Tag Archives: Gaza

Here come the drums!

Today is a day for mourning. Not just for the victims and the family of victims, but for all our souls. I am not stating that we are going towards WW3 at present, which would be wrong and very inconsiderate; it would also be incorrect as far as I can tell at present.
I got the news very early this morning; it shook me up at first. My first question was whether the press would suddenly call it a ‘plane shot down‘. I was not aware of the full facts, and the indiscriminate acts by the Murdoch group in regards to MH370 gave me that worry. Yet, there it came, the message that it was shot down. This time, it was indeed an act of violence that brought the plane down.

This all made me consider and offering you the following issue: ‘A lawyer walks into an insane asylum and hands an inmate a gun, who then kills the Warden of that place. Who is to blame?‘

This is not some ‘proposed’ issue; this is what seems to be happening at this very moment. Who gave these separatists access to a multimillion dollar system that can down a plane from 30,000 feet? This is not a stinger or some RPG on a shoulder. This is a system that requires a sizeable missile, computers, radar, guidance as well as the people to man and successfully fire this system. Hamas does not have access to anything like that, so where did these separatists get them? Hamas has had access to arm dealers for decades; they never got access to this level of hardware (or the people to operate it).

This has so far not been on the minds of most journalists, who are still hitting the emotion snare on the harp of agony, which is fair enough, as we see this happen (whether valid or not) all the time. The question is when should we be asking these questions? I understand that we need to wait for answers and facts to arrive, yet the serious and valid question should be asked as immediate as possible so we can focus on the actual answers. I was told 4 hours ago (just before 06:00 local time) that the black box was already on route to Russia. So was this plane shot down over Russia or Ukraine? If the plane was shot down over Ukraine, why is it on route to Russia? It might be for a very valid reason, I just wonder why it was not on route to Kiev if it was shot down over Ukraine.

Perhaps my question is not that correct either, but they are the questions that came to my mind at 05:00 and 06:00 this morning.

Is this just it? Is there more?

That is also on the forefront of my mind. Do not worry; this is not some conspiracy theory moment! This is all happening at same time as we see ground forces enter Gaza, Israel has had enough of Hamas and is now cleaning house in that area. The support Cairo gave Israel, or better stated, the support it is NOT willing to give Hamas (which is not the same) is opening a few doors. Consider the issues we had seen with Syria, Ukraine (except for Crimea) and a few other places, now we get these two events. It seems to me that parties are no longer heading any words coming from the US State Department and its ambassadors, or its secretary of State. They just hide behind even more ‘sanctions’. How is that working for you in regards to Cuba Mr President? The fact that a passenger liner gets shot down like this, that Gaza is now entered by Israel (which seems valid to me after 2000 missile strikes), gives more and more the impression that the US is no longer heeded in any advice. In my view, a nation with minus 18,000 billion in their treasury is taken less seriously then one with a mighty force that could be send out anywhere if they had actual coin in the coffers. I say (in Game of Throne style) ‘The master of the coin has a wee bit of explaining to do!’

Are they all consequences of the US no longer having the ‘balls’ (read filled bank account) to do anything against these transgressions?
It does leave several nations (those with citizens on the MH17) a few things to consider. What will Russia do? If Russia wants to be regarded as the ‘shiny knight’ on its Russian Steed, it would have to come down on these separatists really hard. If they did, the balance of power would definitely shift in many ways. The White House becomes the talker who does not act and it could make Russia the acting party who does not present. Is this the events as they will truly play out?

No matter what happens in the end, we all have questions at present. What is the question in regards to MH17 that is on your mind? It does not matter whether you have family or countrymen on this flight. Today we are witnessing a group of (militants or terrorists) take out a civilian plane as casual as eating pancakes. I hope we hear the serious questions from several sides before the governments start playing politics (as they have to). In the end we all want answers, the families of the victims above all.

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Academic Discrimination?

The night was still young when my faithful iPad 1 was beeping me about an issue that had hit the Jerusalem Post (at http://www.jpost.com/International/92-universities-reject-academic-boycott-of-Israel-336771). I could not believe my eyes! A bucket of icy cold water could not have woken me any faster. I had to do some digging (not all sources are of the highest quality), so here is the rundown.

The Guardian had this headline “Why a boycott of Israeli academics is fully justified” (at http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/sep/12/boycott-israeli-academics-justified). And they call themselves academics?

Now, as a non-academic act, here is a wiki page (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_suicide_attacks), showing a few issues with the entire endeavour. In addition, these are just the bombings. The list of Hamas ‘actions’ on other fronts are a lot longer and several governments would be very unwilling to confirm several of those acts on their soil. In addition, since 2010 close to 2500 rocket attacks had been made from Gaza by Hamas against Israel.

So, do these academics have ANY clue what they are doing, supporting or talking about? The fact that well over a 100 universities at this time all slammed the boycott brought by the ASA, might be an indication that the ASA could be in for a massive structural reshuffle. The fact that such an act of utter opposition to academic freedom even made it to a vote is already cause for concern in my view.

A quote from Dartmouth College by Paul Mirengoff stated “The ASA consists of approximately 5,000 members. 1,265 of them voted on the resolution, with 66 percent of them supporting it.”

So 66% of the 25% members that voted got this all carried?

The second quote “Among them are Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, New York University, Yale, and Dartmouth College.” (at www.powerlineblog.com) I reckon that under these circumstances, Mr Mirengoff should proudly mention his college next to those Ivy league big boys. Some of the names that Mr Mirengoff did not mention were Stanford, Brown, Duke and Georgetown, but he might not have had those names in any official way at that time. The list (as complete as can be) can be found here http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/12/list-of-universities-rejecting-academic-boycott-of-israel/

It is quite possible that at the time of my writing even more Universities and Colleges joined those ranks.

The issue that is even more paramount is the entire boycotting affair. Yes against Israel, but no opposition to Iranian or Russian Universities? How about Cuban Universities, like the University of Havana?

Now for my own ‘academic’ mistake! Should I have compared Palestinian Academics with Hamas? Is that just not as grievous an error? If we accept Reuters article of last June (at http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/02/us-palestinians-idUSBRE9510BK20130602) as a given, then there is a distance between some academics and Hamas and its goals, this does not mean that Hamas does not have within its ranks a fair number of distinguished academics (an assumption on my side). Any war has sides and an academic will just like others choose a side. His views and reasoning could be valid, sane and logical. So, when there is an alleged issue in Israeli Universities in regards to Palestinian scholars, then we need to see what actually is happening. The quote “the massive restrictions on academic freedom for Palestinian scholars” is misleading. Is there any restriction against scholars, or are there restrictions on those supporting Hamas? I do not claim to know the answer, or to even have a clue how that equation is in place (if it amounts to some equation that is in place). We do however have decades of acts by Hamas against Israel, most of it nicely mapped. The quote “Hamas and other Palestinian militant organizations contend that they will settle for nothing less than the dissolution of the entire Jewish state.” has reverberated over the media and the internet for almost half a century. It is interesting that the ASA has had little time to illuminate such a level of prosecution against Israel and its Jewish population.

In my view, academics need to remain outside of that entire political debacle for the simple reason that as long as there is one group that remains talking to each other, the option for any peaceful solution will remain a possible reality.

 

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