Happy Face 29 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 the most important demonstration was the one held in Tel Aviv, sponsored by the Israeli Left, and consisting of some 6,000 activists. The horrific and also brain dead tactic of mounting suicide bombings against ordinary Israelis, adopted by some radical Palestinian groups in the first part of this decade, had killed the Israeli peace movement and given the Israeli Right the opportunity to capture the government and use its resources to intensively colonize Palestinian land. Despite what the US press keeps saying, a majority of Israelis has consistently supported trading land for peace in opinion polls. On Saturday, we heard once more from the decent Israeli left and center, who routinely call the ultra-orthodox who vote for Shas, a pillar of the Netanyahu government, “Taliban.” If the Palestinian leadership can restrain the radicals among them and go on cultivating non-violent tactics like the growing boycott of goods made by West Bank colonies, and preferring to import Turkish goods, they may finally have a winning formula. http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/tel-aviv-p...ndemnation.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 (edited) In another development on Sunday, a senior Iranian military figure said the country's elite Revolutionary Guards were ready to escort aid flotillas to Gaza if ordered to by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The Revolutionary Guards' naval forces are fully prepared to escort freedom and peace flotillas carrying humanitarian aid from all over the world to the oppressed people of Gaza," Ali Shirazi, Ayatollah Khamenei's naval representative, told Mehr news agency. Edited June 7, 2010 by Park Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Iran Sending Two Ships to Gaza By Gwen Spinali Hollywood Backstage Staff Writer Monday, June 7, 2010 Israel (Hollywood Backstage) -- Israeli IDF Army will be challenged by two ships coming from Iran sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. The Israeli army will not be able to use their strong arm tactics on Iran. The delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has become a public relations nightmare for the embattled Israeli government, which has failed to release damning evidence in the form of videotapes and photographs of it's raid on the previous Freedom Flotilla. Israel killed nine civilian passengers and shot about thirty passengers after they were met with clubs and sticks. The weak Israeli soldiers were pounded by civilian passengers. Israel tried to make light of the situation by releasing a stupid video set to We are the World. Israel's version was "We Con the World" -- a copyright infringement that Michael Jackson would not have approved. The Israeli government has no class. In a question and answer session with the U.S. Press Secretary, a correspondent asked why the disgusting massacre was not immediately condemned by the U.S. Government. The response was that they did not have time to evaluate all the facts of the case. Yesterday, Israel killed four divers who Israel claimed were about to commit a maritime terrorist attack. The four men who offered no quarter were from Gaza. A fifth man escaped by swimming underwater to evade the Israeli terrorists. Palestinian witnesses said they saw the Israeli gunboats surround the men and slaughter them. The Iranian Red Crescent announced the delivery of humanitarian aid TEHRAN The Iranian Red Crescent has decided to send two ships with humanitarian aid to the Palestinian population of Gaza. The agency said this morning Irna.La Iranian Red Crescent Society to send two ships with humanitarian aid for Gaza "at the end of this week," said a member of the humanitarian organization agency IRNA. "One of the two boats will transport the goods to the population, essential medical care and food, on the other there will be Crescent volunteers," said the director of the International Organization of Iran, Abdolrauf Adibzadeh. "The two boats will leave at the end of this week," he added. "The volunteers who want to go to Gaza and help the oppressed people of occupied Palestine can register at the Red Crescent." Yesterday the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the elite force of the Iranian regime, said they were ready to escort humanitarian ships bound for the Gaza Strip, where Ayatollah Ali Khamenei give the order. "The Revolutionary Guard naval forces are ready to escort vessels" Freedom Flotilla "carrying humanitarian aid from around the world for the oppressed people of Gaza," said Ali Shirazi, who represents supreme leader within the Guardians Revolution (Pasdaran), the agency Mehr. If Ayatollah Khamenei "give an order to that effect to the naval forces of the Revolutionary Guard, they will adopt practical measures to escort ships to Gaza, using their skills and their equipment." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 (edited) Jews should leave Palestine and return to Europe, top U.S. journalist says White House reporter Helen Thomas also slams Obama administration for not condemning 'deliberate Gaza flotilla massacre.' By Natasha Mozgovaya Tags: Israel news Barack Obama Gaza flotilla Israeli Jews should get out of Palestine and go back "home," to Germany and Poland, senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas was taped as saying earlier this week, bringing calls for her resignation by Jewish organization B'nai B'rith. In a recently uploaded Youtube video, Thomas can be heard saying that Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine," adding that the land was Palestinian, "not German, it's not Polish." Thomas, in response, posted the following statement on her website, saying she deeply regretted the "comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon." When asked where then the Jews should go, the senior White House correspondent said they should "Go home…. To Poland, Germany…and America and everywhere else." "Thomas’ comments are contemptible, "B’nai B’rith International President Dennis W. Glick said in a statement, adding that Thomas's "distortion of historical reality is astonishing. Her call for Jews to return to Poland and Germany—site of the Nazi genocide, the worst genocide in modern history—is beyond offensive." Glick added that he felt "Thomas seems to have been schooled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a belief that Jews appeared in Israel after the Holocaust," while ignoring "historical facts that Jews have called the Land of Israel home for more than 3,000 years, long before any other group made a home in the land." "These vile comments, unfortunately, are the culmination of Thomas' ongoing anti-Israel sentiments that she kept thinly veiled over the years," B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. "There should be no place for her in a news organization. Her comments go beyond commentary and land well in the camp that will stop at nothing to delegitimize Israel." Last week, during a briefing with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Thomas' criticized the American reaction to the deadly Israeli raid of a humanitarian aid convoy, saying that "our initial reaction to this flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful." "What do you mean you regret when something should be so strongly condemned? And if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. What is this sacrosanct, iron-clad relationship, where a country that deliberately kills people," Thomas had said. Helen Thomas Edited June 7, 2010 by Park Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spongebob toonpants 4131 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 In another development on Sunday, a senior Iranian military figure said the country's elite Revolutionary Guards were ready to escort aid flotillas to Gaza if ordered to by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. "The Revolutionary Guards' naval forces are fully prepared to escort freedom and peace flotillas carrying humanitarian aid from all over the world to the oppressed people of Gaza," Ali Shirazi, Ayatollah Khamenei's naval representative, told Mehr news agency. ruh roh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Israel's no-compromise attitude to aid convoys could be tested again after two Lebanese organisations pledged to send boats to Gaza in the next few days. Reporters Without Borders is attempting to assemble 25 European activists and 50 journalists for a boat leaving Beirut. The Free Palestine Movement is planning a similar attempt. George Galloway, the founder of Viva Palestina, announced in London that two simultaneous convoys "one by land via Egypt and the other by sea" would set out in September to break the Gaza blockade. The sea convoy of up to 60 ships will travel around the Mediterranean gathering ships, cargo and volunteers. Guardian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Sad to hear about rocket fire since the floatilla attack. Fingers crossed the militants in Gaza have the good sense to let this play out rather than intensifying the rocket attacks further after the most recent killings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Sadder to see the silence from Ohbanana. Next move Turkey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 (edited) Jews should leave Palestine and return to Europe, top U.S. journalist saysWhite House reporter Helen Thomas also slams Obama administration for not condemning 'deliberate Gaza flotilla massacre.' By Natasha Mozgovaya Tags: Israel news Barack Obama Gaza flotilla Israeli Jews should get out of Palestine and go back "home," to Germany and Poland, senior White House Press Corps member Helen Thomas was taped as saying earlier this week, bringing calls for her resignation by Jewish organization B'nai B'rith. In a recently uploaded Youtube video, Thomas can be heard saying that Israel "should get the hell out of Palestine," adding that the land was Palestinian, "not German, it's not Polish." Thomas, in response, posted the following statement on her website, saying she deeply regretted the "comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon." When asked where then the Jews should go, the senior White House correspondent said they should "Go home…. To Poland, Germany…and America and everywhere else." "Thomas’ comments are contemptible, "B’nai B’rith International President Dennis W. Glick said in a statement, adding that Thomas's "distortion of historical reality is astonishing. Her call for Jews to return to Poland and Germany—site of the Nazi genocide, the worst genocide in modern history—is beyond offensive." Glick added that he felt "Thomas seems to have been schooled by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a belief that Jews appeared in Israel after the Holocaust," while ignoring "historical facts that Jews have called the Land of Israel home for more than 3,000 years, long before any other group made a home in the land." "These vile comments, unfortunately, are the culmination of Thomas' ongoing anti-Israel sentiments that she kept thinly veiled over the years," B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said. "There should be no place for her in a news organization. Her comments go beyond commentary and land well in the camp that will stop at nothing to delegitimize Israel." Last week, during a briefing with White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, Thomas' criticized the American reaction to the deadly Israeli raid of a humanitarian aid convoy, saying that "our initial reaction to this flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful." "What do you mean you regret when something should be so strongly condemned? And if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. What is this sacrosanct, iron-clad relationship, where a country that deliberately kills people," Thomas had said. Helen Thomas Helen Thomas announced Monday that "she is retiring, effective immediately," according to a statement from Hearst newspapers. http://thehill.com/homenews/administration...nces-retirement A sad day for freedom of speech and journalism in the US. She was one of the few real journalists left in the White House, less interested in access for her next book than actually reporting the truth. Compare her question at the start of this clip to the piss poor one that follows... Most of the White House Press corps spent the past weekend at a BBQ with Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel where they had water fights with squirt guns and creamed themselves on Twitter about the access they were getting... http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/twitter-twit.html Edited June 7, 2010 by Happy Face Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 7, 2010 Share Posted June 7, 2010 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 7, 2010 Author Share Posted June 7, 2010 Damn shame. She'll be missed. Forced out by the Jewish lobby no doubt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anth 113 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 I'm sure I read somewhere that Iran have offered the services of the Revolutionary Gaurd to escort the next aid shipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJS 4411 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 historical facts that Jews have called the Land of Israel home for more than 3,000 years, long before any other group made a home in the land. I'd love to see someone have the guts to show this shit up by demanding the US and the rest of the Americas be handed back to the Natives. I also have a nasty streak which would like to see that Spokesbitch who denies torture be waterboarded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 8, 2010 Author Share Posted June 8, 2010 (edited) Edited June 8, 2010 by Park Life Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 When (then) speaker of the house Dick Amrey insisted Palestinians should get out of the West Bank... http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn0508.html ...No-one made a peep. That a journalist can't view the same opinion from the other side shows the lack of discourse that's accepted in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Face 29 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 The White House press corps will be diminished without Helen front and center, and not only because she was in that job before the current president was born. She brought a ferocity to her questioning that has eluded too many in subsequent generations. At a time when others were getting cozy with sources, her crabby, unrelenting hostility was refreshing. . . . Now that Helen is gone, there's more need than ever for others in the briefing room to share her opinion -- specifically, the opinion that anybody standing on that podium should be regarded with skepticism http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...id=opinionsbox1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Castell 0 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Didn't the Jews thrash a few other tribes in the area and claim the land as their own? King Herod's ancestors is supposed to have been from such a tribe And were the Hittites Jewish, and the Assyrians? As for the 'worst genocide in history', what about the Armenians in the early 20th Century? Oh sorry they don't count do they? If we're talking numbers, then Stalin was far worse than Hitler, and did a spot of genocide himself. Once again I forget he doesn't count-he directed it against almost everyone, not just the Jews. One day, I'd love a US President to say bollocks to the 'Jewish Lobby' and put Israel under the scrutiny such a rouge state deserves. Either way, we should stop buying their products over the Dubai assasination alone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJS 4411 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 Didn't the Jews thrash a few other tribes in the area and claim the land as their own? King Herod's ancestors is supposed to have been from such a tribe And were the Hittites Jewish, and the Assyrians? Yep - if the Jews really want to use history to establish so called rights of occupation then why have a cut-off date which suits them? - it reminds me of Griffin's convenient use of 1948 as his "perfect" ethnic make up of Britain. A Failure to recognise ethnic migrations as part of human history needs the ultimate stupidity of religion to make it work - as well as Holocaust sympathy of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 8, 2010 Author Share Posted June 8, 2010 Didn't the Jews thrash a few other tribes in the area and claim the land as their own? King Herod's ancestors is supposed to have been from such a tribe And were the Hittites Jewish, and the Assyrians? As for the 'worst genocide in history', what about the Armenians in the early 20th Century? Oh sorry they don't count do they? If we're talking numbers, then Stalin was far worse than Hitler, and did a spot of genocide himself. Once again I forget he doesn't count-he directed it against almost everyone, not just the Jews. One day, I'd love a US President to say bollocks to the 'Jewish Lobby' and put Israel under the scrutiny such a rouge state deserves. Either way, we should stop buying their products over the Dubai assasination alone. Ther original Jews were semetic tribes with a wide diaspora incorporating ancient Mesapotamia, parts of what is now Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Their faith was pretty much 'mysticism' and they had trading links to Asia minor. They were often caravan bound and had strong trading and tribal traditons. They 'arrived' in Jerusalem 14thC B.C. (inhabted at the time by the Canannites, Hittities and Philistines)and were given a beating by the Philistines." [/Parky] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 8, 2010 Author Share Posted June 8, 2010 CHOMSKY Keeping to the diplomatic record, the first -- both sides, of course, rejected 242. The first important step forward was in 1971, when president Sadat of Egypt offered a full peace treaty to Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. That would have ended the international conflict. Israel rejected the offer, choosing expansion over security. In this case, expansion into the Egyptian Sinai, where General Sharon's forces had driven thousands of farmers into the desert to clear the land for the all-Jewish city of Yamit. The U.S. backed Israel's stand. Those decisions led to the 1973 war, a near disaster for Israel. The U.S. and Israel then recognized that Egypt could not be dismissed and finally accepted Sadat's 1971 offer at Camp David in 1979. But by then, the agreement included the demand for a Palestinian state, which had reached the international agenda. In 1976, the major Arab states introduced a resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for a peace settlement on the international border, based on U.N. 242, but now adding a Palestinian state in the Occupied Territories. That's Syria, Egypt, Jordan and every other relevant state. The U.S. vetoed the resolution again in 1980. The General Assembly passed similar resolutions year after year with the United States and Israel opposed. The matter reached a head in 1988, when the PLO moved from tacit approval to formal acceptance of the two-state consensus. Israel responded with a declaration that there can be no, as they put it, "additional Palestinian state between Jordan and the sea," Jordan already being a Palestinian state -- that's Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir -- and also that the status of the territories must be settled according to Israeli guidelines. The U.S. endorsed Israel's stand. I can only add what I wrote at the time: "It's as if someone were to argue the Jews don't need a second homeland in Israel, because they already have New York." In May 1997, for the first time, Peres's Labour Party agreed not to rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state with limited sovereignty in areas excluding major Jewish settlement blocks, that is, the three cantons that were being constructed with U.S. support. The highest rate of post-Oslo settlement was in 2000, the final year of Clinton's term and Prime Minister Barak's. Maps of the U.S.-Israel proposals at Camp David show a salient, east of Jerusalem, bisecting the West Bank, and a northern salient virtually dividing the northern from the central canton. I have the maps if you want them. The current map considerably extends these salients and the isolation of East Jerusalem. My maps are from the leading Israeli scholars, Ron Pundak, the Director of the Shimon Peres Center. The crucial issue at Camp David was territorial, not the refugee issue, for which Arafat agreed to a pragmatic solution, as Pundak, the leading scholar, reveals. No Palestinian could accept the cantonization, including the U.S. favorite, Mahmoud Abbas." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 8, 2010 Author Share Posted June 8, 2010 Didn't the Jews thrash a few other tribes in the area and claim the land as their own? King Herod's ancestors is supposed to have been from such a tribe And were the Hittites Jewish, and the Assyrians? As for the 'worst genocide in history', what about the Armenians in the early 20th Century? Oh sorry they don't count do they? If we're talking numbers, then Stalin was far worse than Hitler, and did a spot of genocide himself. Once again I forget he doesn't count-he directed it against almost everyone, not just the Jews. One day, I'd love a US President to say bollocks to the 'Jewish Lobby' and put Israel under the scrutiny such a rouge state deserves. Either way, we should stop buying their products over the Dubai assasination alone. Here's some of the American hypocrasy de-mysticised. Obama's team: Benjamin Bernanke(Jewish) - Chairman, Federal Reserve System Timothy Geithner(Jewish) - Secretary, U.S. Treasury Department Lawrence Summers(Jewish) - Chairman, National Economic Council Paul Volcker(Jewish) - Chairman, Economic Recovery Advisory Board Jared Bernstein(Jewish) - Chief Economist and Economic Adviser, Vice President Douglas Shulman(Jewish) - Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service(IRS) Peter Orszag(Jewish) - Director, Office of Management and Budget(OMB) Jon Leibowitz(Jewish) - Chairman, Federal Trade Commission(FTC) Gary Gensler(Jewish) - Chairman, Commodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC) Mary Schapiro(Jewish) - Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) Sheila Bair(Jewish) - Chairman, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(FDIC) Karen Mills(Jewish) - Administrator, Small Business Administration (SBA) Christina Romer(Jewish husband) - Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers And of course the White House Chief of staff is Rahm Emanuel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Gloom 22143 Posted June 8, 2010 Share Posted June 8, 2010 It’s time to stop demonizing Israel The flood of hypocrisy and bad faith that seems to have just been waiting across the media worldwide for the Mavi Marmara is by no means acceptable. By Bernard-Henri Lévy Of course, my position hasn’t changed. As I said the day it happened, during a fierce debate in Tel Aviv with one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s ministers, I continue to find the manner in which the assault against the Mavi Marmara and its flotilla was effected off the Gaza coast to be “stupid.” If I’d had any remaining doubt, the inspection of the seventh boat − carried out without a trace of violence Saturday morning − would have convinced me there were other ways Israel could have operated to have kept the tactical and PR trap set by the provocateurs of Free Gaza from snapping shut, and with blood spilled. That said and repeated, the flood of hypocrisy, bad faith and, ultimately, disinformation that seems to have just been waiting for this pretext to flow into the breach and sweep across the media worldwide − as is the case every time the Jewish state slips up and commits an error − is by no means acceptable. The catchphrase being trotted out ad nauseum refers to the blockade imposed “by Israel.” The most elementary honesty, however, requires one to make clear that this blockade has been undertaken by both Israel and Egypt, conjointly, along the borders of the two countries that share frontiers with Gaza, and with the thinly disguised blessing of all the moderate Arab regimes. Saying the blockade has been imposed by Israel alone can only be described as disinformation. The moderate Arab regimes, of course, are only too happy to have someone else contain the influence of this armed extension, this advanced base and, perhaps one day, this aircraft-carrier of Iran in the region. The very idea of a “total and merciless” blockade (Laurent Joffrin’s June 5 editorial in the French daily Liberation) “taking hostage the humanity [of Gaza]” (former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin in Le Monde on the same date) also constitutes disinformation. We mustn’t tire of reminding others: the blockade concerns only arms and the material needed to manufacture them. It does not prevent the daily arrival, via Israel, of between 100 and 120 trucks laden with foodstuffs, medical supplies and humanitarian goods of every kind. Humanity is not “in danger” in Gaza, and it is a lie to state that people are “dying of hunger” in the streets of Gaza City. It is debatable whether or not a military blockade is the right course of action to weaken and, one day, bring down the fascislamist government of Ismail Haniyeh. But it is an indisputable fact that the Israelis who man the checkpoints between the territories night and day are the first to make the elementary but essential distinction between the regime (that they seek to isolate) and the population (which they are careful not to confuse with the regime, and in particular not to penalize as, once again, aid has never stopped passing into Gaza). Disinformation: the utter silence, throughout the world, about Hamas’ incredible attitude now that the flotilla has carried out its symbolic duty − to trap the Jewish state and relaunch, as never before, the process of demonization. In other words, now that the Israelis have carried out their inspection and brought the aid cargo to those for whom it was supposedly intended, Hamas’ attitude in blocking that aid at Kerem Shalom checkpoint, allowing it to slowly rot, is met with silence. To hell with any merchandise that has passed through the hands of Jewish customs! Chuck out the “toys” that brought tears to the eyes of good European souls, but became impure after spending too many long hours in the Israeli port of Ashdod! Gaza’s children have been used as nothing more than a human shield for the Islamist gang who took power by force three years ago, or cannon fodder or media vignettes. The children’s games or their wishes are the last thing anyone in the Strip worries about, but who says so? Who shows the slightest indignation? Liberation recently ran an awful headline − “Israel, Pirate State” − which, if words still mean anything, can only contribute to the delegitimization of the Jewish state. Who will dare explain that, if there is a hostage-taker in Gaza, one who coldly and unscrupulously takes advantage of people’s suffering and, in particular, that of the children − in sum, a pirate − it is not Israel but Hamas? Laughable, but given the strategic context, catastrophic disinformation was clearly seen in the speech given in Konya, in central Turkey, by a prime minister who throws in prison anyone who dares to evoke the genocide of the Armenians in public, but who has the nerve, there, before thousands of fired-up demonstrators yelling anti-Semitic slogans, to denounce Israeli “state terrorism.” Still more disinformation: the lament of the useful idiots who, before Israel did, fell into the clutches of these strange “humanitarians” who, in the case of the Turkish IHH, are Jihad enthusiasts, anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish apocalyptical fanatics, both men and women − some of whom, just days before the incident, expressed their wish to “die as martyrs.” (The Guardian, June 3; Al Aqsa TV, May 30). How can a writer of the calibre of Sweden’s Henning Mankell allow himself to be taken advantage of this way? When he tells us he is thinking of forbidding the translation of his books into Hebrew, how can he really forget the sacrosanct distinction between a stupid or wrong-headed government and the masses of those who do not identify with it? How can a chain of cinemas (Utopia) in France decide to cancel the release of a film, “A Cinq heures de Paris,” in the same way, simply because its writer, Leonid Prudovsky, is an Israeli citizen? Finally, the battalions of Tartuffes who regret that Israel is declining the demand for an international inquiry are disinformers as well. The truth is, once again, much simpler and more logical: What Israel is refusing is an inquiry requested by the UN Human Rights Council, where those great democrats − the Cubans, Pakistanis and Iranians − reign. What Israel does not want is a procedure of the kind that resulted in the famous Goldstone report, commissioned after Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The five judges on that sympathetic commission − four of whom had never made a secret of their militant anti-Zionism − wrapped up 575 pages of interviews of Palestinian fighters and civilians, conducted under the watchful eye of Hamas political commissioners (an absolute and unprecedented heresy in this kind of work), in a matter of mere days. Such a botched inquiry would amount to a masquerade of international justice, something Israel simply cannot stand for. Its conclusions would be known in advance and would only serve to haul, as usual and perfectly unilaterally, the region’s sole and unique democracy into the defendants’ dock. One last word. For a man like me, someone who takes pride in having helped to conceive, with others, this kind of symbolic action (the boat for Vietnam; the march for the survival of Cambodia in 1979; various and sundry anti-totalitarian boycotts and, more recently, the deliberate violation of the Sudan border to break the blockade hiding the perpetration of massacres in Darfur) − in other words, for a militant of humanitarian interference and all the media fuss that goes with it, this pathetic saga has something of a caricature to it, a gloomy grimace of destiny. But this is all the more reason not to give in. All the more reason to reject this confusing of genres, this inversion of values. All the more reason to resist this hijacking of meaning, that places the very spirit of a policy conceived to counter the intent of barbarians at their service. Destitution of the anti-totalitarian dialectic, its imitations and its reversals. Confusion of an era when we combat democracies as if they were dictatorships or fascist states. This maelstrom of hatred and madness is about Israel. But it also concerns, as we should be well aware, some of the most precious things established in the movement of ideas in the last 30 years, especially on the left, and these are thus imperiled. A word to the wise is sufficient. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/...israel-1.294833 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Park Life 71 Posted June 8, 2010 Author Share Posted June 8, 2010 Strange how it's always portrayed like a conspiracy when Israel is rightfully criticised for its actions. The long finessed and caricatured role of victim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Castell 0 Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 So stealing the identities of another country's citizens to kill someone in a 3rd country, building houses on land that has been forcefully repossesed by the state, building a wall in order to grab more land and using excessive military force at the drop of a hat is OK then? Hold on, I'm criticising Israel's actions. That must mean I am anti-Semitic, and love Nazis Just skimmed that article, and the last point Mr. Levy made was curious. He seems to suggest that democracies should stick together, and fight against dictatorships. Firstly, does that mean that since Britain is a democracy that we could have nuked China all this time? Secondly, did the Palestinians not vote for Hamas in recent elections? Typical Israeli Jewish victimhood bullshit. They have the power, they have the weapons, they have the powerful friends, and yet they are the victims. I'm surprised the Holocaust didn't get a mention. Or Rameses the Great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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