Sign In
0 Items (
Search
Comments (37)
I don’t have a private line to ABC News Director Justin Stevens, but he and his execs seem to love referring to the Hamas baby-killers as “militants”. It’s a neutral, bias-free term appropriate to this taxpayer-funded news outlet. The execs must also have directed staff to call the Hamas pogrom specialists “militants”.
Here’s the definitions of “militant” from one of the big dictionaries. Would you personally apply these to the Hamas crowd?
“Engaged in warfare or combat”; “aggressively active (as in a cause) – combative”; “a person who uses, or is willing to use, force or strong pressure to achieve their aims, especially to achieve social or political change”; and “active, determined, and often willing to use force”.
Another ABC preferred term for Hamas butchers of women, teens, kids and babies is “fighters”. It’s deliciously neutral.
During 7.30 on October 17, Sarah Ferguson referred three times to such “fighters” when interviewing Hamas’s head of international relations Dr Basem Naim. Sure, he didn’t deserve a pulpit at the national broadcaster, but Ms Ferguson gets credit for giving him pushback. I suspect she used the term “fighters” under orders, because she elaborated each time about these “fighters” atrocities, leaving the reasonable viewer with the unavoidable impression they are sub-human scum.
Specifically, she asks Dr Naim about Hamas sending thousands of these “fighters” into Israel “to murder, terrorise and kidnap Israeli civilians.” She re-asks the question when he waffles, saying the “fighters’” murderous behaviour was planned: “How is it an act of defence to murder babies?” Later she elicits from him that the Hamas “fighters” were out of control, and she refers to them “burning infants after attacks”.
The ABC search platform reveals its fondness for using “fighters”. This comes through in a decade’s worth of Middle East coverage. The ABC even used to extend the courtesy to the ISIS types who liked making videos of beheading prisoners:
9 July, 2015: As Islamic State fighters move towards Gaza territory, fellow Islamist group Hamas is attempting to distance itself by marketing itself as a moderate alternative. [Note also the ABC’s Hamas-friendly spin in those days].
7 Oct 2023: Hamas carried out a coordinated attack on Israel, firing rockets and with armed fighters infiltrating Israeli towns.
8 October 2023: Hamas rockets and fighters attack Israeli towns and cities
14 October 2023: The operations are aimed at rooting out Hamas fighters and locating hostages, as the attack transitions from air strikes to ground assaults.
15 October 2023: Netanyahu convenes Israel’s expanded emergency cabinet for the first time, vowing to annihilate the militant group Hamas in retaliation for a rampage by its fighters in Israeli towns.[i]
16 October 2023: Paul Barry on Media Watch — But misinformation aside, no one could defend what Hamas fighters had done, which included taking hostages whose lives are now at risk. [That’s a Paul Barry under-statement].
You might now want to see how the ABC plays the descriptor “militants”.
10 October 2023: Netanyahu has vowed to “change the Middle East” in his unrelenting campaign against Hamas, after the Palestinian militants carried out a surprise attack.
10 October 2023: The rally began in central Sydney to show support for the Palestinian people after Hamas militants killed hundreds of people in Israel
10 October 2023: Israel is at war with Hamas. Here’s what we know about the militant group
11 October 2023: Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants terrorised communities in Southern Israel over the weekend.
11 October 2023: Kfar Aza local recounts Hamas militants killing families in nearby homes
11 October 2023: Ahuva Maizel last spoke to her daughter early on Saturday. It was a brief phone call that has led to an unbearable wait for the family, who fear the 21-year-old has been kidnapped by Hamas militants.
11 October 2023: Israel vows to escalate its response to an attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas by launching a ground offensive
12 October 2023: Social media firms have seen a surge in misinformation related to the conflict following the militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel.
12 October 2023: Grandmother Galit Carbone has been identified as the first Australian killed in an attack on Israel by militant group Hamas.
12 October 2023: Avoiding and reporting violent content posted by militants
13 October 2023: Israel says its infantry and tanks have carried out raids inside the Gaza Strip, its first announcement of a shift from an air war to ground operations to root out Hamas militants a week after their deadly rampage in southern Israel.
13 October 2023: Funeral held for 21-year-old killed by Hamas gunman. At her funeral, Adi’s mother expressed relief that she knows her daughter’s fate rather than the alternative of her being held hostage by the militants.
16 October, 2023: Thousands of people in Gaza continue to flee south as Israeli troops mass near the border of the Palestinian territory ahead of an expected ground offensive in response to the deadly terrorist attacks by Hamas militants.
Now let’s look more closely at the ABC and that awkward T-word, namely “Terrorist”. The ABC’s boilerplate style guide doesn’t mention either “terrorist” or “militant”. But editorial policy says the ABC should “avoid the unjustified use of stereotypes or discriminatory content that could reasonably be interpreted as condoning or encouraging prejudice.” It says specifically
definitions of ‘racist’ and ‘terrorist’ are contested so use the terms only if the events or statements are clear and unequivocal.
A useful definition of terrorism is “communicative violence that send a message to ‘terrorise, polarise and mobilise’ different segments of the public…”
Aunty’s big sister, the BBC, uses its “due impartiality” guidelines to eschew calling Hamas thugs “terrorists”, saying such a term is “a barrier to understanding”. That’s despite the UK government proscribing Hamas as terrorists. Veteran BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson said “calling someone a terrorist means you’re taking sides”. The BBC launched an “urgent review” as several reporters for BBC News Arabic appeared to praise murderous Hamas terrorists as freedom fighters. That probe has resulted in a slather of sackings, as The NY Post reports:
They were Mahmoud Sheleib, a senior broadcast journalist, freelancer Aya Hossam, correspondent Sally Nabil, Cairo-based Salma Khattab, Beirut-based religious affairs correspondent Sanaa Khouri, Beirut-based editor Nada Abdelsamad and Amr Fekry, a sports correspondent and pundit at BBC Arabic, according to the report.
Back home, the ABC even acknowledges that the federal government has branded Hamas as terrorists:
10 October 2023: Officially considered a terrorist group by the Australian government, Hamas has controlled Gaza since it ousted Fatah forces.
But here’s the rub. The ABC is such a billion-dollar behemoth that orders to staff get lost on the way down. To my surprise its Search button hauls up quite a few ABC reporters and editors flinging the T-word about. Case in point: ABCTV 7.30. Despite hostess Sarah Ferguson’s fastidious avoidance of uttering the terrorism word, her editors ran amok in summarising it:
17 October 2023: Hamas’s head of international relations Dr Basem Naim says the terrorist group’s plan was never to target civilians when militants attacked Southern Israel on October 7.
Other T-word instances are below, though certainly not comparable with usage of “fighters” and “militants”. Sometimes the ABC talks of “militants” engaged in “terror” so why not just call them “terrorists”?
10 October 2023: A Palestinian political leader says terrorist group Hamas is ready to free civilian hostages if Israel accepts an immediate ceasefire, claiming the militants have agreed not to carry out executions.
11 October 2023: Netanyahu and a leading opposition figure create a war-time cabinet to fight Hamas terrorists.
16 October 2023: Thousands of people in Gaza continue to flee south as Israeli troops mass near the border of the Palestinian territory ahead of an expected ground offensive in response to the deadly terrorist attacks by Hamas militants.
17 October 2023: The terrorist group Hamas has urged civilians in northern Gaza to resist an evacuation order issued by Israel as it prepares to launch a full-scale attack to root out the militants.
Other straight “terror” examples:
10 October 2023: Israeli soldiers begin the grim work of collecting the bodies of those killed in Hamas’ terror attack
12 October 2023: Amid the grief and horror of the Hamas terrorist attacks and Israel’s retaliation, the federal opposition criticised the government’s response.
17 October 2023: A war has broken out between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
17 October 2023: The community of Kfar Aza was among the prime targets when Hamas terrorists stormed into Israel.
Both locally and overseas, some commentators have remarked on the willingness of the ABC and BBC to give platforms to terrorist leaders and extend to them every linguistic courtesy. But there’s no such official ABC scruples for sceptics of the climate and net-zero scares, set to cost taxpayers trillions. Contrary to ABC guidelines about giving every perspective a fair go, the ABC wheels out the insulting label “deniers” (as in “Holocaust deniers”). Try this example here of reeking ABC bias. Try searching for ABC interviews of sceptics John Clauser (2022 Nobel Prize for physics); Dr Judith Curry (200+ papers on atmospherics); and illustrious US scientist Will Happer, who toured Australian capitals last month. Here’s the Search results. Clauser, nil, other than a mention of his Nobel; Curry, last interview six years ago, which was ring-fenced by climate alarmists; and Happer, a mere mention eight years ago.
For amusement, I also checked ABC mentions of “far right” vs mentions of “far left”. It was no contest: about 1600 vs 170.
Tony Thomas’s new book from Connor Court is Anthem of the Unwoke – Yep! The other lot’s gone bonkers. $34.95 from Connor Court here
[i] Finnish state-owned broadcaster YLE, as leftist as the BBC/ABC axis, tried calling the Hamas butchers “combatants” but gave it away after protests.
Driving back from Canberra on Monday I was able to listen to the lower house debate on Hamas.
The vibe was overwhelming, except for the usual outliers.
Yesterday Warren in the Daily Telegraph nailed it.
In a ‘Hamas Kids Colouring Book ‘ he has choices of ‘colour me by picture’ Green Teal or Red.
In the foreground was a floating black body of a young woman , background a Hamas ‘militant’ with death mask and Kalashnikov and three persons with grins on their faces.
Adam Bandt colour me Green ‘ a couple of wanna be Teals, colour me Teal, swimming in a sea of red.
[blood].
What struck me that Adam Bandt is actually one of the targets of Hamas because of life style choice.
I don’t think the women Teals would last long living in Gaza.
Its clearly part of the male dominated area of the Middle East.
They would all be better off in Israel.
Its interesting that next door Egypt has not opened the gates to the refugees and welcomed them to Cairo.
It would be prophetic if they offered.
Yes, language is powerful. That is why Israel refers to the Palestinian Resistance as Hamas; calls Occupied Palestine the West Bank; refers to Palestinian Christians and Muslims as Arabs. The list is long and all designed to eradicate the words Palestine and Palestinians.
Under international law Palestine is occupied by Israel and the facts make it clear that Israel continues to colonise Palestine. Under the Geneva Conventions an occupied people have a right to resist, however much we may qualify any violence used.
There is no doubt Palestine is occupied and that millions of Palestinians live under Israeli military colonial rule. That has been made clear by both Israeli and international human rights groups.
What is the alternative to the use of the word fighters for the Palestinian Resistance? Since one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, it would seem ‘fighters’ is a reasonable term as is militant. They cannot be called soldiers because there is no Palestinian army.
If we were to call the Palestinian Resistance terrorists, then surely etymologically speaking, and applying principles fairly, we would have to call the Ukrainian Resistance terrorists and would have called the French and Polish Resistance terrorists.
And if we look at Israel’s actions, particularly toward Gaza, would we not have to define them as terrorist actions? It is also a known fact that Israel uses Gaza to test is weapons. Surely that is terrorism and collective punishment?
I heartily agree, language and the use of words must and should be questioned. But that applies to everyone, including Israel.
Another incoherent splatterfest. Well done.
The now existing country of Israel was created (boundaries and purpose) by the League of Nations (precedent to the current UN ) after the end of WW2 and following the exposure of the unfathomable horrors of the German death camps, with all LoN member countries voting either Yes, No or abstaining. Aus abstained, I have read.
Which part of that would you disagree with ? I expect there is no point in asking that question.
There is a small museum about a 15 minute drive out of Paderborn (north Rhine, central Germany), located directly adjacent to an old castle that had been the abode of the German Cardinal but was sequestered by the SS in WW2 as its’ HQ. [I have been there on a tourist look-see]. Although small, it was dedicated to Holocaust truth – for which the Germans acknowledge guilt outright – and does (or did) contain some artefacts from the Holocaust insanity. One which I admit caused my hair to stand on end was a meticulously hand-drawn map outlining the exact boundaries of all European countries including England, Scotland and Ireland. Over all countries and located by known demography were hand-drawn mapping symbols of existing and proposed Final Solution camps; literally dozens of them were proudly drawn where the largest Jewish populations were known to reside. Even Ireland with its’ tiny population had scored two of these. The whole map was hand-drawn with utter care for the best cartography. The reach of this insanity was beyond my grasp.
Yet from the date of the LoN creation of Israel and ever ongoing in ghastly agony, this attempted haven from Holocaust insanity has not ceased to be subjected to obliteration attempts.
I know the history of the creation of Israel. And I know the reasons given at the time, but, let us remember the Zionist plan to colonise Palestine began in the 1890’s.
My issue is not even that Israel was set up in Palestine for all of the reasons claimed but the how of the what at the time and ever since. You are saying because of the experiences of many European Jews in WWII, Israelis today have the right to use any level of violence against the Palestinians.
The Palestinians were massacred and dispossessed, subjected to terrorism by the Zionists, in order to create Israel. Let us accept there were other factors and fears at work as you say. Okay, so why not say sorry for the wrongs inherent in Israel’s foundation?
Perhaps more critical, Israel controls and continues to colonise all of Palestine. That has nothing to do with the situation or the reasons given in 1947 since most Jews do not, never did and never will live in Israel.
So, why has Israel refused to give reparation and compensation to the Palestinians for the theft of their country and why does it deny them human and civil rights still?
And, even if one fully subscribes to the fears and theories in Israel’s foundation, what gives the modern State, which claims to be a Western democracy the right to imprison 2.3 million people in Gaza, 47% of them children, and using them to test their weapons?
The Palestinian Resistance exists because the Occupation exists. Israel uses collective punishment, a war crime, to punish the Palestinians for resistance.
As to the horrors inflicted on many, including a lot of European Jews in WWII are you saying anyone who suffered at the hands of the Germans has the right to colonise someone else’s country and do what Israel does and has done for nearly a century? The Gypsies suffered per capita losses at greater rates than Jews, and they remain stateless and persecuted. Do they have the same rights as Jews to get their own State and to use great violence to do so?
Which part of that would you disagree with ? I expect there is no point in asking that question.
Righto, champ, now that you’ve comfortably established that Israel is an illegal entity that must be destroyed, how do you propose to make that happen? Your mates in Hamas have shown very clearly what the “Palestinian” revolution will look like if they ever win. Please enlighten us from your vast fund of wisdom – where will 7,000,000 Israeli Jews go once your Palestinian Revolution succeeds?
The answer is obvious – you, along with most other lefties – just want a second Holocaust, but your armchair chardonnay Socialism is so delicately hued that you won’t say aloud what you really want.
‘Evening RosRoss, and thank you for your words of support. I find your writings fascinating and insightful, and I wonder if you would be kind enough to provide, via a post to this journal, a little insight into your background. You write well and you illuminate your points with accuracy. Are you University trained? Are you a natural scribe? I personally appreciate it if you provided a personal framework so that we could better understand the erudite points you make. Kindest, Paul
@Paul.Harrison,
I am a journalist by training in a time when we were taught to provide both information and balance and hauled over the coals by the chief sub if we did not include both or all sides in our stories. Being called to the subs desk was in times past, truly terrifying. I am not sure they exist anymore. Subs or desks.
I have also worked as sub-editor and editor and written fiction and poetry, the latter published in a number of literary magazines over the past 20 years.
My interest in this issue comes from a fascination with history, spirituality and religion and having spent time working with and for Israelis. I have a great sense of justice and believe facts matter.
As someone with close Jewish ancestors I find it offensive that I could easily gain citizenship in Israel and some poor Palestinian holding keys to a house in which his family lived for a thousand years cannot. It really comes down to my belief that facts matter, perspective is critical, context matters and when we betray the principles of justice, human rights, rule of law, democracy and common human decency for anyone, we do so at our own peril and that of future generations.
I spent one year part-time at university studying English literature and Ancient History and gave it up when I realised it was not a place which encouraged independent thought and the only requirement was regurgitating the views of the lecturers. Not having a university degree, is, I believe, a plus.
Can we agree that truth is always the first casualty of war?
Yes, truth is the first casualty of war and never more so than when one side has enormous power to present its version of truth.
On a comforting note, most Australians do not bother with the ABC and while it is easier in our age of technology to lie, it is also easier to refute lies.
I know with the war in Ukraine that balance can be found between the official stories and what mainstream media presents and the information provided by independent groups, many of them military analysts or with extensive military experience. Reading all sides is critical for perspective.
I also think, as we saw with the Voice, that when most MSM and those in power, are singing from the same songsheet, it makes many people suspicious.
There is a broken record playing in Quadrant comments. And it’s quite badly broken.
Here are my thoughts on your diatribes rosross. Such opinions are an affront and disgraceful to anybody with a sense of decency. Your false apologetic for the most disgusting and outrageous crime committed in our generation leaves you precariously exposed to an irretrievable moral degeneration. I hope you will turn your back on that path and exercise some restraint in your blighted relativism.
The world is full of evil, with mass abortion being up there on the heights, but decent people stand against these things without scoring political points. Last week we witnessed an evil so terrible that the only path forward for the sake of humanity is to excise it from existence. That is the simple truth of the matter.
Pardon me for being eloquent, but enough already.
@pgang,
You are promoting censorship. If I am repetitive it is because most commenting are repetitive including yourself.
I value the freedoms won through the deaths of millions which we enjoy today and no more so than freedom of speech.
I am not offering opinions. I am presenting facts which can be readily substantiated. Instead of attacking the individual why not refute what I have said.
Apologism is the position that people who have suffered have the right to inflict such suffering on others. I dispute such a right utterly. It was horrific to demonise Jews in the past, which led to the horrors perpetrated by the Germans, and it is horrific today to demonise Muslims which also leads to atrocities.
Yes the world is full of evil but that happens when we seek to deny the humanity of others. Regardless of beliefs or facts regarding the creation of Israel and its behaviour since, there is no doubt that the humanity of the Palestinians is denied and that is as evil as the denial of the humanity of Jews and others by the Nazis.
You said: Last week we witnessed an evil so terrible that the only path forward for the sake of humanity is to excise it from existence. That is the simple truth of the matter.
And the only way to excise such violence is to bring justice and freedom to Palestine and to acknowledge the humanity of all. I have spent time in Israel and the common belief that Palestinians are subhuman is dangerous for everyone but mostly for Israelis.
The simple truth of the matter is evil exists in all humans and if we are to limit it, we must judge all equally. There are no good and evil, but simply flawed humans doing terrible things to each other in the name of fear.
That also applies to abortion. None of it is simple.
It’s like some sort of AI doll that’s been fed evil text, where you press the belly button marked “Jew” and sick stuff pours forth. Reliably.
Make a case Katz. You are forever attacking the individual not the argument. Please tear apart anything I have said and prove it to be factually wrong.
Be more specific please. I’m directly attacking you personally for your stupid hateful inventions. You want acknowledgement for your fake history and your invented ideas of what Jews should and shouldn’t do discussed piece by piece as though you’ve written something meaningful or valid. You haven’t.
Resorting to ad hominem attacks does not make a case. Please make a case for something I have said as historical fact which is not. Many thanks.
God forbid I am seen as standing up for the ABC, but I think “fighter” may be reasonable in some circumstances to distinguish men in action from the high-up commanders who were not in action, (shades of Campbell in Dubai, Roberts-Smith etal in action in Afghanistan).
.
Maybe “terrorist fighters”, but depending on context that could be misconstrued as fighting against terrorists, so I’ll settle on “front-line terrorists”.
This article is right. The way particular segments of the media describe terrorists tells you quite a lot about that media and how reliable it is. That’s useful to keep in mind when the same media report on other issues.
.
With these recent attacks it’s also worth considering the public comments supporting the Palestinians immediately following the first abominably evil terrorist atrocities. It tells you a lot about those making the comments too.
.
I’ll be perfectly clear about the abominable terrorist atrocities I’m talking about. Language, as this article says, is important. I’m doing it to differentiate them from what some might regard as the normal acts of war or those acts associated with an uprising against an “occupying” force.
.
The terrorist atrocities I’m talking about certainly weren’t normal acts of an uprising, they were absolutely abominable inhuman acts of evil. The killings I’m talking about weren’t simply incidental to rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel. I’m leaving them out of this discussion and the bombing response to them from Israel so I can make my point more clearly – even though it’s undeniable innocent civilians were killed by the rockets and bombs too, which were inflicted by both sides.
.
Those involved in the atrocities I’m talking about couldn’t reasonably be described as “freedom fighters” or even “militants”. They were evil terrorists of the worst possible kind.
.
What I’m talking about involved the organisation, planning and carrying out of a widespread terrorist strategy involving men breaking into private homes en mass and deliberately targeting and murdering innocent babies, toddlers, grandmothers, men, women and children sleeping peacefully in their homes. Executing these totally innocent people on the spot with their guns, their hands and whatever weapons they could use.
.
Then there were innocent babies, toddlers, grandmothers, women and men taken hostage into Gaza to be murdered as required. It was obviously well planned because about 200 were taken and transported and are still being held in Gaza. It was reported one young Israeli woman was tortured and raped and her mutilated body was paraded by laughing terrorists in the streets.
.
I’m differentiating these acts of abominable terrorist evil from the other acts that some might call acts of war to make my point about those publicly commenting supporting the Palestinians immediately after these acts occurred.
.
These abominable acts of terrorist evil were reported widely in graphic detail in the mainstream media and social media. It would be almost impossible to be unaware of them.
.
Some people then chose that exact moment, before the retaliation from Israel started, to publicly demonstrate and write comments supporting the Palestinians.
.
Some in the demonstrations in Sydney made it very clear what they thought when they chanted “gas the Jews”. Others were more careful and didn’t actually publicly condone the atrocities but they chose that exact moment of infamy to publicly support the Palestinians on our streets and in comments and publications.
.
The timing of the demonstrations and comments would lead Palestinian terrorists to view that as support for the abominable terrorist atrocities they carried out.
.
I feel disgust toward those who demonstrated and commented supporting the Palestinians immediately after these abominable terrorist acts were perpetrated.
.
They demonstrated who they were to me by the timing of their demonstrations and comments. I’ll never debate with people like that. And I’ll remember what they did when they debate other issues.
No amount of twisted logic justifies or even makes these abominable acts of terrorism I referred to above even understandable.
.
These terrorist atrocities I referred to are so patently evil that anyone who tries to downplay them in any way or obfuscates over them with a myriad of debating points is not worth debating with. There is no debate here. These acts are simply pure evil.
I should make it clear I’m in no way implying that people trying to justify or obfuscate over such patently evil acts of terrorism should be censored.
.
But it’s certainly a waste of time debating with them. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained by it. In any case they are condemned by their own words.
.
There’s absolutely no way I’ll debate with them. They disgust me.
They disgust me.
.
Then why read them?
I read them initially to see what they were saying.
That is I read them when they first made them a while back.
.
I certainly have not wasted any more time on comments from the same people. I won’t on this topic or other topics in the future.
.
I have a lot better things to do with my time than read what I regard as twisted propaganda.
And incidentally I wasn’t referring to you lbloveday or I wouldn’t be replying now.
By my Quick&Dirty count (anyone else remember QDOS?), in the recently “THREAD CLOSED” article “The Long and Short of ‘Proportionality’, one commenter made 15 of the 37 postings, accounting for 3,364 of the 6,132 words and only received 2 replies totaling 64 words.
.
I did not need to read her articles to count (thanks just this once Gates).
Glad you are keeping busy loveday. None of it makes a case except for personal attack. There are better ways to spend your time mate.
A sensible and balanced position. We all have the choice to read and reply or not. What matters, as you infer, is freedom of speech and respect for the fact that others have different opinions sourced in different information.
Look at the front cover of “Time” of January 7, 1957 if you want to see a Freedom “Fighter”. But further, the word “terrorist” is too bland to describe Hamas.
.
A terrorist’s aim is to force its target to act to satisfy demands. The recent abominations wrought by Hamas do not fit that definition. By any assessment, even that of Hamas, such abominations could never be seen as being, even remotely likely to cause Israel to change its defensive position.
.
The only possible objectives of Hamas would have been to initiate regional or global conflict or to just inflict vindictive suffering.
.
Let us hope that regional Arab governments do not fall for that Hamas objective. Let us also hope that Israel can remove Hamas and thereby give Palestinians an avenue to grasp the peace and quiet that most of them would be wanting. Only then will both sides be able to take tiny steps to resolve differences.
.
Blaming and explaining in an historical context will not bring peace. Only a pragmatic approach based on the existing here and now will work. More rockets will only bring more of the same.
Torturing young party goers and aged grandparents before raping and murdering them is to inflict vindictive suffering, and further suffering on their relatives and friends who know how their loved ones died. It’s an evil act purely to demonstrate that evilness. It’s Hamas’ way, on behalf of their celebrating Palestinian and western supporters, to express their view that Jews are vermin.
I have a suggestion-maybe Israel could pay Gaza’s residents for information on the locations of tunnel’s and tunnel entrance’s if they haven’t already been identified by by US radar.
This would let the world at large know whether or not ordinary Palestinian people both in the West Bank and the Strip are fair dinkum about de-escalating terrorist activity for the embrace of peace ( Helpfulness being market research on true intentionality).
.
*The use of munition drones such as in bomb detection should be a consideration, in preference to soldiers in the tunnel infrastructure or otherwise as for the tunnels themselves fill them with dye and seawater, this at least would be a way of identifying the enemy, dead or alive.
This could also be supplemented with the fentanyl derivative such as the Russians used in the Moscow theatre siege*.
Palestinians do not want the kind of “peace and quiet” as stated above, what they want is the freedom to return to their homes in Palestine, where they lived prior to the Nakba.
.
Is not “racism” at the core of this issue, if we are honest, where one “race”, the Jews, is considered favourable and the other “race”, the Arabs, is considered unfavourable? Simply put, because of their position in the Western world, the Jews have lobbied for sympathy and support for the Zionist project, whereas the Palestinians, being Arabs living in the Middle East, had no “voice” or position in the West, and so have simply been dis-counted.
You did not quote my following sentence. “Only then will both sides be able to take tiny steps to resolve differences.”
.
But then maybe it suits your agenda for that not to occur?
Jews are a religion and no religion makes a race. Arab is a culture, well, a collection of Arab-speaking peoples really. The comparison with Jews should be with other religions not cultures.
Better perhaps to talk about Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians are unfortunate in that their colonisers have great power, for the moment anyway.
They are also unfortunate in that most of them are Muslims and there is much Islamophobia in this age. They are additionally unfortunate in that when Israel was created there was much prejudice toward Arabs who were considered to be inferior and that bigotry still lingers. They are also unfortunate that their natural ally, the Arab world, is not united, largely poorly developed and looking after themselves. They are perhaps most unfortunate that their country was chosen as a place where a great wrong toward Jews would supposedly be put right.
When power, mythology, religion, politics, money and fantasies unite we are in a world of dreams and nightmares.
Poor Palestine. But all happens for a reason no doubt as we mere mortals shuffle through the centuries learning what we can.
Similarly Wikipedia ‘clarifies’ Allah Akbar :
“Professor Khaled A. Beydoun, author of, The New Crusades: Islamophobia and the Global War on Muslims, writes that the association of the phrase “Allah Akbar” with terrorism has been exacerbated by mass media and television pundits. He points out that fictional films and shows also utilize it as a cinematic trope further cementing the association”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takbir
Wikipedia is propaganda on many issues and this is one of them.
God is great is also Christian. Just not in Arabic.
Psalm 145:3 declares, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”. Dozens of verses describe God as “great” and give as evidence His wondrous works.
Specifically, it is not that, ‘God is great’ in Arabic, Allah Akbar is, ‘Allah is the greatest’
What is the language speak to describe this:
Israeli politician: “The children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves”
On Monday, as the number of children killed in Gaza approached 1,000, Knesset member Meirav Ben-Ari declared “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves.” Such calls by Israeli politicians for collective punishment are not uncommon.
BY JONATHAN OFIR
It really is hard to imagine a more malicious statement than “the children of Gaza have brought this upon themselves” when children in Gaza are now being massacred by the hundreds. But this was actually said in a recent Knesset session. And it wasn’t someone considered an extreme right-winger, but a liberal centrist – Meirav Ben-Ari from Yair Lapid’s opposition party Yesh Atid.
Source: Mondoweiss, American Jewish group.
In time everyone will wonder what the controversy was actually all about. I’ll give it some about 800 years though it may be less. In the interim let us hope that we don’t all kill each other.
I think Golda Meir got it right when she said, “If the Arabs lay down their arms we will have peace. If Israel lays down its arms there will be no Israel”.
A further thought. Who is the oppressor and who is the oppressed. For Gaza the oppressed are the Gazans and the oppressor is Hamas not Israel.
And….Who is the aggressor.and who is the victim of aggression. The Arabs have nearly always been the aggressor and the Jews the victims.
Most support for the Palestinian Arabs is due to them being seen as the oppressed. Now I used to think that St Paul was the greatest marketing genius in history but Hamas have really given him a run for his money by so successfully selling the victim story and recruiting so many “useful idiots” around the world.
Enough! I’m weary of seeing threads hijacked.
I have better things to do than play thread prefect as posters repeat themselves time after time, dragging the forum ever further down a dead-end street.
From now on, pro- and anti-Israel combatants get one post each. That’s it.
This thread now closed