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Tag: Hamas

VIPERS AND NITWITS

VIPERS AND NITWITS

When­ev­er the world took a turn of which he did not approve, my late father used to mut­ter that it was “spawn­ing a gen­er­a­tion of vipers and nitwits.” It’s tak­en more than a gen­er­a­tion, but we’ve reached the point where the per­ilous­ly poi­so­nous and the dead­ly dumb  prevail.Read the rest

THERE’S NO MAYBE IN MORALITY

THERE’S NO MAYBE IN MORALITY

Dur­ing the siege of Sara­je­vo, the Dan­ish army NCOs who con­trolled UN relief flights had a sign behind their check-in desk that  read: “Do not con­fuse your rank with our author­i­ty”. For politi­cians rant­i­ng against the Inter­na­tion­al Crim­i­nal Court (ICC)  arrest war­rants for the Gaza con­flict, I sug­gest one that says: “Do not con­fuse your self-image with the moral high ground.Read the rest

TURNABOUT IS FOUL PLAY

TURNABOUT IS FOUL PLAY

You did it to me so I’m going to do it to you”  isn’t appro­pri­ate behav­iour in a school­yard. In a region trem­bling on the brink of  an all-encom­pass­ing war , where  cool heads, informed think­ing and  sen­si­ble com­pro­mise are vital, it seems to be the best that ego­tis­ti­cal lead­ers dri­ven by ide­ol­o­gy and their  polit­i­cal sur­vival can  provide.Read the rest

CAMERAS AND NOTEBOOKS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

CAMERAS AND NOTEBOOKS MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Pres­i­dent Theodore Roosevelt’s famous advice; “speak soft­ly and car­ry a big stick”, did not pre­clude using the stick if nec­es­sary, a point that seems to escape the Biden admin­is­tra­tion in its efforts to alle­vi­ate the human­i­tar­i­an cri­sis in Gaza. One rea­son, I sub­mit, is the enforced absence of the for­eign Press in Gaza.Read the rest

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

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

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

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