Rage against Israel and rising support for Islamists in Egypt was page 1 in today's Times. Incredibly, Commentary Magazine promptly poohpoohed the story out of its insistence that the Gaza operation, like the Iraq one before it, is just peachy-keen. Talk about moral bankruptcy: "we have the best evidence yet of Israel’s success against Hamas: Hosni
Mubarak – the Middle East’s longest serving dictator after Qaddafi -
always bets on the winning horse."
Now here's the NBC News report on a demonstration in Egypt where people shout anti-Jewish slogans. The iconic moment:
While my cameraman shot footage of
plainclothes policemen beating and dragging some protesters away, the
building owner introduced me to his five-year old son, Ali, who was
fascinated by what was taking place on the street below.
"What’s your name?" I asked the boy in Arabic. He didn’t answer.
…I asked him if he was Palestinian. He didn’t reply.
"Are you Egyptian?" I asked.
"I am Hamas," little Ali said.
This, from a five-year old boy.
plainclothes policemen beating and dragging some protesters away, the
building owner introduced me to his five-year old son, Ali, who was
fascinated by what was taking place on the street below.
"What’s your name?" I asked the boy in Arabic. He didn’t answer.
…I asked him if he was Palestinian. He didn’t reply.
"Are you Egyptian?" I asked.
"I am Hamas," little Ali said.
This, from a five-year old boy.
The "Laughing Cow," as the man is known, is betting on Israel.
So did the Shah.
******************************************
UN Wants to Know If War Crimes Were Committed in Gaza
Friday 09 January 2009
by: Ahmed Abu Hamda and Dion Nissenbaum, McClatchy Newspapers
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – The U.N. high commissioner for human rights Friday called for an investigation of possible Israeli war crimes in Gaza as local residents told more gruesome tales about Israeli troops neglecting wounded civilians and the killing of unarmed Palestinians.
High Commissioner Navi Pillay noted the case of four boys who were rescued Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross from the side of their dead mother in a dwelling 100 yards from an Israeli military post. The Red Cross called the incident "shocking," and Pillay told the BBC that it "had all the elements of what constitutes a war crime."
Eyewitnesses interviewed by McClatchy correspondents, along with Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, described gruesome scenes in and near Gaza City.
Among them: the charred remains of a toddler that had been partially devoured by wild animals, reported by the Red Cross; and an infant bleeding to death in his mother's arms, reported to a McClatchy special correspondent; and an unarmed man allegedly shot dead by an Israeli soldier in front of his family, reported by a relative who spoke to a McClatchy special correspondent and a witness who was interviewed by an Israeli human rights group.
McClatchy staff reporters couldn't independently verify the alleged violations of international law because Israel has blocked foreign correspondents from entering Gaza……
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to truthout.org
The NBC News report on the Egyptian demonstrations is remarkable for not claiming "antisemitic" motivation. This may be a first in the American media.
However, it does still manage to talk of "anti-Jewish" slogans. Perhaps there were, but all the examples it quotes are of anti-Israeli slogans. (Perhaps Arabic speakers here could clarify whether there even is a distinction between the words for "citizen of the Jewish state" and "Jew".)
Did Witty retire from this blog?
Seems, quiet. I miss the sanctimonious drivel he'd spew. I miss his posts proclaiming a (unfounded) symmetry in the conflict.
Oh well!
******************************************
Israel's Cultural Warriors
A Music School Silenced in Gaza
By NADIA HIJAB
There was a music school in Gaza. It was just six months old. The 31 children aged seven to 11 could choose one of five instruments, including the guitar, oud (lute), and piano. Most of the 19 girls gravitated to the guitar and piano while many of the 12 boys showed a preference for the oud.
The school worked out of rented premises in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society building just across the street from the Preventive Security Forces compound in Gaza City. The compound was targeted in the first wave of Israeli bombardments on December 27, and twice more the next day. The five-story building was vaporized; a flat gravel surface is all that remains.
Like other buildings in the neighborhood, the Gaza Music School was shattered; window frames and doors were blown out, and holes were punched in the walls……
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to counterpunch.org
There is long term, consistent pattern of wilful damage to any building of social or cultural significance in Occupied Palestinian Territories.
This is so routine, its almost taken for granted. Any visit by army to a place like this will result in complete trashing of the place, irreversible damage to equipment and furnishings, and "marking" of the place by urinating and defecating soldiers is common.
Culture is a bond holding society together. Israeli prefer society destroyed, as its easier to control.
******************************************
Toto Information Awareness
Gaza and the Goon Squad Meet the Wizard
By RICHARD RHAMES @ counterpunch.org
COLLEAGUE: They’re (the Palestinians) all brainwashed, …. And they’re stupid, to begin with, but they’re brainwashed now. Stinking animals. They ought to drop the bomb right there, kill ‘em all right now…
IMUS: Well, the problem is we have (reporter) Andrea (Mitchell) there; we don’t want anything to happen to her.
COLLEAGUE: Oh, she’s got to get out. Andrea, get out and then drop the bomb and kill everybody.
Look at this. Animals. Animals!
Imus in the Morning, 11/12/04
Israel, the settler state, occupier, and chief recipient of US “foreign aid,” continues its grim work in Palestine’s Gaza Strip……
…..But there’s also something else at work here: The cultural tendency to regard the non-"Caucasian" world as quite simply less than human (LTH) — especially if these allegedly lower life forms have something we or our partners want, like oil or land. Arab people have long been in the LTH category. Demeaned as “camel jockeys,” “ragheads,” “sand-n***ers,” and “hagis,” we’ve murdered, maimed, and dispossessed millions of them in Iraq over decades with scarcely a thought or complaint except about what the project was costing us. And our imperial collaborator, Israel routinely slays children and practices ethnic cleansing in Palestine’s occupied territories, openly regarding those butchered as LTH…..
…It would be nice if such barbarous thinking was new to America, but it isn’t. Everyone knows of the charming and iconic “…Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Perhaps less is known of its author, the “devoted family man, sensitive and kind individual” L. Frank Baum……
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to counterpunch.org
I have read that there are units in the IDF composed of settlers and others of religious groups. Does anyone have more on this?
Here is a Haaretz article about the disintegration of the IDF. It often doesn't follow orders and has overviews different from the state.
link to haaretz.com
I thought Phil had linked to the Avi Shlaim article in the Guardian; can't find it.
I've pulled out three talking points from the closely argued, excellent piece. They might be useful for those cocktail party conversations when you're trying to push back against the propaganda.
http://bedouina.typepad.com/doves_eye/2009/01/refute-three-lies-about-gaza.html
one day americans will all rise up and say " we're all Hamas now"
why didnt the zionist care about the jews of europe in their hour of need?
why?
Rabbi Stephen Wise
As late as 1943, while the Jews of Europe were being exterminated in their millions, the U.S. Congress proposed to set up a commission to "study" the problem. Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was the principal American spokesperson for Zionism, came to Washington to testify against the rescue bill because it would divert attention from the colonization of Palestine.
This is the same Rabbi Wise who, in 1938, in his capacity as leader of the American Jewish Congress, wrote a letter in which he opposed any change in U.S. immigration laws which would enable Jews to find refuge. He stated:
"It may interest you to know that some weeks ago the representatives of all the leading Jewish organizations met in conference. … It was decided that no Jewish organization would, at this time, sponsor a bill which would in any way alter the immigration laws."
…"Our Shomer 'Weltanschauung,"' Hashomer Hatzair, December 1936. Originally published in 1917, Brenner, Zionism, p. 22.
I'm sure there's a plaque somewhere on one of the Holocaust Museum's wall in DC in memory of Rabbi Wise. Never Again.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul501.html
one day the u.s will wake up…and then zionism will have it's day in the court of american popular opinion.
on that day…the only ones in america defending the myth in the middle east will be the christian zionist.
Statement on H Res 34, Reaffirming the United States strong support for Israel, before the US House of Representatives, January 9, 2008
Madame Speaker, I strongly oppose H. Res. 34, which was rushed to the floor with almost no prior notice and without consideration by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The resolution clearly takes one side in a conflict that has nothing to do with the United States or US interests. I am concerned that the weapons currently being used by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza are made in America and paid for by American taxpayers. What will adopting this resolution do to the perception of the United States in the Muslim and Arab world? What kind of blowback might we see from this? What moral responsibility do we have for the violence in Israel and Gaza after having provided so much military support to one side?
As an opponent of all violence, I am appalled by the practice of lobbing homemade rockets into Israel from Gaza. I am only grateful that, because of the primitive nature of these weapons, there have been so few casualties among innocent Israelis. But I am also appalled by the longstanding Israeli blockade of Gaza – a cruel act of war – and the tremendous loss of life that has resulted from the latest Israeli attack that started last month.
There are now an estimated 700 dead Palestinians, most of whom are civilians. Many innocent children are among the dead. While the shooting of rockets into Israel is inexcusable, the violent actions of some people in Gaza does not justify killing Palestinians on this scale. Such collective punishment is immoral. At the very least, the US Congress should not be loudly proclaiming its support for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza.
Madame Speaker, this resolution will do nothing to reduce the fighting and bloodshed in the Middle East. The resolution in fact will lead the US to become further involved in this conflict, promising “vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security, and survival of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” Is it really in the interest of the United States to guarantee the survival of any foreign country? I believe it would be better to focus on the security and survival of the United States, the Constitution of which my colleagues and I swore to defend just this week at the beginning of the 111th Congress. I urge my colleagues to reject this resolution.
The Stephen Wise quote is a well-known fraud, of course. What will you cocksuckers try next?
link to ericmargolis.com
January 05, 2009
Like so much about the Mideast, what the North American media and our politicians tell us about the current agony of Gaza leaves out more than it includes, and paints a badly distorted picture.
We are told evil Hamas Islamic terrorists backed by Iran are raining deadly rockets on Israel with the intent of destroying the Jewish state. Israel, goes the mantra heard from politicians and the media, `has the right to defend herself.’
I am watching Gaza conflict on Livestation. Can you see Al-Jazeera live on livestation in USA? They are the only station with journalists on the ground in Gaza.
Post beginning 'The Stephen Wise quote' is not mine; it's an imposter.
http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english
Thanks Eva. Seems to be working here.
(For the last day or two Al Jazeera's free low-bandwidth feed on its site seems to have stopped working.)
Oops. Seems to require re-starting every 15 min. or so.
(Maybe it would work better with that "Livestation Player," but I'm hesitant about installing any software like that.)
Barry O. speaks out –
————
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC news, the president-elect stood by his comments last July made on a trip to Israel that, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that. I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
When asked if he would say the same in Israel today, Obama said, "I think that a basic principle of any country is that they've got to protect their citizens."
Comparing his approach to the Middle East to that of previous administrations, Obama suggested that he would not be making a clean break from the Bush policy. "I think that if you look not just at the Bush administration, but also what happened under the Clinton administration, you are seeing the general outlines of an approach."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231424923085&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
————
I rest my case, regarding the single unified Depublicrat war party. You've just heard it straight from the horse's mouth, from Barry Dubya Obama himself. SecState Hillary Dubya Clinton will contribute to the continuity too, as will Dennis Dubya Ross.
'STASIS WE CAN BELIEVE IN'(SM)
An Israeli friend, Diana Kimmerling, is trying to evacuate as many children as possible from Gaza. She has called convents throughout Israel and has found space for 56 children so far.
The problem is that we need the Israeli government to agree to this. To that end, please call or fax PM Olmert's office and ask that he allow "Diana Kimmerling's kids" to be admitted to the country.
Here are the phone numbers:
Fax: 011-972-2-566-4838
Phone: 011-972-2-670-5555
Obama is merely a glorified usher for new CFR team. That's all you need to know.
I am starting to believe those nasty rumors that Americans are hopelessly naive…
Eva: Culture is a bond holding society together. Israeli prefer society destroyed, as its easier to control.
Colin:
I have long suspected such a pattern. I am still not sure if it is actually deliberate and conscious state policy, or if such incidents are the manifestation of shared views or values of local commanders, acting on their own initiative to carry out other orders, such as the arrest of Palestinian fighters, in ways that exceed them. The latter interpretation would be somewhat analogous to the German military notion of auftragstaktik. I have found the article First, Destroy the Archives to be useful.
this is what we say next and ad infinitum until american jewry awakens from their zionist fear induced stupor…
Pleas to rescue Jews in the Holocaust
ignored by Zionist leaders
The following message about bombing concentration camps and railways, was an exhibit in the Kasztner libel case in Israel during the 1950's. It was sent by Rabbi Michael B. Weissmandel, an organizer for rescue activities operating in the quisling Nazi state of Slovakia. It provides shocking and disturbing evidence of how the Zionist leadership ignored the growing evidence of mass murder and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against Europe's Jews
Here is the orginal letter from Rabbi Weissmandl:
May 15th, 1944 – In a cave near Lublin, Poland.
"Peace and Greetings.
"We send you this special message to inform you that yesterday the Germans began the deportation of Jews from Hungary. It is the beginning of deportation of all the Hungarian Jews.
"Every day, twelve thousand souls are being taken off. Four deportations of forty-five such train-loads move daily out of Hungary. Within twenty six days all that area will have been deported.
"You, our brothers, sons of Israel, are you insane? Don't you know the Hell around us? For whom are you saving your money?
"How is it that all our pleadings affect you less than the whimpering of a beggar standing in your doorway? Murderers! Madmen! Who is it that gives charity? You who toss a few pennies from your safe homes? Or we who give our blood in the depths of Hell?
"There is only one thing that may be said in your exoneration – that you do not know the truth. This is possible. The villain does his job so shrewdly that only a few guess the truth. We have told you the truth several times. Is it possible that you believe our murderers more than you believe us? May God open your eyes and give you heart to rescue in these last hours the remainder.
but they knew the truth and turned their backs on european jewry…and used the blood of those exterminated as the coin to negotiate their beloved state.
never again.
"Why didn't they try, from their place of freedom, to break through to us and send us a secret messenger? This question becomes greater when we see that the governments of Czechoslovakia and Poland, which were in free lands, sent secret messengers daily to their loyal people in the occupied countries. And therefore our amazement grows. Why don't the great organizers of Jewry use these messengers if they have no other way? And during all of the years since we developed this method, those in the free countries did not once attempt to send messengers to us – rather, WE had to send them and to pay for them. How many did we send them only for the to return empty-handed – because those over there did not have time to answer why?"
In answer to this, Rabbi Shonfeld quotes the Zionist leader Yitzhak Greenbaum, who, after the war, stated:
"When they asked me, couldn't you give money out of the United Jewish Appeal funds for the rescue of Jews in Europe, I said, 'NO!' and I say again 'NO!' . . . one should resist this wave which pushes the Zionist activities to secondary importance."
During the Kasztner case, Menachem Bader of the Jewish Agency was asked "Did you receive this letter from Rabbi Weissmandel?" He answered: "Letters like this came to us every day".
Rabbi Weissmandl This is no ordinary letter – it is from a Rabbi who was a first-hand witness of the holocaust. Note how Rabbi Weissmandel asks that the crematoria in Auschwitz be bombed from the air. How it is "sharply visible" – he clearly gave information that he hoped would be passed on to help Allied air crews bomb the murder camps. Rabbi Weissmandl also enclosed a map of the camps. Rabbi Weissmandel knew the bombing would delay the work of the Nazis, which is why he spefically asked for the Allies to bomb "persistently" all the roads leading from Eastern Hungary to Poland and the bridges in the neighborhood of Karpatarus. He advised the the Zionist leadership to "Drop all other business to get this done . . . Remember that one day of your idleness kills twelve thousand souls". Did they do this ? The overwhelming evidence suggests that the Zionists ignored this – and other pleas – to save the majority of Jews in Europe from the Holocaust, insteading they pursued the policy of building the dream of Zionism – the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.
the Torah-leaders were successfully establishing contacts with Hitler’s lieutenants and might have rescued millions, if not for the non-cooperation of the powerful and wealthy leaders, and also because of outright obstruction (read “Perfidy” by Ben Hecht if you can find a copy which was escaped the attention of the Zionists). When leaders are not doves, but ravens and buzzards’ the masses are not favored by G-d’s approval.
754. The Zionst leaders together with the Reform “rabbis” aided substantially in the destruction of the European Jews.
In July 1938 President Roosevelt convened the Evian Conference to consider the problem of Jewish refugees. At that time a German offer was made to release Jews at $250 per person. The Jewish Agency, headed by Golda Meir, decided to ignore the offer.
At this conference, the delegation from the Jewish Agency made no effort to influence the United States or any of the 32 other participating nations to open their gates to admit German Jews.
755. When a shipload of Jewish refugees on the Danube river were refused permission to disembark anywhere, Henry Montor the leader of the United Jewish Appeal explained that they could not be allowed to sail the Holy Land because “Palestine cannot be flooded with old people or with undesirables”. (Feb. 1, 1940).
756. On Nov. 25, 1940 the Haganah commanders ordered the blowing up of the ship Patria in Haifa Harbor as a protest against England’s plan to send refugees to Mauritius instead of to Palestine, and thus 272 Jewish refugees perished.
757. On Dec. 17, 1942 both houses of the British Parliament declared readiness to afford temporary residence for endangered persons, but on Jan. 27 a spokesman for the Zionists stated that the Jews opposed the motion because Palestine was omitted.
758. The New York papers (Feb. 16, 1943) publicized Rumania’s offer to the 70,000 Jews of Trans-Dniestria at the price of $50 each. On Feb. 24, Stephen Wise the president of the American Jewish Congress and leader of U.S. Zionists publicly denied the authenticity of the offer and declares that no collection of funds “would seem justified”. The Jewish Agency in England also ridiculed the news of the Romanian offer. But Undersecretary of state A. A. Berlo affirmed privately that the Rumanian government had actually made such an offer to the State Department. Some time later, when all the Jews who could have been rescued had been annihilated, the facts of the offer were confirmed by Bartley Crum, an expert on affairs of the Near East, who declared that the 70,000 Jews could easily have been transported through Turkey by a few days travel in trucks, but the State Department had refrained from publicizing the news of the offer due to Jewish (Zionist) pressure.
The Gaza slaughter is also causing the internet gatekeeping to tighten up even more. Just got banned from DKos for responding to a poster who continuously accused me of Holocaust denial. He never addressed any of the substance of my comments, just kept coming back with the denier taunt. Got to the point where others would point out that that was clearly not the case (Holocaust denial), and then a moderator (a tribesman it turns out) would admonish them too.
Lots of I/P diaries at DKos, lots of interest, lots of discussion, lots of Hasbara megaphone entries, and lots of gatekeeping.
If the gatekeepers ever get a full stranglehold on the net, it's all over.
762. In 1947 Congressman William Stratton sponsored a bill to grant immediate entry to the U.S. of 400,000 displaced persons. The bill was publicly denounced by the Zionist leaders, and it was therefore not passed.
763. On Feb. 23, 1956 J. W. Pickergsill, the minister of immigration was asked in the Canadian House of Commons: “Would we open the doors of Canada to Jewish refugees?” He replied: “The government has made no progress in that direction, because the government of Israel… does not wish us to do so”.
So..what's next?
The whole world is now on board with the fact that Israel has to be reined in..once and for all. The whole world except for the US congress that is. The American public is now wide awake on Israel-Palestine.
So in keeping with my role as flame thrower and rebel rouser let me suggest the next step in putting Israel in it's proper place.
The target is congress and the charge is TREASON. Ackerman, Engle,Bloomberg and all the Israeli loyaltist, both jewish and gentile must be labeled TRAITORS to the US because of their betrayal of US interest and principles in favor of Israel.
I suggest the Jews get on this traitor calling bandwagon immediately before it becomes a even more common refrain among non jews and creates the belief that all jews are traitors to the country.
The fact is the Ackerman's and etc. are traitors…yea I know that raises images of McCarthy and hangings but the fact is what it is. For Israel to be tamped down and unhooked from the US, the US congress has to be shaken up and taken down first.
I suggest the Jews take up/join in the traitor call out, become overtly pro American and target the traitors themselves.
It's gonna happen anyway, so for American Jews, they need to be front and center for their own sake.
All the protest and writtings are fine and dandy but those alone won't do the trick. The yays on the house Israel resolution shows us that.
Congress-traitors,congress-traitors..loud and clear.
That single word works wonders in getting their attention…ask me about the gasps and stuttering I got from Hoyer and Reids aides when I called them traitors. You would think they never heard that applied to them before.
Maybe they haven't.
But they are going to hear it now..get to it.
thats the moment im awaiting….so i can have my country back.
but i know that the empire will always strike back…
link to antiwar.com
/>
Somebody is going to have to whisper in President-elect Obama's ear that the unipolar moment has passed and the United States can no longer afford its informal worldwide empire. Even though the looming economic meltdown will likely be serious – and maybe even cataclysmic – the foreign policy chattering classes of both parties are on autopilot and have not yet abandoned their interventionist consensus. A rude awakening awaits.
Even before the economic crisis hit, the United States was overextended abroad. One measure of that imperial overstretch was that the U.S. accounted for roughly 43 percent of the world's military spending but only 20 percent of the world's GDP. Another indication of that overextension was that even by thinning out troops in Europe and East Asia – where the threat has long gone but the U.S. continues to provide security for very wealthy nations that should be providing it entirely for themselves – the United States military strained to prosecute the two small wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
This Internet thing rocks…'Back to the 1992'
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/1292/9212013.html
Rabbi Weissmandel and "the Zionists ignored this".
I am no fan of Israel's pulverization of Palestinians. But the above post is somewhat, if not very, misleading (and I have read it also; I first read about it 40 years ago).
Fundamentally, the Allies were unwilling to expend military resources on doing this; whether this was the correct decision to make I do not know.
FDR's attitude was…the sooner Germany was defeated, the more lives that would be saved.
But given this attitude of the Allied forces, it is simply not possible to place blame for this on Zionists. And Rabbi Weissmandel would obviously have been unaware of this allied military decision.
Can we say non-jewish nations like the USA already had their hands full and had to develop their own first priorities to defend themselves as a whole first, and that Zionists American leaders, had their first priorities too; together, this meant Auschwitz et all suffered the noon-bombing result? Seems simple.
zionism has no defense…and was no friend of the helpless european judaics…and yet jews have been duped into believing that zionism is their one and only friend in the world.
This is from Lenni Brenners book…Zionist collaboration with the nazis.
Adolf Eichmann, had visited Palestine, in October, 1937, as the guest of the Zionists. He also met, in Egypt, with Feivel Polkes, a Zionist operative, whom Eichmann described as a “leading Haganah functionary.” The chain-smoking Polkes was also on the Nazis’ payroll “as an informer.”
Brenner isn’t the first writer to address the mostly taboo subject of how the Zionist leadership cooperated with the Nazis. Rolf Hilberg’s seminal “The Destruction of European Jews”; Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem”; Ben Hecht’s “Perfidy”; Edwin Black’s “The Transfer Agreement”; Francis R. Nicosia’s “The Third Reich and the Palestine Question”; Rudolf Vrba and Alan Bestic’s “I Cannot Forgive”; and Rafael Medoff’s “The Deadening Silence: American Jews and the Holocaust,” also dared, with varying public success.
After the Holocaust began in 1942, Eichmann dealt regularly with Dr. Rudolf Kastner, a Hungarian Jew, whom he considered a “fanatical Zionist.” Kastner was later assassinated in Israel as a Nazi collaborator. At issue then, however, was the bargaining over the eventual fate of Hungary’s Jews, who were slated for liquidation in the Nazi-run death camps. Eichmann said this about Kastner, the Zionist representative, “I believe that [he] would have sacrificed a thousand or a hundred thousand of his blood to achieve his political goal. He was not interested in old Jews or those who had become assimilated into Hungarian society. ‘You can have the others,’ he would say, ‘but let me have this group here.’ And because Kastner rendered us a great service by helping keep the deportation camps peaceful. I would let his groups escape.”
from Lenni Brenners book…
As early as June 21, 1933, the German Zionist Federation was sending a secret memorandum to the Nazis, which said, in part:
“It is our opinion that an answer to the Jewish question truly satisfying to the national state [German Reich] can be brought about only with the collaboration of the Jewish movement that aims as a social, cultural and moral renewal of Jewry- -indeed, that such a national renewal must first create the decisive social and spiritual premises for all solutions…”
Incredibly, Avraham Stern, the leader of the notorious “Stern Gang,” late in 1940, made a written proposal to Hitler, by which the Jewish militias in Palestine, would fight on “Germany’s side,” in the war against England, in exchange for the Nazis help in resolving the “Jewish Question” in Europe, and their assistance in creating an “historic Jewish state.” By this date, German troops had already marched into Prague, invaded Poland, and had built the first concentration camp at Auschwitz. The deranged Stern had further bragged about how the Zionist organizations were “closely related to the totalitarian movements of Europe in [their] ideology and structure.” Stern’s obscene proposal was found in the German embassy, in Turkey, after WWII.
Finally, I think Brenner was right, when he wrote, “This book presents 51 historic documents to indict Zionism for repeated attempts to collaborate with Adolf Hitler. The evidence, not I, will convince you of the truth of this issue…Exposing the Zionist role in the [Nazi] era is part of the scrutiny of the past, required of historians.”
All of the above becomes even more important today in light of the critical fact that it helps to subject Zionist Israel to the examination called for by its crimes, past and present.
I'm not saying that I agree with this. But you all should note that the "world" is not unanimously condemning Israel for fighting Hamas.
link to washingtonpost.com
The View From Israel: Victors in a Necessary War
TEL AVIV, Jan. 10 — After 15 days of war that have left more than 800 Palestinians dead — as many as half of them civilians, medical officials say — Israelis are sure of two things: They are the victims, and they are also the victors.
This is an unwanted war, Israelis say, but it is necessary, and they are winning it.
Unlike in 2006, when Israelis grew bitterly split over the war in Lebanon, the invasion of Gaza has produced a rare consensus here. In newspapers and on television, commentators approvingly note that the Israeli military has sown devastation in Gaza without a high toll in Israeli lives. If Palestinians are dying, they say, it is Hamas's fault.
On the streets of this palm-shaded city, just 40 miles up the coast but a world away in atmosphere from the horrors of Gaza, residents echo that line.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010902324.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Peace Is No Longer in Sight
By Tom Segev
Sunday, January 11, 2009; Page B01
JERUSALEM
At the end of the 10th day of Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip, I was zapping between Israeli, Arab and international TV channels. The pictures grew more gruesome from moment to moment. Then a friend called to tell me that Mezzo, a French concert channel, had just started playing "Christ on the Mount of Olives," a rather obscure oratorio by Beethoven.
It happened that I had been on the Mount of Olives a few hours earlier with a Palestinian friend whose 11-year-old son, Ahmed, needed some treatment at the Augusta Victoria Hospital. It wasn't easy to get the two through the Israeli checkpoint separating their West Bank village from east Jerusalem. As we drove up the hillside, we had to navigate around burning tires that Palestinian protesters had left on the road. We were not hurt, but Ahmed was scared.
As I listened to the Beethoven on Mezzo for a while, I was doing what more and more Israelis tend to do these days, even as the atrocious events in Gaza continue: escaping the news and taking refuge in cultural and other non-political activities. That escapism reflects the new Israeli fatalism.
I belong to a generation of Israelis who grew up believing in peace. At the end of the Six-Day War of 1967, I was 23, and I had no doubt that 40 years later, the Israeli-Arab war would be over. Today, my son, who is 28, no longer believes in peace. Most Israelis don't. They know that Israel may not survive without peace, but from war to war, they have lost their optimism. So have I.
The latest operation in Gaza was expected and practically inevitable; the timing seemed perfect. Palestinian Hamas rockets fired from Gaza had been falling on southern Israeli towns with increasing frequency after an Egyptian-backed ceasefire expired; public pressure on the government to act mounted as the general elections scheduled for next month drew closer. Israel took advantage of the Bush administration's last days in office; the holiday season kept the international community uninterested for a few days; and the clear skies over Gaza allowed for uninterrupted air strikes.
…
So I find myself among the new majority of Israelis who no longer believe in peace with the Palestinians. The positions are simply too far apart at this time.
I no longer believe in solving the conflict. What I do believe in is better conflict management — including talks with Hamas, which is a taboo that must be broken. The need for U.S. engagement has led me, along with many other Israelis, to harbor high hopes for the administration of Barack Obama. The Bush administration was mainly concerned with keeping alive a diplomatic fiction called "The Peace Process." But there really was no such "process." Instead, the oppression of the Palestinians continued and intensified, even after Israel had evacuated several thousand settlers from Gaza in 2005. More settlements were put up in the West Bank.
The friendliest thing that President Obama can do for Israel in the long run would be to induce her to return to her original purpose: to be a Jewish and democratic country. Rather than design another fictitious "road map" for peace, the Obama administration may be more useful and successful by trying merely to manage the conflict, aiming at a more limited yet urgently needed goal: to make life more livable for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Tom Segev, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is the author, most recently, of "1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East."
'trying merely to manage the conflict, aiming at a more limited yet urgently needed goal: to make life more livable for both Israelis and Palestinians.'
You've got to be joking, as does Tom Segev. Israel is a bicycle on a high wire. Stop pedaling, and it will fall off.
Within years, maybe months, Arabs on three sides of Israel will have rockets that can reach Tel Aviv (maybe four sides, if they can get hold of a suitable boat or submarine).
Meanwhile, 'Gaza tactics' are likely to bring war crimes prosecutions, rising boycotts, and fractured U.S. political support.
Israel's zionist national model never made any sense. Fifty years from now, it won't exist. Maybe not even in ten.
Oh Phil, you should have seen the footage on al-Jazeera tonight… they were showing a boy — couldn't have been older than 10-11, and his eyes were gone… literally. He had no eyes. I didn't catch the commentary and so I don't know whether it was the result of white phosphorous bombs or some other type of bomb, as I had some guests over, but it was a horrific sight. Never seen anything like it before. Literally made me feel nauseous. Al-Jazeera had the screen split in half, and on the other half they were showing Avi Dichter, whom they were interviewing. I don't know what he was saying, but I think that when asked about the boy's injuries, he kept repeating some crap about KHHHHHHHHHAMAAAS rockets. I'll see if I can find the picture of that boy. It really is not something I would like to see again, but it must be shown…
its barbarism on a par with the national socialist in germany or the bolsheviks under trotsky or stalin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZeFJpHtyKU
crimes against humanity which ought to lead to collective guilt.
whats sause for the goose is sause for the gander….collective guilt is the sause.
Babak Makkenijad on Gaza and the Mulims
Even though there is no central authority that speaks for Islam, there are times and places when an authoritative Doctor of Religious Sciences (of Islam) speaks for Islam; i.e. his legal opinion becomes the de facto position of Muslims everywhere.
Ayatollah Khamenei's statement of 12/28/2008 is one such case. You can find the text @ [here] His statement characterizes the Israel-Hamas War as the analogue of the wars of the Prophet against the idol-worshippers of Mecca. With a few words, Mr. Khamenei has shaped the Muslim view of the Israel-Hamas War for years, if not decades, to come.
No Muslim political leader can challenge his statement , for doing so now will be tantamount to going against Islam. No religious leader – Shia or Sunni – will dispute his statement.
Here is Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia (a moderate according to the common US-EU usage of that term) in a speech at the opening of the 6-th (Persian) Gulf Forum on January 6th, “The Bush administration has left you (with) a disgusting legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and bloodshed of innocents in Gaza…Enough is enough, today we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza.”
In my opinion, Israel has now blundered into an implicit war with Islam. Mr. Khamenei’s statement has closed the door to any peace plan along the lines of Oslo, Taba, the Quartet, Tony Blair, etc. All that is now even theoretically possible is a Hudna – a long cease-fire. A separate Syria-Israel peace track is no longer possible since the Alawite Elders will not go against the rest of Islam by having Syria conclude a separate peace treaty with Israel.
Which brings me to my final opinion: even a Hudna will presently require the formation of a Concert of Middle East or some such.
Babak Makkenijad
"I am Spartacus, and I am Spartacus," said the Ragman's son, as he reaped the benefits of being an American. Time to make these hypocrites pay. Or at least out them. THEY ARE NOT AUDIE MURPHY.
Posted by: Jim Haygood | January 11, 2009 at 10:05 AM
The Stephen Wise quote is not a fraud. Wise's position is covered in the original edition of The Transfer Agreement (1984) by Edwin Black.