Israel Distorted by Lowenstein’s and Slezak’s Lens

A reply by Con George-Kotzabasis to:

Gaza distorted by media lens by Antony Lowenstein and Peter Slezak

On Line Opinion January 2, 2009

 One could re-write this article under the title “Israel Distorted by Lowenstein’s and Slezak’s Lens”. The lives of 900,000 Israelis that live and work within the range of the Quassam rockets are threatened on a daily basis and their freedom of movement is infringed, which is a cardinal principle of human rights, as they are enforced to live on a daily basis in-and-out of shelters, and L and S with a sleight of hand transform this threat and abrogation of freedom of movement into a failure of the media and of politicians to acknowledge the transgressor in this conflict which to them clearly is the terrorist government of Israel.

 

Guilty to the brim of his cup of consciousness that he does not support Israel in this deadly conflict, Lowenstein—as I don’t know whether Slezak too is a Jew—attempts to cover up his “turncoatedness” to Israel under the slogan of  “tough love” and furtively place himself as a true friend of Israel.  True friendship however is shown when friends rush along to help someone who is in a critical situation, like Israel is and has been for a long time. Lowenstein has no love for Israel.

Political Tyros Tasteless Cooking in Foreign Affairs

A short reply by Con George-Kotzabasis to:

Richard Vague: Throwing More Troops at Afghanistan WRONG Move

By Steve Clemons Washington Note December 23, 2008

 

Richard Vague is another recruit in the league of political tyros led by Clemons. America is at war with an irreconcilable implacable enemy. In any war, especially in this one, there are no soft options. And those who suggest “retreats” and “withdrawals” prematurely from Iraq and Afghanistan are soft brained and they should never have delved in the complexity and hard tasks of war.

‘Vague was “very discouraged to hear…that the United States plans to send up to 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan next year’, says Clemons. Vague states that although “Obama said in his campaign that he would escalate in Afghanistan…I had hoped he was saying that as a way to deflect questions regarding Iraq without appearing soft, and when the time came he would exit  Iraq but resist escalating in Afghanistan.” Clemons says that Vague told him “there are a whole lot of cooks in the foreign-policy kitchen these days.”   

Looking at Vague’s photo, it’s obvious that he spends a lot of time in his own “kitchen” as a good cook in the culinary art but he would have made a very bad cook in the art of foreign policy. Clemons considers Vague to be ‘a giant in the U.S. credit card business’.

 

 

 

To each his own.

 

Through Ashes of War will Rise Phoenix of Peace in Palestine

A response by Con George –Kotzabasis to:
To the American pro-Israel pro-Peace activist group J Street

J Street Statement on Gaza Attack
Washington Note, December 27, 2008

This is political frolicking at its best by J Street. And for Clemons to give it the political prominence it does not deserve on his Site shows him to be also susceptible to this frolicking. It asks for a political and diplomatic intervention by the U.S., the Quartet, and other allies to “negotiate a resumption of the ceasefire and hopes against hope that such intervention could bring an end to “new hostilities” and “a complete cessation of the rocket fire from Gaza.” But for more than forty years now a multiplicity of interventions and numerous ceasefires and truces have led nowhere and indeed have exacerbated the cycle of violence and the greater dangers emanating from this in the region.

The political savants involved intellectually in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are as yet unable to realize that this conflict is fuelled by the unremitting hate of the Palestinians, and generally of most Muslims, for Israel as well as for being a Western cultural and political outpost hence doubling their hate. One cannot appease hate, especially when a generation of children are instructed in it. Anyone who has read the great playwrights from Aeschylus to Shakespeare knows quite well that the fierce passion of hate trumps all other passions and beyond, even the faculty of reason. A recent example of this was the ascension of Obama to the presidency that was fuelled by the hate many Americans had for Bush-Cheney and by association the Republicans and which neutralized even the strong passion of racism that furtively hides in the hearts of a majority of Americans.

So to believe as J Street does that the Palestinian –Israeli conflict can only be resolved by political and diplomatic means and not military, is childishly delusional. Hate, fanaticism, irrationality, are insensitive to the gentle touch of reason and to the suave practitioners of diplomacy. The architects of peace in the Middle East must realize that only by breaking their intellectual bondage to futile Quartets and barren negotiations and routing the irrational forces of the Palestinians in the field of battle can bring an end to war. This festering “chronic ulcer” to quote Clemons, must be cut by the surgeon’s knife. Thus it’s through the ashes of war that the Phoenix of peace will lastingly rise in the land of Moses, Christ, and Mohammed.

I rest on my oars: Your turn now…