The US seems to have been able to get the UN to postpone its vote on whether the Palestinians’ petition to recognize their independent state should be granted. If the vote does get held eventually (and I’m sure this is unavoidable), it seems like the US will have a very tough time getting enough votes against Palestinian independence.
Blogger Garnel reminds us of what the UN will be voting for when it votes to recognize Palestine:
And for the record here is the state they will be endorsing:
1) Its first president is a Holocaust denier.
2) Jews will be forbidden by law from living in Palestine. Not Israelis. Jews.
3) So will homosexuals, by the way.
4) It will also deny citizenship to those Arabs currently living in UN refugee camps. Yes, they will deny citizenship to their own people and continue to demand their return to pre-1967 Israel.
Imagine that. The governments of the so-called civilized world, governments that view Jew-hatred and homophobia with disgust and disapproval, that opine about justice and rights, will gather together to help create a state where the antitheses of these values are official policy. They will smile, speak about how they have done and great thing and then avert their eyes when things get nasty.
One reason why the UN is likely to vote for Palestine that the post I quoted doesn’t mention is that the defense of Israel in this instance is widely seen as a US cause (even though things are a lot more complicated than that.) The US has been known of treating the UN with very little respect, so now many people will see this as an opportunity to stick it to this big and powerful country.
All these political games around Israel have very little to do with anybody’s actual interest in what is happening in the region. For many, Israel and Palestine are nothing but a pretext to vent grievances and express sentiments that are not directly related to the conflict. In the progressive circles, it is fashionable to adopt an unthinking pro-Palestine stand. In the conservative circles, an equally unthinking pro-Israel sentiment prevails. Any suggestion that things might be a little more complex than “Palestine good, Israel bad” or “Israel good, Palestine bad” is greeted with indignation on both sides.
Clarissa's Blog 
This reminds me far too much of Europe, 1905-1914
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What does? The UN’s position or my post?
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The entire situation. Much noise and consternation about a “problem” (in 1905 it was the Austrian’s problems with the Serbs & Croats) that was really a convenient cover for their (European) African colonial disputes. Then Fernidan [apologies for spelling his name incorrectly) was assassinated, And we got to endure the 1st World War.
Israel/Palestine is nothing but a proxy for other political motives. I fear where we are going, but I don’t have a clue how to stop it.
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“Israel/Palestine is nothing but a proxy for other political motives.”
-Hear, hear! Very few people are prepared to recognize this, though.
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I’m a little more cynical, I guess. I believe they recognize it. I believe they actively abuse it to their political ends.
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*Israel/Palestine is nothing but a proxy for other political motives. I fear where we are going*
I would like to hear who wants to settle what through us. Clarissa, you promised the post on US motives and It would touch on the topic too, I believe. I would *love* to hear where we’re going and when & how it will end.
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I remember. 🙂
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Any second I reckon you’ll see there will be Mr. Sylvester McMonkey McBean in the place to settle this race with his patented Star On-and-Off-ing Machine.
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Oh wow, I read that book loads as a kid!
And if only we could acquire on of those machines…
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In Israeli newspaper I have often (today too) seen the claim that Palestinians want 2 countries: Palestine and Israel, and I have yet to see anything to disprove it. From wiki: “the Arab population of Israel in 2010 is estimated at 1,573,000, representing 20.4% of the population”. Personally, imho, if Palestinians have their own state, Israeli Arabs have to decide who they are and stick to it. Meaning OR be Israeli citizens, serve in the Israeli army, etc. OR go & be citizens in Palestine. The current situation is horrible in the long run with Israeli Arab citizens participating in terror (just several days ago I read once again of 5 young men caught, who intended to do terror attacks) and in newspapers articles directly refer to the danger of Arab citizens opening an additional front inside the country in case of a war or even not a full scale war. Palestinian Ambassador Maen Areikat probably made a valid point: “After … all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated”, but we would disagree how the separation should take part. Btw, Israeli government would be glad to see Arab immigration from Israel to Palestine and I heard of (plans or in practice already?) compensation payments to them, similar to what Israel gives its’ Jewish immigrants. Don’t know what will be in the long run since except for a big, horrible war I don’t see Israeli Arabs moving anywhere or don’t see signs of their soon full participation in the country’s life either. I read and my words sound bad, like I am a racist or whatever, but currently entering many Israeli Arabs’ villages could cost me my life. This is Israeli citizens, who get social security, medical services, etc. that we’re talking about. Inside Israel.
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Meanwhile, this days news show again how successful anti-Israeli propaganda is. I read it in Israeli newspaper, but the following article is a wonder to behold, so to speak.
“Ahava, a multinational Israeli Dead Sea products company, will be forced to close its flagship store in Monmouth Street, central London”
http://londonbds.org/2011/04/19/from-corporate-watch-ahava-victory/
Please, look on the language of this article. It’s eyes opening experience.
I also want to thank you for writing on the issue. I wanted to ask you to. Would be glad to hear your views on Obama, Palestinian or/and Israeli speeches in UN. Obama’s was today. Palestinian and Israeli will be on Friday.
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Sorry, I take back “look on the language of this article”. Just “look on the article”.
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I missed Obama’s speech but I’ll look it up online whenever I can.
I read the article you quoted and I’m stunned with people’s silliness. If one were to go down this road completely and not just exclusively against Israel, we will end up in a situation where we can’t buy anything. I just read an article about Amazon’s warehouses where workers are treated abysmally poor. Maybe we should start cleaning up our own backyards first and boycott our own manufacturers before trying to do so for people from other countries?
I’m so annoyed by these pseudo-Liberal do-gooders who declaim and proclaim as long as it costs them nothing.
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Israel and Palestine should be independent states.
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And the United Terrorists States of Imperialista should get the fuck out of this.
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Am I an antisemite?
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I think we all know very well that you are not. Nor a homophobe. 🙂
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I know. Some people have the tendency to be confused between “anti-semitism” and “anti-Zionism”.
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Even if Hamas sucks ass because they don’t recognize Israel and they’re anti-semites, I have a somewhat pro-Palestine position is this conflict. Israel is the colonizator and Palestine is the colonized, so I take the position is favor of the colonized. Israel is recognized as a independent nation and this is for the case for Palestine. This situation is inacceptable!
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Even if Hamas sucks ass because they don’t recognize Israel and they’re anti-semites, I have a somewhat pro-Palestine position is this conflict. Israel is the colonizator and Palestine is the colonized, so I take the position is favor of the colonized. Israel is recognized as a independent nation and this is not the case for Palestine. This situation is inacceptable!
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Even if Hamas sucks ass because they don’t recognize Israel and they’re anti-semites, I have a somewhat pro-Palestine position is this conflict. Israel is the colonizator and Palestine is the colonized, so I take the position is favor of the colonized. Israel is recognized as a independent nation and this is not the case for Palestine. This situation is unacceptable!
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If you are against opinions like “Israel good, Palestine bad” why are you quoting a blog post that is clearly in that camp? After all, this could easily be spun the other way (it’s a vote for a state who’s most famous poet distinguishes between hating Israel and anti-Semitism and spoke out against fundamentalism, it’s a vote for a state with active LGBT organizations, etc). I must say that I know many that are pro-Palestinian state and not one of them has ever said anything as ridiculous as “Palestine good, Israel bad”. If you do meet someone like this, you are correct in assuming that they are seriously ill-informed though.
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“After all, this could easily be spun the other way (it’s a vote for a state who’s most famous poet distinguishes between hating Israel and anti-Semitism and spoke out against fundamentalism, it’s a vote for a state with active LGBT organizations, etc)”
-And these things absolutely should be stated. Just like it bears repeating that Israel is a country where women are pushed to the back of the bus for being female. How barbaric is that?
I have to mention, though, that “hating Israel” is decidedly unhealthy. Just like “loving Israel” is.
‘ If you do meet someone like this, you are correct in assuming that they are seriously ill-informed though.”
– I am yet to meet a single person, to be honest, who would have a position on the issue that is more nuanced than that. If you have links to posts or articles where such nuanced positions are expressed, I’d love to see them.
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Most of my impressions are from discussions, rather than blog posts, but I will look for some and post them here (I’m really busy these days, so it may take a while). But I would consider the two most obvious expressions of this things like supporting Israel’s right to exist while considering it’s settlements illegal and supporting Palestinian statehood while decrying terrorist activities. Perhaps we just have different definitions of this because I’m surprised that you would find support for terrorism. In my opinion, the most important thing is to realize that both Israel and Palestine are very diverse places, which is the reason you can find, for example, both extremely progressive and extremely ignorant views on gender in both places.
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Is something like the following what you have in mind (definitely pro-Palestinian, but also critical of the PLO?). If not, I can keep looking:
http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/3/28/meanwhile-in-palestine.html (plus some of the comments)
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2670/aje-interview-featuring-noura-erakat-on-palestinia
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2702/obamas-palestine-problem-and-ours
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its settlements, sorry!
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