Click the "Read more" link below to view my response to the following opinion piece in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper.
Link: "Obama sets the stage for another war in the Middle East" by Robert Sibley
Link: "Obama sets the stage for another war in the Middle East" by Robert Sibley
Presumably Barack Obama will return his Nobel Peace Prize now that he’s created the conditions for another Middle East war.
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My response...
I hardly know where to start to reply to Sibley’s latest article, “Obama sets stage for another war in the Middle East”.
As someone who has been there about eight times both as a technical adviser for the Canadian government during the Oslo peace accord days and later as a human rights observer, my best advice to him is: Take a tour of the region and do not limit your visit to Israeli government minders. Spend some time with Israeli opposition groups such as “Rabbis for Human Rights”, "Israeli Committee against House Demolitions”, Beth Shalem”, "Women in Black” and Tayoush. Then go visit some Palestinians in the West Bank. He might then see the negative consequences of the occupation suffered by Palestinians daily.
Sibley goes back to his version of past history. He conveniently forgets the UN General Assembly resolution 181 of 1948 which gave territory to both Israel and Palestine. Israel has conveniently mocked this decision and has grabbed much more land than that which was allocated to it.
There are also religious claims by both sides to defend their points of view.
Each side goes back to the historical- religious narrative that favours their point of view. After a while one tires of these historical- religious claims. One hopes that the peoples will simply resort to human rights claims of the present. Most of the nations of the world have done this, as shown by UN Security council votes. Israel backed by the US and now Canada, regularly defies the rest of the world in UN votes on the issue.
Sibley’s piece is strewn with other outrageous claims.
- It is simply NOT true that the Arab states refuse to accept Israel’s existence. Arafat and the PLO long ago accepted Israel’s right to exist, as do surrounding Arab states.
- It is the occupation of Palestinian lands and illegal Israeli settlements thereupon that are the obstacles to peace, despite Sibley’s vehement denial of this plain fact.
It is unfortunate that the Ottawa Citizen gave editorial coverage to this biased view of the Israeli-Palestinian question.
Rebellious Seeker
Ottawa
January 5, 2017
Hi Eric. Encroachment is a contagion that plagues all kinds of real estate matters. It is always particularly hard to play a game with someone who does not want to recognize the rules. Or wants to make up their own rules. I appreciate your point that decisions should be made on contemporary history; the world has changed a lot since the foundations of religion determined right of residency. That change affects all of us in the world, like here in Canada regarding treaty territorial claims, not just the Middle East. There just is no more land for any of us to migrate toward. Humans will be humans, territorial creatures that we are.... any hope?
ReplyDeleteHi JP, Check out the Degrowth movement (decroissance, en francais). In their website you will see ways that we can begin to have more intelligent and equitable growth.
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