On more than one occassion I have expressed my outrage at the “progressive”/”liberal” mantra that the US is “a nation of laws” and the associated demand to call Bush & Co to account for their war crimes. According to this narrative, Bush & Co are to blame for the sorry state we are in: using the fear that 9/11 induced in the helpless minds of the American people, they turned us into a lawless nation – Guantanomo! Renditions! Eavesdroppings! NSA! CIA! Obama is an asshole/wimp/disappointment because he doesn’t prosecute Bush & Cheney and has not returned the “the law” into its central holy place in the American pantheon.
Tags: Human Rights
Exactly seven years ago I wrote an article about Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon and his references to the army applying “chemotherapy” to the Palestinian “cancer” in the West Bank and Gaza. As I noted then, the language he used is the language of fascism. Along with Lieberman (who also shows all signs of being a fascist) Ya’alon is now one of six key ministers in the current Israeli government. In his most recent post , Uri Avnery reaches a similar conclusion:
…Moshe (“Bogie”) Ya’alon [recently participated] in a gathering of the Jewish Leadership Faction. “Peace Now is a virus,” he said there. And not only they. “All the media” are also a virus. They influence the public discourse “in a distorted manner, a lying manner”. The virus also includes “the elite” in general. In addition, the “politicians” are to blame. “Every time the politicians bring in the dove of peace, we, the army, have to clean up after it.”
His summing up: “The Jews have a right to settle in any place throughout Eretz Israel.” And if this upsets the Americans, Ya’alon has a ready answer: “I am not afraid of the Americans!”
These tones come together in a frightening melody, a tune we know all too well. It is anthem of fascism.
Tags: Israeli Politics, Nationalism, Xenophobia
It’s hard to believe four years passed since Sharon declared a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Nehamia Shtrasler does an excellent job at summing up the disastrous consequences:
The evacuation could have been handled differently. It could have been used to enhance the status of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but Sharon didn’t agree to speak with him. He didn’t allow Abbas to gain any advantage from it and carried out the evacuation in an arrogant and unilateral manner, even though Abbas is the most moderate Palestinian leader ever.
At a meeting of the Kadima party leadership a few months after the disengagement, Sharon confidant Dov Weissglas said: “We will put the Palestinians on a diet, but not make them die of hunger.” Everyone present burst into laughter. But when the Palestinians discovered that Abbas hadn’t managed to ease the suffering and that there was no chance of a normal life on the horizon, they opted for a more extreme leadership – Hamas.
And let’s not forget Sharon’s heavy hand in helping found Hamas.
Tags: Hamas
A clear and clever presentation of how we must deal with global warming using game theory. Worth the watch:
One of the saddest aspects of Israel’s occupation and militarization has to do with the the huge role arm sales now play in the Israeli economy. It wasn’t always this way, and someday I hope to write a longer piece on the topic and my own peripheral involvement in this area. Besides the morally despicable aspect of being lords of war (cf. movie of the same name), the arms trade is the major source of corruption in Israeli government (just like drug trade or human traficking is in other countries). Not surprising that Israel’s corrupt foreign minister is going around the world pushing Israeli arm sales:
“The ugly Israeli” in the guise of the arms dealer (mostly former intelligence and military officials), who promotes weapons sales on behalf of Israeli military industries, with the backing of the defense establishment, have given Israel a bad name world-wide. Israelis have been involved in civil wars (in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast) and in aiding dictatorial regimes such as in Equatorial Guinea and the two Congo republics….
Lieberman is planning to bring with him dozens of businessmen, most of them arms dealers, as well as security advisers and representatives of the military industries.
Tags: Arms Sales, War Racket
Zvi Barel discusses Israeli Obama bashers in Ha’aretz
Obama did not invent a new American policy. The United States has long held that the settlements are illegal; the same is true for the status of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The Americans are sticking to the same road map drawn up seven years ago, it’s just that Israel apparently didn’t notice that the Palestinians have fulfilled the first article in the document almost completely. Military action against Israel has stopped, even from the Gaza Strip, and an increasingly effective Palestinian force in the West Bank is taking action against terror organizations. Israel, in contrast, has not met its road map obligations and continues to argue over the terms of the agreement – as if it never adopted it. Nor can Israel rely on its demand that the Arab states normalize relations with Jerusalem: The obligation of normalization is conditioned on Israel’s withdrawal from all occupied territory.
Tags: Israeli Politics, US Politics
Uri Avnery deconstructs all the arguments defending Israel’s war crimes in Gaza. Normally I bring a key quote, but in this case i would end up just copy and pasting the entire article. Here is my own recent personal commentary on serving in the Israeli army and fighting a civilian population,
Gideon Levy on Yoav Gallant:
From the “neighbor procedure” of using people as human shields, which is a gross violation of a High Court ruling, a public scandal in itself; to the spirit of words uttered by a commander who is quoted by a number of the soldiers as saying that was preferable to harm bystanders than to hesitate in hurting the enemy. “If you are not sure, shoot,” one of the soldiers quoted him as saying. The soldier added, “The firepower was insane … In urban warfare, everyone is an enemy. There is no difference between innocent civilians and enemies.”
It is for this that Gallant is responsible. He orchestrated a war in which there were almost no instances of combat, all the while inculcating an awful attitude within the IDF, one that says it is permissible for us to do anything: to drop thousands of bombs, shells, and missiles in addition to phosphorus shells and flechettes; to kill whole families and to sow destruction on a horrific scale while considering it all a success.
“They didn’t set a goal for us,” one of the combat soldiers said in the report, which recounts the destruction the soldiers wreaked just for its own sake. “I don’t know what the objective of the war was.”
Tags: Israeli Army, War Crimes
Most who from the beginning oppossed the so-called “security fence” argued it was a sham and had nothing to do with security. The Shin Bet itself admitted as much a couple years ago. It’s main intent, like the settlements, is to annex as much of the West Bank as possible before an agreement with the Palestinians. An article by Amos Harel in today’s Ha’aretz, basically concedes these points:
Seven years after construction work began on the West Bank separation fence, the project seems to have run aground. Work has slowed significantly since September 2007, and today, after the state has spent about NIS 9.5 billion, only about 60 percent of the more limited, revised route has been completed.
Tags: Israeli Army, Propaganda
Relevant Quotes
Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz: Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace -- Benito Juárez
It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. -- Eleanor Roosevelt
Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul -- Thomas Paine