Saturday, January 17, 2009

Flypaper

For reasons I have yet to fully understand, literature academics have tended to discount John Steinbeck, author of admirable novels including the masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath, the touching Of Mice and Men, and the thought provoking East of Eden. Most pertinent to this post is Steinbeck's novella The Moon is Down, a brilliant piece of work about a military occupation of a European village. Published in 1942, God and everybody interpreted the occupying army as that of Nazi Germany, but rigorously speaking the story does not assign any nationality to vanquisher or vanquished. In this novella we first read the now classic: The flies have conquered the flypaper.

In what must be considered one of the ironies of history, the state of Israel has resorted to tactics against the Palestinians in Gaza that are eerily similar to those the Nazis practiced in the Warsaw Ghetto. The region has been isolated, its borders blockaded, and any open mind would find it difficult to deny that those in Gaza face the systemic denial of food and more acutely, medical supplies. Yes, there are exceptions and occasions where relief is granted, but the long term downward pressure on food, medicine, and economic functionality persists. Perhaps toned down to fit 21st century public relations and less severe than the WWII era strangulation of Warsaw, the themes remain and are emerging in the international press. The reader should be clear I did not produce these images.

Newsweek has published a piece many could have foreseen, an article that plainly states what occurs as common sense in my reality. Butchering people rarely wins their hearts and minds. The death toll now approaches 1200 with heavy percentages of women and children. The piece declares that the Gaza violence, rather than turn its citizens against Hamas, has in fact made Hamas more popular. From the article: If the purpose of attacking Hamas was to make the more moderate leadership of al Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas stronger, the opposite has happened.

I want to re-emphasize my support for the state of Israel and its right to exist. My scholarship cannot address the creation of Israel minus the events of WWII and the Holocaust, but I know enough to say that forces for the creation of such a state were already underway and gaining momentum. Sooner or later, I think the worldwide Jewish community would find a way. I've already posted that positions against the existence of the country have no future and should be abandoned. I want what many want: prosperity and peace in the region which includes an Israel. Brutal oppression of the people of Gaza sows bitter seeds and exacerbates obstacles to a lasting peace.

In Beit Lahiya, some 1,600 displaced Gazans have taken shelter at a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or Unrwa, which cares for Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 war and their descendants.

John Ging, the Gaza director of the agency, said that two brothers, ages 5 and 7, were killed about 7 a.m. by Israeli fire at the school. Their mother, who was among 14 others wounded, had her legs blown off.


Peace is not obtained with a butcher knife.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

A good Yossi Sarid letter to Obama.

1/17/2009 2:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again we have more bleeding heart BS from softie peacenik x4mr and his group hug politics. Israel should just hand out flowers to those hateful thugs that fire rockets from schools and hospitals. Obviously x4mr is one of those idiot-savants like the guy in "Rainman," really smart in a worthless way and dumb as a box of rocks when it comes to understanding reality.

The Palestinians elected terror, so terror they get and deserve. I think Israel has shown great restraint and humanitarian effort towards the scum of humanity, a pathetic and wretched people that have never and will never get their sh** together. Cut the crap and call a spade a spade. They are worthless puke, vermin, whose annihilation is not a holocaust. It’s an act of mercy.

Netanyahu, a true Israeli hero, totally gets it. I hope the next Israeli elections pick officials that have a pair and make these Gaza games look like kindergarten. I want those sub-human locusts bitch slapped so bad they can’t have kids.

1/17/2009 2:54 PM  
Blogger The Navigator said...

X4mr,
The way you discuss Steinbeck shows an extraordinary level of education. Most impressive.

Charming, Diana, as always. Your comments always remind me to give thanks and express appreciation for the fact that I am not you. I frankly do not understand why you post comments at this blog. Maybe you are just a troll who goes from blog to blog, posting vitriolic filth just to see how people respond or how far you can go before the blog owner deletes your nonsense.

I’ve noticed that x4mr has deleted you in the past, usually the "complete" delete that doesn’t even let people know the comment ever occurred. He quite possibly will delete your hatred and my response to it. Until he does, Diana, from me to you, F yourself and know that you are the puke.

1/17/2009 3:25 PM  
Blogger Liza said...

Good post, X4mr.

1/17/2009 5:53 PM  
Blogger x4mr said...

Don't let Diana get to you, Nav. S/he as you suggest is a likely troll who in fact enjoys it if his/her comment gets you riled up.

Liza understands this.

Bloggers in general hate to delete comments out of a strong commitment to freedom of speech. Still, as you note I have deleted some of Diana's comments. I almost deleted the one here.

Sirocco has posted his disagreement with my sentiments, and he is someone with whom I can respectfully disagree.

I think Israel has in fact calculated that if it wishes to slam Hamas this way (which, in my opinion, is deeply flawed logic for the violence is probably strengthening Hamas), it should do so while Bush is still in office. It will be interesting to see how the Obama administration addresses this situation.

1/17/2009 7:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They have announced a cease-fire, but the death toll now exceeds 1200. Children make over 400, one-third, of this number.

Over one third are children. One out of three, too high for happenstance.

We witness genocide. The circle is complete. The Jews have become the Nazis.

1/18/2009 12:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Watch this.

1/18/2009 11:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Without question, we see war crimes.

1/18/2009 11:17 PM  
Blogger JensGuy said...

x4mr,

Two things to keep in mind that "Time" is not giving you:

1. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, forcibly removing any settlements and their military presence there to protect those settlements. This was a tremendous step toward "peace" as you would describe it.

The results of this was the election of Hamas and the increased shelling of Israel settlements from Gaza territories.

2. Children are "targeted" because the Hamas leadership hides in and launches rocket attacks from schools and hospitals. They WANT Palestinian children to be casualties in any retaliatory attack.

I'm not sure that this changes your mind at all, but media reporting on the situation without this context is dishonest.

1/20/2009 7:54 AM  

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