RANT: (Mostly) Shameful Numbers

As this is my 100th post of 2012 (and the first time I have hit the 100-post mark in a given year with this blog), I thought it only fitting that I mark the occasion by looking at some important numbers:

Here are some important numbers at this moment in time - shameful numbers at that:

455: the number of rhinos killed in South Africa this year to the end of October:

 
    Courtesy of Eye Witness News, South Africa


729:   The international barcode number designated for products from Israel:


   Courtesy of Zazzle UK


918: The number of days Bradley Manning has been imprisoned without trial:


   Courtesy of The Bean Blog


150: The number of acres of rainforest burnt every minute of every day:



 Courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory

37: Number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli attacks in 2012:



18-month-old Eyad Abu Khosa, killed in the November Israeli airstrikes - photo by Mahmud Hams, courtesy of Russia Today


0: Number of Israeli children killed by Palestinian attacks in 2012:



 Courtesy of Al-Jazeera

They are in no particular order, as they all carry their own gravitas, and there are many, many other important numbers out there. The above were just a few numbers that have caught my attention thus far this year.


But there was a good number that came out of New York City last night:

138: The number of countries who voted in favour of Palestine being granted observer status (like the Holy See has) at the UN - 41 nations abstained and only 9 were opposed (I am proud to say that South Africa, Italy and Portugal all voted in favour)


   
    Courtesy of Mondoweiss
  
There are indeed statistics, statistics and more statistics, but sometimes a number can tell the story.

Do you get my point?

IT SAYS IT ALL: Israel the Indignant Aggressor

It's fitting that I conclude my current crop of anti-Israel posts with this brilliant cartoon by the ever-excellent Carlos Latuff, courtesy of QW Magazine:



It really does say it all. Israel is really hardly the 'victim,' now is it?

RANT: Israel the Apartheid State

I've said it before in my blog, and I'll say it again: the state of Israel is an apartheid state. 



My anti-Israeli stance was sparked (yet again) by the recent bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces on the (yet again) trumped up charges that Hamas was threatening to send missiles into Israel. There was even talk of an all-out assault on Gaza by Israel. At least Hamas responded with over 1000 short-range missiles. At the end of the week-long battle between the two sides there were 160 dead Palestinians, with over 1000 wounded, whilst Israel had six reported dead.

According to a BBC report cited in Workers World, Israel were only held back from a full-on invasion on Gaza due to a "“a shift in international support” away from Israel."

One marvels at how there can still be any international support for Israel, given its many atrocities against Gaza, the West Bank, southern Lebanon, etc., over the years, let alone support that can still "shift" away from them.  

Once again, many more Palestinian lives were lost compared to Israeli lives in this latest assault. Once again, an Israeli life is worth a lot more than a Palestinian life. That is how it has always been throughout history when comparing the life of the oppressor to the oppressed.

I was quite surprised to come across a piece of online journalism posted on October 29th that is highly critical of Israel's track record to date, and by no other than al-Jazeera. I say surprised, because  over the past year or so I have lost a lot of the respect I once had for their once-vaunted television station. More and more al-Jazeera looks and sounds like CNN with an Arab face - and that's not a good thing. So it was heartening to read the said article written by the British freelance journalist, Ben White, who specializes in Palestine/ Israel.

Ben White provides a laundry list of Israeli transgressions second to none, which is why I found the article so  compelling and worth blogging about. White is correct when he states how, "To talk about Israeli apartheid is not to suggest a precise equivalence with the policies of the historic regime in South Africa. Rather, apartheid is a crime under international law independent of any comparison..." He then quotes former UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, who makes the excellent point that, "It [apartheid] is Israel's own version of a system that has been universally condemned."

The neverending land grabs since 1948, the anti-Arab laws, even against Arab Israelis, the broken promises and treachery by Israel in international law 

White makes interesting reference to Israeli and other polls in recent years in which Israeli Jews have been shown to have the following clearly racist views [links within the actual article by White to other articles on the given data are shown here in blue bold]:

• over half of Jewish Israelis saying marriage to an Arab is "equal to national treason" 
• 78 per cent of Jewish Israelis opposing Arabs joining the government
• 62 per cent of Jewish Israelis encouraging the emigration of Palestinian citizens
• 36 per cent of Jewish Israelis being in favour ofrevoking the voting rights of non-Jews

White quotes more examples of how Israeli society sounds remarkably apartheid-esque:

• Kadima MK (Member of the Knesset) Otniel Schneller praised the decision for "articulat[ing] the rationale of separation between the peoples and the need to maintain a Jewish majority and the [Jewish] character of the state", linking this to the formulation of "two states for two peoples"
• Ironically, this slogan of Zionist "moderates" (yes, it's all relative) echoes the rhetoric of Apartheid South Africa's politicians, who warned that "either we must follow the course of equality, which must eventually mean national suicide for the white race, or we must take the course of separation"
• In 2007, Israel's internal security agency the Shin Bet stated it would "thwart the activity of any group or individual seeking to harm the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel, even if such activity is sanctioned by the law"
• In 2008, the agency's then-chief told US officials that many of the "Arab-Israeli population" are taking their rights "too far"
• Israeli law provides for the banning of electoral candidates who deny "the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people"
• Proposed bills can be rejected on the grounds that they undermine "Israel's existence as the state of the Jewish people"
• In Jerusalem, constantly touted by Israel's leaders as the country's "eternal" capital, Palestinian residents in the illegally annexed East face planning restrictions, home demolitions, discrimination in municipal services, and the community-shattering Apartheid Wall. 
• Speaking to BBC's Hardtalk in July 2011, Mayor Barkat openly confirmed that he seeks to maintain a Jewish majority in the city (White asks, "imagine if the mayors of London, New York or Paris stated that Jewish residents must not rise above a certain proportion.")
• There are over 300,000 Israeli citizens living in West Bank settlements (plus 200,000 in East Jerusalem), a network of colonies among a Palestinian population without citizenship.
•  Palestinians' freedom of movement is controlled by a bureaucratic "permit" system, enforced by some 500 checkpoints and obstacles. 
• The vast majority of the Apartheid Wall, 700km in length and 70 per cent completed or under construction, lies inside the occupied West Bank. 
• The illegality of this de facto annexation [of the Wall] was confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in their 2004 advisory opinion.

And it goes on:

• In 60 per cent of the West Bank ("Area C"), Palestinians must apply for building permits from Israeli occupation forces; yet according to a 2008 UN report, 94 per cent of applications are denied. Building illegally means demolition.
• In 2011, Israel demolished 620 Palestinian-owned structures in the West Bank, part of what the EU has called a "forced transfer of the native population". 
• Israel also exploits the West Bank's natural resources, such as its "discriminatory" control of water access and usage: Palestinians, over 80 per cent of the population in the West Bank, are restricted to 20 per cent of the water from the main underground aquifer. 
• Human Rights Watch have called Israel's regime in the West Bank a "two-tier system" where Palestinians face "systematic discrimination" (the same terminology they have used to describe policies inside the pre-67 borders as well)
• The Gaza Strip, home to some 1.7 million Palestinians a majority of whom are refugees, is blockaded by the Israeli military behind perimeter fences and "buffer zones" (including at sea)
• Restrictions on movement began in the early 1990s, with an intensified siege being implemented in 2006-'07. Until today, Israel blocks almost all exports from the territory, and pursues what it calls a "separation" policy for the purpose of cutting off Gaza from the West Bank.
• In March, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) described Israel's violations of the right to equality in unprecedented terms. Noting "segregation between Jewish and non-Jewish communities" and a lack of "equal access to land and property" inside Israel's pre-1967 borders, CERD found a regime of "de facto segregation" in the West Bank severe enough to prompt a reminder of the "prohibition" of "apartheid".

The list could go on and on and on and on and on...

Gosh, how very, very familiar this all feels to me. Ah, yes (and as I too have spoken about before), it all sounds terribly reminiscent of how my fellow whites were thinking about blacks and black majority rule and the 'black threat' back in 1980s apartheid South Africa. Different racial issues, same racial prejudices. 

EXCEPT, back then South Africa was a pariah state - as a white South African teenager I was even spat at by a Belgian couple when touring Austria with my mom in 1984. We were constantly harangued because of being white South Africans then. Do Israeli Jews really put up with that much antagonism today?

Apartheid South Africa was banished from the United Nations, the Olympic Games and most 'civilized' pursuits of nations, whereas Israel today is, for the most part, quite comfortably a member of the 'family of nations.' THAT is what I continue to fail to understand.

Israelis, Zionist Jews and their legions of apologists keep making the position of Israel seem somehow 'unique'  in world history, somehow tenuous because of its very 'unique' racial and religious and geopolitical realities. 'Unique' in so many ways, and therefore fully deserving of being able to 'defend' its uniqueness by oppressing an entire people. It's as if Israel is indeed infused by some divine providence to oppress at will, even if conveniently leveraged on the rampant Islam-phobic fears that permeate the West and, in particular, the United States. 

But it's all smokescreens and mirrors. Israel is not unique in any way. For all its so-called religious, racial and geopolitical 'uniqueness,' Israel is little more than a shabby, oppressive little apartheid state, wearing its quasi-racist 'right to self-determination' like a suit of armour with missiles attached.

Israel may be all gleaming and 'modern' and 'Western' to those who care not to look any deeper (as Johannesburg most certainly was back in 1985), but it is still a wretched, oppressive and racist nation at its core, hell-bent on oppressing an entire people at any cost. 

It has no moral imperative because it lost the moral argument a long time ago.

Israel is nothing more than a shabby, tatty little state. I just feel for the millions of second class citizens (and non-citizens) who have to live and die in its malevolent, racist shadow.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Israel the New Year's Aggressor - Again

It's that time of year again - it's the final days of the year, so that must mean Israel is once again thinking of going on a rampage against Gaza and the occupied territories.

After all, they did conduct a massive (and highly illegal, not to mention internationally condemned) offensive against Gaza three years ago at exactly this time of year. It was a brutal assault which killed over 1, 500 Palestinians - and four (or was it three?) Israelis.

According to Press TV on this latest Israeli assault:
"...a Tel Aviv official has again threatened to launch another war on the blockaded and impoverished territory, describing the move as “a war of necessity for Israel”. Referring to the military plan as a “swift and painful” war, chief of staff of the Israeli military, Lt. General Benny Gantz, also claimed that the measure was “not a matter of choice, but a war of necessity” for Tel Aviv."

"A war of necessity"...in what way?

The reasons given why and all the background machinations make very little difference - once again, Israel the Rogue Apartheid State will go on an illegal rampage and kill countless innocent Palestinian civilians and, if lucky for the IDF, a few Palestinian terrorists. The excuses, the reasons, the geopolitical fluff - it will all ebb away soon after the dust settles and Palestine must count its dead yet again.

According to the Irish Times:
"ISRAELI OFFICIALS are stepping up their rhetoric, warning that another invasion of Gaza is just a matter of time. Speaking as Israel launched two air strikes on militant targets in the strip, Israel’s top general, chief of staff Lieut Gen Benny Gantz, warned that cracks had emerged in Israel’s deterrence of militant groups and a second round of fighting was no longer a matter of choice for Israel. “Such a round must be initiated by Israel and must be swift and painful. I do not advise Hamas to test our mettle.”

Test your "mettle", Israel? You have no character and no moral stature as a nation, Israel, therefore how can you have "mettle" to be tested?

I'm sick to death of this rogue nation let loose in a tinderbox region, all because of the express support of the biggest bully on the block, the United States (Israel being the second-biggest bully), fired up by an all too powerful pro-Israel and Jewish lobby in Washington D.C.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Israel is nothing more than a pathetic apartheid state masquerading as a democracy and the only 'beacon of light' in a 'mad' region.



I should know - I lived in apartheid South Africa. I know all the signs, baby. And Israel has them in spades.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Israel, the April Fool

Today it emerged that Israel's infamous band of thugs, Mossad, had kidnapped a Palestinian engineer in Kiev, Ukraine, on suspicion of 'ties to Hamas', and scurried him off back to the Land of Milk and (P)Honey.

That's correct: agents from one country abducted a person in another nation's territory, without the said 'receiving' nation's authorities or secret service even being aware of it.

The Ukrainians must be so chuffed with the Israelis.

And Israel had the cheek to openly admit to it today. Of course. Why shouldn't they? They're a lawless apartheid nation shielded by the United States; the big bully on the block. Their arrogance knows no bounds. Not to mention their chutzpah.

Listening to some of the media, it would seem like the 'fact' that he may (or may not, of course) have ties to Hamas does give Israel some justifiable 'reason' in all of this. You know - Hamas is a terrorist organisation, and Israel has every right to go around kidnapping and maiming and murdering Hamas leaders and supporters on the basis that they're all...well, terrorists. All to defend itself, of course.

Hang on a moment. This all sounds so terribly familiar to me. What could it be? Ah, yes. It's the exact same demented crap that was being spouted by the apartheid regime of South Africa in the 1980s, as agents of that amoral nation (into which I was born) also went around kidnapping and maiming and murdering members of another terrorist organisation - you know, the ANC. In other countries. All to defend itself, of course.

It's amazing how identical the modi operandi of these apartheid states truly are.

History really does repeat itself, does it not?

It being April 1st, it seemed so fitting that this year's April Fool should be none other than that most schizophrenic and amoral of contemporary nations, the apartheid state of Israel.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Mubarak, Your Remaining Best Friend Is...Netanyahu

Hosni Mubarak has very few friends left. The events of yesterday in Cairo have left him with even fewer, as thousands of his 'supporters' went on a rampage against anti-government protesters in Cairo, particularly in and around what has become the revolution's symbolic epicentre, Tahrir Square.

Funny how after over a week of peaceful demonstrations and no visible Mubarak supporters there are suddenly thousands of them throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at the anti-Mubarak throngs. And this just a day or so after Mubarak's 'promise' to leave by September was downright (and rightly) rejected by the demonstrators. Funny that.

He is even willing to see his own people descend into possible civil war just to save his sorry ass. Talk about a desperate, pathetic man.

The Arab world has been ominously quiet about events in Egypt. Hardly surprising when one considers how many Arab leaders must be freaking out that the Tunisia and Egypt contagion spreads into their own oppressed states. Iran has come out in vocal, public support of the demonstrators. Clever Iran. 

Even more telling is how Mubarak has lost what was the tepid, very cautious support of the United States since this broke last week. This from a nation who had propped him up all these years and who once saw him as a vital bulwark against heaven-knows-what in the region. That's gone. Today the US State Department was quoted as stating that there needed to be a 'peaceful transition of power in Egypt' and, more tellingly, that it needed to be 'now'. The key word is now, Mubarak. That's state-speak for 'get-the-hell-out-of-office-because-you-can-no-longer-count-on-us-for-support.' 

With friends like that, who the hell needs enemies, right? Oh, divine justice.  

So, who does Hosni the Hated have left now? Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, that's who.




Netanyahu has been the only leader who has stated that Mubarak out of power will somehow mean the collapse of Egypt and great danger to the Middle East. What a pile of rubbish. No, Israel, all you are is poep scared that the cosy and compliant buffer you had in the dictator Mubarak will now be gone. Israel needs a divided, undemocratic and oppressed Arab world around it. It justifies how 'democratic' Tel Aviv claims it is and how 'necessary' Israel is as a bastion of 'Western values and democracy' in a sea of Muslim and anti-West fanaticism.  

Israel sure as hell doesn't need a bunch of more democratic Arab states surrounding it that no longer wish to kiss America's ass on the Israel-Palestine issue. How will it be able to justify being an apartheid state?

Yeah, when you're a dictator and the whole world is turning against you, including the imperial power itself, then all you have left is the support of an oppressive, schizophrenic little apartheid state. That figures.

Mubarak and Netanyahu make absolute sense as firm (and very scared) friends against a rising tide of change and nascent democracy in the Middle East.

You deserve one another, you bastards.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Mirror Images: Israel & Apartheid South Africa

This is indeed Israel-kicking time on this blog. They've only themselves to blame, quite frankly. Israel's actions against a civilian aid ship in international waters resulting in nine dead were bad enough. The Israeli response in the days thereafter - a curious mixture of self-righteous indignation and outright lies - have made matters even worse.

Israel is out of control.

I contend that it is a mirror image of apartheid South Africa...

It indiscriminately kills politicians and activists it does not like, even in other countries. Apartheid South Africa did just the same.

It condemns anybody that is a 'threat' to it as a 'terrorist', freedom fighter or not. Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It kills, maims and terrorizes an entire population group in the name of 'self-defense'. Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It redraws territory to its liking and in flagrant violation of international law. Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It cordons off areas and forces people of a certain population group within that area. Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It forces all members of a certain population group to carry 'passes' and controls their movement fully on that basis. Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It feeds on the anxieties of the United States and the West within a given geopolitical context and curries their favour. Apartheid South Africa did the same.  

It is a de facto military-police state, whatever its democratic traditions and 'free press' (for some). Apartheid South Africa did the same.

It flaunts international law, knowing it can pretty much get away with it. Apartheid South Africa did the same.
 
The analysis: Israel is an apartheid state.

I lived in apartheid South Africa. Trust me, I know all the signs.

Ultimately, the international community is to blame for the morally corrupt nation that Israel has become. Just as the international community was to blame for allowing the apartheid regime to get away with its amoral policies during the 1950s, 1960s and most of the 1970s. Not to mention those nations that allowed 'sanctions busting' with apartheid South Africa on everything from gold to arms - the likes of the USA, UK and, oh yes, Israel.
 
It was only when the world community finally applied huge pressure on South Africa through sanctions was there the economic and political inevitability that culminated in the release of Nelson Mandela (an 'outright' terrorist according to South Africa for nearly 30 years, by the way) in 1991 and the first truly free elections in the country in 1994. Only sanctions forced the apartheid regime into that inevitability. 
 
And that is precisely why I advocate FULL sanctions against Israel. On everything - economic, sporting and cultural. Israel needs to be isolated and needs to feel the full wrath of international contempt for its ongoing racist and apartheid policies regarding the Palestinians and Palestine. Just as we felt it in South Africa back in the 1980s. 
 
There really is no other alternative. The actions by Israel on that aid ship on May 31st must be the turning point.
 
Sanctions NOW.
 

 
Basta!
 
Do you get my point?

RAVE: As This Too Says It All...

To all those who shout abuse that those of us that criticize Israel are anti-Semitic...

Well, this picture taken of a Jewish protester simply says it all...

Enough said.

RAVE: Says It All...

Tell me if this graffiti on a wall doesn't say it all...?

Enough said.

RANT: Israel - A State of Denial

Israel continues to be pounded from many quarters on the international stage in the aftermath of the raid on an aid ship by Israeli commandos on May 31st. At least nine people on board the ship died as a result of the Israeli actions. In short, Israeli aggression.

As much as it has become normative over the years, I am still astounded at the sheer arrogance and Orwellian double-speak being deployed by Israeli commentators and authorities in their own defense. Their defense of the indefensible is astounding. In TV show after TV show the Israelis comes across as hyper-defensive, forever the 'victim of others, yet curiously very aggressive as well.

And woe betide any commentator or reporter who probes too much or, heaven forbid, disagrees with or challenges the Israeli position. The Israeli response is either that of outraged vitriol or condescending dismisiveness bordering on the smug and patronizing. And the excuses, expressed as 'hard' fact or 'inevitable' truth, come thick and fast. And that's all that they are - excuses. Pathetic ones at that.

The levels of Israeli denial have become gargantuan in scope and hypocrisy.

It would seem that this has become the way of a nation that has become a law unto itself. A nation that conducts its affairs with impunity. A nation out of control within the context of international law. A rogue nation.

Yet again, the United States chooses to respond to Israeli aggression and illegality with words like 'regrets the deaths of..." and "the US trusts Israel to conduct a full investigation". Little wonder that Israel feels so able to act in such an illegal and hyper-aggressive manner, whether the theatre of its aggression be Gaza or Lebanon or the West Bank or, what the hell, even in a luxury hotel in Dubai.

Blessings of America, even if 'tacit', not to mention billions of dollars in aid from said America, and an Arab world too fractured and too incompetent to do anything of worth, and Israel just keeps going on and on and on and on...

The Israelis did not need to board that ship with that much force and aggression. Their actions were overly aggressive and provocative. They acted illegally in international waters. Their blockade of Gaza is illegal under the Geneva Convention. The effective entrapment of 1.5-million people in Gaza is illegal and inhumane.

But let it be said here loud and clear: Israel acts with such impunity and with such arrogance based on a constant barrage of denial and disinformation precisely because the world, in the end, really does very little.

And as long as the world continues to do so little to effectively condemn and rein in Israel, so then will the Israel of today continue to be nothing more than an aggressive apartheid state dressed up as a legitimate democracy.

It's a demented, self-serving and morally schizophrenic lager mentality that reminds me so much of living in apartheid South Africa back in the 1980s...

Do you get my point?