Towards a global perspective . . .

President Obama has finally convinced the Palestinians and Israelis to participate in bilateral talks that might lead to the much glorified 2 State Solution to the unrest in that region.  I don’t know what what these discussions can hope to achieve, given that settlement building in full swing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Gazans living in a pile of rubble that is under siege for at least the 2nd year.  And, I don’t know what substance the talks can have, given that the Palestinian participants are unelected collaborators, and Hamas, the only government in Palestine that actually was elected and actually  governs in a region of Palestine, is specifically not invited.  But, somebody is going to talk about something, and the details of their stillborn initiative will be dutifully reported to us as ‘progress’, or at least ‘news’ for some time in the future.

I have just finished reading Joe Sacco’s book, “Footnotes in Gaza“.   Sacco was in Gaza researching this book before and during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, and at the time that Rachel Corrie was run over by an IDF Bulldozer as she attempted to stop it from destroying someone’s home.    His topic, however, was a massacre of between 50 and 100+ men in Rafah, depending on whose numbers you like, that occurred on November 12, 1956.    The research for the book involved finding and interviewing older people who actually participated in, or witnessed the event.

As Joe and his Palestinian helpers investigate this tragedy from the past, they inhabit a world of continuous threat and violence.   Read the rest of this entry »

The Atlantic published a disturbing article this week, “The Point of No Return“, by Jeffrey Goldberg.  Goldberg  makes the case that, since Israel is guaranteed to initiate an attack on Iran by next spring, we should take the initiative and do it ourselves.  There have been a number of  interesting responses to the article, including one from the Leveretts and Gareth Porter.  These people provide, what I feel is a pragmatic and informed response from professionals in the field.   I don’t agree with their every assertion, but I absolutely agree with their shifting of perspective to a pragmatic and functional one.

The ‘War with Iran’ propaganda machine is running full throttle.  First, there are the grand statements of propaganda denouncing the government for terrorism, barbarism, supporting terrorism, meddling in the affairs of their neighbors, not having a free press and other undemocratic practices.  All this floats atop the assumption/insinuation that they have a nuclear weapons program which will come to fruition in the very near future as an international menace of intolerable proportions.   Then the spinners.   There are 50 comments after every article and post, arguing, elaborating, spinning a story where the details have been obscured by lies, threats and counter-threats, innuendo, histrionics and a high energy conflagration of information with misinformation.  Ultimately, it’s really hard to predict whether there will be a strike on Iran just because there is so much unconstrained energy in the issue, and so little recourse to reason in addressing it.

After reading the article, I find myself inspired to add a few words to the ongoing discussion to address an aspect of The Atlantic’s presentation that has so far gone unmentioned. Read the rest of this entry »

Defamation, a documentary film written and directed by Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir, is a film that every American should see.     As far as I know, it hasn’t been shown in theaters here, but I’m sure you can rent it from various online sources.   Those like myself, who have Netflix can see it online for free on their Netflix account.   Yesterday, I couldn’t find a place to watch it on Youtube, but got a screen showing a copyright conflict. I wasn’t surprised because Gilad Atzmon’s website said it wasn’t available on Youtube in the US. Today I found that you can watch on Youtube by starting from the trailer on the web page for the film, linked below.

The film begins with the director saying that, as an Israeli, he has never experienced antisemitism, so he is going to explore the subject in this film. Read the rest of this entry »