Back in the dry river bed of Punta Boca del Salado near the rancho of the Gonzales family in Baja California, Mexico.
Just for two days until the airplane leaves from San José del Cabo for Los Angeles on Saturday.
Time now to reflect and prepare the European tour.
One of the reflections is about a text received from a fervent and loyal blog reader.
That she wrote in response to a blog about the piracy, banditry and killing by the Israelian navy recently when they stopped and confiscated a civilian boat in international waters.
Fervent and loyal blog reader says this:
Hello Michel,
I wanted to share the link attached with you. I was reading about the firing of Helen Thomas from the White House News Correspondence position she has held for years through the Hearst Corporation. Her comments about Israel were to me (like so many others) unbelievably ignorant and arrogant. I am happy she is finally out of the White House. Researching this situation brought to my attention the man, a Rabbi, that filmed her as she answered his questions. The link is a recent article he wrote about the Jewish Homeland and how it came to be. I think the most important part of the article is the fact that the Jews were given 25% of the land that was being disputed and the Arabs would not recognize even that. The Arabs, it seems, given this fact, are responsible for the ongoing fighting, due to their unwillingness to walk away from that 25%. It is also my understanding that Israel ultimately gave up a large portion of that 25% (all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean) in an attempt to create peace. So they are left with significantly less than 25% of the originally disputed land. It is disheartening and dangerous how these facts have been forgotten and are not spoken of in the media. All non-Jewish human beings should recognize the rights of the Jews to peace and a country to call their own. The Holocaust did not happen only in Germany and Poland - it happened around the world. Even Canada is guilty for turning away a ship full of Jewish refugees during WWII and for permitting ongoing anti-Semitism among our countrymen. To atone for what happened we must recognize and support the Jewish peoples' right to a country of their own.
So, is that true?
That the Arabs are responsible for the ongoing fighting?
That Israel is the good guy and the Arabs the bad guys?
Is it all that simple?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The link our fervent and loyal blog reader was sending:
http://rabbilive.com/RabbiLIVE/Articles.html.
Not too long ago a South Korean warship was sunk.
An investigation revealed it had been hit by a torpedo.
Presumably fired by a North Korean submarine.
North Korea denies this vehemently.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of the USA though, travels around condemning North Korea and is looking for support of other countries to punish, possibly militarily, North Korea.
Israel attacks, in international waters, a convoy of commercial ships carrying humanitarian aid for 1,5 million Palestinians it forces to live in ultimate misery in the Gaza Strip.
At least 10 people of the peaceful and humanitarian people on board those civilian ships were killed by the Israelian army.
What has the USA Government to say about this barbaric behavior?
Only this: it "deeply regrets the loss of life" and is "working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy".
Now there are massive protests in Turkey because of the Israelian attack that the USA sees as only "a tragedy" and not as a condemnable crime.
Thousands marched in protest in Istanbul, some setting Israeli flags on fire after trying to storm the Israeli consulate.
Israel quickly advised to its citizens to avoid travel to Turkey.
In neighboring Jordan, hundreds demonstrated in the capital Amman to protest the Israeli action and demand that their government breaks diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
What North Korea possibly has done justifies harsh condemnation and sanctions.
What Israel does is only a "tragedy" and is so complicated for the US-Government that circumstances need to be understood.
With this kind of policy, measuring with two different kind of rulers, no wonder there is terrorism in the world.
We must ask ourselves therefore: who is responsible for this terrorism?
Who is creating it?
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Numerous were the contributions that were send in to the latest riddle published on this blog.
The initials of the name of a person had to be found and the good job all did was finding the correct initials.
That was fine.
But next, all brave participants were wrong deciding which person was standing for those initials.
It was believed the initials were the ones of the name of the person responsible for this blog.
But alas.
That was a very wrong solution.
Why was it believed it would be that simple when a first grand prize was available of a mere $ 500?
The correct answer, guessed by not one promising participant, to the question for who the initials MSK were standing for, is Mohammad Sidique Khan.
A man born on October 20, 1974 in Leeds, UK.
He was the oldest of the four suicide bombers responsible for the July 7, 2005 bombings in London, UK.
Together with his comrades he detonated bombs on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London.
Mohammad Sidique Khan and his comrades killed 52 people and themselves.
Over 700 people were injured.
A few months later, on September 1, 2005 a videotape emerged featuring Mohammad Sidique Khan.
The tape was shown on Al Jazeera TV.
In this video Mohammad Sidique Khan says:
"I and thousands like me have forsaken everything for what we believe"
By now we know this is true.
But he also says:
"Your democratically elected governments continually perpetrate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support makes you directly responsible. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation."
This way of thinking is a sample of many Mohammads.
And the point is that Mohammad Sidique Khan was not wrong in his statement.
If we seriously realize how the Palestinians on the Westbank and the Gaza strip are made to suffer worse than animals, a suffering sanctioned and supported by the USA, many Arab nations like Egypt, and sanctioned by the European Union, we are indeed directly responsible.
How can a person who identifies himself with the situation of the Palestinians not come to opposition?
Remember former President Jimmy Carter who visited the Gaza Strip and the Westbank and published soon after a shocking book describing the horrible situation in which the Palestinians have to live and describing how the Israelian Government and its allies are responsible for this.
This book was one big scream of a protest of a man who truly realized the atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinians.
President Jimmy Carter is a highly educated man who knows how to channel his anger and his indignation into adequate directions.
But a young man of 31 from Leeds in the UK easily sees himself as a soldier.
A warrior.
An ambitious savior.
And comes to believe in methods we may wonder a change and solution shall bring more close.
But one fundamental Mohammad Sidique Khan had right.
Atrocities are committed daily on the Westbank and the Gaza Strip and we are responsible.
There are several decisions governments worldwide could made that would drastically change the political and social situation in the world.
Unorthodox and rather revolutionary decisions but they have that nature because the current strategies and policies are old fashioned and not working.
In the past we have seen similar situations that revolutionary approaches to how to organize and direct societies suddenly came about.
The French revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolution of 1917.
These days we are in such a mess it is time for a new revolution.
By democratically forcing current governments to change fundamentally their policies or by a real revolution coming from the majority of the population.
Some decisions governments could take that drastically will improve the lives of many people:
1/
In the USA and elsewhere drugs should be legalized in a controlled manner.
Anybody should be able to obtain and use drugs like hard liquor, marijuana, cocaine and heroine.
Users of hard drugs can go to their GP, obtain a permit for a certain amount and buy their quantum in an official shop for prices controlled by the Government.
In this way drugs are de-criminalised.
It will end the illegal drug trade and the drug wars.
Drugs then will become a source of income for the governments.
This money should be spend to assist medically and psychologically the drug addicts.
2/
All foreign troops and fighters must leave Iraq and Afghanistan right away.
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan must be allowed to create the societies they want in a way they prefer.
Even if those societies will not be to our liking or to our economic advantage.
If the Taliban wants to create an orthodox Islamic state in Afghanistan, why should we be opposed when we tolerate it so generously of our friend Saudi Arabia?
Next, we can deal with countries with who we disagree concerning democratic rights and equality between men and women in a civilized way without violence.
By using methods like economic boycott and cultural isolation.
And using institutions like the International Court of Justice.
3/
The US Dollar must end as the worldwide leading standard in the economy.
Because the US Dollar by now is a hollow balloon and in fact completely worthless.
Business can only be allowed in currencies like the Chinese Yuan, the Japanese Yen and the European Euro: currencies that are backed up by sufficient reserves.
This will stop a standard of luxurious living in the USA that is financed by borrowing that makes billions of people elsewhere live in painful poverty.
4/
Annually the USA donates to Israel about 2,5 billions of dollars.
Since the formation of the Hamas led Palestinian Authority government after democratic elections in March 2006, the US administration has suspended its foreign assistance program to the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
What should happen is this:
Half of any financial support to Israel must go to the Palestinians.
Linked to very precise and rigorous conditions.
Any action contrary to international laws and previous agreements are immediately punished by withholding financial assistance.
This new way of financing applies not only to the USA, but to the European Union as well.
It also goes for the financial aid that Iran and Saudi Arabia are giving to the Palestinians.
Half of the money donated to the Palestinians goes to Israel but again, with very precise and rigorous conditions.
Otherwise: nothing and let the Palestinian and Israeli populations then have it fight out with their political leaders.
5/
Islamic fundamentalists must be allowed to come to Europe and the USA and propagate their ideas.
This fundamental and democratic right is exercised by Christian fundamentalists also, is it not?
However, the promoting of certain religions and ideologies is only allowed within the frame work of democracy.
Only in the lawful way as is democratically agreed upon.
6/
Industrial breeding of animals for meat consumption should be banned.
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Last Sunday something happened you may have heard about.
It was in Jerusalem early in the morning.
It was 13-year-old Diala who was awoken first, just after 5 a.m. on Sunday morning, by the commotion outside.
She rushed to the window, saw special riot police in black uniforms, and ran to wake her parents.
By the time she did, the Israeli police were already breaking in through doors and windows, forcing the 17-member Hanoun family – three brothers, their wives, and children – to leave the home their relatives acquired a half-century ago.
And they were not the only ones.
In all, 58 Palestinians were evicted in this predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah.
A few hours later, the evicted Palestinian families stood across the street and watched as the police escorted a few families of Jewish settlers into their homes.
“It's so difficult for us to see them move in people who are not from here, into our house, into the home my husband was born in, while we're on the street," says Mrs. Hanoun, sitting in the shade of a tree about 50 feet from their front door, now blocked off by a line of security barriers and several police vans with flashing lights.
The Hanoun family has for two nights slept on the thin mattresses in the street.
Mrs. Hanoun says they have no other place to go.
The evictions of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, from their houses where they have lived for over 50 years so that Jewish settlers can move in, garnered international censure from the European Union, the United Nations (UN) and from Britain, which said it was "appalled" at the move.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last Monday night called the Israeli evictions "deeply regrettable" and "provocative."
Such a move "is not in keeping with Israeli obligations and I urge the government of Israel and municipal officials to refrain from such provocative actions," she said.
The Palestinian families who are now without a home have a lawyer.
Hosni Abu Hussein.
He says: “"This eviction was done in an illegal matter and without due process.
The duty of the authorities as they see it is to cleanse Jerusalem of Arabs."
This is a sentiment that is felt throughout East Jerusalem, where many Palestinian residents are facing either eviction or demolition orders.
Just two weeks ago, Israeli officials approved the construction of settler apartments in another part of Sheikh Jarrah on the Palestinian grounds of the old Shepherd Hotel.
The Obama administration in particular has asked Israel to freeze settlement growth in the West Bank and not to authorize projects that aim to settle Israelis in the heart of Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.
But why would Israel care?
A plethora of international organizations have expressed dismay over the evictions, which came amid attempts to revive the peace process.
These evictions were for example quickly condemned by the United Nations.
"I deplore today's totally unacceptable actions by Israel," the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Robert H Serry said.
"These actions are contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions related to occupied territory.”
The British consulate in East Jerusalem said:
"These actions are incompatible with the Israeli professed desire for peace.
We urge Israel not to allow the extremists to set the agenda."
What has happened as of last Sunday?
Has there been a meeting of the Security Council to condemn Israel for these illegal evictions?
Has there been one country in the world that has condemned Israel by imposing sanctions?
Like in the past, anything Israel does results in big words but in fact without any consequences.
Israel can do whatever it wants.
Knowing that their supporters worldwide are backing them up no matter what.
The question is how does that make Palestinians feel?
What emotions does that trigger with many of their Arab brothers and sisters?
Is it not understandable they feel left alone?
That they feel victims of injustice?
Isn’t it normal they get angry?
Always Israel being shielded and protected by the West no matter what the Israeli Government does?
Isn’t this generous attitude of the West vis à vis Israel feeding the minds of Palestinians and those who are in solidarity with them?
Making them feel desperate, powerless and ignored?
So, in the end, who is responsible for extremism?
You must reap what you have sown.
Fighting terrorism by having passengers take their shoes off and kill civilians in Afghanistan will never bring an end to it.
Things will fundamentally change though when the West starts treating Israel in the same way as it does Iran..
