A.LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS


This is how Israel marks its 62nd birthday

Ari Shavit writes in Haaretz a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s a fascinating document, fearful, paranoid and alive to Zionism’s likely fate in the 21st century. And where is Diaspora Jewry in all this? Asleep at the wheel, organising regular events to “celebrate” its closeness with Israel:

Mr. Prime Minister, here are the basic facts: The grace period granted the Jewish state by Auschwitz and Treblinka is ending. The generation that knew the Holocaust has left the stage. The generation that remembers the Holocaust is disappearing. What shapes the world’s perception of Israel today is not the crematoria, but the checkpoints. Not the trains, but the settlements. As a result, even when we are right, they do not listen to us. Even when we are persecuted, they pay us no heed. The wind is blowing against us.
The zeitgeist of the 21st century threatens to put an end to Zionism. No one knows better than you that even superpowers cannot resist the spirit of the times. And certainly not small, fragile states like Israel.
In order withstand what is to come, Israel must once again become an inalienable part of the West. And the West is not prepared to accept Israel as an occupying state. Therefore, in order to save our home, is necessary to act at once to end the occupation.

Australia once again uses refugees as punching bag

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 05:18 PM PDT

After the Australian government announced the re-opening of the remote Curtin detention centre, these suggestions are completely supported:

Human rights barrister Julian Burnside QC, who was an outspoken opponent of the Howard government’s asylum-seeker policies, said the Rudd government was following the same policy trajectory and urged people to punish Labor by voting for the Greens in the Senate.
“Curtin is about 28 hours drive north of Perth — it’s just insane. I think one of the problems is if people are isolated like that and they don’t get community support that we know Australians are capable of giving, they will very likely experience greatly increased mental distress,” he said. “The fact that this is being done with a punitive intent to send a message to other people is precisely what the Howard government was doing, and I think it’s deplorable.”

The Israeli airline that likes to give Arabs a hard time

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 05:08 PM PDT

El Al, an airline that would really rather just have Jews flying but there aren’t enough of us:

Two Israeli Arab brothers have won US$8,000 (Dh29,000) in damages from Israel’s national carrier, El Al, after a court found that their treatment by the company’s security staff at a New York airport had been “abusive and unnecessary”.
Abdel Wahab and Abdel Aziz Shalabi were assigned a female security guard who watched over them at the airport’s departure gate for nearly two hours, in full view of hundreds of fellow passengers, after they had passed the security and baggage checks.

Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 04:57 PM PDT

Blackwater don’t believe they should ever face justice

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 04:03 PM PDT

The death penalty is a futile and heinous act but the idea that former Blackwater guards in Afghanistan won’t be paying a high price for their crimes in Afghanistan fits a sadly typical pattern: the private military firm appears to be above the law:

Israel’s Right wants to kill Haaretz once and for all

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 07:31 AM PDT

The indispensable Israeli blog Promised Land on the campaign against Haaretz (mainly because it’s not some jingoistic rag):

Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily paper, has a status that exceeds its limited circulation. Israel’s supporters who whishes to portray it as a thriving democracy give Haaretz as an example; Critics of Israel use Haaretz when claiming that the US media is too easy on Israel (”The NYT would have never printed Gidon Levy’s op-ed“). Even after suffering loses during the financial crisis and going through major cuts the paper remains the best source for information on human right issues and on Israeli politics. It is also the only Israeli newspaper to have an internet site and printed editions in both Hebrew and English.
These days, Haaretz is under attack. Rightwing groups, pundits, politicians and competing media organizations go after the paper. They accuse it of being “too liberal”, “too lefty”, even “anti-Israeli”. The attack was triggered because of the Kamm-Blau affair, but the case against Haaretz is far wider and deeper, and has a lot to do with the dangerous nationalistic mood in Israel right now.
Two articles on the front page of Maariv’s weekend edition took shots at Haaretz: Ben Dror Yemini accused the paper of aiding “the industry which demonizes and delegitimizes the State of Israel,” and Columnist Menahem Ben simply called for the paper to be shut down and its editor and publisher arrested for treason.
After the exposure of the Kamm affair, MK Michael Ben-Ari, a former student of Rabbi Kahana, cancelled his Knesset subscription for Haaretz and called interior Minister Eli Yishay to use his authority and immediately forbid the printing of Haaretz. Surprisingly enough, Ben-Ari was joined by two MK’s from Kadima: MK Israel Hason, a former Shin Beit man, called for readers to boycott Haaretz, while MK Yulia Shmuelov wrote her own letter to minister Yishay demanding Haaretz to be shut down.
Radio Host Avri Gilad said last Sunday on the IDF station that “I mourn what happened to the Left and to the Left’s journal [Haaretz]… it is making the left irrelevant in Israel… every sensible person today understand that the Left has made the state of Israel its enemy.” There wasn’t even a slight protest heard.
Haaretz, Israel’s oldest daily paper, has a status that exceeds its limited circulation. Israel’s supporters who whishes to portray it as a thriving democracy give Haaretz as an example; Critics of Israel use Haaretz when claiming that the US media is too easy on Israel (”The NYT would have never printed Gidon Levy’s op-ed“). Even after suffering loses during the financial crisis and going through major cuts the paper remains the best source for information on human right issues and on Israeli politics. It is also the only Israeli newspaper to have an internet site and printed editions in both Hebrew and English.
These days, Haaretz is under attack. Rightwing groups, pundits, politicians and competing media organizations go after the paper. They accuse it of being “too liberal”, “too lefty”, even “anti-Israeli”. The attack was triggered because of the Kamm-Blau affair, but the case against Haaretz is far wider and deeper, and has a lot to do with the dangerous nationalistic mood in Israel right now.
Two articles on the front page of Maariv’s weekend edition took shots at Haaretz: Ben Dror Yemini accused the paper of aiding “the industry which demonizes and delegitimizes the State of Israel,” and Columnist Menahem Ben simply called for the paper to be shut down and its editor and publisher arrested for treason.
After the exposure of the Kamm affair, MK Michael Ben-Ari, a former student of Rabbi Kahana, cancelled his Knesset subscription for Haaretz and called interior Minister Eli Yishay to use his authority and immediately forbid the printing of Haaretz. Surprisingly enough, Ben-Ari was joined by two MK’s from Kadima: MK Israel Hason, a former Shin Beit man, called for readers to boycott Haaretz, while MK Yulia Shmuelov wrote her own letter to minister Yishay demanding Haaretz to be shut down.
Radio Host Avri Gilad said last Sunday on the IDF station that “I mourn what happened to the Left and to the Left’s journal [Haaretz]… it is making the left irrelevant in Israel… every sensible person today understand that the Left has made the state of Israel its enemy.” There wasn’t even a slight protest heard.
And this is what rightwing columnist and editor for Jerusalem Post (who is rapidly becoming the Israeli Pravda), Caroline Glick, had to say:
“By collaborating with Kamm first by publishing her stolen documents and hiring her as a reporter, and finally by covering up her crimes while suborning Blau’s perjury, Haaretz has demonstrated that leftist traitors have a powerful sponsor capable of exacting painful revenge on the State of Israel for daring to prosecute them.
“In facilitating and supporting treason, Haaretz itself can depend on a massive network of supporters in Israel and internationally. Reporters, self-proclaimed human rights groups, and the leftist blogosphere in Israel and throughout the world as well as foreign governments happily swallow whole Haaretz’s manufactured stories about Israel’s purported venality.”
I agree with Hanoch Maramri, Haaretz’s former editor, who wrote in The 7th Eye that Haaretz will survive this attack. The paper suffered boycott attempts during the first and second Intifada, when its editors insisted on reporting cases of abuse and illegal actions by IDF soldiers. But these were different times for journalism, and the real danger is that the delicate financial situation affecting all newspapers will make Haaretz change its line a bit so it wouldn’t bleed too many readers.
Even more important is what these events teach on the current moment in Israel. Most people outside this country fail to notice it, but we are at the dangerous turning point in which words and ideas, and not just acts, are becoming illegitimate in this country, even criminal. Haaretz won’t be the last victim.

Muslims don’t like being bombed to liberation (tell the neo-cons)

Posted: 20 Apr 2010 07:06 AM PDT

Daniel Pipes can’t understand why the Obama administration is liked by more Muslims than the Bush administration. Sure, it may (mostly) be better rhetoric these days but the little matter of starting countless wars in the Middle East may have something to do with the image problem:

The New York Times ran a story today, “White House Quietly Courts Muslims in U.S.,” that contrasts the Obama and George W. Bush administration records with regard to American Muslims. The reporter, Andrea Elliott, sums up her argument with a quote from James Zogby of the Arab American Institute: “For the first time in eight years, we have the opportunity to meet, engage, discuss, disagree, but have an impact on policy.”
I don’t believe it.
Yes, Obama is bending over backwards to win Muslim opinion. But Bush did the same. In each of their cases, of course, one can find inconsistencies and exceptions, but the overall Bush record showed great concern for Muslim opinion.
Data points include the symbolic, such as Bush’s adding a Koran to the White House library and initiating celebration of the Ramadan end-of-fast. He tried to win Muslims rhetorically – thus his announcing that Islam is a “religion of peace” and his avoiding connecting Islam to violence (“war on terror”). Moreover, he took substantive steps, such as prohibiting any notice of a person’s religion in airport security and encouraging more Saudi students in the United States.
Interestingly, in covering the first Ramadan iftar at the White House in December 2001, the Times noted that Bush since 9/11 had “made extraordinary gestures to Islam.” One quote in this article by Elisabeth Bumiller nails my point:
“Maleeha Lodhi, the Pakistani ambassador to the United States, was … dazzled that the White House had a muezzin, a Muslim religious figure, who delivered the prayers before the meal. “It left me very, very moved and impressed,” Dr. Lodhi said. “The Bush White House was demonstrating its respect for Islam. … these sorts of gestures are very important to sending signals to the Muslim world.””
The Times revisionism is blatant and false.

So AIPAC isn’t reporting to a foreign entity?

Laugh or cry story of the day. From the pro-settler news service:

Two of Israel’s largest extreme-left organizations, B’Tselem and Peace Now, have been accused of potentially violating United States law by acting illegally as foreign agents. The U.S. Department of Justice has been informed of the accusations, and is looking into the matter.
The charges were raised by Attorney Lee Bender. Bender first notified the Department of Justice’s National Security Division of the potentially illegal status of Americans for Peace Now in November 2009. While awaiting the conclusions of the Justice Department, he developed concerns about B’Tselem as well and last week contacted the National Security Division to report in the group.
The Americans for Peace Now group is part of the Isreli left-wing movement that campaigns against a Jewish presence in all of the land restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Its activists often support Arab incitement as part of the “resistance.” B’Tselem is a self-acclaimed human rights group that consistently has condemned Israel for counterrorist operations against Hamas and has blamed Israel for most Arab violence.Both organizations use the Israeli Supreme Court as venue for attempting to bring about home demolitions in Judea and Samaria communities and for attempts to indict Israeli civilians and soldiers for what they term unnecessary violence in the face of perceived terrorist threats.

How unpopular globally is Israel?

A BBC study heralds good news for Obama’s America:

Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests.
For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America’s influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.
The improved scores for the US coincided with Barack Obama becoming president, a BBC correspondent notes.
As in 2009, Germany is viewed most favourably while Iran and Pakistan are seen as the most negative influences.

And then this:

Iran is the least favourably viewed nation (15%), followed by Pakistan (16%), North Korea (17%), Israel (19%) and Russia (30%).

There’s a price for a Jewish “democracy” to occupy another people for decades.

Cover your legs, ladies, an earthquake is coming

No wonder so many young Iranians are leaving the country:

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.
Iran is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric’s unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.
“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. “What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”
See: www.antonyloewenstein.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *