Well, compared to this fellow.

It takes quite a dire situation for any Prime Minister to look like he’s in a worse spot than Gordon, but when there’s a strong chance that a court might not only turf you out of power but also close down your party and lock you away then you’ve just about managed it. As I mentioned in this post a defeat for vigorous Islamists actually might not be so great for Turkey: the secularists are largely a pack of vicious nationalists who’ll imprison those who write content condemning Turkey’s history. Which, for a nation which once committed genocide, is a pretty deranged restriction.

If the likely prospect of this party being either shamed or outlawed outright occurs then the secularist nationalists will doubtless profit. This would be an outcome that would lead to further Turkish isolation from Europe and most likely scupper its chances of joining the EU (at least for a decade or so). Whether this is beneficial for the Europeans or not is questionable. For the time being, though, perhaps our own Prime Minister can take heart in knowing that he is not in the most dire position possible. He’ll be shamed, but is far more likely to end up in an interview on the BBC explaining his take on the Tory landslide and its reasons for occurring than banged up in a cell.

There are, however, a few members of government over here that I wouldn’t mind seeing locked up.

Andrew Sullivan has the transcript for Obama’s speech. If there was any doubt that the man is merry leagues ahead of any other politician active in the Anglosphere a read of that ought to dispell it.

Bold words. But given the continuing mystery over Israel’s strike on Syria late last year they might not be wise.

Good news. It seems like Israel has finally come to terms with the fact that Hamas are a democratically elected group that they can not simply ignore diplomatically. In fact their agreement seems promising. Unfortunately I am still not reassured that they will cease delivering the conditions that promote them. That would required them stamping out incidents like this or, better still, closing down all of the illegal settlements presently located upon stolen land instead of allowing more to be built. Frankly, I’m not holding my breath.

As for Hamas, I am uncertain as to whether they are interested in keeping the conditions that keep their popularity amongst the base in place or replacing bitterness for gratitude by delivering what the Palestinians hope. A new face to the previously entirely militant organisation was revealed when they stood for election but whether the change is shallow and surface only remains to be seen. I would suggest anyone wishing to accept the cartoon version of them so commonly and sloppily etched and so frequently and lazily swallowed avoid reading this.

On a final note it is rather amusing to me that Egypt brokered the deal. Perhaps after the break-through into their territory staged by the residents of the Gaza Strip they decided that the peace protest was in their interest after all.

After the drama clogging our comments section {which I hope continues} I found this article highly timely.

I confess I rather conflated moderate Zionist and its more extreme, land-thieving, forms in my comments, which was rather an error given that in it’s peaceful form Zionism effectively consists of everything I would have encouraged had I lived in the appropriate era: settlement which accommodates and exists around the inhabitants already there. Unfortunately the ethnic cleansers won out, Ben-Gurion amongst them; rending the positive light he is depicted in in that article rather curious but rather understandable given that he seems to have been a family friend.

The saddest irony of this is that it undermines Barenboim’s argument for the necessity of Israel: the Jew he imagines may well go their own way back to Israel, but it seems that they will oft be little safer there. The mainstream, violent form of Zionism demanded theft of other’s territory instead of merely settlement in the deserts they would later claim that all of Palestine had consisted of before their arrival. Consequentially the pragmatic two or three state solution that Barenboim covets seems an impossibility. Even a return to the 1967 boundaries would be a return to lands filled with Jews only courtesy of all others being cleansed and thus would be unlikely to end the matter. A ceasefire would save lives but not return land stolen.

As strong as I found this article it does little to dismiss my view that it is far too late.

I had assumed that the mistreatment of those in the Occupied Territories was something that I knew the horrific basics of until I read this. It seems that 94% of the settlements have inadequate provisions for their sewage, often resulting in excrement being pumped in fashions that can either contaminate drinking water or occasionally sweep free of their position and drown infants and the elderly. This is usually the point where I’m expected to say something balancing about the terrible suffering of the Jews in the Holocaust {perpetrated by the Palestinians, of course} or talk about suicide bombings or rocket attacks or so on, or at least state that I acknowledge Israel’s “right to exist” to show everyone that I’m not a raging anti-semite.

I won’t.

This is horrific and I shouldn’t have to compromise my belief in the merits of internationalism to say so. The settlers have such little regard {or perhaps so much contempt} for those who’s land they have stolen that they are prepared to allow their waste to flood them. That is not something that you can argue the suffering of “Your people” has mitigated, it is a basically accepted point amongst civilised humanity that you do not flood other people with your shit. To try and bring in some non sequiters about a group of deranged bigots that stand little hope of ever defeating the equally prejudiced and unhinged IDF is effectively an act of apologism.

This sort of horrible nonsense is the sort of natural conclusion that Zionism can’t help itself but lead to. If you base any philosophy around the principle that your own group’s interest can be advanced over that of another you will lead to somewhere dire and anyone saying that this sort of treatment of people isn’t has obviously become such a ruthless partisan that any attempts at debate are bound to be futile.

530 new illegal houses.

An interesting response that. Rather like if the Amish reacted to the shooting of their schoolgirls last year by annexing a sizable chunk of mainstream America and rapidly using their low-tech methods of house construction to claim it. Apparently the settlers want to build eight new towns, one for each of the dead children. Because clearly the best way to cope with the work of a lone lunatic is to place further children at far more danger and actively provoke the Palestinians. Clearly.

Meanwhile the loathsome cocktail of Islamic supremacism and arab nationalism that breeds in Palestine gets a few galleons of fuel dumped on it. The fire continues to rage the beat goes on.

And on and on and on…

Oh yes, and 200 more once those are done too! We’ll have a peaceful, two-state solution in no time that way. All from a group that protect a school that is

renowned for encouraging students to become soldiers.

Ah, Zionism… Jews have never been the monsters depicted but the philosophy dominating Israel seems utterly determined that no arab ever figure that out.

From yesterday’s edition of The Times, quoted in the comment’s section of Lenin’s Tomb:

Mohamed Abu Asser, a 37-year-old taxi driver, and his wife, Nadia, 30, took their two youngest daughters, two-year-old Nadine and 20-day-old Amira, to visit a sick friend of the family last Tuesday.

This weekend, however, Nadia lay in a hospital bed. Large tears spilled from her eyes as she described how Amira had died.

“We heard fierce shooting,” Nadia recalled. “The Israelis called over the microphone to evacuate the house. But when I went out, holding up my baby, a small red light came on me and they shot me. They didn’t let the ambulance come for three hours.”

Her husband told the same story. “We decided Nadia should go out first, with the baby – they would be less likely to shoot her,” he said. “Now my first photo of my smiley baby is when she is dead.”’

After seeing the headline of a “Brings Back Nationalisation” on the front-page of the times the hard leftist in me could only marvel at the glee provided by the day’s news, for not only was its favourite policy revived to save the nation but an outright Communist is narrow second in the presendential race in Cyprus.

Narrow as in 33.51% to 33.29%.

I have no idea precisely how Cypric politics means this is likely to translate when the vote given to the {now ousted} president are given again and perhaps I should have done my research and found out before I posted.

But still, its something to keep an eye on.