Powell And My Grandmother

By Sam Bahour
30 July, 2004
Countercurrents.org

Where Israel is concerned, U.S. foreign policy never ceases to amaze. When Palestinian in-fighting took place in Gaza last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell had the following to say about the United States’ position: "Just have to watch it unfold." Interestingly enough, my grandmother’s position was the same and it is unclear who announced it first.


The majority of Americans may just brush over such ridiculous comments from the U.S. Secretary of State, but I, for one, refuse to allow it to pass without comment. As a tax-paying American citizen, my tax dollars deserve to be better employed. Hiring senior policy advisors who can’t tell the difference between cause and effect does not serve the American people’s interests.


<snip>

Effect: To be honest, as a Palestinian American who has lived through the last ten years in Palestine, the hardest ten years in this just struggle for national liberation, I’m astonished that so little Palestinian in-fighting has taken place. Clearly, the Palestinian resolve when confronted with unimaginable odds will only be fully understood after the world realizes what it is that the Palestinians are really up against. I’m even more astonished that the Palestinians are still willing to negotiate to resolve the conflict, let alone maintain a working society without the basic elements of society – law, security, freedom of movement, etc. If Israel proportionately killed the same number of Americans as it has Palestinians in the last four years alone, it would amount to over 250,000 people! Any other people, above all Americans, would have long ago equipped themselves with deadly weapons to resist such a brutal foreign military occupation.


If after four years in office and after contributing, firsthand, to the indigenous Palestinian people being battered with U.S. weapons and because of U.S. political stubbornness, the best Secretary Powell can do is agree with my grandmother, then it’s time he moved on, maybe back to his beloved military career. As Palestinians, we will not allow someone to pull the trigger that kills us and then come to walk in our funeral.



http://www.countercurrents.org/pa-bahour300704.htm

...may have more wisdom than he's willing to admit.

The viewing of the Palestinian society as isolated from all it's actions, just receiving dividends, as it were, is a very immature view. His grandmother knows better.

Instead of opening its own borders, the U.S. put its entire might behind transforming Palestine, an Arab country in the Middle East, by force, into a Jewish-only (i.e., in today’s terminology, Apartheid) state.

#1.The US is a fault. Not Hitler. Recognizing the historical rights of the Jews to their homeland is beyond his ability. The US had little to do with the ate of Israel in its incipient stages. It was and international mandate by the League of Nations and the UN which partitioned the land area.

two military occupations, albeit under different names and modalities, is part of a larger U.S. policy in the Middle East that aims to further plant U.S. hegemony in the region.

#2. Making this link is the aim of Islamic propaganda. Join the al Qaida bunch. Allies have common interests, but do not mistake on for the other.

the U.S. prefers to challenge the entire world order for the narrow interests of Israeli fundamentalism.

#3. Uhh.. I think it's al Qaida which challenged the entire world order. The guy's really confused.

U.S. policy amounts to watching Israel -- after arming it to the teeth -- wield its first-world military might on a helpless Palestinian civilian community.

#5. What a myth this is. The "helpless Palestinian civilian community." That is saying in effect "There are no terrorists there. They just attack Israel civilians out of necessity" They have killed a proportionally larger number of civilians to military than Israel's military has. For Israel it's "two wrongs don't make a right" while for Palestine it's "they have no other option."

...the U.S. pretends that they have no responsibility toward these violent thugs.

#6 The families living in the territories are not from the US in the majority. Gush Kativ, for example, has a large number of immigrants from France who are of North African descent. They are not "violent thugs" but human being with inalienable rights.

The Palestinian Intifada against the settlements began more than 10 years ago. The settlers have been bushwhacked by Palestinian snipers consistently. It is the settlers refusal to give in to that sort of violent attack that forced Arafat to the negotiating table.


He left out a #4. I'm not sure of the reason for that. Maybe he just thought there were 6 points he was trying to make. Even he concedes in the end that his grandmother was right.

Cause #4: As the world community, in near unanimous consensus, for 50 plus years has condemned Israel for gross violations of Palestinian human rights and most recently, for building an illegal landgrab Wall, the U.S. willfully and systematically defends Israel’s illegal actions. Instead of taking the moral high ground and measuring the historical injustice against the Palestinians with the same yardstick that was used to, albeit late, measure and dismantle Apartheid, the U.S. prefers to challenge the entire world order for the narrow interests of Israeli fundamentalism.

I'll wait for a few words from one sentence to be copied and addressed out of context before we go any further? ;)

Violet...

I think that it is obvious what Mr. Bahour overlooked. Just for some spurious reason of "land grab", he claims, Israel decided to build a wall, and damn! That US of A just went right along with it.

The whole article is trash.

#1.The US is a fault. Not Hitler. Recognizing the historical rights of the Jews to their homeland is beyond his ability. The US had little to do with the ate of Israel in its incipient stages. It was and international mandate by the League of Nations and the UN which partitioned the land area.

Read #1 again. He's not placing blame for the Holocaust. Are you trying to deny that the US closed its doors to Jewish refugees during WWII, and that those reasons were steeped in anti-Semitism and the typical 'fear' of immigrants 'stealing' jobs? Just curious, but why should someone who's people were the victims of the creation of Israel be expected to recognise any historical 'right' of another people to Palestine when at times the same folk demanding that recognition refuse to recognise the historical rights of the Palestinians to their own homeland?

#2. Making this link is the aim of Islamic propaganda. Join the al Qaida bunch. Allies have common interests, but do not mistake on for the other.

And do not mistake Al-Qaida for neo-conservatives, who do have the aim of making sure the US control the region....

#3. Uhh.. I think it's al Qaida which challenged the entire world order. The guy's really confused.

I don't think he's confused. US funding to Israel was happening before Al-Qaida made their mark on the world stage. In fact, #3 was about US funding and supply of weaponry to Israel, not about Al-Qaida or any changes in the world order or whatever you want to call it. And because I'm a bit bored tonight, I'll point out that in my humble and most uneducated opinion, there's only been one time in the past half century when the world order has been challenged or even changed, and that was the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. That's when the world shifted from a bipolar one to one where the US is now in the position that it's the global hegemon bent on dominating the world. More educated folk than me are free to pop in and set me straight...

#4. Just for some spurious reason of "land grab", he claims, Israel decided to build a wall, and damn! That US of A just went right along with it.

The grabbing of land is not a spurious reason when it comes to reasons why the wall is being built. If it was being built for security, it'd be built along the Green Line. You say that the US went right along with it almost sarcastically. You'll have to point out where the US hasn't been blindly defending Israel's actions. I seem to have missed it amongst the flurry of resolutions vetoed by the US ;)

#5. What a myth this is. The "helpless Palestinian civilian community." That is saying in effect "There are no terrorists there. They just attack Israel civilians out of necessity" They have killed a proportionally larger number of civilians to military than Israel's military has. For Israel it's "two wrongs don't make a right" while for Palestine it's "they have no other option."

Well, thanks for pointing out that there's no such thing as the helpless Palestinian civilian community. So why doesn't the same apply to the Israeli civilian community? After all, there's Israeli terrorists in Israel and in the settlements, and there's also Israeli troops in both places....

#6 The families living in the territories are not from the US in the majority. Gush Kativ, for example, has a large number of immigrants from France who are of North African descent. They are not "violent thugs" but human being with inalienable rights.

He didn't say anything about a majority of settlers coming from the US. And some of them are violent thugs. Being a violent thug isn't exclusive to being a human being with inalienable rights, but I sure hope no-one's going to try to argue that those inalienable rights include being violent and believing they can live wherever they like at the expense of the population who already live there...

The Palestinian Intifada against the settlements began more than 10 years ago. The settlers have been bushwhacked by Palestinian snipers consistently. It is the settlers refusal to give in to that sort of violent attack that forced Arafat to the negotiating table.

I'd be involved in an uprising too if people were stealing my land. There's not many people who wouldn't. And you forgot to mention the many acts of settler violence towards the Palestinians. Or is murdering innocent Palestinians, stealing their land, and destroying their crops, amongst other things, an understandable response to the terrible violent attacks from people who just can't understand that they're second rate and the settlers have every right to build illegal settlements in occupied territory?

Violet...

Read #1 again. He's not placing blame for the Holocaust.

#1 I don't think I said that he was placing blame for the Holocaust. I meant that the Holocaust was the reason that the Jews of Europe were displaced. Yet, he doesn't recognize that.

I'm not trying to claim that the US limited immigration. I was pointing that out that the US had immigration limits for Jews on this board months ago. No one here is claiming that the Palestinians (a newly recognized national group) don't have a right to a homeland. Israelis aren't claiming that either. If you read what Israelis are saying, you would find that to be true in almost 90% of the interviews. Furthermore, the earliest groups returning to Israel (then known as Palestine) as a homeland were from countries with an Arab majority.

#2 The policy of the US is not "control" to a great extent, but having influence through an ally in the area is important to the US administration, and I assume to the next administration as well.

#3 the U.S. prefers to challenge the entire world order for the narrow interests of Israeli fundamentalism.

Glossing over the fact that the world order is hardly challenged here, I will point out that there is no such thing as "Israeli fundamentalism."

#4 If it was being built for security, it'd be built along the Green Line.

This oft-repeated non-sense is very unconvincing. My intent was to imply the opposite of what you have assumed. It is the claim that it's a land grab that is false. Claim that the US went right along with a fabricated claim. Hard to deny, since it doesn't exist.

#5 Neither side is helpless.

#6 Certainly calling the settlers (only those who originated from the US, mind you, which is only a "good number of them" )"violent thugs" is using a false stereo-type, and it is forbidden on DU. Or do you have some kind of permit to say that. Your imputing malevolence is another false accusation.


I'd be involved in an uprising too if people were stealing my land. There's not many people who wouldn't. And you forgot to mention the many acts of settler violence toward the Palestinians. Or is murdering innocent Palestinians, stealing their land, and destroying their crops, among other things, an understandable response to the terrible violent attacks from people who just can't understand that they're second rate and the settlers have every right to build illegal settlements in occupied territory?

There is no "second rate" , but there is a sense that Palestinians have to share the land with Israeli Jews. If they can't accept that, and insist on attacking peaceful settlements, there can be no mutual agreement, and Israel will have to take unilateral steps, in coordination with the US and the Quartet.

#1 I don't think I said that he was placing blame for the Holocaust. I meant that the Holocaust was the reason that the Jews of Europe were displaced. Yet, he doesn't recognize that.

Because he wasn't talking about the reason why European Jews were displaced. He was talking about the US closing its borders to an influx of refugees. How is what yr saying any different than someone blaming the Australian government's shutting the gates on Afghan and Iraqi refugees, not on the Australian government, but on what caused them to originally flee or be forced from their homes?

No one here is claiming that the Palestinians (a newly recognized national group) don't have a right to a homeland. Israelis aren't claiming that either. If you read what Israelis are saying, you would find that to be true in almost 90% of the interviews.

Where did that percentage come from? It's not a guess, is it? And I've seen some folk claiming that the Palestinians do have a right to a homeland, and that homeland is called Jordan....

#2 The policy of the US is not "control" to a great extent, but having influence through an ally in the area is important to the US administration, and I assume to the next administration as well.

The current foreign policy of the US is that of the neo-conservatives. They aren't interested in influence, but in control...

Glossing over the fact that the world order is hardly challenged here, I will point out that there is no such thing as "Israeli fundamentalism."

There's not? Could have knocked me over with a feather. I'd say some past and present members of Sharon's cabinet are fine examples of Israeli fundamentalism...

This oft-repeated non-sense is very unconvincing. My intent was to imply the opposite of what you have assumed. It is the claim that it's a land grab that is false. Claim that the US went right along with a fabricated claim. Hard to deny, since it doesn't exist.

Saying over and over again 'it's not a land grab' is what's totally unconvincing. If the wall is for security and not a land grab, why wasn't it built along the Green Line?

#5 Neither side is helpless.

Gimel, we're talking about civilians. You claimed the Palestinian civilian population wasn't a helpless population. Sorry, but when it comes to war and conflict, civilian populations are considered to be helpless...


#6 Certainly calling the settlers (only those who originated from the US, mind you, which is only a "good number of them" )"violent thugs" is using a false stereo-type, and it is forbidden on DU. Or do you have some kind of permit to say that. Your imputing malevolence is another false accusation.

Read what I said. I said *some* of them are violent thugs. That's not a false stereotype and it's not forbidden at DU. Are you denying that some of the settlers are violent thugs?

There is no "second rate" , but there is a sense that Palestinians have to share the land with Israeli Jews. If they can't accept that, and insist on attacking peaceful settlements, there can be no mutual agreement, and Israel will have to take unilateral steps, in coordination with the US and the Quartet.

Of course Palestinians are treated as second rate. Can you honestly deny that they aren't treated differently than the settlers? And no. They don't have to 'share' the land with settlers in those illegal settlements. They can share quite well with Israelis who live amongst them who aren't involved in violating their rights and international law....

Are you opposed to the settlements in the Occupied Territories? Those settlements are a major obstacle to any peaceful solution to the conflict...

Violet...

did say, in his point #6 :

While a good number of Israeli illegal settlers (more accurately called colonists,) who have implanted themselves in the so-called settlements throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, hold U.S. citizenships and come from Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Florida to wreak havoc, the U.S. pretends that they have no responsibility toward these violent thugs.

He didn't say some of them are "violent thugs", he meant all of the "good number of...settlers...hold US citizenship".

There is no defense for this promotion of negative stereotype on either side.

Since he also holds US or Canadian citizenship and is living in the West Bank, he has something in common with the "violent thugs."