Jefferson Corner

At the personal invitation of King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia the Palestinian warring factions of Hamas and Fatah signed a “peace agreement” in the Holy City of Mecca promising to form a “Unity Government” within one week and putting an end to the killing and murder that both organizations engaged in for the last several week.
The Palestinians have to remember that the Iraqis and the Afghans also signed a peace deals in Mecca only to return home and start killing and murdering each other again. I hope and all Palestinians hope that Hamas and Fatah will never ever engaged in any further acts of killing and murder again. While one has to be optimistic, there are certain leaderships within both organizations that have a lot to lose from any peace deal and stand to lose among their community of thugs.
The problem as I see it now with the daily announcement and with the stupid and unnecessary appearance of the many Hamas speakers who continue to make recognition of the State of Israel as the central issue of the Mecca accord, when there are other important issues to deal wit. Perhaps these people need to shut up and take few days off and give us a break from seeing and listening to many spokesmen crowding the air waives. Let us give this peace deal a chance and let the new government form first, announce its policies and programs and then these guys get their moment of glory before the TV cameras.
I read the agreement and yes, it is clear about ending the fighting and forming a unity government and yes, it does address the issues of recognizing and abiding by international agreements signed by the Palestinians.
One would think the new unity government take the opportunity of the support given by the Saudis and especially by both King Abdallah and Crown Prince Sultan to announce full support and commitment to King Abdallah’s Peace Plan announced in Beirut few years ago, and should seek funding from the Arab Gulf States and organize one hell of PR campaign inside Israel to gather support for the Arab Peace Plan, and wage an active campaign within the American Jewish community for such a peace plan given the fact that the US Jewish community always stood in the way of peace between Israel and the Arabs, for its own selfish interest of losing control over US Congress and lose it undue influence over America’s foreign policy.
Never understood why the Arabs and especially the Palestinians shied away from waging a peace campaign toward Israel. It certainly makes lots of sense and makes more sense than the stupid and senseless rockets fired from Gaza and certainly it is more effective than any suicide bombing and the killing of innocent people in cafes and restaurants in Tel-Aviv. I advocated this peace campaign soon after the conclusion of the Arab Summit Conference announcing the Arab Peace Plan with calls of putting some $ 50 millions toward this campaign.
The Palestinians more than ever need to have a vision for their own state and need to articulate this vision through actions and not words and need to prove to themselves that they have what it takes to build a modern nation- state where democracy and votes counts and where guns and militias have no place and where corruptions and incompetence are things of the past. Moreover, it is time for a massive and collective retirement of all those who served at one time or another with the late Yasser Arafat. They have proved, without any exception they are simply unfit to lead in liberation, are too incompetent to build a modern state and they have no vision for the future. 40 years of the same old people, the same old message, the same simple mind is just too much to take any more.
Reforming the PLO and dividing the cake like old times is no longer acceptable and we, in the Diaspora should not accept such a proposal, where those with few useless guns and no brains make all of the decisions. Of course it is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to step forward, make their voice counts and challenge those who have lead the Palestinian people from one disaster to another for the last 50 years. It is time for the Palestinians in the Diaspora to insist on having an independent voice separate from the PLO and insist on having an independent seat at the table in any future negotiations with Israel. There is so much talent outside of Palestine that it will be a crime for the Palestinians leadership under occupation not to make good use of and it will be a crime for the Diaspora Palestinians to leave their faith with the kind of leadership that we have seen for the last 50 years.

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Ever since Israel took total control of East Jerusalem and it declared annexations as the “eternal capital of the Jewish state, of course in total violations of international law, Israel with active and generous financial support from the American Jewish community began a very active and well organized campaign of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Jerusalem.
Over the years, Israel not only tore down the wall that separated West Jerusalem from East Jerusalem, before the 67 War, but began to build a new wall of Jewish settlements chocking and strangling the Arab city of Jerusalem and putting in place laws, remnant of Nazi Germany, that makes it almost impossible for the Arab residence to stay and live in East Jerusalem. Introducing residency restrictions that make it almost impossible for any Arab (Muslim or Christian) to continue to have residency in Jerusalem.
The American Jewish community through its active political and financial support of the Israeli Settlers movement became actively engaged in committing large scale acts of fraud buying and selling Arab properties in the city, making sure that Jews form the majority of the city residence and of course illegally depriving the Arabs of their rights to their properties within the city, of course not to mention using guns and bullets to get rid of Arab resident of the city. Zionism was intent on changing the entire demographic of the city, making sure the Arabs have a hard time staying.
Moreover, the Israel entire legal system from land and property registration up to the Israeli Supreme Court and the Knesset allowed and permitted to the Israeli government to commit acts of outright theft of Arab properties, with the most active individual is Nathan Sharansky, that Russian immigrant whose campaign to ethnically cleanse the city of its Arabs earned him the most distinguished honor American could bestow on any citizen. George W. Bush in recognition of Sharansky’s acts and support of apartheid and ethnic cleansing awarded him the Congressional Medal of Freedom.
Many rich and well influential American Jews became actively engaged in large scale fraud providing hundreds of millions of dollars to criminal settlers allow them through fraud and guns to take over Palestinian properties in Jerusalem and of course in Hebron.
Israel at the moment is continuing what it has been doing for the last 40 years of changing the nature of the cit buy destroying entire Arab neighborhoods and substituting Jewish neighborhoods. One can understand the renovation of the old Jewish quarter within the old city, but making sure that it changes the entire ethnic make up of the city. Israel as not to be satisfied with stealing so many Arab properties within West Jerusalem but is making sure it continue its theft well into the 21st century
As if stealing Arab property is not enough for Israel, and under the pretext of keeping Israel safe from Palestinian suicide bombers and terrorists, continue to build a new wall. Unlike any other wall in the world, The Israeli Apartheid Wall, put the Berlin Wall built by the communist into shame. It snakes through the Arab city, dividing families from their neighbors, and diving Arab families from their properties and business, dividing Arab school children from their schools and most important depriving Arabs of their properties. The Israeli Apartheid Wall, supported by the US Administration and members of Congress, is made up in some areas 500 meters deep of concrete and barbed wires with the concrete supplied by senior officers of the Palestinian Authority. Within the Arab city, the Wall is some 8 meters ( 23 feet high) tall with Arab families forced to travel miles and go through many check points when they can simply walk over in minutes to their schools and businesses.
More dangerous than the Wall, is the fact that Israel is making it an official policy of depriving Arab Muslims and Christians of the right to worship freely in their holy places. Every week and every day, Israel deploys its border guards at the entrance of the city making it almost impossible for any Palestinians to have free access to the holy places.We all want a united and open Jerusalem, a Jerusalem for All We want a Jerusalem that is Jewish, a Jerusalem that is Muslim, a Jerusalem that is Christian, a Jerusalem that is international, but we do not want nor accept a Zionist Jerusalem. However Israel over the last 40 years have proven that it is unfit, unqualified and does not deserve the moral and legal rights to manage an open city for the benefits of Jews, Christians and Muslims. Israel and its supporters within the US administration, Congress and within large circles of the American Jewish community is too racists and too full of hate to have total sovereignty over such a holy city like Jerusalem

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These days we here so much talk of “international community” whether it is President George Bush, Secretary Rice, Prime Minister Blair or Chancellor Merkel, all speak of the “international community” whether they are talking about Iran’s nuclear programs, or Hamas government. These leaders speak as if they have been appointed and elected to speak for the rest of the world. The “international community” they speak about does not include countries in Africa, Asia or the Middle East; even it does not include some countries in Europe, let alone all of Latin and Central America. This if any, shows the arrogance of these leaders.
We must remember few years, the “international community” is the one that gave the Shah of Iran, all the weapons he needed and more to appoint himself as the guardian and ruler of the Arabian Gulf, it is the same “international community” that gave Saddam Hussain, all the weapons he needed including weapons of mass destructions which he put to effective use against his own people and that of Iran. It is the same “international community” that supported the wars in Sudan, Angola, Central America and supported dictatorships like Suharto of Indonesia. When we speak of the “international community” we must nit forgot that it is the one that supported and supplied Israel with its nuclear weapons program, that supported Israel’s twenty years occupation of south Lebanon and it is the same community that supports one of the longest and most criminal military occupations in modern time, that of Israel and its policy of ethnic cleansing and property theft inn the name of G-d and the jailing of over 350,000 Palestinians at one time or another.
One would and can accept the notion of an “international community” if this community has the moral standing and consistency and has track records of supporting freedoms and democracies throughout the world. The problem with this international community is it total silence on all the crimes committed by its proxies like Saddam Hussain, the Shah of Iran, and General Suharto and consistently supported all the prime ministers of Israel as they waged their relentless wars of killing, murdering Palestinians and the ethnic cleansing that forms the basic ideology of Jewish Zionism.
Since no one appointed the US, the UK or Germany as guardians of international rights these particular countries do not qualify to speak for the world community, a country like the US supported both Saddam Hussain and the Shah of Iran, and country like England that gave the Balfour Declaration depriving Palestinians of their natural rights to their homes and land and a country like German that put more than 6 millions Jews in death and gas chambers. It is very difficult to see how such countries with poor if not absent moral standing can speak of the “international community”. It is only when these countries can translate their moral claims to real practice can the rest of the international community accepting such leadership. Until then, please let s not hear again, the words “international community” from countries like the US, England ad Germany.

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Israel and the US always insisted that as a condition for Israel and the US to even think of talking let alone end the occupation is for the Palestinians to recognize Israel. Arafat, without the benefit of smart legal advice and as a way to save his ass after siding with Saddam, decided to strip down and gave full recognition to Israel, without defining which Israel he and his PLO was recognizing, and without insisting on ending the settlements, let alone removing the settlements. The PLO gave full recognition to “Greater Israel” without Israel ever giving recognition to a Palestinian State. All Arafat got for was several canton under occupations with Israeli corpals guarding the gates and with Palestinians having to navigate some 400 different check points. Then Hamas came to power and as expected, the US, Israel and now the European Union decided not to deal with Hamas until it recongizes Israel. Of course without ever giving any indication which Israel should Hamas recongnize, and if such recognition ends the Occupation. Hamas not the smart and political savvy organization it is, did not know how to deal with this issue head on, decided to reach to 1,400 years of history, and offer a “Hudna” which Israeli and Jewish scholars know more about Hudna than all of the Islamic clerics Hamas have. Hamas wasted one whole year without taking the challenge and asking the question which Israel should Hamas recognize? and whether the US and Israel needs to have every single Palestinian, woman, man or child, under Occupation or in the Diaspora sign and deliver to the White House valid and notorized signitures of all 7 million Palestinians and if the delivery of all 7 million signitures will end the Israeli Occupation. Failure of Hamas to anticipate this demand, and its failure to take up the challenge is but another proof that Hamas does not have the leadership or the political sophistication to deal with Israel and the US. What follows is a very interesting article that address the very basic issues of recongitions and what does it mean?
Sami Jamil Jadallah

The Christian Science Monitor
from the February 02, 2007 edition
What ‘Israel’s right to exist’ means to Palestinians
Recognition would imply acceptance that they deserve to be treated as subhumans.
By John V. Whitbeck JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA
Since the Palestinian elections in 2006, Israel and much of the West have asserted that the principal obstacle to any progress toward Israeli-Palestinian peace is the refusal of Hamas to “recognize Israel,” or to “recognize Israel’s existence,” or to “recognize Israel’s right to exist.”
These three verbal formulations have been used by Israel, the United States, and the European Union as a rationale for collective punishment of the Palestinian people. The phrases are also used by the media, politicians, and even diplomats interchangeably, as though they mean the same thing. They do not.
“Recognizing Israel” or any other state is a formal legal and diplomatic act by one state with respect to another state. It is inappropriate – indeed, nonsensical – to talk about a political party or movement extending diplomatic recognition to a state. To talk of Hamas “recognizing Israel” is simply to use sloppy, confusing, and deceptive shorthand for the real demand being made of the Palestinians.
“Recognizing Israel’s existence” appears on first impression to involve a relatively straightforward acknowledgment of a fact of life. Yet there are serious practical problems with this language. What Israel, within what borders, is involved? Is it the 55 percent of historical Palestine recommended for a Jewish state by the UN General Assembly in 1947? The 78 percent of historical Palestine occupied by the Zionist movement in 1948 and now viewed by most of the world as “Israel” or “Israel proper”? The 100 percent of historical Palestine occupied by Israel since June 1967 and shown as “Israel” (without any “Green Line”) on maps in Israeli schoolbooks?
Israel has never defined its own borders, since doing so would necessarily place limits on them. Still, if this were all that was being demanded of Hamas, it might be possible for the ruling political party to acknowledge, as a fact of life, that a state of Israel exists today within some specified borders. Indeed, Hamas leadership has effectively done so in recent weeks.
“Recognizing Israel’s right to exist,” the actual demand being made of Hamas and Palestinians, is in an entirely different league. This formulation does not address diplomatic formalities or a simple acceptance of present realities. It calls for a moral judgment.
There is an enormous difference between “recognizing Israel’s existence” and “recognizing Israel’s right to exist.” From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to concede that the Holocaust was morally justified. For Palestinians to acknowledge the occurrence of the Nakba – the expulsion of the great majority of Palestinians from their homeland between 1947 and 1949 – is one thing. For them to publicly concede that it was “right” for the Nakba to have happened would be something else entirely. For the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, the Holocaust and the Nakba, respectively, represent catastrophes and injustices on an unimaginable scale that can neither be forgotten nor forgiven.
To demand that Palestinians recognize “Israel’s right to exist” is to demand that a people who have been treated as subhumans unworthy of basic human rights publicly proclaim that they are subhumans. It would imply Palestinians’ acceptance that they deserve what has been done and continues to be done to them. Even 19th-century US governments did not require the surviving native Americans to publicly proclaim the “rightness” of their ethnic cleansing by European colonists as a condition precedent to even discussing what sort of land reservation they might receive. Nor did native Americans have to live under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point.
Some believe that Yasser Arafat did concede the point in order to buy his ticket out of the wilderness of demonization and earn the right to be lectured directly by the Americans. But in fact, in his famous 1988 statement in Stockholm, he accepted “Israel’s right to exist in peace and security.” This language, significantly, addresses the conditions of existence of a state which, as a matter of fact, exists. It does not address the existential question of the “rightness” of the dispossession and dispersal of the Palestinian people from their homeland to make way for another people coming from abroad.
The original conception of the phrase “Israel’s right to exist” and of its use as an excuse for not talking with any Palestinian leaders who still stood up for the rights of their people are attributed to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. It is highly likely that those countries that still employ this phrase do so in full awareness of what it entails, morally and psychologically, for the Palestinian people.
However, many people of goodwill and decent values may well be taken in by the surface simplicity of the words, “Israel’s right to exist,” and believe that they constitute a reasonable demand. And if the “right to exist” is reasonable, then refusing to accept it must represent perversity, rather than Palestinians’ deeply felt need to cling to their self-respect and dignity as full-fledged human beings. That this need is deeply felt is evidenced by polls showing that the percentage of the Palestinian population that approves of Hamas’s refusal to bow to this demand substantially exceeds the percentage that voted for Hamas in January 2006.
Those who recognize the critical importance of Israeli-Palestinian peace and truly seek a decent future for both peoples must recognize that the demand that Hamas recognize “Israel’s right to exist” is unreasonable, immoral, and impossible to meet. Then, they must insist that this roadblock to peace be removed, the economic siege of the Palestinian territories be lifted, and the pursuit of peace with some measure of justice be resumed with the urgency it deserves.
• John V. Whitbeck, an international lawyer, is the author of, “The World According to Whitbeck.” He has advised Palestinian officials in negotiations with Israel.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0202/p09s02-coop.html

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( leaders of militias; Hamas, Fatah and Presidential Security, that kills and murder Palestinians are unfit and unqualified to lead and represent the Palestinian people). The PLO with tens of billions of dollars and with 40 years of unquestionable leadership failed to liberate, certainly failed to even manage under the occupation, and is too incompetent, too corrupt and with no more ligitimacy to represent any one.
Mission:
The Palestine Agency intent to earn the rights, privilege and trust to represent the Palestinian people outside the Occupied Territories, not by a questionable decision by a questionable organization like the Arab league, the Arab heads of states, but by working hard to earn the trust, confidence and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora it seeks to represent. There is an urgent need for an organization like the Palestine Agency to represent the legal, economic, social, political interest of all those Palestinians living in Arab countries and those living in Europe, Africa, North America and Australia and other countries of the world.
The Palestine Agency was incorporated as a not for profit organization in the USA, to represent the legal, economic, political, cultural and social interest of all those Palestinians living in the Diaspora, and to represent that interest in host countries and within present day Israel.
The Palestine Agency can learn from the Jewish experience in the Diaspora on how best to protect the interest of the Palestinians, how best to reclaim rights and lost properties, how best to track and bring to trial all those who killed and murdered Palestinians, track and bring to trial go all those who committed war crimes against the Palestinians in Occupied Palestine, in Lebanon and in Syria. Track and bring to trial all those who stole their lands and properties, track and bring to trial all those who fraudulently acquired Palestinian lands for use as Israeli settlements especially the properties of those living outside Palestine. A Palestine Documentation Center similar to the Simon Weisenthal Center will do just that.
It is unacceptable after 55 years of “exiles” that we Palestinians continue to rely on UN and other international agencies to manage our affairs, run our refugee camps, run our schools, run our clinics, even run the distributions of our food. It is time we took charge of our own destiny.
The Palestine Agency intent on creating one of the best and competent “Pro-Pono Law Firm’ made up of Palestinian lawyers from around the world who can and will represent the best legal interest of the Palestinian people and take the necessary legal actions and steps to addresses all of the wrongs we had to suffer for more than 100 years. To take on those who have wronged us for so long, and to make sure that our rights are well protected now and in the future.
The Palestine Agency intents and will proceed to create one of the best “Pro-Pono Consulting Firm” made up of Palestinian professionals and experts in all disciplines who, working with the legal team will insure that the rights and interests of the Palestinian people in “historical Palestine” and in host countries are protected and well represented. Those rights and interest and are not “fair game” for Israel or for any country or organization. The Palestine Agency will earn the right, as true representative of the Diaspora people, to sit at the table and represent the interest of ALL Palestinian people in the Diaspora and represent the interest of the Palestinian people hosted in the Arab countries. The Palestine Agency will have a “mandate” to represent all Diaspora Palestinians.
Next Step:
I invite all “independent” Palestinian groups, organizations and individuals who have the courage, and vision to make a difference, to join and make the Palestine Agency, the people organization and institution that we all can be very proud to be associated with. Together we will make sure that the Palestine Agency is not a one “man/woman” shop, but a true representative of the Palestinian people and accountable to its constituents. The Palestine Agency is not a “public relation” organization, but an action oriented organization, with lots of hard and difficult work and tasks ahead. I urge all of you to join, and help the Palestine Agency to be the kind of organization that can make a difference in the lives of Palestinians in the Diaspora.
The charter calls for organizing conventions in countries to select the committee that will lead the Palestine Agency and organize its affairs and work toward earning the trust and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora. We need to move and move fast before it is too late
The charter calls for organizing conventions in countries to select the committee that will lead the Palestine Agency and organize its affairs and work toward earning the trust and votes of the Palestinians in the Diaspora. We need to move and move fast before it is too late.
In the next six months’ concerted efforts will be made to enlist and sign up independent activist from around the world to organize an international conference in Europe (no restrictions on visa) and launch the Palestine Agency and establish chapters around the Middle East and in other countries with substantial Palestinian community.
Sami Jamil Jadallah
Fairfax, VA, USA and El-Bireh, Palestine
Organizer and Sponsor
Palestine Agency is registered as a Not for Profit organizations in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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( leaders of militias; Fatah, Hamas and Presidential Security, that kills and murder Palestinians are unfit to lead Palestinians to freedom and independance)
With Hamas and Fatah fighting over the little crumbs under the Israeli Occupation, and fighting over ministries with little or no power, and with both leaderships having vested interest in the funding and maintenance of their own militias and much more involved in making sure their own cadre, especially Fatah are getting the kind of cars, homes and personal privileges they are getting now while the rest of the nation suffers. There is no time and no room to give any attention to the more pressing issues of the Apartheid Wall, the expansion of settlements, the daily incursion of towns and cities, of the hundreds of checkpoints and of course not to mention ending the Israeli Occupation, and providing the kind of daily security the people need to carry on with whatever little and miserable life they have under the Israeli Occupation, let alone a useless and ineffective government.
While Mahmoud Abbas is counting on American to deliver Israel to the Palestinians rather than the other way around, Khalid Mishal is counting on Syria and Iran to deliver Israel to Hamas rather than the other way around, both are looking to the wrong parties to help them with ending the Israeli Occupation.
Under all these circumstances it is unlikely that the Palestinian Authority under Hamas, the PLO, Fatah or the Palestine National Council can have the time, the means or the resources, the competence and priority to give any attentions to the pressing issues facing the more than 5 million Palestinians in exile. The present Palestinian leadership is unfit and is incompetent to take care of the needs of the people under the Israeli Occupation, certainly they do not have the means, the competence, certainly the credibility to represent the interest of the Palestinians in the Diaspora.
With the PLO having no legitimacy, credibility nor competence to represent any one The Palestine Agency is the alternative for the more than 5 million Palestinians in exile. It is an organization that they can have total ownership of, rather than leave the decision to represent them like the PLO with a cadre that proved incompetent to do any thing right, that proved it is nothing but a total fraud lead by leadership that represents no one, but themselves. The Palestine Agency will be that representative body where competent and accountable leadership are elected from Diaspora. The Palestine Agency can be that organization to represent the true face and image of the Palestinian exiles, where hundreds of thousands of professionals can make a difference. The Palestine Agency, can be with the help and support of every one, can be that organization that Israel and the US and the world community have to deal with rather than dealing with a bunch of incompetent leadership that we have now. The Palestine Agency will certainly add to the bargaining position of the Palestinian Authority when it comes to the final negotiations between The Palestinian Authority, Israel and the world community. We the Palestinian people of the Diaspora demand a seat at the table!
More…..

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