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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
link to state.gov
Above is the link to the report which covers every country in the world except, of course, the USA.
Having read most of the report I conclude that you are correct that citizen has only read news articles on said report.
@eljay
Amen
For those who can penetrate the H'aretz paywall Gideon Levy has a great article about the arrest of Palestinian school children in Hebron.
link to haaretz.com
"Or a "boulder," as Amir Ofek puts it at one point."
Yes, I was facinated by the "boulder" as well alyhough in my experience exaggerating the size and danger of Palestinian missiles (i.e stones) is a normal hasbara tactic. Wikipedia defines boulder as a rock no less than 256cm (10 inches) in diameter. Palestinian children must be generally endowed with the strength of Samson to be able to use such weapons.
Thank you very much for that link. The decision in that case was made abundantly clear.
The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions and as far as I can see many liberals all over the west are still hard at work building that road towards intervention in Syria right now. R2P has been, is now and ever mopre shall be the liberal excuse for intervention in Iraq, Libya, Mali, Syria and in future in Iran.
It is in Ha'aretz though. link to haaretz.com
Unfortunately behind the pay wall.
There are two big lies from which all the other lies, evasions and condition flow.
1st the 19th centuary Zionist founding lie "A land without people for a people without a land".
2nd the 1948 lie "The Jews accepted the partition but the nasty Arabs told the Palestinians to get out of the way while their armies annahilated the Jews'.
All of the "Arab" populations under Ottoman rule wanted independence, which the British and French promised in return for assistance during WW1 and later access to oil and protection for the Suez Canal. The establishment of British or French Mandates after the war were a direct renunciation of that promise. In the meantime certain promises had also been made to the Zionists to support a national home for the Jews in Palestine. After WW2, when a war-weary and financially strapped Britain wanted to divest from its colonies, it was unable to keep the promises made to both Palestinians and Jews. The UN partition plan to create separate Arab and Jewish states was made to spare the blushes of the powerful permanent members of the security council rather than to protect the rights of either the Palestinians or the brualized European Jewish refugees. The Zionists had a plan to expel Palestinians and seize additional territory and their plan worked! Having grabbed maximum land with minimum Palestinians Ben Gurion el al could smile sweetly, with their fingers crossed behind their backs, and say "We accept the partition (for now, we will get the rest later when we have the numbers and the weapons)."
“madras” is a lightweight cotton or silk fabric.
or a curry.
Whatever EUR1069 thanks for the laugh.
Thank you Annie. I will have to study this in more depth.
Nice paraphrasing there Denis but of course Inskeep didn't say that last bit as 'everybody' knows Palestinians do not exist and nonexistent people cannot lose anything. I have to assume that NPR feels that they can afford to ignore the tone of most of the commentators because they have been reading the same poll as Ha'aretz has under the headline "On the eve of Obama visit, US public's support for Israel reaches all time high" link to haaretz.com
Thanks Vicki I did. Here are the final 2 paragraphs of Yossi Sarid's article in Ha'aretz today on the same subject.
link to haaretz.com
Annie, this article in Ha'aretz about Obama's visit to the Church of the Nativity has some very interesting comments attached which make your fears seem quite reasonable. link to haaretz.com
6. Are absentee ballots permitted?
Israeli law does not provide for absentee ballots and in general, voting takes place only on Israeli soil. Exceptions are made for Israeli citizens serving abroad on official business who can vote in 96 Israeli embassies and consulates or on Israeli ships.
link to mfa.gov.il
So Israel;i citizens outside of Israel cannot vote unless they are on official business or living in the occupied territories.
Article in Ha'aretz on the death of Muhammad Asfour. The interesting bit is the comments.
link to haaretz.com
Great comment Ecru. May I stash it in a file for use in future please.
Agreed Ramzi. From the very beginning of the Zionist project its architects have sought, and found, powerful backers among the gentile nations. Israel depends, for its existence, on the support of the US, in particular, and other western nations. Should the kind of anti-semitism arise which necessitates Jews to flee their homes in New York, London, Paris or Sydney Israel will become a prison camp and killing field for Jews as the Palestinians and surrounding nations take revenge for Israeli arrogance.
Urges that, if the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in self-defense, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.
If the Government of Israel were to be genuinely compelled to take military action in self defense there is no doubt that the US and a number of other countries would provide diplomatic, military and economic support so the resolution is redundant. What the resolution actually says is "If Israel commits the ultimate war crime by attacking another country (Iran) the US will have already agreed to be fully complicit in said crime."
Jonothan Pollard is not an "alledged" spy. He is a convicted spy and Israel admitted he was spying for them.
"Jews,like all peoples, have every right to defend themselves against an enemy".
OK I can agree with that, but this Amalek/Haman thing is scary to me as a gentile. Netanyahu has a tendency to toss 'Amalek' around quite often and fairly randomly, as far as I am concerned. I do see a logical problem here as well -m Jews are clearly a genocidal enemy of the Amalekites who also have 'right to defend themselves'.
" (Keep in mind he is banned from entry by Britain because of racist incitement. Why not the U.S. as well?) "
I have been most firmly informed on other threads on a number of websites that this is because the US, unlike other countries, is FREE. I don't know how this freedom fits with trying to deny entry to a Palestinian Oscar nominee - but the being neither American or Jewish I'm probably not terribly clever.
Great comment, I had a good chuckle!
On a more serious note the 'replacement theory' of political, religous and cultural change has lost a lot of its authority in recent years. Hebrew scripture is the first written enunciation of this theory (that I know of anyway) i.e. the Israelites completely replaced the Caananites, Hivites, Hittites and all the other ...ites. Modern archaeology (not conducted by Jewish or Christian Zionists) suggests that the Israelites were a Caananite tribe, or collection of tribes. Modern Palestinian 'Arabs' are almost certainly the decendants of the earliest humans to settle in the area plus all the other peoples that have conquered or traded or settled in the area. When the Arabian armies conquered the area a few more Arabian bloodlines were added to the mix, many Christian Palestinians converted to Islam just as many Jewish Palestinians converted to Christianity when that became the official religion of Rome. Arabic also largely replaced Aramaic, Greek, Latin as the dominant language.
While it is perfectly true that Judaism has been practiced continuosly in the area since its invention it is not true to claim that all modern Jews have their ancestral roots there. A hint of ancient Caanan sure - religions, especially minority religions, do not spread by magic, but most of the worlds Jews are likely to share the bloodlines of the societies in which their more recent ancestors lived.
It is also up on Ha'aretz.
link to haaretz.com
That was my thought too seafoid.
There are also physical reasons for dominance in some sports. Ancestral physical environment influenced the lifestyle and hence genetic selection of those whose physical atributes were most successful. An example, from the other hemishere, is the preponderance of Polynesians and part Polynesians in rugby in rugby. Srange as it may seem Polynesians are heavily cold adapted because to colonise scatted islands they had to sail and it is always cold at night on the sea so without fur-bearing mammal skins for clothing people with lots of fast-twitch muscle fibres for effective shivering survived best.
"Only two weeks ago, on February 6, justices Asher Grunis, Hanan Melcer and Noam Sohlberg turned down a petition by four human rights groups demanding the annulment of a 2003 law letting the police forgo the filming or audiotaping of security suspects' interrogations. The organizations also asked the court to require the Shin Bet to visually document the questioning of suspects. The justices said that because the law was now under scrutiny, “the time has not yet come to examine the petitioners’ arguments themselves.” "
The above quote is from an article in Ha'retz today. Obviously no recordings are made so there is no evidence of the guilt of "the most moral security force in the world".
link to haaretz.com
Another great article by Amira Hass has just come up on Ha'aretz.
link to haaretz.com
Maybe it wasn't a mistake. A great number of Israeli actions recently seem to be designed to provoke a new violent Palestinian intifada. The current round of protests, especially erecting tents on their own lands, and the nominations of 5 Broken Cameras & Gatekeepers for the Oscars have been horribly embarassing for Israel.
As I see it the purpose of the BDS movement is to
1) draw attention, both inside Israel and in the wider world, to Israel;i abuses of Palestinians
2) as the boycotts (hopefully) take hold among the public start to affect the economics of companies selling Israeli products or undertaking contracts in Israeli and especially the occuipied territories, which will then
3) (again hopefully) lead to affected companies putting pressure on their home countries' governments to stop their support of Israel's behaviour.
When (if) the movement gains sufficient support it will adversly affect alll Israelis, regardless of their political opnions, and Palestinians as well. In that sense BDS is something of a blunt instrument but it is still preferable IMOH to another violent uprising by Palestinians which have generally tended to elicit sympathy for Israelis.
It is unimaginable that any senior politician in Australia would speak like Goff: "We’re not prepared to see friendly countries act in that sort of criminal way against us."
Sadly I am no longer certain that senior politicians in New Zealand would speak this way now, unless the story was out in the public domain where the voters could put pressure on them. Don't forget that this is the same Phil Goff who chaired the international commitee looking into the Marvi Marmara incident, which concluded that Israel was justified in its actions.
"Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad" seems to apply to Israel at the moment. The Zionist are either suffering from "we are untouchable" hubris or they can see that the end is coming and have decided that they may as well be hung as sheep rather than lambs.
The lack of attention to Palestinians by Amnesty International and other humanitarian agencies leads to a lack of attention from the international media. Only by reading alternative sites such as Mondoweiss, Common Dreams or Electronic Intifada can people like me become aware of the plight of the hunger strikers like Ayman and Samer and the others or the many Palestinianm men, women and children held in administrative detention by Israel without trial or even charge.
Compare this with the coverage of Prisoner X aka Ben Zygier/Alon/Allen since ABC's investigative report aired in Australia on Tuesday. Ben Zygier is, of corse, Jewish and also has dual Australian/Israeli citizenship and therfore is a real person. Even an article by Peter Beaumont in Wednseday's Guardian on the subject of Israel's treatment of prisoners fails to mention the dying Palestinian hunger strikers.
link to guardian.co.uk
I read your article as satire - was I wrong to do so?
In a sense containment by the USSR also worked against the US. The US has become ever more enthusiastic about military actions since the demise of the USSR.
"and i want a pledge from any advocates for military action against a ‘nuclear’ iran that they are willing to shed their blood or the blood of their service-age relations in that military action."
"Aye, there's the rub." Within living, but fast dying off, memory the sons of wealth, priviledge and political power, risked life and limb leading their nations armies. Go a little further back in history and those armies would be led by the king himself. The risks borne by the powerful never prevented war but at least gave the rulers pause to consider whether there was another, less risky, option. Now, especially in the US, war is promoted by those who have not only never served in the armed forces but by those who have actively avoided doing so. (J.Kerry & J. McCain are exceptions)
A good deal of the B & D part of BDS needs to be aimed at people and companies outside of Israel. Large scale refusal to buy goods or services from companies which operate in the Occupied Territories (or even within Israel) will change the mindset and political orientation of said companies. If 1 in 100 US citizens decided to newly boycott Israeli goods and services that would be a drop of 3 million customers, and don't forget BDS is a worldwide movement. Folks with pension funds or students at universties can pressure administrators to divest fron unethical investments. Etc, etc ... It is ultimately more important to whittle away at the economic and political support from the US, EU, Canada etc than to go after Israel and its Jewish population directly.
BDS Israel is, like the anti-apartheid movement, an international citizens movement whose aim is to change the behaviour and attitude of the government and Jewish citizens of Israel and their supporters, state, group or individual, worldwide. I hope it grows and succeeds, in spite of the pain, because the alternative is much worse. The zionist project to create a Jewish state was begun at the height of European colonialism, when it seemed that European domination of non-European territories and populations would be permanent. By the time Israel actually became a state that domination was fading fast, and, inspite of the power of the US, EU etc is still declining. Israel is not an isolated Australia or New Zealand rather it resemles British India or French Algeria, now buried in the pages of history, whose passing was anything but peaceful. Israel cannot exist as it is, where it is without the support and protection of great powers whose influence is in rapid decline.
Thank you for your posts here Hostage. I thought of saying something similar but I don't have the references at my fingertips, nor am I as eloquent as organised as you.
"But it is important to recall that the original Zionist idea was that a Jewish state was needed to provide a refuge from the scourge of anti-Semitism."
A logical but impractical idea since there was nowhere to create a Jewish state without gross interference with some other people's property, political, social and religious rights. Or, as my late (English) father-in-law once put it "Britain's decision to support a state for the Jews was a noble one, but Kent was not offered".
I fear that in the long term the creation of Israel may turn out to be the worst thing that ever happened to the Jews.
Given this list of treaties and conventions that the US has refused to ratify & in some cases even sign maybe the US and Israel do share values. link to secularhumanism.org
Marc I read the article yesterday in Ha'aretz and was also puzzled by the idea that the "reasonable & proportionate fear" felt by these farmers should be regarded in somewhat the same way as Floridians fear of hurricanes or Californians of earth quakes - justified sure but unavoidable. The settlers are simply a force of nature which cannot be constrained by the mere humans in the police & IDF. Of course had it been Palestinians harrassing Jews whole villages would have been locked down and every male between the ages of 10 & 70 arrested and questioned until somebody or bodies confessed.
The Palestians are the "chosen people". They ere chosen for eviction and oppression by the Zionists, the British, the UN the US etc and the signatures of provably real (human) beings are all over the documentation.
link to google.co.nz
Have a look at some other Scarfe cartoons - large & red noses are frequent. At least he hasn't portrayed Netanyahu biting someone's head off as he did with Thatcher.
Phil I definately agree you need to interrogate the belief that the safety of Jews depends on the exixtence of a Jewish state. The fact is that the creation of the state of Israel caused a huge rise in anti-Semitism amongst Arabs and Muslims and its ongoing behaviour is causing an increasing loss of sympathy in the west.
Rights are such problematic things. So often the rights of one are irreconsilable with those of another, as is the case with Israel/Palestine.
"...there is in history no right of return." says Roger Cohen. So Palestinians driven from their homes and their decendants have no right to return to their former homes in Israel even though they know exactly where those homes are, and, in some cases, have documentary evidence of ownership.
The Likud charter states that “Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.”
The logic of this "unassailable right" is that Judaism arose in this land, members of this faith lived here and, sometimes, had political control here.
So the competing "rights" come down to these: Palestinian - "I have the right to return to a specified location" versus Jew-"I have the right to live in this land because I am a Jew, although I do not know exactly where, or even if, any of my ancestors lived in the land".
The former would seem to be the stronger claim with the exception of Palestinian Jews whos forebears were resident prior to the inception of the Zionist colonisation project.
"Where was he for 55 years when it was “politically correct” to L*O*V*E Israel?"
To be politically incorrect, my guess would be "happy as a pig in muck".
I can watch it here link to thedailyshow.com online in New Zealand.
The Zionist dream of a Jewish state required a large amount of gentile political support to get started. The state of Israel has been sustained by American power and European guilt, both of which are now fading. When that sustenance is withdrawn Israel will fail. I hope it does so relatively quietly but I fear the "Samson option" which would destroy the land for the foreseeable future, drasically affect the rest of the world and critically endanger diaspora Jews.
"Arab" like "European" is a collective noun covering the inhabitants of a number of different countries with similar, but distinct, cultures. Unlike "europeans" "arabs" have a common language - arabic - which, like other widespread languages, has distict regional variations. A number of "arab countries" also have minority populations with their own languages and cultures.
Thank you for the lingustic exercise. Given the ubiquity of chickpeas throughout the Mediterranean area I have to assume that the ancient Hebrews had a word for thyem - any clues?
I just looked up the fate of Israeli settlements and settlers in Sinai in 1982. Compensation was paid to the settlers by Israel not the US, however the US did pay for the relocation of Israeli military installations. Needless to say relocating the military cost more than three times as much as relocating the settlers. What wonderful generous people you Americans are!
link to washingtoninstitute.org
Reminds me of "recovered memories" of alien abduction or Satanic ritual abuse.
There appears to have been at least one privilage granted to Jews as a whole - the right to charge interest on mney lent. Of course only Jews who had money could take advantage of this privilage. I'm sure it also led to a number of episodes of persecution. Refusal to lend to the powwerful was not an option, but persecution of the lenders was if the borrower could not or did not want to pay up. We are all too aware these days how much money can be made in banking and wealth always attracts envy and hatred. Accusing individuals or communities of unspeakable crimes in order to confiscate their wealth is an old, old trick which was used against a number of targets including, but not restricted to, Jews. The best known case of persecution of a non-Jewish group in the name of money would be the accusation of heresy against the Knights Templar.
Get an i-phone 5 - I'm sure Apple can relocate Israel to a more salubrious neighbourhood :)
Here is a quote from 972 quoting Yedioth Ahronoth's coverage:
In the accompanying story, N. describes how after she and her partner stopped Sleima, she went to get a form to fill out and “suddenly I heard them fighting. I saw the Palestinian knock the soldier down and point a pistol at him.” She tells how she “had no time to think, I had to act in a split second or my partner would have been hurt,” and it’s only afterward, near the end of the story this time, that the detail about the gun being a toy is mentioned.
No hesitation, in a "split second" she found and took a safe shot. Such heroism!! or maybe terrorism.
Great comment!
Thanks Annie. I read the article and the comments. As usual there were some decent comments, including suggestions that the Judge's pronouncements would reflect badly on Jews as whole, and one pig ignorant one suggesting that Pakistanis are arabs along with the usual rubbish about there being nobody in Palestine before the Jews returned to claim it.
The sad fact is that many non-jewish non-zionists willget a negative impression of all Jews from comments like those of the Judge not realising that ther are other Jews, like yourself, Amira Hass and most of those on the Mondoweiss site who have very different opinions.
That would impress all the world foodoo but sadly it won't happen.
From a Zionist viewpoint changing borders and ethno-religous make up of the population of the area is no problem, providing that they have the power, and powerful support to do so. This article shows how the UN partition plan for Palestine was pre-empted before the actual partition link to representativepress.org .
If you want a look at Palestine before the Jewish take over go to link to lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com (thanks Mooser)
So can I take it that the substance of Bezion Netanyahu's take on the Spanish Inquisition is that it was primarily aimed at exterminating Jews? (No I am not going to read his book(s) etc, I don't have sufficient life expectancy).
The stated aim of the Holy Inquisition everywhere was to wipe out heresy among Christians, where heresy is defined as any thinking outside the box imposed by Holy Church. The unstated aim was the acquisition of wealth and power by the Church. The desire for the property of others has been a major (and sometimes the major) factor in many instances of persecusion and mass killing. Whilst Jews have been persecuted at times in Christian Europe there have been other times when being the wrong kind of Christian has been more dangerous than being Jewish.
Liberal Zionism is an oxymoron every bit as much as liberal Islamophobia, or liberal Judeophobia for that matter. Liberalism in general has a strong tendency to get wrecked on the rocks of self-interest or personal prejudice.
Once again thank you. I have bookmarked his home page for future reference.
Excellent link Mooser. Thank you.
Did the US not try hard enough or is it losing its influence over Europe as it has long done over Israel?
To my delighted surprise I learned this morning that NZ will vote in favour of Palestine. I had expected us to wimp out and abstain as usual. Also Australia has been forced to abstain rather than vote no by a revolt in PM Gillard's party.
The op-ed is an abomination but scroll down to the comments. I expected to find many comments suporting Gilad Sharon (it is the J'Post after all) but surprisingly many comment expressed horror at his ideas and those were the comments most likely to get a "like".
A lot stronger than any connection with up coming Israeli elections as far as I can see from regular reading of Haaretz and occaisional glances at the Jerusalem Post. It looks as if Netanyahu will probably win the elections with an increased number of seats for the new Halikud Beitenu party. On the other hand Palestine's upgrade to non-state member status at the UN terrifies them. I sincerly hope that Abbas will not back down this time.
The link is still acccessible where I am in New Zealand. Are you guys getting censored a la China?
I happened to catch that live in one of my brief looks at Fox. Poor Karl - what a time for Fox to actually do "fair and balanced".
For an Israeli take on the "visitors are required to wear uniform & carry a gun" go to Noam Sheizaf's article in 972.
link to 972mag.com
Thank you - that saved me some typing.
I think you are probably right about Ramadan but when you think of how many pilgrims, of several faiths and sects, have been captured or killed in recent years you would have to assume that the merit gained from the pilgrimage makes it worth the risk.
Try link to thedailyshow.com That works in New Zealand