I just read a very interesting opinion piece by John Pilger on the M&G website. It's available online at http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=309403&area=/insight/insight__international/. In it, Pilger argues that Israel is slowly trying to suffocate Palestine. I first noticed the article because it was written by Pilger, and it certainly lived up to the man's reputation.
His writing plays on the emotions, with a detailed description of what it's like to live in Palestine at the moment. Now, I'm a bit sceptical about all this emotionalism, but Pilger makes it work really well towards his argument. The other thing I noticed about the piece is that although it was commentary, it was backed up by plenty of facts and statistics. I was particularly impressed by what he dug up about Israel having previously supported Hamas to fragment the Palestinian liberation movement. This showed me how an opinion piece can be far more effective if a fair amount of hard evidence is given for the opinion.
Nevertheless, it is clearly an opinion piece: I think Pilger is rather one-sided in criticising the Israelis' intent to destroy Palestine, while accepting at face value what he hears about Hamas being ready to make moves that would effectively recognise Israel. Still, it's an excellent expression of his opinion and a persuasive argument for it.
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