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Total number of comments: 20 (since 2010-03-23 20:31:51)

Rumpel

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  • Jon Stewart compares settlements to terrorism, and gets laughs in the process
    • Rumpel March 11, 2011 at 7:30 pm

      My administration? I don't have one, I'm British. I have a Cameron/Clegg coalition if that's of any relevance, and in geopolitical terms, (sadly) it isn't.

      Anyway, if "naturally [there's] NOTHING here", it would seem self-defeating for Stewart to make a joke his audience wouldn't get.

      Isn't it more likely he's working on the simple consensus that settlements = a Bad Thing?

    • Rumpel March 11, 2011 at 7:26 pm with 2 replies

      Hmm, I don't think that's what she's saying...

    • Rumpel March 10, 2011 at 8:27 pm with 4 replies

      Really?

      More to do with that than the issue that humiliated your current administration- an administration whose PR people will be intertwined with the Daily Show's producers?

      Or more than the UNSC vote that made every single country in the world (well, bar one) hate America just that little bit more?

    • Rumpel March 10, 2011 at 8:11 pm

      As a TV type, I have to say that if this made it on air, it's not a slip: it's been bashed out amongst the writers for weeks/months beforehand.

      Also: the Daily Show has incredible access, which it would be suicide to jeapordise. If this made it on air, then if reflects intra-Beltway conversation.

      So while it's small beer in UK/European terms (see here for the UK equivalent: link to liveleak.com
      ), I can see why Americans will be enthused.

  • U.S. funded Israeli-linked security company pushes anti-Muslim ideology
    • Rumpel March 12, 2011 at 6:33 am

      True, and St George fulfils the same role in Greece, for the same reason.

      So that's two countries out of 50 or so. But whereas you claim 'Europeans' have had a negative view of Islam since the 15th century (why not from the Crusades, or the Arab Conquests?) that isn't true of every country in Europe, nor even of the two countries above for all periods of their history.

      Also, European Muslims (Lithuanian and Polish Tatars, Pomaks, Bosnians, Gorani, Albanians, Krim Tatars...) tend to have a positive view of Islam, funnily enough.

      Finally, I should add that between the Middle Ages and 1948, European Jews held a positive view of 'Islam' (again, an over-broad category). North Africa, the Ottoman Empire and the Khanate of the Crimea were traditional refuges for Jews during successive waves of persecution.

    • Rumpel March 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

      You mean when Hungarian artillery officers and Italian mercenaries helped the Ottomans capture Constantinople? The victor being painted by Bellini as part of a major trade deal with Venice.

      Does this mean anything to you: link to en.wikipedia.org
      ?

      History: rarely reducible to simplistic internet point-scoring.

  • 11 more families in Occupied West Bank are ordered to leave their homes inside 24 hours. Where is the U.S.?
  • International pressure mounts on Netanyahu
  • Video shows Israeli soldiers celebrating the demolition of houses in Gaza
    • Rumpel November 12, 2010 at 9:36 pm with 1 replies

      Much as I'd like to join in the general yah-booh-sucks-to-Israel, I think you're reading too much into this. I was in the (British) Army myself: soldiers, a certain subset of teens/early 20s males, enjoy watching HE* take out En Posns. They just do. You could easily find any number of British, US, Czech, Dutch, Polish etc soldiers exulting over Afghan compounds being obliterated by fast air** or arty*** on Youtube: it's just the way of the world. It's not symptomatic of a uniquely Israeli evil. Honestly.

      *High explosive
      ** Jets
      *** Artillery

  • Brits say 13 'Bloody Sunday' victims were innocent, 28 years later (flotilla echo)
    • Rumpel June 17, 2010 at 8:20 pm

      Just thinking about Bloody Sunday: 1 PARA, the regiment in question, had last been deployed in Aden on public order duties.

      Essentially, their crime was to have treated quarrelsome white British subjects as they had done- with impunity- quarrelsome brown British subjects. The first British units in Northern Ireland actually displayed Aden-era banners- in ARABIC!- telling the crowds to disperse or be shot.

      The lesson of Bloody Sunday is surely that of imperial blowback; if you treat Arabs as sub-humans, it will eventually poison your actions at home, to more devastating effect. I think Israel has more to learn from the Saville Enquiry than how to say sorry.

  • Israel's 'self-defense' narrative falls apart
    • Rumpel June 11, 2010 at 4:31 am

      Wearing my ex-Army hat, I have to say that doesn't look like a shooting.

      I don't recognise the weapon, but it looks like the soldier's either clearing a stoppage or cocking it after reloading (NSPs, or safety drills, for both are identical, depending on the nature of the stoppage). That doesn't preclude him having shot the victim immediately beforehand, but if he did, it's off-camera.

  • I need your help
    • Rumpel June 5, 2010 at 7:25 pm with 1 replies

      Yonira: Um, it really doesn't.

      If you want me to get into the allele-based details of the thing, I will. But in vague terms, it just shows that Ashkenazis are of broadly post-Neolithic Middle Eastern origin- as are most Europeans East of, say, Zurich.

      You'll notice that the released diagrams show the Ashkenazim clustering with Greeks and Turks rather than any Middle Eastern populations: link to 3.bp.blogspot.com

      This is entirely consonant with what we know (and what Sands wrote about, if you actually read his book) of Jewish evangelism in the Hellenistic Near East (think Septuagint...).

      Also, the authors of the above study specifically stated that:

      "Admixture with local populations, including Khazars and Slavs, may have occurred subsequently during the 1000 year (2nd millennium) history of the European Jews. Based on analysis of Y chromosomal polymorphisms, Hammer estimated that the rate might have been as high as 0.5% per generation or 12.5% cumulatively (a figure derived from Motulsky), although this calculation might have underestimated the influx of European Y chromosomes during the initial formation of European Jewry. Notably, up to 50% of Ashkenazi Jewish Y chromosomal haplogroups (E3b, G, J1, and Q) are of Middle Eastern origin,15 whereas the other prevalent haplogroups (J2, R1a1, R1b) may be representative of the early European admixture. The 7.5% prevalence of the R1a1 haplogroup among Ashkenazi Jews has been interpreted as a possible marker for Slavic or Khazar admixture because this haplogroup is very common among Ukrainians (where it was thought to have originated), Russians, and Sorbs, as well as among Central Asian populations, although the admixture may have occurred with Ukrainians, Poles, or Russians, rather than Khazars."

      Regarding Phil's ethnodilemma, surely he's a Yiddischer-American. Isn't that enough? Americans agonize too much about this stuff...

  • MV Rachel Corrie due to reach Gaza within hours. “The world is watching” — Mustafa Barghouthi
    • Rumpel June 4, 2010 at 12:51 pm

      I should have added: the rather calculating solipsism is perfectly likely to just be Yanni wondering 'but is this good for the Greeks?'

      If the Turkish rupture with Israel is permanent, then that presents a new, and not entirely advantageous security paradigm for Greece.

      Off-topic: sorry.

    • Rumpel June 4, 2010 at 12:45 pm

      He likely is Greek. The claim seems to have started with Stratfor here: link to stratfor.com

      " June 2, 2010

      According to a STRATFOR source, only a Turkish patrol ship is circling the area near the Gaza coast, but is not entering Israeli territorial waters. There is no sign of readiness on the part of the Turkish navy to provide escorts to aid ships making their way to the Gaza coast. The source indicated that the patrol ship is only in observation mode for the time being."

      and Yanni may well have read it here, judging by the Corvette description: link to defencenet.gr

  • Why do they hate us?
    • Rumpel June 2, 2010 at 4:30 am with 1 replies

      I don't know if you can watch Britain's Channel 4 News online in the US, but here's (yet another) classic Jon Snow grilling of the odious Mark Regev: link to youtube.com

      Sadly, Snow was wrong regarding the Turkish warship rumour at the end; but the look of panic on Regev's face is priceless.

  • Sea change: 'Huffpo' bannered Palestinian flag
    • Rumpel April 13, 2010 at 7:52 pm

      Bah. *election* and *volta face*. Mavrodaphne is a bad friend.

    • Rumpel April 13, 2010 at 7:40 pm

      To follow from above: link to hurryupharry.org

      This was the headline of a mainstream Greek newspaper (my ancestors came from Greece, back in the early Victorian day) on Obama's elections. Translation: "the end of Jewish rule".

      In the UK (and, actually, to me) that sounds borderline anti-Semitic, but it genuinely reflects how Gibbon's "fairest portion of humanity" views Israel and AIPAC.

      FIrst amendment: we may not have it in the EU, but comparatively, we may not need it as much...

    • Rumpel April 13, 2010 at 7:29 pm

      At the risk of self-publicising, check my (same username) comments on Huffpost. They've all been allowed. I'm far from glugging on Ziocaine, but I'm slightly concerned about the drift onto conspiracy theory here.

      Anyway, to big up my bona fides: I'm English, and have always been shocked about how the things we've always been able to rail about here in Europe- Israel's flouting of international law, stranglehold on Congress etc- have been verboten on your side of the pond; and I'm equally startled about how suddenly the tide has turned. Let a thousand flowers bloom... it's only because of Obama's voltae face that I joined here or Huffpost.

      BTW, I've just left the British Army (well, TA: a sort of National Guard for the UK) after 4 years, and you might be interested by this site: www.arrse.co.uk

      Check the Current Affairs posts. In my experience (admittedly solely amongst officers) the British Army remains resolutely Arabist, as we always were. On the above website, it's only Americans and never-served chickenhawks defending Israel against international law and common humaity. I guess that's why the Israelis call us (and the FCO, who are even more so) the Camel Corps...

  • Why is this president worse than all other presidents?
  • Why there is no mainstream investigative journalism about the Israel lobby
    • Rumpel March 31, 2010 at 6:35 am

      Watching the Catholic abuse scandal play out in Europe, one important aspect in Ireland- home to some of the worst abuses- was that the Church overplayed its hand.

      After independence from the UK, the Catholic Church in Ireland was given untrammeled power and exemption from criticism- from a press veto under the Archbishop of Dublin in the long postwar period to a self-imposed culture of silence wherein journalists felt unable to take on the clerical establishment. But history moves on... with growing EU-funded prosperity and parallel secularisation, it swiftly became apparent that the church had overplayed its hand massively. When the end came, it came quickly- the Irish press is now the most virulently secular in Europe, and the Catholic church in Ireland had effectively destroyed itself through its actions during its long period of impunity.

      In precisely the same way, perhaps future historians will say it was the Bush administration that destroyed the Zionist project. By giving Israel carte blanche to disregard world opinion, it may have unwittingly allowed it to destroy itself- in the same way that the Iraq war- contrary to Neocon assumptions- finally forced America to take heed of the Arab street and reassess Israel's worth as a strategic partner .

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