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Tag: Gaza

WHAT MOVIES, PUNDITRY AND CRISES SHARE

WHAT MOVIES, PUNDITRY AND CRISES SHARE

Author and screen­writer William Gold­man encap­su­lat­ed the movie busi­ness in two lines: “Nobody knows anything…Every time out it’s a guess and, if you’re lucky, an edu­cat­ed one.” There’s plen­ty of evi­dence the wis­dom equal­ly sums up prog­nos­ti­ca­tions and pro­nounce­ments on   today’s major issues; Amer­i­can pol­i­tics, the three Hs — Hamas, Hezbol­lah and the Houthis — and the Ukraine-Rus­sia imbroglio. Read the rest

APARTHEID, GOD AND GAZA: LESSONS FROM AN ODIOUS SYSTEM

APARTHEID, GOD AND GAZA: LESSONS FROM AN ODIOUS SYSTEM

The out­come of South Africa’s geno­cide case against Israel at the Inter­na­tion­al Court of Jus­tice (ICJ) is unlike­ly to have any more effect on the war in Gaza than the court’s rul­ing against Russia’s actions in Ukraine had on Vladimir Putin. But apartheid has some lessons Israel — and the Pales­tini­ans – would do well to absorb.Read the rest

INDIFFERENCE TO WORDS THAT COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE

INDIFFERENCE TO WORDS THAT COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The fate of two mil­lion blame­less, mis­er­able, often ter­ri­fied civil­ians in Gaza came down to  which vari­a­tion of words diplo­mats and politi­cians in safe places could agree on. The answer was: none. The next “nego­ti­at­ing ses­sion” should open with the words of the leader whose name is syn­ony­mous with wis­dom: “Words kill, words give life; they’re either poi­son or fruit – YOU choose.”Read the rest

NONE SO BLIND AS THE WILLINGLY BLINKERED

NONE SO BLIND AS THE WILLINGLY BLINKERED

It’s not unrea­son­able to expect that those in a posi­tion to influ­ence the war in Gaza, or make real progress against cli­mate change, would know bet­ter than to be blind­sided. Instead, they’ve will­ful­ly proven the verac­i­ty of Dan­ish philoso­pher Soren Kierkegard’s tenet:“There are two ways to be fooled/ One is to believe what isn’t true; the oth­er is to refuse to believe what is true.”Read the rest

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN. BUT FOR WHAT?

SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN. BUT FOR WHAT?

Six­teen years before UN Res­o­lu­tion 181 divid­ed Pales­tine into sep­a­rate Jew­ish and Arab states, Mahat­ma Gand­hi not­ed: “If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to car­ry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”
What is hap­pen­ing to the chil­dren of Gaza nine­ty-two years lat­er is stu­pe­fy­ing proof of how heed­less hatred, venal cru­el­ty and short-sight­ed­ness dis­place gen­tle wisdom.Read the rest

AGE AND WISDOM DON’T NECESSARILY CONFLATE

AGE AND WISDOM DON’T NECESSARILY CONFLATE

Hav­ing recent­ly once again cheat­ed the Bib­li­cal wis­dom “The days of our years are three­score years and ten…”, I have found myself won­der­ing why it is that the wis­dom that is sup­posed to come with age con­tin­ues to be over­tak­en by an increas­ing num­ber of things that bemuse, amuse, sad­den and often as not, irri­tate me. Read the rest

A DIFFERENT TAKE ON WISDOM FROM A DIFFERENT TIME

A DIFFERENT TAKE ON WISDOM FROM A DIFFERENT TIME

A poem many of my gen­er­a­tion tacked on our bed­room wall includ­ed the line: “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the uni­verse is unfold­ing as it should.” Depend­ing on your point of view, that was either com­fort­ing or dis­con­cert­ing. I won­der which one the author, Amer­i­can poet and writer Max Ehrmann, would have felt if he’d penned it today, rather than in 1927.Read the rest

GAZA: CLOSED MINDS OPEN NOTHING

GAZA: CLOSED MINDS OPEN NOTHING

As any jour­nal­ist who has cov­ered one can tell you, war encap­su­lates the best and worst of human­i­ty. Pro­tag­o­nists excel at cru­el­ty, bar­barism, hatred and dis­sem­bling. Inno­cent vic­tims dis­play unfath­omable degrees of courage, kind­ness and resilience. Gaza has brought forth a anoth­er ele­ment; pas­sion­ate par­ti­san­ship dri­ven by ill-informed prej­u­dice and intel­lec­tu­al cowardice.Read the rest

GAZA: WORDS WILL DECIDE BETWEEN PAUSE AND PEACE

GAZA: WORDS WILL DECIDE BETWEEN PAUSE AND PEACE

That the Gaza war will be pro­longed, mer­ci­less and shape glob­al pol­i­tics for years to come is self-evi­dent. Unless the “nev­er go to war with­out a plan for the after­math” les­son of Iraq and Afghanistan is heed­ed, how­ev­er, the shape will be mould­ed by a line from George Bernard Shaw’s Cae­sar and Cleopa­tra: “And so, to the end of his­to­ry, mur­der shall breed mur­der, always in the name of right and hon­our and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and cre­ate a race that can understand.”Read the rest