The night before his up-set election, Netanyahu vowed that there
would never be a Palestinian state on his watch. The day after his election, he said that he
was committed to a two state solution.
What is amazing is that he is having difficulty understanding how anyone
can see these statements as contradictory.
“My position has always been the same.”
In Israel ,
the Prime Minister, as long as the people vote for him, is the law and whatever
he says is the truth.
Nahum Barnea, columnist for Yediot Ahronot, wrote:
Netanyahu’s
promises are like something written on ice on a very hot day”[1]
I wish Netanyahu would
backtrack… about sixty years or so and establish a Constitution for Israel
to protect all its citizens. However, until that happens, he is free to shoot
from the hip. He has run Israel for
about ten years now and I can think of many ways he could backtrack with
dignity.
I wish he could pull the bombs he dropped on the defenseless
people of Gaza
back up into his planes. Just this week,
on Meet the Press, Ron Dermer, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. , referred to the ineffective, crude rockets
Hamas fired into southern Israel .
At the same time, he failed to complete the picture and mention the 800 tons of bombs Israel dropped on
Gaza, killing thousands of people, including 500 children, and causing such
destruction that Oxfam says will take a hundred years to rebuild. Yet according to Ron Dermer, Netanyahu is
committed to peace and Hamas is nothing more than a terrorist organization.
I wish Netanyahu could suck back up the white phosphorous
bombs which burned to the bone causing uncontrollable agony to anyone unlucky
enough to come in contact with this gas. Its use is condemned by
international law. When the planes came, as they did for 20 days last summer,
children looked up with absolute terror in their eyes. Yet, according to Israel and the US
media, the Palestinians, not Israel ,
are the terrorist.
I wish Netanyahu could backtrack and restore the arms and
legs of the victims of his his slaughter of Gaza , offer medical care for the more than
11,000 injured and the more that 1000 children permanently disabled. And rebuild the schools, hospitals and power
plants and the tens of thousands of homes he destroyed in Palestine . And rebuild the economy his
policies have wrecked by blocking imports and exports to and from the occupied territories. I wish he could bring back the life of the
fisherman his gunboats killed last week who was fishing within the “allowed” six
mile limit Israel
imposed upon those seeking food for their families. However, Netanyahu “put 1.8 million Gazans on a diet.” According
to the UNRWA, 1.5 million Palestinians are food insecure because of Israel ’s
blockade at the entrance gates.
Yes, I wish Benjamin Netanyahu could wash the blood off of
his hands.
The world press is accusing him of back tracking. But, unfortunately,
he is not backtracking in anyway that could make a difference. He is the same Netanyahu who can do anything
he wants to do and say anything he wants to say because according to him, and
most of the members of the US Congress, he is the only game in town. Add to that, the support of fifty million
Christian Zionists who preach that Israel
is God’s chosen people and right away, Israel gets a pass, no matter what
it does. Even worse, Netanyahu himself actually believes he is “special,” above
accountability to international law, human decency, or to God.
While Israel
gets money, legitimacy and protection because of our “special relationship,”
the question is: what do we, the people of the US , get?
We get to bury 34 sailors serving on the USS Liberty in
1967, killed by Israel .
Of course, Israel
backtracked the next day, claiming that it was a “mistake.” Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chair of the Joint
Chief of Staff, said, “I will never buy the idea that the pilots did not know
this was an American ship. The attack was deliberate.” Our Congress has yet to demanded an
investigation.
We get to honor the life of a 23 year old American girl
crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as she stood up to protest the
demolition of a Palestinian's home.
Our congress has never demanded an investigation and that was twelve
years ago.
We get to have an American humanitarian worker refused entrance
into Israel .
Without any explanation, a U.S.
citizen, at great inconvenience and personal financial cost, is denied the right to enter Israel in spite
of our “special relationship.”
.
Perhaps it is we, the people of the United States ,
and not Netanyahu, who should backtrack.
Thomas Are
March 25, 2015
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