Everyone who comes to this site should be aware that right now the point of the lance is Times columnist Roger Cohen, who, "shamed" by Gaza, has done the best work on Israel/Palestine at the Times (I know, not a high bar) and has lately reported from Iran's Jewish community in a fairminded way. He is being savaged by the right. I will be getting to these vicious attacks later today. Meantime, note his latest column, where Cohen takes on his critics with enviable aplomb. Ron Radosh at Pajamas Media, a neocon hangout, says the Times should fire Cohen. We should celebrate Cohen's open-mindedness and help him, too, find his way toward the radical idea of democracy for Jim-Crow Palestine. Cohen:
propensity to fixate on and demonize a country through a
one-dimensional lens, with a sometimes disastrous chain of results.
It's
worth recalling that hateful, ultra-nationalist rhetoric is no Iranian
preserve. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's race-baiting anti-Arab firebrand,
may find a place in a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. He
should not.
This is the same position taken by the Jews of Support Israeli Democracy. It is the Israel Policy Forum's position. It's the new left-center. Yes: we're the left. Now put your shoulder to the wheel and we can make Cohen the new center.
He still has blinders, critical blinders, to the character, behavior and policies of Hamas and Iran.
When Hamas and Iran indicate that they are in fact willing to reconcile with Israel, then the state of war and the attitude of war can relax.
It hasn't happened yet. Only wishful thinking has happened so far.
interview naeim giladi, an iraqi jew.
some short steps to becoming a good jew:
admit jews have no right(s) to palestine
declare israel has no right(s) to exist
admit to the jews murder of rachel corrie
admit to the jews intentional assault on the u.s.s. liberty, june '67
admit to the jews intent to murder all 298 crewman aboard the liberty
minimal steps to becoming human. can your "good" jews do the above?
Richard representing Team Zion, still waiting for the Arabs under his boots to scream uncle. How evolved. How civilized.
@ Witty: "When Hamas and Iran indicate that they are in fact willing to reconcile with Israel, then the state of war and the attitude of war can relax."
What about Zionism's willingness to treat Palestinians as human beings? But it's always incumbent on the other guy with you Jewish Zionists, isn't it? Even when you hold all the cards (and the nuclear weapons).
Richard, stay on point. Do you support neo-cons attempting to squelch any dialogue in the mainstream media that does not support the AIPAC agenda, or not? Cohen's article was a clear-eyed assessment of what's really happening to Iranian Jews. The fact that it doesn't push the US to attack Iran is why Ron Radosh et al are agitating for Cohen's firing. Hasbara rules.
So Jews need to lie in order to be "good Jews"?
Then Weiss is well on his way to "goodom" and hell.
"Do you support neo-cons attempting to squelch any dialogue in the mainstream media that does not support the AIPAC agenda, or not?"
Of course not, nor do I support radicals attempting to squelch dialog.
Cohen's two articles were informative, but NOT conclusive. He reiterated what many have been suggesting about Iran, and about Gaza, that they are not the caricature of suppression that many in the west have concluded (from ignorance of the reality).
The problem I surmise is in the conclusion derived from that. That is that Hamas and Iran have taken the next steps, of ACTUALLY acknowledging the existence of Israel and commitment to co-existance. It hasn't happened yet, and the psychological rush of wishful thinking should be avoided.
The status is of possibility (prospect for hope AND for disappointment), not yet of confidence.
As I said earlier, it compels the Obama transition from unwilling to listen to willing to listen, but NOT the transition from unwilling to listen to agreement.
Since you never define what you understand by the term 'Israel', Richard, by default you refer to the apartheid state it is now,and this is unacceptable, not just to 'Arabs', 'Muslims', 'Leftists', 'Islamists', etc., but to the entire civilised world, as apartheid South Africa was.
Wasn't there an Israeli initiative to bring those Iranian Jews "home", by financial 'incentivation'? And didn't they, rather embarrassingly for the Zionutzis, snub those proposals in a rather annoyed manner? Oh yes, there was and oh yes, they did…
But no, wait, Ahmedinazis must have a totalitarian hold over them, right? Wrong again.
The Iranian Jewish community is a rather powerful counter-argument against "Iran = Jew killers" argument.
Cohen is spot on when it comes to Iran (apart from the cheap Bushehr – Chernobyl jibe) and confirms what many independent Western observers (like e.g. Rageh Omaar) have been saying and showing for quite some time.
No wonder Cohen is on the Masada2000 S.H.I.T. list, as is 'Pig Weiss'.
Apply the same standard to your own 'group'/constituency, Witty. Stop being such a fucking hypocrite.
I see LD has again lost the argument.
The Iranian Jewish community is held in hostage. Younger Iranian Jews fear to leave their parents behind, almost all are inter-related and fear the backlash on the remaining community should they leave. That LD, such a nutzi.
No comment about much of the above, but I mean really…Bill Moyers, Charles Freeman, now Roger Cohen…it does seem to give the impression that there is an attempt to silence opposing views. And destroy careers in the process, if necessary. Not good, sports fans, not good.
Cohen suggests that "behind the Jewish issue in Iran lies a critical one – the U.S. propensity to fixate on and demonize a country through a one-dimensional lens, with a sometimes disastrous chain of results."
Our first President George Washington said it even better in his Farewell Address:
"..nothing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. Antipathy in one nation against another disposes each more readily to offer insult and injury, to lay hold of slight causes of umbrage, and to be haughty and intractable, when accidental or trifling occasions of dispute occur. Hence, frequent collisions, obstinate, envenomed, and bloody contests."
Iran hasn't attacked another country since the days of Nadir Shah, a couple of centuries ago, according to Richard Frye, a renowned orientalist and Professor Emeritus at Harvard. Apparently the Persians have learned from their history. Too bad the same can't be said of us.
@Chris Berel:
"The Iranian Jewish community is held in hostage. Younger Iranian Jews fear to leave their parents behind, almost all are inter-related and fear the backlash on the remaining community should they leave."
What evidence have you got for this? It's pure conjecture, wishful thinking even…
I SEE Witty still has blinders, critical blinders, to the character, behavior and policies of Israel. Too bad he does not see, with his ill-prescribed lenses, delicately framed in Reasonable Man style. He's like a porn Nazi wearing cheap thongs. His buttocks are obvious, but not in the way he intends. Everytime he comes out of his cake, the party gets depressed–he's like a frozen pizzal. We follow his directions, and are always disappointed.
Interview with a Bahá'í Who Escaped From Iran: Mehri Mavaddat
link to info.Bahai.org
/>
"I grew up in a Bahá'í family in Iran. On my mother's side I am the fifth generation, and my father was third, and my grandfather became a Bahá'í during the time of Bahá'u'lláh.
In Iran the Bahá'í Faith was never recognized officially, so we were always under pressure. They cursed us in the streets, the children were beaten in school, and always I remember when I was a small child they broke our windows and put dirt behind our door because we were Bahá'ís. But we never tried to get revenge. My parents told me, and I always told my children later, that Bahá'u'lláh said to love people, even your enemies. So even when they beat us, we showed them love, and we helped them.
They burned my father's business in Hamadan when I was two or three years old. This sort of thing happened to all the Bahá'ís in Iran. In the last century 20,000 Bahá'ís were martyred — put to the death in an attempt to eliminate the Bahá'í community — and their houses were looted and they were tortured…. "
Iran sounds like a wonderful place.
The problem I surmise is in the conclusion: That is that Israel has not taken the next steps, of ACTUALLY acknowledging the existence of Palestinian arabs and Christians and commitment to co-existence, despite jewish theft of land and murder of native inhabitants of what use to be called the Palestine Mandate. It hasn't happened yet, and the psychological rush of zionist wishful thinking should be avoided.
Julian, you need to talk to some IDF vets in Breaking The Silence, and you need to talk to some USA military families–I agree, that would be a stretch for you, living in your gated community, policed
by USA goy grunts.
so do we have free press or not? most of us here already know the answer. meanwhile the elephant in the room continues to bloat. when will it pop? the answer lies in the full disclosure of missing context.
Phil wrote: Yes: we're the left. Now put your shoulder to the wheel and we can make Cohen the new center.
ummmm…that will NEVER happen unless you clean up this blog of all the anti-semitic garbage.
You'll also need to come around to consider Israel's concerns in conjunction with Palestinian concerns.
If you don't, I can guarantee that you're in for huge disappointment and failure. :-)
The ironic thing about Radosh is that when he palled around with Murray Rothbard he had a New Left critique of American foreign policy and Stalinism, but nowadays he spends his time defending U.S foregn policy while claiming he changed his mind when he realized Stalin was a bastard. How that could put what he wrote in "Prophets on the Right" in doubt is anyone's guess. As Justin Raimondo points out, Radosh is perfectly willing to say things disproven by his own historical writings.
I mentioned this in the other thread, that just as Cuba isn't Pol Pot's Cambodia, Iran isn't Cuba even if it isn't Switzerland either. Putin's Russia might be a better comparison.
Vera, you left out the best part of Washington's Farewell address:
Every high school student ought to memorize this. And Richard Witty ought to have to write this out a thousand times and compose an essay explaining why this DOES NOT apply to Israel.
America & Israel DO have common interests. This is very hard for people who don't understand how governments work to understand. If there were no shared interests, there would simply be no relationship. This is politics 101. What the hell are they teaching in school these days? Pretend divestment ala SJP?
where did you do your politics 101, suzanne? some other planet?
Commentary and co have a point regarding jews in iran
http://www.ordoesitexplode.com/me/2006/12/iran_jews_holoc.html