J Street meets in Washington and one hopes a more pragmatic and just program can be developed to bring a cessation to the aggression between Palestine and Israel. If AIPAC's influence can be diminished this becomes possible.
And then this article in the Guardian comes out. In it is information about some of the unbelievable "legal" attitudes underlying the expanding theft of Palestinian land and water.
What is most shocking is the candor.
It is as if some judge in the US overlooked law and quoted the Bible as they dispensed "justice"
Now that this is out, what will the Israeli administration do to denounce this to show they really are a democracy. Or are they really a theocracy which allows synagogue members or churchmembers to vote?
Meron Rapoport in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk,
Monday 26 October 2009 18.42 GMT
West Bank land belongs to Jews, says Israeli army judge
• Settlements lawyer reveals core beliefs
• Peace with Palestinians 'goes against nature'
In an unusually frank interview, which offers insights into the melding of religion, politics and law that underpins land seizures in the occupied territories, Agassi has laid out his belief that Israel has a biblical claim to territory beyond its borders and that he, even as an immigrant, has a right to live on it when those born there do not.
"When we [Israelis] say that this is a political conflict, then we lose the battle," he told the Guardian, adding that it should be remembered that the ancient land of Israel is "given to us by the Bible, not by some United Nations".
Agassi, one of the most important officials in the military courts wielding authority over large parts of the West Bank, says settling Jews on lands that made up ancient Israel stands above all other biblical commandments and only when it is done can they have "a promised land and a promised life".
Agassi was born in Southgate, London, in 1964 to a family of rabbis from Baghdad. He studied law in the UK and emigrated to Israel at the age of 24 "with £500 and all of Bob Dylan's records". Four years later he found himself dragged into the first Palestinian uprising, the intifada, as a legal adviser to the military in the West Bank.
I guess he didn't have the album with "Masters of War" on it.
Agassi says a peace agreement with the Palestinians "goes against nature" because as far as he can see nothing had changed in last 4,000 years in the land of Israel, and that back to biblical times Arabs and Jews were at each other's throats.
Agassi uses the term Arabs because he claims Palestinians do not exist.