Peace and Justice for all.

[Calum]

I just got this in my email, what do you people think?

quote:Language Of The Middle East

Many Americans are confused and misled about the facts of the Middle East because they don't understand the language of Israeli propaganda.

A terrorist is any Palestinian who wants to end the Israeli occupation. A militant is anyone the Israelis kill. If they shoot you, you are, by definition, a militant, even if you're only 6 months old or 10 years old or 80 years old. The Israelis never kill anybody but militants, so all of the more than 70 Palestinian children 15 and younger shot dead by Israeli soldiers are militants. Most civilized countries don't think militancy is a capital offense.

Unfortunately, members of the press often adopt the language of propaganda. They report that the Israelis have killed 20 militants. In fact, they don't know that. They themselves have never seen the 20 dead people. For all they know, they might be Palestinian nuns or pacifists. A good reporter will just report what he knows: The Israelis say they have killed 20 Palestinians.

Recently, one of the Fox Network's foxy blondes belligerently demanded of a Palestinian spokesman why Yasser Arafat had not made a speech in Arabic demanding an end to terror. When the Palestinian finally got a chance to talk, he told her what everybody who follows the Middle East already knows: Arafat has condemned terrorism in speeches made in Arabic. The spokesman even gave the blond cutie two specific dates and occasions.

But what's important to us, as consumers of this bilge on television, is this: I think it is a most safe assumption that the lady, ordinarily quite pleasant and giggly, does not speak Arabic, does not understand spoken Arabic and does not monitor radio and television broadcasts in Arabic. So the question is, how would she know whether Arafat had ever made a speech in Arabic on any subject? The answer is that she doesn't, yet she adamantly and obnoxiously asserted that he had not condemned suicide bombings in Arabic. Where did she get that information? >From Israeli propaganda.

It could be that these younger folks who are in-studio types are just naive. Perhaps I can help them. All governments lie. Some governments lie on some occasions, some lie on many occasions, and some lie on all occasions. The Israeli government is a world-class liar. You can count on almost anything it says as being all false, or partly true and partly false, or true but out of context.

The members of the Israeli government are also the most self-centered people on earth. To them it is unacceptable for any Israeli to die, but perfectly OK if any number of Palestinians die. How little value they place on Palestinian life is illustrated by a sentence an Israeli court gave a Jewish settler. His sentence was a fine and community service. What was his crime? He had knocked down a 10-year-old Palestinian boy, put his booted foot on the child's neck and beaten him to death with the butt of his military pistol. But as one of the right-wing rabbis is now saying openly, a Jewish life is more valuable than a gentile life.

President Bush, perhaps the most naive American, wants everyone to call suicide bombers murderers. I won't. They are martyrs. Those young Palestinians have done exactly the same thing so many young Americans have done - willingly sacrificed their lives for their country's freedom. If they are murderers because they kill civilians during a war, then Mr. Bush's own father is a mass murderer. His war and his embargo have murdered tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Iraq. Young Bush is apparently planning to murder more.To paraphrase the killer in the movie "Unforgiven," "We are all murderers, kid."

The irony is that while Bush keeps yapping at Arafat to stop the violence, Bush himself refuses to stop the much greater violence inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel. In case he hasn't noticed, there are, to use his favorite phrase, innocent men, women and children dying in the occupied territories because of Israeli state terrorism practically every day.

Instead of playing self-righteous semantic games, Bush should devote his energy to stopping the killing by everybody, including us. He should strongly support freedom for the Palestinians. That's the only way the Israelis will ever have security. And he should abandon the idea that the way to stop killing is to kill.

   


     

[This article is NOT being sent by the writer, but his name is listed only for reference]


Charley Reese can be contacted at [email protected].

[KernelPanic]

I agree, but according to american logic that makes me  a terrorist, cold hearted B*stard... Yeah Right
I can just see through the government crap and media speil. It is the same problem that there is with palladium, the great majority or people are either unaware of the *reality* or don't care. 'The system' dictates what we do and to a great extent what the fickle people think but the system is wrong.

[cloudstrife]

The UN created Israel, kicking the palestinians out.  The palestinians don't like this, so they kill themselves and israelis.  Of course the israelis are killing all the palestinians, b/c every palestinian is taught that they should be a suicide bomber.  These bombers are men, women, and even teens and kids.  This needs to stop before anything else happens.  the palestinians will never get what they want as long as they are killing innocent israelis.

my $.02

[KernelPanic]

They are both kinda stuck, but one has an army and attack choppers to use, the other has suicide bombers and renegade gunmen. Israel was  bad idea, it is like americans laying claim to parts of europe because they used to be there or something similar.
I think before you scatter across the world you should make sure you have the rights to your homeland first, you cant bugger off then when something hapens say well look we were there first so make some room and don't complain. that is essentially what happened.

Another thing that annoys me is that anyone who critisises israles actions is an anti-semite... that's crap

[Calum]

I posted this email here as well, and interestingly enough, the reply i have got so far, is not exactly similar to the ones you guys have expressed so far...

[creedon]

I'm sorry, but I don't see any objectivity ever getting into THIS debate; BOTH SIDES are out to destroy the other, by any and all means; they are both using coercion to gain their ends, the Israelies by the use of huge amounts of money, the Palistinians by the threat of international terrorism; personally, I hope they keep killing each other until there's one guy left, and he commits suicide from lonliness.  All these people on both sides are doing is de-stabilizing the peace in the rest of the world.  I can't feel sorry for them; they're all murdering bastards as far as I'm concerned.

[cahult]

There was an american who once said that the whole area which is Israel and Palestine should be mowed down and turned into a gigantic parking lot.

It seems more and more as if that joke could be serious. Earnestly, isn

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by cahult:
There was an american who once said that the whole area which is Israel and Palestine should be mowed down and turned into a gigantic parking lot.

It seems more and more as if that joke could be serious. Earnestly, isn

[lazygamer]

I have to agree with the stance that both sides are in the wrong. But if Israel is the worser nation(not saying they are), surely they did not start out this way?

I don't know what to think about the conflict anymore these days. It seems pointless.

[Calum]

well, i think both sides are wrong, but that they should make the best of it. I cannot believe that war benefits either side. They ahould ideally just have some land for israel, some land for palestine, and everybody keep to their own bit, except that one side always wants to steal somebody's land unfortunately. I mean where do israel think the palestinians are going to go once they've been shoved off their land?

Unfortunately gredd makes this kind of border dispute last a while as shown in ireland, spain, timor, papua new guinea and a bunch of other places over the years...

[KernelPanic]

I need a rock to crawl under and go to sleep

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by * Tux *:
I need a rock to crawl under and go to sleep

this kind of rock?


[ July 13, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[TheQuirk]

I lived in Israel for 5 years. That's make me SPECIAL!

[cahult]

quote:Originally posted by TheQuirk:
I lived in Israel for 5 years. That's make me SPECIAL!

What do you mean by special? To come out alive?  

[lazygamer]

Well I suppose they probably allow you to own l33t gunz like Desert Eagles, Galil's and Tavors. Israel is in a constant state of war and terrorism. So im sure they woulden't have all that gun control BS there. I mean woulden't you want your citizens all possible soliders in case of a suprise invasion?