There are no rockets coming out of the West Bank. Yet the illegal Israeli occupation there continues and so does the ethnic cleansing, the land theft, the illegal settlements, the colonization, the demolition of Palestinian homes, the throttling of the economy, the abduction and 'administrative detention' of civilians and the massive interference with freedom of movement. Nothing has changed for West Bank Palestinians who DO NOT fire rockets. There is no sign of an end to their misery.
The bloody assault on Gaza therefore has much more to do with Israel's ambition to expand racial dominance in the Holy Land than crude and erratic rocket-fire. Hamas and the Palestinians holed up in Gaza are simply in the way of the Grand Plan and have to be removed or totally subdued.
There are quite a few bloggers that are covering this story in depth, one is Sabbah's blog though I warn you, the pictures and video shown there at times can be graphic. You can also go directly to one source of news from Palestine, Maan News.
7 comments:
Lisa, I'm not sure where you stand on all the issues, but from your blog title I'm assuming you are a liberal on most social issues, like myself.
We all have our leanings, but Stuart Littlewood is well known primarily as a particularly biased and long running One-Man Smoke-Spoutin' Anti-Israel Propaganda Machine.
The current situation over in Gaza/Israel is one with a lot of grey areas. Please don't take this individual's writing as gospel anymore than you would, say, Rush Limbaugh's, if this were a discussion of American politics.
His bias is so slanted that it almost automatically detracts from what could be a more even handed, and constructive discussion of the issues at hand.
There are different sides to the story, and more than one way to view it. I recommend the site bitterlemons.org, which gives voice to BOTH sides of the conflict, without resorting to type of mudslinging, and rehashing of old canards that Littlewood traffics in.
Lisa,
I very much like your even handed approach to this issue. We can only hope that the next administration is equally as even handed as administrations prior to the Bush administration. I have good reason to believe it will be. Israel, while I support it, should not have a free pass. That said, Hamas has no business firing rockets into Israel. If you ask me, peace is the answer, not thousands of years of war over a God that probably doesn't exist.
If you ask me, the middle east would benefit greatly from a US education (again despite Bush). They would learn that the cost of life is more valuable than the cost of the dollar. They would learn the importance of building a middle class. Unfortunately, religion was designed to appeal to the poor. And the rich have historically supported it to keep the classes in their place. In the middle east, there is no middle class, there is only the rich and the poor. Just some food for thought.
Kurt
Peter, I don't suggest that Littlewood's words are the gospel, but he does raise a valid point conditions in the West Bank are not exactly stellar and Hamas is not responsible for rockets being shot off from there.
It's easy for some to separate/justify what is happening in the Gaza based on their dislike of Hamas, what I think Littlewood is pointing out is that there is more to this than that.
Lisa,
Anyone that calls themselves liberal cannot open heartedly support hamas.
Stuart littlewood bias is clearer with every article i read of his. In response to his article which states that there are no rockets coming out of the west bank despite the illegal occupation in his words is the reason there are no rocket attacks coming out of the west bank is because of the occupation there. If israel reoccupies gaza there will be no rocket attacks there either.
Lets recall that after israel withdrew from the gaza strip a new party was formed in Israel called Kadima. Kadima ran on the premise that they would withdraw from the west bank and had actually started dismantling certain settlements before hamas took over (Amona for example). When Hamas took over the gaza strip there was concern that the same thing would happen in the west bank which stopped the Israeli withdrawal of the west bank.
Before 1967, when israel had no control over gaza or the west bank, there where also terror attacks.
Stuart littlewood once again makes a biased claim. If you read enough of his articles it's clear he is nothing but an antisemite.
You'll excuse me anonymous if I don't agree with you that it's written in the "Liberal Code" that you have to have a certain position on Palestine. Or that believing that Israel has more responsibility in the deaths of scores of innocents means I support Hamas.
There are lots of people out there who believe what Littlewood does, there are some who are more extreme, and some who are less, it doesn't mean people should not read his works. Which I have for some time now.
Yeah, Lisa, I think the idea is that by starting your blog entry off with a title like "Stuart Littlewood Makes a Valid Point That...etc., etc." it almost automatically discredits the piece, and, by association, distracts from any views you might see fit to add to the topic.
It's as if one of us came upon a posting on the Web that began "David Duke Makes A Cogent Argument That..." or "George Lincoln Rockwell Posits In An Interesting Piece That..."
Judging from the source material, it would be obvious from the get-go that any statements that were being made were coming from a P.O.V. of biased and predictably over-the-top extremism. Maybe you're not familiar with the way Littlewood is viewed in most academic or journalistic circles, (even those with a progressive agenda), but such is his reputation.
Peter, I'm aware of how some view him, but I'm also the type of person where I give everyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to making a valid point. As seen with the Nader letter, some what I found valid in Littlewood's piece was similar to some of what Nader expressed.
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