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To talk or not to talk thats the question

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To talk or not to talk, that’s the question

Posted on:  2009-01-06 08:29:42

  While pro-Palestinians have been urging the South African government to cut all diplomatic ties and trade links with Israel in response to the war on Gaza, some social commentators say this would not help the situation since it closes the door to dialogue. It has become the centre of a continuing local debate on the issue with other commentators vehemently objecting to continuing ties between the two countries.

Speaking to VOC last week, founder of the Gift of the Givers (Waqful Waqifin) humanitarian organization, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said while it was understandable why Muslims became emotional about the Palestinian crisis, it appeared to be a concern that did not extend to non-Muslims. When other communities are affected, he said, Muslims tended to take an ostrich approach by burying their heads in the sand.

 

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Hold Isarael to the same standard of civilised conduct as other lands

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Hold Israel to the same standard of civilised conduct as other lands

Mondli Makhanya

As we hugged, kissed, shook hands and made merry on Wednesday night, Gaza was bleeding.

•  Israel pummels the Gaza Strip
•  Gaza’s awful toll on Israel’s soul
•  Gaza’s Bloodiest Days

About 400 of the Palestinian territory’s people had been killed, and more than 2000 had been severely injured during what must rank as one of the most heartless military operations in recent years.

A further 1.5 million were in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the attacks and an ongoing blockade by Israel.

Since last Saturday, the people of Gaza have been subjected to non-stop bombardment by the Israeli military, ostensibly in retaliation for rocket attacks by Hamas militants. Israel’s response to the “provocation” amounted to a steroid-pumped heavyweight boxer arriving to fight an anaemic midget armed with steel-lined boxing gloves.

 

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The Gaza crisis and the perspective of permanent revolution

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 The Gaza crisis and the perspective of permanent revolution


30 December 2008

The onslaught against Gaza has provoked popular outrage throughout the Middle East and around the world, even as governments in the Arab world and elsewhere have lined up to provide justifications for this US-Israeli war crime.

Israel’s declaration of "all-out war" against a largely defenseless and half-starved population of 1.5 million people imprisoned in a blockaded strip of land justifiably provokes fury and revulsion. So too do the hypocritical and lying reports of the mass media, which incessantly describe Israel’s aerial blitz against apartment blocks, police stations, universities, mosques and office buildings as an act of "self defense," while equating the occupied with the occupiers and ineffectual homemade rockets with US-supplied F-16s, Hellfire missiles and "smart bombs."

Yet moral outrage and condemnation of Israel are by no means a sufficient answer to the atrocities in Gaza. What is required above all is a political perspective.

 

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Egypt too powerless and corrupt to act

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Robert Fisk: The Rotten State of Egypt is Too Powerless and Corrupt to Act

 
There was a day when we worried about the "Arab masses" – the millions of "ordinary" Arabs on the streets of Cairo, Kuwait, Amman, Beirut – and their reaction to the constant bloodbaths in the Middle East. Could Anwar Sadat restrain the anger of his people?
 
And now – after three decades of Hosni Mubarak – can Mubarak (or "La Vache Qui Rit", as he is still called in Cairo) restrain the anger of his people? The answer, of course, is that Egyptians and Kuwaitis and Jordanians will be allowed to shout in the streets of their capitals – but then they will be shut down, with the help of the tens of thousands of secret policemen and government militiamen who serve the princes and kings and elderly rulers of the Arab world.
 

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