www.aljazeerah.info
Opinion Editorials, May 2011
Archives
Mission & Name
Conflict Terminology
Editorials
Gaza Holocaust
Gulf War
Isdood
Islam
News
News Photos
Opinion Editorials
US Foreign Policy (Dr. El-Najjar's Articles)
www.aljazeerah.info
Out of the Belly of AIPAC and Why I am too RED to be Pink!
By Eileen Fleming
Al-Jazeerah: CCUN, May 30, 2011
AIPAC/American Israel Public
Affairs Committee’s annual conference brought together over 11,000
sisters, brothers and cousins in the Family of Father Abraham-including
1,500 youth representing 400 schools and 215 universities, 500 journalists
from 2 dozen countries and representatives of over 100 endorsing
organizations to Move AIPAC Over:
http://www.moveoveraipac.org/
On 22 May 2011, inside the
Washington Convention Center, Lee Rosenberg, the President of AIPAC
greeted that crowd by saying:
“We are here because we care and
decided to do something.”
Do Something has been a mantra of mine
ever since my first of 7 trips to Israel and Occupied Palestine:
Read more...
Because I
care so much and love America and the promises and spirit of Israel’s
Declaration of Independence:
"On the day of the termination of
the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General
Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and
peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete
equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants
irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and]
conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations."
- May 14, 1948, The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
I
recently decided to live out a dream I began dreaming after my first trip
to occupied territory in 2005, which is to run for U.S. House of
Representatives as the first candidate for the
Because it is no longer enough
to just write my broken heart out over the 44 years of military occupation
of the indigenous people of the so called Holy Land-which is in pieces;
disconnected enclaves that in no way can become a sustainable Palestinian
state if this map remains the same:
And because "Everywhere
except in America, the Palestinian narrative is well known."-Rashid
Khaladi
Read more... my
conscience compelled me to attend AIPAC’s annual conference to listen,
learn and discern;
And also so I could introduce myself as a
reporter who has been to Israel 7 times since 2005 [I did not mention I
spent most all my time in occupied Palestine] because knowledge brings
responsibilities, so I am looking for a district in Florida to represent
in the US House of Representatives.
[Everyone I told that I was on
staff with Salem-news.com which is
based in Oregon assumed it was based in Connecticut and all were impressed
that I was a columnist for the Military and Foreign Affairs Journal
Veteranstoday.com
]
Everyone responded to me warmly and I felt a kinship with all, but the
rebel in me rejoiced that if and when any click onto my website I may blow
many minds.
Narkis P. Alfi, Freelance Correspondent and Likud
Party Member with eileen fleming at AIPAC's 2011 Conference
As PRESS I could have been in
the audience for Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address at Monday night's
gala, but I chose to remain outside the door greeting all with “Shalom, I
love America and Israel so much that I am running for Congress.”
Many accepted my business card, some ignored me and one young man hit the
card out of my hand. No doubt he acted out as a reaction to the vocal
activists affiliated with Move AIPAC Over [as the founder of
We Are Wide Awake I
am an endorser] who seized their right to free speech to demand an end to
the occupation and oppression of Gaza Palestine.
During Monday
night’s gala while Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the crowd, about a
dozen courageous activists for justice and peace rose up vocally to Move
AIPAC Over and one was tackled and injured by AIPAC participants.
During Netanyahu’s address to Congress on Tuesday morning, just after the
Prime Minister spoke about the youth around the world rising up for more
democracy, 28 year old CODEPINK activist Rae Abileah was assaulted and
forced to the ground by AIPAC members in the House Gallery as she stood up
with a banner that read “Occupying Land Is Indefensible” while shouting,
“No more occupation, stop Israel war crimes, equal rights for
Palestinians, occupation is indefensible.”
Rae was arrested by
D.C. police for disturbing the peace at George Washington
University Hospital where she was being treated for neck and shoulder
injuries. Rae had no regrets for her physical pain and said she stands in
solidarity with the Palestinian and Israeli activists who are routinely
jailed and beaten for speaking out for democracy.
This reporter
applauds the commitment and chutzpah of all the stand up and vocal
activists; but I choose a different way to rise up for it has been
understood for millennium that if you want to change the world: WRITE!
“I understand the need to engage in a peaceful and civilized
conversation.”-Sasha Matthews, AIPAC Campus Activist from Florida A&M
University.
Sasha spoke those words and shared her story during a
Sunday AIPAC break-out group, “From Campus to Congress: Deflecting
Detractors and Exerting Real Influence.”
Sasha also explained, “I
am a baby in this movement and I am not Jewish or political. As a
Christian I learned about the historical ties to the Jewish State
in church, but I had only a lukewarm interest.”
America and Israel
partner closely in the field of science and technology and as a physics
student Sasha, “became engaged” and was then “bombarded” with information
from AIPAC.
Sasha said, “My issue is getting students involved and
the focus of my action is to attract students in general with balloons,
music and food and then bombard them with all the information-ammo that
AIPAC provides.
“I have partnered with FSU’s Hillel [The Foundation
for Jewish Campus Life] as I understand the need to engage in a peaceful
and civilized discussion.”
Before Sasha spoke, the facilitator
brought up –and demeaned the work of Mearsheimer and Walt, and chances are
that most of the AIPAC campus activists have not yet read: The Israel
Lobby by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
Read more...
Mearsheimer and Walt were keynote speakers on 21
May 2011 for Move AIPAC Over
President Obama’s Sunday
morning address to AIPAC was met with energetic applause and a few
standing ovations.
Obama spoke about the dangers of the spread of
nuclear weapons but not a word about Israel’s still un-inspected WMD
facility-which everyone in the world, except most Americans learned about
in 1987, when Mordechai Vanunu’s photos and testimony made front page news
in London’s The Sunday Times.
Obama told of his
experience at the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem and how he reflected upon
the modern day fear of nuclear war.
As it is human nature to
desire what the other has, only a Nuclear Weapons Free Middle East-and
World-can obliterate that potential!
Obama also mentioned his
visit to the Wailing Wall and how he thought about the generations who
have wanted a homeland; but not a word was uttered about the generations
of indigenous Palestinians who are still denied their inalienable right to
return home or about the 21st century Wailing Wall, as nailed by Vanunu
Mordechai:
Vanunu's Message to Hillary Clinton re: The Apartheid Wall
Obama told of his visit to Sderot and the struggles of those residents,
but he neglected to travel five minutes away into the open air prison of
Gaza where 1.5 million human beings-800,000 are under the age of
16-struggle every moment of the day just to survive under a brutal siege
aided and abetted by USA policy!
I spent an evening in Sderot in
2009 and learned that most everyone there would be just as happy to
migrate to Las Vegas than live in Israel:
Read more...
Israel’s
existence is a fact of life, but what can never be accepted is Israel’s
‘right’ to steal land and resources of the indigenous people of Palestine!
All through the AIPAC conference I heard the incessant drumbeat of
Israel’s rights, about the “special relationship” “shared values” “common
Interests” the “Jewish State” and claims that Israel is a democracy, but
Israel is not-and never has been a Democracy!
In the May 28, 1993
edition of Yedioth Ahronoth, Ariel Sharon explained:
"The
terms ‘democracy’ or ‘democratic’ are totally absent from the Declaration
of Independence. This is not an accident. The intention of Zionism was not
to bring democracy, needless to say. It was solely motivated by the
creation in Eretz-Isrel of a Jewish state belonging to all the Jewish
people and to the Jewish people alone. This is why any Jew of the Diaspora
has the right to immigrate to Israel and to become a citizen of Israel."
Jeff Halper, American Israeli, co-founder and coordinator
of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and Professor of
Anthropology wrote:
"An
ethnocracy is the opposite of a democracy, although it might incorporate
some elements of democracy such as universal citizenship and elections. It
arises when one particular group-the Jews in Israel, the Russians in
Russia, the Protestants in pre-1972 Northern Ireland, the whites in
apartheid South Africa, the Shi’ite Muslims in Iran, the Malay in Malaysia
and, if they had their way, the white Christian fundamentalists in the
US-seize control of the government and armed forces in order to enforce a
regime of exclusive privilege over other groups in what is in fact a
multi-ethnic or multi-religious society. Ethnocracy, or ethno-nationalism,
privileges ethnos over demos, whereby one’s ethnic affiliation, be it
defined by race, descent, religion, language or national origin, takes
precedence over citizenship in determining to whom a county actually
'belongs.'"[1]
In his Farewell Address, President
George Washington warned US:
"Observe good faith and justice
towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate
attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them,
just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation
which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is
in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another
produces a variety of evils."
It was President Harry Truman who
crossed out the word “Jewish state” on the draft of the
Establishment of Israel that was cabled him and substituted “State of
Israel” which he affirmed was contingent upon Israel upholding the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Read more...
Obama admitted that true
friends speak open and honestly and that “the current situation does not
allow procrastination. The world is moving too fast [and] the Talmud
teaches as long as one has life do not abandon faith. We will never
abandon universal human rights.”
All this American dissident writer
has been saying since I went online in 2005 after my first of 7 trips to
Israel and Occupied Palestine is that when Israel honors its founding
promises and America upholds its obligation as a Member State of the UN
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, then YES WE CAN and YES WE WILL
begin this world again.
Godspeed on it!
1. Jeff Halper, An
Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel, Page 74
Eileen Fleming,
Citizen of CONSCIENCE for House of Representatives 2012
Founder of
WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com, A
Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
and Columnist for
Veteranstoday.com
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13
Minutes with Vanunu"
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a
Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" and
BEYOND NUCLEAR:
Mordechai Vanunu's FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and My
Life as a Muckraker: 2005-2010
http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
In Solidarity YES WE CAN begin the world again.
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
