Fresh from meeting the president, Abe Foxman is reassured that he reached out to Jewish leaders. But he says in the Jerusalem Post that Carter erred by pushing peace in the Middle East, and so is Obama erring. I guess we can wait another 30 years of more colonization and dispossession? Even Foxman is reading the tea leaves, knows that the U.S. political class is all that Israel's got. Speak, Abe:
Still, I continue to sense that the administration is putting too much weight on solving the conflict. We all want to see progress and I have no problem with the administration view that the US must be much more engaged to achieve progress. But I am concerned when expectations rise dramatically, as when the president says that he expects the problem to be resolved in two years.
Going back to the Carter administration and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the idea of a comprehensive agreement as the centerpiece of American interests in the Middle East invariably led to undue pressure on Israel, a strain in US-Israel relations, without real progress toward peace. This is because the Arab world then, and now, hasn't been ready to reach an agreement and, if there is a determination at all costs to get there, the tendency is to blame Israel for the stalemate. Once such a process begins, arguments about whether Israel truly serves American interests come into play.
Finally, I worry about perceptions arising from these assumptions. Anti-Israel forces around the world, those who engage in boycotts, resolutions and propaganda believe they have largely triumphed everywhere but in America. Now right or wrong, because of the lack of clarity coming from the administration, they sense a unique opportunity to separate America from Israel.
Related posts:
- Foxman says we don’t want ‘fairness’ in the Middle East
- George Mitchell briefed by– Jimmy Carter
- Is Carter Holding Off on Endorsement as a Favor to Obama?
- Foxman and Wisse Attack Assimilation, Foxman Saying It Makes Jews Less Selfish
- Hark, Obama: ‘For the last 30 years the most important issue of my life has been peace in the holy land’ (Jimmy Carter)
{ 45 comments }
The more focused US politics is on the Israel Palestine conflict, the more Americans might look more closely at the racist incitement and criminality of Jewish Zionists: Comments, Refutation: Leaders are Extremist .
Golly gee, I would say Abe Foxman himself is responsible for separating America from Israel. His tantrums over UCSB and his pogrom against Professor Robinson was damaging to academic freedom and fee speech. That's not something Americans take lightly. Maybe we should pull our $3 billion in aid to Israel and redistribute it to unemployed Americans, as a preliminary step.
"Anti-Israel forces around the world, those who engage in boycotts, resolutions and propaganda believe they have largely triumphed everywhere but in America." No, Abe, we have triumphed in America. The press just hasn't reported it yet.
Foxman is being somewhat clear for once. The establishment doesn't want peace and never did. It wants us to continue paying for expansion until the Palestinians somehow disappear (this seems to be a recurrent Zionist fantasy). Carter was the last President with enough personal backbone to grab both sides by the scruff of the neck and force them to make progress. Since them, we've had a succession of Zionist lapdogs. I'm not fond of Obama's left wing domestic policy, but this is one place he can achieve true greatness as a leader. I'm watching with guarded hope.
how can you have a pogrom against someone? that is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard. are you sure it wasn't a suicide bombing against Professor Robinson? or a Katyusha missile barrage against him?
Abe must really believe this stuff, otherwise he would be blushing over his own skewed assumptions.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metaphor
Of course you realize the ultra right wing mind is imervious to satire, irony or metaphor.
Really. The Israeli economy is booming. Israeli products are on sale everywhere in the US. Where is your great triumph?
Foxman knows the Arabs will turn down every peace offer as they have done for the past 60 odd years.
It's not going to happen. The American companies that get the business from that 3 billion would make sure of it.
There you go again, linking to yourself. Did you win your battle against Judonia yet?
Israel alone among the countries of the world has the privilege of directly contacting with the US military-industrial complex with any American company sans vetting first by US government watchdogs. The American taxpayer borrows the 3 billion at interest from foreigners, gives it up front sans interest, rather than the contrary usual procedure, and normal intellectual property right protection does not apply in Israeli-US company transactions. Sweet deal.
Yeah, it's a corporate welfare program for a foreign country. Does the US send the new military technology to Israel so they can test them in a real world environment?
The young BDS movement has had many more gains around the western world than in the USA, mainly due to the fact the US MSM has ignored the growing movement and any of its events so far here–AIPAC is very worried about continuing to keep BDS movement from the public eye. Here's a run-down on the BDS trend here and abroad as of last June–including examples of what Israel has lost: http://www.alternatives.ca/article4899.html
Carter facilitated the negotiation of a treaty with Egypt that resulted in the reduction of Israel's exposed borders by a third. In that he is a great friend. It should never be forgotten, even in the context of some differences.
Wait and see… If Obama fails, Israel will wear the egg and people will truly realize their bullshit pathetic government schemes. People saw McCain as a complete brown-nose to Israel and Sarah was learning the ropes with her crummy Israeli lapel pins – that turned off a lot of people, since she knew nothing about Israel. A significant portion the McCain camp message was that the US is the defender of Israel. I forgot what their bullsh*t motto was anyway, "Country First"? Notice it didn't say "America First" because when you read between the lines, Israel was the intended country – all the Zionists were backslapping each other for that one. McCain's mother must have been pretty darned upset with her boy losing. -She'll probably blame Sarah at every Christmas party to come, as they all get plastered on Manischewitz.
Yes, and "some differences"–to say the least! The current demonization of Carter merely reflects that unless you rubber-stamp organized Jewry's slightest dictim you are transformed by said organized collective into the devil incarnate, as a member of the Hatfield clan who thought some McCoy member "had a good point" and actually dared to express such conclusion in public.
Obama's doing just what everyone who knows his style said he would do. He makes some seemingly bold gesture toward Israel, appeasing left wing morons like Phil and his Philipinas, knowing full well that the Arabs will fuck it up because, well, that's what Arabs do. The fantasies on this blog about Obama are nothing but childish narcicism.
Palestinians are wondering why Obama is meeting in secret with Israelis, discussing settlements on their land, while no Palestinian is in the room. I'm sure this strikes them as the same old conspiratorial "process" aimed at them, not a good sign, they conclude, for eventually when one of their own gets to sit at the table–the implication is they see Obama at this point as more akin to Clinton (who allowed himself to be vetted by the Jews before ever saying or doing anything, which Arafat noticed), than to Carter: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100767.html Note this article says that Obama had a good grasp of the details.
not sure what you mean? childish narcicism. ~ I think you have to give him more time. It's not easy when the house and senate fully back Israel. Strategically, the President is probably waiting for the right moment, you never know what is happening in Washiington. I mean he is definitely better than having Hillary 'the Annihiliator" Clinton – and surely better than smooth-talking Bubba.
Sayanim Foxman, doing that same old racist shuck and jive. He should be sharing a cell and a sentence with Jonathan Pollard.
You're not Jim Haygood, and it's a violation of Mondoweiss rules to post under someone else's name. So I'll break another rule and say that you're a fucking asshole and I hope you die… tomorrow if not sooner. FPM
Uh, Camp David accords? it's amazing that Carter, the one US President with a substantial record of accomplishment in Middle East peacemaking is portrayed as a failure.
Too good for him. He should be sharing a box with Michael Jackson FPM
The Israeli economy contracted at an annualised rate of 3.7 percent in the first quarter accorinding to Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is not the real Jim Haygood–ID theft pops up once again by hasbara sock-puppet.
Why should Palestinians give up their real estate birthright? The early zionists did not do so, even though their birthright claim was/is fictitious.
Totally agree. Foxman has no principles, he'd make a great politician. It was great to hear that Bush pardoned no one. He realize he got screwed in the end and said screw-off to these Pollard/Libby types.
And I will tell Phil on you!!! Not today, because I spend Fridays and Saturdays hiding from the JOOOS. But as soon as I can without being ascairdt!
You say "if Obama fails.." though I think it's anything but clear what Obama wants, other than to consolidate his power, like most leaders. Obviously, as president, he could force israel out of the Occupied Territories completely in 90 days and no one could stop him.
A very decent point, Mr. Witty. A very decent point.
Those zionists are in a real pickle, when the US looks at the Israel racism situation. Well, they can talk about what 'wise latina' means for another week and continue to lose newspaper sales.
Are you you being serious? What's he gonna do, send the Iraqi forces over by plane to lock up the crazy settlers. That would be played like a cheap fiddle all over the news for weeks! WEEKS! I think you don't understand much of the political environment. If he tried that his own weak party of democrats, not to mention republicans, would stop it and the media would destroy him. The president cannot do this. Really think about it, or you tell me how he could?
I'm almost happy foxman is around. Even the Jew York Times painted him as an utter buffoon (which of course, he is). His incessant nonsense about anti-Semitism has reached the point of self parody but he's too dumb to realize. I think he's turning more people off from sympathy for israel.
Abe Foxman: Still, I continue to sense that the administration is putting too much weight on solving the conflict. Our President is putting 'weight' on 'solving the the conflict' because its resolution is an essential AMERICAN security objective. Mr. Foxman either simply doesn't get the whole 'American' angle, or doesn't care. Either way, it is dual-loyalty on display.
Racist verbiage like 'the Jew York Times' does not belong on this or any other site.
racist? That's just silly, colin. I'm jewish..proud of it. Everybody knows the Times is saturated with zionists like Thomas Friedman and owned by ultrazionists. The paper has a zionist agenda and an anti-arab agenda which helped propel the US into a war that killed over a million Arabs and ripped a country to shreds—thanks in large measure to jews like Judy Miller. C'mon—it's a fact. The suffering caused by the Times is almost unimaginable and their one-sided reportage of the Mid East, a true abomination. But we can't call them the Jew York Times in jest because that's racist? Jews can stand to be offended a little.
I not only don't disagree with any single point you raise, I agree with them all. Nevertheless, the term 'Jew York Times' sounds to my ears a slur. It may be a case of you being more comfortable with saying it because you are Jewish, similar to my personal observations of African Americans using traditional racist language among themselves, though obviously not with the traditional racist rhetorical intent. People will interpret the meaning of the same set of words differently based on their perceptions of the speaker's intent. I did not know either that you are Jewish or that you were speaking in jest. In a fundamentally multi-cultural discourse conducted entirely in writing, without body language, tone of voice, or other queues to provide additional context, meaning can be easily misconstrued. I feel it is necessary to be careful with choice of words, not because I think that Jews can't take a joke or withstand criticism, but to provide a clear separation from the antisemites who weigh in on these issues. We are but bit players with tiny influence, but every heart and mind matters, and the stakes on this issue are extremely high. American Zionists have caused and are causing enormous damage to America. Americans are waking up, and it is clear to me that the process is now irreversible. How they are wakened, the degree of understanding, compassion, rationality, etc, matters very much, not just for the future standing of the Jewish people, but to the future social, political, and economic health of my country. I apologize if I have come across as a lecturing fuddy-duddy. However, I call them like I see them. Cheers.
Not a lecturing fuddy dutty at all, colin. I'm pretty much in agreement and probably, my words were ill-chosen. A great deal of it undoubtedly comes from anger. I often wish I'd stayed in the dark about what is happening in the occupied territories. It causes me such outrage, sadness and disgust. We jews are associated with these perverse injustices, whether we like it or not. It's pretty hard to stomach. An approach grounded in reason and level-headedness is surely the better way. I admire your ability to remain calm. Obviously, that's not my forte.
I have again reported this antisemite lovelyisraelis
Dual loyalty? No, I think Foxman's loyalties are quite undivided!
Obama could have encouraged the raft of war crimes investigations already undertaken all over the world. He could have encouraged and thrown US weight behind efforts to have the vermin of Israel shipped to the hague to stand trial after gaza. He could have insisted on a UN fact finding mission to Gaza. He could insist on immediate, unimpeded aid to Gaza and jump started a massive, televised publicity campaign showing the horrors israel created, the suffering they inflicted on children. He could appear in a Gaza hospital beside children burnt with phosphorus. By the end of the day, the entire earth would be calling for a hydrogen bomb to be dropped on Tel Aviv. He could further expose the fact that the israelis have been spying on us. He could launch an all-out propaganda campaign against israeli influence on the US. You totally underestimate the enormous power this man has at his disposal. Bear in mind that there would have been a Palestinian state 50 years ago if the United States hadn't unilaterally blocked it. It would only require the single thing this charismatic leader aint got—a sand grain of courage!
"Palestinians are wondering why Obama is meeting in secret with Israelis, discussing settlements on their land, while no Palestinian is in the room." How very true. And how astonishing it is to think of how normal, how commonplace this grim charade has become.
He should be given credit for his actions. At least he is better than Bubba or GW. Look at the coward senators. Biden at Aipac " you don't need to be Jewish to be a Zionist". It's possible the president has a plan if things start going way wrong. Wait a year and we can see what unfolds.
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