Start your day with this haunting column that appeared yesterday in the Toronto Star (“Beautiful dream of Israel has become a nightmare“). Vancouver-based author and physician, Gabor Maté, writes:
The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto. Unlike Israel, Palestinians lack Apache helicopters, guided drones, jet fighters with bombs, laser-guided artillery. Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm. With such a gross imbalance of power, there is no equivalence of culpability.
Israel wants peace? Perhaps, but as the veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy has pointed out, it does not want a just peace. Occupation and creeping annexation, an inhumane blockade, the destruction of olive groves, the arbitrary imprisonment of thousands, torture, daily humiliation of civilians, house demolitions: these are not policies compatible with any desire for a just peace. In Tel Aviv Gideon Levy now moves around with a bodyguard, the price of speaking the truth.
If that kicks your brain into gear, I would suggest several other articles about Israel’s current war against the Palestinians.
Professor Juan Cole asks in a column, “Is Rula Jebreal right about US Media Bias against Palestinians?”
He writes, in part:
As Greg Philo notes below, it isn’t just a matter of who is interviewed and how often, though that is important. It is also a matter of history and context. From most American media you would assume that the Israelis were minding their own business and the Palestinians of Gaza just irrationally started firing rockets at them. With rare exceptions, we aren’t told that most truces have been broken by Israel, not Hamas. We aren’t told that over 70% of Gaza’s population used to live in Israel and was ethnically cleansed and left penniless. We aren’t told that Israel has a blockade on Gaza that does not allow it to export most of what it produces, that this blockade has thrown 40% of the working population into unemployment and left 56% of families food insecurity (just on the verge of going to bed hungry). We aren’t told that Israeli occupation has left 90% of people in Gaza without potable water. We aren’t told that Gaza’s Palestinians demand an end to being kept in a big concentration camp. If Israelis were being treated as the Palestinians are, what do you think they would do about it?
There are links to several other resources, including a 23-minute YouTube video of a panel in London organized by Amnesty International, ‘Do the Media Aid Israel?‘
A couple of segments of an interview this week with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy broadcast by Democracy Now! are also worth checking out.
See “What Does Hamas Really Want?” and “If Netanyahu Wants to Stop the Rockets, He Needs to Accept a Just Peace.” Both include the video segment as well as a preliminary transcript.
It is all just so sad.
And that’s where the column from the Toronto newspaper ended up as well.
A few days ago I met with one of my dearest friends, a comrade from Zionist days and now professor emeritus at an Israeli university. We spoke of everything but the daily savagery depicted on our TV screens. We both feared the rancour that would arise.
But, I want to say to my friend, can we not be sad together at what that beautiful old dream of Jewish redemption has come to? Can we not grieve the death of innocents? I am sad these days. Can we not at least mourn together?
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Many thanks, Ian, this is a service to humanity. The complacency and financial support that Obama & Congress gives Israel enables the continues the atrocities. Ifamericansknew.org posts that from 6/8-7/22, Israeli forces have killed 632 Palestinians, 155 children, 76% civilian casualties. Further Israel actually rejected a legitimate ceasefire offer; Hamas ceasefire offered Israel would ensure that human rights, rights to trade with other nations, righty to travel freely, right to worship at Holy zplaced, etc. From Jan 1-May 31,2014, Israel kidnapped 2330 Palestinians with an average of 203 children held in jail without rights. GAZA is a Ghetto! What is the difference between Zionism and Nazism? None, they are both terrorists. What the voters of Hawaii need to ask if they have a conscience, is why we elect people to Congress who take funds from Zionists and vote for funds to continue and enable Israel’s atrocities?
Mahalo for your thoughtful balance.
Thank you, Ian, for putting this on your blog.
In recent weeks the online news aggregator “Hawaii Political Info” has given itself almost entirely to 2 topics: virulent anti-Israel coverage of the Gaza situation; and pro-Russia coverage of the war in Ukraine. “Russia Today” newspaper articles and videos are a large part of what’s presented on both topics. Definitely not “mainstream media.”
http://www.hawaiipoliticalinfo.org
It’s difficult to oppose Zionism, and U.S. knee-jerk support for Israel, without appearing to be anti-Semitic. (sort of like it’s difficult to oppose Hawaiian racial entitlement programs and race-based nation-building without appearing to be anti-Hawaiian!) Patrick Buchanan has gotten a lot of criticism for that stand over many years. “Hawaii Political Info” sometimes makes me cringe with its editorial viewpoint on this topic; but I’m glad to be able to read what’s presented.
Thanks, Ian. It’s worth noting that it’s not just the media. Last week the US House and Senate passed resolutions via unanimous consent supporting Israel’s “right to defend itself” from “unprovoked” Palestinian attacks. All four members of Hawaii’s Congressional delegation served as co-sponsors of the resolutions.
Sad that the most powerful leaders in this world are so detached from the common, working class people that when it comes to their policy-making, geopolitical considerations win out over simple humanitarian decency, time and time again. Zionism with no regard to innocent children getting maimed and killed in the streets of Gaza? Germany being more concerned with pacifying Russia rather than holding Putin accountable for the MH17 disaster? If someway, somehow, folks like Obama and Merkel could spend even a few minutes in the company of some of these victims,…
For another perspective on the relative valuation of Arab deaths please see this by Jeff Greenfield:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/obsessing-about-gaza-ignoring-syria-and-most-everything-else/374898/
You do not even see your own bias! Why call defending your citizens “Zionism?” It all boils down to one thing:
Israel insists on existing.
Hamas is dedicated to Israel NOT existing.
The Palestinian people are the unfortunate
victims. Why the surprise that Israel, like every other nation refuses to be “pushed into the sea?”
What is different about Israel?
Why does Obama deserve unprecedented disrespect? Gee, I wonder. . . . .
Un-examined BIAS! Like you illustrate so well today.
“I personally wish that the Jews do not drive us to this war, as this will be a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Tartar massacre or the Crusader wars. I believe that the number of volunteers from outside Palestine will be larger than Palestine’s Arab population, for I know that volunteers will be arriving to us from [as far as] India, Afghanistan, and China to win the honor of martyrdom for the sake of Palestine … You might be surprised to learn that hundreds of Englishmen expressed their wish to volunteer in the Arab armies to fight the Jews.
“The Arab is superior to the Jew in that he accepts defeat with a smile: Should the Jews defeat us in the first battle, we will defeat them in the second or the third battle … or the final one… whereas one defeat will shatter the Jew’s morale! Most desert Arabians take pleasure in fighting. I recall being tasked with mediating a truce in a desert war (in which I participated) that lasted for nine months…While en route to sign the truce, I was approached by some of my comrades in arms who told me: ‘Shame on you! You are a man of the people, so how could you wish to end the war … How can we live without war?’ This is because war gives the Bedouin a sense of happiness, bliss, and security that peace does not provide! …”
— Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, Secretary-General of the Arab League, 1947
The nation of Israel’s existence depends on carrying out a military assault that has resulted in more children being killed than Hamas soldiers since last Thursday? Really???
John Lennon said it best. “How do you sleep?”
Jews of Conscience call for a stand against Israel’s slaughter in Gaza. Stand in support of Palestinian self determination and resistance. Stand on the side of Life! No cover for Israel’s brutality! International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. Jewish Voice for Peace YOUTUBE.COM As bombs rained on Gaza, Jews, Palestinians & others disrupted Israeli Ambassadors speech at the Protestant CUFI Conference. No Christians present!
“The Arab is superior to the Jew in that he accepts defeat with a smile: Should the Jews defeat us in the first battle, we will defeat them in the second or the third battle … or the final one… whereas one defeat will shatter the Jew’s morale! Most desert Arabians take pleasure in fighting. I recall being tasked with mediating a truce in a desert war (in which I participated) that lasted for nine months…While en route to sign the truce, I was approached by some of my comrades in arms who told me: ‘Shame on you! You are a man of the people, so how could you wish to end the war … How can we live without war?’ This is because war gives the Bedouin a sense of happiness, bliss, and security that peace does not provide! …”
— Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, Secretary-General of the Arab League, 1947
For those who would rather see something other than spam of a 67 year old quote, here’s TYT’s Cenk Uyger’s take on the senseless maiming and killing of innocent youngsters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q71R9jW6oR8