Tag: Palestine

Dance of the Infidels By William Bowles

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9 March 2012

Resign right now, PM urges Assad

David Cameron urges Syrian President Assad to step down to end the “bloodshed” in the country, and calls on Russia and China to back regime change. – BBC News 06/03/2012

The nerve of the man! What gives that pompous ass Cameron the right to call for the resignation of a sovereign nation’s head of state? This is the same Cameron who authorized bombing Libya back into the Stone Age. Well of course it’s the insidious ‘Responsibility to Protect’, probably the most successful confidence trick in history and performed in full view of the entire planet.

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Zionism loves colonialism, Zionism is colonialism By William Bowles

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7 March 2012

Ynet Op-ed: Zionism will only cease being demonized when West stops to demonise colonialism

If I didn’t know any better I’d think the following Op-ed piece from the rightwing Israeli news source Ynet was another Yes Men spoof but it’s for real. I decided finally to publish the opinion in its entirety (if in a somewhat fragmented form) for it reveals the insane irrationality that underpins Zionism as the only ‘defender of the Jewish people’ (aside that is from its benefactor the US).

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Vanished – How the BBC disappears the news By William Bowles

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20 November 2008

This from GazaFriends on the kidnapping of 15 Palestinian fishermen and 3 foreign nationals in international waters by the Israeli navy:

20 November, 2008 — “Darlene Wallach is in a new prison in Ramle, a men’s prison, but she’s in a section reserved for illegal immigrants.

“She wanted to pass on this information, “We were fishing about 7 miles off the shores of Gaza. The Israeli soldiers came on board the three boats via four Zodiacs. The frogmen came up and over each boat. They used a taser on Vik while he was still on the boat, then tried to push him backwards onto a sharp piece of wood. He jumped into the sea to avoid being hurt more than he already was and was in the water for quite a while.

“Then they came for me and forced me into the Zodiac at the point of a gun. They said, “You are in Israeli territory” even though is was obvious that all three boats were in Palestinian territory. They kidnapped me and Andrew and Vik and all of the Palestinian fishermen.”

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Finding the words to say it By William Bowles

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16 November 2008

“The BBC’s Tim Franks in Jerusalem says we have no clue as to when or where this video was shot and it is impossible to know just how frequently such incidents occur.” — ‘BBC: Israel army studies ‘abuse video’

But right below this it says:

“But a leading Israeli human rights group says “many instances of abuse are not exposed because they have become the norm””.

But is this all this group said? Why isn’t the group named? Why is the source not identified? It seems the ‘rules’ that allegedly govern reportage are as flexible as Mr Franks interpretation of events are.

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Palestine: Collectively Punished by Israel and Collectively Punished by the media By William Bowles

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22 January 2008

“No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall be inflicted upon the population on account of the acts of individuals for which they cannot be regarded as jointly and severally responsible.” — Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907, Article 50″

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Israel: A wolf dressed in victim’s clothes and why the destruction of Lebanon is a strategic disaster for the Empire By William Bowles

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26 July 2006

Illegal Weapons?Are these illegal weapons being used by Israel?
Also check out Depleted Uranium Alert

“It was meant to be over by now. This time last week Israeli military planners were demanding another 72 hours to finish the job: that’s all they needed, they promised, to clear southern Lebanon of Hizbullah.” — Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian, Wednesday July 26, 2006

I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down said the Wolf. Well the Wolf is huffing and puffing but the house is not built of straw and Hezbollah (how is it spelt? Hez or Hiz?) are proving to be a very tenacious opponent. Okay, Israel has overwhelming orthodox military power but has it got the means or the political support at home for a protracted war?

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Israel – just testing the waters? By William Bowles

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14 July 2006

“What has proportion got to do with it though … it’s not about proportion is it. I mean human life is not cheap to the Israelis and human life on the other side is quite cheap actually because they strap bombs to people and send them to blow themselves up.” – Maureen Lippman, 23/7/06, BBC TV ‘The Week in Politics’

Maybe it’s denial on everybody’s part but many of my lefty pals seem to be at a loss to explain the actions of Israel as it methodically dismembers Lebanon-aside that is, from the obvious ‘warmonger’ tag, a tag that explains little.

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When a war is not a war (unless the media says it is) By William Bowles

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14 July 2006

Dawn air strikes on south Lebanon on 13 July 2006 claimed the lives of at least 44 civilians, including over 15 children, and wounded over 100. Israel bombed bridges linking the north and south of the country and all three runways of Beirut’s commercial airport. The Israeli army’s Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, promised that “nothing is safe in [Lebanon], as simple as that.” — ‘Israel attacks Lebanon’, 14/7/06

But it’s not all going Israel’s way. An eyewitness reports an Israeli naval vessel being hit by a missile and sunk off the coast of Beirut.

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Cockroaches of the World Unite! By William Bowles

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1 July 2006

Roach hissing

“When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle.” — Raphael Eitan, chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, New York Times, April 14, 1983.

“[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs.” — Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, ‘Begin and the “Beasts”’, New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

“’What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’ Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said ‘Drive them out!’” — Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979

There can be no clearer example of the inherently racist nature of Western ‘civilisation’ than the events of the past week. And if anyone doubt the power of language to shape our perception of events let them look no further than the alleged exemplar of ‘objective’ reporting, the BBC and its treatment of the genocidal policies of the state of Israel.

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How the BBC hollows out the news By William Bowles

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26 January 2006

A major problem anybody confronts when trying to sort fact from fiction in the news—aside from any confusion that occurs in trying to figure out if anything the mainstream media ‘reports’ is ‘news’ or merely opinion posing as fact—is the sheer volume and consistency of the coverage, which ultimately depends on specific words and phrases that come pre-loaded with meaning through their repetitive use over years of news coverage.

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(Don’t) Mention the J** word By William Bowles

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26 August 2005

Speaking at a memorial for the victims of a Palestinian attack that took place 26 years ago, [Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ze’ev] Boim said: “What is it about Islam as a whole and the Palestinians in particular? Is it some form of cultural deprivation? Is it some genetic defect? There is something that defies explanation in this continued murderousness.” [Likud Knesset Member Yehiel] Hazan subsequently stated: “He’s right. It’s been a known fact for many years that Arabs slaughter and murder Jews, without any connection to land. It’s imprinted in their blood. It’s something genetic. I haven’t done research, but there’s no possibility of explaining it differently. You can’t believe an Arab, even one who’s 40 years in his grave.”

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The crime against humanity that is the state of Israel. Is there no end? by William Bowles

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30 May 2005


An elderly Palestinian woman tries to protect her Olive grove from destruction

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it – Winston Churchill

Every day I get flooded with news, appeals, analysis and background on the crime against humanity that is the state of Israel, but as far as the West is concerned, the daily atrocities being committed against the people of Palestine are non-events. Were such crimes being committed by virtually any country other than Israel, the media clamour would be deafening.

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Rumbling in the Ruling Ranks By William Bowles

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27 April 2004

The managers of the state fire a warning shot across Blair’s bow

“Should a nation…which attacks and occupies foreign territory in the face of UN disapproval be allowed to impose conditions on its own withdrawal? If we agree that armed attack can properly achieve the purpose of the assailant, then I fear we will have turned back the clock of international order…” – President Eisenhower in a television broadcast to the nation after the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956

My, how things have changed but then back in 1956, Britain was boss of an empire well past its sell-by date and the US was on the way up and anxious to woo the rising tide of anti-colonial struggles as part of its Cold War strategy.

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How much the value of a (Palestinian) life By William Bowles

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6 January 2004

In a ten-day period, there were over 70 individual violent actions against Palestinians by Israeli Occupation Forces resulting in deaths and woundings of innocent civilians, destruction of property, confiscations and deportations. Where was the coverage in the Western Media?

How much do you think a Palestinian’s life is worth? Well if you were to judge it by Western press coverage of the occupation of Palestine, as near to zero as is possible. A survey of ten days of the Independent’s news coverage (supposedly sympathetic to the Palestinians) of the Palestine/Israel conflict (27/12/03 – 06/01/04) is extremely revealing:

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Surprise-Surprise By William Bowles

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17 November 2003

Not surprisingly, this week the Blair government has announced the second highest ‘terrorism alert’ since 9/11 as a prelude to the visit by Bush the smaller. And like all the ‘terrorist alerts’ its vagueness verging on the mystical, allows the security state to cast its net very wide indeed. So much so that visitors to the Global Social Forum that just took place in Paris, finds the spooks waiting for their return at the various ports of entry into this ‘haven of democracy’, video cameras whirring, interviewing aka intimidating the visitors as to their reasons for coming here.

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Snared on the Web By William Bowles

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28 October 2003

“The United States has added Web sites to its list of “foreign terrorist organizations” for the first time, under the category of aliases for conventional groups, a State Department official said Friday.” Reuters October 10, 2003

The latest attack on freedom of speech might not bother non-Americans but the State Department’s move to add Websites to its list of “Blocked Persons, Specially Designated Nationals, Specially Designated Terrorists, Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers” should.

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Out of Control By William Bowles

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13 October 2003

Today’s (13/10/03) editorial in the Independent illustrates just how blind the ‘liberal’ media is to the realities of the situation unfolding before my horrified eyes.

Under the heading “An audit of the war on terror makes depressing reading” it belabours us with the following inane platitudes:

“The deposing of Saddam Hussein has, sadly, had no effect on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, or the absence of one. The North Koreans, and possibly, elements of the Iranian leadership have drawn the lesson from the conflict in Iraq that they must acquire a workable nuclear device as quickly as possible.”
…

“Meanwhile, the threats of international terrorism that predated the diversion of US foreign policy into the back streets of Baghdad remains little changed.”

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The lights are on but is anyone home? By William Bowles

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8 September 2003

Bush the smaller made his pitch to the nation over the weekend to “save civilisation” from terrorism and told us that the “frontline” was now Iraq. So Saddam disappears not only literally but also figuratively to be replaced by the generic ‘threat’ that has been the real core of the propaganda since 9/11. And in a complete volte face, Bush the smaller now wants the UN to take on its “responsibility” to pay for the war unleashed on the world by the USUK imperium.

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Mind your language! Part Three By William Bowles

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23 July 2003

Isn’t it amazing. All this time, since the ‘sexed up’ story first appeared, Gilligan, we were told, was the sole source of the story, hence his ‘unreliability’. Then, yesterday, the press carried reports about at least thee other UK journalists who had also been contacted by Dr Kelly and now, it seems there’s even a tape of Gilligan’s meeting with Kelly. The meek and mild-mannered Dr Kelly seems to have gotten around quite a lot for a man reportedly trying to keep a low profile.

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