OBSERVATIONS
From last weeks New York Times, ‘as can be seen from the recent eruptions in Gaza,’ I had no idea there were volcanoes in the short strip of land between Israel and Egypt!
When someone resorts to this kind of euphemism they have something pretty disgusting to hide.
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The cowardly decision by the BBC not to show the joint charities appeal for Gaza, ostensibly as a means to demonstrate ‘balance,’ of course demonstrates no such thing. It is difficult to imagine the BBC taking a similar stand over any other conflict other that the one between Israel and the Palestinians. What is does demonstrate is a continued willingness to bow to pressure from the Zionist lobby, a group who will not be appeased until our own TV coverage matches the craven quality of the US media.
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In the latest edition of the New York Review of Books a petition addressed to President Obama signed, one assumes by prominent US intellectuals, (I am not sufficiently familiar with American letters to identify all the signatories, though do recognise some of the usual suspects). The petition demands the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and negotiation with the Taliban, so as to enable ‘the moral and physical rebuilding of Afghanistan and the United States.’
It is difficult to know what is the stronger element here, stupidity or moral cowardice. Firstly it is difficult to imagine what the moral rebuilding of Afghanistan would look like under a resurgent Taliban. A society established upon the principles of a pre-medieval theocracy. A society that holds women to be subservient to men, stoning woman for adultery, that would execute gay men and women, that forbids music and representational art and the possibility of any deviance from a set religious text written in 653 AD.
Of course it is not the signatories who would have to pick up this tab for American withdrawal, not their daughters who will be deprived of education, or have acid thrown in their faces should they have the temerity to leave home without a sack over their body. They will not face living daily under a theocratic tyranny in which democracy and free speech is a heresy and public beheading, stoning and the severing of limbs represent the norms of judicial punishment. Still being good left leaning liberals they will know that harbouring such concerns about the fate of Afghan society represents nothing less than ‘cultural imperialism, ’ better to hide behind such meaningless tripe as ‘the moral and physical rebuilding of Afghanistan.’
When someone resorts to this kind of euphemism they have something pretty disgusting to hide.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The cowardly decision by the BBC not to show the joint charities appeal for Gaza, ostensibly as a means to demonstrate ‘balance,’ of course demonstrates no such thing. It is difficult to imagine the BBC taking a similar stand over any other conflict other that the one between Israel and the Palestinians. What is does demonstrate is a continued willingness to bow to pressure from the Zionist lobby, a group who will not be appeased until our own TV coverage matches the craven quality of the US media.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
In the latest edition of the New York Review of Books a petition addressed to President Obama signed, one assumes by prominent US intellectuals, (I am not sufficiently familiar with American letters to identify all the signatories, though do recognise some of the usual suspects). The petition demands the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan and negotiation with the Taliban, so as to enable ‘the moral and physical rebuilding of Afghanistan and the United States.’
It is difficult to know what is the stronger element here, stupidity or moral cowardice. Firstly it is difficult to imagine what the moral rebuilding of Afghanistan would look like under a resurgent Taliban. A society established upon the principles of a pre-medieval theocracy. A society that holds women to be subservient to men, stoning woman for adultery, that would execute gay men and women, that forbids music and representational art and the possibility of any deviance from a set religious text written in 653 AD.
Of course it is not the signatories who would have to pick up this tab for American withdrawal, not their daughters who will be deprived of education, or have acid thrown in their faces should they have the temerity to leave home without a sack over their body. They will not face living daily under a theocratic tyranny in which democracy and free speech is a heresy and public beheading, stoning and the severing of limbs represent the norms of judicial punishment. Still being good left leaning liberals they will know that harbouring such concerns about the fate of Afghan society represents nothing less than ‘cultural imperialism, ’ better to hide behind such meaningless tripe as ‘the moral and physical rebuilding of Afghanistan.’
