User:NSH001
 | I am able to edit only intermittently until further notice, and may not respond swiftly to queries. |
Mearsheimer: "people in the West don’t want to hear it"
| “ | I think your description of the American position in December 2021 and in the run-up to the war in February 2022 is correct. But it’s also important to emphasize—and people in the West don’t want to hear it, but it is true—that the Russians were desperate to avoid a conflict. The idea that Putin was chomping at the bit to invade Ukraine so he could make it part of Greater Russia, it’s just not a serious argument. The Russians did not want a war, and they did, I believe, everything possible to avoid a war. They just couldn’t get the Americans to play ball with them. The Americans were unwilling to negotiate in a serious way. Period. End of story. | ” |
The full discussion is available here.
"Nato isn’t defending Ukraine. It’s stabbing it in the back"
See Jonathan Cook, Nato isn’t defending Ukraine. It’s stabbing it in the back, Middle East Eye, 14 July 2023. Quote: "Do not expect this conundrum to be highlighted by a western establishment media that seems incapable of doing anything other than regurgitating Nato press releases and cheering on bigger profits for the West’s war industries."
Broken promises
From the Stephen Cohen Lecture, “The Ukrainian Crisis: A New Cold War?” on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies Program, Fairfield University, February 5, 2015
| “ | And there was more: there was diplomacy, but it was an American diplomacy marked by broken promises and concessions made by the Russians that were not reciprocated. Let me give the young people in the room an example they probably don’t know about. After the United States was attacked on 9/11, the first world leader to call President Bush was Putin. He said, “George, it’s horrible. We’re with you. Tell us what we can do. We have major military assets in Afghanistan; they’re yours. We have a fighting force. We have terrific intelligence. We have transit bases; it’s all yours.” And since Bush was going to send a land force to dislodge the Taliban, Bush took this. And it cost Putin a lot at home. His security people didn’t like this, but he did it anyway. And Putin saved a lot of American lives in that war. Mark that down. What did he get in return? Trivia question. Within two years I think, Bush had expanded NATO right to Russia’s borders. And, equally fateful, Bush took the United States unilaterally out of what was called the anti-ballistic missile treaty, which had been the most stabilizing nuclear treaty in the history of the world because it prohibited the kinds of missiles that can eliminate the other side’s retaliatory response. | ” |
About me
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My name is Neil Hall. I am a Quaker and like most Quakers am concerned with peace (see Quaker Peace Testimony) and equality (see Social responsibility).
I have a degree in mathematics from the University of Warwick and am an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries. I am retired from actuarial work but still maintain my membership of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries as a retired member.
Current recreations include marathon running and cycling (updated: a series of small but annoying medical problems has prevented me running any marathons in the last few years).
I am also a volunteer visitor with the Gatwick Detainees Welfare Group and support several other organisations which help refugees and asylum seekers. I think the practice of imprisoning refugees or asylum seekers, who have committed no crime, is an obscenity. Updated: I have been a volunteer visitor since 1996, but am no longer visiting, as I finally found the experience so emotionally draining, and depressing, that I needed to take a break.
For more about help to Jewish refugees, see Peter F Kurer, "Thoughts for the Week: A helping hand", 8 March 2018.
With grateful thanks to PJ Harvey
- Julian Assange, 2nd January 2014 on YouTube, giving BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, based on Proverbs 24:3–24:5 and Matthew 10:26–10:27.
- See also:
- Sources on Assange
- *Melzer, Nils (17 April 2021). "Assange, Nils Melzer says the treatment of Julian leaves him "speechless"". Il Fatto Quotidiano (Interview). Interviewed by Stefania Maurizi.
- See also:
Media lies
"One of the hopeful things that I've discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been the result of media lies. The media could have stopped it if they had searched deep enough, if they hadn't bought into government propaganda, they could have stopped it. What does that mean? That means basically populations don't like war and populations have to be fooled into war, populations don't willingly, with open eyes, go into a war. So if we have a good media environment, then we'll also have a peaceful environment." – Julian Assange, speaking from inside the Ecuadorian Embassy .
Syria
- Here's a quote from Helena Cobban on Syria, written in April 2017, but even more relevant today (my emphasis is in bold; italic emphasis is in the original; I've also corrected a small spelling mistake):
The erosion of the whole memory/immediacy of the question of imperialism and the need to counter it, as I understood it back when I was young in the UK, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Many younger people in the west today think that imperialism/anti-imperialism is “tired old dogma” or whatever. Or, they talk glibly, in re Syria, about “dual imperialisms”– that is, Russian along with US/Western– without any appreciation of the relevance of the history of western imperialism in the M.E. region or the significance of the fact that Russia is in Syria as the invited ally of the legitimate government of Syria while the US/Saudi/western forces are there to disrupt, hobble, or topple the country’s entire governing system, in the continuation of plans that the Zionists and Americans have pursued for many decades now.
- Full article here. In addition, Cobban has been writing for many years on Syria (and the Middle East in general). Link to all her blog posts on Syria here.
- 40-minute interview with Carla Ortiz on her experience of living in Syria on YouTube. Ortiz makes it very clear how ridiculous is the picture painted by western media of the current situation in Syria. Not surprising really, when said media are ignoring the crucial point identified by Cobban. Note especially what she has to say about the White Helmets, the liberation of Aleppo, and the treatment of women in Syria
- Article (28 January 2021) from Peter Ford, who served as British ambassador to Syria from 2003 to 2006. Quote:
It’s important to grasp the moral enormity of this. [US Ambassador James Franklin] Jeffrey did not stoop to deploying the standard cant about theoretical ‘humanitarian exemptions’ (which don’t work in practice) or about aiming only at Assad’s capacity to do harm. No, for him, the purpose of sanctions was and is to strangle the Syrian economy and if that should mean causing ordinary Syrians to queue for bread or gasoline for hours, or be unable to revive factories and recover jobs, or rebuild and re-equip hospitals, or import vitally needed medical goods… well that’s just collateral damage and it’s all for the greater good of pursuing U.S. interests.
What Feltman and Balian are proposing is to ease off on some of this strangulation in return for political concessions. There is a term for this: it’s called extortion. (my emphasis)
- Another quotation from Helena Cobban on Syria:
The New York Times been continuing its wilful hiding of the political facts around the fighting in Syria’s Idlib province.
... Gall’s report– like the whole stream of humanitarian tearjerkers the NYT has published about Idlib over the past year– made zero mention of the force that has been controlling Idlib for the past few years, against which the Syrian army and its allies have been fighting. It is an alliance of genocidally takfiri*/jihadi militias led by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
... Why is it important that responsible journalists should mention the fact that the Idlib enclave is under the control of fairly heavily armed Al-Qaeda-affiliated militias? For a number of reasons:
If zero mention at all is made of the fact that the enclave is controlled by armed militias, it makes it easier for journalists and those whom they misinform to believe that the Syrian forces and their allies are just gratuitously and cruelly targeting locations and facilities inside the enclave that are very frequently described as “hospitals”, “day-care centers”, etc. Of course, to target such facilities makes zero military sense (unless they are co-located with military installations, which they definitely should not be.) Yes, mistakes, excesses, and “collateral damage” occur in any war; and any war is always horrendous for the residents of the war zone. But if there is zero mention of the presence of any armed formations in the enclave, then the narrative of the Syrian army being gratuitously violent easily takes hold (reinforcing the regime-changers’ longstanding argument that the Syrian government is so uniquely evil that it needs to be toppled asap.)
– Source: Helena Cobban, "US corporate media and the suffering in Syria (contd.)", Just World News, 20 February 2020.
My comment: Note the propaganda technique being used to construct yet another variant of the warmongering narrative.
"It's never been this bad"
| “ | This piece was originally commissioned by an editor at The Guardian, who asked me to write about the wave of retaliation and censorship of political expression in solidarity with Palestinians that we’ve seen in the past two weeks. Amid my work as an attorney on some of the resulting cases, I carved out some time to write the following. Minutes before it was supposed to be published, the head of the opinion desk wrote me an email that they were unable to run the piece. When I called her for an explanation she had none, and blamed an unnamed higher-up. That a piece on censorship would get killed in this way—without explanation, but plainly in the interest of political suppression—is, beyond the irony of the matter, a grave indictment of the media response to this critical moment in history. | ” |
| — Dylan Saba | ||
Source:
- Saba, Dylan (19 Oct 2023). "A Surge in Suppression: It's never been this bad". n+1. ISSN 1549-0033. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
"The World Is Being Blinded To What’s Happening In Gaza"
From Caitlin Johnstone, 15 October 2023
"Internet blackouts, the war on journalism, propaganda, influence operations, bans on demonstrations and online censorship are all happening for the same reason: to keep the public from forming a truth-based understanding of what’s happening in Gaza. Because if the public did form a truth-based understanding of what’s happening in Gaza, they wouldn’t consent to what’s happening there."
I'm a sucker
... for unsung heroes. Here's an article by a sports journalist (a rugby specialist, which probably explains the headline):
- Aylwin, Michael (18 November 2016). "Wellington's unrivalled feats boot 'who's the greatest' debate into touch". Sport 500. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
Aylwin's piece is obviously heavily based on Chrissie Wellington's Wikipedia article, which I wrote. Aylwin has done a good journalistic job of paraphrasing and condensing Chrissie's article (with some useful additions of his own) into 500 words. So if you're willing to pay for access to the Telegraph's site (or already have access), please do go and vote for Chrissie. She won't win, of course (the unsung hero again), but it would be nice to see her getting some recognition. In any case, it's good to see that there exists at least one journalist who actually gets the point about Chrissie. As Aylwin wrote,
The trouble with Wellington is that you’ve either never heard of her (most people), or you see her as, well, the greatest sportsperson quite possibly in the world ever, but certainly in the UK. No Brit has dominated their sport like Wellington.
Update: Chrissie came 64th (out of 100). But the main point I draw from this exercise is that the result is more dependent on the media coverage, than on any objective assessment of the athletes' achievements. Andy Murray is indeed a deserving winner; at least as far as I can tell, he is the only one who comes close to (but still doesn't quite reach) the standards of fitness and determination shown by Chrissie. Also note the lack of women: only 3 in the top 20, the highest being Jessica Ennis-Hill at #12, and only 17 in the entire shortlist of 100.
It baffles me that people still believe, or are so easily swayed by, what they read in the press or broadcast media. In the case of sport, it's relatively harmless, except for the systemic bias against women; but when the exercise of military force is involved it's quite a different matter, the most obvious example being the invasion of Iraq, and the results have always been catastrophic.
The Obscenity
If anyone is in any doubt about the obscenity of immigration detention (see About me above), please watch last night's (4 September 2017) BBC Panorama here (58 mins). A shorter version is here. GDWG statement here.
Follow up. Worth noting that the BBC avoids assigning higher-level responsibility for this horror. Usually I prefer cool, contemplative thoughts, but sometimes things are so vile that only a rant will do. And if you want a rant, they don't come much better than this (2min 20sec).
Press coverage
- Bulman, May (22 May 2018). "Brook House: High Court rules immigration detainees abused by G4S staff can seek public inquiry". The Independent.
- Taylor, Diane (22 May 2018). "Former immigration detainees can seek public inquiry over abuse claims". The Guardian.
- Finally, a public inquiry is being held, scheduled to run from November 2021 to March 2022
- Rielly, Bethany (24 November 2021). "Former Brook House detainees faced abusive treatment, inquiry hears". Morning Star. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
On the first day of hearings, the inquiry heard evidence from whistleblower Callum Tully, who worked as a Brook House officer from 2015 to 2017. Mr Altman [counsel to the inquiry] said [the whistleblower] described a "disturbing culture" at Brook House where staff showed "apathy to vulnerable, disturbed or distressed detained persons." Brook House officers who were deemed too empathetic, helpful or kind to detainees were themselves marginalised, criticised or mocked, he said, adding that there was "visible hostility" towards raising concerns. One of the incidents which drove Mr Tully to go to the BBC was witnessing staff mocking and laughing at a detainee who was standing naked in a room in the solitary confinement block of Brook House.
Jeremy Corbyn is No Antisemite
- Feinstein, Andrew (29 October 2020). "I Lost 39 Members of My Family in the Holocaust, Jeremy Corbyn is No Antisemite". Double Down News. Retrieved 31 October 2020 – via YouTube.
- Graeber, David (12 April 2020). "The Weaponisation of Labour Antisemitism". Double Down News. Retrieved 1 November 2020 – via YouTube.
One of the things I find most offensive is that I am a self-hating Jew if I am loyal to that tradition of Judaism which has produced such figures as Karl Marx, Baruch Spinoza, Jesus – all those Jewish heretics, somehow all those guys are freaks and Bibi Netanyahu represents my true soul – and if I don't like Bibi Netanyahu very much, I'm a self-hating Jew. I can't express how offensive I find that. Those people don't speak for me and they don't speak for the majority of Jews worldwide, and the fact that they are taking our safety, our culture, our traditions, and using it as a weapon to fight against someone who wants to redistribute a little money to homeless people on the street, it's a deep, profound insult to the humanistic spirit which is at the core of Judaism. It is itself antisemitic. I come from a left-wing Zionist tradition, actually my mom was Hashomer Hatzair who were socialist Zionists. One of the things which are terrifying is how the right wing has essentially captured the Jewish identity more and more – you hear people say, well you know when people make anti-capitalist statements they're being subtly antisemitic because, as we all know, Jewish people are more likely to be capitalists, err it's like Karl Marx? Rosa Luxemburg? Leon Trotsky? Emma Goldman? – there's a long tradition of Jewish radicalism. To some degree what we now think of as the left is a product of Jewish thought and the Jewish tradition just as much as say Christianity comes out of that tradition. [...] They went through anything that Corbyn had ever said, and tried to fit, is there anything we can construct as if it were somehow antisemitic – obviously if you did that you could "prove" anybody was antisemitic – you could prove that Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan were communists if you just took quotes in isolation, and he laid a wreath, I mean Ronal Reagan did lay a wreath on the cemetery of SS troops at Bitburg, the very same force that was running Auschwitz; he knew he was doing it, and no-one has ever accused him of being an antisemite as a result.
- I strongly recommend watching the whole video, as Graeber has an exceptional talent, stemming from his deep knowledge and understanding, for bringing his subject alive. His recent death is a huge loss to the whole world.
- Normally two links would be enough here (but plenty more are available if you look for them). I'm adding this one because Big Brother (Twitter) seems to have decided you can't be allowed to see it (I hate censorship, especially of good work that doesn't fit the standard warmongering propaganda narrative):
- Segal, Lynne (3 November 2020). "Being Jewish in North Islington Labour Party". Red Pepper. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- Quote: "It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to write, yet again, about being a Jewish member of the Labour Party in Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency. So let me tell you at once that it has been terrible, almost unbearable. We have had to watch a wholly false, but soon unstoppable, invention of charges of antisemitism against our MP, with our own views as Jewish members completely ignored." [my emphasis]
- Despite the efforts to suppress this information, a very similar version of this article made it into the Islington Tribune as a letter.
- Segal, Lynne (3 November 2020). "Being Jewish in North Islington Labour Party". Red Pepper. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
- For much more about how appalling the lying was, and still is, please see here.
A commendably restrained response
... to Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis:
- Robert A. H. Cohen, "Archbishop Justin, you need some new Jewish friends", Writing From the Edge, 7 December 2019.
Illegal annexation
- "The annexation of occupied territory is a serious violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the Geneva Conventions, and contrary to the fundamental rule affirmed many times by the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly that the acquisition of territory by war or force is inadmissible. The international community has prohibited annexation precisely because it incites wars, economic devastation, political instability, systematic human rights abuses and widespread human suffering." For the full statement, see:
- "Israeli annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank would break international law – UN experts call on the international community to ensure accountability". United Nations Human Rights: Office of the High Commissioner. 16 June 2020.
Hysteria
"The current hysteria engulfing the British Labour Party resolves itself into a pair of interrelated, if discrete, premises: Anti-Semitism in British society at large and the Labour Party in particular have reached crisis proportions. If neither of these premises can be sustained, then the hysteria is a fabrication. In fact, no evidence has been adduced to substantiate either of them; on the contrary, all the evidence points in the opposite direction. The rational conclusion is that the brouhaha is a calculated hoax—dare it be said, plot?—to oust Jeremy Corbyn and the principled leftist politics he represents from British public life. But even if the allegations were true, the solution would still not be to curb freedom of thought in the Labour Party. At its worthiest, the Left-Liberal tradition has attached a unique, primordial value to Truth; but Truth cannot be attained if dissentients, however obnoxious, are silenced. Given the fraught history of anti-Semitism, on the one hand, and its crude manipulation by Jewish elites, on the other, an objective, dispassionate assessment could appear beyond reach. Still, it must be attempted. The prospect of a historic victory for the Left might otherwise be sabotaged as, thus far, Corbyn’s supporters, whether it be from fear, calculation, or political correctness, dare not speak the name of the evil that is afoot."
- Source: Finkelstein, Norman G. (17 August 2018). "The Chimera of British Anti-Semitism, and How Not to Fight It if It Were Real". Information Clearing House. Retrieved 17 August 2018. Also available on Finkelstein's blog, dated 25 August 2018.(The advantage of the version on Finkelstein's blog is that the links to, and backlinks from, the footnotes work correctly.)
As always, Finkelstein is well worth reading. A long article, but essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is really going on.
Nice things about Wikipedia
Some things Wikipedia does well:
- Bunce Court School – a heart-warming (and surprising) story, against the background of some of the worst atrocities imaginable.
- Female genital mutilation – well, this is hardly a pleasant topic, but it shows how Wikipedia can sometimes work very well indeed. I don't think you can find a better treatment (of roughly the same length) of this subject anywhere else, either on the internet, or in published writing.
For the avoidance of doubt, I also think there is a dark side to Wikipedia. Perhaps I will add something about that later.
The wisdom of youth
“What I can't work out about this place,” she says, “is whether they're genuinely oblivious to what their policies are doing, whether they're so out of touch that they honestly don't see how much damage it's doing, or whether they just don't care.”
— Source: Mhairi Black (age 20), quoted in Cadwalladr, Carole (12 July 2015). "The SNP 56: a breath of fresh air… or a timebomb at the heart of Westminster?". The Observer. Retrieved 12 July 2015.
Essential viewing
- Helen Bamber - Borders of the mind :"They still wait for the knock at the door." For more details, see Helen Bamber.
- Honest Government Ad | Julian Assange. "Authorized by the United Bitches of America". (v funny, but true, like all the best comedy)
- The World Today with Tariq Ali - The Propaganda Wars (28 mins) examples of how news is distorted in mainstream media
- CBS News. Excellent 9-minute interview with Noura Erakat on the "lethal use of force against noviolent protesters who did not pose a threat to Israel".
- Read Fisk's excellent article for more on this massacre:
- Fisk, Robert (17 May 2018). "How long after this week's Gaza massacre are we going to continue pretending that the Palestinians are non-people?". The Independent. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
- Propaganda Another excellent 9-minute video, on how propaganda originated and how society is manipulated.
- Abby Martin on the Importance of Challenging Corporate Media, München, 17 May 2018 (28 mins)
- Caitlin Johnstone: "This is what war propaganda looks like in the era of social media. It will never look ugly. It will never directly show you its real intentions. If it did, it wouldn’t work. It can’t just come right out and say “Hey we need to do horrible, evil things to the people in this country on the other side of the world in your name using your resources, please play along without making a fuss.” It will necessarily look fresh and fun and rebellious. It will look appealing. It will look sexy."
- Gaza. Una mirada a los ojos de la barbarie (in Spanish with English subtitles, directed by Carles Bover and Julio Pérez, 18 mins) Don't watch if the sight of blood, or spilled intestines, or heads split open, or dead bodies makes you faint.
... and non-essential viewing
| “ | I watched American Sniper the other night and it really is the most puerile propaganda imaginable.
[...] Reading the US reviews of American Sniper is a good way to remind ourselves not only of the critical role Hollywood plays in popularising lies about the West’s recent history and in sanitising our crimes, but also of the vital role the mainstream media play in giving these simplistic and duplicitous fables an aura of ethical complexity and intellectual respectability. |
” |
- Source: Jonathan Cook, Why do critics love American Sniper?, 26 January 2015.
... more non-essential viewing
- Wonder Woman is a hero only the military-industrial complex could create at Mondoweiss, 7 July 2017. As usual, another brilliant analysis by Jonathan Cook. Even better than his review of American Sniper.
"Speaking Peace on the BBC"
| “ | Ask yourself – when is the last time you saw an anti-war voice, as opposed to a pro-war ‘military’ or ‘security’ expert, asked by the BBC to comment on a Middle East development? Yet the majority of people in this country are against the war. There is no doubt at all that when you make anti-war or anti-government points on the BBC the whole body language and line of questioning indicates that you are some sort of isolated extremist. |
” |
| — Craig Murray, source: click here (PDF) | ||
Antisemitism
- Useful pamphlet by April Rosenblum
- piece by Robert Fisk on the history of antisemitism in Algeria, The Independent 22 January 2011
Cutting through the confusion about Israel/Palestine
... a letter by Richard Forer, a former member of AIPAC, 21 June 2010 (useful reading list at the end).
"If truth is the first victim of war ..."
- from the preface to Arrigoni's book
| “ | If truth is the first victim of war, it is then Israel's absolute priority to assassinate it, before, during and after the conflict. Our duty as activists, and more generally as human beings, is to document and tell the truth for the sake of freedom and justice, and then bring it to the table of world public opinion, and then serve it as a meal, the more difficult to digest the better.
For tomorrow, so as to stay human. Vittorio Arrigoni |
” |
- Arrigoni, Vittorio (2010). Gaza: Stay Human. (trans. Daniela Filippin). Kube Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-84774-019-9.; originally published 2009 in Italian as Gaza: Restiamo Umani
"Israel will not sign a peace deal"
- I have reformatted and copy edited the following quote for clarity - NSH001
| “ | For me two things come out clearly from these painful documents (some of them have parallel data in the US embassy cables on Wikileaks). First it is not that the Palestinian officials are traitors but merely (and this is bad enough) mistakenly and passionately going through motions hoping against all odds that by talking and compromising more they could achieve a tiny fraction of what we are entitled to. The second observation is that Israel will not sign a peace deal regardless of how low and ridiculous the concessions on the Palestinian side:
Some critics asked: if, as the documents show, the Palestinian negotiators were willing to accept all of this then WHY did Israeli politicians hold out? The answer is obvious to anyone who ever faced Zionism. They believe (rightly or wrongly) they can get 100% so why should they settle for 91% or even 99% especially when the ceiling of the Palestinian requests kept dropping in the past 22 years (since they accepted in 1988 to let Israel keep most of the looted parts of Palestine 1948). Today, Israel's three main sources of income are dependent on a continued conflict and occupation: the $6.5 billion military and security exports, the $6 billion US and other western direct aid, and $3 billion from the captive markets in the West Bank and Gaza. All three would be threatened with end of conflict even if Israel gets to keep most of its stolen loot. Israeli officials are keen to keep negotiations going to avoid an anti-Apartheid scenario and for PR and normalization to keep pumping more money and more settlers into the remaining small shrivelling Palestine because it is economically profitable. |
” |
| — Mazin Qumsiyeh, Fear and the Palestine Papers, 30 January 2011 | ||
"apartheid-by-permit"
| “ | But look at the statistics and leaf through the pile of demolition orders lying on the table in front of Abed Kasab, head of the village council in Jiftlik, and it all looks like ethnic cleansing via bureaucracy. Perverse might be the word for the paperwork involved. Obscene appear to be the results. | ” |
| — Robert Fisk, The Independent 30 January 2010 | ||
| “ | In nearby al-Jiftlik village, Israel has refused permits to build a school, insisting that families should either move or bus their children more than an hour each way to Tubas. In peaceful response, the teachhers of al-Jiftlik started holding classes in a large village tent. Last year, al-Jiftlik finally constructed a real schoolhouse, which students will use until Israel tears it down.
About 4,500 Palestinians live in Fasayel and al-Jiftlik combined. That's nearly the total population (6,300) of Israeli settlers in the whole of the Jordan Valley. And yet, that small number of settlers, living in 36 settlements, controls the land where tens of thousands of Palestinians reside. ... Just 4% of the valley remains for its 50,000 Palestinian inhabitants. That includes the city of Jericho and a few built-up Palestinian villages, but leaves next to nothing for agricultural use. This has been devastating for the agriculture-based society and explains the mass exodus of Palestinians even after Israel's overtly violent expulsion tactics ceased. |
” |
| — Anna Baltzer, 12 April 2007 in
Baltzer, Anna (2007). Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. ISBN 978-1-59451-307-7. | ||
A poem
| “ | In Gaza, children, |
” |
| — Michael Rosen, January 2009 | ||
Another poem
| “ | I have dreams. |
” |
| — Immigration detainee, quoted in GDWG newsletter, Summer 2009 | ||
And another poem: Show Me An Old Rebel
| “ | Do not show me a young rebel, |
” |
| — Caitlin Johnstone, My New Book, "Poems For Rebels", November 2020 | ||
Robert Burns: Sic a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation
| “ | Fareweel to a' our Scottish fame, |
” |
| — Robert Burns | ||
Reading lists
- on the joint U.S.–Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip, commonly (but inaccurately) known as the Gaza War
- from here, for easy reference before it gets archived (15:53, 24 January 2009 (UTC))
- Anthony H.Cordesman, ‘The War in Gaza: Tactical Gains or Strategic Defeat,’ Center for Strategic & International Studies, January 9,2009
- Henry Siegman, 'Israel’s Lies,' London Review of Books, 29 January 2009
- John J. Mearsheimer 'Another War, Another Defeat,' The American Conservative, January 26, 2009
- Richard Falk, ‘Winning and Losing in Gaza,’ The Nation, February 9, 2009.
- David Bromwich, 'Self-Deception and the Assault on Gaza', Huffington Post, January 16, 2009
- Gideon Levy, 'The next step,’ Haaretz 24/01/2009
- Avi Shlaim, 'How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe,’ The Guardian, 07/01/2009
- Tom Segev, ‘Cruel and meaningless wars,’ Haaretz, 23/01/2009
- Eric Hobsbawm, 'On Gaza' , London Review of Books, 15/09/2009
- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, 'How Israel gets away with murder,' The Independent, 11/01/2009
- Gershom Gorenberg, 'The Ignored Choices in Gaza,’ The American Prospect, January 7, 2009
- updated and expanded version here
- follow up
- Hass, Amira (6 January 2011). "Gaza on the edge of no return". New Statesman. Retrieved 14 January 2011.
- "Gaza "More Dire Than Ever"". Institute for Public Accuracy. 11 April 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
- and not just Gaza
- Cook, Jonathan (30 July 2012). "Israel Rewarded … For What?". CounterPunch. Retrieved 30 July 2012.
- Reading list on the (even worse) 2014 atrocities in Gaza
- Chomsky's recommended reading list
Inspiration
- Brings tears to my eyes to see the very best in the world in action, whether it be Paula Radcliffe, David Rudisha, Chrissie Wellington, or this guy:
- Danny MacAskill (I thought this was in Glasgow when I first saw it; it's Edinburgh of course)
- The Voice of Freedom (صوت الحرية), inspiring song from Midan Tahrir in Cairo here.
- Oh this world (يا هالعالم). Some highly talented Palestinian children playing musical instruments and singing.
- 15 February 2003 anti-war protest in London. One of the most inspiring days of my life, to be among around 2 million people (my estimate) doing the right thing. If you want to see a picture of me on this march, buy a copy of this book: Hurndall, Tom. The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall. Trolley Ltd. 2012 ISBN 978-1-904563-51-8.
- Interview with this wonderful old Jewish Israeli lady, Yael Kahn (22 mins). Includes a short video clip of her arrest at one of the starting points of the 4 November 2023 London protest against the genocide in Gaza. Discusses her growing up in Israel, how she became an anti-Zionist, the opposition she faced from her family, how her father changed his viewpoint, and how she was able to travel to Israel to say her final goodbye to him before he died. She is now banned for life from Israel, but her inner peace and happiness is obvious.
Scientists on Wikipedia
My late father was a scientist, and my education had an emphasis on science and mathematics, so my editing includes biographies of scientists.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Science and academia/Science Hall of Fame
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Science and academia/Science Hall of Fame 2
I also edit biographies of Quakers and peace activists. Note that there is significant overlap between all three groups.
Other subjects I edit
Some of the main topic areas I edit, besides the biographies listed above, include:
- Scottish articles, especially those relating to the area where I grew up. (Note that, although I grew up in Scotland, and have a Scottish first name, I come from an English family and consider myself English.)
- Triathlon, especially biographies of women triathletes.
- Aboriginal Australians (mostly technical fixes)
- Templates and other technical stuff (mostly from my NSH002 account, see below)
- Articles on the Basque Country, the Basque people and their language.
But I will also edit almost anything interesting that I happen to come across.
Geek stuff
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| 4 December 2023 |
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Retrieving dead links from web archives
Try:
Checking for dead links
CSS classes
Bias categories discussion
Rcats
Template messages
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| Navboxes with templates |
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| Inline images | |
| Related topics | |
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My gongs
Nice things people have said about me (barnstars, DYK credits) →
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Barnstars
 dreams of peace --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:44, 29 September 2013 (UTC)
DYKs
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Other accounts
- I also own an alternative account, NSH002, which is intended to be used for repetitive edits (for example, with AWB) to avoid cluttering up my contributions record on this account. I also use the NSH002 account for more technical edits.
- There are 5 more accounts at NSH003, NSH004, NSH005, NSH006 and NSH007. The first two of these are now-blocked vandalism-only accounts that were used by someone else in an attempt to vandalise Wikipedia while appearing to do so in my name. The last three currently act as doppelganger accounts to prevent this happening again, but it is possible I may in future use one of them to test what happens using Wikipedia's default user settings. I might create a few more accounts in this series, just to be safe.
- NSH001 is my Single Unified Login (SUL) identity. I have user pages on the following wikis:
| This is a Wikipedia user page. This is not an encyclopedia article or the talk page for an encyclopedia article. If you find this page on any site other than Wikipedia, you are viewing a mirror site. Be aware that the page may be outdated and that the user whom this page is about may have no personal affiliation with any site other than Wikipedia. The original page is located at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:NSH001. |
- User en
- User en-N
- User es
- User es-2
- User fr
- User fr-2
- User de
- User de-1
- User eu
- User eu-1
- WikiProject Anti-war participants
- WikiProject Running participants
- User apl
- Wikipedians in England
- Wikipedians in Cornwall
- Wikipedians who have access to JSTOR
- Members of the Fifteen Year Society of Wikipedia editors
- WikiProject Triathlon participants
- Male Wikipedians
- Quaker Wikipedians
- Wikipedians who have turned off VisualEditor
- Wikipedians with alternative accounts