New Approach to Palestine-Israel Conflict

Thoughts on Elections Past

by Joachim Martillo (ThorsProvoni@aol.com)

 

I wrote the Palestine-Israel portion of Jeff Fisher's campaign platform when he ran against Rep. Mark Foley in Florida in 2004. I have included the text below. As far as I know, no other US candidate for national office from either the Republican or the Democratic Party has ever been so courageous in discussing Israel and Palestine. 

 

Unfortunately, Jeff was unable to raise much money even from groups sympathetic to Palestinians. Jeff lost, but then Foley had to resign because he sent some inappropriate emails to male Congressional pages. 

 

Because the Foley scandal helped weaken the connection of white Christian evangelicals to the Republican Party, Jeff's loss turned out to be a good thing in the end, probably had some effects on the 2006 Congressional elections and may even have repercussions in the 2008 Presidential election.Yet I still wonder whether Jeff might have been able to make at least a small change in American political discourse about Palestine if he had won in the 2004 Congressional election.

 

A New American Approach to the Palestine-Israel Conflict

"At the beginning of the 20th century, nearly every single Muslim intellectual was in love with the west, admired its modern society, and campaigned for democracy and constitutional government in their own countries. Instead of seeing the west as their enemy, they recognized it as compatible with their own traditions." 

The USA has lost all this goodwill.  Thanks to the Bush administration torture policy, which includes beating prisoners to death and raping women, no one outside the USA trusts our government when it vows to support anti-racism, universal human rights and democracy in the Middle East.  America cannot stay the Bush course and be true to itself.

Anti-Racism

When the US government does not apply the same standards to Jews and to Arabs or Muslims, the world properly accuses the Bush administration of racist hypocrisy.  To prove American bona fides, the US government must categorically condemn the Israeli social political system that supports local equivalents of segregation, Jim Crow, housing discrimination and anti-miscegenation laws.  When Congress passes resolutions to denounce anti-Semitism either in Arab countries or throughout the world, our legislators must also pass resolutions to condemn the structural racism of the Israeli state, and American voters must show their commitment to anti-racism by decisively rejecting a President that puts anti-Arab anti-Muslim racists and bigots in charge of Middle East policy.

Universal Human Rights

Universal human rights has been an integral part of American politics since the Continental Congress ratified The Declaration of Independence with its recognition of God-given "unalienable Rights … to  Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  Innocent Israeli and innocent Palestinian civilians all have these rights, and the US Congress must recognize the absolute equality of innocent Israeli and Palestinian victims.  Palestinian terrorism must end, and Israeli state terrorism, which includes the casual brutality, rape, torture and killing of Palestinians by Israeli civilians and the IDF, must cease.  Neither party to the conflict can expect recognition of its "unalienable human rights" unless it accords exactly the same recognition to the other group.

Democracy

The formal structures of democracy do not guarantee genuine democracy.  A legal system can render a formal democracy into a functionally racist democracy by implicitly favoring one ethnic or racial group over all others. The US as a matter of historic policy opposes states based in racial or ethnic privilege.

When an Israeli politician rejects as invalid legislation passed by a majority requiring the votes of both Jewish and Arab Knesset members, he is an enemy of democracy.  The mind-set that defines good and evil by benefit to the race or to the ethnic group is itself evil.  The USA cannot accept a State of Israel that belongs only to Jews and not to its citizens.  The USA cannot tolerate a State of Palestine that belongs only to Arabs or only to Muslims and not to its citizens.

The constant microscopic examination of Palestinian society and politics is simply unfair without a similar microscopic examination of Israeli society and politics.  The pervasive hypocrisy and racism of the Bush administration has rendered the US unfit to judge.  We will either have to submit ourselves to similar scrutiny or involve the rest of the world in this process. 

Summary

Unilateralism has not worked in Iraq.  It cannot and will not work in Palestine and Israel. The USA must apply a new multilateralist approach to the Palestine Israel conflict.  Without equal participation from Arab and Muslim countries, the process will collapse to the harm and detriment of the USA as the world accuses the US government of being a dishonest broker.

 

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