Ruth Marcus
More in the disgraceful double-standards department. Oh and Israel lobby in the Washington Post department, too. A column in the Post by Ruth Marcus lamenting sexist practices in Israel warns that they pose a "national security issue" because American Jews won't like it. This piece feels like it was written in 1970. The selfishness! Not a word about Palestinians or occupation. Excerpts:
Israel is and should be a Jewish state. Religious entanglements that would be unthinkable and unconstitutional in the United States — establishing the Sabbath as an official day of rest, requiring that kosher dietary laws be observed in state-owned establishments, maintaining a separate system of state-funded religious schools — have been in place since Israel’s creation...
As Israeli officials well understand, the treatment of women in Israeli society is not a matter of purely domestic concern — it is also a national security issue. American taxpayers, and American Jews in particular, will not tolerate Jerusalem as Riyadh-lite. A truly Jewish state must accommodate the full rainbow of its citizens, not simply take dictation from a black-hatted minority.
Cognitive dissonance.
She says:
Disgusting !
“Riyadh-lite” – So how do we describe Israel’s treatment of its non-Jewish citizens, the Palestinians? And the Palestinians it lords over in the occupied territories?
“full rainbow of its citizens” – Except Palestinians.
“black-hatted-minority” – And look, she ends on an antisemitic note! At least, antisemitic by the editorial standards of Zionist trolls like hophmi, DBG, and Mr. Who-is-and-who-isn’t-a-Jew, eee.
“At least, antisemitic by the editorial standards of Zionist trolls like hophmi, DBG, and Mr. Who-is-and-who-isn’t-a-Jew, eee.”
As I remember, all those guys are not to pleased with the “black-hatted minority” either! Don’t they kvetch that those horrible Orthodox or haredim will ruin Israel’s “secular democratic” nature? Can’t have “too mch” Jewishness, you know.
5 .9.07 cognitive dissonance day at ha’aretz
link to haaretz.com
1. Israel to naturalize several hundred Darfur refugees
Interior Minister Sheetrit: Because of the history of the Jewish people, Israel cannot ignore the refugees’ fate.
And on the very same day
2. Defense Min. to examine cutting electricity to Gaza
link to haaretz.com
Cognitive dissonance.
A much better example is provided by Barbra Streisand. She is going to sing at an IDF fund raising event in Los Angeles, but has not yet responded to an offer to hold a concert in Israel. link to ynetnews.com
Some religious IDF cadets caused a furor recently over their observance of the Jewish religious law of kol isha, which prohibits men from listening to a woman sing. Israel’s chief rabbis have urged the army chief of staff to let religious soldiers avoid listening to women sing without being forced to disobey orders. link to ynetnews.com
Naturally, a few radical rabbis feel that members of the armed forces should opt for martyrdom rather than listening to Streisand. link to thejewishweek.com
eh, having a choice, maybe martyrdom is better than listening
( and looking at ) to Barbra S.
“a few radical rabbis feel that members of the armed forces should opt for martyrdom rather than listening to Streisand”
I see potential there. Singing Palestinian women may significantly reduce the number of male IDF soldiers willing to serve in the OPT
“Singing Palestinian women may significantly reduce the number of male IDF soldiers willing to serve in the OPT”
A cunning plan!
“A cunning plan!”
Unique conflicts need unique solutions. Streisand Roadmap to peace:
A Piece of Sky / Land
All I Ask of You
As if We Never Said Goodbye
Being Alive
Being at War With Each Other
Children Will Listen
Cryin’ Time
Don’t Rain on My Parade
Evergreen
Everything
Guilty
He Touched Me
I Won’t Be The One to Let Go
Memory
No More Tears
Hatikvah
Not While I’m Around
Happy Days Are Here Again
“a few radical rabbis feel that members of the armed forces should opt for martyrdom rather than listening to Streisand”
There’s a difference?
Oh, boy is this woman’s thinking blinkered.
One of the main problems with the so-called “Abrahamic religions” is the seeds within them that flower into treating women in a barbaric fashion. So she has to take the bad with the “good.” Want to have it as a “Jewish state,” Ruth, then prepare to be considered less than a full person, woman.
And if that bothers you, perhaps you need to rethink the whole “Jewish state” thing or, at the very least, consider how 1 out of 5 in de jure Israel and 1 out of 2 in defacto Israel views the issue.
“then prepare to be considered less than a full person, woman”
Now, now, don’t get all upset! The rest of the way to full personhood can be achieved with income, even if your gender won’t get it. I suppose being Ashkenazi helps, too.
Mooser,
They could always strap one on.
Now, now, Christianity is also an Abrahamic religion, and I think historians in general agree that, whatever else it may have done, it caused a substantial improvement in the lot of women (and slaves) over what they had had not only in pre-Christian Judaism but also in Greco-Roman society in general. I think they also generally agree that a major reason for the victory of Christianity was the fact that so many women (and slaves) joined it.
lysias,
If everything you mention is true (I don’t think it is completely true, but there are large parts that are, for certain), that would only mean that the pre-Christian systems were more reprehensible, and would not aquit the Christian system, especially now, 2,000 years later.
A less-awful system can still be an awful system.
Christianity was a big improvement for women over what came before. Fine. What has come since (most notably, the Englightment and the rise of rational liberal thinking) is a bigger improvement than that brought about by Christianity, justifying my inclusion of it here.
“I think historians in general agree that, whatever else it may have done, it caused a substantial improvement in the lot of women (and slaves) over what they had had not only in pre-Christian Judaism but also in Greco-Roman society in general.”
Perhaps I read the wrong ones, but I have never found this in any histories. Those I have read argue that the position of slaves in the Roman Empire was improving under Stoic influence, but the adoption of Christianity was a setback. And I haven’t heard of any improvement in the status of women under Christianity.
Lysias,
The Celts were centuries ahead, as my grandmother rammed into my head from age of three. Celtic women were allowed to own property, and coul rule the roost if they had more…centuries and centuries and centuries before anyone thought of the idea. And they could be chieftains, etc.
What shocked me about ten years ago was to come upon some scholarly work that traced in great detail how the Greek gods (names, powers) were stolen from the Celtic panoply, which I used to be able to recite but I ran out of people willing to listen and have now forgotten without dipping into a book library I stored. ;-)
to rethink the whole “Jewish state” thing or, at the very least, consider how 1 out of 5 in de jure Israel and 1 out of 2 in defacto Israel views the issue.
Woody, I can only guess concerning the above. “1 out of 5 in de jure Israel”? Why one of 5 inside Israel? Are there 20% ultra-orthodox?
“Woody, I can only guess concerning the above. ’1 out of 5 in de jure Israel’? Why one of 5 inside Israel? Are there 20% ultra-orthodox?”
No, the point I was trying to make was simply that if she was this upset at how the “Jewish state,” so-called, has affects her as a non-Orthodox person, she should imagine how that same paradigm affects those who are non-Jews.
Woody, I realized what you meant after I shut down my laptop. It suddenly seemed so obvious that I was puzzled why “1 out of 5″ had puzzled me. I am at a loss now, thanks anyway.
Maybe I was distracted by the topic of misogyny. I don’t agree with lysias in the slightest, but what feels even more important in this context is the odd mixture of antisemitism and misogyny in Herzl’s time, the feminine Jewish man. It’s not for nothing that Herzl said about his 1898 play The New Ghetto, “In the special instance of this play, I want to hide my genitals even more than any other time.” page 152, not available online
page 152, not available online
Here’s a link:
link to books.google.de
“In the special instance of this play, I want to hide my genitals even more than any other time.”
I’ve read two sources about this line; both indicate that it is his circumcised penis he is ashamed of and wants to hide.
One source is online: google the line you quote and you will find it in Jacques Kornberg’s bio of Hertzl.
The second source is in Chapter 2 of “The Returns of Zionism” by Gabriel Piterberg.
This is interestingly relevant
link to haaretz.com
Especially this bit
Indeed, sometimes one suspects that for members of Israeli’s current ruling coalition, many of whom hail from distinctly non-democratic backgrounds and represent expressly anti-democratic constituencies, the estrangement and perhaps even the exclusion of American or Israeli Jews who support “leftist” policies or espouse “liberal” values (such as “human rights”, in quotation marks) is not simply “collateral damage” in the pursuit of loftier ideological goals – it is the end itself, the desired result, the outcome that they had intended to achieve in the first place.
Idiots.
This is your brain on Zionism — scrambled, and oblivious to one’s confused condition.
“This is your brain on Zionism”
There is something wrong with their brains. Seriously, I’m convinced of it.
And it’s not just that they think the way they do.
It’s that their brain doesn’t process that their bigotry and hypocrisy is actually ‘recognized’ as bigotry and hypocrisy by people.
If you called this woman a bigot to her face she would go blank, wouldn’t have any idea why you would say that.
Somewhere there must be some research on brains literally being physically altered by years of victimhood or exceptionalism conditioning.
American,
I agree — I think that all messianic ethnic and religious nationalists suffer from a major mental disorder that probably has genetic origins, like autism, Asperger’s or Tourette’s. The more you try to engage them in reasonable argument, the more you realize that they are not living on the same planet as the rest of us. In some very fundamental way, their psychology is radically different. There is no basis for rational communication with them. You might as well be trying to communicate with another species.
I suspect that quite a few secular humanist and Reform Jews feel this way about the ultra-Orthodox.
Here’s an interesting explanation from an earlier discussion on this.
link to mondoweiss.net
link to mondoweiss.net
link to mondoweiss.net
“religious nationalists suffer from a major mental disorder that probably has genetic origins, like autism, Asperger’s or Tourette’s. ”
I don’t know about genetic…as in from birth. What I want to know is can ‘conditioning’, installing certain beliefs in a person over a period of time somehow alter the brain’s neurological functioning.
For example, 99.99% of the population KNOWS that if they said ‘blacks are inherently more violent than whites’ that it would be a racist statement and be RECOGNIZED as a racist statement by society even if some agreed with it.
But in many Zionist, of which this woman is just a mild example, they apparently don’t KNOW that their racist statements are RECOGNIZED by society as racist statements.
Take for example even statements like Palestines are wrong not to recognize Jews had the right to displace them ……the clear meaning being Arabs and their rights are inferior to Jews.
Why don’t they know that society sees this statement as racist? What brain process isn’t functioning?
I think MRW is probably right in saying :
“Excessive and repetitive emotional reactions dull your intelligence over time.”
Anyone who’s tried to engage with Witty could relate to this.
Surely what MRW reported answered your question, What brain process isn’t functioning?
And fitted your somehow alter the brain’s neurological functioning.
Google “Ziocaine” Google will want to switch you to cocaine, but click “Google ziocaine instead”
You will see lots of results.
“Ziocaine” is there direct on Yahoo.
I guarantee that she thinks that she is a godlike sage of wisdom and enlightenment,just like many of her ilk.(Zionists)
Meh, I don’t ultimately care how American Jews sever from Israel, it just matters that they do. All of these changes, the drifts toward extremism in Israeli society, are an inevitable consequence of Zionism and the Occupation — which, frankly, are inseparable.
Look for eee or jon to come around and fight tooth and nail to defend the direction Israeli society is tilting toward.
Look for eee or jon to come around and fight tooth and nail to defend the direction Israeli society is tilting toward.
frankly, i find it hard to fathom either one of them defending this tilt.
Oh, just wait and watch. If we’re lucky they might ignore this topic but it’s one that falls neatly on the hasbara hit list.
“frankly, i find it hard to fathom either one of them defending this tilt.”
See Mencken, on understanding and paychecks.
“frankly, i find it hard to fathom either one of them defending this tilt”
They won’t, they will change the converation to how Saudi, Iran, Muslims and Islam are all much, much worse.
a jewish state without the judaism…… a nice little vacations spot on the med…that’s what Palestinians suffer for, so the ruth marcus’ of the world can have their little “West Palm Beach East”…. im rooting for the orthodox zionists here, they at least keep it real – marcus and co. are a bunch of frauds….
marcus lists the growing encroachment of religious influence on the status of women in israeli society but skips probably the one thing that is going to impact them the most in this arena. the recent stripping of the one and only position a woman holds over their fate in divorce and child custody. that would be the elimination of a woman on the commission to choose the judges for the rabbinical courts. if those judges become more extreme (and they will at the rate things are going) the negative impact will spread across society in a very broad way.
“American taxpayers, and American Jews in particular, will not tolerate Jerusalem as Riyadh-lite. ”
That horse bolted a very long time ago. How many US Jews really understand what Israel has become?
BTW they seem very comfortable with Jerusalem as apartheid city.
If Israel unwinds, the western, the educated, the secular will leave and all that will be left will be the religious and nationalist (land-oriented) extremists. Armed to the teeth and surrounded with enemies of their own (or of the secular-western-educated’s) making.
Oh happy day. Kaloo-kalay.
And in possession of world destroying weapons,a reality opposite the BS that they spew about the Mullahs who don’t want or need them,as they have faith.
This piece has the same problem as the Foxman piece. They both begin with the premise that Israel was founded, and maintained, as a liberal utopia. Liberal Zionists like to blame Netanyahu and Likud for everything. As though Israel’s barbarism were a new development. And if we could just get that Peace Flower, Cipora Livni, into the Prime Minister’s office, everything would be fine.
U.S. Jews might abandon Israel over the following as well, but since the video and ads have been taken down by the embarrassed and shamed Zionists with egg all over their faces.:
link to youtube.com
I’ll give you this version, instead (and you’ll like the part about the hairy armpits).:
link to youtube.com
I’d like Zionists to keep going down this road and continue to MAKE MY DAY making idiots of themselves. Thank U and keep it up!
“Thank U and keep it up!”
I agree, give them all the rope necessary to hang themselves.
And document all if it so they can’t claim the Arab terriers and anti semites did it to Israel.
actually this guy (rabbi?) from the video is obnoxious.
I would not marry him even if he would pay me million $$$$.
I would also forbid my daughter ,( which I don’t have) to marry him.
All zionists are confused and pretending not to be confused.
But c’mon this is good news!
Thanks Phil!
>> Israel is and should be a Jewish state.
Yes, it is a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”. And, no, it should not be one.
>> Religious entanglements that would be unthinkable and unconstitutional in the United States …
…for some strange reason do not appear to bother American politicians.
Aint it amazing?
So… this lady Marcus claims that, oh, yes ,the Israel is a religious state,
but should not take dictation from black- hatted minority.
It looks like black-hatted minority, (especially probably members of Neturei Karta and Haredi Jews) soon will be announced as a self-hating Jews ,anti-Semites,
who put “national security issue” in danger with their religious requirements and customs.
Lady Marcus wants to belong to those very special Ubermenschen People, who will decide , who and what is not a threat to national security issue in Israel , what is allowed and what is not, what everybody should write, say ,think and do.
Is this a beginning of “divide and conquer” directive applied in the very kingdom of Israel???
It is such a fundamental fact — liberal Zionism is an oxymoron. In reality Israel can be one or the the other. But not both. Most Israelis I suspect understand this and that is why they are working over-time now to strengthen Zionism. It is the useful idiots like Ruth Marcus who are still trying to reconcile the irreconcilable.
I suppose if she and Abe can influence the big donors — Adelson, Saban, etc — then perhaps she can get Israel to make some changes in their cosmetics for US consumption. It will not be a solution though.
RE: “A truly Jewish state must accommodate the full rainbow of its citizens, not simply take dictation from a black-hatted minority.” ~ Marcus
MY COMMENT: Good luck with that! Faustian bargains are not easily repudiated. “…Down doo be do down, down – Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do…”
Jerusalem Haredim protest Shabbat opening of Intel plant
(11/14/09) Demonstrators attack journalists, Jerusalem deputy mayor; Intel GM: Company may leave Israel.
LINK – link to haaretz.com
28 arrested as Haredim riot over Shabbat opening of Jerusalem parking lot
(06/26/09) Six hurt in Jerusalem disturbances; Haredim throw rotten fruit, soiled diapers at police.
LINK – link to haaretz.com
Haredim protest Jerusalem summer events
(08/11/11) Hundreds of people show up for rally against ‘abominable outdoor events’ organized by municipality
LINK – link to ynetnews.com
Thousands of haredim protest in Jerusalem
(06/17/10) Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered in Jerusalem to protest a Supreme Court order to integrate Ashkenazi and Sephardi girls in a West Bank school
LINK – link to jta.org
Last Dance Company In Jerusalem Open Drapes To Protest Haredim
(11/20/11) A Jerusalem dance company will join the series of protests against the exclusion of women from public spaces in the capital by removing the curtains that hide the company’s rehearsal hall from the street so passersby will be able to see the male and female dancers.
LINK- link to failedmessiah.typepad.com
Israel: Police Keep Jerusalem Street Open Despite Haredi Protest
(6/29/11) Haredi riots aimed at preventing civilian traffic on Rehov Hanevi’im reached a new height on Saturday afternoon, when over a hundred men of various sects tried to scare secular residents into steering clear of the Jerusalem thoroughfare, shouting “Shabbes,” pelting cars with stones and spitting on passersby.
LINK – link to awid.org
J’lem haredim riot over Gay Pride Parade
(undated) Haredim riot and burn trash cans in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood in protest over the planned Gay Pride Parade.
LINK -link to glbtjews.org
RE: “Faustian bargains are not easily repudiated.” – me, above
FROM HILLEL SCHENKER, 1998:
SOURCE – link to pij.org
AND SEE: Another Theocracy in the Heart of the Muslim World, by Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, 06/20/11
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com
ALSO SEE: The Wrong Side of History, by Uri Avnery, Counterpunch, 03/08/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to counterpunch.org
RE: Another Theocracy in the Heart of the Muslim World, by Uri Avnery, Antiwar.com, 06/20/11
CORRECT LINK FOR THE ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com
RE: “Faustian bargains are not easily repudiated.” – me, above
FROM URI AVNERY, Feb. 2010:
SOURCE – link to tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com
Thanks for this input, Dickerson; it’s appreciated.
P.S. ALSO SEE: Israel’s bizarre decision to give up on education – and its future, by Ami Kaufman, +972 Magazine, 12/03/11
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to 972mag.com
RE: “…Haredi school boys threw stones at secular Jewish school girls.[Because] The schoolgirls were singing…” ~ Ami Kaufman
MEANWHILE, IN LA-LA LAND: Streisand to sing at Israeli soldier benefit in LA, by Phil Weiss, Mondoweiss, 11/27/11
(excerpt) Rare performance: Barbra Streisand will play a Dec. 8 LA gala for the Israel Defense Forces. Hosted by Jason Alexander, who is going to forge the two-state solution. Sponsored by Haim Saban…
SOURCE – link to mondoweiss.net
Greenwald excoriated this reporter a couple of days ago for her subservience to, well, authority.
Is it possible that she is doing what she can, in this entry, to challenge and change Israel, within her obvious need to please? Are women’s issues her way of saying something’s wrong there, let’s visit (or revisit) this?
Don’t know, but every mainstream question mark is a positive, imho.
When will there be demonstrations in Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn against the arranged marriages which victimize Orthodox and Hasidic women?
funny thing is, it’s much worse for women than even she will let on. she’s absolutely right, americans would be stunned if they realized the depths of depravity aimed at women in israel. so what if she’s a hypocrite, if you just get it out there, it will undermine a whole host of fascists arguments like killing afghanis to save women. israel is very close to that now in some places. even the burkah is showing up on ultra-ultra-orthodox women (though the ultra-orthodox are complaining about it).
link to haaretz.com
Amira Hass wrote an interesting article this week, about why religious fundamentalism is the necessary outcome of secular Zionism.
link to haaretz.com
Shmuel, from that Hass article:
“This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.”
Jumped out at me. A state created of virtual citizens. Israel as Farmville, but still ephemera. Meanwhile, it appears reality is now creating a new crack in their ass.
>> This promise is what permits us, in our view, to do whatever we please to the people that dwells here, the natives of this land: to expel, to concentrate, to divide, to blockade, to impoverish, to dry out, to bomb, to uproot, to dispossess.
>> This same divine promise grants all Jews everywhere – even those who have never set foot in Israel – more rights in this land than any Palestinian who was born here. This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.
The glory of a religion-supremacist “Jewish state”.
>> This same divine promise …
The promise was made by men to themselves. There was – and is – nothing divine about it.
“This land is ruled by a state that refuses to be a state of its actual citizens and thinks only of potential citizens from the Diaspora.”
Textbook definition of ethnocracy.
Shmuel, correct. But you’re looking at the software; I’m looking at the hardware, the fact of which jumped out at me in a completely different way when I read that line (slow thinker).
Is there any other country in the world that has ever been that way? Even the British, French, and Roman Empires would base its citizenry, or colonials, on the ownership of land, or government, outside its headquarter borders, so to speak. It wasn’t virtual. Israel is. And right now it faces internal (hardwired) threats to its ‘headquarters’ that it obviously hadn’t anticipated that threaten to break it apart.
Fascinating.
Your “virtual citizens” point is interesting. I’d never thought of it that way.
Me neither, but Amira Hass made me.
Your “virtual citizens” point is interesting. I’d never thought of it that way.
I had always thought of it that way, since in reality, many of the functions of state and its national plans and programs are accomplished at the behest of an extraterritorial Zionist Congress of the WZO (i.e. the number of delegates to the Zionist Congress will be allocated in the following proportion: Israel 38%, United States of America 29%, other countries of the Diaspora 33%.) link to en.wzo.org.il
So for example, the WZO Settlement Division in the Prime Minister’s Office is a function of an extraterritorial “democratic” body of “virtual” Jewish citizens that make-up the supreme Zionist legislative authority. The Zionist Congress is not elected by, or answerable to, the indigenous Arab citizens in any way. All of the public state Zionist organs represent virtual Jewish citizens.
Holy S**t, Hostage. I read the whole thing and a few of their other pages. I never knew this. This makes their involvement in US politics and policy extraordinarily troubling. Americans don’t know about this. This isn’t just about tax donations. This is looting our country. A Bridge Too Far.
Speaking of all this, did you ever watch Adam Curtis’ film “The Trap?” He is a brilliant BBC documentary filmmaker. Think you would enjoy it. You can find the three parts here, but the first one covers the thinking of the so-called elites at the time of the creation of Israel and just after. Click this link, then scroll down the right panel for the RESOURCES section. They’re there. An hour long each. Highly entertaining, too, as well as intellectually stimulating. And factchecked; Curtis has access to BBC footage no one else would. If you haven’t seen it, don’t miss it.
link to neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com
Furthermore, Hostage, all those US non-profit groups listed as voting members of the Zionist Congress should be registered as Foreign agents, and their non-profit status taken away. This is either way worse than tax donations, or I am overreacting. My current thought is that if you want to run a country, go do it. Good on ya’. But you don’t have the right to simultaneously, and surreptitiously, attempt to run ours, and especially use money (likely turn-around foreign aid dough) to pay off our congress to (1) spend an inordinate amount of time passing laws that benefit your overseas concern, and (2) and intimidate our political process for your foreign benefit.
Off to bed, but this has genuinely shocked me. I didn’t realize it was cast in concrete like this. Thx.
EDIT: Phil, you need to weigh in on this, or get Hostage to run a homepage article. AND, watch The Trap. ;-)
ive asked hostage, mrw, thanks
hostage, comply
PW: ive asked hostage, mrw, thanks
hostage, comply
Absolutely- yes please!
So, for example, what is the connection between the
The World Zionist Organization [WZO] and the World Jewish Congress [WJC]?
I did notice that the WJC is calling the WZO a WJC Affiliate” (Related Bodies). But what’s their relationship in terms of Jewish governance around the world?
However, I found it very strange that the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians [ICJP] was NOT on the list? Our very own Gary Ackerman on the US foreign affairs committee being a member.
Also noting that the WJC has admitted in news releases that the ICJP is “a partner organization of the World Jewish Congress”.
Again, we need a dedicated Wikipedia for the Israel lobby to chart out all these social/political/organizational/personal relations. The subject is immense and complex and needs to be sorted out in a granular way.
This makes their involvement in US politics and policy extraordinarily troubling. Americans don’t know about this. This isn’t just about tax donations. This is looting our country.
Well they are looting several other countries too. The Sasson Report noted that the WZO Settlement Division was funding the clandestine establishment of settlements in ways that amounted to felonies under the applicable Israeli laws. So, the highest Zionist legislative body is short changing Israeli voters at the behest of these virtual citizens from other countries too.
I can’t think of another instance where US citizens have been allowed to hold elected public office in an institution of a foreign power or state that openly conspires to commit war crimes and felonies with absolute legal impunity. The US citizens in the WZO’s Zionist Congress are beneficiaries of a very “special” relationship.
get Hostage to run a homepage article.
i’m totally down with that too.
Well they are looting several other countries too.
I’ll say it’s troubling. Have at it Hostage! Surely the WZO is not immune from prosecution if indeed they are committing crimes.
“Our very own Gary Ackerman on the US foreign affairs committee being a member.”
I haven’t looked at the ZOA site in some time and memory may be faulty but I seem to remember that Ackerman was more than just a member. I think he was President or VP or held some Directorship one year. I do remember being outraged at this conflict of interest and fiduciary duty in being in the US congress and a “supersceeding” “World” Congress for Jews.
Adding what Hostage just revealed I don’t see how this s*** can avoid hitting the fan sooner or later.
Please someone(s) do a Wiki page on the all the facets and the web of Zionism. The world public, Jews included and most of all, need the facts.
Also, it is just a coincidence that the Jewish Federations of North America has just decided to restructure it’s giving program? Maybe wanting more autonomy from the Jewish Agency, and the Israel-based Zionist (embarrassing) empire? I dunno – but there seems to be some major restructuring (central planning process?) going on?
Well I was close.
With September looming, unity can’t wait
By GARY ACKERMAN
06/30/2011 06:36
Jews across the world must come together to face upcoming challenges.
While many differences exist among Jewish parliamentarians, the concept of ahavat Yisrael – literally, “love of Israel” – is common to us all. It is for this reason that 55 Jewish parliamentarians from 22 countries have assembled in Jerusalem under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress. Ahavat Yisrael means not just love of the state, the country and the land, but a joint concern and affection that Jews have always shown for one another across the globe.
When we see Israel struggling with the intractable problems of peace and security, our natural response is to assist however we can. When we see pictures of Gilad Schalit, we know he is also our son or our brother, and that his redemption from captivity is our duty.
Our gathering is focused on the twin challenges of delegitimization and regional change. Despite the rhetoric, I don’t believe that increasing attacks on Israel’s right to exist and efforts to label its acts of self-defense “war-crimes” or even “crimes against humanity” are actually rooted in a belief in international law, or a principled evaluation of Israeli military operations.
What I believe is really driving most of these claims is a deep-seated and stubborn refusal to see Jews as a people. This conceptual failure – whether rooted in anti-Semitism (which it is) or ignorance (which it is) – leads to a refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state, or to accept that it, like every state, has a fundamental right to self-defense.
Only Israel, the one and only Jewish state, is subjected to the humiliation of having its right to exist routinely questioned, and the right of its people to be free from violence openly rejected. Only Israel is the permanent whipping boy of the United Nations.
So we are faced with a paradox: While the anti-Semitism and discrimination Jews have historically faced (and in some places rightfully continue to fear) are based on the view of Jews as a people apart, the ongoing assault on Israel’s legitimacy is built upon the idea that the Jews are not a separate people at all, and are thus not entitled to self-determination.
And there are other contradictions worth considering: While Israel’s armed forces and economy have never been stronger, and the country has reestablished its deterrence with Hezbollah and Hamas, and suicide bombings have all but ceased, I would argue that in some more important ways, Israel has never been less secure. Moreover, I’d suggest that Israel may be least secure in exactly those areas we consider most invulnerable.
Perhaps most critically, the global political tide seems to be turning decisively against Israel, and may produce what Defense Minister Ehud Barak has called a “diplomatic tsunami” in September. Global impatience with the peace process – already high – has been amplified by fear of the Arab Spring aftermath. Notwithstanding full-blown peace offers from the governments of prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza under prime minister Ariel Sharon, and the unilateral settlement freeze by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the current impasse has been laid at Israel’s door.
THE PALESTINIAN plan to take their case for statehood to the UN General Assembly poses great danger for Israel. If this initiative were to succeed– or worse, to slip out of control, – the results could be devastating. Israel could be exposed to sanctions and pressures beyond the wildest hopes of its worst enemies.
But in addition to these external challenges, we face a more intimate one that we share with the entire Jewish people. How do those of us who are representatives from all over the world and every part of the political spectrum come together to protect and advance our common interests?
Our task is not just to detail the problems that face us, but to figure out how we can best coordinate our efforts. How can we share support for certain policies, and what should we do about our disagreements?
Properly answering all these questions will not come easily, nor should answers be the result of any false consensus. But today’s circumstances are so dire that we cannot fail to try.
The writer is a member of the United States Congress and president-emeritus of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians of the World Jewish Congress, which convened in Jerusalem this week. >>>
Ackerman is the kind of Jew that inspires, creates and justifies anti semitism in others every time he opens his mouth. He has the vile audacity to blame the anti semitism of the world for Israel’s condition while he and his fellow WJC members, all Jews, hold elected political offices in all those Non Jewish anti semitic countries of the world? It would take more than a book to describe the rotten to the core sickness of those like Ackerman.
Did Gary Ackerman accept the right of South Africa to organize itself as the state of white Afrikaners or Germany to organize itself as the state of ethnic Germans or Aryans? Would he accept the right of the United States to organize itself as the state of Anglo-Saxon Protestants or white Christians?
For quite some I’ve been probing to see if the best minds in the Israel lobby have any effective responses to these fundamental questions. They have none. They come across as somewhat deranged when they try to clothe their ethnocentric, ethnic nationalist and ethnocratic beliefs with the rhetoric of high self-righteousness.
When major problems are pointed out with their self-contradictory and incoherent beliefs, they lash out with the antisemitism smear.
An exhaustive standalone Wikipedia on the Israel lobby would be nearly as voluminous as the current general Wikipedia. Since the Israel lobby now has an iron grip of American foreign policy, the American mainstream media and the US Congress, this reference source needs to built forthwith.
“…It is for this reason that 55 Jewish parliamentarians from 22 countries have assembled in Jerusalem under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.
For this year’s International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians conference both Henry Waxman and Nita Lowey went along with Ackerman.
link to legistorm.com
Also, back in 2005 these guys were on the first ICJP Steering Committee:
Unfortunatley, the original ICJP source page has disappeared, but I remember all those names. Other Jewish Parliamentarians from around the world were also there.
HOSTAGE,
Awake now. I meant Second Life, not Second City. link to secondlife.com
.
American,
“Please someone(s) do a Wiki page on the all the facets and the web of Zionism. The world public, Jews included and most of all, need the facts.”
No. No wikis. We control it here. Hostage needs to write this in a series, and we comment. Besides, Mondoweiss has the name.
Hostage,
The majority of Americans have absolutely no idea about this, least of all Congress.
But I don’t thInk this should be another exposé of how the Israel Lobby works. Too many preconceived ideas to topple. I think this should be how Israel is structured or governed virtually.
(BTW, Second Life is an example of how a virtual country works where you can buy and sell land and set up your own fiefdom with Linden dollars, L$, at an exchange rate of around US$1 to L$250-350. If I remember correctly, there are some who have invested hundreds of thousands, if not millions, in it. You dont have to exchange dollars for L$, you can get a virtual job, and earn your L$ that way. The mention of Second Life as a metaphor would be instantly recognizable to 70 million US Millennials of voting age, and an extraordinary amount around the globe. FarmVille is played strictly on Facebook. You got kids or grandkids?)
I can’t think of anyone better to do this, Hostage. Especially when you can repond with your linkomania that can drown anyone in reading material for a month. But break it down simply because these copies WILL be going to Congressmen. And dont forget the instructional subheads. It’s called ‘chunking’, and the govt insists on it for their tech docs, or you will lose their attention. :-)
Phil, without any hyperbole and if I am understanding what Hostage made me read and how he explained it to me, I sincerely believe this could be a powerful exclusive series for Mondoweiss.
Who will offer to do the graphics? Chaos? Avi? We need some show-and-tell. Anyone have access to making Infographics?
Surely the WZO is not immune from prosecution if indeed they are committing crimes.
Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court defines as a “War Crime”: The transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory;
The WZO Settlement Division in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office is, by definition, a joint criminal enterprise as defined by Article 25(3) of the Statute of the International Court:
3. In accordance with this Statute, a person shall be criminally responsible and liable for punishment for a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court if that person:
(a) Commits such a crime, whether as an individual, jointly with another or through another person, regardless of whether that other person is criminally responsible;
(b) Orders, solicits or induces the commission of such a crime which in fact occurs or is attempted;
(c) For the purpose of facilitating the commission of such a crime, aids, abets or otherwise assists in its commission or its attempted commission, including providing the means for its commission;
(d) In any other way contributes to the commission or attempted commission of such a crime by a group of persons acting with a common purpose. Such contribution shall be intentional and shall either:
(i) Be made with the aim of furthering the criminal activity or criminal purpose of the group, where such activity or purpose involves the commission of a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court; or
(ii) Be made in the knowledge of the intention of the group to commit the crime;
(e) In respect of the crime of genocide, directly and publicly incites others to commit genocide;
(f) Attempts to commit such a crime by taking action that commences its execution by means of a substantial step, but the crime does not occur because of circumstances independent of the person’s intentions. However, a person who abandons the effort to commit the crime or otherwise prevents the completion of the crime shall not be liable for punishment under this Statute for the attempt to commit that crime if that person completely and voluntarily gave up the criminal purpose.
It’s more than looting. It’s undermining.
And here we thought they were just charitable organizations or lobby groups singing the Hatikvah and dining on filet at the Four Seasons.
Adam Curtis’ blog is another site I often visit. I love what he digs up! Like his post on Murdoch:
link to bbc.co.uk
Hostage,
Cover of Business Week in November, 2006:
“Second Life’s First Millionaire”
link to businessweek.com
When major problems are pointed out with their self-contradictory and incoherent beliefs, they lash out with the antisemitism smear.
Gary Ackerman is a Green Line or progressive Zionist. He nonetheless has been criticized by the ZOA for making some comments about the downward spiral of events due to “terrorism and the march of settlements”. When he complained about Israeli “intransigence” and “settler pogroms”, the ZOA promptly issued a statement labeling his remarks “inaccurate” (but not anti-Semitic). link to zoa.org
American,
Your Ackerman article has a whole different meaning to me now. He is serving two governments in an official capacity.
And Americans think our only exposure is $15,000,000/day.
Wait until the Ron Paulers hear about this. We’ll be linking the web like Hostage when this comes out. :-)
Sorry about these disjointed and numerous posts, but I am still posting from my old iPad and can’t search for links or confirmation ‘mid-post’ without losing what I’ve written.
“Gary Ackerman is a Green Line or progressive Zionist.
Progressive Zionist eh! This is the Ackerman that tells us regarding the consequences of settlement expansion:
link to thejewishweek.com
Sorry, from the sounds of things Ackerman works for Israel, to make sure Obama doesn’t get in the way of both expanding and now the blatant in Obama’s face building of new settlements.
Also, Ackerman is a apparently a member of B’nai B’rith
link to nndb.com
Sand,
Best takedown of Murdoch ever.
OK then scrub this entry as I can’t find a definite working link — I can only remember the names. I’m sure Shelley Berkley name came up too.
Not a J-Street Progressive Zionist — that’s for sure.
Also, Nathan Guttman a reporter from the Jewish Forward says when he covered just ‘one’ subcommittee foreign affairs hearing:
“…In just one session, the Democratic-led subcommittee [Ackerman!] made it clear that at least on issues regarding the Palestinian conflict, it stands to the right of the Bush administration…”
link to forward.com
We need a table showing the elected US official and his or her position within the voting member of the Zionist Congress that has a governing function in Israel.
The mention of Second Life as a metaphor would be instantly recognizable to 70 million US Millennials of voting age, and an extraordinary amount around the globe.
i’m down with it.
Ackerman ….He is serving two governments in an official capacity.
Yes. Right in front of us.
I’m not sure we will find elected officials in the WZO? — I could be wrong — but I don’t it’s going to be easy for us to connect the dots — unless Hostage can lay out the organizational chart in front of us. :)
What I did find were the Mercaz delegates for the 36th World Zionist Congress:
– Mercaz Takes Its Place At Zionist Congress
link to mercazusa.org
I noticed the name Rabbi Gerald Skolnik (Forest Hills, NY) as part of the delegation. Although, he’s not an elected official he does have the privilege of being in front of a number of politically charged constituents, as well as being able to get close and personal to the President, and often writes in the Jewish Week
link to njdc.org
link to thejewishweek.com
Also, interestingly J-Street was there:
“Gary Ackerman is a Green Line or progressive Zionist. . . . Progressive Zionist eh!
He has condemned the folks tunneling in Gaza and Jerusalem without being targeted for replacement by AIPAC, e.g.
Sorry, from the sounds of things Ackerman works for Israel . . . Also, Ackerman is a apparently a member of B’nai B’rith
Of course, a progressive Zionist is still a Zionist with all the baggage that goes along with being one. You can assume he will jump all the way to the end of his chain if the Jewish state’s vital interests are involved in some way, but he can be critical of the Likudniks from time to time.
Isn’t Senator Lieberman’ wife the head of Hadassah in the US? I’m running out now, but what committees is he on, or the head of?
Yeah, Annie, and this could go viral. Hostage, let us know if you need any help.
55 Jewish parliamentarians from 22 countries have assembled in Jerusalem under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress.
The Knesset and MFA provided some of the financial and operational support needed to establish the ICJP. I’d be surprised if they aren’t still involved.
“Ackerman ….He is serving two governments in an official capacity.”
These people won’t pay any attention to the Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.
What we need is evidence of ordinary run of the mill crimes like money laundering. Do they collect salaries from both governments? Is this legal?
Follow the money, I say.
“…critical of the Likudniks from time to time…”
Being critical of the Likudniks doesn’t do much for me — It’s Ackermans actions and more importantly votes that count at the end of the day. Do you think he will vote for war for Israel that will (for sure) kill American kids stuck out in the ME?
Sand,
Go back up and read Hostage’s initial response to Shmuel, and read his .il links.
The elected officials are in in the US, like Ackerman.
The Zionist Congress does not permit individual members, only Zionists groups. These arent philanthropic within the ZC, they are political. They are divided Israel 38%, the US 29%, and the rest of the Diaspora countries 33%. There are voting and non-voting members. The voting members in Israel representing many of the political parties, certainly those of the current Knesset.
I don’t want to repeat the whole thing. Just read it.
But the point is that Ackerman, a US elected official, also holds a post within one of the Zionist Congress’ voting US member groups and as such gets to vote, as part of the member group, as a political part of Israel. (Since the US gets a 29% vote, it could team up with other countries to override Israel in the vote, I am assuming.)
This isn’t a guy with an Israeli passport living in the US as an American and voting absentee. This is policy making.
Do I have it roughly right, Hostage? Not in the mood to get granular. I hate typing on this iPad; I have some autocorrection doodad that changes the word typing into hoping, and I have to type everything three times.
Sand,
I think I have a copy of that ICJP source page that’s missing. When I get my computer up and running, I’ll let you know.
Being critical of the Likudniks doesn’t do much for me — It’s Ackermans actions and more importantly votes that count at the end of the day. Do you think he will vote for war for Israel that will (for sure) kill American kids stuck out in the ME?
Ackerman has already voted on several occasions to either go to war in the ME or to prolong US combat operations there – and that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, including thousands of Americans.
I am an anti-Zionist. When I label someone as a progressive Zionist, it is not intended to be a compliment. I noted that AIPAC has no apparent bones to pick with Ackerman and that I think he’s on a short leash where Israel’s interests are concerned. He has introduced legislation to impose sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and authored a concurrent resolution which called on the President to commit acts of war against Iran (i.e. impose a blockade). The relevant portion said:
MRW: But the point is that Ackerman, a US elected official, also holds a post within one of the Zionist Congress’ voting US member groups …”
My understanding is that Ackerman operates under the umbrella of the World Jewish Congress and not the The World Zionist Organization [WZO]? Also, even if he is a ‘regular[?]‘ member of the B’nai B’rith — they only have limited voting rights.
This is why I wanted to understand the ‘Affiliate’ relationship between the the World Zionist Organization [WZO] and the World Jewish Congress [WJC]?
Noting, some of the leadership under the WJC have been active members in the WZO in the past. e.g. Evelyn Sommer – WJC Chair, North American Jewish Congress
link to worldjewishcongress.org
Hostage: So your question is moot Yes, you’re right!
Also, this guy is supposed to oversee the SEC — which is another area — which I find very interesting — where often my posts seem to go off into the internet ether to cool off :)
No, Senator Lieberman’s wife is not the head of Hadassah in the US. Her first name is Hadassah.
Just a minor correction. Now back to the regularly-scheduled exposition of the traitorous Judeo-Zio stranglehold on Congress, the media, Hollywood, the financial sector, and the legal profession– and the clear involvement of this massive fifth column in the 911 false flag operation and the assassination of JFK and RFK.
That’s pretty funny, emanresu. I knew the name Hadassah was connected with Lieberman somehow. ;-) I finally got my computer back. Yay! And can look things up again.
————
But the issue we have been discussing here at the end of this thread goes to the heart of something graver. We have an economic crisis in this country in which 26,000,000 people are out of work. When our politicians, who are refusing to deal with it are (1) occupied with serving one of the smallest minorities in this country, (2) clamoring for pre-emptive war with Iran on more evidence than this minority wants it, and (3) appear to be also serving in a political capacity for a foreign country by influencing foreign policy here, then we have a problem.
Do I have it roughly right, Hostage? Not in the mood to get granular.
I think you are confusing the WZO Zionist Congress founded by Herzl with the World Jewish Congress founded by Rabbi Stephen Weiss and Nahum Goldmann. Both men remained active in the original Zionist organs, but the new organization was meant to represent diaspora organizations and communities. It was founded when Weizmann’s leadership was being challenged and it was originally intended to be non-political in nature, in the tradition of Louis Brandeis.
The WJC turned into a media echo chamber for Israel. It is not a parastatal organization like the WZO and JNF, so it enjoys a consultative relationship with the United Nations, e.g.
link to unispal.un.org
link to unispal.un.org
Hostage, I was only referring to he info on this link you gave:
link to en.wzo.org.il
Also, interestingly J-Street was there . . . chairing the Settlement Committee at the World Zionist Congress?
Yes, but the Committee’s resolutions and proposals weren’t adopted by the Committee on Resolutions or the Zionist Congress as a whole. There is a difference between the WZO legislative Committee on Settlements and the WZO executive Settlement Department.
This is why I wanted to understand the ‘Affiliate’ relationship between the the World Zionist Organization [WZO] and the World Jewish Congress [WJC]? . . . Noting, some of the leadership under the WJC have been active members in the WZO in the past
You may have a better grasp of the details on that than I do. I was simply pointing out that non-citizens of Israel make-up a majority of the Zionist legislative body that runs the Settlement Department in the Prime Minister’s Office. Sasson revealed that, in theory, the organ created by all of these off-shore Jewish legislators pursued a clandestine settlement agenda that was contrary to the official policies laid down by the governments and courts of Israel. So these WZO and affiliated parastatal organs are still functioning as “a state within the state” – a role that they were intended to play in the mandate era. The old economic organs that conducted the state’s business in the banking and labor sectors have been privatized or become vestiges of the past. Nonetheless, the Histradut has played a role in defrauding Palestinian laborers out of billions of shekels and the State remains one of the largest shareholders in Bank Leumi. Minister of Finance, Yuval Steinitz, and the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, control the Palestinian economy through the formal institutions of the Jewish state.
The Orthodox Israeli political party Shas recently joined the WZO and is expected to make it and the Jewish Agency more pro-settler and orthodox in outlook on questions like “Who is a Jew?” & etc., e.g. link to blogs.jta.org
Shmuel,
I’m not talking politically or theoretically or philosophically. I’m talking operationally. How it actually works. Jesus, I’m dumb. I never saw this before. To continue my computer analogy, you can’t play FarmVille or Second City if your logic board doesn’t work, or if you don’t have enough RAM.
The biggest mistake Israel made was not making that Jewish District in eastern Russia one of its satellite governments. Think of the brain drain it could have attracted from Russia under the Cold War, and the resources it could have gained–even though the District is landlocked–the real security protection that could have been offered by the US and other NATO countries as long as Israel kept its powder dry and didn’t pull the ‘any Jew anywhere can be an Israeli citizen’ crap– they would have to apply to live in the haven, but of course accepted if Jewish. There was no deep and smart operational thinking that went into this. Just a bunch of Polish peasants with guns and some journalistic mouthpieces with theories of revenge operating out of slight. And preying on fear and victimhood to rake in money. Ben Gurion, for all his faults, was the only statesman among them who understood the stakes and consequences. It was Ben Gurion who feared the rise of Menachem Begin and what he would do to the country. He was right.
The biggest mistake Israel made was not making that Jewish District in eastern Russia one of its satellite governments.
The composition of the Zionist Congress was adjusted to give more representation to Zionists in the Former Soviet Union:
link to en.wzo.org.il
Hostage, right. But I meant after Israel was first formed in 1948, especially in the 1950s. I meant during the Cold War.
From Marcus article:
●Ultra-Orthodox male cadets walked out of a separate ceremony that featured singing by female soldiers because, the men claimed, hearing women’s voices would produce “impure” thoughts.
Those men were absolutely correct–I always have impure thoughts to women singing!
Wonder what would happen if annie and Taxi and dumvita got together to singduce us…!
It’ll be like the Three Degrees singing to a howling pack of jackals.
That sounds like the next experiment we need to conduct. Which one of us gets to be first in line???
I don’t get impure thoughts when I hear women singing. Oh well.
– More Jews in Congress than ever before
by Adinah Greene :
From my notes Knesset members: MK Colette Avital, and MK Yuli Edelstein were involved.
More prevarication, Sand, on their part. They make it sound like they’re combining Shul with shopping and some goodwill efforts over the pond. That is not what is happening.
the link: More Jews in Congress than ever before (11/08/06)
link to new.jpost.com
Not sure how long the link will be up.
So they’re basically, literally, building a fifth column out of Jewish communities, worldwide, right out there in the open? I hope all these Jewish communities are smart enough to reject this. They’re being asked to turn traitor in countries they were born into.
“They’re being asked to turn traitor in countries they were born into.”
Since these are parliamentarians, most of them will have taken some sort of oath of allegiance to their Monarch, Country, or Constitution. (I don’t know of any parliament or similar governing body that does not require any such oath. Perhaps Hostage knows one.)
So not only are they being suborned to be traitors in the general sense, they are being asked to betray their oaths as well.
But it is all right, because it’s for Israel and Israel is the most moral country in the world with its own special set of morals that are beyond the understanding of us unchosen subhumans.
The Zionist have always been a Fifth Column in the US Chaos, always.
Picture yourself as an average American sitting in on the discussions Truman had with his State and Military advisors about recognizing Israel. All of them telling him why he should not do this, what would happen if he did, how bad it would be for the US, what conflict and troouble it would create for the US in the ME forever after. Picture the zionist representatives sitting there not caring what US officials advised for America’s good, politically bribing Truman for the benefit of Israel.
And it has never changed, only gotten worse. They are a cancer that has infiltrated every single facet of the US and the US government.
Picture ANY other government in the universe giving a Foreign Country offices in it’s Internal Security or Homeland Security Department or in it’s Pentagon and Military and Intelligence Operations.
No other country on God’s earth would ever knowingly let this happen to them. I remembered the following from years ago when Finestein first started working on this in 2003. Imagine how much farther it has spread since.
link to ajcongress.org
Congressional Caucus on U.S. – Israel Security Cooperation
Citizens Advisory Board Chairman’s Update/Progress Report
By Robert Raymar
I am pleased to be able to report progress on several items to which the Advisory Board recommended that the Senate and House Caucus for U.S.-Israel Security Cooperation give priority attention. The Senate Caucus met on January 16, 2003 and the House Caucus met on October 16, 2003.
SUCCESS IN ESTABLISHING A GOVERNMENT OFFICE FOR US-ISRAEL SECURITY COOPERATION
We previously reported (Issue 1 of the Caucus Reporter) that Senator Kyl and Senator Feinstein met with Uzi Landau, Israel’s Minister for Public Security, and discussed establishing an office for US-Israel Security Cooperation – one of the top priorities recommended by the Advisory Board.
Since those discussions, legislation establishing such an office was enacted as part of the supplemental Defense Appropriations Bill. To assist with passage, AJCongress staff serving the US-Israel Caucus for Security Cooperation was asked by Senator Kyl’s office to contact a number of Senate offices to apprise them of the legislation.
According to AJCongress’ Washington Office, the new Office for US-Israel Security Cooperation will be organized next year as part of the activities of the newly established office for International Security at the Department of Homeland Security.
This liaison office will serve as a mechanism for the rapid exchange of information between the U.S. Office of Homeland Security and Israeli security officials. Visa policies, terrorist profiles and virtually all other internal security data – except classified intelligence – would be swapped by computer, fax and telephone. The new office is being modeled on the successful US-Israel Counter-terrorism Working Group that is currently run out of the Pentagon.
ACTION ITEM: In the coming legislative session, it will be important for the Caucuses to work to support any further authorization and appropriation language deemed necessary to expand and enhance the role of this office.
U.S. FIRST RESPONDER NETWORK FOR ACTS OF TERRORISM
With the assistance of the Caucus staff, Advisory Board member Pejman Salimpour met with top officials of the Office Health and Human services, including Acting Assistant Secretary For Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Jerome Hauer and Joshua C. Batkin, Director of the International Affairs Division of FEMA. They discussed a First Responder system being instituted in the Los Angeles region that could serve as a model for U.S. locations throughout the country. As Dr. Salimpour reported at our last Advisory Board meeting, the model was created after visiting with Israeli officials experienced with responding to terrorist incidents, and incorporates many features learned through those contacts.
ACTION ITEM: The Caucuses should continue to provide opportunities for the exchange of information between First Responders in the United States and First Responder in Israel. (It should be noted that American Jewish Congress and the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, each year sponsors a Mayors’ Conference in Israel. The focus of the Conference this year will be on Homeland Security, and the way in which First Responders operate in Israel will be an important topic on the agenda.)
link to ajcongress.org
So they’re basically, literally, building a fifth column out of Jewish communities, worldwide, right out there in the open?
Accusations of dual loyalty was one of the concerns behind the rift between Weizmann and Brandeis. The WJC (as opposed to the WZO) was formed to represent Diaspora Jewish communities and was originally intended to be non-political in order to avoid charges of dual loyalty. Time changes things. The WJC became politcized after the Six Day War. More importantly, the anti-Zionist Jewish organizations atrophied and Reform Judaism abandoned the principles of leaders like Holdheim and Berger in an astonishing reversal. The American Jewish community converted from anti-Zionism to Zionist minions.