GopBias.Org Blog record and database for March and April, 2008, plus May and June 2008, culminating with the July fourth two hundred and thirty second anniversary of our Declaration of Independence and continuing on to November 4th and beyond to 2009 and 2010 - This web blog holds the key to the great November, 2008 Presidential Election, as the following letters and columns regarding John Sidney McCain III illustrate, and the resurrection of the "strategic framework agreement" by Admiral Mike Mullen (now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), an agreement that will continue to be troublesome, along with the "Status of Forces".
( 7:00 pm EDT 8/22/10 ) This site, GOPBIAS.org, contains a complete background of the political history and nuance of causes and events which have preceded this 8/20/10 announcement by the Obama White House, an announcement, for better or worse, where we are in this struggle in August of 2010 to free ourselves, as Thomas Jefferson wrote for July 4, 1776, from "the political bands" which have virtually bound us since 1948 to the Israeli Zionist virtual armada of political and financial power unmatched in the world today, which is determined to occupy, in one sense or another, the whole of Palestine, and the structure of the Middle East.
This is the time to recognize that this site, GOPBIAS.org, is the foremost source of material, overall and detailed, gathered in one online locale, which is available 24/7. And shortly, there will be GOPBIAS.info, which will cover developments, both detailed and reputable speculation, to chronicle this effort to free us from the current restrictions which bind us.
* THE FOLLOWING AFFECTS EVERYTHING THAT WE HAVE REPORTED.
- "Reports: Israelis, Palestinians Agree to Hold Talks -
"The White House is expected to announce today Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to restart direct negotiations for the first time in nearly two years. Both sides are said to have committed to a one-year deadline to complete the talks. The announcement is an apparent victory for the US and Israel, who have pressed Palestinians to drop their insistence on an Israeli settlement freeze as a precondition for talks. Any negotiations would continue to exclude Hamas, the elected government in the Gaza Strip. The talks will reportedly begin on September 2nd in Washington. A formal announcement is expected today." - Goodman DemocracyNow 8/20/10
( 20:59 BST 8/20/10 ) The British newspaper The Guardian, in reports by Chris McGreal and Rachel Shabi:
Israel and the Palestinians are to resume direct peace talks next month under pressure from Washington to break years of political stalemate.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, announced that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin ( the spelling "Bibi" prefers in Israel ) Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, would meet in Washington on 2 September to "relaunch direct negotiations to resolve all final status issues, which we believe can be completed within one year".
Netanyahu welcomed the talks.
"We are coming to these talks with a serious desire to reach a peace agreement between nations, while still preserving Israel's national interests, security being the foremost of them," he said.
But some Israeli and Palestinian former negotiators and politicians greeted the news with scepticism, saying Abbas was only participating under US pressure and Netanyahu had no immediate political interest in reaching a peace agreement.
Clinton said the Egyptian and Jordanian leadership had also been invited to the opening of the negotiations, with Tony Blair, the envoy for the quartet of the US, UN, EU and Russia, "in view of his important work to help Palestinians build the institutions of their future state".
"As we move forward it is important that actions by all sides help to advance our effort not hinder it. There have been difficulties in the past. There will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt we will hit more obstacles ( Specifically, the ominous, super-clannish Jewish clique, a la Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. ). The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said.
The US said all main issues would be on the table, including the difficult final status questions of the borders of a Palestinian state, the DIVISION OF JERUSALEM and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said he believed it was realistic to include a one-year deadline to RESOLVE CORE ISSUES on which neither side has been able to reach agreement since the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
"We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," he said. Netanyahu and Abbas were "sincere and serious" about peace, he added, and Washington would take a hands-on ( Does that include the "status" of our three-billion annual gift to Israel? ) role in guiding the talks because it was "in the national security interests of the United States".
The date for negotiations was set only after the Obama administration pressured Abbas into agreeing to talks. Abbas has sought guarantees from the US that the Palestinians would not be drawn in to perpetual negotiations that go nowhere while Israel continues to expand in the occupied territories. The White House offered the one-year deadline for talks as a reassurance?
A senior Israeli official said that the government recognizes that the Palestinians have come to the negotiating table reluctantly and that Abbas is politically weak. But he said that with all issues on the table, there is the potential to make progress.
Asked whether there are red lines for Israel, including Netanyahu's previous claim to all of Jerusalem, the official said the only unshakeable demands are "guarantees of Israel's security and Palestinian recognition of Israel's legitimacy ( How one-sided can one agreement be? - the editors. )". - The Guardian 8/20/10
* Clearly this sudden Israeli/US effort is to force the Palestinian entity to abandon their prime positions that "Israel stop settlement activities", and "the two states will recognize the 1967 borders"!
Amy Goodman 8/16/10 -
- US Threatens to Cut Off Arms Deal to Turkey over Criticism of Israel
"The Financial Times is reporting President Obama has personally warned Turkey that unless it shifts its position on Israel and Iran, it could be cut off from future US arms deals. During a meeting at the G20 in Toronto, Obama reportedly met with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and called on Turkey to cool its rhetoric about an Israeli raid that killed nine Turks on a flotilla bearing aid for Gaza. In addition, Obama criticized Turkey for voting against UN sanctions on Iran. Obama’s warning to Turkey is seen as particularly significant because Ankara wants to buy American drone aircraft that could be used to attack the Kurdish separatist group PKK after the US military pulls out of Iraq."
- [ Israeli commandos murder eight Turkish citizens and one American of Turkish ancestry, on a Turkish commercial ship the Mavi Marmar, but Obama admonishes the Turks for trying to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza, in international waters?!?! ]
- US to Fund Israeli Purchase of 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters
"Israel is one step closer to purchasing twenty F-35 Joint Strike Fighter warplanes built by Lockheed Martin. The $2.75 billion arms deal will be paid for BY AMERICAN TAXPAYERS as part of the US military aid package to Israel. Israel will become the first foreign country to sign an agreement to buy the F-35 outside the eight international partners that helped to develop the plane." - DemocracyNow 8/16/10
[ These F-35 jet fighters are surely designed, E.G., for an Israeli air attack on a burgeoning nuclear power plant that Iran needs to join the 21st Century, and while our puppet master Israel may object, the great Robin Wright reminded us on the 8/13/10 PBS NewsHour that we approved TWENTY TWO nuclear power plants for the BUTCHER OF IRAN, the hated Shah Rezi Pahlavi, after we had removed the Democratically elected Iranian Premier Mohammed Mossadegh in 1953. ]
Amy Goodman 8/17/10
- At Least 50 Die in Suicide Bombing in Baghdad
"In Iraq, at least fifty people have died after a suicide bomber attacked an army recruitment center in central Baghdad. At least 120 people were injured in the blast. The suicide bomber was reportedly wearing an army uniform and talking to recruits when the bomb went off." - DemocracyNow 8/17/10
[Under George Walker Bush the U. S. undertook an unprovoked war against Iraq, virtually directed by Israel, and now, having created the unrestrained military monster of nuclear-weaponed Israel on the Eastern banks of the Mediterranean we're abandoning the ungovernable Iraq, and immersing ourselves in an unending war in Afghanistan, against that Muslim country, which can not fathom, along with the gentile population of the United States that isn't somehow dependent on Jewish largesse' or favor, our subservience to this Hunnish hybrid, the State of Israel and our own AIPAC and ADL.]
We, the people of these United States elected Barack Obama on Nov 4, 2008, NOT to further the interests, and whims, of this "pariah" State of Israel, but to "delegitimize" ( both quotes are Thomas L. Friedman's terms ) to "delegitimize" the God-awful state of economic and political conditions which the truly mercenary eight years of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney subjected this great country to,...
{ There is something depraved in the makeup of Republican office holders, a missing humanitarian gene, a fatal flaw, a total disrespect for the history, the promise, the enlightenment and the meaning of our great nation.
...from financial economic stability and surplus, to financial deficit, the worst since the Great Depression (brought on by another Republican), and unending U. S. wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the first actually begun by Bush/Cheney, and the second a hapless response to 9/11 [the result of Bush/Cheney ignoring the pleas of the counter terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, a close associate of James Bamford, author of the groundbreaking 2004 A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of American Intelligence Agencies, a text which generates nightmares for both Thomas L. Friedman AND "Charlie" Rose (As we speak, "Charlie's" staying away from Israel, right now?)]}. The quoted words are from a convoluted, back-handed online Friedman piece in which he finds offense in that director Oliver Stone apparently has the audacity to claim that Jews "dominate the news media, and their lobby (AIPAC & ADL etc.!) controls Washington." Our response? "Right on the money!"
- "The Constitution and the Mosque
President Obama showed his understanding of the Constitution, and his respect for the American people, last week when he defended the right of a Muslim community group to build a mosque and Islamic center two blocks north of ground zero in Lower Manhattan.
Mr. Obama’s words at a White House dinner celebrating the Muslim holy month of Ramadan were simple and forceful. “Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” he said.
Republican ideologues, predictably, used his statement as one more excuse not only to attack the president but to spew more of their intolerant rhetoric.
NEWT GINGRICH, WHO HAS BEEN BEATING THIS DRUM FOR WEEKS, ACCUSED THE PRESIDENT OF “PANDERING TO RADICAL ISLAM” AND SAID THE MOSQUE WOULD BE A SYMBOL OF MUSLIM “TRIUMPHALISM.” WE WERE HESITANT ABOUT REPEATING THOSE COMMENTS HERE. BUT THE COUNTRY IGNORES SUCH CYNICISM AND UGLINESS AT ITS OWN PERIL. MAKE NO MISTAKE, THE REST OF THE WORLD IS LISTENING.
Like President George W. Bush before him, President Obama warned against linking all followers of Islam to terrorists. “Al Qaeda’s cause is not Islam -- it is a gross distortion of Islam,” he rightly said. It is our tolerance of others, he said, “that quintessentially American creed,” that stands in contrast to the nihilism of those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001.
WE WISH HE HADN’T DILUTED THE MESSAGE THE NEXT DAY, telling reporters that he wasn’t commenting on “the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding.”
He would have done better if he had explained the wisdom of going ahead with the project, which developers said is intended to bring Muslims and non-Muslims together. In addition to a place of worship, it would have a pool and performing arts center. They also have said they want the board to include members from other faiths -- a promise they should take care to keep.
Too many Republican leaders are determined to whip up as much false controversy and anguish as they can, right through November. Some Democrats will cave. We were disturbed on Monday when a spokesman for the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, said that Mr. Reid “thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else.”
MR. OBAMA AND ALL PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE NEED TO PUSH BACK HARD. DEFENDING ALL AMERICANS’ RIGHT TO WORSHIP -- AND THEIR RIGHT TO BUILD PLACES TO WORSHIP -- IS FUNDAMENTAL TO WHO WE ARE." - Editorial N Y Times 8/17/10
Perhaps the critical moment has arrived to challenge what is now nearly seventy years of our submission to a reprehensible subversion of the promise of this great nation, a promise subverted in 1948 by an appalling decision by Zionists to remove the peaceful Palestinians from their homes in Palestine, residences which they had occupied for many centuries. This action reverberated back to the very essence of these United States, not withstanding our brutal treatment of the Native Americans.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote for July 4, 1776: "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another . . . they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation . . . (to begin with) all men are created equal . . . etc."
...and this is what we have intended at GOPBIAS.org.
This 8/11/10 article from The Jerusalem Post, the second which we have noted in full, speaks of a coming event which is a tipping point in our relationship with Israel, an event which cannot be condoned and, thus, cannot be supported either philosophically, or by our three-billion-dollar annual "contribution" to the state of Israel.
The Jerusalem Post:
"'Atlantic' polls Israeli officials about likelihood of strike.
The chance that Israel will launch a military strike against Iran before next July is over 50 percent, according to an article to be published in the upcoming issue of the journal the Atlantic. The article's author, Jeffrey Goldberg, gleaned this information from interviews he conducted over the last year-and-a-half with forty current and past Israeli decision makers.
Goldberg claimed to have spoken with people in and out of government from various political parties. The consensus among them was that Iran is one to three years away from being able to create a nuclear weapon. This fact, coupled with Iran's publicly displayed animosity toward Israel, makes a nuclear Islamic republic a threat to Israel's existence, and therefore a likely candidate to face an Israeli military strike.
Goldberg added that a strike by Israel against an enemy's nuclear program would not be unprecedented, citing the 1981 strike against Iraq's nuclear reactor and the 2007 destruction of Syria's nuclear reactor."
Is Mr. Goldberg confusing "Nuclear Reactor", what is required to produce Nuclear Power, with nuclear weaponry? - Is this, as it appears to be, just another in the model lineup of charges by the State of Israel to deny Iran Nuclear Power?
"He (Goldberg) added that sources close to Prime Minister Binyamin ( the spelling "Bibi" prefers in Israel ) Netanyahu had said that the premier has little faith in the ability of international sanctions passed against Iran to deter the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons."
Obviously, through Jeffrey Goldberg and The Atlantic, this is the latest attempt to portray Iran as a threat to Middle East Peace, when in actuality it's Iran's attempt to provide Nuclear Power for energy as is its right under the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it is a signatory, to which the State of Israel is NOT, even as it sits on a stockpile of +200 Nuclear Weapons, and thus, refuses to sign the treaty.
"The officials interviewed by Goldberg also did not believe that a military strike on Iran from the US under Barack Obama was likely, even in the event that Teheran's nuclear capabilities were at a very advanced state. Not even the hawkish former US president George W. Bush advocated a strike against Iran, so they found it difficult to believe that the dovish Obama would launch an attack. This would increase the likelihood that Israel would see itself as the only barrier between a nuclear Iran and the rest of the world, they said.
The author also added that Netanayhu had told him in the past that the fear is not only of a direct attack from Iran, but also from the power a nuclear Islamic republic would give Teheran's proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Goldberg that another of Israel's fears is that a nuclear Iran would force mass emigration of Israelis.
Goldberg said that not all of the officials he spoke with believed an attack on Iran was a viable option for Israel. He said that numerous sources told him that IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi doubts the usefulness of an Israeli strike on Iran." - Jerusalem Post 8/11/10
- Timely Info -
Amy Goodman DemocracyNow 8/13/10:
"Israel has rejected a new Palestinian offer to base peace talks on establishing a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders. The proposal was based on a statement from the Middle East Quartet of the US, UN, the European Union and Russia earlier this year that also called for a freeze on West Bank settlements and on home demolitions in East Jerusalem. But Israel has refused to accept any preconditions that could scale back its control of the West Bank. Palestinian Authority adviser Mohammad Shtayyeh criticized Israel’s stance.
Mohammad Shtayyeh: 'It is a pity that such a pressure is directed to the Palestinian Authority rather than it should be directed fully and totally against and towards the Israeli government. The Palestinian Authority president Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] has actually made everything possible for successful peace talks. Israel has not offered anything, neither a good environment for peace--i.e. to totally freeze all the Jewish settlements--and, on top of all, Israel has not accepted a clear terms of reference for the peace talks.'" - Goodman DemocracyNow 8/13/10
"Despite promises to engage more forcefully in peace efforts, the Obama administration reportedly rejected two Palestinian requests to take a key role in the talks. Palestinians say the US turned down their proposals to host a meeting between them and Israel on establishing a framework for talks and a separate proposal for President Obama to issue a statement outlining the US stance on what the framework should be, as President Bill Clinton did in late 2000." - Goodman DemocracyNow 8/13/10
In the 8/12/10 N Y Times Isabel Kershner writes - "Flotilla Activists Fired First, Israeli Army Chief Testifies -
Jerusalem - Israel's top military chief said Wednesday that activists on a Turkish ship were the first to open fire as Israeli naval commandos raided the vessel, part of a six-boat flotilla bound for Gaza, fomenting a bloody confrontation on board that left nine activists dead.
Testifying before an ISRAELI COMMISSION OF INQUIRY, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the Israeli Army chief of staff, gave the most DETAILED description yet of the MILITARY'S VERSION of the events in late May.
An Israeli military investigation of the episode concluded a month ago that Israeli soldiers most likely fired only after having been fired upon.
General Ashkenazi said it was 'clear and established' that flotilla participants opened fire first." - Kershner N Y Times 8/12/10
CLEARLY, ISRAEL'S PAST RECORD AND THE INCONTROVERTIBLE TESTIMONY OF ALL THE PASSENGERS ON THE MAVI MARMARA IS FURTHER EVIDENCE THAT, AS THE PRIME MINISTER ERDOGAN OF TURKEY HAS STATED:
- ...that David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel and their ethnic brethren, excepting the phenomenal Amy Goodman, are no longer representing these United States. Instead, their allegiance is to Israel! The result? There is no limit to the provocative, inciteful virulent actions of our charge in the Middle East, that rogue State of Israel, to which we continue to send three billion$ of our scarce resources every year and, more importantly, shed the blood of our military forces while expending further MULTI billion$, in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan all because the Israelis insist on perpetuating their illegal occupation of Palestine.
* Current!
- Hezbollah Blames Israel for 2005 Assassination of Al-Hariri -
DemocracyNow: In Lebanon, the investigation into the 2005 killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri has taken a new turn. On Monday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed Israel was behind the killing, showing intercepted Israeli surveillance footage from an unmanned aerial vehicle of Hariri’s travel routes. Israeli officials dismissed Nasrallah’s claims. Many (Jewish) analysts have predicted the international tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination will hold Hezbollah culpable.
- Israel Threatens to Pull Out of UN Flotilla Inquiry -
DemocracyNow: Israel has threatened to pull out of a UN inquiry into the deadly raid on a Turkish flotilla heading for Gaza, if the UN tries to question soldiers who took part in the operation. An aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Israel will not cooperate with or take part in any panel that seeks to interrogate Israeli soldiers." - Amy Goodman 8/10/10
- Israel Bulldozes Palestinian Cemetery -
The Israeli MILITARY has reportedly destroyed hundreds of gravestones in a centuries-old Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. Palestinians say bulldozers were used to raze the graves Tuesday as an Israeli court rejected a petition to halt the demolitions. The destruction occurred near the site of the planned "Museum of Tolerance," a project funded by the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Palestinians have opposed the museum because of its proximity to the cemetery. The Obama administration meanwhile is continuing its effort to convince Palestinian Authority negotiators to drop their insistence on an Israeli settlement freeze as a precondition for talks. After a meeting with Middle East envoy George Mitchell, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the settlement demand remains unchanged.
Saeb Erekat: "Once again, we are not against direct negotiations. Once again, we want to resume direct negotiations. And we believe that the key to direct negotiations is in the hand of the Israeli government. The minute they accept their obligation of stopping settlement activities and ( accepting ) the terms of reference of two states on ’67 [borders], with agreed territorial swap, I think we can begin direct negotiations immediately." - Goodman DemocracyNow 8/11/10
It's not as if President Obama did not have the example of his Democratic predecessor:
"After announcing his budget victory, the President boarded Marine One to fly to the Wye Plantation in Maryland, where he would negotiate the next phase of the efforts to achieve a Middle East peace. For eight days he was isolated there, returning on September 23 (1998) with an agreement. Bringing together the intransigent Yasser Arafat and the implacable Benjamin Netanyahu, he sat them down on either side of him on a stage in the East Room to sign the Wye River Accord. The painstaking negotiations were exhausting, and they nearly collapsed twice when Netanyahu threatened to walk out. At the last minute, his demand for the release of Jonathan Pollard, imprisoned for handing over U. S. national security secrets to the Israelis - a demand the President could not grant - nearly blew up the conference. But Clinton managed to win concessions from each side. He got the Israelis to turn over additional sections of the West Bank to Palestinian Authority control. From the Palestinians he wrung an agreement to drop anti-Israel paragraphs from the Palestinian National Charter and, under CIA supervision, to turn over terrorist suspects to Israel. The accord set the stage for the even more difficult negotiations for "permanent status".
In this Israeli-Palestinian work, Clinton regarded himself as a legatee, a political son, of the murdered Yitzhak Rabin, whom he revered above all other leaders, except perhaps Nelson Mandela. Clinton had erected private shrines to Rabin throughout the living quarters of the White House: he kept a plate of dirt from his grave and the yarmulke he had worn at Rabin's funeral, as well as a crystal sculpture of a dove that Hillary had given him to memorialize Rabin, displayed on a mantel. In the Oval Office, a bust of Rabin joined the busts of Kennedy, Roosevelt, Truman, Franklin, and King." - paragraphs 2 & 3 on page 487 of Sidney Blumenthal's stunning 2003 The Clinton Wars.
* The rabid forces of evil, and we use that common term, in a sense, euphemistically, in that "evil" may not adequately describe the many determinative, Diasporative forms this Jewish/Israeli willingness assumes to court disaster 'round the globe, to force their control over the Middle East. The United States, the foremost power for good in this world has been, of late, compromised by the clout of AIPAC and the ADL etc., AND the pro-Jewish nature of the Obama administration.
A more precise description of the details of this existential threat to World Peace is provided by, first, "The Prior History" and, then, "Some of the Traitors Involved", both of which have been available on GOPBIAS.org now for several years. In fact, these items are among the many that this website provides. In sum, there is no excuse for this great country, with its history of providing a light and the determination for good in the rest of the world, no excuse to be so entangled with such a petty, malicious, self-serving band of pretentious delusional grandiose brigands who actually BELIEVE they are God's Chosen. Throughout GOPBIAS.org are examples of this blatant adulteration of the promise of America, and the concomitant growth of an insatiable Israel bent on control of the Middle East.
Significantly, this usurpation of the stature of the United States for such malignant purpose is not only condoned by our Media/Press, but also driven by that industry, much the same as the ballyhooed HD phenomena was promoted as an audience-friendly visual upgrade, when its real purpose was to enhance advertising, and a step toward all cable 24/7. In the case of overall Media/Press and the wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Big Picture, so to speak, is to enhance Israel's usurpation of Palestine in toto, to neutralize Muslim hostility to the Jewish imperious domination of the Arab Palestine . . and to, in general, "advertise" this "Jewish nature".
In one issue, this year, August 5th of The New York Times - "All the News That's Fit to Print" - has one article on a joint Israeli, Jordan, Palestinian effort to classify the Dead Sea as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world, but the photo which dominates the story, is of a "private beach" from which "three busloads of ultra-orthodox Jewish women" enter the Dead Sea, and later, "the turn of ultra-orthodox men", all to be finalized by bather, Rina Roth:
"God gave it ( the Dead Sea ) to us as a present. It is for future generations".
In the same issue of The Times is the story of Omar S. Thornton, an employee of a Budweiser franchise Hartford Distributors in Manchester, Connecticut, who shot ten men, killing eight of them and then himself, but the photo of the Budweiser warehouse shows only four men, all wearing yarmulkes, and two attired in their Orthodox Jewish Burial Society uniforms, for one Louie Felder. Not . . Necessary.
These same forces, now led by the Triumvirate of Netanyahu, Avigdor (and here, Joseph Isadore) Lieberman and Ehud Barak, are now on the move intent on subduing a peaceful Iran and a guiltless Lebanon.
- Additional Info -
Amy Goodman 8/5/10: "You also have Israeli citizenship?
EMILY HENOCHOWICZ: I do. They haven’t taken that, so... You know, my heart has been there, and now that I have been changed physically for my whole entire life, I have to go back there. It is part of me, you know? And those people--I must say that one reason that I’ve felt so strongly about supporting the Palestinians is that they’ve been so incredibly friendly and open to me and other internationals--just really warm people. And I really just--I want to give them my love, you know? So I have to go back." - DemocracyNow 8/5/10
- Pentagon Demands WikiLeaks Return Afghan War Documents -
Amy Goodman 8/6/10: "The Pentagon is demanding the whistleblower website WikiLeaks hand over its entire cache of classified military documents on the Afghan war and erase those it’s already released. WikiLeaks has said it still has 15,000 documents on top of the 76,000 it disclosed last month. Pentagon spokesperson Geoff Morrell called on WikiLeaks to 'do the right thing' and return the documents in full.
Geoff Morrell: 'WikiLeaks’s public disclosure last week of a large number of our documents has already threatened the safety of our troops, our allies and Afghan citizens who are working with us to help bring about peace and stability in that part of the world. Public disclosure of additional Defense Department classified information can only make the damage worse. The only acceptable course is for WikiLeaks to take steps immediately to return all versions of all of these documents to the US government and permanently delete them from its website, computers and records.'
Amy Goodman: In a response on its Twitter page, WikiLeaks commented, 'Obnoxious Pentagon spokesperson issues formal threat against WikiLeaks: Destroy everything, or else.'"
* The Public Responds -
- Activists Launch "US Boat to Gaza" Campaign -
Amy Goodman DemocracyNow: Hundreds of people boarded a New York boat on Thursday night to support a planned aid mission to the Gaza Strip. Organizers with the US Boat to Gaza campaign are hoping to raise at least $370,000 to join the new international aid flotilla planned for later this year. The boat is named The Audacity of Hope after President Obama’s bestselling book. Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights praised the new effort.
Michael Ratner: "Not enough aid is getting in for people to survive. The situation is desperate. And for years, all the countries in the world have done is talk about it, and no one has done anything about it. So with the flotillas that have gone so far, we’re beginning to see some change. And my view is that change, social change, progressive change, change in the blockade, comes when we have people actually engaging in action to break a blockade that is, in my view, utterly illegal."
Amy Goodman: ALSO SUPPORTING THE CAMPAIGN WAS EMILY HENOCHOWICZ, THE TWENTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD US ART STUDENT WHO LOST HER LEFT EYE IN MAY AFTER BEING SHOT IN THE FACE BY AN ISRAELI TEAR GAS CANISTER AT A PROTEST AGAINST ISRAEL’S DEADLY ATTACK ON THE FIRST FREE GAZA FLOTILLA.
Emily Henochowicz: "The main thing is that when you’re not there, it can seem so much more shocking to talk about freeing Palestine and freeing--you know, when you talk about the blockade on Gaza and trying to see Palestinians just as regular people, when you’re there, it just makes so much sense." - Goodman DemocracyNow 8/6/10
Can you imagine the Tim Russert-selected Gwen Ifill or her co-host Jeffrey Brown on PBS NewsHour, or her weekly Washington Week extending themselves to include this information?
- The Specifics -
To the Editor:
I agree with Efraim Karsh. The Arab countries have failed the Palestinians in every way. Their rhetoric about the rights of Palestinians has been uttered to serve their own causes rather than those of the Palestinians.
The Palestinians are alone and, with the exception of extremists among them, there is nothing they would like better than to have peace with Israel, have jobs, send their children to school, have easy access to hospitals, and have the ability to move around without checkpoints, walls and fear of eviction or house demolition.
There is an opportunity to agree to a solution now. For Mahmoud Abbas to get the support of his population for face-to-face negotiations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to demonstrate that he means what he says when HE TALKS ABOUT THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT’S WILLINGNESS TO NEGOTIATE.
He can do this by halting the settlements, easing the siege of Gaza and DISCONTINUING THE EVICTION OF PALESTINIANS FROM THEIR HOMES IN EAST JERUSALEM. This is his challenge.
Mr. Abbas’s challenge is to get the support of the whole Palestinian population and negotiate with a united front.
Being alone is not a sufficient motivator for the Palestinian people, who are suffering daily from life under occupation. It must be accompanied by confidence that Israel is SINCERE IN ITS DESIRE TO NEGOTIATE! - Hanan Watson New York N Y Times 8/3/10
- Julian Assange Answers the Opposition -
This records Mnsgr(Monseigneur). Julian Assange, the originator of WikiLeaks, responses 28/7/10 to BBC Newsnight's Kirsty Wark.
WARK: On the basis that you're saying that President Obama says he can learn from these leaks, is that what you mean?
ASSANGE: Well, I'm under the...simply that the private rhetoric within the White House that we were receiving is starting to match up to the public rhetoric. That was immediately before this leak, so we'll have to see what the sort of political fallout, but the US needs to understand that the world is watching to see is it going to investigate the crimes that are probably revealed by this leak, or is it going to investigate the messengers.
WARK: Why then offer to give financial help to the US officer Bradley Manning who's being held in Kuwait, accused of being involved in the leaks. Why offer to help? Does that not point the finger at him?
ASSANGE: No, not at all. We're in a situation where our technology means we don't KNOW who our sources are. We verify documents, we don't verify sources.
WARK: But, you're offering him financial help. Let’s just be clear. Is it financial help for LEGAL counsel?
ASSANGE: Yes. For legal counsel. He is alleged to have released to us a video exposing the murder of a number of people in Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists, from 2007. He is being held in Kuwait and he has been recently charged with that. So we are morally obligated to try and help him as an alleged source. However, the mechanism through which he is alleged to have been exposed was not WikiLeaks, it’s not our procedures, he is alleged to have spoken to an unfaithful journalist in the United States who ratted him out to the FBI.
WARK: How confident are you though about the veracity of some of the material and actually do you know what you are dealing with? Because the danger is that you are putting people's lives in danger by not actually understanding what's been leaked to you.
ASSANGE: No. The danger is that this war continues on in the way it has been occurring, we know, for sure, looking at that material, that around 20,000 people have been killed since 2004. There is a danger every day that that circumstance is not addressed.
WARK: But, some of the most damaging material that has come out is about the Pakistani intelligence apparatus working hand in hand with the Taliban to attack the Coalition. That comes from Afghan sources. They would say that wouldn’t they? Their history of enmity is clear?
ASSANGE: It is clear from looking at this material that there are informers who inform for a number of reasons. There are informers who inform for money. There are informers who inform for revenge on perfectly innocent people. And there are informers who inform for the truth.
WARK: Are you against the Coalition action in Afghanistan?
ASSANGE: I am against abuses that occur in war.
COMPLETE INTERVIEW
For those of us who may be hazy in our recollection, here is longtime CIA agent Ray McGovern reminding us of the origin of the atrocity in Fallujah.
GOPBIAS.org: "Incredible. THE most revered sheik in the Middle East, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the aged cleric confined to a wheelchair, was assassinated by an Israeli air strike March 22, 2004, and a short time later the 'so-called' atrocities occurred in Fallujah in which Blackwater employees who had acted in behalf of the CIA were captured, killed, drawn & quartered, burned and hung from a bridge. As agent McGovern reported, the sheik's killing was Act I, and the Fallujah killings were Act II!! All this was reported by agent McGovern, on 'World Have Your Say' on 6/29/10, its next to last program on NPR (OPB) radio!!! What we must be willing to admit is that our actions against Muslims, as we seek to 'support' Israel, our actions have consequences, for which young Americans give their blood and our Treasury makes it all possible."
If you saw the Sunday 8/1/10 ABC broadcasts, i.e. This Week [ from the "Newseum" in D.C. (a more appropriate designation would be the Propaganda Palace) ] and ABC World News Sunday, and CBS Evening News with Russ Mitchell (featuring Sharyl Atkinsson) you have seen why this website, now of twelve years duration, is titled Republican Bias in the Media- - - and why we've promoted Sidney Blumenthal's 2004 The Clinton Wars:
"The House Republicans had been growing bolder in their attacks throughout the spring and early summer of 1994. 'Whitewater and Health Care' read a memo sent to every Republican member by Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, urging them to tie the two together. Smith, a Christian Scientist whose first wife died after refusing medical treatment, was chairman of Gingrich's Theme Team. 'Democrats cannot get past Whitewater and to health care until they admit that full disclosure and congressional hearings lie in front of them,' he wrote in a letter to his colleagues.
'Whitewater is about health care,' Rush Limbaugh announced on April 19. Limbaugh's daily radio talk show was broadcast on 616 stations and had about 20 million listeners. He was the id ( The unbalanced chaos! ) of the angry white conservative males, the 'Leader of the Opposition', according to a cover story in The National Review. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who officiated at Limbaugh's wedding, said he taped Limbaugh's show and listened to it in his chambers. Limbaugh offered screeds against 'feminazis', minorities, and the Clintons, that were peppered with 'facts' which often turned out to be fictions. On his television show, he joked: 'Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?' And he held up a picture of twelve-year-old Chelsea Clinton. He declaimed about the 1948 Dixiecrat candidate for president who had run on a platform of racial segregation: 'If you want to know what America used to be--and a lot of people wish it still were--then you listen to Strom Thurmond.' When a caller remarked that blacks should have a greater voice in public issues, he shot back: 'They are 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?' About the oldest organization in America devoted to advancing the rights of blacks, he commented: 'The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.' And he kept returning to the subject of Chelsea Clinton: 'Chelsea Clinton must write a paper titled 'Why I Feel Guilty Being White.' '
The President was on the defensive. Whitewater hearings crowded the news, health care was beleaguered. On June 24 he vented his frustration, lashing out at Limbaugh as 'a constant unremitting drumbeat of negativism and cynicism. . .And there's no truth detector. You won't get on afterward and say what was true and what wasn't. . .We don't need a cultural war in this country.' But Limbaugh and Gingrich were ginning one up." - P 119-120 Sidney Blumenthal The Clinton Wars
- 8/2/10 Edit Update -
The OP-ED centered piece in the 8/2/10 issue of The New York Times, "The Palestinians, Alone", by one Efraim Karsh, comfortably ensconced in Kings' College London, A professor of Middle East and Mediterranean studies, has to be The most outrageous example of unmitigated pressure propaganda during this tenure of the junior Arthur Ochs Sulzberger. The last paragraph:
" THE SOONER THE PALESTINIANS RECOGNIZE THEIR CAUSE IS THEIRS ALONE, THE SOONER THEY ARE LIKELY TO MAKE PEACE WITH THE EXISTENCE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL AND TO UNDERSTAND THE NEED FOR A NEGOTIATED SETTLEMENT."
- Up To Date 7/30/10 Report -
BACKGROUND
To the Editor:
Re “The Afghan Struggle: A Secret Archive” (“The War Logs,” front page, July 26):
You write, “The material comes to light as Congress and the public grow increasingly skeptical of the deepening involvement in Afghanistan.”
What public are you talking about? I see few signs of a public even aware that this country is at war and still fewer news reports of protests or other public outcry. The almost complete unwillingness of the public to protest a questionable war -- without dishonoring our soldiers -- is as stunning as it is appalling. - Greg Weisbrod San Antonio N Y Times 7/26/10
To the Editor:
After reading recent news reports about the real situation in Afghanistan, I’m noticing an eerie similarity to Vietnam at the end of the war. A corrupt, isolated president who is despised by his people and survives only by being propped up by the United States military. The assurances that the national army will soon take over the fight, in spite of the fact that it is indifferent and unreliable, suffers from high rates of desertion and has been infiltrated by insurgents. The expanding strength of the insurgency and the inability of the United States to understand or successfully deal with the local culture.
It all sounds hauntingly familiar and appears doomed to end in the same sort of messy failure. - Michael Visser Toronto N Y Times 7/26/10
To the Editor:
Re “95% of the Trains Are on Time? Riders and Reality Beg to Differ” (front page, July 27):
With regard to train delays on New Jersey Transit, the issue is really one of infrastructure.
Not only are delays caused by many of the trains breaking down, but also Penn Station in Manhattan is not built for the number of commuters it serves. In the meantime, we read about Asian and European trains speeding along in comfort.
If our country had its priorities straight on where to spend our tax dollars -- education, poverty relief, infrastructure and so on -- instead of throwing piles of money into futile wars, corrupt foreign governments ( And THAT includes the State of Israel! ) and expensive defense projects, perhaps we’d enjoy a better quality of life. - Bernard Langs New Providence NJ 7/27/10
With sixty-six American military DEATHS by 7/30/10 July of 2010 (of no concern to the bellicose GOP, usually draft dodgers) July '10 becomes the deadliest for U. S. Military Personnel! And for the American charge Israel at the root of our involvement, might this be progress?
AP-Associated Press reports 7/30/10
"Arab League Supports Abbas on Talks
Arab nations on Thursday backed the Palestinian president’s refusal to immediately restart direct talks with Israel despite heavy pressure from the United States. The United States and the Europeans have been pushing a reluctant Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to restart negotiations with Israel, which broke off in 2008. While the Arab foreign ministers endorsed the idea of direct talks, Prime Minister Sheik Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani of Qatar said they left the timing up to Mr. Abbas, who has laid down several conditions. The Arab foreign ministers also sent a letter to President Obama explaining the Arab position on direct negotiations and their requirements for talks. ON THURSDAY, MR. ABBAS SAID HE WOULD REQUIRE WRITTEN ASSURANCES EITHER FROM THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, OR THE AMERICANS ON BORDERS AND SETTLEMENTS TO START THE DIRECT TALKS." - AP
- Past History - And Present -
Amy Goodman, first on Iraq...
"A new government audit has revealed the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of some $9 billion spent in reconstruction funds in Iraq between 2004 and 2007. In its report, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction accused the Pentagon of lax oversight and weak controls of money in the Development Fund for Iraq. The report stated, 'The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss.'" - Goodman DemocracyNow 7/28/10
"Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix testified before the British war inquiry on Tuesday and repeatedly criticized the Bush administration for using 'absurd' arguments to justify the invasion. Blix also described Britain as 'a prisoner on the American train.' Blix said weapons inspectors were convinced that Iraq had no nuclear infrastructure, but the United States refused to accept their findings.
Hans Blix: 'So, on that area at the IAEA, both I in 1997 and Mohamed ElBaradei in 1998, said that we did not think that they could resurrect a nuclear program within a very long time. But we could not guarantee that there were not minor items like prototypes of centrifuges or computer programs, etc. So we wanted to write off the nuclear program. But, of course, it was not for us, it was for the Security Council. And I have seen from some testimony here that I think the UK also wanted to close the nuclear dossier, but the US refused, which we noticed at the time.'" - Goodman DemocracyNow 7/28/10
"During his first official trip to Turkey, British Prime Minister David Cameron criticized Israel’s deadly attack on the Turkish Gaza-bound aid flotilla and accused Israel of turning Gaza into a prison camp.
David Cameron: 'Let me be clear: the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable. And I have told Prime Minister Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.'
The Israeli embassy in London criticized Cameron’s description of Gaza as a prison camp. In a statement, the embassy said, 'The people of Gaza are the prisoners of the terrorist organization Hamas.'" - Goodman DemocracyNow 7/28/10
- To defeat the righteous, responsible efforts of, essentially, The World, to end the sixty two year effort of the Zionists determined to remove the Palestinians from their homeland of many centuries, Israel's prominent defender, the chief Israeli propagandist "Charlie" Rose devoted the full hour of his 7/29/10 (rebroadcast 7/30/10) program to Israel's "Defense" Minister Ehud Barak and, it became clear, as the Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey has stated: "Israel is a lying machine.", and that includes Ehud Barak [As you might have suspected he's also an ex-prime minister, as Rose informed us, and also "the most decorated soldier in Israel's history (failing to add that it's only because the great Soldier-Statesman Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in November of 1995)].
As we revisit these interminable wars against Iraq and Afghanistan be reminded of the fact that both chaotic conflicts, steeped in American blood and treasure, were and are being waged in behalf of our current, now for some sixty odd years, puppet masters - The "State" of Israel, and its fifth column infiltraitors (originally Franco sympathizers in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War), AIPAC and its DARK representatives:
AIPAC (The American Israel "Public" Affairs Committee), Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (Do they have similar "Conferences" in Great Britain, France and Germany?), JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs), The Jewish Federations of North America, AJC (American Jewish Committee), ADL (Anti-Defamation League), Union for Reform Judaism, Orthodox Union, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, HADASSAH, NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women), American Jewish Congress, Women's League for Conservative Judaism, B'nai B'rith International, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, CEJL (Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life).
Further, these co-conspirators are doing everything in their dark power to undermine President Obama because they see evidence that he lacks respect for that criminal duo running Israel, Netanyahu & Lieberman! Frankly, more power to Mr. Obama and whoever will join him in protecting the rights of Palestinians, who, it should be remembered, sent no Jews to concentration camps!
- Bottom Line for 7/26/10 Edit Update - The "WikiLeaks" publication of ninety thousands of pages of Top Secret classified military documents, many identifying Black Ops clandestine killings of Taliban operatives and sympathizers, are reminiscent of the Pentagon Papers release by Daniel Ellsberg to expose the venality and futility of the war against Vietnam some four to five decades ago. Australian Julian Assange (This miraculous, courageous Aussie is in the category for a Nobel Peace Prize?) created WikiLeaks.
That war, begun by President Dwight Eisenhower when he canceled the all-Vietnam plebiscite after the defeat of French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 (in the same time frame Eisenhower approved the CIA overthrow of Premier Mossadegh of Iran in 1955) ...
... here is the up-to-date of that same Republican mindset some fifty five years later, still after Iranian oil, now in the service of the GOP minority whip Eric Cantor, now exposed by Amy Goodman's DemocracyNow 7/26/10:
"Former CIA director Michael Hayden (with a history in the Air Force, might he be a political colleague with the Navy's John McCain?) said Sunday the chances the US will attack Iran are increasing. Hayden made the comment in an interview on CNN.
Candy Crowley: 'If it should, is there any alternative to taking out their facilities?'
Michael Hayden: 'It seems inexorable, doesn’t it? We engage, they continue to move forward. [Inexorable? In other words, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Weapons Agreement, that all the major powers have signed, EXCEPT FOR THE NUCLEAR WEAPON-LADEN ISRAEL, are meaningless to Hayden, FORMER CIA Director (Israel's tentacles burrow deep).] We vote for sanctions, they continue to move forward. We try to deter, to dissuade, they continue to move forward. My personal view is that Iran, left to its own devices, will get itself to that step right below a nuclear weapon, that permanent breakout stage, so the needle isn’t quite in the red for the international community. And, frankly, that will be as destabilizing as their actually having a weapon.' Who is this jackass? I.E., Hayden is saying that if Iran is THINKING about nuclear weapons (which is logical with a bellicose Israel on its doorstep) it's the same thing as being ARMED by nuclear weapons!
Michael Hayden’s comments come as a group of Republican lawmakers are pushing for passage of a resolution that explicitly supports the right of Israel to use military force against Iran. Forty-seven House Republicans have already signed on to the legislation." - Goodman DemocracyNow 7/26/10
Tom Toles is even more precise in his exposure of the Republican Party...
... And they call themselves "The Party of Lincoln"? Here a welcome brief review of Bush's Brain, Karl Rove, entitled (Drum role, please!) "Courage and Consequence": "Rove, if one is to believe this memoir, has been improbably blessed in his professional life-- working for candidates, most notably George W. Bush, whose problem, if any, is an excess of honor, and against candidates who are near-deranged liars. There are repeated descriptions of how Bush’s 'jaw clenched' in noble resolve (two on consecutive pages) and of Rove, learning of some perfidy, feeling sick to his stomach (once while eating Chinese food). The hagiography would be more bearable if he spent less time attacking his opponents’ patriotism. Those who questioned the honesty of Bush’s claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were playing 'a disgraceful game' and impeding the war effort. When Katrina hit, Rove says, Bush was the one sincerely trying to help. Barack Obama, by contrast, is distinguished by his 'deceptions' and 'audacious hypocrisy.'" - courtesy of The New Yorker 4/5/10.
Remember "I'm the decider?" "W" will be back with us, and in November! Perhaps the public will remember his eight years in which he squandered a near trillion dollar surplus, and replaced it with a trillion dollar deficit. . . after stealing the 2000 presidential election from Vice President Albert Gore. AND, Bush left us with the worst financial collapse since THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Teaming with Matt Lauer of NBCUniversal Bush will be heralding his Decision Points, a book which will 'splain everything. We can't wait.
Elsewhere on GOPBias.org we make special mention of Sidney Blumenthal's 2004 publication of The Clinton Wars, an equal to James Bamford's 2004 blockbuster A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies.
And the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein - 1/8/09
AMY GOODMAN: We're also joined by Norman Finkelstein here in New York, leading critic of Israeli foreign policy, the author of several books, including The Holocaust Industry, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Beyond Chutzpah.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, the record is fairly clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Mr. Indyk is correct that Hamas had adhered to the ceasefire from June 17th until November 4th (2008). On November 4th, here Mr. Indyk, I think, goes awry. The record is clear: Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point--and now I'm quoting the official Israeli website--Hamas retaliated or, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
Now, as to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha'aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday's Ha'aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion, I think, are twofold. Number one, as Mr. Indyk I think correctly points out, to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman's language basically means Israel's capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word.
And the second main reason for the attack is because Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. That is to say, Hamas was signaling they had joined the international consensus, they had joined most of the international community, overwhelmingly the international community, in seeking a diplomatic settlement. And at that point, Israel was faced with what Israelis call a Palestinian peace offensive. And in order to defeat the peace offensive, they sought to dismantle Hamas.
Well, I think the problem of Mr. Indyk's presentation is he constantly reverses cause and effect. Just as he said a moment ago that it was Hamas which broke the ceasefire, although he well knows it was Israel that broke the ceasefire on November 4th, he now reverses cause and effect as to how the present impasse came about. In January 2006, as he writes in his book, Hamas came to power in a free and fair election. I think those are his words. He then claims on your program and he claims in his book that Hamas committed a "putsch"--his word--in order to eliminate the Palestinian Authority. And as I'm sure Mr. Indyk well knows and as was documented in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair by the writer David Rose, basing himself on internal US documents, it was the United States in cahoots with the Palestinian Authority and Israel which were attempting a putsch on Hamas, and Hamas preempted the putsch. That, too, is no longer debatable or no longer a controversial claim.
Now, Mr. Indyk says that Hamas is reluctant or unclear about whether it wants to rule in Gaza. The issue is not whether it wants to rule in Gaza; the issue is can it rule in Gaza if Israel maintains a blockade and prevents economic activity among the Palestinians. The blockade, incidentally, was implemented before Hamas came to power. The blockade doesn't even have anything to do with Hamas. The blockade came to--there were Americans who were sent over, in particular James Wolfensohn, to try to break the blockade after Israel redeployed its troops in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: The former World Bank president.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Correct. The problem all along has been that Israel doesn't want Gaza to develop, and Israel doesn't want to resolve diplomatically the conflict. Mr. Indyk well knows that both the leadership in Damascus and the leadership in the Gaza have repeatedly made statements they're willing to settle the conflict in the June 1967 border. The record is fairly clear. In fact, it's unambiguously clear.
Every year, the United Nations General Assembly votes on a resolution entitled "Peaceful Settlement of the Palestine Question." And every year the vote is the same: it's the whole world on one side; Israel, the United States and some South Sea atolls and Australia on the other side. The vote this past year was 164-to-7. Every year since 1989--in 1989, the vote was 151-to-3, the whole world on one side, the United States, Israel and the island state of Dominica on the other side. - DemocracyNow 1/8/09
More on Dr. Finkelstein:
- Norman Finkelstein, the subject of "American Radical", a documentary directed by David Ridgen and Nicholas Rossier -
“American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein” is a cautiously respectful documentary portrait of a political firebrand who presents himself as a beacon of moral truth in the murk of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A scholar, author and passionate advocate of the Palestinian cause, Mr. Finkelstein, 56, is a thorn in the side of the Israel lobby.
Early in the film, directed by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier, Mr. Finkelstein is shown at a 1982 rally in front of the Israeli consulate in New York carrying a poster urging “Israeli Nazis” to “stop the Holocaust in Lebanon,” referring to the Israeli invasion of that country. Until he was banned from traveling to Israel, he paid regular visits to Palestinian friends on the West Bank. He is a supporter of Hezbollah.
- Inspired by our 234th Independence Day (God Bless America!!!) we are reintroducing this incredible article (just ahead) by Peter Baker on the FBI under Director Louis J. Freeh, in hopes that within our audience there will be those who will pursue "The Rest of the Story" by way of Sidney Blumenthal's "The Clinton Wars", which explains in detail how this nation faltered, and the struggle required to Right the Ship of State.
- 7/14/10 Bastille Day Edit Update -
Additionally, this question: Is there no limit to the incessant "fund raising" for OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) that billionaires Arlene (Director) and Harold Schnitzer insert into their Public Broadcasting daily programming, programming which coincides with a collateral damaging, as it were, collateral reduction in timely "Hard News", conspicuously led by the absence of the threat to Middle East peace exemplified by Netanyahu & Lieberman's Israel?!?! In actuality, OPB under the Schnitzers has degenerated into OPPB, Oregon Public Propaganda Broadcasting, on a track developed in our age by Roger Ailes (who originated 'FOX' broadcasting) and his protege' Rush Limbaugh. Shameful.
What is often forgotten is that the notorious Schnitzer family of Oregon [which is responsible for the desecration of OPB (Oregon "Public" Broadcasting)] invited the war monger Benjamin Netanyahu to Portland, Oregon in July of 2002 to campaign for Republican Senator Gordon Smith (for whom the phrase "empty suit" was coined), i.e. Democrats for Smith, whose sub rosa supporters surely included Senator Ron Wyden. Netanyahu, whose Israeli acolyte Yigal Amir assassinated the genuine Soldier/Statesman Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in November of 1995, this Netanyahu, through the notorious Israeli political apparatus, became the Israeli prime minister 1996-99! And it is this Netanyahu who the Schnitzers invited to Oregon to campaign for Gordon Smith. In all of this there exists (moreso today) , a fanatic, frenetic thread of sordid madness, a true threat to world peace as Netanyahu has demonstrated in the Middle East, and a diminishing informed American public here at home, as the Schnitzers are demonstrating with Oregon Public Broadcasting. We should have known. Netanyahu and the Schnitzers are COUSINS!, and on 7/19/10 Amy Goodman and DemocracyNow informed our ignorance, again.
"A newly revealed tape shows Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once openly discussed his intent to attack the Palestinian government, undermine the Oslo peace accords, and manipulate the United States to ensure its approval. The 2001 recording shows Netanyahu meeting with Israeli SETTLERS in the occupied West Bank. Netanyahu was then out of government after serving his first stint in office. Apparently unaware he was being recorded, Netanyahu talks openly of a 'broad attack' on the Palestinian government, saying, 'The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne.'
"Netanyahu also outlines how he would undermine the 1993 Oslo accords, he said, which established the basis for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, by declaring any West Bank land that Israel wants to retain as 'military' and 'security zones.' Addressing potential US opposition to Israeli expansionism, Netanyahu says, 'I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. THEY WON’T GET IN THE WAY.'" - Amy Goodman DemocracyNow 7/19/10
The New York Times' weasel Adam Nagourney, noted for denigrating active, legitimate Democrats who place our country first, Nagourney is a flack always available to the unprincipled, and, so, in July of 2002 made himself available to the individual who undermined Albert Gore's 2000 campaign for president, a presidency that was stolen by a Supreme Court 5-4 ruling led by the Chief Justice Bill Rehnquist, who led a court majority clinched by the George Herbert Walker Bush placing Clarence Thomas on the Court.
It was the Senator Joseph Isadore Lieberman of Connecticut for whom Mr. Nagourney made available the N Y Times, and the Senator used the space thusly:
"In recent weeks, Mr. Lieberman has repeatedly expressed concerns that DEMOCRATIC EFFORTS TO SEIZE ON ALLEGATIONS OF CORPORATE ABUSE ON WALL STREET could undo efforts made by some members of the party (SENATOR LIEBERMAN) -- most of whom are affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council and refer to themselves as New Democrats -- to move the Democratic Party to the center, and rebut its image as antibusiness.
In the interview last night, Mr. Lieberman said that he had felt the same way in 2000, when Mr. Gore presented his campaign as an appeal on behalf of 'the people' against 'special interests.'"
Is this coy Lieberman indicating that his preference is the Republican Party. . and is he the United States Senator who, on national television during a Joint Session of the House and Senate, kissed George W. Bush on the cheek? The last paragraph of the Nagourney piece informs the Democrats: "If I don't get my way, I'm joining the Republicans"! No wonder Al Gore was so beside himself in the last month of the 2000 Campaign for the American Presidency. And think of the God-awful mess these Republicans have created in our beloved nation.
- Back to the present -
* * When Bill Clinton and Al Gore turned over the White House to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, what went with it was a $236 billion$ surplus. When Barack Obama and Joe Biden took back our White House, Bush & Cheney gave them a $1.3 TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT!!! And these Republicans are going to take back the Congress?!?!
AND - regarding jobs: In the last six months of the Bush/Cheney administration this nation lost 3.5 MILLION jobs, which carried over to the first six months of the Obama/Biden Administration, in which the country lost another 3.3 MILLION jobs, ending a year in which the economy bled SEVEN MILLION JOBS. And we're going to put the Republicans back in charge of the CONGRESS of these UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? WHOA!
Next Photo
Any thoughts? (Let Us Know, including letters referring to "Tax-Exempt Funds Aiding Jewish Settlements in Palestinian West Bank", which follow.)
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"F.B.I. Accused of Abusing Power in Clinton Inquiry
by Peter Baker
WASHINGTON--A former DIRECTOR of the Secret Service said Friday that the F.B.I. had engaged in an 'abuse of power' by trying to pressure him to 'give us the president' during the investigation of President Bill Clinton’s interactions with Monica Lewinsky a decade ago.
The official, Lewis C. Merletti, who headed the former president’s protective detail and later became the agency’s director, said in an interview that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had grilled him just days before Mr. Clinton left office in a last-ditch effort to prove that his Secret Service agents had covered up and even facilitated extramarital flings.
Mr. Merletti said that the F.B.I. alleged that he and Mr. Clinton had concocted this deal: in exchange for Mr. Merletti’s stonewalling questions about Ms. Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton would not only appoint him director of the Secret Service but would also provide him women for sexual encounters.
'They said to me, ‘You’re the last person who can give us the president, and you’re going to give him to us,’ ' Mr. Merletti recalled. He called it 'disgraceful' and said of the F.B.I., 'They became involved in a political game, and in the end they tarnished themselves beyond belief.'" - Baker (C) N Y Times 12/19/09
THE ITEM NEITHER INCLUDES THE NAME NOR ANY REFERENCE TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE FBI AT THAT TIME - THE ELUSIVE LOUIS J. FREEH, WHOSE ETHNICITY CHALLENGED HIS OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO THESE UNITED STATES, TO A DEGREE THAT IMPAIRED HIS BUREAU'S ABILITY TO IMPACT AND, POSSIBLY, PREVENT 9/11!
COMPLETE ARTICLE
... And a more recent dispatch 7/8/10 by the N Y Times' notable Steven Erlanger and one Stephen Castle addresses the Israeli threat to magnify the violence already ongoing generated by its sub rosa ( from the ancient use of the rose at meetings as a symbol of the sworn confidence of the participants ) drive to control the whole of the Middle East. The dateline is Strasbourg, France, and the subject is the European Union's new High Representative for Foreign Policy, the estimable Catherine Ashton. Ms. Ashton stated that "negotiation" was the only possible solution to Iran's nuclear program, and that talks could begin in the fall.
According to Erlanger and Castle, Ms. Ashton went on to state "Iran should feel secure and 'provide nuclear power, if that's what it so wishes, but to stick within the rules we've ALL signed up for in terms of nuclear proliferation (ALL that is, EXCEPT the Nuclear Weapon-Laden Israel)', and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure that Iran has no nuclear weapons program".
To "Charlie" Rose & David Sanger: Are you listening?
- 7/6/10 Edit Update -
- Backup for what follows -
To the Editor:
Nicholas D. Kristof acknowledges what has been obvious for decades: that the occupation of the Palestinian territories is an immoral degradation of the Palestinian people, not to mention an international illegality.
The great tragedy for our own country is that we participate by sending annual “aid” to Israel (a rich and prosperous country) OF MORE THAN $3 BILLION A YEAR. - William LeMoult Barrington R.I. N Y Times 7/1/10
To the Editor:
I would like to express my appreciation for Nicholas D. Kristof’s column on the wrongness of the Israeli occupation. The wall of silence and misrepresentation surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is slowly beginning to crack in this country, and new voices that disagree with the slogans of uncritical supporters of Israel are emerging among Jews.
Unfortunately, many still refuse to see that Israel now behaves as a COLONIAL POWER TRAMPLING ON THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, WHICH AROSE FROM THE ASHES OF WORLD WAR II. - Daniele Armaleo Durham N.C. N Y Times 7/1/10
- Karmel West Bank
"The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is widely acknowledged to be unsustainable and costly to the country’s image. But one more blunt truth must be acknowledged: the occupation is morally repugnant.
On one side of a barbed-wire fence here in the southern Hebron hills is the Bedouin village of Umm al-Kheir, where Palestinians live in ramshackle tents and huts. They aren’t allowed to connect to the electrical grid, and Israel won’t permit them to build homes, barns for their animals or even toilets. When the villagers build permanent structures, the Israeli authorities come and demolish them, according to villagers and Israeli human rights organizations.
On the other side of the barbed wire is the Jewish settlement of Karmel, a lovely green oasis that looks like an American suburb. It has lush gardens, kids riding bikes and air-conditioned homes. It also has a gleaming, electrified poultry barn that it runs as a business.
Elad Orian, an Israeli human rights activist, nodded toward the poultry barn and noted: 'Those chickens get more electricity and water than all the Palestinians around here.'
It’s fair to acknowledge that there are double standards in the Middle East, with particular scrutiny on Israeli abuses. After all, the biggest theft of Arab land in the Middle East has nothing to do with Palestinians: It is Morocco’s robbery of the resource-rich Western Sahara from the people who live there.
None of that changes the ugly truth that our ally, Israel, is using American military support to maintain an occupation that is both oppressive and unjust. Israel has eased checkpoints this year -- a real improvement in quality of life -- but the system is intrinsically malignant.
B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization that I’ve long admired, took me to the southern Hebron hills to see the particularly serious inequities Palestinians face here. Apparently because it covets this area for settlement expansion, Israel has concocted a series of feeble excuses to drive out Palestinians from villages here or make their lives so wretched that they leave on their own.
'It’s an ongoing attempt by the authorities to push people out,' said Sarit Michaeli, a B’Tselem spokeswoman.
In the village of Tuba, some Palestinian farmers live in caves off the grid because permanent structures are destroyed for want of building permits that are never granted. The farmers seethe as they struggle to collect rainwater while a nearby settlement, Maon, luxuriates in water piped in by the Israeli authorities.
'They plant trees and gardens and have plenty of water,' complained Ibrahim Jundiya, who raises sheep and camels in Tuba. 'And we don’t even have enough to drink. Even though we were here before them.'
Mr. Jundiya said that when rainwater runs out, his family must buy tankers of water at a price of $11 per cubic meter. That’s at least four times what many Israelis and settlers pay.
Violent clashes with Israeli settlers add to the burden. In Tuba, Palestinian children walking to elementary school have sometimes been attacked by Israeli settlers. To protect the children, foreign volunteers from Christian Peacemaker Teams and Operation Dove began escorting the children in the 2004-05 school year -- and then settlers beat the volunteers with chains and clubs, according to human rights reports and a news account from the time.
Attacks on foreign volunteers get more attention than attacks on Palestinians, so the Israeli Army then began to escort the Palestinian children of Tuba to and from elementary school. But the soldiers don’t always show up, the children say, and then the kids take an hour and a half roundabout path to school to avoid going near the settlers.
For their part, settlers complain about violence by Palestinians, and it’s true that there were several incidents in this area between 1998 and 2002 in which settlers were killed. Partly because of rock-throwing clashes between Arabs and Israelis, the Israeli Army often keeps Palestinians well away from Israeli settlements -- even if Palestinian farmers then cannot farm their own land.
Meanwhile, the settlements continue to grow, seemingly inexorably -- and that may be the most odious aspect of the occupation.
In other respects, some progress is evident. Mr. Orian’s Israeli aid group -- Community, Energy and Technology in the Middle East -- has installed windmills and solar panels to provide a bit of electricity for Palestinians kept off the grid. And attacks from settlers have dropped significantly, in part because B’Tselem has equipped many Palestinian families with video cameras to document and deter assaults.
Still, a pregnant 19-year-old Palestinian woman in the village of At-Tuwani was hospitalized this month after an attack by settlers.
Israel has a point when it argues that relinquishing the West Bank would raise real security concerns. But we must not lose sight of the most basic fact about the occupation: It’s wrong." - Nicholas Kristof OP ED N Y Times 7/1/10
- A prime example of the treacherous manner in which present-day Israel conducts itself has been experienced by Turkey, which had been instrumental ensuring Israel's inclusion in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an inclusion long sought, unsuccessfully, by Israel. Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan has called the Jewish State "a lying machine" after experiencing the singling out of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara and the deaths of nine of its citizens from Israeli commandos, in the recent effort to provide the virtually imprisoned Gazans with the necessities of life. Note this photo.
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Norman Finkelstein Gaza Massacre Berkeley, CA 13 May 2010, courtesy of Alternative Radio
"Norman Finkelstein received his Ph.D. from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict. He is currently an independent scholar. He is the author of many books including 'Beyond Chutzpah,' 'The Holocaust Industry,' and 'This Time We Went Too Far: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion.' He is the subject of the documentary 'American Radical.'
Dr. Finkelstein: One of the reasons new opportunities have opened up for reaching into the broad public is what happened in Gaza in 2008-2009. To some extent it’s a kind of peculiarity. Why are we talking even about Gaza a year and a half later? As everybody in this room knows, wars come and go with great frequency in that part of the world, death and destruction occur with great regularity in that part of the world. So why, nearly a year and a half later, are people still talking about Gaza? It’s a kind of a curiosity. It’s the ghost that Israel, try as it does to bury, it can’t succeed. It’s the shadow that Israel, try as it does to evade, it’s unsuccessful. So one of the questions we might want to ponder this evening is, why won’t Gaza go away?
Before looking at those 22 days from December 27 to January 18, those 22 days that Amnesty International called 'the 22 days of death and destruction,' I want to briefly recall what led up to the Israeli assault. It’s always arbitrary where you begin a story. I’ll start in January 2006, when there were elections held in the occupied Palestinian territories and, surprisingly, unpredictably, Hamas, the Islamic movement, won. Former President Jimmy Carter, one of the international observers, said the elections were 'completely honest and fair.' Israel and the United States reacted to those 'completely honest and fair elections' by imposing an economic blockade on Gaza.
In June 2007, the United States, Israel, and some elements among the Palestinian Authority attempted a coup against a legally elected government. In the United States that’s called 'democracy promotion.' Hamas wasn’t too keen on this latest American exercise in 'democracy promotion.' It sent the Palestinian elements packing to the West Bank and it took full control over Gaza. Israel and the United States reacted by escalating, tightening the blockade of Gaza, a blockade which Amnesty International now called 'a flagrant violation of international law,' a blockade which the Goldstone Mission, to which I’ll return, the Goldstone Mission later said that it was 'a possible crime against humanity.'
During these months, the former U.N High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, journeyed to Gaza, and she said, Gaza’s 'whole civilization has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating.'"
COMPLETE ADDRESS
- Amy Goodman DemocracyNow brings us up-to-date 7/6/10 on Netanyahu and his thug "Foreign Minister" Lieberman:
- Israel Partially Eases Gaza Blockade Ahead of White House Meeting -
The Israeli government has partially eased the blockade on Gaza just ahead of today’s visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House to meet with President Obama. Billed as a "kiss-and-make-up" session, the meeting marks the first time the leaders have met since Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship in May. Under Israel’s new rules, most consumer goods will now be allowed into Gaza but construction equipment is still barred. In addition, the sea blockade will continue and Palestinians will still be barred from exporting anything from Gaza.
UN Mideast Envoy Robert Serry praised the slight easing of the blockade.
Robert Serry: "Well of course this is something we have been looking forward to for a very long time. I don’t know how many times I’ve been telling the security council that the situation in Gaza is UNSUSTAINABLE and that the blockade was UNACCEPTABLE and also politically wrong-headed. So the decision now by the Israeli government to substantially ease the closure regime can only be welcomed by me. Of course we have to see it also happen on the ground."
Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said the people of Gaza will remain under siege until the blockade is completely ended.
Sami Abu Zuhri: "We demand that Obama put real pressure on Netanyahu to lift the siege on Gaza, and to stop demanding simply for allowing more goods into Gaza because this (allowing for toys) does not change anything, but rather cements the policy of the siege."
- B’Tselem: Jewish Settlements Control 42 Percent of West Bank Land -
Part of President Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting will focus on Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. A new report from the Israeli group B’Tselem says Jewish settlements now control more than 42 percent of the West Bank. The group said the actual buildings of the settlements cover just 1 percent of the West Bank’s land area, but their jurisdiction and regional councils extends to more than 42 percent of the area. Much of the land controlled by the settlements was seized (violently in most cases) from Palestinians.
To the Editor:
Re “Tax-Exempt Funds Aiding Settlements in West Bank” (front page, July 6):
I compliment you for reporting on this scandalous use of American taxpayers’ funds to support illegal and ill-conceived activities in the occupied territories of the West Bank. You clearly point out how the actions of groups of naïve American evangelists are obstructing any eventual peace process for the Middle East.
And while the total of $200 million in tax-deductible funds spent over the last decade is shocking, it pales when compared with the more than $30 billion in economic and military aid that the United States government has given to Israel over the last decade. This is much more than we have given the whole impoverished continent of Africa and is by far the largest single destination of official foreign aid. This aid should be stopped immediately. - Richard Huber New York 7/6/10
To the Editor:
Re “Nudge on Arms Further Divides U.S. and Israel” (Diplomatic Memo, front page, July 4):
We give and give to the Israelis, and for what? We ask them not to build settlements on Palestinian land, and they do it anyway. We ask them to sign on to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and they refuse. Why do we continue to waste time and money?
Their actions cause many of the troubles that we encounter around the world, and the Israelis don’t lift a finger to help us. What kind of an ally is that? - Mike Kelly Huntington Beach Cal 7/4/10
To the Editor:
Nicolas D. Kristof is right. The Gaza blockade should be lifted. Collective punishment is illegal and immoral. It is no different than if the Arab world joined in a blockade to starve Israelis to force an end to the 43-year-old occupation.
That would be monstrous, just like the Gaza blockade -- and it wouldn’t work. But it would be no different from what Israel is doing. - M J Rosenberg Chevy Chase Md 7/4/10
The writer is a senior fellow at Media Matters Action Network.
"An investigation by the New York Times has found that the U.S. Treasury Department is helping sustain Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank by granting tax breaks on donations to support them. Over the past decade, at least 40 American non-profit groups have distributed more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts to help expand the settlements. The Times reports the tax-deductible gifts goes mostly to schools, synagogues and recreation centers but it has also paid for guard dogs, bulletproof vests and rifle scopes for settlers." - Goodman DemocracyNow 7/6/10
- And the N Y Times' Rutenberg, Bronner, Kershner etc., MAJOR reporting ( !while Netanyahu is in OUR White House! ) - "Tax-Exempt Funds Aiding Jewish Settlements in West Bank
HAR BRACHA, West Bank - Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines.
Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ’s second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers “to labor side by side with the people of Israel” and “to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah.”
But during their visit in February the volunteers found themselves in the middle of the fight for land that defines daily life here. When the evangelicals headed into the vineyards, they were pelted with rocks by Palestinians who say the settlers have planted creeping grape vines on their (THE PALESTINIANS'!) land to claim it as their own. Two volunteers were hurt. In the ensuing scuffle, a settler guard shot a 17-year-old Palestinian shepherd in the leg.
“These people are filled with ideas that this is the Promised Land and their duty is to help the Jews,” said Izdat Said Qadoos of the neighboring Palestinian village. “It is not the Promised Land. It is our land.”
HaYovel is one of many groups in the United States using tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories -- effectively obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state, widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace.
The result is a surprising juxtaposition: As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them.
AN UNYIELDING STANCE
Deep inside the West Bank, in the northern region called Samaria, or Shomron, lie 30 or so settlements and unauthorized outposts, most considered sure candidates for evacuation in any deal for a Palestinian state. In terms of donations, they do not raise anywhere near the sums produced for Jerusalem or close-in settlements. But in many ways they worry security officials and the Palestinians the most, because they are so unyielding.
In November, after the Netanyahu government announced the settlement freeze, Shomron leaders invited reporters to watch them SHRED THE ORDERS.
David Ha’Ivri, the public liaison for the local government, the Shomron Regional Council, has positioned himself as a fierce advocate. As a leader of an American-based nonprofit, he also brings a militant legacy to the charitable enterprise.
Mr. Ha’Ivri, formerly David Axelrod, was born in Far Rockaway, Queens, and was a student of the virulently anti-Arab Rabbi Meir David Kahane and a top lieutenant and brother-in-law to the rabbi’s son, Binyamin Kahane. Both Kahanes, who were assassinated 10 years apart, ran organizations banned in Israel for instigating, if not participating in, attacks against Arabs. The United States Treasury Department later added both groups, Kach and Kahane Chai, to its terrorism watch list.
As recently as four years ago, Mr. Ha’Ivri was involved in running The Way of the Torah, a Kahanist newsletter designated as a terrorist organization in the United States. He has had several run-ins with the authorities in Israel over the last two decades, including AN ARREST FOR CELEBRATING THE ASSASSINATION OF PRIME MINISTER YITZHAK RABIN IN A TELEVISION INTERVIEW AND A SIX-MONTH JAIL TERM IN CONNECTION WITH THE DESECRATION OF A MOSQUE.
COMPLETE ARTICLE
- 6/30/10 Edit -
"Charlie" Rose, on the weekend of the G-20 meeting in Canada, corralled (much to his chagrin, as it turned out) the firm and informed, and plain-spoken, Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey, and attempted to intimidate him with direct questions regarding Turkey's assessment of the record of the last several years, certainly including the Netanyahu/Lieberman regime, the bloody record of Israel toward the Palestinian population of Gaza...
... this, in the same time frame as the beginning of the Elena Kagan hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm her presidential appointment as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, to replace the GREAT ONE, the retiring John Paul Stevens. The subject of Ms. Kagan's admiration for an Israeli Justice, Aharon Barak, came up, to which Ms. Kagan, who is Jewish, stated "Israel is a strong 'Rule of Law' Nation". Connectedly, Page 2 of the "Inside The Times" of the 6/30/10 N Y Times, this item: "In remarks that could further strain peace efforts, Israel's Foreign Minister said that there was no chance that a Palestinian State would be established in the next two years."
This Avigdor Lieberman, the "Foreign Minister", is nothing more than a thug with a title, a "bar bouncer", somewhat akin to our divorced Orthodox Joseph Isadore Lieberman, both ill-suited to provide a JUST solution to ending the sixty-two year long bloody abuse of Palestinians, ON LANDS THEY HAVE INHABITED FOR CENTURIES! And "Israel is a strong 'Rule of Law' nation"? The actual record speaks otherwise.
GOPBIAS.org should soon have the transcript of the great Norman Finkelstein's address 5/12-13/10 at the University of California-Santa Cruz to the Middle Eastern Children's Alliance - which address is in direct conflict with Ms. Kagan's "Rule of Law" appellation...
In the Meantime, a spellbinder by our reliable Ray McGovern:
Incredible. THE most revered sheik in the Middle East, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the aged cleric confined to a wheelchair, was assassinated by an Israeli air strike March 22, 2004, and a short time later the atrocities occurred in Fallujah in which Blackwater employees acting in behalf of the CIA were captured, killed, drawn & quartered, burned and hung from a bridge. As agent McGovern reported the sheik's killing was Act I, and the Fallujah killings were Act II!! All this was reported by agent McGovern, on "World Have Your Say" on 6/29/10, the next to last program on NPR (OPB) radio!!! What we must be willing to admit is that our actions against Muslims, as we seek to "support" Israel, our actions have consequences, for which young Americans give their blood and our Treasury makes it all possible.
...Mr. Rose's ham-handed interrogation of the Prime Minister was reminiscent of the tone and substance of his cross-examination of the President of Syria Bashar Al-Assad 5/27/10, equally non-productive for Mr. Rose's purposes. Mr. Rose apparently sees himself as Ambassador-At-Large, and, in that he also advertises that he's the fourth Emanuel brother and, therefore, special, has trouble realizing that he's viewed in the Middle East as an extension of that suspect AIPAC-ADL forum, the Israel of the West, so to speak, which has, for sixty-two years, been creating the bulk of bloody conflict in this world of ours.
- The Tide May Be Turning -
"American Jews Who Reject Zionism Say Events Aid Cause"
- ON RELIGION by Samuel G. Freedman
One day nearly 20 years ago, Stephen Naman was preparing to help the rabbi of his Reform Jewish temple in South Carolina move the congregation into a new building. Mr. Naman had just one request: Could the rabbi stop placing the flag of Israel on the altar?
“We don’t go to synagogue to pray to a flag,” Mr. Naman, 63, recalled having said in a recent telephone interview.
That rabbi acceded to the request. So, after being transferred to North Carolina and joining a temple there six or seven years later, Mr. Naman asked its rabbi to remove the Israeli flag. This time, the reaction was more predictable.
“The rabbi said that would be terrible,” recounted Mr. Naman, a retired paper company executive who now lives outside Jacksonville, Fla., “and that he’d be embarrassed to be rabbi of such a congregation.”
As shocking as Mr. Naman’s insistence on taking Israel out of Judaism may seem, it actually adheres to a consistent strain within Jewish debate. Whether one calls it anti-Zionism or non-Zionism -- and all these terms are contested and loaded -- the effort to separate the Jewish state from Jewish identity has centuries-old roots.
For the past 68 years, that stance has been the official platform of the group Mr. Naman serves as president of, the American Council for Judaism. And while the establishment of Israel and its centrality to American Jews consigned the council to irrelevancy for decades, the intense criticism of Israel now growing among a number of American Jews has made Mr. Naman’s group look significant, or even prophetic.
It is not that members are flocking to the council. The group’s mailing list is only in the low thousands, and its Web site received a modest 10,000 unique visitors in the last year. Its budget is a mere $55,000. As Mr. Naman acknowledges, the council’s history of opposition to Zionism renders it “radioactive” for even liberal American Jewish groups, like J Street and Peace Now.
Yet the arguments that the council has consistently levied against Zionism and Israel have shot back into prominence over the last decade, with the collapse of the Oslo peace process, Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, and most recently the fatal attack on a flotilla seeking to breach the naval blockade of the Hamas regime. One need not agree with any of the council’s positions to admit that, for a certain faction of American Jews, they have come back into style.
“My sense is that they believe that events are proving they were right all along,” Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University and author of the seminal book “American Judaism,” said in a telephone interview. “Everything they prophesied -- dual loyalty, nationalism being evil -- has come to pass.”
“I would be surprised if vast numbers of people moved over to the A.C.J. as an organization because of its reputation,” he continued. “But it’s certainly the case that if the Holocaust underscored the problems of Jewish life in the diaspora, recent years have highlighted the point that Zionism is no panacea.”
- AN EFFORT TO SEPARATE THE JEWISH STATE FROM JEWISH IDENTITY HAS CENTURIES-OLD ROOTS.
Mr. Naman grew up in a Texas family deeply involved in the council, and as a result he has lived through the swings of the political pendulum.
“We were ostracized and maligned,” he said. “But we felt back then, and we feel now, that our positions are credible. They’ve been justified and substantiated by what has occurred.”
On that matter, to put it mildly, there is disagreement. If American Zionists who oppose the West Bank occupation face withering criticism from the conservative part of American Jewry, which has tended to dominate the major communal and lobbying groups, then the unapologetic foes of Zionism in the council are met with apoplexy and indignation.
The rejection of Zion, though, goes back to the Torah itself, with its accounts of the Hebrews’ rebelling against Moses on the journey toward the Promised Land and pleading to return to Egypt. Until Theodore Herzl created the modern Zionist movement early in the 20th century, THE BIBLICAL INJUNCTION TO RETURN TO ISRAEL WAS WIDELY UNDERSTOOD AS A THEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT RATHER THAN A PRAGMATIC INSTRUCTION.
Most Orthodox Jewish leaders before the Holocaust rejected Zionism, saying the exile was a divine punishment and Israel could be restored only in the messianic age. The Reform movement maintained that Judaism is a religion, not a nationality.
“This country is our Palestine,” a Reform rabbi in Charleston, S.C., put it in 1841, “this city our Jerusalem, this house of God our temple.” The Reform movement’s 1885 platform dismissed a “return to Palestine” as a relic akin to animal sacrifice.
Only when the Reform leadership, on the eve of World War II, reversed course did its anti-Zionist faction break away, ultimately forming the council in 1942. Its discourse was simultaneously idealistic and contemptuous -- A PROPOSED CURRICULUM IN 1952 DESCRIBED ZIONISM AS RACIST, SELF-SEGREGATED AND NON-AMERICAN -- and for a time it boasted leaders like Lessing J. Rosenwald, heir to the Sears fortune, and a membership of 14,000.
IF THE 1967 AND 1973 WARS SHOVED THE COUNCIL TOWARD OBSOLESCENCE, THEN ISRAEL’S CONTROVERSIAL WARS SINCE 2000 HAVE BROUGHT IT BACK FROM THE GRAVE. One hears echoes of its positions in Tony Judt, the historian who has called for a binational state in Palestine; in Tony Kushner, whose screenplay for the film “Munich” portrayed an Israeli’s true home as America; in Michael Chabon, whose novel “The Yiddish Policeman’s Union” parodied Zionism; and in the emerging disengagement from Israel on the part of young, non-Orthodox Jews, as Peter Beinart noted recently in an essay in The New York Review of Books.
What is numerically true, thus not open to debate, is that only a tiny proportion of American Jews have ever rejected exile here to emigrate to Israel.
“I think we represent a silent majority,” said Allan C. Brownfeld, a longtime member of the council and editor of its magazines, Issues and Special Interest Report. “We are Americans by nationality and Jews by religion. And while we wish Israel well, we don’t view it as our homeland.”
- Monday 6/28/10 Edit -
Latest from EndtheOccupation.org
* 6/22/10 "We Can Stop These Outrageous Congressional Resolutions - Take Action: Oppose Congressional Resolutions Supporting Gaza Blockade -
Predictably, Israel's attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla has generated resolutions in Congress in support of Israel's illegal blockade of the occupied Palestinian Gaza Strip and in opposition to international civil society efforts to break the blockade.
In the House, Rep. Peter King (NY-3) introduced H.R.5501, the America Stands with Israel Act, which among other outrageous claims 'supports Israel's naval blockade (IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS) of Gaza' and calls on the United States to 'oppose any United Nations investigation into the flotilla incident.' As of June 22, this resolution had 79 co-sponsors.
In the Senate, Sen. John Cornyn (TX) introduced S.Res.548, which libelously terms the Gaza Freedom Flotilla a 'violent attack and provocation by extremists' and condemns 'any future such attempts to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza'. As of June 22, this resolution had 14 co-sponsors." And in the Senate you have the glib "Democrat" Ron Wyden who, for years, supported the notoriously shallow, and compromised, Republican Gordon Smith!
Latest from PalSolidarity.org
* 6/24/10 "Hebron visit by Knesset member provokes settler venom -
A member of the left-wing Knesset party visited Tel Rumeida settlement in Hebron Wednesday, generating a large crowd as walked he through the city. He came to speak and was given a tour of the settlements. The group was surrounded by around 10 police, 40 border police, and also at least two vans of secret police (according to Palestinian bystanders these are the same group who shot dead several people on board the Gaza flotilla last month). There were also representatives of Breaking the Silence, and three or four coach-loads of Zionists following the press and party member into the Tel Rumeida settlement. The heavy police presence suggested concern that (the Jewish) "settlers" would attack the visitors.
Local Palestinians and internationals waited at the bottom of the street as he entered the settlement as well as coaches and the soldiers stationed at the checkpoint there. When the tour/demonstration made their way back down the road towards the coaches, Zionists approached the internationals and began shouting at them. One man was accused of drinking Jewish blood because he was drinking a can of Arabic coke. The settlers shouted ‘This is not Palestine, it is not Arab land and you’d better get used to it!’.
One woman screamed into the face of an international that foreign money had gone to buy the Palestinians shopping malls and that Jews could not even build on a tiny scrap of land. The deluded and venomous nature of what they were saying, caused several internationals to break down in tears. The presence of the police and army to step in and defend the Israeli visitors, and their accommodating attitude towards the ‘peaceful protest’ was also a source of distress. Palestinians are accustomed to being shot at and tear gassed in response to their own peaceful demonstrations."
What follows is in response to former John Donald Imus Jr. regular, southerner Jon Meacham, Phi Beta Kappa, but like the brilliant Bill Rehnquist (who stole the 2000 American presidency from Al Gore for George W. Bush, the hapless figure who brought on this current disaster, the worst since the 1930's, and, incredibly, now blamed on Barack Obama) Meacham, like Rehnquist, has reverted to his personal demons, and on his 6/25/10 NPR "Need To Know" telecast (which again, incredibly, has superseded what was the finest, most informative 'NEED TO KNOW' hour on television, NPR's BILL MOYERS JOURNAL, Meacham, who the Washington Post fired because he drove their Newsweek magazine into insolvency) Meacham 6/25/10 with his "Need To Know" program copied the "Charlie" Rose/ N Y Times David Sanger 6/20/10 telecast which reiterated the constant Israeli theme that it is Iran which poses the constant threat to the Middle East, not the Nuclear Weapon-Laden, avaricious Israel. UNBELIEVABLE!
Amy Goodman is in Canada for the G-8, and then comes the G-20. . . NBC Universal is apparently spending next week on the World Cup in South Africa and/or the chaos in the Gulf. . . July 1st is Canada Day. . . and a week from tomorrow (6/27/10) is our 234th Independence Day - The kind of timing that Netanyahu/Lieberman's Israel selects for murderous rampage. Any thoughts? [ Let us know. ]
DILEMMA
- "Help Iran's Reformers?
To the Editor:
Reuel Marc Gerecht correctly assesses the winds of change in the Green movement in Iran ('Iran’s Revolution: Year 2,' Op-Ed, June 15), but he is wrong about the ability of the United States to effectively aid that movement.
Sadly, decades of United States interference in Iranian affairs have guaranteed that any official American support of an Iranian reform movement will poison that movement with the plausible accusation of another round of American desire to dominate Iran.
This happened in 1953 with the C.I.A.-engineered overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, in the 1980s with the tilt toward Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war, and today in the United States-led move to curtail Iran’s nuclear energy program.
The reformers have said clearly and repeatedly that they don’t want our 'help.' So why would we force it upon them -- only to guarantee their failure through invidious association with us?
Iranians are not children. Political evolution in the Islamic Republic is the only way to guarantee permanent reform. - William Beeman London N Y Times 6/15/10
The writer, professor and chairman of the department of anthropology at the University of Minnesota, is the author of “The ‘Great Satan’ vs. the ‘Mad Mullahs’: How the United States and Iran Demonize Each Other.”
Dr. Beeman could have cited Daniel Pipes' arrangement with the notorious Steven J. Rosen, an article in The Jerusalem Post that has been a mainstay of GOPBIAS.org for several years.
- Brinksmanship -
"Timing of Israel's Advancement of Building Plans in East Jerusalem Is Questioned -
Jerusalem by Isabel Kershner - Jerusalem’s city hall advanced rezoning and development plans on Monday for a hotly contested area of ( Arab ) East Jerusalem, another example of an awkwardly timed, seemingly bureaucratic Israeli maneuver that could upset fragile peace efforts.
The preliminary approval for the plans -- including the demolition of more than 20 Palestinian homes to create an archaeological park, along with a new residential and commercial tourist center -- came a day after Israel won unusual praise from Washington for easing the blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, and amid other signs of progress. A mayoral spokesman said the planning decisions were independent of other considerations.
Similarly, in March, as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was on a visit here meant to underscore American support for Israel, the Interior Ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in ( Arab ) East Jerusalem. The Obama administration was infuriated. Mr. Netanyahu said he had been SURPRISED by the move; the interior minister, Eli Yishai, leader of the right-wing Shas Party, insisted that the timing of the announcement was ACCIDENTAL.
THE NEW DEVELOPMENT PLANS ARE BEING PRESSED BY JERUSALEM’S MAYOR, NIR BARKAT, a conservative-leaning ENTREPRENEUR. They focus on Silwan, a volatile neighborhood highly valued by both Israel and the Palestinians for its history and location just outside the Old City wall. PREDOMINANTLY PALESTINIAN, it includes an ancient site believed by many to contain the ruins of the City of David and is close to AL AKSA MOSQUE, which is revered by Muslims.
Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, then annexed it, but that territorial claim HAS NOT BEEN recognized internationally.
Palestinians say the development plans are designed to strengthen Israel’s hold over East Jerusalem, which they claim as capital for a future state.
After the local planning committee gave preliminary approval on Monday, the plans were to be opened up for public appeal. It will need to pass through two more stages at the local level before approval would be sought from the district committee.
One plan deals with the Bustan area of Silwan. Long zoned as parkland, it now contains 88 structures (Palestinian!) that Israel says were built without permits. The plan calls for 22 of them to be razed to make way for a park, and for the other 66 to become part of a new residential and commercial tourist center. THE PALESTINIAN RESIDENTS HAVE REJECTED THE PLAN.
Another plan would allow building of up to four stories in the main residential area of Silwan, permitting the creation of 1,000 new housing units, city officials said. Only two stories had been permitted, though more than half the structures violate the building code. The changes would also legalize four stories of an illegally built seven-story apartment block in central Silwan that is occupied by ISRAELI "SETTLERS".
Fakhri Abu Diab, a leader of the Bustan residents’ committee whose home is scheduled for demolition, said the city had 'become the enemy of the people.'
'They want to make a garden not by my house, but instead of my house,' he said, adding that his family was 'living in fear.' Mr. Abu Diab said his house was more than 20 years old, that he paid taxes, and that his efforts to legalize the house had failed.
STEPHAN MILLER, A FOREIGN AFFAIRS AIDE (TO THE NOTORIOUS AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN, THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS) and spokesman for Mr. Barkat, said the mayor’s position was that either 'we can remain with our heads in the sand like ostriches' and watch the quality of life of the residents worsen, or bring 'proper (?) planning' to communities that were 'forgotten.'
In March, Mr. Netanyahu asked Mr. Barkat to delay the plan for Bustan in order to allow more time to reach an understanding with residents, and Mr. Barkat agreed.
Asked whether any consideration had been given to the timing of Monday’s vote, given that indirect, American-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks started in May, and Mr. Netanyahu plans to meet with President Obama in Washington on July 6, Mr. Miller said “ABSOLUTELY NOT.” - Kershner N Y Times 6/22/10
"Israeli Official Assails Plans for Demolition of Arab Homes
By DINA KRAFT TEL AVIV -- A top Israeli official scolded local officials on Tuesday for giving preliminary approval to a plan calling for the demolition of 22 Palestinian homes, in an echo of past stumbles over Jewish development in ( Arab ) East Jerusalem.
The official, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, was on a visit to Washington, where tensions have run high over Jewish housing in East Jerusalem. A member of the Labor Party, the only centrist element in a right-leaning government, Mr. Barak seemed annoyed by the move, which threatened to upset the indirect, American-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
In a statement released by his office, Mr. Barak said that the municipal authorities were 'not demonstrating any common sense or any sense of timing -- and it is not the first time.'
The Israeli government is still repairing damage done to its relations with the United States when the Interior Ministry announced, during a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in March, approval for the building of over 1,000 homes for Jews in ( Arab ) East Jerusalem.
In Washington on Tuesday, P. J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, expressed concern that the proposed plan could compromise the new peace negotiations. 'This is expressly the kind of step that we think undermines trust that is fundamental to making progress in the proximity talks,' he said.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war, a move that was not recognized internationally. Palestinians predominate in the area and claim it as their future capital. They view efforts by Israel to increase the Jewish presence there as hostile acts intended to thwart any future division of the city.
The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, speaking during a trip to Jordan on Tuesday, criticized the building plan and called on the United States to help block it.
Jerusalem, with its biblical resonance and deep historical roots and symbolism, remains the most volatile issue between Israel and the Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in keeping with his predecessors, has held firmly that Jerusalem will remain united as Israel’s capital.
But his office, apparently in a bid to stave off another confrontation with the White House, issued a statement playing down the plan. 'We are talking about a process at its very initial stages,' the statement read. 'The plan is still up for debate and comments from the city hall’s local council and then in the district committee of the Interior Ministry, where the stance of the local residents will be heard.'
The statement also expressed the desire that a solution be found that would satisfy local residents.
Jerusalem’s mayor, Nir Barkat, rejected the criticism, including Mr. Barak’s comments.
The city’s plan, which he has been spearheading, is to raze 22 out of 88 homes that the city said were built illegally on public land in the neighborhood of Silwan, nestled in a valley just below the stone walls of the Old City. Once the homes are cleared in the area called Al Bustan, Mr. Barkat has said there will be room for a large archeological park, about 1,000 new apartments for local residents, shopping and boutique hotels. He sees the package as an important tourist draw that will be good both for local residents and (and centuries long Arab residents? ) Jerusalem.
He envisions the creation of 1,000 more apartment units through the city’s approval of four-story buildings where currently only two stories are allowed. Other plans approved in a preliminary step on Monday would legalize a seven-story apartment building in Silwan where Jewish "SETTLERS" live. - DINA KRAFT N Y Times 6/23/10
- "MIDDLE EAST
Israel: Spy Satellite Is Launched
Israel launched a spy satellite into orbit Tuesday night from an air force base near the center of the country. The new satellite, known as Ofek-9, will help Israel more efficiently monitor the region, including Iran, said Chaim Eshed, the director of Israel’s military space program.
It increases the speed at which Israel can receive high-resolution images of subjects of interest, he said." - DINA KRAFT N Y Times 6/23/10
Is it Israel, or the United States, which determines our policy in that ROGUE state? The Editors
- 6/21/10 Edit - Have you tired of the lockdown on current Hard News on lethal-to-Palestinians Netanyahu's Israel? And are you disgusted with the characteristic brandishing of the disingenuous "Bowing to worldwide pressure and condemnation, Israel on Sunday formally announced 'an eased blockade of Gaza'" that could "'significantly'" expand the flow of goods overland into Gaza? This insidious and crafty wordplay in the 6/21/10 N Y Times FRONT PAGE by "Jerusalem KERSHNER" is exposed in the third paragraph by Isabel's "Netanyahu did not signal an end to the Naval Blockade" IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS, nor "specify precisely what goods would be allowed"! And where does Rahm Emanuel fit here? And when will we see a contiguous Palestinian State, with its capital in Arab East Jerusalem?
And secondly, when will such characters as the N Y Times' David Sanger and "Charlie" Rose, who laid out the ongoing covert program against Iran on Rose's 6/20/10 program (after Saturday's Temple?) which included reference to Robert J. Einhorn's strategy (he's the State Department's Special Adviser for Non-Proliferation & Arms Control, Mr. Einhorn whose purview NEVER includes the Nuclear Weapon-Laden Israel, an arms-bloated state which refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Test-Ban Treaty) Einhorn to hobble the electrification of Iran via Nuclear Power.
All of these people have the same ethnicity! Rose's interview with Sanger was listed as a criticism of President Obama's use of presidential power exercised against British Petroleum, i.e. "BP", which Republican Joe Barton of Texas had labeled a shameful $20 billion "shake-down" of BP (Texas' Barton tops the list of recipients of Big Oil money) - and Sanger had written the front page article for The Times 6/18/10 suggesting Obama "Overstep Tactics". That's how "Charlie" had set up the conversation with Sanger.
But the bulk of this Rose/Sanger tete-a-tete descended to "Charlie" & Sanger's favorite mirage (particularly Sanger's) the nuclear-weaponed Iran...
Don't you realize that this is now the world's greatest hoax, that Iran is determined to build nuclear weapons (It's not their nature!), and that this catastrophic fraud is a manipulation of world opinion to create an indisputable threat to the Middle East by an Israel, backed by the United States, and unfettered by the customary restraints of this 21st Century. These last forty-three years have proved that Israel now sees itself as God's Chosen, a delusion last exhibited by the Third Reich. Never Again!!!
Amy Goodman 4/28/08: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, released intelligence Friday that he said proves North Korea and Syria colluded on a nuclear facility that Israel bombed in September '06. "This facility was being built secretly and against international conventions, and that it was destroyed before it became operational, are the key points to remember. It should serve as a reminder to us all of the very real dangers of proliferation, and our need to rededicate ourselves to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, particularly into the hands of a state or a group with terrorist connections."
Amy Goodman 4/28/08 cont': On Thursday (4/24/08) top US intelligence officials presented lawmakers evidence they said proves that Syria was building a nuclear reactor with North Korean assistance. Among the evidence they displayed were pictures said to be obtained by Israel, allegedly taken inside the facility showing the reactor core being built. Officials said the US believed the site was nearing operational capability, but they declared "low" (It is worth noting that the word "low" was somehow lost as the follow-up articles developed.) confidence the site played a role in a Syrian nuclear weapons program. For more I'm joined on the telephone by Scott Ritter. He's the former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, author of Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change. Scott Ritter. Your evaluation of this whole situation, the information that has been presented to Congress?
Amy Goodman 4/28/08 with Scott Ritter: (Mr. Ritter) First of all we have to be concerned about the evidence. We have interior photographs, and exterior shots, and nothing that links the two. I have to take exception to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he says that 'The alleged activities are against international conventions.' Actually, they're not. If Syria had, in fact, been constructing the reactor they've been accused of, they were in total conformity with international law. The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (which Israel has refused to sign) to which Syria is a signatory, requires that facilities be declared to the IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) ONLY when nuclear materials are to be introduced to these facilities. A facility under construction is not a declarable item. It's absurd to sit there and say that just because Syria and North Korea were pouring concrete, that they are somehow breaking...this notion that the reactor is on the verge of becoming operational...is absurd. There would have to be literally thousands of pounds of pure graphite that would have to be introduced to this facility, and there's no evidence in the destruction. There were a number of reporters after it was blown up. It had been bombed, and if there was graphite that had been introduced, you would have a signature all over the area of destroyed graphite blocks...there would be graphite lying around. This was not the case. This shows that the United States and Israel have a wanton disregard for the rule of law. And this is especially critical when the United States is holding up the non-proliferation treaty as a standard to which we hold Iran and North Korea accountable".
Much has transpired regarding the Middle East since mid-March of 2007 when the Quartette of the UN/European Union/Russia/United States were pressured by the Bush administration to withdraw from supporting an equitable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From the beginning George W. Bush had no intention to support the two-state solution, made clear on pages 261 & 262 of James Bamford's 2004 "A Pretext for War". In addition, in GOPBias.org, under "U.S. Withdraws Annapolis Endorsement At UN" there is confirmation. Now the Quartette, with the leadership of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, has reasserted its responsibility because of the onerous step-by-step decision by Israel/Bush/Cheney/McCain to occupy the lands which Palestinians have inhabited for centuries! To complement the Quartette, the BBC and some NPR reporters and editors have reassumed some of their responsibilities as journalists, and reported this change for the better. It's about time. But they have yet to reverse the overwhelming Media/Press Republican bias in this country. We've just experienced arguably the worst presidency in our history because Cokie Roberts said George W. Bush was "so likable." On the golf programs in past years the same thing was said about Rush Limbaugh. "He's so charming!" Our media works overtime to fabricate positive personal traits for Republicans, and these Republicans have just about done us in. No more! But there are exceptions to this long-standing rule in the Press - Support Republicans, furtively if you must, but all the time. Falling into line: Charlie Gibson, George Stephanopolis, Tim Russert, Bob Schieffer ("W" made his younger brother Tom Ambassador to Japan), Thomas L. Friedman - He's the leader of the pack supporting Israel. BUT NOT BILL MOYERS, whose weekly Journal may be the best program on TV today ( As we report today, 6/23/10, Bill Moyers' reportage is sorely missed. Example: Monday, 6/21/10, Gwen Ifill replayed the audio/video of Rahm Emanuel, i.e. restating Emanuel's acknowledgment that BP's Tony Hayward Isle of Wight sailing (a gratuitous gift to Emanuel, that seems to be paying dividends). Lehrer has granted Ifill more facetime, i.e. less journalism!
NPR 1pm (EDT) 6/17/10 - NPR reported that both Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah West Bank rejected Israel's announcement that it would now permit such assorted items as children's toys (?), but that the overall blockade of Gaza would stand, that ALL items must necessarily be approved by Israeli inspection, and that the prohibition of steel and cement, so necessary to rebuild buildings, infrastructure etc., demolished by the 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 Gaza Massacre, that the prohibition would continue for those items so imperative for any restoration of Gaza. Needless to say, it's been a age, if ever, since NPR mentioned "Hamas" without adding "Both Israel and the United States have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization".
Obviously, this significant breakthrough has not yet reached these two characters below, divorced Orthodox Jew Joseph Isadore Lieberman and the swashbuckling Lothario who left his first wife for the wealthy beer maiden "Cindy" of Arizona (and now seldom sees her except on those publicized "visits" to Tom Brokaw's expansive spread in Montana), the scion John Sidney McCain III.
{ Another significant swashbuckler, of a different stripe but equally hazardous to the Middle East and to our formerly ( prior to 1948 ) beloved by the World United States, the sashaying (as if he owned the place) Rahm Emanuel [ Did you know that although he had little to with the election of Barack Obama, Emanuel sees himself as the President of the United States? . . And that McCain III in flight training crashed three times (which would have washed him out, except for the III; and that McCain was so inept and flustered that he forgot to keep his arms at his side when he ejected; and that the conditions for his release from the North Vietnamese prison, is a State Secret, to this day, i.e. Classified?)]}
What will they do, these Senators from unruly Arizona and Corporate Centred Connecticut weary of defending the rapacious Israel under Netanyahu and Lieberman. What will they do? Their careers are in jeopardy, particularly that of the Senator from Connecticut, whose Haredim brethren in the northern West Bank of Palestine are raising Cain, the biblical murderer of Abel. They are the lawless ultra Orthodox offshoot of an Israeli "Juif-fou", an Israel of Netanyahu & AVIGDOR Lieberman (The city of Chelm mentioned below by Michael Chabon.) that embodies THE gravest threat to the Middle East. And our United States? We are similarly threatened by, for example, the group which published that full-page Dark ad in the 4/30/10 N Y Times, i.e. the stranglehold which AIPAC maintains on the Congress of the United States of America.
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Thomas L. Friedman, not unlike "Charlie" Rose, another furtive supporter of Netanyahu's Israel, claims to be quite shocked, in his 6/16/10 "Letter From Istanbul (N Y Times)", that since 2005 many have noticed that Turkey has responded to the outrageous behavior of Netanyahu toward the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, penned in a virtual prison and abused at will by the Israelis, that the Turks, like the Iranians, now recognize that ISRAEL, not Turkey, Iran or Syria, has created a Middle East circumstance that manifests a powderkeg - and that a diverse group, including David Remnick and Michael Chabon, are desperately attempting to neutralize that threat.
Had you seen the 6/15/10 broadcast, or the rebroadcast 6/16/10, of the "Charlie" Rose gathering of John Hofmeister (former head of Shell Oil), Al Hunt of Bloomberg News, author Doris Kearns Goodwin, Mark Halperin former Political Director of ABC News and his partner in "Game Change" John Heilemann, and political strategist Kevin Sheekey; had you seen these people dissect and analyse President Obama's first telecast from the Oval Office, you would have heard a stunning and salient revelation:
That Rahm Emanuel was on vacation in Israel (where he had gone to supervise his son's Bar Mitzvah) when the BP Deepwater Horizon rig exploded (Transocean actually owns the rig that BP was renting). . .and that good friend James Carville, FROM THE GULF, pleaded with Emanuel to recognize that the "LEAK" was a huge deal, but the all-knowing Rahm dismissed an opportunity to, possibly, save the Obama presidency. As GOPBias.org makes clear, this may be the last chance for several decades to reign in the avaricious Netanyahu, the Lieberman (both Avigdor and Isadore) duo, . . . and from all appearances Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel may not be onboard.
June 15, 2010 Edit -
Amy Goodman 6/14/10
Red Cross: Israel Blockade of Gaza Is Illegal
The International Committee of the Red Cross has declared for the first time Israel’s blockade of Gaza to be illegal under the Geneva Conventions. In a statement, the Red Cross said, "The whole of Gaza’s civilian population is being punished for acts for which they bear no responsibility. The closure therefore constitutes a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law." The Red Cross said more than 100 essential medicines and many basic medical supplies are no longer available in Gaza due to the blockade. A new report by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says the blockade has led to economic collapse in Gaza: 95 percent of Gaza’s factories have closed, 98 percent of residents suffer from blackouts, and 93 percent of Gaza’s water is polluted. On Sunday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa visited the Gaza Strip and called for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory.
Amr Moussa: "Taking the mayonnaise and tomato sauce and shaving cream out of the list is no relaxation. This is trivial, and it leads to many of us laughing during the day about this kind of attitude, which we do not consider serious or serious enough to have us deal with such a relaxation. Relaxation means a totally different thing, and relaxation should be on the road or as a step towards the total lifting of the siege."
Here in the United States, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer praised Israel’s efforts to economically strangle the people of Gaza.
Sen. Schumer: “And to me, since the Palestinians in Gaza elected Hamas, while certainly there should be humanitarian aid, people not starving to death, to strangle them economically until they see that that’s not the way to go makes sense."
Israel Forms Inquiry into Flotilla Attack
In related news, the Israeli cabinet has approved plans to set up a three-person panel to conduct an internal investigation into the deadly raid on a flotilla of humanitarian aid ships bound for Gaza. The attack left eight Turks and one Turkish American dead. The panel will be led by a former Israeli Supreme Court judge. The other two members are a retired major-general in the Israeli military and an Israeli professor of international law.
Turkey: We Have No Trust in Israeli Probe
Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, criticized Israel for rejecting calls for an international probe. Davutoglu said, "We have no trust at all that Israel, a country that has carried out such an attack on a civilian convoy in international waters, will conduct an impartial investigation."
Israel’s internal investigation has also been criticized by several newspapers. An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz says Israel’s investigation seems "more and more like a farce." The editors of the New York Times have questioned whether Israel’s probe would be impartial, credible and transparent. The Obama administration, however, has openly endorsed the Israeli probe. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, discussed the issue on Fox News Sunday.
Susan Rice: "We said from the outset that we believe Israel has the will and the capacity to conduct such a credible and impartial investigation. We’ve been working very closely with Israel over the course of the last two weeks as they think through how they plan to constitute such an investigation. And that is what we support and what we think is necessary to address this challenge."
Iran Reportedly Sends Aid Ship to Gaza
Meanwhile, critics of the Israeli blockade of Gaza are continuing to send aid ships to Gaza in defiance of Israel. The Iranian government announced an aid ship bound for Gaza left Iran yesterday. Another Iranian ship is expected to leave later this week. The boats are said to be loaded with food, construction material and toys. One Iranian official said, "Until the end of the Gaza blockade, Iran will continue to ship aid."
Mossad Agent Arrested in Poland
In other news on Israel, a suspected Mossad agent has been arrested in Poland in connection to the January assassination of a Hamas chief in Dubai. The agent, Uri Brodsky, was arrested on suspicion of obtaining a German passport by fraudulent means. Brodsky is the first person known to be arrested in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Amy Goodman's 6/14/10 guest author Stephen Kinzer -
STEPHEN KINZER: Here’s what I see. I think that in the future the United States needs to look for partners in that region. I think we’ve shown that we don’t fully understand the subtleties there, although we have this idea we get the Middle East, other countries don’t get the Middle East, including countries that are there, therefore our policies are the wise ones and foolish countries in that region that have other ideas are just ignorant and don’t know how really to resolve these problems.
So, who should be our partners? I believe when a country looks for partners, we should be looking for countries that fit two criteria. Number one, they should be countries that have long-term strategic goals that are relatively congruent with ours. But that isn’t enough. You also need one other thing, because alliances and partnerships that are based on just relationships between ruling elites, government-to-government alliances, often tend to be very weak, because those regimes with which we partner are often very unpopular in their own country. And then, since people don’t like their regimes, they see the US friendly with those regimes, then they don’t like us, either. So there needs to be a second basis for our relationship with our partners, and that is, you need to find countries to partner with whose societies are similar to your own. If you look around the Muslim Middle East, there are only two countries that fit those two criteria--long-term strategic goals similar to ours and societies that share values like ours--and those are Turkey and Iran.
Now, a partnership among those three countries right now would be difficult to achieve, although I think it might not be as difficult as some people imagine, if we really open our minds and try to be creative here. On the other hand, over the long run, I think, at the very least, we shouldn’t be doing anything that will make this partnership more difficult in the future. Turkey is producing a very interesting new approach to foreign affairs. They’re essentially telling the United States, "We share your values. We share your goals in this part of the world. We’re your military ally. We support the same principles that you support. But we have some advice on tactics for you. You can’t be so confrontational here. You’ve got to ratchet down your rhetoric and try to resolve some of the problems in this region through diplomacy and compromise and negotiation." America is not ready for that kind of advice yet, and that’s what really lies behind the friction of these last few weeks between Turkey and the United States.
As Dark Night Follows Daylight - DemocracyNow: "New York Lawmakers Call for Probe of Flotilla Activists.
A group of New York officials have called on the State Department to investigate the visa applications of two international activists who are scheduled to speak at a Brooklyn church on Thursday about their experience on the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish humanitarian aid ship attacked by Israeli commandos two weeks ago. The attack left eight Turks and one Turkish American dead. Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney spoke at a press conference on Monday.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney: "We have an obligation to protect our borders against potential terrorists, and the State Department should be extra cautious with those who want to arm and help Hamas. After all, Israel is called the 'little Satan,' and America, we’re called the 'big Satan.' And if Gaza flotilla participants were willing to die as martyrs against Israel, we can assume that they would be just as willing to die as martyrs against the United States."
Also at the press conference were New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and three other members of the New York congressional Democratic delegation: Charlie Rangel, Eliot Engel and Jerrold Nadler. - DemocracyNow 6/15/10
- What follows, i.e. the insightful revelation of Mr. Chabon, has not gone unnoticed, and along with the 3/29/10 piece by The New Yorker editor David Remnick, and an "observant" photographer at a Nov '09 revelatory campaign breakfast in Jewish Brooklyn Park New York, "Chosen, But Not Special" has generated a response for June 22-23 The New York Forum [again, heralded by a full page N Y Times ad 6/14/10, America's Flag Day! ] "A CALL TO ACTION" featuring a special address by Ellie Wiesel.
If you are puzzled as to the reason the American people are so tragically misinformed that they exonerate George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, but vilify Barack Obama and Joseph Biden, you need look no further than the notables making up this Michael Bloomberg sponsored New York Forum:
Cathleen Black, President, Hearst Magazines; Rupert Murdock, CHMM & CEO News Corp (FOX "News"); Mort Zuckerman, Publisher New York Daily News; James Tisch, CEO Lowes Corp; Robert Wolf, CEO UBS America; James Wolfensohn, Ex World Bank; Vikram Pandit, CEO CITIGROUP; Theodore Roosevelt IV, Mng Director Barclay's Capital.
One of the standard canards of the above ( reiterated on a regular basis by the N Y Times David Sanger) is the perpetual charge that Iran is about to unveil a nuclear weapon. . [ Israel has 100-200 nuclear weapons]. .and that the Persian nation is about to envelope the Middle East. . .[ This in spite of the fact that Iran's borders have not changed since 1639 - and Israel's bootprint, via so-called "settlers", expands almost daily! ]!
Our next edit will include "Charlie" Rose's 6/14/10 interview of the impressive Ibrahim Kalin, an adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. Mr. Kalin was most adept in side-stepping "Charlie's" efforts to classify Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations, and whose argument that Jerusalem is the keystone, the centerpiece of the major religions of the world and, therefore, hardly suitable as exlusively Jewish. The conversation was such that one would have thought that "Charlie" had already forgotten his 5/27/10 interview with the President of Syria Bashar Al-Assad. But that's not the case. It's just that the Jewish "Charlie" Rose is, at his core, an advocate for Netanyahu's Israel and, therein, lies his fault.
- FINALLY, THE CRUX OF THE ENIGMA -
"Chosen, But Not Special
BY MICHAEL CHABON - BERKELEY
'GAZA Flotilla Drives Israel Into a Sea of Stupidity' declared the Israeli daily Haaretz on Monday, as though announcing the discovery of some hitherto unknown body of water. Citizens of other nations have long since resigned themselves, of course, to sailing those crowded waters, but for Israelis -- and, indeed, for Jews everywhere -- this felt like headline news.
Regardless of whether we chose in the end to condemn or to defend the botched raid on the Mavi Marmara, for Jews the first reaction was shock, confusion, as we tried to get our heads around what appeared to be an unprecedented display of blockheadedness. Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic cast his startled regard back along the length of Jewish history looking for a parallel example of arrant stupidity and found, instead, what Jews around the world have long been accustomed to find in contemplating ourselves and that history: an inborn, half-legendary agility of intellect, amounting almost to a magical power.
'There is a word in Yiddish, seichel, which means wisdom, but it also means more than that: It connotes ingenuity, creativity, subtlety, nuance,' Mr. Goldberg wrote. 'Jews have always needed seichel to survive in this world; a person in possession of a yiddishe kop, a ‘Jewish head,’ is someone who has seichel, someone who looks for a clever way out of problems, someone who understands that the most direct way -- blunt force, for instance -- often represents the least elegant solution, a person who can foresee consequences of his actions.'
This is nonsense, of course -- nonsense to which, I hasten to assure Mr. Goldberg, I have always avidly subscribed. In the aggregate, Jews may or may not be smarter than other groups, but the evidence in favor of granting some kind of inherent or culturally determined supernatural abilities of seichel to the yiddishe kop certainly cannot be found in our history, which is littered as thickly with the individual and collective acts of blockheads as that of any other nation or people or tribe.
An honest assessment of Jewish history must conclude that even the collective act that might seem most tellingly to argue in favor of Jewish intelligence -- our survival across millenniums in spite of constant hatred, war, persecution, intolerance and genocide -- is ultimately just the same trick performed by our species as a whole (at least so far).
The presence of Jews among the not-yet-extinct peoples of the world can no more be credited to any kind of special trait or behavior than the Tasmanians or the Taino ought to be blamed for their own eradication. In the end human survival is a matter of luck -- or destiny, if you prefer -- of decisions taken in distant capitals in vanished eras that bore unforeseeable fruit 200 years on, of chaotically intersecting systems of weather, metaphysics and pandemic, of the failures and weaknesses and limitations of our would-be destroyers.
We construct the history of our wisdom only by burying our foolishness in the endnotes. To imagine a Chelm -- the town inhabited, according to Ashkenazi Jewish folklore, entirely by fools -- requires a presumption of general wisdom elsewhere, as the proper imagining of Heaven requires an earthly realm of sorrow.
As a Jewish child I was regularly instructed, both subtly and openly, that Jews, the people of Maimonides, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk and Meyer Lansky, were on the whole smarter, cleverer, more brilliant, more astute than other people. And, duly, I would look around the Passover table, say, at the members of my family, and remark on the presence of a number of highly intelligent, quick-witted, shrewd, well-educated people filled to bursting with information, explanations and opinions on a diverse range of topics. In my tractable and vainglorious eagerness to confirm the People of Einstein theory, my gaze would skip right over -- God love them -- any counterexamples present at that year’s Seder.
This is why, to a Jew, it always comes as a shock to encounter stupid Jews. Philip Roth derived a major theme of “Goodbye, Columbus” from the uncanny experience. The shock comes not because we have never encountered any stupid Jews before -- Jews are stupid in roughly the same proportion as all the world’s people -- but simply because from an early age we have been trained, implicitly and explicitly, to ignore them. A stupid Jew is like a hole in the pocket of your pants, there every time you put them on, always forgotten until the instant your quarters run clattering across the floor.
Jews would be wise to abandon the myth of their exceptionalism.
It was this endlessly repeated yet never remembered shock of encountering our own stupidity as a people -- stupidity now enacted by the elite military arm of a nation whose history we have long written, in our accustomed way, by pushing to the endnotes all counterexamples to the myth of seichel -- that one heard filtering through so much of the initial response among Jews to the raid on the Mavi Marmara.
This sense of widespread shock at Israel’s blockheadedness in the aftermath of the raid seemed not to be confined, in fact, to Jews. Even Israel’s sternest critics will concede that the Jewish state knows how to go about the business of survival in a hostile world with intelligence, ingenuity, creativity, flexibility and preternatural control over the levers of chance and diplomacy (not to mention the global economic system and the news media). Indeed anti-Semites and the enemies of Israel have often been found among the most devout believers in the myth of seichel, of a special -- O.K., a diabolical -- Jewish intelligence.
For we Jews are not, it turns out, entirely comfortable living with the consequences of this myth, as becomes clear from the squirming and throat-clearing that take place among us whenever some non-Jew pipes up with his own observations about how clever and smart we are in our yiddishe kops. These include people like the political scientist Charles Murray, author of an influential essay titled 'Jewish Genius,' or Kevin B. MacDonald, a psychology professor at California State University at Long Beach who argues that Jews essentially undertook a centuries-long program of self-breeding, selecting for traits of intelligence, guile and skill at calculation, as a kind of evolutionary adaptation to the buffetings of history and exile.
Such claims, in mouths of gentiles, are a disturbing echo of the charges of the pogrom-stokers, the genocidalists, the Father Coughlins, who come to sharpen their knives against the same grindstone of generalization on which we Jews have long polished the magnifying lenses of our self-regard. The man who praises you for your history of accomplishment may someday seek therein the grounds for your destruction.
This is, of course, the foundational ambiguity of Judaism and Jewish identity: the idea of chosenness, of exceptionalism, of the treasure that is a curse, the blessing that is a burden, of the setting apart that may presage redemption or extermination. To be chosen has been, all too often in our history, to be culled.
This is the ambiguity that cites the dispensation of God and history, of covenant and Holocaust, to lay claim to a special relationship between Jews and the Land of Israel, then protests when the world -- cynically or sincerely -- holds Israel to a different, higher standard as beneficiaries of that dispensation.
This is the ambiguity that proudly asserts the will and the obligation of Israel to be a light unto the nations, then points to the utterly evil, utterly bankrupt, utterly degraded, utterly stupid misdeeds of ship-sinking, sailor-massacring North Korea -- North Korea! -- in an attempt to give context to its own relatively less-evil, bankrupt, degraded and stupid behavior.
Now, with the memory of the Mavi Marmara fresh in our minds, is the time for Jews to confront, at long last, the eternal truth of our stupidity as a people, which I will stack, blunder for blunder, against that of any other nation now or at any time living on this planet of folly, in this world of Chelm. Now is the moment to acknowledge that the 62-year history of Israel, like the history of the Jewish people and of the human race, has been from the beginning a record of glory and fiasco, triumph and error, greatness and meanness, charity and crime.
The past two decades in particular have illustrated to Jews and to the world a painful premise, but one that was implicit in the Zionist idea from the beginning: If, in the words of the 1948 Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, the Jewish people have a natural right 'to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign state,' then the inescapable codicil of this natural inheritance is that the Jewish people, 'like all other nations,' are every bit as capable of BARBARISM and stupidity.
IF Israel was, as the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann put it, to 'become as Jewish as England is English and America is American,' then, like England and America and every other modern polity, Israel must slog along through history, purblind and panicky, from its founding to its ultimate fate, prey at every moment to -- and, God willing, on guard against -- its rich, inglorious human heritage of blockheadedness.
After my initial shock at this fresh display of foolery by the Chelmites of Jerusalem had subsided, I felt an abstract pity for the wasted dead with their cargo of lumber and delusions, for the ill-equipped, poorly led soldiers who had killed them and, running true and clear like a subterranean stream, pity for Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas the past four years, and his family. But I also felt a kind of grim relief, even resolve.
Let us shed our illusions, starting with ourselves, whoever we are and however august our inheritance of stupidity. Let us not forget the eternal hole in our human pocket. Let us not, henceforward, judge Israel or seek to have it judged for its intelligence, for its prowess, for its righteousness or for its moral authority, by any standard other than the pathetic, debased and rickety one that we apply, so inconsistently and self-servingly, to ourselves and to everybody else. And let us not forgive ourselves -- any more than we forgive Israel, or than Israel can forgive itself -- for that terrible inconsistency. - Chabon N Y Times 6/6/10
PalSolidarity.org
EndtheOccupation.org
The Above is an admonition that The New York Times "Ethicist", Randy Cohen, should memorize!
- To Illustrate -
Here an Isabel Kershner report in the 6/7/10 N Y Times (Headlined "Questions Loom as Israeli Envoy Rejects International Inquiry Into Flotilla Clash" - Page A-4) 'splaining the Israeli boardings of the Turkish humanitarian vessel Mavi Marmara and the Irish ship christened Rachel Corrie, Miss Corrie crushed by an Israeli bulldozer March 16th of 2003, both boarded illegally in international waters and posing no military threat to Israel "proper", in ten deaths ( one at point-blank Israeli Commando range to the head) and many more wounded. A report which recounts the Israeli PIC# I (prevaricator in chief, Netanyahu), his number II, Avigdor Lieberman "Foreign Minister" and PIC# III Michael B. Oren on Roger Ailes' FOX. Mr. Oren had no trouble accepting the post of Israeli "Ambassador" (?) to the United States. Does Rahm Emanuel also have dual citizenship?
"Israel Ambassador Rejects Flotilla Clash Inquiry
JERUSALEM -- Israel’s ambassador to Washington said Sunday that his country would reject an international inquiry into last week’s deadly raid on a Turkish ship, but there was still no formal announcement from Jerusalem on the matter.
At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel had information that the 'dozens of THUGS' armed with iron bars, clubs and knives who clashed with Israeli soldiers on the Turkish ship were a distinct group not associated with the hundreds of other passengers on board.
Huwaida Arraf, a leader of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the flotilla, called Mr. Netanyahu’s assertions 'another pack of lies,' The Associated Press reported. She said that all the passengers were screened for weapons, and that the group’s partners in the mission had agreed not to bring weapons on board. - Kershner Jerusalem 6/7/10
* * The extreme Israeli military response to the Free Gaza - Freedom Flotilla, in international waters, (blacked out or twisted by most U. S. "News" sources) is reminiscent of the 1967 war which Israelis waged against its Middle East neighbors to enlarge its bootprint in its ever-increasing hold on that volatile region, a war in which the Israeli "Defense" Forces (These people are master propagandists, particularly their new Israeli "Ambassador" (?) to the United States, Israeli/American Michael B. Oren.) relentlessly attacked the U. S. S. Liberty, also in international waters, killing thirty four of our sailors, for which it has never apologized, as Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel is a rogue state, AND WITH 100-200 NUCLEAR WEAPONS - was in 1967, as it is today under Netanyahu.
GENERAL ELECTRIC NBC UNIVERSAL HAS NOW AN INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL REPORT FOR WHICH IT CAN BE PROUD, PERHAPS ITS FIRST SINCE WATERGATE! After CBS trounced NBC and ABC in broadcasting awards for the Watergate era, what had been the broadcasting equivalent of Film Oscars, virtually disappeared. NBC's Jim Maceda has, at last, brought journalistic honor to the National Broadcasting Corporation.
Day of mourning in Turkey
NBC Nightly News
6/3/2010 17:41:00
NEWSCASTER: We turn now to the other major story we've been following this week. The fire storm triggered by that Israeli commando raid on ships bound for Gaza not only put the U.S. in a tough diplomatic spot. Turns out the raid also cost an American life. Our own Jim Maceda reports tonight from Istanbul, Turkey.
REPORTER: Today Turkey buried its dead. Thousands gathered at Istanbul's Mosque of the Conqueror to pay their respects. In all, nine were killed, at least 19 wounded when Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of cargo ships early Monday trying to deliver aid to the besieged Gaza strip. Among the dead, an American, 19-year-old Furkan Dogan whose grief-stricken father learned his son was hit by four bullets in the head and one in the chest.
Ghenghis Acuz [spelling not verified] was lucky. In the lead ship, he survived the worst of the attacks and was among hundreds of activists detained by Israel, but welcomed home early this morning as heroes.
UNIDENTIFIED TURKISH WOMAN: We will remember them for all of our lives.
REPORTER: Acuz says he lost nine good friends, all killed by gunshots at close range.
The way the Israelis treated us makes me sad, he says. But I'm proud of my friends. I wish I had died a martyr, too.
Some mourners were overcome by the heat, the grief and the anger. The scene here is absolutely chaotic. One coffin after another is being carried out. Grieving relatives are crying and hundreds of supporters are shouting death to Israel.
Those chants continued as the bodies moved slowly through the city. But even the burials were punctuated by curses for Israel.
Already, Turkish activists were promising more flotillas determined to break Israel's blockade of Gaza amid fears that could mean more funerals like these. Jim Maceda, NBC News, Istanbul.
And Tom Aspel adds to NBC's return to excellence with his 6/8/10 report on Israel's abominable abuse of the 1.5 million (Many of them children) citizens of Gaza.
Inside Gaza
NBC Nightly News
6/8/2010 17:44:00
NEWSCASTER: We are back now with a rare look inside a place 1.5 million people call home. The Israelis call it a hotbed of terrorism. But the people who live there say they are prisoners of poverty and misery. It's the Gaza Strip and it's once again gotten the world's attention after that raid on a ship trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza to deliver what many say was food and basic supplies. The Israelis say some of those supplies could have been used as weapons. Israel tonight is still saying no to a UN investigation into the raid. But tonight our own Tom Aspell has a report from behind the blockade.
REPORTER: This is what you see when you cross the border from Israel into Gaza; children desperately scrambling for pebbles - pebbles to be ground into cement. Israel won't let cement into Gaza. It says the cement would be used for tunnels to smuggle weapons, so thousands of homes destroyed in the 2009 offensive can't be rebuilt.
Some supplies, like groceries and even animals, are smuggled through hundreds of illegal tunnels under the border from Egypt. Israel says there's no humanitarian crisis. Some food and medicine is allowed in, but the United Nations says conditions have never been worse.
CHRISTOPHER GUNNESS, UNRWA SPOKESMAN: Eighty percent aid-dependency, 44 percent unemployment, deep poverty tripling in the last year.
REPORTER: Deep poverty and also despair. Eighty percent of Gazans, like Rushti Abatuwila [spelling not verified] get their food from the UN. Born deaf, he has no chance of getting a job here. He and his family, two of them also deaf, live on $70 a month from the Palestinian government.
Israel's blockade on Gaza isn't just about preventing goods from getting in. It's about preventing 1.5 million Palestinians from getting out. It sentences them to life inside a 140 square mile prison.
Life here is a struggle from birth. In Gaza's Shifa Hospital, the best around, there isn't enough special formula for premature babies, not even enough incubators.
REPORTER TO UNIDENTIFIED DOCTOR: So this baby is only one hour old, but there's no place for him.
DOCTOR: Yes. No room. There's no place.
REPORTER: Fifty percent of Gazans are children under 15. Mental health experts say 95 percent of all children in Gaza suffer from trauma and stress.
DR. AHMED ABU TAWAHEENA, GAZA MENTAL HEALTH COMMUNITY DIR.: The most important one of them is their violent behavior, aggressive behavior among school students, for example.
REPORTER: Eight-year-old Machmud Kalil [spelling not verified] has turned to music to erase memories of bombs and missiles during the 2009 offensive when he spent a month hiding in a basement. Machmud had extreme mood swings, either laughing or crying constantly. His mother, Anwan [spelling not verified], says music therapy now keeps him calm. Music may also be his escape. Given the chance, Machmud says he's like to pack up his instrument and leave here forever. - Tom Aspell, NBC News, Gaza.
* * BACKGROUND -
To the Editor:
Nicholas D. Kristof’s column ('Saving Israel From Itself - The flotilla raid was the latest step on a self-destructive path.') could have been written by the peacemaking Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin or Israel’s founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, if they were alive today.
Mr. Rabin told me shortly before he was assassinated by a right-wing Israeli extremist that Israel, while pursuing peace, must never play into the hands of Palestinian terrorists, who would try to sabotage the talks with attacks intended to provoke disproportionate retaliation. Yes, Israel would fight the terrorists, but not the Palestinian people. And it would certainly not initiate bloody conflict.
Mr. Ben-Gurion told me that Israel would regret maintaining control of Arab-inhabited regions and another people after the 1967 Six-Day War. He said the war would never end as long as Israel occupied the area, an occupation he felt was both strategically and morally wrong.
And if succeeding right-wing governments had taken his advice, the war might well have been over years ago, preventing Hamas from ruling Gaza, giving Iran no excuse for threatening Israel with nuclear destruction, and making life much easier for the United States.
The Israeli assault on the pro-Palestinian flotilla is a symbolic result of the tragic survival-imperiling refutation by Israeli right-wingers of the visionary views of their country’s two greatest leaders. - Dan Kurzman North Bergen N J 6/3/10
The writer is the author of biographies of Yitzhak Rabin and David Ben-Gurion.
* Les Moonves, via Katie Couric, stiffed the Israeli massacre of humanitarians on a mission to assist the 1.5 million citizens of Gaza. Jim Lehrer's PBS NewsHour followed suit.
* Although the early reports vary dependent upon the source of the "Hard News" [ those originating in Israel suggest that Israeli "Defense" Forces were on a benign venture to merely "escort" (The equivalent of armed Navy Seals dropped from BlackHawk helicopters, some at Midnight!) this legitimate humanitarian mission to relieve the suffering Gazans, under great stress since the Israeli "Christmas (12/26/08 - 1/18/09)" Massacre almost a year and a half ago (The Israelis select, under the guidance of AIPAC, holidays when the United States will be preoccupied, in this case with Memorial Day weekend")], the entire world is alarmed by this outrage and has erupted in protests across the globe.
- LATE BREAKER JUNE 11, 2010 -
* AMY GOODMAN DEMOCRACYNOW
" Israel & US Agree on Israeli Probe into Flotilla Attack
The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reports Israel and the United States have agreed on the nature of the Israeli probe into last week’s deadly raid on a flotilla of humanitarian aid ships bound for Gaza. The committee is being formed after Israel and the United States rejected calls for an international inquiry into the assault. There will be no official international role in Israel’s investigation, except one American and one European will be allowed to observe the proceedings.
Video Shows Israeli Commandos Executing Flotilla Passenger
Video has been posted on the internet that apparently shows Israeli commandos executing a passenger aboard the Mavi Marmara. In the video, Israeli commandos are seen kicking a passenger while he lies on the deck of the boat. The commandos are then seen firing one and possibly two point-blank shots from above into the victim. The video was first aired on Turkish TV. It has been claimed the video shows the nineteen-year-old US citizen Furkan Dogan being killed, but it has not been possible to verify the identity of the victim.
ISRAEL URGED TO JOIN NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY
At a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Arab nations urged Israel on Thursday to join the global Non-Proliferation Treaty and repeated their calls for a nuclear-free Middle East. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with a stockpile of nuclear weapons, but Israel has never confirmed nor denied it has nuclear weapons. By shunning the forty-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty, Israel has not had to declare atomic arms or allow the IAEA to probe all of its nuclear sites. Thursday’s meeting marked the first time the IAEA’s policy-making board tackled the topic of Israel’s nuclear arsenal since 1991.
MOHAMED MOSTAFA FAWZY, EGYPT’S AMBASSADOR TO THE IAEA: "So what we are discussing here is how to apply the safeguards to every state in the Middle East. This is a precise point that we have to deal with, applying the safeguards. So it’s not only that we are asking Israel to join the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty] or not. We are asking for the application of the safeguards agreements on all states in the Middle East."
Glyn Davies, the US Ambassador to the IAEA, defended Israel’s stance on nuclear weapons.
Glyn Davies: "Israel has broken no agreements nor failed to fulfill obligations to the agency. Discussion of this item distracts our collective attention from other pressing matters before the board. Premier among those is Iran, which stands in violation of the NPT and IAEA safeguards obligations and of resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors and the UN Security Council." (But, there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing anything having to do with nuclear weaponry, limiting its efforts to nuclear power, which, being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty permits!). - DemocracyNow 6/11/10
*The Israelis Exposed -
- -Amy Goodman: This is Democracy Now!, I’m Amy Goodman. We have on the line with us Adam Shapiro. He is a board member of the Free Gaza Movement. Adam, we got word several hours ago that the Israeli military had attacked the Free Gaza Flotilla. We are speaking to you at about 3:30 AM Eastern Standard Time. Can you tell us what you understand has happened?
Adam Shapiro: The Israelis launched a military operation involving about a thousand soldiers, using ships, using helicopters, and using airplanes to attack the flotilla of six ships--three passenger and three cargo ships, at approximately between 8 and 9 pm Eastern Standard Time. All the ships have been captured. One of the ships that we know for sure, which had a satellite communication ability, the large Turkish ship with about 600 passengers including members of Parliament from different countries, was attacked by Israeli soldiers using live ammunition. We now know that at least 14 people have been confirmed killed, and perhaps as many as 20 killed, with over 60 injured, and currently all the ships are being brought into the Israeli port of Haifa.
Amy Goodman: We are reading Israeli military reports that say when they boarded the Turkish ship, that they were attacked by sticks and knives. What do you understand has happened?
Adam Shapiro: Our people on the ship reported live as the soldiers came onto the ship, and reported that soldiers were opening fire as they were coming onto the ship, and they were descending from helicopters. So, our understanding is that the Israeli soldiers opened fire first. I have not seen or heard any thing else about--and there are many journalists on board that ship--anything else about our people, the passengers on that ship, posing any kind of threat. There was a live feed coming from the ship using satellite, video satellite, on satellite, that has been rebroadcast on CNN, on CNN Turk, on Al Jazeera, on Press TV, on numerous media outlets, not one image from this entire footage shows any of the passengers holding any kind of object that could be construed as a weapon. So, I mean, I am sure that the Israelis would like the world to believe that they were the ones being attacked as they assaulted these ships, but this is just Israeli spin.
Amy Goodman: Adam Shapiro, what is the purpose of the Free Gaza Flotilla?
Adam Shapiro: The purpose of the Free Gaza Freedom Flotilla was to literally break the Israeli blockade that it is imposing on Gaza, a form of collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians who are trying to survive at this point, basically, especially after the Israeli attacks in December, 2008-January, 2009, in which much of Gaza was reduced to rubble, and has not been able to have been rebuilt, where Palestinians can’t get basic food and medicine in, to just survive with. And so, this effort was, yes, to deliver the goods and materials that Gaza, the Palestinians in Gaza need, but also to awaken the international community to the abuse that the Palestinians are suffering that has been regarded by the Goldstone Report, by many other reports and by human rights organizations, including the E.U. and other groups, calling this blockade and this siege criminal, as well as cruel and inhuman.
Amy Goodman: What is your response to what has happened in these last hours, to the Israeli military assault on the Free Gaza Flotilla?
Adam Shapiro: We have always been prepared that the Israelis might attack the ships and try, obviously, try to take control of them, and prevent us from reaching Gaza, but the opening of fire against unarmed civilians who pose no threat to Israel, is something, I think, it is absurd in a way that can’t even be described. We all remember what happened to Rachel Corrie in Gaza, standing in front of a home to protect it and being crushed and run over by a bulldozer driver. In this case, I think in a way, it is almost even worse, because Israel said that they were sending their best commandos on this mission, that they were sending their most professional soldiers, and so if these are their professional soldiers, and they opened fire, then we must assume, then, and I don’t think we are incorrect to assume, that they had orders to open fire, because I don’t think that soldiers operating in this way, if they were truly professional, and they were truly the best, well-trained commandos that Israel had, they would have no reason to shoot, unless they were ordered to do so.
And I really hope that the United States, the Europeans, and Turkey, and the other governments who had citizens on board press for an independent investigation, not an Israeli investigation, an independent investigation. This attack took place in international waters, not in Israeli waters.
Amy Goodman: Who was on the Turkish ship?
Adam Shapiro: On board the Turkish ship were over, approximately about 600 passengers. We had quite a large number of Turkish activists. Of course, the boat was secured in Turkey, and purchased by a Turkish organization, so many of their people were on board. We also had members of the European Parliament on board, we had members of Arab parliaments on board, including Egypt and Jordan, we had others activists who have been active in trying to raise the awareness of what’s happening to Palestinians in general and specifically in Gaza, and we had media. We had Al Jazeera on board, we had a couple of Turkish broadcasting channels on board, as well as other print and other forms of media on board.
Amy Goodman: Adam Shapiro, thank you for taking the time to talk to us.
Adam Shapiro: Thank you very much.
Amy Goodman: Adam Shapiro is a board member of the Free Gaza Movement.
* The Final Word -
- ALI ABUNIMAH: Among the more than 700 people on the ship from about thirty-two countries are thirteen United States citizens, including a former ambassador, Ed Peck, who has been released and is reported to be on his way back to the United States. But as in the previous Israeli acts of piracy and war against ships heading to Gaza--you remember when Cynthia McKinney was kidnapped and jailed in Israel for trying to reach Gaza--once again, the United States government is saying and doing nothing publicly that suggests any great concern for its citizens who have been kidnapped by Israel.
And the statements from the Obama administration, particularly that by the US representative at the United Nations, Alejandro Wolff, were really quite shocking and astonishing. You played a clip during the news, where he suggests really that the flotilla were themselves to blame, talking about using non-confrontational and non-provocational methods rather than going by ship--in other words, suggesting--agreeing with the outrageous Israeli claims that trying to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid is somehow a provocation or a confrontation. And Ambassador Wolff also reaffirmed Israel’s so-called right to self-defense in this context, which suggests that the United States, unless it makes clear otherwise, believes that attacking a civilian ship on the high seas and massacring an unknown number of its passengers is somehow self-defense.
I think we also have to keep our eye on the context here, Anjali. Just a week or so ago, the United States Congress voted by 410-to-four--I’ll repeat that, 410-to-four--to a request from the Obama administration for additional military aid, another $205 million. This was clearly a political move by the Obama administration to fund the rather useless Iron Dome rocket defense as a way to appease Israel politically. But the message Israel got from this, as it has gotten from US and international complicity and complacency, the failure to hold Israel accountable for the war crimes documented in the Goldstone report; the failure to hold Israel accountable for the act of international terrorism and murder in a hotel room in Dubai; the failure to hold Israel accountable for four years of murderous siege on Gaza that has killed, by itself, 400 Palestinians for lack of access to medical aid and other needed supplies. The failure to hold Israel accountable in all these ways has sent Israel the message: do what you like, get away with whatever you want to, until people hold Israel accountable.
And so, what the Freedom Flotilla was, was it was a peaceful, unarmed people’s navy, assembled to fill the void and the vacuum where the Obama administration should be, where the UN Security Council should be, where the Arab governments should be, where the European Union should be. And it is a shocking outrage and a crime that will live in infamy, along with the bombing of the King David Hotel, along with the attack on the USS Liberty, along with so many other appalling crimes, that international humanitarian workers bringing aid were attacked on the high seas.
I spoke to you a few months ago when I was in Cairo with the Gaza Freedom March. By now, people have tried to reach Gaza to break the siege by land. They have tried by sea. And they have lost their lives. They have given their lives in the cause of breaking this siege on Gaza. And we have to ask, we have to ask, for what crime are 1.5 million people in Gaza being held prisoner? There is a museum in Berlin, which I visited as a schoolboy, to those who were killed trying to cross, those who were machine-gunned trying to cross over the Berlin Wall. Well, an unknown number of people, because Israel won’t tell us, were machine-gunned for trying to break this blockade. When will there be accountability? And when will the Obama administration stop this outrageous complicity, this enabling, this acting as an accomplice with these crimes against people in Palestine and now against Americans, Turks, Greeks, Jordanians, Palestinians, Lebanese, Swedes, French people, German people, members of Parliament, doctors, retired people, trying to bring medicine to people in Gaza? That our government has not stood up and condemned this in the clearest possible terms is a sign that something is sick in the United States’ system when it comes to speaking about and dealing with Israel. There is a sickness that has to be addressed".
The timing is prescient, what with Charlie Rose having interviewed Bashar Al-Assad, the President of Syria (broadcast 5/28/10)
and scheduled Khaled Meshaal, the political leader of Hamas, for 5/31/10.
Here, a segment of the frank and forthright President Assad on the only solution for peace in the Middle East, the door to which was opened by, of all authors, David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker!
CHARLIE ROSE: We have come back to Damascus to talk to President al-Assad about how he sees Syria, its role in the world, its region, the Middle East peace process, and his relationships with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and others.
Most importantly, we come to talk about Syria and the United States and the possibilities for engagement between the two countries.
Mr. President, thank you very much for allowing me to come here for another conversation with you. It was in 2006 that I was here, and I’m pleased to be back in 2010 to this great city, Damascus, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Welcome to Syria. I’m very glad to see you today in Damascus.
CHARLIE ROSE: I’m not the only American who has been here recently. Senator John Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was here on Saturday and recently as well. Is something happening in the relationship between Syria and the United States?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Since President Obama came to power, there is some improvement at least in the atmosphere. There are a lot of concrete things happening. It’s moving forward slowly.
But the main interest of the administration now and the visit of Senator Kerry is about how can we re-launch the peace process. President Obama is interested in the peace process in general, but the talk with Senator Kerry was about the Syrian track. And I think the main, the crux of the problem in this region is the lack of peace.
CHARLIE ROSE: It is also said that he came here in a sense as an emissary of the president.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: That’s true.
CHARLIE ROSE: What is it you want to say to the president of the United States about your view of the region, your own strategic sense of what’s possible?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: If you’re going to talk about the region, and you know this region is the heart of the world geographically and politically, you have to talk about the role of a great power, the United States.
I think the main issue in this region is the OCCUPATION. When you talk about conflict you have to go to the reason. The reason we have conflict is that we have occupied land. At the same time you have Security Council resolutions that mention very clearly the need of Israel to withdraw from these lands. So this is where the peace starts.
I think if I am going to talk to him, I would say to him all the details in elaboration. But I would urge him to move faster in order to reach peace in the region.
ADDITIONAL EXCERPT -
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: I think what is destabilizing is the Israeli aggression in our region. They attacked Syria, they attacked Lebanon, they have been attack Israeli -- sorry, the Palestinians on a daily basis. That is what destabilized the region. They go through the door from the occupied land, that is what destabilized the region, not Hezbollah and any other organization that they defend themselves.
"It’s like if you talk about a chapter in a book, every time you read that chapter, you have to read the whole book to understand this chapter.
So the meantime, I would say of course, we will be ready to -- we would like to see this region free of armaments, free of conflict, free of everything. But that will not happen only through talking about one factor while you have the main important factor which is the occupation is in place.
So we have to solve it as a package. And this package should be peace. There is no other way. It’s just a waste of time. So we have to go in this way, through the peace.
An earlier DemocracyNow broadcast 1/14/09
ISRAELI HISTORIAN AVI SHLAIM: As you mentioned, I did national service in the Israeli army in the mid-1960s. And in those days, Israel was a small state surrounded by enemies, and the nation was united in face of the surrounding Arab states. We all felt total commitment to the state of Israel and to the defense of the state of Israel. The Israeli army is called the Israel Defense Forces, and it was true to its name.
But 1967, the war of June 1967, was a major turning point in the history of Israel and the history of the region. In the course of the war, Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan and Sinai from Egypt. After the war, Israel started building civilian territories in the occupied territories in violation of international law. So Israel became a colonial power and an imperial power.
And I, for my part, have never questioned the legitimacy of the Zionist movement. I saw it as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. Nor did I ever question the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I reject, what I reject totally, absolutely and uncompromisingly, is the Zionist colonial project beyond the 1967 borders. So we have to distinguish very clearly between Israel proper, within its pre-1967 borders, and Greater Israel, which began to emerge in the aftermath of the June '67 war and has completely derailed the Zionist project.
AMY GOODMAN: And then, specifically talk about Gaza, how it has developed and where it is today, right now under assault by the Israeli military.
AVI SHLAIM: In a long-term historical perspective, I would begin with the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. I wrote a book, which you mentioned in your introduction, called The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. It is a history of the Arab-Israeli conflict since 1948. It's a very long book, but I can summarize it for you in one sentence, that throughout its sixty years, Israel has been remarkably reluctant to engage in meaningful negotiations with its Arab opponents to resolve the dispute between them and only too ready to resort to military force in order to impose its will upon them. And the current vicious Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza is the climax of this longstanding Israeli policy of shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force. - DemocracyNow 1/14/09
And the Jewish historian Norman Finkelstein - 1/8/09
AMY GOODMAN: We're also joined by Norman Finkelstein here in New York, leading critic of Israeli foreign policy, the author of several books, including The Holocaust Industry, Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and Beyond Chutzpah.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, the record is fairly clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Mr. Indyk is correct that Hamas had adhered to the ceasefire from June 17th until November 4th. On November 4th, here Mr. Indyk, I think, goes awry. The record is clear: Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point--and now I'm quoting the official Israeli website--Hamas retaliated or, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
Now, as to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha'aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday's Ha'aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion, I think, are twofold. Number one, as Mr. Indyk I think correctly points out, to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman's language basically means Israel's capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word.
And the second main reason for the attack is because Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. That is to say, Hamas was signaling they had joined the international consensus, they had joined most of the international community, overwhelmingly the international community, in seeking a diplomatic settlement. And at that point, Israel was faced with what Israelis call a Palestinian peace offensive. And in order to defeat the peace offensive, they sought to dismantle Hamas.
Well, I think the problem of Mr. Indyk's presentation is he constantly reverses cause and effect. Just as he said a moment ago that it was Hamas which broke the ceasefire, although he well knows it was Israel that broke the ceasefire on November 4th, he now reverses cause and effect as to how the present impasse came about. In January 2006, as he writes in his book, Hamas came to power in a free and fair election. I think those are his words. He then claims on your program and he claims in his book that Hamas committed a "putsch"--his word--in order to eliminate the Palestinian Authority. And as I'm sure Mr. Indyk well knows and as was documented in the April 2008 issue of Vanity Fair by the writer David Rose, basing himself on internal US documents, it was the United States in cahoots with the Palestinian Authority and Israel which were attempting a putsch on Hamas, and Hamas preempted the putsch. That, too, is no longer debatable or no longer a controversial claim.
Now, Mr. Indyk says that Hamas is reluctant or unclear about whether it wants to rule in Gaza. The issue is not whether it wants to rule in Gaza; the issue is can it rule in Gaza if Israel maintains a blockade and prevents economic activity among the Palestinians. The blockade, incidentally, was implemented before Hamas came to power. The blockade doesn't even have anything to do with Hamas. The blockade came to--there were Americans who were sent over, in particular James Wolfensohn, to try to break the blockade after Israel redeployed its troops in Gaza.
AMY GOODMAN: The former World Bank president.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Correct. The problem all along has been that Israel doesn't want Gaza to develop, and Israel doesn't want to resolve diplomatically the conflict. Mr. Indyk well knows that both the leadership in Damascus and the leadership in the Gaza have repeatedly made statements they're willing to settle the conflict in the June 1967 border. The record is fairly clear. In fact, it's unambiguously clear.
Every year, the United Nations General Assembly votes on a resolution entitled "Peaceful Settlement of the Palestine Question." And every year the vote is the same: it's the whole world on one side; Israel, the United States and some South Sea atolls and Australia on the other side. The vote this past year was 164-to-7. Every year since 1989--in 1989, the vote was 151-to-3, the whole world on one side, the United States, Israel and the island state of Dominica on the other side. - DemocracyNow 1/8/09
END OF EXCERPT -
CHARLIE ROSE: But you have said in an interview recently with an Italian newspaper that you have a strategic vision, but it seems that America is engaged in a trial and error. What did you mean?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: We are wondering about what strategy the United States has toward the different conflict, whether Iraq, Afghanistan, peace process, and any other main conflict.
But I’m talking about different administrations, not only this administration. The question that we asked to many officials is, what is your strategy? They only put the title of stability, but stability is the final -- is the goal of all -- the final stage or the final end of solving all the other problems.
So the United States administration has been failing, failing and failing, in still solving the problems. Why? This is linked and related to what I said that the region has changed. They have to adopt different approach toward our region. They cannot adopt the same approach.
CHARLIE ROSE: But with respect to U.S.-Syria, what would you like to see the United States do?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: In the peace process?
CHARLIE ROSE: In the relationship with Syria.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Of course you cannot separate the two -- the two things, because if they want to play the role of the arbiter, they cannot play that role while they are sided with the Israelis. They have to be impartial arbiter. They are not. And they were never impartial arbiters since the beginning of the peace process.
They have to gain the trust of the different players. If you don’t have good relations with Syria, how can Syria depend on you as arbiter? So you have to improve relations.
So I told the American official that we have to start on improving the relationship - if you talk about putting Syria on the terrorism act, sorry, terrorism list, they have the Syria Accountability Act in the Congress
CHARLIE ROSE: Right, right, which they just reconfirmed.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: yeah, exactly.
CHARLIE ROSE: With some modifications.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: yeah - There was the veto of Syria joining the WTO, but it was lifted. So that's why I say, there are some improvements, but there are still very, we have a long way to go in that regard. So I would like the United States to be fair and to be unbiased in order to achieve that.
CHARLIE ROSE: Senator Kerry has said that Syria is a high priority for this administration. Have they convinced you of that?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: We are waiting for the results. Without the results -- I trust Senator Kerry. I trust Senator Kerry, and I think he is earnest. And I met him five times before this meeting. I met him five times in very difficult circumstances. So what he said, he said what he means.
But at the end he is not the one that is going to implement. You have the administration and you have the Congress. So in the end we are looking for results.
Today I’m convinced about what he said, but I’m convinced that President Obama wants to do something positive in that regard. But I’m not convinced that the institution would allow President Obama to do what he wants to do with Syria and in other subjects and issues.
CHARLIE ROSE: You seem to be saying that President Obama has the right ideas but you’re not sure that he can act on them.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Not, because he cannot, because you have institutions ( ADL? AIPAC? Daniel Pipes ) in the United States. You have your political system. It is not only the president. If it’s only the president, we could blame the president. We can say that he didn’t do what he had to do.
But you have the institutions and you have the Congress. For example, the ambassador to Syria who was about to come, but the Congress, the Republicans in the Congress opposed it recently. So the President has to stop. So that is why I said it’s not that the president doesn’t want to or he cannot do something. It is about the whole political system that you have in the United States. And you know more than me about it.
CHARLIE ROSE: But you consider it an act of respect for Syria that they confirm a Syrian ambassador from the United States?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Yes. But in the end the ambassador is to help your country, not to help my country. I have my ambassador to do that. So this is not a help to Syria. This is a help to the United States that they have ambassadors anywhere in the world.
I’m not saying that this is something to deliver to Syria, but I’m just giving an example about the steps you wanted to take to improve the relations, but somebody (AIPAC?) opposed it because of the political system that you have. That is what I mean.
CHARLIE ROSE: How do you see Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, the northern tier in the region?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Normally you should have good relations with your neighbors, something we’ve learned from our experience during the last decades. We’ve been in conflict, Syria and Iraq, Syria and Turkey, Iraq and Turkey, and other countries.
What did we get? Nothing. We’ve been losing for decades.
We’ve learned during the last decade that we have to turn the tide. So everybody is going forward with good relation with the other even if it doesn’t have the same vision or even if they disagree about most of the things, not part, not some things.
So this relation, Syria and Iraq, we are neighbors. Syria and Turkey we are neighbors. We affect each other directly. Iran is not my neighbor, but Iran is one of the big countries in the Middle East and an important country and it plays a role and affects different issues in the region.
So if you want to play your role and help yourself and save your interest, you should have good relation with all these influential countries. That’s why this relation I think is very normal.
CHARLIE ROSE: There are those in America would like to believe America can do something that will put some distance between you and Iran, that they can make you less close.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: They contradict themselves. They talk about stability in the region. Stability starts with good relations. You can’t have stability and bad relations.
Second, what their argument, why do they need Syria to be away from Iran? They have conflict with Iran. What does it mean to put Syria away from Iran?
Sometimes they talk about the relation between Syria and Iranian relations, and the peace. That’s not true. It is not realistic, because Iran supported our efforts to achieve, to give back our land through the peace negotiations in 2008 when we had negotiations in Turkey.
CHARLIE ROSE: Let me underline that. You believe that Iran, even though it says it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, when you through Turkey were trying to negotiate with the Israelis, the Iranians were supportive of that.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Exactly.
CHARLIE ROSE: And so you are saying actions speak louder than words.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Exactly. And actually they said it inward, they said publicly that we support you. They said it twice during the negotiations and formally. So you cannot see with one eye.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: So that is what is happening. They see only what they want to. They hear what they want to hear and they ignore the other stand from the same government.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think America misunderstands Iran?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: They misunderstand the region, definitely. And that sometimes is normal because it is different culture very far away.
But after the 11th of September, at least after the 11th of September, you should learn more about what is happening behind the ocean. It is not about what you think. It is about what we think. They have to understand the society, the culture in this region, and in the rest of the world that this region, because it is complicated.
CHARLIE ROSE: What is this they don’t understand, those in Washington about the region, about the culture, about Syria’s role, about Iran?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: They don’t understand that we want peace. But if you want peace, it doesn’t mean -- if you want to sign a peace treaty, it doesn’t mean we accept to sign capitulation agreement. That’s what they don’t understand. There is a big different between capitulation agreement, that is I'm talking about the perception in our region, how we see it, and peace treaty.
Peace treaty means having all your rights. This is the second about Iran, the nuclear issue. The nuclear fight is about Iran having the right to have peaceful nuclear reactor! You cannot deal with Iran through the Security Council through threats.
And the evidence that they didn’t understand this recent agreement between Turkey, Brazil, and Iran. And I told the official that I met recently from Europe after that agreement that this agreement is the proof that the west didn’t understand this region, because Turkey and Brazil succeeded in getting what the world has been asking for during the last year in a few weeks, because they understand this region and they adopted different approach, which is dialogue, not threat, not imposing.
CHARLIE ROSE: Their interpretation of what happened between Iran and Turkey and Iran and Brazil is that it’s just another effort by Iran to delay sanctions so that they can get on with building a nuclear capacity.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: You mean about the 1,200 kilogram?
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Or about the agreement.
CHARLIE ROSE: The agreement was intended to delay sanctions and nothing more.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Iran didn’t talk about sending or making an agreement, sending uranium abroad. The five countries plus one asked for this and that’s what Iran did. So they talked about it.
You can keep saying that whatever we do, whatever Iran does, you have suspicion about Iran. But the international relation is about -- is not about trusting. It’s about mechanism. You have mechanism. And this mechanism is in the agency, IAEA agency.
And you have the NP-3 treaty, nonproliferation treaty. That’s what you can depend, not the trust. You don’t have to trust. Trust is something personal. But if you talk about the relation, international relation, it’s about mechanism, and you have the mechanism. So whether it is trust Iran or doesn’t trust it is not the issue.
CHARLIE ROSE: But it is the issue that if Iran had nuclear ability for a nuclear weapon, it would destabilize the region.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: That’s why you need the mechanism of the IAEA. That their role is to make sure that this is for civil, not military program.
CHARLIE ROSE: But they say the Iranians have mislead them. The IAEA says Iran has misled us and did not give us the information we needed.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: That happened when they moved the five from the IAEA to the Security Council. But before that, at the very beginning of the issue, remember, there was cameras by the IAEA was set up inside the nuclear reactors.
So when the problem started, particularly because of Bush’s intention, bad intention toward Iran, this is where the problem started. Now I think they have to do two things. Take it away from the Security Council, because if you take any action against Iran, there will be no solution, I think it going to be --
CHARLIE ROSE: In other words, if the Security Council imposes sanctions, you think what?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Iran said publicly a few days ago that if they don’t accept this agreement, and they go to the Security Council, they will withdraw from the agreement. And if they withdraw from the agreement, thus means the problem will be more complicated, and that means there will be no solution.
CHARLIE ROSE: So therefore we should be supportive, not engage in sanctions from the U.N. Security Council --
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Of course.
CHARLIE ROSE: -- and be supportive of the agreement between Iran and Brazil and Iran and Turkey?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Exactly. That is what I mean by going back to the agency.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you believe Iran wants nuclear weapons?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: No.
CHARLIE ROSE: You don’t?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: No.
CHARLIE ROSE: Why not?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Because what would they do when you have nuclear bomb? What can you do? You cannot, is it a deterant? No.
CHARLIE ROSE: Is that what they said to you?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Yes, definitely.
CHARLIE ROSE: President Ahmadinejad says to you, the president of Syria, I do not want nuclear weapons.
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: EVERY OFFICIAL IN IRAN SAYS THAT.
CHARLIE ROSE: And you believe them?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: Of course I believe, because what to do with it? There’s nothing. I mean what is the aim to have it?
CHARLIE ROSE: Then why are they engaged in sort of in the appearance of some, the IAEA, deception, and they discover these centrifuges inside mountains that they didn’t know about?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: It is not deception. That is how you define it in the west.
Actually, the five plus one countries weren’t -- they didn’t come -- they didn’t come to Iran with good intentions. They started with saying you have to stop your program. I have the right to have civil program. Why to stop it?
Syria is suspicious. But it doesn’t matter if your suspicious or not. What are the mechanisms? You should adopt the IAEA. They started making political pressure and this is when you started, the problem started. Not because Iran started to deceive. If they wanted to deceive they wouldn’t have allowed them to have cameras inside the reactors.
CHARLIE ROSE: But you do believe that if Iran had a nuclear weapon, it would destabilize the region?
BASHAR AL-ASSAD: We are against any nuclear weapons in the region. We have a Syrian draft in the Security Council since 2003, about freeing the Middle East from any WMDs, of course including Israel, but we do not talk about Iran destabilizing the region if they have -- if you presume that they are going to have nuclear bomb, something I don’t believe in, while ignoring Israel.
Israel started this problem. Israel is the only country who has nuclear bombs in the region, not Iran." - Rose bdcst 5/28/10
Amy Goodman & DemocracyNow in the set-up piece of Israeli intentions against flotilla - 5/27/10
"A showdown is looming in the Mediterranean Sea as a flotilla of nine humanitarian aid ships approaches the Gaza Strip in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade. Israel is vowing to repel the Free Gaza Movement’s 'Freedom Flotilla' after stopping at least three other sailings since January 2009. The ships are expected to reach the Gaza coastline by Friday. Israeli spokesperson Yigal Palmor vowed Israel would stop the ships.
Yigal Palmor: 'This is not in the cause--for the cause of the Palestinian people, not for the cause of peace. This is just for the cause of provocation by people who care not about humanitarian aid or about the prospects of peace. And if they try to force their way into Gaza, after they have been warned time and again not to do so, after they have been warned that this is against international law, well, then they will have to be stopped.'
The flotilla is the largest to attempt to reach the Gaza Strip since Israel imposed the blockade on the coastal territory three years ago." - 5/27/10
Tom Friedman sets-up Israeli response to humanitarian mission.
*** As Ugly As It Gets ***
An appropriate appellation for the Jewish Friedman's support of the abuse of Palestinians by Netanyahu's rogue State of Israel
"Is there anything uglier than watching Democrats sell out other Democrats to a Holocaust-denying, vote-stealing Iranian thug just to tweak the U.S. and show that they, too, can play at the big power table?
No, that's about as ugly as it gets.
Experts (Israelis?) say it would only take months for Iran to AGAIN amass sufficient quantity for a nuclear weapon." - Friedman N Y Times 5/26/10
Relate to Steven Rosen & Daniel Pipes!!!
There is some positive "Hard News" as one searches through the Republican bias in the Media/Press. The 5/22/10 David Leonhardt piece ( "Economic Score" ) in the 5/22/10 N Y Times' Business Day: "With the Senate's passage of financial regulation, Congress and the White House have completed sixteen months of activity that rival any other since the New Deal (President Franklin Delano Roosevelt!) in scope or ambition. . . .the new progressive period has the makings of a generational shift in how Washington operates." Of course the Republican Party and its minions in our media will be Hell-bent (an appropriate allegory) to characterize the progress as dangerous regression.
Specific positive examples through the almost eighty year period are:
* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the G. I. Bill in 1944 -
* President Lyndon B. Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 -
* President Barack Obama signing Health Care Reform March 23, 2010 -
One of the failures during the same period is the monstrosity, still unfolding, of the Jewish dispossession of the peoples of Palestine, primarily Palestinians, a result of the Jewish American mindless control of the Senate (etc.) of the United States of America! The Jewish/Israeli threat to the rest of the world was broached by Amy Goodman's DemocracyNow 5/24/10.
* "Report: Israel Offered Nukes to Apartheid South Africa
The Guardian newspaper has published secret South African documents revealing that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the South Africa apartheid regime. In 1975, South Africa’s defense minister, P.W. Botha, asked Israel’s then-Defense Minister Shimon Peres for nuclear warheads. Peres, who is now Israel’s president, responded by offering warheads "in three sizes." The South African documents show that the apartheid-era military wanted the nuclear missiles as a deterrent and for potential strikes against neighboring African states. South Africa did not go ahead with the nuclear deal in part because of the cost. The documents were first uncovered by Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of the new book 'The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa'. The documents provide new evidence that Israel has nuclear weapons despite its policy of "ambiguity" in neither confirming nor denying their existence." -DemocracyNow 5/24/10
- This is an item that will be excluded from the analysis of the heralded international BBC offering, "World, Have Your Say."
An example of the mindless Media/Press of THIS nation was the aging matron of ABC (heard also on NPR) "Cokie" Roberts on the 5/23/10 "This Week", criticizing President Barack Obama for attempting to halt Israeli "settlers" from forcing Palestinians from land and residences they have inhabited for centuries!
There is a breakthrough, of sorts. In Gary Trudeau's 5/23/10 Doonesbury he has an Afghani General asking: "Do you think it matters that the rebels are Jewish?", this after a Public Relations pro suggests calling the Taliban "the Berzerki Taliban", after which the senior Public Relations pro responds: "Okay. Then how about the Berzerki Talmudi [i.e. the Mishnah and the Gemara, the first of which is never followed by Israel (certainly not under Netanyahu), and therefore, the latter, Gemara, is rendered inoperable.]? It just has to SOUND bad." This will cause Ellie Wiesel (rhymes with weasel) to call his attorneys. . ., as will any attempt to reintroduce to television the 1977 blockbuster "Jesus of Nazareth" with the stellar cast of Anne Bancroft, Ernest Borgnine, James Earl Jones, James Mason, Sir Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Anthony Quinn, Ralph Richardson, Rod Steiger, Peter Ustinov and others, and the superb performance by Robert Powell as Jesus, as well as the original music by the incomparable Maurice Jarre.
But the Republicans are ever-active, particularly in Bush 41 & Bush 43's Texas!
- "Texas School Board to Vote Textbook Revisions
BY Michael Brick -
AUSTIN, Texas -After facing months of protest, conservative members of the Texas Board of Education were expected Thursday night to vote to teach schoolchildren a version of American history that emphasizes the roles of capitalist enterprise, the military, Christianity and modern Republican political figures.
Once a decade, the board members rewrite hundreds of pages of guidelines known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, the blueprint for standardized tests used to judge teachers, principals and entire schools. Last year, conservatives on the board changed the state science curriculum to undermine the teaching of evolution, cell formation and the Big Bang.
Board members planned to add language requiring high school students of the civil rights movement to 'describe the ("positive"?) role of individuals such as governors George Wallace, Orval Faubus, and Lester Maddox and groups, including the Congressional bloc of southern Democrats, that sought to maintain the status quo.'
In another passage, the board would require students to explain the roles of 'Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the National Rifle Association.'" - Brick Austin N Y Times 5/21/10.
- Major Item: N Y Times Page A-10 5/17/10
- "Brazil and Turkey Say A Nuclear Deal With Iran Is Near
by Alexei Barrionuevo & Sebnem Arsu (and David Sanger from WASHINGTON)
SÃO PAULO - Brazilian and Turkish government officials said Sunday that their leaders had brokered a tentative compromise with Iran in the international standoff over Iran’s nuclear program, a development that could undermine efforts in the UNITED NATIONS (?) to impose new sanctions on the Iranians.
Israel...and the UNITED STATES!
But the blessing of Turkey and Brazil for such a swap agreement could put the Obama administration in the awkward position of appearing (?) to take an unreasonably hard line.
Huh?
On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton predicted (?)
insisted!
...that Mr. da Silva’s mediation effort would (?)
Must!
...fail. She said Iran could be forced to prove its nuclear program was peaceful only with a new round of United Nations sanctions. (?????). - Barrionuevo & Arsu & DAVID SANGER 5/17/10
- The so-called "Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations 'fund'" published a full-page ad in the 5/12/10 N Y Times (A-9) which besmirched the memory of the courageous Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel 1974-77 & 1992-November 4, 1995 (an Israeli Day of Infamy) by omitting that he was a genuine Israeli military hero AND peacemaker, assassinated by the acolyte of Benjamin Netanyahu, Yigal Amir, and that Prime Minister Rabin's killing was heralded by the so-called neocons (Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Bernard-Henri Levy, etc.) with their "A Clean Break (the killing of Rabin): A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (Israel)", the first step of which was the elimination of Saddam Hussein. This is included in Mr. Bamford's A Pretext For War, and is the key to the bloody turmoil which continues in Iraq, and is about to escalate in Afghanistan. You can not force the Islamic nations of the Middle East to accept the Israeli abuse of Palestinians. And now that one of its own, eleven year old Israeli Daniel Yuval, has lost a leg to one of the TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY THOUSAND LAND MINES that Israel has planted along its borders, following its conquests of June 1967 [Finally, a rendition of that outrage, by Ethan Bronner in the 5/13/10 N Y Times A-12 (no mention on the front page or page two "Inside The Times")], an issue that has not, until now, been covered by our Media/Press. There may be hope for the Middle East, thanks to the Presidency of Barack Obama. As to the price?....
- Encouraging News on Two Fronts
* NOAM CHOMSKY exposes Israeli/U.S. Nuclear Charade -
Israel Blocks Noam Chomsky from Entering West Bank
The Israeli government has blocked MIT professor Noam Chomsky from entering the West Bank. Chomsky, who is Jewish, was scheduled to speak in the West Bank at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Chomsky was denied entry after being questioned for three hours. Chomsky has been a longtime critic of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. On Sunday, Noam Chomsky spoke to Al Jazeera about why he had been refused entry.
Noam Chomsky: "There were two basic points. One was that the government of Israel does not like the kinds of things I say. The second was that they seemed upset about the fact that I was just going to--I was taking an invitation from Bir Zeit, and I had no plans to go on to speak in Israeli universities, as I have done many times in the past."
AMY GOODMAN: Noam Chomsky has been denied entry into the West Bank by Israel. The world-renowned linguist and political thinker was scheduled to deliver a lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah and was scheduled to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. On Sunday afternoon, he was stopped by Israeli border guards at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan. After three hours of questioning, Chomsky’s passport was stamped with "Denied Entry." His daughter, Professor Aviva Chomsky--she teaches at Salem State College--was also denied entry.
No reason was initially given for the decision, but the Interior Ministry later told Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz that officials were now trying to get clearance from the Israel Defense Forces. Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Haddad told Ha’aretz, quote, "We are trying to contact the military to clear things up, and if they have no objection, we see no reason why he should not be allowed in." (Lots Of Luck).
NOAM CHOMSKY: The reasons are quite straightforward. I’ve spoken at Bir Zeit University before, but in every prior occasion, it was a side trip, when I was visiting Israel and giving talks at Israeli universities. This time differs in one respect. I was--I had an invitation from Bir Zeit, and I accepted it gladly, as in many other cases, and I had no intention of going on to speak in Israel as well this time. That’s the only difference. So, essentially, what Israel is saying is that they insist on the right to determine who is allowed to just visit a Palestinian university at their invitation and talk. - Goodman & Chomsky 5/17/10
* CONTINUED *
YOUR MINDS
- "Sex & Drugs & the Spill
'Obama’s Katrina': that was the line from some pundits and news sources, as they tried to blame the current administration for the gulf oil spill. It was nonsense, of course. An Associated Press review of the Obama administration’s actions and statements as the disaster unfolded found 'little resemblance' to the shambolic response to Katrina -- and there has been nothing like those awful days when everyone in the world except the Bush inner circle seemed aware of the human catastrophe in New Orleans.
Yet there is a common thread running through Katrina and the gulf spill -- namely, the collapse in government competence and effectiveness that took place during the Bush years." - Paul Krugman N Y Times 5/10/10
CONTINUED
- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran had "Charlie" Rose for brunch in "Charlie's" interview with him, telecast on NPR 5/4/10, but, of course, "Charlie's" at a disadvantage. His role is to defend the indefensible, and the record of Israel threatening the other nations in the Middle East is over sixty years (including the 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 massacre of the citizens of Gaza) and continues to this day. Mr. Ahmadinejad did not make an issue of it, but he did, with subtle elegance, lay out the recent, since 1953, strife which Iran has suffered at the hands of the western powers (Did you know that France's Sarkozy is of Jewish heritage and, thus, a constant threat to Iran?), which powers have also inserted and emboldened Israel in its occupation of Palestine.
- The New York Times lends a hand -
" In a Neighborhood of Jerusalem
To the Editor:
Just last month, about 40 ultra-right-wing Israelis, you report, marched through a mainly Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, 'waving Israeli flags in a demonstration of Israeli sovereignty (over Jerusalem)' ('March on East Jerusalem Stirs Anger as Envoy Visits,' news article, April 26). Israeli opposition came from the Israeli prime minister’s office and a settlement group, with Israeli leftist and international activists joining Palestinian counterdemonstrators.
A representative of Fatah, you report, said this was proof that Israel did not have sovereignty there, asking, 'Where else in the world would you need 2,000 armed, fully equipped police officers to secure a failed march of 70 of your own citizens in an area that you claim as your capital?'
It’s time for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rethink its policy of refusing, in a negotiated settlement, to concede East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. Jerusalem could be divided into two capitals -- Jewish areas to the Jews and Arab areas to the Arabs.
Maybe then Kai Bird’s Arab neighbors will be able to seek restitution for their claim (along with Jews who were forced to leave Arab countries after the 1948 war). - Seymour Reich New York 5/3/10
The writer is a former Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Here a paragraph from Neil MacFarquhar's N Y Times article (page A-13) 5/4/10 - headlined "At U.N., Ahmadinejad Accuses U.S. of Fostering an Arms Race (i.e. the constant threat from Israel and the West, against Iran, is, frankly so provocative as to ENCOURAGE nuclear weaponry!).
"Although Israel does not take part in the nonproliferation treaty, its arsenal, estimated at 100 to 200 warheads, has overshadowed the conferences in recent years. Egypt and other non-nuclear nations have refused to endorse stricter inspections and other global measures as long as Israel remains outside the treaty.
A compromise worked out in 1995 called for a special conference on creating a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East, but it has never been convened. Egypt is again demanding that gathering. The United States position has been that such a treaty can be worked out only after a comprehensive Middle East peace plan." - MacFarquhar N Y Times 5/4/10
- A Most Timely Exposure Series -
On page A-19 of the 4/29/10 N Y Times is the latest article on one "Rabbi" Sholom Rubashkin of the ill-famed Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, one of the largest kosher meatpacking plants in the country. .before they were closed down when the government learned they were operating on the backs of the low pay-ranges of illegal immigrants, nearly three hundred of whom "served federal prison sentences of five months for identity theft, and, in addition, several human resources managers and floor supervisors were convicted of felony charges of harboring illegal immigrants". The article is dominated by a 5-1/4" X 7" photo of Rabbis "from around the country" praying "outside Federal District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa." These people have no shame, AND A FULL-PAGE AD IN THE 4/30/10 N Y TIMES (A-11) GIVES FURTHER EVIDENCE.
But first "Rabbi" Rubashkin. Rubashkin "...used $300,000 in Agriprocessors' funds to pay his credit card bills, $200,000 to remodel his Postville home and $25,000 for jewelry". Prosecutors stated he "was living a rich lifestyle using Agriprocessors' money. He ordered employees to create false invoices and 'directed millions of dollars to be laundered through a secret bank account' in the name of Torah Education, causing more than $26 million in losses for the banks".
"ORTHODOX JEWISH LEADERS HAVE LED A CAMPAIGN IN SUPPORT OF MR. (RABBI!) RUBASHKIN, AND MORE THAN 16,000 PEOPLE SIGNED A PETITION FROM A JEWISH WEBSITE TO JUDGE READE."
- Focusing Jewish Websites
The very next day, 4/30/10, a full-page "Dark" ad in the N Y Times revisited a foreign affairs issue which has been led by the Times' David Sanger, the provocative charge that Iran represents an "existential" threat to the Middle East, Sanger with great care avoiding the FACT that the CHARGE is right out of the playbook of Israel, not unlike Israel's pressure on the illegitimate incoming Bush administration's hazardous decision in its first few months of 2001 to go to war against Iraq, out of deference to the insistence of Jewish interests both within that new Bush administration and in Israel, a position which confounded such principals as the new Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill, as well as the new Secretary of State Colin Powell, and, most importantly, the Counter Terrorism Chief from the outgoing Clinton/Gore administration, Richard Clarke.
[ We're familiar with Mr. Clarke because in a book review of his latest work on cyberwarfare, Michiko Kakutani reminds us of his 2004 "Against All Enemies", a companion work to James Bamford's 2004 "A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies", which Miss Kakutani also selected for review. Both 2004 works speak directly to what follows. ]
Regarding the page A-11 "advertisement", a classic example of Jewish overreach, the piece was headlined "HOW DO WE STOP IRAN FROM DEVELOPING NUCLEAR WEAPONS AND FUNDING TERROR?", this from representatives of a country, Israel, which has and continues to terrorize a country, Palestine, which, like Iran, has never terrorized anybody in the Middle East. In fact, Iran merely intends to develop nuclear power, which is, somehow, threatening to the Jews. Here is a listing of the signatories, the mouthpiece rogues' gallery, if you will, for Netanyahu's Israel, timing this onerous and fallacious ad for the opening of the world conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty:
AIPAC (The American Israel "Public" Affairs Committee), Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (Do they have similar "Conferences" in Great Britain, France and Germany?), JCPA (Jewish Council for Public Affairs), The Jewish Federations of North America, AJC (American Jewish Committee), ADL (Anti-Defamation League), Union for Reform Judaism, Orthodox Union, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Jewish Reconstructionist Federation, HADASAH, NCJW (National Council of Jewish Women), American Jewish Congress, Women's League for Conservative Judaism, B'nai B'rith International, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, CEJL (Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life).
We can remember a congenial exchange a few years back discussing with a very prominent and forthright progressive Rabbi in a major West Coast city, at a time when the United States was embroiled in one of its sporadic political challenges (not unlike the present), we were stunned to hear this gentleman hesitate when the subject arose as to his personal loyalty regarding his allegiance, to the United States, or to Israel. However, we question today as to whether his signature would be among those listed above.
William Broad and David Sanger, taking the lead, but with some acknowledgment of world concern, regarding the meeting in New York on the subject of Nuclear Non-Proliferation. Messrs. Broad & Sanger do acknowledge what is today world-wide concern with Israel, as follows:
"Iran and some other nations at the United Nations Conference, including Egypt have a different agenda: To force the region's one nuclear-weaponed state, Israel, to acknowledge its atomic arsenal, and sign on to the Non-Proliferation Treaty." - Broad & Sanger N Y Times 5/3/10
There seems to be some hope, for the Middle East.
Peter Baker has broached a foreign policy outrage in the 4/24/10 N Y Times (page A-6) that is close in venality to the Eisenhower Dulles brothers 1953 overthrow of the democratically elected Premier of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh.
"Two giant American accounting firms, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst & Young, disclosed this week that they no longer had any affiliation with Iranian firms, becoming the latest in a string of companies to publicly shun the Islamic republic. After a similar decision by KPMG this month, that leaves none of the Big Four audit firms with any ties to Iran."
These are the same accounting firms which gave "Triple A" ratings to the worthless and misnamed toxic "derivatives" (misnamed because the term if correctly applied would indicate that "derivatives", i.e. proprietary trading, had some value). Not so. And now, these same accounting/rating firms which created the world financial crisis, probably in an effort to redeem themselves within the Jewish dominated western financial system, feel obligated to attack Iran, which Israel calls an "existential" threat because it has an enriched society of friendly people (view the Rick Steves' DVDs on Iran) with an historic past and the foresight to develop nuclear power, much as President Barack Obama has called for.
In the meantime, the Media/Press won't tell you, so we will. What follows, except for today's intransigent Israel (The intransigence began in 1948), is a mere repeat of 1993-94, when Rush Limbaugh slithered onto the scene. His radio propaganda buried the Democrats, and Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the House. Limbaugh lied then, he's lieing now. And the so-called Tea Party is made up of Limbaugh and Glenn Beck listeners, egged on by Sarah Palin, and the man who would have put her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, John Sidney McCain III. And Republicans say that Obama should move on, no longer reference the eight years of George W. Bush, who created this God-awful mess? Are you taken in by this? We're fortunate to have a man in office who can get us out of this mess, President Barack Obama. This is our great country we're talking about! We're better than this particular Republican Party of "No"! Lend a hand!
[ But keep in mind "Israel and the Occupied Territories", as does Amy Goodman -
- Clashes Follow Israeli Settler March in Palestinian Neighborhood -
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, clashes erupted in East Jerusalem Sunday after a group of Israeli settlers held a march through the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan. Organizers say they called the rally to affirm Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
- Israeli Troops Shoot Protesters in Gaza -
Meanwhile in Gaza, two Palestinians and a Maltese activist were wounded Saturday after Israeli troops opened fire during a protest. The activist, Bianca Zamet, is a member of the International Solidarity Movement, which has long been targeted by Israeli troops.
Bianca Zamet: “I was filming myself, documenting. They shot--they shot Nidal in the leg, and they shot Hind in the stomach. We were only carrying Palestinian flags on Palestinian land. And this is something--it’s not the first time. It’s been happening, and we will continue to go, no matter what.” - DemocracyNow 4/26/10 ]
But we do have a national major fault today, which overrides our bipolar political philosophies and should be addressed. It is interesting that on the first page of their Arts section The New York Times 4/22/10 runs Janet Maslin's review of Hampton Sides' book on the assassination 4/4/68 of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray, a book that includes nothing on the obvious conspiracy which existed in the killing, given J. Edgar Hoover's palpable hatred of Dr. King and the Bureau's round-the-clock surveillance of King which would have necessarily included Mr. Ray, who was primed to eliminate the Reverend at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, a murder plot which was expedited on April 4, 1967 when Dr. King, in his last address at the Riverside Church in New York, related our war against Vietnam to the Civil Rights being violated of those young men subject to the draft without the connections of, say, a George W. Bush who was ushered into the Texas Air National Guard (to avoid the draft), and then, at one point, disappeared from active service, apparently disoriented from a bout with cocaine. Although the N Y Times' Ms. Maslin includes none of this (it is a subject that should be investigated), both she and Mr. Sides focus "some ancillary figures either hidden or overlooked" including an "illicit companion of Dr. King." And Miss Maslin informs us that Mr. Sides' book "arrives in conjunction with a PBS documentary" to be broadcast May 3rd. It is notable that precisely one year, to the day, following Dr. King's declaration at Riverside Church, he was felled by the shot from James Earl Ray.
All of this brings to mind a notorious coverup by the American Media/Press and journalism, from top to bottom, that has existed now for almost forty seven years, and this is for openers. Lyndon Baines Johnson was an infamous womanizer who had a long-term mistress Madelaine (Sp) Brown, with whom he fathered a son, Steven, now deceased, Ms. Brown who reported in later years that on the fateful November '63 trip to Texas Johnson confided to her that "they wouldn't have to worry about the Kennedy boys any longer."
One wonders if that is the hold which Rush Limbaugh has over today's Media/Press? There can be no other reason that our media would be so fearful of this Limbaugh character.
In addition, it is known that Johnson, outrageous as president, had attempted to order the widowed Jaqueline to Washington, under the guise of "I want to be a father to those children"!
Years ago, when Larry King had his radio talk show [if you got thru - you got on], and his guest was Jack Valenti, Johnson's 2nd banana in their nighttime antics in the Oval Office (Valenti was later given the presidency of the Motion Picture Association of American, which is why the only films coming out of Hollywood, mostly for television, depicted John and Robert Kennedy as such lackluster characters. There is one film, ABC's 1971 Missiles of October starring William Devane and Martin Sheen, which is worthwhile viewing.). To continue, when we got Valenti on the line and asked him about Ms. Brown and Steven, King hung up and then profusely apologized to the silent Valenti. This issue covers the assassination of President Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Johnson's Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and much more. Perhaps we need another "Timely Exposure".
AUTHENTIC
"(key excerpts) The essential question for Israel is. .whether Netanyahu remains the arrogant rejectionist that he was in the nineteen-nineties,...
[ The PBS NewsHour moguls Howard and Arlene Schnitzer, who control the OPB franchise (Oregon Public Broadcasting), under the Schnitzers OPB is that one NPR/PBS franchise, particularly the NPR radio segment, which has been successful in leading the way removing most of the "Hard News" on NPR and PBS, again, particularly regarding Israel ("Hard News" which is so essential for an informed American public), it's the Schnitzers who early on, and with much fanfare, brought Netanyahu to Oregon! ]
...the loyal son of a radical believer in Greater Israel, forever settling scores with the old Labor e'lites and making minimal concessions to ward off criticism from Washington and retain the affections of his far-right coalition partners.
Without the creation of a viable contiguous Palestinian state. .and with East Jerusalem as its capital, it is IMPOSSIBLE to imagine a Jewish and democratic future for Israel." - David Remnick Editor The New Yorker 3/29/10.
[ In a comprehensive one hour 4/6/10 NPR interview with David Remnick on his Michiko Kakutani reviewed biography The Bridge, of President Obama (N Y Times 4/6/10), "Charlie" Rose asked not one question on Mr. Obama's singularly most courageous stand, so far, of his presidency: Confronting the outrageous behavior of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu toward Israel's major benefactor during its brief, sixty-year existence, without which it could not have survived. The United States of America, and its gift of some $100+ billion$ of dollar$! As noted just above, Mr. Remnick himself was courageous in his stand (Quoted above) as expressed in the 3/29/10 The New Yorker. Mr. Rose might have noted Mr. Remnick's stand except for the fact that "Charlie" is a Netanyahu Jew, as he illustrated in his one hour interview with the President's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on PBS 4/20/10. Enough of "Charlie" as "the fourth Emanuel brother."
- Another Timely Exposure -
Again, The New York Times (4/20/10 page A-9) won't tell you "the rest of the story", so we will.
- Headline "MEMO FROM JERUSALEM - Mood Is Dark As Israel Marks Its 62nd Year As a Nation. A new BBC poll of how people around the world regard other countries puts Israel among those least favorably viewed, including Iran, North Korea and Pakistan."
- The Rest of the Story -
"Lebanon's Leader Rejects Israeli Accusations That Syria Gave Hezbollah Missiles
Robert Worth - Beirut - Lebanon’s prime minister has dismissed Israeli accusations that Syria had been providing Scud missiles to the Hezbollah militia in his country, comparing them to (Israel's) CLAIMS THAT IRAQ HAD UNCONVENTIONAL WEAPONS BEFORE THE AMERICAN-LED INVASION IN 2003.
The prime minister, Saad Hariri, made his comments late Monday during a state visit to Italy. They were Lebanon’s first official comments about the accusations, made last week by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres. Mr. Hariri’s comments, though aimed to quell anxiety, hinted at Lebanon’s unease over its possible role as a battleground if rumors of a regional war should be realized.
'At the start of the summer season, they make such threats,' Mr. Hariri told a group of Lebanese citizens living in Rome, in comments published Tuesday by Al Mustaqbal, the newspaper of his political movement. 'All this is similar to what (ISRAEL) SAID PREVIOUSLY ABOUT THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION IN IRAQ, THAT WERE NEVER FOUND.'
Syria and Iran are widely believed to have significantly rearmed Hezbollah since the group’s July 2006 war with Israel, which devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure and left more than a thousand Lebanese and several dozen Israelis dead. - Worth N Y Times 4/21/10
"A Few Wishes on Israel's Birthday" N Y Times 4/21/10
To the Editor:
The glum mood in Israel is encouraging in that it may be an indication that Israelis are finally waking up to the fact that they cannot continue to take American support for granted despite Israel’s deplorable and unlawful treatment of Palestinians.
Nearly half a century of unconditional American support for Israel has resulted in widespread Israeli settlement expansion and complicated prospects for Palestinian emancipation and Middle East peace. It’s time for America to take a more evenhanded approach that offers Israel more incentive to compromise on a meaningful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. - Ken Galal San Francisco 4/20/10
To the Editor:
Your article about what Israelis felt during their Independence Day does not seem to quote any Israeli Arabs. Or do they not count, even though they make up roughly 20 percent of the population?
Maybe the mood will brighten when everyone over there can celebrate Palestinian Independence Day. - Robert Haufrecht New York 4/20/10
- The Rest of the Story Continues -
RIFT WITH U.S. NOT GOOD FOR ISRAEL: EHUD BARAK
Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defense Minister, has urged Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, to end the rift with Washington over settlement policy.
This was because the crisis, which is now entering its fifth week, was damaging the Jewish state.
"We shouldn't delude ourselves," Mr. Barak said yesterday. "The growing alienation between us and the United States is not good for the state of Israel."
In his first intervention since the dispute began, Mr. Barak increased the pressure on Mr. Netanyahu by predicting that Israel would be isolated unless it ended its 43-year occupation of the West Bank.
"The world isn't willing to accept the expectation that Israel will rule another people for decades to come. It's something that doesn't exist anywhere," he said.
Despite intense pressure from the United States, Mr. Netanyahu has shown little inclination to yield to demands from President Barack Obama designed to breathe new life into peace efforts.
In an interview with ABC television in Washington yesterday, he poured cold water on the notion of any dramatic new U.S. peace plan.
He argued Israelis and Palestinians would have to negotiate towards a final settlement, not work off a new document defining the eventual parameters for a Palestinian state.
"I don't believe anyone will seriously think that you can impose peace. Peace has to come from the parties sitting down with each other, resolving their differences," he said.
"You can't end the peace negotiation unless you begin it. I am for beginning it right now," added the Israeli leader, who has been involved in a public test of wills over Jewish settlements in Jerusalem with Mr. Obama.
There is debate over whether apparently carefully placed leaks on this theme in The Washington Post and The New York Times this month augur a new approach, are meant to pressure Israel or are just a sign of U.S. impatience.
What is clear however, is that prospects for any fresh U.S. strategy are darkened by hostility between the two sides, the American spat with the Israeli government and splits in Palestinian politics.
Arab leaders have ruled out new peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in the absence of a full settlement freeze in the West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, a notion the Netanyahu government has rejected.
Mr. Netanyahu's intransigence is partly driven by fear of alienating the right-wing of his coalition, which is deeply opposed to making concessions to the Palestinians. - Adrian Blomfield The Daily Telegraph 4/20/10
with files from Agence France-Presse ]
- "Bibi" Ups the Ante Early -
"Israeli Premier Cancels Plan to Attend Nuclear Security Meeting in Washington
Concerns over possible questions about Israel's arsenal
JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has canceled his plans to attend the Nuclear Security summit meeting in Washington next week and will send a minister in his place, Israeli and American government officials said Thursday.
THE OFFICIAL DECLINED TO EXPLAIN THE LAST-MINUTE CANCELLATION. BUT ISRAELI NEWS MEDIA REPORTED THAT THE PRIME MINISTER FEARED THAT MUSLIM STATES WERE PLANNING ON USING THE OCCASION TO RAISE THE QUESTION OF ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR ARSENAL. ISRAEL IS WIDELY BELIEVED TO BE THE ONLY NUCLEAR ARMED POWER IN THE MIDDLE EAST, BUT IT REFUSES TO DISCUSS THE ISSUE AND HAS DECLINED TO JOIN THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY.
But that issue could be further complicated if attending leaders insist on broadening the conversation to include Israel’s reported arsenal. Many Muslim countries, while acknowledging their concern over Iran’s nuclear program, have insisted that the entire region must be made nuclear free - clearly including Israel in the equation. The latest effort came at an Arab League meeting in Libya in late March.
THE ISRAELI NEWSPAPER HAARETZ ON FRIDAY QUOTED A SENIOR ISRAELI OFFICIAL AS SAYING, “IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, WE HAVE RECEIVED REPORTS ABOUT THE INTENTION OF SEVERAL PARTICIPANT STATES TO DEPART FROM THE ISSUE OF FIGHTING TERRORISM AND INSTEAD MISUSE THE EVENT TO GOAD ISRAEL” OVER THE NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY (...AS IF THE 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 ISRAELI MASSACRE OF GAZA WAS NOT AN ACT OF BRUTAL TERRORISM).
THE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER’S CANCELLATION ALSO COMES AGAINST THE BACKGROUND OF RECENT TENSIONS BETWEEN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND THE NETANYAHU GOVERNMENT OVER THE TERMS FOR RESTARTING PEACE TALKS BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS. THE UNITED STATES HAS ASKED ISRAEL TO TAKE CERTAIN STEPS, AND MR. NETANYAHU HAS YET TO RESPOND. THE MAIN DISAGREEMENT IS OVER ISRAEL’S BUILDING IN CONTESTED EAST JERUSALEM. - Bronner & Kershner N Y Times 4/9/10
- And the Followup -
"Human Rights Groups Warn Of New Powers for Israel
JERUSALEM -- A RECENTLY AMENDED MILITARY ORDER THAT ALLOWS ISRAEL TO REMOVE PEOPLE FROM THE WEST BANK if it does not recognize their legal status could lead to THE EXPULSION OF THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIANS, Israeli human rights groups warned Sunday.
The amendment -- TO A 1969 ORDER on dealings with those judged to be infiltrators of the West Bank -- was signed by military officials last October and is due to take effect on Tuesday.
In the original document, ISSUED TWO YEARS AFTER ISRAEL CAPTURED THE WEST BANK FROM JORDAN IN THE 1967 WAR, 'INFILTRATOR' was defined as a person who entered the area illegally from a neighboring Arab country. The amendment redefined the term to refer broadly to anyone who entered the West Bank 'unlawfully' or who 'does not lawfully hold a permit.' THE PERMIT REQUIRED IS NOT SPECIFIED.
- Fears of Palestinian Expulsions from the West Bank -
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, denounced the change. 'THESE MILITARY ORDERS BELONG IN AN APARTHEID STATE,' he said. 'Extensive in scope, they make it infinitely easier for Israel to imprison and expel Palestinians from the WEST BANK.'" - Kershner N Y Times 4/12/10
JEFFREY BROWN (PBS NewsHour): "On Friday, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium.
And while Iran has long maintained its nuclear programs are for peaceful energy generation, the Obama administration has pushed for tough sanctions to keep it from building nuclear weapons, something that key players, notably China, have resisted.
This afternoon, President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao discussed the issue, and, according to officials, agreed to increase pressure on Iran. No details were offered.
Iran's nuclear ambitions also play into broader fears some summit attendees have about a new arms buildup in the Middle East. Israel has long been understood to have nuclear weapons, though it maintains an official policy of ambiguity, long a sticking point in the region.
Late last week, amid reports Muslim nations might make Israel's nuke program an issue, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would send a deputy in his place." - Brown PBS 4/12/10
It is significant that on page 2 - Corrections - The New York Times (4/14/10) has noted that Chinese President Hu Jintao "did not say that China supports such sanctions" against Iran even though N Y Times' David Sanger & Mark Landler (4/13/10) gave the impression that the Chinese policy as stated by its President would indicate otherwise.
[ There is a sly saying making the rounds of the United Nations: "Some describe Israel as being the United States' 51st State. Not so, reply the Israelis. 'Were it so, we'd have only TWO Senators.'" ]
We, the people of the United States, have spent ONE TRILLION DOLLAR$ of OUR TREASURY. . .enabling, supporting. .this Jewish takeover and dispossession of Palestinians from their homeland for centuries - and Palestinians did not send any Jews to Auschwitz - not one. And now we are embroiled in battles all over the globe, as Muslims, as could have been expected, have objected to this great country empowering this rogue State of Israel, top heavy with nuclear weapons, and having become the scourge of the Middle East, while we threaten and goad the historic republic of Iran, the democratically elected republic which we overthrew in 1954, and reinstalled the hated Shah!
- The great Bill Moyers with the equally thoughtful Andrew Bacevich on Moyers' 4/9/10 Journal, soon to be cancelled by PBS.
BILL MOYERS: "With me is a man with first-hand experience of war. Andrew Bacevich served 23 years, some of them in Vietnam, before retiring from the Army. He's now professor of history and international relations at Boston University. Just this week he was at a US Army War College symposium on the highly pertinent question, 'How do we know when a war is over?' His book, 'The Limits of Power,' was a best-seller and his latest, 'Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War,' comes out this summer. Andrew Bacevich, welcome back to the Journal...
ANDREW BACEVICH (near end of interview): Well, I think the president has, he's placed down this enormous bet. A bet involves 100 thousand American soldiers.
And the deterioration of circumstances, for example, if Karzai turns out to be an unreliable ally, even that will make it extraordinarily difficult for the president to now say, 'Well, I've changed my mind. I'm going to take that, I'm going to take that bet off the table.' So in that sense, the rhetoric is not at all surprising, I think. And of course, it's historically incorrect. We quit after the Mogadishu firefight in Somalia. I think that it probably was prudent to quit. That doesn't make Somalia a great place today. We quit in Vietnam, having paid an enormous cost, to try to maintain the viability of South Vietnam. So there are times actually when it makes sense to quit.
BILL MOYERS: Should we quit in Afghanistan?
ANDREW BACEVICH: I think so. I mean again, I believe that ultimately, a sound foreign policy should be informed by an enlightened understanding of one's own interests. That's what we pay people like President Obama big money to do, to advance our collective interests, what's good for this country, this people. And the perpetuation of the war in Afghanistan is not good for this country and for our people.
BILL MOYERS: Why?
ANDREW BACEVICH: Because we are squandering our treasure. We are losing lives for no purpose. And ultimately, the perpetuation of this unnecessary war does, I think, serve to exacerbate the problems within the Islamic world (as we have attacked and invaded both Iraq and Afghanistan, for the Israelis), rather than reducing those problems." - Moyers Journal 4/9/10
To the Editor:
Picking a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens is less what you call a “complex political challenge” now, since five conservatives on the court pushed through the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in January, overturning traditional campaign financing strictures.
Clearly, the Republicans will no longer be able to accuse any nominee of this president of “judicial activism,” as the Citizens United decision takes the cake. Justice Stevens’s principled dissent from the court’s unfortunate decision sums up “activist” judges: “Five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us, so they changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law.”
I trust that the president will nominate someone with character as strong as John Paul Stevens’s. - Sudie Reid-Coles Cranston R.I. 4/11/10
"Charlie" Rose has the informed Jamal Greene to begin our discussion of the Political-Judicial battle ahead to (not replace, because it is likely that John Paul Stevens can never be replaced) to fill the vacancy of Associate Justice John Paul Stevens. The truly honorable Associate Justice Mr. Stevens, who, Thank God, was able to serve some thirty-four years, compiled an historic and truly exemplary, guided by the Constitution of the United States, record. It was Justice Stevens who aptly named the 12/12/00 Bush vs Gore decision thusly: (paraphrased) The majority 5-4 decision will be known as THAT RESOLUTION which altered the character of this court from a judicial body beholden to the Constitution of the United States, revered for two centuries as the guiding beacon for free societies everywhere, to one which responds to power, rather than the rights of the individual. Justice Stevens could not have been more perceptive. In fact, he was judiciously prescient, to which the current Court attests. Justices Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas comprise the most anti-American Court majority in over a century and further, they also represent a majority Court for the suspect "Federalist Society" (interestingly, the present Solicitor General of the United States is Jewish Elena Kagan, whose successful appointment to the Supreme Court would grant that so called "Federalist" group, a six-three Court majority).
HOST CHARLIE ROSE: Justice John Paul Stevens today announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. He had been on the court 34 years. He was known as the leader of the liberal wing. He is the fourth longest serving justice in U.S. history. He was appointed by Republican President Gerald Ford, but he was hardly beholden to conservatives. The New York Times wrote that he may be the last justice from a time when ability and independence rather than perceived ideology were viewed as a crucial qualification for seat on the court.
He dissented in the famous case of Bush versus Gore saying "although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear, it is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
Today speaking from the Rose Garden, President Obama praised Justice Stevens' contribution to the court.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He has stood as an impartial guardian of the law. He has worn the judicial robe with honor and humility. He has applied the Constitution and the laws of the land with fidelity and restraint. He will soon turn 90 this month but he leaves his position at the top of his game. His leadership will be sorely missed.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
HOST: The president also said that the search for successor had begun.
[BEGIN VIDEO CLIP]
BARACK OBAMA: While we cannot replace Justice Stevens' experience or wisdom, I will seek someone in the coming weeks with similar qualities. An independent mind, a record of excellence, an integrity, a fierce dedication to the rule of law, and a keen understanding of how the law affects the daily lives of the American people. It will also be someone who like Justice Stevens knows that in a democracy powerful interests must not be allowed to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.
[END VIDEO CLIP]
HOST: Joining me now is Professor Jamal Greene. He teaches constitutional law at Columbia Law School. He also previously clerked for Justice Stevens. I'm pleased to have him here on this program. Tell me about Justice Stevens.
JAMAL GREENE: Justice Stevens is an amazing person. He is from a different era. And I think you get that sense the second you meet him. He has a certain gentility about him, a certain -- just basic decency that I think is -- is -- tends to be lost these days. And just in terms of his jurisprudence, I think your intro was quite right that he is -- he is an independent thinker. I think, you know, he's talked of as the liberal lion on the court, the liberal icon on the court, but he really does, I think, approach each case on a case-by-case basis. I mean he really does have an independent streak.
HOST: He had an influence beyond one vote.
GREENE: I think so. I think that's absolutely. He has been on the court for 34 years. And I think even some of the conservatives on the court are able to respect that. There is a very strong norm of seniority on the court, and he is the most senior justice by a country mile. And just the kind of institutional knowledge he has is respected by judges on both sides of the court. And of course all the current kind of liberal block of the court, where we are talking about Justice Ginsburg, Justice Breyer, Justice Sotomayor-- these are the last three appointees to the court, so they are the most -- most junior members at the court. They really look up to him I think as someone who is a real leader.
HOST: How will he be missed mostly?
GREENE: You know, I think this is actually going to be a little bit of inside baseball. I actually think one of the real serious ways in which he will be missed is the cert process. This is the process where the court decides which cases it is going to accept and Justice Stevens, as -- he and now Justice Alito are the only two justices who are not part of a pool where all their clerks -- all the clerks for the other justices are in the pool -- decide or they write memos for each of the cases that -- where people are applying to get their cases heard at the court.
And Justice Stevens and Justice Alito are actually the only justices who read the -- whose chambers read each of the petitions himself. And one of the things that it does, it actually gives you an independent mind about each of the petitions. And I actually think, you know, even apart from his jurisprudence, which I think is something that is going to be missed in the court, I actually think a lot of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the court in terms of how cases get accepted is one of the ways in which he actually -- his absence will be felt quite strongly.
HOST: In terms of his jurisprudence--
GREENE: Yes.
HOST: -- where were his passions, for what issues?
GREENE: Certainly national security issues, terrorism cases. He is a World War II veteran. He was a law clerk to Wiley Rutledge, who was a major dissenter in some of the cases from World War II involving detention of what we now call enemy combatants. And I think that experience had a profound effect on him.
He has a basic sense of justice. He thinks that his job is to have a basic sense of justice. And those cases present issues of justice in the starkest possible terms. Right, these are not sympathetic characters we're talking about. But he's able to see through that. And I think he really does have a passion for those cases in part because of the way his Experiences have informed his jurisprudence.
HOST: What are the three or four cases that he wrote that were most renowned in which he wrote the majority opinion?
GREENE: Over the long career, 34 years, I think you have to say the Hamdan decision--
HOST: Yes. Exactly.
GREENE: -- which is a recent -- recent decision involving the ability of the president to establish military commissions without congressional approval. And the opinion basically says, you know, you need to get Congress' backing here, it's a separation of powers type opinion.
The opinion that gets cited the most, the most cited opinion written by Justice Stevens by far is his opinion in Chevron, which is an administrative law case, which tells us what the basic standard of review is when an agency -- an administrative agency is interpreting a federal statute, so that is a major opinion he's written.
A third -- a third case, you know, he's actually known for writing a lot of dissenting--
HOST: I was going to say that -- what are the dissents, you know?
GREENE: And so he wrote a powerful dissent of justice term in Citizens United, which is the case involving corporate campaign contributions, where the court says the first -- the corporations have a First Amendment right to engage in election expenditures. He wrote a long dissent in that case. He wrote a dissent a couple of years ago in a case called D.C. versus Heller, a Second Amendment case, big case involving gun rights, the first time the Second Amendment gets interpreted by the court in 60 years.
And he writes a sort of point-by-point rebuttal of Justice Scalia, his long-time antagonist on the court, saying you know, the original understanding of the Second Amendment was actually militia-related, not related to an individual right to bear arms. And so, those are two of certainly most recent opinions he will be remembered for.
HOST: Where was he pronounced in terms of an attitude about government separation of powers, individual liberty?
GREENE: Well, I think one case that really stands out is actually an opinion that he didn't write himself.
HOST: Yes.
GREENE: This is Lawrence versus Texas, which involved the constitutionality of a sodomy statute in Texas. Court overrules a precedent from 17 years ago, called Bowers v. Hardwick. In fact, it's written by Justice Kennedy.
This is one of the ways in which you sort of see Justice Stevens' influence in some of the other justices. Justice Kennedy writes the opinion, but he says, you know, going back to Bowers, Justice Stevens wrote a dissenting opinion, and he quotes from the dissent and says Justice Stevens was right and this should have been the governing law for the last 17 years.
And so, I think that is actually an instance where Justice Kennedy is drawing on the wisdom of Justice Stevens from actually a time before Justice Kennedy is on the court. And indeed, the same passage that's quoted in that opinion is drawn basically from an opinion Justice Stevens wrote in 1975.
HOST: How did he feel about the perception of him as a liberal judge?
GREENE: You know, I think he has always thought of himself as basically a conservative person.
HOST: Yes.
GREENE: And I think that's --
HOST: He's described himself that way in many of his profiles.
GREENE: Yeah, I know. I think that's right. And I think, I don't know that I would say that that is right as a philosophical matter in terms of the jurisprudence of the court. It is right as a matter of, you know, a conservative judge is one that takes each case one at a time. Doesn't approach cases ideologically. And I think that is what he means by conservative.
HOST: Is -- so who is the most likely judge to retire next?
GREENE: I think most people would say Justice Ginsburg.
HOST: Yes.
GREENE: She has had, you know, a history, she has had some bouts with cancer. As far as I know she is -- is very vigorous on the court. So, you know, I don't think that she is -- that, you know, my sense is that she is not particularly eager to leave the court, but if I had to put money on it, that is what I would say.
HOST: I ask the question because constitution lawyers think about these things. What judge, what change, either from retirement or death could shift the balance in the court so that decisions would have a different end?
GREENE: Well, certainly Justice Kennedy would be the first person you think of.
HOST: Right. Yeah.
GREENE: He is the .
HOST: As it was with Justice O'Connor.
GREENE: Absolutely. He's -- he's replaced Justice O'Connor as the swing justice on the court. And the term I clerked on the court was actually the 2006 to 2007 year on the court. Justice Kennedy was never in dissent in a five-four decision. So he's -- in a close case, he's always in the majority or most of the times is in the majority.
So, all these close cases we always hear about, all the close cases that come out -- come up during the confirmation hearings, these are the cases where Justice Kennedy is really deciding which direction the court goes in.
And so he is really the swing justice on the court, although I do think, you know, Justice Stevens as the senior justice of the so-called liberal block, he is the one who assigns opinions to the other justices when he's in the majority. And so the assignment of opinions actually can have an impact on the way an opinion is written and who you actually get to sign on.
You know, if you assign on an opinion to Justice Kennedy and he is kind of on the fence -- you know, he's going to write the opinion in a way that makes sure he stays in the majority. So that is a -- that's a little bit of, you know, the strategy behind opinion assignments.
HOST: Has most of the mystique of the court gone away now that we have had books written by people who've had lots of evidence and testimony from clerks and the like?
GREENE: You know, I think some of it has gone away. Although I think there is a way in which we tend to idealize courts from the past as if there weren't the same kinds of controversies.
The Supreme Court has been the subject of, you know, political controversy for most of its history. And so that's no -- that's no different. And it actually remains the case that if you compare it to the presidency and Congress, you know, more people trust the Supreme Court. More people believe in the Supreme Court, have feelings of goodwill towards the Supreme Court than other political institutions.
So, these, you know, political scientists after Bush v. Gore, which is considered the death knell to Supreme Court independence and integrity, you know, it took a year or two for opinions to go back to where they were before about the court. So I think, you know, relative to other political institutions, the court is actually doing pretty well.
HOST: Thank you.
GREENE: Thank you.
HOST: Pleasure to have you on the program. Jamal Greene is a professor at Columbia University where he teaches Constitutional Law. A graduate of Yale Law School.
- Ethan Bronner N Y Times Israel Followup 3/29/10
"As Michael Young wrote in The Daily Star newspaper of Lebanon, 'More countries than ever before see Israel as the problem.'
He added that the 'hardening perception is that Israel’s irresponsible settlement expansion plan is destroying all prospects for a mutually satisfactory accord with the Palestinians, and that the ensuing instability will harm everyone.'" - Bronner N Y times 3/29/10
[ Further Evidence -
Amy Goodman 4/2/10
"Israel is threatening to launch a new all-out offensive on the Gaza Strip after bombing several areas on Thursday. At least three Palestinian children were wounded in the Israeli strikes. Israel called the attacks a response to Palestinian rocket fire. One Palestinian rocket was fired into Israel earlier in the day, causing no injuries. Critics have warned Israel could be trying to provoke a Palestinian reaction to in turn justify a new assault on Gaza to divert attention from growing US opposition to Israeli settlement expansion on the West Bank. Earlier this week, Israel killed a Palestinian teenager and wounded several others as they took part in a nonviolent demonstration to protest discriminatory land policies. Four Palestinian teenagers were also killed in other Israeli attacks last month. Earlier today, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom warned Israel could launch 'another military operation in the near future.'" - DemocracyNow 4/2/10
And Mr. Remnick has penned "The Bridge", which Frank Rich states "portrays" the President "as steady in his blend of liberal and centrist views." - N Y Times 4/4/10 ]
- Mr. Remnick also writes of "Israeli politics" seen "in atavistic terms", i.e. lacking the characteristic advancement in societal terms [What makes this interesting is that Cox News Service published an article 3/28/10 in which a Southern Legal Resource Center in Atlanta urged self-proclaimed "Confederates" to declare themselves of a race, "Confed Southern Am", in the 2010 Census, i.e. they "won" not "lost" the Civil War, and should be duly recognized as such]. This is of particular interest in that "Charlie" Rose, on Passover 3/30/10, had the peculiar couple Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett reiterating with gusto, the tired diatribe that Iran presents a nuclear threat to the Middle East. .because they're pursuing Nuclear power for electricity(?), while Israel possesses 200+ Nuclear Weapons and refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
The Mr. Rose's Leveretts remind of a similar, but a truly ghastly political action some nine years ago in which their ethnic brethren in a position of nearly unassailable power in United States law enforcement (Remember J. Edgar Hoover?) proposed an act of unmitigated treachery against the President of the United States William Jefferson Clinton, an esteemed public servant to this day (Read Sidney Blumenthal's "The Clinton Wars.").
And all of this is but a component of the most problematic set of circumstances, political and legislative, that any president of this great nation has faced in over a century. God speed, Mr. President.
This President has been equally effective in bringing about far-reaching domestic landmarks - 2010 Health Care Reform.
- The New York Times March 24, 2010 -
The Day After
"It is worth pausing to dwell on what happened in the White House on Tuesday: President Obama, just over a year into a tumultuous presidency in which he was sometimes wrong-footed and often adrift, signed the most momentous social legislation in many years.
The health care reform law is an overdue and vital step in the construction of a social safety net, which began after the Great Depression and slowly moved forward -- often in a bipartisan manner -- until it was interrupted by the Republican Party’s radical antigovernment fervor in the late 20th century.
It was a triumph for Mr. Obama and for the Democratic leadership in Congress. If Mr. Obama draws no other lesson, it is that his early and forceful personal engagement on big issues is indispensable. He waited a perilously long time to exercise his leadership on health care, but when he did, it paid off.
It is important to keep that in mind because Mr. Obama’s victory celebration had barely ended before people were asking, “Now what?” There was speculation, in some quarters, that the energy had been drained out of Mr. Obama and his Congressional allies by the struggle against a Republican Party whose only objective seemed to be to thwart the president, no matter his objective.
But there is important business ahead -- lots of it. And while Mr. Obama deserves a break, he must build on this success, not rest on it.
First and foremost is the economy, specifically the creation of jobs. Mr. Obama offered a budget plan in February that called for cuts in discretionary spending and should have brought major Congressional action on jobs in return. After the Easter break, Congress will likely extend unemployment insurance and offer some fiscal relief to states. That may be enough for the economy to squeak through 2010, but persistently high joblessness is a plague that Congress may not confront in a comprehensive way unless Mr. Obama forces the issue.
He will also have to take the lead in improving the financial regulatory bills moving through Congress. Neither chamber’s version is adequate to fix the problems that led to the financial meltdown, and the banking lobby is working hard to render them even less effective.
Beyond jobs and financial reform -- near-term issues that will bulk large in the midterm elections -- there are longer-term issues. President Obama has promised to reform the country’s education system, and to address climate change and oil dependency by transforming the way Americans produce and use energy. In his campaign, he talked about immigration reform and restoring the rule of law to terrorist detention policies.
These are lofty objectives, and Mr. Obama may not reach them all. But the health care victory shows that big goals can be achieved -- with Mr. Obama’s personal intervention and sustained leadership.
WITH RARE EXCEPTIONS, THE REPUBLICANS ARE NOT GOING TO HELP. ANYONE WHO THINKS OTHERWISE SHOULD CONSIDER WHAT SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN OF ARIZONA SAID ON MONDAY: 'THERE WILL BE NO COOPERATION FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR.'
As shocking as that is from a man who more than once presented himself as a candidate for president, it sums up the political reality that Mr. Obama faces. Still, he should be able to sell the public at the very least on creating jobs and restraining a rapacious financial industry. The nation’s well-being depends on it." - Editorial N Y Times 3/24/10
- The American public voice -
To the Editor:
David Brooks bemoans runaway spending and questions the Democrats' ability to constrain it. But wasn't it the last Democratic president who put us on a path toward balanced budgets? And the last Republican president, working much of the time with a Republican-controlled Congress, who exploded the deficit and debt?
Mr. Brooks notes that the health care bill ''feels like the end of something.'' Maybe that's true for those who take excellent insurance plans for granted, but for many Americans this is a major step toward the most fundamental form of equality: equal access to quality health care.
Mr. Brooks is right to praise America's history of entrepreneurial freedom. Maybe now more Americans will take such capitalistic risks, knowing that they can take health insurance with them. - Bill Dawers Savannah 3/23/10
To the Editor:
The March 23 columns ''An Absence of Class,'' by Bob Herbert, and ''The Democrats Rejoice,'' by David Brooks, were a study in contrast.
Mr. Herbert rightly denounced the recent shameful and despicable conduct of Republicans and the Tea Partiers as the vote for the health care bill approached. Mr. Brooks, instead, attempted to make the case that Republicans were responsible for the economic vigor of our nation.
While many of those who owned the railroads and steel mills were doubtless Republican, it was the average Democratic laborer who drove the spikes to lay the rails and worked the mills. - Lewis J. Hardee Jr. New York 3/23/10
To the Editor:
The passing of the health care bill is neither a softhearted, softheaded ''gift of charity,'' nor the end of the liberal agenda, as David Brooks suggests, but a solid and rational basis for a new beginning.
For too long, Americans have been drunk and in denial on the magic elixir called the free marketplace. The real costs of health care were deflected by denying insurance coverage for many of the sick and the dying. As a society, we looked the other way.
Now, by outlawing such strategies, we will have to face the true costs of health care, which will probably go up, as Mr. Brooks notes. Instead of strangling us, as Mr. Brooks contends, this will stimulate the needed reforms for economic and health care efficiencies that were avoided for so long in our fog of denial. As they say in treatment of alcoholism, the first step is admitting the need for help. - Larry Deblinger Nyack, N.Y. 3/23/10
ALERT 3/15/10!
- Israeli Envoy Sees "Historic Crisis With United States" -
"The 'HISTORIC PROPORTIONS CRISIS' comments were attributed to Envoy (Israeli Ambassador to the United States) Michael Oren who clashed with Netanyahu's attempts to play down tensions with United States President Barack Obama's administration." - Reuters 3/15/10
- Above stiffed by our NBCGeneral Electric, Les Moonves' CBS & Disney ABC (?).
- Even David Brooks is aboard, with his 3/16/10 column in The New York Times, entitled "The Spirit of Sympathy":
"Group-to-group relations are more often marked by calculation, rivalry and coldness. Members of one group sometimes see members of another group as less than human: Nazi and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi, Sunni and Shiite, Israeli and Palestinian."
- And Senator Joseph I. Lieberman: “Let’s cut the family (?) fighting,” said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut. “It’s unnecessary; it’s destructive of our shared (?) national interest (?). It’s time to lower voices, to get over the family (?) feud between the U.S. and Israel. It just doesn’t serve anybody’s interests but our enemies’.”
- “The heart of the matter is whether the proximity talks are going to be productive, in the sense of opening a corridor to direct negotiations that will lead to a peace agreement,” said Martin Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel. - If Martin Indyk is involved we're in trouble!
The timing of the dispute could not be more awkward for the administration, coming a week before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC), the most influential pro-Israel lobbying group, meets in Washington. Mr. Netanyahu and Mrs. Clinton are both scheduled to speak to THE GROUP, WHICH HAS CONDEMNED THE WHITE HOUSE’S TOUGH STANCE. - Landler & Bronner N Y Times 3/16/10
- BACKGROUND -
To the Editor:
In 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that the site of the Al Aqsa Mosque situated in Arab East Jerusalem is forever Israel; the U.S. was silent. In 2003, an Israeli bulldozer crushed and killed a peaceful American protester in Gaza; the U.S. refused to investigate. In 2006, Israel used illegal weaponry (much supplied by the U.S.) and disproportionate force in escalating a border incident with Lebanon into a war; the U.S. defended Israel. In 2009, Israel bombed a confined and virtually defenseless population in Gaza; the U.S. rejected the critical assessment of a world-class jurist and every NGO in the region. On March 9, Israel announced that it would continue to dispossess Palestinians of East Jerusalem and replace them with Jewish settlers. What will we do now?
What will it take for the United States to quit financing Israel's illegal and dangerous behavior and condemn it? - ESTHER NELSON Portland Ore Newhouse West Oregonian 3/21/10
- Immediate Background -
- Israeli Military Kills 4 Palestinian Teens -
Amy Goodman: In Israel and the Occupied Territories, four Palestinian teenagers have been killed and several more wounded in Israeli military attacks on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. On Saturday, two Palestinians, aged fifteen and seventeen, were shot dead near the West Bank city of Nablus. The Israeli military says it fired rubber bullets, but Palestinian doctors say the teens were killed by live ammunition. One of the victims was shot seven times. The killings came shortly after Palestinians held a protest against a Jewish settlement that’s been accused of trying to steal a vital Palestinian water well in the village of Iraq Burin. Another two Palestinians were shot dead the next day, also near Nablus. The Israeli military said they had tried to attack an Israeli soldier. Both victims were nineteen years old. Meanwhile in Gaza, thirteen Palestinians were wounded on Friday when Israel bombed Gaza’s abandoned international airport. - Amy Goodman 3/22/10
- Israeli PM Vows Ongoing Settlement Expansion -
Amy Goodman: Amidst the attacks on the Occupied Territories, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed his vow to continue expanding settlements in occupied East Jerusalem. Speaking in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said he had sent the Obama administration a letter specifying his refusal to accept their call for a settlement freeze.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Our policy on Jerusalem is the same policy followed by all Israeli governments over the past forty-two years, and it has not changed. As far as we are concerned, building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv. These are things that we made clear to the US administration.”
Netanyahu’s vow to continue settlement building comes two days after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised him for offering what she called “useful and productive” proposals on resolving the dispute over Israeli settlements. Neither the Obama administration nor the Israeli government has released details of Netanyahu’s proposals.
- Netanyahu, Obama to Meet at White House -
Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with President Obama at the White House on Tuesday ahead of an appearance at the annual conference of the pro-Israeli government lobby AIPAC. Clinton is also scheduled to speak. Back on the West Bank, Palestinian lawmaker and physician Mustafa Barghouti said Netanyahu is deliberately undermining any remote prospects for peace.
Mustafa Barghouti: “Today Netanyahu did two major provocations. First of all, his army executed four young Palestinian civilians for no reason. They killed them in cold blood and with high-velocity bullets. And second, he declared that he’s going to continue settlement activities in East Jerusalem and in other parts of the Occupied Territories. This is a clear-cut provocation. His aim is to destroy any possibility for peace, any possibility for a Palestinian state and any possibility for a solution based on two-state solution.”
- UN Secretary-General Calls for End to Gaza Blockade, “Illegal” Settlement Building -
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has renewed calls for an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip and all settlement building on the West Bank. Speaking in Ramallah on Saturday, Ban said every Israeli settlement is illegal.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “The world has condemned Israel’s settlement expansion plans in East Jerusalem. Let us be clear: all settlement activities is illegal anywhere in occupied territory, and this must stop. The Quartet has reaffirmed it, that position.”
The next day, Ban visited the Gaza Strip, where he said the US-backed Israeli blockade has caused “unacceptable suffering.” His visit followed the release of a statement by the Quartet of the US, Russia, European Union and UN calling for an end to Israeli settlement activity and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the next two years. - DemocracyNow 3/22/10
- US, ISRAEL AT IMPASSE IN SETTLEMENT DISPUTE -
The US and Israeli governments appear to remain at an impasse after two days of talks on Israeli settlement expansion in the Occupied Territories. Israeli Prime Benjamin Netanyahu extended a stay in Washington to return to the White House on Wednesday. But Netanyahu has refused US calls for a settlement freeze, and his government even announced a new East Jerusalem settlement expansion right before the latest talks. Despite objecting to the Israeli plans, the Obama administration has not threatened any punitive measures, including the withholding of billions of dollars in US aid. At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reaffirmed his stance that Israeli settlements are illegal.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “I made it clear that all settlement activity is illegal and that inserting settlers into Palestinian communities in Jerusalem is particularly troubling. This leads to tensions and undermines prospects for addressing the final status of Jerusalem. Yesterday’s announcement that final approval has been given to build twenty settlement units in Sheikh Jarrah IS UNACCEPTABLE.” - Amy Goodman DemocracyNow 3/25/10
- Informative Interlude -
"ILLEGITIMATE POLITICS
To the Editor:
In his review of Ken Gormley’s “Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr” (Feb. 21), Richard Berke slips a major historical distortion into an otherwise fair-minded piece. Berke writes: “In retrospect, it is tempting to see the Clinton impeachment as having ushered in the feral reality of politics today. . . . In reality, the case belongs on the continuum that began with the toppling of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court, continued through the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill fracas and was followed by the contested 2000 election.”
In other words, the Democrats are to blame for the ugliness of recent years -- the Clinton impeachment; the thuggish mob atmosphere during the attempted Florida recount; the poisonous, violent rhetoric of some of the recent Tea Party protests -- all of them Republican or conservative phenomena.
Here Berke is lazily accepting what is little more than a Republican political talking point devoid of any real historical substance. Of the 151 nominations between this nation’s founding and the present, 28 nominations, nearly 20 percent, have been rejected, withdrawn or postponed in the face of opposition. The Senate’s responsibility for exercising “advice and consent” on Supreme Court nominees is a constitutionally mandated responsibility and one it has always exercised. Some nomination fights (like Bork’s) have hinged on ideological conflicts, as was the case when Republicans in the Senate mounted a filibuster to prevent the liberal Abe Fortas from becoming chief justice. Other fights (like Thomas’s) have centered on the lack of judicial qualifications, as was the case with Clement Haynsworth, whom Nixon named to replace Fortas on the court. To suggest, as Berke does, that the Bork nomination was an unprecedented event that led naturally to the Clinton impeachment is a plain historical falsehood.
The Clinton impeachment was a tear in the national social contract, something closer to a coup d’état, an attempt to unseat an elected president and, as Berke correctly points out, an event that almost certainly cost Al Gore the 2000 election. It represented something entirely different and troubling: the denial, on the part of one-half of the country, of the essential legitimacy of the other half to hold power, even if it does so with a clear majority. Despite the very real doubts about the justice and accuracy of the 2000 presidential election, Democrats, starting with a statesmanlike Al Gore, never questioned George W. Bush’s right to govern, and while deploring many of his policies never challenged his right to pursue his legislative agenda. The current wave of right-wing populism -- the “birthers,” the modern-day secessionists, the Tea Partiers who espouse “nullification” (the right to disregard and oppose, even with violence, laws they consider unconstitutional), the conspiracy theorists who insist that President Obama is plotting to destroy the American system (a belief Republicans have done much to foment and little to discourage) -- are based on that same fundamental denial of the legitimacy of elected leaders with whom they disagree." - ALEXANDER STILLE N Y Times Book Review 3/14/10
The writer is the San Paolo professor of international journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Your voice can be heard. It can make a difference. The incompetent Richard Berke is no longer an Assistant Managing Editor of the N Y Times.
- MORE BACKGROUND - Past & Present
On the PBS NewsHour 3/23/10 Jim Lehrer conducted such a pro-Republican interview on the historic health care reform legislation that President Barack Obama had just managed to pass, an historic piece of governance that had defied socially responsible American presidents for over a century, beginning with Teddy Roosevelt; Mr. Lehrer's lengthy interview with John Sidney McCain III's Arizona colleague Senator Jon Kyl is inexplicable, except as seen by the color photo centered on Page 1 of the 3/23/10 The New York Times, focusing this message, in Hebrew: "Warning! A P. L. O. (Palestinian Liberation Organization) is in the White House." And Mr. Lehrer had NO Democrat representing President Obama and his administration's position in favor of this monumental accomplishment for us, the American people (we would remind our Israeli friends that this is a democracy, the United States of America, not the apartheid State of Israel.).
Notation - It is true that the next evening he had Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, but as Mr. Lehrer makes clear weekly, conducting the David Brooks & Mark Shields political exchanges, Mr. Lehrer's sentiments lie with his political colleague Brooks (Mr. Lehrer is a product of Texas Journalism!), in spite of the inanity, i.e. superficiality, of his discourse, exhibited several times weekly in the N Y Times. The absurdity of the arguments Mr. Brooks makes, in person and in his columns, reminds of the half-hour conversation of "Charlie" Rose and the Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren. Wordy in the extreme on Mr. Oren's part, but much approved by Mr. Rose, in that the both of them intend to obfuscate what is the actual intent of the criminal government of "Bibi" Netanyahu - to occupy what is left of value in Palestine.
Notably, there are other instances in which the State of Israel has inflicted damage on the United States - The Attack on the U.S.S. Liberty! And including, the morass of patently anti-Democratic and pro-Israeli propaganda, particularly on the radio dial, which has greatly expanded its Fox News outlets {Remember. Roger Ailes created the devastating Rush Limbaugh phenomena [It was this poison which ended Bill Clinton's health care reform effort in 1994!] and was a major factor enabling George Walker Bush to steal the 2000 presidential election from Albert Gore [and it was "W's" father who put the extraordinarily unqualified Clarence Thomas on the United States Supreme Court (And placed Dan Quayle a heartbeat away from the Oval Office, almost as vicious a selection as John Sidney McCain III's haphazard choice of Sarah Palin!)}. Had enough?
- First we have the position (if you can find one) of Rose & Oren (can you recall Rosen & Weissman?) nationally broadcast by "Charlie" 3/19/10
OREN: It's been an - it's been an interesting week. The United States and Israel have engaged in an intensive - negotiations. The Israeli government has met in marathon sessions to address some of the issues raised by Secretary of State Clinton in her phone call, the previous week, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and we've seen how, once again, how two friends (?) in a very close alliance can clarify differences and move forward, as you mentioned, quoting the secretary's comment. The prime minister discussed with the secretary ways in which - all parties, not just Israel, the Palestinians as well, can embark on new confidence-building measures to get these talks up and running.
That's what we want, Charlie. We want to sit opposite of table, just like you're sitting with me, opposite the Palestinians and negotiate peace.
ROSE: But the impression is, I mean, that this phone call was clearly to say: we're not happy with the way things are and we don't think you're helping with the peace process (Really, "Charlie"?).
OREN: Well, our position on Jerusalem, which is the media background to this issue, has been long established. It's not Prime Minister Netanyahu's position; it's a position that goes back to 1967. It was the position of Golda Meir. It was the position of Yitzhak Rabin (Oh? Netanyahu's virtual agent Yigal Amir killed him!). And that is that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel (That's odd. Palestinians have inhabited Arab East Jerusalem for centuries!). It has the same status under Israeli law that Tel Aviv has or that Haifa has. And we have never, in any - in any way dissembled our position; it's been made clear. At the same time, the Netanyahu government has gone further than many Israeli governments; it's taken the unprecedented step, and that was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's word, unprecedented step of unilaterally freezing new construction projects in the West Bank settlements, that's outside of Jerusalem (As everyone in the world knows the issue is Palestine's capital in Arab East Jerusalem!).
Fortunately, the welcomed antithesis of these Hucksters for Netanyahu (otherwise known as the "Huns") is available, in the person of the indomitable Norman Finkelstein! Mr. Finkelstein seems to have full command of the facts, i.e. the historical record. You be the judge.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now here in studio by scholar and writer Norman Finkelstein. He’s author of a number of books on the Israel-Palestine conflict. His latest is being released this week. It’s called This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. Norman Finkelstein is also the subject of a new documentary called American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein.
Norman, welcome to Democracy Now!
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: First, respond to what, well, both Secretary of State Clinton and the Israeli Prime Minister said, Secretary of State Clinton actually criticizing Israel. Did that surprise you?
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: It didn’t really surprise me. I think one has to look at the framework of the criticism. There is an international law ruling or opinion on the question of East Jerusalem. In July 2004, the highest judicial body in the world, the International Court of Justice, it rendered what it called its advisory opinion, and it stated unequivocally that East Jerusalem is--and I’m using its words--“occupied Palestinian territory.” It’s not a question here of conflicting claims to Jerusalem, let alone an Israeli exclusive right to the East Jerusalem. The law is clear: it’s occupied Palestinian territory, because it was acquired in the course of a war, in the course of the June 1967 war. And under international law, it’s inadmissible to acquire territory by war.
I would want to add that’s the position of all human rights organizations, and it was the position of the Goldstone report. The Goldstone report repeatedly refers to East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory. And Mr. Goldstone, by his own reckoning, is a Zionist, a lover of Israel. But he also respects the law, and the law is clear.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, let’s talk about the Goldstone report. You write about this extensively in the epilogue of your book. Israel and the US have both rejected that the war crimes allegations in the report. Talk about what the report is, who put together, Judge Goldstone, and what the reaction from the US and Israel has been.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: The Goldstone report was mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. Richard Goldstone, the distinguished international jurist, led the mission. And he--at the end, they published a quite substantial report that ran to some 500 pages, 550 pages. It covered a lot of ground. And it has to be said, it was quite devastating in its indictment of Israel. It concluded that Israel used a disproportionate force to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.
Well, Israel was outraged by the report, across the spectrum, not just the right wing, but people like Shimon Peres, who’s said to be a dove. He called Richard Goldstone a “small man” who knows nothing about international law. Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said the Goldstone report is worse than the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and worse than Ahmadinejad. And the reaction was quite similar in the United States.
And Goldstein replied after the criticism in the US. He said, “OK, you say the report is deeply flawed. Show me where.” And to this day--and I’ve read all the critiques. There have been three major ones, one by this Israeli and American professor Moshe Halbertal, there was one by Professor Dershowitz of Harvard, and the Israelis put out just last week a 500-page rebuttal. And I tried honestly to look at it objectively, but they were very insubstantial responses. I was quite impressed by how well Goldstone has held up to the criticism. It was a very careful, cautious and judicious report. - DemocracyNow 3/23/10
- CONTINUED -
Zionist or American
A segment from Tom Friedman's "Let's Fight Over A Big Plan" in 3/17/10 N Y Times at first glance intrigues, but it's just a ploy to pull us in. A typical opening sales pitch. He then channels a Gidi Grinstein, president of one of the "Premier Israeli policy research centers". Surprise! Oh, yes. "Iran's strategy. .of asymmetric warfare by Hezbollah from South Lebanon and Hamas's from Gaza." Dare we analyze? Hezbollah counters Israel's war AGAINST South Lebanon, and Israel (12/26/08 - 1/18/09) MASSACRES Palestinians penned up in Gaza!! And respected international jurist, Judge Richard Goldstone, A ZIONIST, nails Israelis for WAR CRIMES, and Israelis call him a "self-hating Jew". Friedman has this so anti-Palestinian skewed, that it is clear that he's become a hand-maiden of this essentially criminally insane "Bibi" Netanyahu! Harsh charge, but appropriate. The Israelis killed innocent women and children, and with white phosphorous munitions. That's a war crime!
What is this report all about?
Report: US Sending “Bunker Buster” Bombs to Diego Garcia
"A Scottish newspaper is reporting the US is shipping hundreds of powerful “bunker buster” bombs overseas in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. Citing details of a shipping contract reportedly signed in January, the Sunday Herald says the US is sending nearly 400 BLU-110 and BLU-117 bombs to the occupied Indian Ocean military outpost of Diego Garcia." - Amy Goodman DemocracyNow 3/17/10
- A more balanced view, without the Zionist bias of Ms. Grinstein, the ubiquitous David Brooks or Thomas L. Friedman, is provided by Mark Perry, author of "Talking to Terrorists", which may be as valuable as James Bamford's A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America's intelligence agencies.
Veteran military and foreign affairs analyst and author Mark Perry reports that CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus dispatched a team of senior military officers in January to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perry reports that the briefers told Mullen that “Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing US standing in the region.”
Guest: Mark Perry, veteran military and foreign affairs analyst and author. His latest article in Foreign Policy is The Petraeus Briefing. He is author of the new book Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies.
MARK PERRY: Well, Israel is not our only ally in the region. We have very close and strong ties with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, with all of these Arab countries. And we have troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. And if you go on the ground in these countries and you talk to the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, they’re concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I mean, it’s really--it’s hard for us to believe, but if you spend any time in the region--I spent twenty years there--this is number one on everyone’s agenda. Not the war on terror, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
So it’s true. If we can solve this problem, if we can push both sides to the table, if we can come up with some kind of a solution, this helps us immensely on the war on terror. If it doesn’t, it’s another excuse for the terrorists, the Jacobins, the hardliners, the let’s-burn-it-down-and-start-over crowd to really go up against us. This is an arrow in their quiver, and we should be able to take it away.
ANJALI KAMAT: Mark Perry, your book is Talking to Terrorists: Why America Must Engage with its Enemies. What’s your assessment of the prospect for a peace process that does not include Hamas?
MARK PERRY: I think it will fail. Hamas won the January 2000 elections in the Palestinian Authority, the most transparent, honest, fair, open elections in the history of the Middle East. They didn’t win by a little bit. They won by a lot. They retain enormous credibility inside the Palestinian territories. And they can disrupt a peace process that only includes one group of Palestinians. They’re not--this isn’t a group of graduates from a charm school. These are tough-minded political people. But they’re committed to their people, they are committed to their cause, they’re committed to democracy. We should bring them into the peace process. We should induce them to sit down honestly. They’re willing to do that. They’ve expressed it many times. I don’t think, without them, that there’s much prospect for success.
AMY GOODMAN: You were once an adviser to Yasser Arafat. How have things changed or not changed since then?
MARK PERRY: That’s a good question. It’s interesting. You know, Yasser Arafat had enormous prestige and stature among his own people. He’s the one man who could have brought a peace process home, with a willing partner, like Yitzhak Rabin. If Rabin had lived and if Rabin had remained prime minister, with Arafat, I think that this would have been done by now. I know we had a problem at Camp David, but that was with Ehud Barak. With Yitzhak Rabin and with Yasser Arafat, this problem wouldn’t be there. I just--I have that confidence. He had--he could make compromises that no other Palestinian leader could, and he was willing to do it if he got his minimal requirements met. At Camp David, he didn’t. It’s a tragedy that we were so close and weren’t able to really bring this thing home. And it’s going to be more difficult now, and it’ll be more difficult as time goes on, if we don’t press both parties right now.
ANJALI KAMAT: But both parties in Israel, including under Rabin’s government, continue to build settlements. As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said, building--every government since 1967 has built settlements around Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
MARK PERRY: Yes, but Rabin had some principles that Arafat and the American administration agreed to. And that was no surprises. When the Vice President of the United States lands in Israel for a visit of friendship, don’t surprise him with 1,600 units. Make a phone call. That’s all Arafat and the administration here in Washington at the time required: no surprises. You know, when you have a person of Vice President Biden’s prestige and stature from an ally, your strongest and best friend in the world, and you insult him and humiliate him like this, it causes enormous problems. We have enemies in the world who don’t like us who don’t do this. This is supposed to be an ally of ours. I think that this is--there’s a sense that the tenor has changed here, that Israel believes it can push back on us, that we’re an ally of theirs, not the other way around. And that fundamental formula has to change. This was really a shocking thing that happened, and I think it has to be rolled back.
ANJALI KAMAT: Finally, how hard do you think the US can push? Just a few months ago, the Obama administration basically agreed that the Palestinians should agree to continued expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem as a precondition for talks.
AMY GOODMAN: Unfortunately, we’re going to have to leave that question, Anjali, for the next time we speak with Mark Perry, because we’ve just lost the satellite feed.
A REMINDER 1/27/10 - The world is being subjected to a bloody scam (and surely that includes Iraq), a conspiracy that took root in Israel on November fourth of 1995 with the assassination of soldier, statesman Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a murder carried out by an acolyte, Yigal Amir, of the present (and infamous) Prime Minister, Zionist Benjamin Netanyahu. A scurvy international band of activists from, primarily the United States (Richard Perle to Douglas Feith), but also Europe (Bernard-Henri Levy), assuming the benign pseudonym of "Neo-Cons", developed their strategy under the title "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm (Israel)", the first step of which was the elimination of Saddam Hussein.
[[ The particulars of this abominable scheme were first outlined in James Bamford's groundbreaking 2004 publication A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies, and Michiko Kakutani's insightful 6/18/04 N Y Times book review. ]]
Horrifically, "A Clean Break" refers to the murder of Prime Minister Rabin, and, as he would have foreseen, reprises to multiple killings globally, including their ultimate targets, Palestinians and Iranians, but, along the way, Muslims of every caste; of course the key element of this treachery, managed by AIPAC and its fellow conspirators, the key element the blood and treasure of the United States and its innocent civilians/citizens, as in 9/11 and its aftermath.
Although the brilliant Tom Toles cartoon on the Republican wrecking of Washington (an easy scroll) says much about the destructive nature of that political party (The Party of Lincoln? Where did that offensive affront originate? Alabama? South Carolina?) recent detail provides a specific particular.
On 12/12/00 "Chief Justice" Bill Rehnquist led a 5-4 United States Supreme Court coup d'etat ["A sudden and decisive action in politics, esp. one resulting in a change of government (And what a destructive change!)"]. . Rehnquist joined by Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, Sandy O'Connor and Clarence Thomas, reversing the presidential victory of Albert Gore Jr.! Fast forward ten years and George W. Bush's two Court appointees, John Roberts Jr., named "Chief Justice", joined by "Justice" Sam Alito, joined, of course, by Messrs. Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas (Did Thomas perform the "honors" at one of Rush Limbaugh's weddings?) and these five "Reinterpreted" campaign finance law, which had held firm for over a century, essentially enacting another coup d'etat, this time authorizing corporations, foreign and domestic, unlimited campaign spending in electoral politics!!! That Bush presidency [The earlier one had placed Clarence Thomas. . on the Supreme Court of the United States, and placed Dan Quayle a heart beat away from the Oval Office (Not unlike John Sidney McCain III's effort to do the same for Sarah Palin!!!)]. Had enough? Support President Barack Obama!
- Here The New York Times 1/22/10 response to the junior Roberts' gift to major corporations, foreign and domestic -
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.
Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy.
As a result of Thursday’s ruling, corporations have been unleashed from the longstanding ban against their spending directly on political campaigns and will be free to spend as much money as they want to elect and defeat candidates. If a member of Congress tries to stand up to a wealthy special interest, its lobbyists can credibly threaten: We’ll spend whatever it takes to defeat you.
The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission radically reverses well-established law and erodes a wall that has stood for a century between corporations and electoral politics. (The ruling also frees up labor unions to spend, though they have far less money at their disposal.)
The founders of this nation warned about the dangers of corporate influence. The Constitution they wrote mentions many things and assigns them rights and protections -- the people, militias, the press, religions. But it does not mention corporations.
In 1907, as corporations reached new heights of wealth and power, Congress made its views of the relationship between corporations and campaigning clear: It banned them from contributing to candidates. At midcentury, it enacted the broader ban on spending that was repeatedly reaffirmed over the decades until it was struck down on Thursday.
This issue should never have been before the court. The justices overreached and seized on a case involving a narrower, technical question involving the broadcast of a movie that attacked Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 campaign. The court elevated that case to a forum for striking down the entire ban on corporate spending and then rushed the process of hearing the case at breakneck speed. It gave lawyers a month to prepare briefs on an issue of enormous complexity, and it scheduled arguments during its vacation.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., no doubt aware of how sharply these actions clash with his confirmation-time vow to be judicially modest and simply “call balls and strikes,” wrote a separate opinion trying to excuse the shameless judicial overreaching.
The majority is deeply wrong on the law. Most wrongheaded of all is its insistence that corporations are just like people and entitled to the same First Amendment rights. It is an odd claim since companies are creations of the state that exist to make money. They are given special privileges, including different tax rates, to do just that. It was a fundamental misreading of the Constitution to say that these artificial legal constructs have the same right to spend money on politics as ordinary Americans have to speak out in support of a candidate.
The majority also makes the nonsensical claim that, unlike campaign contributions, which are still prohibited, independent expenditures by corporations “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” If Wall Street bankers told members of Congress that they would spend millions of dollars to defeat anyone who opposed their bailout, and then did so, it would certainly look corrupt.
After the court heard the case, Senator John McCain told reporters that he was troubled by the “extreme naïveté” some of the justices showed about the role of special-interest money in Congressional lawmaking.
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens warned that the ruling not only threatens democracy but “will, I fear, do damage to this institution.” History is, indeed, likely to look harshly not only on the decision but the court that delivered it. The Citizens United ruling is likely to be viewed as a shameful bookend to Bush v. Gore. With one 5-to-4 decision, the court’s conservative majority stopped valid votes from being counted to ensure the election of a conservative president. Now a similar conservative majority has distorted the political system to ensure that Republican candidates will be at an enormous advantage in future elections.
Congress and members of the public who care about fair elections and clean government need to mobilize right away, a cause President Obama has said he would join. Congress should repair the presidential public finance system and create another one for Congressional elections to help ordinary Americans contribute to campaigns. It should also enact a law requiring publicly traded corporations to get the approval of their shareholders before spending on political campaigns.
These would be important steps, but they would not be enough. The real solution lies in getting the court’s ruling overturned. The four dissenters made an eloquent case for why the decision was wrong on the law and dangerous. With one more vote, they could rescue democracy." - Editorial New York Times 1/22/10
Regarding the above would you suspect that Les Moonves' CBS would provide an in-depth and forthright analysis of this John G. Roberts Jr. 3/9/10 assault on the President of the United States who, incidentally, is a Constitutional Law scholar, in fact, has taught Constitutional Law! Chief Justice Roberts Jr. delivered his attack (of course, endorsed by Clarence Thomas) to a plant in his audience at the University of Alabama Law School. We recognize that Alabama fields great football (Joe Willie Namath comes to mind, but he was from Pennsylvania!), but Constitutional Law? That's ridiculous, counter intuitive in the extreme! Regarding Katie Couric (introduced every night by the great Morgan Freeman, but NEVER acknowledged by Ms. Couric) and Jan Crawford Greenberg's 3/10/10 analysis of Justice Roberts Jr. and President Obama's differences on this catastrophic Court decision. Did Bush vs Gore set a precedent? Is that what this is about? You be the judge.
Battle of the Branches
CBS Evening News
3/10/2010 18:33:00
NEWSCASTER KATIE COURIC: In their infinite wisdom, the founding fathers created three branches of government so there would be a balance of power. But now a battle has broken out among them. Jan Crawford is our chief legal correspondent. And, Jan, it all began on a cold night in January when all three branches were gathered under one roof.
REPORTER: That's exactly right, Katie. The president threw the first verbal punch. In his State of the Union speech he broke with tradition and lashed out at the Supreme Court for its recent decision that said corporations and unions could spend unlimited money on political ads.
PRESIDENT OBAMA IN FILE VIDEO FROM JANUARY 27, 2010: With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the flood gates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections.
REPORTER: Justice Samuel Alito, also breaking with tradition, mouthed his disagreement. Yesterday the Chief Justice, responding to a student's question at the University of Alabama law school answered back.
JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES: The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court, according to the requirements of protocol, has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling. To the extent the State of the Union has degenerated into a political pep rally, I'm not sure why we're there.
REPORTER: But today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made it personal. [Statement of Harry Reid shown on screen.]
Do you think John Roberts knows or cares how people get elected? And, he said, the court is out of touch. I think we've had enough of them. I think what we need are people on that bench who have been legislators, people who are lawyers, people who are academics.
Now, these exchanges are extraordinary, but I think most Americans would not agree with Senator Reid's point that what the Supreme Court needs is legislators as justices. The court is one of the most respected institutions. It's got 61 percent approval ratings. Congress's approval ratings are now at 15 percent. Katie.
NEWSCASTER: And, Jan, I know this is unprecedented, but it also seems so, you know, unseemly.
REPORTER: Katie, I mean, to have this kind of real-time back and forth exchanges between the President, the Majority Leader and the Chief Justice is incredibly unusual and rare. You just don't see this kind of thing happen. Now, legal experts say the Chief Justice was not really out of line. He said he had no problem with President Obama criticizing the court, but it was just the venue that he was taking issue with.
NEWSCASTER: All right. Jan Crawford at the Supreme Court tonight. Jan, thanks so much. - CBS 3/10/10
- Additional material facts which the current corporate Media/Press refuses to cover! -
Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board 1987-2006 Alan Greenspan's promotion of "DERIVATIVES"
- The 3/16/03 Israeli Caterpillar military bulldozer killing of Rachel Corrie -
"Rachel Corrie, a twenty-three-year-old student from Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza seven years ago as she stood before a Palestinian home facing demolition. Today, a trial opens in Israel in a lawsuit brought by Corrie’s family against the Israeli government. The eyewitness testimony is expected to challenge Israel’s version of events with evidence that she was clearly visible to the soldiers, standing before the bulldozer in her florescent orange jacket. We spend the hour with Rachel Corrie’s family: her father Craig, her mother Cindy, and her sister Sarah." - Amy Goodman DemocracyNow 3/10/10
- Also on Amy Goodman's War & Peace -
"Israel Announces Major Settlement Expansion Amid Biden Visit
The Israeli government has unveiled plans for a new round of settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem. Israel says it will build over 1,600 new homes in the settlement of Ramat Shlomo. The announcement came just as Vice President Joe Biden is in Israel to promote US-backed peace talks. In a statement, Biden said he 'condemned' the Israeli plan, adding, 'The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.' Biden released the statement after attending a state dinner where he publicly praised Israeli officials. Israeli government spokesperson Mark Regev defended the move on the grounds Israel doesn’t consider East Jerusalem to be occupied territory.
Mark Regev: 'In order to get the peace process back on track, this Israeli government, under Prime Minister Netanyahu, has gone further than any previous Israeli government in placing restrictions on growth in the settlements. But we have to be clear, from the point of view of Israel, Jerusalem is not a settlement. It’s our capital and will remain as such.'
Biden is visiting Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah today. Ahead of his visit, the Palestinian Authority official for Jerusalem, Adnan Al-Husseini, said Israel had announced the settlement construction to undermine peace talks.
Adnan Al-Husseini: 'The Israeli government took the decision to destruct any attempt for this peace, and this letter should be taken by the international community and the United States that they are just wasting their time. There will be no hope, there will be no result, for these negotiations.'"
- "NY Activists Protest Israeli Military Chief -
Meanwhile, here in New York, hundreds of people rallied outside a Manhattan hotel Tuesday to protest a fundraiser held by the group Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. The head of the Israeli military, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, was a featured speaker. Israeli activist Matan Cohen of the group Anarchists Against the Wall called for ending US aid to Israel.
Matan Cohen: 'We’re protesting here today at a fundraiser dinner for the Israeli army. We’re here to send a clear message to the Israeli government that its impunity has ended, that the world is watching, and that we’ll no longer stand idle as its policies of apartheid and occupation continue. We’re here to say clearly that the aid to Israel should be stopped and that the United States should no longer fund Israel’s crimes. Enough is enough.'" - Amy Goodman DemocracyNow
The insidious nature of this Israeli web of deceit in the Middle East, and in Washington, and its key players, has become more clear as its polluted character becomes more evident and the broad-based ethnic-controlled Media/Press reveals its willingness to support the pernicious Netanyahu Israel.
What has been lost of late is the recognition of the reappearance of the mythological demon Hydra, funded by the United States, the many headed serpent, in today's world the Netanyahu-led, evil State of Israel. Its background included, oft forgotten, the manipulation by the United States which generated the bloody conflict of Sunni-empowered Saddam Hussein, a ruthless dictator, against the relatively peaceful Shi'ite-led Iran, a conflict which benefited only Israel, and U.S. "Defense" corporations.
- And has the toxicity infiltrated the "very seat of government (J. Edgar Hoover's term)"? We are addressing what transpired in Washington 2/21/10 through 3/7/10 regarding chief of staff Rahm Emanuel's latest transgression (up to now) having farmed out the normal responsibilities of a responsible Chief of Staff!
In the fourth paragraph following the superb political cartoon by Tom Toles (the essence of the health care reform debate) there is reference to the gratuitous photo (by Brendan Smialowski) of Rahm Emanuel on page A-14 of The New York Times, signaling the unprecedented self-promoting campaign of Mr. Emanuel - to what end? On the Saturday 3/6/10 NPR Weekend Edition, in the portion normally allotted to Dan Schorr, Scott Simon had Harvard's David Gergen (had Mr. Gergen been a strong supporter of Henry Lewis Gates?) launching into a full-throated generic criticism of the President of the United States, but few specifics. What's going on?
- "David Gergen regularly contributes editorials with Mort Zuckerman's U. S. News & World Report, and has a 4/03/04 piece on The Israel Lobby titled 'An Unfair Attack'."
- Can this be? Rahm Emanuel: "If the President had taken my advice on health care reform & trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the country and his presidency would be a lot better off!" This is a paraphrase of an unprecedented violation of trust by a president's Chief of Staff, as discussed by Jim Lehrer, Mark Shields and Michael Gerson (formerly George W. Bush's speechwriter) on the newly-titled PBS NewsHour 3/5/10, a subject not mentioned on either the NBC Universal Nightly News, CBS Evening News or DisneyABC World News Tonight in their Friday 3/5/10 telecasts.
Here's a rundown on what's taken place!
Dana Milbank 2/21/10 Washington Post
Jason Horowitz 3/2/10 Washington Post
"Rahm Emanuel is officially a Washington caricature. He's the town's resident leviathan, a bullying, bruising White House chief of staff who is a prime target for the failings of the Obama administration."
David Broder "The Fable of Emanuel The Great" 3/4/10
"In the space of 10 days, thanks in no small part to my own newspaper, the president of the United States has been portrayed as a weakling and a chronic screw-up who is wrecking his administration despite everything that his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, can do to make things right."
Andrew Alexander Ombudsman Washington Post 3/7/10
- HANG ON!
Next Photo
Obviously, Rahm Emanuel should have checked with Tom Toles before he started trashing Barrack Obama. The problem is the Republican leadership, men like Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Dick Armey, Eric Cantor, Micheal Steele and the notably opportunist John "Country First!" Sidney McCain III. These men are traitors to their country - brought George W. Bush to power and supported him as he savaged the Nation - and are now undermining the one man who has dedicated himself to reversing the devastation, and its beginning to work! Support this President!
- Items of Note -
Re “Too Close to Home” (Feb. 6 but published 2/21/10 in the N Y Times):
I was one of the 400 people who wrote to you about what I believe is an obvious conflict of interest for Ethan Bronner. I would also like to inform you that I am a Jewish American, speak Hebrew, conscientiously read the Hebrew press and have volunteered as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces. I also have now come to believe that the Israeli occupation is illegal, immoral and not in the best interests of the United States.
I praise you for recommending that Mr. Bronner be reassigned. But your judgment that his coverage is fair and evenhanded is not accurate. Even compared with previous Times correspondents, I believe his coverage is clearly more biased in a way that reflects the degree that he and his family are embedded in the Israeli culture.
You are correct that appearances are important. It appears that The Times does not care if its Israeli correspondent has a conflict of interest. This does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that after it became known that Mr. Bronner’s son had enlisted in the I.D.F., Bill Keller would choose to make the paper’s bias so public by summarily rejecting your advice to reassign him. - Ira Glunts Madison N Y 2/8/10
The Times held this for two weeks?
- For those of us that held out hope that a modicum of integrity would finally move The New York Times to overcome its decades of submission to the evermore blindly Zionist (under Netanyahu) State of Israel, there was disappointment to see Mr. Bronner's byline appear on the front page 2/26/10. But there is a caveat. Mr. Bronner informs The Times' readers that a Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem who made a fortune in the high-tech industry (Designing those killer drones? - Coming next), is in the process of altering the Palestinian neighborhood of Al Bustan, changing it to the Hebrew Gan Hamelec, the "King's Garden", where King David is to have written psalms, all of this to isolate Islam's third-holiest shrine, the nearby Aksa Mosque. All of this, along with the excellent reporting by Robert Worth on A-4 of the 2/25/10 N Y Times (the reckless assassination of Hammas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai) also reminds us that Jewish interests are determined to remove from Palestine centuries of peaceful Palestinian existence; this Jewish holocaust, if you will, is the causus belli of our wars against Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc.; the raison d'etre for 9/11; and, of course, our differences with Iran, which can not understand our devotion to this rogue State of Israel. Neither Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or Pakistan were responsible for sending Jews to Auschwitz; and yet the rogue State of Israel has decided that these innocent peoples will pay the ultimate price.
With regard to Iran Neil MacFarquhar in The Times reports from the United Nations 3/4/10 that the United States proposed new sanctions against Iran include "an outright ban on certain transactions...adding the country's CENTRAL BANK (THAT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF OUR FEDERAL RESERVE!) to the onerous restrictions on their Bank Melli and Bank Saderat and that one James B. STEINBERG, the deputy secretary of state, has as his mission "eliciting a positive response" in talks this week in Beijing! And the next day THE Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Rio pressuring Brazil to join this cabal against Iran, because heavily nuclear-weaponed Israel sees it as another of its several "existential" threats. Iran, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (which Israel refuses to sign), wants to develop nuclear power. And why not! It's a sovereign state! IT HAS THAT RIGHT! But Israel is "Holocaust-Bent" on proselytizing the whole world, not to join them (they're much too egomaniacal for that), but to grant them carte-blanche in the Middle East. Through AIPAC, the ADL, we, the United States have created a monster. And the entire world has, and is, paying the consequences!
"For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardised not only US security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the US been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries was based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, but neither explanation can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the US provides." - London Review of Books 3/23/06
Charlie Rose has General Petraeus on his program (recorded 3/3/10, on TV 3/4/10) and the General, who said he's not running for president, stated that it's "not material" whether Iranians REALLY intend to make a nuclear weapon (yet, it's in that same time frame Secretary Clinton is in South America stating the opposite). And in the March 5th (2010) N Y Times' Ethan Bronner from Jerusalem (Obviously Bronner has not been reassigned, but his bias has been acknowledged, and that is a good thing.) brings the reader a worthwhile synopsis of where things stand. . .acknowledging that "Many Israelis would like to single out Iran's energy sector because penalties of that kind are seen as more likely to deal a severe economic blow" - a clear admission that Israelis just don't like Iran. . because the nation has an eloquent elegant history...
[The first elected head of State in the Middle East, Premiere Mohammad Mossadegh (1951-53), overthrown by Eisenhower's John Foster Dulles, sec. of state, and his brother Allan Dulles, CIA]
...a likable and friendly population that is self-assured (Get Rick Steves' DVDs on Iran!), and has been at peace with its neighbors until we, the United States, facilitated the Iraq-Iran war! How shameful has our foreign policy become.
As information mounts (Omar Barghouti on "BDS - Boycott, Divestment & Sanction" against Israel) of Israeli intransigence regarding Palestine, The New York Times and Ethan Bronner (Is Rahm Emanuel involved, as well?) are hard-pressed to distract and divert the American population from this despicable use of American power to deny the Palestinians their homeland. The beginning of this week (3/7/10) featured a front page article in which Pope Benedict XVI and a Carl L. Krupp [does his lineage include the Alfred Krupp (1812-87) of German armaments?), a self described "Jewish kid from Queens (tapped a "Knight Commander of the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great" by John Paul II...IN 2000. . .THAT'S TEN YEARS AGO! Why the front page story now (3/8/10)? Elementary! Just another example of the Jewish media blitz to block, taint, and transform the devastating detail of the ongoing record of the rogue State of Israel.
Omar Barghouti on "BDS - Boycott, Divestment & Sanction"
"So we’re reaching a stage where Israel is committing slow acts of genocide against 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. This is extremely critical, and it demands people of conscience around the world to act, and act very effectively. And the BDS movement offers them an empowering, nonviolent tool through which they can impact policy in the US, in the Western world, and certainly in Israel." - http://www.bdsmovement.net
- Examine Iran Policy -
"Recent reports (including 'U.S. statements on Iran contradictory,' Feb. 17) indicate that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's moves against Iran have not received much traction in the Islamic world.
Neither Iran's nuclear program nor its treatment of its people appeal to me. However, Tehran's resistance to American direction has support even within its own opposition's camp.
In addition, while we criticize Iran's actions against its dissidents, Iran points to our own double standard in accepting our ally Israel's equally suppressive occupation of Palestinian lands.
Even though it totally depends on U.S. support for its existence, Israel has not been a very faithful ally for the United States. Israel was the first to introduce nuclear weapon technology into the region, and without our permission; it continues to build in occupied territories against our stated policies and interests; and has even paid spies to steal our secrets.
Considering the billions we spend to maintain Israel, isn't it time that we press the policy reset button with this belligerent ally? Maybe our credibility in the rest of the region would improve and our chances of moving Iran increase." - Tom Lineham Oregonian Vancouver Wa 2/21/10
- Amy Goodman 2/22/10
"Report: Netanyahu OKed Assassination of Hamas Commander
The Sunday Times of London reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized in early January the assassination of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Mabhouh was found dead last month in a Dubai hotel room. According to the paper, Netanyahu personally gave Mossad chief Meir Dagan the green light for the Dubai operation. The paper also reported that the Mossad hit squad trained for the Dubai mission by secretly rehearsing in a Tel Aviv hotel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in al-Mabhouh’s death." - DemocracyNow 2/22/10
- Amy Goodman 2/24/10
- Palestinians Protest Israeli Decision on West Bank Shrines -
"In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government has outraged Palestinians over a decision to include two biblical tombs in Palestinian towns on a list of Israeli heritage sites. The move sparked clashes in Hebron, where Israeli soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinians protesting the Israeli decision. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned Israel’s actions could spark what he called “a religious war.” Palestinian Public Works minister Mohammed Shtayyeh also criticized Israel.
Mohammed Shtayyeh: “This government led by Netanyahu is proving to the world and to us that it’s not interested in the peace process and ethics, but it’s interested in building settlements and confiscating the Palestinian history. This is a fabrication and confiscation of history.”" - DemocracyNow 2/24/10
AMY-GOODMAN 3/3/10
- Israel Delays East Jerusalem Home Demolitions -
IN ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, the Israeli government has delayed a plan to demolish Palestinian homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Bustan. Israeli officials are pushing to construct an archaeological park on the grounds of homes inhabited by Palestinian families for over a century. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Jerusalem’s mayor to delay the demolitions, citing concern over Israel’s international image. Orly Noy, a spokesperson for the Israeli human rights group Ir Amim, criticized the demolition plans.
Orly Noy: “We believe that any plan that involves massive demolitions of almost ninety houses in the most sensitive area, IN THE MOST EXPLOSIVE AREA OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT IN JERUSALEM, is extremely dangerous both to the political future of the city and to its current stability.”
- UN HUMANITARIAN CHIEF: GAZA AN “OPEN-AIR PRISON” -
"Meanwhile in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations’ top humanitarian official has accused Israel of keeping Palestinians in an “open-air prison.” John Holmes appeared on the news network Al Jazeera English Tuesday after touring Gaza.
Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes: “They’re living in a kind of open-air prison. They’re still suffering this kind of collective punishment they’ve been suffering for three years now. And it’s counterproductive. It’s counterproductive including for Israel, because it’s only breeding despair. It’s not helping their objectives, whatever they might be in Gaza. So it really needs changing, and it really needs changing very rapidly. I think that’s the main point, and we really will hope that they will reconsider the kind of attitude they’ve been adopting so far.”" - DemocracyNow 3/3/10
- Report: High Number of Birth Defects Seen in Fallujah, Iraq -
In other Iraq news, BBC News is reporting the town of Fallujah is experiencing an unusually high number of birth defects among its newborn children. One hospital doctor reported seeing two or three cases of birth defects each day, which would translate to over a thousand per year. Doctors and parents are said to widely blame US weaponry used during the two major attacks on Fallujah in 2004. The assaults killed hundreds of Fallujah residents and displaced thousands more. - DemocracyNow 3/4/10
- Israel Unveils Drones to Hit Iran -
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEL NOF AIR FORCE BASE, Israel (AP) -- Israel’s Air Force on Sunday introduced a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and fly as far as the Persian Gulf, putting Iran within their range.
The new aircraft, called the Heron TP, has a wingspan of 86 feet, making it the size of a Boeing 737 jetliner and the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel’s military.
The commander of Israel’s Air Force, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, said the aircraft “has the potential to be able to conduct new missions down the line as they become relevant.”
Israel’s military refused to disclose the size of the new fleet or whether it was designed for use against Iran.
Israel considers Iran an enemy because of its nuclear program, missiles and repeated threats.
Israel has hinted at the possibility of a military strike against Iran if world pressure does not halt the Iranian nuclear program, despite Iranian assertions that THE PROGRAM IS FOR PEACEFUL ENDS.
And we, the United States of America, pay for this!
Israel’s Plans for 2 Sites Stir Unrest in West Bank
JERUSALEM -- Scores of Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday, a day after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced plans to include two hotly contested sites -- a Hebron shrine and a tomb in another West Bank city -- on a list of Israeli national heritage sites. (BOTH ON PALESTINIAN LAND!)
Both sit in areas that Israel controls and that the Palestinians demand as part of the territory of a future state, and both have been focal points of past violence. Their inclusion on the Israeli list enraged Palestinian leaders and prompted the United Nations special coordinator for the region to express concern.
The Israeli military said that one soldier in Hebron was lightly wounded by rocks hurled by Palestinians. There were no reports of injuries on the Palestinian side.
On Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu laid out * A $100 MILLION GOVERNMENT PLAN to rehabilitate what he called “archaeological and Zionist heritage sites,” during a special cabinet meeting held in northern Israel at Tel Hai, the scene of a 1920 battle between Arabs and early Zionist settlers.
AGAIN, THIS PAID FOR BY THE UNITED STATES!
He said he intended to include the Cave of the Patriarchs, also known as IBRAHIMI MOSQUE, the Hebron shrine revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the burial place of Abraham, on the list of about 150 sites. In 1994, a Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein, fatally shot 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers inside the shrine.
Mr. Netanyahu said he also planned to include Rachel’s Tomb, a shrine just inside the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
“People must be familiar with their homeland and its cultural and historical vistas,” he told the cabinet. “This is what we will instill in this and coming generations, TO THE GLORY -- IF I MAY SAY -- OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Mr. Netanyahu had come under pressure from Israeli rightists to include the two shrines. He said Sunday that the list of sites submitted to the cabinet was neither final nor closed.
But the announcement drew sharp criticism from Palestinian officials and the Fatah party, led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement on Monday, “The unilateral decision to make Palestinian sites in Hebron and Bethlehem part of Israel shows there is no genuine partner for peace, but an occupying power intent on consolidating Palestinian lands.”
He added that control over archaeological and tourist sites is “part of the continuing Israeli settlement enterprise.”
In a statement on Monday, Robert H. Serry, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said: “THESE SITES ARE IN OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY AND ARE OF HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE NOT ONLY TO JUDAISM, BUT ALSO TO ISLAM, AND TO CHRISTIANITY AS WELL. I urge Israel not to take any steps on the ground which undermine trust or could prejudice negotiations.” - Kershner N Y Times 2/23/10
Alan Dershowitz represents to the legal profession what Sacha Baron Cohen brings to the entertainment industry (...and Cohen was infiltrated into the heretofore respectable Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...in the dead of night?) while the divorce' Orthodox Jew Joseph I. Lieberman pollutes the United States Senate. What with South Carolinians James DeMint ["If we can stop his (President Obama's) Health Care Reform, we can end his Presidency"] and Joe Wilson ("You Lie!") and Mark Sanford, ensconced in those formerly respectable bodies of the House, the Senate and a governorship, it does seem that Mort Zuckerman [for years on the John McLaughlin Report with Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift, but on Meet the Press? Once, twice?], it seems that "Tycoon (according to The New Yorker)", Zuckerman is unlikely to make it any worse. Then, again???
- A Brief Pause -
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The monumental Media/Press onslaught against President Obama's Health Care Reform, blatantly led by members of Congress from secessionist South Carolina who have "reasoned" that they can break this president if they can defeat responsible health care reform, no matter the cost to the country, this gross action is, at its base, the latest in a series of irresponsible Republican politics in the extreme, and all have cost this country dearly.
The collusion of Republican bias in the media, in this instance joined by the ethnic bias of the United States' newspaper of record, has never been more obvious than in the Peter Baker article December 19th of last year (2009) entitled "F. B. I. ACCUSED OF ABUSING POWER IN CLINTON INQUIRY." And yet, the shocking revelations in that twenty paragraph piece were actually exceeded by the fact that Mr. Baker and his editors were unable to find room [The item filled the top half of page A-16, including a photo of Bill Clinton and Monika Lewinsky, but failed to expose an equally important fact: The Clintons, Bill and Hillary, were virtually bystanders in Jim McDougal's Whitewater land deal (Read Sidney Blumenthal's "The Clinton Wars")]; with reference to the Baker/N Y Times 12/19/09 piece: THE ITEM NEITHER INCLUDES THE NAME NOR ANY REFERENCE TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE FBI AT THAT TIME - THE ELUSIVE LOUIS J. FREEH!
It is difficult to imagine a more flagrant violation of trust in the person of the Director of the FBI. One is required to turn back the decades to the infamous J. Edgar Hoover for a match. And a further note. On page A-14 of the March 2, 2010 N Y Times is one of the largest complimentary head shots-side view seen in the N Y Times in recent years. The lone subject is Rahm Emanuel, noted elsewhere in GOPBias.org. What is his relationship with . . .Louis J. Freeh?
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Along with David Sanger [and lately, Leslie Stahl (2/14/10) on Les Moonves' 60 Minutes], Mr. Dershowitz is the most notorious of these ethnic extremists (Plus Hillary Clinton?) conflating nuclear weapons with the nuclear power that Iran needs to modernize, and has every right to develop under the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory. . and which the Nuclear-Weaponed Israel refuses to sign.
Note to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Surely you don't want to be in anschluss with the likes of Dershowitz, Zuckerman, Sanger, Sacha and Lieberman!
- If Iran Gets Nuclear Weapons. . .Huh?
To the Editor:
In “Iran’s Two-Edged Bomb” (Op-Ed, Feb. 9), Adam B. Lowther proposes five Pollyannaish results of a nuclear-armed Iran. Let me propose a sixth, and far more likely, hellish scenario.
The Arab regimes in the area, realizing that an American nuclear umbrella would not be completely effective, especially against dirty bombs, become more beholden to Iran, rather than to the United States. This could raise oil prices, make the Palestinians less likely to seek peace and increase the authoritarian nature of Arab regimes.
Yes, it would give the American defense industry a shot in the arm, but at an extraordinarily high cost. The risks are simply not worth it.
The Obama and Bush administrations were correct in concluding that a nuclear-armed Iran is unacceptable. - Dershowitz N Y Times Cambridge Mass. 2/9/10
The writer is a professor at Harvard Law School(?).
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- Norman Finkelstein, the subject of "American Radical", a documentary directed by David Ridgen and Nicholas Rossier -
“American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein” is a cautiously respectful documentary portrait of a political firebrand who presents himself as a beacon of moral truth in the murk of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A scholar, author and passionate advocate of the Palestinian cause, Mr. Finkelstein, 56, is a thorn in the side of the Israel lobby.
Early in the film, directed by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier, Mr. Finkelstein is shown at a 1982 rally in front of the Israeli consulate in New York carrying a poster urging “Israeli Nazis” to “stop the Holocaust in Lebanon,” referring to the Israeli invasion of that country. Until he was banned from traveling to Israel, he paid regular visits to Palestinian friends on the West Bank. He is a supporter of Hezbollah.
Mr. Finkelstein’s inflammatory rhetoric has earned him many POWERFUL ENEMIES, MOST NOTABLY THE CIVIL LIBERTIES(?) LAWYER ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ, whose book “The Case for Israel” MR. FINKELSTEIN HAS CALLED A FRAUD, ACCUSING THE AUTHOR OF PLAGIARISM. Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic, describes Mr. Finkelstein as “poison: a disgusting self-hating Jew.” Even Mr. Finkelstein’s political ally Noam Chomsky questioned his judgment in picking some of his fights.
Born in Brooklyn, Mr. Finkelstein explains in the film that he inherited his temperament from his mother, Maryla Husyt Finkelstein. Both Maryla and Mr. Finkelstein’s father, Zacharias, were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and of concentration camps. His father was interned in Auschwitz, his mother in Majdanek.
From Maryla, Mr. Finkelstein says that he inherited the conviction that Jews have a special obligation to ease the suffering of humanity because of what was done to them, and that it is not enough to pay lip service to one’s convictions; they must be acted on. A childhood friend remembers her emotional investment in left-wing humanitarian causes as bordering on hysteria. Mr. Finkelstein recalls that as his notoriety spread, she came to feel he had taken her too literally and become a “Frankenstein’s monster” on a path toward self-destruction.
The film chronicles the controversies in which Mr. Finkelstein has become embroiled, beginning with his attack on Joan Peters’s widely praised 1984 best seller, “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine,” which he denounced as a hoax. In a television interview after the publication of his best-known book, “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering” (2000), he declares, “A handful of American Jews have effectively hijacked the Nazi Holocaust to blackmail Europe” and “DIVERT ATTENTION TO WHAT IS BEING DONE TO THE PALESTINIANS.”!!
THE NEW YORK TIMES AND STEVEN HOLDEN OWE MR. FINKELSTEIN HEART FELT APOLOGIES, BY REVERSING THE IMPACT OF THIS KEY PHRASE, "DIVERT ATTENTION FROM WHAT IS BEING DONE TO THE PALESTINIANS"; THE CHANGE TO "DIVERT ATTENTION TO WHAT IS BEING DONE TO THE PALESTINIANS." Oh, were it so!!!
- A documentary looks at an American Jew who denounces ISRAELI NAZIS. -
The cost of Mr. Finkelstein’s outspokenness has been steep. In 2001 he left Hunter College, where he had taught for nine years, after his teaching load and salary were reduced. He was subsequently hired by DePaul University in Chicago, where he became an assistant professor of political science. But in 2007 his bid for tenure, opposed by Mr. Dershowitz -- who called him “a propagandist” and “not a teacher” -- was denied, despite strong on-campus support.
Because it is a film, “American Radical” can only begin to sketch the complicated historical and political debates that engage Mr. Finkelstein and his detractors, but it allows both sides to make their cases. In his more reflective moments Mr. Finkelstein demonstrates an acute analytical intelligence and even an inkling of humor. “Speaking as a devout atheist, thank God in his Almighty wisdom that he made us mortal,” he says.
But he also appears to be a man who reflexively rises to the bait: a strident polemicist who, however right or wrong, has chosen to travel a long, hard road. - Steven Holden N Y Times 2/11/10
Correction: February 12, 2010
A film review on Thursday about “American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein” misstated a word in a comment Mr. Finkelstein made in a television interview shown in the documentary. He said, “A handful of American Jews have effectively hijacked the Nazi Holocaust to blackmail Europe” and “divert attention from what is being done to the Palestinians” -- not “divert attention to what is being done to the Palestinians.” (ABOUT TIME!)
When, if ever, has this monstrosity been debated, in any form - The rogue nation of Netanyahu's Israel expropriating, with a virtual fifth column of subversives in the United States Senate - been debated in the Congress of these United States? NEVER! And is this scene below worthy of our ten years of blood and treasure? Or is it scurrilous propaganda for a nefarious regime!
Declaration of War?
- "Charlie" Rose PBS 2/5/10 -
True to form, as the Guardian 1/18-23/10 lays out the effort of the Brits to expose the fraud underlying their joining George W. Bush to provide Israel safer passage to controlling the Middle East, by eliminating Saddam Hussein, a Ros Atkins uses the 1/29/10 BBC program "WORLD HAVE YOUR SAY" to eliminate from the record twenty-seven year veteran of our CIA Ray McGovern's bombshell established on his 6/6/05 appearance with Margaret Warner on the Lehrer NewsHour. That revelation (within two weeks of 9/11) that Bush had ensnared Tony Blair in his plans to attack and occupy Iraq is the pesky fact which debunks the array; "The best laid schemes o' mice and men (Robert Burns 1759-96)...."; the conglomeration of books, articles, etc. which evade this betrayal of our age, as the authors distort the true heinous nature of, not 9/11, but of THE sinister conspiracy of our age which generated 9/11.
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For The Relentless Amy Goodman
- "Hamas Accuses Israel of Assassinating Top Hamas Official in Dubai -
A top operative from Hamas has been killed in Dubai. Mahmoud Mabhouh was found dead in his room in a hotel on January 20. Hamas officials accused Israel of assassinating Mabhouh and of 'moving the battlefield abroad.' His death occurred three days after an Israeli cabinet minister visited Abu Dhabi. Israel had accused Mabhouh of being involved in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers and for delivering arms from Iran to Hamas." - DemocracyNow 2/1/10
"Human Rights Group Rejects Israeli 'Whitewash' of Gaza Attack -
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli military has taken what it calls 'disciplinary' action against two soldiers for firing on the United Nations compound during last year’s attack on the Gaza Strip. The United Nations compound burned to the ground in the attack after Israel shelled it with white phosphorus. In its report, the Israeli military defended the white phosphorus shelling, saying the soldiers are only at fault for also firing artillery shells. It’s unclear what penalties, if any, the two soldiers face. The unspecified move is the first acknowledgment by Israel of the dozens of war crimes and international law violations during the three-week assault. But Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Israel continues to reject the war crimes allegations documented in the inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon: 'Israel does not need any admonition from the international community. We keep our high standards on morality, and the fact that we took disciplinary actions against very high and senior officers is just the proof. The Goldstone report still is a sham and very biased, very unprofessional, and it shouldn’t be at all discussed.'
Last week Israel issued a report disputing the Goldstone report as part of a campaign to prevent its adoption at the United Nations. Yael Stein of the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said the Israeli military is covering up its actions.
Yael Stein: 'This morning it was revealed that two high-ranking officers were disciplined for firing white phosphorus at the UNRWA compound. This case shows the whitewash of the report that Israel submitted. The report itself does not specify the circumstances in which those officers were acted, and therefore just the revelations today just show how extreme the case is. We think that this case shows that the military system cannot investigate itself.'" - DemocracyNow 2/2/10
- "Report: Israeli Bomb Found in Ruins of Gaza Flour Plant -
The Guardian of London, meanwhile, says it’s found evidence undermining Israeli denials of targeting a flour mill in northern Gaza. Israel rejected allegations of nearly destroying the al-Badr plant in its report last week. But UN mine experts say the remains of an Israeli aircraft bomb were found in the ruins of the plant after the Gaza assault." - DemocracyNow 2/2/10
- While much of the world is focused, and rightly so, on the indescribable damage to Haiti and the immense struggle which its surviving citizens face, the indescribably egomaniacal Israeli government sees only another opportunity to flaunt and taunt the responsible world entities which are dedicated to ending the decades-long suffering of the Palestinian people at the hands of that illicit state of Israel.
With this action the rogue Netanyahu has seized from the Palestinian West Bank a virtual buffer zone North, East and South of Jerusalem, to double the land mass of that city which is sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, and will be used by the illegal state of Israel as a stepping stone to engulf Maale Adumin as well; these Netanyahu Jews are insatiable.
[[ This current (2/10/10) State of Israel descends to the desecration of the sacred resting place of Muslims since before the 7th century. There is no honor in the current State of Israel. Only pronounced ignominy.
- "Palestinian Families Appeal to UN Over Israeli Construction of 'Museum of Tolerance' on Jerusalem’s Historic Mamilla Cemetery -
AMY GOODMAN: A controversy over the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s project to build a “Museum of Tolerance” on a historic Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem has gone all the way to the United Nations. Today, families defending the twelfth century Ma’man Allah or Mamilla Cemetery from desecration by Israeli authorities filed their case before the United Nations in Geneva, with news conferences in Geneva, Los Angeles and Jerusalem. The petitioners include descendants from fifteen of the oldest families in Jerusalem whose ancestors have been buried at the cemetery for centuries.
Opponents of the project have long questioned how a monument to tolerance can be built on the remains of the graves of generations of Palestinian Muslims. But the Israeli Supreme Court ruled in favor of its construction in November 2008.
The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is representing the families in their petition to the UN to safeguard their international human rights and urge Israel to halt construction of the museum.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, who is the founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, declined our invitation to come on the program, but sent a statement saying, quote, “The Museum of Tolerance project is not being built on the Mamilla Cemetery. It is being built on Jerusalem’s former municipal car park, where every day for nearly half a century, thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews parked their cars without any protest whatsoever from the Muslim community.”
Well, in response to criticism that the construction on the cemetery grounds has resulted in the disinterment of graves and human remains, Rabbi Hier added, quote, “The Israeli Antiquities Authority has confirmed that there are no bones or remains on the site, which is currently undergoing infrastructure work. Remains found on the site, which have now been reinterred in a nearby Muslim cemetery were between 300-400 years old. No remains from the 12th century era were found,” he wrote.
This resoundingly fallacious sophistry uttered by the "Founder and Dean of the" so-called "Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance", the Rabbi Marvin Hier, is a classic example of the hypocrisy which emanates today from Zionist Benjamin Netanyahu's State of Israel. The ongoing damage rendered to the world today by this cabal is catastrophic. Read on.
Well, I’m joined now by one of the petitioners whose ancestors were buried at the Mamilla Cemetery. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, the Department of History, and the author of a number of books, including Sowing Crisis: American Dominance in the Cold War in the Middle East and Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.
Michael Ratner is also with us, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
We welcome you both.
RASHID KHALIDI: Thanks, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Professor Khalidi, members of your family are buried there? Explain.
RASHID KHALIDI: This is a cemetery where people have been buried since the twelfth century. People who fought with Saladin in the Crusades are buried there. In fact, one of the descendants of one of the leading figures in the twelfth century is buried in that cemetery. And contrary to what Rabbi Hier said, that parking lot was built over a cemetery, part of it. And so, the Israeli authorities are basically pushing ahead with the desecration of a cemetery that they have been, unfortunately, slowly nibbling away at for over three decades. We and other families are taking action as a group of families to try and stop this, after other families failed in the Israeli Supreme Court.
AMY GOODMAN: The fact that he said this has been a parking lot that no one has protested for years?
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, many protests were made. There were protests made from the early ’60s, when the first of these desecrations started. That’s false. And the fact that it was desecrated in the ’60s doesn’t mean that it’s right to desecrate it further. What happened in the 1960s was that part of the cemetery was paved over for this parking lot. What they have now done is to dig down and disinter four layers, according to the chief archaeologist for the Israeli Archaeological Authority, four layers of graves. There are more probably beneath those, according to his report, which was suppressed in the submissions to the Israeli Supreme Court.
AMY GOODMAN: And that they’re saying there are no bodies buried there?
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, the chief archaeologist’s report contradicts what Rabbi Hier says. I would go with the chief Israeli archaeologist over the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, frankly.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you met with the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center?
RASHID KHALIDI: I have not had that pleasure, no.
AMY GOODMAN: They’ve had no direct contact with Palestinian families like yours, then?
RASHID KHALIDI: No, nor did Muslim religious authorities have anything to do with the reinterment, wherever it is, of the remains, whatever they are.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean?
RASHID KHALIDI: We have no idea where these people were reburied. They claim they were reburied. We, families of people--there are fifteen families, sixty people, who have ancestors in that cemetery. We’re the petitioners. Nobody ever told us where these remains were reburied. I mean, imagine if, 400 years ago, you had ancestors in a cemetery, and somebody came along and said, “We’re going to build whatever it is there,” dug them up and buried them somewhere else without telling you where. This is what they’ve just done, according to his statement.
AMY GOODMAN: Michael Ratner, you’re the president of Center for Constitutional Rights that’s working with the families to file these petitions. You just came back from there. You visited the site.
MICHAEL RATNER: Yeah, I mean, I was really shocked by what I saw. I went into West Jerusalem, and I see a wall that’s probably twenty-five feet high, surrounded by surveillance cameras, which is where they’re building this so-called Museum of Tolerance. Right up to the edge of it, you see Muslim graves, Palestinian graves, all around it. And within even the part of the cemetery that still exists, which is only a few acres, because the Israelis have paved over other parts or built a park, it’s been desecrated. And every time they, Muslim people, attempt to fix it, it’s desecrated again. And within the site itself, I mean, the archaeologist that Rashid referred to called this an archaeological crime. This is an Israeli archaeologist. And you see they took out bones in cardboard boxes, relatives of the ancestors of the people on this petition--
RASHID KHALIDI: Descendants.
MICHAEL RATNER: Descendants. And they have no sense of where those people are. And the archaeologist said there’s at least 2,000 other graves under this site. So, to hear the rabbi from the Simon Wiesenthal Center talk about “there’s no bones, there’s no bodies under here” is just--it’s just a lie. That’s all I can say. That’s what it is.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Khalidi, what is the Center for Human Dignity, the Museum of Tolerance, that’s being built?
RASHID KHALIDI: Well, as best I understand it, from what they’ve written, it’s an extension of the museum that exists in Los Angeles. And it’s pretty grotesque, to my way of thinking, to be building something that’s labeled a museum of tolerance against the protests of the people buried in a cemetery. IT IS THE OLDEST MUSLIM CEMETERY, PROBABLY, IN ALL OF PALESTINE. IT MAY GO BACK TO THE SEVENTH CENTURY, BUT IT CERTAINLY GOES BACK TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY. I mean, one of the descendants of one of the people buried there has an ancestor who is from the twelfth century. We don’t know how many other people in Jerusalem may have ancestors buried there. My sense is that even more people are going to come forward now that these press conferences have taken place.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what are you demanding?
RASHID KHALIDI: We are asking that this be treated as a Heritage site, which is what it is. The fact that it’s still being desecrated, not just by this museum, but by vandalism of the remaining tombs, is a scandal. This is a very, very important Heritage site. And so, one of the things we’re demanding is that it be treated as such. And we’re going to UNESCO and other bodies, asking that they do their duty.
Secondly, we’re asking that there be a reinterment under religious supervision, with the families knowing where their people have been reburied within the cemetery.
And finally, that this project, this grotesque project, be stopped. There have been offers to move the museum elsewhere. At one stage, the mayor of Jerusalem even suggested that it be moved elsewhere. Today I read that a Palestinian has offered to give land right near the wall that they’ve built right through the middle of Jerusalem for the museum to be built there. So a museum for tolerance can be built next to a forty-foot concrete barrier between different parts of the Arab East Jerusalem. So we’re asking for all of those things.
AMY GOODMAN: Center for Constitutional Rights can turn to international law, Michael Ratner?
MICHAEL RATNER: Well, that’s what we do. But I do want to say something overall about what this cemetery really represented, what I saw happening there, which is to say, as Palestinians had been pushed out of Jerusalem and out of parts of the West Bank, you see--what I saw going on here is attempt to really obliterate even a Palestinian and Muslim presence in West Jerusalem by getting rid of, you know, key cultural projects, key cultural issues--I mean, key cultural places.
RASHID KHALIDI: Artifacts.
MICHAEL RATNER: Artifacts of the Palestinian and Muslim people. And so, they just want to obliterate it. And you can’t believe this is the Simon Wiesenthal Center doing it. And, yes, international law clearly protects it. It protects cultural artifacts. It protects religious freedom. And it protects--
RASHID KHALIDI: Sacred sites.
MICHAEL RATNER: Sacred sites--and discrimination. And when you look at the numbers--Israel has an obligation, as it admits, to protect sacred sites in Jerusalem. And what have they protected? Up ’til 2008--and I think probably the same figure--they protected 136 Jewish sites. Not one Muslim site.
RASHID KHALIDI: Or Christian site.
MICHAEL RATNER: Or Christian site. So when you think about what’s going on there, it’s really a public outrage. And the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which now has been given other places to build, if it insists on going on with this, you can only draw one conclusion: Let’s obliterate the Muslim presence in Jerusalem.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to leave it there. I want to thank you both for being with us. And we’ll certainly continue to cover this controversy. We’ve been joined by Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies in the Department of History at Columbia University, and Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights." - DemocracyNow 2/10/10
(Note also that "Bibi", i.e. Benjamin Netanyahu, intends to engulf Ariel, under which lies one of Palestine's largest aquifers). But they are not alone. In fact, with the crucial and determinative support of AIPAC (i.e. the United States Senate) the Israelis have no restraint on their illegal activities. Imagine. A society laden with nuclear weapons...and no restraint. ]]
- "Netanyahu Says Some Settlements Will Always be Israel's
JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that several Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank would always remain part of Israel, a comment that upset the Palestinians even as the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy was trying to coax them back into peace talks.
Although Israel has long insisted on maintaining a permanent hold over certain groups of settlements, including those Mr. Netanyahu referred to Sunday, his remarks struck a jarring note on a day when the American envoy, George J. Mitchell, shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders on a so-far unsuccessful mission to restart negotiations that have been stalled for over a year.
Mr. Netanyahu took the opportunity, as the photo records, of the approaching holiday of Tu Bishvat, a Jewish arbor day, to reaffirm Israel’s claim to the Etzion bloc of settlements just south of Jerusalem. 'Our message is clear,' he said during a tree-planting ceremony there. 'We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here. This place will be an inseparable part of the State of Israel for eternity.'" - Kershner Israeli Media NY Times 1/25/10
Article continues
- Trouble Here -
There would seem to be a wiring flaw at the very core of this administration, and its not the President of the United States. Time and again key tasks are not completed, whether they be positions filled, or candidates vetted. Schedules kept, or principals informed. In any event, these are responsibilities of the President's Chief of Staff. Significantly, while he is regularly mentioned by the press and ALWAYS focused by the cameras - these are the rare factors which substantiate that the man is in Washington, but leave untold whether or not he has been of service to this president and the American people. The smug Mr. Emanuel - he of the profane, expletive and obscenity-laden diatribe for all persons with whom he disagrees - he has benefited from the press this time by being supposedly subjected, on EVERY media outlet, to Sarah Palin's call for President Obama to fire Mr. Emanuel. Mr. Emanuel is so full of himself he has yet to realize that this President is faced with the most threatening political and policy issues encountered since Franklin Delano Roosevelt occupied the White House seventy five years ago, in the Great Depression, also brought about by self-serving Republicans. The self-serving Rahm Emanuel, he who served in the Israel "Defense(?)" Force, should re-chart his service to this country, the United States of America.
[[ This above edit on 2/12/2010 is most appropriate on the two hundred and first anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, i.e. a timely expose' of the modern-day canard that the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Dick Armey, Roger Ailes, Sheldon G. Adelson, Glen Beck, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Judd Gregg, Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin and her erstwhile puppet master John Sidney McCain III and the Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele - That this prospective motley crew of a Republican Party ship of state; That it represents the "Party of Lincoln" shows a disgraceful contempt for the sixteenth President of the United States (1861-65).
Palestinian women tried to avoid tear gas during clashes with members of the Israeli Security (?) Forces in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh on Jan. 22.
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"Israel Confronts West Bank Protests Against SECURITY (?) Barrier
NILIN, West Bank -- For more than a year, this village has been a focus of weekly protests against the Israeli security barrier, which cuts through its lands. Now, the village appears to be at the center of an intensifying Israeli arrest campaign.
Apparently concerned that the protests could spread, the Israeli Army and security forces have recently begun clamping down, arresting scores of local organizers and activists here and conducting nighttime raids on the homes of others.
Muhammad Amira, a schoolteacher and a member of Nilin’s popular committee, the group that organizes the protests, said his home was raided by the army in the early hours of Jan. 10. The soldiers checked his identity papers, poked around the house and looked in on his sleeping children, Mr. Amira said.
He added, “They came to say, ‘We know who you are.’ ”
Each Friday for the last five years, Palestinians have demonstrated against the barrier, bolstered by Israeli sympathizers and foreign volunteers who document the ensuing clashes with video cameras, often posting the most dramatic footage on YouTube.
Israel says the barrier, under construction since 2002, is essential to prevent suicide bombers from reaching its cities; the Palestinians oppose it on grounds that much of it runs through the territory of the West Bank.
While the weekly protests are billed as nonviolent resistance, they usually end in violent confrontations between the Israeli security forces and masked, stone-throwing Palestinian youths. “These are not sit-ins with people singing ‘We Shall Overcome,’ ” said Maj. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli Army’s Central Command, which controls the West Bank. “These are violent, illegal, dangerous riots.”
ILLEGAL? THIS IS THE PALESTINIAN WEST BANK!
Other Palestinians are “jumping on the bandwagon,” he said, and the protests “could slip out of control.”
The protests first took hold in the nearby village of Bilin, which became a symbol of Palestinian defiance after winning a ruling in the Israeli Supreme Court stipulating that the barrier must be rerouted to take in less agricultural land. According to military officials, work to move the barrier WILL START NEXT MONTH. (REALLY?)
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Like a creeping, part-time intifada, the Friday protests have been gaining ground. Nabi Saleh, another village near Ramallah, has become the newest focus of clashes, AFTER JEWISH SETTLERS TOOK OVER A NATURAL SPRING ON VILLAGE LAND.
One recent Friday, a group of older villagers marched toward the spring. They were met with tear gas and stun grenades, and scuffled with soldiers on the road. Other villagers spilled down the hillsides swinging slingshots and pelted the Israelis with stones.
“Israel recognizes the threat of the popular movement and its potential for expanding,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli anarchist and spokesman of the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee, which is based in Ramallah. “I think the goal is to quash it before it gets out of hand.”" - Kershner Israeli Media N Y Times 1/29/10
CONTINUED
- Amy Goodman 1/26/10: "Israeli Cabinet Minister: Goldstone Report on Gaza Is Anti-Semitic
The Israeli news agency Ynet is reporting the Israeli government is preparing an all-out attack on Richard Goldstone’s United Nations report that accused Israel of committing war crimes during its assault on Gaza. Israeli Cabinet Minister Yuli Edelstein said, “The Goldstone Report...and similar reports, are simply a type of anti-Semitism.” Ynet reports Israel will launch the attack on the Goldstone Report tomorrow, the sixty-fifth anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz. Last year the United Nations called on Israel to conduct an independent credible investigation into the war crimes allegations, but Israel has refused to establish a commission of inquiry." - DemocracyNow 1/26/10
We are all contending with an absolute and total blackout of analyses of the artifice-laden brazen schemes of the Jewish Diaspora to distract world opinion from the constant machinations and intrigues to dispossess Palestinians of a viable Palestine. Major offenders include NPR and PBS.
Message to Israelis: Palestinians, and that includes Hamas, did not send Jews to Auschwitz.
Copy Ellie Wiesel and Alan Dershowitz!
- Propaganda Intensifies -
With David Brooks, Mort Zuckerman (the owner of U. S. News and World Report making one of his rare public appearances since he feted Silvio Berlusconi's ADL reception at the Plaza on 9/23/03) and a David Faber (Anchor and Reporter at CNBC) playing the role of political analysts (Does that include Israel vs. Palestine?) it would seem that David Gregory takes his orders from the sequestered John Donald Imus Jr. This was the 1/30/10 Meet the Press, the same Sunday that Barbara Walters headed ABC's This Week, featuring Roger Ailes, in one of his also rare public appearances. In other words, Judaism ruled the day. Also, the year to come? Doubtless with the television camera-shy Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in charge.
This previously mentioned Admiral Mike Mullen, all over the tube - first with "Charlie" Rose, who considers himself the fourth Emanuel brother - and "Charlie" then followed with Stan McChrystal (whose early work was in Special Black Ops with the CIA in Iraq in the early days of "Shock & Awe") who also promoted the "surge" in Afghanistan, all of which had been preceded by the brilliant Tom Toles, addressing George W. Bush, who has been exonerated by our compromised Media/Press because he, the junior George Bush, had, eliminated Saddam, FOR ISRAEL!!!
Whether or not the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Is it now accepted publishing practice to describe Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu as "Radical", and what about United States Senator and divorced Orthodox Jew Joseph I. Lieberman?) whether the cleric was killed (he was not) in the recent (12/24/09) fighter jet - drone attacks in Yemen (directed by U.S. intelligence) - by 12/27/09 The Associated Press had acknowledged that this was a "secretive U. S. airstrike against suspected Al Qaeda sites in Yemen" headlined "U.S. expands war on terror to Yemen" (The N Y Times' Jack Healy and the usually reliable Scott Shane had described the action as a Yemeni operation) - the fact remains that the unrest in the Middle East is increasing, and The New York Times is an "iffy" broker, rather than a scrupulous mediator of available information.
- A CRISIS INTERJECTION 1/20/10 -
If you wondered why Israeli doctors and their emergency field hospital in Haiti were featured on Brian Williams and Katie Couric's reports from that earthquake ravaged country on the island of Hispaniola in the West Indies (thousands of miles from Israel), the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NBC Universal is Jeff Zucker, and CBS is run by Les Moonves. Further, note the Ethan Bronner piece in the 1/20/10 The New York Times. . .which follows Bill Moyers 1/15/10 Journal.
Roust Required
1/9-10/10 Edit
Bill Moyers Journal
January 15, 2010
Fills the Breach
- EXHIBIT I
- "Courts Whittle Spending Limits In Election Law -
Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year, and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party". - David Kirkpatrick N Y Times 1/9/10
With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century. Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.
Congress must act immediately to limit the damage of this radical decision, which strikes at the heart of democracy.
As a result of Thursday’s ruling, corporations have been unleashed from the longstanding ban against their spending directly on political campaigns and will be free to spend as much money as they want to elect and defeat candidates. If a member of Congress tries to stand up to a wealthy special interest, its lobbyists can credibly threaten: We’ll spend whatever it takes to defeat you.
The ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission radically reverses well-established law and erodes a wall that has stood for a century between corporations and electoral politics. (The ruling also frees up labor unions to spend, though they have far less money at their disposal.)
The founders of this nation warned about the dangers of corporate influence. The Constitution they wrote mentions many things and assigns them rights and protections -- the people, militias, the press, religions. But it does not mention corporations.
In 1907, as corporations reached new heights of wealth and power, Congress made its views of the relationship between corporations and campaigning clear: It banned them from contributing to candidates. At midcentury, it enacted the broader ban on spending that was repeatedly reaffirmed over the decades until it was struck down on Thursday.
This issue should never have been before the court. The justices overreached and seized on a case involving a narrower, technical question involving the broadcast of a movie that attacked Hillary Rodham Clinton during the 2008 campaign. The court elevated that case to a forum for striking down the entire ban on corporate spending and then rushed the process of hearing the case at breakneck speed. It gave lawyers a month to prepare briefs on an issue of enormous complexity, and it scheduled arguments during its vacation.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., no doubt aware of how sharply these actions clash with his confirmation-time vow to be judicially modest and simply “call balls and strikes,” wrote a separate opinion trying to excuse the shameless judicial overreaching.
The majority is deeply wrong on the law. Most wrongheaded of all is its insistence that corporations are just like people and entitled to the same First Amendment rights. It is an odd claim since companies are creations of the state that exist to make money. They are given special privileges, including different tax rates, to do just that. It was a fundamental misreading of the Constitution to say that these artificial legal constructs have the same right to spend money on politics as ordinary Americans have to speak out in support of a candidate.
The majority also makes the nonsensical claim that, unlike campaign contributions, which are still prohibited, independent expenditures by corporations “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.” If Wall Street bankers told members of Congress that they would spend millions of dollars to defeat anyone who opposed their bailout, and then did so, it would certainly look corrupt.
After the court heard the case, Senator John McCain told reporters that he was troubled by the “extreme naïveté” some of the justices showed about the role of special-interest money in Congressional lawmaking.
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens warned that the ruling not only threatens democracy but “will, I fear, do damage to this institution.” History is, indeed, likely to look harshly not only on the decision but the court that delivered it. The Citizens United ruling is likely to be viewed as a shameful bookend to Bush v. Gore. With one 5-to-4 decision, the court’s conservative majority stopped valid votes from being counted to ensure the election of a conservative president. Now a similar conservative majority has distorted the political system to ensure that Republican candidates will be at an enormous advantage in future elections.
Congress and members of the public who care about fair elections and clean government need to mobilize right away, a cause President Obama has said he would join. Congress should repair the presidential public finance system and create another one for Congressional elections to help ordinary Americans contribute to campaigns. It should also enact a law requiring publicly traded corporations to get the approval of their shareholders before spending on political campaigns.
These would be important steps, but they would not be enough. The real solution lies in getting the court’s ruling overturned. The four dissenters made an eloquent case for why the decision was wrong on the law and dangerous. With one more vote, they could rescue democracy." - Editorial N Y Times 1/22/10
- "At his confirmation hearings in 2005, Chief Justice Roberts, then an appeals court judge, said 'adherence to precedent promotes evenhandedness, promotes fairness, promotes stability and predictability. It is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent,' he said." - Adam Liptak N Y Times 1/23/10
- "Rather’s Appeal Request Rejected by Court -
Dan Rather’s request for an appeal in his lawsuit against CBS was turned down on Tuesday, marking an apparent end to the breach-of-contract case. Mr. Rather, below, the former anchor of “CBS Evening News,” had appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, after the appellate division of the New York State Supreme Court ruled unanimously in September to dismiss the $70 million lawsuit he brought against the network in 2007. CBS executives say the legal proceedings are now over. In a statement Mr. Rather said he was “disappointed.” He had been seeking damages in a claim that his contract had been breached by CBS management and his reputation had been unfairly tarnished by the network’s handling of an investigation into his report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard record. - Stelter N Y Times 1/12-13/10
- "PBS Sets New Shows
PBS will broadcast a one-hour public affairs program called “Need to Know,” to be produced by New York’s WNET.org, on Friday nights beginning May 7, the organizations plan to announce on Wednesday. The new show, to originate from WNET’s soon-to-be-opened studio at Lincoln Center, will blend field reports, FEATURES and interviews on topics including the economy, the environment, health, security and CULTURE, and will make extensive use of CLOSELY SCREENED public input generated online. No anchor or reporters have been announced. “Need to Know” will REPLACE the public affairs programs “Bill Moyers Journal” and “Now,” which end in April. As part of the remake of PBS’s news and public affairs lineup, John Wilson, who oversees TV programming, said that PBS also planned to open a Web portal in May that would AGGREGATE all of its news and public affairs content, as well as journalism from local public stations." - Elizabeth Jensen N Y Times 1/12-13/10
- AGGREGATE (( 1 )) - AGGREGATE (( 2 )) - AGGREGATE (( 3 )) >> ( Just Below )
AGGREGATE = in this case a PBS synonym for "Focus features, stiff hard news!"
We Americans are witnessing the most complete, wholesale and devastating substitution of FEATURE programming on "Public" radio and "Public" television. .eliminating HARD NEWS. .in our lifetimes - and the exorbitant costs to the public were made clear in the senatorial election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, and the 5-4 decision of the John Roberts Supreme Court to place future elections in the hands of major corporations, whether or not foreign owned.
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Please note paragraph above photo.
Did you know that the present Chief Justice of this Supreme Court travelled to Florida in the Fall of 2000 to counsel Ted Olson in his argument before the Rehnquist Court to steal the 2000 Presidential Election from Albert Gore for George W. Bush?
** Bill Moyers Journal - as in "JOURNALISM" - a lost art & science, a concept missing these last several decades...
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL.
There were hands in the air in Washington this week, but it wasn't a stickup. The new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, appointed by Congress to find out how America got rolled, began hearings this week. These four are not the victims of one of the greatest bank heists in history - they're the perpetrators, bankers so sleek and crafty they got off with the loot in broad daylight, and then sweet talked the government into taxing us to pay it back.
Watching that scene on the opening day of the hearings, it was hard enough to believe that almost a year has passed since Barack Obama raised his hand, too -- taking the oath of office to become our 44th President. Even harder to remember what America looked like before Obama, because we've also been robbed of memory, assaulted by what the Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz described as a "fantastic proliferation of mass media." We live in a time "characterized by a refusal to remember." Inconvenient facts simply disappear down the memory hole, as in George Orwell's novel, "1984."
President Obama's made plenty of mistakes during his first year, and we've critiqued them frequently here on the JOURNAL, but hardly anyone talks any more about what happened in the years before. He inherited from George W. Bush the biggest financial debacle since the Great Depression, along with two unpopular and costly wars, and a dysfunctional and demoralized government.
It's important to remember those years, a time that has been characterized by the historian Thomas Frank, as "A Low, Dishonest Decade." He's here to talk about them with me. Thomas Frank is editor of the recently relaunched BAFFLER magazine, a literary journal; a contributing editor of HARPER'S; a weekly columnist for THE WALL STREET JOURNAL; and the author of ONE MARKET UNDER GOD, the bestselling WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS? and his latest bestseller, THE WRECKING CREW, now out in paperback. Good to have you back.
THOMAS FRANK: It's my pleasure, Bill.
BILL MOYERS: How is it that the people who are responsible for the mess that Obama inherited are getting away with demonizing him when he's only had less than a year to clean it up. Let me show you just a sample of commentators railing against the President.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: President Obama and the Democrats are destroying the US economy. They are purposefully doing it, I believe.
GLENN BECK: This is a well-thought out plan to collapse the economy as we know it.
JONATHAN HOENIG: The president has, I think if you listen to what he says, a hatred for capitalism. Where do jobs come from? They don't come from the government, they come from the profit seeking self-interest, from what I hear and see, the President never misses an opportunity to smear and [no audio] slap!
RUSH LIMBAUGH: This guy is a coward. He does not have the gonads or the spine to even stand up and accept what he's doing! All of this is his doing. He cannot even probably say, you should like this -- you may not like this, but I'm telling you it's the best thing for you, it's the best thing for me. No! He knows it's a disaster, he has to slough this off, on his previous-- or his predecessor, the previous administration.
SEAN HANNITY: It's his stimulus. It's his record deficit spending. He quadrupled the debt in a year. You know, how many more are the Democrats going to say, "Well, it's George Bush's fault"? This is Obama's economy now.
BILL MOYERS: What goes through your mind as a historian when you watch that?
THOMAS FRANK: Well, that is America for you. I mean, that is the, sort of the demented logic of our politics. Is that now-- Obama's been President for a year. And he will come before the public in the fall, you know, having to defend all of these terrible things. That's how our politics works in this country.
BILL MOYERS: But you called it demented. I mean, you know, demented means crazy, mad. Mad and crazy enough to cause us to forget the world before Obama?
THOMAS FRANK: I'll give you an example what I mean. So, I was on a radio show the other day with a tea party leader, you know, one of these protest leaders. And he seemed like a good guy. But what he did say that struck me was he said he was really against monopoly, you know? And we're laboring under all these monopolies, all these concentrated powers here in America. And what we need to do is get back to free markets. And then we can do away with that. And it was mind-blowing.
Because if you look back any further than the Obama Administration, since, I mean, 1980 in this country, we have been in the grip of, you know, of this pursuit of ever-purer free markets. That's what American politics has been about. That's what has delivered this, you know, the awful circumstances that we find ourselves in today. And to think that that's what's missing, that's what we need to get back to, is--
BILL MOYERS: That's more than nostalgia. What is that?
THOMAS FRANK: Well, that's the disease of our time. You know, that sort of instant forgetting.
BILL MOYERS: But what does it do to our politics when the very spokesmen for what some people have called a decade of conservative failure. I mean, remember before Obama, they turned a budget surplus into a deficit. They took us to war on fraudulent pretenses. They borrowed money to fight it. They presided over a stalemate in Afghanistan. They trashed the Constitution. They presided over the weakest economy in decades--
THOMAS FRANK: Not weak for everybody.
BILL MOYERS: No, no.
THOMAS FRANK: Some people did really well.
BILL MOYERS: Okay, they compiled the worst track record on jobs in decades. And they ended up with the worst stock market in decades. I mean, it was a decade of conservative failure. And yet, Obama's their villain?
THOMAS FRANK: Think of all the crises and the disasters that you've described. And I would add to them things like the, what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And the Madoff scandal on Wall Street. And, you know, on and on and on. The Jack Abramoff scandal. The whole sordid career of Tom DeLay.
All of these things that we remember from the last decade. I mean, some of them that we're forgetting. Like who remembers all the scandals over earmarking, anymore? And who remembers all the scandals over Iraq reconstruction? All that, you know, disastrous, when we would hand it off to a private contractor to rebuild Iraq. And it would, you know, of course, it would fail.
Those things have all sort of been dwarfed by the economic disaster and the wreckage on Wall Street. But I would say to you that all of these things that we're describing here are of a piece. And that they all flow from the same ideas. And those ideas are the sort of conservative attitude towards government. And conservative attitudes towards governance. Okay?
BILL MOYERS: That government is a perversion?
THOMAS FRANK: Government is-- yeah, government is a perversion. And to believe that the federal government can be operated, you know, with all of its programs, can be operated well and do things that are good for the people, is, as you say, is a perversion.
And they look at someone like Barack Obama and it makes them seethe. Because that's, you know, that's what he's trying to do. What conservatism in this country is about is government failure. Conservatives talk about government failure all the time, constantly. And conservatives, when they're in power deliver government failure.
BILL MOYERS: Not merely from incompetence, you say, but from ideology, from philosophy, from a view of the world.
THOMAS FRANK: And sometimes from design.
BILL MOYERS: From design? What do you mean?
THOMAS FRANK: Not always from design, but often. The Department of Labor, for example, the conservatives when they in office, routinely stuff the Department of Labor full of ideological cranks. And people that don't believe in the mission.
And the result is that it doesn't-- they don't enforce anything. Towards the very end of the Bush-era, the Department of Labor had been whittled down. It was a shell of its former self. And at the very end of the Bush Administration, one of the government accountability programs did a study of the Department of Labor. And, I'm smiling, because it's kind of amusing. It was like an old spy magazine prank.
They made up these horrendous labor violations around the country and phoned them in as complaints to the Department of Labor to see what they would do, okay? They responded to one out of ten of these, you know, where they called in as like, "Well, we got, you know, kids working in a meat packing plant during school hours. You know, can you, you going to do anything about that?" "No." Or you look at something like the Securities and Exchange Commission. These guys are supposed to be regulating, you know, the investment banks, okay? Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, that sort of thing. These guys were so under-funded, and not just under-funded, but you had people in charge of it who didn't believe in regulating Wall Street.
BILL MOYERS: So, they made the Securities and Exchange Commission a laughing stock, if you will. They really did.
THOMAS FRANK: Right. Well, there's these horrible stories that came out. Once Bush was out, there was a study done of the SEC, as well. These people didn't even have like their own functioning photocopiers, okay? So, we're talking about the lawyers that are supposed to be protecting us from Wall Street. And they have to go stand in line at Kinko's to do their own photocopying. And they're going up against the best paid, you know, best educated lawyers on planet Earth, who represent the investment banks. And they're supposed to be defending us.
BILL MOYERS: The curious thing about this is that you and I and my audience knows that our ancestors believed that capitalism needed to be supervised. But when the conservatives came to power, they begin to muzzle the watchdog.
THOMAS FRANK: Yeah. Well, or you know, do away with it altogether, de-fund it. Look, the beginning in the 1980s, President Reagan came to office and came to power, and you remember the kind of rhetoric that he used to use in denouncing the Federal workforce. He hated the Federal workforce. And this is an article of faith among conservatives.
There's something called the pay gap that they used to talk about a lot in Washington, D.C. Which is, back in the '50s, '60s, and up into the 1970s, Federal workers were paid a comparable amount to what people in the private sector earned. Okay? So, if you're a lawyer working for the government, you got about as much as a lawyer working in the private sector.
Not as much, because government benefits are considered to be much better. Okay. Under Reagan, you had this huge gap open up between Federal workers and the private sector. I asked around. And I found out a government attorney makes $140,000 a year on retirement. After he's been there all his life. In the private sector law firm in Washington, you'd be making $160,000 starting salary. That's first year. Right out of law school.
BILL MOYERS: So what's the consequence of this pay gap you described? Or, do we get inferior government because of it?
THOMAS FRANK: Absolutely. It keeps the best and the brightest out of government service, unless you're really dedicated to a cause.
But let me go one step further with this, Bill. When I say this is done by design, I'm not exaggerating. And this is one of the more surprising things that I found when I was doing the research for "The Wrecking Crew," is that there's a whole conservative literature on why you want second-rate people in government, or third-rate.
I found an interview with the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce from 1928, where he said-- this quote, it's mind-boggling to me. But he really said this. "The best public servant is the worst one." Okay? You want bad people in government. You want to deliberately staff government with second-rate people. Because if you have good people in government, government will work. And then the public will learn to trust government. And then they'll hand over more power to it.
And you don't want that, of course. Your Chamber of Commerce. And I thought, when I first read this, "That's a crazy idea. I can't believe that sentiment." And then I found it repeated again and again and again. Throughout the long history of the conservative movement. This is something they believe very deeply.
BILL MOYERS: It comes out of a definitive way of seeing things, right?
THOMAS FRANK: Yes. And we can summarize that very briefly. That the market is the, you know, is the universal principle of human civilization. And that government is a kind of interloper, if not a, you know, criminal gang. And getting in the way.
BILL MOYERS: But we saw with this collapse and this bailout, we saw the failure of that.
THOMAS FRANK: Of course.
BILL MOYERS: And yet there's no sense of contrition. What's amazing to me, and you wrote this, that the very people who brought us this decade of conservative failures, the party of Palin, Beck, Hannity, Abramoff, Rove, DeLay, Kristol, O'Reilly, just might stage a comeback.
THOMAS FRANK: I think they might. I think there's a very strong chance of that.
BILL MOYERS: After only 11 months out of power, because of the record. I mean--
THOMAS FRANK: Look, well, the stuff--
BILL MOYERS: --it's crazy.
THOMAS FRANK: --the stuff we've been talking about here today. The stuff in "The Wrecking Crew," that's all forgotten. The financial crisis had that effect of-- that stuff is now off the-- down the memory hole
BILL MOYERS: Do you really think they believe that unfettered capitalism, unregulated markets, will deliver an ideal democracy and prosperity for everybody?
THOMAS FRANK: No, I don't. I think that they believe that, and to some degree, they're sincere in that belief. But the conservative movement in Washington, I'm not talking about grassroots voters in Kansas here. I'm talking about the conservative movement in Washington. And the whole constellation of think tanks and lobby shops and not-for-profits. And, you know, newspapers and fundraisers and all of this stuff.
They believe this is an industry, okay? This is an industry that churns out this product. And one of the things that, I mean, it's one of the things that they're doing now is they excommunicate George W. Bush, deeply unpopular, so therefore, not a true conservative, right? So, that way they get to start over fresh. The problem with George W. Bush, the reason we're in such a deep hole is that we never went far enough.
As Tom DeLay has said, in his newspaper column, and I'm paraphrasing here. The problem with conservatism isn't that it was tried and failed. It's that it never really got-- we never really tried it in the first place. So, what we have to do -- and I've heard, conservatives have said this. "What we have to do is go back and deregulate all the way. We have to, you know, slash government. We have to tear that thing down. That's what it's all about."
And the amazing thing about this. This allows them to represent themselves as dissidents against the sort of established order in Washington. Even though they ran the established order for years and years and years and years.
BILL MOYERS: Here's something else that's bizarre to me. And I wonder what you think about it, as a historian. I mean, right after the failed terrorist threat of Christmas, Obama's critics went to work scrubbing what happened when the Bush White House was out to lunch in the weeks and days leading up to 9/11.
I mean, you know, there were terrorists sneaking into the country. There were warnings from the intelligence community about something-- an attack on an American city coming. And that's all been flushed down the memory hole. Giuliani goes on the air and says, "We didn't have any terrorist attacks when Bush was President."
- An Aware Citizen -
To the Editor:
It seems appropriate to point out that President Obama’s first anniversary in office is Jan. 20. It took eight years for the Bush administration to get us into the terrible situation we are in now, but the pundits are only too pleased to blame President Obama for not turning the country around in a year!
You say many independent voters in Massachusetts were discouraged at the slow pace of change, and so a blue state turned red. We expect everything to happen overnight, and when it doesn’t, we have no staying power.
We now have a president who is smart, efficient and eminently capable; let’s give him a chance to do what must be done and not expect eight years of devastation to be overturned in a year. - Helen Gray Wash Depot Conn 1/20/10
- "Issues Stand Before Israel in Joining Elite Group -
JERUSALEM -- Israel, which has catapulted in the past two decades from a minor state-dominated economy to a market-driven technology hothouse, is in the final stages of accession to the exclusive club of advanced countries, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. BUT ITS SECRETIVE WEAPONS TRADE, PATENT-BENDING DRUG INDUSTRY AND OCCUPATION OF ARAB LANDS ARE RAISING LAST-MINUTE QUESTIONS.
The secretary general of the O.E.C.D., Ángel Gurría, currently in Israel to discuss the issues with senior officials, said that he was confident they could be resolved and that Israel might miss the original target of May but would become a member this year.
But he acknowledged that Israel, unlike other small countries in the process of accession -- Chile, Slovenia and Estonia -- might face objections unrelated to the technical questions still to be answered.
“We have to keep the substantive issues on the straight and narrow,” Mr. Gurría, a former Mexican finance minister, said in an interview held after meetings at the BANK OF ISRAEL. “We should not allow technical issues to be used as masks for something that is in reality a political issue.”
That political issue is Israel’s declining international reputation because of its Gaza war a year ago and its continuing construction of Jewish housing in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Professional staff employees of the O.E.C.D., which is based in Paris, say all 30 member states must approve the accession of a country, and it remained unclear if any would object. But the three technical issues all still needed to be solved.
The first involved the organization’s convention to combat bribery of foreign officials, which it considers one of its more significant accomplishments. Some years ago, bribes were tax-deductible in several European countries. Now, all of the organization’s members are required to fight bribery through domestic legislation and regulation.
The arms trade is notoriously filled with palm-greasing across the world, and ISRAEL IS A LARGE ARMS TRADER. It has signed the antibribery convention as part of its accession process, but the way it handles the issue is causing difficulty, O.E.C.D. officials say.
The main concern is that Israel’s Defense Ministry has the power to censor the results of any investigation of bribes paid by Israeli companies to foreign officials on the grounds that the publicity could harm Israel’s national interests. The censor can ban publication and is under no obligation to tell the authorities about the investigations. The O.E.C.D. wants both practices changed.
The second concern, regarding intellectual property rights, involves the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the world’s largest producers of generic drugs. MAJOR AMERICAN AND SWISS COMPANIES have long accused Israel of insufficient regulation of the way Teva markets its products in the face of patent regulations in other countries.
Finally, the O.E.C.D. is unhappy with Israel’s definition of its territory in collating economic data. Israel includes activities in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, both of them won in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war; most of the world views those areas as occupied, BUT ISRAEL CONSIDERS THEM ITS OWN THROUGH ANNEXATION.
All three issues, Israeli Foreign Ministry officials say, are being addressed at the technical level and will be solved.
Israel’s candidacy got off to an unusual start. Mr. Gurría, the secretary general, said THAT FOUR YEARS AGO Israel’s widely admired central bank governor, Stanley Fischer, began attending O.E.C.D. functions with large studies of Israel’s economy aimed at demonstrating its readiness for membership.
“It’s the only country that’s ever done that,” Mr. Gurría said. “They were actually using O.E.C.D. regulations to modify their practices so as to qualify. In May 2007 Israel was invited to join because of its good economic management focused on knowledge, technology and education. The O.E.C.D. can gain from its membership, and so can Israel.”
The O.E.C.D.’s purposes are to bring together market-oriented democracies, promote good business and economic practices, and increase employment and international trade.
For Israel, membership would not only help it continue to modernize its economy but also fight efforts to delegitimize and ostracize it over its dispute with the Palestinians." - Bronner N Y Times 1/20/10
- BACKGROUND -
In 1983, thirty five years after the 1948 Jewish clandestine military Irgun attacked and invaded Palestine, Ronald Reagan, who had limited his military history to the back lots and sound stages of Hollywood, ordered a Marine contingent to Beirut Airport as a show of force to bolster the heavily-guarded United States Embassy in Lebanon. Results? A truck-bomb took the lives of two hundred and twenty Marines at the airport and another similar device destroyed the heavily-guarded United States Embassy, and wiped out the entire CIA station in Lebanon on, as they say, "seventeen April 1983".
In this mix University of Chicago scholar Robert A. Pape took note.
Approaching twenty seven years later Barack Obama, who should know better but is encumbered by his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and chief spokesman David Axelrod, President Obama failed in his 1/5/10 brief address to the Nation to note that the seven to ten personnel of the CIA station in Kabul, Afghanistan and their forward post in Khost Province, were killed by a Jordanian physician, Human Khalil Mohammed (i.e. Abu-Malal al-Balawi), who was so appalled by the 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 Israeli massacre of Palestinians penned up in Gaza (which killed some 1400 Gazans, mostly civilians) Doctor Mohammed feigned agreement with the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate (long one of the CIA's closest and most useful allies in the Middle East); the Doctor agreeing to work for the CIA in Afghanistan, delivering Al Qaeda leaders, thereby gaining personal access to the key CIA people in Afghanistan...
As long as our government, "encumbered" as it is by AIPAC and the likes of "Independent" United States Senator Joseph Lieberman, gives billion$ each year (1st to Israel, 2nd to Egypt to support Israel against Egypt's own interests), even as they systematically starve the citizenry of Gaza, whose only offense is that they are Palestinians and have, now for almost sixty two years, survived a vicious, unscrupulous and mendacious band of predators known as the State of Israel, all funded by "the greatest Democracy on Earth"?! IT IS PAST TIME FOR AMERICANS TO RECOGNIZE THAT WE CAN NO LONGER SACRIFICE OUR BLOOD AND TREASURE ON THE ALTAR OF A ZIONIST ISRAEL! As we learn that these men, the Jordanian Dr. Human Khalil Abu-Malal al-Balawi and the Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab were not vicious by nature; but were simply deeply wounded by the barbarous treatment of Palestinians, by Israel, in its 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 Massacre in Gaza, as we understand their motivation we will more clearly recognize the megalomania of this Israeli cabal.
As the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu continues to flaunt his contempt for our President by expanding Jewish-only housing in Arab East Jerusalem and, now, building another Jewish-only highway in the West Bank and refusing to open passage of humanitarian goods into Gaza [ WE GIVE $3 PLUS BILLION$ ANNUALLY TO ISRAEL (and if you wondered why Egypt refused to open its border to Gaza for those peaceful international protesters who wanted to take part in the Gaza March, note who is second on the list of international recipients...of our shrinking largesse' !) ]
[[ 1/12/10 Edit - "Iranian Nuclear Physicist Assassinated in Tehran -
An Iranian nuclear physicist was assassinated today in a bomb blast outside his home in Tehran. Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was a nuclear scientist who taught at Tehran University and who might have had links to Iran’s disputed nuclear program. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Iran’s Foreign Ministry blamed Israeli and American agents. The killing comes one month after Iran accused the United States of kidnapping another Iranian nuclear scientist, Shahram Amiri, who has been missing since June when he traveled to Saudi Arabia on a religious pilgrimage." - DemocracyNow 1/12/10
- MITCHELL ISSUES LOAN GUARANTEE THREAT TO ISRAEL -
Amy Goodman: The news of the military equipment deal comes amid some tension between Israel and the Obama administration. Last week US envoy George Mitchell said Washington could penalize Israel financially to force it into making concessions to the Palestinians. Mitchell’s comments were widely criticized in Israel as well as by some of Israel’s staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill, including independent Senator Joseph Lieberman.
"Senator" Joseph I. Lieberman: “Any attempt to pressure Israel, to force Israel to the negotiating table by denying Israel support, will not pass the Congress of the United States. In fact, Congress will act to stop any attempt to do that. I don’t think we’re going to come to that point, because I think the President and his administration understand that."
Amy Goodman: In other news from the region, three Palestinians died Sunday by an Israeli tank in Gaza. Palestinians said the three men were militants who were in a field often used to launch rockets toward Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has announced plans to construct two walls along its southern border with Egypt in an attempt to prevent African refugees and asylum seekers from entering Israel. The two walls will cover a total of seventy miles. - DemocracyNow 1/11/10
- An informed and balanced voice, seldom heard in recent days, on this "SURGE" (see Toles ahead) in Afghanistan & Pakistan.
Analyst Discusses Threat To CIA
ABC National News
January 9, 2010 5:35 PM
REPORTER NICK SCHIFRIN, ABC NEWS, KABUL AFGHANISTAN: That collaboration between Al Qaeda and the Taliban on both sides of the border is what worries U.S. officials most. They are asking for help from the Pakistanis. And until they get that help, U.S. troops will be in greater danger. David.
David Muir: Nick, thank you. And so we turn to Robin Wright now, a foreign affairs analyst, who has reported extensively for the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. And, Robin, you heard the threat there, that this is revenge for the drone attack that killed their leader. We know of seven CIA drone attacks since the attack on that CIA outpost, one more today. These drone attacks will continue. So what do you make of that threat?
ROBIN WRIGHT, US INSTITUTE FOR PEACE: Well, clearly the United States is sending a strong message to the Taliban, getting a bit of its own revenge. But the reality is that the United States has to rely on these advanced predators against a force of ragtag militia that has no air force of its own, no armored corps, no advanced artillery and no satellite intelligence. And eight years after this conflict began, the United States is having difficulty holding its own.
David Muir: And, Robin, we know you were in Beirut (in 1983, under Reagan) the last time the CIA was attacked with this scope, the bombing of the embassy. You heard what the CIA Director Leon Panetta said today, defending his CIA workers on the front lines. Did you see, though, a breakdown? Or is this simply the risk that they face?
ROBIN WRIGHT: Well, clearly it's the risk they face. I think Leon Panetta is right to a certain extent. But the reality is, 27 years after the first attack wiped out almost an entire CIA station, the United States should have known better. This is a real counterintelligence failure.
David Muir: All right. Robin Wright, as always, we appreciate your analysis. Thank you. - Robin Wright 1/9/10
- Additional Historical Backup -
‘They Planted Hatred in Our Hearts’
By PATRICK COCKBURN
FOOTNOTES IN GAZA
Written and illustrated by Joe Sacco
418 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $29.95
JOE SACCO’S GRIPPING, IMPORTANT BOOK ABOUT TWO LONG-FORGOTTEN MASS KILLINGS OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA STANDS OUT AS ONE OF THE FEW CONTEMPORARY WORKS ON THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE LIKELY TO OUTLIVE THE ERA IN WHICH THEY WERE WRITTEN.
Sacco will find readers for “Footnotes in Gaza” far into the future because of the unique format and style of his comic-book narrative. He stands alone as a reporter-cartoonist because his ability to tell a story through his art is combined with investigative reporting of the highest quality.
His subject in this case is two massacres that happened more than half a century ago, stirred up little international attention and were forgotten outside the immediate circle of the victims. The killings took place during the Suez crisis of 1956, when the Israeli Army swept into the Gaza Strip, the great majority of whose inhabitants were Palestinian refugees. According to figures from the United Nations, 275 Palestinians were killed in the town of Khan Younis at the southern end of the strip on Nov. 3, and 111 died in Rafah, a few miles away on the Egyptian border, during a Nov. 12 operation by Israeli troops. Israel insisted that the Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces were still facing armed resistance. The Palestinians said all resistance had ceased by then.
Sacco makes the excellent point that such episodes are among the true building blocks of history. In this case, accounts of what happened were slow to seep out and were overshadowed by fresh developments in the Suez crisis. Sacco, whose reputation as a reporter-cartoonist was established with “Palestine” and “Safe Area Gorazde,” has rescued them from obscurity because they are “like innumerable historical tragedies over the ages that barely rate footnote status in the broad sweep of history -- even though . . . they often contain the seeds of the grief and anger that shape present-day events (e.g. the 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 Israeli Massacre in Gaza).”
Governments and the news media alike forget that atrocities live on in the memory of those most immediately affected. Sacco records Abed El-Aziz El-Rantisi -- a leader of Hamas (later killed by an Israeli missile), who in 1956 was 9 and living in Khan Younis -- describing how his uncle was killed: “It left a wound in my heart that can never heal,” he says. “I’m telling you a story and I am almost crying. . . . They planted hatred in our hearts.”
The vividness and pace of Sacco’s drawings, combined with a highly informed and intelligent verbal narrative, work extremely well in telling the story. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how any other form of journalism could make these events so interesting. Many newspaper or television reporters understand that the roots of today’s crises lie in obscure, unpublicized events (Attack on the USS Liberty). But they also recognize that their news editors are most interested in what is new and are likely to dismiss diversions into history as journalistic self-indulgence liable to bore and confuse the audience.
In fact, “Footnotes in Gaza” springs from this editorial bias against history. In the spring of 2001, Sacco and Chris Hedges (formerly a foreign correspondent of The New York Times) were reporting for Harper’s Magazine about Palestinians in Khan Younis during the early months of the second Palestinian intifada. They believed the 1956 killings helped explain the violence almost 50 years later. PERHAPS PREDICTABLY, HOWEVER, THE PARAGRAPHS ABOUT THE OLD MASSACRE WERE CUT.
American editors weren’t the only people who found their delving into history beside the point. When Sacco returned to Gaza to search for witnesses and survivors in 2002 and 2003, with Israeli forces still occupying the area, young Palestinians could not understand his interest in past events when there was so much contemporary violence.
Sacco’s pursuit of Palestinian and Israeli eyewitnesses as well as Israeli and United Nations documentation is relentless and impressive. He details the lives of those who help him, notably his fixer Abed, and brings to life two eras of the Gaza Strip, its towns packed with refugees in the early 1950s as they are today.
It was an atmosphere filled with hate. Few Israeli leaders showed any empathy for the Palestinian tragedy. But early in 1956, the Israeli chief of staff Moshe Dayan made a famous speech at the funeral of an Israeli commander killed on the border with Gaza. What, Dayan wondered, explained the Palestinians’ “terrible hatred of us”? Then he answered his own question: “For eight years now they have sat in the refugee camps of Gaza, and have watched how, before their very eyes, we have turned their lands and villages, where they and their forefathers previously dwelled, into our home.” He added that Israelis needed to be “ready and armed, tough and harsh.”
What this meant in practice became clear as Israeli troops took over Gaza six months later. The killings in Khan Younis were relatively straightforward, according to eyewitnesses and a few survivors. The men of the town were told to line up in the main square and were then systematically shot so their bodies lay in a long row. Some who stayed in their homes were killed there.
The episode in Rafah was more complicated and took place over the course of a day, when people were summoned to a school so the Israelis could determine if they were guerrillas or soldiers. Here there were many more survivors than in Khan Younis; they describe how some were shot on their way to the school and others beaten to death with batons as they entered the school courtyard. The Israeli Army did order two officers to conduct an inquiry into the “Rafah incident,” as a top-secret communiqué called it. (The same communiqué said 40 to 60 people were killed and 20 injured.) Sacco’s researcher found no report in military archives.
Gaza has changed radically since Sacco did his research. In 2005, Israel unilaterally dismantled Jewish settlements and withdrew its military forces, although it remained in tight control of Gaza’s borders. In 2007, Hamas seized control, and in 2008-9 the enclave came under devastating Israeli attack. In this bewildering torrent of events, Sacco’s investigation into the 50-year-old killings is one of the surest guides to the hatred with which Palestinians and Israelis confront one another. - PATRICK COCKBURN & JOE SACCO N Y Times 12/27/09
While Mark Halperin (former political director of ABC News, after which he assumed a similar position with Time) while Halperin, Heilemann and our news Media/Press are salivating, along with Republicans, on destroying the Majority Leader of the United States Senate Harry Reid, the real story from "Game Change" is provided by Michiko Kakutani:
"Mr. Halperin and Mr. Heilemann write, for instance (1) that the strategist John Weaver suspected the rumor Cindy McCain had a “long-term boyfriend” in Arizona “was rooted in truth,” and that (2) the McCains “fought in front of others, during small meetings and before large events, to the amazement and discomfort of the staff.” (3) The authors say that Mrs. McCain accused the senator of ruining her life, that she never wanted him to run again for president, and that (4) “when it came time to film campaign videos of the couple, the camera crews had to roll for hours to capture a few minutes of warmth.” Page 4, 1/10/10 Arts N Y Times
Note: The appearance of Halperin & Heilemann, on Julie Chen's husband's (Leslie Moonves) 60 MINUTES with Anderson Cooper 1/10/10, also neglected these items that Ms. Kakutani noted... ]]
And here is Amy Goodman's 1/7/10 interview with George Galloway, the stalwart international citizen and famed British lawmaker - given more time he could also have covered the Israeli theft of Palestinian aquifers:
"A humanitarian aid convoy carrying food and medical supplies has arrived in Gaza nearly a month after it embarked from Britain. Members of the Viva Palestina convoy began passing through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing into Gaza on Wednesday. They’re expected to spend the next forty-eight hours distributing the aid supplies.
The convoy was delayed by more than a week following a dispute with the Egyptian government. Hours before the convoy’s entry into Gaza yesterday, an Egyptian soldier was shot dead during a clash with Palestinian protesters who had gathered along the border to protest the delay. At least thirty-five Palestinians were wounded. On Tuesday, Egyptian forces clashed with members of the Viva Palestina convoy, wounding more than fifty".
AMY GOODMAN: Egypt and Israel have been maintaining a strict blockade on Gaza since 2007, allowing only the most basic supplies to get through. Viva Palestina’s arrival in Gaza comes a year after the three-week Israeli assault that killed over 1,300 Palestinians.
British parliamentarian George Galloway led the Viva Palestina convoy. He joins us now on the phone right now from Gaza.
Welcome to Democracy Now!"
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Thank you. Good morning.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us what happened? We hear a number of people in your convoy were beaten up, were hurt, some hospitalized.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Yes, fifty-five, in fact, were injured, some of them quite severely. Ten of them had to go to hospital. All of them entered Gaza with us, but we have a collection of broken heads and plaster casts and bloodied faces and clothes.
It’s quite a testimony to the role that the government of Egypt is playing in this siege that you have just admirably described. It was entirely unprovoked. It was an attack on unarmed civilian people. And it was very frightening and brutal. And, of course, it was of a piece with the way that the Gaza Freedom Marchers were treated in the center of Cairo in the middle of the tourist season just days before.
JUAN GONZALEZ: What kind of coverage did that attack receive in the Egyptian media? And did it have any impact on the government’s decision to then let the convoy pass?
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Well, the good news is that nobody watches the Egyptian media in Egypt. All of them watch the pan-Arabic stations like Al Jazeera, satellite stations, which have broken the censorship walls of the dictatorships in the Arab world. And so, everybody in Egypt knows what happened in that little port of Al-Arish, and the vast majority of them, I’m sure, completely disapprove of it, indeed denounce it.
The Egyptian people are entirely behind the Palestinians under siege. Unfortunately, they are ill-served by a government that is playing a quite despicable role, actually, just few yards from where I am now. The Egyptians are building what we call the wall of shame, which is being done in conjunction with the United States military, to try and choke off the tunnels, which are the only other means of bringing life into Gaza, in which sheep and chickens and petrol and gas and the other means of staying alive, other than medicine--because if I may correct something you did say in the introduction, you said we were bringing food and medicine, but we were only bringing medicine, because food is actually not allowed to come through the Rafah gate from Egypt into Gaza. Food must pass through the Israeli lines, because, of course, they say they are concerned about the safety of the food. They don’t want to cause any food poisoning in Gaza, you understand (HORRIFIC!).
AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe the condition of Gaza? It’s been a year since the Israeli assault. You were there last year also trying to bring in aid.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: It’s desperate. If I give you a tiny example only to give you an example, I’m here in quite a nice hotel, except there is no food in the hotel. There’s no food for breakfast, there’s no food for lunch. Now I make that point only to illustrate that if there’s no food in the best hotel in Gaza, imagine what the people are suffering. I’ve watched with my own eyes Palestinian women and girls in the early morning mists on top of garbage heaps, combing through the garbage heaps looking for food. In an Arab Muslim country in 2009 and ’10, it’s a absolutely scandalous situation.
And, Amy, remember why and how it came about. It’s been imposed by men. It’s not a natural disaster. It’s been imposed by men to punish the people of Palestine for voting for a party (Hamas) in a free election that the big powers, including yours and mine and Israel, don’t like. Now, I myself would not have voted for them; I’m not a Hamas supporter. But the only people entitled to choose the leadership of the Palestinians are the Palestinians themselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you been meeting--as a British member of Parliament, did you meet with any Egyptian leaders? And is there an explanation of why the Gaza Freedom March was kept out--they allowed in about a hundred people, but many refused under those conditions--and why the Egyptian government is stopping these peace activists from entering Gaza?
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Well, I’m glad to say that at every stage we insisted on all of our convoy entering Gaza, and we refused to leave Al-Arish without our prisoners, six people who were being held prisoner by the Egyptian government’s forces. And we refused to accept the exclusion from Egypt of some of our convoy members, all of whom were initially excluded, but all, in the end, were let in and are with me in Gaza. So, in terms of solidarity, I’m proud of what we have achieved.
No, there’s no explanation from the Egyptian regime at all. How could there be, in a way? How do you explain to anyone that Egypt, once the heart of the Arab world, is now playing a part in building an iron wall of shame around a suffering people who are being effectively starved, they hope, into surrender, but if not into surrender, then into death?
JUAN GONZALEZ: And George Galloway, your sense of how the Palestinian leadership is regarding the policies of the United States? Now we’re a year into the Obama administration. He’s, on the one hand, attempted to reach out to the Arab world in a way the Bush administration never did, but in terms of Palestine and the conflict with Israel, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of change.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: Well, I must tell you, Juan, as someone who, myself, on my radio shows and TV shows and so on, campaigned for the election of Barack Obama, tried very hard to persuade people on the left that they were making a kind of utopian mistake in not supporting Obama, there is a tremendous bitter disappointment here in Palestine, and indeed wider than that, at the role that President Obama is currently playing, or rather not playing. His speech in Cairo was a wonderful piece of work. It was mesmerizing. It transfixed the Arab public opinion, that finally, after the Bush years, we had some hope. But in practice, his policy--and one assumes Hillary Clinton is carrying out his policy--is exactly the same as the policy of the Bushites towards the people here. And there’s bitter, bitter disappointment about that.
AMY GOODMAN: George Galloway, we want to thank you very much for being with us, a British MP leading the Viva Palestina aid convoy. Their whole convoy did get into Gaza through Egypt, though through a great deal of conflict, with a number of the delegation beaten up. - Amy Goodman 1/7/10
- KEY BACKGROUND -
Another George, the notable but less respectable George Mitchell, until 1/1/07 the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the giant Disney ABC Corporation, this George was interviewed by "Charlie" Rose 1/7/10 {repeated 1/8/10 on an OPB, Oregon "Public" Broadcasting ["Sponsored by the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Care ("Care" for the Schnitzers?) Foundation"]} in which Mr. Mitchell made it clear (to a comforted "Charlie" Rose) that by the time Mr. Mitchell (and the United States) puts any real pressure on the Israelis (like, for example, putting into play the $ 3+ Billion$ we give Israel EVERY YEAR) (1) every trace of Palestinian presence in Arab East Jerusalem will have been removed; (2) the Palestinian population in Gaza will have been starved to death; and (3) all of the Palestinian aquifers will have been acquired by Israel.
- More next edit. (Did the Schnitzers bring Netanyahu to Oregon a few years back?).
A year ago 12/26/08 - 1/18/09, the Israelis wrought their "Massacre on Gaza - Cast Lead". Having stifled exposure and coopted protests ( Norman Finkelstein, well-versed on the years-long Israeli exploitation of Gaza, conceived the original March on Gaza), a year later the Israelis would seem to be mounting a repeat, (1) quickening their demolishing of Arab citizens houses and buildings in Arab East Jerusalem, (2) gunning down (12/26/09) three Palestinians in Nablus of the West Bank, and, expanding the perimeter, (3) planting three bombs under a Hamas vehicle in Haret Hreik Beirut, that portion of Beirut allotted to Hezbollah in the power-sharing arrangement in Lebanon. Actions have consequences, and the 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with an explosive device sewn into his underwear, who intended to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight to Detroit with three hundred aboard on Christmas Day 12/25/09, will not be the last Islamist to attempt to answer the extremist Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee who was in Yemen in August, along with General Petraeus, overseeing the introduction of U.S. Special Operations, Green Berets and intelligence, regarding which he reported to Chris Wallace's "Fox News Sunday" on 12/27/09.
In an effort to support and maintain the radical Netanyahu government in Israel, with their absolutist radical religious policies assaulting and affronting the Islamist Middle East, the United States present government can expect a continuum of deadly attacks by the growing number of Islamists radicalized by a, one must recognize, maniacal Israel. No quantity of pro-Israel pro-Jewish propaganda can alter our recent history since the assassination of Soldier Statesman Yitzhak Rabin in November of 1995, and this database of GOPBIAS.org has that history, perhaps more consolidated than any other location on the world wide web.
- An Addendum -
The Palestinians did not kill or torture any Jews in Europe in the years leading up to and including World War II, and no amount of Jewish propaganda can convince people that they did. In fact, such propaganda only demeans whatever legitimate cause the Israelis have.
What could not be more clear today, 12/28/09 -
Once again we're squandering our blood and treasure for the State of Israel, this time to answer the tumult created in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a condition which will not subside as long as the insidious Israelis refuse to recognize the God-given rights of the Palestinians to live peaceful lives IN PALESTINE!
- Here, the original -
Next Photo
Both Admiral Mullen and General McChrystal were heavily involved first, in the "surge" in Iraq, and have now moved on to Afghanistan, supposedly with the "success" in Iraq at their backs. However, 12/8/09: "Five car bombs in Iraq are detonated simultaneously, killing over one hundred and thirty Iraqis - and seriously wounding another FIVE HUNDRED"! And, in Iran, hordes of protesters shouting "Death to the Dictator"! Steven J. Rosen's work? And when was "Merry Christmas" outlawed, and replaced by a "Happy Holidays" mandate?
We know that Rahm Emanuel arranged for the exoneration of the above Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, and laid the groundwork for dismissing the case against the rapist of a thirteen-year-old, Roman Polanski; Has he also supported the sleazy thief, Conrad Black, former owner of The Jerusalem Post?
- 12/20/09 Edit - Happy Holidays!
- Bill Moyers Journal 12/18/09 with Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect and Matt Taibbi (his father reports for NBC) of Rolling Stone make the case against Chief of Staff Emanuel, but may be too harsh against the President. It has been a goal of a series of Democratic presidents for eighty years to provide universal national health care, but for the last forty years the GOP (Grand Old Party?) has prevented same. If President Obama is successful (his primary obstacle is our Media/Press) it will be a noteworthy achievement.
- Segments of the 12/18/09 Journal -
BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL.
Something's not right here. One year after the great collapse of our financial system, Wall Street is back on top while our politicians dither. As for health care reform, you're about to be forced to buy insurance from companies whose stock is soaring, and that's just dandy with the White House.
Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market.
Here to talk about all this are two journalists who don't pull their punches. Robert Kuttner is an economist who helped create and now co-edits the progressive magazine THE AMERICAN PROSPECT, and the author of the book OBAMA'S CHALLENGE, among others.
Also with me is Matt Taibbi, who covers politics for ROLLING STONE magazine where he is a contributing editor. He's made a name for himself writing in a no-holds-barred, often profane, but always informative and stimulating style that gets under the skin of the powerful. His most recent article is "Obama's Big Sellout," about the President's team of economic advisers and their Wall Street connections. It's been burning up the blogosphere. Welcome to both of you.
ROBERT KUTTNER: Rahm Emanuel, the President's Chief of Staff, was Bill Clinton's Political Director. And Rahm Emanuel's take away from Bill Clinton's failure to get health insurance passed was 'don't get on the wrong side of the insurance companies.' So their strategy was cut a deal with the insurance companies, the drug industry going in. And the deal was, we're not going to attack your customer base, we're going to subsidize a new customer base. And that script was pre-cooked so it's not surprising that this is what comes out the other side.
BILL MOYERS: So are you saying that this, what some call a sweetheart deal between the pharmaceutical industry and the White House, done many months ago before this fight really began, was because the drug company money in the Democratic Party?
ROBERT KUTTNER: Well, it's two things. Part of it was we need to do whatever it takes to get a bill. Never mind whether it's a really good bill, let's get a bill passed so we can claim that we solved health insurance. Secondly, let's get the drug industry and the insurance industry either supporting us or not actively opposing us. So that there was some skirmishing around the details, but the deal going in was that the administration, drug companies, insurance companies are on the same team. Now, that's one way to get legislation, it's not a way to transform the health system. Once the White House made this deal with the insurance companies, the public option was never going to be anything more than a fig leaf. And over the summer and the fall, it got whittled down, whittled down, whittled down to almost nothing and now it's really nothing.
MATT TAIBBI: Yeah, and this was Howard Dean's point this week was that this individual mandate that's going to force people to become customers of private health insurance companies, the Democrats are going to end up owning that policy and it's going to be extremely unpopular and it's going to be theirs for a generation. It's going to be an albatross around the neck of this party.
ROBERT KUTTNER: Look, there are two ways, if you're the President of the United States sizing up a situation like this that you can try and create reform. One is to say, well, the interest groups are so powerful that the only thing I can do is I can work with them and move the ball a few yards, get some incremental reform, hope it turns into something better. The other way you can do it is to try to rally the people against the special interests and play on the fact that the insurance industry, the drug industry, are not going to win any popularity contests with the American people. And you, as the president, be the champion of the people against the special interests. That's the course that Obama's chosen not to pursue.
MATT TAIBBI: The Democrats are in exactly the same position that the Republicans were in once the Iraq War turned bad. All the Republicans have to do now is sit back and watch the Democrats make a disaster out of this health care effort. And they're going to gain political capital whether they're in the right or not. And I think it's a very- it's a terrible thing for the party.
ROBERT KUTTNER: Well, my co-editor, Paul Starr in the editorial in the current issue of "The Prospect" takes exactly that position. Don't be too hard on Obama, he inherited a really difficult situation and we're making incremental progress. If we could've done better we would've. Paul and I disagree about that. I mean, I think one of the challenges of a president is to transform the reality rather than just work within its parameters. I think the other problem, frankly, is that those of us who consider ourselves progressives invested so much in this remarkable figure, Barack Obama. And we read our own hopes into him. We saw him as a potentially great president. We saw this as a potentially transformative moment, I certainly did, where he could've chosen to be the kind of president Roosevelt was. And it turns out that's not who he is characteralogically and that's not how he chose to play the moment.
ROBERT KUTTNER: We're going to have to do that anyway. In other words, these fights never end. We're going to have to go back and make a fight another day. And hopefully, that won't be 20 years from now. Hopefully, it will be six years from now. I think if this bill goes down it's going to be even harder to get the kind of legislation we want because the Republicans are really going to be on the march. So, the Democrats are really between a rock and a hard place here, because if it loses, there's one set of ways the Republicans gain. If it wins, there could be another set of ways that the Republicans gain. AND THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF THE DEAL THAT OUR FRIEND, RAHM EMANUEL STRUCK BACK IN THE SPRING OF PASSING A BILL THAT'S A PRO-INDUSTRY BILL THAT DOESN'T REALLY GET AT THE STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS.
ROBERT KUTTNER: Corporate, yes, sorry. That's too kind. THEY'RE CORPORATE DEMOCRATS WHO WERE PUT ON THAT COMMITTEE BECAUSE RAHM EMANUEL FELT THAT THERE'S NO BETTER PLACE THAN THE HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE IF YOU WANT TO SHAKE DOWN WALL STREET, TO PUT IT BLUNTLY. - BMJ 12/18/09
As the new year of 2010 approaches, in which unbelievably, the Media/Press informs us that the unscrupulous political party which brought this nation and, in fact, the Western financial world, to the brink of disaster - and now, that same band of scoundrels opposes any and all attempts to right this battered ship of state and the damaged rest of the world (EXCEPT ISRAEL); that this notorious Republican political party from Rush Limbaugh, through Alan Greenspan and Dick Armey to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell AND John Sidney McCain III -
Michael Sokolove had this piece in the 11/8/09 The New York Times Magazine on the "folksy" Dick Armey whose home is ninety acres just north of Dallas, Texas: "For most of the last half-dozen years, he has worked in the lobbying shop of the giant law firm DLA Piper while also serving as chairman of FreedomWorks, a nonprofit organization that in 2008 paid him $550,000.
When I asked Mark McKinnon, a political strategist and former consultant to George W. Bush, how he would explain Armey’s resurgence on the national stage, he replied: “Armey and FreedomWorks have been the invisible hand behind much of the recent conservative activism around the country. He taps into the innate fear most Americans have about government activism and overreach.”
Interestingly, this so-called FreedomWorks began with the billion$ of Sheldon G. Adelson
"He told the crowd that day in North Carolina, “Nearly every important office in Washington, D.C., today is occupied by someone with an AGGRESSIVE DISLIKE FOR OUR HERITAGE, OUR FREEDOM, OUR HISTORY AND OUR CONSTITUTION.”"
That this dishonorable and unprincipled band of thieves STANDS TO INCREASE THEIR NUMBER IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES! HORRENDOUS!
The Phenomenal Paul Krugman - Nobel Laureate 12/21/09
- A DANGEROUS DYSFUNCTION
" The Senate, the filibuster and paralyzed government.
Unless some legislator pulls off a last-minute double-cross, health care reform will pass the Senate this week. Count me among those who consider this an awesome achievement. It’s a seriously flawed bill, we’ll spend years if not decades fixing it, but it’s nonetheless a huge step forward.
It was, however, a close-run thing. And the fact that it was such a close thing shows that the Senate -- and, therefore, the U.S. government as a whole -- has become ominously dysfunctional.
After all, Democrats won big last year, running on a platform that put health reform front and center. In any other advanced democracy this would have given them the mandate and the ability to make major changes. But the need for 60 votes to cut off Senate debate and end a filibuster -- a requirement that appears nowhere in the Constitution, but is simply a self-imposed rule -- turned what should have been a straightforward piece of legislating into a nail-biter. And it gave a handful of wavering senators extraordinary power to shape the bill.
Now consider what lies ahead. We need fundamental financial reform. We need to deal with climate change. We need to deal with our long-run budget deficit. What are the chances that we can do all that -- or, I’m tempted to say, any of it -- if doing anything requires 60 votes in a deeply polarized Senate?
Some people will say that it has always been this way, and that we’ve managed so far. But it wasn’t always like this. Yes, there were filibusters in the past -- most notably by segregationists trying to block civil rights legislation. But the modern system, in which the minority party uses the threat of a filibuster to block every bill it doesn’t like, is a recent creation.
The political scientist Barbara Sinclair has done the math. In the 1960s, she finds, “extended-debate-related problems” -- threatened or actual filibusters -- affected only 8 percent of major legislation. By the 1980s, that had risen to 27 percent. But after Democrats retook control of Congress in 2006 and Republicans found themselves in the minority, it soared to 70 percent.
Some conservatives argue that the Senate’s rules didn’t stop former President George W. Bush from getting things done. But this is misleading, on two levels.
First, Bush-era Democrats weren’t nearly as determined to frustrate the majority party, at any cost, as Obama-era Republicans. Certainly, Democrats never did anything like what Republicans did last week: G.O.P. senators held up spending for the Defense Department -- which was on the verge of running out of money -- in an attempt to delay action on health care.
More important, however, Mr. Bush was a buy-now-pay-later president. He pushed through big tax cuts, but never tried to pass spending cuts to make up for the revenue loss. He rushed the nation into war, but never asked Congress to pay for it. He added an expensive drug benefit to Medicare, but left it completely unfunded. Yes, he had legislative victories; but he didn’t show that Congress can make hard choices and act responsibly, because he never asked it to.
So now that hard choices must be made, how can we reform the Senate to make such choices possible?
Back in the mid-1990s two senators -- Tom Harkin and, believe it or not, Joe Lieberman -- introduced a bill to reform Senate procedures. (MANAGEMENT WANTS ME TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT IN MY LAST COLUMN I WASN’T ENDORSING INAPPROPRIATE THREATS AGAINST MR. LIEBERMAN.) Sixty votes would still be needed to end a filibuster at the beginning of debate, but if that vote failed, another vote could be held a couple of days later requiring only 57 senators, then another, and eventually a simple majority could end debate. Mr. Harkin says that he’s considering reintroducing that proposal, and he should.
But if such legislation is itself blocked by a filibuster -- which it almost surely would be -- reformers should turn to other options. Remember, the Constitution sets up the Senate as a body with majority -- not supermajority -- rule. So the rule of 60 can be changed. A Congressional Research Service report from 2005, when a Republican majority was threatening to abolish the filibuster so it could push through Bush judicial nominees, suggests several ways this could happen -- for example, through a majority vote changing Senate rules on the first day of a new session.
Nobody should meddle lightly with long-established parliamentary procedure. But our current situation is unprecedented: America is caught between severe problems that must be addressed and a minority party determined to block action on every front. DOING NOTHING IS NOT AN OPTION -- NOT UNLESS YOU WANT THE NATION TO SIT MOTIONLESS, WITH AN EFFECTIVELY PARALYZED GOVERNMENT, WAITING FOR FINANCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL AND FISCAL CRISES TO STRIKE. - Paul Krugman 12/21/09
Again, were there a John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow, or an Eric Severeid in our midst, such a preposterous and devastating farce would be unthinkable!
And there is another facet to this scheme, by the GOP and their confederates in the media, a plot which seems destined to duplicate the conspiracy of a decade ago in which a cabal of Jewish Americans (Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Rosen and Weissman etc.) usurped the power of the United States to occupy Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein FOR ISRAEL! Today, ten years later, we've expanded our footprint into Southwest Asia, to quell those Muslim countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, newly alarmed by the positions taken by that intensely malignant cancer in the Middle East, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Avignor Lieberman. Once again we're squandering our blood and treasure for the State of Israel, this time to answer the tumult created in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a condition which will not subside as long as the insidious Israelis refuse to recognize the God-given rights of the Palestinians to live peaceful lives IN PALESTINE!
[ NPR's Talk of the Nation 12/16/09 produced a classic example of "Public Radio Propaganda" as host Neal Conan, Ted Koppel ("NPR's Senior News Analyst") and David Sanger (whose latest book Koppel unabashedly promoted), Sanger, one of the most aggressive of The New York Times' reporters who, particularly on Iran, has that Persian nation threatening Israel with nuclear weapons; that's the Israel which is brimming with nuclear weaponry and refusing to sign the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The shared ethnicity of Messrs. Conan, Koppel and Sanger (who describe Israel as a "Democracy" even though its Palestinian Christian and Arab citizens are confronted on every side by "legal" apartheid restrictions), that shared ethnicity should disqualify this threesome.]
It was obvious what had forced Mr. Conan's 12/16/09 broadcast with Ted Koppel and David Sanger. His permitting, two days before (12/14/09), the notable Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Paul Nitze Professor of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and the National Security Adviser to President Jimmy Carter, when the NSA title meant something, allowing Mr. Brzezinki to appear on TOTN - FOR TWENTY MINUTES!
Here some segments...
MR. BRZEZINSKI: Well, basically, President Obama has recast the way America should approach the world. And I think in doing so, he has also helped enormously to improve America's standing in the world. He, in effect, has recommitted America to collective security and not to unilateral actions. He hasn't disowned the necessity of war sometimes, but he has made it very clear that America should avoid pursuing single, solitary wars without international support.
He has urged a process of reconciliation with the Islamic world. He has articulated the need for greater commitment to the achievement of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. He has committed the United States to an effort to find, if possible, a peaceful solution to the challenge posed by Iran. I could go on and on and on, but basically, all of that cumulatively meant that American foreign policy, was in some fashion, re-linked to the fundamental dynamics of the 21st century.
TALK SHOW CALLER: Hello and thank you. What a privilege. I wondered Dr. Brzezinski, now, as we know that China wants the oil that could come from Russia through a pipeline through Afghanistan, as we know that Iran wants to build nuclear energy generation sites, as we know that Afghanistan has a lot of opium poppies, what are the chances that we could work with China, with Russia, with Iran to provide electrification and modernization in western and southern Afghanistan? And what are the chances we can work with pharmaceutical companies around the planet to make a market for the opium in Afghanistan for palliative care among the developing - of the developed world where people are dying in pain? And I'm interested in your response to this possible answer, to issues of Afghanistan including modernization, electrification and an actual market for the opium and working with China, with Russia and with India. Thank you.
NEAL CONAN: Jeff, thanks very much. And let me ask you about - the one we've not focused on at all yet is Iran. And more evidence over the weekend, if more were needed, that Iran appears to be - its nuclear ambitions include nuclear weapons and that's the direction it seems to be going no matter what the international community says or does.
MR. BRZEZINSKI: Well, we don't know how true this so-called evidence is. As you know, there are a lot of parties (ISRAEL!) that are interested in the United States and Iran not reaching an agreement. So we have to be absolutely certain that this is not a repetition of the Iraq case when there was also a lot of parties (ISRAEL!) that wanted us to go to war with the Iraq and kept insisting that there is evidence that the Iraqis already have nuclear weapons.
I think the picture with Iran is more mixed. I think there are reasons to be suspicious, but we don't have enough reasons to be conclusively convinced that they're actually actively seeking nuclear weapons. The last comprehensive U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that currently, they are not. Secretary Gates recently said that he didn't think that Iran would have any effective nuclear arsenal before 2014.
The head of the Mossad in Israel echoed him so far as that date is concerned. And that leads me to the basic conclusion that if we wanted negotiations to succeed, we have to do two things: One, be patient and not to try to force the issue immediately, because if we do it's a prescription for failure. Secondly, to the extent possible we should be negotiating not just about the nuclear problem, which is a very serious and complex problem, but we should always be negotiating about regional security (And Israel Quiescent!) in which we'd have a common stake and maybe even about financial economic arrangements (We give Israel a minimum of $3.5 Billion$ every year!). If we do that, there's a greater chance of quid pro quos emerging from the different negotiating tables. And I think that's in our interest.
December 19, 2009
- FBI ACCUSED OF ABUSING POWER IN CLINTON INQUIRY
BY PETER BAKER
WASHINGTON -- A former DIRECTOR of the Secret Service said Friday that the F.B.I. had engaged in an “abuse of power” by trying to pressure him to “give us the president” during the investigation of President Bill Clinton’s interactions with Monica Lewinsky a decade ago.
The official, Lewis C. Merletti, who headed the former president’s protective detail and later became the agency’s director, said in an interview that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had grilled him just days before Mr. Clinton left office in a last-ditch effort to prove that his Secret Service agents had covered up and even facilitated extramarital flings.
Mr. Merletti said that the F.B.I. alleged that he and Mr. Clinton had concocted this deal: in exchange for Mr. Merletti’s stonewalling questions about Ms. Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton would not only appoint him director of the Secret Service but would also provide him women for sexual encounters.
“They said to me, ‘You’re the last person who can give us the president, and you’re going to give him to us,’ ” Mr. Merletti recalled. He called it “disgraceful” and said of the F.B.I., “They became involved in a political game, and in the end they tarnished themselves beyond belief.”
The new book, “The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr,” written by Ken Gormley, a law professor at Duquesne University, and published by Crown, re-examines the scandals and investigations that marked Mr. Clinton’s presidency and adds new details to the public understanding of them. Mr. Gormley secured unusual cooperation from nearly all of the main players, including Mr. Clinton, Mr. Starr and Ms. Lewinsky.
As first reported by Politico, the book quotes Ms. Lewinsky as saying that she believed Mr. Clinton did lie under oath to a grand jury and asserts that the former president, while he was Arkansas’s governor, did have a romantic affair with Susan McDougal, his onetime Whitewater partner who went to jail rather than testify against him. - Baker N Y Times 12/19/09
- THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS GROUNDBREAKING "THE DEATH OF AMERICAN VIRTUE: CLINTON VS STARR" AND THIS PETER BAKER ARTICLE IN THE 12/19/09 N Y TIMES IS THREE-FOLD - (1) NO MENTION ON THE TIMES' FRONT PAGE, (2) NO MENTION ON THE TIMES' PAGE 2 "INSIDE THE TIMES" INDEX, AND, MOST SIGNIFICANTLY (A DEAD GIVEAWAY!) (3) THE NAME OF THE FBI DIRECTOR AT THE TIME...IS MISSING...ONE WOULD HAVE TO NOTE THE ETHNICITY OF ONE LOUIS J. FREEH, LAST SEEN ON NATIONAL TELEVISION INTRODUCING THE PRESENT ATTORNEY GENERAL, ERIC HOLDER.
There are those who take issue with the earlier characterization of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a "con artist", that it's disrespectful of an Admiral who has risked his life for his country. Our Constitution makes clear that the President of these United States is the Commander in Chief. It is also clear that we have a military led by men who have conspired to force President Obama's hand regarding our policy in Afghanistan, and what this foreign policy manipulation foretells is indistinguishable from the prior eight years in which, perhaps, our worst president began this catastrophe by withdrawing from that very locale, from which 9/11 originated.
The reputable reporter David Martin spelled out on the 10/30/09 CBS Evening News the details of our military leaders publicly coercing this president to align himself with their plans for Afghanistan, not surprisingly identical to those of the man President Barack Obama defeated in 2008, John Sidney McCain III (do you recall how Five-Star General Douglass MacArthur was fired by President Harry Truman?).
David Martin: The White House is not happy with the way senior military leaders, beginning with Joint Chiefs Chairman Mullen have handled the debate over Afghan strategy, boxing the president in with their public statements. Two days after the president held his first meeting on Afghanistan, Mullen was telling Congress he agreed with McChrystal.
David Martin: Even before that, General Petraeus, the overall commander for the region, gave an interview in which he strongly backed McChrystal's assessment. As for McChrystal, he publicly dismissed a much more limited strategy favored by Vice President Biden.
On Afghanistan Conundrum
To the Editor:
Thomas L. Friedman argues that President Obama’s Afghanistan policy will succeed only if we are successful in nation-building (“May It All Come True,” column, Dec. 6). It’s worse than that. There is no nation to build.
Afghanistan is a loosely aligned collection of tribal constituencies. Its people are largely illiterate. The so-called central government does not control the countryside and is corrupt.
How are Americans in a relatively short period of time going to create from this raw material a state capable of ensuring its own security?
We are also fighting the wrong enemy. The Taliban, no matter how alien to our values, pose no threat to the United States. Al Qaeda has no significant current presence in Afghanistan.
In short, we are sending a lot of soldiers at enormous cost to fight an enemy that is somewhere else, with the de facto mission of propping up a narco-state. This makes no sense. - Boyd Hight Los Angeles 23/6/09
The writer was a deputy assistant secretary of state during the Carter administration.
To the Editor:
Re “Obama’s Logic Is No Match for Afghanistan,” by Frank Rich (column, Dec. 6):
To Mr. Rich’s cogent arguments I add two further considerations not evident in recent administration policy discussions. The first, voiced by numerous Afghanistan experts, is the danger that an American troop escalation will increase the appearance of an American occupation and drive ordinary Afghans into the hands of the Taliban.
The second is the related danger that a rise in the number of Muslims killed in Afghanistan will radicalize ever-larger numbers of formerly nonextremist Muslims in countries around the world.
Robert Wright (“Who Created Major Hasan?” Op-Ed, Nov. 22) gives this argument new focus and urgency, noting that the men who carried out the Fort Hood and Little Rock shootings both referred to the American military’s killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a large number of innocent civilians. He fears that we may see more such incidences of domestic terror, with no way to protect ourselves.
These dangers should be borne in mind by those who formulate and put into effect our nation’s policy. - Donna Wulff Providence RI 12/7/09
The writer is associate professor of South Asian religions, Brown University.
- Wishing you a grand & glorious two hundred and thirty-third celebration of our Declaration of Independence - July 4th of 2009! - And the battle continues!
To Recognize the Forty-sixth anniversary
of the Assassination of President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
- We'll continue in the mode of reverence for John Kennedy, who, had he survived, would have set a tone which would have precluded a Richard Nixon, a Ronald Reagan and both a George H. W. Bush and a George W. Bush, largely because President Kennedy would have chosen the diplomatic path to settle the Vietnam conundrum [which Eisenhower had rejected by canceling the 1954 all-Vietnam plebiscite - and LBJ had precluded by simulating the 1964 North Vietnamese Gulf of Tonkin attack (this was publicized by the Senator-Statesman Wayne Morse, which Michael Beschloss has yet to acknowledge)] all of which has altered our nation's history for the worst! - 12/7/09 Edit - The sixty-eighth anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, "A Day of Infamy!" - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We continue with 12/11/09 Edit, to the 12/15/09 Edit.
Next Photo
Noting the comfort of those pictured above, contrasted today (10/28/09) with the bloody mayhem across the globe in Islamic Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan - and the loss of young American life and limb, blood and treasure, for those pictured above? - - - Yes - Although it began in 1948 with the attack by the Irgun, a militant underground Zionist group, on a co-mingled Palestine where Jews, Palestinian Muslims and Christians lived in harmony, side by side.. ..although it began in Palestine in 1948, a terrible turn occurred on November 4, 1995, when an acolyte of the Israeli madman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yigal Amir, when Yigal assassinated the Israeli soldier-statesman, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. That was the beginning of "The Plot Against America" (fully detailed ahead in this GOPBias.org) - a virtual title provided by the over-rated Jewish American novelist Philip Roth - the actual title provided by a conspiratorial collection of Jewish Americans, including Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, and Jewish Europeans, like Bernard-Henri Levy, all clandestine activists in - "A Clean Break: A New Strategy For Securing The Realm, Israel", the first step of which was the elimination of Saddam Hussein.
- An interjection to account for events almost fifteen years later, one of which was breathtaking both for what occurred, and its exclusion from the United States newspaper of record, The New York Times, with "All the News That's Fit to Print".
* On Sunday 11/8/09, sensing an opportunity, Benjamin Netanyahu, the sanity and character challenged (and uninvited) Prime Minister of Israel flew to Washington to ignite and fuel a political conflagration from the 11/5/09 Fort Hood shooting, and enhance his (Netanyahu) stature (recently damaged by his incendiary 9/14/09 address to the United Nations), hopefully to generate an inferno which would preclude a thoughtful and reasonable decision by the President regarding our continued policies in Southwest Asia and, not incidentally, in the Middle East. Remarkable and, as yet unreported, Mr. Netanyahu was stiffed by the White House - no photo op, no news conference, no Rose Garden - Netanyahu had to settle for a meeting with "Jewish" leaders. A Turning Point? But these will alarm Israel. *
- Israeli Army goes social networking -
"PR - A new unit uses sites like Facebook and Twitter" to recruit and train soldiers
By GWEN ACKERMAN, Bloomberg News
A new Israeli army unit formed to help fight the nation's public-relations war is recruiting and training soldiers for the virtual battlefields of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. - Ackerman Bloomberg 12/6/09
- In David Brooks' 11/10/09 column, analyzing the shooting at Fort Hood, and the narrative which it produced, this sentence will cause alarm:
"It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the 'struggle against Islam' is the central feature of American foreign policy". And Mr. Brooks could have added that that feature has been the Israeli-dominated American theme for six decades! Although Mr. Brooks intended the opposite, the fact is that more and independent thinking will see that our unquestionable support of Israel is the glaring weakness of our foreign policy.
Item: The President's Fort Hood Memorial words - "No faith justifies these murderous and craven acts".
Israel's 12/08 - 1/09 massacre in Gaza.
Item: The President's Fort Hood Memorial words - "No just and loving God looks upon them with favor."
Again, Israel's 12/08 - 1/09 massacre in Gaza.
There are several segments from a 12/9/09 Ethan Bronner article, datelined Jerusalem (in the N Y Times, of course), which contribute to understanding that seminal disregard for non-Jews in the Middle East, which sentiment the Israelis utilize to subdue and displace over time the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Syrians - and, actually, the Americans who have provided the blood and treasure for this Israeli conquest of Palestine.
This piece has to do with one individual, the now-23-year-old Sergeant Gilad Shalit of the Israeli "Defense" Forces (the "shy, bookish Sergeant")! As the United States years ago changed our "War" Department to the "Defense" Department, the Israeli military, formed to conquer Palestine (and render adjoining nations defenseless and subservient) and, essentially, control the whole of the Middle East as their objective.
Ethan Bronner: "But sociologists, politicians and religious scholars say that rescuing captives has deep Jewish and Israeli roots, and that the mix of familial intimacy here, A RELENTLESS AND WELL CONCEIVED CAMPAIGN BY THE FAMILY AND A MEDIA CULTURE IN OVERDRIVE has placed Sergeant Shalit, a shy, bookish 23-year-old, at the heart of nearly every Israeli Jew (Does he carry a gun?)."
This does much to explain the 12/26/08 - 1/18/09 Israeli massacre in Gaza. To Israelis, those of us who are not Jewish, are not human. Incredible, but true.
- And another notable divorced Orthodox Jew, the famous gadabout Joseph I. Lieberman, as he celebrates Hanukkah -
To the Editor:
Re “Lieberman Says He Can’t Back Current Health Bill” (news article, Dec. 14): Senate Democrats should force Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and his Republican allies to filibuster the health care bill throughout the holiday season rather than letting them hold the American people hostage to their tactics.
Moreover, the filibusters should be shown live in public hospital emergency rooms throughout the United States, so that the uninsured people waiting for primary care can understand exactly who is preventing them from obtaining affordable health insurance. (Better yet, make the filibusters take place in emergency rooms, but the Capitol Police might object.) - Jonathan Ezor West Hempstead N Y 12/14/09
- More about the Senator -
WHAT MAY HAVE BEEN MISSED BY THE MEDIA/PRESS ON THAT FIRST OF THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES ON FRIDAY 9/26/08 WAS JOHN MCCAIN'S RETELLING OF HIS HOPED-FOR PAIRING WITH THE DIVORCED ORTHODOX JEW JOE LIEBERMAN. AN ANALYSIS OF 9/11, AN ANALYSIS THAT EXCLUDED THIS FACTOR - THE "NEO-CONSERVATIVES" (READ JEWISH AMERICAN/EUROPEAN) PRESSURE, WHICH HAD BEEN RESISTED BY THE CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATION, AN ANALYSIS WHICH EXCLUDED THE NEO-CONSERVATIVE PRESSURE ON GEORGE WALKER BUSH TO ATTACK, INVADE AND OCCUPY IRAQ TO REMOVE SADDAM HUSSEIN (WHO ISRAELIS SAW AS A THREAT TO THEIR DESIRED CONTROL OF THE LEVANT, AND THEN THE MIDDLE EAST), ANY ANALYSIS WHICH EXCLUDED THAT PRESSURE IS PURE PROPAGANDA.
HAVING LOST THE 2000 REPUBLICAN PRIMARY TO THE JUNIOR BUSH, JOHN MCCAIN COULD SEE THAT HIS ACQUISITION OF THE PRESIDENCY REQUIRED THE SUPPORT IN 2008 OF THE MOST EXTREME SEGMENT OF THE JEWISH LOBBY (AIPAC, ADL, ETC). HOW BETTER TO GAIN THEIR BEHIND-THE-SCENES BACKING THAN JOINING WITH JOE LIEBERMAN. HENCE, MCCAIN'S ATTEMPT TO SELECT LIEBERMAN AS HIS RUNNING MATE. THIS FACT ALONE SHOULD CAUSE AMERICANS TO QUESTION MCCAIN'S HONOR AND JUDGMENT.
OF ALL THE JEWISH AMERICANS IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS JOE LIEBERMAN IS PERHAPS THE LEAST HONORABLE. HE WAS KNOWINGLY USED BY RIGHT-WING REPUBLICAN WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., TO DEFEAT THE HONORABLE DEMOCRAT LOWELL WEICKER, SIMPLY BECAUSE MR WEICKER HAD THRASHED BILL BUCKLEY EARLIER IN A NOTABLE DEBATE ON OUR WAR AGAINST VIETNAM. SELECTED BY ALBERT GORE AS HIS RUNNING MATE IN 2000, TO RECOGNIZE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF JEWISH AMERICANS IN THE UNITED STATES AND BREAK THE EXISTING ETHNIC BARRIER THAT HAD PRECLUDED THEIR INCLUSION ON A NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL TICKET, LIEBERMAN REPAID MR. GORE BY SABOTAGING THE GORE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN IN ITS CRITICAL FINAL WEEKS TO MAKE WAY FOR THE BUSH/CHENEY HIDDEN AGENDA TO OCCUPY IRAQ, AT THE BEHEST OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL. HAVING LOST IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IN CONNECTICUT, LIEBERMAN RAN AS AN "INDEPENDENT" TO RETAIN HIS SENATE SEAT, AND THEN JOINED GEORGE BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS TO SUPPORT THE DISHONORABLE CAMPAIGN OF ISRAEL TO CONTROL ALL OF PALESTINE AND, ULTIMATELY, THE MIDDLE EAST.
- Amy tracks "Bibi"...
- Israel Revoking Record Number of Jerusalem Residency Permits for Palestinians -
"In Israel and the Occupied Territories, new figures show the Israeli government revoked more residency permits for Palestinians in Jerusalem last year than in any year on record. The Israeli human rights group HaMoked says more than 4,500 Palestinians were stripped of their residency in 2008. The average number of revoked residency permits had previously been around 200 per year." - Amy Goodman 12/3/09
One would think that the ubiquitous President of the famed Council on Foreign Relations (formerly controlled by Henry Kissinger) that the present president Richard Haass would have something to say about "Bibi" Netanyahu in that this particularly virulent Prime Minister is the predominant force of evil which generates this bloodshed.
Perhaps the forty-sixth anniversary reminder of November 22, 1963 will inspire our Media/Press, if not the Congressional leadership, the hangers-on and members of the Republican Party (the sordid lot of Mitch McConnell, Hailey Barbour, Dick Armey, Michael Steele!) who pollute the national dialogue on the principles of this great nation and the policies which we painstakingly develop to address the challenges of our time. Were John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Edward R. Murrow and the likes of Eric Sevareid among us they would be appalled by the blatant racism among us, AND the deference paid to the mad puppet-master of the Middle East AND the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. How is it that his name never crosses the lips of, for example, Scott Simon, Dan Schorr or, for that matter, Sylvia Poggioli?
The designing of information on the corrupt State of Israel taints not only critical planning for a peaceful Middle East, but, also, the formulation of workable policies for the rest of the world. The degree of misinformation which distorts any and all efforts to resolve international challenges boggles the mind. From Iran's "nuclear weapons programs" (Israel has a 200+ nuclear arsenal, but has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty while Iran's focus is peaceful Nuclear Energy) to Israel's demand for compensation from Argentina for an attack years ago on a Synagogue and its Jewish neighborhood, the investigation of which by our own FBI concluded that it was the result of an Argentinian political squabble, the deference to present-day Israel is formidable. But it must be confronted.
Nothing is more illustrative of the twisted entity the Media has become than its presentation of the vicious attack on Mumbai, India November 26-29, 2008, in which ten gunmen killed more than one hundred and seventy. The N.Y. Times 11/19/09 has a television "Review" on page C-8 entitled "Using Tapes and a Timeline To Trace the Mumbai Massacre", a title that would seem to indicate an indepth analysis of "Terror in Mumbai", the HBO film which the Television Review writer Mike Hale records as "The first 360-degree view of terrorism" - "that's the promise the writer (and narrator) Fareed Zakaria makes at the beginning"... In fact, the program which Mr. Hale and The Times is reviewing and promoting does nothing of the sort. Mr. Hale continues, and gratuitously promotes another television program, Wednesday 11/25/09, same subject, on "Secrets of the Dead" the day before Thanksgiving, thereby, hopefully [for the funding mechanism and OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting)] assuring a large audience. What we have here is a major distortion of a significant event, and its meaning. Even the online from the NYTIMES.com/television archive omits the pertinent information.
It was a brutal attack, and it may have generated the vicious Israeli massacre against Gaza 12/26/08 - 1/18/09. But these broadcasts have excluded an accurate raison d'etre, if you will, why they occurred, which has been included in GOPBias.org since the event, as even Christopher Hitchens could determine!
The "Terror in Mumbai" was to be expected, even tho long delayed, a response to the 1948 Irgun attack on Palestine and the series of incremental dispossessions against the Palestinians, the methodical stripping of their lands and lives, i.e. the why of the "Terror in Mumbai", as well as the ongoing animosity between Muslim Pakistan and Hindu etc. India. The actual prime target of the Mumbai attack was the newly renovated five story headquarters ("Nariman House") of Chabad Lubivitch in India, again, one of the many "outreach" devices which Orthodox Jews maintain around the world to proselytize the uninitiated and Sabbatize the wayward. Think Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and New York assemblyman Dove Hikind, who represents Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, and was in Arab East Jerusalem last week (11/18/09) laying a "cornerstone" for Jewish-only apartments in what the rest of the world legally classifies as "Occupied Palestinian Land". As Jewish interests continue to mount disinformation campaigns to conceal the truly corrupt nature of the State of Israel, particularly under Netanyahu and Lieberman, the United States policies toward the Middle East, Southwest Asia and, indeed, the rest of the world, will have the hollow ring of the artificial, not the solid, clarion call of our Liberty Bell.
Item - Don't bother with the grinning, unhinged and shallow Martin Sheen portrayal of John Kennedy in the PBS/OPB "Kennedy" presentation 11/21/09. If it were worthwhile it would not appear on today's PBS. For the, if you will, "Liberty Bell production" find the 1974 Viacom produced by ABC "Missiles of October" with William Devane as John Kennedy and Martin Sheen as Robert Kennedy. An accurate and superb film, largely because of John Kennedy the man, and his dedication to having the public process on record, for his constituents, the American people.
The brutality of the "Terror in Mumbai" has been exceeded many times over by that perpetrated against the Palestinian people now for over sixty years, and just a year ago, with the sickening brutality against Gaza (that "Terror in Mumbai" lasted only three days) with a three-week mechanized land, air, sea three-pronged Israeli military massacre against 1.3 million Palestinians penned in that narrow Strip; Decent populations around the world said "ENOUGH"! Thus the worldwide revulsion spawned "The Gaza Freedom March"! Now, even this principled protest has been compromised by the bloody hand of AIPAC, a grotesque outgrowth, now of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Why I resigned from the Gaza Freedom March coalition:
The original consensus of the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza was that we would limit our statement to a pair of uncontroversial, basic and complementary principles that would have the broadest possible appeal: the march to break the siege would be nonviolent and anchored in international law. I agreed with this approach and consequent statement and decided to remove myself from the steering committee in order to invest my full energies in mobilizing for the march.
During the week beginning August 30, 2009 and in a matter of days an entirely new sectarian agenda dubbed "the political context" was foisted on those who originally signed on and worked tirelessly for three months. Because it drags in contentious issues that--however precious to different constituencies--are wholly extraneous to the narrow but critical goal of breaking the siege, this new agenda is gratuitously divisive and it is almost certain that it will drastically reduce the potential reach of our original appeal. It should perhaps be stressed that the point of dispute was not whether one personally supported a particular Palestinian right or strategy to end the occupation. It was whether inclusion in the coalition’s statement of a particular right or strategy was necessary if it was both unrelated to the immediate objective of breaking the siege and dimmed the prospect of a truly mass demonstration. In addition, the tactics by which this new agenda was imposed do not bode well for the future of the coalition’s work and will likely move the coalition in an increasingly sectarian direction.
I joined the coalition because I believed that an unprecedented opportunity now exists to mobilize a broad public whereby we could make a substantive and not just symbolic contribution towards breaking the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza and, accordingly, realize a genuine and not just token gesture of solidarity with the people of Gaza. In its present political configuration I no longer believe the coalition can achieve such a goal. Because I would loathe getting bogged down in a petty and squalid public brawl I will not comment further on this matter unless the sequence of events climaxing in my decision to resign are misrepresented by interested parties. However I would be remiss in my moral obligations were I not humbly to apologize to those who, either coaxed by me or encouraged by my participation, gave selflessly of themselves to make the march a historic event and now feel aggrieved at the abrupt turn of events. It can only be said in extenuation that I along with many others desperately fought to preserve the ecumenical vision that originally inspired the march, but the obstacles thrown in our path ultimately proved insurmountable. - Norman Finkelstein 11/20/09
- Norman Finkelstein establishes his credentials.
"Associated" with all the world's agony of the last ten years - George W. Bush!
Lehrer NewsHour's Judy Woodruff 11/26/09
JUDY WOODRUFF: In other news today: An ongoing inquiry into Britain's decision to go to war in Iraq revealed the U.S. focused on Iraq just hours after the 9/11 attacks. The former British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Christopher Meyer, testified that he spoke with then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice about it on September 11.
SIR CHRISTOPHER MEYER, former ambassador to the United States: She said, 'Well, there is no doubt it's -- this has been an al-Qaida operation.'
But, at the end of the conversation, it's: 'We're just looking to see whether there could possibly be any connection with Saddam Hussein.'
And that was the very first time, on the day itself, that I heard the name of the Iraqi leader mentioned in the context of -- of -- of 9/11.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Meyer also said that former Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to use his influence with then President Bush to stall the rush to invade Iraq. - NewsHour 11/26/09
RAY McGOVERN (27-year CIA analyst on 6/6/05 Lehrer NewsHour): "I would go back to an earlier conversation, and this happened on the 20th of September 2001, and this happened nine days after 9/11. This involved Tony Blair, who was in Washington having dinner with the President. How do we know about this? We know this because Christopher Meyer, the UK ambassador was there at that dinner. What does he say? The conversation went like this. President Bush: 'Uh, Tony. Uh, we're going into Afghanistan in a week or two, but that won't take long and we get out of there and we're going right into Iraq. Are you with me, Tony? Are you with me?' And Christopher Meyer says 'My goodness, it was really, and Tony was really sort of nonplussed, but he said 'Yes sir, I'm with you Mr. President.' (Margaret Warner tries to interrupt, but Mr. McGovern continues) So that goes back (a flustered Ms. Margaret Warner) "Mr. McGovern, speed up!" (Mr. McGovern) "so that goes back to 2001" (Ms. Warner) "We're almost out of time. Get to the next part!" (Mr. McGovern) "Okay, that's it." (Ms. Warner, almost shouting) "So, it's not about Iraq, it's about Afghanistan!" (Mr. McGovern) "Well, no. This has to do with Iraq. What the President said to Tony Blair, on the 20th of September (2001) according to the UK ambassador who was there, is 'We're going into Afghanistan in a couple of weeks. It won't take us long there, and we're going right into Iraq right after that. Are you with me?' And Tony Blair said 'Yes!'"
We can begin by revisiting James Bamford's A Pretext for War, pp. 270-350, which details the elaborate Israeli-Jewish American hoax (Saddam with nuclear WMDs) used to justify the invasion and generate public support. From Michiko Kakutani's 6/18/04 review:
"What he does focus on is the role that Israel has played in shaping American policy. Mr. Bamford contends that 'the blueprint for the new Bush policy' on the Middle East 'had actually been drawn up five years earlier by three of his top national security advisors' (Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser) for the Israeli prime minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu (who rejected the plan), and that when they entered office in January 2001, all these hawks needed was 'a pretext' for war against Iraq. Citing a report from the British newspaper The Guardian, Mr. Bamford adds that the Office of Special Plans, a Pentagon unit set up by Mr. Feith, 'forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence unit within Ariel Sharon's office in Israel,' which 'was designed to go around the country's own intelligence organization, Mossad.'"
In brief, not only did the George W. Bush administration (including "Condi" Rice) virtually cancel, i.e. "Short-change", their effort in Afghanistan 'WHERE 9/11 ORIGINATED', but they also (Pgs. 2 & 21 11/29/04 N Y Times), in "Report on Bin Laden Escape - A new report by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says Osama bin Laden's escape from American forces in Afghanistan in 2001 laid "the foundation for today's protracted Afghan insurgency.". . .But they, the Bush & Cheney & McCain administration, in such a rush to remove Saddam for Israel, allowed Bin Laden to flee!
" Senate Report Explores Bin Laden's 2001 Escape"
By Scott Shane
WASHINGTON -
As President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has completed a detailed look back at a crucial failure early in the battle against Al Qaeda: the escape of Osama bin Laden from American forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001, but three months after 9/11.
“Removing the Al Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat,” the committee’s report concludes. “But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide.”
The report, based in part on a little-noticed 2007 history of the Tora Bora episode by the military’s Special Operations Command, asserts that the consequences of not sending American troops in 2001 to block Mr. bin Laden’s escape into Pakistan are still being felt.
The report blames the lapse for “laying the foundation for today’s protracted Afghan insurgency and inflaming the internal strife now endangering Pakistan.”
The committee report, prepared at the request of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic chairman, concludes unequivocally that in mid-December 2001, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were at the cave complex, where Mr. bin Laden had operated previously during the fight against Soviet forces.
THE NEW REPORT SUGGESTS THAT A LARGER TROOP COMMITMENT TO AFGHANISTAN MIGHT HAVE RESULTED IN THE DEMISE NOT ONLY OF MR. BIN LADEN AND HIS DEPUTY, BUT ALSO OF MULLAH MUHAMMAD OMAR, THE LEADER OF THE AFGHAN TALIBAN. MULLAH OMAR, WHO ALSO FLED TO PAKISTAN IN 2001, HAS OVERSEEN THE RESURGENCE OF THE TALIBAN. - Scott Shane 11/29/09
Note: (1*) The Prior History - (2*) "Since 1948... - (3*) "The June 8, 1967 attack on the USS Liberty... - (4*) The Ultimate in Israeli Propaganda, configured 9/26/09 by Mark Landler in Washington.
- Much more to come!
- This next step is framed by the 11/20/09 David Brancaccio and Maria Hinojosa NOW program on Traumatic Brain Injury survivors from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, men and women who require 24/7 around the clock care which neither our government nor the Veterans Affairs Administration are able to provide (what with the ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and, now, Pakistan - all generated by the 1948 Jewish attack on Palestine) leaving those surviving American families the choice of abandoning their loved ones, or assuming the awesome responsibility for their round-the-clock medical and psychological care.
Moyers Out? NewsHour Gutted?
Mark Shields? David Brooks?
Bank of America In Charge?
- The New York Times 11/30/09 - lower half page B-3 in Business? If ever there was a Times "All the News That's Fit to Print" article that belonged on the Front page, this is it. The American people have been subjected to a double-whammy! First this "HD Hoax" in television, whereby glossy ads take precedence over subject matter, particularly hard news, and now the further reduction of that precious hard-news category, whether it's by a gluttonous Comcast or an anemic PBS. Where's today's Orson Welles (1915-1985)?
In The Times' article, by one Elizabeth Jensen (the link to which appears below) [Incidentally, where is Elizabeth Brackett who, when the Republicans (Newt Gingrich? Rush Limbaugh?) stole Congress in '94, Ms. Brackett, on the NewsHour while Lehrer was enjoying the holidays, 'splained how Republican talk shows replaced the estimable Tom Foley with the irreparable Mr. Gingrich. We need her back in action!], they leave to the 15th paragraph - the key.
"...the show (i.e. NewsHour) has recently 'attracted several million$ of dollar$ more in corporate financing - including Bank of America underwriting to be announced Monday.'"
"BILL MOYERS IS ENDING HIS WEEKLY FRIDAY SHOW AT THE END OF APRIL, AND PBS CANCELED THE COMPANION 'NOW on PBS', WHICH WAS HAVING TROUBLE RAISING PRODUCTION FUNDS."
This is alarming. David Brancaccio & Maria Hinojosa with their 11/20/09 program on Traumatic Brain Injury have just given the American public one of the most significant programs on the most formidable controversy facing President Obama and our military EVER. And PBS has canceled them?
Another key segment from this alarming article:
"Beginning December 7th (The Appropriate Date For This announcement) Mr. Lehrer's name will not be on the program, for the first time since 1976. Instead it is being renamed 'PBS NEWSHOUR,' WHICH PROMPTED A NEW STREAMLINED LOGO AND GRAPHICS. MR. LEHRER WILL HAVE A REGULAR CO-ANCHOR; ON THE FIRST PROGRAM IT WILL BE MS. GWEN IFILL!"....This may call for a REVOLUTION!!
STRESSING THE WEB, 'NEWSHOUR' BEGINS AN OVERHAUL!
Here a sample of the Brancaccio & Hinojosa 11/20/09 program: "THE PENTAGON ESTIMATES THAT AS MANY AS ONE IN FIVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS ARE COMING HOME FROM WAR ZONES WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIES, MANY OF WHICH REQUIRE ROUND-THE-CLOCK ATTENTION."
An Alert editorial in the 11/23/09 N Y Times brings into focus this coming monumental decision by the President vis-a-vis the array of the military pressures from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral "Mike" Mullen, through future presidential candidate General Petraeus, to General McChrystal [who has "strategized" the clandestine (the White House has been the last to hear this one) Blackwater assault on Pakistan's sovereignty - refer to 11/24/09 DemocracyNow] and, finally to John Sidney McCain III who, in his over-the-top attack on Health Care Reform said: "Bernie Madoff went to prison for selling this turkey (last two words paraphrased)". In fact, it was "Country First" McCain who wanted to sacrifice our nation, putting Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the "Oval Office". "Country First"?
On Scott Simon's NPR Morning Edition 12/5/09 Mr. Judd Gregg and Mr. Simon enjoyed themselves as the New Hampshire Senator laughingly expanded the McCain characterization of Health Care Reform as a Madoff Ponzi scheme (a continuation of South Carolinian Senator James DeMint who began the Republican effort to end the Obama presidency by rejecting the desparately needed national Health Care Reform. And some say the media is not driven by a Pro-Republican virus?)
Here a continuing example of legitimate "Country First" action, unlike the fraudulent John McCain (whose record of crashes should have washed him out of naval aviation, whose failure to wrap his arms around his body broke both arms on ejection, and whose circumstances of release by the North Vietnamese are classified by the United States Navy!) Ms. Goodman is 100% total patriot!
- Ms. Goodman 12/4/09 - The quantity and caliber of HardNews is diminished -
- Comcast Reaches Deal for Majority Stake in NBC Universal -
"The nation’s largest cable television company Comcast has struck a deal to buy a majority stake in the television and movie giant NBC Universal from General Electric. If approved, the merger would give Comcast control of the NBC network, the Spanish-language Telemundo, cable channels including MSNBC, dozens of local television stations and the Universal film studio. Media democracy advocates have widely criticized the merger.
Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy: “This is a real political litmus test for the Obama administration. Frankly, they should just have their FCC and their Department of Justice, or FTC, say no to this deal. There’s nothing in the Comcast-NBCU mega-deal that will benefit the public interest, consumers or competitors. The Obama administration has a chance now to put its foot down and say ‘no more media consolidation in the United States.’”" - Amy Goodman 12/4/09
As is often the case, the day after President Obama's monumental 12/1/09 speech regarding military policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan and Pakistan (and "monumental" is appropriate - not since John Fitzgerald Kennedy have we had a President whose intellect, vision and propitious wisdom can so carry the moment). But the task at hand is huge. And Ms. Goodman finds a way to address it.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re here in the new Printing Press studios and joining us in New York, along with Andrew Bacevich in Boston BU professor, here in New York is independent journalist and fellow at the New York University Center on Law and Security, Nir Rosen. He has covered Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. His latest articles cover the current state of the U.S. occupations in both countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. They appear in the Boston Review. Nir Rosen, welcome to Democracy Now! Your thoughts after the West Point address of President Obama announcing the surge of 30,000 troops? Though that is not it, because his General Stanley McChrystal wanted 40,000, he is pushing for NATO to supply the rest and they are saying it will be in the range of 5000. Of course we do not know the military contractors that will accompany all of these soldiers.
NIR ROSEN: Well, it is really no surprise. Even if Obama hadn’t wanted to escalate the troops, he is under so much political pressure that he would of had to, but I would have at least liked to hear the words Kashmir and Palestine. If we are talking about Al Qaeda and the whole reason for why we are in Afghanistan allegedly is this threat from Al Qaeda which has been severely exaggerated, then at least understand their motives. Their chief motives are the Indian occupation of Kashmir, the Israeli and American backed occupation of Palestine. These are the motives. If your goal is to weaken Al Qaeda, understand their motives, address their grievances. This is not some James Bond villain the wants to attack the U.S. for no reason. These people who have grievances, the same grievances that have been troubling people around the world for decades. They were once explained using a secular Marxist nationalist discourse, today it has become a more religious discourse; but the grievances have remained the same. So why, if your goal is to weaken Al Qaeda, are you attacking the Taliban? The Taliban being a local movement with a very limited and unsophisticated ideology. Al Qaeda exists to much larger extent in Pakistan yet there are no American troops in Pakistan, so why do you need such a huge military footprint in Afghanistan were there is no Al Qaeda really if they are coming in from Pakistan? In Pakistan you do not have this American presence and yet you have been relatively successful. There been no attacks on America thanks to intelligence, interdiction, heightened security. Al Qaeda isn’t really a threat. You have a couple of hundred relatively unsophisticated guys. They used their A team on September 11 and it was tragic, but it wasn’t that significant and didn’t really affect the U.S. What affected the US was the American response internally and abroad. Al Qaeda isn’t really a big deal, but even if you think it’s a big deal, even if you think this is a huge threat that really deserves so much of our resources, understand their grievances and address them. If your remove Palestine and Kashmir, you’d have way less people in the world who support Al Qaeda, who want to join it. Instead, what we are doing is increasing the occupation of a Muslim country. Although Obama mentioned the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, he mentioned Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan, what about the American occupation of Afghanistan? What about all the innocent people who being killed there today thanks to American counter-insurgency, counter terrorism operations only further increasing ethnic tensions? You are going to have a civil war in Afghanistan between Tajiks and Pashtuns at some point. It is going more and more in that direction.
AMY GOODMAN: Comment, Nir Rosen, on what you think, if you were standing at West Point last night, what you would have been saying?
NIR ROSEN: I would have mentioned Palestine and Kashmir and the history of American support for dictatorships in the Middle East and the Muslim world as the cause for this Al Qaeda phenomenon, for this resentment of the U.S. and I would have...
AMY GOODMAN:And the actions you announced?
NIR ROSEN: This is impossibly naïve and would require a revolution in the way America does business, but stop supporting dictatorships in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and elsewhere, stop supporting the Pakistani dictatorships or quasi-dictatorship, STOP SUPPORTING THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE. Be perceived as a fair player in the Middle East and the Muslim world. Stop killing Muslims and Muslims will not want to kill you. It is really very easy.
For all the stars of ranking generals and admirals in Washington, it turns out there’s still a higher grade -- “senior mentor.” These are retired brass enjoying lucrative compensation as part-time Pentagon advisers, who, in most cases, also draw V.I.P. pay from companies seeking defense contracts. The mentor cohort has quietly grown in recent years from a handful to at least 158 ranking retired officers -- 80 percent of whom hire on at the same time with defense contractors.
There is nothing illegal about the double-dipping. But few people in Congress or elsewhere knew about it until now because there is no requirement to tell an