I was called a traitor by a Conservative MEP in a committee meeting of the European Parliament to which I was giving eyewitness evidence on the UK’s complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition. Doubtless that is recorded in the minutes of the meeting, which means I am marked down on a forest of European Parliament paper as a traitor in each of the European Union’s 24 official languages.
Nobody turned a hair, least of all me. There were some giggles as the Tory MEP immediately walked out of the meeting, which was viewed as childish. But nobody thought of it as way outside the normal levels of political discourse. Indeed it was quite mild by European parliamentary standards. It is, of course, perfectly true that I used to represent the United Kingdom and now it is my dearest wish to destroy it as an institution. It is therefore arguable that I am technically a traitor. I am not scared of names.
My Scottish readers will have realised that this disquisition on treachery is a reference to the Labour Party’s published dossier of evil cybernats. The majority of those cited qualified as evil because of use of the word traitor. I am devastated I did not get included. I am unsure that my ego will ever recover.
It seems to me that, in an argument which revolves around what constitutes a nation, the idea of treachery to the nation is one that logically is bound to intrude, on all sides. Indeed it can be shown to intrude into the entire discourse around unionism and nationalism over centuries. I have used the term myself.
It seems to me context is important. There is a legitimate discourse on whether treachery to either the United Kingdom or to Scotland is involved in the independence conundrum. To make plain that some consider a position or act as traitorous has a place in robust political debate. I deplore the idea that politics must be reduced to genteel commonplaces over tiny areas of disagreement. Passion is important. But to imply violent retribution is different, and comes under bullying and threat.
“Traitor” should not be shunned like a racist epithet. It carries a meaning which is important.
“Why all the abuse and calls for violence and war?”
I’m not a warmonger, the Israeli’s are.
@Daniel
1 Jul, 2015 – 10:26 pm
You haven’t produced any facts whatsoever, and have linked to Israeli propaganda sites.
But you don’t care either way, because you earn a dollar out of it.
Integrity..?
For those who enjoyed RoS’s Galloway clip, here’s something equally entertaining featuring someone who shows all the signs of becoming the Gaelic equivalent of GG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?client=mv-google&hl=en&gl=GB&rl=yes&v=QIMucHfUMyg&feature=related&nomobile=1
Macky: Good point!
“@Daniel
1 Jul, 2015 – 10:26 pm
You haven’t produced any facts whatsoever, and have linked to Israeli propaganda sites.
But you don’t care either way, because you earn a dollar out of it.
Integrity..?”
Erm, an Israeli propaganda site that’s critical of the Israeli people. Yep, really makes sense…LOL.
“I guarantee you that most people in Israel just want to live in peace.”
Please substantiate your “guarantee”.
Fascinating to see a troll implode in such spectacular style.
Daniel, your next job will be cleaning the toilets.
Enjoy, and ponder on the merits of socialism vs capitalism.
RobG, I’ll take that as you can’t.
British Schindler saved 669 children; Zionazis murder 521 children during Protective Edge.
The “real” Nazis still have the edge though.
Who will lift the Psychopaths Cup? It’s all to play for !
So RobG, please clarify to as all the reasoning underlying your assertion that an Israeli media sites publication of a survey which is critical of the Israeli people, amounts to pro-Israeli propaganda. There’s a good chap.
“Bottom line is, Israel is a small state, and most of the population of that state are quite sane, and just want to live in peace with their neighbours.”
I completely agree with this, RobG. On my recent visit to Israel I was quite startled by the normality of relations between Jews and Arabs, in sharp contrast to the hellish vision often presented to us here. I fear that many of the blog’s Israel obsessives secretly yearn for this genocidal nightmare of theirs to come true.
“[T]he blog’s Israel obsessives secretly yearn for this genocidal nightmare of theirs to come true.”
Nope, that’ll be the Israeli’s:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183441#.VZRckRtVikp
In April, a poll for the Israeli Democracy Institute showed that 60 percent of Israelis were in favour of peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. In February a poll published by the Times of Israel showed that three quarters of Hebrew-speaking Israelis would support a specific peace agreement with the Palestinians. On July 15th, a poll published by the Washington Institute showed 70 percent of Gazans in favour of a ceasefire by Hamas.
The voice of these peaceful majorities is being silenced, across the world. The Israeli polls have been replaced by others, conveniently showing sudden support for a ground war. Gazans have been reduced, literally, and metaphorically, to silent, or screaming, victims. A handful of Sderot residents have become the Western poster boys for the latest assault: cheering and eating popcorn as the bombs fall. This image, shown worldwide, has played only to extremes; either to those justifying it, or to those who use it as an exemplar of the Israeli mindset.
Barely mentioned, in the mainstream West, is the fact that, before this latest assault, Israelis were marching through Tel Aviv in their thousands, demanding “No to Revenge, No to Escalation“. No mention of the ‘Parents’ Circle’ – the Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost family members to the conflict, and who were campaigning against the assault, just as the families of those killed in 9/11 called for no retaliation, and were ignored. No mention of the thousands who gathered in Jerusalem for a vigil, including the leader of the Israeli opposition and a leading Orthodox rabbi, and called for peace.
Daniel, I really can’t be bothered with all the hasba shit.
If the public in Israel and the US were really told what’s going on there’d be revolution tomorrow.
You are all con artists of the highest order.
Daniel, I think we all suffer from the effects of pro-conflict, pro-war, propaganda. Since when did peace sell newspapers?
RobG, Daniel probably isn’t what you think. “If you were to ask a fish…” – can you finish the quote and name the source?
So one argument is that the vast majority of Israelis are just like everyone else in every other country and hate war and just want to get on with their lives.
The other argument is that a large majority favours war and violence against their neighbours.
Both are correct.
It’s a time issue.
It used to be the case that the first argument held, up until the 1990s say.
But now, the second argument holds.
You can argue the change, the whys and wherefore’s etc.
The reality today is that Israel is quite buggered up in demographic terms. The tensions between Religious, Settler, Secular and others are immense, and very difficult to resolve, if you’re to hold the whole confection together.
It’s almost a relief, I’d imagine when the whole country comes together against an outside enemy.
Herbie – Striving to bring peace and harmony to the world, beginning with poor old Craig’s blog.
“Daniel, I really can’t be bothered with all the hasba shit.”
I’m anti-Hasbara. Logically, the Israeli media outlet that cited the survey which was unsympathetic to the Israelis is to.
Anon1, same to you; that list of “Muslims all want to kill Americans” that you posted and I dismantled – the distortion wasn’t in the opinion polls, it was in the way the corporate mass media misrepresented them.
Of course ordinary people want peace. Their nationalities and religions don’t matter.
“Daniel probably isn’t what you think.”
Clark, as evidenced by my posts and his, it should be pretty obvious I’m not what he thinks. He clearly has comprehension problems.
When Netanyahu was afraid he would lose the recent election, he made right-wing, racist statements denying the possibility of a two-state solution. The result: voters shifted to his camp, and he won the election.
Is that a peace-loving electorate?
“Of course ordinary people want peace.”
But the pertinent issue is at what point? A “peace” predicated on the creation of a wilderness as a result of the process of ethnic cleansing and violence, is regarded by the kinds of neoZionist fanatics represented by the 91% I cited, as being consistent to the aspiration towards the said “peace”. Decent ordinary people desire a genuine peace worth the name. NeoZionist fanatics, on the other hand, desire a “peace” predicated on the creation of Eretz Yisrael. That’s the difference.
Lysias, 11:27 pm; you’ve obviously over-simplified. You’ve summarised a months-long campaign by multiple parties and many politicians, spun and re-spun in multiple media, in an ever changing environment with all the behind-the-scenes manipulation of ongoing real-world events, into two sentences.
Please read my 23:11 comment.
Precisely Lysias. The aspiration towards a “peace” on their terms is not the kind of peace most decent people recognize.
To quote the speech that the historian Tacitus puts in the mouth of the Caledonian chieftain Calgacus: Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant [They [The Romans] plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace].
Lysias, well put.
RoS and Kown
Thank you for the Clips
Brilliant
Re the Flotilla – By Felicity Arbuthnot
Article 100:
All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.
Ironically Somalia was an early signatory to the Convention, signing in 1982, thus can be held accountable. Will accountability ever apply to “the only democracy …” Will the UN, the “international community” ever demand it?
“The “Pirates of the Mediterranean”, tweeted someone this morning.
What a tragedy that a people who have historically suffered so grievously are being tarred by the actions of a relative few and of the government of Israel, a haven defined by Lord Balfour (2nd November 1917) as: “ the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people … it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine …”
The “existing non-Jewish community” are either exiled, bombed, restricted, or in an open prison. Those who raise money, risk much and sail in solidarity risk their lives, are hijacked, put in a closed prison or, as in the case of the Mavi Marmara, murdered.
When will impunity end?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/gaza-the-hijacking-of-the-marianne-by-the-pirates-of-the-mediterranean/5459464
Netanyahu’s bragging about his derailing of Oslo is a clear move in the direction of peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl60X_jOsR0
Needles to say, Netanyahu was re-elected by the peace loving Israeli Jews.
Daniel and Lysias, please read the excerpt quoted in my 23:11 comment. Please don’t just ignore it.
Clark, is this the demonstration in Tel Aviv you mentioned at 23:11? The night it became dangerous to demonstrate in Tel Aviv: The fascists attacked. Police didn’t respond in time and ran away when the sirens wailed. We were lucky to get away with only three injured, one in the hospital and many traumatized.
I clicked the link you gave for the demonstration in Jerusalem, but that link has become inactive.
“[They [The Romans] plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace].”
Only thing is Lysias, if it’s been going on that long, and much longer of course, why does anyone think it’s gonna change now.
Other than that most of us were brought up in mixed economies and social democracy, and we’ve the impression that’s the norm.
What mechanism is there now for material change. There were many postwar up until the 1980s.
History does seem to strongly suggest that elites rule and peeps ultimately end up going along with it.
The old elite is dead. Meet the all new unelite new elite.
If peeps can’t seize power when they’re relatively powerful, as during the 40s-70s, how can they seize power, or even influence it, when they’re as weak as they are today.