Scoundrel time

by on February 28, 2009 34
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The battle is joined. The other side is gearing up. Here is a fabulous post by MJ Rosenberg saying that the Weekly Standard and other usual suspects want to hold McCarthy-like hearings about Chas Freeman. Meantime, something I somewhat-apprehended last night in my post on Howard Berman:  the Israel Project is launching a propaganda war on Hamas and offering as experts Brad Sherman, David "Biometrics" Makovsky, Walid Phares, etc. Remember what Robert Dreyfuss wrote in the Nation the other day, a "thunderous coordinated" assault is underway. Neoconservatism's gotterdammerung. We're going to win. Obama is a secret sharer.
 Note that Brad Sherman is a liberal congressman. Jonathan Chait is great on domestic issues, Rosenberg says, and neoconservative on Israel. This must be understood: this is a battle over Jewish identity too. Let the historical minority freedom we enjoy here be extended to other minorities, especially ones victimized by apartheid in Palestine.  

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel Lobby, Neocons, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 34 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Ed says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:20 pm

    McCarthy-like hearings should be held, all right. But to root out Zionist spies, not America-firsters.

    This is yet more evidence of how the US has been turned upside down since Zionism has been allowed to infiltrate our government and institutions: those advocating policies pushing us back towards pursuit of our own interests ahead of Israel's are subject to witch hunts.

  2. 5 dancing shlomos says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    historical jewish identity acts; what is it that makes us jews. why we love jews.

    By Khalid Amayreh
    OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Muslim and Christian leaders across the occupied Palestinian lands are shocked with repeated Israeli insults of the prophets and religious sanctities.

    “I don’t really know when Jews will start to respect the religious sensitivities of non-Jews (never have, never will-5ds),” the Chief religious judge of Palestine, Dr. Taysir Tamimi, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, February 28.

    “It is very shocking and very telling that Jewish religious leaders in Israel and abroad have not condemned these blasphemous acts.”

    Israeli media shocked millions of Muslims and Christians last week by mocking Jesus, his mother Mary and Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him).

    A TV comedy skit, hosted by Israeli comedian Lior Shlein, last week depicted Jesus as being “too fat” to have walked on water and that Mary was not virgin.

    The insult came after the host angered million of Muslims when he pointed to one of his shoes, saying “This is Muhammad.”

  3. liberal white boy says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    I have begun my own campaign to educate real Americans about the Apartheid State.

    When Will Real Americans Stand Up To The Zionist Power Configuration?

    hlink to homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com

  5. liberal white boy says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:49 pm

    When Will Real Americans Stand Up To The Zionist Power Configuration?

    http://homo-sapien-underground.blogspot.com/2009/02/when-will-real-americans-stand-up-to.html

  6. 5 dancing shlomos says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:55 pm

    Hamas: We will never recognize Israel
    Group shuns Abbas' offer of unity gov't, which he says must agree to two-state solution with Israel
    Reuters
    Published: 02.28.09, 17:42 / Israel News
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday any unity government with Hamas would have to agree to a two-state solution with Israel, a demand quickly rejected by his Islamist rivals.

    The disagreement could hamper Egyptian-brokered reconciliation talks aimed at ending a schism between the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, where Abbas's Fatah faction holds sway.

    "We are moving in steady steps towards … a national unity government that abides by our known commitments, which include the two-state vision and the signed (peace) commitments," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

    Hamas official Ayman Taha in Gaza said Abbas's comments undermine chances for reaching a unity agreement.

    "We reject any pre-conditions in the formation of the unity government. Hamas will never accept a unity government that recognizes Israel," Taha said.

    Advertisement

    A dozen Palestinian factions including Fatah and Hamas began reconciliation talks in Cairo on Thursday to try to agree by March 20 on a unity government. Previous efforts by Arab negotiators to reconcile Fatah and Hamas have failed.

    A deal could lead to the lifting of Israel's blockade of the Gaza strip and boost Abbas's peacemaking efforts with Israel.

    But Hamas continues to say it will not formally recognise Israel and its 1988 founding charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state.

  7. Julian says:
    February 28, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    I've got to admire that Chas Freeman. He has the Saudis paying him millions to give their views. Now I find out he's also on the Chinese payroll. He is on the International Advisory Board of China National Offshore Oil Co. A government run company.
    I wonder why I don't hear any dual or tri loyalty complaints from Weiss?

  8. Man From Atlan says:
    February 28, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    Having no success getting past Huffington Post's word filter and er, 'moderating' I thought I'd try to post this here:

    The Definition of Genocide

    http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm
    "The international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide"
    ""Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
    (a) Killing members of the group;
    (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
    (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; "
    Would you consider Israeli policies fit that description?

  9. Sand says:
    February 28, 2009 at 2:18 pm

    I tried to post this comment in thread further down… For some reason it did not post? So, believing it relevant to this post also I will try again — unless you can give me a reason for it not appearing?

    MJ talks about the neocons being after him… but it's you that honestly addresses the 'liberal' obstructionists that will be furiously attacking Chas Freeman and Hillary [behind the scenes].

    I remember all too well the last round of defiant interventionism from the pro-Israel 'Dem' lobby congressman and women when there was talk of aid going to the Palestinians:

    Washington – Two congressional letters strongly supported by the pro-Israel lobby have attracted a great deal of support in recent days.

    Seventy-nine senators signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging the Bush administration to maintain its policy of denying financial aid and refusing to meet with the Palestinian government until it recognizes Israel, renounces terrorism and accepts past agreements with Jerusalem. A similar letter to the European Union’s high representative, Javier Solana, was signed by more than half the members of the House of Representatives.

    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee pressed lawmakers in the House and Senate to sign the letters. Thousands of delegates to the Aipac convention in Washington two weeks ago raised the issue in meetings with congressmen.

    The House letter was written by two Jewish Democrats, Robert Wexler of Florida and Gary Ackerman of New York, and by two Republicans, Elton Gallegly of California and Mike Pence of Indiana…

    http://www.forward.com/articles/10429/

    Wexler [current chair of the House Foreign Subcommittee on Europe] and Ackerman [current chair of the House Foreign Subcomittee of The Middle East and South Asia]

    However, when there's talk of the US trying to "cut loan guarantees for Israel as it presses Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to alter construction of a security fence in the West Bank that just happens to expand into YET MORE Palestianian terrority — oh no… that can't happen! Same old names appear…

    http://www.e-guana.net/organizations.php3?action=printContentItem&orgid=54&typeID=81&itemID=5301&User_Session=77f21a7a61b36ddaa7a407f8525f1759

    The Hypocrisy is astounding.

  10. Sand says:
    February 28, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    I guess you don't want me to post here? Or you certainly have strange posting rules… either way… I guess I'll go elsewhere and just 'read' your posts rather than comment.

  11. Sand says:
    February 28, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    Oh… and I changed the 'honestly' bit @ tpmcafe — because I didn't mean MJ was dishonest… my abysmal writing came off wrong.

  12. Colin Murray says:
    February 28, 2009 at 2:38 pm

    People who are having trouble posting: control-a then control-c to copy your text, refresh your browser to clear the comment box, and then control-v to paste your text into the box. Hit the preview button. When the preview is up, hit the post button. It works every time for me.

  13. Colin Murray says:
    February 28, 2009 at 3:02 pm

    A copy of a post I made on M.J. Rosenberg's Blog at TPM

    "I never heard of the National Intelligence Council until this week and the neos are on this like it is the Vice Presidency."

    The NIC manages the creation of National Intelligence Estimates. Neocons don't want an NIC Chairman who will not tolerate attempts to influence NIE development away from clinical assessment of strictly American interests.

  14. Jim Haygood says:
    February 28, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    'Obama is a secret sharer.'

    Maybe. More likely, he's a political Chauncey Gardiner, an agreeably malleable slate upon which we can focus our aspirations and fantasies. Not sure whether you saw this announcement last night –

    "At this very moment, the President of the United States is announcing a New Age of Space to relieve unemployment. Trillions of dollars are going to be spent on unmanned space ships, just to make work. The opening episode in this New Age of Space will be the firing of the Whale next Tuesday. The Whale will be loaded with organ-grinder monkeys, and will be fired in the general direction of Mars."

    Oops, that's not AP. That's Kurt Vonnegut, writing in The Sirens of Titan. It don't matter; the truth is stranger than fiction. Worrying about neocons as the economy collapses is like worrying about termites when the house is on fire. In bipartisan fashion, Bush's LooterFest continues full throttle under Pharaoh Obama. Pretty soon, there'll be nothing left to steal, and the neocon locusts will have to find a new host to suck dry.

  15. Rowan says:
    February 28, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    Obama is a secret sharer.

    What on earth is a secret sharer? Is this some childrens' literature reference?

    Let the historical minority freedom we enjoy here be extended to other minorities…

    As usual, I refuse to believe P Weiss is as naive as he pretends. The whole reason that Jews enjoy 'historical minority freedom' in the USA is because they are usefully, ethnically disguised class buffers, or compradors in marxist jargon. If they weren't that, they'd be nothing.

  16. Sand says:
    February 28, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Colin… Thanks… I was getting some odd 'feedback' dialog boxes, but they seem to have gone now. What with Haloscan going bizarre as well… oh well.

  17. chris berel says:
    February 28, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Rowan, they would still be more than you.

  18. Rowan says:
    February 28, 2009 at 5:14 pm

    I found the Secret Sharer reference, it's a Conrad story. I have only read a short summary and indeed the plot sounds as childish as the title, to judge by that:

    The story takes place at sea, near the Gulf of Siam, and is told from the perspective of a young nameless Captain. The captain is unfamiliar with both his ship and his crew, having only joined their company a fortnight earlier. The Captain is furthermore unsure of himself, questioning his ability to fulfill the role of such an authoritative figure. These themes are explored through symbols throughout the novella. The captain soon encounters a naked swimmer holding onto the side of the ship while he is alone at night on look-out duty. He helps the mysterious swimmer onto the boat and hides him in his cabin without the rest of the crew's knowledge. He then learns of the mysterious swimmer's past; his name is Leggatt, and he swam away from a nearby ship, called the Sephora, where, as chief mate, he killed another crew member for insolence during a storm. The narrator keeps Leggatt hidden in the Captain’s quarters, away from the suspicious crew members and a visit from the skipper of the Sephora. Eventually the Captain allows Leggatt to escape by bringing the ship perilously close to land for Leggatt to swim away safely, though this risky sailing maneuver nearly sends the ship into the rocks, testing the Captains seamanship.

    Very Freudian. There was an editorial on Obama called 'The Secret sharer' in the Columbia Journalism Review in January:
    link to cjr.org
    />
    but the title seems to have been used merely as a rather bad pun.

  19. Rowan says:
    February 28, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    What makes the pun not only bad but positively misleading, if I have grasped the plot correctly, is that, in the Conrad story, it is not the captain who is the 'secret sharer,' but the person he rescues, Leggatt, who 'secretly shares' the captain's cabin, and while doing so, I assume, passes on to the young and insecure captain a capacity for masculine courage which he (the captain) did not previously possess.

    Note the pun in the name, 'Leggatt' equals 'legate,' which in the most general applicable sense would mean, 'a representative, such as an ambassador or envoy'. In other words, Leggatt is sent to the young captain, who in Conrad's story significantly has no name of his own, to give him a name, an identity, and, not to put to fine a point on it, to give him the status of manhood.

    All this is very suggestive, but has absolutely no bearing on Obama, who is nothing but a pretty face in a vast bureaucratic capitalist spectacle.

  20. Jim Haygood says:
    February 28, 2009 at 5:53 pm

    Here is the awful truth of where the trail of clues so assiduously collected by Rowan lead –

    http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:lf0SQJd7v_MJ:www.globemagazine.com/story/295+globe+magazine+down&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1

  21. Rowan says:
    February 28, 2009 at 6:12 pm

    there's no 'there' there, Jim. Comments, but not the story. the blurb for the story sounds familiar, though: born in kenya etc.

  22. Jim Haygood says:
    February 28, 2009 at 6:27 pm

    I have no idea, Rowan. But it's a highly entertaining diversion from global economic collapse, is it not? From the site 'bgay.com' (seriously):

    'PRESIDENT Barack Obama is caught up in a new gay sex and drug scandal – and his loving wife is heartbroken, sources tell GLOBE in a blockbuster world exclusive. Find out all the details of the letter Michelle Obama received from the MAN who claims to be her husband's lover – and how America's devastated First Lady is fighting back against a shocking new tell-all book.'

    http://www.bgay.com/news/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=769&Itemid=23

    I am perfectly okay with gay relationships in general. But if I FIND OUT that Rahm Emanuel is the MAN who wrote that bitchy letter to the First Lady … well I'm sorry, but I'm gonna heave. Too, too gross.

  23. tommy says:
    February 28, 2009 at 6:32 pm

    hold McCarthy-like hearings about Chas Freeman

    I will eagerly await the "have you no decency" moment, which is needed to bring the hubris, aggression and heartlessness of supporters of Israel's institutional use of military violence against civilians public. Hearings on Freeman would put the spotlight on his investigators, and since their center of focus will not be on American intelligence and defense but another country's opposition based on an academic portfolio, there is a possibility Americans will be able to sense the ethnic bigotry and understand what our relationship with Israel has done to a portion of our political class.

  24. Rowan says:
    March 1, 2009 at 1:03 am

    If we could keep this level of actually interesting and informative discussion going here, free of the obscene racist insults that Berel, Suzanne, Pearlman etc continually and with impunity spoil it with, I might visit more often.

  25. chris berel says:
    March 1, 2009 at 7:58 am

    We could if Rowan pissed off. It is the inclusion of the British Nazi party member, Rowan, that keeps the dialogue from becoming lofty.

    But keep Rowan by all means. It allows Phil's Phools to become the laughingstock of the blogopshere.

  27. Witty's mentor says:
    March 1, 2009 at 10:14 am

    How many of you can name off the top of your head the names of the last three people to hold the post
    Chas Freeman has been nominated to take? That there is even a controversy about this political realist taking the NIC slot very much supports Phil's take on issues constantly coming up both in his articles and the comments to them:

    http://www.amconmag.com/larison/2009/02/28/the-freeman-controversy/

  28. Shirin says:
    March 1, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    "If we could keep this level of actually interesting and informative discussion going here, free of the obscene racist insults that Berel, Suzanne, Pearlman etc continually and with impunity spoil it with, I might visit more often."

    No one is required to read them, let alone respond to them.

  29. Rowan says:
    March 1, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    That's a really obtuse remark, in my humble opinion, Shirin. They are about as easy to ignore as a man sitting next to you in a subway train and continuously farting (to descend to their own level of metaphor).

  30. Chris Berel says:
    March 1, 2009 at 6:39 pm

    As a member of the British Nazi Party, Rowan is quite capable of handling honest appraisals of his character.

    Shirin, on the other hand, is just a whiney little antisemite tied to his mother's apron strings. Grow up, little boy, or go back home.

  31. Rowan says:
    March 1, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    This is the same sort of pathetic frame-up — specifically from this blog, nowhere else — that got me kicked out of my hebrew course. It disgusts me, and I am quite sure that history will record all this nonsense as being somewhat worse in its standards of veracity than McCarthyism and Stalinism combined.

    I see from my own blog owner records that someone last night actually googled the expression "Rowan Berkeley British Nazi Party." As far as I know, there isn't any such thing as a "British Nazi Party," and, if there was, I certainly wouldn't be a member of it. It's encouraging I suppose that they landed up at my blog, presumably because nothing else came up. Personally, I never google my own name. It's an unhealthy thing to do.

  32. Rowan Berkeley says:
    March 2, 2009 at 12:36 am

    I have to say, occasionally, that I wish I ‘was a Jew,’ and have always wished this. It would make my life-project, the origin of which I do not know, a lot easier. This does not mean I wish to ‘convert’ to any form of ‘the Jewish religion,’ and I have examined all of them closely, precisely from this point of view, i.e., the practicality of ‘conversion.’ None of them are remotely practical, acceptable, or even tolerable to me.

    However, there is no concrete indication in my family tree, which I have collected almost all the certificates of birth, death, and marriage for, going back three generations, to indicate that I ‘have any Jewish blood’ at all. My mother’s mother’s father was a European adventurer of some undetermined sort, but that’s about it.

  33. Rowan Berkeley says:
    March 2, 2009 at 12:52 am

    Berel will now, obviously, say "ha, that explains why you hate the Jews so much. You're jealous of us."

    This illustrates the unscientific nature of amateur psychology. Because it has no intellectual or moral discipline or integrity, it can be used to 'prove' anything at all.

  34. Rowan says:
    March 2, 2009 at 6:50 am

    It's nice that Steve Walt gave a direct link to this specific thread on his own blog, isn't it:
    link to walt.foreignpolicy.com

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