Rahm Emanuel on Charlie Rose, picked up in Haaretz by Akiva Eldar. Excerpt 1:
But even more importantly, he believes that both parties, Israeli and
Palestinian, need to "put aside the negotiations about the negotiations and
begin their negotiations," Emanuel told interviewer Charlie Rose. "And you
can’t start as if there hasn’t been a process."
"If you don’t make progress and engage in the process of making peace," he
continued, "you give Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran, who are enemies of the peace
process, and vocal opponents of it, a veto."
Comment 1 (from a friend. I only wish I was this smart):
Put aside negotiations about the negotiations and begin the negotiations with a
process. And do it on your own (the president doesn’t really have the time).
What mush. And notice: inclusion of Hamas in talks has been ruled out. Yet no
arrangement for all Palestinians can exclude Hamas (cf. Gideon Levy’s column).
Emanuel and Obama are sure that they want Israel’s enemies to be our enemies.
Nothing can come of it at this rate.
Excerpt 2, from the transcript:
They live side by side. You can’t want this more than they want it. They have a responsibility to their people if they want to make peace and have a two-state solution that’s based on the principles of past Israeli governments and past American presidents regardless of party have endorsed, as have past Palestinian leaders. They have a responsibility. We don’t have — we can’t want this more than they want it.
Comment 2, the same friend:
Well, these words from Emanuel are a total cop-out. It means that he is advising Obama not to appear (and therefore, not to be) "pro-active." No hope without the U.S. on the scene but they’ve already found the rhetorical formula to justify backing away.
(h/t Helena Cobban)
I wish Avika had given his own views on Rahm’s comment. But if the Talkbacks are any indication, Israelis don’t want peace on his or any other terms. And as long as the US limits its pressure to forced handshakes, peace ain’t gonna happen. As soon as Netanyahu and Abbas left Obama’s photo-op, they reverted instantly to their previous uncompromising positions.
Netanyahu on Charlie Rose, Sept. 24? Sept 23? 2009 (NOT a transcript, paraphrasing from memory):
“I gave a talk at [?? Israeli university] and when I said this everybody cheered: I said, the solution is the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and the demilitarization of Palestine.”
and
We should push forward economic development of Palestine– the Arabs should contribute– if Palestinians are prosperous, they will not be angry and try to kill us….
and
Iran is eeeevvvvuuuuull.
and
oh, and did I mention, it’s all Iran’s fault. ”
and
Destroy Iran and there will be peace in Israel-Palestine.
ok, that last line was my interpretation of the weird way Bibi’s brain buzzes.
they’ve already found the rhetorical formula to justify backing away.
that is what i heard too when i saw the interview. charlie rose also asked for concrete action steps that the administration would take vis a vis the israeli and palestinians and what the administration was prepare to do. rahm ducked and weaved, never answering the question.
i can envision obama say when the ‘peace process’ fails: “israel and the palestinians live side by side. they are the ones who must want peace. we can’t want this more than they want it.”
It’s going to be worse than that–when or if the “peace process” fails, Obama will probably do what Clinton did and blame the Palestinians. Either Hamas or all of them, depending on the details. Perhaps they’ll say the PA was too weak to impose its will on the intransigent people in Hamas. We could probably get busy and write it all out now.
The Obama Administration has already established a pattern where they will only talk about atrocities committed by Hamas–Israel apparently doesn’t commit atrocities and for that matter, the PA are the “good guys”, our puppets for the moment, so they don’t either. That’ll change, if they decide to stand up for the rights of Palestinians in a way that Obama finds annoying.
Do what Dennis Ross did feed the MSM ….it was all Arafat’s fault ..
Obama’s speech in Pittsburgh, calling out Iran for “hiding” a nuclear facility that Iran disclosed to IAEA well within the appropriate time-frame (see Guardian, link to guardian.co.uk
), Obama preemptively blamed Iran– or at least shifted the focus from Goldstone/Bibi’s intransigence re settlements & Obama’s capitulation to Netanyahu, to Iran.
Iran is once again the ram caught in the thicket, that Israel will willingly sacrifice in order to spare Isaac.
This foreign policy ju jitsu has got to be the brainchild of a Dennis Ross-Rahm Emanual, perhaps a more deadly duo than Rove and Cheney/Addison.
Rahm, Obama’s gate keeper: ”
“If you don’t make progress and engage in the process of making peace,” he
continued, “you give Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran, who are enemies of the peace
process, and vocal opponents of it, a veto.”
And so, it’s obvious the die is cast. The common enemies have been chosen, the same
old ones as ever. This is a recipe for war, not peace. How can there be a peace process
without Hamas at the table? Hamas was elected, the PA is a foreignor’s proxy construct, like all those tinpot dictators the USA has supported over decades in South America–and like
for futher example the Saud Family. What is the veto Rahm is talking about other than
outrage by those to be impacted by a “peace process” involving two state powerhouses and one non-state weakling supported by the two state powerhouses but not by
most of his own people? Rahm’s not washing his hands at all because he thinks they
are clean. And this is Obama’s gate keeper? Really depressing.
When Obama selected Rahm for that spot ..the message was clear then..no change..no balance…business as usual.
Sounds like he’s hanging J Street out to dry as well.
“If you don’t make progress and engage in the process of making peace,” he
continued, “you give Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran, who are enemies of the peace
process, and vocal opponents of it, a veto.”
We can put money on it that Rahm made the call to the lobby and Israel letting them know that the U.s. will block any effort to hold Israel responsible for war crimes in the Gaza.
Obviously Israel can do no wrong in Rahms eyes..No wrong
Facts on the ground, as the saying goes, are eclipsing all the posturing that goes nowhere. A one-state solution is developing. Demographics will decide and israel is hell-bent on making war on those demographics, i.e.; killing people (Gaza) and displacing people to keep their (Palestinian) numbers below that of the jews so the “jewish state” can be ruled by jews. The ongoing ethnic cleansing of Eastern Jerusalem and other Palestinian areas with the support of the IDF soldiers, the allowed expansion of terrorist settler camps (when they conspire to shoot at farmers and commit violent acts against the local people under the helpful eye of the state army, yeah that’s terrorism), and the endless middle finger held up to their American benefactors show that israel operates with zero good faith and continues unabated in its quest to harass and drive out the indigenous population of Palestinians. If Obama does not make good on his demand that settlement activity stop then he is a pathetic pawn of israel like all the rest. What is deliciously ironic is how fruitless all of israel’s efforts are – they just prove again and again that israel is a serial-war-criminal state that will employ any evil tactic to get what it wants, yet no matter how vicious, how cruel, israel will fail. They will not succeed in driving out the Palestinians and in their expansionist plans to become the regional superpower through the blood of treasure of America’s war “against terror” efforts in the region. Believe it or not, global warming will beat the Likkud-settler-zionists in the long run. As the water dries up ever more and they employ more cruel tactics against the Palestinians world opinion will reach a tipping point with israel and they will finally have to act humanely and fairly.
“world opinion will reach a tipping point with israel and they will finally have to act humanely and fairly”
Let’s hope so, but don’t count the Israelis out when it comes to going all Masada to the max. I wish I new the English translation of the Yiddish word “Gotterdamarung“, but I don’t.
From wiki:
Gotterdamarung
Sounds like Götterdämmerung.
? Ragnarök > German translation: Götterdämmerung > Engl. Twilight of the God’s.
Could the Yiddish term be related? The context sounds like it could.
Yiddish is derived from hoche Deutsche.
Mooser’s Yiddish Gotterdamarung is coined from the German Götterdämmerung, literally ‘twilight of the gods’, especially as the title of an opera by Wagner–Hitler’s favorite BTW. Perhaps the future hold an Israeli leader of the last remnant committing suicide in his bunker–as Mooser says, “Masada to the max.”
Citizen, Hochdeutsch is “high German” standard German. A German free of whatever dialect. Close to the German spoken around Hannover.
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The Raminator. He’s so cool and macho. Phil, you could’ve been just like him if you made Aliyah and joined the IDF when you were just an ambitious youth.
Just reading this Arianna piece about diner at Barak’s house. Yuck. Barak is Israel’s most decorated soldier. This part is great where she stuffs his resume. “A warrior turned politician, he is a former Prime Minister and Labor Party leader who was asked to join Netanyahu’s government. Their relationship dates back 25 years, to when Barak was a grad student at Stanford and Netanyahu was a grad student at MIT. Another bond between the two would-be rivals is the close friendship of Barak and Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, a commando who was killed in the famed raid on Entebbe in Uganda.
link to huffingtonpost.com
Is Rahm Emanuel washing his hands?
His job is done isn’t it?
Considering that Yiddish actually is German, a variant of Middle High German, to be precise, you can count on that.
However, in Israel, they usually talk of the “Samson option”, and Israel’s alleged ability to take down the whole world with it – which is actually typical van Creveld hyperbole, but they do have nukes and thus can do some considerable damage.
Correct its origins are in Middle High German. Just as in England at that time no standard German existed but the different spellings really reflect different dialects, but it contains quite a bit of Hebrew too and Slavic elements. I am no specialist but it may well preserve somehow the spelling of the time more closely than German.
It seems most of the vocabulary often used in the States is more of German origin. But I prefer to be careful. Over the centuries a rather different usage could develop.
Again with the comment function. The above was a reply to LeaNders’s last post.
I believe that there are some, both in Israel and the US, that have already accepted that the Israel project, as presently constituted, is doomed to failure. That doesn’t mean that they won’t try to wring every last advantage out of its existence. I expect that the demographic bomb will likely be the end of Israel, not the Abomb, although I suppose that it is possible that some religious extremist amongst the Zionists decides to immortalize himself, while play acting his Masada fantasies.
I think, myself, that Israel will end with a whimper, not a bang. The demographics are against it. In only a couple of decades the place with be overrun with religious cults that neither pay taxes or serve in the military, and the secular population, not being suckers, will leave the place to them.
They’ll just need to gin up more fake hate crimes somewhere to spur another ingathering.
@ potsherd:
Where they gonna go?
This time will be different; Jews HAVE a homeland, a “safe harbor.” From which they will expulse themselves??
Rahm’s comments remind me of this poem by Samah Sabawi (from PeacePalestine)–
Thanks D. Really spells the reality out poetically. Israel will never be serious about peace so long as Uncle Sam backs the bully endlessly. That’s the ultimate fact on the ground. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, here in Rahm’s progressive peace process. Gotta hand it to Rahm–he only dreamt of where he is now, when he was
over in Israel helping the IDF maintain their Merkvahs.
One cannot expect some rational talk from hardcore Zionist Jew like Rahm Emanuel. For such people, anyone who makes a critical remark about the Zionist entity even as a well wisher – like Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu or Jimmy Carter – becomes a Jew-hater instaneously.
Both Hamas and Hizb’Allah are product Zionist fascism in Palestine and the Southern Lebanon. As far as Iran is concerned, I wonder if Rahm Emanuel was ever told by his parents or Zionist Guru – that Tehran used to be No.1 Muslim ally of Tel aviv, followed by Ankara.
link to rehmat1.wordpress.com
The sooner the self-denying Zionists relealize that without the help of Islamic Iran – they cannot live in peace in occupied Palestine or Afghanistan or Iraq – better for all the parties involved. Iran, no doubt, is the emerging great power in that region and Zionists around the world have to live with it.
Emanuel on how power multiplies & Obama at the pivotal moment:
link to paperarticles.com
Obama pivots, all right; pivots toward Israel.
Obama turned David L Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh into Wannsee. In 50 years, who will preside over the Nuremberg Trials of this homicidal cabal, for if Iran is attacked, even sanctioned, the US will have placed itself morally in the camp of homicidal tyrants.
Bush was a tool; his uncritical nature was used by neocons and Christian Zionists, but nevertheless, he was in charge and he is culpable.
How much moreso is the intelligent and shrewd Obama to be held accountable for the horror he is deceitfully preparing for Iran?