, in the prime of their lives, believe that killing others, including at a sports event, is some kind of sacred duty? And can they really identify with an imaginary "nation," one that transcends boundaries and ethnicities, no less? And what will it take to make people on all four corners of earth unite in putting an end to this barbaric pattern and bringing such young men to their senses?"

Martin Richard, 8, was one of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, April 15, 2013. ABC News photo (Courtesy Richard Family)

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 http://www.americantaskforce.org/mourning_martin_richard

Mourning Martin Richard

By Hassan Khader

Al Ayam (Palestine)

April 23, 2013

I was deeply struck by the photo of the eight-year-old American child, Martin Richard, who was the third casualty of the Boston bombings. It was apparently taken a few months before his horrifying death. He is seen holding up a placard on which he had written: “No more hurting people…peace.” It seems he wrote this plea as a heartfelt response and a child's public intervention after attending a class about a racist killing of an African American.

He could not have imagined that, meanwhile, two young men of Chechen origin -- seemingly not different from the thousands of nice people that he saw every day on the street and who he would surely have believed shared these feelings with him -- were actually preparing bombs to kill him.

Nor could he have known that his days were numbered because the willingness to kill other people at random made him a natural target for termination. Not that there was any animosity between him and the killers. It was mere happenstance that he found himself in their path. It was even possible that they could have met before the attack and chatted or even traded smiles.

This is exactly what makes hurting people unbearably nihilistic, and what makes life dreadfully fickle. We must not and do not have the right to pretend that we are innocent in all of this. There are wars, prejudices and ideologies in many societies around the world that lead people to raise killing to the level of a sacred duty and absolve killers from guilty consciences.

But what does Martin have to do with any of that?

Some might say: why do you fixate on certain incidents, but not on others? Haven't the Americans also killed many innocent people, including children in Afghanistan and Iraq? Haven't the Israelis also killed many innocent people, including children in Palestine and Lebanon?

So what, exactly, does Martin have to do with any of that?
 

Merely asking such questions, and particularly at this time, can only transform Martin into a perfectly natural target for killing, or at least turn him into a legitimate target of violence.

Here's how we really should frame the relevant questions. What makes young men, in the prime of their lives, believe that killing others, including at a sports event, is some kind of sacred duty? And can they really identify with an imaginary "nation," one that transcends boundaries and ethnicities, no less? And what will it take to make people on all four corners of earth unite in putting an end to this barbaric pattern and bringing such young men to their senses?

There are countless possible answers to these questions. Among them is the crucial observation that ideas are what lead people to kill other people. And among the nice people that Martin saw that day on the street, surely none of them could have become a tool of killing and hurting others if certain ideas did not get ahold of their minds. And if there is a moral responsibility towards Martin, it must be in defeating those ideas, and standing between them and their intended goal, either by drying up their roots, or by inoculating people against them, or both.

This cannot be achieved through witch-hunt-style security measures. It must rather be accomplished by counter-ideas and values. Ideas can only be defeated by other ideas: tolerance and pluralism counter essentialism and exclusivism; enlightenment values counter medieval superstitions; real knowledge counters ignorance and indoctrination; and democracy counters fascism.

To label things accurately, we have to acknowledge that the ideas that got ahold of both these two brothers of Chechen origin in Boston and the suicidal men of the 9/11 attacks derive from the same transnational ideology and basic economic, social and educational sources.

They stem from the religious extremism that began to arise in the Arab and Islamic worlds during the mid to late 1970s, particularly during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan and afterwards. And they are especially driven by those who found sanctuary in Afghanistan, were nurtured by the wars of the Afghan warlords, and received financial support from some of those enriched by oil.

To label things accurately, those ideologies and their supporting bedrocks -- networks, banks, welfare associations and media outlets -- during the last four decades have moved from the periphery to the mainstream in various Arab countries, including some ruled by dictatorships and some which seem to belong to the Middle Ages.

The irony is that the most backward among these regimes have received the support and friendship of successive American administrations and the West in general. And they still do.

Maybe most Americans don’t know -- surely not those outside government and official institutions, at least -- that the television and radio networks that wield by far the most influence and impact in the Arab world are owned and financed by radical and religiously reactionary regimes. And, of course, there is the financial support such ideologues get from the banks, associations and investment groups also backed by these same radical and religiously reactionary regimes.

Maybe most Americans don’t know that the United States has military bases in, and maintains excellent political and economic relations with, allied Arab countries whose official and non-official media outlets have in the past, and still do, market to the whole world an ideological framework of religious fundamentalism and extremism.

These are the same regimes that are currently supporting counter-revolutionary forces in the Middle East, and providing them with the means to seize power in those Arab countries that have experienced popular revolutions against dictatorships—revolutions during which people carried placards that even eight-year-old Martin would have understood and agreed with.

So don’t believe Bernard Lewis, and all those who try to convince you that in this region of the world there are merely people who are essentially different than you, people who don’t share your values.

To put it simply, in the unfolding war of ideas and clash of values, Arabs need the help of the American people. If nothing else, they need Americans to remind their own government that economic interests, and even political ones, don't justify turning a blind eye to the emergence of an Arab world stuck between the rock of tyrannical regimes and the hard place of religious extremists.

These are some little gestures in the direction of moral responsibility, and only some of what could and should be said in mourning Martin Richard.

***********

"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." ATFP's Ziad Asali: To honor a tragic history, we must work for peace 

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