August 14, 2006 / Uncategorized /
Seymour Hersh once again cuts through the fog of political theater. this time he explains to us all how the US government continues to follow the policies of the neoconservatives – policies that any rational person understands have failed miserably. The extraordinary pro-Israeli government bias that the neocons are infused with and, in many ways, fundamentally built upon, is so totally counter to the interests of American citizens, it amazes me sometimes that they are able to continue to fool themselves. I mean, my god, does Dick Cheney really think that the US policies in the Middle East are making the world safer? It boggles my mind.
What is strikingly absent from this story of the pro-war imperial neocons and their Israeli counterparts is basic human compassion. Danny Schechter wrote about this recently and it’s a major motivation for groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and Tikkun. The cavalier attitude that these people have for going to war is so disgusting and infuriating. The more this current crop of “leadership” around the world continues to pursue inhuman policies, the more I begin to feel like I crossed over into some alternate universe where the world just doesn’t operate the right way. Like I’m Donnie Darko in some right-wing fantasy world of rulers, warriors, and peasants.
I have posted Hersh’s entire article here. It’s long, but like all good writing, you don’t mind so much. Read it all. (Highlights are mine.)
WATCHING LEBANON
Washington’s interests in Israel’s war.
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
The New Yorker
IRIN News reported that, as of August 9, 1,020 Lebanese have been killed by Israel. The majority of these have been civilians. 39 Israeli civilians have been killed.
In a separate story published the next day, IRIn reported that of those 39 Israeli civilians who have been killed, 15 of them were Palestinian Israelis. (IRIN uses the term “Arab Israeli”.)
There is a distinct lack of bomb shelters in Palestinian Israeli communities in the north. Israeli government spokespeople reply to this that Israel stopped building bomb shelters in the early 1990’s during the Oslo process. This abscures the real issue: why were fewer bomb shelters built in Palestinian Israeli communities before the early 1990’s?
August 13, 2006 / Uncategorized /
Israel will, surprise, negotiate for the release of the two soldiers captured by Hizballah. So what was all the bombing for? Why did all those innocent Lebanese civilians have to die, more than a third of them children? Why did up to a million people have to be displaced?
I guess that is all standard operating procedure for the “most moral army” in the world.
Israel to negotiate captured soldiers’ release
JERUSALEM, Aug 13, 2006 (AFP) - Israel will negotiate for the release of two soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah militants on July 12 sparked the offensive in Lebanon, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Sunday.
It marked the first time that an Israeli official publicly said that the Jewish state would negotiate for the release of the pair. Previously it had demanded an unconditional release for the servicemen.
“The Israeli government does not intend to let go of the issue,” Livni told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem after the cabinet voted to approve a UN resolution on a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon.
“The prime minister will personally appoint a person who would take care of the issue,” she said. “We will have to enter a process which means negotiations.” The mother of one of the missing soldiers later told Israeli television that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told her in a meeting early Sunday that Israel would conduct a prisoner exchange to get back the captured troops.
Read all of it here
Stuff I’ve been reading lately:
