The Israeli government has responded to the anticipated Palestinian Land Day protests by putting border police in Israel and the West Bank on alert, as well as sending additional forces to back up IDF soldiers at the northern borders.
The Palestinian cause is being elbowed off the world stage.
The message comes through aol.com, finds me off
balance in a small school in Jersey, snow
puffing down, no newspaper in sight.
Hi love, the message reads, thinking of you
in London, heart in Gaza.
Unsigned, I know the e-mail address like my own
name, reply too quickly, no words in the text, then
correct my mistake, love, I write, yes
heart in Gaza. I don’t know
what else to say.
The Republican National Committee unanimously adopted a resolution disavowing the party’s previous commitment to a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine and endorsing the Israeli annexation of the Palestinian territories.
Hamas, which has committed to the Oslo agreements, is being accepted by the international community.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has long been determined to pass the legislation, from which Netanyahu distanced himself last month.
Washington’s reticence to acknowledge the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people could severely compromise the potential for future peace.
Like so many other diplomatic and political initiatives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the recent announcement of a new prisoner release is based on the same solution that has been proposed dozens of times before – only to collapse because the time, and usually Israeli political will, wasn’t right. In this case, the separate announcements made by Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, asserted that Hamas would release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006, while Israel would release 1023 Palestinian prisoners, some of whom had been in jail for decades.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced a bill calling for the U.S. to end its financial support for both the Palestinian Authority and the UN if the latter granted it statehood.
Both the United States and Israel use selective memories to justify their actions and find common ground in their expansion narratives.