[iDC] The Current War (Digest)

[iDC Digest]

Current War -- iDC Digest. August 06, 2006

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Ellis Godard <egodard at csun.edu> in response to Horit Herman Peled

Any killing is saddening. But tolerating Hezbollah's attacks, 
imprecisely directed *at* civilians, is not humane.

-eg

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Myron Turner <mturner at cc.umanitoba.ca> in response to Sascha Brossmann

Also relevant, Human Rights Watch:
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%
2FShowFull&cid=1154525810863>

<http://tinyurl.com/e5kmx>

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Bas van Heur <basvanheur at gmx.net> also in response to Sascha:

dear sascha,

as far as I can recollect the discussions about the Israel/Lebanon 
conflict do not embrace the Hezbollah as the saviours of the Lebanese, 
but are critical of the senseless and useless killing of civilians.

in any case, your complaints about the selective perception of this 
conflict on this and other lists ignores the fact that it is, in part, a 
reaction against the way mainstream media and politicians deal with this 
conflict: namely as a conflict in which Israel is either on the right 
side of morality (and the 'others' as simply not rational - as a rather 
annoying and frankly ignorant article by Joseff Joffe in the German 
weekly Die Zeit argued recently), or in which Israel might be 
'overdoing' it a little, but in which criticism remains rather limited, 
to say the least.

I realise there is a thin line between criticism against hegemonic 
powers and a non-reflexive defense of those so-called oppressed that 
might be oppressing those they claim to represent, but it is - I feel - 
very important to understand and think through the role of critique in 
relation to larger structures of power and forms of systematically 
distorted communication.

it could be that there hasn't been enough 'moral outrage' in relation to 
Rwanda or Uganda, I'm not sure, but even the possible truth in that 
argument does not detract from the necessity of raising critical voices 
now. a lot of shit happens every day, you're right, but crititism needs 
to be focused.

best,
Bas

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