Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 20330 (since 2009-07-30 20:11:08)

Annie Robbins

Annie Robbins is Editor at Large for Mondoweiss, a mother, a human rights activist and a ceramic artist. She lives in the SF bay area. Follow her on Twitter @anniefofani

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  • 44 Senators, including many Democrats, sign AIPAC letter to Obama against Iran negotiations
    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 4:56 am

      hip deep in afghanistan? how intriguing. do tell.

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:51 am with 6 replies

      in a few decades from now when historians are compiling data on the fall of the superpower this letter will be part of the evidence. maybe even more of a turning pt than we know. enter china..the BRIC countries. faster please.

      i'm trying to look on the bright side.

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:43 am

      the regime isn't too beautiful here either, our track record for screwing with others is hella worse than iran's.

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:26 am with 15 replies

      iran is a beautiful country

      link to beautifydesktop.com

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:22 am

      colin, NJDC doesn't stand for National Judaism Democratic Council.

      the support may not be coming from the 'jewish community' but it's sure coming from the israel lobby. and the legislation pushed by the lobby comes from israel. i agree with you most of the american support comes from christians, because there are more of them. but the powerhouses in the lobby, the ones who make the big decisions, are jewish.

      like this: link to mondoweiss.net

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:12 am

      Can Hasbara Central send more challenging ‘representatives”?

      doubtful

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:02 am

      denis, i went to our archives. from may 23rd, the day of the talks in baghdad:

      link to mondoweiss.net

      a few links posted there. from the bloomberg/sfgate:

      Sanctions won't be lifted as a result of the Baghdad meeting, Mann said. While the P5+1 group is "hopeful" that Iran will respond positively to the offer, it doesn't expect an outcome to this round of negotiations, he said."

      see? what offer?

      “We did not receive any new proposal,” Mahdi told reporters in Arabic after the sides adjourned. “Until now there is no indication of anything optimistic or of positive progress.

      Talib Mahdi, a member of the Iranian delegation in Baghdad, told China’s official Xinhua news agency that Tehran wasn’t offered any deal to cut back on uranium enrichment in exchange for a reduction in sanctions.

      “Such proposal could be accepted by Iran because it would be a clear international recognition that Iran has the right to obtain nuclear energy,” he was quoted as saying.

    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 2:29 am

      denis, what i meant by US was unwilling to even consider backing down on sanctions if iran agreed to certain conditions

      here: link to nytimes.com

      The major powers are expected to renew their list of demands that Iran suspend the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, ship out its stockpile of this uranium, and cease operations at Fordo, an enrichment facility buried in a mountain near Qum that alarms Israel because it could soon be immune to an airstrike.

      “Both sides had false expectations about how little they had to give to get the other side to move,” said Colin H. Kahl, a former Pentagon official who is a professor at Georgetown University. “The question going into Moscow is: Has either side recalculated?”
      .....

      The major powers are unlikely to accept a delay in the sanctions. And President Obama is not likely to recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium, another of the Iranian leadership’s cherished objectives. Granting that concession, in an election year, would open Mr. Obama to criticism from his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, who has staked out a hawkish position on Iran.

      ........

      Iranian officials blame Israel for the American change of heart, noting that the chief American negotiator, Wendy R. Sherman, stopped in Israel on her way home from Baghdad to brief the government.

      “Why do the Americans rush off to Jerusalem after every time they have spoken to us?” said Hamid Sheikholeslami, an adviser to Iran’s former top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani. “The U.S. is clearly under pressure not to seriously negotiate with us.”

      Administration officials dispute that, and say they have never recognized Iran’s right to enrich uranium in the talks. While the West is reluctant to delay the broader sanctions, analysts said the major powers would probably be open to suspending a European Union ban on insuring Iranian oil tankers.

      the US is not negotiating,just making demands offering nothing. what is the point of iran making concessions if the US is unwilling to backdown on sanctions?

      same MO as syria, they want regimes change.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 1:02 pm with 10 replies

      i had to look up NJDC, didn't know the acronym. National Jewish Democratic Council.

      Shouldn’t somebody be alerting progressives to the fact that Act Blue is working in apparent concert with NJDC?

      yep, someone should.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 12:57 pm with 6 replies

      the result of the baghdad meeting was they agreed on nothing(as i recall, i can find a link). iran said it was willing to negotiate but the US was unwilling to even consider backing down on sanctions if iran agreed to certain conditions, iow, the US offered nothing in return for iran complying w/IAEA rules.

      the letter also references, in capital letters btw, "Additional Protocol."

      does anyone know what that refers to? something formal?

  • How do we make Zionism 101 an everyday reality? Yeah, how?
    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:49 pm with 1 replies

      ymj, you might want to familiarize yourself with the comment policy link to mondoweiss.net

      1. No racist or sexist comments. This includes anti-Arab, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments (and yes, Christian-bashing too). This includes comments that disparage, intimidate or attack a person based on perceived ethnicity or gender.

      if, as you suggest, you 'advocated violence or terror' based on ethnicity (iow a threat) that could have been why your comment did not make it thru. you can always write adam and phil and ask them to review the comment if you think you were treated unfairly.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 10:31 am

      come to college campuses and gift the youth with your pearls of wisdom. If you believe in what you say then you should be content with a small fee and a big deliverable when you impregnate someone with a great idea.

      are you sure the current isn't columbia's answer to the onion?

      we need a return to Zionism 101

      seafoid said I wonder how much sympathy Israel will be able to milk as more and more info about the cruelty of Zionism seeps out.

      link to mondoweiss.net

  • On Syria, Clinton spins a fast one
    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 3:42 pm

      yeah, i sooo fell for that.not. it's called back to back spinning allegations. one gets shot down and they're back with another right on schedule. meanwhile: Russia denies warship headed for Syria

      link to upi.com

      DAMASCUS, Syria, June 17 (UPI) -- The Russian government Sunday denied reports it sent a fully loaded warship to supply the Syrian government with weapons and troops.

      Ukraine media reports suggested the amphibious vessel Nikolai Filchenkov, loaded with armaments and soldiers, was sailing from a Crimean port to Damascus, but a government source told the RIA Novosti news agency that was false.

      "There are no marines aboard the ship and there were no commands for a voyage towards Syria," the source told the Russian news agency.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 6:52 pm

      The AP news agency quoted the only survivor of the family Al Sayyid, the eleven year old Ali, as saying:. "The perpetrators were shaved bald and had long beards." This is the look of fanatical jihadists, not of the Shabiha militia. The boy said he survived because he had pretended to be dead and smeared himself with the blood of his mother.

      the horror.

      lysias, not sure if you opened my link to MOA in the post embedded under "Outed immediately as a #PropagandaFail". originally i have blockquoted him,but sometimes it take a little while for things to get published here and in that time it had broken in the msm, the rebuttals, so i went w/the msm blockquotes instead. b is always ahead of the pack w/syria and many other events, always. and i trust him implicitly which doesn't mean he's always right, just 99.9%. he's essential for me and my personal analysis of what's happening in the wider ME region, including russia. i've probably said that many times. him, and the moa community, taught me a new way of looking at america's interactions and now i will forever read the news with different eyes and ears.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 6:26 pm

      things are escalating. car bomb near mosque, UN 'suspended' 'observer' operations , too much violence.

      link to cbsnews.com

      great/not.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 2:14 pm

      i highly recommend Checkmate - Strategy of a Revolution:
      link to youtube.com

      about the cia orchestrated overthrow of Nicolae Ceaușescu in romania. someone linked to it here on one of these threads before which is how i found it. here is a link to all the videos

      link to youtube.com

      imho, in many ways it mirrors what is going on in syria.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 1:53 pm with 1 replies

      turkey is part of nato, so of course they are crucial in any plan to invade. nato is required to intervene when any member nation is attacked. any 'spillover' justifies nato intervention.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 1:26 pm

      riyadh, from the comment section of your link:

      Imperialism and the Houla massacre:

      ..None of these events can be understood outside the political crisis provoked by last year’s revolutionary upsurge in the Middle East. Mass protests of workers and youth forced out pro-US dictators in Egypt and Tunisia. However, the lack of a politically independent movement of the working class fighting to take power and fight for socialism gave the US and its allies time to regroup and elaborate a counter-revolutionary strategy.

      The aim of the imperialist powers has been to further the colonial re-subjugation of the entire Middle East. Protests against pro-US regimes were to be crushed. As for protests in countries without close ties to Washington, like Libya or Syria, they were to be brought under the control of right-wing forces to divert protests along ethnic or sectarian lines. They would then serve as proxies in US-led civil wars—as Washington posed as a friend of the “Arab spring” because it was trying to depose Middle East regimes.

      After the Saudi monarchy bloodily suppressed protests in Bahrain, the US promoted Islamist and tribal elements against Libyan Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who was toppled by NATO and Islamist-rebels in a bloody war costing some 50,000 lives. In Syria, the US relied largely on Sunni elements like the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, financed by the anti-Shiite Saudi monarchy. The massacre in Houla is the predictable outcome of Washington’s promotion of these reactionary forces.

      The imperialist strategy relied on the bankruptcy of Middle Eastern bourgeois nationalist regimes and their right-wing evolution after the fall of the USSR. Deprived of a great-power defender and deeply unpopular due to their free-market reforms, they were beset with deep ethnic and sectarian divisions and vulnerable to US intervention. The Assad regime, which has carried out repeated “liberalization” policies and draws its ruling personnel from the Alawite religious minority, was particularly vulnerable…

      link to wsws.org

      i recommend the whole link

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 1:17 pm with 1 replies

      from the atlantic sentinel link

      the United States are willing to supply only “nonlethal” assistance, possibly including aid and communications.

      yeah, to the tune of 57 million according to the time magazine article i linked to in the post. but note below the 70 million figure.(tho not all of that is just on syria..but a lot is)

      a cached a few links earlier this year, most people are unaware of exactly how that 'communications' works. i recommend new america foundation's conference:

      How to Ignite, or Quash, a Revolution in 140 Characters or Less - Future Tense Event

      link to youtube.com

      here's Ian schuler Senior Program Manager, Internet Freedoms Program
      U.S. Department of State discussing the way the self wireless networks (including phones) work

      link to youtube.com

      23 minutes....they ask about syria, any chance this technology to be deployed in a situation like that (framed as 'facilitate' freedom)...25 minutes, state department..we will have invested 70 million dollars in internet freedom programs...around 31 minutes a woman asks a question..listen to the answer..

      they open up talking about this article

      link to nytimes.com

    • Annie Robbins June 15, 2012 at 11:44 pm with 3 replies

      wow, i've been gone all day. it's awesome to come back to all these comments. thanks guys. will get on some responses when i've chilled. friday night an all that.

  • American living in Jerusalem squeezes Obama on 'Audacity of Hope' (the boat, that is)
  • Why hasn't Jonathan Pollard applied for parole?
    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 3:09 am

      something more serious happened that has never been fully released.

      yep

      is the stuff he took related to the Russians and American spies within Russia who were then killed? If this is the case, he should never be freed.

      thank you, exactly.

  • Sheldon Adelson ('all we care about is being good citizens of Israel') vows to spend whatever it takes to knock out Obama
  • A Gaza farmer declares, I shall not be moved from my land
  • Israeli navy attacks international observers off the coast of Gaza
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 5:14 pm

      i know seafoid, it's really great.thanks for the awesome comment. i was so excited to read it because i got a tweet yesterday about the hashtag to make it trend. as usual i was a little late, but not that late. then i noticed hrs later it was still active and now it seems to be growing ad rejuvenating.

  • Crackdown on Israeli dissent: Police summon prominent protest leaders
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 4:13 pm

      'Hi Ido, I see here an invitation to come to the police station, I don’t exactly see what you mean'

      that's hysterical. i'm sure the police know exactly what Ido meant. but what's funnier is the police addressed ,on facebook: summons, with invitation addressed to: evvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvrybody even post this to everyone.

      the 'conveniences' of a very small country.

  • Medal of Freedom for Shimon Peres maintains White House blind spot on Israel
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 7:46 pm

      with Gingrich sucking up to a party of one… Sheldon Adelson. ...There is zero relationship between Gingrich’ obvious pandering to his sugar daddy and Obama’s statement about Poland.

      you do not know that. and you do not know if it wasn't merely one person he was appeasing either, just like gingrich. your guess is no better than mine and as others have pointed out there has been a wel orchastrated campaign to smear polish people. anyone on the hasbara trail would have to be an idiot not to notice. even here on this site i heard it awhile back.

      so no, i do not think it just happens to be a coincidence.

      and low and behold it did not go unnoticed, was not able to slip into the dicourse benignly for the record, it was denounced and denounced loudly and now this aghast insistence it just had to have been a mistake.

      yada yada yada..i don't think so!!!!!

      just a leeeetle itty bitty coincidence he just happens to say polish death camps when the ziofreaks are all over that like flies on sheet? spare us!

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 5:01 pm

      answer me first. would you support calling them jewish death camps?

      edit. i see you addressed it already.

      So, he intentionally maligned the Polish people?

      i posit he kowtowed to a narrative to please a certain constituency knowing he would inadvertently would be offending others, yes. not that different than gingrich blathering about the invention of palestinians to suck up to the adelson millions.

      was his intent and motivation to maligned the Polish people? no, of course not. merely an side effect he was able to accept to appease somebody.

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 4:37 pm

      exactly lysias, it was no mistake.

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 4:25 pm

      don't you mean misspoke? taken out of context implies the phrasing is correct and the meaning was thwarted. i think people are well aware what was implied. but he shouldn't have used those words because they are not polish death camps. would you support calling them jewish death camps? after all, people would know what you meant. or would you excuse that as merely taken out of context?

  • Israeli Knesset member seeds anti-Palestinian legislation in Congress
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 2:54 pm with 1 replies

      lysias, it was the chicago tribune story cited in that article that first clued me in kirk had not made a public appearance since since he suffered his stroke in january.

      big red flag, i knew his office had a deep embed. i searched and searched and that was the very first article, published on may 29th announcing the severity of his absence. seemed very weird indeed. not so much that he would be absent after a stroke, but that his absence and his stroke had not been mentioned in any of the national news stories at all in over 4months while this legislation was being discussed in the press.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 2:44 pm

      In April Wilf and Rosen met with Kirk's deputy chief of staff, Richard Goldberg. Kirk is recovering from a stroke he suffered a few months ago, and Goldberg is promoting the senator's legislative efforts.

      my hunch exactly. thanks for including that link mr editors, and thanks for encouraging me to run with instincts on this.

      link to mondoweiss.net

      After meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Gantz and many others....

      and what a meeting it was. cooking up the legislation..

  • Finkelstein's critique misreads the special relationship and misunderstands political mobilization
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 12:04 am

      i'm afraid congress doesn't have the power to do that, the cat is already out of the bag. the ground we have made is not on the legislative front. it's people power. the more you squeeze the people the more people resent it and talk about it.

      myths no more. israel's image will just keep sinking.

  • What was Sheldon Adelson's one question to Romney before giving him $10 million?
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 4:20 pm

      a glaring 'when' nor 'if' wrt a romney presidency which echoed biorabbi's comment on some thread yesterday. this must be the preferred talking pt, maybe they think it gives romney a boost. let them keep it up if it siuts them. clearly it ratchets up the discourse but i think they may find it backfires. i do not think most american relish a war w/iran and i really do not think they like their candidates foreign policy announcements delivered via the israeli press. but that's just me. maybe there is a bigger inner israeli in more americans than i think but why is romney's guy giving exclusives to the israeli press at this juncture. not smart imho.

      anyway, i love this line: "Romney favors arming “the moderate elements” in the Syrian opposition"

      and who might they be? curious minds want to know.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 2:11 pm

      thanks here's the nyt version lysias

      link to nytimes.com

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 1:11 pm with 1 replies

      you can't stand, romney can't stand, but obama hates. uh huh.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 12:50 pm

      Do you think this money will have any effect on Romney's positions?

      romney already agreed to abdicate American foreign policy towards Israel . . . to Israel

      link to mondoweiss.net

      Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — asked Romney if, as president, he would ever consider moving the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In his answer, Romney made some astonishing claims. First, that his policy toward Israel will be guided by Israeli leaders; second, on the Jerusalem issue, he’d do whatever Israel tells him to do; and third, he does not think the United States should take a leadership role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

      romney will do or say anything the israel firsters want.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 12:44 pm

      gee biorabbi, don't hold back on having confidence in your own predictions or anything.

  • Billboard campaign to end US aid to Israel hits LA -- thanks to CBS
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 12:33 pm

      nick, iamuglow, everybody.. if you open the interview provided in the main post there is a short history provided including offshoots. if you want a billboard in your town which reads:

      “44 million Americans have no health insurance
      Israel provides its citizens with free universal healthcare
      ‘Spend our money at home. not on Israel’

      contact link to stop30billion.org and they will inform you how to do that in your town or city. you can tailor your ad to suit your community (i think) although one might imagine it is cheaper to go with the design that's already created but i don't really know. i will email susan and armen and find out. already there are off shoots in many many communities. they sent me a pdf with instructions once but i don't know where it is or i would post it.

      just do it!

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 11:10 am

      101 and 84 would be another great spot during rush hour. I bet one could find 7 other people on this blog alone to fund the rest of the required $365.

      C&D, i want them in the bay area too and have already been contacted by someone here. let's do it. write me at annie@mondoweiss.net

      also, write susan and armen at info@stop30billion.com

      if everyone who is interested in having them in the bay area mobilized we could do it! we just have to find a billboard company.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:53 pm

      Allying yourself to “patriots” is allying yourself to the Klan.

      not where i come from

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:52 pm

      awesome dickerson. thanks

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 1:30 pm with 4 replies

      sure, contact them harry. but gas is expensive. i am not sure hiring someone to drive around LA for a month would be cheaper than the cost of one of these billboards, as i mentioned up thread the end of occupation campaign wrote

      For every $365 contributed, another billboard will carry the message for four weeks.

      plus, strategically located a billboard can provide exposure to millions within a month.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 1:14 pm

      actually if you follow all the links you can see the campaign has expanded greatly and instigated a lot of debate and exposure.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:46 am

      this is going to require some terrific support from the community. i really hope people sign the petition to cbsoutdoor and hopefully it will help generate some additional donations to keep the billboards afloat longer.

      end the occupation mentions:

      For every $365 contributed, another billboard will carry the message for four weeks.

      link to blog.endtheoccupation.org

      seems really doable/cheap.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 10:20 am with 2 replies

      they are being really smart about this. i'm so excited it gives me chills. LA, wow, just wow.

      hats off, huge.

  • Angelenos remember Ziad Jilani and demand accountability
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 10:44 am

      thank you Estee , and thanks to jewish voices for peace for standing up for justice. let's hope the day is near senseless murders like Ziad's will not happen nor will murderers like Maxim Vinogradav be allowed to remain free while the Jilani family suffers from the loss of their father/ husband/ brother/ friend.

  • Tomasky reports there's an elephant in the room
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:11 am with 3 replies

      I suspect Israel is avoiding direct support of intervention in Syria

      hmm, cat's already out of the bag, 18 hrs ago:

      In joint appearance with Peres in Washington, Clinton condemns Syria for using attack helicopters to quash uprising
      link to haaretz.com

      Peres stated that it is better for Arab nations to deal with the situation in Syria themselves – so that no other countries will be blamed for interventionism. "They are ready, let them take the responsibility, let us support them in any way we can. The Arab league should and can do it,” said Peres.

      video: msnbc link to video.today.msnbc.msn.com
      Peres on Syria interview: Future without Assad is ‘better’

      yesterday the blatant israel op ed pressure began. here is one example:
      link to huffingtonpost.com

      another:
      link to jpost.com

  • One state, two states and the art of the possible
    • Annie Robbins June 17, 2012 at 4:25 am

      Annie, since when did you believe in the inevitability of war?

      by all means offer me a copy paste of something i wrote to support this allegation. oh right, you can't. how bout not making it personal, or is that too far out of range?

      i do not think a person who believes in the inevitability of war as a war monger.

      I challenge you to imagine a scenario where Israel is vanquished but the Palestinians remain to take the prize

      hmm. off the top of my head, the US population, including our military, gets sick of their representatives taking marching orders from israel. this might not happen until we're in even more debt to china who pulls the plug on lending us the money to fight proxy wars. afghanistan is one thing (we are fighting a war in afghanistan that benefits china iran..not so much) but china will not keep funding us forever.

      anyway, the US becomes cashed out and .... somebody..maybe china...discovers a new energy source. well, not new..just a cheap/free way to access it and oil becomes so last century. to make a long story short, we either can't or won't fund israel or those regimes you call 'not antagonistic'. as far as i know israel has always survived on theft and handouts. when the free ride stops, lots of israeli who are pacified with a free ride will either leave or become even more religiously fanatical which in turn will motivate more people leaving. like women who do not like riding in the back of the bus.

      israel is vanquishing itself more and more everyday.

      and that's only one scenario. predicting inevitabilities is not my forte, but i do not believe israel can rid palestine of palestinians and continue to exist.

      israel does not deserve the holyland, not the way it has been acting. it's a very new country and it's gotten off to a terrible start, it's an unsustainable situation that is a blight on mankind. things will either get better, or not.

      so it is not for us to ask how israel will go down, better to answer how israel will improve. why don't you tell us how israel will get better and heal itself, because at this stage that's what looks like an impossibility.

    • Annie Robbins June 16, 2012 at 3:46 pm with 7 replies

      you are positively relishing war...for you it can’t come soon enough... You can’t see a peaceful resolution because you don’t want one. .. You are someone who ...what you believe, you simply have no idea what you are talking about. You are a laptop warrior...What is worst about people like you is that you fail.. you are the very epitome... you who patronises the very people you claim

      ad hominem much libra? do you have any argument besides that?

  • Footballers rally to Sarsak's cause as he vows to continue hunger strike till death
  • Israeli school exam warns Jewish girls not to 'hang around with' Arabs
  • MSNBC squelched Donahue, Press and Buchanan to make way for Iraq war cheerleaders
    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 1:59 am

      and where would we be w/out the brookings institute
      link to brookings.edu

      A U.N. official Tuesday finally acknowledged that Syria has entered a full-scale civil war. As the government has escalated its violence and diplomacy has yielded no gains, the armed rebels have garnered increased support and expanded their effectiveness. In the past week, they have fought the Syrian army on the outskirts of Damascus, taken over an air defense base, and welcomed increasing numbers of defectors from the military. With the right equipment, training, and tactics, it’s just possible that the rebels could force the Syrian military to crack and abandon Assad. In this way, they could bring an end to the crisis and set Syria on a new path—a more democratic one, one hopes. As it is, though, their victory would be won in the face of determined American neglect.

      If, however, the Syrian military holds fast to the Assad regime, then the war will heat up and regional stability will be the loser, along with Syrian civilians. In this case, American interests could be challenged far more directly than they have been so far. Fighters, smugglers, and refugees crossing borders could shake security in Turkey, a NATO ally, and threaten the hard-won, fragile equilibrium in Iraq. Bitter sectarian fighting in Syria is already echoing in Lebanon, with fighting in the streets of Tripoli threatening Lebanon’s precarious peace. Jihadis from Afghanistan and Iraq are already being drawn to this new struggle of mainly Sunnis against an Alawite regime many view as heretical. Should the Syrian government lose control over more of its territory, its chemical and biological weapons could fall into dangerous hands.

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 1:31 am

      omg citizen i can't believe the lowdown dirty of that article!

      Somebody is perpetrating a hoax. Either the anti-Assad rebels perpetrated a massacre and got the world to believe it was the Assad regime that did the killing, or the Assad regime is responsible for the massacre but was nevertheless able to fool a newspaper in Germany to blame the rebels.

      One only has to think back to the Mohammed Al Dura Affair to realize that this isn’t the first time a hoax like this has been perpetrated.

      In 2000, at the start of the Second Intifada, the world watched in horror as a young Palestinian boy, Mohammed Al Dura hid in the protective cover of his father’s arms during a firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. Video broadcast in France and then throughout the world showed the boy dying on the concrete pavement. Israel was blamed for .....

      unreal! they even mention pallywood! anything to glorify poor israel

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 1:23 am

      thanks rizla. and here is another from b @ moon ofalabama:

      Hillary Clinton is making pointless propaganda:

      A shipment of attack helicopters is "on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday, heightening pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's staunchest international backer.

      Russia denies this and even the Pentagon disagrees with Clinton:

      Pentagon sources suggested that Mrs. Clinton, in her remarks at a Brookings Institution event, was referring to a Russian-made attack helicopter that Syria already owns but has not yet deployed to crack down on opposition forces. While these helicopters, known as Mi-24s, are flown by Syrian pilots, Russia supplies spare parts and provides maintenance for them.

      The Syrian army already has some 70 attack helicopters but has so far hardly used them.

      more at link: link to moonofalabama.org

    • Annie Robbins June 14, 2012 at 1:18 am

      thanks hostage, just saw your comment.

      i just do not believe anything i read about assad's 'massacring his own people'. i just do not believe it. it completely follows the pattern of what the neocons always say when they want regime change.

      lots of false flags,that's what's going on. masking the civil war they are instigating. sure they would rather he step down but they want him out. preferably before they take out iran.

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 11:02 pm

      syrian forces are raping and murdering children

      'the regime is killing their own people' is code for western regime change

  • Feinstein says she talked to Sanger before Stuxnet story
    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 1:36 pm

      hi allen, if you open the first sourcewatch link in my comment it is titled
      "Aspen Institute / Aspen Strategy Group"

      the second link is embedded under: "Aspen Institute / Middle East Strategy Group"

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 12:42 pm with 4 replies

      here's a list of Aspen Strategy Group members:
      link to ftp.sourcewatch.org

      and here are some members from their Aspen Institute / Middle East Strategy Group
      link to ftp.sourcewatch.org

      Jane Harman
      Gary Heiman
      Martin S. Indyk
      Walter Isaacson
      Alan P. Larson
      Loutfy Mansour
      Walid Najjab
      Nassar Ali Nassar
      Jacob Ner-David
      Her Majesty Queen Noor
      Yifat Gurian Ofer
      Peter Reiling
      William D. Rogers
      Dennis Ross
      Mara Rudman
      George R. Salem
      Samir Shawa
      Joel Tauber
      Ephraim Sneh
      Edward S. Walker, Jr.
      Peter S. Watson
      Mortimer B. Zuckerman

  • 'Ha'aretz' article in Hebrew suggests that racism is inherent in Zionism
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 7:45 am

      (I didn’t know how to link it.)

      do you know how to copy/paste? all you have to do is copy the url and paste it into the comment. let me know if you do not know how to find a url.

      Deppen Webber is one of our contributors.

      if you want to know more i would suggest you google his name. this link pops right up:

      link to mondoweiss.net

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 12:17 am

      klaus, do you mean "‘Where ya from?’: On-the-street interviews with Jewish Israelis" by Deppen Webber?

      link to mondoweiss.net

      i do not think this is 'adam's video'.

  • US Middle East policy is politicized in two congressional races
    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 12:50 pm

      as an outsider (i don't know nj politics) one thing stands out for me. rothman is a coward. instead of staying home and taking on the gop candidate he moves(literally) over to Pascrell's turf and tries to take out a popular sitting dem candidate. he got what he deserved. he should have shown some cajons and tried to take out the opposition when his district got eliminated.

  • UPDATE-- Photo of two Israeli soldiers holding hands was faked
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 1:09 pm

      Are you by any chance referring to Apion ?

      oleg, which specific part of theo's the text are you referencing which reminds you of Apion. you don't have the time right now to go into everything theo said in detail but you have the time to link to a source deemed anti semitic.

      Don’t treat the scriptures as an accurate and detailed history of the Jewish people.It’s not.

      isn't it rather common for people to pick and choose what part of the scriptures suits their own perceptions. after all, don't you do it?

      Palestina is the birthplace of the jewish people

      not all the jewish people obviously.

    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:24 am

      thanks sumud, great 10:45 am comment.

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 2:39 pm

      let me know when the idf uses it for promotion purposes oleg. gay guys dressing up in uniform and making out is not out of the ordinary in the least.

      a military using it for promotional purposes? that would be extraordinary.

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 2:11 pm with 56 replies

      Where dothat assumption that gay automatically means (left/liberal etc) comes from i often wonder.

      it doesn't automatically mean anything. in this country the gop are, for the most part, politically against gay marriage as are christian conservatives. so in terms of social politics most gays are not going to align with a party that rejects the idea of their equality. but there are many fiscal conservative gays. andrew sullivan used to be right wing.

      imho, israel pinkwashes because it assumes gays and others associate gay rights with the left and therefor zionism and oppression is cool, or left or progressive or something. but gays are not stupid.

      they have been fighting for their equal rights. people who do that generally have an affinity for others equal rights also, unless they are hypocritical.

      a self identified zionist who is gay might be left on gay social issues, but they would still be a pep.

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 1:46 pm

      i think it is very funny the idf is trying to improve it's image by promoting pda between gay officers. how cuddly and all that. i wonder if one of those guys is in this video: link to 972mag.com

      funny ha ha. they are still soldiers serving an ugly aparthied military regime.

      i wish they were french kissing, that would make it even more funny.

  • ‪United we quack, divided we crack
    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 8:23 pm

      yeah, ... number two blows my mind especially.

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 8:19 pm with 1 replies

      sorry sorry sorry joe. fixed.

      and thank you for the amazing entertainment. i was reading the very end of it in 'real' time thanks to you and refaat for the heads up. the whole experience was mindblowing. i was off my computer for a few hrs and when i came back..wow. so much fun.

      this post is a wee late. i actually wrote it that night but didn't know how to download the tweets (still don't actually)

      allison deserves a lot of credit for getting this up.

      sorry it's so late everyone.

  • 'Palestine Place' comes to London, and the west will never be the same
  • Palestinian footballer fighting for his life is not a story, but Netanyahu's football injury is
    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 9:43 pm with 2 replies

      people arrested for terrorism

      he was never charged with any crime.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 3:26 pm with 6 replies

      There seems to be a complete blackout in the Israeli press concerning Sarsak’s situation, in contrast to the considerable news coverage of other recent hunger strikers who had reached a life- threatening point in their protests.

      that is because he is a palestinian with star quality, he is a celebrity. a sports star. israel's incarceration against him is a sadistic form of punishment to the entire society by taking away a person they loved who brought them entertainment thru sports. not even politics but sports. they do not want palestinians having celebrities.

      they do not want the world percieving palestinians as celebrities. there is a very narrow window with which they are allowed to operate in terms of fame.

      and successful sports stars is not in that window!

  • Richard Falk: No issue needs more open debate than moral and political cost of I/P policy (going back to USS Liberty!)
    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 9:25 pm

      thanks kris. the title and 'thumbnail are both editorial decision/choices (i am not an editor). originally it was the title of the talk.

      i will pass on this suggestion. thanks

      btw, when i tweeted it i changed the tweet because it was too long to fit which i do think discourages lazy people from tweeting.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 3:39 pm with 1 replies

      The truth of how the world really is is sickening and it’s much nicer to listen to Miley Cyrus.

      but a sickening aspect of the occupation is israel won't allow palestinians to have stars. something, someone truly talented and wonderful entertainment-wise comes along and they poison it, steal it away or kill..it is only for the outsiders or the privileged to have an illusion outside of the conflict. for the palestinians that is not allowed. they crush them with every action.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 12:56 pm with 2 replies

      this speech is so killer! he nails it with the USSLiberty.

      can't recall who posted and alerted us yesterday in comments. please let me know for the hat tip.

  • VP's daughter ties knot with a Jewish guy
    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 3:56 pm with 2 replies

      So why do the gentiles choose to convert and not the other way around?

      not sure you can really assert that ahadhaadam. there's a big movement called jews4jesus. lots of christians marry jews and do not convert, phil's wife for example. perhaps it is the phenomena of children not being considered jews unless the mother is jewish therefore non jewish women who marry jewish men convert for the sake of the children. there's no requirement like that in christianity although catholics are supposed to marry catholics but any child can become a catholic simply by being raised in the church regardless of a parents conversion.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 2:06 pm with 5 replies

      i know there are lots of people out there who marry for prestige,money, moving up the social ladder..stuff like that. i understand how that works..but don't really understand how someone could actually live and sleep like that. i guess i figure sex isn't important to them or something. i tend to believe most people marry for love.

      likely, it started with attraction. she probably married him because of something that grew out of that, not practicality.

      edit, i take that back because it is practical on the most basic emotional level to marry someone you love and are attracted to.

  • Jane Harman, media mogul
  • The things I miss (confessions of an activist)
    • Annie Robbins June 13, 2012 at 11:40 am

      zionist claiming they are ‘justified’ in stealing and killing by the higher good for Jewish Israel.

      here's a common justification from this morning:

      The land you call Palestine is the birthplace of the Jewish people,
      it’s culture, language philosophy and yes religion which had a major part in forming our specific identity which endured and evolved through centuries
      of the Jewish existence was initially forged in this place.
      All of these give us the moral justification to return to this particular land and not to any other place in the world

      link to mondoweiss.net

      by "All of these" one presumes he means birthplace of ancestors, culture, language philosophy, and religion give them the 'moral justification' to steal and kill or by whatever means they deem necessary. notice the insertion of the word "moral" in front of justification.that's hasbara at work for ya, or else just plain ol brainwashing..

    • Annie Robbins June 12, 2012 at 11:31 pm

      this is an incredible essay. i have read it numerous times and keep coming back to it.

      it is perfect in every way.

      to remind all those struggling for this cause in their respective spheres, you are not alone.......I’m sure I am not the only one who feels, to my very core, that this struggle, in all its absurdity and injustice, is a worthwhile one....I have found a deep joy in knowing I stand on the right side of history..... with a passion for humanity that constantly revives my own sense of hope. I would never trade such genuine inspiration for the superficial calm that comes from succumbing to the status quo.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 2:55 pm with 1 replies

      sarah, if you are reading this..more than anything i hope you're having a lot of fun in the WB this summer. i bet your parents are really proud of you for all the amazing effort and work you do.

    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 12:32 pm

      no, it aint satire oleg...just chickens comin' home to roost. get used to it, this new generation is not backing down.

  • Two years since the murder of Ziad Jilani
    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 2:27 pm

      Israel is not going to hold Vinogradov accountable for what he did

      startling new information about Vinogradov was disclosed last month.

      it is mindblowing due to the evidence presented here the goi would not reopen this case.

      there is a memorial for Jilani held in front of the Israeli Consulate in New York City today. i am so sorry for his family.

      thank you for the report chriss.

  • NJ Republican candidate for Congress spent election day in Israel, meeting with Netanyahu
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 2:17 pm with 16 replies

      Israel is the front line in the war for freedom.

      there's simply no end to this hasbara.

      i had no idea boteach was running for office. he's a bonafide nutcase. check out his demeanor in this larry king segment, he goes ballistic. please do not construe i am a supporter of jews4jesus because i am definitely not. but larry has to shut boteach up numerous times. he comes off unhinged and fanatical. the complete opposite of calm, composed and in control.

      link to youtube.com

  • Michael Oren: Al Qaida is in Egypt
    • Annie Robbins June 11, 2012 at 12:25 pm

      i like your spirit braciole! finding something to laugh and cheer about is an awesome quality.

      and as always..thank you phil. and frankly, everyone here makes life sane for me. (trolls aside!)

      ;)

    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 12:08 pm with 2 replies

      oh heavens, is this an example of the kind of hasbara we can expect from israel wrt egypt for the next few years?

  • Congressman poses with Israeli missile man-- people turn the congressman out of office
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 12:15 pm with 1 replies

      wow, that is one heck of a first link phil. "New Jersey’s 9th CD Voters Say No to AIPAC" everyone should open and read it..

      the very end:

      Weiss emphasizes that “the issue wasn’t Israel; it was Rothman’s Arab and Muslim-baiting which offended Arab-Americans as much as Jews would be offended by an openly anti-Semitic candidate.”

      Weiss concludes and clearly wants to stress, that “Bill Pascrell did not win because of the Israel issue. He himself is pro-Israel, just not anti-Arab.”

      As Weiss reads the campaign, Pascrell won because of his own strong Get Out The Vote campaign, his door to door effort and “because he is an effective and strong progressive from a district that appreciates that.”

      Pascrelli’s victory was a surprise and it could be only an anomaly. Or, it could be the beginning of a new spirit in American politics in which AIPAC no longer controls Congress.

      my bold

  • 11-year-old seized from playground by undercover officers is now 'under investigation'
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 7:51 pm with 1 replies

      of course, stealing the children can be particularly effective. palestinians have demonstrated repeatedly to have an attachment to their own children.

  • Let's praise Zengerle's profile of Beinart
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 4:41 pm

      this is a really good article Ira and thank you for writing it.

      all in all i appreciated Zengerle’s article in many ways. almost more for what it didn't say than for what it did.

      andrew sullivan called out all of beinart's critics in a much more blatant way.

      But the vitriolic tenor of much of the criticism from the center-left has less to do with substance than with Beinart’s tone—a moral self-righteousness and an accompanying self-certainty.

      why can't he just admit for the most part it all ad hominems? it's really snootie stuff. they all sound very jealous and threatened while trying to act nonchalant. most of them sound like they have a big fat grudge. repeating that vaseline line was super sleezy.

      they have to face it, if there is going to be a 'liberal zionist' future it will look like beinart. goldberg, as far as i can tell, is a rightwinger in sheep's clothing. others are pack followers and too scared to fall out of line. even zengerle suffers from this affliction cushioning his deliveries.

      no one wants to seriously take beinart on over the issues and the club wants to pick it's own leaders, and they resent the american public choosing their leaders for them.

      beinart wants to have a dialogue within the jewish community, that's the community he feels a part of and wants to engage.

      well guess what? the conversation has moved past the confines of the jewish community, into a much larger arena that includes the rest of us, meaning americans. beinart is a jew they like, as opposed to say..goldberg? beirnart is moving the discourse precisely because he talks, to a certain degree, outside the normative standards of hasbara discourse. he's not cookie cutter, sounds like a real person and is perceived as such.

      bottom line one has to do more than accuse someone of being self-righteousness with an accompanying self-certainty, you have to demonstrate it. so what does one do? they turn on youtube and expect to find it. low and behold...he doesn't really come off that way. he just sounds like a normal person with a very big bone to pick. he's relate-able.

      so, to reiterate they (the pack) want to pick their leaders from their own courtier of options. this is definitely not a position that is up to the american public to decide if the pack had their druthers. i don't think beinart is going to be flinging himself into phil's arms, but there are other arms out there besides jewish arms and beinart could turn around one day and realize he's a popular figure to a broader american public. that's his somewhat untapped audience, outside of his own circles if he wants to really make a difference.

  • 22 congressional reps seek investigation into FBI 'outreach' that collected data on Muslims
  • Latest 'price-tag' attack targets coexistence village
    • Annie Robbins June 9, 2012 at 8:08 pm

      yossi gurvitz wrote about this today in Netanyahu uses illegal settlement affair to teach leftists a lesson

      link to 972mag.com

      this whole price tag thing is really sadistic.i keep coming back to that word lately.

  • Groundhog day at State: Settlements are 'nonconstructive,' Israel continues to construct
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 3:31 pm

      here's another classic nuland from december 21st embedded in Where's the proposal. lee really takes her to task, and this is just a smidgen of the discourse.

      MS. NULAND: Every situation is different. In this case, the answer to the problems in Israel with the Palestinian people can only be resolved when they sit down and talk to each other. They cannot be resolved in the Security Council. That’s our longstanding view. The Security Council can take action, we believe, on Syria. It can take action on other issues. So you need to use the appropriate tool at the appropriate time.

      QUESTION: Well, I don’t get it. Why can they take --

      MS. NULAND: I’m sorry you don’t get it.

      QUESTION: Why can they take action in Zimbabwe and Syria and they can’t take action in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

      MS. NULAND: It’s not going to lead to the result that we all want, which is --

      QUESTION: Well, it’s not going to lead to the result anywhere else, either .

      MS. NULAND: -- two states living side by side. Well, I’m sorry that you’re so cynical about the UN’s ability --

      QUESTION: I have one --

      MS. NULAND: -- to have an impact.

      Please.

      QUESTION: -- final question on this issue. Mr. Churkin, the Russian Ambassador, said that one delegation – meaning you – one delegation believes the thing will miraculously sort themselves out. Do you believe that things will miraculously sort themselves out on the Palestinian issue?

      MS. NULAND: There are no miracles to be had here. There is hard work to be done by the parties, supported by the international community. That is why we’ve been working so hard to try to get the Quartet proposal implemented, why our negotiator David Hale’s been in constant motion on these issues, and why we continue to talk to these parties and try to get them back to the table.

      Please.

      she's dripping with condescension "I’m sorry you don’t get it."

    • Annie Robbins June 9, 2012 at 11:15 pm

      Like Godzilla and a mouse negotiating over a banana.

      lol, good one phil

  • Barney Frank and Gary Ackerman push Obama to free Pollard
    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 8:22 pm with 2 replies

      i'll second what atime forpeace said grant. i have never told you before but i am in complete awe of what you do. it is a miracle you are still alive. thank you from the bottom of my heart.

    • Annie Robbins June 10, 2012 at 3:48 pm

      you might want to write adam and phil about possible tech issues. i have mentioned my recent problems to them (but then again w/the caveat i have been having computer issues on my end). but specifically my comment does not immediately appear as it always did in the past (with notice it is subject to moderator review), this is similar to what i am experiencing although my comments are not subject to review. i have gotten into the habit of just opening new page from my computers history function (where i was is first in line) every time i comment and then sometimes clicking the refresh.

      anyway, write adam and phil, they don't know about this stuff unless people tell them. plus, they are often very busy. last week felt hectic, so much news.

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