Propaganda and war
There is nothing better than these days to explain the importance to propaganda.
The photo story about the Israeli girls signing bombs to Lebanese has spread like fire on the Internet as well MSM, and as you can see the sample of comments following my post, it’s a sample of everything. Yes, everything!
What you haven’t seen is hundreds of emails I received since then regarding this post. While a lot of them were compliments and kind of ‘we support you’ words, most were hateful emails and other were threatening emails. Not to mention the attempts to hack my Web Site that caused the server to be down few minutes, few times, in the last 72 hours. I’m not surprised, but in all cases, it just shows how powerful the propaganda can be.
Some consider what I’m doing in my blog is a propaganda. Ok, showing the hidden side of the atrocities that my people (Palestine, Iraq and now Lebanon) are living is causing a lot of unrest by pro-these and anti-those, but I don’t care. If this is how they describe what I’m doing because the truth hurts, then let it be. They call it propaganda; I call it ‘truth laid bear.’
I’m happy that Arab propaganda is learning some lessons, especially online. So many new online projects and websites are popping up these days and the main subject is WAR & Peace!
This propaganda thing reminded me of one of my favorite articles by late Edward Said. I’m sure you will find it useful, so here it is:
Propaganda and war
by Edward Said
Never have the media been so influential in determining the course of war as during the Al-Aqsa Intifada, which, as far as the Western media are concerned, has essentially become a battle over images and ideas. Israel has already poured hundreds of millions of dollars into what in Hebrew is called hasbara, or information for the outside world (hence, propaganda). This has included an entire range of efforts: lunches and free trips for influential journalists; seminars for Jewish university students who over a week in a secluded country estate can be primed to “defend” Israel on the campus; bombarding congressmen and -women with invitations and visits; pamphlets and, most important, money for election campaigns; directing (or, as the case requires, harassing) photographers and writers of the current Intifada into producing certain images and not others; lecture and concert tours by prominent Israelis; training commentators to make frequent references to the Holocaust and Israel’s predicament today; many advertisements in the newspapers attacking Arabs and praising Israel; and on and on. Because so many powerful people in the media and publishing business are strong supporters of Israel, the task is made vastly easier.
Although these are only a few of the devices used to pursue the aims of every modern government, whether democratic or not, since the 1930s and ’40s — to produce consent and approval on the part of the consumer of news — no country and no lobby more than Israel’s has used them in the US so effectively and for so long.
Orwell called this kind of misinformation newspeak or doublethink: the intention to cover criminal actions, especially killing people unjustly, with a veneer of justification and reason. In Israel’s case, which has always had the intention to silence or make Palestinians invisible as it robbed them of their land, this has been in effect a suppression of the truth, or a large part of it, as well as a massive falsification of history. What for the past few months Israel has successfully wanted to prove to the world is that it is an innocent victim of Palestinian violence and terror, and that Arabs and Muslims have no other reason to be in conflict with Israel except for an irreducibly irrational hatred of Jews. Nothing more or less. And what has made this campaign so effective is a long-standing sense of Western guilt for anti-Semitism. What could be more efficient than to displace that guilt onto another people, the Arabs, and thereby feel not only justified but positively assuaged that something good has been done for a much-maligned and harmed people? To defend Israel at all costs — even though it is in military occupation of Palestinian land, has a powerful military, and has been killing and wounding Palestinians in a ratio of four or five to one — is the goal of propaganda. That, plus going on with what it does, but seeming to be a victim just the same.
Without any doubt, however, the extraordinary success of this unparalleled and immoral effort has been in large part due not only to the campaign’s carefully planned and executed detail, but to the fact that the Arab side has been practically non-existent. When our historians look back to the first 50 years of Israel’s existence, an enormous historical responsibility shall rest damningly on the shoulders of the Arab leaders who have criminally — yes, criminally — allowed this to go on without even the most meagre and half-hearted response. Instead, each of them has fought each of the others, or has relied on the hopelessly self-serving theory that by trying to ingratiate themselves with the American government (even becoming clients of the US) they would assure themselves of longevity in power, regardless of whether Arab interests were being served or not. So deeply ingrained has this notion become that even the Palestinian leadership has subscribed to it, with the result that as the Intifada rolls on, the average American hasn’t the slightest inkling that there is a narrative of Palestinian suffering and dispossession at least as old as Israel itself. Meanwhile Arab leaders come running to Washington begging for American protection without even understanding that three generations of Americans have been brought up on Israeli propaganda to believe that Arabs are lying terrorists and that it is wrong to do business with them, let alone protect them.
Since 1948, Arab leaders have never bothered to confront Israeli propaganda in the US. All the immense amounts of Arab money invested in military spending (first on Soviet, then Western arms) have come to nought because Arab efforts have been neither protected by information nor explained by patient, systematic organising. The result is that literally hundred of thousands of lost Arab lives have gone for nothing, nothing at all. The citizens of the world’s only superpower have been led to believe that everything Arabs do and are is wasteful, violent, fanatical and anti-Semitic. Israel is “our” only ally. And so $92 billion in aid since 1967 have gone unquestioningly from the US taxpayer to the Jewish state. As I said earlier, a total absence of planning and thought vis-à-vis the US political and cultural arena is hugely (but not exclusively) to blame for the astounding amount of Arab land and lives lost to Israel (subsidised by the US) since 1948, a major political crime which I hope the Arab leaders one day answer for.
I recall that during the siege of Beirut in 1982, a large non-governmental group of very successful Palestinian businessmen and prominent intellectuals gathered in London to establish an endowment to help Palestinians on all levels. With the PLO trapped in Beirut and incapable of doing much, it was felt that a mobilisation of this sort might help us to help ourselves. I also recall that as the funds were quickly gathered, a decision was made after much discussion that fully half the money would go for information in the West. It was felt that since — as usual — Palestinians were being oppressed by Israel with scarcely a voice lifted in the West to support the victims, it was imperative that money should be spent for advertisements, media time, tours and the like in order to make it more difficult to kill and further oppress Palestinians without complaint or awareness. This was especially important, we felt, in America, where taxpayers’ money was being spent to subsidise Israel’s illegal wars, settlements, and conquests. For about two years, this policy was followed; then, for reasons I have never fully understood, efforts to help the Palestinians in the US were abruptly terminated. When I asked why, I was told by a Palestinian gentleman who had made a fortune in the Gulf that “throwing money away” in America was a waste. The philanthropy now continues exclusively for the occupied territories and Lebanon, where this association does much good, but very little in comparison with the projects funded by the European Union and numerous American foundations.
Some weeks ago the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), by far the largest and most effective Arab-American organisation in the United States, commissioned a public opinion poll on current American perspectives on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A very wide and deep sample of the population was polled, with quite startling, not to say disheartening results. Israelis are still believed to be a pioneering democratic people, even though no Israeli leader did very well in the poll. Seventy-three per cent of the American people approve of the idea of a Palestinian state, a very surprising result. The interpretation of that statistic is that when you ask an educated American who watches television and reads elite newspapers whether s/he identifies with the Palestinian struggle for independence and freedom, the answer is mostly yes. But if the same person is asked what his idea is about Palestinians, the answer is almost always negative — violence and terrorism. Images of the Palestinians seem to be that they are uncompromising, aggressive, and “alien,” that is, not like “us.” Even when asked about the stone-throwing young people, whom we believe are Davids fighting against Goliath, most Americans see aggression rather than heroism. Americans still blame the Palestinians for obstructing the peace process, Camp David most particularly. Suicide bombing is viewed as “inhuman” and is condemned universally.
What Americans think of Israelis is not a great deal better, but there is a much greater identification with them as people. The most disturbing thing is that hardly any of the questioned Americans knew anything at all about the Palestinian story, nothing about 1948, nothing at all about Israel’s illegal 34-year military occupation. The main narrative model that dominates American thinking still seems to be Leon Uris’s 1950 novel Exodus. Just as alarming is the fact that the most negative things in the poll were what Americans thought and said about Yasser Arafat, his uniform (seen as needlessly “militant”), his speech, his presence.
Overall, then, the conclusion is that Palestinians are viewed neither in terms of a story that is theirs, nor in terms of a human image with which people can easily identify. So successful has Israeli propaganda been that it would seem that Palestinians really have few, if any positive connotations. They are almost completely dehumanised.
Fifty years of unopposed Israeli propaganda in America have brought us to the point where, because we do not resist or contest these terrible misrepresentations in any significant way with images and messages of our own, we are losing thousands of lives and acres of land without troubling anyone’s conscience. The correspondent of the Independent, Phil Reeves, wrote passionately on 27 August that Palestinians are dying or being crushed by Israel and the world looks on silently.
It is therefore up to Arabs and Palestinians everywhere to break the silence, in a rational, organised and effective way, not by shooting off guns or by wailing or complaining. God knows we have reason to do all of the above, but cold logic is necessary now. In the American mind, analogies with South Africa’s liberation struggle or with the horrible fate of the Native Americans most emphatically do not occur. We must make those analogies above all by humanising ourselves and thus reversing the cynical, ugly process whereby American columnists like Charles Krauthammer and George Will audaciously call for more killing and bombing of Palestinians, a suggestion they would not dare do for any other people. Why should we passively accept the fate of flies or mosquitoes, to be killed wantonly with American backing any time war criminal Sharon decides to wipe out a few more of us?
To that end I was pleased to learn from ADC President Ziad Asali that his organisation is about to embark on an unprecedented public information campaign in the mass media to redress the balance and present the Palestinians as human beings — can you believe the irony of such a necessity? — as women who are teachers and doctors as well as mothers, men who work in the field and are nuclear engineers, as people who have had years and years of military occupation and are still fighting back. (Incidentally, one astounding result of the poll is that less than three or four per cent of the sample had any idea that there was an Israeli occupation in the first place. So even the main fact of Palestinian existence has been obscured by Israeli propaganda). This effort has never before been made in the US: there have been 50 years of silence, which is about to be broken.
Even though it is modest, the announced ADC campaign is also a major step forward. Consider that the Arab world seems to be in a state of moral and political paralysis, its leaders encumbered by their ties both to Israel and, more important, to the US, their people kept in a state of anxiety and repression. As they and their brave Lebanese comrades did in 1982 when 19,000 were killed by Israeli military power, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are dying not only because Israel has the power to do so with impunity, but because for the first time in modern history, the active alliance between propaganda in the West and military force worked out by Israel and its supporters, has enabled the sustained collective punishment of Palestinians with American tax dollars, $5 billion of which go to Israel annually. Media representations of Palestinians show them with neither history nor humanity, as aggressive rock-throwing people of violence, and have made it possible for the dim-witted but politically astute George Bush to blame the Palestinians for violence. This new ADC campaign sets out to restore their history and humanity, to show them (as they have always been) as people “like us,” fighting for the right to live in freedom, to raise their children, to die in peace. Once even the glimmerings of this story penetrate the American consciousness, the truth will, I hope, begin to dissipate the vast cloud of evil propaganda with which Israel has covered reality. Since it is clear that the media campaign can only go so far, then the hope is that Arab Americans will feel empowered enough to enter the political battle in the US to try to break, modify, or fray the link that binds US policy so tightly to Israel. And then, we can hope again.
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42 Comments on “Propaganda and war”
Good luck bro, you’re doing a great job. And you’re my example blogger..
I changed the way I blog after reading yours, and Im focusing more on the propaganda thing.
If you need any kind of support..just drop me some lines…Im always here
Thank you bro. Abed. Hamdan. I’ll keep this in mind for sure
“And then, we can hope again.”
Here in America we are told a selective truth by the media, but if you really want the full truth, you have to find out what your NOT being told. That’s where the real truth is.
Find a way to let US know what we are not being told and indeed we can then hope again.
This is the power of the blogs, their strength is in theie simplicity and direct effectiveness. With the emergence of resourcful bloggers like yourself I am certain the way news are told will be change din the future. Most people can have alternative news sources to free them from being hostages by mainstream media. Well done.
——————————————————————————–
It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
DARING GREATLY
so that his place shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
Keep on giving it to us so that all may see what so many wish to hide. In the silence, lie the crimes which are not told.
Let me get this straight!
The US is accusing Syria and Iran for giving the Hezbollah missles that are very inaccurate and not very effective.
Because of this we have to hate Syria and Iran.
What about the fact that the US supports the Israelis with tanks, missles, helicopters and a lot of other weapons and we have to accept this because the US is right.
I think not!
After 40+ years of occupation, the Palestinians need their freedom!
Just to add another critic to your website, is the Israeli Media, which showed it on TV (bodies censored) and the Tel-Aviv magazine.
On the other hand, you did not translate the writing on the bombs in a true manner, which helps the propaganda effect, but shows again that means are always justified in propaganda.
La tastaw7esho 6areeq el7aq leqelata saleqeeh…
Your blog is one of a kind…
Stay strong bro
Butchers of the world now Police the world. Yes you are thinking right i am talking about the Great BLAIR; BUSH and ofcourse not to forget the ISRAELI. Haitham. What is wrong to discuss about HOLOCAUST ? Why did the europeans hate jews so much? Are we missing the other side of the story. Is todays propoganda war similar to the propoganda war carried out by Britain during the world war II. We should welcome Blair and Associates to come on al-jazeera for one on one dialague with the civilian of the middle east.
Why dont we bring Kofi annan, Blair, the holy queen on one on one dialogue with the civilian population. Why is it that Blair is spreading IRAQ like democracy around the world. It would be nice to have iraq like democracy in U.K.
By the way one simple question. Are you tracing out the sources of all the ip addresses. I would like to put u on alert that MI5 and CIA agents have started monitoring your blog.
You are doing great job. Dont let yourself down, if one falls down 1000’s will stand up. The revolution in middle east shall certainly change the world order, the fall of america and decline of imperialism of queen and europe.
Haitham ,
Please check your g-mail. There is someone trying to contact you and he’s on a dealine.
Cheers.
Haitham,
Take a look at this blog…this is a guy that’s blogging from South Lebanon, his blog is in Arabic Langauge
http://www.alhorani.com/blog/
lawrence of cyberia. Who is that trying to reach him and who is on deadline.
Got it, Lawrence. Thx!
maori, it’s somthing personal
By the way, haitham, you have been a role model for a lot of blogger around the globe. to present the truth, the other side of the story.
I am proud of you. We all are proud of you
That’s honor for me, thanks maori
Well done matey,
keep raising the Issues.
Love+light to you+yours
The following comes from a very interesting article about propaganda used against the Hungarians in Romania: Deportations, mass annihilation
When the hostile national group resists the propaganda spread by the occupying power; i.e. remains immune, its systematic annihilation is started. To carry out their annihilation a detailed plan is initiated, that contains the goals to be achieved, the target dates and the means to be used. Several variants of the plan are made up attempting to anticipate the international response and internal/external developments, which may affect the progress of the annihilation process. There are two main points to be considered.
The first point raises the question; how large a mass may be annihilated without getting the occupied area into a total economic collapse? It is the interest of the occupyig power to stabilize the economy in the occupied area to become productive. One can find in professional military textbooks models based on differential equation systems, that can simulate the annihilation process. This requires, that at first the economic potential, the combatting or rather resisting moral of the hostile national group be assessed. In function of this, assessing numbers are established, how many of the hostile national group are to be killed, how many in the resulting panic will flee from the country, and when does it become necessary to slow down or stop the mass annihilation process, so that in the occupied area the economy should not collapse. The time period and intensity of the annihilation process is planned depending also on the reserve of the conquerors? own people for being able to colonize the occupied areas. http://www1.minn.net/~graczar/psycholo.htm
The entire article could very well be used to describe the Israel propaganda machine which is in full swing at the moment. For the first time in the long history of the Mideast crisis, there is the internet. Israel is beginning to squirm because the truth is getting out despite the official Western press still not covering properly what is occuring. They are in HIGH DRIVE to get the job done BEFORE the US makes them stop. In regards to Lisa Goldman’s explanation that the pictures are being used as propaganda, I say this, “Since when is the truth of mass destruction and death ‘propaganda’?” Since when are pictures of victims propaganda? It was said by her and others that these pictures and others, even of victims of ’suicide bombers’ in Israel are never shown. I’m sorry, but CNN and others are international and the victims in these attacks are ALWAYS shown. How can one say that they are peaceful simply because they don’t show pictures themselves of the death and destruction which they are reeking? Not showing the pictures (if this is true) IS propaganda and manipulation because it is keeping information from the public about what the government is doing. The whole arguement just makes no sense to me whatsoever. God only knows we have seen plenty of unhappy and dead Israelis on our news here in the States. I say it is about time that the truth be spoken about what Israel is doing. Now if only the WHOLE truth, the truth of the occupation and it’s ramifications were to be brought COMPLETELY out into the open, maybe then some minds would be changed.
I gave the quote from Theodore Roosevelt for two reasons. One, it is a great quote. Two, great quotes such as this one apply to ALL people, not just Americans and other Westerners. In other words, it is a universal statement and therefore cannot possibly be claimed only as a “western ideal” only for westerners to be described by or to claim as their own. Every great man/woman is great because he/she “DARED GREATLY”. We are all proud of you Haitham. Shukran KHATIR for your dilligence. GO FOR IT!!!
Haitham and the people reading this blog. There has been constant speculation that he is plotting to psychological divide between sunnies and shias. I have been analyzing news and daily massacres in IRAQ. My first question is are we revisiting the doctorine of “DIVIDE AND RULE ” which the british have used earlier. The sources of the news and the money, source for this propaganda needs to be identified. Which leads us to two place in the world, London and Washington.
The other day i had seen on some blog that Alqaeda and other groups supporting it has penetrated MI5 and CIA. Actually, Alqaeda is a sister concern of CIA, they have been the creation of U.S itself. If Alqaeda was truly supporting the cause of Palestine and fighting israel then they would have by now joined hands with lebanese and used this oppurtunity to strike ISRAEL and its allies.
On the Arab league front, our leaders are quiet speculative at the moment. A possible ground invasion by israel could give them a motive to impose sanctions and naval blockade , areal blocade to israel and its allies. U.K and U.S. It should block all the shipments going in and around its waters. Egypt, UAE are the ports.
All airlines civilian or military or cargo should now take a different route as a part of capital punishment to israel and its allies.
Please contribute to this blog as the question of our biased media needs discussion and this is the most popular liberal British paper but it’s been infested with appologist pro-israeli reporters, they’re like spies. I sincerely hope that Israel will be condemned by our government but I think it’s up to the media now.
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2006/07/western_media_guilty_of_not_te.html
Dear Anon & Haitham,
Today, we need to face the reality. We are leaving in a world where media has been used as an effective propaganda tool to mobilise political objectives. As in most of the countries, it is state controlled. Does to right to speech and freedom of expression really exist. Yes, it does as long as it serves the political motives of the state. Media has demonstrated the capability that it could sell any thing, when better packaged. History is my witness. During the Irish Campaign for the freedom and independence. British Media used to portray them as trouble makers and terrorists. Same has been the case during the freedom struggle of so called india today. Or South Africa (Soweto Uprising). There are alot of other nations and leaders who wish to empower their people, there are nationalistic politicians everywhere in Britian (BNP), Labour Party, France(Right Wing), Germany ( merkel’s Party), Swiss (SVP), U.S (Republicans), India (RSS, VHP, BJP, BAJRANG DAL). The best example would be of Zimbabwe, when the whites were driven out of their lands. Britain and Europian countries started creating trouble to the african nations.
The bottom line is capitalistic society doesnt encourage any thing that is not in their interest and they do not respect any laws. Ofcourse, people of their nations rally behind these politicians for they facilitate their needs. African nations feed half of the world with their resources. But still they live below the poverty line and they have no life.
The Western nations policy is quite intimidating, demanding and threatening for the very existence of people around the globe. They enforce the laws in such a way that they have the born right to rule the whole world. Consider the case of Bush, he was merely elected by the some 52 % of the population of the world and Mr. Blair. What authority does he have and outside his electorial district that he goes no dictating to the people of the world.
Meddling with other countries policy is threatening and intimidation. Where ever they go for business they demand for new laws that suit them. Not they abide by the laws of that land constructed by their people. When criticised about the system of their own country, they end up attacking nations.
The simple question, is people around the globe should support for empowering their people and not serve the interests of western societies.
Thank heavens that people around the globe started realising and started to present the true version. And the efforts of few intellectuals like Haitham who take the pain to facilitate a free medium of expression with out bias.
Anon, the question is not about coming to your blog, or haithams blog. People like to choose and free to choose. Thanks for the invitation, This is the only blog in the whole world that is unedited and collegial. Where dialogue is very much encouraged.
To be a moderator, it is not only the trust and confidence you put in the people who express their opinions with a pen name. Considering the reputation of british media and the intentions of british community. Every individual on this planet is outright scared that they would be pulled into some trouble or monitoring by your regulatory bodies. Western societies constantly live in fear and are more controlled as prisons.
You are certainly welcome for dialogue to make this world a better place. One other thing is, western societies are so sterotypical and do not encourage pluralism. We need to dress like this, we need to sit like, we need to speak like, we need to speak this language only. They should realise that the world didnt start since 1840’s when they started coming down from trees.
Considering the western world has conqured African nations, what future their citizens have under this colonial world or a foreign power. They are better off when they make decisions and solve their own problems, as they better understand their problems. A simplest example is South Africa.
Annon and several others who invite to other blogs, to contribute. Yes, we should and we would but take a different perspective, isn’t it an approach to divert people and reduce the impact of the blog by slowly moving the readers of the blog. Thus finally killing the system.
In nature or NGC i was reading or looking at this documentary about Ostrich’s. If you havent seen, please do see it. Their behaviour looks like that of Western Societies. Where they wouldnt encourage any competitive society existing any where. And all the crowd should follow their laws and policies, that is how they stay alive and flourishing.
Any ways i touched on numerous issues. Bottom line is Haitham is doing the best job and he deserves to keep this alive. And readers and contributors of dialogue like me and you people should keep this tradition of free speach and truth should be encouraged and supported by every means, and this should not be limited to Palestine or Lebanon.
If you have problems about your media then there are approaches to bring it down. First is readability and audience can be reduced thus bring down the credibility of such papers or BBC. Mobilise alternative media such as these, Haitham has been a role model for several bloggers in the whole world.
Aiyn,
Around a year ago, I wrote a post which I think answers some of your questions, specially the terrorism part. You are welcome to visit the following link and open discussion:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/07/13/arab-and-muslims-are-not-terrorists/
Regarding the Edward Said article. - I’ve thought for years that the Palestinians needed better public relations in the United States. To start with, they could use a few more people like Edward Said, that is, someone who understands both Palestinian/Arab and Western, particularly, American culture. Americans, for the most part, do not read anything difficult or complex, and because of the very short vacation time they get and the long distances involved, do not travel. So they get their information about the world from the same popular media sources that provide them entertainment and sell them products. The American media consumers want entertainment and the producers want advertising revenue.
Anyone who wants to get a message of any kind across to Americans must do so within those very narrow constraints. If Palestinians and Arabs want to be perceived by the average American as anything other than a religious/political fanatic/psychotic stereotype, they need better public relations or propaganda. Movies, for instance, would help. Americans lust for film and will devour any movie that makes even a little effort to cater to their tastes. Comedies, action films, tear-jerkers, cartoons, whatever. At least half of them should avoid the whole Palestinian-Israeli thing though. And that?s the point: Americans must understand that there is a nation, Palestine, and a culture, Arab, that exists outside the stereotype and outside the ?conflict?.
Here?s an example of how little exposure Americans have to the Arab world. ? Of the thousands of calendar photographs I?ve seen in homes, offices, doctor?s waiting rooms, dorm rooms, etc., I have never seen one devoted to scenery or art of Arab countries. Landscape calendars are always popular, and pictures of the American Southwest deserts are a virtual clich?shouldn?t someone publish one with scenes (and I?m sure they?re at least as spectacular) of the Sahara or Arabian Peninsula?
Haitham,
Time and again it is necessary for us to revisit and make our people realise what imperialism and occupations forces have done in the history and have been doing and are doing for their interests.
It is necessary for us to mobilise a dialogue in this regard. Also, i am carefully following the events in our lands. United Nations is feeding the enemies with information to target our protecting forces.
If that is the case, there should be no immmunity to any United Nations Officials and the Journalists of the Enemies. Isn’t it justified. When they could hit our ambulance and civilian infrastructures.
Haitham,
There are some more picture of the Ethnic cleansing campaign being carried out by Israel. Also, Alot of people around the globe are interested to send in humanitarian aid to palestinian people and lebaneese people. Also, if possible, please do let us know how people around the world could help support resistance against israeli invasion. Monetarily or through humanitarian aid so that resistance forces can concentrate on driving away the invaders from our lands.
We are ready to share the burden from every corner of the world. Please do let us know. What means and source you could provide us. If we could collect funds, could you deliver it to palestinian and lebaneese people. from places far east and west we are together in this fight brother. Just give us a call. We shall be there for you.
http://www.halturnershow.com/IsraeliAtrocities.html
Aiyn,
For Lebanon, your best choice for donation would be Red Cross:
http://www.ifrc.org/
and for Palestinians, you can find many links here:
http://wrmea.com/charorganizations/index.htm
Aiyn,
From your comments and spelling, I suspect that you are from the UK. Therefore I would recommmend the UK charity “Medical Aid for Palestinians” (map-uk.org). This is a more specialised organisation than the Red Cross, and has supplied medical aid to both Palestine and Lebanon for around 25 years now. Also it is not on the list that Haitham supplied. I have been donating to this charity for some time now, and I can assure you that this is would be the best way of directly helping people who are suffering in Lebanon and Palestine at this time. Also, if you use olive oil zaytoun.org is a very good choice, as it is lovely stuff, and all of it is supplied by Palestinian farmers who really need the money!
Oops! I forgot to put in the HTML! … once again, the links are Medical Aid for Palestinians and Zaytoun Olive Oil
I have developed an extreme dislike of Zionism thanks to you.
There are two sides to every story.
Your side is the most reasonable.
With a grandmother who denounced her faith (jewish) in the early fifties because of Jewish (Zionist?) actions in the middle east, I find myself not torn but supportive of the Palestinians.
Thank you!
Hi Sabbah: Just read your intro and wanted to correct your impression of what some Canadians think. When we see Arabs of any strype bombed or shot we react with revulsion. I don’t believe many of us think you are sub human or without Identity, history or huge justifyable concerns.(and I admit we know nothing in detail of your plight. You sound as disconnected from your government as we often feel disconnected from ours. Granted we are rich you are poor respectively..but we don’t blame our fate on others. My understanding is that Arrafat was offered everything but the kitchen sink a few years ago, but it wasn’t perfect so it was refused…I hear Isreal offer to withdraw from everywhere in exchange for peace…Sharrone withdrew settlers from the west bank unilaterally…by force…What do you guys do with this gesture..Choose to call it weakness and blow up a bus with Isrealie women and children…As it stands Now you don’t even have a credible spokesman to discuss peace or a settlement. News flash ” this world isn’t fair” But how can you be wronged for 60 plus years and not have negotiated SOMETHING better than what you have now.. you must have the most inadequate negotiators ever to be known on this earth.. We want this settled, Isreal continually says they want it settled, I don’t have to cross the US border to ask, I know the majority of Americans want this settled…No one I can imagine wants this to escalate. I find US foreign policy often an embarrasment to US citizens. Unfortunately that is a current fact of life but having said that can’t you negotiate something so much better than what you have now that you wouldn’t mind the shortfall. This is how I see it. I don’t want to see one more Arab man woman or child injured & I don’t see you as less than human…but your results suck and I hear no one from your side talking peace..All I see is you guys blowing yourselves up, I see you dance on the Isrealie flag I see you burn the US flag…I hear you rant about the US and Isreal being unfair…NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER DONE in my memory says you want peace unless the Jews are destroyed… You talk of our displaced antisematism…yet you are pledged destroy all Jews>>> I don’t get that…The US and Canada to a lesser extent support Isreal you want to destroy them…Seems only an Arab can turn that around..I don’t get that… The whole world is standing by to assist you, but you have to put out a hand without a gun or bomb in it…Does something get lost between you guys and your leaders…They are not good negotiators…Possibly you should hire some negotiators. Now I suppose you will consider this rant a personal attack or racist or unpleasantly worded, hateful etc. etc. etc. However none of the above is intended, these are my thoughts and questions.. I don’t seek to be posted on your site I would like to understand your position MINUS THE RHETORIC. Unfortunately your format has no spell check so this is it I guess. Your brother under God Ray
“Incidentally, one astounding result of the poll is that less than three or four per cent of the sample had any idea that there was an Israeli occupation in the first place.”
I just don’t know if I should laugh or cry!
Does anybody know of any survey or study comparing the media coverage of the conflict in different countries or parts of the world?
It could be interesting to see how many countries have a higher occurence of “occupied Palestinian territories” compared to “Palestinian territories” or “illegal settlers” compared to “Jewish settlers”.
I grew up with a much higher rate of “state-less Palestinians”, “occupied territories”, and “illegal settlers”, but that may just be a feature of Scandinavia which only represent some 15-20 million people!
Ray,
I agree that Palestinian negotiators have failed, but maybe not for the same reasons.
Israel has continuously offered shitty deals which would require Palestinians to accept loosing much more land than what is defined in the UNSC resolutions (Palestinian land beyond the internationally recognized border between Israel and Palestine).
However, instead of being smart negotiators, the Palestinian leaders have most often just gotten sour faced and refused to cooperate. A smarter approach would have been if they had replaced the traditional sulk-tactics with something-for-something tactics instead. Like “OK, we will recognize Israel if Israel will recognize Palestine along the UN mandated borders” or “OK, we will commit to making best efforts to stop suicide bombers from entering Israel if Israel commits to pull back from the occupied territories”.
The sulk-tactics have made it too easy for Israel to depict Palestine as uncooperative and unreasonable, while the something-for-something tactics would have ensured that Israel would be the one with the monkey if an agreement could not be found.
I know they are a minority but with courage and heart!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nillyo/
check this blog…showing Israelis against the war.
Ray, you heard wrong. Arafat was not offered “everything but the kitchen sink”. He was offered a series of disconnected “Bantu-stans” that would be contantly patrolled by Israel, in other word a string of large prison camps under complete Israeli control. It was designed to fool the gullible. There is no such thing as Palestinian negotiation, though they go through the motions and live in hope. There are only Israeli / US negotiations.
Dear friends: my name is Sergio, im physician from Argentina.
My point of view, as a jewish,(living here, no there) is that israeli governments (of last decades), screwed up the historical image of a jewish people suffering, and surrounded by hostiles countries.
I think that palestinian and now, lebanese suffering, is the worst image in face of the world, believe me, i can not see those horribles images of poor people dying, hurted, suffering, without havign some anger.
In my country, there is not an open antisemitism, but, these facts makes to arise in common people the anger against Israel, and against jewish too.
I think that israelian people is aware that back these war actions are powerfull countries and companies, fueling this conflict, for interests…
Friends: since this corner of the world, with a big respect i demand: STOP, please, army and Hezbollah provocations, of course.
Sergio