New History

What Uri Dromi says about Hamas is pure and poisonous Israeli propaganda (This Hamas hallucination, 23 January). In every respect his article is almost the exact opposite of the truth. Dromi claims that: "The Orwellian mindset of the organisation is as much a barrier to peace as the rockets it fires." But it is the newspeak of Israeli propagandists like Dromi that is truly Orwellian.

Over the last four weeks the powerful Israeli propaganda machine has been churning out lie after lie about Hamas in order to excuse its own inexcusable onslaught. Israel stopped journalists going into Gaza, preventing any independent reporting on the war crimes its forces were committing. Truth is usually the first casualty in war. Gaza was not even a war in the conventional sense of the word; it was one-sided carnage.

Here are some of the facts Dromi ignores or wilfully misrepresents. First, Hamas is the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people, not the corrupt regime led by Mahmoud Abbas. Second, Hamas spokesmen have repeatedly declared their readiness for a long-term ceasefire. Khalid Mish'al recently did so on these pages (Comment, 6 January). Third, Hamas has a solid record of observing ceasefires, while Israel has a consistent record of sabotaging them. Fourth, even during the ceasefire Israel did not lift its economic blockade of the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza, a form of collective punishment forbidden by international law. Fifth, the offensive unleashed in Gaza was illegal, immoral and unnecessary. If all Israel wanted was to stop rocket attacks from Gaza, all it had to do was to observe the ceasefire brokered by Egypt in June 2008.
Professor Avi Shlaim
Oxford

Two things. 1) Its very encouraging to see how outspoken Avi Shlaim has become since the assault on Gaza started. 2) It used to take decades for Israeli propaganda to be debunked. Even though Walid Khalidi proved in 1960 that there were no "Arab Radio Broadcasts" only in the 1980's when the Israeli archives on 1948 were opened to scholars did it become mainstream to speak of the expulsion of the Palestinians. Now what happened in 1948 is correctly seen as an Ethnic Cleansing. Today Israel's lies are so transparently contrived and in contradiction with common sense that everything that their spokespeople say is almost immediately disproved. I actually think that their propaganda efforts are even less successful than their military ones.

LSE

To the Students of the LSE

These are very dark days for the long-suffering Palestinians. Israel's savage assault on the defenceless people of Gaza pushed them to the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The one-sided carnage has temporarily stopped but the economic blockade, the oppression, and the occupation continue. Only sustained international pressure, including trade sanctions and an arms embargo, can put an end to Israel's criminal conduct.
But there is no leadership worthy of the name. Our government is morally bankrupt. It is pusillanimous and feeble and completely out of touch with public opinion. If there was ever a time for direct action, this is the time. And if there was ever an issue that called for a firm moral stand, Gaza is that issue.
I salute you on the brave and altruistic stand that you have taken on behalf of the people of Gaza. I admire your courage and your commitment.
You have my unqualified sympathy and support in your struggle for justice for the Palestinian people.

Avi Shlaim, Oxford

Posted on the LSE 'Occupation Group' blog

Waltz with us

At Sabra and Chatila the first journalist to find out about the massacre was an Israeli and he desperately tried to get it stopped. This would not happen today because Israeli journalists, along with all foreign journalists, were banned from entering Gaza before the Israeli bombardment started. This has made it far easier for the government to sell the official line about what a great success the operation has been.

Patrick Cockburn, Counterpunch.

EJH

Like the war in Lebanon in 2006, Gaza has darkened the outlook for the future of Israel. It has also darkened the outlook for the nine million Jews who live in the diaspora. Let me not beat about the bush: criticism of Israel does not imply anti-semitism, but the actions of the government of Israel occasion shame among Jews and, more than anything else, they give rise to anti-semitism today. Since 1945 the Jews, inside and outside Israel, have enormously benefited from the bad conscience of a Western world that had refused Jewish immigration in the 1930s before committing or failing to resist genocide. How much of that bad conscience, which virtually eliminated anti-semitism in the West for sixty years and produced a golden era for its diaspora, is left today?

This is in the responses compiled by LRB.

Mao, Mao, Mao!

Finkelstein: 

The fundamental motives behind the latest Israeli attack on Gaza lie elsewhere: (1) in the need to restore Israel's "deterrence capacity," and (2) in the threat posed by a new Palestinian "peace offensive."

Israel's "larger concern" in the current offensive, New York Times Middle East correspondent Ethan Bronner reported, quoting Israeli sources, was to "re-establish Israeli deterrence," because "its enemies are less afraid of it than they once were, or should be."[5] Preserving its deterrence capacity has always loomed large in Israeli strategic doctrine. Indeed, it was the main impetus behind Israel's first-strike against Egypt in June 1967 that resulted in Israel's occupation of Gaza (and the West Bank). To justify the onslaught on Gaza, Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote that "[m]any Israelis feel that the walls...are closing in...much as they felt in early June 1967."[6] Ordinary Israelis no doubt felt threatened in June 1967, but -- as Morris surely knows -- the Israeli leadership experienced no such trepidation.
[...]
The expulsion of the Israeli occupying army by Hezbollah in May 2000 posed a major new challenge to Israel's deterrence capacity. The fact that Israel suffered a humiliating defeat, one celebrated throughout the Arab world, made another war well-nigh inevitable. Israel almost immediately began planning for the next round, and in summer 2006 found a pretext when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers (several others were killed in the firefight) and demanded in exchange the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. Although Israel unleashed the fury of its air force and geared up for a ground invasion, it suffered yet another ignominious defeat.
[...]
After the 2006 Lebanon war Israel was itching to take on Hezbollah again, but did not yet have a military option against it.


Its stuff like this that makes the injunction to 'Love Israel' or to see the Israeli state as the manifestation of some "Birthright' of mine either laughable or offensive. What's lovable here? What 'rights' does anyone think I want to lay claim to? Between 1982 and 2006 Israel lost two wars against what is arguably one of the best guerrilla armies in history. It has no real interests in Lebanon and no strategic reason to perpetuate its conflicts with Hezbollah and Syria. Arguably it could decisively end these conflict by entering into a peace agreement with Syria that would require it to relinquish the Golan Heights. But this is unacceptable to the people of the "the only democracy in the Middle East" and their leaders so the war must go on. If you start from such a batshit crazy position you can only really go to crazier and crazier places. So when you get embarrassed by a well trained, experienced, and armed guerrilla army you fret about your lack of 'deterrence capability' (remember its not at all clear what is being deterred at this point, other than a peace agreement based on international law) so then you conspire to kill a large amount of defenseless people so as to restore this magical deterrence.

I'm sure Hassan Nasrallah is pissing himself in fear now that Israel has seized back its 'deterrence'.

I also think that if this were Paris in 1967 Tzip Livni would be trying to give us copies of the little red book.

the point of going to protests, writing letters, debating, boycotting

Great article from Ali Abunimah, as usual:

Israel's "military deterrent" has now been repeatedly discredited as a means to force Palestinians and other Arabs to accept Zionist supremacy as inevitable and permanent. Now, the other pillar of Israeli power -- Western support and complicity -- is starting to crack. We must do all we can to push it over.

your henhouse could be next

Hamas did this to him

Here is an article proving just how successful IDF's Operation Cast Lead has been:

Despite ceasefire declared by Israel, Sunday sees Palestinian gunmen fire at least 15 rockets, three mortar shells from Gaza. Rockets land in Sderot, Kiryat Gat, Ashkelon, Ashdod and western Negev kibbutzim. Man moderately injured, Woman lightly wounded by shrapnel, several people suffers shock, building damaged. One rocket hits henhouse, killing dozens of chickens


that's right. the chicken of Ashkelon are in grave danger, their just plight obviously being ignored, and here are the anti-Zionist pundits crying over 400 Palestinian children dead. Not to mention people 'in shock.' By those standards I should be classified as a victim and compensated for my Israel-induced bulimia.

something about this time is indeed different

Three simple proposals

1. Get rid of the illusion that Israel is "useful" to the West.
2. Allow non-Jews to speak their mind about Israel
3. The practical initiatives are summed up in three letters : BDS- Boycott, disinvestment, sanctions

what's the use?

Of Sowing and Harvests: Subcomandante Marcos' Speech on Gaza

Maybe our thinking is very simple, and we're lacking the nuances and annotations that are always so necessary in analyses, but to the Zapatistas it looks like there's a professional army murdering a defenseless population.

Who from below and to the left can remain silent?

Is it useful to say something? Do our cries stop even one bomb? Does our word save the life of even one Palestinian?

We think that yes, it is useful. Maybe we don't stop a bomb and our word won't turn into an armored shield so that that 5.56 mm or 9 mm caliber bullet with the letters "IMI" or "Israeli Military Industry" etched into the base of the cartridge won't hit the chest of a girl or boy, but perhaps our word can manage to join forces with others in Mexico and the world and perhaps first it's heard as a murmur, then out loud, and then a scream that they hear in Gaza.

We don't know about you, but we Zapatistas from the EZLN, we know how important it is, in the middle of destruction and death, to hear some words of encouragement.
I don't know how to explain it, but it turns out that yes, words from afar might not stop a bomb, but it's as if a crack were opened in the black room of death and a tiny ray of light slips in.

it was about time I used my transcribing skills

I just watched the press conference in Tel Aviv by Ban Ki-Moon and Livni. Here are the major points:

Ban Ki Moon for the UN: I come here with a mission. rocket attacks are horrible, we have always condemned them and still do. Israelis have to be secure. We understand Israel. We're also kind of sad about the bombardment of the UN compound a few hours ago, but I just talked to Barak about it and he said it was a mistake so I was like ok. Oh and there is this thing called a humanitarian crisis, and we are so very thankful to Israel for setting up a humanitarian center, they are so great. Thanks.

Livni for Israel: How many times do I have to say that we do not give a flying fuck about any of this? Oh also, this is not about Palestinians versus Israel, but about the free world versus the bad people, and this means that we are on the same side with the UN, the West and the legitimate Palestinian government of Abbas. Hamas does not share the same values we share here in the free world*. The humanitarian crisis is also important, but not so much. We just won't allow a situation where our citizens can't go to school in comfort, so yeah. We will continue to bomb the shit out of Gaza until the very end because that's what they deserve.

Watch the video if you don't believe me.
*This one is a direct quote. I think she means values like freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom to elect representatives, human rights, children's rights, ET CETERA.

it's an unfair world

let's see here. these people are lying, the Red Cross is lying, the kids surviving the massacre are lying, the UN is lying, Al Jazeera is lying, this person made this story up, Human Rights Watch is lying, fuck, even this person from Haaretzis lying. they are ALL lying anti-Semites, including this one, no matter how much he denies it.

and all of those pictures of dead babies were done on the latest Adobe Photoshop by Hamas militants sitting in their Mac labs, like this one here:


lies just don't stop, because the whole world is against Israel. this dude I listened to today on Al Jazeera, who said that his 3 year old daughter's favorite game is to lie still on a blanket pretending to be killed and ask her siblings to carry her, was lying as well. very clever story though, I must say.

settler shoots palestinian who threw rocks at his car

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1055208.html

West Bankers should be thankful it wasn't 10 Palestinians per usual calculations.

Of course, neither this particular story, nor others of Palestinians in the West Bank shot and killed by the Israeli police forces, beaten, arrested and detained in hundreds, intimidated, evacuated from their homes, and caged with checkpoints are reported by any of the major news networks.

examplary journalists, human beings

... or just people doing their jobs. except it shouldn't take much to come off as a symbol of dignity when interviewing Mark Regev thanks to what he represents.

BBC: regarding the bombing of the UN school

Alex Thomson: regarding the Zeitun massacre and the Red Cross not being allowed in

Al Jazeera, with guest appearance by the major woman who is apparently put on TV all the time because she is a woman and that's supposed to be sympathetic. she is especially fuzzy in this one: regarding the use of white phophorus

I got to see one of these live on Al Jazeera regarding the Zeitun massacre, in which Mark Regev first said nothing of that sort happened, and later had to change that to "I actually don't know" because the journalist did his job. Since this seems to be his standard conduct, and since he is the official spokesman, the question naturally comes to mind, what the fuck do you know?

and just in case somebody thinks this is somehow a random or novel occurance, here the blatant lies making even the CNN look good, from 2006: Israeli spokeswoman apologizes for bombing the shit out of civilian centers while still trying to justify it, promises investigation

I will confess to not being able to watch any of these videos till the very end, especially the last one, because it literally makes me want to throw up. as in my dinner wants to get out. I kid you not.

(regarding the STILL going on youtube ban, dear Turkish state, sana bişey derdim ama hadi neyse)

greek balls

US cancels Israel arms shipment over Greek objections

"I think the Greek government had some issue with the offloading of some of that shipment in their country and so we are finding alternative means of getting that entire shipment to its proper destination in Israel," spokesman Geoff Morrell told a news conference.

Oh I know, how about Egypt?

QDN co-founder, beautiful person, our light of hope within this darkness turns 21

Happy birthday. The rest of us here at QDN wish you a year better than the last one. May you remain as awesome to the end of your time.

Subjectivity

From a recent article in MERIP.

football is life, Kanoute is the man

Kanoute after scoring for Sevilla against Deportivo. He got a yellow card and a 3000 euro fine.

Jewish women occupy Israeli Embassy in Toronto

Below is their press release that got circulated. As I make this post they have already been arrested.

Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 10:25 am

A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. This action is in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza.

The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.

Protesters are outraged at Israel′s latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government′s refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians. The protesters have occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel′s violence and apartheid policies. They are joining with people of conscience all across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker; Smadar Carmon, an Canadian Israeli peace activist and others.


Spokespersons for the group will be outside the Israeli consulate.


For more information contact:
Dr. Miriam Garfinkle
Phone: 416-731-6605

Cathy Gulkin
Phone: 416-697-0768
Email: cgulkin@rogers.com

Judy Rebick
Phone: 647-388-1053

pigs on the wing

The truce was broken on November 4th. How many more times does this need to be said before criminals like livni and barak can appear before the world and lie with their bold faces on?

spirit of QDN well and alive out in academia

from the listserv of sociologists I am on:

Ex post facto sociological musings deconstructing particular slices of the past can hardly bring us to the peaceful constructivism necessary for a more desirable future.

wise words

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends," uttered by Martin Luther King, quoted by Cynthia McKinney, aimed at Barack Obama, but surely not just that.

from the latest BBC story

"Palestinian medical sources say the death toll stands at more than 500, with some 2,500 people wounded. These figures cannot be independently verified. Five Israelis have been killed in Palestinian militant rocket attacks since the start of the Israeli incursion, which is now in its 10th day.

Ehud Barak said the offensive would continue until "peace and tranquility" was secured for Israeli civilians."

I don't know what to say.

Queering The Nation

It's good to see that this guy is on our side 

From a NYT story on yesterday's Times Square protest

if you hear something say everything

and one dude abides
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/02/family.grounded/index.html

all peoples are equal, but some have PR Directorates to make their war look prettier

A little from the story of PR success from The Jewish Community Online. Sounds to me like they didn't just decide to get up and go one day when the rocket attacks became overwhelming:

The international media were directed to a press centre set up by the Foreign Ministry in Sderot itself so that foreign reporters would spend as much time as possible in the main civilian area affected by Hamas rockets. When the IDF was represented on the international TV networks, it was by Major Avital Leibovich to project a feminine and softer image.

Ministers have been ordered by the Cabinet Secretary not to give interviews without authorisation so as not to repeat the PR disaster of a year ago, when Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai threatened the Palestinians with a “holocaust”.

For the first time, sufficient numbers of spokespeople in a range of languages were appointed and briefed in advance. Mr Pazner gave close to 100 interviews in the first three days of the operation, in English, French, Spanish and Italian.

In his view, the toughest and most hostile questioning was “definitely by the Spanish interviewers, and also the French, especially the Canadian French”.

Israeli diplomats and spokespeople working with the British media have said that so far “most of the hostility has been in the print media, especially in The Guardian and The Independent. The electronic media, including also the BBC, have made more of an effort to seem even-handed.

“The coverage is definitely less hostile to Israel than what we saw during the Second Lebanon War two-and-a-half years ago.”

Both the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry ran monitoring services to view foreign media coverage and pass the results back to press officers to enable them to address the claims being put forward by reporters and Palestinian interviewees.

---

Here is what you won't find in the mainstream media: photos from Gaza

---

BBC does stuff to please us, deny accusations above
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7809371.stm

the media needs to stop blatantly lying

At least the Guardian has stopped feeding into the false causality and fooling people by repeating that Hamas has broken the truce and Israel is answering the latest rocket attacks. If one more person reiterates this point to me I will smack them in the face.