The AIPAC Policy Conference has come to a close for the year 2012. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this blog has been noticeably quiet about the affair. It’s not that there’s nothing to say, it’s just that I don’t know where to begin. From AIPAC’s failed attempts at stirring up steady support on Twitter to Liza Behrendt’s successful interruption of a breakout session, from Phil Weiss’s revoked press pass to the 629,055 references (give or take) to a supposedly war-ready Iran, this year’s conference was nothing short of a bust. And as I sat at my desk wondering how AIPAC makes it so easy to ridicule their silly antics, I remembered the token black students who were flown out to D.C. just to say that Israel’s apartheid isn’t qualified under the precedents set by South Africa’s apartheid. Then I remembered Netanyahu’s speech and the trainwreck that it was. And before I could put pen to paper, this happened across my screen.
For those who missed the coverage of this year’s AIPAC conference, this video does the best job so far at summing it up.
The right to self-defense is reserved for Israel only. After all, Obama’s administration, with a stamp of approval from Israel’s government, has gone to great lengths to avoid recognizing the Palestinian right to self-defense. It is a twisted world when the occupier is seen as the defenseless victim and the occupied is sanctioned for simply refusing to accept inequity.
‘Dear women of the world’: A letter about gender inequity, Palestine, and general empowerment
Guest contribution by Bayan Founas
Dear women of the world,
I write to you today as a plea for help. You see I have a friend that needs our help as fellow sisters. Her name is Palestine. An oppressor has occupied her for 64 years now. His name is Israel. Now let me tell you about the awfully familiar relationship between these two.
Palestine calls me everyday to recount the abuses she is suffering. She’s too scared to live in her own home in fear of the constant domestic violence she faces from Israel everyday. Someone told me she always wears long sleeves to cover the bruises on her arms, but we all know Israel is the perpetrator in tearing out her olive trees.
She tried explaining to me that she couldn’t simply sit and talk to him about it, so instead she tried defending herself. This hasn’t proved successful considering he’s been cheating by working out everyday at the gym, automatically making him stronger. His gym is called the United States. It has great reviews, providing the best workout guaranteed for life. Although his gym trainer knows he’s been using his muscles inhumanely, the trainer doesn’t seem to mind. The gym continued to train him even when they heard about the incident in the winter of 2008 when Israel punched Palestine so hard in the stomach she spit out over 1,400 pints of blood! You’d think any gym in its right mind would cancel its client’s membership but this one had no choice since it was being cut at the throat by Israel’s best friend, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). I asked Palestine her advice on how to cut ties between them; she said two words: Occupy AIPAC. [Read more...]