Kanook – Tlingit Nation

Sept 5th, 2010

Watching and reading about the once again feeble attempt to settle the issue of the
Israeli/Palestinian question reminds me of the time when my dear departed mother and I sat at her
kitchen table briefly touching on the subject of world peace. After a short conversation we both
decided there wasn’t a hell-of-a-lot we could do about, albeit we laughed and carried on at times
that our opinion would really matter. I remember these days of animated conversation with
fondness and sadness, her wisdom and forthrightness always astounded me, of course being her
1st child, and she as my sounding board was a great asset. She never judged a situation until she
had assessed the facts, and examined the rumors with great care – like her father a Swedish
gentleman from the “old country” she was careful in her opinions and more than reluctant at
times to make them known. She valued her decisions, at times keeping them very close to her
chest and when she did voice them it was only to a select few. I’m sure beyond a doubt she had a
few about me I never heard, but this was her way and all of her children respected her for her
manner and reluctance to pass judgment on her seven children or their families.
I can hear her words on the on-going process in the Middle East first of all she would set the
stage – being somewhat of a Biblical historian, that things seemed to have morphed back to the
historical era before the re-dating of our calendar. It is not my intention to attempt to create what
I believe her words would be, in fact if during any discussion opinions were to emerge, they
would be short-lived if a Mariner baseball game was broadcast, as a fan she was not to be denied
the watching or listening to the team of her dreams, let’s face it this team of bumbling, half-
hearted disgraceful overpaid athletics shouldn’t even be allowed in a baseball stadium, much less
swing a bat. I would never say that to her!
Lately a friend of mine had a discussion whereas I was informed that the leader of Iran was a
nut case, much worse than President Bill Clinton and that Israel would drop a bomb on their soon
to be stocked nuclear facility in Iran, regardless of the consequences of a expulsion of radiation in
the region. He reminded me that because of what happened to the Jews in WWII, that they really
didn’t give a hoot-in-hell about spreading a few milligrams of radiation dust over the area, and
that he was all for showing the off-balance leader of Iran his place – in other words, “so be it”. In
between his words of “damn the torpedoes” gushing forth I kept my comments to zero, and didn’t
remind him of the time he and I were in D.C. and were asked if we had visited the just completed
holocaust memorial in our nations home town, whereas I had spoke up saying I would visit it
whenever the US Government erected a memorial to the Native Americans showing the holocaust
they suffered through under the banner of Manifest Destiny…to this day there is no such
memorial. It is not that I approve of what happened during WWII, and the misplaced
compensation the USA and its allies did when they “suggested”, after the group as a whole
expressed their opinion that they did not want any Jewish refugees stepping ashore on the beaches
of Allies, thereby creating an illegal piece of land in the Holy Land. A region of the world that
has been at war since Moses wandered about in the area for 40 some odd years, and his generals
took up the rod and made vain attempts to drive the indigenous Canaanites into the Mediterranean
– in other words “a long time ago”.
You know me, I’m not a politician nor am I one to quickly jump on the bandwagon of either
side, although I have a brother, a few years my junior, who like my friend would like to turn the
region into glass and move on, naturally with a solid dome of protection over the Jews in Israel.
I, as you know, have a wife who is from Morocco and is a Muslim…and although I have never
felt a hatred for the people of the Islamic faith I now tend to tilt my head towards the ground and
scuff my shoes together when I read or watch the International news in dealing with our present
world situation. I am proud to be an American, make no doubt about it, but I’m more than just a
bit concerned of the direction my countrymen have taken. We no longer skip over the cracks in
the sidewalk in fact lately we seem to enjoy stomping on them at every chance and dare anyone to
be in our way as we trip down the street on our way to no-where! We are being eaten alive from
our inside out, and maybe you don’t realize it – but the people wandering around outside of our
borders are dancing a jig, buckets of buttered popcorn in one hand enjoying watching the greatest
nation in the world crumble from within – reminds one of the man who rode into town in his
carriage telling everyone he would soon have the “tallest” building in town – set fire to, or blew
up every building over one-story, built a two-story structure and claimed his due. The difference
being, if he was in America today he would not have to blowup or burn any buildings or culture –
the citizens are lined up to do it for him.
Man, in a limited fashion, has come a long way since his time in history when he coaxed a
roaring fire from a small ember left over from the night before, poking through the ashes looking
for the dull-red glow, and when finding one stuffed a few pieces of dried moss around it
accompanied by a few dried sticks and sat back with a look of extreme accomplishment when a
small fragile fire was born. Today we find the leaders of two countries poking the ashes in search
of that ember – one to build a lasting peace in the Holy Land.
 I remember one night, many years ago, when I had stayed up late to watch, what I hoped would
be a repeat of the previous night whereas the Aurora Borealis in its splendor decorated the cool
moonless sky. Sitting in the backyard of my grandparents rock strew yard, I was perched slightly
uphill from their home looking up at the coal black clear sky staring in wonder at the millions of
stars twinkling in all their glory. Even at that young age I had developed a sense of wonder as my
imagination fled back to a time when my ancient ancestors had stared at the same vision,
realizing that the stars were more than just a fancy decoration and in fact were something beyond
magic. One particular night lost in my imagination and wonder I saw a sight that I will remember
till I to walk among the stars on my flight of fancy across the heavens, three meteors
simultaneously streaked across the sky drawing parallel lines in the darkness – they were very
close to each other – as their paths were and have been embedded in my vision I sometimes
wonder if they had a meaning?
The court of private opinion tells us today that the world should expect some majestic results
walking out from behind closed doors of the present peace process unfolding in Washington
D.C., and that albeit Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reluctantly (being dragged by his
heels) will participate in another attempt at peace. Which when you think about it is kind of
bogus in that Hamas is and was the elected authority in Palestine, Gaza and the West Bank –
having him sit across the table from the leader of Israel PM Binyamin Netanyahu and died in the
wool leader of the Likud party, who has had the support of the powerful and ruthless lobbyist
body the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (“AIPAC”) since the beginning of time, must
seem as David and Goliath, the difference being Israel now employs Goliath.
The world’s media with a clear look of innocence tells us that terrorist violence against Israel
has diminished considerably, this statement to be put asunder over the past few days with an
upwelling of violence against Israeli citizens in the West Bank by Hamas, and they also tell us
that Israeli settlement activity has slowed “significantly”, another point or bit of news is nothing
buy pure bull-leavings. The AIPAC driven press than tells us that the public (whoever that may
be) supports a “two-state solution”, and the coup de grace is that despite the nearly two decades
of the on-and-off Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that the “broad’ outlines of a solution are
already well-known and understood and that all is needed is the “political-will” on both sides to
reach an agreement, aside from this “little” test things should be just fine and we can go ahead
and bring the process to a satisfactory close.
Well that seems reasonable, you would think, that is if you think that this might be a paper
you’d hand into your teacher in your final year of High School class of World Affairs based on a
text book written in the 60s and published in the 70s, knowing my teacher I had in High School I
would have got a C- for my plausible explanation of the turn of events.
The American peace-process gang is led by an individual born in 1951 in London of a strong
Jewish family, who grew up in Australia graduated from the University of Sydney in 1972 and
received a PhD in International Relations from the Australian National University in 1977, who
gained his American citizenship in 1993 and in leading the “failed” Peace-Process that came
about in Camp David, now is writing the policy for the “dual containment” of Iraq and Iran,
supposedly under the plan put forth by the USA – which you and I know was the primary
objective of Israel and not the United States – like my family likes to tell me once in a while, get
a grip brother and taste the dust in the wind. Martin Sean Indyk with his charming words so full
of blanks is leading us by the nose and we love it, and most of us realize that the peace process in
the land of the Holy has been rift with problems and polarization since it started in 1948 – the
walls and wells of the area are too complicated and drawn out to cover in any book or paper that
would be less than 1,000 or more pages in length – so I’ll leave it and lay out a few things on the
table today.
Before we walk across the astro-turf of peace let me explain my simple childhood, which by the
way I look back upon with memories that in today’s world of technical wonders is hard to
imagine. I spent a great deal of my time doing dishes in a local greasy spoon you’d typically find
in the 50s in small town America. A few Formica tables, with bench seats covered in green fake
leather and across in a short space was a counter with ten or more spinning stools covered in the
same. On the counter in front of each stool was a napkin holder, saltshaker, peppershaker, along
with a sugar container with a steel cover with a small flap that allowed you to pour as much sugar
as you needed in the dark cup of forbidding brew we called coffee in those days gone by. At the
end of the counter as you left the gently café was a mechanical cash register that sounded like an
old truck grinding gears as it made its way up a steep hill. Most of the time, you’d find my
mother there accepting a coin or two at times glancing back at me with piercing eyes to finish my
lunch and get back to the mountain of pots, pans and dishes in the backroom. Attacking the pile
I’d fine glasses, sundae cups, scorched pots and heavy dishes full of grease and what have you –
all the time the heavy atmosphere was thick with the odor of grease and stale potatoes. From this
simple beginning in my march towards adulthood I learned that to get the job done, you had to
dip your hands into the grease and corruption, more often than not and that no matter what your
plans were at the end of the day the unpleasant process needed to be done – it was a simple as
that.
 I’m not saying that all involved in the peace process haven’t washed a dirty dish or two, I am
saying that somewhere along the way as a civilization the actions of one or maybe two, such as
the supposed loonier than a goony bird in heat leader of Iran and his backers, the religious black
horses of the country, are dictating the policy by Israel and the West in calling for killing off an
entire population they rule. But I guess this isn’t a new process is it, after all it was a egomaniac
in Europe with a tight little back piece of hair below his nose that dragged us into WWII, along
with the Emperor and his gang in Japan when the sitting President of the USA shut off his food
supply. One can only hope that this time around the mulberry bush that a lasting and true peace
is the objective – but yet I doubt it, like the last time a long lasting peace is really not the intent,
as much as pleasing the Israeli and their lavish bullish supporters on this side of the Atlantic.
Most in the know understand this, but the fact that these persons know this is the supreme lie of
all times, especially the media pundits who wave the flags of peace, albeit they couch their
announcements that peace is not possible as long as the pocketbooks of America are under the
control of a Black President…sorry it just comes down to that, and the fact that most of not all in
the conservative AIPAC crowd tell the world that the President is a closet Muslim. Now whether
he is or he is not is not my concern, nor should it be yours – what does matter a great deal is that
the smell of war and its consequences should take a small vacation, whereas where our next meal
is coming from and maybe a shelter or two should rule the political world. Although we know
this is not possible, as there is still too much money made from War and any process that will
depreciate the pocketbooks of the defense industry will not be met with any open arms. “Pun
intended”.
The first thing that slaps you in the face is the information forthcoming from the tabloids, it is
not fair to label the media today as fact based presenters of the world news, is that the participants
understand that due to the Israeli settlement “moratorium” (or) that no new housing starts in the
West Bank are supported by the announcement by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics during
the 1st quarter of the year is not exactly true – when you consider that housing starts in the West
Bank excludes areas illegally and unilaterally annexed by Israel, a small ignored fact. Put this
little bit of the twisting of the definition and take a closer look at what a “housing start” is in the
estimation of the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, and consider what does it mean when they
magically throw out the reference to the 1st quarter of this year? A concrete fact, whereas we
seem to be in the 3rd quarter and the “news” release pointedly ignores this – makes one wonder
why?
And there is more, when the press and its pundits throw out the loosely based fact that there has
been “hardly any” new housing projects, as the memory of the 1,600 additional residential units
in East Jerusalem what were announced on the day our VP Joe Biden made a visit to Israel, well
say I forgot that this happened in the 1st quarter – another slam in the face of peace. What would
the press and the knee-jerk peace nicks do if by some miracle Gold and other riches were
discovered on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was discovered, and the peace loving US
government moved in with new housing units to shelter and provide for the holy-than-thou
business leaders and their crews? Nothing! In fact, you can place heavy odds on that bet!
Than the press tells us that the demolition of Palestinian housing units in East Jerusalem “is
also down” compared to recent years, this is kind of like “praising” someone for beating his wife
less frequently – I laugh!
There are a few who admit, albeit grudgingly that the settlement moratorium (in name only) is
due to run its course on Sept 26th, and that it really seems “unlikely” that PM Netanyahu will
extend it, this being the case President Abbas has made his voice heard that when the
“moratorium” ends that he will withdraw from the negotiations – our Jewish wonder boy Martin
quickly ran about and threw on the table that if PM Netanyahu could restrict building to a
“modest growth” in the settlement blocs that will most likely be absorbed into Israel in the “final”
agreement. So there you have it, in a sense the “illusion” of progress is preserved as the
“negotiations” stumble forward, with the banner held high that President Obama is truly the
Middle East’s peacemaker. The price of cooperation in the “charade” in this move by Israel to
push forward under the dim light of negotiations to grab whatever they want, all the while the US
administration stands by the side of the road holding a needle on the neck of President Abbas that
remains unseen by the world. It is called politics folks, albeit at the expense of the man in-the-
street in Gaza and the West Bank, two places in the world that are planets away from the man in-
the-street in America who are more worried about the price of a gallon of gasoline and how their
$100 stock is doing from day-to-day.
The condition of a two-state solution rumbling across the world is acceptable, and it is
beginning to become clearer and clearer that PM Netanyahu on rare occasions has been heard to
mumble the phrase “Palestinian State”, although when in front of his peers in Israel he appears
anti-two-state – whereas in the back of his mind he has no real objection if the Palestinians should
wish to call a chain on non-contiguous, demilitarized strips of land that Israel has not elected to
annex a “State” so-be-it, no real sweat of his country’s status albeit the two-state solution will
leave a somewhat distasteful mouthful in the mouths of the hard line Likud party, a party that if
they were to encounter Jesus walking amongst the people in the temple today would react the
same as they did some 1990 years ago.
 There is another group who firmly believes that the only thing preventing a true peace between
Israel and Palestine is the “lack” of willpower between Netanyahu and Abbas, PM Netanyahu
may lack many things but I don’t believe one of them is “willpower”, and if, as the day-trippers
in the US administration and other nations high on themselves believe that PM Netanyahu is
secretly wishing he could embrace a compromising solution that will involve dismantling a
significant number of West Bank settlements and accepting some form of “shared” sovereignty
in East Jerusalem is out of the question, in other words, get a grip! He has in a loud clear voice,
more than once, has stated repeatedly that he would never do so – what makes you think he will
let it happen now? To please President Obama? Again grab a hold of yourself, and don’t ever
cut PM Netanyahu short on not having “willpower”, and with this in mind when you keep track
of the negotiations – no-matter the smiles and handshakes on international TV – that any
negotiations will be to the plus of Israeli’s and to the negative of the Palestinians – who by the
way don’t have a 2000 lb dog at their side with a leather pocketbook leaking US dollars all over
the place.
The Obama White House under the guidance of our wonder boy Martin, knows full well that
the prospective direct talks are going nowhere, hence the slippage of the words the hopeful world
should “suspend disbelief” and “welcome the fact that American diplomacy has ensured that the
Israeli and Palestinian leaders will so be put to the test”. They might be tested is correct, but what
is clear is that the entire world already knows the outcome – and alright I’ll say it, in less time
than you can say “Jackie Robinson” it will be same-old, same-old time and the USA will ship
more arms and ammunition to our friends in Israel.
To think that this dance being played out in our nations capital is only a diplomatic step that has
been designed to keep the pressure off of Israel letting them continue to do whatever they please
might be considered a bit shallow – and in the end I would hope I’m wrong, I’ve been known to
have been a time or two before. In looking back at various maneuvers involving the Israeli’s and
their hold over International opinion I seriously doubt that I’m far off the mark, but then again I
am not a professional politician or even close to anyone who might be consider as such, albeit I
have studied the history of the region and have seen United States foreign-policy makers bend
towards the demands of the Israeli’s foregoing their profession as representatives of the United
States and become full fledged members of their profession acting as the legal representatives of
Israel. In other words, coupled with their learning in International Law they have assumed the
role of lawyers busting their britches in finding out what the Israeli’s want and doing whatever
was necessary to help them get it!
 These midnight raiders operating outside of their pledge to push for peace in the Middle East
under the flag on the USA, have more than doubled their standings in the Israeli Parliament
forsaking their sworn oath to protect and serve the citizens of the United States. Oaths that were
taken with one hand on the Bible and a hand across their body pump swearing with streaks of
larceny and ingratitude to the country they built their careers on, a country that they have sworn
to protect and defend whose security and greatness has tumbled down the hill systematically and
in a manner not established on this side of the Atlantic but on the eastern shores of the
Mediterranean.
It makes one wonder if the select members of our glorious state department really believe they
are fooling the American citizen, which in this case seems to be the case as they continue merrily
on their way subsidizing their personal fortune on the backs of the country the promised to serve.
I remember more than one morning waiting for another sunrise to break the shadow of night,
where the sky is dark grey and watched it slowly lighten – and then looked at the false dawn
where the entire eastern horizon is illuminated with brilliant yellows, purples, violets, and other
colors too fantastic to describe. Slowly the colors soften and the true dawn makes it way over the
eastern mountains, the sky turns a glorious blue accompanied with a sudden but short burst of
chill wind that chills the soul just as the sun peaks it way between a distant valley and life once
again reaches out for the majestic rays of the sun. Gone is the cold dark grayness of the world as
the shadows slip away, and you sit their staring at the amazing transformation taking place, fears
slip back into the recesses of your mind as the rising sun picks away at the darkness – another day
has arrived and once again you made it out of the darkness into the world of the living.
Alexander Pope wrote, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to
be Blest.”
One can only hope that maybe this time Peace in the Middle East will have a chance, and the
darkness of fear and prejudice will take a vacation to a far distant land and stay awhile.