I shed a tear And I saw a tear A Jewish one And a palestinian one I saw tears of all kinds And I shed mine without natoinality I cried And my bitter tears fell over my protesting lips I wept, I admit I do not know for whom I wept for the victims of falsehood I wept for the victims of reality I wept bitter tears not just for them but for me and us I weep everyday not for the distant Arab or Jew but for me and us I weep everyday for "We The People" The greatest force ever BEETA
Interesting video, Joe. A couple of points stick out.
I am still shocked by the practice of destroying trees. On of the oldest examples of the Law of War is Deutoronlmy 20:19.
"When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?"
Admittedly, it refers to sieges, rather than counter-insurgency, but the reasoning seems to apply.
However, much of the video seems to be overreaching.
There is a theme of Israel being the "only" country that does a number of things. Some of these may not be quite correct.
Israel is not the only country with iron gates across roads. The Don Valley Parkway in Toronto has iron gates across its on ramps. I admit that the gates shown in the video are more impressive.
The "human cages" look like the ordinary turnstiles in the subway stations of the Toronto Transit Commission.
Political parties in some of the former Soviet republics have advocated removal of ethnic Russians out of a similar fear of submergence.
The imprisonment of children for political reasons is occasionally practised by (sorry) the USA. Apart from the Khadr boy who was sent to Gitmo at the age of 15, there is at least one Canadian boy in the immigration interment camp in Texas because his parents' papers were not in order. He is a Canadian-born citizen; it avails him naught.
I would be the last to deny that Israel's actions are often pretty close to the line, and sometimes over it. There are two things that should be remembered, though.
First, they do have some remarkable institutions that are unique in the region. Their supreme court, for example, has outlawed torture and has stated that there are legal limits on "targeted killings," based on the Geneva and Hague Conventions.
Secondly, it is regretable but true that they are not really unique in a lot of these things.
Insulting the host is grounds for non-publication of a comment. I let this one go through to demonstrate the thuggishness of some Israel apologists. Note that our correspondent is bravely anonymous. The megaphonies are at work again, methinks...
Joseph, I understand why you let Jim's and anon's comments to be published(accourding to your new rules about commenting, niether one broke any major rules)however, Jim in a round about way managed to defend Israel's actions where anon merely called the whole thing insane. How is Jim's comments any less insulting than anon's? I responded emotionally, I admit, but with no angle, left or right. these other two, clearly have a major tilt. And yet one gets your wrath and the other gets a pass.
What's worse than the actions of Israel as documented here is the fact of the United States' enabling, condoning, supplying and financing the means by which these things are done.
The situation with Israel's illegal use of US-supplied cluster weapons (close to a million were fired off) in Lebanon is a good example. Such use has in the past been the occasion of a 6-year ban on shipping such weapons to Israel (back in Reagan's administration, perhaps the only thing I've agree with Reagan on except indexing the income tax brackets). US law is clear, and should actually require the US to cease shipping weaponry to Israel at all, considering how they use it, and sell off knock-offs to China.
However, in craven obeisance to The Lobby and its billionaires club, which provides financing of well over half of the Democratic Party's financing, and a large percentage of the GOP's financing, Congress turns a blind eye to such lawless behaviors.
Well, this is unanticipated. beeta says that I defend Israel's actions? I was clearly less clear than I wanted to be. I do not defend or condemn Israel (except for my statement that their actions are sometimes over the line), at least in this post. My thought was that the video itself falls into the common trap of overstating its point and I tried to point out some examples. This, regardless of your angle on the dispute, is a mistake. It means that openminded people will see it and think, "Well, that's not right!" and disregard everything in it. It is sometimes compared to the 13th stroke of the clock; not only is it disbelieved, but it casts everything else you have heard in doubt.
As Milton (?) said, you can harm the truth be stating it badly.
I hope I was not insulting. I pointed out some facts in as neutral a way as I could manage. If this was offensive, I apologize.
8 comments:
thanks for this video !
I shed a tear
And I saw a tear
A Jewish one
And a palestinian one
I saw tears of all kinds
And I shed mine
without natoinality
I cried
And my bitter tears fell
over my protesting lips
I wept, I admit
I do not know for whom
I wept for the victims of falsehood
I wept for the victims of reality
I wept bitter tears not just for them but for me and us
I weep everyday
not for the distant Arab or Jew
but for me and us
I weep everyday for "We The People"
The greatest force ever
BEETA
Interesting video, Joe. A couple of points stick out.
I am still shocked by the practice of destroying trees. On of the oldest examples of the Law of War is Deutoronlmy 20:19.
"When you lay siege to a city for a long time, fighting against it to capture it, do not destroy its trees by putting an ax to them, because you can eat their fruit. Do not cut them down. Are the trees of the field people, that you should besiege them?"
Admittedly, it refers to sieges, rather than counter-insurgency, but the reasoning seems to apply.
However, much of the video seems to be overreaching.
There is a theme of Israel being the "only" country that does a number of things. Some of these may not be quite correct.
Israel is not the only country with iron gates across roads. The Don Valley Parkway in Toronto has iron gates across its on ramps. I admit that the gates shown in the video are more impressive.
The "human cages" look like the ordinary turnstiles in the subway stations of the Toronto Transit Commission.
Political parties in some of the former Soviet republics have advocated removal of ethnic Russians out of a similar fear of submergence.
The imprisonment of children for political reasons is occasionally practised by (sorry) the USA. Apart from the Khadr boy who was sent to Gitmo at the age of 15, there is at least one Canadian boy in the immigration interment camp in Texas because his parents' papers were not in order. He is a Canadian-born citizen; it avails him naught.
I would be the last to deny that Israel's actions are often pretty close to the line, and sometimes over it. There are two things that should be remembered, though.
First, they do have some remarkable institutions that are unique in the region. Their supreme court, for example, has outlawed torture and has stated that there are legal limits on "targeted killings," based on the Geneva and Hague Conventions.
Secondly, it is regretable but true that they are not really unique in a lot of these things.
Jim
insane video and you are insane for posting it
Insulting the host is grounds for non-publication of a comment. I let this one go through to demonstrate the thuggishness of some Israel apologists. Note that our correspondent is bravely anonymous. The megaphonies are at work again, methinks...
Joseph,
I understand why you let Jim's and anon's comments to be published(accourding to your new rules about commenting, niether one broke any major rules)however, Jim in a round about way managed to defend Israel's actions where anon merely called the whole thing insane.
How is Jim's comments any less insulting than anon's?
I responded emotionally, I admit, but with no angle, left or right.
these other two, clearly have a major tilt.
And yet one gets your wrath and the other gets a pass.
sofla said...
What's worse than the actions of Israel as documented here is the fact of the United States' enabling, condoning, supplying and financing the means by which these things are done.
The situation with Israel's illegal use of US-supplied cluster weapons (close to a million were fired off) in Lebanon is a good example. Such use has in the past been the occasion of a 6-year ban on shipping such weapons to Israel (back in Reagan's administration, perhaps the only thing I've agree with Reagan on except indexing the income tax brackets). US law is clear, and should actually require the US to cease shipping weaponry to Israel at all, considering how they use it, and sell off knock-offs to China.
However, in craven obeisance to The Lobby and its billionaires club, which provides financing of well over half of the Democratic Party's financing, and a large percentage of the GOP's financing, Congress turns a blind eye to such lawless behaviors.
Well, this is unanticipated. beeta says that I defend Israel's actions? I was clearly less clear than I wanted to be. I do not defend or condemn Israel (except for my statement that their actions are sometimes over the line), at least in this post. My thought was that the video itself falls into the common trap of overstating its point and I tried to point out some examples. This, regardless of your angle on the dispute, is a mistake. It means that openminded people will see it and think, "Well, that's not right!" and disregard everything in it. It is sometimes compared to the 13th stroke of the clock; not only is it disbelieved, but it casts everything else you have heard in doubt.
As Milton (?) said, you can harm the truth be stating it badly.
I hope I was not insulting. I pointed out some facts in as neutral a way as I could manage. If this was offensive, I apologize.
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