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- Jewish philanthropies stay away from org dedicated to Yiddish culture … 4
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- International Criminal Court opens preliminary investigation into attack on Mavi … 96
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- ‘Forward’piece on destruction of Palestinian neighborhood fronting Western Wall not embraced by all ‘Forward’ readers http://t.co/a8nvXYynM6, 2 hours ago
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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Allison I am impressed. You actually worked with Alex for a year. I only met him twice and was quite impressed. Both times he was speaking at a book club -- promoting his books of course. His writing stands on its own. But what impressed me about those two talks was this was a man totally comfortable with his own ideas. There was no showmanship about him. His presentation could be called aloof but it was someone who was totally comfortable with his ideas. I mention "his ideas twice". Alex was completely comfortable discussing ideas. As he should have because so many of them were original.
Alex was not just a caustic journalist but was also a true intellectual. He continued to bring new ideas forth within his critical and always humerus essays.
The thing that I am missing right now: who can replace Alex.
Citizen your link to the boston.com did not show anything.
However, this whole "controversy" exposes the utter hypocrisy of the Zionist discourse of the IP story. It is perfectly OK for American scholars to accept grants from Israeli and Israeli-Lobby sources to spread their tales of that most beautiful country in the world, but lo and behold if a critic accepts funds from a group that represents the non-Jewish peoples from the ME. This is utterly sickening.
In any case Alex Cockburn was one early voice in exposing this hypocrisy. May his works continue to inspire.
Give it a pass Henry. He published a few of these climate denial pieces but did drop the whole issue in the face of strong opposition. Those articles convinced me that Alx was scientifically illiterate and I was disappointed that after his errors were pointed out that he didn't just bite the bullet and admit he was wrong. Those articles are such a tiny piece of his life's work it is only his enemies that are bringing it up now.
Henry, if I am not mistaken you were once part of the weather underground. I remember those days. That was the time that non-violent street demonstrations became irrelevant because every time we tried to put one into operation a bunch of weather thugs would show up, start breaking windows and totally dominant the message we tried to push. Alex was always a severe critic of those idiots. Dear Henry, do you still feel the sting?
Les be careful with Fisk. I too was once a Robert Fisk fan. But his articles are not reliable. Check out the "Angry Arab" and "Robert Fisk" to get a sense of his isolation from Lebanese politics. Many years ago he made his name reporting from Lebanon (the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps for example) but in recent years he has become quite irrelevant.
Colin writes Hopefully, they [Turkey] have a game plan. The last thing we need is a lot of random splashing at this point.
That is the big puzzle. We should anticipate that their policy is incoherent. I have a conjecture on this question.
Edogan is the one behind Turkey's interference out of loyalty to some kind of Muslim Brotherhood ideology. Secular Turks realize this is a very dangerous game and not in Turkey's national self interest. However, they are letting him go ahead and pursue this policy so that when the inevitable blow back occurs, Erdogan can be ousted from power and hopefully discredit the entire Islamist movement in Turkey. So yes, something positive could come out of this.
Elenore finishes her piece with can we stop treating the Syrian people's uprising with such contempt?
It is tragic what happened to the people's rebellion against hated Assad regime. I do not treat them with contempt. There is much going on in Syria that I do not understand but it should be clear by now that the original rebellion from 17 months ago has now been preempted by other forces. What began as unarmed demonstrations changed into war, at first civil but now an invasion of outsiders.
Nonviolent resistance is now totally irrelevant. To support the FSA or SNC is to support Western imperialism's designs to reshape the region to their benefit. Unfortunately, the Syrian people will be the victims no matter what side wins.
Nima congratulations. It is so rare for those liars to acknowledge their lies. I find it almost hopeless to even try to point out their errors err lies. Perhaps you have some magic touch that shames them. Could it be that they are sensitive to overwhelming refutation? Maybe you should try your magic on a Dershowitz statement.
Oh dear me, are suggesting that I wasted 20 minutes responding to the Wondering Jew. I thought Yonah was a reasonable voice. However he did sound narcissistic with his insistence that his name was Yonah, not Jonah. Reminded me of those teen somethings that insist that my name is "becki with an 'i'". Who the f..k cares how we are supposed to transliterate some Hebrew name.
Tumbril Time
That reminds me, shouldn't we be giving some acknowledgments to Alex Cockburn who just passed away this last week. Among his many journalistic achievement he edited the "New Antisemitism" (link to amazon.com) that brought together many essays that just happen to cover the same issues that Phil Weiss is now dedicating his career to. Alex was a long time friend of Edward Said and (at least from my narrow perspective) brought his work to the attention of American progressives. Alex wrote for a number of years at The Nation and wrote many essays describing the plight of the Palestinian people to an American audience. He left there some time back but since then, as we all know, that The Nation has become a Democratic Party voice for liberal Zionism. But it was not always that way. He, along with St Clair, founded Counterpunch which has been a highly informative and entertaining site for analysis and a progressive perspective on current politics.
This site should give Alex Cockburn some space with a proper obituary.
Allen bee, Pat Lang is right on this. I left a comment at the link you provide pointing out the military futility of chemical weapons compared to say rapid fire rifles and high explosives.
Yonah responds: but I respect you if you have studied the returns on your own and you’re not dependent on the Leveretts.
I have not studied any returns. My opinion is based on a little history. In 2009 I was cheering from the sidelines in support of the people of Tehran that were trying to overthrow the Islamic government. I saw some of the pre-election polling and thought it was plausible that the Islamists had won, but nevertheless it seemed that the world would be better off if the mad mullahs were overthrown. There was nothing democratic about those elections in the first place when a council of mullahs had to approve all candidates. Since then I have come to accept that however bad the current Islamic Republic they do have the support of a majority of Iranians. I hugely dislike the current regime in China but also recognize that they have legitimacy. It is not for me nor the US government to say who is legitimate and who is not.
Something else here -- most of the western voices in the MSM that have been working to delegitimize Iran are the same MSM voices that led the propaganda campaign that led to war in Iraq. These voices have zero credibility in my opinion. At the same time a number of analysts (not just the Leveretts) who should have gained credibility for being right about Iraq, have pointed out that as flawed as those Iranian elections might have been, the Islamist actually won the popular vote. I happen to believe those voices who have proven their credibility.
Yoneh, I can see that you find it convenient to believe the MSM (even if they are proven liars with respect to the Iraq war) because they reinforce your belief in Israel. That must give you some comfort. But you are letting what you want to be true into believing proven liars.
Yonah you carry a number of misconceptions that infect consumers of MSN.
The 2009 elections in Iran were not "stolen". Check out some of the Leverett's analysis at RaceforIran.
Hezbollah does not have an electoral majority and it never has. However, there many Lebanese who would not vote for them but do admire and support their ability to protect their country from Israeli aggression.
Of course it would be a great boon to Israel for Hezbollah to fall. Lebanon would then be defenseless against Israeli aggression. It sort of sounds that you like that idea.
At this point it is irrelevant how oppressive the Assad regime might be but you exaggerate to call it one of the worst in the world. The war of aggression now being carried out against Syria has nothing to do with improving the lot of the Syrian people and everything to do with US, Israeli, Saudi and Turkish desires to weaken Iran and Hezbollah. The Syrian people are the true victims here and their enemy is the above group along with the Assad regime. But destroying Assad will only hurt not help the people.
David thanks for bringing this all together. I mentioned before that this Bulgarian bus bombing story has opened the flood gates on prior unsubstantiated accusations against Hezbollah. This one comment from the NY Times article caught my eye:
the Burgas attack fit the modus operandi of Hezbollah
1) When has Hezbollah used a suicide bomber to attack civilians on a bus? Maybe I missed something here but what incidents is this referring to?
2) When has Hezbollah attacked targets outside of the borders of either Israel or Lebanon? Again maybe I missed the story so the question is where and when?
If my memory is correct this in not part of their modus operandi. There are two major Hezbollah attacks against non-Israelis that have been attributed to them. One was the bombing of the US Marine barracks at the Beirut airport but that was in 1982 at least a year before Hezbollah was even formed. The other was the assassination of Hararri in Beirut but again that remains highly contested. At first US foreign policy found it convenient to accuse the Syrians but later they changed their mind and accused Hezbollah. Who knows?
But the point is there is no evidence that they have carried out any action outside of Israel or Lebanon.
Avi good answer. I don't agree with you but your point was clear to me (I think McCarthy is naive but it is not unreasonable to pose other possibilities. Actually hopeless optimism sounds naive to me.)
One thing about this story about Iran and/or Hezbollah being responsible for this attack in Bulgaria is that it is opening the flood gates on other stories equally unsubstantiated. I have no idea what happened in Bulgaria but it is clear that there is as of now no evidence that Iran and/or Hezbollah were involved. But this story has allowed the US and Israel to repeat accusations for which there is equally no evidence of these evil-doer's involvement. Namely
The event in Azerbaijan.
The used car salesman who used Mexican drug gangs to kill the SA embassador to the US,
The bombing in Buenos Aires
The Mumbay event in India.
Each lie creates a platform to repeat previous lies. The lies proliferate like rabbits. It is near impossible to confront each one without bogging down any commentary with thousands of words refuting points that are not relevant to the primary lie.
This is how state sponsored propaganda can over-whelm the truth. Especially in the US with MSN repeating the lies and never questioning them in the first place.
That Chappaqua article had this interview:
Resident Deb Raider Notis believes the advertisement should be removed: "It is inciteful and could encourage hate crimes," she said.
I looked up the meaning of inciteful: "The desire to incite or provoke people or things to action."
Imagine that trying to provoke people to action. I think any political add in the world is designed to that end. I guess Zionist find that threatening (as they should). It is interesting that the word "inciteful" would have such negative connotations today in America. If your goal is to preserve the status quo then perhaps provoking people to action would be threatening.
The other half of Deb's quote is something that has concerned me -- "could encourage hate crimes". That I agree is a problem. Maybe she should take this up with the Israelis -- their actions do encourage hate.
Is it my imagination or is the IP conflict becoming more and more complicated with each passing year?
Now that is diabolical. Since the US officially recognizes Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel it can't be that nation.
Sara Silverman has always struck me as a horses ass. "Smart, hip and liberal" are not the words I would use to describe her performances. "Stupid, self conscious and opportunistic" are better.
Of course. Today Israeli and American officials routinely refers to Iranian and/or hezbollah as responsible for the Buenos Aires attack. They might have been involved but have you ever looked at the evidence for this claim -- practically non-existent.
NY Times is now reporting: A senior American official confirmed Israel’s assertions on Thursday that the suicide bomber who killed five Israelis in an attack here on Wednesday was a member of a Hezbollah cell operating in Bulgaria.
But the article goes on to say that the assassin remains to be identified.
There are two things we know about the anthrax. As sean mentions the strain came out of Fort Dietrick. Second is that the preparation that Ivins had, though it was the same strain, was not the preparation used in the attacks.
At the time of Ivins suicide I read about the strains, preparations and equipment that would be required to prepare gram quantities of anthrax. I know this field having worked in it for 30 years. It was only just barely possible that Ivins had the equipment to make gram quantities of anthrax but it would have been near impossible for him to do it without someone seeing what he was doing. The simplest explanation is that a near industrial scale lab made the preparation used in the attacks. Never heard a word on any investigation in that direction. The original case against Hatfield was also absurd on this account since he did not have access to any large scale preparation facility.
Hilary says: Brad, I’m looking forward because I think that’s where the future lies
That is incredibly profound. We all knew that Hillary was one of the most brilliant politicians and statesmen that ever existed. But this is the proof. She looks forward because that is where the future lies!! No one in the history of man realized that if we look forward then that is the future! I am humbled at not realizing such a profound truth. We should all fall on our knees in appreciation if she could just let us know that "if we look backwards then that is where history lies"
This is impressive. Front and obvious is Linda Katehi the chancilor of UC Davis who was responsible for that famous pepper spraying incident last year against the campus occupy students. She survived that scandal with support of the faculty. Maybe not as well known is that she was part of international committee that recommended local police should be allowed to intervene in University demonstrations in Greece. Linda is Greek but has lived and prospered in US academic circles for 30 years. She was appointed to this international committee that was assigned to solve student disruption problems in Greece. A little background might help -- in the 1970s Greek students were at the forefront in opposing the fascist military government. They were brutally suppressed by the military. After those fascist were driven from power, the universities gained some immunity from state police jurisdiction on the campuses. Katehi was part of an international committee that was designed to reverse that rule and recommended that the Greek campuses lose their immunity from fascist state oppression. She is definitely an approved agent for international neoliberalism.
Interesting to see Linda front and prominent in this hasbara photo.
The actions of the Israel lobby from November 2000 until the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, played a tiny role in the war, not a pivotal role.
Time for you to go back and read again W%M the Israeli Lobby. They have an entire chapter devoted to the Iraq war. Do check out the footnotes at the end of the book (arranged by Chapter #). It is an illuminating experience. I read many negative reviews of that book and not one tackled the arguments that W&M made in that chapter.
Bottom line: Israel and the Lobby were an essential, if perhaps not sufficient, ingredient in leading the US into that war.
Israel is so rich and successful I think US aid to Israel should be phased out. It isn’t needed and doesn’t even help Israel that much any more.
Pure propaganda to deflect many Americans anger at the aid we give Israel. This is so disingenuous as to be close to a lie. You can say that with the full knowledge that the Lobby would never permit it to occur. You can say that with the full knowledge that the Israeli officials who instruct the Lobby would never say so.
Israel is a dependent on US welfare payments and military and diplomatic support. That utterly artificial country would disappear within a generation or so without Uncle Sam picking up the bills and threatening Israel's enemies.
There is another side of this argument that is not just rhetorical. That is the Israeli whine, "oh no, don't look here, look over there, look over there" morphs into political campaigns to engage the US into more useless wars. This was how the neocons helped guide us into the Iraq war. Not so widely noticed at that time but there was a second war party campaign going on that was urging US intervention in the civil war in Darfur (I happen to believe if it was not for Iraq, the neocons would have led us into war there). If one goes back and looks into the lobbying efforts to stop Darfurian "genocide" one will see links back to Zionist sources. Of course, these same forces succeeded in severing South Sudan from the North but in that case outside US military intervention was not needed.
baby boy foreskins hospitals routinely sell ... to cosmetic cream companies across the USA to be sold at great profit as cosmetic face cream.
I have heard this claim a few times before but always assumed it was some kind of urban legend. Are you sure? If so, is there a secondary market in smegma? That would make a great face cream.
The real scandal here should that the USAID was willing to jeopardize the Cuban-Jewish community by involving them in some hare-brained spook conspiracy.
Maybe that is the point -- create another 2000 Israeli immigrants.
The phones this Gross character was passing out in Cuba were not your run of the mill cell phones but contained some real spook hardware that made it impossible to track satellite linkages. Basically, Gross was likely guilty of espionage and not just aiding the Jewish community to engage with the internet. Thus Abbas's intervention can't even be called a humanitarian gesture.
The Cubans want to trade Gross for 4 Cuban spies arrested in Miami.
citizen says: If you study how Goebbels calculated what he could get away with
And look what happened. The Nazis got away with a lot for about 6 years and then they provoked world war. The result: almost total destruction of the German state, 12 million Germans expelled from their ancestral lands, the German states of E.Pomerania, Prussia and Silesia turned into Polish or Russian territory and the remaining German lands under military occupation by the four powers for a half century.
I do not think it would be wise for Israel to try to emulate that record. This is the historical precedent that progressive Zionists would like to avoid for Israel.
Kidding?? I think it is well understood that the reason liberal Zionist support Palestinian independence is for the very reason that a one state solution will lead to the demise of the Jewish state. This is explicitly stated by people like B Avishai, MJ Rosenberg and Peter Beinhart.
Quite frankly I would be sad to see the disappearance of Israel.
Didn't Kos have policy not that long ago banning links to MW. This has to be a big change. The comments to Gershon's piece are even more remarkable. I looked at about 50 and saw only 2 that disagreed. Where is the hasbara army when it is needed?
It does not surprise me that routine polls on these questions are not done in Israel. It might just reveal the level of racism in that country. A few years back I saw a poll result that appeared in Haaretz that certainly caught my attention. The question was would you (meaning an Israeli Jew) be willing to live in an apartment complex that had Palestinian residents. The result was that 65% said that they would not.
What is also interesting about Israeli polls is that they only poll Jews. I guess it is assumed that whatever the Palestinians believe is irrelevant. This is one sick society however we think about these results. I am sure that many Americans to this day would not want to live in a community that accepts African-Americans but even the most racist among us would not admit that in a poll.
Er Schlmiel, Zionism is colonialism. Zionism is a movement to steal even more lands from the Palestinians. Those are facts. If that is your goal then go for it. Us Americans do not believe it is our interests to support that goal. We are working to remove American foreign policy from that end. You want to steal even more land. Your choice. But do not expect the United States to support you indefinitely. Today you have that support but soon it will stop. And then you will be on your own. I really do not believe once the money from the US stops and the diplomatic support stops your tiny little country will last (unless, of course, you are willing to accede justice to the Palestinian people. Your choice.)
Quite amazing. The Israeli firsters are becoming more and more brazen. It was not enough that they sucked us into the Lebanon civil war in 1982 or the war in Iraq in 2003. Now they are trying to push us into voting for Romney who has basically announced his desire to follow Israel into war against Iran.
Hopefully, one of these days the American people will come to their senses, even more hopefully not before it is too late.
This would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy, but the right-wing in Israel seems more enamored of land-ownership than it does of such antiquated notions as, you know, Zionism.
I don't normally pay much attention to Goldberg since he rarely has any intelligent insight about anything. But this quote caught my attention. It is something that many here must have noticed but it is a development that I hadn't thought about before.
Simply, modern Israel really is not motivated by the ideology of Zionism, but rather with the reality on the ground and how to better their lives. Stealing land, has obviously been a successful tactic in the past so why not today? Goldberg, by living abroad, is guided by the ideology, not the reality. It took about 2 generations after the successful communist revolutions in Russia and China the people and cadre to lose their belief in communist ideology -- the people of those nations gradually accepted the reality of their failed economies and adapted selfish attitudes. It seems that Zionism in Israel could be suffering a similar fate.
Dear David
I do not understand why Norman attacked you on this number. But I do think that most reasonable people agree with you on your estimate. I like Finkelstein and would hope that others like me would simply let him drift off into the sunset and become irrelevant.
Regardss ToivoS
This number of 683,000 living in the PA is interesting. Didn't Finkelstein bitterly criticize Shmuel for reporting a similar number.
Colin writes: I imagine the drift isn’t conscious — but it is the one way out for the Zionists.
Maybe to the man on the street but I suspect with the Zionist leadership -- Perez, Barak, Bibi, etc -- it is explicitly in their minds. I wouldn't be surprised the the IDF already has contingency plans waiting on the shelf for that day when world war yet again breaks out.
how much longer will U.S. taxpayers subsidize the illegal, immoral occupation of Palestinian territories? How about conducting a discussion on that topic instead of persecuting one messenger? Don't Palestinians deserve their homeland too?
Now this is one candidate that deserves support. I understand her resignation from the DNC for this is one group that demands party unity. And we all should know what the DNC stand is on Israel. This means that she is willing to run on her own without any party backing and therefore will be relying on independent contributions.
What puzzled me about this story is that there is no immediate crisis between Israel and Lebanon. What is motivating Israel to make such hair raising threats now?
This is a real dilemma for the lobby. The federal bureaucracy is just too large to fill all of those agencies with Zionist plants. The agencies are too vast for the political appointees to micro manage each section. One patriot at the GS15 level with a loyal staff can make a difference.
Colin I think you miss the point of this post. Before my specific comment aren't you the colin that frequently posted at Haaretz. I often tried to post there but only about 1 in 10 survived moderation. How did you manage? I was usually in complete agreement with your views.
Now to my critique of your criticism of Allison's post. I do not believe the primary objective is to criticize the Seals training practices. The bigger picture is that this incident illustrates what the US military is expected to do, based on policies that are approved by higher civilian leaders with the backing of the American electorate.
That is our military is now being trained to engage in total war against people's insurrections against American occupations of their country. During WWI, WWII and the Korean war the enemy was male and they wore identifiable uniforms. This changed in the Viet Nam war. The Viet Cong did not wear uniforms and they also employed women as combatants. We learned during that war that our troops had to kill men and women regardless of their attire. This, of course led to some excesses of which My Lai was the most conspicuous example. Damn troops got carried away and ended up shooting infants and children. Very bad publicity to be sure.
The Israelis have certainly learned this lesson of combating a people's insurrection against colonial oppression. They know that not just men but also woman and children are necessary targets in their efforts to suppress the Palestinian people.
The point of Allison's post is that it illustrates that the US military is now incorporating tactics that Israel finds necessary to suppress the Palestinians. In future ME wars, the US military will be expected to engage a hostile population, not wearing military uniforms and consisting of both men and women. This will obviously lead to the killing of children. Israel did it in Gaza and Lebanon. We have been doing it in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Seals are being trained to do it in future wars against Muslim nations.
I thing it is critically important that this fact be publicized widely with the American people. Of course, the Seals are not responsible for this policy but this happens to be the evidence we have of our governments intentions in future wars. The story should be circulated widely.
You aint none too smart Gilad. As pointed out one has to either inhale or consume that spec -- coming in contact with traces excreted by the body are less than a lethal dose. Also Suha was living in Europe when this happened. Can you understand difficult concepts like this?
Les, for every 100 Po-210 disintegrations one will also include a gamma ray emission. Gamma ray counters are located at ports, airports, and any facility that works with isotopes. If Arafat had ingested a lethal dose his body would have contained about 300 million Bqs of alpha particle emissions and 3 million Bqs of gamma emissions. This would have been easily detected with a gamma ray counter. I would guess that this amount of alpha ray emissions would be detected by a standard geiger counter.
One other point, if his body contained a toxic dose of Po at the time of death, then today it would contain about 300 Bqs of Po-210 (the amount remaining after 20 half-lives). This would be easily picked up today if someone made a serious attempt to do so.
Phil, I agree with you that this is a significant change on the part of Bradley Burston. I first noticed him about 6 or so years back at Haaretz and found him an insufferable Zionist, though with strong liberal tendencies. He had posting rules to his commentaries then and one was that he would not accept comments that used the term ethnic cleansing. I stopped reading Haaretz since they put up the paywall but it does sound like Burston has just made a major change in his politics. This is the kind of change that Phil has been saying must happen inside the Jewish community for a just resolution to the IP conflict. And it looks like something is happening perhaps one small step at a time.
I have been aware of APN for a half dozen years or so and at one point considered them a progressive force but was always disappointed in their actions. About three years back I saw them as referred to as Americans for Peace Later -- that sealed it for me. So true and that really described their irrelevancy.
Maybe too hot for HufPo and NPR but wikipedia has the story.
The use of Po-210 to poison someone has to be one of the worst ways if the goal is to disguise the act. Remember the Litvenko poisening -- he left a trail of radioactivity all over London and there was also a trail found leading up to the assassination scene.
It is hard to imagine that if Arafat had a lethal dose when admitted to the French hospital that the radioactivity would not have been detected. Strange story. I have always agreed with Avnery that Arafat was poisoned but would have thought a more subtle means would have been used. The Po-210 would have experienced 15 half-lives since Arafats death but there would likely still be traces today and the decay product, Pb-206 might also provide evidence. So it should be possible to prove that in fact Po-210 was indeed the toxin if they exhume his body.
I find it difficult to be critical of Amal's sentiments here. I feel for his/hers dilemma. Their rebellion began as legitimate protest against the hated dictatorial regime led by the Baathist. Unfortunately, that movement has been taken over by armed terrorist groups supported by the Arabian monarchies and backed by US, UK and French imperialists. Sorry Amal, but your efforts to bring change to Syria are now being used by some of the more reactionary forces on this planet.
This is what happened in Libya. Within days of the first uprising against the hated Khadaffi, organized and armed groups, manned by Al qaida activists, took over the rebellion. They were supported by the Saudi and Qatar monarchies and were backed up by Nato military forces. What happened there can be accurately called the Nato led revolution. Sorry Amal and other deluded progressives, but Nato does not support revolution.
I know that this site "exulted" with the downfall of Khadaffi. But not prominently mentioned in that downfall was the ethnic cleansing of the people from the village of Tawergha. This village consisted of 40,000 people who were Libyan citizens. They also happened to be "black". Reporter who recently visited there saw only smouldering ruins. Imagine the uproar if that was a Palestinian village.
When I first became aware of the Wallenberg story it literally brought tears to my eyes. This wonderful man, as a Swedish diplomat, used his contacts in Budapest to save many thousands of Jews. Then he was caught up in the Stalinist gulag after the war and perished in one of their camps. The Israelis correctly gave them one of their highest honors, to a nonJew, as a rightest gentile.
Bernodette also used his Swedish diplomatic cover to save Jews. But for him he happened to survive WWII. Because of his high credibility as an international humanist, he was awarded a high position in the UN to resolve the problem in Palestine. It is hard to imagine someone who was more neutral in the whole IP dispute. He came in and tried to find solution that accepted the rights of both sides.
We now know that such a solution was not acceptable to the Zionist. They wanted the whole cake and a just solution was not on their agenda. Therefore they had to kill Bernodette. Shamir was the agent that ordered the assassination.
To this day Bernodette has never been honored as a righteous gentile. No to this day the Zionist are trying to remove him from the pages of history. Now that his assassin, Shamir, has finally died the Zionist news sources are ignoring the role that this very honorable human being played in saving Jews during the holocaust. They ignore it through the very simple point of ignoring that Shamir was Bernodette's assassin. One of these days both Stalin and Shamir will be considered evil forces that shaped 20th century life.
Dear Avi
Thanks for the clarification. This kind of action seemed new to me. I guess it makes it better to know that this has been going on for some time.
My knowledge is somewhat limited. I have been wondering for awhile if all these atrocities being committed against the Palestinians are all that new or if it is just a matter of MW revealing what has been going on all along. I am getting the impression that the Israelis are becoming more agressive but it is equally possible that I am just becoming more aware of what has been going on all along.
Why would the IDF have exercises inside a Palestinian village.
The first guess is that it is just routine harassment of the Palestinian people, part of the long term campaign to make life so unbearable that they will emigrate.
On the other hand, maybe the IDF is anticipating some future military actions that will take place inside Palestinian villages. Could this be contingency planning for a possible reaction to an Israel provoked war against Iran? That could be an international crisis of sufficient magnitude that the Israelis would not want to waste.
Edward Said was completely right and in 1992 I thought he was an unreasonable extremist. The PA is bought and paid for by the US and EU -- they accept the money and doll it out to their militias. The militias then control the Palestinian people for Israel's benefit. One would think that there must still be some national pride among those enforcers for the PA that can't be compromised by a pay check? But I am not in their shoes, so maybe they honestly believe this is the best they can do.
One of the poorly reported facts about the overthrow of Mossadegh was the role played by the Shiite clerics. There were very large street demonstrations that turned into riots which created the political crises that allowed the Shah to return to "restore" order. These demonstrations were led by some prominent Shiite clerics. They were encouraged and egged on with some well placed rumor mongering by MI6 and CIA operatives.
So this does fall into a pattern. The US initially encouraged fundamentalist in both Iran and Afghanistan to topple secular regimes. As did Israel when they encouraged and backed Hamas in order to weaken Arafat. This is not a bug of US foreign policy but a feature.
Ira, interesting anecdote with these two authors and the Yiddish students. In 1992 I became a real convert to the two state solution promoted by the Oslo process. I believed, that this was plan that overwhelming numbers of Jews both in the US and Israel supported. The only obstacle was the isolated fanatic settlers who were defying the majority. It was not until the failed Camp David talks in 1999 that I realized how wrong that was. Since then it has become increasingly clear that there was some kind of massive swindle going on then. Stories like these show how it is now completely OK to come out of the closet and support the WB land theft movement.
This analogy to the embrace of Stalin's reign is not extreme at all. French and American communist in the 1930s through 1950s issued statements that come very close to the sentiments you satirize here. I have been aware for some time of this comparison of the "Russia firsters" to many of the Zionist supporters here in America.
If that’s what Barney Frank really believes, why did he do this,
Simple answer to simple question: Frank was telling Jeff Halper what Jeff Halper wanted to hear. That is what politicians do every day. Now that he is out of office he can say what he really believes and that is Frank is a Zionist. And as we know Pollard is one of their martyrs who deserves support.
These negotiations with Iran are frustratingly slow and seemingly pointless. However, they are serving one useful purpose which is basically a cease fire. Politically that makes it difficult if not impossible for Israel to launch its own assault against Iran. It seems like a convoluted mechanism but we all know why -- the lobby is just too powerful for Obama to defy them openly. It is for that reason that the US cannot make any open concessions on enrichment until after November, should Obama win. Of course, Kristol and Dennis Ross will be yapping from the sidelines attempting to derail the process for they surely see this dynamic also.
I still think that the US will agree for Iran to enrich for nuclear fuel. Something positive can happen from this yet.
This story and many similar ones leave me perplexed. I was born in 1945, not Jewish, and had always assumed that every male was circumcised. My mother was a pediatric nurse in our local hospital and one day came home and mentioned that one their male infants had been circumcised. She also mentioned that permission had not been granted by the baby's father or mother. This was considered a serious problem for the hospital and my mom said she saved them some serious liabilities by convincing the mother to sign a form agreeing to the circumcision after the fact.
I was about 16 at the time and I made reference to my own circumcision. She told me then that did you not know but you were never circumcised. That was a shock to me. I was then informed for the first time that I was a "natural" -- ie I was born without a foreskin. I guess otherwise it would have been cut off.
Just one little anecdote. But I have always wondered how common circumcision was among non-Jewish males born in the US during that time and also wondered how freakish it is to congenitally lack a foreskin in the first place.
AI has always been very cautious about Israel. I have always assumed that among their donors were some progressive Zionists. Human Rights Watch has been even worse.
This is a good time for this story to break. Maybe enough progressive non-Zionists donors will realize where their money is going. Certainly, they should be aware that their donations are not needed since these organization have the backing of very wealthy Zionists.
Now why am I getting the impression that Israel's ardent supporters are getting a little hysterical. What is going on in their troubled psyches.
Derfner wrote: that American war will be stamped “Made In Israel” – not by Walt and Mearsheimer, but by everyone with eyes and ears in his or her head.
Maybe for people with eyes and ears outside the US but certainly not anyone who relies on the NY Times for their information. I was just recently surprised to realize for how long the NY Times has been distorting the news about Israel and Zionism. They completely distorted Albert Einstein's views of Zionism in their 1955 obituary.
A little off topic but would like to draw your attention to a recent book by William Hagen "German History in Modern Times".
This book takes a very broad historical sweep of German history but has a chapter on Nazi ethnic cleansing of the Slav and Jews of Eastern Europe. We all know of the 5 million Jews that were systematically slaughtered but this chapter also focuses on the efforts to exterminate the Slav and Polish people. The number of civilians killed was in excess of 10 million which was in addition to the 3 million Soviet POWs that were killed. The 20 year goal was the elimination of 50 million Slavs. What struck me was that Goebbels defended that action by citing the European conquest of North America and the slaughter of the native peoples. He quipped, "when we eat wheat from Canada, who thinks about the Indians".
Now where else have we heard that comparison as the justification for ethnic cleansing?
Danaa, about the coordinated reporting on Syria, Angry Arab has been explaining this for some months now. Most of the Western reporters (there are only a few and they are stationed in Lebanon) are not fluent in Arabic and rely on local sources. It looks like they are getting their stories from a Saudi funded news station.
Evets, it might be good politics but it does leave one with a bad after taste and loss of respect for Obama that he is so willing to humiliate himself (and therefore us). But unfortunately, I will still vote for him for one reason -- Romney has surrounded himself with advisers that are clamoring for war against Iran. Obama, I still believe, if he is re-elected will come to an agreement with Iran short of war.
Hughs I think you misunderstand Bromwich's and Wright's message. I agree with them that Obama does not want a war with Iran. They are arguing that Obama's passivity in the face of lobby and Israeli pressure is allowing a very dangerous situation fester and unforeseen circumstances could result in war. I think that Obama is trying to use the negotiations with Iran as a means to continue a cease fire at least until November. Once the election is past (and if Obama wins) he can sign a deal with the Iranians. It might work. But for sure Israel and her allies will not be sitting still during the next 5 months.
Woody accuses me of mouthing Stalinist propaganda. I am quite aware of and willing to acknowledge many of Stalin's crimes. The point I made is that the Soviets were not able to help the Warsaw uprising in August of 1944. That is a fact of military logistics. The operational goal of Bagration was the city of Minsk. They achieved that within 4 weeks and the operational plans were changed to go into Eastern Poland. By the time they reached the Vistula their front line troops were exhausted and they were at the end of their logistical lines. It took the Soviets another six months to move up their rear area storage areas and establish sufficient forces to confront the Germans in another attack. After August 1944 the Soviets used their existing forces to protect the bridgeheads over the Vistula from German counter attacks until they had moved up enough forces to continue the assault into Western Poland and Germany.
Woody I find your comments quite offensive. They are part of right wing complaints of the Soviet efforts in their war against the NAZIs. Just because you hate Israel does not make you a progressive. Many of us are very worried that Israel's current behavior has encouraged good old fashioned western fascist types to join the struggle for Palestinian liberation. I have been worried for some time where you are coming from.
Biorabbi misinforms with Stalin’s troops did not lift a finger to help the 1944 Rising
They didn't help because the Soviet troops near Warsaw were exhausted having just completed the two month operation Bagration where they moved their front by 500 miles, killed 400,000 Germans and lost 200,000 of their own. Germany had reestablished a defensive line on the Vistula while the Soviet forces were forced into their own defensive positions and warded off multiple German counter-attacks through the fall.
The Soviets did not encourage the Rising because they knew they could not help. You are repeating a common right wing lie.
"I wonder what Andrew Sullivan thinks of it"
The same question I had. I first saw this image at his site. I am still curious.
My sentiments about Beinheart also. These guys are taking risks. They deserve the support of well thinking people everywhere. Of course, their positions contain the usual logical inconsistencies of liberal Zionism. But we all some of those to lesser or greater degrees in our political affiliations and moral standards.
Kristof has become one of the leading advocates of "humanitarian" war especially if that war has the potential to break up another Islamic nation state. He was the primary source for spreading the lying propaganda designed to get us into Darfur in 2004-2005 (the humanitarian warriors lost that one because we were already over committed in Iraq). He shed crocodile tears over the atrocities in Libya last winter. Great outcome there as we see massive ethnic cleansings of Black skinned Libyans from the Mediterranean cities (remember the "mercenaries" lie).
It doesn't matter if he is a manipulative war party operative or just a simple fool, the results of his writing is to promote more war.
Iran has never threatened anyone with nukes. But our previous administration made clear that all options were on the table with respect to Iran including nuclear war. We also threatened Iraq with a nuclear response if the used chemical weapons against US troops. Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons in 1973. There are many other examples of the US threatening nuclear war.
Fredb, what you just did is called the "Big Lie", something about turning situation completely on it head, the bigger the distortion the better to get suckers to believe.
My my I agree with Fredblogs. In any case Russian intercontinental missiles are no longer ballistic (i.e. with a predictable trajectory) and therefore are invulnerable, even in principle, to the antimissile defenses we built out off the star wars boondoggle. Even with ballistic missiles the defense doesn't work except in one test where the incoming carried a tracking beacon. This was a predictable response on the part of the Russians when work began 30 years ago.
I have tremendous respect for Norman. His work on the holocaust and the IP issues over the past decades speak for themselves. Whatever his current morph his previous work establish his reputation. What I find so disturbing about this interchange (as well as some of his more recent pronouncements) is this sense that he has gained a right to dictate to the Palestinians the political tactics they should employ and endpoints they should seek.
I have many ideas on how the IP conflict could be resolved. They are irrelevant. It is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to work out workable solution. I attended a talk by Omar Bourghati a few years back. He stated very clearly that he was not advocating one -state, a two-state or a multi-state solution. He was advocating justice for the Palestinians. And nonviolence resistance and BDS was the tool to achieve that goal. That sounded about right to me but it did leave up in the air how that could ever be achieved.
Unfortunately, Norman seems to know exactly how that process should proceed. He strongly believes that the two-state solution remains viable. Perhaps he is correct but many reasonable people disagree. Again it is not up to him to insist on the outlines of a solution.
I suppose the one thing that disturbs Norman is that there are many factions inside the BDS movement that have accepted the one-state solution as the only option. Many knowledgeable observers have concluded that this outcome means it would be impossible for Israel to remain a Jewish state. Maybe that is what Norman fears.
Oleg could you flesh this out a bit. Are you implying that Israel should not be a democracy?
I defended Finklestein the first two times he popped off like this. Not this time. It sounds like he really really does not like Palestinians getting involved in the movement for their own civil rights. That is insupportable. Over the past decade I bought two of his books, paid to hear him talk, and picked up the tab for the pretalk luncheon. I really loved his subject and style. But this is the limit.
I wonder if he has any idea who is buying his books.
This debate reminds me of the debate inside the the civil rights movement starting in 1966 and blowing publicly open in 1968 with the emergence of the Black Power movement. It is only a natural progression.
That’s called being a fig leaf.
Not at all. This is called protecting one flank against assault. The fig leaf metaphor is a thin cover to hide the truth. In this case the truth is what is being protected.
OMG he gave his ex-wife only 40K while giving his active mistress 143 K -- now that is big time trouble.
These are politically interesting demonstrations. I would find it very difficult to participate since one needs to be callused against social scorn, not my strength. Also the immediate reaction of the audience is one of extreme hostility to the demonstrators. It is hard to imagine that any of the pro-Israeli people were persuaded, indeed their reaction is likely to be hardened in their support for Israel. So what is the upside?
Obviously, it will help publicize the plight of the Palestinians through the various news outlets. Simple general public education along the lines that any news about this demonstration is better than no news.
Also I believe it will help the debate inside the Jewish community. Many of these people in the audience probably did not even think of Palestinians before but now they are. Also inside their families, anger will likely emerge where more skeptical members question their more fanatical relatives. This is a polarization which many think is bad. But it is better to have everyone debating the Palestinian issue in a divided community rather than all pretending that no such problem exists. Finally, as significant factions become more closely aligned with right wing fanatical Zionism it should awake many of their apathetic gentile neighbors as to fundamental nature of Zionism.
In short, this has the potential to be a very successful type of direct action. Though positive elements may take some time come to fruition.
Azerbaijan is playing a very dangerous game. Look at a map. They are surrounded by Iran, Armenia and Russia with the Caspian Sea to its east that is controlled by Russia and Iran. Russia could with sufficient pretext overrun that country in a couple of days. Certainly Iran would have legal justification to invade if any airports were used to support attacks against Iran. If the Azeris think the West would save them they should stop and learn the lesson of Georgia.
What is so diabolical about Miller's argument is that it designed to torpedo the current negotiations with Iran or, at least, make it very difficult for Obama to succeed. This became more clear to me after reading Stephen Walt's May 25 posting (http://walt.foreignpolicy.com) that describes the negotiations in very straightforward terms.
In part Walt writes From a purely strategic point of view, this situation is pretty simple. Iran is not going to give up its right to enrich uranium. Period. If the West insists on a full suspension, there won't be a deal. It's that simple. At the same time, the U.S. and the rest of the P5+1 would like to maximize the amount of time it would take Iran to "break out" and assemble a weapon. The best way to do that is to limit Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium to concentrations of less than 5 percent. If Iran insists on keeping a large supply of 20 percent enriched uranium on hand, we'll walk too.
What was so promising in the last few months is that Obama signaled that the US would accept enrichment to 5% and Iran signaled that they would limit enrichment to 20%. Other topics would have to be addressed but none are deal breakers -- the US would have to drop its talk about regime change, perhaps some softening on sanctions (Europe would be quite happy if the oil embargo was lifted) and so on.
What we are seeing now are the Israeli and AIPAC tactics designed to thwart this progress by mobilizing Congress and public opinion against Obama reaching that "simple" solution. This is taking the form of insisting that Iran give up any enrichment, insisting that the Iranian enrichment facilities are vulnerable to Israeli bombing attacks, keeping the demand for regime change on the agenda and whatever other poison pills they can devise. Aaron Miller laid this all out quite clearly in this latest piece. If Obama showed any flexibility in the negotiations on any of these points between now and November, the lobby in coordination with the Romney campaign would pounce with cries of betrayal and weakness.
All we can hope for in the short term is that the diplomats can keep the talks going until November. I hope the Iranians have the patience to play this game. And I don't see why not, for they will continue to enrich to 20% as long as Obama delays which will just give them more chips on the board for when the negotiations become serious. I remain optimistic that this will work out. There is not much evidence for this but I feel that the US Congress is getting a little impatient with AIPAC continuing to demand more and more resolutions from them.
Justice, that sounds so correct. Miller is playing the concern troll here. 'Oh my god, war would be so horrible. But Iran has such unreasonable expectations and the US can never accept Iranian enrichment for nuclear fuel that the ending is inevitable -- the US will have no choice but to go to war with Iran. I (Miller still talking here) am the humanitarian liberal and as much as I hate war, the Iranians are leaving us no choice.' Miller is obviously another dual loyalty Zionist/American like Dennis Ross and Indyk who will promote Israeli policies over those of America.
In any case we must isolate these guys and expose their game. They are not working for US.
Miller is right about one thing and that is the current talks are really no more than a cease-fire. They will definitely delay war. I don't trust his predictions about what will happen in 2013. He sounds like he is part of that Israeli/neocon campaign to sabotage the negotiations. If he is not consciously part of that he is saying what he hopes will happen.
You guys are way too pessimistic and impatient. The US is not going to go to war against Iran. These negotiations will be drug out until November. Then we will agree that Iran has the right to enrich U and to keep their bomb proof facility. AIPAC will be working hard to subvert the talks and Israel will continue to hysterically wail on the sidelines becoming more and more isolated from the rest of the world.
To be sure these will be a dangerous 6 months but I believe our military and intelligence services will be working hard to counter any destructive actions the Israelis are considering.
Ben Ami says: there is a growing fringe in Israel whose values are out of sync with those of the Jewish community broadly.
I think he is in denial. This is not a fringe of the Israeli Jewish community, based on some opinion polls I have seen these views are likely supported by about half the population.
I am a betting man but I do not bet on my political predictions. In January of 2003 I was still convinced that the US would not invade Iraq -- it seemed obvious that a war against Iraq was not winnable. All those people who ruled then must know that as well as I did. That was one big error on my part. Fools ruled then. I am assuming that these fools may have learned a lesson.
In any case, one can put down 2 c notes on no war with Iran today and collect 3 c notes at the end of the year provided there is no war. Good rate of return, but I will decline for now.
Time for another round of diplomatic tea leave reading.
It appeared recently that the US was willing to allow Iran to enrich U to the extent of making fuel for its reactors. Apparently this concession was not made in the Baghdad talks that just ended. However, the talks will continue a month from now. Then they will continue a month from that day. Each of the 5 + 1 countries will presumably host a talk one month apart. Gee, that takes us to late November. That I believe is a reasonable target date. Obama has a delicate balancing act on his hands. On one side keep the talks going with reports of progress and set-backs etc and on the other side keep AIPAC under control. Netanyahu will continue with his hysterical braying but we all know by now that Israel is powerless to move without US support.
I think Obama could pull this off. Iran will keep its Fordow facility, will continue to enrich for fuel and will probably trade the 20% enrichment for some returns. Bottom line, no war.
And let us not forget how Israel's efforts to cultivate European pine forests has turned out.
The 'stop genocide in Darfur' propaganda campaign in 2003 - 2005 was another Zionist supported cause, designed to partition Sudan. As is now well established there was no genocide going on there -- maybe 20,000 people perished by military violence but the rest died of famine.
OMG I just watched the video. What else is there to say: Zionism equals racism. Absolutely amazing. If only Americans knew.
Maybe ironic is the wrong word here but many of those African refugees come from S. Sudan. Recall that is the new nation that Israel worked hard to birth. Israel and US neocons worked hard to give them international credibility as a new nation. This involved supporting the insurgents with money and weapons. This involved supporting a civil war that created huge numbers of refugees. It is only natural that some of those refugees would migrate to the sponsoring country Israel. Oh Israel, you must reap what you sow. You did help create this humanitarian disaster it is only right that you support the resulting refugees.
Annie, this is a pretty good take on what is happening. I was puzzled recently seeing Eli Lake as someone who was expressing "concern" about the move towards war. He always seemed like a war monger to me. It is much more reasonable to assume that he is playing the role of the concern troll in an orchestrated attempt by Israel to sabotage the negotiations with Iran.
This is important progress. I remember well just a few short years back arguing with the Zionists that Israel was destroying the two-state solution and they kept on coming back with their support for that outcome and it was only up to the Palestinians to become a little more reasonable. They seemed so sincere.
Now it is honestly out there -- one-state for Jews and some vague solution for the Palestinian problem. They have not yet decided on second class citizenship (don't call it apartheid!) or the transfer option (don't call it ethnic cleansing!). Now the only democracy in the ME will have a public discussion on which of these two solutions it will be. Let the debate begin.
What a weird assessment of the nationalistic nation state. The countries of N and S America, subsaharan Africa, India, Indonesia, and increasingly, most of Europe are multicultural if not multi linguistic. Your views are so 19th century, just like Israel.
That is an excellent idea. The US and EU should terminate all funding to the PA. Of course, as the occupying power Israel would then be responsible for providing support to the occupied people -- this according to some Geneva convention on war and occupation.
Oh the fond memories of SF demonstrations -- everybody looks so cold. East Bay is so much more comfortable.
We have learned too much in the past dozen years to find this news about Clinton shocking. But it does remind me that I have carried a incorrect idea about his role in the "peace" process while president. I recall thinking that Clinton was acting in good faith and was really interested in a viable 2 state solution. I always blamed his failure in achieving anything was because he was too trusting of Dennis Ross who I viewed as an Israeli mole. I didn't know that Clinton had already accepted a million bucks in 1992 in exchange for backing the settlements. Well live and learn.