Iasion
11-06-03, 04:37 AM
Hanan Ashrawi deserves support because she is just the sort of reasonable leader that is so sorely needed now in Palestine. She is a moderate as well as educated, rational, and intelligent. She may have past mistakes, like all politicians, but she clearly stands for, and argues for, peace and democracy and human rights for all. She showed her integrity and conviction by rejecting Arafat's corruption and now stands as one of the Palestinians' best hopes for a new leadership.
For surely their current leadership is corrupted by violence and fundamentalism, and while all decent people condemn the suicide bombings, we must admit that tragically, the Israeli leadership too, has become a violent and fundamentalist state. And surely all moderate and decent people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are aghast at this Zionist madness which grips the Israeli Govt and now sees them treat the Palestinian people with violence even unto terror.
This new Israeli wall now smashing its way through the orchards and villages of Palestine is as much a crime against humanity as ever apartheid South Africa or the Berlin Wall once were. The most fundamental of human rights, of basic physical liberty, of personal safety and security and shelter, to be allowed to meet and talk, to eat, dance, or play together, to be treated for illness or to give birth in a hospital - such human rights are routinely denied in Palestine. Indeed the latest official Israeli tactic is to kidnap and jail the family, the innocent wife and children, of wanted men to force them out of hiding.
The daily violence pressed upon combatant and innocents alike, only serves to further fuel the cycle of bombings - of course it does not excuse such acts of bloodshed - but no wonder these desperate oppressed people fight back with what weapons they can grasp, when not just the fighters, but innocent woman and children (and even independent observers and journalists) face arbitrary arrest or death at the hands of the world's deadliest military force with the world's richest nation, and their media, in their pocket. A force so ruthless and unscrupulous, yet so confident and in control, that they can brazenly attack even their closest ally, then lie about it later and largely get away with it, as the treacherous strike on the USS Liberty showed.
Sadly, this inhumanity is driven by that most terrible of human errors - by religion-gone-bad, by racist fundamentalism supported by a hoary book of ancient legends rooted in the primitive morals of the Bronze Age. This cannot stand - no Old Book, no matter how treasured or revered, can excuse one people cruelly subjugating another. These tales have no place in modern public life - the Jews are not "chosen" by God; Abraham, Joshua and Moses were myths, the Exodus is a story not history, even David and Solomon are doubtful. These primitive and divisive views are not welcome in a civilized world striving for true freedom, they are the opposite of equality, they strike against brotherhood, they breed war not peace, they violate democracy, they trample human rights.
Fortunately, reasonable Israelis increasingly reject these violent ways, such as the pilots who refuse to attack innocent civilians and who should be applauded and emulated by all Israeli soldiers and citizens. Free thinkers still remember and honour the brave refusenik who would not attack the clearly friendly USS Liberty and was arrested for his disobedience.
It is time for all right-minded people to say 'enough is enough'. Israel has gone too far - what was the point of all those decades of soul-searching about the Holocaust, if Israel can now turn around and crush the Palestinians with terror no less evil?
Time too for Australia to make up our mind - do we stand by the gun? Or by what is right, what is just, what is humane? What was the point of going to war to bring freedom to Iraq, a violent rogue state that defied the UN, and (supposedly) threatened with WMD, if we then turn a blind eye to Israel, a rogue state that defies the UN and threatens the region with WMD, now violently subjugating the very cousins of those we recently liberated just up the road in Iraq?
Quentin David Jones
For surely their current leadership is corrupted by violence and fundamentalism, and while all decent people condemn the suicide bombings, we must admit that tragically, the Israeli leadership too, has become a violent and fundamentalist state. And surely all moderate and decent people, Jews and Gentiles alike, are aghast at this Zionist madness which grips the Israeli Govt and now sees them treat the Palestinian people with violence even unto terror.
This new Israeli wall now smashing its way through the orchards and villages of Palestine is as much a crime against humanity as ever apartheid South Africa or the Berlin Wall once were. The most fundamental of human rights, of basic physical liberty, of personal safety and security and shelter, to be allowed to meet and talk, to eat, dance, or play together, to be treated for illness or to give birth in a hospital - such human rights are routinely denied in Palestine. Indeed the latest official Israeli tactic is to kidnap and jail the family, the innocent wife and children, of wanted men to force them out of hiding.
The daily violence pressed upon combatant and innocents alike, only serves to further fuel the cycle of bombings - of course it does not excuse such acts of bloodshed - but no wonder these desperate oppressed people fight back with what weapons they can grasp, when not just the fighters, but innocent woman and children (and even independent observers and journalists) face arbitrary arrest or death at the hands of the world's deadliest military force with the world's richest nation, and their media, in their pocket. A force so ruthless and unscrupulous, yet so confident and in control, that they can brazenly attack even their closest ally, then lie about it later and largely get away with it, as the treacherous strike on the USS Liberty showed.
Sadly, this inhumanity is driven by that most terrible of human errors - by religion-gone-bad, by racist fundamentalism supported by a hoary book of ancient legends rooted in the primitive morals of the Bronze Age. This cannot stand - no Old Book, no matter how treasured or revered, can excuse one people cruelly subjugating another. These tales have no place in modern public life - the Jews are not "chosen" by God; Abraham, Joshua and Moses were myths, the Exodus is a story not history, even David and Solomon are doubtful. These primitive and divisive views are not welcome in a civilized world striving for true freedom, they are the opposite of equality, they strike against brotherhood, they breed war not peace, they violate democracy, they trample human rights.
Fortunately, reasonable Israelis increasingly reject these violent ways, such as the pilots who refuse to attack innocent civilians and who should be applauded and emulated by all Israeli soldiers and citizens. Free thinkers still remember and honour the brave refusenik who would not attack the clearly friendly USS Liberty and was arrested for his disobedience.
It is time for all right-minded people to say 'enough is enough'. Israel has gone too far - what was the point of all those decades of soul-searching about the Holocaust, if Israel can now turn around and crush the Palestinians with terror no less evil?
Time too for Australia to make up our mind - do we stand by the gun? Or by what is right, what is just, what is humane? What was the point of going to war to bring freedom to Iraq, a violent rogue state that defied the UN, and (supposedly) threatened with WMD, if we then turn a blind eye to Israel, a rogue state that defies the UN and threatens the region with WMD, now violently subjugating the very cousins of those we recently liberated just up the road in Iraq?
Quentin David Jones