There’s an excellent piece by Fat man on a keyboard responding to John Pilger’s call for a boycott of Israel in the New Statesman in particular and the “pro-Palestinian left” in general.
The Palestine/Israel conflict is not easily reducible to categories, it has a unique and complex history. However, it is not about what this section of the left says it is. It is a struggle over land, self-determination, security and human rights. It is rooted in trauma – for one people genocide, for the other dispossession – and has been mediated by war and terrorism. The choice of peace means a de-escalation of violence, mutual recognition and continuing political engagement. It is hard to see that coming from the rhetoric of the left, as they act as cheerleaders for one side, rather than for the painful, slow and difficult processes that confront violence and seek reconciliation. By apologising for the worst, they betray the best. The Palestinians are ill served by such friends.
Fat Man tries to remind the left that it needs to be supporting progressives of any race, nationality or religion in the middle east not the Islamists, reactionaries, bigots, holocaust deniers, insurgents and murderers it currently favours. This call will, as usual, fall on deaf ears.
It’s interesting that the views Fat Man is promoting now consistently come out of blogs and the internet while the well-heeled liberals at the Guardian and the New Statesman, despite the best educations money can buy, continue to unquestioningly support reactionary elements in the middle east.
On a lighter note Ministry of Truth is less than impressed with this supposed Norris Green-based gang the ‘Nogga Dogs’:
What the fuck is a ‘Nogga Dog’ if its not a character from a pre-school TV show on CBeebies?