It is a mystery to me why “Billmon” is not the best known American lefty blogger. I did actually urge the Guardian to recruit him at one stage. I can’t understand why newspapers don’t reprint stuff like this.
UPDATE anyone looking at his site today is going to see a very distressing picture indeed.
I used to think he was good but once you’ve read a few of his articles you realise he’s a bit loose with his language. For example, anything that Blair does gets blamed on “the British”. I prefer words that are more accurately targeted.
Well, it is standard diplomatic shorthand. We say “The Israelis”, and don’t mean by it every Israeli approves of the actions of their government or participates in them.
I guess “diplomatic shorthand” is one way to look at it. Laziness and/or bigotry is another 🙂
OK. If you’ve never used “Israel” or “The Israelis” or “the Americans” to mean their respective governments, go ahead and snark freely.
As it happens, I don’t. It’s unfair to characterise all Americans as being like Mr Bush or all Israelis like Mr Sharon. It’s not snarkiness at all on my part, I just object strongly to Mr Mon lumping me to the same category as Mr Blair. I’m sure I’m not the only person that feels this way. Chill out, Andrew.
Re. the update: Assuming you are referring to the headless baby, that picture is actually not from the current war. It’s from the IDF massacre in the UNIFIL compound at Qana, 1996, wherein 102 civilians were blotted out. Pretty horrific, and almost certainly deliberate.