Palestine

At QeRN, we have been following this story for some time now. As their book is about to be published, we take a look at the latest twist in their saga.

The following is a piece by the blogger 'Gary' and a reproduction of a letter by Walt and Mearsheimer themselves:

Do Canadian Muslims have leaders who represent the aspirations and political leanings of the growing and divergent Muslim community, or are they seduced by short-term opportunism? Let us take a look.

Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis resigned from Joe Volpe's Liberal leadership campaign due to Volpe's unabashed support for Israel in the current Middle East conflict. Liberal MP Wajid Khan, and a well-known Muslim politician, is hanging on as the Ontario chair for Volpe's campaign.

Then Wajid Khan went one step further and courted the Conservatives, and Prime Minister Harper brought him on board as an advisor for Middle East and South Asian affairs. Tom Axworthy, former principal secretary to prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and chair of the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University, called this move “I haven't heard of anything like this before.” Many members of the Liberal caucus have asked that Khan be excluded from the caucus as Conservative policies will be misunderstood as having a Liberal origin. Mr. Khan is also an ardent supporter of the increasingly unpopular Canadian troop presence in Afghanistan – which is an aggressive military campaign, and not just peacekeeping. Mr. Khan is on record as having said, “my year as a prisoner of war in India taught me how fruitless war is.”

The king of Saudi Arabia threatened that regional war would take the place of the 'peace processes' of the past.

Being stranded on the wrong foot for the past two weeks, this is brilliant strategy to counter the three problems the Saudis have: the opinion on the street, militants (al-Qaida) and Iran and the rise of Shi'ite power.

"Saudi Arabia warns everybody that if the peace option fails because of Israeli arrogance, there will be no other option but war," state-owned media quoted the king as saying. . . .

Often in human history, there comes a time when a generation must heed the call to quell a threat to civilization. Not every generation is faced with this call and those that do are remembered for their sacrifice by the others that are not.

These are the people who recognize evil for what it is and do not emulate the ostrich, and every time humanity moves to a higher platform of liberty. This is the price of democracy and liberty and prosperity of the entire human race: eternal vigilance and a desire to sacrifice one's comfort and peace to uphold shared human ideals against the oppression of a powerful few.

Akber Choudhry

"Russia's big and so is China", the US president made this remark while the microphone was on. The rest of the overheard conversation showed how pitifully foolish and out of touch Bush is. It also shows, sadly, that the US has no clout left.

Well, you are going to read it here first: the US is not intervening in the Israel-Lebanon war because it cannot. As simple as that. Iran has skillfully played its hand and the Arabs, the Americans and the Israelis are not happy that Iran is now the 'other power' in the Middle East.

Impeccable timing and media manipulation - that's all I can say.

"Now the Lebanese and the Palestinians are both caught in the crossfire. Iran and its proxies on one side, and Israel (and Washington) on the other, are acting like chess players who, having both thought out a sequence of moves well in advance, are now moving pieces and sacrificing pawns at breakneck speed. There will be a great many pawns sacrificed, as well as most of the other pieces on the board, and the end game will inevitably be truly ugly. Unless somebody intervenes." -- Geov Parrish at WorkingForChange.com

Israel's over-reaction to the capture of anonymous soldiers coincided with the referral of Iran to the UN concerning its nuclear program. The dust will not settle easily now. The US is going to be pulled in, and its decision is to let tensions simmer or let the drums roll - World War III.

by Akber Choudhry

First, a British professor refused to write for an academic journal funded by Israeli universities, saying that he was taking part in a boycott of Israel.

"Alas, I am unable to accept your kind invitation, for reasons that you may not like," wrote Professor Richard Seaford, from the University of Exeter in England. "I have, along with many other British academics, signed the academic boycott of Israel, in the face of the brutal and illegal expansionism and the slow-motion ethnic cleansing being practiced by your government."

Then, on May 29, 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted for a proposal in favor of an academic boycott against Israel.

I believe that Judaism is not Zionism is not Israel/Palestine. When Jewish intellectuals speak out on this subject, the totally non-intellectual reaction by Zionists is a sight to behold. Enjoy:

[extracted from article by John Sutherland -- The Guardian -- November 28, 2005]
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The vitriol Jacqueline Rose's ideas have provoked is, perhaps, more
startling than the ideas themselves. After Rose spoke on the winning side in a public debate on Zionism in January, Melanie Phillips -- one of the speakers on the losing side -- described her as one of "three Jewish persecutors of Israel who strutted their repellent stuff," and accused her of implicitly suggesting that "the Jews are responsible for their own destruction."

The earthquake was centered in Ramallah, Palestine and the aftershocks are still being felt all over the world. The political tsunami is unprecedented since 1945.

The usage of the word "terrorist" with respect to Islamic resistance movements lost all rational meaning in the space of 24 hours with the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections.

The stakes are high now: Bush was mumbling sheepishly -- ok, a bit more than usual! Rice was at a loss for words. The Israelis are locked in meetings as I write this and Amre Moussa was on CNN somewhere in between the lines. Even Daniel Pipes, the inplacable foe of Islam and Palestine, said, "Now that Hamas has apparently won the Palestinian elections, the West is hoist with its own petard." We hope that Daniel Pipes' vitriol has now turned against the West and rational people will see him for who he really is -- another casualty of democracy!

November 14, 2004, The Independent (UK)

That Yasser Arafat's death is seen as sign of optimism shows how catastrophic the conflict in the Middle East has become.

So the death of Yasser Arafat is a great new opportunity for the Palestinians, is it? The man who personified the Palestinian struggle - "Mr Palestine" - is dead. So things can only get better for the Palestinians. Death means democracy. Death means statehood. That the final demise of the corrupt old guerrilla leader should be a sign of optimism demonstrates just how catastrophic the conflict in the Middle East has now become. It's a bit like Fallujah. The more we destroy it, the crueler we are, the brighter the