Hier Ist Kein Warum

The situation with Israel and Palestine is fast approaching the end game with the recent Israeli incursion into Lebanon and the current deadlock with the Palestinian peace process. Syria and Iran being the chiefly accused here, are not even allowed to defend themselves, they are supposed to just assume the guilt of western accusations silently and endure everything that the absence of a firm backbone will bring.

We are constantly reminded by the senior people in the American administration this is about ‘civilisation’ and ‘our way of life’ we should take stock of what that really is. What did civilisation do to Iraq and Afghanistan? What has the civilised Israel done for Palestine or the other Arab states it borders over the past 50 –” 60 years? When we answer these things with a cool and calm head we realise that our vaunted self-assumed global police service are somewhat lacking in legitimacy and understanding.

George Bush’s quip to Tony Blair about bombing Al-Jazeera headquarters in Qatar, betrays to us the seriousness by which this administration takes the use of the military –” namely not very seriously. The allies (should be used in the loosest sense of the word) are in a fix about a great many things, from Abu Ghraib to this infarction what is next for this wayward President and his failing and interminable ‘War on Terror’? We are often told that certain regimes cannot be trusted with weapons of mass-destruction that countries in the west are some how morally less challenged then they are (even though the two world wars that humanity suffered was primarily a Western/European affair) we are reminded that President Ahmedinejed of Iran made statements to the effect of wiping Israel off the face of the Earth and so that ruled out even the possibility of Iran acquiring Nuclear Weapons and yet he said this in public and the American Premier said his two cents about Al-Jazeera in private, who is more morally repugnant? I think they are both cut from the same cloth.

A word on dissent, we dissenters are told, quite patronisingly, that we should cherish the fact that we are allowed to dissent in a democracy that we have freedom of speech and we are allowed to express our views even if they are against the views held by the majority of people or the government. Unfortunately what these pundits of western civilisation don’t realise is that when they remind us of what we already know, they not only mock the very basis of freedom but they make manifest to us their very ignorance of the notions that they preach about. The reason people protested and the reason people marched was not because they wanted to express their freedom of speech, it was not an exercise in futility, it was because their government was not listening to their views that is why people marched and when governments abandon reason and become deaf to the protest of their own people that is when people lose trust in their government which in itself is prelude to revolution or tyranny. I see signs of the latter on the horizon.

About the awful situation in Iraq, about the inhumane way in which human rights workers have been kidnapped and executed –” The Iraqi Resistance doesn’t need people to march and protest on their behalf, they have learnt that lesson all to well –” it doesn’t work. We marched to stop the war, the war went ahead, we marched against the torture of prisoners it still goes ahead so the Iraqi resistance want people to fight and if you aren’t there to fight then you are classed an enemy too. So a warning to all the well-wishers of the Iraqi insurgency –” do it from a far because these people have already shown that they are serious about killing people and have no qualms about doing it –” whether you are a Muslim or not.

The kidnappings themselves deserve a mention here too –” the kidnappings are not carried out by insurgents with an ‘evil ideology’ spurring them forward, it is being carried out by criminals who want money and foreign targets are an assured source of revenue, in fact when one group gets the money they release the captives into the arms of other groups so the whole process can be repeated again –” this is the result of not policing the nation at the supposed end of major hostilities and allowing criminal elements to merge with ideological and patriotic groups to wage this new form of asymmetric warfare. This has been readily adopted by Hizbullah and others which has led to this new crisis. Although the border fracas’ occur from time to time Israel has chosen to escalate this situation to what it is now, and for the all the guilt of Hizbullah sending volley after volley of rockets we should be reminded that Israel has not completely withdrawn out of Lebanon the Sheba Farms are a case in dispute because they are internationally recognised by International bodies as belonging to Syria but Lebanon claims them and they are occupied by Israel, and of course the issue of Hizbullah prisoners.

A former Israeli official idiotically claimed that Khameini and Ahmedinejed think of themselves as the Islamic warriors, like Salah Al-Din Ayyubi, which of course makes them (the Israelis) appears as crusaders and invaders which much of the rest of region thinks of them as. The manner in which Israel has protracted this latest infraction into Lebanese territory will be remembered for years to come by all in the region and peace will not be something that appears in the horizon magically, were reconciliation and healing will occur for the region, as long as there are those who hold the Koran and those who hold the Bible one must prevail over the other. Whose promise is true Jehovah’s or Allah’s?

We are reminded of Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo (If This Is A Man) in which he asks the Germans guard why he wouldn’t let him drink the water to which the guard replies Hier ist kein warum (There is no why here). For all the many and myriad reasons for all this madness we come to the crux of the issue there is no why it has been happening for so long that it is a habit and a way of life it will continue as long as man can and will want to hurt his fellow man and he will use whatever he can to justify this, whether it be ignoratio elenchi about the Holocaust or historic rights, or what God said or about civilisation or democracy the only thing for sure is this will continue for a long time –” in the end it may destroy us all.