New Year, New Hope?
With the dawn of a New Year is there any reason to hope that it will see real progress on ending the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel and stopping the countdown to catastrophe for all?
I can see only one reason. It’s in the fact that the Zionist state has become its own worst enemy. (Some will say thank goodness for that because with the Arab regimes as enemies, Israel doesn’t need friends!)
It has long been my view that Israel is its own worst enemy, but as we say goodbye and good riddance to 2009, it’s obvious that more and more so-called ordinary people of the world are becoming outraged by the Zionist state’s arrogance of power, its contempt for international law and, most of all, its brutal repression of the Palestinians.
When governments are complicit in Zionism’s crimes (more by default than design I say because they are terrified of offending Zionism too much), does it really matter what the peoples of the world think?
Yes, it does, but it’s really a question of numbers. In the Western world, governments are not going to change their approach to Israel until enough of their citizens, the voters, insist that they do.
When friends tell me I am naïve for believing that government policy could be changed by manifestations of people power, they rest their case on what happened in the UK when, under the leadership of the deluded Tony Blair, it was preparing to go to war in Iraq with the moronic “Dubya” Bush’s America.
Up to two million citizens of all faiths and none and all classes demonstrated against the idea of war. Blair and his government ignored them.
That’s true but it’s not the whole story. We now know from the accounts of some of Blair’s ministers at the time that the demonstration caused his government to “wobble”.
The conclusion that invites is surely this. If three or better still four million people had demonstrated against the war, Blair would have been obliged to say to Bush, “Sorry, George, I can’t do it.”
It really is a question of numbers.
The more we citizens become politically engaged in the struggle for justice for the Palestinians, the less our governments will be able to dance to Zionism’s tune.
Amir Fahmi:
December 31st, 2009 at 10:52 pm
1. As support for the Zionist regime is dwindling with time, the regime itself is getting more paranoia which is dangerous. They could take steps which put the entire Middle East in harm’s way. And the only way for America to stop them is by the US military launching a coup detat against the US government.
2. As for Bush & Blair, these two war criminals are getting richer by giving talks around the world.
Nilo:
January 1st, 2010 at 3:17 am
I’d like to agree completely with the analysis given, that the numbers of people voicing their anger against our government here and the US can and will yield the change necessary to bring about the change of tide against injustices against the Palestinian people.
mary:
January 1st, 2010 at 3:42 am
I am wondering how many wars the US must get involved in before the people wake up and say they’ve had enough. Every day I wonder why they seem to be OK with killing so many of their fellow human beings without any clear and plausible explanation as to why. The “terror” excuse is nonsensical, and what about Israel? Why are they continuing to be supported to the tune of more than $3billion per year for the next 10 years? It is President Obama following in the footsteps of his predecessors; there is no change in anything since he took office. George W. Bush, the “moronic” president, has a successor no less stupid.
ConcernedCitizen:
January 1st, 2010 at 6:11 pm
New Year New Hope
Faith Freedom International
Anti-zionist Mohareb:
January 1st, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Yes, numbers do matter but we need numbers that are properly informed. Americans are in desperate need of truthful knowledge about how extensively has Israeli criminal mafia penetrated the power producing machinery of their country. The Chief of Staff of President Obama, Rohm Emanuel, served in the Israeli armed forces during the first Gulf War. His father was a member of the Irgun. David Axelrod, Obama’s senior advisor, is a Zionist. The American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPC) effectively controls the U. S. Congress.
U. S. citizens are in desperate need of education about the domination of America by Israel. For all practical purposes USA is the United States of Aesrael. Large numbers alone will not help. Large numbers of Americans must be informed about the dominations of their media and educational, political, economic, and military institutions by powerful Zionist interests. The unqualified American support for criminal Israel will quickly head south if the contents of the following books found their way to the thinking and institutional spaces of the American polity: Norman Finkelstein, 2000, The Holocaust Industry; Norman Finkelstein, 2005, Beyond Chutzpah; John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, 2007, The Israeli Lobby and U. S. Foreign Policy; Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair (eds), 2003, The Politics of Anti-Semitism.
New Year, New Hope? By Alan Hart « Kanan48:
January 2nd, 2010 at 2:04 am
[...] Year, New Hope? By Alan Hart 2010 January 1 by kanan48 Via: Alan Hart. With the dawn of a New Year is there any reason to hope that it will see real progress on ending [...]
mary:
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:23 pm
We need numbers of people who are also effectively organized. It would not matter if millions of Americans wanted to shut down the Zionist lobby unless they are formed into a bloc of voters with a clear agenda to do just that. They must be changed into activists for this purpose. So many Americans are either not interested in our political system, or they are apathetic to it. So it’s a matter of getting them motivated and activated.
Anti-zionist Mohareb:
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:32 pm
In her 1.1.10 commentary Mary asks the central question about the American popular dark minded stupor. The American Zionist controlled media and educational system has done a masterful job in constructing this disabling ideology. The Zionist orientation of the American power machine will not change unless this cleverly crafted scam is not thoroughly exposed.
mary:
January 3rd, 2010 at 4:24 pm
I also think television is one of the worst things that ever happened to the human race in that it has made so many people into passive subjects who simply sit in front of it and absorb its vivid images and intense entertainment. It has changed the way people relate to one another; how often do people engage in conversations with one another as opposed to sitting mutely in front of the TV? Instead of our minds being stimulated by our discourse with one another, so many of us merely allow ourselves to be spoonfed our opinions (if we bother to have any). Democracy requires activism, but TV discourages it. So does consumerism – it convinces a person that their wants and desires are more important than the common good.
The Zionist lobby is only successful because people are so apathetic. And the Congress is so easily bought, because we don’t vote out the criminals and elect good honest people. We do not exercise our power as citizens, and we are certainly losing it.
rosemary spiota:
January 4th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
all the best to you Alan.continue the good work. I have just bought “The Politics of Antisemitism” and Kathy Kelly’s “Other Lands have Dreams” from Counterpunch. Informationclearinghouse.info is marvellous for daily news.
Happy New Year!!!Rosemary
Joyce Carmichael:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I am never cheerful these days about the conflict but thought yesterday that the hard core Zionists are all fairly old. Built into their psyche is the propogandised message delivered from birth – Fight, Conquer or Die! Their grandparents and parents are the ones who ‘carved out the land’ (ie. enforced a brutal military occupation). It is to be hoped that the younger Israelis recoil at a future for themselves and their children of strife, occupation, lies, world disapproval and all that goes with the crushing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Without the older generation many more Israelis might listen to their fellow citizens who deplore the occupation and see the common sense in their views.
mary:
January 6th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
I don’t mean to disappoint you, but the propaganda from Israel is far more intense, far more sophisticated, and far more devious than ever. Sure, the old school Zionists are dying out, but there are plenty more to take up the gauntlet, including the settler movement. Half a million Jews are living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem on stolen Palestinian land; this is not cause for celebration but should be viewed with alarm. The brutal attack on the Gaza Strip a year ago shows that Zionism’s violence is intensifying. In fact, the election of a right wing government by the Israeli people after Operation Cast Lead only shows us that a majority of the Israelis approved of the rampage on Gaza and wish for their government’s agenda to continue to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from their ancestral lands.
One glaring example of an “old school” Zionist is Ariel Sharon, who languishes in a comatose state but is revered by both young and old Israelis as a founding father of the Jewish State, regardless of his record as a mass murdering thug responsible for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and Lebanese.
Anti-zionist Mohareb:
January 7th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Correction:
The last sentence in comment #8 above should read:
The Zionist orientation of the American power machine will not change unless this cleverly crafted scam is thoroughly exposed.