Horrors in Gaza

by **StarmanSkye** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 2:20 pm

Havana wrote: "The absurd, of course, is that the kidnap of Shalit now, actually the more reasonable act because he was a soldier in battle, is described as barbaric, compared to the utter silence around the really barbaric kidnappings of citizens by CIA and Israel. welcome to earth." *** AbSoLutely. The cynical, absurdly tragic hypocrisy here is too astonishing to grasp -- AND the world's silent complicity in denying the contemptable idiocy of blaming a single capture of an Israelu occupation soldier while ignoring over 9000 (official) imprisonments of Palestinains (many, most? without Habeus Corpus or judicial guarantees-- Perhaps 15,000 or more actual, *secret* and illegal detantions with torture and cruel, inhumane treatment including of minors...) How IS IT that Israel has turned into its own unique version of a state embodying the kind of cruel, brutal Nazi atrocities and hateful self-righteous attitudes that Jews once were the very victims of? "Become your enemy"? From the Information Clearinghouse article cited by sunny: "Israel will do everything to avoid a negotiation. Hence, it deliberately inflicts inhumane hardships on the Palestinians in order to radicalise them and drive the moderates from the scene. Moderates, who are prepared to talk, are Israel's real enemies." This core issue has never been more evident than now, with Israel using the pretext of a kidnapping to inflict the latest round of collective punishment on almost a million people -- My heart goes out to the Gaza residents -- I can't even imagine how soul-crushingly mean their circumstances have become, like being stranded and destitute, abandoned and left for dead in the fetid, harsh wilderness prison that has become your very own home and tiny neighborhood. Alice the Curious wrote: "I've been feeling sick lately, the news is frightening and horrible. It's a struggle, watching the sadism, the sheer evil of what is being done to people, while Orwellian platitudes about freedom and democracy remind me more and more of those cheerful murals painted on the outside of the trains transporting victims to the Nazi concentration camps. I hope that one day soon, I'll return to my usual optimism, as expressed in these words by Howard Zinn: "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, and kindness." " Indeed! What a sobering reflection of our duty to all that is most wondrous, noble, valiant and decent that we are, by some gift of the Cosmic Creator-Architect, capable of -- to be conscious and dedicated and principled, resisting the influence of evil and intimidation of tyranny or making accomodation to it. Occupied Palestine is a place and state of mind we will ALL will be getting more intimately familiar with as the PTB wage their 'long war' over our Hearts and Minds -- America's alliance with Israel means those who don't support the GWOT-racket-scam will become the 'other' subversives in internal exile, the National Security State's very own 'enemies' to justify what it does via "Homeland Security". Our futures hijacked by venal, headstrong monsters who defile what they can't absorb or erase. Starman

by **havanagilla** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 4:50 pm

Starman, if your questions were not rhetorical, so - The concept of "one hundred years of terror" is the official defense policy of israel, more or less since its inception. Briefly stated - every nation had its ugly period when it killed and drove away other residents of same territory, this is that century for the jewish resettlement in "zion". Anyone who tells you otherwise is naive or lying. the peace initiatives.rhetoric is a marginal dispute among various mainstream zionists, regarding the stages, the manner, the tactics etc..(and the size of the desired entity etc.). -- It follows, also, that one of the missions of this century is to totally UPROOT Jewish resistance to the idea, on any basis. (including the validity of exilic judaism, which can exist but has to lose its claim for dominance or equal status in the politics of identity, anti zionists who are communists, etc.). The leaders here are thinking in HUGE time frames, and so any short term localized critique is missing the point, although it is also important (restraining etc., but its marginal). -- this mission coincides with other "large trends" in the world that mostly support it. i don't want to repeat things that were ignored before on the board, but the prospects of this ever changing (except a military defeat of israel, by some force), lies in the hands of the israelis and the realization that this concept is self defeating. meanwhile, far from it, the ideology is winning. Since the idea is also messianic in nature (return of an ancient nation to the promised land, as most national movements are to some extent) there's no point proving it wrong in its own terms. at the moment, this is also backed by a unanimous vote of the superpowers and major world players, for their own reasons. the game is perceived in large numbers, long time spans, and rought strokes, which by necessity reduce the meaning and worth of an individual life to nothing. either you fit in the large scheme or you are expendible, whether you are arab jew or what not. it resembles all fascist movements, including nazism, but I suspect it is really not very jewish, so it will not succeed for that reason.

by **sunny** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 5:28 pm

Alice, that was a beautiful essay, full of truth. I have not read anything better on the topic, in all honesty. Anti-semites will jump all over this, but really I don't care. The time has passed when I will be cowed by scurrilous charges. Hatred of a gov't does not equate to hatred of a race. I hope everyone of good heart will stand up and be counted.

by **Gouda** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:42 am

Thanks Alice, Hava - your different but complimentary perspectives fill in gaps of silence and ignorance and help people like me struggling to understand what has gone on and what is going on there and what is being planned to go on there. It is a reality almost too dark and dangerous to contemplate. The extremely frightening part for me - apart from, yet subsuming the obvious crimes against the Jewish and Arab peoples there - is that this carries such dark, twisted, heavy messianic qualities, operating under "huge time frames", coinciding with "large [fascist] trends," involving limitless amounts of capital, unparalleled symbolic import, unimaginable twists of irony and unconscionable deficits of scruple in a part of the world that really is ground zero for most (perennial) apocalyptic scenarios that resonate with billions of religiously sensitive (whether that be God or Mammon) people in this world. It does, should and will affect us all - this vortex has already swept in so many. I really do think we need to get a grip on this before we collectively, as people of conscience and peace, wield the slingshots of our native strengths - and do that we must.

by **havanagilla** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:35 am

Gouda, well put. I believe it is important to first try and get the big picture before forming a practical or political approach. The response, I believe, has to consider the "large buildling blocks" as well, otherwise, it falls in the hands of the perps, and used to enhance their plan. this ahs been the main pitfall of response thinking so far. Short term, localized, hot headed...and immeidately switched and incorporated by PTB plans.

by **AlicetheCurious** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:52 am

Here's one look at a 'big(ger) picture' than we usually see: June 5, 2006 Population Transfers, Land Theft and Bankrupt Ghettos Palestine: It's All Over  By ALEXANDER COCKBURN The first item I ever wrote about Palestinians was around 1973, when I was just starting a press column for a New York weekly called the Village Voice. It concerned a story in the New York Times about a "retaliatory" raid by the Israeli air force, after a couple of Al Fatah guerillas had fired on an IDF unit. I'm not sure whether there any fatalities. The planes flew north and dumped high explosive on a refugee camp in Lebanon, killing a dozen or so men, women and children. I wrote a little commentary, noting the usual lack of moral disquiet in the Times' story about this lethal retaliation inflicted on innocent refugees. Dan Wolf, the Voice's editor, called me in and suggested I might want to reconsider. I think, that first time, the item got dropped. But Dan's unwonted act of censorship riled me and I started writing a fair amount about the lot of the Palestinians. These were the days when Palestinians carried far less news value for editors than Furbish's lousewort, and no politician ever held that this beleagured plant didn't actually exist as a species, which is what Golda Meir, Israel's prime minister said of Palestinians. Back then you had to dig a little harder to excavate what Jewish Israelis were actually doing to Palestinians. Lay out the facts about institutionalized racism, land confiscations, torture and a hail of abuse would pour through the mailbox, as when I published a long interview in the Voice in 1980 with the late Israel Shahak, the intrepid professor from Hebrew University. It's slightly eerie now to look at what Shahak was saying back then and at the accuracy of his analysis and predictions: "The basic trends were established in '74 and '75, including settler organizations, mystical ideology, and the great financial support of the United States to Israel. Between summer '74 and summer '75 the key decisions were taken, and from that time it's a straight line." Among these decisions, said Shahak, was "to keep the occupied territories of Palestine," a detailed development of much older designs consummated in 1967. Gradually, through the 1980s, very often in the translations from the Hebrew language press that Shahak used to send, the contours of the Israeli plan emerged, like the keel and ribs and timbers of an old ship: a road system that would bypass Palestinian towns and villages and link the Jewish settlements and military posts; ever-expanding clusters of settlements; a master plan for control of the whole region's water. It wasn't hard to get vivid descriptions of the increasingly intolerable conditions of life for Palestinians: the torture of prisoners, the barriers to the simplest trip, the harassment of farmers and school children, the house demolitions. Plenty of people came back from Israel and the territories with harrowing accounts, though few ever made the journey into a major newspaper or onto national tv. And even in the testimonies that did get published here, what was missing was any acknowledgement of the long-term plan to wipe the record clean of all troublesome U.N. resolutions, crush Palestinian national aspirations, steal their land and water, cram them into ever smaller enclaves, ultimately balkanize them with the Wall, which was on the drawing board many years ago. Indeed to write about any sort of master plan was to incur further torrents of abuse for one's supposedly "paranoid" fantasies about Israel' bad faith, with much pious invocation of the "peace process". But successive Israeli governments did have a long-term plan. No matter who was in power, the roads got built, the water stolen, the olive and fruit trees cut down (a million) the houses knocked over (12,000), the settlements imposed (300) the shameless protestations of good faith issued to the US press (beyond computation). As the new millennium shambled forward, surely it became impossible to believe any Israeli claim to be bargaining, or even to wish to bargain in good faith. By now the "facts of the ground" in Israel and the territories were as sharply in focus as one of Dali's surrealist paintings. In May of this year the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, comes to Washington and addresses a joint session of Congress in which he declares: "I believed, and to this day still believe, in our people's eternal and historic right to this entire land." In other words he doesn't recognize the right of Palestinians to even the wretched cantons currently envisaged in his "realignment". Why should Hamas believe a syllable of Olmert's poppycock? When Arafat and the PLO gave worrisome signs of being eager for an accommodation Israel's reply was to invade Lebanon. In Olmert's "realignment plan the "Separation Barrier," now scheduled to be Israel's permanent "demographic border," annexes 10 per cent of the West Bank, while melding into Israel vast settlements and half a million settlers. The Palestinians lose their best agricultural land and the water. Israel's greater Jerusalem finishes off all possible viability for a viable, separate Palestinian state. This Palestinian mini-archipelago of cantons is shuttered to the east by Israel's security border in the Jordan Valley. The press here, timid and ignorant, greets Olmert's "realignment" with tranquil respect. In the meantime a frightful historical tragedy is in its final chapters. With the connivance of what is sometimes laughably referred to as the "world community"--notably the US and EU, Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians into submission as the reward for having democratically elected the party of their choice. Whole communities are on the edge of starvation, cut off by Israel from food and medicines. The World Bank predicts a poverty rate of over 67 percent later this year. A UN Report issued in Geneva on May 30 says that four out of 10 Palestinians in the territories live under the official poverty line of less than $2.10 a day. The ILO estimates the jobless rate to be 40.7 percent of the Palestinian labor force. The end of the story? I'd say the basic strategy is what it was in 1948: population transfer, to be achieved by making life so awful for Palestinians that most of them will depart, leaving a few bankrupt ghettoes behind as memorials to all those foolish hopes of a sovereign Palestinian state. <a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn06052006.html">www.counterpunch.org/cock...52006.html</a>

by **havanagilla** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 9:46 am

I like alex cockburn...and read his website often. This sounds like a more realistic approach, although I would go before 67 as well (why start there ?). I am starting to think that this is reality, namely, first we need to recognize it and see through the rhetoric. Secondly, considering the power matrix, most likely this is going to happen, one way or the other. Third, given these two (but really after they have been absorbed), what can be done ? === for israelis, the main issue is to internatliz the 1st statement, namely, realize that most of the time the gov is intentionally brainwashing the youth/citizens to believe the propaganda lies of "the peace rhetoric" so that the citizens cooperate feeling they are "doing the right thing", this is a crucial point. It doesn't necessarily mean that once the israelis realize they are fed with a lie, they will not embrace the real agenda (war and war and transfers), but there's a chance a fairly sizable chunk of them WILL refuse to go along. Same goes with Jews around the world and what not. so the key is information, or the veracity of information. As a person who grew up here, I know there is little to zero chance for an average israeli to see through the official rhetoric. Also, once a person coincidently hits the truth, they have a very strong incentive to keep to themselves, cause the gov does NOT want this to become an epidemy. -- I cannot see any other, external, democratic or military force that can change the way things are going now. simply because there is nobody who can and wants to. that's politics. Justice ? ahm...it becomes a matter of religious belief and I will not get into it.( some think that mother earth will object, maybe...but this is not a basis for daily action).What to do ? don't know...duck ?

by **AlicetheCurious** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:28 am

I don't know what we can effectively do, other than (at least) not feeding the monster. Telling the truth, sticking to the facts, behaving as human beings with a soul, at all times. For what it's worth, I think that Israelis would find it much more difficult to deceive themselves if it became impossible for them to deceive the rest of the world. The US is feared and disliked for its aggression and greed around the globe, but Americans are so insulated in their own drug and infotainment-induced fog that this fact barely registers. Israel, despite the relentless myth-making simply doesn't have the same sense of imperviousness that the world's sole superpower has. I think that boycotts and demonstrations and protests abroad, do register in Israel. To a greater extent than in the US, the Israelis want to commit genocide while being considered the underdog. They want to maintain a racist state and at the same time be seen as the quintessential victims of racism. They portray themselves as rational, "Western" people struggling against the medieval forces of religious fanaticism, though their claims are ultimately based on ancient religious texts putting self-serving words in God's mouth. Check out the response to Switzerland's very mild and strictly factual accusation that Israel is violating international law in Gaza. The Swiss accusation was barely covered in the US media, but was widely reported in Jewish and Israeli media. In response to the Jerusalem Post's article, the "talkback" section was almost immediately filled and overwhelmed, mostly by individuals insulting the Swiss ("morons", etc.) <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885911457&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">www.jpost.com/servlet/Sat...2FShowFull</a> Any criticism of Israel is immediately and overwhelmingly hit with 'disproportionate force'. I met a journalist who was covering the Israeli reinvasion of the Palestinian territories in 2002, for CNN. He did one story, about how the soldiers in the tanks were killing and destroying ON THEIR WAY to the battles, where he filmed the wounds of one little girl four-year-old girl who was shot in the leg, just at random, just for fun. Within hours of that story being aired, CNN received 19,000 emails, all demanding that the journalist be fired. 19,000 emails. Not counting the telephone calls, the faxes, etc. Besides the pressure to fire the journalist, there was the constant threat that he would find himself 'accidentally' "caught in the crossfire" as happened when he was shot by Israeli soldiers because he wanted to actually cover the news from where it was happening, instead of sitting comfortably in his luxury hotel, repeating Israeli army press releases (like the others). He has a wife and kids, and the pressure was unbearable. So, I wouldn't put too much hope in the poor schmucks who work in the media -- very few of them are prepared to sacrifice themselves or even their jobs, for a principle. They don't want to end up like the late Rachel Corrie, who stood in front of a bulldozer to save a family's home, only to be crushed AS WELL AS the home. I think that most Israelis, like most people everywhere, don't like to stick their necks out, and don't like to stand up when they're standing alone, but prefer to huddle in a crowd. It's so much easier to hold on to the soothing lies, than to know the truth and then have to face a choice about what (if anything) you are going to do with your knowledge. Those lies don't even have to be so believable, because the people want so badly to believe that they'll overlook the holes and the smell. So the hope, in my view, is that first Israelis' illusions about how "good" they are, how "civilised", must first be exposed among disinterested people abroad, because only when they no longer can lie to others will it become almost impossible for Israelis to lie to themselves. And then they can stop villifying the refuseniks, they can stop averting their eyes from what their own government is doing, they can stop rewarding and glorifying murderers, they can become wise to the way their fear is stoked and then manipulated in order to oppress and exploit them. By that time, will it be too late? Will the genocide of Palestinians be accomplished? Will the Israelis' Faustian bargain, already signed in blood, become irrevocable? Will the very soil of Palestine, having drunk the blood of generations, bear strange fruit that will spread and eventually kill off all other forms of life, leaving only its own diseased, hate-blinded kind? I only hope it's not too late already, for the sake of the Palestinians, the Israelis, and all of us.

by **sunny** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 4:09 pm

<a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1150885919995&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">www.jpost.com/servlet/Sat...2FShowFull</a>

by **havanagilla** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 4:27 pm

<blockquote>Quote:<hr>few of them are prepared to sacrifice themselves or even their jobs, for a principle.<hr></blockquote> i recently found out that few of any "them" is prepared to sacrifice anything for anything...so, i'd stick to applying the standard equally. my travels in the world, and travails, are a living proof, that when it comes to those same thugs, NOBODY is willing to stick their neck... In which case, there is little point in naming just a few. And also, this leads to me to being rather skeptical on how much others will be willing to reflect the sad truth to the Israelis. Didn't see anyone lining up to do that...at the time being its a myth. the 19,000 emails is what you get here as well (they might be originating in a robot or a little "monitoring unit", well organized and efficient). My little and insignificant experience with how I was dumped by the world, leads me to advise others against recklessly sticking their neck, before getting assurances for obligations from those who egg from afar... we have a joke here, which I actually like and will try to translate (it might come out awkward). But there's a hebrew/israeli idiom that describes commitment, in terms of being willing to fight till your last drop of blood. So, in the left, the arabs are always joking and saying the israeli partners are willing to fight (the governmnet/ army) till the last drop of their palestinian partners' blood. Namely, when stirring a mess (as now in Belein village - a joint israeli-palestinian and european action) consider that the victims will be palestinian demonsrators.. so either you stick to them till the end, or don't send them to the fire... So, with this reservation, i agree mostly.

by **AlicetheCurious** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:35 pm

Nobody has the right to send anybody else 'into the fire'. First, it's immoral, and second, it's totally counterproductive. I'll never forget my own experience as an activist in university, when we had this great, diverse group, very fun, very friendly, as long as it was just about putting up posters and holding dances to raise money. As soon as our opposition started playing dirty, it wasn't fun anymore, and whoosh! people started dropping like flies. It wasn't that, um, you know, they disagreed with what we were doing, you know, it's great, and all, but uh, maybe we're taking this whole thing a little too seriously. You know. Like, we think we're gonna change the world? Like so many things in life, the loss of these spineless wonders was a blessing. You know that old joke, that a camel is a horse designed by a committee? It's so much cleaner to express your ideas as a small, tight group, who share a very similar perspective. We immediately began to form alliances with other groups on and off-campus, who shared our desire to promote human and legal rights, but who focussed on other specific issues. Our focus was the Palestinians, we were networking and cooperating with groups concerned with South African apartheid (yeah, it was a while ago), women's rights, gay rights, anti-racism groups, etc. We had gotten rid of the deadwood, most of whom had just wanted to join what they thought was an ethnic student association. It was hard at the time, and somewhat lonely, although the few that stuck around were incredibly supportive and tough. Before long, though, the deadwood was replaced by a very ethnically diverse but smart, talented, and good group of people. We rocked. We got so much done, it was amazing. People flocked to our guest lecturers, our documentaries, we were invited to make presentations all over the place, including to the Hillel campus student group. Whatever we organized, no matter how big the hall, it was packed. When we started, people were afraid to say the word 'Palestinian'. Saying the very word was a risky political statement. At first, we were treated with hostility and threats of violence, but by the end of the first year, we were being deluged with questions and requests for more information. Some Jewish students braved the fury of their families and friends to join our group, and became among the most passionate defenders of Palestinian rights. Despite the constant challenges, that period remains the most inspiring and joyful time in my life. One thing it taught me, is that not everybody is meant to be an activist. In a way, it's a calling. You do it because your sense of injustice is so strong, your outrage will choke you if you don't do something to defend those who can't defend themselves. Even when I received death threats, my reaction was to realize that the terror I felt was nothing compared to what was experienced every day by people who were so much more helpless than I, including children. The more frightened I was, the more determined I became, and the more peace I felt in doing what I deeply knew to be right. I certainly didn't expect anybody else to endanger themselves. Palestinians living in refugee camps and under occupation, in my experience, don't expect people to endanger themselves either. I meant what I said before, that they consider Israel to be their cross to bear. Over and over I've heard Palestinians say that maktub 'it is written' for them to be born into this destiny, to have to struggle and fight against injustice and oppression. In a way, they see themselves as appointed by God to be the sacrificial lamb, born to suffer for the sins of others. The smallest gesture of support, of empathy, of solidarity, is met with lavish appreciation and hospitality, sometimes at a great price. And sometimes it breaks my heart, when these poor people who have suffered so much through no fault of their own, are so overjoyed and grateful for a kind word or gesture from those whose lives have been so privileged and comfortable. I've personally been impatient with the whole belief in destiny that pervades the Arab world, particularly among my fellow Egyptians. But sometimes it strikes me as a very wise way of dealing with the world: you have your destiny and I have mine. Both have been determined by God, the all-powerful, the all-merciful, therefore there is no need for envy. Because both you and I will be judged on how we served God in the role that He determined for each of us. It's worth thinking about.

by **slimmouse** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 5:44 pm

Thanks for the post Alice, and in particular for this ; <blockquote>Quote:<hr> Some Jewish students braved the fury of their families and friends to join our group, and became among the most passionate defenders of Palestinian rights. Despite the constant challenges, that period remains the most inspiring and joyful time in my life. One thing it taught me, is that not everybody is meant to be an activist. In a way, it's a calling. You do it because your sense of injustice is so strong, your outrage will choke you if you don't do something to defend those who can't defend themselves. Even when I received death threats, my reaction was to realize that the terror I felt was nothing compared to what was experienced every day by people who were so much more helpless than I, including children. The more frightened I was, the more determined I became, and the more peace I felt in doing what I deeply knew to be right.<hr></blockquote> And remember, Those who you fear control you.

by **havanagilla** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:25 pm

I was just referring to your judgment on the journalists who fail to stand up to what YOU agree could be death threats. (bringing up Rachel Corrie..was for that purpose). It is one thing to be a western activist for animal rights (that's become more dangerous though, recently) or what not than come to Gaza and defy the warlords...I would also draw a clear line bn pre and post Bush era. Corrie would not be killed before Bush, (or after), and I think most of the americans involved - KNOW that. -- the chances for a western activist to get killed for picketing with posters for palestine is zero. the chances of an israeli defying the army seriously to get killed, maimed or undermined lethally are huge, more so for a palestinians and even a UK visitor. Feel free and welcome to fullfill the destiny, but that doesn't mean others, elsewhere should get killed for that, which includes any palestinians, for that matter too. The times are different, too. -- Responsible activism, in the western world as well, is to take care of your "clients'" interest IN THE SAME WAY you take care of yours, and in Egypt, for instance YOU would not picket this way, or else you will end up in JAIL, and that's you with another passport, certainly a worse doom for a regular folk. So, again, with these reservations, i say yes, to activism. -- You can't hold the stick both ends. On one hand describe my gov/army as ruthless and off hand killers of protestors, AND advise or expect others to stand up to those killers. Since I tend to agree with the first part of the stick, I seriously challenge the wisdom and the motivation of the second. One does not stand up to killers who have the upper hand, unless one is suicidal. And sending suicidal people to political missions, is in my view tantamount to killing and then becoming very similar to the guys you condemn, for THEY do it all the time (namely, send suidical people to do their dirty jobs).

by **AlicetheCurious** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:52 am

Hava, you completely misunderstood me. Hello...remember, I'm the one who's always telling you to take care of yourself and your kid -- I have the right to say that this SHOULD be your priority. Neither I nor anybody, has the right to incite someone else to take risks or become an activist, or a martyr. I've told you before that you are a perfectionist, which can be very paralysing. It's either all or nothing. Either you make the ultimate sacrifice, or you remove yourself totally, muttering bitterly about the futility of it all. IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY!!! If life is a play, it's an ensemble cast, not a one-woman show. Each of us must determine the role for which we are best suited, as long as we participate. Nobody should tell the carpenters to sing a solo, nor should the lighting people be expected to be in charge of ticket sales. Everything is important, though, from make-up to checking the fire alarms, to directing the performance and providing the music. Sometimes in one career, we do different jobs at different times. And at times, it is even appropriate to sit in the audience and by just paying attention and/or clapping, inspire the actors on the stage. I am proposing, based on my own limited experience with activism, that those who stick their necks out, take the big risks, are doing so, not because someone convinced them, or because they're driven by guilt, but because that is what they need to do, and they feel a deep peace and even joy in doing it. Kindly note that I am not at all politically active right now, and feel no guilt for this. I am qualified to judge whether my circumstances make this the right thing to do, and it is nobody else's business, just as I expect nobody else to take responsibility for my actions and decisions, whatever they are. But, although you're right that I was probably not in any real danger back in university, it was hard to be sure when that phone rang at two am and some a**hole is screaming what he will do to me in detail if I don't shut up, Arab bitch. At around that time, a pro-Palestinian activist in the states was brutally beaten and abandoned in a parking lot, with a star of David carved into the skin on her chest. The JDL guys were following me with their eyes on campus, and sometimes shouting obscenities and acting out machine-gunning me down as I passed by on my way to classes. I was in some ways, just a kid, and although the threats may not have been real, the fear was. That was then, and then it didn't even slow me down. This is now, and with my small kids, it would take a hell of a lot less than that to scare me silent. But my thoughts are my own, I know what I know, and even when I won't shout, I will whisper, and what I whisper will always be the truth. It's not all or nothing, Hava. It's all or a bit less, or a bit less, all the way down to a mustard seed.

by **havanagilla** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:24 am

I was refering to your judgment about the journalist. But its a wider and deeper issue, that I feel needs to be addressed as to "new activism" in light of the grand fiasco of present day activism. responsibility must go both ways. I have witnessed and took part in the kind of activism you refer to, and recently during the war, in san francisco. It failed, and I believe one of the reasons is lack of solidarity, but NOT the kind of solidarity among the various, ever splitting and hating, anti war movements (that too) but between activist-patron and client (war victim). Since I am mainly a war victim from Israel and only occassionally played the role of activist outside of israel, I see the gap, and I see it in your writing as well, since you come from that segment of post 60's who were temporarily lured to believe (before bush) that this is gonig to be a better world, and ooops, everything collapsed, for now at least. It is Bush who is responsibly for most part, and let us not rip ourselves with accusations, but ....there's a deeper lesson too. And I'll say it once more, leadership is bought by EXAMPLE. and Ghandi went with HIS people in the riots, not in NY picketting and egging. You have to be ONE with the people you claim to represent, and I have not seen on this board (and in ALL the liberal progressive north american movement) more than a dozen people who really care about one REAL palestinian or iraqi. Its just a game, and people die, but they are far and photogenic as bleeding victims. Caring for a people looks different, it looks like humane feeling and compassion, taking care first of livelihood, and all this north american movement, truly, would not want to "hug an arab" amongs themselves (or an israeli, for that matter). this is huge barrier and the PTB sense the falseness of the claims, and so the anti war movement not only failed to stop the war, but it was pathetic. (been there myself to witness). --- I love the way Jeff writes every now and then about "what should we do" and how come its not working <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/smile.gif ALT=":)"> , he is honest, although at times regressing to the escapism of psychic war (which is "lets meditate for peace today...eahm). You keep repeating the slogans that get slimmouse all happy but it leads nowhere, and not that most of it is not very true, but it kind of...so what ? you sit in your life, and talk big. it boils down to that, and to how someone else should do the work, be it other readers from "the world" or the Israelis, (and palestinians) who are really in the least comfortable position, and they don't really sense compassion, not the palestinians as well. Truly they are on their own now, pretty much, against the POWER, the raw power of the combined machinary of Israel, USA and Europe, the world. -- I draw a bit of distinction here bn north american anti war people and european, i'd say that recently the Brittish people get more involved but you see them put some ass on the line, some. the north americans - big talk. Rachel corrie is a nice girl, but HER PEPLE failed her memory, the american activists. Of cousre Starhawk (a jew btw) cannot hold the entire anti war movement on her shoulders. Where were all the big mouths to demand action from congress ? ahh...they were busy jogging and writing in counterpunch ? -- I've been to both the USA and Canada AT THAT TIME. its a joke and so, i will not repeat it, and this is a strong, rich, powerful community even compared to europe put together. BUt we ? the Israelis who are dissidents are poor, few and under the BOOT, can't you see that ? and the Palestinians? So, i sadly conclude it is hypocricy, and I ignore most of the jive and hyped rhetoric unless backed up with a dollar or a deed. And I reserve the right to suspect the motivation in continuing this kind of rhetoric. (go back to Jeffs CANNONIZED post about the antiwar movement, brilliant account which I find a masterpiece !). One doesn't have to do anything, but leaving the real people from the wartorn zone feeling like icons in a tacky movie is not nice. The situation here is real. our lives are real, and I will not go on to "do we not have a blood as yours" too, both on my behalf and on the palestinians' side to. They too have falled victim to hyping and irresponsible egging...regretfully, not to their best interests. While I beleive their military resistance is justified (that's what one does against military occupation) some political egging was in their detriment (re the iraq war, etc., while all the world is in a huge orgy with Bush, they were jumping on roofs FOR Saddam, letting this poison their image conveniently...and I need not go on). -- I'd say to those who now are not sticking their neck. to spare in words, perhaps then ..in the silence, the little, humane deeds will pop up creatively, to really make a difference to real people.

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