I originally published this piece last July right after Mitt Romney’s visit to occupied East Jerusalem, when I observed the lax gun control measures in the Western Wall plaza. I titled it “Why Obama Shouldn’t Go to Israel.” I republish it today because Obama is planning to visit Israel and Palestine next month.
Western Wall guns, part 1
Western Wall guns, part 2
Western Wall guns, part 3
I shot the three pictures above in the half hour before Mitt Romney arrived at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday [July 29, 2012], even as the place was crawling with U.S. Secret Service men.
Everyone who goes into the Western Wall plaza has to go through a metal detector, but presumably these three guys with guns were let in because they’re soldiers, or reservists, something.
The first and third guys are carrying semi-automatic rifles. The guy in the middle, dressed in black, has what looked like a semiautomatic pistol strapped to his hip. I hope you can see it.
Romney arrived a few minutes after I took these pictures.
I don’t want Obama to visit Israel, or occupied East Jerusalem, where the Western Wall is located, because there are too many folks walking around with guns. And a lot of Israelis hate Obama because he made the grave political mistake of calling for an end to settlements and then talking about the 1967 borders.
It only takes one lunatic and it’s just not worth the risk. Remember, an Israeli killed the prime minister in 1995. And two international figures who sought to limit the Jewish/Israeli claims to land in Palestine in the 1940s were also killed by crazed Zionists– Lord Moyne of Britain and Folke Bernadotte of Sweden, who was working for the U.N. All these assassinations worked; they cut down opposition to Israeli expansion (just as the Arlosoroff murder worked in 1932).
A friend tells me that the Secret Service would clamp down for a president in ways that greatly outstrip the Romney security. I don’t know– why risk it?
This trip also terrifies me. I read everyday of the desperation with which Israel clings to policies of denial and discrimination. Desperate people…
Again you show us just how naive you are Philip. The security services don’t need you to remind them how to protect their VIPs’. You Philip, have actually placed the President in greater danger by chatting about the subject. What you are doing here is to give others ideas that they previously may not have had.
Some things Philip, are just out of your league.
“I don’t want Obama to visit Israel, or occupied East Jerusalem,”…Phil
I agree , one crazy it all it takes.
And also I don’t think Obama should elevate Israel diplomatically with a visit to it.
RE: “Memo to the Secret Service: No gun control in Israel/Palestine”
MY COMMENT: That’s why the NRA is making common cause with Israel and the pro-Israel lobby.
I saw one of the head honchos at the NRA on the Boob (Flat) Screen and he said that when the shooting at the school in Connecticut occurred he was in Israel. It was from Israel that he got the idea that there should be a policeman at each and every school in the U.S. (like they have in Israel).
This is yet another reason I fear that Revisionist Zionism and Likudnik Israel (specifically by virtue of their inordinate sway over the U.S.) might very well be an “existential threat” to the values of The Enlightenment.
I do not want to live in a police/garrison state like Israel! ! !
Give me liberty, or give me death.
OTHER EXAMPLES OF ISRAEL’S VALUES TRUMPING (OVERRIDING) THE VALUES OF THE ENLIGHTENMENT HERE IN THE U.S.
• From Occupation to “Occupy”: The Israelification of American Domestic Security, By Max Blumenthal, Al-akhbar, 12/02/11
LINK – http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/2178 OR http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article29892.htm
• “How We Became Israel”, By Andrew J. Bacevich, The American Conservative, 9/10/12
LINK – http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-we-became-israel/
• “America Adopts the Israel Paradigm”, by Philip Ghiraldi, Antiwar.com, 7/05/12
LINK – http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2012/07/04/america-adopts-the-israel-paradigm/
• “Report: Israeli model underlies militarization of U.S. police”, By Muriel Kane, Raw Story, 12/04/11
LINK – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/04/report-israeli-model-underlies-militarization-of-u-s-police/
• “The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics”, by David Theo Goldberg & Saree Makdisi, Tikkun Magazine, September/October 2009
LINK – http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/sept_oct_09_goldberg_makdisi
• “Brooklyn College’s academic freedom increasingly threatened over Israel event”, by Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, 2/02/13
LINK – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/02/brooklyn-college-bds-alan-dershowitz
• ‘Israelis are helping write US laws, fund US campaigns, craft US war policy’, by Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, 6/30/12
LINK – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/06/israelis-are-helping-write-us-laws-fund-us-campaigns-craft-us-war-policy.html
• “David Yerushalmi, Islam-Hating White Supremacist Inspires Anti-Sharia Bills Sweeping Tea Party Nation”, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam, 3/02/11
LINK – http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/03/02/david-yerushalmi-islam-hating-white-supremacist/
• “Boston airport security program rife with racial profiling has Israeli links”, by Alex Kane, Mondoweiss, 8/14/12
LINK – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2012/08/boston-airport-security-program-rife-with-racial-profiling-has-israeli-links.html
• “Obama’s kill list policy compels US support for Israeli attacks on Gaza”, By Glenn Greenwald, guardian.co.uk, 11/15/12
LINK – http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/15/israel-gaza-obama-assassinations
P.S. AND HERE’S ANOTHER THREAT TO THE VALUES OF “THE ENLIGHTENMENT” (THIS TIME IN AFRICA):
“US Religious Right Propelling Homophobia in African Countries”, by Common Dreams, 7/24/12
LINK – http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/07/24-7
Maybe I was wrong about Chosanistan.
It looks like NRA paradise [cough].