Israel’s ‘Jim Crow’ Treatment Of Palestinians Continues

[Purveyor]

Israel’s new ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, when he presented his credentials in the White House earlier this month, sent a political message by giving President Obama cufflinks from the slipshod archaeological settlement in the City of David that is violently and illegally being imposed on the Palestinian community of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s very choice of Dermer was an abrasive and non-diplomatic selection. Dermer’s views on the two-state solution are well known: he opposes it. Any public change in that position is surely cosmetic.

Netanyahu claims to support the two-state solution. Yet after Netanyahu’s first visit to Washington to meet Obama, Dermer dubbed it a “childish solution to a complicated problem.” Why antagonize Washington by sending a two-state opponent to represent Israel’s interests in the U.S.?

I think it’s because Netanyahu at heart isn’t interested in the two-state solution and knows he has Washington’s Republicans – and many Democrats – on his side. Right-wing Republicans will choose Israel’s conservative prime minister over their own president and an astonishing number of Democrats will, too. Earlier this month, “liberal” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he thought Secretary of State John Kerry made a “mistake” when Kerry commented that Israel’s attachment to its settlements might convey a message of not being serious about peace.

Dermer can stir up a hornet’s nest of antagonism in Washington if Obama presses Israel too hard, because the issue in Washington isn’t justice and freedom for Palestinians, but frequently a misguided Biblical absolutism that cares little for Christian Palestinians here and nothing for Muslim Palestinians.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/193379-israels-jim-crow-treatment-of-palestinians-continues

[oberliner]

1. ....says Ahmad Tibi, Deputy Speaker of the Israeli Knesset

This is through the looking glass stuff.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

3. A casual view of replies to OPs critical of Israel, by said poster,

will show a near endless stream of hollow retorts with no filling.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

4. From the article.

As a Palestinian citizen of Israel and elected Knesset member, I do not have the same willingness to look the other way that American legislators exhibit. I regularly see Netanyahu’s Knesset enablers attempting to pass legislation that openly discriminates against my fellow Palestinian citizens. There are, in fact, over 50 laws that already discriminate against us and more are on the way.

American politicians, who seem thankful America has passed beyond its own Jim Crow era, frequently look the other way at Israel’s internal discrimination. As for Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, American politicians are only sporadically critical. Freedom and rights for Palestinians are, at best, an afterthought.

The more things change the more they stay the same. America, that beacon of light embodying Democracy couldn't give two rat shits about other people suffering over the years when it ensured their geopolitical dominance in either hemisphere.

Whether it was in Cuba, Latin or South America, Iran, Viet Nam, The Philippines or anyplace that America wanted a tin pot dictator nothing stopped Good Ole Uncle Sham from leaving his greasy thumbprint: yay democracy.

Israel is no different in many ways. The USA backs Israel with military power and money...human rights be damned.