Me to Olmert: Do it yourself, asshole
Tag Archives: Israel/Palestine
Obama vs. The Lobby
Two link-rich articles describing the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Golberg “interview” (inquisition) with Obama about his devotion to Israel:
–from Antiwar.com:
“Yet Obama still keeps trying to appease the Lobby. He’s purged staff members who so much as looked cross-eyed at the Israelis, such as one poor adviser who meekly suggested that talking to Hamas might not be such a bad idea. He was out faster than you can say Mearsheimer and Walt.
Speaking of which: the Obama-oids have gone out of their way to distance themselves – i.e., ‘reject and denounce’ – those two hate-criminals, even though, as Philip Weiss trenchantly avers, a book by Obama’s point man on the Middle East says pretty much the same thing. In response to all this, Scott McConnell, editor of The American Conservative, dryly remarked: ‘At this point one wonders whether the people who deny the dramatic influence of the Israel lobby on American politics feel a little bit silly.’
Obama’s latest ritualized act of kowtowing takes place in the pages of the online edition of The Atlantic. In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg – a male Judy Miller who retailed Ahmed Chalabi’s tall tales of Iraqi ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and other fables while still managing to keep his job and his reputation – Obama jumps through all kinds of hoops with admirable dexterity, while ultimately avoiding abject humiliation and even showing signs of resistance.”
–from Salon.com:
“The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg conducted what he’s calling an ‘interview’ with Barack Obama regarding Israel, but it sounded much more like an inquisition. Goldberg repeatedly demanded that Obama swear his devotion to Israel and affirm prevailing orthodoxies (‘I’m curious to hear you talk about the Zionist idea. Do you believe that it has justice on its side?'”
Shitting on Palestine (Follow up)
In this earlier post, I linked to Johann Hari’s column describing the meticulous brutality of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Sewage systems have been designed to dump shit onto Palestinian lands.
Now the author comments about reaction to that column, Israel is suppressing a secret it must face, which appeared in the UK’s Independent.
“My own case isn’t especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me ‘a Jew-lover’, ‘a Zionist-homo pig’ and more.
Ah, but wait. I have also reported from Gaza and the West Bank. Last week, I wrote an article that described how untreated sewage was being pumped from illegal Israeli settlements on to Palestinian land, contaminating their reservoirs. This isn’t controversial. It has been documented by Friends of the Earth, and I have seen it with my own eyes.
The response? There was little attempt to dispute the facts I offered. Instead, some of the most high profile ‘pro-Israel’ writers and media monitoring groups — including Honest Reporting and Camera — said I an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh, while Melanie Phillips even linked the stabbing of two Jewish people in North London to articles like mine. Vast numbers of e-mails came flooding in calling for me to be sacked.
Any attempt to describe accurately the situation for Palestinians is met like this. If you recount the pumping of sewage onto Palestinian land, ‘Honest Reporting’ claims you are reviving the anti-Semitic myth of Jews ‘poisoning the wells.’ If you interview a woman whose baby died in 2002 because she was detained — in labour — by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint within the West Bank, ‘Honest Reporting’ will say you didn’t explain ‘the real cause’: the election of Hamas in, um, 2006. And on, and on.
The former editor of Israel’s leading newspaper, Ha’aretz, David Landau, calls the behaviour of these groups ‘nascent McCarthyism’. Those responsible hold extreme positions of their own that place them way to the right of most Israelis. Alan Dershowitz and Melanie Phillips are two of the most prominent figures sent in to attack anyone who disagrees with the Israeli right. Dershowitz is a lawyer, Harvard professor and author of The Case For Israel. He sees ethnic cleansing as a trifling matter, writing: ‘Political solutions often require the movement of people, and such movement is not always voluntary . . . It is a fifth-rate issue analogous in many respects to some massive urban renewal.’ If a prominent American figure takes a position on Israel to the left of this, Dershowitz often takes to the airwaves to call them anti-Semites and bigots.”
Read more from commondreams.org
My interest in the Palestinian issue stems exactly from the fact that we seem forbidden from discussing it.
Israeli settlers demonstrate their gratitude for the annual billions in American tax money
from haaretz.com: U.S. envoy cuts short Hebron trip after clash with settlers
see also: IDF troops do nothing as Hebron settlers threaten German MPs
America needs to stop attaching its reputation to these fanatics. We subsidize them – a fact of which few American, but the vast majority of Arabs are aware.
Rice States the Obvious
“Israel, PA must agree on final borders ‘once and for all'”
It’s been said before and it’ll be said again. The important thing is to watch and understand how these wholly appropriate initiatives by Washington are stifled.
Shitting on Palestine
“But I can’t do it. Whenever I try to mouth these words, a remembered smell fills my nostrils. It is the smell of shit. Across the occupied West Bank, raw untreated sewage is pumped every day out of the Jewish settlements, along large metal pipes, straight onto Palestinian land.”
“It seemed like an intractable problem – until, two years ago, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research conducted the first study of the Palestinian Diaspora’s desires. They found that only 10 per cent – around 300,000 people – want to return to Israel proper. Israel can accept that many (and compensate the rest) without even enduring much pain. But there has always been a strain of Israeli society that preferred violently setting its own borders, on its own terms, to talk and compromise. This weekend, the elected Hamas government offered a six-month truce that could have led to talks. The Israeli government responded within hours by blowing up a senior Hamas leader and killing a 14-year-old girl.
Perhaps Hamas’ proposals are a con; perhaps all the Arab states are lying too when they offer Israel full recognition in exchange for a roll-back to the 1967 borders; but isn’t it a good idea to find out? Israel, as she gazes at her grey hairs and discreetly ignores the smell of her own stale shit pumped across Palestine, needs to ask what kind of country she wants to be in the next 60 years.”
Top Clinton Aide: “The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel.”
On March 18, 2008, a group of Jewish leaders met with aides representing Clinton, Obama and McCain. Kurtzer represented Obama. Anne Lewis represented Clinton. The “correct” message seemed to be belligerence toward Iran, and knee-jerk endorsement of anything Israel does.
“Kurtzer, granted his turn to speak, attempted to argue that ‘on issues relating to Israel, frankly, there aren’t any differences among the three candidates.’ Eagleburger looked at him incredulously; the audience laughed.
Kurtzer attempted to defuse the Wright controversy. ‘For many of you who belong to synagogues and Jewish community centers, as I have all my life, we would not want to be judged by the words of rabbis who sometimes say ridiculous things,’ he reasoned.
The others used their time to raise doubts about Obama’s fealty to Israel. ‘Senator Obama has said that he commits in his first year as president to meeting with President Ahmadinejad of Iran,’ Lewis said. McCain, Eagleburger added, ‘will not talk with the Syrians, will not talk with the Iranians, will not talk with Hamas and Hezbollah. . . . He isn’t going to push the Israelis.’
The skepticism continued through the question time. Daroff said he had ‘heard in the hallways here’ that Obama ‘doesn’t see the U.S.-Israel relationship as much of the mainstream of the Senate or the Jewish community sees it.’
Kurtzer blamed such sentiment on ‘attack dogs’ and writers of scurrilous e-mails. ‘He’s right within the mainstream of American society and Jewish community concerns,’ TBA said.
Next question to Kurtzer: Obama’s assertion that he needn’t have a ‘Likud view’ — that of Israel’s right-wing party — to be pro-Israel. Kurtzer explained that Obama wanted to see a ‘plurality of views.’ Silence in the room.
To that, Lewis retorted: ‘The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel. It is not up to us to pick and choose from among the political parties.’ The audience members applauded.”
(Read more from washingpost.com)
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.” — Bertrand Russell
Carter: Gaza residents ‘starving to death’
& Obama’s tragically predictable reaction
“Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama also criticized Carter, saying he had a ‘fundamental disagreement’ with the former president. ‘We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction,’ Obama said.”
I’ve watched Obama increasingly adopt AIPAC’s talking points since he began his presidential campaign. Obama and everyone around him are being exhaustively vetted for non-pro-Israel positions. See Obama Meets the Lobby.
There will be no criticism of Israel, here in the land of the free.
Netanyahu says 9/11, Iraq War Good for Israel
What an asshole.
Colonizing Palestine
Settlers Dig Tunnels Around Jerusalem
“Jewish settler groups are digging an extensive tunnel network under Muslim areas of Jerusalem’s Old City while building a ring of settlements around it to bolster their claim to the disputed city in any future peace deal, anti-settlement campaigners have told The Times.
One group, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, said that settler tunnels could one day extend under the al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, and claimed that extremists could use the access route to attack the structure in an attempt to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.” (Read More)
No religion has a monopoly on intolerance.
Israeli Town Sues Google Maps for Acknowledging Arab Village
“He who controls the present, controls the past. . . .” -George Orwell
Banksy back in Bethlehem
Christian Zionism
Excellent discussion with PBS’s Bill Moyers, Rabbi Michael Lerner, and Dr. Timothy P. Weber about Christian Zionism, Israel, Iran, and dispensationalism, which about 1/3 of Evangelicals believe.
Dr. Weber: “this is one group in a long line of similar groups . . . which combined a firm belief in bible prophecy and a particular political agenda that has gained more and more power as the years have gone by.” He explains their belief if the Jews get to the Holy Land and stay there, the Temple of Solomon will be rebuilt (and Dome of the Rock destroyed), the anti-Christ will rise, Armageddon will occur, and Jesus will return. Rabbi Lerner points out their belief that all unconverted Jews will then burn in hell.
Rabbi Lerner: “I think that movement has three different parts. One part is people whose primary agenda is conservative politics in America and who are using the issue of Israel as another part of their support of conservative politics. if the US moved away from Israel they would move away from it. The second part are people who are dispensationalists, who believe that getting Israel into a huge battle with the Arab states is going to be good for bringing Jesus back onto our planet. . . . It’s a theological concept. And then there are people who genuinely care about Jews, descent good people, in this movement who unfortunately are being manipulated for a political agent that is very very different, and in my view is not at all in the best interest of the Jewish people or of Israel.”
Dr. Weber: “In previous attempts to understand Bible prophecy Iran does not show up . . . they [dispensationalists] adjust the scenario to fit. Dispensationalists know how to change the subject.”
Rabbi Lerner: “Ahmadinejad is really one of the best allies of the Christian Right and the Jewish Right.”
Max Blumenthal’s deeply disturbing 10-minute documentary of the recent Christians United for Israel conference shows what seems like a harmless collection of crazy people, until you realize how powerful they are. Senator Joseph Lieberman, former House majority leader Tom DeLay, and former Senator Rick Santorum were in attendance.
Max Blumenthal: “CUFI lobbies Congress for an expansion of Israel and a unilateral attack on Iran.”
Rep. DeLay: “[the second coming] is what I live for. I hope it comes tomorrow . . . we have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming.”
Attendee: “I’m looking forward to Armageddon, and I’m looking forward to the cleansing of the Earth.”
Attendee: “When we disappear you better start to worry, because if you haven’t seen the Left Behind series, it’s scary.”
Max Blumenthal: “The one with Kirk Cameron? Growing Pains?”
Attendee: “The one who forces Israel into a peace treat with Arabs is the Anti-Christ.”
Attendee: “Another reason we support Israel is because we have a common enemy, the Muslims.”
Attendee: “We are fighting what is behind the Muslim people, which is Satan.”
Attendee T-shirt: “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Morals are Worse than Animals.”
The Israeli right-winger Max interviewed seemed happy to overlook these beliefs. Perhaps they regard these dispensationalists the same way Stalin regarded his “useful idoits.”
SEE ALSO:
Pat Robertson says agreement with Palestinians risks “wrath of God.” I think his God supports ethnic cleansing.
Blackwater founder thinks he’s doing God’s work. Major connections to Christian fundamentalists.
Jewish American author on his recent book: Overcoming Zionism.
Strangling Gaza
Not even Israeli journalists are allowed in Gaza where electric plants and sewage treatment facilities have been bombed in the name of self defense.
Geneva Convention: Article 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Related News:
Israeli human rights groups work to get students out of Gaza.
Condoleeza Rice: “Frankly it is time for the establishment of a Palestinian state.” Does she know that 60% of the West Bank’s land and 70% of its water is controlled by Israel?
Strange story about weapons smuggling into Gaza. Egypt says Israel allows it. Israel says Egypt must do more to stop it.