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Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy - Foreign Affairs (6) - Nairaland

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Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 3:03am On May 28, 2007
I-man:

Which ICJ ruling are you refering to?

when a man is clueless and confused, he will say anything.

Tornadoz:

@davidylanI told you before, the court only rule based on the evidence presented to it. Courts don't rule because of sentinments, surely you know this.

that is nonsense! In other areas the UN has asked for a referendum to let the people determine what country they would prefer to be. Besides, since when did British and German colonial agreements become binding on a sovereign country? So if tomorrow we discover an old 1864 agreement where Abuja was signed off to Congo by the British we should pack our bags and leave Abuja?

Tornadoz:

They did better than that by taking their findings to the right authority-the UN.

dont make yourself anymore of a laughing stock. So if i find an artefact i should run straight to report to the UN?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 3:07am On May 28, 2007
davidylan:

when a man is clueless and confused, he will say anything.

Don't worry,let the man answer first.I presume he is of sane mind,hope I am not wrong
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 3:12am On May 28, 2007
@davidylan
when a man is clueless and confused, he will say anything.
Hmm I thought you knew these facts. Am off to bed then.
that is nonsense! In other areas the UN has asked for a referendum to let the people determine what country they would prefer to be. Besides, since when did British and German colonial agreements become binding on a sovereign country? So if tomorrow we discover an old 1864 agreement where Abuja was signed off to Congo by the British we should pack our bags and leave Abuja?
Why do you think Nigeria lost? Conspiracy?
don't make yourself anymore of a laughing stock. So if i find an artefact i should run straight to report to the UN?
Lol!
You sure don't fill your national newspapers with news of artefacts and archaelogical evidence of why land "A" belongs to you. Mr davidylan, have you thought of a career in comedy?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 3:13am On May 28, 2007
Tornadoz:

@davidylanHmm I thought you knew these facts. Am off to bed then.

Which ICJ ruling are you refering to?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 3:20am On May 28, 2007
@I-man
So you don't know the Palestian won at the ICJ?Am baffled by the ignorance now being exhibited by you and david. I sure hope this has something to do with the time of day. One of my traits is to always check facts before getting in a debate.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 3:23am On May 28, 2007
Tornadoz:

@I-man
So you don't know the Palestian won at the ICJ?Am baffled by the  ignorance now being exhibited by you and david. I sure hope this has something to do with the time of day. One of my traits is to always  check facts before getting in a  debate.

If someone asks you to prove a factual claim,you don't prove it by asking "so you don't know about it"?Which ICJ ruling are you talking of?Its a simple question

Surely,if this ICJ ruling is so obvious,you can prove it here
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by chidichris(m): 4:25pm On Jun 01, 2007
it is funny here that those claiming they love palestine hate them. i am saying so because we know powerful nations of the world will not defeat isreal in wars not to talk of palestine.
how long are we going to be sympatizing with the innocent palestine children that die on daily bases.
we all see the aplestine children throw stones on isreali armoured tanks.
we all see hamas and their likes fire rockets into isreal not minding who will be strucked. i wish our able gideon or his immediate family will be a victim one day. isreal will always have the backing of Un as it is part of the UN resolution that every country has the right to self defence.
we are all aware here that isreal never acted rather they react and nobody blames anyone for defending himself.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by chidichris(m): 9:22am On Jun 02, 2007
Tornadoz,
i am delieghted with your presentation here and for the first time in this forum i see a point well delievered to be argued upon.
my first question here is where is Iran in the sponsorship of palestine?
i still want to know from you if you believe that hamas is being sponsored solely by Iran and Syria?
so if iran can sponsor hamas, why not palestine?
again, isreal was not in your post as a sponsor, do u believe that except a coka kola company, there is no other company in palestine and even at that palestines do not consume more of their coke as they prefer the isreali product.
do you believe that 90% of all these funds are paid through isreal?
do you know that hamas refusing to recognise isreal as a nation made isreal and the western world to sieze all the funds for months which led to the administration being paralised for months with non payments to workers and unavailability of basic armeinities in the country not until of late when isreal release parts of the funds.
i hope you are aware that the worst thing that can happen to palestine is an isreal decission to close their borders for even 24 hours.
iran through hamas is saying isreal has no right to exist. they are demanding for a total withdrawal and there is a clear claim here that there is no country like isreal existing here in the middle east.
be rest assured that no matter what we say here, anything less than the eradication of isreal is not in the agenda of iran and hamas.
have you for once mentioned or interpreted the un stands on isreal's right to exist or UN position on the stands of hamas and Iran over isreal.
we should be talking about solutions and not blames, let us know here what you think will offer solution be be informed or try and understand the demands of hamas and iran then think out something.
i must confess here that your partner in this is always busy gathering points from his fellow anti isreal propoganda as he believes he is an independent thinker but he ends up only in "copy and paste". i mean afam, trace all his previous posts here, they are based on copy and paste and he has failed as an intellectual in thinking out a topic to discuss.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 5:16pm On Jun 04, 2007
@chidichris
i am delieghted with your presentation here and for the first time in this forum i see a point well delievered to be argued upon.
my first question here is where is Iran in the sponsorship of palestine?
i still want to know from you if you believe that hamas is being sponsored solely by Iran and Syria?
so if iran can sponsor hamas, why not palestine?
I would think Iran "sponsors" Hamas and by virtue Palestine.
isreal was not in your post as a sponsor, do u believe that except a coka kola company, there is no other company in palestine and even at that palestines do not consume more of their coke as they prefer the isreali product.
Israel does not "sponsor" Palestine.
Would you invest in an occupied country? Don't expect investment to flow to Palestine as long as it remains an occupied country.
do you know that hamas refusing to recognise isreal as a nation made isreal and the western world to sieze all the funds for months which led to the administration being paralised for months with non payments to workers and unavailability of basic armeinities in the country not until of late when isreal release parts of the funds.
Am sure you know that the funds you mentioned was actually money given by donor countries? Israel decided to keep the money because every thing going to Palestine goes through Israel first.
i hope you are aware that the worst thing that can happen to palestine is an isreal decission to close their borders for even 24 hours.
Israel does that every time in the pretext that it was trying to stem arm flow to Palestine.
be rest assured that no matter what we say here, anything less than the eradication of isreal is not in the agenda of iran and hamas.
If I actually believed Palestinians have the technology to even trouble Israel, I would have been here arguing on the side of Israel.
they are demanding for a total withdrawal and there is a clear claim here that there is no country like isreal existing here in the middle east.
Withdrawal to pre 1967 borders.
be rest assured that no matter what we say here, anything less than the eradication of isreal is not in the agenda of iran and hamas.
As long as Israel has their nukes, these are mere rhetorics and saber rattling.
we should be talking about solutions and not blames, let us know here what you think will offer solution be be informed or try and understand the demands of hamas and iran then think out something.
The only solution I think is for Israel to withdraw its military from the occupied lands. It might look impossible now because the only authority Israel might listen to is the USA. Israel and Palestinians had the "Oslo" agreement until right wing Ariel Sharon came to power and derailed it.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Afam(m): 5:34pm On Jun 04, 2007
@Tornadoz,

It seems that you have become the latest teacher for this man that keeps turning logic on its head.

I have decided to let him continue to showcase his skills to the world instead of pointing him to the right direction as he receives free education without even saying thank you.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 5:46pm On Jun 04, 2007
@Afam
My guess is chidichris sees the issues in the middle east as between Christians and Muslims, forgetting the injustice.
Chidi please prove me wrong.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by TayoD(m): 5:51pm On Jun 04, 2007
@Tornadoz,

My guess is chidichris sees the issues in the middle east as between Christians and Muslims, forgetting the injustice. Chidi please prove me wrong.
Of course the middle east problem is about injustice. It is about the injustice suffered by a people regarded as apes and pigs. It is the injustice that comes about because a man who lived centuries ago said no jew should be left alive on the last day. Hamas and co and unrepentant follower of this man and the result is what we see.

Isreal has lived in peace with Egypt and Jordan for some decades now. These are the only States that recognise their right to exist. If only the otheres towed this same line!!!
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 5:53pm On Jun 04, 2007
Tornadoz:

@Afam
My guess is chidichris sees the issues in the middle east as between Christians and Muslims, forgetting the injustice.
Chidi please prove me wrong.

I guess you too see issues from an anti-Semitic perpective.I can recall quite clearly,your very self using the term "Jew" in a perjorative manner,when you refered to Condoleeza Rice as a "black Jew".

Prove me wrong
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Afam(m): 5:59pm On Jun 04, 2007
Tornadoz:

@Afam
My guess is chidichris sees the issues in the middle east as between Christians and Muslims, forgetting the injustice.
Chidi please prove me wrong.

Na wah for you ooo, how you go ask person wey no understand the issue on ground to prove anything? You are on your own ooo.

Take care and stay blessed.

It seems you have some members of the Bush fan club around, handle them if you have time as they never post anything unless they see Israel, US, Iran, Muslims, Arab.

Wetin happen to the religion section sef? Abi dem don dabaru the section?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 6:00pm On Jun 04, 2007
@TayoD
Isreal has lived in peace with Egypt and Jordan for some decades now.
So there's a probability it can live in peace with Palestinians. Building more houses in the occupied territory is hardly a way forward.
It is the injustice that comes about because a man who lived centuries ago said no jew should be left alive on the last day.
The two countries you quoted are Moslem countries as well. I wonder why they didn't believe the "kill all Jews" theory you stated. Could this be because Israel remains intransigent?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 6:09pm On Jun 04, 2007
@I-man
I guess you too see issues from an anti-Semitic perpective.I can recall quite clearly,your very self using the term "Jew" in a perjorative manner,when you refered to Condoleeza Rice as a "black Jew".
Why would I be anti-Semitic? Give me a reason why a Nigerian born practicing Catholic would hate Israel?
I do not like the right wing govt of Ehud Omert, simple.
But you on the other hand supports everything Israel, weather right or wrong.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by TayoD(m): 6:25pm On Jun 04, 2007
@Tornadoz,
So there's a probability it can live in peace with Palestinians. Building more houses in the occupied territory is hardly a way forward.
Doesn't that turn the entire debate over its head? The conclusion from the very word go is "Isreal don't want peace". Are you now saying otherwise?

The two countries you quoted are Moslem countries as well. I wonder why they didn't believe the "kill all Jews" theory you stated. Could this be because Israel remains intransigent?
That is not a theory my friend. It is part of Hamas binding article. The diffeence is that the two countries I mentioned are governed by moderates who believe in civility and the inherent ability of the civilised world to solve its problem. Hamas is in government in Palestine, Hezbollah is trying to topple the Lebanese Government, Iran is governend by the one who is on a crusade to wipe out the Jews, we know Syria's agenda, and the U.S. just rid Iraq of Saddam who was sending scud missiles into Isreal unprovoced and without any retaliation from Isreal. Aer you blind to these facts or you just choose to ignore them?!
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 6:32pm On Jun 04, 2007
Tornadoz:

@I-manWhy would I be anti-Semitic? Give me a reason why a Nigerian born practicing Catholic would hate Israel?
I do not like the right wing govt of Ehud Omert, simple.
But you on the other hand supports everything Israel, weather right or wrong.

Its that very reason,your Catholicism,which can make you an anti-Semite.I too,I'm a Catholic.

I remember,innumerable times,priests during mass claiming that the constant enimity the Jews face and the atrocities they have suffered over 2 millenia is connected to their rejection of Christ.

Don't forget that the Catholic Church has been pro-Palestine and campaigned at the UN,back in the 40s, to ensure that the State of Isreal was not admitted.It was reluctant to recognise Isreal.To suggest that being Catholic makes you impervious to anti-semitism is risible .

A Christian can be pro-Isreal due to religion but he can also be anti-Isreal due to religion.Besides,it was you who used the term "Jew" in a perjorative manner.I wonder what was your motive.


PS:I do not support Isreal come what may.I too think they should return to most of the pre-1967 borders but I don't believe anymore that the Palestinians are willing peace partners
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Afam(m): 6:40pm On Jun 04, 2007
I-man:

PS:I do not support Isreal come what may.I too think they should return to most of the pre-1967 borders but I don't believe anymore that the Palestinians are willing peace partners

GBAM! The same position that many of us that are labelled anti-Jew have taken is being taken by one of the most ardent supporters of Israel.

Maybe we have succeeded in knocking some senses into this man.

For peace to reign in the middle east Israel must withdraw to the pre 1967 borders and a state of Palestine created, chikena. Na hia our position start come finish sef.

You cannot have peace without justice, equity and fair play.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by TayoD(m): 6:56pm On Jun 04, 2007
@I-man,

PS:I do not support Isreal come what may.I too think they should return to most of the pre-1967 borders but I don't believe anymore that the Palestinians are willing peace partners
The statement in bold is the major issue we have to deal with. What is the guarantee for peace if isreal withdraws to the pre-1967 borders when there was certainly no peace back then? Prior to the annexation of land by Isreal in 1967, Egypt along with other Arab countries expelled the UN forces in the Sinai peninsula in readines to attack Isreal. They kept Isreali ships from gaining access to the Straits of Tiran and built up their military prescne at the borders.

Saying withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders is the solution to the mid-east crisis is totally untenable when there was cetainly no peace prior to 1967!!!
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 7:13pm On Jun 04, 2007
The Muslims world's agenda for Israel is quite uncomplicated.
The world ought to know that Muslims are known for breaking treaties.
It was Mohammeds modus operandi.
The concept of al taquiyah is alive and well
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 7:47pm On Jun 04, 2007
@TayoD

Resolution 242,lays down the guiding principle.It requires Isreal to withdraw from "territories occupied in the recent conflict".Whether this should be interpreted to mean "all the territories" or otherwise depends on your interpretation.I lean in favor of the latter.

The Resolution however is subject to the important caveat,that this must be as part of a comprehensive peace agreement.This is where I differ with the anti-Isreal crowd.They,and this is reflected in Afam's post,give the impression that Isreal bears a unilateral obligation to withdraw.This is far from the case.Withdrawal must be part of a comprehensive peace agreement with the Arabs.This requires a willing peace partner on the other side.

History and current events illustrate vividly that many,if not most, Palestinians still harbour the fantasy that Isreal will cease to exist.That fantasy is expressed in demands for a "right of return" in order to use demographics as a weapon.
It is also manifest in the election of Hamas,a group implacably opposed to the existence of Isreal.

Most Arabs do no wish to have a 2 state solution.If the Arab Govts were elected,like in "Palestine",they will chose Govts that call for Isreal to be wiped off a la Ahmedinejad

It is this attitude,not Isreal,that constitutes the biggest stumbling block to the search for peace in the Middle East
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 8:24pm On Jun 04, 2007
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 4:22am On Jun 05, 2007
@TayoD
Doesn't that turn the entire debate over its head? The conclusion from the very word go is "Isreal don't want peace". Are you now saying otherwise?
If you had bothered to read the article you quoted, you would have seen that Mr Levy gave reasons for coming to that conclusion. Why did my statement mean am saying otherwise? If you read my previous posts you would find I have been saying the same thing all along. Israel would have to give up land for peace.

That is not a theory my friend. It is part of Hamas binding article. The diffeence is that the two countries I mentioned are governed by moderates who believe in civility and the inherent ability of the civilised world to solve its problem.
How come "moderate" Abbas couldn't deliver? Was it not because he couldn't deliver that made the Palestinian people vote for Hamas?
Hezbollah is trying to topple the Lebanese Government
Their was no Hezbollah in Lebanon until Israel invaded it, hence creating Hezbollah.
Iran is governend by the one who is on a crusade to wipe out the Jews, we know Syria's agenda,
How can this happen when Israel is armed to the teeth with Nuclear weapons? Look up the word "saber rattling"
and the You.S. just rid Iraq of Saddam
and caused chaos
who was sending scud missiles into Isreal unprovoced and without any retaliation from Isreal. Aer you blind to these facts or you just choose to ignore them?!
Why do you think Israel did not respond?
Was this because Iraq was at war with America and its allies? Or was this because if Israel had retaliated America would have lost the coalition it worked had to create. My friend you are the one blinded by religion.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 4:30am On Jun 05, 2007
@I-man
I remember,innumerable times,priests during mass claiming that the constant enimity the Jews face and the atrocities they have suffered over 2 millenia is connected to their rejection of Christ.
I don't know what version of the good book you're reading, but this is in the version of the bible I have. Try this link for bible http://www.onlinebible.org/.
Am surprised you thought the priest made it up, please get rid of any dodgy Bible in your possession.

Don't forget that the Catholic Church has been pro-Palestine and campaigned at the UN,back in the 40s, to ensure that the State of Isreal was not admitted.It was reluctant to recognise Isreal.
Jesus himself was always supporting the down trodden , little wonder then that a church that professes to worship him would side with the underdog. When the Catholic church stop supporting the weak, I'd pack my bible and look for a different church.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Tornadoz(m): 4:44am On Jun 05, 2007
@I-man
That fantasy is expressed in demands for a "right of return" in order to use demographics as a weapon.
Did you say demography?
So Israel can build settlements on occupied territories filled with Soviet, European and American Jews, but Palestinians living in the region can't return?
Most Arabs do no wish to have a 2 state solution.If the Arab Govts were elected,like in "Palestine",they will chose Govts that call for Isreal to be wiped off a la Ahmedinejad
What do they want?
This is rich coming from a man who trumpets democracy in Iraq as an achievement, you want them hand picked or selected?
It is this attitude,not Isreal,that constitutes the biggest stumbling block to the search for peace in the Middle East
The stumbling block has always been who leads Israel. Expect negotiations to start when their's a change in leadership in Israel. The delay tactics explained by G Levy would cease if their was a Labour govt.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 12:33pm On Jun 05, 2007
I don't know what version of the good book you're reading, but this is in the version of the bible I have. Try this link for bible http://www.onlinebible.org/.
Am surprised you thought the priest made it up, please get rid of any dodgy Bible in your possession.
If the priest was right by your reckoning,then some of your anti-semitism,nay,your view of the Isreali/Palestinian conflict stems from that interpretation of your religious faith.Next time you hypocritically condemn Chidichris,Davidylan,TayoD,e.tc for being influenced by their religious philosophy,please note that you are similarly influenced,albeit from a different angle.

Did you say demography?
So Israel can build settlements on occupied territories filled with Soviet, European and American Jews, but Palestinians living in the region can't return?
Right of return expresses a right to return to Isreal proper as opposed to the West Bank and Gaza.This was a major stumbling block in the negotiations between Arafat and Barak.The Palestinians not only want to return to the occupied territories,they also want to return to Isreal itself.

What do they want?
This is rich coming from a man who trumpets democracy in Iraq as an achievement, you want them hand picked or selected?
Never said I wanted them hand picked or selected.Just noting that the moderate demands made by Arab Govts,that Isreal merely return to pre-1967 borders,is not what the average Arab wants

The stumbling block has always been who leads Israel. Expect negotiations to start when their's a change in leadership in Israel. The delay tactics explained by G Levy would cease if their was a Labour govt.

There was more violence per day,from Palestinians, during the last Labor Govt of Barak than since Likud came into power
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Iman3(m): 3:32pm On Jun 05, 2007
How come "moderate" Abbas couldn't deliver? Was it not because he couldn't deliver that made the Palestinian people  vote for Hamas?

There were other political parties the Palestinian people could have voted that do not share Hamas' absolutist opposition to the existence of Isreal.Abbas(holocaust denier in his PHD thesis) belongs to  Fatah,which though relatively moderate compared to Hamas,shares some of Hamas' irredentist views-Read Articles 12 &13 of Fatah's constituition.-[url]http://www.fateh.net/e_public/constitution.htm#Introduction%20to%20the[/url]

Their was no Hezbollah in Lebanon until Israel invaded it, hence creating Hezbollah.
When Isreal left Lebanon,the justification for the existence of the military wing of Hezbollah was vitiated.No other sect-Sunni,Christian,Druid,-retains arms in Lebanon
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 2:38am On Jun 06, 2007
Afam:

GBAM! The same position that many of us that are labelled anti-Jew have taken is being taken by one of the most ardent supporters of Israel.

Maybe we have succeeded in knocking some senses into this man.

For peace to reign in the middle east Israel must withdraw to the pre 1967 borders and a state of Palestine created, chikena. Na hia our position start come finish sef.

You cannot have peace without justice, equity and fair play.


This is mere wishful thinking. Where was this "peace" in 1948 and 1967 prior to Isreal's alleged "occupation" of Gaza and the West bank? Why was it not labelled an occupation when Jordan was in control of those lands prior to 1967?
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 2:54am On Jun 06, 2007
What if Israelis had abducted BBC man?
By Charles Moore
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 03/06/2007

Watching the horrible video of Alan Johnston of the BBC broadcasting Palestinian propaganda under orders from his kidnappers, I found myself asking what it would have been like had he been kidnapped by Israelis, and made to do the same thing the other way round.

The first point is that it would never happen. There are no Israeli organisations - governmental or freelance - that would contemplate such a thing. That fact is itself significant.

But just suppose that some fanatical Jews had grabbed Mr Johnston and forced him to spout their message, abusing his own country as he did so. What would the world have said?

There would have been none of the caution which has characterised the response of the BBC and of the Government since Mr Johnston was abducted on March 12. The Israeli government would immediately have been condemned for its readiness to harbour terrorists or its failure to track them down.

Loud would have been the denunciations of the extremist doctrines of Zionism which had given rise to this vile act. The world isolation of Israel, if it failed to get Mr Johnston freed, would have been complete.

If Mr Johnston had been forced to broadcast saying, for example, that Israel was entitled to all the territories held since the Six-Day War, and calling on the release of all Israeli soldiers held by Arab powers in return for his own release, his words would have been scorned. The cause of Israel in the world would have been irreparably damaged by thus torturing him on television. No one would have been shy of saying so.

But of course in real life it is Arabs holding Mr Johnston, and so everyone treads on tip-toe. Bridget Kendall of the BBC opined that Mr Johnston had been "asked" to say what he said in his video. Asked! If it were merely an "ask", why did he not say no?

Throughout Mr Johnston's captivity, the BBC has continually emphasised that he gave "a voice" to the Palestinian people, the implication being that he supported their cause, and should therefore be let out. One cannot imagine the equivalent being said if he had been held by Israelis.

Well, he is certainly giving a voice to the Palestinian people now. And the truth is that, although it is under horrible duress, what he says is not all that different from what the BBC says every day through the mouths of reporters who are not kidnapped and threatened, but are merely collecting their wages.

The language is more lurid in the Johnston video, but the narrative is essentially the same as we have heard over the years from Orla Guerin and Jeremy Bowen and virtually the whole pack of them.

It is that everything that is wrong in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world is the result of aggression or "heavy-handedness" (have you noticed how all actions by American or Israeli troops are "heavy-handed", just as surely as all racism is "unacceptable"?) by America or Israel or Britain.

Alan Johnston, under terrorist orders, spoke of the "absolute despair" of the Palestinians and attributed it to 40 years of Israeli occupation, "supported by the West". That is how it is presented, night after night, by the BBC.

The other side is almost unexamined. There is little to explain the internecine strife in the Arab world, particularly in Gaza, or the cynical motivations of Arab leaders for whom Palestinian miseries are politically convenient.

You get precious little investigation of the networks and mentalities of Islamist extremism - the methods and money of Hamas or Hizbollah and comparable groups - which produce acts of pure evil like that in which Mr Johnston is involuntarily complicit.

The spotlight is not shone on how the "militants" (the BBC does not even permit the word "terrorist" in the Middle East context) and the warlords maintain their corruption and rule of fear, persecuting, among others, the Palestinians.

Instead it shines pitilessly on Blair and Bush and on Israel.

From the hellish to the ridiculous, the pattern is the same. Back at home, the Universities and Colleges Union has just voted for its members to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions".

Well, they could consider how work by scientists at the Technion in Haifa has led to the production of the drug Velcade, which treats multiple myeloma. Or they could look at the professor at Ben-Gurion University who discovered a bacteria that fights malaria and river blindness by killing mosquitoes and black fly.

Or they could study the co-operation between researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who have isolated the protein that triggers stress in order to try to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and their equivalents at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

The main universities of Israel are, in fact, everything that we in the West would recognise as proper universities. They have intellectual freedom. They do not require an ethnic or religious qualification for entry. They are not controlled by the government. They have world-class standards of research, often producing discoveries which benefit all humanity. In all this, they are virtually unique in the Middle East.

The silly dons are not alone. The National Union of Journalists, of which I am proud never to have been a member, has recently passed a comparable motion, brilliantly singling out the only country in the region with a free press for pariah treatment. Unison, which is a big, serious union, is being pressed to support a boycott of Israeli goods, products of the only country in the region with a free trade union movement.

The doctrine is that Israel practises "apartheid" and that it must therefore be boycotted.

All this is moral madness. It is not mad, of course, to criticise Israeli policy. In some respects, indeed, it would be mad not to. It is not mad - though I think it is mistaken - to see the presence of Israel as the main reason for the lack of peace in the region.

But it is mad or, perhaps one should rather say, bad to try to raid Western culture's reserves of moral indignation and expend them on a country that is part of that culture in favour of surrounding countries that aren't. How can we have got ourselves into a situation in which we half-excuse turbaned torturers for kidnapping our fellow-citizens while trying to exclude Jewish biochemists from lecturing to our students?

Nobody yet knows the precise motivations of Mr Johnston's captors, but it is surely not a coincidence that they held him in silence until the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War approached, and only then made him speak. They wanted him to give the world their historical explanation - Israeli oppression - for their cause.

Yet that war took place because President Nasser of Egypt led his country and his allies declaring "\u2026our basic aim will be to destroy Israel".

He failed, abjectly, and Egypt and Jordan later gave up the aspiration. But many others maintain it to this day, now with a pseudo-religious gloss added.

We keep giving sympathetic air-time to their death cult. In a way, Mr Johnston is paying the price: his captors are high on the oxygen of his corporation's publicity.

As for Israel, many sins can be laid to its charge. But it is morally serious in a way that we are not, because it has to be. Forty years after its greatest victory, it has to work out each morning how it can survive.


Sadly it is this same mentality of selective justice that many of our anti-semitic friends here are exhibiting. Excusing every evil perpetrated by the terrorists even to the point of elevating them to victims status. May God protect us from this ruinous and cataclysmic culture of political correctness.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 3:23am On Jun 06, 2007
Some guys are funny, "I believe Israel should pul out and go back to its pre-1967 borders but I do not think Palestine are peace partners". This is stupid, Justice before Peace, when you serve Justice and peace does not reign, then you can make statements like the one above.
Re: Israel Doesn't Want Peace By Gideon Levy by Nobody: 5:15am On Jun 06, 2007
Donzman:

Some guys are funny, "I believe Israel should pul out and go back to its pre-1967 borders but I do not think Palestine are peace partners". This is stupid, Justice before Peace, when you serve Justice and peace does not reign, then you can make statements like the one above.

huh?  undecided From whence camest thou? . . . and the very first statement is to insult people?

While you're thinking over that please ruminate over the following: where was the "peace" you all scream when Isreal was not in control of your pre-1967 borders? What was the basis for attacking Isreal in 1948 and 1967? Injustice over what borders?

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