In today's 'Haaretz' I picked up on a letter from the mother of an Israeli soldier to a Palestinian sniper who was sentenced to eleven life terms for shooting her son, David, another seven IDF soldiers and two Israeli civilians. The headline in 'Haaretz' reads, "Forgiveness of dead IDF soldier's mother leaves Palestinian killer cold." after the Palestinian in question, Ta'er Hamad, rejected the mother's attempts at "reconciliation" as being naive at best., while adding ""Mrs. Robi did not explain what led the soldier David to enlist," he continues. "She doesn't know the iron fact that her son not only took part in the torture of my people, but stood at the head of the perpetrators of the killing and murder."
Mrs Robi is an activist in an organistion called 'Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace', which is also known as the 'Parents Circle-Families Forum'. Now, I am sure that in a number of respects this group might be well intentioned and it is extremely likely that Mrs Robi's grief at the loss of her son has led her to some understanding of the pain experienced by countless Palestinians. Nevertheless, she demonstrates an extreme myopia when it comes to understanding why her son died. Moreover, her writing a second letter on receiving Ta'er's reply appears to indicate that she hasn't quite understood why he won't meet with her. Ta'er Hamad, however, has no illusions and he is perfectly correct when he says, "I cannot meet with the occupier of our land on the same land. I carried out the operation as part of the struggle for freedom, justice and the establishment of an independent state, not out of a lust or love for killing. Acts of violence are a necessity imposed upon us by the occupation and I shall not abandon this path for as long as the occupation continues."
The perpetrators and the victims here should not be confused with one another and Mrs Robis letter, her myopia, her naivity, is actually an insult to the young Palestinian fighter. Indeed, how would some partisan waiting to go to his death for kiling the members of an "SS Einsatzkommando" have felt had he received a letter from the mother of one of the dead forgiving him for what he had done. Indeed, I can only envisage the contempt with which a 'Hezbollah' POW would treat a letter like this. Nevertheless, Ta'er Hamad does provide an opportunity for Mrs Robis, and all Israelis, when he says that he will not abandon his path until the occupation ends. In her second letter to Ta'er, Mrs Robis wrote, that her son had said: "If I go to reserve duty I will treat everyone with respect and so will my soldiers.' I think that these are not the words of a violent person. I think that these are the words of a person who is certain that we should not be in the occupied territories." This is not enough and if her son had been so "certain" that Israel should not be in the occupied territories there are organisations such as 'Yesh Gvul' and 'Courage to Refuse' he could have turned to.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Christian Zionists
Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour from huffpost on Vimeo.
It might be that the Jewish Zionists actually understand the Christian Zionists, that they know that these slightly mad and extremely delusional dispensationalists are going to offer only 144,000 Jews salvation when the end days come and that only if they recognise the "holy hippy" as the big man in the sky's son and only if they destroy evey mosque from the mediterranean to the Euphrates. Yes, maybe they actually know what these people are about but, what the hell, they sure are useful idiots.
Yes, useful for Israel and their threat to the rest of us should not underestimate the threat that organisations and people like 'Christians United for Israel' and Pastor John Hagee pose and at any CUFI meeting you are going to find a weird array of politicians and personalities. John Hagee can actually influence American foreign policy and that, you see, is the problem because this guy actually "gleefully anticipates the death of hundreds of millions of people in a series of wars preparing the world for the second coming of Christ: “The end of the world is rapidly approaching . . . Rejoice and be exceeding glad.” This mad fucker is not worried about a nuclear war that might wipe out half of the planet, he actually wants one, he is actually planning one and it is fair to say that his views are reflected in American foreing policy.
The little report by Max Blumenthal which has been embedded above gives us an inclination as to just how mad Pastor John and his legions are. We could afford ourselves a giggle if it weren't for the fact that this is very serious stuff; the coming nuclear showndown with Iran, according to John, is a certainty and with "our" Jewish Zionists seemingly more than willing to help bring about the "end days", we would have to conclude that these mad bastards actually want Iran to get hold of a bomb. Yes, it is a mad, mad world that we are living in and do you know, when I look at this dangerous, irresponsible, infantilism, I sometimes think "bring on the rupture" or, if you cannot, please stop the planet, I want to get off.
David Miliband as EU Foreign Minister
Well, the good news is that it is now official; our spin and grin, war criminal, chap has practically no chance of becoming the EU president as he fails to secure the backing of even Sarkozy and Merkel. That is the good news and it is to be welcomed. However, now for the bad news:
"As it soon became clear that Blair had no support on the left, let alone on the centre right. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's centre-left prime minister, for the first time publicly queried the Blair candidacy by announcing that the centre left across the EU was more concerned with securing the other post of European foreign minister."
And why is that bad news; well it would appear that the so-called "centre-left" is a motley crew indeed and it would appear that the very opportunist, David Miliband, is a serious challenger for the job as high representative for foreign policy. This is a man who kept mumm when the ever so brave "IDF" were slaughtering men, women and children in Gaza, this is a man who thinks he can lecture Iran on how it should conduct itself at home and abroad and who doesn't rule out military action against Iran at a time when his own country is participating in the illegal occupation of two countries that border Iran. Moreover, this ingratiating opportunist finds it necessary to qualify any criticism of Israel with a criticism of the Palestinians, thereby contributing to the myth that there are two parties who are equally responsible for for the "conflict", this is a man who is effectively, knowingly or unknowingly, a zionist tool.
If proof of the above were needed we can find it in a report yesterday from the 'Jewish Community Online'; "Foreign Secretary David Miliband has expressed concern over worsening tensions in Jerusalem, and said Britain would press the Israeli government to halt evictions in East Jerusalem.
In a telephone conversation with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mr Miliband also expressed his anger with Hamas to Prime Minster Salam Fayyad. The militant group yesterday urged Palestinians to boycott the January elections in Gaza, threatening violence against those who did not.
Mr Miliband said in a statement: “This betrays the Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered so much in the past year.”" "Britain would press the Israeli government", oh right, David, "press, press" and when it comes to betraying the Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered so much you would do well to consider the fact that your failure to criticise the zionist state contributed to that suffering.
"As it soon became clear that Blair had no support on the left, let alone on the centre right. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain's centre-left prime minister, for the first time publicly queried the Blair candidacy by announcing that the centre left across the EU was more concerned with securing the other post of European foreign minister."
And why is that bad news; well it would appear that the so-called "centre-left" is a motley crew indeed and it would appear that the very opportunist, David Miliband, is a serious challenger for the job as high representative for foreign policy. This is a man who kept mumm when the ever so brave "IDF" were slaughtering men, women and children in Gaza, this is a man who thinks he can lecture Iran on how it should conduct itself at home and abroad and who doesn't rule out military action against Iran at a time when his own country is participating in the illegal occupation of two countries that border Iran. Moreover, this ingratiating opportunist finds it necessary to qualify any criticism of Israel with a criticism of the Palestinians, thereby contributing to the myth that there are two parties who are equally responsible for for the "conflict", this is a man who is effectively, knowingly or unknowingly, a zionist tool.
If proof of the above were needed we can find it in a report yesterday from the 'Jewish Community Online'; "Foreign Secretary David Miliband has expressed concern over worsening tensions in Jerusalem, and said Britain would press the Israeli government to halt evictions in East Jerusalem.
In a telephone conversation with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mr Miliband also expressed his anger with Hamas to Prime Minster Salam Fayyad. The militant group yesterday urged Palestinians to boycott the January elections in Gaza, threatening violence against those who did not.
Mr Miliband said in a statement: “This betrays the Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered so much in the past year.”" "Britain would press the Israeli government", oh right, David, "press, press" and when it comes to betraying the Palestinians in Gaza who have suffered so much you would do well to consider the fact that your failure to criticise the zionist state contributed to that suffering.
No way out
Steve Coll's book 'Ghost Wars' is an excellent insight into how the CIA, the Pakistani ISI (Inter Services Intelligence) and Saudi money put the Taliban into power. Moreover, he is correct in his more recent contention that "The territorial achievements of the Najibullah government -- no forcible takeover of the Afghan state by Islamist guerrillas, continuous control of all the country's cities and major towns -- might look attractive today to the United States as a minimum measure of success." Nevertheless, when he further asserts that the "international community" (the inverted commas are mine) still has reason to believe that it can do better, he is divorcing himself from the realities on the ground. He is right to hope, but for many Afghanis the "international community" is, if anything, worse than the Soviets ever were.
Although the last thing the majority of Afghanis want is a return of the Taliban to power this does not detract from the fact that when they look at the corruption that bedevils the so-called "international community", when they look at that community's inability to do constructive work for the people of Afghanistan and when they see their people being bombed by foreign troops they also don't want "Uncle Sam" and his chums there. Steve appears to offer a solution of sorts when he points to how a stable Pakistan will work in Afghanistan and, indeed, in America's interests. However, he appears to make that stable Pakistan dependent on a stable Afghanistan. Already we are drifting into the realms of the chicken and the egg. Furthermore, while he thinks that efforts to stabilise Pakistan, should run parallel with the limited goal of achieving what the Soviets achieved, the evidence only suggests that the opposite is happening and will continue to happen. Indeed, if America, as Mathew P Hoh suggests, is essentially involved in a thirty-five year civil war in Afghanistan it would appear that it is also in the process of getting involved in, indeed is helping to flame the fires of, what is essentially a civil war in Pakistan; nobody would argue against the contention that the whole region has been destablised by the so-called "intervention" of the so-called "international community".
There might, however, be some hope; if the "international community" were to stop dropping bombs on both sides of the ' Durand Line', if that community were to actually do something for the people of Afghanistan and, finally, if that community were to stop supporting a corrupt government that is as much the enemy of the Afghani people as the Taliban is and if that "international community" were to introduce a genuinely secular, democratic government into Afghanistan, then, perhaps, America could avoid disaster. However, while Steve offers a strategy that might make that possible, in doing so he is almost demonstrating a naivity that belies his knowledge of the region. Indeed, it almost smacks of wishful thinking from a man who is all too aware of the history of American policy in Afghanistan from 1979 up until the present and of the failure of that policy. There are too many conditionals and it is already five to midnight. In the meantime, General McChrystal calls for 500,000 troops over five years, the man with the shawls brother, Ahmed Wali Kharzai, a major player in the country's booming opium trade picks up extra pay cheques from the CIA, the "international community", and the Afghani in-crowd, sup cappucino in Kabul whle a few miles outside the city the war rages. Yes, there is an eerie "Déjà Vu", which echoes of Saigon, and one is beginning to think that the success of America's imperial adventure will be limited, at best, to an orderly withdrawal of the sort that the Soviets achieved in 1989 and the United States failed to achieve in 1975. Still, as we say in Germany, "die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt" (hope is the last thing to die) and with that in mind, I should not be too critical of Mr Coll for trying to feed that hope.
Although the last thing the majority of Afghanis want is a return of the Taliban to power this does not detract from the fact that when they look at the corruption that bedevils the so-called "international community", when they look at that community's inability to do constructive work for the people of Afghanistan and when they see their people being bombed by foreign troops they also don't want "Uncle Sam" and his chums there. Steve appears to offer a solution of sorts when he points to how a stable Pakistan will work in Afghanistan and, indeed, in America's interests. However, he appears to make that stable Pakistan dependent on a stable Afghanistan. Already we are drifting into the realms of the chicken and the egg. Furthermore, while he thinks that efforts to stabilise Pakistan, should run parallel with the limited goal of achieving what the Soviets achieved, the evidence only suggests that the opposite is happening and will continue to happen. Indeed, if America, as Mathew P Hoh suggests, is essentially involved in a thirty-five year civil war in Afghanistan it would appear that it is also in the process of getting involved in, indeed is helping to flame the fires of, what is essentially a civil war in Pakistan; nobody would argue against the contention that the whole region has been destablised by the so-called "intervention" of the so-called "international community".
There might, however, be some hope; if the "international community" were to stop dropping bombs on both sides of the ' Durand Line', if that community were to actually do something for the people of Afghanistan and, finally, if that community were to stop supporting a corrupt government that is as much the enemy of the Afghani people as the Taliban is and if that "international community" were to introduce a genuinely secular, democratic government into Afghanistan, then, perhaps, America could avoid disaster. However, while Steve offers a strategy that might make that possible, in doing so he is almost demonstrating a naivity that belies his knowledge of the region. Indeed, it almost smacks of wishful thinking from a man who is all too aware of the history of American policy in Afghanistan from 1979 up until the present and of the failure of that policy. There are too many conditionals and it is already five to midnight. In the meantime, General McChrystal calls for 500,000 troops over five years, the man with the shawls brother, Ahmed Wali Kharzai, a major player in the country's booming opium trade picks up extra pay cheques from the CIA, the "international community", and the Afghani in-crowd, sup cappucino in Kabul whle a few miles outside the city the war rages. Yes, there is an eerie "Déjà Vu", which echoes of Saigon, and one is beginning to think that the success of America's imperial adventure will be limited, at best, to an orderly withdrawal of the sort that the Soviets achieved in 1989 and the United States failed to achieve in 1975. Still, as we say in Germany, "die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt" (hope is the last thing to die) and with that in mind, I should not be too critical of Mr Coll for trying to feed that hope.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
NEWS
The European Union is meeting in Brussels to discuss climate change, financial regulation and ..... Tony Blair. Only the first two items are officially on the agenda but everyone is talking about the third and the good news is that although the issue of EU president won't be discussed officially, probaby at a special summit after the Treaty of Lisbon has been finally ratified, it looks like the Europeans just don't want the spin and grin man. At least that was according to a news report I have just watched on "Deutsche Welle".
It would appear that a lot of Europeans are still upset at the way Blair followed Bush in 2003 and it seems that they don't really think that he is "European" enough. Of course, he isn't, and putting his war crimes to one side for a minute, which is not an easy thing to do, there is also the argument of why should a man who kept Britain out of the single currency, a man who refused to sign "Shengen", be the European president? That might be the question that a lot of European leaders are asking themselves and who knows, there might even be one or two who are upset and his efforts to get everyone to support what was an illegal war in 2003.
It would appear that a lot of Europeans are still upset at the way Blair followed Bush in 2003 and it seems that they don't really think that he is "European" enough. Of course, he isn't, and putting his war crimes to one side for a minute, which is not an easy thing to do, there is also the argument of why should a man who kept Britain out of the single currency, a man who refused to sign "Shengen", be the European president? That might be the question that a lot of European leaders are asking themselves and who knows, there might even be one or two who are upset and his efforts to get everyone to support what was an illegal war in 2003.
A tale of two war criminals
While we might see "Mein Kampf" as a blueprint for what the historian, Friedrich Meinecke, called the "Geman Catastrophe", for a war of aggresson and for the holocaust, it might also have been viewed as the ramblings of some right wing nutter had it not been for the fact that the madness was not only "salonfähig'" in large sections of the German public but also it began to have its practical implications some ten years later and was to have its ultimate expression in 'Operation Barbarossa' and the search for "Lebensraum" in the east and, of course, in the death camps of Auschwitz-Birkenhau, Treblinka, Sachsenhausen and elsewhere.
Of course, ideas themselves are not enough to make the person who expressed them a criminal and the ideas on there own would have provided very flimsy evidence at the Nürnberg trials in 1946. However, while there is also some dispute as to whether the "Hossbach-Niederschrift" from November 5, 1937 prove that Hitler actually planned a war of aggression, we might be certain that an abudance of evidence that might have been used by the prosecuation was available long before the Wannsee Conference, which coordinated the "Endlösung" (final solution), on the 20 January 1942.
Without this body of evidence, who knows, but, perhaps Adolf wouldn't have committed suicide and we can just imagine him turning up in Nürnberg and saying when confronted with his "masterpiece"; "come on everybody thought like that in those days" and then they pull out the "Hossbach Niedershrift", well, if Historians are actually arguing about that memorandum now, we can be sure that he would have had an appropriate defence. Nevertheless, it would have become difficult for Adolf, to avoid responsibiity for pursuing a war of aggression, for crimes against humanity and for ethnic cleansing, in the light of the real evidence that he would have been confronted with, namely that "German Catastrophe" that Meinecke talks about, the holocaust, and a second war that had left about a hundred million dead and millions misplaced. No sane person would argue today that Hitler wasn't a war criminal.
Well, one would have to suspect that in the climate created by the mass media after 9/11, a lot of Tony Blair's opinions were "salonfähig" and, if they hadn't have been he wouldn't have been able to take Britain into its illegal war. However, unlike Adolf, when he wrote "Mein Kampf", Tony is already culpable because of his stance. In 2003 he contributed to the machinery that manufactured and molded public opinion , unlike Hitler eighty years earlier who was writing at a time when the "Versailles Diktat" was resented by large sections of the German public and anti-Semitism was an essential component of a "völkische Weltanschuung" that had already taken root in many German households. While the millions who died and tracing documentation regarding responsibility for their deaths back to Hitler would have provided the evidence to convict Hitler, building a case for the prosecution would have required at least a modicum of effort. Gathering enough documented evidence to convict Tony Blair could be done over a cup of coffee. Indeed, a close reading of the "Downing Street Memo", from the 23 March 2002, shows that Blair knew even then of Bush's intent to invade Iraq, his willingness to provoke Saddam into a war, that a war had already begun a year earlier with an air campaign although Congress had yet to approve this campaign, and, that there was already attempt to crush dissent and manipulate information. Blair also knew that there existed a fundamental lack of understanding of Iraqi society and that there was no planning for after the war. Indeed, the British had already taken part in the air campaign in 2002 and Blair's own grin and spin were part of the attempt to crush dissent and manipulate information.
If ever there was a case against a war criminal, there is one against this man. Nevertheless, with the grin and spin still on tour, in the service of the Zionists down Palestine way, with him threatening to become EU president, with him amassing a personal fortune on the backs of dead men, women and children and, indeed, because of him still sauntering around with his silly ingratiating grin, we might allow him to take Adolf's way out and put a bullet through his own head.
Of course, ideas themselves are not enough to make the person who expressed them a criminal and the ideas on there own would have provided very flimsy evidence at the Nürnberg trials in 1946. However, while there is also some dispute as to whether the "Hossbach-Niederschrift" from November 5, 1937 prove that Hitler actually planned a war of aggression, we might be certain that an abudance of evidence that might have been used by the prosecuation was available long before the Wannsee Conference, which coordinated the "Endlösung" (final solution), on the 20 January 1942.
Without this body of evidence, who knows, but, perhaps Adolf wouldn't have committed suicide and we can just imagine him turning up in Nürnberg and saying when confronted with his "masterpiece"; "come on everybody thought like that in those days" and then they pull out the "Hossbach Niedershrift", well, if Historians are actually arguing about that memorandum now, we can be sure that he would have had an appropriate defence. Nevertheless, it would have become difficult for Adolf, to avoid responsibiity for pursuing a war of aggression, for crimes against humanity and for ethnic cleansing, in the light of the real evidence that he would have been confronted with, namely that "German Catastrophe" that Meinecke talks about, the holocaust, and a second war that had left about a hundred million dead and millions misplaced. No sane person would argue today that Hitler wasn't a war criminal.
Well, one would have to suspect that in the climate created by the mass media after 9/11, a lot of Tony Blair's opinions were "salonfähig" and, if they hadn't have been he wouldn't have been able to take Britain into its illegal war. However, unlike Adolf, when he wrote "Mein Kampf", Tony is already culpable because of his stance. In 2003 he contributed to the machinery that manufactured and molded public opinion , unlike Hitler eighty years earlier who was writing at a time when the "Versailles Diktat" was resented by large sections of the German public and anti-Semitism was an essential component of a "völkische Weltanschuung" that had already taken root in many German households. While the millions who died and tracing documentation regarding responsibility for their deaths back to Hitler would have provided the evidence to convict Hitler, building a case for the prosecution would have required at least a modicum of effort. Gathering enough documented evidence to convict Tony Blair could be done over a cup of coffee. Indeed, a close reading of the "Downing Street Memo", from the 23 March 2002, shows that Blair knew even then of Bush's intent to invade Iraq, his willingness to provoke Saddam into a war, that a war had already begun a year earlier with an air campaign although Congress had yet to approve this campaign, and, that there was already attempt to crush dissent and manipulate information. Blair also knew that there existed a fundamental lack of understanding of Iraqi society and that there was no planning for after the war. Indeed, the British had already taken part in the air campaign in 2002 and Blair's own grin and spin were part of the attempt to crush dissent and manipulate information.
If ever there was a case against a war criminal, there is one against this man. Nevertheless, with the grin and spin still on tour, in the service of the Zionists down Palestine way, with him threatening to become EU president, with him amassing a personal fortune on the backs of dead men, women and children and, indeed, because of him still sauntering around with his silly ingratiating grin, we might allow him to take Adolf's way out and put a bullet through his own head.
The memories and the end of Scottish football
Having grown up a Rangers fan in Glasgow during the sixties and early seventies I am surprised that I haven't ended up in Kerbala, Nadjaf or somewhere in the south of Spain flogging myself. However, the fact that Rangers in those days also had a very good side saved me from the temptation to whip big chunks out of my back later on in life. Yes, Celtic were just better. Indeed, from about 67, when they won the European Cup, to 1974, when Athletico Madrid literally kicked them out of the same competition in the Semi Finals, they were as good as it gets.
Nevertheless, Rangers and Scottish football in general were also in a healthy state and I remember when I went to Ibrox to watch Rangers play Bayern Munich in the Semi Finals of the European Cup Winners Cup that I, and everyone else apart from the 1,000 or so German fans in the 80,000 crowd, expected Rangers to win. They did, 2-0, after a 0-0 draw in Munich on an evening when another 80,000 fans were watching Celtic across the city in Parkhead lose in the semi-finals of the European Cup to Inter Milan on penalties.
However, it is to 1967 that I have to go back and the highlight has to be Celtic winning the European Cup. At my school most of the kids were upset that Celtic had not only become the first British side and indeed the first non Latin side to be champions of Europe, but that they were the first Scottish side, For my part I contented myself with the fact that Rangers were going to beat Bayern Munich in the Cup Winners Cup final in Nurnberg a week later, they didn't, they should have but they lost on penalties after extra time, I cried and little solace was gained from the fact that a month earlier Scotland had beaten England, the reigning world champions, 3-2 on their own turf.
Back on those days I was still waiting for Rangers to become European champions and Scotland to win the World Cup. However, I was never more aware that this is never going to happen than last week, when I watched Rangers lose 1-4 at home to a nothing special Romanian team in the Champions League and Celtic stumble to a 0-1 defeat at home to a nothing special Hamburg SV team. Yes, these are dark days for Scottish football and at fifty three it is much more likely I will never see Scotland participate in another World Cup finals than I will see them win the World Cup.
Nevertheless, thanks for the memories and even although I was a Rangers fan no masochistic streak and no inferiority complex developed because of Celtic winning the league nine times in a row. Celtic might have been winning everything, they might have been beating "us" most of the time but then "we" were beating just about everyone else in in Scotland and, indeed, in Europe and then there was the football. There were those moments of magic; standing behind the goal at the Rangers end in a 90,000 crowd at Ibrox watching two very good teams play out a 2-2 draw on a day Celtic clinched the title, watching one particular moment of magic from "Jinky" Johnstone when he scored one of Celtic's goals and despite the hate around me I could appreciate that I had seen something special. At Wembley I watched a Scottish team play the world champions off of the park and I watched another great Scottish player, the by this time not so slim Jim Baxter, tease the English. Yes, there was Jimmy Johnstone, Jim Baxter, Dennis Law, Bobby Lennox, John Grieg, Willie Henderson, Billy Bremner, Eddie Gray, Charlie Cook, etc etc etc and even when they had gone or we had Kenny Dalgleish, Graham Souness, Alan Hansen and a few others appearing on the scene.
Finally, Jimmy Johnstone was asked at the beginning of the nineties how he thought the Celtic team from 1967, a team where all the players were from within 25 miles of Parkhead, would perform against the then present team. He replied diplomatically, "probably a draw", but was then quick to add tha,t at the time of the question, the team from 67 were all over fifty. Watching them struggle against Hamburg as they did last week I would expect the team from 1967 to get a draw with the present Celtic team and that is without "Jinky", who passed away a couple of years ago.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Palestinians going without water
We hear it again and again, Hezbollah fighters hiding behind women and children, the murdered in Gaza caught in crossfire between 'Hamas terrorists' and the morally irreproachable, "we do everything to minimise civilian casualties", IDF. The perpetrators are hard done by, indeed, despite their apache helicopters and state of the art weapons, bad is good, good is bad, and the gobblydegook newspeak takes on a dimension which would do the best efforts of a Dr Josef Goebbels proud.
In today's "Süddeutsche Zeitung", under the headline "Die einen dursten, die anderen baden" ('while people go thirsty, others go swimming') there is an article, based to some extent on a report from Amnesty, on how Palestinians only have access to 70 litres of water per day, which is 30 litres less than the WHO's recommendation. The settlers on the other hand have up to 300 litres a day. Well, you can imagine the scenario; Palestinians queing up with their buckets, kettles, basins, canisters, for the available water while our zionists freaks, and these settlers are freaks, spring into their swimming pools, sprinkling their gardens and, generally, treating this, in the Middle East in particular, precious resource in a manner that we would associate with Texans and oil.
Yet, the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" is one of those "balanced"," middle of the road", mainstream papers that just has to give the other side of the argument and there we have the Israelis accusing the Palestinians of not building water treatment facilities with the money that the EU gave them, accusing them of putting sewage into the ground water; the usual trite, "it wasn't us, it's their fault" and don't they get it? Not only are the occupying someone's land illegally, not only do they control all the water in the West Bank, not only do the indiscriminatly bomb Palestinian facilites that have been built with EU money, but the Fourth Geneva Convention also tells us that they should be treating the civilian population with respect while subjecting them to as little interference as possible.Yet here we have another crime that makes a mockery of international law; depriving the palestinians of water and then trying to tell the world that it is their fault.
One would hope that the world might wake up. However, it is not going to happen through "nice balanced reporting" a la "Süddeutsche". "Otto Normalverbraucher", the German "Joe Soap", comes home puts his feet up and thinks, "can they not even agree on the distribution of water." There aren't two sides to this argument and it really is time to stop thinking that there is. AI knows this and Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and the OPT, states “Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies. In Gaza the Israeli blockade has made an already dire situation worse.” Wakey, wakey, this is Amnesty International speaking here not 'Hamas', not Mahmoud Ahmijenidad, not Hassan Nasrallah, not Osama bin Laden, not some raving anti-semetic or self-hating Jew.
Of course, in order for us all to waken up, we would have to see the story and I notice that the most prominent story on Palestine on the "Süddeutsche" website is one that refers to the fact that 'Hamas' will not allow Abbas to hold elections in Gaza in January, while it looks like the story on Palestinians going without water is not available. They really don't make it easy for the one-eyed man, do they?
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Mathew P Hoh resigns
If further proof of the above was needed it is provided by the news today of Mathew P Hoh resigning from his post as the senior US civilian in Zabul province, a Taleban stronghold in Afghanistan and, in his letter of resignation, we have him saying things like the United States is supporting a corrupt government in what is essentially a thirty-five year civil war and that "like the Soviets, we continue to bolster a failing state, while encouraging a system of government that is unknown and unwanted by its people." Well, anyway, Mathew goes on and I won't but the "revelations" in his letter right down to the US of A not having a real strategy and young Americans sacrificing their lives in vain all hit the nail on the head and while it is all "old hat" to the less myopic of us, it is coming from an American official, a man who has "touched the fire", and maybe, just maybe, someone will be listening to him and maybe, just maybe, today will be a good day for them to take the blinkers off, a day when we learn that "a total of 55 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan this month, nearly half of them in recent days."
Britain to lobby for Blair
Apparently Gordon Brown has appointed two senior civil servants to lobby "discreetly" within Europe for Tony Blair to become the new EU president. Another ego trip for the British government here or what are British interets in Tony becoming EU president? Well, for one thing the president will chair summit meetings of heads of states and governments, which means he will playing a dominant role throwing his tupence worth into the equation and when the man with the grin, the master of spin, throws his tupence worth into the equation it is going to be closer to half of the full shilling and, of course, it is absurd to expect Tony not to represent the interests of the UK, his transatlantic bum chums and his zionist friends down Palestine way. No, I genuinely object to this man, a war criminal, becoming the president of the European Union.
Unfortunately, he will be elected by a qualified majority in the council and he won't even need the approval of the European parliament. That is right, none of us get a say in the matter, not even through our tenuous links to our MEPs and somewhere along the road here democracy appears to be getting left behind.
Finally, it is suggested that one possible alternative from the right would be Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and when I look at some of the other "possibles" I see former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel's name listed. Yes, Juncker and Schussel are from the right but hold on is the suggestion here that Blair is from the left? It really is quite absurd, not only will the hypocrite with the grin and spin possibly end up as European president rather in front of the ICC in the Hague but we are actually being told that he will be a "left wing" president. Sometimes, I think I have a bit part in a rather bad B movie.
Unfortunately, he will be elected by a qualified majority in the council and he won't even need the approval of the European parliament. That is right, none of us get a say in the matter, not even through our tenuous links to our MEPs and somewhere along the road here democracy appears to be getting left behind.
Finally, it is suggested that one possible alternative from the right would be Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and when I look at some of the other "possibles" I see former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel's name listed. Yes, Juncker and Schussel are from the right but hold on is the suggestion here that Blair is from the left? It really is quite absurd, not only will the hypocrite with the grin and spin possibly end up as European president rather in front of the ICC in the Hague but we are actually being told that he will be a "left wing" president. Sometimes, I think I have a bit part in a rather bad B movie.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Thought Police
Of course, the little scenario is over the top but what about this headline from the 'Guardian' today; "Police in 9 million pound scheme to 'log domestic extremists'. The 'Guardian' writes, "Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience." "A term coined by the police that has no legal basis"; well, this a wonderfully weird example of 'newspeak' . However, and more importantly, is monitoring people because they have taken part in a peaceful demonstration not an indication that it is high time that the British people press for at least a constitution that would offer some protection of their rights. All the more so as we can expect that not only involvement in "peaceful direct action and civil disobedience" will be monitored, but also things such as political blogs, telephone calls, emails and meetings.
Finally, the picture above depicts the results of the new UK Thought Police's outsourcing drive to attract the necessary experts.
Planned deportation of children born to foreign workers
Israel does not really have an immigration policy except, of course, that which is embodied by the Jewish right of return ('Aliyah') to 'Eretz Yisrael'. Therefore, what do we expect a state that has being pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing against the native population to do when it comes to about 1,000 children who were born to foreign workers?
Well, the obvious solution would be simply to deport them. However, hold on, Israel is a democratic country and in most democratic countries those children would be exempt of deportation because of their automatic citizenship. Of course, in 'Eretz Israel, they join the millions of others who do not have that right. Yes, once again, that conundrum, the so-called "Jewish democracy" reveals itself as the oxymoron it is and it really would take the most mindless, myopic, moron to think otherwise.
Still, they like to continue the pretence and don't they just love to ingratiate themselves with the West when it comes to showing all and sundry that they are humane, just, fair and democratic? Yes, they do, and the news is that the move to expel the children has been opposed by the Labour faction in the 'knessent'. Now, I don't know what this will lead to although it can't lead to citizenship. No, we can almost imagine Israel biting the bullet, letting the 1,000 children stay, giving them a residence permit that will allow them even less rights than those Palestinians who have Israeli passportswhile hoping that we will all take notice of this wonderful little "democracy". Or, who knows, they might build a little settlement for them on the West Bank or just send them all over the border to Gaza.
Well, the obvious solution would be simply to deport them. However, hold on, Israel is a democratic country and in most democratic countries those children would be exempt of deportation because of their automatic citizenship. Of course, in 'Eretz Israel, they join the millions of others who do not have that right. Yes, once again, that conundrum, the so-called "Jewish democracy" reveals itself as the oxymoron it is and it really would take the most mindless, myopic, moron to think otherwise.
Still, they like to continue the pretence and don't they just love to ingratiate themselves with the West when it comes to showing all and sundry that they are humane, just, fair and democratic? Yes, they do, and the news is that the move to expel the children has been opposed by the Labour faction in the 'knessent'. Now, I don't know what this will lead to although it can't lead to citizenship. No, we can almost imagine Israel biting the bullet, letting the 1,000 children stay, giving them a residence permit that will allow them even less rights than those Palestinians who have Israeli passportswhile hoping that we will all take notice of this wonderful little "democracy". Or, who knows, they might build a little settlement for them on the West Bank or just send them all over the border to Gaza.
Aid money in Afghanistan
There was an interesting documentary on German television a couple of days ago. It centred around electricity supply in Kabul in particular and it focused on two German projects, one that is being undertaken by the company Voith Siemens Hydro Power Generation and the other by the Mannheim based MVV Consulting.
What the programme revealed was that while corruption in Afghanistan is a problem it is a problem that we in the West don't only facilitate but, indeed, encourage. Quite simply the two German companies have pocketed a massive amount of money for the projects but failed to provide the service that they are supposed to provide. In short, they have failed to fulfill their end of the agreement.
Of course, it would be naive to think that these German companies are an exception when it comes to western companies in Afghanistan and what the evidence would appear to suggest is that there is a lot of western taxpayer money being pocketed by western companies and corrupt Afghani officials. In the meantime the majority of Afghanis are beginning to see only negatives from the occupation of their country.
What the programme revealed was that while corruption in Afghanistan is a problem it is a problem that we in the West don't only facilitate but, indeed, encourage. Quite simply the two German companies have pocketed a massive amount of money for the projects but failed to provide the service that they are supposed to provide. In short, they have failed to fulfill their end of the agreement.
Of course, it would be naive to think that these German companies are an exception when it comes to western companies in Afghanistan and what the evidence would appear to suggest is that there is a lot of western taxpayer money being pocketed by western companies and corrupt Afghani officials. In the meantime the majority of Afghanis are beginning to see only negatives from the occupation of their country.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The freak show
Well, the BBC gave prime time television space to the buffon Nick Griffin and they got their 8 million watching, so maybe we could take this story out of the news now. However, real news is not covered, or at least not covered properly, by the mainstream media and a story like this has to be milked for a number of reasons.
in today's 'Scotsman' there is an article on the BNP's candidate for Glasgow North East, a certain Charlie Baillie, who has said that he will "go to his grave" wanting his party to remain racist and white only." My own prose are really a waste of space on this one and I can only agree with one reader who wrote: "Has the Scotsman turned into the BNP website? It seems to be running BNP stories all the time. This guy doesn't have a cat's chance in hell - protest votes (which is what got the BNP their Euro seats) will go to Sheridan I imagine. The BNP came up here and tried to cause it when the asylum seekers first moved in. They failed to make any mark then, and they will fail (miserably) again. Can we please have some Scottish politcs. This freak show has run it's course."
Yes a "freak show" that about sums it up and, of course. the 'Scotsman' is only part of a much bigger freak show. Therefore, the question has to be asked, why the freak show? There is real news out there; the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is on-going, the war crimes of Blair, Bush, Cheney et al continue to go unpunished, the bankers are paying themselves big bonuses again just months after pocketing trillions of the taxpayers' money, welfare states all over Europe continue to be eroded bit by bit while unemployment rises; why the freak show? Well, maybe that question was partly answered in the first paragraph and the BBC has to think of how it can attract peoples attention. Well, even accepting that why not put the spotlight on Jack Straw, a man who thinks that Indian visitors should pay a ten thousand pound bond before they are allowed into the country, a man whose comment on women wearing veils to as a “visible statement of separation and difference” apparently led to young thugs trying to pull the veils off Muslim women in the street, the two-faced opportunist who, as Home Secretary in 2000, refused to extradite General Augusto Pinochet but who now as Justice Secretary wants to change the law so that war criminals who live in Britain can be prosecuted. Jack was Foreign Secretary in October 2003 and as Foreign Secretary he asked members of Parliament to vote in favour of war in which, as his statement to parliament showed, he knew innocent Iraqis would be killed.
Yes Griffin is, indeed, a buffon and a buffon is always good for a freak show. Moreover, we cannot blame the BBC's 'Question Time' for wanting to hike up its ratings. Nevertheless, what about some serious television once you get the clown on the show, what about a show where this racist and "want to be" mass murderer is shown up for the amatuer that he is? Moreover, what better way to do it than expose the opportunist and war criminal, Jack Straw. Of course, that is never going to happen and I really am missing the point; the mainstream media is there to protect Jack and his partners in crime. Yes, the buffon hikes up the ratings but he also deflects the attention from the real criminals.
in today's 'Scotsman' there is an article on the BNP's candidate for Glasgow North East, a certain Charlie Baillie, who has said that he will "go to his grave" wanting his party to remain racist and white only." My own prose are really a waste of space on this one and I can only agree with one reader who wrote: "Has the Scotsman turned into the BNP website? It seems to be running BNP stories all the time. This guy doesn't have a cat's chance in hell - protest votes (which is what got the BNP their Euro seats) will go to Sheridan I imagine. The BNP came up here and tried to cause it when the asylum seekers first moved in. They failed to make any mark then, and they will fail (miserably) again. Can we please have some Scottish politcs. This freak show has run it's course."
Yes a "freak show" that about sums it up and, of course. the 'Scotsman' is only part of a much bigger freak show. Therefore, the question has to be asked, why the freak show? There is real news out there; the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is on-going, the war crimes of Blair, Bush, Cheney et al continue to go unpunished, the bankers are paying themselves big bonuses again just months after pocketing trillions of the taxpayers' money, welfare states all over Europe continue to be eroded bit by bit while unemployment rises; why the freak show? Well, maybe that question was partly answered in the first paragraph and the BBC has to think of how it can attract peoples attention. Well, even accepting that why not put the spotlight on Jack Straw, a man who thinks that Indian visitors should pay a ten thousand pound bond before they are allowed into the country, a man whose comment on women wearing veils to as a “visible statement of separation and difference” apparently led to young thugs trying to pull the veils off Muslim women in the street, the two-faced opportunist who, as Home Secretary in 2000, refused to extradite General Augusto Pinochet but who now as Justice Secretary wants to change the law so that war criminals who live in Britain can be prosecuted. Jack was Foreign Secretary in October 2003 and as Foreign Secretary he asked members of Parliament to vote in favour of war in which, as his statement to parliament showed, he knew innocent Iraqis would be killed.
Yes Griffin is, indeed, a buffon and a buffon is always good for a freak show. Moreover, we cannot blame the BBC's 'Question Time' for wanting to hike up its ratings. Nevertheless, what about some serious television once you get the clown on the show, what about a show where this racist and "want to be" mass murderer is shown up for the amatuer that he is? Moreover, what better way to do it than expose the opportunist and war criminal, Jack Straw. Of course, that is never going to happen and I really am missing the point; the mainstream media is there to protect Jack and his partners in crime. Yes, the buffon hikes up the ratings but he also deflects the attention from the real criminals.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Nick Griffin the buffon
Indeed, the 'picked on' factor appears to have already given the BNP a boost with another report in the 'Guardian' pointing out that a pool for the 'Daily Telegraph' put their support at a general election up from 2% to 3% with as many as 22% of Britons willing to think about voting for them in local and European elections.
Nevertheless, we shouldn't worry too much about Nick the buffon and, while his comments about multi-cultural London and his other views should give us reason to condemn the BBC for giving someone who openly insults a large section of the British public a platform just so that they can increase their ratings, we do at least know where we are with Nick. No, the British ultimately "don't" pick on anyone. Or let me put it this way, eloquent spin merchants are required in the "land of the free" before the British commit their crimes against humanity and, while they will be ever so careful not to insult muslims and any who think differently at home, they will be wiping them out on foreign fields.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Israel in the process of solving its demographic problems
Today Israel has solved its demographic problem with the 'Jerusalem Post' reporting that the Shavei Israel organization has just brought 7 descendents of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, to Zionistan. Moreover, those seven might only be an advanced party for a much larger part of the approximately 1,000 descendants of the Jewish community there. Of course, even if all 1,000 were to come that wouldn't change the fact that Jews are condemned to be in the minority in the land that they are occupying. However, we should not bank on that and my experience of China informs me that the Chinese can be very pragmatic and who knows in the People's Republic there might be a few million just waiting to "discover" that having Jewish roots might offer the opportunity for a better life than the one that they are having at the moment. Yes, the times they might have changed but some things never change.
The picture shows the Kaifeng "Jews" arriving at Ben Gurion Airport and hopefully all of those nasty people out there will stop accusing Israel of racism.
Christopher Hitchens
However, he should be careful when it comes to confronting what is the most nonsensical gobbledegook with "rational" arguments based on fact. That, of course, is not to say that the gobbledegook shouldn't be confronted with rational arguments from time to time. Nevertheless, I would plead that we stick to simple and lucid arguements when tackling the 'God Squad'". Unfortunately, Christopher invariably fails to do this and tends gets lost in his own verbosity, and while he might indeed be the autodidactic par excellence, the question might be asked, has he really read all five volumes of Pierre-Simon de Laplace's "Celestial Mechanics", and a has he really read all of the countless other works that he quotes? Nevertheless, he might have and, while I doubt that he has, it could even be argued that this "top down" disguised as "bottom up" approach that he uses is sufficient to substantiate his main arguments.
However, I believe that Christopher has a habit of relying on his own schemata too much and that this often fails him. For instance, in his book, 'God is not Great', he appears to use the German "Schadenfreude" as some sort of philosphical basis for a theory, or concept, of "guilty joy". The German "Schadenfreude" would of course, be translated as "taking pleasure in others misfortunes". This in itself, is not too important but it becomes important when it is used to generalise in a manner that smacks of waffle at best. Even when I went through my Christian phase at school, which many schoolboys in Glasgow did in the 60s, I did not as Christopher suggests, "have a repressed desire to see everything smashed up." Alright, a lot of young boys in Glasgow in the 60s wanted to smash things up, but that was not because of what Christopher calls, "guilty joy". No, Mr Hitchens is too verbose and he is too inaccurate. Of course, there are occassions where we need the arguments to confront the believers in the big pie in the sky. Nonetheless, simple arguments will suffice in tackling their nonsense, thank you!
Still, Mr Hitchens could be forgiven if verbosity, generalisation, and, indeed, inaccuracy were the exception rather than the rule. However, they are not and once again we find the waffle becoming all too blatant when he attacks Nietzsche's pronouncement that god was dead as "histrionic and self-contradictory". Most of us know exactly what Nietzsche meant by this statement and even if we don't, the fact that he very well knew about Feuerbach would quickly bring us to the conclusion that what he meant was that the this absurd belief in a god could, or rather should, no longer play a role in people's lives. At times it would appear that Christopher's brain is indeed like a dung heap and if you leave it long enough something will appear. Religion does not need this as an adversary, indeed, it is an adversary that the "simple man" would simply ignore. Moreover, while I would agree with Socrates when he says that "an unexamined life is not worth living" I would add that a very simple examination of that life is all that is required if we are to reject any of organised religion for the nonsense that it is and if we are seeking to convince others, I feel that simple arguments can follow the simple examination.
It is outside the scope of this post to continue by picking on other areas where Christorpher's schemata lets him down. He is a clever chap but when you confront the "gobbledegookers" they will get you to cross your "ts" and dot your "eyes" and, if you fail to do this, they will poke out your eye. In the "Kingdom of the Blind" the one-eyed man can be king but he will not become so by persuasion. Ultimately, the best way to challenge the "gobbledegookers" is to adopt the Monty Python approach; "religion is nonsense" "no, it isn't", "yes it is" and what is more, it is so silly we only need very basic arguments to knock it down, what we don't need are, 21st century Hegels, that German philosopher who all Germans revere because they don't understand him.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
400,000 former Anglicans seek immediate unity with Rome
The history of the Anglican church has been heavily influenced by that pragmatism, at times of a machiavellien nature, that has come to be seen as an English trait. Indeed, while the Lutheran and Calvinist theologies offered a revolutionary departure from the Roman Church, and the accompanying radical changes in society, Henry VIII was just kicking out the pope, robbing the monastries and divorcing at a whim. In England, at least, Henry was to be God's representative on earth.
A church, therefore, that had its roots in a pragmatism that was the trait of an autocratic monarch, was to be pragmatic when it came to adapting to changing times and, lo and behold, it was, at least partly, to become a church where women can be priests, priests can be homosexual and homosexuals can get married. Yes, the times they are a changing, at least for some.
Here, there is not room to discuss the difference between the "High Church", or Anglo-Catholicism, and the "Low Church", suffice to say that the difference today is between those members of the Anglican community who, on questions of dogma and, more especially, or ritual, would find themselves closer to Rome than the Archbishop of Canterbury and now the 'Times' reports that;
"Leaders of more than 400,000 Anglicans who quit over women priests are to seek immediate unity with Rome under the apostolic constitution announced by Pope Benedict XVI. They will be among the first to take up an option allowing Anglicans to join an “ordinariate” that brings them into full communion with Roman Catholics while retaining elements of their Anglican identity"
Well a logical move indeed and who needs a liberal church, which wants to accomodate women and homosexual priests? We don't, for what we have here are a group of people who are already modern enough to grapple with concepts such as equality, freedom and democracy, and, who knows, we might soon have a few lesbians in the "Low Church" who proclaim that God was a carpet muncher or a few homosexuals who might proclaim Jesus gay. Indeed, they might even get really wise and say things like, "virgin birth my arse", or, "of course, people don't walk on water and it is not meant to be taken literally."
No, it is only logical that the deluded, indeed, quite mad, "High Church" Anglicans find their "Geistigeheimat" in Rome. There they can join their fellows in following the great gobbledegook; homosexuality and abortion, yes, even condoms, are sins, God wasn't a man but by God he was manly, Jesus walked on water, he rose from the dead, he ignored the law of diminishing returns and distributed bread and fish until the cows came home. Yes, he was a real miracle man and, in the meantime, we, athiests and agnostics can hope, that the rest of the Anglican Church disintigrates and the members of that Church join either the community of non-believers or find their own way to some higher spirituality through their own little revelation and, hopefully, one morning "modern man" will just wake up and smirk when he reads statements like that from, Vittorio Messori, who said, "More Muslims go to the mosques in London than Anglicans go to church.” He will smirk and think, "who cares, you are all full of shit", and, while you can attend your gobbledegook churches, mosques and synagogues, we will just have to ensure that that gobbledegook stays behind the walls of those institutions. In the meantime, our "High Church"Anglicans are going to discover that God might not even speak English.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Newspeak from the Israeli ambassador to Washington
It is a crispy cold, but not too cold, day in Munich, the sun is shining, it is one of those days when a stroll in the park, a sitting outside with a warm jacket on, a walk down to and around the "Auer Dult", is required. Yet, here is me trapped inside 'Starbucks', accross from, but out of sight, of the "Theatinerkirche". Inside they have a wireless internet connection and I wanted to check my mail and all of a sudden I was reading 'Al Jazeera' and what about this for a headline in light of the my earlier post ? 'Israel-US settlements deal "close"'!
Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, has told 'Al Jazeera' that "the US had agreed with Israel to a temporary halt to settlement building activity in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, rather than a total freeze." Well, nice to see them working out their strategy to dispossess the Palestinians and doesn't the rest of the world, not to mention the Palestinians themselves, have something to say about this? Well, obviously not, or at least they are hardly going to be heard, however, for good measure, Mr Oren makes the Zionist position clear, when he says, "The agreement was a time-limited halt - or a pause, if you will - to the settlement construction, that would allow for a certain amount of what we would call 'certain life growth' in the territories." "What "you" would call certain life growth in the territories, Mr Oren, is illegal construction in occupied territories. They are not "territories", they are not "disputed territories" they are occupied territories, Palestinian land, you have no right to be there and, not that it will interest you, but your gobblydegook nonsensical newspeak actually offends good taste on a crispy cold, but not too cold, day in Munich.
Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, has told 'Al Jazeera' that "the US had agreed with Israel to a temporary halt to settlement building activity in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, rather than a total freeze." Well, nice to see them working out their strategy to dispossess the Palestinians and doesn't the rest of the world, not to mention the Palestinians themselves, have something to say about this? Well, obviously not, or at least they are hardly going to be heard, however, for good measure, Mr Oren makes the Zionist position clear, when he says, "The agreement was a time-limited halt - or a pause, if you will - to the settlement construction, that would allow for a certain amount of what we would call 'certain life growth' in the territories." "What "you" would call certain life growth in the territories, Mr Oren, is illegal construction in occupied territories. They are not "territories", they are not "disputed territories" they are occupied territories, Palestinian land, you have no right to be there and, not that it will interest you, but your gobblydegook nonsensical newspeak actually offends good taste on a crispy cold, but not too cold, day in Munich.
An Israeli independent inquiry and negotiations for a final settlement
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, Dan Menidor, is saying that Israel should establish its own independent committee to investigate IDF activity in Gaza. "Activity", that is a novel word in the newspeak vocabulary and just as settlements become "neighbourhoods" and resistance to occupation becomes "terrorism", the murdering of innocents is referred to as "acitivity". Moreover, what kind of "independent committee" is Mr Meridor talking about? We, of course, know all about their "independent inquiry". No, their first blunder was in not facilitating Goldstone's own research and the second was in not following Goldstone's advice and having their own "inquiry" and, independently of what happens in the UN, any so-called "independent inquiry" by the Israelis now will automatically be seen for what it is, namely, the usual Zionist whitewash.
Dan Meridor also says that he is worried because Abbas said no to Olmert's "far-reaching" offers at a time when the ex-PM really wanted an agreement, while asking, if anyone actually thinks that they will now give more than Olmert was willing to give? Interesting, and while I have very little faith in Abbas, the question now begs asking; do you think that the Palestinians will now accept less than Olmert was offering them?
Anyway Dan, have your little Zionist face-saving "independent inquiry" and stand firm on Netanyahu's unwillingness to cede sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City, grant the right of return, and no territorial exchange" stance and, in the meantime, there is also evidence to suggest that even Abbas knows that he cannot negotiate on the rights of his people. Indeed, to do so would not only be immoral, it would also be illegal and maybe, just maybe, the even Abu Mazan (Abbas) is not quite as soft in the head as it would sometimes appear.
Dan Meridor also says that he is worried because Abbas said no to Olmert's "far-reaching" offers at a time when the ex-PM really wanted an agreement, while asking, if anyone actually thinks that they will now give more than Olmert was willing to give? Interesting, and while I have very little faith in Abbas, the question now begs asking; do you think that the Palestinians will now accept less than Olmert was offering them?
Anyway Dan, have your little Zionist face-saving "independent inquiry" and stand firm on Netanyahu's unwillingness to cede sovereignty over Jerusalem's Old City, grant the right of return, and no territorial exchange" stance and, in the meantime, there is also evidence to suggest that even Abbas knows that he cannot negotiate on the rights of his people. Indeed, to do so would not only be immoral, it would also be illegal and maybe, just maybe, the even Abu Mazan (Abbas) is not quite as soft in the head as it would sometimes appear.
A few crumbs
What you really have to wonder about, is why the United States should be called upon to broker any peace between he Palestinians and Israel? After all, Washington's pro-Israel bias is all too obvious to everyone. Yet, there we have today Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat saying that he is ready for talks with the US but not with Israel. Of course, he gives us his reasons and he told 'Haaretz', that while Israel continues to build settlements, the US has called for a freeze on construction and there is an American plan for peace.
It is actually quite frightening how a superficiall declaration by the "hype" man, which has actually achieved "nada de nada", keeps the whole farce going. On the one hand we have Israel continuing to build on illegally on occupied land and, on the other, we have the Palestinians being naive enough to believe that "Uncle Sam" might actually be ntent on reigning in his zionist chums. The nature of the relationship between the two is surely obvious to even the most myopic of us and while a certain "Realpolitik" dictates that there has to be at least a few crumbs left for the Palestinians, that is what it is, namely, "Realpolitik" and it is a policy that works in Israel's favour.
That the poor Mr Erekat believes it is worthwhile to talk to Washington is actually a tragedy and Palestinians should be staring to think about how to exclude the United States from a process that really, has nothing to do with them. Do this and return to security council resolution 242 as the basis of any negotiation and there might be a way forward. Moreover, you can believe me, the hype man is already working hard behind the scenes to get the Israelis to offer the Palestinian people a few crumbs and that is what you will get for in Zionistan they really do believe that they can have "their" cake and eat it.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
The man with the inevitable grin to accompany his disgusting spin
This is a man, who we all thought was fab, here was a socialist with the gift of the gab, always a smile, encased in his grin, we were all seduced by his beguiling spin. However, now it is blatantly obvious that because he lied hundreds of thousands, maybe millions have died.
Today, he took himself down to Hebron. in his capacity as Middle East envoy and bodyguards had to tackle a Palestinian man as he approached him shouting that he was a terrorist. Still, there he was, the man who supported the Israelis when they were killing innocents in the Lebanon and the man who refuses to criticise them after they have slaughtered hundreds more innocents in Gaza, a pacifying wave and then the grin but what about this for audacity and here comes the spin: "Most Palestinians and Israelis want the conflict "resolved in a peaceful way", he said. They understand "it's not going to be resolved unless we find a way of creating two states, a state of Israel and a state of Palestine side by side in peace." "Frankly it's not protests that will do that. It's patient negotiation," Blair told reporters. "Patient negotiations" when illegal settlements, against which he has said nothing, are still being built, when the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the illegal blockade of Gaza continue unabated and when, at a whim Israel kills civilians. What on earth is this guy talking about?
This is a man who knows how lie but don't listen too closely or people will die, it isn't a joke, it really isn't funny, this is someone who loves power and money. "Joe Soap" back in 'Blighty' woud call him a tit and it is out on the street that he's a real hypocrite. Tony Blair, liar, mass murderer and hypocrite.
Monday, October 19, 2009
They are all in it together
You know, the problem is that they really don't get it; as thick as pigshit you might say! The German 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' informed me today that Israel is in the process of starting a PR offensive against the Goldstone report.
There we have them, like spoilt children, crying and whining, "you are being unfair, we are really the good guys, honest, honest, honest" and Bibi gets what the 'Süddeutsche' refers to as "unexpected help' from Livni, who proclaims that the "UN has always been unfair to Israel and that Israel will ignore the report". "Unexpected help" and does the 'Süddeutsche' want us to believe that there is some sort of real opposition in Israel, that there is going to be a difference of opinion between oppostion and government on something like this? Indeed, Livni has to be grateful to Bibi after all he is going to protect her and the other war criminals. No, they are all in the zionist boat together and they really don't get it; thick as pigshit you might say!
However, thick as pigshit, they are not and on monday Bibi told members of his Likud party, "It's going to the UN," "We'll make sure it gets vetoed."No, they are not as thick as pigshit, they know what they are doing and although the evidence is all there, although they were caught red handed, there they are crying and whining; "we were only defending ourselves", "we didn't mean to kill so many women and children*, "you will spoil the peace process if you endorse this report". Not only are these people murderers, they are also a bunch of deluded, whining and moaning hypocrites and they are all in it together; intractable, juvenile, stubborn, irresponsible and hypocritical. One wonders if there is a remedy for this bunch. Wakey, wakey, the occupation is illegal, the blockade of Gaza is illegal, it is a war crime to shoot women and children at point blank range.
There we have them, like spoilt children, crying and whining, "you are being unfair, we are really the good guys, honest, honest, honest" and Bibi gets what the 'Süddeutsche' refers to as "unexpected help' from Livni, who proclaims that the "UN has always been unfair to Israel and that Israel will ignore the report". "Unexpected help" and does the 'Süddeutsche' want us to believe that there is some sort of real opposition in Israel, that there is going to be a difference of opinion between oppostion and government on something like this? Indeed, Livni has to be grateful to Bibi after all he is going to protect her and the other war criminals. No, they are all in the zionist boat together and they really don't get it; thick as pigshit you might say!
However, thick as pigshit, they are not and on monday Bibi told members of his Likud party, "It's going to the UN," "We'll make sure it gets vetoed."No, they are not as thick as pigshit, they know what they are doing and although the evidence is all there, although they were caught red handed, there they are crying and whining; "we were only defending ourselves", "we didn't mean to kill so many women and children*, "you will spoil the peace process if you endorse this report". Not only are these people murderers, they are also a bunch of deluded, whining and moaning hypocrites and they are all in it together; intractable, juvenile, stubborn, irresponsible and hypocritical. One wonders if there is a remedy for this bunch. Wakey, wakey, the occupation is illegal, the blockade of Gaza is illegal, it is a war crime to shoot women and children at point blank range.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Congo will not arrest Zimulinda
We have to paste the "little" pieces of news that comes out of the Congo. However, when we do so we can put a realistic picture together and it would appear that Nkunda's main problem wasn't that he was a mad psycophath, but rather that he got too big for his boots. Moreover, whatever the truth in that assertion, one thing is for sure, things have not got any better for the people of North Kivu.
Indeed, despite having the population of Gomo on tenderhooks a year ago, there is some evidence to suggest that Nkunda isn't necessarily the worst of a bad lot. Of course, with the ICC already having a warrant out for Ntanga when he deposed Nkunda early in 2009 we were warned and now we have Colonel Zimulinda, a relative of Ntanga's, committing heinous crimes in the east of the Congo, including in the North Kivu region. This is the same Zimulanda that Nkunda had under house arrest for the Kiwanja Massacre of 2008. Interesting, however, is the reaction from Kinshasa this time and the DR Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said the authorities were "aware of the massacre" but would not arrest Zimulinda because they feared the consequences would be too great.Well, yes they would be, after all, both Ntanga and Zimulinda are wearing FARDC uniforms.
It would appear that those uniforms are offering the war criminals, Ntanga and Zimulinda, no little protection and, indeed, it would appear that they are now getting some very useful help in carrying out their raping and pillaging, with the UN force (MONUC) ferrying them about from village to village, while naively proclaiming that the potential of the Hutu FDLR and Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army to pursue their rather unsavoury activities has been seriously curtailed. Well, maybe it has, maybe, nevertheless, what we now have is a motley mob running around with the blessings of Kinshasa and the UN, slaughtering at will and pursuing their own "little" ethnic cleansing with a sense of impunity.
Of course, the western media will be selling this as progress, Kagame in Kigali will be becoming an increasingly important stakeholder in North Kivu as Kabila it appears, as already bitten the bullet and decided to share the cake in return for what? Well, maybe either in return for becoming "president for life" of the "New Democratic Republic of the Congo", a rump stripped of most of its weatlhy eastern regions, or in return for his receiving some high office in some Rwandan-Congolese federation. The mind boggles and, in the meantime the UN and the West continue to support mass murderers.
Indeed, despite having the population of Gomo on tenderhooks a year ago, there is some evidence to suggest that Nkunda isn't necessarily the worst of a bad lot. Of course, with the ICC already having a warrant out for Ntanga when he deposed Nkunda early in 2009 we were warned and now we have Colonel Zimulinda, a relative of Ntanga's, committing heinous crimes in the east of the Congo, including in the North Kivu region. This is the same Zimulanda that Nkunda had under house arrest for the Kiwanja Massacre of 2008. Interesting, however, is the reaction from Kinshasa this time and the DR Congo's Information Minister Lambert Mende said the authorities were "aware of the massacre" but would not arrest Zimulinda because they feared the consequences would be too great.Well, yes they would be, after all, both Ntanga and Zimulinda are wearing FARDC uniforms.
It would appear that those uniforms are offering the war criminals, Ntanga and Zimulinda, no little protection and, indeed, it would appear that they are now getting some very useful help in carrying out their raping and pillaging, with the UN force (MONUC) ferrying them about from village to village, while naively proclaiming that the potential of the Hutu FDLR and Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army to pursue their rather unsavoury activities has been seriously curtailed. Well, maybe it has, maybe, nevertheless, what we now have is a motley mob running around with the blessings of Kinshasa and the UN, slaughtering at will and pursuing their own "little" ethnic cleansing with a sense of impunity.
Of course, the western media will be selling this as progress, Kagame in Kigali will be becoming an increasingly important stakeholder in North Kivu as Kabila it appears, as already bitten the bullet and decided to share the cake in return for what? Well, maybe either in return for becoming "president for life" of the "New Democratic Republic of the Congo", a rump stripped of most of its weatlhy eastern regions, or in return for his receiving some high office in some Rwandan-Congolese federation. The mind boggles and, in the meantime the UN and the West continue to support mass murderers.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Nepotism
There he is, all 165 centimetres of him, alright, alright, still makes him taller than Berlosconi at 164 centimetres and, we are told, Napoleon at 162 centimetres. Morevoer, Hitler, Stalin, Julius Caesar and a few others were hardly taller, Genghis Khan was most definitely smaller, and anyway we have had some really mediocre really tall or really fat or really skinny, or really tall and fat or tall and skinny, twats leading their countries and the planet to disaster. No, height and stature, ugly or handsome, can hardly be a factor here and when it comes to meglomania, egomania, yes and even downright incompetence, the French president has a number of all shapes and sizes models that he can look to.
However, getting his 23 year old, baby faced, second year undergraduate student son a job to run the Paris business disctrict really takes the biscuit and this type of nepotism is not something we expect, or want, in 21st century Europe. In fact, it is something we don't want anywhere. Of course, what we want, or don't want, is neither here nor there and the question remains, will he get away with it? The evidence suggests that, in a country where political dynasties are par for the course, he might in the short term and in the longer term he will. Yes, I am sure that we will be hearing more of the young Jean Sarkozy.
Still, Jean is not unusual, especially not in France, and the 'Guardian' writes, "French leaders always kept it in the family: Jacques Chirac's daughter Claude ran his public relations strategy; François Mitterrand's son and adviser, Jean-Christophe, is now a defendant in the Angolagate trial over arms-trafficking and his nephew Frederic Mitterrand is currently serving as Sarkozy's controversial culture minister." Moreover, this is not unique to France, even in Europe, and in Greece the, at least, apparently competent George Papandreou is inheriting the office of his late, "great" father, Andreas.
Yes, we can stop our smug smirking at the Kims, Ghaddafis and Ghandis and we don't have to wonder about that "democracy" across the big pond, which sells itself as the "from dishwasher to president" meritocracy but in fact offends "the one eyed-man's" meritocratic sensibilities. Nevertheless, although the Kims, Ghaddafis, Ghandis and Bushes have been around for a long time here in Europe, it is with "baby faced" Jean that the farce becomes all too apparent even to the most myopic of us. It is, of course, nothing short of absurd that this second year university student should be in line for taking over the richest department in France and if Sarkozy does get away with it the next thing we might be reading is that some pretty twenty year old, who gives Silvio Berlosconi blow jobs, has become the Italian foreign minister.
However, getting his 23 year old, baby faced, second year undergraduate student son a job to run the Paris business disctrict really takes the biscuit and this type of nepotism is not something we expect, or want, in 21st century Europe. In fact, it is something we don't want anywhere. Of course, what we want, or don't want, is neither here nor there and the question remains, will he get away with it? The evidence suggests that, in a country where political dynasties are par for the course, he might in the short term and in the longer term he will. Yes, I am sure that we will be hearing more of the young Jean Sarkozy.
Still, Jean is not unusual, especially not in France, and the 'Guardian' writes, "French leaders always kept it in the family: Jacques Chirac's daughter Claude ran his public relations strategy; François Mitterrand's son and adviser, Jean-Christophe, is now a defendant in the Angolagate trial over arms-trafficking and his nephew Frederic Mitterrand is currently serving as Sarkozy's controversial culture minister." Moreover, this is not unique to France, even in Europe, and in Greece the, at least, apparently competent George Papandreou is inheriting the office of his late, "great" father, Andreas.
Yes, we can stop our smug smirking at the Kims, Ghaddafis and Ghandis and we don't have to wonder about that "democracy" across the big pond, which sells itself as the "from dishwasher to president" meritocracy but in fact offends "the one eyed-man's" meritocratic sensibilities. Nevertheless, although the Kims, Ghaddafis, Ghandis and Bushes have been around for a long time here in Europe, it is with "baby faced" Jean that the farce becomes all too apparent even to the most myopic of us. It is, of course, nothing short of absurd that this second year university student should be in line for taking over the richest department in France and if Sarkozy does get away with it the next thing we might be reading is that some pretty twenty year old, who gives Silvio Berlosconi blow jobs, has become the Italian foreign minister.
Friday, October 16, 2009
The United Nations Human Rights Council has endorsed the Goldstone report
The United Nations Human Rights Council has endorsed the Goldstone report despite Bibi and the hype man phoning all and sundry before the vote to get them to change their minds. Interesting to see the countries though that are totally in the pockets of Jerusalem and Washington.
Interesting too to see the United Kingdom and France not voting against the resolution despite "Uncle Sam" and Israel pressuring both to do so. Anyway here is a breakdown of the vote:
Yes: Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Liberia, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Senegal and South Africa.
No: Holland, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Ukraine and the United States.
Abstained: Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Slovenia, South Korea and Uruguay.
Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote; Britain and France refused to vote.
Goldstone recommended that after the human rights council endorsed his conclusions they should pass the report onto the UN general assembly, the security council and the prosecutor at the international criminal court. Of course, Washington will ensure that nothing will happen in the security council and the general assembly lacks any sort of clout to achieve anything. However, it might be interesting if somewhere down the road, the ICC send out warrants for the arrest of those who have committed war crimes. It might at least show that that institution does not only operate as an instrument of US foreign policy.
Interesting too to see the United Kingdom and France not voting against the resolution despite "Uncle Sam" and Israel pressuring both to do so. Anyway here is a breakdown of the vote:
Yes: Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Liberia, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Senegal and South Africa.
No: Holland, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Ukraine and the United States.
Abstained: Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina-Faso, Cameron, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Slovenia, South Korea and Uruguay.
Madagascar and Kyrgyzstan were not present during the vote; Britain and France refused to vote.
Goldstone recommended that after the human rights council endorsed his conclusions they should pass the report onto the UN general assembly, the security council and the prosecutor at the international criminal court. Of course, Washington will ensure that nothing will happen in the security council and the general assembly lacks any sort of clout to achieve anything. However, it might be interesting if somewhere down the road, the ICC send out warrants for the arrest of those who have committed war crimes. It might at least show that that institution does not only operate as an instrument of US foreign policy.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Will Tony become EU president?
We would be wrong to think that Tony Blair is only interested in the lots and lots of money that he gets from speaking engagements, consultant fees and the ROI on his property interests. No, Tony needs a "real" job and writing his memoirs isn't really a "real" job, despite the $7.3 million advance he has received on his book.
Tony's "real" job is Special Envoy to the Mideast Quartet (EU, Russia, UN, US) and the extent of how seriously he actually takes that job is should not be deduced from the fact that he only spends about one week a month in the region. Indeed, not only does Tony know when to be absent, for instance, he was spotted at a special private opening of the Armani store in Knightsbridge when Gaza was being torn apart at the beginning of the year, but he also knows when it is time to stand up and be counted and on the 7th October, in response to a direct question while giving a lecture at New York University Tony joined his Zionist mates and rejected the Goldstone report as unbalanced. The man, a war criminal, is, of course, a joke and, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, he is certainly a bad joke.
There is hope that Tony will soon be resigning from his job and it might even be that he, or some of his mates, sense that he might be more "useful" elsewhere. Yes, there must be somewhere, where a man of Tony's calibre can make a really "worthwhile" contribution. After all, is he not the man who managed to drag the UK into an illegal war that has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions? Yes, Tony needs a new stage and there is evidence to suggest that he might be lining himself up for the job of EU president. Now, that would be a nice little number with the total package, including salary, accommodation and expenses, for the job coming to about three and a half million pounds over two consecutive terms of two and a half years.
Fortunately, Tony still hasn't got the job and, with a number of the smaller European countries not wanting him to get it, it woud appear that his fate is increasingly in Angela Merkel's hands. Well, she might just decide that, with Sarkozy and Berlosconi, Europe already has its quota of narcissistic egonmaniacs and that there is no place for Tony "two faced" Blair in this circus. That, of course, will mean that our "foot lose and fancy free" war criminal can go back to what he is good at, namely, licking Zionist ass in Jerusalem. However, it might just be that in Washington and Jerusalem it has already been decided that he will be more useful in Brussels and it might just be that the required pressure is already being put on Angie to do the "right" thing and I don't mean have him arrested and dragged to the Hague the next time he sets foot on European soil.
Tony's "real" job is Special Envoy to the Mideast Quartet (EU, Russia, UN, US) and the extent of how seriously he actually takes that job is should not be deduced from the fact that he only spends about one week a month in the region. Indeed, not only does Tony know when to be absent, for instance, he was spotted at a special private opening of the Armani store in Knightsbridge when Gaza was being torn apart at the beginning of the year, but he also knows when it is time to stand up and be counted and on the 7th October, in response to a direct question while giving a lecture at New York University Tony joined his Zionist mates and rejected the Goldstone report as unbalanced. The man, a war criminal, is, of course, a joke and, as far as the Palestinians are concerned, he is certainly a bad joke.
There is hope that Tony will soon be resigning from his job and it might even be that he, or some of his mates, sense that he might be more "useful" elsewhere. Yes, there must be somewhere, where a man of Tony's calibre can make a really "worthwhile" contribution. After all, is he not the man who managed to drag the UK into an illegal war that has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions? Yes, Tony needs a new stage and there is evidence to suggest that he might be lining himself up for the job of EU president. Now, that would be a nice little number with the total package, including salary, accommodation and expenses, for the job coming to about three and a half million pounds over two consecutive terms of two and a half years.
Fortunately, Tony still hasn't got the job and, with a number of the smaller European countries not wanting him to get it, it woud appear that his fate is increasingly in Angela Merkel's hands. Well, she might just decide that, with Sarkozy and Berlosconi, Europe already has its quota of narcissistic egonmaniacs and that there is no place for Tony "two faced" Blair in this circus. That, of course, will mean that our "foot lose and fancy free" war criminal can go back to what he is good at, namely, licking Zionist ass in Jerusalem. However, it might just be that in Washington and Jerusalem it has already been decided that he will be more useful in Brussels and it might just be that the required pressure is already being put on Angie to do the "right" thing and I don't mean have him arrested and dragged to the Hague the next time he sets foot on European soil.
Self hating Jews and anti-Semites and Bibi decides who the good Jews are
David Axelrod and Rahm Emmanuel are Obama's aides in the White House, which means, of course, that the hype man is their boss. Therefore, when he decided, back in October, to say that his chums in Zionistan should slow down on their construction of illegal settlements and leave a wee bit of the West Bank for the Palestinians, it was only right that David and Rahm sided with him and what did those two staunch Zionists get from their pals back in Jerusalem? Well, for one thing, we had a little outburst from Netanyahu who called them "self-hating Jews". Of course, it cannot get anymore ridiculous; Rahm Emmanuel worked as a volunteer for Israel during the first Gulf War, his kids attend a Jewish day school, his father fought in the Irgun. Rham Emmanuel and David Axelrod, who has links to AIPAC as well has long term ties with the Chicago Jewish community, are not only prouldly Jewish, they are also staunch Zionists.
What we have here is Israel cleverly creating an oppostion where there is in fact none. For while, David and Rahm will side with their boss when he tentatively points out that at least a few crumbs of the cake have to be left to negotiate over, they know that this in fact will ultimately help Israel to appear conciliatory when they tell a couple of lone settlers, stuck somewhere between Jenin and Ramallah, that they are going to have to vacate their pile of stones. Indeed, one might suspect that there is a little bit of "Realpolitik" going on here and that Bibi probably even phoned David and Rahm to tell them of his grand strategy.
Of course, I am probably crediting Bibi with a little bit too much grey matter and maybe, just maybe, this man just doesn't like to be told by anyone what Israel can or cannot do. Moreover he is certainly not alone among Israeli politicians when it comes to thinking like this and we now have the Israeli Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz, saying that Richard Goldstone, the head of the UN commission that accused Israel of war crimes during last winter's Gaza operation, is a Jewish "anti-Semite," Well, not according to Goldstone's daughter, who said last week that that "her father is a "Zionist and loves Israel." My inclination is to believe her. Moreover, when he delivered a lecture in Israel back in 2000, he might actually have been telling the truth when he said that "he believes bringing war criminals to justice stems from the lessons of the Holocaust." Yes, it is to be expected that the Holocaust has played a crucial role in shaping Mr Goldstone's humanistic view of things and, no doubt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other Nazi death camps were also central in forming him as a Zionist.
Yes, the "self-hating Jews" and Bibi and his boys really have assemlbed a motley crew ranging from "the beyond the Zionist pale" to his Zionist pals in the White House, ranging from Finkelstein, Klein, Chomsky and Pappe to Axelrod and Emmanuel and when the "self hating Jew" label doesn't quite fit, lo and behold, even Jews can be anti-semites. Yes, "wer nicht für uns ist, ist gegen uns" and in Bibi's "thousand year Reich" people like Finkelstein would either wander into a Zionist gulag or receive a definite "ban of the empire" and the Axelrods and Emmanuels would be allowed to cultivate illusions not too disimilar to those that German nationalists were allowed to entertain up until July 1944. Of course, with Bibi's new "Reich" officially determining who is a Jew and who isn't, all of them, including the humanist Goldstone, would have their right to call themselves Jewish revoked. After all, this is a man who really has learned the leasons of the holocaust and wasn't it Hermann Göring who said "Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich!"?
What we have here is Israel cleverly creating an oppostion where there is in fact none. For while, David and Rahm will side with their boss when he tentatively points out that at least a few crumbs of the cake have to be left to negotiate over, they know that this in fact will ultimately help Israel to appear conciliatory when they tell a couple of lone settlers, stuck somewhere between Jenin and Ramallah, that they are going to have to vacate their pile of stones. Indeed, one might suspect that there is a little bit of "Realpolitik" going on here and that Bibi probably even phoned David and Rahm to tell them of his grand strategy.
Of course, I am probably crediting Bibi with a little bit too much grey matter and maybe, just maybe, this man just doesn't like to be told by anyone what Israel can or cannot do. Moreover he is certainly not alone among Israeli politicians when it comes to thinking like this and we now have the Israeli Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz, saying that Richard Goldstone, the head of the UN commission that accused Israel of war crimes during last winter's Gaza operation, is a Jewish "anti-Semite," Well, not according to Goldstone's daughter, who said last week that that "her father is a "Zionist and loves Israel." My inclination is to believe her. Moreover, when he delivered a lecture in Israel back in 2000, he might actually have been telling the truth when he said that "he believes bringing war criminals to justice stems from the lessons of the Holocaust." Yes, it is to be expected that the Holocaust has played a crucial role in shaping Mr Goldstone's humanistic view of things and, no doubt, Auschwitz-Birkenau and the other Nazi death camps were also central in forming him as a Zionist.
Yes, the "self-hating Jews" and Bibi and his boys really have assemlbed a motley crew ranging from "the beyond the Zionist pale" to his Zionist pals in the White House, ranging from Finkelstein, Klein, Chomsky and Pappe to Axelrod and Emmanuel and when the "self hating Jew" label doesn't quite fit, lo and behold, even Jews can be anti-semites. Yes, "wer nicht für uns ist, ist gegen uns" and in Bibi's "thousand year Reich" people like Finkelstein would either wander into a Zionist gulag or receive a definite "ban of the empire" and the Axelrods and Emmanuels would be allowed to cultivate illusions not too disimilar to those that German nationalists were allowed to entertain up until July 1944. Of course, with Bibi's new "Reich" officially determining who is a Jew and who isn't, all of them, including the humanist Goldstone, would have their right to call themselves Jewish revoked. After all, this is a man who really has learned the leasons of the holocaust and wasn't it Hermann Göring who said "Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich!"?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Turkey's importance
As American power continues to wane the rise of China will be of particular interest and if the 19th century was Britain' century, the 20th America's and the 21st is to be China's, are we not just substituting one hegemonical power for another? Perhaps, but there is enough evidence to suggest that the primacy that the United States, in particular, has enjoyed since the break up of the Soviet Union will not be repeated.
Firstly, the United States will continue to play a significant role for some time. However, and more importantly, there are other "players" who will be crucial global players and here I am not thinking about any of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) - although, as already indicated, China in particular will assert itself - but rather I am looking to the European Union and, providing a number of condtions can be met, it is the EU that will determine a more balanced new world order. It is outwith the scope of this post to discuss all of those "conditions" in detail. Nevertheless, one thing Europe will have to do is extend its influence into Asia. The new Europe will need to include Turkey.
This has become all too evident at a time when Turkey begins to flex its geopolitical muscles; rapproachment with Russia was, a couple of days ago, followed by the establishment of diplomatic relations with Armenia and there is evidence to suggest that Turkey has found a new "best friend" in the Middle East in Syria with not only visa restrictions between the two countries falling but also, and more importantly, strategic cooperation become increasingly the order of the day. A cooperation that is evidenced by the latest agreement for a natural gas pipeline that was signed on the 13th of October. With the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline already informing Turkey of its geopolitical importance, the latest foreign policy initiatives by Turkey would appear to suggest that Ankara has become even more aware of its influence. Indeed, it is in line with this renewed self assertion on the part of Ankara that we might understand Turkey cancelling a military drill with Israel recently and Israel's ultimately muted response to the cancellation would appear to suggest that it is lost neither on the Zionist state nor on America that Turkey is very much a crucial regional player.
It is this "regional player" that America very much needs in its own camp and for some time Washington, at every opportunity, has been prompting the EU to accept Turkey as a full member. However, recent diplomatic initiatives by Ankara would appear to suggest that Turkey is not necessarily a natural ally for the United States. Moreover, those initiatives also suggest that the European Union could very well benefit from accepting Turkey as a full member and this for reasons that are anything but altruistic. The inclusion of Turkey in the EU as soon as possible will ensure that there is a real counterweight to the United States and an Asian sphere that will become increasingly dominated by China. Yes, the EU should move towards one another and away from the United States and that can only be good for everyone.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Democratic Socialism, China and the West
With the monopolitical cultures in the UK and elsewhere in the West being increasingly exposed as, at best, "democracies" that were perhaps suited to a bygone era, we would do well to get a little bit upset at the patronizing tone that accompanies western media reporting on China. For instance, the 'Guardian' on 20th May 2009, reported that the Chinese reformist, Zhao Ziyang, who was forced out of office in 1989, wrote in his memoirs that China needed a western-style democracy. Certainly, China needs more transparency, more empowerment of its citizens, more accountability, but, a "western style democracy"?
No, while the signatories of "Charter 08" (Língbā Xiànzhāng) are right in their assertion that China has to "recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system", it is not necessarily to the western model that the country should look for guidance. Certainly, not at a time in history when those "democracies", having destroyed their own manufacturing bases, rely on fictitious capital to stay afloat while they look to cheap products from China and other developing countries to keep their populations fetishes satisfied. It would now appear that the most important thing big business in the West manufactures is consent, while the monopolitical cultures which represent those business interests pretend to export their "values" to the Euphrates and Hindukush.
Of course, none of this is to ignore the fact that there are certain traditions, freedoms and experiences in the West which China can look to for guidance. However, it has to be pointed out that, those freedoms and experiences are failing us at the moment. Indeed, they are being increasingly curtailed, as a sophisticated "big brother" culls the masses in the so-called "western democracies" by hammering them with a "newspeak" that is not too dissimilar to the gobbledegook "harmonious society" jargon that Beijing spouts out. Furthermore, while big business pursues its eternal "orwellian wars" under the guise of exporting democracy, the Communist Party of China propagates the "Chinese way to Socialism" but in fact jumps on the capitalist bandwagon.
Nevertheless, history does not stand still and although China still subdues any sort of alternative power structure, dissent is becoming increasingly possible and with this dissent alternatives can ultimately flourish. For this to happen the Chinese will have to grasp those freedoms that we in the West are neglecting and if they do so, and if we in the West start to fight back against the monopolitical cultures that we find ourselves in, we might, indeed, reach that freedom that Rosa Luxembourg spoke of, namely, "die freiheit des anders denkenden" (the freedom of those who think differently).
No, while the signatories of "Charter 08" (Língbā Xiànzhāng) are right in their assertion that China has to "recognize universal values, assimilate into the mainstream civilization, and build a democratic political system", it is not necessarily to the western model that the country should look for guidance. Certainly, not at a time in history when those "democracies", having destroyed their own manufacturing bases, rely on fictitious capital to stay afloat while they look to cheap products from China and other developing countries to keep their populations fetishes satisfied. It would now appear that the most important thing big business in the West manufactures is consent, while the monopolitical cultures which represent those business interests pretend to export their "values" to the Euphrates and Hindukush.
Of course, none of this is to ignore the fact that there are certain traditions, freedoms and experiences in the West which China can look to for guidance. However, it has to be pointed out that, those freedoms and experiences are failing us at the moment. Indeed, they are being increasingly curtailed, as a sophisticated "big brother" culls the masses in the so-called "western democracies" by hammering them with a "newspeak" that is not too dissimilar to the gobbledegook "harmonious society" jargon that Beijing spouts out. Furthermore, while big business pursues its eternal "orwellian wars" under the guise of exporting democracy, the Communist Party of China propagates the "Chinese way to Socialism" but in fact jumps on the capitalist bandwagon.
Nevertheless, history does not stand still and although China still subdues any sort of alternative power structure, dissent is becoming increasingly possible and with this dissent alternatives can ultimately flourish. For this to happen the Chinese will have to grasp those freedoms that we in the West are neglecting and if they do so, and if we in the West start to fight back against the monopolitical cultures that we find ourselves in, we might, indeed, reach that freedom that Rosa Luxembourg spoke of, namely, "die freiheit des anders denkenden" (the freedom of those who think differently).
Berlosconi
Got this quote off of my mate's "twitter", "We must govern for five years with or without the law" says Berlosconi - a worrying stance for the head of a democratic country to take." What a twat! not my mate, of course, but Berlosconi and if we need any more evidence on that score, what about this from saturday's 'Guardian', "The problem, he (Berlosconi) explained, was that "In absolute terms, I am the most legally persecuted man of all times, in the whole history of mankind, worldwide, because I have been subjected to more than 2,500 court hearings and I have the good luck – having worked well in the past and having accumulated an important wealth – to have been able to spend more than €200m in consultants and judges ... I mean in consultants and lawyers." We know what you mean Silivio!
Those comments were preceded by the following; "I am, and not only in my own opinion, the best prime minister who could be found today," he told a press conference. "I believe there is no one in history to whom I should feel inferior. Quite the opposite! Well, if he is comparing himself to Italian Prime Ministers, past and present, he might even have a point, he really is right up there with the "best" of them.
Those comments were preceded by the following; "I am, and not only in my own opinion, the best prime minister who could be found today," he told a press conference. "I believe there is no one in history to whom I should feel inferior. Quite the opposite! Well, if he is comparing himself to Italian Prime Ministers, past and present, he might even have a point, he really is right up there with the "best" of them.
Abbas changes his mind
The backlash against Abbas was to be expected and with the flood of criticism, because of his decision to back a postponement of a Human Rights Council vote on the Goldstone investigation into Israel’s assault on Gaza, threatening to drown him, he has now, according to monday's edition of 'Haaretz', s instructed his envoy to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to resubmit a proposal for a vote on the Goldstone Commission's report on Gaza war crimes".
Nevertheless, the question remains, can you imagine a situation where say, for instance, Austrria is attacked with no declaration of war, thousands of its citizens are killed and the UN orders an inquiry only for the Austrain government to surpress that inquiry? The scenario is, of course, absurd but the analogy is not and although Abbas now appears to have changed his mind the damage has been done to him and his Fatah Party. Indeed, will anyone take Abbas seriously as he now rules out the prospects of peace as long as the Israelis continue their occupation of Jerusalem? This is a man whose latest betrayal of his people just might have been for a license for his son's company.
Of course, the reassessment of his original stance is necessary for Abbas. Indeed, it might even have been a question of his political survival and if Mahmoud were no longer number one in Ramallah then his family business interests would be even more threatened than they are through his latest move. Moreover, there is still a lot of negotiating to be done and the Israelis know that Abbas jr still needs that license and they also know that he is not going to get it for nothng. However, perhaps it is time for Mr Abbas, to take heed of Abe Lincoln's words "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Mahmud, your credibility really has gone but then that is something you will share with your "negotiating" partners, Bibi and his "Uncle Tom" sidekick in Washington.
Nevertheless, the question remains, can you imagine a situation where say, for instance, Austrria is attacked with no declaration of war, thousands of its citizens are killed and the UN orders an inquiry only for the Austrain government to surpress that inquiry? The scenario is, of course, absurd but the analogy is not and although Abbas now appears to have changed his mind the damage has been done to him and his Fatah Party. Indeed, will anyone take Abbas seriously as he now rules out the prospects of peace as long as the Israelis continue their occupation of Jerusalem? This is a man whose latest betrayal of his people just might have been for a license for his son's company.
Of course, the reassessment of his original stance is necessary for Abbas. Indeed, it might even have been a question of his political survival and if Mahmoud were no longer number one in Ramallah then his family business interests would be even more threatened than they are through his latest move. Moreover, there is still a lot of negotiating to be done and the Israelis know that Abbas jr still needs that license and they also know that he is not going to get it for nothng. However, perhaps it is time for Mr Abbas, to take heed of Abe Lincoln's words "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Mahmud, your credibility really has gone but then that is something you will share with your "negotiating" partners, Bibi and his "Uncle Tom" sidekick in Washington.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Susan Rice another American hypocrite
Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, has said that Goldman's report is "unbalanced and unacceptable". Now, if this protégé of the Zionist Madeleine Albright, says this then our conclusion would have to be that the manner in which the report accuses Israel of war crimes is anything but exaggerated even without the some 1,400 dead in Gaza, including hundreds women and children, and the thousands of injured, to substantiate that conclusion.
This is a lady who epitomises that hypocrisy which invariably accompanies American foreign policy and seeks to cover its true goals. A lady who feels compelled to tackle a genoicide in Dafur, because in doing so "Uncle Sam's" geopolitical goals can be facilitated, but "who not only did nothing to stop the Rwandan genocide in 1994, but also served to obstruct or prevent action." Now we have her swearing that if she were ever faced with a similar situation she would support immediate dramatic action.Unfortunately, for Ms Rice we have Intelligence reports that show that she and her boss, Mr Clinton, both knew of the Hutu's plans long before the slaughter reached its peak.
She fell in line with her political masters and they choose to do nothing and why they choose to do nothing is a matter of some speculation. However, we would do well to dismiss those who argue that "Uncle Sam" has no real interests in Rwanda, which they say is a country with few natural resources. However, there is enough evidence to suggest that, in turning a blind eye to the genoicide there, the United States was destabilising the whole of Central Africa. Rwanda is only one part of a much bigger region that is, indeed, very rich in natural resources. Indeed, today Ms Rice and her backers in Washington are turning a blind eye to the on-going slaughter of millions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the persecution of Hutus in Rwanda and the Congo and to Museveni's ethnic cleansing of the Alcholi in northern Uganda and it is, indeed, all because of the area's mineral wealth.
However, now Washington has a direct link to the criminals, criminals such as Yoweri Musevini in Uganda and Paul Kagame in Rwanda. However, these are "Uncle Sam's" men in Africa. Their activities in their own countries will not be criticised by the White House; all the more so since they are doing ever so well in destabilising the Democratic Republic of the Congo where millions are being massacred and while Paul Kagame, in particular. establishes his own bragging rights in the North Kivu region, American coorporations plunder the mines there. Ms Rice knows this and she is again silent on the human rights abuses that are being committed. The hypocrisy is disgusting and when this lady talks about a report being "unbalanced and unacceptable" we can be quite sure that the opposite is the case even without having seen the massacres on you tube and elsewhere with our own eyes.
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