Moshe Ram, Daily Trust and Israelis
Like a script copied from a Hollywood movie, Moshe Ram, the Israel Ambassador to Nigeria tried to play with our collective intelligence in a piece titled ‘Daily Trust, Israel and the Gaza flotilla problem’(Daily Trust, July 6, 2010 pg 25) which was a respond to an earlier editorial of Daily Trust (June 11, 2010) in which he accused the management of the paper of bias by that editorial and two op-eds that appeared on the 10th and 11th of the same month, that condemned Israeli violation of International Laws by attacking the Gaza flotilla on international waters carrying aid and other humanitarian items to the already wretched Palestinians caged in the Gaza enclave for over 4 years, no thanks to Israel.
The arguments advanced by the ambassador was that, Daily Trust has either ignorantly or deliberately choose to ignore all the atrocities committed by Palestinians, Hezbollah and other ‘terrorist’ organisations against his people. One thing is very clear from the Mr. Ram’s piece. Mr. Ambassador you are either economical with the truth, or adopted the usual bias and selectivity attitude characteristic of Western controlled media concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Ambassador, we looking at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from far are not unaware of the fact that Israelis have the right to live as the Palestinians. And it is our prayers that one day Israel and Palestine can live side by side as independent states based on understanding and mutual respect. However, we are also not unaware of the atrocities being committed by the state of Israel on armless Palestinians on the pretext of fighting terrorists or ‘self-defense’. These are documented facts reported by the BBC, Aljazeera and other well respected media organisations around the world daily.
Just to remind you Mr. Ambassador Sir, in the dying days of 2008 and the early weeks of 2009, the world stood and watched an intense and round-the-clock attack by air, land and sea, by the state of Israel on the Gaza enclave, where we witnessed a horrible massacre of innocent, armless people of Palestine, an event or atrocity that can only be compared to Hitler’s atrocities against your grandparents in WW II or the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia Herzegovina in early 90s, in which thousands of people were murdered in cold blood. The three weeks Israel bombardment of the most densely populated enclave on earth has been described by many human rights organizations around the world as the most inhumane act human beings have ever witnessed in modern history. And still Mr. Ambassador you want the world, especially lovers of peace to look the other way or commend Natanyahu, Barak or Livni for a job well-done?
Israel, we were told by the then US President, GW Bush and Prime Minister Livni has no option but to murder armless civilians, including women, old men and children in order to ‘defend’ itself from the continuous rocket attacks launched by the "terrorist" Hamas group against its civilian population. Had it been Israel is a respecter of human right, democracy and the sovereignty of its neighbours, nobody would have opposed their response to Hamas rocket attacks upon ‘its’ territory’. But we all know Mr. Ambassador Sir, Israel is far from that, therefore, whatever Natanyahu, Oulmert, Barak or Livni would tell us is just a repetition of what was said during the Shatila refugee camp massacre, which even Western journalists who are mostly sympathetic to Israel have no option but to condemn.
However, Mr. Ambassador we have to ask ourselves these pertinent questions, though they might be difficult to answer. Even before the Flotilla ambush, was Israel ready for peace? The event that happened recently, that is, the flotilla ambush, was it the truth of the matter or only a sketch, a partial sentence chosen from a lengthy paragraph and removed from a broader context that would paint a completely different picture of the whole issue? If really Israel is committed to peace in the Middle East as you mentioned in your piece, why is your government always stall peace talks with the Palestinians? And if you are committed to democracy as you claimed why reject Hamas victory in Gaza?
Hamas, just to remind you Mr. Ambassador, won an election in Palestine described as the most democratically election ever, however, the same people calling Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organisation refused to recognise the government. Are you afraid of having a democratically elected government as your close neighbor since most of your allies in the Middle East are run by people who are not democratically elected?
Up to this day Mr. Ambassador, nobody dispute, either in the West or within the Arab nations of any type of irregularities in the 2006 election in Palestine, which saw the emergence of Hamas as victorious, the only reason given for the refusal to accept the result by your government and your allies in the West was that Hamas is an extremist organization which they felt cannot be accepted. Rather than searching ways to find a lasting solution, your country and US under the then President Bush decided to isolate Hamas. The US and Western nations, especially Britain under Tony Blair, stopped financial assistance to Palestine as a punishment on the Palestinian people for electing a government of their choice.
On its part your country Israel (self-proclaimed democratic nation in the Mid-East) imposed a blockade on the strip thereby putting the 1.5m people living within the enclave in a worst humanitarian crisis in history. Was this not ironic Mr. Ambassador? Considering the fact that while your very good ally the US is busy invading sovereign nation on pretext of exporting democracy, you are busy blocking humanitarian aid to people who chose democracy in place of dictatorship?
Mr. Ambassador, whether you like it or not, Israel remains, in the eyes of all lovers of justice, freedom and peace an imperial state and ‘the worst thing that happened since after the holocaust’. There is no telling in the kind of atrocities committed in the occupied territory since the carving of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians including school children have been murdered, tortured, starved to death, others were maimed and injured for life by brutal Israeli army. Others are still languishing in Israel prisons. Many of the victims are average citizens on their way to work or to school, while others are involved in protests against occupation. Only a handful were armed – do you blame Hamas or any other armed Palestinian organisation for trying to protect their motherland and their families from daily assault by one of the powerful army in the world? Or put yourself in their shoes Mr. Ambassador; What will you do today if an occupying force raid your house kill your mother and your father, rape your sister, destroy the house in which you live?
And it is a fact Israel is the only country on the face of earth that repeatedly have the liberty of violating International laws and convention at will while the UN look the other way. It has happened in the past and it continued Mr. Ambassador, your country has never regretted its actions or earned the punishment meted on say Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba or North Korea. Israel's actions, whatever claims you can lay violate all known rules of engagements. With active support from lone super power, the US, Israel has the right to send its troops to any sovereign nation, destroying their homes, kill their children and rape their women at will and all this are nothing but self defense.
On their part, the West especially the US prefers to allow Israel to deal with the Hamas government in Palestine by imposing a blockade on the enclave from all angles, in the process punishing whoever found himself within the enclave. They prefer relating with dictatorial regimes than to allow democracy to flourish because of their interests in the region. If not, how would you explain the attitude of the West and US especially towards dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Kuwait and other Arab nations?
As most analyst observed, the recent Flotilla ambush gave Hamas a long time victory as did the 2008/09 invasion of the enclave and also the Israel/Hezbullah war in 2006. The crisis once again exposed Israel and what it stands for, discrediting the Abu Mazen unpopular government, expose the double standard of the West, especially the US and provide Hamas with additional support not only from Palestinians but also other people around the world, including those who were seeing the movement in the past as a mere terrorist group as painted by Israel
The arguments advanced by the ambassador was that, Daily Trust has either ignorantly or deliberately choose to ignore all the atrocities committed by Palestinians, Hezbollah and other ‘terrorist’ organisations against his people. One thing is very clear from the Mr. Ram’s piece. Mr. Ambassador you are either economical with the truth, or adopted the usual bias and selectivity attitude characteristic of Western controlled media concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
Mr. Ambassador, we looking at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from far are not unaware of the fact that Israelis have the right to live as the Palestinians. And it is our prayers that one day Israel and Palestine can live side by side as independent states based on understanding and mutual respect. However, we are also not unaware of the atrocities being committed by the state of Israel on armless Palestinians on the pretext of fighting terrorists or ‘self-defense’. These are documented facts reported by the BBC, Aljazeera and other well respected media organisations around the world daily.
Just to remind you Mr. Ambassador Sir, in the dying days of 2008 and the early weeks of 2009, the world stood and watched an intense and round-the-clock attack by air, land and sea, by the state of Israel on the Gaza enclave, where we witnessed a horrible massacre of innocent, armless people of Palestine, an event or atrocity that can only be compared to Hitler’s atrocities against your grandparents in WW II or the genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia Herzegovina in early 90s, in which thousands of people were murdered in cold blood. The three weeks Israel bombardment of the most densely populated enclave on earth has been described by many human rights organizations around the world as the most inhumane act human beings have ever witnessed in modern history. And still Mr. Ambassador you want the world, especially lovers of peace to look the other way or commend Natanyahu, Barak or Livni for a job well-done?
Israel, we were told by the then US President, GW Bush and Prime Minister Livni has no option but to murder armless civilians, including women, old men and children in order to ‘defend’ itself from the continuous rocket attacks launched by the "terrorist" Hamas group against its civilian population. Had it been Israel is a respecter of human right, democracy and the sovereignty of its neighbours, nobody would have opposed their response to Hamas rocket attacks upon ‘its’ territory’. But we all know Mr. Ambassador Sir, Israel is far from that, therefore, whatever Natanyahu, Oulmert, Barak or Livni would tell us is just a repetition of what was said during the Shatila refugee camp massacre, which even Western journalists who are mostly sympathetic to Israel have no option but to condemn.
However, Mr. Ambassador we have to ask ourselves these pertinent questions, though they might be difficult to answer. Even before the Flotilla ambush, was Israel ready for peace? The event that happened recently, that is, the flotilla ambush, was it the truth of the matter or only a sketch, a partial sentence chosen from a lengthy paragraph and removed from a broader context that would paint a completely different picture of the whole issue? If really Israel is committed to peace in the Middle East as you mentioned in your piece, why is your government always stall peace talks with the Palestinians? And if you are committed to democracy as you claimed why reject Hamas victory in Gaza?
Hamas, just to remind you Mr. Ambassador, won an election in Palestine described as the most democratically election ever, however, the same people calling Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organisation refused to recognise the government. Are you afraid of having a democratically elected government as your close neighbor since most of your allies in the Middle East are run by people who are not democratically elected?
Up to this day Mr. Ambassador, nobody dispute, either in the West or within the Arab nations of any type of irregularities in the 2006 election in Palestine, which saw the emergence of Hamas as victorious, the only reason given for the refusal to accept the result by your government and your allies in the West was that Hamas is an extremist organization which they felt cannot be accepted. Rather than searching ways to find a lasting solution, your country and US under the then President Bush decided to isolate Hamas. The US and Western nations, especially Britain under Tony Blair, stopped financial assistance to Palestine as a punishment on the Palestinian people for electing a government of their choice.
On its part your country Israel (self-proclaimed democratic nation in the Mid-East) imposed a blockade on the strip thereby putting the 1.5m people living within the enclave in a worst humanitarian crisis in history. Was this not ironic Mr. Ambassador? Considering the fact that while your very good ally the US is busy invading sovereign nation on pretext of exporting democracy, you are busy blocking humanitarian aid to people who chose democracy in place of dictatorship?
Mr. Ambassador, whether you like it or not, Israel remains, in the eyes of all lovers of justice, freedom and peace an imperial state and ‘the worst thing that happened since after the holocaust’. There is no telling in the kind of atrocities committed in the occupied territory since the carving of Israel in 1948, many Palestinians including school children have been murdered, tortured, starved to death, others were maimed and injured for life by brutal Israeli army. Others are still languishing in Israel prisons. Many of the victims are average citizens on their way to work or to school, while others are involved in protests against occupation. Only a handful were armed – do you blame Hamas or any other armed Palestinian organisation for trying to protect their motherland and their families from daily assault by one of the powerful army in the world? Or put yourself in their shoes Mr. Ambassador; What will you do today if an occupying force raid your house kill your mother and your father, rape your sister, destroy the house in which you live?
And it is a fact Israel is the only country on the face of earth that repeatedly have the liberty of violating International laws and convention at will while the UN look the other way. It has happened in the past and it continued Mr. Ambassador, your country has never regretted its actions or earned the punishment meted on say Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba or North Korea. Israel's actions, whatever claims you can lay violate all known rules of engagements. With active support from lone super power, the US, Israel has the right to send its troops to any sovereign nation, destroying their homes, kill their children and rape their women at will and all this are nothing but self defense.
On their part, the West especially the US prefers to allow Israel to deal with the Hamas government in Palestine by imposing a blockade on the enclave from all angles, in the process punishing whoever found himself within the enclave. They prefer relating with dictatorial regimes than to allow democracy to flourish because of their interests in the region. If not, how would you explain the attitude of the West and US especially towards dictatorial regimes in Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Kuwait and other Arab nations?
As most analyst observed, the recent Flotilla ambush gave Hamas a long time victory as did the 2008/09 invasion of the enclave and also the Israel/Hezbullah war in 2006. The crisis once again exposed Israel and what it stands for, discrediting the Abu Mazen unpopular government, expose the double standard of the West, especially the US and provide Hamas with additional support not only from Palestinians but also other people around the world, including those who were seeing the movement in the past as a mere terrorist group as painted by Israel
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