Rafael Eitan
Former Israeli Chief-of-Staff Rafael Eitan was swept to his death on November 23 by a giant wave as he stood on a breakwater.
The Sydney Morning Herald claim that "Eitan earned notoriety for outspoken comments about Arabs and opposed interim peace deals with the Palestinians in the mid-1990s". The SMH was being rather charitable. In fact, Eitan's suggestion was to treat the Palestinians in such a way that they would act "like drugged cockroaches scurrying in a bottle". In 1980, he told his fellow officers: "We have to do everything to make [Palestinians] so miserable they will leave." Eitan believed in ethnic cleansing.
Some of the obituaries contained a major point whose significance was missed. According to the SMH: "At the age of 16, Eitan joined the Palmach [The elite troops of the Zionist Haganah army]." Now how many times have you read recently that the Palestinians are engaging in child abuse by militarising their children? How often are they considered evil for allowing 16-year-old to participate in the struggle? Is it alright to eulogise people who did on so on one side and condemn those who do it on the other?
By the way, if you think that 16 is almost an adult, let the London Daily Telegraph remind you: "Aged only seven, Rafael already knew how to use a gun."
Sol Salbe
Melbourne [Abridged]
Yasser Arafat
Doug Lorimer, your article "Yasser Arafat: Freedom fighter" (GLW #607) was a complete joke. You clearly haven't done any research. How can you glamorise a man who was not only a sick terrorist, but also a crook who stole millions of dollars from his Palestinian subjects?
Arafat is responsible for the sad state of the Palestinians today because he rejected the many offers of statehood and stole money which was donated for the Palestinian cause.
This is a man who in the '50s, '60s and '70s invented modern-day terrorism with plane hijackings, ship hijackings, hostage taking and bus bombings. Where do you think Osama bin Laden got his ideas from?!
Arafat openly supported Saddam Hussein's war on Kuwait and in return, Saddam Hussein gave thousands of dollars to the families of the terrorist suicide bombers.
How can you lay compliments on a man who sends young children on official PA summer camps where their minds are poisoned and violence is glorified? Where they sing songs screaming "We don't want flour; we don't want sardines; we want bombs."
Instead of watching Sesame Street, Palestinian children are learning to admire the 16-year-old boy who blew himself up, along with 15 other civilians at a pizza parlour.
We hear Arafat condemning the bombs in English on the western TV news channels, but five minutes later hear him saying the exact opposite in Arabic. These are all proven facts!
Arafat had a great chance at being a "freedom fighter", but blew it when he stopped talks and turned to terror.
I was really offended by your article — I can't imagine the anger I would feel reading it if someone in my family were killed in an attack which Arafat openly supported.
Rachel Freeman
London, UK
Ill-informed
Your use of the term "non-violent" on your website in regards to Craig Johnston is very naive. It is my belief that you are ill-informed and that you take a particular view on the world which is tainted by your rose coloured glasses. As minister Hulls said, I believe your efforts would be better spent by putting your energy into actually doing something for workers and their rights as opposed to trying to bring into disrepute the decisions of our independent law system. I trust you are not going to fight the law system in regards to decisions made against employers in regards to workers' rights? You might need to understand that, yes, this is the same system. Stop pushing your political barrows and get on with fighting for workers' rights.
Nick Murphy
via email
Kosova
In his article about Kosovo in GLW #607, Michael Karadjis about Kosovo displayed complete ignorance about the subject. It's sad when the left has to attack the Western establishment just because the current government is conservative in nature.
Karadjis seems to be forgetting that the NATO invasion was done under the liberal auspices of Billy-drop-your-pants-Clinton and lapdog Tony Blair.
The fact is that the invasion was illegal, the NATO charter had to be rewritten and, last but not least, the so-called ethnic cleansing and killing fields never existed.
Kosovo was and is an integral part of Serbia. The beginning of Serbian culture and statehood had first been established in Kosovo and Metohija and it is ridiculous that the Serbs would give up their Jerusalem.
Damian Gunjak
via email
Asylum seekers
We call for the release of two people, two friends. They came here from situations of extreme hardship, looking for a decent society that would give them safety and freedom. Every day they are kept locked up is a day of shame!
Peter Qasim came from Kashmir. He has been locked up for six years. He is now in Baxter IDC, one of 13 stateless people locked up "indefinitely" there.
Arta Zahedi has been locked up for two years. He fled Iran.
These are two good blokes, people who have not committed any crime, locked up "at Howard's pleasure".
Labor started this violation of human rights in 1992. The Coalition (Howard, Ruddock, Vanstone) have built on it. The mainstream media are complicit in the crime by not reporting it.
We demand the release of Peter and Arta. We demand that Latham demands their release, and the release of asylum seekers, children and adults, around the country and on Nauru.
We demand of the mainstream media that this mental torture, this violation of human rights be reported as it deserves to be. We demand that on human rights day, the Sydney Morning Herald carries on the front page, not a happy-happy picture of something or other, but a photograph of razor-wired Villawood Immigration Detention Centre.
Stephen Langford, Jeff Lee, Gai Smith, Hjean Lopez, Joni Pollard
Paddington, NSW [Abridged]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, December 8, 2004.
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