Liz Cheney’s absurd view on Gaza

Posted by za3tar on June 7, 2010 3 comments

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week”, Liz Cheney stated that if “you look at the situation in the West Bank and the situation in Gaza it becomes clear that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is not because of Israel”. WTF?!! If anything, this just goes to show that Liz Cheney know next to nothing about what has been happening in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel! It was well established that after Hamas took over Gaza Israel blockaded Gaza improvishing its citizens, while at the same time loosening the situation in the West Bank to give people in Gaza an incentive to rebel against Hamas. For God’s sake, this whole strategy was cooked up when her father was the vice president, so she should have known better!

On the other hand, this is a useful video to see. Regarding this issue, and it also touches on Israel’s policy to intentionally improvish Gaza and allow the West Bank to build up a bit.

What bothers me is that people like that come on TV speaking authoritatively to the public. This is ridiculous.

Plus, what’s up with arguing that “we pushed for an election but Palestinians were not ready for it yet” ?!!

What Helen Thomas should have said

Posted by za3tar on June 5, 2010 1 comments

With all the recent buzz around Israel, the Gaza siege, and the aid flotilla, a video surfaced online of reporter Helen Thomas caught in “off the cuff” remarks about Israel/Palestine. Helen said that Israel should get out of Palestine and people should remember that it is their land and it has been occupied. When asked specifically, she said that Jews should get out of Palestine and return to Poland and Germany.

Of course that kind of language does not play well in America and the expected storm of accusations of anti-semitism, bias, and calls for resignation has been ensued. Helen has apologized for her remarks.

Here is my thought; it is internationally recognized that the lands of the West Bank and Gaza are occupied by Israel (even the US recognizes this). It is also internationally recognized that the future Palestinian state will be established on the West Bank and Gaza (the pre-1967 war borders). So Helen Thomas’s remarks were not that far off base. She can just explain (and I think that is what she actually meant) that Israeli settlers should get out of Palestine (which is something that can be argued and defended in American politics). After all, this is exactly the same line that Jimmy Carter drew in his book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid.

Here is the video if you’re interested:

“Gaza not in a humanitarian crisis” ?!!

Posted by za3tar on June 3, 2010 4 comments

Let me start with this outrageous quote from US House Representative Michael Pence (Republican from Indiana) that he recently made on CNN:

Let’s be clear, there is not a humanitarian crisis in Gaza … the hospitals are fully stocked, the food markets are fully stocked!

WHAAA???? At first I was so shocked that I thought I must have misheard it. So I watched it again and again; nope that is what he said! Apparently Gaza is in top shape and we didn’t know it! Rep. Pence, I salute you (albeit, it is a one-finger salute).

Pence must have smashed all sorts of spin records. Gaza not in a humanitarian crisis?! Michael Pence, what have you been smoking? In what world do you live? Did you leave planet Earth for Pandora? Actually you know what, if you are so confident that what you say is true, I am willing to personally fund you to travel to Gaza with a camera crew and show us how we got it all wrong. Please Pence, enlighten us.

Here is a video of his CNN interview. Prepare to be dazzled!

Much has been said about Israel’s violent interception of the humanitarian aid flotilla headed to Gaza. Both sides have put forth their claims and counter claims. But the basic facts remain: Israel attacked non-military ships in international waters, Israel used lethal force against unarmed civilians (the activists attacked the Israeli commandos with sticks, rods, and chairs … but what do you expect when you drop commandos on a ship in the middle of night? a dance festival?!), and Israel killed 9 unarmed protesting civilians. After all was said and done, no weapons were found on-board any of the ships.