Wednesday 22 April 2009

Ahmadinejad doesn't help the cause

It is a badly kept secret that I vociferously support the plight of the Palestinian people in their rightful claim to their own country. In order for this to succeed in the long-term we have to fight effectively a PR war which at the moment Israel is winning hands down. This is not surprising as the power of the Israel lobby in the US is unbelievable and is arguably more sympathetic to the Israeli cause than Israel itself. Nevertheless, since the turn of the century the supporters of Palestine have certainly become more vocal and finally the public is beginning to see the injustice. In the past any criticism of Israel was seen as anti-Semitic but now this pathetic argument has all but dissipated and it is Israeli politicians who are being criticised for labelling Ahmadinejad to "Hitler the Nazi" (Shimon Peres).

The Arabic states are often seen as the advocates of the Palestinian cause and despite being previously hostile to Israel this has now cooled to some degree. They though are also part of this PR war and the hard work of campaigners for Palestine both here and in the West is put to nothing when Ahmadinejad uses a 'racism conference' to attack Israel. There is in my opinion some credence in what he said but a UN conference was not the place to air these views. Now the world has more of a reason to hate the Iranian nation but also to give support to Israel which can play the 'victim' card.

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