Worse Than Apartheid
May 13, 2007
The Palestine solidarity movement has a lot in common with Left movements in general. The proponents its various substrands are usually more than willing to subordinate the progress of the larger cause to the advancement of their personal crusades. So a short while back I was bemused to see Issa Khalaf, a proponent of the Bantustan solution for the Palestinians, claim the comparisons between Apartheid South Africa and the Palestinian situation were “overstated”. This may help the fellow’s preferred solution appear less unacceptable, however it set backs, more than undermines the Palestinian cause. The taboo on the comparison, which was sustained by some Left luminaries among others, has finally been lifted; first it was Bishop Desmond Tutu and then John Dugard – both posessing better knowledge than any other of what Apartheid was all about — who affirmed that the conditions that obtained the OPT were “were than Apartheid” (Dugard). This comparison receives further corroboration today — from South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils. AFP reports:
South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils Thursday accused Israel of conducting a policy against the Palestinians that was worse than apartheid.
Speaking on the sidelines of a UN meeting on the situation in the Palestinian territories, Kasrils said South Africa’s townships had never been attacked by helicopter gunships and tanks, in contrast to the military means employed by Israel.
“The analogy between apartheid and Israel’s occupation of Palestine is often made. It is not the same thing. The occupation is absolutely worse,” Kasrils told reporters.
“It is important that we tell the Israeli authorities they are behaving like fascists when they do certain things, although we are not calling it a fascist state.”
Kastrils called on the United States and European Union to lift their economic and political embargo of the Palestinian Authority now that Hamas and Fatah have joined in a government of national unity…
Barfbag for a Windbag
March 18, 2007
You will need a barfbag handy in order to sit through the following.
Here is John Hagee, Windbag-in-Chief of the Evangelical pro-Isarel lobby group Christians United for Israel, delivering a speech at the AIPAC conference. More interesting than speech, however, are the reactions of the woman who is recording this – Hilarious!
So why are the putatively progressive Jews being whipped into such frenzy by what Chris Hedges calls an American Fascist?
Several Aipac members told the Forward that they believed the Jewish community must be open to forging unconventional alliances in the face of the threat posed by Iran.
Californian Ruth Brandt, who spoke with the Forward…said, “Anyone who is worried about abortion, school and whatever, civil rights — we won’t have to worry about it, because the Muslims will have all killed us off first.”
Kind words from our Jewish friends, whose antennae are otherwise so sensitive to detecting bigotry around them.
Barfbag time!
As the charming woman who recorded this put so eloquently, “WoohoohooHoooooo!”
