Picture of the Day - 2
Jerusalem prepares for the visit of George Bush. (AFP/Marco Longari)
(AP) "Jerusalem is spending nearly $400,000 to spruce itself up for the visit."
(NYTimes) The Israeli commitment to disband "illegal settlements" now only includes those settlements east of the wall.
(At the Press Briefing yesterday) "Q Does the President think it's a good prelude for the Israelis to kill nine Palestinians, five in one family -- as a prelude to his trip on the West Bank?"
(And, for those familiar with Israeli history, Bush will be staying at the King David hotel, the target of the influential bombing against the British in 1946.)
posted by mikevotes at
9:26 AM
12 Comments:
That's an interesting choice of hotels, isn't it? Do you think it will actually remind people that Israelis once thought of terrorism in the name of the right cause as a good thing?
By
Anonymous, at 9:38 AM
I figure it must be as a symbol of Israeli nationalism while he's (supposedly) asking the Israelis to give things up.
By
mikevotes, at 10:16 AM
Terrorist - Freedom Fighter. Freedom Fighter - Terrorist. It's so hard to kept things straight, isn't it?
By
-epm, at 11:10 AM
This will help. Israel = "client state". Venezuela = 'rogue state".
Morally Venezuela is a tad bit better than Israel but since Chavez doesn't play nice Venezuela is a rogue.
It doesn't matter whether you torture, imprison or murder women and children just as long as you are a 'client state' you get a pass.
US foreign policy in a nutshell.
By
matt, at 11:22 AM
I'm always a little hesitant to get into Israel because 1) it's a minefield 2) If you go very far in, you're bound to attract crazies outside my normal readers. (Not implying that here. Y'all are all regulars and I respect you.)
But, the bottom line is, I'm not going to get into characterizing the Israeli state more than I already have.
By
mikevotes, at 11:32 AM
Chicken. :)
I know what you mean.
FWIW, I was commenting on the broader double standard we use. The "conditional morality" as the Religious Right would say. But this double standard is more a byproduct of human nature than the outgrowth of conservatism or liberalism.
By
-epm, at 11:38 AM
Your statement is definitely true about conditional terminology, but, obviously, you know what I mean.
By
mikevotes, at 11:47 AM
Everybody knows what you mean. It's the elephant in the room.
By
Anonymous, at 12:06 PM
I'm not saying anything that Noam Chomsky hasn't been saying for 30 years already.
By
matt, at 12:33 PM
Arrgh. Matt, if I hadn't sworn off commenting on Chavez here, I'd be all over that. But you are so spot on, it's precious.
Mike, it's truly sad that someone can't criticise the policies of a government (let's say... Israel) without being cast as a proponent of a genocide that occurred before any of us here were even born.
This whole settlement issue comes down to semantics. Israel took land from a weaker neighbour and brought in "settlers", then they brought in troops to protect the 'settlers' from the rightful owners. And since they have troops there, it's now 'obviously' their land. Now they want to take more land, even though they agreed not to, but it's okay now because that land is their "future territory".
Doesn't the use of the words "future territory" imply that it's not your land right this moment? Is someone else's wallet my "future income", so if I take it, I'm okay?
For extra credit, explain how this differs from Hitler's concept of "lebensraum", in which he justified annexing his neighbours' territory because he needed it to grow.
Arrgh.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 1:48 PM
You're forgetting about God. God gave the land to Israel. So the story goes...
By
Anonymous, at 2:41 PM
Todd, I agree. It is a shame. And, frankly, since I've been running this blog, I've been criticized by both sides of the argument.
But the thing is, I don't really consider myself knowledgable enough to get too deeply into the Israel/Palestine argument, and frankly I have sympathy for the center positions on both sides.
Short version, I really enjoy writing and talking about situations that are fluid, where I feel like I'm learning and discovering.
This middle east situation is largely static. There are certainly changes, but the overall stances don't really move. I've written a little about the US attempt to stand up Fatah, beause that's new, however, as that looks to not be garnering support from the other Arab nations, we're just headed back to the same standoff.
So, I just don't want to argue about it.
By
mikevotes, at 2:43 PM
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