Sherry Darling
New Yorker
What wonderful news to come home to last night! Congrats to him and all across the world who came together to support him.
Teta040 said:BBC appaluding Hamas?? After the hostages debacle with Iran, you'd wonder why they'd be appaluding any group with ties to that country. Feelings were sore enough when the hostages came home and parroted wishy-washy statements about their captors. And with this week's terroist events, they should be suitably harsh. Iran is playing a very smart game here and for the West to be praising any group operating with their funding is playing into their hands in a way that would have been profoundly shocking even 10 yrs ago. I hope Western governments aren't adapting the "Bono and George Bush" relationship. Just as Bush uses Bono's statements of support as an excuse to make more promises about Africa he feels more comfortable in later breaking (because he knows he won't be reprimanded or punished for it later), I hope people in the West won't make that midstake with Hamas. Negotiating with Iran at this stage is one thing, but Hamas is a different kettle of fish.
That said, it is great to see a happy ending. I am overjoyed for Johnston and his family. Good news these days is very rare. I hope Johnston shuts up and stays silent about his captors and politics though. Hamas and its parent company, Iran, are going to milk this up for all it is worth. "see, we are not the evil people they think we are." All the while they are outlawing music and turning the Gaza Strip into the Stone Age. Don't be fooled. It's time Mr Johnston retired from politics, and not unwittingly become a propaganda agent like the 15 hostages did.
Teta040 said:I edited my post above to talk about how smart these groups and govts are becoming. How, exactly, do you "negotiate" with Hamas? What do you say? And more importantly, what do you want? What would you want? I used to feel as you did, until 3 weeks ago. The Gaza takeover was my Damascus road experience. Hamas and Hezbollah may be "popular movements" but only for a part of the population. Both organizions have sopisticated TV and radio networks which only show part of the equation, and the public doesn't learn the truth until after the takeover, and by then it's too late. I've read so much about Hezbollah's al-Manar, for example.....it puts Fox News to shame. The Palestinian people "negotiated" them into power, and then learned the truth. Not that I've converted to Cheneyism or anything like that, (God Forbid!) ,but I'm not for openly praising them either. While they "negotiate" with us, Syria buys huge weapons shipments from Russia (they just finalized a deal for the shipment of a new fleet of the latest Russian warplanes last month).
Ah, back when things were simple.....What to do? If Israel starts a war this month (like posters from the IDF are hinting...there are unusually high levels of miltary excercises in the Negev right now; the Israeli govt plans to use the Hamas takeover to justify payback for a year ago) I can't support that either....