"Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office."
- Jeremiah Wright, June 10, 2009 interview at the 95th annual Hampton University Ministers' Conference
In a Washington Post opinion piece entitled "When ‘Black Lives Matter’ is linked with ‘Palestinian Lives Matter’," Colbert King links a speech by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright at an October 10, 2015 event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March to African American attitudes toward Israel. Mr. King writes:
"Whether Wright’s speech hit the mark with those in attendance is open to speculation. There was, however, no mistaking his aim: to equate and link the plight of Palestinians in the Middle East with the quest of blacks for full equality in the United States.
“The youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine have united together to remind us that the dots need to be connected,” Wright told the crowd, according to media reports.
Citing what he called the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism,” Wright implored the gathering to “stand beside our Palestinian brothers and sisters, who have been done one of the most egregious injustices in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
“Apartheid is going on in Palestine,” Wright said. “As we sit here, there is an apartheid wall being built twice the size of the Berlin Wall in height, keeping Palestinians off of illegally occupied territories, where the Europeans” — presumably Israelis — “have claimed that land as their own.”
Drawing on the black chant, Wright observed, “Palestinians are saying ‘Palestinian lives matter,’ ” and added, “We stand with you, we support you, we say God bless you.”
As a longtime supporter of Israel, and a believer — as Obama is — that Palestinians have a right to be a free people on their land, I don’t think Israel gained attention in a good way that day."
Regrettably, with regard to Wright's allegation of "one of the most egregious injustices in the 20th and 21st centuries," Mr. King doesn't mention what Palestinian Authority President Abbas told The Washington Post's Jackson Diehl in 2009:
"'I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements,' he said. 'Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life.'"
Nor does King mention Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's 2008 offer of an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 lines with agreed upon land swaps and Palestinian control of east Jerusalem.
An "apartheid wall"? A pity that King does not mention that the separation barrier, erected to prevent suicide bombings that took the lives of about 1,000 Israelis, is some 90 percent fence, i.e. only 10 percent "wall."
"'Where the Europeans' — presumably Israelis — 'have claimed that land as their own'"? This was the place where King might have mentioned that the majority of Israeli Jews are Sephardic, whose families arrived in Israel after being forced to leave their homes in the Muslim Middle East. King might also have observed that Ethiopian Jews comprise 1.75 percent of Israel's population and that there have been seven Ethiopian members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), but he didn't.
Bottom line: Israel is not responsible for Wright's incendiary remarks, nor is Israel responsible for Susan Rice's reprehensible comment, also cited by King, "that the Israeli leader did everything but “use ‘the N-word’ in describing the president.” I am no fan of Netanyahu, but I also know that he is not capable of making such a racist remark.
Obama believes that "Palestinians have a right to be a free people on their land"? I would also like to see a prosperous, democratic Palestine living side-by-side with Israel in peace. But that is not going to happen if Palestinian Authority President Abbas continues to declare as he did on September 16, 2015:
"We bless every drop of blood that has been spilled for Jerusalem, which is clean and pure blood, blood spilled for Allah, Allah willing. Every martyr will reach paradise, and everyone wounded will be rewarded by Allah. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is ours, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours, and [the Jews] have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem."
Or stated again, Israel is not responsible for Wright's wrongs.
even garbage can be apartheid:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/lebanon-waste-crisis-sectarian-landfills.html#
"...Until now, Lebanon's sectarianism had never sunk so low as to include waste. One is left to wonder whether the current crisis is actually about waste or if it is a sectarian conflict fueled by other factors. ..."
and, today's WSJ has Erekat asking 'where is Israel's de Klerk?' based solely on the headline, assume Erekat does not think his people need a Mandela.
remembering Rhodesia, and how that apartheid protest gave the people a new Zimbabwe, and Mugabe.
Have been wondering where to seek asylum from false history, but sectarian landfills in Lebanon is a tipping point.