Skip to main content
Arafat courage and the love of the Palestinian people for Arafat, muhaha!



Arafat cancels visit to Jenin amid fears for his own safety



Flying by helicopter provided by Jordan's King Abdullah (his own Russian-piloted fleet was destroyed by an Israeli rocket attack last year), Mr Arafat went to Bethlehem, then Jenin, visiting the town, but not the rubble fields of the camp.



He knew this meant abandoning a chance to step into the international limelight in a place where atrocities were committed by the Israeli army, and where the United Nations sought -- and failed -- to send a fact-finding committee to discover what went on. At least 54 people were killed in the camp during eight days of fighting, nearly half of them civilians.



Arafat aides said they were worried about heckling. The odds are that their concerns were more serious. Palestinian opposition has been fuelled by popular anger over his decision to allow 13 Palestinian militants from Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity to be exiled, and six to be imprisoned in the West Bank under British and US supervision. Both deals were seen by many Arabs as a sell-out.
Lovely. Nice shots by the writer (Phil Reeves). Arafat has to borrow a helicopter because the Israelis zapped his. And then there's that failed "fact-finding" mission, which was going to investigate the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian refugees...oh, oops! Seems only 54 died, oh, yet UN "fact-finders" were declaring a massacre even before they had arrived in the area.



"...nearly half of them civilians." Lovely phrase. "Nearly" covers a lot of territority. There is also the persistent refusal to recognize that you can't tell a civilian from a soldier when so many "civilians" are hauling ammunition and ordnance around, such as the 10-year-olds who claim they were hustling bombs and such around.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Wick: Chapter 4

No sense in playing coy, this is a great film. I’ve seen it twice and while I don’t quite love it in the way I love the first, original John Wick , it’s my #2. It’s a little overlong, has some wasted space and time, has one absolutely pointless and useless character, and generally ignores the realities of firefights, falling, getting shot, hit, etc. All that notwithstanding, it’s a great action flick, has a genuine emotional core, and is well worth your time if you’re into that sort of thing. Like I am. Summary: John Wick (Keanu Reeves), last seen saying he was fed up with the High Table, goes to war to obtain his freedom. Some of the most incredible action scenes ever filmed ensue, culminating in a very satisfactory finale and a devastating post-credit scene. The first Wick film was a surprise hit. It was a simple, straight-forward tale of vengeance told in a simple, straight-forward manner. Where it stood out was its devotion to human stunt work, on exploiting long camera shots that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not the Hero We Deserve, But the Hero We Need

The Dark Knight is the best film I’ve seen in years. Not just the best “superhero” film, but the best film of any type. It’s not perfect, not quite a masterpiece, but it’s flaws are, to me, tiny and overwhelmed by the time the film ends. While relatively bloodless, it is consistently brutal, not just in what it depicts but in the themes that drive it. TDK is a film for adults, please leave the kids at home. Let’s deal with those “flaws” first, the largest being the character Rachel Dawes . In Batman Begins , I blamed Katie Holmes . Her acting was weak, to say the least, which is regrettable in that who she is and what she says and does are important to the film. Critics agreed and either for that or other reasons, Katie was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal , who is a better actress. Yet here she’s weak, real weak. Maybe it’s the character, not the actress, which is frustrating because Rachel is a pivotal character. The film,...
1 comment
Read more

Dune Part 2 (2024)

I have come not to praise Dune but to bury it. I am in a distinct minority. So be it. To explain why, there will be some minor spoilers ahead; sorry. The short version is #NotMyDune. Summary: Picking up where Dune Part 1 left off, we find the young Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) hanging out with the Fremen. Plots to overthrow rival houses and empires ensue. Go here to see what I thought about Dune Part 1 (2021) . Overall, I found it to be technically brilliant, but lacking a human heart, an exercise in frenetic slow motion. D2 is more of the same, though with far more action. Acting-wise, everyone is doing a fine, more than adequate job. Absolutely no one or nothing stands out. The way the characters are written (adapted, actually), their back and forths and interactions, are all weak and unengaging. I generally hate when they speak. I've read the novel a ridiculous number of times, and these films are prompting me to read it again. I understand that trying to translate the n...
1 comment
Read more