Trips down memory lane
/ history? what history? /From the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs: abduction as baragaining tool, the prequel:
On 28 July 1989, Israeli commandos kidnapped Sheikh Abdul Karim Obeid, the leader of the Hezbollah in Lebanon. He was taken from his home in southern Lebanon to Israel. Obeid was held responsible, among other activities, for the kidnapping of an American Marines Colonel William R. Higgins in February 1988. Israel had hoped to use the sheikh as a card to affect an exchange of prisoners and hostages in return for all Shiites held by it.
As pointed out by Siddharth Varadarajan in the Hindu, in a very informative article.A few years ago Amnesty was codemning KLA guerillas for abducting 8 Yugoslav Army soldiers. Inexplicably, Serbia's right to defend itself never became a part of the international debate.Noam Chomsky reminds us how collective responsibility is abhorrent when applied against us, but pretty much OK when we apply it to others, a point made by Billmon in a different context, as well.And from current news: You know the sad excuse that Israel is spinning about the Qana massacre? That there were nearby rockets fired that day by Hezbollah? Well Red Cross Workers at the scene apparently didn't see any such launches.
4 comments:
>> # Noam Chomsky reminds us how
>> collective responsibility is
>> abhorrent when applied against
>> us, but pretty much OK when we
>> apply it to others
A very pertinent comment, indeed, given the development of the whole Middle East thing, and the American view of "towelheads". I heard some Israeli spokesmen on the UK news, too, trying to spin the story against the Hizbolah "civilian power base".
We'll be seeing collective punishment as quite cool, next!
(I'm not innocent of this either. I'll often rave at the shit-for-brains Muslim world attitude; it's always more difficult when it's us that's displaying that kind of dementia)
If the Israelis were Serbian, what is done in Lebanon, would be called ethnic cleansing.
"Inexplicably, Serbia's right to defend itself never became a part of the international debate."
Question: how hard would it be for you to visit Kosovo?
I don't know where you are, physically -- but from Thessaloniki, it's an easy three- or four-hour drive to the border. (You can stop for a coffee in Skopje, which is certainly worth a visit itself.) Another 45 minutes or an hour puts you in Pristina.
Kosovo is cheap; you could have a very interesting weekend there for not much money at all.
I just think you, in particular, would find it interesting.
Doug M.
Doug: This trip for personal reasons will have to wait for a while (maybe a couple of years). Possibly after Kosovo's final status is decided - which might be a bit longer that I originally thought.
However I have the distinct impression that you missed the irony of the statement you quote. So let me be a bit more explicit: As it would e stupid to see KLA activities as an issue of Serbia defending itself, especially as giving it a blank check to cleanse a quarter of Kosovo's population, so it is equally idiotic to suggest that Israel's right to defend itself extends to returning Lebanon back to the stone age and killing >1000 civilians. That simple.
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