We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, July 10, 2011

On flotillas and the law: civil society versus Israel lobbies in US and Europe

Click here to access article by Lawrence Davidson from Redress.

I have seen absolutely no mention in US mainstream media of Freedom Flotilla II to breech Israel's blockade of Gaza to starve out its inhabitants. Zionist influence remains supreme over the established media organs in the US and to a lesser extent in Europe. Despite the gross violations of international law by Israeli attempts to stop the flotilla, Western governments cooperate with their favorite heavily militarized outpost in the Middle East.
When it comes to the struggle against Israel’s policies of oppression there are two conflicting levels: that of government and that of civil society. The most recent example of this duality is the half dozen or so small ships held captive in the ports of Greece. The ships, loaded with humanitarian supplies for the one and half million people of the Gaza Strip, are instruments of a civil society campaign against the inhumanity of the Israeli state. The forces that hold them back are the instruments of governments corrupted by special interest influence and political bribery.
Meanwhile the Israeli state is taking extraordinary measures to prevent this flotilla from reaching Gaza. See Dahr Jamail's excellent coverage here, here, and here.

The Israeli writer Uri Avnery describes the paranoid state of Israeli citizens due to massive indoctrination by Israeli media.
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