DOES this help the Palestinians? Is it meant to?

Spotter

Obama will soon be in charge. Aaron David Miller argues:

Whatever the transgressions of the Palestinians (and there are many, including terror, violence and incitement), he’ll also have to deal with Israel’s behaviour on the ground. The Gaza crisis is a case in point…Then there’s the settlements issue. In 25 years of working on this issue for six secretaries of state, I can’t recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity—including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions—does to the peacemaking process.

Spotter: Matthew Yglesias

C’MON Jesus, give it yer best shot:

“God called [Mark] Driscoll to preach to men — particularly young men — to save them from an American Protestantism that has emasculated Christ and driven men from church pews with praise music that sounds more like boy-band ballads crooned to Jesus than ‘Onward Christian Soldiers.’ What bothers Driscoll — and the growing number of evangelical pastors who agree with him — is not the trope of Jesus-as-lover. After all, St. Paul tells us that the Church is the bride of Christ. What really grates is the portrayal of Jesus as a wimp, or worse. Paintings depict a gentle man embracing children and cuddling lambs. Hymns celebrate his patience and tenderness. The mainstream church, Driscoll has written, has transformed Jesus into ‘a Richard Simmons, hippie, queer Christ,’ a ‘neutered and limp-wristed popular Sky Fairy of pop culture that . . . would never talk about sin or send anyone to hell.’”

Jesus saves…you til later…

Spotter

Slugger:

What both sides have in common is an attack on the MSM for being willfully ignorant for unspecified motives, a key symptom in itself of implacable division of opinion which also exposes the limitations of what news coverage on the spot can deliver. Of course the polemicists are at least equally guilty of failing to provide the sort of sober analysis the situation cries out for.

Indeed…

PETA out:

Crackfish supplied by Tim Blair

Amid the many peopel who want peace and will campaign for it are the ones who just support the other side:

Communists, Trotskyites, Jewish Socialists, Trade Unionists and Quakers and members of other small sects, who also marched in solidarity with the Islamists. There was even somebody with a placard that advocated “sharing”. Nice.

And:

Hezbollah

Pro Saddam

Al Qaeda

Conclusion: London is a haven for free speech. You might not agree, but you can say so…

Pictures: Harry’s Place.

IF you’re not anti-war are you pro-war? Socialist Unity:

* Although the vast majority of placards were clearly in line with the demands of the demonstration (end the siege, stop the killing) there were more than a sprinkling of placards this week with Nazi analogies etc that were more than borderline antisemitic and will be used by opponents to discredit the protest. Again the organisers/stewards need to think about how to deal with this.

* The SWP colonised a large section of Speakers corner where the march was gathering and were bellowing puerile slogans through their megaphones at the demonstrators as they arrived, appealing to them to “destroy Israel” (and presumably among them the Israeli anti-war movement) and calling on Zionists to “Go back to New York”. Not sure which aspect of socialist theory they think that comes from. But if they think the problem is Israeli/Jewish people rather than the oppressive Zionist state then they really have a lot of learning to do.”

What’s with the shoes? Sand Monkey:

I mean sure, I know many amongst you feel as impotent as a 70 year old man who had his testicles removed when it comes to the “Global imperialist conspiracy” against arabs and those americans and jews who are just killing your kin for the hell of it, but to feel so vindicated and inspired because one guy managed to throw two shoes at a US president and MISSED TWICE that you now have decided to adopt the gesture as the symbol of arab anger, well, that’s kinda..well.not kinda..THAT’S PATHETHIC!

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