In a brief article subtitled, A Challenge to Nancy Pelosi, MAHMOUD El-YOUSSEPH, USAF [Ret.], who lives in Ohio, took Nancy Pelosi to task for her Orwellian stance on Palestine, which is simply, as everyone knows, the appeasement of AIPAC, the Israeli lobby. Just how powerful is a lobby that could get a major American political figure to participate in the most mendacious and deceitful propaganda ever concocted to justify a 40-year military occupation of one people by another, while its lands are being stolen and colonized?
Says El-YOUSSEPH,
Newly elected Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi should heed former President Jimmy Carter's leadership in crafting a Middle East policy toward a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, she lashed out at the former president even before his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, made it to the stores. Mrs. Pelosi stated, "Carter does not speak for the Democratic party on Israel". Maybe he should because it was President Carter who negotiated a peace agreement between Israel and Egypt at Camp David in 1979.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've agreed with Nancy Pelosi on any issue, but her criticism on Jimmy Carter goes beyond poor judgment.
In 2001, Mrs. Pelosi told a pro-Israeli conference that the real issue surrounding the Palestinian/Israeli problem is not the occupation, but Israel 's right to exist. She added that the occupation argument is "nonsense".
Orwellian interpretations of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been quite popular recently, such as Pelosi’s notion or the idea that Palestine is being occupied to fight the "war on terrorism." However, as everyone understands, UN resolution 242 called upon Israel to withdraw from occupied Palestinian land. Forty years later, Israel has still not complied. For nearly 60 years, Palestinian refugees have neither been allowed to return to their homes nor receive compensation from Israel as stated by U.N. Resolution 164.
In the meantime, the occupation is being used as a pretext to confiscate/colonize lands belonging to the Palestinian people. In turn, the Palestinians are characterized as "terrorists" for resisting occupation and for retaliating for the murder of innocent civilians, including over 800 Palestinian children killed between 2000 and 2006.
El-YOUSSEPH tells it like it is:
The truth is: occupation is evil and repugnant. It creates terror and resistance, be it in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Palestine. In 1776, America fought for its freedom and independence from a foreign government, so why condemn others when they aspire for the very same freedoms?
Both Prime Ministers of Israel and Iraq addressed a joint session of Congress last May and July, respectively. Ms. Pelosi rounded up her troops to welcome the Israeli Prime Minister who came to thank the lawmakers for passing legislation against Iran and the Palestinians (the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act). By contrast Ms. Pelosi threatened to boycott the Iraqi Prime Minister's speech unless he retracted his remarks on Israel over its inhumane bombardment of Lebanon.
During the last mid-term election, Mrs. Pelosi stated repeatedly that the single most important accomplishment of the Twentieth Century is the formation of the state of Israel. Apparently the moon landing, the invention of the internet, nuclear energy, the Civil Rights Act, or the fall of communism were less important.
If Pelosi is as concerned about America 's tarnished image abroad as she contends, she needs to stop pandering to the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, because no foreign government would conceivably buy into her complicity with the Orwellian logic she repeats concerning the causes of the Palestinian tragedy.
Pelosi obviously doesn't speak for all Americans on Palestine. She most certainly does not speak for all liberal Democrats, certainly not the left wing of the Democratic party. What progressive-liberal could ever support a brutal military occupation, which, as mentioned, has killed untold innocent Palestinian civilians, the confiscation and colonization of lands belonging to them, or an encroaching Apartheid solution, which permits Israel to retain military control of an entire people in perpetuity? Pelosi should consult Jimmy Carter rather than condemning him.
Crossposted at Eternal Hope: http://eternalhope.blog-city.com/