Monday, April 08, 2013

Kerry in Jerusalem; Me in Shiloh

John Kerry, Secretary of State, speaking at the Jerusalem Consulate gathering today related to several topics.

He did mention "settlements", although he didn't really visit them:-

I have traveled throughout this region for a long time. I think I first came to Israel in 1986 and I spent a week traveling through the whole country. I climbed up Masada, and I floated upside down and backwards in the Dead Sea and got sulfur in every part of my body, and wasn’t too sure about what I was doing. And went up to the north, to Galilee, to a small community where young kids had to hide inside of shelters in order to be safe from Katyusha rockets. I’ve been up on the Golan Heights, and I have flown over every inch of the West Bank and seen the settlements from the air, traveled across the Allenby Bridge, you name it. I think I’ve had some exposure to life here. And what I’ve learned is that Palestinian, Israeli, visitors alike, all believe in the possibility of peace.

Well, Secretary Kerry, you are more than welcome to come down to earth and visit.
 
And he tangentially touched on my peeve with the Consulate, it's seeming discriminatory policy towards the Jewish residents in the area it supervise, as if we do not exist beyond the very technical consular services section:
...we have to navigate very difficult circumstances. Some of you, sometimes, can’t even get to the event that you want to go to. Sometimes, events, I have learned, have been cancelled because people have had difficulty getting from the West Bank into Jerusalem or wherever the event may be. So you work with great hindrances, great impediments, but nothing, nothing daunts your spirit.

Yes, there are problems of access but to cut us off from grants, cultural events, workshops, shows, exhibits and more because the policy is to ignore our civil rights is really a stain on American democracy.  

Moreover, it does not assist efforts for peace since it casts us as "the other", they who do not belong, they who must go.

I live in Shiloh but I am not invited to most of the artistic, cultural and entertainment activities sponsored by the Consulate.  Too bad.  No coexistence, no getting-to-know-you.

^

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since the annointed one is now limited to only two options when it comes to Israels demise...that would be the arming of syrian rebels who would in turn let loose a barrage of chemical and biological missles hoping to land just enough so everyone in Israel is puking out their guts. The second being Irans completions of its nuclear weapon. A 3rd option would resove the north korean crisis peasably. That would be if they could convince Kim to point his missles at Israel...then Kerry the catshup man could promise them 2 billion in aid, corn, soybeans, ships full of wheat. Why he would promise them that he would fatten the north korean population to the point that Moochelle would make a special trip to put them all on diets. Of course the last option would be to carpet bomb Israel and believe me that option is on the table.

Anonymous said...

In scandinavia people think jews have a very strange face, especially the nose is very bad-looking,kinda scythe-like they say, . They call it " Ful nasa". the word "ful" is pronounced like the english word "fuel". i kind of feel sorry for them, but maybe its the testosterone.. i´ve heard it increases the tissues inside the nose, especially bone mass.
It´s intresting to note that the hebrew work "nasa" can mean both "to marry" and "to lift" and "to desire" among many other verbs..