Ilan Pappé: The deadly closing of the Israeli mind

[Very interesting article in todays independant on sunday by Ilan Pappé which you can read directly at http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ilan-papp-the-deadly-closing-of-the-israeli-mind-1992471.html]

At the top of Israel's political and military systems stand two men, Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu, who are behind the brutal attack on the Gaza flotilla that shocked the world but that seemed to be hailed as a pure act of self-defence by the Israeli public.

Although they come from the left (Defence minister Barak from the Labour Party) and the right (Prime Minister Netanyahu from Likkud) of Israeli politics, their thinking on Gaza in general and on the flotilla in particular is informed by the same history and identical worldview...

Kieran Turner: Gaza letter from London Evening Standard

[This is a copy of a letter sent by a friend from Uni days to the London Evening Standard which I am very proud to re-display here on my blog. Kieran has been an aid worker in various parts of the world for over 10 years. You can contact him at his website/blog at: http://www.kieranturner.at/his.desk/]

Give 1.5 million people a cargo of fish, and tomorrow they’ll be hungry again. Help those people break through an illegal siege, and tomorrow they’ll be able to fish for themselves. This is the reality for Gaza, and is one part of why the volunteer humanitarians on board the Freedom Flotilla are not interested in depositing their cargo in an Israeli port.



Another part of their reasoning is that Israel’s offer to pass the aid through land routes “in line with regulations” subtly refers to regulations that would see the bulk of the aid dumped. Israel allows a very specific, varying selection of goods into Gaza so it can claim to be helping. Including “sticks for brooms” and “cleaning products for tiles” — but not dental amalgam for fillings...

James Lovelock: Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change

I loved reading the interview of James Lovelock in today’s Guardian…..

He’s the internationally respected scientist and environmentalist who invented the Gaia theory during the 1960’s – the idea that the earth itself behaves as a giant self-regulating organism.

Still going strong aged 90, his point in this interview is essentially that human beings as a whole are not yet evolved enough appreciate complex situations and make good decisions about them vis-à-vis climate change. So he concludes that we will be unable to make the significant and difficult changes that need to be made to avoid catastrophe until there actually is one, as politicians are of course continually slithering cynically around the limits of what the masses are prepared to tolerate while secretly or brazenly doing exactly what they want for personal gain...