Who has the power in the Middle East?
by Mark Schneider
Letters to the Editor
Colorado Daily
March 1, 2002
When the media report about Israel and Palestine they often portray the two as equal in political and even military power. Palestinians have no organized military and very little political power. Although there is a near-global consensus that Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories and respect Palestinian self-determination, the US is the superpower and annually ravishes (sic) billions of aid . . . to Israel. And right now, what the US says, goes.
There is no history of Palestinian F-16s and helicopter gunships bombing Israelites and towns . . . There is no history of Palestinians illegally occupying Israel, closing its borders, imprisoning thousands of Israeli people and torturing most. Now, of course, the reverse is the history.
Please, no more illusions. Israel will continue to flaunt international law and official condemnation as long as the US goes lockstep with Israeli leaders in expanding Israel's borders. Piece by piece, acre by acre, Israel is illegally taking Palestinian land, killing off its leadership (95 Palestinian leaders assassinated in the last 16 months), and creating colonies euphemistically called settlements and neighborhoods. If Americans don't stop our government's support of Israel's destruction of the remaining 22 percent of Palestine, then there likely will never be an independent Palestine. With this trajectory we might see Palestinian reservations (the parallels with US colonization are striking). The blood of Palestinians will, simply, be on our hands.
Regarding some recent published letters in the Colorado Daily, one writer made the allegation that Palestinian children's textbooks teach them to "put all Jews in a bad light." Last November a professor at Georgetown University unveiled a systematic study of Palestinian textbooks that have been used over the last eight years. His conclusion: "The new books are devoid of racism and anti-Semitism." Read for yourself: www.mideastweb.org/Democracy in the Palestinian Curriculum.pdf.
Another allegation is that Palestinian TV and radio incites Palestinians to violence and anti-Semitism. This is truly macabre given the fact that Israel, over the last 16 months, has repeatedly bombed and leveled many Palestinian TV and Radio stations. Dozens of Palestinian journalists have been shot and arrested. Imagine if Palestinians did this to Israeli media?
Lastly another letter writer bemoans the usual litany of how back in 2000, Yasser Arafat was offered the sun and moon by Ehud Barak. Please. The facts are not that hard to find. Barak initially offered a continuation of the South African Apartheid bantustan model, enshrined in the Oslo Accords. Then, just after the current Intifada broke out (Sept, 2000) under political duress from many sides, Barak began more secret negotiations at Taba, which according to various international accounts, created an agreement that was very close to a deal. What happened? Barak inexplicably walked out, no deal.
Mark Schneider
Denver
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