I am writing this exactly twelve hours after I was attacked by an Israeli warship, off the Gaza coast.
As a member of the Civil Peace Service, I board the Oliva boat around twice a week to monitor Gazan fishermen’s human rights. But today, it wasn’t just the fishermen who were targeted.
We approached a cluster of hasaka fishing boats that were being attacked with water cannons at midday on July 13. As we got closer all I could focus on was the officer manning the machine gun, covered from head to toe with black, which struck me as very medieval, if you know what I mean.
Our boat, along with the fishing vessels, was around two miles out to sea, well within the three-mile fishing limit imposed by Israel. We saw marines congregate on deck to watch as the water cannon was angled slowly but deliberately towards us. To my delight they struggled against the wind initially, but eventually managed to angle round us as we fumbled with the water-logged engine. I took one look at the jet being generated vertically and knew what was coming. Sure enough, pellets of water began to rain down on us with stinging force. Then I, camera in one hand, felt the jet stream slap my face directly, staying there for several seconds, before the boat was yanked away by the fishermen around us. I was flung backwards and words I never utter escaped my lips. Struggling to stay up, I forced myself to take it on the chin. Literally. As the assault continued, they repeatedly aimed at my face and each time my nose, eyes and mouth filled with seawater. At one point I even saw a naval officer indicate to the marine controlling the cannon to aim for me. He gleefully obliged.
Israeli naval water cannons are able reach high into the air; even when fired vertically they can reach about four times the height of the gunboat. This warship was about 10 metres away. Imagine someone boxing your face. Imagine that their fist is larger than a bowling ball. Now imagine that punch lasting for ten minutes. This is what it felt like.
For ten minutes we were pursued as we tried to escape the gunboat. There were several fishing boats around us and, if there is a silver lining, it is that our presence distracted the Navy from attacking them.
Our boat began to fill with water and we struggled, along with the fishing boats around us to return to shore. Even as we picked up speed, the gunboat honed in on us, with relentless attack after attack. Eventually at just over one mile off the Gaza shore, the gunboat lagged behind and we were on the home straight.
We were completely drenched through. Our captain had to order us to corners of the boat, worried it was about to capsize or sink from all the water with which it had been filled. My body started to buzz and I’m surprised I didn’t electrocute everyone with the static that was building in my bloodstream. The fishermen were safe, we escaped and I felt like we had won. Even though rinsing my mouth with the salinated Gazan water to make wudu that evening brought my brain right back to gargling waterjets on the Oliva boat, the footage is gold dust and we refused to cower from their water-taunting and domination.
Although the attack was challenging for those of us who experienced it, it is essential to remember that this an everyday occurrence for Gazan fishermen. Earlier that very day, the boat of one fisherman was shot at repeatedly. There were too many bullet holes in the bow of his boat for me to count. His netting cables were shot through and he lost his catch. I’m sure he must have been fishing for grenades or something, right? Whereas I returned to shore simply with a stinging face and drenched clothes, when fishermen are attacked, they are unable to make their living. For the one attack on CPS Gaza, there have been tens if not hundreds of attacks on fishing boats.
International observers of Gaza are being targeted evermore frequently, as witnessed with the sabotage and interception of the 2nd flotilla fleet. Such attacks prevent those who have easier access to the world beyond the siege from witnessing attacks on Gazan civilians. These are the actions of a nation that has something to hide.
Human rights volunteers will continue to monitor violations, regardless of what the Israeli Navy fires at us, not only because we aren’t doing anything wrong, but because we know, and I mean this graciously, we are doing what is right and is what no authority is willing to do: ensuring that when fishermen are shot and attacked, somebody is there to witness and document it. Not everyone is able to get to Gaza, so hopefully the video footage and this account will help to bring Gaza to you.
Update - The Civil Peace Service - Gaza sent out the following press release this morning:
For the second consecutive day, the CPSGAZA human rights monitoring boat came under sustained attack by Israeli naval forces, and was threatened for the first time with lethal force.
Civil Peace Service Gaza is an international third party non-violent initiative to monitor potential human rights violations in Gazan territorial waters.
Background
Restrictions on the fishing zone are of considerable significance to Palestinian livelihood. Initially 20 nautical miles, it is presently often enforced between 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010). The marine 'buffer zone' restricts Gazan fishermen from accessing 85% of Gaza's fishing waters agreed to by Oslo.
During the Oslo Accords, specifically under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994, representatives of Palestine agreed to 20 nautical miles for fishing access. In 2002 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan empowered Catherine Bertini to negotiate with Israel on key issues regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a 12 nautical mile fishing limit was agreed upon. In June 2006, following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit near the crossing of Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the navy imposed a complete sea blockade for several months. When the complete blockade was finally lifted, Palestinian fishermen found that a 6 nautical mile limit was being enforced. When Hamas gained political control of the Gaza Strip, the limit was reduced to 3 nautical miles. During the massive assault on the Strip in 2008-2009, a complete blockade was again declared. After Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli army began imposing a 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010).
The fishing community is often similarly targeted as the farmers in the 'buffer zone' and the fishing limit is enforced with comparable aggression, with boats shot at or rammed as near as 2nm to the Gazan coast by Israeli gunboats.
The fishermen have been devastated, directly affecting an estimated 65,000 people and reducing the catch by 90%. The coastal areas are now grossly over-fished and 2/3 of fishermen have left the industry since 2000 (PCHR: 2009). Recent statistics of the General Union of Fishing Workers indicate that the direct losses since the second Intifada in September 2000 were estimated at a million dollars and the indirect losses were estimated at 13.25 million dollars during the same period. The 2009 fishing catch amounted to a total of 1,525 metric tones, only 53 percent of the amount during 2008 (2,845 metric tones) and 41 percent of the amount in 1999 (3,650 metric tones), when the fishermen of Gaza could still fish up to ten nautical miles from the coast. Current figures indicate that during 2010 the decline in the fishing catch continues. This has caused an absurd arrangement to become standard practice. The fisherman sail out not to fish, but to buy fish off of Egyptian boats and then sell this fish in Gaza. According to the Fishermen's Union, a monthly average of 105 tons of fish has been entering Gaza through the tunnels since the beginning of 2010 (PCHR 2009).
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). "The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip." Oct. 2010.
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. "A report on: Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Fishers in the Gaza Strip." August 2009.
Hama Waqum is a volunteer for CPS Gaza, she writes in a personal capacity and tweets at @WelshinGaza.
Israelis are making themselves hated.
decades
The Global Peace Activists are now a power to be reckoned with. Governments hate them, the C.I.A. hates them, the main stream media hates them, but the people of the world are learning from them, loving them and loving their righteous causes, following their struggles on the internet’s uncensored media. The Global Peace Activists have by now indeed and tangibly so, transformed the Palestinian cause in the eyes of the world – bravo! That’s an unbelievable achievement especially considering the rich, mad and merciless enemy they face.
But regrettably they have not been able to curb the israeli state violence against them – and sorry to say never will they be able to.
America will not use it’s force or influence to stop israel’s rampant violence, we all know this. So who’s gonna physically stop the bully? Look around, evidently the only people who can smack israel square in the face is hizbollah. You can think of them what you like but its clear they don’t practice an Apartheid system on others and it don’t look like they’re a racist bunch either. Yes they’re religious, but they prefer the practice of democracy in their pluralistic society instead of sharia law. True they are the sworn eternal enemies of israel and zionism (and who can blame them?), but it’s against their religion to punish others just because they are christian or jewish – therefore their resistance agenda is not religiously driven but political (to me it looks like they use their religion for self-empowerment in the face of a brutal enemy). Hizbollah do not deny the Holocaust like Apartheid israel denies the Nakba. They have displaced no natives through illegal landgrabs and they have not built ANY settlements on foreign soil, stolen water from a neighboring country, razed ancient peaceful villages with impunity, murdered innocent cattle and willfully poisoned the echo system.
Listen, it was a lot easier to crush South African Apartheid through BDS activism etc. There was no religion involved and no holy land at stake. To crush a religiously inspired Apartheid system like israel’s, I’m sorry to say but realism demands that the world prepare to use a stick at some stage of the game if need be.
Footage of israeli military AND israeli civilians behaving like bastards are now flooding the internet. Pretty much most of the planet has seen at least one youtube video of israeli violence against unarmed civilians. Let’s just say there is something called ‘an accumulative effect’ that the zioists need to be paying attention to. These are very serious times and the tables have already turned against zionism. They know it and they will be lashing out more and more blindly and recklessly with the masada for their inspiration. Please be careful, Global Peace Activists.
One tiny quibble Taxi — the CIA does NOT hate them. In my limited experience, the retired CIA types I have met (small sample of 2) did not like the Israelis at all. They saw them quite deceitful adversaries. The love affair only exists in the top echelons where the political appointees are found.
i knew someone in the top echelons of homeland security, he felt the same way. finally, he’s retired now.
I wonder if that’s also true about the lower eschelons at State & FBI? I bet it is.
There’s rumors in Greece that it was actually the CIA who successfully sabotaged the two boats from Flotilla2, not the mosad.
CIA staffers only critique israel when they’ve retired, for obvious reasons.
For whatever reason, the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer USS Ramage was in the waters off Athens at the very time the damage to the Juliano was discovered. White House Blog: On Board the USS RAMAGE: Dr. Jill Biden Visits with Sailors in Greece.
That was on the morning of June 28th. The Ramage apparently anchored off Faliro marina on June 24: USS Ramage DDG 61 History:
I wonder if she had any SEALs or other operatives on board.
The Ramage’s computer allowing communication with sailors’ families stateside had been “down for quite a while” before Monday July 11, when a family member received an e-mail from a crew member: USS RAMAGE (DDG 61) FAMILIES.
And plenty of them have. also former FBI agents. Many frustrated with how decades of investigations into Israeli spying are shut down. With the help of Israeli firsters like Jane “waddling on over to interfere in the Aipac investigation” Harman.
the person i was referring to wasn’t retired when he told me that. he was in the last year of his 30 year service.
I can remember the outrageous and probably over-imaginative CIA agent Miles Copeland, now seemingly remembered for support of GHW Bush and of Reagan, probably in that order, writing several articles and letters – they must have appeared in the mainstream British press – which were severely critical of Israel. It’s odd that they stuck in my mind – he must have written very incisively. His attitudes seem to have been inherited by Michael Scheuer and a much more reasonable version of them by Valerie Plame. So I think it’s clear that there is a long-standing CIA faction, not necessarily made up of nice people, that doesn’t mind us all knowing that they’re not so keen on Israel.
The British services seem to be surrounded by an iron wall of secrecy on such matters, though the diplomats have been accused, by no less a person than Lady Thatcher, of pro-Palestinian thoughts.
I grew up with Miles Copeland’s kids when we all lived in Beirut in the 1970′s. We hung out at the same beach club and I used to go to their house for birthday parties etc. LOL I tried my first cigarette behind Miles Copeland’s garden shed, and no I didn’t like it!). I can tell you from personal experience that all his boys are no fans of israel, never were and never will be.
Glad to see that Mondoweiss now supports Hezbollah as a violent lever against Israel. That certainly explains a few things.
eee,
Believe it or not but pretty much word for word I already predicted what you would say.
My comparisons between hizbollah and the zionist IDF are based on facts. Refute a single one and then we can talk. Otherwise, yes you remain a predictable colonialist propagandist bore.
You gotta admit though, life for you settlers was a heck of a lot easier before khkhkhkhkhizbollah was formed.
Taxi,
Hezbollah murdered hundreds of American marines.
link to en.wikipedia.org
They are viewed by many Lebanese as an anti-democratic force since they used their arms against other Lebanese.
Hezbollah members have just been indicted for the murder of Rafik Hariri by an international court. It is very likely that they will be implicated in a whole series of political murders in Lebanon.
Since 2006, the Israeli Lebanese border has never been so quiet. Hezbollah made life easier for Israel by allowing Israel to flex its muscles just a little, thus gaining years of deterrence.
So yes, it is really good to know that Mondoweiss supports Hezbollah.
eee – it is good to know you fully support the murderous actions of the idf and the zionist culture of israel..
see what a simple and divisive way it is to break everything down in these simplistic terms?
eee, the Israelis knew about the pending attack on the US Marines ahead of time and didn’t warn them on purpose–sounds similar to the 9// attack, eh?
BTW, American tax dollars do not support Hezbollah; in fact they are used against Hezbollah.
Instead endless bags of US tax dollers go to
support rogue nuke state Israel, where all US tax dollars are totally fungible so any paper conditions on US tax dollar gifts are easily avoided.
Does anyone else find it demagogic to make murdering Americans (Or otherwise siding against America) the line you shouldn’t cross? And the barracks was a military target; here’s a live example of the CIA targeting an apartment building in Beirut.
link to en.wikipedia.org
(Oh, and that “off the books” remark at the end is really adorable, as if anyone got the chopping block over it.)
Plus, why do you think the marines were in Lebanon to begin with? To secure the presidency of Amin Gemayel, someone who never turned his guns on other Lebanese.
Citizen,
Do you have any proof of your assertion that:
“the Israelis knew about the pending attack on the US Marines ahead of time and didn’t warn them on purpose–sounds similar to the 9// attack, eh?”
Of course not, but that will not stop you from disseminating lies.
Andrew,
Isn’t that the whole point behind the “Liberty” story that you guys keep pumping?
eee, according to former Israeli Mossad agent, Victor Ostrovsky, Israeli intelligence knew of the plan by Arab terrorists to bomb the building in plenty of time to warn the innocent US Marines, but cynically refused to say anything.
Now, what’s your evidence Ostrovsky lied? Don’t give me any Israeli government denial; we all know no government would admit such a thing, and we all know Mossad’s motto.
#1 best seller By Way of Deception by claire hoy one of canada’s best known journalists.
eee, there’s a reason why the attack and cover up of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty has never been afforded a normal and customary full Congressional investigation–the only case in US history. Nobody needs to pump it; any American can easily google & read the independent commission report on it, and the latest evidence brought to light–it’s been discussed on this site repeatedly and in great detail; the conclusion is at the very least Israel was criminally negligent yet nobody was ever punished for it by Israel–or it was plain intentional murder.
eee,
Hopefully, no one full of love and support for Israel turned against it on hearing about the Liberty. I’m more interested in what that segregationist state does day-in day-out.
eee,
Either provide evidence that Hizbollah “murdered hundreds of American Marines” or just buzz off with your old lies.
You’ll never find this evidence buster cuz it don’t exist. Hizbollah was formed AFTER THE MARINE BARACK BOMBING – your wiki page has been effed and hasbara-ed with. LOL! Also if there really was evidence implicating the hizb in the killing of American marines, don’t you think we woulda bombed the shit outta south Lebanon by now? Yeah you’re like a moron propagandist eee.
Obviously you don’t have a SINGLE LEBANESE FRIEND eee, cuz if you did you would know that the largest Lebanese christian faction, the maronites, are best friends with hizbollah. Why are they such good friends? Cuz the Lebanese maronites love it that hizbollah kicked YOUR colonialist asses TWICE!!! You should know that israel is hated and loathed by Lebanese christians too, not just moslems.
LOL wake up dude – the Lebanon ’06 STRIPPED israel of her ‘deterrent powers’ not the other way round. The Lebanon border is quiet cuz the idf babies are still in the trauma of defeat and israel’s already been warned by Nasrallah: touch Lebanon again and tel aviv WILL BE BOMBED. He actually is on record warning you that his men are ready to occupy northern isreal if you misbehave again.
One thing for sure about Nasrallah’s reputation: the man lives by his word. But LOL you go ahead and dismiss him if you insist.
Which explains why no one bu the pro Zionist suporteres accept the BS story. Those on board (ie. eye witnesses who were never allowed to testify) don’t buy it, nor does the Nazy, nmor do the CIA, nor do the heads of the Joint Chief’s of Staff.
When has Israel ever punished anyone for mass murder? They give medal in Israel for doing that. They even have Irrgun and Stern ribbions in the IDF.
Indeed,
So much so that Israel had top pick on the Gazans to convince themselves they still had the deterrance capacity they believed was lonst against Hebollah.
Citizen, that might have been true only if the attack had been carried out by the Falange with the hope and in the belief that Pres. Reagan would respond by sending in 10,000 Marines instead of retreating, which is a theory that some foreign journalists entertained at the time. If it had been Hezbollah, which was then, in its infancy, it is not likely Mossad would have known, otherwise it would also have known about the next attack which I have referred to, the blowing up of the Israeli intelligence HQ in Sour very shortly thereafter.
There were unanswered questions about that attack, one being how the large truck carrying explosives managed to get past two Lebanese army checkpoints before arriving at the airport where he was forced to make a U-turn in order to drive into the Marine compound.
Another question is why the weapons carried by the Marines guarding the gates to the base were unloaded. The Shia had been sniping at the Marines for some days, as one Shia who lived near the base, told me, and it should have been considered a war zone. Whatever one thinks of the attack on the Marine base, since they were on active
duty in a foreign country (and units of the US army were training Lebanese army units) it cannot legally be considered a terrorist act.
Of course, they were there to bail out Israel after Sharon had permitted the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, breaking a promise to Washington that he would protect the Palestinians and not let them be attacked by the Falange. But did the now appropriately comatose Sharon care about what Washington thought? The deaths of those Marines should be charged to Israel quite apart from whether or not they had any foreknowledge.
There was never any indication that the Israelis penetrated Hezbollah. Their brave warriors had become too scared to do foot patrols in the South by the time I left a month or so later, and they cleared all the trees and buildings on both sides of the main highway to guard their vehicles against attack.
Israel Charged with Systematic Harassment of U.S. Marines
Donald Neff has been a journalist for forty years. He spent 16 years in service for Time Magazine and is a regular contributor to Middle East International and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He has written five excellent books on the Middle East.
By Donald Neff
Former Time Magazine Bureau Chief, Israel
Washington Report, March 1995
It was 12 years ago, on March 14, 1983, that the commandant of the Marine Corps sent a highly unusual letter to the secretary of defense expressing frustration and anger at Israel. General R.H. Barrow charged that Israeli troops were deliberately threatening the lives of Marines serving as peacekeepers in Lebanon. There was, he wrote, a systematic pattern of harassment by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that was resulting in “life-threatening situations, replete with verbal degradation of the officers, their uniform and country.”
Barrow’s letter added: “It is inconceivable to me why Americans serving in peacekeeping roles must be harassed, endangered by an ally…It is evident to me, and the opinion of the U.S. commanders afloat and ashore, that the incidents between the Marines and the IDF are timed, orchestrated, and executed for obtuse Israeli political purposes.”1
Israel’s motives were less obtuse than the diplomatic general pretended. It was widely believed then, and now, that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, one of Israel’s most Machiavellian politician-generals, was creating the incidents deliberately in an effort to convince Washington that the two forces had to coordinate their actions in order to avoid such tensions. This, of course, would have been taken by the Arabs as proof that the Marines were not really in Lebanon as neutral peacekeepers but as allies of the Israelis, a perception that would have obvious advantages for Israel.2
Barrow’s extraordinary letter was indicative of the frustrations and miseries the Marines suffered during their posting to Lebanon starting on Aug. 25, 1982, as a result of Israel’s invasion 11 weeks earlier. Initially a U.S. unit of 800 men was sent to Beirut harbor as part of a multinational force to monitor the evacuation of PLO guerrillas from Beirut. The Marines, President Reagan announced, “in no case… would stay longer than 30 days.”3 This turned out to be only partly true. They did withdraw on Sept. 10, but a reinforced unit of 1,200 was rushed back 15 days later after the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra and Shatila that accompanied the Israeli seizure of West Beirut. The U.S. forces remained until Feb. 26, 1984.4
During their year-and-a-half posting in Lebanon, the Marines suffered 268 killed.5 The casualties started within a week of the return of the Marines in September 1982. On the 30th, a U.S.-made cluster bomb left behind by the Israelis exploded, killing Corporal David Reagan and wounding three other Marines.6
Corporal Reagan’s death represented the dangers of the new mission of the Marines in Lebanon. While their first brief stay had been to separate Israeli forces from Palestinian fighters evacuating West Beirut, their new mission was as part of a multinational force sent to prevent Israeli troops from attacking the Palestinian civilians left defenseless there after the withdrawal of PLO forces. As President Reagan said: “For this multinational force to succeed, it is essential that Israel withdraw from Beirut.”7
“Incidents are timed, orchestrated, and executed for Israeli political purposes.”
Israel’s siege of Beirut during the summer of 1982 had been brutal and bloody, reaching a peak of horror on Aug. 12, quickly known as Black Thursday. On that day, Sharon’s forces launched at dawn a massive artillery barrage that lasted for 11 straight hours and was accompanied by saturation air bombardment.8 As many as 500 persons, mainly Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, were killed.9
On top of the bombardment came the massacres the next month at Sabra and Shatila, where Sharon’s troops allowed Lebanese Maronite killers to enter the camps filled with defenseless civilians. The massacres sickened the international community and pressure from Western capitals finally forced Israel to withdraw from Beirut in late September. Troops from Britain, France, Italy and the United States were interposed between the Israeli army and Beirut, with U.S. Marines deployed in the most sensitive area south of Beirut at the International Airport, directly between Israeli troops and West Beirut.
It was at the airport that the Marines would suffer their Calvary over the next year. Starting in January 1983, small Israeli units began probing the Marine lines. At first the effort appeared aimed at discovering the extent of Marine determination to resist penetration. The lines proved solid and the Marines’ determination strong. Israeli troops were politely but firmly turned away. Soon the incidents escalated, with both sides pointing loaded weapons at each other but no firing taking place. Tensions were high enough by late January that a special meeting between U.S. and Israeli officers was held in Beirut to try to agree on precise boundaries beyond which the IDF would not penetrate.10
No Stranger to the Marines
However, on Feb. 2 a unit of three Israeli tanks, led by Israeli Lt. Col. Rafi Landsberg, tried to pass through Marine/Lebanese Army lines at Rayan University Library in south Lebanon. By this time, Landsberg was no stranger to the Marines. Since the beginning of January he had been leading small Israeli units in probes against the Marine lines, although such units would normally have a commander no higher than a sergeant or lieutenant. The suspicion grew that Sharon’s troops were deliberately provoking the Marines and Landsberg was there to see that things did not get out of hand. The Israeli tactics were aimed more at forcing a joint U.S.-Israeli strategy than merely probing lines.
In the Feb. 2 incident, the checkpoint was commanded by Marine Capt. Charles Johnson, who firmly refused permission for Landsberg to advance. When two of the Israeli tanks ignored his warning to halt, Johnson leaped on Landsberg’s tank with pistol drawn and demanded Landsberg and his tanks withdraw. They did.11
Landsberg and the Israeli embassy in Washington tried to laugh off the incident, implying that Johnson was a trigger-happy John Wayne type and that the media were exaggerating a routine event. Landsberg even went so far as to claim that he smelled alcohol on Johnson’s breath and that drunkenness must have clouded his reason. Marines were infuriated because Johnson was well known as a teetotaler. Americans flocked to Johnson’s side. He received hundreds of letters from school children, former Marines and from Commandant Barrow.12 It was a losing battle for the Israelis and Landsberg soon dropped from sight.
But the incidents did not stop. These now included “helicopter harassment,” by which U.S.-made helicopters with glaring spotlights were flown by the Israelis over Marine positions at night, illuminating Marine outposts and exposing them to potential attack. As reports of these incidents piled up, Gen. Barrow received a letter on March 12 from a U.S. Army major stationed in Lebanon with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization (UNTSO). The letter described a systematic pattern of Israeli attacks and provocations against UNTSO troops, including instances in which U.S. officers were singled out for “near-miss” shootings, abuse and detention.13 That same day two Marine patrols were challenged and cursed by Israeli soldiers.14
Two days later Barrow wrote his letter to Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, who endorsed it and sent it along to the State Department. High-level meetings were arranged and the incidents abated, perhaps largely because by this time Ariel Sharon had been fired as defense minister. He had been found by an Israeli commission to have had “personal responsibility” for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.15
Despite the bad taste left from the clashes with the Israelis, in fact no Marines had been killed in the incidents and their lines had been secure up to the end of winter in 1983. Then Islamic guerrillas, backed by Iran, became active. On the night of April 17, 1983, an unknown sniper fired a shot that went through the trousers of a Marine sentry but did not harm him. For the first time, the Marines returned fire.16
The next day, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a massive bomb, with the loss of 63 lives. Among the 17 Americans killed were CIA Mideast specialists, including Robert C. Ames, the agency’s top Middle East expert.17 Disaffected former Israeli Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky later claimed that Israel had advance information about the bombing plan but had decided not to inform the United States, a claim denied by Israel.18 The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Veteran correspondent John Cooley considered the attack “the day [Iranian leader Ayatollah] Khomeini’s offensive against America in Lebanon began in earnest.”19
Still, it was not until four months later, on Aug. 28, that Marines came under direct fire by rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at International Airport. They returned fire with M-16 rifles and M-60 machine guns. The firefight resumed the next day with Marines firing 155mm artillery, 81mm mortars and rockets from Cobra helicopter gunships against Shi’i Muslim positions. Two Marines were killed and 14 wounded in the exchange, the first casualties in actual combat since the Marines had landed the previous year.20
From this time on, the combat involvement of the Marines grew. Their actions were generally seen as siding with Israel against Muslims, slowly changing the status of the Marines as neutral peacekeepers to opponents of the Muslims.21 Israel could hardly have wished for more. The polarization meant that increasingly the conflict was being perceived in terms of the U.S., Israel and Lebanon’s Christians against Iran, Islam and Lebanon’s Shi’i Muslims.
Accelerating the Conflict
Israel accelerated the building conflict on Sept. 3, 1993 by unilaterally withdrawing its troops southward, leaving the Marines exposed behind their thin lines at the airport. The United States had asked the Israeli government to delay its withdrawal until the Marines could be replaced by units of the Lebanese army, but Israel refused.22 The result was as feared. Heavy fighting immediately broke out between the Christian Lebanese Forces and the pro-Syrian Druze units, both seeking to occupy positions evacuated by Israel, while the Marines were left in the crossfire.23 On Sept. 5, two Marines were killed and three wounded as fighting escalated between Christian and Muslim militias.24
In an ill-considered effort to subdue the combat, the Sixth Fleet frigate Bowen fired several five-inch naval guns, hitting Druze artillery positions in the Chouf Mountains that were firing into the Marine compound at Beirut airport.25 It was the first time U.S. ships had fired into Lebanon, dramatically raising the level of combat. But the Marines’ exposed location on the flat terrain of the airport left them in an impossible position. On Sept. 12, three more Marines were wounded.26
On Sept. 13, President Reagan authorized what was called aggressive self-defense for the Marines, including air and naval strikes.27 Five days later the United States essentially joined the war against the Muslims when four U.S. warships unleashed the heaviest naval bombardment since Vietnam into Syrian and Druze positions in eastern Lebanon in support of the Lebanese Christians.28 The bombardment lasted for three days and was personally ordered by National Security Council director Robert McFarlane, a Marine Corps officer detailed to the White House who was in Lebanon at the time and was also a strong supporter of Israel and its Lebanese Maronite Christian allies. McFarlane issued the order despite the fact that the Marine commander at the airport, Colonel Timothy Geraghty, strenuously argued against it because, in the words of correspondent Thomas L. Friedman, “he knew that it would make his soldiers party to what was now clearly an intra-Lebanese fight, and that the Lebanese Muslims would not retaliate against the Navy’s ships at sea but against the Marines on shore.”29
By now, the Marines were under daily attack and Muslims were charging they were no longer neutral.30 At the same time the battleship USS New Jersey, with 16-inch guns, arrived off Lebanon, increasing the number of U.S. warships offshore to 14. Similarly, the Marine contingent at Beirut airport was increased from 1,200 to 1,600.31
A Tragic Climax
The fight now was truly joined between the Shi’i Muslims and the Marines, who were essentially pinned down in their airport bunkers and under orders not to take offensive actions. The tragic climax of their predicament came on Oct. 23, when a Muslim guerrilla drove a truck past guards at the Marine airport compound and detonated an explosive with the force of 12,000 pounds of dynamite under a building housing Marines and other U.S. personnel. Almost simultaneously, a car-bomb exploded at the French compound in Beirut. Casualties were 241 Americans and 58 French troops killed. The bombings were the work of Hezbollah, made up of Shi’i Muslim guerrillas supported by Iran.;32
America’s agony increased on Dec. 3, when two carrier planes were downed by Syrian missiles during heavy U.S. air raids on eastern Lebanon.;33 On the same day, eight Marines were killed in fighting with Muslim militiamen around the Beirut airport.;34
By the start of 1984, an all-out Shi’i Muslim campaign to rid Lebanon of all Americans was underway. The highly respected president of the American University of Beirut, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, a distinguished scholar of the Arab world, was gunned down on Jan. 18 outside his office by Islamic militants aligned with Iran.;35 On Feb. 5, Reagan made one of his stand-tall speeches by saying that “the situation in Lebanon is difficult, frustrating and dangerous. But this is no reason to turn our backs on friends and to cut and run.”;36
The next day Professor Frank Regier, a U.S. citizen teaching at AUB, was kidnapped by Muslim radicals.;37 Regier’s kidnapping was the beginning of a series of kidnappings of Americans in Beirut that would hound the Reagan and later the Bush administrations for years and lead to the eventual expulsion of nearly all Americans from Lebanon where they had prospered for more than a century. Even today Americans still are prohibited from traveling to Lebanon.
The day after Regier’s kidnapping, on Feb. 7, 1984, Reagan suddenly reversed himself and announced that all U.S. Marines would shortly be “redeployed.” The next day the battleship USS New Jersey fired 290 rounds of one-ton shells from its 16-inch guns into Lebanon as a final act of U.S. frustration.;38 Reagan’s “redeployment” was completed by Feb. 26, when the last of the Marines retreated from Lebanon.
The mission of the Marines had been a humiliating failure�not because they failed in their duty but because the political backbone in Washington was lacking. The Marines had arrived in 1982 with all sides welcoming them. They left in 1984 despised by many and the object of attacks by Muslims. Even relations with Israel were strained, if not in Washington where a sympathetic Congress granted increased aid to the Jewish state to compensate it for the costs of its bungled invasion, then between the Marines and Israeli troops who had confronted each other in a realpolitik battlefield that was beyond their competence or understanding. The Marine experience in Lebanon did not contribute toward a favorable impression of Israel among many Americans, especially since the Marines would not have been in Lebanon except for Israel’s unprovoked invasion.
This negative result is perhaps one reason a number of Israelis and their supporters today oppose sending U.S. peacekeepers to the Golan Heights as part of a possible Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. A repeat of the 1982-84 experience would certainly not be in Israel’s interests at a time when its supporters are seeking to have a budget-conscious Congress continue unprecedented amounts of aid to Israel.
Thanks for the information Jeffrey. Yes, you’re right the Marines were uniformed and on active duty–I remember reading Ostrovsky’s version of the events a long time ago & don’t remember his particulars. I have family members who were in the US Marines, including my brother; I recall they couldn’t understand why the Marine guards wouldn’t have had their weapons loaded…
Thanks for that information, American. It did jog my memory.
Donald Neff, who is now 80, has written some of the best books on the Middle East and Israel-Palestine conflict (Fallen Pillars, Warriors for Jerusalem, Warriors for Suez) that one wonders why neither he nor his books, which are well documented histories, are not as well known as Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle which pales in comparison. (That’s a rhetorical question and I do know the answer, but that’s for another time.)
I was not prepared, however, and had not read this particular article, for his assurance that the attacker was indeed Hezbollah and not allegedly Hezbollah. But the US was by then committed to the Israeli-Lebanese side even if the Marines on the base had not the foggiest idea what they were doing there in the first place but when I visited the base the Wednesday before the bombing, terms like “camel jockeys,” “towel heads,” and “sand niggers,” flowed freely in their discussions of their hosts.
Unlike the French and Italians who were actually peace-keepers, the Marines kept to their base and were not allowed to go into Beirut not only for their own safety but because they obviously had no respect for the local population and were likely to get drunk and into trouble. That’s what happened to one sergeant who got drunk at the Hotel Commodore where much of the press was staying and shot up the bar.
The French, old experienced colonialists, had learned the proper way of behaving and until their barracks, an eight story apartment house, was blown up, they had been relatively left alone.
I well remember the encounter between the Marine officer and the Israeli tanks and I was hoping that there would be a bit of a dust-up and that the Marines would teach the Israelis a lesson. In fact, if there was one place that I would not oppose sending in the Marines today it would be (………………….). Fill in the blank.
Thanks American for this. Normally I do not like these long posts but this is one that helps me remember things from years past. That is not to say that some of these details might not be in error.
eee, when I was in Beirut in 1983 and Hezbollah blew up the IDF intelligence HQ in Sour, all of the foreign press that I encountered, with the exception, I suppose, of the US, cheered, and I am sure they cheered, if quietly, when Hezbollah stopped Israel’s vaunted military machine cold in 2006. I know that I did, and not quietly, and its success on the ground was not unexpected since Israel’s “people’s army” had been training for years by humiliating Palestinians and weren’t quite ready to be on the receiving end. And, I suspect, they’re still not.
I am addressing this question to you since I respect your judgement. Hezbollah as an organization did not exist when the marine barracks were blown up. Why is it that people generally attribute that action to Hezbollah?
Hezbollah had come into existence in 1983, evidently with Iranian support, but as an indigenous organization, determined to resist Israeli occupation. Initially, the Israeli invaders had been welcomed by the Shia in the South who were tired of the PLO fighting its wars with Israel on its soil and then being the ones who largely paid when Israel retaliated, which was intentional on Israel’s part.
The Shia, however, expected the Israelis to push the PLO out and then leave. When they didn’t and then began to employ their acquired sadism against the Shia as they had and still do against the Palestinians, the Shia became determined to fight back and Hezbollah became the main vehicle for doing so. It did exist, except that it was very new when the barracks were blown up and it was just one of a number of groups that had a motive and might have carried out the job. People in one Druze village in the Chouf mountains above the airport, which had been hit by a shell the size of VW bug from the USS New Jersey, claimed that someone from their village had carried out the barracks attack as revenge and even named the person’s name. I don’t expect we will ever know for sure.
Jeffrey I do thank you for this. These details may seem unimportant to most Americans ( and perhaps they are) but I am really interested in understanding what has and is happening in places like Lebanon. I clearly remember when those marines died and when the USS New Jersey was shelling Lebanon with those 16 inch shells. Also remembering thinking: what the hell is going on.
We really do not know what happened, but if anyone is interested American (the handle) posted something here that if not the truth (I disagree with part of it) provides an excellent summary of what happened in Lebanon in 1982 and 1983.
I think the important take home lesson from these events is that Israel sucks the US into its wars. The US has absolutely no interest in war in Lebanon, but somehow, Israeli influence sucks us into those wars.
ToivoS,
Before Hizbollah, the southern Lebanese shia had a resistance called Amal (Hope), which in fact still exists. In 1975 a civil war erupted in Lebanon and Amal became protectors of their villages as the Lebanese army had practically folded under the civil war and border skirmishes between Palestinian refugees in south Lebanon and israel were a constant and intensifying. Amal’s military arm was undisciplined and not that well trained – some of them liked to party much too. By 1981 some Amal leaders were very unhappy about this and splintered, and in 1982 after the israeli invasion, they began to collect themselves and organize into what is now hizbollah. In 1982 when the Barack’s bombing happened, hizbollah was a mere infant, practically powerless with no notable resources, very small in membership numbers, it’s leadership yet to be named and assigned, their war-theater yet to be built and their territories yet to be marked out and defined. Amal was already under a ‘limited’ Iranian sponsorship, due to their ‘average’ performance on their battlefield. So then comes along hizbollah and commits itself to ‘liberation through martyrdom’ and the Iranians smile wide and start a generous relationship with hizbollah. There were turf battles in the south of Lebanon between Amal and Hizbollah when the Barracks bombing occurred. It was clear from those first hizbollah-won turf battles that this new entity had powers of strategy, discipline and an incorruptible commitment to their cause. Note here that the 9/11 hijackers drew inspiration from hizbollah’s many successful ‘martyrdom operations’ from that period of time. The moslem world at large was drawing the conclusion that martyrdom is a political force to be reckoned with – as demonstrated by hizbollah not only against Amal (who by 1984 had pretty much surrendered and aligned itself to the hizb), but also against the ultimate enemy, isreal.
If you sit in a Beirut cafe and ask your neighbors at the next table who blew up the Barracks, each of them will give you at least five theories they’ve come up with. Some people think that several mid-ranking Amal members, vying for leadership position, wanting to impress on Iran that they too were capable of ‘martyrdom’, are behind this bombing. Others think it’s israel, hence the guns at the gates of the Barracks were (happen-chance?) unloaded at the time of the attack – a mosad agent dying of Aids or something, in disguise and speeding his truck loaded with ammunition and firepower straight at the Marine dorms. This hideous crime against the USA would indeed be most opportune for an israel already bent on destroying Lebanon.
So many theories are plausible, ToivoS. Me, I don’t prescribe to any ‘theory’. This is a very serious crime which must be judged on presented evidence and we really don’t have much of the way of evidence – just a complex bowl of political spaghetti on the table for everyone to look at and decipher.
But I do think israel stood to benefit the most from this horrific crime against us and so I have no doubt that israel’s involved one way or another. It’s just yet another ‘too good of a coincidence for israel’ kinda tragedy and I find that suspicious in itself.
There was an event that took place in Nabitya, the “capital” of Southern Lebanon in the spring of 1983 which may or may not have been recorded somewhere but had a tremendous impact in building the Shia resistance.
It was the festival of Ashoura, the most important Shia religious holiday and those celebrating become extremely agitated and was taking place in the city’s center when two Israeli jeeps approached and tried to drive through the crowd, despite the appeal of the mayor, who later told me the story, confirming what I had earlier from a Lebanese-American photographer who was also there.
The Israelis, typical in their arrogance, were taught a lesson. The crowd burned the jeeps and the Israelis fled but their attempt to interfere with the celebration stirred up the Shia community and religious figures began rallying the people against the Israeli occupier. That may have been the incident that pushed what little resistance there was at the time into high gear.
There were no photographs of the event because the Shia suspected that my friend, George Azar, was an Israeli and they grabbed his camera and tore out his film.
Amal, which was represented in the government by Nabi Berri, a former Detroit car salesman who is currently the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, had offered less than lukewarm resistance to the Israelis at that point and when I and a NY Times reporter, Tom Friedman (the same) spoke with him he was less than inspirational. Fatah had provided military training for Amal well before the Lebanese civil war when the southern part of the country was considered “Fatah land” but by 1982, the PLO had made itself unpopular, thanks to Arafat’s corruption and the Palestinians in the country’s refugee camps are still paying for his excesses today.
I do recall, looking at the crumbled apartment building where some 80 French soldiers had died and at what remained of the Marine barracks, that I felt I had seen a foretaste of what the future of the Middle East would look like.
You’re right Jeff, the Ashura incident in Nabatiyeh is famed in the south and was one of the events that turned the shias from welcomers of the idf to their worst enemies. Stories about shia antagonism in south Lebanon travels fast due to the fact that all the villages are connected by intermarriages. There are other similar incidents too such as purposefully holding military curfews in villages on Fridays when the moslem men are supposed to be praying together in the mosque etc., controlling electricity and water supply to villages, bullying and kidnapping lone Lebanese shepherds grazing their cattle in the Lebanon’s Galilee terrain – punitive and offensive behavior like that – plus the idf were frightening the village children and elderly, even just visually. Basically, pretty much five minutes after the idf arrived into Lebanon, they started with their islamophobic and arabphobic practices, which indeed was the norm for them in occupied Palestine. What the idf didn’t bank on however, was that five minutes after that the Lebanese shias would start resisting the israelis with their own lives and would eventually kick them out fair and square.
The rest is history as they say.
No eee, just as one of the only interests that have not been bribed to kiss Israel’s ass, and who are strong enough to speak the only language that Israel understands – force.
They atatcked a legitimate mitary target – you know, like how the Stern Gang bombed the Kind David Hotel? The difference being that Hezbollah didn’t kil civilians in doing so.
Bullshit. They won the ajority vote in the lans election. They turned their arms on Lebanses government forces (during he reign of a US puppet government) who were ordered to attack them.
False. There were more peopel killed on the border since 2006, than between 2000 and 2006.
And it’s good to know you’re a pro apartheid fascist.
Q: What’s the difference between Hezbollah and the IDF?
A: Several hundred corpses of children.
Q: What’s the difference between Hezbollah and the IDF?
A: The IDF are gutless cowards
words I never utter escaped my lips.
never say never!
My body started to buzz and I’m surprised I didn’t electrocute everyone with the static that was building in my bloodstream.
i love you!
we know, and I mean this graciously, we are doing what is right and is what no authority is willing to do
we know we are doing what is right and no authority has the courage to do.
i love your voice please write for us more. every day i want to hear your courageous inspiring voice. peace be with you Hama, my upmost in honor and solidarity, peace and safety be with you.
Sorry for the off-topic but this is important, in my opinion:
link to democracynow.org
Tahrir Square continues.
Yes, Chaos, the Arab revolution is at a turning point as it has become apparent that the new regime wants to continue partnering with the US & hence the Israel First agenda. The Egyptian military “interim” regime is enmeshed with the US military and depends on US largess. Obama is twisting Egyptian arms in every way possible to keep intact the old agenda securing Israel and its whims. The Egyptian Street is happy there’s more upward mobility, but hates Egypt remaining a pawn of the US, hence of Israel.
This just speaks to me of the ” thug” mentality of Israel expressed thru their military…and I use the term military loosely…..actually they are anything but a military. ..more like a boys in the hood street gang bullying people because they are bored.
Sick.
Mostly “sick” very very “sick”
Shooting human rights activist in the head at close range for filming what was going on on the Mavi Marmara
Israeli soldier dances around female Palestinian prisoner humiliating her
link to youtube.com
The more independent that the state becomes from the world, the more hateful they are of the world. They want to blame the world for their religious, political, and mental shortcomings, so be it.
But, it’s a tragedy that they have nuclear weapons.
More like a bunch of fake punk rockers in a basement in Iowa dressed up in their daddy’s old uniform.
But Nina Lowery’s congress will fight to the US’s death for Israel’s right to water hose fishermen. As an American every time I see these traitors say “their duty” in the United States congress is to serve Israel it literally turns my stomach.
link to newrochelletalk.com
Latest fundraising letter of Nina Lowery
“But simple and clear is how I view my own duty as a Member of Congress: to ensure that Israel has the unshakable support of the United States of America.’
Israel needs to know that America’s friendship is deep, durable and founded in the fundamental values that bind together all free peoples. Such friendships endure in the face of every obstacle.
In my capacity as the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, which sets the annual American international aid budget, I have been absolutely steadfast in advocating for Israel. I have championed the bilateral assistance that provides Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.
“In the last congressional election, my opponent accused me of being a tool of the Israel lobby and hinted at Israeli control of American foreign policy!”
I am not intimidated by such challenges, but we shouldn’t take them lightly either. They demand the most forceful and vigorous response.
So please help me affirm our shared principles – in Washington, in the Middle-east and on the campaign trail – by making a contribution to my reelection committee.
I will continue fighting on behalf of the shared interests that link Israel and the United States, and I am determined to confront the difficult uncertainties of this moment with energy, determination and courage.
Please join me.
Sincerely,
Nita M. Lowey
Member of Congress
One of the most despicable of the many cruelties Israel heaps on poor Palestinians is the attack on their survival, both economically and on their ability to feed themselves. Even a small fishing boat is attacked, Gaza’s sea rights are ignored, and people fishing to stay alive are treated as sport by the IDF thuggish militia. And then the propagandists start spouting blatant and surreal lies about Gazans living in the land of plenty. The effrontery and mendaciousness are almost as bad as their belief that they have the right to destroy anything and everything which might make life tolerable in Gaza. A punitive control freakery which is sadistic in every intention, and of course, needlesss to say, has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘security’.
Thank you Hama. Spread this story around folks. Posting and sending to numerous MSM outlets. Hope others get this story out there
>> I was flung backwards and words I never utter escaped my lips. Struggling to stay up, I forced myself to take it on the chin.
Hey, RW, check this out! The perfect victim, remaining docile while “enough Israel” is achieved!
Those Israelis sure do know how to “humanize ‘the Other’” and “make ‘better wheels’”…
Yeah Witty won’t read this article. He refuses to acknowledge that anyone other than Zionist Jews are ever victims.
“He refuses to acknowledge that anyone other than Zionist Jews are ever victims.”
This is, like, so unfair! Witty has his standards, and he sticks to them! As he explained, “dissent” must be “principled” and “attractive“!
Have any of the people on the solidarity boat ever won a beauty contest? Case closed!
That’s a pretty unfair standard to hold anti-occupation activists to, Mooser. That’s just about as unfair as expecting Witty to win a spelling bee.
“That’s a pretty unfair standard to hold anti-occupation activists to, Mooser.”
Nevertheless, that is the standard Witty espoused. The words quoted are his, and I have not distorted their sense at all.
Here is one of my favorite sites, presenting a very human glimpse of what life is like under Israeli occupation…..
link to ingaza.wordpress.com
What really astounds me is the “flavor” of the comments on various sites that deal chiefly with the Isr/Pal issue. The most virulent racism is invariably found on the pro-Israel/pro-zionist sites, such as this one….
link to algemeiner.com
This is particularly unsettling, considering that the assertion of “anti-semitism” is such a fixture in the pro-Israel/pro-zionist narrative. The hypocricy is awe inspiring. Truly, after years of commenting at various sites on this issue, the most obscene and disgusting ad hominem that I have witnessed has come from those commenting in defense of Israel’s policies. And, as I am sure many of you have noticed, the bigotry against Arabs, openly expressed, has become standard fare at any site catering to the pro-zionist contingent of our society. Peruse the comment section at the “Algemeneir” website, and it is an awesome display of ignorance and bigotry, tolerated by the administrators of the site.
It is a reflection upon what Israel is becoming. Not only do the state’s policies sow the seeds of racism, legislation is now appearing that MANDATES racism. “Jews only” infrastructural components, as well as “loyalty oaths” mandated as a criteria for citizenship lend the lie to the assertion of the “democratic” nature of Israel.
It is no suprise seeing actions such as the targeting of farmers and fishermen. Such actions are not based in the Israeli’s craving for “security”. Rather, they are blatant examples of what occurs when a government and society accepts and nurtures hatred.
I am ashamed that we are complicit in this. “Proud to be an American” is no longer the mantra of a true patriot. In fact, we patriots weep.
Zionists and their followers are subversive liars.
Look at the career of Anthony Weiner or Richard Witty’s
disingenuous comments.
Creepy when you really see them for what they are.
Great Gaza site. Thanks. Effective pictures.
This is astonishing. It scarcely seems possible human beings can enjoy behaving like that. Could they be stoned? Military personnel are known take that route in morally untenable situations.
I saw the same kind of repulsive bullying and victimization of blacks by whites when I was growing up in Texas under Jim Crow.
When you harm other people, you justify your actions to yourself by believing that your victims deserve what you do to them, and that they are forcing you to act in ways that normally you would consider evil. Because you are a good southern Baptist. Or a member of the world’s most “moral” army.
“The most virulent racism is invariably found on the pro-Israel/pro-zionist sites, such as this one….”
You expect anyone to take this statement seriously?
er, Kathleen, he was referring to one he linked to underneath, not Mondo!
Hehehe……
Egads, Kathleen, you don’t “know” me any better than that?
Of course, I was talking about the “Algemeneir” website, which, incidentally, is closely affiliated with Fox News.
And, uh, I could use a little help over there at Algemeneir. It is truly remarkable how easily their narrative is dismantled and discredited with just a little common sense, and careful placement of links that substantiate one’s argument. The thing is, even the most shallow and disingenuous of propaganda finds root in the collective’s mindset if it goes unopposed. That simple fact is the reason that the Israeli narrative has been so successful. Its also the reason that I feel commenting at sites such as Algemeneir is more important, (and more constructive), than commenting at sites such as this one. Here, you are just preaching to the choir. Its fun, but hardly challenging. And, it really doesn’t do much to actually change the mainstream narrative, does it? But commenting at sites such as Algemeneir gives you the opportunity to reach out to those that have never been exposed to anything other than the hasbarist script.
Of all the issues important to our time, our “alliance” with Israel seems to be the one issue where widespread ignorance, carefully sown and nurtured, seems to be the foundation upon which societal impressions and opinions are constructed. If that dynamic does not change, neither will our politician’s subservience to the Israeli agenda.
Read through it once….apologize. Thought I was hallucinating. Clearly I was. Sorry.
Thought someone else was writing as POA for a minute. Glad you are here. And so disappointed that Clemons pushed you off. Did you notice comments close to 0 over there
“Did you notice comments close to 0 over there”
I suspect that Steve is the reason for that. I believe he is simply no longer posting comments. He’s moved on. To be honest, I may in no small part be the reason, as our email exchanges became quite contentious, and I commented to him that “if the emails I was receiving from online acquaintances (that followed the comment section at TWN) were any indication, you would be well advised to leave the comment section closed”. People were pissed, not so much about my banishment, but about Steve’s blatantly disingenuous justifications for closing down the comments. Even the bland tempered Norhiem openly expressed doubt as to Steve’s justifications.
Oh well.
Steve is obviously impressed with his new position, and while I see it as a step downwards, I’m sure Steve views it as a higher rung up the ladder. I suppose it just boils down to opposing values. I wish him well, and hope he manages to scale that ladder by steppin’ on rungs, and not heads. But, unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way things work in his field, or in Washington DC. Something tells me he’ll leave no small trail of blood in his wake. Figuratively speaking, of course. One thing is for sure, with his ambition, we haven’t heard the last of him.
I do not try to pretend that I understand what it is like to be in Steve’s world or others who are making their way to some top dog position. What I do know is that Steve is brilliant, a humanitarian in many ways, knows far more than most of us do on many subjects and basically has really good intentions. I also sense when you are in a world like that that often a person looses connections with what I call the “peasants” people like myself and probably many others who come to these blogs. Now I also know that some other heavy hitters like Steve come and mix it up with the peasants at these blogs. And that is a good and healthy way to mix it up. Keep the heavy hitters feet a bit on the ground. More than they would if they only mix it up with other folks climbing those ladders. Clearly they become isolated.
How about when Andrea Mitchell, Joe Scarborough, Rachel Maddow say things like “what the American people think” “the American people think this or that” These folks are about as far away from the American people as you can get. Getting their information about what the American people think via slanted polls.
Check this out Steve on the Knesset (apartheid) law
Israel Kicks Down its own Democratic Hill?
link to thewashingtonnote.com
Hopefully Steve will bring up the I/P issue when he is making his MSNBC rounds. Step out of line. Challenge the silence in the MSM. Here’s hoping and pushing
more good news from the state:
Israel gives go-ahead to build tolerance museum on site of Muslim graveyard
Maybe they’ve decided to bury tolerance there. Hopefully it will get a moving eulogy before being laid to rest.
The Wiesenthal Center is moving the Muslim graves to symbolically bury tolerance. I didn’t understand the irony until
you laid it out for me, Tree… :D
This was posted by tom-104 over at Glenn Greenwald’s blog and it’s something I’ve been following for a while. This Walid Shoebat guy is a total fraud and it was clear from his first appearance. The American right-wing latched on so hard to his story, it was like a dream come true for them:
CNN exposes ‘terror expert’ as a fraud
CNN reported Wednesday that a so-called terrorism expert that is paid with tax dollars and has even appeared on their own network may be a fraud.
Walid Shoebat claims he converted to Christianity after years as a Palestinian Liberation Organization terrorist who once helped firebomb an Israeli bank in Bethlehem. But CNN’s Jerusalem bureau could find no proof that his story was true. The Israeli police and the bank had no evidence that a firebombing ever took place.
link to rawstory.com
For more information about Shoebat see:
link to talk2action.org and @sig
—tom-104
Read tom-104′s other letters
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RE: “I was attacked by an Israeli warship, off the Gaza coast…Our boat, along with the fishing vessels, was around two miles out to sea, well within the three-mile fishing limit imposed by Israel.” ~ Hama Waqum
FROM ALISTAIR COOK, London Review of Books, 03/03/11:
SOURCE – link to lrb.co.uk
P.S. Can anyone recommend a good, cheap cosmetic surgeon to tighten up the skin on my face? I’d be much obliged.
I think the shar-pei look is a permanent feature of murdochitis, for which there is no cure.
LOL Dickerson – your new avatar’s hillarious! Very ‘current’ of you. LOL did he really make that face or is that the fickle hand of photoshop?
Would I dare try to photoshop the face of ‘Murdoch the Malefactor’ and risk destroying my photo editing software and perhaps even fatally overheating my CPU?
IMAGE SOURCES –
link to blogs.villagevoice.com
link to blogs.suntimes.com
link to pixalex.posterous.com