Usually, the Israeli's initial boast is that he is a survivor. Many of us claim we are small droplets in the 5600-year stream the mighty flow of Jewish history. My morning prayers cover wisdom from our ancient sages. In this regard we share the Chinese disrespect for philosophies and ideologies of more recent vintage. The Chinese refer to these upstarts [and us] as barbarians.
This attitude can lead to the wrong conclusions, such as those held by the 78% of American Jews who speculated on the measure of Barack Obama style without substance. The Israelis banked the farmhouse on Ari Sharon's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Both men failed to realize that Republicans and Palestinians are cut from the same cloth. Both groups promise ultimate success for their actions while ignoring the growing heap of corpses they accumulate.
The Palestinians rejected the two-state solution twice by continuing terror and by invading Israel. This proved there would be only a de facto one-state Israel surrounded by hostiles. Faced with unpleasant alternatives, the Israel answer was to grab land hilltop by easily defended hilltop.
The GOP and the Palestinians usually contrive to snatch war from the jaws of peace.
The US did not choose to sell US nuclear secrets. Members of the FBI, the Congress and the State Department betrayed the USA to the Turks.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Humanity Loses Every Time
Fox News dictates the content and nature of debate in America. They fill the MSM airwaves with personal attacks and a mythical version of a country that never existed. The Republic vanished in 1950 and the Progressive Agenda came to a legislative halt in 1968. Most Americans have never enjoyed a day of freedom.
Outside the USA, we do not deny the right of the US to self-destruct. That is her business. It becomes our business when she sells her nuclear secrets to Pakistan, when she engages in perpetual preemptive wars that kill millions of Asians or when she fails to address the evils of slavery and the associated crimes against humanity that increase with it.
As many Americans regret the downfall of their country, the power elite promotes ways the people can let off steam. They can vilify the black President. They can organize a "grassroots" Tea Party supportive of corporate communism. They can condemn Jews as exemplars of evil.
All this has gone down before in many shapes and guises. Every time humanity loses.
Outside the USA, we do not deny the right of the US to self-destruct. That is her business. It becomes our business when she sells her nuclear secrets to Pakistan, when she engages in perpetual preemptive wars that kill millions of Asians or when she fails to address the evils of slavery and the associated crimes against humanity that increase with it.
As many Americans regret the downfall of their country, the power elite promotes ways the people can let off steam. They can vilify the black President. They can organize a "grassroots" Tea Party supportive of corporate communism. They can condemn Jews as exemplars of evil.
All this has gone down before in many shapes and guises. Every time humanity loses.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Common Criticisms of Israel
The Ashkenazi Jews held early prominence in Israel, because they are the most intelligent group [high IQ] in the world. The Sephardim have made forward strides in education, intermarriage and the IDF. For the modern Israeli youngsters the distinctions have blurred. The Russian and American Jews who have migrated here usually retain their hatred of Muslims.
This is an age when the FOX #noisemachine excoriates the President every day. The US Army pays Afghan warlords for safe passage of supply convoys. The Congress is a rubber stamp for the Pentagon. You "don't see Israel as Democratic either."
Israel makes many sacrifices for her health care system. Many doctors earn less than $2000 per month. An average prescription costs $2.50 from our pharmaceutical companies. Private British and US citizens donate more to the country than does the US government.
I wait for your list of "more deserving nations."
This is an age when the FOX #noisemachine excoriates the President every day. The US Army pays Afghan warlords for safe passage of supply convoys. The Congress is a rubber stamp for the Pentagon. You "don't see Israel as Democratic either."
Israel makes many sacrifices for her health care system. Many doctors earn less than $2000 per month. An average prescription costs $2.50 from our pharmaceutical companies. Private British and US citizens donate more to the country than does the US government.
I wait for your list of "more deserving nations."
Outside Agitators in Israel
As an Israeli, I share in the same gene pool with Palestinians and Syrians. So, most racist aspersions have no basis from within our little group. Our members have an intimate knowledge of one another physically and culturally. As in every family, we know which buttons to push and when.
The kibitzers who pontificate about our situation give a new meaning to the phrase outside agitators. They have their own fish to fry and never hesitate to drop them into the boiling oil. Invariably, they risk conflagration.
I refuse to rehash Israeli history since the King David Hotel tragedy, but I will point to a recent glaring example. For $24 per month I enjoy complete health care. It is a natural right we take for granted, as it recognizes the bonds of citizenship between Arab and Jew. We can not think of a situation where we would deny health care to a fellow citizen.
This criterion alone ejects Americans from any discussion of human rights and common decency.
The kibitzers who pontificate about our situation give a new meaning to the phrase outside agitators. They have their own fish to fry and never hesitate to drop them into the boiling oil. Invariably, they risk conflagration.
I refuse to rehash Israeli history since the King David Hotel tragedy, but I will point to a recent glaring example. For $24 per month I enjoy complete health care. It is a natural right we take for granted, as it recognizes the bonds of citizenship between Arab and Jew. We can not think of a situation where we would deny health care to a fellow citizen.
This criterion alone ejects Americans from any discussion of human rights and common decency.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
American Illusions
Many Americans share illusions about the USA. They refer to the American Way in similar fashion to the "Why We Fight" propaganda of the Second World War. Every adult can recite about five percent of what he learned from the public schools. The rest of his wisdom evolves around talk on his car radio and the MSM interpretation of Fox News on his home TV. He picks up how he should treat women from late night porn movies.
The majority political faction is the Tea Party. The members agree Obama is a foreign born disciple of Karl Marx who hates white people. Fifty-three percent of them believe Sarah Palin would have been a better President.
Against this back drop it comes as no surprise the USA has lost three preemptive wars while killing 7.2 millions Asians in the bargain. The Americans devote over fifty percent of the Federal budget to slaughter past, present and future.
Based on this experience, the citizens claim they know what's best for the impoverished masses. The US pundits assert they have the keys to the Kingdom. In the Democratic tradition, the olive branch precedes the iron fist. If the peasants refuse to cheer the MIC, the cartel hegemony and the New World Order, they will disappear in a flash.
The majority political faction is the Tea Party. The members agree Obama is a foreign born disciple of Karl Marx who hates white people. Fifty-three percent of them believe Sarah Palin would have been a better President.
Against this back drop it comes as no surprise the USA has lost three preemptive wars while killing 7.2 millions Asians in the bargain. The Americans devote over fifty percent of the Federal budget to slaughter past, present and future.
Based on this experience, the citizens claim they know what's best for the impoverished masses. The US pundits assert they have the keys to the Kingdom. In the Democratic tradition, the olive branch precedes the iron fist. If the peasants refuse to cheer the MIC, the cartel hegemony and the New World Order, they will disappear in a flash.
Turning a Minor Conflict into Armageddon
For some time the Palestinian strategy appears to be starting conflicts and then putting their citizens in harm’s way. They hope enough Palestinians will die horribly to inspire the International community to send aid.
The beggar bowl is out. The propagandists portray operation cast lead as the greatest slaughter in human history.
Those who beat the drum for war have no consideration of the ordinary people involved. Each attack estranges them from the peace process.
With their typical finesse, the bumbling Americans could turn a regional confrontation into nuclear war. A wrong move could transform the globe into an ice ball.
The beggar bowl is out. The propagandists portray operation cast lead as the greatest slaughter in human history.
Those who beat the drum for war have no consideration of the ordinary people involved. Each attack estranges them from the peace process.
With their typical finesse, the bumbling Americans could turn a regional confrontation into nuclear war. A wrong move could transform the globe into an ice ball.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Morocco: Where Independent Media is No More
Morocco: Where Independent Media is No More'
by Hisham G, Global Voices Online
There have been mounting attacks on freedom of expression in Morocco lately, targeting journalists as well as bloggers as we consistently have been reporting on Global Voices Online recently. So constant are the attacks, that a reader might find the news coming out form the north African kingdom, a redundant rehash of the same old story. But what happened last week arguably marks a major turning point in the continuous campaign the Moroccan authorities are pursuing to silence independent media.
It took Morocco decades of struggle and the end of the cold war with an ailing dictator who, having lost his geo-strategic clout and sensing his death approaching, finally decided to relinquish power and open up the system in an effort to guaranty a smooth transfer of authority to his son, to see the emergence of a new breed of irreverent journalism. The French language weekly news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, founded in the mid-90s thanks to an unusual alliance of benevolent capital and highly skilled western trained journalists, initiated a long line of privately owned independent newspapers critical of the government and the Moroccan establishment at large. Targeting the Moroccan cosmopolitan elite, "Le Journal Hebdo" rapidly became iconic, embarking on a decade long confrontational quest for factual truths, challenging the most powerful tenants of the local regime, revisiting official history, flirting with the red lines imposed by the government and exploring many t
aboos.
There was a time when Arab dictatorships used to extra-judicially clampdown on dissenting voices in a gross demonstration of authority. The popular rumor would have it that in every house and every street, in every newsroom of every publication government had its eyes and ears ready to report on anyone who wasn't in line with the prescribed official discourse. Today, repression of independent voices goes through a protracted but sophisticated process of harassment by a judiciary system under orders from the executive and boycott from advertisers keen to please the authorities. That's what happened to Le Journal Hebdo, which now faces closure after a commercial court in Casablanca declared the publishing group behind the magazine bankrupt, crippled by a series of libel fines, by taxes and an insurmountable debt - a development which many be interpreted as the final and deadly blow to the publication.
The New York-based media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the development and recaps the most recent judicial episode in a chain of condemnations and fines that eventually led to the administrative termination of the publication:
Le Journal Hebdomadaire was dealt a devastating financial blow in 2006 when a Moroccan court ordered that it pay 3 million dirhams (US$354,000) damages in a defamation case [...] Jamaï (director and co-founder of the publication) left the country after the 2006 court decision and a series of government-inspired cases of harassment against the newsmagazine. Harassment of Le Journal Hebdomadaire appeared to ease for a time. But when Jamaï returned to Morocco in 2009 and resumed his critical journalism, he said, the government intensified its efforts to have advertisers boycott Le Journal Hebdomadaire. In September 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the damage award in the [defamation] case.
Issandr El Amrani writing on The Arabist blog says he received a message from Aboubakr Jamaï (Bou Bakr) announcing the official death of Le Journal Hebdomadaire. He writes:
I just received very sad news from Abou Bakr Jamai [Fr], the editor behind one of Morocco's most courageous publications and one that had been a symbol of the opening that began in the mid-1990s under King Hassan II and petered out under the rather aimless reign of his son, Muhammad VI. Bou Bakr wrote:
After all your prediction about the end of Le Journal has been proven on the money. Le Journal Hebdo has been shut down. Yesterday, 5, yes 5, bailiffs showed up armed with a court decision to take over Le Journal Hebdomadaire and the company behind it, Trimedia.. What is still unclear to us is the legal argument that led the judge from the receivership procedure of Mediatrust to act against trimedia. The only link is the title:"Le Journal Hebdomadaire" but the title is owned by the publisher himself not the company. Although we are waiting to get a clearer legal picture, we can already officially announce the death of Le Journal Hebdomaire.
El Amrani also wrote an op-ed about the issue on The Guardian/Observer British newspapers' online blogging platform, Comment Is Free. He mourns Le Journal and warns about a worrying pattern of repression and authoritarianism:
Most of all, Le Journal tried to keep officials honest about the democratisation that they promised in speeches. It relentlessly campaigned for constitutional reform that would shift political power from the palace to parliament. For many of my generation of Moroccans, it provided a political education and an inspiring example of outspokenness.
[...]The most worrying thing is that its closure comes amid other signs of a renewed authoritarianism. The methods originally used against Le Journal have become a commonplace method of disciplining the press. Other critics of the monarchy, for instance in Morocco's vibrant blogosphere, are now dealt with severely. Political reform has hit a standstill, and the regime's human rights record has regressed.
Le Journal's sad demise is now only one of many signals that something is rotten in the kingdom of Morocco.
Blogger Jillian C. York adds to Al Amrani's comment saying:
[T]he closure of Le Journal does not alone indicate Morocco’s slide backwards. The arrests of bloggers Bashir Hazzem, Mohammed Erraji, and Boubaker Al-Yadib, of Facebooker Fouad Mourtada, of countless journalists, should speak for themselves. Yet, Morocco continues to maintain an appearance of moving forward, especially to the United States, which proudly touts Morocco’s Mudawana (or family code) and subsequent other new rights to women as evidence.
This is an issue that cannot, must not be ignored. Morocco, in case I don’t say it enough, is a beautiful place. I spent more than two wonderful years there, and would still happily go back, despite its faults. But in order for Morocco, for any country, to continue down the road of progress, free expression is non-negotiable.
Moroccan online news magazine Hesspress [Ar] deplores the deafening silence and lack of solidarity in face of mounting repression:
إن هذا الصمت المطبق إزاء عمليات تصفية المنابر الإعلامية الوطنية المستقلة، التي تدخل في خانة جرائم القتل التسلسلي، تفرض تلاحما تلقائيا بين المنابر المتبقية لإعمال مبدأ التضامن، كأضعف الإيمان، وبالتالي طمر الخوف والجبن ووضع التوافقات جانبا، لوقف هذا المسلسل الهتشكوكي الذي بات يقض مضجع "صاحبة الجلالة" في عز عنفوانها.
The heavy silence surrounding the liquidation of national independent media outlets, which falls under the category of serial killings, should impose a spontaneous coalition between the remaining platforms in the name of solidarity. This is the least we can do to fight fear and cowardice. We should put our differences aside to stop this Hitchcock-like assault on " Her Majesty" (meaning the Press), who is at her prime.
Many bloggers have been commenting on the development like Anas Alaoui [Fr] who bemoans the loss of a unique news outlet:
J’aimerais tout simplement remercier Le Journal et les personnes y ayant travaillé. Je les remercie pour l’effort engagé dans cette première marocaine quand on a cru à une ouverture, une certaine ouverture tout du moins. Je les remercie pour le courage et le dévouement dans leur tâche d’informer le public. Ils ont été les premiers à briser des tabous. Ils ont été les premiers à dire des choses vraies. Nous pouvons être d’accord ou pas avec les éditos écrits dans ce magazine. Nous pouvons être d’accord ou pas avec les analyses qui y ont été publiées, mais nous ne pouvons nier le fait que le Journal Hebdo a changé la pratique journalistique marocaine. Désormais, il y a un avant Journal Hebdo et un après Journal Hebdo.
I would like to thank Le Journal and the people who worked in it. I thank them for the effort they made to make this Moroccan first. They made us believe in openness; an openness of some sort at least. I thank them for their courage and dedication in their task to inform the public. They were the first to break taboos. They were the first to say true things. We can agree or disagree with the editorial line of the magazine. We can agree or disagree with the analysis that have been published in it, but we can not deny the fact that Le Journal Hebdo has changed the practice of journalism in Morocco. Now there is a before and after Le Journal Hebdo.
The end of Le Journal Hebdomadaire signals a dangerous setback for the state of freedoms in Morocco. It pulls a thorn out of the regime's side but it also sends a strong message to the remaining independent media still struggling to survive in an increasingly repressive environment. This leaves the question about whether the online media and citizen journalism will constitute a breathing space for voices of dissent in countries like Morocco to vent their grievances, convey the truth and hold their governments accountable.
You may view the latest post at
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/02/02/morocco-where-independent-media-is-no-more/
by Hisham G, Global Voices Online
There have been mounting attacks on freedom of expression in Morocco lately, targeting journalists as well as bloggers as we consistently have been reporting on Global Voices Online recently. So constant are the attacks, that a reader might find the news coming out form the north African kingdom, a redundant rehash of the same old story. But what happened last week arguably marks a major turning point in the continuous campaign the Moroccan authorities are pursuing to silence independent media.
It took Morocco decades of struggle and the end of the cold war with an ailing dictator who, having lost his geo-strategic clout and sensing his death approaching, finally decided to relinquish power and open up the system in an effort to guaranty a smooth transfer of authority to his son, to see the emergence of a new breed of irreverent journalism. The French language weekly news magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, founded in the mid-90s thanks to an unusual alliance of benevolent capital and highly skilled western trained journalists, initiated a long line of privately owned independent newspapers critical of the government and the Moroccan establishment at large. Targeting the Moroccan cosmopolitan elite, "Le Journal Hebdo" rapidly became iconic, embarking on a decade long confrontational quest for factual truths, challenging the most powerful tenants of the local regime, revisiting official history, flirting with the red lines imposed by the government and exploring many t
aboos.
There was a time when Arab dictatorships used to extra-judicially clampdown on dissenting voices in a gross demonstration of authority. The popular rumor would have it that in every house and every street, in every newsroom of every publication government had its eyes and ears ready to report on anyone who wasn't in line with the prescribed official discourse. Today, repression of independent voices goes through a protracted but sophisticated process of harassment by a judiciary system under orders from the executive and boycott from advertisers keen to please the authorities. That's what happened to Le Journal Hebdo, which now faces closure after a commercial court in Casablanca declared the publishing group behind the magazine bankrupt, crippled by a series of libel fines, by taxes and an insurmountable debt - a development which many be interpreted as the final and deadly blow to the publication.
The New York-based media watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the development and recaps the most recent judicial episode in a chain of condemnations and fines that eventually led to the administrative termination of the publication:
Le Journal Hebdomadaire was dealt a devastating financial blow in 2006 when a Moroccan court ordered that it pay 3 million dirhams (US$354,000) damages in a defamation case [...] Jamaï (director and co-founder of the publication) left the country after the 2006 court decision and a series of government-inspired cases of harassment against the newsmagazine. Harassment of Le Journal Hebdomadaire appeared to ease for a time. But when Jamaï returned to Morocco in 2009 and resumed his critical journalism, he said, the government intensified its efforts to have advertisers boycott Le Journal Hebdomadaire. In September 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the damage award in the [defamation] case.
Issandr El Amrani writing on The Arabist blog says he received a message from Aboubakr Jamaï (Bou Bakr) announcing the official death of Le Journal Hebdomadaire. He writes:
I just received very sad news from Abou Bakr Jamai [Fr], the editor behind one of Morocco's most courageous publications and one that had been a symbol of the opening that began in the mid-1990s under King Hassan II and petered out under the rather aimless reign of his son, Muhammad VI. Bou Bakr wrote:
After all your prediction about the end of Le Journal has been proven on the money. Le Journal Hebdo has been shut down. Yesterday, 5, yes 5, bailiffs showed up armed with a court decision to take over Le Journal Hebdomadaire and the company behind it, Trimedia.. What is still unclear to us is the legal argument that led the judge from the receivership procedure of Mediatrust to act against trimedia. The only link is the title:"Le Journal Hebdomadaire" but the title is owned by the publisher himself not the company. Although we are waiting to get a clearer legal picture, we can already officially announce the death of Le Journal Hebdomaire.
El Amrani also wrote an op-ed about the issue on The Guardian/Observer British newspapers' online blogging platform, Comment Is Free. He mourns Le Journal and warns about a worrying pattern of repression and authoritarianism:
Most of all, Le Journal tried to keep officials honest about the democratisation that they promised in speeches. It relentlessly campaigned for constitutional reform that would shift political power from the palace to parliament. For many of my generation of Moroccans, it provided a political education and an inspiring example of outspokenness.
[...]The most worrying thing is that its closure comes amid other signs of a renewed authoritarianism. The methods originally used against Le Journal have become a commonplace method of disciplining the press. Other critics of the monarchy, for instance in Morocco's vibrant blogosphere, are now dealt with severely. Political reform has hit a standstill, and the regime's human rights record has regressed.
Le Journal's sad demise is now only one of many signals that something is rotten in the kingdom of Morocco.
Blogger Jillian C. York adds to Al Amrani's comment saying:
[T]he closure of Le Journal does not alone indicate Morocco’s slide backwards. The arrests of bloggers Bashir Hazzem, Mohammed Erraji, and Boubaker Al-Yadib, of Facebooker Fouad Mourtada, of countless journalists, should speak for themselves. Yet, Morocco continues to maintain an appearance of moving forward, especially to the United States, which proudly touts Morocco’s Mudawana (or family code) and subsequent other new rights to women as evidence.
This is an issue that cannot, must not be ignored. Morocco, in case I don’t say it enough, is a beautiful place. I spent more than two wonderful years there, and would still happily go back, despite its faults. But in order for Morocco, for any country, to continue down the road of progress, free expression is non-negotiable.
Moroccan online news magazine Hesspress [Ar] deplores the deafening silence and lack of solidarity in face of mounting repression:
إن هذا الصمت المطبق إزاء عمليات تصفية المنابر الإعلامية الوطنية المستقلة، التي تدخل في خانة جرائم القتل التسلسلي، تفرض تلاحما تلقائيا بين المنابر المتبقية لإعمال مبدأ التضامن، كأضعف الإيمان، وبالتالي طمر الخوف والجبن ووضع التوافقات جانبا، لوقف هذا المسلسل الهتشكوكي الذي بات يقض مضجع "صاحبة الجلالة" في عز عنفوانها.
The heavy silence surrounding the liquidation of national independent media outlets, which falls under the category of serial killings, should impose a spontaneous coalition between the remaining platforms in the name of solidarity. This is the least we can do to fight fear and cowardice. We should put our differences aside to stop this Hitchcock-like assault on " Her Majesty" (meaning the Press), who is at her prime.
Many bloggers have been commenting on the development like Anas Alaoui [Fr] who bemoans the loss of a unique news outlet:
J’aimerais tout simplement remercier Le Journal et les personnes y ayant travaillé. Je les remercie pour l’effort engagé dans cette première marocaine quand on a cru à une ouverture, une certaine ouverture tout du moins. Je les remercie pour le courage et le dévouement dans leur tâche d’informer le public. Ils ont été les premiers à briser des tabous. Ils ont été les premiers à dire des choses vraies. Nous pouvons être d’accord ou pas avec les éditos écrits dans ce magazine. Nous pouvons être d’accord ou pas avec les analyses qui y ont été publiées, mais nous ne pouvons nier le fait que le Journal Hebdo a changé la pratique journalistique marocaine. Désormais, il y a un avant Journal Hebdo et un après Journal Hebdo.
I would like to thank Le Journal and the people who worked in it. I thank them for the effort they made to make this Moroccan first. They made us believe in openness; an openness of some sort at least. I thank them for their courage and dedication in their task to inform the public. They were the first to break taboos. They were the first to say true things. We can agree or disagree with the editorial line of the magazine. We can agree or disagree with the analysis that have been published in it, but we can not deny the fact that Le Journal Hebdo has changed the practice of journalism in Morocco. Now there is a before and after Le Journal Hebdo.
The end of Le Journal Hebdomadaire signals a dangerous setback for the state of freedoms in Morocco. It pulls a thorn out of the regime's side but it also sends a strong message to the remaining independent media still struggling to survive in an increasingly repressive environment. This leaves the question about whether the online media and citizen journalism will constitute a breathing space for voices of dissent in countries like Morocco to vent their grievances, convey the truth and hold their governments accountable.
You may view the latest post at
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2010/02/02/morocco-where-independent-media-is-no-more/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
