Hoo boy. It's going to be a real ultra-Zionist lovefest in New York City Tuesday as GOP luminaries, Likud machers and members of the Israel lobby convene at 10am at the W Hotel near Union Square. Their rally/press conference will be led by Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry and Knesset Member Danny Danon. From The Jerusalem Post:
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry will hold a press conference with American and Israeli-Jewish leaders in New York on Tuesday in which he is expected to address the upcoming deliberations at the United Nations, MK Danny Danon (Likud), said on Saturday night.
Danon, who will participate at the press conference, said he would ask Perry ahead of the conference to adopt the initiative the MK is advancing to annex Judea and Samaria in response to the unilateral Palestinian moves at the UN.
Danon, already in the U.S. to speak at nationwide Zionist fundraisers and rallies prior to the UN vote, has proposed an "Annexation for Declaration Initiative," which would "establish full sovereignty over the Jewish communities of the West Bank . . . our historic homeland of Judea and Samaria:"
"Under [my] three-state solution, Arab-Israelis residing within Israel would be welcome to join the official new State of Israel. The remaining enclaves of Palestinian towns and villages in Judea and Samaria would become part of either Egypt or Jordan, and the Egyptian and Jordanian borders would extend accordingly to these designated towns."
[Snip]
"Both Jordan and Egypt have expressed strong support and concern for Palestinians living in the West Bank. If they truly care so much, then they should readily agree to a three-state solution and incorporate the Palestinian towns located adjacent to their current borders."www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx
The Israeli annexations would include the settlements "as a start," and expand to encompass the "empty land" of Area C, a zone that includes almost 60% of total West Bank territory, though only 10% of the West Bank's Palestinian population. This is partly because "about 70 percent of Area C is [already] classified as a firing zone, settlement areas, or nature reserves, and is inaccessible to Palestinians."
Danon argues that all this is right and proper because the land constitutes what was "Judea and Samaria": there's no Palestine, he insists, never was and certainly won't be on the Jews' God-given property. So while it is right for South Sudan to pursue statehood, in Danon's opinion -- "just like Israel, its people live with a sense of resolve and confidence that their existence is a God-given right," he has said, and "the creation of this new nation deserves the attention and admiration of the entire international community" -- it is not right, not God-given and certainly not admirable for the Palestinians to attempt to do so now or ever, as it will just lead to the establishment of an Iranian-backed "terrorist state" like Gaza.
All this will no doubt garner a robust "Amen" from Perry tomorrow, since he is all too happy to project past onto present, Israel onto Texas, Arabs onto Mexicans, and the "struggles" of Texan pioneers in the 1830s and 40s onto the "struggles" of Israeli settlers in the the 21st century. As he rather famously wrote in The Jerusalem Post last week: "historian T.R. Fehrenbach once observed that my home state of Texas and Israel share the experience of civilized men and women thrown into new and harsh conditions, beset by enemies."
So it's exactly the same - except for the part where Texans actually participated in a referendum over their annexation by the U.S. (granted, it was a referendum that whoeheartedly endorsed slavery). The non-Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria will presumably not have the luxury these (white) Texans did, though they will certainly be welcome to vote with their feet on whether they remain in Greater Israel or not.
Yet, as Max Blumenthal has pointed out, Perry's remarks are in fact, too clever by half. According to Blumenthal, what Fehrenbach actually said in his work Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans was this:
"The Texan’s attitudes, his inherent chauvinism and the seeds of his belligerence, sprouted from his conscious effort to take and hold his land. It was the reaction of essentially civilized men and women thrown into new and harsh conditions, beset by enemies they despised. The closest 20th-century counterpart is the State of Israel, born in blood in another primordial land."
With that in mind, Danon is even more deserving than Glenn Beck of the honorary Texan citizenship Rick Perry is so fond of bestowing on deserving wing-nuts. Hell, he might just make him an honorary Texas Ranger. Make everyone in Likud (among other parties) an honorary Texas Ranger. They could then do some whistlestop campaigning in the West Bank wearing official badges.
Yisrael Beitenu's Avigdor Lieberman would probably look good in a bolo tie, and spurs would not look out of place on Im Tirtzu jackboots. But I shudder to think what Perry would wear to such a West Bank rally . . . especially as a U.S. president.
let these zionists continue to openly demonstrate there desire for a land grab as opposed to peace.. it suits them perfectly…
James,
can you please point to a recent official “land-grab” for “settlements” by Israel?
And a question to the article’s writer – what makes a “Zionist” an “ultra Zionist” and does he sympatise with the “non-ultra” variety and only oppose the “ultra”?
Are you denying that the settlements — repeatedly and universally condemned by the UN and every nation around the world, even the US — are being expanded by order of the Israeli government? Are you flat out denying that? Because that’s a very easy lie to disprove. I just want to make sure that’s what you’re saying before we expose you as a fool.
“can you please point to a recent official “land-grab” for “settlements” by Israel?”
Is this a serious question or do you mean all settlements were unofficially built on stolen lands ?
“can you please point to a recent official “land-grab” for “settlements” by Israel?”
You gotta be kidding me. Where do you jackasses come from?
I wud like to complain to the moderator about use of inappropriate language and abusive remarks by commented POA.
I am happy to answer the questions raised by responses to my comment that challenged anyone to find a recent official LAND-GRAB. This is because the land appropriated by Israel for the “settlements” in Judea and Samaria has not been expanded in the recent years, and in any case, ALL the land taken by the “settlements” constitue lesst than 10% of Judea and Samaria. Anyone that can disprive the above statement, is welcome, but please, to-the-point comments, balanced debate backed by true arguments.
>> can you please point to a recent official “land-grab” for “settlements” by Israel?
Despite Promises – Israel Confiscates Palestinian Land for the Expansion of Settlements
On June 26, 2011 the Civil Administration issued a “State Lands Declaration Order” withdawing an area of some 189 dunams (47 acres) from the lands of the village of Qaryout north of Ramallah. This order is meant to enable the post factum legalization of the illegal outpost of Hayovel and the road that leads to it, following a petition by Peace Now against houses in the outpost and a petition by Yesh Din against the road that was illegally paved to connect the outpost with the settlement of Eli.
>> … in any case, ALL the land taken by the “settlements” constitue lesst than 10% of Judea and Samaria.
It shouldn’t constitute more than 0%.
asherpat,
What a sad victim you are. Would you like me to box POA on the ear for poor you? You wanna climb on my back and watch me fight your wars for you? After all you’re israeli and I’m American and this is how we do friendship, right?
Like the old corn-cheese saying goes: If you can’t handle the heat, get outta the kitchen!
Another long-standing “unofficial” land grab (i.e. theft, even by Israel’s own rules), soon to be made “official”, retroactively:
link to btselem.org
link to nad-plo.org
Right here at Mondoweiss
link to mondoweiss.net
Construction in Judea and Samaria up a whopping 660%
Arutz Sheva [settler news site - apologies for using it] 1 Sept — About 75,000 new homes are under construction in all of Israel right now, a government agency said Wednesday. With the end of the building freeze, construction has started up in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) communities. In fact, said the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), building jumped 660% in Judea and Samaria during the first half of 2011, as compared to the previous year. While the statistic was certainly breathtaking, the actual numbers on the ground were less impressive: Construction started on 546 new homes in Yesha communities during the period. Still, it was a sharp improvement over the number of housing starts in the first half of 2010, when only 72 housing starts were announced.
“I wud like to complain to the moderator…”
You should try not to write anything more until you stop all that sobbing and blubbering. And wipe your nose, please.
There is no such thing as Judea and Samaria. They may be less than 10% of the land, but the majority of the largest settlements cut into the kidney-shaped WB making it an ugly-looking non-contiguous state if the hypothetical two-state solution ever came about. About 1/3 of the land which the settlements Israeli intends to keep is built upon is privately owned by Palestinian owners. There are the Jewish-only roads that divide the land into the Oslo enclaves.
Any settlement construction is an expansion like a growing cancerous tumor. The largest settlements are not contained by the Apartheid wall. The wall itself cuts into to Palestinian land although to be fair a controversial section is being re-routed. The wall is stupid anyways. The Jerusalem municipal area stretches all the way to Jericho. They were going to build luxury housing in Lifta until recently. Don’t know why you put settlements in quotes, what else are they? The construction material used in Ariel for the past few decades has always been low-quality (temporary) and Ariel’s residents have always been aware that someday there is a chance there won’t be an Ariel.
can you please point to a recent official “land-grab” for “settlements” by Israel?
Official or unofficial, the land grab by and for settlements (including roads, infrastructure, land reserves, natural resources, etc.) is an ongoing process – whether in East Jerusalem, the southern Hebron Hills, the Jordan Valley or throughout area C – sanctioned (with a few token exceptions) by successive Israeli governments and the High Court.
There are many different methods, outlined by Yesh Din, Bimkom, B’tselem and others, but the bottom line is always the same: continuing theft and dispossession of Palestinians for the exclusive benefit of Jewish settlers.
link to yesh-din.org
link to btselem.org
link to btselem.org
link to btselem.org
But I shudder to think what Perry would wear to such a West Bank rally . . . especially as a U.S. president.
Some hip-waders might come in handy if the shit gets too deep or if Gawd fails to part the waters for Perry, Danon, & Co. when it’s time for them all to get the hell out of Dodge.
Perry should tell Danon what happened to Texas in 1865 after an attempt to impose an immoral system by force failed.
He can whistle dixie and tell him all about reconstruction.
Probably declare war on Egypt first for not supplying Israel with palm fronds.
When I saw this article today:
Egypt bans palm frond exports for Jewish holiday
AP – 16 hrs ago
JERUSALEM (AP) — A major Jewish holiday appears to have become the latest victim of strained Israel-Egyptian ties.
Israel’s Agriculture Ministry says Egypt has banned the export of palm fronds to Israel and Jewish communities abroad. The fronds are used in prayer services during the upcoming Succoth festival.
The ministry says it was notified by Egypt this week. Egypt supplies about 700,000 of the fronds to Israel each year. It says no reason was given. There was no immediate comment from Egypt.
The ministry says more expensive Israeli fronds are expected to fill the void.”
I remembered seeing back in 2005 where Ackerman and fellow travelers used the US to twist Egypt’s arm to provide more palms while Egypt’s reason for not doing so initially was a conservation program to protect their own date production. How dare Egypt have a conservation program for their own date farming when Jews have to have their palm fronds to pray on!!!!
Delights me to see Egypt say Up yours, grow your own f******* palms.
I can see the Ackerman toad fuming now.
Jewish Palm Fronds Are MIA
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 17, 2005
Jews have had complaints about the Egyptian government since they were enslaved by pharaohs. But now Congress and the State Department are getting involved.
A shortage of palm fronds, or “lulavs,” has threatened to interfere with the celebration of Sukkot, a week-long Jewish festival that starts at sundown today and is also known as the Feast of Tabernacles.
Egypt has been the chief provider of lulavs. But several weeks ago Agriculture Ministry officials there announced that they were limiting the cutting of palm fronds this year because the practice hurts the trees’ ability to produce dates, a culturally and economically important crop in Egypt. The news upset many Jewish groups in Israel and the United States, and in turn set off a diplomatic scramble to persuade the Egyptians to relent, with the promise that more environmentally friendly ways would be sought to obtain the lulavs next year.
Several members of Congress contacted the State Department and the Egyptian Embassy seeking relief on behalf of their constituents, saying the lulav restrictions had not come with enough notice.
“I said, ‘Let my palm fronds go,’ ” Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) . “We’ve been using reason and logic and cajoling and friendly persuasion to get them to agree to this.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, director of the Washington office of American Friends of Lubavitch, said as many as 1 million lulavs are needed in the U.S. market alone, and the official efforts, however welcome, may be too little, too late.
“It’s a big deal for us if this stuff can’t get shipped around,” Shemtov said. He added, “It was nice to see that people in positions of power were willing to help.”
Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said the problem is that the Egyptians did not announce the restrictions until shortly before the holiday. “I’d like them to start protecting their trees in November,” he said, “and then we can have a whole year to talk about it for next year.”
Mansour said his country was “very much keen” to ensure adequate supplies of palm fronds in the future. “At the same time, we are very much keen not to damage the tree,” he said, “because we think that religion also is made to keep the environment good.”
Sukkot. Oh dear.
The feast marks the period when the ancient Jewish people spent 40 years in the wilderness and is market by the erection of temporary structures .
Sounds just like Sabra and Shatila except of course the refugees there have been living in temporary accommodation for 63 years.
Our village had an annual fair with fiercely contested prizes for fruit and vegetables. Each year the same man won first prize with his rhubarb, strong, succulent, perfectly shaped and coloured. When asked how he did it, he would smile and tap the side of his nose with his finger. He was a man of advanced age, with recollections of two world wars, and in time he passed away. At the wake, they talked of his legendary rhubarb, the pride of the village and the envy of his neighbours, and speculated, as they had for years, on his secret. No secret, his daughter told them, at least once a day he would go into the garden a piss on them.
It’s cute that the blith Israeli rep Danon from the tiny state of Israel is telling Egypt and Jordan what to do; he must think there’s been no Arab Spring blowing in the wind and so he imagines Israel can tell those Arab states what to do as Israel can lay down fiat to Obama, courtesy of AIPAC via conduit Dennis Ross.
In the classic black and white American film, Red River, John Wayne tells the spokesman for the Mexican owner of a vast stretch of land on both sides of the Rio Grande that he, the John Wayne character, is going to take all Mexican landowner’s land on one side of the river. The landowner’s agent objects that Wayne can’t take land legally owned by his boss. Wayne replies the land in question was native American or “injun” land, so he Wayne is taking it (stealing it, just like the Mexican landowner did). The agent’s pal draws his gun to defend his boss’s land rights and Wayne beats him to the draw and kills him. Wayne then sends the agent off to send his boss Wayne’s violent message.
The question is, when will the Arab Spring blow into Main St, USA? You have to go back to America’s cusp of civil war days to find so much blatant conflict in US society.
Apartheid israel’s (abusive) power reached it’s penultimate peak with Natanyahu’s 29 standing ovations in congress.
It was bound to be downhill from there on.
And it has been.
What about Cast Lead and the first white phosphorous barrage, Taxi ?
That was the shift for many people. Congress is bought anyway.
I do actually believe that for a lot of uninformed Americans, members of our congress expressing such exuberant reverence for Natanyahu by giving him 29 standing ovations while simultaneously stabbing Obama repeatedly in the face, was a shocking oddity that generated much sudden quiet resentment towards both israel and congress. Compare congress’ approval polls, both before and after Natanyahu’s visit: uninterrupted down-slide.
America now doubts israel because it thinks it’s in cahoots with a deeply corrupt and unpopular congress. We know our politicians have been keeping their jobs despite their poor performances, getting wealthier and wealthier even while our economy is tanking and people got no jobs, no healthcare and worse of all, no education to get themselves out of warped misery. This is what America now thinks of the ruling class:
link to harrisinteractive.com
Seafoid you’re right Gaza and even the Lebanon ’06 war effected the world’s view of israel, but I do think it was that SHAMELESS 29 standing ovations that was a TURNING POINT for many Americans regarding their view of israel. It was the hour America realized that indeed there’s something very, very, very wrong with this picture, this relationship, this decadent indulgence with foreigners while the country’s going bankrupt.
Taxi
Israel has been sticking up 2 fingers to the US for most of the Obama presidency
link to moraloutrage.wordpress.com
In a Sept. 16 meeting with Rice, Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, called the Goldstone Report, which had been released the day before, “outrageous,” according to a diplomatic cable, adding that it would give Hamas a “free pass” to smuggle weapons into Gaza. Rice agreed, calling the report deeply flawed and biased. But she also saw its release as an opportunity to convince Israel to pursue a U.S.-backed peace process. She asked Ayalon to “help me help you” by embracing the peace process and highlighting Israel’s capacity to hold its own troops accountable for possible misconduct. She underscored that the Goldstone Report could be more easily managed if there was positive progress on the peace process, according to the cable. She also advised Israel that it “would be helpful” if it would emphasize its own judicial process and investigations” into the matter.
I’ll believe the US is done with Zionism when Northern Sun
link to northernsun.com
start selling bumper stickers that poke fun at the lobby and the Funny Times link to funnytimes.com
runs cartoons about them.
Zionism in America is in the process of being ‘undone’. During the Bush years, Palestinians had a 15% popularity in America. Latest poll reveals that up to 45% of Americans now support the upcoming Palestinian statehood request at the UN:
link to mondoweiss.net
Call it a work-in-progress seafoid, but it would take a biblical miracle to reverse the trending decline of the image of Aipac and it’s zionist masters in tel aviv.
That’s some turnaround, Taxi.
Of course the f8ckups in Iraq and Afghanistan had nothing to do with anything.
Bush was the Palestinians’ best friend even though he seemed cold and distant at the time.
I see Danon has gone to the bottom of the congressional barrel and found a nice piece of scum with the name of Joe Walsh to sponsor his resolution.
And warmonger, war criminal and Israel firster Douglas Feith will be working the crowd and collecting checks.
If Americans Knew sent this out
Dear Friends,
This Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 20 and 21), pro-Israel organizations will be putting up tents on college campuses around the country to talk about Israel. (See list of campuses below.)
One Israel partisan calls the project an “answer to the war against Israel’s legitimacy that is being waged around the world.” Hillel says the goal is to foster civil dialog.
We call on students and neighbors of the colleges to enrich that dialog with facts and context that may otherwise be ignored — particularly since these organizations are often provided with extremely distorted pro-Israel materials to distribute.
We have designed a new flier, “What Tents Mean for Palestinians,” for this purpose. You can either download these and print them out yourself or order them from us – we’ll overnight them to you!
Download and print the cards in color (PDF) or black & white (PDF)
(Print them two-sided and cut the sheet in half)
Order them directly from our website or email/phone us: orders@ifamericansknew.org / 202-631-4060.
(Tell us your mailing address and how many you can use)
See our website for tips on handling debate and common talking points.
We suggest you also distribute our other fact sheets. The Synopsis fact sheet – containing the history of the conflict on one side and charts of deaths on the other – is particularly educational.
Please note: We are offering these materials free to all student groups and others who can join these events to make sure that newcomers to the issue get the full picture. We will gladly accept tax-deductible donations towards this project from those who can afford to support it.
Participating Campuses
The 20 Hillels participating in “Talk Israel” are: Brandeis University; University of Florida; Montreal – Concordia & McGill Universities; Binghamton University; University of Arizona; Towson University; George Washington University; Tufts University; Columbia/Barnard; Toronto; Princeton University; University of Vermont; Goucher University; Cornell University; UC Berkeley; University of Miami; University of Maryland, College Park; University of Delaware; Michigan State University; the Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh. The University of Michigan, Beach Orange County, and others will participate in the Talk Israel event without the structure of a tent.
You can also use these fliers even in places where the “tent events” are not taking place – We have worded them in a way to make them useful everywhere.
Thank you for working to counter the misinformation that muddies debate on this critical topic.
Best wishes,
The If Americans Knew Team
Douglas Feith? One of Bush Jr’s zionist neocon pal in his regime who helped defraud the American people into going along with the attack on Iran? Whe Perry decided to run for POTUS for real, he quickly hired Feith and Rummy as two of his key foreign policy consultants, so he could learn a few useful sound bites for his launching campaign. And now we have Perry speaking at the Likud hoe-down in NY. US is going to hell in a zionist handbasket.
That Rick Perry hired Feith as a consultant on FP alone is a reason he has no chance of getting into the WH. The lobby is powerful indeed, but our military leaders and the rational people in the DoD are powerful too. Feith was outed and ripped apart by them from distributing ridiculous propaganda in the Pentagon that they were convinced was a joke but in reality was what Feith was using to build a case for war in Iraq. They said it sounded like a child wrote it. They were also unaware that he had a powerful team that had secret meetings including many visitors from Israel.
The 60 minutes interview with Feith is classic. He is read all the potential Iraq war worst case scenario bullet points that he himself helped write prior to the war. The expectation was that one of them would be true. They were all true. Feith was unapologetic and awkwardly tried to deflect.
Feith should never have wound up in any government position. He is a well known believer in religious prophecy and as a child (and adult) was convinced the six day war fulfilled one of them. He spent the 80s writing anti-Arab propaganda and Pro-Israeli nonsense. Certain people likely blocked others from performing a background check to see that his position was a conflict of interest considering his beliefs. Like that Audrey Tomason outed in that ‘situation room’ photo as a counter-terrorism director who wrote a thesis calling for controlled genocide of 85% of the world’s population.
Yeah, I guess Rick Perry never heard that somebody high up in Bush Jr’s administration called Feith “The dumbest guy I know around here.”
Ha! I forgot about that. Even without his neocon consultants, Perry and Romney are embarrassing themselves in sucking up to the lobby. Romney repeated his ‘throwing Israel under the bus’ rhetoric recently. Then there is Michelle BachMANn who yesterday said to former AIPAC guru Wolf Blitzer:
“I don’t believe Israel should have to give away any more of its land,” “The president hasn’t done Israel any favors.”
She also said Ahmadinejad should be ‘disallowed’ (her word) from addressing the UN and called him a genocidal madmen which is strange because I wasn’t aware he was responsible for any genocides or even had real power for that matter. Sucking up to the lobby. Israel giving away more of ‘its land’. What a stupid lady
Americans really need to wake up to these ostensible Americans putting Israel First; they infect every level of our government, and any wannabe politician, even the politicians who secretly could care less about Israel or the Palestinians but need the vote for their own respective agendas. And this won’t change because nobody takes real reform of the campaign finance system seriously & our stupid SCOTUS allowed corporate wealth to new heights of bribery power by expanding the legal fiction of corporations as people under the law so corporations can outbid by sheer force of superior cash the votes of the well-informed and those on the fence.
A really intelligent, experienced, courageous, and well-informed American like Z Brzenski tells us all that if the US votes NO to Palestinian bid for more recognition (which it will) at the UN it will be a mistake of truly historical dimensions.
ttp://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/09/19/a-new-era-is-upon-us-zbigniew-brzenzski/
If Americans knew Team would they be polite to him?