Gorilla in the Room

Israeli Values

2009-07-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting summery of the illegal organ trade and Israel, which is a center for it due to a shortage of organs and apparently little moral compass when viewed from a western morality.

I highly urge you to read the whole thing slowly and thoroughly.

CannonFire

This fascinating article from Agence-France Presse offers blockbuster information. A retired Israeli army officer named Geldaya Tauber Gady was arrested in Brazil for his participation in this international organ trafficking ring. (I suspect that the information from Scheper-Hughes -- which was taken seriously in Brazil -- led to Gady's arrest.)

He told the court that the Israeli government financed the operation. Not only that:

Gady told the court that an Israeli government official, identified only as Ilan, put him in touch with an intermediary in Brazil...

Gady's courtroom testimony puts the Rosenbaum case in an entirely new light.

Should we be financing a country with these types of morals?

Orthodox Treatment of Female Reporter

2009-07-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

It is a strange religion indeed whose most observant members would act in this way:

I found myself herded against a brick wall as they kept on spitting - on my face, my hair, my clothes, my arms.

It was like rain, coming at me from all directions - hitting my recorder, my bag, my shoes, even my glasses.

Big gobs of spit landed on me like heavy raindrops. I could even smell it as it fell on my face.

Somewhere behind me - I didn't see him - a man on a stairway either kicked me in the head or knocked something heavy against me.

I wasn't even sure why the mob was angry with me. Was it because I was a journalist? Or a woman? Because I wasn't Jewish in an Orthodox area? Was I not dressed conservatively enough?

In fact, I was later told, it was because using a tape-recorder is itself a desecration of the Shabbat even though I'm not Jewish and don't observe the Sabbath.

It was lucky that I don't speak Yiddish. At least I was spared the knowledge of whatever filth they were screaming at me.

As I tried to get away I found myself up against the line of riot police blocking the crowd from going any further.

The ABC's Middle East correspondent Anne Barker became caught in violent street protests involving ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem at the weekend. This is her graphic account of her ordeal.

As a journalist I've covered more than my share of protests. Political protests in Canberra. Unions protesting for better conditions. Angry, loud protests against governments, or against perceived abuses of human rights.

I've been at violent rallies in East Timor. I've had rocks and metal darts thrown my way. I've come up against riot police.

But I have to admit no protest - indeed no story in my career - has distressed me in the way I was distressed at a protest in Jerusalem on Saturday involving several hundred ultra-Orthodox Jews.

This particular protest has been going on for weeks.

Orthodox Jews are angry at the local council's decision to open a municipal carpark on Saturdays - or Shabbat, the day of rest for Jews.

It's a day when Jews are not supposed to do anything resembling work, which can include something as simple as flicking a switch, turning on a light or driving.

So even opening a simple carpark to accommodate the increasing number of tourists visiting Jerusalem's Old City is highly offensive to Orthodox Jews because it's seen as a desecration of the Shabbat, by encouraging people to drive.

I was aware that earlier protests had erupted into violence on previous weekends - Orthodox Jews throwing rocks at police, or setting rubbish bins alight, even throwing dirty nappies or rotting rubbish at anyone they perceive to be desecrating the Shabbat.

But I never expected their anger would be directed at me.

I was mindful I would need to dress conservatively and keep out of harm's way. But I made my mistake when I parked the car and started walking towards the protest, not fully sure which street was which.

By the time I realised I'd come up the wrong street it was too late.

I suddenly found myself in the thick of the protest - in the midst of hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in their long coats and sable-fur hats.

They might be supremely religious, but their behaviour - to me - was far from charitable or benevolent.

As the protest became noisier and the crowd began yelling, I took my recorder and microphone out of my bag to record the sound.

Suddenly the crowd turned on me, screaming in my face. Dozens of angry men began spitting on me.

Spit like rain

I found myself herded against a brick wall as they kept on spitting - on my face, my hair, my clothes, my arms.

It was like rain, coming at me from all directions - hitting my recorder, my bag, my shoes, even my glasses.

Big gobs of spit landed on me like heavy raindrops. I could even smell it as it fell on my face.

Somewhere behind me - I didn't see him - a man on a stairway either kicked me in the head or knocked something heavy against me.

I wasn't even sure why the mob was angry with me. Was it because I was a journalist? Or a woman? Because I wasn't Jewish in an Orthodox area? Was I not dressed conservatively enough?

In fact, I was later told, it was because using a tape-recorder is itself a desecration of the Shabbat even though I'm not Jewish and don't observe the Sabbath.

It was lucky that I don't speak Yiddish. At least I was spared the knowledge of whatever filth they were screaming at me.

As I tried to get away I found myself up against the line of riot police blocking the crowd from going any further.

Reassurance

Israeli police in their flak jackets and helmets, with rifles and shields, were yelling just as loudly back at the protesting crowd.

I found them something of a reassurance against the angry, spitting mob.

I was allowed through, away from the main protest, although there were still Orthodox Jews on the other side, some of whom also yelled at me, in English, to take my recorder away.

Normally I should have stayed on the sidelines to watch the protest develop.

But when you've suffered the humiliation and degradation of being spat on so many times - and you're covered in other people's spit - it's not easy to put it to the back of your mind and get on with the job.

I left down a side street and walked the long way back to the car, struggling to hold back the tears.

ABC

Three Billion Doesn't Get You Much

2009-05-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

We give the small nation of Israel three billion a year, plus lots of other extras. You would think that would get you some pull.

Apparently not.

Israel has rejected a call by the United States for a total freeze on settlement expansion in the occupied territories.

Israel said construction in Jewish settlements will continue despite U.S. pressure. President Barack Obama began pressing the settlement issue at a White House summit last week with Israel's hawkish new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed growing impatience with the Jewish state.

"With respect to settlements, the president was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here," Clinton said. "He wants to see a stop to settlements - not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions."

The settlements are neither ethical nor are they in the US interest.

Is that Chutzpah, or what?

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-05-28-voa9.cfm

Congressman Ackerman on Natural Growth

2009-05-28T12:50:00.001-07:00

The settlements in Israel create great conflict between the East and the West, and between the US and Arab nations in particular. They are not a source of good and the official US policy is that they should be stopped.

However, Congressman Gary Ackerman thinks the are "natural growth" and need not be stopped.

Internal growth is not an obstacle — it is life,” said the congressman, Gary Ackerman (D-L.I.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. “There is no moral equivalence between settlements and terrorist activity,” he said by phone shortly after leaving a 90-minute meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv. “Bibi mentioned settlements,” Ackerman continued, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “He pointed out that unlike previous administrations that said they would not build them but built them, he is not building new settlements. But he has a position that you cannot stop people on the issue of internal growth.”

Should the US naturally grow in to Mexico or Canada? Would we not expect conflict to result?

Does Congressman Ackerman have US interests in mind when he makes such statements?

There is more interesting stuff here:

[This] position is NOT surprising especially when you come to find out [Ackerman] is not only the United States House Chairman on Middle East and South Asia foreign affairs but Ackerman is also President of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, making sure that influential Jews within governments all over the world can coordinate and push for Israel's position on 'all' policy matters[.]

"Arik Puder, the spokesman for ICJP Israel -- ICJP "...goal is to put together parliamentarians from all over the world in order for them to cooperate with one another and promote Jewish issues/AGENDAS in their respective countries...""

You couldn't make it up if you wanted to.

JPost

Mondoweiss

Holy Land Foundation Sentencing

2009-05-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

This trial has been an increadable miscarrage of justice from the start, and it has just gotten much worse.

To summarize, the first trial ended in a mistrial (which is amazing considering the paranoid climate at the time). A retrial that involved the use of non-public Israeli testimony resulted in a conviction resulting in a conviction.

The sentencing was handed down recently and the worst was a 64 year jail term! This is shocking for a case that was obviously very weak from the start.

This is the Zionification of the American justice system.

Money quote (from British source)

As grounds for an expected appeal, lawyers for the men are expected to challenge testimony given by an anonymous Israeli government agent, whose evidence was kept secret from the defence.

JSF.

Israeli Values Not Western Values

2009-05-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

The Israeli Knesset is considering a set of laws that, to say the least, are very anti-western and completely contrary to the US understanding of freedom of speech.

First we have:

"a bill that would institute a one year jail sentence for anyone who speaks "against Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state."

Well, would we allow someone to speak against the US being a Christian state? You bet we would. In fact, many (including many Jewish organizations) would more likely prohibit discussion of the US as a Christian state.

Second we have:

a bill spearheaded by Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party to outlaw public commemoration of the Nakba in Israel can move on to the Knesset and cabinet for a vote. If the bill is passed, someone caught commemorating the Nakba could face up to three years in prison.

So, could Germany ban discussion of the Holocaust because it was unpleasant for them to hear about it? Again, the opposite is more likely.

Finally, we have the loyalty oath bill:

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party plans to propose controversial legislation requiring citizens to swear loyalty to the state, a party spokesman said on Monday.

The party intends to seek cabinet approval for the bill before presenting it to the Knesset where it would have to pass three votes and a committee review before taking effect, according to the spokesman.

The proposal was a key part of Yisrael Beiteinu's campaign in February's general election, in which it grew to Israel's third largest political party.

How would Jewish groups in America react to a bill demanding they swear loyalty to the US over all other foreign nations including Israel? Outrage would just begin to describe it.

So, again we have a big difference between the way7 Israel acts and the Western values we have here in the US. Also, we have a big difference between the conduct supported or condemned by Jewish organizations here when compared to the reaction when Israel seeks to undertake such conduct.

Ynet

Haaretz

Haaretz

Quick Hits

2009-05-22T08:15:00.001-07:00

Has David Singer of the NYT become the next Judith Miller?

David Sanger continues his stellar work of conveying Israeli propaganda about a non-existent Syrian nuclear program by conveying Israeli propaganda about an non-existent Iranian nuclear program, using the purest Judy Miller style - note the use of the telltale 'outside experts' and 'administration officials', i. e., Dennis Ross - made so infamous by the New York Times ...

Did Bibi box Obama into taking action on Iran? From Amconmag:

In return for Bibi’s willingness to talk to the Palestinians, Obama agreed to a December deadline for progress in talks with Iran. If the talks are not fruitful by then, America will step on the escalator.

“I’ve been very clear that I don’t take any options off the table with respect to Iran,” said the president.

Bibi got what he came for.

By setting a six-month deadline, Obama has given an incentive to Israel, AIPAC, the neocons, and even al-Qaeda, which wants Shia Iran bombed back to the stone age, to provoke collisions with Iran, until December, then demand that Obama keep his word, suspend talks, impose severe sanctions and start us on the escalator to war.

More discussion here.

In other news, super AIPAC devotee Jane Harman called for ethhnic division of Iran and then retracts s reported here.

NIAC is reporting that Rep. Jane Harman has retracted and apologized for her comments advocating that Iran be divided up by ethnicity. Harman claims she her comments were "taken out of context." Judge for yourself (begins around 1:25):

News of Note

2009-05-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

Times Confirms Harmon Pressure

2009-04-21T15:33:00.000-07:00

The NYT has confirmed that congresswoman Jane Harmon pressured them not to puplish the Bush illegal wiretapping story in 2004.

he New York Times confirmed late Monday that a top Democratic congresswoman called the paper in 2004 and tried to keep it from publishing an article exposing the Bush Administration’s warrantless wiretapping program — possibly helping to sway the balance in the 2004 presidential election.

..

“Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said in a statement Monday that Ms. Harman called Philip Taubman, then the Washington bureau chief of The Times, in October or November of 2004,” the Times writes. “Mr. Keller said she spoke to Mr. Taubman — apparently at the request of Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then the N.S.A. director — and urged that The Times not publish the article.”

So, this took place before she became aware that her own call was wiretapped and that should could be in trouble with the law.

RawStory

UPDATE:

Harmon is asking for the tapes to be release, but she wants 'everything' which will surely make it impossible to do so and therefore this is a bluff.

I would like to see the materials released, I just don't think it will happen.

Jane Harmon AIPAC Scandal Exposed

2009-04-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Jane Harmon's illegal deal with AIPAC, and the Bush Administration cover-up, has been exposed, and it is ugly.

Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Seemingly wary of what she had just agreed to, according to an official who read the NSA transcript, Harman hung up after saying, “This conversation doesn’t exist.”

More interestingly, the Alberto Gonzalez elected not to prosecute becuase Rep Harmon was supporting the illegal wire-tapping program being pushed by the Bush administration.

Key points to note are:

* Harmon had supported the wire-tapping program prior to being told she was under investigation.

Harman, [Alberto Gonzales] told Goss, had helped persuade the newspaper to hold the wiretap story before, on the eve of the 2004 elections. And although it was too late to stop the Times from publishing now, she could be counted on again to help defend the program[.] ... And Eric Lichtblau himself described how Harman, in 2004, attempted very aggressively to convince him not to write about the NSA program.

* The wiretap that cought Harmon was FISA approved, and therefore legal, and involved monitoring a foreign (Israeli) agent, not a Harmon.

the CQ story says that Harman's conversation was recorded as part of "a court-approved NSA tap directed at alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington."

* What Harmon did was a crime.

As for those wondering what the possible crime would be, the allegation is that Harman agreed to use her influence as a member of Congress to intervene in a pending criminal proceeding directed at AIPAC officials in exchange for receiving something of value (namely, AIPAC's lobbying for her to be appointed Chair of the House Intelligence Committee). It's exactly what Pete Domenci was accused of: trying to influence DOJ prosecutions for political ends, though in the case of the allegations against Harman, it's even worse, since the suggestion is that she agreed to interfere in the criminal proceedings in exchange for AIPAC's support of her quest to become Intelligence Committee Chair.

This is receiving a lot of attention, as it should, but we should all bang the drums on this one.

The Harmon denial and comments thereon can be found here.

Other Links

Daily Kos (Needs Updating).

Greenwald

Illegal Immigration and Israel

2009-04-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

While I have no problem with Israel enforcing its immigration laws, it stands in stark contrast to many US supporters of Israel such as the ADL who essentially advocate for open borders.

[Israeli] Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz recently instructed ministry officials to develop a comprehensive plan for deporting 100,000 illegal foreign workers from Israel within a year.

"What's going on is an outrage," said Steinitz at a meeting a few hours prior to the Passover Seder. "There are a 100,000 people taking jobs illegally while Israelis remain unemployed. The plan must involve painful economic sanctions on those who employ illegal workers."

...

"The point is to make it fiscally unwise to hire an illegal worker," he told ministry employees. "It is a financial crime. It is not enough merely to deport the workers; we must also hurt the employers."

"We must fight such employers, must look for them, publish their names, indict them - and do it by this year! It is inconceivable that, of the 400,000 foreign workers in Israel, 100,000 of them are illegal and meanwhile unemployment in Israel stands at over 200,000 persons," the new minister said.

Seems reasonable to me. If only the US, and US supporters of Israel, would take this position locally.

Link

Zionism is Nationalism is Racism

2009-03-25T11:22:00.000-07:00

Interesting quote from Abe Foxman of the Anti-defamation league:

“Can you be anti-Zionist and not be an anti-Semite? Almost never. Unless you can prove to me you're against nationalism. If you're one of those unique individuals in this world that's opposed to American nationalism, French nationalism, Palestinian nationalism, then you can be opposed to Jewish nationalism. Is it racist? You bet it is. Every nationalism is racist. It sets its laws of citizenship, it sets its own capital... It sets its songs, it sets its values. It is, if you will, exclusive, and you can even call it racist. But if the only nationalism in the world that is racist is Jewish nationalism, then you're an anti-Semite.. I don't want to make any apologies for it.

This is interesting because the ADL's other reason for being is to prevent nationalism in America. Hence, this appears to be a hypocritical stance by Foxman.

Or, as a commenter said:

Now I expect him to quit pestering Vdare, American Renaissance, FAIR, and Kevin MacDonald. We're nationalists, okay? Just like you!

Think that will happen?

Link

Interview with Charles Freeman

2009-03-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview with NIC nominee Charles Freeman who was attacked for being anti-Israel and who then withdrew his candidacy. Many did step up to defend him, however, including Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan.

Official Rabbi Calls for War Crimes

2009-01-27T09:50:00.001-08:00

When reading this story keep in mind that this is not some 'random' Rabbi making crazy statements. Rather, it is the 'chief' Rabbi of the IDF and therefore he makes the statements with the apparent backing of the Israeli government.

The Israeli army's chief rabbinate gave soldiers preparing to enter the Gaza Strip a booklet implying that all Palestinians are their mortal enemies and advising them that cruelty is sometimes a "good attribute".

...

The publication draws on the teachings of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, head of the Jewish fundamentalist Ateret Cohanim seminary in Jerusalem.

In one section, Rabbi Aviner compares Palestinians to the Philistines, a people depicted in the Bible as a war-like menace and existential threat to Israel.

In another, the army rabbinate appears to be encouraging soldiers to disregard the international laws of war aimed at protecting civilians, according to Breaking the Silence, the group of Israeli ex-soldiers who disclosed its existence. The booklet cites the renowned medieval Jewish sage Maimonides as saying that "one must not be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel".

Breaking the Silence is calling for the firing of the chief military rabbi, Brigadier-General Avi Ronzki, over the booklet. The army had no comment on the matter yesterday.

So much for Israel as the moral state. And we are supporting these calls for criminal activity.

It is interesting how he related old textual statements to the current situation. Does that mean that all the statements in the torah can be activated under the right circumstances?

Other quotes include:

"[There is] a biblical ban on surrendering a single millimeter of it [the Land of Israel] to gentiles, though all sorts of impure distortions and foolishness of autonomy, enclaves and other national weaknesses. We will not abandon it to the hands of another nation, not a finger, not a nail of it."

...

"A comparison is possible because the Philistines of the past were not natives and had invaded from a foreign land ... They invaded the Land of Israel, a land that did not belong to them and claimed political ownership over our country ... Today the problem is the same. The Palestinians claim they deserve a state here, when in reality there was never a Palestinian or Arab state within the borders of our country. Moreover, most of them are new and came here close to the time of the War of Independence."

...

"When you show mercy to a cruel enemy, you are being cruel to pure and honest soldiers. This is terribly immoral. These are not games at the amusement park where sportsmanship teaches one to make concessions. This is a war on murderers. 'A la guerre comme a la guerre.'"

Haaretz

Independant

Israel Supports the Iraq

2009-01-22T08:48:00.000-08:00

This is no suprise to many, but some still try to claim that 'Israel' did not support the Iraq war.

However, we have seen many statements to the contrary, including this latest statement from Shimon Peres.

Peres said to Bush, "If the world had acted against Hitler the way you acted against Saddam Hussein, the lives of millions would have been saved." The president added, "You made a historic contribution to the entire world and to the Jewish people in particular. We will treasure this forever and will never forget it." (Ronen Medzini)

Problem is, Bush's contribution to the American people (and the people of Iraq) was wholly negative. This is particularlly true for the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives.

Who We Are FIghting For

2009-01-13T10:20:00.000-08:00

At least when you see this video you will feel better about the people and motives associated with support for Israel.

Not really.

History of Sderot

2009-01-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

So, it doesn't look like Sderot was taken as part of a 'defensive' action on the part of Israel.

Sderot, where a few homemade harmless missiles have landed, was once an Arab village called Najd, whose 600 Arab inhabitants were expelled by Israelis in 1948. Jewish settlers built over the old town in 1951. Having been ethnically cleansed, the Arabs moved to the Gaza Strip, along with some other 750,000 Palestinians who had been removed from their lands—or murdered, like the villagers of Deir Yassin—before the first Arab-Israeli war had even begun.

UN Resolution 194 and Article 13 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights say the people of Najd and Palestine’s other 384 demolished villages must be allowed to go home. But they can’t because Israel confines them in a small stretch of coastal desert that the Egyptian army held onto in 1949 and became a dumping ground for the displaced population of southern Palestine. Ninety per cent of Gaza’s 1.5 million people are refugees and their descendants. Israel won’t let them come back, nor will it let them have a state of their own in Gaza and the West Bank even if they relinquish their right of return.

Link

Wisdom from Ron Paul on Gaza

2009-01-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

And on US foreign policy in General. Worth watching.

Taking Pot Shots at Children

2009-01-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

This girl is very brave.

The IDF Solder will not shoot her ... in front of the camera. But who is he trying to shot at beyond her?

Greenwald on the Israel Debate

2009-01-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Greenwald gets to the heart of the problem with the Israel debate. America's interests are never discussed.

Ultimately, what is most notable about the "debate" in the U.S. over Israel-Gaza is that virtually all of it occurs from the perspective of Israeli interests but almost none of it is conducted from the perspective of American interests. There is endless debate over whether Israel's security is enhanced or undermined by the attack on Gaza and whether the 40-year-old Israeli occupation, expanding West Bank settlements and recent devastating blockade or Hamas militancy and attacks on Israeli civilians bear more of the blame. American opinion-making elites march forward to opine on the historical rights and wrongs of the endless Israeli-Palestinian territorial conflict with such fervor and fixation that it's often easy to forget that the U.S. is not actually a direct party to this dispute.

Though the ins-and-outs of Israeli grievances and strategic considerations are endlessly examined, there is virtually no debate over whether the U.S. should continue to play such an active, one-sided role in this dispute. It's the American taxpayer, with their incredibly consequential yet never-debated multi-billion-dollar aid packages to Israel, who are vital in funding this costly Israeli assault on Gaza. Just as was true for Israel's bombing of Lebanon, it's American bombs that -- with the whole world watching -- are blowing up children and mosques, along with Hamas militants, in Gaza. And it's the American veto power that, time and again, blocks any U.N. action to stop these wars.

And it is American that will experience the blowback for these policies.

Salon

Israel Bars Reporters From Gaza

2009-01-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

From McClatchy:

On one hand, one can't blame the Israeli government for wanting to do what it can to prevent the world from seeing the effects of its devastating Gaza airstrikes that have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

...

But, as the BBC's Jo Floto noted last month after Israel first barred journalists from entering Gaza, Israel has joined a notorious and small list of countries preventing reporters from doing their job.

Israel, which prides itself on being the healthiest democracy in the Middle East, joins North Korea, Zimbabwe and Burma in denying media access to a major story.

That is some unfavorable company to be in, Israel.

If anyone claims Israel is subject to intensive scrutiny they are not telling the truth.

The State.

UPDATE:

UPDATE: The Israeli Supreme Court several days ago ordered the Government to allow reporters into Gaza, yet Israel continues to block all journalists from entering.

The Impact of Gaza

2009-01-01T08:12:00.001-08:00

Israel is bombing the hell out of Gaza taking out Universities and Hospitals. This is after two years of embargo where a collective punishment has been carried out on 1.5 million people.

All this happens while settlements continue on the West Bank and the average income is these area are $1000/mo or less.

While these war crimes are deplorable, it is the fact that they are using US weapons, money and support to conduct these operations. The arab world knows this and we will become a target of any retribution. The result is that US society will lose vaulable civil rights and freedoms, become less open and undergo great expense to be 'safe.'

Is other words, we will begin to resemble Israel is some unfortunate ways.

When the next attack occurs remember this when someone tries to tell you they did it because they 'hate our freedom.'

Israel Still Spying

2009-01-01T08:05:00.000-08:00

I thought Israel is claiming that in no longer spies on the United States?

The following story indicates (again) that this is highly doubtful and that the consequences for being caught are virtually nil.

Readers of my columns in TAC and at antiwar might recall that I have been inquiring about the status of Israeli spy Ben-Ami Kadish, who was arrested in April and has since fallen into a black hole, with no record of any continuing judicial process and no mention in the MSM. I suggested that those who spy for Israel appear to have a “get out of jail free” card as there is seldom any aggressive prosecution of their cases. I have recently learned that Kadish, who is free on bail in spite of the considerable risk that he would flee to Israel, had been granted a number of delays by the presiding judge. Yesterday he appeared in court and guilty to the single charge of failing to register as an agent of Israel. The charges of espionage and obstruction of justice were dismissed and the prosecution has indicated that it will not oppose a no-prison time punishment when Kadish is actually sentenced next month.

Amconmag

Rahm's Dad is Anti-Semitic and Anti-Arab

2008-11-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

And he is also a terrorist.

Here is the view from some in Isarel:

For those who believe that Rahm Emanuel, in his position at gatekeeper to the president, will not further skew US foreign policy because of his strong ties to Israel, I would offer the following, which appeared in The Guardian on Saturday. “Emanuel’s position has raised concerns among those looking for an even-handed approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In an interview with the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, Emanuel’s father was quoted as saying: ‘Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.’”

Emanuel’s dad is reported to be a former Irgun terrorist who blew up the King David Hotel and massacred Arab villagers, so he knows how handle Arabs, one presumes. What he knows about cleaning floors is not clear.

Pretty racist. Will Rahm be questioned on this? Does he agree with his father's assessment of his priorities or the job prospects of Arabs?

Rahm's dad must be an anti-Semite to say Rahm might use his power to influence the US government for the benefit of Israel.

Or maybe Rahm's dad is just telling the truth, something that others are too afraid to say.

Link

That Sinking Feeling

2008-11-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

Other are starting to get worried about the direction of the Obama administration as well:

I am starting to get the queasy acid-reflux feeling that I used to get when Bill Clinton was president, knowing that America’s foreign policy was being controlled by the likes of Madeline “starve the Iraqis” Albright, Sandy “don’t know how those papers got down my trousers” Berger, and Dennis “we’ll have to check with Israel first” Ross. And then there is Richard “bomb the hell out of Serbia” Holbrooke. Well, it looks like we’ll be getting a number of that jolly crew back, Holbrooke possibly as secretary of state, supplemented by Rahm “volunteer for the Israeli Army” Emanuel as chief of staff and Jane “investigated by the FBI” Harman as Director of CIA.

I am still hopeful.

Link.

Strike Two for Obama

2008-11-07T14:04:00.000-08:00

Well, I am now starting to get nervous. But, what else did I really expect?

A mere 12 hours after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee yesterday -- and changed himself into an Israel hard-liner.

He promised $30 billion in military assistance for Israel. He declared that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force has "rightly been labeled a terrorist organization." He used terms such as "false prophets of extremism" and "corrupt" while discussing Palestinians. And he promised that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

Vowing to stop Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon, the newly minted nominee apparent added: "I will always keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our security and our ally, Israel. Do not be confused."

Amazing.

A Moment of Clarity

2008-11-01T07:05:00.000-07:00

While I could never say times of changed, it does seem like a moment or two of clarity has entered the American debate on our foreign policy and the smears that are used to try and silence any debate US policy towards Israel.

It all started with the pathetic performance of xx to paint Professor Rashid Khalidi as an anit-Semite and then associate him with Obama, both of which are false claims. The attempt was exposed in an especially graphic way in this short interview of Michael Goldfarb, McCain Campaign manager on loan from uber-neocon Bill Kristol's The Weekly Standard.

Gleen Greenwald does an amazing job documenting the negiative response from including heavy weights such as Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic and this great quote from Joe Klein of Time.

Here we have the McCain campaign's execrable Michael Goldfarb slinging around accusations of anti-semitism--a favorite pastime, as we've seen this year, among Jewish neoconservatives. . . . I'd say that if we have a bigot here, it's Mr. Goldfarb who, if he's intent on calling people antisemitic--or any other epithet--should be required to provide chapter and verse, which he does not do on CNN. (I'd also like to know on what basis CNN's Rick Sanchez can stipulate that Khalidi is antisemitic.)

Joel Klein has take heat for calling out the Neocon bias towards Israel in the past. His specific calling out of "Jewish neconservatives" is extremely impressive.

Greenwald comments on this by saying:

Had it been 2003, [Klein probably would have been out of a job]. But it didn't end "badly" or "sadly" for Klein. Quite the contrary, he continued criticizing neocons at least as aggressively and unapologetically -- actually, even more so -- and not only was he undeterred by the standard neocon "anti-semitism" rants, he became increasingly defiant in his refusal to suppress his critiques.

I find his final comments heartening:

But this episode illustrates what neocons have been doing for years and, more significantly, signals that the efficacy of this tactic is finally coming to an end. Open debates about U.S. policy towards Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are vital, and people should be able to engage in those debates and be able to take legitimate positions, as Professor Khalidi has plainly done, without hordes of right-wing manipulators swarming on them with anti-semitism accusations.

We are far away from this, but at least now we can see occasional victories and glimmers of hope.

Salon

The Dutch Jimmy Carter

2008-06-28T01:39:00.000-07:00

The "Dutch Jimmy Carter" tells a story of his conversion:

"In one of my visits to Bethlehem I heard a story, which now I know is just one of many," Van Agt recalls. "It was a story horrendous humiliation of a Palestinian student trying to get to university for a collective exam. His story, which the university president told me, struck me like lightning."

At the last IDF checkpoint on the way, according to the story which Van Agt says he heard from the university president, the student was pulled over and ordered to climb out of the window. "Then the humiliation began. He fell down and was then ordered to walk on hands and feet and bark. Then the soldiers laughed about the Palestinians all being dogs."

Link

The Benign Domino Theory

2008-06-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

This is some of the most direct evidence that the well being of Israel was on the minds of the neocons during the Iraq war build up.

"Then, what can one say about Jennifer Rubin, who accuses me of antisemitism? I must say that's rather thrilling coming from the Commentary crowd. You want evidence of divided loyalties? How about the 'benign domino theory' that so many Jewish neoconservatives talked to me about--off the record, of course--in the runup to the Iraq war, the idea that Israel's security could be won by taking out Saddam, which would set off a cascade of disaster for Israel's enemies in the region? As my grandmother would say, feh! Do you actually deny that the casus belli that dare not speak its name wasn't, as I wrote in February 2003, a desire to make the world safe for Israel?"

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We have a mountain of circumstantial evidence that we went to war for Israel. However, these statements from Joe Klein are direct evidence that Israel was a major consideration for those pushing for the invasion of Iraq.

Time

Israel´s Full Court Press

2008-06-25T01:35:00.000-07:00

There was some argument that while the Neocons wanted the US to attack Iraq, Israel only came on board reluctantly.

This argument cannot be made with regard to Iran.

(CBS) Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran's nuclear complex.

CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn't want to wait for a new administration.

"The Israelis have been assured by the Bush administration that the Bush administration will not allow Iran to nuclearize," Oren said. "Israelis are uncertain about what would be the policies of the next administration vis-à-vis Iran."

Note that whenever oil prices rise, or the stock market falls, on news of potential conflict with Iran, people's pensions and college funds are affected, not to mention their ability to buy food and fuel.

Israel's actions, and the actions of its supporters, affect you.

CBS News

The AIPAC Backed Iran War Resolution

2008-06-24T01:25:00.000-07:00

While there have been countless public and private pushes for war with Iran by the Israel Lobby there is nothing like open legislation to demonstrate who is driving the country to further conflict.

Introduced less than a month ago, Resolution 362, also known as the Iran War Resolution, could be passed by the House as early as next week.

The bill is the chief legislative priority of AIPAC. On its Web site, AIPAC endorses the resolutions as a way to ”Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program” and tells readers to lobby Congress to pass the bill.

The bill contains some very serious measures.

The bill’s key section “demands that the president initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran’s nuclear program [This is very drastic].”

An analysis of this states it very well:

“Imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran” can be read to mean that the president should initiate a naval blockade of Iran. A unilateral naval blockade without UN sanction is an act of war.

This is a big step on the path to war with Iran. And remember who was pushing for it.

Link

From AIPAC web site:

Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program

Members of the House and Senate have introduced resolutions (H. Con. Res. 362 and S. Res. 580) calling on the administration to focus on the urgency of the Iranian nuclear threat and to impose tougher sanctions on Tehran. The resolutions, introduced in the House by Reps. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) and Mike Pence (R-IN) and in the Senate by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and John Thune (R-SD), urge the president to sanction Iran’s Central Bank and other international banks and energy companies investing in the country. They also demand that the United States lead an international effort to increase pressure on Iran by curtailing Iran’s ability to import refined petroleum products. Please urge your representatives to cosponsor this critical resolution.

AIPAC

Flat Out Corruption

2008-05-21T10:25:00.000-07:00

From you could not have made it up because no one would believe you dept, Hiam Saban is using direct bribery to try to secure the nomination for Hillary.

Haim Saban, the billionaire entertainment magnate and longtime Clinton supporter, denied the allegation. But four independent sources said that just before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Saban called YDA President David Hardt and offered what was perceived as a lucrative proposal: $1 million would be made available for the group if Hardt and the organization's other uncommitted superdelegate backed Clinton.

Hiam is the "one issue" man, and that issue is Israel, so I think we can see where this is going.

HuffingtonPost

Dershowitz on Mass Explusion

2008-05-12T02:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

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

Rothschilds Donating to McCain Campaign

2008-05-07T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hey, I always wanted to do a post saying something about the Rothschilds, and it looks like the McCain campaign has given me that 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 Rothschild'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

2008-05-06T01:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-20T01:04:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-15T02:12:00.000-07:00

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.

John Sununu on The Lobby

2008-03-04T22:58:00.000-08:00

Philip Weiss is pulling out excerpts from a new book The Much Too Promised Land. The quotes give powerful examples of the Israel Lobby in action.

Here is one from John Sununu:

It's like a handful of pebbles in the shoe. It's there all the time, and this process of not permitting anything that's trying to tug in the other direction, to gain root and thrive, is almost automatic. And it's not just AIPAC, it happens all the time, everywhere. Every congressman, every senator, before they win, is being soft lobbied on the issue. Whether it's their friend that owns 40 acres down the street whose grandfather happened to have come from Kiev, goes in and talks to him about helping him, developing a social relationship on an issue that has nothing to do with the district, begins to communicate their interest. And rightly so-- pulling on their end of the rope. It happens almost invisibly. But across the board. There is nobody who has run for office in this country who has not been soft lobbied the day they announce that they are going to run and not been hard lobbied after they win.

Mondoweiss

Israel andThe Democratic Party.

2008-02-27T11:27:00.000-08:00

Hillary is trying to use "support" for Israel as an issue against Obama.

The comment seemed like a casual aside. Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, was touting the New York senator's strong support for Israel during a conference call in January with leaders of major American Jewish organizations. During the call, Lewis energetically contrasted Clinton's pro-Israel credentials with those of Barack Obama. To make her point, she said that Obama's "chief foreign-policy adviser" is Zbigniew Brzezinski, says one participant who would talk about the call only if he were not identified.

It seems the Democratic base has become immune to these attacks (e.g. Joe Lieberman), but the leadership is still concerned about how the party is perceived (rightly or wrongly) on Israel.

Link

Supporting Israel vs Supporting Likud

2008-02-26T01:21:00.000-08:00

Barack Obama is demonstrating he can navigate the trechorous waters of US policy towards Israel:

Barack Obama reportedly said something very important and long overdue to a group of some 100 Cleveland Jewish leaders on Sunday — that being pro-Likud and being “pro-Israel” are two different things.

“I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt a unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel. If we cannot have an honest dialogue about how do we achieve these goals, then we’re not going to make progress.”

Antiwar.com

Bush Administration Justice

2008-02-22T11:09:00.000-08:00

A little off topic, but the Bush administraion has been more prone to abuse power than any other administration I can think of, including the Nixon administration.

Two examples are worth mentioning, although there are many.

This first is the prosecution of Don Siegelman, former governor of Alabama. There is a lot more of that here.

The other, more interesting case, is the decision of the former chief military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay to testify as a defense witness for the driver of Osama bin Laden.

Yes, you read that right.

Air Force Col. Morris Davis, resigned in October over alleged political interference in the U.S. military tribunals.

Now, if you have have chosen a career as a military prosecutor, handling the highest profile case(s) in the nation is a dream come true. It is a ticket to success at virtually anything else you want to do, including making big money at a NY law firm or going into politics. If you see a problem, you are going to do everything you can
to work around it, or work with it.

Thus, for Morris Davis to resign means there is something deeply wrong with the process taking place at Guantanamo. That is a scary thought, as Bush is asking for the right to wiretap without warrants as well as a whole host of other extraordinary powers which are open to abuse.

AP

Bias and The Holy Land Foundation

2008-02-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

Former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney made a very impressive speech to the Dallas Muslim Legal Fund of America. In it she discusses the Holy Land Foundation case, where the Federal government spent millions of dollars investigating and prosecuting the Muslim Holy Land Foundation only to have the Jury return a verdict of Not Guilty.

To have a verdict of Not Guilty returned in the current hysterical environment is a testament to the American system of justice.

But the fact that the prosecution took place also demonstrates the tremendous political pressure present being applied to any group seemingly trying to help the Palestinian people.

Here is a great outtake from the speech.

For eight long years, the FBI watched the Holy Land Foundation with surveillance that included illegal wiretaps. The government would have had the jury believe that the supporters and the managers of the Holy Land Foundation and just about every other Muslim organization in the United States that was tied into the litigation was guilty of a crime. Millions of dollars later, after wreaking fear and terror inside this country's Muslim community, the jury told the government what the men and women whose lives were on trial already knew. The charges leveled by the government could not stand the jury's scrutiny. So why was the allegation even leveled in the first place? Why did the press parrot the allegations without one moment of questioning whether or not the government could have been as off in its assessments of the Holy Land Foundation as it was in its estimates of pre-war Iraq's weapons of mass destruction?

Impressive stuff. But it goes on:

I would like to take a moment to follow the trail of another trial involving the sale or give-away of U.S. national security secrets to a foreign government; the name of that government is never mentioned; and the litigation never pierces the American psyche due to an effective news blackout.

Yes, what trial is that?

In case number one, a Pentagon man is found with 83 top secret documents at his home, some of them having been passed to American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) who then passed them to Israel - known in the newspapers as Country A. The other case involves the outing of a CIA agent who was tracking nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. This is the case of Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, that saw the chief of staff of the Vice President of the United States sentenced to prison, only to be later pardoned by the President!

She has a point. In terms of likelihood of spying, Israel is a much greater threat than the Muslim community.

I will discuss this more in the next post.

Link

Hayden on Berman

2008-02-22T08:39:00.000-08:00

Howard Berman is replacing Tom Lantos as head of the foreign affairs committee in The House. Here is an interesting statement from Tom Hayden about Michael Berman, Howard's Brother.

Twenty-five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his congressman-brother, Howard Berman. I was a neophyte running for the California Assembly in a district that the Bermans claimed belonged to them.

“I represent the Israeli defense forces,” Michael said. I thought he was joking. He wasn’t. Michael seemed to imagine himself the gatekeeper protecting Los Angeles’ Westside for Israel’s political interests, and those of the famous Berman-Waxman machine. Since Jews represented one-third of the Democratic district’s primary voters, Berman held a balance of power.

From the frying pan into the fire.

Truthdig

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6-BGY7X1ro

Additional about Mearsheimer/Walt at the following URL:

http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=49800

http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.BLOGSPOT.COM

Israel Asks for Intensification of Sanctions

2008-02-20T10:59:00.000-08:00

Israel proper is sending out Knesset members to warn European and Asian Governments of the threat posed by Iran. They are asking for more sanctions.

Sanction are an act of war - a blockade, more or less. Egypt's blockade of the Red Sea led to the attack on Egypt by Israel.

ome 15 Knesset members from a broad spectrum of parties will soon embark on a tour of Europe and the Far East to explain the dangers of Iran's nuclear program and urge that sanctions against the Islamic Republic be intensified.

Sometime in March, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency will meet for another discussion of Iran's nuclear program, and a few weeks later, the Security Council will meet to discuss a third round of sanctions against Tehran, in light of its continued defiance of the council's demand that it cease enriching uranium. Therefore, the next few weeks are critical in drumming up support for harsher sanctions.

Israel's stepped-up lobbying effort is in part a response to the release by the United States late last year of a new National Intelligence Estimate, which claimed that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.

So, as conflict with Iran grows and if/when it leads to war, you can safely say that pressure for such an outcome was applied by Israel.

Haaretz

Thoughts on Gaza

2008-02-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Egypt is now rebuilding the wall on its border with Gaza to prevent anymore "breakouts" that allow Gazans(?)to buy food, medicine or other essentials while being blockaded by Israel. Egypt is taking this measure, which is unpopular with its people, in part because the US is withholding (or threatening to withhold) 100 million in aid.

This pressure from the US moves us for background supporter of Israel to a front line participant in this war crime. [It does violate various UN conventions]. I am ashamed of what my country is doing, but that is not what is really important.

What is important is that the entire Muslim world knows that the US is doing this, but few Americans are aware of it. Thus, out there, somewhere, in the Muslim world people are boiling with anger over this situation and are considering some way that they can fight back against this injustice.

Some of them will conclude that terrorism is the only way they can be heard. They will seek to commit a terrorist act against the US and some day one of them or some group of them may succeed.

When that happens will America once again be surprised? Will they believe it when someone tells them they are being attacked for their "freedom?"

I hope not, but it is hard to see what exactly has changed. If Ron Paul was able to educate even a small portion of the population on this concept he will have accomplished a lot indeed.

Kristolized Series

2008-02-06T02:46:00.000-08:00

BarbinMD over at DailyKos has done a nice review of all the wrong calls and predictions Bill Kristol has made over the last seven years or so.

It is very well done.

Here are the three links:

Kristolized III

Kristolized II

Kristolized I

I have also added permanent links to these diary entries over on the right side.

More on Sibel Edmonds

2008-02-05T12:22:00.000-08:00

The Sibel Edmonds story keeps going. Phil Giraldi (ex-CIA) calls for here claims to be investigated:

Why should Sibel be heard? Mostly because her story, if true, involves corruption at the highest levels of government coupled with the sale of secrets vital to the security of the United States. One of her claims is that a senior State Department officer who has been identified as Marc Grossman, recorded by the FBI while arranging to pick up bribes from a Turkish organization, also revealed the identity of the CIA cover company Brewster Jennings to a Turkish contact in late 2001. The Turk then passed on the information to a Pakistani intelligence officer who presumably warned the AQ Khan nuclear proliferation network that the CIA was apparently pursuing. Some might call that treason and it should be noted that it occurred two years before Robert Novak's notorious exposure of Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings which led to the conviction of Scooter Libby.

The FBI also denied a freedom of information request by claiming the file requested did not exist, although others have corroborated its existence.

Huffington Post

Interview with John J. Mearsheimer

2008-01-31T05:43:00.000-08:00

Great interview with John J. Mearsheimer on the influence of the Israel Lobby can be found here:

Electric Politics.

It is a nice relaxed interview that gives Prof. Mearsheimer time to develop his arguments completely. One very interesting thing is his brooklyn accent, which makes him sound very Jewish (to me).

The other is that he is actually a fairly strong supporter of Israel - probably too strong for my taste.

I strongly suggest you listen to the whole thing, which is also available as a podcast.

State of the Nation

2008-01-22T01:45:00.000-08:00

Well, Israel has starting the grand experiment of starving a group of people into submission, or better yet, driving them off the land into another country.

Juan Cole summarizes:

The humanitarian impact of Israel's electricity blockade of the Gaza Strip. Raw sewage in the streets, which will soon seep into houses; asthmatics choking; hospitals on the verge of switching off life support.

Link

This is a war crime. The American press is all but ignoring this amazing story. Will Americans be surprised when some Islamic "extremest" group attacks them "for our freedom?"

Next, the largely Jewish and very pro-Israel group "Freedom's Watch" is trying to raising $250 million to help pro-war Republican candidates.

The group aims to raise and spend approximately $250 million for the 2008 cycle, a vast amount of money they apparently plan to use not only on the presidential election, but to greater effect in numerous House and Senate races throughout the country, where six figures can go a long way.

Also, Sibel Edmonds fleshes out here claims of corruption and espionage with Turkey and Israel using many well known neocon connections, and the FBI claims certain files "do not exist."

The Sunday Times has obtained a document that confirms that a file, which the FBI denied existed, could contain information about American officials stealing nuclear secrets for Turkish and Israeli spies, who would then sell the secrets to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

TimesOnline

RawStory

Edmonds had previously made statements that "Moles" within the US government were transferring nuclear secrets to Pakistan, among other nations.

Finally, Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger of Israel thanked Bush for "waging a war against Iraq," which Bush said "warmed his heart."

"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief rabbi's spokesman.

JPost

The words of one Rabbi warms Bush's heart, but the deaths of thousands of Americans leaves him cold.

Tom Lantos May Face Challenger

2007-12-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

From antiwar.com:

Tom Lantos, a Democrat who has represented San Mateo in the U.S. House of Representatives for 13 terms, plans to run for reelection in 2008. Budapest-born Lantos, who came to the United States as a young man, may face a primary challenge from popular former state Sen. Jackie Speier. Reports indicate that Speier, who has yet to announce her candidacy, has in-house polls showing her leading Congressman Lantos in the 12th District two to one. Beating a politician of Lantos' stature would catapult Speier to immediate national standing.

As I noted below, Lantos has worked hard to get the US into both Iraq wars, and is an uber-supporter of Israel. He has visited Israel 68 times!

Jackie Speier is of Armenian decent and has a Jewish grandfather who fled Nazi Germany, so it is unlikely that she will put real pressure on Israel to negotiate peace, but she will no doubt be an improvement over Lantos. Given those poll numbers, I would think Lantos would just retire if she does in fact put her hat into the ring.

It will also be interesting to see what reason Ms Speier gives for initiating a primary challenge to this incumbant. Will she focus on Lantos' support for the war, making it a referendum thereon?

Link

Dershowitz Shops at Settler Store

2007-12-10T02:00:00.000-08:00

Alan Dershowitz is being more provacative than usual lately.

First he writes a very emotional, but not very factual, article, about the NIE finding that Iran has discontinued its nuclear bomb program here.

Gary Hart provides an excellent responds here.

But it seems Alan Dershowitz has decided to shop for Jewly store in New York that is being protest because the Israeli owner (Leviev) provides finacial support to the settler movement.

Alan is not longer pretending to be anything but an ethnic tribalist with little support for humanistic thinking, peace or other important western values.

New York, NY, Dec. 8 - Wealthy Madison Avenue holiday shoppers were greeted Saturday afternoon by boisterous music and dancing, as 60 New Yorkers protested in a growing campaign to boycott Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev over his settlement construction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Participants performed a joyous dabke, a traditional Palestinian dance, and chanted to music from the eight-piece Rude Mechanical Orchestra. During the protest, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz entered LEVIEV New York and emerged to jeers as he displayed a LEVIEV shopping bag to the crowd.

JSF.

Tom Lantos

2007-12-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

Congressman Tom Lantos has been quoted as saying some interesting stuff prior to the Iraq war:

This is the same Tom Lantos, you'll recall, who gleefully told Colette Avital, a Labor party member of the Israeli Knesset, "My dear Colette, don't worry. You won't have any problem with Saddam. We'll be rid of the bastard soon enough. And in his place we'll install a pro-Western dictator, who will be good for us and for you." (Lantos denied saying that, but Ms. Avital confirmed it: the man's a liar as well as a hypocrite.)

Very damning stuff.

Also, see this:

As Chairman of the Human Rights Caucus in 1990, Lantos helped organize hearings at which the infamous "baby incubator" invention was peddled to the U.S. congress and public. Lantos introduced a Kuwaiti woman who claimed to have witnessed Iraqi soldiers killing babies by ripping them from incubators in a Kuwait hospital. He neglected to mention that the young woman was the Kuwaiti Ambassador'S daughter and her testimony had been manufactured by public relations firm Hill and Knowlton, under contract to the Kuwaiti Royal Family.

Mr. Lantos seems to have got us into lots of wars.

Link

Israel had NIE before Bush?

2007-12-06T12:13:00.000-08:00

Based on these public statements Israel had the NIE before Bush.

According to Haaretz, Israel has known about the Iran NIE “for more than a month. The first information on it was passed on to Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and to Shaul Mofaz, who is the minister responsible for the strategic dialog with the Americans. The issue was also discussed at the Annapolis summit by Barak and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and it seems also between Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.” But Bush claims he didn’t get briefed on the NIE until last Wednesday.

Is this OK? What other countries do we share the NIE with before it is released publically?

However, in this case I think Bush is just lying or he just kept himself out of the loop. Still, pretty interesting.

Think Progress

Illegal Donation by Friends of Israel

2007-12-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

Very strange scandal coming out of England involving David Abrahams, member of the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) a British Lobby group for our favorite little nation in the Middle East.

Labour officials helped lawyers acting for David Abrahams to draw up complex covenants that allowed the millionaire businessman to pay up to £650,000 indirectly to the party, the Guardian has learned.

...

It is understood that Labour officials were well aware that the arrangement exploited what they believed was a loophole in Labour's recently passed legislation, the 2000 Political Parties Act, so as not to reveal Abrahams' identity.[Why?]

...

Abrahams had high-ranking friends among the Labour Friends of Israel and the charitable world, where many of Labour's donors come from.

Abrahams claim that he wanted to keep his life "private" does not hold water. This may have been a donation for business interests or to give him influence with regard to England's relationship with Israel.

Neither is very attractive.

Link

Coment

Jewish Organizations Initiating, Coordinating and Funding

2007-11-12T23:01:00.000-08:00

I would not use the word Jewish, but they seem OK with it, and they are the JTA, so I guess they know better than I do.

A renewed push from Jewish organizations for tougher sanctions against Iran is facing tough obstacles in Washington and capitals throughout the world.

American Jewish groups are aggressively attempting to rally support for isolating Iran until it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program. They are lobbying Congress, reaching out to friendly nations overseas and seeking allies in the United States.

Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is warning that Iran is close to acquiring the knowledge it needs to build nuclear weapons.

Officials at the Anti-Defamation League have launched a campaign in support of tougher sanctions, and recently pressed the issue in a meeting in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Also, the American Jewish Committee has been meeting with foreign leaders, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In the latest manifestation of the renewed push, delegates to the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities in Nashville passed a resolution Monday calling on federations and Jewish community relations councils to move on the Iran issue by initiating, coordinating and funding "expanded efforts aimed at both educating and mobilizing the Jewish community as well as partnering with other respected members in the broader community."

Only they can say this.

Link

Secularism for you, buy not for me.

2007-11-12T12:39:00.000-08:00

This is one for all times:

Zionist Americans are (commendably and understandably, since many of them are not Christian) amongst the fiercest advocates for secularism in America and have done good work, intellectually and politically, to cement secularism here. It's ironic that they are the ones working hardest to prevent secularism from ever taking place in the unHoly land, where they are comfortable in supporting everything and anything racist and discriminatory that the Israeli government does. The same people who (rightly) get outraged over the display of a cross on public land in America, have no problem defending the Israeli government banning non-Jews from purchasing land, or building religiously-segregated roads.

With Alan Dershowitz 1eing the number on example of this.

Link.

Sibel Edmonds Case In The News

2007-11-10T06:40:00.000-08:00

The Sibel Edmonds case is heating up a bit. Read the latest about the Sibel Edmonds case here.

As I've demonstrated, the current 'AIPAC' case involving Keith Weissman and Steve Rosen receiving information from Larry Franklin barely scratches the surface of the underlying crimes that these investigations have yielded, and even this very limited case may never see the light of day. In an apparent greymail attempt, the defense has called 15 current and former government officials to testify - including Condi Rice, Douglas Feith, Stephen Hadley, Elliott Abrams and Richard Armitage.

Link.

A Vote Against Israel

2007-11-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

I must have missed this incredible statement from Steve Clemons of the Washington Note about the failed John Bolton nomination to the UN.

During the "third" major effort by the administration to get John Bolton confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations, one of the shocking parts of that battle was not only trying to get Republicans like former Senator Lincoln Chafee to stand strong against Bolton -- but to undo the damage that Schumer was doing inside the Democratic Caucus.

Two Democratic Senators involved in that part of the Bolton battle -- one on the Foreign Relations Committee and one not -- told me personally that Senator Schumer called them to say "a vote against Bolton is a vote against Israel."

Well, who does Schumer work for? The United States or Israel? And how ridiculous is that statement anyway?! Democrats and Republicans both have been excellent stewards of the US-Israel relationship in the United Nations. To personalize the national security issues between America and the Israelis was a sloppy, reckless mistake by Schumer -- one that he and everyone now involved in this Mukasey matter should remember.

Now we have the news that Schumer and Feinstein are voting to approve Mukasey in the face of enormous opposition from the Democratic base due to his failure to call waterboarding torture.

Now you know what there motivations are, or at least schumer's are. They will support the president on this war on terror becuase they think it is good for Israel. They will pretend to be opposed to it, but when the rubber meets the road they will support the war effort under some form of pretext.

The Washington Note

Ethnic Lobbies

2007-10-31T02:29:00.001-07:00

James Fallows talks about the harmful effect of the Israel Lobby.

To the (ongoing) extent that AIPAC — the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby” — is trying to legitimize a military showdown between the United States and Iran, it is advancing its own concerns at the expense of larger American interests. The people who are doing this are not from one ethnic group in the conventional sense but are mainly of one religion (Jewish).

Well said. Some interesting comments on this post can be found:

The Atlantic

iSteve

Antiwar

PW

Unwritten Understanding with the Press

2007-10-31T02:10:00.000-07:00

CAMERA says it has a "unwritten understanding" with the American media.

Levin said, "The fact is, you know, we may be unhappy with the New York Times from time to time, and we at CAMERA have been, but I have to say we are fortunate. The American media is much, much more geared to understanding that there is an unwritten contract between them and us, and that is, that things should be factually accurate, and we get corrections all the time. Those corrections are very meaningful sometimes. We can prevent the repetition of serious errors... So there is that give and take here in the States."

These "errors" involve, for example, whether Israel should be label an apartheid state or not. Clearly this is more a matter of opinion and spin, rather than error.

Link.

A Shining Light to The World

2007-10-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

More information is coming out about Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

A study by an Israeli psychologist into the violent behaviour of the country's soldiers is provoking bitter controversy and has awakened urgent questions about the way the army conducts itself in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

...

The soldiers described dozens of incidents of extreme violence. One recalled an incident when a Palestinian was shot for no reason and left on the street. 'We were in a weapons carrier when this guy, around 25, passed by in the street and, just like that, for no reason - he didn't throw a stone, did nothing - bang, a bullet in the stomach, he shot him in the stomach and the guy is dying on the pavement and we keep going, apathetic. No one gave him a second look,' he said.

...

Yishai-Karin found that the soldiers were exposed to violence against Palestinians from as early as their first weeks of basic training. On one occasion, the soldiers were escorting some arrested Palestinians. The arrested men were made to sit on the floor of the bus. They had been taken from their beds and were barely clothed, even though the temperature was below zero. The new recruits trampled on the Palestinians and then proceeded to beat them for the whole of the journey. They opened the bus windows and poured water on the arrested men.

...

Only a little boy of four playing in the sand. He is building a castle in his yard. He [the officer] suddenly starts running and we all run with him. He was from the combat engineers. 'He grabbed the boy. I am a degenerate if I am not telling you the truth. He broke his hand here at the wrist, broke his leg here. And started to stomp on his stomach, three times, and left. We are all there, jaws dropping, looking at him in shock.

A path to peace? Not likely.

Link

Blair Visiting Israel

2007-10-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

Tony Blair finds some uncomfortable truths in Israel.

[Blair] was shocked by what he was told about conditions in Hebron and diplomats say he was genuinely taken aback by his trip to the West Bank sector of the Jordan Valley – where Palestinians are allowed to dig wells only a third as deep as Israelis – at the exploitation of resources by the rich Jewish agricultural settlements at the expense of closed in Palestinian farmers. And he has been privately dismissive – rather more so perhaps than he was as Prime Minister – of the argument by some Israelis that security comes first, with economics and a political deal well behind it. "All three have to happen together" he has told diplomats – which is what he sees Annapolis as being about. This week he has been concentrating on the economics and is pressing Israel to permit job growth in the West Bank's Area C, where it has direct as well as total control – including a Japanese government plan for an "agro-industrial" park in the Jordan Valley.

Who are the good guys here?

Link

I was lobbied by the 'Israel lobby'

2007-10-18T02:10:00.000-07:00

I knew AIPAC sent US politicians on "educational" junkets to Israel, the main purpose of which is to ingratiate and propagandize, but I did not realize they sent reporters on the same junkets.

I've never written about foreign policy, and despite Mearsheimer and Walt's book, I don't have any reason to think of AIPAC as different than any other lobbying group. Still, after a friend gave them my name and the invitation [for all expenses paid trip to Israel] came, I struggled over whether to accept such a lavish gift from an organization with something to sell. I consulted with other journalists, most of whom asked only one question: How could they get on the next AIPAC trip?

So, is there any conflict of interest created from such trips? Well, what do they involve?

Flying business class meant free cocktails in the elite-passenger lounges at Logan and in Newark, hot towels and cold drinks fetched by the flight attendant, and a seat that folded into a bed. I slept the nine-hour flight to Tel Aviv. AIPAC handlers met us at the airport to smooth our passage through customs. A luxury bus drove us through the stunning countryside to Jerusalem, where we checked into the five-star Inbal Hotel in the heart of the city.

Sounds pretty posh, I would have to say. Could this affect her judgement going forward?

I called John A. Bargh, a Yale psychology professor who studies nonconscious influences on behavior, and walked him through the details of my junket. Did he think I was swayed by the experience? "Of course you are," he said. "You'd almost have to be. And you can't know it."

A key tool in the subtle art of persuasion, he said, is reciprocity: offer someone a pleasant experience or gift and they feel an almost irresistible obligation to return the favor. The norm of reciprocity cuts across every culture, and the value of the gift is irrelevant: a cup of coffee is as effective as an extravagant trip. Another tool is to provide friendship and human connection - it's inevitable that a bond will develop when you spend substantial time with someone, especially in a foreign place, where you depend on them.

So, did it work?

At the end of a week, what had AIPAC gotten for its investment in me? Did I come back rabidly pro-Israel? No. Did I come back significantly better informed and far more interested in the Middle East? Absolutely. I am reading a daily newspaper, Haaretz, online and hope to return to the region.

Was I swayed by AIPAC? It is hard for me to say. I don't think so. Of course I don't.

Yes, and no.

We are dealing with an incredibly effective and aggressive organization, but you probably knew that.

UPDATE:

This quote is also informative:

This summer, it hosted 40 US congressmen from both parties. And although mainstream news organizations still bar their staff reporters from taking paid junkets, others aren't shy at all. Recent tours have included staff from "The Daily Show" and reporters from Spanish and African-American media. "There's hardly a journalist left in D.C. who hasn't taken this trip," one AIPAC representative told us, with only some sense of overstatement.

Clearly, the mainstream news organizations understand the conflict. Too bad our politicians don't.

Link

Three Blog to Read Everyday

2007-10-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

These three blogs regularly tackle the issue of the Israel Lobby.

Philip Weiss

Glenn Greenwald

Matthew Yglesias

Right now, all three are on fire.

Conservative Group Pushes for Attack on Iran

2007-09-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Wow. It is clear that Israel's supporters are pushing us into war with Iran and they don't want us to leave Iraq:

Freedom’s Watch, a deep-pocketed conservative group led by two former senior White House officials, made an audacious debut in late August when it began a $15 million advertising campaign designed to maintain Congressional support for President Bush’s troop increase in Iraq.

...

Last week, a Freedom’s Watch newspaper advertisement called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran “a terrorist.” The group is considering a national advertising campaign focused on Iran, a senior benefactor said, though Matt S. David, a spokesman for the group, declined to comment on those plans.

...

The idea for Freedom’s Watch was hatched in March at the winter meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Manalapan, Fla., where Vice President Dick Cheney was the keynote speaker, according to participants. Next week, the group is moving into a 10,000-square-foot office in the Chinatown section of Washington, with plans to employ as many as 50 people by early next year.

NYT

2007-09-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

The power of the Lobby is impressive indeed.

Yesterday, by a vote of 76-22, the Senate passed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment in support of military actions against Iran. This is the second such endorsement of the president by a senate majority in just three months. In July, the Lieberman amendment to "confront Iran" passed with the far stronger majority of 97-0.

The original draft of Kyl-Lieberman had asked U.S. forces to "combat, contain, and roll back" the Iranian menace within Iraq. But the words "roll back" were all too plainly a coded endorsement of hot pursuit into Iran; and the senators did not want to go quite so far. To assure a larger majority the language was accordingly trimmed and blurred to say "that it should be the policy of the United States to stop inside Iraq the violent activities and destabilizing influence of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, its foreign facilitators such as Lebanese Hezbollah, and its indigenous Iraqi proxies."

The inclusion of Hezbollah deserves some notice. It is part of a larger attempt, already apparent in the Lebanon war of 2006, to manufacture an "amalgam" of all the enemies of Israel and the United States throughout the region, and to treat them all as one enemy. Those who believe in the amalgam will come to agree that many more wars by the United States and Israel are needed to crush this enemy.

Sanctioning Ourselves

2007-09-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

Hurting US economic interests.

Bringing the US closer to war with a country that is no threat to us.

Putting US lives in danger.

Just another day at the office for the neocon occupied territory that is congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress signaled its disapproval of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a vote Tuesday to tighten sanctions against his government and a call to designate his army a terrorist group.

The swift rebuke was a rare display of bipartisan cooperation in a Congress bitterly divided on the Iraq war. It reflected lawmakers' long-standing nervousness about Tehran's intentions in the region, particularly toward Israel—a sentiment fueled by the pro-Israeli lobby whose influence reaches across party lines in Congress.

"Iran faces a choice between a very big carrot and a very sharp stick," said Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "It is my hope that they will take the carrot. But today, we are putting the stick in place."

The House passed, by a 397-16 vote, a proposal by Lantos, D-Calif., aimed at blocking foreign investment in Iran, in particular its lucrative energy sector. The bill would specifically bar the president from waiving U.S. sanctions.

The pressure from AIPAC must be so intense that even the AP felt it had to be acknowledged.

Also, see opposition to a similar bill proposed by Lieberman in the Senate from Jim Webb here.

“At best, it’s a deliberate attempt to divert attention from a failed diplomatic policy,” said Webb. “At worst, it could be read as a back door method of gaining Congressional validation for military action, without one hearing and without serious debate.”

Link

Preventing All Dialog

2007-09-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

The New York Media is trying to prevent Ahmadinejad from speaking in NY. If this is how they act, should they really have the UN there?

Why can't we hear Ahmadinejad speak? Maybe he wants to open up a dialog? Maybe he can explain something or correct a misunderstanding?

But that might prevent and attack on Iran, and that would be a disaster.

One thing is for sure, the Media and the neocons are making a joke of the concept of freedom of speech, and making America look very hypocritical.

Even Scott Adams has something to say about that:

If Ahmadinejad thinks he can be our friend by honoring our heroes and opening a dialog, he underestimates our ability to misinterpret him.

Fucking idiot. I hate him.

Well said.

Link

Michael Scheuer on Bill Maher

2007-09-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Very interesting exchange between Michael Scheuer and Bill Maher.

First off, Scheuer makes some very patriotic statements about America and American foreign policy. Hat's off to him.

Second, Scheuer opens up discussion on the cost we incur for supporting Israel since 1973.

And finally, Maher admits that a lot of terrorism directed against the United States results from our support for Israel.

And the look on Maher's face in priceless.

View From the Trenches

2007-09-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Interesting take:

My boss [a congresswoman] went on an all-expense paid trip to Israel on AIPAC's dime. It was one of those educational junkets that interest groups paid for. I was a little concerned about it, but I paid it little mind. She had a wonderful time and learned a lot.

But as the saying goes, nothing in life comes for free. A few months later, Congress was voting on that year's foreign aid bill. As a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Carson opposed the bill, because it contained far few dollars for Africa than needed to be in the bill. However, there was a substantial amount of money going to Israel.

After her opposition became public, and she voted against it, the calls started coming in from all corners of the U.S. Members of AIPAC called to say that Rep. Carson was wrong for opposing the bill because it helped Israel. She tried to explain, but in all honesty, some of the callers were really angry. Mind you, hardly any of the folks that called were her constituents...they were donors. And they thought they had a solid vote because of the Israel trip. And some of them were plenty rude on the phone.

Rep. Carson became frustrated and one day said, "I just don't know what they want from me."

I was silent when I heard this, but I knew what they wanted. They wanted her vote. And in the back of my head, I was thinking that she shouldn't have taken that trip to Israel.

Link

Starve Them to Death

2007-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Shutting off power and water to 1.5 million people who make less than US$1,000/year.

There is something morally defective here.

Israel declared Gaza a "hostile entity" on Wednesday, and said it would limit supplies to the Hamas-run enclave, overshadowing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's latest peace mission.

The decision by Israel's powerful Security Cabinet cleared the way for the government to shut off supplies of electricity and fuel to the impoverished, over-crowded, territory in response to frequent rocket attacks from Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas blasted Israel's decision Wednesday and said it would increase the suffering of its 1.5 million residents.

There is a certain lack of humanity that boggles the mind. What kind of diseases will come about from lack of drinkable water?

Link

More on Moran

2007-09-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

I thought we were past calling people antisemites, but I guess they still think it has some traction.

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq.

In an interview with Tikkun, a California-based Jewish magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."

[...]

In an interview last night, Moran said he was dismayed at the reaction to his remarks, which he stands by. The pro-Israel lobby has not represented mainstream U.S. Jewish opinion in recent years, he said -- most notably with its Middle East policies, which he characterized as directly aligned with those of the Bush administration.

"The problem with addressing the groups who have argued strongly in favor of a long-term American military presence in the Middle East is that they raise arguments that are not related to the point," Moran said. "I would like to have a reasonable, objective discussion about AIPAC's foreign policy agenda. But it's difficult to do that because any time you question their motives, you are accused of being anti-Semitic."

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun also defended Moran's position in the article, which appear in the magazine's September-October issue

http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/israellobby.

"It's the kind of statement I would have made to any religious community, or to any labor movement audience, citing their own failures to act as a critical factor in why we had gotten involved," Lerner wrote in the article.

Link

Michael Mukasey

2007-09-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

This Judge supports the "Patriot Act" and also did not force the government to try Padilla in a court of law. This is a terrible appointment.

But ever worse, it seems his wife is a fund raiser for Israeli Settlements in the occupied territories.

Raising money for *settlements* is disturbing. It is one thing to be pro-Israel, it is another thing to tolerate the settlements, but to PROMOTE settlements by raising money. That is too right wing for even many Israelis.

How do they find these guys? Are they no regular Americans people in the Republican party anymore?

Link

Start Them Early

2007-09-10T05:48:00.000-07:00

This is interesting. AIPAC tries to get politicians "on the way up." Very sophisticated.

Washington - In a challenge to one of the most powerful lobbying tactics used by the Jewish community, a county in Maryland decided last week that local legislators could no longer go on sponsored trips to Israel.

Montgomery County’s ethics commission decided last month that council members are prohibited from traveling at the expense of the local Jewish community, even when funding is indirectly provided by a private foundation. A trip planned months in advance was subsequently canceled.

“We were stunned by the commission’s decision,” said Ron Halber, executive director of the Greater Washington Jewish Community Relations Council, which organized the trip.

In an e-mail to a Montgomery County legislator, the ethics commission wrote that “the routing of monies through a lobbyist organization to provide travel services makes the gift unacceptable.”

The decision has such weight because sponsored trips to Israel are widely used by Jewish groups both nationally and locally to build support for Israel among non-Jewish leaders and to cultivate one-to-one relationships between American and Israeli leaders. On a national level, the trips have recently come under scrutiny amid the scandals surrounding Washington lobbyists and their relationships with lawmakers. The Montgomery County decision now brings the dilemma to the local level, as communities face the need to adjust to the changing winds in Washington and growing concerns about the power of lobbyists.

Link

Dangerous Words

2007-09-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

Dangerous for whom?

A Democratic congressman accused AIPAC of having "pushed" the Iraq war.

"AIPAC is the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning," U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said in this month's Tikkun magazine. "Because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."

Moran has stirred controversy in the past for his criticisms of the Israel lobby. The National Jewish Democratic Council called on Moran to retract the comments about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

JTA

Comment on the NYT Review of TIL

2007-09-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Good comment on the NYT review of "The Israel Lobby" in a comment on Mondoweiss blog:

The reviewer, William Grimes, would obviously like to rip their hearts out, but he cannot dismiss them in Dershowitz fashion. Finally his arguments are reduced to whimpering and whining, here is a sample:

(...)"The general tone of hostility to Israel grates on the nerves, however, along with an unignorable impression that hardheaded political realism can be subject to its own peculiar fantasies. Israel is not simply one country among many, for example, just as Britain is not. Americans feel strong ties of history, religion, culture and, yes, sentiment, that the authors recognize, but only in an airy, abstract way.

They also seem to feel that, with Israel and its lobby pushed to the side, the desert will bloom with flowers. A peace deal with Syria would surely follow, with a resultant end to hostile activity by Hezbollah and Hamas. Next would come a Palestinian state, depriving Al Qaeda of its principal recruiting tool. (The authors wave away the idea that Islamic terrorism thrives for other reasons.) Well, yes, Iran does seem to be a problem, but the authors argue that no one should be particularly bothered by an Iran with nuclear weapons. And on and on.

“It is time,” Mr. Mearsheimer and Mr. Walt write, “for the United States to treat Israel not as a special case but as a normal state, and to deal with it much as it deals with any other country.” But it’s not. And America won’t. That’s realism."(END QUOTE)

That for the "gray lady" is the equivalent of throwing in the towel: they cannot ignore or really trash the book, they would like to, but they can't...

Trying to compare Israel to Britain is really a pitiful ploy... Do you know how many times the USA nearly went to war with the UK? We actually went to war twice. Do you know how much we charged them for the "lend-lease destroyers" when they had their backs to the wall in WWII? Do you know how "special" England is for Irish Americans? What a load of rubbish!

I would say then that it's "official", the book cannot be "ignored". The NYT is America's newspaper of reference and they have not ignored it and they have gingerly waltzed around the charge of antisemitism... hinting around it by calling the analysis, "cold". Not only is the book not to be ignored, its hot, hot, hot. The Israelis better start their war soon, by next week it might be too late.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/books/06grim.html?em&ex=1189224000&en=8f89c79af3597120&ei=5087%0A

http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/09/a-hot-time-in-t.html#comment-81837545

Charlie Rose interview of Robert Novak

2007-09-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

Robert Novak tells it like it is, once again.

CHARLIE ROSE: Is it hard for a journalist to criticize Israel?

ROBERT NOVAK: Well, you suffer if you do. I think.

CHARLIE ROSE: Have you suffered?

ROBERT NOVAK: Oh, yes.

CHARLIE ROSE: How have you suffered?

ROBERT NOVAK: I lost papers because of it. Advertisers dropped their—threatened newspapers. They did drop the Evans and Novak column that—

CHARLIE ROSE: But the Evans and Novak column is history. I`m talking about today, today.

ROBERT NOVAK: But that is history. You say, is it hard to criticize Israel? Yes. And I have suffered because of it.

CHARLIE ROSE: Is that issue out in the open now more than it was?

ROBERT NOVAK: No. I think it`s still—

CHARLIE ROSE: The Israeli lobby has too much influence on American foreign policy?

ROBERT NOVAK: I think it [The Israeli Lobby]has a lot of influence.

CHARLIE ROSE: Too much?

ROBERT NOVAK: Yes, I felt it has too much, and I believe that the—the—that the—both parties now are so committed to trying to get the Jewish community in support—it`s a very small community in numbers, but large in financial support and influence—that it`s very hard to take these positions.

[Charlie Rose show, August 3, 2007]

Charlie Rose

Speaks for Itself

2007-09-06T03:22:00.000-07:00

Blurb from Walt and Mearsheimer

2007-09-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

Philip Weiss gives us another blurb from the Walt Mearsheimer book, and it is a good one.

Halfway through the 2006 Lebanon War, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen--having heroically knocked off a Republican in 2004 over the incumbent's Iraq War vote--wrote a sharp letter to Condoleezza Rice urging the U.S. to pressure Israel to cease fire. Israel had caused “large loss of civilian life, and produced over 750,000 refugees.” It had weakened the Lebanese government and strengthened Hezbollah. “We have squandered an opportunity to isolate Hezbollah…” Etc.

The bravery of Van Hollen’s letter was that an antiwar congressman was speaking the truth at a moment it needed to be spoken. If America could have served any purpose in that war, it should have been to hold Israel back, or say, This is not good. Van Hollen was stomped on. Right after the letter, Schmuel Rosner clucked in Haaretz that Van Hollen was to meet with AIPAC and “he will hear that this was an unacceptable move.” An unacceptable move for a U.S. Congressman to open his mouth against an Israeli war, having gained his seat by opposing the Iraq War. Then Van Hollen issued an apology. This wasn’t enough. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Washington said he had to reach out to the Jewish community to undo the damage. The ADL said the apology wasn’t convincing in light of the anti-Israel character of the letter. After the war, Van Hollen duly went to Israel on a special AIPAC-affiliated junket, to learn the error of his ways.

MondoWeiss

2007-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

More "un-shared" values bewtween the US and Israel.

These institutions surely receive state aid.

Haredi school rejects 'Sephardi' child

Talmud Torah school rejects four-year-old due to Sephardi grandfather. Principal says child has ‘stain’ in genealogy

Zvi Alush
Published: 09.02.07, 10:09 / Israel Jewish Scene

Anyone who thinks that racist rules are a thing of the past is wrong, according to the mother of a four-and-a-half year old child who was rejected from a Talmud Torah school because of his grandfather’s ethnicity.

“They are alive and kicking in all their ugliness in Ashkenazi haredi educational institutions,” the mother said.

Israel 2007
Melting pot or not / Yuval Kinar
An Ethiopian, Arab, Russian, strictly Orthodox, Ashkenazi and Sephardi go out to find a job, rent an apartment and enroll a child in kindergarten. Discrimination? Racism? Absolutely
Full story
The child was denied admission to a Talmlud Torah school in Beit Shemesh because of what its principal called a “stain” in his genealogy.

“Tell the child’s dear father that although he himself is completely Ashkenazi, his wife’s father is Sephardic, and we therefore cannot accept his son into our institution. We have to maintain a certain standard,” the principal said.

The child’s mother made several attempts to change the principal’s mind, to no avail.

“I begged the principal. I explained that my child is truly Ashkenazi and looks exactly like his father. Our son also speaks Yiddish, but nothing helped,” the mother said. “They explained to a friend of ours that they didn’t want to ruin their Talmud Torah with ‘damaged goods’.”

The Talmud Torah school had previously given the same explanation to several other frustrated parents who petitioned MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) for help.

The Knesset member tried several times to convince the principal to allow the rejected children admission to the school, but the principal insisted there was “no room” in the institution.

“This is a complicated problem. I don’t deal with condemning these things, just like I don’t condemn kibbutzim, which sometimes select who to accept as a member. There are communities that wish to be strict about their religion or social character. It’s not simple,” Porush said.

The school’s principal, who had previously said he only wanted “100% Ashkenazim” at his institution, told Yedioth Ahronoth he had no idea how many, if any, Sephardic children were enrolled in the school.

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“There is no clause in our educational institution’s regulations about this. We only make sure that our students are good children from explicitly haredi families. Whether someone is Sephardic or Ashkenazi makes no difference to me,” the principal said.

In a statement, the Education Ministry issued a statement saying, “The ministry takes any attempt to discriminate against students because of their ethnicity or their sex very seriously.”

“The claims will be looked into, and should investigations show that the students were rejected because of their ethnic group, the ministry will take steps to force the institution to accept them.”

Ynet

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3444634,00.html

Great Comment on Walt and Mearsheimer Book

2007-09-04T09:32:00.000-07:00

From David Bromwich:

the truth is that many new facts are in this book, and many surprising facts. By reconstructing a trail of meetings and public statements in 2001-2002, for example, the authors show that much of the leadership of Israel was puzzled at first by the boyish enthusiasm for a war on Iraq among their neoconservative allies. Why Iraq? they asked. Why now? They would appear to have obtained assurances, however, that once the "regime change" in Iraq was accomplished, the next war would be against Iran.

A notable pilgrimage followed. One by one they lined up, Netanyahu, Sharon, Peres, and Barak, writing op-eds and issuing flaming warnings to convince Americans that Saddam Hussein was a menace of world-historical magnitude. Suddenly the message was that any delay of the president's plan to bomb, invade, and occupy Iraq would be seized on by "the terrorists" as a sign of weakness. Regarding the correct treatment of terrorists, as also regarding the avoidance of weakness, Americans look to Israelis as mentors in a class by themselves.

...

Yet the chief orchestrater of the second neoconservative war of aggression is Elliott Abrams. Convicted for deceptions around Iran-Contra, as Lewis Libby was convicted for deceptions stemming from Iraq--and pardoned by the elder Bush just as Libby had his sentence commuted by the younger--Abrams now presides over the Middle East desk at the National Security Council.

[...]

How mad is Elliott Abrams? If one passage cited by Mearsheimer-Walt is quoted accurately, it would seem to be the duty of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to subject Abrams to as exacting a challenge as the Senate Judiciary Committee brought to Alberto Gonzales. The man at the Middle East desk of the National Security Council wrote in 1997 in his book Faith or Fear: "there can be no doubt that Jews, faithful to the covenant between God and Abraham, are to stand apart from the nation in which they live. It is the very nature of being Jewish to be apart--except in Israel--from the rest of the population." When he wrote those words, Abrams probably did not expect to serve in another American administration. He certainly did not expect to occupy a position that would require him to weigh the national interest of Israel, the country with which he confessed himself uniquely at one, alongside the national interest of a country in which he felt himself to stand "apart...from the rest of the population." Now that he is calling the shots against Hamas and Hezbollah, Damascus and Tehran, his words of 1997 ought to alarm us into reflection.

Link

Remember Who Made it Possible

2007-08-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

When the bombing of Iran starts remember, back when the Democratos were trying to introduce restrictions on Bush's ability to attack Iran those restrictions were blocked by AIPAC.

More recently, it was among the pressure groups that prevailed upon the Democratic House leadership to drop the requirement that the President obtain congressional approval before taking military action against Iran.

Also, while they are telling you that things are better in Iraq, look at the casualty figures, the GAO Iraq report, and the recommendations from the Generals at the Pentagon. All negative. Yet, none of that matters in Bush's alternative universe.

2007-08-30T11:40:00.000-07:00

Nice review of The Israeli Lobby at Mondoweiss

I've been reading the book this August and have three preliminary impressions: Serious, cold and stunning. The seriousness of the book is conveyed on every page. The arguments are calm and earnest, stripped of metaphor and coyness. These are mature men engaged in every sinew with a giant squid of an issue; and their 106 pages of endnotes are overwhelming, and give the lie to anyone who accuses these scholars of "shoddy scholarship."

Link

Round-Up

2007-08-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Glenn Greenwald discusses the escalation to war with Iran here.

As but one example, "Democrat" Hiam Saban, who funds the "liberal" Pollack's work at the Brookings Institution as well as any Democratic candidates he can find, described himself thusly: "I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel . . . .On the issues of security and terrorism I am a total hawk."

The Generals at the Pentagon agree that the US should start removing troops from Iraq. Link

Pentagon officials have told McClatchy Newspapers that Casey, who was the top commander in Iraq, wants the U.S. to draw down forces and focus on training the Iraqi forces, as it did during his tenure in Iraq, and worries about the strain the war is having on the Army.

Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Times reported that Pace would recommend reducing the number of troops in Baghdad because the deployments are straining the military.

...

Gates' position is not known, but he was a member of the Iraq Study Group, which advocated a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. The surge, which sent an additional 28,000 troops to Iraq between February and June, was crafted as the secretary took over the department in December, and it is not considered his plan.

And Philip Weiss has some great comments over the last few days here and here.

And again, I say: There must be a soul-searching within the Jewish community if the country is going to move past Iraq. Why were the "best and the brightest" of this disastrous war rightwing Jews? Why did DLC Jews join them in banging the drum? And why have progressive Jews given these war supporters cover, rather than exposing them? What are Israel's regrettable policies toward the Arab world doing to our identification and citizenship?

Indeed.

Your Chance for Real Information

2007-08-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

Buy The Book.

Seventy-one Percent of Israelis Want Strike on Iran

2007-08-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

Poll: 71% of Israelis want U.S. to strike Iran if talks fail

Fully 71 percent of Israelis believe that the United States should launch a military attack on Iran if diplomatic efforts fail to halt Tehran's nuclear program, according to a new poll.

The survey, commissioned by Bar-Ilan University's BESA Center and the Anti-Defamation League, found that 59 percent of Israelis still believe the war in Iraq was justified, while 36 percent take the opposite view.

Some 65 percent believe that the United States is a loyal ally of Israel, with only 11 percent saying the opposite. A slightly higher proportion, 73 percent, described U.S. President George W. Bush as friendly. Forty-eight percent attributed U.S. support for Israel to strategic considerations, while 30 percent credited American Jewry and 17 percent cited shared values and a shared democratic tradition.

Link

Comment from O'Hanlon

2007-08-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a damning comment from the "objective" man (O'Hanlon) from the Brookings institute who recently said things are improving in Iraq.

Michael O'Hanlon, Expert, 'Overthrowing Saddam: Calculating the Costs and Casualties', October 9, 2002:

"Either way, the really striking point about these estimates are twofold. First, given the expected quick pace of any war, these estimated combat costs are large but hardly astronomical, whether one compares the cost of past wars, the peacetime U.S. defense budget ($400 billion) or the U.S. GDP (well over $10 trillion, meaning war costs would almost surely be under 1 percent). Second, however, occupation costs could be substantial; CBO estimates a cost of $15 billion to $45 billion a year for a force of 75,000 to 200,000. It seems unlikely that U.S. forces would be deployed in such high numbers for long, but without major allied support that is at least a remote possibility. More plausibly, occupation costs might be in the broad range of $10 billion a year, roughly comparable to what the United States spends on its global development assistance and humanitarian relief efforts."

The CBO underestimated the actual costs by 300% and still O'Hanlon felt the need to poo-poo them in real time (he's an expert and knows best!) and provide his own very serious estimate of costs - $10 billion dollars a year. The fact that O'Hanlon was off by a whopping 1200% on estimating costs suggests he is not expert enough to be a weight guesser at a carnival, let alone quoted every day as an expert on Iraq.

Israel Wanted Iran not Iraq

2007-08-29T00:58:00.001-07:00

Interesting claim from a reliable source that Israel did not encourage the US to go after Iraq.

Israeli officials warned the George W. Bush administration that an invasion of Iraq would be destabilizing to the region and urged the United States to instead target Iran as the primary enemy, according to former administration official Lawrence Wilkerson.

Wilkerson, then a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and later chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, recalled in an interview with IPS that the Israelis reacted immediately to indications that the Bush administration was thinking of war against Iraq. After the Israeli government picked up the first signs of that intention, Wilkerson says, "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy – Iran is the enemy."

However, that is different from there public stance, which was to support the invasion including this statement:

A notable exception, however, was a statement on Aug. 16, 2002 by Ranaan Gissin, an aide to Sharon. Ranaan declared, "Any postponement of an attack on Iraq at this stage will serve no purpose. It will only give [Hussein] more of an opportunity to accelerate his program of weapons of mass destruction."

Also, this does not take into account statements from out-of-power Israelis such as Bibi that the US should attack Iraq.

Nonetheless, it does indicate that Israel was the follower, not the leader, on Iraq. The leaders were US neocons who thought they were acting in Israels best interest.

They do know best, don't they?

Israel Reject More Refugees

2007-08-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

Israel has limited the number of refugees it will take from Sudan to 400. Adjusting for population that would be about 7500 for the US around the time of World War II.

So, I guess all is forgiven about the St. Louis?

Israel bars Darfur refugees
19/08/2007 22:01 - (SA)

A Sudanese boy stands at a private home where he and others are being housed after crossing from Egypt into Israel. (Ariel Schalit, AP)

Jerusalem - Israel said on Sunday it would shut its doors to refugees from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, touching off hot debate over whether the Jewish state, founded after the Nazi genocide, has a duty to take in people fleeing persecution.

Israel has been grappling for months with how to deal with a swelling flow of Africans, including some from Darfur, who have infiltrated through its porous southern border with Egypt's Sinai desert. Overnight, Israel returned 48 African infiltrators to Egypt.

Israeli government spokesperson David Baker said he didn't know if any were from Darfur, but noted Darfurians wouldn't be immune from Israel's ban on unauthorised migrants.

"The policy of returning back anyone who enters Israel illegally will pertain to everyone, including those from Darfur," he said.

Egyptian police said Darfurians were among the 48 - and would be expelled from Egypt to Sudan.

Pledge to absorb refugees

The decision to turn back asylum-seekers from Darfur contradicts Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's pledge earlier this summer to absorb them. Baker said those already in Israel would be allowed to stay, and that the turnback policy applied to new arrivals.

Fighting between pro-government militias and rebels in Darfur has killed more than 200 000 people and displaced 2.5 million since February 2003. Most of the displaced people remain in Darfur, but the UN estimates 236 000 have fled across the border to neighbouring Chad, where they live in camps.

Israel's response to the unexpected arrivals has been incoherent and contradictory. Threats to expel them have clashed with humanitarian sentiments inspired by the memory of Jews vainly seeking sanctuary from the Nazis.

Eytan Schwartz, an advocate for Darfur refugees in Israel, said about 400 have entered Israel in recent years. Baker said they would be allowed to live in Israel, and that the ban applied to new arrivals.

Schwartz objected to any such ban. "The state of Israel has to show compassion for refugees after the Jewish people was subject to persecution throughout its history," he said.

But Ephraim Zuroff of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center said the Jewish people could not be expected to right every wrong just because of its past.

"Israel can't throw open the gates and allow unlimited access for people who are basically economic refugees," Zuroff said.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2167348,00.html

Purchasing a President

2007-08-27T11:26:00.000-07:00

How can Hillary Clinton work for peace when she receives funds from donors like this:

September is going to be a big month for Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley. On September 5, Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, will be at his home for a fundraising dinner, with a price tag of $2,300 per ticket, the maximum allowed by federal law. Chesley is no newcomer to the Clinton campaign - he helped raise millions for the Democrats during Bill Clinton's administration in the 1990s, and this March the former president was at Chesley's home raising $400,000 for his wife's campaign.

Ten day's after the Hillary event, Chesley will be in New York for the Jewish National Fund's annual conference, where he will be inaugurated as the organization's new president. And he won't be a stranger to this new job either, having been a member of the JNF's national boards for many years. He has also served on the boards of a host of other Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Israel Bonds, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the American Jewish Committee, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Hebrew Union College, where he serves as national secretary. His law firm - Waite, Schneider, Bayless & Chesley - represented the World Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Restitution Organization in Holocaust litigation in a series of cases involving Swiss and Austrian banks, the Hungarian Gold Train case and German payments for slave labor.

Chesley is best known in the U.S. for this kind of multiparty litigation, having made his fame and fortune over the last 30 years in high-profile injury, corporate and antitrust legal actions, both in the U.S. and internationally. Over the years, these cases have made Chesley many allies, and not surprisingly, a fair share of critics. He also has a reputation for tough-talking bullishness. This bullishness was well in evidence last week when Chesley met Haaretz for a pre-inauguration interview in Jerusalem.

Link

Double Plus Good

2007-08-27T03:18:00.000-07:00

The Bush admin is now just outright lying, as they have no facts on their side. They are using "1984" as the play book, apparently.

Data show no surge in safety in Iraq so far in 2007
The Associated Press

BAGHDAD | The U.S. troop buildup has brought violence in Baghdad down from peak levels, but the death toll from sectarian attacks nationwide is running nearly double the year-ago pace.

Some of the recent bloodshed appears to be the result of militants drifting into northern Iraq, where they have fled after U.S.-led offensives. Baghdad, however, still accounts for slightly more than half of all war-related killings — the same percentage as a year ago, according to figures compiled by The Associated Press.

The data offer a sobering snapshot after an additional 30,000 U.S. troops began campaigns in February to regain control of the Baghdad area.

In street-level terms, it means that life for average Iraqis appears to be even more perilous and unpredictable.

The AP tracking includes Iraqi civilians, government officials, police and security forces killed in attacks such as gunfights and bombings, which are frequently blamed on Sunni suicide strikes. It also includes execution-style killings — largely the work of Shiite death squads.

The figures are considered a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual numbers probably are higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted. Insurgent deaths are not a part of the Iraqi count.

The findings include:

•Iraq is suffering about double the number of war-related deaths nationwide compared with last year — an average daily toll of 33 in 2006, and 62 so far this year.

•Nearly 1,000 more people have been killed in violence across Iraq in the first eight months of this year than in all of 2006. So far this year, about 14,800 people have died in war-related attacks and sectarian murders. The AP accounted for 13,811 deaths in 2006.

•Baghdad has gone from representing 76 percent of all civilian and police war-related deaths in Iraq in January to 52 percent in July, bringing it back to the same spot it was roughly a year ago.

The U.S. military did not get all the additional American forces into Iraq until June 15, so it would be premature to draw a final statistical picture of the effect of the added troops. But initial calculations validate fears that the Baghdad crackdown would push militants into districts north of Baghdad.

In July, the AP figures show, 35 percent of all war-related killings occurred in northern provinces. The figure one year ago was 22 percent.

Developments
•A car bomb exploded Saturday near Baghdad’s most important Shiite shrine, killing seven people and wounding dozens.

•Authorities imposed new security restrictions to prevent attacks on Shiite pilgrims ahead of major religious ceremonies south of Baghdad. More than 1 million pilgrims from throughout the Shiite world are expected to converge on Karbala for the celebrations.

•The U.S. military announced the discovery of an execution site in the Arab Jabour district, a Sunni Arab area just south of Baghdad where al-Qaida in Iraq is known to operate.

Link

Forum on Israel Lobby Cancelled

2007-08-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

A Forum discussing John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's book on "The Lobby" has been canceled.

But, no one is trying to silence debate.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs' decision to cancel a forum about a controversial upcoming book on the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy has sparked a heated debate about free speech.

"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," a book due out in September by University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Harvard University professor Stephen Walt, argues that the pro-Israel lobby has had a negative effect on U.S. foreign policy.

Expanding on a previous academic article that caused uproar and protest, Mearsheimer and Walt argue that the Israel lobby -- including Jewish organizations, Christian fundamentalists and neo-conservatives -- helped, among other actions, to stop diplomatic talks between the U.S. and Syria and hampered efforts to solve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Link

The Lobby Still Supports the Iraq War

2007-08-24T01:18:00.000-07:00

As "The Lobby" becomes more desparate in light of failing support for the Iraq war they are coming out in the open. One example of this is running a15 million dollar dollar ad campaign for continued support for the Iraq war.

But just who is financing this ad campaing? Justin Raimondo has the answer and it is clear US supporters of Israel are well represented.

Mel Sembler – A multi-billionaire shopping center magnate and real estate developer, CEO of the Sembler Company, and former ambassador to Australia, Nauru, and Italy, Sembler was also chairman of the Scooter Libby Defense Trust. His tenure in Rome was coincident with a series of rather dubious goings-on connected to the Niger uranium forgeries, including secret back channel meetings between leading neocons in the Pentagon[.]

John Templeton, Jr. – The son of renown investor John Templeton, is in charge of the Templeton Foundation, which, last year, poured some $60 million into numerous projects broadly dedicated to "bringing science under the guiding hand of religion."

Sheldon G Adelson – He's the third richest person in the U.S., worth $20.5 billion, with a rags-to-riches story: the son of a Boston cabdriver, Adelson inaugurated the Comdex computer trade show, and then went into tourism, real estate, and casinos. [...] Adelson is a major contributor to Jewish and Israeli causes, and to the GOP. This series of ads isn't his only propagandistic foray: the Vegas casino king has also gone into the newspaper business – in Israel. Yisrael Hayom is a new daily paper closely tied to the ultra-nationalist wing of the Likud party, and Benjamin Netanyahu's political aspirations.

Richard Fox – He made his fortune in real estate, with properties centered in eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, and is a co-founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Gary Erlbaum, owner of Greentree Properties in Ardmore, Pa., an ardent Republican organizer in the Orthodox community and a Giuliani supporter, as well as a staunch advocate for Israel.

Anthony Gioia, former ambassador to Malta, and the head of Gioia Management. He's on Giuliani's "finance team."

Howard Leach, former ambassador to France, CEO of Leach Capital Corp. and president of Foley Timber and Land Co.

Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, which includes TicketMaster and the Philadelphia Spectrum sports center. He also is the proprietor of Prism, the biggest pay-per-view TV network in America. Snider sits on the board of the Simon Wiesenthal Holocaust museum in Los Angeles, and is owner of the Philadelphia Flyers pro hockey team.

Kevin E. Moley, once a senior advisor to Dick Cheney and formerly US representative to international organizations in Geneva.

So, not only did The Lobby support the Iraq war in the beginning, they still support it to this day. This makes rewriting history difficult, to say the least.

Antiwar.com

More here

ADL Regional Director Fired

2007-08-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

For saying the US should recognize the Armenian genocide. Not really controversial stuff, one would think. But the Holocaust has become a political tool, and that places above (or beyond?) other types of history.

The national Anti-Defamation League fired its New England regional director yesterday, one day after he broke ranks with national ADL leadership and said the human rights organization should acknowledge the Armenian genocide that began in 1915.

The firing of Andrew H. Tarsy, who had served as regional director for about two years and as civil rights counsel for about five years before that, prompted an immediate backlash among prominent local Jewish leaders against the ADL's national leadership and its national director, Abraham H. Foxman.

"My reaction is that this was a vindictive, intolerant, and destructive act, ironically by an organization and leader whose mission -- fundamental mission -- is to promote tolerance," Newton businessman Steve Grossman, a former ADL regional board member, said yesterday.

"I predict that Foxman's actions will precipitate wholesale resignations from the regional board, a meaningful reduction in ADL's regional fund-raising, and will further exacerbate the ADL's relationship with the non-Jewish community coming out of this crisis around the Armenian genocide."

I wish stuff like this would get more coverage nationally.

Link

Philp Weiss has some good coverage on this here and here.

Where are you ADL?

2007-08-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting story about a couple that was not allowed to live in a "Jewish" neighborhood in Israel.

At first, Tefahot residents received Christina with open arms when she arrived at the moshav to look for a home, assuming that she had just made aliyah. After finding out that she was in fact a Christian from Romania, and her husband a Druze from the Galilee, residents began making threats.

“The moment they found out he was Arab, the threats began,” Christina said. “They informed me that they wouldn’t accept the young children to the kindergarten, and they wouldn’t allow them on the school bus.

The level of violence is really quite breathtaking.

Link