Love of the Land: Where is Goldstone now?

Where is Goldstone now?

Why is world silent in wake of killing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan?


Eitan Haber
Israel Opinion/Ynet
24 February '10

Here are the dry numbers (after all the tears have dried up): Earlier this week, NATO forces hit several vehicles in Afghanistan and killed 27 innocent Afghanis, including four women and a child.

And a reminder to those who forgot: A short while ago, 13 other innocent Afghanis were killed after a missile mistakenly targeted a residential home instead of a Taliban position.

Let there be no misunderstandings about it: Even though I am writing this thousands of kilometers away from the scene of these incidents, and even though we are talking about anonymous families in a foreign and hostile country, one is pained by the loss of life and by the sudden death of people who wanted to live, love, build a home and plant a tree. In this respect, our tears are real; tears are similar in every corner of the world.

But now, after all of the above had been said, we a have a small question; a tiny question, a minor one, something wholly insignificant: Where are you, Goldstone?

Here is an unintelligent guess: The world that cries out and weeps for every scratch suffered by a Palestinian child (and we are opposed to even such scratch,) the same world that portrays the State of Israel every morning (in newspapers) and every night (on TV) as the killer and butcher of children and as a state that fires into homes only to find bleeding bodies later on, that world will be silent, or at most offer some lip service in respect to the incident described above.

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Love of the Land: Where is Goldstone now?

Love of the Land: El País, Pots And Kettles

El País, Pots And Kettles

Eamonn McDonagh
Z-Word Blog
20 February '10

El Páis of Madrid is a wonderful newspaper. In the lead editorial of today’s edition it fearlessly condemns the supposed assassination by Israel of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.

As well as being legally reprehensible and morally unacceptable the policy of selective assassination, or to put it another way, the dirty war only contributes to the illusion that there are alternative solutions to the one that Israel will sooner or later have to face: an end to the occupation and the opening of talks with the Palestinians on the basis of a two state solution.

Stirring stuff. Spain is a member of NATO and has a large contingent of troops in Afghanistan. Those troops regularly kill members of the Taliban and - as do all troops faced with the challenges they are faced with - regularly kill civilians too. No doubt tomorrow’s lead editorial in El País will call for the immediate withdrawal of Spain’s contingent in Afghanistan on the grounds that its activities in that nation are legally reprehensible and morally unacceptable and are doing nothing to address the root causes of violence there.

Spain is an ally of the United States. As I write this post there are American UAVs prowling the skies of Pakistan and Afghanistan looking for leaders of the Taliban to assassinate.

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Love of the Land: El País, Pots And Kettles

Love of the Land: Andrew Sullivan: It’s Time to Invade Israel

Andrew Sullivan: It’s Time to Invade Israel

Marine Barracks/Beirut

23 October 83

Noah Pollak
Contentions/Commentary
06 January '10

Click here to visit crazy town:

My own view is moving toward supporting a direct American military imposition of a two-state solution, with NATO troops on the borders of the new states of Palestine and Israel. I’m sick of having a great power like the US being dictated to in the conduct of its own foreign policy.

Presumably the direct American military imposition of a two-state solution would involve the Marines going house to house in Gaza City. Talk about American soldiers dying for Israel! For someone who has spent the past few years denouncing the hubris of American military intervention in the Middle East, this is heady stuff.

Love of the Land: Andrew Sullivan: It’s Time to Invade Israel

Love of the Land: Turkey: Racism In, Ataturk Out

Turkey: Racism In, Ataturk Out

Anna Mahjar-Barducci
Hudson New York
05 November 09

The secular spirit of Kamal Ataturk that brought Turkey so close to the Western world is fading away.

But such a change seems to pass unnoticed. Anti-Semitism in Turkey seems to find hardly any room in the Western press.

Last year, when Turkey’s Supreme Court tried to dismantle the AKP for having trespassed Turkey’s secular constitution, EU officials sided with the Islamist government.

This constitutes a major turnabout not only for the stability of the region but also for Europe. Turkey is a NATO member, it aspires to become a EU member, has one of the strongest armies in the region, and is a key country for transporting gas to Europe through pipelines such as Nabucco and Blue Stream.

Recently, Turkey barred Israel from participating in NATO military manoeuvres; Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the move was a result of public concerns over the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Erdogan called Israel's operations, launched with the aim of ending Hamas' cross-border rocket attacks, "a crime against humanity," and suggested that Israel be barred from the United Nations.

A study of the Israeli Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center shows that in recent years there has been a significant growth of anti-Semitic literature published in Turkey. Much of this literature has become best-seller books. Two categories of books can be established: 1) “Classical” anti-Semitic literature in Turkish translation, such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, and The International Jew by Henry Ford; 2) Anti-Semitic books in the Turkish language, set in an internal Turkish context. These books are mostly written by radical Islamic elements in Turkey, which believe that the current Islamic government is not Islamist enough.

In addition to the anti-Semitic books, the Turkish press frequently publishes anti-Semitic articles which combine anti-Israeli incitement and “classical” anti- Semitic motifs. Even more disturbing was a blockbuster film called Valley of the Wolves Iraq, produced in Turkey, and based on a popular television series. Due to its anti-Semitic and anti-American character, the movie was pulled from theatres in the US, and triggered harsh criticism in Germany, where it was shown to the Turkish community. So far, the Turkish government has refused to take any action to prevent the distribution of such anti-Semitic agitprop.

“Separation,” a TV series aired on Turkey’s state-run TRT channel for the first time last week, contains several controversial scenes. In one, a Palestinian father holds his new-born baby above his head in front of Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint. A few moments later, one of the soldiers shoots the baby dead. In another scene, Israeli soldiers kick and beat elderly Palestinians on the streets and one soldier shoots a teenage Palestinian girl on her chest.

The drama outraged Israel. Israel summoned a Turkish diplomat to protest at what it called "state-sponsored incitement.” “Such a drama series, which doesn’t even have the slightest link to reality and which presents Israeli soldiers as murderers of innocent children, isn’t worthy of being broadcast even by enemy states and certainly not in a state which has full diplomatic relations with Israel,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in a statement.

A TV channel official responded that none of the scenes in the show was “imaginary” “and that photographs of what Israelis are doing to Palestinians are freely available on the Internet, whereas Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Turkish government “has no right to comment on the quality of broadcasts or the opinions expressed in them.” Freedom of Expression is not what Turkey is most famous for in any event.
This is only one of the last incidents that are marring the relations between the two countries. Israel and Turkey, once stern allies, have been on a collision course ever since the AKP party took power; it looks as if the Turkish government is trying its best to enlarge the rift, casting a shadow over the future of the Middle East.

Some 24,000 Jews live in Turkey, making them one of the world's largest Jewish communities in a Muslim country; their relations with the state are becoming more and more strained. "I feel worried, sad and scared for myself and for my country's future, which is leaning towards racism," Turkish-Jewish academic Leyla Navaro wrote in a local newspaper. Many Jews are thinking of leaving the country.

An Islamist Turkey, winking at the Islamist regimes of the region and joining their anti-Israeli policies is bad news for the free world.

Love of the Land: Turkey: Racism In, Ataturk Out

Israel Matzav: NATO member holding military exercise with Syria

Israel Matzav

NATO member holding military exercise with Syria
Israel Radio reported this morning that NATO member and Obama favorite Turkey is holding three days of military exercises with Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria. As of now, none of Israel's mainstream media websites believe this story is newsworthy (they are silent about it), but DEBKA is reporting it.

The joint Turkish-Syrian tank and armored infantry exercise backed by air power begins across the Turkish-Syrian border Monday, April 27, and lasts three days.

Israel Matzav: NATO member holding military exercise with Syria