Our first fundraiser is over, and we've raised the $8000 we asked for two weeks ago. "Thank you!" doesn't begin to describe my/our gratitude.
This site began more than three years ago as a personal blog, with dog pictures and my take on the World Cup. Before long, the social forces of the internet and my own impatience to discover what I really think about our tragic foreign policy and my Jewish identity gave the site a distinct character, a place where people could be critical of America's Israel/Palestine policy and could talk about identity politics. When I left the New York Observer two years back, that character was solidified.
The other landmarks in this site's progress have been the appearance of several important outside voices, including Jack Ross, James North, Mohammad of Vancouver, Anees of Jerusalem, Susie Kneedler, Ira Glunts, Jeff Blankfort, Bruce Wolman, and several others who must go anonymous. Then the decision by Adam Horowitz to come on as a partner earlier this year. (No: not enough women on the site; we're aware of that, and working on that.) My friends Peter Drubetskoy and Tony Schmitz lent us technical help, and slowly the site became more professional and dependable. As the road unrolls, I expect to take on more editorial responsibility and less of the writing work.
Many times over the last three years I've thought of abandoning this site. Basically because I've made no money. But countless media workers are having the same experience, and this site today seems to have greater permanence than ever; and if you'd told me a year ago that we would be able to raise $8000 in two weeks, I wouldn't have believed you.
The lesson of all this is that we have learned to get into the flow of the new community the internet has made, and it's a powerful force for change of all sorts. As the internet grows, we want to develop with it. The incredible generosity we've experienced over the last two weeks has increased our sense of responsibility. Thank you!
Pro-Palestine and a footy fan to boot. Your OK Weiss….
Keep it up. You're doing 'the lord's work', let us know when you need help.
Phil isn't a "footy" fan (to use that faggoty Australian expression), and he's not really pro-Palestinian. He hates Jews. That's pretty much it.
Come back from your trips with photos and videos.
Congratulations.
Keep your eyes open. Commit to the good, even if it conflicts with your expectations.
Go Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade!
Kidnap Phil!!!!
That's not Jim Haygood's comment above. You all know who it is.
The comment above is not by real Jim Haygood.
I wish Phil would find a way to ban these Jews who pretend to be not Jews!
John Smithson wrote:
"Keep it up. You're doing 'the lord's work', let us know when you need help."
Hear hear, Phil, and that goes for your personal finances too if you think we could provide enough to really help. I don't know another blog whose owner works as hard as you putting new stuff into the pipe all the time for all us slackers to chew over. And here you're doing it instead of xeroxing your resumes.
Phil, I've been with you since you first uttered the phrase "Israel lobby" when you were at the Observer. Since then you've become my index for what's going on in the Jewish American community with respect to the I-P conflict. I think that your blogging has probably made a real difference in the debate. I hope you can find a way of making a real living and still keep up this good work you're doing on this site.
We know what to oppose. We don't have a path of what to make and support.
That is the never-ending dilemma and the failure of dissent.
It needs to turn the corner.
I read today in Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079063.html
Hamas: We will never recognize the enemy
By Reuters
Tags: gaza, israel news, hamas, gaza
Two top Hamas leaders made their first appearances at public events since Israel's Gaza war on Friday, signaling defiance of rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as he discussed peace prospects with a U.S. envoy.
"We cannot, we will not, and we will never recognize the enemy in any way, shape or form," Mahmoud Zahar, one of the two leaders, said in a mosque sermon broadcast on the Islamist movement's radio station.
This is one of the statements by Hamas that CONFLICT with the wishful thinking that peace with Hamas is potential.
richard, why are the obstructionists always mentioned as being on the other side in the us media? here is the likud platform
The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.
do we hear about the obstructionist likud platform to the same degree that we hear about hamas'?
Sure,
Haven't you been reading the NY Times? Richard Cohen, Obama.
Likud is intent on either gradual annexation or the status quo.
But, the assertion here is that Hamas is willing, when its public statements indicate that that is FAR from the truth.
Phil & Adam:
Do another one (and another one etc). Donate some to good, pro-Palestinian causes and let us know how much and who to.
Thank you!
What next.
Clarify your goal.
Make detailed proposal.
richard, lately roger cohen has been a breath of fresh air in the otherwise lock-step and stuffy israel-palestine discourse in the main media outlets. when was the last time you heard on a regular basis the same type of opinion he espouses about the i-p issue in an evening national news broacast? …. crickets…..
as phil as reported here, seymour hersh would rather run naked in the street than write about the i-p issue. why is that? here is a man who breaks all kinds of stories about the criminal activities of our government and yet treats the i–p conflict like it was the plague.
I don't watch TV so I've never heard a critical word from mass media, which then says nothing at all.
The reason the issue is not reported as you would like, is that it is confusing. There are no clear good guys. Civilians are innocents, but there are few sympathetic expressions here for the victims of terror or shelling. (All Israelis are victims, as they got the message that they are ALL intended targets).
Hamas can create a breath of fresh air by even stating that it would conditionally accept Israel as Israel.
But, I expect that they are accountable to factions, militias and states to their right.
Someone on another thread posted on Abbas and Erekat statements relative to the temple mount/Al Aqsa site.
I wish someone in the Islamic world would acknowledge the frequency with which Muslims construct their shrines on the location of other faith's holy sites, AS an erasure of history.
Its difficult to reconcile.
It would be wonderful if we shifted to regarding each inch of the planet as our mutual holy site, and not alternately neglect most of our homeland, while fighting over slivers of it.
Witty
Could you give us an idea of what sort of words YOU would direct to the people who recently massacred 1400 of your countrymen, rained phosphorus on children's schools, rampaged through your towns destroying homes and shooting old women in the head? Would your position be "Let me be the first to uphold your God given right to a state on land stolen from us." ?
Well…I really really really hope you have the opportunity to display that kind of equanimity after YOUR family is cut to pieces by shrapnel and troops have defecated in your home.
conditionally accept "Israel as Israel"?
What does this mean?
did the jews ever accept Palestine as Palestine? (Original Mandate)?
@ Bluepearl–The Hamas charter issue is arguably bogus as a practical matter. It's also arguable that the Likud charter is the real problem:link to moonofalabama.org
Interesting, the MSM print brings up the Hamas charter sometimes, but never mentions the Likud
charter–hopefully that will change considering the new Israeli regime's nature.
There's a very good case to be made that the Likud charter is the problem, not the Hamas charter:
link to palestinechronicle.com
And, as the referenced url asks as a preliminary matter,
"Which Israel should Hamas recognize? Israel has not yet stated what its international borders are. Should Hamas recognize the Israel of 1948? The Israel of 1967? The Israel of 2009 with its apartheid wall, settlements (settlements building raised by 60 percent in 2008, the year of the Annapolis “Peace Process”, according to a Peace Now report), second class Arab citizens and with East Jerusalem annexed?"
Stay safe Phil!
Hamas should accept the same Israel that Egypt and Jordan and the PA accepted.
Even as there are real territorial disagreements.
Hamas has announced that under NO CONDITIONS would it recognize Israel as Israel.
Recognizing Israel as Israel, rather than as the Jewish state, or rather than Palestine, is language that is halfway. Its the language of the PA.
Phil, you should have regular (quarterly maybe) donation drives. You've repeatedly dropped hints over the years of your money woes but many of us are thick; we need to hear it straight. Report what you get, even if it's pathetic. Don't be embarrassed, and in fact you could play up that angle to your advantage.
Robert Parry's ConsortiumNews.com gets less traffic than this site according to Alexa.com, and they've received 20k for their spring fundraiser. Last week on Alternet.org there was a fundraiser appeal that also reported receiving 20k, though they get much more web traffic.
And if there are readers out there who can't donate, then you could help out Phil by posting a link to philipweiss.org on relevant message boards, blogs and forums. I've seen many a message board post trying to get people interested in the Neocon/AIPAC War for Israel, but they don't know where to get good info and some turn to crap sites like iamthewitness.com, rense, erichufschmid, etc.
We need to turn them onto the Mondoweiss conspiracy theory instead!
As Phil recently wrote:
Recognising Israel as Israel would be preposterous for anyone who were felled by them. It seems Meshaal and Hamas are both feeling for feelers who would see them as progessing and trying to balance that as a resistance movement staying true to its strong grassroots and its commitment to its principles. No doubt it is confusing and most would wish that they choose one or the other: the path of the failed Fateh, or the path of true resistance against the occupier. There is no middle ground that will work (to myself).
What I read of Meshaal is that he hates Israel (like everyone would) BUT he is willing to settle for something even though he hates the state. (Does everyone like every state to settle with it?) It's ironic that everyone expects Hamas, a rejectionist movement to accept Israel and "recognise" it, whatever that really means today, when Palestinian Israelis won't even do that and they are citizens. We are stretching the limits here (Jerusalemites won't even accept citizenship and neither does the Syrians and now we're meant to "normalise" everything for the sake of what? Forget about the past deaths and destruction and the dispossession and the constant racism of the state. "Recognise" us and we won't continue to occupy you. How's that for logic?)
Gaza is NOT the current most important story in the middle east. Clearly, Iran is moving to be far more important.
Going to Gaza, might be a presentation of old news. Maybe its the first of leadership by Phil of a left press bureau among Palestinians.
But, unless he links with writers in Israel and elsewhere to be able to fully cover the conflict, he'll be tarnished with the same substance and appearance of being a propagandist more than a reporter. Activist reporters form accurate and effective insights and some idiotic ones.
As much as Phil and other dissenting journalists criticize the New York Times for participating in the power dynamics, dissenting reporting ends up doing that as well, and not always in helpful terms.
The argument to reduce the import of the Israeli right, is that Israel's paranoia is uncalled for objectively. The problem with that argument right now, is that it is not true.
Hamas "feelers" are not enough. They need to assert their intention to reconcile, even assertively, but reconcile. They are doing the opposite now. They are issuing public and official unconditional rejectionist statements.
NOT, "if you do this, we can do this". (Key word "if")
@ Joshua
"Recognise" us and we won't continue to occupy you. How's that for logic?"
Yes, that's the point. Witty has never answered the question despite his constant comments. It amounts in practice to love us or we will kill you, sooner or later–it's up to you. Look what happened to the Indian chiefs and their people when they jumped for hope and signed The Great White Chief's contracts. Hollywood has made many movies depicting this gross fine print deception
relative to native Americans, but has yet to produce even one movie in the same spirit relative to
the I-P situation.
@ Richard Witty
"Hamas should accept the same Israel that Egypt and Jordan and the PA accepted."
So, since all those acceptances were based on sending tons of US tax dollars as a bribe to the respective elites of the respective entities, combined with sending much more money and more
advanced weapons to Israel–and, uniquely, without any conditions attached combined with
Israel's charging interest on money given to them by US taxpayers–are you, Witty, suggesting
The Palestinians should get a deal equal to what Israel has now with Uncle Sam? If so, how? If not, why not?
@ Witty
"Gaza is NOT the current most important story in the middle east. Clearly, Iran is moving to be far more important."
Here Witty is echoing the new far right wing Israeli regime. Let us hope Obama won't buy it. Anyone who knows the Middle East knows that the I-P conflict, and the USA's one-sided support of the Israeli regime, is a top key, not a bottom a key. Witty is still dredging up PNAC POV, the POV
that got us in to occupying Iraq, and now Witty wants us to kill Persians. It's very clear therefore
that Witty has no dual loyalty–he has one top loyalty: To Israel. Good for him, lucky for him thanks to goy cops and soldiers he can freely express himself here in the USA. But he's a traitor
by any reasonable definition of his comments here for over two years.
@ Witty
"The argument to reduce the import of the Israeli right, is that Israel's paranoia is uncalled for objectively. The problem with that argument right now, is that it is not true."
Gee, I thought paranoia by definition is uncalled for objectively–what does Witty know here that English speakers do not?
As we look at Gaza we at least see that Palestinians living there are not paranoid.
Witty apparently thinks night is day…