Cuba!
Absolutely amazing. The United States and Cuba have re-opened embassies in their respective capitals. The Cuban flag flies in the city of Washington D.C. It's something that I never thought would happen in my lifetime.
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 kicked out the exploitive capitalist fascistic government to install an exploitive communist dictatorship. You know - progress. A couple of years later, the Soviet Union tried to put nuclear missiles on the island. The funny part was that the KGB was in charge of moving the missiles in - which was accomplished with complete secrecy. But the construction of the missile sites was left up to the guys who normally built missile sites. So they worked completely out in the open and were spotted by American spy planes immediately. If they'd been built in secret, they'd probably still be there today.
The rest is history. Cuban Missile Crisis. American embargo (which remains in place). End of diplomatic relations. Until today. Wow.
The aspect that I'm most curious about is how they will resolve the land claims. Cuban expatriates (a major political force in Florida - just ask Sen. Marco Rubio) have always maintained their ownership claims over their former property on the island. If the US normalizes relations, how will those claims be resolved?
Because the right-wing Cuban voting bloc in Florida has real political heft, I think there's virtually no chance that the answer will be, in the words of the classic GoDaddy.com ad: "Stick It!" They will have some traction - but will they be able to get back the property they lost to the communist revolutionaries? Will they get a settlement?
The people who really need that answer are the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Palestinians have been holding out for a 'right of return' since they abandoned their homes in what is now Israel in 1948. They were told by invading Arab armies to get out of the way while the Jews were being mass-murdered. Then something funny happened (obviously not "funny ha-ha"). The invaders came running back the way they came. Some 800,000 Palestinian Arabs were left in refugee camps.
They were not offered relocation to Egypt or Jordan (though many ended up in Jordan) or Syria or Lebanon. They were left in these camps, being supported by UN money to this day - so your tax dollars go their continued support. The Arabs intended to wipe out Israel and wanted the Palestinians in place to occupy the newly empty country. When it became clear that Israel wasn't going to fold, nobody had an answer for the Palestinian "refugees."
The "refugees" have been there for 67 years. They have grown in numbers and now represent a people and a nation of their own having nothing to do with modern Israel - other than their claims.
So if the American Crazy Right (tm) fights for Cuban expatriate "rights," what will they do for the Palestinians? Because they've been in 100% support of the right wing in Israel.
What should happen (hey - it's my blog. I get to say!) is that there is a financial settlement in both cases. The Cuban population is American and relatively affluent. If they want money for their former property, the US should help Cuba make those payments.
In the case of the Palestinians, they need a global Marshall Plan. They need economic development. They need to build their 'camps' into cities. In their case, they will have to overcome generations of children raised to hate Jews and an irrational worldview that puts them in perpetual conflict. And I don't know if that's possible.
But I really think that people with jobs and homes will be less ready to fire rockets at the neighbors, leading to the endless cycle of violence they're trapped in today.
The Cuba settlement will be telling.
The Cuban Revolution in 1959 kicked out the exploitive capitalist fascistic government to install an exploitive communist dictatorship. You know - progress. A couple of years later, the Soviet Union tried to put nuclear missiles on the island. The funny part was that the KGB was in charge of moving the missiles in - which was accomplished with complete secrecy. But the construction of the missile sites was left up to the guys who normally built missile sites. So they worked completely out in the open and were spotted by American spy planes immediately. If they'd been built in secret, they'd probably still be there today.
The rest is history. Cuban Missile Crisis. American embargo (which remains in place). End of diplomatic relations. Until today. Wow.
The aspect that I'm most curious about is how they will resolve the land claims. Cuban expatriates (a major political force in Florida - just ask Sen. Marco Rubio) have always maintained their ownership claims over their former property on the island. If the US normalizes relations, how will those claims be resolved?
Because the right-wing Cuban voting bloc in Florida has real political heft, I think there's virtually no chance that the answer will be, in the words of the classic GoDaddy.com ad: "Stick It!" They will have some traction - but will they be able to get back the property they lost to the communist revolutionaries? Will they get a settlement?
The people who really need that answer are the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Palestinians have been holding out for a 'right of return' since they abandoned their homes in what is now Israel in 1948. They were told by invading Arab armies to get out of the way while the Jews were being mass-murdered. Then something funny happened (obviously not "funny ha-ha"). The invaders came running back the way they came. Some 800,000 Palestinian Arabs were left in refugee camps.
They were not offered relocation to Egypt or Jordan (though many ended up in Jordan) or Syria or Lebanon. They were left in these camps, being supported by UN money to this day - so your tax dollars go their continued support. The Arabs intended to wipe out Israel and wanted the Palestinians in place to occupy the newly empty country. When it became clear that Israel wasn't going to fold, nobody had an answer for the Palestinian "refugees."
The "refugees" have been there for 67 years. They have grown in numbers and now represent a people and a nation of their own having nothing to do with modern Israel - other than their claims.
So if the American Crazy Right (tm) fights for Cuban expatriate "rights," what will they do for the Palestinians? Because they've been in 100% support of the right wing in Israel.
What should happen (hey - it's my blog. I get to say!) is that there is a financial settlement in both cases. The Cuban population is American and relatively affluent. If they want money for their former property, the US should help Cuba make those payments.
In the case of the Palestinians, they need a global Marshall Plan. They need economic development. They need to build their 'camps' into cities. In their case, they will have to overcome generations of children raised to hate Jews and an irrational worldview that puts them in perpetual conflict. And I don't know if that's possible.
But I really think that people with jobs and homes will be less ready to fire rockets at the neighbors, leading to the endless cycle of violence they're trapped in today.
The Cuba settlement will be telling.
posted by fiduciary at 2:14 PM
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