I agree totally. Your diaries are very important for me because a) they voice what I suspect, but am unable to articulate, and b) because they pose important questions that are not debated elsewhere (ie. what I am programmed to look at)

My lack of comments to such diaries is out of ignorance of the details, not out of a lack of compassion.

You can't be me, I'm taken

We can run around agitating for this or that oppressed group forever and beyond, but until and unless the structural and economic reasons for the oppression are addressed, we'll be pissing into the wind: As long as the underlying causes are not addressed, new outrages will develop faster than we can hope to deal with the old ones. Individual "outrage stories" don't contribute to any understanding of those issues, and while they have some utility as reminders, I hardly think anybody here needs to be reminded of the Palestinian situation on a weekly basis...

Therefore.... we can ignore all of them and do nothing about any of them?

Straw man much? All I'm saying is that I would like a little context and a sense of proportion. Horrible as Palestine is, it is not the only human rights disaster in the world - it's not even the worst one. Now, I don't think human rights disasters generally get the attention they deserve, but I'm a little tired of pro-Palestinian activists - however worthy their cause - whining that Palestine (Palestine, note, not human rights abuses in general) doesn't get enough attention. It's repetitive, it's preachy and it's boring. Two out of those three, I can live with. All three... not so much.

I think the problem is one of style more than of substance.
There is no style rule on ET, so that is a baseless cop out.

It's an observation, not a cop out. I can read press releases on Ritzau, I don't need ET for that. You'll note that the PES people who sent an activist over here to do some viral marketing for their cause don't get a lot of attention paid to their diaries either. Not because the stuff they write about isn't interesting, but because they're writing in press-release style, not blog post style. Which is a pity, actually, because a lot of those diaries could have been very good if they hadn't sounded like run-of-the-mill propaganda.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

the notion that Israel is "an American problem" is perfectly preposterous! Please substantiate this statement. Is it an admission that the UN has been gutted of its authority and that US foreign policy has become "the law"?

The UN has been a bad joke since the collapse of the Soviet Union - at least.

But on the substance, Israel is in the US sphere of influence - are you going to contest that fact? And as long as the Americans keep running guns to Israel and giving them economic aid, Israel can keep having Apartheid.

Neither of those are of course inevitable: The UN could be restored to some semblance of relevance if and when one or more major powers decided to enforce UN decisions that go against the US and their clients. And Israel could probably be pried out of the US sphere of interest if we tried really hard.

But both of those venues of change fall under "general geopolitical considerations" - namely the consideration that we need to get our act together and stop being nice, well-behaved vassals for the American empire. Until and unless Europe takes an independent, credible stance in favour of human rights and rule of law, Europe cannot do anything about Palestine.

This is the cheap fall-back argument that because Africa, Indochina and the Ile de Nullepart are mistreated the present embargo and starvation of the Palestinians is no big deal.

This argument is a nonsequitur. Europe has everything to do with the the problems in Palestine. Everything! From 1918 to this day. And that the EU should be shirking its duty, withholding its contribution to a peace settlement in Palestine is, in my view, nothing short of scandalous.

It is not "no big deal" and it is scandalous. But it's the tail, it's not the dog. Until and unless something is done about the general, structural reasons that Europe supports mistreatment of people elsewhere in the world, nothing serious will be done about Palestine - all you will see is sternly worded letters, impressive-looking conferences and impeccably-dressed diplomats that say nothing much at all.

Look at the whole dog, not just at the tail. That's all I'm trying to say here.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

Loefing:

Well this is nothing short of an astonishing comment.

I think the problem is one of style more than of substance. Frankly, this diary reads like it's written for a newspaper.

"It reads like", you say, but you don't venture to elaborate as to your objections to the substance of the diary, nor do you provide counter arguments or substance.

I read Jakes comment as a blunt statement of facts.

In my opinion, what generates a lot of discussion on ET is controversial statements (see Valentin for examples) or interesting details that can be sorted out (looka at the recent Croatia thread). Palestine is neither, it is a tragedy. Shergald would probably cause much more discussion if s/he wrote a diary that argued that Israels policies are proportional, justified or something like that. Actually I think there are such threads, not started by Shergald though.

A personal approach - I was here, I did this, I felt this - also brings comments but of a different kind. Sharing begets sharing. Oh, appeals for help also generates comments, as long as the appeal is concrete and within the means of the readers.

Shergald writes well-written reports, but generally speaking that is not what generates discussion here.

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