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# Wed Jan 7 - Gaza, Economy, Greece
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/wed-jan-7-gaza-economy-greece/
- Published: 2009-01-07T23:01:03.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:42:34.000Z
- Author: Tony Curzon Price
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:49

Today was pretty Gaza-dominated on the site again. Over in the forums, Gaza-related threads are getting very long and heated. Just asn an example, [Iron Mike](http://forums.opendemocracy.net/node/47267?ref=opendemocracy.net) posted this one on Hamas being the blame for the war, and it now has 110 replies. I think that [Avi Shlaim's](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/israel-and-gaza-rhetoric-and-reality) devastating history of Israel's post-1947 treatment of Palestinians should be read by all those in that thread. It is very powerful to hear this story told by "someone who served loyally in the  
Israeli army in the mid-1960s and who has never questioned the legitimacy of  
the state of Israel within its pre-1967 [borders](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/middle%5Feast/03/v3%5Fisrael%5Fpalestinians/maps/html/six%5Fday%5Fwar.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net)."

We published on the economy too. [Godfrey Hodgson](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/an-end-and-a-beginning) celebrates the return of the economically powerful state, while [Simon Zadek](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/email/holding-to-account) sees the hope for real accountability in capital allocation mechanisms. Simon links the solution of the financial crisis and the environmental crisis: both are failures to hold the powerful to account for all the consequences of their actions. I hope Simon is right. I feel that the solutions may be less technocratic than he seems to suggest---redesigning incentive systems is unlikely without a firm purpose, and that needs a strong, positive vision to take hold. On that, we could do better.

 There is a very moving story of vision in[ Jane Gabriel's ](https://www.opendemocracy.net/article/a-closed-horizon)interview of legend film-maker Theo Angelopoulos. He is interesting on the riots ... but also on the optimism of his own generation: 

"  
I belong to an older generation, a generation that believed that  
change was possible, that it was possible to change the world, that it  
was possible to open up a new path. My generation believed that it was  
possible not only to dream of a new world, but also to turn dreams into  
realities. It didn't happen. I think we are all carrying the shadow of  
disappointment and failure. "

 But read to the end. It is brimming with hope.

We have a huge amount of good material coming in. That's one thing crises do -- send thinking people to write. We don't have the capacity to transform all of it into publishable material. Hat tip to the volunteers in the [publishing network](https://www.opendemocracy.net/our%5Fteam/pubnet) without whom output would slow to a trickle!

Oh ... and yesterday's intruder on the Gaza box. He's now written suggesting some writers we might like to commission. That's an improvement in method :)