I have been firmly in the camp of Obama sceptics, viewing the adulation with distaste and seeing little substance in his famed rhetoric. But in just 48 hours I fnd myself warming very considerably to the man. The priority he has given to reversing the worst excesses of the Bush regime in the “War on Terror” has been extraordinary. All the indications are that it is genuine. He is not just closing Guantanamo as a blind under which to continue the torture and extraordinary rendition, but is closing down the whole system.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/23/secret-prisons-closure-obama-cia
I cannot tell you how much emotion I feel that the US will no longer be flying people to Uzbekistan, to be tortured and often buried there. I lost my livelihood trying to stop it.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/documents/Telegram.pdf
This “Intelligence cooperation” continued after the US withdrew from K2 airbase in 2005, though recently at a much lower level of intensity.
Obama seems genuinely to understand that the major thrust of preventing political violence must be not to give people genuine cause to hate you. But it must go further. Obama’s moves to restore legality are an acknowledgement that what went before was illegal. There must be full openness and investigation. America’s reputation will not be restored until all of those who unleashed systematic kidnapping, torture and murder round the world are brought to justice.
Hey Eddie,
It’s Nobby from the Zionist Hall of Fame here. Mate, we just wanted to say that your plinth in at the Defenders of All Things Zionist Room is locked in.
Quick question, since I’ve lost the list, do you do it professionally or are you a volunteer? It doesn’t make any difference except that the people who’ve contributed to the paid shills like to see their name on the plaque. Fair enough, we have to remember our sponsors after all. I’m sure you won’t mind either way.
Otherwise, for all your work defending the rightness of burning people alive with white phosphorus, shooting at white flag waving grandmas and kids, using the corpses of nine year olds for target practice, we down here at the Hall salute you!
Mind you, despite your sterling work Mrs. B in the front office wondered if you might not be able to pretend to be half a dozen people or something. That way you could agree with yourself and just generally pump up the numbers. As you know genocide is a tough sell and we need all the help we can get! Thanks in advance.
Oh! And good work painting those devil horns on the Palestinians. As you know, it’s so much easier getting away with extermination when everyone thinks they deserve it. That blame the victim gag is an oldie but a goodie and you’re certainly doing a slap-up job.
Look forward to catching up and having a drink. I’ll toast you and you can toast me and we’ll all agree at our superiority over the untermenschen. After all, who slaughtered whom? Honestly!
Thanks again for all your good work!
best,
Nobby
Oh shit! That wasn’t public was it? I thought it was your email. Damn.
Sorry everyone, just joking. Eddie isn’t a Zionist shill. There’s no such thing obviously, paid or otherwise.
Um, no, Eddie is a completely normal fellow who understands that Israelis are always the victims. When they slaughter people, well not slaughter, um, shoot them in self defence. Oh hell, Eddie I don’t have the style manual with me and all of this lipstick-on-a-pig caper really isn’t my forte. I just slave away in accounts. Can you step in here and sort this out for me? I’d really appreciate it. Weave your magic mate. You da man!
Thanks for that, (and sorry obviously)
best,
Nobby (in Accounts)
Mrs. B in the front office said to say you should just pretend I’m someone else and dismiss me as an anti-Semite. Brilliant, really. I felt so stupid I didn’t think of it myself, ha ha. She also said that after you do that, I should pop back in and act all defensive kind of thing. And really it’s the least I can do.
As I always say, in Mrs B we trust. And you Eddie. You da man!
best,
Nobby
PS I’ll pop back in a minute after your comment and act all weird. Schtum okay? It’s all part of the act.
“George Dutton – I don’t attack people who disagree with me”
eddie
That is a barefaced lie as your posts above prove…like so many of your other posts on this site. You don’t need to grow up eddie you need help,the kind of help that I am not qualified to give you.
Nobby Nobby Nobby, tsk. tsk. tsk Next you’ll have poor eddie screaming” I AM NOT A GOY, I AM A HUMAN BEING” as he rings the bells of discontent. oh wait that would be the Hunchback of Notre Dame not Eddie the Hooknosed of Tel-Aviv. Me bad
Whoops that should read John merrick the Elephant Man, but I’m sure Quasimoto thought about saying it, and if not he should have.
Me still bad.
Silverfish, while I have stated my disagreement with the blogger called, ‘Eddie’ on many things and while I know that you were being satirical and understand the humour, I think – if I may respectfully suggest, though forgive me if it’s not my place to do so – that it would be prudent if one avoided using phrases like the one in your post at 2.08am on 25/1/09. It’s easy for someone in bad faith to take it out of context and claim that a site critical is Israel is simply Anti-Semitic – though I know that that was not your intention – and such a dynamic would not be productive, I think you would agree.
Well said. Yes Silverfish exposes himself for what he is. Anti-semitism and anti-Zionism are the same thing for many of these people. All of the above posts amount to personal abuse. They do not address the point raised by the channel 4 report that Hamas used human shields and is beating up (and worse) its political opponents.
Why is it that some people are willing to ‘uncritically’ accept the veracity of stories that show the true and bestial nature of the enemy, like Hamas, but they refuse to admit to the truth about the crimes committed by their own side, reports often reported by the same source?
So the report on Channel 4 on Monday about Israeli crimes is a blatant, foul, lie; but on Tuesday the report about Hamas brutality is suddenly, God’s truth!
Doesn’t this ‘blindness of partisanship’ ever make people think, just a little bit? Is truth and lies meaningless? Is what really matters the name of the ‘tribe’ one’s a member of?
I suppose this is why some members of my family never really felt at home in any of the countries they lived in. At least that’s the impression I got from reading their letters. One of them actually wrote in his diary in 1910 that his only country was his wallet and his people, the silver in his pocket.
Almost any European war, for the last two centuries has been a civil-war for my family, simply because they lived in so many different countries. I simply don’t understand, I’m unmoved by the nationalist/tribal drumbeat, and I hope I never am.
Hamas used human shields? Can’t accuse Israel of that. Israel massacres babies and children in cold blood – it’s so militarily powerful, it doesn’t need human shields, so it destroys them!
Hamas is NOT the Palestinian people. You do not carry out a massacre because of what a few members of Hamas might have done. If, however, you think you do have that right, then others have a right to indiscriminately bomb your people, too.
Using your logic, eddie, American authorities are perfectly entitled to drop bombs on U.S. neighborhoods – on the heads of children playing in gardens – because those housing estates “harbour” criminals.
What do you expect Hamas fighters to do? Stand in the open and wave a red flag? Israel has fighter planes!
And, in 2006, despite what Israel said, most Hezbollah fighters were firing from the countryside – they had come out of tunnels they had dug.
Palestine was once 96% non-Jew. Tell me how all the Jews got there, eddie? The Jews stole the land – the land belongs to the Palestinian people, not the Jews.
Germany carried out the Holocaust. Take it out on them, if you must take it out on someone. However, Hitler died over 60 years ago. The Jews are not being subjected to a holocaust anymore.
The 11-year-old son of a Palestinian astrophysicist who works for NASA
was murdered by Israel, with assistance from the U.S. and Britain. The guy’s home was also destroyed:
“I built a new house, two-story house. I wanted to invite in a Jewish
family to live with me, side-by-side, where my children play with their
children. Now, they destroyed the house, and they killed my child. What
is this?”
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/16/palestinian_father_in_us_recounts_how
Palestinians are, by far, the biggest losers, and victims, in this conflict:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org
That site received a death threat from someone purporting to be an Israeli Jew. The police are investigating.
“Anti-semite” is a nonsense term. Arabs are Semites, too. Most Jews in Israel aren’t originally from the Middle East, and so are not Semites. Jews are a religious group only.
Now, let’s take a look at the crimes committed by certain Jews when Palestine was in British hands:
A little publicised document is “The UN Report Prepared for Ralphe Bunche”, listing all the atrocities committed by Jewish terrorist groups during the 1940s. Jewish terrorists even threatened to take their campaign to Britain and kill British citizens:
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/bunche-report.htm
http://www.doublestandards.org/unbunche.html
One entry:
On December 30, 1947, after the kidnapping and flogging of a British Major and three sergeants by Jewish terrorists, “the Dollis Hill Synagogue in London was set on fire and 12 sacred scrolls were destroyed by angry British citizens who scrawled on the burned edifice, ‘You whip – we burn'”
Other Jewish terrorist acts included: plots to blow up British military headquarters, the kidnapping and hanging of British military officials, killing British policemen, letter bombs to numerous British government officials, machine gun attacks on Palestinian cities (including the use of flame-throwers), bombing hotels, blowing up trains, blowing up oil pipelines, detonating bombs at British embassies, detonating trucks laden with explosives, and bank robbery.
In 1980, the Stern Gang (also known as Lehi) was officially honoured by the Israeli government as “freedom fighters”. The Stern Gang was one of the most active terrorist Jewish groups during the 1940s, whose stated goal was to “forcibly evict the British authorities from Palestine, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state”. A special Lehi ribbon – a military decoration – was designed for the former members.
The U.N. report writes: “There appears to be no way to control the Jews or their determinations to drive all of the Arabs out of Jerusalem by force if necessary.
“The initial Arab response to Jewish harassment over the past year has been very slow in coming, but it seems to be quite inevitable, and a terrible civil war is foreseen.
“The Arabs, initially living in peace with the Jewish minority, have been increasingly victimized by the Jews who, now that the British are leaving, are turning their savage behavior against them.”
–
Finally, I’m rather disappointed that Craig has almost done a U-turn on Obama merely because of one thing that man has done. This is why I am now increasingly concerned only with my own happiness. Everyone is so divided, and as long as a person is given what they want, they will support that party or political leader regardless of how others are being treated.
If no one is going to pull together, why should I? Divided we stand, divided we fall!
Don’t lose heart, John! Vigorous discourse – with those whom we disagree or partially agree or even with those with whom we almost entirely agree – is a sign of internal strength. Struggle has never been easy. Don’t give up! The Palestinian people have not given up. I also mentioned some time ago that at this time political websites would be infiltrated en masse by organised pro-Israeli elements in an attempt to insert disinformation of various sorts, to foster discord and to dishearten and draw people away from substantive issues. This is to be expected. Don’t let it get you down, man!
“Hamas brutality is suddenly, God’s truth!”
writerman
Only to the weak minded…and the mentally ill…
It’s just all adds up in the book of lies…should that read volumes.
‘Wiped off the Map’ ?” “The Rumor of the Century”…
http://tinyurl.com/ytx8uu
George Galloway…
“Did Iran Say Israel Should Be Wiped Off The Map?Former parliament member George Galloway is a straight talking ex-politician who is not afraid to tackle controversy. In this clip he exposes the canard about Iran and Israel. Did Iran ever threaten to wipe Israel off the map?”…
http://tinyurl.com/aqsmoa
While Obama is freeing some Guantanamo “prisoners”, he’s killing innocent people in Pakistan:
“Pakistan urges Obama to halt missile attacks”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD95TKGK81
Silence from Obama when Israel was killing innocent Palestinians, and now silence over the death of civilians in Pakistan that he’s directly responsible for.
And there’s more to Obama than just his foreign policy, but I’ll leave it there.
John
England was once 99% non-Norman – look at it now. The USA was once 100% non-European – what are you suggesting, that we ship out all the Normans and the Europeans? Very clever. The history of Palestine/Israel is not as simple as Israelis “stealing” Palestinian land. As for Jewish terorism, I take it that you therefore condemn Castro for his “terrorist” tactics in taking over Cuba and Mandela for his “terrorism” against the South African state? You can’t have your cake and eat it. Many states around the world have been born in terrorism. One man’s terrorist.. blah blah. For the record, I accept that Israel may have committed war crimes and these need to be investigated but hold the front page, war is horrible. Shock. Horror. More Germans died in WW2 than UK and US citizens combined. Does that mean it was a disproportionate or unjust war? War is war and if hamas had not been lobbing missiles into Isreal for years it could have been avoided. All of this does not detract from the fact that hamas is a clerical fascist organisation that is neo-imperialsist, as well as homophobic, racist and thoroughly nasty. It also supports polygamy and is deeply misogynistic. If you guys would like to go and live under hamas rule you are welcome to it.
Eddie
What’s wrong with polygamy?
Eddie;
Hamas is not a state, they don’t have their own law, they have been elected according to the Palestinian authority basic law.
2. To say Hamas is clerical is pathetic.
Although I don’t understand what you mean by this, you are clearly referring to their religion, there is nothing wrong with them being Muslims. that doesn’t justify you killing their children, even if Judaism said otherwise.
The thing about USA, Normans, is stupid. because you should have remembered that when you falsely claimed you had a state in palestine 2 thousand years ago., secondly, the massacre & ethnic cleansing is still going on, by bringing this argument, you are asking for free hand and immunity to kill, cleans & colonize Palestine.
If you believe you can kill we believe we should stop you.
The thing about Germans died in WW2, war is ugly…etc…. is another mindless argument, if we take your point, what problem do you have with Hitler? people die war is ugly… why are we still crying over the holocaust? can’t we apply your argument and say Judah declared war on Germany and the Germans are defending themselves? this is what you get to if we are to take you seriously
Hamas is homophobic, nasty, polygamy…etc.. Is that because they are Muslims? does not Judaism approve of marrying girls as young as 3 years old??
Racists? not more than Judaism, which legalize rape at war? aren’t jewish soldiers allowed to rape their enemy women at war????
And tell me why the Talmud prevents Jews from leaving their male animals with Gentile women? do you dare to answer?
Tell us what does the talmud talk about us, gentiles??? does your Talmud allow you to lie to Gentiles?
Article 31 of Hamas charter talks about followers of Judaism and christianity living side by side peacefully… do you have such thing in your religion???
Have a nice day
“What’s wrong with polygamy?”
Mother in laws.
“Israel admits: “No Hamas rockets were fired during ceasefire”
“The Israeli Spokesman (Australian born!) Merk Regev, accepts that Hamas did NOT violate the Ceasefire UNTIL AFTER Israel attacked the Gaza Strip on the 4th November! This proves that it was ISRAEL that broke the ceasefire!”…
http://tinyurl.com/afbd34
Samry
I am not Jewish and even if I was it is irrelevant to the debate. I refer you to Hamas’s charter which calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state. If you don’t know what an Islamic state looks like, then look at Iran. If you would like to live there fine, I know I would not. By clerical fascism I mean a state that is ruled by clerics and which has all the features of fascism – denial of free speech, suppression and execution of political opponents, suppression of gay rights, censorship, lack of human rights, centralism. Iran fits this description and hamas wants to create this model in Palestine.
“Israel poll ban for Arab parties”…
http://tinyurl.com/7fawkk
Denial of free speech Israel.
“WAR CRIME”
“Yonatan Schapira, a former Captain in the Israeli Air Force, speaks out against the Israeli invasion of Gaza”…
http://tinyurl.com/9fwcco
Eddie;
First of all, Hamas is Sunni Muslims, Iran is Shia, there is a fundamental difference in understanding Islamic law between the two. clerics has only advisory rule in Sunni belief.
Secondly; Hamas have the right to call for whatever they want in their charter, that doesn’t mean it will be the law of the state?? Hamas was elected by the Palestinian authority secular law. and this is the law they upheld as a government.
Thirdly; Hamas is one of five factions in Gaza that are resisting the occupation, some of these are socialists like the Popular Front, or secular ( Fatah), and the government they formed was cross-parties, its only when Fatah withdraw from the government that Hamas became the de facto government in Gaza.
Your understanding of Islamic law is very distorted, for example, do you know the wife has the right to put conditions on the marriage? and if at the time of marriage she put a condition the husband can’t take a second wife.. then he can’t ? this is by islamic law? and it happened in too many cases???
Above all, religions is not the subject here, Hamas can promote and live the way the want in their country, if you believe they deserve to die because they are Muslims…. then there is something very wrong with you… not them…. every one live in accordance with his culture and belief and I don’t believe I have to say this.
Exactly, and there’s a host of similar testimony from various disparate sources. I’m afraid that for example, much of the input presented by ‘Eddie’ is disinformative and ahistorical and reminds me of the letters one sees penned to newspapers backing Israeli state actions – many of these seem drawn from a template, a long list of ‘arguments to present’, as though each one were a particular type of ammunition designed to disable a specific narrative and divert the narrative towards a desired target, eg. Iran. Perhaps I’m being unfair. Nonetheless, one respects others’ views even if very different from one’s own, even if infuriating, etc., and it’s good to have a rational discourse with those who hold varying viewpoints. One can learn much. And these matters are complex. The Israeli commentators, Ilan Pappe, Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Uri Avnery and many others, some ex-armed forces and even an ex-Chief of Shin Bet, all disagree with the type of views often desperately presented by the so-called ‘friends of Israel’, who, one can argue, actually, long-term, are the worst sort of friends for Israel to have, allowing too many Israelis to sink into a kind of fostered delusional state. These are matters of propaganda and the moulding of public opinion. There are also internal issues within Israel of considerable import, eg. the manner in which the Mizrahi (Jews originating from Arab countries) have deliberately and persistently been alienated from the Palestinians, when actually they share very deep bonds of culture on every single level – and there’s much more.
A definitive political solution is required but will not occur unless those in the USA and EU with power are put under increasing levels of pressure so that it becomes in their self-perceived interests to alter their policy. This will be a long struggle. South Africa was in some ways a different situation but it took over 40 years and the end of the Cold War before the apartheid regime agreed to demolish itself. The pressure must be on, so that when and if macro-politics change, the pieces are in the place for some similarly dramatic denouement in the Levant involving territory and human rights.
Concrete things, to do right now:
1) Write politely to every local councillor, MSP, MP (and the Welsh equivalents), Chief Executive of the council, Head of the council and Government minister urging disinvestment of the local council/ country with a list of requisite companies, a small example of direct action: Glasgow City Council buys water at work from Eden Water – which is stolen from the Occupoed Golan Heights. What is wrong with Scottish water? Or English water? Or almost any other water? Refuse to drink Eden Water – take in tap water instead. If we replicate this type of thing across the country, we hit them where it hurts.
2) Write strongly but rationally to the BBC to complain about their refusal to broadcast the charity piece and write another, separate, letter complaining about biased coverage.
3) Complain to Ofcom.
Everyone can do these three things.
No despair. Let’s fight the way that’s right!
January 23, 2009
“Weapons are smuggled into Gaza from Israel, says Egyptian human rights official”…
http://tinyurl.com/cgfv4a
Hamas receives training from Iran as well as rockets. Iran is also helping to rebuild the tunnels.
George Dutton – I had a look at your dreary site. You seem to be a supporter of the discredited Tommy Sheridan – well known perjuror and all round seedy character, following in the footsteps of GG on big brother. Oh dear, what a poor choice of role model!
eddie
You may WELL be hearing off Tommy Sheridan lawyers I fear. I only hope you can substantiate that scurrilous and dangerous accusation in court.The last off liers that tried that failed.
eddie
Don’t worry you will get off with it you only have to plead insanity, there’s not one person in the land that will believe YOU are sane…LOL.
eddie
This thread is dead now…no one comes here…I would like to know (I won’t tell anyone…honest) was I right…you don’t have a partner do you?.
Hellooo! Eddie! Nobby in accounts here. I’ve been sitting around in the office waiting for my anti-Semite tag. Perhaps I should go home?
Oh wait! Was that you as that Silverfish fellow! Sorry I didn’t get it. And there I was saying you should pretend to be someone else! Good move! And then you instantly came back as yourself and whipped out your ever reliable anti-Semite stick! Bravo. Some of us are suited to the hurly burly and some of us should just keep mum and do the accounts. (Er, in case that was confusing, I’m the latter)
Anyway you seem to have the whole caper well in hand with everyone arguing over your idiot debating points ad nauseam. Excellent work! You’re truly tireless. And you’re not even Jewish! Ha ha ha, good one! I can’t wait to tell Mrs. B that one.
Onwards and upwards mate! Or as we say around here, From the Nile to the Euphrates!
best,
Nobby (in accounts)