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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Less a question perhaps of doing anything so much as allowing some things to happen unimpeded. All ME countries and their citizens, including Iran and Iranians but excepting Israel, favour the positive establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction. The Saudis might call a global conference to discuss this with the US abstaining in deference to Israel rather than putting a spanner in it.
Another possibility altogether is that this result may be very much what Obama has been hoping for, providing as it does the chink of an exit from the cul-de-sac in which largely Zionist factors are herding him.
Whatever gloss the media put on it, Obama's florid obeisance before Tel Aviv on his long awaited visit was so over the top one could scarcely escape suspecting his fingers to be firmly crossed the while.
Obama knows how to employ time, which largely means waiting patiently for the moment to strike, meanwhile bending like the bamboo or, less poetically, like Harold Macmillan during the worst moments of the cold war.
The IP issue on which our attention is focused, like the smallest of a nest of Russian dolls, nestles within the larger issue of Zionist influence in so may levels of the US social and political system, and that itself lies within the larger corruption of a political system open to such influences, and not only from Zionists. Nor is that necessarily the last doll because similar fault lines are visible in a many Western democracies.
If, six months or so hence, there is a degree of understanding between the US and Iran, and there are many scenarios that might find their way there because everyone, even the most avid hawk, knows Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon program and the whole 'problem' is a consciously activated fantasy intended to accommodate purposes no longer quite as practical as heretofore, then one of the Zionist's chief trumps will be have been finessed and the bought and sold legislature can continue to ply Israel with Iron Domes etc. to the ever increasing frustration of hard pressed US citizens. Meanwhile, back on the farms, distrust for Israel's behaviour and flaunting of international law will continue to unfold. Well, one can dream.
Myhem, Can one interpret the intent of this expression to be anything other than to get rid of the Jews from Israel?...The human rights of Israeli Jews don’t matter Re-read your own quote; it is not Israel the lady is saying they seek to decolonise, it is Palestine.
One thing I find confusing is this business about a home for the Jewish people. Many Jews aspire to this (Peter Beinart talks about it chokingly in connection with his aspirations for his son) but few define exactly what it is supposed to mean. Is it a spiritual home, a place for prayer and pilgrimage, in which case it doesn't need exclusively Jewish temporal administration, or a settlers' land-grab, or a bit of both? Would anyone care to clarify this in sound bite terms?
The kids look like they are in a kindergarten play. None has the faintest idea what they are spouting but they come in on cue and look kind of cute; their parents should be bum clenchingly proud of them. The adults on the other are a bit embarrassing, they are far too old for that kind of thing strike one as plain bananas.
@giladg. Come, come, 'apartheid' means enforced separation.
Or perhaps they feared if they didn’t release him a change of venue would be bound to happen.
This is heartening and important but the real moment will arrive when the Europeans are released from their US dog collars, which will happen as soon as the US relaxes its grip on them because then their reluctant toleration of Israel's behaviour will vanish overnight regardless of whether US subsidies continue to flow to Tel Aviv.
I don't really believe the US deliberately finances settlement expansion or any of Israel's horrors, some US citizens do and they have influence but Israel’s bad behaviour and defiance of international law can hardly of themselves serve US foreign policy objectives. What is important, of course, is having Israel as a quasi-Western ally and buffer in that particular area at this particular time. Just now, the Syrian government, which the US seeks to overthrow, has recaptured the key city of Qusayr on the Lebanese border from the mixed bag of revolutionaries, a circumstance that threatens to bring direct US military intervention a degree closer and further complicate US relations with almost everyone, particularly Russia, but also an increasing number at home. It is scarcely possible for the US to act in direct opposition to Israel at the moment, whatever she does. But Obama could give Europeans a nudge and a wink and not intervene if they drift away from their regrettable neutrality.
It is more effective to abuse children because the abuse reverberates upwards and outwards through their extended families and beyond. There is also quite likely an element of paedophilic sadism involved.
You cannot win exchanges with people like that, replying only dignifies their nonsense. I think they get a kick out of throwing their comments into the pool and watching evryone get riled up.
The real issue is whether the future of The Holy Land will be calm and peaceful, or plain bloody; the rest is filling in time, and one can understand why, aside from those ‘shared values’ most of which others would be reluctant to confess to, the US and Israel each burn their candles at both ends:
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!
Hamas should get hold of some and Qassam it instead of explosives. They could even recruit 'suicide' stinkers who needn't kill anyone and might even return alive. I wonder if it's possible to develop a 'white scent', similar to white noise, that would cancel malodorous IOF effusions.
It also refers to …the necessity of destroying the site to protect
themselves from the fighters inside… which sounds a bit like a rapist defending himself for strangling his victim ‘because she was attacking him.
Soon it won't be any big deal to be accused of antisemitism; recipients of the label will just shrug their shoulders, you can't spend your life walking on egg shells. Besides, I don't see why anyone who is genuinely and actively antisemitic should seek to deny it.
When asked by the priest on his deathbed to renounce Satan, Voltaire rejoined, This is no time to be making enemies. What is interesting, of curse, is one cannot renounce something in which one does not believe.
one is a moral injunction, the other practical advice
Don't you think morality is practical? One way or the other, this particular injunction Israelis appear to treat like a UN Resolution.
That's it, is it? What we regard as morality has been embedded in Western culture since the Hesiod; in our music, art. religion. The ancient Egyptian dead were deemed to be judged on their living behavior. Even when people do wrong, they are conscious that they do so. That doesn't seem to apply to Israelis. I was simply asking if there exists anything similar to that tradition in Judaism as the author here seems to suggest among his extensive, informed and otherwise impressive perceptions. Personally I find the proposition neither demonstrable nor relevant. However, thank you for your answer.
195-200...slip of the pen...
Judaism is a religion distinguished by its emphasis on justice and humanity.
Yes, I have sought evidence of this claim in these pages but found none. It shouldn’t be that difficult since there exists unequivocal evidence in other religions. The absence of anything as clear as the injunction Do unto others…, and what I assume to be a fairly normal familiarity with the earlier chapters of the Old Testament incline me to the suspicion that it is not so. Obviously there have always been, and are, many Jews distinguished in that way but that does not justify attributing their virtues to Judaism itself. The debate as to whether good or evil ‘more abound’ in man is anything but new; see Theseus on the subject in Euripides’ The Suppliants (lines 165-200)
link to perseus.tufts.edu
It is a comforting perspective but it bothers me. The Western powers bear some responsibility but that is not the same as guilt. Their responsibility arises from not having thought their actions through in their anxiety to escape the persistence of a relatively small, but influential and mercilessly tiresome, Zionist consortium.
It is fashionable today for many Jews to hijack WWII and argue that it was all a vast conspiracy against them. This is simply not true but because the real circumstances are obscured by time and the endless repetition of that particular falsehood it has become widely accepted
The idea that Americans or Brits feel, or ever felt, a sense of guilt for the historical treatment of Jewish people is fanciful. I know no one nor have I ever met anyone with such a sense of guilt. We were shocked and horrified at images from the camps but those emotions were aroused by such graphic evidence of Man’s potential for inhumanity, they were sobering but not grounds for guilt.
I doubt it entered any non-Zionist head that things would turn out as they have. On the contrary, after the shared and sobering slaughter of some 60 million (2.5% of the global population at the time) and the awesome reality of the first atomic bombs, the hope and expectation was for a new beginning, a fresh start…
Jon S, Sorry not clear.
It should be possible to accommodate Jewish aspirations to Jerusalem with some area similar to the Holy See. It wouldn’t need to be exclusive to Jews so much as a focus point for their religious aspirations.
The present standoff between Arabs and the West is I believe exacerbated, if not entirely caused, by the conjunction of US imperialism and Israeli territorial indignities in Palestine. They are separate, of course, but appear symbiotic in a significant manner and they both arouse symbiotic antipathy manifesting most obviously in the actions of religious fundamentalists.
From my perspective the present situation is already festering and its ugliest next manifestation will be increased terrorism, and increased anti-Semitism such as we see in Hungary already.
Seafold, But that’s not really a problem. As far as I can see, all Jews regardless of where they personally want to live hanker with varying degrees of intensity for some central place that fulfills their special socio/religious needs just as Catholics have the Vatican and Arabs have Mecca. The trouble starts when that combines with aggressively expansionist temporal ambitions. There is nothing particularly new about this admixture but it belongs to an earlier era, it’s out of date. It is arguable that Arab fundamentalism in its ugly current form is in large part a response to the unhealthy marriage of US imperialism and Jewish religious fundamentalism.
What might be a solution is two Jewish states, one religious and peaceful, like the Vatican, based in and around the temple ruins and the other somewhere quite other dedicated to more worldly pursuits.
As a complete outsider, I would suggest the basic problem is forever the attempt to introduce a Jewish state into a non-Jewish area. If Jews really want a state of their own, and why not, then they could found it elsewhere. There remain areas in Africa and South America that might accommodate, even welcome, such a state, with its mother country in the borders defined for it at the end of WW II. Something like what happened to the Holy See in 1929. And before everyone leaps up in the air, pause to consider that passionate resistance to the suggestion is precisely what I say, ‘the basic problem’
I visited a Kibbutz near Jericho in 1971. Since I am averse to both socialism and liberalism I found it refreshingly illuminating that their aggressive communality was financed by growing long-stemmed Baccara roses for the flower markets of Manhattan.
PS. In case you may be speculating on the subsequent fate of that portion of pizza, all I can say is that fortunately he is married.
I would like to say one other thing about Hawking. I have never met him but I do know other physicists equally renowned though not so famous, and I assure you there is great deal of validity in the stereotype of the absent-minded professor. It is difficult for ordinary folk to realise how little of their minds is actively engaged in what we see as the real world. I once had a meal with one such in a pizzeria a short walk from his office. He talked incessantly and there was still a good piece left on his plate when it came time to leave; still expounding, he picked it up and moved to put it in his jacket pocket but paused and frowned until his eyes settled on the napkin and then his eyebrows rose and his head lifted fractionally. In a flash the pizza was in the napkin and in his pocket and his exposition continued virtually uninterrupted. That was a Friday and I was in his office again the following Monday. He was illustrating on a large blackboard when the chalk broke. He patted his pocket, frowned, and withdraw the napkin which I recognised. He regarded it briefly, clearly having no notion what it was or how it got there, then he put it back, found a piece of chalk in his other pocket and continued his exposition. I really don’t imagine Hawking spent much time thinking about the conference. He had more likely accepted casually and quite forgotten about it until he got those messages from his peers when he was quite glad to have an excuse to cancel an attendance that would anyway have taken up valuable time and involved considerable logistical hassle. It’s the rest of the world that interprets it as a political gesture.
The Dershowitz and Beinart positions on what fuels the BDS movement and associated activities are not mutually exclusive, they overlap. One may be unsympathetic about Israel while holding one, the other, both or neither position. Dershowitz is quite right that there is a lot of anti-Semitism around, both latent and active, but it didn’t come into existence with the state of Israel and some may consider his lumpen personal attack on Hawking actually serves to encourage it by reflecting a regrettable stereotype. The same is true for his spurious reasoning about Kurds, Armenians, etc., none of whom is supported by US tax payers or aspiring to full acceptance in the Western world. Beinart, on the other hand, strikes me as a harmless aspirant for having his cake and eating it.
The notion that something has to be done and Obama is somehow culpable for not doing it is worthy of scrutiny. We live in a post-mechanistic world where it is no longer possible accurately to predict what will happen on a broader canvas when we do this or that. What many criticise as Obama’s inaction or meaningless gestures has, over time, allowed the issue of Israeli activities in Palestine to become a topic open to much wider debate and concern than was the case only a few years ago. In fact, it is arguable that despite the relentless construction of illegal settlements and the oppression of the indigenous people, Israel is a good deal more vulnerable today that she was three or four years ago, and her vulnerability increases as the number of criticisms and reactive gestures mount from all directions. Although the cohorts are still dispatched to respond to explicit negativity, the fact of the matter is that no country actively supports what Israel is doing. That means she currently enjoys less support than fascism in the early part of the last century. It seems to me quite appropriate for Obama to back away from direct involvement and leave matters largely in the hands of the international community and the younger generation of Israelis. Obviously no one will be allowed to attack Israel militarily, that would be counter productive and it also means Israel must be deterred from attacking anyone else and thereby provoking a military response leading to the same end. That’s a delicate balancing act, particularly with all the other distractions in the area and on the wider canvas, and from my perspective he is managing it pretty well.
There is classic pattern in human endeavour, someone once described it to me as a ‘spiral of achievement’, where a purpose is undertaken single-mindedly and climbs a long way in a relatively short time until unable to continue indefinitely it reaches its furthest point and begins to slip back. It rarely returns to the point it started and in the long-term its achievement is the difference between where it began and where it settles back. This is not a rule or law so much as a way of thinking about
endeavours which, beyond a certain point, find themselves progressing with insufficient regard for innumerable factors outside their particular path. At a certain point external indifference becomes attention, support begins to fall away like leaves in autumn, and opposition develops, all a bit like a rising level of neighbourhood noise. Applying this to Israel, one might argue Israelis have taken the Zionist dream about as far as they can and there is nowhere to go other than in a western democratic direction since, in this particular location, genocide and apartheid can really only be considered dialectically.
I imagine it’s exactly what Obama hopes for; potent international forces mustering against Israel while his hands stay clean. After all, it’s only Israel's security he is pledged to protect, not their political, social, cultural, or economic standing.
Miriam, The treatment Israel meets out to Palestinians and others disturbs an increasing number. Sanctions are a modern version of the timeless practice of ostracism. States are inanimate entities and if they come to support sanctions against Israel will be because they are democracies responding to the wishes of their citizens just as some commercial and other entities respond to their customers and members. Meanwhile, individuals, like Hawking, are free surely to demur at behavior they personally find offensive.
What is truly saddening is this recurrent Israeli claim that one should not condemn actions if some other entity does the same or worse. You don’t need to be a philosopher, let alone a “Swiss-Israeli psychologist, philosopher, existential psychoanalyst and public intellectual”, to realize such an approach, widely adopted, would spiral humanity to a sub-brute level in less than a generation. Morality is the nisus we all have to resist that spiral. Why can these people not see it is not Israel that is in existential danger but its repellant behavior.
link to ynetnews.com
What an extraordinary distortion of the English language!
The Guardian is running a poll, and earlier today the support was 76% positive on his decision. It has now dropped and I imagine cadres being mustered to oppose.
link to guardian.co.uk
I don’t know, Annie, I have been trimming almond trees most of the day, and I live with only 1 MG of internet so my connections are erratic. My point, however, is that the US does not support Israel because of Zionism. Zionism serves US foreign policy precisely and only because Israel acts as a ME buffer against the Arab world. Rome used various Gallic tribes on its north eastern borders in a similar manner. It allowed them influence and even, clad in animal skins, seats among more savoury ambassadors at the Games. By extension, I believe the ‘dreaded’ lobby currently serves US foreign policy interests. That is why it is tolerated. The US aligns itself with allies entirely pragmatically, indeed some it can even war against and support concurrently, vide Al Qaeda in Yemen and Syria. The Palestinians are totally out of the picture, they are supported by no nation state. The appeal of their predicament is not rooted in policy or even, for that matter, religion; they are collateral victims in an hegemonic struggle and will only emerge from what Western liberals view as appalling oppression when the objectives of that struggle change. Which they will. What is at issue is US standing and influence. When that standing and influence are seriously under threat the policy will be reconsidered and then we will see change. As I have said before, Israel is not a Jewish/US problem nor even a US problem, it has become a problem for Western ‘civilisation’. Its policies undermine everything we try to cling to in this vale of tears, they undermine our moral and cultural evolution. Their days are numbered: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin
Annie, My reply seems to have been moderated away, but if you keep six hens and a cockerel you bear responsibility for disturbing neighbors at dawn.
link to nytimes.com
link to articles.latimes.com
At Obama’s first meeting with Netanyahu, the cards were distributed somewhat differently. The Arab nations were fairly subdued, the Saudi royals had a few years left in them, US influence in the area was of a different order, and Obama himself was bushy-tailed. The circumstances are quite other today, the tail is drooping and Israel is more needed, not for its Zionism but for the overlapping of its regional interests with US purposes. I don’t seriously believe Obama has much idea how to respond to the evolving ME but I doubt it strikes him as a good time to ruffle Israeli feathers, particularly when the rest of the world draws closer to doing that anyway.
The Israeli Defense Forces…carried out a second consecutive strike on targets within Syria’s territory. The aim was reportedly Fateh-110 missiles Israeli sources said were meant for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, considered as a terrorist group by Tel Aviv
link to rt.com
The US wants the Assad regime overthrown, they’ve said it often enough. Israel Bombing Syria serves that. ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’, but it isn’t defending itself, it’s aggressively attacking Syrian government military establishments, so far twice. Such actions are only possible with the US countenancing them, they broadly suit US purposes so they happen, if they didn’t, they wouldn’t. Does anyone really think Obama woke up exclaiming, “Israel has bombed Syria? Heavens above, who would have thought it!”
… and, Samud, of course Israel has a stake and interest in attacking Syria but neither would normally be deemed justification for doing so.
US and Israeli interests overlap for now but they do not coincide.
At a more immediate level, the tide is running in favour of the Zionist dream. This has little if anything to do with Zionism but vividly illustrates the importance of Israel to the US which even now has it intervening in an overwhelming powerful manner in the affairs of neighbouring Syria under the dubious pretext of destroying arms shipments from Hezbollah. While the US needs and is using Israel for such purposes, is it conceivable that Obama would start criticising Zionist settlement expansion or the actions of its virtually renegade police. The Palestinians are, alas, the ongoing victims of realpolitik.
I would suggest that things are changing; the price Zionists, extreme or liberal, will eventually pay for the loss of their dream grows comparatively greater. Remember the story of the Sibylline books, how the priestess offered all nine to Tarquin for a sum he rejected as too great, so she burned three and offered him the remaining six for the same amount, and again he turned her away, so she burned three more and proffered the last three for the very same price. Then he agreed.
@pablemont. Obama has made it clear that his approach to dealing with the exigencies of the overseas world is to ’lead from behind’. This encompasses not only using sticks and carrots to get US purposes fulfilled but also simply allowing things to happen, and not disrupting their development. There is nothing the US can do to stop Europe from progressively turning its back on Israel, and it will happen. As I have often written before, this is not an American Jewish problem, nor is it an American problem. It has become a problem for Western ‘civilisation’. And Western ‘civilisation’ will respond to it; is already beginning to do so. Whatever the future holds, allowing that process to take its course is the least bloody way out of the mess.
Aside from Zionist interpolations this site used to entertain a higher level of rationality. Emotions are like wild horses and need to be controlled by the reins of reason. Hasbara relies exclusively on the irrational, mythopeic, religious, emotional, and if one responds to it at any of those levels the 'Hasbarists' have already won.
Interesting, this coming so close upon the dismissal of the case brought against the UK University and College Union link to mondoweiss.net It almost appears there is a brick wall these people can come up against.
I am wondering if those (groups or individuals) wrongly accused of anti-Semitism, and suffering in consequence, may have recourse to compensation in the civil courts. It is clear that a lot of the accusations thrown around are intended to scare people from criticism of what are, after all, flagrant violations of law, UN resolutions and acceptable standards of behaviour. Recourse to law, particularly if harm has been suffered in consequence of false accusations, as it often is, might help stem the tide. Something has to be done because, apart from the negative effect on individuals and groups, such accusations may actually provoke attitudes which tend towards anti-Semitism.
In that case there is a danger he may die given the Israeli prison service medical record. When you contact these people you might add that even if they feel they cannot interfere with the Israeli judicial system (sic) can they at least ensure that his medical condition is monitored given what recently happened to Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh.
You respond to my comment as if it were solely a US issue. It isn’t. Obama has quite clearly washed his hands of it all and while he could resolve it he isn’t going to. Therefore it is up to the rest of the ‘civilized’ world, particularly Europe, to turn up the heat. As I wrote in another comment that was moderated away, these actions of Israeli forces are evil and while evil cannot be eliminated from mankind there exists an urge to constrict it. Sooner or later they will do something that galvanizes that urge and then is will sweep towards them like a tornado. You may not be familiar with the extensive and growing coverage of the situation in the European and Russian press.
Hostage, unless regulations are enforceable they are little more than expressions of social aspiration. In a utopian world they would not be necessary since no one would consider doing the things these people do hourly. Israel is a barbarian state that shuns the standards the West aspires to and the rules put in place to support them. It makes a mockery of any struggle with the evil in our world. It may be impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to make an effort to constrict it. I realise the US and others wouldn’t allow it, and it’s probably not possible anyway, but it might help if a movement were set in motion calling for debate on downgrading Israel’s UN status to that of Observer.
Since they must be aware the boy is American, one can reasonably assume they don’t give a damn or deliberately and publicly treat him like this as an insult to the US. One day they will go too far even for their apologists.
A ceremonial presence, surely? Somewhat like the military presence at any national funeral, there to pay honor to the dead.
The US, having exploited the ME and now largely reduced it to a relatively manageable level of chaos under the supervision of a vicious gaoler, is looking East towards China where the Korean peninsular offers a broad front with China. In pursuit of such a strategy it would obviously be unwise to leave a country like Iran in the rear. This seems to me perfectly sound strategy that might have been plucked ready made from the annals of Alexander or myriad other entities in the history of hegemonic ambition. What makes it different today is simply the perceived need to obscure the whole thing with duplicitous and fanciful justifications which serve no conceivable purpose unless to keep us all busy analyzing and filing them. It would be much simpler if, instead of making people cower in doubt and fear, the truth were acknowledged openly and pride fostered in the subtleties and successes of such strategies; as it doubtless is in the inner sanctums of the elite. Does it not seem perverse to deprive those who pay for them of the pleasure of the chase, a bit like making them buy tickets for matches they are not then permitted to enjoy?
Two states might have been a stage in the evolution of this mess but it could/can never be a solution since it wouldn’t interrupt Israel’s aggression (think Lebanon), and the animosity and distrust would continue with both feeling deprived of their rights. The only peaceful solution surely lies in one state, which would move the conflict from territory to rights, perhaps resulting over time in the isolation of Zionists and their sympathizers until they are congregated in an area that could become designated an autonomous region, or even an influential peaceful religious entity like the Holy See.
Thanks Annie. Brave boy. This seems to be a link to send him support. link to newprofile.org
Some things dissolve over time others break in an instant. Either way, there is one moment when they are whole and another when they are not. I understand and sympathize with Alex’ depression. However, one shouldn’t take the rituals of such a visit at face value. The Palestinian issue must surely have been excluded quite deliberately, not for lack of empathy with Palestinians but because the urgent purpose was to paper over cracks in the US/Israel alliance, an alliance the US cannot risk falling apart at this moment because of wider issues in the ME. I see Obama’s very excesses and the insincerity of the whole thing to be a sign of the fragility of the alliance. And Michelle didn’t accompany him? I don’t know whether it appeared in Haaretz but there was a considered piece by Aluf Ben in France 24 which is worth drawing into the debate.
link to france24.com
US humanitarian concern is nothing but a political fig leaf. It’s difficult to imagine any pressure influencing the US in favor of Palestinians considering the treatment meted out to prisoners in Gitmo and the reluctance of the US authorities even to acknowledge the present hunger strike now entering its 47th day. A Google search suggests that only today is it creeping into US news although it has been covered abroad, and by RT who the other day interviewed random US citizens none of whom appeared aware that the strike was even in progress let alone that 86 prisoners held on permanent detention have actually been cleared for release.
link to rt.com
link to cbsnews.com
link to miamiherald.com
The only hope I see is that when Ahmadinejad releases power in June Obama will find it possible amicably to resolve the US/Iran relationship, a move that would prepare the ground for a resolution of the Israel problem.
...the only way to truly protect the Israeli people is through the absence of war
That, from Obama’s speech, is the most enlightened observation I have read for a long time. Peace is indeed an absence of war. That is almost a thermodynamic law, like cold being an absence of heat. It is not possible for ‘negotiations’ between the PA and the current Israeli government to achieve peace for the simple reason that each seeks what the other wants and feels justified in doing so.
Just imagine that after lengthy horse trading sessions some kind of 2 state arrangement were agreed and even set in motion, does anyone honestly think either party would be completely happy with it and, if it actually came about on the ground, Israel would not daily provoke it by over flying Palestinian airspace, infiltrating its institutions, subverting its government and assassinating its citizens.
The absence of war will only come about when some movement or group forces Israel to its knees.
Obama is right that only negotiation can lead to a peaceful solution, but the chances for that are slim to non-existent. The most important reason for this is that negotiation is not horse trading, it requires the opposing parties to rise above their differences to a level where their interests coincide completely. This can be achieved by the intervention of some external threat of an order such that it unites the parties, a common element in many disaster stories where opposed characters come together though a common threat. It can also be achieved by dialectical rapprochement but that requires a level of detachment and intellectual commitment that simply isn’t present.
As for low level anti-Semitism among non-Jewish pro-Palestinians, there is low level anti-Semitism everywhere and it is moot whether there is more among that particular group than among populations at large. Anti-Semitism is not an attitude of mind but a spontaneous emotion and most people who discover such emotions subdue them under social pressure, fear or simply good manners. Those who do not subdue them are, of course, high level anti-Semites. Exactly the same is true of those who find anti-Gay, anti-Black, anti-Arab emotions arising within them.
One state is not a solution, it’s a likely outcome, what happens when you drive towards a cliff without brakes.
This is Auf Ben.. I don’t know if it appeared in Haaretz but here it is in France 24. link to france24.com
United States will oppose unilateral efforts to bypass negotiations through the United Nations… is something of an Orwellian inversion since involving the whole community of nations would strike most people as a multilateral effort. Constructing settlements, on the other hand, is decidedly unilateral.
Why not give her the benefit of the doubt? It's not a question of doubt. It's a question of journalistic integrity. If you dispense with checking stories, one day you will get caught. That is gambling. If you are happy to gamble, fair enough, but a reputation for journalistic realiabilty is like a card castle, a long time in the building and an instant to destroy. Still, who checks anything these days? Hey ho. Light another.
There is nothing wrong in being provocative. I do it all the time.
I agree with everything you write. My point was and is that the story appears without being checked. It seems scarcely credible under the circumstances that she passed her teaching term without some involvement in anti-Israel activity. Making that comment I am not suggesting it would be wrong, very much the contrary. However, if it was so it adds a dimension to the story and if it was not it adds an even more insidious one. Mondoweiss is too important and has too much responsibility not to check stories, particularly those so close to its agenda. Voila c'est tout.
Annie, I have too much respect and admiration for you to wish to cross swords. I shall simply make these further points and then shut up.
If there are Palestinian Americans there are presumably Palestinian French etc. The suggestion seems to be that female Palestinian Americans are in some way uniquely targeted. If one reads her letter to the President dispassionately, it is replete with self-righteousness.
Has anyone checked her story?
Has anyone spoken with the school head or anyone else there? They presumably have a phone.
Have we seen a copy of the Congresswoman's letter?
Is it the job of the US Consul to get people into Palestine?
She tried to get into Palestine one way, was refused entry so tried to get in another. That itself is provocative. I am not suggesting her story is a fabrication but there could be nuances capable of alternative interpretation. Her account demands some independent checking, that's all.
Fair enough, but the problems Palestinian Americans face visiting their homeland is simply one of myriad symptoms of a disease. Would Palestinians from any other nation find it easier? What about the difficulty Emad Burnat faced coming the other way? Besides, she was not simply visiting her homeland she was returning to a teaching position she may well have politicised in her first term. She certainly seems to lack perspective. To be young and American is no longer enough. You can't go hiking in Iran either.
I don't know the answer to all that. Israel is a Middle Eastern entity and they are different from Western entities. I don't mean worse any more than better, just different. This teacher simply muddies the water. She presents herself as a victim but real victims do not promote themselves, others do it on their behalf. You may imagine her wriggling in her seat as she pens her lumpen appeal to the President with copies all over the place. The problem is deeper. We do not live in a chocolate box world; what is happening to the people of Palestine has been going on one way or another since the beginning of recorded history and its evil sister, Spin. There are too many issues careening round like bumper cars for this young person to have the slightest relevance. Rachel Corrie, yes. Nour Joudah, no.
US ME foreign policy is backed into a cul de sac. There are ways out but no one has the vision, gumtion, intelligence, or sense of purpose to recognise them let alone pursue them. When you have created a situation where the wives of hopelessly incarcerated prisoners are reduced to impregnating themselves with semen smuggled from an impenetrable jail in a plastic cup, you are close the end of the line. link to bbc.co.uk
I read that article and my take was Oren is telling it like it is for him; that the increasing exposure and criticism of Israeli policies makes his task embarrassingly difficult and sometimes well nigh impossible.
As for this teacher, she comes across as something of an activist and more than likely attracted official attention during her brief sojourn last year. She may have gotten herself on some list or other so she is now unwelcome. I don't see how the US which is notorious for harassing Arabs can possibly raise this instance publicly.
Ambassador Michael Oren believes documentary in which Shin Bet officials slam Israel's West Bank policy[is] hurting country's international image...
Alas, I haven’t access to the film; it will probably get to Gaza before my Andalusian village. However, I imagine Oren is absolutely right and it is contributing to Israel’s negative image although ‘hurting’ strikes me as a bleak participle crying out for some adjectival support like ‘further’.
Obama had miffed some Jewish leaders by implying in his Cairo speech that the Holocaust was a justification for the creation of Israel.
Well, it was and it wasn’t. There was a bunch of Jews whose names I don’t recall, one was self-consciously simple and rode around on a bicycle while others were rich and owned things, who so pestered the post-war administration in the UK, and possibly the US as well, that the solution was finally adopted to achieve a bit of peace and quiet as much as for any other reason. I was growing up in a literate environment and the concept of the holocaust simply didn’t exist, we were shocked by concentration camps but not more so than by the devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the bombing of London, the destruction of Cologne and Chichester; the whole thing had been a nightmare in which no one had not lost at least one relative. The primary hope was that no such mad event would ever happen again, which is where the origins of the EU lie. Most people slowly recovered during the 1950s and tried to put the whole thing behind them and by the 60s you could really feel a resurgent spirit rising from the ashes. As far as Israel was concerned we had hoped this bold experiment would lead to a new stage in human social life, an example to the world of how starting from scratch an ideal society could come about. That hope was, alas, like the seed that fell on stony ground and by the early 1970s it was dead. Now the Western world is like a sentimental family that tried to raise a cuddly lion cub.
Long game? I have always thought that. No way can they be reduced to sanity by force, in fact they would relish someone trying. They have to be left to destroy themselves, a process already well in hand and destined to advance concurrently with increasing ostracism. By the way, petard is etymologically derived from the French word for the noisy emission of intestinal gas.
Annie, For what it's worth, I take this to be a frivolous exercise designed to cloud the significance of any PA approach to the ICC, so they can say they have a case with the court as well. If the Court has any gumption it will fine them for wasting its time.
Is there evidence that Gazan women generally wanted to join a unisex marathon ? I don’t know if Beinart is being particularly Zionist but the blinkered view that your own, often abstract, ideas about human behavior should be adopted by others, or imposed on them by stricture or force, is peculiarly American.
biorabbi, It’s not a question of covering anything up. I do wish non-Catholics would stop spouting this nonsense. The Roman Catholic church sets certain behavioural targets for its followers while accepting that few, if any, will reach them. The driving purpose is the effort not the destination. Were this not so there would be no need for Confession. Followers will stumble along the way but the Church is not there to punish them but to help them back on their feet and encourage them to set off again. It is a realistic doctrine based on the principles of Repentance and Forgiveness, certainly not retribution which belongs ultimately to God however much the State or prurient non-Catholics may seek to usurp it.
The answer is they don't know. These are regulations. It's up to an organisation or member of the public to draw their attention to contraventions at which point I imagine they are obliged to investigate.
Erdogan told the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday: "Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity."
"We not only disagree with it, we found it objectionable," Kerry told a news conference.
If Israel wants to hear positive statements from Turkey it needs to reconsider its attitude both towards us and towards the West Bank," he (Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu) told the news conference.
link to reuters.com
Poor old Kerry, one could almost be sorry for him.
“Sheila Jackson Lee represents the Texas district where Joudah's parents live] inquired on my behalf and indeed is still in touch with the Israeli Embassy and my lawyer.”
I wonder if Joudah was herself educated in this part of Texas. She seems a nice, open young person, likely to have made many friends. If that is so and with the involvement of Sheila Jackson Lee, the story strikes me as good copy for a local news outlet, newspaper, radio/TV interview with parents, maybe old classmates. It could arouse local interest while at the same time illuminating the broader problem. Do any contributors here know that Texas district?
Are you not being a shade oversensitive? I read Jones’ comment as meaning they look just like American students, i.e. they could well be.
It is already happening. Not everyone is capable of unravelling the actions of the occupants of the self proclaimed ‘Jewish Homeland’ from Jews in general, and of those who may possess that intellectual capacity not all can be bothered; silence and indifference are universal.
@Avi_G. You are quite right about the British and their empire but that was a different era and civilised folk are supposed to learn from the past and progress. What we have in Israel is a regression back thousands of years to the brutality of the first Hebrew invasion of Palestine.
These presumably being the indigenous ‘Palestinians’ of an earlier age. Whatever motivated them then appears to motivate them now.
How does one hold Israel to account? Israel has to be threatened and punished. It isn’t practical to attack it but is has to be hurt, it could be isolated, its assets frozen, no visas issued its citizens, no aid, no trade, no permission to enter others’ airspace, until it retreats to the borders first apportioned by the UN, dismantles its nuclear capability, reduces its arsenal and army to something more appropriate for a small ME country, and joins the UN in spirit as well as in practice.
The accounts of the man’s death are not mutually exclusive. He could well have been tortured to the point his heart stopped beating.
You may being a bit unfair to al Jazeera, seven hours after the broadcast you heard they published this:
link to aljazeera.com
with an internal link to link to maannews.net
However appalling the circumstances, their iniquity flows on in the absence of any similar coverage from US media. Just look at the way the LA Times covers it, as if shrugging their shoulders over an unverifiable and possibly exaggerated rumour so their coverage is not of what happened but of Palestinian officials claiming something happened. Well, you know those Palestinians.
link to latimes.com