UPDATE: The Jewish Voice For Peace thanks Jon Stewart for his fair stand.
The Daily Show: Missile Tov! [Via: Too Much Cookies]
Heuete habe ich diesen offenen Brief eines Chirurgen an die Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel bei Too Much Cookies gefunden. Ich fand den Brief lesenswert:
“Bitte erlauben Sie mir Ihnen in Ihrer Eigenschaft als höchste Vertreterin unserer Bundesregierung und Ihrem Kabinett mit klaren Worten zu widersprechen, im Interesse der Bundesrepublik, wie auch im Interesse der Menschen, von denen viele auch in Palästina, wie auch in anderen Ländern der Muslimischen Welt, vor dem seit Jahrhunderten in Europa verwurzelten Antisemitismus, immer eine Zuflucht gefunden haben.”
No one can imagine how irritating it is for me to still hear the Israeli government justifying their ongoing massacres in Gaza, trying to win the world’s sympathy and support by convincing them that they’re doing this in the name of self-defense, and that they NEVER mean to hurt civilians. Actually there are many silly claims that Israel seems to get away with no matter how brutal it gets, claims such as the following:
1. Israelis have claimed to have ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005.
2. Israel claims that Hamas violated the cease-fire and pulled out of it unilaterally.
3. Israel claims to be pursuing peace with ‘peaceful Palestinians’.
4. Israel is acting in self-defense.
5. Israel claims to have struck military targets only.
6. Israel claims that it is attacking Hamas and not the Palestinian people.
7. Israel claims that Palestinians are the source of violence.
Read “Palestine’s Guernica and the Myths of Israeli Victimhood”, and see how Mustafa Barghouthi answers to these claims and explains that they’re nothing but a big fat lie told by Israel.
P.S. Thanks to my friend Steve for forwarding this article to me.
I just wonder what would it take for people of authority and power to see how big and terribly awful the situation in Gaza is. Armless civilians and innocent children are dying by the day while the world is watching and wasting their time to figure whom to blame!
I’ll just share with you these honest words written by the little hands of a thoughtful 7 year old (my beloved nephew), who tried to express his sadness on one hand, and to wake up the “sleeping” conscience of grownups on the other. He actually sneaked out at night to use his parents’ computer, wrote these words, printed them out and asked his mom to mail the paper to everyone she knows in an attempt to stop what’s going on in Gaza and save the innocent little children there.
“There is a war in Gaza and some Jewish people are hurting the Palestine people and I feel sorry for the kids that are dead.
A war is very dangerous for kids it could only be for a grownup.
My name is Mohamed.
The End.”
If a kid had the courage to express his opinion in his own words, and went through the fuss of typing on a computer and printing out his words, and insisted to spread his words to stop the suffering of Gazans… isn’t it such a shame that grownups are doing nothing grownup, to confront other grownups and force them to stop this grownup madness and protect children from this grownup brutality?!
هذه الكلمات المؤثّرة تعكس حال فلسطين التعيسة، وحال أهل فلسطين الذين يحتضرون ويستغيثون بأمّةٍ “لا حول لها ولا قوة” ومو شاطرة إلّا بالولولة والنواح والشجب والاستنكار ولبس آخر صيحات الأزياء السوداء للتعبير عن “الحداد العام والمؤازرة المعنوية” بطريقة “كوول”، معذورين مو طالع بإيدنا شي، مساكين إحنا شو مغلوب على أمرنا (هذا طبعا باستثناء الجهود المشكورة لبعض الأخوة والأخوات والقليل من المؤسّسات الذين عملوا بجد لجمع التبرعات وإرسال المعونات لأهلنا في غزة) … المهم، أترككم مع هذه الأبيات التي هي من تأليف أختي مُنيا على فكرة
فلسطين تبوح بسرّها
غصن زيتوني وترابي
قبة صخرتي وكنيستي … بل وحتى ساقيتي ونسيم رياحي
باتوا ينصتون منذ الأزل لهتافات أبنائي
بتنا نستمع لمن حملتهم أحشاء أرضي وننتظر وعدَ من ربتت على أكتافهم كفِّي
أبنائي
كنتم … وما زلتم تلئمون جراحي
حتى أصبحت تذرف الدمع عيني
لا ألماً ولا ضعفاً ولا يأساً منّي
بل أئنّ حُرقةً … هل منكم من تتوق أذناه أن تسمع لسان حالي
فها أنا سأبوح لكم بسرِّي
أرضي … ماعادت ذاك السهل الأخضر … أين حيفا وعكّا؟ أين غصن زيتوني؟
سمائي … ماعادت ذاك الفضاء الأزرق … مالي لا أرى الدُّوري وعصفور شمس فلسطيني
أنظر من حولي … فأتيه في غياهب حيرتي وظنوني
أين أهلي وصحبي … أين هُم خِلاّني؟
أين حجري وسهمي … أين كوفيّتي وحصاني؟
مالي أرى قوماً ينهشون بَنِيّ ويغتصبون أرضي
مالي أرى رضيعاً أمسى كهلاً بل ومات قبل أن يولد
مالي أرى أسيراً ذاق ذُلاً بين يدي وحشٍ همَّ يُردد
براءٌ منّي وحوش هذه الدنيا
براءٌ منّي شياطين جهنم … أنا إسمي صهيون
أين عروبتي؟ أين ديني؟ أين حُرمة مسجدي وكنيستي ومعبدي؟
أين من تمشي في عروقهم دمائي؟
أين من يعبد الربَّ الأوحد؟ أين من يقتدي بهَديِ نبيّه مُحمد؟ أين من حمل الأمانة وتكبَّد؟
توجّستُ خيفَة … حتى أنّ صبري كاد ينفد
إلى أن قبَّلت جبيني شفاه طفل حمل الحجر … انتفض وتوعَّد
قائلا فلسطين يا أمي ونبض فؤادي
عشتُ في ظلمة رحمك وفي نور ذاك الرحم سأرقد
من ربّي لكِ وعدٌ … هو نصرٌ وغير نصرٍ لن يكون
فقومي ترنّمي ودقِّ الطبول
هذا قولٌ ربّي وقولُ ربّي حقُّ لابد سيكون
وحينها
تفتحت أزاهير ذاكرتي لأرى صلاح الدين وخالد بن الوليد
ورجالاً يزأرون
أن نحن هنا … فصبراً يا أمّ الشهيد
قادمون يوماً ما هو ببعيد
وهكذا … عاد إيماني بذاك الأمل من جديد
وأيقنت أن هذا أمرُ ربّي وأنا فلسطين عن أمر ربّي لن أحيد
This great article by Robert Fisk is a must read:
“We’ve got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don’t care any more – providing we don’t offend the Israelis. It’s not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel’s side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs – who, as we all know, only understand force”.
I really don’t know how I finally pulled myself together to be able to write these few words… since I really feel so helpless, so weak and so stupidly out of place.
Right now, and while people are preparing to celebrate the New Hijri Year, and while many more are busy and confused not knowing where or how to celebrate New Year’s Eve, thousands of Palestinians are thinking of ways to stay alive, survive getting killed in the most BARBARIC way EVER… Israeli attacks on one side, hunger, lack of fuel, power and electricity on the other, not to mention the absence of access to medical aid… and most importantly the lack of support of sane and powerfull fellow human beings.
The thought of killing innocent people in the name of “fighting terrorism” or “answering to attacks” is so revolting that I truly feel like throwing up! And what’s even more disgusting is that in the middle of all that, some regimes that are supposed to be fair and that are expected to feel a tiny bit of sympathy, are actually calling Palestinians -as usual- to “cooperate” and “stop violence” in order for peace to take place! this madness MUST STOP!
In the name of all the innocent civilians who are being brutally massacred in Gaza, I’m calling out for immediate help and support: Donate Now for medical aid in an emergency appeal for Gaza!, and if you’re Jordanian, check out this: How Jordanians Can Help the People in Gaza!
I leave you with some photos and some of what bloggers posted on the same tragedy:
[via: Bacchus]
Actually, it comes as no surprise that there were tens of posts shared on the Tunisian blogosphere addressing the attacks on Gaza. I found them all worth reading, but of course I couldn’t link to all the articles here, so I chose to link to a collection of the latest writings instead. To read all related articles you can go to Tunisie Blogs.
Arabs of Humiliation (ARABIC), by the blog of the poet Ali Liswid Almarzouqi.
Arabs decided to wage war on Israel (ARABIC), by Alaeddine Ben Abdallah.
We, Gaza, and the others (ARABIC), lovely post by Ecrits Anonymes.
Assez! (FRENCH), by Drame & Cerise.
Israel’s Bombs on the pure Arabic blood (ARABIC), by Par Tunisien, Pour les Tunisiens.
Palestine: aberration de l’Humanité (FRENCH), by Etkalem.
Halte! (FRENCH), by Barberrousse.
Will Always Be Arab (ARABIC), by MeTaLLisTiCaTiOnz.
Justice (ARABIC), by Al Hallèg.
Keep on being different, it will only be for Israel’s interest(ARABIC); a beautiful post by Andalouse.
Supporting Islamic resistance though I’m an atheist(ARABIC), another great post by 3ayechmelmarsa.
I’d love to share with you a beautifully written Arabic article titled:”This is my problem with Arabs“, by my friend and old colleague Hussein, in which he compares the Arab and Western societies in terms of academic progress, and explains how the lack of enthusiasm, passion and creativity in our part of the world continues to lead to the failure of any efforts provided.
Nicely written, with a lot of humor here and there, and many great references, this article is really worth reading.
And I truly hope Arabs would learn how to be more passionate about what they do…
Just wanted to notify you that I’ve been having problems with my comments lately. Some loyal readers sent me to inform me that they’re actually leaving comments, when nothing is showing to me.
Other than that, as many have noticed, there are earlier posts, around 10 or so, that lost all their comments, I have no idea how that happened either!
I’m getting this problem fixed soon, but I apologize for all deleted comments, hoping this wont discourage you from leaving your comments.