September 3, 2006 – 11:33 am
1. The legend of Israel’s military might is shattered for good. A few brave knights together with God’s angels defeated the 5th strongest army in the world.
2. Israel as a strategic ally is a fallacy and U.S. tax payer’s money is wasted. Israel was not able to help out in the first or the second Gulf War and was not able to help itself in Lebanon. Israel is strongest against the weak, but Hezbollah ate their lunch with chutzpah.
3. The assertion of Israel from the river to the sea is a pipe dream. To expand you need to occupy and subjugate. This is no longer in the realm of reason. Read More »
February 22, 2005 – 11:35 am
President Bush wants me to be excited about the recent elections in Iraq while the news shows lines of Iraqi voters, segregated by sex. I’m supposed to be thrilled, elated, waving an ink-stained finger around a pasty version of E.T., while the ballots specifically asked the voter to disclose his or her sex. Smug American politicians repeat the word “freedom” like a broken record, while already on the streets of Baghdad women are harassed for wearing pants.
It funny, for all the current saber-rattling going on about Iran at the moment, Bush seems completely ignorant of the fact that he himself has just helped create a new Iran: a battered, bitter post-Saddam Iraq at the risk of succumbing to fascism in the guise of moral authority. Oh sweet irony. Read More »
December 13, 2001 – 11:49 am
Never did I yearn to have the drawing talent of a satirical cartoonist more than these days as words can hardly do justice to the tragic black comedy the Arab-Israeli conflict has become.
The picture I want to draw today is of a mad circus with Sharon running a bizarre show of trained animals. In this number, Sharon, with his long hovering whip, orders Arafat to run after members of Hamas while sadistically preventing him from doing so by tying his feet together. When Arafat starts to run and falls down, more lashes come his way for failing to obey the orders to chase after Hamas. Of course, the whole spectacle has nothing to do with Hamas. The joke is being played on the ageing and helpless Arafat to humiliate and paralyse him.
Or maybe the setting would be in a bull ring with Sharon, the over-sized matador, teasing Arafat, the obliging bull, with Hamas as the muleta (red cloth). When the bull with the poisoned spears dangling from his spine is dared to aim for the muleta, the matador swiftly pulls it away to the cheers of the intoxicated crowds. The elusive red cloth was never the point, you see. The plan all along was to slowly exhaust the big fat bull until the matador could easily aim for the kill. Read More »
March 30, 2001 – 11:52 am
I was watching an episode of “Diplomatic License” on CNN the other Sunday. It was hosting one of those supposedly fair and evenhanded discussions on the Palestinian Uprising (the “intifadah”).
Of course, each side was represented: on the right corner, you had the two debating champs representing the Israeli point of view, one of whom is the editor of one of the leading “current affairs” magazines in the US, and the other the head of one of the myriad Israeli lobbies. And for the Palestinian side, you had two protagonists (how admirably neutral of CNN): one was a spokesman for an Islamic organization that is as famous in the United States as the author of this article, and another who heads a Jerusalem Studies Centre that must have been established on the day on which “Diplomatic License” was recorded! And so the debate raged on and on.
Richard Roth, the program’s presenter and debate arbitrator par excellence, presided over the proceedings and portrayed an image of utmost impartiality. Equal time was given to each side to air its views, Richard acted graciously, both sides raised their issues, and the program concluded with a quote from Kofi Annan’s speech before the recent Arab Summit in Amman. Kofi Annan, god bless him, was of course a picture of justice and righteousness. His quote had something for both sides – yes, the Arabs had every right to be miffed by the continued occupation of Palestinian territories, but Israelis had a right to worry for their security.
On the other side of the world, on the same day, Slobodan Milosevic was being arrested. Read More »
