Comments on: Walt and Mearsheimer explained this 3 years ago

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:12:35 +0000

Its the difference between allowing a couple hundred individuals to put up tents, and mapping out the annexation strategy of a region.

I’m surprised that you don’t distinguish.

I agree that the important question is from the present forward, and particularly how to stop the settlement expansion, so that actual reconciliation is possible.

By: potsherd

potsherd — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:55:39 +0000

Insidious

“Israel gives us perspective on how to solve our problems. We will go back wondering and thinking how we can work similarly.”

By: DICKERSON3870

DICKERSON3870 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:53:20 +0000

RE: “Just look at how one Senator who has nothing to do with Judaism or Israel is carrying Israel’s water”

SEE: “US senators attack Goldstone Report”, By TALI MINSBERG, 10/30/09

(excerpts) In the wake of the Goldstone Report and amid the nuclear threat from Iran, 10 state senators, through the American-Israel Friendship League and the National Conference of State Legislatures, are on a study tour of Israel…

…According to Georgia [thats Jawga, y'all - J.L.D] State Sen. Don Balfour, president of the NCSL, the Goldstone document is misunderstood in the United States.
“Yesterday we had a meeting about the Goldstone Report. The average American says, ‘Hey, war crimes? [with a shocked look on his face],’ but then you read it and you see almost everything we [US] do is a war crime.
“Sometimes there are civilian casualties, which is horrible. But is that a war crime? If so, that changes the way we define war,” he said…
…Balfour said he agreed with the US government’s disapproval of the Goldstone Report, saying, “I wouldn’t even say that the report is one-sided. It is perverted and it changes the game of war.”…

…Meetings with Israeli officials have enhanced the senators’ understanding not only of the Goldstone Report, but of how it directly impacts the Israeli people and government, he said. The delegation is focusing on education and cooperation, and meetings have been informational, without political pressure of any sort.
The state senators will not only go home with a greater knowledge of Israel, but a greater knowledge of America, he said. “The goal of the trip is to become familiar with Israel – the issues and the country,” Balfour said. “Israel gives us perspective on how to solve our problems. We will go back wondering and thinking how we can work similarly.”

ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to jpost.com

By: Florida State Park Events-Northwest Florida | Central Florida News … | Triathlon Leisure Knowledge

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:10:52 +0000

[...] Walt and Mearsheimer explained this 3 years ago [...]

By: Colin Murray

Colin Murray — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:19:41 +0000

What exactly is an ‘incidental’ colony? If left Zionist parties allowed privately funded colonies, then they did start the colonization campaign in the OPT.

A government that allowed a robbery against a specific ethnic group to take place unpunished, then another, and then a few more, has established a precedent that robbery is ok if one is robbing that ethnic group. It certainly meets my definition of ‘start’.

“Begin/Shamir … with Sharon as interior minister” organized, funded, and expanded an already ongoing process. However, the objection is meaningless, and merely a distraction from what is important. The relevant question is not who started it, but how to end it.

By: Colin Murray

Colin Murray — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:06:44 +0000

It’s not a Jewish lobby. It’s an Israeli and Zionist lobby. It is at least as important to note the difference than it is to note the overlap. M&W hit it right with ‘The Israeli Lobby’.

By: Tuyzentfloot

Tuyzentfloot — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:40:59 +0000

Adding 2 more factors to my map for ‘sizing up the jewish lobby’
- single focus, similar to the Chomsky example: if you focus on acts of the jewish lobby only, there’s a risk of overestimating them relative to the other lobbies. I don’t see this at work here, I just foresee the risk
- focus for the lobby itself: does their main area of concern bring them into conflict with other big lobbies or not? It’s easier to get your way if no big lobby cares, it doesn’t mean you’re big then. In Iraq for example, if the Israeli lobby would have had its way oil would have been privatized. But it wasn’t because there were other interests that prevailed. Greg Palast wrote an article about that.

By: Richard Witty

Richard Witty — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:18:23 +0000

There is a big flaw in the opening statement, that the left Zionist parties started the settlement exercise.

The early labor parties in the late 60′s and early 70′s accepted incidental settlements by self-funded very small groups. It wasn’t until Begin/Shamir and with Sharon as interior minister that the design for intentional settlement construction and government subsidy occurred, and with full steam.

Accuracy is important.

By: Chaos4700

Chaos4700 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:48:15 +0000

Why would Israel have to care about their own security? They can always come running to Big Daddy in the US and tap the American taxpayer dollar ATM machine.

By: Chaos4700

Chaos4700 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:47:15 +0000

Witty? Do you not care that incresing settlements IS A CRIME against the PALESTINIAN people too? Are you really such a racist and a cultural solipsist that all you care about is how anything impacts Israel and Israel alone?