Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Is there such a thing as "global opinion"? (Correct answer to quiz now posted)

Someone wrote that the blockade of the Gaza Strip has not only unified the Arab street for the first time since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, putting fear in the hearts of the Arab regimes that are complicit in this, it has also uncovered something about global opinion.
Israel was forced to back away from a [total] blockade, because the world does not believe that there is any state, whether civilized or barbaric, that would cut off electricity and fuel from a people that is already starving, and cause a humanitarian and health and environmental catastrophe in the way that we have seen...

And the same person wrote:
Ehud Olmert and his ruling group, when they behave in this barbaric fashion, wrong not only the Palestinians, but they wrong also the Jews who were victims of the Nazis, because all of the international law that forbids collective punishment as a war crime and that has become the common heritage of mankind--this [body of law] was the result of the sacrifices of those Jews, and the determination to prevent any recurrence of such events, to them or to any other people.

Quiz: In what forum do you think this was published?

7 Comments:

Blogger D. Ghirlandaio said...

the washington post

8:36 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

UK Foreign Affairs Committee?

Tho I can't find it in google or hansard yet.

3:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It was Juan Cole in Informed Comment

10:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Jerusalem Post

8:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...


The Liberty Savings Bank

11:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Paul Wolfowitz

11:35 AM  
Blogger badger said...

The correct answer is Liberty Savings Bank ! Congratulations to reader Anonymous !

Or at least here's what seems to have happened. The Jan 23 op-ed by Abdulbari Atwan in Al-Quds al-Arabi (which I expected at least some readers would have guessed--sheesh) was translated by the BBC whatchacallit, and from there picked up yesterday (Saturday Jan 27) as a current-affairs posting by Ohio-based Liberty Savings Bank on its website. I'd call that a fluke, hey, that's how important news and opinions gets to the American people--every once in a while, by pure chance.

12:23 PM  

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