[Reader-list] Palestine reporting

[Yazad Jal]

Sorry to reply so late to Ravi Sundaram's comments on my posts to sarai
reader list regarding Israel.

I feel that posts on Israel to the sarai list are way too one sided largely
equating everything Palestinian with "good" and everything Israeli with
"evil." There may be many opinions on the Palestinian - Israeli issue, but
the following facts have hit me hard.

1.    There are more than 1 million Muslim Israeli *citizens*, most of them
       Arabs.

2.    They are the only Arabs / Muslims in all of the Middle East who enjoy
       democratic rights and privileges.

3.    They vote in free elections and are themselves elected to the Knesset.

4.    Israel is a tiny island of democracy and "relative" freedom in a sea
       of dictatorships--many of them brutal and oppressive.

We may critique Ariel Sharon's policies forever, but the fault lies on both
sides. I don't see Palestinian suicide bombings as "a holy duty" as some
mothers of future suicide bombers too (see "I hope to be a martyr," posted
today). Israeli over reactions do not help.

As Tom Friedman on the NYT said in an edit (Apr 3):

[quote]
"If Arab leaders have only the moral courage to draw lines around Israel's
behavior, but no moral courage to decry the utterly corrupt and inept
Palestinian leadership, or the depravity of suicide bombers in the name of
Islam, then we're going nowhere.

The other people who have not wanted to face facts are the feckless American
Jewish leaders, fundamentalist Christians and neoconservatives who together
have helped make it impossible for anyone in the U.S. administration to talk
seriously about halting Israeli settlement-building without being accused of
being anti-Israel. Their collaboration has helped prolong a colonial Israeli
occupation that now threatens the entire Zionist enterprise.

So there you have it. Either leaders of good will get together and
acknowledge that Israel can't stay in the territories but can't just pick up
and leave, without a U.S.-NATO force helping Palestinians oversee their
state, or Osama wins - and the war of civilizations will be coming to a
theater near you." [endquote]

-yazad


----- Original Message -----
From: Ravi Sundaram <ravis at sarai.net>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:35 AM
Subject: [Reader-list] Palestine reporting


> In this list we have witnessed a strange phenomenon, regular right wing
> support of Israel's murderous policies on the west bank by Yazad Jal. This
> is quite out of sync with the other postings. Recently Yazad Jal posted a
> piece from America's most far-right foundations - the Heritage Foundation.
> Heritage is to the right of the Republican party and what we are seeing in
> the US is the coming together of the Christian Right and the Israeli govt.
> policy. A strange turn-around from the time  in the 1930's most Jews and
> Communists were slaughtered by the Nazis, seen as one constellation. This
> is an open list and Yazad jal will continue to make these postings but
this
> is a response to his post claiming that the Jenin massacre was a fraud...
>
> Ravi Sundaram