American Idiocy

Last night was the Motion Picture Academy-sponsored dinner in Beverly Hills honoring the directors and producers of this year's five nominated films for Best Documentary. The dinner was an occasional tradition my wife and I started six years ago when we took our fellow nominees (we were nominated for Sicko) out for a meal to get to know each other. The Academy liked the idea, so this year it is holding dinners during Oscar Week for each of the separate branches' Oscar nominees.

Thus, last night, as an elected Governor of the Documentary Branch, I and my fellow Governors – Michael Apted and Rob Epstein – were co-hosting the nominee dinner for the documentary filmmakers. But one of the nominated directors was not there – Emad Burnat, the co-director of the Oscar-nominated 5 Broken Cameras. This exceptional, award-winning movie about how Emad's village in the West Bank used non-violence to oppose the Israeli's government's decision to build a wall straight through their farms and village – only to see (and capture on camera) Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed Palestinian civilians – had become the first Palestinian documentary ever to be nominated by the Academy.

While we awaited Emad's arrival from the airport – he and his family had already spent nearly six hours at an Israeli checkpoint as he was attempting to drive to Amman to catch their plane – I received an urgent text from Emad, written to me from a holding pen at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Here is what it said, in somewhat broken English: Read more.

The Palestinian Eternal Damnation

Hantu Laut

The saga of the deadly shooting of peace activists and humanitarian workers aboard the Gaza aid flotilla continues with new revelation from those who survived the attack and deported to their home countries.

It now appears that Israeli side of the story was a blatant lie to cover the humiliating fiasco.The shoot first talk later policy of Israeli military were the cause of their contemptible action.

Many of the activists accused the Israelis of having opened fire, shooting from the air without warning that eventually led to the melee on board the leading blockade-runner Mavi Marmara killing 10 activists and injuring scores more.

Australian photographer Kate Geraghty on board the Challenger One, one of the ships in the flotilla said she was shot with a Taser gun and had bruises,minor burns and nausea.She was told she was in a military combat zone? Many on board claimed there were still in international waters.

In spite of Geraghty telling the military that those rules should not apply to her as she is an accredited journalist on assignment she was arrested and eventually deported.One of her shocking revelation was the presence of Australian-Israeli soldiers in the attacking force.She said she couldn't believe it when she found out that three of the soldiers were Australians.Courtesy of a country that allow dual nationality.

The world is aghast with the horrifying blockade that have inhumanely reduced the whole Palestinian population as inmates, fenced in within their own country, deprived of basic life giving necessities such as building materials,food and medicine.

This is ethnic cleansing of the first order, slow and painful death from malnutrition and lack of life saving medicine.It's genocide in subtleness.

If the Western civilisation was horrified by Nazi's Germany holocaust of the Jews they have, in recent history, done absolutely nothing to stop ethnic cleansing and genocide in Bosnia,Rwanda, Cambodia and and now the Palestinians.

You can't wipe out a race of people completely but you can reduce the numbers quickly or slowly, over time.The Red Indians of America and the Aborigines of Australia learned that if you can't be wiped out completely they can reduce your numbers.

There were 682 people from 42 countries on the flotilla which included political leaders,noble laureate, peace activists and journalists who were disgusted with the apathetic Western powers. Their double standard and reluctance to use political pressure or military intervention to demand Israel to lift the blockade is clearly a grand design to keep the balance of power in the Middle East constantly in their favour. They can impose sanctions on countries like Iran and North Korea and destroyed Iraq and Afghanistan for the flimsiest of reason but protect the 'Butcher of the Middle East' like a gem.

After the 1973 Arab-Israeli War the Western powers have concluded that the Arab countries are unreliable and dangerous if too much are left in their hands.The oil embargo was a lesson learned.The oil fields would become deadly weapons for the Arabs to use against the West if there were no strong ally in the region to checkmate the Arabs.

Israel, creation of the Western powers after the Second World War and Islam's decreed enemy is the sole and most suitable candidate for the job.After the 1973 war no Arab countries have dared to take on Israel.Iraq's Sadam Hussein, the only likely threat had been eliminated.

Britain,China,France and Russia, four of the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members have only meekly condemned Israel's deadly debacle.The US, the big veto power, as usual making its irony statement to think that the rest of the world is stupid not to know the smokescreen.

No amount of activism can help the Palestinian people without involvement of the big powers.It all will come to naught.

As long as the West's double standard and apathy continue to exist the Palestinians are doomed to eternal damnation.

(I feel strongly about the Palestinian issue, have been writing about it and will be writing about it, from time to time)

Posted in Perth,Australia

Gaza:The Killing Zone

Hantu Laut

Might is right, no matter how wrong and cruel it is. The weak get trampled,killed and massacred by the guns and bombs of the rich and powerful.

Today I dedicate this page to the people of Gaza who had suffered the genocidal attacks by Israel military.While one can be sent to prison for refuting the holocaust, the Western powers chose to close their eyes and ears to the holocaust on the Palestinian people.

Below is an eye-witness account of some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Israel regime on defenceless Palestinian women, children and men without any care for civilian lives.

A British peace campaigner watched as an Israeli air strike killed two young girls, one aged four, the other 12, as they cleared away rubbish near their home in the Gaza village of Beit Hanoun.

"I saw two girls, ages 4 and 12 hit by a bomb from an F16,'' said Ewa Jasiewicz, an activist originally from Kingston, Surrey. "They were outside clearing some rubbish around their homes.

The younger girl, believed to be Haya Hamdan, died instantly and Miss Jasiewicz said Gaza's severe shortage of medical facilities hampered efforts to save the second girl, her sister Lama. "The people of Gaza have nothing left from the ongoing siege: there is not even an ambulance to take a child to the hospital.''

It was later confirmed the older girl died in hospital. "There is no excuse in dropping bombs on Gaza, as civilian deaths are unavoidable.

Palestinian leaders condemned the attack as a demonstration that Israel's Operation Cast Lead was endangering civilians. "The reality for the children of Gaza will not change until there is international pressure on Israel to end the bombings and the ongoing siege.'' said Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary general of the Palestinian National Initiative.

"It is also now time to put an end to the Israeli campaign of disinformation and lies concerning their targeting and massacring of innocent civilians."

Israel has barred international media, including The Daily Telegraph, from reaching Gaza to verify incidents such as the Beit Hanoun attack on the girls but those caught in the attacks spoke of their desperation by telephone. Osama Damo, 30, a Palestinian employee of Save The Children UK, described his terror when Israeli jets struck a ministerial compound near his home. "We moved all the family away from the windows and into the corridor for safey but I counted 17 or 19 rocket explosions at the compound," he said

"It is only 400 metres away and if I had been by the windows I would have been hit by broken glass.''

After the attack Mr Damo said he watched as dawn broke and various families fled the area. "They were carrying children and whatever possessions they could manage,'' he said. "I don't think the houses near the compound were hit directly but they had their windows blown out by the explosions and I saw at least one balcony blown away by flying shrapnel.

"It is too dangerous for us to go down on the streets so we are surviving on a gallon of bottled water and tinned food.

Jenny Linnell, another British peace activist, was 200 metres away from an attack in Rafah on the Eygyptian border, which has been subjected to fierce bombing from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) over the last four days.

Ms Linnell, 33, has been in Gaza since September when she travelled on a ship that brought tonnes of medical supplies to the besieged area.

"They targeted a pharmacy at the end of the street in which I am staying, in the middle of a residential area close to the city centre," she said. "I have never witnessed anything like it in my life. Civilian buildings were destroyed. We were shown bedrooms where children were hit by flying glass."

She warned that the attacks were compounding the humanitarian crisis in the strip. "There is no where for people to go. People are having to flee their homes with nowhere to go, trying to find temporary places to stay," she said.

"It is a humanitarian crisis, it is desperate. There is a feeling of isolation and desperation.

The video below is a firsthand account of the cruelty and atrocities of the Israel regime against the Palestinian people even before the recent attack and invasion of Gaza.

We know why history has not been kind to the Jewish people.