Dershowitz on Mass Explusion

This is an amazing quote from Alan Dershowitz that I was not aware of:

he 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."

This is from The Independent article I cite below, and I can only assume they have high quality fact checking.

So, perhaps Alan thinks the expulsion of the Jews from Spain was just a form of "massive urban renewal?"

Link

Loathsome Smearing

As more and more people start to see the problems created by Israel and it fanatic supporters it becuase harder and harder to label them anti-semites, as they have the philo-semetic credentials to insulate them against such charges.

In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.

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 ther 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.

Independent

Explicit Pressure

Usually the pressure is more subtle, but with Clinton on her last half of a leg things can get more overt.

Harvey Weinstein, the prominent movie producer and Democratic fundraiser, unleashed his legendary temper in a tirade aimed at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Weinstein, who’s backing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, threatened to cut off the cash flow to Democratic congressional candidates if Pelosi does not get behind a proposal to fund do-over primaries in Michigan and Florida, CNN reports. Clinton’s diminishing chances to snag the Democratic nomination are essentially dependent on seating delegates from those states at this summer’s convention.

Just another day in American politics.

Link

Rothchilds Donating to McCain Campaign

Hey, I always wanted to do a post saying something about the Rothchilds, and it looks like the McCain campaign has given me the chance.

Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored [a U.K. based] fundraiser. US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals.

"The question is whether or not the Rothschilds paid for the event, the venue, the catering, or any other related costs," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

Tickets to the event cost $1,000 to $2,300, and the luncheon dress code was "lounge suits," the Washington Post reported in March.

Wow. I don't know what the Rothchild's position on Israel is, but if I had to guess I would say it was pro, very pro.

Link.

Clinton Statements to Big Doners

Hillary Clinton could never get our ahead of the Democratic electorate on the war. This is probably going to cost her a chance at being the first female president of the United States.

Why did she not take a position that would be more in step with the Democratic party, the nomination of which she was seeking?

Well, these statements to some of her big time donors may give us a clue.

Moveon.org endorsed [Sen. Barack Obama] -- which is like a gusher of money that never seems to slow down. We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them."

Seems like these donors are very interested in foreign policy, no?

Well, what is one of the things that Hilary does not agree with them on? Looks like she thinks we can stay in Iraq for 100 years.

"Senator McCain made the point earlier today, which I agree with, and that is, it's not so much a question of time when it comes to American military presence for the average American; I include myself in this. But it is a question of casualties," said Clinton. "We don't want to see our young men and women dying and suffering these grievous injuries that so many of them have. We've been in South Korea for 50-plus years. We've been in Europe for 50-plus. We're still in Okinawa with respect to protection there coming out of World War II."

Well, McCain = Hillary on foreign polcy? How would have thunk it?

DailyKos

Organized Zionist Manipulation at Wikipedia

The group CAMERA was caught red handed trying to manipulate Wikipedia to rewirte history.

Ini suggests that after volunteers sign up as editors for Wikipedia they should "avoid editing Israel-related articles for a short period of time." This strategy is intended to "avoid the appearance of being one-topic editors," thus attracting unwanted attention.

...To further conceal the identity of CAMERA-organized editors, Ini warns, "don't forget to always log in before making [edits]. If you make changes while not logged in, Wikipedia will record your computer's IP address" -- a number that allows identification of the location of a computer connected to the Internet.

Philip Weiss say if it looks like a cabal, smells like a cabal, ...

Mondoweiss

Another Israel Spy

Our "alley" Israel has seemingly been caught in another spy scandal story.

An 84-year-old former Army engineer in New Jersey was charged on Tuesday with leaking dozens of secret documents about nuclear arms, missiles and fighter jets to the Israeli government during the early 1980s, federal prosecutors said.

The engineer, Ben-Ami Kadish of Monroe Township, could face life in prison or possibly the death penalty if convicted on the most serious charge, prosecutors said.

The spying seems to have been a long term ongoing effort and seems to have ties with the Pollard spy scandal.

This is what we get for all our money and support? All our UN vetos? With friends like this, yada, yada, yada.

Link.

Should We Stop Aid to Israel

Alison Weir asks and answers this question.

When all are added together, it turns out that for many years over half of all US tax money abroad has been expended to benefit a country [Israel] the size of New Jersey.

It is certainly time to begin debating this disbursement of our hard-earned money. It is quite possible that we have better uses for it.

To decide whether the US should continue military aid to any nation, it is essential to examine the nature and history of the recipient nation, how it has used our military aid in the past, whether these uses are in accord with our values, and whether they benefit the American taxpayers who are putting up the money.

She follows up with some very good analysis here.

Holocaust Declaration

Uber-Neocon Charles Kruthhammer has asked the US ensure there is not another Holocaust by promising the treat any attack on Israel as an attack on the US. This statement would be called the "Holocaust Declaration."

It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear attack upon Israel by Iran, or originating in Iran, as an attack by Iran on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon Iran.

This should be followed with a simple explanation: "As a beacon of tolerance and as leader of the free world, the United States will not permit a second Holocaust to be perpetrated upon the Jewish people."

This piece is revealing on so many levels.

First, the continued reliance on the Holocaust as a justification and motivation for taking such actions is troublesome.

The narrow focus on the Holocaust reveals a distorted, and self-absorbed, view of the world that leads to poor decision making such as attacking Iraq and issuing declarations such as the "Holocaust Declaration."

The Holocaust was just one of a long history of horrible incidents that occurred in world history. Two were committed by this country - slavery and the virtual extermination of the American Indians.

There is a long list of others from the Irish famine to the Russian revolution. Additionally, the creation of Israel is probably considered such an event by the Palestinians.

Second, Israel is an expansionist sectarian state that has a poor Human rights record. It can't be treated as other nations as it is constantly engaged in provoative activities and backing from the US will only give them additional license to do so.

Israel has nuclear weapons including second strike capability (despite Kruthhammer's statements to the contrary). See this. Israel should be on notice that they will be responsible for their initial round of defense so they should take care not to provoke with their actions. They need to live in the dangerous world an act accordingly just like every other country on the face of the earth.

Finally, America needs to pull back on its world wide commitments to police the world. Our current empire is bankrupting us, due largely to the previous advice taken from people like Kruthhammer. Making new commitments on this level that take their justification solely from the Holocaust and solely directed at a particular people seems wrong headed, to say the least.