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Total number of comments: 926 (since 2009-08-02 12:39:37)

Oscar

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  • 'New York Times' trivializes violent nightly raids on captive population as 'cutting the grass'
    • Oscar November 28, 2009 at 10:31 am with 3 replies

      It just occurred to me that Bronner blithely skipped over Othman's case without so much as a passing reference. Othman is a picture-perfect example of "cutting the grass" -- a non-violent protester locked up by the IDF indefinitely without being charged. Our best friend in the region, and the only democracy in the Middle East with shared values like ours! What a truckload of hasbara.

    • Oscar November 27, 2009 at 6:37 pm

      Chaos, my friend -- Judith Miller, of course. She was a prima donna, the terror of the Washington bureau, and ultimately, a pawn of the Bush Administration and the neo-con-esque Office of Special Plans. The greatest example of how American journalism lost its way and became a propaganda engine for neo-con wet dreams.

      But there's also the "politically correct" scandal of Jayson Blair. Why should we believe that the NY Times can be trusted when virtually all of his stories were counterfeit/forgeries/plagiarism? He was one reporter -- what about the rest of them?

      I think the Times has great business reporters: Gretchen Mortgensen and Floyd Norris, Joseph Nocera, etc. But that's no longer enough to make me want to buy the paper. Ever.

      But the NY Times is screwed either way. Its coverage of the Middle East used to be even-handed, circa 2000-2001. But there was an organized Jewish boycott of the NYT, the LA Times and the WaPo in 2002 that caused the publications to be cowed into submission. Here's the NY Times story on the organized assault it endured from the Zionist community. It was like a white phosphorus attack on its journalistic credibility(!):
      link to nytimes.com

      So now the NYT has Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner soft pedaling the Israeli apartheid in Palestine, with Bill Keller stupidly thinking we don't notice the bias.

      Hey, you want proof that BDS works . . . follow the Zionist model against the New York Times. Bad news, Richard Witty -- here's your proof . . . it works big time!

    • Oscar November 27, 2009 at 5:51 pm

      Howard, dude, you can email him with your own comments:
      link to topics.nytimes.com

    • Oscar November 27, 2009 at 5:17 pm with 3 replies

      MRW, agree completely. This is a letter I sent this afternoon to Jewish Voice for Peace, Hampshire College BDS, and the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church (which called for BDS in 2005). . .

      Time is growing short. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine continues unabated, erasing an entire civilization. BDS is gaining significant traction, but it is not yet in the mainstream. It needs to be accelerated.

      We need to take out a full-page ad in the New York Times to announce the initiative.

      Instead of simply saying we need to implement BDS, we need to pick a company to Boycott for every month in 2010. They need to be AMERICAN companies. A press release needs to go out on each company, describing its transgressions. The press release will include all 12 companies to be highlighted for BDS in 2010.

      We should make a first-annual BDS calendar available on all pro-peace websites, which will have a photo of an atrocity committed. Each day in the calendar should mark an anniversary of a tragic milestone in the destruction of Palestine.

      We need to build a massive database shared by all groups under the Hampshire umbrella, Sydney of Jewish Voice for Peace is amazing: JVP sends an email requesting that we protest the Mets holding a fundraiser for the Hebron Fund . . . they provide a mechanism for doing so . . . and then ask us to send an email to our entire address book recruiting others. Making it viral.

      The mainstream media will not be a friend of this effort. But Hampshire College has faced tremendous odds in the past, It is truly now or never. Let's mobilize.

      Oscar Sepulvedo
      New York, NY

      Mondoweiss should carry t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and Palestinian-origin products for us to support this effort.

      If you want to get involved with the Hampshire effort, write to HampshireSJP [at] gmail [dot] com.

      Here's the list of 20 companies recommended for BDS by the New England Conference of Methodist Churches: link to neumc.org

    • Oscar November 27, 2009 at 4:11 pm with 1 replies

      "Cutting the grass." Once again, the NY Times unwittingly exposes the Israeli perspective of seeing Palestinians as subhuman.

      You can almost imagine the glee of the IDF officer as he uses this profane terminology with the occupation-friendly NY Times reporter, who he knows will lard his page one article with hasbara.

      Bronner again fails his readers by suppressing the truth of what happens when they "cut the grass." That is, they incarcerate young Palestinians without due process for years. It's why there will be 1,000 Palestinians released for every Shalit.

      I liked Phil's first line. I’m at my parents and they get the Times every day. It means the Old Gray Lady is barely relevant to us anymore -- Phil doesn't subscribe to the NYT and the same goes for everyone in my circle. Me? I cancelled my home subscription four years ago, and maybe I've purchased the Times on the newsstand a handful of times since then.

      These days, the NY Times is as quaint and anachronistic as, say, "The Ed Sullivan Show." Bronner's piece is the perfect example of why it's not even worthy as bird cage liner.

  • Ali Abunimah's speech at Hampshire
    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 8:32 pm with 3 replies

      Richard, you're equating BDS with war? Look, we promise: no Israeli children will be harmed with white phosphorus through Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestments. We swear it.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 7:32 pm

      Did anyone else notice that Potsherd's dreams seem to have come true? There's now multiple "reply" threads on Mondoweiss. And a "cancel reply" button.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 7:29 pm

      Hey, MRW -- Shmuel is cool in my book. (Shout out to Shmuel.) And I think Wondering Jew is an open-minded contributor and I listen carefully to what he says. Mooser is an enigma to me, but he's got an ability to crack me up with a pretty good hit ratio. By contrast, Witty is a robo-hasbarist. I'm half-convinced there's an artifical intelligence machine out of Tel Aviv that simply spews benign sounding propaganda with a conclusion that BDS is bad, bad, bad.

      Meanwhile, I 'm stunned by the anger of guys like Michael LeFavour, Jake in Jerusalem and Chris Berel (remember him?). With them, I'm feelin' the hate. They have a tendency to remind me that America's interests in the Middle East are not identical to Israel's.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm

      Yonira -- I'm starting to wonder if you're an alter-ego of Witty. You agree the freeze should include East Jerusalem? I thought you'd be relieved it didn't.

      This is the same shit sandwich that Hillary Clinton tried to get the Palestinians to consume a few weeks ago with her comment that it's "unprecedented." She's dousing it with Hasbara-brand ketchup so they can swallow it. But it's still a shit sandwich.

      So assuming Palestinians come to the table, imagine what happens: two weeks into talks, Israel announces it's bulldozing a dozen Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem that "failed to have the proper building permits." The Palestinians freak out, but Bibi shrugs . . . "a deal is a deal . . . you freiers!"

      [See: link to mondoweiss.net

      It's a joke, yonira. Ali would recognize that this is the same decades-old mirage . . . the "peace process" grinds on . . . while Israel accelerates construction and colonization of Palestine, Pac-Man style.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 7:05 pm with 7 replies

      MRW: Hasbara is failing miserably as a weapon against BDS. (By way of example, R. Witty's propaganda on this site in which he claims to be looking out for Palestinian interests, and yet he opposes BDS for no intellectually honest reason.)

      Ali's video was great; it warned the Hampshire participants that they faced obstacles, and angry people who would stop at nothing to undermine their work. (Remember the frightening early morning phone calls from Alan Dershowitz harassing the Hampshire students who were forming the BDS movement on campus? Here's the details of his hissy fit: link to mondoweiss.net.)

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 6:27 pm with 1 replies

      Amazing speech. Thanks for posting it, Phil. There is an electricity about Ali, he has fierce intellectual firepower, yet he does not use fire-and-brimstone tactics on his captive audience.

      "Be patient and do your work -- history is on our side." What a great rallying cry for the Hampshire conferees.

      What is up with J Street anyway? They are taking the Witty position that BDS is a worse weapon to use on Israel than the white phosphorus bombs dropped on the children of Gaza. Intellectually dishonest.

  • We let Jackie Robinson play ball 62 years ago
    • Oscar November 26, 2009 at 3:15 pm

      Thank you for this, carnas. I will revisit the situation. Seems to me you agree wholeheartedly that there's no place for racism in sports, and you are clearly disassociating yourself from the fans of Beitar Jerusalem. I take you at your word.

      Still, this never would have happened in the US. Why do they permit the hooliganism/racism of the Beitar Jerusalem fans? What sort of power do they have over the team that they can force the coach to apologize for aspiring to have an Arab on the team?

    • Oscar November 26, 2009 at 2:38 pm with 11 replies

      carnas, yes, indeed I do. I read haaretz, jpost.com, ynet every day.

      Since you're convinced I have no clue, then please enlighten me: was the Israeli media outraged over this incident? If so, please provide a link. (In English, please, since as I don't speak Hebrew.) Ali brought the story up because it has a shockingly racist theme. Please prove Ali and me wrong.

    • Oscar November 26, 2009 at 10:47 am with 15 replies

      potsherd is spot-on. Carnas, you have to be kidding. "He didn’t apologize to the media; he apologized to the group of racist fans. That’s a big difference."

      This makes a "big difference?" The only "big difference" it makes is demonstrating that Israel and the US don't have "shared values."

      Anyone remember what happened to Atlanta Braves' John Rocker when he called a black teammate a "fat monkey" and made numerous racist comments to a Sports Illustrated reporter? Oh, yeah, he became a pariah and was forced out of baseball. link to sportsillustrated.cnn.com

      What about the Cincinnati Reds' owner Marge Schott? Schott referred to then-Reds outfielders Eric Davis and Dave Parker as "million-dollar niggers" and allegedly said: "I would never hire another nigger. I'd rather have a trained monkey working for me than a nigger." Major League Baseball banned her from day-to-day operations for three seasons and forced her to sell the team. link to en.wikipedia.org

      And the colorful Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder. Who could forget his history lesson:

      The black is a better athlete to begin with because he's been bred to be that way — because of his high thighs and big thighs that goes up into his back, and they can jump higher and run faster because of their bigger thighs. This goes back all the way to the Civil War when during the slave trading, the owner — the slave owner would breed his big black to his big woman so that he could have a big black kid.

      He was immediately fired and never had another major announcing job.

      The reason we're all stunned by the story Ali read is that there are consequences for injecting racism into sports in America. A media frenzy ensues, your professional career is destroyed, and you are ostracized from sports. In Israel, the coach apologized for not being racist enough to -- as carnas describes it -- "the group of racist fans." The Israeli media didn't seem to have any issue with this incident, and reported it without any analysis you'd typically see in the US media.

      It's a perfect illustration of how the US and Israel truly don't have "shared values."

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 7:41 pm

      Phil, this was the most shocking moment of the entire video. (Especially in light of the Jackie Robinson angle of the Mets recently hosting the Hebron Fund at Citi Field.)

      Hearing the coach grovel to the fans that he would keep his team ethnically pure? An almost tear-filled apology for even to dare dream that an Arab would play on the home team ever? Pathetic. As much as the progressive malign David Duke, he's far more evolved as a human being than these mongoloids.

  • Will a Israel-Hamas prisoner swap mark the end of the PA?
    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 12:48 pm

      Obama is empathetic to the Palestinian situation, sees Abbas as too weak to even be a puppet. It's the neo-con establishment that see Barghouti potentially as a curse.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 12:38 pm

      "Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti" . . . "Shalit was kidnapped"

      This article is dripping with hasbaric contempt. Barghouti is a "strongman." What the hell is that? Would Benjamin Netanyahu be a "strongman?" Or is that some racist code that only Arabs and dictators can be a "strongman."

      Shalit is a soldier. In times of war, soldiers are captured, not kidnapped. Civilians are kidnapped. The IDF kidnaps hundreds, if not thousands, of teenaged civilian boys in the middle of the night in Gaza, terrorizing a civilian population, destroying families. Now that's kidnapping.

      Mondoweiss is devoted to "the war of words" in the Middle East. Challenge the MSM, let them know you're not a stupid dupe that buys its propaganda hook, line and sinker.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 12:26 pm with 3 replies

      Some of this feels like hasbaric propaganda meant to torpedo a deal.

      Barghouti was improperly arrested and taken to Israel in violation of the Geneva Convention. He has been incarcerated for four years. Shimon Peres promised that if he was elected, he would release Barghouti. He never did.

      Bruce, you're correct -- we don't know what Barghouti would do as a leader of Palestine. But could he do ,any worse than Abbas? Unfathomable.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm

      Shmuel, absolutely. There is a particularly obnoxious footnote in some of the press reports that the US administration doesn't support the talks between Israel and Hamas. Apparently, it's "negotiating with terrorists." Is there anything more the US can do to sabotage peace in the Middle East??

      What's our nation's definition of "terrorists" -- a group that lobs non-exploding, crude bombs into a civilian population, or a group that uses US-funded smart weapons to incinerate children with white phosphorus?

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 10:45 am with 8 replies

      Rehmat: "The so-called “deal” will certainly include Marwan Barghouti . . . I have not heard any Hamas leader getting excited by this Egyptian rumour."

      The press accounts I've been reading indicate that Hamas has put Barghouti at the top of the list. From the Associated Press:

      RAMALLAH, West Bank — At the top of the list of Palestinian prisoners likely to be freed in a possible swap for an Israeli soldier is a firebrand politician many Palestinians believe is a likely future president who can pull them out of their current political deadlock.

      But if released — not a sure thing — Marwan Barghouti would face a rancorous Palestinian political split, an Israeli government resistant to concessions and possible challenges from within his own party.

      . . . Gaza's militant Islamic Hamas rulers seek to win freedom hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including Barghouti, in exchange for the Israeli solider, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in 2006.

    • Oscar November 25, 2009 at 10:35 am with 3 replies

      Ahmed Moor's reports are always insightful and compelling. Richard Witty may have been wondering (cynically) why there is no "Palestinian Gandhi." As many others on this site have vociferously responded: because Israel imprisons them all.

      Marwan Barghouti just may be the Palestinian Gandhi. No wonder MK Shlomo Silvan is throwing a temper tantrum in front of the Israeli media, shrilly caterwauling that Barghouti is NOT going to be released for Shalit. That's news to Hamas, which has responded: No Barghouti, no deal.

      Barghouti is the unifying force. Abbas is -- as Ahmed points out -- illegitimate. He's a Western puppet. Can anyone believe he has any credibility left as a leader in Palestine after stupidly delaying the Goldstone report -- or reportedly cheering on the Israelis to decimate Gaza during Operation Cast Lead?

      And why is Hamas putting Marwan Barghouti at the top of its list? Isn't that an expression of its desire to unite with Fatah and the West Bank, but not with the Abbas leadership?

  • Tell the US Consulate in Jerusalem about Mohammad Othman
    • Oscar November 24, 2009 at 7:58 pm

      My email to Daniel Rubenstein, Consul General at the US Consulate:

      As an American citizen whose tax dollars are improperly supporting Israel's occupation in Palestine, I'm shocked that no action has been demanded on your part to compel Israel to release Mohammad Othman immediately.

      It is my understanding that the US currently has no intention of dispatching a US consul to attend the November 25 hearing of this innocent, non-violent protester of the occupation.

      It is well-known by Human Rights advocates that Mr. Othman was improperly arrested on September 22 by Israeli authorities. There have been no charges filed against him. It appears that Israel is upset because Mr. Othman made a human rights advocacy trip to Norway.

      The US is a nation of laws, and it is obscene for us to sit by idly while Mr. Othman is tortured by the IDF. He has committed no crime and yet he languishes in solitary confinement, in great part due to Israel having no consequences for its actions.

      We implore you to act. Protest to Israel that such behavior continues to diminish its standing in the world community. Most importantly, the US cannot simply sit on its hands while this obscene miscarriage of justice is committed by our "best friend" and ally in the region.

      Respectfully,
      Oscar Sepulvedo

  • Mohammad Othman's administrative detention is a sign BDS is working
    • Oscar November 24, 2009 at 4:05 pm

      Where's the European governments Othman was talking to? Why aren't they condemning this illegal action in the strongest terms possible?

    • Oscar November 24, 2009 at 3:58 pm

      Okay, thanks tree, I actually should have known that. BD slash SM. Boycotts, Divestments, Sanctions and M . . . Need an M word. Mondoweiss?

    • Oscar November 24, 2009 at 3:28 pm with 4 replies

      Yeah, Chaos -- what is the significance of "BDS" in the, ahem, adult entertainment industry? Can you give a hint?

  • 'Responsible' Jewish human rights org says: 'It's 1938'
    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 8:42 pm with 1 replies

      By the way. . . Operation Cast Lead = Palestinian Kristallnacht.

    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 8:40 pm with 2 replies

      This is the most amazingly hateful, racist advertisement I've ever seen published in a mainstream publication. And they're asking for TAX-DEDUCTIBLE contributions for this sewage? They're so right about one thing: We DO need to wake up from our slumber before it's too late . . . the US and Canada are being dragged into the Clash of Civilizations . . . as we slumber.

  • A new generation of giants
    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 10:18 am

      O-Joes, a mere typo. Chaos meant "Were it that you would take the same microscope to the Zionist movement" meaning that Witty might be hypocritical in analyzing the BDS movement so critically, while remaining silent on the radicalism of Zionists in supporting the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

  • Free speech advocate Ungar muzzles free speech at Goucher
    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 5:29 pm with 1 replies

      VR - thanks very much for the link to Khalidi's speech. Fantastic defense of academic freedom.

    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 10:38 am

      “”For something to be a Goucher public program, it needs to meet a set of requirements, one of which is balance.”

      "Balance" is an excuse reporters and academicians use to soften (or stifle) any criticism of Israel in its ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

      No need for "balance" if you're presnting the Israeli point of view. Accordingly, The Dersh is free to trash Goldstone at NYC's Fordham Law School without the Ungarian canard of "balance."

      Balance is a joke. I can hardly believe Ungar expects us to fall for such a transparent sham in this day and age.

    • Oscar November 23, 2009 at 10:32 am

      Wasn't there an insinuation by NYT's Bill Keller that she might have been dorfing Scooter Libby? She was an "embedded" reporter, all right!

    • Oscar November 22, 2009 at 1:31 pm

      After the college faced a severe backlash in the wake of Anna Baltzer’s first appearance on-campus, including a newspaper attack ad listing his phone number and e-mail address, Sandy Ungar wrote an impassioned defense of free speech in The Goucher Quarterly, the college’s alumni magazine.

      Let's remind Sandy about his "impassioned defense of free speech" before the neo-cons got to him. Here's his contact info:

      Sanford J. Ungar. President. Goucher College. 1021 Dulaney Valley Road. Baltimore, MD. 21204. By email to: sungar@goucher.edu . . . cc: kristen.keener@goucher.edu.

  • Feeling the hate in Washington
    • Oscar November 22, 2009 at 2:34 pm with 5 replies

      MRW, I've appreciated your posts lately, especially the back-n-forth with carnas ("canard?") and nomira in the comments section of the "In a Nutshell" article.

      The thing is, I have given up Starbucks coffee after reading about Howard Schultz contributions to the IDF. He's not feeling the pain that much with me giving up my $3.85 a day latte habit.

      We need major institutions to institute BDS not just on Israeli companies, but AMERICAN companies. I'm talking Caterpillar, Motorola, defense companies that are part of our $3 billion taxpayer windfall to our "best friends in the region" who are systematically pulling a Pac-Man on a defenseless people.

      Who else should be on that list?

    • Oscar November 22, 2009 at 2:21 pm with 5 replies

      The lack of self-introspection among the Israeli populace is shocking. What if Hamas had turned the tables, created white phosphorus weapons that abruptly killed 300 Israeli children. And then Hamas had a taxpayer-funded video mocking the situation, much as this one does. Imagine the explosive reaction.

      What if one Israeli child was killed by Hamas, rather than 300 Palestinian children?

      How do I get the Zionists hands off my tax dollars? Obama . . . can you do something . . . anything?

  • Paul Hodes could be 14th Jewish senator
    • Oscar November 22, 2009 at 2:28 pm with 3 replies

      Depressing. How many Muslim members of Congress are there? Keith Ellison and . . . anyone else? Bueller? Bueller?

      The most amazing part is not simply that 12% of the Senate is Jewish (over-representing the 2% of the population by sixfold), it's that these members always happen to wind up running the Foreign Relations Committee, or Armed Services Committee, or Intelligence Committee.

      Jane Harman running House Intelligence -- you go, girl!

  • The situation, in a nutshell
    • Oscar November 21, 2009 at 5:07 pm with 7 replies

      Bob, well done. I think you've redirected the testosterone in this heated thread toward Anna's irresistible persona. If the MSM ever gets its act together and provides true balance on the I/P scenario, Anna will be the gamechanger.

      Once again, kudos to The Daily Show's Jon Stewart for breaking the barrier with his recent interview with Anna and Mustafa Barghouti:
      link to thedailyshow.com

  • Precedented
    • Oscar November 17, 2009 at 4:14 pm with 3 replies

      This just in! Hillary Clinton reportedly issued her most pointed criticism of Israel in her storied career . . . she called the new construction "not helpful." And gosh darn it, she means it this time.

      What's the Israeli term for "suckers?" I think it's frierers. Yeah, that's the ticket. That's how Bibi sees Hill and the US State Department.

  • Should we just throw in the towel?
    • Oscar November 17, 2009 at 4:09 pm

      And also repatriating some of that $3 billion in US-taxpayer-funded military aid we're paying them.

      Yee-haw! Them Israelis really are our "best friends" in the region! They're makin' payin' jobs for ordinary Mississippians by building a new white phosphorus missile-building plant right here in the good ol' U S of A!

  • The lobby's Iran front in... Latin America
  • Help Mondoweiss continue to grow - give a tax deductible donation today!
  • US-Israel identity crisis
    • Oscar November 14, 2009 at 5:24 pm

      Exactly. It's meant to show that as of 9/11, "we're all Israelis."

      On the day of the 9-11 attacks, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked what the attacks would mean for US-Israeli relations. His quick reply was: "It's very good…….Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy (for Israel)"

      link to whatreallyhappened.com

    • Oscar November 14, 2009 at 5:20 pm

      Citizen, do you have a link to this memorandum?

  • appeal to readers
  • Farah abu Halima, victim of white phosphorus attack, is on her way to California
    • Oscar November 10, 2009 at 5:06 pm

      Phil -- which hospital, do we know? I'd like to send a gift.

    • Oscar November 10, 2009 at 5:05 pm

      Well done, Mooser. Thanks for that.

    • Oscar November 10, 2009 at 5:04 pm

      Um, let me guess . . . an evil Zionist plot to ethnically cleanse an entire civilian population?

    • Oscar November 10, 2009 at 5:02 pm

      GREAT POINT! Did you see the coverage the airlifting of 58 Yemeni Jews got on the above-the-fold part of page one of the Wall Street Journal? How about airlifting some house building supplies into Palestine??

    • Oscar November 10, 2009 at 4:59 pm

      Nomi998: "Its sad the Palestinians use children as human shields. . . ".

      Yes, Nomi, very sad that Little Farah abu Halima's family tried to use her as a human shield to protect all of them from the white phosphorous missile the IDF laser-guided through the roof of their home. I guess if your side has US-taxpayer-subsidized smart bombs, you get the privilege of calling the other side "terrorists," and you get to come up with facocked pretzel logic that you're entitled to incinerate women and children as a defensive strategy. Dude, have you even read the Goldstone report?

  • Goldstone: 'If Gaza isn't collective punishment, what is?'
    • Oscar November 6, 2009 at 7:35 pm with 1 replies

      I watched the so-called debate, and I saw Dore Gold spew his special brew of hasbara, and I was struck by how he did everything possible to avoid a "debate."

      Your question is: "What should a law-abiding country do to defend itself against relentless terrorist attacks?” Well, Israel is not a law-abiding country, so it chose to incinerate 1400 women and children with white phosphorous weapons and limb-amputating DIME-cube bombs.

  • 'Non-Jewish Jews': We're here, we're queer, get used to it!
    • Oscar October 7, 2009 at 4:19 pm with 2 replies

      Ish, the call for ethnic solidarity is a dangerous gambit. The you're-either-with-us-or-against-us clarion call will inevitably push more Diaspora progressives into the pro-peace camp. When Isi Liebler states there's a "rot in the Diaspora," it's an indictment of all Diaspora Jews who don't back the human rights abuses in Gaza as "self-defense" or who don't chest-thump that Iran is an "existential threat."

      One of the things I admired most about Jewish culture is that intellectual debate is not simply tolerated, it is endemic to the culture. With Zionism co-opting the culture (truly, a dogma no less scary than end-of-days Christians, or the Islamic "fanatics"), it seems that there is an attempt to stifle debate because the "self-hating Jew" label doesn't seem to get the same traction.

      This is what Mondo has been about all along . . . the wedge in the Jewish community that provides an opportunity for J Street to rise to the occasion. Operation Cast Lead is that wedge, and here we go . . .

    • Oscar October 7, 2009 at 1:16 pm

      Bravo, Phil. If Isi was in charge, there would at once be "a highly overdue effort to exorcise such odious groups from the mainstream and expose them as unrepresentative fringe groups with no standing." Isi and others are the ones who are slipping from the mainstream into fringe group status -- and the constant IDF-is-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world hasbara following the incineration of innocent children of Gaza with white phosphorous weapons makes it increasingly so.

  • Neverending Holocaust, this time in the Wall Street Journal
    • Oscar October 7, 2009 at 7:53 am with 1 replies

      Wasn't the late WSJ editor-in-chief Robert Bartlett always a neo-con sympathizer? Brilliant editor, but the rantings and ravings of Bret Stephens and all the neo-con guest editorialists is a continuation of his philosophies.

      Neo-cons are faux conservatives, of course. When it came time for the NY Times to have a "conservative" columnist to give it the cover of objectivity, they chose Bill Kristol. It is not a core value of conservatives to put Israel's interests before those of the U.S.; it is, however, the raison d'etre for neo-conservatives.

    • Oscar October 7, 2009 at 6:56 am with 1 replies

      On Stephens' WSJ piece:

      Although the final paragraph is the punch line that's meant to demonstrate that for Israel to disarm is to invite an existential threat, the rest of Stephens' op-ed was surprisingly rational. Isn't that the way the United Nations and civilized countries should be approaching Israel post-Gaza? Operation Cast Lead was the Waterloo of Israel in the eyes of the rest of the world.

      Thanks to the taxpayers of the United States, of course. From link to whatreallyhappened.com

      U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion. In the dying days of the Bush administration, and a week before Israel launched an aerial bombing campaign, followed by a land invasion of the Gaza Strip, the U.S. military shipped 989 containers of munitions to Israel.

      Each container was 20-feet long with a total estimated net weight of 14,000 tonnes. The shipment reportedly reached Israel last month at Ashod, 40 kiometres north of Gaza. The huge arsenal of munitions will replenish those expended in the Gaza War.

      According to Amnesty International in the UK, the shipment included white phosphorous.

  • Seeing double (JPost/NYPost praises Bloomberg for solidarity with Israel)
  • Obama gave the dirty work to Abbas and now both are soiled
    • Oscar October 6, 2009 at 8:13 am

      America is no longer the so-called "sole superpower" in the world, and accordingly, it has both Russia and China zeroing in on its supremacy. Obama's Cairo speech, while well-intended, may have made matters far worse than George Bush. Obama's inability to make any progress whatsoever on the I/P catastrophe has demonstrated that the U.S. will justify any action on the part of Israel, and totally disregard the blowback risk.

      What blowback risk, you may ask? Says Robert Fisk of the Independent: link to independent.co.uk

      In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar.

      Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

      Iran announced late last month that its foreign currency reserves would henceforth be held in euros rather than dollars.

      And as Hillary Clinton keeps pushing China to go along with sanctions against Iran, as the U.S. puts a tariff on Chinese made tires and squawks about human rights violations, China would be very happy to redeem the $800.5 billion (or 23.35%) of the U.S. Treasury notes it holds and reinvest the proceeds more strategically.

      The next time a Zionist friend attempts to dupe you into drinking the Kool-Aid that it's in America's strategic interest to bomb Iran, think about how the world will treat the U.S. once it's responsible for touching off a World War in the region.

  • MSNBC airs Greenwald saying Israel flouts NPT and 'slaughters' neighbors
    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 9:13 pm with 1 replies

      Arianna sounds like she is carrying water for the Israeli firster warmongers

      She is, dude. She has been co-opted by Zionist private equity money. Fred Harman of Oak Partners is a well-known Israel-firster and the $25 million Arianna got to boost HuffPo was basically signing her soul of neutrality away. HuffPo has had a significant shift toward pro-Zionist views ever since the funding.

      link to techcrunch.com

    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 9:07 pm with 1 replies

      v. you are spot-on here! The camera kept swooping in on the graphic on the desk of the missile launching (which was referred to by the guy who came in and accused Glenn of ignoring reality) over and over. And how about the choice of the name of the segment? IRAN: DEFIANT OR DANGEROUS? Um, what kind of choice is that? That said, the fact that Glenn got so many good points in was astounding. The host failed to follow Zionist protocol, by cutting Glenn off too late in the segment. Good God, he even managed to get the Goldstone Report mentioned on MSNBC! Gotta make certain that's edited out for the West Coast audience.

    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 9:03 pm

      MRW, I'm getting WORVied about you!

    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 8:53 pm

      RW, in June 2008, Israel ran war games to demonstrate to Iran that it intended to launch a first strike. This is exactly what Glenn Greenwald was referring to when he said that if a mere test fire of a missile is a war crime, then Israel is a greater threat.

      From the Boston Globe, link to boston.com

      Senior US officials said Israel's military exercise involved the types of warplanes, distances, and maneuvers required for air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

      More than 100 Israeli warplanes - including F-15s and F-16s, refueling tankers and helicopters for pilot rescue - were involved in the military exercise, which was first reported by the New York Times yesterday. Israeli warplanes flew as much as 900 miles across the Mediterranean and back, US officials said.

      In a move that may have been partly fueled by domestic politics, Israeli Transportation Minister and former Army chief Shaul Mofaz said this month that an attack on Iran was unavoidable because international sanctions have been ineffective.

      Israel's exercise sends a signal to Iran and its allies. "It's a way of saying 'If you're not willing to ratchet up the pressure, you're going to make force more likely, as the current path is not changing Iranian behavior,' " said Dennis Ross of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

  • ElBaradei's talking about Israeli nukes
    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 7:55 am with 2 replies

      Hey, Cheryl, here's Scott Ritter on C-Span. Scary stuff.

      link to youtube.com

    • Oscar October 5, 2009 at 7:52 am

      Sounds like a do-over of the "Niger yellowcake" scam for the MSM to regurgitate and spew out to the great unwashed masses whose taxpayer dollars and children's lives will be devoted to more Israel-first misadventures in the Middle East.

      From The Guardian . . . link to guardian.co.uk

      However, most of the tip-offs about supposed secret weapons sites provided by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies have led to dead ends when investigated by IAEA inspectors, according to informed sources in Vienna.

      "Most of it has turned out to be incorrect," a diplomat at the IAEA with detailed knowledge of the agency's investigations said. . .

      One particularly contentious issue was records of plans to build a nuclear warhead, which the CIA said it found on a stolen laptop computer supplied by an informant inside Iran. In July 2005, US intelligence officials showed printed versions of the material to IAEA officials, who judged it to be sufficiently specific to confront Iran.

      Tehran rejected the material as forged, and there are still reservations within the IAEA about its authenticity, according to officials with knowledge of the internal debate in the agency. "First of all, if you have a clandestine programme, you don't put it on laptops which can walk away," one official said. "The data is all in English which may be reasonable for some of the technical matters, but at some point you'd have thought there would be at least some notes in Farsi. So there is some doubt over the provenance of the computer.

      What do they take us for? Idiots? Rubes? Sheep? Oh, yeah, I guess that about sums it up. . .

  • sex, lies, and Vince Foster
  • Sad-making: American Jews support attack on Iran, bigtime
    • Oscar October 4, 2009 at 9:47 am with 2 replies

      Wow, Ahmedinejad may actually be . . . Jewish!? Talk about self-hating . . .
      link to nydailynews.com

    • Oscar October 2, 2009 at 6:21 am with 2 replies

      Polls, by and large, are shams. They almost always reflect the message the sponsor is paying the pollsters to produce.

      In any event, Phil makes an excellent point. Why isn't a poll conducted of Americans across the board? Who cares if it's true that 56% of Israel-first Jewish Americans thnik we should go to war with Iran? So, pull your sons and daughters out of the Ivy League and enlist them in the Armed Forces. Do I hear a collective gasp?

  • William Safire: Wars Made out of Words
    • Oscar October 1, 2009 at 7:59 am

      A-1, I agree with you. It's almost as if Bromwich had to write a eulogy elegant enough to be worthy of Safire, given the columnist's astounding gifts as a wordsmith. If Mondoweiss is about "the war of ideas," David's piece is at the core of the site's raison d'etre.

  • Why Obama's gotten nowhere with Netanyahu
  • Dimona on my mind
    • Oscar September 29, 2009 at 6:58 pm

      The neo-cons derailed Chas Freeman because he seemed to be anti-Israel, and yet Dennis Ross is OK to have the president's ear on the Iran portfolio even if he's . . . anti-Iran? How would anyone with influence in Iran agree to sit down at a table with WINEP/JPPPI/Clean Break/AIPAC credentialed Dennis Ross?

  • Eliding Safire
    • Oscar September 29, 2009 at 6:52 pm

      And of course, the only conservative columnists worthy of ink in the New York Times were not true conservatives, but Israel-first neo-cons.

      I liked Safire's obsession with wordplay, though, and admired his Sunday Times Magazine column, On Language.

  • Would you leave your shoes under Dick Cheney's bed?
    • Oscar September 25, 2009 at 7:56 pm with 2 replies

      Nah, Mooser -- good guy, but he doesn't get the Phil's wife's posts. It's kind of just the opposite of what Mooser's saying. She's MUCH smarter than her Jewish husband. He's paying homage, dude.

  • Today, Obama wins
    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 10:45 pm with 2 replies

      As much as Amedinehjad is being vilified today by the Western media, wouldn't it be terrific if some Western politician could get up and make the folliwng speech?

      Because of all these reasons most nations including the people of the United States are waiting for real and profound changes. They have welcomed and will continue to welcome changes. How can one imagine that the inhuman policies in Palestine may continue; to force the entire population of a country out of their homeland for more than 60 years by resorting to force and coercion; to attack them with all types of arms and even prohibited weapons; to deny them of their legitimate right of self-defense, while much to the chagrin of the international community calling the occupiers as the peacelovers, and portraying the victims as terrorists. How can the crimes of the occupiers against defenseless women and children and destruction of their homes, farms, hospitals and schools be supported unconditionally by certain governments, and at the same time, the oppressed men and women be subject to genocide and heaviest economic blockade being denied of their basic needs, food, water and medicine. They are not even allowed to rebuild their homes which were destroyed during the 22-day barbaric attacks while the winter is approaching.

  • White House phones Jewish leaders to promise veto on Goldstone
    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 8:00 pm with 1 replies

      Or, as the Israeli Knesset members are chuckling among themselves, while high-fiving -- a sucker!

    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 7:40 pm with 1 replies

      OMG. This is explosive stuff. All the neo-cons involved in criminal activity. Stunning.

      And how about this indictment of the MSM from The Brad Blog (hyperlink in Colin Murray's post above):

      There is much more, but one new point, in particular, caught my eye and certainly demands further immediate follow-up, though it could be difficult, even as it may serve to help explain the virtual U.S. media blackout on this story up until now. Edmonds tells Giraldi about Grossman paying off "some other people, including his contact at the New York Times." She says he bragged about faxing articles to the paper, which were then printed under the names of Times reporters or Op-Ed columnists virtually verbatim. In speaking with her on Sunday, in hopes of following up on that a bit --- no reporter is identified by name in the AmCon article --- she said this "also happened with the Washington Post, but the New York Times was their primary one for this."

      "Every time they wanted something on Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan, for example, they just faxed it over [to the Times], and it was run under their own guys' name, even though it was written by the State Department," she said during our conversation on Sunday. "This was an ongoing operation, at least during a four year period of time" from 1997 to 2001.

      Gives you a sick feeling to your stomach.

  • Campus BDS movement looks to grow with Fall conference
  • rise of the realists, re Iran
    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 11:13 am

      D. It's been documented by several researchers as intentional sabotage. link to whatreallyhappened.com

    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 10:56 am with 2 replies

      Not this time, potsherd. If we didn't have troops right next door in Iraq, and if Russia and China didn't have direct economic interests in Iran, we might have another neo-con misadventure. But the more Israel agitates for a strike in Iran, the more the other nations clamor for Israel to sign the NPT.

      Also, when neo-cons chatter that Iran is an "existential threat" to Israel, and Bret Stephens of the WSJ yammers on that the U.S. needs to take out Natanz, the more it looks as if the neo-cons are simply conspiring to get its "best friend and unshakable ally" the U.S. of A. to commit more blood and treasure in the interest of Israel and not the US. The Project for a New American Century continues with dopey American taxpayers funding the neo-con fantasy.

  • Israeli filmmaker to Jerry Seinfeld: 'Don't cooperate with the occupation'
    • Oscar September 22, 2009 at 4:18 pm

      Seinfeld was a show about nothing, but Toronto is a protest about something. Hopefully, this gets through to him.

  • Question to LA Times: 'Isn't it standard journalistic practice to ask for a response, especially when throwing around slanders like "Jew haters?"'
  • Pastor Hagee's party of death (with Lieberman and Dore Gold)
    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 2:09 pm with 2 replies

      Hey, Max, you're spot-on. And kudos to the braintrust of Zionists who have successfully manipulated the Evangelicals to be "useful idiots" after being enraptured (pardon the pun) by the "Left Behind" series. You gotta love it -- the series was originally deemed to be anti-Semitic by some, and yet, it has become a brainwashing tool for the Zionist neo-cons who have encouraged the Hagees of the world to take up arms against Obama in anticipation of some apocalyptic moment in the Middle East that will trigger The Rapture.

      Still, the hard-core guys are suspicious of the Goyim. Here's Ron Kampeas on Foxy Abe Foxman and several Jewish leaders expressing discomfort with embracing Hagee's army of rapturists on the I/P issue ("Gift Horse or Trojan Horse"):

      Among the skeptical is Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

      "His Web site and his record does not indicate that he has stripped himself of proselytizing efforts," Foxman said. "On the one hand, we need to welcome him. On the other, we need to be cautious about embracing it."
      ...
      "It's immoral to be involved with Pastor Hagee when many of his activities are bad for the present and future of Jewish life in America," said Rabbi Barry Block, who is the senior rabbi at Temple Beth El in San Antonio.
      ...
      Marvin Nathan, the chairman of the ADL's national civil rights committee and an attorney in nearby Houston, says Hagee's domestic views make him unacceptable.

      "Hagee has his night to honor Israel and raises millions of dollars, but then on Sunday, when you turn on your television, he's talking about women who have abortions and gays and lesbians that are ruining children's lives," Nathan said, referring to Hagee's annual "Night to Honor Israel" in Texas.

      The problem with sidelining Hagee, say those Jewish leaders who are friendly to him, is that the minister's support for Israel is so serious and substantial that he becomes impossible to ignore.

      Israel needs all the useful American idiots it can recruit, following the Goldstone Report.

      link to thenewstandard.com

  • thought experiment
    • Oscar September 23, 2009 at 7:15 am

      AIPAC is on the list!!? Wow, I didn't know they were so concerned about human rights, especially for Muslims! What a swell group of kind folks. I guess we can count on AIPAC's full support for the upcoming Stand for Freedom in Palestine rally!

  • 'NYT' blackout of Judge Goldstone continues
    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 9:52 am

      These are Mondo times in which we live. A story of huge international significance is too hot to handle for "the newspaper of record." Jay Leno made a telling joke about the NYT on his new show the other night. Said that the NY Times had just announced good news, that more people were reading the news than ever before. "The bad news was that I read about it on the Internet."

  • my wife's theory about the Yale murder
    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 1:46 pm

      Phil, I know you're being tongue-in-cheek here, but there's some obsessive quality to the act. Probably a sexual angle -- guy called her on a weekend to the lab? A week before she was getting married? We'll learn what the emails and the IMs say in due time.

  • New attack on the Goldstone report - it's thwarting Israeli debate and reflection over Gaza
    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 9:12 am

      Tree --

      Thanks for posting this excerpt from the Report. Richard Witty, I'm astonished that you haven't even bothered to read the report and yet you try to comment knowingly on it.

      One thing's for sure -- it's not going away completely. It will wind its way through the UN, and the Falk premise -- that Israel is losing the war of legitimacy in the eyes of the rest of the world -- will become even more prominent as the mindset of the world community.

    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 8:55 am

      Citizen: it was patently obvious that the IDF targeted civilians during and immediately after the massacre. It wasn't Goldstone's "premise" and then he backfilled the premise with claims. As you said, it was a careful conclusion, not made easily given his ties to Israel and pro-Zionist beliefs. He's being attacked in the most intellectually dishonest way because his team's conclusions are irrefutable.

      If anyone had a "premise" it was Israel -- that's why they refused to cooperate with the investigation.

  • The third rail shrugs (Washington Post publishes Walt on Israel lobby)
    • Oscar September 21, 2009 at 12:11 pm

      gmeyers, see my post above, in which I predicted a tidal wave of anti-Goldstone editorials following the publication of the Walt piece.
      link to washingtonpost.com

    • Oscar September 20, 2009 at 11:43 am

      Well, sometimes it's a form of "affirmative action." The WashPo can now say "hey, we're not one-sided! We not only published a pro-peace article, we published it by Walt!"

      Now watch the flow of pro-Zionist counter-op-eds come cascading across the WaPo editorial pages, not to mention the scathing critical letters to the editor that will vilify Walt for his piece.

      The most recent example was cited here on Mondo when the NY Times published the Goldstone op-ed. There was four times as much ink devoted to countering it in the days following, until the story was pushed off the pages in favor of Amedinehjad's purported "Holocaust denials."

  • Leaked UN report echoes Goldstone and says Israeli blockade is leading to the 'de-development' of Gaza
    • Oscar September 19, 2009 at 8:39 am

      WJ - you're truly an asset to the Mondoweiss discussion. Appreciate your perspective.

    • Oscar September 18, 2009 at 6:51 pm

      Man, you gots to love our country, Mom, Apple Pie, and Israel-First.

      Anyone remember Hillary Clinton’s April 3, 2009 tepid criticism of Israel demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem with modified Caterpillar bulldozers? “Um, this kind of, uh, activity is unhelpful and not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the ‘road map’,” Clinton said, referring to the long-stalled peace plan.

      Unhelpful.

      Now, compare that to the fist-shaking rage of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, in referring to the Goldstone Report: “The United States is reviewing very carefully what is a very lengthy document. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about many of the recommendations in the report.”

      So let’s do what MTV calls a “mash-up” of Clinton and Rice. An imaginary Reuters story:

      Immediately following the news of the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, Hillary Clinton told reporters: “The United States is reviewing very carefully what occurred in East Jerusalem. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the activities of home demolitions in East Jerusalem and the Israelis’ policies in this matter, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about the ongoing blockade and deprivation of basic human rights in Palestine.”

      Instead, we get a mumbled “unhelpful” from HRC over human rights abuses. So what is our foreign policy here? We're enablers when it comes to human rights violatons in Palestine, but outraged when it comes to the UN calling Israel out on human rights violations? What a bizzaro world.

    • Oscar September 18, 2009 at 12:54 pm

      Stunning. The greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, and we sit on our hands, even as we see it unfolding before our eyes.

  • Goldstone commission sees evidence of 'persecution'
    • Oscar September 18, 2009 at 8:12 am

      Note the key phrase " . . . prior to our joining the Council . . . " Why is it the U.S. all-of-a-sudden decided to join the Council on Human Rights . . . coincidentally, the day before the Goldstone Report was issued. Or WAS it a coincidence?

      Could be that the U.S. is muscling onto the Council of Human Rights to be able to protect our "best friend and only ally" in the region.

    • Oscar September 18, 2009 at 8:07 am

      Memo to Foxy: Yes, after reading the report, a lot of us are "shocked and distressed."

  • Ask and you shall receive: the US appears willing to help Israel stonewall the Goldstone report
    • Oscar September 18, 2009 at 6:48 pm

      Man, you gots to love our country, Mom, Apple Pie, and Israel-First.

      Anyone remember Hillary Clinton's April 3, 2009 tepid criticism of Israel demolishing Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem with modified Caterpillar bulldozers? "Um, this kind of, uh, activity is unhelpful and not in keeping with the obligations entered into under the 'road map'," Clinton said, referring to the long-stalled peace plan.

      Unhelpful.

      Now, compare that to the fist-shaking rage of U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, in referring to the Goldstone Report: “The United States is reviewing very carefully what is a very lengthy document. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the mandate that was given by the Human Rights Council prior to our joining the council, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about many of the recommendations in the report.”

      So let's do what MTV calls a "mash-up" of Clinton and Rice. An imaginary Reuters story:

      Immediately following the news of the home demolitions in East Jerusalem, Hillary Clinton told reporters: “The United States is reviewing very carefully what occurred in East Jerusalem. We have long expressed our very serious concern with the activities of home demolitions in East Jerusalem and the Israelis' policies in this matter, which we viewed as unbalanced, one-sided, and basically unacceptable. We have very serious concerns about the ongoing blockade and deprivation of basic human rights in Palestine."

      Instead, we get a mumbled "unhelpful."

    • Oscar September 17, 2009 at 8:16 pm

      Actually, Gellian, I think the daughter's comments were helpful on balance. It gave legitimacy to Judge Goldstone -- that he could be critical of Israel, even though his daughter lives there and he is a supporter of the state. It shows impartiality (and courage!).

      A post on Mondo in another article's comments section made the excellent point that because Hamas was included as engaging in "war crimes" in Gaza, it was impossible for the government to dismiss the investigation as focused solely on Israel.

    • Oscar September 17, 2009 at 8:09 pm with 8 replies

      It's possible that Susan Rice is just giving some cover in response to Israeli Likudnik caterwauling about a biased UN report . . . let's give it a few more days to see how it plays out.

      However, if Rice follows through, stating that the Goldstone Report is illegitimate, then Obama can kiss Arab support goodbye, and fold up the rickety tent on his efforts to bring peace to the I/P situation. It would be a complete repudiation of his speech to the Muslim world in Cairo.

  • The BDS movement will continue to grow as long as Israel avoids accountability
    • Oscar September 17, 2009 at 3:41 pm

      Potsherd - not sure I agree. Could Obama's pulling-the-plug be part of a quid-pro-quo with the Russians? The US cancels its missile defense shield in Eastern Europe . . . and will the Russians then cancel the sale of their own missile defense weapons to Iran, thereby clearing a path for an Israeli strike on Natanz?

      It's difficult to comprehend everything happening behind the scenes, but Netanyahu's top secret visit to Russia last week could be part of a more complicated triumvirate deal that is to the detriment of the Iranians.

  • Roger Ebert amends his review of the Toronto protest
    • Oscar September 17, 2009 at 8:05 am

      Commendable effort, everyone. If you read the thread on Roger's blogsite, it appears many Mondo regulars were represented. Now, if only we can get Roger to sign the Toronto Declaration.

      (N.B. - Jewish Voice for Peace is now up to 7566 signatures in support of the Toronto Declaration.)

      Phil and Adam have created a comprehensive -- and searchable -- body of information relating to the I/P situation, and those newly converted to the cause after reading the Goldstone Report have a resource with which to get up to speed. As always, kudos to P & A for their dedication and effort.

  • Gaza, and now Goldstone, expose rift between American Jews and Israel
    • Oscar September 17, 2009 at 8:19 am

      Hey, as is par for the course for the Times, I'll bet you fifty bucks that Foxy Abe Foxman's response will be the first letter at the top of the Times To-the-Editor page in a few days followed by Hoenlein and possibly Harris, with some Palestinian sounding name as the sole letter in support of the Goldstone op-ed. That's the way they roll.

      Also, Richard, let's not get too entranced with a new, "progressive" New York Times. It's highly likely that Goldstone approached the Times weeks ago with the op-ed, and what was the Times to do? Rejecting it would have resulted in destructive publicity to the "newspaper of record."

      And although you can bet that the neo-cons and the Zionists are burning up their keyboards in a race to submit their own op-eds to the Times in response, the damage is done.

    • Oscar September 16, 2009 at 8:59 pm with 1 replies

      Goldstone is an amazing human being, a pro-Israel jurist who provided a clear-eyed assessment of the atrocities committed in Gaza. His integrity is beyond reproach, which is why the hasbara cabal is unable to smear him as a self-hater or anti-Semite.

      On Al-Jazeera, Goldstone noted that Israel is subject to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, even if it is not a signatory. Most of the rogue nations prosecuted in the ICC are not signatories, and yet it's within the Court's purview to prosecute those who committed war crimes.

      No one is yet looking down the road . . . but here's an interesting twist. Israel may need the Obama administration to veto any U.N. council recommendation to send the Goldstone findings to the ICC. And yet, Netanyahu sticks a thumb in Obama's eye on the settlements every time he meets with Mitchell. Is this finally the stick Obama needs to get the Likudniks off the dime to end the blockade and move to the two-state solution? Obama is a "sucker" if he lets this opportunity slip through his fingers.

  • Desperation: Canadian newspaper likens Naomi Klein to.... Goebbels

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