Selling vows in occupied land
Friday, July 25, 2008
SEARCHING for media adulation? Hollywood is so passé. Take a cue from the likes of France President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, and go to Occupied Jerusalem. Once there, make vows to support Israel's domination over Palestine and the rest of the world.
In June, France President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the occupied land of Palestine and declared loudly for all the world to hear, "On behalf of France, we would like to declare our true love to Israel, we love you!" That should make the Western hemisphere fall head over heels in love with him. That, his supermodel wife, and his vow that France would always stand by Israel against those who oppose its flagrant aggression and condemn its continued occupation of Palestine.
"The Iran nuclear programme requires a firm response on the part of the international community. Israel is not alone. I reiterate here loud and clear, as far as France is concerned, a nuclear Iran is completely unacceptable."
Sarkozy is the first French president to visit Israel in almost 12 years, and only the second to address the Israel parliament after Francois Mitterrand in 1982. His record was soon emulated by Brown, who became earlier this week the first British prime minister to address the Knesset. Like Sarkozy, Brown too used the occasion to launch an extraordinary attack on Iran, saying that Britain would stand beside Israel in its fight for liberty.
Brown, who is struggling with plummeting approval ratings back home, vowed that the UK and its European partners were prepared to tighten the sanctions imposed on Tehran should it choose to ignore calls to suspend its pursuit of nuclear arms. "Our country will continue to lead, with the United States and our European partners, in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons programme."
Both Sarkozy and Brown and the Israelis have this fear that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon. Unmentioned in the speeches of Israel's guests is the fact that Israel, alone in the Middle East, already has a large nuclear arsenal of nuclear bombs. This is not a secret that Sarkozy and Brown were not privy to, certainly, but in a media-saturated world where selectivity is needed to help maintain the necessary ignorance of some parties, both leaders provided interesting sound bites for those whose ears mattered.
On Wednesday, it was Obama's turn to deliver a vow for the Zionist Israel during an overseas trip that earned him raves from the media. After "gliding through" Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, he landed in the occupied land vowing to "actually strengthen" the special relationship between Israel and America" in an Obama administration.
He visited the Holocaust memorial museum which he said should be a place for all children to visit and learn history "so they can add their voices to proclaim never again".
More interesting sound bites. "Never again." Obama should have said that over the killing of countless civilians in Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere. He should have said when an US air strike on eastern Afghanistan earlier this month killed 47 civilians, 39 of them women and children, who were guests at a wedding party. Not militants as the US military would have the world to believe.
Apart from again bashing the Republicans over its troops surge plans for Iraq (and urging a similar surge to Afghanistan), Obama should have said "Never again" to the killing of more than 900 people including civilians in Afghanistan since the start of 2008.
He should have said "Never again" to the continued murders of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli troop in their incessant incursions despite a cease fire mutually agreed upon with Hamas.
All those vows made by Sarkozy, Brown and Obama are further slaps on any quest for justice in the world.
In June, France President Nicolas Sarkozy visited the occupied land of Palestine and declared loudly for all the world to hear, "On behalf of France, we would like to declare our true love to Israel, we love you!" That should make the Western hemisphere fall head over heels in love with him. That, his supermodel wife, and his vow that France would always stand by Israel against those who oppose its flagrant aggression and condemn its continued occupation of Palestine.
"The Iran nuclear programme requires a firm response on the part of the international community. Israel is not alone. I reiterate here loud and clear, as far as France is concerned, a nuclear Iran is completely unacceptable."
Sarkozy is the first French president to visit Israel in almost 12 years, and only the second to address the Israel parliament after Francois Mitterrand in 1982. His record was soon emulated by Brown, who became earlier this week the first British prime minister to address the Knesset. Like Sarkozy, Brown too used the occasion to launch an extraordinary attack on Iran, saying that Britain would stand beside Israel in its fight for liberty.
Brown, who is struggling with plummeting approval ratings back home, vowed that the UK and its European partners were prepared to tighten the sanctions imposed on Tehran should it choose to ignore calls to suspend its pursuit of nuclear arms. "Our country will continue to lead, with the United States and our European partners, in our determination to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapons programme."
Both Sarkozy and Brown and the Israelis have this fear that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon. Unmentioned in the speeches of Israel's guests is the fact that Israel, alone in the Middle East, already has a large nuclear arsenal of nuclear bombs. This is not a secret that Sarkozy and Brown were not privy to, certainly, but in a media-saturated world where selectivity is needed to help maintain the necessary ignorance of some parties, both leaders provided interesting sound bites for those whose ears mattered.
On Wednesday, it was Obama's turn to deliver a vow for the Zionist Israel during an overseas trip that earned him raves from the media. After "gliding through" Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, he landed in the occupied land vowing to "actually strengthen" the special relationship between Israel and America" in an Obama administration.
He visited the Holocaust memorial museum which he said should be a place for all children to visit and learn history "so they can add their voices to proclaim never again".
More interesting sound bites. "Never again." Obama should have said that over the killing of countless civilians in Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq and elsewhere. He should have said when an US air strike on eastern Afghanistan earlier this month killed 47 civilians, 39 of them women and children, who were guests at a wedding party. Not militants as the US military would have the world to believe.
Apart from again bashing the Republicans over its troops surge plans for Iraq (and urging a similar surge to Afghanistan), Obama should have said "Never again" to the killing of more than 900 people including civilians in Afghanistan since the start of 2008.
He should have said "Never again" to the continued murders of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli troop in their incessant incursions despite a cease fire mutually agreed upon with Hamas.
All those vows made by Sarkozy, Brown and Obama are further slaps on any quest for justice in the world.
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