Christmas greeting from Palestine 2011

Brilliant!
thanks Annie.

A confession — I’m a re-gifter.
I give away gifts that have been given to me.

this terrific video, the Ron Paul video on Mondoweiss the other day —

my Christmas shopping is done.

BUT just like another merchant whose name will not be mentioned but that is frequently served with hot dogs, Christmas shopping came with a bonus from people all over the United States.

Rose Goetemoeller was a guest on C Span Washington Journal this morning to discuss the anniversary of the new START treaty, the Obama admin’s efforts toward nuclear nonproliferation, and (drumroll Iran and N Korea. Goetemoeller is in the State Department where she works on disarmament and nonproliferation issues.

N Korea was dealt with in a few sentences.

Two amazing things happened over the course of the rest of the 40-minute interview: at least four callers asked Goetemoeller quite directly, “What about Israel?” “Will Israel be required to de-nuclearize?”

At least two of the calls were ahem somewhat unpleasant (somewhere in Boca Raton Myron Kaplan’s head will be doing a Linda Blair spin). One of those callers identified Israel as “the Rothschild project” or words to that effect; the last caller in the segment said “Israel has 300 nukes and wants to prevent Iran from defending itself. Iran has not attacked anyone. I hope Iran gets at least as many nukes as Israel has. I think what Israel is doing is horrible.”

The second amazing thing is how Rose Goetemoeller managed to turn every call that was critical of Israel into a condemnation of Iran. Goetemoeller did not say the word Israel one single time, in response to those questions; she DID manage to spin every reference to Israel into another reason why IRAN is a threat to whirled peas and must be treated “with all options on the table.” She endorsed Dennis Ross’s half-page op-ed in NYT that said MORE SANCTIONS ON IRAN please, it will work, the regime is starting to feel the pinch . . .”

Apparently the hasbara high command has been stressing their collective brain cells to come up with a counteroffensive to the ‘Israel = apartheid South Africa; South Africa was taken down with boycotts; BDS Israel.’ Rose Goetemoeller rolled out a rationale for sanctioning Iran that I had not heard before: she said the when it became known that South Africa might be developing nukes, the world community became alarmed and rallied to impose constraints on South Africa’s economy. The strategy worked, South Africa de-nuked without the necessity of waging war. “We hope the same thing will work with Iran.”

But, Mz Goetemoeller, what you did NOT relate is that ISRAEL WAS PARTICIPATING WITH S AFRICA in SA’s nuclear program!!

Conclusions: 1. The people of the US are WAKING UP and SPEAKING OUT against Israel and the wild injustice of nuclear Israel threatening non-nuclear Iran.

2. Goetemoeller is in the tank for Israel.

3. Sadly sadly sadly, so is not only C Span, which we have realized for some time, but so is lovely Susan Swain, the moderator on today’s interview with Goetemoeller, who both led and followed Goetemoeller’s every dance step and pivot away from criticizing Israel and toward demonizing Iran.