Paper on Israel Palestine Conflict

Paper on Israel Palestine Conflict

The following papers were presented to Ambassador Brownback; Securing Safe Zones for Refugees, Religious freedom and prosperity of a nation, State Departments’ visitors’ program, Religious freedom in India and now this one on Israel Palestine conflict.

Thanks to Al-Bilad Daily News for publishing this at http://www.albiladdailyeng.com/paper-israel-palestine-conflict/

I will be talking about this next week, if you have suggestions, please share, a lot has been written about it at http://www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com

Please visit www.RamadanNews.com – everything you wanted to know about Ramadan is here!

A summary of the issues;

Israel Palestine conflict is not going on for thousands of years, it is new, and began with the Balfour declaration in 1917. The actual flare-up started in 1948 with the creation of Israel. For the Jewish immigrants, mainly the survivors of Holocaust, it was a battle for survival, and for the Palestinians, it was a battle to live in their own homes against forcible evictions.

The leadership of the western nations had the arrogance to believe that their solutions were the best and imposed it on others. They were rooted in disrespect for the culture of other people. Even though they talked about equal rights, deep down they believed they are more privileged than the others.

The Colonist left a mess while departing from their colonies. They did that with India and Pakistan, and they have done it in the Middle East. We cannot blame them after 70 years; we have to blame the current regimes that are aggravating the conflicts and passing the misery on to the next generation.

I support Israel and a homeland for Jews; they have been deprived of the sense of security throughout their history. The Jewish people, in general, want nothing but safety, but their political leadership is doing everything to keep them from having it. It is wrong for the administration of Israel to do unto Palestinians, what was done to them.

Security to Israelis and justice to the Palestinians are interdependent, and one will not happen without the other.

Jews have a need to be understood and be acknowledged for their eternal security needs, not the military, but mental security where they can put their guards down and live their lives in peace.

Palestinians have a need to be understood. They have suffered immeasurably, no human should be stripped of his or her hope and dignity; hope to have a family, work and own a house and call a place their homeland.

As Americans, we need to be above reproach and seek justice for one and all.

The policies of the current Israeli leadership will continue to be a source of insecurities for Israelis in the long haul unless Israel is willing to annihilate the Palestinians, which they have attempted repeatedly.

This week the UN passed the resolutions to void the Jerusalem as Capital of Israel. 128 nations including our allies voted, and only seven countries reluctantly voted against it, since they live off our aid. Over the last 70 years, 95% of the community of nations vote one way, and about 4% of countries vote the other way, and usually, our representative in the United Nations vetoes that vote. It is like slapping on the face of 190 some nations and letting them know that their vote is worthless. It results in resentment towards America, and Israel. That resentment is wrongfully called Anti-Semitism. We must condemn real Anti-Semitism with all our hearts, minds and might, but not the anger.

What can we do?

First, we need to quit blaming the Palestinians for their rockets, and understand that they live in open prisons, they cannot go to a hospital, the children harassed, their homes are forcibly taken and bulldozed, their land is taken, and settlements are built in violation of all civility.

What can they do, the world did not do anything for them for 70 years but blame. The only thing they can do is throw rocks at the oppressors or commit suicide as the proud Jewish people did at Masada. As Americans we need to respect human dignity, whether Palestinians “behave” or not, we have the responsibility to do the right thing. Injustice to one will create ripples and affect all of us one way or the other.

Secondly, we need to demand that parties sit down and come out with a solution, we have that right, and we should tie our $3 billion a year donations to bring peace. If you cannot make peace, you don’t get our support. I hope we value righteousness over politics. The dominant party is always in the position to negotiate peace provided they don’t look down upon the weak. Both the American and Israeli leaders need to shelve the arrogance of superiority over the Palestinians, if we can treat, feel and act as equals, all of us will have peace and security. That is the bottom line.

Finally, we need to hold a conference, and I will be happy to organize one to find solutions. We are competent people, and we can do it. I am a part of Israeli Palestinian Federation and have written extensively on the topic at http://www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com

Request to NGO’s –
Support this initiative.

Request to the Ambassador/ DOS

Commission a survey to see what Americans want, and represent their interest at the United Nations. The study must also include responses from the Jewish Americans.

I suggest that we ask Netanyahu and Abbas to visit at least a dozen children a week of the other populations, look them in their eyes and promise them, that they can hope for a better future and assure them that they are not their villains.

We need to take a firm stand on one state or two state solutions, if it is one state, we the people who stand for human rights, need to encourage it to be an authentic democracy and not have more privileges to one group over the other.

Mighty empires can crush the weak for a short term; in the long run, everyone goes down the tube. We cannot rob anyone and live with a good conscience.

Finally, what will we answer our Grandchildren for passing the problem to them? I am sure they will ask if we did not dare to do so.

Religious Scriptures are a part of the problem

Part of the issue of the Israel Palestine conflict is based on misinterpreted sacred scriptures, and the other parts of the equation are security and justice.

All of us have reduced God’s wisdom to be bigoted, discriminative, and partial. Is this our God? Jesus is not going to hurry up and come down on the earth until the Israeli politicians kill all the Jews and Muslims. The Son of God is not in the business of terrorizing people. What kind of promise is that where God rewards massacring of the people? What kind of God is that who rejects others and accepts only one religion? These are serious flaws in our understanding of religions for thousands of years; it is time to correct these errors in our understanding of the Just God.

Is this God happy that we have killed 58 people in Gaza in the latest bout of ethnic cleansing, wounded hundreds, and continue to shoot the unarmed?

Take a look at the following misinterpretations of the verses, and let me know if God could have said something like that. May I suggest you to say what is right, rather than pleasing a ‘few’ Pastors, Imams, Rabbis, Pundits or religious men.

A few Jews believe that they are the chosen people. A few Christians believe Jesus’ arrival will wipe out everyone but Christianity. A few Muslims think Islam is the only religion acceptable to God. A few Hindus, Sikhs and others have similar arrogant attitudes that they are the best, scientific or the oldest and wisest. Indeed, none of the religions are wrong; the flaw is in our understanding.

God is not a little guy; God is the creator. Should we reduce his words of wisdom to the narrow, exclusive claims as in above?

Knock off Religion from Israel Palestine Conflict

As we start applying common sense to understand the deeper meaning of these verses, maybe we can knock off the religious aspect from the conflict and focus on the land aspect, which may be more comfortable. No one is more privileged than others, and no one is more than equal.
Religions are always used and abused to suit one’s greed. Indeed, all of us have reduced God’s wisdom to be bigoted, discriminative, and partial. Is this really our God?

As we chose representatives to govern us on our terms, we need to appoint a reformatted God that cares for every human and guide us.

Thanks to America, more and more religions are moving towards their central values, which are a common denominator of beneficence, and thanks to each group for chiseling out the fluff. America will eventually have its own version of Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Shinto, Paganism, Zoroastrianism, Tao, Dao, Wicca, and others. Judaism and Christianity have already established reformed versions, others are working on it. I clearly see that.

Your precise comments will be selected to go into the report.

The author is President of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

# # #

What do we do at the Center for Pluralism

Pluralism is an attitude of “Respecting the otherness of others” and “accepting the God-given the uniqueness of each one of us.” You are who you are, and I am who I am, neither one of us has to compromise the uniqueness of our faith, race, culture, nationality, and language.

Our purpose is to acknowledge the differences and live with least conflicts. Pluralism News is the weekly publication of the Center for Pluralism. You can access this anytime through www.PluralismNews.com. We will be happy to speak to your congregation, students, friends. We can conduct a workshop in building a cohesive community, workplace or society. Pluralism does not mean compromise or appeasement; it is simply a development of an attitude for living with others with least conflicts. Please email to Mike@CenterforPluralism.com

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Thank you,

Mike

Mike Ghouse
Center for Pluralism
Washington, DC
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Rabbi Jonathan Sachs hugs Mike Ghouse

Hugs with Rabbi Jonathan Sachs

Washington, DC, November 12, 2015-- Emeritus Chief Rabbi of UK delivered a talk upon the release of his book, “Not in God’s name, confronting religious violence” at the Brookings Institution.   I'll just highlight a few key points as the full conversation will be available at Brookings archives soon.

A meaningful Hug with the Rabbi

In the Q&A segment, I responded to Rabbi's typical question, where are the moderate Muslims and which he answered it himself; there is none. 

I spoke up, Rabbi, I've some good news for you, there are 6 million moderate Muslims here in America, and I'm one of them. You came to the right place, welcome to America. May you be soaked in peace and drenched in peace, shalom.

Let's work together in creating cohesive societies rather than living in fear of each other? I'm here to answer any question about Islam and Muslims any one has.

The Rabbi welcomed my offer and wanted to give me a hug, and I said, I'll walk up-to you (I was in the very back of the room), but we decided to hug after the event.

I asked him, “Rabbi, since you correctly traced radicalism among Muslims to the year 1979, compounded by the fatwa on Rushdie, the first ever fatwa with universal application, I have to ask you this. Do you think all this mess with Iran could have been avoided, if we (the Americans) had asked Shah of Iran to step down in 1979, signaling to the people of Iran that we are with them and not their oppressor? Had that happened, the Iranians would not have become our enemies, right?

 Indeed much of the mess was started with the Iranian revolution. He acknowledged the question and said we have to think about it. He did not have much to answer other than saying that he wants to look forward and not backwards.

I did not get to ask few more questions like; how reliable is the survey he quoted? That 83% of Palestinians want Israel wiped out? Was the same question asked of Israelis?

He said Israel is more isolated than ever before, anti-Semitism is on rise... I wanted to ask if there was any reflection on his part to see what Israeli policies have contributed towards such isolation. He also said that a majority of Muslims support suicide bombing which I disagree, he is given cooked up figures to justify Islamophobia. I am a Muslim in touch with thousands of Muslims around the world, and it is rare for any Muslim to support suicide bombing. The Quran forbids killing oneself or killing others, the loosy goosy ones do it because they are nuts. I don't buy their piss poor excuses and give them a break. I will say to them you SOB, you are the one who killed and I am going nail your tail for that.

There is a lot of research on the topic including my observations at www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com 

Well, the Q&A Session ended, and I started walking to the front. Amazing thing happened; I hope there is a video of it. As I walked, the people started opening up for me to walk thru – like Moses did when the Nile was split, and the conversation was passed on from the back to the front…. … Going for a hug? Rabbi’s hugger is going…. you remember the movie crocodile Dundee? You may recall how Kathleen Turner’s dialogues were passed on from group to group until it reached Dundee all the way to the train in the Subway?  Hell, yes, I enjoyed it.

Well, the Rabbi was ready for me for the hug! And we hugged each other and promised to work on mitigating Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, Misogyny, racism, Xenophobia and homophobia – all evils of humanity that break the society apart.  Yes, we have a lot of work to do, and do, we will. 

We exchanged cards, I was representing American Muslim Institution and he was representing the office of Emeritus Chief Raabi.  

After that, I had some heart to heart conversation with a few Jewish friends, including meeting Mati Engel, director of National Initiatives of the Embassy of Israel, whom I will contact in the next few weeks. 

An Orthodox Jewish Lady had good questions about the two solutions; my response was security for Israel hinges on justice for the Palestinians and vice versa. One will not happen without the other. 

Another person asked me a million dollar question – Why can’t the Arab Lands absorb the Palestinians?  My response was instant – why should they? Don’t the Jewish people longed for a home? Shouldn’t the Palestinians long for their home? Home land is like a mother, people are emotionally bonded to her, you cannot extricate one from the other.   Besides, if Arab or anyone out there absorbs the forcibly evicted people from their homes, you will be legitimizing such evictions, as a civilized family of nations, we cannot do it. I am not in favor of it.

Palestinians and the Israelis can live on that land together; we have to build mechanisms for that – The Israeli and Palestinians have to see each others sufferings and empathise their apprehensions, as humans, they have to give full dignity to each other. It can be done and I hope to get to that some day. Indeed, the current Israeli President, Mr. Reuven Rivlin believes and supports the idea of Israel Palestine Confederation of which I am a Board Member.

More notes will be appended in a few days right here at: www.TheGhousediary.com and www.israelPalestineDialogue.com

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine and foreign policy. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and bulk of his writings are at TheGhousediary.com  

Netanyahu: Have You No Shame?

Supporters of Mr. Netanyahu are blinded by their love for him, it is time to wake up and see the trends that Mr. Netanyahu's actions have generated;

i) Anti-Semitism is on increase because he slaps in the face of the world, the worlds says one thing and he gets away with all the violating it, it is causing a lot of resentment towards the United States and Israel for not respecting the international community.

ii) You cannot be safe if you keep threatening others, Netanyahu is creating long term insecurities for the people of Israel.

Here is a good write up by Rabbi Lerner

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-michael-lerner/netanyahu-have-you-no-sha_b_8391496.html    

Netanyahu: Have You No Shame?   
By Rabbi Michael Lerner  Oct. 26, 2015

Israel’s Prime Minister attributing the Holocaust to Palestinian influence over Hitler is a “Blood Libel” level lie.

In the Middle Ages, some Christians claimed that Jews were kidnapping Christian children and using their blood to make Passover Matzah (which in Jewish law would make the Jewish kidnapper a murderer, deserving the death penalty, and the Matzah itself unkosher, because Jews are forbidden to eat blood). This “blood libel” lie has been repeated by anti-Semites and sometimes is accompanied in bookstores with a book called  “The Elders of Zion,” who purportedly met and planned to rule the world. This sort of hate literature is still disseminated in some Muslim countries.

Now, the Prime Minister of Israel has launched his own “blood libel” lie. In a speech to an international group of Zionist leaders attending the 37th International Zionist Congress, Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that Hitler was intending to only banish Jews from Europe, until he met with the anti-Semitic Palestinian al-Husseini, the “Mufti” of Jerusalem who convinced him to murder all the Jews.

As Israeli Policy Forum’s policy director Michael Koplow explains, “Netanyahu brought up al-Husseini’s well-known connection to the Nazis and vocal support of Hitler in warning about the dangers of Palestinian incitement regarding Israel’s alleged efforts to alter the status quo on the Temple Mount. His connection between these two seemingly disparate threads was that al-Husseini had instigated riots in the 1920s by accusing the Jews of wanting to destroy al-Aqsa, and he later met with Hitler in 1941 and – in Netanyahu’s telling – convinced Hitler to exterminate European Jewry rather than expel them. So the implication is that false warnings about Jews trying to take over al-Aqsa, or to even just change the Temple Mount status quo, lead to attempts to exterminate Jews, including the Holocaust.”

The truth is that Hitler had already launched genocidal plans before meeting with the Mufti, though the Mufti may well have wished for a genocide of the Jews. Hitler’s intense hatred of Jews was already articulated in his Mein Kampf, and already had manifested in throwing Jews out of virtually every profession and university, requiring Jews to wear a yellow star, and attacking and force closing of Jewish businesses, culminating in Kristallnacht in November 1938.

Yet the historical distortion here, far from being a sudden “oops,” is part of the larger picture of hatred toward Palestinians that Netanyahu has been promoting throughout his political life. He repeatedly blames the Palestinian Authority for any act of violence by any Palestinian and never informs the Israeli public of the close cooperation that the P.A. has provided the Israeli security forces for the past ten years in exposing any group of Palestinians that the Palestinian security forces have reason to believe are planning terrorist attacks. He never mentions the way Prime Minister Abbas has sought to quell ani-Israel demonstrations for fear that they might lead to violence. He consistently paints the Palestinian people as violent anti-Semites. He never points out that Israel has relied on the Palestinian security forces to repress any Palestinians who seek to challenge the Occupation, and now he tries to foster the perception in Israel that the Palestinian people are the current embodiment of the Nazis who wish to eliminate the Jewish people through yet another Holocaust. Little surprise that today (October 26, 2015), the New York Times reported that the Palestinian Authority is seeking to reduce its security cooperation with the IDF after a month in which those Palestinian forces in the West Bank have been beating anti-Israel demonstrators and rock-throwers while Israel has arrested over 500 Palestinians..

Of course, it’s important to remind ourselves that many in the IDF do not wish to be occupiers, that many settlers are not murderers or haters, and that many who live in Israel have no real knowledge or understanding of what their Occupation actually means in the daily lives of Palestinians. Yet to the extent that they vote for candidates who support the governments of Israel that have made the Occupation persist for the past 48 years, they all have moral responsibility for the outrageous deeds that are perpetrated or permitted by the IDF and by the most extremist settlers.

It is nothing new to note that hatred of the Other almost always leads to racism, and racism to various acts of violence. We at Tikkun Magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives have strongly condemned the racism that sometimes manifests in Hamas and some other corners of Islamic fundamentalism. When they call for the destruction of “The Jewish state” their discourse encourages an anti-Semitism that is not narrowly confined to anger at the Occupation. But neither is the Jewish racism toward Palestinians merely an expression of legitimate anxiety about whether a future Palestinian State would be willing to live in peace with Israel. The hatred that is being reinforced by the Netanyahu government aims to create the conditions for forcing Palestinians to choose between giving up all hope of having an independent state living in peace with Israel and settling for a few Palestinian municipalities on the West Bank, thereby living as part of a Jewish state and without the full rights of citizens (i.e. apartheid conditions) on the one hand, or being ethnically cleansed from all of Israel, including the West Bank and Gaza.

So it was not a total surprise to witness on a video, a few days after Netanyahu’s speech, a masked and knife-wielding Israeli settler attack Rabbi Arik Ascherman, head of the Israeli Rabbis for Human Rights, as he attempted to stop Israeli West Bank settlers from once again destroying Palestinian olive trees, as they have done systematically for years on Palestinian-owned West Bank lands. Ascherman has been one of the heroes of human rights in Israel, a champion of the best in Judaism, often challenging his fellow rabbis to live up to the ethical standards set by the Torah. A frequent author for Tikkun magazine, Rabbi Ascherman has had the courage of his convictions and deserves the praise of the entire American and Israeli Jewish community.

Don’t hold your breath. To date, his heroism has been ignored both in the Jewish and American mainstream media. Read and watch a video about it at http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.682019 and about the growing hatred in Israel toward supporters of peace at http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.682266



For those of us Jews who are still wedded to Torah’s vision of our obligations toward non-Jews, the clearly repeated injunctions can be summarized as this: “When you come into your land, do not oppress the stranger (the Other, in Hebrew, ha’ger), remember that you  were strangers in the land of Egypt.”  The Torah makes clear that if Jews do not live up the ethical demands of Torah, the earth will literally vomit them out, and so Jewish theology has ascribed the destruction of the 1st and 2nd Temple to our ethical failures in the past.

 So when a group of Jewish fundamentalists called Atteret HaKohanim (who explicitly believe that it is time to tear down the Al Asqa Mosque, rebuild the ancient Temple, and begin animal sacrifices once again) were allowed by the Israeli government to go to the Temple Mount on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot a few weeks ago, it is no surprise that many Muslims reacted by thinking that the Israeli government, which controls access to the Mount, intended to send a signal to the Muslims that their stay on one of their holiest sites is in danger. Some responded by throwing rocks at these extremists (a response I find unacceptable), and then the Israeli government, rather than restraining the Jewish fundamentalists, shut the Temple Mount to Islamic men under the age of fifty. This is a pattern that happens over and over again, and led to the start of the 2nd Intifada and to the current spontaneous acts of outrage at the Occupation, this time by Palestinians living in Jerusalem.

While we deplore the murder of random Israeli citizens by their Palestinian neighbors and the murder of (many more) random Palestinians by their Israeli neighbors, and the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians with no right to trial by a jury of their peers, we see all this as the inevitable working out of the logic of Occupation and subordination. All the more reason to be outraged at Netanyahu’s further stirring of hatred toward Palestinians with his blood libel. It is not the viciously murderous Mufti of Jerusalem, long dead, who is the target of Netanyahu’s hatred, but the entire Palestinian people whom he sees as an extension of the Nazis.

Yes, there will come a day when Israelis look back on this period with shame and outrage. Just as most Americans, now strong allies with the Vietnamese people, know that the death of 58,000 Americans and three hundred thousand Vietnamese during the Vietnam war was a tragic error, and that these people were not really our enemies, so Israelis will mourn the deaths of Israelis and Palestinians killed in this seemingly endless struggle. But we are not there yet, and it is our obligation to counter all the hate-mongering by insisting on the humanity of the Palestinian people when talking to the haters in the Jewish world, just as we insist on the humanity of the Israeli people when talking to the haters of Jews.

We also acknowledge the fundamental asymmetry in this situation. Unlike the Vietnamese, the Palestinians have no military means of resisting the more powerful force. Their individual acts of resistance are acts of the powerless. In this situation, we in the West must do all we can to end Israel’s occupation of Palestine and encourage a reconciliation of the heart between these two peoples seemingly locked in endless conflict. In my book Embracing Israel/Palestine I outline the path that such action can take. If you wish to be part of a movement that opposes the Occupation, challenges the Obama Administration and the Democrats to stop yielding to the right wing in the Jewish world but instead to pressure Israel to end the Occupation and support U.N. resolutions condemning Israeli human rights violations, yet refuses to demonize all Israelis and calls for nonviolence, please join the Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org/join . 



Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine which won the “Best Magazine of the Year” Award from the mainstream media’s Religion Newswriters Association in 2014 and again  in 2015. He is chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives and author of 11 books including two national best sellers: Jewish Renewal: A Path to Healing and Transformation  and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right.  His book Embracing Israel/Palestine is available on Kindle form Amazon.com and in paperback from www.tikkun.org/eip. He can be reached at rabbilerner.tikkun@gmail.com or at 510 644 1200. 

What if Netanyahu becomes the Prime Minister?

What if Netanyahu becomes the Prime Minister?  www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com 

Note - things turned 180 since them, and new article will be published by Friday, but we will retain this - Mike Ghouse

The world is encouraged with the chances of a new centrist government in Israel. We hope they will be instrumental in laying a solid foundation for long term security for the people of Israel, and serve uncompromising justice for the Palestinians. Both people deserve peace and security, and they should feel home by dropping their guards and feel safer like babies in their mothers lap.

The newly elected Israeli Parties will make the right decision in choosing their New Prime Minister. I am a supporter of Israel and long to see them all live in harmony.  Peace is a necessity for prosperity, and no one will have peace if others around them don’t.   

Israel has lots of friends. They have not become anti-Semite as Netanyahu likes to propagandize. They simply see Netanyahu as a rogue and oppose Netanyahuism rather than Israel, the world is not against the aspirations of the Jewish people, or Judaism. With the new centrist government things will get remarkably better for all parties; Israel, Palestine, Iran, US and the World.

Exit polls have indicated 27 seats for Likud and Zionist Union each. The right wing, left wing and centrist parties play a crucial role in determining the Prime Minister; Netanyahu can still become the PM, if he changes his position like a chameleon, in that case, it is bad news for the Israelis, hopelessness for the Palestinians, a mess for Iranians and a worse situation for the United States.

He is capable of scaring the devil out of Israelis to put the pressure on parties to advance his name for the Prime Ministership.  Then the people of Israel under duress would have chosen chaos, rather than peace. The dream of Jewish people to have a homeland where they felt safe, secure and live without guards will be shattered.

When he said, there will not be a Palestinian state; he has essentially declared a war on the Palestinian Christians and Palestinian Muslims. Hamas can rightfully point to the world and ask what they should do? Of course, they will not ask, they have no reason to trust us or the others.

The State of Israel can absorb all the Palestinians as “equal citizens” – apartheid should have no place in this world. The Palestinians are now challenged to fight back or opt for Masada – i.e., commit suicide rather than burn in Israeli phosphorus bombs (When Jews were pushed to the corner by Romans, they opted to commit suicide rather than surrender).  Can anyone trust the world to stand by the oppressed, or they are on their own.

Hamas has already claimed that they were right about him, and that makes us wrong from the beginning. It is a clarion call to the people of Israel to reject this man Netanyahu and his evil designs.

What about the world? Netanyahu has boldly spat on the disgraceful faces of 161 (out of 166) Nations at the United Nations by rejecting their resolutions to stop the settlements, time and again. He even slapped VP Joe Biden by funding for more settlements when the VP visited Israel, and now he has declared there will not be a Palestine. This is not the way to build nations.

Shouldn’t the world take action and bring justice to the people of Palestine and save Israel from the clutches of Netanyahu. 

161 Nations of the world feel rejected, and their opinion and resolutions are blatantly discarded by Netanyahu, and that is turning into resentment towards the violator. Indeed, it is really anti-Netanyahuism, rather than Anti-Semitism as he likes to paint, and claim to become the savior of the Jewish people and invite them to abandon those rotten countries in Europe and join him in Israel.

He is driven by chaos, and will unilaterally go to war with Iran, dragging the US into his war. It is the same guy who had lied twice about Iraq and now he has another one on Iran. He has also alienated American Jews; a majority of them do not support his take on Iran.

America will be weakened severely; it will wipe us out, and will be worse than the loss of 43 Million jobs, homes and business closures, divorces, budget deficits that the previous president left.   

Solution

The 161 Nations may consider a resolution, that Netanyahu, the current Prime Minister is in direct violation of the world community in establishing Palestine, and unless the Israeli people through their parties choose a Prime Minister who can sit among the civilized nations of the world, and who can respect life liberty and pursuit of the happiness of the Palestinian people, the resolution will stand in place. The resolution calls for pulling the ambassadors out of Israel and sending Israeli ambassadors back to their homes.

The only language bullies like Netanyahu understand is direct threats of isolating him. In a nutshell, Netanyahu is not good for Israel, Palestinians, Iran, the United States or the world. He is the new Saddam Husain who will not hesitate gassing the Palestinians and will alienate Israel further among the nations.

About me: 
I am deeply committed to building cohesive societies, and have an equal commitment to Jews as with the people of other faiths. <1> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/holocaust-and-the-muslim-_b_4629509.html#es_share_ended  <2>  http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/02/about-israel-palestine.html  <3> http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/02/standing-up-with-jews.html  
  ...............................................................................................................................
Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism, Islam, India, Israel-Palestine, Politics and other issues of the day. He is a human rights activist, and his book standing up for others will be out soon | He is producing a full feature film " Sacred" to be released on 9/11 and a documentary "Americans together" for a July 4 release.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com - Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.  

Netanyahuism - is he capable of bombing Israel to flip the elections?

NETANYAHUISM is calling Bibi's antics as his own and not a representation of the will of the people of Israel. What he does in the name if Israel amounts to Netanyahuism, his actions are not supported by the majority of the Israelis.

Is Netanyahu capable of mischief? Can he set up rockets from Hamas and scare the devil out of the Israeli voters and win the elections.

Mike Ghouse

Netanyahu is bad for Israel, Obama is following a sound US-IRAN policy

Lessons in Foreign policy: Mr. Netanyahu and his ilk can fool us in America once, but not twice, and we are not the guinea pigs of his erratic genocidal behavior.

Netanyahu is bad for Israel's long term security

He is coming to Washington to convince the nincompoops who had plunged us into destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to go at Iran now. We lost over 5000 men and women, millions of Americans lost their jobs, and their homes were foreclosed besides sinking us into budget deficit running in $Trillions of Dollars. He wants us to be completely liquidated, to hell with him. We put America first!

Article at Arab News:  http://thearabdailynews.com/2015/02/26/back-off-netanyahu-dont-mess-america/

Mike Ghouse committed to build cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. www.MikeGhouse.net 

Reuven Rivlin: The land is not divisible Israel Palestine together

link: http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2015/03/reuven-rivlin-land-is-not-divisible.html

I salute this man Reuven Rivlin; a man of genuine wisdom.

Where was he? God must have beamed him down to take care of this conflict. This is unusual for me to use these words,  but am tempted to say God has chosen him to lead Israel out of chaotic rulers to bring security to the Jewish people. I have read through the following article a few times and I am in tune with his wisdom.  I pray  for the long term security of Jews and Justice to the Palestinians.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin

This is one of the most exciting news I have read in a long time. Darn, I am tense with joy. I see hope for the people of Israel and Palestine.

This man Reuven Rivlin may have found the solutions to the Israel Palestine conflict. Some of the ideas he has talked about are the similar to the ones talked about at the Israel Palestine Confederation.  If Palestinians can get Justice and Israel can have lasting security, this is the best thing.

This will liberate the moderate majority of Jews who were pained with this conflict, and had severely compromised on justice for the security. The world would sigh relief, 96% of the community of nations wanted Israel to abide by the UN resolutions, which were violated regularly.  I hope this development when gains ground,  anti-Israelism (for slapping in the face of 161 of out 167 Nations' decisions) which is wrongly labeled as Anti-Semitism will decline.

The New generation of American and European Jews will find a new Israel they can connect with - and be in tune with the Justice and liberty for all. The Israelis and Palestinians will realize what a normal life is, and I hope the next generation will be raised as normal people and not hateful revengeful abnormal men and women on both sides. Please remember the majority of the people are moderates and want peace and get along.

It's crime on part of the humanity that we have robbed the Jewish people of their a sense of home for as long as their history. May be that is the driving reason for them to hang on to Israel so dearly. Now Palestinians are in the same boat and the entire world bears the responsibility for what we have done or not done for them. It's time we take apprehensions out for these two people and the words of Reuven Rivlin seems to address those concerns.

With the change of leadership in Israel, these can be achieved and strengthened by the Saudi offer to recognize Israel and be the good neighbors, with that most of the conflicts that emanated will die down, indeed, Iran's problem with Israel will disappear, they are fighting for Justice for the Palestinians.

I hope Reuven Rivlin convinces AIPAC to join him for the sake of long term stable Israel without compromising the staple of a a society; justice. 

Mike Ghouse
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Reuven Rivlin: The land is not divisible

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin referred to a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I would prefer for the Palestinians to be citizens of this country,” he said, “rather than divide the land.”

By Noam Sheizaf Jul. 15, 2010 | 1:45 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/reuven-rivlin-the-land-is-not-divisible-1.302140

Two months ago, at a meeting with the Greek ambassador, devoted largely to discussing the financial crisis, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin referred to a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I would prefer for the Palestinians to be citizens of this country,” he said, “rather than divide the land.” This was no slip of the tongue. Rivlin’s office gave the statement to the press, thereby making him the highest-ranking political figure to have publicly raised the possibility of a single State of Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.

Rivlin places those comments within the framework of a broader outlook: The land, he says, is not divisible. Jews and Arabs have lived side by side here since the dawn of Zionism and before. His own family arrived in Palestine in the early 19th century. Settlement east of the Green Line is no more moral than settlement to the west of it. And incidentally, the Palestinian claim is as legitimate and just as the Jewish claim.

And the solution? The Knesset Speaker rejects the idea of a “state of all its citizens”, i.e. − a binational state. But he is pondering the possibility of some kind of joint sovereignty arrangement in Judea and Samaria under the Jewish state, or even a regime composed of two parliaments, one Jewish and one Arab.

“We’re living in a political reality that requires answers. “When people say that the demographic threat necessitates a separation, my reply is that the lesser danger, the lesser evil, is a single state in which there are equal rights for all citizens. Realpolitik requires us to opt for the danger in the demographic threat over the existential threat of separation.

“As a rule, whenever I hear about a demographic threat, it comes first of all from a type of thinking that says the Arabs are a threat. And this leads to thinking of transfer, or that they should be killed. I am appalled by this kind of talk. I go into schools, and when they hold mock elections, Lieberman gets 40 percent of the vote and I hear kids saying that Arabs should be killed. It seems to me that many of the belligerent Jewish movements that were built upon hatred of Arabs − and I’m not only talking about Lieberman, but within the Likud as well − grew out of the patronizing-socialist attitude that said ‘They’ll be there and we’ll be here.’ I have never understood this. When Jabotinsky says ‘Zion is all ours,’ he means a Jewish prime minister and an Arab deputy prime minister.

“There is a conflict in the Middle East between two entities, and they’re both right, each in their own way. This is our only home, and therefore all kinds of solutions can be found. One could establish a system in one state in which Judea and Samaria are jointly held. The Jews would vote for a Jewish parliament and the Palestinians for an Arab parliament, and we would create a system in which life is shared. But these are things that will take time. Anyone who thinks that there are shortcuts is talking nonsense. As long as Islamic fundamentalism thinks that Jews are forbidden to settle in the Holy Land, we have a problem. It will not be resolved by an agreement, even if we obtain a promise from all the Arab states that it will be fine.

“So if people say to me: Decide − one state or division of the Land of Israel, I say that division is the bigger danger. In an Israel with six million Jews it is much easier to sustain the vision of a Jewish and democratic state than it was in 1948. The people who now say that we must separate because otherwise the state will not be democratic or will lose its Jewish character would, for the same reasons, have said that no state should have been founded in 1948.

“I understand the difficulty with what I’m saying. It seems incomplete. But I know that we’ve overcome much bigger problems in the past. My friends on the left, like Beilin and Jumas [Haim Oron] are true Zionists and Israeli patriots, but this talk about separation, this attitude of patronage, is what gives rise to the hatred that is keeping us from reaching a solution.”
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Related articles

Historical case for Europe to recognize Palestine
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anders-persson/the-historical-case-for-e_b_6673224.html

Heroes of 2014: Reuven ‘Ruvi’ Rivlin, president of Israel
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/31/reuven-rivlin-ruvi-president-israel-likud-palestinian-rights

President Obama you must vote for Palestine Now

http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2011/09/president-obama-you-must-vote-for.html

A ray of hope for the peace process
http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-ray-of-hope-for-israeli-palestinian.html

Board Members of Israel Palestine Confederation 
http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/03/board-members-of-israeli-palestinian.html

Netanyahu responsible for rise in Anti-Semitism

I severely condemn rise in Anti-Semitism and hold Netanyahu directly responsible for it. I challenge the Israelis to reverse the rogue policies of Netanyahu and see a dramatic fall in Anti-Semitism. 

This is a serious matter and unless the moderate Jews wake up and save Israel, Netanyahu will ruin it and Isolate Israel from every one. The young American Jews see that, and one day they will wake up and say enough is enough. Netanyahu is not a peace maker.

I am for security of Israel and justice for the Palestinians, one will not happen without the other. More about it at www.Israelpalestinedialogue.com, The Muslim Holocaust guy , www.HolocaustandGenocides.com, and Standing up for Jews

The latest United Nations resolution called for stopping the settlements - that is a vote of 161 Nations out of 166, only 5 nations voted against it including Israel and us.  Don't you think it is a slap in the faces of 161 nations? Do they have reason to be pissed off at Netanyahu for the violations, and us for letting him get away with it? This is just one item, there are a lot more violations.

Alon Ben-Meir in an article, "A message to Netanyahu, enough is enough" writes, "This delusionary claim is an insult to European governments and the nearly 1.5 million Jews who live, work, and flourish in Europe. The irony is that Netanyahu represents neither the Jews around the world nor even the majority of Israeli Jews, other than the fraction who voted for Likud in the previous election. "

and, "he brought Israel’s indispensable relations with the US to a state of crisis, infuriated European leaders, embarrassed Jews everywhere, and further isolated Israel."

No people should be victims of others' prejudices and hate. It is not acceptable in civilized societies. It took a healthy  dip after the Holocaust and is going back up again in the last seven years, and here are the reasons that many deny, but how long we keep blaming others, instead of looking at the causes.

The few and the powerful right wing Jews and Muslims are too eager to scream Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia even if you sneeze,  instead of seeing the reality and fixing the causes that cause some of these stinky attitudes. 

Mike Ghouse
The Muslim Holocaust guy


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Anti-Semitism spreading across Europe, says study

Latest update : 2015-02-28

Jews were the target of harassment in more countries across the globe in 2013 than at any time in past seven years, a study released Friday showed, with hostility towards the religious group higher in Europe than any other world region.

The report by the US-based Pew Research Center combined the results of two separate indexes – one measuring government actions that curb religious beliefs and practices and another measuring acts of social religious hostility by private individuals or organisations.

It found that harassment and hostility against Jews, either by the government or members of the public, were recorded in 77 of 198 countries surveyed in 2013, up from 71 in 2012 and the highest number since Pew first began recording figures in 2007.

It was in Europe, however, that levels of social harassment were most alarming. The study found that Jews faced this type of harassment in 34 of the continent’s 45 countries (76 percent) – a higher share than in any other region and against a global average of 25 percent.

“In France, three men attacked a teenager who was wearing a kippah in Vitry-Sur-Seine in March, threatening, ‘We will kill all of you Jews’,” said the report. “In Spain, vandals painted a large swastika on the walls of a bull ring in the city of Pinto in August, along with the words “Hitler was right.”

“And in Norway, the newspaper Dagbladet published a controversial cartoon in May that appeared to be mocking the practice of circumcision.”

The report comes at a time when fears over growing anti-Semitism are causing concerns across Europe.

France in particular has faced a worrying rise in anti-Jewish acts in recent months, with a deadly January 9 attack on a Paris kosher supermarket, just days after Islamic extremists shot dead 12 people at the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, further fuelling religious tensions.

A rise in anti-Semitism as been cited as one of the reasons for 7,000 Jews leaving France for Israel in 2014, according to Israeli government figures, twice as many as in the previous year.

Christians and Muslims face most harassment

The situation for Muslims in Europe was not much better, the study found, with harassment recorded in 32 countries, or 71 percent – again much higher than the global average of 34 percent.

The report cited examples such as bloody pigs’ heads being placed at a site of a planned mosque in Germany and threatening letters sent to several mosques and Muslim cultural centres in Ireland.

When all religions were taken into account, two-thirds of European countries saw instances of harassment by organised groups. In a case in Italy, for example, four men were sent to prison after they published lists of Jewish residents and businesses on neo-Nazi websites.

And in four out of ten European countries, there were reported incidents of individuals being assaulted or forced from their homes or places of worship in retaliation for religious activities.

In Poland, arsonists set fire to the door of a mosque in Gdansk, while in Greece several Jehovah’s Witnesses’ houses of worship and mosques were set ablaze in multiple cities throughout the year.

The Pew report combined the results of two separate indexes – one measuring government actions that curb religious beliefs and practices and another measuring acts of social religious hostility by private individuals or organisations.

It found that overall restrictions on religion, whether social of governmental, were high or very high in 39 percent of countries, down from 43 percent the year before.

Christians and Muslims, the worlds’ two largest religions making up more than half of the global population, faced harassment in the highest number of countries, at 52 percent and 50 percent respectively.

Among the world’s 25 most populous countries, the highest overall levels of restrictions were found in Burma, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and Russia.

China had the highest level of government restrictions of 25 most populous countries in 2013, while India had the highest level of social hostilities.