I'm still alive!
Wow... I've deprived you, loyal readers, of my venom for more than 2 weeks.... you poor things.
Having been pretty busy, I havn't kept too close an eye on the news - in particular, I think the Israel-Palestine question will be worth paying close attention to. I just noticed something of some interest glancing at Ha'aretz though - they're carrying an AP story about a CNN report suggesting that Iraqi forces captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but let him go because they didn't recognise him. This hasn't registered with US or UK outlets (yet) which are all focusing on the elections.
It also seems that the younger members of Fatah have decided to leave and join up with Hamas. This is an indication that Mahmoud Abbas is not going to be able to dupe the Palestinians into signing away the last shreds of their claim to statehood in the manner that Yasir Arafat did over Oslo - they've learned a lesson it seems, and in the absence of any real kind of political representation, the only option they see open to them is violence. This is unlikely to trouble the Israeli government, who are holding out for as long as possible on a final settlement, and in the meantime building frantically in the West Bank to establish as many strategically placed settlements as possible so that the route of the seperation wall can ensure that the Israelis get as much territory as possible, while the Palestinian population centres are fragmented (or cantonised). The process of 'Politicide' - as described by Baruch Kimmerling in the best book I have read about the Israel-Palestine conflict - continues.
Hoping to see King Kong in the next few days...
Having been pretty busy, I havn't kept too close an eye on the news - in particular, I think the Israel-Palestine question will be worth paying close attention to. I just noticed something of some interest glancing at Ha'aretz though - they're carrying an AP story about a CNN report suggesting that Iraqi forces captured Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but let him go because they didn't recognise him. This hasn't registered with US or UK outlets (yet) which are all focusing on the elections.
It also seems that the younger members of Fatah have decided to leave and join up with Hamas. This is an indication that Mahmoud Abbas is not going to be able to dupe the Palestinians into signing away the last shreds of their claim to statehood in the manner that Yasir Arafat did over Oslo - they've learned a lesson it seems, and in the absence of any real kind of political representation, the only option they see open to them is violence. This is unlikely to trouble the Israeli government, who are holding out for as long as possible on a final settlement, and in the meantime building frantically in the West Bank to establish as many strategically placed settlements as possible so that the route of the seperation wall can ensure that the Israelis get as much territory as possible, while the Palestinian population centres are fragmented (or cantonised). The process of 'Politicide' - as described by Baruch Kimmerling in the best book I have read about the Israel-Palestine conflict - continues.
Hoping to see King Kong in the next few days...
posted by UK plc at 11:11 AM
2 Comments:
say, i'm having a kind of argument with someone about fairtrade. what's your opinion of it, does it work at all, and where do you think i might find more resources on it?
I cried for days and wondered where the hell I was going to get news from... but now you're back and I can be a well-informed individual again, yay! :)
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