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267 thoughts on “War Criminals on TV

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  • Resident Dissident

    Most people howling about antisemitism aren’t even Semites themselves.

    So what? Perhaps if there had been a few more of us around in Germany in the 1930s and 40s then the “holocaust” may not have happened. Have you heard of Pastor Niermoller

    Oh, and hating Palestinians is antisemitism as well. I appreciate that Arabs and some Jews are Semitic people = but when it comes tto common usage (and dictionary definitions) – anti-Semitism has for a long time been taken as referring to irrational hatred of the Jews and anti-Arabism referring to Arabs. Whatever the definition – and this is only semantics hating Palestinians (or any particular ethnic group or nationality is wrong. I resent the inference that that I hate Palestinians – putting one group over another is racism/bigotry. which is of course what you are practicising as amply demonstrated on the next thread.

    PS I don’t howl – don’t assume that we all have a lupine side.

  • Mary

    A post on Medialens from an Australian contributor on the Australian Foreign Minister’s visit to Israel for the Sharon funeral.

    In bed with Sharon..now Australia’s preferred location
    Posted by David macilwain on January 19, 2014, 12:09 pm

    Almost as if to one-up Julia Gillard, who famously was pronounced Israel’s greatest friend when she visited following the Gaza massacre, and worked hard to establish unbreakable links with the Zionist regime, Julie Bishop thought it appropriate to make her first visit to Israel in her capacity as Australia’s foreign minister last week, so that she could attend the funeral of that long dead symbol of Israel’s brutality, Ariel Sharon – and stand alongside Joe Biden and Tony Blair.

    Most alarmingly, I didn’t get to know about this outrage until yesterday following an article by the former Archbishop of Canberra:

    http://www.theage.com.au/comment/bishops-troubling-stance-on-legality-of-israeli-settlements-20140117-310bh.html

    “Bishop’s troubling stance” on settlements was this:

    “I would like to see which international law has declared [Israeli settlements] illegal,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said last Tuesday.

    The archbishop explains… ‘The 4th Geneva COnvention’… the International Court of Justice… and so on.

    So how was it that on the day of the funeral, ABC reporter for Israel, Matt Brown, had a report all about Sharon’s funeral, and the fine things said by Biden and Tony Blair, without mentioning that Australia’s own Foreign Minister was present?

    Doesn’t this seem a little odd? Or does it seem quite normal?

    An article in the Guardian included lots of detail about Bishop’s visit, and baggage about the Dubai passports affair and Prisoner X -all of which has its own special problems in terms of Australian collusion and cooperation with Mossad in both affairs.

    ~~~~

    Enough said.

  • Mary

    Unbelievable. The BBC uphold the complaint but do not find that the puff piece for Israeli settlements was biased. This took nearly a year.

    BBC takes 11 months to remove lie by Israeli settler
    Amena Saleem 12/17/2013

    The BBC has upheld a complaint by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other activists that an online feature focusing on the lives of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank breached its guidelines on accuracy.

    However, despite the fact that the article only gives the perspective of settlers and not the Palestinians whose land they’re living on, the BBC Trust decided it was not biased. A complaint by two activists that the article breached the BBC’s guidelines on impartiality was not upheld.

    /..
    http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/amena-saleem/bbc-takes-11-months-remove-lie-israeli-settler

  • Courtenay Barnett

    Clark,

    Just as George Galloway is asking some pertinent questions on the Duggan affair/killing, to wit:-

    “The Crown Prosecution service today announced that the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester is to be prosecuted for safety breaches after an unarmed man was shot dead in Cheshire.

    Galloway questions:

    Ordinary Written question to: Home Office for answer on 20 Jan 2014 12:00 AM
    To ask the Home Secretary what steps have been taken to identify and discipline those Metropolitan Police officers and members of the Independent Police Complaints Commission who claimed immediately after his death that Mark Duggan had exchanged gunfire with officers.”

    It will be a long shot to get justice domestically – just as much as it will be a longer shot to get justice internationally in the ICC to redress the evident abuses inflicted against Iraqis (i.e. “the lesser breed”) by UK troops.

  • Mary

    Met did not review ‘hard stop’ tactic. Referring to the shooting of Mark Duggan which was another extra judicial killing.

  • doug scorgie

    Resident Dissident
    19 Jan, 2014 – 10:36 am

    “I resent the inference that I hate Palestinians – putting one group over another is racism/bigotry.”

    Why are the Zionist Jews (and I assume you are one) supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to make way for Jews if they are not racist?

    If you support the ethnic cleansing and theft of land from Palestinians, you too are racist. Perhaps you’re in denial.

    The term anti-Semitism is used by Zionists in a way that implies that anti-Jewish racism is somehow worse than racism against other groups. Racism is racism; the Jews are not different from any other group. There is nothing exceptional about them that they need their own special term to describe racism against them as opposed to racism against others.

    Anti-Semitism was an invented term:

    “The term anti-Semitism was coined in 1879 by the German agitator Wilhelm Marr to designate the anti-Jewish campaigns underway in central Europe at that time. Although this term now has wide currency, it is a misnomer, since it implies a discrimination against all Semites. Arabs and other peoples are also Semites, and yet they are not the targets of anti-Semitism as it is usually understood. The term is especially inappropriate as a label for the anti-Jewish prejudices, statements, or actions of Arabs or other Semites.”
    http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/27646/anti-Semitism

  • Resident Dissident

    Doug Scorgie

    I am not Jewish

    Not all Jewish Zionists support ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (read Haaretz for example)

    I do support the continued existence of a state of Israel – but I also support the existence of a viable Palestinian state. Both sides will have to compromise to achieve this. Yes a single state where both lived side by side and with respect for each others human rights and national and religious differences withered away might be a more ideal solution – but I live in the real world and it is not going to happen anywhere in the near future. And a dual state solution with some mutual respect and recognition is more likely to be a stepping stone to that ideal than the current state of affairs.

    Both sides commit atrocities on each other – and trying to say one or other is better or worse is a pretty pointless exercise, usually aimed at justifying continued abuses by either side.

    Anti-Semitism may well be an invented term and not ethnically correct- but I am using the term as it is generally understood. Targetting people because they are Jewish is not appropriate. I’ve answered all your questions – now please answer mine, rather than seeking to defend someone who is clearly an anti- semite (in the generally understood meaning of the word).

    “So you don’t think praising the quenelle and its promoters amounts to anti-Semitism?”

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella!

    Scorgie

    re your quibbling about the meaning of anti-semitism

    Quite a while ago I suggested that you should invest in a good dictionary; I believe I recommended the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary in two volumes.

    Have you done so yet?

  • ESLO

    Perhaps others should consider whether the activities of Jobbik constitute anti-Semitism or unacceptable behaviour

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobbik

    As a rule I tend to be a little suspicious of party leaders who turn up in Parliament in a “blackshirt” uniform. Mary is obviously more relaxed on such matters.

  • doug scorgie

    Resident Dissident
    20 Jan, 2014 – 10:46 pm

    “I am not Jewish”

    ResDis I refer to your earlier posting (10:36am 19 Jan
    )
    “…Perhaps if there had been a few more of us around in Germany in the 1930s and 40s then the holocaust may not have happened.”

    You say:
    “Not all Jewish Zionists support ethnic cleansing of Palestinians (read Haaretz for example)”

    I beg to differ (and I do read Haaretz). All Zionists; Jewish, Christian, Atheist and others support the creation and development of a Jewish state; a state for Jews run by Jews for the benefit of Jews. This ethnocentrism is by its very nature racist by putting one ethnic group over another in Israel.

    All Zionists want a Jewish state but they cannot have a Jewish state unless the “democratic” structures in place guarantee a Jewish government every time; a situation that exists at present in Israel; in other words democracy for Jews.

    The demographics today of Israel (20% Arab) means that there is a built-in monopoly of Jewish political parties; it is impossible for an Israeli Arab party to form a government (it would never be allowed anyway).

    However there is a problem the Zionists fear: the population increase among non-Jews. This threatens the “Jewish nature” of Israel so ethnic cleansing continues in places like East Jerusalem and the Negev and is the basis of the West Bank “land swap” idea.

    Palestinian towns and communities in parts of today’s Israel will be swapped for Jewish settlements in the West Bank; something called static transfer.

    The Negev being home to the Bedouins, a Semitic people as you will know who are being moved off their ancestral lands to make way for Jews (is this anti-Semitism?).

    You say:
    “I do support the continued existence of a state of Israel – but I also support the existence of a viable Palestinian state.”

    I agree that Israel exists and it’s not going to go away; even Arafat recognised the state of Israel but he did not recognise it as a Jewish state.

    Israel should never be recognised as a Jewish state because that is based on ethnic exceptionalism (not nice).

    I suggest you only support the existence of a Palestinian state if it means getting rid of the Arabs from Israel so Israel can maintain its Jewish identity; but as things are now it is impossible for a viable Palestinian state to exist. Look at the maps.

    Also:
    I don’t defend Dieudonné and his supporters who use the quenelle I only question whether the salute was originally developed as an anti-Jewish gesture.

    Apparently the name quenelle comes from an elongated fish meatballs dish, which is said to look like a suppository. It is supposed to be similar to the finger gesture “up yours”. The arm outstretched refers to the length of the arm going up one’s bottom.

    However, because of the knee-jerk reaction from Zionists in France the quenelle has gone viral on the internet and has led to the gesture being taken up and used by far-right racist groups performing the salute outside synagogues and Jewish memorials.

    This is just what hard-line Zionists want to justify a Jewish state in Israel to protect Jews from racism. The more anti-Jewish racism around the world the better for the Zionist project.

    Thanks for your engagement on the issue.

  • Mary

    RD says: “I do support the continued existence of a state of Israel – but I also support the existence of a viable Palestinian state.”

    Try making a state from this –

    http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/photos/maps/palestine-archipelago.html

    This map, which brilliantly illustrates the existential position of Palestinians living in the West Bank, is from the blog Strange Maps. It’s created by Julien Busac, who says:

    “Maybe posting the full map would help to take it for what it is, i.e. an illustration of the West Bank’s ongoing fragmentation based on the (originally temporary) A/B/C zoning which came out of the Oslo process, still valid until now. To make things clear, areas ‘under water’ strictly reflect C zones, plus the East Jerusalem area, i.e. areas that have officially remained under full Israeli control and occupation following the Agreements. These include all Israeli settlements and outposts as well as Palestinian populated areas.”

    If Obama wants to help solve the Palestine question–and he must do so if he ever wants the US to do any good in the Middle East–then he must recover all that “drowned” Palestinian territory. Only then can the two-state solution that the US claims it wants be realized.

    PS Israel is not a state as it knows no law and has no borders.

  • Mary

    A tale of woe from our man in Tel Aviv. Quel dommage! The boycott is working.

    British envoy warns Israel of isolation over settlements
    Wed Jan 22, 2014
    The British ambassador in Tel Aviv has warned the Israeli regime it faces growing isolation over its settlement expansion policy in the occupied Palestinian territories.

    “I am concerned that in five years Israel will wake up and find that it does not have enough friends,” said the UK envoy Matthew Gould.

    “Attitudes are shifting, Israel is losing support. I look at the British parliament, look at the media – there is a change. It’s not a tsunami. It happens slowly and it happens over time but if you don’t spot it before it’s too late then it’s very hard to repair,” added Gould, who is Britain’s first Jewish ambassador in Tel Aviv.

    His comments come as reports suggest that Israeli banks are increasingly coming under pressure from European pension funds to cut their ties to settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

    Gould referred to the recent controversy over new EU regulations, which demand ending support to Israeli projects located in settlements. The new rules result in Israel being excluded from the EU Horizon 2020 scientific program, he said.

    “We were days away from putting in a big rift between British or European science and Israeli science,” Gould admitted.

    /..
    http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/01/22/347141/uk-envoy-warns-israel-of-future-isolation/

  • Mary

    Good on this young man. He has guts.

    The website that inspired his actions, George Monbiot’s Arrest Blair website, has now awarded him a quarter of their funds, a total of £2222. Mr Monbiot explained he satisfied their conditions as not only attempted the citizen’s arrest but attracted the attention of the media.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/twiggy-garcia-who-attempted-citizens-arrest-on-tony-blair-awarded-over-2000-9078074.html

    One day Bliar. One day!

  • Mary

    MPs have just spent two hours on the Holocaust Memorial Day debate.

    http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130124/debtext/130124-0003.htm#13012438000002

    It was mostly anecdotal about various visits and the speakers’ own Jewish family history. Some were very long winded.

    Very few MPs were in the chamber when I watched. A dozen or so perhaps.

    Alistair Burt has an EMD. Again not much interest. He only has 91 signatures. There are 650 MPs.
    http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/932

  • doug scorgie

    I used to support a two state solution for Israel/Palestine but over the years it became obvious that Israel had no intention of agreeing to a viable Palestinian state.

    The Zionist project was always to expand to create the “Greater Israel” by land theft.

    Now Fatah may be giving up on the idea:

    “Mohamed Shtayyeh, a member of Fatah’s Executive Committee, has predicted that the on-going Palestinian-Israeli peace talks being brokered by the US will fail and instead the Palestinian Authority (PA) is going to adopt a one-state solution. “

    “The current round of the negotiations ends on 29 April and Shtayyeh confirmed that there will not be an extension of the talks, not even for one day. ”This round will end with failure and then we will say farewell to the two-state solution,”

    A single democratic state for all its citizens, equal under the law, just how it should be.

  • doug scorgie

    Kempe
    20 Jan, 2014 – 5:58 pm

    “There wouldn’t appear to be any grounds for a citizens arrest on Tony Blair and any attempt to detain him or drag him off to the local nick would seem to invite charges of assault, false imprisonment and kidnap.”

    Kempe, don’t believe everything you read in the press; the Guardian article is incomplete.

    The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 section 24A.

    “Where an indictable offence HAS BEEN COMMITTED (ie past tense), a person other than a constable may arrest without a warrant –
    Anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty of it”

    So indictable offences (ie War crimes) have been committed and anyone has reasonable grounds for suspecting Tony Blair of being guilty of them.

  • nevermind

    Why try and arrest him at all, after all he is a proponent of summary justice and has heaped it upon many innocent others in Iraq and elsewhere from a distance, never putting his own puny body at risk.

    Should those who have the chance take it there and then? Can summary justice be justified if ordinary, socalled justful means are long winded, exhausting, expensive and ultimately lead to absolution and forgiveness for these crimes against humanity?

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