And the prize for telling it as it is, according to Oliver Miles’ Arab Web Digest, must go to former US ambassador Chas Freeman speaking to the 22nd Annual Arab-U.S. Policymakers Conference last week in Washington. Here are some highlights: The Israel / Palestine issue remains at the core of Arab indignation and disbelief in America. Senator Kerry’s frenetic efforts to drag Israel and and the usual Palestinians into talks has not cured this..... the only effects to date of this latest round have been to delay Palestinians efforts to take Israel to the International Court of Justice and to accelerate the Jewish state’s drive to judaize the West Bank and set the stage for more ethnic cleansing when and if regional chaos produces the political cover to carry it out. ...The very structure of the talks emphasizes their futility. Most Palestinians are unrepresented in them. The Palestinian Authority is on the Israeli and American payrolls. It has been appointed to represent the PA by by Israel and the US but its authority to speak even for the inhabitants of the West Bank is in doubt. It certainly has no mandate to negotiate on behalf of those in Gaza, in the refugee camps, in diaspora or living as second class citizens in Israel. ....If, as most expect the talks sputter to a fruitless end next July, the UN - recognized but largely fictive State of Palestine can be expected to take its case against Israel’s violations of international and humanitarian law to the courts of international public opinion and the Hague. The movement to boycott, disinvest and sanction Israel has already begun to take hold in Europe. It will gather global momentum. ‘‘Palestine’’ itself is nearly powerless but neither Israel nor the United States have credible counters to Israel’s progressive self-delegitimization through behaviour that all but diehard Zionist bigots find abhorrent. ‘’
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:57:00 +0000
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