Being in Africa appears to make me more whimsical that when I am in my book-lined study at home. One of the joys of having small children is that you can get to do childish things, with an excuse. I took Cameron to the Hornby model centre in Broadstairs a few weeks ago. I never tire of watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. And recently I re-watched Mary Poppins. I never much liked this, and still am not a great fan, but I had never before realised that the entire thing is an attack on materialism and the banks, particularly the City of London.
There is a moment when Banks finally rebels and turns on the big banker and says: “It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there’s no such thing as you!” The world of bankers has become even more of a fantasy since, of meaningless “wealth” unrelated to production, and casino speculation.
But the phrase sent my mind flitting to Newt Gingrich. The Palestinians are very real indeed – I used to have a Palestinian girlfriend, and she definitely existed. Palestine is mentioned in Herodotus, and if the bible bashing Gingrich can’t see that “Palestine” and “Philistine” are the same word, he is a greater fool than I supposed. Or does he believe in etymological creationism, that all words were formed by God on the same day in precisely their current form?
The misery of the Palestinian people, squeezed into ever shrinking bantustans, is very very real. What Gingrich is doing is indicating his acquiescence in the genocidal policy of Israel towards the Palestinians. Given what is already happening, it is not a great leap from declaring someone does not exist, to seeking to make that a reality.
Gingrich appears an evil, corrupt, debased manifestation of the real agenda of the United States. He is the picture in America’s attic, with all its evil shown up-front. The man is a walking caricature of seething hatreds. Surely it is Newt Gingrich who does not really exist?
I remember when Thatcher stated that she “had no plans to” privatise water.
I remember when Cameron “had the utmost confidence” in Fox.
And I remember when Hague said this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8674396/Syria-William-Hague-says-no-possiblity-of-military-intervention.html.
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Adding to the lexicon of lies. Doubleplusgoodspeak.
Not recent but still topical.
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Will Nile Water Go To Israel?:
North Sinai Pipelines And The Politics Of Scarcity
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by Ronald Bleier ([email protected])
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The vital importance of the Nile to Egypt, the river’s furthest downstream state, is widely accepted and well documented. Throughout recent history Egypt has exerted the greatest degree of control over the Nile both politically and physically. Egypt’s dominance over the Nile is a function of the influence of colonial agreements, the shifting, yet timely alliance and support from global superpowers, and the power of Egypt relative to the instability of the upstream states. As a result, Egypt has been able to make unilateral decisions regarding out-of-basin use of Nile water.
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Unfortunately some of these decisions have put into question the responsibility and justice of Egypt’s stewardship of Nile waters. Indeed, under the pressure of a burgeoning population, as well as for political reasons, the Egyptian government has for two decades embarked on a misguided program of diverting billions of cubic meters(1) of precious Nile water out of basin and into land reclamation and development projects in the Sinai desert.
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One of the most costly and politically and economically dubious of these efforts is a huge land reclamation project in the North Sinai desert called the North Sinai Agricultural Development Project ( NSADP). The North Sinai development is currently estimated to cost about $1.5 billion (about 5 billion Egyptian pounds) and is going forward despite the warnings of its own environmental impact study. Since 1987 this project has been diverting Nile water to agricultural development plots west of the Suez Canal.
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However, in an even more dangerous and politically sensitive development, for the first time, plans are in place and work has already begun to facilitate the diversion of Nile water to the North Sinai desert east of the Suez Canal by means of tunnels underneath the Canal. The project was given dramatic confirmation in November 1996 when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, addressing Arab journalists in Cairo, announced the opening of a third tunnel underneath the Suez Canal.(2) In addition, the Wall Street Journal reported that “[I]n October [1997], Nile water will … begin flowing through the Peace Canal … and will irrigate 600,000 acres in the [North] Sinai desert.”(2A)
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The last leg of the project will bring Nile water just south of the North Sinai town of El Arish, only 40 km away from the border of the Gaza Strip at Rafah. Most alarming to many in the region are the rumors that the project will ultimately bring Nile water to Israel. As a matter of fact, a similar project was envisioned as early as 1974 by Israeli water expert, Elisha Kally, as a way of satisfying Israeli water needs.
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http://desip.igc.org/WillNile1.html
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Does anyone know if the project is still ongoing?
Oh, WELL spotted, Maidhc! Silverstein’s as bent as they come, greedy with it, and very close to Likud. That explains much.
Got a spare £1,071 billion? You can have 10 MQ 9 Reapers.
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http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/britain-requests-10-mq-9-reapers-for-over-1b-04536/
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‘As you sow, surely shall you reap’??
Hasten to say that was the price for Reapers in 2008. Probably double that now.
To lose one drone may be regarded as a misfortune,to lose two looks like carlessness…
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Alternatively it may all be a fiendish double-triple bluff by the US.Is it possible they let one go in Iran deliberately,full of misleading tech and warez in order to throw Iran etc off-course in the reverse engineering game?
“Is it possible they let one go in Iran deliberately”
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(or) to provoke a reaction from Iran that would give an excuse for war?
and then there’s this bit:
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“It was reported earlier this year that drones dispatched from Creech Air Force Base in Nevada were plagued with a computer virus that made its way into the cockpits of the crafts without American authorities able to quickly identify it.
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Even though US military officials claimed that the virus didn’t harm the security of US aircraft, it is suspicious that now two American drones have been downed in only such a short amount of time ..”
@ Nuid
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I also noticed on that link the DoD denied a missing drone only to change thier tune when Iran paraded one publicly.I’m no expert on these techy matters but if each drone costs up to $100 milion(or more?)surely within that price point they’d have very advanced shields and protection from all sorts of invasive potential?
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There’s alot more to this narrative than we are being told,that’s for sure.
“surely within that price point they’d have very advanced shields and protection from all sorts of invasive potential?”
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They would. But (as far as I know, and I’m no techie) anything involving computers is susceptible to being ‘breached’, so to speak. I think it was in Iraq (?) that the video feed from drones was intercepted by means of a $25 gizmo that could be bought just about anywhere.
In theory, with enough tech know-how, someone could get between the drone and its controllers (via a virus or otherwise) and send it somewhere other than its intended target. That’s the risk they run. (There are others here who would know a lot more than me on that subject!)
Shlomo Sand – The Invention of the Jewish People:
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“Fantastic”
“Fascinating”
“Invaluable”
“True”
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Newt Gingrich – The Invention of the Palestinian People:
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“Evil”
“Blood Chilling”
“Vile”
“Genocidal”
“Lies”
Angry, who said it was true?
Arsalan used the word “true” but he did not refer to Shlomo Sand or his thesis. Be accurate, please.
National identity is always a construct. That is a theme of The Catholic Orangemen of Togo. But plainly both Jews and Palestinians exist.
AngrySoba: Shlomo Sand – The Invention of the Jewish People:
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“Fantastic”
“Fascinating”
“Invaluable”
“True”
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Newt Gingrich – The Invention of the Palestinian People:
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“Evil”
“Blood Chilling”
“Vile”
“Genocidal”
“Lies”
Seems quite reasonable responses given that one is a Professor of History, who has written a academic book on the subject of his own countrymen, and the other is a morally bankrupt Demagogue seeking to win Jewish financial & electoral support.
Your repeated laboured attempts to expose anti-Semitism are almost as outlandish as Abe Foxman’s ;
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/magazine/14foxman.t.html?pagewanted=all
Craig:
‘National identity is always a construct.’ As you say above. Along with religion, political beliefs, money – in fact, all the things the human race is so fond of fighting over.
and another window into what is happening in the United States today:
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“They call themselves Christians, but the evangelical group that demanded Lowe’s home improvement chain yank its television ads from a reality show about Muslim families sounds more like a club for bigots …
As in its latest denunciation — of TLC’s “All-American Muslim.” The reality show chronicles the lives of five unremarkable families from Dearborn, Mich., a Detroit suburb with a large Muslim and Arab-American population. It’s essentially a cast of squares: high school sweethearts, power couples with busy careers, a father who coaches the local football team. Except they aren’t Christian.
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Which this group [The Florida Family Association] finds unbearably offensive. It called the show “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values”.”
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2011/12/boycott_lowes_over_stores_anti.html
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When is it going to dawn on them that the attack on their liberties is from their own Government?
Or, is this group simply propagandising on behalf of that Government?
Gingrich is experiencing severe erosion of his support in Iowa, and the chief beneficiary appears to be Ron Paul. The Hill: Poll: Front-runner Newt Gingrich’s lead in early-voting Iowa has evaporated:
Russian cruise missile presence (they can be equipped with tactical nukes) has paused the situation in Syria to provide a window of regrouping and rearming Hezbollah and Syrian government forces. Lebanon insurgent groups, financed and armed by using US Congress funds and trained by British ex SAS special forces also paid for with US dollars according to my contact, have now peaked.
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Many more fighters and weapons are appearing from Libya and Iraq and arriving via Turkey on the roads through Darkush and Qatal Maaf in the North. CIA trained terrorists have been caught arriving directly from Iraq at Al-Qa’im although the passage East is torturous and unpredictable especially by boat up the Euphrates river.
Read the book Angrysoab !! You’ll learn something.
Don’t worry, it’s not anti semitic. Actually the opposite.
Since we are on the topic of the genocidal policy of Israel towards the Palestinians – may I introduce a dimension that brings in religion – and it is not a long strech to reach how humans justify their inhumanity to fellow humans by reference to the “Holy book” ( of whatever faith).
Check this out – http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124494788
Donny Darko: Read the book Angrysoab !! You’ll learn something.
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I may get round to reading it at some point, yes. It might be interesting. I have listened to one of his recorded lectures before. The thing is, as with Gingrich, the point about the title of the book is that it is “trivially true” in the way that Gingrich was “trivially true” to say the Palestinian people were “invented” but both are tootling on their dog whistles.
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McKay: Seems quite reasonable responses given that one is a Professor of History, who has written a academic book on the subject of his own countrymen, and the other is a morally bankrupt Demagogue seeking to win Jewish financial & electoral support.
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Yes, I know. Although to be precise they were both professors of history.
By the way, on the topic of Joan Peters’ book that others have said Gingrich is channeling, there was a review of the book by an academic called Yehoshua Porath, someone who was once classed as a dove, who seems to have become more hawkish. But it seems quite good in that it seeks to dispel a number of myths on both sides.
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http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1986/jan/16/mrs-peterss-palestine/?pagination=false
Angry, you didn’t tell me who used the word “true” in relation to Sand’s book.
Angry, you didn’t tell me who used the word “true” in relation to Sand’s book.
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Alright, I’ll assume the fans of the book don’t believe it is true. Just fascinating, fantastic and invaluable. But not true.
There was actually quite a good Op-Ed piece in the IHT that I read today. You might like it too even though it was written by Thomas Friedman…
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/opinion/friedman-newt-mitt-bibi-and-vladimir.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman
There was another article opposite that called “We Are Palestinians”.
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Just thought that you might like to know that there are still a few voices like this in the evil MSM sometimes:
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/opinion/we-are-palestinians.html?scp=1&sq=kuttab&st=Search
Sorry Angrysoba, I barely find time to read the comments here, let only post comments, and alas even less times to follow-up all the links, which I’m sure will be very interesting; anyhow I leave you with this that you may (or may not!) find interesting;
As far as can be determined by the historical record the earliest known inhabitants of the land known as Palestine, were the Philistines who lived in the costal areas, & the Canaanites who lived in town & villages further inland. These two people lived there at the same time, but were not related, as scholars now believe that the Philistines were ancient Greeks (from Crete), and the Canaanites were a Semitic people who spoke a northern Semitic language very similar to modern Arabic. Although the Philistines eventually seem to have left or disappeared (nobody is quite sure what happened to them), the land was named after them ,as Philistine is ancient Greek; much later when the Roman arrived they Latinised the name into Palestine (exactly the same way they transformed Odysseus into Ulysses, and countless other examples). By this time the area had already been invaded by Jewish tribes, as recorded in the Bible, who proceeded to slaughter the indigenous Canaanites, and occupy their land. After the Roman Period, only a small number of Jews remained, which allowed the native Canaanites to recover and once again dominate their ancestral homeland. With the coming of Islam & the Arab invasions, these indigenous Canaanites people mostly converted to Islam, and came to be known as “Palestinians”.
Regarding Prof. Shlomo Sand’s book, called Matai ve’ech humtza ha’am hayehudi? (When and How Were the Jewish People Invented?; He researches lead him to conclude that the story of the Jews as a wandering and self-isolating nation of exiles from antiquity is nothing but “national mythology”, and that the present-day Palestinians are far more likely the descendants of the ancient Semitic people in Judea/ Canaan than the current predominantly Khazarian-origin Ashkenazi populace to which he & a large proportion of modern Israelis belong to. He argues that the Judaized Khazars constituted the main origins of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, speaking Yiddish, a language which is etymologically unrelated either to ancient Hebrew, or even to the language spoken by the very old Jewish community that existed in Germany even before the Middle Ages. This tallies to various DNA studies, such the extensive one by Ellen Levy-Coffman`s in 2005, (“A mosaic of people: the Jewish story and a reassessment of the DNA evidence”) which supports Sand’s book’s claims, as it concluded; “Jewish ancestry reflects a mosaic of genetic sources. While earlier studies focused on the Middle Eastern component of Jewish DNA, new research has revealed that both Europeans and Central Asians also made significant contributions to Jewish ancestry. Moreover, while the DNA studies have confirmed the close genetic interrelatedness of many Jewish communities, they have also confirmed what many suspected all along: Jews do not constitute a single group distinct from all others. Rather, modern Jews exhibit a diversity of genetic profiles, some reflective of their Semitic/Mediterranean ancestry, but others suggesting an origin in European and Central Asian groups. The blending of European, Semitic, Central Asian and Mediterranean heritage over the centuries has led to today’s Jewish populations.”