by Colin Hyde
You bet many Belizeans, especially those who reside in the category called pundits, have already made space today so that from the get-go they can tune in to the Janelle Chanona-led Senate Special Inquiry into David Gegg’s dream port a couple miles south of the Sibun. Much work has either been done or put on delay, and now all are hovering around the teevee, ready for Janelle to bring down the gavel so the interrogations can begin.
Stake Bank will be in the audience, ears de-waxed so they don’t miss a word. There’ll be no keener observer of the show than the Waterloo crowd. Their leader’s television station has been on the ball from last week. Despite Erwin explaining that all that’s being thrown at him da lone r—, Channel Five + — these people haad a andastanding or what — in its report of the coming Inquiry, was very vicious, speaking of a “rubbished Portico Definitive Agreement … the dubious Definitive Agreement” and the “controversial piece of document.”
I could have titled this piece, “When one is not enough.” In a single paragraph, Channel Five lashed out THREE times. Braa, you know how long it took for the cock to crow THREE times? Ehm, Peter was at the hearing the entire night! You signed, sealed, and delivered your blows in one breath.
Okay, now, game on! Hurray for entertainment hounds! And now permit me a little space for the cynics. Bah, let’s see how much dirty linen will be exposed, and then covered up, and wa, let’s keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get sued again.
Israel’s ugly expansionist war sullying Christians
Speaking for The Christ, the Pope told Israel to back down from the bombing of Gaza, and issued another call for a two-state solution. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t respect him. That branch of the Faith that doesn’t respect the Pope is fully behind Israel’s vicious, dirty war, and the taint from them is infecting all. The end story here is there’ll be an exodus, especially of the young, from the flock. That will be a great tragedy. There is no one else like Jesus. His name is getting bombed in this.
US right wing too comfortable with tricky talk
No one doubts that there is some truth in US leaders who insist that Palestinian leaders have blocked proposals for a two-state solution to the conflict between them and Israel. It is on record. What is excluded from the charge is what the rejected proposed two-state solutions looked like. Everyone knows that “some truth” is very often cherry-picking, which is a vice, not a virtue. I find that Israel and its supporters are way too comfortable with incomplete honesty.
Scott Neuman and Merrit Kennedy in a 2020 piece in NPR, “Trump Says His Mideast Peace Plan Provides A ‘Realistic Two—State Solution’” —my, it reads like a page from Bethuel Webster in 1968. There are reports that the former US president doesn’t read. His two-state solution would be Exhibit A against him if he was brought to court to answer that charge. No one who studies history could concoct a prize like the one he forwarded to bring peace to Palestine and Israel.
The plan is completely one-sided, insulting to Palestine, and they rightly rejected it. Trump’s offer, according to NPR, “envisions Jerusalem as Israel’s ‘undivided capital’”, Israel would be in charge of security in a demilitarized Palestine, and Israel would have ‘sovereignty over certain areas of the occupied West Bank, including Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley’.” There is no right of return in this plan. To sweeten the sour pot a little, the US would throw in some money.
Hey, on one hand I thought the GoB went too far when it broke off diplomatic relations with Israel. But on the other hand, the US needs some tough love. There is always a bully; the US is a bully, and Belizeans prefer the bully they know. Really, sometimes you have to speak truth to power to make it understand. The US really must stop following the blueprint of Kissinger. The US looked terrible after the Iraq war. Their popularity was at rock bottom when they got lucky with the election of Obama. They are squandering their gains with their 100% support of the cruel far right agenda in Israel.
No one doubts that most or all older Palestinians dream of Palestine being one land again, with them in charge. They wouldn’t be human beings if they just accepted the partition in 1948 and the subsequent exile. It will take some doing for the lion and the lamb to lie down together. Hmm, you can bet that whenever you see a pic with a lion and a lamb relaxing on a lawn that the belly of the one with the canine teeth is full, maybe with some leg from another sheep.
Both parties will have to compromise for a workable two-state solution. It will have to be brought into being with the same tools and tool wielders that are orchestrating things now. The 1948 partition was artificial, and a two-state solution will have to be artificial too.
It’s five decades since Israel used US and UK artillery to defeat nations that supported the Palestinians, and take away more land from them. On the matter of land that Israel “won” in war in 1967, no ifs, ands or buts, that land must be returned to Palestine. It was bad enough, the carving out of Israel. The land taken in 1967 and thereafter, they must return it.
It’s seven decades since the 1948 partition, and that’s a long time. I have wondered about the right of return. It’s complicated turf. It might be that some limits will have to be placed on it. There are certain conventions which say it is not a debatable point, the unfettered return is a right. Some have forwarded that the right of return is the reason why the two-state solution remains in limbo.
Staying in shallow waters, for now, we know the innocent nostalgia is in play here. Some, many, people are like salmon, and lagrahead. There are these fascinating stories about these fishes and turtles that travel many miles to spawn in the river of their birth, lay eggs in the sand on beaches where they were born. It’s the animal/fish in us. Many will only want to visit. I can see young Palestinians bundling their great grandparents into cars and making the trek to Israel, just so the old ones can look at the spot where they used to live 70 years ago. Hmm.
Hey, there is no perfect solution to anything under the sun. But with sincerity and intelligence we can make workable decisions.
My 10% doesn’t like slits
No one has to tell me my being from the pasture community puts me out of place here, but if it is that my voice helps the young ones, well, I’m obligated. Hmm, you know how these agents earn their money — by keeping their meal ticket in the news, through any means, ranging from high to low. Wello, this week our minds were asked to focus on some gorgeous woman who they said stood out with her sensational dress with a side slit. As it is with me now, it was with me then, and if 10% of us could get absorbed in another kind of relationship, then maybe 10% of us are as unimpressed as I am when I see slit.
Respect to the world of clothing designers; so many of their creations are absolutely fascinating. But that slit, it doesn’t cut it for me. A girl in a mini skirt is provocative, a girl in shorts is sporty, and a girl in culottes is refreshing. When I see slit I think we could use some needle and thread. But, you needn’t pay any attention to me. There mightn’t be more than 10% of us in the close-that-slit demographic.