Gaza in Ruins: A news special from Al Jazeera.
The Gaza Strip is a land in ruins, devastated by 22 days of war. In this news special from Gaza, Al Jazeera focuses on the damage from the war – the human, physical and political damage suffered by people here, people already weakened by an 18-month siege at the hands of Israel.
John Pilger puts forward his nominations for Bush freedom medals.
On 13 January, George W. Bush presented “presidential freedom medals,” said to be America’s highest recognition of devotion to freedom and peace. Among the recipients were Tony Blair, the epic liar who, with Bush, bears responsibility for the physical, social and cultural destruction of an entire nation; John Howard, the former prime minister of Australia and minor American vassal who led the most openly racist government in his country’s modern era; and Alvaro Uribe, the president of Colombia, whose government, according the latest study of that murderous state, is “responsible for than 90 per cent of all cases of torture”.
Gideon Levy opines that the Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel.
On the morrow of the return of the last Israeli soldier from Gaza, we can determine with certainty that they had all gone out there in vain. This war ended in utter failure for Israel.
When Jon Snow went to report on the massacre in Gaza, he was barred from entering the conflict zone, along with other Western journalists. The following is a documentary film of his experiences.
A number of people I’ve spoken to have said they think the media response to the Gaza massacre has been good, mainly due to the images of brutal destruction that could not been hidden. However I disagree. If we look at this news clip, one of the better ones, it is noticeable that the coverage is very superficial.
Robert Fisk in the Independent: “Mahmoud Abbas stepped further into humiliation by saying the only option for Arabs isto make peace with Israel.”
The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Olmert was roaring with laughter. Silvio Berlusconi, arms on the back of Olmert’s shoulders, was also joshing and roaring – with laughter, not grief – and on Olmert’s right was Nicolas Sarkozy of France wearing his stupidest of smiles. Only Chancellor Merkel appeared to understand the moral collapse. No smiles from Germany. Continue reading “Europe laughs while Palestinians mourn their dead”
Chris Hedges on violence and pacifism. I’d really like to see Hedges’ argument that justifies a statement like this “tell me the moral difference between Irgun Zvai Leumi, the Stern gang and Hamas. I fail to see one.” He might be right, it’s hard for me to tell when he doesn’t explain. I do think there’s a moral difference, on the face of it, between a more powerful group ethnically cleansing a weaker group, such as Chris mentions at Deir Yassin, and a weaker group resisting an oppressor; one has more responsibility than the other, as a resisting force is reacting, rather than creating a problem.
George Galloway, the finest speaker in the British Parliament, lambasts the Government for its complicity in the Gaza massacre, suggesting it takes a more active, just, role in resolving the conflict, given its responsibility dates as far back as 1917 when Arthur Balfour promised Zionist colonisers a home in Palestine.
It’s worth remembering Zionist influence is an important factor in Parliament: from Theodor Herzl and Chaim Weizmann who lobbied for a “Jewish homeland” in Palestine to the modern day Friends of Israel groups that organise brainwashing trips for MPs to Sderot (the first stop on these trips is predictably the holocaust memorial Yad Vashem, designed to remind leaders the coloniser is really the eternal “victim”).
Robert Fisk on Al Jazeera maintaining that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 is central to the issue of justice and therefore peace in the region. Could you imagine such frankness on the BBC? They’d probably call it the disputed dispossession if they ever mentioned it.
Just as an example lets look at the main article, by Jeremy Bowen, in a section on the BBC website titled Israel at 60. Discussing 1948, Bowen states:
The reasons why the refugees left their homes are still bitterly contested, by historians as well as by leaders and activists.
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