Independence Day For Palestine

Now that Kerry is beginning to ape
Bush's policies supporting Sharon's
new "reality on the ground" and
his plan to permanently annex large
portions of Palestine, I begin to see
that America is in deadly trouble that
a change of presidents will not fix.

The occupation of Iraq, another new
"reality on the ground", adds to
America's troubles in a most incendiary
manner but we must not forget the
Israel/Palestine issue that is a root
cause of terrorism. Root causes are
important to acknowledge and address,
just as a doctor must properly diagnose
a patient's disease before beginning
an effective healing programme.

If America wishes peace and prosperity
we must address the long-standing
grievances of those who have been
harmed by our policies, including our
support for other countries that have
perpetrated injustices. The claimants,
the injured parties, will not go away
absent a final solution such as genocide.
A man might forgive or at least forget
a theft of money, but for how many
decades will the Palestinians be forced
to live in "refugee camps", subject to
the rule of Israel? And, to the point,
how can a man forgive and forget a
policy that not only strips him of
his personal life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness, but strips his
family and all future descendants of
those inalienable rights?

What Bush and Sharon call the new
"reality on the ground" is simply
another term for Manifest Destiny,
the self-serving, hypocritical,
self-justificatory fairy tale used
by America to collectively deny our
genocidal, swindling, larcenous
treatment of the Native Americans,
a process continuing even to this
day.

"Manifest Destiny"? Horse hockey.
Giving mass murder and theft a fancy
name doesn't make it right.

Let me provide an example of "reality
on the ground", a situation of "Manifest
Destiny", and you decide.

Suppose a Master Thief burgles the
Bank of America, stealing $1 million
dollars and gets clean away to a far
off land. The Master Thief lives a
good life for several years, a life
of respectability, but one day he
sends a note to Bank of America via
a secret courier. The note says, "I
demand that you acknowledge my lawful
possession of the $1 million I
withdrew from your bank. The $1 million
is mine according to the doctrine of
Manifest Destiny. It is the Reality On
The Ground. I was destined to have this
money, in other words. If Bank of America
acknowledges my lawful possession of
this money I will agree to deposit a
portion of it in an account at the
bank, and you can begin earning interest
on it again. On the other hand, should
you refuse to admit that I am the
lawful owner of this $1 million I will
return and withdraw another $1 million.
And I will do this again, and again,
until you acknowledge that all of the
money I have in my hands is mine, not
yours!"

But perhaps that example is too far
fetched? Not a parallel analogy?
One more then...

Suppose that a homeless man, whom I
will call "Mr. I", breaks into the home
of another man, "Mr. P". Then Mr. I
kills Mr. P and all of Mr. P's family
except for Mr. P's infant son, P Junior.
Mr. I then burns down Mr. P's house,
bulldozes the land and builds himself
a new house on Mr. P's land. Meanwhile,
Mr. P's son is sent to live in a foster
home in another town. The years pass
and P Junior becomes a man of 18 years
of age seeking his birthright. He
demands that Mr. I give him back his
land, the land that belonged to his
father. But Mr. I has passed away,
and I. Junior is now a wealthy man
with powerful friends. Mr. P's son,
P Junior has no money to hire a lawyer,
and the legal authorities refuse to
do anything. They tell P. Junior he
should sign a piece of paper giving
I. Junior uncontested ownership of the
land, promising that perhaps I Junior
will be allowed to have a job, health
care and perhaps a family of his own
one day in the future. And they tell
him that I. Junior is a respected and
wealthy citizen and the "reality on
the ground" is that P. Junior better
shut the fouck up, or else.

How's that example? Are we getting
closer?

I have often wondered about what might
compel men to become "suicide bombers".
As a practical matter, in guerrilla war
a suicide attack is not the first choice
of the wise strategist. A suicide attack
wastes human materiel and is rather
pointless if the job can be completed
in simpler fashion -- say, with a
roadside bomb. Only a hard target
requiring a stealth approach and admitting
of no feasible escape is appropriate
for suicide attack...unless the threat
of interrogation is so severe that it
is better for the guerrilla to die
than to be captured...or unless the
alternative, the alternative choice
of remaining alive is less desirable than
dying. Imagine how hard it is to recruit
people to give their lives for their
country on suicide missions!

From what I can see, the only way you
could drive a people to engage in
mass suicides of this sort is to hammer
them so hard for so long that few of
them even have a living relative, parent
or grandparent, that remembers what it
was like to live in freedom with at
least a hope of becoming prosperous
and happy. They must first be crushed
with generations of hopeless despair,
never-ending suffering and abject
poverty, and then you can persuade
them to join the suicide brigades in
large numbers. One suicide bomber
can be dismissed as a crazy man, but
for there to be legions of them require
that we examine the Root Causes.

The grievous injustices in Palestine
and Iraq and the rest of the Middle East
must be addressed, fairly and impartially,
with fairness and the appearance of
fairness. I say this for the good of
America and for the good of Israel.
I say this for the sake of our futures,
our futures of happiness, peace and
prosperity, not as a hater of Israel
or America. America and Israel have
many, many fine and excellent human
beings. As do Palestine, Iraq, the
Middle East and every other country
(I am saying that the ruling leaders
prefer to have war and should be
removed from power in each of these
countries.)

Continental Africa did not become
a pestilent hellhole without lots of
colonizing and viciousness from Europe
and America. We just didn't finish
the job. We left some African people
there, and they have grievances. Same
thing with the Middle East and their
experiences under the colonial powers
during the past century -- not to
mention the Christian Crusades. In
America we are happy and prosperous
because we utterly annihilated the
Native Americans and then told ourselves
that God predestined our victory. But
there are more than 1 billion people
in Islamic countries, so how can we
continue our unjust policies against
them (no matter how much we need their
oil?)

It all boils down to three basic
choices: genocide, permanent strife,
or a just peace. I know which I choose.

What about you?