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178 thoughts on “Gaza Conundrum”

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  • Mary

    This is the comment that belongs with the photo.

    Abedalla Sharshara

    Three Martyrs in an air strike on a passenger bus, the bus with the yellow color used by Palestinians to travel between cities .. and this color is a sign of being a civilian vehicle ! share it .. and Tell the whole world that Israel is targeting Palestinian civilians — with Valeria Cortés, Ir Radhent Bharon Castello, Maya Christensen and 22 others in Gaza, Palestine.

  • Light

    Craig, yes, but why is –the absence of noticeable support from the Arab Nation– that? Why is there no common cause for the Arab Nation to support, help, advise, lead? The West ‘used’ solely as an excuse? Hmm, there is weight and substance, tangibility, to the truth that The West has played the Arab Nation for its own gains. They’ve installed leadership in most of the ‘countries’ in the Middle East. Why Doesn’t the Arab Nation support Palestine, could one of the myriad of reasons be because Israel serves as a propaganda structure for their ‘leaders’?

  • Ba'al Zevul (With Gaza)

    Meanwhile, Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair arrived in Cairo for talks on the Egyptian proposal to establish a ceasefire, sources at Cairo airport said.

    During his second visit to Cairo in less than a week, the former British prime minister is to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi to discuss Cairo’s attempts to de-escalate the conflict in Gaza, the sources said. (All Egyptian government media today: only source attributed is ‘sources at the airport’)

    I am led to believe otherwise. And have indirect confirmation. The ceasefire proposal is dead in the water. Why would Blair risk further humiliation?

  • craig Post author

    Light

    There is no doubt at all of the truth of what you say. But it does not excuse the terrible malaise of Arab society. The meme that everything – Arab corruption, poverty in Africa – is purely the fault of the West is sentimental and lazy.

  • DoNNyDarKo

    Did the BBC report the Gaza protests Mary ? Or did they get the same censorship as the austerity and anti bias protests received ?

  • Light

    Why then, the malaise? Who keeps the people in such a state of apathy, the virtue of the wealthy. Why is The Arab Nation as it is? Trace that finger back… and eventually when it stops you’ll find its tip blackened, crudely. Who covets energy? You dismiss the West’s involvement too harshly, they have and do play their part. They give aid, sure, but how much do their companies take? On what terms? To not colour The West with their responsibilities, to leave them free from accusation is, well, wrong.

  • ------------·´`·.¸¸.¸¸.··.¸¸Node

    Why won’t Israel allow international observers in Gaza?

  • Mary

    No, Yes and Yes in that order Donny Darko.

    Ms Husain had Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group on Radio 4 Today this morning. She asked him if he thought that there was BBC bias against Palestine but she was not genuinely interested in his answer. She is hostile to him in other words. Almost jumped down his throat and kept interrupting. Dreadful woman and we all thought she was going to be a breath of fresh air.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04982j9 2hrs 39mins in. A very short clip of the protest was played at the start.

    Freedland of the JC and Guardian was there for Israhell of course. Did you hear her interrupting Freedland? No.

    There is no running order for the programme provided now nor any audio clips. That is the wonderful new bells and whistles BBC.

    http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/staff/gregoryphilo/

    http://www.glasgowmediagroup.org/

  • Ba'al Zevul (With Gaza)

    Still trying to get some idea of just what the steaming pile of crap was that Sisi handed Hamas without so much as talking to them. AKA truce conditions.

    Here’s a clue:

    http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/140716/israel-seeking-to-create-west-and-east-palestine-report

    The original is behind a paywall:

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.605149

    So much for a contiguous Palestine, especially as East Palestine would simply be a network of poorly-connected waste ground between Jewish settlements.

  • Ba'al Zevul (With Gaza)

    Why won’t Israel allow international observers in Gaza?

    Give in. Why not? Health and Safety, perhaps – they might trip over the rubble?

  • Phil

    Craig
    “I am fed up hearing the West used as an excuse for the absolute disgusting venality and self-interest of Arabs and their culture.”

    Your ability to quantify the disgusting venality and self-interest that would have existed without centuries of colonialism and imperialism against the disgusting venality and self-interest that results from centuries of colonialism and imperialism is incredible!

    Lots of people, including some really brainy ones, have thought long and hard but still find it impossible to judge how centuries of imperialist war have impacted our own familiar society. It’s not so easy to unravel.

    Where did you get your extraordinary abilities of certain insight? Was it FO training?

  • Herbie

    “Dreadful woman and we all thought she was going to be a breath of fresh air.”

    They’re all employees of the BBC, and directed by the BBC to follow its policy on all matters, especially Israel!!

    That’s why they get paid so handsomely. Faust.

    It’s a propaganda organisation. That’s all it is.

    Why would anyone expect any of them to throw their career and pension for a few dead Pallies.

    The good ole days when Guerin, Bowen and others properly contextualised the vicious brutality and cruelty of the Nazi state are over, done, over a long time ago.

    These journalists were continually hounded and hounded by Israel and its hasbara puppets for years.

    Have no positive expectations of any of them these days. Mark Thompson finally saw to that.

    Anyway, Guy Evans has a wonderful presentation of the work of Edward Bernays and how modern propaganda, public relations and all the rest of the elite garbage works:

    http://smellslikehumanspirit.com/edward-bernays-propaganda

    Bernays pretended to be horrified at what Goebells had learnt from his work, but as Evans points out, it was all there from the start.

    And it’s still there today.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    Craig

    “The meme that everything – Arab corruption, poverty in Africa – is purely the fault of the West is sentimental and lazy.”
    ___________________

    Very well said – and you could have added that it is not only sentimental and lazy but revelatory of what is – or comes close to being – a hatred of the UK and the West more generally (which is, of course, also the reason why so many Eminence”s champion perceived enemies of the West like Putin).

    I think you have given some of your correspondents a few salutary truths as from your post at 10h21 today. But you are being too gracious and modest when you wrote “there is an element of truth in there {ie, in what you said} which deserves some thought”: more than en element, a whole lot of truth.

    Any way, you’ll soon notice that you have (unfortunately) have convinced none of them. Could you, though, please comment on the following, written by your reader DonnyDarko:

    “Ghadafi was a pan Arabic leader that tried in vain to unite all Arabs and wanted a free Palestinian people.”

    I myself think that is arrant nonsense, but would be interested to hear your opinion.

    **********************

    Habbabkuk approves of those who tell it like it is.

  • Mary

    The IDF have a twitter page named IDF Spokesperson.

    IDFVerified account‏@IDFSpokesperson
    Exhibit A: What we do to avoid civilian casualties
    Exhibit B: What Hamas does to avoid civilian casualties

    pic.twitter.com/va4mUW79GY

    IDFVerified account‏@IDFSpokesperson
    Today we dropped these leaflets urging civilians to move away from Hamas targets before IDF strikes in Gaza.

    pic.twitter.com/K6JIcCnRfX

    How bloody kind of them.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    From Mary on Mishal Husain:

    “Dreadful woman and we all thought she was going to be a breath of fresh air.”

    ________________________

    Disillusion, regret, recrimination – that’s what you get when you and other Eminences go a -whorin’ after false Gods, you see.

    I just don’t know whether you are naive, daft, constantly negative or eternally optimistic – or all four at once. It is, however certain no one – repeat no one – can live up to your Olympian standards.

    *********************

    La vita sarebbe più bella pei Palestinesi se cessassero di sparar’ razzi contro Israël

  • arsalan

    Sisi is an American puppet and American Middle Eastern policy is controlled by the needs of Israel.
    Sisi is nothing more than a continuation of millitry rule.
    Without Sisi what would exist in Egypt would be what the people voted for. The people doing the fighting were Sisi’s people because they wanted millitry rule to continue instead of what the people want.
    America and Israel are against democracy is Egypt because they know the will of the people in Egypt is to remove Zionism from Palestine.

  • Herbie

    Gadaffi certainly attempted to unite the Arab states.

    He failed in that.

    He then tried to unite the African states.

    He failed in that too.

    He succeeded though in providing a very comfortable life for Libyan citizens for over forty years.

    The threat to the West was always independent states showing that one’s own resources could be employed to the betterment of one’s people, rather than simply exploited by the West and a client dictator.

    Anyway, the Empire is now gorging on its own and Westerners themselves will truly know what exploitation is all about.

  • passerby

    Arab corruption, poverty in Africa – is purely the fault of the West is sentimental and lazy.

    Corruption is rooted in poverty, subsistence wages, unequal distribution of wealth, and above all the systemic cast system that promotes cronyism and jobs for boys. The higher incidents of corruption in the third world are the results of the direct and indirect taxation by the empire that is enforced in the format of “freedom brand” and the “democracy brand” promoting systems of governance that are multinational corporate friendly. This brings about the above conditions for corruption and venality;people have to live and they will find means of supporting themselves, either through honest work or dishonest.

    Therefore dismissing the elephant in the room and apportioning blame to the natives perhaps is an oversimplification and a get of the jail card which could be misconstrued as; lazy and over sentimental.

    The simple fact remains that a handful of moneylenders and money junkies set the policies that their enforcers are then sent to enforce and realise. This then brings about the environment rife for corruption that in turn can be blamed on the “sand niggers”, et al whom should be eradicated and liquidated to make Earth a better planet to live on!

    David Icke believes the extra terrestrials and reptilians are to blamed, because he is an optimist. The reality is the hairless apes are reverting back to type and re-enacting the jungle scenes of exerting power in a bid to influence the rest of the troop!

  • Rehmat

    Craig. Iran and Hizbullah made Hamas and Islamic Jihad military power to humiliate the so-called world’s fourth most powerful armies. Are you suggesting that Iran or Hizbullah send their fighters in Gaza so that your Cameron and Jewish Lobby’s Obama could have an excuse to nuke both Iran and Lebanon? I assure you, both Nassrullah and Khamenei are not idiots like most of western leaders.

    On July 15, Israel-born British writer, author and musician Gilad Atzmon posted an article entitled Once Again, Israel is Defeated.

    “The situation is clear. Israel is desperate for a break in the violence. In spite of its endless ‘bravado,’ and military might, Israel lacks the military capacity and the courage to encounter Palestinian resistance on the ground. The Israeli elite recognizes that the military can’t resolve the problem, if anything, its extensive use would diminish Israeli manoeuvrability on the international front,” wrote Atzmon.

    “Hamas, on the other hand, has won its biggest military, political and ideological victory to date – it has managed to deliver some elementary messages to all of Israeli society: “You are living on our Palestinian stolen land, our right to return is elementary and is not negotiable. You Israelis don’t belong here, you never did, and you better had consider your options immediately,” adds Atzmon.

    “Hamas’ strategy in the last week has displayed a rare genius in the method it used to capitalise on Israel’s superior technology and the Iron Dome in particular. What could be smarter or more ethical than putting Israel under a constant barrage of rockets, delivering your essential message with missiles, yet knowing that no one will be hurt?,” says Atzmon.

    It seems the Zionist regime has torn apart one of UK’s most prominent Jewish Goldsmith family. British billionaire Lord James Goldsmith was one of the top Jewish donor to Israel. Yesterday, Jemima Goldsmith Khan, 40, the ex-wife of Pakistan’s world renowned cricketer Imran Khan, called her younger brother Benjamin James Goldsmith, 34, “ignorant” and “bigot” for tweeting: “Hamas uses its civilians to defend its weapons.” Ben Goldsmith is married into Rothschild family.

    http://rehmat1.com/2014/07/16/hamas-humiliates-israel-once-again/

  • Ba'al Zevul (With Gaza)

    The reality is the hairless apes are reverting back to type and re-enacting the jungle scenes of exerting power in a bid to influence the rest of the troop!

    I do wish I didn’t have to agree with you, but I do. And I wish the anthropological aspect were more widely considered. Can we ever be anything other than pack-primates with guns?

  • Rehmat

    @Passerby

    There is no denying to fact that Western colonial powers have looted almost every African country of its natural resources and left the population in poverty. However, when it comes to corruption – no African country can beat the US, UK, France, Germany and Israel. Their politicians are on payroll of pro-Israeli organizations and morally and sexually corrupted.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    Herbie (in loco parentis for Craig)

    “Gadaffi certainly attempted to unite the Arab states.

    He failed in that.

    He then tried to unite the African states.

    He failed in that too.”
    ________________________

    I don’t know whether you’re speaking for Craig on his authority or simply couldn’t restrain yourself, but thanks anyway.

    Interesting post and you obviously know a lot about Khaddafi, so I’d appreciate it is you could tell us just a little more about the main features of his “trying” and the main reasons why, in your opinion, he failed?

    Thanks.

  • MJ

    “But the Arab contribution is paltry compared to their resources and what ought to be their interest”

    True up to a point but on the other hand only Arab nations have ever tried to take military action against Israel and also countries that have been generous supporters of Palestine (eg Iraq under Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi’s Libya) have been picked off.

    Also, Hamas has lost a lot of support from key allies like Hezbollah and Iran because of its support for the removal of Assad in Syria and is therefore rather isolated at the moment.

  • Herbie

    You can slog through the long “trying” yourself, since it’s purely a factual matter.

    As to the opinion end of things, he failed because he was dealing with those who, unlike himself, were clients of the Empire and had little interest in bettering the lives of their peoples, amongst other commitments.

    That applied as much to the Arab states as to the Africans.

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