David Maddox: Emergency item for the Knesset
On 8 January this year, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with the support of all parties bar the Tories, led an emergency debate in Holyrood on the crisis in Gaza. This was followed by a letter of protest demanding a ceasefire from the Israeli government, whose citizens were also under bombardment from Hamas missiles. No message was sent to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas and it was the second such communication from the SNP government to Israel. And this was despite Holyrood having almost no responsibility for foreign affairs.
I wonder, as he stood by Gordon Brown yesterday and watched the British PM field questions on the international consequences of Scotland sending home a notorious Libyan mass murderer and terrorist, whether Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu thought: "We really should have an emergency debate on this in the Knesset (Israeli parliament)." And further noted: "I must send Alex Salmond a letter outlining my government's deep concerns about his government's actions in this international crisis."
For some reason I would be surprised if he did.
Labels: Al Megrahi, David Maddox, Gaza, Israel, Libya, Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament
posted by Administrator at
19:55
5 Comments:
David Maddox has become unhinged.
He has today compared Kenny Macaskill's soon to be published advice from civil servants, medical authorities, SPS, etc as a ''dodgy dossier'', which is clearly associated in everyone's minds with the falsified Cassus Belli produced by Blair, Campbell et al, which led to the tragedy of the Iraq War. A War Crime in many people's minds.
He compounds his insanity by going on to draw parallels between a theoretical Israeli reaction to the release of Megrahi, comparing it with the Scottish Government's reaction to the butchery that was Gaza, condemned around the Globe as a War Crime.
Nobody in their wildest dreams has accused Kenny Macaskill of criminal behaviour, and of causing death on the vast scale that we saw in Iraq and Gaza. He has not been condemned by the UN. Nobody has suggested he has broken the law. Nobody has suggested that he is responsible for causing death to civilians.
For God's sake (metaphorically speaking) Maddox - catch a bloody grip.
Ah, well. It's not as if Israel has ever freed (perfectly healthy) terrorists or anything.
I've only been coming to the Steamie for a wee while, but am beginning to wonder what the point of the place really is.
I suppose the idea of naming the place 'the Steamie' is to encourage the generation of 'heat', but I would prefer some light.
What's a point of a post such as this one from Mr Maddox? As it happens, I don't think Holyrood has any business sending messages to the Israel govt. I could explain at length why, and others could doubtless explain at length why it is indeed Holyrood's business, but none of it would add much to the sum of human understanding.
I suggested yesterday that the Steamie should have a blog on yesterday's outburst by Jim Kelman attacking what he sees as the Scottish Literary Establishment's dark powers. I actually think JK is parting company with reality when he goes down that path, but there seem to be plenty of Scots who agree with his view that there is a Scottish establishment hell bent on hiding Scotland's radical traditions and forcing us all to read Harry Potter instead of Jim.
Does such an establishment exist? This is of course a political question, and one that maybe could have an answer - unlike the tedious business of swapping received opinions on Israel/Palestine.
You could argue that Lockerbie was a kind of war crime and the case should have been tried by an international court or tribunal as war crimes are.
However the decision was taken to deal with the case through the Scottish judicial system which means that Megrahi had to be treated the same as any other prisoner.
I think most people understand that.
Is there an international crisis as well as international "outrage"? How many nations are involved?
I wonder if Netanyahu, whose hands are hardly clean, was thinking "What deals did Blair, Brown and Mandelson cook up with Megrahi?"
Post a Comment
<< Home