Daniel Barenboim: ‘There can be no military solution’

Daniel Barenboim: ‘There can be no military solution’

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norman lebrecht

July 30, 2014

The maestro’s latest thoughts on the Middle East (auf Deutsch).

Read here.

 

barenboim chris2

Comments

  • Brian says:

    Hi Norman, I may be mistaken, but wasn’t this in The Guardian a few days ago?

  • suzanne says:

    Excellent. That one person writes “we Palestinians” and “we Israelis” is remarkable and sorely lacking elsewhere.

  • David says:

    For us non-German speakers, what does Barenboim propose as a solution, given that the Gazans’ elected representatives have in their charter not peaceful coexistence, but a state from sea to sea and the murder of all Jews?

    And what should Israel do in the meantime, not destroy the tunnels and weapons of those who are sworn to kill them and joyfully celebrate even the snatching of Jewish body parts?

    • Dan says:

      You are getting your solution to the Gaza problem. Israel plans to to level Gaza to a rubble pile and kill as many people as possible. I hope you are happy.

      • David says:

        Why would you think it makes me happy that civilians have died?

        Why would you think that Israel’s military goal is to kill as many people as possible?

        And if that were their goal, why have they endangered their own soldiers, many of whom have died as a result, in order to minimize collateral injury and death to civilians?

        Just yesterday, three soldiers died when entering a booby-trapped UNRWA clinic that had a tunnel entrance under it. Had they not thought of sparing the building, they would have blown it up first and not taken any chances.

  • Mervon says:

    Here is a link to Barenboim’s piece in the Guardian. I don’t speak German but would assume the sentiments to be similar to what Lebrecht linked from Hamburg. He is one of very few people (on either side) who offers another way out of the crisis. Pity that more do not listen to him.

    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/24/israelis-palestinians-losers-conflict-suffering-rights

    • Dan says:

      Tell this to the Hamas Symphony Orchestra.

    • David says:

      Perhaps instead of basing his opinions on his contacts with westernized palestinian intellectuals, Barenboim should read the Hamas Charter.

      Hamas is motivated by religion, not politics, which is why they see their mission as to murder all jews, no matter where they are found and to drive all Jews from the Islamic Caliphate they wish to set up, from sea to sea.

      No compromise permitted.

      Google Hamas Charter.

      It’s there in black and white.

      • anonymus says:

        Hamas ist motivated by religious extremism and dogmatism. So are the fraction of extremist zionists in Israel’s society. I fail to see the essential difference between the hate mongers on both sides.

        • David says:

          My point was that Barenboim frames this as political when Hamas themselves frame it as religious, saying that their religion requires that they slaughter all Jews and drive them from the Land of Israel. This means that they are not amenable to political solutions, except as an intermediate step to eventual slaughter of all Jews.

          It’s spelled out very clearly in their charter. Just Google it.

          Hamas and its charter are supported by the vast majority of Gaza’s and the West Bank’s population and have never renounced these parts of the Hamas Charter.

          So, one can believe Barenboim or one can believe that Gazans themselves.

  • Pamela Brown says:

    It seems to me the only solution is that the UN take over control of the entire area, remove all weapons, and start over.

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