Israel

Below you'll find a link to a must-read article by Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray concerning the extremely biased coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by all CanWest-owned newspapers (such as The Vancouver Sun, The Vancouver Province, The National Post, to name just three of CanWest's numerous papers across Canada).

The most telling thing in this whole article is the incredibly honest quote from CanWest founder, Israel "Izzy" Asper:

“In all our newspapers, including the National Post, we have a very pro-Israel position….We are the strongest supporter of Israel in Canada.”

It's been a pretty inspiring few days this past week or so, what with Barack Obama wrapping up the nomination for the Democratic Party and all. And then Hillary Clinton finally - four days after it was over and in probably the best speech of her entire campaign - conceding defeat and vowing to do everything she can to help Obama win the White House. Hers, like Obama's, has been a historic and inspirational run and hopefully someday soon we'll see a woman as president. Just not this time. This time the more inspirational candidate won.

It was great to learn this past week that homophobia actually has a good productive side. And it was truly great to see some fundamentalist freaks coming together in a show of solidarity. A solidarity of hatred, that is. I'm talking, of course, about the coming together in common cause of Jewish, Christian and Muslim fundamentalists in Jerusalem earlier this week to oppose that city's Gay Pride March. I mean, isn't it wonderful to see people putting their hatred aside to unite for the purposes of... er... hatred? Hatred of others though, rather than of each other. How special.

Last night I watched Avi's fourth show on CBC (The Big Picture with Avi Lewis Part 4 - Hot House), which was about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and, more specifically, at least as a starting point, the Palestinian leaders in Israeli jails. It was, as you'd imagine, a fiery debate, the most intense of the four shows so far. Avi said at the outset that if you already have a fixed perception then you'll simply see what you already know, but I couldn't help being unable to see past the fact that there are 10,000 Palestinians wasting away in Israeli prisons for supposed crimes against Israel, but no Israelis in Palestinian jails serving time for crimes committed against Palestinians - even though far more innocent Palestinians have been killed over the years than Israelis. Like everything else in this conflict it's a ridiculously unfair, unjust and unbelievable reality. Once you reject the silly notion that Palestinians killing Israelis is "terrorism" while Israelis killing Palestinians is not, you're left with the pretty asinine situation of 10,000 Palestinians in jail, while all the Israeli killers walk free, often right into the highest posts of government.

About two weeks or so into the Israeli attack on Lebanon in July, after having received my first few rants on the conflict, a friend wrote and asked me what I saw as the solution to the disaster that is the Middle East Conflict. Since then I've been asked similar questions by a couple of other friends. It would appear that just because someone chooses to rant on a topic they are expected to somehow have all the answers to solve it. This, obviously, isn't the case, as I clearly have no idea, for instance, what The Poor Dutch Fan should do come the next World Cup or European Soccer Championships, or what a Dylan fan should make of The Bob's descent into fundamentalist madness for a few years there back in the late-70s and early-80s; but, in this particular case I do, in fact, believe I can suggest some solutions for a lasting peace, however unlikely it may be that they'll ever be implemented. So, here, below, is the gist of what I wrote to that first friend back in July. It may never happen, but this, I believe, is the minimum needed for any semblance of a just and lasting peace:

I'd like to ask one simple question: Just what kind of country are we? What kind of people are we? And I'm not just talking about Canada and Canadians, but the whole Western world. Do we really see ourselves as the champions of the strong over the weak? Are we really for the oppressors rather than the oppressed? The colonizers rather than the colonized? Yes, I'm at least partly referring to Israel and their treatment of the Palestinians (and at times the Lebanese as well), but I'm also talking about many other conflicts around the world. It seems that we now, in almost all cases, side with those in power; that is, those doing the most killing, oppressing and terrorizing; those committing the worst war crimes and human rights abuses. And when I say "we" I, of course, mean the "we" represented by our governments and the majority of our media. Aside from the Darfur conflict in Sudan, it seems we've taken sides AGAINST the weak, the oppressed, the downtrodden and the victimized in just about every conflict and struggle around the globe in recent years; AGAINST people who are only fighting for that which we all take for granted and accept as our inherent rights. So, seriously, what the hell's wrong with us? That's what I want to know.

Ok, so first thing this morning, as I ate my breakfast, I turned on the news to get me off to yet another depressing start to yet another day and what do I find but these 2 bozos, Bush and Blair, doing a comedy routine in the guise of a press conference. They were taking turns spittin' out identical ideas and even identical phrases. First I thought they were going to start rapping, you know, tradin' rhymes; but then suddenly it seemed like they were so in love with one another's fantasy of the world that they were about to simultaneously expold in ecstasy, right there on live TV.

Well over 100 civilians killed in Lebanon and the headline on all the mainstream news websites is "8 Israelis killed in Haifa". 15 Lebanese children killed in one strike alone and Bush just keeps going on about Israel's right to defend itself from "terror". And, I repeat, 15 Lebanese children killed and the news that just has to be reported is "8 Israelis killed in Haifa". The entire country of Lebanon living under Israel's reign of terror, mass killings and destruction and the talk is, as always, of Islamic "terrorists"... and "8 Israelis killed in Haifa". Thousands of Arabs kidnapped and taken away to rot in Israeli gulags, after ridiculous show trials, and the emphasis is on 2 kidnapped Israeli soldiers held in Lebanon... and "8 Israelis killed in Haifa". Is there something wrong with this picture or what?