Stupid White Men-- and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! - Michael Moore [76]
2. If it wants to keep receiving our tax dollars, Israel should be given a year to work out a plan with the Palestinians to create a nation called Palestine (formed from the West Bank, Gaza, and some strip of land that connects them). This new nation of Palestine must then present a Constitution that not only prohibits any form of aggression against Israel but also guarantees full democratic rights to every Palestinian man, woman, and child.
3. The United States will then give Palestine double what it has given Israel in funding (for a permanent peace, I’d gladly give up my portion of this—pennies a week). This is not free cash for corrupt public officials like the ones we have in our country. This is Marshall Plan-style direct aid that builds roads, schools, and industries that provide decent-paying jobs.
4. The United Nations should then commit to defending Israel against anyone who still wants it destroyed—and vow to defend a democratic Palestine from its neighboring Arab regimes (who are going to go bonkers if their own oppressed peoples see how good these Palestinian Arabs have it living in freedom and prosperity).
Of course, who’s going to listen to me? Apparently it’s too much fun continuing this stupid soap opera over a wedge of land you can cross in the time it takes to get from Oakland to San Francisco in rush hour.
Well, maybe there is one person who will listen.
Dear President Arafat:
We’ve never met. That’s not an attempt to cop an invite over for dinner or a game of horseshoes. You’re a busy man, I’m a busy man (though I can’t get anyone in the office here to call me President, or respond to my directives with, “Ya, Sir!”).
Sorry. That’s the kind of humor that has kept me relegated to appearing only on basic cable in America (Channel 64, right after the Italian language station in New York City).
I have the key to your success. I know how you can unilaterally end the killing on both sides—and, as a bonus, wind up with a Palestinian state!
I know, you’re thinking, “Hey, who is this guy?” And you’re right.
But hear me out. I want to propose something so revolutionary that it will flip out every Israeli right-winger and send every Israeli peacenik running to your side.
My proposal is not a new idea. It involves no armies, no money, and no UN resolutions. It’s dirt cheap. It has been tried many times, in many countries—AND IT HAS NEVER FAILED. It demands no hatred and requires no weapons. In fact, it is all about no weapons.
It’s called mass nonviolent civil disobedience. It worked for Martin Luther King Jr.—his nonviolent movement brought an abrupt end to legal segregation in America. It worked for Gandhi—he and his fellow Indians brought the British Empire to its knees without firing a shot. It worked for Nelson Mandela—he and the African National Congress brought about an end to apartheid with no violent revolution.
If it worked for them, trust me, it can work for you.
Sure, you can still win through violence. The Vietnamese proved that they could whip the mightiest country on earth. And look at us—we spent eight years picking off Redcoats, and got ourselves a big country out of all the shooting!
So killing does work, I guess. The only problem is, after the killing stops you’re a little messed in the head, and it takes a while before you learn to put down your guns (225 years later and we still haven’t learned).
But if you’d like to try the nonviolent approach, you not only get to see fewer people die—you get your own country in the end!
Here’s how it works:
1. Just sit your ass down. That’s it. It’s simple. You just lay your bodies down—often just a few thousand in the middle of the road will do—and don’t move and don