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David Harcourt
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Posted: 2 Aug 2006 12:58 am |
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What a ghastly business this is.
The only comforting news I've heard in the past week is one commentator's * view that it may not get any worse - a prognostication based on the fact that Israel hasn't bombed Syria yet, and if it was going to it would probably have done so by now.
The usual suspects have been vocal here in New Zealand, and my guess is that the majority - possibly the large majority - of New Zealanders are opposed to Israel's actions.
This is hardly surprising, given that the issue - as it has been represented by a hundred commentators who have latted ** into the limelight - is Israel vs Lebanon not (as Israel and Hezbollah see it) Israel vs Hezbollah.
The poverty of the "arguments" of the anti-Israel faction here and elsewhere can be readily exposed in my view. If the Australian Government tolerated a continuing situation where the Lions of Lebanon resident in Sydney were kidnapping our soldiers and lobbing dozens of missiles into Auckland, would we put up with this? I don't think so. Would we be happy if the UN and various NGOs focused on any response we made to the attacks from Australia and were virtually silent on the behaviour which had led us to respond? I don't think so. Would we go our way, looking after our own first, and caring how the rest of the world saw us second? I think we would.
Israel has a stark choice: to put up with the kidnappings and rocket attacks, or to defend itself. How it has defended itself isn't readily defensible, but that it has the right to defend itself seems to me to be unarguable.
So far, so hum. So where does hope lie? My feeling is that it is with the moderates on both sides. They exist in Israel, but are in a very tiny minority according to a radio report I heard this morning. Whether they exist in Lebanon is not clear. If they do exist, I imagine that their position is as perilous as that of the White Rose movement in Nazi Germany. Anyone in Lebanon who criticises Hezbollah will be a very brave person indeed.
So is there anything which any of us can do about this? Can anyone reading this suggest anything which might be done to encourage the forces of moderation?
I would genuinely like to know.
* Someone in the US Council on Foreign Relations, or something similar.
** My metaphor is drawn from the word "latte", and is intended to convey the image of someone gliding out of a fashionable coffee house and into the daylight, with glib non-answers on their becinnamoned lips.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 2 Aug 2006 07:57 pm |
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I am more than a little under-whelmed by the collective response of the 28 * people who have viewed this message since I posted it yesterday.
Are we really as completely helpless as this implies?
* Now 50.
DH
12 noon, Thursday
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 2 Aug 2006 11:22 pm |
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Here's a news report, published about an hour ago, from the Canadian internet site CanoeNews:
Arab, Jewish women unite to call for peace in Mideast
By CELESTE MACKENZIE
OTTAWA (CP) - While rockets fly and more civilians die in Lebanon and Israel, a group of Jewish and Arab women is calling on Canadians to help push for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Jewish and Arab Women for Peace says Canadians must not remain silent as innocent lives are lost, and the Canadian government should call for an immediate ceasefire.
Organizer Tyseer Aboulnasr, a Muslim originally from Egypt, said Jews and Arabs must think of their children's futures and not about scoring political points.
"We can not afford to be silent any more," she told about 70 supporters, including a handful of men, gathered at the National War Memorial on Wednesday.
"We want this to end. We want people to be able to live lives like we have here in Canada. We want the world to sit all sides down - work it out guys, enough is enough. The two choices that we have are live together or die together."
The Mideast conflict escalated Wednesday as Israel sent 8,000 troops into southern Lebanon and Hezbollah.
Aboulnasr said Arab-Jewish groups like hers exist across Canada and in the Middle East, but they aren't necessarily well known. She said Arab and Jewish men get together to know each other and talk of solutions too, but mens groups aren't so common.
"On the average I'd say women tend to put aside some of their differences and focus on their commonality, but this is not to imply that men can't do the same thing."
The group formed a few years ago, and held a similar event in July for the first time.
On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said Canada supports a ceasefire in the Mideast, but only if both sides can agree to uphold a lasting ceasefire with clear conditions.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has faced withering criticism since he described Israel's air strikes on Lebanon as a "measured" response for repeated Hezbollah rocket assaults and attacks on Israeli soldiers.
A new poll suggests Harper's support for Israel is out of step with most voters - especially in Quebec where his minority government is counting on gains.
NDP and Liberal critics accuse the Conservatives of abandoning what they called Canada's traditional role as a more even-handed mediator in such disputes. They're also lambasting the Tory refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire even as civilians remain trapped in the war zone.
MacKay cast the situation as a no-brainer choice to support a democratic nation - Israel - as it defends itself against unprovoked attacks by Hezbollah, which he called "a group of cold-blooded killers."
More than 13,000 Canadian citizens have been evacuated from Lebanon so far.
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Anna
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Posted: 3 Aug 2006 03:32 am |
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Since reading this I have been looking around at the things others have suggested doing. I have found a myriad of prayer sites, but when you consider that this may actually be at the root of the original problem (to which deity does one address one's entreaties).
Others have suggested bombing the opposing party out of existence, but aside from being distinctly distasteful, this also makes a mockery of the things we try to teach our children from the beginning - that violence doesn't solve anything, but only encourages more of the same.
Diplomacy has also been suggested and this I suppose has the most merit, but is it likely to be effective? Zealots of all sorts are hard to negotiate with, particularly when facing an equally dedicated group with diametrically opposed views.
As to what we can achieve - I don't think we can do very much, if anything . . .
Having said that, if anyone else has any ideas I'd be more than willing to consider them!
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 3 Aug 2006 04:13 am |
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Thank you, Anna.
I was thinking of practical things which ordinary people like us - not the New Zealand Government * or any other government - might do.
The very least, it seems to me, is to convey a message or messages of support to anyone who is trying to resolve the situation. I am trying to get some contact details and will report the outcome here.
In the meantime, one thing any of us can do who knows anyone of Jewish ethnicity or Lebanese origin is show that we understand how miserable they must be at present. I think a lot of people like this must feel very much alone in New Zealand at present, what with synagogues being attacked and so on...
* Not that I can imagine a government led by people like Helen Clark having the capacity to put its ideological blinkers aside long enough to acknowledge that innocent people on both sides are suffering here.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 5 Aug 2006 12:16 am |
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These are obviously not issues which engage much interest in a New Zealand audience so I am probably wasting my time (and yours) discussing them here. On the other hand, if catharsis is all I'm going to get, catharsis is what I will have.
Amidst the swirl of information in my head I seem to remember reading this morning (it doesn't even get a mention on the New Zealand Herald website) about a demonstration yesterday in which one or another of the local rentamobs * was marching on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade (as if the officials therein cared one way or another, or could do anything about it if they did care!) to express anger about the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
It occurs to me that I need to attend the next of these demonstrations. My placard will say:
Jews are human beings, too
I wonder how this will go down with the socialist apparatchiks.
I will keep you posted.
* From the website of Peace Movement Aotearoa ("the national networking organisation in Aotearoa New Zealand for people interested in peace, social justice and human rights"):
Friday, 4 August - Wellington Palestine Group rally, meet at the Cenotaph at 12-30pm (parliament end of Lambon Quay), and march to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 195 Lambton Quay to arrive at 1pm. Keith Locke (Green Party MP) and others will be speaking.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 5 Aug 2006 10:18 pm |
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The Long March Revisited
Friday, 4 August - Wellington Palestine Group rally, meet at the Cenotaph at 12-30pm (parliament end of Lambon Quay), and march to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 195 Lambton Quay.
I read this again this morning and wondered if any of you know how far this hikoi for peace had to travel to get from the Cenotaph in Wellington to 195 Lambton Quay?
Your pick, please, from the following:
* 200 metres
* 1.5 kilometres
* 4 kilometres
* 11 kilometres
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Ichardray
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Posted: 5 Aug 2006 11:35 pm |
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Sigh.......what can I say? If great minds can't broke a peaceful solution.....how can a mere mortal like myself, hope to offer anything constructive?
One thing I have learnt so far.......... people do not listen to short, blonde, post meno Grandma's like myself.............even if we have anything sensible to say!!!
It's all very well wanting World Peace .............but how does one go about it?
I have no idea............. I tried to bring my boys up to have a healthy respect for all people and their cultures even if they didn't agree with them. Did it work? I don't think so..........
Was that a failing on my part as a parent........ or did they ignore my teachings because it came from me and not their father?
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 12:40 am |
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This society is predicated on the view that wisdom is concentrated among 15-25 year olds.
When I was a member of that age group, society was predicated on the view that wisdom is concentrated among white, male, 45-65 year olds.
Neither assumption was correct.
Now that I am a white, male, 45-65 year old I can see that wisdom is dispersed among all age groups, both genders and all races.
So at any age each of us - including short, blonde, post meno grannies - needs to speak the truth when we see that it needs to be said.
After all, people like Keith Locke are speaking the truth as they see it, as are Osama bin Laden, Hassan Nasrallah and all the other apostles of hatred and division who have gone before them.
But they're wrong, and we should be saying so.
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Ichardray
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 12:51 am |
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David Harcourt wrote: This society is predicated on the view that wisdom is concentrated among 15-25 year olds.
When I was a member of that age group, society was predicated on the view that wisdom is concentrated among white, male, 45-65 year olds.
Neither assumption was correct.
Now that I am a white, male, 45-65 year old I can see that wisdom is dispersed among all age groups, both genders and all races.
So at any age each of us - including short, blonde, post meno grannies - needs to speak the truth when we see that it needs to be said.
After all, people like Keith Locke are speaking the truth as they see it, as are Osama bin Laden, Hassan Nasrallah and all the other apostles of hatred and division who have gone before them.
But they're wrong, and we should be saying so.
What is truth? A matter of opinion, or fact? How do we know that what is being told to us is fact or fiction?
Some follow blindly and willingly and believe everything they are told......... others question......... and so we have change.
Perhaps the only way forward is by violent means? I hope not.
Violence is a universal language......... it's message is loud and clear..............
Reasoned dialogue on the other hand, takes a modicum of understanding and intelligence and the ability to listen.
There are always two sides.......... why does one always have to be right and the other wrong? Why can't both sides be right?
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giraffeinfall
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 12:55 am |
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David Harcourt wrote: The Long March Revisited
Friday, 4 August - Wellington Palestine Group rally, meet at the Cenotaph at 12-30pm (parliament end of Lambon Quay), and march to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 195 Lambton Quay.
I read this again this morning and wondered if any of you know how far this hikoi for peace had to travel to get from the Cenotaph in Wellington to 195 Lambton Quay?
Your pick, please, from the following:
* 200 metres
* 1.5 kilometres
* 4 kilometres
* 11 kilometres
Oh dear...certainly not very far. I'm not much good at estimating distance, but ...
a 5 minute amble for the hikoi?
(*thinks :looking like 200 metres*)
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 12:59 am |
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Ichardray wrote: David Harcourt wrote:
What is truth? A matter of opinion, or fact? How do we know that what is being told to us is fact or fiction?
Some follow blindly and willingly and believe everything they are told......... others question......... and so we have change.
Perhaps the only way forward is by violent means? I hope not.
Violence is a universal language......... it's message is loud and clear..............
Reasoned dialogue on the other hand, takes a modicum of understanding and intelligence and the ability to listen.
There are always two sides.......... why does one always have to be right and the other wrong? Why can't both sides be right?
"What is truth?", said jesting Pilate, and would not wait for an answer.
There are seldom only two sides to a complex argument, but when there are two sides one must by definition be less right than the other.
To argue that all arguments are equally valid is plainly nonsensical.
Hezbollah attacked Israel, kidnapping its soldiers and killing civilians.
Israel responded by attacking Hezbollah, killing civilians.
Which was "right"?
Is it merely a "matter of opinion" that the killing of innocent civilians is wrong?
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giraffeinfall
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 01:43 am |
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David Harcourt wrote: Is it merely a "matter of opinion" that the killing of innocent civilians is wrong?
If it's always wrong, then both sides are wrong, as they are in any war that has killing 'innocent civilians' as its inevitable consequence.
But we tend to sort out the otherwise unanswerable - don't we? - by the uncomfortable conclusion that whoever started it, or in this case carried out the hostile acts that led to it being started, is wrong-er...
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giraffeinfall
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Posted: 6 Aug 2006 01:52 am |
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re Pilate's question, a most famous anagram is perhaps worth restating here as a side note:
Pilate's question as recorded in Latin, the written language of his day:
Quid est veritas?
What is truth?
The letters of his question rearrange to form the - unspoken - answer:
Est vir qui adest
It is the man who is here.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 11 Aug 2006 12:21 am |
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The local advertising broadsheet, the Dominion-Post, has an "article" this morning by the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora. There is a pointer to it on the front page of the paper, reading as follows:
"A military solution to Israel's savage war on Lebanon and the Lebanese people is both morally unacceptable and unrealistic."
Don't they mean "war in Lebanon"?
They probably can't tell the difference.
If they could there might be some reference to the moral acceptability of Lebanon's playing host to people whose explicit objective is the destruction of Israel and its citizens.
Lebanon - its government and its people - must take responsibility for the presence in their land of Hizbollah. If they won't accept such responsibility, Israel, the US and other powerful members of the international community will have to force this responsibility upon them until they accept it willingly. Which they will, one day, if they ever want what they say they want, which is to be left alone, and in peace.
The New Zealand media are not so much biased about Israel as naive, in my view. (Although I doubt whether this is how Jewish people in New Zealand see it.) Yes, Israel isn't a country whose behaviour - right back to the 1950s - strikes one as either particularly pleasant or politically adroit. But to the increasingly limited extent that it continues to be meaningful to talk about who's in the right and who's in the wrong in the Middle East, Israel is in the right.
It has a right to exist.
As Jonathan Chait wrote in the Los Angeles Times the other day:
What can Israel do? The conventional wisdom holds that any military action is counterproductive. The doves point out that the Israeli counter-offensive has boosted Hizbollah's standing in the Arab world.
Well, sure. But Hizbollah's prestige was also boosted by Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2002. If aggressive Israeli actions boost Hizbollah, and conciliatory Israeli actions boost Hizbollah, then maybe Israel's actions aren't really the prime mover here. Maybe Hizbollah has figured out that it can become the champion of the Arab world by putting itself forward as Israel's chief antagonist, and it will continue to do so regardless of how Israel responds...when you have a nation populated in part by religious fanatics who delight in killing enemy civilians and see the deaths of their own civilians as a strategic boon, any option is going to be terrible.
Israel is hoping to change the equation, to force Lebanon to take control of its border or accept an outside force that would do so. The tactic of striking Hizbollah has some chance of bringing that about. Stopping the attack and hoping for the best has no chance at all.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 11 Aug 2006 01:12 am |
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I see that Wikipedia's bio of Siniora includes this paragraph:
With regards to Hizbollah, Siniora has said that "The government considers the resistance a natural and honest expression of the Lebanese people’s national rights to liberate their land and defend their honour against Israeli aggression and threats”.
And the BBC reported on 17 July that:
"Lebanon's President, Emile Lahoud, insists he will never betray Hizbollah and its leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah."
So much for the Lebanese Government's attempts to portray itself as an innocent party, standing helpless between Israel and Hisbollah.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 12 Aug 2006 01:24 am |
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Here (below) is the cover of the 5 August issue of the English weekly The Spectator, the latest to reach New Zealand.
In the cover story, Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips writes that:
In Britain ... there are enough [Islamic extremists] to form a serious potential security threat if Iran decides to unleash Hezbollah against targets in the UK. And that is now a real possibility. According to German and Israeli intelligence sources, Hezbollah sleeper cells are present in more than 20 countries in Western Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia, and have been told to be ready to carry out terrorist attacks should Israel prolong its military action in Lebanon. The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, has told the Commons that 'there are indeed concerns' about Iran-backed terrorists attacking the UK.
I wonder how many reading that story dismissed it as a right-wing rant in a right-wing magazine.
I certainly did.
But the events of the past few days have shown that it was anything but alarmist, and that when Margaret Beckett made her statement to the House of Commons she will already have been aware of the reality of the threats she was discussing.
Phillips also writes in The Spectator article that:
Iran has explicitly singled out Britain as a target for attack - not because of Lebanon or any other recent event, but because of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which led eventually to the restoration of the Jews to part of their ancient homeland in the state of Israel. In an Iranian TV interview on 23 July, Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed that 'England was the founder of this sinister regime' (Israel) and, like America, was 'an accomplice to all its crimes'.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 19 Aug 2006 08:47 pm |
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Melanie Phillips's article in The Spectator has elicited some interesting responses in the latest issue (12 August). For example, Lucy Mandelstam, a lady living in Natanya, Israel, has written this letter to the magazine:
Last month I celebrated my 80th birthday. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to live so long. I survived four years in Vienna under Nazi rule, and three years in concentration camps. After the end of the War I was a refugee for three years, spending those years mostly in displaced persons' camps in Europe and Cyprus, finally coming to Israel. I had hoped to live out the rest of my life in relative peace. It was not to be.
I have been in Israel now for 58 years and I have lived through another few wars, but a great part of the world still debates whether to recognise us or not. No other country's right to exist is ever questioned; why ours?
I know there are many reasons that I could name, but I am sure that Melanie Phillips is right: hatred is the driving force. Anti-Semitism is stronger than ever, even if it is called by another name, such as anti-Zionism. Our history has been so twisted out of shape that people have forgotten that the Jews in British-occupied Palestine were called Palestinians.
When I was a child in Vienna, people used to shout at us, 'Jews to Palestine'. Now that I have lived the greater part of my life here, it seems that I still have no right to my own country. Where can I go? When I was liberated in Germany I never thought of revenge. I didn't hate anybody. All I wanted was to start a new life in my own country. It never entered my mind to go among Germans and blow them up or avenge myself in any way. I only wanted to get away from them and start a new life.
I am very sad these days. It seems as if there will never be peace for us. I am not worried about myself. I even find it comforting that I am at the end of my life. But I am thinking of my children and my grandchildren and the kind of life they are facing. I wish I had an answer.
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David Harcourt
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Posted: 2 Oct 2006 01:03 am |
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I see this morning that Israel has now withdrawn the last of its troops from Lebanon and yet:
* the two kidnapped soldiers remain in the hands of Hezbollah
* and Hezbollah is still threatening Israel with rocket attacks
Given that the return of the kidnapped soldiers and the destruction of Hezbollah's rockets were the ostensible reasons for the invasion it does seem a little odd that Israel has retired behind its borders so meekly, after the worst outbreak of hostilities since 1982. I suspect that much is going on behind the scenes that you and I, gentle reader, will only get to learn about in some months' time. One would like to hope that the Lebanese Government will in future be less tolerant of Hezbollah but the answer, I'm afraid, is probably going to be fat chance.
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