I cannot imagine the cold courage it must take to be a Palestinian, walking in protest, unarmed, towards the fence that contains the agony of their long drawn-out genocide, in the knowledge that the bullets will start splintering bones and ripping out brain matter around them, and every millisecond could be their own last.
I cannot imagine the cold viciousness it must take to work on the Guardian newspaper, where on the homepage the small headline of the latest six Palestinians to be shot dead, is way below the larger headline of the several hundredth article associating Jeremy Corbyn with anti-Semitism, on the basis of the quite deliberate conflation of anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel.
It’s actually a bluff, but it always works.
Think the callousness of the UN Security Councii, especially the UK and USA,l doing nothing is worse.
Powerfully said
I nominate the Palestian people for the Nobel Peace Prize. for their resilience in peacefully resisting occupation and genocide on the hands of the Israeli occupiers of their lands.
It would probably have to be an alternative peace prize to the Nobel, which is badly tarnished in any case (Kissinger, Obama, Aung San Suu Kyi), but great idea.
Nobel being a gun manufacturer to begin makes the whole thing a façade
Oh I’m sure Nobel will award it to Nehtinyahu for not using a Gatling gun
It’s to humanities shame that we’ve sat back and watched the slaughter and persecution of the Palestinian people for 70 years. Yet the likes of Nato, the UN and even the EU can see fit to destroy other ME countries for less, under the pretence of bringing freedom and democracy to the oppressed – unless of course you happemn to be Palestinian.
As for anti-semitism, yes it needs to be reeled in where appropriate, however more and more, it’s now being used as a smearing tool.
We now have complete clarity on this issue. Governments who have the support the USA can shoot civilians with impunity and the British media will not condemn it.
Anyone who stand with the Palestinian people has to consider the governments and media organisations who treat them with contempt as their enemy. We are creeping towards outright and open fascism.
“Governments who have the support the USA can shoot civilians with impunity and the British media will not condemn it.”
They will shoot at YOU with the same impunity.
Well said. It’s shameful.
Hear hear.
[Mod: Posting name only changed, for something more manageable]
A contemptible distortion. The ridiculous assertion of genocide defeats logic in a situation where the supposed victim population is growing a higher rate than the supposed perpetrator population.
Only anti-Semites are conflating antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel.
No doubt this comment will not be shown ……. what a surprise.
Seems your comment is still here while my subsequent ones and those of Sharp Ears aren’t.
t.
The ultimate logic of Zionism is the expulsion (or death) of all arabs in palestine, is it not?
I went to a talk buy an academic- in anthropology who has visited the west bank to undertake research.
One of the pieces of information that he gave was of a jewish settlement on palestinian land in the west bank where the settlement took over the supply of water that the Palestinian village had used and piped it uphill to the new jewish settlement, and pumped the sewage downhill into the Palestinian land.
Another was how Palestinian children who “misbehaved” e.g. threw stones come under military courts whereas jewish settlers children doing the same come under civil courts where the punishments are vastly different. For example jewish children can only be held for 48 hours without charge, palestinian children can be held for 90 days.
Why do British jews such as the Board of Deputies not speak out against such dreadful apartheid treatment? Instead they refuse any criticism of Israel. “14 Jun 2017 – Board of Deputies congratulates Government for opposing anti-Israel motions at UN. Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush has congratulated the UK Government for voting against two anti-Israel motions at the United Nations. Read More >. 055_BOD_brexit_582x415_acf_cropped …
Join the Board of Deputies · Board of Deputies of British … · Contact Us · Who we are”
Ah yes, someone who realizes that any genocide would ordinarily require a decline in the victim population.
Where might we find such a decline? Why in the white population of South Africa where population numbers have declined by in excess of 8% per year for every year since 2011.
What may explain this? Perhaps examples like this – where brave freedom fighters gird their loins and take a blow torch to a highly aggressive and highly dangerous 64 year old lady. Just because she was asleep in no way mitigates her danger to others.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4252150/Woman-killed-husband-left-dead-South-Africa.html
Whilst we are told that there are 3 steps to heaven there are said to be 10 steps to genocide, and South Africa has taken 6 of those steps.
http://www.uncapturedsa.co.za/10_stages_of_GENOCIDE_and_SA_at_stage_6&p=read&aid=125
Meanwhile the EFF can go around displaying banners that read “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate”
…and we don’t care cos we’re not racist – and we can prove that by resolutely ignoring the descent into barbarism of South Africa and screaming “vile, disgusting racist” at anyone who dares to wave this unfolding tragedy in front of our faces. “We are not racist and we don’t care how many people must die for us to prove our superior morality” – and the really sick thing is we actually believe this crap.
The “white genocide” of South Africans is a myth. Cruel & violent crime is not the preserve of black South Africans. British people do the most vile & cruel things to other British people, usually their female partners, & usually whilst dangerously inebriated on alcohol. But shhhh, wouldn’t want to spend time talking about sexist crime in sexist society like the UK, would we?
The murder of Reeva Steenlamp by her then boyfriend Oscar Pistorius is just one example but there are numerous others, of white folk murdering each other & then trying to pin the crime on some black home invaders. One white man in Cape Town set fire to his own mothers corpse, after murdering her, in order to cover his tracks & try to blame his crime in black invaders/robbers.
And now, here, right out in the open, the myth of white genocide in SA is being used to deflect attention from a very real genocide in the occupied territories.
Nice try. No cigar.
http://afropunk.com/2018/04/white-genocide-hoax-south-africa-stop-madness/
The irony of loony linking to the nazi supporting daily mail. I think they’re pulling our leg here.
They seem to be fully invested in the Cambridge Analytica Pysop campaign regarding South Africa and the plight of ”the land owners”…….”we brought Africa civility, law and order and look what they do to us in return….”
Bring back Cecil, eh loon?
Yeah that’s right everyone that holds a contrary opinion must me a Nazi. The Daily Mail is a Nazi newspaper. Everyone that reads the Daily Mail is a Nazi, anyone that quotes the Daily Mail is a Nazi.
Ask yourself how this is likely to end? Here is a clue it ends in rivers of blood – but oh I forgot the man who told you that was also a Nazi and so lets just flush that down the memory hole. But oh wait, it seems that Julius Malema, someone you like and respect, is telling you exactly the same thing.
What do you think the phrase “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate” actually means? Think closely about the verbs to kill and to hate and just what they might mean.
The irony is a little deeper than where you are at Loony. Dig a little further.
”Yeah that’s right everyone that holds a contrary opinion must me a Nazi.” I wouldn’t agree with you here Loony but each to their own. ‘Not all Daily Mail readers are Nazi’s but all Nazi’s are……’ would be a fairer suggestion than what you put forth.
I had to search ‘Julius Malema’. I have never come across the name, nor the EFF, so thanks Loony. Will read up on what they are about. To suggest he is ”someone you like and respect” would be inaccurate on your part. And a pretty random conclusion to make….
”What do you think the phrase “A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate” actually means? Think closely about the verbs to kill and to hate and just what they might mean.”
Well I suppose that would depend on a number of factors such as my frame of mind at the time of contemplation, whether I approached from a literal, figurative, philosophical angle to the sentence etc etc.
”A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine” (against an alternative ideology just as vicious (capitalism possibly)) ”motivated by pure hate”((red) of the injustices said ideology results in, inequality ect.?)
What do you think it means Loony?
It does not matter what I think. It only matters what is. A close approximation to the bile being spewed by the EFF is the similar bile spewed by Radio RTLM in Rwanda in the period leading up to now largely forgotten events in Rwanda.
Another example would be from the Soviet poet Ilya Ehrenberg with his witty little ditty of “Kill the German”
But if you really want to play games with etymology then perhaps you might like to consider context, Some might consider a relevant context to include the extraordinary numbers of brutal and deeply sadistic murder of farmers.
So by floating out two examples of murders committed by whites in South Africa you believe this somehow balances out a monstrous state-orchestrated campaign of violence against white people in South Africa? Show me one other country in the world where a president can sing a song at a public event about murdering an ethnic group in his country and not face consequences – the infamous ‘kill the boer’ video clip is shown below for those who care;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLTKZ05zM4
And for your info, I’m not South African, I’m English. This traditionally would mean we hate each other – but not any more – what’s happening to South Africa is coming down the pike to the rest of the world.
”Show me one other country in the world where a president can sing a song at a public event about murdering an ethnic group in his country and not face consequences”
See Scottish national anthem, although I’l give you the President bit is missing? Amirite?
I knew Craig’s use of that word would provoke the usual denial. However the legal definition is as follows:
Legal definition of genocide
Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part ; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and]
forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Note the use of the word ‘any’ of these acts, and the use of ‘in part’. Israel comfortably conforms with this definition on the first three criteria.
The Guardian is a complete mystery to me these days.
I read it every day for several years through college and university, and I recall that it was a liberal, progressive and mildy anti-establishment paper, which was a useful, if not complete, antidote to the “Thatcherism” that dominated the rest of Fleet St.
I haven’t bought a copy for many years, but I just can’t relate to what I see online these days: strident, authoritarian identity politics (mainly feminism) married to rabid neo-conservatism of all things. And the victims of the favoured states always manage to “die in clashes” rather than being +killed+.
This strange, incongruous mix is a bit like coming across a shop on the high street that sells steam turbines and toothpaste. What has happened to it – and however did it reach this point?
It will be in the vanguard of the propaganda campaign for the next war, be it against Iran, NK, Russia or China.
There seem to be various competing factions dominated by a deeply unpleasant centre right. Since Seumas Milne left, the neo-con grip on political reporting seems even tighter. Then there’s there pro-Iraq invasion dregs like Nick Cohen, completely discredited, but still burbling on with their resentment. The second-wave, trans-hating, people-hating ‘feminists’ (I’d dispute the term since they’ve given up evolving their political positions, which inevitably means they’re conservatives now, and it’s an offence to actual feminist writers to label them as such). And a small number of more left wing or anti-establishment contributors who have no control over the paper’s editorial core but add the necessary gloss of diversity and occasional non-conformist critique. I started reading the paper while still at school, when it was basically a liberal (SDP) newspaper with some Labour-leaning writers. Safe but at least not insulting to the reader’s intelligence. For me only someone like Steve Bell still harbours the soul of what the paper used to be.
“For me only someone like Steve Bell still harbours the soul of what the paper used to be…”
I don’t much care for any fat metropolitan smugturd who explicitly calls me a Nazi for daring to want my country to be independent, however “progressive” his posturing:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/nov/13/steve-bells-if-nicola-sturgeon-scotland
They rub elbows. That explains.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/06/jeremy-corbyns-nazi-death-cult/
Fails Godwin’s law in the url immediately, but the author explains our current dire predicament, in harmony with Craig, in discord with the previously respected media. They are consciously killing people.
We all have helped to bring about the current oppressive construct* that is reeled out given any perceived slight on the part of a certain group of people whose politics have no regards for any and all international conventions and through their use of moral relativism that bends the truth and reality upside down, and toed and maintained by the media and all and sundry thereafter.
As Martin Luther King said Silence is Betrayal, and most of the silent majority dare not mention that people have likes and dislikes and yeah at times intense dislikes of any one individual of human race. There is no compunction to love and like any one individual and or group of people. However to live a ground hog day of a node of history aeons ago cannot and ought not be the mantra of any one particular individual.
We are all guilty with our silence of betraying humanity and human values, whilst walking on the eggshells avoiding a direct confrontation of those whom are simply gaming the system to their own political ends.
Interestingly if this post survives because of the fright of the blog owner and the overzealous moderators, I would be surprised because of the degree of castration and impotence that has been sewed in the guise of “stopping hatred”
We are all Palestinians one way or another, but we don’t know it!
*antisemi………..
Fedup.
Here is a very brief but strikingly true speech from the late great MLK.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Justinfication/status/981622238234456064/video/1
Look at the CV’s of the recent influx of new ”journalists”. Express, Times, Mail, Telegraph, Standard……..their (hard) right wing ideology seeps through the screen. Complete control over the politics and opinion piece sections. Its toxic. Avoid.
For my own sanity, I do avoid much of the time. Even more so as these toxic articles (opinion pieces, editorials, ‘reports’) almost always don’t allow comments. A fair indication that even they know their readership is hostile to them.
One of those will be former Evening Standard Boris Johnson fan Pippa Crerar, who recently became deputy political editor at the Guardian.
https://twitter.com/PippaCrerar/status/978568297561157632
In 2016, when at the ES, she was responsible for this:
https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/appointing-boris-johnson-as-foreign-secretary-might-be-theresa-mays-best-move-yet-a3295751.html
Nobody in 2018 is paying for the Guardian. A few scant years ago I worried about the effect its demise would have on the balance of media output in the UK. Today I can see it won’t make a lick of difference as every paper besides perhaps the Mirror speaks with one voice.
I’ll raise a glass on the day the shutters come down.
Unfortunately HSBC and a few other ”advertisers” have deep pockets. Plus the Fraudian is pretty much a state organ these days. Harding, Wintour etc.
Its going no where any time soon.
I had a comment modded off the Guardian a year or so back. I said something along the lines that it was like a senile old relative. You mourn the fact that she is no longer what she once was, and will see her imminent final expiry as a relief.
I bought the Guardian for over 40 years. I reckon that’s around £27,000 at today’s prices. I stopped about 4 years ago. Now the best thing to happen to it would be an ignominious end.
At the next General Election the Guardian will come out in favour of a Conservative Government along with the rest of the heavily controlled British press. It will denounce Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell as communist Russian puppets who are unfit for office.
I have read the Guardian for close on 40 years and I have never felt as angry with their output as I have in the last year, I read the article via twitter and arrived at the line where he writes “that cold-eyed contempt of which Jeremy Corbyn is master” and gave up in disgust.
I don’t suppose it will matter to them much but I will state here, I will never read or buy the paper again, which for me is deeply sad. I have lost a lifelong companion.
I now have no paper that even remotely reflects my views in the MSM and I am coming to the realization that we are fast approaching a fascist state in the sense that almost everything I do is watched, and almost everything I read is tainted by vested interests.
I have never been a patriot in the true sense of the word but I always considered that I lived in a democracy and was fortunate , now I find that I deplore my country,
I never believed in conspiracy theories but with the Skripal affair which is so obviously a tissue of lies and the 2 years now of fake slurs against Jeremy Corbyn. I fear that is only a matter of time before it will become impossible to escape the consequences of what our lords and masters are doing to us
The truth if such a thing still exists is I feel helpless
There are plenty of better alternatives, all American strangely.
First stop should be The Intercept (https://theintercept.com/), followed closely by CounterPunch (https://www.counterpunch.org/), The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/), OffGuardian (https://off-guardian.org/), Democracy Now! (https://www.democracynow.org/). A level down from this are sites like Global Research (https://www.globalresearch.ca/), Zero Hedge (https://www.zerohedge.com/) and their ilk which stray towards the ‘conspiracy’ end of the market but do source some interesting material.
One of the weird effects of the Trump presidency is the way that all these once-unimpeachable sources have become polluted by the “Trump Is A Fascist” ‘narrative’. This has even infected in a minor way the best of the bunch – The Intercept – as this discussion between Glenn Greenwald and Jim Risen (a car-crash for the latter – why they allow him to be associated with the publication is a mystery) in February (https://theintercept.com/2018/02/21/video-glenn-greenwald-and-james-risen-debate-the-trumprussia-investigation/).
The explanation for the ‘Trump effect’ can be found in the excellent article ‘The Return of the Repressed’ by Wolfgang Streeck in the March/April 2017 issue of New Left Review (https://newleftreview.org/II/104/wolfgang-streeck-the-return-of-the-repressed).
And please add The Real News Network, Aron Mate’s recent interview with Luke Harding was a joy to behold.
Thanks – hadn’t heard of that site before (http://therealnews.com/t2/). I’ve only been following CM’s blog since the Skripal business started, but already it has been a great source of links to new (to me) news sites.
One source that I should have mentioned, particularly in relation to the current West-Russia ‘relationship’ (the major casus belli for the “Trump-Russia collusion” bullshit of the past 18 months) is the work of Stephen F. Cohen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_F._Cohen) and (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Stephen+F.+Cohen%22). His academic status in Russia is approaching that of such as Alexander Rabinowitch.
A good ‘sub-channel’ within the Real News is Abby Martin’s ‘Empire Files’: http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2360&showid=77
Chris Hedges (excellent journalist) used to have a show on the Real News but moved to his own RT show: https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact
Yes, nice article. Sees clear through the efforts to conflate Corbyn and Trump, in order to delegitimize criticism of neoliberalism. Thanks for posting.
Consortium News is also good.
Best US financial-economic blog and overall news aggregator:
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/
Best US foreign-policy military strategy analysis:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/
FYI, despite its name, the MoA blog is run by a German chap in Germany.
You should add consortium news (https://consortiumnews.com/) to your list. Caitlyn Johnstone is pretty good too if a little racy.
Many thanks for the continued suggestions: ‘someone’ should compile a ‘FAQ: Non-MSM News Sources’ thread to be pinned at the top of CM’s blog.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been well covered by Noam Chomsky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky) and (https://chomsky.info/) over the decades (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Noam+Chomsky%22), (https://www.democracynow.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Noam+Chomsky) and (https://www.rt.com/search?q=m+Chomsky), as well as by Norman Finkelstein (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein) and (http://normanfinkelstein.com/), plus (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22Norman+Finkelstein%22), (https://www.democracynow.org/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Norman+Finkelstein) and (https://www.rt.com/search?q=Norman+Finkelstein).
Many thanks for that link to the Wolfgang Streeck article, which I found particularly helpful and enlightening in my struggle to understand why the world is like it is. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
From the good old UK: https://www.ukcolumn.org – hard-hitting daily analysis & comment from an organisation originating out of Plymouth, tired of local political cronyism & corruption.
From Deutschland (in English) http://www.moonofalabama.org – terrific reputation for up-to-date geopolitical news.
And don’t forget http://21stcenturywire.com
UK Column is run by far right wing conspiracy theorists. They also propagate the, in my opinion, ridiculous freemen of the land beliefs.
Also TruthDig and TruthOut. Oh, and definitely BAR (Black Agenda Report).
Further on, search ‘Chomsky’ on YouTube and filter on “>20 min” and then systematically watch each everyone of those lectures/discussions, no matter how old.
And for economic news: on (YouTube): the ‘Monthly Global Economic Update’ by Richard D. Wolff, it is priceless.
I should be more precise: “Global Capitalism: Monthly Economic Update” (by Richard D. Wolff, on YouTube). He’s a marxist, but don’t be frightened.
Not just me then!
I was a student in the 1980s. I started buying the Graun then, and read it every day until about three years ago. It was just getting more and more toxic.
I still read it online, but less and less frequently. I’m currently boycotting it because of its disgusting anti-Semitism smears, which have caused my pity and contempt for the paper to morph into outright hatred and fury – I think for much the same reason as you, the loss of the one sane voice in the MSM that we used to have.
Dear Schylla, I feel the same, but please don’t deplore your country. The leaders of it, and their media friends, are not the country, which still contains millions of decent people, of which you are one.
[Mod: “Shmuel” and “John” are Habbabkuk sock puppets. Habbabkuk is now banned permanently for ignoring posting rules and refusing to heed a temporary ban.]
Content deleted.
I stand with Gush Shalom, I stand with Israel’s right to defend its borders – The Green Line.
Hamas does not recognise Israel AS A NEGOTIATING POSITION. Hamas leadership have publicly stated that they will recognise Israel when Israel recognises Palestine.
Since Corbyn got a sniff of the Labour leadership we have been bombarded with the trope that criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, if you dig there is more nuance than that but you have to dig. The reason for this is that hard line Zionists are terrified of a British Prime Minster who stands for the rights of ALL peoples, including Palestine.
It anti-Semitic to compare Gaza to the Warsaw ghetto despite the obvious parallels. It is anti-Semitic to use words like Apartheid in relation to the West Bank despite clear evidence that there is one law for one faith and another for the other, in an area described by the UN as an ILLEGAL OCCUPATION.
I stand with Gush Shalom, you as the general British public have probably never heard of them, why is that? You should stick the name in a search engine and find out and if you have any heart find your way to support them.
These Israeli soldiers used high velocity fragmentation ammunition – the modern equivalent of the dum-dum, and illegal. Such weaponary literally blows holes in people. They will get away with this murder but support for Palestine will grow – as will support for Corbyn. Most people see through the nonsenl
“Comment is free… but facts are sacred” CP Scott, 1921 Guardian editor
So it says on the Opinion page of the Guardian. Except that many articles published are closed to further comment, no matter how sacred or potentially valuable the facts are that could have been made.
The Guardian is worse than useless today – it is a negative influence in these times of disinformation, both state-sponsored and elsewhere.
Well said, Mr. Ambassador.
This barbaric affair should motivate those concerned to learn more about the historical and political context. Although there is much on line, these books are helpful background and cut through the bought politicians and corporate media:
Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, New Ed (London: Pluto, 2004). Progressive Jewish perspective.
Ilan Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine, 2nd (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). Non-Zionist Jewish perspective.
Samih K. Farsoun w Christina Zacharia (Palestine and the Palestinians (Boulder Co: Westview Press, 1997). Progressive Palestinian perspective.
The vicious campaign against Corbyn rests on lies and disinformation. A calm read of historical background goes a long way to identify and dispel the lies.
As to Hamas, some perspective: It is a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was actually supported by Israeli circles as a means to cut against secular/Marxist and Christian Palestinian political factions. Hamas became part of the Qatari terror support apparatus in the regime change war against Syria.
Yes. Wheels within wheels, all of them rolling over ordinary people and grinding them into dust.
The funeral was held today of the Palestinian journalist who was shot dead by the IDF whilst covering the border protests. Yasser Murtaja was wearing the full press attire and filming when he was shot in the abdomen by IDF personnel. Another five Palestinian journalist have been reportedly wounded by IDF fire.
https://www.rt.com/news/423475-yasser-murtaja-funeral-gaza-idf/
So, Russia is blamed for attempting to kill two people on foreign soil, and subsequent outrage is all over the media for weeks, diplomats are expelled etc.
Israel kills civilians on foreign soil, if you accept their dishonest attempts to pretend Gaza is not under their control. No outrage is expressed, no condemnation, and no expulsion of diplomats.
…. and no expulsion of diplomats.
…. although fair play to Gerry Adams for trying ….
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/iconic-irish-leader-calls-expulsion-israeli-diplomats-videos/
Like we need lectures in human rights from the IRA
Ireland has a good record in calling out the apartheid, terrorist, siege and occupation policies of the far right government in Israel.
This Gaza slaughter was premeditated murder since 100 snipers were behind earth berms and were instructed to kill the “Ringleaders”. The ‘West’ allows Israeli impunity and with US backing at the UNSC Israels crimes will never be accountable. Netanyahu has said ‘Israel will live by the sword’, that statement will one day be put to the test. The major reason why Trump is threatening to scrap the Iran nuclear deal has nothing to do with Nuclear weapons, rather the growing might of the ‘Arc of resistance’ Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah backed by Russia, Hezbollah alone has 130,000 missiles, enough to turn Tel Aviv into rubble [most of the population and Industrial infrastructure is within the Metropolitan Tel Aviv area] the result, no more Israel. Add the Syrian and increasingly accurate Iranian missiles [which are not part of the nuclear deal] then you have a situation where a sort of mutual assured destruction [MAD] is guaranteed. Because Saudi Arabia and the other GCC states hegemony is threatened in the region, that is why the Saudis [who hate Iran mostly on a sectarian basis] are teaming up with Israel for their mutual survival, the forces on the side of the ‘arc of resistance’ are far greater than an Israel/Saudi alliance can cope with, even with a US intervention. Unless Israel negotiates a solution [within the well known parameters of International law] with the Palestinians and its neighbours, Israels future is bleak.
Jeremy Corbyn
I have asked for this statement to be read at today’s demonstration supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza:
The killing and wounding of yet more unarmed Palestinian protesters yesterday by Israeli forces in Gaza is an outrage.
The majority of the people of the Gaza Strip are stateless refugees, subject to a decade long blockade and the denial of basic human and political rights. More than two thirds are reliant on humanitarian assistance, with limited access to the most basic amenities, such as water and electricity.
They have a right to protest against their appalling conditions and the continuing blockade and occupation of Palestinian land, and in support of their right to return to their homes and their right to self-determination.
Firing live ammunition into crowds of unarmed civilians is illegal and inhumane and cannot be tolerated.
We stand in solidarity with the Israelis who have taken to the streets this last week to protest their government’s actions.
The silence from international powers with the responsibility of bringing a just settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict must end.
The UK government must support the UN Secretary-General’s call for an independent international inquiry into the killing of protesters in Gaza and review the sale of arms that could be used in violation of international law.
The events in Gaza and the threat of renewed conflict underlines the urgent necessity of genuine negotiations to achieve a viable two-state settlement that delivers peace, justice and security to both Palestinians and Israelis.
Yes.
What is wrong with you people? The British media is totally corrupt. Who cares what they say or do? Just ignore them and they will go away.
Think instead how infected you are by the years of poison that they have drip fed into you. Ask why you feel such guilt for the historical crimes of colonialism and slavery which had nothing to do with you. Ask why you feel no guilt at all for the imprisonment of Boer women and children in concentration camps. Ask why over 100 years later you remain content to, at the minimum, tacitly support a communist regime dedicated to the destruction of Boer society.
Just because you don’t care and you don’t notice does not mean that the rest of the world shares your ignorance. The Israel-Palestine conflict is complicated, and so not best suited to the analysis of a British population with an attention span measured in seconds and a penchant for policies that can be reduced to simple slogans. However your treatment of the Boers over an extended period does not go unnoticed. Israel is unlikely to be persuaded to compromise so long as it calculates your end goal to be for Israel to suffer the same fate as South Africa.
Your selective moral outrage is a constituent part of the problem that you claim to be so exercised about.
“The Israel-Palestine conflict is complicated”
I don’t think it’s actually that complicated.
I don’t know who you are referring to as Communist in your post, but if it is the ANC then they have as much to do with “Communism” as, for example, the IRA: fuck all.
Yeah it is pretty hard to work out. Try looking at the people who are walking around with banners that read ““A revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate” I wonder what that could possibly mean?
Perhaps it is all a laugh and they don’t really mean it. Try looking at the pictures of some of the women whose vagina’s have been filled with gasoline prior to being ignited.
It is NOT a conflict. It is a war on the Palestinians who were occupied in 1948. Many of them still have the keys to their family homes.
Shades of what happened to Nafeez Ahmed.
How many members of the fascist wing of the PLP abstained from Corbyn’s motion to ban arms sales to the an ti/sem Saud perverts, 97 was it.?
An article from a former ambassador with a better understanding of the situation.
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/vivian-bercovici-no-country-would-tolerate-what-hamas-is-doing-at-israels-border
“Vivian Bercovici is a former Canadian ambassador to Israel. She lives in Tel Aviv.” Very unbiased piece indeed!
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Not a single word about the decade long blockade.
Your article is a joke Alex.
If Gaza were run by people who were more interested in the welfare of Gazans than killing Israelis then there’d be no need for a blocade
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If Israel were interested in the welfare of Gazans, instead of punishing and harassing them, there wouldn’t be a blockade – hospitals would have adequate medicines, electricity and sewage plants wouldn’t have been destroyed by Israel, Gazan fishermen would be able to fish in their own waters without being shot, families would be able to play on the beach without being attacked by rockets, and people would be able to rebuild their city after the wanton and deliberate destruction by a state which has done everything to make Gaza uninhabitable. It is on course for that, an outcome that Israel is content with, since it will rely, once again, on other, more human countries to solve the problems they have created.
Seven things you need to know about Israel’s latest attack on Gaza
Michael Lester lays it out here:
http://mondoweiss.net/2018/04/things-israels-latest/
1. Israel’s killings were premeditated.
2. Israeli violence had nothing to do with “security.”
3. There were no “clashes.”
4. Israel targeted its victims for political reasons.
5. Israel commits its crimes because the U.S. lets it.
6. Mainstream media, and Jewish organizations, assist in the cover-up
7. Israel’s crimes will continue until we make it stop.
None of these are remotely surprising to anyone who has been observing the situation for the last twenty years. But hardly anyone will report it, unwilling to run the gauntlet that Israel supporters will inflict on them.
If Israel were run by people who were more interested in the welfare of Israel than killing Palestinians then there’d be no need for BDS.
Philip Cross hasn’t edited Bercovici’s Wikipedia page. Not yet anyway.
I’ll join you! https://off-guardian.org/
Oh so well said. My friends are with them,and my heart breaks that what theyre daring to do is coldly ignored by our base and pandering media..
At 16:30 it’s top headline on the world section of the website.
Obviously, you could argue the main front page (which is technically UK) usually prioritises international stories too.
Last weeks coverage was worse. Both the BBC and Guardian were just copying word for word exactly what Associated Press gave them. No thought, no attempt to research, no real journalism. Hence the use of the word ‘clashes’ appearing all over the news.
But check out the online version of Have I Got News For You for another example of the conflation issue. The panel appear to be attacking ‘left wing Jews’ for being rude about Israel. Crucially, all these jokes were cut out off the 9:30 showing. Time constraints? I don’t believe it.