My letter to the Guardian RE Israel accuses Iran of attacks in Delhi and Tbilisi

RE: Israel accuses Iran of attacks in Delhi and Tbilisi
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/14/israel-accuses-iran-of-attacks

Dear Sir,

Iran clearly wants to sabotage efforts to build support for a negotiated fully secular two state solution to once and for all end the Israel-Palestine conflict and the very real plight of the Palestinians.

Iran might not have been directly connected to the cruel plot and the bombs targeting Israelis in India and Georgia, but Iran's pervasive and well publicized pro-Islamist pro-Militancy anti-Israel anti-America rhetoric most certainly is a factor inspiring misguided idiots all through out the world to invest in violence and hate mongering instead of figuring out how to help usher in Golden Rule age of reason and respect... and real diplomacy.

Islamists are not helping Palestinians find freedom or security. Would there even have been an Israeli war on Gaza but for the Islamist militants... Fact is if Hamas had voluntary stepped down years ago, in order to help Palestine realize its dream of becoming a fully free, fully sovereign, viable nation state Israel would not be so motivated and so easily able to continue on with its quest to usurp Palestinian land, rights and peace.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

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

Preempting fragmentation by Walid M. Sadi

UNRWA to stop financial aid to impoverished families in Gaza

Israeli demolition 'displaces 120' [Palestinian men, women & children] in Hebron village

VOA News: Palestinian Hunger Striker Stirs Emotions

Taking Care of His Adopted Country, One Emergency at a Time

Springs - Arab and otherwise

A U.S. author's book, an Iranian translator's peril

NBC NEWS: Gazans break(dance)ing boundaries

[Palestinian] Neighborhood pays price of being on wrong side of Israel's wall

MOST RECENT POLL: A majority of Palestinian youth express their support for a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine within the 1967 boarders).

The Middle East's "invisible refugees"

Time Magazine: “The People Are Suffocating”: West Bank Economy Struggles Under Pressure From U.S. Congress

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Women in Resistance

UNWRA NEWS: Refusal to grant travel documents traps family in Gaza for 10 years

"Religious conservatism invariably focuses on social and sexual control. Women are the most immediate targets and primary focus of the authoritarianism of the religious right, wherever they may be. As Islamists seem to be finally getting their chance at gaining a share of power in the Arab world, the greatest and most immediate danger they pose is to women’s rights. That is why it is up to everyone else, including both secularists and religious moderates, to insist on the introduction of inviolable constitutional principles protecting the rights of individuals, women and minorities." Hussein Ibish: Islamism and misogyny

"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

Executive director of Oxfam International Jeremy Hobbs: "The increasing rate of settlement expansion and house demolitions is pushing Palestinians to the brink, destroying their livelihoods and prospects for a just and durable peace," Record number of Palestinians displaced in 2011

The Arab Peace Initiative requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well

GROWING GARDENS FOR PALESTINE
a personal blog

Preempting fragmentation by Walid M. Sadi

"Whether these theories or conspiracies are real or not, it is incumbent on the Arab countries to be prepared for them by accelerating the democratic process and eliminating all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion, language or origin, as the most effective way to preempt any attempt at balkanising the region." Walid M. Sadi

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http://jordantimes.com/preempting-fragmentation

Preempting fragmentation

by Walid M. Sadi | Feb 12,2012 | 22:40

Many people in the Middle East entertain a certain conspiracy theory that talks about a grand design orchestrated by certain powers for the region, aiming to its balkanisation.

This is backed by the recent changes in the political landscape of the Arab world and by projections for the future.

The conspiracy theorists suggest that Israel for sure and perhaps other Western powers aim to weaken the Arab states by dividing them along sectarian or ethnic lines, and that would produce weaker ministates.

Sudan’s breaking up into two countries along religious and ethnic basis last year is offered as a living example of what can be expected to happen in other Arab countries.

Some observers point to Sudan as being only the beginning of the process of balkanisation that will be repeated elsewhere in the Arab world sooner or later.

It is being alleged that Iraq is well on its way to witnessing this phenomenon, and so is Lebanon and even Egypt, and some Arab states in North Africa and the Gulf region where sizeable minority groups of people live peacefully with the majority yet are bound to explode at a certain point in time.

While one cannot take these rumours too seriously, they cannot be ignored altogether since the threat of balkanisation of Arab countries could become real if some symptoms are ignored for long.

Israel cannot be immune from any such scenario either, since it is made up of a sizeable Arab minority that demands the right to exercise self-determination and to separate from Israel. Accordingly, if Israel is in part behind this balkanisation process, it also stands to pay a big price since its balkanisation could very well be in the pipeline as well.

That said, minority groups asking for the right to self-determination in any part of the world are unstoppable. Sooner or later large religious or ethic groups may opt to be fully separated from the motherland, as southern Sudan did, or to have territorial independence, as is the case with the Kurds in northern Iraq.

Given the fact that the Middle East is made up of a mosaic of different ethnic and religious peoples, it stands to reason that some of these large minority groups may decide to go their separate ways if and when tension and bloodshed is orchestrated between them and the majority by certain foreign forces.

This is where the real danger lies.

Some powers bent on weakening the Arab world can trigger internal conflicts based on religious or ethic grounds, and these may culminate in open armed conflicts that could develop into civil wars.

Whether these theories or conspiracies are real or not, it is incumbent on the Arab countries to be prepared for them by accelerating the democratic process and eliminating all forms of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion, language or origin, as the most effective way to preempt any attempt at balkanising the region.

The most effective way to prevent such a possibility lies in the hands of the Arab countries and their peoples. Frustrating any conspiracy that aims at weakening the Arab states is within reach. The sooner we all act the easier it will be to prevent such events from ever taking place.

UNRWA to stop financial aid to impoverished families in Gaza

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460037

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GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Monday that it will not be able to continue cash allowances for impoverished families in the Gaza Strip.

UNRWA spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said a program providing 40 shekels to each individual in poor families will have to be cut after April due to a shortage in donor funds.

The financial support is used by families below the poverty line to meet their basic needs, he said.

Despite the financial crisis, UNRWA will continue with its food programs in the coastal enclave, and to highlight to the international community the issue of impoverished refugee families in Gaza, he added.

Abu Hasna called on the international community and donor countries to save the financial aid program in Gaza.

UNRWA was founded in 1949 to serve refugees in Gaza, the West Bank and neighboring Arab countries after hundreds of thousands were displaced from Palestine when Israel was created. The agency's most recent mandate extends to June 30, 2014.

Israeli demolition 'displaces 120' [Palestinian men, women & children] in Hebron village

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http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=460129

HEBRON (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces demolished 22 buildings in a Palestinian village south of Hebron on Monday, displacing 120 villagers, residents told Ma'an.

Twenty Israeli military vehicles accompanied bulldozers to raze the 16 domestic tents and six animal shelters in Khirbet al-Rahwa, they said.

Villager Salim Salem al-Tal told Ma'an forces also demolished a well that was the village's only water source. Soldiers did not give the villagers any time to remove their possessions from their homes, he said.

Rateb al-Jabareen, whose home was demolished, said that the soldiers told them they would have to leave the village. Israel hopes to expand the neighboring Jewish-only settlement Tene Omerem by pushing them from their village, he added.

He vowed the villagers would remain despite repeated demolitions.

Hebron governor Kamel Hemaid said Israeli authorities were systematically destroying Palestinian homes in order to expand Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank.

He appealed for international intervention to halt the demolitions.

The number of Palestinians displaced by demolitions doubled in 2011 compared to 2010, according to UN figures.

VOA News: Palestinian Hunger Striker Stirs Emotions

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/israel-and-palestinians/Palestinian-Hunger-Striker-Stirs-Emotions-139183744.html

Israel - Palestinians

February 12, 2012

Palestinians hold flags and photographs during a protest in solidarity with Adnan, and for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, in the West Bank city of Nablus, February 8, 2012.

A lengthy hunger strike by a Palestinian prisoner of Israel is stirring up emotions in the West Bank and Gaza and putting Israel on edge.

A Palestinian prisoner from the Islamic Jihad group, Khader Adnan, was in the 58th day of a hunger strike Sunday. He is protesting Israel’s policy of administrative detention - meaning that he can be held without trial on grounds that he is a terror threat.

Adnan’s lawyer Mahmoud Hassanta says the condition of the 33-year-old prisoner has deteriorated and his life in danger.

The prisoner’s father, Moussa Adnan, is worried.

"My son used to weigh 91 kilos,” he said, “but now he weighs just 54 kilos and his hair is falling out.”

In a brief statement, the Israeli military said Adnan is a terrorist who poses a threat to national security and he is being held according to the law. The prison service says it wants to keep him alive and has permission to force feed him if necessary.

Islamic Jihad issued a warning.

Appearing on Israeli television, an activist for the group vowed that if Adnan dies, armed Palestinian factions would launch revenge attacks against Israel.

With more than 4,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails, the prisoners are an explosive issue on the Palestinian street. After a long period of calm, Israel fears that a prisoner - become “martyr” could spark violent protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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"The beginnings were humble, but the result was not.

The Mobile Emergency Service for Resuscitation and Extrication now has 170 first-responder teams, 12 training centers and 4 helicopters, with a fifth on the way this spring. It is widely viewed here as one of the only parts of a broken health system functioning at a top-notch level.

“At its best, the system is better than what we have, and at its worst it’s certainly still better than what exists in lots of the United States,” said Peter Gordon, an emergency physician at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, N.Y., who worked over the course of nearly a decade with Dr. Arafat to help build the system.

“His attitude is, ‘We can do it better than anywhere in the world,’ ” Dr. Gordon said. “It’s, ‘Let’s not be as good as the Germans, as good as the French, let’s be even better.’ ”

THOUGH he became a Romanian citizen in 1998, the fact that he was an immigrant, working for an adopted country rather than his native land, added to the sense of selfless sacrifice. “Nobody is a prophet in their own house, in their own homeland,” Dr. Arafat said.

Bald, with his remaining hair clipped extremely short on the sides, Dr. Arafat is intense and assertive without being aggressive or overbearing. He gives the impression of someone you would want in the back of an ambulance if you had a heart attack. More often, his volunteer shifts are on one of his agency’s helicopters, where, he said, patients sometimes recognize him if they are conscious. “ ‘It’s Dr. Arafat,’ they say.”

As a boy growing up in the West Bank, Dr. Arafat had memorized the book “First Aid Without Panic” cover to cover, learning “every page, every picture by heart,” he said. Born in Damascus, Syria, and raised in Nablus, West Bank, he described his attitude as “medicine by any means.” At the age of 14 he not only rode with the fire department on emergency calls, but also began teaching the firefighters techniques he had learned from his well-thumbed first aid manual.

By 15 he had begun volunteering at the hospital in Nablus..." READ MORE

Taking Care of His Adopted Country, One Emergency at a Time

The New York Times: Saturday Profile February 10, 2012
By NICHOLAS KULISH

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/world/europe/palestinian-helps-romania-remake-its-emergency-care-system.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&smid=fb-share
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Where Mary's Face Matters... a poem by Anne Selden Annab

Samuel Aranda has won the 2012 World Press Photo of the Year for this image, shot in October while on assignment for The New York Times in Yemen. World Press winners here: http://bit.ly/w6YFHH

Closeup of The Pieta (Italian for “pity”) by Michelangelo 1499 St. Peter's Basilica Italy

& NYC USA St Patrick's Cathedral by American sculptor William O. Partridge 1906

Where Mary's Face Matters

What is it you see
in the shadows and light
the symbols caught
in shapes
and suggestions
nudged up out of what
you know already
believe already
blocking out
how others might perceive
the exact same shadows and light

How others might know
different stories
and contexts

How others might judge
remembering Partridge's Pietà
Michelangelo's Pietà...
and centuries of art
chiseled carefully
polished smoothed
perfected
admired
and preserved

where Mary's face
matters most
conveying the human face
of sorrow
& beauty
... dignity
decency
love

A mother's love
for her child
helps express
the congregations very real love
of Christ as the Rose
of Resurrection
about to bloom...

We wore white gloves
on Easter day
with pretty pastel dresses.

poem copyright ©2012 Anne Selden Annab

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Springs - Arab and otherwise

By Megan Ritchie

Feb. 10, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120210_Springs_-_Arab_and_otherwise.html

"An old man sat on the sidewalk, placed a hat in front of his crossed legs, and a sign next to them that read: 'I am blind. Please help me,' " my student began.

An Egyptian psychologist, Professor Saleh, along with two other visiting professors, was taking English lessons funded by a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The professors were to publish in an American journal during a nine-month stay in the United States, and I was to help them make sure their writing was appropriately polished.

This day's content focused on behavioral conditioning. Professor Saleh, eager to contribute his expertise to the lesson, leaned forward in his chair, easing into the more familiar role of professor.

"The old man continued like this for days," he went on. "He sat there collecting only pennies until one day, he noticed his hat was filled to the brim. He wondered what was different about today - not a national holiday, nor a religious celebration - and asked a person near him to read his sign out loud.

"This is what was read back to him: 'We are in spring. Enjoy its beauty.' "

According to the professor, a behavioral expert had changed the old man's sign that day, drawing on his knowledge that people respond better to optimism than they do to appeals for pity.... READ MORE

My letter to CSMonitor RE "Talk to Hamas? Talk to Taliban? Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities."

RE: Talk to Hamas? Talk to Taliban? Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2012/0208/Talk-to-Hamas-Talk-to-Taliban-Thank-the-Arab-Spring-for-those-possibilities

Dear Editor,

I very much appreciated your editorial today "Talk to Hamas? Talk to Taliban? Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities." Kudos to the Arab Spring and to all the many heroic and forward thinking Arabs who seek self-governance and dignity through peaceful means. I totally agree that empowering non-violence is crucial , as is valuing moderate, reasonable, intelligent, and compassionate people.

Hussein Ibish, Senior Research Fellow at The American Task Force on Palestine , a firm advocate of a fair and just negotiated settlement to once and for all end the Israel/Palestine conflict understands Islamists better than most, and he wisely points out the importance of "introducing inviolable constitutional principles protecting the rights of individuals, women and minorities."

However, even with that sage advice I am a quite wary about pushing the all-inclusive message too hard as I have noticed that extremists and hate mongers (in addition to radical Islamists) all like to piggy back on real struggles for real freedom, happily usurping momentum for a just cause in order to gain positive publicity, popularity and funds for their own self absorbed projects and careers. Even moderate Islamists might be a very risky investment because the potential for religious tyranny is always a very real danger, no matter which religion: Both Israel and Palestine's best chance is to let religion be a private matter, not a state funded project.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

NOTES
"Religious conservatism invariably focuses on social and sexual control. Women are the most immediate targets and primary focus of the authoritarianism of the religious right, wherever they may be. As Islamists seem to be finally getting their chance at gaining a share of power in the Arab world, the greatest and most immediate danger they pose is to women’s rights. That is why it is up to everyone else, including both secularists and religious moderates, to insist on the introduction of inviolable constitutional principles protecting the rights of individuals, women and minorities...Socially conservative Arab parties have a right to participate in government, but not to reduce women to second-class citizenship." Hussein Ibish

Reconciliation Between Fatah and Hamas

A U.S. author's book, an Iranian translator's peril

NBC NEWS: Gazans break(dance)ing boundaries

[Palestinian] Neighborhood pays price of being on wrong side of Israel's wall

MOST RECENT POLL: A majority of Palestinian youth express their support for a two-state solution (Israel and Palestine within the 1967 boarders).

The Middle East's "invisible refugees"

Time Magazine: “The People Are Suffocating”: West Bank Economy Struggles Under Pressure From U.S. Congress

This Week in Palestine: Palestinian Women in Resistance

UNWRA NEWS: Refusal to grant travel documents traps family in Gaza for 10 years

"There's nothing transhistorical or metaphysical about Palestinian nationalism, any more than there is about Zionism, or any other nationalism. This is so blindingly obvious even small children should have no difficulty grasping that whatever aspects of history, traditions, myths or legends a contemporary political movement wishes to privilege, foreground, highlight or deploy in order to legitimate it's agenda, what it is responding to is not anything ancient, transhistorical, metaphysical or inevitable, but rather the contemporary, immediate needs of constituencies that are themselves modern, and indeed "imagined," and the products of recent developments, not ancient history." IBISHBLOG 2011

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

Help Build A Golden Rule Peace for the Holy Land

A Spider Silk Cape... a series of three poems by Anne Selden Annab in Growing Gardens for Palestine

Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities...

"President Obama was smart not to follow the example of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned against the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal. If the United States is willing to talk to the Taliban – even to the point of dropping its preconditions – then Israel should leave a door open to the possibility that Hamas is slowly accepting Israel’s right to exist under a two-state solution. Hamas has already worked to curb attacks on Israel from Gaza..." CSMONITOR EDITORIAL BOARD

The Monitor's View

Talk to Hamas? Talk to Taliban? Thank the Arab Spring for those possibilities.

The Arab Spring's message of freedom through nonviolence has isolated Iran and Syria, helped elevate moderate Islamists, and pushed radical groups to weigh alternatives.

The Arab Spring’s main message – that young people seek self-governance and dignity through peaceful means – continues to bestow surprising gifts in the region. One is that radical Islamists are being forced to radically rethink their approach....READ MORE

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"Our government should conduct its Middle East policy based on what's right, not what's in the best interest of Israel." ...LATimes letter writer

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http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/

Letters to the editor

Re "Walled off and without recourse," Column One, Feb. 7

Two sides of Israel's fence

And this is the "only democracy in the Middle East"? Israel has many ways to rid itself of Palestinians; the separation barrier is only one of them.

I'm appalled. To think we've sent billions of dollars to Israel over the years, given it hoards of military armament and supported it unconditionally at the United Nations — not to mention the clear possibility of having to fight a war with Iran.

Our government should conduct its Middle East policy based on what's right, not what's in the best interest of Israel.

Lou Del Pozzo

Pacific Palisades