KOSOVO SPARKS THE STRUGGLE FOR A FREE PALESTINE
February 22, 2008 at 10:58 am (Current Affairs, Israel, Palestine)
The Muslims of Kosovo constitute an absolute majority of the population, and the same is true for the Galilee Arabs. Quite a few Jews have been leaving the Galilee, especially since October 2000, and not many are joining the sparse Jewish population there, despite an array of financial incentives. The events in Kosovo have triggered memories of the thousands who took part in the violence in Wadi Ara in 2000, blocking major traffic arteries and cutting off access to Jewish communal settlements in an outbreak of rioting that coincided with Yasser Arafat’s war of terror.
Memories come rushing back on the use of live ammunition in some cases, and the operation of an underground and terror cells alongside the suicide bombers dispatched from Gaza, Judea and Samaria.
Before the Annapolis summit, delegates of all the Israeli Arab organizations convened in Nazareth and reached a unanimous decision to call upon Mahmoud Abbas not to cooperate with Ehud Olmert and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. A delegation of Arab Knesset members was sent to meet with the Palestinian negotiators to ensure that the message had sunk in. If the Arab citizens of Israel vehemently oppose recognizing Israel as the Jewish homeland, said MK Ahmed Tibi to Abu Ala (Ahmed Qurei), how can you, the representatives of the Palestinian people, even consider such a thing?
Israeli governments have resigned themselves to the blatant, unconcealed separatist actions of the Galilee Arabs, and this only perpetuates the phenomenon. Shimon Peres, who was appointed by several governments to oversee measures ultimately aimed at increasing the Jewish presence in the Galilee, talked a lot but did little. Political correctness, such as halting the campaign to “Judaize Galilee,” was his guideline.
All the authorities, including those in charge of law enforcement, have resigned themselves to criminal acts (”juvenile delinquency,” the police chief of the Northern District calls the phenomenon of stones thrown at Jewish vehicles, especially near Hamovil Junction), such as encroaching on state land and illegal construction that has reached the scope of tens of thousands of buildings.
Kosovo is already here, even without a formal declaration of independence. Looking at the government’s mode of conduct in the periphery, and even its response to the Qassam rockets in the south, one realizes the futility of expecting it to wake up and fight against those who are challenging Israeli sovereignty in the Galilee.
The leaders of this separatist policy in the Israeli Arab community know very well that apathy and lack of self-confidence also characterize the approach of the agencies of the state - the police, the courts, the Israel Lands Administration, the tax authorities and the Ministry of the Interior - in their dealings with the Arab public. This only increases the motivation to gnaw further at Israeli authority and sovereignty.
Unlike the Kosovars in the Balkans, who are satisfied with their separatist province and do not claim ownership over all Serbian territory, the Arabs of the Galilee, and certainly the northern wing of the Islamic Movement, claim ownership - political and territorial - over all of Israel. The “salami method” pays off.
In the Negev, the Bedouins are taking over large stretches of land almost without hindrance, while Israel’s do-nothing government responds by establishing committees to “sort out” the land issues. The most recent of them is the committee chaired by Judge Eliezer Goldberg, which is now convening.
This inertia will probably continue, with the Zionist state financing, via education, health, national insurance and other state monies transferred to citizens, a population that is de facto establishing a Palestinian state within the sovereign State of Israel - separate, of course, from the Palestinian state that the Arabs are pushing for in Judea and Samaria.
j.c. said,
February 22, 2008 at 5:41 pm
iSRAEL’s independence was contingent on Palestine’s independence.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/roguestate.html
Skulz Fontaine said,
February 22, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Do it Palestine! Declare your independence and your right to sovereignty! What the hell is Israel going to do? Wall off the West Bank? Stuff the Palestinian people into concentration camps. Put Gazans in a gulag? Detain Palestinian men, women, and children? Torture the Palestinian people? Kill the Palestinians? Starve the Palestinian people? Butcher their farms? Steal Palestinian land? Cut down the olive trees? Steal Palestinian money? Oh wait I’m sorry, Israel ALREADY does that. Never mind! DO IT PALESTINE, DECLARE YOUR RIGHTFUL INDEPENDENCE!
j.c. said,
February 22, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Palestine should firstly seek out countries that would recognize her when she declares independence BEFORE declaring.
http://www.ptimes.org
Peter Armand Schenk said,
February 23, 2008 at 3:26 am
I was born and educated in Switzerland. A long time ago I purchased a book by Peter Dürrenmatt, about the history of Switzerland. In 1291 Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden declared independance vom the Habsburgs. That was the original Switzerland! All the other catons WATED TO JOIN Switzerland over the years. In the middle-ages Switzerland was involved in many wars and won most of them, like the wars agaist the Duke of Milan, the Duke of Burgundy etc. It newer anexed these Lands it won by War. A large part of Baden-Württenberg wanted to join Switzerland and also Elsass and Lotringen. Yet Switzerland did not feel the need to annex these Lands to be more secure. In the contrary it wrote in it’s constitution not to aquire any new territory and stay neutral. It surrived Napoleon, W.W.1 and even Nazi Germany. Today I now of a German that works in Basel and lives in a town in France, he is only one of many. Trains run commuters from Basel to German and French towns. This would also have been possible between Israel and Palestine if the fanatics on both sides would have wanted a true solution and honest peace! Yes, even Iran may have normal relations with Israel today!
Not even Israelis think that a two-state-solution is possible, it has become a divide too far to cross. A one-sate-solution would destroy the idea of a Jewish state, and is unacceptabel to Israel. The idea of divide and conquer may sond easy, but history should tell us it will destroy the conquerer. It is the wars in Afghansistan and Iraq that can destroy the USA. These wars have shifted the power from the west to the east. A hundert years from now the Afghans will still live in Afghansistan and the Iraqis in Iraq and the US occupations will be a few pages in the historybooks. One shold remember the saying: waht goes around will come around. The Israeli-Palestineien problem only needs the will to solve it and it is Israel that hold all the trump cards.
Peter Armand
CP said,
February 23, 2008 at 6:24 am
Palestine declared independence November 15, 1988 and while it did not receive recognition by the US or EU nations, it was recognized by more independent states than recognize the state of Israel. You all must be newcomers to the issue.