Links February 17th to February 19th

Links for February 17th through February 19th:

• Jazeera slams TV crackdown - FT on new satellite TV restrictions


• TelQuel : Avoir 20 ans à la campagne - Life for young people in the (extremely poor) Moroccan countryside


• Moscou accuse Paris de saborder le contrat des Mig - Algeria-Russia fracas over Mig contract; France suspected of meddling


• Pharaonic Pump Sits Idle as Egypt Fails to Lure Farms to Desert
  Bloomberg.com:
  Europe - Whatever happened to Toshka?


• Middle East Report Online: Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism by Darryl Li - "FROM BANTUSTAN TO INTERNMENT CAMP TO ANIMAL PEN"


• The BAE files | World news | guardian.co.uk - Guardian collection of articles on BAE case


• Hamas tells Egypt it is ready to discuss truce with Israel, Shalit deal - "Hamas said Friday it has told Egyptian officials it would consider a cease-fire with Israel if it lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip and ceased military operations in the West Bank and Gaza."


• UN shocked by 'grim' life in Gaza - "80% of Gaza's 1.5m population now depended on food aid."

Comments

[Bergamo]

placing Darryl Li's and Haaretz articles one next to the other shows that the Israeli treatment of Gazans has nothing to do with the threat they pose to Israeli security -- a point that has been made also by Uri Avineri -- It only has the goal to keep Gazans' frustration high enough to make sure it produce some violence against Israel -- which in turn allows the IDF to claim that its inhuman treatment of Palestinians is justified. That is it a lie is shown by the fact that Hamas is ready to a truce. But if weapons were laid down how could Israel justify her policy of dispossessing Palestinians of their land, their orchards, their chances for a normal life, their dignity?
Problem is that those who practice torture become stunted human being, if they were not stunted to begin with. And this is what is happening to Israeli society. It is not only that Israeli claims to the high moral grounds have become as hollow as empty jars. It is also that the habit of lying to cover their policy towards Palestine may make, if it has not done it already, Israeli political culture corrupt, authoritarian and deceitful.