Protest in Tel Aviv against US Veto. (Photo: Tal Grünberg)
My name is Tal, and I’m a 28 year old man from Israel.
It has been more than 44 years that my country occupies the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and controls the lives of millions Palestinians. More than 18 years have passed since Israel and the Palestinians signed the Oslo accords and peace still looks far like an unreachable dream. And one week ago president Obama stood in the UN assembly and asked the Palestinians to withdraw their bid and come back to the negotiation table with Israel.
Obama stated as well that he doesn’t believe peace can be achieved by using unilateral actions.
President Obama, how is it possible that on one hand you stand against a Palestinian unilateral move towards an independent state, and on the other hand you used your power to veto a resolution in the security council that was aimed to forbid Israel from building in settlements last February? The simple existence of Israeli settlements in the West Bank constitute a blatant unilateral actions that changes facts on the ground. When negotiating about a territory, how can one take seriously a country that refuses to stop building in the same territory that they are negotiating on?
If two people would talk over how to slice a cake, would one keep talking to the other if while talking the other was eating the cake and refusing to stop? Since the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993, Israel more than doubled the number of settlers in the occupied territories. Just yesterday, the Israeli media published that the Israeli government approved 1,100 new homes beyond the Green Line in East Jerusalem.
I would like to cite resolution number 465 which was adopted unanimously on March 1, 1980 by all 15 members of the security council including the USA:
“All measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel’s policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.
(Photo: Tal Grünberg)
As an Israeli citizen, I am concered for the day that the Palestinians will decide to abandon diplomacy and another cycle of death and blood shed would begin. An American veto in the UN security council would cause frustration in the Palestinian side will bring us another step towards this frightening scenario.
With this message in our minds, many Israelis and myself, Jews and Arabs joined together, demonstrated yesterday in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv and asked President Obama not to use the US veto against the Palestinian bid. We believe that the Palestinian bid would bring us closer to peace and the implementation of two state solution.
Bravo! Let’s hear again and again about UNSC-465 (1980) calling upon Israel to remove all settlers and dismantle all settlements. If it was right then, it is right now. With BDS as a model, it can now be demanded “with teeth” (that is, with sanctions for non-compliance).
This post wreaks of fear more than anything else. I don’t mean to be a downer, but these people seem to be more afraid of that b.s. argument known as the “demographic threat.” Their desire for two states has more to do with their own interests than any concern for Palestinians.
I’m sick of the self-deception. The letter says “44” years of occupation and “18” years of Oslo, but what about the number “63?” If we don’t address that number, the other two don’t mean squat!
RE: “President Obama, how is it possible that on one hand you stand against a Palestinian unilateral move towards an independent state, and on the other hand you used your power to veto a resolution in the security council that was aimed to forbid Israel from building in settlements last February?” ~ TAL GRÜNBERG
MY COMMENT: Obama and the Democrats have obviously decided that garnering support (especially in the form of monetary contributions) from the Likudnik-type American supporters of Israel for their (re)election(s) next year is more important than the survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic nation-state. Of course, I’m confident they have all sorts of rationalizations for doing this, and/or are so in denial about what they are doing that they would vehemently deny that this is indeed what they are doing (even to themselves).
“This post wreaks of fear ..”
Err, Dex, I think you mean “reeks of fear”.
“Reek” means to “smell (intrans.)” or “smoke (intrans.)”
A different Tal but nonetheless I agree with every word