Cross Posted at The Progressive Zionist
Welcome to Team Shalom Fry'd Daze. Fry'd Daze was a long running series dedicated to dialogue in the Middle East. For a while I pulled it, but recently was asked to bring it back and decided that I should. These diaries are not intended to be a flame forum, but rather something where community members can meet and exchange ideas about I/P and/or issues that concern the Middle East.
Generally, these diaries take the form of four to five news articles and short commentary selected by the diarist. These stories however, are just a platform to get discussion going. The diaries from now on will publish under the banner of the Team Shalom
What is Team Shalom:
"Team Shalom is Team Peace. We are a group of Kossacks supporting a fair, pragmatic, and realistic resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the two-state solution. We support Israel's continued existence as a Jewish and democratic state, with it existing alongside Palestine, a Palestinian and democratic state, as friends and neighbors. We believe this is the only way forward and the only way to achieve an enduring peace. This is the view endorsed by the overwhelming majority of the world's nations, including the Quartet, which consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations."
So please participate. The only thing we ask is that you keep comments respectful, reality based and please no use of Anti-Semetic or Anti-Arab memes. Enjoy!
Our first story goes to an egregious political abuse by the Palestinian Authority of their "brethren" in Gaza. According to Maan News: PA health ministry 'stopped critical supplies reaching Gaza'
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Medical supplies required for dialysis have run out in the Gaza Strip, endangering the lives of 450 patients with kidney failure, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said on Thursday.
Blood filters, which are available to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, have not been delivered to Gaza due to "political differences" between the governments in the two territories, the rights group said in a statement.
Dialysis for all renal failure patients in the blockaded strip, which include 15 children, have been stopped, PCHR said.
Now the P.A. is the group that has gone to the United Nations and commands the support of most of the Palestinian Polity. Yet here they are victimizing innocent people in Gaza for political gain. Supposedly the two sides were to create a government of Technocrats and set new elections for May, 2012 and then take the Palestinian polity to statehood. Yet even that seems to be in trouble at this point.
Just today Factions warn of 'last chance' ahead of unity talks
GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian political groups have called their upcoming meeting in Cairo the last chance for implementation of a reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas.
Seven months after the agreement was signed in the Egyptian capital, the factions say nothing has moved on the ground to implement the terms of the deal that would end four years of divided government in Gaza and the West Bank.....
....But factions heading to Cairo on Monday stressed that this could be the last opportunity for the deal to end the division and set the path to national elections.
Our second story comes out of Israel with the IDF complaining about the trouble makers in the Occupied Territories: IDF soldiers: Problem in West Bank isn't Palestinains, it's the Settlers (vb1 edit on the Haaretz headline
Recent attacks by right-wing extremists on Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the West Bank are just one manifestation of the violence to which many have been subjected during their service in recent years. Both regular and reserve soldiers, including junior officers, spoke about the complicated situation they find themselves in: having to protect the settlers while at the same time being attacked by them.
"Our purpose there is to protect the Jews, but they generate many of the problems. It's very confusing," said Nadav Bigelman, a combat soldier who was discharged last year.....
....."We stood as a buffer between the Palestinian shepherds and the settlers and they [the settlers] started arguing with us," he related. "They said awful things to me: '[Ariel] Sharon evacuated Gaza, he got what was coming to him, don't worry, God will see to you too. Why do you come for reserve duty? You're a disgrace as soldiers.' They ranted and raved. We didn't know what to do, we were in shock. We thought the problem would be with the Palestinians, but the problem is with the Jews.
This article is a very important read for anyone concerned about the West Bank and Israel. It just goes to show what people are up against in this conflict. On one side you have a group like Hamas saying that they want to end the Zionist presence between the Jordan and the Mediterannean Sea and on the other side you have Rightwing zealots even willing to attack those that are protecting the nation from that threat. This is outrageous behavior on the part of the Rightists. Hopefully the Israeli government will take firm steps to stop this (as is outlined in the diary I linked to and wrote earlier this week).
Our next story is related to a visit from Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a comment he made while visting Washington. Barak: Israel won't accept Palestinian state that perpetuates Mideast conflict
Speaking at the Union for Reform Judaism's biennial conference near Washington DC, Barak, who is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday, indicated that while he supported the creation of a viable and democratic Palestinian state.
However, he said, Israel would not "agree to the creation of a Palestinian State, if the raison d'être of that Palestinian State is to continue the conflict, and to deny our basic national rights."
"I believe that an agreement – based on [Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s] Bar Ilan and Knesset speeches, President Obama’s two speeches from May of this year and the Clinton parameters - can still be achieved – and thus, saving us the alternatives which are much much worse," the defense minister said, reiterating that Israel would "not accept unilateralism."
In reference to the final borders of the Palestinian state, Barak said that "Israel's own final borders which require major painful concessions will include the large settlement blocs creating a solid Jewish majority within that line and an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state on the other."
This of course coming in light of the Palestinian Authorities continued attempts at the U.N. to seek recognition for a State and with Hamas' recent rejection of any recognition of Israel whatsoever seen here:
"Resistance is the way and it is the strategic choice to liberate Palestine from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea and to remove the invaders from the blessed land of Palestine," Haniyeh told the crowd, which chanted: "We will never recognize Israel.
".... ......"Hamas, together with other stubborn resistance factions, will lead the people towards uprising after uprising until all of Palestine is liberated," Haniyeh said, referring to territory that includes the occupied West Bank and what is now Israel."
Barak went on to also talk about the relationship between U.S. Jews and Israel and described the closeness of that relationship saying: "The intense love between Am Yisrael [the Jewish people] and Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel] has not subsided"
Please discuss...
BTW President Obama is now speaking to the Union for Reform Judaism biennial. It is a very interesting and good speech.
UPDATE: The President JUST stated that there needs to be an "Independent Palestinian State and a strong and secure JEWISH State in Israel".
He just said: "We Stand with Israel as a STRONG JEWISH STATE" and that he has a strong committment to this.
BTW... here is something fun - Happy Chanukah all: