On Israel and Gaza...

[July 2014]
An article by moralistic left wing figurehead, media darling and increasingly suspect Owen Jones, uses news of recent events in Israel to convince his readers of the idea: rather than Israel's current ground invasion being a reaction to perpetual provocations and antagonism from Hamas militants in the Gaza strip; that Israeli "colonialism" and the "occupation of Gaza", has "corrupted the occupier", leading Israel to in his words: "dehumanize" the Palestinians, "because otherwise subjugation becomes impossible".

Whether Israel actually does "occupy" this land, formerly belonging to Egypt and annexed following the 1967 war, is a point of debate he seems to have completely overlooked in his portrayal of "the rationale" behind Israel's "occupation".

In 2005 Ariel Sharon withdrew Israeli military bases and dismantled Israeli settlements, uprooting around 10,000 settlers amongst widespread domestic opposition, the moderate government of Fatah took over administration of Gaza, but within 2 years militant Muslim Brotherhood offshoot: Hamas -an Islamist organization which teaches holocaust denial in schools; has vowed to destroy Israel & kill all Jews; trained & glorified suicide bombers; encouraged Jihad against the west; praised Adolf Hitler and likewise Osama Bin Laden- had come to power after a period of bloody conflict with rival Palestinian faction, their own government Fatah.

Hamas is no democratic political party self righteous, paternalistic middle class liberals like Owen, who march on the streets of London with their face-paint and placards would recognize, it is a militant political organization set up with one aim in mind, the destruction of the entirety of the State of Israel.

"...the Jewish faith does not wish for peace nor stability, since it is a faith that is based on murder: 'I kill, therefore I am'... Israel is based only on blood and murder in order to exist, and it will disappear, with Allah's will, through blood and Shahids [martyrs]."
 Dr. Yussuf Al-Sharafi, Hamas representative, April 12, 2007; as reported by Palestinian Media Watch, April 23, 2007

"The Jews are the most despicable and contemptible nation to crawl upon the face of the Earth, because they have displayed hostility to Allah"
'Atallah Abu Al-Subh, former Hamas minister of culture, aired on Al-Aqsa TV, April 8, 2011, translation by MEMRI

By launching unguided rocket attacks it has hit schools, hospitals, people's houses and civilians in attempts to achieve this ridiculous aim, but even the most religiously deluded of Hamas supporters must be aware that they are not going to win a military battle against Israel, no matter how many rockets the Al Qassam Martyr's brigade fire over the border.

So the question must be asked why do they do it?

Well in my view it's part of an exercise in propaganda targeting the world at large, and psychological warfare against their own population, cultivating a deep and resounding hatred of Israel making recruitment of angry young Palestinian men alot easier than it might be if they didn't have a list of retaliatory Israeli attacks to mention.

You'll never hear the likes of Owen Jones or any members of the various 'Plebs for Palestine' protest groups that exist in the West ask why Palestinians use schools for storing missiles and weaponry, or hospitals and women and children as shields to launch rocket attacks on Israel, infact you'll never hear them mention a bad word against Hamas' tactics in general, they quite often suggest that under the 'illegal, apartheid occupation of Israel' any actions are justified, though they stop short of openly advocating terrorism they do not denounce it.

And this is where the propaganda takes effect, when Israel inevitably takes action bombing weapon cache's or the places where missiles are being launched from, Western observers immediately take to the media, to the internet and to the streets to condemn the 'heavy-handed response' of the Nation under attack, when hospitals, schools and civilians inevitably suffer from the actions of Hamas, pictures of the civilians caught in the crossfire, of the after effects of Hamas' policy of using human shields and storing weapons in schools are almost immediately dispatched and widely shared, and the idea of arbitrary Israeli destruction, lies and cries of 'genocide' propagated along with them.

It is by these methods that Hamas uses the deaths of it's population to gain credibility and sympathy in the International community, that Israel becomes a pariah state facing condemnation from all corners of the world, and that peace is further precluded, the ease with which people fall into dichotomies of who's right and who's wrong, good verses evil causing irreconcilable divisions.

"As the vilest Writer has his Readers, so the greatest Liar has his Believers; and it often happens, that if a Lie be believ’d only for an Hour, it has done its Work, and there is no farther occasion for it. Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect"
Johnathan Swift, The Examiner 1710

On Syrian Refugees... [and the fruits of anti-interventionist idealism]

The War in Syria ongoing since Spring 2011, and consequent suffering of the Syrian people, has at last gripped the public consciousness, but it took dead babies washing up on the shores of Turkey, -as their desperate families try to flee the region- before well meaning middle class Western liberals decided 'something must be done'.

Now we see a myriad of digital petitions aswell as articles in the Independent and Guardian, demanding in their traditional, self-righteous way, that Britain must do more to ease the plight of those fleeing the region, by opening the door to the most desperate and destitute refugees among them, and more importantly writing a message on a piece of plain a4 or preferably a3 paper.

Needless to say a number of Politicians and public personalities have heeded this righteous call. Never wanting to miss a chance to improve their public image they now suggest the moral thing to do is to act! That we can't just sit idly by enjoying our privilege and freedoms while the long suffering people of the Middle East flee in droves. Which is exactly what they've been doing for years, but now they've decided it's the wrong course of action, they're gracious enough to tell everybody else what to do.

Why has it taken so long for the moral outrage and self righteous voice of the liberal middle classes to be heard on this issue, where have they been for the past four years?

Well, perhaps a little paradoxically they have actually been very vocal on the issue of Syria, particularly by opposing and attempting to block any attempts by Western Government's to intervene and assist the Syrian people while their homes were being shelled, chemical and biological bombs being dropped on them and military helicopters were strafing them through the streets of Damascus.

Why were the Syrian people subject to these attempts of annihilation at the hands of the Syrian State?

For merely daring to attempt the overthrow of the nepotist dictatorship of hereditary ruler Bashar Al-Assad's Ba'ath party, for attempting to assert their right to a say in how their country was governed.

Traditional anti-Western, middle class rabble rousers such as Robert Fisk and John Pilger, supporters of anyone who claims to oppose 'American Imperialism'; George Galloway and The SWP and new recruits like Owen Jones and the 'Stop the War' coalition were among the foremost critics of attempts by various Western Governments to help the Syrian people, while they were being shelled, shot, imprisoned and tortured. They were leant credibility (or not depending on your perspective) by the likes of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia State Sponsored media outlet Russia Today, whoever the Chinese bureaucrat responsible for Foreign Affairs is, and obviously the autocratic regime of Iran and their State ran Press TV, all interests with a very strong motive for discrediting and destabilizing the West while portraying it as interfering in their own sphere's of influence.

This liberal mediocracy formerly opposed to doing anything for the Syrian people because of their isolationist and idealistic 'anti-war' views, are now the same people saying something must be done, that we must act humanely, that 'we must open our arms and welcome these poor, suffering, fearful and dispossessed people', in all likelihood they'd have never been in this position if Western Governments had ignored the sentimental moralizing of their populace and acted in 2013 or sooner.

Perhaps the greatest argument against democracy in the last 10 years is being provided everyday by the populations of democratic societies, particularly those who dance to the media tune, are they still so proud of their pacifism now it's effects have come to fruition?

I think that's unlikely, they will probably just do what they always do and blame 'the West' for the plight of the refugees from Syria and other assorted war torn countries.

I wonder if this huge clamour to "help" them now that they are dispossessed, robbed of all dignity, security, independence, homeland and heritage, will go some way to assuage the guilty conscience these moralo-idealists should, but likely don't feel, over their insistence that 'the West' leave Al-Assad unhindered in his quest to entirely destroy the Syrian people?