ALISON WEIR: Death Threats in Berkeley- resulting from Israel/Palestine Debate

"I know you're used to killing people who are in your way. Old people, young people, leaders, followers, mothers, fathers, teachers, doctors, factory workers, farmers.

It hasn't seemed difficult for you. Human beings are immensely vulnerable. When people have no armor, no defending army, no power, all it takes is a few bullets. Skulls are easily penetrable by tempered steel. Rib cages are shattered with ease. "

Finally, a clear understanding of the situation. Now, how do we get this message across to the Palestinian suicide bombers?

>>We have awakened to the brutality of your injustice, and our numbers are growing. We are of every ethnicity and nationality, including your own citizenry, and we are joining together to uphold the holiness of our common humanity.

>>We are working to create a world of equality, of brotherhood and sisterhood, of compassion and respect, of laughter and love.

Right.....and meanwhile we could care less about the Berbers in Egypt, the Blacks in Sudan, the Women in Saudi Arabia, the Chechens in Russia, the Tibetans in China, the starving people killing each other in Congo, Ethiopia, Algeria, Mali, and Rwanda.....

Who cares about these poor people, its all about establishing a "peaceful" Palestinian state run by terrorists. Once there is such a state will true world peace prevail.....Forget about the Billions of people who are starving in the world......its all Israel's fault right.....

One of the most disgusting things is watching racist chauvinists try to frame themselves as the victims.

I think Zionists might be unique in this. I don't recall even white south African racists trying to claim the mantel of victimhood.

Get the hell out of the Occupied Territories and quit your incessant whining already. When you rape, your victim is not the aggressor -- can you comprehend that?

The idiot said: "Get the hell out of the Occupied Territories and quit your incessant whining already. When you rape, your victim is not the aggressor -- can you comprehend that?"

- If Israel runs out of the disputed territories today, many Palestinian terrorists will be able to swarm into Israel proper as the numerous checkpoints have been dismantled.
Even if all the "settlements" didn't exist, Israel would still be the VICTIM being raped by Palestinian terrorism, the aggressor. Did you ever consider the ideology and goals of the Palestinian Islamist terror organizations? Take your head out of your ass and stop ranting for a change.

rachel corrie lives because her cause lives with people like allison weir.
allison is a very soft spoken but brave woman.
i got the chance to meet her last monday and was imporessed by her knowledge and her committment.
i was not involved in the israel/palestinian conflict until i heard about rachel.
i was involved in the "rachel corrie banner project" last week with wendy.
let me be the first to say she is very outspoken.
but it was a thrill getting out there and talking to the people.
i will continue to be involved with this issue and work with people who want to take it to the streets like wendy.
i dont always approve of her rhetoric,but i love her energy!
i know rachel would want us to do this.
there were many people that took our literature and agreed with us.
i strongly urge all those who claim to be for peace in palestine to join us.
i especially urge my non-zionist jewish friends out there to join us,it is your voices that will have the most effect out here,just as your silence does.
please ......join us.
these issues arent going away.
did you all hear that paul wolfowitz was awarded the "JEWISH MAN OF THE YEAR" in israel?
we all know why he was awarded this "honor".
join us in fighting them.

Could you please tell us why you think Wolfowitz was thus awarded by a paper like the JPost, Drew?

Everyone knows this fake phone call was placed by rabid anti-Zionists to discredit the noble actions of US Zionists.

Tell that to the FBI! And while you're at it, why don't you immerse yourself in the "noble" history of Zionists beginning with Menachem Begin, who later became a Prime Minister of Israel. He was one of the first terrorists of the Holy Land when he oversaw the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1946 killing scores of Brits and Arabs, many of them civilians (do a Google search for more info).

Also read about how the "noble" Jewish terrorists gangs massacred thousands of Palestinians and demolished entire Palestinian villages beginning in 1948 (do a Google search on Dier Yassin and The Nakba which means "The Catastrophe" in Arabic) in order to ethnically cleanse the non-Jewish Palestinians from Palestine for a Jews-Only state. Over 750,000 Palestinians fled their homeland in terror and these were the first of the Palestinian refugees. By the way, those Jewish terrorist were absorbed into the Israeli Army the IDF and are continuing their massacring and demolishing of entire city blocks, routinely making thousands of Palestinians homeless. Just last weekend, over 1200 Palestinians in Rafah became homeless! Since the beginning of the Second Intifada in Sept. 2000 that is continuing up to this time, over 13,000 Palestinians have been made homeless due to the IDF illegally, immorally demolishing Palestinian homes!

Palestinian refugees have the right to return to their ancestral homeland according to UN Resolutions, International Law and world opinion, but the racist, ethno-centric Jewish state of Israel has not allowed one Palestinian refugee to return.

There is absolutely NOTHING noble about the racist, ethno-centric, stealing, constantly lying, cheating, murdering, greedy Zionists.

More power to them. If any other group was engaging in these activities you would applaud them.

The above post may be "old news" to you (about the history of Zionism and Zionists such as Menachem Begin and The Nakba, etc. ) but as you are fully aware, I'm sure, it's NEW news to most Americans. Too bad if you don't like us to keep repeating the truth about Zionist Israel--- we will keep repeating it until it IS "old news" to ALL Americans. And trust me, when all Americans do know the truth about Israel, the game is up! The good people of American will demand that no more US tax dollars will be given to racist, apartheid Israel!

Great, so instead of being "racist, ethno-centric, stealing, constantly lying, cheating, murdering, greedy Jews," now if we Jews even merely even care about and defend Israel's existence as a Jewish homeland we're racist, ethno-centric, stealing, constantly lying, cheating, murdering, greedy Zionists."

Gee, the world sure is progressing.

--"...many Palestinian terrorists will be able to swarm into Israel proper..."

Fear mongering is a common technique used by racists to scare everyone to accept their racist agenda.

The fact is, despite conventional wisdom here in the US, nearly all Palestinian militant groups have said that they would stop any and all attacks in Israel proper if Israel did the same.

This is not reported here but they have said this.

the threat against Weir happened three weeks ago. she made lots of news about it then and now that it's quieting down she's at it once again. I bet in three years, she'll still be wringing every last drop of sympathy out of this.

sure smells like a publicity stunt to me.

<b>this is not about the worthyness of the palestinian cause - it's that Alison Weir is continuing their oppression by grandstanding on their backs and trying to make a name for herself as a white privildeged woman off of the palestinian's suffering<b>!

<b>History of the Palestinians in Israel</b>
author: http://www.adalah.org/
Despite all odds and ethnic cleansing of 70% of natives in 1947-1949, remained in what became Israel. They were kept under martial law until 1966 and are now (separate and unequal) citizens of Israel. "Adalah's main goals are to achieve equal individual and collective rights for the Arab minority in Israel in different fields including land rights; civil and political rights; cultural, social, and economic and rights; religious rights; women's rights; and prisoners' rights."

History of the Palestinians in Israel
Today, Palestinian citizens of Israel comprise close to 20% of the total population of the country, numbering over 1,000,000. They live predominantly in villages, towns, and mixed Arab-Jewish cities in the Galilee region in the north, the Triangle area in central Israel, and the Naqab (Negev) desert in the south. A part of the Palestinian people who currently live in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Diaspora, they belong to three religious communities: Muslim (81%), Christian (10%), and Druze (9%). Under international instruments to which Israel is a state party, they constitute a national, ethnic, linguistic, and religious minority.
In 1947, the Palestinians comprised some 67% of the population of Palestine. On 14 May 1948, the State of Israel was established. During the Arab-Israeli war that immediately followed, approximately 780,000 of the pre-1948 Palestinian population fled or were expelled, forced to become refugees in the neighboring Arab states and in the West. Of the 150,000 Palestinians who remained in the new state, approximately 25% were displaced from their homes and villages and became internally displaced persons as the Israeli army destroyed over 400 Arab villages. As a result of the war, the Palestinian population in Israel found itself disoriented and severely weakened. They had been effectively transformed from members of a majority population to a minority in an exclusively Jewish state. They lacked political as well as economic power, as their leadership, as well as their professional and middle classes, were refused the right to return and compelled to live outside of the state.
From the state's inception, the Jewish majority viewed the Palestinians who remained within the state suspiciously and frequently with hostility - as part of the Arab world, as a potential fifth column, and oftentimes simply as enemies of the state. From 1948 to 1966, the Palestinians in Israel lived under military rule applied only to them, despite the fact that they were formally declared citizens of the state in 1948. Military rule placed tight controls on all aspects of life for the Palestinian minority. These measures of control included severe restrictions on movement, prohibitions on political organization, limitations on job opportunities, and censorship of publications. For example, in 1956, the Israeli army killed 49 Palestinian farmers in Kufr Kasem for "violating" the curfew imposed on their village. Unaware that a curfew had been ordered, the farmers were returning home from working their agricultural lands when they were killed. Substantial demonstrations on the anniversary of the massacre in 1957 marked the first time that Palestinians in Israel had organized on a large scale to protest the state's repressive policies. Up to 1965, attempts by the Palestinian community in Israel to form political parties to run for the Knesset, such as the El Ard (The Land) Movement, were forcibly stopped and their associations outlawed.
The Israeli authorities also confiscated massive amounts of Palestinian-owned lands. As the majority of the Palestinian community traditionally relied on agriculture as their main source of income, state expropriation of lands forced Palestinians to seek work as wage-labors and thus become primarily dependent on the Israeli economy. Prior to 1948, the Jewish community owned just 6-7% of the land. During the next four decades, 80% of lands owned by Palestinians living in Israel were confiscated and placed at the exclusive disposal of Jewish citizens. Today, 93% of all land in Israel is under direct state control.
Military rule was lifted in 1966. One year later, following the war in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and Jerusalem. As a result Palestinians in Israel regained contacts with Palestinians in these areas. From this time and throughout the first Intifada (1987-1993), Palestinian citizens of Israel confined their struggle to a civic one and restricted their national effort to events in the Occupied Territories. Other struggles throughout the 1970s and 1980s included long strikes organized by mayors of Arab municipalities to protest paltry budget allocations for basic services and demonstrations over land confiscations. Of particular importance was the call for a general strike in 1976, following a wave of land expropriations in the Galilee area. These expropriations were part of the governmental plan to expand the existing Jewish settlements and to establish new ones in order to reach a "demographic balance" in areas where Palestinians constituted a majority. Protests erupted in the Galilee, during which Israeli security forces killed six Palestinian citizens and wounded hundreds more. Every year on 30 March, Land Day, Palestinians in Israel commemorate their collective struggle against land confiscation and dispossession.
Israel never sought to assimilate or integrate the Palestinian population, treating them as second-class citizens and excluding them from public life and the public sphere. The state practiced systematic and institutionalized discrimination in all areas, such as land dispossession and allocation, education, language, economics, culture, and political participation. Successive Israeli governments maintained tight control over the community, attempting to suppress Palestinian/Arab identity and to divide the community within itself. To that end, Palestinians are not defined by the state as a national minority despite UN Resolution 181 calling for such; rather they are referred to as "Israeli Arabs," "non-Jews," or by religious affiliation. Further attempts have been made to split the Palestinian community into "minorities within a minority" through separate educational curricula, disparate employment and academic opportunities, and the selective conscription of Druze and some Bedouin men to military service. Israeli discourse has legitimated the second-class status of Palestinian citizens on the basis that the minority population does not serve in the military; however, the selective conscription of Druze and some Bedouin has not prevented discrimination against them.
Despite historical marginalization and overwhelming disparities, many Palestinian citizens believed that their situation would improve with the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. However, the 1990s brought many shifts in the political atmosphere which affected the situation of the Palestinian minority. Under Labor-led governments, Arab political parties held a balance of power, and the government occasionally accounted for those Palestinian concerns that did not challenge the structure of the state. When the Likud or unity coalition governments held power, Palestinian citizens were faced with decreasing budgets, special programs exclusively established for Jewish communities and institutions, and heightened institutional discrimination.
These political shifts have been exacerbated by the problems that the Palestinian minority has faced post-Oslo. The promise and hopes that were briefly raised have not been met with concrete benefits for Palestinian citizens of Israel. In fact, the widely-held view that the peace process would act as a springboard to alleviating or at least addressing the problems of the Palestinian minority did not materialize. Palestinians in Israel found themselves excluded from the peace process, and their civic and socio-economic status unilaterally neglected. Indeed the Oslo Accords have redefined and limited the "Palestinian question" to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, excluding Palestinian citizens of Israel as well as the entire refugee population in the Diaspora from any substantive dialogue.
The realization that their concerns would not be met through the Oslo process brought an increase in political protest on the part of the Palestinian minority. Palestinians demonstrated in large numbers in 1998 in Umm al-Sahali following the court-ordered and state-executed demolition of Palestinian homes, and in Umm al-Fahem after the army attempted to expropriate Palestinian land for use as a military training area. Both protests resulted in violent clashes with the police. As a result of the events in Umm al-Fahem, which went on for three days, hundreds of Palestinians including students, were injured by tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition after the police stormed the high school. Students also protested at universities, demonstrating on numerous issues such as tuition increases and other academic issues; violence against the Palestinian community; and national identity concerns.
The post-Oslo period has also been characterized by a substantial decline in economic stability of the Palestinian minority. The Palestinian community already faced a high rate of unemployment: as of July 2000, the localities with the highest rates of unemployment were all Arab, and the situation has worsened since the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada. The ongoing high rate of unemployment compounds the ill effects of discrimination. The poverty statistics for the Palestinian minority are equally chilling, as after social security payments, 37.6% of Palestinian citizens of Israel remained below the poverty line in 1998-1999.
In September 2000, two months after the failed Camp David accords, Ariel Sharon, then a Member of the Knesset (MK), visited the Haram al-Sharif compound, site of the al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. Over the course of the next two days, Israeli security forces killed and injured tens of Palestinian worshippers and demonstrators throughout the Occupied Territories. The uprising that began with Sharon's provocative visit to assert Israeli sovereignty over the disputed area and the resulting demonstrations throughout Israel and the Occupied Territories has become known as the al-Aqsa Intifada. Following these events in the Occupied Territories, Palestinians in Israel called for a general strike in early October to express solidarity with the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians demonstrated in massive numbers in Arab towns and villages throughout the country, resulting in more than 1,000 arrests, with hundreds indicted and detained without bail until the end of trial, many of whom were minors. During street demonstrations in early October 2000, Israeli police used live ammunition, rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas against the unarmed protestors; hundreds were injured and 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel were killed. The al-Aqsa Intifada events marked the first time in decades that such brutal violence was used by Israeli police against Palestinian citizens of the state.
In November 2000, the Israeli government, headed by then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, announced the establishment of a three-member Commission of Inquiry ("the Commission"), in accordance with the Commissions of Inquiry Law (1968). The mandate of the Commission is to investigate the clashes between the security forces and Arab and Jewish citizens, which culminated in the death and injury of Israeli citizens starting from 29 September 2000. It further calls for an investigation into the behavior of the inciters, organizers and participants in the events from all sectors, and the security forces. The Commission sets a precedent in Israeli legal history. This is the first time a Commission has been established to investigate police violence against the Palestinian minority, although the Palestinian community has demanded such commissions in the past. As a result of the Commission, serious questions have been raised regarding the credibility of the police force as a whole. Testimonies heard by the Commission to date shed important light on the relationship between Palestinian citizens and the state, and Jewish-Arab relations in Israel. As it stands, the state-sanctioned use of force against Palestinian citizens calls into question Israel's commitment to democracy, and highlights the problems of Palestinian engagement with state institutions.
Along with the establishment of the Commission, the February 2001 direct election of MK Ariel Sharon as Prime Minister was another pivotal moment for the Palestinian minority. For Palestinian citizens of Israel, the choice between Barak and Sharon afforded no political option, as both candidates touted a Zionist agenda that explicitly and implicitly relegated Palestinians to second-class citizenship and continued the policies of occupation in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. For the first time, most of Palestinian community boycotted the election (only 23% voted, less than a third of the typical turnout by the community) by staying home from the polls or submitting blank ballots. The unity government subsequently created by Sharon is facing the end of the Oslo process, as political negotiations have broken down and massive violence rages in the Occupied Territories.

Some idiot above who spreads propaganda said:

"--"...many Palestinian terrorists will be able to swarm into Israel proper..."

Fear mongering is a common technique used by racists to scare everyone to accept their racist agenda. "

EDUCATED RESPONSE: You are an idiot. Palestinian terrorists WOULD be able to swarm into Israel proper if Israel just got rid of all their border protection. IT's a FACT. PEOPLE CAN GO ANYWHERE THEY WANT, unless someone prevents them from doing so. Idiot.

Thank god for the very good jewish people in the bay area.
im talking about the anti-zionist jews.
together we shall work to end the united states "aid" to the murderous regime known as israel.
how does the word "divestment" sound to you?
money and arms are the lifeblood,the air that allows this conflict to live,we shall suffocate it.
we shall use the same tools the enemy weilds so well.
the press.
words.
images.
the "media".
we shall use the enemies greatess asset against them.
curious isnt it?
my fellow freedom fighters and agitators.....we dont see the fight as it exists today.
we are already among them,we are in the belly of the beast,we have the luxury of subverting from within.
writing your congressman and senator is a waste of time,turn the public against them,a small number of us can have a huge effect.
the enemy has done this and so shall we.
i think their are brilliant people already doing this,hence the attacks and threats.
use the truth against them.
show no fear.
yes..............
we are among you and know who you are.
the real action in this palestinian/israeli conflict is in america,in the halls of the senate and the white house.
the enemy has many soldiers for their side already their.
you already know WHO THEY ARE.
but we can use their own "media" against them.
the war is coming.....and when the masses realize the truth we shall see all of the "zionists" run and hide.

Good Luck Alison, Drew and others (from all sides) who work for peace. Likhud and other right-wing elements are having their day right now. And what a sloppy and pathetic show they are making of it. Many Israelies are starting to see the error of Likhud's ways. Warmongers never bring peace - why must we test the theory again? And all these hyper-vocal zionists here in the U.S. ... what is their problem. They should enjoy their relative priveledge of living here (in the belly of the beast) - and spend their youth having relations with people from all walks of life. This is so much more rewarding than cowaring behind the tired phrases of hate and bigotry. Zionists, Nazis, Real Estate Agents ... many people out there are in need of real jobs and good community awareness - someday all will be exposed and peace will come to whatever/whomever is left. For now, it seems the Neo-cons, the zionists and the extreemists are hell-bent on having their little Armageddon party - Oh Well. This is the age of the doomsday teenagers inhabiting men's bodies. I hope the show ends soon and that some us survive the age of militarized adolescence. Good luck to all the peacemakers ... everywhere. Sincerely, Just Jeff

Olive trees are essential to Palestinian farmers. Peace can be achieved when we recognize our common needs as human beings; clean water, air and good healthy food..

Please ask your local food store to carry Holy Land Olive Oil and support the Palestinian farmers as they struggle to survive..

We need peace..

You guys have a reall strange definition of "zionists."

Anyway,

So here we are seven sad and bloody years later still having to explain the same lessons which has been proven many more times since then. Now we have even more evidence for the assertion that Arafat is a roadblock not only to full peace but even to the establishment of a real ceasefire.

Arafat quickly sabotaged and eliminated prime minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and his ally Muhammad Dahlan, who was serious about imposing order in the Palestinian-ruled lands. Now he is about to repeat the process with Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) and his ally Nasser Yusuf.

The issue which led Abu Ala to resign was Arafat's refusal to grant real power to Yusuf at the interior ministry.

Arafat's appointment of Hakam Balawi as interim security chief, is a joke. Balawi has for many years been his personal agent and most subservient minion. And of course Balawi has no experience whatsoever in security matters.

A few words about Yusuf will illustrate why he would have made an honest attempt to stop terrorism, which is precisely what Arafat doesn't want to happen.

In April 1994 when Arafat returned to Gaza, Yusuf was put in charge of the police force. He made a deal with Hamas in which the latter stopped murdering those it called "collaborators" and left such matters to the police.

But soon Hamas returned to its own ways. Yusuf warned, "Those who attack our people are attacking our rights as a national authority."

He said that he would punish those responsible even if the battle cost the lives of a hundred policemen. Arafat kept him from cracking down.

The following year, when Israel turned Kalkilya over to the Palestinian Authority, Yusuf made a speech showing he understood what was at stake. "We will control the security situation," he said, "because it has a positive impact" on the well-being of Palestinians, who otherwise would face a chaotic situation and the loss of their jobs in Israel.

IT IS this connection that seems to be incomprehensible to Arafat and his colleagues as well as to much of the rest of the world. If terrorism is ended, commitments are implemented, and serious negotiations are pursued in a flexible manner, there would be no violence or occupation. A Palestinian state would come into existence within months, certainly inside of a year.

Abu Mazen, Abu Ala, Muhammad Dahlan, and Nasser Yusuf, along with some other Palestinians, understand this completely. There are others who know this to be true, but they are too cowardly or too opportunistic to join in the reform movement.

So the violence continues and the Palestinians are the big losers, except in the world of the international media and the UN which have no positive effect on their material situations.

One is reminded by what Isam Sartawi, a PLO moderate, said after Arafat claimed victory in the 1982 war, which left him fleeing Lebanon into distant exile.

"Another victory such as this," Sartawi mocked, "and the PLO will find itself in the Fiji islands." But Sartawi was assassinated by Syrian agents a few months later while Arafat is still pursuing the same disastrous policies 20 years later.

Among the most frequently asked questions about Palestinian politics, of course, is what happens after Arafat leaves the scene.

My traditional answer is that his successor will have to be male, Muslim, a leader of Fatah, and someone already in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. If that person were to come from the older generation, the most likely successors would be Abu Mazen or Abu Ala.

And in the longer-run, from the younger generation, the two leading candidates would be Muhammad Dahlan or Marwan Barghouti.

But any successor would have less authority over the movement than Arafat. It could split along Gaza-West Bank lines as well as having a divided leadership between those inside and those outside the territories.

Why has Arafat survived so long despite his disastrous leadership? Any answer would have to include his consensus-oriented strategy, skills at controlling his colleagues, and international recognition.

Yet based on the last year's experience I wonder whether there is not one aspect rising above all others. Without Arafat, Palestinians fear the movement would disintegrate into quarreling factions, many seeking foreign sponsors, and some at war among themselves.

Given the limited political courage, pragmatism, and consensus on goals or tactics on the Palestinian scene, it seems that the movement could well disintegrate in a post-Arafat era. It would survive officially but with no one able to lead, make decisions, or prevent in-fighting.

After having rejected Camp David and the Clinton plan, ceasefire, and reform, the Palestinian movement may have lost the opportunity to gain a state even as it inflicted great suffering on its people. It may even have jeopardized its own survival.

Such an outcome would be Arafat's legacy, but responsibility rests, too, with virtually the entire leadership.

"Corrector of Idiots" is right. I'm also glad s/he concurs with me about your being an idiot.
Fyi, I'm not racist. I bet you're an anti-Zionist racist who frequently engages in fear mongering against "Zionists". The pot calling the kettle black.

The fact is that most Palestinian TERRORIST (get the hang of this word) groups have also said - on many more occasions than they saying the opposite - they would continue all their attacks in Israel proper until all of "Palestine" is "liberated" i.e. ethnically cleansed of Jews.
Lo, you yourself didn't claim that ALL those goups have said what you allege others have said. Hamas and Islamic Jihad must be the exceptions! That's what I alluded to in the first place (I wrote "Palestinian Islamist terror organizations")!

I urged you to take your head OUT of your ass, not to thrust it up more!

EVERY SINGLE ARAB COUNTRY GOT RID OF ITS JEWS

NOW THE LEFTISTS WANT TERRORISTS TO FLOOD INTO ISRAEL WHERE THEY WILL HAVE FULL ACCESS TO KILLING JEWS EVERY DAY. THAT"S "PEACE?"

Former Israeli army troops huh?

Why didn't you just say they were Mossad agents

Why don't all these crazy nutty fanatical religious Christians, Muslims and Jews all just kill each other already and leave the entire world in peace? Or better yet, let Jerusalem and the entire "Holy Land" sink into the fucking Mediterranean so nobody can fight over it anymore. The world would be better off if all the Abrahamic cults went extinct.

Boston Globe, via Freemanlist

THE MIDDLE EAST "road map" is tearing apart, to the anguish of Washington and the world. But the Machakos peace talks to end Sudan's civil war are also in disarray, and they deal with a civil war that has claimed 2 million lives in the last 15 years. The response to this in Washington and the rest of the world is silence. This continues a pattern in which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though its total of dead and injured are not in the top 10 of the world's current conflicts, receives more international attention than all the others combined.

One high official in the Palestinian Authority delegation to Washingtonthis summer commended US intervention in Liberia, but added that the issue was minor compared to the Palestinian question. He may be right, but not obviously so. After all, more Liberians than Palestinians have been killed in the last decade, while several million have died in Congo.

If we consider only deaths in the Muslim world, the discrepancy in attention is staggering. Saddam Hussein may be the greatest killer of Muslims in history, but he was treated widely as a hero. The National Islamic Front in Sudan has killed largely Christians and animists, but also hundreds of thousands of Muslims, especially among the Beja, Fur, Massaleit, Tama, and Nuba peoples. Its militias have also taken Muslim slaves.

The Armed Islamic Group in Algeria has murdered more than 100,000 Muslims in the last decade. In Chechnya, another 100,000 people, one-10th of the population, has been killed and almost half the population is displaced. In Afghanistan, the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies killed thousands of Shia. In Mauritania, tens of thousand of Muslims are held as slaves. Tens of thousands more died in the Kashmir conflict and in the civil wars in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Sierra Leone. Thousands more have died in Nigeria and Indonesia. The Burmese junta drove out more than a quarter million of its ohingya Muslims in the early 1990s. In India last year some 2,000 Muslims were slaughtered in Gujarat, some disemboweled or burned alive while police stood by or joined in.

Yet these events are passed over in silence, even within much of the Muslim world. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of many of these atrocities sit in the UN condemning events in the West Bank.

Of course, conflicts are important for far more than humanitarian reasons. The Israel-Palestinian conflict is on our front pages because it involves major armies, oil states, and the specter of nuclear weapons. For Jews, and many others, the key is that there is only one Jewish state in the world, one place that, if they control it, they can be safe. For a minority of evangelicals, the conflict is central because it tracks biblical prophecy and brings signs of the apocalypse.

It is also easy to discern the cynical manipulation of the issue by authoritarian states, especially in the Arab world. These regimes use it as a safe outlet for their populations' political frustrations in order to deflect attention from their own repressive policies. Islamists are outraged because they believe that once a country has been under Islamic rule it can never be relinquished. This is why Osama bin Laden insists he wants Spain back. Israel is a far more recent example of non-Muslims governing an area once Muslim, and excites greater horror.

But why does this conflict draw multitudes of activists, who make it the defining issue of Middle Eastern, and even of world politics? Why the plethora of conferences, committees, demonstrations, boycotts, and disinvestment campaigns on a level that dwarfs any action protesting larger scale suffering?

Perhaps part of the answer is anti-Semitism, perhaps anti-Americanism. But, whatever the reason, it cannot be a primary concern for human rights since, while there is more than enough suffering in this conflict, there is much worse elsewhere.

The elevation of the Israel-Palestinian issue above all others has several deleterious effects. One is that it elevates vituperation against Israel. It also raises expectations among Palestinians that are unlikely to be met. Finally, it contributes to silence and evasion about the oppression of other Muslims as well as other people throughout the world. The net effect is that both Israel and the Muslim world suffer more.

Look at how the Zionist Jews just love to complicate everything with their long-winded posts. They just LOVE to obfuscate the simple truth!

Israel is an ethnocentric, anti-democratic, apartheid, imperialistic country that discriminates in all ways against non-Jews. It is not a democracy, except for Jews, so that does NOT qualify as a modern democracy!

Israel has been guilty of committing ethnic cleansing against the non-Jewish indigenous Palestinians since day one of its immoral creation in 1948 when White European countries gave away Arab land to Eastern European Zionist Jews who are White Jewish supremacists!

Solution: Tranform Israel into a true democracy with equal rights for ALL regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or sex, including for all the Palestinian refugees who have the right to return to their ancestral homeland according to UN Resolutions, International Law and world opinion!

No double standards for Zionist Jews! > . < Period!!!!

This came to pass in South Africa and it must come to pass in Israel!

Windy Out Wendy: "Look at how the Zionist Jews just love to complicate everything with their long-winded posts. They just LOVE to obfuscate the simple truth!"

The previous post was quite clear and simple. Sorry if your attention span was too short to get through it, Windy Out Wendy, or your reading capacity insufficient to figure out what it meant.

@%<

>>>>>Israel is an ethnocentric, anti-democratic, apartheid, imperialistic country that discriminates in all ways against non-Jews. It is not a democracy, except for Jews, so that does NOT qualify as a modern democracy!

Right...and Sudan, Malaysia (who said Jews rule the world), Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Chechnya, Congo, Liberia, etc are beacons of multi-ethnic, democratic, peaceful countries. These countries condemn Israel for violating human rights!!!!!!

>>>>its immoral creation in 1948 when White European countries gave away Arab land to Eastern European Zionist Jews who are White Jewish supremacists!


RIGHT.....6,000,000 + victims of Nazi Holocaust is not a moral enough reason to have a homeland....Millions of Jews may have been saved if they had been allowed to emigrate to Israel, ruled by british, during the war years. british had a quota, called the white paper.....which condemned millions of people to their death....cuz the british feared the poor arabs will be offended by Jewish presence in the little sliver of land in the middle east....... In 1948-1949, 6,000 Jewish soldiers, many of whom were survivors of nazi death camps, died defending the new born country against an onslaught of 5 arab countries with the intent of "Making the Great Sea red with Jewish Blood"

sharon's government made no secret of their intention to kill unarmed civilians on friendly soil.

Better to buy direct from Palestinians! Here's how: http://www.palestineoliveoil.org. Or buy it in person at Rainbow Grocery in SF or at Samiramis' on Mission at 26th.

Jewish Voice for Peace is a decent organization but they could do much more if they would get solidly behind the one-democratic-state solution http://www.one-democratic-state.org.

They could also be much more believable as being sincere rather than just apologists for Israel if they renounced Israel as a Jewish state in favor of a true multi-cultural secular democracy and denouce their exclusive right to return ("aliyah") until all the Palestinians are also allowed their right to return.

Jewish Voice for Peace would also be more believable if they renounced Zionism, since it has always manifested itself as ethnic cleansing and apartheid. Even if The Jewish Voice for Peace does want to attract lots of Jews from different points of views for a broader base, then they should at least have different committees for the varying points of views (ie. one-state vs. two-state) instead of refusing to address the different points of views in an open manner.

On top of that, why does Jewish Voice for Peace have to see themselves as Jewish first and not just Americans first like most of us???? Why are they so exclusive???? Why not American Voice for Peace????

The above pathetic piece entitled "Hmmm" was not written by me.

Question:

If the US stopped supporting Israel, if Israel never responded to another suicide bombing, stopped all border checkpoints and military actions....

....then what do you guys really think the Arab World would do with their now complacent Jewish Neighbors?

Be honest.

If Israel were forced to end its apartheid regime in the same manner that South Africa was transformed, along with UN peacekeeping troops and financial incentives from the US and the UN for this new country to adhere to a true, secular democracy with equal rights for all, including all the Palestinian refugees who must be allowed their right to return to their ancestral homeland --- this is what would happen. Peace! Anyone who breaks the law, of any religion, race or ethnicity would be put in jail! No more extrajudicial assassinations, no more land stealing, no more discriminating against someone because of their ethnicity or religion, in other words, pretty much what is accepted as a true democracy here in the US (even tho we do have also a plutocratic democracy) but noone's homes are being demolished! No American politician can get away with calling anyone "cancer" or "lice" or "vermin" that need to be removed or transferred like Israeli politicians say all the time about Palestinians. It wouldn't be a JEWISH state anymore, so some Jews wouldn't like that. Too bad. They can leave then! Equal rights for ALL is the ONLY way to go! Apartheid and segregation was bad in South Africa and the US and it's bad in Israel. NO DOUBLE STANDARDS! Never again should mean never again to anyone! Deomcracy means equal rights for all regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or sex.

Palestinian style....no due process....no lawyers.....no appeals....

Palestinian gunmen kill suspected collaborators, display bodies
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
NABLUS, West Bank

Masked Palestinian gunmen killed two Palestinian men suspected of collaborating with Israel on Thursday before displaying their bodies in the central square of the Tulkarem refugee camp, witnesses and Palestinian security officials said.

The two men were abducted two weeks ago with six other men in a kidnapping planned by two militant groups, the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade and Islamic Jihad. The men were suspected of giving away the hideout of a wanted Al Aqsa militant, Palestinian security sources said.

Al Aqsa is loosely affiliated with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction. Islamic Jihad, which receives funding from Iran, often cooperates with Al Aqsa in the northern West Bank.

A source in Al Aqsa said the men had been kidnapped and interrogated by Islamic Jihad, but that the two groups had carried out the killings together "to share the honor."

The two men reportedly confessed to betraying Sirhan Sirhan, a militant shot dead by Israeli troops in Tulkarem on Oct. 4 after a yearlong manhunt. One of the men, who had been an Islamic Jihad member, also confessed to betraying two comrades who were killed by Israeli troops.

Sirhan - who is not related to the Robert Kennedy assassin of the same name - was wanted by Israel for killing five people on an Israeli communal farm, including a mother and her two small children.

Israeli intelligence makes frequent use of Palestinian informants to target wanted Palestinians, and dozens of suspected collaborators have been killed by fellow Palestinians during three years of violence.

The confessions were videotaped and broadcast in the central square Wednesday night, witnesses said. The six other suspects were released.

Just after daylight Thursday, the two suspected collaborators were taken into an alley and shot at close range, said a witness who asked not to be identified.

The bullet-riddled bodies were then dragged to the central square and propped up for camp residents to see, witnesses said. The bodies were displayed for about 15 minutes around 7 a.m., a time when residents are heading to work and children are on their way to school.

Family members who came to take the bodies away identified the men as Mohammed Suliman Faraj and Samer al-Oufi.

Witnesses said members of the Faraj family fired guns in the air and vowed to avenge Mohammed's death before taking the body away.

Ok, is that another way of saying that you reap what you sow?