Advice from Washington expert to Middle East regime that denies Arab rights: Whatever you do, don't make concessions to people seeking democracy. It will only encourage them.
Who? Leslie Gelb, granted a platform at the Daily Beast, to opine on the Palestinian protests, and describe Israel as a "true democracy."
If Obama breaks any appreciable new ground in his speech, it will be to shower pails full of sympathy on Arab demonstrators for freedom and democracy. This time, he will make perfectly clear that his heart is with the Arab people. But his subsequent actions will remain case by case and circumspect....
Jerusalem has to make sure that Arab democrats are not distracted by Israel and stay focused on their own countries. Israelis don’t want them to turn their populist wrath on Israel.
“Jerusalem has to make sure ”
East Jerusalem is Palestinian and couldn’t care less about Israel’s diplomatic isolation or the serial ineptitude which has led Israel into this existential trap of its own making .
MSNBC sure promotes the Daily Beast. Tina Brown is on Morning Joe all of the time. This morning Jane “waddling on over to interfere in the Aipac espionage investigation” Harman was on Morning Joe she voiced her opinion about the Arab Spring, Pakistan and then ended there must be continued support for the Jewish state of Israel> She said “Jewish state of Israel” Harman did not say anything about a Palestinian State.
Little to nothing about Netanyahu’s upcoming visit on MSNBC etc about, the Aipac conference or the Move over Aipac Conference (of course). They are focused on Strauss Kahn.
Even Cspan’s Washington Journal is ignoring Netanyhu’s visit. Would have been a perfect week for them to focus on the I/P issues. Medea Benjaman told me that when callers who mention Aipac to Washington Journals screeners they will not let them on the show to ask questions. Guess the I lobbies war against Washington Journal is working.
Man, what a load of utter crap Gelb is selling.
“But for a true democracy like Israel, a country all too familiar with history’s tragedies, shooting unarmed people never sits well and cannot be the answer.”
Israel’s been shooting (and worse) unarmed Palestinians for three generations.
Clearly, his “expert[ise]” lies with his ability to relay AIPAC talking points to the media.
From Gelb’s screed:
Here in broad daylight is displayed the insolent presumption of a Jewish Israel sympathizer, presuming to tell us what Palestinians think and want.
The tragedy is that Gelb’s CFR cabal has its tentacles deep into the US political duopoly. No Depublicrat candidate gets nominated without being vetted by, and often joining, this elitist global steering group.
Caught flat-footed by the Arab Spring, the CFR is scrambling to co-opt and neutralize it, while maintaining the calm, urbane facade adopted in Gelb’s essay. At all costs, the illusion of control must be sustained.
“As long as Israel doesn’t kill Palestinians in sizeable numbers, Washington will stay its critical hand”
Shorter Gelb, “You can kill them, just not too many.”
What a moral degenerate this Gelb is.
link to theblaze.com
“I believe I’ve been asked to stand — in Jerusalem,” Beck told his audience recounting a list of times in history when people and nations failed to stand with the Jewish people. Beck explained, as he has often in the last year, how the life and thinking of the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer has influenced him: “He asked people to stand for the Jewish people.” He told of Bonhoeffer’s call for pastors to stand with him. Only six did.
Beck detailed current challenges facing the nation — “Things in Israel are going to get bad…it’s only a matter of time.”
“They are going to attack the center of our faith, our common faith, and that is Jerusalem. And it won’t be with bullets or bombs. It will be with a two-state solution that cuts off Jerusalem, the old city, to the rest of the world.”
But, according to witty, the two-state solution is near. Meanwhile, AIPAC continues to pressure the US and undermine its efforts by maintaining a so-called “unified” Jerusalem. No East Jerusalem for a Palestinian state. But, Jews and Jewish Israelis, the colonists, and Abe Foxman all want “peace”, even Foxman’s Iguana wants “peace”. It’s the Ay-rabs who are the real rejectionists as the Palestine Papers prove.
Coming up after the commercial break: “Up is actually down”. Stay tuned.
“It will be with a two-state solution that cuts off Jerusalem, the old city, to the rest of the world.”
Interesting.
All the talk about Beck going to Israel…focuses on
‘look at how he cares about Israel because its fits into his end of the world scenerio’…. ‘oh look at the wakco xhristian is using the Israelis…’
Yet this quote shows its about politics happening on the ground.
This whole circus is going to be about further convincing Americans that we are the same as Israelis…and that Israels enemies are our own, and what Israel doesn’t want, ending the occupation…neither should Americans.
If they no longer have need of US supplied white phosphorous to use on their own people, Gelb wants it all transferred to Israel for it to maintain the supply required for use on Palestinians.
Heaven forfend that democracy touch the Israeli street.
Gelb sagely advises Israel to kill unarmed protesters in moderate numbers, and otherwise, just stay the course, subjugate helots as it was done so far.
Then he ventures two opinions. One is that borders or Israel are as established as the borders of Poland and France, the second is that offering any concessions to Palestinians would just encourage them to stir more trouble.
The comparison skips two salient details. One is that borders of Poland and France are supported by treaties. Second is that inhabitants of the “conquered lands” that survived ethnic cleansing, if any, have full rights. In the case of France, Alemanic speakers in Alsace and Loraigne are French citizens, nobody even contemplated ethnic cleansing. In the case of Poland, those Germans who still live in Poland are citizens with some customary (in Europe) rights of the minorities, and so do Ukrainians.
This is universally true everywhere in the world EXCEPT for Israel. There are cases of “conquest”, some associated with ethnic cleansing, some not. Natives that remain in the incorporated lands have full rights, which is perhaps not such a great prize if a country is undemocratic, but one can list a long list of rights/opportunities that all conquered people other than Palestinians enjoy. For example, Chechens, Kashmiris, Pakistani Hindus, Indian Muslim, Tibetans, Saharans (in Morocco) etc. can travel anywhere they want within the respective states, purchase property, build houses, rent, marry, vote. As we know, even Arab citizens of Israel do not have all these rights and opportunities.
Make a though experiment: suppose that Polish government will stop issuing any building permits to Silesian Germans, reduce infrastructure and school spending in their communities, shoot them if they protest (or just slap their faces) etc. What would that do to the status of Poland, and to relationship of Poland with Germany? Does it matter of those Silesian Germans are just like any other Germans or not? Does it matter if they form 1% of Polish population, or 3% or 40%?
So Gelb is basically advocating Apartheid with moderation — do not kill more protesters than reasonable etc.
It’s inevitable, the way politics stand now, that Israel is going cause the US bigger and more fatal problems at home and abroad.
So let Beck and Gelb and all the other zionist keep on doing what they are doing, let them spread it far and wide and cause as much chaos and damage as they can.
Because then we will finally get to the big and necessary war between the US Israelis and the US Americans right here at home.
We might even see the day when the Palestine protests movements spurs Israel to even more devestating killing campaigns on Palestine– and France and others invoke the same NATO style intervention as in Lybia to stop it……while the US finds it faced with having to strike at it’s own NATO’s allies in Israel’s behalf—or do nothing.
I’d like to see the US put in that position…and it’s not that far fetched to imagine.
“and France and others invoke the same NATO style intervention as in Lybia to stop it……while the US finds it faced with having to strike at it’s own NATO’s allies in Israel’s behalf—or do nothing.
I’d like to see the US put in that position…and it’s not that far fetched to imagine.”
It’s coming close to that with Turkey.