Darfur is Not a Zionist Plot
August 19th, 2007It’s really sad that some people are so cynical and full of rivalry they give themselves permission to suspend critical thinking in order to entertain the notion that Darfur is some sort of plot for Jews and Israel to gain an advantage over their rivals. Come on. Think about it, people. How long did Sudan’s Arab/Muslim controlled government fight a civil war against the Christian/Animist Dinka and other tribes in the south? How long were there reports of slavery? And yet … no mega media campaigns. No organized structure.
If there were an insidious and illicit motive here, don’t you think it would make much more political and public relations sense to try and mobilize the international community by attempting to paint a picture of “poor, helpless, non-Muslim, minority victims” suffering at the hands of “brutal, oppressive, Arabs/Muslims,” rather than focus on a cause in which all the players are Muslim? If this were some sort of calculated strategy to demonize Arabs and Muslims, it would have been done back then when Israel could have worked with Christian and secular communities to act as a united front. But they didn’t because that’s not what’s going on here.
On the other hand, if this were about Israel trying to keep its hands clean, or to try to make inroads with non-Arab Muslim communities, they could have conducted big campaigns long ago on behalf of Muslims who agitate against Arab governments … for Algeria’s Kabylian Berbers, for example. Or the Baloch or Kurdish communities if they wanted to go after the government of Iran — non-Arab yet their biggest political foe (and p.s. both Algeria and Iran have lots of oil and gas, so there goes that motive down the drain). But they haven’t done any of that because this is not about using a socio-political crisis to demonize Israel’s adversaries or get a hand on their goods.
I could go on, but the point is that if this were really about having a cause celebre to try and make Arabs and/or Muslims look bad, or to get control over some resources, they would be far more strategic about it, and could have done it at a time when the players were much more advantageous to their cause. There have been much better opportunities to exploit, yet they have gone relatively unpublicized, unfunded, and unperpetuated. The reason for that is because there is no conspiracy here.
So, put your conspiracy theories away now cynics, and stop hating. The evidence just doesn’t work out your way.
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Darfur is not a Zionist plot, but if people really wanted to stop the violence in that region they would have addressed all those involved in fueling the violence.
Just like if Westerners were concerned concerned about the lives of black Africans they would have spoken up about the role Western countries play in fueling the violence in Central Africa and they would have spoken up about the exploitation of diamonds and other natural resources.
It seems to me that the fuel feeding the fear is the fact that most Israelis and Zionists oppose any recognition of Palestinian Refugee rights, reject any claim they were victimized by Israel’s creation, and oppose any and all efforts to provide additional funding to the Palestinian Refugees in the United Nations.
Now, that’s a fact. Does it mean Darfur is a Zionist Plot? No. But it does mean there are reasons why “some” pro-Israel activists are pushing Darfur, considering the battle has been described as being between Black Africans and Arab Africans.
The only thing naive in all that is ignoring the reality and refusing to address it. It’s very unpeaceful like, if you ask me.
Just as Arabs have some responsibility in this mess, so do Israelis who out of all the major refugee issues in their immediate neighborhood always seem to pick the ones furthest away from the Palestinian cause.
Ray Hanania
http://www.hanania.com
This just in…
Israel turning away Darfur refugees
Hey Ray I just visited your web site. Keep up the good work! I love the poster of your comic tour.
“If we can laugh together we can live together”
Very good stuff.
Ray,
I generally agree with most of your posts, but I really think you are wrong here. The pro-Israel lobby is not trying to call attention to Darfur to make Arabs look bad or to avoid dealing with the Palestinian refugee issue. In the 90s, most of these same groups were trying to call attention to the genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, in which no Arab party was involved. Can it be, that people in these groups just care and want to help stop what they perceive as a genocide?
Based on what you wrote, it seems that Palestinians and Arabs view Darfur as an issue that competes with the occupation for world attention, instead of the humanitarian disaster that it is. That is really sad. The fact that “moderate” Arab circles actually discuss a supposed Zionist conspiracy element to Darfur (as noted in JPost article) does tremendous damage to the credibility of these “moderates” as well as the causes they fight for.
As the people of Darfur start to spill out of the country in search of peace and saftey, the seriousness of this crisis becomes more apparent. The world community must ban together to usher in peace to that region.
Everyone of good conscience, regardless of their identity, should take a stand on behalf of preventing any additional destruction of Darfur without worrying about first satisfying someone else’s political agenda. Some things … like stopping and healing the world’s worst humantitarian crisis, should rise above regional politics.
I definitely understand that nobody likes to be made out to be the bad guy. I believe if “the Arab world” were to make saving Darfur a cause celebre, it would be extremely difficult to create an anti-Arab demonization campaign over the conflict.
Think about this too … Darfur could become an opportunity for Jews and Arabs (as well as others) to work together on a humanitarian issue outside the immediacy of their own conflict. Maybe if they worked together to improve the situation in Darfur, Israelis & Jews, and Palestinians & Arabs, could see each other in a whole new light … as healers rather than warriors. Arabs and Jews could begin a reconciliation process in Darfur by cooperating to improve the lives of suffering people. This would build trust that they can interact with each other on a whole new, productive, collaborative level.
Personally, and I hope you can agree to this too, I find it extremely unethical and functionally cruel to check someone’s ethnic and/or national identity before determining how much their humanitarian assistance to suffering people is worth. Thanks.
I am still waiting for someone to answer, if those “Save Darfur” acivists and politicians really care about black African, why are they not speaking up about the Congo, where millions more have been killed and many more have been raped?
ALso see my comment under another posting that gives furher evidence that the sympathy given to Darfur is nothing more than crocidile tears.
http://www.mideastyouth.com/2007/08/17/column-on-jerusalem-post-on-darfur/#comment-62424
, why are they not speaking up about the Congo
well for one thing, there’s already a UN mission in the congo:
http://www.un.org/depts/dpko/missions/monuc/
i’m sorry but this scapegoating is the lamest shit ever, i have yet to read a solid argument for how the j00s are solely responsible for all the attention that sudan is getting. and even if they were, should that alone influence our opinion on whether the issue deserves attention? is this seriously the most important aspect of this conflict, because the amount of posts i read about zionist support vs. pretty much anything else to do with it seems to be about 10:1. should we stop talking about palestinian suffering just because some bigots and religious nutjobs are intent on exploiting that, too? i sure as hell hope not.
Nadia,
The UN is also involved in Iraq Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Sudan; they haven’t been very effective in any of these countries.
I did not say stop talking about Darfur; I say discuss all factors that are involved in fueling the violence.
Here are two articles that discuss this.
One is by Keith Harmon Snow at http://allthingspass.com/journalism.php?jid=165
and the other is by F. William Engdahl at http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Oil_in_Africa/oil_in_africa.html
If Jews, Christians and secular humanists are so concerned for black Africans why have they not given Congolese the same attention, where millions more have been killed and raped? Is it okay for deaths and rapes to occur when the West is benefiting from the diamonds, minerals and sale of weapons.
Here is an article about the role of the United States in fueling violence in the Congo.
http://worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/congo.htm
Here is a more current article about how Israel and other countries benefits from the diamonds and fuel the violence in Africa
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/JulAug2007/snow.html
“Save Darfur” activists ,politicians and human rights activists talk about putting Sudanese officials on trial for the genocide in Darfur, but they don’t talk about putting on trial individuals from Western countries that fuel violence in the region.
Saddam Hussein was put on trial; why haven’t any of his Western collaborators been put on trial? Why hasn’t any Westerner been put on trial for their role in the genocide of the Congo? Do you think people from the West should be immune from being put on trial for war crimes?
Hello
The fellow above RANDALL JONES has his radar finely tuned to the deceptions. Nice work Randall. While Israel is ripping off the Congo — the diamond exchange in tel Aviv is perhaps now the most powerful on the world and these guys are tight with Washington — they are also intersted in overthrowing the Arabs in Khartoum. This is the driving force — one of them — behind teh Save Darfur movement. Another driving for is teh ultra fascist Center for Security Policy. The entire Save Darfur movement grew out of the CSP and a few other think takns, and the Holocaust Memorial Museum fed teh propaganda and fueld the “genocide” fire. But the Holocaust memorial museum is not interested in the genocides in congo, Ethiopia, Botswana, Nigeria, Somalia, northern Uganda… or teh Penan people in Malaysia, Hawaians in Hawaii, Native Americans…
this is the political econpomy of genocide.
Israel and the pro-Israel lobby in the US are playng a huge (devastating) role in teh terrorism. Maybe its time Jews started speaking up about this.
Blessings
keith harmon snow
Hey Keith,
Why do I suspect that you haven’t dedicated the same amount and time and energy during your lifetime to the genocides in congo, Ethiopia, Botswana, Nigeria, Somalia,etc that you have dedicated to criticizing israel and the j00s?
You and the israel-haters are guilty of politicizing the israeli-palestinian conflict in such a manner that it completely obfuscates the other genocides that are going on around the world. Why do you israel-haters insist on forcing the UN to push resolution after resolution about israel, while human rights abuses that cannot be blamed on the jews are completely ignored.
I do see, however, that i am a couple years late in responding to this thread. Whoops. Too bad nothing has changed: the situation in Darfur continues unabated.
Tom
You have no idea what you are talking about. Look at the DECADE of reporting exposing christian, moslem, corporate, capitalist, Pentagon, intelligence intersts in Congop, Sudan, Rwanda, Nigeria…. of which any criticism of Israel – -justifiably for their role in perpetrating genocide — is a very small part.
http://www.allthingspass.com
theres a reason i was chosen as the 2009 REGENT”S LECTURER ON LAW AND SOCIETY at the UCSB — for my attention to deconstructing the discourses on genocide and exposing the lies. get your facts straight. I am not an apologist for genocide being comitted by Israel in Congo, Angola or Gaza..
blessings
keith