Tag Archives: Israel

From the mouths of fools

English: American author and columnist Jonah G...

Glenn Greenwald, during his polemic with Jonah Goldberg and Spencer Ackerman over the morality of Israel criticism, referred to this shocking — but not wholly or even significantly shocking — story:

Andrew Adler is the publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, and soon he’ll have to spare some time from his busy schedule to answer questions from Secret Service agents. Why? Because, when opining last week on just how Israel should deal with Iran, Adler unleashed a fantasy, and wrote that “[option] three, give the go-ahead for U.S.-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice president to take his place, and forcefully dictate that the United States’ policy includes its helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies.”

Wow. Adler has since issued a non-apology: “I very much regret it, I wish I hadn’t made reference to it at all,” he told the JTA.

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Quote of the day

Paul Craig Roberts addresses the looming American attack on Iran:

In my judgment, the US government’s war preparations are driven by three factors.

One is the neoconservative ideology, adopted by the US government, that calls for the US to use its superior military and economic position to achieve world hegemony. This goal appeals to American hubris and to the power and profit that it serves.

A second factor is Israel’s desire to eliminate all support for the Palestinians and for Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Israel’s goal is to seize all of Palestine and the water resources of southern Lebanon. Eliminating Iran removes all obstacles to Israel’s expansion.

A third factor is to deter or slow China’s rise as a military and economic power by controlling China’s access to energy. It was China’s oil investments in eastern Libya that led to the sudden move against Libya by the US and its NATO puppets, and it is China’s oil investments elsewhere in Africa that resulted in the Bush regime’s creation of the United States Africa Command, designed to counter China’s economic influence with US military influence. China has significant energy investments in Iran, and a substantial percentage of China’s oil imports are from Iran. Depriving China of independent access to oil is Washington’s way of restraining and boxing in China.

What we are witnessing is a replay of Washington’s policy toward Japan in the 1930s that provoked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan’s bank balances in the West were seized, and Japan’s access to oil and raw materials was restricted. The purpose was to prevent or to slow Japan’s rise. The result was war.

A war with China — that’s truly change we can believe in….

Roberts continues by asking:

We, as Americans, need to ask ourselves what all this is about? Why is our government so provocative toward Islam, Russia, China, Iran? What purpose, whose purpose is being served? Certainly not ours.

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Some strong words for Israel

Richard Falk, currently the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, cuts to quick in his recent article on Flotilla II:

The reports that two of the foreign flagged ships planning to be part of the ten vessel Freedom Flotilla II experienced similar forms of disabling sabotage creates strong circumstantial evidence of Israeli responsibility. It stretches the imagination to suppose that a sophisticated cutting of the propeller shafts of both ships is a coincidence with no involvement by Israel’s Mossad, long infamous for its overseas criminal acts in support of contested Israeli national interests. Recalling the lethal encounter in international waters with Freedom Flotilla I that took place on 31 May 2010, and the frantic diplomatic campaign by Tel Aviv to prevent this second challenge to the Gaza blockade by peace activists and humanitarian aid workers, such conduct by a state against this latest civil society initiative, if further validated by incriminating evidence, should be formally condemned as a form of ‘state terrorism’ or even as an act of war by a state against global civil society [emphasis added].

Falk concludes his article by stating what ought to be obvious to everyone but which propaganda work and physical intimidation want to render obscure:

Shining through the darkness of this experience of obstructing Flotilla II is the raw nerve of the illegitimacy of Israeli occupation policy. Neither the Flotilla movement nor the somewhat complementary BDS campaign are questioning the legitimacy of Israel as such, but they are challenging the unyielding and expansionist Zionist leadership that denies the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people living under occupation, but also the rights of the 5-7 million Palestinians living in refugee camps or in exile and the rights of the 1.5 million Palestinians that have been subject to a range of discriminations ever since the establishment of Israel in 1948. A just and sustainable peace for both peoples requires an acknowledgement and implementation of these rights. Such rights are truly inalienable, and do not lapse because of their long suppression. This is ultimately what the Flotilla II encounter is really about, and this is also why Israel finds it so dangerous.

The Audacity of Hope

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What Israel lobby?

Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Court...

Image via Wikipedia

This quote comes from a Haaretz report:

Israel’s new ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor urged Jewish American leaders on Monday to form a clear and operational plan ahead of the United Nations vote in September regarding unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.

During a closed meeting of the Conference of Presidents of major Jewish American Organizations in New York, Prosor said that talk was not enough at such a crucial time, and that the U.S. Jewish community must prepare a clear operational plan.

The Ambassador continues:

Prosor stressed before the Jewish leaders that they must take advantage of the Jewish community’s connections with decision makers in order to get results.

Prosor also said that regardless of the outcome of the UN vote, a Palestinian state will not be created and added that the UN is not authorized to dictate borders between countries. He stressed that a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state will bring about another cycle of violence that will only lead to a dead end.

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Yaron’s complaint

Yaron Festinger has a bone to pick with Sarah Silverman:

Jewish Comedian Sarah Silverman will be arriving for a show in Israel. Indeed, a constitutive event. The popular American standup comedian did not shy away from smalltime politics in 2008, posting a YouTube clip urging Jewish grandchildren to threaten their grandparents in Florida that there will be no visits unless they vote for Obama, as he would be “much better for Israel.”

The video clip portrayed Jewish families in a disparaging, humiliating manner while making use of every stereotype from the past; all in the name of “satire,” of course.

The video:

It appears Festinger’s upset because the AIPAC toady Barack Hussein Obama sits too far to the left of the Greater Israel knuckledraggers in Israel. (Obama, of course, is a rightwinger and an outlaw as a matter of principle, but that does not matter here.) Silverman supported Obama and urged other Jews to do the same.

Given these difficult circumstances [of the day and Obama's allegedly anti-Israel agenda], it would be appropriate to remind Ms. Silverman and others like her that they erred gravely by enlisting for Obama’s cause in 2008 and would do well to take responsibility for their actions. We should tell them “thanks, but no thanks.” Or in other words, save us from dubious friends, including those who come for a visit; we’ll take care of our enemies on our own.

Hmmm… Might Festinger consider Silverman an enemy?

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Hasbara or lunacy at the Washington Times?

Salon’s Justin Elliot writes:

We thought everything that could be said about Anthony Weiner‘s lewd photo scandal had been said. But Eliana Benador, a former influential neoconservative public relations operative, has proved us wrong.

Writing for the “Communities” section of the Washingtom [sic] Times’ website, Benador argues that the Twitter scandal shows that … the Jewish Weiner might have converted to Islam!

Hasbara is the Hebrew word for Israel-centric and –friendly public diplomacy. Eliana Benador once owned a public relations firm that promoted hawkish neoconservative policies during the George W. Bush administration. She currently works as a “Goodwill Ambassador” for two West Bank settlement communities. Given her resume and politics, I believe we can say with confidence that Benador is capable of promoting nonsense to achieve her political goals.

Is Anthony Weiner a Muslim Fifth Columnist, as Benador suggests? Has he converted to Islam? Is there a “socialist” political agenda driving this marital union? Is his wife, Huma Abedin, someone who the Saudi Arabians sent to the United States to infiltrate the American elite? Is Weiner conspiring against the United States and Israel? Benador’s claims and intimations about Weiner and Abedin appear too outlandish to apply to a man who has shown himself to be a pro-Israel demagogue and an opportunist with designs on the New York City mayor’ office. Why, then, would Benador write her article? What did she hope to accomplish? Did she write her article just to smear a Jewish-American politician who chose to marry a putative enemy of Israel? Is Benador a paranoid crank?

Only a God could tell us the whole and believable truth about this bizarre incident. In any case, the Washington Times has already pulled Benador’s article for review, which I take as a sign indicating the true value of the piece.

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Quote of the day

Andrew Levine discusses here the Israel lobby, America’s evangelical Zionists, Jews and the Israeli rightwingers who benefit from this profane collaboration:

Unlike classical anti-Semites, evangelical Zionists generally get along with the Jews with whom they interact, but their commitment to Israel does not stem from fondness for Jews or Judaism. It comes from a belief in a literal End Time in which those who do not accept Christ — Jews especially — will be cast into the torments of Hell for all eternity. How Christian Zionists hold this idea in their heads and still interact amicably with real world Jews I do not know; no doubt, monumental levels of self-deception and ambivalence are involved. That aside, one must wonder whether even the Nazis evinced a greater hatred?

Since 1977, when Menachem Begin became Israel’s Prime Minister, the Israeli Right has been the dominant force in Israeli politics even in the years when it was not directly in power, and it has courted Christian Zionists assiduously. Israel’s founders were secular and comparatively progressive, notwithstanding their overriding commitment to building an ethnically pure Jewish state in as much of Mandate Palestine as the world would allow. Like much of the Israeli Left today, they would have disdained Israel’s evangelical allies, in much the way, and for much the same reason, that sensible people the world over disdain those who believe that the world ended a week ago Saturday. And they would certainly never have been so base as to court those who yearn to see them rot in Hell. But the Israeli Right is shameless, and its cynicism knows no bounds.

A match made in Heaven? Only if the Gods are Crazy!

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Quote of the day

Uri Avnery discusses Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent command performance in the United States Congress:

It was all rather disgusting.

There they were, the members of the highest legislative bodies of the world’s only superpower, flying up and down like so many yo-yos, applauding wildly, every few minutes or seconds, the most outrageous lies and distortions of Binyamin Netanyahu.

It was worse than the Syrian parliament during a speech by Bashar Assad, where anyone not applauding could find himself in prison. Or Stalin’s Supreme Soviet, when showing less than sufficient respect could have meant death.

What the American Senators and Congressmen feared was a fate worse than death. Anyone remaining seated or not applauding wildly enough could have been caught on camera — and that amounts to political suicide. It was enough for one single congressman to rise and applaud, and all the others had to follow suit. Who would dare not to?

The sight of these hundreds of parliamentarians jumping up and clapping their hands, again and again and again and again, with the Leader graciously acknowledging with a movement of his hand, was reminiscent of other regimes. Only this time it was not the local dictator who compelled this adulation, but a foreign one.

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Quote of the day

When answering the always-gripping question “Why do they hate us?”, Glenn Greenwald wrote:

When President Obama explained to the nation (after the fact) why he committed the armed forces to Libya, he declared that the U.S. must not “stand idly by” in the face of violent assaults on unarmed civilians. Today:

Violence erupted on Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza on Sunday, leaving at least eight dead and dozens wounded . . . Israeli troops shot at protesters in three separate locations to prevent crowds from crossing Israeli frontier lines in the deadliest such confrontation in years.

In other words, Israeli troops opened fire on unarmed protesters on three separate borders today (and other reports now suggest higher numbers of people shot). The protesters were reportedly attempting to infiltrate Israeli territory in commemoration of the annual Palestinian protest of Israel, but by all accounts were unarmed, and some were shot at on their side of their border. Will the U.S. stand “idly by” while this happens, or . . . issue a statement in ringing support of Israeli actions? Sadly, there is no plausible third alternative, and that, too, may shed some light on “why they hate us.”

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