Category: World News & Politics

Israeli Soldiers Just Shoot, Shoot, Shoot

“When I first got to Hebron I wouldn’t open fire on little children. And I was sure that if I ever killed or hurt anyone, I’d go so crazy that I’d leave the army. But finally I did shoot someone, and nothing happened to me. In Hebron I shot the legs off of two kids, and I was sure I wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore at night, but nothing happened. Two weeks ago I hurt a Palestinian policeman, and that didn’t affect me either. You become so apathetic you don’t care at all. Shooting is the IDF soldier’s way of meditating. It’s like shooting is your way of letting go of all your anger when you’re in the army. In Hebron there’s this order they call “punitive shooting”: just open fire on whatever you like. I opened fire not on any sources of fire but on windows where there was just wash hanging to dry. I knew that there were people who would be hit. But at that moment it was just shoot, shoot, shoot.”

— Extract from an interview with Israeli soldiers (who are identified by pseudonyms) conducted by Israeli journalist Uri Blau and printed in Kol Ha’Ir, a Jerusalem weekly, in September 2001.
Translated from Hebrew by Tal Haran, and published in English translation in the April 2002 edition of Harpers Magazine.

[Via: Lawrence of Cyberia]

U.S. and Israelis Talk of Hamas Ouster

The United States and Israel are discussing ways to destabilize the Palestinian government so that newly elected Hamas officials will fail and elections will be called again, according to Israeli officials and Western diplomats.

The intention is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections to the point where, some months from now, its president, Mahmoud Abbas, is compelled to call a new election. The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement.

So this is the democracy that the US is promoting in the Middle East?
You get to vote for whoever you wish, but if you choose someone we don’t like, we’ll put you in a secluded corner without food or money until you change your mind and choose the people we want?!

What kind of hypocrisy and double-standards are these?
I’m sorry, but democracy just doesn’t work that way!
When Americans made the mistake of choosing George W. Bush for presidency twice, the rest of the world didn’t go on and cut the U.S. off for their very bad choice, they just lived with it.

That’s how things are with democracy, and with life in general, people don’t always make the right decisions, or the decisions that the rest of the world wants them to make, but in the end it’s their decision and nobody elses.
The world has to live with it and work with it.

[Source: NY Times]
[Via: Sleepless Jojo]

Israel Against “Palestine” Tag At Oscars

Israel and U.S. Jewish groups have lobbied organizers of next month’s
Academy Awards not to present a nominated film about Palestinian suicide bombers as coming from “Palestine.”

Many Israelis were irked when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in publishing the nomination, said “Paradise Now” came from “Palestine.”

There were also some obviously unhappy faces at the Golden Globes when “Paradise Now” was announced as a movie from Palestine, and won the award for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’.

They say is that no one, not even the Palestinians themselves, have declared the formal creation of ‘Palestine’ yet, and thus the label would be inaccurate.

Well, declared or not, recognized or not, and whether Israel likes it or not, Palestine exists; It exists through its people, through its beautiful holy land, through our memories, through history, through all our hearts.

And it’s only normal that a movie made by a Palestinian be tagged as coming from Palestine, because that is where he, his movie and its ideas come from.

West And Islam As Equals

“The demonisation of Islam and the vilification of Muslims, there is no denying, is widespread within mainstream Western society.”

Muslims for their part have to avoid “sweeping denunciation of Christians, Jews and the West”

“The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West and vice versa. They should accept one another as equals.”

— Prime Minister of Malaysia, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

[Source: BBC]

Iran daily holds contest for Holocaust cartoons

Iran’s best-selling newspaper has launched a competition to find the best cartoon about the Holocaust in retaliation for the publication in many European countries of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

The daily paper Hamshahri said the contest was designed to test the boundaries of free speech — the reason given by many European newspapers for publishing the cartoons of the Prophet.

“A serious question for Muslims … is this: ‘does Western free speech allow working on issues like America and Israel’s crimes or an incident like the Holocaust or is this freedom of speech only good for insulting the holy values of divine religions?'” the paper said on Tuesday.

Davoud Kazemi, who is in charge of the contest, told Reuters that each of the 12 winners would have their cartoons published and receive two gold coins (worth about $140 each) as a prize.

[Source: Reuters]

No To Violent Response Over Danish Cartoons!

Yesterday, the embassies of Denmark and Norway in Syria were attacked by demonstrators and torched.

Today, demonstrators in Lebanon set the Danish consulate in Beirut on fire too.

From the very start, Muslim religious leaders and clerics have been going on and on about this and telling people not to react violently to these cartoons. And from the video footage of the attacks on the Danish consulate in Beirut, we can see a number of religious leaders trying to stop the people from what they’re doing, trying to stand in their way and make them leave.
And all Arab TV channel have been showing a number of Islamic leaders or Imams condemning these actions and attacks against these embassies and consulates.

I too would like to strongly condemn these attacks and say that they are totally unacceptable. Violence is never a solution to anything. It just complicates things more and adds fuel to the fire.
This is not the way Islam, our religion of peace, tells us to respond!
These violent reactions harm our religion more than the cartoons or any disrespect the west could show!
This has to stop!

Fact International: A New Paper on Islam

A new weekly newspaper has been launched in Jordan to campaign against “blatant distortions” of Islam by portraying a moderate image of the religion.

Fact International is being published by a media and research institute based in Amman with articles in both Arabic and English, according to chairman Zakaria al-Sheikh.

“Fact International