Clare Short says the following on the Weeping Skies website, which is dedicated to publicising a Cantata that has been written to the memory of Rachel Corrie. Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza while it was demolishing somebody's house.

I am supporting the World Premiere of the cantata for Rachel Corrie because there has been the usual campaign to silence even a cantata to commemorate a young woman who gave her life in order to stand for justice. I also believe that US backing for Israeli policies of expansion of the Israeli state and oppression of the Palestinian people is the major cause of bitter division and violence in the world. Best wishes.
- Clare Short MP

Is Clare Short for real, or does she just not think about the meaning of the words that come out of her mouth? But if its only a string of half-conscious words, then why does her semi-conscious brain think that US policy on Israel is the major cause violence in the world? Why is it that when people are not controlling their mouths, antisemitic nonsense seems to come out?

What is the major cause of bitter division and vilence in the world?

Poverty? The fact that a proportion of people in the world don't have enough food to eat? The fact that millions of people who are suffering with HIV and AIDS don't have access to proper drugs?

Misogeny and homophobia? The fact that in many parts of the world women are excluded from public life and from legal citizenship? The huge plague of violence against women and against Gay and Lesbian people? The fact that many people think that homosexuality is a sin against God or some other kind of moral system?

Racism? Racism abounds accross the globe. In every country its narratives still gain traction. And there are all sorts of violent and institutional manifestations of racism that cause violence and misery. Included are, of course, racism against Muslims and Arabs, as well as racism against Jews.

Mass killing or ethnic cleansing? The fact that in Darfur the killing and ethnic cleansing has recently been accelerated, forcing a number o NGOs and UN personnel to leave? Hundreds of thousands of black Muslim Africans have been killed and millions pushed out of their homes in the last two years in Sudan. Mass killing and ethnic cleansing in Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia in the 90s? Mass killing and ethnic cleansing in the "Democratic" Republic of Congo?

House demolitions and human rights abuses? The fact that tens of thousands of homes have been bulldozed by the Mugabe regime in the last three months and people pushed out of their homes to begin the desparate work of staying alive?

Religious fundamenalist movements? Racist and murderous religious fundamentalist movements have been growing and strenthening around the world in the last two or three decades. Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Jewish religious movements which have been attempting to take political power around the world have caused huge division and violence in the world.

Military occupation, settling and the denial of statehood? Tibet is under Chinese military occupation - and the Chinese state has been running a campaign over a number of decades to settle Tibet with people with the correct ethnicity for their purposes. Chechnya has been under military occupation by Russian forces for many decades and hundreds of thousands of Chechens have been killed during the Russian "war against terror" there. Turkey, Iran and Iraq have been occupying Kurdistan for many decades, hundreds of thousands of Kurds and denying Kurdish claims for self-determination.

But no. Claire Short says that the single greatest cause of bitter division and violence in the world is "US backing for Israeli policies of expansion of the Israeli state and oppression of the Palestinian people.

1 This implies that Israel is not really responsible for its own actions. It is US backing that is the problem not Israel's actions.

2 This implies that the USA is the greatest force for evil in our world and that Israel (and the Jews that support it) are at the very vanguard of this global imperialism.

3 This implies that the crimes committed by those who are "anti-Zionist" are the responsibility of United States support for Israel. Indeed all other evils in the world are often held, in this framework, to be nothing but epiphenomena of (or 'blowback' from) US policy.

Certainly Israel's occupation of the West Bank (although not Gaza, where Rachel died) continues to be a major cause of division and violence. But to claim that this local ethnic and territorial dispute is the major problem on the globe is a absurd.

Clare Short does not criticise Israeli policy. Instead she makes a huge global claim that puts Israel at the very fulcrum of global violence and division. Why, Clare, do you pick on the Jewish state?