Posted by doggone on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 1:51 PM:
Isn't Iran constantly treatening to annihilate Israel? Haven't all of the surrounding Arab countries been saying the same thing for the last 50plus years? Hasn't the Soviet Union been backing these Arab countries all along and supplying them with arms, etc.? Why are you calling Israel the aggressor here? I think they may be preparing themselves for an attack by the ARABS, not the other way around.
Replies (12)
Neighborhood Bully - by Bob Dylan:
Well, the neighborhood bully, he's just one man,
His enemies say he's on their land.
They got him outnumbered about a million to one,
He got no place to escape to, no place to run.
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully just lives to survive,
He's criticized and condemned for being alive.
He's not supposed to fight back, he's supposed to have thick skin,
He's supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in.
He's the neighborhood bully.
The neighborhood bully been driven out of every land,
He's wandered the earth an exiled man.
Seen his family scattered, his people hounded and torn,
He's always on trial for just being born.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, he knocked out a lynch mob, he was criticized,
Old women condemned him, said he should apologize.
Then he destroyed a bomb factory, nobody was glad.
The bombs were meant for him.
He was supposed to feel bad.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, the chances are against it and the odds are slim
That he'll live by the rules that the world makes for him,
'Cause there's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back
And a license to kill him is given out to every maniac.
He's the neighborhood bully.
He got no allies to really speak of.
What he gets he must pay for, he don't get it out of love.
He buys obsolete weapons and he won't be denied
But no one sends flesh and blood to fight by his side.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Well, he's surrounded by pacifists who all want peace,
They pray for it nightly that the bloodshed must cease.
Now, they wouldn't hurt a fly.
To hurt one they would weep.
They lay and they wait for this bully to fall asleep.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Every empire that's enslaved him is gone,
Egypt and Rome, even the great Babylon.
He's made a garden of paradise in the desert sand,
In bed with nobody, under no one's command.
He's the neighborhood bully.
Now his holiest books have been trampled upon,
No contract he signed was worth what it was written on.
He took the crumbs of the world and he turned it into wealth,
Took sickness and disease and he turned it into health.
He's the neighborhood bully.
What's anybody indebted to him for?
Nothin', they say.
He just likes to cause war.
Pride and prejudice and superstition indeed,
They wait for this bully like a dog waits to feed.
He's the neighborhood bully.
What has he done to wear so many scars?
Does he change the course of rivers?
Does he pollute the moon and stars?
Neighborhood bully, standing on the hill,
Running out the clock, time standing still,
Neighborhood bully.
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 1:56 PM
Did Dylan really write that? Excellent!
-- Posted by doggone on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 2:37 PM
"Iran's conservative new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Wednesday that Israel must be "wiped off the map" and that attacks by Palestinians would destroy it, the ISNA press agency reported.
Ahmadinejad was speaking to an audience of about 4,000 students at a program called "The World Without Zionism," in preparation for an annual anti-Israel demonstration on the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan.
His tone was reminiscent of that of the early days of Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979. Iran and Israel have been bitter enemies since then, and anti-Israel slogans have been common at rallies."
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 3:35 PM
I find it interesting that the Arab world has embraced Roman imperialism. Judea was a Jewish region until Hadrian, tired of the constant uprisings against Roman occupation by the Judeans, defeated them and drove them from the region, establishing in the stead of the Provincia Judea the new provence of Palestina. Palestine being the Roman form of the Greek word Philistine, a word for the people of Greek heritage who dwelt in and around Provincia Judea.
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 3:41 PM
Israel is a nation, not merely a collection of Jews. There is a distinction between 'wiping Israel off the map and wiping out the Jews. Hadrian 'wiped Judea off the map' but the Judeans as a people survived. The Romans, in fact, had a policy of scattering rebellious peoples and repopulating their homelands with loyal colonists.
However, if you don't like the New York Times (I don't, either, but I wanted a source that wasn't noted for its 'right-wing bent': here is the Washington Post:
"World Leaders Condemn Iranian's Call to Wipe Israel 'Off the Map'"
I suppose all of those World leaders were reading the New York Times, and not listening to facts.
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 4:03 PM
James Nall wrote:
"Shapley Hunter, I'm no fan of Ahmadinejad, but the New york Times as well as other newspapers apologised for the misinterpretation of what he said."
I looked for such an apology and did not find it. What I found was an opinion piece questioning the translation that led to the article, and several articles, mostly written or co-written by Iranians, asserting that Ahmedinejad was paraphrasing the late Ayotallah in calling for an end to the regime 'currently occupying Jerusalem'. That is, in essence, wiping Israel off the map, since he refers to the replacing of the Israeli government with a new Palsetinian state, tantamount to the restoration of Hadrian's Provincia Palestina which was put into effect after he wiped Judea off the map.
No one is suggesting that he has stated a desire to bulldoze the land into the sea, but rather that he seeks to drive the Israeli people out of their nation, perhaps back to Europe as Peter Proud suggests.
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 4:13 PM
I love Dylan! Here is my favorite song by the legend...
Masters of War
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
Even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead
-- Posted by Lumpy on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 4:19 PM
Why does it matter what Jewish life is like in Iran? That is not germaine to the discussion of whether or not Iran has a problem with the existence of the State of Israel.
I have yet to see a source for the 'apology' offered.
-- Posted by Shapley Hunter on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 4:38 PM
Totally agree with your 4:41 post Peter Proud.
The so called flag waving defenders of our military who claim they love the troops won't even take the time to learn about what happened to USS Liberty. They don't care that Israel murdered 34 sailors and wounded dozens more.
I have posted links to the video you referenced and the one I reference below several times over the past couple of years with little response. I do remember one comment that said it happened in 1967 so we need to move on. I thought well the Holocaust happened 70 years ago and Israel never tells people to move on from that. Israel uses the Holocaust to justify every atrocity they commit.
The crew of Liberty were told that they would face "court-martial OR WORSE," those were the exact words they heard after limping back to port. Israel intended to sink a US Ship flying the US Flag. They shot up all the life boats too which is a war crime in itself. They bombed the ship with Napalm. They torpedoed the ship too but she wouldn't sink
The crew after many years did speak out. The BBC documentary tells the story and the YouTube video Loss of Liberty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj9VjNRpn4g&feature=PlayList&p=1354605E84DB32C4&p... For all of you scoffers, listen to the sailors in their own words. Remember that the intelligence ship only had one 50 caliber machine gun for defense against jets and torpedo boats.
Liberty is the most decorated ship in history. Captain McGonagle received the nations highest honor, The Congressional Medal of Honor.Unfortunately for McGonagle he received his medal in a private ceremony because the U.S. government did not want to bring undue attention to our "friend" Israel.
If you don't feel at least a bit of anger against Israel after hearing the survivors own words about the relentless attack that killed 34 sailors, then maybe you care more about defending Israel than your own countrymen.
-- Posted by Thought Criminal on Fri, Apr 9, 2010, at 10:53 PM
I forgot to add that on the You Tube video another Congressional Medal of Honor recipient from WWII Col. Mitchell Page called it an unprovoked dastardly attack on a U.S. vessel and should be exposed to the American people. Col. Lew Millett another WWII CMOH hero said there was no way Israel could have mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship. He said the attack by Israel was an act of war against America.
If that's not enough, listen to what former Chiefs of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas Moorer and Arleigh Burke said about the Israeli murders of American sailors.
We must demand a formal and complete investigation of what happened to the Liberty said Admiral Moorer. We all should demand it.
Menu
Isn't Iran constantly treatening to annihilate Israel? Haven't all of the surrounding Arab countries been saying the same thing for the last 50plus years? Hasn't the Soviet Union been backing these Arab countries all along and supplying them with arms, etc.? Why are you calling Israel the aggressor here? I think they may be preparing themselves for an attack by the ARABS, not the other way around.
Replies (12)