All entries for Saturday 10 June 2006
June 10, 2006
Palestine Referendum
Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/5067600.stm
The Palestinian authority could well be about to have a non–binding referendum on the subject of whether to recognize Israel. Hamas doesn't like this idea – because they like to be able to pretend that the idea of not accepting the right of Israel to exist is more important to the people than living a healthy and contented life. A two state solution is the only workable option in the circumstance from the point of view of the Palestinians. Hamas are acting like madmen and the whole of the area is suffering because of it.
Unfortunately the referendum is non–binding. There is no possible way that Palestine could hope to achieve the goals it has currently set for itself; Israel is bigger, has a far better army, and has better political allies. We can but hope that it gets through and it forces them to accept what they have to accept
"Yet another" Knife attack
Another young life has been cut short by an apparantly unprovoked attack by a "knife weilding gang of youths", so reported by the Guardian.
This is somewhat of a follow up to the post 'Knife Amnesty Fails', and it seems we have another example of Joe's point. However, my questions are in regard to the media's responce to this. Every day it seems there is a new knife victim, giving the impression that we are under a new crime wave perpetrated by these "knife weilding maniacs". But has anything changed? Is this just an example of sensationalized media? My guess is that in a few weeks, knife victims will resume being ignored by the media, and the problem will pretend to solve itself. We are already starting to see it, with stories being continually relegated to further and further inside the paper.
A comment on Joe's thread talked about the awareness created by the knife amnesty, which of course is a good thing. The media's reporting of these unecessary, violent murders is fantastic. I'm just frustrated of the short–termism of it all.