My friend Taki has gone too far
Last week’s anti-Israel diatribe by The
Spectator’s High Life
columnist is almost worthy of Goebbels, says
Conrad Black
The Spectator’s social writer, Taki
Theodoracopulos, has often graciously
referred to me as an indulgent proprietor.
Our relations have been cordial
for 15 years and we have frequently been each
other’s guests, have been
friendly with each other’s spouses and have
many mutual friends. Long
before I knew him I was aware of his
penchant, sometimes entertaining but
sometimes excessive, to denigrate certain
ethnic groups, most often the
Jews. With such a bonhomous character there
is a natural tendency to
overlook his lapses of judgment and give him
the benefit of the doubt that
he is only railing against the prissy
hypersensitivities of political
correctness. It is hard to imagine that a
person with whom you are friendly
and have had many memorably agreeable times
is a racist who wishes and
incites violence against innocent people
because of their ethnicity or
religion.
I defended Taki when he was attacked by the
Mayor of New York for a
very insulting column about Puerto Ricans in
His remarks were
outrageous but, as the Puerto Ricans did make
a mess on Fifth Avenue,
they contained a kernel of truth and did not
incite violence against Puerto
Ricans. Nor are Puerto Ricans under any
particular external threat. Nor do
they have a history of being savagely
oppressed. In the same spirit I
defended one of our other writers, William
Cash, against the wrath of the
entire US film industry in 1994, when he
published an article about the
leading Jewish figures in that industry which
was somewhat insulting but
well short of an incitement to racial hatred.
These were not among my most enjoyable
moments as a publisher, but it is
the duty of a publisher to defend his writers
unless they are, for whatever
reason, indefensible. Writers, like everyone
else, have the right to dislike
individuals and whole nationalities and
ethnic groups. They have the right to
express their dislike if they do so
rationally, are not legally defamatory, and
if they are within the bounds of civilised
taste. Our publications will never
be hounded into politically correct avoidance
of any forceful opinion
touching ethnicity, sectarianism, gender or
sexual orientation. To do so
would be to accept a muzzle on freedom of
expression and to prevent
comment on large and interesting aspects of
life. My associates and I
would shut down our publications rather than
submit to such restrictions.
Unfortunately, last week in this magazine,
Taki’s reflections were
indefensible. He expressed a hatred for
Israel and a contempt for the United
States and its political institutions that
were irrational and an offence to
civilised taste. In the process, I am afraid
he uttered a blood libel on the
Jewish people wherever they may be.
He wrote that the United States had intended
to invade French air space to
force down fugitive financier Marc Rich’s
aeroplane (on orders ultimately
from the same commander-in-chief who has now
pardoned Rich); that
Israeli intelligence knew more of US Air
Force activities than the Pentagon
did and shared this information with Rich
because Israel’s favour had been
bought by Rich. For Taki, the United States
was not yet ‘Israel-occupied
territory’; that is, occupied by ‘those nice
guys who attack rock-throwing
youth with armour-piercing missiles’. He
acknowledged his anti-Semitism
but implicitly defined it as ‘daring to
protest about soldiers shooting at
kids’, and he asserted that ‘the way to Uncle
Sam’s heart runs through Tel
Aviv and Israeli-occupied territory’.
In both its venomous character and its
unfathomable absurdity, this farrago
of lies is almost worthy of Goebbels or the
authors of the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion. The Jews, according to Taki,
have suborned the US
government, direct that country’s military
like a docile attack dog, and
glory in the murder of innocent or
mischievous children. He presents the
universal Jewish ethos as brutish, vulgar,
grasping and cunningly wicked.
It is a fearful thing to contemplate that
someone with whom I have had
such long and cordial relations should use a
publication of ours for such
malignant purposes, however veiled in his
familiar recourse to harmless
excess, or even amplified by his frequent and
publicly confessed intake of
intoxicating substances.
I wouldn’t suspect Taki of co-ordinating his
views with anyone else’s. But
his opinions are not greatly more extreme
than those of large sections of the
British media which habitually apply a double
standard when judging the
Israelis and Palestinians. Behind the
spurious defence of merely seeking
justice for the Palestinians, most of the
relevant sections of the BBC,
Independent, Guardian, Evening Standard and
the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office are rabidly anti-Israel.
I doubt that most of the
people involved would be hostile to someone
merely because that person
was Jewish, though some would, but they are
almost all, wittingly or not,
stoking the inferno of anti-Semitism.
The origins of the Arab–Israeli problem are
too complicated for easy
summary, but among the points normally
overlooked by most of the British
media is that the government of the United
Kingdom bears a unique
responsibility for the problem. It sold the
same real estate twice. In the
direst moments of the first world war Britain
promised the same territory to
the Jews and to the Arabs.
Israel, after an unconscionable length of
time, and with the exact borders
still in dispute, has accepted the principle
of two states in the territory it
once hoped to occupy itself. The Palestinians
have not accepted the right of
the state of Israel to survive. They do not
accept the Israelis as an
indigenous people and still think of them as
foreign colonial occupiers like
the British, the Turks and the Romans. This
and the implosion of Arafat’s
authority among his own people, and not the
actions of the Israelis, are the
sources of the present impasse, and every
knowledgable observer of the
Middle East knows it.
The West Bank is now governed by groups of
thugs, and Arafat has been
afraid to go there for several months. The
Palestinian Authority is a brutal
dictatorship and one of the most financially
corrupt regimes in the world.
The PLO has not lived up to any of its
significant obligations under the Oslo
Accords, including expunging the anti-Israel
clauses of the Palestine
National Charter. Barak went as far as any
Israeli leader could possibly go
at Camp David and was rewarded with rejection
by Arafat and the
unleashing of a new insurrection. Large
numbers of Palestinians have been
persuaded that glorious eternity awaits them
if they manage to die at the
hands of the Israelis. Fortified by this
belief, mobs of stone-throwers have
been pushed forward with snipers interspersed
among them and children in
the vanguard to take the brunt of the Israeli
response. Sharon gave the
Muslim leaders plenty of notice of his now
famous ten-minute walk on the
Temple Mount, and did nothing on it that was
disrespectful of Islam or of
the Palestinian people. Arafat has declared
that he requires an almost
unlimited right of return of designated
Palestinians, including millions born
after the initial departure in 1948, and the
demographic inundation of Israel
with Arabs. It is as if the UK were asked to
receive 60 million people of a
foreign nationality with which we had been at
war for more than 50 years.
Apart from Adolf Eichmann, Israel has never
executed anyone, including
terrorists — a refreshing contrast to the
peremptory executions routinely
conducted by the Palestinians and some other
neighbouring regimes.
We hear almost nothing of any of this from
most of the British media or the
Foreign Office. We hear only shrill
orchestrated solicitude for the supposed
underdog and relentless antagonism against
Israel — ostensibly the Israeli
government but, inevitably and implicitly,
the Jews.
These Jews are the same people whom Pope John
Paul II has recognised
as ‘not the cousins but the brothers and
sisters of all Christians, the chosen
people of the Old Testament’, to whom the
world should repent, as he did,
for millennia of oppression. The Pope’s own
record in these matters is
exemplary, but he repented for his one
billion co-religionists and for the
2,000-year history of the world’s foremost
Church.
Israel has many failings, and of course the
treatment of the Palestinians by
the Israelis, by the Arab powers who keep
them in the camps (breeding
grounds for their terrorist cannon fodder),
and by the United Nations is a
crime in which we are all complicit. Of
course the world must put this
right.
But we will not put it right by returning to
the ancient and evil practice of
persecuting the Jewish people, to whom we owe
so much for its genius in
almost every field and its courage in heroic
circumstances for nearly 6,000
years. The Jews, as much as any other people,
have shown the world what
human bravery and perseverance can achieve.
It was pathetic and shaming
that many of the distinguished leaders of
London’s Jewish community felt
the need to tell me last week, after local
performances of the Israeli
Philharmonic Orchestra, that they hoped that
‘people will realise that Israel
doesn’t just quell Palestinian riots’.
All Israel really wants is to be like other
countries, to be accepted in the
world as a people with dignity and a right to
a state. Israel has that right. It
is a sophisticated democracy and a society of
laws. Those neurotic racists
who dispute that right should be forced to
come out from behind the skirts
of legitimate differences of opinion in
Middle Eastern controversies. They
should be made to face those who would be
their victims.
And those who have assisted them, through
lassitude or negligence or
malice, should follow the Pope’s inspiring
example: they should repent. The
Pharisees and hypocrites in the British press
should repent their calumnies.
A few days after Arafat cavalierly rejected
generous concessions from
Israel and unleashed his latest bloodbath,
the Foreign Secretary was
photographed walking hand-in-hand with Arafat
and caused Britain to
condemn Israel at the United Nations. He
should repent and exorcise the
institutional bias of his department.
In our publications justice will be done.
To read Taki’s original column, click here.
Other responses to it can be
found in ‘Feedback’ and Taki’s response to
the above can be found in this
week’s ‘High Life’.
Send comment on this article to the editor
of the Spectator.co.uk
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:01 EST 2001
Article: 259082 of soc.culture.canada
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Subject: And here is Taki’s craven reply with a last word by Black
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The US, Israel and me
Taki
I
respectfully disagree with Conrad Black’s
assessment of my 24 February
column concerning Marc Rich. I do not for the
life of me see where I
expressed hatred for Israel and a contempt
for the United States.
It was widely reported at the time that the
United States (I don’t know
which agency, but I assume the Justice
Department) had ordered the
capture of the fugitive Marc Rich. The only
assumption I made was that he
was tipped off by his Mossad contacts, in
view of the fact that he has
admitted that his bodyguards are mostly
ex-Mossad people. I certainly did
not acknowledge my anti-Semitism, as Conrad
Black writes; I said my
soi-disant anti-Semitism, meaning that I have
been besmirched with that
charge ever since I protested against certain
Israeli tactics. This does not a
Goebbels make me, as Mr Black writes, nor an
author of The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion.
I did not write nor hint that the Jews have
suborned the United States
government. I objected to the fact that Bill
Clinton allowed Marc Rich and
certain Israelis to suborn American justice.
In this I am joined by prominent
Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Eric Yoffie,
president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations, who wrote in
two Jewish weeklies in
Washington and New York that
We should be ashamed of ourselves, we have
undermined our community’s
moral fabric, jeopardised our political
standing, disillusioned our youth
and compromised the sacred values of our
tradition. In short, the moral
stain of this sordid affair has begun to
engulf us.
In his unusually frank piece, Rabbi Yoffie
says Jewish leaders were bought
by Marc Rich. He singled out Rabbi Irving
Greenberg, a well-regarded
Orthodox rabbi, who has since apologised for
having written letters
supporting Marc Rich. Where I made a mistake
was in the wording. By
writing I am a soi-disant anti-Semite, I
clearly meant a so-called
anti-Semite, something I ferociously deny
being.
I agreed wholeheartedly with Barbara Black’s
article in the Daily Telegraph
of last week, reminding us that Israel has a
right to exist in peace and the
way it’s going it might well cease to exist
altogether. In my own tiny New
York paper I write this week that Arafat
reminds me of a man who breaks
the bank in a casino, plays a little longer,
loses everything, and now is
demanding credit from the bank he owned and
lost through greed. (I am
referring to the Barak offers he turned
down.) Hardly the words of an
anti-Semite.
I am the first to agree that the West Bank is
now governed by corrupt
thugs, but I am also the first to say that
Israel bears a heavy responsibility
where the unyielding settlers are concerned.
I do not and never have
wished the Jews any harm, and it is
outrageous to hint that I do.
The New York Times and the Washington Post
have both written leading
articles about the disservice to Israel by
the Rich pardon, and Jim Hoagland
has written that Barak and other top Israelis
were risking the vital and
special relationship that America and Israel
enjoy, one based on morality,
ethical values born in the flames of the
Holocaust, and strategic imperatives,
and finishes by saying that in this sordid
saga everybody loses except Marc
Rich. In a less articulate manner, I was
trying to say the exact same thing.
Conrad Black comments:
Taki’s renunciation of anti-Semitism is
welcome. In the interests of a good
cause, I will overlook the implausibility of
his assertion that, in writing ‘The
way to Uncle Sam’s heart runs through Tel
Aviv and Israeli-occupied
territory’, he was only stating ‘in a less
articulate manner’ that because of
the Rich affair Israelis are risking their
relationship with the United States
‘based on morality [and] ethical values born
in the flames of the Holocaust’.
Can the BBC, Independent, Guardian, Evening
Standard and the Foreign
Office take a similar pledge? In respect of
them, I am prepared to fear the
worst.
Send comment on this article to the editor
of the Spectator.co.uk
Note that Barbara Black (she signs her pieces Barbara Amiel) is Conrad’s
wife.
I think this giveup is sucks. What did you think?
RLA
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:01 EST 2001
Article: 259083 of soc.culture.canada
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Subject: Re: Monsters
References: <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> <[email protected]> <[email protected]>
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Yes, Omri, Israel is the aggressor now as the Jews of the Yishuv were
the aggressors before 1948.
You know that. The Zionists came to Palestine with the intention of
taking the land from the
Palestinians by hook or by crook. The Palestinians responded by force
when the Jews were
only using money, it is true, but the aggressive intent and effort were
always there.
Why can you not admit this? You have pretty much what you want. I
guess you will admit
it when the Palestinians are all safely out of Palestine.
RLA
Omri Schwarz wrote:
> Roger Alexander <[email protected]> writes:
>
> > One more time, jerk, Israel is the aggressor. You know that,
>
> If I ignore 28 years of massacres aimed
> at Jews, starting in 1920, until 1948, then yes,
> Israel is the aggressor.
>
> —
> Omri Schwarz —
> Timeless wisdom of biomedical engineering:
> “Noise is principally due to the presence of the
> patient.” — R.F. Farr
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:02 EST 2001
Article: 259085 of soc.culture.canada
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Subject: Jericho under siege | Naftali Lavie
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Letters | Toronto Star | March 5, 2001
Jericho under siege | Naftali Lavie
Re Desert trench enforces siege of Jericho, March 3.
Sandro Contenta’s report was noteworthy not only because it recalls the
Bible story of the siege of ancient Jericho. In the Bible, Jericho was
the
gateway
to the Israelites’ conquest of the Promised Land.
More recently, “Jericho first” was the watchword for the first step in
the Middle East peace process initiated at Oslo. Since then, what has
been
accomplished is very much “process,” but no peace. Now it appears that
the siege imposed on the ancient oasis town of Jericho is the first step
in
a systematic campaign by Israel to completely isolate Palestinian
communities
>from each other.
By restricting Palestinian communications and movement, the immediate
goal
appears to be to break the back of the Palestinian economy, and render
the
occupied population more docile. The Israeli occupation forces hope to
then
put to rest the project of an independent Palestinian state. As in the
past,
the Palestinians will prove to be resilient, resourceful, and tenacious,
despite their suffering. They are struggling to break out of their
prison,
to assert their dignity and recapture their humanity.
Canadians can help bring peace to Jericho, and the rest of the Promised
Land,
by insisting that Israel remove its military forces from all areas
inhabited
by Palestinians.
– Naftali Lavie
Toronto
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:02 EST 2001
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Subject: Almost unnoticed by the North American press, the terror in Gaza
continues.
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Calgary Sun | March 5, 2001
Gaza glance disturbing | BILL KAUFMANN
Almost unnoticed by the North American press, the terror in Gaza
continues.
An Internet publication known as the Ramattan Daily — produced for the
express purpose of revealing to the West the grim truth of Israel’s
crackdown on the occupied Gaza Strip — makes for an alarming read.
Reports include the daily and nightly indiscriminate machine-gunning and
shelling of whole villages by the powerful Israeli Defence Force (IOF)
—
an army the Ramattan writers refer to as the IOF (Israeli Occupation
Force).
Civilian traffic is shelled. Gunboats target civilians forced to skirt
Israeli roadblocks by trudging up Gaza beaches.
Troops shoot at children coming home from school, the bulldozing of
Palestinian farmland continues unabated while those who attempt to
protect
their property come under Israeli fire.
Expelled Palestinian farmers can only watch as the Israeli army slices
access roads through their pitiful agricultural plots. There’s the
Israeli
army’s months’-long siege of refugee camps whose inhabitants lived under
miserable
conditions at the best of times.
Any hope for a let-up in the destruction of homes by armoured bulldozer
or
tank cannon is a fleeting dream. Fleeing to avoid death or maiming is a
daily occurrence.
Palestinian workers — when they’re not barred from working in
neighbouring
Israel — are routinely beaten and degraded by the IDF.
A tightening Israeli military noose around Gaza has throttled the
economy,
sowing destitution, despair and fury among the virtual prisoners within.
IOF border guards prevent Palestinians returning from other countries
re-entry into Gaza — forcing them to endure the elements for weeks at a
time as they wait.
Surely these reports are exaggerated propaganda dredged up to discredit
the
Jewish state.
But the reports are all too true, says a Calgarian with close links to
both
the diplomatic and Palestinian communities and who’s lived in Gaza the
past
18 months.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it myself … what’s
happening here is incredibly shocking,” Marisa Kemper, 33, says from her
home not far
>from Gaza City’s waterfront. “It’s a very, very dire situation here —
there’s
a lack of (outside) understanding of what’s going on. I’m just in a
state
of shock as to how the IDF has decided to approach this.”
International aid officials follow up on the reports only to find
they’re
largely true as well, she adds.
To Palestinians suffering under Israeli guns, terrorist bombings in
Israel
must appear as puny pinpricks.
Under the pretense of preventing terrorist attacks against targets in
neighbouring Israel, the IDF regularly makes travel for Palestinians
within
the Gaza Strip virtually impossible.
In an effort to quell the uprising against their occupation, the IDF is
fuelling the hatred and determination to resist them. Now, Israelis are
threatening to “invade” Gaza and the West Bank. To the Palestinians,
it’s
already happened.
What’s more, medical aid is withheld from the closed-off areas and
ambulances become targets of Israeli guns. Even diplomatic and UN
vehicles
have become
fair game, says Kemper.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the isolation
of
Gaza villages by the IDF contravenes UN articles on free passage of
medicines and foodstuffs, the welfare and education of children and
prohibition of
collective punishment.
Palestinian fighters frequently resist the onslaught with what few
weapons
they have, or strike back at Israeli troops and settlements.
“People are trying to throw off the forces of a belligerent occupation
and
this is defined by the Geneva Convention as just that,” says Kemper.
Ostensibly, Israeli troops terrorizing Gaza are there to guard Jewish
settlements. There are usually only a few hundred living there at any
one
time — amidst 1.2 million Palestinians.
It’s little wonder even some Israeli troops view their mission with
disgust. It also fully explains why Canada supported a UN proclamation
condemning Israel’s excessive use of force.
But UN proclamations ring hollow to Palestinians when night falls and
cannon
and machine-gun fire strafe their neighbourhoods. <end>
==========================================
Can anyone read such terrible facts as this article discloses and not
be moved to exclaim “MONSTERS!”? I know I can’t.
ISRAEL IS A HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE COUNTRY, AND
THE PEOPLE WHO CARRY OUT THESE HORRIBLE
POLICIES ARE HORRIBLE PEOPLE.
Roger Alexander
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:03 EST 2001
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Subject: Israel’s constant war on Palestinian children By Arjan El Fassed
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Israel’s constant war on Palestinian children
Middle East News Online
By Arjan El Fassed for Middle East News Online
Posted Monday March 5, 2001 – 10:33:38 AM EST
http://www.middleeastwire.com/commentary/stories/20010305_1_meno.shtml
Palestinian children have been caught up in the crisis that erupted five
months ago, in which they are not merely bystanders, but targets. On 2
March
2001, Israeli occupation forces shot dead a nine-year-old boy in the
West
Bank town of El-Bireh after opening fire on a group of children playing
with
cap guns beneath his family’s apartment.
Ubey Darraj was dead on arrival in hospital after being hit in the chest
by
a bullet from a heavy caliber machine-gun. Shortly afterwards, a
13-year-old
Palestinian boy, Mohammed Mahmoud Hellis, shot on February 27, had died.
He
had been hit in the head with a live round while walking home from
school
near the Karni crossing point in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli notion that Palestinian parents send their children to die
is
the reincarnation of a well-known scapegoating strategy known as blaming
the
victim. In a clear attempt to avoid Israeli culpability for the deaths
of
Palestinian children, animosity or suspicion is directed towards the
victim,
thereby justifying or excusing the original violation the victim
suffered.
Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
stated
after her visit to the region that the Israeli claim that Palestinian
parents encourage their children to participate in clashes, is
“disgustingly
rejected.” Israel’s shoot-to-kill policy is an illusion of restraint.
What
restraint did Israel show to stop a settler from spraying 18 month-old
Sara’s father’s car with bullets and killing her? What restraint did the
Israeli soldier who was posted in a watchtower at Rachel’s Tomb to
prevent
his finger from touching the trigger of his M16 shooting 14-year old
Mo’ayyad Osaama al-Jowareesh at close range in the head with a rubber
coated
steel bullet, as Mo’ayyad walked beneath the tower on his way to school?
Israel violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to
be
with family and community, the right to health, the right to the
development
of the personality and the right to be nurtured and protected. While the
entire civilian population has suffered as a result of the Israeli
attack,
the affects on Palestinian children are most severe. As of 5 December, a
total of 85 Palestinian children had been killed since 28 September
2000,
with an additional 5 declared clinically dead. Over 2,500 have been
injured.
Moreover, thousands of Palestinian children have been traumatized as a
result of the daily exposure to violence and repeated attacks by Israeli
military forces on Palestinian residential areas. Among Israel’s
harshest
tactics has been the detention of minors, with more than 250 children
detained during the three months since the beginning of the Intifada.
Palestinian children are virtual prisoners in their homes, due to
Israeli
imposed curfews and closures. Over 30 Palestinian schools have been
closed,
and three have been transformed into Israeli military installations,
effectively depriving Palestinian children of their right to education.
Approximately 13,000 Palestinian students and 500 teachers are unable to
reach school because of the closure imposed on Palestinian areas.
Most severe are the ways in which Palestinian children respond to the
stress
of the current crisis. While the immediate violence may end, the
negative
impact of the recent events will have lasting effects on Palestinian
children. Traumatic experiences affect the child’s life in every sphere,
often causing great difficulty in their ability to concentrate at
school, to
relate to their peers, to find employment, and to develop normally.
Palestinian children who suffer from stress display a wide range of
symptoms, including increased separation anxiety and developmental
delays,
sleep disturbances and nightmares, lack of appetite, withdrawn behavior,
lack of interest in play, and, in younger children, learning
difficulties.
In older children and adolescents, responses to stress can include
anxious
or aggressive behavior and depression.
The loss of parents and other close family members leaves a life-long
impression and can dramatically alter life pathways. The extreme and
prolonged circumstances of the Israeli occupation and its inherent human
rights violations interfere with identity development. In addition to
the
suffering they undergo as a result of their own difficult experiences,
Palestinian children of all ages also take cues from their adult
care-givers.
Seeing their parents or other important adults in their lives as
vulnerable
can severely undermine children’s confidence and add to their sense of
fear.
These statistics are shocking enough, but more chilling is the
conclusion to
be drawn from them: more and more of the world is being sucked into a
desolate moral vacuum. This is a space devoid of the most basic human
values; a space in which children are slaughtered and maimed; a space in
which children are starved and exposed to extreme brutality. Such
unregulated terror and violence speak of deliberate victimization. There
are
few further depths to which humanity can sink.
* The author is a political scientist and human rights activist and
affiliated with the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC) and a
regular
contributor to Middle East News Online.
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:03 EST 2001
Article: 259102 of soc.culture.canada
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Omri Schwarz wrote:
> Roger Alexander <[email protected]> writes:
>
> > Yes, Omri, Israel is the aggressor now as the Jews of the Yishuv were
> > the aggressors before 1948.
> > You know that. The Zionists came to Palestine with the intention of
>
> Name a single incident in which Jews
> were the aggressors, prior to 1947.
>
> Name a single one prior to 1929.
>
> You can’t.
>
> Because the Pallies were the aggressors,
> starting with the Good Friday massacre of 1920.
Omri, seriously, you know that the Jews came to Palestine
with the design of supplanting the Palestinians in their own
country. You cannot deny this. Nor can you deny that
the Palestinians soon figured this out. Further, if the Palestinians
had been masters of their own country, Jews would never have
been allowed to immigrate there, which is not unusual for
countries and foreigners generally. So to say that the
Palestinians resorted to violence when confronted with
tens of thousands of illegal immigrants that they couldn’t
do anything about otherwise is not to say much. Nor
could you deny that the Jews followed and continue to follow
a path of supplanting the Palestinians and taking their land from
them. So the claim that the Jews are and always have been
the aggressors holds. You know that, I know that and
soon the whole world will know that, because they will
have to deal with your terrible oppression.
You will admit that your oppression of the Palestinians
is terrible won’t you?
RLA
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:03 EST 2001
Article: 259103 of soc.culture.canada
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Earlier I mentioned the Jewish saying: “Light to the Nations.”
This essay is about Social Jusice and Israel, about normalization and
how Israel can face the myths that exist. It means too that we cannot
ignore the “NEW” historians. We must realize that there were many
visions
for Israel. Martin Buber was opposed to the Zionism which would
disenfranchise Arabs and represented a position which was for a long
time
ignored. Today there is a reawakening and recognition that Israel is far
>from perfect. Criticism has always been part of Jewish culture and it is
this introspection that will make possible seeing the truth and perhaps
endeavoring, if not achieving a _new_ Israel, which is also a “Light to
the Nations.”
TheGolem
Hagshama Department of the WZO
A Light to the Nations? Social Justice in Israel
Social Problems in the Promised Land
By Matt Plen
______________________________________________________________
This trenchant article explores the burning issues in the tense
social
fabric of Israeli society: officially sanctioned prostitution, the
ever-increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, real wage
inequality between men and women, and the badly-defined status of
Israel’s indigenous minorities. Matt Plenn invites us to take a
no-holds-barred look at contemporary society in Israel, exploring how
these issues impact on the founding ideology of the Jewish state, and
its promise of equality.
______________________________________________________________
“Let justice well up like water, righteousness like an unfailing
stream.”
– Amos
5:24
* * *
From [email protected] Fri Mar 9 16:10:01 EST 2001
Article: 259081 of soc.culture.canada
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