To evaluate the long-awaited peace plan
for Israel Palestine, it is essential to
understand the history and context of
this conflict. Originally the vast
majority of the population in what is
now called Israel had been Muslim and Christian.
But in the late 1800s zealots from 
Europe and the US began a movement
called Zionism whose goal was to push
out this population in order to take
over the land for a Jewish state.
For decades this was a fringe movement
as most Jews around the world including
in the region itself did not support it.
Experts in the US State Department and
Pentagon opposed it saying it would
cause bloodshed and harm to the US.
Eventually however this movement
succeeded. In 1948 Zionist forces
expelled hundreds of thousands of
Palestinian Christians and Muslims and
confiscated their land and property to
create a Jewish state which they 
decided to name Israel.
Israel was now established in 78% of what had been
mandatory Palestine. Then in 1967 Israel
launched another war and conquered what
was left of Palestine, the West Bank and Gaza.
This is illegal under international
law. By the way during that war Israeli
forces tried to sink a u.s. Navy ship
monitoring the conflict, killing 34
American servicemen and injuring 174.
Israel has now turned the West Bank and
Gaza into open air prisons controlling
all entrances and exits and invading at
will. Every day Israeli soldiers invade
Palestinian villages, beat and abduct
Palestinians including children, and
destroy Palestinian property.
Israel has blockaded Gaza for 13 years
causing malnutrition and children, huge
unemployment, and desperation. 70 percent
of Gazan families are refugees
pushed out by Israel in 1948,
their ancestral homes and land 
stolen by the new Jewish state.
Finally in 2018 gazans began a mass
Gandhian type March for their rights.
Israel responded by deploying snipers
and it has been shooting demonstrators
during their weekly protests every week
since.
All these actions by Israel violate international law.
Stealing people's land is illegal.
Imprisoning them is illegal. 
Shooting and beating them is illegal.
Destroying their farmland is illegal. 
Not allowing refugees to return to their homes is illegal.
And now, rather than a plan to
bring justice and peace to this ravaged land,
the proposed plan would permanently
trample Palestinian rights,
setting Israel's theft of Palestinian land in concrete.
This is no surprise given that
the plan was largely drawn up by a
lifelong Israel partisan and under an
administration beholden to a
multi-billionaire US campaign donor who
has indicated he favors Israel over the US,
and that the pro-Israel lobby in the
US is the most powerful lobby on behalf
of a foreign country in our nation.
This Lobby has already procured the
largest aid package in US history: 38
billion dollars of US tax money to
Israel over the next 10 years, which
works out to over 10 million dollars per day.
It was predictable that the lobby would 
similarly procure a deeply unfair pro-Israel plan.
Sadly this plan would not  bring peace.
Injustice does not end violence.
Only when the Israel lobby is expelled 
from its dominance over US policies,
will we see a plan that has a
chance of bringing a peace.
Until then we will continue to see the 
violence, tragedy, and oppression
that has marred the region for over 70 years
and spilled over elsewhere.
It's time to stop it.
To see the details of the plan go to the
link on your screen.
And to see recent Israeli actions in
the Palestinian territories
not reported by US media, see the second link.
