Fair Dinkum
It is easy to beat up on a small nation like Sri Lanka. As [Padma Rao Sundarji contends in her article on Canada’s pro-Tamil Tiger policies], the way the West [did] this [was] to use the threat of sanctions to meddle into the conflict [that prevailed] in Sri Lanka, to undermine the efforts of the Sri Lankan military, and to prolong [Etelam War IV] for as long as possible. Perhaps Canada doesn’t like peace. It is only when you stand up to them, that countries in the West back off.
Pause for a moment to compare the West’s response to Sri Lanka [in the first decade of this century] with what is now happening in the latest war in the Middle East. The West is not calling for sanctions to be imposed on Israel in response to Israel threatening to wipe Gaza off the map, and to cut off food, water and electricity supplies to all three million residents of Gaza. Nor have sanctions been called for after Israel bombed a UN building in Gaza killing 15 UN representatives. That was fine with some Canadian commentators.
Some graphic shots of the scenarios in Gaza after Israel strikes .… Pix from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-war-satellite-images-reveal-gaza-strip-devastation-hamas-attack/ … & note Map at end of this TPS Item
Nor were sanctions called for in response to the 15 or so Mosques that have been destroyed as well as the University of Gaza which is now just a rubble. None of these sites were legitimate targets of war.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen poses during a portrait session on August 23, 2016 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
These incidents are war crimes, but there is ‘Queen’ Ursula von der Leyen proclaiming that the EU stands behind Israel, although to Josep Borell’s credit, he called on Israel to not cut off food, water and electricity to Gaza. At least Borell understands it is a war crime. A year ago, in October 2022, von der Leyen accused Russia of committing war crimes when the Russians threatened to cut off electricity and water to Ukraine, but in her eyes, the same acts are not war crimes when committed by Israel against Gaza. This sickening hypocrisy, which is now fundamental to Western values, knows no bounds. Countries in the Global South see right through it which is why the Western media propaganda has very little impact outside of the West today. prior the start of the third meeting of the european political community on October 5, 2023 in Granada, Spain. Building on the work of the previous meetings of the European Political Community, the leaders will discuss how to make Europe more resilient, prosperous and geostrategic. The meeting of the European Political Community will take place ahead of the informal meeting of EU Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy –
Borel — Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
Vice President Josep Borrell talks to media prior the start of the third meeting of the european political community on October 5, 2023 in Granada, Spain. Building on the work of the previous meetings of the European Political Community, the leaders will discuss how to make Europe more resilient, prosperous and geostrategic. The meeting of the European Political Community will take place ahead of the informal meeting of the European Council.
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TWO OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE DEVASTATION wrought on GAZA
Ms. Dinkum’s article on the on going Gaza situation has inaccuracies.
1 .The West did not prolong the war in the Eelam war as she purports.
2. Her views have a unbalanced view of the current Gaza situation.
The Tamil Tigers were able to prolong the war not due to the West meddling. A guerilla war lasts a longer time than a traditional conflict.
Hamas committed some very bad crimes in their recent incursion.
Israel should show some restraint and not make the situation worse. The absence of power, food and shelter for the million plus Palestinians over the last couple of days would result in a major set back to peace in the region.
It is a situation where the leaders of the Palestinians have to think about what’s best for their people. Do they want a massacre to happen where perhaps a million Palestinians would perish? Or do they want to come to some sort of compromise?
The Israeli leaders should think about the aftermath of a Palestinian massacre. The sympathy that they have gained from the efforts of the media will evaporate.
Right now the Israeli’s are smarting from their military being caught with its pants down.
I do not see a Bertrand Russel or U Thant persona anywhere around.
What a sad world we live in.
Mohideen Marikar
I am a resident in the UK and read important world news with interest and care. From the start of the present upheaval. I have still to see one article or one person on TV mention the fact that Israel had been in violation of two UN resolutions now for several years in holding the Palestinians in a quasi-prison environment in Gaza and the West Bank. On a visit to Israel several years ago our coachload from the UK stayed overnight in the West Bank and we had direct experience of the plight of the Palestinians. The encroachment into Palestinian territory by Israeli settlers has continued with no punishment given to the settlers. Patience when under represssion was bound to run out some time. There is much being written and said with harrowing tales on Israeli losses now, with no mention in anyway equal on the much greater losses of Palestinian lives and injuries due to indiscriminate bombing which is well against international law.
A concerned observer
A NOTE this writer is a Sri Lankan ….and NOT a Sri Lankan Muslim.”…Editor, Thuppahi
Totally agree with the comments of the “concerned observer.” It is an unfortunate situation, however. it is true, as Mohammed Mahathir of Malaysia said some time ago, that 20 Million Jews control the whole World through their proxies. It is not difficult to workout the identity of the main proxy as the “Jewish Lobby” is very strong there. It is sheer cruelty unleashed on the less sophisticated, impoverished and desperate Palestinians driven out of their land.
Mohideen Marikar is only partially correct in his claim that the Tamil Tigers were able to prolong the war. My essay did not contradict that. But the West also played a part in various ways, such as by using threats of sanctions, but also assisting in moving funds to the Tigers to help sustain their war. It is wrong to say the West played no part, and that The Tigers did it alone. In countries such as Canada and Australia, where the Tamil diaspora is large, they lobbied their parliamentarians in ways that did interfere. For instance, in 2005, an MP in NSW Australia took a very substantial “donation” from a NSW Parliamentary group to Sri Lanka, purporting to be for an orphanage in the Mullaitivu district, but in fact went to the Tigers. The electorate of the MPs involved had been lobbied by Tamil groups supportive of the LTTE. There were many such instances. In the final stages of the war, there were many appeals to Western governments to apply pressure on Sri Lanka. So it is more complex. To say the West did not meddle is wrong.
There is also a big difference between the two conflicts.
In the case of Palestine, in 1947, the UN adopted Resolution 181 (known as the Partition Plan) to divide Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Following the first Arab Israeli War, the territory was divided into three: Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The Oslo Peace Accords, which were signed in 1993 between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiator Mahmoud Abbas, was an agreement between the two parties to a two-state solution, which was recognized by the international community. But while the PLO supported a two state solution, unfortunately, extreme right wing elements in Israel did not support it and were opposed to a two-state solution and they sought to undermine the PLO by creating Hamas who (like Israeli extremists) were also opposed to a two state solution and were opposed to the existence of Israel. Netanyahu was one of those involved in the creation of Hamas and so he has never supported a two state solution. Hamas were created by Israel to take control of Gaza from the PLO. In other words, this “terrorist” organization was created by Israel out of the Muslim Brotherhood to undermine the PLO and the two state solution. In addition to the creation of Hamas, after Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, who was for peace and genuinely supported a two state-solution, he was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. That was Rabin’s punishment for signing the Oslo Accords and trying to achieve a two-state solution. Those same right wing elements in Israel were behind the creation of Hamas and are also behind the current crisis in Gaza.
The Oslo Accords died with the Rabin assassination. Israel has failed to solve this problem. The West has also failed. There was never any intention to honour the two-state solution on Israel’s side, and now Israel is setting out to ethnically cleanse Gaza and push Palestinians into Egypt and Jordan and make it their problem.
Israel and Hamas shared the same goal: neither agreed with a two state solution, so they were partners in crime. Only the PLO supported a two state solution. Arafat made the mistake of taking Israel at its word. When you understand the history of this conflict, Netanyahu is not a good person. He’s deceitful as he played a role in creating Hamas to sabotage the two-state solution.
In the case of the creation of Sri Lanka after independence, there was no such plan for two states, and never was. There was no UN resolution at independence to divide Sri Lanka, so the situation is very different. Yet, the West did attempt to meddle to undermine Sri Lanka’s efforts to bring the conflict to an end.
I totally agree with you. The Jews went to the extent of killing Jesus Christ. What more can we expect from them?
I totally agree with you. The Jews went to the extent of killing Jesus Christ. What more can we expect frrom them?
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The leaders of the Jews at the time of Jesus, in a Palestine that was colonized by Rome at that time, saw that Jesus was put to death. It was the Jewish leadership at the time and not necessarily all the Jews in Palestine in Jesus time that were responsible for achieving his death. It would not be necessary to blame all Jews of all times and consider them to have been responsible in some way for this death.
It is best to take Jesus and Christianity away from this discussion and concentrate on the politics right now of the former state of Palestine which has been named Israel from 1948 following on the fateful UK Balfour Declaration which in some way ‘demoted’ the existing Palestinians at the time to secondary status giving the small number of existing but suddenly expanding number of Jewish settlers the upper hand thereby resulting in the millions of Palestinian/Muslim refugees who fled to the surrounding countries and the dreadful morass we are in right now.
You cannot keep people in an unfree and inhuman situation for a long time without free human beings seeking to come out of that situation, and the lives and deaths of people on both sides of the sad divide have an equal value. Leaders with the right attitude towards power over other human beings are likely to keep these basic human values of freedom and equality, not to speak of brother/sisterhood, uppermost in their values and beliefs. Unfortunately, we as individuals can only observe but perhaps hope that the leadership in countries outside Palestine/Israel will also reflect and act on the situation keeping such values uppermost in their minds.