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

4 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. :-)

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.