"When the Free Market feels that its end has come, it calls for a cut in the interest rate." Anonymous.
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"When a culture feels that its end has come, it sends for
a priest." Karl Kraus.
"When the Free Market feels that its end has come, it calls for a cut in the interest rate." Anonymous. |
Annals of Propaganda
January 23, 2008
June 12, 1987
Berlin, at the Brandenburg Gate
The President of the United States, the Honorable Mr. Ronald Reagan:Behind me stands a wall… a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
January 23, 2008
Israel, at the Gaza Wall
Not Bush, Cheney, Gates, Rice, Pelosi, or even the White House doorman:No one is there to commemorate this dramatic break in
"an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state."
What can we conclude from this dramatic illustration of hypocrisy in the self-appointed apostles of freedom? We can conclude that there is good totalitarianism and bad totalitarianism and that Israeli Zionist totalitarianism is good and East German Communist totalitarianism was bad.
And what about the New York Times? For them, a break in the Berlin Communist wall was a break in an impediment to the free expression of the human spirit! while a break in the Israeli Zionist wall is spun as a mere opportunity for the Palestinians to indulge themselves in a shopping spree. But they do report it.
Thus the propaganda arm of the state peddles a necessarily watered down version of the hypocrisy of the state itself.
Hatem Moussa/Associated Press
People were bringing into Gaza everything from soap and
cigarettes to goats, chickens, medicine, mattresses and car
paint |
Hatem Moussa/Associated Press
Palestinians crossed the border after militants
exploded a wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Wednesday.
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Khalil Hamra/Associated Press
Palestinians crossed into Egypt after militants
exploded the wall between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday.
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Abid Katib/Getty Images
Palestinians cross the Rafah border into Egypt over a
toppled barrier. |
They used donkeys, carts and motorcycles to cross the border, and streamed back over the fallen fence laden with goods they had been unable to buy in Gaza. The scene at the border was one of a great bazaar. The streets were packed, and people were bringing into Gaza everything from soap and cigarettes to goats, chickens, medicine, mattresses and car paint.
Israel ordered the closing of its border crossings into Gaza last week, halting all shipments except for emergency supplies, after a sustained and intense barrage of rocket fire into Israel by militant groups in the Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas. Israel allowed in some fuel, medical supplies and food on Tuesday, as temporary relief, but has said that its closure policy remains in place.
Gaza shut down its only power station on Sunday after it ran out of the industrial diesel fuel it needed.
Initial reports suggested that Hamas militants had used explosives to blow a hole in the corrugated-iron border fence at Rafah. The Rafah crossing into Egypt has been shut since Hamas took over Gaza in a short war with Fatah last summer.
Witnesses reported hearing explosions early Wednesday morning, and said that Hamas then sent bulldozers to push the fence over. Later television footage showed that the fence had been toppled in several sections.
People began pouring over the fence before dawn, said one witness, Fatan Hessin, 45. She had crossed into Egypt to be reunited with a childhood friend from whom she had been separated by the border. “I am a Palestinian. I am not Hamas or Fatah, but I thank Hamas for this,” she said.
Gaza’s population of 1.5 million depends on imports for most basic supplies. After the border wall fell, Egyptian merchants brought goods to the Egyptian side of Rafah to sell, and some Palestinians were bringing home televisions and computers.
Bags of cement were in particular demand, since building materials have been in short supply because of Israeli restrictions following the Hamas takeover. Israel suspects Hamas of using cement to build tunnels.
Muhammed Mowab, 22, a student and barber, said he brought in 25 bags of cement. He said he was going to build a home so that he could get married. He had been waiting for a year to get married, he said, and had paid the equivalent of about $5 per bag, compared with $75 a bag of cement in Gaza.
Gas stations on the Egyptian side of the border were besieged, according to the BBC.
There were few signs of police officers directing the crowds, and Egyptian border guards stood aside to let the Palestinians cross. Riot police waited a few streets away.
The Rafah crossing has been a point of controversy between Egypt and Israel. Hamas and Egypt have opened the crossing briefly on a few occasions, most recently to permit about 2,000 Palestinians to make the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia.
But Israeli officials contend that Hamas exploits such occasions to bring weapons and money into Gaza from Egypt.
Arye Mekel, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said of the latest breach on Wednesday: “The danger is that Hamas and other terror organizations will take advantage of the situation to smuggle in weapons and men and make a bad situation in Gaza worse.”
He said the Egyptians are responsible for making sure the border operates properly, and added: “I think Hamas has been planning this for a long time. Maybe they thought this would be an opportune time,” and that the international community would understand, because of Israel’s closure of its borders with Gaza.
Aid officials had warned earlier this week that Gaza, gripped by fuel and electricity shortages, was two or three days from a health and food crisis.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides assistance to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, announced Monday that it would have to suspend its food aid to 860,000 Gaza residents by Wednesday or Thursday if the crossings from Israel into Gaza were not reopened, because the group was running out of the nylon bags it uses to measure and distribute staples, like flour.
Ms. Hessin, who had used the breach of the border to meet up with her friend, Inshira Hanbal, on the Egyptian side of the border, said: “We are extremely tired of this life. The closure, the unemployment, the poverty. No one is working in my household.”
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company