Neocons Vow To Stop Freeman and Gaza Aid in Congress -- And Call Me Names Too
I knew the neocons would strike back although, deep in my heart, I feared that they don't even know I exist. I thought I was flying below their radar. But I'm not.
Today one of them, Jonathan Tobin, called me out big time. I don't know Tobin and I'd rather be noticed by a Podhoretz, a Kristol, a Krauthammer, or a Peretz but I'll take what I can get.
So why is Tobin so mad at me.
It is because I spent the week "cheer leading for [Charles] Freeman....It has now gotten to the point that the people who identify themselves as 'pro-peace' are willing to support anything, even the appointment of a truly vile creature, if it is perceived as anti-Israel. It's understandable that the people who are open anti-Zionists would celebrate Freeman, but I fail to see how someone who considers himself 'pro-Israel"' (as people like Rosenberg and his friends at J Street never tire of describing themselves) would feel the same."
Well, at least he didn't call me a "truly vile creature" like Freeman. Nor did he refer to me as an "it" (as he refers to Freeman) for believing the United States should stand up against Israeli settlements.
I can't get too worked up because I did defend Freeman against the usual charges that the neocons launch against anyone, Jew or gentile, who opposes the occupation.
I'm just glad that the neos notice me even third tier ones. But I can't help but wish it was someone big like Doug Feith, who cooked the intelligence to get us into Iraq. Now he's the real McCoy, a candidate for a war tribunal. Not Tobin, no blood on his hands. He's like me, a scribbler.
I wish I'd hear from Feith. (Once Jack Abramoff sent me an email calling me a self-hating Jew and I keep it under my pillow). But I bet Feith has never even heard of me. I guess I have no choice but to keep writing about the neocons and what they did to my country until he does.
Postscript: The neocons are not giving up on Freeman. I guess having a neutral type synthesizing the intelligence for the President is some kind of threat. Weird. I never heard of the National Intelligence Council until this week and the neos are on this like it is the Vice Presidency.
Jonathan Chait, a neocon but only on matters related to Israel (!), writes this in today's Washington Post. Chait is a terrific domestic liberal but when it comes to Israel, he is as credulous as a rightwing Republican about George Bush. This is known as the Jerry Nadler syndrome.
Then there is this call to hold McCarthy type hearings on Freeman. Naturally Eric Cantor a pro-settlement up-and-coming neo from Virginia is leading the charge.
And this from THE ISRAEL PROJECT. It is leaving the Freeman issue to its allies while laying the groundwork to block humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The central problem with you is that you're not cowed. Most people live in terror of these defamers. You throw it back in their faces.
They don't really have a great strategy for dealing with such courage.
What's Feith up to after he was hounded out of Georgetown by the enraged faculty and horrified students?
February 27, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hang in there, man. Today Tobin, tomorrow... perhaps... Michael Ledeen? Sometimes a slag is a badge of honor, and this is one of those times.
February 27, 2009 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
The settlements are the root cause of the "current" political situation and until (if) they are removed the problem will continue to exist - that problem is the tinder box of the middle east. I am a supporter of Israel but I also believe their position is - and will continue to be - untenable until this problem is resolved. Further, the advocacy of the neo-cons is a detriment to any cause given their track record.
February 27, 2009 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a little more comic relief:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/business/27madoff.html?em
Asked what punishment he would like to see for Mr. Madoff, Mr. Wiesel said: “I would like him to be in a solitary cell with only a screen, and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, all the time a voice saying, ‘Look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to that child, look what you have done,’
February 27, 2009 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a minute, MJ... you're Jewish?
He typed, fearing the potential responses to this little joke will make it not worth the trouble of posting.
But I bet MJ will chuckle.
February 27, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a minute, MJ... you're Jewish?
He typed, fearing the potential responses to this little joke will make it not worth the trouble of posting.
But I bet MJ will chuckle.
February 27, 2009 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, I'm Jewish. I had little choice in the matter but it's kind of fun. I am, I would humbly say, a Jew in the tradition of Isaiah (not Thomas, the one without a last name) and not in the tradition of the crazy right.
I'm even a Jewish nationalist, proud that Jews voted 78% for Obama, proud of Harvey Milk (a better Jew than any of the neocons) and very proud of Bar Rafieli, the Israel model who said, "Why would I go in the army. I'm having too much fun in LA."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/2007_swimsuit/models/bar_refaeli/
February 27, 2009 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Are you also proud of Dick Cheney who dodged the draft for the same reason?
February 28, 2009 4:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I always enjoy your stuff, you pro-peace, self-hating scribbler.
February 27, 2009 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ, you have been a bad, bad boy. Go to your room.
February 27, 2009 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Congrats on your notoriety. It's probably about time. Good luck getting past customs if you ever want to visit Israel, and you might as well assume your phone and e-mails are tapped.
If you suddenly change your writing suddenly changes away from Israel one day, and doesn't turn back, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you were made an offer you couldn't refuse.
But in the meantime, feel free to describe or reprint the threatening hate mail you receive by the cabals that be.
February 27, 2009 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should also note that Charles Freeman took his position, despite the best efforts of the neo-cons.
February 27, 2009 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guys, thanks for all your nice comments. I think I have the flu. Damn neocons!
February 27, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
No chicken soup for you!
February 27, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are obviously a top-notch Jew in the sense that you have opinions and defend them no matter who or how many oppose you. I often disagree with you, but I appreciate your persistence and the vast store of facts you are able to marshall. Remember the reply of the Rabbis when forced to admit that god agreed with their outnumbered adversary: "Fine, so now its four to two."
(Don Cotler Brandeis 75)
February 27, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go Brandeis!!!!
February 27, 2009 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ's not bad, just a bada$$ mofo. :)
February 27, 2009 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Big fat hairy deal. I live in Baltimore, and half the Jews here call each other bad Jews.
Now, if he called you a bad writer......
February 27, 2009 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ, I am with the people who say hang in there. It is crucial that you and Eric Alterman and others speak out against the AIPAC/Likud bloc... because they are a minority in any context, and because they are bullies, and because they are wrong and should have their group photo next to 'epic fail' in the dictionary.
February 27, 2009 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, congrats. And if you're disappointed at the low level of your current opposition, just take it as a challenge. You'll have the Kristols and the Kagans and maybe even the Podhorotz's (sp?) gunning for you yet.
February 27, 2009 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't understand it. Are Zionists convinced the entire rest of the world is never gonna look at a map? http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/maps.html
Or read any history not approved by them?
But please notice. Who are the most hawkish? Americans who will never bear the consequences, and those who have the fastest way out of Israel.
February 27, 2009 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Keep up the good work, M.J. Don't let them grind you down!
February 27, 2009 8:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have the flu too and I'm in Florida!!!
February 27, 2009 9:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Florida. Everybody lives to a hundred there. Get better.
February 27, 2009 9:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Funny, isn't it, I've never seen anyone else so convinced, since the Third Reich got its third strike and went out, that there are too many Jews.
If every person accused of being a bad Jew by Zionists were kicked out, there would be no-one left.
I used to think that was amusing until I looked at the situation in Israel with the Arab Jews, Sephardic Jews and Russina Jews and the other ethnic Jewish groups. In Israel "You're not a real Jew" can be a real threat.
February 27, 2009 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, I have heard of you MJ all the way up here in a small town in Canada.
February 27, 2009 10:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
At long as immediate members of your family aren't slamming you, I think it's probably bearable. Try getting through a family gathering with people who'd like to commit you to a re-education camp.
February 27, 2009 11:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
IT IS VITAL THAT WE JEWS WHO WILL NOT ALLOW ATROCITIES TO BE CARRIED OUT IN OUR NAME - STAND UP AND BE HEARD, LOUD AND VERY CLEAR.
No army kills children as a strategic policy in conflict. Not the British military, nor the French, nor the Italians, Dutch, Australian, Chinese, Russian, Japanese nor even the Germans. Israel is the only country in the world that implements such an odious strategy. The deliberate killing children is anathema to all civilized states. The killing of over 400 children in three weeks is a shocking indictment of the Israeli government. No state can survive if built on the foundation of the oppression of another people and the killing of its children. This is a policy that has no place in Jewish ethics that teaches the enormity of the taking of life - which is always sacred. The only exception is in genuine self-defence to protect one’s own life. Jews the world over look at the images from Gaza of shooting civilians in the head or killing them with cluster bombs and chemicals, with incomprehension and deep sadness that any state and any army could sink to such depths. NOT IN MY NAME AND NOT IN THE NAME OF JEWISH MEN AND WOMEN THE WORLD OVER WHO DISTANCE THEMSELVES ABSOLUTELY FROM THESE ATROCITIES. The only way to peace is by negotiation. More killing and more hatred simply brings more hatred and more killing. There must be a STOP TO ALL ARMS SALES TO THE MIDDLE EAST - PARTICULARLY BY THE US & THE UK.
February 28, 2009 4:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see both sides to this issue, and many instances where the world is increasingly turning against Israel and Jews in a too narrow context.
I hope you will write about what occurs at Durban II. It is the other side of the coin that shows, to many, that memories fade much too quickly.
February 28, 2009 5:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
If I may shamelessly self-promote, feel free to click here.
February 28, 2009 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Take 2...
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/bar_kafka/2009/02/using-antisemitism-to-stifle-d.php
February 28, 2009 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for introducing me to Bar. Do you happen to know if she is single? Though I am over sixty, I think Bar and I have very similar interests. By chance to you have her phone #?
And seriously: Keep up the good work MJ. You are about the only ostensibly Jewish commentator and critic who I always find both readable and informative. In my humble opinion--and no, I am not Richard Perle or Doug Feith--you skate almost perfectly between between the shrill ignorance of the extreme left and the self-righteous and destructive ignorance of the entire right.
February 28, 2009 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bar is Leo DiCaprio's girlfriend for years now.
February 28, 2009 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's always Bar Kafka, though I doubt that's what you had in mind...
February 28, 2009 12:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reading the blogs, it becomes increasingly evident that American Jewry bears little relation - if any - to the European Jewish communities of its origins, circa 80 years or so ago. What is so unsettling is the often arrogant judgement that comes from the adopted attitude of those ‘Americans who happen to be born Jewish’ rather than ‘Jews who currently live and work in America.’ The distinction being important because American Jewry, in the main, knows little of either the Europe of the last century or the Europe of this century or anything of modern Jewish history, culture and thought.
There seems to be a total ignorance of the political expediency that led to the establishment of the state of Israel, in 1948, coupled with a strange inability to recognise the real factors that drive Israeli government policy and the documented fact of corruption that is endemic in Israeli politics.
There is, of course, the equally strange acceptance of political pressure groups such as AIPAC which exist primarily to empower those who act for them, and who live, not in Israel, but in America their chosen homeland, where they conduct their business and bring up their families.
Essentially, the blog-writers tend to equate Zionism with Judaism, as if they were synonyms. The vast majority of Zionists are, of course, Christian, not Jewish, and the political Zionism of the last decades is unrecognised in Judaism.
The foreign policy of the US which includes, and has included, covertly building Israel into probably the fifth most powerful (secret) nuclear state on the planet – is the key factor in the current instability of the Middle East and the one factor that will almost inevitably bring about a nuclear war that will spread to Asia and Europe and eventually to the East Coast of America.
As the US government exports increasing military aid costing billions of dollars to Israel, it continues the extraordinary policy of making it an incongruous fortress state designed to dominate the Middle East - as a prerequisite to the nuclear war to come. But is that what Jewish Americans and Christian Zionists really want? Radioactive clouds cannot differentiate between AIPAC members and those who work on the shopfloor in Detroit or Michigan.
And as for those who think that the current economic global downturn is detrimental to their wellbeing - this is merely a flea-bite compared to the tragic consequences of the inevitable nuclear conflict to come. The only question, is when.
February 28, 2009 10:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
COLLINDALE London,
Jews are a people, Judaism is a religion. Rabbinic leadership of the Jewish people had not been established until roughly 900 years following the Roman dispersion of Jews from ancient Israel and Judea. Zionism was and remains a political movement for Jewish national self-determination in the historic homeland of the Jews. Zionism is not, nor should it be, a theological issue -- history is its motivation, not the Torah. Self-styled Christian "Zionism" has its own agenda, distinct from and quite cynically exploitative of Zionism. Further, one does not need to be European to appreciate any of this.
February 28, 2009 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've seen 2 titles for your article. Make up your mind.
February 28, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hang in there, MJ. Hold out for mudslinging from more notorious sources. And please keep up your fine, outspoken, consistent and comprehensive reporting, no matter which way disgraced morally bankrupt hypocrites direct their radars.
February 28, 2009 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nothing better describes our current dilemma than this sentence. Someone, finally, must summon the courage to point out this "bifocal approach" to personal worldview is dishonest... and hypocritical. Period. And if that's insensitive... tough. I'm sure anyone sorely offended will get over it.
Or not.
February 28, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Rosenberg would like Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians on terms the vast majority of Israelis reject and many regard as suicidal.
Unable to make progress with them, he is attempting to get the United States to force Israel to do so, arguing that US and Israeli interests have diverged enough so that the United States should not continue to support Israel if it refuses.
Nothing wrong with such a position; all societies with citizens of varied backgrounds often force some of them to make such difficult choices. Nor is there universal agreement on the wisdom of American support for Israel; George Marshall argued against Truman at the time Israel was created.
However, M.J. Rosenberg is not George Marshall and is not worried about U.S. dependence on Arab oil or the military security of the United States when faced with the mighty Russian bear. He is worried that Israeli actions compromise the safety of diaspora Jews everywhere and that of his family in particular...and is willing to sacrifice Israel to lessen that threat.
Such motivations have been regarded as the ultimate acts of treachery and cowardice by all peoples and all cultures, everywhere and any time.
February 28, 2009 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I think that it is the status quo that will inexorably lead to the death of Israel. So, Ordinary, I think that you, and those like you, contribute every day to the extinction of a country I deeply care about. But, if you can live with yourself, cool. But you are no friend of Israel.
I cannot, however, accuse you of treachery, as you accuse me. I am an American, as I assume you are. I am incapable of treachery to any other country. I mean, if I call for France to merge with Germany, I may be a dummy but I'm not committing treason.
Let me repeat. It is you, and your buddies, who are damaging Israel. That's not treachery; it is just despicable.
February 28, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Rosenberg,
Israel has been in a very difficult position since its conception, is now, and will be as far as the eye can see. All possible actions and positions are fraught with danger and uncertainty - including both yours and mine. The difference between us is that I believe it is up to the Israelis to decide what is best for them while you believe the US should FORCE Israelis to act in accord with your beliefs.
You are both an American citizen and a Jew, self-identified. As such you have two loyalties and I accuse you of cowardice and treachery as the latter - willing to sacrifice Israeli Jews to preserve your own safety. A terrible accusation but - unfortunately - I believe quite accurate.
February 28, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought only anti-Semites accused American Jews of dual loyalty.
You seem like a nice guy. You just know very little about the Middle East. Go read. Take a course at the local community college. Stop thinking ethnically. Use your intelligence.
February 28, 2009 6:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Rosenberg,
Everyone - repeat EVERYONE - in a modern, complex society has multiple loyalties and these are tested more often than is usually acknowledged. Shall I do military service for my country even though it is highly dangerous and I am not in agreement with its policy? Shall I obey my country's laws or those of my religion? Shall I become a whistleblower even though it means the end of my career? Shall I alienate my friends and relatives by discussing issues which I know will infuriate them? On and on like that. Most of us simply duck and run for cover, taking the easy way out, and then making whatever lame justifications or evasions which we think necessary.
Ethnicity cannot be escaped. Especially if you self-identify in that way. I find it interesting that so many criticize Israel for being a Jewish state but that criticism is NEVER applied to Arab states, or Muslim states. NEVER. That tells me the critics are not serious.
February 28, 2009 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Repetition of your rote AIPAC nonsense in ever more dogmatic terms does not make it true, "Ordinary". "Everyone in a modern, complex society has multiple loyalties"? Not brainwashed West Bank tools in America who are effectively loyal only to war forever in the Mideast. Americans in general don't want to "force" anything on Israel that is not incumbent upon any other civilized country as well, we just want its fanatical lunatic fringe to cease swamping our government and news media with an unending avalanche of deceitful and paranoid propaganda. Arab and Moslem states DO in fact get frequently criticized for intolerance of other religions and ethnicities, and rightly so in many instances, but two wrongs do not make a right in any religion worth its spirit.
February 28, 2009 7:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad there's so little substance to your post Mr. Troub (I wonder if you can even see that). But what little there is is simply wrong.
Americans in general have been quite supportive of Israeli policy in the past and today. Trying to characterize the majority Israeli positions as that of a "lunatic" fringe says more about you than about them. Israel is engaged in a war for survival and settlement of conquered territory is a strategy in that war. The Arabs are right when they say that settlment of the West Bank is no different than settlement of Israel itself.
Nor is criticism of Arab positions in any way comparable to that of Israeli positions. Where is Durban II for their positions? Disinvestment? Street marches and attacks on mosques (what attacks there are are related to terrorism in host countries, not to the nature of Arab and Muslim societies)? Insistance that Saudi Arabia or Iran abandon their Islamic character?
Ethnic and religious character are, and always have been, a fundamental part of the human experience, and will not be abandoned any time soon - despite what political correctness dictates.
February 28, 2009 8:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your fight to the end AIPAC propaganda playbook barrages here, UNordinary, offer a prime example of why voices of sanity such as MJ's are so needed as rebuttal to this unceasing WestBank settler crap. Slaughtering children in Gaza makes absolutely no positive contribution to the "survival" of Israel as a state, let alone the interests of OUR (MJ Rosenberg and mine at least) country, America, and the most of the world knows this full well. Thanks to the solid commentaries of people such as MJ, even the most ignorant and parts of that world, e.g. in the America of Sarah Palin, are starting to wake up to the distortions and deceptions of the Jewish terrorists in the West Bank who have hijacked the policies of Israel and the US both. It looks as though they may soon have not only civilization and common sense against them, but also the US government freeing itself from their inhumane pressure. They can continue to squeal like the egomanical pigs they are. Americans who support America can condemn BOTH massacring Israelis and massacring Palestinians without fearing AIPAC and other tools of the Warsaw Ghetto mentality in the Mideast. Nothing personal, Ord, but too many of us have heard too much of this trickster propaganda polluting our news media and government for too long. It looks as though, at long last, enough will be enough. Character assassination in America, on top of collective guilt by association physical assassination in the Mideast, shows shows a level of desperation and delusion that may well choke on its own paranoid fantasies in the meantime.
March 1, 2009 6:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
You don't seem to realize that virtually all your commentary is standard, boiler-plate leftist propaganda. Extremely rude, self-righteous, fact-free, with no original contribution from you at all.
I don't read AIPAC. I read the Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz, Israeli historians with various views such as Avi Schlaim and Benny Morris, and various other sources from many countries...and form my own opinions.
March 1, 2009 7:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would define "rude" as certainly including barging onto a comments page to "accuse" the author of the article "of cowardice and treachery". (Which, in this case happens to be a foul lie, as well as rude). I would characterize supporting my country against foreign baby killers as patriotic, not leftist. But I don't live in an ORDINARY West Bank terrorist settlement or get my morally bankrupt ideas there.
March 1, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Troub,
Characterizing Israelis as "baby-killers" is equating them with the worst monsters ever to walk the earth. Decent people don't make peace with such criminals. They conquer and destroy them and their culture. That pretty much defines you, doesn't it? Children die in all wars but the deaths of Palestinian children have a lot to do with the tactics adopted by Hamas, and Palestinians in general. That you don't have anything to say about those tactics is again an indictment of your position.
Mr. Rosenberg wants Israel to make peace by withdrawing entirely behind the 1967 (or 1949) lines. Israeli governments and its electorate have repeatedly, continually, and by ever larger margins rejected such a settlement . Arabs, and Iranians, will not settle on any other terms (and in large numbers will reject even that without the right of return). Hence, barring external intervention, the war which has raged continuously for 100 years will continue until the Arabs are completely defeated and expelled from Palestine or Israel is destroyed. Mr. Rosenberg understands this and thus has turned to the caveat; He wants the United States to force Israel to agree to the terms he favors but Israel rejects. He's said so repeatedly and has pretty much devoted his life to making it happen.
Such a settlement must include guarantees for the security of Israel by Arabs, Iranians, and the great powers. Muslim guarantees are completely worthless given the desire of substantial segments of their populations to see Israel completely destroyed. Third power guarantees are not much better unless their vital interests are at stake and a weak Israel is of benefit to no one. Israel will have to remove its quarter million settlers by force (they will not leave peacefully) and that will weaken the country far more than France was weakened by the withdrawal from Algeria. Thus Israel will be destroyed. The best that can be hoped for (from a Jewish point of view) is that a second Holocaust doesn't ensue.
Rosenberg certainly knows this. Yet he persists, claiming that the interests of the United States demand it. What interests? Rosenberg never mentions oil and the Russian threat no longer exists. What he fears is increased terrorism in the United States, leading to an ever deteriorating position of U.S. Jewry and ever increasing physical threats (as is happening now all over Europe). He is advocating the equivalent of Chamberlain's Czechoslovakia solution. What Chamberlain did was bad enough. Had he been Czech it would have been considered unbelieveably treacherous and disloyal be all Czechs everyone.
But Rosenberg is Jewish....
March 1, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, Ordinary (Ordinary what, Lebensraum-seeking Nazi?)
"Every country with an expanding population MUST develop new land or conquer and destroy existing cultures and take their lands."
You have shown your true interests. They are not the interests of America, or, thank God, of most Americans.
March 1, 2009 5:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nazis were just the most brutal and recent of a long line of Lebensraum seekers. They were certainly not the last. Learn some history, Mr. Troub.
March 1, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I almost forgot the most important consideration; demography.
Every country with an expanding population MUST develop new land or conquer and destroy existing cultures and take their lands. That's why the natural world and traditional societies are disappearing. It's also true that ALL modern societies depend upon exponential economic growth for stability. The U.S. had come to depend upon construction of a million new homes per year. Halve that (our current situation) and we fall into depression.
Muslims have the least effective population programs and the worst offenders in the world are the Palestinians. No doubt your wonderful support and the destruction of Israel will quickly get them to change their ways. If not, you can always blame it on the Jews.
March 1, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ you talk about the neocons being you... but I would be grateful if you could honestly address the 'liberal' obstructionists that will be furiously attacking Chas Freeman and Hillary [behind the scenes].
Remember the last round of defiant interventionism from the pro-Israel 'Dem' lobby congressman and women when there was talk of aid going to the Palestinians:
Wexler [current chair of the House Foreign Subcommittee on Europe] and Ackerman [current chair of the House Foreign Subcomittee of The Middle East and South Asia]
However, when there's talk of the US trying to "cut loan guarantees for Israel as it presses Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to alter construction of a security fence in the West Bank that just happens to expand into YET MORE Palestianian terrority -- oh no... that can't happen! The same old names appear...
http://www.e-guana.net/organizations.php3?action=printContentItem&orgid=54&typeID=81&itemID=5301&User_Session=77f21a7a61b36ddaa7a407f8525f1759
The Hypocrisy is astounding.
February 28, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
arghh... "...being after you..."
I'm anxiously waiting to see if Obama and Hillary will actually back down on the Gaza Aid? Appears the backlash is coming fast and furious from the 'The Lobby' and their supporters -- Berman seems to already blown a gasket:
Berman says Congress won't deal with Hamas-Fatah. But will Obama? by Philip Weiss
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/02/berman-says-congress-wont-deal-with-hamasfatah-but-will-obama-.html
February 28, 2009 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this article from yesterday's New York Times tells us a lot about which way the Obama administration wants to go:
"U.S. Helps Palestinians Build Force for Security," by Ethan Bronner, Jericho, West Bank;
note my bold:
They are going to continue encouraging weakening, marginalizing and/or co-opting Hamas.
I would like to point out to people that this follows President Obama, in his Feb. 9 press conference, calling Hamas a terrorist organization.
February 28, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
"...They are going to continue encouraging weakening, marginalizing and/or co-opting Hamas..."
You could be right... Triangulation always seems to be the Clinton game, and it you look at the big picture things are certainly looking bright for Israel.
Looking at the funding angle AIPAC's friend Rep. Nita Lowey [D-NY], chairwoman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee has done Israel proud. Looks like Israel still will be getting the $2.775 billion military aid from the US taxpayer. [While our health care system is in tatters.]
Where, no doubt many more bombs and planes will be purchased. Remembering:
$2.775 billion 'military' aid for Israel [that also directly &/or indirectly helps funds Israels illegal expansion and occupation of Palestinian territory] vs. a mere $900 million aid to help re-build Gaza's basic 'civilian' infrastructure aid which Israel just happened to destroy [also directly &/or indirectly funded by the US taxpayer money]. Ironic.
February 28, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I never heard of the National Intelligence Council until this week and the neos are on this like it is the Vice Presidency."
The NIC manages the creation of National Intelligence Estimates. Neocons don't want an NIC Chairman who will not tolerate attempts to influence NIE development away from clinical assessment of strictly American interests.
February 28, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ - Tobin today, tomorrow jeff goldberg?
Good job, though. No one fights better among themselves than the jews. Can you imagine living in israel? where they not only fight (constantly) but do it while talking at the same time (the art of listening having been relegated to the bottom of the red sea long ago). No wonder one can't pull a signal out of all the noise coming out from that lovely little land by the blue, blue sea. Sometimes I feel sorry for hasbara folks and their aipac consiglieri. All these conflicting instructions(!)
Examples:
talk about peace - but NOT with hamas! they're genocidal maniacs!
counter genocide with genocide - but stay away from the Turks!
jewish and democratic is great. reverse the order if challenged...
muslim and democratic is an oxymoron. except for jordan, of course; maybe egypt too if they act like good boys and keep the border closed. After all, they're sunni! OK, so is Saudi arabia. at least they all hate Iran, a true genocidal maniac, if there ever was one. Close the circle....
IDF most humane army in the world. They warn before they bomb! compare to falluja but don't go in too deeply or else the comparison breaks down (you've been warned!). if called, retreat and return with a new handle. try again.
America killed more Iraqis and afganis than israel ever killed palestinians. But no talk about percentages - bears be there!
what neocons? never heard of them. must be a blood libel. cite krystol or From for proof (links attached)
....much easier to be on the progressive side, honest!
February 28, 2009 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
RE: "Can you imagine living in Israel?"
THE WORDS OF A FORMER ISRAELI (Avigail Abarbanel): "Israelis have never been particularly kind to each other. It’s one of the reasons I left actually. In my late twenties I started to grow weary of the unkind, harsh and unforgiving atmosphere around me. It was a tough place to live in not because of our ‘enemies’ but because of how people treated one another. You would believe that we were all enemies rather than people who have some kind of a shared heritage. The only thing that could unite people and temporarily brought out more kindness and a sense of cooperation was a feeling of being under collective threat, and in particular a ‘good wholesome war’." - Avigail Abarbanel
SOURCE - http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/gaza-2009-01-04.html
AVIGAIL ABARBANEL'S BEAUTIFUL SITE - http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/
February 28, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
DICKERSON3870 - Thanks for drawing my attention to Abigail's blog. Excellent stuff - mirrors my thinking completely, down to the psychological aspect of Israel including it's political class. Perhaps it takes one to know one.
Here is another good quote from Abigail's piece, titled: "growing insanity" http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/growing-insanity.html
"The de-facto, modern secular Zionist definition of a Jew is someone who would have been considered a Jew by Hitler. Effectively Jews are allowing themselves to be defined by those who hated them and sought their annihilation. In other words, this identity was formed as a reaction to a particular set of circumstances. But what happens if the circumstances change? What does that do to this identity? In other words, if the world is now safe for Jews and is no longer what Jewish people thought it was, then Jewish people no longer know who they are, in which case either Jewish identity needs to change, or you make sure that the world is back to what it was when the Jews were persecuted. That way there is no need to go through the difficult process of self-examination or live in a world that doesn’t make sense."
March 1, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
REGARDING - "M.J. Rosenberg: Commentary Calls Me A Very Bad Jew"
CONGRATULATIONS! I completely gave up on "Commentary" magazine several decades ago.
February 28, 2009 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Steven Rosen finds hope that all may not be lost and notes that he's being attacked by guess who?:
"Congress was formally notified today that the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, has selected Chas Freeman to head the National Intelligence Council. But the White House denied that the appointment is final.
: Q & A 2/26/09 WH Briefing
'Q Robert, there are have been several reports that the President has settled on former Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chas Freeman, to head his National Intelligence Council. Mr. Freeman's organization took a million dollars from the Saudi government, and he later refers to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, saying, "Perhaps you should be called, King Abdullah the Great." Is this someone that has the kind of detachment necessary to assess intelligence for the U.S. government?
MR. GIBBS: I've, on any number of occasions, said that I will talk about personnel announcements when we make personnel announcements, and we haven't done so in that.'
The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post carried op eds opposing Freeman, while the Washington Note and TPM carried items attacking me for opposing Freeman."
http://www.meforum.org/blog/obama-mideast-monitor/2009/02/freeman-nic-appointment-officially-announced.html#continued
I wonder which reporter asked this loaded question?
February 28, 2009 10:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, was the PDF Letter* from the the Office of the Director of National Intelligence [Kathleen Turner Director of Legislative Affairs] announcing the selection of Charles W Freeman Jr to be the next Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) a fake?
*Linked from Ben Smith's and Laura Rozen's War and Piece blog.
...or, is Obama so owned by Israel that it's no longer a funny, nor sarcastic matter...
BTW: Dr Stephen M. Walt has a new entry @ Foreign Policy Cable: "Have they not a shred of decency?"
He's seems miffed about the shenanigans surround Freeman ... I don't blame him.
P.S. I noticed from your Rosen link that the WH Briefing transcript wasn't linked -- certainly would have added an extra knife in there.
February 28, 2009 11:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ you are in good company being called a "bad Jew." Never forget that when the chips were down, that was what they called Senator Paul Wellstone.
Oh yes, that son of a mother raised on the Lower East Side by social democratic needle-trade grandparents who saw it as their obligation to go to the streets on cold evenings, find the homeless, and invite them to sleep in their livingroom after a hot bath and dinner. And a Father, who was the only surviving member of his family from Harbin in the Soviet Union, son of a family sent into Siberian exile by the Tzar when he wiped out the Decemberists in the 1820's. Stalin finished off the remains of the family and community in the late 1920's.
Time to detail some of the attributes of those with whom you, MJ, share a label.
March 1, 2009 2:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, I cried like a baby when that plane went down. Irreplaceable.
March 1, 2009 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
M.J. is definitely not a bad Jew, and the neo-cons are nuts.
However, M.J. has been crucially wrong in his lack of support for the Gaza offensive. It will be much easier for the Israelis to negotiate peace with a Palestinian leadership that doesn't think they can make life so miserable for the Israelis that they'll all emigrate to LA. Non-violence is good, but even Lincoln needed a Sherman.
But M.J. is absolutely right to keep the pressure on Israel, especially now, when the violence is minimal, to make peace.
March 1, 2009 9:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think blood thirsty, land envious, racist, fascist inclined Israeli Jews are the reason so many healthy, humane Israelis want to emigrate out of Israel.
Glorified bottle rockets landing in rural southern Israel are not the cause of the setbacks in your counter-productive demographic war.
Hearing fellow Jews chant "Death to the Arabs" and passionately support Leiberman and total ethnic cleansing would drive any normal Jew away.
The Gaza massacre was planned 6 months in advance, timed to begin just after Christmas and finish just before the American and Israeli elections. Everything about it was calculated, and the propaganda war was at full speed before the Gazans were starved into giving Israel sufficient provocation.
Deep down you know all this, but your envious desire for their land makes you convince yourself "the Arabs" are an existential threat.
Israel is a much more real existential threat to the Palestinians, even the malnourished, growth stunted, severely traumatized, humiliated children.
March 1, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well put, Bill. Except I don't think the Israelis forced Hamas to shoot and keep shooting those bottle rockets. A mess this long-standing, barbaric and bloodstained has more than one set of culprits behind it.
March 1, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
For Jew with as impeccable credentials as he professes and no doubt possesses, his self-written (?) headline re: Commentary that's been up all weekend is silly, bordering on offensive (and that cuts both ways: Commentary is equally guilty). As I'm very sure he knows, Mr. Rosenberg's religion is between himself and his G-d. No one else. That's how it works for most Jews. Good, bad, screwed up, whatever are not exactly how one would or should describe his Jewishness.
March 1, 2009 10:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Growing up in a Jewish household in the late 50s and early 60s, my folks were members of several Jewish organizations such as Bnai Brith and Hadassah, as well as our temple and gave money almost exclusively to Isreal bonds. Even as an early teenager, the only organization that stood out from the crowd for me was the Anti-Defamation League. Instead of being knee-jerk "defenders of the Jews," they were involved in civil rights across racial and religious lines. It made me proud, and contrasted with the knee-jerk and often hypocritical stances of other groups, like the Catholic League. As such, the ADL was esteemed and credible when it spoke. Now, particularly under Foxman, and in collaboration with the neo-cons at Commentary, the ADL has been reduced to a joke. Ultimately, their defense of the Jews has become partisan and unworthy of respect from the broader society and even many Jews. Sad.
March 1, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
You be da man MJ! You be da man!
lol
March 1, 2009 12:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Making Wikipedia isn't much, I suppose, but still . . . .
Dread of imbalance and unfairness compel me to swipe the following rogues’ gallery too:
(( Did you know China is an Arab nation? Somebody sure had me fooled! ))
Happy days.
March 1, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. I like it! Thanks.
March 1, 2009 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ed Hardy Clothing sale in Ed Hardy UK Shop,all the Ed Hardy Shirts
,Ed Hardy Clothing,Ed Hardy Jeans,Shoes,Hoodies are latest designed
Ed Hardy Sunglasses
July 22, 2010 8:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well put, Bill. Except I don't think the Israelis forced Hamas to shoot and keep shooting those bottle rockets. A mess this long-standing, barbaric and bloodstained has more than one set of culprits behind it.
Oyunlar
August 10, 2010 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
bağkur borç sorgulama With all the sites out there with information on them with a ton of junk it's nice to find a blog whose admin takes the time to create good material. TY for the good post. sgk
March 18, 2011 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink