Following Phil's report on Nadia Matar's call to assassinate Mahmoud Abbas at Safra Synagogue in Manhattan, J Street has taken up the issue. Today they are reporting on their blog that Rabbi Elie Abadie of Safra Synagogue has renounced Matar’s call and Americans For a Safe Israel, the organization that sponsored the event. Here is Rabbi Abadie’s statement on the event:
To Whom It May Concern,
Our Congregation shares in rejecting wholeheartedly the odious and repugnant remarks made at an Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI) event that took place at our Synagogue on Wednesday March 18, 2009. On a personal level, I am horrified at such hateful statements, and I have made this clear to the organization. We did not sponsor or support that event, and neither I nor any member of our congregational staff was present. While the use of the premises has always been available on a non-discriminatory basis, the nature of the remarks made disqualifies the AFSI from any further use of the space.
Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D.
O/T and for Phil and Adam mainly:
George Galloway, fierce debater, of anti-Iraq war and pro-Palestinian fame is coming to town!
George Galloway's Siege-Buster Tour of America 2009
WORLDPRESSNETWORK –
These are the tour dates as we have them – no exact details of times and venues yet, will let you know as soon as we have them confirmed.
Join George on the Siege-Buster Tour of America
Monday 23 March Columbia/NYU.
Tuesday 24 March Rutgers University
Wednesday 25 March Pennsylvania University
Thursday 26 March Michigan University
Friday 27 March Hope Benefit, Dearborn Michigan
Saturday 28 March Atlantic University
Monday 30 March Toronto plus more Canadian cities over the next four days
Sunday 5 April San Jose
Monday 6 April Orange County
Tuesday 7 April Anaheim
He's also been denied entry into Canada, not entirely sure why.
Pretty obvious, isn't it? I mean, is "MD" a Jewish name? False Jews abound! What, I ask you is "MD"s connection to Judaism, besides being born a Jew or converting to Judaism? He's just a bagel-and-smear kind of Jew! Well, not me, no sir! My Mother told me never to smear with my mouth full.
(Sorry, sorry, just duplicating "Thom"s post to me from the other evening.)
This rabbi is obviously antisemetic! And a holocaust denier. And a nazi. And an islamofascist jihadist islamist florist.
Okay, I've had the requisite joke, or a feeble attempt at humor, anyway, so that's done.
The Rabbi's statement, and clear intent to deny AFSI the use of their synagogue is welcome, brave, and a testimony to Phil's effective journalism, most likely. The affair is receiving a lot of coverage, too.
And the speed with which that statement came, and the clarity of the statement, is very encouraging to me.
Let's cut to the chase.
The Palestinians must find effective means of killing israelis—as many as they can possibly manage.
That was how the Vietnamese drove the American Nazi scum from their land and it is the only way the Palestinians can ever drive the Israeli Nazi scum from Palestine. They need to perfect IEDs of the sort used to good effect against Americans in Iraq, and use them daily against settlers and the IDF.
If not, the Palestinians are going to be exterminated—a process well underway at this moment.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
In point of fact, the Rabbi is Lebanese or Syrian as I remember.
I have recently had some discussion on my blog of the relationship of non-Ashkenazi Jews to Zionism:
I do not always agree with David Shasha, and our perspectives differ tremendously, but I consider him an acute observer.
I was impressed how quickly the rabbi dissociated himself, his synagogue, and his congregation from ethnic Ashkenazi extremism, racism, fanaticism, and bloodthirstiness.
In contrast, the organized Boston Jewish community welcomed Geert Wilders' visit: Collection: Wilders Visit to Boston.
Good for the Rabbi.
Now we need to know WHO invited this woman and set up the speech.
Let's have a name please.
Good grief rykart. Palestinians are not being exterminated. They are being ethnically cleansed. There is a HUGE difference. While I certainly respect Palestinian right to violence against an occupying military force, which is enshrined in common sense, common decency, and international law, demonization of Americans and Israelis contributes, and accomplishes, nothing. I think at this time violence is counterproductive.
Colonial and extremist Zionists are losing support in America and Europe. For the first time there is a chance, on a time scale on the order of 10 years, that significant external pressure pressure will be brought on Israel. President Obama of course hasn't directly confronted the Lobby, but he is confronting them. He would be a fool to have knock-down drag-out fight right now. He has more important responsibilities preventing an even worse American and global economic meltdown, which is a far greater threat to American national security. More importantly, the Lobby is losing support right and left merely by opening their mouths, e.g. Ms. Matar. Let them hang themselves with their own rope for a few more years and the political environment will be far more receptive to more direct confrontation of the Lobby. Palestinian violence now will only hinder the Lobby's auto-asphyxiation.
If there were no genuine chance at peaceful progress I would think differently. It is painfully obvious that 'peace' talks with Israel have so far accomplished absolutely nothing but increases in the rates of ethnic cleansing and colonization, while violence by resistance groups in Gaza, not just Hamas, resulted in Israeli withdrawal of extremist colonies. But violence should never be used if there is a chance that a peaceful method will work.
Those whose first thought is 'violence never solves anything', grow up, of course it can. It is unfortunate and ugly that it is so, but that is reality. Do you think that Palestinians welcomed invading IDF and colonists with flowers and candy? They fought, and they lost.
Maybe the rabbi and settler should have consulted with Shimon Peres…
As it turns out, he speaks on behalf of the "Ancient Jewish People"…
what a schmuck
Hi Colin..
"But violence should never be used if there is a chance that a peaceful method will work"
.an excellent, humane post. I agree with much of it but I'm unfortunately much more pessimistic about the prospects.
I think the Obama admin is as liberal as it's ever going to get in the US. Given the imploding economy, a far right republican in 2012 picking up where Bush left off is not very far fetched.
This is our moment.
Obama should have immediately severed ties with israel and imposed a naval blockade. His stated aim should be to duplicate Gaza conditions across Israel until they sign the damn treaty and withdraw from the territories.
He's not going to do anything but continue "paling around with terrorists." Jewish terrorists!
That leaves the long-suffering Palestinians where they have always been—alone. Perhaps "extermination" is a poorly chosen word. But certainly, Palestinians are not just being killed with bullets and bombs. They are being deliberately killed by disease and in some cases, by outright starvation.
I think israel is an intolerable threat to humankind and I feel any measures that could plausibly get rid of it in time should be taken. On learning from Israeli polls that 94% of the israeli citizenry favored even greater murder and brutalization in Gaza, it's very hard for me to have sympathy for them. At this point, you could shoot a pistol into a crowd of Israelis and the chances of hitting an innocent person are practically nil.
Israel is a genuine Nazi cancer. It has to be stopped.
Getting back to the Vietnamese, gen Giap, the chief Vietcong strategist said after the war that they always regarded negotiations with the genocidal US as a grim joke. They never took them seriously. Instead, they fought. This is a horrible situation, but i can't see what else the Palestinians can do. I can't see what alternative they have.
Giap, the chief Vietcong strategist said after the war that they always regarded negotiations with the genocidal US as a grim joke.
Wrong. Giap considered the negotiations very seriously and saw it as part of the war. What he knew from the beginning is that the Americans would eventually tire, and the negotiations would provide an opportunity for them to withdraw with some semblance of saving face. The North decided very early not to concede anything to the Americans that their troops had gained on the ground.
Rykart, you have some serious hate issues. Given the admin's policies for this site, I'm puzzled as to why your calls for death and murder haven't warranted the almighty banhammer.
I'm not denying you your right to froth at the mouth or point fingers — be my guest. Perhaps you should just take it easy with the whole "extermination" and "Nazi" rhetoric. It really does take away from the merits of your argument.
Not that I would ever wish this upon anyone, but I wonder what it would have been like had you lived in Nazi-occupied Poland. You toss around words like "Nazi" and "genocide" and "extermination" so often, it becomes glib. Have you ever lived through religious or political persecution? Have you ever had your rights and freedoms taken away from you on account of your beliefs, ethnicity, or nationality? I'm not talking about any one specific group here, just in general. I don't think you have ever experienced any of these conditions, and I hope you never do.
Given that, you lack what the law refers to as "standing" to make some of the claims and accusations you do. Of course, this is the Internet, and you can say whatever the hell you want. It's just you will be so much more effective if you kept your rhetoric within the confines of your own human experience, even if that experience is proximate to the subject matter.
Did Rykart say that the Jews should be exterminated? No. He said he felt the Palestinians WOULD be exterminated if things continue as they have been.
I think he's not accurate with the usage of the term but it's certainly not THAT far off.
991 civilians dead. 200-300 police officers dead. All planned in advance. Humanitarian disaster planned and induced. Truce purposefully violated. Etc. etc.
This is no different from the Lebanon War in 2006. High civilian death count. High damage to the civilian infrastructure.
Nothing to do w/ right and wrong. Just establishing 'deterrence'. Destroying any resistance to the Zionist project.
What are the common claims ZioPuke use against the Palestinians? Terrorism? Israel kills FAR MORE civilians and abuses the Palestinians COLLECTIVELY inside Israel proper and in the OT on a daily basis. Name any offense the Zionists cry about and they do it 10 times as much against the Palestinians.
They are a terror State by definition. Any colonial State is. Any imperialist outpost is.
FUCK Israel and Zionism. The Palestinians aren't going to get a fair deal ever. Not with the continued settlement building. Not with the fake Jewish Left liberal agenda. Not with the bought and paid for American political system. No. Palestinians should resist til the very end. They have nothing else to lose.
The Israelis kill Palestinians regardless of armed or peaceful resistance. Just look at the protests in the West Bank. Palestinian kids being shot through the head. Zionists don't see the Palestinians as people.
So fuck em'. Fight every last IDF soldier. Fight the settlers. That's your only chance.
Shirazi
Einstein compares the Israelis with the Nazis. He CALLS them Nazis and Fascists repeatedly in his letter to the NY Times.
Primo Levi compares the Israelis with Nazis, a topic he was rather intimately acquainted with.
The israeli polymath Yeshayahu Leibowitz coined the TERM "Judeo-Nazi"
to refer to israel's abominations in the Occupied Territories.
Sara Roy says the Israeli mindset is plainly, indisputably, a Nazi mindset.
http://www.bintjbeil.com/E/occupation/roy_holocaust.html
Desmond Tutu compares the treatment of Palestinians with the Warsaw ghetto and a senior israeli strategist said that Israel SHOULD copy tactics from the Nazis, specifically, the tactics they used for putting down resistance in Poland.
Philip Roth says "This is their great Jewish achievement—to turn Jews into jailers and jet bomber pilots. I spit on them!"
Now we are treated to the spectacle of these monsters bombing THREE UN playgrounds and prancing around in t shirts showing a bulls-eye over a pregnant Arab woman's belly with the caption–one shot, two kills.
guess what??
They're NAZIS!
And Shirazi Sophist, I notice how you didn't question a damn thing he actually said. You just questioned his usage of LANGUAGE.
As opposed to what Israel does in ACTION.
You're a fucking joke.
rykart is a yipping chihuahua on steroids. I reach this site by RSS feed and bypass his psychotic posts completely.
Of course the haters here are no different than Nadia Matar. That's what makes Phil's blog so sad and pathetic. And useless, really.
It is pure hypocrisy to preach peace when you have fringe lunatics as your groupies.
But…he NEEDS that paypal cashola. haha
Suzanne the ZioPuke sockpuppet pig, calls this blog useless and yet she/he is frequently trolling.
I don't recall anyone here saying Olmert should be assassinated. I don't recall anyone here saying the Jews shouldn't be given the right to vote.
There is a right of resistance. The Israeli colonists in the W. Bank do not have this right. They are invaders. They occupy another people.
And how pathetic is it, that someone like Suzanne laughs at her/his own jokes while calling other people pathetic?
Go away troll.
Rykart, I take back what I said. The true lunatic here is LD.
"You're a fucking joke"
"ZioPuke sockpuppet pig"
Classic. What are we, 12?
LD, there is no point in arguing with Rykart over substance because we disagree as to facts. Therefore, the best I can do is ask that he moderate his language, which he clearly did in his follow up post. I commend you for that, rykart.
You, on the other hand, are very unstable.
shirazi
You haven't taken issue with any of the facts presented.
You correctly surmised that I have never been a victim of political or religious persecution. You incorrectly surmised that that fact disqualified me from commenting on war crimes and crimes against humanity, though that is always the Israeli argument—you don't live here and are disqualified from commenting.
I gave you a list (one I can easily expand) of people who are very familiar with such things, for example, Sara Roy of Havard who lost 100 members of her family to the Nazis or Primo Levi, a victim of Auschwitz.
If "Nazi" is not too hyperbolic for them to apply to Israeli behavior, it's not for anyone else.
You are simply in denial of reality.
ps
I'm afraid I found nothing inaccurate in LD's description of Suzanne, a thoroughly repellent individual. That said, the Suzannes and Nadia Maturs of the world only help seal the case against Israel, at least among those with more then six functioning neurons.
Getting back to Phil's post, I think Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D. should be congratulated for his moral stance, which I take to be both Pro-American and Pro Israeli. I concede this is not the standard usage of those terms, but the good Rabbi has just made a change in that, and Phil helped him reach that POV. It' s a good sign. Kudos to both of them. I am happy for whatever support I can give either of them. Let's all keep taking the blinders off.
Interestingly enough, the non-occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel, and the ethnic cleansing of their Jews in 1929 and 1948, were not enough to stop the continuation of the Egyptian and Jordanian war against Israel from those territories from 1948 to 1967.
Given that the cession of administration of Areas A and B was not enough to placate Fateh, and the cession of the administration of Gaza not enough to placate Hamas, it is hard to see why the cession of the entire WB&G would placate a sovereign Hamas Palestinian state, or why Grad rockets would not continue to fall onto 1948 Israel, endangering the tens of thousands who might die from mega-attacks on strategic natural-gas storage sites, for example.
Land for war is a lousy deal, one that Colin wants to expedite by removing Israel's strategic backing by the United States, as France did in '67. The sooner Israel evolves towards independence, the better. Croatia is an unpleasant precedent for how the US uses its "friends"' capital cities to tie up loose ends, and rockets on Tel Aviv should not be the price of an Obama photo-op for a fancy "peace settlement."
@Shirazi Sophist
ZioPuke Sockpuppet troll perfectly describes a group of people who have been frequenting Phil's blog since the Gaza massacre and doing NOTHING else but calling people antisemites/Holocaust deniers/etc.
They divert discussion away from the blog entries. They are even the reason for the updated rules (which Phil doesn't even enforce).
Not me. I do swear a lot but it's never arbitrary. I do actually SAY something and I was absolutely right about your post.
You are a fucking blowhard. Getting all upset about Rykart's analogy which isn't even far-fetched. But you don't challenge it intellectually, rather, you focus on his LANGUAGE.
So yea, you're a fucking coward. I mean, a REAL coward. You'd think on the internet, people would be able to pretend at least to have some spine. But people like you only play rhetorical games when it comes to important issues like Israel-Palestine, in an effort to MASK your utter lack of knowledge. Your utter lack of intellectual thought and meaningful analysis. Your lack of empathy.
So you focus on LANGUAGE.
Well go fuck yourself, you delicate sob.
Citizen
A year ago I would have agreed with you. Today, it just seems too little too late when a rabbi denounces one particular Kahane disciple nut case like Nadia Matar. What has been going on at this synagogue, prior to this event–apparently well received by the congregants? Has the good rabbi gone on record denouncing the Gaza massacre? Has he called for war crimes investigations? Has he signed petitions to boycott, divest and sanction israel or, as I tend to suspect, has he joined mainstream US Jewry to sponsor trips to Israel and make nice with israel and call on his congregation to stand by israel?
Does he claim that Nadia Matar is an aberration? She's not. She's actually quite a good spokesman for Israel. She's fairly representative of the general mood of that god-awful country. THAT's what the rabbi should say but I suspect it will be a cold day in hell before that happens.
Instead of saying Nadia Matar is hateful he should tell the truth. It's ISRAEL.
ISRAEL is hateful.
Wha'd I tell ya?!??!!?!!
Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D.
He is active member and board member in a wide variety of organizations, including:
• American Friends of Likud and American Israel Public Affairs Committee
http://www.rabbis.org/news/article.cfm?id=100891
C'mon Phil…a little due diligence!!
Just google these guys.
You can tell in 9 seconds if they are advocates for justice or Judeo-Nazi phonies!
Phil shouldn't have even had to go further than he did to know this rabbi was a phony.
I mean, how long as it been? Didn't people realize Israel was a lunatic state after Lebanon in the 80s?
Phil is just too optimistic. Or he gives Jews too much credit. Go read Anthony Lowenstein's blog.
Nice guy but he too is one of those pat-themselves-on-their-own-backs type of liberals. Sorta like the holier-than-thou Sean Penn without the douchebaggery.
I just sent this to J Street:
I do hope you will withdraw your ill-advised endorsement of
Rabbi Elie Abadie, M.D.s fraudulent apologies. He is a member of Friends of Likud and of AIPAC. He was plainly well aware of Nadia Matar's virulent racism, even if he tried to back peddle after she was exposed on Philip Weiss' blog.
I will stay tuned.
(Others here might write something similar, so they know we've got their number.)
http://www.jstreet.org/about/contact
Extract from Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques – IDF fashion 2009
Uri Blau, Haaretz, Mar 20 2009
[...] Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children’s graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques – these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription “Better use Durex,” next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter’s T-shirt from the Givati Brigade’s Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull’s-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, “1 shot, 2 kills.” A “graduation” shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, “No matter how it begins, we’ll put an end to it.” There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the slogan, “Bet you got raped!” A few of the images underscore actions whose existence the army officially denies – such as “confirming the kill” (shooting a bullet into an enemy victim’s head from close range, to ensure he is dead), or harming religious sites, or female or child non-combatants. In many cases, the content is submitted for approval to one of the unit’s commanders. The latter, however, do not always have control over what gets printed, because the artwork is a private initiative of soldiers that they never hear about. Drawings or slogans previously banned in certain units have been approved for distribution elsewhere. For example, shirts declaring, “We won’t chill ’til we confirm the kill” were banned in the past (the IDF claims that the practice doesn’t exist), yet the Haruv battalion printed some last year. [...]
rykart, do us all a favor and take your views back to where they came from.
nice, bitter little observation from the Glickster in JPost today:
… Ashkenazi went to the US to brief top administration officials on Iran's progress toward a nuclear bomb. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Ashkenazi's counterpart, Adm. Michael Mullen, both managed to be out of town. Defense Ministry sources say that Ashkenazi only met with National Security Adviser James Jones, who reportedly wished to speak exclusively about the Palestinians, and with Clinton's Iran adviser Dennis Ross, whose role in shaping US policy toward Iran remains unclear [...]
Duscany, please explain. I'm assuming you find his views too extreme?
Meaning what, Duscany?
Is Rabbi Abadie your dad or something?
I'm really surprised at Duscany's reaction to you. He's a regular and we've had plenty of people with controversial views.
Tell us, what was so controversial about Rykart's comments.
And personally, I agree w/ him whole-heartedly about this Rabbi.
Who gives a flying fuck if he condemns a lunatic like Matar?
It's like some of the people here thanking Witty for condemning her. This is Witty we're talking about. The same douche who ignores all the human rights abuses by Israel. The same douche who says Hamas broke the ceasefire and the Gazans failed to create stability in their enviornment.
The same douche who never provides context to the opposition argument or even his own. He just regurgitates paper-thin truths. Like saying so and so uses Human shields. The same one-liners.
It's irritating to see people buy into this type of bullshit.
And Phil posting this Rabbi's comment is a perfect example.
What's the CONTEXT? Who is the Rabbi? What's his background? What's his political history?
And at this point, does anyone seriously give a damn about people "speaking truth to power"? That self-righteous blubbery gets the cause WHERE exactly?
It makes the speaker feel better. It's like protesting is a fun time. Something to do when you're bored. No meaning.
Ugh.
Oh and I should say, the point if that speaking out against a lunatic is not controversial.
In fact, if we're all trying to be CONVINCING then we have to bash the lunatics. So even the Zionists in the US will do this. They have political face to save.
Do you people not THINK these things through?
Not real controversy. Only CONTRIVED controversy. Like debating whether there is an Israel Lobby. There IS one. It's fake contrived controversy to say that it's a contentious issue.
Who were the people clapping and cheering?
I was also surprised by Duscany's response, but whatever.
Regarding the rabbi, I think it requires a Nobel Prize level of gullibility to believe that a "Friend of the Likud" and "member of AIPAC" who lists in his resume "Israel advocacy" as among his proudest achievements and who allows his synagogue to host Nadia Matar from the well known racist cult "Women in Green" who is enthusiastically received by the synagogue mob is suddenly "outraged" at her racist histrionics. It's preposterous.
Hats off to Weiss for exposing this grotesque affair. What are the chances, had he not done so, that the rabbi would feel compelled to make his comically insincere public apology?
And J Street? No..the writing is on the wall. They are in cahoots with AIPAC and share the same agenda. I don't see, based on the facts, what other conclusion can reasonably be drawn.
God I wish I could do short posts like Gary!
"Who were the people clapping and cheering?"
That's all that needs to be said.
Apropos the rabbi's possibly disingenuous distancing from Nadia Matar's remarks, there is a video interview of Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street on TPM Muckraker today, talking about Chas Freeman. Ben Ami failed to defend Freeman, although distanced himself from AIPAC's attack. It was a "nuanced" position. I couldn't help thinking that it also enabled AIPAC to savage another chicken to scare the monkeys. When prominent Jews attack a non-Jew as unacceptable on Jewish/Israeli issues, with explicit or implicit smears of Anti-Semitism, the silence of the Jewish crowd is a tacit endorsement of the attack. Certainly this blog and other voices have started to speak out in protest to this smear tactic, and more need to follow. Unless American Jews accept the right of Americans to debate and criticize Israeli policies, it's not a question of dual loyalty, which is fine, they're displaying primary loyalty to a foreign entity.
Who were the people clapping and cheering? Probably JDF. It has a big chapter in NY.
Well, I have to defend rykart at least partly cause he is emotional like most of us get on this issue and he is 98% right in his outrage.
Violence was the only effective tool against Israel for the Palestines.
If not for Hamas and the Palestince resistance would I-P ever have gotten the world's attention? NOPE.
If not for their fighting back would there be a Palestine population left in Palestine? NOPE
If not for their resistance would Israel have already confiscated all of Palestine? YEP
Would all Palestines now be scattered as refugees thruout Jordon, Egypt and the ME or be aparthid indentured servents in Greater Israel if they didn't fight Israel? YEP.
The zionist have always been the scorpion on the frog's back no matter where they lived, be it Europe, America or Israel, or what they were involved with…they always,always sting the frog even if it means they drown with him.
They aren't going to change regardless of what happens. You can put them down on ocassion and banish them but to ever get rid of them permently you have to put a wooden stake thru zionism's heart.
@ Eurosabra | March 20, 2009 at 06:31 PM
Given that the cession of administration of Areas A and B was not enough to placate Fatah, and the cession of the administration of Gaza not enough to placate Hamas…
Eurosabra, do you seriously think that Palestinians should be grateful to Israelis for having Western countries pay for Fatah to be collaborators and carry out Israel's occupation regime in 'Areas A & B', while Israeli ethnic cleansing and colonization proceeds apace everywhere else?
Israel did not cede administration of Gaza to Hamas. Hamas, and other Palestinian resistance groups, made the price of protection of the colonies too high. They drove the Israelis out with armed resistance. Hamas then won Gazan elections, certified as fair by the international community, in large part due to the widespread accurate perception of Palestinians that Fatah has become a collaborationist party. The actual level of public support for Hamas' goals is far lower; I seem to recall 25%. Hamas tried to form, and was briefly successful, a unity government with Fatah. Israel and colonial-Zionist-driven United States policy then became the complete isolation of Hamas. Following the illegal dissolution of the Palestinian Authority government, in which Hamas had held the position of Prime Minister, several officials in the United States government engineered a Fatah coup against Hamas, which Hamas preempted. Hamas took over administration of Gaza only after suppressing the coup attempt. The notion that Israel ceded anything is beyond preposterous, it is disingenuous. If you are not being disingenuous, and actually don't know the order of events, and believe the nonsense you have proffered, and your ignorance is common amongst Israelis, then it is no wonder the Palestinians have no partner for peace.
Land for war is a lousy deal, one that Colin wants to expedite by removing Israel's strategic backing by the United States, as France did in '67.
Israel has never tried land-for-peace in good-faith negotiations. Land for apartheid bantustans buys you nothing. I am most definitely am in favor in stopping my country's backing of Israel, until it decides it wants peace and either withdraws all colonies from occupied Palestinians territories and allows Palestinians to create a sovereign state, or it agrees to and implements a bi-national state with equal rights for all. Barring either of those two outcomes, Israel deserves neither our support nor our sympathy. It's people have chosen the path of war, occupation, ethnic cleansing, and colonization, and our relationship with them is a national security threat to the United States.
The sooner Israel evolves towards independence, the better.
I agree.
HAMAS and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics, Strategic Studies Institute
United States Army War College
U.S. Pours Gasoline on Gaza Fires
First, Destroy the Archives 9/11 Nablus
Who Profits? Exposing the Israeli Occupation Industry
If Americans Knew
Israel spies on the USA part 1
5 Israelis detained for `puzzling behavior' after WTC tragedy
The High-Fivers, More proof the Israelis were shadowing the 9/11 hijackers
correction:
Apartheid bantustans for peace buys you nothing.
Re: T-Shirts distributed by Israel in the topic below.
Really, would it seem like this is more of a systemic issue rather than one that is an aberration? Would this Rabbi have done the same if Matar advocated the assassination of Meshaal or Haniyeh? I think not. There are many faults within this BUT maybe there is something to this distancing of Jews amongst themselves.
Phil and Adam, I really want to thank you for the work you do here. Yesterday, my blood was boiling over this synagogue incident. The more I thought about it, the more vengeful I became. But because of this site, we've seen this situation both brought to light and addressed. Rabbi Abadie speaking up goes a long way towards stemming the anger. I think what brings a lot of us here is the desire to see this kind of injustice brought to light. That in itself is a huge victory. And the part Mondoweiss has played in the outcome of this story is another.
Rabbi Abadie–proud member of "Friends of Likud' and AIPAC denouncing Matar is no different from a full-fledged supporter of the Nazis saying that Goebbels shouldn't make hateful pubic statements about Jews. It's ridiculous.
Abadie AND Matar should be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
The pertinent guy to mention is the great Israel Shahak, who showed time and again the willingness of Israelis to speak and behave as Nazis, so long as the goyim weren't listening. He translated a ton of hateful texts from the hebrew, which we westerners were never supposed to lay eyes on, particularly, the racist and repellent extracts of Jewish sacred texts.
Rabbi Abadie is just the latest example.
How much moral courage is required to condemn a traveling circus freak like Nadia Matar?
Let the good rabbi condemn AIPAC–a virulently racist terror group to which he belongs.
Let him condemn Livni, Barak and the other architects of the horrifying massacre in Gaza.
Let him condemn Netanyahu, Leiberman and the new Jewish Einsazgruppen in Israel.
Let him condemn 60 years of brutalization and land theft.
Fat chance!
Instead, we get a predictable public relations charade.
If religious Jews want any respect from the world, it is high time they proved to the skeptics—Jewish and non-Jewish alike that their faith amounts to more than flowery rhetoric bearing zero relationship to their true moral bearing and their conduct toward other human beings.