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PHOTO ALBUM: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine

by shergald Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 01:06:10 PM EST

A sampling.

While we wait for the Netanyahu games to begin, anticipating the resumption of Israel's building of homes on Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the further emptying of the Jordan Valley of its remaining Palestinian villages, and the development of the future Apartheid state of Israel, it seems like a good time for people to take a look at the reality on the ground as far as the dwindling peace activist movement is concerned. Actually, the problem is its silence or lack of publicity. Here's some.

These photos were shared this morning by the British site, Bristol to Gaza showing a little of what the reality is in Palestine, or whatever is left of it today, August 4, 2010.

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Israeli border police officers detain an Israeli protester during a demonstration against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Walajeh, outside Jerusalem, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010.

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A mother and her baby after Israel bulldozed its home, village and 45 neighbouring villages. 4 August
(this could be a picture from the Bedouin village demolition of last week)

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Israeli border police officers detain an Israeli protester during a demonstration against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Walajeh, outside Jerusalem, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010.

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The threat of Israel-Lebanon war mounts in face of open provocation

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....nervous celebrations as five out of the remaining seven are acquitted for decommissioning EDO MBM in solidarity with Palestine. (sorry but I can't supply the details)

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:Resistance to the Nakba continues - 4th August

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Israeli border police officers detain an Israeli protester during a demonstration against the construction of Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Walajeh, outside Jerusalem, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010.

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PHOTO ALBUM: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
OKay enough of the frivilous, and back to local politics. This from Alternet this morning:

Why the U.S. Won't Cut Ties with Israel, No Matter How Extreme Its Government Gets

A thick web of military-strategic ties is at the heart of the US-Israeli relationship.
August 4, 2010

Rumors are floating around about why Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in Washington - again - last week when Israel's official top diplomat, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, is nowhere to be seen.  This was Barak's seventh visit to DC; Lieberman has been here exactly once.

So what's up with that?  Why isn't Israel's most important envoy playing the key diplomatic role with Israel's most important diplomatic sponsor?  One reason is that Lieberman is an embarrassment to many, even here in Washington's Israel-can-do-no-wrong political culture.  His party, Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Is Our Home) is so far right that Kadimah -- the party of the 1982 "Butcher of Beirut" Ariel Sharon and Tzipi Livni who helped orchestrate the assault on Gaza -- and the extremist settlement-backing Likud party of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, look centrist and center-right by comparison.

http://www.alternet.org/story/147733/why_the_u.s._won%27t_cut_ties_with_israel%2C_no_matter_how_extr eme_its_government_gets

So why has Barak been to the US seven times? Because if he went anywhere else he would be arrested as a war criminal and taken to the Hague.


by shergald on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 01:23:43 PM EST
What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
And while the members of this site show disinterest in the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine, in particular, we laud this British group, Bristol to Gaza, and those several in Ireland and Scotland as well, for their advocacy of justice for the Palestinians.


by shergald on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 01:36:50 PM EST
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (4.00 / 2)
shergald:
And while the members of this site show disinterest in the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine, in particular

You joined this site on the 14th of February 2006, and immediately commented in a substantial and long discussion in Sirocco's diary, Should We Boycott Israel?

It may well be that you came here having noticed, one way or another (BooTrib? Google?), that title.

Whether that's the case or not, your pretence that members here show disinterest in the Middle East and I/P is inaccurate. Members here may or may not show interest in you and your diaries, that's another question.

Which is yet more meta. Introduced by shergald.

Do you want to talk about Israel/Palestine, or about meta?

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 04:06:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
Well at least you know how to read. The only interest in IP I have seen is in relation to 'meta.' I have seen few comments of a substantial nature. Looks as if Jake started something.

No matter. I blog for the lurkers, which Trilqvist noted probably constitute about 96% of the readers of this blog, like other blogs. The disinterest comment referred to the 1%, the highly active bloggers like yourself. Not a problem. Walk on.

by shergald on Wed Aug 4th, 2010 at 05:25:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (4.00 / 3)
You're again confusing the Israel/Palestine question with yourself.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Aug 5th, 2010 at 01:03:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
And Migeru and Jake agree with you. Well, at least someone is reading these diaries, especially members of the lurker community.

by shergald on Thu Aug 5th, 2010 at 09:45:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Wilders (Likud Support) to Join in Mosque Protest (none / 1)
.
Dutch Intolerance Returns to New Amsterdam on 9/11

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

by Oui on Fri Aug 6th, 2010 at 03:43:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Wilders (Likud Support) in Mosque Protest (none / 1)
Excellent points, Oui.

Your earlier effort, "Geert Wilders a Likudnik sponsored by Daniel Pipes," says it all. I suspect that David Horowitz, editor of the Islamophobic Frontpage Magazine, will come up shortly in this same context of learning to fear and hate Muslims.

by shergald on Fri Aug 6th, 2010 at 04:16:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
And while the members of this site show disinterest in the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine

Among the constants, Shergald, is that people make mistakes. Which is not a problem really since are often easy to fix.

The problem is that instead of admitting wrong, we seem to have a compulsion to repeat the mistake, and with increasing severity, in order to prove the other person wrong. It is a little counter-intuitive since our original purpose was to create a positive effect and then put more energy into creating a negative effect. But the need to be right goes back to the days of having to outwit lions on the Savannah.

Again, not a problem since most of my friends are so close to perfect as to be able to laugh off my indiscretions and allow us all onto the next adventure.

The problem does come about though when eventually the end result is that 'we' become your 'they' -- and the old they flips around. At 'best' it causes one to go bonkers. At worse, it 'allows' the person the justification to be a traitor. This is not as easily fixed, and neither is it fun to watch.

Hit the reset button please.

Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.

Frank Delaney ~ Ireland

by siegestate (siegestate or beyondwarispeace.com) on Sun Aug 8th, 2010 at 12:53:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
No question you've put your finger on maybe a problem. People who blog together over the years start to think alike and after a while present a kernel of thought that is group-wise rather than individual. That's why I reject the idea of a blog "community." The community usually comprises the 1% of very active bloggers, and slowly but surely they begin to think alike and even demand conformance.

by shergald on Tue Aug 10th, 2010 at 09:06:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
You're right: why be part of a community when you can develop groupthink all by yourself...

"Ce qui vient au monde pour ne rien troubler ne mérite ni égards ni patience." René Char
by Melanchthon on Wed Aug 11th, 2010 at 05:33:45 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine (none / 0)
"develop groupthink all by yourself..."

And a pretty slim group, a group of one, it would be, no?

by shergald on Wed Aug 11th, 2010 at 05:03:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Cesspool (4.00 / 2)
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EDO/ITT Corporation

4 Criticism in the United States
4.1 2004 fine
4.2 The Earmarks affair [Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer]
4.3 EDO President James M. Smith and the 2006 Executive Excess Report
4.4 EDO Director Dennis C. Blair and the EDO-IDA scandal
4.5 EDO Director Leslie Kenne and the Joint Strike Fighter contract
4.6 EDO Director Paul Kern and allegations of war crimes at Abu Ghraib/EDO links with Titan Corporation

 
, Judge faces anti-Semitism probe after Brighton campaigners walk free

 

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

by Oui on Sun Aug 8th, 2010 at 02:39:58 AM EST
PHOTO ALBUM: What's out of sight in Israel-Palestine | 13 comments (13 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)


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