President’s Corner |
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Entering this year, we are ever conscious of its auspicious marker of 60 years of the Palestinian al-Nakba (“catastrophe”), and the distortions of the Middle East history and contemporary reality which it also represents. Through NECEF dedicating our 2008 work as a year Beyond Remembrance, we will contribute to education on the regional implications and ongoing consequences of al-Nakba.
Driving a friend from a West Bank refugee camp through the checkpoints to meet his son at the Tel Aviv Lod (Lydda) airport, he was recalling for me memories of the village he was from, in the area of Lydda. This was his first trip in decades into Israel, a special moment to meet his son returning after 7 years, however for only a visit, having been stripped by Israel of his Palestinian residency while he was a student in England. My friend recalled surviving the Lydda death march in 1948, where Zionist militias, thought of then by the British as terrorists, slaughtered untold numbers of Palestinians as they forced them out of their villages to flee toward the Jordan. Arriving at the airport, he could hardly conceal his outrage when reading a dedication plaque on the exterior of the new terminal proclaiming that the land upon which it sits was “liberated” in 1948. Bursting into tears, this usually dignified gentlemen, shouted simply, “Liberated from what?”
The distortions and falsifications of Palestinian |
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history and reality by Israel and its lobby in North America has risen to a crescendo in recent years. Dr. John Mearsheimer, co-author of the bold The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), speaking recently to a small group of invited guests in Ottawa, described the lobby’s most consistent rationale for Israel’s aggression as “the moral argument” -- that anti-Semitism dictates the requirement for the international community to secure a Jewish state at almost any cost. This argument has gained remarkable traction in Western countries, becoming a key ideological component of the neo-con influence driving American military aggression in the Middle East.
Prof. Mearsheimer noted that the most controversial chapter of The Israel Lobby links the lobby to the now five year Anglo-American disastrous invasion and devastation of Iraq. At the same time, he noted that neither the American defence or intelligence establishments, nor nuclear watchdogs, are advocating for an invasion of Iran. Rather, the primary identifiable voices promoting further American aggression are the state of Israel and its cheerleading squad in the U.S.
While we are witnessing continuing destabilization of the region provoked by Israel, a number of factors are coalescing to potentially marginalize the neo-con |
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influence. The quickly faltering U.S. economy has not overtly been described as linked to the $2 trillion cost of the Iraq escapade. In addition to the raw cost of the occupation of Iraq, the resulting quadrupling of the price of oil, the failure of the Americans to finance the war from Iraq’s oil reserves and the alienating of global competitors now willing to move off the U.S. dollar standard for oil trade have demonstrated that war has an economic cost, moreover exposing that the U.S. cannot afford protracted military engagements, much less their associated political byproducts and resulting residual economic costs.
At the same time, Israel’s cruelty in Gaza undermines “the moral argument”, as much of the world is exposed to the wanton brutalizing of civilians in Gaza through a cutting supplies to the world’s largest prison then bombing its inhabitants. It is beginning to look less like self-defence, and rather more like genocide, except to the neo-con Canadian government, regrettably still driven by neo-con ideology. Hitching our wagon to the Americans was evident in Canada being the only country to vote against the innocuous U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on Gaza last month.
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NECEF Report Fall 2007 |
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Finally, the telling of the story of al-Nakba on this 60th anniversary has further intensified calls for various sorts of sanctions, boycotts or divestment from Israel’s illegal occupation. This global movement is beyond the control of the neo-cons to influence.
In contributing to the exposure of the historical truths, NECEF has dedicated our 2008 work as a year Beyond Remembrance. In late March, we will be bringing the Israeli “new historian” al-Nakba scholar Dr. Ilan Pappe on a cross-Canada tour. His Toronto appearance is for the Canadians for Genocide Education and the Montreal, London, Calgary and Vancouver presentations are in conjunction with the student group SPHR.
NECEF, with Canadian Friends of Sabeel, has issued an appeal in support of Gazans and their resilience. While a prominent Gazan leader urged me to divert some of the funds to education and advocacy in Canada, I assured him that the generosity and solidarity of many Canadians over and above the appeal will allow NECEF to undertake our educational mandate, and that we would not be silent.
The Rev. Robert C. Assaly President |
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Photograph by Barnabe F. Geisweiller |
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Photograph by Barnabe F. Geisweiller |
