Lately Obama has hired Dennis Ross to be his cicerone in the Middle East. This is disastrous, and one can only hope that it is a political shell game Obama is playing, to placate Jewish leadership while doing the right thing by the Palestinians. For Dennis Ross's remarkable staying power thru Republican and Democratic administrations demonstrates the strength of the lobby in our political life. Ross should have been history long ago...
Back in 1991 Ross was the main Middle East negotiator for George Bush when Bush tried to serve the American interest in the Middle East by putting a stop to the illegal settlements in the West Bank by placing conditions on loan guarantees the Israelis had sought from the U.S. to build housing for Russian immigrants. The Israelis assured Bush through Ross that they would accept the restrictions. Ross vouched for Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to George Bush. Then Shamir continued building settlements, making Bush look like a fool. Ross was in the middle. He indicates in his book on the "peace process," The Missing Peace, that George Bush felt that Ross had misled him. You might think that a president who feels misled by an aide would fire the aide. You'd be wrong.
Bush needed Ross more than Ross needed Bush. In fact, the following year, 1992, Ross was out there campaigning for Bush in the Jewish community, telling them that it was Bush's "achievement" that the settlements had continued (Clayton Swisher reports in The Truth About Camp David). Bill Clinton also assured the Jewish community about the settlements in that election. Where is the American interest???
Then when Bush lost, a defeat he has apparently ascribed in part to Jewish opposition, Ross got hired by Bill Clinton as a kind of super-negotiator, a "non-Arabist" special negotiator within the State Department. Later Aaron David Miller would say that Ross's negotiating team, which was overwhelmingly Jewish, served as "Israel's lawyer" at the Camp David process that ended in failure, and intifadah.
Why did this man keep his job after he
had helped to undermine the president on an important foreign policy
initiative? Why did this man then get a bigger job from the next
president, who had beat his former boss of a different party? Why after failing that president is Ross now getting the nod from Obama? The
answer is that Ross has his own constituency that in some ways is more
powerful than the President: he has the trust of the Israelis and with
that the trust of the American Jewish leadership. Both Bush and Clinton
sought the loyalty that Ross commanded. Now Obama is doing the same.
P.S. The Prime Minister who kept building settlements, Shamir, is widely believed to be behind the 1948 murder of U.N. negotiator Folke Bernadotte. Shamir was a young terrorist, seeking a Greater Israel; Bernadotte was for an internationalized Jerusalem (as this Yale Press book by Bernard Wasserstein shows). A terrorist resume never hurt an Israeli politician in these parts. This is the heart of the American problem in Israel/Palestine: we have again and again been complicit with those who seek territorial expansion. J Street's recent poll of Jewish opinion, in which American Jews overwhelmingly say that Jerusalem must not be divided, demonstrates the problem. If the media would only begin to cover the politics of a divided Jerusalem, they might at last separate Barney Frank from Douglas Feith, Lester and James Crown from Sheldon Adelson. It is essential to the Jewish community, and to American politics, that Jews begin to gain some human awareness on this issue.
Will someone explain to me why a majority of Jews are willing to condemn the West Bank settlements (I think this is true, am I right?) while a majority also wants an "undivided" Jerusalem?
Why do Jews think Jerusalem is more sacred to them than to Arabs (Dome of the Rock) or to Christians (site of Jesus's crucifixion).
Are they worried that an international city will end up preventing them from going to their holy places? Or what?
I need to understand this so that I can argue against it.
American Jews provide further demonstration as to their ultimate loyalties as reported in today's JTA story about US Jews mourning (Israeli) soldiers. "Last year, Flaum came up with the idea of placing three empty chairs in synagogues on the High Holidays, a practice that was widely adopted around the country."
No doubt there are plenty of American military MIAS/POWS whom the American Jewish Community might choose to remember but instead our they choose to remember their own Israeli soldiers. It's time to end the charade of generalized Jewish loyalty to America. Outside of a few honorable Jews such as our blogmaster, Phil, most of the rest need to be sent home(to Israel) ASAP. Once our diplomatic affairs are restored to the steady hands of real Americans and away from Dennis Ross, Americans might actually have some hope of obtaining a foreign policy which asserts our interests rather than Israeli interests.
i wish someone would explain to me exactly how the control of the media works. does the editor of the nytimes just know what not to print? does he need to have it spelled out? do the journalists at various news organs just know or have they been told what to write , what to find out about, what not to find out about? are they all craven? every one of them? not one get sick of it and comes out on a blog somewhere and tells the truth about their job? does it all work on fear? that every journalist in the country is afraid of losing his job? this is something that phil could explain i think.
i wish someone would explain to me exactly how the control of the media works. does the editor of the nytimes just know what not to print? does he need to have it spelled out? do the journalists at various news organs just know or have they been told what to write , what to find out about, what not to find out about? are they all craven? every one of them? not one get sick of it and comes out on a blog somewhere and tells the truth about their job? does it all work on fear? that every journalist in the country is afraid of losing his job? this is something that phil could explain i think.
i wish someone would explain to me exactly how the control of the media works. does the editor of the nytimes just know what not to print? does he need to have it spelled out? do the journalists at various news organs just know or have they been told what to write , what to find out about, what not to find out about? are they all craven? every one of them? not one get sick of it and comes out on a blog somewhere and tells the truth about their job? does it all work on fear? that every journalist in the country is afraid of losing his job? this is something that phil could explain i think.
It has become clear in recent years that the entire Oslo process was a charade that allowed the expansion of the West Bank settlements. This culminated in the Camp David meeting where it was officially announced by Clinton that the entire failure lie with the PLO so Barak could go home and say there was no one to talk to. Ross is probably more responsible than any other individual in orchestrating this charade on Israel's behalf but the ultimate responsibility resides with Clinton. He was the one who permitted this mole to guide policy.
One mystery to me is why Clinton has never been held to account for this failed policy that led directly to the second intifata? Only on the marginalized left and libertarian right has this story been told. Progressives and liberals within the Democratic party, progressive blogs and normally sensible intellectual outlets have either ignored or even praised Clinton's role in this disasterous policy. Indeed, in recent years Bush is being blamed since he abandoned the charade and put US policy openly and honestly in the Isael camp.
I don't think we can ever have an open discussion on our ME policy until Clinton's failures are critically dissected. But to repeat it remains a puzzle why this dialogue has not really begun.
Re Peters triple posted question. There's a very good book on Israel Palestine by Richard Ben Kramer, published several years ago. He's an American Jew, liberal, talented. He used to cover the Mid East for the Philadelphia Inquirer. His reporting produced tons of hostile complaint from the organized, letter writing Jewish community. His paper stood by him (I think) and it surely didn't hurt that he was Jewish. But the "Israel is always right"faction can make a lot noise, some of it linked to advertising, and most publishers simply don't care enough about the issue to swim against that tide. Until and unless there is a roughly equal amount of countervailing pressure, backed up by implicit economic pressure, most editors or publishers will make the "practical" business decision.
I think the death of Rabin has to be taken into account in Israeli history. I think he meant to work towards a workable two state solution, which is why he was killed by Jewish extremists. Policy, both Israeli and American, changed immediately afterwards.
For the record, Saddat was killed by Egyptian extremists for the peace accord he signed with Israel, but the Egyptian policy did not change.
Hence, terrorism proved effective in Israel and the US. A little remarked fact.
As for Dennis Ross… so why support Obama again? Really??
Al Gore's thesis is the big news.
I thought he didn't sell it as well as he could.
The advantages of renewable energy combined with system wide conservation efforts (not sacrifices in the slightest) include:
1. Reduction of imports in general (improved balance of trade)
2. Investment in domestic infrastructure
3. Reduction of dependance on foreign sources of fuel
4. Reduced particulate air pollution
5. Reduced carbon emissions
6. Cost reduction in unit price for fuels and electricity
7. Increase in domestic employment (both low and high skill)
8. Prospect of lower taxes on earned income (tax shift to higher fuel/carbon tax)
9. Less requirement of military preparedness and execution
10. Permanent reduction in inflation resulting from fluctuating energy costs
11. Stabilization of food costs
GIANT. To the point.
Building on some of the above:
The central problem with Ross is that his position guarantees – or at least strongly suggests – that there will be no rethink about the settlements-accepting offers made at Camp David and Taba. We need a break from the previous accommodation of Jewish colonial chauvinism. We won't get it with Ross.
"6. Cost reduction in unit price for fuels and electricity."
Taxing fossil fuels to make wild, solar and biofuels competitive with them drives up the cost of everything, including food. Sill I'd like to see Bush take all the money he plans to use to bomb Iran and use it to build windmills in Texas. The electricity produced will be wildly overpriced but that's still better than what you get from bombs which is nothing at all.
Check out the America first patriot who cleaned the clock of Dennis Ross for his association with AIPAC in the 'What Motivated the 9/11 Hijackers?' youtube linked at the right of http://neoconzionistthreat.com and http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com as well.
There is no american interest in the equation of the american jewish pro zionist community….they will ride the american horse into the ground without any consideration of the consequenses for doing so.
its a toxic relationship and it will end sadly.
.
"Lately Obama has hired Dennis Ross to be his cicerone in the Middle East. This is disastrous."
If Ross is the one advising Obama to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, it sure as hell is disastrous.
Obama already resembles Lyndon Johnson, entering the presidency with Great Society notions, but stepping into the deep dog-doo of a briar-patch foreign war.
You heard it here first: Obama is going to be a one-term president. And I don't think this is a result that can be blamed on the Jews: Obama is smart enough to know better. But he bit the bait and got reeled in before even being elected. Hungrier, or just more pliable, than the average fish in the sea?
Obama's trajectory: link to jpost.com
OT: The touchy irony of when zionists act like Goebbels
GENEVA (AP) — Some pre-negotiation jabbing turned into a potentially damaging diplomatic incident Saturday when Brazil's foreign minister said rich countries' deception in trade talks reminded him of tactics used by Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
His comments drew a sharp rebuke from the United States, whose chief trade negotiator, Susan Schwab, is the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors. Her spokesman described the reference to Goebbels as "incredibly wrong."
The controversy threatens to overshadow next week's last-ditch effort to save seven years of frustrating talks on a new global trade pact toward alleviating poverty around the world.
…
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said the U.S., Europe and other wealthy economies have so frequently misrepresented the talks launched in Qatar's capital in 2001 that public perception has become totally warped.
"Goebbels used to say if you repeat a lie several times it becomes a truth," Amorim told reporters at the World Trade Organization, where top negotiators from over two dozen countries are expected Monday for the official start of the talks.
Poorer countries have demanded cuts in the farm tariffs and subsidies used by wealthy countries, saying they hinder Third World development. In exchange, rich countries have insisted on better market access in developing countries for their manufacturers and service providers.
…
In an interview with the AP, Amorim's spokesman Ricardo Neiva Tavares said the minister "regrets if Susan Schwab or anyone else was upset by his comments on a historical fact. He certainly did not intend to hurt anyone's feelings, which he deeply respects."
[emphasis mine]
.
I'm having a bumper sticker made:
AFGHANISTAN: OBAMA'S VIETNAM
His endorsement of escalating this lost war foretells the next four years in advance: continued collapse of the dollar; ongoing weakness in the economy; progressive slide of the U.S. into "Third World Nuclear Power" status.
As can be inferred from Charles Keating's link to M.J. Rosenberg's piece in the JPost, even Jewish-billionaire businesses will find their growth rate handicapped as the hoi polloi sink into destitution. And the highly-leveraged ones, like Gaming King Sheldon Adelson, may even segue into bankruptcy.
Afghanistan whipped the Soviet Union. And it'll whip the pansy-ass likes of Barack Obama, too.
May Harvard grads Bush and Obama (a/k/a 'Bush in Blackface') end up homosexual lovers in hell. Obama on top — that's the way George likes it! LOL
'Why did this man keep his job after he had helped to undermine the president on an important foreign policy initiative? Why did this man then get a bigger job from the next president, who had beat his former boss of a different party?'
The same reason Kristol keeps his job, and Tom Friedman and the rest of the media fifth column. Ken Pollack anyone? The same reason Bernard Lewis gets treated like some sort of sage. The same reason stupid Doug Feith got his undeserved plums. And Ross is hardly the Lone Ranger in his area either; Martyn Indyk too keeps popping up in similar roles, pretending to be a neutral 'negotiator', oozing a reasonableness that is obviously only skin deep, if that.
Israel is the rider, America the horse. And whether the racing colours are red or blue matters not a whit. It is possible (and desirable) that Obama is playing a shell game; but people like Ross most certainly are. For sayanim like them, their whole hasbaric life is a Straussian shell game.
I see that Witty has picked up on Gore's conversation-changer from Zionism to Global Warming. Very astute. Didn't Gore's daughter marry a Schiff, scion of one of the Jewish-banker financiers of Lenin's Jewish Bolshevik revolution?
These money-worshipping/State-worshipping materialists are going down even faster than I ever thought possible…oh me of little faith. All their in-breeding has made them far too arrogant, blatant and idiotic.
It would be Christian of me to pray that God has mercy on their souls…
'the United States, whose chief trade negotiator, Susan Schwab, is the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors. Her spokesman described the reference to Goebbels as "incredibly wrong." '
So I guess now objection to "free trade" [read: slave labor] is anti-semitic. How convenient for the materialists.
And Weiss thinks we're living in a meritocracy where Jewish Zionists have ascended due to their innate intelligence. Did it ever occur that they are useful to the anti-Christian, New World Order materialist-worshipping class? That they are of same? Or is it just coincidence that "the daughter of Jewish Holocaust survivors" is Bushcon/Zionist-occupied Washington's chief trade negotiator?
Whatever.
In brief: Denis Ross is not the change we have been waiting for.
"6. Cost reduction in unit price for fuels and electricity
…
8. Prospect of lower taxes on earned income (tax shift to higher fuel/carbon tax)"
Feels a bit like a shift from direct to indirect taxes. (direct=person; indirect=on product bought)???
There are thought standards everywhere, I guess that reducing income taxes is such a story. It's gaining momentum over here too. As the model of shifting to indirect taxing often feels like a red herring.
I can't say I follow it too closely, but I think the same thing happened over here. Lowering of income taxes raising VAT, which of course only benefits non-employees, which can deduct VAT. For the sheeple's VAT means simply a raise in prices.
The rest is OK.
"There's a very good book on Israel Palestine by Richard Ben Kramer, published several years ago."
Nothing via Amazon, nothing via Google books no matter if I use: "Richard Ben Kramer" or "Richard B. Kramer".
Strange sometimes you only get certain author's books on Google if you know one titles. Which effectively filters out certain users:
How Israel Lost: The Four Question
"Richard Ben Kramer"
[hmmm? A feature mail to parallel to posting would be fine. Webster Tarpley again.]
or
"Richard B. Kramer"
How does this work? What is the bug?
Here is an excellent article by Tony Karon on Dennis Ross. He dissects Ross's racist/chauvinist line on talking with Hamas and the so-called "Muslim goal of domination", that Ross parrots..
link to wakeupfromyourslumber.com
There is no excuse for Obama's inclusion of Ross in his circle of advisors..
Its just more proof of Obama's embrace of the Lobby's zionist line..
The new relationship between Israel and the US will be in renewable energy technology and actual investment.
Saudi Arabia is a large potential beneficiary of the shift, in that it has ABUNDANT sun (more than it has oil) and ABUNDANT wind (also more than it has oil) – smaller concentrations of output but lasting over hundreds of thousands of centuries, rather than the 50 years of oil and natural gas.
Israel is the region's largest producer of photovoltaic, wind, and also water utilization technologies.
Isolating Israel HINDERS the prospects that the Arab states will survive, or dominate, the next era.
That Iran is putting its research time and effort into military technologies (based on oil and nuclear) rather than civilian, is a disaster.
Israel is not putting enough effort into renewables (living in crises rather than proposal), but it is networked to.
Another aspect of renewables that WILL appear as a social justice issue is "who owns the power?" (same as oil), and "who controls and benefits?"
It will demonstrate the same dynamics as any technology boom, but this time the finite resource that will fought and bribed over will be land ownership, access to the grid, and access to water.
Its already starting. The T Boone Pickens announcement of $300 billion in wind investment occurred AFTER he and others convinced the Texas legislature to subsidize the construction of a grid, to be transferred to private hands.
The late 90's deregulation of electricity and precedents put in place, will turn out to be the biggest story of the 21st century.
Everytime there is a genuinely socially needed investment in public infrastructure, private entities are relied on and rewarded for ponying up.
When, what we need are public assets, publicly owned, with the public benefitting, and managed in a just manner with sufficient accountability.
Less than functional isn't enough.
The Ross story, and others like it, are trivialities. They are ways to AVOID the elephant in the room, rather than addressing it.
They mistake a small story for a big one, and MISS the big one that really effects history.
"There is no excuse for Obama's inclusion of Ross in his circle of advisors..
Its just more proof of Obama's embrace of the Lobby's zionist line.."
I'd like to see how his Afghanistan plans would turn out in reality. Would he manage to get to the core of the Osama riddle, act on less biased intelligence, or revert to the same military collective shock an awe (we mean it: you better surrender), only shifting the main field to the perceived/real threat? Give people with integrity like Jack Lang more space???? Instead of fearing their expertise with the "Arab mind"/Asian mind?
Who suggested it???? Optimist Phil? But what exactly would happen if a) he made it, b) he had the most diverse group of advisers and the "neocon/lib" mindset has to fight it out against slightly more strong countervailing forces? The result "could" be a workable compromise.
My "mental" friends tend to like each other:
A Kristol-Odierno Meeting at Fort Hood?
@RWitty
Did you forget to put your Exelon today?
LeaNder, for your Amazon search, it's "Cramer," with a C.
The Dennis Ross world will keep their jobs or get new ones equally influential. Our elite schools are programmed for it, as they once were programmed against it. Shallow Christian holocaust guilt makes the medicine go down easily when coupled with more bucks in your pocket.
mr phil, read this post again and remember it:
"'Why did this man keep his job after he had helped to undermine the president on an important foreign policy initiative? Why did this man then get a bigger job from the next president, who had beat his former boss of a different party?'
The same reason Kristol keeps his job, and Tom Friedman and the rest of the media fifth column. Ken Pollack anyone? The same reason Bernard Lewis gets treated like some sort of sage. The same reason stupid Doug Feith got his undeserved plums. And Ross is hardly the Lone Ranger in his area either; Martyn Indyk too keeps popping up in similar roles, pretending to be a neutral 'negotiator', oozing a reasonableness that is obviously only skin deep, if that.
Israel is the rider, America the horse. And whether the racing colours are red or blue matters not a whit. It is possible (and desirable) that Obama is playing a shell game; but people like Ross most certainly are. For sayanim like them, their whole hasbaric life is a Straussian shell game."
Posted by:Glenn Condell | July 20, 2008 at 10:30 PM
Damn, Phil, this is a really astute lance. I aplaud you for your thrust. Will it land anywhere vibrant?
Ross was one of "Bakers Jewboys". Never liked the guy.
Yet another day goes by without a comment from Phil Weiss on his boy, Samir Kuntar. Hero to Phil Weiss and his merry band of storm troopers.
Greetings from stormtrooper 1222 to Pearlman.
Hmmm? Interesting. So the parties do not matter much on certain issues. The "best" man gets the job. How do you weave this into your larger elite perspective. Could best be relative, proving only the best adjustment to the rules? How is best related to power:
Political harmony v. the rule of law: an easy choice for the political establishment