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 [...]
With the NY Times. Meshal is the head of the Hamas’ political bureau: On the two-state solution sought by the Americans, he said: “We are with a state on the 1967 borders, based on a long-term truce. This includes East Jerusalem, the dismantling of settlements and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.” Asked [...]
I have covered this topic before, but I never expected to see such a long and detailed investigative report in the Wall Street Journal. Read it and weep. A look at Israel’s decades-long dealings with Palestinian radicals — including some little-known attempts to cooperate with the Islamists — reveals a catalog of unintended and often [...]
Reuters analysis is well worth reading: Despite killing some 1,300 Palestinians and blazing a trail of destruction, Israel failed to achieve the decisive military triumph that its leaders have claimed, said Alastair Crooke, a former European Union negotiator in the Middle East. “It was a war of ghosts,” he said, adding that Hamas had preserved [...]
When I was a high school student, the poem by Robert Southey, After Blenheim, was a standard part of the English curriculum. Now that a cease fire has come into effect in Gaza, little Wilhemene’s comment and little Peterkin’s question seem quite relevant: They say it was a shocking sight After the field was won; For many thousand bodies [...]
A highly thoughtful analysis of what needs to be done.
Although I am an optimist by nature, the depth of ugliness to which human beings can go, never surprises me. Humans often try to distinguish ourselves from animals. I would say that the only distinction between humans and animals, is that we are the only species that is intentionally cruel.
I have written in the past about my attitudes towards intolerance. And I have written about hypocrisy and the need to oppose anti-democratic actions by both the empire and its opponents. I feel, therefore, the need to write something about the hype surrounding the cartoons that are causing such an uproar around the world.
One of the most fascinating parts of the film “Paradise Now” is how it shows the “religious” operatives from Hamas exploiting personal and individual crises, to recruit suicide bombers. Those who read this blog regularly are aware of my low opinion of militarists in general and Hamas in particular. Nonetheless, they are a political force [...]
For me, one of the most frustrating aspects of human nature is how people seem so willing to believe the lies of politicians. Even worse, is the gullibility vis-a-vis the lies of military men. Somehow the site of a uniform seems to cause all normal mental functioning to shut down. But most frustrating of all, [...]