Towards a global perspective . . .

Not so very long ago, the local Anti War forces struggled for months to come up with a statement on Palestine and Israel, wrestled with the potential for action, and gave up with nothing resolved. A couple of years ago, an activist left a demonstration because another person was carrying a sign demanding that Israel end the occupation of Palestine. Both individuals are Jewish, and the one who was carrying the sign has family in Israel. Arabs were understandably reticent, rarely responding to our invitations to meet with us, or come out for demonstrations.

Since the current Israeli onslaught on Gaza, we have had 3 demonstrations on the street, the largest in support of the local Arab Community, some of whom had come out for our demonstrations. Read the rest of this entry »

INN showed Tzipi Livni at the National Press Club today.  She said that the Peace Process should go on while the IDF massacres the citizens of Gaza.  This is because Palestine is now divided, and Hamas is irrelevant.  The conflict, she tells us, is helping the Moderates.  No one will ever talk to Hamas, she said, so why concern ourselves with their elimination.  Now they can really move forward with the Moderates.  Has anyone seen the most recent maps of the West Bank?

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Evo Morales of Bolivia followed Hugo Chavez in condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza and breaking diplomatic ties with Israel in protest over those actions. President Morales went one step further than his neighbor in Venezuela, and said that he would attempt to bring Israeli officials involved in planning and executing the massacre before the World Criminal Court. Ironically, he also suggested that Israeli President Perez be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize.

We have been hearing in the mainstream press that the other Arab states are increasingly fearful of Iran due to instability caused by it’s nuclear program and recent assertive behavior. They can’t be too scared, though.

I found the following in today’s financial news:

* EMIRATES TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP (ETISALAT) SAID THAT A consortium it heads will invest at least $1 billion in a mobile phone network in Iran, and the firm was continuing talks for an acquisition in Iraq.

Reported on IBA today. They have Israeli PM Ehud Olmert saying that Israel has achieved a greater victory against terrorism in the last 12 days than any country has achieved in the last 16 years. What planet do they live on and what do they mean by ‘achieve’? They say that 400 of the victims of their onslaught were ‘positively identified’ as Hamas gunmen. UN observers say that 1/3 of victims are children. They show footage of Ishmael Haniya, the Hamas PM of Palestine, looking thin and pale. They assert that he is ready to quit, but they don’t let you hear what he is saying.

IBA showed footage of Hamas rigging bombs in a school, and distributed it internationally. The said that the Hamas activists claimed they weren’t aiming to harm the building, or the children, but just to attack IDF soldiers who had been known to rest there. Read the rest of this entry »

These Films are all available from Netflix
The Books are available through the Monroe County Library System
This list will be integrated with other readings and films from and about the Middle East and displayed on a page linked to the sidebar of this blog.
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Terrorists martyred in Gaza this week, dressed in white for heaven, are resting while their brothers stand by.  Hamas angels.

Bush says Gaza ceasefire must stop Hamas.

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Israel tells us that 4 of the 6 casualties (fatalities) in Gaza were the victims of friendly fire.  There is a reaction of disbelief.  The consensus in opposition circles is that this is Israeli propaganda to show that Hamas was not powerful enough to kill their soldiers or unwilling to come out and fight them.  They had to do it themselves, so to speak.   It is presented as an insult.  The insult has been receive and rejected.

On the other hand, if the statement, and the implications are true, then we have a human rights situation that is clearly unacceptable.   Israel is bragging about fighting an enemy not capable of retaliating.   This is impunity.   Furthermore, if I remember correctly, a couple more Israeli soldiers were killed, and a couple of hundred injured, which I would say is not too bad for an adversary without tanks, air support and  missiles, and surrounded by their friends and relatives.

In the first days of the Israeli bombing campaign, there was an article in one of the newspapers stating that a Palestinian Rocket had misfired and struck a local home, killing two children.  This tragedy was presented as a reflection of Palestinian incompetence and inappropriate behavior on their behalf.  When Israel has a friendly fire incident that kills some and injures more, it is presented as a reflection of Palestinian incompetence.   At least Israel can kill somebody.   In their defense, the Palestinians are trapped in an area with their friends and loved ones, under bombardment.  Israel could chose to leave.   War is hell.   Why go there?

The concept of ‘proportionality’ in the international laws of warfare is similar to restraints against torture of detainees and direct attacks on civilians.   It had to do with mitigation of excess.  If a country with more resources and a larger army overruns smaller, less endowed adversary, then they enjoined not to use force more than one step beyond the level of militancy and threat.  Otherwise, civilian populations are bound to become the target.

Today I awoke and put on NPR to find out the latest atrocities.  No problem there.  Today, the concept of ‘proportionality in war’ was ‘explained’.   Read the rest of this entry »

As Israel rains fire and brimstone on Gaza Hell,  people across the Middle East, and a few of us in the Western Heaven as well, sit impotent before our television and computer screens watching the nightmare of death and destruction unfold.   We are all wondering why nothing is done, has been done, to end the massacre.   Or maybe we aren’t.  This is not the first time Israel has seen fit to visit Hell on a neighbor, and it isn’t the first time that the world, with the US taking the lead, has stood idly by as it happened.

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