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I have been very wary of commenting on the Israel/Palestine issue. This problem that Israel and the USA created, has been going on throughout my lifetime and I find it immensely disturbing that even today, direct criticism of Israel so often leads to someone responding with the ‘anti-semitic’ card and invoking the spectre of the holocaust and the Nazi’s.
Whilst it is understandable and only proper that the Jewish people should never let the world forget the horrors of 60 years ago, it is used too often to stifle what could be constructive debate and has sometimes been used as emotional blackmail to obfuscate Israeli actions that would otherwise receive condemnation. The Israel/Palestine issue has been at the core of Middle East unrest for a long time, and, like Northern Ireland, I don’t have a clue how it will get resolved. But one thing I do feel sure about is that it will never get resolved all the time the ‘west’, and in particular the USA, gives what appears to be unconditional support to Israel.
OK. Having said all that and opened myself up to all kinds of comments I have to agree with Mike Power in his item More dark-skinned looters who said:
I was disturbed by the way the BBC TV News portrayed the destruction of the synagogues in Gaza and how it referred to ‘looting’ by Palestinians. Surely they were EX-synagogues anyway and can the removal of window-frames from buildings illegally built on stolen land by the people the land was stolen from really be classed as ‘looting’?!
The real answer to that question is, of course, no. It is time for our politicians and the politicians of all major world powers to stop playing lip-service to the plight of Palestine and to throw the weight of the world behind solving the problem and creating a Palestinian state. Done with care and belief, it would be the start of healing some of the other problems of the Middle East.
The Palestine problem was caused by the Americans and the British in the first place. I have often wondered what exactly was going through everyone’s minds when they were looking for a place to put all the Jews and someone suggested Palestine. I can’t get my head around the mentality behind re-establishing a state that hadn’t existed for 2,000 years smack bang in the centre of the Middle East, surrounded by countries that had vowed to wipe it off the face of the planet. Was there some other motive behind it? You have to ask.
You’re right in saying that this will never be over as long as the British and to a much greater extent the Americans stop trying to justify ever act of terrorism by the Israeli’s. The Palestinians are bad enough but the Israeli’s are taking part in state sponsored terrorism, a whole different kettle of fish.
No doubt, some Americans will take issue with this but at the end of the day, you just have to look at the number of times the US has vetoed a UN resolution aghainst Israel and how many UN resolutions Israel have ignored. The Americans went to war with Iraq for not complying with the UN but there are more outstanding UN resolutions against Israel than Iraq and that’s with America vetoing as many as it can.
I think you’ll find the British were very much against the establishment of Israel. We’ve got our hands very dirty in many parts of the world in the past – as much in Palestine as anywhere where we were running things at the time. But we were officially against the establishment of the state of Israel at that time and there was, if I recall, some fighting and bloodshed. The USA was the first to formally recognise Israel and remains the states protector. I strongly believe it is possible to resolve the problem but it is Israel that has to to it and only America can provide the pressure.
And yes – that is probably an unpopular view.
I completely agree. In the end I believe bloggers have to grasp the nettle and be honest with themselves. I decided that whatever I say may well be misconstrued or twisted so I may as well go ahead and say what I really think and be done with it. We all have our predjudices I suppose but we must resist the tendency to avoid speaking what we see as the truth (without being offensive) in order to avoid censure. Otherwise we might as well give up.
Love the re-design by the way!
Thank you Mike – for both comments.
I gave up on the design I really wanted because I just couldn’t get IE to play ball. It’s at least a little brighter than it was before!
Well of course people are hypocritical. What was condemned during world war two, i.e. the killing of Humans by particular methods is now acceptable because it’s happening to some other people. Oh well, that’s okay then. All kinds of excuses are used to justify what was slagged off in 1939-45. Hypocrisy abounds! Double standards to.You mentioned Northern Ireland. Now if the two groups of people there can get along, albeit in a tentative manner, why can’t the people in the middle-east? And please nobody say some shite like it’s too complicated or you have no idea what you’re talking about. I lived there for one year so I do know what the fock i’m talking about. And, "issues" are only as complicated as people make them.
wonkotsane Says:
September 17th, 2005 at 9:56 pm The Palestine problem was caused by the Americans and the British in the first place. I have often wondered what exactly was going through everyone’s minds when they were looking for a place to put all the Jews and someone suggested Palestine.
The Balfour declaration, courtesy of a very nice scottishman and a lord to boot, was made in 1917. Therefore it wasn’t the British who caused the problem it was the sweaties! Oh Gordon Brown Bottle (bb) will be so pleased.
At one stage, they were going to put the "homeland" in Uganda. I can only imagine what that would have led to seeing as the lovable Idi Amin threw all the Asians out of Uganda sometime after that.
As far as not criticising Israel goes, why shouldn’t they be treated like the rest of us? Blimey, you cannot say that you want to be just like the rest of the world then whine when you are treated as such! Besides that, as an Englishman I have had to put up with bigoted anti-English lectures all my life. A lot of the time these supposedly "enlightening" diatribes were nothing more than bigoted attempts at making me cowtow. Now! I do not mind some jewish person airing their views about England’s role in world history in a negative light so long as they can take me airing my views about their homeland’s negative behaviour! I have often found that they can’t take what I have to say. This makes me think that they’re arrogant. How can I come to any other conclusion?
Gosh! A two year old post but still accurate! To be honest I’ve just decided to speak my mind. hence the slanging match with an American cousin a few months back which yes – enabled him to come up with all the old trash stories about empire!