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| Israel-Palestine |
| WaPo Apologist: The Shape of Violence to Come |
| 2004-03-28 |
| Our recently enshrined neutral authority, WaPo, provides a platform for a Terrorism Apologist, clearly demonstrating their moral superiority - and neutrality, of course. Not EFL cuz Reg Req’d. Sharon Has a Plan, But It Doesn’t Involve Peace or Palestinian Hopes By Ghada Ageel Sunday, March 28, 2004 ZAHRA, Gaza Strip The assassination of Sheik Ahmed Yassin last Monday is an attempt by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to kill any move for peace in the Middle East. Things were going so well prior to the hit. For the past decade, Yassin had been making proposals which marked big shifts toward a pragmatic solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since the second intifada erupted in September 2000, Yassin had proposed several cease-fires in return for Israel withdrawing from the territories it occupied in 1967 and ending military action against Palestinians. Yassin declared that Hamas accepted a two-state solution, Palestinian and Israeli states existing side by side. A true man of Three weeks before his death, Yassin had announced a plan for Hamas, Yasser Arafat’s Fatah and other factions to unite in administering Gaza in the event of a unilateral Israeli withdrawal as proposed by Sharon. This was not in Sharon’s interest at all. The late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin once said he wished to see Gaza drown in the sea; Sharon wants Gaza to drown in the blood of a civil war between Hamas and Fatah. And this would be Sharon’s fault, of course. Right. Yassin had offered a strong base for making peace. The Israeli government’s decision to kill Yassin at this moment strengthens the belief among many Palestinians, including me, that Israel simply does not want peace. Every step forward by the Palestinian Authority or political factions such as Hamas is met with a step backward by Sharon. This latest assassination proves that the Israeli government is not ready to talk the language of peace. Under Sharon, Israel talks only the language of power and blood. And this base was bus, restaurant, and port suicide boomers? Yep, it’s ISRAEL who doesn’t want peace. Right. What was I thinking? Many Palestinians were already convinced of this because of the assassination by Israel of Ismail Abu Shanab, a moderate Hamas leader, last August. Shanab openly accepted a two-state solution. If Israel had wanted to listen to the language of peace, strengthen the moderate camp in Hamas and save the blood of two peoples, it would have kept Abu Shanab alive. It did not. Selective memory is an indicator of a higher morality. This is proof. Thanks, WaPo, for sponsoring this genius to set us straight. The bloodshed continues because Sharon’s government believes that it can bring Israelis security and peace with a policy of assassination and occupation. It cannot. It believes that these crimes will persuade the resistance groups to abandon their goal of ending the occupation. They will not. On the contrary, Sharon knows that blood demands blood and actions create reactions. He knows that the only likely outcome of Yassin’s murder will be to pour fuel on the fire that is already burning and motivate Palestinians further to fight the illegal Israeli occupation of their land. This resistance will in turn produce an Israeli military response, and so the cycle of violence, including the inevitable suicide bombings, will continue without end. But it is important to keep in mind that the occupation causes the suicide bombings, not the other way around. Again, it’s Sharon’s fault. Everything. Suicide bombings aren’t depraved acts by deranged tools, no, they’re inevitable - everyone knows this. Sharon wants to distance himself as far as possible from any peace solution that might put pressure on him to make concessions. If he had been interested in peace, he would have followed up on the "road map" for a two-state solution to the conflict, which was accepted by the Palestinians and the international "quartet" (the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia) but has never been implemented. Does distance = recognition of futility? Yassin was killed when Israel targeted him with three rockets that mutilated his paralyzed body and the wheelchair in which he was sitting. Later, tens of thousands of ordinary Palestinians filled the streets to express their shock and anger. Even though Israel had targeted him before, no one could quite believe that this had happened -- and in this way. F**kin Duh. Symp play. Outrageous disingenuous willfully blind PR bullshit. Yassin was a spiritual leader, not a military target. At 67, he was an old man, paralyzed from the neck down. He was nearly blind and deaf. He was being wheeled home from the mosque after saying the morning prayer. He was an easy target, powerless to run and escape death. How could Sharon consider this crime a victory? The location of Yassin’s house was well-known to Israeli forces, and it was no secret that he went every day to the mosque to pray. There was no ingenuity in this operation except that it crossed all the boundaries of humanity and made the tunnel to peace look darker than ever. More symp. Drama queen is pouring it on, now. I’m losing it... Israel has the power in this standoff. If it wanted peace, it could implement it. It is in a position to offer a solution. The Palestinians are only in a position to negotiate in response. The Israelis are proactive. We are reactive because of the imbalance of power. I don’t find it so complicated. For the first time, the two camps of Palestinian society, the Islamists (in the form of Hamas) and the nationalists (all the factions of the PLO), have agreed to a two-state solution. The next move is Sharon’s. And the international community must offer support for implementing a peace agreement. It’s not a standoff - it’s restraint you jackoff. There is no "road map" left. There are no more "moves" - you had your 1000th chance and you stuffed it - just like the 999 that went before. It’s clear to me that, by killing Yassin, Sharon’s government wanted to send a message and to show its maximum power before it withdraws from Gaza. Sharon’s message is that if Israel has to withdraw from Gaza, then it leaves as the victor, not as a refugee. Israel lost enough of its reputation withdrawing from south Lebanon. Because Sharon has no strategy for peace, he can only offer this policy of blood. Caution: Historical and Pre-Historical Cleaning in Progress. Like many Palestinians in Gaza, I wonder how the Yassin assassination can be swallowed whole by the international community, particularly the Bush administration, which has refused to criticize the operation. In the eyes of the Palestinians, Arabs and many others in the world, the killing breaks every norm and law, and contravenes every human right we have ever known. I love finger-wagging from a cretin. Israel could have arrested Yassin and tried him in court had it wanted to. After all, it invades Gaza almost daily and arrests or kills whomever it wants. Instead it sends Palestinians the message that nothing can stop Israel from doing anything to anyone at any time. No one is immune. And yet, you’re still breathing. See Restraint. When I saw people of all ages running to join the demonstration last Monday, I realized that, like me, they were weeping for something more than the physical death of Yassin. They were mourning their own victims -- family members, friends and neighbors -- weeping at the brutality of an occupation that has systematically destroyed their livelihoods, weeping over the silence of the international community. I was crying for my cousin, who was paralyzed last October by an Israeli attack, and for the hundreds like him. Big Symp Finish. The assassination of Yassin was a way to ensure that the violence continues, which will enable Sharon’s extremist government to stay in power and continue to avoid any concessions for peace. And if Yassin had not been waxed, it would be precisely the same, except one more terrorist leader and symp figure would be in on the planning of the next boomer attack. Sharon triggered the latest intifada with his visit to the al-Aqsa mosque in 2000. Many Palestinians fear that his government’s assassination of Yassin will provoke a new and terrible phase of the intifada, a phase that has no rules except those of revenge. It is usually the Palestinians who are accused of missing the opportunities for peace. This time it is Sharon, and we will all pay the price. The Blame Game. We had nothing to do with the intifada. Israel made us do it. Author’s e-mail: g_ageel@yahoo.com Ghada Ageel, a lifelong resident of Gaza, is a doctoral candidate in Middle East politics through Exeter University in England. So send this man of peace an email and let him know he da man. And put WaPo back on the apologist list - they earned it with this pile of shit. |
| Posted by:.com |
| #5 *** Dumpster *** What's with posting on all these old stories? You gonna go back in time and create some pointless legacy that maybe ONE or TWO people will ever read? This post of yours is MUCH more interesting: "Jen, only when and if he is ever properly elected will I then be grudgingly obliged to address him as you wish I would. His intentional blurring of the separation between church and state while simultaneously attempting to constitutionalize discrimination gets nothing but scorn from me. Thank goodness we live in a country where we can disagree on this matter. Please know that you indeed have the privilege to dislike me for what I say, that is entirely your right. Understand one thing though, I don't do this to intentionally anger or offend you or anybody else. As a proud American I cannot abide the White House's ham-fisted tampering with both the duties of executive office or our beloved constitution. Whatever proper intransigence might be shown for terrorism (as is demanded of all worthy commander in chiefs) still in no way confers any right to enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law, especially not in a nation wholly founded upon secular ideals. This is what he's attempting and my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office. Hence my scorn." Oh, Dumpster, you're a treasure. What a load of juicy bullshit. He IS the duly elected President of the United States, fucktard. Proof that all else you may say is at the very least suspect, if not outright total fucking bullshit. You're full of shit. Your notion that he is "constitutionalizing discrimination" is truly insane. Proof? You're full of shit. You provide no proof of any "ham-fisted" actions - or anything even remotely associated. You're full of shit. As an atheist, I know he has not done anything that hasn't been done before for the last 30 years to "enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law". I most certainly would've noticed. You're full of shit. The phrase "my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office" is so utterly asinine and disingenuous as to be breathtaking. You couldn't prove any aspect of that charge if your worthless life depended upon it. You're full of shit. It is clear that you're one thoroughly conflicted and fucked up induhvidual - and given your comments, so anti-Bush that you'd remove him from office if you could. You obviously think President Gore is being denied his constitutional rights. You're fucking insane. It is not unreasonable to presume you will vote against Bush, therefore, so you are in league with the enemy - there is no sane RBer who could possibly believe Skeery would be worth warm spit in the Wot - your pathetic little aside about Commanders in Chief notwithstanding. You are unbelievably amazingly self-defeatingly massively full of shit. You're a troll. |
| Posted by: .com 2004-04-05 1:16:21 AM |
| #4 Many Palestinians were already convinced of this because of the assassination by Israel of Ismail Abu Shanab, a moderate Hamas leader, last August. Shanab openly accepted a two-state solution. If Israel had wanted to listen to the language of peace, strengthen the moderate camp in Hamas and save the blood of two peoples, it would have kept Abu Shanab alive. It did not. If you hang with terrorists, you are a terrorist. There's no way to distinguish whether someone is a disinterested party, as if that could even exist. Anybody of intelligence recognizes that joining Hamas often results in heavy exposure to high concentrations of lead, it's an occupational hazard that comes with the territory. But it is important to keep in mind that the occupation causes the suicide bombings, not the other way around. What is this ration of horsesh!t? "Occupation" does not cause people to abandon all trace of civilized behavior and go around indiscriminately slaughtering innocent women and children. It's a complete void of any compassion or religious tolerance that is the source. "Suicide bomber" is a complete misnomer, such people are mass murderers and nothing else. That they die achieving their nefarious ends is only of significance in how it limns a culture willing to sacrifice the flower of their youth for the paltry task of completing a single mission. Any general who made a habit of consistently wasting soldiers in such a way would face immediate mutiny. Instead, this horrific and ignominious squandering of life is glorified and thrust upon this world as some pretense of a strategy. The Arab people will long carry a deep and abiding cultural stigma for engendering this travesty of life. The eleventh of September atrocity alone has earned them an onus on par with that of WWII Germany and with good reason. Arab culture will carry a well deserved collective burden of guilt for many years to come. So many Arabs vigorously embrace the demonic terrorist mindset with such cheerful abandon that they have rightfully become alien to all civilized people. Should a renouncement of terrorism finally be made, any such retraction must be greeted with a skepticism so healthy that it survives for several decades. The grim spectacle of sending children to do a man's work while dying a needless and horrifically murderous death will not fade from the world's memory any time soon. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-05 12:48:43 AM |
| #3 What is it with these people that they can't separate fact from rhetoric. Prior to the recent Israeli port bombing there hadn't a suicide bomber who made it out of Gaza for 2 years. Its the fence stupid! The effect so far of increased terrorism (dire revenge) towards Israel is more dead paleos. Israel offered everything they want over 3 years ago and it was rejected in wave of suicide bombings. The world has changed (a lot) over the last 3 years) and now these idiots want to roll back the clock. Sorry too late! |
| Posted by: phil_b 2004-03-28 7:29:01 PM |
| #2 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: Anonymous TROLL 2004-03-28 1:22:20 PM |
| #1 Ageel has a yahoo e-mail addy. That's punishment enough. |
| Posted by: badanov 2004-03-28 1:02:35 PM |