So much emphasis is put on living in a democracy but what does it mean to us? Cameron or Blair, May or Brown? Kinnock or Thatcher? Rarely has the British public, in recent years, had much of a choice. The US, even less so. The glaringly obvious misconception about a democratic vote is that it can create a change in policy. It can’t. Any slight benefit to the average person is negligible. Corporations plunder on relentlessly and the taxpayers receive less for their input.
The wealthy get the benefits of success, the poor are lumbered with the austerity measures that year on year slashes away at the social safety net. The real needs of the people are ignored and privatisation foisted on us by increasingly surreptitious methods. And yet we cling to this illusion that we have a meaningful choice. It’s all a very deliberate duplicitousdemocracy.
I began using WordPress to try to counter mainstream media lies. Even if it’s not read by huge numbers, it might be useful as proof that we didn’t all believe what we were spoonfed.
I’m acutely aware that I have many flaws in my writing ability and my punctuation isn’t great but at least it’s better than my handwriting. I try to make my observations interesting and to highlight information not so widely available.
If I fail miserably, I’m sorry for wasting your time.
I also started the blog to vent my anger at the Israeli government, who I learnt over a period of time, have the Western mainstream media in their back pocket. The criminal enterprise known as Israel is and always will be, Palestine. The Palestinians didn’t persecute the Jews, a significant number lived peacefully amongst them. The victims had no right to victimise people who lived there already. But they did, they drove 800,000 from their homes. A centuries old religious scripture wasn’t evidence of ownership, just as my anglo saxon heritage doesn’t give me a chunk of mainland Europe. It isn’t up to me to tell Palestinians what they can do or appeal for them to be peaceful. I don’t have to suffer the indignity of a snotty nosed Israeli soldier poking a gun in my chest.
I don’t know all the answers but I enjoy debating the possibilities. I’m not religious but would defend the right of others to worship whoever they want.
I believe that having too much empathy is a curse but the alternative is much worse.
I live and work in the East Midlands.
duplicitousdemocracy.wordpress.com 
Just came across your website and like the other kafiah wearing “alternative news watcher” you think it has made you a Middle East expert and let your self obsess over “the evil state of Israel” the reason I’m writing this is not to criticise you opining but try a persuade you to do a lot more research before you reach a final opinion you mention the 800000 refugees but you fail to mention the million Jews who were persecuted and eventually made to leave Arab lands in which they inhabited for more than 2000 years I should know I’m a decedent of Iraqi Jews and please look up and see what happened to them during the farhood (google the word) history fails to mention the vast amount of land that was sold off by the Palestinians to the Jews as they the Palestinians themselves at the time did not consider themselves to be a nation the Entire area which also included trans Jordan was meant to be devided the east bank of the river Jordan to the Arabs and the West Bank to the Jews but let’s assume You’re not happy to agreed with those facts what exactly is you solution now the so called right of return which within a decade will cause a civil war or maybe another seloution “kick them back to where they came from “ that was the only consistency throughout history I’d love to see the Iraqis the Iranian Algerians… and I could go on with open arms welcoming the Jews back to the land which they had to flee and suffere persecution I’d like you for one moment to research the education system in those lands including Palestine to see how incitement is so rife that the next generation will grow up hating even more I’m all for a two state Palestine and Israel living side by side but peace will never prevail until the rulers of tomorrow not today are being fed hatered on daily basis there is a vast amount of land that can be negotiated if the Arabs want real peace Israel can continue to survive and in some aspect the world is depended on Israeli technology science and medicine which pro Palestinians always either deny or ignore so boycott won’t really have much effect and the longer the conflict the more the Palestinians are the ones suffering Israel will always continue to thrive so It’s down to the Palestinians to come to the table with realistic expectation and end this long an bitter conflict
It’s not a conflict, it’s one-sided, slow motion ethnic cleansing. I’ve never claimed to be an expert, I simply comment on what I perceive as injustice, not just in the Middle East but anywhere. I select my sources very carefully and only use the most respected independent journalists. ‘Research’ is the reason I think as I do. 10 or 15 years ago I was sympathetic to the Israeli cause. I was confused by the incessant images in our media of blown up buses and I wondered, ‘why do they do that?’ That’s when my interest began.
I slowly discovered that the Israelis want all of Palestine and would use any method to achieve it.
I discovered that the Israelis had not only one of the most powerful and well equipped militaries in the world (thanks to the US) but that the Palestinians didn’t have a single tank or fighter plane to defend themselves with. I learnt that it wasn’t only religion based, it was a quest to drive as many Arabs from the land as possible and then make the lives of those that remained a misery. I found out that the siege around Gaza wasn’t because of rockets being fired from there but because the people of Gaza elected the wrong governing party and that the earlier withdrawal from Gaza by Israeli ‘settlers’ was a tactical move which resulted in…. An area that is very easy to blockade called Gaza.
The information you really want me to find is the lopsided history that you’ve written in your ‘kafiah wearing ‘alternative news watcher’ diatribe. I don’t have a solution but my first suggestion would be to start treating Palestinians as equals instead of randomly executing them for merely approaching a containment fence.
So far as education goes, I don’t need to read a survey of what is taught in Israeli schools about Arabs. The behaviour by the IDF towards them at the ‘checkpoints’ is ample evidence that they don’t consider them anything other than cattle. Caged in and made to wait for no apparent reason other then to make them suffer. I would suggest reading a book by Nurit Peled-Elhanan called ‘Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education’. This publication highlights the discrimination towards Arabs from state approved educational books.
Each atrocity by Israeli forces makes the likelihood of a peaceful solution more remote. For instance, if you lived in Gaza, could you forgive the cold, calculated and clearly planned murder of a relative in the recent protests? Not one Israeli was harmed yet over a hundred Palestinians murdered and thousands maimed with life changing injuries.
A solution? With every brick that builds each settlement in the West Bank, the Israelis have deliberately manufactured a landscape that cannot easily be fixed. These settlements are filled with extremists that are armed and will never listen to reason. It wasn’t the Palestinians that allowed them to move there, it’s the Israeli government who have and still do encourage Israelis to relocate with financial incentives.
The Palestinians over the years have given concessions and each time they have been betrayed. The occupation and siege continues despite being illegal, the vast majority of Israelis either not caring or oblivious to the suffering of fellow human beings only a few miles away.
I have no reason to question your hope for a peaceful future for both Israelis and Palestinians but can you seriously believe that the process would be any different to what has already taken place with the US pretending to be an impartial mediator? My point is, why would the Palestinians agree to joining the ‘peace process’ when there has been no honest brokering over the years? There has been no peace process thus far, it’s just been trickery to see how far the Israelis and US can stitch up the Palestinians without looking the guilty party. It’s pure theatre, with the Palestinians being the fall guys.
‘Realistic expectation’ conjures up tiny concessions that won’t improve the lives of the masses. The expectation should be an end to the siege of Gaza and ending the West Bank occupation. Ignore the fantasy driven demands of ‘recognition’, it is totally irrelevant. It will come with a mutual trust over time and with honest dialogue. Only the Israelis can create the foundation for reconciliation. It is they who inflict their will on the Palestinians and with decades of domination they have become ever more ruthless, knowing they can quite literally do as they please.
Without hope for a better future, humans struggle to be inspired and motivated. The thought of having to strive endlessly, merely for survival wears down the spirit. Only Israel can stop the economic and cultural strangulation of the Palestinians to create a fair and just society that can be enjoyed by all. Sadly, I can’t see that happening.
I haven’t commented on the claim that Jews have been driven from other Arab lands because I simply don’t have the time to research everything that interests me. However, I wouldn’t dispute it because I don’t know. Another reason I was drawn towards the plight of the Palestinians is because it’s an ongoing dispute that is in the interests of both sides to change. The current situation isn’t tenable but eventually you will be correct, it will be a conflict and that will mean untold bloodshed.