An article in this week’s Observer about the unanimity among New York politicians in supporting Israel’s bombing of Lebanon (surprise) contains an important statement by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (who was a brave opponent of the Iraq war):
[Nadler] equated support for Israel at this moment with support for the country’s right to exist at all…”This reminds me very much of the first week of June 1967, and I’m very worried about it. That was the week before the Six Day War broke out..”
Is that a realistic attitude? No. Look how much has changed since ’67. Egypt and Jordan have signed peace agreements with Israel. Israel’s existence may have been at risk through the ’73 war (we can argue about that), but who can say that now? It is a regional hegemon. Syria and Israel have been very close to peace; and Syria is so poor Israel could walk into Damascus tomorrow. Saudi Arabia has said approving things of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Though yes Israel has an enemy in Iran, Iran—which by the way, used to be on the U.S. side in the war on terror, right up thru Afghanistan—is being faced down by the world. This latest fighting would seem to truly endanger the existence of Lebanon, not Israel.
Nadler’s emotional statements underscore what Henry Siegman told the Washington Post Magazine the other day:
“There’s a certain dynamic to organized Jewish life as to all so-called defense organizations created to protect a supposedly vulnerable group,” says Henry Siegman, who once served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress and now directs the U.S./Middle East project at the Council of Foreign Relations. “It creates a culture of victimhood, and it often attracts people who feel like they’re victims as well.”
As Michael Desch’s article on the “myth of abandonment” fostered by the Holocaust suggests, citing “existential” fears for Israel is an unconscious way of invoking the Holocaust to justify anything Israel does. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto had no nuclear weapons.
Interview with Walt & Mearsheimer in the oddly named 'Mother Jones':
http://www.motherjones.com/interview/2006/07/walt_mearsheimer.html
Having nuclear weapons does not mean that Israel is not going to be nuked. Iran is close to having a nuclear bomb, already has has the missiles to deliver it and has made threats that they are going to destroy Israel. Only a jerk-off like Weiss would not see the existentialist threat.
Philip,
Did you see this item in the American Prospect about why it's taken so long to evacuate American citizens in Beirut?:
Unbelievable!
My sources tell me that the deal to buy The Observer (
New York Observer Deal Won't Happen) tanked because of nonsense emanating from Phil Weiss' column. It's too bad the editorial staff let this happen.
more brickbats than bouquets:
Israelis renounce membership in world journalist federation
By Assaf Carmel, Haaretz, 20/07/2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741068.html
A group of Israeli journalists on Thursday renounced their membership in the International Federation of Journalists, after the organization's General Secretary refused to retract his condemnation of the Israel Defense Forces' bombing of the Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV station in Beirut. IFJ General Secretary Aiden White proposed coming to Israel to settle the dispute, but Israeli journalist and IFJ member Yaron Anosh told him that as long as the censure remained in effect, White would be unwelcome in Israel. The IDF attacked the Hezbollah's TV station shortly after it began its offensive in Lebanon last week. The IFJ said in a statement last weekend that the strike is "a clear demonstration that Israel has a policy of using violence to silence media it does not agree with." IFJ members in Israel demanded that the censure be lifted immediately and asked why the IFJ did not condemn Hezbollah for firing rockets at Israeli journalists. After the IFJ refused to nullify its condemnation, the six Israeli members announced their immediate resignation. "I have no intention of being a being a card-carrying member of an organization that would give a similar card to Hezbollah member, whether he is firing Katyusha or serving as the group's propaganda man at its TV station," Anosh said. "A terrorist is not a journalist, and if an international organization prefers to have terrorists as members ? then count us out." The IFJ on has also called on the IDF to explain an incident Wednesday in which troops opened fire on an Al-Jazeera TV news crew, injuring a technician. "First reports suggest that here was an unarmed media crew suddenly subject to an unprovoked attack by Israeli soldiers," IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said in a statement. "If true, it is an astonishing and terrifying example of targeting and the Israeli authorities must give an explanation as to how this happened."
To Peter H:
This isn't the first time an American president has endangered American citizens to avoid embarassing Israel. According to Wikipedia, 6th Fleet Rear Admiral Lawrence Geis twiced lauched carrier aircraft to defend the Liberty and twice had then called back by Robert McNamera. Not believing that the Secretary of Defense would willingly allow an American ship to be sunk, Admiral Geis asked for confirmation of the order. At this point Lyndon Johnson came on the line to say that he did not care if every man drowned and the ship sank, but that he would not embarrass his allies.
i am not sure its right to call the Hezzies terrorists. sure, thats how they got their start but they control territory.
what is the right word for a group like that? what are the intermediate steps between terrorists and a national government?
"My sources tell me that the deal to buy The Observer (New York Observer Deal Won't Happen) tanked because of nonsense emanating from Phil Weiss' column. It's too bad the editorial staff let this happen."
– and my sources tell me that your sources are imaginary, and that you are not a lawyer at all.
Peter W. Kaplan, the editor of The Observer, said, "It just didn't happen," adding, "Sometimes things just don't."
"Weiss' column and the idiotic comments that it attracts clearly did not fit the demographic that the investors were targeting", the source added.
A real lawyer would certainly know how to spell 'withheld'.
Aaron Klein, Jerusalem Bureau Chief for WorldNetDaily.com, reports that the British intelligence service MI6 has established that Hezbollah is poised to launch a new "rain of terror" on Israel (c"v) with rockets equipped with "dirty bomb" nose cones made of spent nuclear rods. (Arutz Sheva)
The source article for this seems to have been pulled from the WND website:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51170
Save The Observer- lose Weiss.
The source for the rather appalling allegation by Aaron Klein, about 'dirty bomb' missiles full of spent nuclear fuel being aimed at Tel Aviv, and so on, seems in fact to be an audio interview with the religious fascists of Arutz Sheva – not an article on WorldNetDaily:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=108010
A people which engages in this sort of black propaganda does not deserve much respect or support – and certainly is in no position to exercise quality control over its own press, which is hopelessly discredited by the mere existence of such shameless, genocidal, alarmist liars as Aaron Klein in its midst. The days are over when Jewish normality can include a conspiracy of silence about such things.
Phil,
In an reckless poker fashion, rumored, an Iranian general is in charge of the fighters in Lebanon now, running the show from Syria.
A tribunal can be already set up to try the criminal leaders of Iran.
The unholy ayatollah revolution following the Pahlevi tyranny is getting very aggressive.
Today Israel, tomorrow Lebanon, Kuwait. the United Arab Emirate will be the targets of their colonial ambition.
It is worse the Belgian plot against Kongo. and we still suffer from it.
Steven
hey, steven, you still don't get it – all this stuff about bloodthirsty iranians is bullshit.
meanwhile, there seems to be some egg upon the divine countenance today:
An official close to Israel's public relations campaign said that there was "no way" to spin the incident in a positive light…
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291980307&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull