PAUL BALLES : GRAINS OF SAND, PART II

This week, I’d like to share my interest in writers who have brought important perspectives to one major issue: Israel and the role of America in the Middle East. Incidentally, of six of my choice authors (three here) are Jewish.

In an article entitled “Weapons of mass deception“, I suggested that there has been too much control of the mainstream media by too few people.

The result? Much gets left out, covered up or distorted to suit special interests like those of Rupert Murdoch.

In a subsequent article, I suggested reading writers in the alternative media, a facility that has grown significantly on the internet.

As might be expected, a few knowledgeable commentators suggested that they had better choices of both websites and authors than those I offered. No doubt.

My pick of both writers and venues is based on several criteria: (1) they’re honest and reliable, (2) they often provide information unavailable in the mainstream media and (3) they focus on political, social, environmental, aesthetic or educational issues that concern me.

Thus, other readers’ different interests will naturally lead to different writers in different places.

In my article “Grains of sand: highlights from the alternative media”, I quoted a number of my favourite authors on a variety of issues coming through my lens: the establishment press, international relations, wars and threats of war, Palestine and Israel, American weaknesses and WikiLeaks.

Israel and the role of America in the Middle East

This week, I’d like to share my interest in writers who have brought important perspectives to one major issue: Israel and the role of America in the Middle East. Incidentally, six of my choice authors (three here) are Jewish.

Uri Avnery

”The country [Israel] is embracing the racist demon. After millennia as the victims of racism, it seems as if Jews here are happy to be able to do unto others what has been done to them.”

Franklin Lamb

“The 522 hour indiscriminate carnage, ‘Cast Lead’ that killed 1,417 Palestinians, mostly civilians, 352 of them children, injuring for life more than 5,300 , indicts Israel as well as those countries that continue to supply it weapons, diplomatic cover and to enforce Israel’s illegal siege on sealed Gaza.”

Debbie Menon

“There will never be peace in the Middle East unless the US, the major force which sustains Israel, withdraws its support, and Israel loses its most important and essential crutches for its survival, the money of the American people and the lives of American soldiers!”

Mike Whitney

“US foreign policy doesn’t change. It is immutable, relentless and vicious. America owns the world and demands that foreign leaders obey Washington’s directives. ‘Follow orders, or else’; that’s all one needs to know about US foreign policy.”

Jeff Blankfort

“…thanks to the unconditional backing by the US for all its crimes, and given its arsenal of nuclear weapons, I consider Israel to be the most immediate threat to the future of the planet.”

Alan Hart

“If it is the case that American presidents are frightened of provoking Israel, the conclusion would have to be that the Zionist state is a monster beyond control and that all efforts for peace are doomed to failure.”

Gilad Atzmon

“Israeli behaviour should be realized as the ultimate vulgar biblical barbarism on the verge of cannibalism. Israel is nothing but evilness for the sake of evilness. It is wickedness with no comparison.”

James Petras

“We are a people colonized and directed by a small, extremist and militarist ‘ally’ [srael] which operates through domestic proxies, who, under any other circumstance, would be openly denounced as traitors.”

Richard Falk

“We have witnessed the carnage of ‘pre-emptive war’ and ‘preventive war’ in Iraq, but we have yet to explore the moral and political imperatives of ‘pre-emptive peace’ and ‘preventive peace.’ How long must the peoples of the world wait?”

Copyright @ Paul J Balles