The Propagandist's allies fight on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets, in the hills and in the parking lots, outside the bar and inside the bar, in the comments sections of the Guardian and the letters to the editor section of the New York Times, from the North Pole to the dark side of the moon, they shall never surrender.
A roundup of our Allies' excellent political propaganda from the front lines:
Green Is The Colour. The Anti-Taliban movement in Afghanistan gets some belated recognition.
About four years ago I happened to be sitting in a threadbare pub in a northern English mill town on a dank winter evening when two middle-aged, middle class couples sat down at the next table. One of the women was evidently a teacher at the local high school and she was describing to her friends a wedding which she had recently attended. The bride was one of her pupils – a young woman whom she repeatedly described as “my little Palestinian girl”.
Enthusiastic and detailed descriptions of exotic dress, food and ceremony were eventually interrupted by the other woman in the party who somewhat hesitantly expressed discomfort with the fact that such a young girl had taken part in what was, according to the raconteuse, an arranged marriage. Flicking the ends of her fuchsia pink and silver tasselled ethnic-style scarf impatiently, the teacher silenced her friend with the standard debate-killing, politically-correct slogan of last resort employed so often by those afflicted by normative relativism: “But that’s part of their culture!”
The USA once more brokers peace talks in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. After decades of negotiations, everyone knows the issues. The bargaining chips -- recognition of the Jewish state, right of return, prisoners, compensation, territory, settlements, demilitarization -- even for those of us half a world away from the action, are all plain to see on this high-stakes poker table.
When I traveled to Israel and through the West Bank this year, I got first-hand confirmation from both Jewish Israelis and Palestinians that the polls I keep hearing about are accurate: people from both sides want the peace and security that could come with a two-state solution. They want a chance for a life where conflict is not always the ugly elephant in the room.
The problem is not the warmongers among the negotiators. There are none. Of Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas and the American moderators, none will say they want a perpetuation of the conflict. The differences here are what peace looks like.
It seems that for the Palestinian leadership, peace means, at...More >>
The Propagandist's allies fight on the beaches, on the landing grounds, in the fields and in the streets, in the hills and in the parking lots, outside the bar and inside the bar, in the comments sections of the Guardian and the letters to the editor section of the New York Times, from the North Pole to the dark side of the moon, they shall never surrender.
About four years ago I happened to be sitting in a threadbare pub in a northern English mill town on a dank winter evening when two middle-aged, middle class couples sat down at the next table. One of the women was evidently a teacher at the local high school and she was describing to her friends a wedding which she had recently attended. The bride was one of her pupils – a young woman whom she repeatedly described as “my little Palestinian girl”. 
The USA once more brokers peace talks in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. After decades of negotiations, everyone knows the issues. The bargaining chips -- recognition of the Jewish state, right of return, prisoners, compensation, territory, settlements, demilitarization -- even for those of us half a world away from the action, are all plain to see on this high-stakes poker table.
