Perhaps our last chance

[Note: This is a long post. The subject cannot be treated in one paragraph.]

Tomorrow (May 9), the House of Representatives votes on HR4681, the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006. This bill imposes draconian economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Palestinian people for exercising their democratic rights. Every peace-loving American ought to call their representative and urge him or her to vote “no” on this bill.

Now, I recognize that if I’m not in unquestioning support of the government of Israel, if I care at all about the humiliation and oppression of the Palestinian people, I am, according to the Israeli lobby and the U.S. right wing, anti-Semitic. But then I remember that those who opposed the Vietnam war were labeled as anti-American, pinko commie fags. Forty years later, of course, we all know they were right.

But this has nothing to do with religious beliefs. [By the way, people who follow the Jewish religion are not a separate race. Firstly, Judaism is a religion and a culture and secondly, there is but one race on this planet. It’s called “human.”] What this has to do with is Peace.

The board game “Risk” had in its instruction sheet at one time, a discussion that the Middle East was the most crucial area of the world. There would be no peace in the world unless there were peace in the Middle East. And that is the whole crux of the matter.

It is the obvious perception of the Islamic world that the U.S. is in league with Israel in a crusade against Islam. HR 4681 will strengthen that perception. The Israeli-Palestinian issue is directly tied to the Global War on Terrorism in that the actions of the U.S. in its unswervingly supporting the Israeli government and disregard for the rights of the Palestinians lend great credence to the claims of al-Qaeda and other such groups that the U.S. is fighting a crusade against the Moslem world and that the U.S. is assisting Israel in taking the land from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates for Israel's expansion. HR 4681 strengthens al-Qaeda's claims.

I truly believe that the U.S.’s unswervingly support of the Israeli government is a root cause for the attack on the World Trade Center. The WTC was the heart of the U.S. financial industry and I believe that al-Qaeda's view is that industry is owned and operated by the modern day equivalent of Shakespeare’s Shylock.

The defeat of HR 4681 may be our last chance to turn events around so we can find a true and lasting peace in the Middle East, a peace that will benefit the Palestinians and the Israelis.

I fully understand Israel’s desires to ensure their citizens are not blown up by the barbarous acts of the suicide bombers. But why is the Wall not following the 1967 borders? Why are Palestinian farmers being cut off from their fields --- their livelihoods --- Palestinian children being cut off from their schools, and the Palestinians in general being cut off from their medical facilities?

It is only through honest dialogue and negotiations done with integrity will peace in the Middle East be possible. And a lasting and honorable peace in the Middle East will be a decisive blow for victory in the War on Terrorism --- a war that guns and bombs will not resolve.