Hetz mod fattige og førtidspensionister

Forfatteren Laila Ammitsbøl studser over onlinedebatten om fattigdom og arbejdsløshed på Politiken.dk og citerer bl.a.:

– Fattigdom findes ganske enkelt ikke i DK! Pensioner og bistandshjælp o.a. er helt i det niveau de bør være. Folk skulle hellere tilbydes kursus i bedre forbrugsvaner og lære at sætte ‘tæring efter næring’.

– Forhøj hellere beskæftigelsesfradraget og så kan det være, at flere af nasserøvene gad lette røven og gå på arbejde!

– Hvis man giver “fattige” flere penge, vil man fastholde dem i “fattigdommen”

– Jeg GIIIDER ikke høre om, at alle disse 800.000 ikke KAN arbejde pga. psykiske og fysiske problemer!

– Alle som kan skal arbejde, og hvis de nægter, skal straffen falde prompte: Nul overførselsindkomst! Vi har ikke plads til parasitter her!

Dette skal sammenlignes med en virkelighed, der i løbet af de seneste års opsving er blevet stadig mere barsk for netop arbejdsløse og førtidspensionister, som Ammitsbøl påpeger. Udover klapjagten på de arbejdsløse, der tvinges ud i menings- og udsigtsløs aktivering, er de materielle forhold efterhånden endog meget stramme.

Som Laila Ammitsbøl skriver:

Der har været nogle år, hvor man konstant hørte om, hvor fantastisk det gik for danskerne. Ja, de kære danskere nærmest væltede sig i penge. De var faktisk så rige, at da de først havde købt flotte huse, fyldt garagen med store biler og hvert et værelse med 42” fladskærms-tv, fået lavet samtalekøkkener og luksusbadeværelser, var de nødt til at investere i kunst, fordi de simpelthen ikke vidste, hvad de ellers skulle bruge pengene til. Og ja, så var det de fik skattelettelser af statsministeren, så de fik endnu flere penge, de ikke vidste hvad de skulle stille op med.

I samme tidsrum oplevede førtidspensionister som jeg selv, at huslejen steg, fødevarerne steg, alting steg for der var jo rigtig gang i hjulene. Det eneste der slet ikke steg i samme takt var førtidspensionen, så mens resten af Danmark badede i pengesedler på bedste Joakim Von And -manér fik førtidspensionisterne sværere og sværere ved at få pengene til at slå til.

Nu skal vi så til at betale regningen. Efter de 7 fede år, kan vi nu forvente 7 magre, så nu må vi alle sammen stå sammen. Alle ”staklerne” der nu bliver helt nervøse for at forbruget skal sættes ned, skal have skattelettelser igen, igen, så krisen ikke kommer til at tynge for hårdt på deres brede skuldre. Pengene skal komme fra grønne afgifter, der selvfølgelig rammer uforholdsmæssigt hårdt hos de der har få penge, som f. eks førtidspensionisterne.

Nogle gange kan man få den bitre tanke, at vi sgu bare skal helt ned i skidtet. Så langt ned så vi ikke mere magter at åbne vores usle munde og ytre noget som helst.

Så nu, hvor krisen begynder at kradse og 500.000 danskere kan forvente at miste deres jobs, lader det til, at politikernes “løsning” er flere skattelettelser – og en strammet skrue overfor arbejdsløse og pensionister, der mere eller mindre uundgåeligt kastes ud i storstilet fattigdom; alt sammen taktfast akkompagneret af den “almindelige dansker”s småfascistiske foragt, som eksemplificeret af de kun alt for almindelige kommentarer fra Politiken.dk.

Det viser dog i hvert fald noget om den danske, eller i hvert fald den Dansk Folkeparti’ske folkesjæl: Hvis der ikke er nogen indvandrere, vi kan hade, skal der nok være nogle syge eller fattige, vi kan kaste os over i stedet. Fremtiden tegner sandelig lyst i disse recessionstider!

Kære arabiske masser: Tag den lidt med ro

Fayyad på KABOBfest har fået nok af de mange arabiske solidaritetsdemonstrationer med Gaza og palæstinenserne og opfordrer folk i den arabiske verden til at få orden på deres eget hus først i stedet for at bruge Gaza som alibi for følgagtighed og passivitet i det daglige:

Palestine appreciates your gestures of solidarity. But cut it out.

You are in no position to help us out, your speeches and demonstrations from rebellious gulf to the roaring ocean have never accomplished anything, so stop pretending that you are, or trying to.

You probably care, thank you, but you got your own issues to deal with, and frankly, stop using Palestine (albeit on a rhetorical level only) as an escape from facing your own issues.

You got more skeletons in your closet than a Halloween haunted house.

Almost all of you live under brutal dictatorships that treat you like shit; no rights, no dignity, and no freedoms. We live under brutal occupation that murders us by the thousands and robs our lands, rights, and freedoms.

But we know it. We resist. And for that we are more alive than you are. Through it all, we kept our dignity.

If you really want to do us favors, or help us, do yourselves a favor first. Clean up your house; rise up against injustices in your country. If not for yourselves, do it for us to show us that you’re masters of your own words and destinies.

Before you start enlisting in delusional programs to fight Israel with a volunteer army that will end up handing your names to your secrete police, and before you call on your governments to “open the gate for Jihad,” think about what your government stands for, whose interest it has at heart, and how many reform efforts it neutralized by letting you take to the streets one Friday afternoon to vent your anger against the Zionist enemy, only to be at your food, tea, shisha, or qatt gatherings by 5 pm.

True, we have our own share of corruption and dictatorship, at the first opportunity for people to choose, power-hungry, corrupt leaders turned against the choice of the people, and the people’s choice committed crimes and indulged in corruption when they had their chance, but it has not been easy for either of them, and we are under no illusions, we are not as presumptuous as to the point of going out in mass protests calling for the liberation of the people of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, or Saudi.

Please, clean your house up, and until then, don’t crowd the airwaves with your pointless drama, we got a case to make to the world.

Link: Dear Arabs, Just Chill Out

Israelsk historiker: Krigen i Gaza er en katastrofe

Avi Shlaim er professor i historie ved universitetet i Oxford og har altid været loyal overfor staten Israel, i hvis hær han gjorde tjeneste i 60erne.

Besættelsen af Gaza og Vestbredden og især den sidste tids angreb har dog fået filmen til at knække, skriver han i The Guardian:

The only way to make sense of Israel’s senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by “an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders”. I used to think that this judgment was too harsh but Israel’s vicious assault on the people of Gaza, and the Bush administration’s complicity in this assault, have reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security and everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories. And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.

Link: How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe

Israelsk kvinde: Denne krig er ikke i mit navn, ikke for min sikkerhed

Nedenunder følger en erklæring skrevet af Nomika Zion, medstifter af kibbutzen Migvan, programleder i Van Leer Jerusalem-centret og indbygger i Sderot, den by i Israel, som er hårdest ramt af Hamas’ Qassam-raketter.

Brevet er oversat til engelsk af aktivisten Assaf Oron og er oprindelig bragt på Daily Kos. Det bringes her i sin helhed, fordi det giver plads for en stemme, der ikke høres meget i mediebilledet. Kommentarer i [kantede paranteser] er indsat af oversætteren.

Sderot War Diary

Nomika Zion, Sderot, 8.1.09

“I talk with Sderot people and everyone’s cheeks are rosy again”, boasted Fuad on the war’s second day [Fuad is Benjamin Ben Eliezer, a long-time centrist Labor minister – Assaf]. “The heavier the blow we deliver – the more our hearts widen”.

Hey Fuad, not everyone. Even if I was the only one around Sderot feeling differently – and I am not – my voice should be heard.

Not in my name and not for me you went to war. The current bloodbath in Gaza is not in my name and not for my security. Destroyed homes, bombed schools, thousands of new refugees – are not in my name and not for my security. In Gaza there is no time for burial ceremonies now, the dead are put in refrigerators in twos, because there is no room. Here their bodies lay, policemen, children, and our nimble reporters play acrobatically with Hasbara strategies in view of “the images that speak for themselves”. Pray tell me, what is there to “explain”? [Hasbara literally means “explanation” – Assaf] What is there to explain?

I got myself neither security nor quiet from this war. After such an essential calm, that helped all of us heal emotionally and mentally and experience some sanity again [Nomika is referring here to the first 5 months of cease-fire, which were observed by both sides – Assaf] – our leaders have brought us back to the same wounded, anxiety-ridden place. To the same humiliating, terrified sprinting to shelter.

Don’t mistake me. Hamas is an evil, terrible terror organization. Not just for us. First and foremost to its own citizens. But beyond that wretched leadership there are human beings. With hard labor, ordinary people on both sides build small bridges of human gestures. This is what the Kol Aher, a group of people from Sderot and elsewhere on the Gaza border of which I am a member, has been doing. We have tried to lay down a human route to the hearts of our neighbors. While we have won a five-month calm, they continued to suffer under the siege. A young man told us he does not wish to marry and have kids, because in Gaza there is no future for children. A single airplane bomb drowns these human gestures in depths of blood and despair.

Qassams scare me. Since the war started, I almost didn’t dare cross the street. But even more frightening is the monolithic tone in our public sphere and our media, the unbreachable wall of jingoism. It scares me when my Kol Aher colleague is assaulted by other Sderotis, as he is interviewed and criticizes the war – and later receives anonymous phone threats and is afraid to return to his car. It scares me how little room there is for another voice, and how difficult it is to express it here. I am willing to pay the price of social isolation, but not the price of fear.

It scares me to see my city light up, celebrate and put up flags, and cheerleader squads hand out flowers on the streets, and people honk in glee at every one-ton bomb dropped on our neighbors. It scares me to hear the resident who happily admits that he has never been to a concert, but IDF’s bombing of Gaza is the best music he has ever heard. I am scared by the smug reporter interviewing him, who doesn’t challenge him even one bit.

It scares me that under the screen of Orwellian words, and the children’s corpses blurred on TV as a public service to us, we are losing the human ability to see the other side, to feel, to be shocked, to feel empathy. Under the codename ‘Hamas’, the media has created for us a huge dark demon with no face, no body and no voice. A million and a half people with no name.

A deep, dark stream of violence flows into the veins of Israeli society like a deadly disease, and it gets stronger from war to war. It has no smell and no shape, but we feel it very clearly here. It is a type of euphoria and trigger-happiness and joy of revenge and power-drunkenness and love of Mars, and the burial of the noble Jewish commandment: “when your enemy falls – do not celebrate”. Our morality is so polluted, so soiled now that it seems no washing will be able to remove the stains. Our democracy is so fragile, that you have to weigh every word in order to safeguard yourself.

The first time I felt the state is really protecting me, was when they got the ceasefire. I am not responsible for Hamas, and therefore I ask our own leaders: have you turned every stone in order to continue the calm? To extend the ceasefire? To use it to get a long-term agreement? To resolve the border-crossing and siege issues before they blow the whole thing up? Have you gone to the ends of the world looking for the right mediators? And why did you wave away, unblinkingly, the French ceasefire initiative after the war started? And why do you keep rejecting, to this very moment, every possible offer of negotiations? Do you think we have not reached our maximum Qassam quota here, that we can stand some more? That we have not yet reached the quota of killed Palestinian children that the world can stomach?

And who guarantees that Hamas can be toppled? Haven’t we tried this trick elsewhere? And who will come in its place? Global fundamentalist organizations? Al Qaeda? And how, from the heaps of rubble and hunger and cold and dead bodies, will moderate voices of peace grow? Where are you leading us? What future are you promising us here in Sderot?

And how much longer will you hang on our backs the tired old “backpack of lies” [cultural reference to a well-known book of 1948 war anecdotes – Assaf]: “there’s no one to talk with”, “it is a no-choice war”, “let the IDF finish the ‘job’”, “one good blow and we finish them”, “let’s topple the Hamas” and “who doesn’t want peace?”. The lies of brute force and the idiocy of even more brute force – your only guide for resolving the region’s problems.

And how come every hasty interview with a Kol Aher member, always begins and ends with the disdainful punch line by the reporter: “Don’t you think you are being naive?” How come the option of dialogue and negotiation and agreements and understandings, even with the worst of our enemies, has become a synonym for naivete, while the option of brute-force and war is always a wise, rational, ultimate one? Eight year of senseless cycle of bloodshed haven’t taught us anything about the futility of brute force? The IDF has slammed and shot and assassinated and razed and hit and missed and bombed – and what have we gotten in return? A rhetorical question, ain’t it.

It is extremely hard to live in Sderot nowadays. At night, the IDF pounds infrastructure and human beings, and our home walls shudder. By morning, we get Qassams – more sophisticated ones each time. A person going to work in the morning, does not know whether their home will be found standing by evening. At midday, we bury the best of our sons, who have paid with their lives for yet another “just” war. In the evening, after many difficulties, we manage to make contact with our desperate friends in Gaza. They have no electricity, no water, no gas, no food, nowhere to hide. And only the words of N., the 14-year-old whose school was bombed and whose classmate was killed, don’t leave my head. She writes us in perfect English, an email that her mom somehow managed to send:

“Help us, we are human beings after all”

No, Fuad, my cheeks are not rosy, they are not. A ton of Cast Lead is weighing on my heart, and my heart cannot contain it.

(translated from Hebrew by Assaf Oron)

Link: A Sderot Woman Speaks Out against Gaza Operation (via Lenin’s Tomb).

Død, dødekult og himmelråbende uvidenhed

Er Danmark i virkeligheden et provinsielt lorteland, et uvidende, tilbagestående bondesamfund, befolket af bønder, der er kommet til penge og blevet kræmmere, men stadig i hjertet er overbevist om, at livet er, som vor mor altid sagde det var, og at verden ender for enden af Lars Pæsens mark, og det ganske uanset, hvad alle de fine herrer fra Aarhus eller Kiöbenhawn mon finder på at sige?

Måske ikke, trods alt. Men det kan være svært at forestille sig et sted, hvor politiske positioner i den grad indtages og fastholdes uden nogen som helst viden om eller kendskab til det område, der dog er positionens genstand.

Et godt eksempel er klimaområdet, hvor forbløffende mange beslutter sig for det ene eller det andet uden så meget som at skele til de tilgængelige og forholdsvis let forståelige fakta i sagen.

På samme måde har jeg svært ved at forestille mig nogen steder, hvor den “borgerlige” fløj helt så kritikløst og ureflekteret sluger den israelske propaganda i sagen om den igangværende offensiv mod Gaza og endda selv supplerer denne propaganda med deres helt egne “kulturelle” indsigt i konfliktens og palæstinensernes natur, tilsyneladende helt uden nogen som helst historisk, kulturhistorisk, religionshistorisk eller for den sags skyld almenmenneskelig indsigt.

Et godt eksempel på det sidste er gårsdagens leder i 180 grader, der efter en vis formel beklagelse af den israelske brutalitet lægger skylden for de seneste rædsler på palæstinenserne, nærmere bestemt på den angivelige “dødskult” i det palæstinensiske samfund.

Hvordan det? Jo, palæstinenserne ærer deres døde, og de ærer de mennesker, der giver deres liv i kampen mod israelerne, som “martyrer”. Og på grund af denne “dødskult” sætter palæstinenserne altså sig selv op for de israelske angreb, lægger så at sige selv deres spædbørn under de frembrusende israelske tanks; eller, som lederskribenten i 180 grader udtrykker det:

Mens unge israelere drømmer om at blive iværksættere, og har rollemodeller i de iværksættere, der er nået på Nasdaq-indekset, drømmer store dele af den palæstinensiske ungdom i stedet om at blive martyrer, og har deres rollemodeller i de islamiske terrorister, som allerede har opgivet deres liv i kampen mod Israel.

Og her der det så, kæden i mine øjne hopper af. Der er krig, og de unge palæstinenseres land er besat af en tilsyneladende ganske brutal besættelsesmagt. Hvis modstandsfolk vækker beundring, kan det kun være svært at forstå, hvis vi samtidig vælger at være døve og blinde for vor egen historie.

Hvad siger vi f.eks. om de ganske få unge mænd, der blev dræbt under forsvaret af Danmark den 9. april 1940?

“De gav deres liv”. Og dem, der døde eller blev henrettet under modstandskampen? “De gav deres liv”, siger vi, som regel i beundring. Den italienske partisansang “Bella Ciao” handler om en ung mand, der går i døden med vidt åbne øjne og genopstår gennem de blomster, der spirer på hans grav.

Mindeparken i Århus indeholder navnene på tusinder af sydslesvigere, der faldt i 1. Verdenskrig. Det næste skridt, som ikke er den danske nationale tradition fremmed heller, er at håbe på at få lov til at være blandt de faldne, de heldige, der får lov at give deres liv for Fædrelandet. Dette er ikke nødvendigvis defaitisme á la “de levende skal misunde de døde”, men en dyrkelse af ofret og offerviljen.

Slår man op i en sangbog fra den danske nationalromantiske tradition, 1848 og 1864 og alt det dér, slår denne holdning én i møde fra sang efter sang, side op og side ned.

Den samme tankegang gennemsyrer den kristne martyrdyrkelse, hvilket kunne give sig absurde og nærmest komiske udslag: Under det mauriske herredømme i Spanien var straffen for blasfemi som regel døden (som den også var det i Danmark under Christian d. 4.).  I en periode havde man store problemer med “pseudomartyrer”: Ufordragelige kristne, som henvendte sig til den lokale dommer, udspyede de mest hårrejsende fornærmelser mod profeten og islam, som de kunne finde på, i håb om at få lov til at dø for deres tro og måske en dag blive helgenkåret. Begge håb blev dog i reglen gjort til skamme, det var naturligvis meget klogere at ignorere dem og bede de kristnes biskop om selv at få styr på sine tropper.

I Indien finder man en nationalistisk dyrkelse af den unge marxist Bhagat Singh, der gav sit liv i kampen mod englænderne, måske en slags pendant til den unge danske digter Morten Nielsen, der i hvert fald i min ungdom indgik i den officielle kanon over unge modstandsfolk, der gav deres liv i kampen for Danmark, og hvis eksempel man bør lægge sig på sinde. Under 1. Verdenskrig holdt man i England deciderede propaganda-vaudeviller, hvis formål var at få de unge mænd fra publikum til at melde sig, og hvor man også lagde vægt på det ærefulde i at give sit liv for sit land.

Digteren Rudyard Kipling deltog selv i hverve-shows med flag over det hele, hvilket vendte sig til sorg, da hans egen svagtseende søn ikke kom tilbage fra slaget om Loos. Han kunne dog trøste sig med, at hans søn havde givet sit liv som en mand, “lots of people are in our position, and it’s something to have bred a man”.

Mere generelt og mere rimeligt findes en sådan “dødskult” vel overalt, hvor man overhovedet har en forestilling om at arbejde eller kæmpe for noget, der er større end én selv. Vi mennesker er her kun på lånt tid, og vi kan alle sammen gå hen og dø den dag i morgen – vi kan håbe og tro, det kommer til at forholde sig anderledes, men vi har ingen “ret” til, at det skal forholde sig anderledes.  Hvis der er noget af blivende værdi, som vi gerne vil gøre for vores verden, vores land, vores gud eller vores børn, må vi altså hellere se at komme i gang nu, for ellers kan det let være for sent. I morgen kommer måske ikke.

Og hvis der er noget af blivende værdi, som vi kan gøre for vores verden, vores land, vores gud eller vores børn, som kræver, at vi selv giver eller risikerer vores liv, er der så nødvendigvis tale om en “dødskult”? Næppe – og det er da heller ikke den officielle linje, når vi taler  om de unge mænd, der desværre ganske meningsløst ofrer deres liv i Afghanistan.

Snarere er der tale om, at der er ting, vi anser for større end os selv, og at det kan være nødvendigt at sætte os selv ind som indsats. Men dette er en almenmenneskelig erfaring. Den egentlige  tragedie i Mellemøstkonflikten er måske snarere, at Israel efterhånden har begået så mange forbrydelser mod den palæstinensiske civilbefolkning, at hadet til Israel for mange bliver større end den enkeltes eget liv. Men måske vi skulle vente, til vi selv har set vores far, mor, søster og bror myrdet for de indkommende bomber, før vi dømmer dem for det.

Og lad os, for nu at slutte hvor jeg begyndte, som nation begynde at tænke før vi taler, så vi ikke kommer til at spilde mere af vores tid og kostbare opmærksomhed på uvidende idioter som 180 graders lederskribent.

Styrkeforhold

Sådan ser det ud, når en af Hamas’ hjemmelavede Qassam-raketter rammer en vej i Israel:

I virkeligheden lander de selvfølgelig oftest på marker og i krat, langt fra veje og anden bebyggelse.

Sådan ser det ud, når et af Israels amerikanskproducerede missiler rammer jorden i Gaza:

I virkeligheden lander de selvfølgelig oftest på boliger, skoler, moskeer eller bygninger, som hæren først har bedt civile søge tilflugt i.

Styrkeforholdet mellem Israel og Gaza er cirka som mellem en toptrænet, hårdtpumpet jægersoldat med håndgranat i hånden og et maskingevær over skulderen og en femårig med bind for øjnene og hænderne bundet på ryggen, for nu at bygge videre på Ramis glimrende analogi:

Israel is a big guy, hitting a small kid really hard, despite that the little kid might strike back with a hit or two. That is why Israel will always been seen with rolling eyes and people will have a hard time understanding their rhetorics, which really insult any intelligence on this planet.

To Israelis, I am tired of your rhetorics, but I pity you for having to live by your own propaganda machines. I am tired of Israelis who will always believe that they are victims no matter how advanced they have become in all walks of lifes and no matter how many years its been since their horrific tragedies. How many noble prizes would it take to find one single solution? 60 years and we still have no substantial solution in the horizon.

Som Rami også skriver, må araberne i almindelighed og Hamas i særdeleshed naturligvis indstille sig på, at Israel er kommet for at blive. Men ikke desto mindre – hvor meget skal vi sympatisere med den bevæbnede bølles hylen og jamren, fordi den femårige med bind for øjnene nogle gange får et spark ind mod skinnebenet?

Via KABOBfest.

Palæstinas tragedie: Quislingen Abbas knuser fredelig protest mod invasionen i Gaza

Den palæstinensiske “præsident” Mahmoud Abbas eller Abu Mazen har efterhånden udviklet sig til en helt åbenlys kollaboratør og håndlanger for Israel.

Han har egenhændigt udvidet sin præsidentperiode med et år, selvom den egentlig skulle være endt allerede nu. Reelt sidder han alene på Israels og USAs nåde og barmhjertighed, holdt ved magten bl.a. af en personlig “livgarde” i form af en sikkerhedsstyrke, der er uddannet i Jordan for Bush-regeringens penge.

Mohammad fra KABOBfest bor i Ramallah og sender denne øjenvidneberetning om det palæstinensiske “selvstyres” fremfærd mod en fredelig demonstration:

I was hoping that today the PA, in light of the continuing atrocity, would be a bit more understanding of the people’s needs to express their solidarity with their own brethren in the beleaguered Strip. As ever, Mahmoud Abbas and his thugs disappointed me. And today they seemed intent on putting the boot in.

I left the house after Friday prayers with my mom, walking past Mahmoud Abbas’ headquarters, the Muqata’a. The streets were filled, as they were last Friday, with hundreds of Presidential Guards, the Jordanian-trained, American funded security force of the PA (whom are repeatedly told during training that ‘you are not here to fight the occupation’. They were clad in body armor, black tops, black helmets, balaclavas, fatigues, automatic weapons and batons. As I walked past, I thought of how pathetic these men were, heavily armed and armored, tasked with policing non-violent citizens, while in Gaza the men of the resistance were standing their ground against Israeli tanks, artillery, war planes, helicopters, warships and special forces. That observation is not lost on the vast majority of Palestinians, no matter their political affiliation.

[A group of] women were chanting slogans supporting Hamas. They weren’t attacking anybody else, just supporting the group currently bearing the brunt of the fight against the Zionist oppressors. The security forces in Ramallah, however, rely on security collaboration with the Israeli occupation for their salaries. They forced the women onto the narrow sidewalk, barricading them on all sides. I found a former classmate from university watching from the side. He confirmed that they women were being pinned back by the police. I sarcastically exclaimed that they must be a huge security threat to the state. He told me, in English, to keep silent, and gestured around him. All around us, we could see security men in plainclothes, talking over radios or into microphones embedded into their jacket collars. They were reporting the approximate number of demonstrators and what the women were saying.

Suddenly, a huge open-bed truck rolled down the market street from Manara Square. It was full of young men, holding high flags and posters. Many jaws dropped open as the truck moved closer. The flags being waved at the front were Fatah, Palestinian and Egyptian flags.

Egyptian flags? Were they showing their solidarity with Hosni Mubarak, who had ordered the Rafah crossing closed as the Gaza Strip was turned into a death camp? The Egyptian government is extremely unpopular here for the way it has treated Gazans and its open collusion with Israel. The truck’s presence seemed to indicate something dark was about to happen. And it did.

The men, about 100 of them, dropped down from the truck, holding up pictures of Mahmoud Abbas and posters of a quote he made last week in his pathetic address to the people of the Gaza Strip: ‘Our blood and your blood is one’. They moved straight towards the women trapped on the corner and began screaming “With our souls, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you, Abu Mazen!”

It was a deliberate provocation. The men had the right to chant what they wanted, but everybody knew they were trying to provoke the women, especially since Abbas had done absolutely nothing to stop the slaughter, and in fact had blamed it on the victims. It wasn’t just the Hamas women they were provoking.

They moved right up to the women, bypassing the police and hurling the vilest insults. I noticed they were all holding clubs, sticks and batons. Without warning, they brought them all to use. About ten of the men began attacking the 50 year old man who was leading the chants with the women. It was savage. With several other concerned bystanders, I ran to stand between them and the man, but they had, for absolutely no reason, turned vicious, hitting us to get to the man. We managed to hold them off for a few seconds, just so he could escape, but as he did one of the thugs blindsided him with a blow to the forehead. The man staggered forward, blood streaming from a gash in his head. Someone was screaming that the cameras should be recording this. It was true. Manara Square was full of TV cameras, but none had bothered to record the vicious beating.

Der er mere –  meget mere. Abbas’ præsidentperiode udløb i går, men han har som sagt og i strid med loven forlænget den et helt år; reelt et kup, understøttet og accepteret af hans herrer i Tel Aviv og Washington. Han er en diktator, der beskytter besættelsesmagten mod upassende fredelige demonstrationer, mod til gengæld at bevare sin egen magt og den gennemkorrupte Fatah-bevægelses privilegier.

Og for hans folk? Israel synes ikke indstillet på at gengælde Abbas’ imødekommenhed med nogen som helst form for indrømmelser eller mildning af besættelsens vilkår. I stedet må de almindelige palæstinensere leve videre, undertrykt af en morderisk besættelsesmagt på den ene side og en forræderisk diktator på den anden. Tragedien er sandelig komplet, og med Rune Engelbreths ord er der meget lidt grund til optimisme.

Link: Ramallah pours on the fuel as Gaza burns

Hvorfor ophavsretten skal reformeres – Lawrence Lessig i Colbert Report

Colbert: You say our copyright laws are turning our kids into criminals, because they’re keeping kids from doing all the remixing they want of pre-existing art and copywritten material, right?

Isn’t that like saying that arson laws are turning our kids into pyromaniacs?? They’re breaking the law! You can’t just throw the law out the window!

Lessig: “Totally failed war.” Is that familiar to you?

Colbert: No. No. You’re saying we need a surge?

Lessig: We tried the surge. For ten years we’ve been waging this war. Artists have not gotten any more money, businesses have not gotten any more profit, and our kids have been turned into criminals.

Via Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Gaza: Racisme og selvretfærdigt raseri

Gideon Levy i Ha’aretz:

Racism and hatred are rearing their heads, as is the impulse for revenge and the thirst for blood. The “inclination of the commander” in the Israel Defense Forces is now “to kill as many as possible,” as the military correspondents on television describe it.

The unbridled aggression and brutality are justified as “exercising caution”: the frightening balance of blood – about 100 Palestinian dead for every Israeli killed, isn’t raising any questions, as if we’ve decided that their blood is worth one hundred times less than ours, in acknowledgement of our inherent racism.

Rightists, nationalists, chauvinists and militarists are the only legitimate bon ton in town…

Anyone who justifies this war also justifies all its crimes. Anyone who sees it as a defensive war must bear the moral responsibility for its consequences. Anyone who now encourages the politicians and the army to continue will also have to bear the mark of Cain that will be branded on his forehead after the war. All those who support the war also support the horror.

Link: The time of the righteous

Om Israels PR-krig og hvorfor de taber den

Problemet for er ikke, at den israelske regering ikke har gode PR-folk, men at de ikke har en god sag, skriver Gideon Lichfield i Ha’aretz:

I frequently get asked by Israelis, “why aren’t we winning the PR war? Why don’t people understand that this is what we have to do?” Many are convinced that there is something wrong with Israeli hasbara (public advocacy), that the spokespeople aren’t effective enough, or that the Palestinians have a huge and demonically efficient propaganda machine.

When I hear this I have to explain that Israeli hasbara is so sophisticated that there is still no adequate word for it in English; that some of Israel’s spokespeople could talk the hind legs off a donkey and then persuade the donkey to dance the hora, and that the Palestinians barely even know what a spokesman is, let alone be able to provide one who is available when he needs to be and knows anything about what is actually going on. So why isn’t Israel winning the PR war?

The question the foreign media really wants answered is invariably not “who’s in the right?” but “how will this round of fighting improve the overall situation?” And on that point, Israel never has a convincing argument. Given the country’s long history of engaging in wars that kill many more of its enemies than its own citizens but only buy a few months or years of calm, it’s a tough call to explain how this latest escapade will change the strategic balance, bring peace and prevent the need for another such bloodbath further down the line. Often that’s because there is in fact no good reason.

Og det er vel bl.a. derfor, det nuværende angreb på Gaza ikke synes at virke. Hvad er strategien? At “udslette Hamas”? Det er ikke så let, ser det ud til. At svække deres opbakning? Omfattende drab på uskyldige civile svækker faktisk ikke opbakningen til dem, hvis hovedbudskab er, at de vil slå igen.

Israel ser ud til at følge den samme kurs som ved invasionen af Libanon i 2006, hvor det lykkedes at bruge en knusende militær overmagt og betingelsesløs opbakning fra verdens eneste supermagt til at lægge Libanon i ruiner og samtidig påføre sig selv et ydmygende militært og politisk nederlag.

Det er svært at se, hvordan den nuværende invasion af Gaza kan ende anderledes.

Link: Israel’s PR war