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Total number of comments: 169 (since 2009-07-31 16:33:55)

Susie Kneedler

A writer.

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  • 'This American Life' shines some light on that Palestinian life
    • Susie Kneedler April 24, 2013 at 12:11 pm

      Part of what enthralls in Glass's anecdote is how he and his friend use similar words, but convey different meanings--to me at least. Or don't they? Glass paraphrases Rudis: "it doesn't matter if I think of myself as a Jew. I just am a Jew"--lines that appear to repeat what Ira had already said of himself, "Yes, I'm Jewish, but I don't believe in God." But Ira's distinction seems almost opposite to his friend's notion. So, though I haven't yet heard all the Updike or the show on "Tribes," I can only rejoice that "This American Life"'s chiming in on the riddles of identity and the horrors that tribalism spawns.

    • Susie Kneedler April 24, 2013 at 11:27 am with 2 replies

      Thanks, Henry, for great work, as always. About Ira Glass: I hadn't heard "TAL" for a while, til a friend played this fascinating reflection for me yesterday,
      Audio: link to thisamericanlife.org
      Transcript link to thisamericanlife.org:

      "This guy I know, David Rudis....is concerned about the fact that... fewer Jews are joining Jewish organizations and identifying as Jews. He thinks those organizations need to make themselves more relevant to modern Jews.

      "And I[said], that's fine for him, but that is just not my thing. Yes, I'm Jewish, but I don't believe in God. I married a non-Jew. I've been eating bread all this week during Passover. I have plenty of interesting Jews in my life and feel no need to meet any more. Why would I ever join a Jewish organization?

      "This, of course, led to the brief obligatory discussion of the Holocaust, which is what we Jews always talk about at a point like this in a conversation like this. And David was very insistent that it doesn't matter if I think of myself as a Jew. I just am a Jew.

      "David Rudis: I think, Ira, you don't even begin to realize how much this identity has affected your life. As an avid listener to your show, there is something profoundly Jewish in the contents of what you're producing, whether you know it or not.

      "Ira Glass: I'm so surprised to hear you say that you think of the show as a Jewish kind of cultural product, because I don't think of it that way at all.

      "David Rudis: See, I actually think it is. If you're playing morality plays to get into the hearts and heads of people on a weekly basis, what is more Jewish than that, than telling and interpreting a story? It's in your DNA.

      "Ira Glass: I suggested to him that telling stories is kind of something that every culture does, not just the Jews. David says sure, but so what?

      "David Rudis: Literally what you're doing really is profoundly Jewish.

      "Ira Glass: It was a weird conversation. David thinks that in our big, multicultural world, of course it is just old-fashioned for people to identify strictly with their own ethnic tribe....But at that same time as he was saying this he says-- no contradiction here-- he just likes having his own tribe and would like me to come join the herd."

      *****
      The audio's intriguing, especially the urgency in David Rudis's tones, anxious that Glass discard a universal kinship in favor of a particular bloodline. I wonder when Ira and the other storytellers at "TAL" will join us here--not as part of a herd--but because they're now grappling with the mysteries Phil, Adam, you, and all our online friends at MW.net search out and sort out, each in different ways.

  • Extremists & traitors
  • Why Fran Korotzer stopped saying 'ethnic cleansing' and started saying 'genocide'
    • Susie Kneedler March 13, 2013 at 3:25 pm

      Fran, and Bud, too: please write for us. We need your eloquent conscience.
      Thank you and thanks, Phil.

  • NPR blames the victim: Emad Burnat brought suffering to Bil'in by filming occupiers
    • Susie Kneedler February 21, 2013 at 11:03 am with 1 replies

      Larry Abramson blaming the camera reminds me of the Confederacy forbidding the people it enslaved from learning to read or write, as well as people of conscience from teaching them.

      So, Palestinian peaceful Resistance is impossible in Abramson's and Melissa Block's prejudiced eyes, when a mere Camera poses the threat of "a powerful weapon":
      "MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: The camera has become a powerful weapon in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians."

  • '5 Broken Cameras' director detained in LAX on way to Oscars (Updated)
  • Bab Shams (Gate of Sun)
    • Susie Kneedler January 17, 2013 at 10:54 am

      Thank you, Badia, for this, "In our village, darkness overruns the quiet land
      The sun attempts to imitate the moon with humility," and for all.

  • Jon Stewart can't touch Roger Waters's Palestinian work with a bargepole
  • Roots of Resistance: Memories of Nablus
    • Susie Kneedler January 7, 2013 at 3:58 pm

      Heart-rending, Michael. Thank you for all, and for Dr.____'s insight: “'Before this all began, it was very easy for us to find differences among ourselves. We marked ourselves off by family, by clan, by status. Now, that has all changed. We are all in this together.' Later, as I stood up to leave, he told me that he could never imagine being so tired, or so happy, or so hopeful. This democratic spirit of sacrifice, he told me, was transforming the Palestinians, and that would surely mean that there was no going back."

  • Video: Survivors of Israeli attack on Gaza says bombs continued to fall on the al-Shoja'iya neighborhood as civilians raised white flags
    • Susie Kneedler November 12, 2012 at 11:46 am

      Again, the US press (here, AP and NPR) blames Palestine, not Israel, the actual aggressor, who shelled caged Gaza and its precious children playing football [soccer].

      "Rocket Fire From Gaza Intensifies"
      'by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=164933627 ]

      "JERUSALEM November 12, 2012, 03:41 am ET
      "JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza militants launched 10 rockets into southern Israel by midday Monday, including one that struck the yard of a house, the military said. The barrage ramps up pressure on the Israeli government to stage a large-scale operation aimed at stopping the persistent attacks.

      "No injuries were reported and there was no immediate Israeli retaliation. But earlier in the day, Israeli aircraft struck three militant sites in Gaza.

      "According to the military's count, more than 110 rockets have hit Israel since Saturday.

      "The violence threatens to explode into a major confrontation ahead of Israel's Jan. 22 elections.

      "Israeli leaders have warned they won't tolerate continued assaults and have threatened a more forceful response.

      "'The world must understand that Israel will not sit idly in the face of attempts to attack us,' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

      "Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel's upcoming elections will not deter Israel from acting militarily."

      **Update**: Ominously, NPR has now changed the headline to "Gaza Fire Increases Pressure On Israel To Hit Back."

  • Breaking the Silence report details soldiers humiliating and torturing Palestinian children and using them as human shields
    • Susie Kneedler August 26, 2012 at 2:52 pm with 2 replies

      Thank you, Phil and Annie: thanks for your conscience, letting us know the unbearable.

      Whereas you, "The Independent," and "The Guardian" report these horrors, NPR failed. Instead, NPR aired Daniel Estrin's story praising Israel for "briefly" opening Occupied East Jerusalem to Palestinians. NPR and Estrin, rather than explore the injustice of barring the people of Palestine from their own land and holy sites, claimed that "Palestinians Flood Into Israel" and even denoted the Palestinian Old City as "Israel." link to npr.org

  • Once upon a time, my mother was alive
    • Susie Kneedler August 1, 2012 at 10:44 am

      Thank you, Waleed. I'm awed by you, your inspiring work and words, your breath-taking tribute to your precious mother with her total love for you and your brother.

  • Romney visits Western Wall, ignores question, Does Israel have a right to annex West Bank
  • Homage to Alex Cockburn
    • Susie Kneedler July 24, 2012 at 11:44 pm

      Henry Norr is a great journalist. We are lucky to hear his work at this site. I'm disappointed that anyone would stoop to such an attack on Mr. Norr here.

      Henry, thanks for your ever-inspiring research and perspective.

  • A random photograph
    • Susie Kneedler June 29, 2012 at 12:33 pm

      "Can we sacrifice some small measure of our own comfort to try to bring freedom to that land?"
      Yes. Thanks, Phil, for such a moving reminder.

  • How I discovered the Nakba
  • Beinart's spiritual errors
  • 'You see that we are rising--no longer in the shadows of the ghosts of Deir Yassin' --Phil Monsour/Rafeef Ziadah
    • Susie Kneedler May 9, 2012 at 5:52 pm

      Yes: I meant "passing it on." And definitely I should have called out "Thanks!" to Phil Monsour and Rafeef Ziadah: Thank you!

    • Susie Kneedler May 9, 2012 at 2:45 pm with 2 replies

      Yes, Annie: so thanks again for giving it to us. And these brave souls--who endure all-- show exactly why the people of Palestine inspire "former Zionist" Bill to faith that "I don’t see these people doing that [revenge]. They just want their rights." link to mondoweiss.net .

    • Susie Kneedler May 9, 2012 at 11:43 am

      Thanks, Annie--so moving: exquisite, and heart-rending. On "our hearts these words are written."

      As the end tells us,
      "The writing on the hands are the names of the original villages in Palestine from which the people were ethnically cleansed to make way for the state of Israel.
      "Buy the album HERE." From link to australiansforpalestine.net

  • Major olive producing village ordered to uproot 1,400 trees by May 1
  • 'I've been duped' -- America's travel guide Rick Steves says our media black out the brutal occupation
    • Susie Kneedler April 7, 2012 at 1:23 pm with 2 replies

      In 2008, Rick Steves also acted bravely to counter the demonizing of Iran and the Iranian people:

      'Rick Steves and Travel Diplomacy in Iran: Public television host films one-hour travel special'
      'Rick Steves advances thoughtful travel, encouraging Americans to understand and appreciate different cultures and values. Now in a move to push his work to a new level, Rick is producing a new one-hour public television special "Rick Steves' Iran: Yesterday and Today." [After] a trip through that part of the "axis of evil", Rick explains that while the public television special ... will be strictly travel, his motivation to take on this project went beyond sightseeing.
      'For Rick, travel is a political act — a way to break down cultural barriers and better understand our complex world....[T]his project promotes people-to-people diplomacy at a time when governments are refusing to talk face-to-face. "A friend from the United Nations Association asked what I could do to help them build understanding between Iran and the US...I answered, 'The only powerful thing I can do is to produce a TV show on Iran.'"
      'This past month Rick filmed the local historical sights and daily lives of people that Americans rarely see through traditional media outlets. "I remember when the bombs first fell on Baghdad, thinking I missed an opportunity to produce a travel show that could humanize the people of Baghdad and give "collateral damage" a face. I didn't want to miss an opportunity to do this for Iran."''

      link to ricksteves.com
      link to ricksteves.com

    • Susie Kneedler April 7, 2012 at 12:52 pm with 2 replies

      Thanks, Annie. Last month, Rick Steves hosted a fair-minded program about "Living in the Arab Awakening,"
      Release Date: 03/10/2012, Program 279, starting about 15:00 (after another discussion of conscience, "Visiting Post-Tsunami Japan").

      link to ricksteves.com
      link to ricksteves.com
      link to itunes.apple.com

      Description:
      'Guests from Egypt and Morocco discuss the "Arab Spring" movement and explain what the upheaval is about from an insider's perspective.
      'Guest Interviews:
      'Colin Clement, translator, tour guide, and antiquities expert with the French Archaeological Mission in Alexandria, Egypt
      'Aziz Begdouri, tour guide based in Tangier, Morocco.'

  • 'New Yorker' defends Rosenberg (and use of term 'Israel firster')
  • Three harsh critiques of the lobby
    • Susie Kneedler March 5, 2012 at 1:57 pm

      Here's a bit of what Hedges argued:

      "AIPAC does not speak for Jews or for Israel. It is a mouthpiece for right-wing ideologues, some of whom hold power in Israel and some of whom hold power in Washington, who believe that because they have the capacity to war wage they have a right to wage war, whose loyalty, in the end, is not to the citizens of Israel or Palestine or the United States but the corporate elites, the defense contractors, those who make war a business, those who have turned ordinary Palestinians, Israelis and Americans, along with hundreds of millions of the world’s poor, into commodities to exploit, repress and control....

      "The support by neoconservatives of the Israeli right wing—and I covered Yitzhak Rabin’s 1992 campaign for prime minister when prominent AIPAC donors poured money and resources into Likud to defeat Rabin—is not about Israel. It is about advancing this perverted ideology. Rabin detested these neoconservatives. When he made his first visit to Washington after being elected prime minister he dismissed requests from the lobby for a meeting by telling aides: 'I don’t speak to scumbags.'

      "These neoconservatives, who like our own neoconservatives hide behind the rhetoric of patriotism, national security and religious piety, are not wedded to any discernable doctrine other than force....

      "AIPAC does not drive Middle Eastern policy in the United States. I am afraid it is worse than that. AIPAC is one of an array of powerful and well-funded neoconservative institutions that worship force and drive our relations with the rest of the world. These neoconservatives choose an enemy and then our compliant class of journalists, specialists, military analysts, columnists and television commentators line up to serve as giddy cheerleaders for war. Moments like these always make me embarrassed to be a reporter. Our political elite, Republican and Democrat, finds in this ideology a simple, childish allure. This ideology does not require cultural, historical or linguistic literacy. It reduces the world to black and white, good and evil....

      "Pre-emptive war, under post-Nuremberg law, is defined as a criminal act of aggression....Where is Israel’s U.N. resolution authorizing it to strike Iran?....Why does the only discussion in the media and among political elites center around the questions of 'Will Israel attack Iran?'....The essential question is left unasked. Does Israel have the right to attack Iran? And here the answer is very, very clear. It does not. "

      Hedges ends by quoting Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai:....
      "Because of voices like these, father
      At age sixteen, with your family, you fled Rypin;
      Now here Rypin is your son."

    • Susie Kneedler March 5, 2012 at 12:35 pm

      See Chris Hedges's great analysis for Occupy AIPAC: link to truthdig.com

  • Watch live video from OccupyAIPAC
    • Susie Kneedler March 4, 2012 at 2:02 pm

      Phil himself let us know–in an understated way–that AIPAC had refused to allow him to cover the conference, in his post, “Journalists Mike Murphy of NBC and Donna Brazile of CNN to speak at conference promoting Iran war”:
      “What are the networks’ ethics policies on this sort of appearance?

      “Oh and AIPAC denied my application for credentials.”
      link to mondoweiss.net

      Phil’s modest and didn’t make a furor. I think it’s a scandal.

  • Some elephants aren't fit to print: 'NYT' front-pages Adelson gift to Gingrich PAC without a word about Israel!
    • Susie Kneedler January 24, 2012 at 7:27 pm

      Chris Matthews just asked, "Why does he [Adelson] love Newt?" link to msnbc.msn.com. Jon Ralston replies that Adelson is "more involved with Israeli than American politics" and "very close to Netanyahu."

      Matthews treads "carefully": "Let's be very careful here...A-A good share of American people...in fact, overwhelmingly America supports Israel... regardless of your background...and even people who are Jewish Americans and are tremendously committed to Israel have positions which are very reasonable."

      Matthews lists Gingrich-Adelson's three positions on Israel:

      1. Free Pollard, "the guy who was convicted of spying on behalf of Israel"
      2. Move embassy [from Tel Aviv] to Jerusalem, which Matthews call "red-hot"
      3. Stop negotiating with the Palestinian Authority, whom Matthews calls the "more moderate people on the other side of the Green Line."

      Matthews then says that Adelson's desires are "divisive in the world and would cause nothing but trouble," adding: "This is not exactly the normal pro-Israeli position that the Adelsons are advocating, is it?" Ralston agrees, calling Adelson "hawkish," "bellicose."

      John Heilemann, "NY Magazine," adds that Adelson and Gingrich share something besides their stance on Israel: they are anti-union. Heilemann talks about how voters who follow politics know about SuperPACS and conclude "this whole thing's corrupt."

  • Gaza strikes kill two youths, and cut off hands of 13-year-old boy playing football
    • Susie Kneedler August 27, 2011 at 11:28 am

      From Julia Webb-Pullman's report at Kate's link:

      'Dr Ayman came close to tears several times as he showed me around the emergency department and the critical care unit.

      '“We want the world to know what is happening here in Gaza,” he said. “We need to know what these weapons are. We have twenty children in here, with injuries we have never encountered before, even in Operation Cast Lead when we first saw phosphorous burns. These weapons are even worse, they cause terrible burns, they sever feet and legs, and hands, they fill the bodies with hundreds of small pieces of metal.”'

  • The case against circumcision
    • Susie Kneedler August 5, 2011 at 5:25 pm

      Mooser, I knew you'd "top" anything I could think!--even on another sad topic.
      Oh, no: "top"-"ick."

      And, Matthew, at the same time, I'm sorry for being flippant about something so hurtful: gallows humor, I guess. I'm grateful for your helpful, serious, deeply moving description of what this has meant to you!

    • Susie Kneedler August 5, 2011 at 1:02 pm with 5 replies

      Thanks, Matthew, for your dear eloquence and great work, as well as to Mooser for your "endless" wit.
      A few helpful sites: link to nocirc.org, link to intactamerica.org, which has a petition
      "to the "American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)" at
      link to org2.democracyinaction.org..

  • Anti-Muslim law enforcement trainer cited by Norway killer rakes in U.S. taxpayer cash
    • Susie Kneedler July 26, 2011 at 4:04 pm with 3 replies

      Thanks, Alex.

      Last night, Stephen Colbert exposed the U.S. media's pose as "true heroes"--calling out Fox, "WaP"'s Rubin, and the "WSJ" (including Murdoch's "accura[cy]" through hacking) for their prejudice against Muslims. Colbert offers sadly hilarious insights, starting with his satiric rebuttal of how "false reports of Muslim involvement were a widespread 'failure of the media." He merrily claims that, "by going with their guts, these journalists were able to get the story they wanted and scoop reality. And even if there was a rush to judgment, we must not repeat that mistake by rushing to accuracy. Just because the confessed murderer is a blond, blue-eyed, anti-Muslim crusader, does not mean he was not a swarthy, ululating, Middle-Eastern madman."

      Colbert quips that the terrorist having [Harry Potter's] "Polyjuice potion" is more likely than any killer not being Muslim, in answer to a Foxperson's surmise that the killer's Nordic look might be just "a good disguise." Colbert reminds us that, according to the usual practice, "The 'news' business is all about 'guesstimating.'" Colbert even nails the slimy corrections later proffered, then ends by foretelling that if so-called reporters just continue making up "hypothetical," "imaginary" "feelings report[ed] as news," then the real work will be "writing the retractions."

      Clip starts about 3:35: link to colbertnation.com

  • 'CNN' seeks to balance Alice Walker's Gaza piece w English novelist explaining how an 'Israeli parent' sees things
    • Susie Kneedler June 24, 2011 at 9:48 am with 2 replies

      Jacobson's perverse take on the great good conscience of the flotilla unintentionally argues for BDS of Israel: "The cargo is a cargo of intention. It is freighted with political sympathy and attitude."

      He lectures: "Alice Walker must understand the symbolic significance of words."
      Well, the presence of outsiders affirms even more than words--in both Israel and Gaza.

      How sad that Jacobson is so lost that he concludes, "The parties to this conflict need to be brought together not divided: but those who speak disingenuously of love will engender only further hatred." Is that the Israel its defenders promote--a fortress where "love" must be read as "disingenuous" and as provoking "hatred"?

      I'm in awe of the courage of all brave souls on the valiant flotilla!

  • Buy Pamela Olson's book on Palestine, and 20% will go to the Gaza boat
  • What do you do when Netroots is just not that into you?
    • Susie Kneedler June 17, 2011 at 12:27 pm with 1 replies

      How disappointing. So, on the central question of how liberals can press the U.S. government to work for universal human rights equally around the world--including Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, ...everywhere--the Netroots falls as silent as the corporate-public media and for the same reason: money. I'm sad that the conference didn't ask you and Adam to organize a panel, Phil.

  • 'NYT' report uncovers Bush plot to torpedo Juan Cole, but ignores some crucial questions
    • Susie Kneedler June 16, 2011 at 1:18 pm

      Thanks, Kathleen (and for all your great work)! I had trouble, too--waiting about 15 minutes for the connection--and assumed that the delay was caused by traffic, which must now be even greater.

    • Susie Kneedler June 16, 2011 at 9:26 am with 2 replies

      Admirable, brave Juan Cole reflects:

      "Carle’s revelations come as a visceral shock. You had thought that with all the shennanigans of the CIA against anti-Vietnam war protesters and then Nixon’s use of the agency against critics like Daniel Ellsberg, that the Company and successive White Houses would have learned that the agency had no business spying on American citizens....

      I hope that the Senate and House Intelligence Committees will immediately launch an investigation of this clear violation of the law by the Bush White House and by the CIA officials concerned. Like Mr. Carle, I am dismayed at how easy it seems to have been for corrupt WH officials to suborn CIA personnel into activities that had nothing to do with national security abroad and everything to do with silencing domestic critics. This effort was yet another attempt to gut the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, in this case as part of an effort to gut the First Amendment of the US Constitution....

      In 2003-2005 and after I on a few occasions was asked to speak to military and intelligence professionals.... Apparently one of the purposes of spying on me to discredit me, from the point of view of the Bush White House, was ironically to discourage Washington think tanks from inviting me to speak to the analysts, not only of the CIA but also the State Department Intelligence and Research and other officials concerned with counter-terrorism and with Iraq.

      It seemed likely to some colleagues, according to what they told me, that the Bush administration had in fact succeeded in having me blackballed, since the invitations rather dropped off, and panels of a sort I had earlier participated in were being held without my presence....It was all the same to me– I continued to provide what I believe was an important service to the Republic at my blog and I know for a fact that not only intelligence analysts but members of the Bush team continued to read some of what I wrote.

      What alarms me most of all in the nakedly illegal deployment of the CIA against an academic for the explicit purpose of destroying his reputation for political purposes is that I know I am a relatively small fish and it seems to me rather likely that I was not the only target of the baleful team at the White House. After the Valerie Plame affair, it seemed clear that there was nothing those people wouldn’t stoop to. You wonder how many critics were effectively “destroyed.” It is sad that a politics of personal destruction was the response by the Bush White House to an attempt of a citizen to reason in public about a matter of great public interest. They have brought great shame upon the traditions of the White House, which go back to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, who had hoped that checks and balances would forestall such abuses of power.

      link to juancole.com

  • Drink the elixir of nationalism, speak the language of violence
    • Susie Kneedler May 2, 2011 at 5:20 pm

      Yes, I think it is, MH: you're right. All empires seem to demonize those they conquer as "barbarians"--all the while committing "barbarous" atrocities against those "natives."

    • Susie Kneedler May 2, 2011 at 5:10 pm

      Phil, you're so good: Thanks for all the wise brilliance you've given us all today, every day.

    • Susie Kneedler May 2, 2011 at 3:19 pm with 2 replies

      Admirable Chris Hedges begins, "because ... reportedly Osama bin Laden was killed, Bob [Scheer] wanted me to say a few words … about al-Qaida. I spent a year of my life covering al-Qaida for The New York Times. It was the work in which I, and other investigative reporters, won the Pulitzer Prize. And I spent seven years of my life in the Middle East. I was the Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. I’m an Arabic speaker. And when someone came over and told Jean and me the news, my stomach sank. I’m not in any way naïve about what al-Qaida is. It’s an organization that terrifies me. I know it intimately.

      "But I’m also intimately familiar with the collective humiliation that we have imposed on the Muslim world. The expansion of military occupation that took place throughout, in particular the Arab world, following 9/11 – and that this presence of American imperial bases, dotted, not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, but in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Doha – is one that has done more to engender hatred and acts of terror than anything ever orchestrated by Osama bin Laden."

  • She died with her babe that December night but lives in my heart every day
    • Susie Kneedler May 2, 2011 at 12:13 pm

      Thank you, Dena.
      Yussuf, Mary or Maryam, beautiful babe, and other two lovely children, I'm so, so sorry and I'm thinking of you sending love,
      Susie
      PS Yes, "It’s too heavy for [any of us] to carry alone." Dena, thank you, for so movingly letting us help bear the memory--and for also reminding us that only we can stop more such unbearable losses.

  • The U.N.'s rogue alliance in Libya
    • Susie Kneedler May 2, 2011 at 12:25 pm

      Thank you, Virginia, for defending International Law and the human rights of a "more just world order." As Robert Bolt's Sir Thomas More reminds us in "A Man for All Seasons,"
      "And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?

  • 'The Palestine Cables': Obama administration killed off independent U.N. investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza
  • Matthew Phillips's memorial service in New York
  • Honoring the late Matthew Phillips
    • Susie Kneedler April 8, 2011 at 3:58 pm with 1 replies

      I'm very, very sorry. How terrible--again--, losing heroes so good, so brilliant, so brave: Juliano Mer-Khamis and now Matthew Phillips. I'm thinking of you and your families,--and of Phil and Adam, too. Love to all.

  • The guard told me 'you are nothing like the Muslim prisoners'. He was wrong
    • Susie Kneedler April 7, 2011 at 1:20 pm

      I agree, annie. Thank you, Andy.
      "Through the Wire" by Nina Rosenblum, presented on PBS's "POV" in 1990, described how the U.S. government began experimenting with prisons that "torture" political prisoners:
      "In 1986, three women convicted of politically-motivated nonviolent offenses were transferred to a secret, subterranean prison where they were kept in constantly-lit near isolation, watched 24 hours a day and strip-searched routinely for nearly two years. The women were not imprisoned in Turkey or Iran or Chile, but in Lexington, Ky. This startling film is simultaneously a frank account of three uncompromising women who would not renounce their political affiliations and a chilling expose of the secret unit in which they were confined." link to pbs.org

      Rosenblum's documentary, narrated by Susan Sarandon and Dean Irby, won the 1990 New York Documentary Film Festival award and the Munich Documentary Film Festival awards.
      link to amazon.com,

  • This website is 5 years old
    • Susie Kneedler March 27, 2011 at 11:22 pm

      Cheers, Mondoweiss, Phil and Adam. Your humility about your brilliant, searching conscience amazes, as ever. Thanks to you and all the other voices here who teach us always.

  • What is Mohammed's last name?
    • Susie Kneedler March 24, 2011 at 9:45 pm

      Thanks, James: fascinating.
      Shadid, Hicks, Farrell, and Addario admit, "Over the years, all of us had seen men detained, blindfolded and handcuffed at places like Abu Ghraib, or corralled after some operation in Iraq or Afghanistan. Now we were the faceless we had covered perhaps too dispassionately. For the first time, we felt what it was like to be disoriented by a blindfold, to have plastic cuffs dig into your wrists, for hands to go numb.
      "[That] is probably less terrifying than the unknown. You don’t know when it’s going to end or what comes next. "

      *****
      Perhaps now these reporters will understand the ethical problem with corporate journalism: "see[ing]" abuses of the "detained" "too dispassionately"--refusing to imagine the oppressed's terror of "the unknown."
      Journalism should not multiply tyrannies' crimes by "covering" the "faceless"--and the "nameless," as well. I hope these four scribes will now look deeper to reveal the human being under "a blindfold," and--in the process--drop their own.

  • 'Addicted to empire... potential quagmire' -- Walt
    • Susie Kneedler March 23, 2011 at 12:27 am with 3 replies

      Glenn Greenwald responds ably to Judis:

      "But my real question for Judis (and those who voice the same accusations against Libya intervention opponents) is this: do you support military intervention to protect protesters in Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies from suppression, or to stop the still-horrendous suffering in the Sudan, or to prevent the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Ivory Coast? Did you advocate military intervention to protect protesters in Iran and Egypt, or to stop the Israeli slaughter of hundreds of trapped innocent civilians in Gaza and Lebanon or its brutal and growing occupation of the West Bank?

      "If not, doesn't that necessarily mean -- using this same reasoning -- that you're indifferent to the suffering of all of those people, willing to stand idly by while innocents are slaughtered, to leave in place brutal tyrants who terrorize their own population or those in neighboring countries? Or, in those instances where you oppose military intervention despite widespread suffering, do you grant yourself the prerogative of weighing other factors: such as the finitude of resources, doubt about whether U.S. military action will hurt rather than help the situation, cynicism about the true motives of the U.S. government in intervening, how intervention will affect other priorities, the civilian deaths that will inevitably occur at our hands, the precedents that such intervention will set for future crises, and the moral justification of invading foreign countries?"

      link to salon.com

  • Liberal journalists who won't talk about Palestine have a support group called MSM
    • Susie Kneedler February 15, 2011 at 8:53 pm

      DR's substitute Matt Miller interviewed Glenn Greenwald today about the scandal of Bank of America trying to sabotage and cheat reporters who defend Wikileaks out of their careers. (Chamber of Commerce, too.) Greenwald links to discussions at bottom:
      link to salon.com
      As Greenwald commented a few day ago,
      "perhaps most disturbing of all, Hunton & Williams was recommended to Bank of America's General Counsel by the Justice Department -- meaning the U.S. Government is aiding Bank of America in its defense against/attacks on WikiLeaks." link to salon.com

      When will MSNBC ask Phil--or Chris Hedges--about how media machines (they're not news sources) get rid of journalists who have the integrity to report facts without cowering? But of course the conventional outlets' unwillingness to violate taboos laid down by the powerful is why we all read the real press at this and other fair-minded sites.

  • The Palestinian parallels
    • Susie Kneedler February 11, 2011 at 10:04 pm

      I wish I'd done anything like what you, Adam, everyone who adds to this dear site, and the brave souls of Palestine and Egypt--and beyond--, have done for love, life, and human rights for all. I'm in awe of you, every one.

    • Susie Kneedler February 11, 2011 at 9:01 pm with 4 replies

      Thank you, Phil. Brilliant, moving, and true. Thanks to you, to Adam, and to all who write here, for your ceaseless work helping the people of Palestine and Egypt, as well as the world, set themselves free.
      The difference, as you say, Phil, is that the U.S. press stopped censoring the facts about Arab humanity during the revolutions of Tunisia and Egypt. Soon the corporate-public media will follow your lead, celebrating the liberation of the Palestinian people from Israeli Occupation, as well.

      Thanks. dear friends.

  • Once again, Dershowitz issues an ad hominem attack on Goldstone
    • Susie Kneedler January 12, 2011 at 4:53 pm with 1 replies

      As usual Alan Dershowitz projects his own actions onto those he condemns: "His reputation suffered not only from his association with the discredited Goldstone report regarding the war in Gaza, but also from recent revelations of the ignoble role he played as a hanging and torturing judge, while serving the Apartheid regime in South Africa."

      Dersh's own "reputation suffered not only from his defense of the discredited ...war on Gaza, but also from recent revelations of the ignoble role he played... serving the Apartheid regime in" Israel, defending the attacks of White Phosphorus and DIME explosives on the imprisoned people of Gaza.

      Now Dershowitz slimes Letty Cottin Pogrebin and "The Nation," because they--thinker and magazine--do the difficult, admirable work of pushing beyond prejudice to investigate ever more fully.

      Thanks, Phil, Adam, and Lizzy, for your consciences, which we all revere, as well as for giving us Pogrebin's fine work!

  • The lobby has been broken because... Israel isn't good for the Jews
    • Susie Kneedler January 10, 2011 at 12:24 pm

      Thanks, Phil (and annie). Who will tell Jon Stewart--or, rather, when will he listen and have a conscience? PEP (Progressive except Palestine), to paraphrase "The Daily Show," is just "Hip" O' the Crazy" Hypocrisy.

  • How I became a human smuggler
    • Susie Kneedler January 7, 2011 at 11:02 am with 6 replies

      They already have. That's all I've been able to think while reading all the heartrending accounts on Mondoweiss of brave people trying to survive the ruthless Israeli-government attacks on Gaza, written for us by those who so nearly died.

      In one light, wonderful Alice Rothchild's is a delightful tale of split-second ingenuity. But the tyranny of the Israeli checkpoints makes me sick. Here, too, we're back with dear Anne Frank, shuddering over the valiant feints of good people deceiving a deadly dictator.

  • In the 'Forward,' Pogrebin condemns the 'un-Jewish' smear campaign of Goldstone by Jews
    • Susie Kneedler January 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm

      Thanks, all, for such thoughtful comments, that remind me how I should have continued my post a step beyond, to:

      "Pogrebin's parting wish is: 'One can only hope the contemporary story doesn’t end as badly as the one in the Talmud.' But for the Palestinian people, 'the contemporary story' has already 'ended' far more 'badly' than 'the one in the Talmud.'

      "Now I long to hear Pogrebin and ever more reporters notice that out of such 'ends,' the people of Palestine continually prepare new beginnings of peace. Then they can join so many of us in asking our government, 'When will we help them as we ought?'"

  • 'Weekly Standard' shows that Palestine is #1 recruiting tool for Al Qaeda
    • Susie Kneedler December 29, 2010 at 3:12 pm

      Thanks, Phil and Kathleen,
      Saw it late last night and couldn't believe how ridiculous it was--even from Zogby, who criticized Hamas and Hezbollah rather than Israel's violence and illegal confiscation of Palestinian lands, or US billions supporting it.

      Matthews even seemed to cast weird slurs on Iran (about why Arab leaders would want to bomb it)--in what he meant to be the sign-off, "They are after all, Persians, anyway." Zogby interrupted: "I don't think that's true," inserting fast the fact that Arabs care about "solving the Israel and Palestinian issue." But Matthews again misdirected us, spilling his prejudice as he slurps over Engel, "Richard Engel, I have tremendous respect for your guts, I mean, what you have to do covering [his tone changes] this place."
      What are we to suppose that "this place" means?

      Worse, that misleading discussion followed a dreadful talk, which also overlooked the injustice in the U.S. betrayal of Palestine, with Richard Wolffe and Karen Finney. Matthews said he's "looking for a positive social agenda from the Democrats and the progressives." Wolffe talked about U.S. unemployment only, proving the power of the Israel lobby to sweep from the conversation any word of Israeli Apartheid against Palestinians.

      To Finney (about 3:50), Matthews asks,

      "Where's the rights' agenda like we had this year with DADT? Is there a rights agenda, a civil rights agenda, a human rights agenda on gender, race, ethnicity, or whatever?"

      Finney: "I don't think so, other than protecting what was done in the last Congress...." Finney claims that, "But listen, DADT was a MAJOR civil rights accomplishment," and mentions gay marriage.

      [How sad--to paraphrase William Blake and Fran Lebowitz--: our 'human rights' as defined by "Hardball"'s "left" are the twin shackles of military and marriage--the two pillars of government-religious institutions and Empire that blight people's lives.]

      Matthews eventually defends so-called "human rights" by asking whether Wolffe and Finney "have asked Harry Reid whether he's for 'Real I.D.,' for a biometric, checkable I.D. card, if he's really for stopping illegal immigration?"

      Why didn't Matthews invite an actual liberal to discuss progressive goals? Phil and Adam, you're available, right--or, rather, left? And, Kathleen?

      --Just saw your new comment, Kathleen. We should also ask MSNBC, NPR, PBS, and the rest to talk with you all on the air.

  • Washington Times twice does what NY Times can't-- runs Ahmad Tibi on Israeli 'democracy'
  • Gaza Two Years Later: A little girl
    • Susie Kneedler December 27, 2010 at 10:02 am

      Rawan, I started to add: I hope you're okay now, but felt how puny that question might sound. Then I looked at your website. Only a glance, so far: so beautiful, really inspiring: you're a wonder--what evocative, true art and poetry. Thank you!

      I'm heartbroken at all our government has paid and done and not done to allow another outlaw regime to hurt you and kill your dear, loving family.-- But permitting these crimes means that we are responsible, too.

      Thanks for your shining spirit that shows us again what we need to do: stop the money, halt the theft, create Peace by telling truths.

      Bless you, Rawan!

    • Susie Kneedler December 27, 2010 at 9:44 am

      So, so terrible. Rawan, I'm eternally sorry. I send you all my love.

  • Gaza Two Years Later: As bombs fell, I read Darwish by candlelight
    • Susie Kneedler December 27, 2010 at 11:08 am with 1 replies

      Thank you, Sameeha. And thanks for your eloquent blog. I'm so sorry for what you've had to survive and am in awe over your resilient ardor. I'm stunned at how you teach us what we must do to end cycles of violence: what you ask of yourself so you can make peace with the attackers--that peace that's so unlike that revenge exacted by oppressors. What you demand of yourself is precisely what zionists don't require of themselves as they flail against the proclaimed ghosts of Nazism and--now in foul double misdirection--at you.

      And I'm sorry for this: link to sameeha88.wordpress.com
      I'm insulted right with you over the internationals' ridiculous derision. How contemptible some can be in their disdain for others. What a shame. And, as I know you know, your mother's love for you has nothing to do with women's rights--or, rather, it has everything to do with truer rights for all humanity, including women, to care for those we love in a safer world. Those are the "real" women's rights, the best duties of all, love for all.

      Sameeha, dear,--I hope you'll let me call you Dear!"--
      Anyone who implies, “Pity you and lucky me,” is really saying--though she doesn't yet know it--"Lucky you and yucky me."
      For no loving parent lets a teenager, or a 20-year-old, stay out alone after midnight: boy or girl. How unloved that poor girl must feel; perhaps that pain is what she's defending against with her rigid drawing of needless lines.

      But I'm really sorry that you've heard such a flippant line from other internationals as well, for they're just falling for the ol' "fem-gaywashing" Israeli propaganda. [Because some of us talked about "Fawlty Towers" on another thread, I can't resist adding: "Why don't people listen?!" as the belligerent deaf woman Mrs. Richards ejaculates, though she always turns her hearing aid off.] Oops, I'll quit before I sound as obtusely critical as she and the others you describe so well.

      What your website reminds us is how we all need to remember to connect-- perhaps even, "Only connect"--with our friends as well as the war-makers. Thanks, Sameeha!

  • Wikileaks show State Dept lied when it told reporters Dubai hadn't asked U.S. for help tracking Israeli assassins
    • Susie Kneedler December 28, 2010 at 12:50 pm

      "Your winnings, sir": link to haaretz.com

      "The WikiLeaks cable not only proved that the request was indeed made but that it was recorded in a secret State Department cable. By not accepting the request, the Obama administration harmed the Dubai investigation efforts and assisted Israel instead.

      "The credit card details uncovered by the Dubai police were linked to suspects using forged identity papers – none of their real identities has yet been revealed. The Dubai investigation has apparently gotten no closer to decoding the mystery of whether the Mossad was indeed behind the assassination.

      "According to Dubai authorities, the team that tracked and killed Mabhouh used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports to enter and depart from Dubai. More than half of the people identified as responsible for the killing share the names of foreign-born Israeli nationals."

  • Here's how you know the lobby is out of touch
    • Susie Kneedler December 27, 2010 at 1:41 pm

      Yes, "it hurts." That's why Peretz and others tried for so long to silence critics of Israeli-government crimes against International Law with "the bigotry charge" of anti-Semitism. Peretz knows that such an accusation cuts deep.

      But Peretz's unease because someone tells the truth about his actions against others doesn't come close to what he might regret--or touch a smidge of all the sufferings of Palestinians in all the minutes, of all the days, through all the decades.

  • My wife's Christmas message
  • The world will be a much safer place when American Jews stop believing these 4 bad ideas
    • Susie Kneedler December 25, 2010 at 11:31 am

      Oh, Citizen, you dear, I got that--just wasn't as witty as you in reply--no pun intended here. "Served" is funny, and thinking of it only makes me yearn to send you copies of "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin." It's incredible--still prophetic.
      Whenever I'm angry at Keith Olbermann for his silence on the enslavement of Palestine, I remind myself that he loves "Reggie P" and hope that means he'll come round.

      --Half our house is still asleep: gotta go shovel (snow). Thanks, Citizen, And Happy Day!,
      Susie

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