Palestine Information Project

ARCHIVES OF ALL PSC RESPONSE NETWORK ALERTS

The Palestine Solidarity Committee maintains a Response Network that provides participants with action alerts
on prominent issues regarding the occupation. With this network mechanism,
we offer an opportunity for friends of Palestinian human rights
to practice internet activism by responding to alerts that we send to all who sign up.

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--PLEASE FORWARD THIS ALERT TO OTHERS WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED--

Please write the Seattle P.I. about Sunday's op-eds by David Brumer and Johann Hari, inserted below. Presumably inspired by the upcoming 60^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel, Brumer has written yet another exaggeration of Israel's innocence and victimization. Loaded with stereotypes and falsehoods, this column paints a picture of Israel as a "vibrant democracy" apparently demonized, unfathomably, by deranged "progressives" and fundamentalists who wish for the destruction of the state. Standard Brumer fare.

In the same issue, the P.I. reprinted an editorial from the Independent by Johann Hari. This column provides a partial response to Brumer, in that it mentions the 60-year displacement of the Palestinians, and it describes the environmental racism practiced against them by Israeli settlers.

Our response could further any or all of the following goals:
1. bring up the "rest of the story:" Israel's creation involved a catastrophe for the Palestinians that is still being imposed to this day (see details in talking points below).
2. Suggest that the P.I. give the ubiquitous Brumer a rest and find an Israeli patriot who can avoid such malicious and fanciful writing.
3. Note with appreciation that the P.I. tried to answer Brumer's article with an opposing point of view, but how about giving the Palestinians a chance to speak for themselves?

Time by which action should be taken:
--Ideal: Monday, May 5
--Still helpful: Thursday, May 8

Articles:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361594_israel04.htm l
"An incontrovertible right to exist"
By David Brumer
and
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361593_hari04.html
"Israel built over the ruins of its crimes against Palestine"
By Johann Hari
The full texts of the articles are inserted at the end of this e-mail.

Context:
In this 60^th anniversary year of the Nakba (Arabic for "catastrophe"), when over 700,000 Palestinians were displaced and hundreds of their villages were destroyed, opponents of human rights for Palestinians are particularly on the offensive, urging the general public to celebrate the establishment of an idealized Jewish state, while burying the rest of the history that has happened in historic Palestine over the past century. There were Palestinians. Most of them were displaced, their lives uprooted. The Palestinians have resisted this crime, and the crimes continue, as does the Palestinians' resistance. This year, we turn a corner in educating the public about this history. Heretofore we have mainly concentrated on the now 40-year occupation of Palestinian territories, but we have resolved to put that occupation in the context of the larger dispossession of the entire Palestinian society. For Americans to understand why there is a conflict in Palestine and Israel, they must have information that goes back before 1967.

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Talking points for letter writing:

Your letter can be very brief; it is the response to the editorials that counts. Below are some points that could be expressed.

--Express objection to the P.I.'s giving space to Brumer's tired, overblown, racist comments. Express appreciation for Hari's reprinted article. Request air time for Palestinians.

--Brumer's framing of his argument centers on the alleged questioned existence of Israel. For most of us concerned with the conflict, the central issue is the ongoing, flagrant violation of Palestinian human rights. Re-frame the discussion this way. Put differently, Brumer's grandiose worrying about Israel's right to exist is a version of the security argument. But it leaves out the question of Palestinian security!

--On the issue of Palestinian security, let's remember:
-that in 1948 over 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their ancestral land, which they had continually inhabited for many centuries, and around 500 of their villages were destroyed at that time.
-That several hundred thousand more Palestinians were displaced in 1967, and the rest of Palestine, that is, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, were then occupied at that time.
-that the Palestinians within Israel have been treated as (at best) second-class citizens ever since 1948, and those in the Territories have been living under a harsh, brutal military dictatorship for the last fifty years.
-that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories are routinely denied their rights to worship, livelihood, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and that they are subject to random arrest, torture, jailing without trial, confiscation of their land, and uprooting of their orchards. The "separation barrier" separates from their land and from Jerusalem, their holy city (for Palestinian Muslims and Christians) as well as that of the Jews.
-that Palestinians within Israel are denied equal opportunity, education, and livelihood on a par with Jewish Israelis.

--These and many other offenses to Palestinian security are the root of Israeli insecurity. Brumer finds the "delegitimization" of Israel baffling. He should take a look at these ways that Israel ruins its own legitimacy.

--Reinforce Hari's comments that show that Israel is not in fact the idyllic land, the vibrant democracy falsely portrayed by Brumer. As Hari writes, the history of 1948 needs to be "excavated," indeed. Part of that process will addressing the refugee problem. As part of the condition for Israel's membership in the United Nations, it signed on to UN Resolution 194, which acknowledged the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

--In burying the true history of 1948, Brumer also ignores the fact that the establishment of settlements on Palestinian lands continues to this day, in the West Bank. Cementing territorial dominance through settlements, besides being prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, is an outmoded way of conquering people and land, and it does not work.

--Although Brumer doesn't recognize occupation, he touts the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a commendable move. He notes the removal of 8,000 "Israeli citizens" from that territory, but doesn't explain what they were doing on someone else's land. Furthermore, the ongoing Israeli control of Gaza's borders, air, and resources leave Israel under the onus of occupation law. Most objectionably, Brumer does not recognize the continuing torment imposed on Gaza by the complete shutoff of fuel in, and commerce out. This has reached such drastic proportions that UNRWA (UN Relief Works Agency) last week suspended relief operations in Gaza due to lack of fuel for deliveries. Starvation is threatening Gaza.

--Brumer mentions suicide bombing, but not the targeted assassinations, regular army incursions, and bombing of Gaza that leave its population helpless and desperate. Apologists for Israel's behavior usually point to the rockets fired on Sderot as the cause of all this, but is Gaza really the place to look for Gandhian resistance? Meanwhile, last month Hamas offered yet another truce to the Israeli government, one that was once again ignored.

--Brumer cites partition plans as if they were the most reasonable "compromise" imaginable. From the Palestinian side, these plans have always meant theft of their homeland.

--Brumer writes of gay and women's rights in Israel, but where are the Palestinians in that commendable scenario? For the Palestinians, Israel is not a democracy. Their representatives in the Knesset are routinely marginalized; to fill out parliamentary coalitions, the most extreme religious and pro-expulsion Zionist parties are chosen in their stead. Palestinian villages remain sidelined, deprived of public services, roads, new schools, and utilities. Palestinians within Israel, in the most developed country in the Middle East, suffer from Third World diseases, lacking the health care that Brumer touts.

--Brumer also claims that Israel boasts of religious freedom, but if that is so, then why did Israeli soldiers beat Arab Christians in Bethlehem on Easter, violently preventing them from worshipping in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher?

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Email your letter to: editpage@seattlepi.com

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Reminders:

1) Please write even if you only have time for a brief note. Numbers count. If you are not published, you will be helping someone with a similar viewpoint get into print.

2) The word limit for letters that are intended for publication is 200.

3) Begin your letter with a reference to the title and date of the article or opinion piece to which you are responding. Example: "Regarding William Safire's Friday column ("Sharon shifts Middle East politics")....

4) Personal experiences and/or qualifications, when relevant, can be helpful in establishing your authority. However, you can also establish your authority by writing factual, logical, respectful letters. When possible, include a reference to your source, such as, "according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem,..."

5) Don't try to respond to every problem with the piece in question. Just pick one or two points to concentrate on.

6) Don't forget to include your full name, street address and contact phone numbers. The paper needs these to verify that you are actually the author. Only your name and city will appear in print.

7) Please bcc us at alerts@palestineinformation.org or forward your letter to that address. This is for our media monitoring records.

Thank you!

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Full text of articles:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361594_israel04.html
An incontrovertible right to exist

By DAVID BRUMER
GUEST COLUMNIST

The creation of Israel, the modern flowering of an ancient people, was one of the few redeeming acts in a century of atrocity and shame. Yet, as the Jewish state celebrates its 60th birthday, a chorus of defamers sees the modern incarnation of the Jewish people in their homeland as a historic injustice. For some in academia, the media and even the United Nations, Israel's very "Right to Exist" is considered a subject for legitimate debate. It's ironic, too, since few nations can claim the kind of historic legitimacy and connection to a place as can the Jewish people.

For more than 3,000 years, Jews have been spiritually as well as corporeally bonded to the land of Israel. In 1921, Winston Churchill proclaimed, "It is manifestly right that the Jews, who are scattered all over the world, should have a national center and a national home. And where else could that be but in this land of Palestine, with which for more than 3,000 years they have been intimately and profoundly associated?" For French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the recreation of a sovereign Jewish state "is the most significant event of the 20th century." He described Israel's re-establishment as "the 20th century's miracle" and noted that "defending its existence is an international duty."

So why, 60 years later, or 3,060 years, if you will, is Israel living under such a barrage of existential threats? Why does Israel still have to prove itself worthy of being included in the family of nations? Why indeed is Israel singled out as the one nation on Earth whose very existence is questioned? Cynthia Ozick bristles at the "the scandal of calling into question a living nation's existence ... The Big Lie that demonizes Israel and contaminates the viler estuaries of what is nowadays dubbed 'the international community' ... ."

Yet among "progressive" intellectuals, especially in Europe, it is axiomatic that Israel is not merely "not doing enough to for peace in the Middle East," but is responsible for Islamist "outrage" against the West; that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict remains at the core of the Arab world's grievances, and, if only this conflict could be solved, peace would ensue. Leaving aside the illogical nature of this proposition (al-Qaida and other radical Islamists have as much a gripe against Christian nations whom they see as usurping their place in history), it is hard to find a country that has striven more for peaceful co-existence with its neighbors than Israel. No nation has taken more demonstrable risks for peace. Israel proved its intention to live in harmony with its neighbors when it enacted peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Israel has shown its willingness to make painful sacrifices in the name of peace, withdrawing from all of Gaza in 2005 while evacuating more than 8,000 Israeli citizens from their homes.

Israel has said yes to virtually every partition plan put forth in modern times while the Palestinians have said no, starting with the Peel Commission in 1937, which would have given the Palestinians nearly 80 percent of the land between the "River and the Sea." In 1947, the Palestinians again rejected statehood on 45 percent of the land, while Israel agreed to the remaining 55 percent divided into three cantons (60 percent of which is desert). Finally, in 2000 Israel offered the Palestinians more than 96 percent of contiguous West Bank land and all of Gaza in the hopes that the century-old conflict could end. The Palestinian response to that offer was the Second Intifada, more aptly understood by Israelis as a Terror War unleashed against the Jewish State.

Yet Israel continues to be viewed as the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Israel, which at 60 continues to be a vibrant, secular democracy. Israel, which is accused of human rights violations and even apartheid, remains an oddity in the Middle East where gays participate openly in military service; all women have the right to vote, with 17 of them serving in the 120-member Knesset (Parliament). Another12 members are Arab-Israelis, with three parties representing the Arab segment of the population. And all Israeli citizens, Christians, Muslims and Jews, enjoy freedom of speech, the press and unfettered religious expression, as well as access to education, modern health care and the professions.

Of course, Israel is far from perfect, and legitimate criticisms launched against specific conditions and policies are expected and welcomed. It is the demonization and delegitimization of the Jewish state that is as baffling as it is malevolent. Israel, which has produced more Nobel laureates per capita than anywhere else in the world, a nation of highly educated and motivated people, producing cutting-edge technologies in medicine, science and business; and all this in the face of ongoing threats -- and actualities -- of war, and the unwillingness of too many of its neighbors to accept Israel's very right to exist as a Jewish nation. The world might better applaud the miracle of Israel's rebirth in its deliberately tiny ancestral land as a model of decency, tolerance and intellectual vibrancy, for these are the true criteria of legitimacy, and focus its urge to deligitimize on societies that celebrate (and wish to spread around the world) the values of suicide-bombing, uncompromising intolerance, and irrationality.

David Brumer is a media analyst, writer and consultant on Middle Eastern affairs. He is on the advisory board of StandWithUs Northwest and is a member of Israel Bonds Speakers Bureau. Visit his blog, BRUMSPEAK, at brumspeak.blogspot.com

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/361593_hari04.html
Israel built over the ruins of its crimes against Palestine

By JOHANN HARI
GUEST COLUMNIST

When you hit your 60th birthday, most of you will guzzle a glass of champagne and wonder if you have become everything you dreamed of in your youth. Soon, the state of Israel is going to have that hangover.

She will look in the mirror and think -- I have a sore back, rickety knees and a gun at my waist, but I'm still standing. Yet somewhere, she will know she is suppressing an old secret she has to face. I would love to be able to crash the birthday party with words of reassurance. Israel has given us great novelists such as Amos Oz and A.B. Yehoshua, great filmmakers such as Joseph Cedar, great scientific research into Alzheimer's, and great dissident journalists such as Amira Hass, Tom Segev and Gideon Levy to expose her own crimes.

She has provided the one lonely spot in the Middle East where gay people are not hounded and hanged, and where women can approach equality.

But I can't do it. Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land. From there, it can enter the groundwater and the reservoirs and become a poison.

This is no freak: A 2004 report by Friends of the Earth found that only 6 percent of Israeli settlements adequately treat their sewage.

Meanwhile, in order to punish the population of Gaza for voting "the wrong way," the Israeli army is not allowing past the checkpoints any replacements for the pipes and cement needed to keep the sewage system working. The result? Vast stagnant pools of waste are being held within fragile dykes across the strip, and rotting. Last March, one burst, drowning a 9-month-old baby and his grandmother in a tsunami of human waste. The Center on Housing Rights warns one heavy rainfall could send 1.5m cubic meters of feces flowing all over Gaza, causing "a humanitarian and environmental disaster of epic proportions."

So how did it come to this? How did a Jewish state founded 60 years ago with a promise to be "a light unto the nations" end up flinging its filth at a cowering Palestinian population?

The beginnings of an answer lie in the secret Israel has known, and suppressed, all these years. Even now, can we describe what happened 60 years ago honestly and unhysterically? The Jews who arrived in Palestine throughout the 20th century did not come because they were cruel people who wanted to snuffle out Arabs to persecute. They came because they were running for their lives from a genocidal European anti-Semitism that was soon to slaughter 6 million of their sisters and their sons.

They convinced themselves Palestine was "a land without people for a people without land." I desperately wish this dream had been true. You can see traces of what might have been in Tel Aviv, a city that really was built on empty sand dunes. But most of Palestine was not empty. It was already inhabited by people who loved the land, and saw it as theirs. They were completely innocent of the long, hellish crimes against the Jews.

When it became clear those Palestinians would not welcome becoming a minority in somebody else's country, darker plans were drawn up. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, wrote in 1937: "The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war."

So, for when the moment arrived, he helped draw up Plan Dalit. It was -- as Israeli historian Ilan Pappe puts it -- "a detailed description of the methods to be used to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; and laying siege to and bombarding population centers." In 1948, before the Arab armies invaded, this began to be implemented: About 800,000 people were ethnically cleansed, and Israel was built on the ruins. The people who ask angrily why the Palestinians keep longing for their old land should imagine an English version of this story. How would we react if the 30 million stateless, persecuted Kurds in the world sent armies and settlers into England to seize everything below Leeds, and swiftly established a free Kurdistan from which we were expelled? If we are not going to be endlessly banging our heads against history, the Middle East needs to excavate 1948, and seek a solution. Any peace deal -- even one where Israel dismantled the wall and agreed to return to the 1967 borders -- tends to crumple on this issue. The Israelis say: If we let all 3 million come back, we will be outnumbered by Palestinians even within the 1967 borders, so Israel would be voted out of existence. But the Palestinians reply: If we don't have an acknowledgement of our right under international law to the land our grandfathers fled, how can we move on?

It seemed like an intractable problem -- until, two years ago, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted the first study of the Palestinian Diaspora's desires. They found that only 10 percent -- around 300,000 people -- want to return to Israel proper. Israel can accept that many (and compensate the rest) without even enduring much pain. But there has always been a strain of Israeli society that preferred violently setting its own borders, on its own terms, to talk and compromise. Last weekend, the elected Hamas government offered a six-month truce that could have led to talks. The Israeli government responded within hours by blowing up a senior Hamas leader and killing a 14-year-old girl.

Perhaps Hamas' proposals are a con; perhaps all the Arab states are lying too when they offer Israel full recognition in exchange for a rollback to the 1967 borders; but isn't it a good idea to find out? Israel needs to ask what kind of country she wants to be in the next 60 years.
Johann Hari is a columnist for The Independent in Britain.

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PLEASE FORWARD THIS ALERT TO OTHERS WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED

Please contact members of Congress to urge them not to approve a planned budget of $2.55 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel.

ACTION REQUESTED:

Go to http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23113 to express your opposition to the President’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for $2.55 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) for Israel. The U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation has posted an action alert at this address, allowing us to send a letter of protest to the appropriate members of Congress.

START DATE FOR ACTION:
Tuesday, March 4th

TIME BY WHICH ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN:
Ongoing Campaign

BACKGROUND:

In August 2007, the United States and Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to increase military aid to Israel by 25%, totaling $30 billion by Fiscal Year 2018. Then, last month President Bush sent his Fiscal Year 2009 budget request to Congress, which includes $2.55 billion in military aid for Israel, the first installment of the proposed increase under this ten-year agreement.

This budget request is now under deliberation in subcommittees of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The Subcommittees on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs are considering the request, and will then pass a modified budget to the full Appropriations Committees. At that time we will alert you again; Washington State does not have representatives on the Subcommittees, but Congressman Norm Dicks and Senator Patty Murray are on the Appropriations Committees. For now, own representatives are not directly concerned with this matter, but we can still contact the subcommittees. The easiest way to do so is to click on the U.S. Campaign form.

When the budget will be sent to the Appropriations Committees is not yet known. Last year the process took a few months, with the budget going up to the main committee in June. We will keep you posted.

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Information for this alert has been taken from the following sources, which you can consult as background material:

http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1541
and
http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?list=type&type=208

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MORE CONTEXT:

--The Israeli army, using weapons purchased through Foreign Military Financing, has bombarded Gaza daily for the last week, killing over 115 people (including well over 50 on Sunday alone); around one third of them were children. This is not the way we want our tax money to be used.

--Israel uses weapons purchased through Foreign Military Financing to enforce its illegal 40- year military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip and to commit human rights violations against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and against civilians in Lebanon.

-- Israel’s ongoing use of U.S. weapons to enforce an illegal military occupation and to commit human rights abuses places it in violation of the Arms Export Control Act (requiring recipient governments to use weapons from the U.S. only for legitimate self-defense purposes) and the Foreign Assistance Act (prohibiting military aid from being used for human rights violations).

-- There is a growing number of people in the United States who disapprove of our tax dollars being spent to enable Israel to enforce its illegal military occupation and to commit human rights abuses.

--The Israeli siege and occupation of Palestinians—and the humanitarian crises they are causing—are enforced with U.S. weapons, making U.S. taxpayers accessories to Israel’s crimes.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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GAZA UNDER EXTREME PRESSURE, SIEGE

Please contact your Congress members and/or Senators to urge them to use their power to bring a stop to Israel's inhumane pressure on the civilians of Gaza.

We are sending you this alert to ask you to take action with regard to the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In recent weeks Israel has intensified its ongoing punitive campaign and blockade against the population of Gaza by cutting off fuel supplies, and by daily bombing of the territory, resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians. The cutoffs have created a dire situation, with severe shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials. With Gaza's only power plant in danger of being shut off, hospitals are working in the dark and without crucial supplies, forced to decide whose life to save, and whose to sacrifice. Israel's treatment of Gaza amounts to collective punishment on the scale of a crime against humanity.

ACTION:

Contact your Congress member and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and let them know that you deplore the current policy of Israel towards Gaza. Urge them to draft a resolution censuring Israel's actions and calling on the Israeli government to end all attacks on civilians and to lift the siege of Gaza, allowing in all needed fuel, food, and medical provisions.

START DATE FOR ACTION:
Tuesday, January 22

TIME BY WHICH ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN:
Monday, January 28

BACKGROUND:

Residents in Gaza are facing the closure of Gaza's only power plant as Israel continues a shutdown of its border crossings. The plant shut down one of its two turbines on Sunday because of a fuel shortage following Israel's sealing of Gaza's borders and shutoff of fuel supplies.

In the past couple of months Israel has sealed its border with Gaza, blocking all air, land, and sea entries. It has cut off the flow of almost all supplies, including medications, in a bid to turn Gazans against Hamas. Hundreds of seriously ill people face death due to the lack of medical treatment and Israel’s refusal to let them travel to Egypt or Israel to receive proper care. Even the importation of water filters, vital for purifying the water drawn from Gazan wells, has been prevented.

Meanwhile, in just the past week over 40 people have been killed by Israeli bombing raids, with dozens more wounded, including women and children. In that time, Israel has launched daily operations against Gaza. In only one day last week, nineteen people were killed. More than 120 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in air strikes since Israelis and Palestinians formally relaunched a peace process in late November.

The Israeli government has drastically reduced its supply of fuel and energy, increasing the already desperate humanitarian crisis. Gaza now has only 35 percent of the power that its 1.5 million citizens need. With most areas already suffering power cuts for up to eight hours a day, Gazans are now faced with living entirely without electricity.

At the beginning of this week, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross said Gaza hospitals still had medications, "but it won't last for more than two or three days." Now, Gazans must also contend with the possibility of already scarce food supplies being cut off. The UN relief agency UNRWA said that the agency could be forced to suspend food distribution to 860,000 people because of the shortage of fuel and plastic bags.

On Monday Israel agreed to allow diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on a one-time basis, momentarily easing the blockade. The shift came after the Israeli prime minister had said Gaza's residents can "walk, without gas for their cars." However, this token move will not appreciably resolve the crisis; the Israeli government will do no more than the minimum, without significant pressure from the United States.

RECOMMENDED ACTION

Please write letters to your Congress members and Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, objecting to the Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza, and to Israel's policy of withholding fuel and goods needed for survival. Appeal to your representatives to censure Israel for the cruelty and hopelessness that it is wreaking upon the Gazan population. See talking points below.

The most effective ways to get in touch with Congress and Senators are listed in order:
1. fax
2. telephone calls
3. e-mail letters

Contact information:

Phone numbers and e-mail addresses for your U.S. Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Phone numbers and e-mail addresses for your Congress members: http://clerk.house.gov/

E-mails to most Congress members must be sent via their web sites. To access these sites, enter the URL supplied below into the address bar of your browser.

Senator Murray
Fax: (202) 224-0238
Phone: (202) 224-2621
E-mail: www.murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm

Senator Cantwell
Fax: 202-228-0514
Telephone: 202-224-3441
Email: www.cantwell.senate.gov/contact/index.html

TALKING POINTS:

--Israel's siege against Gaza is resulting in life-threatening shortages of food and medicine, as well as a cutoff in crucial power supplies. This is unconscionable treatment of a civilian population.

--The United States, principle sponsor of Israeli policies, must not sit idly as this humanitarian crisis unfolds.

-- The laws and conventions of warfare make a distinction between a civilian population and armed forces -- a distinction which Israel is openly ignoring. The collective punishment against the entire population of Gaza is a violation of international law, amounting to a crime against humanity.

--Forcing the people of Gaza to die in darkened hospitals, to drink polluted water because of lack of electricity to power water pumps, and to starve slowly, will in no way help the people of Sderot, where Gazan fighters are firing their small and ineffective rockets. Direct negotiations with Hamas must be initiated.

Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter.

Note: Please e-mail us at alerts@palestineinformation.org and let us know what action you have taken. This enables us to measure the impact of our alerts.

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Information for this alert has been taken from the following sources, which you can consult as background material:

1. http://www.challenge-mag.com/en/article__196
"Economic Warfare in Gaza" by Yossi Wolfson
Challenge Magazine
Jan-Feb 2008

2. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2008/880/re02.htm
"Green light for atrocities"
Saleh Al-Naami

3. http://endtheoccupation.org/article.php?id=1491
"Bush in Jerusalem: Rhetoric Trumps Substance"

4. http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/ECA56EC5-ED9B-4878-B386-3C4A132940EE.htm
Sunday, January 20, 2008 11:08 Mecca Time, 8:08 Gmt
"Gazans facing power shutdown"

5. http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9242.shtml
"Role of the Media Where does it end?"
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada
21 January 2008

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Action Requested: Please write a response to an op-ed that was published in the Seattle Times on Wednesday, November 28.

Editorial
"Mideast peace talks: the triumph of hope"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004039253_annaed28.html

The full text of the article is included at the end of this
e-mail.

Time by which action should be taken:

--Ideal: Thursday, November 29
--Still helpful: Friday, November 30

Context: After a seven-year period without peace negotiations, representatives of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority (PA) met Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland, to start a new round of talks. With the support of President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a statement outlining a plan to hold regular discussions starting in December, with the hope of achieving a peace agreement by the end of next year.

To put this event in perspective, several factors have to be held in mind:

· The Israeli army (IDF) occupies the Palestinian territory of the West Bank and holds Gaza under a brutal siege;

· the Palestinian leadership is bitterly divided between Hamas and Fatah, with the democratically-elected representatives of Hamas excluded from the present negotiations;

· and the United States unconditionally supports the Israeli government with billions per year in financial aid, regardless of that government's human rights violations.

Given these factors, Israel is in a position to play elements of the Palestinian leadership against each other, and ignore the Palestinians' legitimate demands for an end to the occupation and for sovereignty. Israel is capitalizing on its advantages by making unreasonable demands on a population that has already given up too much.

In this context the lead negotiators produced a very bland, unpromising statement. The new round of negotiations is to be based on the resurrected Road Map plan of 2002, whose program involves an end to Palestinian resistance and an end to Israeli settlement expansion. As constructed at that time, this is a failed plan with built-in dead ends. (more on this below)

The Seattle Times responded with an equally bland, empty, and thereby misleading editorial. There is much that's being left out of the picture; let's bring some reality into this discussion.

Talking Points:

1. With the full backing of the United States, Israel has controlled events leading up to the present negotiations in such a way that the Palestinians have precious little hope of good representation. It is a particularly objectionable point that Hamas, the winner of the most recent Palestinian election (in early 2006), is excluded from the negotiations. By cooperating with the Israeli/U.S. scheme to exclude Hamas, President Abbas has given up his legitimacy as negotiator on behalf of all Palestinians. Representatives of Hamas must be brought into the process.

2. The demand upon the Palestinians to "recognize Israel" is constantly repeated -- including by the Seattle Times Op-ed -- as a condition for progress in negotiations. This ignores the fact that PLO chairman Yasser Arafat formally accepted the legitimacy of Israel in 1988, and that the Palestinians again recognized Israel as part of the 1993 Oslo agreement. How about Israel recognizing the Palestinians' right to statehood?

3. More recently this absurdity has been taken to a new extreme with Prime Minister Olmert demanding that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish state." With the Palestinian and non-Jewish portion of the Israeli population surpassing twenty percent, it is hardly appropriate to expect Palestinian negotiators to trade away their people's right to equal citizenship.

4. The Op-ed notes that the representatives must "sell" whatever agreements they achieve back home. The United States can provide the Israeli government with some leverage to persuade its constituency by promising -- or even beginning -- to withhold some part of its massive aid to Israel if the IDF fails to give relief to the Palestinians under siege and occupation. Our government must participate in this process with more than photo-ops, since it holds the true leverage needed to break the impasse.

5. The Road Map failed because the Israelis interpreted its own obligation to freeze settlements as conditioned on a Palestinian end to resistance, to be enforced by the Palestinian Authority. Thus, the Israeli government was not going to freeze settlements until the PA managed to accomplish full repression against its own population, effectively sub-contracting the security functions of the occupation -- that is, the occupied defending the occupiers. This was never going to be able to happen; therefore the occupiers had a built-in, permanent excuse to keep expanding.

Furthermore, the newly-started negotiations process leaves out the Middle East Quartet (Russia, the EU, the U.N., and the US) as participants. All these factors combine to utterly disempower the Palestinians and place the center of all decision-making squarely with the Israelis.

6. We should call upon the Israeli government urgently to agree to take the serious steps that would be part of real negotiations, starting with lifting the siege on Gaza. This includes terminating the devastating limitations on fuel to Gaza, and allowing free movement in and out of the territory.

7. The Seattle Times op-ed should be commended for bringing up that most taboo of subjects, refugee return. Effective negotiations will have to address this issue and recognize the rights of the Palestinian refugees (of 1948 and 1967) to return to their homes, a right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and many United Nations resolutions (starting with UN resolution 194).

8.. Several other concessions by the Israeli government will be crucial to make these negotiations anything other than a complete waste of time. The following list, taken from a recent open letter from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to the negotiating parties, may be helpful in phrasing your letter to the Times.

excerpted from the WILPF open letter, which calls for the following:

Full Israeli withdrawal from all Arab territories occupied since 4 June 1967 including withdrawal from the Golan Heights and the Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon, in implementation of Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991, and all other relevant UN resolutions;
The promised freeze on settlement construction to be immediately followed by dismantlement of all Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the environs of Jerusalem;
Israel's acceptance of an independent sovereign State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital;
A just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with U.N. General Assembly resolution 194 adopted on 11 December 1949, which guarantees the return of the Palestinian refugees to their homes, and for compensation to be paid for the property of those which, under the principles of international law should be compensated by Israel, the responsible government;
Lifting of the siege on the Gaza Strip and open passage to enable all Palestinian citizens to move in and out, and between Gaza and the West Bank to enable access to commerce, work, medical treatment, and education;
Freedom of movement for the Palestinian people, by removing all the checkpoints and closures within the West Bank, and Jerusalem respecting the geographical and political integrity of Palestine;
The announced release of some 400 political prisoners prior to the conference to be immediately followed by the unconditional release of all Palestinian political prisoners of conscience, in particular child prisoners;
Removal of the Wall erected illegally on Palestinian land and all such further construction, which the ICJ Advisory Opinion states Israel is obliged to do and should make reparation for all damage caused by it;
Equitable sharing of the water sources among all countries in the region;
Negotiation of a zone free of nuclear and all other weapons of mass destruction in the region;
Discontinuation of the supply of weaponry to any state in the region, instead, human and economic resources should be used for construction of a just and viable peace and through the reconstruction of war-devastated areas;

Full participation of women in conflict prevention, resolution, negotiation and democracy building and a gender perspective in protection, repatriation and post-conflict reconstruction.

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Email your letter to: opinion@seattletimes.com
*

Reminders:
1) Please write even if you only have time for a brief note. Numbers count. If you are not published, you will be helping someone with a similar viewpoint get into print.
2) The word limit for letters that are intended for publication is 200.
3) Don't forget to begin your letter with a reference to the title and date of the article or opinion piece to which you are responding. Example: "Regarding William Safire's Friday column ("Sharon shifts Middle East politics")....
4) Personal experiences and/or qualifications, when relevant, can be helpful in establishing your authority. However, you can also establish your authority by writing factual, logical, respectful letters. When possible, include a reference to your source, such as, "according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem,..."
5) Don't try to respond to every problem with the piece in question. Just pick one or two points to concentrate on.
6) Don't forget to include your full name, street address and contact phone numbers. The paper needs these to verify that you are actually the author. Only your name and city will appear in print.
7) Please bcc us at alerts@palestineinformation.org or forward your letter to that address. This is for our media monitoring records.
Thank you!

*

Full text of the article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2004039253_annaed28.html

Editorial
Mideast peace talks: the triumph of hope

As diplomats convene in Annapolis, Md., for a Middle East peace conference, the expectations bring to mind a Samuel Johnson quote about "the triumph of hope over experience."

He was talking about second marriages, but optimism is triumphant as the Bush administration makes its first sustained effort to broker a regional accord. President Bush had scorned and avoided the intense involvement of President Clinton in earlier, unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a sustainable peace agreement.

Success at Annapolis might be a timetable for more talks that carry through the end of the current administration. Credit would accrue for any eventual success, but there would be no obvious fingerprints on failure.

More than 40 countries and international organizations have rallied to provide a chorus of support. But the talks always boil down to the elemental components across the table from one another.

Are Israel's neighbors ready to acknowledge its right to exist? Not live in peace, but exist. Is Israel any more willing to literally give ground in the name of ending bloodshed? Another basic decision is Israel accepting the right of return for Palestinians displaced from their homes.

Borders. Settlements. Refugees. The key words have not changed, but the players have.

All the good work one wishes to come from such a conference has to be explained and sold back home. As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert talks peace on Chesapeake Bay, he is under criminal investigation for his financial dealings. The Palestinians are not unified enough to order a sandwich. Saudi Arabia was dragged into making an appearance.

Failure and disappointment are so predictable that trying is respected. Everyone is eager to applaud progress. There is also simple curiosity to discover who risked the most in a serious effort.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

===============================================================================================

Action Requested: Please write the Seattle P.I. and express your appreciation of Friday's op-ed (10-19-07) by Edward Mast, inserted below. The op-ed is in part a rebuttal to the offensive October 9^th op-ed by David Brumer, which painted a strangely idyllic picture of Israel, omitting the story of the Palestinians. Mast's op-ed is also an important essay in its own right, pointing out the invisibility of the Palestinians on the world stage, and it was appropriate for the P.I. to print it. We need to affirm their behavior.

Time by which action should be taken:
--Ideal: Monday, October 22
--Still helpful: Wednesday, October 24

Opinion
Palestinians' lives invisible to Israelis
By Edward Mast, Guest Columnist
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/336015_insivible19.html
Friday October 19, 2007

The full text of the article is included at the end of this e-mail.

Context: The mainstream press in this country, under the guise of "objective" reporting, overwhelmingly prints information that is partial to Israeli policies. Carefully documented studies* have shown that a disproportionate amount of attention is paid to Israeli suffering, while leaving most of the story of the Palestinians out of the picture. Consequently, Israel comes off as a victim, and American readers remain hardly aware that there is such a thing as a military occupation. We grant that Israelis are under pressure and feel like victims, but the story is quite incomplete without a background on the "invisible" Palestinians. Edward Mast's essay is one step in filling out this picture.

*(for example, see Media Analysis in the "If Americans Knew" site: http://www.ifamericansknew.org/)

*

Talking points for letter writing:

Your letter can be very brief; it is the acknowledgment of the editorial in a positive way that counts. Below are a few points that could be reinforced. Whichever point(s) you choose, the most important thing is to say thank you.

-- The P.I. did a good thing in printing Edward Mast's op-ed.

-- Edward Mast left out one "invisible" fact that's very important to us in the United States: the U.S. government is the most generous sponsor of Israeli policies (and by extension, the occupation), funding the Israeli government with between $3 billion and $6 billion in aid every year. As U.S. citizens, it is our responsibility to pressure our government to discontinue this aid until the occupation is lifted.

--For that matter, it's also worthwhile to remember a few other points not mentioned by Mast, that highlight the injustice of the occupation:
        In 2004 the International Court of Justice ruled that the route of the Separation Wall, annexing large amounts of Palestinian to Israel, is illegal;
        Israeli settlers in the West Bank commit daily violence against Palestinian civilians;
        The U.S., Israel, and the European Union are conducting an ongoing embargo against Palestinians, strangling their economy.

-- The Israeli government undermines Israel's own security by confiscating more and more land for illegal settlements, and targeting more Palestinian civilians. These actions only foment increased Palestinian anger and resistance. Given this syndrome, it seems surprising, actually, that the vast majority of Palestinians resist the occupation through non-violent means -- another "invisible" fact.

-- Mr. Mast recommended that David Brumer travel to the other side of the wall to witness the conditions under which the Palestinians live. That is good advice. But for those who are unable to do so, it is helpful to visit the web sites of some human rights organizations (including Israeli groups) that tell the story in great detail, including describing the targeting of non-combatants by the Israeli military. Here are a few:

B'tselem                                                                       http://www.btselem.org/
Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions         http://www.icahd.org/
Rabbis for Human Rights                                           http://rhr.israel.net/
Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem                  http://www.arij.org/
Palestinian Environmental NGOs Network (PENGON)     http://www.pengon.org/

*

Email your letter to: editpage@seattlepi.com

*

Reminders:

1) Please write even if you only have time for a brief note. Numbers count. If you are not published, you will be helping someone with a similar viewpoint get into print.

2) The word limit for letters that are intended for publication is 200.

3) Begin your letter with a reference to the title and date of the article or opinion piece to which you are responding. Example: "Regarding William Safire's Friday column ("Sharon shifts Middle East politics")....

4) Personal experiences and/or qualifications, when relevant, can be helpful in establishing your authority. However, you can also establish your authority by writing factual, logical, respectful letters. When possible, include a reference to your source, such as, "according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem,..."

5) Don't try to respond to every problem with the piece in question. Just pick one or two points to concentrate on.

6) Don't forget to include your full name, street address and contact phone numbers. The paper needs these to verify that you are actually the author. Only your name and city will appear in print.

7) Please bcc us at alerts@palestineinformation.org or forward your letter to that address. This is for our media monitoring records.

Thank you!

*

Full text of article:

October 19, 2007
Palestinians' lives invisible to Israelis
By Edward Mast, Guest Columnist
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/336015_insivible19.html

On a visit to Tel Aviv last month, I asked some Israeli friends what people in Israel were saying about the Palestinian situation. Not much, they told me. Israelis are more concerned about the corruption charges against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, coming on the heels of corruption charges against previous governments. Palestinians and their issues, my friends told me, are becoming more and more invisible to the Israeli people.

Palestinian lives are kept invisible in David Brumer's Oct. 10 guest column, "Despite concerns, Israel a vibrant country." Also invisible are Israel's military occupation and the ongoing takeover of Palestinian land. If Brumer had traveled to the other side of the wall, as I did, he could have witnessed the many ways that the Israeli occupation crushes people with poverty, violence and injustice.

Before visiting Tel Aviv, I spent two weeks working with a theater in the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the West Bank. During that short time, the Israeli army killed at least 15 Palestinians in the occupied territories; several killed were children. For Palestinians, these are regular occurrences. Over the past seven years, the Israeli army has killed more than 4,000 Palestinians. The majority of these, even according to Israeli statistics, have been unarmed civilians. Many thousands more have been wounded or kidnapped. The severe underreporting of Palestinian casualties in the U.S. and Israel can leave the impression that Palestinian lives have less value.

While I was there, Brian Avery came from the United States to testify in Jerusalem against the Israeli army. Avery is a peace activist who was shot in the face by the Israeli army in 2003. At first the Israeli army denied that the shooting took place, but has been forced to launch an investigation now that Avery is bringing a suit.

In Ramallah, I learned that, though there is plenty of water near the city, the several hundred thousand residents had spent the summer with running water available only three or four days each week. That sort of fact tends to be invisible to Israelis, along with the reasons.

Ramallah is near the cluster of West Bank aquifers, which are the main sources of water for both the West Bank and Israel, but 80 percent of the West Bank's water goes to Israel and Israeli settlements. For decades, Israel has used its military occupation of the West Bank to build an illegal network of settlements around the water sources. Palestinians have been beaten, killed and driven away to make space for these settlements, and Israel has built a continuous wall, not on the border of Israel but inside Palestinian territory, which effectively annexes the settlements and water resources into Israel.

Israelis are told the wall is for their security. Palestinians call it the annexation wall, and it is difficult for them to believe Israel can be a partner for peace while the Israeli government continues taking Palestinian land for settlements, building the wall to annex them and maintaining the system of checkpoints that paralyze movement and life in the West Bank.

With some colleagues, I spent one day traveling from Ramallah to Jerusalem. The eight-mile trip took 2 1/2 hours. In Ramallah, the wall is 25 feet high, and the Israeli checkpoint is like an airport security station. We lined up for more than half an hour with Palestinians at a remote-controlled 8-foot turnstile where people had to crowd like cattle and wait for a green light to get as many through as possible before the light turned red.

Once past X-ray security and more turnstiles, we boarded shared taxis for what should have been a short ride to Jerusalem. However, the Israeli military had set up an additional temporary "flying checkpoint" some 1,640 feet down the road, forcing several lanes of traffic down to a single lane for stopping and searching. That took almost an hour.

Business in Ramallah is at a standstill. Poverty is everywhere; jobs are not to be found. The people at the checkpoint said to us, "Take pictures. Tell people what is happening here."

Some Israelis, such as my Tel Aviv friends, no longer accept the excuse that the virtual imprisonment and killing of Palestinians are justified by the need for security.

The Israeli government has recently confiscated more Palestinian land near Jerusalem to build a segregated road, literally underground, for Palestinians. Israeli settlers will be able to commute back and forth from the territories without having so much as to see a Palestinian. Invisibility here is no accident.

Edward Mast is a Seattle playwright who volunteers with the Palestine Information Project.

===============================================================================================
Action Requested: Please write a letter to the Seattle P.I. challenging some of the statements in an objectionable guest opinion column by David Brumer, printed Wednesday, October 10.

" Despite concerns, Israel a vibrant country "
By David Brumer, Guest columnist, Seattle P.I.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/334828_brumerisrael10.html

The full text of the article is included at the end of this
e-mail.

Time by which action should be taken:

--Ideal: Friday, October 12
--Still helpful: Monday, October 15

Context:

David Brumer has published an op-ed validating Israel's imprisonment of the entire Palestinian population and celebrating apartheid Israel's "vibrancy." He achieves this without recognition of the fact that Israel's wealth is based on illegally expropriated Palestinian land and resources. Meanwhile, his ode to the Israeli "zest for life" denies the fact of ongoing Israeli assault on Palestinian civilians, resulting in thousands dead and tens of thousands injured over the last seven years -- including many children, women, and elderly people. Brumer depicts the Separation Wall as a benign, necessary defense, ignoring the fact that its true purpose, becoming clearer every day, is to create a geographical fragmentation of the Palestinian population, and annex a significant amount of valuable Palestinian land to Israel.

Brumer is concerned with security -- but only for Israelis. But the Israeli government must realize that the Palestinians need security as well. The only way that Israel can protect its own population is to allow the Palestinians full freedom of movement, access to their farmlands, and the right to go to work and school -- all of which have been curtailed by forty years of occupation, culminating in the construction of the Wall.

Talking Points:

1. Brumer's depiction of Israel as a small, vulnerable country covers up the fact that the Palestinians are subject to an incomparably greater, ongoing assault on their physical well-being by the Israeli occupying army in the West Bank and by regular, murderous bombings and incursions into the Gaza Strip. The first step for Israel, if it wishes to ensure its own security, is to withdraw its aggressive, violent forces from the Occupied Territories.

2. The creation of Israel in 1948 took place on 78% of Palestinian ancestral land, and the June war of 1967 put the rest of Palestine under occupation. Since then Israeli settlements, especially in the West Bank, have taken over successively greater areas of Palestinian land, leaving the Palestinians crammed into more and more cramped spaces, separated -- especially with the creation of the "Security Wall" -- from their farmland and from each other. The Wall, rather than providing security to Israel, establishes the de facto annexation of valuable West Bank land and vital aquifers to Israel.

3. The Wall is an oppressive barrier, whether constructed of concrete or fencing. Close to 90% of the Wall is located well inside the internationally-recognized border between Israel and the West Bank, penning the human population of Palestine into Israeli-made ghettos, separating them from their livelihood, and creating enclaves out of the population centers. Meanwhile, Israel's military regime suppresses the development of civil society in Palestine. Rather than preventing terrorism, such a set-up guarantees that some Palestinians will continue to respond violently.

4. In a sop to Palestinian rights, Brumer mentions Israeli Supreme Court decisions against placement of the Wall near certain Palestinian villages. However, he omits the fact that the Court validates the Wall overall, legitimizing the confiscation of thousands of square kilometers of Palestinian land.

5. While Israeli society celebrates its successes in scientific research and fine wine -- and arms exporting -- let us note that Palestinian society would have similar successes, if it were not under lock and key.

6. Nowhere does Brumer address The toll of the almost 60-year displacement of the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. Upon the creation of Israel, around 800,000 Palestinians were exiled, and over 400 of their villages were destroyed. During Israel's 40-year occupation of the rest of Palestine, approximately 12,000 homes were demolished. This is the story of the invisible Palestinians behind the Barrier.

*
Email your letter to: editpage@seattlepi.com
*

Reminders:
1) Please write even if you only have time for a brief note. Numbers count. If you are not published, you will be helping someone with a similar viewpoint get into print.
2) The word limit for letters that are intended for publication is 200.
3) Don't forget to begin your letter with a reference to the title and date of the article or opinion piece to which you are responding. Example: "Regarding William Safire's Friday column ("Sharon shifts Middle East politics")....
4) Personal experiences and/or qualifications, when relevant, can be helpful in establishing your authority. However, you can also establish your authority by writing factual, logical, respectful letters. When possible, include a reference to your source, such as, "according to the Israeli human rights organization, B'Tselem,..."
5) Don't try to respond to every problem with the piece in question. Just pick one or two points to concentrate on.
6) Don't forget to include your full name, street address and contact phone numbers. The paper needs these to verify that you are actually the author. Only your name and city will appear in print.
7) Please bcc us at alerts@palestineinformation.org or forward your letter to that address. This is for our media monitoring records.
Thank you!

*

Full text of article:

"Despite concerns, Israel a vibrant country"
By David Brumer, Guest Columnist

Having just spent the past three weeks in Israel, I'm happy to report that, rumors to the contrary, Israel is alive and well and thriving.

Israel is a country about the size of New Jersey. Space is at a premium, and so is security for this small expanse of land. That was brought home to me during a three-hour "Intellicopter Tour" around the country, provided by The Israel Project, an international non-profit that educates the media and the public about Israel.

We took off from Herzilya airport, on the Mediterranean coast just north of Tel Aviv. Flying east, we were at the edge of the West Bank within minutes, hovering over Tulkarm and Qalqilya. Unknown to most Westerners is the fact that at this latitude, Israel's waist is at its most narrow, spanning just nine miles (several miles less than the distance from the University of Washington to Microsoft in Redmond).

The coastal plain, where 80 percent of Israelis live, is literally minutes by foot from the West Bank. From the skies, it is much easier to understand why Israel started construction of its Security Barrier in 2002, a year that saw 450 Israeli deaths attributable to terrorism. Often referred to as the Wall, more than 95 percent of the 800-kilometer barrier, when completed, will actually be constructed of chain-link fence.

In Qalqilya, the barrier is in fact a concrete wall. This is because Qalqilya sits on a hill above Highway 6, a major north-south artery for Israelis, and until the construction of the wall there, Israeli motorists were vulnerable to Palestinian snipers. The majority of the concrete portion of the barrier is in Jerusalem, where a fence would be impractical in such a densely populated locale, given that the fence requires a buffer zone on either side for motion detection and army patrols. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the barrier has been enormously successful in stopping terrorism and saving lives. In areas where the security barrier is completed, attacks are down 90 percent.

Flying southwest from Jerusalem, we touched down in Sderot, a development town in the south, only a few kilometers away from the Gazan border. Sderot has borne the brunt of the Qassam missile attacks, with more than 2,000 landing after Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza in August 2005. Although unsophisticated and inaccurate, the Qassams are a very effective weapon of terrorism for the precise reason of their unpredictability. And when on target, they are deadly weapons. The newer Qassams have a range of up to 12 kilometers (7.5 miles), putting the Ashkelon Power Plant in their sights. To date, Israel has not come up with an adequate response, in part, because to strike back at the launching sites would endanger Palestinian civilian lives, something Israel is loath to do.

I came away from the helicopter tour with a renewed appreciation for the security dilemmas Israel faces, especially with the radical Islamists of Hamas now holding the full reins of power in Gaza, and vying for control of the West Bank. To see with one's own eyes the very real security risks that this tiny country faces (not to mention the threats on the northern borders from Hezbollah and Syria, compounded by Iran's long-range missile capabilities and nuclear ambitions) gives one pause.

Israel must balance her citizenry's security needs with ordinary Palestinians' human rights. And Israel's Supreme Court has on several occasions overruled military dictates, for example when the security barrier has been deemed encroaching on Palestinian villages.

Despite those concerns, Israel remains a vibrant, prosperous society. Construction is booming, the high-tech sector is burgeoning and people are out at parks, beaches, cafes and cultural centers.

From the magnificent Baha'i Gardens in Haifa (home to the holiest shrine in the Baha'i faith) to the Druze village of Daliat al-Carmel to the streets of Rehovot (home of the world-class Weizmann Institute for Scientific Research), Israelis of all ethnicities and amazingly diverse backgrounds are dancing, studying, dining and doing it all with a great zest for life.

It is said that great wines are produced from vines that are most stressed and must dig deep into the Earth's surface in search of nourishment. The few grapes those vines produce make the finest of wines. And so it is with Israel, a people who must dig deeply within their greatest resource -- themselves -- to meet the prodigious challenges that this amazing land presents, and in so doing create the modern miracle that is Israel.

David Brumer is a geriatric social worker and psychotherapist. Visit his blog, BRUMSPEAK, at brumspeak.blogspot.com, for more in-depth dispatches from Israel, September 2007.

===============================================================================================

ALERT: Please write a response to one or both op-eds that were published in the Seattle Times on Friday, June 8.

Short listing of news items:

1. The Six Day War | Survivor bears the wounds of conflict and occupation
By Ibtisam Barakat
2. The Six Day War | Extremists stand in the way of a peaceful resolution
By Moshe Dunie
Both articles are inserted in full at the end of this alert.

Time by which action should be taken:

--Ideal: Monday, June 11
--Still helpful: Wednesday, June 13

Context: Today, June 10, 2007, marks the fortieth anniversary of the end of the "Six-day War" and the beginning of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories known as the West Bank and Gaza. The mainstream press has marked this occasion with a variety of editorials, two of which just appeared in The Seattle Times. In recent weeks we have sent out more than the usual number of media alerts, but we feel that it is important for editors to hear from us at this time. This is especially important, in this case, as none of our recent alerts have been directed to The Times, the newspaper with the largest readership in this region and which publishes relatively little on this issue.

One of the op-eds is by a Palestinian woman who grew up under the occupation, and describes in a straightforward way some of the living conditions she experienced in her everyday life -- conditions that no one should have to endure, and that are clearly prohibited by international law.

The other op-ed is by the president of the Greater Seattle American Jewish Committee, Moshe Dunie. His op-ed, in offense to all reason, promotes confusion about the occupation and about the possibilities for a resolution to the conflict. It is an attempt to justify and tone down the offenses of Israel's military dictatorship over the Palestinians. Mr. Dunie's column is another one of those tracts that is so full of distortions that it is difficult to know where to start responding. One possible answer would be, "Mr. Dunie, it's the occupation."

Talking Points:

I. Ibtisam Barakat's article: Thank The Times for printing this article. If you comment, you might mention that Ms. Barakat's writing does not even touch on the more atrocious aspects of the occupation, such as the demolition of thousands of Palestinian dwellings; routine Israeli torture of prisoners; extra-judicial killings of targeted individuals; destruction or confiscation of thousands of hectares of Palestinian farmland and orchards; long-term closure and extended curfew imposed upon towns, cities, and villages; and the violation of Palestinian civilians' dignity at every turn. The occupation, which expands towards the ultimate ghettoization of the Palestinian population centers, is supported by Americans' tax money to the amount of $3 to $6 billion every year.

II. Moshe Dunie's article -- pick one or a few of Mr. Dunie's falsehoods to address:

1. Overall, the message of this op-ed is that the Palestinians and other Arabs are guilty for the ongoing conflict; Israel is innocent and only desires peace; and Israel is frustrated in all its well-meaning attempts to achieve a resolution. Through repetition of standard myths that have been thoroughly refuted, Mr. Dunie attempts to blame the victim and exonerate the perpetrator of the occupation.

For background on the relevant history, there are many sources available on the internet. One of them is the history section in our own web site at www.palestineinformation.org. Click on "History of the conflict" and see "1967 Six Day War."

2. One of Mr. Dunie's lapses in logic is the statement that the "Arab world" rejected the UN's 1947 decision to create two states. In fact, in the context of the times, it could hardly be expected that Palestinians would have consented to the creation of a state encompassing well over half of their historic territory, while the Jewish and Zionist settler population -- mostly recently arrived -- only amounted to less than a third of the overall population of Palestine. What's more, the UN decision (SC Resolution 181) was taken without the participation of those who were to be displaced. It is simply not rational to expect that any population would peacefully consent to such manipulation from outside.

3. Mr. Dunie writes, " In 1967, Arab nations sought once again to destroy Israel..." One of the most widespread myths about 1967 and the beginning of the occupation is that Egypt was about to attack Israel. However, this has been debunked, and even Israeli leaders admitted that the country was not seriously threatened by Egypt's military presence on the Sinai border. Israel's "pre-emptive" attack on Egypt was not necessary -- unless the aim of Israel's action was to pave the way for expansion of its territory.

On this history, here are a couple of honest reappraisals by Israeli leaders, after the fact:

"I do not believe that Nasser wanted war. The two divisions he sent into Sinai on May 14 would not have been enough to unleash an offensive against Israel. He knew it and we knew it." --Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of Staff (later Prime Minister)

"In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him--Menachem Begin, Israeli Cabinet Minister (later Prime Minister)

4. Mr. Dunie represents the Israeli government as having "sought a land-for peace agreement." In fact, Israel started constructing settlements in the West Bank and Gaza immediately after the war, and this expansion has never stopped. The settlement of Israelis in the Occupied Territories, illegal under the IV Geneva Conventions that address occupation, is not a route to peace; rather, it exposes the real aim of the Israeli government: to retain control of the Territories forever, and to marginalize the Palestinian population.

5. Mr. Dunie asserts in several places that Hamas "does not even recognize Israel's right to exist and perpetrates violence." On the first count, in recent years Hamas has called many times for a long-term cease-fire, and even implemented its own, unilateral ceasefire for a year and a half. And just last week, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, speaking for Hamas, reiterated his movement's acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict. (See "1967: Our Rights have to be Recognized" posted June 07, 2007 By Ismail Haniyeh http://www.miftah.org/Display.cfm?DocId=13809&CategoryId=5)

6. Mr. Dunie refers to the Palestinian Authority's rejection of Israel's "offer...to give up more than 95 per cent" of the Territories in 2000. This event has been more misrepresented than most in the history of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Ehud Barak did not make a "generous offer" to the Palestinians, but demanded that they accept a resolution involving cut-up portions of land within the West Bank, separated by international borders and Israeli-only bypass highways. The Barak proposal would have retained all the major Israeli settlements in the West Bank as part of Israel, creating a non-viable state composed of islands of territory, separated from the commercial, political, and spiritual capitol of Jerusalem. And the actual percentage of land that would have come under control of a Palestinian government was much less than 95% (for more information on this issue see our web site: click on "Position Statements", then "Barak's offer..." For the same reason that Palestinians rejected UN SCR 181, it is not imaginable that they would have accepted Barak's ungenerous demands.

7 Mr. Dunie's mention of the Saudi peace initiative (introduced a few years ago and revived recently) in a positive light is rather quirky, as it proposes that all Arab countries recognize Israel in return for Israel's complete evacuation from the Occupied Territories. Mr. Dunie (like his government) shows no inclination to support such a move anywhere else in his rhetoric.

8. It is worth noting Mr. Dunie's propaganda style; he makes several statements exploiting sympathy for the tiny, afflicted state of Israel:
--"...and tried to destroy the new tiny Jewish nation formed after the Holocaust."
--"... Israel, a minuscule nation the size of New Jersey, achieved an astonishing victory."