Danny Rubinstein, one of the few lone voices in the Israeli media, reminded the readers about the uprooting of the Palestinians in 1948.
“During the course of the bloody conflicts of recent years, approximately 30,000 inhabitants of the Gaza Strip have been uprooted from their homes. Entire Palestinian neighborhoods along the Philadelphi route in Rafah, at the edges of the Khan Yunis refugee camp, along the route to Netzarim and in the north on the edges of Beit Hanun have been turned into heaps of ruins by the Israel Defense Forces.”
On average, each Gaza settler family is given $250,000 as compensation to leave their homes in the settlements. In comparison,
“Thousands of Palestinian refugees, with only a few days’ warning, and in some cases only a few hours, have had to evacuate their homes, which were demolished, and their fields and orchards, which have been razed. In at least two cases that were publicized, an Israeli bulldozer demolished a house with its tenants inside, two old people to whom no one had paid any attention, and they were buried under the ruins.”
So for a mainstream media like CNN to portray the hardships of the Gaza settlers while totally ignoring or downplaying the enormous sufferings of the Palestinians is really disingenuous, if not nauseating.
I want to be hopeful about this “unilateral” disengagement and i would like to think that this will lead to an opportunity for the Palestinians to thrive and prosper as an independent and sovereign state, but the facts that i am witnessing now are pointing me away from that optimistic view. Dov Weissglas, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said in an interview with Haaretz last October that the main purpose of the “disengagement” was actually intended to prevent a peace process, and to preclude the emergence of a Palestinian state of any kind. He said in the interview
“Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a (U.S.) presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of (the U.S.) Congress.”
“The disengagement is actually formaldehyde, it supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.”
If there is any doubt as of what Ariel Sharon intends to do with the settlements in West Bank, his recent statements in the Jerusalem Post made it very clear that Israel will expand, not dismantle, its settlements in the West Bank.
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Charley Reese wrote about the double standard in the coverage of the withdrawal of the Jewish settlers from Gaza by the US media. He is absolutely right. Where was the media coverage when Palestinians were being forcibly evicted and their homes destroyed to make room for more Jewish settlements?
The silence of the mainstream US media in the coverage of Palestinian sufferings is deafening. The complicity of the American lickspittle politicians, appropriately coined by Charley, in supporting this illegal settlement enterprise is sickening.
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It’s kind of strange going back to work after being away for exactly a month. If i had not checked my work email last Friday, i might still be at home instead of being here now near Washington DC.
It’s official now. I have just emailed my manager to let him know that my last day of work will be 8/26. Hopefully i have made the right decision 
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Most of the pictures, except those of the Real Beijing Men, from my two-week China trip can be found in my photo gallery.
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It’s a good thing i decided not to go to Suzhou this morning. I was feeling really lazy and didn’t want to go to the train station to be surrounded by tons of people again. Shanghai has been pounded by heavy rain and strong wind since last evening. I had wanted to go to one area well-known for fake goods but the weather prevented me from leaving my hotel. I could not even go out for lunch. I went to the 20th floor of the hotel after finding out that a well-known hotpot chain is located there. I was seated next to the window and i could see the glass window moving back and forth - i was wondering if the window was going to hold up ! The hotpot was the best i have ever had. The soup, the dipping sauce and the ingredients were all excellent.
Continue reading ‘Typhoon Matsa’
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I arrived in Shanghai in the morning on the overnight express train from Beijing. After checking into the Hua-dong hotel (華東), i took the advice of the subway assistant by taking the bus to Cheng-huang temple (城隍廟) directly. I was not really clear on what Cheng-huang temple was all about prior to arriving there. I thought Cheng-huang temple was only a temple. I found out that it was more than a temple. The Cheng-huang temple area included tons of commercial stores, the temple was only a very minor part of it. I saw global companies like Starbucks and Coca-cola there. It really was not what i had expected. It was not what i had intended to see.
Continue reading ‘Day Ten - Shanghai’
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Since i was going back to Shanghai in the evening, i did not plan any excursions today. I went to the Oriental Shopping mall again at Wangfujing Road. Bought some pretty cool-looking shirts - my only purchase in China so far. While i was there, i made my third visit to Starbucks. It’s funny because i have never bought anything from Starbucks in the US, even though Seattle is literally lined with Starbucks. And now that i am in China, i have already gone to and bought drinks from three Starbucks. So far, i have tried the green tea iced Frappuccino. I have never acquired the taste for coffee but this drink is really good. Somehow i think Starbucks is probably not catering to most of the Beijing population. A tall size of green tea Frappuccino costs RMB 29 and that is about two meals for most people.
Continue reading ‘Day Nine - Beijing’
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On my way back from the Great Wall, i saw an incoming a Audi A8L that was flashing what i call “cop lights” (similar to those unmarked police cruisers in the US) and blaring its siren. I thought the police department here must be pretty well off to be able to drive Audi A8s as their cruisers! Later near the Beijing train station, i saw yet another Audi A8 doing the exact same thing. Later, i found out from the tattoo artist that these vehicles are not police cruisers. These vehicles are actually for high-ranking officials in the government. They are built with flashing lights and sirens just so the drivers of these vehicles can clear the traffic. But seeing how the normal drivers here react to an exact police cruiser that had its “christmas lights” on, i have to say that they probably do not work. From what i have seen, drivers here do not give way to emergency vehicles. They really don’t give a rat’s ass about emergency vehicles at all.
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