In Heywood and Middleton, a classic Labour northern English seat, UKIP and the Tories combined got 51% of the vote. In Clacton – a deprived coastal area – the Conservatives and UKIP got 83% of the vote.
It is not that Labour and the Lib Dems offer an alternative that is in any significant way less devoted to corporate interests and serving the economic needs of the super-rich. The large majority of voters, and especially those who do not bother to vote, have by now worked out that the difference in their lives is negligible if they have a different member of the political class with his or her nose in the trough at their expense.
But everybody who has seen an actual UKIP campaign knows that their grassroots appeal is simply racist – they promote the idea that it is not the billionaires and ultra-wealthy who are sucking the resources from society, but rather the poor of a different colour. The Conservatives are striving, particularly through rampant Islamophobia, to compete for the atavistic vote.
UKIP is an antibody produced by the political establishment and their paymasters, to counter public disillusion with a dreadful and worsening unequal society. UKIP’s task is to divert public anger away from their exploiters towards specific groups of the poor. It does so very effectively. UKIP’s success yesterday will lead to a race among the mainstream parties to scapegoat vulnerable social groups – immigrants, benefit claimants, unemployed – and to compete in external xenophobia. The next government of the United Kingdom will be right wing to a degree which would have seemed unthinkable for the majority of my life.
Nevermind
“The last time I looked Hamas and Fatah were together, a partner to talk to, if you can find a table to sit at.
fact is, Habby, even right-wing Likud members have accused BIBI of ‘not taking the opportunity to talk to the most progressive Palestinian leadership ever’, ”
____________________-
All that may be very true (or not) but it has nothing to do with the question which puzzles me and to which I’d be glad if someone could give a cogent and coherent explanation.
Namely : why do the Israel-haters and Palestinian-lovers who post so regularly on the Israel/Palestine conflict on this blog never, ever let the words “Hamas” and “Hizbollah” appear in their posts? Given that Hamas and Hizbollah are major players, militarily and otherwise, in the conflict (eg, Hamas governs in Gaza).
Have you now understood, Nevermind? 🙂
DonnnyDarkside
“Like I said, more Israeli’s have died because of the Levantine cuisine than at the hands of HAMA or HIZBOLLAH.”
____________________
Well, I don’t think you said that before, but never mind, it’s quite as deviations and attempts to divert go.
It’s also irrelevant to my question, which you will find in my reply to Nevermind just above.
Want to hazard an answer, Donny?
quite funny
Good to see Mary back and being her usual silly self:
“Take note of the reference to Hamas as “The Islamist’s who ran Gaza…”, with the implication that somehow anything associated with Islamists is repellent. Hamas was democratically elected but what do accurate facts matter when you’re reporting on a story? ”
_____________________
Points to make to counter the silliness:
1/. Does Hamas not consider itself Islamist?
2/. Does Hamas not run Gaza?
3/. Does the fact that Hamas was democratically elected mean that it cannot be Islamist?
Correct.
Hamas IS Islamist. It DOES run Gaza. And the fact that it was democratically elected says the same thing about Gaza as every other so-called democracy that elects a bunch of crooks to manage their nation’s affairs.
“.. the implication that somehow anything associated with Islamists is repellent.”
Not anything. It is the aggressive imposition of Islam upon the people that is repellent – much like some commentators here.
27% of the comments on this page come from the same person. Identifiable by their repetitious, turgid and boring nature.
75% of the textual content on this blog comes from the same predictably anti-Jewish person with no sense of humour. It is a rare sight indeed to see a single thread proceed to close without screeds of Israel/Palestine/Jewish commentary that is altogether unrelated to the blog topic.
Time for a few more of these entries listing the evil deeds of the thugs and bullies.
Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
24 hours to 8am 06 October 2014
11 raids – 3 beaten – 3 injured – 5 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 9 taken prisoner – 10 detained – 119 restrictions of movement
Israeli troops abduct 16-year-old youth
Israeli Army supports Occupation settlers invading and occupying Palestinian homes
Israeli troops forcibly prevent Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olives
Israeli troops support settlers damaging Palestinian olive trees
Night peace disruption in refugee camp, 1 town and 1 village
~~
24 hours to 8am 05 October 2014
1 attack – 2 raids – 1 dead – economic sabotage – 7 detained – 108 restrictions of movement
Israeli air strikes claim another life in Gaza
Israeli Army opens fire on West Bank villagers
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 1 village
~~~
24 hours to 8am 04 October 2014
1 attack – 2 raids including home invasions – 3 injured – economic sabotage – 9 detained – 107 restrictions of movement
Israeli Army opens fire on Beitunya residents
Israeli troops terrorise 4 children aged 9 to 14
Israeli Army uses stun and tear gas grenades to prevent anti-annexation Wall protest
http://www.sapienspromise.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=3278
Hizbollah’s leader Nasrallah seems an intelligent and likeable bloke, and staunch friend and defender of Lebanon from the destructive murderous Israeli regime, and helps provide a refuge and support for the many Palestinian refugees and their descendants, forced out of their homes, land and country of Palestine by Israeli ethnic cleansing.
As for Hamas, it is the Israeli propagandists key word for demonisation, they are incapable of even referring to the people they dispossessed and prey uypon, as what they actually are, the Palestinian people, indigenous to Palestine. I’m not sure how it would be pronounced in Arabic or the various dialects thereof, but the likes of the ‘Likudite’ Mark Regev and other genocidal lunatics pronounce Hamas oddly, as if they were bringing up a huge gobbet of phlegm, with long emphasis on the H-hhh it sounds unnatural and contrived, spoken always with unconcealed contempt and irrational hatred, it completely unmasks their disingenous, disgusting intent. Let the Israelis speak of H-hhhamas, they are the Palestinian people to everyone else and to themselves. To follow your quite irrelevant diversionary whims, then would you agree that the rest of Britain, the rest of the world should refer to the Conservative voting and worshipping SE of England as ‘Tory Scum’ and insist that others do so also? You already no boubt assent that supporters of Scotland’s independence are nasty ‘nats’, you do so like your labels don’t you, it makes things so much easier for those who wish to sow division, to generalise and to pigeon-hole, as long as the little boxes you place people in are chosen by you. They are, we are, all just people, a mixture of predominantly good and a handful of bad, but that after all is so much more difficult to stereotype and anathema to the cultists like you who posture as superior and above others.
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
12 Oct, 2014 – 7:26 pm
“Given that Hamas and Hizbollah are major players in the Israel/Palestinian nexus, don’t you find it just a little….curious….that their names should never pass the lips of the Eminences?”
To put things in context:
In the 2006 Palestinian elections 67 seats were required to form a majority government. Hamas won 74 seats.
In February 2006, Hamas offered Israel a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem and recognition of Palestinian rights including the right of return.
Israel, as we all know, refused the offer and continued building illegal settlements.
Also, after the Gaza election, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh sent a letter addressed to George W. Bush where he among other things declared that Hamas would accept a state on the 1967 borders including a truce. However, the Bush administration did not reply.
According to international law, Israel has no rights to or in the occupied territories of Palestine.
According to the same international law, the occupation ought to have ceased one year after its beginning; that is by June 1968.
The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution requiring Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories, Resolution 242 in November 1967.
In 1977 article 1(4) of the First Additional Protocol (IAP) to the Geneva Conventions clearly expanded the application of the International Humanitarian Law to:
“…armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist régimes in the exercise of their right of self-determination…”.
However (not surprisingly), Israel is not state-party to the Protocol and is therefore not obliged to follow its clause.
The use of force as part of resisting occupation in the Palestinian case is therefore derived from the international legitimacy to recourse to armed struggle in order to obtain the right to self-determination.
Now Hezbollah:
Hezbollah (a Shi’a organisation) was founded following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 It was formed to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Hezbollah has 12 seats in the Lebanese parliament and 2 government ministers.
Hezbollah is seen, in Lebanon, as a legitimate resistance organization that has defended its land against an Israeli occupying force and has consistently stood up to the Israeli army.
According to a survey released by the Beirut Centre for Research and Information on July 26 during the 2006 Lebanon War, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hezbollah’s retaliatory attacks on northern Israel.
More striking, however, was the level of support for Hezbollah’s resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hezbollah, along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.
Of course our Zionist supporters don’t like them because they use violence to resist Israel.
(I don’t like them either but that’s beside the point).
To Jemand’s splendid put-down of the silly Mary :
“75% of the textual content on this blog comes from the same predictably anti-Jewish person with no sense of humour. It is a rare sight indeed to see a single thread proceed to close without screeds of Israel/Palestine/Jewish commentary that is altogether unrelated to the blog topic.”,
the silly Mary replies as follows, thus handily proving his point :
“Time for a few more of these entries listing the evil deeds of the thugs and bullies.
Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property”
followed by another 20-odd lines of boring, turgid prose.
Mr Scorgie
“Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
12 Oct, 2014 – 7:26 pm
“Given that Hamas and Hizbollah are major players in the Israel/Palestinian nexus, don’t you find it just a little….curious….that their names should never pass the lips of the Eminences?”
To put things in context:…followed by at least 30 lines of “context”
_____________________________
All very interesting, Mr Scorgie, but I failed to find an answer to my question in your “context”.
Why do all the Israel-haters and Palestinian-lovers who post so prolifically about the Israel/Palestine conflict on here fight so shy of ever using the words “Hamas” and “Hizbollah” – this despite the fact that both are major players (politically, militarily and in other ways) in the conflict?
Why the coyness about writing the words “Hamas” and “Hizbollah”?
Wabt to have a go at answering, Doug?
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
BTW, did you co-sign Iain Orr’s letter to the Home Secretary about the Moazzam Begg case, Doug?
Jemand
12 Oct, 2014 – 7:31 pm
“And if you had ever read the Quran which, like all the other anti-Western liberal bigots, you certainly haven’t, you’d know (but not readily admit) that Nazism is no more violent in its call for action than is Islam.”
_________________________________________
To be honest Jemand I have an English translation of the Quran but I haven’t read much of it. Perhaps you could quote the relevant Sura (Chapter) and verses that lead you to disparage Islam to such an extraordinary extent.
_________________________________________
“Ever heard of Islamic State, the Taliban, al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Jemaah Islamiyah…”
_________________________________________
Yes of course I have. They are extremist minority Islamists, they are not representative of the vast majority of Muslims.
As for Saudi Arabia; that country is run by a disgraceful, murderous dictatorship, supported to the hilt by (among others) the USA the UK and your own country, Australia.
Saudi Arabia is one of Australia’s most important trading partners in the Middle East.
_________________________________________
“So try reading the Quran. Get your friends to explain it for you if you must. But read the fucking thing first before parading your embarrassing racist ignorance on this blog.”
_______________________________________
Jemand, I would be very surprised if you have read the Quran but if you have you will be able to quote from it and educate me.
_________________________________________
“If you really need an outlet to spread your Islamophile lies…”
________________________________________
What lies would those be Jemand?
[Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, The Beneficent, the Merciful.]
Mr Scorgie
“Jemand, I would be very surprised if you have read the Quran”
_________________________
Why would that be, Doug?
Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
13 Oct, 2014 – 8:41 pm
“Why do all the Israel-haters and Palestinian-lovers who post so prolifically about the Israel/Palestine conflict on here fight so shy of ever using the words “Hamas” and “Hizbollah” – this despite the fact that both are major players (politically, militarily and in other ways) in the conflict?”
______________________________
Myself, and others I think, have posted comments in the past that mention Hamas and Hezbollah but with observations not to your liking Habbabkuk.
Hezbollah has political legitimacy in Lebanon.
Hamas has political legitimacy in Palestine.
Fatah has political legitimacy in Palestine.
Israel, however, has no political legitimacy in the West Bank; Gaza; East Jerusalem; the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms.
There I’ve mentioned them again!
BTW Mr Scorgie
Did you stand up and be counted by co-signing Iain Orr’s letter to the Home Secretary about the Moazzam Begg case?
(I ask merely because you are one of the posters who shout most loudly about the alleged iniquities committed by the UK govt. and I was just wondering whether your activism is confined to posting on this blog)
Mr Scorgie
“Myself, and others I think, have posted comments in the past that mention Hamas and Hezbollah but with observations not to your liking Habbabkuk.”
________________________
Perhaps you could provide a couple of references just to re-assure me that you’re not being economical with the truth? Thanks in advance, Doug.
Do NOT call me ‘silly’.
Here’s another list of Israeli atrocities for you to peruse. Don’t forget the decomposing bodies of over 500 Palestinian children lying in the sand of Gaza.
In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice – Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Property
24 hours to 8am 11 October 2014
1 attack – 9 raids including home invasions – 1 beaten – 1 death – 8 injured – 3 acts of agricultural/economic sabotage – 7 taken prisoner – 8 detained – 113 restrictions of movement
Another victim of Israel’s recent blitz on Gaza dies from his injuries
Two youngsters wounded in Israeli attack on Silwad neighbourhood
Occupation troops terrorise 16-year-old youth
Zionist fanatics from the Ariel Occupation settlement set fire to and destroy 100 olive trees
Night peace disruption and/or home invasions in 3 villages
The first entry above means that the poor man has taken over 6 weeks to die.
Attacks:
Hebron – 18:05, Israeli forces positioned near al-Tabaqa village fired live ammunition, rubber-coated bullets and stun and tear gas grenades at residents, injuring two minors: Riyad Abu Ras (16) and Moath Al-Shahaytat (17).
Death: Gaza – Suhayel Tafish (a resident of the al-Shuja’ya neighbourhood) died of injuries sustained in the recent Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Army violence:
Jerusalem –
• 17:00, the Israeli Army fired stun and tear gas grenades at residents near the al-Ram road junction.
• evening, Israeli troops fired stun and tear gas grenades at people in Silwan, injuring a child and two adults.
Ramallah –
• 15:50, the Israeli Army seized and held captive for a time a 16-year-old youth, Ali Najlah.
• 18:05, Occupation troops positioned at the entrance to the Ofer military base fired stun and tear gas grenades at residents, injuring two people: Salah Al-Din Nazal (15) and Hussein Al-Shawamra.
• 18:15, the Israeli Army fired stun and tear gas grenades at Silwad residents.
Hebron – 16:05, Israeli forces positioned near the Khursa village road junction fired stun and tear gas grenades at local residents.
Non-violent resistance:
Ramallah –
• 13:40, Bil’in: anti-annexation Wall protesters were overcome by Israeli tear gas.
• 13:40, Ni’lin: anti-annexation Wall protesters were overcome by Israeli tear gas.
• 13:40, al-Nabi Saleh village: a child, Karim Al-Tamimi, was injured in an Israeli Army assault on protesters that left several other people overcome by Israeli tear gas. Israeli troops also pepper-sprayed a journalist, Billal Al-Tamimi, in the face.
Qalqiliya – 13:00, Kafr Qaddum: protesters overcome by Israeli tear gas.
Bethlehem – 13:10, the Israeli Army fired stun and tear gas grenades at protesters in al-Ma’sara village.
Occupation settler violence:
Salfit – 15:00, Zionist fanatics from the Ariel Occupation settlement invaded Marda village, setting fire to and destroying about 100 olive trees.
Palestinian missile attacks: none
Raids: 9 including home invasions
Jerusalem – 20:50, the Israeli Army raided Beit Ijza village.
Ramallah –
• 01:10-02:45 , Israeli troops raided Awarta.
• 03:00 , the Israeli Army raided Beitunya and ordered a person to report for interrogation at Israeli Military Intelligence.
Jenin – 09:30, Israeli forces raided al-Atarah village.
Nablus – 01:30-02:40 , Occupation troops raided Zawata village and took five people prisoner.
Bethlehem – 12:45, the Israeli Army raided Taquo.
Hebron –
• Israeli forces invaded Beit Ummar, raided a restaurant and took a person prisoner.
• the Israeli Army raided east Yatta and issued destruction orders on a livestock shelter and a tent dwelling.
Times indicated in Bold Type contribute to the sleep deprivation suffered by Palestinian children.
Restrictions of movement: 113
The Israeli Occupation’s military restrictions on Palestinian freedom covered by this category include:
• Checkpoints at the entrances to towns and villages to prevent people entering or leaving.
• Interference with people attempting to move around towns and villages.
• Cement blocks and barbed wire on roads.
• Rubble on roads.
• Farmers prohibited from going onto their land to work it.
• Road closures to isolate areas in which the Israeli Army considers the presence of Palestinians to be ‘illegal’.
• Yasser Arafat International Airport is permanently closed and Palestinians needing to enter or leave Palestine can do so only with Israeli permission.
• Interference with access to mosques and freedom of worship.
• Wall Gates. The gates in Israel’s annexation Wall, which restrict Palestinian access to their land on both sides.
• Curfews. Anyone appearing in the street or at a window is liable to be shot dead.
• Israel enforces many of the above restrictions with the threat, or actual use, of military action as well as personal physical assault. Thus, Palestinians are faced with an all-pervasive and constant state of Israeli violence towards them.
Violations:
Hebron – Israeli Occupation forces continue to enforce a military order prohibiting Palestinian vehicles from using Shalala Old Street and allowing only Israeli civilian and military vehicles on the road.
~~
PS Every time you insult me, another one of these entries will be posted. You must learn not to be offensive.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/muslims-warn-antiterror-laws-could-prevent-teaching-from-koran-20141008-1137lj.html
Some choice quotes :
* A Muslim cleric who preaches from certain passages of the Koran could be caught in the “broad” net of the government’s new anti-terror law, Islamic leaders have warned.
* Grand Mufti of Australia .. have called for the offence of “advocating terrorism” to be removed from the so-called Foreign Fighters Bill..
* “We are therefore concerned that the proposal has serious implications on free speech and will have a chilling effect on legitimate religious and political debate,”
* It is documented the al-Qaeda handlers of the 9/11 suicide pilots had urged them to dwell on passages in the Koran in which God promises to “cast terror into the hearts of those who are bent on denying the truth; strike, then, their necks!”
. . . .
The great “religion of peace” doesn’t seem so “peaceful” when Muslim leaders want sermonising from the Koran to be exempt from anti-terrorism laws in Australia.
It should be noted that recounting violent stories from the Koran and instructing followers on how they should conduct themselves are two entirely different things. But the Koran is full of instruction, indeed it is an instruction manual.
It is also curious that Muslim leaders have suddenly become subscribers to “free speech” and “legitimate religious and political debate”. Of course, what constitutes “legitimate” is subject to the duplicitous values of Muslims and their liberal extremist supporters.