Big Change in Media: Arabs Are Suddenly Human Beings. Israel Is Becoming South Africa

January 21, 2008

We, the Israeli organizations signed below, deplore the decision by the Israeli government to cut off vital supplies of electricity and fuel (and therefore water, since the pumps cannot work), as well as essential foodstuffs, medicines and other humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of Gaza. Such an action constitutes a clear and unequivocal crime against humanity.

Prof. John Dugard, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, called the Israeli government’s actions "serious war crimes" for which its political and military officials should be prosecuted and punished. The killing of more than 40 civilians this past week violates, he said, "the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets." Indeed, the very legal framework invoked by the Israeli government to carry out this illegal and immoral act – declaring Gaza a "hostile entity" within a "conflict short of war" – has absolutely no standing in international law.

We call on the Secretary General of the UN, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, to lead the Security Council to a decisive decision to end the siege on Gaza when it meets in emergency session on Wednesday.

We call on the governments of the world, and in particular the American government and the European Parliament, to censure Israel’s actions and, in light of recent attempts to revive the diplomatic process, to end all attacks on civilians, including the continuing demolition of Palestinian homes at an alarming rate.

We call upon the Jews of the world in whose name the Israeli government purports to speak, and upon their rabbis and communal leaders in particular, to speak out unequivocally against this offense to the very moral core of Jewish values.

And we call upon the peoples of the world to let their officials and leaders know of their repudiation of this cruel, illegal and immoral act – an act that stands out in its cruelty even in an already oppressive Israeli Occupation.

We condemns attacks on all civilians, and we acknowledge the suffering of the residents of Sderot. Still, those attacks do not justify the massive disproportionality of Israeli sanctions over a million and half civilians of Gaza, in particular in light of Israel’s oppressive 40 year occupation. Such violations of international law by a government are especially egregious and must be denounced and punished if the very system of human rights and international law is to be preserved.

The Israeli government’s decision to punish Gaza’s civilian population, with all the human suffering that entails, constitutes State Terrorism against innocent people. Only when Israeli policy-makers are held accountable for their actions and international law upheld will a just peace be possible in the Middle East.

The Alternative Information Center * Bat Tsafon * Gush Shalom * The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) * Physicians for Human Rights * Coalition of Women for Peace

I wonder many years ago what Americans would have thought about the suggestion that it would take bravery to criticize a foreign country or a lobby working on its behalf. Yes Richard Israel is a foreign country to most of us. And based on it's murderous and oppressive history toward Palestinians, deserves our condemnation with every breath. Like the annoucement that more land would be stolen in East Jerusalem yesterday. http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2008/01/mayor-of-jerusalem-announces.html

Phil,
120 rockets were fired in 3 days this week.

On civilians only.

"I believe that something has changed: Arabs are being treated as human beings in our press." As Philip intuits, treating Arabs as human beings is a profound threat to the "Israel right or wrong" stance shared by the U.S. government and the Lobby.

A key reason for coded remarks by Hillary Clinton about Barack Obama's youth in Indonesia is that having lived in an Islamic country, he likely regards muslims as human beings, rather than as a billion-strong mass of faceless fundamentalists, terrorists, and Jew haters (a common enough stereotype in American politics and journalism).

Consequently, Obama is being subjected to loyalty tests that other candidates are not. Within hours of yesterday's Gazan prison break, Obama fired off a letter to the U.S. ambassador to the UN, seeking to head off anticipated harsh criticism of Israel for its lockdown of Gaza. Shmuel Rosner of Haaretz had it within minutes yesterday, and quotes it again today:

"I urge you to ensure that a Council resolution won't pass that does not 'fully condemn' the Qassam attacks on Israel," Obama wrote. "We all are worried about the consequences of the blockade on Palestinian families. Nonetheless, we must understand why Israel is forced to do this."

Rosner goes on: "Obama's letter was not meant to respond to the urgent needs of the voters, but to continue the necessary process of recent weeks: combating the rumors that he would be a president who does not support Israel, and even worse, rumors claiming he is Muslim, and that he doesn't tend to pledge his allegiance to his country, and so on and so forth."

http://tinyurl.com/2p53gw

Uh huh. I can't prove it, but I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts that the Lobby drafted the letter, presented it for Obama's signature as a non-negotiable demand, and then forwarded it to Rosner and other journalists as soon as the ink was dry enough to stick it in the fax machine.

It's sad to see Obama rationalizing that Israel was "forced" to indulge in a blockade of Gaza in response to rocket attacks on Sdedot perpetrated by a few militants. Viewing those 1.5 million people as human beings would preclude such measures. In fact, it would preclude most of U.S. middle eastern policy across the board. The horror, the horror!

Huffingtonpost.com gatekeeping

I tried posting this at HuffPo on this article but these sorts of observations never seem to make the cut. (See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/23/gazans-flood-egypt-after-_n_82809.html ) The site will allow the comments on essays about Bush run into the thousands, but if it involves anything that might make Zionist uncomfortable, they keep a pretty tight grasp of the reins. Their rationale is most likely to prevent blatant anti-Semitism from flooding the comments but I know for a fact that comments that deal with the politics exclusively and are not racist diatribes get scrubbed whereas they’ll include a few exclamations of “crank up the ovens!” or the like to supposedly confirm the wisdom of their gatekeeper logic. Many of us working to keep truth in the forefront will be happy to see that many other HuffPo commenters see what is going on at HuffPo. The ultimate example of this is how they close the comments sections when Alan Dershowitz tries to smear Dr. Norman Finkelstein. I was going to provide examples where they closed Dershowitz comments at 19 and 23 respectively because they were on the whole quite supportive of Dr. Finkelstein and quite derisive of Mr. Dershowitz’ “scholarship” but when I went to check, they scrubbed those few comments that originally made it up while still keeping the comments closed (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/finkelsteins-fraudulent-_b_3436.html )

[begin unposted HuffPo comment]

“Even though many readers of HuffPo see it as bending over backwards to avoid upsetting Zionist sensibilities, Pamela Gellar of "Atlas Shrugs" has the HuffPo link posted as proof of left-wing anti-Semitism (as opposed to actually taking Israel to task for its criminal behavior). See here: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/01/more-leftist-je.html

It should be noted that I was/am banned from "Atlas Shrugs" right around the time I caught her using comment shills in her postings. This was established in that a commenter responded to something specifically that was only mentioned in a personal email to Ms. Gellar and not in the public comments. I was banned shortly after pointing this out publically. I mention this because she is going on about how the time stamps on the HuffPo comments are supposedly before the article even went up.”

[end post]

The details of my identity have been outed some time ago thanks to some particularly annoying and unbalanced brownshirts at the LA Jewish Journal forum but I have always maintained this particular handle as it creates a body of work of my particular views (and their evolution over time). I do not hide from them in the least but have experienced harassment by those who seek any advantage they can in silencing voices they disagree with. It is encouraging however, to read other voices that see things in a more clear light. I hope the momentum continues to build.

Sderot was built on top of the Palestinian village of Najd, which was cleansed of its inhabitants in 1948. So those "terrorists" launching rockets are attacking the people who took their homes.

You didn't really think it was "a country without a people," did you?

Lawrence of Cyberia had a nice piece on it recently–
http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/news/2007/10/qotw—sderot-a.html

In the future, a good site for researching any questions you might have about pre-Nakba Palestine is Palestine Remembered–
http://www.palestineremembered.com/index.html

And that other website (lawrenceofcyberia) says it was cleared of Palestinians on 13 May 1948 by the Israeli Negev Brigade– who expelled them to Gaza! There was no action in the Negev until that fall, and the Egyptian blockade wasn't broken until 1949! But I guess if you're making shit up about imaginary Palestinian villages you're unlikely to get the other details right.

Actually Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, and Syria . ..

This just reminded me of this, Roger Waters' Tide Is Turning, which boasts an apt lyric, 'A Billion Candles Burning.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvTvWJWeQ2g

""Nonsense. Palestine Remembered claims, with all sorts of details about Dunams owned and "ethnic cleansing" to authenticate Najd. But it's a complete fabrication.""

I'm not sure what you are "Concerned" about, but it sure isn't the truth. If you want confirmation of the ethnic cleansing of Najd, all you have to do is read Israeli history, written from the archives of the IDF, and other Israeli government sources. For example, David Tal is a professor at Tel-Aviv University, specializing in military history. He's a mainstream Zionist, not a wild-eyed leftist. From his 2004 book, "War in Palestine, 1948:Strategy and Diplomacy",page 174:

"The Givati Brigade began its operations within the framework of Plan Dalet on 6 May and the Negev Brigade on the 10th. The Givati Brigade executed Operation Barak to consolidate Jewish control in the area around three key Arab locales-Yibna, Isdud, and Majdal-and to force the Arabs out of the villages that were attacked.16 Sucessfully executing this part of their missions, Givati conquered the villages of Bashshit, Bayt Daras, al-Batani-al-Sharqi, al-Maghar, Zarnuqa and al-Qubayba–some of which were outside the designated boundaries of the Jewish State–while forces of the Negev brigade took Kawkaba, Halayqat, Burayr, Najd and Simsim. The villagers fled in the face of the Jewish forces, and those who stayed were expelled."

Lest you think I am pulling this out my ass, just as you did your ignorant post, I will point you to this link to the book which is available in part on google books.
http://books.google.com/books?q=David+Tal&btnG=Search+Books
Check page 174

Palestine Remembered's credibility on this is affirmed by Israel's military records. And your credibility is presently in the toilet. Care to retract? Or is the IDF just another cog in the "fabrication" of the destruction of Najd in your fevered view?

So what happened to the houses of Najd and over 400 other Palestinian villages, you ask? They were destroyed on orders of the IDF, in order to prevent the villagers from returning to their homes. This is not denied by any historian in Israel, or frankly anyone with knowledge of Israel's real history, instead of the American fairy tales (which are the real "Big Lies"). Look up Plan Dalet.

Richard Silvestein – Are you condoning the use of collective punishment against the citizens of Sderot, but condemning the use of it against the citizens of Gaza? If the Palestinians had been more successful in killing more innocent civillians in Sderot or if the Israelis had been more successful in killing only the militants in Gaza would your position change?

I appreciate Zed's source citation here, as I think we Zionists need to face certain facts. There was intense ethnic cleansing and collective punishment in 47-49. I think Tal's book is an excellent source because it is, roughly, Zionist, and actually makes a pretty good case for why that expulsions were necessary.

As noted above, in the past 6 years, 12 people in Israel have been killed by the rockets which receive much US media coverage. Little mention is made of the large numbers of Palestinian civilians (over 3000, including over 800 children) killed by Israelis since 2000. Moreover, only the 12 in Israel are defined as being killed by "terrorists."

"The mainstream "left" (Huffington, DailyKos, etc.) has never felt comfortable talking about Israel (and of course NEVER about Jewishness), but that seems to be changing."

Jewishness? Oh no, I am so ashamed! Is this what we did? They're going to start talking about us? Why oh why can't Israel just be nicer to those who are arranging its annihilation? Every Jews stand up for themselves it makes me so scared! I literally shake with fear at the thought of Jews shooting rather than being shot! We belong on the barrel side of the gun! That's our history, it's our destiny! Can't they see that? The Gentiles understand it–why oh why can't we!!!!????
Gosh, and all you assholes keep telling me that Israel and Jews are two separate issues! Who to believe? Oy Vey!

Did someone say Islamists?

So the Brits sentenced Samina Malik, a 23 year-old Muslim woman, to nine months of probation for the crime of… writing a poem. But what a poem!

Here it is:

How to Behead
It’s not as messy or hard as some may think.

It’s all about the flow of the wrist.

Sharpen the knife to its maximum.

And before you begin to cut the flesh.

Tilt the fool’s head to its left.

Saw the knife back and forth.

No doubt the punk will twitch and scream.

But ignore the donkey’s ass.

And continue to slice back and forth.

La la la. Islam means peace. Now to be fair the Brits, they didn’t exactly arrest this lovely young woman for writing a poem. They came down on her for “possessing records likely to be used in an act of terrorism,” which included “an al-Qaida manual, a booklet on mujahedeen poisons and bomb-making instructions.” And guess what? This poetess of peace worked at London’s Heathrow Airport as a shop assistant, and was familiar with security procedures designed to protect heathen donkeys from, oh, murderous Muslim radicals and other terrorists.

The poem was read on NPR this morning in a piece about the emergence in Britain of “militant Islamist feminism”—which makes about as much sense as “radical gay heterosexuality.” When the poem was read I about choked on my toast. I fly into Heathrow now and then and there are always lots of women working in headscarves and I suppress my… well, I suppress my worst impulses. They’re in the West, I tell myself, they’ve immigrated for a reason, they’ve embraced Western values, and the nice woman in the headscarf selling me my International Herald Tribune at Heathrow isn’t thinking about sawing off my pole-smoking, beer-swilling, apostate head.* (The charming and talented Ms. Malik, however, “spent much of her time at work writing about her desire for martyrdom,” according to NPR.) They’re here, they’ve immigrated, they’re used to us!

But when I heard this next bit on the radio, well, I made up my mind to fly into Shannon next time I go to Europe:

Recent polls have shown that as many as four in 10 British Muslims want Sharia, the Islamic law, applied in Muslim-populated areas of Britain.
Sharia, which is practiced in many parts of the Islamic world, is a religious code of living. But it also specifies stoning and amputation as normal punishment for some crimes.

Sharia also specifies the beheading as “normal punishment” for homosexual acts.**

La la la. Islam means peace.

As much as I hate to sound like a member of the National Front… gee… I just gotta say this: There’s no shortage of backwards, fucked up, unpleasant shitholes where Sharia is practiced. If someone longs to live under Sharia, why the fuck would that someone emigrate to Europe or remain in Europe? Why not emigrate to, say, Pakistan or Iran or Saudi Arabia or Sudan or Nigeria or a whole host of islands in Indonesia? If you long to attend public amputations and beheadings, if you think the victims of raped should be imprisoned and whipped, what the fuck are you doing in Britain? Or the Netherlands? Or Belgium? Or France? Or Germany? Wanna live under Sharia? Well, get thee to a Sharia-enforcing shithole already.

I’ll be accused of being xenophobic, of course, for typing what any sensible person thought to him or herself listening to NPR this morning. I am not xenophobic. Or Islamophobic—unless being afraid of particular Muslims, like Ms. Malik, makes one Islamophobic.***

One of the things I love most about the good, ol’ US of A and thoroughly modern Europe—and miss most living here in Seattle—is the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity. But the price of admission to a pluralistic, multi-ethnic society has to be… a desire to live in that place. And a desire to live and let live, and a certain base-level tolerance for people that look, pray, and fuck differently than you do. You should, of course, be free to impose Sharia on yourself and yourself alone (not your daughters, for instance), just as Christians and Jews should be free to impose the most conservative interpretations of their faiths on themselves alone.

And if you can’t hack that…. if you can’t handle pluralism… if you hate us punks and donkeys and fools much… and if you long for Sharia so terribly… then get the fuck out.

••••••••••••••••••••••

* I don’t have this reaction when I see women in headscarves in American airports—all of that here-in-the-West-for-a-reason actually applies to American Muslims, it seems. (Someone please inform the Department of Homeland Security.)

** Yes, there’s some “kill the homos” crap in the Bible, but no predominantly Christian states are executing homosexuals.

*** I’m afraid of some Muslims. But I’m afraid of some Christians, some Jews, some men, some women, some of my relatives, and many, many homosexuals too. Does this make me Christophobic, Jewophobic, guyophobic, girlophobic, uncleophobic, and homophobic as well?

Posted by: SJF | January 25, 2008 at 11:57 AM

"joshua crawford" LOL

is it a good sign or bad, when jews pick gentile names to post under? i suppose you could argue it implies some embarrassment at continual tribalist special pleading.

Lance – Can you tell us about any honor killings or "moser" killings that have gone on in the USA?

I'm really interested. How many American Jews do you think ever heard the word Moser before, much less knew what it meant, much less thought it anything but a relic of the past?

Actually, Moishe, according to the Forward article the big issue on the mind off the community was the fact that one of the tribe informed on them — even more than any alleged criminality of the grand rabbi. So someone must have heard about the concept, even if a different word was used.

"I believe that something has changed: Arabs are being treated as human beings in our press."

They certainly were not treated as such in the above comments by Ashley.

Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com

"Apparently you want to use the worst examples of a group you wish to demonize, while ignoring those instances that might paint a group you support in a less than flattering light."

Lance – Please tell me what you are talking about here. You are describing exactly what you did vis-a-vis Jews in your moser example, yet you are accusing me of it. Where did I say anything about any other group, much less demonize them?

Thank you.

Re: the victims of rockets from Gaza

Back in 2006, Tony Judt warned that Israel's victim discourse was wearing especially thin–that there were more and more Americans who were beginning to think of Israeli casualties as merely collateral damage in the Palestinians' struggle for freedom and justice. I couldn't see it myself back then. Too many students were still getting through my lectures on the Middle East conflict by staring at their shoes. This year, I'm getting feedback. So maybe things are changing. This week, they all appeared quite pleased that the Gazans had busted out and gone shopping.

Mr. LanceThruster,

What methodologies are in place in your culture to keep people in line?

Mr. LanceThruster,

Thank you for your response. May the Peace be upon You, and Allah's Mercy and Blessings.

Please see http://convertingtoislam.com/

Allah is the supporter of those who believe. He leads them out from darknesses into the Light. As for the unbelievers – their supporters are their false gods. They lead them out of the Light into darknesses. Those are the heirs of the Hell; they will abide therein eternally.

[The Holy Qur'an, Surah 2:257]

Thank you for sharing your link to your religion, but Islam is a perfect religion which provides solution to every problem and answer to every question. As the word 'Islam' means 'peace', it is effectively the religion of every human who likes peace. Peace within a human being, peace of mind, peace at home, peace in the society, and peace in the world. In other words Islam is a way of achieving peace by submitting to the Will of God.

In the name of ALLAH, the Most compassionate, the Most Merciful, I hope that you will reconsider for your own good.

"This day the unbelievers have given up all hope of your religion. Yet fear them not;
fear only Me. This day I have perfected your
religion for you and completed My favour upon you and have chosen Islam as your religion."
[The Holy Quran, Surah 5:3]

OK ARROGANT MR. LANCETHRUSTER – ISLAM IS BASED ON THE TRUE PATH TO JANNAH! AND YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THIS, BECAUSE YOU DONT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE TRUTH. YOU KNOW ISLAM IS THE TRUTH, BUT YOU CAN'T ADMIT IT BECAUSE YOU ARE TOO CLOSED. TOO SEALED. INSHALLAH YOU WILL BECOME A MUSLIM, IF NOT, THAN YOU CAN TAKE A TRIP TO HELL, BECAUSE YOUR LIFE IS NOT BASED ON TRUTH, BUT ON BAD THINGS LIKE ADULTRY, DRINKING, TALKING BAD ABOUT OTHERS, AND MORE SINFUL THINGS. LOOK AT YOURSELF. THE JEWISH PEOPLE SPREAD RUMORS ABOUT US, AND YOU ALL BELIEVE THE JEWS. THEY ARE LIARS, DO NOT BE BY THEIR SIDE. THEY DO NOT LIKE ISLAM BECAUSE WE HAVE THE TRUTH IN OUR HANDS. YOU ONLY HAVE ONE CHANCE IN LIFE, SO READ MORE ABOUT THE QURAN AND ISLAM. IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE, THEN ITS A BIG MISTAKE, BECAUSE YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. YOU WILL SUFFER FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IN THIS LIFE AND IN THIS WORLD. YOU ANGERED ALLAH (GOD) THE REAL GOD WHO GAVE US THE TRUTH!. DO NOT DENY THE FACT THAT WE HAVE THE TRUTH IN OUR HANDS, MR. LANCETHRUSTER! COME TO ISLAM! THIS IS A SERIOUS SITUATION. TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT IS AROUND YOU. YOU WILL NOT BE SEEING IT AGAIN, BUT YOU WILL BE SEEING HELL AND YOU WOULDN'T ENJOY IT.

PLEASE GO TO HTTP://WWW.CONVERTINGTOISLAM.COM

SALAM,
AQIB AL-ASLAM