I am surprised and disappointed to see that Bob from Brockley - a normally sensible left-wing blogger - appears to have embraced the one state solution. The reasons he offers are the following:
Many of my friends on the anti-anti-Zionist left think that the one state solution is essentially equivalent to the genocidal destruction of the Jewish nation. They argue that the Arabs (who have demography on their side, and formidable military allies in the form of the Saudis, Iran and so on) have proven themselves unable to share space with Jews. I reject this fatalistic view, and having recently been in Northern Ireland am more confident than ever that we can forge our own futures if we unshackle our imaginations. It feels to me that the idea of the two state solution [I think this must be a typo and that he means “one state solution”. Otherwise the rest of the text makes no sense] is steadily gaining ground, not just among the hardcore advocates of a “free Palestine”, but among younger Jews in both Israel and the diaspora. This slow awakening comes with a growing sense that another Zionism is possible, and a recovery of the memory of pre-1948 Zionism, the Zionism of Ahad Ha’am, Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Joseph Trumpledor, AD Gordon and Judah Magnes, which called for a “national home” for the Jews and not necessarily a nation-state. By the way, I have at various other times in my life called for a one state solution also for South Africa, Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Ireland and Cyprus.
On Monday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan received the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. Past recipients of the award named for the Libyan dictator include such renowned human rights abusers as former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
It’s hardly shocking that in a world where countries like Libya win seats on the UN Human Rights Council and Saudi Arabia is elected to a seat on the board of UN Women, that Gaddafi had the chutzpah to name a human rights honor after himself. However, I’m amazed that Erdogan can accept such a prize with a straight face. While he has proclaimed himself a champion against injustice, he is in reality the head of a country that sponsors the illegal occupation of northern Cyprus, persecutes its own Kurdish minority and has an appalling record on freedom of the press.
Monday’s award ceremony speaks not only to Turkey’s further movement away from the family of democratic nations and closer to totalitarian ones in the Muslim world, but also to Erdogan’s willingness to simply ignore reality. To claim he is a defender of human rights is simply absurd. It’d be fine if he lived in a fantasy world, but alas he lives in this real world, where he spends an inordinate amount of time slamming Israel for perceived rights abuses, while ignoring the actual crimes of his friends and neighbors. It comes as no surprise that in the recently released WikiLeaks, U.S. diplomats described Erdogan as a “fundamentalist” who “simply hates Israel.”
Libya giving the Turkish PM an award for human rights is like Exxon giving BP an award for environmental safety standards. It would be funny, if it weren’t true.
In earlier posts we’ve established that the Catholic Kingdom of Spain can never be a state for all its citizens and must immediately become the subject of a campaign of boycott, disinvestment and sanctions until it agrees to dissolve itself and be replaced by a multi-religious, multi-cultural Federation of Iberian Regions.
Last week the Turkish production company behind the disturbing “Valley of the Wolves” movies, released the trailer for the third installment of the series.
Turkish-Israeli relations have fallen to their lowest point in the months following the flotilla dispatched to Gaza by the pro-Hamas Islamist charity IHH. Joint military exercises have been canceled, Israeli tourism to Turkey has dropped by 90 per cent and Turkish officials have threatened “irreparable consequences” to relations between the two countries. Into this breach has stepped Greece.
There are human rights problems in many parts of the world and not everybody can take an interest in all of them. So you couldn’t, for example, reasonably criticize the Free Burma Campaign for not being concerned about the rights of indigenous people in Chile, that’s not what it’s for. However, if a group goes out of its way to spit in the face of one group of victims of human rights abuses in order, in its own view, to help members of a separate group with different problems then you can reasonably question its motives.
The view is widely held that Turkey is ruled by a moderate Islamist party, the AKP, that is committed to democracy and integration with Europe and that it is the old secular elite that stands in the way of modernization and human rights. Many also believe that the decline in Israel’s previously good relations with Turkey can be explained entirely by Israel’s assault on the Mavi Marmara.
Over at savedarfur.org, Megan Flemming explains the arrest warrant issued yesterday against the Butcher of Khartoum, Omar Hasan al-Bashir:
The judges found that there are reasonable grounds to believe al-Bashir is responsible for three counts of genocide committed against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
Here are some good suggestions of action you can take to assist the process of bringing al-Bashir to a prison cell. Why should you? Here’s the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Louis Moreno Ocampo:
This recording was made by Iara Lee on the Mavi Marmara. She managed to smuggle it past the Israeli authorities on a memory chip. Look at it yourself and see what you think but what occurs to me about it is the following:
Here’s a worthwhile piece from the Armenian Weekly which contains the photograph below, taken at a demonstration in Istanbul on June 5, in which the placard declares, “Legendary leader Adolf Hitler, our patience is running out, we need your spirit.”
How long before the flotillistas and their cheerleaders claim this image was faked?
But let us look beyond the Mavi Marmara. Though Israelis and Palestinians get most of the limelight, much of the script is written elsewhere. The newest entrant in the larger drama is Turkey, where the flotilla was financed and put to sea. Ankara’s fierce response to the incident was a rallying cry to the region.
Next to Iran, Nato member Turkey is now the biggest headache for the west. With Egypt sinking into torpor and Riyadh firmly ensconced on the fence between Washington and Tehran, Turkey has seen the leadership of the region up for grabs - and is going for it. It has drawn Syria into its orbit and has reached a nuclear deal with Iran, its rival for hegemony.
What better way to pursue this end than to lead a crusade against the Jewish state? Going after the “Little Satan” is the card that trumps them all, and it embarrasses the “Great Satan” to boot. The real game is about dominance at the expense of America, which US President Barack Obama has yet to grasp. Neither has Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. Sailing into the Turkish trap was a blunder worthy of General Custer at Little Big Horn.
A provocative, brilliantly-argued piece by Josef Joffe from the Financial Times, which in publishing it has done something to mend its growing reputation for Robert Fiskesque editorials on the Middle East.
The dominant narrative of Zionist storm troopers massacring innocent peace activists on the Mavi Marmara is now so well established that no amount of evidence supporting Israel’s version of events is likely to make any difference. Still, it seems to impossible not to comment on this series of photos published by the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet.
You are an experienced journalist and you have a column in a major newspaper. You interview a powerful man who talks of his fine moral instincts and how the pain suffered by others in foreign countries affects him. How do you react?
Reza Aslan, a California-based academic, has been speaking to Jimmy Carter about the Middle East. It is the kind of interview which all politicians dream about. Aslan bolsters rather than challenges Carter, leading him to his favorite topics and themes with dutifully worded questions. Two of Carter’s answers actually commence with the words, “That’s exactly right.”
