On the road to Damascus

On the road to Damascus
By Gabriele Zamparini

The current horde of barbarians that has brought hell to Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, [with Syria and Iran on the bombing waiting list] may have some few precedents in human history but the racist hypocrisy that goes with it certainly doesn’t.

Reuters reports: “About 100,000 Lebanese have fled their homes to escape the violence. Israel's campaign has killed 230 people, all but 26 of them civilians, and inflicted the heaviest damage on Lebanon since the 1982 Israeli invasion to expel Palestinian guerrillas.” [Wednesday, July 19 UPDATE: "Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed 56 civilians and a Hizbollah fighter on Wednesday, the deadliest toll of the eight-day-old war, as thousands of villagers fled north and more foreigners were evacuated."]

The Washington junta showed all its compassion through the man [sic!] who represents that gang to the UN

Asked to comment on the deaths in an Israeli air strike of eight Canadian citizens in southern Lebanon Sunday, he [US Ambassador John Bolton] said: "it is a matter of great concern to us... that these civilian deaths are occurring. It's a tragedy."

"I think it would be a mistake to ascribe moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct result of malicious terrorist acts," he added, while defending as "self-defense" Israel's military action, which has had "the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths".

There is no “tragedy” and there is no Middle East “crisis” but a carefully planned project going back months, years, decades and even centuries.

“That's what's happening all over - the devastation wrought in this country in just under a week is truly heartbreaking. Everyone just feels so incredibly sad. Israel isn't trying to support a 'sovereign democratic Lebanon' or whatever it is we're supposed to believe, it's bombing it back to the dark ages - which in Lebanon's case is 1990, after the last one ended.” an email coming from Beirut reads.

As a searchlight piercing the gloomy hypocrisy, journalist and activist Felicity Arbuthnot brings us a piece of reality in her moving “Letters from Baghdadis”:

A's letter ended with an illuminating insight into American tactics in Iraq: 'The Americans keep Iraq in a state of absolute chaos, they call it: 'positive instability.'

On the receiving end of our Free World’s benevolence the brainwashing propaganda doesn’t work and people can still think properly and put us to shame.

But that propaganda works perfectly well at home. In Italy for example, Piero Fassino, the man leading what’s left of the party founded by Antonio Gramsci, said that the very “existence” of Israel is “really in danger”. The leader of the largest party in Romano Prodi’s government’s coalition, continued:

“Every democratic country, and therefore also Italy, must make clear to the Islamic world and to its ruling elites that never the democratic world, and in the first place Europe, will accept to put in discussion or even to put in precariousness the State of Israel and its existence”.

But don’t blame just the hot temperatures of the Italian summer. The Jewish Lobby organized a vigil pro-Israel, present much of the Italian nomenklatura together with the Israeli Ambassador to Italy, the above mentioned Fassino, the Zionist Mayor of Rome Valter Veltroni and – life can be really ironic sometimes – the former neo-fascist [but still very right-wing] and former Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini [Enjoy some photos here: 1 2 3 4]

On the other Tiber’s bank, just a few days ago the Vatican “strongly deplored Israel's strikes on Lebanon, saying they were ‘an attack’ on a sovereign and free nation. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into ‘a conflict with international repercussions.’”

"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence (…) The right of defence on the part of a state does not exempt it from its responsibility to respect international law, particularly regarding the safeguarding of civilian populations”

Usually the Italian politicians violently compete to kiss the Pope’s hand. What happened this time?

On July 14 I wrote to the European Union’s Ombudsman:

Dear Sir,

With regard to the current massive crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Government of Israel, will the EU do anything at all besides the usual blah blah blah?

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Gabriele Zamparini
Italian and European Union Citizen
London

In the same e-mail I also forwarded to the European Ombudsman the e-mail I had sent to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK the day before

From the efficient and democratic Europe the reply arrived today:

Dear Madam, [my name can be very confusing, by the way]

Thank your for your recent e-mail.

The role of the European Ombudsman is to investigate complaints concerning maladministration by institutions and bodies of the European Community. Complaints which concern the merits of a political decision taken in the exercise of political authority do not raise issues of maladministration. The issue that you raise appears therefore to be outside the Ombudsman's mandate.

The European Ombudsman does however take all complaints seriously and tries, wherever possible, to offer alternative advice as to who to contact. In your case, I can only suggest that you address a petition to the European Parliament. This possibility is open to any citizen or resident of the European Union, individually or in association with others. Petitions can touch upon any subject which comes within the European Union's fields of activity and which affects the citizen directly. You can find further details (and submit a petition online) on the following webpage: [ link ]

I hope you will find this information helpful.

Yours sincerely,
Secretariat of the European Ombudsman

A petition to the EU Parliament? To sign it we can always use the blood of those slaughtered in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon [with Syria and Iran on the petition waiting list].