This letter appeared today in the LATimes:
July 12, 2012
Re "Panel urges legalization of West Bank outposts," July 10
The Israeli advisory panel is out of touch, even with the "only Jews count" view of many Israeli leaders. But it serves to illustrate how different values are between the United States and Israel.
It is not that there are no racists in America; it is just that their views are so far out of the mainstream that they would never be appointed to serve on a national panel.
This demonstrates again that Israel may be an ally, but Americans and Israelis do not share a dedication to democracy.
Jeff Warner
La Habra Heights
I left this comment there:
The Warner letter is absurd. In writing "the Israeli advisory panel illustrates how different values are between the United States and Israel" and then appends the charge of racism ("It is not that there are no racists in America; it is just that their views are so far out of the mainstream that they would never be appointed to serve on a national panel."), Jeff Warner is simply perverting reality.^
If Arabs live now as settlers in their settlements in Israel, well, that's what they are if Jews are "settlers" residing in "settlements", why can't the Jews do the same? Or is Arab racism permitted? Or, as is reality, Jews, having lived in Judea, Samaria and Gaza for centuries to the British Mandate period but, as a result of (racist?) Arab violence that ethnically cleansed Jews out of their homes in Gaza, Hebron and Shchem/Nablus in 1929 and later from Jenin and then from the Etzion Bloc, Bet HaAravah, Qalya, Neveh Yaakov and Atarot in the 1947-48 war, not to mention Jerusalem's Old City Jewish Quarter, cannot return home? Why not? Why cannot Jews possess legal rights to property and to construct homes in the area that international law, confirmed in 1922 by the League of Nations as where the Jewish National Home was to be reconstituted ("re", i.e., it previoulsy existed).
Since we have on record statements by Palestinian Authority officials from Abbas on down that no Jews will be permitted to reside in this propsed "State of Palestine", exactly who, J Warner, are the racists?
Have you any idea about what you are writing?
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2 comments:
If any land were owned by an Arab, an Israeli or anyone else within what were the boundaries of the Israeli State or what was the deemed the West Bank at the time of the 1967 War, then that land belongs to that person if he/she has retained legal title. For settlers to claim ownership based on an ancient state that passed away thousands of years ago is wrong and only causes needless suffering for all parties concerned. That is something to be negotiated in a peaceful manner, not by vandalism and force. How will there ever be peace if settlers are allowed to confiscate lands they have not bought? I hope the author can appreciate that both sides need to be treated with respect and that land grabs are not the solution.
Is it really too difficult to grasp that I was referring to unowned land, land whose ownership cannot be proven (such as providing tax payment records, a title deed, a map of the zoned area from a recognized governmental authority), which is by definition "state land" or "waste land"? Private owned land, whether by Arabs or Jews, belongs to the owners, for sure. But the Pal. Authority as did Jordan before it, prohibited by law, under pain of death (!), Jews from owning land in that area under their illegal rule. Isn't that racist, at the least? Or...apartheid even.
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