The Silence is Deafening
The silence of the Blue, Red, Green and Orange human rights spokespersons is deafening. Let us all put our ear plugs on!
After all those sixty men, women and children are Muslims, and worse still are Arabs, and even worse still are Palestinians!
- Qais Ghanem's blog
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deafening is the silence
How does one differentiate between this silence & that regarding Israelis maimed & worse?
Why would it be of importance to rehearse here the affiliation, nationality, &c. of victims?
Recently there was a topical lengthier exchange at http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3729 that I would like to recommend.
Where are the Israeli casualties that justified this attack?
I appreciate that Israel took this action to stop daily rocket attackes from within Gaza.
However, these attacks killed no-one in Israel (that I'm aware of), but the Israeli military response has killed at least one hundred people. At least half of these people are civilians. This is "disproportinate response".
Israel's military is the creation of the Western powers and we need to tell the Israelis to stand down immediately, as the U.N. has done.
The current government is very unlikely to take this stand. They were one of a only a handful of nations which did not condemn Israel's actions last year in Lebanon.
no presciptions if unaware
Why might it be that you are unaware of the death & suffering of Israelis living under threat of Arabs' violence? Might it have something to do with general Jewish disgust at the thought of parading casualties for political advantage? Are you aware that the most provocatively "celebrated" imagery that spawned much Arab violence that began several years ago & international condemnation seems to have been staged (al-Dura incident)? How many rockets would have to fall where you live before the Canadian army would be involved? One? Half civilians, you say? By the Israeli count, 90 were combatants. Others were warned to go."Israel's military is the creation of Westren [sic] powers"??? That not only is absurd, but in too many sad ways, it is not in unimportant part the other way around!! Re Lebanon, see criticism of GPC's own erroneous response at http://www.greenparty.ca/en/node/3729#comment-3107 . There is of course very much to say, I do not know where to take this with you here. Do read the entire link suggested above. Regarding proportionality, it is a very difficult question, but you surely do not mean to count bodies for this!
This issue is one in which the other side is always wrong.
Lambton Kent Middlesex EDA (SW Ontario)
We deeply regret that Israel and its Palestinian minority have been fighting and appear eager to go on fighting forever.
We do not appear to get anywhere in taking sides on who hit whom first, last, or hardest.
When there is war, war is always unjust. War does not pay attention to human rights, the other side is always fully at fault. We are always defending ourselves.
Those arguments do not get any closer to resolution, they never will.
We repeatedly rehash the old arguments like the 'innocent' Israeli citizens are mostly members of the military... The innocent Palestinians are providing logistic support for terrorists who are strafing Israel with rockets... So, we know there are no innocents, they are all fair game on both sides.
Is that a way to resolve the problem?
indeed no way to resolve a problem
I think I side with Donald concerning a green approach. My interventions here are in fact to point out unbalanced language, misperceptions, misreadings. Especially from afar, extreme circumspection about even verbal intervention is required. Greens can & should have much to say, but it can & should be very different from others' stuck & dangerous rhetoric. A good place to start is to get right away from things like comparative body counts, from assimilation to
belligerents' own vilifying terminology. And for Canadians to be too busy puzzling about Israeli-Palestinian strife when our own military is sharing morally baseless adventures abroad involving not a whit of self-defence or property right...
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword at the Parliament of Canada
Monday and Tuesday I was busy representing the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) in its annual day of lobbying MPs over medical issues. This year the theme was "Canada Needs More Doctors".
As part of this effort, we had an hour to attend "Question Period", a spectacle executed by a rowdy and raucous rabble of Mps, behaving no better than teenage school children.
Across the visitors gallery, sat our own Miss Elizabeth May and Miss Camille Labchuck.
When you enter, you get a floor plan with the names and seating arrangement of all the MPs. Since I know so many of them personally, I took my ball point out of my pocket, and started to circle 2 or 3 names - for fun- when I felt a heavy index finger on my right shoulder. I looked around to see one grey haired stern looking security officer, shaking his head disapprovingly, and telling me that I was not allowed to write in the speakers gallery.
I could not believe that in the land of democracy called Canada, that would be conceivable, but I followed orders, like the law abiding citizen that I am, lest I be rendered to some Arab country! But on my way out, I asked the same gentleman why. He said it was forbidden. I said "But why is it forbidden?". "For security reasons" came the ready answer. "And how would writing on paper compromise security?" I asked. "Any sharp object like a pen could be used as a weapon directed at one of the MPs below!".
That's when I remembered the saying "The pen is mightier than the sword".
I do not think that Elizabeth was able to follow the story from where she was sitting.
Ghanem
Ghanem
Tongue in Cheek
As a school teacher, I am appalled that we are arming our children with such dangerous weaponry as pens and pencils. I will be removing my classroom pencil sharpener forthwith! lol
Alina Abbott
Candidate nominee
Chatham-Kent-Essex