Month: August 2014

Of Power and Justice

Yezidis come under attack from ISIS in Iraq
Yezidis come under attack from ISIS in Iraq

I said it before, and I say it again:

Some people care more about the identity of the killers than that of the victims. This is so because these people are, in fact, more interested in the acquisition of power than the pursuit of justice. That’s why they can criticize America and Israel while ignoring, if not praising, Assad and Putin, and see a villain in Al-Baghdadi but a hero in Strelkov. When I hear these people, I know that I am dealing with hypocrites, that a greater darkness still lies ahead for all of us, and that our night is still quite young, and will prove quite long. For wrongs can never be righted nor justice achieved through an amoral pursuit of power, a pursuit that blinds us to the victims, and the crime, that we end up perpetrating the crime.

The reality of targeted lies vs. the illusion of targeted strikes

Scene from the havoc in Gaza.
Scene from the havoc in Gaza.

NO. HAMAS FATHERS DON’T FIGHT WITH THEIR CHILDREN IN THEIR LAPS, AND PROLIFERATING AIR STRIKES IN PROLONGED CONFLICTS ARE RARELY “TARGETED.”

Writing for Tablet Magazine, Lee Smith makes some valid points. Indeed, photographers operating in Gaza do not seem to have enough freedom of movement to allow them to present a more accurate picture of what is happening on the ground during these tragic times. In fact, international photographers and journalists working in Gaza have as much freedom to move as their colleagues working in those parts of Syria still under Assad control. The see what their appointed “guides” and “fixers” want them to see. And they cannot report everything they see, if they still want to retain “access.” This is a perennial dilemma that confronts all journalists and photographers working in war zones.

Continue reading “The reality of targeted lies vs. the illusion of targeted strikes” →

Radical Movements and the Logic of Conflation

Smoke rises from buildings following what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike, as Palestinians search for victims under the rubble of a house which police said was destroyed in another Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip July 11, 2014. Israel pressed on for a fourth day with its Gaza offensive on Friday, striking the Hamas-dominated enclave from air and sea, as Palestinian militants kept up rocket attacks deep into the Jewish state. At least 79 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the offensive, which Israel says it launched to end persistent rocket attacks on its civilian population, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
Smoke rises from buildings following what witnesses said was an Israeli air strike, as Palestinians search for victims under the rubble of a house which police said was destroyed in another Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip July 11, 2014. Israel pressed on for a fourth day with its Gaza offensive on Friday, striking the Hamas-dominated enclave from air and sea, as Palestinian militants kept up rocket attacks deep into the Jewish state. At least 79 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the offensive, which Israel says it launched to end persistent rocket attacks on its civilian population, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities. (REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)

New Statesman | Times of Israel pulls “permissible genocide” blog.

If there is anything that pontiffs, policy analysts and decision-makers need to do it is this: We need to stop conflating radical populist movements whose ideologies call for the destruction of others, and the larger civilian populations that may support and sympathize with these movements for reasons of identity, economy and psychology; reasons that cannot and should not be callously dismissed as illegitimate. 

Continue reading “Radical Movements and the Logic of Conflation” →

Full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza is good…for Iran.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamneie (R) hugs leader of the Islamic group Hamas Khaled Meshaal before their meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 1, 2009. (UPI Photo/ HO/Iran's Supreme Leader's official website)
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamneie (R) hugs leader of the Islamic group Hamas Khaled Meshaal before their meeting in Tehran, Iran on February 1, 2009. (UPI Photo/ HO/Iran’s Supreme Leader’s official website)

American and Israeli hubris over the last decade has allowed Iran to dictate the rules on engagement in the Levant and the Middle East. The crises in Syria, Iraq and now Gaza are cases in point.  

So Hamas has broken a ceasefire to kidnap an Israeli soldier. It happens in wars: ceasefires are often broken and soldiers captured. The best response Israel can do at this stage, as counterintuitive this will seem to its current leaders and their myriad supporters in Israel and across the world, is to immediately accept a new ceasefire. Then, Israeli officials should explain to their people what everybody seem to know at this stage but few dare talk about, that the real battle in Gaza is actually part of a larger regional proxy war with Iran. For this reason, Israeli officials should tell their people that rather than rush into undertaking actions designed to satisfy a certain popular need for revenge, Israel needs to take the time and think in strategic terms, lest it keeps playing into Iran’s hands.

Continue reading “Full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza is good…for Iran.” →