Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumSir Alan Duncan's 'apartheid' attack on Israel angers Jewish groups
*This gentleman has always taken this point of view? A conservative speaking out on this level is
typical of him?
Jewish groups have reacted angrily to comments made by Sir Alan Duncan, the former Tory minister, who described settlement building in the Occupied West Bank as an ever-deepening stain on the face of the globe.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that part of Sir Alans argument that US thinking on the issue of settlements as being dominated by a very powerful financial lobby was anti-semitic.
The Boards vice-president, Jonathan Arkush, said: Former International Development minister Alan Duncans speech served to display his well-known hostility to Israel. It made not a single mention of Palestinian terrorism and incitement to violence and hate. By ignoring the facts behind a complex dispute, he is breathtakingly one-sided."
He added: If this was not bad enough, Sir Alan made the extraordinary demand that anyone who endorses settlements (whatever that may mean) cannot be considered fit to stand for election, remain a member of a mainstream political party, or sit in a Parliament. We invite Sir Alan to reconsider the implications of those words.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sir-alan-duncans-apartheid-attack-on-israel-angers-jewish-groups-9797002.html
Middle East Peace: The Principles behind the Process
An address by the Rt Hon Sir Alan Duncan KCMG MP, Conservative Member of Parliament for Rutland and Melton.
The Speech
Unedited transcript, as delivered.
Middle East Peace: The Principles behind the Process
Introduction
May I start by expressing my gratitude to RUSI for providing me with a platform from which I can express my considered thoughts on an issue that has concerned not to say, troubled me for over thirty years.
No one who has travelled to Israel and Palestine, as I have done so often, can fail to become emotionally engaged in the rights and wrongs of the arguments between the two. The Israeli-Palestinian dispute is one of the most polarising and vexed issues in the world. Whats more, it creates fury and indignation way beyond the immediate vicinity of the region. Far more than just an Arab issue, it angers millions in the wider Muslim world.
I want today to examine one fundamental component of this issue, try to put its importance into context, and then explain the stand I believe we, as engaged citizens, should take about it.
https://www.rusi.org/events/past/ref:E5409871BBC25A#.VD0yts9wYdW
oberliner
(58,724 posts)A conservative in the Ron Paul style.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Liberals and progressives, on the other hand, should.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)policy ideas?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)... and turned us into a competitive and stronger nation with a renewed sense of confidence and purpose."
Much of the bitterness of those who, two decades after she left office, continue to lower the tone of the debate about her legacy stems from their own frustration at having been proven wrong. The sluggish, grey and stultifying Britain of the 1970s is, thankfully, a distant memory and those who bemoan the direction in which the country was taken under Mrs Thatcher would do well to avoid looking at the era of the winter of discontent, where bodies went unburied and rubbish uncollected, through rose-tinted glasses.
Paying Tribute to Margaret Thatcher
15th April 2013
That should give you a good sense of this person's political leanings.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)But you're not answering my question, or addressing the point made below.
Okay. He's a libertarian. Does that make his address linked in the OP wrong? How so?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And nothing in his speech here is "wingnutty."
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)You really don't have a good grip on this IP topic,do you?
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Oberliner will get it
Or well, he should seeing as it's at his expense.
shaayecanaan
(6,068 posts)more than I should have.
Mosby
(16,319 posts)But she got fucked by the coalition system.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)LeftishBrit
(41,208 posts)I agree with him about the settlements (though I suspect his motives - his background is with Big Oil); but he is not a good source, any more than Barry Rubin on the other side.
There are two good things in his career: he was the first Tory to openly 'come out' and to support gay rights; and he backed John Kerry against Bush in 2004. Apart from that, he is a right-libertarian Tory MP who thought all the things that Thatcher did to the economy and public services were just great. He has consistently and enthusiastically supported every welfare or public service cut pushed through by this government. Oh, and he was absolutely gung-ho for the Iraq war, so occupation and illegal war and expansion were fine when our own country did it against our own people's will. In other words, he's a hypocrite, like all Tory MPs.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)really does not need to be anything else in order to do that...I think you would agree.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He is a far right-wing conservative in the libertarian mold and is very much part of the Big Oil lobby.
If that is the kind of "good voice" for the Palestinians you are looking for, why not head over to the websites of other right-wingers who use the Palestinian cause to advance their extremist agenda?
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)His objective is centered in malice for Israel? If you believe that, spell it out.