Category: Uncategorized

Operation “Protective Edge”- The Never-Ending Nakba in Palestine

(note that this post  is  a short updated summary  of the issues previously outlined in other posts  on  this site)

Many articles in  mainstream media  regarding the current  violence in Gaza portray  the  conflict  as a Hamas terrorist vendetta against  Israel and Jews.
The reality is somewhat different.
Al jazeera notes as of 17th  July,  that  “of the 214 Palestinians killed so far in Operation Protective Edge, at least 67 were women and children and 11 were elderly, according to Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. Over 1,500 have been injured, and Gaza hospitals have reported severe medical-supply shortages. (In contrast)the first Israeli death was reported Tuesday, after shrapnel from a rocket hit a civilian handing out food to soldiers near the Gaza border. The disproportionate  death  and casualty rate between the two  sides in  this conflict  clearly illustrates the overwhelming destructive power of the Israeli  military  machine against  this tiny  isolated ghettoised non-state. Israel, as the occupying force, has a UN mandated obligated to protect  those people’s whose lands   it  has  occupied.
As the history  books show, Israel  has pursued a  violent and illegal  process of the elimination of the ‘Palestinian problem’  since its brutal   occupation of Palestinian lands  in 1948, when  hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were  driven from  their houses and lands by  the Israeli  Army, in what Palestinians  call the ‘Nakba’ -the Catastrophe. That  process of occupation and removal  of people who  have lived in the area for thousands of years, is ongoing.  Operation ‘Protective Edge” is just  one more step  along the way  to  finally eliminating  those troublesome Arabs who  persist in trying to  subsist  in  the homeland of their forefathers.

Shrinking Palestine

Along with  that  occupation goes an ongoing  military ever-tightening noose around Gaza and the West  Bank,  which  has seen Gaza literally strangled by  Israeli occupation  forces into  a primitive society where sewage, water and health  systems are largely nonexistent.  Palestinian  children continue on a daily basis to  be arrested, tortured and thrown  in Israeli  jails for crimes such  as  stone throwing or protesting the occupation. Since the beginning of  2000, 1407 Palestinian  children alone  have been killed by  Israeli  forces.
And this ignores the many  thousands of adults tortured jailed and murdered in Israeli prisons for daring to  resist  the occupation.  And let us  not forget  all  the Palestinian  homes and orchards bulldozed by  armoured bulldozers to make way  for Israeli  “settlers”,  on  a daily basis.
Israel  is one of the largest and most well resourced militaries in  the world (fourth largest);  courtesy  of the United States, who  since 1948  has blindly  promoted and applauded each  atrocity committed by  the Israelis in  the face of overwhelming international  condemnation.
Certainly   no  violence can be supported from  either party in  this horrendous and savage  conflict,  but readers of this post  should not need to wonder why  Hamas is angry and violent in  response to  this  brutal  and seemingly never-ending tragedy.
The only way  forward  is a  one-state solution,  where fair  compensation for lives  and lands lost  is given to  those hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forcibly expelled from  their homeland;  and all the resident populations-whether Jew, Christian or Muslim, learn to create a peaceful  and sustainable future in a new and just  Palestine.
And lastly, lets look  at  who  supports this ongoing terror by the Israeli  war machine ( note an abstention means tacit support for the status quo  of more war).
Postscript:
Note the chilling banner  at  the end of Craig Murray’s blog here on the Gaza genocide
Israeli banner
The banner reads: “There are no innocents in Gaza“

Links

 

Netanyahu’s War-What  it is Good For
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/24893-netanyahus-war-what-it-is-good-for

Human Rights Watch, taking Israel’s side (again)
http://justworldnews.org/?p=3946

 The War on Gaza and the Cycle of Impunity
http://www.thenation.com/article/180683/war-gaza-and-cycle-impunity?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email_nation&utm_campaign=Email%20Nation%20%28NEW%29%20-%20Headline%20Nation%20Feed%200717%2F2014&newsletter=email_nation#

Gaza News – “At least they wont breed”
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/07/july-16-gaza-news.html

Understanding the Gaza Tragedy
http://www.williampfaff.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=687


http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/joint-declaration-by-international-law-experts-on-israels-gaza-offensive/

The Caliphate for the 21st Century

The video (below) of “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” (another one of the fictional “nom-de-guerre”  names so beloved of Islamic jihad fighters),  shows a  hesitant  youngish  man  delivering in  Koranic verse style the announcement that  he (in all  modesty  appropriate  to a disciple of Mohammed)  is the new caliph of Iraq, Syria and Levant  that  all  must bow down  to.

As the Angry Arab says;  When you bill yourself as a caliph you inevitably raise expectations. And as the Arabic saying goes: ‘the mountain went into labor and gave birth to a mouse’. What a lousy performance. 

While these young psychopaths  have a certain predilection  for violent murder and ignorance, they are definitely not idolised by the vast  majority of Sunni  Muslems around the world.  The sectarian violence, mysoginism   and vengeance they  espouse,  fomented largely through  Wahhabi  funds from  Saudi Arabia and Qatar and with  “special  assistance” from  U.K. and U.S. “intelligence” over the years,  fools few on the Arab street. These young violent men  are simply tools of those who  wish for nothing better than all-out  mayhem, death  and environmental destruction in  middle eastern states that do  not sufficiently support a Western view of who  should control  the world’s resources.

Desperately seeking fame on Youtube, as they behead another  infidel of whatever religious persuasion, they  are like little children given dangerous toys to play  with by  the grownups.

Their “secret” cavalcade of many miles of brand new Toyota’s through  the deserts of Iraq from Syria to  capture key  Iraqi northern towns, was somehow never spotted by  Western spy  satellites. Make no mistake, these are the “moderates”  that  Western governments have been funding to overthrow  Assad’s Syria , and now Maliki’s Iraq, for the past five years. This is a deliberate plan by  Western governments to de-stabilise and overthrow any middle eastern government that  1) doesn’t support the ongoing Israeli  destruction of Palestine and Palestinians, and 2) doesn’t  support the right of the U.S.  to  basically do  anything it wishes to.

It would be amusing if it were not so  sad that these nasty  little psychopaths  in offices in London,  Paris  and Washington who  get others to do  their killing  and torture for them, believe that  this is the way  to a  brave new future;  a “New American  Century“.  Take the former  British  Chief of Defence Lord Richards’ brilliant proposal  to train  and equip  100,000  jihadists   to  take Damascus from  Syrian Government forces, with substantial  Western  air support- (read  collateral  air damage) on the pretext  that this would reduce civilian casualties in  in Syria! . Fittingly,  the great Lord Richards  was also once Nato commander in the  brutal  fiasco  that is  the fourth  Anglo  Afghan War and is now  a senior advisor  to  the  right wing  British  International Institute of Strategic Studies,  and which  strangely enough, supported the US invasion of Iraq and is now  very  anti the current Shi-ite based Maliki government in Iraq.

And of course let’s not forget  the $500 million dollars worth of armaments and training from President Obama and Congress that will  go only  to  the ‘moderate’ extremists in Syria fighting the Syrian  government forces.

Or perhaps note the leaked ( unverified but eminently plausible )  Rand Corporation document advising the Western Ukrainians how to destroy Eastern Ukraine- these guys in  their cosy  little offices in  the city are oh-so-ruthless in  getting others to   murder and torture and destroy on  their behalf ( but only of course where it benefits their bank  accounts).

Links

SYRIAN INTELLIGENCE CHIEF ATTENDS CT DIALOGUE WITH S/CT BENJAMIN
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/10DAMASCUS159_a.html#efmBraBr6BsHB6RB6UCDN

The Lonely Primate

In the 2008 book Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection  by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick, the  case is made that loneliness is an essential  and life-preserving  trait of being human. To  feel the fear of being unintentionally alone is what  keeps us safe; making us run  back to the safety of the clan. And  not just  a psychological  reflective process,  but an in-built physiological response to  the need to be part of the collective of ‘our” group.

trial2Could it be that the need to be  together drives every  one  of our “modern-day” activities: that  avoiding loneliness is the reason  why  we live in  towns and cities, why  we play sports, why we work  together, why  we fight together in  armies, why  we destroy the natural  environment around ourselves to  group together in bigger and bigger clans – that all  these activities are simply  excuses for us to  connect with our fellow primates? – that these activities are essentially meaningless except to  remove our fear of being alone.

The Social  Role Valorization  philosophy ,  developed by  Wolf Wolfensburger in  the 1970s,  offered   a model  and methodology  of inclusion for people with disabilities into  society.  Wolfensburger argued that   for people with disabilities  to have  equal status with the non disabled in  society, they  must have valued roles in  society.  The theory presupposes that   any person, to  be fully human, must   feel  and be included in  the human group  /society they  are geo-spacially part of -in other words, they  must feel themselves part of the clan and be welcomed as part of   the clan.   Wolfensburger argued that it was ‘meaningful’  activity that provided that  acceptance and value.

However, given  that  many,  if not most,  human  activities are intrinsically value-less and meaningless taken in isolation ( eg sports and war),  it would instead appear that the  core of being valued is  simply  the capacity to maintain   contact  with other humans in  a  manner that allows  reciprocal  communication and hence provides reciprocal protection and safety.

Could it be that  this “market-driven” world of consumerism  and destruction has been  elaborately constructed simply to  assuage this vulnerable soft little primate, who  cannot even see in  the dark, from  his  fear of being alone?

 

George Galloway and the “Killing of Tony Blair”

The obscene, machiavellian  and calculating Tony Blair may  finally get  his come-upance.

George Galloway,  UK   MP, has launched a crowd-funding project  via    Kickstarter   entitled “The Killing of Tony Blair”, to raise £100,000   so  that George Galloway  can   produce a  film  about Tony Blair and his life of exploitation and mass murder for profit.

Blair@ Karimov
Karimov, (L) the brutal Uzbekistan dictator, and the smiling Tony Blair (R) (courtesy of Craig Murray’s blog)

If this film  can really make a mark  with the public, there is a real chance that Blair and other war  criminals like him ,  will be making  their excuses  before the International  War Crimes Tribunal in  short order .

As of 28th  September,  the project had raised  £87,141  towards its £100,000 goal.

Make your donation now and make a real  difference for the future- lets stop  the killers!

Memento Mori

I am  reminded of my own inevitable mortality by  this,  as  always,  superb  and quirky literary  piece by  Lewis Lapham entitled Memento Mori ; The Death of American Exceptionalism — and of Me .

It is a  reminder that  we do  not live forever;  and why  should we should choose to want to?

Daleksmall
                     The Dalek

Yes, this life brings  to each of us a  superb melodrama of emotional  highs and lows ,  both wonderful  and tragic moments,  physical pain  and ecstasy.  But perhaps for me, it will not be a sad day  when  this feeble little ego; constructed upon  nothing but fear  and ignorance, departs this mortal  coil.

But what is indeed sad and tragic,  are those of us who continue to   hurt  our own and other species on  this little planet we chance to  be on, to  inflate our little fragile make-believe egos.

The New (Syrian) War to end a War

Once again  the United States is beating the drums for war;  just one more country it can  save by  killing its  population and destroying its infrastructure. The ludicrous nature of the arguments for war  put forward by  Obama, Kerry and  McCain  speak  volumes about the intellectual  capacity of those 3 gentlemen.

Bombing and murdering  another country’s people doesn’t stop  the bombing and murdering;  negotiations do. In  the end;  every  time,  the two parties must  come to  the table and talk.  However negotiating is, I recognise,  a  hard thing for bullies to  condescend to  do.

Perhaps wishful thinking on  my part,  but there does seem to be a growing understanding in  the world communities that these endless US wars in the Middle East  are in  fact  just pretexts for  destroying sovereign nations that might oppose US or Israeli interests in  the region.

It is instructive to listen to  Al Jazeera  attempting to whip  up  fear  that  the Assad government will do this or that if it is not stopped- the propaganda line is so obvious and implausible that  most people will  simply turn their news off.

The recent experience of what  happens when NATO and the US “liberate” another dark  skinned country ; Libya,Iraq, Yemen should be enough for anyone to  recognise that  liberation by  Western countries is not a benign  experience.  And as  Press TV notes, the US administration’s assessment  of “high  confidence” that  the Syrian  Assad regime carried out the chemical  attack  is an amazing piece of sophistry.   Since when was anyone convicted and sentenced to death  based on “high confidence”  that they had committed that offence?    Before we murder thousands  of people, and destroy  their capacity to live ordinary  lives-lets please have some evidence.  But that may be way too much to ask.

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Links

A great  article by  David Swanson  at  Washington’s Blog succinctly outlines the insanity of yet  another war.

A lovely article at  Just  World News from Helena Cobban on  the lunacy  of this war  and AIPAC’s lobbying

A   summary of the current  (9th  September 2013) state of affairs re Syria by  Lara Setrakian  at  Syria Deeply

Anything Goes

In the immortal  words of Cole Porter, “Anything Goes” in  the international  financial  world these days.  And while we are not yet  again  in  the giddy  1920′s leading up to  an even giddier depression, we are getting damned close!

The recent financial management fiasco  in Cyprus are very real proof that  the international sector hasn’t a clue;  from the small-minded reporters who  rub their hands in  glee that yet  another “irresponsible’   national  economy has bitten the dust, to the so-called national  Finance Ministers who  gloat  that  other irresponsible countries will  suffer the same fate as the Cypriots and  Russian “oligarchs”  (why please,  are all  rich Russians  “oligarchs”?).

It doesn’t seem to occur to  any of these so-called fiscal  experts that that they have abruptly and completely ripped the guts out of the banking sector across the Western  world. Given that the entire international  financial  sector is based on  sleight of hand and “confidence’ that things can only get better; we now are all in  deep  shit. One’s confidence may become a little shaky when you realise that once   things go  bad (because things have gone bad somewhere else -like Greece), you are going to  immediately lose almost  half of your savings. But lets not forget the small  Cypriot savers  who  now are unlikely to  ever be able to retrieve their measly savings, and without a job, may  simply starve, as the inexorable decline of the Cypriot economy gathers pace.

But what is your alternative to the bank?-stuffing your money under the mattress?,  or in your little safe in  the mattress? (recently invented by  an  imaginative businessman from Spain)- no – inflation is definitely going to  make that a pretty poor option-assuming you don’t get robbed first.

Others see their saviour in  Bitcoin,  suppliers for whom  have just  announced the first bitcoin ATM  in – guess where? -Nicosia,Cyprus. Lets hope the internet keeps working then…

Undoubtedly  the Cyprus economy  is minuscle in  comparison with other EU economies,  but for some reason their Northern EU neighbours have taken upon  themselves to  scapegoat  Cypriots, presumably not realising the mammoth impacts of their actions upon  themselves and the rest of the Western world.

But then really-why  am I  surprised?; the basis of capitalism is short-sighted greed and folly- why  should it be different this time?

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Postscript:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n09/james-meek/the-depositor-haircut

Economonitor: Cyprus Reopens for Business: NowWhat?

http://www.economonitor.com/blog/2013/03/cyprus-reopens-for-business-now-what/

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The BRICS Expose the West’s Hypocrisy By William Pesek

Who do they think they are, these upstart economies, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa?

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Betray Your Bank Before Your Bank Betrays You

By Jonathan Weil 

What’s a Slovenian with several hundred thousand euros in the bank supposed to do? Spread it out among at least a few different banks, that’s what. Or move the money out of the country, while it’s still possible.

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Cyprus: We apologise for any inconvenience…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21965059

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