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PEP

Progressive NY attitude on gays in military should be portable to Palestine, but it isn’t

by Philip Weiss on February 4, 2010 · 15 comments

… goal of all public policy. It’s why we integrated the army racially in 1948.

But Lehrer is PEP: He is Progressive Except for Palestine. (And yes, he is Jewish and yes that is relevant.) A liberal in almost all spheres, when it comes to the Middle East, he gives his mike to neocons such as Frank Gaffney. Imagine the values that Lehrer took on Garrett with brought to bear on a Democratic American Zionist in the name of what many think of as a liberal ideal: a binational polity in …

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The shifting morality of Israeli hasbara

by Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf on December 27, 2009 · 122 comments

Isabel Kershner’s recent piece in the NYT, "Tough Military Stance Stirs Little Debate in Israel," reports Israel’s current war doctrine, whereby "as long as the targets are legitimate ones, the whole point is to try to overwhelm the enemy with maximum force." But what about civilian casualties? "Israel says that while mistakes were made, it chose its targets on purely military merits and went to extraordinary lengths to warn civilians in Gaza to leave areas under attack." In op-eds and in their blogs, the Hasbara troupe dutifully agrees. If the civilians were warned and didn’t leave, then they’re responsible for their own deaths. But the Zionist line was very different a few years ago.

[read the full article…]

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Avnery: ‘Oybama’

by Philip Weiss20 December 2009

… that is both invited and paid for by the government. The police does not employ against them pepper gas, tear gas, rubber bullets and truncheons – as they do every week against Israeli demonstrators who protest against the occupation. Nor do they conduct nightly incursions in the settlements to arrest activists – as they do now in Bilin and other Palestinian villages.

In Jerusalem, of course, the settlement activity is in full swing. Palestinian families are thrown out of their …

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Report on E J’lem arrests: ‘150 stand in the courtyard of the stolen house, double what we had last week’

by Philip Weiss12 December 2009

… misery will never stop. Some of the border police are spraying us with an aerosol mix of chilly pepper and tear-gas, at close quarters, straight into the face. It’s not like the usual tear-gas canisters I know well; this is concentrated, and it burns and scorches as if it had burrowed into the pores of your skin and, in particular, your eyes. Even now, two hours later, my face and lips feel singed by flames.

– In the middle of it all—perhaps you won’t believe me—an elderly …

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Aussie children get pepper-sprayed at protest of Israel lobby

by Philip Weiss6 December 2009

We’re the hot issue, globally. From the Age in Melbourne, Australia. Capsicum means pepper spray:

CAPSICUM spray was used on pro-Palestinian demonstrators who tried to storm a hotel where Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke last night.

About 200 demonstrators holding flags and placards tried to force their way into a side entrance to the Park Hyatt Hotel in East Melbourne.

Guests at a dinner whose guest speakers included Ms Gillard and Israel’s Deputy Prime …

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Realist suggests that Israel, ala Crusaders, will be ’strong today, gone tomorrow’

by Philip Weiss4 December 2009

Further evidence of Israel’s crisis of Iegitimacy can be read in a R ealist/Israel-chauvinist piece at Foreign Affairs arguing that Israel is in danger of losing its aura of military invincibility; and when that happens no Arab country will have any realistic incentive to accept its existence. So it had better find another modus-vivendi than threat and invasion, and soon. Writes Ariel Ilan …

40 comments

Who gets the stolen mustard?

by Philip Weiss14 November 2009

… "The insecure position of Jews, insecure within themselves, insecure among peple, would make it above all comprehensible that they consider themselves to be allowed to own only what they hold in their hands or between their teeth, that furthermore only palpable possessions give them the right to live, and that they will never acquire what they once have lost but that instead it calmly swims away from them forever." Also, I’d quarreled a lot with my mother in the …

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Suddenly, Israel lobby is fair game for good government types

by Philip Weiss5 November 2009

… accepting the Israel/Palestine issue as part of a progressive agenda–thereby ending the reign of PEP, Progressive Except for Palestine. The Center for Responsive Politics is a good government group that seems to be reflecting this trend: Its report on the overwhelming vote to condemn the Goldstone report is titled, "Congressmen Denouncing U.N. Inquiry Receive Handsome Donations from Pro-Israel Lobby." The center makes a point of singling out pro-Arab groups too, but look at these …

13 comments

Goodbye to Leila Abu-Saba

by Philip Weiss12 October 2009

 

We understand that Leila Abu-Saba , a wonderful writer and great friend of this site, died last week after a long battle with cancer. "Goodbye radiant friend," Sarah Pollock writes on Facebook, and I feel the same way. From early on in the life of this site, Leila saw my struggle with American and Jewish identity and offered her support. She welcomed me into a …

15 comments

Arianna’s friends

by Adam Horowitz29 September 2009

… been getting some attention on this site and has done very little to displace the moniker Huffpep (progressive except Palestine). I hadn’t followed the trip very closely, but I did come across this interesting nugget on her last post :

On my way to the airport in Tel Aviv, I stopped at the Dallal Restaurant for dinner with Gidi Grinstein and his wife, and my friend Dan Adler, an LA based entrepreneur and former CAA executive, who was also flying back to the U.S.

Why is …

27 comments

misunderstanding the ‘white left’ and PEP

by Jack Ross23 September 2009

Further argument about PEP, Progressive Except Palestine, the label used against liberals for their support for freedom in all places but Palestine. Jack Ross first, then Weiss, then Ross gets the last word.

First, I don’t mean to go in for gratuitous UN bashing, only understanding it honestly.  Most "isolationists" of the time actually supported the creation of the UN and only objected when the …

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arguing about PEP

by Jack Ross21 September 2009

Jack Ross is irritated by Weiss’s use of  the PEP acronym, Progressive Except Palestine, in writing about Huffington Post yesterday. Ross attacks the idea, and Weiss responds.

Where exactly does the "progressive" part come in?  The fact that they’re from Hollywood and are therefore in favor of everything (else) the big bad religious right is against? 

Much as I detest your PEP construct, it can aptly describe …

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Huffpep

by Philip Weiss20 September 2009

… report. I wonder where he comes down !

Too bad about the Huffington Post. It shows that PEP is a meaningful force in American political life: progressive except Palestine. Today on the Washington Post editorial page, Steve Walt, who made his reputation as a realist, not a progressive, spoke warningly of apartheid in Israel/Palestine. But liberals can’t say this. Most of em don’t anyway. Why not? Cause they’re Progressive Except Palestine. Yes, the Israel lobby is among us. …

23 comments

Gaza, and now Goldstone, expose rift between American Jews and Israel

by Philip Weiss16 September 2009

… similar themes on Amy Goodman today, saying that the report will crumble the foundations of PEP culture (Progressive Except Palestine):

What’s significant about the report, in my opinion, and what’s significant about what happened in Gaza, I think it marks a major turning point. It’s like the Sharpville massacre in South Africa. Now, Sharpville is not Soweto, but Sharpville was a turning point. Richard Goldstone is a liberal. Richard Goldstone is very supportive of Israel. …

59 comments

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