In a month, Jacob Heilbrunn’s book on the neoconservatives, They Knew They Were Right, will be published by Doubleday. I’m reviewing it for the American Conservative, and Doubleday gave me permission to quote the following.
One of Heilbrunn’s scores is a letter he found in the New York Times in 1969, attacking the Nixon Administration for putting pressure on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. The letter was a highly-informed but extremist rant against the State Department going back to John Foster Dulles, and blaming the State Department’s tilt toward the Arabs in the Suez crisis in ‘56 for creating the conditions of the ‘67 War.
It is appalling the State Department can be so blind to historical precedent as to call for a withdrawal from the captured area. [i.e., not "occupied"] There is no evidence to indicate that Nasser’s "pledge on peace" will prove any more sincere in 1969 than in 1956…. [Secy of State Wm.] Rogers’s proposal is paving the way for another disastrous war between the Arab states and Israel in the near future…
The writer was 15-year-old Douglas Feith, now a neocon and architect of the Iraq disaster. In an interview with Heilbrunn, the neocon mastermind dismissed the letter as "juvenilia." But Heilbrunn sees it as sincere, and says that Feith’s "views were already set in stone as a youth."
Move on from Feith to Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who is a year or so older. In high school, Friedman writes in From Beirut to Jerusalem, he became a devotee of the Jewish Agency in Israel– and spent all three summers in high school on a kibbutz in Israel.
For my independent study project in my senior year… in 1971, I did a slide show on how Israel won the Six-Day War. For my high school psychology class, my friend Ken Greer and I did a slide show on kibbutz life, which ended with a stirring rendition of "Jerusalem of Gold" and a rapid-fire montage of strong-eyed, idealistic-looking Israelis of all ages. In fact, high school for me, I am now embarrassed to say, was one big celebration of Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War….
It would be hard to think of two men who played a more significant role in pushing the Iraq war than Feith and Friedman. Both at heart romantics about Israel, they both invoked Israel’s security in justifying the disastrous invasion. Isn’t it high time that American Jews who weren’t singing Hatikvah in high school got involved in Middle East policy?
Related posts:
- MSM Should Take Feith Off Blacklist–and Expose the Zealotry He Does His Utmost to Conceal for 674 Pages
- Semper Feith
- Doug Feith Has the Best Reasons in the World to Be a Zionist, But Is Too Afraid to Own It
- Where Is Jeffrey Goldberg Now That Feith Needs Him?
- Feith’s Son Is More Straightforward About Neocon ‘Domino’ Theory Than Feith Pere
{ 31 comments }
I thought that Friedman opposed the US invasion.
From a 2003 interview with Friedman in the Forward–
"But the vast majority of kids, they're just going to the coast, Charlie, when it comes to Israel. They're drifting away. I see this… when I grew up in Minneapolis, I went to Israel. I lived on a kibbutz all three summers of high school. I grew up in a post '67 era. And Israel was central to my life as it was to all my friends. A lot of us went to Israel together. Today I'm probably the only one of my friends who is STILL EMOTIONALLY INVOLVED IN ISRAEL."
http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.06.06/news3b.html
I don't think there is anything wrong with being emotionally involved with Israel, but I don't think it's a good idea to make such a person Middle East correspondent for America's newspaper of record — it just might tend to bias the coverage a little. (By the way, it was executive editor and ultra-Zionist Abe Rosenthal who made Friedman the paper's first Jewish correspondent to the area. Before that, common sense had prevailed.)
" . . .the paper's first Jewish correspondent to the area. Before that, common sense had prevailed.)"
So "common sense" procludes making a Jew a news correspondent to Israel? What other professions would you like to see them banned from David?
"I thought that Friedman opposed the US invasion."
Richard, that explains how you've been able to argue that there wasn't any Jewish push behind the war — you just weren't paying attention.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/18/friedman/index.html
Scroll down to what James Bamford mentions about fifth columnist (Israel first) JINSA/PNAC/AEI Neocons Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser and their the 'A Clean Break'/war for Israel agenda that they had co-written for Netanyahu (from pages 261-269/321 of 'A Pretext for War' at the following URL):
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=28769
The paperback version of 'A Pretext for War' includes an additional section about the ongoing AIPAC espionage case as Stephen Green is mentioned (can look him up in the index) as the FBI used him as a consultant for the various articles and books that he had written to include the following 'Serving Two Flags' piece:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/nc-green.html
The AIPAC case is mentioned as well in the following piece by Bamford:
Iran: The Next War:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/10962352/iran_the_next_war
Be sure to access the 'The Lie Factory' piece at the following URL for more about JINSA Israel firsters Feith, Perle and company:
http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0213-20.htm
Even Colin Powell conveyed (for Washington Post correspondent) Karen DeYoung's bio book about him that the 'JINSA crowd' was/in control of the Pentagon (scroll down to the link at the following URL):
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=49800
Click on Newt Gingrich's pic at the following URL:
http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.BLOGSPOT.COM
AIPAC Pushing US to War with Iran (for Israel):
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2007/10/re-aipac-is-pushing-us-to-war-with-iran.html
Newt Gingrich Progandist for Israel:
Thinking about Neoconservatism:
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2007/11/talking-about-neoconservatism.html
Since Phil is writing another piece for the American Conservative, we can't forget this golden piece:
Whose War (Israel's War!):
http://www.amconmag.com/03_24_03/cover.html
Obama caves to pressure from Israel firsters over Mearsheimer/Walt book
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?p=403185#403185
To Thomas Friedman's credit, he made me aware what the Bush people were in fact up to – beside their stated claim to 'disarm Saddam'. He wrote on Feb. 6th, 2003 (International Herald Tribune):
"The breathtaking audacity of what they intend to do in Iraq – an audacity that, I must say, has an appeal to me – they are gearing up for the rebuilding of Iraq, along the lines of the rebuilding of Germany and Japan after World War II.
… simultaneously promoting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Almost a quarter million views for the following youtube video!:
Video that gets to the Israel question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1bm2GPoFfg
The Gorilla in the Room is US Support for Israel
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2005/08/gorilla-in-room-is-us-support-for.html
SCANDAL: 9/11 Commissioners Bowed to Pressure to Suppress Main Motive for the 9/11 Attacks:
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/09/reviews-of-without-precedent-inside.html
Additional at the following URL:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=39590
I guess I misread his comments.
That quarter-million-view video that NOMOREWAR linked to above about the motivation of the 9/11 hijackers is indeed a good one. And the Representative Press blogspot has been doing a great job focusing on this issue and getting all the evidence together in one place. More than any other topic, this really goes to the heart of the problem with the lobby. It's one thing to let one's personal sympathies color your analysis of the world — we all do that — but when you deny the American people the right to know the reasons for their tragedy, that's a whole other ball game.
BTW, our Mr. Friedman played an important role in this concealment. Friedman joined with the neocons in repeatedly claiming, "the fact is that bin Laden never focused on this issue. He only started talking about "Palestine" after September 11, when he sensed that he might be losing the support of the Arab street." Anyone who has read the collections of al Qaeda communiques that have been compiled will know this is a bald-faced lie. In fact, bin Laden’s very first public statement–released December 29, 1994–directly addressed the Palestinian issue. And it's been a recurrent theme in every single subsequent message. MEMRI didn't tell us this. Even the preliminary version of the 9/11 report (not released to the public) concluded that "The al-Qeada leader wanted to punish the United States for supporting Israel."
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/12/thomas-friedman-is-truly-one-of-most.html
Does any of you know if the guy on the left at 00:54
in the NOMOREWAR video is Michael Scheuer from CIA?
This Michael Sheuer, I mean.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ohz0omUjIE
"The al-Qeada leader wanted to punish the United States for supporting Israel."
Yes, and the Israelis knew that.
On Sep. 11th, 2001 a friend called me: "turn on the TV, look what's happening in New York" she told me. I didn't turn on the TV but got on Haaretz.com. They had the running news line "Attack on WTC and the Pentagon" and they said this: 'Osama Bin Laden had announced some months ago that because of America's military support for Israel there would be an event that the world will not forget.'
The wording may have been a little different. But Haaretz named Bin Laden and his rationale for the attack: America's support for Israel.
"Haaretz.com. They had the running news line "Attack on WTC and the Pentagon" and they said this: 'Osama Bin Laden had announced some months ago that because of America's military support for Israel there would be an event that the world will not forget."
And this, children, is what we call an Internet hoax. Check this out:
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/soapbox/juvalaviv.asp
Michael Scheuer is shown in this youtube:
"Sit Down!" The Power to Silence
Leo Braudy says there's only a few minutes left YET he finds time for himself to ask two more questions! When does a panel discussion ever end, go to the Q and A and THEN go back to the moderator asking even more questions of the panel? (when you want to serve Israel's agenda)
It is depraved to deny the main motive for the 9/11 attacks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7EB1FxENxQ
All one has to do is look up 'Israel: as terrorist's motivation' in the index of James Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book to see how US Support for Israel's brutal oppression of the Palestinian people was the PRIMARY MOTIVATION for the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and on 9/11 (but the Israel first US media won't tell US such!), and look up 'CBS News' in the index of the Mearsheimer/Walt book (www.israellobbybook.com) as well.
Check out the 'White Man's Burden' piece via the following URL to see who brought US the Iraq war (with Iran on deck) for Israel:
http://tinyurl.com/8uf6
Be sure to also read Kevin MacDonald's 'Thinking about Neoconservatism' piece and his 'Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement' monograph both of which are linked near the top of the following URL:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=32606
Dr. Stephen Sniegoski is also coming out with a book ('The Transparent Cabal') which can currently be pre-ordered via Amazon.com as he wrote the 'Israeli Origins of Bush II's War' which is linked at the following URL:
http://www.itszone.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=33763
This Dutch documentary (in English) about AIPAC and similar is a MUST WATCH as well:
The Israel Lobby. Portrait of a Great Taboo
AIPAC's Push for War with Iran:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6SQ02gqqao
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-declare-jihad-against-us_10.html
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2005/09/no-other-motivation-no-other.html
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/05/dishonesty-about-911-motives-robs.html
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/07/msms-continuing-game-serving-israel.html
Yes Klaus, that information was reported by Reuters on the day of 9/11. Some news outlets reported it, many didn't or after initially reporting it, they later left out the reference to Israel.
But Reuters did in fact report the motive was US support for Israel, with this wording: "Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on U.S. interests FOR ITS SUPPORT OF ISRAEL, an Arab journalist with access to him said Tuesday."
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2007/12/expert-bin-laden-warned-of.html
Kyle, you are referring to something else. What Klaus saw on TV came from the newswires on that day, it was no "rumor."
Yes Klaus, that information was reported by Reuters on the day of 9/11. Some news outlets reported it, many didn't or after initially reporting it, they later left out the reference to Israel.
But Reuters did in fact report the motive was US support for Israel, with this wording: "Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on U.S. interests for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist with access to him said Tuesday."
http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2007/12/expert-bin-laden-warned-of.html
Kyle, you are referring to something else. What Klaus saw on TV came from the newswires on that day, it was no "rumor."
Jewish Groups Fearing Backlash When Iran is Attacked Next for Israel:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2007/03/194658_comment.php
http://www.forward.com/articles/groups-fear-public-backlash-over-iran/
Edwards is owned by the pro-Israel lobby as well(look what he said against Iran in Israel despite what he says for public consumption in the USA):
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Edwards_Iran_must_know_world_wont_0123.html
This "'Sit Down!' The Power to Silence Part 2" from NOMOREWAR is quite interesting (my internet connection even crashed right after it ended!) Indeed is quite instructive to see an agent of a foreign country like Jeffrey Goldberg in action. He sounds almost wittyan in his deception efforts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7EB1FxENxQ
The Scheuer testimony interpolated to counter-argue Goldberg seems to be of later making. I still think the guy on the left at 00:54 in the first video is a younger Michael Scheuer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1bm2GPoFfg
"a people who have been ghettoized"
Looking at some of the Amazon reviews on "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" we see some people are slowly getting to understand what the ghettoized thing is all about.
Review by Randy Keehn:
"The interactions of the two societies; rural Middle-America and Orthodox Jewish, did not go well in little Postville. The author ends up taking sides but only after a seemingly thorough attempt to hear both sides out. I was surprized at the aloofness of the Jews in their new surroundings. I knew that the local citizens would have done at least a reasonable job of making them feel at home if they had been given a chance. I found myself having to realize a different perspective on Orthodox Jews. I have read just about every book written by Isaac B. Singer and Sholom Aleichem. I love the stories of the Jewish societies in Eastern Europe in the decades prior to WWII. I always assumed that little mention was made of the Goyim because the Goyim didn't want anything to do with the Jews. I now realize that there was a likely, unspoken, opposite point of view in which the Jews wanted nothing to do with the Goyim."
Alison Weir (of ifamericansknew.org) wrote:
In case you missed it, you might like to view our 4-minute video, "Jeffrey Goldberg, Pundit for Israel,":
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/about_us/goldberg.html which gives some important background on this Middle East "expert." We are happy to send DVDs to people who will distribute them in their communities, since we feel it's extremely important to disseminate this information to the general public.
(To watch the video just click on the various options until you find one that works on your computer. If none work, we can mail you the DVD, particularly if you'll then pass it on or show it to others.)
Former '60 Minutes' Star Joins List of Those Alleging Dual Loyalty Re Israel
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/11/former-60-minut.html
Here is a tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/227g4q
ISRAEL AND TOP ZIONIST LEADERS ATTACK INTELLIGENCE:
http://tinyurl.com/ysrgpc
Letters to the Editor of the Daily Princestonian by Mearsheimer/Walt & retired CIA analyst Bill Christison
http://tinyurl.com/2jekk2
One of the posts here gave a link to the film on Jeffrey Goldberg, a contributor to CNN on Hezbollah and also a writer appearing in the New Yorker. There is a story about his having taken Israeli citizenship at an early age, and having served in the IDF, also as a prison guard at a camp housing Palestinians. The narrator at "If Americans only Knew" presents a Palestinian Christian, a physicist, once a prisoner at the same camp where Goldberg served as a guard. The man describes a situation in which the prisoners were told to build an expansion of the prison. In refusing to do this, as a group, they were dealt with by the Israeli guards by asking for spokesmen to come forward. When two men did, they were summarily shot dead in front of the others so that the slave labor could proceed.
I know what Jews went through in the Holocaust, and I would never deny it. It seems that some of them have adopted the techniques of their own oppressors ("Bottom rail, top rail now"), but not towards Germans. Jeffrey Goldberg surely knew what he was participating in could be construed as war crimes. But now he has with other neocons justified the entire US leadership's role in similar things.
Naomi Wolf in Huffington Post has called for resistance to the slide towards fascism in the US, some of it signalled by the leadership's approval of torture. While this is important to consider, what is also important is the American electorate's largely negative attitude towards these things.
I have long believed that we were rushed into this type of behavior (which we learned from long experience with the false confessions coming out of Asia — North Korea and China — was always going to produce confessions to order). I felt that the American public was like a bystander to a crime in which the criminal would plant evidence implicating it. Now there are two nations in the "First World" which condone these techniques, not just one lonely one. Is this an accident or have the Jeffrey Goldberg's helped to bring it about?
Is this about the defense of the Israeli people? Or is it about excusing their leaders' crimes? And how does this apply to the United States? If you cannot ask the question, perhaps it is because you have been too long "worked on".
It is not anti-American to criticize the leadership of the US. Nor is it anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish to criticize the leadership of Israel. In fact, it is goodwill and love which corrects the wrong-doer.
Such embarassment which occurs will soon pass if those making the critique isolate the bad behavior. Otherwise, we stand there, covered in the ill-gotten contraband, guilty by association.
One of the posts here gave a link to the film on Jeffrey Goldberg, a contributor to CNN on Hezbollah and also a writer appearing in the New Yorker. There is a story about his having taken Israeli citizenship at an early age, and having served in the IDF, also as a prison guard at a camp housing Palestinians. The narrator at "If Americans only Knew" presents a Palestinian Christian, a physicist, once a prisoner at the same camp where Goldberg served as a guard. The man describes a situation in which the prisoners were told to build an expansion of the prison. In refusing to do this, as a group, they were dealt with by the Israeli guards by asking for spokesmen to come forward. When two men did, they were summarily shot dead in front of the others so that the slave labor could proceed.
I know what Jews went through in the Holocaust, and I would never deny it. It seems that some of them have adopted the techniques of their own oppressors ("Bottom rail, top rail now"), but not towards Germans. Jeffrey Goldberg surely knew what he was participating in could be construed as war crimes. But now he has with other neocons justified the entire US leadership's role in similar things.
Naomi Wolf in Huffington Post has called for resistance to the slide towards fascism in the US, some of it signalled by the leadership's approval of torture. While this is important to consider, what is also important is the American electorate's largely negative attitude towards these things.
I have long believed that we were rushed into this type of behavior (which we learned from long experience with the false confessions coming out of Asia — North Korea and China — was always going to produce confessions to order). I felt that the American public was like a bystander to a crime in which the criminal would plant evidence implicating it. Now there are two nations in the "First World" which condone these techniques, not just one lonely one. Is this an accident or have the Jeffrey Goldberg's helped to bring it about?
Is this about the defense of the Israeli people? Or is it about excusing their leaders' crimes? And how does this apply to the United States? If you cannot ask the question, perhaps it is because you have been too long "worked on".
It is not anti-American to criticize the leadership of the US. Nor is it anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish to criticize the leadership of Israel. In fact, it is goodwill and love which corrects the wrong-doer.
Such embarassment which occurs will soon pass if those making the critique isolate the bad behavior. Otherwise, we stand there, covered in the ill-gotten contraband, guilty by association.
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