[Buddha-l] Re: buddha-l Digest, Vol 32, Issue 17

[Bshmr at aol.com]

Friends, and others,
 
I wondered what the heck had spawned so many digests in the last 24-hours. 
 
So much agreement by the Many; so much fear, greed, and delusion by the  Few. 
 
Fortunately, so I didn't have to wade through those rational Christian  (CPT, 
Presby, ...) and Israeli (Haaretz, Shalom, Tikkun, ...) sites which  
emphasize the real present, for deep in my email reading Portside had  the following:
 
_http://www.portside.org/?q=showpost&i=3212_ 
(http://www.portside.org/?q=showpost&i=3212)  Search  for 'occupation', 2nd mention.
Re: Carl Bloice's Oct. 13 posting and Judith Lelchook's Oct. 13  response

Carl Bloice's factual piece on the Israeli occupation of  Palestinian lands, 
and Judith Lelchook's emotional/factual response, raise basic  questions. As 
one who has, in other venues, negotiated agreements between  hostile parties, 
here's my take.

There must be negotiations between the  two parties, Israel and the 
Palestinians.  During a negotiation, each party  comes to the table and presents 
maximal demands, but secretly holds minimal  thresholds, beyond which it will not 
budge.

An Israeli-Palestinian  negotiation is, at best, lopsided. Palestinians 
cannot offer to return Israeli  land:  it controls no Israeli land.  Palestinians 
cannot offer to  return captured Israeli prisoners there are none. Palestinians 
cannot offer to  return Israeli water/water sources, cannot offer to withdraw 
checkpoints and  guard posts on Israeli territory: they don't exist. 
Palestinians cannot  agree to stop demolishing Israeli homes, to stop building illegal 
settlements on  Israeli land.  And so on.
 
... 
 
 
and this reprint from Salon:
 
_http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/09/gaydamak_bibi/index_np.html_ 
(http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/10/09/gaydamak_bibi/index_np.html) 
 
Israel's rising right wing
By Gregory Levey
salon.com - October 9,  2007

Together, an enigmatic billionaire and a resurgent Bibi Netanyahu  could put 
Israel on the war path. Dick Cheney, AIPAC and Iran are all  watching closely.

...
 
 
It seems to me that monothesism breeds autocrats -- commanders and  
followers; I never cared for that dynamic nor for their faiths. 
 
Richard Basham



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