This week’s postings on JfJfP.com website
At the beginning of this week, the dominant issue was the Israeli General Election, declared for March 2015. Given the Israeli PR system, who should unite with whom? Emblematically, former Labour MK Avraham Burg announced his decision to support Hadash, the Arab-Jewish party. So far, no-one has followed.
Neither Arab nor Jewish jingoism
The early announcement for a general election found the Arab parties in some uncertainty. Should they band together as an Arab coalition in order to beat the raised threshold to win Knesset seats? Or would this ethic grouping annihilate different political Palestinian views – or make a bid for a worthless position?
Arabs doubt value of getting Knesset seats
But Hadash, the Arab-Jewish party has not goiven up, and has just been joined by Avraham Burg Or should they continue on their original path to speak for that sewction of Palestinian society? And, perhaps most important of all, was there any point in Palestinians having Knesset representation?
Arab parties struggle to represent all
Later But that was the beginning of the week. By the end, of the week news from both Arab and Jewish sources (sorry, but that’s how it was) was devoted to the mass killings in France, at the Charlie Hebdo office and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Vincennes, Paris by muslims from North Africa. Although Jews may be a target of their fanaticism If Jews leave, France will no longer be France, their primary targets appear to be a) any country with a dominant secular culture, b) any country with a history of colonialism in dominantly Muslim countries.
This is not directly an issue for JfJfP, but given the stance of Israel, it clearly does demand a rebuttal of the view that ‘Islam’ is an evil death-cult. Despite the efforts of the Israeli government to link Muslims in Israel/Palestine to ISIS, Palestinians, so far, are concentrated on national/political demands, not bringing in a religious caliphate.
Israelis tell ‘cowardly’ Europeans: we told you so
The response to these attacks have been entirely about the ‘the right to free speech’. But is there not also a duty to civic courtesy, where you do not go out of your way to insult a religious group which has not, as such, infringed basic human rights? Are there not principles which govern civil discourse? A view from Muslim Times.
We need wise speech, not free speech
Plus, the news from Gaza, during the winter storms of these climate-change times, is predictably bitter, as are the consequences of Israel’s shelling Gaza last summer.