Susie Kneedler tried to comment on the Shahar Peer story, couldn't get her comment posted. We're working out the bugs. Here it is:
"I thought it was brave of her to come here and try and play despite knowing that it is not going to be easy for her. My dad grew up in an area where if you spoke too much, it was your life. So I felt I had a small opportunity to say something where everyone will listen."
She added: "I am not here to rock any boat or upset people, I am just here to do things that are right, and I think right things are already happening next week and right things will happen next year."
link to www.haaretz.com
John McEnroe, Billie Jean King, and Mary Carillo also praised Andy Roddick for his refusal to compete in the Dubai Tournament after Roddick learned that Peer would not be allowed to play.
Most unfortunately, McEnroe, King, and Carillo all compared Williams's and Roddick's defense of the Shahar Peer to John McEnroe's principled boycott of South African apartheid. At a time before McEnroe had become rich, he refused a then-unimaginable sum, $1 million, because he did not want to legitimate the South African racist system.
We can see the inadequacy of current "news" "reports" if--even after the Gaza carnage--three people who travel widely, who have very well-developed social consciences, equate liberal values with defending the rights of a former IDF soldier.
McEnroe, King, or Carillo dropped no hint of the restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinian athletes--let alone all Palestinian civilians. If the three commentators (social activists?) want to defend Peer, they could at least speak out for Palestinian players and people as well.
Perhaps McEnroe, King, and Carillo's obtuseness came from ignorance. But what does that obliviousness say about the lack of a fair, free press in the U.S., or (Phil's point) the state of liberal values here?
It's called sucking. Roddick is Jewish so he is obligated to be a shit.
Sometimes your comments are dumb Phil.
"Dissent" that is not voluntary is suppression.
Nothing's stopping you from launching Mondowitty, Richard.
AIPAC orchestrated suppression is the reason. Our athletes know zippo about Palestinians.
Of course – evil AIPAC is to blame.
If you want to start boycotting Israel for preventing missile fire on its civilians, please be consistent and boycott the United States and Britain. Even since the Obama administration has taken over, American and British troops have continued to kill civilians (not on purpose however) and they don't even have the excuse of current and continuous missile fire being rained down on American and English cities by the Afghans. Oh, and please boycott France for intervening in the Cote Ivoire recently and for having exploded its nuclear bombs in the South Pacific. Also, please boycott Saudi Arabian oil because thousands of people are barbarously beheaded in that country for crimes which would be minor jail sentences in the US (and they don't let women drive). In keeping with consistency, boycott Iranian oil because they hang gays for the sole reason that they are gay. Boycott Venezuelan oil because Hugo Chavez is violently destroying his political opposition. Don't use your computer either – its chip was likely to have been invented in Israel. Don't allow your relative to take their cancer medication – either the drug or the palliative process was likely to have benefitted from Israeli research.
Please note that in South Africa, the Dutch and British, from the majoritarian white colonial culture, had zero roots in the country and were brutally repressing the South African blacks. Israelis are not colonialists – they have significant historic roots in the country, prior to war by the Arabs, they had purchased the land they lived on, the bulk of the current population is descended from (i) discriminated Jews from Arab/Persian lands, (ii) Jews from Israel proper, (iii) slaves from Nazi-controlled areas, (iv) Jews oppressed for millenia by Ethiopians and (v) Arabs. The Palestinians are, for the most part, descended from Arabs and Jews who lived in Israel proper and from Arabs who lived in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
A more proper South African analogy would be Australia – I am going to boycott the Australians and Foster's until the Aboriginal inhabitants are given back control of the country and the white, colonialist Englishmen are expelled from the continent (and from New Zealand).
Jews are the aborigines of Israel (and of large parts of Jordan and Syria) and pre-date Muslims in Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria (Damascus was an Israeli city), Lebanon, etc. Just because the murderous Assyrians sacked Northern Israel, the murderous Iraqis sacked (then gave back) Jerusalem, and the murderous Italians sacked Jerusalem and re-named Judea as "Palestine" (to shame Jews with the name of their ancient (and extinct) Philistine enemy), does not mean that Jews don't have a right to their homeland like Armenians do with Armenia, Kurds do with Kurdistan, and Saudi Arabians do with the Jewish city of Medina (oh, right).
So take your South African analogy and use it somewhere where it makes sense, like in Ireland.
South Africa's new slogan, "We are not Zimbabwe, YET!!!!"