12-06-2010, 10:21 AM
Mark Stapleton Wrote:Helen Reyes Wrote:Regarding Gandhi, I sort of think it's irrelevent what Gandhi, whom I do not respect, thought about Israel, Zionism or Palestine.
It has more relevance to the subject matter of this thread than anthropological discussions of mankind's origins in Africa 2 million years ago.
There was no anthropologicial discussion, there was an an analysis of Zionism as colonialism and the rights of ethnic groups to specific parcels of land. Appealing to "big names" like Einstein and Gandhi is not a good argument. I'd rather talk about what we think, and in this case I think our thoughts are more relevant than Gandhi's, making allowances for the deep respect and awe in which his personality is still held by many around the world.
It might be worth pointing out that India and Israel, which came into modern existence around the same time, switched places: Israel was supposed to be two states but didn't, while India was supposed to be one state but quickly split in two. Gandhi's efforts to placate the Muslims of India by denouncing Zionism were fruitless although cynically calculated.
On Charles' point: this makes too much sense to be ignored. Did the flotilla massacre temper Helen Thomas's comments to the point of emotional outburst, or was she ahem prodded into them in a calculated way in order to further the Israeli narrative of victimization at a crucial moment in the media?