Back Towards The Locus

Polly Toynbee shepherds a flock of cliches through her post-Obama exultation…

“Winning while promising to tax the rich, cut tax for the poor, tackle the climate and reverse Bush’s foreign policy, he has made the impossible possible.”

How was winning on those platforms ever going to be “impossible“? Did she really think that little of American voters?

“On this day all alive will remember where they were when they saw Obama sworn in, when they heard him speak.”

Er, we’ll be remembering what we saw on this day…today?

Good God, she’s hyperventilating.

“If ever the world needed saving, it’s now.”

Ah…

*Stabs finger into screen.*

That’s what narks me every time. The implication that relief is all we should be feeling; that we haven’t been thrown a lifeboat, but’ve been plucked from the rapids.

He’s not the Messiah, and if it’s necessary to see him as such then we shouldn’t be followers, but the Israelites who ragged Jesus for not laying into the Romans.

But, while this undiluted joy may be vomitous, even worse is the notion that we shouldn’t be determined, but resigned to our fate. This has been most wearisomely put across by David Aaronovitch…

“Before we all pile our own demands on the new president’s head perhaps our self-injunction should be, not to ask what Obama can do for us, but ask rather what we can do for Obama.”

No.

“If Mr Obama works at getting Congress to lift the Cuban embargo, what will Latin American states do actively to encourage democracy in that fascinating but unfree island?”

That’s a fair question and if Obama’s Presidency has sage, laudable aims then countries and peoples should, in my view, work to help achieve them. The problem is that it assumes that Obama will find difficulty in carrying out his policies, not merely in putting them into place.

“It is now a cliché to say that he must inevitably disappoint, and one – as with the worst clichés – that covers almost any meaning, from the possibility of minor failure to his certain imprisonment by the Israel lobby, big business, the arms trade or whichever demons you think rule the fallen world.”

Well, I wouldn’t give quite so much prominence to the Israel lobby but yes, this scenario is likely to become reality. As the last eight years have shown all too vividly, American politicians don’t react to world events let alone the public, and financial elites, pressure groups and corporateering will influence decisions before policies can even begin to be enacted.

What’s needed is, quite simply, for the people to be louder. Widespread civil disobedience, for example, and the direct action seen when workers bravely occupied a doomed Chicago factory. Even just concentrated letter-writing to politicians and media outlets can exert public influence.

This was seen, to some extent, just after the announcement of the US bailout. Republican Congressman Michael Burgess delivered an impassioned speech in opposition to the move, and declared that he hadn’t received “any more mail, any more emails” on any other subject in all the years that he’d served. Sure, it didn’t quite work then, but higher intensity campaigns might well do. We’d have to be maggot-ridden cynics to not at least give it a try.

According to the Israel Electoral Compass I’d be blocked from voting in the upcoming elections. Huzzah!

This also gives me a chance to declare – well, mildly make claim to – solidarity with the banned Arab parties. To quote Balad’s Jamal Zahalka…

“The political system in Israel should examine itself and how it can allow a man like Avigdor Lieberman – who calls for the dropping of an atomic bomb on Gaza – to run for Knesset while denying this right from those who call for equality and democracy.”

A tip of the hat to an amiable Likudnik…

Update: Good…

“The High Court of Justice overturned Wednesday the Central Elections Committee’s decision to disqualify the Arab parties, Balad and United Arab List-Ta’al from taking part in the next Knesset race.”

This morning I took part in an anti-war protest in my hometown. There were, I’d guess, around fifty of us, but the numbers swelled as we marched along. There were a few genial hippies, some surprisingly posh looking poster-wielders and even, to Michelle Malkin’s distant horror, a few keffiyehs. The banners and posters were all peaceful – “No To Hamas, No To The IDF, Israel Out Of Gaza”, “End The Killing” and “If War Is The Answer It Must Be A Bloody Stupid Question”.

Some of the chants were rather fun…

Gordon Brown, useless! George Bush, useless! Barack Obama…we’ll have to wait and see!

As we headed up main street, one woman marched alongside us, screaming “Israel! Israel! Israel!”. We tried to find some slim way of cooperating…

“Israel!”

“OutofGaza!”

“Israel!”

“OutofGaza!”

Turning down a side-street, the woman pointed at us and roared that we were all “full of hate!”. Promptly, the organiser lauded her solitary courage and there was a polite smattering of applause.

In the end, we gathered around Starbucks for to protest against the chairman, Howard Shultz, and his links to Aish HaTorah. Unlike the foul attack on tuesday  it was all perfectly peaceful until another lonely pro-Israel demonstrator stomped by…

“Hamas refused the ceasefire!”

“No they haven’t, they’ve…”

“Hamas are fascists!”

“Well, whatever your opinion, you can’t…”

“You’re so full of hate!”

“I…eh?”

Unfortunately, some blustering idiot chose that moment to lean forward, stab out a finger and yelp “you…you look like a Jew”. Happily, he was steered away by his friends and the megaphone-wielding organiser reminded the marchers that it’s futile to call for peace if you don’t act peacefully yourself.

I applauded that. There’s no need for anti-war, pro-Palestine activists to accept or encourage those who purely inflame or offend. The facts are all ours, and with unprecendented support all that’s needed is concerted non-violent activism.

Johann Hari interviews David Irving…

“To clarify: you actually think Hitler wanted you to be his biographer? “Yes. Yes and I am not ashamed of that. Hitler knew that. Hitler himself said that for fifty years they won’t be able to write the truth about me.”

And I realize this interview isn’t about history; it’s about pathology.”

More on the IDF’s kindly policy of pre-empting people’s deaths…

“Dipping into their bag of tricks for the updated Gaza telephone numbers, Israel’s intelligence services are warning Palestinian civilians in Gaza living close to Hamas facilities that they may be hurt unless they distance themselves from those targets.”

How on earth can civilians avoid Hamas facilities? They’re the governing body of a strip of land with a population density of 4,118/km2 (that’s only slightly less than London). There’s nowhere for them to escape to.

And even if they do manage to find open land, they’re likely to discover that they’ve inadvertently become target practice…

“We are treating everything as hostile right now. We were told not to take chances — to shoot rather than ask questions.”

On one occasion, the IDF shot three fleeing Palestinians who had already been ordered to leave and were waving little white flags.

So, this policy isn’t humanitarian at all, it’s just deceptive in implying that it’s in any way ethical and as futile as warning of an impending apocalypse.

The reaction of Prince Henry of Wales, upon seeing a fellow soldier whose head was covered by a cloth…

“Fuck me! You look like a raghead!”

Such wit, such perceptiveness; surely this man is the right, er, “choice” to represent us all.

Thankfully, a Spokesman was there to sort out the confusion…

“Prince Harry used the term ‘rag-head’ to mean Taliban or Iraqi insurgent.”

So, he looked at someone whose dress vaguely resembled that of an Arabic guy and thought “lolz, da enemy“.

Except that such headwear isn’t conveniently unique to the Taliban and the Iraqi insurgency; it’s associated with the Middle East, and those two “enemies” only by extension. Before he’d even entered conflict, the dumb Prince was generalising his perceptions of the supposed opposition.

Along with “japs” and “gooks”, terms like “raghead” stereotype, demean and dehumanise whole peoples, helping soldiers, states and onlookers to value some lives over others…

Merry Christmas.

From The Jerusalem Post…

“The IDF is currently operating in the northern Gaza Strip but on Saturday, the air force dropped leaflets throughout Gaza warning residents of an impending expansion of the operation.”

Well, that’s very nice. The advance warning means that the Palestinians will be able to escape to….oh….

There’s a worrying precedent for this “humane brutality“…

“US troops sealed all roads to Falluja on Friday and in Arabic leaflets and loudspeaker messages urged women, children and non-fighting age men to flee, but said they would arrest any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the city.”

A poem by Michael Rosen, via Lenin…

In Gaza, children,
you learn that the sky kills
and that houses hurt.
You learn that your blanket is smoke
and breakfast is dirt.

You learn that cars do somersaults
clothes turn red,
friends become statues,
bakers don’t sell bread.

You learn that the night is a gun,
that toys burn
breath can stop,
it could be your turn.

You learn:
if they send you fire
they couldn’t guess:
not just the soldier dies -
it’s you and the rest.

Nowhere to run,
nowhere to go,
nowhere to hide
in the home you know.

You learn
that death isn’t life,
that air isn’t bread,
the land is for all.
You have the right to be
Not Dead.
You have the right to be
Not Dead.
You have the right to be
Not Dead.