Strangely, even the sight on television of the body of a small boy, the same age as Cameron, being dug by hand from the bomb rubble, is not what has stayed with me strongest from the latest attack on the Palestinians. Instead, I recall most vividly a radio broadcast on the BBC World Service two days before the attack on Gaza began.
It was a banal, everyday story of Palestinian villagers being evicted from their land in the occupied West Bank, to make way for an Israeli “military zone”. These pastoralists had lost a thousand hectares to the Israelis in the last few years, and now these ancient villages were being finally, forcibly, evacuated in a vicious act of ethnic cleansing. The shepherds claimed that what this was really about, was the precious springs that watered their livestock. Work was already starting to divert their water to nearby, and illegal, burgeoning Israeli settlements.
The BBC World Service TV has this minute, at 9.00am GMT, started its news broadcast as usual from Ashkelon in Israel, highlighting rocket attacks on Israel. There is no mention on the BBC – there has never been any mention on the BBC, or anywhere in the Western mainstream media – that for at least 4,000 years Ashkelon was an Arab town, until in 1948 the entire, Arab population of 12,000 was driven out by armed force, many being massacred. Doubtless some older inhabitants of Gaza are refugees whose home is Ashkelon.
Israel is exercising its right of self-defence in precisely the same sense that Hitler was exercising the right of self-defence in Normandy in 1944 – ie not at all. Why the world puts up with this blatant ethnic cleansing and prolonged, agonizing genocide of the Palestinain people, I have no idea. It is not just about bombs and rockets and deaths now. It is about the shepherds being pushed out of their village in 2012 as part of the same process of the massacre of Ashkelon in 1948, all a process of genocide of the Palestinians in which Obama, Clinton, Cameron and Hague, as two wholw generations of western politicians before them, are actively complicit.
That’s fine for his long standing former girlfriend, Tony Blair is also married and he swings both ways according to Clarissa D.W. autobiography.
I did not like Judo and ended up doing taekwondo for exactly those sweaty moments, i.e two large bulls, slipperin’ and sliding of each other like a day old Kipper of a wet rock….
Lest see what the so called media expert says to this. I’m not saying he knows or is serious.
http://julianbrayrecessionbuster07944217476.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/hague-statement-in-full-i-feel-it-is.html
Hellarry: ‘Look Bibi, be serious, we want this gas as much as you do, but we can’t be faced with constant attacks and we know were you are taking this…’
Bibi Churchill: Ok then, Monica, oops, because its you, but I will keep my toys ready for after my re-election.
Craig–as someone who understands political reality better than most–if you were given the task of deciding what Israel should do–what would your answer be?
Rob,
Were I in charge of Israel I would be considering what are my absolute objectives; and I suspect they would be security, prosperity, the right to live where they now are and personal and political freedom for the citizens of the country. I would then look to South Africa as an example of a political settlement that accepted the once unthinkable – majority rule – and secured those objectives for the white South Africans. And I would look to how to dismantle Israel’s own version of the apartheid state accordingly, looking in particular to the US to pump in huge amounts of money to compensate Palestinians for land lost – money that is being pumped in anyway and spent on weapons.
But the problem is that Israel in fact has other objectives, which are linked to lunatic notions of god-given hegemony over a certain land area where nobody else should live or share in governance.
The divisions in south africa seem as wide as they ever were, just somewhat less clearly defined by colour. I would hope for something far better for the palestinians.
Pilger on south africa: http://johnpilger.com/articles/apartheid-never-died-in-south-africa-it-inspired-a-world-order-upheld-by-force-and-illusion
@ Craig,
” But the problem is that Israel in fact has other objectives, which are linked to lunatic notions of god-given hegemony over a certain land area where nobody else should live or share in governance.”
But – God was the real estate agent that gave the Zionists the land – and who can dispute the will of the almighty?
If you equate:-
US aid for Israeli weapons purchases – vesus – the alternative impact of funds sensibly directed to and applied for building bridges of peace – take your choice.
A small protest individuals can participate in is simply making sure not to buy any product with a 729 barcode – 729 indicates that goods come from Israel. I understand the BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanction) movement is having some success, and it something we powerless individuals can do to show support for Palestinians.
Craig, I know nothing of the Philistines except that they were, er, Philistines. I always thought that Arabs were defined by their mother tongue being Arabic. I understand that much non-Israelite/Jewish civilisation in Palestine pre-dates the Israelite presence but non-Jewish non-Hebrew speaking still leaves lots of possible peoples apart from Arabs.
Of course, it has no bearing on the rights and wrongs of the situation now.
Craig–thanks for the reply. Succinct and to the point. There are some key differences between Israel and South Africa though. South Afrcia was not surrounded by countries calling for its extermination.
@Robert King. When have Jordan and Lebanon ever asked for Israels destruction, could you please provide us with a link.
Whilst we are at it, Robert, do you regard the Golan Heights and Sheeba farms as Israeli territory?
And when would be a good time to return them to their right full owners?
@Robert King – astonishing that people are still trotting out the same tired line.
Thought experiment by Juan Cole – http://www.juancole.com/2012/11/top-ten-steps-that-are-necessary-for-lasting-gaza-israel-peace-or-good-luck.html
(Not for you, Robert, it will make you angry, it doesn’t love Israel enough to exempt it from all international law)
Ziofuckwits at their best, shooting fish in a barrel and calling it “self defence”. The crazed lunatic in charge in the run up to the elections (solely for the Jews) is flexing his muscles and showing how ably he can kill many hundreds of Palestinians and not break into any kind of a sweat.
Evidently the most vicious wanker contest passed as “elections” calls for the routine and ritual slaughter of the Palestinians whom have been subject to more than seventy years of ethnic cleansing while the world has stood by and applauded the aggressive ziofuckwits as the inheritors of the vengeance to be wreaked upon all those inhabitants of the mid east.
However, in the unequal war that has been under way, there are new weapons that have come to play a tiny part and the resulting damage from these weapons have been largely kept secret by the ziofuckwits in a bid to deny the Palestinians the feedback of the accuracy of their targeting.
The fact that for the first time there are actually rockets getting fired at the ziofuckwitstan, and not the crude pipe bombs has these ziofuckwits running around and scurrying cockroach fashion to hide in any nook and cranny available. Iron doom has turned out to be another white elephant that is a money pit and no protection, and the plans to “pound” the Palestinians some more has back fired in a spectacular fashion.
The media around you are lying by taking the usual lines of “poor plucky Is………” also by keeping you in the dark as to the developments on the ground. The old days of defenceless Palestinians not owning more than few slings and piles of rock going to the fight of the fighter jets and helicopter gunships and tanks and howitzers firing flechette rounds. Needless to point out the indignant ziofuckwits are up in arms that these kind of weapons have found their way into the hands of the Palestinians, because as Norman Finkelstein has observed the ziofuckwit militia parading as an army is home to a bunch of most cowardly operatives who like shooting little old ladies children and defenceless civilians.
The fact that all of you are getting duped is on many more levels than the most obvious ziofuckwit narrative of a “nation” under siege. Fact is the rapid developments in the area of the untold poverty and misery have brought on a revolution of the poor, dispossessed and destitute that no longer fear the shiny weapon systems and are no longer afraid of death. This development is the beginning of the end for the tyranny of the ziofuckwitstan and its allies that have all come out in a single chorus in support of the rights of the ziofuckwitstan to self determination and “self-defence”, this being the zero sum game. Ie no self-defence and self determination for anyone else.
People in the mid east have a long memory and for the years that are to come those supporters of injustice and tyranny will come to rue their ill advised and unjust decision to side with the forces of evil and tyranny. Simply put Palestinians have nothing more to lose, and this makes them a far more impressive group of fighters and soldiers than any of their pampered lard arse counter parts in the ziofuckwit militia or any other army.
Go find out the damage that has been sustained by the ziofuckwits despite their efforts to keep a lid on it.
Palestinians are generally referred to as Arabs in Israel, regardless of their genetic origin, Levi. In that sense, Canaan was Arabic in 2000 BC, before the Israelites decided they liked the place (see Exodus)
Also, no-one was speaking Arabic in 2000 BC, as it hadn’t been invented. Neither were they speaking Hebrew, but Canaanite, one of the branches of the protosemitic language of the region. By contrast, the Jews emerging from Egypt after generations of residency were almost certainly speaking Egyptian….
How is a stalemate, victory for Palestinians? Positive thinking won’t, alone, do it.
“Under the deal, the Palestinians and Israelis agreed to end all hostilities against each other. But the Israeli regime did not agree to lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standards of living among the population of about 1.7 million Palestinians.”
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/11/22/273944/iran-congratulates-gazans-on-victory/
Fratricide, patricide, genocide….all have the same odor.
http://www.vice.com/read/Aleppo-Field-Hospital-Attack-Robert-King
But….Bibi Obama has an election to win, people.
“In Israel, small demonstrations were held in communities that were struck by rockets. Protesters said the military should have hit Hamas harder and some held signs demanding security and denouncing “agreements with terrorists.”
Leaders on both sides used tough language as they prepared to engage in indirect negotiations on a future border arrangement through Egyptian mediators.
“I know there are citizens that expected a wider military operation and it could be that it will be needed. But at this time the right thing of the state of Israel is to take this opportunity to reach a continuous cease-fire,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.”
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/clinton-presses-israel-hamas-truce-efforts
Ancient history is subject that I enjoy reading about, but this is a purely a layman’s interest. However from what I can recall from some of the books I’ve read on the ancient ME, the earliest known inhabitants of the land now called Palestine/Israel, were comprised of two distinct people, namely the Philistines, who were settled on & near the coastal areas, and the Canaanities, who were settled much further inland. Not much is known about the Philistines, as they mysteriously disappeared quite early on, but the general view is that they were most probably Greeks settlers, and probably from Crete.
“Palestine” is the Roman latinised corruption of the original Greek “Παλεστίνα / Palestína”, as used by & recorded by Herodotus in the 5th century BC. The Philistines are sometimes said to have lived in five cities (the Pentapolis) that together made up Philistia, from which the Greeks may have derived the name Palestina.
The Canaanites were a Semitic people, who spoke a Semtic language from which both Hebrew & Arabic are derived from. Canaan (& the Canaanites) is specifically mentioned in the ancient Egyptian records, and at times as a tributary to the Pharaohs. Two centuries after these early Canaanite references, come the first Egyptian references to a new people, the “Habiru”, thought to be the early Hebrews. The Old Testament itself then documents the invasion & occupation of the Land of Canaan by the Hebrews, as exemplify by the the fate of the Jericho & it’s inhabitants.
Two further points of interests are that Gaza, was an Canaanite town that was actually visited by Herodotus, and the habit of describing narrow minded people as being “Philistines” is a fairly recent invention, originating from a German university cleric in 1689 who admonished his fellow townspeople who had attacked his students, by quoting the phrase ‘The Philistines be upon thee’, drawn from the Book of Judges.
Fascinating. I ask a legitimate question about what Israel should do and become troll ground zero. For the record troll-boys and girls I am an Amnesty International activist and fully support their position on this–both sides are guilty of human rights abuseses and must stop. The fact that the mildest-worded and genuinely spirited question about what a state should do under the circumstances activates your trap cards speaks volumes about partisanship, display morality and tribalism. If anyone has a grown-up answer then I would really like to hear it.
I thought Craig’s immediate answer to your question was grown-up, Rob. Didn’t you? I see you did. Then you made a provocative assertion, which Nevermind (who is no troll, believe me) questioned. You haven’t answered his question.
I also would be glad to hear which of Israel’s neighbours has called for its destruction. Don’t you think the regional hostility which does exist would be greatly mitigated if the Palestinians – more broadly indeed, Muslims generally, Sephardim and Christians – were allowed equal status with immigrant Ashkenazi Jews in Israel?
Your reaction is revealing.
Funny enough Rob, the blindingly obvious solution for ending the conflict was inadvertently broadcasted by the BBC last night;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VO-22uJG9xk
I don’t know what the greater shock is, the once Anti-War Charles Kennedy defending mass murder by repeating that Zionist justification for mass murder by uttering the words “Israel has a right to defend itself”, or you claiming that you belong to Amnesty, but mind you, given the direction AI has traveled in the last few years, attracting people like you, actually shouldn’t surprise anybody anymore.
Well posted, Macky. Well said, Owen. It’s taken three bloody assaults on Gaza to get these points into the mainstream, and they need to stay there.
Self-righteous alarm is a personal fire first-responders tend to ignore.
What a very gnomic comment, Ben Franklin.
Do you write like that deliberately (if so, I’m not impressed) or is it lerely the true reflection of a confused mind?
Whatever, it’s rather tiring.
“Over Skype this morning, Harry and I spoke about the situation on the ground in Gaza, he told me that: “People are very relieved. The overwhelming majority of people are simply happy that the bloodshed was stopped for now.” It’s not hard to imagine, given that the death toll in Gaza has now reached 100. Harry told me the reason he is reporting in Gaza, is that the conflict there is: “one of the least noticed injustices on the face of the Earth. The overwhelming majority of the media portrays it as a symmetrical conflict between two equally matched peoples, which it’s not.””
http://www.vice.com/en_us/read/an-update-from-some-hackers-and-a-documentarian-inside-the-gaza
Non-violent, non-cooperation, is the ticket. It is necessary to shame the Authoritarian’s constituents conscience, not inflame their sensibilities, if peace and justice are your goals.
“The Friends of Freedom and Justice Committee, in Bil’in village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, reported Friday that two residents were shot by a rubber-coated metal bullets, while dozens suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, after Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and Settlements.”
http://www.imemc.org/article/64627
T.E. Lawrence wanted to unite the disparate tribes into a unified force.
http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol092mm.ht
“When Lawrence left Damascus four days later, the Syrians had a government that lasted for two years without foreign interference. Writing in Seven Pillars of Wisdom about those momentous days, he said:
‘I was sitting alone in my room working and thinking out as firm a way as the turbulent memories of the day allowed, when the muezzins began to send their call of last prayer through the moist night over the illuminations of the feasting city. One, with a ringing voice of special sweetness, cried into my window from a nearby mosque. I found myself involuntarily distinguishing his words: “God alone is great: I testify that there are no gods but God: and Mohammed is his Prophet. Come to prayer: come to security. God alone is great: there is no god but God.” At the close he dropped his voice two tones, almost to speaking level and softly added: “And He is very good to us this day, O people of Damascus.” The clamour hushed, as everyone seemed to obey the call to prayer on this their first night of perfect freedom.'”
It didn’t last.
I may repost this, occasionally fyi (cross posted from Correa thread) as some seem to have missed.
“According to my non-secular auspices I have undertaken a vow of silence. My Order does allow ‘signs’ which amount to narrative, as though a scribe merely parrots script, as a form of appoved communication. Unfortunately, this vow proscribes direct responses to questions, and i apologize to one and all, for the unintended slight.
Capiche?”
Two more bit of Ben-ery :
“Self-righteous alarm is a personal fire first-responders (sic) tend to ignore”
(yesterday, 1.22pm)
“This is (sic) the tall weeds of compromise and democracy. Coalitions, alliances may form and then, (comma – sic) disintegrate, (comma – sic) as the normalcy of human nature attempts a beat-back (huh?) of primordial instincts. I hope it develops with as little outside interference, (comma – sic) as possible”
(yesterday, other thread, 10.29pm).
Translations, anyone?
Dispatches – inside Britain’s Israel Lobby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0E70BwA7xgU#!