Courageously, novelist David Grossman speaks out against the reactionary political moods of his countrymen:
"We must speak to the Palestinians: That is the most important conclusion from the most recent round of bloodshed. We must speak also to those who do not recognise our right to exist here. Instead of ignoring Hamas at this time, we would do better to take advantage of the new reality that has been created by beginning a dialogue with them immediately, one that would allow us to reach an accord with the whole of the Palestinian people. We must speak, even if dialogue seems hopeless from the start. In the long run, this stubbornness will contribute much more to our security than hundreds of planes dropping bombs on a city and its inhabitants." http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/dialogue-with-hamas-is-only-path-to-peace-urges-novelist-1452297.html
Grossman is surely correct in believing that there simply is no military solution to this conflict. The difficulty is though, what can you still talk about, after the latest round of barbarism?
Suppose that I steal your land, or burn down your house, or kill your wife and your children, and then I turn around and say "oops I think I've overdone things a bit, let's talk it over, maybe we can make a deal." It's not really credible, because you cannot really do things like that, without knowing very well what you are doing; what deal can there be anyway? You might feign "you meant something else", but it's not believable.
The Jews are acknowledged masters in the art of emotional and intellectual propaganda (in fact Hollywood was originally to a large extent a Jewish venture) but in the end the devastation speaks for itself. Very cleverly, the Zionists focus on "right to exist" rhetoric and the puberal angst surrounding it, but that is obviously not at all what the conflict is really about, that is just a political snowjob, utilising emotional hysteria.
What motivates Hamas has very little to do with Israel's right to exist - the reality is that it does exist, all the rest is philosophical at this point - but with the civil defence of the Palestinian right to exist in their own land. In the American-dominated world media, Hamas is presented as a bunch of sinister fundamentalist fanatics, but that is not the reality. Probably there are a few of those among them, just like on the Israeli side, but they are not the majority. The fact that Hamas is an Islamic group is not a negative feature, but a positive one, insofar as they have a clear morality of good and evil. They are not simply criminals. Let's not forget that it is the IDF that is killing Palestinian policemen.
Every year, the US and the EU together donate something like a billion dollars worth of aid to Palestine, the largest chunk of which is taxpayers' funds, paid for by you and me, out of our salary. The US govt also donates billions of dollars to Israel for sophisticated weaponry. Beyond the terrible loss of life and mutilated people, operation Cast Lead caused an amount of damage equal in value to about two years of foreign aid from the EU and the US. The financial perversity is, that the US pays Israel very big money to destroy EU, US and United Nations investments in Palestine. The largest chunk of financial resources they are wasting, is paid for by you and me, the taxpayer. Why should we, the citizens of Europe and America, pay rich Jewish brats to destroy the things intended to make life better for ordinary folks in Palestine?
The Marxian scholar Michael Krätke wrote: "corruption is a tried and tested means of keeping the regulators and controllers of markets on all planes under check, since unregulated and unorganized markets only exist at the margins of the real world of capitalism". Nowhere is this more true, than in the politics around Israel/Palestine. The final corruption is, that the money intended to build a better world, is used precisely to destroy it.
The journalist Gideon Levy puts the assault on Gaza in clear perspective - he is often regarded as "anti-Israel", but, in reality, he has its very best interests at heart, for the long term. He points out that the Israeli "whammy" at Hamas, intended to reinforce "social order", is really moronic from every point of view, and therefore harms Israel's interests overall:
*****************************
Last update - 04:19 22/01/2009 Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel
By Gideon Levy
On the morrow of the return of the last Israeli soldier from Gaza, we can determine with certainty that they had all gone out there in vain. This war ended in utter failure for Israel.
This goes beyond the profound moral failure, which is a grave matter in itself, but pertains to its inability to reach its stated goals. In other words, the grief is not complemented by failure. We have gained nothing in this war save hundreds of graves, some of them very small, thousands of maimed people, much destruction and the besmirching of Israel's image.
What seemed like a predestined loss to only a handful of people at the onset of the war will gradually emerge as such to many others, once the victorious trumpeting subsides.
The initial objective of the war was to put an end to the firing of Qassam rockets. This did not cease until the war's last day. It was only achieved after a cease-fire had already been arranged. Defense officials estimate that Hamas still has 1,000 rockets.
The war's second objective, the prevention of smuggling, was not met either. The head of the Shin Bet security service has estimated that smuggling will be renewed within two months.
Most of the smuggling that is going on is meant to provide food for a population under siege, and not to obtain weapons. But even if we accept the scare campaign concerning the smuggling with its exaggerations, this war has served to prove that only poor quality, rudimentary weapons passed through the smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt.
Israel's ability to achieve its third objective is also dubious. Deterrence, my foot. The deterrence we supposedly achieved in the Second Lebanon War has not had the slightest effect on Hamas, and the one supposedly achieved now isn't working any better: The sporadic firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip has continued over the past few days.
The fourth objective, which remained undeclared, was not met either. The IDF has not restored its capability. It couldn't have, not in a quasi-war against a miserable and poorly-equipped organization relying on makeshift weapons, whose combatants barely put up a fight.
The heroic descriptions and victory poems written abut the "military triumph" will not serve to change reality. The pilots were flying on training missions and the ground forces were engaged in exercises that involved joining up and firing weapons.
The describing of the operation as a "military achievement" by the various generals and analysts who offered their take on the operation is plain ridiculous.
We have not weakened Hamas. The vast majority of its combatants were not harmed and popular support for the organization has in fact increased. Their war has intensified the ethos of resistance and determined endurance. A country which has nursed an entire generation on the ethos of a few versus should know to appreciate that by now. There was no doubt as to who was David and who was Goliath in this war.
The population in Gaza, which has sustained such a severe blow, will not become more moderate now. On the contrary, the national sentiment will now turn more than before against the party which inflicted that blow - the State of Israel. Just as public opinion leans to the right in Israel after each attack against us, so it will in Gaza following the mega-attack that we carried out against them.
If anyone was weakened because of this war, it was Fatah, whose fleeing from Gaza and its abandonment have now been given special significance. The succession of failures in this war needs to include, of course, the failure of the siege policy. For a while, we have already come to realize that is ineffective. The world boycotted, Israel besieged and Hamas ruled (and is still ruling).
But this war's balance, as far as Israel is concerned, does not end with the absence of any achievement. It has placed a heavy toll on us, which will continue to burden us for some time. When it comes to assessing Israel's international situation, we must not allow ourselves to be fooled by the support parade by Europe's leaders, who came in for a photo-op with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Israel's actions have dealt a serious blow to public support for the state. While this does not always translate itself into an immediate diplomatic situation, the shockwaves will arrive one day. The whole world saw the images. They shocked every human being who saw them, even if they left most Israelis cold.
The conclusion is that Israel is a violent and dangerous country, devoid of all restraints and blatantly ignoring the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, while not giving a hoot about international law. The investigations are on their way.
Graver still is the damage this will visit upon our moral spine. It will come from difficult questions about what the IDF did in Gaza, which will occur despite the blurring effect of recruited media.
So what was achieved, after all? As a war waged to satisfy considerations of internal politics, the operation has succeeded beyond all expectations. Likud Chair Benjamin Netanyahu is getting stronger in the polls. And why? Because we could not get enough of the war. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057670.html
*************************************
Personally, I am very glad Ha'aretz is still able to at least publish Gideon Levy's point of view. Somehow, I think, people over there have to come to their senses, and realise the lunacy of the policies they are pursuing and endorsing. Gideon Levy's writings do help.
Jurriaan
Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival it seems
had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magil
and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy.
Now she and her man
who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down
Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot-he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.
Now the doctor came in stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said Rocky you met your match
And Rocky said, Doc it's only a scratch
And I'll be better I'll be better doc as soon as I am able.
Now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
As Gideon checked out, he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival.
- The Beatles, "Rocky Raccoon"
I don't know how
you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don't know how
you were inverted
no one alerted you
I look at you all
see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
- The Beatles, "While my guitar gently weeps"
_______________________________________________
ope mailing list
ope@lists.csuchico.edu
https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
Received on Thu Jan 22 12:51:04 2009
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sat Jan 31 2009 - 00:00:03 EST