A time to choose?

It is only necessary to have a surf around the Israeli on line newspapers and media (Haaretz The Jerusalem Post Ynetnews Arutz Sheva etc) to recognise a worrying aspect of media coverage of the Iran and Palestinian situations. Not so much in the actual reporting of events and editorial comments, although even these are themselves indicative of the preparation of their readership for future events, but more markedly in the comments and opinion sections to the articles. With a few exceptions, the submissions from the public are over the last 12 months or so, are becoming more and more extreme and vitriolic in content. In many ways, it is reminiscent of the press in Germany in 1938/1939 preparing the population for an inevitable war, to right the wrongs and injustices inflicted upon the German peoples during previous decades. Notwithstanding the injustices and wrongs of the Treaty of Versailles, the whole proposition was of course preposterous but the effects on public opinion were dramatic, leading to the acceptance by probably 95% of the population, of the idea that the only way to achieve justice was through a war of aggression. The great and sinister difference in 2012 is that the arguments of the threat from Iran with its “Nuclear Ambitions” and from Palestine with its quest for a Palestinian State, are not restricted to circulation within one specific country. On the contrary, the rush to impose sanction, the threat of military action, and in the case of Palestine the actual strikes against the civilian population, have been endorsed and taken up by some other nations of the world. The United States, an unconditional supporter of Israel since 1947, and now The European Union, led by a coalition of The United Kingdom, France and Germany are leading the clamour for more and more draconian sanctions against Iran and the deployment of military forces in the Gulf area and Strait of Hormuz. There is little doubt that in the propaganda war, the west, Israel, The United States and The EU have the advantage, since there has been a constant flow of disinformation and distortion for may years which is now becoming a torrent of belligerent output for public consumption. The Governments in the west appear to assume that the general population have short memories and soon forget the lies and hypocrisy associated with military conflicts and interventions since 1945, justified by the “spreading peace and democracy” argument. In George Orwell’s prophetic novel 1984 the concept of a perpetual enemy and constant warfare was muted as a means of control of the people. The similarities between the novel and reality now is remarkable. Soon, I believe, peoples of the west will be faced with the stark choice of either blindly following the path set by their Governments, or resisting the cul-de-sac of notion that all countries of the world are destined to be subservient to our values and systems. I have made my choice.