Ethan Bronner writes in the New York Times today about Avigdor Lieberman:
But he also started to resent being sidelined. When, for example, relations with Turkey reached a crisis level after nine people died in May in Israel’s raid on a Turkish flotilla, Mr. Netanyahu sent Trade Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer to see Turkey’s foreign minister without telling Mr. Lieberman, who did not hide his anger.
Yep….it’s that rich Turkish food that killed ‘em, thanks for clarifying that NYT.
Also,
link to axisoflogic.com
Who died?
Brilliant, Witty.
I know, really. It would be funny if he wasn’t serious about foisting denial and doubt into the consequences of Israel’s illegal raid in international waters.
“Who died?”
I don’t know Witty..Maybe the answer is in the post..Who knows?
Oh I get it
“They up and died” rather than they were killed.
I thought there was something hidden in the post.
…do you actually know who was killed? We would actually like to be sure you understand. Or even admit reality.
You are waiting to attack, rather than humanely clarify.
Why?
So you don’t actually know. Cute.
Oh Chaos, don’t be mean or sarcastic in your comments toward Witty, that’s inhumane.
“Who died?”
Don’t worry, Richard, nobody who really mattered. And bothering you about it would be so inhumane.
“died” = “violently killed, but, since it pisses some people off for us to say that, we will be polite and pretend that it never happened”.
The exact same thing happened to Yizhak Rabin’s assassination. It was considered bad form to write that he had ben murdered.
Not polite at all.
I had the pleasure of serving in the IDF, in the IDF Spokesman’s Unit. The convoluted formula we were instructed to used to announce the killing of a Palestinian by Israeli military gunfire was, “as a result of the shooting so-and-so was killed.” If a medical cause of death was included, it was always: “he died of heart failure.”
This language created a mystical distance between the bullet entering the body and the termination of life at some space from the precipitating event.
Thank you Elliot.
Elliot, I’d love to see you dissect the Abunimah New Mexico letter according to instructions. ;-)
Thank you Phil — please keep up these wonderful observations on the distortions of language that enable the horrific situation in Palestine to continue. One could write books about it… they are rampant in both English and Hebrew public discourse.
But this one is stunning, and the headline you wrote should be nominated for a prize.
i wish i could take credit. the phrase was suggested to me by the tipster who sent me an anonymous email this morning
Deep Throat lives…
It reminds me of a Haaretz article about Mahmoud Halfalla, a seventy year man who was killed in 2004 when the IDF demolished his house with him inside. Haaretz headlined it: “Man crushed to death after IDF destroys home”. They made it sound like the two things weren’t connected – like he’d had his house demolished and then, right after that, just to complete the really really crappy day he was having, he’d had the misfortune to be crushed to death in some unrelated mystery incident – rather than just come out and say that The Most Moral Army In The World crushed a wheelchair-bound man to death by demolishing his house on top of him.
This ticks me off. What Turkish flotilla? Thirty-seven countries were represented on those 6 + 1 boats:
• Australia
• Brazil
• Bulgaria
• Czech Republic
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Ireland
• Israel
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Oman
• Palestine
• Pakistan
• Poland
• Qatar
• Serbia
• Sweden
• Syria
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
+ 11 more.
So Turkey had the biggest passeneger ship, so what? It was an international coalition.
re one of the “11 more” countries:
Open Letter to Stephen Harper from Canadian survivors of the Gaza flotilla attack
by RIFAT AUDEHKEVIN NEISHFAROOQ BURNEY
We are writing to express our outrage and indignation over our government’s despicable silence on what took place in the Mediterranean Sea on May 31, 2010. We are referring, of course, to the piracy, murder and kidnappings by Israel against the Turkish humanitarian aid ship in general, and the actions against the Canadians on the ship in particular.
In 2006, Israel launched a heinous war on Lebanon that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians. You, Mr. Harper, described Israel’s action as a “measured response”, and this implicit green light and tacit approval from Canada to Israel to continue the rampage of death and destruction killed eight Canadians within a couple of days. Following this, the cold-blooded Israeli murder of a Canadian peacekeeper and three of his colleagues at a UN station in Southern Lebanon resulted in your outrageous and absolutely despicable remark effectively blaming the victims and asking what they were doing there in the first place.
On May 31st and in international waters, Israel attacked an unarmed humanitarian aid ship before the whole world, murdered nine civilians aboard and wounded dozens, and kidnapped the rest and detained them illegally. We were on that ship along with many other internationals. And this time around, what was the response of our government? Once again, Canada did not condemn Israel’s barbaric actions and refused to demand our release, with Peter Kent incredibly stating “Canada doesn’t believe a lot of noise is required in this instance.”
[...]
Our government’s action –or rather inaction – is a disgrace. In assisting with the slow genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and falling silent before Israel’s acts of piracy, murder and abduction, our government has not only tarnished the image of Canada and Canadians throughout the world, but has also shown its weakness and inability to stand up for those oppressed. Shame on us for keeping silent.”
link to vancouver.mediacoop.ca
Two days ago, Canada lost the campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council for the first time (to Germany and Portugal). The unprecedented rejection is widely seen as a humiliating defeat of the Harper government’s foreign policy, including unconditional support of Israel. Allan Gotlieb, former Canadian ambassador to the United States, explains:
“In Ottawa, power and influence have shifted away from the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister’s Office and the Privy Council. Afghanistan and climate change are handled by agencies outside of Foreign Affairs. Three deputy ministers report directly to the Prime Minister on foreign and national security affairs. Emulating the U.S. model, with a National Security Council that controls the flow of all information and advice to the President, is not an area of our political system we should want to see Americanized.”
link to theglobeandmail.com
A Globe&Mail editorial rejected the government’s initial and ludicrous attempt to blame the rebuff on a single statement made by opposition leader Ignatieff prior to the UN vote, then proceeds with a classic ‘sour grapes’ argument the government has since adopted [comments in brackets are mine]:
“Under the Conservatives, Canada has maintained its position of global leadership. It led at the G20/G8 [the 1 billion PR disaster, with 1000 arrests and nothing to show for the turmoil but an agreement on the introduction of ‘austerity measures’] this summer. It was the driving force behind a maternal-health initiative that promises to dramatically improve the lives of countless women in the world’s poorest countries [no abortions allowed under any circumstances]. It may hedge on an issue like climate change [no kidding], but has enunciated an unambiguous message in terms of human rights, and democratic principles. It has aligned itself squarely with countries, such as Israel, which respect such principles. If Canada’s failure to win a Security Council seat is a result of Conservative foreign policy, then it says more about the UN than it does about Canada.”
link to theglobeandmail.com
But the dead were mostly Turks (plus one American) and the Turks were the ones who had the guts to condemn Israel over it.
What did the Very Wonderful Julia Gillard, That Nice Mr. Rudd, or Action Man Abbot say about it?