Israel’s invasion of Ramallah was one of many. This week the army went into
four other cities -Tulkarm, Bethlehem, Qaliqiliya, and Hebron - and fired
into refuge camps in Gaza. It can act with ease since the West Bank is now
segregated into 220 isolated military enclaves (and Gaza into four) and one
in two Palestinians have been reduced to penury. The raids are driven by intelligence
extracted from 7,000 Palestinian in Israeli jails, subjected, according to
Amnesty International, to “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment and sometimes
torture.”
Who wrote that? Clearly some left-wing nut, right? Check again, it’s in the June
15th 2002 issue of the Economist. Start reading news articles beyond the Weekly
Standard and you’ll find Israeli-Palestinian relations are not black or white.
It is important that individuals learn to filter experts from the actors. Susanna
Cornett fails to utilize the internet to expand beyond her middle-aged, suburban
existence. She is clearly more concerned about getting blog-rolled by the cool
kids, than motivated by an internal struggle to find the truth. In the “blogosphere,”
the
truth doesn’t sell. Speak against the
status quo and you’ll find your hit counter seriously plummet.
Senator
Joseph Biden said, “there is no disagreement in this country on the support
of Israel.” Dick
Army believes, “An attack on Israel is an attack on America, in my estimation.
My No 1 priority in foreign policy is to protect Israel.” If they are our friends,
then why do they spy
on us? Why do they censure
our press? Has the 90 billion dollars the US Government has allocated toward
their government, not been enough?
One must not forget this tension is centralized upon one unfortunate leader, Arafat.
But as Yossi
Beilin points out, what if he is in time replaced with a Palestinian Thomas
Jefferson? Can we then expect Sharon to put an effort into halting the slaying
of civilians and children?
No. A new leader might only lead to new spin, and new lies for Cornett and her
ilk to perpetuate.
You see, Cornett didn’t bother to reply to my post. She believes the mud-slinging
comments that mistakenly align me with Anti-Semitists and left-wingers speak for
themselves. James DiBenedetto--
who should stick to Star Trek fan-fiction because diplomacy is too difficult a
concept for him to understand-- comments, “[a]nd the links you give to support
your arguments...I took a look at "From the Wilderness Publications". Apparently
they believe that The Nation and Noam Chomsky are puppets of the corporate right
wing, among other things.” Nice try, James. Adlai Stevenson, William Scranton,
Charles Percy, James Abourezk, James Abdnor, J. William Fulbright, Paul Findley
and Paul McCloskey can tell you, any hint of Middle East skepticism and you’re
out of the legislative branch. One op-ed piece that points out the common knowledge
that AIPAC chugged money into Cynthia McKinney opponent, does not discredit all
of my other sources (from The Independent, The BBC, the AP, and Ha’aretz.) Then
again, Susanna's idea of a reputable source is a weblog entitled "Little Green
Footballs."
War
is sexy, peace is not. War-mongers win public opinion polls, peaceniks will
not. But Public Choice may be to difficult for Cornett to understand. She’ll need
a blogger-friend to hold her hand and walk her through unfamiliar concepts. She
is just an example of the politically-naive old guard, that may refer to themselves
as libertarian by name but certainly do not advocate free-market principles. A
common characteristic of this <i>neo-conservativism</i>, is a blind
faith in the defense department. No matter how many laptops they loose or how
many top-secret documents get coffee spilled upon them; the government - they’re
protecting us!
I don’t pretend to be an expert. Still I --just some college kid with nothing
at all to gain from this endeavor-- caught Susanna Cornett’s tongue, and got one
of her lackeys to admit not “all” Palestinians are “bloody-minded.”
Maybe some Sunday morning, with a cup of coffee and The Economist, Cornett will
get
a clue. But even then, will she be willing to stand up for what is right,
if it means alienation from all her internet friends? Robert Fisk, blogosphere
persona non grata, puts his life on the line to say what he does. Why do you think
he does this? To seem cool?
To be fair, some lives are worth more than others. Warbloggers, for example, are
a dime a dozen. It isn’t the jingoism of non-Western radicals that threatens the
state of our security, but the arrogant near-sighted
politics of irrational “pundits” like Stephan Green. Look at this
poster’s grotesque fetish for destruction. “Vodka Pundit” doesn’t expect decorum
from his posters. No, that would be a sign of weakness. Up goes the death toll!
Isn’t it great? Heil Sharon Dir!
It's easy to speak about killing
from the comfort of your own home. This cavalier attitude toward human life disgusts
me. I wish I believed in hell. Then I could sleep soundly knowing racist propagandists
will face the ultimate judgement.
