Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

The bitterness of the political rhetoric employed by left and right on the Middle East, as in Spain in the 1930s, empties out the middle ground and ensures that irreconcilable hostilities continually bubble over.

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As with Spain back then, there is simply no middle ground in the Middle East today on which to stand unless you are prepared to be attacked by as a fascist racist by one side, or an atheist infidel by the other.

You are right C Parsons. I think you have hit the nail fair and clean.

We saw an example of this recently with the attacks on Hamish for having the temerity to suggest that support for Hezbollah is not a good look for the "Left".  And yes I have been guilty too of making a snide reference to what I wrongly perceived to be a gesture of support I did not like.

The Australian has been running a series of editorials lately that on the whole are among the best I have read on the subject of the Middle East. In one of them, the editor argues that pro-Israeli commentators need to make their case more calmly despite the vicious provocations of other "experts" especially in the media and the universities.

A fair point perhaps. But I do think people must be aware of the passion this issue generates. And to think a little before speaking out.

Try to be aware that for many these are dangerous times. Even for Australians just minding their own business or exercising their rights as Australians.

I must come for a reading to those here who can accurately predict what may happen in the six to ten years it would take Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. I know the Iranian leadership may sound crazy at times, but even if they have one bomb and lob it at Israel I think they may have the intelligence to realise that it would mean the obliteration of Iran entirely from the map.

As for the occasional furphy that is perpetuated during the recent skirmish in Lebanon, the one in which Lebanese civilians were soundly punished for having the temerity for allowing Hezbollah to exist amongst them (as though they would have a choice), although no doubt will now welcome them with open arms, that even take in much reviled writers like Robert Fisk who has lived amongst these people for most of his working life unlike the rest of the armchair fighters who wish to wage war in the Middle East against all the imaginary enemies, nothing could possibly beat the world's greatest Glove Puppet called George Bush who admitted at a recent press conference as he yet again referred to the tragic events of 9/11 and attempted to weave the disaster of Iraq into that awful day and was asked what Iraq had to do with 9/11 he replied, "Nothing, and no-one has ever suggested it did!".

Oh really! Now that's what I call a "real forgery", not an ambulance with a hole in its roof.

Geoff Pahoff: "By the way, was it you who posted that absurd, in fact funny, propaganda hoax image of the ambulance with the missile hole through the red cross, a week or so ago?"

In fact, Geoff, when organisations like Honest Reporting expose such fake images it is they which are accused of harassing the poor widdle "journalists" that broadcast such forgeries.

I've heard Honest Reporting characterised as being part of some global conspiratorial Jewish lobby simply for drawing attention to such things.

Here's Robert Fisk having a whinge about being caught out by them.

Puts me in mind of the nitwits who attack MEMRI as "racist" because it regularly exposes anti-Semitic ranting in Arabic media.

So, it doesn't surprise me that the Simon Weisenthal Centre would be attacked this way.

Jeffrey Sachs: "Similarly, the claim that we are headed toward an inevitable clash of civilisations is sheer madness, propounded by people who think the worst of other groups but don’t really know them through personal contact or shared experience. What unites us is vastly greater than what divides us."

Messianic, apocalyptic political extremism was a feature leading up to the Spanish civil war, one of the most brutal and bloody events in 20th Century history - and a conflict which many people still argue was a precursor to World War Two.

The bitterness of the political rhetoric employed by left and right on the Middle East, as in Spain in the 1930s, empties out the middle ground and ensures that irreconcilable hostilities continually bubble over.

It results in moderates, like the present Palestinian President, being open to accusations of treason and betrayal if they too don't participate in the extremes of hate-mongering that are becoming a day-to-day feature of political and social life.

As with Spain back then, there is simply no middle ground in the Middle East today on which to stand unless you are prepared to be attacked by as a fascist racist by one side, or an atheist infidel by the other.

The fact is, Hamas and Hizbolla are extremist organisations which, only a few years ago, few people in the West (or even the Middle East) would openly defend for fear of being branded extremists too.

But incredibly, peace activists now march under a Hizbolla banner.

And today Hamas represents the mainstream of political life in Palestine while Hizbolla more or less has the democratically elected government of Lebanon hostage to Syrian and Iranian foreign policy.

The Lebanese Prime Minister actually said yesterday it would be "suicidal" of his government to disarm Hizbolla, a fascist militia, because it would likely start a civil war in his country.

The Hezbolla leadership today casually admitted that it was a "mistake" to kill and kidnap Israeli soldiers because of the response it prompted from Israel.

No fooling. Anyone with half a brain  would have known it was a "mistake" at the time.

"If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them on a world wide basis."

- Hassan Nasrullah, Hizbolla leader.

"We are all Hizbollah now"

- banner at London "peace rally".

I've spent that last 15 minutes writing and deleting this comment without being able to come up with any words that can sufficiently describe what I'm feeling right now.

I'll just post the link and wait and see if the usual suspects will try and defend this one. My only hope is that this site is satirical.

Mike lyvers, you say “If Iran develops nuclear weapons, they WILL use them against Israel, provoked or not.”

Who do you think Israeli nuclear weapons threaten? And if a country is threatened by nuclear weapons do you think that it is natural that they will want to counterbalance the threat. I think the term for this is MAD (mutually assured destruction).

The only way to stop nuclear proliferation is to ban all nuclear weapons.

The UN should enforce its landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote co-operation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to further the goal of achieving nuclear disarmament and general and complete disarmament. The Treaty represents the only binding commitment in a multilateral treaty to the goal of disarmament by the nuclear-weapon States. Opened for signature in 1968, the Treaty entered into force in 1970. A total of 187 parties have joined the Treaty, including the five nuclear-weapon States. More countries have ratified the NPT than any other arms limitation and disarmament agreement, a testament to the Treaty's significance.

This is the best article I've read for a long time. I agree with it 100%.

Mike Lyvers wrote: "The reality is that what is suggested here won't work. Israel withdrew from Gaza and almost immediately the rockets began to rain down on Israel from Gaza."

Mike, your list of failures regarding peace initiatives are only hangovers from the “us vs them” mentality. A classic strategy of pro-war people is to spend years and billions of dollars on planning war and carrying out war (and other domination activities), and then to say peaceful strategies don't work after a few weak simplistic attempts fail in the short-term.

In reality, you have to spend the same time, energy, and money on peace as you spend on war.

Mike, don't you think it takes time for the momentum of resentments and hostility to end? Peace now doesn't mean instant peace.

What Sachs describes is called dualism, an elementary level of thinking described by William Perry, and an important purpose of an education system is to teach people to be critical thinkers. Dualists think only in absolutes, black or white, truth or evil, friend or foe. They fear ambiguity. Anything that challenges their view of the world is deeply frightening, and may invoke anger and violence. I can think of only one current world leader who is a dualist. Most politicians, however, treat their electorate as dualists, and they seem to get elected by doing so.

When I think of the war in Lebanon I think of all the brown-eyed young Lebanese women I meet at uni, and how multiculturalism has utterly complicated the issues surrounding the civic and human community. Israel and Lebanon are both a part of our own country.

"To have peace we must begin with peace in mind, start walking peacefully, overcome preconceptions, and look to what we all have in common."

Enough of this crap. Let’s talk about something serious. Pluto has just been demoted. No longer a planet, they say. No talk about redundancy pay, wrongful dismissal, superannuation, nothing. Out the door. Just like that.

Absolutely disgraceful. Here is this huge lump of ice manning, indeed guarding, the very outskirts of the solar system, year after the year, for well over a century, and what happens?

Sacked. The pink slip straight out of the blue. No warning. No consideration for Mickey Mouse's dog. Not a thing.

Frigging scientists. Who consulted us? What have I been trying to tell you about academics? Now do you understand?

... we have to be peaceful.

To have peace we must begin with peace in mind, start walking peacefully, overcome preconceptions, and look to what we all have in common.

To have peace we need to keep working at it, keep paths open, doors open, communications lines open, keep our minds and our hearts open.

To have peace we need to be aware of what makes us more peaceful as people, be compassionate and thoughtful, be calm.

To have peace we need to be creative, we need to cultivate the conditions, come together.

To have peace we need to sit down, maintain composure and try to listen to each other and understand each other.

To have peace we need patience, we need to be prepared to compromise, we need to care about creating common interests, common purposes, community, a commonwealth.

To have peace we have to realise it does not come easily; we really have to be up to the challenge.

To have peace, by crikey we have to really want it.

Can we have peace now, please?

“With the purchase of two more German-made Dolphin submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads, military experts say Israel is sending a clear message to Iran that it can strike back if attacked by nuclear weapons.” (source)

“Here is a list of UN resolutions that Israel has not complied with, far more than Iraq. Note that she has also illegally developed nuclear weapons. Further, the situation is far worse than would at first appear, it involves the serious distortion of the official Security Council record by the profligate use by the United States of its veto power. Israel's defiance goes back to its very beginnings. This collection of resolutions criticizing Israel is unmatched by the record of any other nation as Israel stands in violation of more UN resolutions than ANY OTHER NATION ON EARTH.” (source)

With Israel about to purchase two more submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads. No wonder Iran wants to gain nuclear weapons. The only way for a just peace in the Middle East is for UN sanctions to be applied equally to Israel and all other countries in the Middle East. Just ask the question: if you were a Muslim would you be happy for Israel to have nuclear weapons or would you be pressuring your government for nuclear parity? To have peace you must have justice.

The reality is that what is suggested here won't work. Israel withdrew from Gaza and almost immediately the rockets began to rain down on Israel from Gaza. West Bank militants boast that they will do the same if Israel withdraws from the West Bank. Their goal is neither peace nor another Palestinian Arab state (in addition to Jordan) but the destruction of Israel, as they have stated over and over again and again. As does the deranged President of Iran. If Israel withdraws to its pre-1967 borders the attacks on Israel will likely intensify. There will be no peace, only further violence and war. Recall that Israel was behind its pre-1967 borders prior to the 1967 war. Why should anything be different now?

Sachs complains about “demonisation” of Iran etc by the West when in fact the leaders of Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah demonise themselves by calling for the extermination of Jews, the destruction of Israel, Holocaust cartoon contests, etc and by policies such as stoning young rape victims to death for “adultery” and hanging gays from cranes in grisly public executions. You can't “demonise” such people and policies when they are already demons entirely on their own.