Tuesday 30 December 2008

Israel: "the region's bully"

Al Jazeera English - Focus - Israel's failure to learn < read me
Already we see tensions increasing in the region. Damascus has pulled out of third-party talks with Tel Aviv and Arab anger has been mounting not just at Israel, and not just at America, but also at their own regimes which have collaborated with Washington.

Some Israelis have started to realise their government's flawed approach. While 81 per cent of Israelis support the military campaign, a poll has showed only 39 per cent believe it will succeed in removing Hamas or reducing violence.

An editorial in Haaretz, an Israeli daily, even went so far as to label Israel "the region's bully".

Barack Obama, the US president-elect, remains silent as Israel kills Palestinians with impunity. In his silence he expresses his complicity.

6 comments:

leftdog said...

Jews in the streets protesting the overly aggressive actions of the State of Israel!

Thor said...

That's a good sign, but there need to be many more of them.

LeDaro said...

I agree with your analysis. I do not think though that Obama speaking out at this time will do any good. It will only cause chaos, as unfortunately Bush is still the President.

Erik said...

That's a good sign, but there need to be many more of them.

Where would the "many more" come from? With only 385,000 Jews in Canada, and where the most vocal Jews seem to have joined divisive right-wing ideologies (does "with us or with the terrorists" ring a bell?), can we really expect that much from the rest?

Thor said...

By "more" I meant of those living in Israel.

Erik said...

I see.

Although the different Israeli media outlets have a much wider POV on the Israel/Palestine conflicts than the N-American press (which bias is overly pro- Israel) I think you won't find enough Jews in Israel either that are willing to publicly criticize by, for example, taking to the streets. Don't forget why many moved there to begin with, and difficult to counter-argue (you anti-semite!).

Right-wing will rule Israel for the next time to come, if you like it or not.