The Petraeus view that Israel's policies endanger Americans is gaining traction. Tonight on "60 Minutes," Steve Kroft's piece on homegrown terrorism in the wake of the Times Square case included an interview with Phillip Mudd, till recently the domestic terrorism expert in the FBI's intelligence leadership.
"What we're facing here is not an episodic series of terrorist events. What we're facing is a group of people who see themselves as revolutionaries," Phillip Mudd said.
[T]hey see themselves as part of global movement that is being facilitated by the Internet.
"The Internet often is not the initial spark, but it helps them go down a path," he explained.
Asked what they are seeing on the web, Mudd said, "They're seeing images, for example, of children and women in places like Palestine and Iraq, they're seeing sermons of people who explain in simple, compelling, and some cases magnetic terms why it's important that they join the jihad. They're seeing images, and messages that confirm a path that they're already thinking of taking."
Interestingly, Scott Pelley followed with a piece on Hillary Clinton and asked, "I wonder if there's anything about U.S. foreign policy that needs to change in your estimation to put more pressure on these terrorist groups where they live...?" The usual bromide followed. How about seeking action on the Goldstone Report, which called for investigation/prosecution of Israeli officials responsible for the deaths of scores of women and children in Gaza? As Phillip Mudd knows, people all over the world know about this, and know that our country is covering for war crimes.
You’re still rockin that Petraeus lie:
….But I think people inferred from what that said and then repeated it a couple of times and bloggers picked it up and spun it. And I think that has been unhelpful, frankly.”
Hmmm bloggers picking up something and spinning it, sounds like Phil’s full time job.
link to jpost.com
Wouldn’t want Petraeus to lose his job over a mere misunderstanding with those he answers to, huh. I’m sure American soldiers are adequately reassured by this.
What’s to rock?
Here’s what Petraeus said before the Senate Armed Services Committee. His statement out loud.
Israel is patently aware of what this language mean, yonira, even if you aren’t. And this write-up at Foreign Policy was never — not ever — denied by the Pentagon. This news broke on Foreign Policy FROM ISRAELI news reports.
Reported by Mark Perry in Foreign Policy.
The terroristic events that threatened American lives in the heart of America, is in fact a ‘blessing in disguise’ in realizing that their existing immigration policies, and cultural tolerance has been in silence ‘feeding their deep enemies’ inside its body. How fragile, how precarious, is the American society unknowingly until now, had not these issues emerged…
RE: …The terroristic events that threatened American lives in the heart of America, is in fact a ‘blessing in disguise’… – zamaaz
FROM HAARETZ, 04/16/08: The Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv on Wednesday reported that Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience at Bar Ilan university that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks had been beneficial for Israel.
“We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq,” Ma’ariv quoted the former prime minister as saying. He reportedly added that these events “swung American public opinion in our favor.”…
SOURCE – link to haaretz.com
Its hard to suppress the patently obvious in an era of increasingly open communication.
It was absurd of Petraeus to blame Israel’s policies for endangering American lives since some of these are made in the USA. What is endangering lives all over the map are the F-16s, Apaches, bunker busters, white phosphorus and cluster bombs that the US supplies to Israel. The failed Dahlan coup to overthrow Hamas in Gaza was an American policy decision as was the one to prolong the 2006 war on Lebanon. This is not to say that Israel is lily-white in all of this. It was Congress that passed the resolution that said there was no returning to the 67 lines and that there would not be any return for the Palestinians. American lives are being endangered by American policies.
What the hell is Israel, two years old? Can’t speak up? Poor little put-upon country?
Like any spoiled, pampered child, Israel will simply whine and pitch a fit until he gets what he wants from doting Uncle Sam.
You raise a good point, although I would comment that a large, cohesive swath of the corruption in both the US and the Israeli governments are part of the same parasitic organism that has endangered the safety of citizens in both countries.
And frankly, the more I see of where the United States is heading presently, politically certainly, the more I see us looking more and more like Israel. From the Arizona “papers, please” racial profiling laws to the Lieberman citizenship-stripping proposal.
Sooner or later people are going to have to complete this circuit of logic, so I might as well say it again for emphasis. Walid, when you say these are “American policies” they are not merely detached activities, you have to ask who in America wants these policies to take effect? This is where we go back to this elite will again, and the enforcer of this is the lobby. However, it is just more of the same that has transpired since the beginning of this nation, so the actors may be different but the methodology is the same.
Lets look at another evidence of this process, it was inadvertently picked up on by Micheal Moore in his Capitalism: A Love Story. I say inadvertent because Mr. Moore thinks it is a relatively new phenomena, but it is not.
I also say this because when we had this bailout process take place, the 700 something billion (which has turned into trillions if you count the unanswerable activity of the Fed printing money, etc.) and people were trying to pressure Congress to reject the package, I told him (Mr Moore) it would eventually pass – he did not believe it. He thought he was absolutely right when it was “sent back to the drawing board,” I told him it did not matter – that it was just to give it more of a cosmetic look. Well, we all know the outcome, it was passed.
Anyhow, in his movie Capitalism, there is a clip and it is a very interesting one, it is in the first 1:40 minutes aprox. –
WHO TELLS THE PRESIDENT TO “SPEED IT UP?”
So when you say they are American policies, it is best to ask why. In case there is some question, once again, this is what it was always like.
Oh, and just in case you think I am joking about saying that the bail out would pass, take a look at what I said BEFORE it passed –
WHY OUR GOVERNMENT WILL APPROVE THIS BAILOUT FOR THE FEW
I have to tell ya folks, you should look more carefully and study a little more about the activity of this government in the USA. Better yet, get a grasp of history from the beginning, and begin to understand where “American Policy” is coming from.
“What is endangering lives all over the map are the F-16s, Apaches, bunker busters, white phosphorus and cluster bombs that the US supplies to Israel.”
Israel chooses to use these weapons on the Palestinians. there’s no doubt about US complicity in all this, though technically, Israel is breaking an agreement with the US when it uses those weapons to enforce it’s occupation. The failed Dahlan coup to overthrow Hamas was likely to be an Isreli inspitred policy as was the atack on Hebollah in 2006, seeign as Israel has laways wanted to avenge the fact that were puched out of Southern Lebanon.
Still, I do agree with Walid to some extent. The American lives that Patreaus claims are being threatened are not American lives in the US (ignoring 9./11 of course) but the lives of Americans involved in the miliatry in overseas countries. In that treagrd, Patreaus’ claim is rather obsurd becasue the US has no business operating 700 military bases all over the world and playing Empire. Patreaus’s position is based on the assumption that the US is right to be imposing it’s will on the world, and that it’s policies towards Israel are making that task more diofficult, so he doesn’t get my sympathy.
“Patreaus’s position is based on the assumption that the US is right to be imposing it’s will on the world, and that it’s policies towards Israel are making that task more diofficult, so he doesn’t get my sympathy. ”
Gee Shingo, did not know you could make a reasonable argument once in a while. I am shocked, just shocked.
Jewish lobby or no Jewish lobby, it’s also absurd to continue thinking that little Israel can wag the US. Nobody can do anything to the US that the US doesn’t let them and this includes Israel. When the US will decide that its Congress has been greased enough with Jewish money, it will bring it to a halt to it but for now it fits its plans. In another 15 or 20 years when the oil runs out of the Mideast or the need for it wouldn’t be as important, the US will drop Israel like a hot potato.
Shingo, the Dahlan coup had more to do with an American inspiration than an Israeli one. It was American arms stockpiled in Gaza by Dahlan that Hamas grabbed and it was America and not Israel that had the Arabs and Europeans cut off the funding to Gaza to jump-start the starvation and infrastructures dismantling cycle. The US is more obsessed than Israel in wanting to put ot Hamas’ and Hizbullah’s lights is because they are serving as beacons to resistance groups in US-friendly countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Of course Israel doesn’t mind at all. The good cop-bad cop act between Israel and the US is obvious and the Petraeus stunt is one of them.
“Jewish lobby or no Jewish lobby, it’s also absurd to continue thinking that little Israel can wag the US.”
What’s so absurd about it? What other country in the takes billions in aid from eh US every year and still spits in their face when the US asks for something in return? They say that 1% of the population in the US owns more than half of the country’s wealth. 1% only twice the population of tiny Manhattan.
“Nobody can do anything to the US that the US doesn’t let them and this includes Israel.”
Except kill a few dozen Americans once in a while (eg USS Liberty atack)
“Shingo, the Dahlan coup had more to do with an American inspiration than an Israeli one.”
The fact that America put up the money is nothing new. America has no interest whatsoever in Hamas.
“The US is more obsessed than Israel in wanting to put ot Hamas’ and Hizbullah’s lights is because they are serving as beacons to resistance groups in US-friendly countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.”
Good point, but in the case of Hamas and Hezbollah, Israel is at least as obsessed with them, if not more so. Your cynicism about Petraeus is well founded, but it’s no secret that in the halls of Washington and the Pentagon, Israel has become ever-increasingly regarded as a liability.
Infant Dies After Inhaling Gas Fired By The Army In Hebron
Ops! Link:
link to imemc.org
Palestinian Resident Expelled To Jordan
Netanyahu To “Legalize” Illegal Outposts!
The Moroccan model of Jewish/Muslim Co-existence
It’s the cricket that does it.
I was surprised to see cricket in there. It almost felt like “home”..
The most effective dissent will be stated positively.
For example, this morning there was a mislabeled headline in Haaretz by Akiva Eldar:
Buy Palestinian products, not settlement goods
link to haaretz.com
A better form of dissent would be “Buy Palestinian products”.
There are really only a few wrongs that can only be framed in negative terms, and those should be.
If an issue can be framed in positive terms it will achieve actual support, even if quiet. When an issue is framed in negative terms, it rarely achieves mass personal investment, and usually the loud investment of a few, but alienates the many and the actually committed.
I just clicked on the link and heading says “Buy Palestinian products”.
I understand wanting to frame an issue in positive terms to get the desired result, but when the arguement/opinion has two components, I think it’s important to state both and why.
I would argue that a well written compelling arguement for a boycott can be framed in positive terms if the writer can communicate that the outcome of the boycott is a positive and benificial result.
>> Buy Palestinian products, not settlement goods
>> A better form of dissent would be “Buy Palestinian products”.
You’re right: “We will take everything!” sounds much better than “We will take everything, and leave the Palestinians with nothing!”
>> There are really only a few wrongs that can only be framed in negative terms, and those should be.
I’d love to see this list of “only a few wrongs that can only be framed in negative terms”.
This is why I keep insisting that what the Palestinians need most is a good Jewish PR firm to coach them in saying the right things, wearing the right clothes and having able spokespeople with perfect teeth that speak English coherently like Abunimah, as an example, to bring their point across instead of the mumbling stuttering Erekat or some guy that CNN picks off the street that hasn’t shaved for a week, has a couple of front teeth missing and can’t put 2 English words together to give an opinion on an Israeli massacre that had just happened.
That’s why the IKF (K for killing) spokesman is always a blonde..There was an article about in the Guardian I think during the onslaught on Gaza.
TGIA, yes, that lady major replaced the cocker spaniel-eyed Marc Regev that made you cry with his explanations on how sad Israelis were in having had to do what they did.
Pretty funny description.
I remember a few years back MSNBC used to have a guy on from I believe the American-Arab Antidescrimination Committee, a lawyer fella who fit the PR description for the most part. They would also have Hanan Ashwari come on as well. These were the Alan Keyes days of the network.
Yes, Mark, that guy was very very sharp and there was also a very fluent in English lady lawyer that worked with him. They both were excellent but we haven’t seen them in years. Today we’re stuck with the Erakats and the guys that look like pirates without the eye patch. This doesn’t help the Palestinians at all especially with Israeli PR that tries to make them look like vermin.
What you don’t like Haled Meshal or Ismail Haniya? They are very charismatic, non?
Yes, almost as charismatic as Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Unfortunately for the Palestinians Meshal and Haniya lead half their people while Boteach is a TV show host (that I didn’t hear of before you mentioned him).
eee, no. I don’t like either of them and while we’re at it, the guy’s name is Khaled, not haled and his organization is called Hamas, not Khamas. Do you say Sheraton Hotel or Sheraton Khotel?
“Hamas, not Khamas.”
Or khamaaass as the nauseating Australian born Israeli gov’t spokesman Mark Regev slithers it..
Aah yes sorry ’bout that – he’s probably 2nd on my list (after Murdoch) of most offensive Australian exports that we’re thoroughly glad to see the back of..
“Mark Regev loses his cool in classic interview with Jon Snow. New mind-reading technology lets us see what he’s thinking.”
link to youtube.com
Loved it, thank you Sumud! The neighbors in my apaetment building must be wondering why I’m laughing so hard in the middle of the night.
Chaos, about the “papers please”, this isn’t from yesterday or the Arizona law but it goes back 3 years; Arizona is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you knew about it and it must have slipped your mind about the super hush-hush security agreement that was signed between the Israel and the US with a lot of mumbo-jumbo that can be reduced to profiling of passengers at major US airports by Israeli security people. Of courswe, Israel isn’t at these airports to help the US with its Mexican problems. Here’s is a short summary of it:
link to mops.gov.il
A year later, a similar agreement was also signed hush-hush with the Canadian government to do likewise ad there too, the Canadians did not get into this agreement to have Israel help them with the Haitians. There is more mentioned in the Canadian agreement and it describes how Cheney, Chertoff and these people had a hand in both agreements:
link to globalresearch.ca
And now, Israel has an even newer joint deal with the Americans:
link to dhs.gov
All this to say that the Arizona thing has the hand of Israel written all over it and very much the same manner that Israel trained the Americans in Iraq in house-to-house searches using human shields.
That is troubling news as I’ve long felt that it seemed as if we would model our homeland defense after Israel (particularly in extra-judicial matters).
This also puts them closer to monitoring and manipulating events in order to serve their own agenda.
The notion of “American exceptionalism” means that we are exempt from the notion of cause and effect. We know that the killing of 300 Pakistanis just this year, thanks to our beneficent drones, had nothing to do with motivating the Pakistani to attempt to set off a car bomb in Times Square. We are rational when dropping bombs from our drones to kill whoever is the luckless target below. The terrorist is irrational for attempting to fight back.
Did anyone catch the most recent episode of This American Life with the segment on the Gaza tunnels? link to thisamericanlife.org
I thought they did a good job.