 |
 |
 |
Denazification first, then democracy
Comments
1
.
mobius
said:
i reject your analogy of palestinian militancy to nazism. despite whatever antisemtic sentiment exists within the palestinian community, do the palestinians have the jews rounded up into camps? have they killed six million of us? would hitler haved ever posed for photos with uri avnery and neturei karta? would eichmann have had a jewish girlfriend? were the germans dispossed from their indigenous land by jewish people? did the germans have jewish tanks in their front yards and jewish bulldozers knocking down their houses? did the germans live under a brutally repressive and demeaning occupation?
"Using images of Hitler and terminology from the Nazi regime in [political] attacks is offensive and demeaning to the memory of the six million and others who died in the Holocaust." -- abe foxman, responding to the bush campaign's attempt to portray democrats as nazis
50% of palestinians believe the intifada has been effective in serving palestinian interests? well duh, it has been effective. the occupation of palestine is to this decade what the occupation of tibet was to the last. international support is behind the palestinians. you have activists from all over the world streaming in and out of the shtachim to do direct action and provide humanitarian aid. you've even got religious jewish kids picking olives for palestinian farmers. if these people were to claim that it hasn't been effective they'd be deluding themselves.
also, while the media may portray palestinian resistance to occupation to be comprised solely of islamic fundamentalists, there is by far more in the way of non-violent resistance than indiscriminate violence which, i might add, is committed by the sheer minority of palestinian people.
Posted by: mobius on November 28, 2004 03:31 PM
Denazification first, then democracy
The Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) has released another of its polls, and the result were mailed to subscribers (see article's end). Because it is unavailable on the web at the time of writing, I will quote from the report without providing a link.
The survey was "conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO) during the period from 19 Nov – 23 Nov, 2004. The poll included a random sample of (650) Palestinian adults from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip. The interviews took place according to PCPO’s experienced methodology on the basis of random choices at respondents’ homes, i.e. face to face."... "The sampling error throughout the survey is found at (±3.8%) and that of the refusal (1.5%)."
Q4. [Think] fifty one months back, to the time when the current Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out, do you believe that it served or harmed the Palestinian interests?
1. Considerably served, 13.6%
2. Somewhat served, 36.1%
3. Somewhat harmed, 22.4%
4. Considerably harmed, 18.1%
5. No opinion, 9.8%
Q9. Do you believe or not believe that violence will alleviate in the Palestinian territories if the Israeli government would take serious and sincere measures to lift the siege and security belt from the Palestinian territories?
1. Believe, 27.1%
2. Believe to some extent, 47.8%
3. Don’t believe, 19.3%
4. Don’t know, 5.8%
My comment follows from these data: as long as the Arabs in Yesha are convinced 50:40 that the anti-Israel terror war "served the Palestinian interests" there is no place to talk about democracy; rather, one should talk about denazification.
Q 9 is interesting because of both the biased way it was formulated and the implications. True to the Arab victimization methodology, the implication is that Israel is the one who has to take steps to "alleviate" the situation in the "territories", and 3/4 of the population believe that that is the solution.
At a time when Abu Mazen promises to follow in the footsteps of the dead rat, when incitement continues with no sign of abating, when the Eurabians and Powell keep pressuring Israel for even more concessions, let us remind the world that denazification must come before any pipe dreams about democracy are spun. Let us also recall that an election doesn't necessarily make or denote democracy. Just prior to Hitler becoming chancellor, the Germans held an election - the last one for a long, long time. It took years of denazification before another set of elections was held - surely the US should remember that!
Note: To receive the PCPO poll results by mail, contact Dr. Nabil Kukali
Posted by Joseph Alexander Norland at November 28, 2004 07:01 AM