Tomorrow the Brookings Institution is having a panel on how Israel has defended itself from terrorism for the last 60 years. Triumphs and failures. And look who's on the panel: Brookings Saban Center Visiting Fellow Gabi Ashkenazi, former chief of staff of the Israeli army, who helped direct the Gaza onslaught of 2008-2009 that killed nearly 400 children and who is cited in the Goldstone Report.
This is a reflection of the power of the Israel lobby: how enmeshed it is in our discourse, and why it is that the U.S. invariably provides Israel impunity for its actions against Palestinians.
I asked Ken Pollack, head of the Saban Center (yes it's backed by Haim Saban, an ardent Zionist by his own description) about Ashkenazi. He didn't respond. I bet even he is embarrassed by this. But I got a note back from Gail Chalef, director of communications for Foreign Policy at Brookings Institution:
I understand you had a question about Saban Center Visiting Fellow Gabi Ashkenazi. General Ashkenazi joined the Saban Center at Brookings as a visiting fellow on June 1.
Saban Center visiting fellows are leading thinkers and practitioners within their fields who help the Center stay at the forefront of research trends and policy developments through a temporary period of residence within the Center.
Saban visiting fellowships are typically three-to-six months in duration. During their stay, the visiting fellows contribute to the Center’s diversity of thought and research. The fellows also contribute to the Center’s reach, educating and informing a wide audience of political, corporate, and civic leaders, as well as the general public.
Visiting fellows also may use their time at Brookings to write and to attend and participate in Center events. They are also asked to provide others in the Brookings community with insights on their area of expertise. One other point - visiting fellows are not considered employees of The Brookings Institution.
Thanks to Ali Gharib for pointing this out to me.
‘how Israel has defended itself from terrorism for the last 60 years’
LOL! What a typical inversion of reality, and how representative of the Alice in Wonderland fantasy of Israel and the neocon industry, abetted by Likud’s employees, otherwise known as senators.
What they of course meant was:
“How Israel has used terrorism for 60 years to advance its goals, coupled with a relentless torrent of propaganda to convince itself and the gullible US public of the exact opposite”
If the murderous attack on the USS Liberty wasn’t a prime example of terrorism (as was that on the Marmara), as well as the ruthless assault on Gaza, then language has lost any ability to define the world.
justicewillprevail- The murderous attack on the USS Liberty was NOT a case of terrorism. It was an attack on a warship during a time of war. If it had been in fact an Egyptian warship rather than an American warship it would not have been terrorism. The flag it was flying changes whether it was an attack on a real enemy of Israel’s or an attack on a friend of Israel treated like an enemy. But the flag it was flying does not change the act from an act of war to an act of terrorism. The definition of terrorism has to do with killing civilians. No one on the USS Liberty was a civilian.
You can say that an act of war against a US ship should not be excused or covered up, must be investigated, should prove the unreliability of Israel and that Israel is an enemy and not a friend. All those are arguable. But to call it an act of terrorism is pure bushwa.
(I have not done sufficient research on the USS Liberty to know whether the claims that the attack was a mistake are credible or not. But I do know that it was not an act of terrorism.)
“(I have not done sufficient research on the USS Liberty to know whether the claims that the attack was a mistake are credible or not. But I do know that it was not an act of terrorism.)”
I am not a fan of research or facts, but I do know…
During the attack on the USS Liberty, the Israelis jammed U.S. Navy radio frequencies and the International Distress Frequency (the latter jamming being a war crime).
It was no case of mistaken identity.
“The definition of terrorism has to do with killing civilians.”
Not according to Israelis.
According to both military spokeswomen and civilian new sources, attacks against Israeli soldiers are done by “terrorists.”
But you know what isn’t??? Aparently, according to the Israeli Defense Minister, a right-wing Jew shooting up a bus full of innocent Arab Israelis does’t count as “terrorism” in the Zionist paradise.
I see. Parsing terrorism diminishes Israel’s murderous intent that day. It doesn’t alter one whit Israel continuous practice since it was founded of state terrorism to further its aims. I suggest you do some research by talking to the survivors.
On this rare occasion, WJ is correct. The attack on the Liberty was no more a terrorist attack then was the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 and any Palestinian or Lebanese attack on an Israeli soldier wherever they may happen to be.
It was, however, an attack, not on a warship, but an intelligence gathering ship of an ally whose flag was clearly visible and had the civilians in the White House not had cold feet when it came to offending their major donor base, they would have had the US fighter planes in the area continue their mission to rescue the Liberty sailors and send the Israeli aircraft and torpedo boat together with their occupants to the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Had they done so, we would not be having this exchange today.
Yeaaah. Like you’re going to get wondering hypocrite to sign on to that.
“had the civilians in the White House not had cold feet”
It wasn’t so much cold feet as the active support of LBJ. He, more than any preceding president, aligned the US with Israel.
Kennedy, on the other hand, had been trying to limit Israel’s nuclear technology.
Somebody killed Kennedy, LBJ became president, and Israel got everything it wanted.
When the Irgun attacked British soldiers it was not terrorism. When they attacked Arab marketplaces, it was terrorism. When Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers, it was not terrorism. When Hamas captured Gilad Shalit and killed two others, it was not terrorism. When they fired a mortar at a school bus, it was terrorism.
When they fired a mortar at a school bus, it was terrorism.
and when the idf kill children and old people near the border in gaza, is that terrorism?
Kennedy also supported Res. 194, the Palestinian right of return although he didn’t believe that Israel could absorb all the refugees and, as I’ve mentioned before but don’t think I can mention enough, he also had his Justice Dept. try, unsuccessfully, to have the American Zionist Council, that was AIPAC before it got a “nose job,” register as a foreign agent which would really have put a crimp in its activities.
All three of these issues, including the opposition to Israel getting nuclear weapons, mentioned by RoHa were red lines for Israel that it couldn’t afford to have crossed. With JFK’s assassination in Dealey Plaza, all of those problems were miraculously washed away and no other president has ever again raised any of those issues. That’s not to insinuate that…..but….
wj,
Not according to the Israelis. Attacks against Israeli military are often called terrorism, and attacks by Jews against Arab civilians are almost always denied the label.
When you get them to change their usage, then you can come to us and we’ll consider it.
wondering jew,
You called me a Jew hater and provided no proof. You owe me an apology. I am waiting for it.
“With JFK’s assassination in Dealey Plaza, all of those problems were miraculously washed away and no other president has ever again raised any of those issues. That’s not to insinuate that…..”
Of course not.
After the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy’s relationship with the CIA and military was frosty. He was quietly planning to pull US forces out of Vietnam. LBJ extended the war.
The bankers hated him because he took control of US currency from the private Federal Reserve and put it in the hands of the Treasury. He began issuing “United States Notes” based on silver. LBJ stopped the production, and nothing more was heard of Executive Order 11110.
The Mafia was unhappy that he had sicced his youger brother on to them.
The Israelis had issues with him as well.
But we all know he was killed by a lone, crazed, gunman.
And if it had been a marauding Martian saucer full of ice warriors, then Israel would have saved humanity! But it wasn’t. When are you people going to start caring about who you kill? And in what quantities? Instead of these stupid imaginary games with unicorns and yetis?
“terrorism has to do with killing civilians” But not, of course, if the civilians are strafed from aircraft. That’s self-defense.
Brookings was the last Beltway think tank that was relatively independent of Zionist control until Haim Saban came along and paid it $12.3 million so he could establish the Saban Center on Middle East Duplicity within its bowels, the same amount, coincidently, he had spent to buy the Spanish language TV, Univision and that he gave to the Democratic Party in 2002.
Ashkenazi becoming a Fellow at the Saban Center is just another indication that the only differences between the ardent Zionists in the American Jewish community and those in Israel are ideological and not geographical; both put Israel’s interests first. Visiting Israeli ex-generals having fellowships in Washington think tanks, such as WINEP and AEI, has become routine as has been their access to the halls of the Pentagon and Congress.
Not a good career move in the land of Think Tanks:
This goes back to the issue of “Jewish Power” too. I mean let’s ignore that for a moment. It is true that in the US, despite its 300 million+ people we have a relatively small elite(for its size) at its top. Like all countries do. It’s just more galling here compared to, I don’t know, Liechtenstein. I mean practically nobody there talks about “Conflicts of Interests” between government and business. It would be ridiculous. One just looks to see that everything at least appears to be legal. Or not a scam or whatever. Anyway, this reminds me of the vital importance of campaign finance reform. Even before the rise of the Christian Zionism in the US(whose pro-Israelness really doesn’t seem to benefit Jews in the literal end but that’s for another day), the pro-Israel lobby was still quite strong. Sure lots of people might have been just anti-Arab. And of course, others were tied to the “Only democracy” canard as well. But why did this lobby now or even 30 years ago or so have such a strong hold over our politicians? Money basically. Mind you, we’ve created a class of people who apparently, are either easily bribeable(now making up words.) or easily scared of saying the wrong thing so that tons of money might go to their opponent. What a ridiculous concept. While it’s true that many politicians in the US might support Israel without a doubt, I do not think that were money not a problem in our campaigns, we would have even a majority of our Congress or even the president literally kow-towing to Israel. So many applauses in Netanyahu speech. Has any other leader received so much when speaking to our Congress? People who have actually done great things in their life. I doubt even the strongest backer of Netanyahu could say he was as brave as Mandela or as inspiring as Churchill(I have issues with him but I’m bowing to majority view for now) or showed himself as well as his country to be a strong ally of the US like say a Canadian might. A good point to look at is how many spies of a country have the US arrested. I didn’t see many from Canada. Sure we might have captured them and just said nothing but it seems odd for that to be the modus operandi when we are so close to Israel and yet we here about their spies being arrested. Maybe there are just as many Canadians caught by the US as Israelis. Getting back, so I don’t think we would have such a strong level of support for Israel were it not for the money issue. We are supposed to have majority rule in this country. While not totally. Technically, we have representatives to rule for us. A republic. Now the whole Christian Zionism movement over the last 25 years or so might have changed that equation. Or maybe not. But surely the Jewish population is only the majority in a few districts across the land. Even in NY state where there are a lot of Jews, they are not a majority. Not even close. But this is the thing. Their voice shouldn’t be heard above others. I mean largely people do not vote on foreign policy issues anyway unless the US is directly involved in some way or another. But our politicans are being corrupted(or more corrupted) by a small group of people with a viewpoint that according even to our military generals(who apparently most Americans think have the authority of God) say is hurting our image around the world. This is a corruption of the political process in this country. That was the glory of “freedom of speech”. The spirit of it was that burgher and peasant had an equal voice. While it was true that in the US, we didn’t have a royal class, we still had a few differences from the beginning based on money, race, and gender. And throughout our history, more and more people have been embraced in the concept of “We the People”. We still have to do more to create a more perfect union. Now one of the things that the Founding Fathers wanted for our republic was an educated populace. At least for the voting public. Now that’s another issue altogether. But they did say that we had to have an educated public in order to make informed decisions about how our government should be run and who should run it. In many ways, they failed us from the beginning on this but it’s still a great goal. One should remind political reporters today that the mudslinging over the last 20 years in our campaigns is downright pleasant compared to what was said and written during the first presidential campaign. At least in that campaign we had two giants in American history running against each other who actually have sharp differences on how the country should be run as opposed to the main parties candidates of today who are merely two sides of the same coin. Anyway, getting back to this issue of “Jewish Power and money”. This site has been great in talking about this. And I feel this is one of the issues that we need to talk about regarding our elections. Ethnic politics has a long standing tradition in this country but the amount of money that the Jewish community has and raises is completely out of line with their numbers in this country. There are at most 5-6 million Jews in this country. Yet, one can rarely hear a bad word said about the “Jewish state” in the MSM. Why is that? It all comes down to money and power. If it were any other group, one could say that outloud and now be put into the same group as Hitler. Now this begs the question; does any other community in this country have as much power? Well, yes and no. The quite diverse Hispanic population probably will one day based solely on their numbers. Perfectly logical, I would say. A democracy is certainly a better idea than an oligarchy. Now for the purposes of this site as well as being an obvious case due to a incongruency of demographics/money(power too), Jewish Americans may feel slighted by comments. I would feel just as strongly about any other group who would have such an out-of-whack influence on American politics. One might say our policy towards Cuba has been out of whack due to the exile groups but our policy before the large groups of exiles came over was already screwed up. That boat had already sailed. Then again few groups of such a large size generally have such a shared foreign policy goal. Well, at least a certain portion of said group. I am thrilled that this website and others like it show to me that there are many Jewish-Americans who do not feel like the Likudites(in Israel and in the US Congress) do. It is true that there is more debate in Israel on what they should and should not do than there is in the US. But this site and others like it are changing that and this is part of informing the populace. Too many sheep in this country. We the people. While it’s probably true that the majority of Chinese-Americans want a free and “democratic” China, this is a goal that is not in direct contrast to the vast majority of countries in the world. While that is not always a desirable benchmark(tomorrow, the majority of people in the world may say that the sky is green), it is something that can be up for debate. People can make arguments for and against it. One can debate “How can it be achieved to have a free and democratic China and what would that look like?” One can not make an informed and educated argument on why the sky is green. And in the US, we should have a debate on why we support Israel so much. Maybe the American people will decide that we should support Israel as much as we do now. But let’s bring to the table these issues out into the open. Let’s not let “special interest groups” decide for us. Let the people of the US decide for themselves. This is a prime example of why we need to reform our campaign finance laws. Too much money corrupting the system. Like I said before, it won’t matter for some people how much money they get from this or that group. Many people in office have a viewpoint that won’t be changed. We can try our best to make them see all sides but at least the playing field will be level. I mean beyond the sort of ethnic politics that one sees(Peter King supporting the IRA, Marco Rubio supporting Cuban exiles), one might say that an Alaskan senator will always have an interst in energy policy for the country.(or at least for their state) Or a senator from Florida will always be interested in old people. Ha ha. Sure, they are representating major parts of their state. Issues that their constituents care about. Fine. That can go too far though. I, being from the Garden State where we have many small-time farmers, would love for a Secretary of Agriculture to be from my beloved land of liberty and prosperity. It is a large part of our economy. But alas, once again Big AG controls the debate and so that will never happen. In fact, we’ve never had a secretary from even the Northeast. A few from the South. But everybody else from Indiana to the West. Heck, even nobody from the state which has a county with the most fertile non-irrigated soil in the whole country. How screwed up is that? And that is down to money and power and undue influence. I’ll have to read that book by Lieven. That sounds good. He’s right. When in American history has another group that did not have a majority or even close to a majority, have such a large influence on more than one foreign policy issue? I mean sure tons of Chinese-Americans would want us to attack China should China invade Taiwan. But that is largely one issue. The “Israel” question 1)informs our whole policy towards an entire region, 2)our relations towards the rest of the world in relation to the UN 3)for many people in two large groups consisting of many than a billion people, our relationship with Israel is a constant complaint and 4) our policy on nuclear weapons and who should have them and for that matter, who we say already has them. It is wonderful that the Jewish community in the US is as diverse as it is when it comes to Israel. This should be reflecting in our national dialogue and that is not likely to happen until we have a change in how our campaigns are funded.
offering populated water to drink seems to be these folks specialty.. trying to entice others to drink it is another matter though… thanks for pointing this out phil…
GEEZ… polluted not populated… wasn’t very awake this morning when i wrote this…
Perhaps Gabi will be giving some public lectures. Those could be fun to attend.
While Ashkenazi is in this country, can somebody serve him with notice that he is being sued for war crimes under the Alien Tort Claims Act?
Lysias says what we all should be thinking.
“Saban Center visiting fellows are leading thinkers and practitioners within their fields”
Ashkenazi will suggest carpet bombing Madison, Wisconsin with white phosphorous to bring the unions on side.
That joke is funnier than you think if you’re from Wisconsin, actually. Governor Walker did actually threaten to call out the National Guard.
Disheartening and sickening this is. This beast needs to be in the dock at The Hague, not regaled in DC. What is it going to take for the world to wake up? It would seem nothing less than complete economic collapse in the US, and I can hardly wait: full repudiation of Israel and complete rejection of the dollar and US bonds, which fund Israeli terrorism.
It’s well on the way: Financial Times: Trades reveal China shift from dollar (By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing and Tracy Alloway in London ):
The world is awake. The US is asleep.
The leaders in USA Obama/Bush/Clinton++ may have been dead for a long time before the the Palestinians have justice.
Someone will dig up Obama/Bush/Clinton++ and execute them post mortem. Just like they did with Cromwell.
“the Gaza onslaught of 2008-2009, …”
“the Gaza Massacre of 2008-2009, …”
the brooking institution’s appointing the architect of the gaza onslought, gen’l gabi ashkenazi, a “visiting fellow” is equivalent to its having offered a similar fellowship to jurgen stroop, the nazi field commander who put down the warsaw uprising. Even if it had wanted to, no way could it, given that, post ww ii, stroop twice got the death sentence*, the second of which in 1952 Poland led to his being hung by the neck until he died. Will the architect of the gaza onslought go the same way as the nazi who destroyed the warsaw ghetto with all its inhabitants? First he has to be put on trial
*for his crimes against humanity
the brooking institution’s appointing the architect of the gaza onslought, gen’l gabi ashkenazi, a “visiting fellow” is equivalent to its having offered a similar fellowship to jurgen stroop
exactly…but if that “jurgen stroop” qualified as one of the leading thinkers and practitioners within their fields then ..hey why not?
weird