Comments on: Irrational venom trumps logical argument in Middle East debate

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:05:40 +0000

It is with much fear and sadness that I write this comment. The absolute internal baseless hatred for Jews has so underhandedly reared its ugly head again in the form of anti-Zionism. The fact that the world can once again be so blind to fact and open to myth is staggering to the modern mind. To believe that peace can come about by Israel giving away more land is as absurd as saying that Islam calls for fair treatment of women, homosexuals, Christians and Jews. This would be considered a myth, a lie; a cover-up for experience has shown its truth. Time and experience at the cost of Jewish lives, will once again separate fact from myth. The myth being that Hamas and the Palestinian people desire peace and land so they can live side by side with Israel. If this were the case, there can be no explanation for the massacre of Jews in Israel between 1929-1939. If this were the case, prior to the British Mandate while so called Palestine was under ottoman (Muslim) rule an independent peace loving state could have been created with Jerusalem as its capital. 100 years of Muslim rule over Palestine and not one attempt to make it an independent state. Why? Because there was no desire for it, no need for it and the people that now call themselves Palestinians identified themselves with Syria. Settlements and “occupied land” are not obstacles to peace. Deception and lies are.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:09:09 +0000

This article is the work of hasbara.
Hasbara refers to the propaganda efforts to sell Israel, justify its actions, and defend it in world opinion. Using contemporary euphemisms, it is Public diplomacy for Israel, or using a pejorative interpretation, then it is apologia. Israel portrays itself as fighting on two fronts: the Palestinians and world opinion. The latter is dealt with hasbara. The premise of hasbara is that Israel’s problems are a matter of better propaganda, and not one of an underlying unjust situation.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hasbara

By: Russell

Russell — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:02:51 +0000

I agree that having an opinion on the Middle East is a thankless task. I have lived and worked here for some time now and here’s mine. The comparison of last years invasion of Gaza to the cowardly bombing of a defenceless Dresden is a good one. I’m sure if Israel wanted to beat the Dresden body count it could have. Thanks Israel for showing such mercy. I’m sure God/ Allah/ Yahweh was very proud.

By: Michael Liermann

Michael Liermann — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 08:40:08 +0000

“The difference between the Israeli Defence Force and its Hamas equivalent is that when a military operation results in civilian casualties, Israel conducts an intensive investigation into what they did wrong.”

Still waiting for one of these “intensive investigations” to come to any conclusions other than the inevitable whitewash, myself.

By: brent

brent — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:43:04 +0000

One big truth as to why there are more Palestinian casualties than Israeli is that the latter have rocket/bomb early warning signals and many civilain bomb shelters. Whereas Hamas has zero protection for its civilians knowing that it always wins the propaganda war as its purposely unprotected civilains get killed.
Would love Hamas supporters to comment on why they do not comment on their side being so callous, would you like to be ruled by these people and be its cannon fodder?

Brent

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:14:51 +0000

This reads like the emotional outburst of a self-proclaimed protector of “the holy land”, filled with choice little bits like “murderous provocation” and “the notorious Hamas tactic of seeking to wreak as much death and injury amongst civilians as possible”, while ignoring the very obvious sustained subjugation of the Palestinians by the Israelis. It is so one-sided that no one should ever be expected to believe this nonsense. This is not thought leadership – it is propaganda drivel. Reminds me of the rubbish we were fed during Apartheid – maybe the writer is hoping if he repeats it often enough we may start believing it.

By: PeterH

PeterH — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 10:53:19 +0000

David, I think the emptiness of your arguments has just been revealed by your feeling the need to respond to Sentletse.

Nothing against the man, but he does have a tendency to fly off the handle and only look at one side of the story. He paints a ‘poor, pitiful Palestinians’ picture which does ignore the terrorism and despotic actions of Hamas in Gaza. It’s easy to attack him – you simply have to take a contrary position and echo his words.

What you have consistently failed to do is acknowledge, for even the shortest moment, that Israel ALSO does terrible, terrible things and is largely the architect of much current animosity towards itself. You attempt to paint Israel as a shining example of protection of human rights, firm yet fair disciplinarian, and innocent victim of misdirected rage.

Obviously you need to fly the flag for Israel (you wouldn’t be “Jewish” if you criticised Israel, no, not “Jewish” at all…) and that’s fair enough. But by being just as one-sided as Sentletse you make yourself look just as silly as him.

However, in Sentletse’s defense, never does he pass an airy wave over the deaths of 1000+ civilians and claim that we should be grateful that the figure wasn’t far higher. So I’m afraid he wins this debate as at least he has some understanding of humanity.

By: Zubair

Zubair — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:17:38 +0000

In fact, both sides seem to enjoy the conflict, and neither side seems willing to compromise on their unrealistic demands, so the global community should just let them get on with it while we focus our attention and efforts elsewhere.

By: George S

George S — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:30:27 +0000

@marcus
So what should Israel do? Defend itself but make sure not more than 13 are killed? I’d like to think that Hamas would have preferred that 13 000 were killed in its attacks. The fact that they are just plain useless at hitting their targets is no reason for Israel to pull out all stops when defending her citizens. Hamas should think about that but perhaps they just don’t want to. If you come at me with a BB gun I will make sure you don’t do so again.

By: V3

V3 — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 17:18:38 +0000

MLH: The SABC will not show “The World at War” again: (1) Anything that reduces the ANC’s “we-were-the-worst-victims” bleat is veboten. (2) Anything that could generate sympathy for Israel or the Jews is even more beyond the pale. (3) The parallels between the racist National Socialism (NaZism) of Hitler and their own should be quietly buried. (4) Worst of all, the graphic illustration of how insidious creeping despotism is, for a party intent on introducing the Cover-Up Bill, is totally unacceptable.