Peace for Israelis and Palestinians? Not without America's tough love. CSM

[grassfed]

An Israeli student explains why the US should act on moral outrage over Israel’s discriminatory policies before it’s too late.

One example is segregation on roads in the West Bank, where settlers travel on roads that are for Jews only, while Palestinians are stopped at checkpoints, and a 10-mile commute might take seven hours.

Another example is discrimination in water supply : Israel pumps drinking water from occupied territory (in violation of international law). Israelis use as much as four times more water than Palestinians, while Palestinians are not allowed to dig their own wells and must rely on Israeli supply.

Civil freedom is no better: In an effort to break the spirit of Palestinians, Israel conducts sporadic arrests and detentions with no judicial supervision. According to one prisoner support and human rights association, roughly 4 in 10 Palestinian males have spent some time in Israeli prisons. That’s 40 percent of all Palestinian males!

And finally, perhaps one of the greatest injustices takes place in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is collectively punishing more than 1.5 million Palestinians by sealing them off in the largest open-air prison on earth.

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[grassfed]

1. The ‘Beita’ incident shines lasting light on a cruel Occupation and its halfhearted coverage

snip

"So let’s sum this all up. A group of illegal Israeli settlers take a deliberately provocative hike to an Arab village to show them who’s boss. They allow an Israeli racist hothead with a violent history to be an armed guard, and he predictably murders two Palestinians and shoots two others, and accidentally kills an Israeli girl. The Times blames both sides equally. The Israeli army kills a third Palestinian youth for “running away” and destroys 14 homes, most if not all of them after learning who was responsible for killing the Israeli. The killer of three is allowed to walk free, while the pregnant sister of one of the Palestinian victims goes to prison, and six men from the village are expelled from the country.

No less significant than these events was a follow-up article in the Times by Joel Brinkley appearing four months later about the seething villagers of Beita. In a bizarre effort to conform to the Times’ even-handed policy, Brinkley reduced the Palestinian death toll to a single fatality rather than three, neatly counterbalanced by the single Israeli death. For good measure, Brinkley added that by the time it became clear that Tirza had been shot by a fellow settler rather than stoned to death, “Israel had already taken vengeance,” blowing up 14 homes and deporting six residents to Lebanon."

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[Jefferson23]

2. I wish Obama would go to Gaza with a press corp. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

3. The US is incapable of being an honest broker

It would be best if the US disengages from the region completely, and stop funneling money and armaments to all the countries in the region.

[Eg-ptiangirl]

5. wow that would be great

do it now

[LeftishBrit]

6. Are you sure? Your country also gets a lot of American aid.

Or do you think that it goes to the wrong people?

[Eg-ptiangirl]

7. You mean my government

[IndianaGreen]

8. Particularly the corrupt Mubarak family

Americans love Mubarak because he wears expensive Western suits and speaks fluent English. Americans don't know that Egypt is a police state controlled by small wealthy elites.

[shira]

4. "...roads for Jews only"? FAIL. (nt)

[cali]

9. OK, skip that. what about the rest of what he's saying?

What about the water? What about the land theft?