Today good liberal Brian Lehrer dedicated a lot of his show on WNYC, the New York public radio station, to dialogue about Gaza. All was undertaken in an earnest manner, and yet I found myself bridling.
The dialogue consisted of three Jews, including the host, and one Palestinian-American, Linda Sarsour. Two of the Jews have lived in Israel: Rami Efal, who I bet is still an Israeli, and Marcia Kannry of the Dialogue Project, who went over there for 6 years. Both were Zionists; and I have long sensed that Lehrer is highly sympathetic to Zionism in that way that so many New York Jews are– imbued with a belief in Israel's inherent democratic goodness because of family and friends. When Lehrer dismissed Rachel Corrie as being anti-Israel, he revealed his prejudice. In fact, she was pro-human-rights, and no different from the boys who died in Philadelphia, Mississippi.
And while it was nice to hear Kannry speak of "ethnic cleansing" in 1948, the problem with the show is what it always is here: framing the debate. Who is at the table? Where is the anti-Zionist American who doesn't think that a religious state should be sanctified? Where is the realist plague-on-both-their houses American? Where is the Christian who despairs about the apartheid wall around Bethlehem? These people are all paying for Israel's weapons, and taxation without representation is tyranny.
Lehrer can justly counter that he is trying to promote dialogue between two parties to turn down the violence over there. But the problem with dialogue is that it is almost invariably at the auspices of Jewish groups and turns into group therapy in which the powerful party atones for being powerful and nothing happens. Rami Efal feels bad, but he doesn't feel that bad; he justifies the slaughter. Kannry can still move back there tomorrow, while there is no justice for those ethnically-cleansed, and Israel just keeps doing what it's always done, occupying land. Palestinians get no state– eternally disqualified because of their armed resistance. Dialogue hasn't changed that, one whit.
The real value Americans can bring journalistically is to look at the overall picture in the light of the Gaza slaughter; and that picture has been militarism and dispossession from one side, murderous resistance on the other side. Dialogue suggests that the two sides can work it out on their own. They can't. It's like asking a fox and a chicken to work out their differences. The great Henry Siegman is as sick of the process as I am, and says a solution must be imposed.
If by the "boys in Philadelphia, Mississippi," Phil means the Klan, then he's right. International House of Pancakes Girl knew she was protecting a weapons smuggling tunnel–it's in her diary. No, not the one made into the play, the REAL diary.
Under the Geneva Convention she had assumed the role of a terrorist, and was, therefore, fair game.
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For a stunning film (roughly 90 minutes long) on the situation in Palestine, see "Occupation 101", a documentary from 2006 :
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2451908450811690589&hl=en&fs=true
Are David's comments automatically generated? Is he a programmed humanoid sitting on Tzipi's lap?
Weiss: "Where is the anti-Zionist American who doesn't think that a religious state should be sanctified? Where is the realist plague-on-both-their houses American? Where is the Christian who despairs about the apartheid wall around Bethlehem? These people are all paying for Israel's weapons, and taxation without representation is tyranny."
The further America has moved away from its Constitutionalist restraints, and the bigger Big Government has gotten, the less responsive it has become to average Joe. The Zionists, Corporatists, Mercantilists and Socialists all understand that Big Government is like an aircraft carrier, which has to start turning miles before it is angled in the correct direction, and right now they've all got it moving in the direction they want (in part by buying off the captains/Congress). And no matter what average Joe does or says, or who average Joe elects within the parameters of what the Big Government Establishment will allow, nothing can change. Grass roots alone will take decades to make any impact.
America's only hope is for a Ron Paul-like, classic liberal/libertarian-conservative insurgency president who can eliminate the hijackers, re-take the wheel house, and right the ship. Obama's compassionate fascism/socialism with a human face just ain’t going to cut it, because big, insular, unresponsive government is the problem to begin with, and attracts every unprincipled mooch known to man in the hope of getting itself on the public dole, just as the Zionists have. Mooches don’t effect change, they just seek to exploit a fallen system.
she had assumed the role of a terrorist, and was, therefore, fair game…
Like every Iraqi, Afghani, Iranian, Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese, etc. Just like what the Nazis had planned, everyone will be targeted for elimination by the new racial ideology of the Zionists sooner or later.
Not referring to her race, Tommy, referring to her actions. She travelled 8,000 miles in order to protect a smuggling tunnel.
Great
Ahh good old Rachel! Whenever I hear her name I'm reminded of this story:
PALESTINIAN GUNMEN TRY TO KIDNAP RACHEL CORRIE'S PARENTS
The orgy of terrorism and lawlessness that came in the wake of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip has a local angle
Palestinian gunmen burst into a house in and tried to kidnap the parents of Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 as she protested the impending demolition of a house in the southern Gaza town, according to their host.
The five gunmen, who also appeared to be affiliated to the ruling Fatah movement, eventually relented after being told who their targets were, according to Samir Nasrallah, in whose house the couple was staying.
Corrie was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to stop it from demolishing Nasrallah's house. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, have repeatedly visited Nasrallah since. They left Gaza safely after the incident, Nasrallah said.
Rachel Corrie didn't kill herself in vain after all. Not only was her dream of ending the Israeli occupation of Gaza realized less than three years after she died, but she also saved her parents' lives!
Rachel's actions were deemed terrorist by a racial ideology, which then condemned her to death. The same racial ideology has condemned hundreds of Gazans to death, thousands of Lebanese to death, tens of thousands of Afghanis to death, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to death, and, the Zionists hope, millions of Iranians to die.
Finally, you refer to Hamas as "murderous resistance".
Why did it take so long?
Bill Pearlman infestation: Hasbara Alert:
Both comments by "David" above, and the comment by "Jim Haygood" were made by Bill Pearlman, aka SOG.
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"Rachel Corrie didn't kill herself in vain after all."
Point of Reference:
American made Caterpillar Bulldozer driven by an IDF soldier killed Rachel five minutes after a change in orders: she was not to stop the operation. And, according to PM Sharon, she was killed because whe was there.
No tunnels pancake man.. only children, rabbit and house.
The problem with imposing a solution Phil, is who is going to sit at the table that does that imposing…will you be there, will Phyllis Bennis be there, will Craig Corrie be there, will Mustafa Barghouti be there or will it be Dennis Ross, Haas, Indyke, Hillary.
Finally, today the IDF spokesman on CNN stated that the firing at the UN school
came from "the vicinity" of the school. Have to love the Israelis and the liberty they take with language. Anybody want to guess how big an area "the vicinity" might entail?
Rachel Corrie cerrtainly made quite a "splat". didn't she.
"International House of Pancakes Girl knew she was protecting a weapons smuggling tunnel–it's in her diary."
Why is it when Palestinians bring weapons into Gaza from Egypt that's illegal "smuggling?" But when Israel brings in American-made weapons on a C-5A that's just Israel exercising its right to defend itself?
Sword is a great example of a Jew, eh?
With a jewish pal like SOG, Jews don't need enemies.
You will make a very big splat someday you nazi pig…..