normblog

Hymning Hizbollah

A couple of things I missed while I was away. Here is John Pilger on Comment is Free singing the praises of Hizbollah:

The resistance to rapacious power, to epic crimes of invasion (which the Nuremberg judges called the "paramount" crime) is humanity at its noblest; yet the paradox warns us that no resistance is pretty; that each adds its own form of violence in order to expel an invader (such as the civilians killed by Hizbollah rockets); and this has applied to heroic partisans in Europe and heroic Kurds and those faceless, despised Iraqis who have succeeded in pinning down the American homicidal machine in their country.

I won't dwell here on the judgement, breathtaking though it is, that Hizbollah or the Iraqi insurgency represent 'humanity at its noblest'. Nor on the lame excuse which is its companion, namely, that 'no resistance is pretty' - as if this could obliterate all distinctions between ways and ways of fighting. What I want to focus on is that Pilger can write something like this without uttering a single word about the fact that Hizbollah's attitude to Jews is frankly and straightforwardly racist - with Hassan Nasrallah on record as having said the following:

... if they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.

One might think this a detail that was relevant to any assessment of the organization by a veteran journalist of the left. But it seems not. Anti-Semitism is, perhaps, just a bit of that understandable lack of prettiness.

On the same day in the Guardian, Jonathan Steele delivered himself of this:

Lebanon has a government of national unity in which Hizbullah has two ministers. Being anti-Syrian is not the same as being anti-Hizbullah, and the election winners from the March 14 movement, which developed after the car-bomb murder of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri, wisely recognised that the party is an authentic part of Lebanese society. It was better to have it in the government rather than outside.

Demonising Hizbullah as terrorists or Iranian and Syrian agents confuses the picture.

OK, so it's more restrained than Pilger's encomium, and if Hizbollah is a force to be reckoned with, then there's nothing wrong with saying so. But if recognizing its 'authenticity' is what you're doing, and recommending against 'demonization', then don't the goals of the organization vis-à-vis Israel merit attention, and the hostility to Jews likewise? Forget it.

These are only the views of two journalists, of course, but the two of them express those views in the major newspaper of British left-liberalism and on its website, one openly commending an anti-Semitic organization, the other calling on us not to judge it too harshly. And this has now become entirely normal. No one is surprised, let alone shocked, by it. Hey, it may not be my opinion exactly, but it's a point of view and unremarkable; it falls within the range of respectable political opinion. Neither writer even sees a need to explain himself on the matter of Hizbollah's anti-Semitism. Nobody will feel that they here place themselves, so to say, beyond the pale. Not a bit of it. Hizbollah may hate Jews but... 'humanity at its noblest', or at any rate not to be 'demonized'.

It's just another day at the office. Let free comment follow - in which you can bet there'll be a proportion of commenters cheering.

Must be wiped out

Remember Jonathan Steele's claim that poor old President Ahmadinejad's notorious statement about Israel had been mistranslated? Jeff Weintraub points to some photographic evidence (scroll down) to the contrary.

Qana

What happened at Qana is a tragedy. But it isn't enough to say so, nor to say that it was a 'mistake'. And it isn't enough, either, to insist that Hizbollah bears responsibility for the deaths of civilians from Israeli bombing, because of the way that organization uses the civilian population to shield its military resources and activities. It does bear that responsibility - and those currently lauding it as a resistance movement have crossed a significant moral and political threshold (of which more later). But it also isn't enough to point this out.

Israel's action at Qana is inexcusable. I say this as someone who supports Israel's right to defend itself against those who attack it, those who send missiles against its civilians and who intend its destruction as a state. But if Hizbollah bears the responsibility identified above, Israel also has a clear responsibility under the laws of war to try to minimize civilian casualties; and this applies even in the case where its enemy resorts to the use of human shields (as explained here by Michael Walzer). I don't believe the position of the IDF - that civilians had been warned to evacuate the area - adequately acquits it of that responsibility. It is not a reasonable expectation, especially not in conditions of war, that all civilians living in an area will move away in good time, or be able to do so, when warned by one of the warring parties.

Securicor workers win

A month ago, I posted about the struggle of employees of Securicor Indonesia to get their jobs back after they were sacked for going on strike. They won... 'thanks to an outpouring of community and international support pressuring the multinational firm to respect human rights in Indonesia'. (Thanks: AC.)

Secure values and beliefs

This, surely, is a nonsense:

Schools will no longer be required to teach teenagers to understand the difference between "right and wrong" under new plans.

Instead, children will be encouraged to develop what officials have described as "secure values and beliefs".

I don't know how much teaching of the difference between right and wrong there currently is in schools, or how effective it is. And I think formal moral education of this kind must have its difficulties. It is also important to put across the ways in which conceptions of right and wrong vary across time and between cultures, and to show how similar values can be differently expressed in different kinds of social rule or practice. It is possible, finally, that whoever formulated these new plans just wasn't on form when doing so, let go a loose formulation, and nobody else spotted the problem.

But they can't really have meant what they said: 'secure values and beliefs'. Any old secure values and beliefs? That, for example, torture is a humane practice? Or that being kind to strangers, or to those in difficulty, is a mug's game? As I say, they can't possibly have meant this. It's good that it's only a draft for consultation.

Short short story 54

Finding Joe Again (by John Lloyd)

I came back late - I was staying at my dad's, as I did sometimes - and Dad was there, listening to some stuff. He seemed like in one of these states he gets into, about to cry. He had been drinking, and he can't hold it.

He said: 'Ever hear this?' It was some guy with a very deep voice. Dad sang along.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me
Said I, but Joe, you're ten years dead
I never died, said he
I never died, said he

'Who sang that?' I said.

'Paul Robeson,' he said. 'He was very famous, a black guy, American, Communist.'

'American and a Communist?'

'Can happen. Did happen.'

'You hate Communists...'

'Yeh, well...'

'Yet you were one.' I like catching him like that.

'Yeh, well. Hell. I find Joe Hill at the bottom of this bottle. Though, truth to tell, I never missed him.'

I was pissed off, actually not so much at him as at something else, but he was there. I said: 'Can't you for once just say something which isn't ironic?'

'I live between quotes,' he said. 'And you, in italics. As befits our ages of man.'

I said: 'Well, get out of them, and get a life!' He said 'Yeh, well' again. It made me feel a lot better. I was still a teenager, and I had got my dad bang to rights. I went to bed.

[The short short story comp is announced and explained here.]

Cricket holiday

By playing so well and finishing Pakistan off in three days, the England cricket team have tried to cut short my holiday. But I'm not having it. I'm taking today as well. Tomorrow, I may start getting back to normal.

You can read here about that record partnership in Sri Lanka between Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara.

And here are a couple of mental exercises for those of you so inclined:

1) Can you name the 10 different ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in cricket? Of course, you could look it up; but first see how far you can go on your own.

2) Now, suppose that John Bolton were a Test cricketer. Then he'd be a Test cricketer with a century in his name (ton = 100... geddit). How many real Test cricketers can you think of with a ton in their family name? During the last couple of days at Old Trafford (and with only a little help from friends I was sitting with) I came up with 14. How many can you get before you seek assistance from other sources?

(Answers will appear here later.)

Cricket work

So, it looks like this Test could finish today or early tomorrow, so truncating my holiday. But you never know. Within my own recent memory there is another Test with a very similar pair of innings totals to this point. As Pakistan made 119 in their first innings here, Australia in 1997 at Edgbaston made 118. England responded then with 478 for 9 declared, to the 461 for 9 declared they have scored this time round; and Australia, rather than folding, put together 477 in their second innings, with a famous century from Mark Taylor. This left England needing to exactly match Australia's first innings total to win, as they duly did. The scorecard for that game is here. I'm not expecting a repeat.

Anyone out there envying me my holiday should understand that, in this heat and humidity, it's really hard work sitting in the sun all day watching cricket. You have to concentrate on the game while you're sweltering. Plus: for much of the time there are people around you making what can only be described as an unpleasant racket. So it's hard, I tell you. Others don't realize. I arrive home in the evening exhausted.

While the theme is cricket, here's a new record for you: Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene have broken the record for a Test partnership. They put on 624 (click on 'full scorecard') for the third wicket in the Test against South Africa.

Big England

Dave Hill is running a summer series under the above title, in which guest posters say what they like about England (or not, as the case may be). The first two in the series are by Matt Murrell and Frank Fisher.

Short short story 53

Underlying Higher Education (by Jordynne Olivia Lobo)

For its defining, the University Lexicography Committee took up alphabetically the word 'spade'. 'It's racist,' declared the Black Studies Chairpersyn. 'It's deeply racist,' added the Womyn's Studies Chairpersyn, 'it doubly demeans non-whites by associating them with menial manual labor.'

The committee chairpersyn, to focus the group, said, 'The word exists; let's contribute to suitably defining it.'

'Webster's "digging tool" definition won't do,' said the Humanities Chairpersyn, 'because digging defiles and wounds Gaia, and because "tool" connotes the penis's traumatizing penetrations.' All heads, deflated by 'tool', nodded low.

'Why not "earth-displacing implement"?'
'No, mustn't displace "earth" - too disrespectful.'
'"Soil," then?'
'No, not "soil" - it connotes tawdriness, brings it back to the sexist angle.'

Frustration with the limits of language evoked a wan communal sigh, and for some long, distressing moments, vexation rendered everyone wordless, until one quipped, 'Where's Noam Chomsky when we really need him!' But their politic group laughter soon yielded to a circle of one continuous, communally furrowed, though diversely tinted and textured, brow.

'No negative underlying meanings,' announced the committee chairpersyn, 'Agreed?' All heads bobbed assent. But they were, of course, back at Square One.

'Well, I'm stumped,' said the Title IX Athletic Chairpersyn. All the other - shocked - eyes glared, and from beneath one such narrowed pair came, 'How disrespectful to the amputation-challenged!' Disgraced, Title IX's head slumped to hir chest.

'Let's table "spade",' exhaled the Chairpersyn, 'Everyone mull it till next meeting.'

'So, let's move on to, let's see... "spadefish".'

[The short short story comp is announced and explained here.]