Toward a Realistic Peace: The Palestine Monitor’s response to Rudy Giuliani
Palestine Monitor
22 August 2007

Dear Mr. Giuliani,

Regarding your article published in the September/October edition of
Foreign Affairs entitled “Toward a Realistic Peace,” [1] you present
the American public with an outline of your vision for future American
foreign policy. This vision, however, is one that we here at the
Palestine Monitor feel will lead to a destructive and counter
productive outcome.

You begin your article by stating that “The defining challenges of the
twentieth century ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall,” and you
conclude by stating that “the 9/11 generation has learned from the
history of the twentieth century.” While there is no doubt that many
have learned from the past, your call for the permanent support of
Israel, (a country that is in the process of building a new apartheid
wall twice as tall and four times as long as the Berlin wall itself)
makes it apparent that you have not.

One of the weakest and most illogical statements of your entire
article reads as follows: “Palestinian statehood will have to be
earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to
fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel.”
Surely you realize that “good governance” is impossible when 45
democratically elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council
(PLC) including the minister of education are imprisoned by the
Israeli military.

Moreover, the “willingness to live in peace with Israel” can only be
achieved when Israel itself exhibits a willingness to live in peace
with the Palestinian people. Israel continues to illegally detain and
torture Palestinians on a daily basis, it uses tactics such as house
demolitions to collectively punish the Palestinian people, and it
indiscriminately targets children, as documented by numerous human
rights organizations such as Israel�EURO(tm)s B�EURO(tm)tselem, as well as by the
international community. Furthermore, through the construction of the
separation barrier (deemed illegal by the International Court of
Justice) and through settlement expansion, Israel is actively
attempting to change the facts on the ground, and is therefore in no
way committed to peace.

Throughout your article you deliver one-sided rhetoric that sounds
good to the uninformed, but actually undermines your own legitimacy
and exhibits your shortsightedness on the Palestinian Israeli
conflict. You state that “our enemies must know that they cannot
murder our citizens with impunity and escape retaliation,” but if
Americans cannot be murdered without punishment and retaliation, then
why can Palestinians? Since 2000 more than four thousand five hundred
Palestinians have been killed by the occupying Israeli military.

Mr. Giuliani, there are two statements you make with which we could
not agree more. The first is that: “the next president must champion
human rights and speak out when they are violated,” second, that “we
are at the dawn of a new era in global affairs, when old ideas have to
be rethought and new ideas have to be devised to meet new challenges.”
However, by blindly supporting the state of Israel and its ongoing
human rights abuses you make it quite clear that you do not intend to
adhere to either of these policy goals.

As keen followers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we ask that if
you are elected as the next President of the United States of America,
you both acknowledge and work for the protection of the Palestinian�EURO(tm)s
civil and human rights, as well as hold Israel accountable for its
illegal occupation.

Yours, The Palestine Monitor Staff