Motley Moose – Archive

Six Jews in custody and two Palestinians on the lam are child murderers. They committed their actions with the intent to inflame and incite and destroy. They knew the responses that would come from their actions. They knew that others would fight and die. They knew that children in Sderot and Gaza would find themselves ducking for cover. They knew that the consequences of their actions would be far beyond the four innocent lives taken by their own hands.

I am a passionate Zionist. 2,000 years of the history of my people have taught me one thing: We cannot trust our safety to others. The only way that we can be safe is to have our own country. Exiles and expulsions and forced conversions and blood libels and claims of deicide and pogroms and finally the Holocaust have taught us this lesson. A world without Israel is one that is not safe for the Jewish People.

It is folly to say that because of the actions of the six people an entire nation is to be condemned. It is folly to say that because certain current leaders are not ideal an entire nation is to be condemned. By that measure each and every nation in this world is to be condemned. The United States for what happened here during the Civil Rights Era; Israel for the murder of an innocent teen; the Palestinians never to have a state for the murder of three boys. The application of such logic is absolute madness.

The only logical solution is two states for two peoples. That, however, is a discussion for another day. Right now, I want to keep focus on the immediate issue – the child murderers that have started and sustained the current violence.

I do not care what their nationality or their ethnicity or their religion is. They have deliberately murdered children and they have done so with the absolute worst of intentions for they see these murders as a beginning. They wish to provoke exactly what has occurred. They have the blood of all those innocents that will be killed and injured on their hands. It does not matter who started it, for they all share in continuing the cycle of violence.

We all breathe the same air and we all bleed the same red blood. In the cases of these murders they have the same necks that will break and the same spinal cords that will sever. Yes, it is harsh, but this is exactly the punishment that all these child murderers deserve. Let them hang from the same gallows at the same time. Their crimes are the same side of the same coin and they deserve the same punishment. The world will be a much better place without the presence of such monsters (And for those of you that are anti-death penalty, I would be okay with a sentence of life without parole and a promise that they would never be released, including as part of any kind of prisoner exchange).

I’m republishing this diary from 18 months ago on the wonderful news that the mother of Stephen Lawrence, victim of a racist killing that continues to have repercussions among the police and press even now, has been elevated to the House of Lords.

I’m no fan of the honours system or our unelected second chamber, but before it’s abolished, the thought that Doreen Lawrence, who has campaigned tirelessly for twenty years to bring her son’s murderers to justice (and expose the collusion and institutional racism of the police) is to become a Labour peer is the best news I’ve heard in ages.

HT to Denise for the following video which shows Doreen meeting with the Trayvon Martin family in London last year at the Stephen Lawrence foundation

Below is a tribute to her, written by our poet laureate.

Let me share with you a brief moment. I don’t know how many Mooq have followed the story of Stephen Lawrence, the 19 year old student who was randomly and viciously murdered by a  gang 19 years ago, in a famously racist part of South London, waiting at a bus stop, not far from where I used to live, and also close to the fascist  BNP headquarters in Eltham.

For many people, his murder, and the failure to prosecute his killers, was a seminal moment in race relations in the UK – and an acceptance of the double standard Black Britons face when it comes to receiving justice.

But above all, his parents campaigned for justice for their murdered son.

Well, this week, after three abortive trials and the Macpherson Report that concluded that Stephen’s killers were never brought to justice in the UK because of ‘institutional racism’ in the Metropolitan Police, a cold case investigation found conclusive evidence that linked two of the gang to the murder, and they were sentenced to the maximum sentence (still under review) for juveniles – as they were at the time.

But this is not why I am writing this diary. Our poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who is not only the first woman poet officially appointed by the Queen to talk to the nation, and the first Scot, but also the first openly gay poet in that role, has just written this beautiful and moving tribute. I’ve always wondered how on earth any poet worth their salt could be paid to celebrate official birthdays and jubilees. But Carol Ann Duffy has restored in this brief lyric, the whole idea of the engaged public poet.

I’ve leaving a respectful place below the squiggle for you to enjoy. And grieve. And weep.  

Not a lot of details yet, but we know that Gabrielle Giffords, the Democratic Representative for Arizona’s 8th congressional district has been shot:

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was among as many as 12 people wounded in a shooting at a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store where she was holding a campaign event.

ABC affiliate KGUN-TV in Tucson reported that as many as 12 people had been shot, including Giffords. A law enforcement source told KGUN that the shooter was in custody.

Giffords, a Democrat, was scheduled to hold a “Congress on Your Corner” event today at a supermarket in northwest Tucson.

Her condition is not currently known. Other sources reporting on this tragic turn of events:

MSNBC:

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona was shot in the head outside a grocery store in Tucson while holding a public event, U.S. National Public Radio reported Saturday.

At least three of her staff members were also shot by an unidentified gunman who ran up and began shooting indiscriminately, according to media reports.

Politico:

Giffords was taken to University Medical Center in Tucson, according to the report. Her condition was not immediately known.

Twelve people were injured in the shooting shortly after 10 o’clock local time, according to Jason Ogan, a spokesman for the Pima Country Sherrif’s department. The police are sweeping the area for any other possible suspects and currently have one person in custody.

Why on earth would somebody do something like this?

UPDATE:  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has died.

Screenshot from the (now removed) Mspace page of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in custody.

UPDATE:

2:37 PM ET Giffords Alive And In Surgery

A hospital spokeswoman tells MSNBC that Giffords is alive, still in surgery.