“Why world peace hinges on the Israel election, and what you can do about it.”
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Judah Freed
Political Issues Examiner
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Now, you’ve entirely changed yr characterization of yr views of Hamas & added far more nuance. I wish you had expressed these views initially & I would not have reacted so strongly against yr initial prejudicial assessment of Hamas.

I never claimed Hamas are angels any more than I claim that Fatah or the Irgun or any Jewish nationalist group were angels. They all leave & left a lot to be desired. But to characterize Hamas the way you initially did called out for correction. I certainly believe that SOME Hamas operatives killed some alleged Fatah collaborators in Gaza. But even to remotely claim that such thuggery by a few rogue Hamasniks comes anywhere close to the IDF organized killing machine that held sway for 3 entire weeks in Gaza is wrong. And SOME Hamas thugs “appropriated” UN food meant for hungry Gazans. Does that make the entire movement into mafiosi? Let’s keep things in perspective is all I’m saying.

What I object to is people who look for evidence against Hamas to prove their prejudices rather than observing Hamas for what it is with both beauty spots and warts. The same is true for Israel. There are those who think they know Israel as pure evil. They don’t really know anything other than their prejudices.

Richard: My roommate, who when not leading this delegation, does volunteer work with children in Jenin, spoke to several Doctors at Shefa who told her that they witnessed summary executions by Hamas partisans of suspected Fatah members who were hospitalized. I’m well aware of the claims of that Italian reporter that even the Israelis disputed, that has no bearing here. She spoke to several Doctors as well as other Gazans who reported various abuses. Don’t get me wrong. She has dedicated herself to the cause of Palestinian Human Rights and has no political axe to grind. However, she is trustworthy, meticulous, reasonable, passionate and, most importantly, scrupulously honest. You don’t have to believe her, but I most certainly do. She also said that the people on the street, apart from some minor grumbling, love Hamas. We both agree that Hamas is an idea that cannot be militarily obliterated despite Lieberman’s fondest wishes. The solution has to be negotiated and political – but it doesn’t change the fact that Hamas aren’t nice guys at all.

As for Dahlan, his abuses are well known and well documented. Of course I understand the context, but did you really expect a detailed report in a comment? I’m not writing an entire post and merely stating what had been told to me by what I consider a very credible source. We’re just sussing out the facts here, and I am relaying to you what was told to me by what I consider to be an honest and reliable source. You can poke holes in it if you like, you can disagree or express doubt, but your dismissive tone is kind of insulting. I’ve had and continue to have direct experience with all elements of Palestinian society – from the poorest to the most powerful, and from all factions as well. My notions come from direct contact with the Palestinian people and much work on their behalf. I’d put my experience up against that of the the vast majority of armchair pundits who claim to know what’s best for the people of Palestine. And I don’t even claim to know what’s best! I’m a humanitarian volunteer doing what I do because there’s a need for it. That doesn’t stop me from making honest assessments.

LD: A person is a fascist when they follow all or substantially all the ideology of Fascism. Look it up in Wikipedia or any basic Poli-Sci text book. Try to understand the difference between fascistic and fascist. As to the events in Hula perpetrated by armed settlers from Beitar Illit, the firing of weapons in Arab village is outrageous and the Israeli governments failure to enforce its own laws is something that might come back and bite them in the ass. A 15 year old boy was injured from a shot in the leg and had to be operated on. That having been said, while this was outrageous, it wasn’t exactly Kishinev, was it? I wouldn’t call it a pogrom and no I don’t think the term “pogrom” only applies when Jews are victims. There have been many well documented and recent pogroms where Indian Muslims, Turks, Kurds, Ethnic Russians etc. have been the victims. Thats my assessment of what went down in Hula. Sorry that I won’t temper my outrage at this injustice with baseless sloganeering.

Once again, I’d like to thank Suzanne for succinctly making a point about the difference between fascist and fascistic. Lieberman is a truly horrible man, and he is fascistic, but that still doesn’t make him a Fascist.

I am angry at the self-righteous murderousness of the Israeli government and those who defend it, but it’s well within the norm of human behavior, unfortunately. We all tend to be narcissists when it comes to atrocities–ours are justified, while those of our enemies are not. Orwell wrote essay after essay about this.

We have here a candidate who has risen to where he is purely on racist demagoguery. His main platform is revoking citizenship rights to ethno-religious minorities who do not swear their “loyalty” – a principle that seems vague enough to similarly disenfranchise all political opponents.

Less discussed is Liberman’s extensive record of fascist tactics, not only his fascist platform. Unlike all the other parties in Israel, Israel Beitenu’s list of candidates is unelected. Everyone serves basically at his own personal whim and several have been arbitrarily dismissed. Before the loyalty motto took hold, the party’s motto was an Orwellian “I believe him” and before that “Da Liberman!”. This is a man who is creating around him a cult of personality, who curses journalists for getting in the way and speaks against politicians for being “ineffective”. Since 2006, he has been harping on about switching to a “presidential system” – in which a president has powers to override the “procedural” Knesset and the “fanatical” Supreme Court”… This seems to me to be EXACTLY the moment to pull out the ‘f’ word.

First they came for the Arabs…at least I can say I spoke out.

Would you mind asking yr roommate to ferret out stories of the Fatah’s chief torturer Dahlan who maimed and killed Hamas activists at will along with his other Fatah henchmen? Perhaps you’d like to read up a bit to understand that there is always context to Middle East violence whether it’s a Gaza war or a Hamas killing. It doesn’t justify them. But it explains why they happen. Leaving out context as you do is a fatal blunder which leaves you deaf dumb and blind & allows you to understand nothing of the reality of Gaza except of course via 3rd hand information of the type you attempt pass off as as credible.

I’m not “throwing around” terms like fascist or apartheid. They are entirely appropriate for the circumstances in which I use them. That may not satisfy you.

The fact that Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel committed suicide & was murdered respectively has everything to do with how they lived their lives. There were murderous Jewish terrorist thugs actually responsible for murdering an Arab American and others and responsible for threatening the lives of others. I’m entirely content with labelling them fascists. I’ve written a long essay about Krugel’s murder here.

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:XR26W6Zp1VoJ:newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Soc/soc.culture.jewish/2008-03/msg00076.html+kahane+quote+democracy+jefferson&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&client=firefox-a