India’s increasing trade agreements with Israel is extremely disturbing in light of Israel’s long history of using brute force to expel the indigenous population of Palestine. Israel’s tentacles penetrate deeply into the Bush White House, Congress and the Senate. The few politicians who had the courage to criticize Israel have been silenced. Paul Findley’s latest book, "They Dare to Speak Out" and "Silent No More" offers a disturbing glimpse of the influence of the powerful Jewish lobby, AIPAC. Findley, a former senior Republican represented Illinois in the U.S. House for 22 years, paid the ultimate price for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights and criticizing the construction of Jewish-only settlements on confiscated Palestinian land. Findley was narrowly defeated by his opponent who received large amounts of money from the deep pockets of the pro-Israeli lobby. His book describes the tactics used by pro-Israeli groups to silence critics of Israel’s war of aggression. Other human rights stalwarts, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UN Envoy John Dugard, compare Israeli policies to former white South African apartheid. Surprisingly, even Israeli politicians such as former Education Minister, Shulamit Aloni, acknowledge that an apartheid system exists in Israel. Prof. John J. Mearsheimer and Prof. Stephen Walt, who warned of the undue influence of the pro-Israel lobby, were excoriated, mocked and largely silenced into obscurity.
However, it is encouraging that more and more high profile politicians, such as President Jimmy Carter, and renowned scholar, DePaul Professor, Paul Finkelstein, are voicing their concerns over the appalling plight of the Palestinians. Earlier this month, at Stanford University, Dr. Uri Davis, a dual citizen of the State of Israel and the UK, criticized Israel’s unrelenting efforts to dispossess Palestinians of their land and resources. Davis concluded that the overall strategy is clear - make life so unbearable for the Palestinians that they will choose to leave or rebel. Rebellions will then be countered with overwhelming brute force until all the land will become part of a larger Jewish state. Davis was an early critic of Israel and became the first academic to use the term apartheid to describe Israel's conduct toward Palestinians in his 1987 book 'Israel: An Apartheid State'. The London Economist further exposed Israel’s apartheid policies in its May 10 issue, describing the systematic effort to revoke citizenship to Palestinians living in Jerusalem – a staggering 1,363 lost their right to live in the city - a six-fold increase from the prior year. The Economist reported “a systematic under-funding of municipal services in the east drove many Palestinians to live in nearby Ramallah or Bethlehem, in the West Bank.” Arbitrary denial of “permanent resident” status will reduce the Palestinians to poverty and utter despair. Sadly, the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous inhabitants continues not unlike the Native American Indians in our own country. The blatant partiality of the US towards Israel is fueling much of the resentment in the Arab world and makes a complete mockery of our claim to be promoting human rights and democracy in the world at large (see Amnesty International blistering criticism of Israel and the US for their gross human rights violations). I urge readers to write to their lawmakers and demand an immediate halt to US aid to Israel
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