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- Why did ‘NYT’ serve as platform for ‘military propaganda’? 0
- Reluctantly taking down monstrous orientalist video, college union in Israel … 0
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- First photographs of ‘Arabs with Altitude’ and Palestinian flag … 0
- Exile and the Prophetic: Freeing the president 0
- Why Palestine is different 0
- PLO: Israel has built 16,000 settlement units over the past … 0
- SF officials describe ‘apartheid’ label as ‘intolerance alienating the Jewish … 0
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- Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem 1709
- Palestinian-American Raed Zidan plants flag on top of Everest, dedicates … 1362
- Christians denounce Israel’s manhandling of worshipers at Holy Sepulcher on … 952
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 810
- Washington Post’s racism map omits Israel 438
- Israeli report on al-Dura case is vengeful and ‘surreal,’ says … 401
- There’s been a sea change in US opinion on the … 314
- Video: Soldiers aim guns at fallen boy’s head outside West … 302
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- Kennedy’s insistence on right of return prompted Ben-Gurion to rewrite … 106
- Abulhawa declines to ‘balance out’ several Israelis in ‘Al Jazeera’ … 94
- Barbara Boxer’s visa bill for Israel comes under concerted attack 93
- Washington Post’s racism map omits Israel 73
- Biden says Jewish ‘influence’ behind American cultural politics is ‘immense… … 57
- Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem 54
- Israel cracks down on American travel to West Bank by … 50
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- .@SamBahour: Why Palestine is different http://t.co/CmnxsX7z9n, 4 hours ago
- PLO: Israel has built 16,000 settlement units over the past 3 years http://t.co/FmdggAwUDR, 4 hours ago
- The Latest from Mondoweiss for 05/25/2013 - http://t.co/BewpNLCk98, 7 hours ago
- SF officials describe ‘apartheid’ label as ‘intolerance alienating the Jewish community’ http://t.co/gygE6OQrnP, 19 hours ago
- RT @MaxBlumenthal: Cpl Goldberg slams "veteran smear artist" https://t.co/Uc4sMIIv7E Yeah, about that... http://t.co/dTO4wxGpLF, 21 hours ago
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Recent Comments
click link to see last 100 comments- George Orwell would hate Israel (4)
- Taxi: “The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a...
- Obsidian: Phil ‘projecting’, among other things, that he’s a kindred spirit to Henry Miller and...
- seafoid: Orwell saw through ideological horseshit. Zionism is the last of the political ideologies of the 40s still...
- Why Palestine is different (1)
- Ramzi Jaber: Great article Sam. Thank you. Obama’s statement that “a *strong Jewish state* would ensure...
- SF officials describe ‘apartheid’ label as ‘intolerance alienating the Jewish community’ (27)
- Woody Tanaka: “Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election...
- just: That pretty much says it all, Ramzi. Thanks for that– it’s a keeper.
- In electric atmosphere, Medea Benjamin takes over the president’s speech (15)
- Philip Weiss: Just getting on moderation now. And I think you’re right to ask where Jews were on Zionism in...
- Kathleen: Medea became more vocal in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. Although she and her ex were both co...
- Kerry goes for the Hail Mary, but Obama is punting (45)
- Hostage: Sure we’re willing to make tough choices. The Jewish people are willing to accept the sacrifices...
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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them. Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage - torture, the use of hostages, forced labor, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians - which does not change its moral color when it is committed by 'our' side" ("Notes on Nationalism," 1945 ).
link to haaretz.com
"With his loathing of propaganda and state coercion, George Orwell would have excoriated Zionist efforts to sanitize Israel’s past. Nor is it hard to imagine how trenchantly he would express himself on the subject of a state that endlessly exhorts the world to remember the sufferings of Jewish people yet whose own memory is so singularly selective" - Neil Berry/George Orwell, Jewish People and State of Israel:
link to arabnews.com
Phil 'projecting', among other things, that he's a kindred spirit to Henry Miller and George Orwell.
Of course, Phil has never been deported and he's never picked up a gun and got shot in defense of liberty like Orwell did.
Maybe another reason Orwell would hate Israel is because he was an admitted anti-Semite.
link to forward.com
Orwell saw through ideological horseshit. Zionism is the last of the political ideologies of the 40s still going. Now it is in the denying reality stage. Lilian may make it to al quds for the fairuz concert before her sentence is up.
Israel manipulates, subverts, and outright destroys in some cases, aspects of Palestinian society.
Just as Israel de-developed the Gaza economy through the years of occupation and colonialism (and no doubt as it has done so in the W. Bank).
Preventing Palestinians and internationals to go to Palestine is one way Israel attacks Palestinian agency and self-determination.
It's all under the bullshit guise of 'self-defense' and 'security'. And the only people who buy it are Zionists themselves.
Great article Sam. Thank you.
Obama's statement that "a *strong Jewish state* would ensure that there will never be another holocaust" begs a simple question and a simple observation.
The question: Mr. President, please explain how can a state based on religion also be democratic? Weren't the US Founding Fathers adamant on the principle of separation of state and church, for an important reason? Think Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel......
The observation: The creation of a state for Jews based on religion demonstrates Herzel's illogical circular zionist argument that to protect Jews from being singled out there is a need to create a state that is singularly for Jews. This drives the fundamental perpetuation of anti-semitism. IMHO, world Jewry ought to focus on how to protect Jews in ANY AND ALL COUNTRIES in the world, as a minority that MUST be protected along with any other minority. That's where the global united fight must focus as opposed to inventing a divisive fight based on the principle and belief that one religion is better than all others as bestowed by God onto the "chosen people". Indefensible, illogical, unsustainable position.
"Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election committee- Apartheid my [ass]"
1/5 of the de jure population of the state which occupies more than 2/3 of Palestine, and it took over half a century to get a Palestinian a permanent appointment to the court. That's Apartheid. Not to mention the ethno-religious, judeo-supremacist military regimes in the West Bank portion of Palestine. Yeah, pretty much Apartheid. Still further, the illegal ethno-religious based ghettoization policy, reminiscent of the crimes of the 20th C., in the Gaza Strip portion of Palestine. Yeah, absolutely Apartheid.
Just getting on moderation now. And I think you're right to ask where Jews were on Zionism in their community 10 years ago. I was passive; never went to the place, still had Zionist materials given to me at my bar mitzvah, but never read them; and yes, surely stymied by community inscriptions, some unconscious.
But if someone arrived yesterday, I want them here. What does that matter? Is this about chest ribbons?
And where were you Kathleen?
Medea became more vocal in the run up to the invasion of Iraq. Although she and her ex were both co founders of Global Exchange and have been working on human rights issues for a long time. It has just been in the last 10 years that she has become vocal or involved with the I/P issue. Her silence as well as others who are as bright and as much in the know as she is has been complicit in the oppression of Palestinians for decades. But when Medea gets involved clearly she goes deep and wide.
Sure we're willing to make tough choices. The Jewish people are willing to accept the sacrifices involved in basing negotiations on the 4 June 1967 lines. We're willing to re-route the wall this much closer to them. Where is the map of the territory Abbas is willing to swap in return?
"Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and other House Republicans, who suggested that Ms. Abedin may be tied to Muslim extremists."
Bachmann and the other House Republicans are totally correct.
Ms. Abedin IS tied to extremists!
It is just that these extremists are not Muslims....
That pretty much says it all, Ramzi. Thanks for that-- it's a keeper.
Why is this comment taking so long to get up? Is it true that at Mondoweiss as Gilad is saying that there is no willingness to tell the truth about how many Jewish individuals are totally new to this movement and want to spin it as if they have been. Unwilling to admit that their silence has been complicity. Medea is wonderful but her silence for decades has been complicity. What is wrong with bringing that up? Or are you folks trying to make heroes out of Medea, Phil, etc
Sorry - against those very loud Jews who complain of anti-semitism at the thought of a dropping hat. Basically the self-declared "official" Jewish community and its mouthpieces.
We have a saying in Palestine that goes something like this: he hit me and he cried first, he hit me and he complained first. That's what Scott Wiesel is doing.
Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election committee- Apartheid my a…
He's still stuck with the job of enforcing the same old apartheid laws and Supreme Court rulings that prohibit any list of candidates from participating if they advocate overturning the statutes and ministry regulations that grant Jews all of their superior rights and privileges.
Unlike the USA, which adopted a voting rights act and civil rights act to help bring the Jim Crow era to an end, Israeli MK's are proposing changes to their election laws to further disenfranchise Arab candidates and voters.
Deputy President of the Supreme Court, Justice Elon , ruled in an elections commission case that Arab citizens merely have an equal right to recognize that Israel is the state of the Jewish people, and only the Jewish people:
See Ben-Shalom v. Central Election Committee 1988, 272
Someone needs to put that bullshit on a Metro advertisement! I can think of three of four more Israeli Supreme Court opinions that need to be widely publicized so we can drop all of this "he said, she said" nonsense.
Palestine and several of the interested state parties, including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Cuba, Guinea, the League of Arab States, and the Organization of the Islamic Conference submitted written or oral statements to the relevant UN organs requesting an advisory opinion from the ICJ on the legal consequences of the construction of the wall on Palestinian territory. They explained that Israel was pursuing a policy of "Bantustanization" and "apartheid". They noted that the construction of the wall and the resulting situation correspond to the constituent acts of the crime of apartheid, as enumerated in Article 2 of the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. The Court's findings of illegality (contained in paragraphs 132-134) also correspond to a number of the constituent acts of the crime of apartheid. The Court cited fact finding reports from the Secretary General and rapporteurs Zeigler and Dugard. Those UN reports in-turn had described the human rights violations resulting from the construction of the "apartheid fence" and reliable Israeli press reports concerning the Sharon government's deliberate pursuit of a policy of "Bantustanization".
I've commented in the past that neither the Rome Statute nor the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid are the source of basic human rights under international law. The same thing applies to the provisions regarding apartheid in Article 85 of the 1st Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Those instruments merely criminalize violations of the human rights and humanitarian rights contained in other conventions, like the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; and the four Geneva Conventions, themselves.
Israel is not a party to either the Rome Statute, the 1st Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, or the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid. So the International Court of Justice had to cite violations of its obligations under the terms of all of the various conventions on human rights and international humanitarian rights mentioned above, of which Israel is either a Member State or contracting State Party.
When AIPAC starts to promote the 2SS, you know there is something wrong with that approach!!! As always, The zionists and AIPAC are late to the game. The actions of the zionist regime leaves only one possible option: 1S1P1V, supported by action at the ICC/ICJ.
Is there possibly a real but subtle change beneath all of this talk and travel from Kerry and Obama's speech at the military college on Thursday? Or is this just the same old?
Regardless, I believe we need to be readying the case for ICC/ICJ, and continue the drive towards 1S1P1V.
The zionist's approach has always been divide and conquer, then they deal with the consequence of that. The purpose is to cause chaos and delay as they believe that's how they win.
The zionists always used religion as the key dividing weapon. Since the day I started to be aware, they did that across Palestine. First in areas like Nazareth and other per-1948 Palestinina villages and towns, wherever there were Christians and Moslems. Then they did the same I. The cities, villages, and towns after they occupied them in the 1967 war.
Their approach is twofold: 1) explicitly sow divisions and invent issues that separate. 2) support the Christians with (a bit of) money for projects, schools, etc. and also treat them with kids gloves from an occupier perspective so the Moslems think that all Christians are traitors and collaborators with the occupation.
They have also done that very explicitly in Lebanon, resulting in the Sabra and Shatilla massacre, and the creation of Hezbollah and the Shiite strength in Lebanon. Totally backfired on the zionists.
They have also clandestinely supported sectarian divides across the region for years.
Now all the chicken are coming home to roost......
@ a blah chick
Hillary's decision is the same made by all POTUS or Congressional wannabes. If she runs, it will b a contest between who can kiss AIPAC's tukas more, same as always these days.
I thought he electronically sent an ad of tented underpants, claiming the image was him. He did send pics of his own torso and face.
Those who don’t speak out against them.
Against whom? The members of San Francisco's board of supervisors (7 out of 12) who think they're doing the Jewish community a favour by equating this ad (end apartheid ) with the previous one (Muslim savages)?
@ Seafoid
Those who don't speak out against them.
So, what's the meaning of "marginal Jewish anti-Zionist figures"? Zionism was created in the latter part of the 19th Century. Considering the long history of the jews, isn't Zionism, hence also anti-Zionism, "marginal" in respect to the jews?
Mr. Ellis must be aware of Meier's voluminous book, hence his analysis of the adjective "marginal" as applied to the historical figure of Jesus. Meier goes to great length pointing out, and discussing in depth in turn, all the myriad of Jewish sects mentioned biblically and in contemporary, or near contemporary historians of the period, as well as those most popular in the literal sense. His conclusion is the historical Jesus manifested aspects of many of them, except, if memory serves, the Zealots, although he included a Zealot in his entourage, and that he exhibited contradictions to all of them. He also goes into the various types of jews Jesus associated with, etc. "Marginal" in the clearest sense, as applied to Jesus, the Jew, if it means anything, means, that the life of Jesus, was a blip in time because, e.g., if you read all of Tacitus and Josephus, if you blink you're eye you will not see their mention of Jesus. At any rate, it's clear there was a tremendous variety of ancient jews, and they subscribed to many different beliefs and mindsets re the practice of their religion and/or jewish identity.
Who gave these people the right to speak for Judaism?
"Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election committee- Apartheid my ass"
Also from the same stable
- Obama is black so there is no more poverty amongst African Americans
- there is a hotel in Gaza so there is no malnutrition
- there was rain yesterday so there is no global warming
intolerance alienating the Jewish community
Why? Did someone suggest that the Jewish community in SF practises apartheid? Supports apartheid? Defends apartheid? The ad mentions Israel (not the Jewish community), Americans (not Jewish Americans) and the U.S. (not the San Francisco Jewish community).
Had someone called out the "Jewish community" (or at least its mainstream institutions and most vocal spokesmen) for its support and defence of apartheid, that would have been alienating - true, but alienating. If the "Jewish community" can't take its political choices being challenged (even harshly), then it should stay out of politics.
It's rather ironic that it is those claiming to defend the Jewish community -- not the people behind the ad -- who are blaming all Jews (by religious/ethnic association) for Israeli apartheid. Shame on them.
More on the ‘creepy’ al-Dura report
by Philip Weiss on May 23, 2013 13
even more creepy is the aftermath of that incident
The murderers of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl used the clip when they posted footage of their nauseating crime on the internet
Doreen Carvajal wrote that the France 2 footage acquired the power of a battle flag,[84] with Helen Schary Motro arguing that it took its place alongside other iconic images of children under attack: the boy with raised hands in the Warsaw ghetto (1943), the Vietnamese girl doused with napalm (1972), the firefighter carrying the dying baby away from the Oklahoma City bombing (1995).[12] Arab countries issued postage stamps bearing the images, parks and streets were named in Muhammad's honor, and Osama bin Laden mentioned Muhammad in a "warning" to President George Bush after 9/11. The images were blamed for the lynching of two Israeli reservists in Ramallah on October 12, 2000, and a rise in antisemitism in France,[127] and could be seen in the background when journalist Daniel Pearl, an American Jew, was beheaded in February 2002.[128]
link to en.wikipedia.org
thats the way you do it-save up the ready made,s in a dark place ,only to be trotted out when needed.they are like pearls ,to be fed to the swine.
dimadok "Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election committee" (my bold)
That'd be an Israeli citizen, under Israeli civil law, which doesn't apply to "territories occupied"
In "territories occupied" Israeli civil law has no legal jurisdiction, Israel's illegal civil policies are not dissimilar to apartheid.
Most of the Temple era Jews stayed on and converted to Christianity and later Islam.
Anti semitism is a Christian thing. Anti Zionism is Middle Eastern. Islam has no beef with Judaism per se but Zionism sucks.
Israel won't let him into Jerusalem. Imagine Springsteen being denied access to New York City because he was born in New Jersey.
Maybe Wiener could organize something like that.
I wish I could read Arabic.
i'd rather understand the spoken word. or his songs. i think i understand a lot tho, kinda.
This must be how power works in the US. Some plutocrat pays for access and the access says whatever is necessary.
Israel's ur-problem is that it does not have a natural constituency in the US capable of reaching even 15% of the population . This will eventually override the money.
Barbara Boxer's hypocrisy on the visas and the SPLC's categorization of a bot outfit as a hate speech factory are very encouraging.
Gelber also verified what Hostage said earlier, that Arab forces took the initiative without orders from the commanders.
FYI. The Haganah blew up Old Ottoman House in Jaffa on Jan 4th. They then blew up the Semiramis Hotel on January 5th, killing 20 Palestinians.
The Haganah were already attacking Palestinian villages and had expelled 300,000 of them by the time Israel Declared Independence. Even according to Gelber, the Haganah were already subjugating Arab villages inside the borders of the Jewish state.
Why aren’t there Israeli suicide bombers against Germany after world war II?
Their plans didn't include suicide, but there were attempted plots by Jews (including Israelis) to kill Germans after WWII. The biggest failed plot was an attempt to poison up to 6 million Germans. Other smaller efforts did have some success at revenge killing.
link to jweekly.com
Also read this:
link to en.wikipedia.org
and this:
link to en.wikipedia.org
The cartoon is fine until the last scene. (Until this point it has been trying to prove that being anti Israel's policy in the occupied territories is not the same as the Jew hatred evinced by the Nazis in their most extreme form. Simplicity or simplification? But okay, so far, fine.)
Then in the last scene we are brought back to the classroom and now the misleading part comes in. In fact anti semitism was a term created to describe hatred of Jews and despite the fact that Arabs speak a semitic language, the term was not created with them in mind. This is an old and stupid argument and if you wish to have it again and again and again, we will. Can't the Palestinians come up with their own name for hatred of Palestinians, do they really need anti semitism. Yes, I think it is a stupid term to describe hatred of Jews and maybe some day we will evolve a new word like Judeophobe or sonai yehudim that is sufficiently specific to avoid this stupid, stupid, stupid argument. So why can't the Palestinians come up with their own term for hating Palestinians. But this is a stupid argument and not an attempt to clarify anything. It is not an urge for truth, but an urge for a punch line an urge for a laugh. typical of cartoon humor.
Thanks, PW. I know how hard it is to do what you all do here, but the these Zionist, and therefore advocacy, connections are getting harder and harder to explain away as random interactions.
You all posted a debate announcement here by Brian Baird and Anthony Weiner on the Goldstone report. The debate is here: link to youtube.com
Weiner made arguments, imho, that were completely, demonstrably, and therefore unrepentedly wrong. As many people here have pointed out in comments, and the masthead writers here have pointed out about the recent completely craven recapitulation of Israeli talking points on the al-Dura killing, stupid-wrong, demonstrably wrong, arguments get a pass.
The demonstrably wrong, nay urgently false, coupled with the complete non-concern (by Weiner) with being demonstrably wrong has to have a basis. That non-concern is otherwise completely irrational. Politics is never ever irrational. It is always motivated.
So now we learn that Weiner is living in a condo supplied by a single-issue Zionist. Israel-firster in Rosenberg's term. Brian Baird is not likely to have the same supportive accommodation/fallback.
As American says, this has to be strenuously pointed out, in real time, by the people involved in these kinds of debates.
Phil 'Great Gatsby' Weiss.
How's the view from the outside, anyway?
South Africa also used token blacks to try to preserve white Apartheid.
Unfortunately for Israel, a few token Arabs in high profile positions won't save Israeli apartheid either.
link to haaretz.com
link to haaretz.com
link to haaretz.com
Weak-ass s**t and getting weaker each time it's used/he uses it. I hope he gets Twitter-reemed for invoking it. And by Twitter-reemed I mean, with the power and impact of social media, he becomes less employable.
They know who she is and they DO NOT keep her out. That should speak volumes...
What part of the definition of Apartheid says its negated if a member of the oppressed group becomes a judge?
The link creates the expectation that something it links to involves a “stated intent” to intimidate civilians to withdraw support for their government. Influencing that government’s military decisions obviously isn’t the same thing. Just address the point and spare me all the singing and dancing.
not a problem:
link to huffingtonpost.com
here's you: Influencing the Iraqi regime to surrender with a show of military might isn’t the same thing as influencing the population to stop supporting the Iraqi regime.
the example greenwald links to supports his argument..by the 3rd paragraph. you quoted from the first. did you even read the whole thing? even the introduction, by the editors prefaced it thus so:
clearly, the article's focus is not solely about influencing a regime.
and on aside note, in the future please do not use quotation marks ("stated intent") unless you're actually quoting someone, you weren't.
So the SPLC defines the bots behind this as a hate group. Another milestone for zionism . It is a degenerative ideology . Started off with so much goodwill and now spawns hate speech . Onwards and downwards .
Wop bop a loo bop a Rambam boom?
I just read the Derfner article. It's good in that he shoots down the crackpot Israeli claims about Palestinian conspiracies, but one part really bugged me--
"On the basis of the known facts (as opposed to “facts”), that’s the most reasonable explanation, the easiest to accept – and it clears Israel of the terrible, almost certainly false accusation that its soldiers deliberately, demonically gunned down a frantic 12-year-old boy trying to hide behind his father, who was pleading vainly for the shooting to stop."
I'm not bugged by the claim that it might have been Palestinian bullets that killed the boy--maybe it was. What is disturbing are the unconscious assumptions--that this one incident somehow takes on mythic significance and if it turns out that Israeli soldiers didn't deliberately kill this particular child, it clears Israel, not these particular soldiers, but Israel, of a false accusation of a "demonic" crime. So much for all the other dead Palestinian children killed by the IDF--nothing to see here. Derfner has more in common with the crackpot Israelis than he realizes--he too seems to think more like a PR expert than a human rights activist. If an incident is caught on film, it counts for more than every other dead Palestinian child put together, especially if it turns out that Palestinian bullets were responsible.
And that word "demonic". Derfner knows perfectly well that Palestinian terrorists have deliberately killed children. Or I assume he knows it. Maybe he's never heard of any act of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli children. But I think it's slightly more likely that he does know it and thinks it demonic. He just doesn't want to use that word about Israel.
The really tiresome thing about this conflict is how even some of the good guys--and Derfner is one--fall into this kind of thinking, or at least writing. I hope Derfner would deny that he meant to imply what I'm saying here, but the implication is there, whether he's conscious of it or not.
"camera has a lot of gaul "
Vercingetorix or Obelix?
An American TV station defying the Israeli lobby? Is this allowed under US law?
"Is Huma now going to be accused of being a ‘self-hating muslim’?Like Hiirsi?"
That was a trollish comment. Do you have anything to say about the contents of the article? Apparently not.
Danaa, no need to apologise to me, and I'm pretty sure Spinoza won't want you to apologise to him either. Most of us bash these posts out at high speed in between dealing with Real Life (insofar as it still exists) so it is hardly surprising that a few errors or a bit of tangled prose appears from time to time. Quandoque bonus dormitat Obses.
No excuse for bad grammar, though.
@tree And perhaps more simply, they (Kach/Kahanists) are a "listed" terrorist org. by the US. But then, as always, there's wiggle room because nobody in Israel or the US overtly claims that mantle, even though they actually are followers. But unlike people who send money to charitable orgs in Gaza or Iraq, and who are in prison for long terms for doing so, these de facto Kahanists are given a pass for that lack of "overtness."
@James Canning My view, right or wrong, is that there is nothing "indirect" about settlers as a security threat. They're racist f**ks who would do anything, rhetorically or violently to further their cause, as we see almost daily in Kate's litanies. We just don't need that/them here. I, A Citizen, don't want them here. We've got enough problems without that negative, and notionally violent, transplanted influence on our politics.
And if this reciprocity-free visa legislation is an "ask" by Israeli business, we damn sure don't need any more high-paid Israeli Zionist transplants funding our political process. Sorry I digress...
"There would hardly have been any point in claiming him when he was just a silly lens-grinder out on his ear, now would there."
As far as I can tell, he was a very good lens-grinder.
Love the satire, Susie. My guess is that Lisa Williams is regretting her bonehead move because she has gotten some well-deserved humiliation like this, but maybe that's only wishful thinking. Manning may spend decades in prison, and he richly deserves any honor decent people can bestow on him.
But if I may, a factual correction. To my knowledge, the two children in the van in the horrifying Collateral Murder video were injured but not killed. I hope they manage to overcome this horror as much as possible, but if they become "terrorists" when they grow up, seeking revenge for this savagery, who could blame them?
Damn it Obama, stop saying what we want to hear and start doing what you say you'll do. Medea is listening to you and hearing you and she's telling you that your talk and your walk don't match.
I congratulate Ms. Benjamin for her courage and resolve. But I find nothing to praise in Mr. Obama's words.
Maybe Huma is just for Humana. A lot of these marriages between political groupies seem sort of mutually opportunistic. Having a unemployed politican and radioactive ex sex tweeter for a husband is probably quite a come down and not what she envisioned as her future.
What an iconic photo of Ms. Benjamin. Iconic in the highly-flattering, get-off-your-ass-and-lead! (I mean YOU!! pissed-off-citizen) sense.
You just get the sense that she's going to be morphed into that Uncle Sam finger-pointing poster soon, if she hasn't already.
' to “be used to fight growing intolerance alienating the Jewish community."
If Wiener feels 'alienated' by the ads he can always go live in Israel...after all that's what Israel is for isn't it?....we've spent a trillion dollars on a state for Jews to go to if they don't like it here or wherever they live.....he can go 'self determine' to not see any ads mentioning the Palestine occupation in Israel.
Bonkers good?! ;) I f'ing hope he wins it. He's got the audience in his palm.
I wish I could read Arabic.
Thanks Annie.
why didn't i think of that?
ritzl, i'm going bonkers
link to youtube.com
...they should do something about it..." Amen, yt. I think it's coming. The light bulbs are winking on at a visceral, personal level, imho, that something is very wrong and unsupportable about status quo Israel.
My cue on why is some of the blog reaction to that Gaza kid on Arab Idol. It was almost like why is this kid so loved and we are not. That's obviously my overstatement, but if even tiny grains of that are seeping into the hasbara strategy, it is meaningful, again imho.
Go Meda! Bravo! Bravo!
And this..?
"“The voice of that woman is worth paying attention to. (Applause.) Obviously, I do not agree with much of what she said, and obviously she wasn’t listening to me in much of what I said.''
Yadayada, we hear O and we've had enough of O speeches. Walk the walk gutless one or shut up.
Rather than why Hollary shouldn't be President..this is precisely why she will be President and why Obama ( and by extension any President) has never and will never pressure Israel
Wonderful. They can execute American citizens on the high seas, pepper urban centers and rural areas with million of cluster bomblets, fry civilian non-combatants in white phosphorous.....
But hey, by golly, they're gonna piss us off if they get complacent.
Kerry is little more than their pet monkey.
Why doesn't Scott Wiener disclose his vested interest as a member of the Jewish community and recuse himself from the debate ..if there is going to be a debate
American born Corporal Goldberg's military service as an IDF camp guard over Palestinians, explains whose apologist he is.
I find it astounding that after Massad's definitive and scholarly article, that anyone would even think of referring to Palestinians as 'Semites.' It's bankrupt nonsense. The title of the cartoon had me thinking, finally, someone who explains that the word 'Semitic' was originally an etymological term! Alas no.
That said, obv. the use of the term anti-Semitism to refer to critics of Israel probably increases the number of Jew haters without doing a thing to protect Israel.
Speaking of James Madison, there is this from John Quincy Adams on the dangers of seeking out enemies abroad
Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit . . .
@ Miriam6
Could you please provide some materials to counter the recent poll in which Israel ended up – well, you know. It looks as if you guys are using the wrong urgencies.
"Israel, North Korea, Pakistan and Iran came out worst in terms of how they are viewed globally."
link to bbc.co.uk
"Evaluations of Israel’s influence in the world have slipped a little further into negative territory in 2013. On average, in the 22 tracking countries surveyed both in 2012 and 2013, 52 per cent of respondents had negative views of Israel’s influence in the world, an increase of two points from last year. At the same time, the proportion of respondents giving Israel a favourable rating has remained stable at 21 per cent. Out of the 25 countries polled in 2013, 20 lean negative, three lean positive, and two are divided."
link to worldpublicopinion.org
[Thanks German Lefty, for the links]
Huma is elegant and stunning... way, way, way too good for Congressmen "putz".
The sad thing, very sad thing, is that for every 100,000 (x10?) people who think and believe as you and Jamal do, there is 1 who doesn't. That 1 exception becomes the propaganda-driven rule.
I think that whatever anyone thinks of the wrongness of violence, perfection (zero violence) is just not possible. If only one in a million people committed murder in NYNY there would only be 10 murders a year. That's in a relatively unmotivated environment. It's just not the case.
Normal people are going to react to continued violent oppression. It's truly remarkable, and a testament to the Palestinian desire for justice, and their nearly inhuman resilience, that there isn't more reactionary violence against Israel (and Israelis).
Israel seems to know that's a squeeze play strategy they can try to exploit. It's heartbreaking to watch it used and then rationalized away time and again. But then the Palestinians are winning, but at unimaginable cost.
Zionism is a very tight ideology and every so often the requirement for absolute loyalty to the memes overrides what outsiders would class as reason. They skated very close to the edge with Goldstone and they have gone over the cliff with this. The al Dura case makes sense in Hebrew but not in any other language
Zionism is basically a bunch of mediocre old people pulling levers in DC standing behind nuclear weapons and a funnel of cash.
“Abbas failed to accept my peace offer because he’s ‘no hero,’ says Olmert”
link to youtube.com
Zionism's memes are ever older than this video.
Where are all the good Israelis gone?
I am concerned about a total eclipse of the ideology
link to youtube.com
Every now and then my hasbara falls apart
Jerusalem forever is going to end one of these nights.
Jordan will probably explode at some stage. The Syrian refugees are putting enormous stress on the economy and Israel next door is insane. Throw in climate change and see what happens.
what's next, the U.S. military claims that Ho Chi Minh loyalists staged the "napalm girl" incident in order to sour the American people on the Vietnam War?
‘intolerance alienating the Jewish community’
1. who is this Jewish community ?
2 Israel is effectively engaging in a national system of abuse of Palestinians. It is fascinating to see intolerance raised as an issue in the US to defend abuse in Israel. The centre won't be able to hold on this defence, I'm afraid.
I would hate to have the bots speaking for me.
Likewise, two years ago General David Petreaus, Vice-President Joe Biden, among others, admitted that Israel's intransigence vis-à-vis a peace accord with the Palestinians endangered U.S. troops in Iraq/Afghanistan.
Opposing apartheid Israel is no more anti-Jewish than opposing the formerly apartheid South Africa was anti-White.
Having recovered from the pasting she received the last time, Mieiam returns with her latest instalment of throwing everything , including the kitchen sink, at a comment - be it relevant to the topic or not.
It seems that the Hasbara mother ship is anxious to get out as much mis-information as possible and has given her instruction s to cover as many topics as in the one comment as comment space will allow.
It's not evidence, is Hasbara and it has been resoundingly debunked. Camp David, Olmert, all of it.
too damn bad that some Jews feel alienated by ads calling Israel an apartheid state. sorry, but the label just happens to fit. if they're so upset they should do something about it - Israel's apartheid, that is. on the other hand the ad that suggests all Muslims are savages, hey, this is despicable stereotyping to the Nth degree and deserves condemnation.
yup.
rosen is a bad guy with real clout and more than a few presidents in his back pocket...what party line? jack always picks winners....
...mayor wiener
Medea's comments as she was led out were recorded and reported by Slate:
Can you tell the Muslim people their lives are as precious as our lives?
Can you take the drones out of the hands of the CIA?
Can you stop the signature strikes that are killing people on the basis of suspicious activities?
Will you apologize to the thousands of Muslims that you have killed?
Will you compensate the innocent family victims?
That will make us safer...
O'Reilly, on The Factor show last night, didn't know who the heckler was, but he wondered, more than a few times, was she Code Pink? Hard to believe his staff didn't give him the name, Medea Benjamin.
Given Code Pink's tactics, over and over again, it really is curious how Medea got in there. And why she was not immediately whisked away. Don't get me wrong, I am totally behind Code Pink and Medea Benjamin is a wonderful citizen.
Only on live TV: Wolf Blitzer inadvertently creates priceless moment on CNN during tornado coverage
By Lisa de Moraes
One of the more priceless exchanges of this week’s Oklahoma City tornado news coverage happened about 5:35 p.m. Tuesday.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was interviewing a young woman named Rebecca, whose husband was traveling when the tornado hit, and who was prepared to ride out the tornado with her 19-month-old son Anders.
Rebecca, who’s from Louisiana, explained that all her Oklahoma-native neighbors and her husband told her to stay in the house because “it never hits anybody.” On Monday, she and Anders grabbed a mattress and got in the tub, watched on a laptop as the tornado approached — then, she said, “I just panicked.”
“I’m from Louisiana. We have hurricanes. And when they’re big, you just leave — you know?” she said to Wolf.
“I ran. I ran. I didn’t have any shoes on,” Rebecca continued.
Rebecca drove in the opposite direction as the tornado and escaped, returning to the house about 45 minutes later to see whether her cats had survived, only to find her husband there, searching for her and their son in the rubble that had been their home.
“We just burst into tears. It was awesome,” Rebecca told Wolf.
“Well, you’re blessed. Brian, your husband, is blessed. Anders is blessed. . . . We’re happy you’re here. You guys did a great job and I guess you got to thank the Lord, right?” Wolf wondered.
“Yeah,” Rebecca said, noncommittally.
“Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?” Wolf pressed.
“I-I’m-I’m-I’m actually an atheist,” Rebecca responded, apologetically.
“You are? Alright, don’t thank the Lord,” said Wolf.
Very well done! Will definitely pass this along.
Thank you, Susie.
Galloway is again superb--thanks for posting. I can't think of the matter being laid out any more plainly.
Israeli Arab Judge, Salim Jubran, has been appointed to the head of Israel Central Election committee- Apartheid my a...
link to israelnationalnews.com
Hillary Clinton wants to be president and she has decided that the best way to get there is with all that sweet, sweet AIPAC money.
I hope she goes down in flames.
Anthony Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, was born in Michigan and grew up in Saudi Arabia. Her father was of Indian descent, her mother was from Pakistan. Ms. Abedin is a practicing Moslem. A few months back, the New York Times had a special cover story about Weiner and his planned political comeback, which was clearly a puff piece. Her background went undiscussed, of course.
By all accounts, the wife stayed loyal to her husband through the sex scandal a couple of years ago. In private, if she ever called Anthony a "pig," that would have special meaning coming from a Moslem.
Somebody should ask Weiner in public, "you are a big supporter of Israel, but you and your wife are a mixed Jewish/Moslem marriage, that would not be recognized in Israeli society, an officially Jewish state. " Let him state in public whether he supports intermarriage or not.
I think he'll stay away from the intermarriage question. It would offend the Zionists.
He'd rather answer yet another question about the sex scandal.
"Blow Back" is a term coined by United States intelligence services to refer to the anticipated result of murderous US foreign policy that has destroyed millions of lives.
I agree that killing random Americans or Brits in response to Western crimes against Moslems is completely unacceptable, though I would add that comparing it to Baruch Goldstein and his gang is grotesque. The bottom line is that the Israelis are using despicable means to pursue despicable goals. Many Jihadists, (including Bin Laden), are using despicable means to pursue absolutely legitimate goals. It's pointless and misguided to criticize them without providing them an alternative to simply allowing themselves to be run over with US tanks. They will resist in whatever way they can. America was arrogant and stupid in rejecting Bin Laden's peace overtures. Now it is probably too late.
Indeed, following Massad, I would argue that there needs to be a fundamental critique of the usage of the word "Sephardic". Its too often used to refer to all Middle Eastern Jewish cultures, as if they all follow the same trends , religious customs, or even live in the same area. There are Israeli MK's descended partially from the old Spanish-Portuguese Jewish communities in the Netherlands who are for all practical purposes "Ashkenazim" in the census and social life. I think even the Israeli pro-Palestinian journalist Amira Hass comes from Yugoslav Sephardic roots and yet is counted as a Ashkenazic piece activist. Whereas "Sephardim" in Israel today include a wide menagerie of different Jews, many of them different from each other. Ethiopian Jews and Indian Jews have very little to do with the classic Sephardim of old. Persian/Iranian Jews have their own history and traditions, which are very ancient and distinctive and yet are absorbed into the Sephardic label. And then there are the Arab Jewish communities which aren't all necessarily homogenous. Moroccan Jews can be split between Arabic and Haketia speakers - the latter speaking a Ladino-Arabic hybridized dialect. Indeed, Moroccans, Algerians and Tunisians are perhaps the only "Sephardim" who can be truly called Sephardic, as they descend from Spanish migrants fleeing Al Andalus. Same for Turkish Jews. The Syro-Lebanese, Iraqi and Yemeni Jewish communities are very old and predate the Alhambra decree by centuries although many Sephardic families fleeing Spain did find refuge in Syria-Lebanon and so among the community you will find families with Hispanic surnames. Egyptian Jews are a fairly heterogenous bunch consisting of local Arab, Sephardic and even Ashkenazi elements. Considering these facts, it makes little sense to refer to them all as "Sephardim" or even "Mizrahim".
Wow. Just wow. As Pamela says, very powerful and (I'll add) heartbreaking words.
Albeit this is in a lengthy footnote, not the piece itself.
Evocative, moving and 'powerful' (as Pamela wrote).
It would and has been a crime against humanity. I guess it's worth preserving archeological and historical sites, but not an ancient culture nor the people who live it today.....
Actually Joseph Massad recognizes this and points this out in his piece Zionism's Internal Others, where he takes contemporary Euro-Israeli understandings of "Sephardim" to task for eliding the historical existence of European Sephardic communities in the Balkans and western Europe.
Pretty sure the singular for 'Shiminstim' is 'Shminist' and not as the author states.
More significantly, I think this article misses some important context.
One of the policy debates in Israel for years now has to do with the inflation in the number of available conscripts, the sufficiently high number of volunteers to elite units and positions, and the high cost enlisting soldiers who offer little value. As a result, some talk about Israel moving in the direction of the US, with a larger core of professional soldiers and a smaller number of enlistees.
So looking at the number of 'non-enlistees' in isolation from the total number of enlistees might gloss over the fact that reducing the draft serves Israeli military policy. The people not being drafted are of marginal value, like the Haredim or folks with a lower socio-economic status.
In the past, the IDF saw itself as having a social mission of helping to integrate society and offer opportunities to youth who might otherwise join the underclass. This has weakened over time, part of the general decline in equality and social solidarity among Jewish Israelis.
Celebrating folks not enlisted as a sign of something seems misguided to me. The real metric is and should be folks who explicitly refuse. It's good to celebrate those who do, but worth thinking about how the numbers from this movement's inception do not show anything like a year after year increase.
The Jews it is alienating are the Jews promoting apartheid and colonization.
This is identity politics. White racists (whether they be KKK, White nationalists, or the Afrikaaners) just need a good Lobby like Zionist Jews.
Then they can be as racist as they want and re-brand their racism as 'self-defense' and 'returning to their homeland' (whilst kicking everyone else out of theirs).
Yes I know, but that doesn't change the fact Israel already has declared and recognised borders. Absent a permanent settlement, Israel's borders remain Israel's declared borders.
They can't just undeclare them because they want to steal more Palestinian land – though they have been trying...
The father has said he is willing to have the boy exhumed.