One-Finger Salute

Genocide or ethnic cleansing: Whichever is more convenient

"This is our land. The solution is in the nation's ability not to leave even one of them [the Palestinians] here. Transfer or extermination, it's all the same to me. Anyone who wants to accept our rule and ownership, without civil rights and without ownership of land, can stay. Whoever doesn't will be eliminated. Even if we kill them all, the hostile population will give birth to new terrorists."

- Israeli settler, quoted in Haaretz (online English edition). "With a mighty hand," 15 March 2002.

Does Israel really want peace? If we can define "peace" as the absence of violent conflict, then the answer is yes. If, however, we define peace as to include justice and a realization of human rights, then the answer is a definite no.

While many Israeli apologists like to insist, ad nauseum, that Israel really would like to quit the occupation of Palestinian lands (but are thwarted endlessly in this noble endeavor by Palestinian "terrorists" and Arafat), the issue of settlements always seems to be side-stepped in their definition of what the occupation entails. The fact of the matter is that settlements are an integral part of Israel's foreign policy and they are not going to be abandoned any time soon. The comments of the settler above make this quite clear. All Israeli governments would rather, at best, quibble over how little land they can leave and still say the occupation has ended or, at worst, continue buying time while creating facts on the ground by expanding settlements.

Perhaps some people might claim that the settler above is part of only a tiny minority of Israeli citizens whose views do not represent the Israeli majority. This may be true. And yet, the settlements are there and growing after 35 years. What has Israeli "democracy", a system of government based on the rule of majority, been doing all this time? Why did the Israeli public elect Ariel Sharon, a man whose record includes numerous episodes of massive reprisals against civilian populations and whose own government found that he bore a measure of "personal responsibility" for the massacre of nearly 2,000 human beings? Did they think that a person with his past would be organizing trips to the petting zoo and handing out flowers and candy? Did they completely ignore his fanatical support of colonization and occupation throughout his entire career?

The reality is that the Israeli public knew exactly what they were getting with Sharon - a rejectionist of any kind of just political agreement who wasn't afraid of killing as many Palestinians as it took to bring about "security". And it knows exactly what it is getting with the settlements and settlers like the one quoted above. Every day the settlements remain on Palestinian land is another day that views like the ones above are endorsed and validated by the Israeli public.

Welcome to "A Castoff Cigarette Butt". Thanks to the blunders of the computer age, any idiot can now broadcast his or her views to a potentially wide audience, thus joining the already large numbers of idiots posing as "journalists" in the print media. I am happy to report that, with the creation of this page, I now have experience being an idiot in both fields.

I don't know how or why you are here. But since you are, let me inform you as to what you can expect from this website. It might change your life.

Commentary on the Middle East.

Review of articles in selected American, British, and Israeli newspapers.

American Politics and..."Culture".

Who are Americans? Where do they come from? And what do they want?

Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Lied to Your Entire Life?

You're not alone. If you haven't gotten that feeling, then check back here more often.

Scumbag-of-the-Week Citation.

Can anyone unseat Ariel Sharon? Our blue-ribbon panel will let you know.

A special thanks to Evgeny Zamiatin for allowing us to use a chapter heading from his novel "WE" as the title of this page. Thank you, Comrade Zamiatin! We hope you're enjoying your time up in the "Popular Democracy" in the sky!