jkc1945 says: "A website which is an obvious propoganda (sic) website is not worthy of a detailed response."

onenewsnow is such a website and Walid Shoebat is a phony.

First of all, sometime in 1999 I came across a Time Life digest of the year 1965. It contained a chronicle of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It turns out that an Arab Sheik donated the first parcel of land for an Israeli Homeland. The book also stated that the first person to blow themselves up in a terrorist attack was an Israeli. The report also chronicled the numerous attempts that the Palestinian people made to seek justice in the United Nations after the Israeli nation was established by the "winners" of World War II. Every attempt was blocked by the United States of America, yeah, us.

Israel is a client state of the United States. They support our interests in the Middle East, overtly and covertly and we give them millions of dollars every year in military aid, including militarized John Deere bulldozers. This is why we have been in the middle of every negotiation. This is why there has been no solution. As long as we keep paying them, Israel will continue to use these funds to commit genocide.

So, a major part of the solution has to be holistic. The United States has to take a more peaceful approach in its relations in the Middle East. The self determination of all nations must prevail. If we stop trying to own things that are not ours and stop trying to control people who have an inalienable right to independence and self determination then we will not need a client state in the Middle East.

We can and should change the deal we have made with Israel. To begin the correction, we should decrease the amount of money we give for military purposes by at least 30%. We should stipulate that the 30% being held back from war must be used to make peace. Half should go to Israel to pay for taking down their towers and walls and barbed wire fences and to establishing straight, un- blocked, connecting roads from Gaza to the rest of Palestine. I would love to see the Israelis have to pay a toll to cross the Palestinian Highway. That would be a fine way to make reparations for the damage they have done. The Palestinians would use their half towards establishing a more self sufficient economy and see to their health and education. I would love to add them to our Fair Trade network. Terrorist on both sides should be invited to take a leading part in these activities for their respective nations.

I think our President would do well to start by going back to where we first messed up. The Palestinian case should be heard again in the United Nations. This time with our full support and with all the respect that was due them the first time they attempted to find a legal and nonviolent solution to their grievances.

I do not believe that a solution requires us to struggle and strain over all the violence. What percentage of the United States GDP is made up of war making and war materials? Yes, let's not even go there.

I also feel that the religious element is not the real issue. It is the money behind the players that matters. They of course would be more than happy to see people all tied up in Anti-Semitism, Jewish, Muslim, Christian what ever, as long as the money continues to flow it is all good. Religious differences make for good long lasting wars which is good for business.

Through my own personal Bible study one lesson (of many) that I learned from the Old Testament is that we are all human. We all mess up. Deal with it. God loves us all anyway. Our job is to be truthful, admit our mistakes, learn from them, ask forgiveness, make amends and make peace with our brothers and sisters. The rules have not changed.

If Obama is Serious, He Should Get Tough With Israel

Some good advice from Aaron David Miller, an adviser for Democratic and Republican administrations and author of “The Much Too Promised Land,”
http://www.newsweek.com/id/177716?from=rss
excerpts:

In 25 years of working on this issue for six secretaries of state, I can't recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity—including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions—does to the peacemaking process. There is a need to impose some accountability. And this can only come from the president. But Obama should make it clear that America will not lend its auspices to a peacemaking process in which the actions of either side willfully undermine the chances of an agreement America is trying to broker. No process at all would be better than a dishonest one that hurts America's credibility.

Second, Obama will have to maintain his independence and tactical flexibility to play the mediator's role. This means not road testing everything with Israel first before previewing it to the other side, a practice we followed scrupulously during the Clinton and Bush 43 years. America must also not agree to every idea proposed by an Israeli prime minister. Our willingness to go along with Ehud Barak's make-or-break strategy at the Camp David summit proved very costly where more disciplined critical thinking on our part might have helped preempt the catastrophe that followed. Coordinating with Israel on matters relating to its security is one thing. Giving Israel a veto over American negotiating tactics and positions, particularly when it comes to bridging gaps between the two sides, is quite another.

If the new president adjusts his thinking when it comes to Israel, and is prepared to be tough with the Arabs as well, the next several years could be fascinating and productive ones. I hope so, because the national interest demands it. The process of American mediation will be excruciatingly painful for Arabs, Israelis and Americans. But if done right, with toughness and fairness, it could produce the first real opportunity for a peace deal in many years.

Bill Moyers on Israel's attack on Gaza:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01092009/tran...
Excerpts:

What we are seeing in Gaza is the latest battle in the oldest family quarrel on record. Open your Bible: the sons of the patriarch Abraham become Arab and Jew. Go to the Book of Deuteronomy. When the ancient Israelites entered Canaan their leaders urged violence against its inhabitants. The very Moses who had brought down the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" now proclaimed, "You must destroy completely all the places where the nations have served their gods. You must tear down their altars, smash their pillars, cut down their sacred poles, set fire to the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their name from that place."

So God-soaked violence became genetically coded. A radical stream of Islam now seeks to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. Israel misses no opportunity to humiliate the Palestinians with checkpoints, concrete walls, routine insults, and the onslaught in Gaza. As if boasting of their might, Israel defense forces even put up video of the explosions on YouTube for all the world to see. A Norwegian doctor there tells CBS, "It's like Dante's Inferno. They are bombing one and a half million people in a cage."

America has officially chosen sides. We supply Israel with money, F-16s, winks and tacit signals. Our Christian right links arms with the religious extremists there who claim divine sanctions for Israel's occupation of the West Bank. Our political elites show neither independence nor courage by challenging the consensus that Israel can do no wrong. Although one recent poll found Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli offensive by a 24-point margin, Democratic Party leaders in Congress nonetheless march in lockstep to the hardliners in Israel and the White House.

This is really bad advice, Kuhndog.
If we can learn anything from the perennial hostility between Palestine and Israel, it's that they are incapable of extricating themselves from their tragic situation, all by themselves.
The world can no longer tolerate this open, bleeding wound and must act to remove the main obstacle to Peace on Earth.

The boy emperor attracts criticism from around the world -- from liberals and conservatives alike.
He's not hated because he's a conservative -- he isn't a real conservative. He's a radical.
The boy emperor is despised and hated for his track record of incompetence, arrogance and the incalculable damage he's done to world peace and global prosperity.

If you find hypocrisy fascinating, focus on the pathetic, post election soul searching within the Republican party.
You won't be disappointed.

You all speak as though this is any of our business. We can call for a cease fire sure, but much of these problems have been perpetuated by our interference in the past. These are sovereign nations and we have no right to interfere. Israel is our only true ally in that area however. Also, if you had a rocket lobbed into your neighborhood every now and then as Hamas does to Israel, I am certain you would be ready to do whatever it took to make sure those rockets were stopped. Hamas is basically a kid throwing dirt clods at a hornets nest, sooner or later they are going to come after you.

As for foreign support, I would agree that we should not be pouring money and weapons into Israel. But we should cut off all foreign aid, give that money back to the people of America by cutting taxes and allow individuals to decide if they want to support foreign mission work/operations.

The US government should remove itself from all foreign entanglements as soon as possible. Our economy is about to fail as a result of bad foreign and domestic policies. When that happens, there will be nothing left for foreign aid.

As for the deprived Palestinians, they elected Hamas of their own free will. Have you forgotten that the Egyptians refuse to help the Palestinians as well. They are surrounded by "friends", i.e.Iran, Egypt, Syria...other Muslim nations, and these nations neither give the Palestinians land or enough food and aid to live more comfortably where they are. Iran could easily absorb the Palestinian population and end this. The other Muslim nations though use the Palestinian people to antagonize Israel and keep the entire region unstable.

However, I must make clear, even though we should hope for peace in that region, our government should not be politically involved in applying pressure to either Israel or the Palestinians. They are grown men and can figure this out for themselves.

"why doesn't jim talk about hamas agression?"

I've often wondered the same thing, savvyguy. Listening to most of the media, you'd never know that over the last 3 years Hamas has launched 6,464 (column by Charles Krauthammer 1-6-09) rocket and mortar attacks against unarmed Israeli civilians. No one would tolerate that if it were done against their country. Also, no one talks about the arms stored in mosques, schools and so forth by Hamas. Both sides have committed war crimes. But we hear more about the Israeli's war crimes than those of Hamas.

I think the short answer to your question is simply political correctness.

I love watching the visceral hatred of liberals towards all things conservative, especially people. Human hypocrisy is alive and well!

Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'
Incoming administration will abandon Bush's isolation of Islamist group to initiate low-level diplomacy, say transition sources.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/bar...

Excerpts:

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George Bush's ­doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas, which could be initiated through the US intelligence services, would represent a definitive break with the Bush ­presidency's ostracising of the group. The state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation...

The Guardian has spoken to three ­people with knowledge of the discussions in the Obama camp. There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive. A tested course would be to start ­contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services, similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.

Obama has frustrated and confused those who had been looking for a more evenhanded approach to the Israeli-­Palestinian conflict by his refusal to make any substantive comment on Israel's ­military campaign on Gaza, nearly two weeks on.

He said on Wednesday: "We cannot be sending a message to the world that there are two different administrations conducting foreign policy.
Until I take office, it would be ­imprudent of me to start sending out ­signals that somehow we are running ­foreign policy when I am not legally authorised to do so."

WAR CRIMES

"Include use of outlawed weapons; intentionally bombing schools, hospitals, mosques and churches; killing after a cease-fire; and starvation of citizens."

An Unnecessary War, by Jimmy Carter

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...

excerpts:

Knowing that we would soon be seeing Hamas leaders from Gaza and also in Damascus, we promised to assess prospects for a cease-fire. From Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who was negotiating between the Israelis and Hamas, we learned that there was a fundamental difference between the two sides. Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank and Gaza, and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza.

We knew that the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved, as the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food had found that acute malnutrition in Gaza was on the same scale as in the poorest nations in the southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian families eating only one meal a day.

After 12 days of "combat," the Israeli Defense Forces reported that more than 1,000 targets were shelled or bombed. During that time, Israel rejected international efforts to obtain a cease-fire, with full support from Washington. Seventeen mosques, the American International School, many private homes and much of the basic infrastructure of the small but heavily populated area have been destroyed. This includes the systems that provide water, electricity and sanitation. Heavy civilian casualties are being reported by courageous medical volunteers from many nations, as the fortunate ones operate on the wounded by light from diesel-powered generators.

This war will only create more suicide bombers.

If I were in the same room as the boy emperor, I'd be tempted to throw a shoe or two at him.

I agree with Maani, too. And I think the hatred and destructiveness coming from Hamas is one of the reasons Israelis do not seem to want to give up the West Bank. If I were an Israeli, I would fear that what happened in Gaza - pullout of settlers, giving it back to the Palestinians, and then having them elect Hamas and start to attack Israel - would be exactly what would happen in the West Bank.

I think it's important to remember that the Jews and Muslims did not make the boundary lines in the Middle East. The same is true for Saudi Arabia, and I think also Iran and Iraq. Great Britain and France created the boundaries. And I think we should not ask Israel to make itself vulnerable to destruction - especially when they have so many Muslim haters in their vicinity - by asking them to give up the West Bank.

I'd like to see the Palestinians governing themselves, and thriving, too - but they just (in my opinion - correct me if I'm wrong) would have to give up the idea of destroying Israel, and separate themselves from other Islamic violence-mongers, and put their energies into building a real state for themselves. That - I think - would be the kind of attitude change that would give the Israels enough trust and faith to "give back" the West Bank.

Or - maybe the people of the region need to draw their own boundaries, not based on European or American ideas but based on the needs of the people who actually live there in the Middle East. If only they could be agreed-upon without violence, the way our states are! We, too, started out with states based on religion - Quakers (Pennsylvania), Puritans (Massachusetts), Anglican (Virginia), Catholic (Maryland) - and only later became united, with freedom of worship... I wish the Middle East could do that, too. Maybe they will, after this violent interpretation of Islam has come and gone.

Since every political solution that has been proposed, and tried has failed, why don't we stop with the politics. If you want a real, lasting, sustainable peace in the middle east, or anywhere in the world for that matter, why don't we try something that appears to have never been tried before? How about preaching the Gospel?

who amoung you and jim, thinks that hamas will talk about anything? answer me that. a cease fire means no more rockets and suicides. not a chnace. how many times has isreal stopped bombing? pulled out of areas. opened borders. the result - hamas wants more. arafat turned down peace why shouyldd even more radical hamas do any different. why don't the palestnians run hamas off to stop the slaughter? why doesn't jim talk about hamas agression?

I agree with Maani. I don't think there is any room for an Israeli state in the eyes of the Hamas leaders. The hatred is so vitriolic that, short of an Israeli-Egyptian-like accord -- thank you former Pres. Carter -- there is little to be hopeful about. Perhaps Jimmy has a little left in him.........

While I fully support Palestinian statehood and reject most of the tactics of the Israeli goverment, how can there ever be peace when the founding charter of Hamas explicitly calls for the "elmination of the State of Israel," whether by violent or other means, and that nothing less is acceptable? Hamas leaves no room for treaties, truces (except temporary) or ANY solution that does not include the destruction, dissolution or other elimination of the State of Israel. So what makes anyone think that peace is even possible?

Until Hamas is ready to amend their founding documents and recognize the right of Israel to exist, the violence will continue, and no solution will ever be found.

Peace. (in our time...)

There's been a lot of focus on Obama. I surely hope he will exert real leadership after Jan. 20. My concern right now is what are Christian organizations like Sojourners doing? Jim is right that we need long range solutions. But we need cease fire and humanitarian aid NOW. Here is recent statement from Red Cross (N.Y. Times 1/8/2008) "The International Committee of the Red Cross reported finding “shocking” scenes during the first lull, on Wednesday, including four children, weak and emaciated, next to the bodies of their mothers. In a rare and sharply critical statement, it said it believed that “the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”

Please, Jim, consider sending out a Sojourners action alert on this asking us to contact President Bush and our representatives. American politicians and mainstream media are so one-sided on Middle East peace issues. I hope the American religious community can do more.