The other day a liberal Zionist was quoted anonymously as saying that Obama needed to “grow a sack” with respect to the rightwing government in Israel. John McCarron in the Chicago Tribune says the same thing, at the beginning of a series of questions for Obama:
Why did you let Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu show you up during his recent visit to the U.S.? And why don’t you return the favor by saying some nice things about his political opponents in Israel — opponents who want to give peace a chance and stop grabbing Arab land on the West Bank?
You might be amazed at how many of your Jewish contributors would support you on this one. The others are already writing checks to the other guy.
In fairness to Obama, I believe that he has caved completely on the Palestinian question because Netanyahu has blackmailed him with the possibility of an attack on Iran. All of which argues for these matters to be politicized: for Americans to openly debate the power of the lobby inside our politics.
maybe it’s time for a u.s. president to blackmail israel
Obama does not have billions from a casino.
The fact that liberal critics of Israel dont press for the enforcement of US laws against dual citizen espionage and illegal unregistered lobbying is telling. If they were sincere, they could start with Adelson the alleged macao pimp casino affiliate of organized crime married to an Issraeli. Perhaps part of liberal reluctance to press enforcement is a practical well paaced fear. This mafia plays for keeps.
Beast never gets fed enough .
Oh, you’ll love this
The lobby is still not satisfied and Dershowitz is going to take the charge.
They just never stop pounding Obama. It simply doesn’t matter what he does, he’s always insufficiently pro-Israel.
And if he moves away from them even a single inch they immediatedly start shouting at the top of their lungs that he’s an anti-Semite, he hates Israel.
My God, it’s instances like this that makes you, for ever a brief moment, understand why anti-Semitism exists.
link to timesofisrael.com
Krauss says: “…They just never stop pounding Obama. It simply doesn’t matter what he does, he’s always insufficiently pro-Israel…”
They pound him because it works. It took about six months before every bully on the playground had Obama’s measure.
And the measuring went back to the Cairo speech he stuffed in his closet.
If you want to torture Dersh, then just strap him into a chair and force him to watch Obama’s speech in Cairo on a loop.
Obama is still paying for that speech. And always will.
Dershowitz another individual who should be required to register as an agent of Israel under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Dershowitz told the Allgemeiner that the Demos platform plank change on Jerusalem vote was at least as much nay as yay, and the reason is “rogue” elements in the Demos Party.
Why not all dual nationals if indeed A D is a dual national and if not all other dual nationals, why not, double-standard?
With the Dersh leading the charge, the DNC’s ramming through these platform changes will not be enough. He’s calling this action a rebuke of “rogue elements:”
Next thing you know, the Dersh will demand that Obama publicly rebuke those rogue elements — the half of the delegates who voted against his proposed platform amendments — and tell them not to bother with helping the get out the vote efforts. Who needs volunteers when you have enough major donor money?
“My God, it’s instances like this that makes you, for ever a brief moment, understand why anti-Semitism exists.”
I don’t think it’s the same thing, Krauss. Zurich had the reformation in the 1520s. The Reformers were progressive in so many ways but one. Jews were banned from the city until the railways came. Nothing to do with a lobby. Pure religious hatred.
The lobby is more of a court intrigue. I think they are as cynical as the neocons. But it’s not the same as traditional Christian Jew hatred.
Look at Poland now. Jews hide their identity. There were 3 million Jews in Poland in 1938.
Jews were never banned from Zürich.
The reformation had one single target — the Catholic Church and it’s over reaching power.
Catholics were banned from the city. Their buildings — churches, hospices and Abbys — were plundered and turned over to the public.
@ Ellen
According to this source, Jews were expelled from Zurich in 1435 AD: link to lloydthomas.org
They always targeted the Jews, Ellen
link to jewishvirtuallibrary.org
A church edict in 1434 requiring attendance by Jews at proselytizing sermons effectively ensured that there would not be another Jewish community in Basel for four-hundred years. They were banished from the city and canton of Bern in 1427, from Freiburg in 1428, from Zurich in 1436, from Schaffhausen in 1472, from Rheinau in 1490, from Thurgau in 1494 and from Basel in 1543. Despite these expulsions, a few Jews found their way back into Switzerland during these years. A few Jews were admitted in the sixteenth century when Christian printers in Basel began printing Hebrew texts. They needed Jews to proofread these texts and therefore acquired hundreds of residency permits for Jews.
In 1622, at the diet of thirteen cantons, all Jews except for physicians were expelled from all of Switzerland except two villages in the Aargau canton. Aargau did not join the Swiss Confederation until 1803 hence they were exempt from requiring the expulsions.
A Jewish community in Geneva was established by the end of the 18th century. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia online, “The modern history of the Geneva community begins with the year 1783, when a number of Lorraine Jews settled in the suburb Carouge, which belonged to the Duke of Savoy until he ceded it to Geneva in 1816.
Thanks for the correction and info. When in Zurich Jewish neighbors and friends explained Jews were alway a relatively large community in Zurich, which it is to this day. Ergo my comment.
I am not sure how reliable the Jewish virtual library is on such information. But now I am curious and will check further.
Ellen
I did a walking tour of Zueri this year and the guide mentioned a pogrom in the 1300s that was followed by outright expulsion in the 1400s and that the Zwingli people hated Jews and that they weren’t allowed back in until the mid 1800s. There is a sizeable Jewish community now especially around Enge.
No one can accuse Dershowitz of having dual loyalty.
LOL — nope, singularly focused is the Dersh-bag!
You are right Les. Dersho has mono loyalty, exclusively to israel. Between US and Israel he has chosen Israel. He has supported US vs other countries when ‘other country’s interest was immaterial to that of Israel or inimical to Israel.
And why don’t you return the favor by saying some nice things about his political opponents in Israel — opponents who want to give peace a chance and stop grabbing Arab land on the West Bank?
Really? The Labor Party had their chance for years, and did absolutely nothing, except allow the settlements to grow. Shame on McCarron for perpetuating the notion that there’s a difference between Labor and Likud.
Not to mention how totally counterproductive this would be; Barack Hussein Amalek Obama is so hated by Israelis that Kadima and Labor would end up vying for irrelevancy with Meretz if he endorsed one of their candidates.
And you’re right, they are about as “pro-peace” as Obama is “anti-drone.”
y’all know the arc:
idea or concept rejected out-of-hand as heresy … then it is fought bitterly and viciously … then, suddenly it seems totally obvious … we’re are in the third and final stage of round 2 … when the dawning comes the tide will turn momentously against the Likkud thinking and policies
“I believe that he has caved completely on the Palestinian question because Netanyahu has blackmailed him with the possibility of an attack on Iran.”
How can a midget blackmail a SUPERPOWER?
Is that possible?
Can the midget send his nukes out of the torpedo tubes of his new German submarines up the Hudson river?
And can the torpedoes fly?
Yes. Under and over water.
“Popeye Turbo SLCM – A suspected stretched version of the Popeye Turbo developed primarily for use as a submarine launched cruise missile (SLCM) was widely reported in a US Navy observed 2002 test in the Indian Ocean to have hit a target at 1500 km, it can allegedly carry a 200 kg nuclear warhead. It is suspected that the stretched Popeye Turbo is the primary strategic second strike nuclear deterrent weapon which can be fired from the 650mm secondary torpedo tubes of the Israeli Dolphin class submarines.[1] It is believed that the SLCM version of the Popeye was developed by Israel after the US Clinton administration refused an Israeli request in 2000 to purchase Tomahawk long range SLCM’s because of international MTCR proliferation rules.[2] While the standard Popeye is 533mm the Dolphin class submarines have four 650mm torpedo tubes in addition to the six standard 533mm tubes allowing for the possibility that a SLCM Popeye derivative may be a larger diameter.[3]”
Yes midgets can blackmail…..
David has won over Goliath again.
Mndwss says: ““How can a midget blackmail a SUPERPOWER?”
All it takes is balls in the case of the former and a lack thereof in the case of the latter.
@ ColinWright
Or, it just takes a single little human with a huge ego who really wants to remain POTUS–you know, like Truman when faced with the threat the Zionists would back Dewey if he did tow the line? SUPERPOWER refers to the military and economic power of a country, not to the motives of its leaders and wannabees.
Obama caved as POTUS, Mitt caved as wannabee. So what’s new? How about Germany’s new guidelines on baby boy circumcision? Germany now says both parents must say they want that job done for religious reasons before it will be allowed, and the procedure must be done in a sterile environment. When will US protect little baby boys, at least those not Jewish?
I think Phil, you are absolutely right about Obama being blackmailed by Netanyahu.
But you also want to reflect on the comments surrounding his loss of control with the
our ambassador in Jerusalem – even before the confrontation, Netanyahu was agitated, dysregulated. One also has to compare US and Jewish attitudes toward the prime minister during the Bush presidency and during the Obama presidency. Although Obama has been unprecedented in his material support for Israel, US public, European and seemingly some Jewish attitudes are far, far less positive. I think Obama is right not to confront Netanyahu’s provocations more openly, while
quietly aligning forces within the US, Europe and the world to contain Netanyahu’s
obsession with Iran. He has simply stood back through much of his administration
and watched Netanyahu make one bad decision after another, not the least of which are to openly opine on the necessity of using US troops to engage in a lengthy massive middle eastern land war, and to make his, personal foreign policy (the majority of his military advisors oppose this war) a major wedge issue
in the upcoming US election by openly indicating that these aspirations have 100% support from his good buddy Romney. This is a prime minister, one who did not receive a majority vote in the last election, who is currently under enormous pressure owing to failed domestic, economic and political decisions – even before one moves to the upcoming “crises” when Palestine applies to the UN for observor status,
Hamas is recognizied as a political partner in Egypt as regards cleaning up the renegades in Sinai and, of course, the Syrian situation wherein jihadi from throughout the middle east have converged to participate in the uprising.
Obama could just as eaily blackmail him back by thratening to block arms exports to Israel. It could be a subtle threat behind closed doors that doesn’t get shared with he public. Netenyahu wants to put a hppy face on the relatinship as much as Obama – even when it isn’t.
@ Shingo
But Obama can possibly (however remote) do that only if he gets another term.
if president obama attempted to blackmail pm netanyahu by, say, threatening to block arms exports to israel, but attempted to keep this secret from the public, once the inevitable leak occurred, he’d risk being jumped on by israel firsters such as alan dershowitz. better he make such a threat openly (as per both presidents bush when they threatened to withhold a loan to israel unless the zionist entity stopped expanding its west bank settlements). in both prior efforts the public (according to opinion polls) overwhelmingly supported the president. and if at the same time that president obama issues his ultimatum to netanyahu, he questions the patriotism of israel firsters such as dershowitz, he’ll mute any attempted backlash against the president’s sudden change of policy on p/i. – because the israel firster’s worst nightmare is having to face the accusation of being a traitor.
“All of which argues for these matters to be politicized; for Americans to openly debate the power of the lobby inside our politics.”
I think that’s it, exactly, and something Obama has told us repeatedly since before his inauguration: That he can’t act effectively unless we force him to; that it really depends on us.
One story being told in my circles goes something like this: A Palestinian American approached Obama and demanded why he didn’t “stand up” to Israel. Obama replies by cocking his ear. “I can’t hear you,” he says. The person speaks louder. Obama repeats, “I can’t hear you.”
One big difference I see between Obama & Romney is that Obama knows that real change comes from the bottom up, the result of people organizing themselves to demand it.
smart bindup. i wonder if obama heard that “ney” the other night.
@ bindup
When’s the last time real change came from the bottom up? Mitt knows the status quo trajectory has been top down for a very long time–both men recognize this, which is why Wall St, for example, has been the biggest institutional donor to both sides outside of individuals such as Soros, Koch Bros, Adelman, etc.
From the bottom up? We now have “homeland” security to take care of that.
Ever wonder where the adopted expression “homeland” as applied to the US came from?
The pop-up bubble on the headline refers to kissing Netanyahu’s “hinder”.
Do you mean “arse”?
“Netanyahu has blackmailed him with the possibility of an attack on Iran”
if you have any evidence for this belief, i wish you would share it with us.
the implications are pretty startling, for bibi and israel. If this claim is true, Bibi has failed to protect israel as he ought to, our of political considerations vis a vis the United States. I don’t believe that. If Israel felt it needed to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities to survive, it would already have done so, regardless of American opinion.
Blackmail, Extortion, financial corruption of elections, lobbying for a foreign government without registering as a foreign agent, behind the scenes communication between dual citizen insiders and the same foreign government (espionage), and the attempted coup of the Zionist community against the first African American President: all of this would resonate with American Voters if Obama chose to run against Netanyahu-Adelson this Fall, but he wont. why?
His first chief of staff was the son of a zionist terrorist ,he’s their manchurian candidate, but he’s strayed off script and needs to be disciplined. And Obama is not worried about an attack on Iran, he’s worried about his family’s financial and physical security. His enemies run terrorist and assasination teams that have been active in Iran, Dubai, Europe historically; why not the USA ? He’s already been warned publicly by one Jewish newspaper.
Obama just wants another term as #1 for his ego, and for his immediate family’s wealth enhancement and security. Mitt wants a 1st term for his ego; he’s already got the wealth, not that he would like to leverage more of it.
Socially and humanist minded people cannot but look with disgust at the servile attitude the US administration demonstrates towards the colonialist and racist government of Israel. On the other hand one should remember that the US Power Elite never has an ally forever! I´d like to direct your attention again towards these 3 articles concerning the US, Obama and Israel:
link to wipokuli.wordpress.com
link to wipokuli.wordpress.com
link to wipokuli.wordpress.com
Sincerely
Andreas Schlüter
Sociologist
Berlin, Germany
@ Andreas Schlueter
I read your 3 urls.
I agree with your general take on all the historic things you cover. I think the only flaw is in your last url, where you put a bit too much stress on the old line WASP power in the USA. The new power elite is not only Jewish, but also less any particular version of white Gentile ethnicity. The white Gentiles in America actually have assimilated more than anyone within the US borders–excluding Jewish Americans from that fully assimilated category.
at this crucial moment in history those of us who support justice for palestine must not act as if we’re helpless bystanders, content with venting our anger & disgust at the complicity of our government in the crimes of the zionist entity israel. it’s not as if the enemy (israel & its u.s. backers) are invincible. after all they do have their weak links. the weakest being the demonstrated* vulnerability of israel firsters to the accusation* of being traitors. our continued holding back on going after israel firsters on the issue of their dual loyalty is an exercise in restraint that’s difficult to comprehend, especially since it’s potentially self-defeating. are we to be held hostage to fears by some that exposing israel firster treachery will stoke antisemitism in america? even though we know that israel firsters are the real antisemites – for supporting an entity that in claiming it acts on behalf of all jews, implicates jews everywhere in its crimes against humanity? – even though the participation of significant numbers of jewish americans in questioning israel firsters for putting the interest of a foreign entity before that of the u.s. of a. will mitigate attempts to exploit antisemitism? right now during this election campaign, for example, the potential influence on the public of ads carrying the message “israel firsters endanger us all” that are placed on, say, buses or trains or billboards? or a message such as “jill stein, green party candidate for president and the only candidate who is not an israel-firster?” we can & should do this!
*israel firsters’ initial response to prior hints that they might be less than patriotic was to run for cover. alas, and for whatever reason, neither president bush kept the heat on them.
When Jill Stein was profiled at the Greens’ convention on Democracy Now, I don’t recall any statement on her part about her stance on I/P. By non Israel-Firster, are you referring to a Green Party plank or do you have a link to Jill Stein’s opinions on the subject?
Summary of Dr. Jill Stein’s position on Israel (from PoliGu.com)
Dr Stein and the Green Party platform have a neutral stance on Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Stein has stated that all parties involved need to be held accountable for their actions with respect to human rights and that the US should be as uninvolved as possible. In May of 2012 Dr Stein called for Israel to end its discriminatory apartheid policies, remove the Separation Walls, institute a ban on assassination, move toward denuclearization, release of all political prisoners and journalists from Israeli and Palestinian prisons, a disarmament of non-state militias and the recognition of the right of self-determination for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Noteworthy here is the Green Party platform for 2010 which “reaffirms the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.”
In the spirit of commenting on what was omitted from a previous party platform, I note that your list of Stein’s positions on I/P does not include the 2010 Green platform affirmation of “the right and feasibility of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in Israel.”
Right now on CSPAN, there’s a repeat panel from last Tursday on how Obama’s foreign policy differs from the GOP’s. It stars Madeleine Albright. So far, straight hasbara on anything involving Iran or Israel.
O.K., sports fans. Let’s talk some sense here. The issue is not whether Obama’s testosterone is below needed levels. It’s about the Lobby’s grip on the entire US government. If Obama “stepped up” to Netanyahu, he would lose most of his own party’s support due to their fear of AIPAC and related organizations. There would be calls from Republicans and even some Democrats for his impeachment. We are talking about the POTUS as if he has a free hand to do whatever he wants re: Israel but lacks the courage to do so, which is simply ridiculous. Whatever else Obama may be, he is a realist, and the reality is unfortunately pretty ugly and has been for decades.
And yet at the same time the US government has always had mistrust of Israel; I mean, it’s not like Israel is a member of the Five Eyes: link to thenational.ae
My question is, what IT do we share with the UK countries who are members of the Five Eyes along with us, that we don’t share with Israel?