High Crimes in Middle East
It’s been some time since I’ve posted on my blog again. Not because of laziness. Well, not _only_ because of laziness. My malaise stems from some philosophical issues I’ve been struggling with.
What happens, happens for a reason. A society, a way of living learns from it’s struggles. Just like a the native American Indians learned the hard way that a sword’s blade cuts and added greed and deceit to it’s vocabulary when the white man arrived to "cleanse the unwashed masses of their filth and ignorance". The white man brought taught the natives their definition of freedom, democracy and religion.
The many objective history books have written about this and have gone though great lengths to dissect and debate and to encourage independent critical thought on this civilization’s fairly recent past.
But it seems we still haven’t learned our lessons well because it’s still happening again and again. Right now, as I write, the Middle Eastern ‘crisis’ is still going on. People are dying as I am finding the right words to weave into this post.
What’s happening now is not so much a ‘crisis’ as World War 2 was with the Nazi juggernaut was set loose upon the world and the rest of the world turned a blind eye unless the war spread far enough to reach their nation’s shores.
And so this dilemma I have been struggling for some time now. Does this ‘potential’ World War 3 have to come to fruition for everyone to learn the lesson again the hard way? Is there some quota for the number of people that have to die before people start paying attention? I mean paying real attention to the real events that are happening, not some spinned propaganda churned out by the mass media that has been clearly subverted by the governments that want this war to happen.
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I’ve posted it before but it seems appropriate to include it in my post again because it is part of the reason for starting my blog again:
First they came… by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
This post is for all the Palestinians and the Lebanese who want to let the whole world (at least those who want to listen) their story.
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams hit the nail right on the head when she said, "There can be no sustainable peace while military spending takes precendence over human development."
There are few people out there who can sift through all the garbage that passes for news and objective information and come out with the truth of the events that have transpired and are still transpiring. Fewer still are the ones who can pull it all together and connect the dots and show the picture that is hidden from view. This editorial piece is a fine example of what I’m talking about.
Did you know?
Gabriele Zamparini
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
"I, Tsilli Goldenberg, Israeli citizen
Accuse you - Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, Amir Peretz, Minister of Defense, Dan Halutz Head of Staff Chief Commander of the Israeli Army, of committing this bestial barbaric slaughter in Lebanon.
I accuse you of committing Crimes against Humanity towards the Palestinian People. I accuse you of deserting our soldiers, when their lives could be saved by negotiations, and I accuse you of starting an unjustified war in my name." - Tsilli Goldenberg, Masarik 11, Jerusalem 93106 Israel
Did you know that "the daughter of Israel’s newly elected prime minister added her voice to those of the anti-Israel [sic] forces around the world when she actively participated in a demonstration outside the home of IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, calling him a ‘murderer’"?Why not?
Did you know that "45% of those killed in Lebanon are children and of the 500,000 people who have fled to safety, some 200,000 are children"?
Why not?
Did you know that Israel bombed "the nation’s biggest private network, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation"?
Why not?
Did you know that a "big milk factory in the Bekaa region called ‘Liban Lait’ was completely burned and destroyed by direct attacks from the Israeli Air Force."? And that a "food storehouse called ‘TransMed’ in Choueifate, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, was totally destroyed"?
Why not?
Did you know that "Lebanon’s president accused Israel on Monday of using phosphorous bombs in its 13-day offensive and urged the United Nations to demand an immediate ceasefire"?
Why not?
Did you know that "the bodies of 13 Lebanese fighters were taken from Maroun al-Ras and buried in Israel to use in future negotiations over the release of Israeli prisoners"?
Why not?
Did you know that "Israeli military has said it will destroy 10 buildings in predominantly Shia south Beirut for every rocket fired at the Israeli port of Haifa, army radio said Monday"?
Why not?
Did you know that "The delivery of at least 100 GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the middle east."?
Why not?
Did you know that what’s going on is "subject to review by Israel’s chief military censor, who has - in her own words - ‘extraordinary power’. She can silence a broadcaster, block information and put journalists in jail"?
Why not?
Did you know that "[a]ccording to the Lebanese police force, the two [Israeli] soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory"?
Why not?
Did you know how the "cross-border" myth originated?
Why not?
From the beginning of this new chapter of the old madness, many people have been following on the internet this shame. We are a peaceful army of world citizens, working for free and moved by solidarity, compassion and an inner drive for justice. Not anger!
But even among the elites of the anti-war movement and the so-called "left", too many have never been listening to us. Let alone important journalists working for the "pro-Israeli" mainstream media who still believe that the "internet is a new thing, and it’s also unreliable."
More than sixty years ago George Orwell wrote in The Freedom of the Press, a Preface to his political novel, Animal Farm:
"But at least let us have no more nonsense about defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine and act on it… it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals who want to do dirt on the intellect…"
This Preface was censored when the book came out in 1945 and it was only published in The Times Literary Supplement on 15 September 1972. Twenty seven years after Animal Farm was first published.
