Another IMF riot and Israel goes Dixie
Posted by Charles II on January 10, 2011
Emad Mekay, IPSNews:
Arabs across the Middle East Watched in awe as online video posts and sporadic coverage on Al-Jazeera TV station showed Tunisians, with a reputation of passivity, rise up in unprecedented street protests and sits-in against the police state of President Ben Ali.
The Ben Ali regime exemplifies the “moderate” pro-Western Arab regimes that boast strict control of their population while toeing the line of Western powers in the Middle East.
The spark of the unrest, now about to end its second week, came when a 26- year-old unemployed university graduate, Mohammed Buazizi, set himself ablaze in the central town Sidi Buzeid to protest the confiscation of his fruits and vegetables cart.
…
the police responded with overwhelming force. There were reports of use of live ammunition, house-to-house raids to chase activists, mass arrests and torture of prisoners.
…
The fear of similar spillover into Arab countries pushed at least one Arab ruler to rush to aid Ben Ali. Libya’s maverick leader Muammar Qaddaif said he was immediately dropping all restrictions on the entry of Tunisian labour into Libya. Tunisians were free to travel to his oil-rich country for work, he said.Opposition says the unrest was prompted by high prices and unemployment but now has turned political with some demonstrators calling on President Ben Ali to step down.
Tunisia, like other non-oil producing Arab countries has implemented a Western-inspired privatization programme and gradual cut to state subsidies to staple goods without offering alternative sources of income.
Hoocoodanode that if you won’t let people eat, they might not feel they have much to lose?
Meanwhile in Israel (Mel Frykberg, IPSNews:
A number of recent incidents discriminating against Israel’s Palestinian minority has prompted Israeli Knesset (parliament) members to debate whether Israel is becoming increasingly racist.
Ronit Sela from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) has no doubts. “Israel’s democracy is under threat as an increasingly large racist element raises its collective head. A number of racist occurrences have taken place in a climate conducive to racism. This wouldn’t have happened prior to the current right-wing Israeli government,” Sela told IPS.
Recently an organisation called Jews for a Jewish Bat Yam (a suburb near Tel Aviv) held a protest against “assimilation of young Jewish women with Arabs living in the city or in nearby Jaffa.”
“It’s a local organisation of Bat Yam residents, because the public is tired of so many Arabs going out with Jewish girls,” explained one of the organisers, Bentzi Gufstein. “In addition to the protest, we will hand out pamphlets explaining the situation.”
Charming. We can expect anti-miscegenation laws are on the way.
And there are a number of other examples, including discriminatory housing laws, discrimination in stripping people of citizenship, and discrimination in funding education.
How far Israel has drifted from the ideals of its Founders.
25 Responses to “Another IMF riot and Israel goes Dixie”
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Mercury Rising 鳯女 
Phoenix Woman said
Indeed. Rabin saw it coming, tried to stop it, and got murdered as a result.
Nachman said
“And there are a number of other examples, including discriminatory housing laws, discrimination in stripping people of citizenship, and discrimination in funding education.”
Compared to what the Arabs (read: Muslims) have done to the Jews – such as expelling 850,000 from Arab-Muslim countries – this is a pathetic attempt to smear Israel…again. Arabs cannot sell land to Jews, and if they do, they are liable to be murdered. Jewish women are coerced into marriage with Muslim men (see Yad L’achim: http://www.yadlachimusa.org.il/?CategoryID=201 ) and even the left wing “Peace and Social Justice” solidarity tools are not immune: ( http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139738 ).
Before you accuse the Jews – next time – do some research. It would go along way to establishing some credibility in an area you are obviously ignorant about.
“How far Israel has drifted from the ideals of its Founders.”
The re-establishment of the Jewish State of Israel with the Jews being an independent, self-governing people.
Charles II said
Yeah, sure, Nachmann. Every criticism of Israel the state is a criticism of the Jews. This fundamentally dishonest routine of falsely conflating objections to the actions of a state with anti-Semitism has gotten tiresome. Even Zionists are not immune from being attacked, as the campaign to blacken Lord Goldstone for simply reporting the truth about Operation Cast Lead demonstrated.
In all of the intractable conflicts of the world, each side points to atrocities committed by the other as a justification for its own atrocities. But real Jews, Jews who actually believe in God know that one wrong does not justify another. There’s one fact at the core of this conflict: the borders of the state of Israel are plainly illegal, based on the covenant the new state of Israel itself made with the world upon its founding. Until Israel turns to do justice by honoring its promise, it is the equal with every other actor in the Middle East who has perpetuated the conflict while crying, “Look at the other fellow.”
Go ahead– imagine that the critics of Israel are simply ill-intentioned or ignorant. How many friends has Israel not succeeded in alienating by its unwillingness to face criticism? What will happen to it as the power of the United States is squandered on supporting the dictators Israel is content to have rule over the Arab world?
Stormcrow said
Funny how the only sorts of political group which equate the state of Israel and Judaism are …
(i) Israel’s Likud party, together with its agents of influence and “useful fools”, and
(ii) Neo-Nazis.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to make enemies just as fast as it can, while its armed forces rot from within.
Not a good combination.
You’d think someone who was genuinely concerned with the long-term survival, let alone well-being, of the state of Israel, would start taking notice.
…. crickets ….
Nachman said
You are resorting to the same tired canard as usual about some “prohibition” from criticizing Israel. None exists. You haven’t noticed the worldwide criticism, deserved and undeserved? You haven’t noticed the vicious blood libels in the Arab mass media, or on left wing web sites? You’re being intellectually dishonest. This is not about merely criticizing Israel – it is the singular, obsessive condemnation of the Jewish state.
You are willing to criticize the Jews because it’s easier for you. You know the Jews won’t bomb your buses, fly aircraft into your buildings, or invade and murder your families. You find it easier to pound your self-righteous chest and condemn the Jews for defending their nation against murderous anti-Semites.
It would be much harder and more credible of you to condemn the atrocities visited upon Jews and Arabs alike by Hamas, Hizb’Allah, the PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but that would take work on your part and and some introspection.
The day I see people like you – “progressives” – condemning the real and ongoing atrocities committed by Islamic jihadism is the day I will even begin to consider to take you seriously. I’ve yet to see a mass demonstration decrying the hanging of women from construction cranes in Iran, or the oppression of the Christians in Egypt.
The Goldstone report was a fraud. The outcome was fixed, the participants tainted. I’d like to see *your* neighborhood subjected to thousands of missile attacks and let’s see *your* proportionate response.
Are you guys in the DFL, the Progressive Caucus, Green Party, or Ron Paul supporters? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Stormcrow said
Sigh.
Screwed up the hyperlink.
Phoenix Woman said
No worries — Nachman won’t listen anyway. His job is to spread hasbara, not to engage in dialogue. Notice how his last message ignored the direct addressing of his arguments? Instead, he played the old “activate the movable goalposts” game. More on how hasbara megaphonies like Nachman operate can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaphone_desktop_tool
And yes, Nachman, you far-right-wing bigoted Likudnik/Kadima/AIPAC types have drifted far, far away from what Israel’s largely Socialist founders wanted. Or have you forgotten how one of your people murdered Yitzhak Rabin for the “crime” of not being a bigot?
More things that Nachman doesn’t want most Americans to see:
http://972mag.com/aipac-a-voice-for-the-israeli-right/
Nachman said
Are you guys even Jewish?
Watch as I fling more irrelevant baloney to distract from the fact that I am defending the indefensible!
(edited by siteowner for clarity of commenter’s true motivations)
Nachman said
When you have no legitimate counterarguments to offer, you resort to ad hominem attack. And, above all, quote a illegitimate source of information like wikipedia, where anonymous editors with agendas can change facts at will.
I asked a valid question concerning your political affiliations.
Charles II said
Nachmann, asking “a valid question concerning your political affiliations” is what’s called ad hominem argument. Regrettably, Phoenix Woman also used such an argument in referring to “your people” as those who killed Itzak Rabin. I do have to say that truculence such as you have displayed from the beginning of this exchange tends to evoke the worst from people, rather than the best. If what you want is to get people angry at you, then you are doing it right.
But Mercury Rising does not exist for the venting of anger. So, back off, or expect to have your privileges limited.
I would take the example of the Goldstone report as an icon of what the fundamental problem that Israel faces is. The Israeli right has assembled one set of facts supporting its case that the Arabs are all murdering, fascist, animals. Some of them are tendentious, cherry-picked, or simply invented. But some of the accusations against Arab behavior are true.
But those are not all the facts. The whole story of Israel is much more complicated, and much less flattering to Israel. The Goldstone report is one example, where Israelis shouted “Missiles, missiles, missiles,” but the rest of the world also saw an illegal blockade of an occupied territory. The fact that Operation Cast Lead killed something like 100 Palestinians, very few of whom were Hamas, for every Israeli killed by a missile encapsulates the world’s sense that Israel’s response was disproportionate.
By refusing to listen to the Goldstone report, and especially by attacking its writer, Israel is moving out of the community of nations and making itself an outlaw state.
Criticism does not trouble the righteous. If it is true, then the righteous man changes his way, and if it is not true, then the righteous man ignores it. No, criticism troubles those who know they are guilty. It fills them with rage.
I will never forget the day many years ago when the relative of a dear friend and mentor, a young Israeli who lived under my roof for half a year, told me “The only good Palestinian is a dead Palestinian.” It was on that day that I understood that the dream of Zionists like Justice Louis Brandeis, of a nation founded on equality and justice, had started to go wrong.
Nachman said
I have been warned about using abusive rhetoric!
Like the six-toed, three-foot tall troll I am, that’s my signal to demand the right to be abusive!
On someone else’s blog!
So that I can claim victimhood when the vast left-wing conspiracy “silences” me!
So there!
[edited very slightly by siteowner for clarity]
Charles II said
I’m sorry, Nachman, but no one is paying me to babysit.
The blog is for adult conversation. You want to rant, you have a blog.
Phoenix Woman said
Yes, Nachman. If you’re going to try and distract from an honest examination of the issues surrounding Israel, I’m going to remind everyone that not only was a far-right Israeli such as the ones with whom you’ve aligned yourself that murdered Yitzhak Rabin (despite the wild efforts of the righties to deny this, much like American far-righties claim Timothy McVeigh was innocent), but that many right-wingers cheered this news — and still cheer it today. For example:
#1: http://www.icej.org/article/beitar_fans_cheer_rabin_assassin
…certain fans of Jerusalem’s Beitar soccer club booed the stadium announcer’s mention of the assassination of the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin exactly 12 years ago, followed by cheers for “Yigal Amir” – the name of his killer. The actions of the Beitar supporters, known for their rowdy behavior
and right-wing views, were condemned by the club’s management as well as by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, an avid supporter of the team.
Nachman said
You’re *editing* my comments so that the raw bigotry, hatred, and dishonesty can’t be missed?
You ego-wounding bastards!
[ed: slightly edited for veracity by siteowner]
Charles II said
Any time you want to sincerely apologize for your rudeness and attempt to pick a fight, I’ll be happy to restore the originals, Nachman. We keep them on file in case we deem it necessary to contact the ISP or the local police of posters who do not abide by reasonable rules of debate.
While I feel certain that won’t be necessary in your case, you might want to read the Terms of Service that you promised your ISP to uphold. Among those terms of service is not making abusive posts.
Nachman said
This is known as extortion.
Your blog has been noted.
Charles II said
Nachman, among normal people, an advisory that you may be reported to your ISP if you continue posting is known as a gentle hint that it’s time to stop posting. However, a statement “your blog has been noted” does indeed sound like a threat.
Now, stop posting, or the next one goes to your ISP with a statement that we feel that we are being subjected to harassment.
Stormcrow said
Nachman needs to consult a dictionary.
Badly.
Wonder if he’s a Sarah Palin fan?
Charles II said
I wanted to thank you for reminding me to read Creveld’s book The Sword and the Olive, Stormcrow. I have been meaning for a very long time to do so, but other duties have weighed me down. Today, I will place the order, which means that I may get the time to read it sometime this year.
Stormcrow said
Martin van Creveld is always worth reading.
Some military historians make events clear. John Keegan comes to mind. Modulo his book on the Iraq War, which was something of a mess. But that’s the exception. I read his The First World War ten years ago. His description of the runup to the war is heartbreaking.
Others specialize in analysis. Edward Luttwak seems to have finally returned to what he does best, see his recent book: The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. In his case, it’s been a loooong wait; this is the sort of work he was doing at his intellectual height, 25 years ago.
Martin van Creveld is one of the very very few successful military futurists. The Transformation of War was first published 20 years ago. Nobody paid much attention to it then; the Gulf War looked too much like a perfect counterexample. These days, OTOH …
Charles II said
Well, that’s the next two years’ reading. :-)
Stormcrow said
Something strange about how your blogging software deals with Amazon links. Or perhaps, about the links themselves.
I checked those last three. Pasted the entire comment into Komposer, before I posted it. There was nothing but the bare link, with the title as a tag, just the way I intended.
They render in your blog with an image of the cover, link, author’s name, and that funny “buy from Amazon” link underneath.
Perhaps something in the Amazon link itself? Those do seem a bit overcomplex for a simple link to a product page.
Stormcrow said
Funny – now they’re just simple links.
[wanders off, stage right, scratching head and mumbling]
Nachman said
IOW, Charles II and Phoenix Woman couldn’t engage in political debate. This is the state of intellectual discourse for progs.
Charles II said
IP 174.20.252.18 Qwest Communications LLC. Screenshot transmitted to ISP. Further posts will be deleted.