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Total number of comments: 411 (since 2009-08-02 08:11:58)
66 yr old male New Zealander
Website: http://brewerstroupe.blogspot.com/
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- Israel will lose all American Jews but the crazies
Danger of Rabies. The dog might catch it should it happen to bite someone.
Those are not muzzles, they're mouth guards - everyone needs one in company like that.
"flash as a rat with a gold tooth"
Lovely! Most apposite. Haven't heard that saying for years. Some readers might need to know that "flash" downunder means "showy" - often applied to con-men, shonky used car salesmen. Ooops, do I need to define "shonky" ? Stiffen the crows, this could go on forever.
Forgot the link to "The Ultimate Ally. The "realists" are wrong: America needs Israel now more than ever. "
I guess its all in the perception.
"Martin Indyk, the courtliest man in the world" and "The distinguished Oren" have always made my stomach churn. Both are propagandists of the worst kind as anyone even vaguely familiar with the History of Palestine could clearly see on first reading of their "impressive books. Indyk has a special place of loathing in my rogues gallery for his being raised "down under" just a few years after me. Watch how he reacts to Norman then spews gobbledegook to cover up his embarrassing inability to counter the valid points Norman raises:
link to youtube.com
Norman also pointed up the flaws in Oren's "Six days of War", nailing him for:
"attaching equal weight to a public statement (or memoir) and the hard evidence of an internal document contradicting it, burying in an avalanche of dubious evidence a crucial counter-finding, minimizing, misrepresenting, or suppressing a crucial piece of evidence"
- the hallmarks of the propagandist.
link to ussliberty.org
How does a reading of Oren's 2011 essay strike one today? A sample:
"What is the definition of an American ally? On an ideological level, an ally is a country that shares America's values, reflects its founding spirit, and resonates with its people's beliefs. Tactically, an ally stands with the United States through multiple conflicts and promotes its global vision. From its location at one strategic crossroads, an ally enhances American intelligence and defense capabilities, and provides ports and training for U.S. forces. Its army is formidable and unequivocally loyal to its democratic government. An ally helps secure America's borders and assists in saving American lives on and off the battlefield. And an ally stimulates the U.S. economy through trade, technological innovation, and job creation. "
Have to go, my stomach is gurgling.
- Jews who speak out on Ferguson but not Palestine fear 'vengeance of Jewish establishment' -- Magid
{{{Greetings and best wishes!}}}
Yes. I often ponder the success of the transfer propaganda technique - the art of taking what "we" do and making out it is being done to "us". Similarly with modernity thing. In fact many of the early Europeans who invaded were inexperienced in agriculture and land management, requiring huge assistance whilst Palestine was already quite well developed, particularly so compared to colonies like New Zealand and Australia. Here's a picture of Jaffa circa 1930.
link to palestineremembered.com
....and one taken in Auckland around the same time:
link to facebook.com
This is the type of story I like to see.
One of the most challenging tasks lies in helping others to understand that the Palestinian situation is "that" kind of struggle.
The entire edifice of Zionist colonialism is built on exceptional-ism, has been from the beginning. Much of its longevity is owed to the manufactured images that portray it as being different, unique - when in fact it is a very old, commonplace predatory philosophy arising out of divine right.
I have watched the scales fall from many pairs of eyes when the realisation hits that Palestinians are an indigenous people all but expelled from their native land. This is easy to bring about when the listener has already been involved with or at least understands indigenous rights movements. He/she has been accustomed to thinking that Palestine is an intractable Gordian Knot of a problem with religious complications.
The comparison with Human Rights/Police Brutality struggles is also pertinent and therefore an effective consciousness-raising method.
I hope Magid continues to push this barrow. Is he an influential figure? Does he read Mondoweiss????
- We're all anti-American now
Uruguay, 1964 to 1970: Torture—as American as apple pie
"She is a despicable war profiteer, among other violations of U.S. law and her oath of office "
Bullseye !
Remember that around 80% of the report is redacted. She was probably considered a safe pair of hands at this time - just before Christmas when the sheeple are down at the mall.
I don't know what its like up there but down here in Kiwiville it hasn't got a fraction of the press it should have. Had it been a fortnight earlier it would have sunk our neo-con PM's "anti-terror" bill which enables unwarranted surveillance (among other gems):
Thanks for the steer to that article. Is that Pepe Mujica a Prince or what? I first came across a video of him and his old VW some time ago - thought it was a put-on but he is the real deal:
link to bbc.com
Must watch:
- Page: 4
- 'Racist, fascist bullshit'-- Marcel Ophuls exposes Islamophobia in Israel
"The film will also explore the "very strange linkage between the far right in Europe and Israel," Mr. Sivan said. "The traditional anti-Semitic right," he noted, "is becoming very pro-Israeli." "
I too have noticed this trend in my country. A meeting of ideologies.
- Our Year-End Campaign: What Mondoweiss Means To Me
"What Mondoweiss Means To Me."
I came to Palestine and internet awareness about twelve years ago during Israel's attempted rampage through Southern Lebanon. My first forays into online debate were prompted by comments in the press and online from someone I now know to be a professional apologist for the Israeli entity. At the time I did not know of the existence of such people and was relatively ignorant of Zionist History. Online debating (Huffpo, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Truthout etc) forced me to seek out the facts. What I learned has profoundly changed my World-view. It continues to evolve and Mondoweiss has played a large part in that evolution. I think I began here shortly after the blog started - debating Historical points but of late I notice I spend more time reading and learning from the many able posters who, unlike me, are steeped in Jewish culture. I have remained a daily reader for many reasons, not least the spirit and humour that sets Mondoweiss apart from the majority. A Mooser quip a day keeps despair at bay!
Mondoweiss has helped me understand that what we combat is not a nationality, religion or race. It is an Ideology that has been around a long time and is currently still in the ascendant, despite some small gains made for Palestine. We are, in a sense, all Palestinians in that our democracies and cultures are being attacked by this chauvinistic ideology. In recent days we have seen mainstream confirmation of what many of us already knew - this Ideology embraces torture. It therefore accepts no limits. My country's government is complicit. It affects me.
Thank you Phil and crew for both the blog and this opportunity to express some of the philosophy behind any contributions I might make to debate.
- Mamdani's 'holistic' challenge: Anti-Zionists must persuade Jews they can only be safe by dismantling the Jewish state
A little long in the tooth for Kimbra - Herbs is more my era:
link to youtube.com
One memorable night I attended a double bill in a small venue - Herbs and Jimmy Buffet (with the Coral Reefer lineup). Haven't got a clip of that concert so here's one of Jimmy doing my favourite Van Morrison track:
link to youtube.com
....you will just have to imagine the encore in that first concert when the combined bands brought the house down jamming that song.
To this Antipodean/Anglo-Saxon/Maori/Scot/Goy..... Jewishness as expressed and enacted by Netanyahu and his ilk appears to be an ideology.
- Palestinian flag is an 'enemy' flag-- Netanyahu's latest crackdown
Regret to inform that New Zealand has a Zionist, ex-Wall St Bankster Prime Minister (who is, incidentally, trashing our Constitution and trying to rush through Emergency Deep State Surveillance legislation). I fear the NZ vote will go against the Palestinians - and there will be an uproar down here.
Its a bit complicated but I'll give it a go with the help of links:
Three Israelis were among the 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch's central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports.
An unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad was later confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the sealed-off "red zone" of the central city....
Within hours,
Prime Minister John Key fielded the first of four calls that day from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel's Ambassador in the South Pacific, Shemi Tzur, who is based in Australia, booked flights to Christchurch, where he visited the morgue.
Israel's civil defence chief left Israel for Christchurch.
A complete Israeli urban search and rescue squad was assembled and flown to Christchurch, arriving about the same time as ...
Three people who had smashed their way out of a van crushed by a concrete pillar in the central city, leaving a fourth person dead in the vehicle, arrived back in Israel.
link to rebuildchristchurch.co.nz
This incident resurfaced just before the 2011 election when the leader of the opposition, Phil Goff, said he had not been briefed about it by the Prime Minister. The PM's department then set up a rather disreputable attack blogger who put a Freedom of information request to the Security Intelligence Service and, based on that reply, boasted that Goff had indeed been briefed. The resulting embarrassment might have cost Goff the election.
link to whaleoil.co.nz
Now, fast forward to last week when the results of an official enquiry announced that:
......the information on former Labour leader Phil Goff released to Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater was inaccurate and misleading – and that then SIS director Warren Tucker failed to make any correction when he learned that was the case.
In short, PM John Key's office (Key had inserted plausible deniability) had engaged the SIS in political dirty tricks. In recent days he has further exposed himself by lying in Parliament. A good satirical piece here:
link to nzherald.co.nz
Just incidentally, Cameron Slater, the sleazy blogger has been to Israel as a guest of the Likud Govt.
link to nzherald.co.nz
Immediately after winning last month's election, Key turned up the volume on scary monsters ISIS and began promoting the curtailment of civil rights:
link to nzherald.co.nz
New Zealand has an unwritten Constitution. One of the conventions is that anyone caught lying in Parliament must immediately resign. The resignation may not be accepted by the House but the gesture is required. Key is brazenly bluffing his way around this and vast disapprobation by the NZ public. He will not hesitate to vote against the majority of New Zealanders who support Palestine.
- Caltech prof says Israeli scientist passed NASA rocket secrets to his government
Off-topic but I have searched in vain for a way to bring this into the Mondo of Weiss, not because it is Earth-shattering news but the quiet reason expressed is balm in Gilead. My little country at the bottom of the World is privileged to have Richard Falk visiting at the moment.
- Why I confronted Gregor Gysi
Its no biggie Annie. I wasn't aware of the controversy as I have been offline for most of the last two years. The point of my post is contained in the last paragraph in any case and, having made it, I am content.
From the article:
"These baseless accusations are not only defamatory, but also amount to a real physical threat to myself, as I live in Israel, where dissidents are branded as "destroyers of Israel" and are often subject to rape threats and violent physical attacks"
One imagines they are likewise for Gilad Atzmon:
"And one person--I think one of the leading anti-Semitic critics of Israel--you couldn't even call him a critic of Israel. He's an ex-Israeli who pretends to be an anti-Zionist but is actually just a pure anti-Semite and who believes that all of the problems of Israel flow not from colonialism but from Judaism, is Gilad Atzmon."
- Max Blumenthal
link to therealnews.com
I suggest that, if David Sheen truly fears for his safety thanks to the anti-Semite smear then he should take Max to the woodshed for, whatever Atzmon has said, the consequences of being so labelled are somewhat excessive for speech or thought crime.
As it happens, I don't think Max has understood Atzmon who argues from a rather arcane, philosophical point of view. It took me quite a while to understand that he is coming from an intellectual position belied by his somewhat rudimentary oratory.
As I have previously argued, the whole anti-Semite thing is redundant nonsense - a construct designed to foster the notion that racism against Jews is somehow more abhorrent than that against others. This is a form of racism in itself for it implies that, though the act may be identical, the race of the victim dictates the severity of the crime. It is used to legitimize what is absolute nonsense - that the accused's argument invalid because of what he/she purportedly is.
- Sea change down under: Ex-Australian Foreign Minister announces himself a 'Friend of Palestine'
Zionists toppled Rudd and installed the untalented and obnoxious (though staunch Zionist) Gillard. Rudd tried desperately to retrench but failed.
What am I, chopped liver? How Rudd dived into schmooze mode
Read more: link to smh.com.au
4 days later he was gone.
- Al Jazeera investigates the USS Liberty attack in 'The Day Israel Attacked America'
I was told the truth of this matter many years ago by my late best friend, a former ranking U.S. Naval officer who had met the commander of the torpedo boat sent to finish Liberty off. They met in a Yacht Club when both were retired and the Israeli confirmed that his orders were to sink the American ship. Such was the integrity of my friend that I could not doubt his story of the meeting but as evidence it was valueless.
Nevertheless, the knowledge continued to colour my analysis as I studied the political events both before and after that shameful incident and I believe that there is more to it than meets the eye, a deeper and darker secret.
Consider Johnson's subsequent behaviour which seems counter-intuitive:
Israeli author Michael Karpin writes that "as soon as [Johnson] entered the White House the pressure on Israel on the Dimona issue ceased."
And while Kennedy's final budget, for fiscal year 1964, allocated $40 million in aid to Israel, Johnson's first budget, for fiscal year 1965, set aside $71 million – an extraordinary increase of 75 percent. The amount nearly doubled in 1966, to $130 million.
Beyond the numbers, the precise nature and terms of the aid signaled a dramatic break with past American policy. Development loans and surplus food had constituted the extent of U.S. aid under Eisenhower and Kennedy, and the anti-aircraft missiles sold to Israel by the Kennedy administration required a cash payment. Johnson changed all that: Not only did he become the first American president to sell offensive weapons to Israel (the missiles from Kennedy were defensive), but from now on the Israelis would be permitted to buy American arms with American aid money, which meant no funds would have to leave Israel's hard-pressed government coffers.
As a result of the new arrangement, the percentage of American aid to Israel earmarked for military expenditures rose dramatically, more than tripling between 1965 and 1967. By the middle of 1966, the Israelis were purchasing military hardware the type of which would have been unthinkable under prior administrations, including four-dozen Skyhawk bomber attack planes and more than 200 M-48 tanks
link to jewishpress.com
I cannot help wondering what caused Johnson, who was initially outraged by the Liberty attack, to not only cover it up but then to display this unprecedented largesse before declining to run for a second term:
He left the White House in January 1969 a broken man, vilified as perhaps no president in American history up to that time. He died four years later, not yet 65 but looking like a man two decades older.
Whatever else can be said of Lyndon Johnson, he proved to be a true friend of the Jews and Israel. He proved it as a young lawmaker when, with limited clout and resources, he did everything he could to get as many Jews as possible out of Europe; he proved it as one of Israel's strongest and most important backers in Congress during the Jewish state's early years; and he proved it as president by granting Israel then-unprecedented levels of financial and military aid and by refusing, in marked contrast to Eisenhower's actions after the Suez crisis of 1956, to force unilateral concessions on Israel following the Six-Day War.
- The hidden documents that reveal the true borders of Israel and Palestine (Updated)
Interesting article, reminiscent of the early online Historical debates we thought would settle the matter once and for all.
We thought once people were made aware of the History, settlement of the issue would swiftly follow.
Instead, Settlements followed. Facts on the ground. Lebanon. Cast Lead. Mowing the lawn. All illegal.
It is my current belief that Israel does not give a tinker's damn for the legal basis of its establishment or any possible ramifications at the U.N. That does not mean we should give up on the legal route however. Every up-tick in awareness of the illegality brings more support for BDS and other, perhaps more effective, strategies. It also undermines the power of the lobby which, in my opinion, is the prop that holds the whole disgraceful edifice together.
"did there ever exist a palestinian state before 1948 - See more at: link to mondoweiss.net"
Very silly question asked by those who have never examined the Ottoman system of governance. Doubly silly because a negative answer would not alter one jot of the indigenous people's right to their own property. Terra nullius was a discarded concept long before Herzl donned his first kippa (or ate his first kipper).
We who live abroad are accustomed to believe that almost all Eretz Yisrael is now uninhabited desert and whoever wishes can buy land there as he pleases. But this is not true. It is very difficult to find in the land, cultivated fields that are not used for planting. Only those sand fields or stone mountains that would require the investment of hard labour and great expense to make them good for planting remain uncultivated and that's because the Arabs do not like working too much in the present for a distant future. Therefore, it is very difficult to find good land for cattle. And not only peasants, but also rich landowners, are not selling good land so easily...
--Ahad H'am 1891.
- The UN can bring peace to Jerusalem by moving its headquarters there
I was delighted to see Gertrude Bell mentioned in the article. She is my go-to gal when dealing with Islamophobes. A typical response to this sort of nonsense reads like the post I put up today on my local political blog:
Another question might be "where have all the good guys in the Middle East gone?".
Imagine, if you will, a Middle East in which a white woman could roam at will, often-times alone and become the confidant and advisor to Arab chieftains and leaders.
Those simple souls who swallow the line that Islam, is inherently violent and misogynistic should give a little thought to Gertrude Bell.
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell, CBE (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, archaeologist and spy who explored, mapped, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making due to her skill and contacts, built up through extensive travels in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. Along with T. E. Lawrence, Bell helped establish the Hashemite dynasties in what is today Jordan as well as in Iraq.
She played a major role in establishing and helping administer the modern state of Iraq, utilising her unique perspective from her travels and relations with tribal leaders throughout the Middle East. During her lifetime she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials and given an immense amount of power for a woman at the time. She has been described as "one of the few representatives of His Majesty's Government remembered by the Arabs with anything resembling affection".
link to en.wikipedia.org
- See more at: link to thedailyblog.co.nz
They should then ask themselves what happened to create the current mess and whether more violence will fix it.
You all know what happened.
- 'We are in a violent fight with extreme Islam' -- Feiglin leads rightists to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque
I hope that picture disappears off the site headline soon, it recalls to mind every rabid racist Zionista I have ever encountered. That is one ugly mug.
- A visit to Auschwitz
It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead
- Al Aqsa mosque is closed off for first time in 47 years as tensions flare
From Avnery:
Last Tuesday, reading Haaretz, I noticed that a whole page – page 4 – consisted of news concerning Jewish-Arab relations.
Item 1: Tens of Jewish settlers invaded the Arab neighborhood of Silwan, next to the Temple Mount, in the middle of the night. Silwan, the biblical Shiloah, is an Arab village that was joined to Jerusalem when East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel after the Six-day War. For years now an association of settlers called Elad has been trying to Judaize this neighborhood by secretly buying properties from poor Arabs, using Arab traitors as straw-men. Now the association has decided to fill these houses, arriving like thieves in the night.
(The president of Elad is Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
- 'Village on the volcano' is latest effort to change the subject from the occupation
I have been waiting for this.
Since returning home after two years working Aid and Development in a remote location with little access to internet or even radio, some phenomena have disturbed and intrigued me. One is the ballyhoo over ISIS which is infecting
(via our ex Wall Street banker and Israel boosting prime Minister) political discourse in my native New Zealand. The volume on this meme has been turned up, the PM using it to promote GCSB which Greenwald and Snowden have revealed, conducts mass surveillance on Kiwis..
Before I left I knew that the incursions into Lebanon, Iraq, Libya and Syria all had their Neocon/Israeli sponsorship and that the narratives were demonstrably false, that the real motivation conformed to the Yinon strategy more or less.
It seems the game plan now is to create a common enemy, to draw the non-aligned into common cause with the Israel project.
It is important that readers understand that ISIS is nothing like the bogeyman these spruikers are touting. "Gary Brecher" (John Dolan writing as "The War Nerd") has called every play since Iraq correctly. Here he is on ISIS:
For a week now, we've been getting nonstop scare stories about Islamic State's menacing advance on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani. And as far as it goes, the stories are true: Islamic State (IS) did come within 14 km of Kobani, attacking from the South, West, and East, before US air strikes and reinforcements from the Turkish-Kurdish PKK militia stopped them.
And yes, the fall of Kobani would be a bad thing. A very bad thing, because IS is something unusual: A demonized group that really is as demonic as the mainstream media makes it out to be. Not as powerful, not as important, but every bit as demonic. Islamic State—latest in a long string of names for what was once "Al Qaeda Iraq"—is a collection of the worst survivors of various Sunni Iraqi militias, spiced with a few over-hyped European misogynist converts. A rotten group, whose idea of godly fun is killing heroic, uppity women like Samira Al-Nuaimi and raping captured Yazidi children, and I hope they all suffer miserable deaths, the sooner the better.
But IS is not performing the great military feats these scare stories give them credit for. And making them out to be such great conquerors only inflates the ridiculous vanity of the sadistic ham-actors who flock to IS.
KUWAIT CITY — A strange thing happened in Kobane, the Kurdish border town besieged by Islamic State: It didn't fall.
In fact, today the BBC reported that Islamic State, the supposedly invincible jihadis who have been besieging Kobane, is retreating from the city.
Nobody expected that. Well, nobody except me. I've been saying for a long time that IS(IS) was the most overhyped military force on the planet, and that IS has been attacking Kobane for fifteen months—fifteen damn months—without success, which might just sort of suggest it's not the juggernaut it's been made out to be, and that IS's other supposedly scary advance toward Baghdad is no more than a sad attempt to recover some of the Sunni suburbs of the capital the Sunni controlled completely less than a decade ago.
(Hope my attempts at html work)
- There are some things about Gaza that I still can't wrap my head around
Yup. As I said, deliberately, "nearly manages it".
Avnery tries to wrap his head around another curious thing about Gaza........:
"During the 1948 war my commando unit was fighting in the South. When the war ended, a narrow strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea remained in Egyptian hands. We called it the "Gaza Strip" and built outposts around it.
A few years later, I read Steven Runciman's monumental "A History of the Crusades". My attention was immediately drawn to a curious coincidence: after the First Crusade, a strip of territory along the sea was left in the hands of the Egyptians, extending a few kilometers beyond Gaza. The Crusaders built a string of fortifications to contain it. They were in almost the same places as our own outposts."
......and nearly manages it......:
"Israel is in a similar situation. True, we never admit that we want war, it is always the Arabs who refuse peace. But from its first day, the State of Israel has refused to fix its borders, being ever ready for expansion by force – exactly like the Crusaders. Today, 66 years after the founding of our state, more than half of the daily news in our media concerns the war with the Arabs, inside and outside Israel. (Last week, our Minister of Agriculture, Ya'ir Shamir, demanded that we take urgent measures to limit the birthrate of the Bedouins in the Negev - like Pharaoh in the biblical story.)
Israel suffers from a deep-seated sense of existential insecurity, which finds its expression in myriad forms. Since Israel is in many ways a conspicuous success story and a world-class military power, this sense of insecurity often gives rise to wonderment. I believe that its root is this feeling of not belonging to the region in which we live, of being a villa in the jungle, which really means being a fortified ghetto in the region."
- Israeli president's diagnosis -- 'Israel is a sick society' -- doesn't go viral in the U.S.
Lest we forget, Sderot is built on the ruins of what had been Najd and Huj, Palestinian villages. Given this History.........:
"Huj's day of destiny came on 31 May 1948, when the Israeli Negev Brigade's 7th Battalion, facing an advancing Egyptian army, arrived in the village. In Morris's words, "the brigade expelled the villagers of Huj … to the Gaza Strip"...........
......Morris elaborates: "Huj had traditionally been friendly; in 1946, its inhabitants had hidden Haganah men from a British dragnet. In mid-December 1947, while on a visit to Gaza, the mukhtar (mayor) and his brother were shot dead by a mob that accused them of 'collaboration'. But at the end of May, given the proximity of the advancing Egyptian column, the Negev Brigade decided to expel the inhabitants – and then looted and blew up their houses."
So the people of Huj had helped the Jewish Haganah army escape the British – and the thanks they got was to be sent into Gaza as refugees...............
......But the present day Sderot, writes the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, was built on farmland belonging to another Palestinian Arab village called Najd, its 422 Muslim inhabitants living in 82 homes, growing citrus, bananas and cereals. They shared the same fate as the people of Huj. On 12 and 13 May 1948, the Negev Brigade of the Israeli army – again, according to Morris – drove them out. They, too, were sent into exile in Gaza. Thus did the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, as another Israeli historian, Illan Pappé, calls it bluntly, wipe from history the people who farmed the land on which Sderot would be built."
...........who would not fire rockets at it?
"the vast majority of Israelis are not in the street chanting "Death to the Arabs"
Of course not. Why would citizens march and chant for what is already the policy of their government?
" a society that elected to lead it a terrorist organization"
Too funny. Spilled my coffee.
- The ice floe
Many thanks to all for the responses to a post which I must confess, came from a dark angry place, a little too much South Australian Merlot - and quite possibly the death of Gough Whitlam, the last moral politician in my memory's hold. It is heartening to realise many still resonate to the sounds and principles of what we "baby boomers" thought was a great new dawn of social justice but has all too soon vanished under the tide of wilful ignorance some refer to as the post-modern era. Mondoweiss is an oasis in this 45 degree desert.
I have searched in vain for a clip of Oil performing at the closing of the Sydney Olympics wearing their "sorry" suits, a singular event in the History of protest that was appropriately followed by Yothu Yindi doing Treaty. The I.O.C. has, in effect, banned the video. They can't ban the fascinating story however:
link to olyblog.com
Here's another live "Beds" from 2009, still good, still fresh:
It occurs to me that many will not click the link or hard rock is not to their taste so here are the lyrics (It is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.):
"Beds Are Burning"
Out where the river broke
The bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
Steam in forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
Now to pay our share
Four wheels scare the cockatoos
From Kintore East to Yuendemu
The western desert lives and breathes
In forty five degrees
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
Let's give it back
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
The time has come
To say fair's fair
To pay the rent now
To pay our share
The time has come
A fact's a fact
It belongs to them
We're gonna give it back
How can we dance
When our earth is turning
How do we sleep
While our beds are burning
From Wikipedia:
"Beds Are Burning" is a protest song about giving native Australian lands back to the Pintupi, who were among the very last people to come in from the desert. These 'last contact' people began moving from the Gibson Desert to settlements and missions in the 1930s. More were forcibly moved during the 1950s and 1960s to the Papunya settlement. In 1981, they left to return to their own country and established the Kintore community, which is nestled in the picturesque Kintore Ranges, surrounded by Mulga and Spinifex country. It is a community with a population of about 400. Kintore and the town of Yuendumu are mentioned by name in the lyrics, as are vehicles produced by the Holden company."
Incidentally, Peter Garrett, the lead singer became Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Kingsford Smith, New South Wales, from October 2004 to August 2013. After the Labor Party won in the November 2007 election, Garrett was appointed Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Then, of course, Zionist influences unseated Rudd - but that is another story.
"Isr.: After the Holocaust, can you accept that it's important for Jews to be in Israel?"
No I cannot. Never have and never will. It is made irrelevant by the thousands upon thousands of all creeds and cultures who have equally experienced horror. The native American mother witnessing her family slaughtered by bluecoats, the settler mother seeing her babies murdered by marauding "Indians", the Iraqi family decimated by US bombs.......need I go on?
Even if numbers meant anything and they do not - all "Holocausts" are personal, not collective - we can cite the Holodomor, even the German civilian deaths due to saturation bombing and post-war starvation if you consider numbers are important.
Justifying the invasion of Palestine by such means is risible. The safest place for a Jew post-war was occupied Europe. Palestine was dangerous. People there resented the illegal immigration sponsored by Zionist Zealots because they knew the agenda, the Zionists made no bones about it. You all know the Jabotinski and Ben Gurion quotes. It was a colonialist project nothing more nothing less and unfortunately for the colonists, it came too late to be sanctified/justified by "manifest destiny" or any such tripe.
Down here in the Antipodes we have faced up to this. We gave it back:
- Anti-semitism charge is increasingly being leveled against Israel's mainstream critics
I am content to allow common usage to rule so I don't concern myself with the semantics of "Semite". The point I'm trying to make here is that the term "anti-Semitism" was adopted with alacrity by Zionists and promoted to put the spur to immigration. I think it was Herzl who said that antisemitism could be harnessed to the Zionist cause. The article indicates that it is still being used in this way.
Although an anti-Semitic action is fully described by the term "racism", that term (racism) could not be applied in the manner used above. In my view, the proper response to an accusation of anti-Semitism is to ask the accuser if he/she is implying that the accused is racist. This puts a whole new complexion on the argument.
To put it another way, Annie recently said
someday, racism will be gone. wiped from the consciousness of mankind. someday please. the pain and suffering inflicted by mankind due to racial prejudice is more that any normal person should ever have to conceive of much less endure. wiped away like some old relic from the days when neanderthals walked the earth – to the dustbins of history, that will be the just fate of racism - See more at: link to mondoweiss.net
Unfortunately I was unable to reply at that time but here is what I would have said.
If we imagine such a World as she describes, the Israel/Palestine conflict could not exist. In fact, Israel (as a Jewish State) could not exist. Therefore the problem is indeed, as she states, racism. Anti-Semitism is simply a redundant expression that allows a magic trick - it falsely loads legitimate criticism with all the weight and taint of racism. In every case it should be called out and dealt to in the manner I describe above..
Why "Anti-semitism" ?
What is there in the term "Anti-semitism" that is not contained within the term we use to condemn acts or utterances aimed at a person's ethnic identity ie. Racism?
Is there an act or utterance that is a wrong when applied to Jews but not wrong when applied to any other race or creed? If so surely this entails that Jews are a special case which would seem to be a form of racism in itself.
I think this is an important question.
- The Missing Context: 'Islamic State' sectarianism is not coincidental
The NYT article is dated January 31, 2003 and written by Stephen C. Pelletiere. I don't think he would be disembling at that stage.
For those reluctant to follow links here is a snippet from the Yinon document that may resonate with some:
"Within Israel the distinction between the areas of '67 and the territories beyond them, those of '48, has always been meaningless for Arabs and nowadays no longer has any significance for us. The problem should be seen in its entirety without any divisions as of '67. It should be clear, under any future political situation or military constellation, that the solution of the problem of the indigenous Arabs will come only when they recognize the
existence of Israel in secure borders up to the Jordan river and beyond it, as our existential need in this difficult epoch, the nuclear epoch which we shall soon enter. It is no longer possible to live with three fourths of the Jewish population on the dense shoreline which is
so dangerous in a nuclear epoch. "
This appears to be Israeli-speak for:
" the indigenous (at least he admits they are indigenous) Arabs will only recognize the existence of Israel after we expel them across the Jordan".
"Why did Saddam gas the kurds in the early 90s?"
Maybe he didn't.
"But the truth is, all we know for certain is that Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds. This is not the only distortion in the Halabja story.
I am in a position to know because, as the Central Intelligence Agency's senior political analyst on Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, and as a professor at the Army War College from 1988 to 2000, I was privy to much of the classified material that flowed through Washington having to do with the Persian Gulf. In addition, I headed a 1991 Army investigation into how the Iraqis would fight a war against the United States; the classified version of the report went into great detail on the Halabja affair.
This much about the gassing at Halabja we undoubtedly know: it came about in the course of a battle between Iraqis and Iranians. Iraq used chemical weapons to try to kill Iranians who had seized the town, which is in northern Iraq not far from the Iranian border. The Kurdish civilians who died had the misfortune to be caught up in that exchange. But they were not Iraq's main target.
And the story gets murkier: immediately after the battle the United States Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report, which it circulated within the intelligence community on a need-to-know basis. That study asserted that it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds, not Iraqi gas."
I too am an old geezer. I grew up in a World that is long gone. Gone so long that it seems like a dream of Elysian fields now. When I woke up one day and realised a massive change had taken place, that the ideas of Justice and Truth I had formerly believed to be immutable had vanished, I too was puzzled.
It has been a long quest involving masses of reading and research but I can tell you without fear of contradiction that the above post is not " another part of the puzzle" - it is the key to the puzzle. The only impediment in the way of understanding is our propensity to disbelieve that individual human beings could act in such an evil way. To that I reply, you know the collective can and has. Many times in the past.
Yes Annie. During Bush II's invasion of Iraq, much was made about the Sunni/Shi'ite divide. Being somewhat of a neophyte in those days I asked a Malaysian Muslim friend which sect she belonged to. She didn't know!
I then looked into it a little further and found a fellow blogging from Baghdad (before the fall). He said intermarriage was common then went on to describe the construction crew at that moment working on his house - Sunni, Shi'ite, Christian and Kurd all mucking in together, sharing jokes and lunch.
The whole IS thing is a canard. See my favourite and (in my opinion) the most accurate writer on this topic:
by Israel Shahak
The following essay represents, in my opinion, the accurate and detailed plan of the present Zionist regime (of Sharon and Eitan) for the Middle East which is based on the division of the whole area into small states, and the dissolution of all the existing Arab states. I will comment on the military aspect of this plan in a concluding note. Here I want to draw the attention of the readers to several important points:
1. The idea that all the Arab states should be broken down, by Israel, into small units, occurs again and again in Israeli strategic thinking. For example, Ze'ev Schiff, the military correspondent of Ha'aretz (and probably the most knowledgeable in Israel, on this topic) writes about the "best" that can happen for Israeli interests in Iraq: "The dissolution of Iraq into a Shi'ite state, a Sunni state and the separation of the Kurdish part" (Ha'aretz 6/2/1982). Actually, this aspect of the plan is very old.
2. The strong connection with Neo-Conservative thought in the USA is very prominent, especially in the author's notes. But, while lip service is paid to the idea of the "defense of the West" from Soviet power, the real aim of the author, and of the present Israeli establishment is clear: To make an Imperial Israel into a world power. In other words, the aim of Sharon is to deceive the Americans after he has deceived all the rest.
3. It is obvious that much of the relevant data, both in the notes and in the text, is garbled or omitted, such as the financial help of the U.S. to Israel. Much of it is pure fantasy. But, the plan is not to be regarded as not influential, or as not capable of realization for a short time. The plan follows faithfully the geopolitical ideas current in Germany of 1890-1933, which were swallowed whole by Hitler and the Nazi movement, and determined their aims for East Europe. Those aims, especially the division of the existing states, were carried out in 1939-1941, and only an alliance on the global scale prevented their consolidation for a period of time.
The notes by the author follow the text. To avoid confusion, I did not add any notes of my own, but have put the substance of them into this foreward and the conclusion at the end. I have, however, emphasized some portions of the text.
Israel Shahak
June 13, 1982
The full text of the Yinon document can be viwed here:
link to informationclearinghouse.info
- 'Progressive' rabbi ascribes Roger Waters's concern with 500 Palestinian child victims to rocker's alleged drug use
Rabbi Avi Friedman - all in all just another brick in the Wall.
- When Rouhani says blaming ISIS on Islam is Islamophobic, is anyone listening?
Rouhani has it nailed.
I.S. is what happens when you indiscriminately bomb and strafe a heterogeneous populace on spurious grounds. The unifying factor is outrage against the aggressor. Remember that these people do not have the Western Media to lull them with facile blandishments such as "war on terror", "regime change", "WMDs" or whatever the Usrael warmongers spout. They know what the real agenda is.
In fact, I.S. is a bit of a paper tiger, an entity seized on by the perps to justify more bombing since the sheeple didn't buy Assad as the next great evil.
Here is one of my favorite writers. He is rarely wrong - if you check his back catalogue with the advantage of hindsight you will find he has been on the button in every one of these affairs.
- Did Snowden blow the whistle because of the US special relationship with Israel?
I wonder how many of you are aware of what has been going on down in li'l ole Noo Zeeland:
"The biggest roar of the night greeted the arrival on the big screen of Snowden, white earphones dangling from his ears. His contribution, the most compelling of the night, began with a new piece of information: the NSA had a facility somewhere in Auckland, and another further north.
As to Key's denials, Snowden detected a "careful parsing of words". His own experience as an NSA analyst, he said, left him with no doubt that New Zealanders' communications were swept up by the XKeyScore mass surveillance programme."
- Thug
Thanks for the link to Miko Peled's site.
Spotted this little gem in the comments:
"Richard Witty
January 5th, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Prior to his death, he made half the change to peace, renouncing the viability of annexation, declaring that annexation was a dead end.
He never shifted to desiring good relations with a healthy egood neighbor as a means of israeli security.
He certainly never proceeded to heal injustices that Palestinians experienced.
He never revised his understanding of the virtue of Zionism, but did revise one significant element of its form. His application of that revision was an example of carelessly implemented adventurism rather his careful."
Couldn't make sense of it. Deja vu all over again!
- At MLA, boycott opponents paper chairs
From the cradle I have believed the mantra:
"Sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me".
I keep coming back to this.
As I get deeper into this fight, the conviction in me grows that the Talmudist, Zionist stalwart, for want of a just cause, has declared war on words to justify real damage, real slaughter and real dispossession.
Words are just words.
Ask anyone who has had a gun put in his face and been told he doesn't live here anymore.
- No 'breakthrough' and no 'agreement' in the Middle East, Indyk says-- anonymously
"It's a first step that facilitates the achievement of a final status agreement by defining the agreed guidelines for that final status agreement. Is that clear? No? Well put it another way, we're entering into preliminary exploration of the possible framework of the parameters of a discussion as to the likely (though not definitive) future location of the goalposts when next we move them."
- Roger Cohen (who doesn't live there) explains the need for 'my Jewish state'
Thanks for that Hostage - I love a good credentialed document.
It never fails to astonish me how, despite the reams of scholarly research and the commentary of contemporary writers that attests to the complete opposite, the "persecution of Jews under the Ottomans" (a 20th century invention) has become so firmly imbedded.
"But for most of their history, Jews lived as oppressed, persecuted and despised people – and unwelcome guests in Christian Europe and the Muslim World."
Time this myth was put to bed.
All people have suffered persecution at some time, Africans, Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Ukrainians, Atheists, Hugenots, Protestants.....the list goes on forever and, so far as I know, the championship has never been decided. Certainly there were pogroms, just as there were against other ethnicities and faiths.
May one ask when it was they were "unwelcome guests in Christian Europe and the Muslim World ?"
Certainly not Britain where, apart from the period of the Statute of the Jewry (1275 ) which outlawed usury and led to their expulsion (for breaching the prohibition) for a spell. By the 1600s they were again well-established and have had an important role in Government since. Do you claim privilege for this 500 year old ban?
Most of them moved to Poland where the Statute of Kalisz provided special benefits e.g. " Chapter 1. ...Should a Jew be taken to court, not only a Christian must testify against him, but also a Jew, in order for the case to be considered valid."
In the East (what became the Soviet Bloc) Jews gained political power from the mid 1900s culminating in the first Soviet government being "mostly Jewish" (Vladmir Putin in Haaretz)
Let us not forget the Kingdom of Khazaria, a huge swathe of territory straddling the Black and Caspian seas where Judaism ruled for about 300 years.
As for the Ottoman Empire, "Under the Millet system the Jews were organized as a community on the basis of religion, alongside the other millets (e.g. Orthodox millet, Armenian millet, etc.). In the framework of the millet they had a considerable amount of administrative autonomy and were represented by the Hakham Bashi (Chief Rabbi of the nation's Jewish community), who held broad powers to legislate, judge and enforce the laws among the Jews in the Ottoman Empire and often sat on the Sultan's divan.
The Ottoman Jews enjoyed similar privileges to those of the Orthodox. The city of Thessaloniki received a great influx of Jews in the 15th century and soon flourished economically to such an extent that, during the 18th century, it was the largest and possibly the most prosperous Jewish city in the world. By the early 20th century, Ottoman Jews – together with Armenian and Greeks - dominated commerce within the Empire"
link to en.wikipedia.org
Jews occupied high positions in the Ottoman Empire, most notably Joseph Nasi, a provincial Governor.
Please find some other justification for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
- Elliott Abrams calls Chuck Hagel an anti-Semite
Maybe time to review one of the seminal articles on Abrams and the Israel first obsession. If anyone hasn't read it, please do and realize that Abrams learned nothing from Iran/Contra.
The Gaza Bombshell.
link to vanityfair.com
Hear hear and, dammit, hear again. After a thousand disappointments I don't usually allow myself to hope for "turning points" but, dammit, tonight, a bottle of wine and thinking the thought will be great. Maybe what my associate predicted about second term might just be correct.
- Thank you for another year of Mondoweiss
Happy New Year to all and congratulations on another year's work well done.
I am now in a remote location, most of the time unable to post, but in such times as I can connect, MW is my first stop for information on the topic we all care about.
Don't know if you have featured poor Richard Falk's crucifixion yet but, apropos the California antisemitism legislation story, here is a link:
link to richardfalk.wordpress.com
- Maddow slams Hagel, to neocon applause
an·ar·chy Pronunciation (nr-k)
n. pl. an·ar·chies
1. Absence of any form of political authority.
That's how I like my information.
- Exile and the Prophetic: Decolonizing the Holocaust
183 results found
- Syrian crisis moves into the camps: 20 Palestinians killed in Damascus refugee camp
This slide show was done long before the current uprising.
link to my.opera.com
I must say that I am influenced by the fact that Assad is seen mixing easily with the people, often with no security in sight despite the crowds. Not conclusive, possibly there are ways of setting up such shots but I cannot help thinking of these photos as I watch the horror unfold and find it difficult to reconcile them with the current media portrayals of his regime. At the time I was looking for the back story, there were many stories like this from fairly trustworthy sources:
link to intifada-palestine.com
Having learned from Iraq and Libya that the failed states are the object of certain agendae, I cannot help but wonder.
Pepe Escobar:
"It took Reuters quite a while to be allowed to report that US President Barack Obama had approved an intelligence finding [1] letting the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) loose in its support for the weaponized "rebels" fighting for regime change in Syria.
By now even fishermen in Fiji knew about this "secret" (not to mention that everyone and his neighbor across Latin America knows a thing or two about the CIA's regime change adventures). Reuters cautiously describes the support as "circumscribed". That's code for "leading from behind". "
"Their coverage continued by quoting accounts from both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights....."
Every time this organisation gets quoted my antennae bristle:
"You may be surprised to learn that The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is in fact just one man. Named Rami Abdulrahman, he is based in England, where he has lived for the last 12 years. He runs the Observatory from a two bedroom house, and is an anti-Assad activist......., and who also runs a clothing store. Added to that, pro-Assad members of his own family have disowned him for his anti-Assad activities, including his own mother. "
- Gore Vidal: In memoriam
Nice essay yourself, Theodore Sayeed.
Literature's loss is Biology's gain.
- To understand the history of Palestinian dispossession look to the words of Zionist and Israeli leaders
Nice quotable aphorism Thorstein. I've been looking for something like that. Very neatly put.
Despite the fact that the full quote in no way alters the sense of the truncated quote (Dayan did become something of an apostate towards the end), he was always given to a little hyperbole - "considerable areas of the country" ........being a full 6 - 7%.
Chaim Weizmann hailed the Arab evacuation as "a miraculous clearing of the land: the miraculous simplification of Israel's task."
For Masalha it was "less of a miracle than it was of over half a century of effort, plans, and (in the end) brute force."
Review of Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of "Transfer" in Zionist Political Thought, 1882-1948, by Nur Masalha. 235 pp., Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
link to users.ox.ac.uk
"Palestine is to become as Jewish as England is English."
Winston Churchill:
"Phrases have been used such as that Palestine is to become "as Jewish as England is English." His Majesty's Government regard any such expectation as impracticable and have no such aim in view."
link to avalon.law.yale.edu
My favourite which, if there were any fairness, should stop almost any argument:
"Neither Jewish ethics nor Jewish tradition can disqualify terrorism as a means of combat… First and foremost, terrorism is for us a part of the political battle being conducted under the present circumstances, and it has a great part to play.."
- Yitzhak Shamir.
- Are the Jews a nation? And more importantly, can they hit a curveball breaking low and away?
"Judaism is a religion, Christianity is a religion. Ergo, they are different examples of the same general type."
Yes. It was only when I cottoned on to this notion I began to understand the relationship between Islam and the State. Islam is not an equivalent belief system. Islam is, by its nature, political - Gonzo religion if you will. The idea of separation of Church and State has no meaning.
- University report on Jewish campus life slammed as biased and harmful to academic freedom
Until I became enmeshed in this struggle, I had only ever observed the use of the word "hate" (in the sense used by Zionists) among children as in the "Mommy hates me" reaction to discipline.
In my culture, it is rarely used by adults, and then only in jest (don'tcha hate it when that happens?) or for emphasis (I hate traffic jams). Neither usage is active, the sense is more "dislike" i.e the absence of "like".
Nowadays I come across the word in nearly every engagement with the more zealous of the pro-Israel crowd who use it in a more insidious, loaded, sense - as if it is somehow a crime to dislike the actions of Zionism and the Israeli State.
It is a potent tactic for it manages to yoke the critic with historic persecutions yet it is complete nonsense on many levels.
I have yet to find "hate" as the root cause of human depredation. The English did not cause the deaths of a million Irish during the famine because they "hated" Irishmen. Ten million dead black Africans during the era of slavery were not victims of "hate". The primary motivations in these cases were ideological, economic and political.
The incitement of "hatred" came after the fact and served to sustain these systems - they (the Blacks, the Irish whoever) "hate" us therefore its OK to do these things to them. Irrational but strikingly similar to the treatment of Palestinians.
It may be that those who use this word in this context are capable of understanding it. That is to say, they have experienced the emotional state of "hate" in its active, irrational form, which they project onto others.
Either that or they buy into yet another myth added to the mountain of mythology on which the colonialist edifice of Zionism is erected.
- Susan Abulhawa demolishes Itamar Marcus
Comprehensive wrap up here:
link to palestineremembered.com
Nothing in the data indicates "Arab Immigration".
- Netanyahu can provide no evidence to Schieffer to back up wild charges of Iranian 'terror campaign' in 24 countries
Well spotted Colin.
I did The Secret Agent in English 101 and I missed it!! I shall have to go read it again after nearly forty years.
- It's a lie that Ahmadinejad took responsibility for Bulgarian attack
Fascinating reading from the Brookings Institute:
Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran"
by Kenneth M. Pollack, Daniel L. Byman, Martin Indyk, Suzanne Maloney, Michael E. O'Hanlon, Bruce Riedel
".. it would be far more preferable if the United states could cite an Iranian provocation as justification for the airstrikes before launching them. Clearly, the more outrageous, the more deadly, and the more unprovoked the Iranian action, the better off the United states would be. Of course, it would be very difficult for the United states to goad Iran into such a provocation without the rest of the world recognizing this game, which would then undermine it. (one method that would have some possibility of success would be to ratchet up covert regime change efforts in the hope that Tehran would retaliate overtly, or even semi-overtly, which could then be portrayed as an unprovoked act of Iranian aggression.)
- NY Times 'confirms' Hezbollah/Iran connection to Bulgaria attack by quoting unnamed American 'officials'
Gareth Porter blew the whistle on the AIMA frame up:
link to thenation.com
Shades of the Argentinian AIMA Bombing which fixed Hezbollah and Iran as International terrorists in the public's mind.
The accusation was, of course, totally false, as it transpired, long after it became accepted and long after it left the front pages.
link to brewerstroupe.blogspot.co.nz
The enormous value of branding like this is that, subsequently, all manner of atrocities can be attributed to the target organisation without the necessity for a jot of evidence.
- How many of you are uncomfortable with the phrase 'oppression of Palestinians'? In the packed room, just a few heads nodded
"In the Event of invading [Arab] forces were limited to approximately 30,000 men. The strongest single contingent was the Jordanian* one, already described. Next came Egyptians with 5,500 men, then the Iraqis with 4,500 who ..... were joined by perhaps 3,000 local irregulars. The total was thus around eight rather under strength brigades, some of them definitely of second-and even third-rate quality. To these must be added approximately 2,000 Lebanese (one brigade) and 6,000 Syrians (three brigades). Thus, even though the Arab countries [population] outnumbered
the Yishuv by better then forty-to-one, in terms of military manpower available for combat in Palestine the two sides were fairly evenly matched. As time went on and both sides sent reinforcements the balance changed in the Jews' favor; by October they had almost 90,000 men and women under arms, the Arabs only 68,000."
(The Sword And The Olive By Martin Van Creveld, p. 77-78)
"Senior Hagana commanders met with committee [UN Special Committee On Palestine-UNSCOP] members in Jerusalem's Talpiot quarter in similarly surreptitious circumstances to express confidence that Jewish forces, which they numbered at 90,000, including 35,000 reservists, could overcome any Arab assault should it come to war."
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem Post, 11-28-1997
*Abdullah of Jordan agreed with Ben-Gurion to take and hold only the West Bank.
- White House refuses to point finger at Hezbollah in Bulgaria terrorist attack
"Khamenei is an imbecile. Incredibly stupid and cruel."
Obviously you have seen evidence of this. Please share it.
The assumption that Iran would mount such an attack as a reprisal is predicated on the assumption that the Israeli Government would be somehow hurt by it. Of course, the opposite is true so obviously the Iranian Government/Hezbollah are either imbeciles or innocent. I don't think they are imbeciles.
From what I have seen of Hasbara however, it operates on the assumption (for which there is a lot of evidence) that the majority of the Western public are essentially imbecilic when it comes to Iran, Israel and Islam. The technique of Hasbara is to exploit this vulnerability.
Netanyahu's use of this technique illustrates how maintaining a structure (which owes its origin to atrocities born of lies and its continued existence to lies concealing atrocities) perverts the very basis of human interaction and perception. These fellows have created a virtual World in which Truth has no value.
They (and it is not just the Israelis) have created a narrative that masquerades as reality and even becomes a temporary History. They do not care that, in 50 or 80 years, when the documents are declassified, it is revealed in all its perfidy. By that time it is only of interest to Historians and cranks.
There was a time when exposures such as the Pentagon Papers, Iran/Contra created a bit of a stir. There have been many equally sensational whistles blown since. They disappear without trace. The narrative is too distant from reality and too entrenched. Everybody knows Iran/Hezbollah/Hamas/Assad/Gaddhafi/Islamists et al do the things they do because they hate and they are insane.
"Sheeit Darlene, them crazy ragheads just blew up a bus in Bulgaria. Gimme that remote."
- Arthur Koestler's Zionist recruiters used anti-Semitic ideas
Historians are people, subject to the same pressures as everyone.
Should they be eminent enough to be paid heed to, they will face loss of tenure should they deviate too far from the party line.
Most, in my experience, seem to enjoy toeing the line, smugly cherishing their monopoly on what is known as compared with what is commonly believed.
Thus, assumptions about the past can only be reliably made by visiting the Historical record oneself, often guided (intentionally or not) by such as Bartal who, in this instance (in his zeal to devalue Sand), has probably overstepped the mark.
Be very wary how you deal with DNA. Be aware that 96% of DNA is shared with primates. There are many interpretations of the data bandied around the internet. Most are not written by geneticists.
The predominant opinion of geneticists is in line with common sense - Palestinians and Misrahi Jews are one and the same people -
"(Palestinian "Israelis") and Palestinians, together as the one same population, represent modern "descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times", albeit religiously first Christianized then largely Islamized, and all eventually culturally and linguistically Arabized"
- Ariella Oppenheim.
...and Ashkenazis - not so much:
"it is also consistent that the projection of the AJ (Ashkenazi Jewish) populations is primarily the outcome of admixture with || Central and Eastern European hosts that coincidentally shift them closer to Italians along principle component axes relative to Middle Easterners."
Steven M. Bray, Jennifer G. Mulle, Anne F. Dodd, Ann E. Pulver, Stephen Wooding, and Stephen T. Warren. "Signatures of founder effects, admixture, and selection in the Ashkenazi Jewish population."
"The Thirteenth Tribe" was roundly dismissed as an anti Semitic tract and consigned to false History bin along with the Protocols.
Shlomo Sand gave it a dusting off and elicited this astonishing response from Israel Bartal, dean of the humanities faculty of the Hebrew University:
"Here is what was written about the conversion of the Khazars, a nation of Turkish origin, in the Zionist Mikhlal Encyclopedia that the State of Israel's Zionist Ministry of Education recommended so warmly.....: "It is irrelevant whether the conversion to Judaism encompassed a large stratum of the Khazar nation; what is important is that this event was regarded as a highly significant phenomenon in Jewish history, a phenomenon that has since totally disappeared: Judaism as a missionary religion…
....My response to Sand's arguments is that no historian of the Jewish national movement has ever really believed that the origins of the Jews are ethnically and biologically "pure." Sand applies marginal positions to the entire body of Jewish historiography and, in doing so, denies the existence of the central positions in Jewish historical scholarship.
No "nationalist" Jewish historian has ever tried to conceal the well-known fact that conversions to Judaism had a major impact on Jewish history in the ancient period and in the early Middle Ages. Although the myth of an exile from the Jewish homeland (Palestine) does exist in popular Israeli culture, it is negligible in serious Jewish historical discussions. Important groups in the Jewish national movement expressed reservations regarding this myth or denied it completely."
There is a website for modern day Khazars:
Despite being an enthusiastic Zionist and regarded as one of the eminent scholars of his day (he was awarded the prestigious Sonning Prize "for outstanding contribution to European culture" and, in 1972, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire), Koestler's "The Thirteenth Tribe" was considered detrimental to the Zionist cause so he was smeared and vilified. I can remember when one mention of Khazars was enough to get one branded an anti Semite and hounded out of any discussion. Today it is pretty much accepted.
- Zionism as a political movement is dead
Thank you for that link Allen.
Since entering my sixties, I find myself going places I never dreamed of in previous decades. My background in History and Philosophy had stripped me of any leanings toward the mystic or esoterical.
Now as I contemplate the changes that have occurred during my lifetime and am becoming increasingly concerned at what I perceive as a move away from an ethically based, truthful World towards a "situation ethics" based modernity.
I have concluded that Politics alone cannot supply what is needed for man's co-existence. Perhaps a little diversion may illustrate how an avowed rationalist can begin to understand the importance of ritual and religion.
There is no natural ethic. Ethics are experience based - our sense of right and wrong are derived from the culturally imposed belief systems we inherit. There are sufficient examples of diversity in "right and wrong" among different cultures to prove this point. The repository of that experience is the narrative, the stories accumulated through generations. Joseph Campbell is very good on this. That narrative is most often expressed as religion.
Without a sense of right and wrong, we cannot make sound political choices.
It seems there is another element necessary, some kind of moral underpinning to inform and guide.
There was a time when the words of the (I assume) young man writing the article linked to would have been incomprehensible to me - the ravings of a zealot.
Not so sure now. The conquest of self is, after all, a good exercise, found almost universally in belief systems, as is the direction of the mind toward high ideals through practise i.e. ritual. I do think that blind adherence is destructive but this writer seems to be very aware of this - the article is entitled "On Purity (or the Separation of Church and State)" after all.
Perhaps in times of uncertainty we all need to trust a little more in the collective wisdom, accumulated over time beyond memory - and beyond contemporary analysis?
This, to the extent of my understanding, illustrates the disconnect between the Christian Church and Islam and provides a key to understanding.
Islam is political. There are no niceties such as separation of Church and State. A Mosque is not a "Church" in the Christian sense. It is a meeting place where all manner of topics are on the agenda.
Interesting idea - keeps the religious political and the political in touch with the underlying philosophical/moral scheme.
Christians on the other hand, have been intimidated by their historic forays into the State's affairs and, for their own survival, have adopted an antiseptic view of politics.
- The therapist blurts
For ten years, my great friend Bob has called at 5pm every weekday for coffee and a round up of the day's news and gossip. He qualified as a Clinical Psychologist but, during Student days, worked for a newspaper. The ink got in his veins and he gave up Psych and became a noted journalist.
On occasion he trots out some psychobabble. I always tell him:
"Bob, one day there will be foot high headlines in the NY Times. They will read 'Psychotherapist cures patient'."
Talk to your friends Phil. Its free and it works.
- Et tu Elena-- Justice Kagan's in Israel, celebrating 'deep commitment to the rule of law'
"Israel and America share a deep commitment to the rule of law."
Grounds for disbarment I would think. There are only two possibilities - dishonesty or incompetence.
- Author Deepa Kumar on the imperial roots of anti-Muslim sentiment
I find it difficult to evade the growing belief that Islam is subject to a deliberate campaign of defamation as a very real part of the Zionist tactic.
Take this for example:
link to huffingtonpost.com
....where the awful Harris indulges in misquoting and long-debunked tropes to foster the notion that Iranian leaders are lunatics.
He invokes: " their Shiite eschatology, focused on hastening the coming of the Hidden Imam" in utter contradiction to that eschatology which firstly forbids any hastening by man of the event and secondly holds that Israel will rule the World first - very similar to the coming of the Messiah as held by the Orthodox Judaics and similarly believed literally by only ultra- orthodox Shiites.
He says: "... the former Iranian president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, famously declared "[T]he use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel would destroy everything.""
....when the entire quote runs :
"the use of even one nuclear bomb inside Israel will destroy everything. However, it will only harm the Islamic world."
He then promotes a trope that has long since been debunked:
"Was their recruitment of young Iranian boys as would-be bomb sappers in the eight-year war with Iraq, and armed only with plastic keys to enter "heaven" and the awaiting 72 virgins, the behavior of a "rational" government?"
None of this has any foundation in fact. The "plastic keys" originates from the film "Not without my daughter", filmed at GG Studios, Neve Ilan, Israel. The book and film were totally discredited by a Finnish documentary "Without my daughter":
link to youtube.com
It would be very interesting to know who financed the original stinker for which Sally Field got the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.
- 'NYT' op-ed says denial of statehood makes militant Palestinian confrontation inevitable
Oh hang on a minute mate, I think I get it.
"as long as there is organized terrorism against us, there will be a need for security to prevent it."
"No, as long as there is organized terrorism, there will be a need for security to prevent it."
'Sfunny. Didn't seem to be a problem during the Lehi/Irgun reign of terror.
- Obama adviser freaks out over BDS (Dersh calls Alice Walker neo-Nazi terrorist)
What must Harvard think about this?
Or what must we think of Harvard if they do not, at the very least, call out the Emergency Mental Health services and grant Dersh "stress leave".
- Israeli Interior Minister on African immigrants: 'Most of those people arriving here are Muslims who think the country doesn't belong to us, the white man'
"In a report released Wednesday, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says a disturbing new Egyptian policy has arisen seemingly in response to Israeli pressure on Cairo to control the flow of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers across the border. They call it a policy of "shoot-to-stop."
"Egyptian border police are using lethal force to stop refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers from crossing into Israel," says Bill Van Esveld, author of the HRW report. "
- Christian Science Monitor November 13, 2008
- Killed by Syrian government -- but young filmmaker had focused on Israel
Can't speak for the provenance of this but it has the ring of truth:
First interview with an eyewitness of the Houla massacre
The following text is the translation of a blog entry of the ANNA News journalist Marat Musin, who was in the region of al-Houla (Houla/Hula – near the Syrian city of Homs) last week and who has own experiences how the horrible "Houla massacre" in Syria happened and who is behind the violent and horrible massacre near Homs.
- American Zionist responses to Tel Aviv riots-- largely indifferent, but some outrage
Interesting stats:
"... police data, presented in a meeting held by the Knesset Committee on Foreign Workers on March 19, indicate that the crime rate among foreigners in Israel stood at 2.24 percent in 2011 (1,223 criminal cases out of a total of 54,497 foreigners). This figure is slightly higher than the figure that the police reported to the Knesset in 2010 (2.04 percent), but lower that the crime rate reported in 2009 (2.4 percent)...
The 2011 data on Israeli crime has not yet been published, but according to police data reported to the Knesset, the crime rate among the general population in Israel stood at 4.99 percent in 2010.
... However, the Knesset Research Center notes that based on 2010 crime rate data, a criminal case was opened for one of every 16 residents of Tel Aviv, but only for one of every 96 "infiltrators" – the term government officials use to refer to asylum seekers who enter Israel from the border with Egypt."
-Sigal Rozen. Public Policy Coordinator of the Hotline for Migrant Workers
How about this little gem:
"In a report released Wednesday, US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) says a disturbing new Egyptian policy has arisen seemingly in response to Israeli pressure on Cairo to control the flow of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers across the border. They call it a policy of "shoot-to-stop."
"Egyptian border police are using lethal force to stop refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers from crossing into Israel," says Bill Van Esveld, author of the HRW report. "
- CSM November 13, 2008
....and rockets claim less than one percent of the death toll on Israel's roads.
- Day after pogroms, Likud MK calls for internment camp for African refugees
From Huffpost blogger Taxim on this same topic:
"Between August 1945 and 1948, 65 illegal immigrant ships, carrying 69,878 people, arrived from European shores. Lehi and the Stern Gang were terrorist Zionist groups formed to violently evict the British authorities from Palestine, allowing unrestricted Jewish immigration."
He's correct, if Israelis could only be brought round to looking themselves squarely in the eye - could be a game-changer.
Does it mean "Kristallnacht" ??
- Passive-aggressive George Bush namechecks neocons for getting us into that mess
Re Julia Gillard, Rudd, see what you can make of this:
"The Jewish community was deeply disturbed by the abrupt change in the government's Israel policy. And Rudd's treatment of the local Jewish fraternity, too. He had always been strongly pro-Israel. A former chairman of the World Jewish Congress Isi Leibler last year described him as "a Christian Zionist - he understands and has some sympathy for us''.
Australia had long been one of the Israel's three most supportive friends, along with the US and Canada. But now there were troubling signs that Rudd had decided to distance Australia from the Jewish state and himself from the Australian Jews he had called friends.
It started in February with the government's angry reaction to news that assassins with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad had forged three Australian passports to enter the United Arab Emirates to kill a Hamas military commander, Mahmoud al-Mabouh, in his hotel room. "Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend," said Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.
It sharpened a week later when Australia switched its vote in the United Nations to signal a weakening of support for Israel. The government feigned surprise when asked if this was a rebuke for the abuse of the Australian passports but it was a deliberate and unmistakeable retaliation."
Two months later he was chopped liver and Australia had the most unpopular Prime Minister in History - Julia Gillard.
- Kristol: 'I don't see it as a huge problem'
Ben Ami seems to me to be following a pattern I have observed in quite a few whose understanding of these matters evolves at an ever-increasing pace once they recognise that something about the Zionist narrative doesn't add up.
From his position expressed here, it is a short journey to understanding that the only possible justification for a "Jewish State" is the "barbarity of the other".
Given what is now known about the barbarity exhibited by the Yishuv (and subsequent Israeli administration), this justification falls away and leaves naked racism exposed.
It is a journey many of us have made. Perhaps Ben Ami will catch up soon.
- Neverending Nakba: Israel breaks lull, attacks Gazan farmers
"If you come near place X, we have to assume you are a terrorist".
From whence does this paranoia come?
400 Israeli citizens die in road accidents each year. This is many times the number of deaths due to "terrorism". Rockets for, example, took one or two lives per annum.
If the paranoia arose out of a fear for Israeli lives, would it not be better to assign these IDF thugs to traffic control?
"Do you remember seeing photos of Israeli Civilian casualties? No? They must not exist, right? No. The casualties exist. The damage is real."
So bung 'em up Sam. I'm prepared to have a look.
- Watching propaganda in a Missouri synagogue
15 January 2010:
The first Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Friday evening (15 January) and established its operation center in a soccer field near the airport.
link to mfa.gov.il
26 January 2010:
Israeli field hospital in Haiti closes
Operations at Port-au-Prince field hospital concluded with military ceremony.
Mission accomplished!
- Fighting Jews-- then and now
One third of one percent??
That is fewer than served the Reich if my math serves me.
- Joe Lieberman, and liberal hero Elizabeth Warren, peddle propaganda on Iran
Yup. Its a joke - authentic replica of the American model.
Iran has tested the reverse engineered drone.
During its first and only flight it wiped out a village of sheepherders, levelled a school then crashed.
The Iranian Engineering team pronounced it an authentic replica of the American model.
- Before '60 Minutes' piece aired, Jewish Federations called for 'flood' of 'discourse' to CBS (what's next, locusts?)
Historically, the Christians in Palestine have made their case. It has never gained much traction. Here is a statement from May 31, 1948:
The war which started in the Holy City of Jerusalem was for all of us a real surprise and beyond our expectations. The Security Council, the United Nations Organization and the Consular Committee of Armistice had given us hope that the Holy City and its sanctuaries would be spared the horrors of war and its consequences of destruction and ruin, both belligerent parties having signed before the Consular Committee of Armistice and the representative of the International Red Cross an undertaking to cease fire for a duration of eight days starting from 9 p.m. on May 14,1948.
In compliance with this signed promise the Arab Command issued formal orders through loudspeakers to all its posts to cease fire, and complete peace prevailed on all Arab sectors.
But the Jews took advantage of this opportunity and immediately occupied the main strategical points from where they tried to attack the Arabs and to launch their attack on the Holy City. We immediately informed the Consular Committee of Armistice and the representative of the International Red Cross of this infringement of agreement by the Jews. The reply received was that the Jewish Agency declared that the Stern gang, which is working separately, broke the cease fire agreement and that the Jewish Agency had no control over this group. We then realized that the terrorists are controlling the Jewish movement. In consequence of which the International Red Cross and the Committee of Armistice declared that it was beyond their power to enforce the respect of the undertaking. In this way the Holy City was turned into a battlefield where severe fighting is taking place, accompanied by destruction on a large scale. In consequence, churches, convents, religious and charitable institutions have become the targets of mortar shells and bullets. Some of these buildings were destroyed and set on fire and many of the innocent civilians comprising of women, children, priests and nuns were injured by the explosion of bombs which were fired from all sides and in all directions.
Because of this dreadful situation, We, the representatives of the Christian Communities, deem it our solemn duty to raise our voice in protest against the violation of the sanctity of our churches, convents and institutions.
We herewith enumerate some of the damages sustained by our institutions and injuries inflicted on their administrators and refugees sheltered therein.... "
What follows is a list of "CHURCHES, CONVENTS AND INSTITUTIONS DAMAGED BY ZIONISTS" and personnel killed.
Here is the link:
link to palestine-encyclopedia.com
It is to Issah Nakleh's "Encyclopaedia of the Palestine Problem", a very good resource although it is a bit old and clunky. The home page is here:
link to palestine-encyclopedia.com
- Bernard Lewis revises Bernard Lewis (says he opposed invasion of Iraq!)
Lewis is just one of a plethora of "scholars" motivated by ideology (or something even darker) to fashion History into a weapon. He and the equally (well there really is no other word for it) stupid Huntington are responsible for the monolithic and malignant image of Islam that prevails among those who have neither been exposed to Muslim society nor studied Islam and the History of Islamic thought. As such, they belong in a class of opinion makers now reviled.
No doubt many readers of this blog are already familiar with these roosters. For those who are not, here are a couple of essays:
"The Clash of Ignorance":
link to thenation.com
"Bernard Lewis Revisited"
link to washingtonmonthly.com
The academic system in the West is broken. That writers such as Lewis and Huntington receive the glittering prizes, enhancing their credibility in a self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance contributes much to the decline of the West, for no system can prosper when it is based on false premises.
My only question is: to what extent is this influence fostered by political or economic power?
- How Benny Morris transformed a patriotic struggle into a 'holy war' for 'sacred Islamic soil'
How ironical that Morris seems to be unaware that Zionism was born in and derives its sustenance from Biblical "prophecy", religion, fanatical adherents to religion and those who cynically manipulate them:
link to forward.com
link to maxblumenthal.com
Morris seems to have adopted the taxicab approach to History common among Zionists. Once the destination is reached, the cab is dismissed.
- Wallace interview with Ahmadinejad was little more than deliberate demonization
The views Ah. peddles in the West are deliberately......mistranslated by Memri using words like "annihilate" to imply that he means physical destruction. As a long time Ahmadinejad watcher I can assure you he chooses his words very carefully and consistently refers to the political entity when making such remarks. He is also consistent in calling for restoration of the rights of those dispossessed in 1948 and 1967.
Speaking of which, I came across an authoritative quote on the amount of land possessed by Jews in Israel before the 1948 War.
"By 1948, the Jews percentage of the total rural and urban land was only 6.6%..."
- God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster
By Donald H. Akenson. Cornell University Press page 168
Donald Harman Akenson (born May 22, 1941, Minneapolis, Minnesota) is a historian and author.
Akenson received his B.A. from Yale University and his doctorate from Harvard University. He is Professor of History at Queen's University and Beamish Research Professor at the Institute of Irish Studies,University of Liverpool, and Senior Editor of the McGill-Queen's University Press. As of 2007 his work included eighteen non-fiction books, including more than a dozen about Irish history, and five novels. Akenson won the Grawemeyer Award for God's Peoples (1992) and the Trillium Book Award for Conor: The Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien (1994). His book on the Bible, Surpassing Wonder (1998), was short-listed for the 1999 Governor General's Award for nonfiction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Royal Historical Society (UK).
From memory, Wallace did try to have the Ahmadinejad interview aired in its entirety and was overruled. The interview with Hannity might have been part of a compromise he worked out with CBS.
In a sense, it marked the end of Wallace's career. His respect for truth made him no longer reliable to the establishment. At the time, I got the sense that the realisation that his establishment-inspired preconceptions were dead wrong rather broke his spirit.
To be fair to Wallace, here is what he said when he himself was interviewed by Sean Hannity on the topic:
MW: He (Ahmadinejead) is not trying to project an image. Look, it's very difficult. I know...I found it difficult to understand, but the more that I sat there, and the more time that I spent with the man, he is...I'm not suggesting...he despises, if you will...oh, he doesn't despise, but he doesn't like the United States. He doesn't like the United States for the reason that it's supporting the Zionist entity. He doesn't talk about Israel.
SH: So you don't think he's an anti-Semite?
MW: He himself, an anti-Semite, an anti-Jew...anti-Jew?
SH: Yes.
MW: No, I don't.
MW: I am with you 100% in what I perceived to be the individual that I was about to sit down and talk to. And he made his case, fairly rationally. It wasn't...it was a conversation. He did not propagandize and so forth. He...when I began to talk to him about America, about the United States, and oppression, he had his facts down solid about why he feels sorry, he says, for President Bush. Why? And then he starts in about the polls of President Bush, and how they're going down, and how he's going to leave office, and it's sad that he's going to leave office and leave behind a people who don't really approve of him. His approval ratings are what they are. And what is the standing of the United States in the world generally under President Bush. And it's...we weren't having an argument. I mean, we were having a discussion. And he was infinitely more rational than I had expected him to be.
SH: And would you deny, Mike, for example, if you ever sat down with Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin...
MW: (laughing)
SH: Oh, wait. Hang on.
MW: No, look, I couldn't agree with you more.
SH: Would they seem, perhaps, informed, smart, reasonable, even though they were evil?
MW: Well, it's a perfectly sensible question. As far as I am...Adolf Hitler? Good Lord. I mean, the man was such a hateful, hateful man.
SH: So is Ahmadinejead, Mike. Listen to his statements.
MW: What...running a Holocaust, which the Iranians have not done, as you know, running a Holocaust, doing that sort of thing, slaughtering six million Jews, that's not what this man is talking about doing.
SH: But Mike, but let me answer that. Mike, but his statements are such that he wants to go beyond that. His statements are annihilate, wipe off the Earth.
MW: No, no, no.
SH: The world.
MW: Hold it, hold it.
SH: Wipe off the map.
MW: Yes, he says wipe off the map, and of course I asked him over and over about that. He says in effect, hey, it's perfectly sensible to do...pardon me. It's perfectly sensible for them, and I'm not quoting directly, obviously, because I don't have the translation in front of me, to...for them to...it's perfectly sensible, if there is a Holocaust, and let's buy the fact that there was a Holocaust. Where did the Holocaust take place? Did it take place in an Arab neighborhood? Did it take place in Jerusalem? No. It took place in Germany. Then it seems to me, under those circumstances, take Israel, the Zionist entity, he called it, move it to Germany. Move it to Europe. That's where it happened.
SH: Do you agree with him?
MW: Move it to the United States.
SH: Do you think that's a legitimate argument?
MW: It's an argument. I'm not a commentator. You are.
SH: You think he's a better man than we think? Do you think he's a good man?
MW: I wouldn't call him a good man, no. I think that he's a more reasonable...he's self-assured. He is self-righteous. He is savvy. He has studied. Do you know what he does? He has a PhD in civil engineering. And...
SH: Well, he certainly won't let his people be free. There's not the freedom...
MW: What does that mean, free?
SH: Well, I would argue that women...
MW: Are you suggesting that he wasn't elected by his people?
SH: I don't believe that those elections are honest in any way. No, I do not.
MW: Well, all I can tell you is...
SH: I believe if there was an honest election, people would...
MW: Khamenei, who is the supreme leader, really, in Iran, if there's one man to whom this man, Ahma...you pronounce his name better than I do...that the president of Iran defers to, it is the man who they call the supreme leader, who is the ayatollah, the highest ayatollah. 27 years ago, I went to the holy city of Qum to talk to Khomenei, which is one of the reasons, I'm sure, that they decided that they were going to let me talk, or he was going to let me talk. I know that I am making him sound more human, more surely than I expected, and by all means, more human than you feel that he is. You feel that he's dead evil, and there's no doubt about it, and so forth. What you're telling me is that some of your best friends are Jews, is that it? That's not what I'm saying. He says, let the people who were responsible for the Holocaust, let the Zionists go there and establish their state.
MW: I think that Khomenei...Khomenei was much more, how to say, hard-minded, much more the kind of man that you're describing that Ahma...
SH: Ahmadinejead.
MW: Ahmadinejead, correct, is. The...I ask you to bring not prejudice, not your own beliefs or prejudices. When you watch him, I'll be curious to see whether you think that there's anything reasonable about this man at all.
- With 'last ink,' Gunter Grass breaks silence on Israeli nuclear program threatening world peace
Works better for me without the mid-European grammatical and syntax bloopers but a matter of taste I guess. Whatever blows your skirt up.
"most German soldiers were NOT members of the Nazi Party, but most were racist"
One must assume that you, Colin, are persuaded by post-war justifications of allied atrocities such as civilian bombings, the wholesale slaughter of refugees and the horrendous atomic bomb crimes - all initiated by us, or, should I say, the psychopathic politicians of the day.
No. The entire citizenry of countries that find themselves in our gunsights did not suddenly, collectively, abandon their human values and become demons. The projection of such propaganda is the prerogative of the victors.
How many times do you need to learn, after the fact, that the justifications for War are manifest and mostly myths?
Did you learn nothing from Vietnam? Iraq?
Have you read any first hand accounts of the situation in Germany during the period or do you rely solely on the cinema for your information?
Another translation, in my view, more literate. I regret I cannot acknowledge the translator, all I know is he/she is described as an Austrian/American:
What must be said
Why have I been silent, silent for so long?,
Our generals have gamed it out,
Confident the west will survive.
We people have not even been considered.
What is this right to "preventive war"?
A war that could erase the Iranian people.
Dominated by it's neighbor, pulsing with righteousness
Smug in the fact that it is they, not Iran,
Who have the Bomb.
Why have I so far avoided to identify Israel by it's name?,
Israel and it's ever increasing nuclear arsenal,
Beyond reproach, Uncontrolled, uninspected.
We all know these things
Yet we all remain silent, fearful of being labeled:
Considering Germany's past these labels stick
So we call is "business", "reparation" take your pick,
As we deliver yet another submarine.
As we provide to Israel the means to deliver annihilation.
I say what must be said.
Why did I stay silent until now?
Because I'm German, of course.
I'm tainted by a stain I cannot wash out
I'm silent because I want so badly to make it right
To put my sins in the past and leave them silently there.
Why did I wait to say it until now?
And write these words with the last of my ink?
Declaring that Israel threatens world peace?
Because it is true and it must be said,
Tomorrow will be too late.
We Germans now carry a new burden of sin on our shoulders
Through the weapons we have sold
We are helping to carry out this foreseeable tragedy
No excuse will remove our stain of complicity.
It must be said. I won't be silent
I've had enough of the hypocrisy;
Please shed the silence with me,
The consequences are all too predictable.
It's time to demand free and permanent control
of BOTH Israel's nuclear arsenal
AND Iran's nuclear facilities
enforced with international supervision.
It's the only way, in a land convulsed with insanity,
Israelis, Palestinians, everybody, will survive.
And we too, will survive.
"were their other german soldiers besides nazis?"
I think I get the logic of this.
America entered the Vietnam War under a Democrat administration. Ipso facto, all soldiers were members of the Democrat Party right?
It follows from this that, come Iraq, the military, to a man must have become Republicans.
It is an oft-forgotten fact that WWII began with Britain and France's declaration of War against Germany during a period when the National Socialist Party was hugely popular due to the economic turnaround they had achieved.
To expect that young German men would, en masse, become conscientious objectors is unrealistic.
In the light of recent aggressive Wars indisputably instigated by America and Nato and historical facts of both WWI and II that have become known of late, one would have thought the ridiculous smearing of German citizens whose only crime was to respond to their country's call would cease.


text:
Lake Home Decor
Capture the cozy feel of lakefront living in any locale: Designer Thom Filicia invites us into his newly renovated retreat.
Mix and Match
Another one of Filicia's design tenets is about the pleasures of a good "mash-up." Combining styles gives a lake house or any house warmth and a sense of history. For Filicia, original details (the fireplace, for instance) were preserved and re-imagined (the mantel is new). Furniture and textiles from Filicia's own lines live happily alongside flea market finds. "I love how it all goes together. When you buy clothes at different stores, they all still work," he explains. "That mix is what makes the house old and classic as well as young and vibrant. It's incredibly inviting." And it's also true to the laid-back spirit of a lake house.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sara Hiatt graduated from Kansas State University in 1994 with a degree in Human Development Family Studies and Community Services. Sara has been a lifelong resident of the Nickerson area and came to us from working in the Nickerson school system. She is a member of the Nickerson United Methodist Church where she has been the director of their after school program, and currently serves as youth group leader.
Sara and her husband Bob, have three children that keep their evenings and weekends full of activity. In her spare time Sara loves to water garden, go to the lake, and support her Panthers, Wildcats, and now Warriors.
Phone: 620-278-4201
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Sterling College is a Christ-centered, four-year college located in Sterling, Kansas. Learn more.
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Sterling, KS 67579
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Copyright 2013 Sterling College


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