Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Pacifica Commentary For March 21, 2007
Tanya Reinhart
This week was marked by the passing of Tanya Reinhart, a leading Israeli intellectual, an outspoken critic of Israeli government policies and one of the leading advocates for Palestinian national rights. She served as a professor of linguistics and media studies at Tel Aviv University and, recently, as global distinguished professor of linguistics at New York University and columnist for Israel's largest daily paper, Yediot Ahranot. Tanya had a global following for her critical perspective on the occupation of Palestine. Her books include: Israel-Palestine, How to End the War of 1948, and The Road Map to Nowhere. Tanya last appeared on my program WORLD FOCUS on November 19, 2006.
Here are some of Tanya Reinhart's positions:
Israel's policy has changed so they are now not simply defending the occupation, they are supporting the atrocities including the daily killing of Palestinians.
The recent Palestinian elections were declared to be among the best of the sixty-two which have been monitored by the Carter Center, but Israel did not like the results of the election and Israel is protected by the might makes right policy of the United States. So the Palestinian elections are not recognized and their entire population must be punished and starved.
Friends, the brilliance and clarity of Tanya Reinhart identifies something that few people in the United States understand. Tanya states that what we see now is the U.S. and Israel deliberately inciting civil wars among their enemies. They are doing this in Palestine by supporting forces like the Dahlan in Gaza.
They are doing the same in Lebanon. They are doing this in Iraq. This is the U.S./Israeli policy.
Tanya was convinced that Israel is simply not willing to recognize the right of the Palestinians to exist as a state.
Just as the Bush administration has done everything possible to recklessly endanger the people of the United States, similarly, the incredibly powerful American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is actually endangering the people of Israel by pushing for war in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Tanya Reinhart knew that the blowback from this endless war mongering could lead to the destruction of Israel. Now that she has left us it would be wise for every Israeli and every citizen of the United States to read her books and to denounce the mindless cheering sections for endless war which reside in Washington and Tel Aviv.
