http://www.blogstream.com/acct/login.mod
Palestinian hope held hostage - By Salam Fayyad
Date: 06 / 04 / 2007 Time: 10:28

RAMALLAH - Three weeks ago, I became the minister of finance for a people whose economy has all but collapsed. It was the start of business for the new Palestinian unity government, born after months of tricky on-again, off-again negotiations and amid economic sanctions, bloodshed and misery.

The government came together after a bad year for the struggling Palestinian Authority. Our economic difficulties grew much worse during that period, in the aftermath of a free and fair election that brought Hamas to power. Because Hamas' political platform did not conform to key elements of the peace process, including Palestinian recognition of Israel's right to exist and a commitment to renounce violence, the international community imposed sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

Although much of the discussion leading to the formation of the unity government has focused on these two commitments, their validity should not have been much in question. After all, these commitments were made by the Palestine Liberation Organization, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, in a crystal-clear and binding agreement in 1993, and no Palestinian government has the authority to revoke them. In fact, the unity government's platform explicitly states that it will honour all PLO agreements, which, to be sure, include these two commitments.

As someone who has long worked for peace and reconciliation with Israel -- a peace based on mutual recognition of each people's rights -- I have always subscribed to the PLO's political program and all the commitments it embodies, including the recognition of Israel's right to exist and the renunciation of violence. I still do. My top priority is to lead the effort to end the economic sanctions and to restore the integrity of our public finance system.

A harsh and painful year after the onset of the sanctions, staggering poverty and unemployment rates prevail. Today, almost two-thirds of the Palestinian population lives in poverty, with per-capita income at 60% of its level in 1999. But as Thomas Jefferson said: "If we are to dream, the flatteries of hope are as cheap, and pleasanter, than the gloom of despair." As a Palestinian, I have a duty to hope and to work tirelessly to make the dreams of my people a reality.

We Palestinians dream of living normal lives. We dream of an end to the days when Palestinian farmers in the West Bank watch their crops destroyed to make way for Israeli-only roads, an end to the days when Palestinian children must brave Israeli military checkpoints to get to school and an end to the days when Gaza's 1.4 million Palestinians are sealed inside their territory, cut off from the rest of the world. Like all people, we deserve freedom in our own land. We deserve democratic, transparent and accountable institutions. And we deserve to live in peace and economic cooperation with all our neighbours, including Israel.

Over the years, the international community has encouraged and supported Palestinians in building democratic institutions to serve as the foundation of our future state. Donor assistance helped pay for the building of schools, hospitals and roads in addition to supporting good governance and providing the know-how to create a functioning administration.

In my previous term as finance minister, from June 2002 to December 2005, I played a leading role in establishing transparency and accountability in government finances through the introduction of a series of deep, wide-ranging reforms that helped bring our public finance system up to international standards. These included the consolidation of all government revenues in the Ministry of Finance, the elimination of extra-budgetary spending and the regular publication of detailed financial statements.

Since the international sanctions were imposed, aid has continued to flow, which has helped prevent starvation. But by channelling funds so that they bypass the Ministry of Finance, donors have unintentionally contributed to reversing these institution-building gains. The money coming in can no longer be traced, and we cannot ensure that it is not being misappropriated.

Also, our dependence on foreign-aid handouts is increasing while our economic development is stifled. In 2005, for example, only 16% of European Union aid to Palestine was classified as humanitarian. Last year, that figure rose to 56%.

We do not aspire to be a beggar nation, dependent on the world to feed our people. We have the capacity, education and talent to build a thriving economy and a strong democracy. But we cannot do so while Israel seals our borders and withholds tax revenue it owes us, or while U.S. banking regulations prevent banks from handling government business.

In order that we may begin again to develop the institutions and systems that will make us self-reliant and that will buttress the foundation of our future state, the sanctions must be lifted.

The U.S. has long acknowledged -- as has the entire world community -- that the formation of a viable, independent Palestinian state on the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip is the way out of this nearly 60-year-old conflict. But until the international community demonstrates the political will to help bring about a comprehensive settlement -- one that will grant Palestinians the freedom to build our own economy and institutions in our own land -- we will all continue to pay the price. Despair will continue to erode hope. And, lest we forget the words of Jefferson, hope is indeed "as cheap, and pleasanter."

------------------
Salam Fayyad is the minister of finance in the Palestinian unity government. This article was first published in Los Angeles Times, 31 March 2007, www.latimes.com, and was distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews, www.commongroundnews.org).

Republished with permission.

Author is a Palestinian American

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Editorials/2007%20Editorials/February/While%20World%20Capitalists%20Spend%20Trillions%20of%20Dollars%20on%20their%20Wanton%20Wars,%20Hunger%20Kills%2018,000%20Children%20Each%20Day%20By%20Hassan%20El-Najjar.htm

While World Capitalists Spend Trillions of Dollars on their Wanton Wars, Hunger Kills 18,000 Children Each Day

By Hassan El-Najjar

Al-Jazeerah, February 17, 2007


While world capitalists spend trillions of dollars on their wanton wars, hunger kills 18,000 children everyday, as reported by UN officials below.

These are not children dying only in poor areas in the world, but they are children dying as a result of wars launched on their countries by the world imperialist powers.

On top of these children come those of Palestine, who have been under an Israeli-US-EU financial embargo for more than a year now, for no reason other than their parents exercising their political democratic rights. Their sin was voting for Hamas. They have been punished because of expressing their desire to get rid of the brutal Israeli occupation of their homeland.

Iraqi children have been killed since the US-Led NATO embargo (1990-2003), which resulted in killing more than half a million Iraqi children in the 1990s. The US Secretary of State, Mad Albright, then uttered her infamous announcement that killing them was "worth it." Their plight did not end by the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. More than 650,000 Iraqi civilians were killed by the end of 2006. Most of them were children, women, elders, and innocent civilian men.

In Darfur, suddenly rebel groups emerged when oil and uranium reserves became well-known. These rebel groups have been well supplied with weapons to fight for independence from Sudan. You can guess who is funding them. Again, Darfur children have been victims of this oil-uranium war, just like their fellow Sudanese in the South in the past.

Afghani children have been suffering continuously since the US encouraged Afghanis to fight the Soviet invasion in 1979. The war devastated the economy and resulted in a failing state. When finally, the Soviets left in mid-1980s, the US left the Afghanis alone fighting a devastating civil war, which destroyed what was left of the countries institutions. Finally, since the 2001 US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, and despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the war, Afghanis have not seen improvement in their life, including those related to children. A frequent NATO media propaganda has been expressing intentions for reconstruction, after defeating the Taliban resistance movement!

Then, all over the world, pockets of poverty have been centers of starvation and suffering for children. Wealthy northern hemisphere nations have been spending trillions of dollars on their military spending and wars in the poor southern hemisphere.

Dreams of humanity for peace after World War II have evaporated when US-Led NATO countries have marginalized the UN by starting a neo-imperialist era. Wars and invasions have replaced cooperation and dreams for a better future for humanity.

The capitalist-war curse has not only impacted the poor in the world. It has been sinking the US deep in national debt, which has reached $8.9 trillion. The Bush administration alone has added more than $3 trillion to the US national debt, basically on its wars in the Middle East and around the world.

If not addressed, by stopping US wars and closing all US military bases abroad, the sky-rocketing US national debt will destroy the US economy. The, God forbid, American children will be suffering like children in other continents.

AP Headline: U.N.: Hunger Kills 18,000 Kids Each Day

By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer

Feb 17, 2007, 7:43 AM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) --

Some 18,000 children die every day because of hunger and malnutrition and 850 million people go to bed every night with empty stomachs, a "terrible indictment of the world in 2007," the head of the U.N. food agency said.

James Morris called for students and young people, faith-based groups, the business community and governments to join forces in a global movement to alleviate and eliminate hunger - especially among children.

"The little girl in Malawi who's fed, and goes to school: 50 percent less likely to be HIV-positive, 50 percent less likely to give birth to a low birth weight baby," he said in an interview Friday. "Everything about her life changes for the better and it's the most important, significant, humanitarian, political, or economic investment the world can make in its future."

Morris, an American businessman and former president the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment, one of the largest charitable organizations in the U.S., is stepping down as executive director of the Rome-based World Food Program in April after five years of leading the world's largest humanitarian organization.

He said that while the percentage of people who are hungry and malnourished has decreased from a fifth of the world's population to a sixth of the population, the actual number of hungry people is growing by about 5 million people a year because of the rising population.

"Today 850 million people are hungry and malnourished. Over half of them are children. 18,000 children die every single day because of hunger and malnutrition," Morris said. "This is a shameful fact - a terrible indictment of the world in 2007, and it's an issue that needs to be solved."

Morris said the largest number of malnourished children are in India - more than 100 million - followed by nearly 40 million in China.

"I'm very optimistic that India and China are very focused on this issue," he said. "They're making great progress - (but) need to do more. (It) needs to be a top priority."

Elsewhere, there are probably 100 million hungry children in the rest of Asia, another 100 million in Africa where countries have fewer resources to help, and 30 million in Latin America, he said.

As Morris prepares to leave his post, he said the two issues of greatest concern are the increasing number of impoverished people and the "very significant, growing number of natural disasters around the world."

According to the World Bank, natural disasters have increased fourfold over the last 30 years, he said. That means several billion people need instant help over the course of a decade because of disasters such as the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, or drought in southern Africa.

The response to these disasters and conflicts such as in Sudan's Darfur region and Lebanon has meant that most development aid has been used to save lives - not to help communities prevent disasters and promote development through agricultural programs, education for children and water conservation, Morris said.

The agency's biggest operation today is in Darfur, where violence and security are major problems and 2.5 million people have fled their homes and now live in camps.

"Our convoys are attacked almost daily. We had a truck driver killed there at the end of last year. Our convoys coming through Chad from Libya are always at risk. When the African Union troops were there, that was very helpful. The U.N. troops will be even more helpful," Morris said.

He was referring to a plan for an AU-U.N. force to be deployed in Darfur, which is awaiting approval from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

American diplomat Josette Sheeran will replace Morris, who plans to head home to Indianapolis.

"I will work as hard as I can every day of the rest of my life to see that more resources are available to feed hungry children," Morris said.

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/February/17%20o/A%20GOY-Less%20MEDIA%20and%20Kosher%20Wars%20He%20who%20Controls%20the%20News,%20Controls%20the%20Views%20By%20Mohamed%20Khodr.htm

A GOY-Less MEDIA and Kosher Wars: He who Controls the News, Controls the Views

By Mohamed Khodr

Al-Jazeerah, February 17, 2007

For years, but especially after 9/11 our “free media” has excluded to a large extent the voices of peace rather than war, the voices of the informed who cry out for justice in our foreign policy, especially as it applies to the oppressed Palestinians by our “democratic” ally, Israel; the patriotic voices who believe dialogue and diplomacy, not guns, are more effective for lasting peace; the voices who speak for the voiceless suffering, oppressed, sick, and dying have-nots; the voices who toil in cyberspace to bring unwelcome truth to our citizens; the voices of sacredness who seek divine justice for all. What remains for America is to blindly digest and regurgitate “manufactured consent, hate, and lies” that serve the rich, the powerful, and the few at the expense of the many.

Napoleon understood the power of the Media’s influence:

"I fear three newspapers more than a hundred thousand bayonets."

Do you think he was prophetically referring to America’s three most powerful Jewish owned newspapers? Papers that lyingly and deliberately drummed up the Iraq debacle?

--The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal

Our “free” media’s motto: “All the news that supports Israel’s wars and defames Islam is fit to print”

In pure Orwellian fashion; Cheney’s White House Puppet himself said:

“I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace.”

--President George W. Bush

Why does America stand alone against the world and its own national interests in supporting the rogue Apartheid regime of Israel that is Judaizing God’s Holy Land, a blessing to all Jews, Christians, and Muslims? Israel is forcibly Judaizing Jerusalem through house demolitions, expulsions of Palestinian Christians and Muslims, denying building permits and social services, forbidding Palestinian Christians and Muslims entry to pray in Jerusalem’s holy sites; hence the inhumane horrific picture of Palestinian Muslims prostrating at the feet of Israeli soldiers, not to God in their mosques. No other nation can act with such arrogance, impunity, and defiance of American supported U.N. Resolutions that call Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem “null and void.” Israel is a “Jewish” State”, an Apartheid State, whereby the Holy Land will be purified from the impure Christians and Muslims. To dare speak truth to this ethnic cleansing is to risk the media’s rabid attack that instills fear into any citizen of this “superpower” nation. The latest victim of such a nationally widespread Zionist dressing down and insolent disrespectful attack is former President Jimmy Carter, a moral man who risked his Presidency to secure Israel’s peace with Egypt. Not even Carter’s Christian brethren dared defend him.

Why are Americans so uninformed about Israel and its control of our foreign policy?

It’s the Media.

During Israel’s widespread devastation of Lebanon last summer with America’s latest weapons, use of illegal cluster and phosphorous bombs, depleted uranium missiles, bombing of civilian convoys trapped behind blown bridges including U.N. compounds and International Red Cross vehicles carrying life saving medicines to already bombed hospitals; even repeating the 1996 bombing of Qana murdering entire families; what did the decider, freedom and democracy spreader, the man who believes all men are born free and created equal, the man opposed to occupations and tyranny, the religious follower of the Prince of Peace do?

He criminally supported Israel’s murderous shredding of Lebanon, sending more tax funded American weapons, money, Arab “oil” to Israel to “complete the job”, and vetoes a United Nation Security Council Resolution that simply “condemned” Israel’s atrocities.

Bush, the obedient Congress, and our kosher friendly media sold the usual lies to allow Israel’s death and destructive campaign against an entire nation, Lebanon; turning its murderous offensive war into Israel’s “right to defend itself.” After each civilian massacre, America and Israel finally admit it was an “accident.”

To the surviving Muslim and Christian Lebanese and Palestinians of Israel’s civilian massacres; there can only be one conclusion:

Jewish Blood is more worthy, vital, and important than any Goy Blood anywhere, including the blood of America’s youthful courageous soldiers dying abroad fighting Israel’s wars.

This war was not for oil but for a small Jewish only State, Israel, with the power to unleash “Anti-Semitism” and “Holocaust” guilt against the Christian West. Since World War II America has enjoyed dominance, good relations, and easy access to cheap oil in the Arab Middle East; but Cheney and his Neocons (mostly Jewish according to Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper) wanted a pretext to kill for Israel (Hallelujah 9/11).

Jewish blood, the Chosen Blood, from the Torah to the Babylonian Talmud, to modern Rabbinic edicts, is a blood superior to the world’s Goyish blood.

"One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail."

--Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, Feb. 27, 1994 [N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 1994, p. 1]

“It is forbidden to be merciful to them (Palestinians). You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable,…The Lord shall return the Arabs' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them, devastate them and vanish them from this world.”

--Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Founder and Spiritual Leader of Israel’s Political Party (BBC; April 10, 2001), -----Odd that the “media” and western governments did not see this in a similar vain to the Iranian President’s misinterpreted threat against Israel.

Even Elie Wiesel, the secular Jewish intellectual, the Noble Peace Prize winner, the poster child for peace, humanity and freedom for all, the man who single handedly convened the entire United Nations Security Council to listen to his pained rhetoric on Darfur’s suffering (which is legitimate) but who has totally ignored and dismissed Palestinian suffering at the hand of his own people.

This hypocritical Wiesel according to Professor Norman Finkelstein's ground breaking book: “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering” (By the way, read Israel’s own media on how Israel is starving and mistreating its Holocaust Survivors despite billions of aid) Verso, New York 2000, page 49; said:

"Everything about us is different." Jews are "ontologically" exceptional”

Elie Wiesel’s pain (that costs $25,000 a speech according to Norman Finkelstein) does not apply to the Palestinians, Iraqi’s, Afghani’s, Chechens, Kashmiri’s, Iranians, Aborigines, Gypsies, or to any other Muslim-Christian human being: Some of Wiesel’s quotes are:

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

EXCEPTION: PALESTINE

”There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

Compare Wiesel’s Zionism for Israel to a courageous Israeli journalist who patriotically criticizes his own country’s colonial brutality against the Palestinian population:

“The war against the Palestinians is therefore unequivocally a territorial war, a war for the settlements. In other words, in the West Bank and Gaza, people were killed and are getting killed because of our greed for land. From Golda Meir to Ehud Olmert, the lie has held that the war with the Palestinians is an existential one for survival imposed on Israel when it is actually a war for real estate, one dunam after another, that does not belong to us….While we are ready to jump on any war bandwagon, as in this time, we endlessly procrastinate when it comes to peace negotiations”

--Gideon Levi, “THE REAL ESTATE WAR”, Ha’aretz, August 6, 2006

Five American Corporate Medias control the greatest majority of the media that formulates our opinions, our daily agendas, conversations, voting patterns, our commercialism, and tragically. who lives and dies domestically and abroad. The American poor, hungry, uninsured, and homeless are not worthy media subjects but Israel’s psychological stress and insecurity despite being the fourth most powerful nuclearized nation on earth, is frontpage news.

Who else but the powerful media can intimidate, indoctrinate and sell war and death to a nation whose government is cowardly when it comes to Israel and its Lobby.

“Phony pretexts repeated often enough become real reasons. Things that...are not true become true in the public mind simply through endless repetition. --Lenny Bloom

President Bush does read after all:

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda." –

--President Bush, Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005

Call of the Wild for Endless Wars for Israel:

Enemy du Jour: Cheney, Neocons, Israel, Israel Lobby, Media, Bush: “Next Stop…Iran”

What Chutzpah, what outrageous confidence, what power and influence, what shamelessness, what callousness to human life and economic burden upon America’s youth, what arrogance, that Cheney and his mainly Jewish Cabal are pushing this nation to a new war, a war with Iran, while American coffins are still arriving from Iraq and Afghanistan.

From Zionist David Frum’s phrase “Axis of Evil” for Bush’s Speech: Iraq, Iran, North Korea

To: “Next Stop…Baghdad”; “Next Stop…Iran”; “Next Stop…Syria”,

“Next Stop…Saudia Arabia”

Finally---“Next Stop….Islam”: The Root of All Evil.

From Saddam Hussein to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Cheney has orchestrated a campaign that these homicidal maniacs are capable of attacking America and “Israel”; thus we must fight them there before we fight them here.

“Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.” --George Orwell

Our “free” media, dependent upon our dollars and its advertisers can either push for or stop the insane clamoring to attack Iran. It all depends on you and me. Our silence will ensure that Cheney’s Bush will attack Iran prior to his political end and will once again follow those who put him in office, pull his strrings, and fulfill his simpleton dream of removing the “wimp factor” staining the Bush family.

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.”

--Voltaire

Bush abandoned America’s foundational principles, idealism, values, sense of justice, and moral credibility for Israel and Oil hegemony. He has subverted our Constitution and needlessly and lyingly risked American lives, both civilian and military, here and abroad. He has extinguished the light of this nation as a beacon of hope, opportunity, and respectability in the eyes of the world. His legacy will forever be one of insane fear, insecurity, death and destruction for Israel and Corporate America. It’s Exxon’s oil and America’s youthful blood that will decorate his Presidential Library.

Sadly, when it comes to wealth and Israel the Democrats are just as cowardly and unpatriotic. Pay attention how the GOP and Democratic Presidential candidates will stain their character and this nation’s future to appease Israel and Jewish money. For self interests they Pledge Allegiance to the Star of David, not to the Stars and Stripes.

NO POLITICIAN in this nation can ever hope to be elected if he/she dare speaks against Israel.

The worldwide American-Israeli Alliance of Injustice will not endure long. It will end sooner rather than later, for in due time the world will awaken to their oppressive military and economic injustice upon the weak; but most importantly God is just, and His wrath will be unleashed for the sake of the unjust to reclaim their right for life, liberty, human dignity, freedom, and pursuit of happiness from the empires of injustice. May God give us the patience and perseverance to endure until such time when peace, justice, freedom, and wealth belongs to all, not just the few.

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.” --Thomas Jefferson

Does America have one more Revolution in its soul to reclaim our nation from Israel’s webs in all our institutions? Are there any more Thomas Paine’s, Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Adam’s, Madison’s, Franklin’s, Paul Revere’s, or Patrick Henry’s to proclaim loudly and proudly “give me liberty from foreign influence or give me death”? Yes, America, they live in each of us. They simply need our courage to resurrect them. America is ready for another Emancipation Proclamation—this time, from Israel and its Lobby.

“Our Patriotic Shouts Bursting in Air, Gives Proof through the Night that our Flag, America’s flag, is still there”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1270038.stm (Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s Quote)

http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion%20editorials/2007%20Opinion%20Editorials/February/13%20o/Teaching%20Hatred%20By%20Mike%20Odetalla.htm

There is a series is pictures posted with this original article... well worth looking for and seeing what the children of Palestine see daily.

Teaching Hatred

By Mike Odetalla

Al-Jazeerah, February 13, 2007

Not a day goes by without having to read or listen to someone from the “Israel right or wrong camp” spin tales about Palestinians teaching their children to “hate”. From those aspiring to higher public office, such as Hillary Clinton, to hatemongering lunatics such as Pat Robertson, Daniel Pipes, and an assortment of conservative talk show hosts, they do not miss an opportunity to propagate this lie in the hopes of portraying Palestinian parents and society as a whole, as “lesser” human beings, unfit to raise their children “properly”…

Although this myth about Palestinian parents and their children has been debunked countless times by many experts, including Israeli academics and journalists in the Hebrew press, this has not stopped those that seek to demonize the Palestinians at every turn in their relentless campaign to brainwash the American public so that Israel’s nefarious actions and policies against the much maligned and brutalized Palestinian people can be dismissed or “excused”, because, after all, in their eyes, Palestinians and their children couldn’t possibly be regarded as equally “human”!

As a child, growing up in Palestine, where we had no television or for that matter, any electricity, the first time I was ever exposed to the Star of David was when I saw it painted on the gleaming metallic bodies of the Fantom jet fighters that were flying low overhead as they bombed and strafed the outskirts of our village and which nearly massacred us as we huddled along with nearly twenty others in a cave, escaping mere minutes before the cave was destroyed by a missile from one the jets during the 1967war.

The first Jew that I had ever seen in my life was an alien looking figure, who was standing atop a tank, which also had the Star of David painted on it, pointing a gun at my mother and shouting at us in a language that I had never before heard. The first Jew that I had ever seen close up, was also pointing a gun at me, even though I was a mere child of six…

Many times during the early period of Israel’s occupation of my homeland, the only Jews that I personally encountered were the Israeli soldiers who marched into our village, on more than one occasion, forcing every male aged 12 to 75 to go out onto the villages open field, and sit under the brutal summer sun for hours, with little regard for their safety and well being. These soldiers were also the ones that clamped daily curfews on our villages and in one night, while we were confined to our homes, came into our village and killed every dog in the village that they could find because the dogs tended to bark when the soldiers slipped into the village during the night. For many days after this dastardly act, the stench of the decaying flesh permeated throughout the village.

On more than one occasion, I witnessed Jewish soldiers physically and verbally abusing Palestinian men, women, and children. Some of these soldiers seemed to relish the power that their guns and uniform gave them over these people, showing a sadistic zeal for their “work”.

Needless to say, for countless Palestinian children, their very first or only encounters with Jews were similar to mine, whether in Palestine, or the refugee camps of Lebanon and elsewhere. The “Jewish” face of Israel, to us, manifested itself in the persona of the Israeli soldier.

By contrast, the first Christian I had ever encountered, looked and sounded just like me, a native Palestinian who did not present a threat to me nor my family, who shared our language, customs, food, and dress.

Thus, my perception of Jews was profoundly influenced by the experiences of my early encounters with Israeli soldiers, and I was one of the “lucky ones” because thousands of other Palestinian children were forever scarred, as they had to witness the killings, beatings, midnight raids, humiliations, and imprisonment of their fathers, siblings, and other loved ones by the Israelis.

The Star of David was not a religious symbol to me and other Palestinians. It was symbol of oppression and fear, painted on the side of the Israeli army’s death machines. It was under this very symbol that many Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from their homes and lands.

It was not until I came to America that I met a Jew who did not seem to threaten me and who looked and acted “normal”, like every ones around him. Since then, I have come to meet and befriend many Jews in America and elsewhere who do not approve of what is being done “in their names”, showing me a “different” side of Jews that I had no idea existed.

My children on the other hand, were born and raised in the United States and had gotten to meet and to know many of my Jewish friends. Although they knew much about what the Israelis were doing to our people, they didn’t look at Jews in this country any differently than any other Americans.

It wasn’t until the summer of 2003 that my children began to see Jews in a different light. Standing in the hot summer sun at the Israeli checkpoints, they were witness to Israeli oppression and cruelty first hand, staring in shock as a young Palestinian father was set upon and beaten by Israeli soldiers for having the “audacity” to complain because his pregnant wife and 2 young children had to stand in the sweltering heat for hours at the Qalandia Checkpoint on their way home. I will never forget the shock on my children’s’ faces as I tried to help the young father up after he was beaten silly in front of his wife and young children.

More than anything else, it is the Israelis themselves who are having the greatest influence on the youths of Palestine. By their words and deeds, they are the ones that are teaching the Palestinian children to hate, because as we all know, experience is the greatest “teacher” of them all and the Israelis are doing one hell of a job “teaching” the children of Palestine.

What did these children “learn” after their homes were demolished by the Israeli army?

The American poet, Auden, I believe, said it best:

“I and the public know, what all school children learn, those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”

Mike Odetalla..."A seed in the eternal fruit of Palestine"

***

“It is said that every cloud has a silver lining...
I prefer to think that if you look past the clouds, the Sun is always shining” - Mike Odetalla

"Come, I'll tell you about Palestine" www.Hanini.org

My Home Town: http://www.beithanina.org/

http://www.palestinecalendar.org/

http://www.palestineonlinestore.com/

http://www.alnakba.org/

http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/

http://www.palestineremembered.com

http://www.al-awda.org



http://www.pcwfund.org or http://www.pcwfund.org The link to the website of Palestine Children's Welfare Fund ...Click to buy Palestinian embroidery online, sponsor a Palestinian child, buy a flag or a Kuffiya to feed one, or a donation of 25 dollars to plant an olive or orange tree in honor of some one you know or to commemorate a hero of yours .

“The ink of the scholar is holier more than the blood of the martyr"- Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/210/story_21038_1.html
What the President Should Learn from Pharoah
The Democratic Senate effectively asks Bush not to make the same mistakes Pharoah did by refusing to listen to others' views.
By Rabbi Susan Grossman

When is it time to cut one’s losses?

This is the question Pharaoh's courtiers obviously have asked themselves before the start of the action in this week’s Torah reading, Parshat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16). They are faced with an escalating disruption in their nation. Eight plagues have already wreaked havoc and destruction upon Egypt. The slaves upon whom much of Egypt’s economy relies are simply becoming more trouble than they are worth.

So the advisors recommend to Pharoah: “How long shall this be a snare for us?" You can almost hear their voice rising in uncharacteristic challenge and despair when they say, “Teidah ki avda mitzrayim? Don’t you know that we are already lost?”(Exodus 10:7).

We know, of course, that Pharoah does not listen. And we also know the tragic results of the next two plagues that take the lives of the first born sons of both the poor and the powerful of Egypt.

I could not help thinking of this passage as I listened to the Senate debate the non-binding resolution asking the president not to send more troops into Iraq. Here were thoughtful men, speaking respectfully from both sides of the aisle, who clearly disliked having to tell their commander-in-chief that he was going forward with a plan that they, and many military advisors, felt was both foolhardy and dangerous. They spoke in humble tones about how they had reneged on their constitutional responsibility of oversight by not intervening sooner to ensure a better outcome in this totally mishandled war.

I was thinking of our Torah portion when I watched Senator James Webb give the Democratic State of the Union rebuttal. Though newly elected, Webb is far from a novice. A decorated Vietnam veteran, he served as secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan. He was a boy when his own father was mobilized to serve in Europe. Perhaps equally important, unlike most of our policy makers, he currently has a son stationed in Iraq as a Marine infantryman.

He knows how important it is to support the troops. He knows the importance and value of making sacrifices for one’s country. He also knows the sacred responsibility of making responsible decisions because of the high sacrifice being offered, the lives of our first, and second born, sons and daughters.

We face many clear and present dangers in our continued involvement in Iraq. Listening to the Senators, it was also clear that no one really knows how to successfully resolve the dangers Iraq presents. But there were two things the Senators seemed to agree on: First, that we cannot just cut and run, for that will be worse. Second, we must change tactics not only militarily but also diplomatically to re-engage the rest of the world, for this is not a problem we can solve on our own.

Last week, we read in the Torah about the dangers of a leader who lacks humility, one who thinks he knows better than anyone else. This is a trait Pharoah so greatly exudes, which will drive him, even after the debacle of the deaths of the firstborn in the 10th plague, to lead his elite corps of charioteers to death in the Red Sea, as we will read in the Torah next week.

The Senate is asking President Bush not to make the same mistake Pharoah did in refusing to listen to those whose views differ from his own.

The men and women in any military, and their families, know that they may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice of their lives for the good of their nation. But it must be for the good of their nation and not out of the hardhearted hubris of its leader.

I hope President Bush will listen to the words of the men and women of the United States Senate, who have constitutional oversight over the war effort as part of the checks and balances process that makes our democracy so strong. I hope the president will listen, for the men and women who serve under him, and all of us, deserve that of him as our commander-in-chief.