The cabinet approved on Sunday the controversial plan – which will pump millions of shekels into West Bank settlements – after Netanyahu decided to review the list of communities for which funds were earmarked…
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the Labor chairman, attacked the plan during the discussion, warning that some of the money would end up in the hands of right-wing extremists.
But the US has no problem with this. Haaretz Friday:
Senior U.S. administration officials told Haaretz earlier Thursday that the prime minister’s bureau had provided satisfactory explanations as long as the benefits plan was in keeping with the freeze and that money would not be transferred for new housing in the settlements.
Surprise, suprise, Obama… er, lied. God, I wish I didn’t have to say that.
Our country is f*cked, isn’t it? We can’t elect an honest statesman to save our lives, thanks to AIPAC. Literally.
It’s worse than the Bush administration. It really is.
At least there were noticable numbers of people standing up to Bush. Obama can ride out his image as cover while the actual movers and shakers — like Rahm Emmanuel — make a killing. Sometimes, literally.
You know, at least with Bush? There were real American patriots running the show (even if their version of America is a twisted hellish caricature of its potential). At this point we pretty much have multinational corporations and Israeli interest groups picking the American treasury clean. Hey Zionists — remind us again how GE, Intel, etc. all have operations out of Israel now, and how good the Israeli economy is?
Even Jewish Americans who care about their home country — their real home country — are getting locked out of our government by the men behind the curtain.
Rahm Emanuel – lighting the Hanukkah candles at the WH.
At night, he probably crawls into bed between Barry and Michelle.
I should probably be more repulsed by the actual literal image of that than I am. As a consolation, I find the metaphorical repulsive enough.
RE: “At night, he probably crawls into bed between Barry and Michelle.” – potsherd
MY COMMENT: “Ooh La La” Quite the bed warmer! I have always seen Emanuel as Obama’s Nijinsky.
“…The can-can such a pretty show
Will steal your heart away
But backstage back on earth again
The dressing rooms are grey
They come on strong and it ain’t too long
For they make you feel a man
But love is blind and you soon will find
You’re just a boy again…
Faces “Ooh La La lyrics” – link to lyrics007.com
VIDEO (3:43) Nada Surf – Ooh La La (The Faces Cover) – link to youtube.com
VIDEO (4:20) The Corrs (with Rod Stewart) – Ooh La La – link to youtube.com
Also, it exposes the fallacious view of an independent colonist movement, as if it has a life of its own apart from both US and the Israeli government support.
That’s true. Much as the prevaricators on the board would like to convince us otherwise: This is Zionism.
Obama is worse than Bush in that Obama supplies a (very translucent rhetorical ) fig leaf, while at least Bush merely flaunted a totally transparent codpiece. Chaos has it right. And my god, Uncle Sam’s private package is truly depressing. I wish we could change things by sticking pins in, respectively, the stuffed Elephant and stuffed Donkey on the bed we are being forced to lie down in. We are like little girls and boys being raped by their fathers and mothers. What to do when so many of our siblings don’t have a clue?
That’s a very vivid metaphor, Citizen, and unfortunately also a very fitting one.
Uri Avnery has an very interesting article up:
A SHORT historical quiz: Which state:
(1) Arose after a holocaust in which a third of its people were destroyed?
(2) Drew from that holocaust the conclusion that only superior military forces could ensure its survival?
(3) Accorded the army a central role in its life, making it “an army that had a state, rather than a state that had an army”?
(4) Began by buying the land it took, and continued to expand by conquest and annexation?
(5) Endeavored by all possible means to attract new immigrants?
(6) Conducted a systematic policy of settlement in the occupied territories?
(7) Strove to push out the national minority by creeping ethnic cleansing?
link to zope.gush-shalom.org
Wow. Having German (and Polish, and Catholic) background I knew some of that already, but honestly even this level of analogy I find surprising. It’s… not very optimistic, to say the least, to be shown that history really can repeat itself.
I don’t know what ethnic and/or religious background has to do with understanding Cogit8. He’s really easy to understand in my opinion. I have no clue what that has to do with my background: 62.5 % Irish, and most of the rest Germanic-Austrian, with 1% Scottish. Raised as a Roman Catholic; but left the Church in my early teens. So, given that, what’s your point exactly, Chaos? I am not asking glibly. What did you mean to convey by your comment? I’m listening.
Sorry for the late response. I merely meant that I’d actively sought information on the early history of Germany (which ostensibly means looking up Prussia) because it was a matter of interest to me for heritage. That was all I was implying — not that I have any sort of privileged perspective, if that’s what my statement came off as sounding. I was merely communicating my motivations for having sought information in the past, and contrasting that with the fact that this full set of comparisons never occurred to me.
Which set of comparisons never occurred to you?
I wasn’t aware that a third of Prussia’s population had died, specifically.
more from Uri:
“WHEN I first brought up the similarity between Prussia and Israel (in a chapter dedicated to this theme in the Hebrew and German editions of my 1967 book, “Israel Without Zionists”) it might have looked like a baseless comparison. Today, the picture is clearer. Not only does the senior officers corps occupy a central place in all the spheres of our life, and not only is the huge military budget beyond any discussion, but our daily news is full of typically “Prussian” items. For example: it transpires that the salary of the Army Chief of Staff is double that of the Prime Minister. The Minister of Education has announced that henceforth schools will be assessed by the number of their pupils who volunteer for army combat units. That sounds familiar – in German.”
I hope that everyone unemployed in the USA takes a close look at the Federal Budget and realizes how much money is being wasted on Militarism. Uri is right-on when he refers to Israel as “an army that has a state”. I never understood why, after 9/11, there were no military or intelligence heads rolling. Instead it was “Good Job, Tennet” and “Good Job, General Shinypants”, maybe the reason is because “the Pentagon has a state”.
And who are the ones that push this Militarism 24/7? Well, I’ve exhausted my Jewhating rhetoric for now so I’ll let others contribute.
Cogit8, all anyone has to do is compare the relative amount of funding any nation in the world has for its military enterprise as compared to not only other countries, but also to it’s own allocations. Prussia, who is Prussia today? And who is Little Prussia? Just
check the charts, easily available on the internet. Hint: it’s not Germany.
Some of this is rather unfair, especially point 7.
Unfair to Prussia, of course. Israel is intensely nationalist. Not so Prussia (especially not Friderican Prussia, which this seems to be mainly about.)
Israel is a semi-theocracy. Prussia was decidedly secular.
Israel is ethnically exclusive. Prussia didn’t care at all about ethnicity, and it was definitely inclusionist towards the religious and national minorities it incorporated over the years. Of course, this also meant that in the Prussian mind, the national identities of these people where tertiary concerns.
Israel as “an army that has a state”.
israel started out as a terrorist mafia that made a state and now it is a militarized mafia state that seeks an empire
only America can stop this monster and many Americans are waking up to their terror, murder and evil
RE: “Senior U.S. administration officials told Haaretz earlier Thursday that the prime minister’s bureau had provided satisfactory explanations…”
MY COMMENT: I’m so ‘over’ Obama!
I annoyed lots of my friends with my early rejection of Obama before the election. But for decades I have used a wonderful litmus test for the integrity of any American politician. It never fails. Does the politician start campaigning by catering to Israel? Does the politician assure Israel that the welfare check is sacrosanct? Does the politician say that the opponent is insufficiently appreciative of our ally Israel? If yes, then you know that this politician is a complete sharmoot or sharmoota as the case may be. There is no way anyone can believe with sincerity that one tenth of one percent of the world’s population are entitled to 25-50% of the US foreign aid budget and numerous known and unknown other privileges. We must be more vigorous in rejecting these politicians early, regardless of how agreeable they might be on other issues dear to us.
At this point, I’ve promised myself not to vote for any Republican or Democratic candidate in any of the upcoming federal elections for the forseeable future. Both parties have become so hopelessly corrupt, that even voting for a good Democrat (or heck, a good Republican, assuming you can actually find one) is basically tantamount to throwing your vote away. Because those good politicians follow one of two paths — they other fold to the special interests eventually, or they get ostracized by their own party and shut out of the process.
Yes, Homingpigeon, you have the most rational drive. Problem is of course that
both USA practical parties are the same when it comes to Israel. Kucinich, Paul, Baird, Nader? I wish.
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