Mazin Qumsiyeh on Obama’s speech:
In his first speech at the UN, President Obama stated that he prohibited torture and ordered Guantanamo prisons closed. He also said he will work to cut the nuclear arsenal of the US and Russia and move towards a world without nuclear weapons. He said that peace must be pursued by actions of all nations working together and that the era of unilateralism is finished. He said he will work aggressively to advance peace based on two states: Israel and Palestine. He said, “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements”. All were big fat LIES. And now comes Obama with new lies in front of the UN and at this International day of peace. Here he shows Palestinian leaders did not give him any briefing on history. I hope any Palestinian leaders should object strongly and with facts and figures to these misstatements.
“Let’s be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. [false] Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. [correct but this should be balanced by explaining that 10 times more Palestinians were butchered]
Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. [Israelis teach hate 100 more times than the other way around and hate of the colonizer to the colonized is not the same as the reverse]. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. [That is nonsense; Israel wiped Palestine including 530 villages and towns and now is the fourth strongest country plus having you Obama and Congress as its lackeys]. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were. [Irrelevant and highly emotional: just study the history of Nazi-Zionist collaboration to see how absurd to link Apartheid Israel with “The Jewish People”, itself a mistaken term no more valid than concepts of “The Christian People” or “The Muslim People”]. These facts cannot be denied [they are regurgitation of Zionist myths, irrelevant facts, and half truths]. The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland [a racist apartheid state based on land theft and ethnic cleansing; is that your definition of success?]. Israel deserves recognition [no it does not, Israel deserves to be faced with the truth and pressured to transform just like Apartheid South Africa]…
All who meet with him to go back and read his first speech in the UN should level with Mr. Obama.
Hypocrisy will be more evident at the United Nations these coming few days. It is already evident in the use of bullying by the US administration to other countries to force them to not vote for a Palestinian state. This bullying will remind us of how they bullied in 1947 to get the unjust resolution recommending partition of Palestine against the wishes of its people (contrary to UN Charter and the right of self-determination). Hypocrisy will also be evident in Netanyahu’s speech in the UN that will say to the world: Israel wants peace and “why are we at the UN when Israel and the Palestinians can negotiate directly.” After decades of direct negotiations between slaves and heavily armed masters, excuse the world for not believing you.
One of President Obama’s lines during his UN speech was a very dangerous often repeated for 8 years and false statement about Iran.
Obama at the UN “Israel is a small country of less than 8 million people look at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe them off the map”
This is the clip that Chris Matthews or his producers chose to play during his segment with Howard Fineman and Joan Walsh from Salon. Not one of these well informed savvy individuals chose to bring any attention to this debunked and false statement. Again allowing this inflammatory and false statement about Iran”s President to be repeated once again. This is dangerous dangerous.
The segment on Hardball “Perry attacks Obama on Middle East Peace”
Obama’s false statement about the Iranian President’s statements about Israel
link to msnbc.msn.com
Professor Juan Cole at Informed Comment debunked this false statement that has endlessly been repeated in our MSM by Reps, Obama, Clinton etc long ago.
link to juancole.com
“Whatever this quotation from a decades-old speech of Khomeini may have meant, Ahmadinejad did not say that “Israel must be wiped off the map” with the implication that phrase has of Nazi-style extermination of a people. He said that the occupation regime over Jerusalem must be erased from the page of time. ”
——————————————————-
Then this morning on Cspan’s Washington Journal the host of the program allowed Ohio Republican Rep Chabot to repeat more inflammatory and false statements about Iran. Repeating the debunked “Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map” and then repeating unsubstantiated and very dangerous claims that Iran is working on nuclear weapons. The host did not interrupt or challenge.
The 45 minute segment that Rep Chabot was on focused on the I/P conflict, the UN bid. Anyone think Washington Journal will have a guest on with an opposing view about this issue?
The clip of Chabot is not up. Rep Chabot has legislation up cutting Palestinian aide
“Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East & South Asia – Chairman, discusses his non-binding resolution calling for the withholding of the United States’ U.N. funding if the General Assembly recognizes a Palestinian state.”
link to c-span.org
Camera has a watch CSpan effort going on at their site where they document every comment about Israel, Iran that they do not like. Many people call in with facts. Camera defines almost every caller as anti semitic.
Camera has had to hammer Washington Journal so much that almost every host interrupts anyone stating any comment about Israel with “where do you get your information” Now if the host of Washington Journal would just apply those same questions to those who repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran.
Camera’s CSpan watch site
link to camera.org
Shmuel,
Smart comments on this blog.
President Obama is still clueless on the history of the I/P conflict, but at least he’s getting better. At his worst, however, he would be hard pressed to excell these delectables from Mazin Qumsiyeh’s noxious screed:
“America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements”. All were big fat LIES.
“Let’s be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. [false]
Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. [correct but this should be balanced by explaining that 10 times more Palestinians were butchered]
Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. [Israelis teach hate 100 more times than the other way around and hate of the colonizer to the colonized is not the same as the reverse].
Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. [That is nonsense; Israel wiped Palestine including 530 villages and towns and now is the fourth strongest country plus having you Obama and Congress as its lackeys].
The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries
of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of
knowing that six million people were killed simply
because of who they were. [Irrelevant and highly
emotional: just study the history of Nazi-Zionist
collaboration to see how absurd to link Apartheid
Israel with “The Jewish People”, itself a mistaken
term no more valid than concepts of “The Christian
People” or “The Muslim People”].
These facts cannot be denied [they are regurgitation of Zionist myths, irrelevant facts, and half truths].
The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland [a racist apartheid state based on land theft and ethnic cleansing; is that your definition of success?].
Israel deserves recognition [no it does not, Israel deserves to be faced with the truth and pressured to transform just like Apartheid South Africa]…
Who will address the fact that the Palestinian people were subjected to the largest armed robbery in the last 100 years accompanied by massacres and ethnic cleansing?
Who will mention that the value of hard assets alone stolen by the Zionist project exceed $30 trillion?
($30 trillion?!!)
Who will speak of the over 60,000 Palestinian civilians massacred or the hundreds of thousands who were injured or jailed?
(60,000 massacred? “Hundreds of thousands” injured or jailed?)
What happened to President Johnson when he asked Israel to get out of Gaza and the Sinai in 1956 (and Israel complied)?
(What happened to President Eisenhower, who was president in 1956?)
I suppose that in the alternative universe inhabited by those mouth such sentiments regularly and reasonably as a matter of course, there is not much to see here. But to me, the knowledge that whole scores of millions around the globe ascribe to such hate-filled and hysterically paranoid and libelous falsehoods, or, rather, these “big fat LIES,” is downright chilling. There is no solution to this conflict.
(Ps- Did Shingo ghostwrite this?)