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Total number of comments: 7 (since 2012-03-31 09:29:41)

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• Obama was 'absolutely livid' when Dem platform didn't say Jerusalem is Israel's capital -- Villaraigosa
  • CarlK March 25, 2013 at 10:59 pm

    I cannot imagine what it's like to live a life almost completely devoid of honesty, sincerity or integrity. Obama must be a very special kind of person. I mean that in the very worst way.

• Obama gets it
  • CarlK March 24, 2013 at 9:54 am

    "One would hope that his words of support to Israel in the first part of the trip might similarly be designed to publicly pacify the Israeli right wing, while perhaps applying behind the scenes pressure to freeze settlements or to take other actions."

    "Applying pressure behind the scenes"?

    Just last week I read this:

    The US has announced that it will boycott the UN debate on the settlements, and also said it was “extremely troubling” that the council would even hold a hearing, saying it proved “bias” against Israel.

    link to haaretz.com

    It's hard to see how Obama might be applying pressure "behind the scene" when on the public stage, he won't even allow the subject to be debated (because his side would lose the debate).

  • CarlK March 24, 2013 at 9:43 am

    I'm not dumping on Phil, by the way. I have been taken in by Obama's speechifying in the past. In fact, I voted for him in 2008 largely based on his speech on race, delivered in Philadelphia after the Rev. Wright incident. If there's one thing Obama has taught us over the past four years, it's that his words should not be taken seriously, because they are always based on short-term expediency rather than conviction or commitment. At this point, it's doubtful that ANY American President could change America's course, but with Obama, a quintessential political coward, it's out of the question. I am ashamed of my 2008 vote.

  • CarlK March 23, 2013 at 4:31 pm with 4 replies

    Obama "gets it"? How many times must one listen to an Obama speech, only to see his actions betray everything he said in the speech -- how many times must this happen to understand that nothing Obama says means anything? Furthermore, the most important aspect of Obama's speech was analyzed by Professor Bromwich in the lead article -- Obama has now explicitly embraces Zionism, that is, the horribly destructive idea that political rights are based on ethnic identity. Notwithstanding the speech, we already know what will happen -- nothing will change, which means, more settlements, and more misery for the non-Jewish people of Palestine. Obama is a fraud, a Trojan horse.

    Finally, who cares what Obama says? Another thing we know is this: For there to be ANY progress toward justice, it will come not because of but despite the best efforts of politicians like Obama to stop it. Agonizing over the interpretation of an Obama speech is a complete waste of time, especially when it comes to the Middle East. Obama is irrelevant.

• Hagel offers himself as secretary of Israel's defense
  • CarlK January 31, 2013 at 9:09 pm with 1 replies

    There's always an excuse for a politician telling lies, wallowing in platitudes, regurgitating the conventional wisdom, etc. "For Hagel to get the job, he has to act this way. I think he’s caught between the need to toe the line/suck up (as instructed by his future boss) to get in, and his desire and tendency to offer up blunt observations." How many times have I heard that kind of explanation for a politician behaving in a way that is really inexcusable? (Lying is, or should be, inexcusable for a so-called public servant.)

    How about this an an explanation -- an explanation that's really almost too obvious to miss?

    He "acts this way" because he's a gutless coward, a shell of a man with no integrity?

    When other people "act this way," I don't see everyone engaging in intellectual contortions to find ways to excuse it. So why excuse it when it's a so-called "public servant" doing it? Why should these people be held to such a shockingly low standard, a standard that would be unacceptable in most areas of professional and personal life?

    The fact is, they "act this way" to get the job, then they continue to "act this way" to hold onto the job and that's why nothing ever changes.

    Why is "getting the job" more important than telling the truth, especially when a guy like Hagel has a captive audience of millions who are extraordinarily hungry for just a grain of truth, maybe, improbably, finally, once in a blue moon?

  • CarlK January 31, 2013 at 7:26 pm

    This illustrates why every minute spent thinking about an American politician is a minute wasted. The moment one of these gutless sociopaths gets close to real power, all his/her alleged principles and beliefs go right out the window. Every day, these spineless doormats put themselves on display, oozing false seriousness, and insult the intelligence of every American having a shred of moral or intellectual integrity. I'm sick of being insulted.

• 'The Crisis of Zionism' and the contradictions of Israel as a liberal democratic fantasy
  • CarlK April 4, 2012 at 8:27 am

    Zionism is an expression of ethnic nationalism -- the idea that a particular ethnic group has a right to rule -- in the name of the preferred ethnicity -- over every other ethnic group living within the relevant territory. The Jewish State is a State ruled by Jews for Jews on behalf of Jews.

    Even if no non-Jews were actually deprived of his/her rights in the Jewish State, the Jewish State would still, as a matter of principle, offend the most basic assumptions of liberalism.

    All talk of "liberal Zionism," even from apparently good people like Beinart, is an evasion, and therefore, a contribution to ongoing injustice.

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