At the risk of over simplification, said Simple Simon, we seem to have
an "Over Complicate Everything" gene.
This thought struck my mind when I read that it takes a 26 page law to
tell our children which toilet they may use. Untangling the
complexities we have contrived is going to take at least a 3,000 page
book of instructions. I'm writing it as we speak...well, we're not
really speaking, but you know what I mean.
So I listen to bits and pieces of the so called Presidential campaign
and marvel at how complicated we have made the simple process of
electing a president. We've created caucuses, primary elections,
delegates, super delegates, county conventions, state conventions,
national conventions, and finally we head to the polls to cast our
ballot, not for the candidate of our choice, but for some nameless
person we hope will take our vote to wherever the Electoral College
meets.
For one office, it takes over 2 years, billions of dollars and
thousands of hours of lip flapping, making hundreds of contradictory
promises and glutting the Airwaves with political lies and innuendos.
But that is just one small example of how we are programmed to
complicate simple tasks. So when I see all of the groupings that we
have created in order to tell our people from everyone else, I cringe.
Frank's list demonstrates how muddy we can make the waters. In my
mind there are only two social divisions. Controllers and Controlled.
The Controllers are a very few in number, and they tend to jockey for
control over one another, but they have one understanding among
themselves. They must always keep the Masses(the Controlled) divided,
confused and fighting among themselves.
The Controlled are the majority of us. Besides being lied to and
misled by the Controllers, we, because of that Over Complicate
Everything gene, we make up even more ways of splitting into warring
groups.
Besides the usual separators like sex, color, age, nationality,
religion,and sex, we also use such dividers as snobbery, elitism,
level of education, ancestry(whose blood flows in our veins), and on
and on and on.
Over Complication becomes our enemy, putting all of these imagined
differences between us and the question of what to do with our
Controllers.
But because of our making such mountains out of molehills, we will
stay divided unless, or until we overcome our need to feel superior to
others. Regardless of where we were born, or how much education we
have, or what skills we possess that others do not have, as long as we
are under the heel of the Controllers, and as long as our labor is on
behalf of the Controllers, none of us are any better than anyone else.
We need to use our differences to mold a strong People.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/31/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is because, as Carl often points out we have been victims of the divide
and conquer routine by the ruling class. It goes something like this divide
us into an India like caste system and then create a straw man enemy to set
the divided factions against. That fall guy is the working class. Let’s look
at the classes that have been created:
• The welfare class. This class is dependent upon a bureaucratic system to
either in part or, in some extreme cases, whole to receive subsidence from.
Although no real threat to the ruling class here; the ruling class has used
its media to whip up anger and strife within this class. The media
brainwashing with all of its day time TV ideal imagery has left this class
with a conclusion that they are entitled to a better standard of living.
This results in feelings of despair, anger, and violence which fuels their
hatred of those they perceive have oppressed them. While you may think that
the despair, anger and violence of this class is brought down on the ruling
class that would be completely incorrect. It is actually brought down on the
working class because that is the only other class they have access to. Just
look at a social security office, or any other social services office and
see how the workers are routinely abused by this class, or look at the
average gas station attendant or convenience store clerk who is pistol
whipped, beaten and often killed in the most violent of examples of how the
working class is targeted for the abuse.
• The working class is next and is the victim of choice. This is the class
that is often the silent majority with never a voice or mention in the
mainstream media. The welfare class and the elite classes, both liberal and
conservative make for better TV backdrops. This class is identified by being
one bad diagnosis or one small period of unemployment away from total
destruction. The fear of this keeps the working class from rising up. That
is why such essentials and housing and health care are more readily
available to the welfare class than the working class. That is the preferred
means of keeping this class down.
• Next comes the liberal elites. This class usually is dominated by the
intellectuals, academics, artists, and whites with financial security from
their families and spouses. This group likes to tout their far left values
of socialism, egalitarianism, and a new world order. However, this is often
disingenuous because they look upon the working class as a life form lower
than they are, a mass of sub-humans. This is why they oppose such
progressive ideas such as a living wage for all and do not value physical
labor. They feel they are superior to that and do not, under any
circumstances bow to doing blue collar labor. They feel that is to be done
by the lower working class and they vilify the working class if their labor
is not up to any arbitrary standard they propose. One may wonder why they
would risk their financial positions by touting socialism and
egalitarianism. They reality is that they know there ideals will never come
to fruition and for now their financial position will comfortably keep them
in their ivory towers, so a platform as they profess is essentially no risk
for them.
• Next comes the conservative elites. These are the police, doctors,
lawyers, and the mom and pop small business owners. Their position in life
earns them immunity to the laws, norms, and crosses to bear that the working
class faces every day. They directly profit from the rape, pillage and
plunder of the working class. Direct attacks on the working class are very
profitable for this class. The cop uses his gun to keep up the statistics
that feed his federal grants, the doctor kills and manes with his
prescription pad while getting rich on health insurance and denying health
care, the lawyer bleeds the working class dry when they get wrapped up in a
kangaroo court of a legal system that is stacked against them, and mom and
pop business owner get rich on the low wages of the working class they pay
those that haven’t been killed off by the cops, doctors and lawyers. This
class also has been brainwashed by the mainstream media to believe that the
working class is sucking down their tax dollars; a concept that falls apart
under even the slightest fact check. This class sees themselves as the shiny
knights of the ruling class’s court.
• Then there is the ruling class. Need I say even more about this class,
the
name shall speak for itself?
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 1:06 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
You see, by my using the label, Working Class, I distract from the point I
am trying to make. Since every revolution begins with an oppressive group
that maintains control by whatever means necessary, and since their
overthrow, when successful, is called a revolution, it rises up from the
oppressed. Whether this reaction to the oppression is developed over long
years or springs quickly as conditions become intolerable, it is, by its
very nature, organized. And, in most revolutions, some of those who are
oppressed choose to side with the oppressors, because they see more
advantages in the event the revolt is put down.
In her note, Alice said in part, "what brings them to Trump is their
ignorance, stupidity, bigotry, envy, inability to let anyone have anything
they don’t have, lack of education, lack of cultural or historical
perspective, narrow-mindedness, fear born of all those things..."
Certainly we will find an abundance of such people among the Trump
followers. But to leave the impression that this is the majority of his
followers is a mistake we should avoid. There are many very bright, clever
people behind Trump. They are sizing up their options if he wins. Trump
himself is not the fool the media has made him out to be. Trump has built a
fortune through his own cunning and his ability to play by the systems
rules. We should never become so careless as to underrate those who oppose
us. But Alice's description should remind us that the American Empire's
propaganda machine is highly effective. People appear to be all of the
things she says, simply because they are confused and have been misled and
lied to until they have no clue as to what is true and what is false.
Anyway, a revolution is most certainly in the future of our Empire.
It has always happened to every oppressive government. Revolution is as
natural as Summer turning into Autumn. When our leaders begin treating us
in the same manner that we treat our natural resources, believing that they
exist for the taking, then servitude is replaced by hatred, resentment and
refusal to serve.
And, organized or not, revolution erupts.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/30/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes, we have seen over and over again what happens when an organized
working class rises up. I notice that you neglect to mention what has
happened in Cuba or - going further back - places like Russia.
On 5/30/2016 8:36 AM, Alice Dampman Humel wrote:
this is far from the original article, but a few comments on
subsequent messages… Carl, if you really believe that the working
class, and I’ll get to whatever that means in a minute, has the power
to bring the ruling class to its knees by the sorts of actions you
outline, IMO, you are deluding yourself. We’ve seen over and over
again what has happened to such actions, from the actions of the
fledgling unions, including
strikes and riots, from the 19th century through the present day,
both here and elsewhere. Even when some ground is gained, it is
minimal. And the loss of life, freedom, the beatings, the
imprisonments, etc. are, for each individual and the ripples outward
from that individual to include his family, friends, community are
high prices.
As for the working class as an entity, I think Trump’s supporters
show quite glaringly that the working class is not a unified entity.
It, like other classes, is divided in several ways, and the one
pointed up so harshly in Trump’s followers is, yes, largely working
class, but what brings them to Trump is their ignorance, stupidity,
bigotry, envy, inability to let anyone have anything they don’t have,
lack of education, lack of cultural or historical perspective,
narrow-mindedness, fear born of all those things...need I go on?
These qualities are not found across the board in the working class.
As for the question Miriam posed, “Yes, they're waking up and they're
angry. But are they angry because
getting what they want?”, I think the answer is obvious: they’re onlyour country isn't caring for all of us or because they aren't
interested in their own wants and couldn’t care less about “all of
us.” The “I’ve got mine” mentality is so blatantly obvious in the
behavior we see at those scary, depressing rallies. And also in the
very fact that Trump has made it as far as he has.
On May 29, 2016, at 11:57 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Frankly speaking Frank, I have believed for some time that we are
watching our nations morph into Corporate Nations. Traditional
national boundaries will blur and the Working Class will find
themselves being controlled by Corporate Governments. If I'm right,
then the Corporate Masters here in what was once the USA, are part
of a new "Nation" that includes the Ruling Class in Israel.
While we are being directed to place blame for our economic woes at
the feet of Russia or China, our Ruling Class will actually be in a
tussle with other international corporations for world dominance.
Even now, just who are we "defending"? What democracies have we
supported around the world? How much Peace now exists on Earth?
The fact is, we are being fed crap. Not by our good old USA,
remember that Republic? No, we may be told that we are protecting
Freedom and Democracy and protecting our nation, but it is the
Empire we are really serving. And our interests are far from those of
the Empire.
But the interests of the American Empire embraces the armed camp we
call Israel. Along with the Empire's network of similar war camps,
we are seeing former nations stripped of their resources and their
citizens reduced to the level of slaves. We are living in the most
critical times in Human history. The next decade or two will
determine whether we survive as a Free People, or as Slaves, if we
even manage to survive.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/29/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
OK there is some truth there but there are so many international
corporations, often based in Israel, that are doing the job to us
as well.
Even corporations that we consider to be "American" have their
financial holdings in international venues.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2016 10:50 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
Certainly we can draw similarities between pre-WW II and our
present mess, but one difference is the economic pressure that was
placed on the backs of the German people, following WW I, was put
there by those wishing to control Germany and suck up her resources
to enrich the emerging corporations in England, Europe and, to some
degree, the USA, while today's economic mess is caused from within
our own borders by Corporate Terrorists, sucking up all our
resources for their own enrichment.
Of course, in both cases, it is the working class that suffers and
bears the brunt of the financial burden as well as for the blame
when the house of cards collapses.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/28/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
The scary thing. And I mean the really scary thing is this is all
like, or similar to Weimer Germany in 1933, or the early 1920's
with the bombast Mussulini.
And what makes it wors or, even more scary is we've got Hilliry
playing the
puppet.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Ventura" <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2016 11:04 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
As well as the white, daytime TV watching soccer moms.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of joe
harcz Comcast
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2016 9:31 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
One correction: It isn't the entire working class that is behind
Trump. It is the white, male, older working class.
It is a reactionary element that got all it had by fights of
socialists in the past and now betrays the history of it all.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 10:08 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
Well, I don't want to be cynical or anything, and maybe it's
because I just finished that book on BARD about Trump, but let's
remember that it is the working class who are his zealous
followers. It is they who avidly watch reality TV and read all
those gossip columns and articles in People Magazine for all
these years, all about celebrities. It is the working class, who
want to be rich like Trump keeps bragging about and who want to
keep outsiders, meaning anyone who looks different from them, out of
our country.
Yes, they're waking up and they're angry. But are they angry
because our country isn't caring for all of us or because they
aren't getting what they want?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl
Jarvis
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 9:04 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
It might have been on the streets of New York or Chicago, but
this was not a police action, it was, "an Israeli soldier who was
caught on videotape shooting in the head, at close range, a
Palestinian man who was wounded and lying on the ground, already
subdued and obviously not a threat."
But whether it be soldiers in Palestine or Police in American
Slums, the message is the same. Obey or suffer.
But the tide is turning. The Working Class has begun to stir.
Long suffering men and women are beginning to understand that
while the Ruling Class has the guns, the Working Class has the
power to bring the Empire to its knees, simply by doing nothing.
Just staying home, or under the bridges and in the tent cities.
Refusing to harvest the Master's crops or haul them to market, or
to build his mansions or glass towers, or march in his armies, or
patrol the streets and keeping the Ruling Classes laws.
But it will take understanding by all of those people who are
bound to serve the Empire's Rulers through the purchase of their
loyalty and the promise of a better life than that of the masses.
They must understand that they cannot serve the Masters and be
Freemen.
Submitting to the Ruling Class demands obedience. All who serve
this monster will never be free. And they will never be truly safe.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
all-important.
Pillar writes: "There already shouldn't have been any doubt
about the orientation of the current Israeli government and the
associated obduracy of that government in blocking any path
toward resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state."
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel's new defense
minister Avigdor Lieberman. (photo: Getty)
Israel Veers Even Further Right
By Paul R. Pillar, Consortium News
26 May 16
Hillary Clinton says she wants to take the U.S.-Israeli
relationship "to the next level" even as Prime Minister
Netanyahu's right-wing regime plumbs new depths of extremism, as
ex-CIA analyst Paul R.
Pillar notes.
here already shouldn't have been any doubt about the orientation
of the current Israeli government and the associated obduracy of
that government in blocking any path toward resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who comes across as one of the more moderate members
of his own coalition, has paid more lip service than some other
members of that coalition to the idea of an eventual Palestinian
state, but he has made clear with other words and actions that
he has no intention of any such thing coming into being on his
watch, or of taking any meaningful steps toward such a state coming
into being.
Now come reports that Netanyahu is offering the Defense Ministry
to former Moldovan nightclub bouncer (and resident of a West
Bank
settlement) Avigdor Lieberman. This will bring into the ruling
coalition Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which even within
the Israeli context is usually described as "hard right."
Bringing Lieberman into the government is indicative not only of
the overall orientation of that government but also of some
larger disturbing trends in Israeli attitudes that the
government has fomented more than it has discouraged.
If Lieberman is made defense minister he would replace Moshe
Ya'alon, who in recent days has backed the Israeli military in
prosecuting (though only for manslaughter, not the murder that
occurred) an Israeli soldier who was caught on videotape
shooting in the head, at close range, a Palestinian man who was
wounded and lying on the ground, already subdued and obviously not a
threat.
Lieberman has joined other hardliners in expressing support for
the soldier.
(Netanyahu has visited the soldier's family to express
sympathy.) Netanyahu had been trying to recruit another
coalition partner to increase his government's thin majority in
the Knesset. Talks with centrist leader Isaac Herzog fell
through; the government evidently had more in common with the
crude hard right tendencies of Lieberman.
Perhaps the timing of this latest political move was a natural
outcome of this sequence of negotiations.
Or maybe it was at least as much another example of Netanyahu's
proclivity for poking a stick in the eye of foreign leaders who
look like they might be getting on his case about the
Palestinian conflict
- such as timing an announcement of more settlement expansion to
coincide with a visit of Vice President Biden. This time the
stickee is the French government, which is organizing an
international conference for later this year on Israeli-Palestinian
peace.
All honest outside observers should use the report about
Lieberman coming into the Israeli government as an occasion to
remind themselves that this tragic and long-running conflict
continues to run because one side refuses to end it. The gross
asymmetry between the two sides is
One side, the occupying power - the side with the firepower -months of the Obama administration.
has the ability to end the occupation and resolve the conflict
if it decided to do so. The other side has no such power. That
other side, the Palestinian side, has tried to use violent
resistance but has subsequently and correctly drawn the
conclusion that such violence is not the answer; the violence,
unsurprisingly, only stokes legitimate fears among Israelis about
their security.
Violence has been continuing in the unplanned, spontaneous, and
frustration-driven form of young people grabbing knives and
stabbing the first Israelis they can find. The Palestinian
leadership has turned to multilateral diplomacy, which, besides
popular boycotts, is about the only tool it has left. And the
Israeli government does everything it can to impede and to foil
such diplomacy, as it is trying to do now with the French
initiative.
A common urge to sound impartial leads to the common refrain
that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists because neither
side has the political will to settle it. Nonsense. The
overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not want to continue to
live under Israeli occupation.
They have the will but not the power to settle.
There certainly are divisions and political weakness on the
Palestinian side
- of which the Israeli government has striven to prevent any
repair, such as in "punishing" the Fatah-dominated Palestinian
Authority through withholding tax revenue whenever it has moved
toward reconciliation with Hamas - but there is no significant
pro-occupation party among Palestinians.
The hardliners who control Israel policy have the power but - as
ample evidence, even without Avigdor Lieberman, has shown - not
the will, as long as third parties do not make them suffer any
meaningful consequences. They do want the occupation to continue.
The Netanyahu government's repeated claim that it wants to
negotiate with the Palestinians should be described as the charade
that it is.
It is understandable that Palestinian leaders have no desire to
engage in talks that have no prospect of leading to anything,
when such engagement would just mean participating in the
charade while the occupation continues and more facts are built
on the occupied ground.
The insincerity is all the more obvious when Netanyahu speaks of
talks with "no preconditions" while at the same time insisting
that the Palestinians pronounce Israel to be a "Jewish state" -
a precondition that implicitly limits how the issue of
Palestinian refugees and right of return can be resolved, and
also would mean the Palestinian leadership formally signing on
to a declaration that non-Jewish Israelis are second-class
citizens. Those are the only things such a pronouncement would
mean.
The Palestinian leadership long ago recognized, formally and
unequivocally, the state of Israel. As Palestinian leaders have
noted, that state is free to describe itself any way it wants.
With the American political system still wearing its usual
straitjacket on this issue, the main hope right now for taking
any steps out of this tragic situation lies with the French
initiative.
If the United States is to do anything helpful any time in the
foreseeable future, it probably will have to come in the
remaining eight
One of the two presumptive presidential nominees speaks ofhttps://consortiumnews.com/2016/05/21/israel-veers-even-further-right/https:
taking U.S.-Israeli relations "to the next level" - and it is
safe to assume she doesn't mean that the next level will consist
of imposing consequences for the continued occupation.
The other presumptive presidential nominee caused nervous
moments in the Israel lobby when he talked about being
impartial, but the nerves were soothed with a speech to AIPAC that
said all the "right"
things.
And now he has Sheldon Adelson and Adelson's heavyweight
bankroll on his side, with everything that implies for this
nominee's future posture on Israel-related issues if he were to be
elected.
________________________________________
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence
Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He is now a
visiting professor at Georgetown University for security
studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The
National Interest's Web site.
Reprinted with author's
permission.)
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink reference
not valid.
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel's new defense
minister Avigdor Lieberman. (photo: Getty)
//consortiumnews.com/2016/05/21/israel-veers-even-further-right/all-important.
Israel Veers Even Further Right
By Paul R. Pillar, Consortium News
26 May 16
Hillary Clinton says she wants to take the U.S.-Israeli
relationship "to the next level" even as Prime Minister
Netanyahu's right-wing regime plumbs new depths of extremism, as
ex-CIA analyst Paul R.
Pillar notes.
here already shouldn't have been any doubt about the orientation
of the current Israeli government and the associated obduracy of
that government in blocking any path toward resolution of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who comes across as one of the more moderate members
of his own coalition, has paid more lip service than some other
members of that coalition to the idea of an eventual Palestinian
state, but he has made clear with other words and actions that
he has no intention of any such thing coming into being on his
watch, or of taking any meaningful steps toward such a state coming
into being.
Now come reports that Netanyahu is offering the Defense Ministry
to former Moldovan nightclub bouncer (and resident of a West
Bank
settlement) Avigdor Lieberman. This will bring into the ruling
coalition Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which even within
the Israeli context is usually described as "hard right."
Bringing Lieberman into the government is indicative not only of
the overall orientation of that government but also of some
larger disturbing trends in Israeli attitudes that the
government has fomented more than it has discouraged.
If Lieberman is made defense minister he would replace Moshe
Ya'alon, who in recent days has backed the Israeli military in
prosecuting (though only for manslaughter, not the murder that
occurred) an Israeli soldier who was caught on videotape
shooting in the head, at close range, a Palestinian man who was
wounded and lying on the ground, already subdued and obviously not a
threat.
Lieberman has joined other hardliners in expressing support for
the soldier.
(Netanyahu has visited the soldier's family to express
sympathy.) Netanyahu had been trying to recruit another
coalition partner to increase his government's thin majority in
the Knesset. Talks with centrist leader Isaac Herzog fell
through; the government evidently had more in common with the
crude hard right tendencies of Lieberman.
Perhaps the timing of this latest political move was a natural
outcome of this sequence of negotiations.
Or maybe it was at least as much another example of Netanyahu's
proclivity for poking a stick in the eye of foreign leaders who
look like they might be getting on his case about the
Palestinian conflict
- such as timing an announcement of more settlement expansion to
coincide with a visit of Vice President Biden. This time the
stickee is the French government, which is organizing an
international conference for later this year on Israeli-Palestinian
peace.
All honest outside observers should use the report about
Lieberman coming into the Israeli government as an occasion to
remind themselves that this tragic and long-running conflict
continues to run because one side refuses to end it. The gross
asymmetry between the two sides is
One side, the occupying power - the side with the firepower -months of the Obama administration.
has the ability to end the occupation and resolve the conflict
if it decided to do so. The other side has no such power. That
other side, the Palestinian side, has tried to use violent
resistance but has subsequently and correctly drawn the
conclusion that such violence is not the answer; the violence,
unsurprisingly, only stokes legitimate fears among Israelis about
their security.
Violence has been continuing in the unplanned, spontaneous, and
frustration-driven form of young people grabbing knives and
stabbing the first Israelis they can find. The Palestinian
leadership has turned to multilateral diplomacy, which, besides
popular boycotts, is about the only tool it has left. And the
Israeli government does everything it can to impede and to foil
such diplomacy, as it is trying to do now with the French
initiative.
A common urge to sound impartial leads to the common refrain
that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists because neither
side has the political will to settle it. Nonsense. The
overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not want to continue to
live under Israeli occupation.
They have the will but not the power to settle.
There certainly are divisions and political weakness on the
Palestinian side
- of which the Israeli government has striven to prevent any
repair, such as in "punishing" the Fatah-dominated Palestinian
Authority through withholding tax revenue whenever it has moved
toward reconciliation with Hamas - but there is no significant
pro-occupation party among Palestinians.
The hardliners who control Israel policy have the power but - as
ample evidence, even without Avigdor Lieberman, has shown - not
the will, as long as third parties do not make them suffer any
meaningful consequences. They do want the occupation to continue.
The Netanyahu government's repeated claim that it wants to
negotiate with the Palestinians should be described as the charade
that it is.
It is understandable that Palestinian leaders have no desire to
engage in talks that have no prospect of leading to anything,
when such engagement would just mean participating in the
charade while the occupation continues and more facts are built
on the occupied ground.
The insincerity is all the more obvious when Netanyahu speaks of
talks with "no preconditions" while at the same time insisting
that the Palestinians pronounce Israel to be a "Jewish state" -
a precondition that implicitly limits how the issue of
Palestinian refugees and right of return can be resolved, and
also would mean the Palestinian leadership formally signing on
to a declaration that non-Jewish Israelis are second-class
citizens. Those are the only things such a pronouncement would
mean.
The Palestinian leadership long ago recognized, formally and
unequivocally, the state of Israel. As Palestinian leaders have
noted, that state is free to describe itself any way it wants.
With the American political system still wearing its usual
straitjacket on this issue, the main hope right now for taking
any steps out of this tragic situation lies with the French
initiative.
If the United States is to do anything helpful any time in the
foreseeable future, it probably will have to come in the
remaining eight
One of the two presumptive presidential nominees speaks of
taking U.S.-Israeli relations "to the next level" - and it is
safe to assume she doesn't mean that the next level will consist
of imposing consequences for the continued occupation.
The other presumptive presidential nominee caused nervous
moments in the Israel lobby when he talked about being
impartial, but the nerves were soothed with a speech to AIPAC that
said all the "right"
things.
And now he has Sheldon Adelson and Adelson's heavyweight
bankroll on his side, with everything that implies for this
nominee's future posture on Israel-related issues if he were to be
elected.
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence
Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He is now a
visiting professor at Georgetown University for security
studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The
National Interest's Web site.
Reprinted with author's
permission.)
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
