NOVANEWS
11/18/2010
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Will Miral be this generation’s Exodus?
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Q: Does Chomsky feel Jewish responsibility for Israel’s crimes?
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Tel Aviv dance club, November 2010
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Some animals are more equal than others
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Website publishes list/faces of Israeli officers as ‘retribution’ for Gaza onslaught
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If anti-semitism justifies ethnic cleansing, then what does anti-Palestinianism justify?
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Settler convicted of kidnapping and abusing Palestinian teen
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J Street is shunned by Reform synagogue in Newton (amid talk of ‘donors’)
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Breaking w/ Israel has helped Turkey in competition for Asian markets
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Perry: Obama’s obeisance to Netanyahu is ‘dangerous’ and of a piece with Dogan’s unprotested killing and Kagan emulating an Israeli justice
Will Miral be this generation’s Exodus?
Nov 17, 2010
Adam Horowitz
Today, I saw Julian Schnabel’s new film Miral. It won’t be arriving in theaters in the US until next March, so it will be awhile until we see what effect it has, but my initial impression was amazement at what I was watching. Here was a film following many of the conventions of a traditional Hollywood film, but this time it was telling the Palestinian liberation story (which might explain why it was not produced in Hollywood and instead was a French/Israeli/Italian/Indian co-production).
The film, based on Rula Jebreal’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, takes us from the Nakba, and children orphaned during the Deir Yassin massacre, through the first Intifada to the signing of the Oslo Accords. I know there will be criticisms, and I have a few that I’ll share later, but right now I am struck by the emotional impact of the film. You follow the lead character through checkpoints, refugee camps, home demolitions, interrogations, humiliations and protests. After that it is impossible to not understand, and feel, the Palestinian call for justice.
Many times on this site we have reflected on the 1960 film Exodus that helped form a view of Israel, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for a generation of moviegoers. It would unrealistic to expect Miral to carry a similar cultural weight, but it is resonable to draw a line connecting the two and ask whether this film might reflect a current moment where understandings of Israel/Palestine are shifting radically. It appears this thinking might not be too far from the filmmaker’s own experience. The press notes distributed at the screening quote Schnabel as saying the following:
Before I made this film, I hardly knew anything about Palestinians. But I’ve been following the story of Israel my whole life. As a child, I remember watching Exodus at Manhattan’s Rivoli Theatre with my parents. Everybody stood up when they sang Hatikvah and put their hands on their chests. My mother and father were very proud. I recently learned from my sister Andrea that my mother was President of Hadassah in Brooklyn . . . in 1948, the year of Israel’s birth. Making this film in Jerusalem allowed me to see this world for the first time, and to work with a landscape that I needed to see.
Many others need to see this landscape as well, and hopefully Miral will introduce them to it.
Q: Does Chomsky feel Jewish responsibility for Israel’s crimes?
Nov 17, 2010
Philip Weiss
Here is a great interview of the great Chomsky by David Samuels at Tablet, thoroughly exploring the roots of Chomsky’s ethnic/religious identification, which I think is largely unconscious for him. Samuels is uniquely positioned to do this, he comes out of an institutional-religious background; and so does Chomsky. I excerpt some of the religious-roots exchange below.
I am going to leave out the Walt and Mearsheimer question, you can find it at the link. It angries up my blood (as Satchel Paige said of fried food); in essence you have two ethnocentric Jews saying that Jews lack agency in American government, and had nothing to do with the decision to destroy Iraq, no that was Lockheed Martin and Intel and Goldman, Sachs, see, that’s how power works. As readers here know, I ascribe a huge part of the blame to neoconservative Jewish thinkers; and the neoconservatism is all over the liberal Jewish community because of Israel; and we can’t begin to undo the damage till we look at the role of Zionism in Jewish life.
To his credit, Samuels understands the issue of Jewish responsibility when it comes to Israel; and I am going to first quote his last questions, well-feathered arrows that expose Chomsky’s lack of reflective capacity here. Samuels:
When you speak about Israeli crimes, do you feel that you have a special responsibility to speak out as someone who comes from a specific Jewish tradition, or do you simply speak as an American?
I love Chomsky; he is Mount Rainier. But notice how Chomsky doesn’t really address the question. It doesn’t seem like he even can. Wow. And then Samuels persists and still Chomsky doesn’t touch it:
There are many factors, as always. A sufficient factor is that the United States is responsible. But of course there’s a lot more. Background. Childhood. Emotional connections. Friends. All sorts of things. But they’re kind of irrelevant to the fundamental issue, those personal things. The fundamental issue is quite simple: Every U.S. taxpayer is responsible for Israeli crimes. They can’t carry them out without the decisive military, economic, ideological, and diplomatic support of the United States. The United States destroyed Iraq. Of course that should be harshly condemned. In fact I do it much more than I talk about Israel. In the case of the Vietnam war, we basically destroyed three countries. They’ll never recover. Same with Nicaragua. Same with Cuba. Go on and on. Same with Chile. That’s what we ought to be concentrating on. Israel happens to be a subcase of a larger problem. And yes, for me personally, it’s additional things.
[Samuels again] Those additional things—namely, your parents, your childhood memories, your sense of emotional connection—
It’s all there. You can’t get out of your skin. But when we get down to the moral issue, it’s independent of one’s personal background.
So Chomsky distinguishes between his “personal background,” which he admits is part of his gestalt, and the real moral factors in human history, i.e., the United States. Are Jews the bad guy of the occupation? Samuels has asked. No, the United States is, is the answer. I believe that Roger Cohen and Tom Friedman have done better here just by saying, Israel’s conduct makes me ashamed as a Jew. Chomsky seems unable to ascribe power to Jews as Jews, or even really to talk about such attachment. And in that “personal” dismissal, every “personal” element of Jewish energy on behalf of Zionism goes out the window, from Eddie Jacobson getting into his friend Truman’s office to lobby him, Chuck Schumer screaming that the People of Israel live, Weizmann pressing Balfour after giving the English the invention of acetone to fight World War I, Louis Brandeis converting to Zionism before he got on the Supreme Court, Herzl going to the Ottoman court and dangling debt relief and PR work on your Armenia problem in the European press in exchange for Palestine. None of it matters. It’s Lockheed Martin.
Now here’s the wonderful Jewish stuff (and thanks to commenter Jim Holstun for correcting me, below)
Were there any gentiles in your parents’ world?
Practically not. In fact there weren’t even Yiddish-speaking Jews. They lived in if not a physical ghetto then in a cultural ghetto. Their friends were all people deeply involved in the revival of the Hebrew language and cultural Zionism. I happened to have some non-Jewish friends, but that’s just from school….
At the age of 10 I came to the conclusion that the God I learned about in school didn’t exist.
I remember how I did that. I remember it very well. My father’s family was super Orthodox. They came from a little shtetl somewhere in Russia. My father told me that they had regressed even beyond a medieval level. You couldn’t study Hebrew, you couldn’t study Russian. Mathematics was out of the question. We went to see them for the holidays. My grandfather had a long beard, I don’t think he knew he was in the United States. He spoke Yiddish and lived in a couple of blocks of his friends. We were there on Pesach, and I noticed that he was smoking.
So I asked my father, how could he smoke? There’s a line in the Talmud that says, ayn bein shabbat v’yom tov ela b’inyan achilah. I said, “How come he’s smoking?” He said, “Well, he decided that smoking is eating.” And a sudden flash came to me: Religion is based on the idea that God is an imbecile. He can’t figure these things out. If that’s what it is, I don’t want anything to do with it….
Did your mother also come from a religious family?
She came to America with her family when she was 1 year old. They were so religious that she told me that when she was a teenager, talking with her girlfriends on the street, if she saw her father coming toward them, she would get them to cross the street so that she didn’t have to suffer the embarrassment of having her father walk past her and not acknowledge her because she was a girl. It was a very Orthodox family. Of course, they grew up here, and the kids lost it quickly. My father came here in 1917. He and my mother shared many interests and experiences in common.
They were so dedicated. I remember friends of my father and mother, a couple of women, who when they called a department store downtown, they would insist on talking Hebrew, in the hopes of convincing them to hire a Hebrew-language operator. I mean they all spoke English. It was real dedication..
Tel Aviv dance club, November 2010
Nov 17, 2010
Philip Weiss
This photograph is by Dimi Reider at the new magazine, at 972. It is a photograph of two people at a dance bar last weekend. “That danse macabre,” he headlines it. “Partying in Tel Aviv, a dearly beloved bubble of bubbles in the midst of one of the world’s longest conflicts, can summon some poignant imagery.” On the-1000-words-is-better-than-a-picture front, Reider links to pieces by Lisa Goldman and Karl Vick to contextualize the shot.
Some animals are more equal than others
Nov 17, 2010
Shmuel Sermoneta-Gertel
In one of his posts from the Holy Land, Phil referred to an obnoxious teenager on a bus as an “ars” (Israeli slang for unsavoury young man, inevitably Mizrahi – from the Arabic word for pimp), and Avigdor “Yvette” Lieberman the “Russian” bouncer seems to be a mainstay of liberal discourse about Israel and Israeli politics these days. Phil picked up the slur “Homo Sovieticus” here (probably without grasping its significance).
These are Israeli stereotypes or, more specifically, some of the favourite stereotypes (along with those concerning the settlers and the religious) of Israel’s predominantly-Ashkenazi, secular, liberal, Zionist elite – called Ahusalim by the late Baruch Kimmerling. Apart from their appalling racism, these stereotypes also serve to perpetuate the myth of Israel’s inherent progressiveness and pre-’67 innocence (before all of these “others” came and stole “our” state from us). A good example of this self-delusion and sense of lost entitlement can be found in the recent Declaration of Independence from Fascism, published in response to the government’s proposed “loyalty oath” and other insufficiently-concealed racist bills on the Knesset calendar.
So why do those who claim to seek justice and equality for Palestinians (in the name of anti-racism) embrace racist Israeli stereotypes? Maybe it’s because so much of our information about Israel comes from Israeli sources. Or maybe it’s because we see liberal Israelis as our peers, instinctively trust them and respect their dissident voices, and have trouble separating them from our own. The ’67-paradigm reflected in the two-state solution many of us support (if only in terms of “the art of the possible”) also distinguishes between the theft that most benefited the country’s liberal elite (1948-1967), and the post-’67 theft that most benefited the Third Israel (as well as the First Israel, if only as an alternative and significantly cheaper welfare system – see Y. Shenhav, The Time of the Green Line), creating a false distinction between “good” (liberal Ashkenazi) and “bad” (Russian, Mizrahi and religious) Israelis.
There is a hierarchy of racism in Israel that permeates all discourse – even, and maybe especially, critical, left-wing discourse. Not only is it incorrect to blame Israel’s systemic discrimination on some of its (partial) victims, but to associate the ills of Israeli society – and particularly Israeli racism – with specific subgroups (Russian, Mizrahi, Religious), is in itself racist.
Website publishes list/faces of Israeli officers as ‘retribution’ for Gaza onslaught
Nov 17, 2010
Philip Weiss
Ali Abunimah reports that a website called Israeliwarcriminals has published a “pirated” list of names/faces of Israeli officers it says took part in the Gaza onslaught of two years ago, thereby defying Israeli government bars on such publication. Not all the officers are photographed. (Kawther Salam published a less extensive list two years ago.) Abunimah says that facebook has blocked publication of the list. The website asserts that the list was leaked, and that it is publishing it as a form of “retribution.” More chilling words:
In underlining them we are purposefully directing attention to individuals rather than the static structures through which they operate. We are aligning people with actions. It is to these persons and others, Like them, to which we must object and bring our plaints to bear upon… do your bit so that this virtual list may come to bear upon the physical.
P.S. The Goldstone Report insisted on accountability for the war crimes of Gaza in order to preserve the integrity of international law and make sure another Gaza doesn’t happen. Nothing happened; Israel has enjoyed impunity for the killings of 300+ children in 22 days. So here comes an internet vigilante, is it really so surprising?
If anti-semitism justifies ethnic cleansing, then what does anti-Palestinianism justify?
Nov 17, 2010
Ahmed Moor
Jerome Slater tries to make the claim that Zionism isn’t racism. Many of the commenters who responded to his post presented more eloquent and knowledgeable arguments than I can, so I’ll keep it brief.
According to Slater, Zionism isn’t racism because it’s just Jewish nationalism.
Likewise, White nationalism isn’t racism. It’s the legitimate expression of White people’s cultural aspirations. Furthermore, it doesn’t take land inhabited by non-whites as its geographical locus – which Zionism does.
Don’t bother bandying about any inconvenient quotes by David Duke either. The Zionists have equipped me with more than enough to win that contest. Here’s a pretty good one issued by that humanitarian Theodor Herzl:
“We can be the vanguard of culture against barbarianism.”
Sweet. Nothing racist in that.
Slater writes that the term racism “must include the belief that other races or peoples are inferior to one’s own.” But Zionism is predicated upon just that belief. This isn’t immediately clear, so I’ll explain why that’s true.
What kind of person says “I’m going to pick up today and ethnically cleanse a tract of land so people like me can settle there?”
That person necessarily regards his right to the land as superior to the other who lives there. When that right is predicated on racial differences it’s racism. Think of it this way: My right to this land as a Jew is superior to this Arab’s claim because I’m a Jew and he’s not. I have superior rights to the land based on my chosenness, itself a hallmark of my superiority.
Don’t bother arguing that the first Zionists were secular either. If their claim to Palestine wasn’t notarized by God, then how did they presume to ethnically cleanse the land of its indigenous inhabitants? Ah, yes. They were white men who could bring culture and industry and civilize the place.
“We can be the vanguard of culture against barbarism.”
To be perfectly clear, Zionism in principle is a racist dogma. For Zionism to succeed, lesser races had to be ethnically cleansed so the Jews could settle exclusively amongst Jews. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which was perpetrated by Zionists on a racial basis, was wrong and should never have happened.
There’s no need to belabor the point. Slater and others like him can dogmatically resist the prima facie truth, but that doesn’t make it any less true.
Slater belongs to a different generation. And I’m sympathetic to those – like Abraham Foxman – whose every breath is belabored by the bitter ashes of the Holocaust. I wonder if I’d be the same kind of Zionist if I was a Jew of their generation. Probably, I’d be just as aggressive.
Slater’s argument that anti-Semitism in the West is latent and unpredictable is rational given his historical experience. I wouldn’t be surprised if John Hagee and his acolytes are readying for the first sign of red heifer. American Jews are in a better position to evaluate that threat than I am.
But what if I too were to reserve the right to recede into nationalist self-love, chauvinism and fear? The Jewish people have a right to their state because of anti-Semitism. Fine. Likewise, the Palestinian people have a right to their state because of Zionist anti-Palestinianism. And since the Zionists refuse to vacate Mandate Palestine peacefully, we must overwhelm them in every way possible.
I would argue that the methods that were right for the Zionists in 1948 because of anti-Semitism are right for us today because of Zionist anti-Palestinianism. If we cannot ethnically cleanse them with our guns, we’ll overwhelm them with our superior birth rates. Maybe, if we can keep their numbers to about 20% of the total, we’ll think about integrating them into our state.
Slater can hew to Zionism. He can seek to justify a racist, atavistic, race-peculiar ideology for the rest of his life. But he should be grateful that those of us who are taking control refuse to do so.
Settler convicted of kidnapping and abusing Palestinian teen
Nov 17, 2010
Seham
and other news from Today in Palestine:
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
8th Week against the Apartheid Wall, November 9 – 16 2010
Beit Ommar National Committee Member Released From Prison
On Tuesday November 16th, Eyad Jamil Al Alami was released from prison. He was arrested on Monday, October 11th, 2010, when Israeli Forces raided Beit Ommar and arrested him. After three days he was taken to military court, there was no defense possible due to presence of a secret file from the Israeli military that neither Eyad or his lawyer have access to. He was sentenced to four months of administrative detention but they were forced to release him since there was no evidence to keep him there.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2010/11/16/beit-ommar-national-committee-member-released-from-prison/
‘Palestine, and the livin aint easy’–Israeli boycotters strike Tel Aviv opera, Philip Weiss
The ground really is shifting. Here’s incredible video from Israel of Israeli boycott activists trying to submarine the Cape Town Opera House’s performance of “Porgy and Bess” in Tel Aviv last night. Boycott apartheid! they sing. Note the big turnout of activists, the inspiring songs. Ynet reports 40 activists. Wow. This is inside Israel. And it’s civil society: people of conscience around the world waking up to the humiliation and dispossession and statelessness of the Palestinians– and seeing that they can take action.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/palestine-and-the-livin-aint-easy-israeli-boycotters-strike-tel-aviv-opera.html
Settler protest: Strike and anti-PM clip
(Video) West Bank Jews to strike against renewing settlement construction freeze; animated clip released showing weak PM ‘eaten’ by US President ‘Hussein’ Obama.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985681,00.html
Abuse of Palestinian Children
Settler convicted of kidnapping, abusing Palestinian teen
Shiloh resident Zvi Struk kidnapped 15-year-old boy, beat him and left him naked, blindfolded and bound in field. Yesh Din: Most Palestinian complaints end without indictment.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985625,00.html
Siege/Humanitarian Issues/Rights Violations/Restriction of Movement
100-year-old refugee gets new Gaza home in time for Eid
The four-member Abu Daher family lived their happiest day yet since Israeli army bulldozers crushed their cement home almost two years ago during Israel’s massive assault on the Gaza Strip. Rami Almeghari reports from Gaza.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11627.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Racism and Discrimination
South Tel Aviv residents call for expelling foreigners from neighborhood
Emergency meeting assembled following the Friday murder of an Eritrean woman by her husband in the Hatikvah neighborhood.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/south-tel-aviv-residents-call-for-expelling-foreigners-from-neighborhood-1.325092?localLinksEnabled=false
Political “Developments”
Palestinians and Arab League likely to reject US proposal
According to Maan News, a proposal from the United States for a 90-day temporary freeze on construction in Israeli West Bank settlements might not be enough to entice the Palestinians into renewing Middle East peace talks.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59916
‘No tension between Israel and U.S. over settlement freeze assurances’
State Department declines to comment on whether letter will be forthcoming, says willing to make every effort to return sides to talks.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/no-tension-between-israel-and-u-s-over-settlement-freeze-assurances-1.325069?localLinksEnabled=false
Clash with U.S. over terms of settlement freeze stalls cabinet vote
Disagreements rose from American desire to remain vague over whether it will seek another freeze three months from now.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/clash-with-u-s-over-terms-of-settlement-freeze-stalls-cabinet-vote-1.325081?localLinksEnabled=false
Israel demands written US guarantees before freeze
Official says Netanyahu will not present Cabinet with American proposal for renewal of settlement construction moratorium until he receives written security guarantees. Likud MK: We cannot sell our national interests.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985647,00.html
Israeli official: US plan for Mideast hits snag (AP)
AP – An Israeli official said Tuesday that an expected ministerial vote on a U.S. proposal for restarting Mideast peace talks has been put on hold.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians
Likud rebels gathering Knesset signatures for anti-freeze protest letter
Right-wing Knesset members demand that Netanyahu fulfill promises he made to them that West Bank building will not be frozen again.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/likud-rebels-gathering-knesset-signatures-for-anti-freeze-protest-letter-1.325020?localLinksEnabled=false
Report: Lieberman bureau tried to meddle in Foreign Ministry appointment
Channel 2 says Foreign Minister attempted to change criteria for cultural attache at Israel’s Moscow embassy, effectively disqualifying one of two final candidates.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/report-lieberman-bureau-tried-to-meddle-in-foreign-ministry-appointment-1.325055?localLinksEnabled=false
Other News
Rep. Gohmert Doesn’t Like “Illegal Palestinian Settlements”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ls2R3NsvCw&feature=player_embedded
Congress must pass legislation to protect Jewish students from anti-semitic harassment
Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) introduced legislation last week that would require that Jewish students be protected from harassment and intimidation on their campuses.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/civil-rights/121973-congress-must-pass-legislation-to-protect-jewish-students-from-anti-semitic-harassment
IDF freezes service deferrals for volunteering due to enlistment drop
Decrease in number of army recruits is due primarily to rise in number of ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who don’t serve at all.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-freezes-service-deferrals-for-volunteering-due-to-enlistment-drop-1.325078?localLinksEnabled=false
Palestinian Economy Is Booming, Thanks to Foreign Aid
In a sign of the new prosperity, the West Bank gets it first five-star hotel – and Gaza’s in line to get one, too. In the lobby, a pair of workers is hanging large portrait photographs of Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, while outside a construction scaffolding sits close by the front entrance, but otherwise the West Bank’s first five-star hotel is open for business. Banners advertising the Palestinian stock exchange’s annual conference in the grand ballroom adorn centerpieces, while smartly dressed women and men in dark business suits mingle over drinks. Indeed, the demand for conference space is so strong that the Ramallah-based Movenpick Hotel began hosting them before weeks before its first guests checked in.
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=30550
After FBI came to his door in ‘04, AIPAC staffer promptly called Israeli embassy, Philip Weiss
Grant Smith has long argued that AIPAC should have to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Well here is a snippet from Smith’s eyebrow-raising report on depositions in the 2009 lawsuit against AIPAC by former staffer Steve Rosen. You’ll remember that Rosen was indicted in 2005 by the Justice Department under the Espionage Act– a case that the government has since dropped– and that Rosen is suing AIPAC for millions because he felt that the lobby defamed him and hung him out to dry.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/after-fbi-came-to-his-door-aipac-staffer-promptly-called-israeli-embassy.html
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
The myth of American pressure
The conventional wisdom is that when Washington has exerted pressure on Israeli governments they have eventually succumbed to American demands. However, a closer reading of the historical record and declassified American archival documents reveals a more complex dynamic between the two allies.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11629.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
A modest proposal for the Middle East peace talks, Stephen M. Walt
I’ve been trying to figure what I think of the latest attempt to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. For the most part I agree with FP colleague Marc Lynch — it’s hard to see how this is going to lead anywhere. Even if you get a 90-day extension of the partial freeze on settlement building, nobody thinks you can get a viable final-status agreement in that time period. The best you could hope for is some sort of agreement on borders, but even there I’d be pretty pessimistic.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/16/a_modest_proposal_for_the_middle_east_peace_talks
America must draw a map for Palestine
But let’s say we do get back to the talks, there is no reason to believe Israelis and Palestinians can agree on those borders between them in direct or indirect talks, in ninety days or nine thousand days. The history of this conflict leaves no hope the parties can settle such a difficult issue between them. Left to decide the border line, Israelis and Palestinians will never get there. After all, these are very hard choices to make. Bibi will be telling thousands of Israelis they are homeless. The Palestinians will be losing land they have lived in for centuries. With generations of hate and mistrust between them, an agreement between the parties is a mirage. Yet after almost two decades of American–brokered Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, including the Camp David summit in 2000, it is abundantly clear what those borders will look like if we are ever to get a deal. They will be based on the 1948 armistice line with adjustments to put some of the largest Israeli settlements inside Israel, matched by swaps of equivalent pieces of territory given to the Palestinians from pre-1967 Israel. In Jerusalem the city would be split along the simple proposition of what is Jewish is Israel and what is Arab is Palestine.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2010/11/america-must-draw-map-for-palestine.html
But what if the Palestinians are the victims?, Philip Weiss
Roger Cohen praises Fayyad, and pushes the Obama-Clinton efforts. The settlement deal with Netanyahu is “positive but a detail.” (I’m not sure what he means by that.) His take on the Palestinian change of attitude reminds me a little of patronizing comments on lamentable Jewish attitudes of yesteryear. Of course then we got the IDF! But really I don’t know that it is self-pitying and a cult of victimhood for people to talk about the denial of their basic rights for six decades.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/but-what-if-the-palestinians-are-the-victims.html
Israel’s loyalty oath
“Even Ehud Barak attempted to add to the Loyalty Oath the declaration of independence, he did not differ from Avigdor Lieberman, and certainly not from Benjamin Netanyahu. He only strengthened the tight connection between the law and the declaration of independence. And indeed all the Zionist parties, including SHAS, revolve around the contradictory model of a “Jewish and democratic state”, when it is obvious that the country being Jewish must come at the expense of it being democratic. Jewishness, that is race and ethnicity as outlined in religion, is an essential element to reciving equal rights in Israel. That means that the new law makes clear to non-Jews who wish to join that they will be doing so as inferior tenants and that the Jewish Israeli society is built on the basis of religious purity of blood, or strict religious practice. Therefore, Israel, despite its statments, is essentially a Jewish nation and is not democratic. It is one who occupies another nation while discriminating against its Arab citizens. In fact, most of the parties agree to this. Therefore the difference between them and Lieberman is only in that he does what they appear to suppress but in essence, and with a wink, approve. That is, they don’t object but prefer to hide behind a mask of democracy. So Minister Yitzhak Herzog’s opposition to the law isn’t opposition to the disastrous concept of a “Jewish and democratic” country, but opposition to the concept being openly revealed.” (Translated by Lia Tarachansky)
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/israels-loyalty-oath.html
Dishonesty and East Jerusalem, Henry Siegman
|In response to President Barack Obama’s criticism of Israel’s most recently announced building plans in East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman made the following statements on behalf of the Prime Minister: “Jerusalem is not a settlement.” “Jerusalem is the capital of the State of Israel.” “Israel never agreed to limit its construction in any way in Jerusalem.” “Israel sees no connection at all between the peace process and building plans in Jerusalem.” Most, if not all, of these views have since been repeated by Netanyahu himself.
http://nationalinterest.org/node/4395
This Congress won’t give Obama a free pass on Israel
The new Congress can be expected to be openly supportive of Israel. That means that if the president were to resume his tactic of pressuring Israel he will find himself in opposition to many in the Congress.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/this-congress-won-t-give-obama-a-free-pass-on-israel-1.324945
Cantor Recants, MJ Rosenberg
It is Cantor’s statement of loyalty to Netanyahu that is the shocker. Specifically, it is his promise that he would ensure that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives “will serve as a check” on U.S. Middle East policy.
http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201011150008
The Real Obama-Clinton Game Plan For Israel/Palestine?, Alan Hart
My speculation here will convince many that I have taken leave of my senses – is that Obama might have an ace up his sleeve.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26838.htm
Middle East’s Only Democracy Crushes Dissent, Tammy Obeidallah
Ever since becoming an activist on behalf of Palestine some ten years ago, I have found ironic humor in the label, ‘The Middle East’s Only Democracy’ used by American policymakers and media in describing the Jewish State. This statement is erroneous on two counts. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of a democracy knows that Israelis overwhelmingly shun the values associated with such a system; furthermore quite a few countries in the Middle East hold elections regularly. Most recently, Jordan elected a new parliament.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16422
Bush at Large, Ralph Nader
George W. Bush is on a roll—a money roll with a $7 million advance for his book Decision Points and a rehabilitation roll to paint his war crimes as justifiable mass-slaughter and torture. His carefully chosen interviewers—NBC’s Matt Lauer and Oprah Winfrey—agreed to a safe pre-taping to avoid demonstrations and tough questions. Requests for him to speak are pouring in from business conventions and other rich assemblages willing to pay $200,000 for “the Decider’s” banalities. This is “Shrub’s” month in the sun.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16423
Me, Myself & أنا
I remember this once I got in a cab in Beijing. The driver was naturally curious; asked where I was from. I told him that I was Arab-American. He began to laugh. I accommodated his laughter with a forced grin, while trying to figure out what was so funny. He then semi-sobered up from his laughter and said: “How can you be Arab-American? Does that mean you wage war against yourself?”, It’s one of those Kungfu Panda moments, when the least expected incident reveals an epiphany. How can I be an Arab and an American at the same time? Before then, I didn’t give it much thought. The identity “Arab-American” just vibrated out of my vocal cords so naturally. Then I began to wonder: surely I must feel I’m a little bit more of one over the other, no? Or are the two identities malleable, each perching on its fitted branch (like I’m more Arab when hanging out with other Arabs, but more American when hanging out with monolingual Americans)?
http://www.kabobfest.com/2010/11/me-myself-ana.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+kabobfest%2FGrillMe+%28KABOBfest%29
Lebanon
Moussawi to Al-Manar: Hezbollah Prepared for all STL Scenarios
15/11/2010 What could happen in case the Saudi-Syrian ongoing efforts to resolve the Lebanese crisis fail? What if the American-Israeli scheme takes place and Hezbollah members were indicted in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s case? One thing is certain, according to all Hezbollah officials. The Resistance party is prepared for all scenarios. In any case, Hezbollah won’t remain silent and therefore, it’s impossible to expect the Resistance party to accept an accusation of involvement in Hariri’s murder, under any pretext.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=162332&language=en
Russia to gift Lebanon with arms, military supplies to bolster army
Russian announcement follows U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs lifting ban on giving $100 million in military assistance to the Lebanese army.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/russia-to-gift-lebanon-with-arms-military-supplies-to-bolster-army-1.325090?localLinksEnabled=false
Stand by Hariri: the New York Times hearts (Israel over) Lebanon
The New York Times today expressed strong support for mini-Hariri and the lousy tribunal for his lousy dead daddy. Let me say this: it suffices for the New York Times to support the Hariri tribunal for me to fiercely oppose it. The paper, like other Zionist outlets, does not take a stance that is not based on the interest of Zionist aggression. Let me make it clear: I have been fiercely opposed to the tribunal from day one believing–let me use the classical wooden language that so upset rightists and Wahhabi columnists–that it is a US-Zionist plot aimed at defeating enemies of Israel in Lebanon. Look at the language…
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/stand-by-hariri-new-york-times-hearts.html
Oxford Analytica: “Ashkenazi smoking something on Hezbollah ‘coup d’etat'”
Israeli army chief Gabi Ashkenazi has warned of the risk of a Hizbollah coup in Lebanon in the event that its members are indicted by the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon, according to an army statement today. Local media close to Hizbollah have speculated that the group may launch a military takeover if Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri refuses to denounce the tribunal, which is investigating the assassination of his father, former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Tensions have escalated in recent months over the expected indictments, and Hizbollah has warned that cooperation with the tribunal will be considered equivalent to an attack on the movement. Cooperative regional efforts to find a solution to the crisis, and to moderate Hizbollah’s response, appear to be having little success. A military takeover is unlikely — the costs would be too high — although a ‘soft’ takeover is plausible; Hizbollah and its allies could withdraw from the government, paralysing Hariri’s cabinet and hoping for a parliamentary majority which would strengthen their position in the formation of a new government. However, such an outcome may be avoided, since the group is aware that there is little the tribunal can do to enforce its indictments.
http://friday-lunch-club.blogspot.com/2010/11/oxford-analytica-ashkenazi-smoking.html
Israel may give up border village
Israel’s cabinet will meet on Wednesday, and is expected to approve a plan which could leave a border village split down the middle. Ghajar is currently occupied by Israel but under an agreement with the UN, the northern half could be given to Lebanon. As Sherine Tadros explains, it’s just the latest twist for the village, which will have had three owners in the past half century.
Communist Party slams ‘deliberate’ education slip
BEIRUT: The Secretary General of the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), Khaled Haddade, called Monday for combating what he called a deliberate decline in the quality of national education. He made his remarks during the launch of a LCP youth conference and said “the government is executing an educational plan in the dark.”
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=121616
Iraq
Tuesday: 5 Iraqis Killed, 2 Wounded
Sunni Iraqis who did not travel to Mecca observed Eid al-Adha at home today, while Shi’ite Iraqis must wait until tomorrow. The holiday either reduced violence or prevented reports from reaching the news wires, as the only reported attacks occurred in Mosul. At least five Iraqis were killed there and two more were wounded in the last day or so. The government did take steps to protect the public during the Eid, including deploying about 28,000 security personnel in Diyala province.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/11/16/tuesday-5-iraqis-killed-2-wounded/
INTERVIEW-Iraq’s Talabani sees Sunni bloc joining govt
PARIS, Nov 16 (Reuters) – An Iraqi government supported by the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc will be set up but it is unclear whether its leader will be part of the new Shi’ite-led coalition administration, President Jalal Talabani said on Tuesday.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6AF1F8.htm
U.S. & Other World News
US urged to probe torture claims
New UN expert on torture says US must conduct full investigation into detainee abuse abroad and hold those accountable.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/11/20101116193419500562.html
Gruesome Find Told at US Hearing into Afghan Killings
If proved in a full court martial, the crimes would be among the worst committed by US forces in Afghanist.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26840.htm
US Torture Victims To Receive Payouts Of Up To £1Million
British former inmates of Guantanamo Bay are to set to receive large payments from the Government to drop claims that British secret agents knew they were being tortured.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/guantanamo-inmates-set-to-receive-payouts-of-up-to-1631m-2135132.html
CIA renditions unlawful: Amnesty
European governments should not follow the United States’ reluctance to shed light on unlawful intelligence operations carried out against suspected Islamist terrorists, Amnesty International said in a report published on Monday.
http://www.news24.com/World/News/CIA-renditions-unlawful-Amnesty-20101115
EU criticised for ‘complicity’ in CIA rendition programmes
Amnesty International says EU has failed to hold Britain and other countries accountable for involvement in the CIA’s illegal rendition and detention.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/15/eu-criticised-europe-complicity-us-rendition
Bush Can’t Travel Abroad Without Risking Arrest
The confessed waterboarder is a marked man. If he travels abroad, other countries can—and should—nab him and try him for the crime of torture.
http://www.progressive.org/wx111510.html
Nato chief says there is no alternative to staying in Afghanistan
His comments came as Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan’s president, said intrusive foreign military operations in Afghan communities were exacerbating the threat from the Taliban.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8135247/Nato-chief-says-there-is-no-alternative-to-staying-in-Afghanistan.html
Holbrooke denies exit strategy for Afghanistan
Special US representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, on Monday said there will be some drawdown of American troops in Afghanistan next year but the US combat mission will not end until 2014.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C11%5C16%5Cstory_16-11-2010_pg7_28
Report: US preparing for extensive Yemen operation
The US is planning an extensive military operation against Al-Qaeda in Yemen, Washington is moving military and intelligence forces in order to aid US and Yemeni military strikes against Al Qaeda targets.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985538,00.html
US Propose New Bases In Yemen
The proposed bases would vary in size, but could each accommodate scores of troops, including specialized Yemeni commando units, which are trained by the U.S
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704658204575610623765564574.html#printMode
US sanctions weaves big trouble for Persian rugs
The US has imposed economic sanctions against Iran for nearly 30 years and the trade barriers have created problems for Iranian businesses. The import and export sector is among the most affected, including in some unusual areas such as the carpet industry. The latest round of sanctions has made trading in Persian rugs illegal, which by extension will hurt the traditional weavers in Iran. Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey reports from New Jersey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui6zg_O44HA&feature=youtube_gdata
More Reasons to Hate the TSA
Designed to confuse citizens and indoctrinate them to the idea that they should unquestioningly submit to absurd directives from authorities. It’s how you control a populace.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26843.htm
US airport body scanners condemned
New security measures amount to ‘virtual strip searches’ and ‘breast groping’, critics and some travelers say.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/11/20101116211244546623.html
Beyond the Mosque: Bloomberg and New York’s Muslims, Alex Kane
The following article originally appeared in the Gotham Gazette, an online-only publication focusing on New York City government and politics: When Mayor Michael Bloomberg strongly defended the proposed Islamic community center and mosque near Ground Zero last August even as polls showed most New Yorkers opposed the project, he garnered some favorable media coverage and praise for his stance.
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/beyond-the-mosque-bloomberg-and-new-yorks-muslims/
$17m Islamophobic push during 2008 campaign is tied to shadowy figure in Israel lobby, Philip Weiss
Salon’s Justin Elliott is on the trail of the mysterious donor who funded the wide distribution of an Islamophobic film, “Obsession,” during the 2008 campaign, to the tune of $17 million. And he suspicions someone who’s in the Israel lobby: Barry Seid, whose name shows up on an IRS filing by the film’s distributor, Clarion.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/17m-islamophobic-push-during-2008-campaign-is-tied-to-shadowy-figure-in-israel-lobby.html
Syrian bloggers brace for fresh blow to Middle East press freedom
A Syrian law awaiting parliamentary approval is one of a raft of measures across the region to clamp down on a surge in Internet activity over the past decade.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/WFOv8oOTdkY/Syrian-bloggers-brace-for-fresh-blow-to-Middle-East-press-freedom
Sectarian violence in south Egypt
At least 10 houses have been burnt down in a confrontation between Christians and Muslims in southern Egypt.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-11768330
Indonesia condemns maid torture
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has demanded justice for the “extraordinary torture” of an Indonesian maid in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-asia-pacific-11764129
www.TheHeadlines.org
J Street is shunned by Reform synagogue in Newton (amid talk of ‘donors’)
Nov 17, 2010
Philip Weiss
Astonishing. A J Street event is cancelled by a Reform Newton synagogue due to fierce opposition by a small group inside the congregation. And they have money. This is why Barney Frank has said that he can’t come out against settlements. In the most “liberal” district in the country. Because neoconservatism is deeply embedded in American Jewish life out of concern for Israel’s security.
Again this shows how you cannot reform these militant ethnocentric attitudes inside Jewish life. Universalist Jews must make coalitions with Palestinians, realists, non-Jews, anyone who cares about human rights– to take on the intolerant attitudes within Jewish life.Note the Ben-Ami money quote. Lisa Wangsness:
Rabbi Keith Stern, who has led Temple Beth Avodah for more than 13 years, said a “small, influential group’’ within the congregation voiced strong opposition to hosting the event. Synagogue leaders decided to cancel after “an agonizing process,’’ he said, because they felt the controversy would “threaten the fabric of the congregation.’’
“The understanding was that it was going to be what I considered to be an honest and open conversation with a liberal Jewish organization, but I clearly did not understand how deep the antipathy is among a group within the Jewish community toward J Street and toward Jeremy Ben-Ami,’’ he said….
[Ben-Ami] “My reaction is really one of sadness that this is the state of the conversation in some parts of the Jewish community,’’ he said. “That a small handful of zealous donors to an institution can prevent a larger community from an open and honest conversation is a real shame.’’
(Thanks to commenter bijou.)
Breaking w/ Israel has helped Turkey in competition for Asian markets
Nov 17, 2010
Philip Weiss
This is interesting. Risk analyst Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia group was on Charlie Rose two nights back describing the struggle between market capitalism and state capitalism, US v China. My sense is that risk analysts are cold fish who assess the geopolitical business climate without regard to the moral struggle; and there was a bright thread through Bremmer’s comments that Israel is just getting in the way, and also that the Palestinian story has merit.
Bremmer excerpts begin with his take on the advantages of China’s state capitalism, and then to Turkey’s game:
Chinese corporations– the nature of their relationship between the state capitalist Chinese system and a free-market, if-badly-regulated, American system– is really changing the playing field…
CHARLIE ROSE: Have they had an unfair advantage?
IAN BREMMER [not taking sides]: You know, I think that the narrative between the United States and China is increasingly becoming as disparate as the narrative between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
CHARLIE ROSE: In what way?
IAN BREMMER: To answer your question of whether or not they’ve had an unfair advantage, you listen to Hillary Clinton and Obama, you’re going to hear them talking a lot not just about currency, but they’re going to say we want a level playing field. Right?
Look at this table. We want a level playing field. What do we mean when we say we want a level playing field? We want the Chinese to operate by the same rules we do. What we’re really saying is that we want the way that corporations have been operating in China, we want that to continue to be the case. We want to continue to be able to operate business as normal. …
Now here’s Bremmer on Turkey:
So what’s going on in Turkey?
IAN BREMMER: I think Turkey’s doing exceptionally well. First point is —
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s self-evident. Just look at the numbers.
IAN BREMMER: Yes, but strategically they couldn’t have picked a better time to cut themselves from loose from Europe and move toward the Middle East.
CHARLIE ROSE: What’s the indication they’ve cut themselves loose. What’s the indication they’ve cut themselves loose?
IAN BREMMER: I think first of all a bunch of statements you see by Erdogan and the rest in terms of —
CHARLIE ROSE: What would be exhibit one?
IAN BREMMER: A willingness to focus on Islam as a legitimating factor in the Turkish government, which I think is clearly anathema to a continental Europe which is becoming only more concerned about Islamic immigration and non-integration within their countries. I think that the turn of the Turkish government directly away from Israel and the willingness to break off diplomatic relations with the Israelis — what the Turks are doing is saying, look, we know where the economic growth is going to be. It’s in the Middle East.
We want to play a leadership role. Iraq is the most exciting investment story in this entire part of the world and the Turks are betting positioned to take advantage of it than anybody else.
