From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phill Hallam-Baker)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast
Subject: Re: News from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Date: 13 Jan 93 01:52:30 GMT
Reply-To: Hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron, Experiment ZEUS bei HERA

In article <1993Jan11.201156.25289@cs.brown.edu>, dzk@cs.brown.edu (Danny Keren)
writes:

|>jeremy@castle.ed.ac.uk (Jeremy Henderson) writes:
|>#
|>#I understand that some simple natural language programs have trouble with 
|>#figures of speech, but most intelligent human beings can recognize a figure
|>#of speech when they see one, and would recognize that "where" in this
|>context
|>#does not refer to a specific geographical location.
|>
|>Heavy, heavy! Lay it on us, Jeremy!
|>
|>#But to respond to your substantive (I use the word loosely) point, you claim
|>#that Makowsky's kahanist views are considered a minority, but I note that
|>the
|>#deportation was supported by ALL parties in the Knesset, and by 91% of the
|>#Israeli public. In the "spectrum" of views held in the Knesset apparently
|>#NO-ONE considers the Geneva Convention worthy of observing. Some spectrum!
|>
|>1) Supporting the deportation does not imply equivalence with Khana
|>   like opinions. When he ran to the Knesset, he had 1 out of 120
|>   seats.
|>
|>2) Most countries violate and have violated the Geneva convention
|>   in a much more flagrant manner when their existance and the
|>   security of their citizens is at stake. NO-ONE (tm) protested
|>   when Britain methodicly killed as many German civilians as it
|>   could during WW2, even when it served no purpose whatsoever.

Factualy untrue. The Socialists complained at the time and there was pressure to
get rid of bomber Hariss. Churchill refused because he did not want to admit
what had happened in Dresden.

Tony Benns father blocked Haris's peerage after the war, specificaly because he
was opposed to the civilian bombing campaign (incidentaly his son was a pilot
killed in the raids but his opposition predated his son's death). This can be
verified from the diaries of Tony Benn. Incidentaly it was because his brother
died that Benn ended up with the peerage he never wanted.

When the statue of bomber Hariss was done it caused a huge outcry in the British
press.

It is also untrue that the imprisonment of the Japaneese Americans in WWII did
not arrouse considerable number of complaints. For example there is a passage in
H.G. Well's short history of the world protesting about it.

The truth is that governments who consider that the state is endangered have the
power to control and direct the media. Disent is never registered, only assent.

When the Oxford Union passed a motion "this house would fight for queen and
country in the south atlantic" during the Falkland war it made front page news.
The defeat of a similar motion on the eve of the gulf war failed to make any
newspaper except the liberal Manchester Guardian. Despite the fact that the
Times Telegraph and most of the rest of the press attended. Normaly even a
debate on sports would attract some coverage. Only the news that fits the agenda
gets to be heard.

The importance of the motion by the way lies in a 1933 motion "this house would
not fight for king and country" which was passed this was credited by a Times
leader as being one of the causes of WWII. The importance of the Union lies
largely in its creation by Gladstone and the fact that half the political
establishment come from it.


--

Phill Hallam-Baker
Newsgroups: talk.politics.mideast