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Ismail Khalidi: A tragic lecture, justifiying a vicious occupation, with no awareness that we killed the two-state solution

A great effect of the Obama speech: Americans are going to hear clear moral voices. We will be informed. Playwright Ismail Khalidi gains a platform in the Albany Times-Union:

The only conclusion to be drawn from the ongoing row over the Palestinian plan to gain full United Nations membership is that the Palestinians have absolutely no reason to heed the advice of the United States any longer…

After two decades overseeing a “peace process,” that saw the number of illegal settlers double to more than 500,000 and Israel’s occupation entrench itself more deeply, the continued American disregard for the Palestinians’ plight is less surprise than tragedy — not only for the Palestinians, but for Israel and the United States as well.

It is a tragedy because the Palestinians, who are in their 45th year under an illegal military occupation, are no closer to achieving a viable state. This reality is courtesy of successive Israeli governments and their blindly supportive patrons in Washington who oversaw Israel’s systematic theft of Palestinian land and resources following the 1993 Oslo accords.

It is a tragedy, too, because the United States is seemingly devoid of any power to hold its favorite ally, and biggest recipient of aid, accountable to international law. The power the United States does wield, however, is expertly directed against the occupied Palestinians, who are regularly lectured and threatened with further misery and a loss of aid funding at even the slightest hint of resistance. All the while, they watch their future state disappear.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama lectured the world and the Palestinians at the U.N. about peace and justice without even the slightest hint that he or the U.S. government was aware that their policies amount to the death of the two-state solution.

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It is about time that the Palestinians told the US to go jump in a lake. Untile we’re no longer hostages of the lobby, we can do no good.

Instead of “watching their future state disappear”, the Palestinians should negotiate in earnest since there is no other way to a peaceful solution. Given that there is no other strategy available except howling at the moon, it is the only reasonable thing to do. Or we can wait 20 years until everybody is convinced BDS does not work. How smart is that?

Obama gave the Manifest Destiny speech to the Palestinians. The sort of thing Custer would have said to to the Lakota.

What a sad spectacle. What a sad day for Judaism.

Of course the settlers are crowing . What a shower of low lives.

http://myrightword.blogspot.com/2011/09/state-of-palestine-is-state-of-mind.html

Obama told the Palestinians they have no rights in their own country
This is indefensible . I don’t mean ethically. It’s just not going to be possible for Israel to defend this .

Hollywood makes horror films but the ultimate horror would be to wake up one morning and find that your whole country had been scrubbed of rights in favour of an alien tribe working out some awful group trauma that happened 70 years ago.

Again, it’s very nice to pretend the US doesn’t matter. You can surround yourselves with yes men all day. In the end, you’re not going to have a workable agreement without US support. It’s an old game to try and internationalize the conflict. Hasn’t worked yet, and will not work this time either.

Get back to me in a year and let me know how relying on the French is working out for you.