The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Watch the Daily Show tonight. Jon Stewart hosts Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti. Did you hear that? Jon Stewart hosts Anna Baltzer and Mustafa Barghouti. Writes Adam Horowitz, who was at the show, it’s amazing: "This is a big moment, Palestinian equal rights joins the progressive agenda next to single payer healthcare and taking on corporate fat cats."
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Can someone post the clip when it’s available?
I just read Isaac Luria’s excited email about the J Street conference. He wrote “5 Members of Knesset attending.” Anyone know who they were?
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US_Objector…go to the Comedy Channel site.
Oh, great! Next year they’ll beam in Netanyahu by satellite.
11PM EST—should be interesting.
I just flew home from the J Street conference in D.C. : Ami Ayalon was on the plane and said that he was at the conference. I also saw Amir Peretz and Haim Ramon at the conference.
Were non-Jews welcome at the J Street conference?
I once attended a training session for non-Jews on “how to speak about Palestine” with Anna Baltzer. She was great. Articulate, well-informed, personable, passionate.
She talked about growing up with the usual negative notions about Arabs etc. and her moment of transformation.
Her opinions are beyond the pale for the liberal Zionist camp.
You better believe it. She was banned from the Daily Kos.
potsherd – is that true? do you happen to know how long ago that was?
I know of course that DK chooses to stay as much away from the I/P topic as possible. Even the most measured posts bring down a hail of crazy comments, hide rates and what not. Their silence on J street was extremely loud – there may have been some posts – there are plenty of people interested but they must have disappeared awful fast as I saw none, whenever I checked.
Of course, there’s that elephant in the room – the way the zionbist agenda ties in to the health care debate. No one wants to touch it with a 10 foot pole but everyone knows it’s there. What do people think – that Lieberman really has such strong opinion suddenly on the public option? yes, I know several health insurance companies are in Connecticut, but still…when OpenLeft dares to go there, I’ll know that progress is really being made (had my own private e-mail exchange with one of the front pagers there. Enlightening, to say the least)
Danaa – it was a couple of years ago, in the general purge of the P side. One guy there did blog the J Street conference.
Jon Stewart seemed unfocused, made it seem as if the entire issue is hopeless because it’s SO complicated. He threw in some anti-Semitic references to the Mickey Mouse kids show which appeared a few years ago on Hamas’ TV station, then mentioned Iran’s desire to “wipe Israel off the map”.
On the positive side he did try to drive home the point that the two people have so much in common. When Anna Baltzer said that, historically Jews in the Middle East lived better than they did in Europe, Stewart interrupted and brought up 1948 and the tensions that erupted as a result of the war. Meh..
All in all, I thought Mustafa and Anna did better than Jon. I had high expectations of him, but he let me down somewhat.
I couldn’t agree more with everything you said, Nolan, although I have not seen the whole unedited interview online yet. In the edited version, the men hardly let Anna speak.
I agree – Jon seemed unusually nervous; uncomfortable – hardly cracked a joke. almost afraid mincing words etc. I thought he froze Anna out deliberately (is she a beauty or what?); maybe because she is the jewish one, and I believe the book has quite a bit of her experiences in the west bank, which he felt would be disturbinbg for some to hear. barghoutti is safer, being palestinian and all – he’s allowed to speak. But anna represents the post-zionist jews who have seen what the occupation does up close and came away changed. And these are the ones the producers of the show consider more dangerous (zionist pressure and all that; what jon’s show was subjected to after his comments on gaza no doubt, and the reason he’s gone somewhat quiet on the issue).
All that being said, stewart chose them and their book to advertise. He has the final word on which authors are featured on the show. his questions to barghoutti seemed strangely forced, like someone fed them to him. devil’s advocate type of thing – like moyers interview of goldstone. His words did not sound his own -wespecially that little comment aboutjews being “kicked out” of arab countries on ‘48. making it all seem like a symmetric expulsion – which is the current big zionist talking point.
I am glad he had them on. however the interview went. was good to hear the audience clap for barghoutti’s lines on palestinian human rights and non violence. The door has opened up a crack……we’ll see whether more comes through….
I don’t worry about anna – am sure she’ll get her day in the sun. an interesting collaboration, that’s for sure.
Oh and there was an idiot in the audience who shouted “Liar” at Dr. Barghouthi.
There was a Republican Congressman in the audience? (Sorry, couldn’t pass that one up)
Stewart made that joke himself.
bla bla bla: WHAT ABOUT JEWISH WAR-MONGERING AGAINST IRAN?
BEFORE AFTER
Palestine: Peace War and Destruction
Lebanon: Peace War and Destruction
Iraq: Peace War and Destruction
Georgia Peace War and Destruction
Afghanistan: Peace, no Drugs War and Destruction, Drugs
Pakistan: Peace War and Destruction
Iran: Peace ?????
9/11: Peace War and Destruction
JINSA: War and Destruction, War and Destruction
AEI: War and Destruction, War and Destruction
J Street statement on Iran looks like AIPAC-lite:
“J Street supports the thoughtful and nuanced approach to Iran sanctions legislation articulated yesterday by Chairman Howard Berman. [Note: Berman is another war-monger pushing an Act of War against Iran in the US Congress] We agree that it is a vital interest of the United States, Israel and the entire Middle East to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons. Further, we agree with the Chairman’s stated policy preferences for achieving that objective. J Street’s first choice — as it is for President Obama and Chairman Berman — is to resolve the nuclear issue through diplomatic means. We, too, strongly support the Obama Administration’s efforts to engage Iran and hope for promising follow-through to the first round of talks held in Geneva on October 1. However, should engagement not produce the desired results, we too believe that the United States should seek hard-hitting multilateral sanctions through the United Nations Security Council. If that course of action proves impossible, then the U.S. should work to build the broadest possible international coalition to back such steps. The imposition of unilateral sanctions, without UN approval or the support of allies, should be, as the Chairman himself says, a last resort. J Street supports the Chairman’s intention to mark up the bill on October 28th and to give the President further time to pursue our preferred options. As we have said before, J Street does not oppose the imposition of sanctions per se. We prefer, as do Chairman Berman and President Obama, attempting to achieve the desired result through diplomatic engagement and multilateral action.”
http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/10/28/my-problem-with-j-street/
The leadership of J Street apparently intends to build it into an alternative de facto agent of the Israeli government, complementing AIPAC as another part of the Israel Lobby in Washington. It is a ruse to entice more liberal American Jews to pledge and demonstrate their “love for Israel”, thereby broadening Zionist support.
J Street in no way removes the dual loyalty problem. It only slightly moderates the Israel-First movement. It will do nothing for the Palestinians without a serious overhaul of its program.
Anna Balzer was on “CNI: Jerusalem Calling” last week, along with Micha Kurz, the former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) combat soldier who founded “Breaking the Silence.”
http://www.cnionline.org/this-thursday-tune-into-cnijerusalem-calling-whost-anna-baltzer/
Tomorrow, Alison Weir will be hosting Jeffrey Blankfort on the same show:
http://www.cnionline.org/
Good news: the price of Anna Baltzer’s book has been raised by half on Amazon.com since her appearance on “The Daily Show.” This is what my Amazon cart just said:
“Please note that the price of Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories has increased from $19.11 to $28.95 since you placed it in your Shopping Cart. Items in your cart will always reflect the most recent price displayed on their product detail pages.”
So viewers must be buying the book: one great outcome of an edited show that could have been better if Phil and Adam had been the emcees.
That’s not good news; it means fewer people will buy the book.
I wonder if this a deliberate move on Amazon’s part to dampen enthusiasm and sales figures for the book. Remember that when Carter’s first book on Palestine came out, Amazon omitted the “Peace not Apartheid” part of the title, and they threw up a full 1400+ word negative review by Jeffrey Goldberg on the main book page, with no mention of Goldberg’s background, and no positive reviews. Highly unusual. Henry Norr had to accumulate tens of thousands of signatures on a petition before amazon relented. Search for the terms “Norr”, “Goldberg”, “Carter” and “amazon.com” together to learn more.
The more popular a book is on Amazon, the lower they put the price.
Usually.
Sorry to hear that: thanks cluing me into the disturbing possibilities.
Henry Norr had to accumulate tens of thousands of signatures on a petition before amazon relented.
http://www.petitiononline.com/Amazon07/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Norr
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0424-04.htm
Looking into the price history of the book, it seems to have sold for ~$16 -$20 until recently (I assume yesterday). And rarely do you see a current book at amazon.com at full list price. In fact, it’s now the only book on the top 99 bestselling Israel books which isn’t sold at a discount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/5001/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_3_4_last
On amazon.ca, the book is unaffected, at CAD$20. They didn’t paste the full Goldberg review on the .ca site at the time of the Carter book release. I guess US public opinion is the prime concern.
Not enough information for a conclusive verdict, but the timing (Anna’s most mainstream appearance to date), the quick hike to the highest selling price possible, and amazon.com’s past behaviour, one can’t help but wonder.
There’s an idea. Mondoweiss TV.
The new MTV. And we can all be the Greek chorus wailing in the background.
I recently wnet to a Greek festival in my town andit brought back memories of Anthony Quinn. He was a great actor. This scene iis one of my favorites:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXNApZ2ALiQ
When Jon Stewart reviews the clips from this show, Anna Balzer will never be invited to return. Not because she was strident or mean, but because she was evasive and sweetly manipulative.
She avoided his questions consistently. Cute, like the Shiministin attractive women that were chosen to represent the movement.
Barghouti was more impressive. He also avoided the questions of one-state, two-state and relations between factions. In fact, towards the end he spoke in language inferring his support for two-state approach.
Was that accurately his position?
Oh you would love it if living proof of how faulty your “liberal Zionist” position is weren’t invited back for more media exposure, wouldn’t you? You’re not exactly in a position to be wagging the dog, here, Richy. Watching you try is vaguely amusing, though?
You people are such trolls. You can never address a word Witty says, just belittle him for having different views than you. that’s the only method of argument on this site, deflect rational questions and then immediately go into some zionist tirade against him. If this is any reflection on the cause you are so adamantly fighting for, maybe this is reason Palestinians are still occupied, w/ out a state, etc. etc.
Also, when asked by Jon Stewart whether Palestinian agitation should seek to humanize Israel and Israelis, she only referred to how Arabs are presented.
“Which side are you on?” is not enough to realize justice, peace, morality.
We know which side you are on, Richard and which side you dehumanize and we know you welcome the voices of people who dehumanize Palestinians and accuse human rights groups of bias when they criticize Israeli crimes. And you’re right–one-sidedness isn’t going to bring justice, peace, or morality. That applies to both sides, but this isn’t something you will ever apply to yourself. And unfortunately, you’re not alone.
I am on the side of mutual humanization. When Jon Stewart about the necessity to tone down animosity, specifically siting PA accepted anti-semitic cartoon TV shoes, Barghouti stated that he was the person that got the TV shows removed from the air, that they were both wrong and useless.
Balzer only deflected the question, obviously aware that she has been a condemnor politically, moreso than a proposer.
Both sides is important. Mutual humanization does not come from likud overtly or actually. It usually doesn’t come from the far left, which defines its role as “dissent, objection” more than proposal or positive advocacy or better yet, actual help.
I haven’t read her book. If it is of witness (rather than agitation), then it is likely to be important and helpful to all.
I just find it odd that I am accused of hypocrisy for focusing on the issues that I believe illustrate what I understand to be important concerns, but Walzer is praised for the same.
Witty – you are accused of hypocrisy because you hypocritically accept the organized efforts to dehumanize Palestinians but wax irate at the idea of such efforts directed at Israel.
Don’t you get it, Donald? Everyone here needs to change, except Richard.
He walks and chews humanizing gum at the same time; it’s a tension, but a GOOD. He doesn’t criticize, he PROPOSES that we are all wrong.
Anyone who watches the full video clip will learn just how misleading RW’s comment is. Chaos has RW’s number.
And Donald also has RW’s number. Watch the full video clip and you will see.
Excuse me Witty, but how many days did you spend trying to twist Phil Weiss’ arm into publicly announcing his support for J-Street and now you’re back to your vapid rhetoric about not choosing sides?
You know that level of hypocrisy would be toxic to most human beings.
I asked Phil to clarify. You call that “twisting his arm”?
I spent more time twisting the arm of green leaning publications to support Nader in 2000.
“asked by Jon Stewart whether Palestinian agitation should seek to humanize Israel and Israelis” is typical American ignorance, encouraged by the Jews. They’ve been de-humanizing Arabs since their decision in 1897 to return to a land that most of them never came from.
Did anyone ever ask the Jews behind barbed-wire whether they should humanize the Nazis? The stupid question ignores reality and Stewart’s nose should’ve been rubbed in it. “Mr. Stewart, if you were aware of history, and if you could put yourself in the shoes of other people, you’d be asking the exact opposite: why Jewish agitation is incapable of humanizing their Arab neighbors. I suppose you think throwing 700,000 Arabs off the land is humane?” denying them the right to return and compensation? bottling them up like “drugged roaches” is treating them humanely? killing them with white phosphorous? with naval-gun fire directed at squalid camps of refugees? with F16’s against police armed with hand-guns? by starving 1.5 million people of food and every other basic commodity needed to survive? and finally accusing the dead and starving of “not treating Jews as humans? What planet you living on Stewart?”
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