I have only recently discovered this brilliant Brazilian political cartoonist after I highlighted on Instablogs his cartoon on the Iraqi shoe thrower.
I then found out the Latuff’s specialty is Middle East satire that is anti-Zionist and anti-U.S. foreign policy in the region. For whatever reason, the Middle East is a passion of Latuff. I do not know if he is of Arab heritage, millions of Brazilians are and Latuff is a somewhat Arab sounding name. Does anyone know his heritage?
Naturally, given my own aversion to Zionism and criticism of American foreign policy in the region, though my criticism does not stem from general Marxist-tinged anti-Americanism; nonetheless I found Latuff to be a very decent cartoonist and very illustrative of political circumstances
Here is a sampling:

Latuff’s illustrates the efforts be Israel’s American supporters to create a “zero-tolerance” for criticism of Israel.

The hatred of Islamic fundamentalism toward America is religious and must be stamped out, but the aversion to America in the broader Muslim world is political and underpinned by legitimate grievances. Americans often ask “why do they hate us?,” but seldom seeking to answer that instead relying on the answer that they hate us for “our freedom.” We need more cartoonist like Latuff in America. What I am saying, we need a cartoonist like Latuff in America.

Alan Dershowitz [or Douchowitz] is one of America’s and the world’s most vile immoral Zionist. This is a guy who advocated that Israel level any city/town with a bulldozer if any one Palestinian suicide bomber originates from that locale. Collective punishment against innocent civilians is a defined war crime. And, yet, Douchowitz still teaches at the world’s preeminent college.

It is astounding the Zionists are given carte blanche in the U.S. to smear individuals with a bigot label when Zionism is itself a hateful supremacist ideology that since the beginning has shown racist contempt to the Arabs.

The U.S. Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs David Welsch was quoted, anonymously though it was obvious it was him, twice on the violence between Hamas and Fatah and he stated both times, “I like this violence.” The U.S. and Israel both attempted to undermine the Fatah-Hamas coalition government, because of their dogmatic opposition to working with Hamas.

What Palestine could be.
And, my favorite, because it’s so true: Vive Palestine
Is not easy to have land stolen... People are tired of Israel’s hypocrisy... Leave the place to the Arabs and move back to Amsterdam and NY... Simple and clear...
The Jews have more rights on a Palestine land than Anglos raping the world in Zimbabwe surely.
“Move back to Amsterdam and NY”… If you think this where you think the majority of present-day Israelis and their forebears come from, you have a lot of homework to do.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, fully 68% of the Jewish Israeli population has “Mizrahim” for one or both parents. Let me tell you just who the “Mizrahim” are: Jews indigenous to the Middle East.
Between 1940 and 1970, the Arab states in the Middle East conducted the greatest and most successful ethnic cleansing in history, changing their demographics to become virtually “Jew-free”. This was done with a variety of draconian “Anti-Jewish laws” that make Nazi Germany’s “Nuremberg Laws” look benevolent.
Fully 900,000 Jews were forced out of Arab countries (NOT including Iran, which is not an Arab country), divested, disenfranchised and expelled from the countries they had lived in as much as 1500 years BEFORE Mohammed was even born, often with no more than one suitcase per person and the equivalent of $50.
Estimates of the land stolen from these Jews by the collective Arab governments come to a total of more than 5 times the total area of Israel. Estimates of cash and tangible assets (homes, office, industrial & commercial buildings, schools, synagogues, etc) are around 12 times the value of the total Palestinian claims. For more information, you can look at the JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East & North Africa) web site at: http://www.jimena.org, Google “Jewish refugees from Arab lands”, or just look for “Jewish exodus from Arab lands” in Wikipedia.
Since the number of Palestinian refugees has never been reported as anything close to the number of Jewish refugees (the highest number ever claimed is 750,000 by UNWRA, which admits that the number is way too high, and the low end number is around 350,000), it could seem that the ones actually doing the stealing were the Arabs, not the Jews.
In contrast to the 21 Arab countries, Israel and the Jews of the world did not leave the Jewish refugees to languish for 60 years in refugee camps under inhuman conditions, but helped them reclaim their lives and start anew in Israel, Western Europe, the Americas and Australia.
The number of Israelis hailing from western countries is less than10% of the population—what would you have the other 90% of the Jewish population do? Those who came from countries in the former Soviet Bloc can no more “return to where they came from” than the Mizrahim. Please take the trouble to inform yourself.
Just a little reminder, in case it escaped your notice: the legitimacy of Israel under international law is precisely equal to the legitimacy of the Arab countries that have called for its destruction for 60 years. ALL of the countries in the Middle East except Oman were the creation of the League of Nations, and later, the United Nations, created out of land left in a power vacuum after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Oman, the only Arab country to exist as a separate, independent political entity prior to WW I, received its independence from the Portuguese Empire in 1651. All the remaining 20 members of the Arab League can trace their independence only as far back as 1922 (Egypt) or later.
Now let’s talk about “hypocrisy”…
Just how hypocritical is it to declare a war of genocide in the UN General Assembly, launch that war against an enemy outnumbered more than 10 to 1 in population, then cry to that same UN when your own inept efforts meet failure and you lose that war—not once, but twice?
How hypocritical was it to “encourage” the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes, create propaganda events to convince them, promise them they would return in a matter of weeks and then pen them and their progeny up in refugee camps for 60 years, denying even the most basic human rights (Lebanon & Syria)? If Egypt had not embarked upon its genocidal plan that culminated in the 6-Day War, they would still hold the Gaza Strip and its population and Jordan would still hold the West Bank and its population—under the same conditions that Lebanon & Syria hold the Palestinian Arabs under to this day: no citizenship, no right to education, employment or healthcare (except for Jordan, which DID make such an offer, with the condition that anyone accepting renounced their refugee status – but there were very few “takers”).
A word on “Palestinians”…
Did you know that under the British Mandate, Arab representatives refused to accept the idea that they were “Palestinians” not once, but on three separate occasions? On the British Mandate identity cards, the ONLY people classified as “Palestinian” were Jews living under the British Mandate—Arabs were classified as “ARAB”—at their own request. During WW II, the only soldiers who put the name “Palestine” on their uniforms were Jewish soldiers from Palestine serving in the British Army.
For a little more information on the wonders of “doublethink”, you could also read Prof. Steven Plaut’s article, “How Nakba Proves There’s No Palestinian Nation” at http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/30347.shtml where he show that the real “nakba” for Arabs living in the Palestine Mandate occurred in 1920, when the British tried to consider them “Palestinian”, rather than Syrian, as they considered themselves.
And then there’s always this famous quote from no other than a member of the PLO Executive Committee:
“The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.
“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”
-Zahir Muhsein, PLO executive committee member, in a March 31, 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper “Trauw”
Note that this interview was given a full 9 years AFTER the PLO claims to “Palestinian Nationalism” were first made.
If you think that Palestinian Arab violence is purely the result of “Israeli occupation”, how can you explain the Arab riots of 1921-1, 1926 and 1936-9, when there was no Israel, no Israeli sovereignty and Jews in the Palestine Mandate were living on land they had purchased from Arab owners or had lived on for generations before the Arab hordes conquered the area back in the 7th century?
Next time you accuse someone of “stealing land”, make sure you know who the actual thieves are…
Arabs of Gaza hate the Arabs of Israel and see their Israel’s card-passes in night dreams because just the fathers of mafia clans need ”free Palestine”: the rest wants the simple human living conditions they are round Arab world and the PA depriced from by islamist provocateurs.
Marching in Sydney and London, pro-Hamasists know a truth not worse than you do.
If you are to make claims of fairness, read the United Nations Council Resolution 242 (1967) and return to pre-established borders.
The way how Israel has maintained the politics of good neighbouring by ’hammering’ the media with ’victim’ attitude doesn’t work. The planet is tired of it. get it? tired. If you want to be a state, please, be a good one.
AS for Zimbabwe, I spent a week there... If you haven’t been to Africa, you should not so copy n’ pastes...
Gee, thanks for your approval. If you disagreed, you would have to also disagree with the existence of every Arab state except Oman, since ALL of them were “created” by either a League of Nations Mandate or a UN vote, the same way Israel was.
It seems to have escaped your notice that Israel has not controlled the Sinai Peninsula since 1980, as part of the peace treaty with Egypt… which refused to accept the return of the Gaza Strip to Egyptian control (I wonder why?) under the same treaty. Jordan did not ask for or want the West Bank or Jerusalem returned to its control under the 1994 peace treaty (again, I wonder why). The Golan Heights will remain in Israeli hands until the Syrian government sees fit to sign a mutually agreeable peace treaty with the government of Israel. In the meantime, I would suggest that a government that has lost the Golan Heights in not one, but two wars of aggression has a severely limited right to make demands as if they were the victor.
“If you are to make claims of fairness, read the United Nations Council Resolution 242 (1967) and return to pre-established borders.”
Robbie, I suggest that YOU read Resolution 242 VERY carefully. Then go and read the UN Charter. I’ll make it easy for you:
Resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967
The Security Council,
Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,
Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,
Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,
1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
2. Affirms further the necessity
(a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
(b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
(c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.
Note that Clauses 1(i) and 1(ii) are inseparable. The withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas occupied in the conflict is dependent on “the termination of all claims of belligerency… etc.” Unless I missed something, only Jordan and Egypt have fulfilled this condition, and received the territories they wanted back. They did not want the West Bank (Jordan) or the Gaza Strip (Egypt). The remaining Arab states are still at war with Israel- i.e., non-fulfillment of Clause 1.
Clause 2(a) is a reference to Egypt’s blockade of the Strait of Tiran, the initial act of war that initiated the war in 1967. This clause has been fulfilled and the Strait of Tiran is open to shipping from all nations.
Clause 2(b) talks of the “refugee problem”, which includes the 900,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab states as well as the 600,000 Palestinians classified as refugees. To date, few Arab countries have even admitted there ever was (or is) any such thing as “Jewish refugees from Arab states”. Until the Arab governments agree to talk about both groups of refugees, this clause can’t be fulfilled.
Clause 2 (c) mentions “territorial inviolability”. The only international borders Israel presently has are with Jordan and Egypt. The “borders” with Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not borders, but cease-fire or armistice lines. As such, they are at best provisional lines for use as a starting point in negotiations.
Even so, Israel’s “territorial inviolability” has been violated innumerable times by acts of Arab aggression since this resolution was passed.
The rest is window-dressing to show some kind of follow-up plan that the UN abandoned years ago.
“The way how Israel has maintained the politics of good neighbouring by ’hammering’ the media with ’victim’ attitude doesn’t work. The planet is tired of it. get it? tired. If you want to be a state, please, be a good one.”
The only one playing the ‘victim’ is the Palestinians, even when they have to murder their own to create ‘victims’. Where is your request to the Palestinians that if they ”want to be a state, please be a good one”?
Peace can only be made between two parties willing to make peace; it only takes one belligerent to make a war. Can you honestly claim that the Palestinians have shown they are willing to make peace?
I know all what you stated. I have a quite high understanding of History and geopolitics. Besides, my father had to sit his for months on that desert of yours through 1967 as part of the United nations contingent.
I have been to Israel and to Palestine... Again, I am looking through a much larger loupe than you my friend. It’s necessary to leave the place and look the situation from outside... from inside, we are blind.
Israel send misleading signals to the world. Some, believe it is only trying to defend themselves, others agree that Israel has become a war mongrel and is enjoying bulling it’s neighbours the same way Jewish people has been bullied for thousands of years.
Either way, it is not the point. I see Israel as a large company, under the influence of foreign interests such as the rich Jewish communities in New York or Netherlands (you know the one, the same merchants that ignored the United Nations sanctions against ’Blood Diamonds’ regions and states) and help the illegal traffic of metals and gems between South Africa and Israel through the apartheid times. This was the main reason for it’s creation... Economical interest (and also to give some Jewish people the sense of belonging)... I will stick with Economical interest.
There are a lot of pension funds and savings invested by American Jews in Israel, in particular to finance the illegal occupation of territories.
As for approvals, yes, you do require them. Without economical and political interception of the international community, you would probably be typing from a ghetto in Warsaw still. If wasn’t for beliefs from people like me and others, you wouldn’t have metal to build Uzis and free M1 Abraham tanks and F-16s, so please don’t be arrogant enough to pull up a self-sustained and independent attitute to me. I am the one who guarantee will your bread when Arab nations start climbing that amazing wall your engineers come up with.
I am prepared to say that Israel would still be bulling it’s neighbours and try to get the best of any possible situation, even if Palestine or Lebanon were in peace, because Israel has it’s owners to account for. It has to provide profit, be it by raging war and keeping the American war machine moving or to maintain the level of employment. Without the excuses of war, half of the population would be unemployed and then, as I previously said, moving to NY and Amsterdam.
I am not against Jewish or Arab people. As a matter of fact, I admire the best of both and know for sure they are not different of each other on many ways.
You also need to understand this conflict has been happening for so long that people (all the non-Israelis and Arabs) are quite tired of it. Instead of not caring, we do and we seek responses and actions. in fact, we demand action. that is what we do when part of us is ill, we cure.
Local Opinions (3)
The Jews have more rights on a Palestine land than Anglos raping the world in Zimbabwe surely.
Arabs of Gaza hate the Arabs of Israel and see their Israel’s card-passes in night dreams because just the fathers of mafia clans need ”free Palestine”: the rest wants the simple human living conditions they are round Arab world and the PA depriced from by islamist provocateurs.
Marching in Sydney and London, pro-Hamasists know a truth not worse than you do.
Global Opinions (12)
I do not find Mr. Latuff “brilliant” (or any other positive superlative, for that matter), but as offensive in his way as the Danish “Mohammed Cartoons” that inflamed the Muslim world a couple of years ago were offensive to Islam.
The main difference is that you will not find the subjects of Mr. Latuff’s drawing pens burning down Brazilian embassies, demanding his death or fomenting riots around the world. I wonder how he would have fared if he had represented the Palestinian “resistance” in the same way…
If one political cartoonist is to be defended under the cover of free speech, all political cartoonists must be so defended—otherwise we enter the gray world of censorship and repression. Just as Mr. Latuff has a right to his opinions, others do, too. Anything else is hypocrisy and “double-standarding”. Allowing those whose opinions agree with yours to express themselves while condemning those whose opinions conflict with yours is the rankest form of hypocrisy.
As to his background, he seems to have been exceedingly careful to divulge nothing about his personal past other than having been born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968. It may help to know that there are some Internet references to him as ”Carlos Latouf”.
Is not easy to have land stolen... People are tired of Israel’s hypocrisy... Leave the place to the Arabs and move back to Amsterdam and NY... Simple and clear...
“Move back to Amsterdam and NY”… If you think this where you think the majority of present-day Israelis and their forebears come from, you have a lot of homework to do.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, fully 68% of the Jewish Israeli population has “Mizrahim” for one or both parents. Let me tell you just who the “Mizrahim” are: Jews indigenous to the Middle East.
Between 1940 and 1970, the Arab states in the Middle East conducted the greatest and most successful ethnic cleansing in history, changing their demographics to become virtually “Jew-free”. This was done with a variety of draconian “Anti-Jewish laws” that make Nazi Germany’s “Nuremberg Laws” look benevolent.
Fully 900,000 Jews were forced out of Arab countries (NOT including Iran, which is not an Arab country), divested, disenfranchised and expelled from the countries they had lived in as much as 1500 years BEFORE Mohammed was even born, often with no more than one suitcase per person and the equivalent of $50.
Estimates of the land stolen from these Jews by the collective Arab governments come to a total of more than 5 times the total area of Israel. Estimates of cash and tangible assets (homes, office, industrial & commercial buildings, schools, synagogues, etc) are around 12 times the value of the total Palestinian claims. For more information, you can look at the JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East & North Africa) web site at: http://www.jimena.org, Google “Jewish refugees from Arab lands”, or just look for “Jewish exodus from Arab lands” in Wikipedia.
Since the number of Palestinian refugees has never been reported as anything close to the number of Jewish refugees (the highest number ever claimed is 750,000 by UNWRA, which admits that the number is way too high, and the low end number is around 350,000), it could seem that the ones actually doing the stealing were the Arabs, not the Jews.
In contrast to the 21 Arab countries, Israel and the Jews of the world did not leave the Jewish refugees to languish for 60 years in refugee camps under inhuman conditions, but helped them reclaim their lives and start anew in Israel, Western Europe, the Americas and Australia.
The number of Israelis hailing from western countries is less than10% of the population—what would you have the other 90% of the Jewish population do? Those who came from countries in the former Soviet Bloc can no more “return to where they came from” than the Mizrahim. Please take the trouble to inform yourself.
Just a little reminder, in case it escaped your notice: the legitimacy of Israel under international law is precisely equal to the legitimacy of the Arab countries that have called for its destruction for 60 years. ALL of the countries in the Middle East except Oman were the creation of the League of Nations, and later, the United Nations, created out of land left in a power vacuum after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War. Oman, the only Arab country to exist as a separate, independent political entity prior to WW I, received its independence from the Portuguese Empire in 1651. All the remaining 20 members of the Arab League can trace their independence only as far back as 1922 (Egypt) or later.
Now let’s talk about “hypocrisy”…
Just how hypocritical is it to declare a war of genocide in the UN General Assembly, launch that war against an enemy outnumbered more than 10 to 1 in population, then cry to that same UN when your own inept efforts meet failure and you lose that war—not once, but twice?
How hypocritical was it to “encourage” the Palestinian Arabs to leave their homes, create propaganda events to convince them, promise them they would return in a matter of weeks and then pen them and their progeny up in refugee camps for 60 years, denying even the most basic human rights (Lebanon & Syria)? If Egypt had not embarked upon its genocidal plan that culminated in the 6-Day War, they would still hold the Gaza Strip and its population and Jordan would still hold the West Bank and its population—under the same conditions that Lebanon & Syria hold the Palestinian Arabs under to this day: no citizenship, no right to education, employment or healthcare (except for Jordan, which DID make such an offer, with the condition that anyone accepting renounced their refugee status – but there were very few “takers”).
A word on “Palestinians”…
Did you know that under the British Mandate, Arab representatives refused to accept the idea that they were “Palestinians” not once, but on three separate occasions? On the British Mandate identity cards, the ONLY people classified as “Palestinian” were Jews living under the British Mandate—Arabs were classified as “ARAB”—at their own request. During WW II, the only soldiers who put the name “Palestine” on their uniforms were Jewish soldiers from Palestine serving in the British Army.
For a little more information on the wonders of “doublethink”, you could also read Prof. Steven Plaut’s article, “How Nakba Proves There’s No Palestinian Nation” at http://canadiancoalition.com/forum/messages/30347.shtml where he show that the real “nakba” for Arabs living in the Palestine Mandate occurred in 1920, when the British tried to consider them “Palestinian”, rather than Syrian, as they considered themselves.
And then there’s always this famous quote from no other than a member of the PLO Executive Committee:
“The Palestinian people do not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism.
“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”
-Zahir Muhsein, PLO executive committee member, in a March 31, 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper “Trauw”
Note that this interview was given a full 9 years AFTER the PLO claims to “Palestinian Nationalism” were first made.
If you think that Palestinian Arab violence is purely the result of “Israeli occupation”, how can you explain the Arab riots of 1921-1, 1926 and 1936-9, when there was no Israel, no Israeli sovereignty and Jews in the Palestine Mandate were living on land they had purchased from Arab owners or had lived on for generations before the Arab hordes conquered the area back in the 7th century?
Next time you accuse someone of “stealing land”, make sure you know who the actual thieves are…
If you are to make claims of fairness, read the United Nations Council Resolution 242 (1967) and return to pre-established borders.
The way how Israel has maintained the politics of good neighbouring by ’hammering’ the media with ’victim’ attitude doesn’t work. The planet is tired of it. get it? tired. If you want to be a state, please, be a good one.
AS for Zimbabwe, I spent a week there... If you haven’t been to Africa, you should not so copy n’ pastes...
Gee, thanks for your approval. If you disagreed, you would have to also disagree with the existence of every Arab state except Oman, since ALL of them were “created” by either a League of Nations Mandate or a UN vote, the same way Israel was.
It seems to have escaped your notice that Israel has not controlled the Sinai Peninsula since 1980, as part of the peace treaty with Egypt… which refused to accept the return of the Gaza Strip to Egyptian control (I wonder why?) under the same treaty. Jordan did not ask for or want the West Bank or Jerusalem returned to its control under the 1994 peace treaty (again, I wonder why). The Golan Heights will remain in Israeli hands until the Syrian government sees fit to sign a mutually agreeable peace treaty with the government of Israel. In the meantime, I would suggest that a government that has lost the Golan Heights in not one, but two wars of aggression has a severely limited right to make demands as if they were the victor.
“If you are to make claims of fairness, read the United Nations Council Resolution 242 (1967) and return to pre-established borders.”
Robbie, I suggest that YOU read Resolution 242 VERY carefully. Then go and read the UN Charter. I’ll make it easy for you:
Resolution 242 (1967) of 22 November 1967
The Security Council,
Expressing its continuing concern with the grave situation in the Middle East,
Emphasizing the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every State in the area can live in security,
Emphasizing further that all Member States in their acceptance of the Charter of the United Nations have undertaken a commitment to act in accordance with Article 2 of the Charter,
1. Affirms that the fulfillment of Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East which should include the application of both the following principles:
(i) Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict;
(ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force;
2. Affirms further the necessity
(a) For guaranteeing freedom of navigation through international waterways in the area;
(b) For achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem;
(c) For guaranteeing the territorial inviolability and political independence of every State in the area, through measures including the establishment of demilitarized zones;
3. Requests the Secretary-General to designate a Special Representative to proceed to the Middle East to establish and maintain contacts with the States concerned in order to promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement in accordance with the provisions and principles in this resolution;
4. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Security Council on the progress of the efforts of the Special Representative as soon as possible.
Note that Clauses 1(i) and 1(ii) are inseparable. The withdrawal of Israeli forces from areas occupied in the conflict is dependent on “the termination of all claims of belligerency… etc.” Unless I missed something, only Jordan and Egypt have fulfilled this condition, and received the territories they wanted back. They did not want the West Bank (Jordan) or the Gaza Strip (Egypt). The remaining Arab states are still at war with Israel- i.e., non-fulfillment of Clause 1.
Clause 2(a) is a reference to Egypt’s blockade of the Strait of Tiran, the initial act of war that initiated the war in 1967. This clause has been fulfilled and the Strait of Tiran is open to shipping from all nations.
Clause 2(b) talks of the “refugee problem”, which includes the 900,000 Jewish refugees expelled from Arab states as well as the 600,000 Palestinians classified as refugees. To date, few Arab countries have even admitted there ever was (or is) any such thing as “Jewish refugees from Arab states”. Until the Arab governments agree to talk about both groups of refugees, this clause can’t be fulfilled.
Clause 2 (c) mentions “territorial inviolability”. The only international borders Israel presently has are with Jordan and Egypt. The “borders” with Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not borders, but cease-fire or armistice lines. As such, they are at best provisional lines for use as a starting point in negotiations.
Even so, Israel’s “territorial inviolability” has been violated innumerable times by acts of Arab aggression since this resolution was passed.
The rest is window-dressing to show some kind of follow-up plan that the UN abandoned years ago.
“The way how Israel has maintained the politics of good neighbouring by ’hammering’ the media with ’victim’ attitude doesn’t work. The planet is tired of it. get it? tired. If you want to be a state, please, be a good one.”
The only one playing the ‘victim’ is the Palestinians, even when they have to murder their own to create ‘victims’. Where is your request to the Palestinians that if they ”want to be a state, please be a good one”?
Peace can only be made between two parties willing to make peace; it only takes one belligerent to make a war. Can you honestly claim that the Palestinians have shown they are willing to make peace?
I know all what you stated. I have a quite high understanding of History and geopolitics. Besides, my father had to sit his for months on that desert of yours through 1967 as part of the United nations contingent.
I have been to Israel and to Palestine... Again, I am looking through a much larger loupe than you my friend. It’s necessary to leave the place and look the situation from outside... from inside, we are blind.
Israel send misleading signals to the world. Some, believe it is only trying to defend themselves, others agree that Israel has become a war mongrel and is enjoying bulling it’s neighbours the same way Jewish people has been bullied for thousands of years.
Either way, it is not the point. I see Israel as a large company, under the influence of foreign interests such as the rich Jewish communities in New York or Netherlands (you know the one, the same merchants that ignored the United Nations sanctions against ’Blood Diamonds’ regions and states) and help the illegal traffic of metals and gems between South Africa and Israel through the apartheid times. This was the main reason for it’s creation... Economical interest (and also to give some Jewish people the sense of belonging)... I will stick with Economical interest.
There are a lot of pension funds and savings invested by American Jews in Israel, in particular to finance the illegal occupation of territories.
As for approvals, yes, you do require them. Without economical and political interception of the international community, you would probably be typing from a ghetto in Warsaw still. If wasn’t for beliefs from people like me and others, you wouldn’t have metal to build Uzis and free M1 Abraham tanks and F-16s, so please don’t be arrogant enough to pull up a self-sustained and independent attitute to me. I am the one who guarantee will your bread when Arab nations start climbing that amazing wall your engineers come up with.
I am prepared to say that Israel would still be bulling it’s neighbours and try to get the best of any possible situation, even if Palestine or Lebanon were in peace, because Israel has it’s owners to account for. It has to provide profit, be it by raging war and keeping the American war machine moving or to maintain the level of employment. Without the excuses of war, half of the population would be unemployed and then, as I previously said, moving to NY and Amsterdam.
I am not against Jewish or Arab people. As a matter of fact, I admire the best of both and know for sure they are not different of each other on many ways.
You also need to understand this conflict has been happening for so long that people (all the non-Israelis and Arabs) are quite tired of it. Instead of not caring, we do and we seek responses and actions. in fact, we demand action. that is what we do when part of us is ill, we cure.
Home

Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Reddit
Stumble Upon
Technorati
Mixx
Sphinn
Twitter
SphereIt
Propeller
Gmarks
Newsvine
Yahoo! My Web
Live Journal
Blinklist
E-mail
RSS 







I do not find Mr. Latuff “brilliant” (or any other positive superlative, for that matter), but as offensive in his way as the Danish “Mohammed Cartoons” that inflamed the Muslim world a couple of years ago were offensive to Islam.
The main difference is that you will not find the subjects of Mr. Latuff’s drawing pens burning down Brazilian embassies, demanding his death or fomenting riots around the world. I wonder how he would have fared if he had represented the Palestinian “resistance” in the same way…
If one political cartoonist is to be defended under the cover of free speech, all political cartoonists must be so defended—otherwise we enter the gray world of censorship and repression. Just as Mr. Latuff has a right to his opinions, others do, too. Anything else is hypocrisy and “double-standarding”. Allowing those whose opinions agree with yours to express themselves while condemning those whose opinions conflict with yours is the rankest form of hypocrisy.
As to his background, he seems to have been exceedingly careful to divulge nothing about his personal past other than having been born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968. It may help to know that there are some Internet references to him as ”Carlos Latouf”.