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DEATH TO THE DICTATOR!

Propaganda

This year's Israeli annual attack features a massive and unprecedented pr campaign, which appears especially to target the western audience. The Israeli government has obviously learned its lessons from previous wars, and is planning to win the heart and mind of every single one of us.

While the list of its criminal actions in Gaza are growing by day, the Israeli military uploads fun little videos of its heroic and humane activities on Youtube. On its special page, you can watch how soldiers admit wounded children for health care, and how the brave pilots eliminate Hamas terrorists, and the terrorists only, using precision bombardments.

Also, the army's English website features a banner, showing female Israeli soldiers in nice and peaceful poses (check also this interesting story on Haaretz). Gabriel, one of the Jews sans frontieres, is quite correct to note that "Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the government uses feminine sexuality to market mass murder".

Gaza attacks

If you don't want people to call you a terrorist, try wearing an army uniform.

The society, Iranian style

Once upon a time, an American discovers that the Western media news coverage of Iran is not reliable. He decides to make a journey to Iran in order to get to know the country from Inside. In the U.S., he had heard a lot about the influence of Islam on Iranian lifestyle and politics. So decides to start his field trip by visiting a large mosque in Tehran.

Stepping inside the mosque, he is surprised to see that there is no sign of any ritual prayer. Instead, people are sitting all around the area, eating chicken and rice. Obviously, it’s a feast of some sort…. The American is very surprised and starts a conversation with a young man who is standing in a corner.

American: “Excuse me…. What’s going on in here? I thought a mosque was a place for people to pray, but everyone’s eating here!”

Young man: “That’s true. But you don’t see much praying in here. If you wanna see people pray, you should go to Tehran University. They have large prayers, especially on Fridays.”

The American is now even more confused:

“at the university?! Isn’t that supposed to be a place for students, academics and intellectuals?”

Young man: “Yes, normally. But the students and intellectuals are all in prison nowadays, so….”

The American can’t believe what he’s hearing:

“In prison?! That’s the place for thieves and criminals, so where do you keep your criminals?!”

The young man looks at the American and shakes his head in disbelief: “who the hell do you think is running the country then?!”

Just a few days ago, senator Barack Obama did, in his quest for the US presidency, what every candidate is supposed to do: sucking up to the Israel lobby, AIPAC.

Here are some interesting statements that Obama made during his speech:



"Israel should preserve its identity as a Jewish"

"Jerusalem should remain undivided as the capital of Israel"

"Iran is the greatest threat to Israel, more than Iraq has even been"

"As an 11 year old, I understood the Zionist wish to live in own territories"

"I will ensure Israel’s military advantage in the region"

"I will always support the Israel right to defend itself in the UN"*

"I will isolate Hamas"

"The recent Israeli military action in Syria was justified"**

"We should never force Israel to negotiate with anyone"

"We will sanction Iran"

"I will keep the threat of military action against Iran on the table"

From a candidate who preaches change, these lines sound too absurd and too familiar

Yes, we can…. Go to hell!

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* Veto every resolution condemning Israel’s actions and policies against Palestinians.

** So how come that was justified and the war in Iraq wasn’t?

60 years

Israel celebrates its 60th year of existence. Over the years, we have seen many celebrations of independence around the world, but a national birthday is quite a rare moment is history. Like many Israelis, I cherish this moment, although for different reasons.

I believe this moment can be used to draw attention to a number of historical events, prior to and following the establishment of Israel. A few years ago, I was amazed to find out how little some people knew about the history of Israel. In their view, Israel existed for thousands of years, and was not just created following a political process overnight. Should we blame them? Yes, and no. Indeed, the Israeli discourse claims historicity by taking the Israeli roots back to the ancient time, when Moses led the exodus of his people from Egypt. They were called Israelis too. But that is the only similarity. The truth is that those people, apart from a shared religion, have no cultural or racial similarity with the majority of individuals who call themselves Israelis today. So what do we mean, when we are talking about roots?

The establishment of Israel seems to be a forgotten event. It is not in any way represented in the Israeli and Euro-American political discourses, although it lies at the very basis of the Arab-Israeli conflict. “Israel has the right to exist”! That’s one phrase that is being recycled over and over in response to critiques of Israeli aggression. But how exactly has Israel acquired this right? The creation of Israel has been a result of a political consensus between a few powerful states directly following the Second World War. It was decided that Jewish people, being the primary victims of the holocaust, should be able to live freely in their own land*. But as they did not possess a land, the former Palestine, which was at the time under the British mandate, was chosen as the best geographical location for the new country. Almost the entire Western world approved a UN resolution, which sought to implement this plan. All Muslim states rejected it. No one asked the Palestinians whether they liked the idea of a Jewish state in the middle of their territories. In a few years time, a large part of the original residents of the Palestinian land was forced to flee their homes, following Israeli military aggression. Thousands of people lost their lives, others have lived under repression ever since. To date, Israel has persistently denied these refugees’ their legal right to return to their homes, in spite of numerous UN resolutions.

Today, as the 60th anniversary of Israel in being celebrated, I cannot stop thinking about the atrocities, and the human suffering this country has caused. I wish the Palestinian refugees a safe journey home, perhaps some day in my lifetime.


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* Apparently this plan had a historical context.

Food crisis

Recently, CNN reported that the food shortage in Africa and Asia is not only a humanitarian crisis, but may also become a global security problem. It takes a trained eye, and a fair amount of cynicism to decode what this sentence really means. Let's break it down.

Vocabulary:

Food shortage: a situation in which a population does not have enough access to food supplies. We don't care about the reasons behind such conditions. Mainly, we believe it's their own fucking mistake.

Africa and Asia: Some warm places, far, far away. Basically, we don't know what happens out there most of the time.

Humanitarian crisis: conditions under which human life is endangered due to poverty, disease and war.

Humanitarian crisis in Africa and Asia: stuff we shouldn't be worried about.

Global: referring to parts of the world dominated by rich countries (see also "international community").

Security problem: threats to economical and political interests and institutions.