by Diane V. McLoughlin
Gaza has suffered massive loss, particularly in the catastrophic numbers of children killed during Operation Protective Edge, Israel's latest and most brutal assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. 577 children in Gaza are now deceased, versus Israel's loss of one child.
And yet a columnist with Haaretz, one Amir Oren (any relation to Michael Oren of the exploding toasters claim?) can still write this:
'...for Israel the experience has been more stomach-turning.'
Israel is the one with the greater indigestion?!
In fact, there is not a straight line of clear analysis in the piece. Logic and ethics seem to bounce around all over the place with no discernable personal conviction apparent, but perhaps this provides a fair representation of attitudes and opinions of the country as a whole.
There is no 'next time' if Israel does what it should: Lift the siege of Gaza, end the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and permit the right of return to Palestinians forced to flee their homes in 1948.
Ironically, on the same page as Oren's commentary, an organization advertises that it assists with Holocaust second-generation reparations claims (centerforreparations.org) - dispensing with any notions that too much time has passed for Israel to be obligated by international law to give back anything of what belongs to the Palestinian people.
Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propaganda. Show all posts
June 11, 2014
Advice for those considering joining the military [3mins 2007 750000 views]
subjectandobject Youtube channel
Uploaded on Sep 4, 2007
'Retired Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff explains what
military life really entails. Stan's website is feralscholar.org.'
July 01, 2012
June 19, 2012
March 23, 2012
EUs Baroness Ashton resign?: Toulouse, Gaza and All Children Who Suffer From Conflict
by Diane V. McLoughlin, March 23, 2012
Nile Gardiner, writing in The Telegraph (link, below,) argues that Baroness Ashton, EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, should resign for comments she made at the recent UNRWA conference, 'Palestine refugees in the changing Middle East.' (UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Work Agency.)
I disagree. Baroness Ashton should be commended. She stated the following:
"We are gathered here because we have recognised the potential of the youth of Palestine. Against all the odds, they continue to learn, to work, to dream and aspire to a better future. And the days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives. Here are young people who are asking not to be leaders of the future, but to be taken seriously as leaders of today. And it is to them that we should look and to them we should listen and it is to them that I pay tribute."
Mr. Gardiner writes that, 'The comments drew an angry response from Israeli leaders.'
Tough. First of all, this suggests that these 'Israeli leaders' represent all Jewish opinion, when nothing could be further from the truth. There are contemporary Jewish writers; philosophers; and political leaders; there are rabbis as well as Jewish historians, who argue for the civil liberties of all people in Israel-Palestine. However, there are others who are not interested in equal rights in Israel-Palestine. And the latter are a threat to the long-term stability of Israel. They also contribute to the fear that they will increase anti-Semitism for Jews throughout the world.
This excellent article by Jewish Voice for Peace's 'Muzzlewatch' helps bring context into the discussion. In early September, 2011, despite months in the planning between the Museum of Children's Art of Oakland, California (MOCHA) and Berkley California's Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), a planned exhibit of Gaza children's art was abruptly cancelled, due to intense pressure brought to bear against it by several local Jewish groups. The art depicts childrens' experiences during Israel's 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, known as 'Operation Cast Lead.' (Cancelling the exhibit probably did not have the intended effect. As evidenced here, it helped raised the exhibit's profile, instead.)
Below: From the exhibit, 'A Child's View From Gaza'
These attempts to censor all discussion of the immense suffering daily being inflicted upon 1.5 million men, women and children in Gaza; that seeks to stifle all peaceful advocacy within civil society toward securing their freedom as well as clinching an end to the conflict; creates a pressure cooker of hopelessness, despair and frustrated rage.
Newspapers should be responsible enough not to provide a platform for anyone who would seem to insinuate that some children are of more intrinsic worth than others. I fail to see what other conclusion I am encouraged to reach, than this, from reading Mr. Gardiner's piece.
The public discourse is now far advanced from such ignorance regarding the oppression of the Palestinian people, as well as Gardiner's blatant pro-Israel bias that flies in the face of the facts. He trots out the tired propaganda that Israel is a "fully democratic government...which goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties"; both platitudes are proveably false.
The fact of the matter is that deflecters in no way serve Israel's long-term interest, if her interest is peace, which I argue it is. Turning attention away from Israel's current deeply flawed and racist reality prolongs, rather than shortens, the conflict.
Preceeding the catastrophic Toulouse outrage by days, an innocent twelve-year old Gaza boy was on his way to school one morning when an Israeli drone cut him down from above. His upper body was discovered in a search of the neighborhood when he didn't show up for school; it had been blown into some brush. His poor mother is beyond consolation.
The suffering of children in all conflicts is clearly what the Baroness laments. But for the children of Gaza, this, apparently, is beyond the pale.
The now-deceased Toulouse shooting suspect is alleged to have committed his heinous acts to avenge the suffering of Palestinian children (as well as France's participation in the military occupation of Afghanistan.) This is the reasoning of a deranged man. One does not garner the world's sympathy for the atrocities your foe commits against you by committing atrocities. Such inexplicable acts only further the false claim that there are no partners for peace on the other side.
--------------
Link: Baroness Ashton should resign over her appalling remarks equating Toulouse with Gaza – Telegraph Blogs
Nile Gardiner, writing in The Telegraph (link, below,) argues that Baroness Ashton, EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, should resign for comments she made at the recent UNRWA conference, 'Palestine refugees in the changing Middle East.' (UNRWA: United Nations Relief and Work Agency.)
I disagree. Baroness Ashton should be commended. She stated the following:
"We are gathered here because we have recognised the potential of the youth of Palestine. Against all the odds, they continue to learn, to work, to dream and aspire to a better future. And the days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives. Here are young people who are asking not to be leaders of the future, but to be taken seriously as leaders of today. And it is to them that we should look and to them we should listen and it is to them that I pay tribute."
Mr. Gardiner writes that, 'The comments drew an angry response from Israeli leaders.'
Tough. First of all, this suggests that these 'Israeli leaders' represent all Jewish opinion, when nothing could be further from the truth. There are contemporary Jewish writers; philosophers; and political leaders; there are rabbis as well as Jewish historians, who argue for the civil liberties of all people in Israel-Palestine. However, there are others who are not interested in equal rights in Israel-Palestine. And the latter are a threat to the long-term stability of Israel. They also contribute to the fear that they will increase anti-Semitism for Jews throughout the world.
This excellent article by Jewish Voice for Peace's 'Muzzlewatch' helps bring context into the discussion. In early September, 2011, despite months in the planning between the Museum of Children's Art of Oakland, California (MOCHA) and Berkley California's Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA), a planned exhibit of Gaza children's art was abruptly cancelled, due to intense pressure brought to bear against it by several local Jewish groups. The art depicts childrens' experiences during Israel's 2008-2009 assault on Gaza, known as 'Operation Cast Lead.' (Cancelling the exhibit probably did not have the intended effect. As evidenced here, it helped raised the exhibit's profile, instead.)
Below: From the exhibit, 'A Child's View From Gaza'
These attempts to censor all discussion of the immense suffering daily being inflicted upon 1.5 million men, women and children in Gaza; that seeks to stifle all peaceful advocacy within civil society toward securing their freedom as well as clinching an end to the conflict; creates a pressure cooker of hopelessness, despair and frustrated rage.
Newspapers should be responsible enough not to provide a platform for anyone who would seem to insinuate that some children are of more intrinsic worth than others. I fail to see what other conclusion I am encouraged to reach, than this, from reading Mr. Gardiner's piece.
The public discourse is now far advanced from such ignorance regarding the oppression of the Palestinian people, as well as Gardiner's blatant pro-Israel bias that flies in the face of the facts. He trots out the tired propaganda that Israel is a "fully democratic government...which goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid civilian casualties"; both platitudes are proveably false.
The fact of the matter is that deflecters in no way serve Israel's long-term interest, if her interest is peace, which I argue it is. Turning attention away from Israel's current deeply flawed and racist reality prolongs, rather than shortens, the conflict.
Preceeding the catastrophic Toulouse outrage by days, an innocent twelve-year old Gaza boy was on his way to school one morning when an Israeli drone cut him down from above. His upper body was discovered in a search of the neighborhood when he didn't show up for school; it had been blown into some brush. His poor mother is beyond consolation.
The suffering of children in all conflicts is clearly what the Baroness laments. But for the children of Gaza, this, apparently, is beyond the pale.
The now-deceased Toulouse shooting suspect is alleged to have committed his heinous acts to avenge the suffering of Palestinian children (as well as France's participation in the military occupation of Afghanistan.) This is the reasoning of a deranged man. One does not garner the world's sympathy for the atrocities your foe commits against you by committing atrocities. Such inexplicable acts only further the false claim that there are no partners for peace on the other side.
--------------
Link: Baroness Ashton should resign over her appalling remarks equating Toulouse with Gaza – Telegraph Blogs
February 04, 2012
January 26, 2012
January 10, 2012
May 31, 2011
Bachmann in my bubble?! Nooo
May 31, 2011, by Diane V. McLoughlin
main website: http://www.mcloughlinpost.com/
In his new book, 'The Filter Bubble', Eli Pariser lays it out that the internet has undergone
profound change. It filters what we see based on computerized assumptions modelled on our
browsing history. He worries that each of us may become stuck in little information bubbles
because it is impossible to know what is being excluded.
One of my favorite examples Pariser gives is Facebook. Facebook filters out FB friends' activity
if we interact with them less often than with other peeps. This frustratingly cements the loop -
you never wind up getting to share cross-posts at all. Thus, the range of ideas and interests we
are exposed to that our friends are talking about is restricted by outside forces beyond our
control. (This drives me and my other politically-aware friends nuts, frankly.)
Filtering impedes what the internet, at its best, is all about - the free flow and exchange of ideas
and information. In a recent speech, Eli also demonstrated that search engines return different
results for different people even if they are searching the exact same things. This is a deeply
worrying trend. It holds the potential to interfere with the democratic process. We cannot
consider ideas and opinions that we are rarely, if ever, exposed to. And it is difficult to see how
new ideas could surface that might benefit society, as argued so elegantly here:
'If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one
person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more
justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power,
would be justified in silencing mankind...the peculiar evil of
silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race;
posterity as well as the existing generation...'
- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): 'On Liberty: Chapter Two - Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion'
What happens now when the odd-man-out is right? Are we more likely to continue blissfully
unaware toward some collective abyss because we were prevented by internet filters from
considering what he or she had to say?
So that covers filtering of social networks and search engines. But, as is so usually the case with
coincidence, within days of having viewed the clip of Mr. Pariser's talk, somebody e-mailed me
wondering what the deal was with the Google ad on the top of my home page. My puzzled friend
included for helpful measure a screen shot of what he saw. And what he saw was not what I
ever saw. What he saw was different.
My site is dedicated to writing about things such as resource wars and political corruption;
American Empire and erosion of civil rights; human rights; and last but certainly not least, the
oppression and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people by the apartheid State of Israel.
Definition of apartheid is a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.
Some insist on Israel being exclusively the national home of the world's Jewish people, when
almost 25% of the citizens of Israel proper are Palestinian. That figure doesn't include millions of
Palestinians either languishing under military siege in Gaza or occupation in the West Bank. Nor
does it take into account the Palestinian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.
When I look at my home page, typically I will see in the Google-generated ad box at the top an
ad about BDS - boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel - a peaceful form of protest until that
state decides to abide by international law and stops discriminating against, and oppressing, the
Palestinian people. It worked in South Africa to end apartheid there. There is no reason why it
could not help bring about peaceful change in Israel-Palestine.
(Text continues after the jump, below.)
I always assumed that the BDS ad above was just that - an ad about BDS. But I googled it just
now and in fact it is a site dedicated to attacking the BDS movement as, 'blacklisting, demonizing, slandering' Israel - putting what appears to be a lot of time and effort into discrediting a movement it labels a failure. .
Getting back to the point at hand, what my vexed friend Joe saw at the top of my page was a
different ad paid for by a group calling itself, 'Bachmann For Congress'. The ad attacks
President Barack Obama's recent affirmation of America's long-standing policy (which remains
in place, on paper): that Israel should withdraw to pre-1967 borders, end the occupation, and
make peace with the Palestinian people. As can be seen from the screen shot below, the ad
categorizes Obama's position as a betrayal of Israel.
There may be some unintended truth in rejecting 1967 borders. The fact of the matter is that
the peace process itself has been betrayed. The two-state solution may be moot through
decades of foot-dragging, during which hundreds of thousands of violent religious Jewish
extremists - backed by the Israeli military - moved in and squatted on Palestinian property.
Because this is so, the chorus is growing louder for one secular, bi-national democratic state of
all Israel's citizens.
For the record I am no fan of Michele Bachmann, who, last election cycle, insinuated that
left-leaning members of Congress might be, quote: "anti-American". I have to say that few
things can be counted as being less American than that. Honestly. Such tactics are used to
intimidate voters - that they themselves might be labeled with the worst accusation imaginable
should they do the most revolutionary thing possible - that is, to think for themselves. To that,
I can only say - la, la, la, look at me, thinking!
More soberly, thinking is what the founders of America did a great deal of, and though they
themselves pointed out that they did not get everything right off the bat (they didn't abolish
slavery, e.g.), what we can say by their example is that thinking and questioning the status quo
is as American as apple pie.
So this is by way of explaining what some of these ads have been doing on my site and how
they got there. Ads randomly trawled for content were displayed at different times for different
visitors, presumably depending on each person's browsing history.
Meanwhile, do a search for something on the web and there is less likelihood that a full range of
results will appear, because systems 'know' what you would be interested in from tracking your
internet movements. When does this tayloring cross the line into manipulation - letting you
know some things, preventing you from knowing others? I can't say if this poses a threat to
liberty (not to mention privacy) - but it doesn't smell too good.
Michele Bachmann invading my bubble? That just plain stinks.
March 27, 2010
A brief comment on the importance of exposing government black propaganda
by Diane V. McLoughlin
main website: The McLoughlin Post
My thoughts on government black propaganda: The purpose in telling people that a government is up to no good is to shine a light on it so people may recognize manipulation for evil when they see it; hopefully they will be stronger to resist it when subjected to it; and will be inspired by the condemnation of it by others to resist and condemn it themselves.
Personally I would have thought this was obvious. As I have been asked in a comment thread what's the point, apparently, and disturbingly, I was quite wrong.
The conversation arose from my posting an Yvonne Ridley link to her article: Be Sure the Truth Will Find You Out. (March 25 2010; Information Clearing House.) Ridley discloses that the U.K. government deliberately used subterfuge to smear the Palestinian people so as to discourage objection or protest from the citizenry regarding Israel's assault on Gaza.
main website: The McLoughlin Post
My thoughts on government black propaganda: The purpose in telling people that a government is up to no good is to shine a light on it so people may recognize manipulation for evil when they see it; hopefully they will be stronger to resist it when subjected to it; and will be inspired by the condemnation of it by others to resist and condemn it themselves.
Personally I would have thought this was obvious. As I have been asked in a comment thread what's the point, apparently, and disturbingly, I was quite wrong.
The conversation arose from my posting an Yvonne Ridley link to her article: Be Sure the Truth Will Find You Out. (March 25 2010; Information Clearing House.) Ridley discloses that the U.K. government deliberately used subterfuge to smear the Palestinian people so as to discourage objection or protest from the citizenry regarding Israel's assault on Gaza.
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