On Sept. 4, The New York Times publishes an op-ed, “When It Pays to Talk to Terrorists,” in which Paul Thomas Chamberlin, history prof at U of Kentucky, says we should talk to Hamas.
By failing to strengthen moderates within the P.L.O. and effectively locking the Palestinians out of the Arab-Israeli peace process, American officials sidelined potential peacemakers and pushed Palestinian national ambitions to the back burner….
… Washington shouldn’t rule out alternatives [to force] when dealing with groups that may have more limited long-term goals, like Hezbollah and Hamas.
As Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams and Menachem Begin have shown, yesterday’s “terrorists” have a tendency to turn into tomorrow’s peacemakers.
Sept. 4, Scott Roth links the piece on twitter:
20 bucks says Abe Foxman will get a letter to the editor published re this oped. I’m often right about this.
Sept. 5, lengthy letter by Kenneth Jacobson, deputy director of the ADL, is published by Times. It begins:
History tells us the very opposite message that Paul Thomas Chamberlin conveys about talking with terrorists.
Sept 5, Scott Roth:
Well okay, I guess Abe Foxman is on vacation because his deputy gets a letter printed re yesterday’s oped. I win $10.
” New York Times publishes smart op-ed, “When It Pays to Talk to Terrorists,”
What do you think Hamas is in Qatar for? What do you think was really behind Haniyeh’s open letter to the crowd at Charlotte? Hamas and the US have been talking for a long time.
“As Nelson Mandela, Gerry Adams and Menachem Begin have shown, yesterday’s “terrorists” have a tendency to turn into tomorrow’s peacemakers.”
Yeah but not Israel,s former Terrorist Leaders.
Nothing peaceful about them or their successors.
LMAO. How, exactly, was Menachem Begin a peacemaker? Israel was the aggressor nation who started the 1967 war who strong-armed Egypt into doing its bidding in Sinai, against Egypt’s interests and blackmailed the United States into giving the stinking israelis money that should be going to pay for schools and heathcare for American children. He also started an even worse war on the West Bank Palestinians.
That,s all very fine Mr Jacobson, But Israel is still committing State terrorism and land theft.
Besides, Israel needs Hamas.
No room for Peace in the Zionist Psyche.
I once read a persiflage(it was already in the 1980ies!!) that Scrooge McDuck needs the Beagle Boys as an excuse for his financial crimes and that’s why he doesn’t get rid of them simply by order to kill them (he would have money enough to do so).
It seems to demonise Israel there can’t be any theory silly enough as long as it’s usefull for the wished effect.
As a rest of sympathy: Don’t tell your thoughts to a Hamasi. What he’ll do then with you, not even Mondoweiss would take any reponsibility.
When interviewing “experts” re: controversial foreign policy issues such as the israeli occupation of Palestine, MSM makes sure that a pro-justice spokesperson is always balanced by an apologist for Israel. No balancing act is required, however, when the interviewee happens to be an apologist for the Zionist entity. Upon returning from West Beirut, post-’82 U.S.-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon, I experienced this unidirectional balancing act. While inviting me to appear on a local tv station, the station’s programmer informed me that my appearance was contingent upon his finding someone from the Israeli camp to respond to whatever I might say on the subject. Was/Is this official msm policy written in stone? Probably not. More likely experience has taught programmers that whenever someone presents the view on the P/I conflict from the Palestinian side, it’s best that there be program “balance”. Best, that is, if the programmer is to keep his/her job.
Foxman was probably in Canada.
Lol. Transparent as glass to you Phil. Mind you they are so predictable though. I often bait the hasbara trolls on comment sections in blogs and know what is coming next. They actually have very little fictional yarns to spin so one does not have to be a genius to know what will come next in their ruse of defending the indefensible.
I once saw a letter to the NYT, pointing out how many letters Abe Foxman had had published. The writer said that he had been frustrated in getting his letters published, but had discovered the secret—he was going to change his name to Abraham Foxman. He signed himself “John Smith” (or whatever) “but not for long”.
Foxman and the whole ADL are a imperialist supporting joke. And I like the typical appeal to the “The Holocaust Industry” (as Finkelstein wrote so openly about); it is noticeable how these Zionist propagandists keep the history of their colonialist movement hidden from the mainstream: link to counterpunch.org
Foxman’s a gutter-dwelling bigot, trolling for a buck. When he had his one moment to show that he was really about being against discrimination, but he laid down in the bed made by Pam Gellar. Eff him.
Phil, please do a post about the continuation of racist attacks in Jerusalem. On 7 Sep, an Arab had his leg broken by Jewish teens (three of which confessed to the attack) when they saw him in the company of a Jewish girl:
link to unitedjerusalem.org
link to ynetnews.com
And on 8 Sep, an Arab gas-station employee was beaten by Jews after being told ‘don’t talk to me, this isn’t any of your business you stinky Arab.’
link to ynetnews.com