THE WESTERN MEDIA AND ISRAEL'S BOMBARDMENT OF GAZA

                                                                             

30 November, 2012 

A Palestinian woman collects her belongings after an Israel attack by US supplied weapons

The Western Media and Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza

Hameed Abdul Karim

Israel’s unilateral bombardment of Gaza received the expected support from the American media which in turn extended to the rest of the Western media including the BBC. All described it as a ‘war’ like as if a battle was being fought between two armies of equal military and economic strength.

What was not mentioned was that the Hamas was equipped with primitive rockets while Israel was armed to the teeth with American supplied high tech weaponry. Neither was the fact that Israel is the 8^th powerful army in the world, known by its Orwellian term as ‘Israeli Defense force (IDF). This is the ‘defense’ force that has attacked all its neighbours since its creation. Israel continues to occupy sections of lands belonging to its neighbours till today. Besides it’s the only nation that talks of attacking one country or another – Iran in particular – like as if it’s planning a day of fun and frolic prompting Norman Finklestein, a leading anti Israel activist, to describe Israel as a lunatic state. Finklestein is a Jew and his parents were survivors of Germany’s Nazi camps.

ARE RUSSIA, CHINA AND IRAN LOSING OUT TO THE EMPIRE?

                         

                                                          Thursday 15 November, 2012

Are Russian, China and Iran Losing Out to the Empire? 

                                                           Hameed Abdul Karim 

    

The crisis in Syria has put Russia, China and Iran at loggerheads with the larger Arab population.

What the Syrians wanted was for Assad to relinquish his power and transfer it to the people as early peaceful protests indicated. For months the Syrians protested peacefully but when Bashar Assad retaliated with violence, the protesters took to arms.

Perhaps President Bashar Asad and his coterie of power hungry despots thought they could get away with a slaughter similar to the one the late Hafez Asad inflicted on Hama by killing over ten thousand ‘rebels’.  But this time, it seems, they have got it wrong. The point of time when Hafez Assad put down an uprising was very different to the present day Arab world.

Today the Arab population is very different. Youth have taken their destinies in their own hands and despite the negative images presented about the happenings in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia there is no way the new governments in these countries are going to go back to the bad old ways of their predecessors. Revolutions don’t end with elections of a new set of politicians. Rather they are processes that take time to grow.

BE SPORTY, SRI LANKA

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

                                                              Sunday 21 October, 2012

RESPONSE TO ‘A VICTORY OUT OF THIS WORLD’

Be Sporty, Sri Lanka

Hameed Abdul Karim

Desmond Samith’s article titled ‘A victory out of this world’ (LAKBIMAnews Sunday October 7, 2012) shouldn’t have surprised me or even hurt my feeling. But you know what? It did both.

I have heard this tattle for years. I mean the skit ‘Sri Lankan Muslims supporting Pakistan because of their cultural and religious ties’. So, in a sense, Samith was only following an old script, but it still hurt, because it projected Muslims as traitors in this hyper patriotic era that we are living in today thus exacerbating the divisions that exist in our society.

US ELECTIONS: COMI-TRAGEDY

Monday 15 October, 2012

US Elections: Comi-Tragedy

Hameed Abdul Karim 

For sheer entertainment and suspense there’s hardly anything to beat the US elections.  There are the tantrums and the hyperboles of the candidates that make you wonder if this is serious business or just another bout of fun and frolic. You will see supporters of both candidates cheering and whooping with every punch line either candidate makes. Makes you wonder if you are watching another Hollywood movie.

And for sure there is a Hollywood mix in it all. We had the ageing Clint Eastwood doing the talking to an empty chair, pretending he was talking to President Barack Obama. It went down well with Romney’s supporters. Makes you wonder if Eastwood is on the road to senility assuming he’s not already ‘made it’ there. Comedians had a field day with the Eastwood’s histrionics. After that show of theatrics he has been kept away from the circus. Maybe he has done his bit for the grand old party.

ISRAEL AND HOLY WRIT

                                                        

                       

                                                                     Thursday 4 October, 2012  

       Israel and Holy Writ

                   Hameed Abdul Karim

Ms. Maureen Seniviratne is one of the most prolific writers in the local press. She deals with topics of public interest quite extensively and naturally she is widely respected for her contributions.

But, running the risk of being irreverent, I am afraid her views of the ‘Holy Land’ under her article titled ‘Holy War’ appearing in Ceylon Today on Saturday 24 September are a tad bit   off the mark. For example, she eulogises the European Christian crusaders when she says ‘those who fought in these holy wars were blessed on earth and after death would enter a place reserved for them in heaven’. Such characterising of slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Muslims, Christian and Jews by the Christian crusaders is to ignore the savagery that went behind the conquest of ancient Palestine. One of the commanders had sent a note to the then pope bragging that they were now walking ankle deep in the blood of the heathens in the holy city of Jerusalem. Pope Urban II must have been delighted with the news because it was he who had directed his soldiers to Palestine to stop the infighting between Catholics that threatened his hold on power.

THE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT'S OBAMA

         18 September, 2012


The Disappointment that's Obama 

Hameed Abdul Karim

When President Barack Obama’s election victory was announced virtually the whole world whooped in joy. Here, we thought, was a chance that the world would be a better place to live in, without the likes of George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and company pursuing their dangerous extreme right wing policies to bring the world to its knees and force us to worship the empire.

Obama came in like a breath of fresh air. Being an offspring of a mixed marriage with and a white mother, we thought he might have a deep understanding of the feelings of people of all races. His ‘Muslim’ heritage led Muslims to believe he might accommodate their feelings and especially, right the terrible wrongs his country had inflicted on the Palestinians.

SUPPORT PALESTINE - DEFEAT ZIONISM

Saturday 24 September, 2012

‘…..Support Palestine Defeat Zionism…’

Hameed Abdul Karim

Coming hard on the heels of the of the vilest of movies ‘The Innocence of Muslims’ and the subsequent blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the French magazine Charle Hebdo, there is this outrageous advertisement on New York busses carrying  a vicious racist message.   The ad reads “In Any War between the Civilised Man and the Savage, Support the Civilised Man. Support Israel. Defeat Jihad’. This spiteful ad made its debut in San Francisco on city busses. And now it’s in New York. The timing seems perfect considering the UN is having yet another of its talking shops.

The nice men and women of New York would think this might insult the delegates at the UN sessions. And they would be right because that’s the precise intent of the people behind this uncivilised advertisement when you consider the timing. Most of the delegates are indeed ‘savages’ or were referred to as such during the days when they were the ‘White Man’s Burden’.