Norman Solomon: A Hundred Eyes for an Eye

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/19444

A Hundred Eyes for an Eye
by Norman Solomon | December 29, 2008 - 10:05am


snip//

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," Gandhi said.

What about a hundred eyes for an eye?

It makes some of the world ill with rage. And it turns much of the United States numb with silence. Routinely, the politicians and pundits of Washington can't summon minimal decency in themselves or each other on the subject of Israel and Palestinians.

While officialdom inside the Beltway seems frozen in fear of risking "anti-Semitism" charges by actually standing up for the human rights of Palestinian people, some progress at the grassroots has been noticeable. It includes the growth of groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, Tikkun, and The Shalom Center, where activists have worked to refute the false claims that American Jews are united behind Israeli policies.

At the epicenters of the conflict -- where the belief that "only force can assure justice" seems to be even stronger than when I. F. Stone wrote about it 41 years ago -- the conclusion has been drawn and redrawn so many times that deadly repetition has become paralytic. While some Palestinian "militants" have terrorized and murdered, the Israeli government has terrorized and murdered on a much bigger scale, using a vast arsenal largely financed by U.S. taxpayers.

From afar, in the United States, it's too easy to shake our heads at the lethal loss of moral vision. Don't they know that "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind"? But the cycle of violence is extremely asymmetrical -- while the U.S. government provides Israel with billions of dollars and invaluable "diplomatic" support.

What's going on in Gaza right now is not just an eye for an eye. It's a hundred eyes for an eye. And the current slaughter is not only an ongoing Israeli war crime. It has an accomplice named Uncle Sam.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. what depresses me is the total silence

on the part of a president-elect. This is no time for a vacation. Sorry, bub, but sunning yourself in Hawaii just came to an end. Have a pre-cabinet meeting NOW. Call in experts. Meet with foreign leaders NOW. Get on top of this festering sore NOW, and be able to move on it in 21 days.

Sitting and allowing the Bush doctrine to bring the world to the brink of destruction may be polite, but it is very, very wrong.

[BB1]

2. Wasn't Obama the big AIPAC-fan?

Just sayin'...

[babylonsister]

3. I think he's caught between a rock and a hard spot. He's

not the president yet. I do also wish he'd do something, because the dim one is showing no indications of giving a crap about what's happening.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. dim son just went on vacation.

we are on the brink of a "nucular" war in pakistan and india, and Israel declares total war on what is little more than a prison for 1.4 million Palestinians, and he fucking goes on vacation

amazing.

On second thought, that might be the best decision he could make. If he stuck his nose into it any deeper, it screw it up even worse.

[Igel]

5. I can't complain.

He's doing everything he's allowed to do, except speaking up in the news.

He's also getting what appears to be a lot of assistance in his transition, and cooperation. That might come in handier in serving his constituents than stomping on the current president's international relations prerogatives and possibly limiting the assistance. I know that many Palestinians in Gaza undoubtedly voted for him ... No, you say the Gazans *aren't* one of his constituencies, that he's the US president and not the World President. Well, talk about embarrassment.

Moreover, it's just possible Obama knows a bit more than you. Granted, it's unlikely, but let's entertain the possibility. Might he know what's going on behind the scenes between the US and Israel? Might he have an idea of what Israel'll be doing in 24 hours, or that Israel isn't doing as it wants, but less--as the result of intervention? Could there be other things he knows that neither you nor I know? Well, just maybe. I'll have to check the keystroke logger I installed on his laptop. <snark>

Or perhaps he's relaxing, because he's tired, and knows he won't get much of a chance to relax for the first, oh, 3 years of his presidency. Of course, just because he's on vacation doesn't mean he doesn't have a phone, or a whole briefcase full of them and other ways to communicate. Even a lowly office employee like I had duties while on vacation one year. He's probably still getting his briefings. I'd be surprised if his vacation's not riddled with annoying pockets of work.

Now, were he to cancel his vacation, what would he do? Talk. Something he can do by phone. Make plans. Something he can do on a laptop, while talking by phone. No, wait! Would *he* make the plans, or simply tell somebody in the State Dept. to make plans, after discussions between him and his National security advisor, secretary of state, or other advisors? Might he not appoint somebody to actually supervise the first draft for his review?

And might he not already have done that, even from the disconnected wasteland that is Hawaii, with its absence of Internet connections, remoteness from any cell network, and lack of landlines to the US? Surely they have mail service, even if it is by boat.

Chill. Whatever the urgency of the now that was yesterday is probably still exists, and the urgency of the now that is today will carry forward into the urgency of the now that happen tomorrow. If it makes you feel any better, it's likely that more Congolese died of war today than Gazans, and nobody thought it newsworthy. Perhaps Obama's worrying about that.

[acmavm]

6. Maybe you were trying for sarcasm but all that comes through is blatant

cold-blooded ignorance:

<snip>

If it makes you feel any better, it's likely that more Congolese died of war today than Gazans, and nobody thought it newsworthy

<snip>

Unreal. You sure added a whole lot of intelligence to the conversation. And your sense of humanity, well let's just say 'it goes with saying' simply because there's none there to credit you with.

And as for what Obama is doing, how the fuck would you know? You criticize people for wondering where the man is right now and why he's not speaking up, but how the fuck do you know what's going on? Where are you getting your info? They're keeping you posted, are they? (He really could speak up you know. Maybe not as president yet, but as a moral human being and fellow citizen of the planet concerned with a situation that could certainly spiral out of control and engulf the whole Middle East in a war, there's a fucking LOT he could be saying.