It's not the olive trees

[Wordie]

The article begins by outlining the following statistics:

Tawana (in the southern Hebron hills): 120 trees uprooted (this month)
Burin (south of Nablus): about 290 trees (this month)
Police statistics (2005): 733 trees
Human rights groups statistics (partial): 2,616 trees were sabotaged

And the article states:
Even if those who counted the damaged trees exaggerated, both sides agree that it is Israelis who are damaging vineyards and plantations. It goes on to discuss the shock that the Israeli public is experiencing over these inhumane acts, which is significant enough that it has prompted an Israeli decision "to focus law enforcement activities "on the settlements that are recognized as problematic."."

It's not the olive trees
By Amira Hass

...The shock, however, is selective. The Israel Defense Forces has uprooted thousands of olive and fruit trees, cultivated lands and greenhouses, and continues to do so - in order to secure the roads it uses and to increase visibility for soldiers; to build watchtowers, checkpoints and the separation fence; and in order to pave more and more roads and construct security fences around the settlements.

The uprooting of 100 trees sabotages the ability of an entire family to support itself. Closing roads sabotages the economic vitality of the entire Palestinian people. The IDF will of course talk about the need to protect Israeli citizens. So why is anyone shocked when those same Israeli citizens continue to stretch the logic of Israel's control over the occupied territories?

According to that logic, Israel has the right to institute a double legal standard in the occupied territories: one for Jews, another for Palestinians. Unlimited rights for Jews in housing, freedom of movement, livelihood, infrastructure, and land and water use, versus an organized system of stripping the Palestinians of human and civil rights. According to that logic, Palestinians must make do with increasingly smaller "land cells" whose private ownership they can prove. The broader expanses, whose ownership is not registered with the Israel Lands Administration, automatically belongs to "Israel" and the settlers' councils.

The settlers do not set policy, they are its result. Everyone lives in peace and without prickings of conscience in the face of hundreds of impoverished communities that have effectively turned into prisons, in order to permit the IDF to continue to protect the Israeli state enterprise: to control as much land as possible, to drive out as many Palestinians as possible. A minority of Israelis are not waiting for the IDF and the state to destroy; they destroy on their own. It is easy to be shocked by a minority and to forget the responsibility of the whole.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/668697.html

[Behind the Aegis]

1. Nevermind...

...you caught it (forgot the link in the original post, so I posted it for you).

Edited since link was added.

[Wordie]

2. It's there now. Thanks for catching it. eom

[Behind the Aegis]

3. No prob.

I may not think it is a very good article, but it shouldn't be locked because the link to the article was accidentally forgotten. :)

[Wordie]

5. ...a gracious move noted. Thank you. eom

[Tom Joad]

4. This attack on Palestinian lives and livelihoods is at the root

of the violence.
For the Congresspeople who call for security of Israelis, let them also begin to understand it is Palestinians who live a precarious life, and that they also need security.

Why do so many US politicians fail to see this?

"Israeli state enterprise: to control as much land as possible, to drive out as many Palestinians as possible. A minority of Israelis are not waiting for the IDF and the state to destroy; they destroy on their own. It is easy to be shocked by a minority and to forget the responsibility of the whole."