Comments on: Why Don’t Palestinians Adopt Gandhi’s Methods?

By: Richard Mitty

Richard Mitty — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

I don't want to talk about this! Why do you keep talking about unpleasant things like this?! I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about, umm, … respect. Yeah, RESPECT, that's the ticket.

By: otto

otto — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Neither Gandhi nor Mandela had to deal with an enemy for whom constant ethnic cleansing and expulsion was the signature method.

By: syvanen

syvanen — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Mandela was the leader of the ANC that engaged in violent opposition to Apartheid. The fact that he was in prison during most of this time time does not change the fact that his movement was not non-violent. That is why the US declared him a terrorist and didn't rescind this disignation until last year. It is a political fact of life — terrorist do win. Ask Arafat, Begin, Shamir, Ben Bella, Kenyata, Tito and many others.

By: Joachim Martillo

Joachim Martillo — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

It is rather hypocritical for the USA or Americans (especially American Jews) to tell the Palestinians to engage in non-violent protest while the USA supplies Israel with the best of weaponry as well as tremendous amounts of cash and loan guarantees.

By: Rowan Berkeley

Rowan Berkeley — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Phil's whole pose, that "as a Jew" he has something special to say about things, is phony.

By: Glenn Condell

Glenn Condell — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

I thought that meme (the Palestinians have no Mandela/Gandhi) had been put out to pasture. It does the Zionists no good at all, if you think about it.

A few years ago some woman called Hannah wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald letters page that Archbishop Desmond Tutu (who had been quoted a few days earlier having a pop at Israel) 'sadly' did not seem to realise that the Palestinians' failure to produce a Mandela or Gandhi was at the root of their problems.

I wrote a reply (not published) which pointed out that if you posit such an argument, you therefore accept that Palestinian oppression by Israel is analogous to the racist system the black South Africans suffered under, or the imperial occupation of India by the Brits.. a rather unusual tack for Zionists to take. Any argument that bemoans the Palestinian lack of a world-historical giant is implicitly accepts their plight, and supports their demands for justice.

The other thing that makes this argument counterproductive for those that propound it is that both Mandela and Gandhi consistently and publicly opposed Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Gandhi said in 1946 'why should they (the Jews) resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in Palestine?'

The Kafkaesque reference in relation to Khaled's trial provides more irony. How would old Franz have reacted to the news that if a Joseph K were to be invented today he would have to be a Muslim, probably a Palestinian, and his faceless oppressors would be Jews?

By: LeaNder

LeaNder — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

This man and his father deserves help. Is there no Human Right group involved so far? Very interesting case, considering Richard's larger argument, I have to admit.

Law and Power.

************************************

David Horowitz, I am assuming a guru of our dear Bill/SOG, in his new Islamofacism Awareness Week, part III, "has the primary objective of defunding the Muslim Student Association (MSA)."

I highly recommend the Al-Jazeera interview of madman Horowitz that caught Jim Lobe's attention, especially the second tape.

By: liberal white boy

liberal white boy — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Yeah, RESPECT, that's the ticket…Thanks Mr. Mitty and if that doesn't work talk about West Bank Jewish values. 1. Thou shall not kill…LOL, 2.Thou shall not steal…LOL, 3.Thou shall not offer false witness LOL…and so forth and so on.

By: morris

morris — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

A/ The British were not so brutal, they were not interested in anything other than spices and goods.

B/ When the first zionists arrived, the palestinians were probably Ghandi like.

C/ Just as Hizbollah were prior to Israel's 82 Lebanon invasion, a peaceful group of Shia farmers.

D/ The hypothesis is insulting. Due to the sheer brutality being dished out.

Zionism will militarize everyone, till everyone becomes a militant. That sounds absurd, until we consider what is going on, INTERNATIONALY.

By: grateful

grateful — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

"How would old Franz have reacted to the news that if a Joseph K were to be invented today he would have to be a Muslim, probably a Palestinian, and his faceless oppressors would be Jews?"

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