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The Forum > Article Comments > Arabs must take some responsibility > Comments

Arabs must take some responsibility : Comments

By Ted Lapkin, published 19/12/2006

The global conflict with Muslim extremism is also a war of competing value systems.

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KANG.....

given...that Australia is the result of the momentum of history and the supermarket where you go to buy your munchies was once Aboriginal land... I find your condemnation of Israel rather dodgy.
You accept on a daily basis the result of injustice to support your present life, but you condemn the SAME historical momentum occurring in Israel which you describe as unjust.

Now..Imagine if we whiteys had PREVIOUSLY inhabited Australia, but due to some bigger power, had all been exiled to England.. but then, we got out act together and CAME BACK... would you have no sympathy for our efforts ?

This is the case for Israelis.. it was Jewish for over 1400 yrs from Abraham to Christ, and the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and exiled the Jews. Now..this is a very well documented fact of history.
Most of the Arabs in Israel/Palestine came with Islamic Invasions..I have little sympathy. At least they are not being systematically beheaded in batches like Mohammed did to the Banu Qurayza Jews.

So, I'm afraid you have very little ground on which to stand in your condemnation of Israelis/Jews reversing a terrible crime of history.

The difference between them and say our Indigenous people, is that they had the guns and numbers.

Robert Mugabe, in his rather stumbling way is also reversing a crime of History and in principle he has my total support. 10% of Rhodesias population (white) taking 90% of the best land and leaving the remaining gravel heap for the 90% of the black population was not our finest historical hour. Mugabe KNOWS this, and HAS the numbers AND the guns, and thus, is DOING something about it.

The saddest thing about Israel today is that they have forgotten the Lord their God, who brought them out of slavery in Egypt.... most are secular.
Posted by BOAZ_David, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 1:29:49 PM
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Ted 's pro Israeli propaganda piece is based on a wrong assumption: the terrorists are representative of Arab states and Arab peoples.

It's like saying Shane Warne is representative of Australians. Everyone is proud of him for his efforts but almost eveyone despises his excesses of wanton immorality.

'...the vital interests of the Middle East’s sole democracy...'

Ted's arrogrance and holier than thou attitude doesn't accept nor want the existance of democracies among the Arab nations.
Lebanon is trying democracy: Result Israel attacked Lebanon.
The Palestinians are trying democracy: Result Israel is trying to overthrow the elected Palestinian Government.

I wonder what Freud would make of Ted's statement.

Further, on a re-read of Ted's propaganda, many of the blatant racist statements in the article could be used to describe Israel.

Let's have a few:

'...rulers themselves have made catastrophic policy decisions that have wrought havoc upon their own people.'

'... with power comes responsibility. But despots from Baghdad to Benghazi have schemed and manoeuvred to enjoy the former while eluding the latter.' (Including Israel)

'...has long featured the propensity for avoiding unpleasant home truths by shifting blame to external enemies.'

'...is overdue for a long hard look in the mirror that will reveal its wounds to be largely self-inflicted...'

'...this eternal quest for the guilty “other” has an infantilising effect that precludes any possibility honest self-appraisal.

This final quote is typified by Ted's current propaganda piece. The blame is all on the Arab side...eh Ted?

'The resulting political culture of delusion and denial has sown the seeds of social and economic stagnation throughout the Levant'

Ted so prophetic, for Israel is part of the 'Levant' but we all hope peace arrives before your prediction comes to fruition.

Ted we all see, just like Tony Blair and Jim Baker that it takes two to tango. Why can't you and your mates?

Over the last 60 odd years the solutions Israel has adopted haven't worked for peace. The exceptions Egypt and Jordan. And of course those peaceful renedies were forced on a reluctant Israel by it's friend the US.

That's happening again.
Posted by keith, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 2:21:10 PM
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I'm going to waste a post.

Ted

This movement for peace by the US and Great Britain has it's seed in that destructive campaign in Lebanon.

Israel over stepped the mark and the West finally woke up.

The West Bank and East Jerusleum belong to the Palestinians.

Take a look in that mirror Ted, see the occupation and land stealing for what it is.
Why don't you make your work express a desire to ensure the return to Palestine of all those lands rather than continually getting into this stupid blame game stuff of which your article is so typical.

If you work for peace it will will reign. You current attitude can only ensure a continuation of the past
Posted by keith, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 2:36:02 PM
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Despite all the statements directed back at kang, everybody seems to have conveniently ignored the facts he has presented and gone straight for the emotional angle.

Perhaps there IS a cultural problem in the Middle East inhibiting a clear resolution but the West certainly has played a major historical part in what we see there today.
It’s a historical fact – announced in their Parliament - that the official policy of the British government was always to keep the Middle East destabilised to prevent it from becoming a united force. That’s why the borders were drawn up the way they were after WW1.
Together with the other western countries they taken several controversial steps to protect their own interests.

Israel has played a part in most of these activities too and cannot keep playing the perennial victim. One only has to look at the fallout from the Suez crisis to see how Western foreign policy can backfire – just as it is happening now in Iraq.

I also note an approving reference to Mugabe -a perfect example of the ends justifying the means.

Perhaps this is what is at the root of all the problems in the Middle East.

I also assume that BD would morally support a campaign of terror by dispossessed aboriginals if they ever decide to rise up and take back their ancestral lands.

Stomont – you may be interested in the history of the car/truck bomb and see who popularised its use.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=76140

Finally, keith says that efforts over the last 60 years haven’t worked for peace.

We could give it another say 40 years, or just admit that it isn't working and we need to try something else.

If we have all played a part in creating the mess, we should all be prepared to seek a mutually agreeable solution but you can’t have a conversation while everybody is shouting at each other at the same time.
Posted by rache, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 2:50:13 PM
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Ted

I agree with " right of the Jewish people to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland" but that also applies to other peoples in the region, in fact the whole world.

Your use of the term Jewish also intirigues me, surely you mean Israeli. Or do you have to be Jewish to live in Israel
Posted by Steve Madden, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 2:57:53 PM
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rache

I don't think that the West played any part at all in the bitter enmity between the Shia and the Sunni.

Or for that matter in the inequality between the sexes, or a growing culture of encouraging children to kill themselves. These things are an anathema to the Western ideals.

A policy of divide and rule only works when there are already serious divisions in a society. And nations like India, with a large Muslim population, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan all with similar colonial exploitation have somehow progressed very nicely.

The West might have played a part in the problems of the middle east but how much of the fault must be acknowledged by the Arab people themselves?

Ask yourselves what difference would it have made if Israel had not been there? I suspect very little.

Steve I hope that I have made a point forcefully but without shouting.
Posted by logic, Tuesday, 19 December 2006 5:06:02 PM
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