Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Article by Buchanan

Pat Buchanan today published an article today based on what he said the other day on CNN. At the time, I saw he was on there and was drawn to the television to hear what lunacy he would speak, but - shockingly - he made points that are chillingly accurate. I certainly don't agree with every point he makes, but the overall perspective I share. Below is a brief excerpt:

"Israel has a right to defend herself, a right to counterattack against Hezbollah and Hamas, a right to clean out bases from which Katyusha or Qassam rockets are being fired....

But what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law and comports neither with our values nor our interests...."


*****

For those tired of feeling powerless, please join me and others for a rally later this week.

Rally to End the Attacks on Lebanon
Friday, July 21 - 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Westlake Center (4th and Pine)

Because PEACE is in everyone's long-term interests

5 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Karl Smith said...

For the record, the deleted comment was simply spam (a link to a World of Warcraft website). No censorship here. :-)

Anonymous said...

The current crisis once more throws into sharp relief collective humanity's failure to take responsibility for our actions over nearly two millenia.

I am old enough to remember a time when the fledgling State of Israel just endured the ceaseless pounding of her settlements by enemy rockets and mortars. Her enemies held all the high points, the vantage points from which to attack the citizens of Israel with impunity. She endured without retaliation until the time came when she could endure no more.

As soon as she did retaliate, however, the world's mass media was in the forefront of attacking Israel for 'disproportionate responses' and etcera, sickenenly and hypocritically ad infinitum.

The single reason for the existence of 'occupied' territories is that Israel' enemies kept attacking and kept losing. Israel was forced to 'occupy' these territories to provide her with a buffer zone. That she was correct in this action is now proved by her withdrawal from Gaza and the resulting resumption of rocket attacks by Palestinians.

Enough is enough! Collective humanity owes these people BIG TIME! The catalogue of crimes against the Jewish people, much of it committed in the name of so-called 'Christianity', is the most shameful, the most truly wicked expression of man's inhumanity to man that is possible to conceive. If there is a devil, a satan, then this monstrous exhibition must surely be its crowning achievement against the people who provided us with the likes of Moses and Jesus.

And yet much of the world sits back in their armchairs and passes judgement on the Jews!

Surely, collective humanity must do something for the Palestinian dispossessed, displaced and disavantaged. And I don't mean throwing billions of dollars at corrupt Yasser Arafat-type regimes. We must fill the breach because their own Arab and Muslim neighbours, with their petro-trillions, have certainly done nothing. And why have they done nothing in sixty years? Because they have deliberately employed a policy of keeping the Palestinian 'refugees' firmly in place to use as a constantly available club to wield against the State of Israel.

I repeat, collective humanity owes the Jewish people this miserable scrap of dirt. We owe these people freedom to finally live in peace.

Frankly, I don't care what labels people choose to stick on me. Frankly, I just don't give a damn. But, frankly, I will continue to support Israel's right to exist until the crack of doom, or longer...

As an Australian, I'm mindful of the fact that one of our greatest Australians, Doctor Herbert Vere Evatt, was once a President of the United Nations. Yes...how many people actually know this? It's an indictment on my own country that very few Australians do.

But that disgraceful fact can be sheeted home to the Australian media who began a concerted 'whispering campaign' against him because he had committed the cardinal , or perhaps 'mortal' sin of supporting Israel.

Doctor Herbert Vere Evatt was once described by an Israeli Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, as the 'midwife who gave birth to the State of Israel'. Surely, the kiss of death, as his reputation was later shredded and sullied to such an extent that he is largely forgotten in his own country. When he is (rarely) referred to in the media, it is usually along the lines of 'the Doc went off his head you know..."

Such is the fate of all who stand up for Israel, or even for just common decency.

By the way, at the First Council of Nicea in 325 AD, the Jews were declared as perfidious Christ-killers, people to be avoided, converted, or persecuted. They were only absolved of the 'murder of Jesus' by Pope John XX111 in 1965. Let's see now...that's...1640 years...

Karl Smith said...

Vynette,

I fear your portrayal of the history of the region strikes me as lacking. I am no expert, by any standard, buthte matter deserves more explication. First, I would hesitate to call the homeland of so many people, rich in beauty and history a "miserable scrap of dirt." Relatedly, the land is not anyone's to give. Had Germany, France, or Britain wanted to create a piece of their own homeland to create as a new state, that would be one thing (but, of course, that was not the desire of Zionism). But to offer anyone a 'state' that is presently the homeland of another is always doomed to fail, and in this case resulted in what can only be described as ethnic cleansing of the area.

Now that is what I said, it is history, but it is alive and real for many people in the region, and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories only makes it all the more real to them. Israel has yet to truly withdraw from the territories and borders recognized by the United Nations - there are still a plethora of checkpoints restricting freedom of movement, Israeli settlements that have illegally displaced Palestinians, and even the Wall, a potent symbol of apartheid.

I am not questioning Israel's right to exist, nor am I questioning its right to defend itself. But the destruction of civilian infrastructure, as is occuring in Gaza and Lebanon can never be be justified as 'defense'.

Alex Kim said...

I visited vynette's website. Here is the tagline of her blog:

"The Race is Run is systematically demolishing the entire doctrinal apparatus of the Christian Churches."

It is therefore clear that Karl is now employing his own people to comment on his posts so that he can pretend to respond to them. ;)

On a more serious note - humanity owes no nation anything more than it owes any nation. What a ridiculous statement to say that all of humankind is indebted to "the people who provided us with the likes of Moses and Jesus." A purely theological critique would remind our guest that Moses and Jesus were "provided" by God - it would be folly to lay earthly claim to either of them.

Justice must be done - certainly, Jewish peoples deserve justice - but what kind of justice is brought forth out of the suffering of others? No justice there - only retribution.