Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/05/plans-for-mideast-peace/
comment I left online in the comment section:
Comments 1 - 1 of 1
By: AnneSeldenAnnab
I object to this misleading op-ed pretending to be news by Peter Berkowitz "Plans for Mideast peace : U.N. reforms needed for Palestinian refugees" .
FULL respect for basic human rights- including but not limited to the Palestinian refugees' inalienable legal, moral and natural right to leave and right to return to original homes and lands as clearly affirmed by international law ( http://www.al-awda.org/facts.html ) is the only true reform needed for peace, for prosperity and for everyone's sake... for the sake of civilization itself really.
UNWRA has done an outstanding job meeting dire needs despite all the many obstacles and insults racist Israel creates. Zionism's ongoing genocidal crimes against the people of historic Palestine are the core problem, and that problem won't go away if and when Zionists manage to destroy UNWRA and every other NGO & charity that tries to help clothe, feed and educate the persecuted, impoverished and displaced men, women and children of historic Palestine.
August 5, 2008 at 8:03 a.m.
**********************************************Washington Post online comments:
RE: Gazans' Access To Care Faulted: Israeli Interrogation Criticized in Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401933.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401933_Comments.html
Divide, conquer and destroy- time and time again Apartheid Israel's nefarious practices and policies harm the people of historic Palestine. Forced transfer, segregation and collective punishments are the cornerstone of the current Israeli kingdom that has made hell out of the Holy Land... We knew enough to dismantle Jim Crow laws long ago- and to endorse the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights "Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..."
So why is modern man made Israel given carte blanche (plus huge sums of money and support) to freely and forcefully persecute, impoverish, imprison and/or displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine day after day after day in a slow motion genocide that has been going on for the past painful 60 years of cruel Israeli rule.
Meanwhile, as we notice the tip of the iceberg of Israeli war games in the open air prison and torture chamber called Gaza, please notice that everywhere it can the Zionist State is making life miserable for Palestinians.... In the West Bank: "The ongoing settlement plan reflects the true intentions of Israel to evade the peace requirements and disrespect the call of the international community for a stop of the settlement activities" AL official - Israeli settlement policy spoils peace chance
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/KLMT-7H842U?OpenDocument&rc=3&emid=ACOS-635PFR
Why aren't American newspapers publishing more revealing news and op-eds such as "Rabbis who bring shame to Judaism" By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank who notices the chilling truth that : "In Israel, rabbis with hundreds of thousands of followers, many of whom serve in the Gestapo-like Israeli occupation army, openly teach that non-Jews are only human in form but animals in substance." http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/2008/08/rabbis-who-bring-shame-to-judaism-by.html
**********************************************
THE Nation (online web letters)
http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20080818/omer?write=1
Truth and Consequences Under the Israeli Occupation
By Mohammed Omer
July 31, 2008
Thank you for publishing Mohammed Omar's chilling account. More truth about Israel's extensive institutionalized bigotry and its ongoing brutal mistreatment of the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine would be most helpful for all concerned, including every American deceived and manipulated into supporting the idea of Israel--and every taxpayer forced to fund, empower and protect The Israel Industry.
People's rights are more important than Israel's "rights." 1948 gave us both Israel and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Sixty years later, as more and more Palestinian men, women and children are harshly persecuted, impoverished, imprisoned and/or displaced and cruelly demonized because they dare object, it looks to me like the world can have one or the other--but not both.
I vote for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Let God take care of religion; we need to be investing in the rule of fair and just laws, and a fully free Palestine for all the people.
Anne Selden Annab
http://annies-notes.blogspot.com
Mechanicsburg , PA
08/01/2008 @ 11:13am**********************************************
Time Magazine Blog
July 29, 2008 1:10
Trouble in Tel Aviv
Posted by Andrew Lee Buttershttp://time-blog.com/middle_east/2008/07/trouble_in_tel_aviv.html
Posted by Anne Selden Annab 
| July 29, 2008 7:27 PM
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Natalie, a refugee's right to return is a universal basic human right- regardless of race or religion. Jews who fled Nazi Germany had and continue to have the right to return plus compensation for their loses. Court cases continue to arise to help give back to individual Jewish families artwork and property that stolen from them during the Nazi Holocaust. The precedent has been clearly established in multiple courts of law.
Its a very civilized idea... Do you really want to continue endorsing the idea that when a person leaves their home for any reason (such as to go work or on vacation) armed ideologues from abroad are entitled to swoop in claiming that all that was yours is now theirs?
As far as implementing the right to return the first step is education. That is making sure that every one is aware of the importance of FULLY respecting basic human rights, including but not limited to the refugees right to return to original homes and lands. Not more forced transfer but true return.
Posted by Anne Selden Annab | July 29, 2008 10:11 PM
Hi N-N
Are you asking a serious question in search of a better way forward for the many victims of violence and injustice in the Middle East, or are you mainly looking for a way to propagate nasty thoughts about Arabs and Muslims- and Palestinians?
Looks to me like you are mainly looking for a way to plant negative ideas and nasty stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims in general- and Palestinians in particular...
While you wile away your time looking for ways to spread nasty propaganda about Palestinians the reality is this: Israel continues to invest in and defend Israel's many Jews-only settlements on both sides of that monstrous Israeli made Apartheid wall.
Israel continues to destroy Palestinian homes and communities, continues to impoverish and imprison and/or displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine
And earlier today: "Israeli troops on Tuesday shot dead a 12-year-old Palestinian boy during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian medical sources said. Hammad Hossam Mussa was hit in the head by a live bullet fired by Israeli soldiers during a demonstration in the village of Nilin, said Salah Al Khawaja, a member of Nilin's Committee Against the Wall." http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080729/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictwestbankbarriertoll_080729175548
Posted by Anne Selden Annab | July 29, 2008 11:57 PM
Andrew's haunting phrase "that was clearly once an Arab home" conveys a larger truth that Zionists don't want America to see:
Fact is Zionist immigrants to Arab Palestine have been intentionally impoverishing and displacing the indigenous people of historic Palestine- specifically targeting and harassing the native non-Jewish Palestinians all along: In 1947-48 "Some 675 towns and villages were seized and their populations forcibly removed or massacred. On the day that Israel came in to existence 85 per cent of Palestinians whose homes had been on the land occupied by the newly created state found themselves refugees, and remain so until today.
Al-Nakba goes on. It continues every day, in different places and through different means. Whatever the legal cover fabricated by Israel the process remains the same. People are uprooted, and thrown to the four corners of the earth; their land is taken, their landscapes and history obliterated." Salman Abu Sitta http://www.plands.org/articles/14.htm
Zionist crimes against the people of historic Palestine continue unchecked: " 0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 18,147 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967." http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
The larger picture is becoming clear and clearer, thanks in a large part to the information age... As my favorite blogger sums it up so well in her latest post http://umkahlil.blogspot.com/ Until the web of deceit no longer informs . . ."...deny all you want; this is a long, long struggle, and many of us in different ways, are prepared to continue, until the web of deceit no longer informs public consciousness."
| July 31, 2008 2:10 PMNatalie-
Your questions "Who are you educating here? Who is doing the educating, and what is the motivation for it? How long is this going to take, what do you think the effects will be on the "educated", how successful do you think this will be?" are silly questions and a waste of time- an intentional distraction.
I was inspired to comment here in this Zionist dominated comment section of the Time Magazine Blog because I very much struck by Andrew's writing skills- the poetry really in the way he uses words and how he is able to honestly express his thoughts and impressions as he put it so beautifully with sentences like this: "So why keep harping on Israel and the Middle East? Because the mess and the metaphors are so vivid".
Fact is modern man-made "Israel" is in long term and flagrant violation of international law and the Palestinians' basic human rights. What ever Zionism once was- or might have become- it has become an armed and dangerous ideology with horrible ramifications for countless people (including Jews).
I don't think America should be empowering Zionism... and I really have no interest in getting bogged down chatting with you Natalie, because in my opinion (although I don't know this for a fact, just a general impression) you don't seem like a very nice person, or a very well informed person, as you are so deeply mired in Zionist ideology and harassment techniques... perhaps on other topics I would enjoy and appreciate chatting with you. But from what I have seen of your comments so far, I really have no interest in finding out more about you and what we might have in common on more neutral grounds. You are free to continue grumbling and trying to find ways to waste my time or trip me up or whatever- but I am also free to flit away from you : )...
And in doing so I am inspired to quote one of my favorite writers, Saree Makdisi ( and the author of Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation http://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Inside-Out-Everyday-Occupation/dp/0393066061 ) from his recent article in the Guardian - "The question, in other words, is not whether there will be a one-state solution, but when; and how much needless suffering there will be in the meantime, until those who are committed to the project of creating and maintaining a religiously exclusivist state in what was historically a culturally and religiously heterogeneous land finally relent and accept the inevitable: that they have failed." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/28/israelandthepalestinians.middleeast
Posted by Anne Selden Annab 
| July 31, 2008 7:20 PM
Thank you Andrew Lee Butters, for writing this- and handling a difficult subject so well. I like the way you phrase thing so clearly and succinctly summing up so much such as with this telling sentence "...But here I was having a grand old time in an Israeli restaurant with painted blatt tiles, soaring ceilings and arched doorways, that was clearly once an Arab home."
and this:
... "So why keep harping on Israel and the Middle East? Because the mess and the metaphors are so vivid."
Yes the mess and the metaphors really are quite vivid. It is obvious you are trying to honestly listen and trying to think clearly... trying to compassionately understand what this mess and the metaphors really are all about, trying to determine the truth, the full truth...
I am quite convinced that the key to peace in the region is full respect for the Palestinian refugees' inalienable legal, natural, logical, and moral right to return to original homes and lands.
When Israel came to be in 1948, the United Nations quite specifically affirmed and clearly spelled out the Palestinian refugees' right to return. 60 years of knowing that fact can't be erased or dismissed, nor can the personal histories of every Palestinian family on earth as Israel continues to exasperate and add to the largest, longest running refugee crisis in the world today.