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The Middle East is changing, the internet and individual freedom and prevailing….but in what direction.On the face of it the direction is positive towards freedom and Democrocy but dark forces exist that could prevail instead.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12482678
Watch closely and history unfolds, and understanding history and context is key!
Synergy
“So Stephen Elop has pushed Nokia off that now infamous burning platform he described to staff some days ago and into the unknown.
His chosen lifebelt is Windows Phone 7, a new smartphone operating system that has won critical praise but, so far at least, only a tiny share of the market.
So Nokia is moving from an ailing system Symbian – which still has a large chunk of the market – to a fledgeling which has yet to prove itself, made by a firm with a poor track record in mobile.
Why then, did Mr Elop not opt to go with Google’s Android, the operating system with momentum behind it? Perhaps he feels more comfortable with the culture of Microsoft, where he worked until joining Nokia.
The cruel verdict from some is that two turkeys don’t make an eagle – but you can’t fault Mr Elop for his audacity. This is a huge moment which could shape the future of an industry.”
Very good response from Jill Butterworth and Warren Miller on the 5FM support of Israeli Boycott..
We were disappointed to hear 5fm is supporting an advert to boycott Israel culturally because South Africans should not support a country that supports ‘Apartheid’.
Before even in engaging in an argument we would like to highlight that relative to its population, Israel is the largest immigrant-absorbing nation on earth. Immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. Furthermore, Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East.
As a country that is supposedly supporting an ‘Apartheid’ mentality and structure, Israel is renowned for helping others. In 1984 and 1991, Israel airlifted a total of 22,000 Ethiopian Jews at risk in Ethiopia to safety in Israel. When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1969, she became the world’s second elected female leader in modern times. When the U. S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya was bombed in 1998, Israeli rescue teams were on the scene within a day – and saved three victims from the rubble. Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship – and the highest rate among women and among people over 55 – in the world. Thus they are not Ageist or Sexist. Israel was the first nation in the world to adopt the Kimberly process, an international standard that certifies diamonds as “conflict free.”
This is supposed to be a country that supports segregation. Further points to bear in mind are:
If the SABC wishes to culturally boycott Israel, then we suggest that they boycott all Israeli products. Please request the South African population and definitely the SABC as they air this advert, to stop using:
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Further interesting facts are:
Israel, the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the world’s population has the highest ratio of university degrees to the population in the world. It produces more scientific papers per capita than any other nation by a large margin – 109 per 10,000 people – as well as one of the highest per capita rates of patents filed.
In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of start-up companies in the world. In absolute terms, Israel has the largest number of start-up companies than any other country in the world, except the US (3,500 companies mostly in hi-tech).
Israel has the highest average living standards in the Middle East. The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the UK.
Israel’s $100 billion economy is larger than all of its immediate neighbours combined.
Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce holds university degrees – ranking third in the industrialized world, after the United States and Holland – and 12 percent hold advanced degrees.
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
In response to serious water shortages, Israeli engineers and agriculturalists developed a revolutionary drip irrigation system to minimize the amount of water used to grow crops.
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy that seeks its destruction and an economy continuously under strain by having to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.
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Besides the boycott, the way Israel is represented needs to be looked at. We are inclined to agree with Pilar Rahola, a Spanish politician, journalist and activist who asks the following questions:
“Why don’t we see demonstrations against Islamic dictatorships in London, Paris, Barcelona?
Or demonstrations against the Burmese dictatorship?
Why aren’t there demonstrations against the enslavement of millions of women who live without any legal protection?
Why aren’t there demonstrations against the use of children as human bombs?
Why has there been no leadership in support of the victims of Islamic dictatorship in Sudan?
Why is there never any outrage against the acts of terrorism committed against Israel?
Why is there no outcry by the European left against Islamic fanaticism?
Why don’t they defend Israel’s right to exist?
Why confuse support of the Palestinian cause with the defence of Palestinian terrorism?
And finally, the million dollar question: Why is the left in Europe and around the world obsessed with the two most solid democracies, the United States and Israel, and not with the worst dictatorships on the planet? The two most solid democracies, who have suffered the bloodiest attacks of terrorism and the left doesn’t care.
The press is being manipulated or is manipulating. They are never concerned with freedom for the people of Syria, or Yemen, or Iran, or Sudan, or other such nations. And they are never preoccupied when Hammas destroys freedom for the Palestinians. They are only concerned with using the concept of Palestinian freedom as a weapon against Israeli freedom. The resulting consequence of these ideological pathologies is the manipulation of the press.
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We have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.
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Please see attached letter from Rabbi Warren Goldstein to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
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Lastly, we do not wish to denigrate Palestine, but we would like to remind 5fm and the public about human rights violations and common atrocities reported (and which no one responds to):
Several thousand women a year are victims of honour killings. Numerous murders are ruled an accident, suicide, or family dispute, if they’re reported at all. Police and government officials are often bribed to ignore crimes and hinder investigations. A woman beaten, burned, strangled, shot, or stabbed to death is often ruled a suicide, even when there are multiple wounds. Many women are killed and buried in unmarked graves; their very existence is removed from community and clan records. The fact that so many murders go unreported is indicative of the status of women and the role of culture in fundamentalist Islamic countries. In the Palestinian communities of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel, and Jordan, women are executed in their homes, in open fields, and occasionally in public, sometimes before crowds of cheering onlookers. Honour killings account for virtually all of the murders of Palestinian women in these areas. Honour killings occur for a variety of offenses, including allegations of premarital or extramarital sex, refusing an arranged marriage, attempting to obtain a divorce, or simply talking with a man. If a woman brings shame to the family, her male relatives are bound by duty and culture to kill her. “A woman shamed is like rotting flesh. If it is not cut away, it will consume the body. What I mean is the whole family will be tainted if she is not killed.” These are the words of a Palestinian.
Then within the jails of Palestine, reports have been that 88 % of all those in jail were being held without trial, a hearing or any sentencing.
The question is who is committing atrocities and violations against human rights?
We are now requesting that this advert be removed from 5FM as well as any SABC stations and that 5FM as a station that is listened to by many Jewish people be more reflective in your advertising. We would also like to highlight that this is not only the plight of Jewish people but of all people who are sensitive to discrimination and false reporting.
In South Africa we are trying to follow the essence of Ubuntu and adverts like this lead to hatred!
This is how the Palestinians use their own children as shields. If this is how they treat their own kids, imagine what they would do to Israeli kids?
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/video/video.php?v=58808090707&ref=nf
Synergy!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1694056.stm
A brave lady in South African who opened the door to democracy and freedom in a closed world. Was against the White regime and helped resist apartheid.
Synergy
Good article on AlJazeera, I am finding their reports very balanced a very good, worth reading:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/01/20091218732517323.html
The current situation of war is better for the Arab leaders, if peace arrived they would lose their countries very quickly, people would be free and would want democracy and freedom.
Let each citizen of the middle stand up and say, enough war and enough hatred.
1. Disband Hamas and Hezbollah.
2.Change of leadership and control in Iran and Syria.
3.All Arab countries to recognise Israel.
4.Israel to recognise full rights for Palestinians and agree on borders for state.
5.Gaza to be transferred to Egypt with a land swap deal.
6.Palestinian refugees to receive full citizenship in the country they currently reside, right of return cannot be considered.
7.Jerusalem to stay capital of Israel but free for all religions , under Israel all religions will have freedom of prayer , any other agreement will create intolerance and persecution in Jerusalem.
8. Borders to be agreed in West Bank to accommodate both parties and make a viable Palestinian state.
9. Peace accord with Syria, possible return part of Golan but not the Kinneret.
10. Peace with Lebanon and Syria and reconciliation with Iran once regime change has occured and moderation returns.
11. Peace with all Arab states and relaxation of travel restrictions.
As you can see this will take perhaps another 50-100 years , it will take many more struggles between I-P , P-P, P-Arab States, Radical-Moderates, East-West.
These may never happen and if they do will require strong leaders that are willing to change the past and create a new future based on freedom of man and freedom of will!
Believe in a better future and not leave the past behind!
Synergy 😉
At this point in the history of the Middle East it’s worth mentioning something that is not obvious and people who don’t remember further than yesterday’s Metro!.At the end of the 19th century the middle east was part of the Ottoman Empire and the current Middle East borders did not exist, they were controlled areas by Sharif’s who paid taxes to the Empire!
The Ottomans joined forces with Germany during the 1st world war and lost their empire which was already crumbling, what happened after that is history but the causes of today’s events are deeply rooted in the decisions made by the British and French empires who controlled most of the world at this point!
Here the split begins:
The Sykes-Picot agreement was a secret agreement between Great Britain and France which decided how they would share the middle east between them after the war, with this agreement new borders and countries were created and those are what you see today.
“Some historians have pointed out that the agreement conflicted with pledges already given by the British to the Hashimite leader Husayn ibn Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who was about to lead an Arab revolt in the Hejaz against the Ottoman rulers on the understanding that the Arabs would eventually receive a much more important share of the territory won.”
As mentioned above the 1st split is that this agreement directly conflicted with pledges gives to the Sharif’s that they would continue to have control after the war, on the basis of this pledge the Sharif’s together with Lawrence of Arabia revolted again the Ottoman’s in the war.
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/The+Balfour+Declaration.htm
The Balfour declaration: “During the First World War, British policy became gradually committed to the idea of establishing a Jewish home in Palestine (Eretz Yisrael). After discussions in the British Cabinet, and consultation with Zionist leaders, the decision was made known in the form of a letter by Arthur James Lord Balfour to Lord Rothschild. The letter represents the first political recognition of Zionist aims by a Great Power”
The Zionist movement and the Aliyot that had already begun created a new momentum for the Jewish population to migrate to at the time Palestine and start building the dream of a Jewish homeland. At this time the population of the land where no more than peasants and no one people , definitely not a Palestinian people, this was created much later by the Arab states to use a pawns in this larger struggle.
Great Britain and France are the main powers to blame for creating this mess and it’s continuing today in it’s new form, both Israeli’s and Palestinians are suffering! Not to mention the pre-1948 the Zionists accepted a two state solution and the Arabs did not!
So what does this mean:
1. Since the 1st world war the Arab world feels betrayed by the west!!!! This has caused a emergence if deep rooted feeling going back to the days of the Islamic Empire and the crusades and has created groups like the Muslim brotherhood and from that stems Hezbollah and Hamas, not to mention the extremist Sunni Wahhadism in Saudi Arabi that is the root of Al Qaeda and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/155236.stm
2.In Addition to this a deeply fanatical group has taken control of Iran which belongs to the Shia Faction.
In the history if the middle the Shia/Sunni killing has occured more than any other conflict! Why only Jews killing arabs have such a response and not Arab killing Arab!
3. Since the birth of the state of Israel in 1948 the Arabs could not accept a Jewish presence in the middle East and have been fighting this ever since, not because they want peace and justice (no Arab country knows the meaning of these two words) but to preserve their own control over their countries and refuse citizenship to the Palestinian refugees that are still in refugee camps in their countries, they treat them worse then the Israeli’s!
4. The PLO which is Fatah today was really created after the 67 war and has been funded by Syria and Iran ever since, creating new groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas along the way, Hamas now controlles Gaza after a civil war between the two factions and now just want to kill anybody not Muslim (Fanatics with a killing agenda)
So today the fight is not only in Israel! UK and the US had their bombings and the attacked Iraq and Afghanistan to stop the terrorists and now Israel is doing the same in Gaza, there are many innocent people in Gaza but war is war and Hamas must be destroyed along with all terrorist groups, this is a fight with a larger audience and one that the west cannot afford to lose!
Once again I am saddened by the loss of life on both sides but from my point of view only once the Arab states fully accept Israel and start teaching peace and security will this end! The problem is that once that happens all the current regimes in the middle East will crumble, with peace and security comes democracy and progress, once a man is free to think and act on free will you can never turn him back 😉 Peace to All!
Synergy
Babylon That! 