So do you condone apartheid?

I've been familiar with Amira Hass for a bit now and have read some of her writing. I did not realize (or didn't realize that I realized) until today that she lives in ramallah. That's intense. (If you read her wiki page and note the bit about her being found guilty of slander- please also note "Jerusalem Magistrates Court" and "Israeli Army." I am not saying this means that the judgement against her was necessarily wrong, but I am emphasizing the ambiguities. I'm going to add this incident to my long list of items to be looked into.)

Here is a brief essay by Hass, from Ha'aretz about two weeks ago, outlining her thoughts on the depressingly lacklustre performance of most of those who claim some kind of oppositional stance to the racist policies of current israeli governance and the often brutally oppressive performance of the israeli military. (I unequivocally endorse what Hass argues in this essay, and I think it applies in many regards to us in the u.s. as well- 'us' being 'concerned' americans (jewish, non-jewish, doesn't matter one wink) who can do more to engage this fucked situation, but don't for whatever reason.)

And one more worthwhile link: I caught the above Hass article reading this post at Tony Karon's blog. south african jew, veteran of the apartheid struggle there, excellent journalistic writer, good heart, check him out.

Ps: for those (who somehow come to be reading my blog and) who might benefit from this bit of advice: when moving about the net and reading on israel/palestine, don't get bogged down in comment-section quibbling. Everyone's got an opinion, natch. Inform yourself independently- one solid bet is to gather search terms from the news and work from there. And always multiple sources! Feel free to stay tuned here, as I begin to assemble what I feel to be a collection of worthwhile (and diverse) links. Especially: if you're like me, then the insular left pisses you off as much as anything. No tolerance for uniforms here, fuck dogma, only honest inquiry is acceptable.