Israeli Violence Undermining the Peace Process

Washington is quite right that violence is undermining the peace process between Palestinians and Israel, but the main source of that violence is Israel...because peace would undermine the Israeli regime's goals. How long must we endure Washington's hypocrisy?

In order to overcome the biases taught by the politically subservient mainstream U.S. media, try reading the Israeli press, which offers several revealing English-language papers. If you think Israelis are the innocent victims, try, for example, this very recent Haaretz commentary:

Every time Gazans sit down for a meal, they face a depressing reality. The selection of foods available to them is dictated almost entirely by a harsh policy imposed by the Israeli government, which, as of late, has even refused to allow such innocuous-seeming foods as pumpkins, pasta or beans to cross the border. The goal behind Israel's tight control of Gazans' dietary regime is definitely not improving their health. Rather, the government argues that allowing "luxury" foods into Gaza would only add to the popularity of Hamas' leaders, enabling them to better feed their constituency. But, in the eyes of many observers, Israel's policy of limiting foods that enter the Strip is almost tantamount to starvation, and comes dangerously close to collective punishment, both of which are not only illegal and immoral methods to use in pursuit of Israeli security, but also do little to improve that security.

Washington has repeatedly expressed its opposition to countries that “support violence” designed to undermine the Mideast peace process. I totally agree. If Washington wants to put its money where its mouth is, it will have to realize that the primary offender against this principle is Israel. When Israel stops using violence—collective semi-starvation of the population of Gaza, brutality toward Gaza fishermen, military incursions into all of Palestine, army-backed settler terrorism against Palestinian homeowners, then progress toward the peace process will begin.