Rewarding non-violence in Palestine: Send pizza to the West Bank as well as Wisconsin
Yeah well, talking about injustice in Palestine is always a thankless task. But we still gotta do it because Palestine is still a big thorn in the foot of the Middle East and if the Middle East ain't happy, then ain't nobody happy -- at least nobody who likes to drive cars.
If you want Middle Eastern gas in your tank without having to spend a bunch of trillions of dollars more on war toys in order to steal it at gunpoint, then you are gonna have to come to terms with ending the illegal Palestine occupation.
"But Palestinians send rockets into Israel! And they have suicide bombers! We have to support the occupation because Palestinians are violent!" you might say. But are they? Violent? Not really. Not any more. That's just old-skool thinking.
For approximately the last ten years, more and more Palestinians have become non-violent in the tactics they have used to protest against being illegally occupied by one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world. But are Palestinians getting any kind of recognition, kudos or rewards at all for having gone all non-violent? No. Hell no. Nothing, zip, nada.
For over fifty years, Palestinians had already tried the old "Red Dawn" armed-resistance scenario and it hadn't been working. And so in approximately the last ten years they have noticeably changed their tactics and given non-violent protests a try instead. But so far the only results that have resulted from Palestinians' non-violent protests have been to get shot at -- and shot at and shot at -- by one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q7RQGuOzvw.
Bummer.
So. If Americans truly want peace in the Middle East and cheap gas in their tanks, perhaps instead of continuing to give billions of dollars in military aid to one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world as it illegally occupies Palestine, perhaps we should try something else and actually start REWARDING Palestinians for their efforts to be non-violent -- while still trying to express their deep frustration with being constantly under the thumb of a violent and illegal occupation force.
And if we truly want to reward and encourage Palestinians for trying to be the next Gandhis, then what can we do?
"Order Pizza!"
Hey, it worked in Wisconsin.
I have friends in the small Palestinian town of Ni'lin and every Friday for the last several years, they have bravely gone out and non-violently protested the seizure of their small quiet town by one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world -- and these ordinary towns-people are getting gassed, shot at and killed one by one. However, non-violence, while heroic as hell and very New Testament and all that, isn't really working for them so far because one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world clearly doesn't give a rat's behind about Palestinians.
So I am suggesting that you do to my friends in Ni'lin the same thing that the people of Egypt did for the people of Wisconsin. "Order Pizza."
Is there a pizza place in Ni'lin that takes credit cards? If so, give me its e-mail address and, instead of waiting patiently for Hillary Clinton to do it, I'll reward these non-violent protesters myself -- and order them pizza.
And imagine if everyone else in the world who could afford to spare a few dollars also barraged one of the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world with pizzas as well? Problem solved. Cheap gas for all.
And then what if we also barraged Wall Street, K Street, the Federal Reserve and even the Taliban with pizzas? It's the volume that counts.
PS: Everyone's always talking about ending America's huge deficit. Hey that's easy to do. Just make major cuts in our out-of-control military spending, duh. And then let's replace all those pricey Bradley tanks and luxurious F16s with pizzas.
Let's build a huge wall of pizza (deep-dish Chicago-style with anchovies and olives) all around our shores and forget about the rest of America's "empire". And then let's turn America back into a country that is self-sufficient in manufacturing again. And let's start by manufacturing pizzas.
"But Jane, that's just crazy!" Not as crazy as wasting our country's resources and patrimony on manufacturing weapons -- cold merciless steel weapons designed only to kill, maim and hurt.
PPS: In his recent article on US polices toward Israel, Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper stated that, "Israel is the number-two supplier of arms [in the world]." http://mondoweiss.net/2011/02/working-around-america-a-new-strategy-on-israelpalestine.html?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=d30ed960da-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email#respond.
And of course we all know who is the Number One supplier of arms.
So why is everyone relying on the United States and Israel to be in charge of keeping the peace -- both in the Occupied Territories and in the rest of the world?
Isn't that a bit like expecting two very hungry bears to be in charge of guarding a honey tree?
PPPS: Even Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has a few unkind words to say about Israel, believe it or not: "Israel’s previous prime minister, Ehud Olmert, had to resign because he was accused of illicitly taking envelopes stuffed with money from a Jewish-American backer. An Israeli court recently convicted Israel’s former president Moshe Katsav on two counts of rape, based on accusations by former employees. And just a few weeks ago, Israel, at the last second, rescinded the appointment of Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant as the army’s new chief of staff after Israeli environmentalists spurred a government investigation that concluded General Galant had seized public land near his home. (You can see his house on Google Maps!)" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/opinion/02friedman.html?_r=1
Perhaps we should be sending the Israelis some pizza too.
PPPPS: What if all of us little people from all over the world who are sick and tired of being bossed around by military thugs, bullies and sadists for the sole reason that their, er, guns are bigger than our guns -- what if we all got together and refused? Refused to be soldiers, refused to make weapons, refused to murder, refused to...just refused. Then what would happen?
Ultimately it's all in the numbers.
For every one of the bullies, sadists and thugs that hide behind the largest and most combat-ready armies in the world, there are at least 99 more of us who are sick of all this bloodshed.
Tunisia, India, Egypt, South Africa, Jesus and the American South have all shown us that non-violent tactics really do bring about peace -- if you have the numbers. In fact, Tunisia and Egypt apparently even consciously took a leaf from Ni'lin's non-violent playbook. So. Let's put all of the world's largest and most combat-ready armies on notice. "Chill out now -- or else risk ending up like Mubarak, Bull Connor, apartheid and the British Raj."
We're armed and dangerous too -- we've got pizza!
