Tag Archives: Palestine

A great article on Palestine from the Guardian, by Nesrine Malik

25 May

“The Palestinians were abandoned to their fate, and then framed for it.”

A pro-Palestine demonstration in Athens, Greece, on 22 May 2021. Photograph: Nikolas Georgiou/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

For more of a really smart analysis on how Palestinians got cornered into being perhaps the world’s most ignored and persecuted group and the reasons that set Palestinians apart from the rest of the world’s oppressed, read:

Abandoned by governments, Palestinians rely on the kindness of strangers

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From George Antonius’ classic 1938 “The Arab Awakening.”

23 May

“…Posterity will not exonerate any country that fails to bear its proper share of the sacrifices needed to alleviate Jewish suffering and distress. To place the brunt of the burden upon Arab Palestine is a miserable evasion of the duty that lies upon the whole civilized world.  It is also morally outrageous.  No code of morals can justify the persecution of one people in an attempt to relieve the persecution of another.  The cure for the eviction of Jews from Germany is not to be sought in the eviction of the Arabs from their homeland; and the relief of Jewish distress may not be accomplished at the cost of inflicting a corresponding distress upon an innocent an people population.”

Map of Ottoman Palestine showing the Kaza subdivisions. date unknown.

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Ussama Makdisi: not a dude I’m often that kind to, comes up with a slightly chewed-edged but legit position

15 Jan

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Photo: Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, 1930s

24 Dec

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Photo: Armenian clergy in the church of the Holy Sepulcre in Jerusalem

15 Nov

Found on Twitter; taken some time recently. Don’t know what was done, either during photographing or in computer touching-up later, that gives it that weird painterly tone. I at first didn’t want to believe that it was a photo but a painting of sorts, but I don’t think a painter would have left the cables and sockets and plastic water bottle on the mid-to-lower left side of image.

As always click for full size.

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Write us: with comments or observations, or to be put on our mailing list or to be taken off our mailing list, contact us at nikobakos@gmail.com.

See, even in the first-grade schoolyard of the world, children can occasionally be induced to behave

1 Sep

See New York Times article: Israel and Hamas Agree to Cool Hostilities, for Now

With the coronavirus spreading fast in Gaza, the sides agreed to stop bombarding each other, and Israel said it would resume fuel supplies. A cash infusion from Qatar helped seal the deal.

Palestinian police officers guarded streets in Gaza City last week as part of a 48-hour lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Credit…Khalil Hamra/Associated Press

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Write us: with comments or observations, or to be put on our mailing list or to be taken off our mailing list, contact us at nikobakos@gmail.com.

WHAT?! They’ve lost it…like completely

18 Nov

US says Israeli settlements no longer considered illegal in dramatic shift

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Mike Pompeo takes questions during a press conference in Washington DC Monday. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

I don’t even know what to say.  It’s like mega-dufus and his cabinet get up every morning and think: “What completely, internationally destabilizing, unthought-out, randomly dangerous piece of shit-policy are we going to announce today?”

I won’t be able to blame Arabs (as all of you know I like to do) for even the extremest reactions.

“In making the case for the policy shift, Pompeo repeated some of the language he had used to justify the recognition of Israeli control of the Golan, saying it reflected “the reality on the ground”, and that it arose from the unique facts, history and circumstances” around the establishment of settlements.”

“…it arose from the unique facts, history and circumstances” around the establishment of settlements.”

What does that even mean?

Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com

Howard Jacobson: two interviews, on how screens are making us stupid and the stupidity of democracy

24 Sep

One on Hardtalk with the BBC’s Stephen Sackur, the other from BBC’s Newsnight.  I’ve forwarded first video to 15:58 because the first half of the talk is a bunch of ridiculous clichés on the part of both men on Zionism, anti-semitism and Israel.  If you like you can always start it from the beginning.  Ultimately both interviews leave you wanting more.

Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com

England and Irish blood p.s., Palestine 1948

16 Sep

Geez…  I forgot the other major twentieth-century British mess we’re still living the brutal consequences of: Palestine in 1948.

British mandate2

We ALL know —  many of you detest me for it — that I’m the last person to come to if you want sympathy for Arab/Muslim dysfunction and inability to face modernity being blamed on “colonialism” and taken out on the rest of humanity.  But the Brits’ track record is so awful, as I say inIs England ready for fresh Irish blood on its hands?“, and this might, in certain ways, have been the worst of all.

Comment: nikobakos@gmail.com

“When Western evil is fused with Arab stupidity…”

29 Nov

Iraqi TV Host Breaks Down in Tears at Plight of Christians

And a super-outspoken (now that he’s safe in Erbil) Bishop from Mosul: “..Western evil is fused with Arab stupidity…”

Might wanna retake a look at my Who are the MESA Thought Police?:

“…or if you were caught even suggesting, heaven forbid, that maybe — just maybe — Arabs had simply conquered what were already the most sophisticated and civilized parts of the Greco-Roman and Sassanian worlds…”

And yes, “kanun,” law, is a Greek word.

Oh, yeah.  And so is “kalam,” pen…

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