I am an anti-militarist. But I believe violence in defence can be justified. The Israeli mass killings by bombing in Gaza are absolutely unjustified. I also oppose the random and ineffective rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel. But when Israeli ground troops actually move into Gaza, it is my sincere hope that the Palestinians kill as many as are necessary to stop them. That is justified, legal and necessary.
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Meanwhile back in the real world
zionist Lynch mob hunting for Arabs
“Simon Cowell donates £100,000 to Israeli soldiers to please pregnant girlfriend Lauren Silverman”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/simon-cowell-donates-100000-israeli-2789377
Jolly generous of Simon.
Can’t be bad for the old careerio neither. I mean, what if he’d refused.
Anyway, you don’t have to be rich to help out.
You can keep 5 Israeli soldiers slaughtering for a whole day, from $28. Lashings of oats at 10 cents a pop would of course make them even more efficient, but whatever they’re into, eh.
Go on. You know you want to:
http://pizzaidf.org/
“Marginalised non-entities. It means nothing.”
I can hear ‘them’ saying that about ‘us’ – the majority of the British people – in the run-up to Afghanistan/Iraq.
That is in addition to whatever restrictions that there are on the scant water allocation and access that is given to the Palestinians is further eroded by deliberate destruction of the water infrastructure, and creating an environment for pandemic water born diseases to extirpate the indigenous populations of the Palestinians in the way of realising the fairy stories that the murderous zionists are weaned on.
Hurrah for the Communist Party of Israel (e&oe)
“The Communist Party of Israel Strongly Condemns Israeli Aggression in Gaza, and Rejects Any Attack on Civilians – Israelis and Palestinians Alike”
http://21centurymanifesto.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/israeli-communists-condemns-attack-on-gaza/
(thanks, Phil)
The Times of Israel reported that Zionist prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday: “I think Israeli people understand now what I have been say: that there cannot be a situation, under any agreement, in which we relinquish security of the territory West of the River Jordan (the Wes Bank).”
Israel’s justice minister Tzipi Levni and Israel’s outgoing president Shimon Peres have admitted that Netanyahu has never missed an opportunity to sabotage peace negotiations with Mahmoud Abbas. Like Netanyahu, Israel’s president-elect Reuven Rivlin also don’t believe in an independent Palestinian state, but contrary to other Israeli leaders, he wants the Zionist regime to treat non-Jew citizen of Israel “more humanly”.
Anyone, who has studied history of Zionism from some objective source, he would know that Zionist leaders will never like to live with Palestinians and neighboring Arabs in peace – because they fear that would be the begining of the end of the Zionist entity.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/07/14/netanyahu-palestinian-state-over-my-dead-body/
Craig,
As a pacifist i have to disagree with one part of your post.
I hope the Palestinians kill as FEW as necessary to repel the invasion.
Habbabkuk moaning about distractions on this blog??
LOL…Jeeez…we’ve seen it all now!
You’re such a piss poor sockpuppet troll Habba why don’t you expend your useless energy on blogs where the punters are stupid enough to buy your schoolboy-level schtick?
You’re woefully bad at your job Habba…try somewhere else eh?
Even your line manager is weeping at your ineptitude.
If an Israeli solider as much as tears a nail in a ground invasion, it will be held as proof that the invasion was necessary, because Palestinian monsters had to be killed.
We – the US, Canada and the UK – “recognise Israel’s right to defend herself”, or words to that effect. But that’s all we recognise, because it’s a coward’s limited vision. We do not recognise the rights of Palestine at all. Not even its right to its own citizens’ human rights. Certainly not a right to exist – afaik, only Israel has that right – unique in the world. Does Holland have a declared “right to exist”? Poland? Any other country at all, less still a chemically, biologically and nuclear arm country ?
The Irish must be might grateful this philosophy was not in place over the past few decades. Surely the US would not object to the bombing of every building in which a potential IRA operative and/or sympathiser might reside.
*
But I would regret every casualty of the IDF , because it would only make it easier to blur the portrayal of this one sided atrocity.
“People are passing around a disturbing exchange at the State Department Tuesday (first spotted by Megan Iorio at Just Foreign Policy) in which the State Department spokesman emphasized Israel’s right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Gaza but was then incapable of saying that Palestinians have a right to defend themselves from Israel’s onslaught of missiles.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/israel-itself-palestinians.html
(transcript and video)
Twitter
A rocket fired from Gaza hit a power cable running from Israel to Gaza strip, disrupting electricity flow to 70,000 Gazans.
Netanyahu and Minister of Infrastructure Shalom jumped on the opportunity to announce the cable won’t be repaired until Hamas stops firing.
But the rush by both politicians to announce is intended to rally their right-wing base, which wants Gaza disconnected from electricity
https://twitter.com/Elizrael
Good morning everyone from sunny …..!
I hope no one – and especially not the defenders of the rights of children everywhere – will forget that the United Nations have proclaimed today as MALALA DAY.
Please spare a thought for the child victims of Taliban intolerance and obscurantism.
Thank you!
https://www.facebook.com/SHEHABNEWS/photos/a.182662565109505.38264.179609608748134/779228385452917/?type=1
Bowen has just said on Radio 4 Today ‘It’s a question of how much blood is spilt before there’s any ceasefire’. !!!
Craig
“Marginalised non-entities. It means nothing.”
Aren’t we all marginalised non-entities?
I like marginalised non-entities. Much preferable to entities. The marginalised non-entities shall inheret the earth!
Don’t be such a dismissive knee jerk Craig. Was it the commie bit that offended you? I suspect if it was a small group of liberals organising against the Israeli state you would have applauded their efforts.
Mira Bar Hillel
Friday 11 July 2014
Why I’m on the brink of burning my Israeli passport
I can no longer stand by while Israeli politicians like Ayelet Shaked condone the deaths of innocent Palestinian women and children
She is young. She is pretty. She is a university graduate and a computer engineer. She is also an Israeli Parliamentarian – and the reason why I am on the brink of burning my Israeli passport. Because behind that wide-eyed innocent face lurks the Angel of Death.
Ayelet Shaked represents the far-right Jewish Home party in the Knesset. This means she is well to the right of Benyamin Netanyahu, just in case you thought such a thing was not possible.
On Monday she quoted this on her Facebook page: “Behind every terrorist stand dozens of men and women, without whom he could not engage in terrorism. They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.”
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-im-on-the-brink-of-burning-my-israeli-passport-9600165.html
Shaked is a charmer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayelet_Shaked
Protest tomorrow outside the BBC. 5.30pm
https://www.facebook.com/events/736989803006965/?fref=ts
Join the demonstration the BBC can’t miss – on their own doorstep. The BBC’s reporting of Israel’s deadly assault on Gaza fails to explain the years of occupation and siege Palestinians have endured. We say, give the full picture – report the truth on Gaza.
Also, co-sign our letter to the BBC: http://act.palestinecampaign.org/petition/bbc
Plus, on Saturday 19th July, join the national demonstration for Gaza: https://www.facebook.com/events/1432359410378067
~~~
Brian Eno joins criticism of BBC’s bias against Palestinians
Amena Saleem 07/13/2014
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Musician Brian Eno and a former BBC Middle East correspondent (Tim Llewellyn) are among the public figures who have condemned the BBC in recent days for lack of impartiality in reporting Israel’s assault on Gaza and the West Bank and for valuing Israeli lives above those of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, there have been large public protests outside several BBC facilities and more are planned in coming days.
/..
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/brian-eno-joins-criticism-bbcs-bias-against-palestinians
Good comments below.
Mary; “Bowen has just said on Radio 4 Today ‘It’s a question of how much blood is spilt before there’s any ceasefire’. !!!”
He probably means Israeli blood, you know that the Israelis cannot tolerate losing any lives to those “worthless insect-like” Palestinians; actually it’s the best tactic for the Palestinians to try to kill as many as possible asap to force the Israelis to stop their mass murdering spree.
It is actually Bastille Day today
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!
We are still waiting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen
___
Poor deluded little Malala. So used by the Western gangsters-in-charge.
I think Jeremy Bowen’s arrival has markedly reduced the absolutely crazed pro-Israeli bias of the BBC. He is one of the few genuine reporters surviving there.
Yes Macky why do the Zionists use such phrases such as ‘drugged cockroaches in a bottle’, when referring to the Palestinians.
I mentioned Rabbi Baruch Goldstein earlier when quoting these horrid words from Rabbi Perrin in 1994.
‘ “One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail,” Rabbi Yaacov Perrin said in a eulogy. At the service in Jerusalem, attended by 300 people, one man shouted, “We are all Goldstein,” an opinion echoed across Qiryat Arba by neighbors who said variously that they approved of his attack on the Arabs or at the least could not judge him.’
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/28/world/west-bank-massacre-israel-orders-tough-measures-against-militant-settlers.html
There is a definite exceptionalism.
There are many other similar threads on Medialens ref BBC output on the ME from Bowen, Marcus, Urban, Simpson, Somerville, Reynolds, Muir, Pannell, Wood et al.
Jeremy Bowen carefully steers viewers away from the crux issue.
Posted by rippon on July 13, 2014, 11:59 pm
Bowen: “When Israel says they’re responding for attacks on their civilians, so Hamas is responsible, no Palestinian listens.”
It is crystal clear to Bowen that it’s not the case that no Palestinian “listens” to Israel but that no Palestinian believes Israel.
This is crystal clear because, just seconds earlier in his report, a Palestinian is making that clear (disbelieving Israel because he has listened but does not believe).
Since this must be clear to Bowen, it raises the question of how/why Bowen deliberately distorts Palestinians’ disbelief of Israel into an unwillingness to listen.
This distortion requires significant skill; it’s not something a journalist can do accidentally. Bowen’s motive is clearly not to raise the question of why would Palestinians not believe Israel because that would raise the question, Does Israel lie?
So Bowen’s journalistic practice in this instance is one of mendacity – carefully steering viewers away from the crux issue (Israel’s lies).
Re: Jeremy Bowen carefully steers viewers away from the crux issue.
Posted by John Hilley on July 14, 2014, 1:15 am, in reply to “Jeremy Bowen carefully steers viewers away from the crux issue.”
Indeed. It’s just the most perfect lesson in boundaried journalism watching Bowen’s tortured and ultra-cautious efforts to avoid specifying Israel’s true mendacity and getting to the heart of the issue: the illegal siege and occupation.
He bears witness to the killing, and gives a certain voice to suffering Gazans, but the language is still that of ‘two intractable, warring sides’ battling out another ‘familiar conflict’.
It’s a dark paradox, because while Bowen appears to show sincere feeling for the victims, his resort to false language and suppressed context is an actual human betrayal of those dead and broken people he’s just witnessed.
John
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1405292340.html
Craig; “I think Jeremy Bowen’s arrival has markedly reduced the absolutely crazed pro-Israeli bias of the BBC. He is one of the few genuine reporters surviving there”
“Genuine” or delusional !?
“I am not saying criticism from both sides makes the BBC perfect. We’re not. But if viewers around the world want the best account there is of what’s happening, then it’s on the BBC”
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/771-a-tale-of-two-titans-jon-snow-of-c4-news-and-jeremy-bowen-of-bbc-news.html
Israel treated the Palestinians like shit before the rockets and they would treat them like shit if the rockets stopped tomorrow. It has nothing to do with the rockets. The rockets are a sign of desperate rage.
In a nutshell, Phil.
And memories seem to be short regarding the current outbreak. Three settler teenagers. Remember? Hamas denied responsibility: plausibly, as this was not Hamas’ MO. Then multiple raids all over the occupied territories, targeting Hamas, hundreds of arrests, including the re-arrest of ex-prisoners freed in the latest exchange. Settlers all but openly encouraged to kick the shit out of the untermensch. Even Ghandi would have a job swallowing that (and did India gain its independence because of Ghandi? I doubt it).
Indeed this all tracks further back: to the Palestinian efforts to obtain recognition st the UN, which absolutely infuriated Netanyahu, and to the detente between Hamas and Fatah. This last is absolutely unacceptable to the Zionists, as the old and successful policy of divide-and-conquer is threatened. To read the assault as simply a response to the rockets is far from accurate. Israel can unfortunately trigger the rockets whenever it likes, at very little risk to itself, as we have seen. Why? Because it will do anything, anything to avoid a fair settlement of the territorial issue.
The R4 Today programme this morning prefaced its coverage of Gaza with the words, “This is an asymmetrical war.” No doubt that is the perception we are now being fed, but perish the thought that these ‘wars’ (roughly every two years) are actually desired by and instigated by Israel. And that the asymmetry consists in one side’s being completely without the means to defend itself or effectively to attack.
The Gaza death toll will rise to 300*, and then the Israelis will magnanimously submit to the gently restraining hand of the US and reduce the incursions – they never wholly stop, but that’s a detail. Moves will be made to restart the peace process, which will unaccountably run into problems re settlement building, which will continue unchecked. Then there will be an incident. Then there will be another ‘asymmetric war’
Pencil 2016 into your diaries for that.
*that’s 100X the number of dead teenagers, right?
Mary,
Bluntly, I think that analysis is nonsense. It gets into fine linguistic distinction while ignoring context and more crucially image. The images are very powerful, of dead Palestinian children and other civilians and of grieving Palestinians. It is plain that is why they don’t “listen” to Israel, not stupidity or stubbornness. The closing image of the blood being sluiced off the morgue trays, and the comment that this is to get ready for the next night’s arrival, is devastating.
I don’t think Medialens do themselves any favours by criticising the BBC on the rare occasions when they do a good job.
Tony Blair, meanwhile, after what one hopes was not an agreeable day in Baku, seems to have headed back to Egypt, and then again to Israel, but details are sparse. In Cairo, here he is chatting to al-Sisi. Who may be more worried than he is about what is happening in Gaza.
As yet nothing has emerged as to what Blair actually hopes to do that official channels are not well able to accomplish, but no doubt he has Netanyahu’s approval, and no doubt Price Waterhouse Cooper and some money are involved somehow.
http://www.cctv-america.com/2014/07/13/tony-blair-visits-cairo-to-discuss-gaza-crisis
The “Communist” Party of Israel supports the existence of a Jewish-supremacist state, albeit in its pre-1967 borders. And to restrict the word “occupied” to the territories occupied in 1967 is a lie. Imagine South Africa. Imagine wanting a bantustan state alongside South Africa itself.
There are a small number of people with Jewish backgrounds carrying Israeli passports – and an even smaller number of people who carry Israeli passports and still call themselves Jewish – who are genuinely anti-racist, opposed to the existence of Israel, in favour of the Palestinian right to return, and in favour of paying of reparations to the Arabs. Opposition to the existence of the state of Israel is an absolute sine qua non as far as I am concerned. Such people are even more marginalised than the “C”PI, of course. To use the word “non-entities” is rude and unnecessary. Everybody who is on the right side should be encouraged and respected.
There are various arseholes who say they are “anti-Zionist” who actually support a two-state solution and who basically don’t like some of the actions of the Zionazi state because they make Jews look bad (causing a shanda fur die goyim). I am talking about the sort of fuckers who say they don’t like Arabs being made to play the violin at Zionazi checkpoints – especially when news gets out – because it oppresses themselves “as Jews”. These bastards even dragged the name of Israel Shahak into the dirt after he died. Shahak was opposed to the Jewish-supremacist entity and would have been absolutely disgusted if he’d heard anybody say that he agreed with the position that Jews should have a special role, because they are Jews, to lead the opposition to racism. He utterly rejected such an obnoxious and racist view, and it was especially vile to see that view attributed to him in obituaries. Such of course is the power of Zionist scum in the western media.
Fuck all racism. Genuinely human values necessarily apply to everyone “as humans”. It’s very very simple.
This is probably a bit off topic but it concerns the American boy who was visiting family in Palestine, was beaten up by the Israelis and then arrested.
Florida sounds like the Israel of Southern USA. The Israel lobby is alive and well there.
Florida Congresswoman sides with Israeli police over her own brutalized teenage constituent
by MAX BLUMENTHAL on July 13, 2014
‘On July 10, Democratic Representative Kathy Castor of Florida’s Tampa Bay area issued an impassioned plea for the protection of endangered manatee whales. At the same time, she remained conspicuously silent about the brutal beating and ongoing detention of one of her constituents by a foreign government.
Tarek Abu Khdeir, a 15-year-old Palestinian-American high school student from Tampa, was brutally beaten in a videotaped July 3 incident in occupied East Jerusalem by Israeli border police. After being thrown in prison, he is now held under house arrest without charges, unable to receive adequate medical care for the extensive injuries he sustained during the beating. (Video of the alleged beating at the bottom of this article).’
[..]
‘Florida Representatives Bill Deutsch and Ileana Ros-Lehtenin recently embarked on a junket to Israel where they met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issued statements of sympathy for the three Jewish Israeli teens kidnapped and killed last month apparently by Palestinian militants, and expressed vehement support for Israel’s ongoing military assault on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Neither lawmaker has said a word on Abu Khdeir’s beating and detention, however.
While Florida Senator Bill Nelson has kept mum over Abu Khdeir, another Florida Democrat, Representative Dennis Ross, sent a letter to a member of the Abu Khdeir family questioning whether Tariq Abu Khdeir was actually innocent. “Though all of the facts surrounding the incident remain somewhat unclear,” Ross wrote, “it is widely reported that Tariq was participating in a protest in Palestine in response to the kidnapping and murder of his cousin, a Palestinian teenager.”’
[..]
‘Shibly, the Abu Khdeir family’s legal representative, captured the sense of frustration: “The silence we’re witnessing from Castor and the rest of Congress gives the impression that they care more about Israeli police officers than an American teen.”’
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/congresswoman-brutalized-constituent.html
I do not ‘know’ rippon but I ‘know’ John Hilley on the internet. He runs a weekly Scottish PSC stall in Glasgow, protests at Faslane, and supports Scottish independence I believe. I will pass your comments on to him Craig just for information and not with the aim of driving any wedges between this blog and Medialens, both very valuable now more than ever.
His blog http://johnhilley.blogspot.co.uk/
Mary
The loyalty of most American politicians is to Israel and not America.
The Reason for this is AIPAC. AIPAC pays for their election campaigns. The minute they stop supporting Israel is the minute their funding will stop and they will loss the next election.
The same applies to this country to a lesser extent with the Conservatives Friends of Israel, The Labour Friends of Israel and the Liberal Friends of Israel.