Posts Tagged ‘Gaza’


John Kerry is no fool, and he is far from ignorant about either the Israel-Palestine conflict or the domestic politics surrounding it. So who is he trying to kid with this all out blitz of Israel-Palestine diplomacy? I examine it at LobeLog.

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President Obama has now left Israel and is winding up his trip. His speeches sounded very counter-productive, offering no hope for progress. And I suspect that was just the message he was sending, especially to Israel. I explain in this week’s Souciant column.

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“How can the Jews, of all people do this?”

The West Bank Separation wall, covered with graffiti

The West Bank Separation wall, covered with graffiti

I hear this too often when discussing the dispossession and occupation of the Palestinian people. It’s a tiresome line. Sure, I understand that on the surface this seems a reasonable question. But one doesn’t have to look very far to see that it isn’t.

Oppression and suffering don’t necessarily lead to a greater sensitivity to these things. We see this on a personal level, as well as on a larger scale. The victim of child abuse may well grow up to become an abuser. The victim of sexual abuse may also react to such an experience by repeating it on someone else. Many such people do not repeat the cycle, but many do.

Similarly, some large groups of people face discrimination and then bring it to others. Puritans faced discrimination in Europe, came to “the New World” and visited worse upon the native population, on slaves, and as time went on, on various other ethnic groups. Power changed hands at different times in Eastern Europe, and discrimination against one group or another continued to flourish. Shi’a have faced great discrimination in the Muslim world, and this has not brought about an egalitarian government in Iran. Hutus were once the majority treated like a minority in Rwanda. The Nazis rose to prominence on the strength of wounded German pride after years of economic deprivation in the wake of the First World War. The examples are legion. (more…)

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Israel may not have a government, but the election settled one thing: both the governing coalition and the opposition will be led by and mostly composed of parties who range from indifference to ending the occupation to outright hostility to the very suggestion. I explore this in Souciant this week.

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My piece today in LobeLog offers one suggestion for something Obama can do even if there’s no diplomatic opening in the Israel-Palestine conflict. he can at least try to undo some of the damage his predecessor, George W. Bush did and maybe even build on the better but very flawed of Bill Clinton as well.

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