Reuters: Israel says its dirt is more important than Palestinians

Israel shuts Gaza crossings after rocket attack

Israel has once more demonstrated the high regard they hold other humans, by stepping up the blockade on Gaza. The blockade includes the Egyptian and sea borders – thus proving the famed “pull out” involved no handing over of actual power. The reason for the re-blockaded borders, this attack, which by the Reuters / Israeli police description, probably landed in a field. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire, and starvation is rife, Free Gaza has more info on that, and Israel knows full well that the blockade will cost lives, but that’s a point. Israeli dirt is worth more than Palestinian lives.

Interestingly the article mentions a suicide attack some months ago as the “reason” for other closures – but fails to note that collective punishment is rather illegal, and was one of the major charges levelled at the Nazis. There is also no mention of the very recent upsurge in violence against Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank. (Perhaps because they’re attacks on actual people, unlike the heavily reported attack on Israeli dirt).

 

CNN: McCain has better judgement?

McCain questions Obama’s ability to be commander in chief

Is McCain really in a position to question Obama’s judgement? The article quotes McCain as saying: “And in matters of national security, good judgment will be at a premium in the term of the next president”. Quite apart from the fact that good judgement has rarely been displayed by presidents, is McCain really in a position to say what good judgement is? Given that McCain’s claims of torture during his internment in Viet Nam have never been proven – indeed several POWs from the camp where he claims he was tortured – The Plantation – state that it never happened, they were never tortured there, and it was a release camp. Further more, despite his claims of mistreatment, he recieved medical care from Soviet and Viet Namese doctors – that’s right, unlike any other POW McCain received medical treatment from qualified doctors. None of these annoying irregularities has stopped McCain from playing the “war hero” role, and stating time and time again he was tortured, and has foreign policy experience, et cetera. Quite how spending 5 years feeding military information to the Viet Namese while a POW counts as valuable foreign policy experience, I’m not sure. But that hardly matters, as a Cuban psychologist who spoke to McCain came to the conculsion McCain was a “psychopath”, yet it is he who question’s Obama’s judgement?

More on McCain here

 

Reuters: Blatant border violation

Turkey says its planes hit PKK group in n.Iraq

Wonderful stuff that. There are a couple of problems here, beyond the formatting of the headline. In the article there is no mention that this is a blatant violation of sovreignty, merely that “Fighting has intensified in southeastern Turkey in recent weeks” – due to Turkish war planes attacking both military and civillian targets inside both Iraq and Turkey over the past months. Although Reuters only mention attacks by the PKK – carried out mainly by mines, and with military only casualties. Indeed the PKK are characterised as a “guerrilla group, hiding in a cave”. I guess its a plus they weren’t called terrorists, but given the Turkish government’s persecution of Kurds, targeting of civillians, violations of national and international law and so forth, the pro-Turkish, anti-Kurd stance of the article is a disgrace.