"Sheer wonder" at column on Middle East

I read Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem's article in sheer wonder and disbelief as he twisted facts and history, abused logic, and conveniently ignored other inconvenient facts to premise an illogical argument. I think in the end, the article belittled him as an intellectual (see No matter how much he likes the Hezbollah and Hamas, no matter how much he sympathizes with their cause, if he wants to make an intellectual argument on the issues, then he must respect the facts, he must be balanced, he should be fair and just, and he should try to be logical, otherwise he should simply abandon any claim to intellectualism and focus on demagogery and propaganda.

He roundly condemns Israel which, at least in this case, is exercising its right of self-defence as a nation. He cannot run away from the fact that Israel has a right to defend itself. He fails to even acknowledge that Hezbollah provoked this latest violence, with no provocation at all, six years after Israel withdrew from Lebanon. He does not have a single critical word for Hezbollah for this. He prefers to ignore the facts as it suits his purposes better to award to the Hezbollah the victory for "expelling" Israel from Lebanon. He stands logic on its head and moves into the realm of untenable speculation by declaring that "it is clear to anybody that even if the two soldiers were not abducted Israel would have found another reason for 'reinvading' Lebanon."

He refuses to acknowledge that the Lebanese government bears any responsibility by omission or commission. He closes his eyes and intellectual mind to the fact that Hezbollah is continuing to fire hundreds of rockets daily into Israel, also killing innocent civilians, and remains unrepentant. Perhaps in his mind, the death of innocent Israeli civilians, women and children means nothing! They are fair game in his human rights mind. There is no suggestion in his article that Hezbollah itself, which started all this, should stop. He twists the facts and alleges "a campaign of blockade and sanctions that punishes the Palestinians for voting democratically" when the truth is that Western governments (Europe and the United States) have simply said that they cannot continue to support a government that has committed itself to the destruction of another State and refuses to renounce terrorism.

He blames Britain and the United States for their "uncritical" support for Israel while himself betraying his uncritical support for Hezbollah and Hamas, despite the atrocities they are committing in the Middle East, even against Arabs! Whatever his beef is with the Israelis, the Americans and the British, he is an intellectual and must think like one. We do human rights work, but it is based on the principles of truth, fairness and justice. If we start to propagate falsehood, or become unfair and unjust in our human rights work, we lose the moral high ground and have nothing else. Dr Abdul-Raheem should take the pains to establish the facts fairly, he should try and see all sides to the issue, and understand the different perspectives. Otherwise, he will not stand a chance in hell of proffering any realistic or workable solution. He certainly lost me with his article.