GO IN PEACE WITH THE LIGHT OF UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWLEDGE TO ALL PLACES OF WORSHIP TO DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIANS

The Palestinian people have the rights all people have, or they should. Israel has decided otherwise. Today as I write the people of Gaza are in dire straights facing starvation, the denial of medical care and the termination of their water and energy resources.

Without the support of the United States this siege of more than a million people would not be happening and without the support of American clergy and congregations this would not be happening.

We need to demand that the clergy of every religion, denomination and faith based group step up and defend the right of the Palestinian people to food, water and the basic human rights all human beings deserve. Basta Ya! End the Siege of Palestine!

We must go in peace to all persons of faith to testify for and on behalf of the Palestinians. Their lives are in the hands of America's faithful and they must know the truth. They must know the truth if they say they are Christian. They must know the truth about the Palesinians if they are Jewish. and they must know the truth whatever their religion whether it be Abrahamic or not, denomination or faith based organization.

In particular those who have fooled themselves or allowed themselves to be misled in the religious communities need to be engaged in constructive dialogue and representation. Collective punishment is always a crime, isn't it?

The collective torture, starvation, deprivation, imprisonment, brutalization and murder of more than a million people is wrong and it is wrong for our clergy and tens of millions of their parishoners to silently proceed about their endless musings of the ancient texts when our brothers and sisters are on the verge of death. Let the light shine on those murdering the Palestinians and let the people of America see the truth at last.

We all are Palestinians!

WHY AN ISRAELI OFFENSIVE AGAINST GAZA?

Why is Israel attacking Gaza with more ferocity than before, seeking to join those who throughout the ages who have persecuted and starved millions as a matter of state policy. Is it to set the precedent of Israeli impunity as we transition to a new President? Is this the way it is and always must be? Must Israel continue its endless efforts to drive the Palestinians from Palestine and to prevent their return to their homeland?

It seems to me that Israel continues to use the accusation of terrorism regarding relatively minor Palestinian attacks to justify the persecutions, starvation and even murder of the Palestinian people at large. This is not justice and if Obama supports this siege of Palestine he too is a criminal because without United States support this siege would not be happening.

If the Palestinians have any friends I don't see them in evidence. It is as if the whole world has written them off. This doesn't mean that Israel will prevail in its efforts to create an even larger Israel. Ultimately the Jews and Palestinians will sit down and the same table and wonder why peace took so long to come to. Israeli intransigence and hostility to the Palestinian people is the fundamental obstacle to peace.

Currently the parties could easily agree on a just peace. It isn't clear that the Israeli's will ever be ready for peace. They basically demand peace before their is a peace, a tall order and one they work tirelessly to make impossible. Too many of them are just unwilling to abandon the idea of taking every square inch of Palestine. Religious delusions rule despite widespread rejection of the fundamentalist notions that animate
aggressive settlers and politicians alike.

HOPEFULLY OBAMA IS NOT ANTI PALESTINIAN

One of the crucial moral issues in progressive politics is the question of Israel and Zionism and the situation in Palestine/Israel today. Currently it seems to me that there are progressive ideas about Palestine and Israel that allow for either one united secular state or two viable unconquered states at peace with one another.

The Palestinians continue to be terribly oppressed and abused in Gaza and the West Bank. The sieges of Gaza and other Palestinian areas are crimes against humanity as well as war crimes. Siege has long been condemned by international law. Nor is siege an appropriate response to the asymmetrical attacks on Israeli territory because the scale of those attacks is quite limited and ineffective although sometimes quite deadly, admittedly.

I think the Israelis and Palestinians should become one family, to put all the so called values that supposedly divide aside and to adopt one another into each others families. A religion that divides the oppressed of yesterday from the oppressed of today is an idolatry. Many already see that racial purity and this or that piece of territory is not what is crucial. A real, just peace among the two and several peoples is what is holy, not the land, not the land. Remember the golden calf when Moses came down from the mountain with the law. Call it what you may, the ten commandments or the one thousand commandments. It was the law and it is what so many who want more land say they are following.

Negotiations with Hamas have already ratcheted down the missile attacks on Israel. Isn't it possible to secure a peace agreement between Israel and all Palestinian factions and government officials.

It is time for Israel to stop trying to social engineer the future of the Palestinian people. Let's see that genius applied for the embrace of both parties, both sides, one by the other so that everyone succeeds. Of course the Israeli extremists need to be coaxed into a peaceful frame of mind. This may be a great challenge but the nonviolent struggle with, not against, these settlers by Israeli society at large could be a model for struggling with and working out a just, stable peace with Palestinians.

Consider the practicality of peace in a world of crisis. Who has not betrayed the Palestinians and now they are divided into two camps. Lets have an honest and transparent foreign policy and domestic policy towards Israel. How can Israel protect itself from the threats of the violent extremists who oppose accommodation, peace and a fraternal relationship with this close and indigenous people?

Presumably those who are for peace should not be intimidated if some are martyred in the cause of peace. Yitzak Rabin should not be the only Israeli willing to die for peace and as a peaceful Israeli leader. So some extremists may kill other Israeli leaders for peace. If so they could have other leaders ready to go, and another replacement team several replacements deep ready to go on short notice. It sucks to be in this sort of position but what is the point of dying for endless war or killing for endless war? Peace is better for everything and everyone as long as it is a just peace.

It seems that if violence trends downward that this is a good sign and that military brutality may not be the best input into the "peace process" at that time.