24-country median: 62% unfavorable towards Israel VS 29% favorable towards Israel ... "Another survey confirming opposition to a genocidal state and society. The fact that these figures dont correspond to state policy reflects how supporting Israel necessitates authoritarian rule & that it is a matter of time/generation before the pendulum swings." Noura Erakat

Noura Erakat

@4noura

Another survey confirming opposition to a #genocidal state and society. The fact that these figures dont correspond to state policy reflects how supporting Israel necessitates authoritarian rule & that it is a matter of time/generation before the pendulum swings.

24-country median:  62% unfavorable towards Israel VS 29% favorable towards Israel

The human cost and the environmental cost of war in the Middle East is horrifying, and yet America's mainstream newspapers, TV news, and politicians itch to have more & more war, investing in Israeli violence at every turn.

For every two Palestinian deaths, Palestinians are mentioned only once in the coverage of major newspapers we analyzed. For every Israeli death, Israelis are mentioned eight times — or a rate 16 times more per death that of Palestinians. The Intercept 

 

Dear President Biden (& some of my other elected officials),

A "How to Respond to Antisemitism" report on TV was featured on CNBC this morning.  I tuned in as I believe racism is wrong, and I want to know how best to help stop it.  

Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times was the interviewer. He spoke with a so called pollster/political-something-or-other who had interviewed a group of Zionist students. No Arabs or Muslims or Christians or Humanists.  

I am not going to repeat all the dangerously wrong Zionist propaganda that Sorkin & the "pollster" bandied about, but the pollster did ask wealthy listeners to stop giving to America's Ivy League Colleges. I suspect he'd rather wealthy listeners give $$$ to Israel.  So a pro-Israel pontificator can publicly call for CNBC listeners to stop investing in American colleges, but pro-Palestine truth tellers here in America are either ignored or demonized for calling for boycotts against Israel because of Israel's racist laws & policies and warmongering ways.

Do you have any clue how much pollution is generated by war? "The climate cost of the first 60 days of Israel’s military response was equivalent to burning at least 150,000 tonnes of coal"  &  "Almost half the total CO2 emissions were down to US cargo planes flying military supplies to Israel."  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/09/emissions-gaza-israel-hamas-war-climate-change

The human cost and the environmental cost of war in the Middle East is horrifying, and yet America's mainstream newspapers, TV news, and politicians itch to have more & more war, investing in Israeli violence [and racism] at every turn.  

Please stop trusting Israeli news, and start listening to people who sincerely want peace and prosperity for all people.

FYI the call for freedom "From the River to the Sea" is a call for full and equal rights, not violence. It is a plea for compassion, the rule of fair & just laws, and an end to racist Israeli cruelty & apartheid in the Holy Land.

Sincerely

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES

Religion should be a personal, private choice, not a state funded project

Palestinian's incredible spirit of resilience and spirit full of life despite all the odds! We continue to pray for a ceasefire now…

Emissions from Israel’s war in Gaza have ‘immense’ effect on climate catastrophe

The Basarat Home in Palestine USURPED by Zionists... but never ever forgotten by its rightful owners and heirs.

DECOLONIZE THE NARRATIVE #FREE PALESTINE

How apartheid history shaped South Africa’s genocide case against Israel- in The Guardian

The Israeli army has assassinated Hamza Al-Dahdouh, the son of Wael Al-Dahdouh, Al-Jazeera’s main correspondent in Gaza...

Mourning books (& lives) lost due to rampant Israeli violence & anti-Palestine paranoia

Child of Handala - a modern interpretation of the 21st-century generation of Palestinian Nakba survivors.

Ralph Nader on Gaza Ceasefire & Why Suppression of Palestine Advocacy Is the Real Problem on Campus

Dr. Salman Abu Sitta: The tiny Gaza Strip, only 1.3% of Palestine, became a temporary home for 2.3 million Palestinian refugees.

Dear President Biden: Stop racist hate- start by stopping Israeli violence, and the Zionist stranglehold on your brain.

My letter to USA Today 1-5-2024 RE 50-year friendship offers a close look at caring dialogue on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

My letter to the New Yorker RE Mosab Abu Toha's A Palestinian Poet’s Perilous Journey Out of Gaza

Ibtisam Barakat: A Palestinian Whose Childhood Was Destroyed by War Pleads for Peace- Never letting children endure war again is the “never again” that might actually heal our wounded humanity.

But where should people go... 

Shereen Audi "I really wanted to spread some hope and positivity and give that feeling to the world and to everyone who needs it... all I wish for Palestine and for our world is peace and light.."

Ottoman Era Palestine circa 1890's... Palestinian fishermen in Tiberias (Tabriya) 

May the new year bring a free Palestine. Jordanian artist: اسامه حجاج-Osama Hajjaj Instagram: osamahajjaj

Israel eases up on bombing parts of Gaza, but only as famine and disease take their hold. 

I hear reports and see TV commercials showing that Anti-Semitism and other forms of racist hate is increasing. We need to stop that trend

Together, we have the power to shift the narrative on Palestine and build a future of collective liberation- Visualizing Palestine NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

Homeless in my homeland by Hanin A. Elholy

Almost all the universities in Gaza destroyed or damaged. A huge amount of students and academic staff killed.

Mosab Abu Toha · Heartbreaking to learn that Ammar Ghraiba, a young motion graphic designer and an aspiring filmmaker, got killed today. Our journalists, poets, and filmmakers are killed. But the story, the poem, and the film continue.

Like Palestinians in the rest of east Jerusalem, most Armenians do not hold Israeli citizenship but only residency...

The Jewish settlers 'living the American dream' in the West Bank

My letter to the Guardian RE Mira Awad's enlightening and courageous column "Palestinian Israelis are often dismissed. Yet our voice is key to peace"

‘When I represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 together with the Jewish-Israeli singer Noa, the pressure from my Palestinian compatriots to withdraw was overwhelming.’ Mira Awad, right, and Noa Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

RE Palestinian Israelis are often dismissed. Yet our voice is key to peace
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/10/palestinian-israelis-dismissed-but-key-to-peace

[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 (& America ...etc...)]

Dear Sir,

I was delighted to read Mira Awad's enlightening and courageous column "Palestinian Israelis are often dismissed. Yet our voice is key to peace"... and it was wonderful to be able to hear her exquisite award winning voice singing Bahlawan.  It is indeed time to recognize  and appreciate "the acrobats"... and the many magnificently talented hard working people and good role models who practice and perfect peace as they make the most of their gifts and opportunities.

Shibley Telhami, a brilliant forward thinking scholar born into an Arab family in Israel (who currently teaches at the University of Maryland ) in a recent Washington Post column "How Israel’s Jewishness is overtaking its democracy"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/03/08/how-israels-jewishness-is-overtaking-its-democracy/?postshare=7211457441647491&tid=ss_tw
explains the importance of Arab-Jewish relations within Israel- and the broader Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  He points out that the "loss of hope for a two-state solution, and the rise of social media that has displayed extremist attitudes that used to be limited to private space. In the era of Facebook and Twitter, Arab and Jewish citizens post attitudes that deeply offend the other: An Arab expresses joy at death of Israeli soldiers killed by Palestinians, while a Jew posts a sign reading “death to Arabs.” Hardly the stuff of co-existence. Leave it to opportunist politicians, extremists and incitement to do the rest."

Echo chamber thinking empowered by the internet and the entertainment driven nature of many news reports and forwards pushes many misguided people away from seeing the big picture, and away from understanding the importance of basics such true respect for universal human rights and Golden Rule thinking. 

Music might be, but ethics and the rule of fair and just laws are not based on popularity polls: Ethics (and fair and just laws ) are a consensus of what generations of humankind's best and brightest have concluded is most likely right and what is most likely wrong.  The test of time is the only way to know what works and what doesn't work.  We know from the Nazi Holocaust that discrimination and bigotry can quickly grow monstrously evil and cruel. 

We also know from Monty Python's Flying Circus that "No One Expects The Spanish Inquisition!" It is easy to look back at witch hunts and condemn the participants, but at the time things weren't quite so clear. 

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

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

Dr. Zogby: This Time Must Be Different

 20 Years After Oslo Paperback. Analysis of Israeli and Palestinian public opinion polls since the Oslo Peace Accords 20 years ago... Arab American Institute

[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.aaiusa.org/dr-zogby/entry/this-time-must-be-different/

Dr. Zogby

This Time Must Be Different

Monday February 03, 2014

Two decades after Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed an interim peace agreement in Washington, DC, the task of achieving a final resolution to the conflict has become significantly more difficult. Not only have the physical impediments to peace grown--  for example, the number of Israeli settlers living on occupied Palestinian lands has increased three-fold to more than a half-million-- but the political ground today is less fertile than it was back then.

In 1993, surprised by their leaders' bold initiative, Israelis and Palestinians were quite hopeful. Twenty years later, the environment has become toxic, polluted by the ill-will generated by the negative behaviors of both parties. 

This reality must be factored into the calculus of peace-making. What will be important to consider is not just the terms of the "deal" reached by the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, but their ability to "sell it" to their wary publics-- many of whom are distrustful of the "other side," no longer believing that peace is even possible.  

In my recently published book, 20 Years After Oslo, I review Israeli and Palestinian attitudes in the two decades that have elapsed since their leaders signed the Oslo Accords. The book lays out a twenty-year timeline and then traces how events that occurred during this period and the actions of both sides contributed to the erosion of both publics' support for peace.

Following up on that study, this week, I released the results of the latest Zogby Research Services (ZRS) polling of Israeli and Palestinian attitudes. What this newest poll demonstrates is the degree to which negative attitudes now prevail in both communities-- establishing how significant the loss of hope and trust has become.

Commissioned by the Sir Bani Yas Forum in the UAE, ZRS polled 1,000 Israelis and 1,000 Palestinians in late 2013. While we found areas where the sides disagreed, we also observed substantial areas of agreement-- almost always in their shared negative assessment of the prospects for peace.

For example, while majorities on both sides say they had been hopeful when the Accords were signed, today less than one in five Israelis and Palestinians say they view Oslo as a "positive development". Similarly, while a majority of Israelis and a plurality of Palestinians agree that a two-state solution is a desirable outcome, only one-third on each side believes that such an outcome is still feasible.

When asked what has accounted for this loss of hope, both Israelis and Palestinians demonstrated a remarkable shared understanding of the negative role played by their own and the "other side's" violence and the use of force in poisoning the environment. This may be one of the most positive signs emerging from the results of this poll. Both parties, for example, agreed that the following events or behaviors contributed to eroding their confidence in the prospects for peace: suicide bombings, rocket fire from Gaza, the second Intifada, the election of Hamas, continued settlement construction, Israel’s re-occupation of the West Bank, the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, and Baruch Goldstein’s massacre of Palestinians in Hebron. Israelis and Palestinians also agreed that Israel and the United States did not do enough and should have done more to make the Oslo process work.

From the results of this poll, it is clear that the past 20 years have taken a toll on both Palestinians and Israelis. The leaders engaged in the current round of peace talks, therefore, must not only wrestle with the issues of maps, rights, and each other's security concerns, they also face an additional challenge. They must produce an agreement that will be accepted by their publics, and they must be able to convince their constituents that this effort will be different than what both sides now view as the failed Oslo process.

What is clear from both this ZRS poll and the review of the last 20 years of Israeli and Palestinian opinion is that neither side can do this alone. If peace is to have a chance, external players (involving more than the United States) have a critical role to play - as guarantors, as “incentivisors”, and as arbiters. The time to begin that intervention is now-- to help prepare the ground. Waiting until the negotiations run their course or a US framework agreement is announced will be too late.