Neglecting Our Duty

It is sometimes difficult to escape Palestine. Of course, the atrocities taking place in Myanmar, in the DRC, in Colombia and elsewhere are as bad and sometimes worse in their scale. Nevertheless, there is an extra personal insult that comes with the situation in Palestine and that makes it more immediate for many of us; the amount of coverage it receives and the way it is covered ensure that it is not only the crimes that are being committed by the Israelis that disturb us, but that our intelligences feel insulted, while an attack on one of our most valued rights, the right to speak our mind, also takes place. It is not only the chutzpah of the oppressors, their continual whining to all and sundry that they, the oppressors, are the victims, it is also their temerity, their gall, to actually think that we swallow the nonsense and they become particularly offensive when they spout their codswallop about their being a democracy, an integral part of western civilisation, surrounded by "terrorists", when they, in fact, perpetrate the real terrorism and employ their Zionist affiliated Jewish Councils abroad to prevent any free speech, which might be used to criticise them.
Yes, certainly there are atrocities on the scale of Palestine elsewhere. However, can you imagine groups friendly to the DRC or the military junta in Myanmar having the audacity to protest against citizens in the west who go onto the streets to demonstrate against events in those places. Well, they might try to do so but they would, of course, be ignored and that is the point, it really is time to ignore the Zionists, their lies, their drivel, their whining; it really is time to ignore them and do everything we can to stop the theft, maiming and murdering that they have been perpetrating since they arrived in Palestine not so long ago. To not do so, not only means that we are neglecting our duty to the Palestinian people, but it also means that we are neglecting our duty to ourselves. It is time for the story to be told as it is.

Pulling Strings

Nkunda had obviously become a bit of a liability for Kagame and he has, therefore, been reigned in. However, it is unlikely that Kigali will be extraditing him to the DRC and in the meantime, the evidence would appear to suggest that the DRC's cooperation with Rwanda is progressing apace and with Kabila in Kinshasa agreeing to 2,000 Rwandan troops entering North Kivu and with Bosco Ntaganda promising to integrate his CNDP soldiers into the Congolese army and join the Congolese-Rwandan military action against the Hutu FDLR militia it would appear that a number of things are happening. Firstly, Kagame has the opportunity to dispose of the FDLR who are made up of ethnic Hutus and he also has the opportunity to create a buffer zone on Rwanda's western border, this in turn will also bring a degree of security to the mineral and crop-rich North Kivu province that the whole region will benefit from. Secondly, Kabila might yet see a Congolese flag flying in Rutshuru in North Kivu instead of the CNDP one. Nevertheless, in Kinshasa anger and indignitation are already being voiced because of Rwandan troops being allowed to enter the countryand the stakes for Kabila in making a pact with the "enemy" are high. Unlikely, perhaps, but we might yet see Kagame serving up Nkunda's head for the sake of saving his cooperation with Kinshasa. He might indeed and the suspicion is that the bigger players are still pulling the strings in the background and with the Rwandan army now in North Kivu it would appear that the Chinese are going to be doing even less mining than they have managed to do until now and that just when the area might be becoming safer. The evidence would appear to suggest that the grey eminence is in Washington.

Coming Crisis in China?

There is an "almost" funny little report in today's 'New York Times' with China's Prime Minister, Wen Jiabao, using some of that flowery "harmonious society" type rhetoric that only the Chinese are capable of when describing political and social economic situations. Anyway there was Wen at the World Economic Forum in Davos, blaming the "capitalist roaders" for "inappropriate macroeconomic policies,” an “unsustainable model of development characterized by prolonged low savings and high consumption,” the “blind pursuit of profit” and “the failure of financial supervision”(1), while tinging his guilt accusations with the promise that China will work with the West to find a way out of the crisis and to top it all off there he was telling everyone that “The harsh winter will be gone and spring is around the corner.”(2)
Poor Wen doesn't realise that this is all a big "capitalist roader" game, that his predictions of the Chinese economy growing by 8% this year are almost as unrealistic as Mao's predictions for 'the Great Leap Forward'. Wen you are in the boat now and the evidence would seem to suggest that this crisis will be over when the Anglo-Saxons have the reigns completely under control. Yes, with shipments from Taiwan and Japan also down, the Chinese economy will be lucky if it sees 6% growth this year, jobs will leave the big cities, the migrant workers will return in droves to their villages and there will be disturbances in the provinces. Of course, this will not threaten the lords of the manor and while China's economy has hit a wall, the events in the provinces will be shaking any foundations in Beijing.
1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/world/europe/29davos.html?_r=1&hp
2 ibid

Gildad Schalit

According to a Reuters report, the French lawmaker Philippe Marini said that Sarkozy had phoned the Syrian President Bashar Assad to try to persuade him to get 'Hamas' to release the captured Israeli soldier Galad Schalit, yes the very same Gilad Shalit who I have mentioned in the post below. The guy who appears to be worth a lot of Palestinians and who appears to be more important than the thousands of Arabs that Israel murders with impunity. Alright, alright, we know the Israeli equation, which goes something like one Israeli equals, at least, a couple of hundred Palestinian babies but what is behind France's interest in the caputured soldier? Well, we hear from Philippe Marini that France's interest is motivated by the fact that Schalit holds French citizenship. Now let me get this right, this is a man who has been wearing an IDF uniform, who has been fighting for an army and a country that has committed war crimes, that has, more or less, turned his back on France and "La Grand Nation" is taking an interest in his fate because he is a French citizen? It really doesn't get much absurder does it .... oh right it does, and if I remember in one of my earlier posts I was reporting of the "hope and change" man's new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, actually enlisting in the Israeli army during the first Iraq war. Hello Planet, hello there, wakey, wakey!

Ramblings from Seville

The devil makes work for idle hands, no idle hands here and all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Even the news is consumed in bits, not sought out, not selected and just consumed as I am confronted with it. The 'Daily Torygraph' gets delivered to the place where I am doing my course and it would appear that Prince Harry breaking up with his girlfriend is worthy of the front page in that particular rag and Munich's 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' reports that the ex-CEO at 'Deutsche Post', Klaus Zumwinkel, only gets two years probation for tax evasion.(1) That at least brings home the true nature of our "them and us" world and down Palestine way the Israelis do an indecent amount of moaning about a soldier who was captured two and a half years ago, while they kill Palestinian men, women and children at will. Gets even worse though and has anyone been counting the dead in Africa south of the equator? It is a strange, strange world!
Back in Seville, a routine of sorts has been established, the WIFI connection at the little cafe is used at about 8.30 am before the smokers arrive, the customery cup of coffee, that almost defines me, and a ham sandwich and then its down to 'La Marena' and another 'cafe con leche' in one of the city's very few non-smoking establishments, before making my way to the school. There is a cinema close by that shows films in English with subtitles, there is an almost "normal" life, light years away from that strange, strange world of torturing and rape, of massacring, maiming and murdering child soldiers in Africa and of so-called "terrorists" and zany Zionists that pulverise anything that moves and speaks Arabic down Palestine way. One sometimes ends up there though and I see that 'Haaretz' is reporting that Sarkozy has assured Gilad Shalit's father that the captured soldier is still alive.(2) Well, they could very well get him free in exchange for 1,500 or so Palestinians that they have been rounding up in the last few weeks in Gaza and the occupied territories and who knows Gilad might even end up on a Reality TV Show in the not too distant future hardly out of place in a world where Harry breaking up with his girlfriend and the shennanigans of Klaus Zumwinkel are front page news and a bad day is when somebody in seville blows smoke into your face.
1 'Süddeutsche Zeitung', 27/01/2009 front page
2 http://www.haaretz.com/
The picture shows the sign that you will see on the doors of the majority of bars and restaurants in Seville

Lubanga in the Hague

There is an article in the 'Guardian' on the ICC indictment of Thomas Lubanga; the former head of the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) is accused of an array of crimes in his own country, including, rape, torture, recruiting child soldiers.(1) Well, it offers some hope and who knows Kony, Nkunda, Ntaganda and a few others might also find their way to the Hague. However, who ends up in the Hague and who doesn't won't be decided by the ICC itself but in the first instance by a more important criminal syndicate that includes, Kabila in Kinshasa, Kagame in Kigali and Kampala's main man Museveni and, ultimately, by the real criminals in Washington, London and Paris who make all of this happen. Of course, we won't see any of them being indicted, the murder, rape and torture will continue and I am reminded of the little joke; "What happens when the pope dies?" "Up popes another one" and with that over to the "hope and peace" man in the White House.
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/26/thomas-lubanga-international-criminal-court

Another so-called "expert"

Alastair Crook, the Director and founder of the Conflicts Forum, seems a nice enough guy. However, his comments on the Middle East are, to put it mildly, more than a trifle inadequate and so it is that in Aljazeera today he is quoted as saying, "We're moving into a new era in the region. What we see is that the United States and Europe are ebbing out of the region and there is going to be no colonial power that is going to step in. Russia and China may play a role in a trade sense, but they are not stepping in to play a political role."(1) Europe, Mr Crook, has never been particularly involved in the region and do you really believe that the United States are "ebbing out of the region"? With an American naval task force in the Gulf of Aden looking for Iranian arms ships that are supposedly off to re-equip 'Hamas'(2) and with the "hope and change" man failing to mention the slaughter in Gaza, while telling us how Israel was only acting like any democratic country would do if it were bombed and that “he "was deeply concerned by the loss of Palestinian and Israeli life in recent days,"(3) the evidence would seem to suggest that the United States is as much involved in supporting the zany Zionists as it has ever been. Or does not Obama know that some 1,400 Palestinians died and that of the 13 Israelis who died ten of them were soldiers who were killed while they were killing? The farce, the nonsense, continues!
Of course, Mr Crook, is not the expert he is supposed to be and, despite his appearing to be a nice enough guy, his so-called "think tank" would appear to be just one more of those wooly thinking institutions of the sort that the zany Zionists can quite easily accommodate and Mr Crook, in case you didn't know it, those Zionists are sitting in Washington and Jerusalem. "The United States are ebbing out of the region." What a wonderul thought and when they do, the Zionist state will be ebbing out of the region too.
1 http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/2009122163546386987.html
2 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5581382.ece
3 http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/23/headlines#3

Smoking in Spain

In Spain bars, cafes and restaurants have a sign on their door simply saying either "Esta permitido fumar" or "No esta permitido fumar"; smoking is, more or less, even if there are supposedly non-smoking areas in some restuarants, either permitted or not permitted and only 10 per cent of small bars and 15 per cent of small restaurants have banned smoking. Anyway, there was me taking myself down to the little cafe at the bottom of my flat this evening to watch the Barcelona Vs Numancia game on television and there was me taking myself back up to my little flat twenty minutes later with a headache. The smoking in this part of the world is nothing short of disgusting and the smokers attitude to their environment disgraceful. This morning I was sitting in a nice little cafe with WIFI, enjoying my coffee and breakfast sandwich when all of sudden a smoker plumped himself beside me, immediately put his cigarettes on the table and that was the signal for me to immediatly say to myself, "tengo que irme". Cigarettes are stuck in your face, they are stuck in childrens' faces, they are puffed while food is being served and, no doubt, while it is being prepared and what might be one of the nicer parts of the world to live in becomes a much less desirable place.

The story behind the story

Well, I suppose you are innocent until you are proven guilty. Therefore, apart from the report being a day late,(1) there is nothing wrong with the headline on the front page of Munich's 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' today; "Mutmaßlicher Massenmörder in Ruanda verhaftet" (presumed mass murderer arrested in Rwanda).(1) Indeed, Nkunda has not been indicted by the ICC or by anyone else for that matter, therefore, the adjective "presumed" might seem appropriate and in the meantime we have the president of the DRC, Joseph Kabila, Nkunda's arch enemy, screaming for blood. We will just have to wait and see if Kagame's rapprochement with Kabila goes so far that he is willing to serve his old mate's head on a plate to Kabila and one might wonder too what role the Americans might play in that decision.
The 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' one of the better mainstream newspapers and what do we get? Well, we get news that is no news and the story behind the story just isn't told. Certainly, Nkunda is a criminal but Bosco Ntaganda and Joseph Kony have about sixty charges on war crimes between them. However, the evidence would seem to suggest that Nkunda, like Thomas Lubanga, who is standing in front of the ICC in the Hague at the time of my writing this,(3) is expendable, while the slightly mad Bosco and the very mad Joseph, who have about sixty indictments for war crimes between them, can still be of some use to "Uncle Sam" and his nice "moderate" African friends, Kagame and Museveni. It could very well be that it won't be Kigali that decides if Nkunda gets thrown to the wolves in Kinshasa, but Washington and we might very well see Mr Kabila jumping onto "Uncle Sam's" bandwagon. The odds against the schools, hospitals and infrastructure being build by the Chinese have just got longer, the IMF and World Bank might very well be allowed to continue its pillage of the DRC and, in the meantime, one war lord gets his cum uppins another appears on the scene and yet another just cannot, for some strange reason, be caught. Behind the story of Nkunda's arrest there is a much bigger story just bursting to get out but then if newspapers told the news maybe we would all know too much.
1 http://thediplomatabroad.blogspot.com/2009/01/musings.html
2 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' 24/25 January 2008, front page
3 ibid p8

Israeli troops shot children at point blank range

The Israeli government is in the process of approving a bill that will give aid and support to any IDF officers who are charged with war crimes in Gaza. Speaking out in favour of the bill, Ehud Barak said, "As an army which is unsurpassed in its moral traditions, the IDF has done all that it can in order to adhere to international law, in order to avoid harming civilians who are not involved in fighting," Barak said, adding that such moral principles "have not always been enough to prevent tragedies from happening."(1) God,I really cannot read or hear this drivel anymore. It is time for all of us to put an end to this disgusting farce and with the BBC reporting that children were murdered at point blank range, while providing the following evidence to support that claim, "...brain scans made it clear that a number of the child victims had been shot at close range",(3) Firing white phosphorus into civilian areas, bombing mosques, schools, hospitals, universities, UN compounds and executing innocent children, what more do we need to prosecute these people? And we would do well to ensure that Barak, Livni and Olmert accompany some of their officers to the ICC. One, of course, has to fear that it will not happen and once again the Zionists are told that they can murder, maim and massacre with impunity.
1 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1058215.html
2 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7843307.stm

Musings

The Spanish get up too late, they allow smoking in bars and the proprieter decides when to open his or her cafe even when there the opening time is written on the door, and it is about fifteen minutes past that time and a customer is standing outside.
The news coming out of the Congo is that Laurent Nkunda has crossed over into Rwanda where he has been arrested. It might be that his old mate Kagame will treat him with kid gloves. What it does, however, mean is that Kagame has struck a deal with the DRC and what that in turn means that somewhere in there we have the Americans protecting their interests. Might we hear in a few days time that Kabila in Kinshasa has decided to pull out of his deal with the Chinese? We shouldn´t be surprised if Bosco Ntaganda and the CNDP have struck a deal that will allow them to continue at least some of their shenanigans, while ensuring that the good General has about as much chance of ending up in the Hague as the zany Zionists and Bush, Cheney, Rice and company have. In the meantime the very mad Joseph Kony appears almost as elusive as Lord Lucan once was and one can only speculate as to his "usefulness" in the area.
It is a mad, mad world and all of a sudden Spain seems like an oases of reason even when the internet pages don´t download in the cafe despite the connection being, "excellent".

Just getting on with it

Interesting pictures in the 'Guardian' under the headline, "Gaza; After the ceasefire" and one is struck by the eeyrie normality; how it is case of just getting back to your life and just getting
on with it.(1) And I am forced to think of Livni's disgraceful whining when she went on about how people live in the south of Israel under a constant barrage of rockets and have been doing so for eight years and how it was something no democracy could tolerate. The great news from Gaza is that the people are not broken and a modicum of deduction might inform us that should the whiners be exposed to a fraction of the suffering that has been imposed on the Palestinian people then the Zionist entity will collapse like a house of cards. This is a war that Israel cannot win.
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/jan/22/gaza-israel?picture=342179320
The picture above shows some little boys just getting on with it.

Israel admits using white phosphorus

There we have them tentatively admitting to using white phosphorus when it can no longer be denied. Well it is difficult to deny when there are traces of it all over civilian areas in Gaza and it would appear that the main UN compound and the al-Quds hospital, both in Gaza City, were just two of the targets where civilians were exposed to the chemical; a chemical that covers the victims in a white powder and continues to burn long after initial exposure. Using it is just one more thing that Israel does in contravention of international law and now the IDF have been told to protect the names of battalion and brigade commanders who participated in "operation cast lead" after it was announced that they might be arrested when they travel abroad.(1) And what was I writing a few weeks ago about the use of cluster bombs in the Lebanon, about Israel's refusal to supply the UN with maps, about the men, women and children in the south of the country, who are still being maimed and killed?(2) While, Israel makes sure that the people of the Lebanon and Gaza suffer after their killers have gone", we can be left in no doubt, these people are war criminals who deserve their very own "Nurnberg".
In the meantime, we have the "hope and change" man condemning 'Hamas' and telling them that they have to stop smuggling. The farce continues!
1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/21/gaza-phosphorus-shells
2 http://thediplomatabroad.blogspot.com/2008/11/crime-against-humanity.html

Beelzebub

Nationalism, which was a movement for positive social change was corrupted at the end of French bayonets when the armies of Napoleon took the ideology across the Rhine. The sleeping beauty of the 18th century was to raise its head as a not so nice person after the 1848 revolutions before turning into an ugly monster in the 20th century.
Actions are followed by reactions and one can but speculate on what the Zionists have spawned in Gaza this week. The post, "Pyrrhic Victory" has an inappropriate title; it was not even that. To win, Israel had to break Palestinian resistance, and it failed. Indeed, the evidence would seem to suggest that the Palestinians are united as never before. Moreover, unable to break the resistance, what has Israel done? It has, as it did in the Lebanon two and a half years ago, done what it does best, it has killed innocents.
Certainly, Israel has still the capacity to inflict terrible suffering on the Palestinian people but there are two things that Gaza brings home. Firstly, the Palestinian resistance is not going to go away and secondly, the support that Israel once enjoyed in the West is beginning to crumble. The problem is that just as the Napoleonic bayonets that crossed the Rhine culminated in the excesses of National Socialism, so too is a reaction to be expected in Palestine. It is not only Israel who has lost but also the so-called "moderates". Today, all Palestinians are 'Hamas" and today the resistance is 'Hamas', the 'Islamic Jihad' and the 'Hezbollah'. The Zionist state has failed and in the process of failing it is in the process of producing a monster of its own, a monster that will eventually gobble it up. There is much in favour of the argument that for the Jewish people to have a home in the region, it is time for them to give up the Zionist state in favour of an all inclusive state. Perhaps, if this were to happen, we might just be spared an Islamic beelzebub taking the place of the Zionist deamon.

A Pyrrhic Victory

There was an interesting comment a few days ago in the 'Jerusalem Post' from a Palestinian Christian living in Jordan. Now, it can be assumed that a Palestinian Christian in the Jordan is doing alright. He or she will belong to a relatively well integrated minority that is well represented both politically and in the middle and upper classes. Therefore, this particular Palestinian's comments that "'Hamas' cannot be defeated because we are all 'Hamas'", while adding that "they (the Israelis) really don't get it and that the bones of his grandfather lie under Palestine.", if nothing else, put the lie into perspective that the horror that rained down in Gaza is about 'Hamas" or about Israel's right to exist.
As John Pilger rightly contends this is about the opposite; it is about the Palestinians right to exist as a people and an ongoing attempt for the last sixty one years to cancel that right and a policy of ethnic cleansing, murder and genocide that has accompanied that attempt.(1) Of course, they will not be successful and, should the state of Israel fail to become a truely democratic inclusive state for all of its people, should there be no effort on its part to make amends for the crimes it has committed, should Zionism not disappear as the racist ideology that it is, then the Jewish state will share the fate of the last crusader stronghold in Akka and Qisariya for as the Palestinian Christian says, "we are all 'Hamas'.
1 http://pilger.carlton.com/page.asp?partid=519

Has Ntaganda won the power struggle in the CNDP?

The news coming out of the Congo is that Bosco Ntaganda appears to have won the power struggle with Laurent Nkunda.(1) With Ntaganda wanted by the ICC for war crimes it might just be that his signing a peace deal in Goma in front of the Congolese Interior Minister is an indication of him cutting some sort of deal. That, of course, might suggest that, while a war criminal might be escaping justice, there is, nevertheless, reason to be happy. Could it be that the killing has stopped. Where, however, is Nkunda and what are his intentions? It might be that he has lost the backing of Kagame in Kigali and that in turn might mean that Kagame has reached some arrangement with Kabila in Kinshasa. One wonders, if we will be hearing in the next few days that the DRC has recinded on its arrangement with China and one might also wonder what strings "Uncle Sam" is pulling in the background.
Regional and international power politics, and the fact that a rather nasty man might be escaping justice, aside, the people in Goma could just have reason to be happy today. The only question that remains is Nkunda able and does he have the military clout to continue fighting without Kigali's backing and the Bosco faction in the CNDP? Move over Joseph Kony, now you really do have competition!
1 http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/big-news-secret-reasons/

Prosecute all of them

There was me a couple of weeks ago reporting that Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army was heading west for the Central African Republic and the news now coming out of the area is of his shenanigans in Sudan's, Western Equatoria State, where he has shot a wildlife officer and abducted some civilians.(1) Now, the evidence would seem to suggest that Kony is not quite the full shilling, however, why this obsession with him? A reported massacre of some five hundred was attributed to the LRA around Christmas but with the forces on the ground who are supposedly pursuing them one has to wonder and with the Ugandan, Congolese and South Sudanese forces pursuing him, why can they not catch him? It would appear that all of the parties involved are playing nasty litte games of their own.
Kony does belong behind bars but so too do Laurent Nkunda, Bosco Ntaganda and, yes, an array of Presidents including, Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic, Uganda's Musevevni and Rwanda's Paul Kagame. However, with their powerful political backers we are even more unlikely of seeing them in the Hague than we are to see Kony there. In the meantime the "pursuit" of Kony will also help the world to look away from what they and their masters in Washington and Paris are actually doing. All of them in a cell in the Hague where they bump into Bush, Cheney and the zany Zionists; what a wonderful thought!
1 http://congowatch.blogspot.com/2009/01/lra-shot-wildlife-officer-abducted.html
The book pictured above is recommend reading

Indict Barak, Omert and Livni

The larger part of the day has been spent walking around what is a rather pretty city, no time to catch up with the "real" news and there was me supping my coffee and eating my burger and chips in 'Flaherty's, getting bored watching Bolton Wanderers Vs Manchester United, Seville has more to offer, the sun had its hat on and with the temperature between fourteen and eighteen degrees it was walking, walking walking.
In Seville you can get the latest foreign language press early in the morning and I did manage to catch a similar headline in the 'Economist' and in the 'International Herald Tribune'. The front cover the 'Economist' just simply asks the question, "war crimes in Gaza? The article can be read online and the reference has been given below. The 'International Herald Tribune' on the other hand has a headline that suggests that both "parties" might be guilty of war crimes. Now, the fact that the mainstream press is bringing up this topic can only be welcomed and who knows we might yet see Ehud, Ehud and Tzipi being indicted for their crimes against humanity. Nevertheless, we should for the benefit of the readers of the 'Herald Tribune', at least, get a couple of facts straight. Firstly, on the one hand, 'Hamas' has being designated a terrorist organisation by the United States, the EU and, of course, by the zany Zionists. Now, wouldn't war crimes just be sort of par for the course for a terrorist organisation? On the other hand the IDF is a regular army and regular armies just don't kill women and children, do they? Secondly, during the present conflict in Gaza, how many women and children have 'Hamas' killed and how many have the Israelis killed?
It is time for the world to wake up. The evidence would seem to suggest that the mainstream press can no longer completely ignore the facts. That, at least, should offer us some hope.
See http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12953753
The picture shows one of the IDF's victims

Suicide Bombers

Israel cannot deny that it is bombing UN facilities and it no longer denies that it is bombing hospitals and we are confronted with the rather pathetic excuse that "terrorists" are taking refuge in these facilities. Perhaps, we should put the boot on the other foot for a moment.
Palestinians are bombing UN facilities and Palestinians are bombing hospitals in Israel, the outcry can only be imagined. Of course, we will have the Zionists telling us that that is, in fact, what the "terrorists" do and they will produce a picture of a rather ineffectual 'Qassam' rocket stuck in the sands of the Neved desert to prove their point and they will tell us all about the suicide bombers. The latter, of course, are completely beyond the pale and the targeting of innocent civilians cannot be condoned under any circumstances. Nevertheless, it is in Gaza today that innocent civilians are being slaughtered just as it was in the Lebanon two and a half years ago. The only diffence is that in Gaza, just as in the Lebanon, the bombers do not commit suicide.

"Joe Soap"

The death toll in Gaza has gone past 1,000 with American hardware and Zionist soldiers killing just about everyone and anyone and with Hamas still firing rockets one would suspect that Hamas are keeping most of their fighters for the struggle ahead with Fatah. There is talk of peace with the Hamas representative having already been in Cairo and the Israelis in the process of going there. One might expect that we will have a, more or less, return to the status quo after the indiscriminate murder has finished and the on-going ethnic cleansing and bit by bit genoicide in Palestine will continue as it stops being front page news for a time. Down the road in the not-too-distant future we will have innocent men, women and children being murdered in Ramallah or Jenin or Beruit or wherever and whenever our spoiled little Zionist brat decides they have to die and Gaza, well "Joe Soap" will be asking, "weren't they also bombing in Gaza a couple of years ago?" "Ms Soap" never wanting for an answer though will be quick to point out that that was different and that Palestinian terrorists were bombing Israel. It really is almost hopeless, isn't it? With what is, possibly, the biggest sting in the history of mankind having been going on since 1948, with the theft, maiming, murdering, massacring and humiliation continuing Joe and his missus wouldn't know a fact if it were staring them in the face. Very sad, very, very sad!

Public Admission Israel tells America what it has to do

There is what is actually quite an incredible story doing the rounds at the moment; according to the 'Jerusalem Post', Ehud Olmert claimed that he had told the US President George W. Bush to ensure that Condoleezza Rice at least abstained from voting on UN resolution 1860. Do you rember that is the resolution that Israel doesn't feel obliged to follow. Oh right, you thought Israel didn't follow any UN resolutions!
Anyway, Olmert claims the he demanded to speak to Bush on the phone and when he was told that Bush was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. he said that he didn't care adding, 'I need to talk to him now." Bush then apparently got off of the podium and spoke to him. He then added that "she (Rice) was left pretty embarrassed".(1) The State Department and the White House later said that the story isn't true but whatever the truth in it, and it is true, it must dispel any last remaining absurd belief that America can be a broker in the Palestine. The still Israeli Prime Minister tells the still American President what he has to do and in the process embarrasses not only his Secretary of State but the whole of the American administration?
These people are not only clowns they are dangerous, very dangerous, clowns and this was further evidenced by Bush's last press conference yesterday along the lines; alright, we didn't find weapons of mass destruction and that has got to be a disappointment.(2) Doesn't this imbecile realise that if they had had weapons of mass destruction they would have used them. What a joke, a bad, bad joke!
1 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231866576464&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
2 http://www.democracynow.org/

Blog at Breakfast in Sevilla

Beginning to discover some nice little things here in Sevilla; i.e. a number of cafes with wireless connections dot the streets that lead the way down to the school I will be visiting over the next two months and that means a nice ham sandwich, which I then sprinkle with olive oil, and a good coffee before starting my day properly.
This morning a friend directed me to a link in Munich's 'Abendzeitung' and it only helped to bring home that certainly not all Jews and even a lot of Israelis do not give their support unconditionally to Israel. One tends to talk about Finkelstein, Chomsky, Pappe et al, however, many less well known Jewish people are just as sick to the teeth of the Zionist state's shennanigans as I am. The lady being interviewed, a Judith Bernstein, by 'Die Abendzeitung' says, " Israel behauptet ja immer, für die Juden zu sprechen. Aber dagegen wehre ich mich" (Israel always maintains that it speaks for Jews, but I refuse to accept that).(1) She, however, went further and extended her criticism beyond the Zionist state to the German government, which believes that not matter what it has to side with Israel. Of course, this might be seen as a natural because of Germany's "Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung" (facing up to the past). It is , however, more than that and when it comes to siding with the "winner" the government of the Federal Republic is not going to make too many waves and forget the contrived opposition to the war in Iraq. The government in Berlin is as aware of the power politics as their zany Zionist friends. It is up to the people of Germany to ensure that if nothing else, at least their "Realpolitik" will not see them adopt that sort of destructive "machiavellism" that their Zionst chums are practicing down in Gaza. A "machiavellism" that would, indeed, put them beyond the pale and a "machiavellism" that people like Ms Bernstein would rightly criticise.
http://www.abendzeitung.de/nachrichten/79197
The picture was taken at breakfest in the little cafe near my house this morning.

Israel bans Arab parties from Elections

Not being the biggest "Blighty" fan on the planet it is tongue in cheek when I say, credit where credit is due and although the mother of parliaments did ban Gerry and Martin from using the House of Commons facilities because of their refusal to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen, Sinn Fein was never prevented from running in elections for Westminster even although it was considered to be the political arm of what was considered to be a terrorist organisation. Not the biggest "Blighty" fan. However, even if some people claim that 16% of the people of Northern Ireland were effectively disenfranchised, they were allowed to express their wishes and, at the end of the day, it was all down to that allegiance. Moreover, 16% of the Northern Irish electorate represents less than one percent of the British electorate. In Israel 20% of the population is being disenfranchised.
In Israel today the Arab parties have been banned from the upcoming elections.(1) Would they, if they were to swear allegiance to the Zionist state, be permitted to run? Perhaps, but the very idea is, for obvious reasons, absurd. How, if you are an Arab, can you swear allegiance to a state that has yet to define its own borders and in failing to do so continues to trample on and pursue illegal wars against your people, how can you swear allegiance to a state, which has defined itself as a "Jewish state and that a priori doesn't want you in that state? The Palestinian Arabs living in Israel should never accept their status as second class citizens in their own country. They can only be interested in ending the "apartheid" that the Zionists practice.
Of course, by effectively disenfranchising 20% of its population, Israel has shown how thin the facade of it being a democracy actually is, it is a "democracy" for Jews only and one wonders if it will ever dawn on them that we do not have exclusive democracies. My message to Israel is as follows; be what you want to be, murder as you might, but, please, please, stop the silly whining about your being a democracy, about your fighting against terrorists, about your so-called security needs. Israel is not a democracy, the IDF are killing hundreds and, perhaps today, thousands of innocents in Gaza, the IDF are terrorists and what kind of security do the Palestinians live in. Indeed, there was a warning shot the the Central Elections Committee, which banned the Arab parties from the forthcoming elections today. The security of 20% of Israel's population is, indeed, threatened and not from the external forces.
1 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054867.html

Creating "Reality"

Still to catch up with the news today; traveled down to Sevilla this morning and apart from yesterday's 'Financial Times' there was no news for me to catch up with. Still that little confrontation with the mainstream press was, once again sufficient to confirm how absurd that press can be. On he top half of page two there are three headings that refer to the slaughter that is going on in Gaza at the moment. These are; "UN call fails to halt Israel push in Gaza", "Call for probe" and "Propaganda War".(1) Israel's ignoring international law was dealt with a couple of days ago, the call for a probe refers to the UN hinting that they might be investigating war crimes and the last heading is so ridiculous, and not only in light of the other two headings, that I just had to copy the content for you.
"After two weeks of fighting Israel appears to be losing the public relations battle as criticism over the Gaza offensive from United Nations officials and humanitarian agencies mounts."(2) The number of dead is approaching nine hundred and even the mainstream media in the west, a media that is generally very pro-Israel, can no longer ignore the facts. This is not a public relations battle that is being lost. With the the dead men, women and children managing to make it onto mainstream television screens and into the world wide web, the facts of this mass murder are becoming known to everyone.
Today, more or less, finished with an interesting little experience. Manchester United versus Chelsea was on television and I decided to watch the game in one of Sevilla's Irish pubs. Looking for peace and quiet and something to eat, and with temperatures of 14 degrees celsius, I decided to watch it in the little courtyard in 'Flaherty's. The courtyard takes on the appearance of a weeIrish village and there was me sitting reading the 'FT', eating my club sandwich and supping my coca cola, while watching the game on 'Sky Sports', the Irish version. A sort of escape from the "reality" of Sevilla and one is drawn back to the Middle East where our zany Zionists really do seem hell bent on creating their own very weird "reality". At least those three little headings in the 'FT' suggest that they might not be quite as successful as Mr Flaherty appears to have been.
1 'Financial Times', Saturday/Sunday January 10/11, 2009, p2
2 ibid
The picture was taken in the courtyard in 'Flaherty's Irish Pub' in Sevilla

Madrid and Kony

Arrived in Madrid today; yesterday I was actually on the plane but ended up having to get off after being told that I would be taking a later plane but, with Madrid airport closed because of the snow, the later plane was also canceled, so I ended up going home yesterday afternoon. Today, everything went well. Madrid has a good public transport system and the trip from the airport to my, what has turned out to be, rather nice hotel was no problem. Moreover, the "rather nice hotel" is across from the Prado, so I managed to take myself in there this evening and have a little look at "Goyas" and "El Grecos" and, and, and ......... Tomorrow, I take the train south and it will give me the opportunity to get started on Sarah Chayes' book on Afghanistan, "The Punishment of Virtue". The last few pages of Matthew Green's book, based on Joseph Kony were read on the Madrid metro and, while Matthew nor myself would wish to exonerate Joseph Kony, we would both appear to agree that he is a bit player in a bigger drama. The nail is really hit on the head when Mr Green writes, "The roots of Kony's war stretched all the way back to the north-south divide crystalized under colonial rule, thn nourished by Uganda's cycles of post-independence bloodshed. But as long as the conflict was portrayed as the result of one man's seemingly inexplicable "evil", there was no need for poeple to look any deeper. And blaming one 'madman' played right into Museveni's hands.(1) Blaming Kony makes it easy for Museveni's powerful backers in London and Washington to not just turn a blind eye on Museveni's forcibly transfering the Acholi population into camps where they are left literally to rot, but also to tacitly give their agreement to this strategy.
Museveni was once described by Madeline Albright as, "a beacon of hope" for Africa, Kagame's praise is still sung on a daily basis by the hypocrites in Washington. Kony has, of course, been put beyond the pale but we all know that had the Americans been looking for his support, then we could very well have had, Kony the resistance fighter, a "moderate" African leader, a true democrat. After all, when someone is of use to "Uncle Sam" he won't let a little thing like murdering thousands of civilians hinder him establishing the required "friendship". Something, which is not, of course, limited to Africa.
1 Matthew Green, 'The Wizard of the Nile', London 2008, p 312

A Law unto Themselves

How many times did Saadam Hussein get to ignore a UN resolution before he was bombed, and Slobodan Milosovic? Anyway, Olmert's office said earlier today that Israel "has never agreed to let an external body decide its right to protect the security of its citizens."(1) However, aren't all members of the United Nations obliged to follow UN resolutions? Not Israel, of course, and we shouldn't be too surprised that Resolution 1860 is given the same scant regard as Resolutions 194, 242 and quite a few others were given. However, this disrespect of and non-compliance with international law is to be expected from a country that really does believe itself to be a law unto themselves. Criminals all of them and at least 30 people were slaughtered in the Zeitoun district of Gaza after Israeli troops repeatedly shelled a house to which more than 100 Palestinians had been evacuated by the Israeli military, according to the UN.(2) Still, as we all know, Israel doesn't really care very much about what the UN says. Nevertheless, what does the United Nations say? Well, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has told the BBC that the massacre in Gaza City this week "appears to have all the elements of war crimes."(3) Isn't time for the ICC to be issuing warrants for arrests, isn't it time for sanctions against the Zionists, isn't it time to stop listening to the drivel and look at the facts and isn't it time to realise that the facts are, these people have been breaking international law for sixty years and they are still breaking it; they ethnically cleansed and stole a country, they imprisoned a people, built on their property, have bullied, killed and dehumanised them ever since and they are still doing it. Enough is surely enough!
1 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054201.html
2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/09/gaza-palestinians-israel-evacuees-zeitoun
3 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231424905144&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The picture shows the body of a little girl who was found in the rubble of her destroyed house following an Israeli air strike on a house in Zeitoun

And the band played believe it if you like, like, like

With temperatures approaching minus twenty, Winter has arrived in Central Europe, tomorrow I fly to Spain for two months, escaping the cold weather is easy for someone who doesn't ski and has a British passport and a few bob in the bank. Not so easy down in Gaza, borders blocked, children starving to death, if the Israelis don't blow them up first. The zany Zionists appear to have lost the place now; shooting at UN aid trucks, not letting aid workers get to the dead and the dying and a smiling blonde appears on television with the usual drivel and we all have to appreciate that Israel is fighting a war against terrorists and it is all very reminiscent of one of those old vinyl records where the needle gets stuck and the band plays believe it if you like, like, like, like! Don't like, not one iota and the death toll goes over eight hundred but there are two sides to this "conflict" and "Two soldiers were seriously wounded and two were lightly hurt on Thursday when Palestinian terrorists fired several mortar shells at the Eshkol region, in the western Negev."(1) Maybe someone should bring out a single about soldiers being legitimate targets and people who massacre hundreds of civilians being terrorists. Do you think anyone will listen to it?
1 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231167314932&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Doctors of Spin

Gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, political opponents and anyone else who was singled out by the Nazis for "Sonderbehandlung" (special treatment) invariably found themselves in "Schutzhaft" (protective custody) where they might have been subject to a "Gnadentod" (mercy killing). Still, Nazi newspeak did set itself limits and when Dr Josef Goebbels propogated the "Aufnordung" (increasing the nordic component in the German "race") he did so in his capacity as "Propagandaminister".
In Israel, there is no "Reichministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda" (Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda), in their place we have the "government speakers"; the spin doctors who glibly tell us that "collateral damage" cannot be avoided after a rocket fired in a densly populated area has killed scores of women and children, who tell us that resistance to oppression is "terrorism", who moan that they only want peace when they pursue war and once that war is over, there will be "a necessary transfer of population" and not an ethnic cleansing, as "necessary land adjustments that take certain realities into consideration" ensure that the people are moved into tightly controlled bantustans that constitute their "state".
The propaganda ministry might have a different name but the newspeak, does not seduce us, does not convince us. Indeed, the death, destruction and ethnic cleansing that it seeks to hide is as blatant as the murder behind the sign "Arbeit macht frei" (through work you are free) once was and it is not only the men, women and children who have lost a loved one, who have been maimed, who have been held captive in the prisons that are Gaza, the refugee camps and the bantustans in the West Bank that are all too aware of who the terrorists, who the murderers and who the thieves are.

News from the Congo

The news filtering out of the Congo is that General Bosco Ntaganda is in the process of deposing General Laurent Nkunda as the leader of the CNDP.(1) Apparently, the efforts to replace Nkunda are because of his "bad governance".(2) Well, whatever that means, it doesn't mean that, if he is replaced, he has been held to account for killing civilians. Ntaganda who is the chief of staff for the CNDP, is accused of war crimes and enlisting children under the age of fifteen and the ICC have a warrent out for his arrest.(3) The coup, should it happen, shows that very little value is attached to loyalty in this region, with Nkunda having rejected calls from the ICC to deliver Ntaganda to the authorities, saying that the ICC should first provide the CNDP with proof of his (Ntaganda) guilt.(4)
More importantly, one would have to suspect that Kagame would be behind any move to replace Nkunda and the evidence would appear to suggest that with Ntaganda in charge the people of North Kivu have little reason to rejoice. On the contrary, such a move would suggest that things could become deadly serious in that part of the world and "deadly" is the appropriate adjective here. Moreover, such a move on Kagame's part would send a signal to Kabila in Kinshasa that it is time for him to negotiate. Of course, Kabila's cancelling his $9 billion contract with the Chinese will continue to be a precondition for negotiation.(5) No doubt, the grey eminence, from Langley, Virginia has been very busy during the last few weeks.
1 http://stopthewarinnorthkivu.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/nkunda-exits/
2 http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE5050N020090106?sp=true
3 http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/bosco_ntaganda_761.html
4 ibid
5 http://thediplomatabroad.blogspot.com/search?q=kabila+%249+billion

George Bush is giving his mate Tony Blair a medal

Well, I sort of missed "Thatcherism" because I just wasn't around; in the UK I mean, I left in 1979 and although I did have stints back there to go to university in Northern Ireland and London ...... well, I wasn't really there, meaning that I wasn't really that interested in "Blighty", what was going on in "Blighty" and, with the British government still willing to give me money to "study", I wasn't exactly suffering from Maggie's "Thatcherism". Still, I do remember visiting my sister in Sheffield for a few days in 1997 and I do remember that heady night at the beginning of May when New Labour swept to power and there we were, a big crowd of people, in my sister's living room all glued to the television watching Tony sweep to power. Hopes and expectations and all of that and this seemed like a nice guy and .... well, we know the rest of the story.
Tony hasn't really been in the news, of late. However, he has turned up in the newspapers a couple of times today. Firstly, we have him in his capacity as a special Middle East envoy saying that a quick ceasefire in Gaza is possible if the routes used to smuggle weapons and money to Hamas are blocked.(1) And, secondly, there is news of Tony about to receive the United States highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from his friend George Bush.(2) There we have "our" man in the Middle East appearing for the first time in eleven days to make what appears to be his first public comment on the situation in Gaza and he can only come out with unadultarated drivel. Tony, it was food and medical supplies that were mostly going through the tunnels because Israel wasn't letting them in. Therefore, what we should now do is close all the tunnels because "weapons and money"(3) are getting to the Hamas? Money is getting to the Hamas, is this man serious, and are they going to run up to the Gaza Weapons supermarket and buy a couple of Apache helicopters with it? Still, we all know that Tony is capable of talking absolute nonsense and that became all too obvious as he readily embarked on the "war on terror" with "his friend George Bush". However, while the nonsense that he speaks today is hardly relevant to what will ultimately happen in Gaza back then it was extremely dangerous, criminal nonsense and not only did Tony's spin give some verbal gloss of credibility to illegal wars but he also sent British citizens to die in foreign fields fighting those wars.
Next week Tony will pick up his medal alongside the ex-Australian PM John Howard and Álvaro Uribe, the Colombian President. We are told that they are being honoured by their "friend", George,"for their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad".(4) Howard, Uribe, Blair and Bush and their efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad? This either another bad joke or Orwellian newspeak running riot.
1 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5457724.ece
2 http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jan/06/tonyblair-georgebush
3 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/blair-closing-smuggling-routes-key-to-ceasefire-1228710.html
4 see 2 ibid

Kony heads West

Kony is now heading west for the Central African Republic but the more I delve into this region, the more I realise that the borders, which cut through tribal and political affiliations, don't really mean that much. Kabila in Kinshasa seems to have buried the hatchet with Museveni in Kampala and Lambert Mende Omalanga, Kabila's spokesman, said recently, "We have given the LRA the chance to negotiate peace with the authorities in its country, but in the end they refused to sign. We cannot keep people on our territory who kill innocents."(1) Kony is denying the massacre blaming it on the Ugandan, DRC and South Sudan SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) forces who are pursuing him but, of course, he would and surely the UN can, at least, be trusted to be reporting the facts. However, we do know that all of the armies in the region are capable of atrocities.(2) Therefore, one, wonders if that is enough to justify Kinshasa's interest in Kony after all the DRC army still has Nkunda in North Kivu to deal with and Nkunda is supported by his fellow tutsi, Kagame. Still, with Rwanda having, at best, an ambiguous relationship, with Kampala, perhaps, Kabila can make friends in the region.
Of course, Kony at the time of my writing this will probably already be in the Central African Republic, which is also full of diamonds and other goodies, and the next time I write about this complicated story there will be another actor in the drama, General Francois Bozize, the French backed president of the CAR, which brings me onto another story; what are the French doing in Africa? It is, of course, the answer to that question that brings us to the real story behind the story with France, the United States, China and Britain pulling the strings and it would appear that not much has changed in Africa in the last hundred years.
1 http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24863250-32682,00.html
2 http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/29/africa/30uganda-398149.php

Bored

Standing at the bar, supping my coffee, Charlie asked me what I think about the situation in Gaza and there was me just about to bore Charlie as much as I might bore some of my readers but I managed to keep it brief and to the point, simply telling him that as much as I might empathise with the people of Gaza, I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through, what they have gone through, what they go through and what they will go through. However, sitting in Munich that is not what this is about, sitting in Munich it is all about developing a revulsion, an aversion, a distinct distaste for the crap, the lies, lies and more lies, the hypocrisy, the disgusting drivel, the unadulterated propaganda that the Zionist/neoconservative media road show bombards us with and there was Livni today telling us, "What we (Israel) are doing represents the battle in the region - the fight against extremism and terror," while going on to, emphasise that moderate leaders in the region understand Hamas's terrorist ties with Iran and Hizbullah.(1) The "moderate" leaders are, of course, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and anyone else who licks "Uncle Sam's" and his Zionist sidekick"s arse.
My point is that this drivel never fails to annoy for what it is, namely, verbal diarrhoea, but I suppose from the point of view of the cocky conundrum that is the Jewish democracy it is a necessity; I mean if Israel is not fighting against Middle East terror and extremism as Livni claims, what is it fighting for? Well, we would, in fact, get a bit closer to the truth if we were to analyse Tzipi in today's 'Haaretz', when she says, "that the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip was intended to "change the equation" in the region."(2) This is something Israel has been doing for the last sixty years and what its ultimate success would entail is the Zionists lording it over the region. That hasn't quite happened yet, and the evidence would seem to suggest that it won't be any closer to happening after the current operation in Gaza.
Anyway, here is my message to Tzipi, Ehud and Ehud, Benjimin and the rest of our zany Zionists, I am bored with the bullshit, Charlie is getting a little bit bored too. However, the drivel is not just boring it is also becoming awfully offensive to all and sundry especially when it is used to justify the murder of men, women and children. Moreover, when Israel finally lets journalists into Gaza and those journalists reveal the true nature and extent of the crime we will no doubt have moved onto the next episode in our zany Zionist saga where poor little Israel, fighting for its existence, is acting as the vanguard of western civilisation against the nasty horrible terrorists and extremists. What a farce and one can only hope that the same film is not being forced down the next generation's throats.
1 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230733184625&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
2 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052821.html

"Tabula Rasa"

After five years of civil war, the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Pen, the capital of Cambodia, on 17 April 1975 and soon set about creating their collective "tabula rasa"; wishing to do away with all vestiges of the past in order to build his socialism without a model, his new socialist world, Pol Pot set about clearing the cities and executing anyone suspected of being an intellectual. "Year Zero" had begun and up to a third of the Cambodian population were to perish in what was a hell on earth.
As many in Gaza face their own "hell on earth" my thoughts turn to "Year Zero", the beginning of history, and it would seem that the Zionists have a remarkable ability to create their own "Year Zero". There we are sitting in front of our television sets and we are brainwashed into believing that this is a conflict that began yesterday with the Hamas firing rockets at a poor defenceless Israeli civilian population; there was no "Nakba", there was no 'Shatila and Sabra' there was and is no illegal occupation, and neither the bombing of a civilian population in the Lebanon nor the countless other crimes that have been perpetated by Israel ever happened; even the illegal blockade of Gaza, which preceded the bombing of the civilian population is forgotten.
Of course, should the "thinkers" among us require a little bit of background, then there he is, our Zionist, with chalk in hand ready to scribble a version of history and a "Weltanschauung" onto the slate, that is capable of competing with Pol Pot's, "socialism without a model" in terms of chutzpah and nonsense.

A Brief Legal and Moral Case for Palestine

Anyone who is remotely aware of the facts would have to agree that Palestine was ethnically cleansed in 1948 and the only discussion remaining is the one between those who, like the Zionist historian, Benny Morris, argue that it was morally justifiable and those, like the historian Illan Pappe, who would contend that it was morally reprehensible. Of course, ethnic cleansing is not only immoral it is illegal and this latter fact was given recognition almost immediately when, in December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations, passed Resolution 194, Article 11 of which guarantees the right of return for the Palestinian refugees. The injustice is still, of course, to be resolved and it would not be totally wrong to see the numerous events since the "Nakba" as incidental to the events of 1948. Therefore, it is not only outwith the scope of this post to dissect all of the sixty years of this on-going conflict, it is also unnecessary even although such an analysis would cement our awareness of the moral and legal case for Palestine. For the purposes of this post it is, however, sufficient to confine myself to the two most important supports in the legal case for Palestine and then move onto what is happening today. These pillars are Resolution 194 and the UN Security Resolution 242 which demands that Israel withdraw from the territories that it occupied in 1967.
It is, however, not only Israel's failure to comply with Resolutions 194 and 242 that should brand the Zionist state as the pariah, it is also its failure to fulfill its obligations as an occupying power, obligations that make it responsible for the population, which it is occupying. How does Israel fail to fulfill these obligations? On the West Bank by bullying at the checkpoints, by continuing to illegally build settlements, by restricting the movement, the industry and the commerce of the people who live there and by occassionally murdering them. One thing is obvious in the West Bank and that is, Israel would like to have no responsibility for the people under its occupation. How they might achieve this is shown in Gaza, which Israel pulled out of in 2005 but de facto kept control of. Indeed, it is almost reminiscent of Hitler's plans for the "Untermenschen" in the east; give them the basics to live but no more than a primary school education and should they start to riot drop a few bombs on them. This is what has been happening in Gaza. For months we had a blockade that saw the people go hungry, then we had the illegal bombing of civilian areas that has left, at least, 450 dead and now this evening we have the IDF going in on the ground.
This is the peace that the Zionists are offering the Palestinians; Gaza and some "Bantustans" on the West Bank; the Palestinians can call it a state if they want to, but Israel will keep control of it and the Israeli "policeman" will be ready with his big stick should there be any dissent.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine was immoral and illegal as is the on-going occupation of the West Bank and UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and Security Council Resolution 242 support this fact. Similarly international law is very explicit when it comes to the obligations of occupying powers and the bombing of civilians. Tonight in Gaza, however, it really is all too apparent that the Zionists really do inhabit their very own strange twilight zone and the latest news to come out of the area is that the Palestinian population have been urged to seek refuge. With the borders closed, how are they to do that? By disappearing into thin air, no doubt! Finally, Gaza didn't just happen, it is a consequence of an ethnic cleansing that began in 1948, was cemented by the occupation, which began in 1967, and is continuing today. It will not be the last "incident". However, even if it offers the Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere tonight little solace, the wheels of history are on their side; they will survive and that survival alone ensures that Zionism has no future and it is no future because it is illegal and immoral.

The Scramble for Africa

Now, I am not going to start exonerating the very mad Joseph Kony, who is really not the full shilling. However, the more one reads the more interesting it all becomes and it would seem that the President of Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, darling of the West, "Uncle Sam's" man in Kampala, is not really a very nice chap either and there is enough evidence to suggest that a lot of the lips, ears, limbs and other bits that are being chopped off of Ugandan men, women and children can be attributed to him. Indeed, as early as March 1989 Amnesty International provided evidence that Musevevni's National Resistence Army (NRA) had forcibly removed 100,000 people from their homes between October and December 1988 and had committed hundreds of murders while doing so.(1) Still, with the ex-Marxist, Museveni, abandoning his Marxist principles and following the dictates of the World Bank and the IMF "Uncle Sam" is always going to turn a blind eye to atrocities from the man in Kampala although there might be a need in the future for Washington to arbitrate between Kagame and Museveni, who was incidently born in Rwanda, on their clash of interests in the Congo.(2)
The above is only an indication of how complicated it is in Africa, where the Americans want to see both, the Sudanese President, Al-Bashir, and the commandant of the Lord Resistance Army, Joseph Kony in the Hague; granted they are not nice people and Kony alone has been indicted on thirty-three counts by the ICC. However, it is not quite as simple as that and with the Chinese building a pipeline in the Sudan, Al-Bashir being tried for war crimes would make the way clear for the West to directly intervene in the area. Moreover, with Kony out of the way the last obstacle would be removed to America getting its way in Northern Uganda and "Uncle Sam's" man in Kampala, Musevevni, could extend his power base to the Sudanese border. How he does that, does not, of course, interest the Americans in the least as long as "Uncle Sam" can put pressure on Khartoum and we, might, indeed see a total ethnic cleansing of the Alcholi and Langi peoples. In the meantime, it shouldn't take much for the Americans to get Kagame and Museveni bury the hatchet and then they can use their hatchet man, Nkunda, to either force Kabila in Kinshasa to bury the DRC's $9 billion deal with China to extract minerals in North Kivu or get buried himself.
It would appear that that "Uncle Sam", the IMF and the World Bank will be around in Africa for some time to come and as long as they are, the continent will suffer from weak governments and divided peoples, the area will be raped of its wealth and China is not going to have it easy securing the raw materials it needs to fuel its growing economy. Finally, of course millions of Africans are going to continue to die.
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoweri_Museveni
2 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3170451.stm

It is all very repetitive

It is all very repetitive; the news from Palestine, the reaction in America, in the West, the excuses from Israel, the drivel, the drivel and the drivel. There isn't a story to tell; it has been told too many times before. In 2006 it was the "cowardly" Hezbollah hiding behind civilians, hiding in urban areas in South Beruit, hiding in hospitals, hiding in a residential building in Qana and now it is Hamas who are using civilians in Gaza as human shields. Are the people who write nonsense like this really serious and do they really expect Hamas members to all gather in Gaza's biggest square, put on their boxing gloves and challenge the "brave" IAF? They cannot be seen, because they don't want to be seen and they don't want to be seen because they are either up at the border firing their little rockets or they are getting prepared to actively resist should the IDF move in on the ground. However, we have heard it before and there was the Hezbollah firing their 'Katyusha' rockets from the countryside in South Lebanon, while preparing in South Lebanon for the IDF military operation and there was Israel bombing Beruit and now we have the 'Qassam brigades' firing their 'Qassam' rockets from the Gazan/Israeli border and there we have the IAF bombing Gaza city. Then there is Conny, who said the same nonsense word for word two and a half years ago, and then we have her boss, George, an odious creature, a liar and a hypocrite, a war criminal and there he is describing the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel an act of terror, while adding that for him no ceasefire would be acceptable before the flow of smuggled weapons can be stopped.(1) Of course, there can be no mention of stopping the supply of weapons that America supplies to the "brave" Israelis, weapons that they, of course, need to defeat those "cowards" who hide behind women and children. It really is all very repetitive, we really have heard it all before. Does anyone really take it seriously?
1 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1052265.html
Guess which picture is the Israeli bomb and which one the Hamas bomb

Long Range Goals

The whole thing is so ridiculous that if it weren't so tragic, I would laugh my head off. Today's look at the news has interrupted the book I am reading on Kony and really the world of mainstream journalism is almost as madly deluded as the very mad Joseph Kony.
Anyway, there was me beginning my daily look at Palestine by delving and dipping into the 'New York Times' and I decided to make life easy on myself by watching a little video where the Deputy Foreign Editor of the 'NYT', Ian Fisher informs us of Israel's three pronged strategy, which entails airstrikes against Hamas, trying to get as much aid to the suffering civilians as possible and calming the fears of the international community by looking at different peace intiatives; Fisher then mentions the French peace initiative.(1) Perhaps, we should look closer at this "three pronged" strategy.
Let's begin with the ridiculous idea that the airstrikes are only targeting Hamas; a concept, which, with hundreds of dead civilians, is absurd; in one of the most densely populated areas on the planet it is, of course, inevitable that the majority of deaths are going to be civilian. Secondly, the audacity to boast about letting humanitarian goods in, when in fact the blockade in the first place and the reluctance to lift that blockade are at least partly responsible for there being no renewal of the ceasefire. Now Israel wants to show the world how its war is against "terrorists" and not against civilians when, in fact, the civilian population of Gaza has been suffering for months because of the Israeli blockade. Finally, Livni did go to Paris but she didn't go to talk to Sarkozy about a ceasefire, which is evidenced by her saying that Israel will be continuing with its military operation, while adding, “this is not a short battle and it is not a single battle, and we have long-range goals.”(2) Israel does, indeed, have "long-range goals" and we would, perhaps, do well to have a brief look at these to understand what its real strategy is.
Perhaps, I can begin with a little analogy; back in 1924 a certain Adolf Hitler was just about to put the finishing touches to his "masterpiece", "Mein Kampf". Now, unfortunately nobody took this, rather badly written, book by that particular raving xenophobic, anti-semitic, megalomaniac too seriously, but there was Adolf declaring to all and sundry his "long range goals" and there he was just ten years later starting to put them into practice and even then we weren't taking him too seriously and by the time we did take him seriously ...... What I am saying is, the madness that was the Holocaust, "Operation Barbarossa" and "Lebensraum" in the east, shows that we should have taken the Charlie Chaplin double seriously long before we did. Now, similarly the Zionists have never hidden their "long range goals", they are there to be read and, should you find what you are reading a little bit incredible, then we have the "Nakba", the occupation and the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestine to leave us in, no doubt, as to what Israel's "long-term goals" are. Yes, Tzipi, there are no misunderstandings when you say that “this is not a short battle and it is not a single battle, and we (Israel) have long-range goals.” Still, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, just as Adolf's did somewhere in downtown Stalingrad. Moreover, with the wisdom that hindsight affords us we now know that El Alamein, Stalingrad and the defeat of Nazi Germany were inevitable. Similary, by continuing to pursue those "long-range goals" that are being alluded to by the Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel too is consigning itself to the dustbin of history.
1 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?ref=middleeast
2 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?pagewanted=2&ref=middleeast

"Brave" Bullies Who Rule the Skies

Reading the Studs Terkel interview with Paul Tibbets, the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima,(1) I had to come to the conclusion that this man had a lot in common with SS-Obersturmbahnführer, the first commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höß. However, what we did get from Höß, was, at least, some indication of remorse when he wrote to the state prosecutor four days before he was hanged, "My conscience compels me to make the following declaration. In the solitude of my prison cell I have come to the bitter recognition that I have sinned gravely against humanity. As Commandant of Auschwitz I was responsible for carrying out part of the cruel plans of the "Third Reich" for human destruction. In so doing I have inflicted terrible wounds on humanity. I caused unspeakable suffering for the Polish people in particular. I am to pay for this with my life. May the Lord God forgive one day what I have done."(2) Paul Tibbets, on the other hand, answered Studs question as to whether he had any regrets about dropping the bomb by saying, "....., no, I had no problem with it. I knew we did the right thing because when I knew we'd be doing that I thought, yes, we're going to kill a lot of people, but by God we're going to save a lot of lives. We won't have to invade."(3) Alright, alright, I can envisage readers of this blog screaming that there is no comparison and that Tibbets was right when he said that lots of American lives would have been lost. However, I continued to read the interview and this is what Mr Tibbets, at the ripe old age of 89, said about using the bomb again? "Oh, I wouldn't hesitate if I had the choice. I'd wipe 'em out. You're gonna kill innocent people at the same time, but we've never fought a damn war anywhere in the world where they didn't kill innocent people. If the newspapers would just cut out the shit: "You've killed so many civilians." That's their tough luck for being there."(4) No, I am afraid if there is a hell there is good chance that Tibbets is down there, maybe having a wee chat with Rudolf. Therefore, why the remorse from the one and no regrets from the other?
Well, I suppose Paul Tibbets genuinely thought he had saved American lives and I suppose he really was convinced right up to the end that he did help protect freedom etc. etc and I suppose well I suppose he never really thought very much, not before dropping the bomb, not while dropping it and not after dropping it. However, there might just be another factor to consider and that is, Tibbets never got to see his victims, the children with the skin hanging off of their backs, the people who were still dying because of the bomb when Paul was having his interview with Studs almost sixty years later, the children born as freaks, without limbs, without sight. What did he see? Well not very much and not very much after the event either, which is evidenced by his answer to the question, "Do you have any idea what happened down below? "Pandemonium! I think it's best stated by one of the historians, who said: "In one micro-second, the city of Hiroshima didn't exist."(5)
This evening "brave" IAF pilots are dropping bombs on civilians and do they have any idea of what is happening below? Or do they, like Paul Tibbets think; "pandemonium and that's their tough luck for being there?" They point the finger at Hamas and say that they too are targeting civilians. Oh, they do it too, so that makes it alright for you to do it on a hundred times the scale. Really, it almost sounds like John McCain when he said the "Weathermen" might have killed civilians. John did, of course, kill civilians, innocent civilians. Hamas should not be firing rockets into areas that could, despite the warning sirenes and air shelters that the Palestinians don't have, kill even one civilian. However, there is something I am almost sure of and that is, should the IDF go in on the ground, those same 'Al-Qassam' brigades who are firing their relatively ineffectual rockets into Israel will fight despite the odds against them and I am also sure that the chances of them being killed either while fighting or by an Israeli bomb from an aeroplane high up in the sky and out of harms way is much greater than someone being killed by a "Qassam" rocket. Moreover, when it comes to facing their maker, I am equally sure that they won't be demonstrating the same remorse as that exercised by Rudolf Höß. And what about the "brave" bullies who rule the skies? Well, they really don't understand very much, do they?
1 http://dalesdesigns.net/interview.htm
2 http://theology.shu.edu/lectures/massmurder.htm
3 See 1 ibid
4 ibid
5 ibid