MONDOWEISS ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

11/16/2010

• Right-wing Israel advocacy group StandWithUs attacks Jewish Voice for Peace meeting with pepper spray

• $3 billion in fighter jets to Israel: reward or bribe?

• US government offers Israel $1-billion-a-month weapons deal for another temporary settlement freeze

• Two Jewish groups at Columbia U regret to inform you that they can’t hear John Ging’s news from Gaza

• Lesson from Japan: a review of John Dower’s Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq

• Young rabbi told Jewish Federations that young Jews are walking away from their community over Israel

• In any rational order, Lieberman would be a doorman

• Foxman: American Jews should shut up about Israeli policy and fall into line

• Fayyad plan: Eat, drink, go to the toilet and shut up

• Milbank’s progress

Right-wing Israel advocacy group StandWithUs attacks Jewish Voice for Peace meeting with pepper spray

Nov 15, 2010

Adam Horowitz

 

From a JVP press release:

Last night, up to a dozen members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs, a right-wing Israeli advocacy group with a documented track record of aggressively taunting and intimidating grassroots peace activists, attended a Bay Area Jewish Voice for Peace community meeting at a South Berkeley Senior Center with the intention of disrupting, intimidating and possibly assaulting Jewish Voice for Peace members. Jewish Voice for Peace is the largest U.S. Jewish peace group dedicated to a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on democracy and full equality — the Bay Area chapter is the founding chapter of the organization. Approximately 50 to 60 people were at the meeting, and you can read eyewitness testimonies here and here.

Wrapped in an Israeli flag, San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs (SFVI/SWU) member Robin Dubner, an Oakland based attorney, pepper-sprayed two JVP members in the eyes and face after they attempted to nonviolently block her ability to aggressively videotape the faces of JVP meeting attendees against their will. The members, Alexei Folger and Glen Hauer, were careful to make no physical contact with her or her camera prior to the attack.

Folger said, “I did not see it coming and all of a sudden there was gooey stuff all over my head and hand. I have never been pepper-sprayed before, my whole head felt like it was on fire.”

JVP had earlier this year filed a police report about a June SFVI/SWU protest at which JVP and (peace group) Women in Black members were intimidatingly videotaped and threatened by a StandWithUs supporter after being taunted with chants like “Nazi, Nazi, Nazi” or “Kapo,Kapo,Kapo”. Caught on a widely seen videotape was a SFVI/SWU supporter pointing his camera to the faces of silent peace vigil participants while saying “You’re all being identified, every last one of you…we will find out where you live. We’re going to make your lives difficult. We will disrupt your families…”

For that reason, JVP members were particularly concerned about protecting the safety of meeting attendees and preventing the videotaping.

Hauer, a retired attorney and member of San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’har Zahav who was treated for pepper spray explained, ”When one of the intruders [Dubner] continued standing and filming people despite the facilitator and facility manager repeatedly telling her that she could not, I first asked her politely to please put away the video camera, then several times told her to put away the camera, and then tried nonviolently to stay in front of the camera with my body. I could have taken the camera but decided instead to talk to the woman and to try to be the only person she photographed.”

Hauer, who also leads groups on healing from WWII & the Holocaust, and speaks to churches about anti-Semitism as it relates to the movement for peace in the Middle East, went on:

“In my mind was the history targeting of Jewish peace activists by the right wing of the Jewish community–the posting of our photos on internet hate sites, for example, followed by acts of vandalism at our homes and places of work.  There were many in the room for whom I care deeply.  I could also see that many at the meeting were new to the work we were doing, and I did not want them to be scared away.”

Dubner was accompanied by up to a dozen other StandWithUs members–including Susan Meyers, Mike Harris, Bea Lieberman, Faith Meltzer, and Ross Meltzer–who repeatedly disrupted and aggressively videotaped the JVP meeting and JVP members against their will, wielding the cameras in an intimidating and belligerent manner. Despite repeated requests from the JVP meeting facilitator and other JVP activists to desist from recording and put away their videocameras, the SFVI/SWU activists – who had spread themselves throughout the room – continued to record and launch lengthy monologues while the presenters attempted to speak.

They were explicitly invited by the JVP facilitator to stay in the meeting and participate without videotaping but they refused. They also refused offers for floor time by the presenters. The manager of the facility asked the SFVI/SWU members to abide by JVP’s rules or face the police, and when SFVI/SWU refused to comply with JVP’s protocol, the police were called.

At one point, JVP members and presenters worked to restore calm and de-escalate by singing the Hebrew peace song, Od Yavo Shalom Aleinu (Peace will come to us) while waiting for the police to arrive. Most meeting attendees did not know until later that 2 people had been attacked with pepper spray.

When police arrived, Dubner was temporarily placed in handcuffs while other members of San Francisco Voice for Israel/StandWithUs remained inside the meeting blowing loud whistles, using videocameras to intimidate meeting attendees.

Dubner refused repeated requests by JVP members or the police to identify the substance she sprayed. A police officer later identified it as pepper spray and paramedics were called to help treat the victims of the attack. One of them, Alexei Folger, looked visibly red and swollen, as though she had been burned on more than half her face.

Immediately following the attack, Ms. Folger, not knowing the nature of the substance on her face, rubbed some of it on Ms. Dubner’s shirtsleeve at which point the physically powerful Ms.Dubner, who also wore a pen videocamera in her shirt pocket, started physically shoving the petite Ms. Folger. A Jewish Voice for Peace staff member stood between them to prevent further escalation or physical contact between Ms Dubner and the shocked and injured Ms. Folger.

This deliberate confrontation is part of a pattern of escalating intimidation and attacks against peace activists in the Bay Area. Earlier this year, the home of Tikkun Magazine editor Michael Lerner was covered in threatening posters. In addition to the videotaped harassment of Women in Black and JVP members, several months ago someone grafiited outside of the JVP  offices “Jewish Voices for Palestine: Viva Barch Goldstein.”

$3 billion in fighter jets to Israel: reward or bribe?

Nov 15, 2010

Léa Park

 

The New York Times published two articles over the weekend with almost identical headlines.  The first, by Mark Landler, quotes an “official” (with no clue as to which government, Israeli or US, that official represents) characterizing $3 billion worth of military aid to Israel as contingent on a signed peace agreement. The second article, posted later in the day by Ethan Bonner, unequivocally identifies its sources as “Israeli officials”, who spin things quite differently.  Their description of the terms under which US taxpayers would provide Israel with an “extra”  $3 Billion payout looks like nothing so much as a foolish bribe:  $33 million a day for a  90-day moratorium on settlements, settlements which are, moreover, all illegal under International law!

So what is actually being proposed here?  Incentives for a quick dash toward a final settlement on borders?   Or a diplomatic blunder that will give the state of Israel more time to continue establishing “facts on the ground”, “facts” that, like Britain’s imperial settlements in Northern Ireland in the 17th century, and the Ottomans’ in the Balkans dating as early as the 14th, will succeed in only one thing–  inflaming regional and global conflict for many more generations to come?  

We should all stay tuned.

(Relevant excerpts are highlighted below)

Netanyahu Agrees to Push for Freeze in Settlements

By MARK LANDLER

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has agreed to push his cabinet to freeze most construction on settlements in the West Bank for 90 days to break an impasse in peace negotiations with the Palestinians, an official briefed on talks between the United States and Israel said Saturday evening.

In return, the Obama administration has offered Israel a package of security incentives and fighter jets worth $3 billion that would be contingent on the signing of a peace agreement, the official said.    …

and

Netanyahu Agrees to Push Freeze on New Settlements

By ETHAN BRONNER

…  The details that have been made public so far include 20 fighter jets…

Israeli officials said the planes, worth some $3 billion, were part of an American commitment to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge. They would be provided if the 90-day freeze were agreed but irrespective of a final signed deal with the Palestinians. Other, even more far-reaching security guarantees, were still being discussed and would be contingent on successful peace talks.  

Léa Park is volunteer website manager for Friends of Sabeel–North America.  Fosna supports the work of Sabeel, an international peace movement initiated almost twenty years ago by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land.  Last month the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) listed Fosna as one of the ten most effective advocacy groups in the United States working for Palestinians rights (though that’s not quite the way they put it).  Fosna’s response to its listing can be viewed here.

US government offers Israel $1-billion-a-month weapons deal for another temporary settlement freeze

Nov 15, 2010

Seham

 

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Settlers/ Land, Property, Resource Theft & Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing

Israeli Deputy PM: Wall Should Become Official Border For Israel
Verifying the fears that Palestinians have voiced for years (which have constantly been denied by Israel), Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor told an interviewer with Ha’aretz newspaper that Israel plans to use the Wall constructed inside the West Bank as the official border of the state of Israel.

Israeli Deputy PM: Wall Should Become Official Border For Israel

The Barrier strangles al-Walajah
The Barrier currently under construction runs close to the homes of al-Walajah, in southwest Jerusalem, damaging the ancient agricultural terraces and blocking villagers’ access to them.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Separation_Barrier/20101114_al_Walajah_Separation_Barrier.asp
Road Block Erected at Entrance to Issawiya
The Wadi Hilweh Information Center has reported, on Monday, that Israeli Military personnel erected a road block across the north eastern entrance to the village of Issawiya for the second time in three days.

Road Block Erected at Entrance to Issawiya

Israel steps-up pressure on Issawiya village with blockades
Issawiya, Jerusalem – Today large concrete blocks were laid across Issawiya village’s north-eastern entrance by Israeli troops, marking the second time in three days that the entrance has been physically blockaded by the military. The blocks, aside from severely obstructing village traffic, confirm residents’ fears of what appears to be Israeli authorities’ strategic isolation of Issawiya village.  Thursday, November 10th, Issawiya witnessed clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces. Israeli police, accompanied by troops from the Israeli army, surrounded the village and closed off all but the easternmost entrance to the village, the furthest entrance from Jerusalem, following the clashes which erupted between Israeli troops and residents of the village. In doing so, the police carried out a collective punishment over the more than 18,000 Palestinians who live in the village.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/11/15505/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
The Occupation of Bureaucracy Denies Palestinians the Right to Farm in Saffa, Joseph Dana
Five international activists were arrested today and one was injured in the head, when soldiers prevented farmers they escorted from tending to their lands in Saffa Valley, near Beit Ummar.
http://josephdana.com/2010/11/the-occupation-of-bureaucracy-denies-palestinians-the-right-to-farm-in-saffa/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-occupation-of-bureaucracy-denies-palestinians-the-right-to-farm-in-saffa
Settlers Destroy Trees in Surif
Like Palestinians for centuries before them, Shaban Atiya Al-Hur and Ahmed Atiya Al-Hur have farmed the Al-Hajahat area of Surif. This morning both men attended their land to find that settlers from the nearby Bat Ayn settlement had destroyed 85 of their olive and fig trees. The trees were destroyed by deliberately lit fires and amount to around half the trees in the area. The fires were started at approximately 9:30am and lasted for around half an hour.
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2010/11/15/settlers-destroy-trees-in-surif/
Settlers Burn Olive Trees Near Nablus
A group of extremist Jewish settlers torched, on Sunday, at least 200 Palestinian olive trees that belong to residents of Salem village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, and also torched a number of nearby farms.

Settlers Burn Olive Trees Near Nablus

Israel ‘plans to sell 3,000 new homes in Jerusalem’
JERUSALEM — Israel plans to put up for sale 3,000 new Jewish homes in Jerusalem next year, including in Arab areas, a municipality official was quoted as saying by the weekly newspaper Kol Hair.  Shlomo Eshkol, an engineer appointed by the Jerusalem municipality, also spoke of a long-term project to build 50,000 homes in Jerusalem during the next decade, Kol Hair said in its latest edition.  Eshkol said the allocation of 3,000 new Jerusalem homes in 2011 included the mostly Arab eastern sector of the Holy City which Palestinians view as the capital of their future state.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gy8gIg3Wju159_uZi4F6_xGkgUjw?docId=CNG.585d74f4e935994236bc850ac8d75da9.401
Peace Now: Settler construction is coming back strong
New report suggests that ‘1,126 foundations have been laid in 45 days, compared to 1,888 for all of ’09’; data relies on aerial footage.
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=195185
Gaza Ministry slams Israeli plan to build massive synagogue in heart of J’lem
The Religious Affairs Ministry in Gaza reiterated its denouncement of Israel’s approval of a major Jewish synagogue to be built in the heart of the holy city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7XcWEwYCEo%2fEycUPMnPvW3Esrm4WU2vsniGozWD93bMfp5el2mu15MFFJSj2AK3QbAVgGTQjMgAvUeJrfUgjQqylumQjdzkBTsqBiocu38rg%3d
OCHA: 313 Palestinian structures demolished in 2010
A report issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its monthly report that the Israeli occupation authorities demolished 313 structures in 2010.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%
Ariel settlement in 2007: We are NOT part of Israel
Not long ago, the large settlement which is now at the heart of the controversy over the refusal of Israeli theater actors to perform in its new auditorium, tried to prove in court that officially, it lies outside Israel, and therefore should be exempted from paying VAT.
http://www.promisedlandblog.com/?p=3568
Witness – Valleys of Hope and Despair
The battle over access to clean water sources is ongoing across the West Bank, with illegal Israeli settlements frequently blocking access and polluting Palestinian farmers’ irrigation. But in the valley of Wadi Fukin, Palestinian and Israeli villagers work together on projects to preserve water supplies and protect their local environment. This cooperation is exceptional in the region, but the huge gains both sides have made are now threatened. The separation wall is approaching and will physically divide the communities, putting an end to their collaboration and adversely affecting local water sources. Local farmer Abu Mazen, some of his neighbours and their Israeli counterparts took the authorities to court to halt the construction of the wall. This timely film looks at an issue of crucial importance to both Palestinians and Israelis and sets the context to the villagers’ legal fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7l71L4qciA&feature=youtube_gdata
Lieberman says Israel’s borders “imperialist” and “arbitrary”
“Anti-Zionism” can be found in surprising places.Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was up in the Golan Heights on Thursday. The settlement of Katzrin awarded him “honorary citizenship of the city.” The Israeli media provided superficial reporting of Lieberman’s acceptance speech, with only generalities regarding his hard-line positions diplomatic issues coming through.
http://coteret.com/2010/11/15/lieberman-says-israel%E2%80%99s-borders-%E2%80%9Cimperialist%E2%80%9D-and-%E2%80%9Carbitrary%E2%80%9D/
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions

Military Repression of Non-violent Demonstration in Nabi Salih as the Army Lays Siege to the Village, Joseph Dana
The tiny and embattled village of Nabi Salih help a non-violent and unarmed demonstration against the Israeli occupation on Friday. The army crushed it The following report from the Popular Struggle Coordination Committee details what took place: Soldiers closed all roads leading to and from Nabi Saleh and negligently used dangerous high-velocity tear-gas projectiles that have already caused the death of a demonstrator in the past.
http://josephdana.com/2010/11/military-repression-of-non-violent-demonstration-in-nabi-salih-as-the-army-lays-siege-to-the-village/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=military-repression-of-non-violent-demonstration-in-nabi-salih-as-the-army-lays-siege-to-the-village
Soldiers shoot tear gas at farmers in Saffa
Soldiers shot tear gas at farmers in Saffa today [13 Nov] as they attempt to work their land near the Bat Ayn settlement. A group of about 30 Palestinian, international and Israeli activists accompanied Sheik Mohammad Aady to his land on the hillside opposite Bat Ayn, which has been marked for annexation by the settlement. VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sODHHBDAq1A
http://palestinesolidarityproject.org/2010/11/13/soldiers-shoot-tear-gas-at-farmers-in-saffa/
Bil’in Seeks Permission to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada the dismissal of its case, Al-Haq
On 6 October 2010, in continuation of their struggle for justice in the face of unlawful appropriation and construction of settlements on their land, the residents of the Bil’in village filed an application before the Supreme Court of Canada to grant permission for appeal in the case against Green Park International, Inc. and Green Mount International, Inc.. The defendants are Canadian corporations registered in the Province of Quebec, Canada, who have been involved in the construction, marketing and selling of residential units in the illegal Jewish-Israeli settlement of Modi’in Illit, built on the land of the West Bank village of Bil’in, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
http://www.bilin-village.org/english/articles/press-and-independent-media/Bilin-Seeks-Permission-to-Appeal-to-the-Supreme-Court-of-Canada-the-dismissal-of-its-case
If this is not Apartheid, Then what is?
Allan Boesak and Farid Esack | 10 November 2010 Photo Israel’s apartheid wall from above. In the opening lines of an open letter to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, Rabbi Warren Goldstein, leader of the South Africa’s Orthodox Jews, makes a plea that: “Without truth there can be no justice, and without justice there can be no peace.
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/8358
Talk to Rep. Brian Baird before he leaves office in conference call sponsored by Ta’anit Tzedek – Jewish Fast For Gaza
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/talk-to-rep-brian-baird-this-thursday-in-conference-call-sponsored-by-taanit-tzedek-jewish-fast-for-gaza.html
#BDS: India: Clerics Issue Fatwa to Boycott Israeli Goods
Muslim clerics here issued a fatwa, asking their community members to boycott goods manufactured by Israel and its friendly companies because of its offensive in Gaza. The legal pronouncement was issued on a question asking in the light of Islamic law, whether it was justified for the Muslims to boycott Israeli goods manufactured by Israeli and friendly companies as the profit earned by them was being used against the Muslims.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/11/bds-india-clerics-issue-fatwa-to.html
#BDS: Protest the Hebron Fund this Tuesday as they head out to sea
This year’s Hebron Fund fundraiser has been organized as a Hudson River cruise and entitled the “Hebron Aid Flotilla” in an apparent attempt to mock the international Freedom Flotilla that sailed last spring to break the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Israeli military attacked the flotilla in international waters, shooting and killing nine passengers, including an American citizen, aboard a Turkish-flagged ship, the Mavi Marmara, and injured an additional 58 passengers.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/11/bds-protest-hebron-fund-this-tuesday-as.html
#BDS: Israeli Queers: Tel Aviv Nomination in MTV Gay Tourist Contests “Shameful Tribute to Apartheid”
MTV’s LGBT Network, Logo, has just published the results of two Internet award-bearing polls it conducted, nominating, among other cities, the Israeli city Tel-Aviv for gay ‘sexiest city’ and ‘year breakthrough’. The mere nomination was denounced by a Tel-Aviv-based queer group, Israeli Queers for Palestine, arguing MTV’s choice of Tel-Aviv sends a normalizing message to the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinians, particularly in light of a Palestinian queer and general calls for a boycott of Israel.
http://youthanormalization.blogspot.com/2010/11/bds-israeli-queers-tel-aviv-nomination.html
Two Jewish groups at Columbia U regret to inform you that they can’t hear John Ging’s news from Gaza, Philip Weiss
There looks to be controversy brewing inside the college Jewish community over J Street’s honorable sponsorship of speeches on campus by John Ging, the director of the UN Relief and Works Agency who has done more than anyone to instil in the west the idea of the civility of the Gazans.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/ging-campus-tour-seems-to-causes-polarization-for-jewish-organizations.html
Racism and Discrimination

The holocaust survivor whose life is in danger again
First they threatened to burn his house down. Then they pinned leaflets to his front door, denouncing him as a Jewish traitor. But Eli Tzavieli, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, is defiant. His only “crime” is to rent out his rooms to three Arab students attending the college in Safed, a religious city in northern Israel that was until recently more famous for Jewish mysticism and Madonna.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-holocaust-survivor-whose-life-is-in-danger-again-2134223.html
Haifa U. students protest ban on Israeli Arab MK who sailed on Gaza flotilla
Hanin Zuabi claims the university is using ‘Shin Bet tactics’ in order to limit Arab student activity.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/haifa-u-students-protest-ban-on-israeli-arab-mk-who-sailed-on-gaza-flotilla-1.324701?localLinksEnabled=false
Arab MK Zuabi visits Haifa University despite campus ban
Zuabi’s arrival at the university prompts verbal confrontations between Jewish and Arab students.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/arab-mk-zuabi-visits-haifa-university-despite-campus-ban-1.324825?localLinksEnabled=false
Rabbis: Falash Mura must convert
Haredi officials clarify Ethiopians Jews slated to immigrate Israel will have trouble marrying if they fail to undergo strict conversion process.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984875,00.html
Violence & Aggression

This week in Silwan: clashes, raids, arrests, and demolition orders
On Saturday, Israeli forces erected checkpoints at the entrances to Silwan village for the second day in a row. The network of checkpoints are a notorious source of inconvenience and frustration to the people of Silwan, whose freedom of movement is obstructed by the “security” barriers.  Jerusalem munipality bulldozers remove a barn on the property of Silwan resident Mohammed Siyam, in Abbasiya district.  Last week, on Monday the 8th of November, Jerusalem Municipality workers, accompanied by Israeli forces, removed the memorial to Silwan martyr Samer Sarhan. A drinking fountain and olive tree dedicated to the memory of Sarhan were also removed from the site. Municipal workers and Israeli troops completed the operation in less than ten minutes, shadowed by an Israeli military helicopter overhead.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/11/15523/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
Jewish extremists assault Palestinians
(with photos) Jerusalem (SILWANIC) — Silwan resident Annan Jawad Yaghmour, 21, was severely assaulted, beaten, and abused by a group of extremist Jews this Saturday, November 6, 2010, as he was walking late at night near Hillel Street in West Jerusalem … The following day, Annan’s father filed a complaint with the police and called on the Israeli authorities to put up surveillance cameras on the streets of Hillel, Musrara, and the bell garden, in West Jerusalem where assaults against Palestinians are becoming increasingly common.
http://silwanic.net/?p=8475 and http://palsolidarity.org/2010/11/15507/?u
Israeli troops raid and loot house, commercial property of businessman Dudu
A large number of Israeli troops raided at dawn Monday the house of an imprisoned noted businessman called Ali Al-Dudu as well as his furniture showroom and stores in Tulkarem city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq

Israeli artillery, navy randomly shell east and west of foggy Gaza
Palestinian security sources said that Israel’s artillery east of the Gaza Strip and its navy in the west started at dawn Monday to randomly open heavy fire towards both directions.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd
Detainees

Hebron: Israeli Forces Raid Homes and Mosque, Arrest Three
Hebron – PNN – Israeli forces arrested three Palestinians on Tuesday after raiding a mosque and a number of houses in Hebron, and setting up military checkpoints at main entrances of the southern West Bank city.  Local sources said the detainees were Ashraf al-Hashloum, Hamza al-Ja’bari, both from Hebron, and Ansa Muhammad al-Jabareen, from al-Dhahirin, south of the city.  Troops raided the outlying towns of Murish and Dura, where they entered a mosque. The military checkpoints set up outside Hebron were at Halhoul Bridge, the northern entrance, as well as several near hospitals inside the city.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9143&Itemid=64
Israeli forces seize 11 Palestinians
GAZA CITY (MA’AN) — Israeli forces seized 11 Palestinians during raids in the West Bank on Sunday night.  The Israeli military said it arrested Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus, Bethlehem, and Hebron.  The detainees were not immediately identified.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333791
Tensions rise in Ramon prison after guard insults Allah
The supreme prisoners rights committee in Gaza said a tense atmosphere has prevailed over the Israeli Ramon prison for the past five days after a prison guard insulted Allah.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq
PA releases prisoners for Eid Al-Adha
RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority has started releasing dozens of prisoners convicted of minor criminal acts to mark the Eid Al-Adha holiday, head of the PA military judiciary Ahmad Al-Mubayyid said Saturday.  Al-Mubayyid said the release was ordered by presidential decree. The official also said the PA did not detain any Palestinian on the grounds of political affiliation, in line with a directive issued by President Mahmoud Abbas.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333727
Hamas releases 80 prisoners for Eid (AFP)
AFP – Hamas on Monday freed 80 prisoners on the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, a police spokesman said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101115/wl_mideast_afp/palestiniansprisonershamasreligioneid
Political “Developments”

U.S. offers Israel warplanes in return for new settlement freeze
Netanyahu presents security cabinet with Clinton’s incentive of 20 F-35 fighter planes and security guarantees in exchange for 90-day West Bank building moratorium.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-offers-israel-warplanes-in-return-for-new-settlement-freeze-1.324496
US government offers Israel $3 billion weapons deal in exchange for 3-month settlement freeze
After US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with the Israeli Prime Minister on Friday, the US set out an offer of additional military assistance to Israel in exchange for a 90-day moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank. Construction already in progress on hundreds of units of housing would be allowed to continue during the ‘moratorium’, which also does not include East Jerusalem.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59904
Palestinians slam U.S. incentives to Israel for freezing settlement
GAZA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — The Palestinians on Sunday slammed what they described as the American incentives to the Israeli government to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank for three months for resuming the direct peace talks.  Leaders in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party said that “If it is true that the United States had presented incentives offered to Israel for freezing settlement, it will be totally rejected by the Palestinians and would never help the stalled peace talks to resume.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-11/14/c_13606443.htm
Abbas aide: Freeze must be comprehensive
RAMALLAH (AFP) — Any new ban on settlement building must be “comprehensive,” a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday, indicating it must include occupied East Jerusalem.  “The Palestinians are committed to the decision of the Arab monitoring committee for a comprehensive freeze for the resumption of negotiations,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP, referring to a ban which would encompass settlement activity in both the West Bank and in occupied east Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333782
Erekat: Stop all settlements and we’ll talk
RAMALLAH (AFP) — If Israel is serious about peace, it must call a complete halt to settlement building and not just limit the freeze to the West Bank, a Palestinian official said Monday.  Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is currently weighing plans for a fresh ban on West Bank settlement building in exchange for a package of US political and security guarantees in a move which US President Barack Obama said was “a signal that he is serious.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333800
Erekat: “We Will Seek US Recognition Of A Palestinian State”
Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dr. Saeb Erekat, stated Friday that should the United States fail in obliging Israel to halt its settlement activities in the occupied territories and in occupied East Jerusalem, the Palestinian Authority will demand Washington to recognize a Palestinian State withing the 1967 six-day war border.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59903
Arab League ‘likely to reject 90-day settlement freeze plan’
Arab League official: Settlement freeze without Jerusalem, eases criticism of Israel won’t be acceptable.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-league-likely-to-reject-90-day-settlement-freeze-plan-1.324815?localLinksEnabled=false
Obama: Netanyahu willingness to freeze settlements is promising
Israeli political source says PM likely to win narrow approval from cabinet for U.S. package of incentives in exchange for 90-day settlement freeze.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/obama-netanyahu-willingness-to-freeze-settlements-is-promising-1.324678?localLinksEnabled=false
Plan for Mideast talks bets on quick border deal
JERUSALEM — Washington’s new proposal for reviving Mideast talks, presented Sunday to Israel’s Cabinet, rests on the bold expectation that Israelis and Palestinians will be able to sketch a border between them in three months.
http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e2d0201c3e6ec2a3b561608b380893fe
Vice Premier: Extending the settlement freeze is a honey trap
U.S. proposal on new settlement freeze in return for incentives sparks stormy meeting of ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/vice-premier-extending-the-settlement-freeze-is-a-honey-trap-1.324604?localLinksEnabled=false
Netanyahu lobbies his Cabinet on U.S. peace talk incentives
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presents his ministers with a multibillion-dollar incentive package from the U.S. to reopen peace talks with Palestinian leaders. He may have difficulty in winning their approval.  Under pressure from the Obama administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began nudging his Cabinet on Sunday toward accepting a multibillion-dollar package of U.S. incentives to restart peace talks with Palestinians.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/zXQHvXb9IL0/la-fg-mideast-talks-20101115,0,455416.story
Netanyahu poised to win razor-thin support for West Bank freeze
Shas to abstain, Lieberman and Likud rebels to vote against; Obama welcomes ‘promising move,’ Palestinians pessimistic.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-poised-to-win-razor-thin-support-for-west-bank-freeze-1.324693?localLinksEnabled=false
MESS Report / Obama has made an offer Netanyahu cannot refuse
The U.S. president is now asking: What benefits Israeli security more – a few more trailers on some hilltops or doubling the number of advanced fighters in its inventory?
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/mess-report-obama-has-made-an-offer-netanyahu-cannot-refuse-1.324687?localLinksEnabled=false
Barak: Israel must reach deal with U.S. before Palestinians do
Defense Minister weighs in on Obama administration proposal for package of incentives in return for 90-day freeze on West Bank construction.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/barak-israel-must-reach-deal-with-u-s-before-palestinians-do-1.324798?localLinksEnabled=false
Syria: ‘Judaization of Jerusalem’ proves Israel not serious about peace
After Lieberman says Israel won’t engage with Syria, counterpart Moallem says Israel responsible for lack of progress in peace talks with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/syria-judaization-of-jerusalem-proves-israel-not-serious-about-peace-1.324648?localLinksEnabled=false
British politician: ‘Israel is the root cause of terrorism’
In the second attack on Israel by Liberal Democrat politicians in the same week that the party’s leader said the party got it wrong on Israel, Jenny Tonge claimed on Friday that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is the root cause of terrorism worldwide.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=195207
Dahalan presents new plan to take over the Gaza Strip
Well-informed sources have confirmed Thursday that the infamous Fatah leader presented a plan to attack Gaza Strip in a bid to topple Hamas and to restore his “reputation” in the Palestinian arena.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq
The best collaborator your money can buy
“President Mahmoud Abbas — a man Israelis say is the best Palestinian security partner Israel has ever had..”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/best-collaborator-your-money-can-buy.html
Other News

Tibi alone rebuked for Libya trip
Knesset’s Ethics Committee decides to impose sanctions on United Arab List-Ta’al MK for meeting with Muammar Gaddafi, not to reprimand five other MKs who attended meeting as no previous similar complaints filed against them.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984895,00.html

Usamah Khalidi
I wish to use this space on my blog to offer my condolences to the family and friends of the Palestinian scientist, Usamah Khalidi, a professor of Bio-Chemistry at AUB.  I never met Usamah but knew many of his relatives and students and admirers.  I only heard the most wonderful things about him.  I know that when a Palestinian resistance group needed a “lab,” he helped set up one for them.  He made many unannounced contributions to the Palestinian resistance. That i know.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/usamah-khalidi.html
Righteous among the Arabs
Khaled Abdul Wahab sheltered 25 Jews after the Nazis invaded Tunisia, but was never found worthy for the title of first Arab Righteous among the Nations. ‘My father opened his home to Jews, but Yad Vashem did not open their home to us,’ his daughter Faiza says
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3978445,00.html
Bittersweet Remembrance Sunday for Palestinian veterans (AFP)
AFP – Mussa al-Hussein may have a hard time recalling dates and places, but the 86-year-old Palestinian does not miss a beat when asked for his ID number when he was in the British army in Palestine in World War II.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101113/wl_mideast_afp/lebanonpalestinianbritainwwiiveterans
Israel: Norway inciting against us
Foreign Ministry says Norwegian authorities funding anti-Israel film, exhibition, and play. Norway: We support freedom of expression.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984621,00.html
Turkey’s Rambo takes on Israel
[includes trailer for film] (ISTANBUL) – As Ban Ki moon struggles to patch up relations between Israel and Turkey following the raid on a Turkish aid ship by the Israeli Defense Forces, a Turkish film company has decided to rock the boat, so to speak. Passions on both sides are likely to be inflamed by a new film portraying a Turkish agent exacting revenge on the Israeli troops who carried out the May 31 raid.
http://salem-news.com/articles/november132010/turkish-rambo.php
Egypt ‘not doing enough’ to stop Gaza arms smuggling (AFP)
TEL AVIV – Egypt is not doing enough to stop arms smuggling into the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli intelligence official said on Sunday, in a rare criticism of Cairo … “Egypt has lost control of what is happening,” he said, accusing Cairo of lacking motivation to do anything about it. “Soldiers are standing fewer than 20 metres (yards) from the tunnels and nobody is doing anything about this. “Egypt could stop this in less than 24 hours but there is not enough motivation.” However, the official also praised Egypt for its work in apprehending Islamic militants believed to be operating in the Sinai Peninsula.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101114/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgazaegypthamas
Israeli R&D as being among the least productive in the world
This chart of 2008 data shows Israeli R&D as being among the least productive in the world in terms of patents received per dollar spent.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/israeli-r-as-being-among-least.html
Communal Ties Lacking for Young Jewish Professionals, Study Shows
“But despite that Israel experience and their strong Jewish backgrounds, these young professionals, like their peers not in communal work, have lower levels of commitment than their older colleagues to what he calls the “Jewish collective,” including Jewish peoplehood, Israel and a sense of Jewish “community.”
http://www.jewishtimes.com/index.php/jewishtimes/news/jt/national_news/communal_ties_lacking_for_young_jewish_professionals_study_shows/21648
Returning citizens to get similar rights as immigrants
Returning citizens will receive benefits “similar to those of new immigrants,” the Absorption Ministry announced this week. Speaking about a “revolution” in the state’s policy toward returnees, Minister Sofa Landver presented a new plan Wednesday at a session of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs to attract returnees by offering perks in taxation, customs, health, education, employment and entrepreneurship. To reach its declared goals of bringing 15,000 overseas Israelis back home every year, the ministry listed several areas in which citizens are now eligible for unprecedented benefits if they choose to return.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/returning-citizens-to-get-similar-rights-as-immigrants-1.324246
Rightist acquitted of attacking leftist
Judge rules circumstances of ‘minor incident’ involving Noam Federman, Breaking the Silence activist do not justify conviction.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3984649,00.html
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest

Fayyad plan: Eat, drink, go to the toilet and shut up, Philip Weiss
Novelist Robin Yassin-Kassab has a fine piece at Al Jazeera touring the political landscape of the West Bank and showing how remote is the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state. I was struck particularly by the insult of the “economic peace” idea; Americans threw the tea over the gunwhales when the English offered us this. Also by the indomitable resistance to occupation. Palestinians didn’t want Jewish emigration and they didn’t want a Jewish state in their lands. How do Americans deal with these long-suppressed truths? We can seek to divide and crush Palestinians, but this project has been going on for more than 60 years and has sown global rage. Legal scholar John Strawson has written that partition had a legal basis but required imposition, and still does. But it has never been imposed; and the Palestinian share of the land continues to be chewed away, mocking fairness, and leaving an obvious question, When do we try democracy?
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/fayyad-plan-eat-drink-go-to-the-toilet-and-shut-up.html
Going Rate for Settlement Freeze: $33.33-Million a Day
Tikun Olam – “America is used to buying its way to quasi-peace in Iraq and Afghanistan and appears to be doing something similar by buying Israel’s acquiescence in a 90-day, partial settlement freeze. The going price: $33.33-million a day for the entire 90 day process.
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=43398
New deal on moratorium: This administration’s worst move yet?
With the new deal, the US might have given up all leverage over Jerusalem for the next two years, agreed to construction in Jerusalem (and ultimately, the rest of the West Bank), and seems to get nothing in return
http://www.promisedlandblog.com/?p=3572
Few pointers in US stealth offer to Israel
The implications of the latest United States incentives for Israel to extend a settlement freeze are likely to remain unclear for some time. No matter how tortuously achieved, any deal on the moratorium is no guarantee that peace talks with the Palestinians will make progress. The million-dollar question is how the offer to provide Israel with advanced fighter planes relates to the Iranian crisis.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK16Ak01.html
Is America bribing Bibi or blackmailing him?
THE way the New York Times reports it, you might think that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are treating Israel’s prime minister with more solicitude than he deserves. If he will only agree to freeze Israeli settlement building in the West Bank for another 90 days, it seems, America will provide all sorts of goodies: advanced jet fighters, a commitment to maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge, diplomatic protection in the United Nations Security Council and much more. The pampering is almost unseemly, some (including the Palestinians) might say.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2010/11/president_obama_and_palestine
‘Israel can’t afford to postpone Mideast peace much longer’,  Akiva Eldar
Miguel Moratinos, former European envoy to the Middle East, says peace agreement with Palestinians, Syria, could do much to thwart Iran’s ambitions.
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/israel-can-t-afford-to-postpone-mideast-peace-much-longer-1.324333?localLinksEnabled=false
Eric Cantor’s Pledge of Allegiance, Glenn Greenwald
Soon-to-be GOP House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met on Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – and vowed that he and his GOP colleagues would protect and defend Israeli interests against his own Government.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/13/israel/index.html
Jewish Establishment’s Motto: Hear No Evil, See No Evil On Israel, Alex Kane
Nothing will change public discourse in the United States about Israel more than opening up the mainstream Jewish community’s conversation.  The establishment Jewish discourse on Israel is far removed from reality–this is why the five young Jews who interrupted Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly was so important.  It represented a small break from the delusions of the recent assembly, which was all about how Israel’s so-called enemies are “delegitimizing” the state.
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/11/13/jewish-establishments-motto-hear-no-evil-see-no-evil-on-israel/
In any rational order, Lieberman would be a doorman, Philip Weiss
Over the weekend Avigdor Lieberman said that the Golan Heights was part of Israel because the Sykes-Picot treaty (English-French-Russian agreement 1916) drawing a boundary line west of the Golan Heights was “imperialist” and “arbitrary.” Here is Yossi Gurvitz at 972, taking “Homo Sovieticus” and “doorman” Lieberman down. Here again we see an Israeli challenging the foundational myths of Israel.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/in-any-rational-order-lieberman-would-be-a-doorman.html
Foxman: American Jews should shut up about Israeli policy and fall into line, Philip Weiss
Abe Foxman in the Jerusalem Post. By the way, the one position he mentions the American Jewish community shutting up about is Jerusalem, which is the “supreme” issue, the “heart and soul” of the Jewish people. Even though he doesn’t even live there, and could. Let’s not forget that Partition, which Strawson says was based in international law of its time, stated that Jerusalem and Bethlehem would not be controlled by either side. Herzl made the same promise. So law and equity go out the window. And so does the peace.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/foxman-american-jews-should-shut-up-about-israeli-policy-and-fall-into-line.html
Who decided how the oppressed should fight oppression? / Ramzy Baroud
An American activist once gave me a book she had written that detailed her experiences in Palestine. The largely visual volume documented her journey in the occupied West Bank, a place rife with barbed wire, checkpoints, soldiers and tanks. It also highlighted how Palestinians resisted the occupation peacefully – in contrast to the prevalent media depictions linking Palestinian resistance to violence. More recently, I received a book glorifying nonviolent resistance and referring to self-proclaimed Palestinian fighters who renounced violence as “converts.”
http://www.truth-out.org/who-decides-how-oppressed-should-fight-oppression65044
Palestine: A Family’s Story, Ron Jacobs
Ramzy Baroud left Gaza when he was a young man. He departed with mixed emotions, knowing full well he might never see his father or Gaza again. Once he left, his activities and the nature of the Israeli control of that piece of land made those fears come true. Since he left, he has become a chronicler of the struggle for a free Palestine and an advocate for a genuine and just solution to the ongoing conflict in his native land.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16415
AIPAC Bares All to Quash Lawsuit, Sex, spies, and videotape, Grant Smith
On Nov. 8, 2010, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) filed a massive 260-page motion [.pdf] in the District of Columbia Superior Court. It asks Judge Erik Christian to dismiss former AIPAC employee Steven J. Rosen’s $20 million defamation suit. In October the court dismissed all counts of the March 2009 lawsuit except for Rosen’s claim of harm over AIPAC statements to the press that he did not uphold its standards of conduct. Rosen and AIPAC have – until now – abstained from filing damaging information about the internal workings of AIPAC in court. AIPAC’s willingness to publicly air some extremely sordid and revealing content to get the remaining count thrown out before an alternative dispute resolution hearing begins in December is a sign that AIPAC is now fighting for its life, or – as one former AIPAC attorney put it – “reason for being.” If Rosen proves in court that AIPAC has long handled classified information while lobbying for Israel, the worn public pretense that AIPAC is anything but a stealth extension of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs – from which it emerged in 1951 – will end forever.
http://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2010/11/14/aipac-bares-all-to-quash-lawsuit/
Pigs, Piper and Palestine [Satire]
While the now lame duck Israeli Vice President for American Affairs (IVPFAA) Barrack Obama was away all the rats in the US decided to play. Israeli Prime Minister and US Congressional Whip Bibi Netanyahu came to the US and has almost literally occupied it since then the way Israel occupies East Jerusalem. One would think that when Netanyahu speaks of a “united Jerusalem” he doesn’t just mean stealing the rest of East Jerusalem but also including in his version of tikkun olem the uniting of Washington and Jerusalem for eternity. He has made considerable progress in this regard this past week. He has managed now to turn much of the United States’ government against its president in his meetings with the likes of Cantor, Clinton, Biden and Shumer.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/11/14/pigs-piper-and-palestine-satire/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%29
Obama, Asia and Israel, Stephen M. Walt
I wouldn’t call it a “shellacking,” but President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia wasn’t a stunning triumph either. He got a positive reception in India — mostly because he was giving Indians things they wanted and not asking for much in return — and his personal history and still-evident charisma played well in Indonesia. But then he went off to the G-20 summit in Seoul, and got stiffed by a diverse coalition of foreign economic powers. Plus, an anticipated trade deal with South Korea didn’t get done, depriving him of any tangible achievements to bring back home.
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/11/12/obama_asia_and_israel
The Goldbergian principle: People who hate Jews are anti-Semites, anti-Zionists are anti-Semites, thus anti-Semites who like Israel are just fine, Ali Gharib

After the break-up the latest plot by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to attack the U.S. by FedExing bombs set to blow up in mid-air, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic set out to use the attempted attack as a way to disprove ‘linkage‘ — ie, the notion that solving (or even pressuring Israel to solve) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a productive step towards helping the U.S. with its myriad problems in the Mid East, including international extremist Muslim terror.*

http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/the-goldbergian-principle-people-who-hate-jews-are-anti-semites-anti-zionists-are-anti-semites-thus-anti-semites-who-like-israel-are-just-fine.html
Lebanon

Hassan Nasrallah, “The War on the Resistance in Lebanon Enters Its Fifth Phase” (Video)
“We have overcome four phases [Resolution 1559, sponsored by France and the United States, imposing the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; the French temptation, i.e. Jacques Chirac’s offer of power in exchange for disarmament; Israel’s July War, backed by the United States, against Lebanon in 2006; the 5 May 2008 decision of the Lebanese government, prodded by the United States, to attempt to disable Hezbollah’s communication network], and now we are in the fifth phase [the Special Tribunal for Lebanon] of the process of targeting the resistance in Lebanon.” — Hassan Nasrallah
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/nasrallah121110.html
Rubbish from Lebanon
Would people of conscience please stop celebrating Rima Fakih already? Or at least suspend celebrations until after “our troops” stop butchering people in Afghanistan and Iraq? Perhaps there are less self-insulting ways to prove to the west that Arabs aren’t so bad?
http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/rubbish-from-lebanon/
Imperialist Barbie
Rimah Fakih, a native of my very own Southern Lebanon, was recently photographed crowd surfing atop a slew of American soldiers – flaunting a set of prim and polished nails in the ironic shape of a peace sign. This perverse display during the first half of an NCAA college football game between the Virginia Military Institute and Army in West Point, N.Y. was a public relations stunt; an Arab woman being carried by a profusion of United States occupation soldiers, wearing a smile filled with sheer delight. On Ms.Fakih’s personal twitter account she goes onto proclaim her excitement at being invited to “…flip the coin at the Army Football game… GOArmy.” Rimah Fakih is a colonial feminist’s dream come true, an occupation soldiers most thrilling fantasy and an anti-imperialist’s worst nightmare.
http://www.uruknet.info/?new=71841
Iraq

Iraq violence kills five (AFP)
AFP – Violence across Iraq on Monday killed five people, including a senior prison official at a jail in the restive north of the country, and wounded 28, security officials said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101115/wl_afp/iraqunrest
Car bombs kill prison commander in north Iraq (AP)
AP – A prison commander and his body guard were killed on Monday when twin car bombs detonated outside a residential complex housing prison guards and staff in northern Iraq, officials said.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101115/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Iraqi police search for “killer” mobiles
The Interior Ministry has set up a new police force to search for new weapons used to carry out “new forms of assassinations,” a senior government official said.  Hussein Kamal, Interior Ministry Undersecretary, said there were credible reports of deadly weapons entering Iraq. Kamal leads the ministry’s intelligence department. He said his intelligence sources were aware of a new generation of killer weapons in Iraq which are look exactly like cellular phones.  “The minister, Jawad Boulani, held a meeting last week which was specifically dedicated to ways of combating the new weapons which look exactly like mobiles,” Kamal said.
http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2010-11-12\kurd.htm
Foreign influence behind Iraq power-sharing pact: analysts (AFP)
AFP – Iraq’s power-sharing deal, hailed as a sign of its factions coming together, is more a result of foreign powers’ influence and was pushed in particular by the United States and Iran, analysts say.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101114/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsgovernmentusiran
Inside Story – A breakthrough in Iraq?
Iraqi politicians appeared on Saturday to have salvaged a power-sharing deal that will give Nuri al-Maliki a second term as prime minister. This came just days after a dramatic walk-out from parliament by his former rivals. The pact, which has looked fragile since being signed on Wednesday, has been lauded by world leaders, including Barack Obama, the US president, as a step forward in a country that has been without a new government since elections in March. It took Iraqi politicians eight months to reach a power-sharing agreement, but less than a week to bring it to the brink of collapse. Was this just a stumbling block or is the political deadlock in Iraq far from over? How long can the Iraqi people wait for an effective governement? Inside Story discusses with guests: Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Iraqi parliament; Muhannad al-Bayati, a member of the al-Iriqiyah coalition; and Scott Lucas, a professor of US foreign policy at Birmingham University and the editor of EnduringAmerica.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4RY0NiEJk0&feature=youtube_gdata
U.S. & Other World News

Obama is President of Extra-judicial Killing: Guantánamo Inmate
“We say that Bush was the president of torture, but Obama is the president of extra-judicial killing. The difference between the two is that while one used to extra-judicially detain people, the other has gone a step further and extra-judicially kills them.”
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/1113/1224283235295.html
Obama may deny KSM a trial: report
White House has given up on shutting down Guantanamo Bay: report President Barack Obama will have the final word on whether Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be given a trial or whether the man dubbed the “mastermind” of the 9/11 attacks will remain imprisoned without trial indefinitely, the Washington Post reports.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/obama-deny-ksm-trial-report/
Conyers joins growing chorus calling for Bush torture probe
Following the revelation that President George W. Bush not only approved of but emphatically supported his administration’s torture program, a growing chorus of lawmakers and human rights groups has expressed outrage at the lack of investigations and prosecutions.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/conyers-aclu-join-growing-chorus-calling-bush-torture-probe/
Michael Moore: Bush book should be in ‘crime section’
Amazon.com has listed former President George W. Bush’s new book Decision Points in the History category but Michael Moore insisted Friday that it needs to be moved to the crime section. Moore joined HBO’s Bill Maher on his Friday show to talk about the midterm elections and the new Bush book.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/michael-moore-bush-book-crime-section/
TSA Screener Accosts 3 Year Old Child at Security Checkpoint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TCHSGvNwRY&feature=player_embedded
Body-Searching Children: No for the US Army, Yes for the TSA
A US Army staff sergeant, now serving in Afghanistan, writes about the new enhanced pat-down procedure from the TSA.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/body-searching-children-no-for-the-us-army-yes-for-the-tsa/66535/
We Won’t Fly: Take Action: Defeat the Scanners and Gropers
“the scans are detailed enough to identify a person’s gender… to identify a passenger’s surgery scars, or to discern whether a woman is on her menstrual cycle or not.”
http://wewontfly.com/
National Opt-Out Day Called Against Invasive Body Scanners
“No naked body scanners, no government-approved groping. We have a right to privacy, and buying a plane ticket should not mean that we’re guilty until proven innocent.”
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/national-opt-out/
Saturday: US kills another 5 people in Pakistan
Some reports said the dead were suspected militants while Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying that they were local tribesmen.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/pakistan/Five-killed-in-drone-strike-in-Pakistan/Article1-625777.aspx
Friday: US Kills 6 People In Pakistan
Pakistani intelligence officials said three U.S. drone aircraft launched six missiles and struck a house in the North Waziristan region.
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-81782.html
2 NATO tankers set ablaze in Pakistan
Unknown militants have attacked two more NATO tankers in southwestern Balochistan province in Pakistan amid concerns of the rise of such incidents.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/150657.html

Report cautions Obama on high cost of Afghan war
“The cloudy picture and high costs raise the question of whether the United States should now downsize its ambitions and reduce its military presence in Afghanistan,” the task force said in a 98-page report.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101112/pl_nm/us_usa_afghanistan_strategy

U.S. Still in Afghanistan in 2014? Obama Say it Ain’t So!
If the administration decides to continue the current strategy through 2014, it would directly contradict President Obama’s own directive, which states that there should be an “accelerated transition to Afghan authorities beginning in July 2011”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-hoh/us-still-in-afghanistan-i_b_781926.html
Delaying an Afghanistan Drawdown Is Political and Policy Suicide
The President must immediately and unequivocally deny any suggestion that the July 2011 deadline is shifting further into the future. He must take a strong hand with the “unnamed senior officials” who are again working to box him into a decision-making process that predetermines the outcomes in favor of a protracted war.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/delaying-an-afghanistan-d_b_781596.html
Germany presses US to remove nuclear weapons from its soil
Neither the United States nor Germany have ever officially confirmed where the nuclear weapons are kept or how may there are, but it is generally believed there are 10 to 20 nuclear bombs under 24-hour guard at Buechel air force base in western Germany.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353131,remove-nuclear-weapons-soil.html
Obama ignores facts
It is really disappointing to note the ease with which Obama ignored India’s own human-rights violations and merciless killings of the stone-throwing Kashmiri youths in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=61712

Arab world among most vulnerable to climate change
BEIRUT, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Dust storms scour Iraq. Freak floods wreak havoc in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Rising sea levels erode Egypt’s coast. Hotter, drier weather worsens water scarcity in the Middle East, already the world’s most water-short region. The Arab world is already suffering impacts consistent with climate change predictions. Although scientists are wary of linking specific events to global warming, they are urging Arab governments to act now to protect against potential disasters.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6A6050.htm
Nir Rosen on the Saudi arms deal, Nir Rosen wrote me this and he wrote his own byline
“While the new U.S. arms deal with Saudi Arabia has attracted attention because its the biggest arms deal in history and because the pro-Israel lobby has uncharacteristically ignored it because its mostly supposed to intimidate Iran, perhaps the most interesting part of the deal is the helicopter package. These are not for use against Iran but are either for use against domestic opposition or more likely the Houthis. When they recently fought the Houthis the Saudis asked the Americans for help with satellite imagery but the U.S. state department refused because it would have violated the laws of war (we only support Yemen in oppressing its own population and Saudi Arabia in oppressing its own population, but we wont let them cross borders to oppress somebody else’s population).

So the Saudis are now getting Apaches, Blackhawks and light attack helicopters. So according to Anthony Cordesman’s report at CSIS on the new Saudi arms deals, there were significant purchases of new helicopters. Cordesman explains that “they give Saudi Arabia a level of mobile strike power to cover virtually any area in the Gulf, and a quick reaction capability that relying on armored forces and ships could not possible match. Second, they provide a major increase in interoperability with US forces,and the near- equivalent of prepositioning in a major crisis without any of the peace political complications of active US presence on Saudi soil. 

At the same time, they give Saudi ground forces a far higher degree of ability to deal with Iran’s capacity for irregular and asymmetric warfare on both land and sea. They give Saudi Arab the ability to strike with great precision and limited civilian casualties and collateral damage against non-state actors like those in Yemen. And finally, they provide a decisive edge in mobility and firepower against any raid or terrorist attack on civilians, government institutions and embassies, and critical infrastructure like petroleum facilities and desalination plants. In the past, Saudi Arabia has relied on a mixture of military cities and heavy armored forces near its most threatened borders, and the light armored forces in its National Guard for defense of its territory and key facilities.

It has learned from past terrorist attacks, and fighting in the Yemeni border area, however, that it needs far more mobility, far faster reaction times, and the ability to support the police and counterterrorism forces under its Ministry of Interior with both helicopter lift, and the immediate firepower that only helicopters can provide…The full list of items in the transfer request in Figure Six also shows that These purchases will ensure that Saudi forces can deny Iran and terrorists any ability to “own the night,” and strike with the same precision the US has used against terrorist networks in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/nir-rosen-on-saudi-arms-deal.html
Saudi special forces [Comic relief]
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/saudi-special-forces.html
Sri Lankan domestic worker alleges nail torture in Jordan
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is probing allegations that one of its nationals employed in Jordan was forced to swallow nails, in the third case involving alleged torture in three months, an official said Sunday. A housemaid identified as D. M. Chandima has told the Sri Lankan diplomatic mission in Amman that her employer forced her to swallow six nails.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=121552
When Egypt battled over bare knees | Amira Nowaira, Amira Nowaira
As a young, Egyptian woman I was lucky to travel to Europe. It made me keenly aware of the human ability to cross barriers.  Travelling to Europe for the first time in my life in the summer of 1969 meant much more than a simple crossing of the Mediterranean. To begin with, travelling abroad was not a human right in Egypt in the 60s, especially if you happened to be on the wrong side of the gender divide.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/nov/13/egypt-bare-knees-europe-travel
In Jordan, a bookstore devoted to forbidden titles
Banned books — on sex, politics, religion — are a specialty at Sami Abu Hossein’s shop in Amman. ‘We have them,’ he says with a grin, ‘but don’t tell anyone.’  At Sami Abu Hossein’s cramped bookstore, the hundred or so book titles listed on a wall aren’t bestsellers. They’re banned.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/4iVbuA-zfE0/la-fg-jordan-banned-bookstore-20101115,0,7518254.story
Cuba frees political dissidents
Two political activists who previously refused to accept exile in Spain are released by the government.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/11/201011146376175194.html
How to scare away Muslim fundamentalists
“Topless Danish girls have come in between the Conservative and Danish People’s (DPP) parties following a DPP call for a new introductory film about Denmark for prospective immigrants to include pictures of bare female breasts.  The Conservative Integration Spokesman Naser Khader, however, says that pictures of topless girls on a Danish beach would hardly scare extremists away from applying to stay in Denmark.  “Bare breasts are not a protection against fundamentalism,” Khader says on his Facebook page. “Quite on the contrary. Fundamentalists as so sex crazy that bare breasts would make them flock to the country. Perhaps one should try naked pigs and pork – that’ll keep them away…” Khader says.  The Danish People’s Party Spokesman Peter Skaarup has explained that in the Netherlands, where a similar film has been shown, they show the naked truth about what can be seen on a beach.”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-scare-away-muslim.html
World’s largest pilgrimage underway as hajj begins
MINA, Saudi Arabia — The world’s largest annual pilgrimage, the hajj, began on Sunday with hundreds of thousands of Muslims pouring into the camp of Mina from Mecca to prepare for the solemn rituals. This year’s number of pilgrims is estimated at up to 2.5 million, posing a major headache for the Saudi authorities.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/worlds-largest-pilgrimage-underway/
The rich-poor divide on the Hajj
Huge crowds of Muslim pilgrims are in Mina in Saudi Arabia for the annual hajj. The Hajj pilgrimage is meant to be performed at least once in a Muslim’s lifetime, provided he or she has the financial means. But as Imran Garda reports from Mecca, for those without the means the trip can be a testing experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeuremZd2Tw&feature=youtube_gdata

www.TheHeadlines.org

 

Two Jewish groups at Columbia U regret to inform you that they can’t hear John Ging’s news from Gaza

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

There looks to be controversy brewing inside the college Jewish community over J Street’s honorable sponsorship of speeches on campus by John Ging, the director of the UN Relief and Works Agency who has done more than anyone to instil in the west the idea of the civility of the Gazans.

Ging spoke at Barnard last night. The day before the event (as commenter Psychopathic God noted here in comment 5) an email went out from Abby Backer, president of Just Peace at Columbia– which organized the event and which says it has a similar mission to J Street–ending the group’s sponsorship of Ging’s speech.

As student organizers with Just Peace, we were looking forward to hosting an event for John Ging because we think it’s important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don’t necessarily agree with everything they have to say. Other community organizations on campus took issue with our involvement with Mr. Ging, and we are now unfortunately unable to co-sponsor the event….

We are thankful to the five Columbia groups, including the Columbia Political Union, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, and the Columbia Democrats, for working with J Street U to hold this event.

Who are those “other” groups? Rebecca Wright at the Columbia Spectator did some reporting and showed that Hillel couldn’t stomach Ging, and suggested that Hillel wanted to censor his goddamn speech, and the Just Peace group went along with Hillel:

“There was a lot of back-and-forth. … Discussions went on for about a week,” said Abby Backer, BC [Barnard] ’13 and president of Just Peace. “There just wasn’t time to find a solution. We dissociated ourselves from the event so we wouldn’t have to dissociate ourselves from Hillel.”

Jonah Liben, GS [General Studies?] and Israel coordinator for Hillel, said that he would have supported the event if Hillel could control the format, but representatives from Just Peace said they wanted Ging to have the opportunity to deliver an uncensored speech. Backer said she also heard concerns that the conversation might spiral out of control in an unproductive way.

“It’s unfortunate that this event couldn’t happen with Hillel’s name on it,” Liben said—and both he and Backer said that time constraints, and not fundamental disagreements, prevented the two groups from reaching a compromise. Referring to the national Jewish organization that supported Ging’s trip to the United States, where he is visiting a number of campuses, Liben added, “We know that J Street isn’t bringing Ging in to bash Israel, and he tried to contextualize his statements … [but] Ging is a controversial speaker.”

Meanwhile, the head of the college branch of J Street– J Street U director Daniel May– affirmed J St’s sponsorship of Ging. May says doing so is important to lessen the “polarizing” atmosphere on campus, and to acknowledge the “basic human rights” catastrophe in Gaza; but he halfway apologized for doing so:

This does not deny that his presence brings with it a measure of discomfort for some of us  It must be acknowledged: Gaza is not an easy issue of discussion – for all who feel passionately about this conflict.  The rockets that continue to terrorize innocent Israeli civilians living in Sderot are murderous and defy justification.  And the conditions in Gaza – extreme poverty amidst a decimated economy, near complete limitations to movement – ought to trouble all who believe in basic human rights.

Yet despite the difficulty of this conversation, peace demands that we look at the most difficult issues and bring to bear upon them our convictions as well as our reason, our passion and our generosity.  The historical moment demands it.  For Jews, a tradition of argument and debate obligates it.

It is in the hope of encouraging such a discussion – difficult, challenging, crucial and reasonable – that I invite you all to continue involvement with J Street U.  At universities across the country students are working to forge a middle path in a polarized debate; joining together to host programming and advocate powerfully on behalf of peace and human rights.  We hope this is just a beginning of that ongoing conversation and it is with great hope in the potential of that conversation that I am so honored to welcome, with you, Mr. John Ging.

I can’t sort this out. Ging is obviously a stretch for J Street, and that’s a good thing. The usual J Street event is happening at Goucher College tonight, with Hussein Ibish as the Palestinian advocate– though I would say that Ibish is not representative of Palestinian opinion. The panel is on whipping up the horse of the two-state solution. Is it alive?

Leading analysts will discuss the current progress–or lack of it–in the Middle East peace negotiations. Goucher President (and former NPR correspondent) Sanford J. Ungar will moderate a discussion entitled “Trying Again : Prospects for Peace in the Middle East ” at 7:30 PM in the Hyman Forum of the Athenaeum on the Goucher campus. Attendees must reserve tickets in advance through Goucher.

The four panelists are as follows : Dr. Robert O. Freedman, the Peggy Meyerhoff Pearlstone professor of Political Science Emeritus at Baltimore Hebrew University and visiting professor of political science at the Johns Hopkins University; Dylan J. Williams, deputy director of government affairs at J Street; Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine and executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership; and Ann LoLordo, who served as The Baltimore Sun’s Middle East bureau chief in Jerusalem from 1996 to 1999.

Lesson from Japan: a review of John Dower’s Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq

Nov 15, 2010

Matthew Phillips

 

In a 2007 speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention, President Bush sought to ridicule, as he had done throughout his time in office, all those “specialists” who supposedly belittled Iraq’s prospects for democracy. In doing so, he invoked the historical analogy that had been bandied about by the neoconservatives prior to the invasion, but had quickly fallen into desuetude thanks to the all-consuming insurgency: that of post-World War II Japan. Citing the observations of “one historian” who was referring to, in Bush’s words, “people criticizing the efforts to help Japan realize the blessings of a free society”, Bush quoted as follows: “Had these erstwhile experts had their way, the very notion of inducing a democratic revolution [in Japan] would have died of ridicule at an early stage”.

These words are from historian John Dower’s Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. According to a 2003 interview with Dower in the NYT magazine, Dower’s book was “required reading in the Bush White House.” The only problem was that Dower himself was far from eager to have his work appropriated by the Bush administration, as evidenced by an essay he wrote on the eve of the invasion of Iraq for the Boston Review, entitled “A Warning from History: Don’t Expect Democracy in Iraq”. In the essay Dower plainly states, “the occupation of Japan offers no model whatsoever for any projected occupation of Iraq”.

Apparently Dower, in his incarnation as citizen rather than historian, was consigned to the same fate as all those telling the president what he did not want to hear. After Bush’s 2007 speech to the VFW, Dower called the President’s reading of history “really perverse”. “The war supporters keep on doing this”, Dower said in an interview with MSNBC. “They keep on hitting it and hitting it and hitting it [the analogy with postwar Japan] and it’s always more implausible, strange and in a fantasy world”.

Dower has been far from alone in rebuking American policymakers for their misreading of history. Since the inception of the War on Terror, American historians of Japan have been amongst the most trenchant critics of American policy in the Middle East. Along with Dower, one might cite the commentary of Chalmers Johnson and Herbert P. Bix in this respect. Bix, who won the Pulitzer Prize the year after Dower for his Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, compared Japanese behavior in Manchuria to American war crimes in Fallujah in a 2005 essay for Zmag.

Though not a historian of Japan, the late Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in a 2003 op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, accused the Bush administration of “adopting a policy of ‘anticipatory self-defense’ that is alarmingly similar to the policy that imperial Japan employed at Pearl Harbor.” This was a remarkable statement coming from a court historian such as Schlesinger. Fortunately, the expansion of executive power during the Bush-Cheney years apparently extended to the right to determine which historical analogies shall be deemed germane, and which ones shall be discarded.

I was reminded of Bix’s observations about Fallujah, and the relevance of Japanese history for the American moment in Iraq in general, when I came across veteran Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn’s article from July 2010 in the London Independent entitled “Toxic Legacy of US Assault on Fallujah ‘Worse Than Hiroshima’”. Cockburn’s article summarizes the findings of a British medical study called “Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth-Sex Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009”, first published in the July 2010 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Based on the work of a team of eleven researchers in Fallujah in 2010, the study found a four-fold increase in all cancers from 2005 through 2009, and, in children under fourteen, a twelve-fold increase in all cancers. For Leukemia, the study found a thirty eight-fold increase in the general population, and for breast cancer, ten-fold. In the report, the authors note similarities between the influx of certain types of cancers experienced in Fallujah and those witnessed after Hiroshima—though with rates affecting the population of Fallujah even more dramatically.

The British study also noted a change in the same period in the ratio of male to female births, likewise observed in the affected Japanese after Hiroshima. Though the authors make no specific allegations, evidence clearly suggests the use of uranium during the infamous “struggle for Fallujah” in 2004, corroborating reports of American war crimes that emerged after that “battle”. The Army has already admitted to the use of white phosphorous in Fallujah, illegal under international law.

Coming as it did—two weeks before the forty-fifth anniversary of the dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima—one might have expected Cockburn’s article, and the medical study it was based on, to be of some interest. Yet to this day, not a single mention of this story can be been found in the American press. An article printed on the British Daily Mail website in March 2010 called “The Curse of Fallujah” similarly shows gruesome photographic evidence of what Cockburn’s article later describes. It is apparently of no real concern that the upshot of our campaign in Iraq is a baby being born with three heads.

This might be seen as another example of “the cunning of history”—that predictions of Iraq ending up like postwar Japan did, in one sense, turn out to be remarkably prescient. Now the same historian President Bush loved to use to reproach those “erstwhile experts” has written a book, grappling in full with the comparison between imperial and postwar Japan and the US during the War on Terror.

John Dower’s Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor / Hiroshima / 9-11 / Iraq can be seen as an in depth rejoinder to the Bush administrations superficial and cynical exploitation of his previous book, Embracing Defeat. The result is a work demonstrating that imperial America has much in common with then imperial Japan, while the American occupations of Iraq and postwar Japan are essentially night and day.

The usefulness of historical comparison depends, I think, on the skill of the historian, who must allow all historical events to retain their distinct qualities. Indeed, I would imagine that Dower would agree that the main purpose of comparative history is to elucidate differences. This is not to say that the similarities between imperial Japan and present-day America aren’t compelling—they certainly are, and Dower has much insight into what he calls the “ wars of choice and strategic imbecilities” that characterized both the attacks on Pearl Harbor and Iraq. Especially important is the section “The Emperor System and the Imperial Presidency”, where Dower reviews the drive to war in both countries and finds that “the Japanese and U.S. cases hardly amount to sharply contrasting examples of authoritarian rule versus democratic checks and balances”.

An examination of ideology blurs the differences further, as both Japanese and U.S. elites exhibited a remarkable ability to rationalize acts of blatant aggression as self-defense, as well as missions delivering “civilization” to the respective regions of Asia and the Middle East. Dower could have devoted more discussion to the function of the media in each case; with regard to the U.S., he merely writes that the “mainstream media” acted as “a mouthpiece for executive policies presented in the name of national security.” This may be accurate, but the staggering conformity of the American media, on full display in the run-up to war in Iraq, warrants further analysis.

In reality, the media has far more agency in democratic societies than the term “mouthpiece” might suggest; in the case of the U.S., one might argue that the media has actively contributed to the inertia of war by crucially misinforming the public. In any event, one must wonder how different our system is from authoritarian Japan in this respect when opinion-makers, while not under the constraints of formal censorship, nevertheless behave (to borrow the words of Harold Rosenberg) like a “herd of independent minds”.

Despite the many revealing analogies drawn between Pearl Harbor and Iraq, as well as 9/11 and Hiroshima, the crux of Dower’s book is the comparison between the occupations of Iraq and post-surrender Japan. Dower locates the many factors that allowed the occupation of Japan a chance for relative success, all absent in the case of Iraq. Chief among these is what Dower calls “ moral legitimacy”: the fact that the emperor endorsed the occupation, instructing the Japanese to “turn to civilian occupations as good and loyal subjects” and to “exert your full energies to in the task of postwar reconstruction”.

The actual response of the Japanese did not neatly conform to Hirohito’s wishes; not all were ready to defer to those who had turned their cities into smoldering ash. But many Japanese, while ashamed of the surrender and the subsequent presence of occupying forces, were nonetheless eager to transcend the war experience; many also felt pride in the democratization of their country, regardless of whether it was occurring under foreign auspices.

Indeed, whatever the conflicted attitudes towards the occupation, one might say that the Japanese at large were engaged by the transformation of their society. This is revealed by Sodei Rinjiro’s fascinating book Dear General MacArthur, a collection of letters from ordinary Japanese to Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, during the occupation.

Some of the letters are laudatory; others express concern about the behavior of American troops, specifically with regard to Japanese women. Some Japanese even reprimanded MacArthur for shielding Hirohito from war crimes prosecution—thereby perpetuating the myth of Hirohito as a puppet of the “militarists” and absolving him from bringing disgrace upon Japan—as well as retaining the institution of the emperor as a “symbol of the state” under Japan’s new constitution. Dower might have simply contrasted these nuanced and varied responses to MacArthur and American forces in Japan with the largely symbolic, and rather less subtle, response of the Iraqi people to latter-day American officials: the shoe thrown at the face of President Bush.

One should not get the impression, however, that in contrast to Iraq the occupation of Japan was in no way problematic. According to Dower, corruption was prevalent from the outset, as was looting. Interestingly, with regards to one criticism leveled at the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq—the argument that American planners were ignorant of Iraqi culture and society—Dower tells us that “the same criticism can be directed at most of the Americans later praised for promoting the reformist agenda in defeated Japan.” Of these Americans, “few spoke Japanese or knew anything about Japan beforehand”; and one finds that contempt amongst neoconservatives for State Department “Arabists” had a historical precedent in the dismissal of what one American colonel in Tokyo called “old Japan hands.”

Dower also shows that some of the “seemingly draconian policies that proved disastrous in Iraq”, in particular “the elimination of the military establishment”, were also a feature of the occupation of Japan. And one cannot argue that the occupation of Japan was firmly grounded in respect for international law, as there was no legal precedent for the sweeping political changes brought about by American forces.

Article 43 of the Hague Convention on Land Warfare, for example, stipulates that the occupant shall “respect, unless absolutely prevented, the laws in force in the country”. The Americans well understood that the drafting of a new constitution was in obvious violation of the Hague Convention; they therefore initially presented their draft as a revision, rather than a replacement, of the Meiji Constitution. In the end, however, MacArthur was given “unrestricted authority” over the drafting process; and one must acknowledge that what resulted is one of the most remarkably progressive constitutions in the world—a constitution that explicitly repudiates any form of discrimination, affirms the equality of the sexes, and—most importantly—renounces both war as well as “the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Yet the drafting of Japan’s constitution, widely regarded as the greatest achievement of the occupation, soon turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for the Americans, especially in terms of Japan’s forced embrace of anti-militarism. Indeed, not too long after the ink was dried on the new constitution the U.S, now seeing Japan as a potential ally in the region, began to rethink Japan’s conversion to pacifism. The fight to preserve Article 9—the clause of Japan’s constitution renouncing war—became the purview of Japanese liberals, who to this day struggle against both American designs to see Japan become a “normal” (i.e. aggressive) state, as well as Japanese nationalists who view the constitution itself as an alien imposition.

The Bush administration, for example, while singing the praises of America’s work in post-surrender Japan, was obviously more than happy to see Japan’s constitution undermined by sending troops to Iraq. When one considers the alacrity with which they set out to shred their own constitution, however, it is hardly surprising that the Bush administration would have encouraged others to do the same.

All this points to the tragic irony of our involvement with postwar Japan: that just as Japan was transforming, with our patronage, from authoritarianism to a constitutional monarchy, the U.S. itself was beginning to transform into a system not entirely unlike that of Japan before the war. The term “monarchy” is obviously not a precise characterization of our political system in general; the founders of the U.S. (save for Hamilton) were contemptuous of such a notion; and today one finds large swaths of the population who in no way respect the president, much less regard him the way the many Japanese viewed Hirohito—as sacred and inviolable.

And we of course have elections, however far removed the process may be from the citizenry. And yet, as Garry Wills shows in his recent Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State, the label “monarch” is not an inaccurate characterization of the president when one specifically considers the powers that today reside in the executive branch. As Wills tells it, the aggrandizement of executive power that reached its apex under Bush can be traced not to the Reagan administration, when the cult of the “unitary executive” was first fashioned by legal “conservatives” hovering around the Federalist Society, but as far back to World War II and the origins of the Manhattan Project.

According to Wills, the deceitfulness and obsessive secrecy that accompanied our development of nuclear weapons—so secret, in fact, that Truman literally had no clue of the Manhattan Project until he became president—was not merely an extraconstitutional wartime aberration, like Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, from which we would quickly recover. In reality, the secret bureaucracy precipitated by the Manhattan Project not only spawned the national security state created by Truman, but crucially provided a model for how to shroud its covert behavior from the citizenry. The evasion of the national security state from critical oversight continues today, though one can hardly expect otherwise from a legislative branch that is itself fully corrupted.

Sordid tales about the CIA—which has always functioned, in Chalmers Johnson words, as the “presidents private army”—became more acceptable to air after the twin failures of 9/11 and Iraq (Tim Wiener’s Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, for example, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008). But there has been no such reckoning with the mammoth national security state as a whole, almost all of which is unconstitutional and continues to bankrupt Americans. Nor is there acknowledgement of the blow that “bomb power” has dealt to our republic.

As reporters such as Jane Mayer in The New Yorker and David Cole in the New York Review of Books have exposed, the legal “minds” singularly obsessed throughout their career with rationalizing a vision of the “unitary executive” were unsurprisingly the same ones—like David Addington and John Yoo—who proceeded, in the Bush administration, to justify torture, extraordinary rendition, abrogation of the Geneva Conventions, eavesdrop on Americans, and so on. Obama, as we know, has far from repudiated this legacy.

Yet it is worth recalling that these criminal measures derive in large part from the president’s long-standing monopolistic control of nuclear weapons and codes. As Dick Cheney told Fox News in 2008, in the event that a president were to decide to “launch the kind of devastating attack the world has never seen”, then he “doesn’t have to check with anybody, he doesn’t have to call the Congress, he doesn’t have to check with the courts”. According to Wills, such a rationale actually encompasses a host of less catastrophic, though no less extreme, powers assumed by our “commander in chief”.

Apart from the destruction visited upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is thus worth considering how drive for the atomic bomb—which Truman called, after it was used on civilians, the “greatest thing in history”—has disfigured our democracy and invited further recourse to state terrorism, as well as inspired non-state actors in their targeting of civilians. Of course, many American intellectuals, such as Lewis Mumford and Reinhold Niebuhr, condemned our use of the bomb at the time; and the historical debate surrounding whether or not Hiroshima and Nagasaki were “worth it” continues to rage on today. Wills’ work adds a complex layer to our understanding of this question. Nevertheless, when one considers that today no comparable objections are raised about American conduct in war, and that crimes against civilians are still completely subordinated to the all-important issue of strategy or “success”— the “struggle for Fallujah” is a most obvious example here—we can safely say that the acrimonious debates about Hiroshima and Nagasaki have mostly reinforced our worst intellectual tendencies.

Finally, though Dower sees his book as a corrective to the “historical amnesia” of the Bush administration, and indeed America at large, the plain truth is that such a shift in consciousness is impossible in the absence of legal and moral accountability. In the Nuremberg and Tokyo trails, leaders were punished for the first time in history for perpetrating aggressive war, what Robert H. Jackson, chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg, called “the supreme international crime”. And during the occupation, Japanese civilians were forced to reflect upon the ravages of unchecked militarism. American forces in Japan banned, in authoritarian fashion, any expressed glorification of Japanese supremacy, whether literal or artistic. The consequences of such an orchestrated repudiation of the past were staggering.

Another recent book on Japan, Donald Keene’s So Lovely a Country Will Never Perish: Wartime Diaries of Japanese Writers, shows how quickly some of the more nationalistic and jingoistic elements within Japanese society—in this case, writers and intellectuals—came to revise their opinions of their country after defeat in World War II. Keene, arguably the foremost scholar of Japan in America today, was personally acquainted with some of the diarists, and he weaves his own commentary in and out of their writing. The beauty of Keene’s book lies not only in the diaries but also in his charitable and sympathetic insights into the men he knew.

Keene is taken aback that men he understood to be essentially cosmopolitan—Japanese writers who shared his passion for French literature, for example—could have simultaneously expressed the most base and nationalistic sentiments during the war, declaring their desire for vengeance and the wish to see the “Anglo-Saxons” destroyed.

Whatever discomfort some of these diaries evidently caused Keene—a kind of pain radiates subtly at certain places in his book—one should not be too surprised at the sentiments expressed. American historians will look back on our recent cult of “liberal hawks” as basically the equivalent of these Japanese writers, whether it be Thomas Friedman, who advised that we “take out a very big stick” on Iraq, or Christopher Hitchens, who gleefully anticipated a “clash of civilizations” and bragged that we had bombed Afghanistan “out of the stone age”.

A fair amount of worldly intelligence is no protection against the seductions of war and jingoism. Nor are these “liberal hawks” the more dignified for predictably shifting blame for the wars they provided ideological cover for—the same phenomenon occurred in Japan, where a narrow clique of militarists apparently bore all responsibility; here it is Rumsfeld, or the CIA, or whatever. In any event, the same journalists, like Jeffrey Goldberg, who led us into Iraq with spurious reporting about WMD and linkages between Saddam and al-Qaeda now churn out further propaganda rationalizing an attack against Iran, showing no compunction for indulging in such fraudulent alarmism in the past.

Goldberg, of course, now claims that he is analyzing the likelihood of war rather than advocating for it. On Iraq, he admits to being wrong about WMD “like everyone else”; yet he will certainly not apologize for having “taken a stance against a genocidal fascist” like Saddam. Goldberg does, however, “regret the atrocious manner in which the Bush administration prosecuted the war, and its aftermath”.

The popular Japanese novelist Takami Jun, who kept a diary throughout the war years and after, noted a similar shameful lack of self-scrutiny amongst the pundit class, who presumed to modestly describe “realities” that they in fact critically enabled. Referring to Ozaki Shiro, director of the Bunpo (the Japanese Literature Patriotic Association), Takami had this to say after the war:

He himself feels not the slightest responsibility for the present situation, but blames other people—the military or whoever—for having done wrong…he speaks of the “present realities”, but does he suppose he bears no responsibility for creating them…was he not a convinced practitioner of keeping the masses culturally ignorant? Now he comes out with the charge that the military were mistaken, but at the time, was it not he who, protected by the military, used the borrowed authority of the tiger to perform the tricks of the fox?

In another diary entry, Takami writes, “When I think of it, the newspapers also bear responsibility for the defeat. One can’t blame only the controls. Writers and intellectuals are also responsible.” After a conversation with Takami, the reporter Sawahiraki Susumu responded, “I wonder if there is any feeling at the newspapers today that they owe the public an apology.” The writer Yamada Futaro—who Keene tells us “intensely desired a Japanese victory and refused to consider that the war might end with anything other than a Japanese victory”—came to believe after the war that “the past ten years have been an unprecedented period of shame in the history of the Japanese press”.

As Keene’s and other recent books demonstrate, Japanese history is rich with what historians sometimes call “a usable past”—though not in the way our elected officials like to imagine.

Young rabbi told Jewish Federations that young Jews are walking away from their community over Israel

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

The other day I wrote that no one at the Jewish Federations General Assembly said a critical word about Israel. Well here is a video from Rabbi Melissa Weintraub of Encounter at a panel at the assembly that is, if not critical of Israel, a breath of fresh air.

Weintraub begins this speech with a memory about going to see Alan Dershowitz when she was 19, many years ago, and her discomfort as he took apart a Palestinian questioner named Rami, and all the people in that long-ago audience rolling their eyes and fidgeting. It’s a great lesson to the Federation people (albeit with dismissible sweetness). Because this is the Jewish role: I too saw Dershowitz humiliate a Palestinian-American woman who stood up and talked about having to wait at checkpoints, after his speech at Brandeis 2 years back. Weintraub says Dershowitz is good at winning arguments– i.e., he’s mean-spirited and doesn’t care about Palestinian human rights. 

Also notice Weintraub’s gentle explanation to the Jewish conference that young Jews are “rejecting protectionist messaging” about Israel. It’s like me walking away from Hillel at 19, she goes on. “They are actually walking away from the Jewish community altogether because of the way the Jewish community is and isn’t talking about Israel.” True.

In any rational order, Lieberman would be a doorman

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

Over the weekend Avigdor Lieberman said that the Golan Heights was part of Israel because the Sykes-Picot treaty (English-French-Russian agreement 1916) drawing a boundary line west of the Golan Heights was “imperialist” and “arbitrary.” Here is Yossi Gurvitz at 972, taking “Homo Sovieticus” and “doorman” Lieberman down. Here again we see an Israeli challenging the foundational myths of Israel. Breathtaking:

if Liberman finds the Sykes-Picot Agreement to be invalid because of its inherent imperialism, what can he possibly say about documents such as the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo decision? These are two documents which the delusional right likes to return to, in order to skip the annoying problem of the UN’s decision to create Israel – that it created two countries, Arab and Jewish. It turns out (thanks again to Didi) that the foreign ministry also quotes them with approval. Is there a more imperialistic move than granting a region, to which you have no rights, to a third group while blithely ignoring the wishes of the native residents?

Thirdly, and most important, questioning the Middle East borders, as set after the First World War – much influenced by the Sykes-Picot Agreement – means reopening all its borders. Provided that Sykes was deeply involved in setting the borders of Mandatory Palestine, it also means questioning Israel’s borders. Actually, given that the dreadful imperialist Sykes (and he was a dreadful imperialist, also an anti-Semite who supported Zionism because he bought the Zionist bluff which, never explicitly stated but always hinted, claimed to represent “world Jewry”, i.e. the Elders of Zion) was the most important British official to press for the Balfour Declaration, it is also questioning Israel’s existence in itself.

After all, if Syria has any historical meanings, it includes many bits of Mandatory Palestine, not just the Golan Heights. This, by the way, was mentioned by Arabs and Arabists over 90 years ago. A re-opening of the post-WWI borders question – which is precisely what Liberman’s move means; that Israel can consider those agreements something it can change at its will – is a recipe for opening the gates of Hell. After all, Israel, too, is the child of an imperialist conspiracy. There’s no reason it would have any benefit over its neighbors in this regard.

In a government which takes itself seriously, a foreign minister wouldn’t be uttering such nonsense about the documents which, in no small degree, are also its country’s founding documents. He certainly would not have done so without a serious debate by the government. Then again, in a government which takes itself seriously, Liberman would not be holding any office, except perhaps that of the doorman. Netanyahu heard Liberman and kept silent, as usual; once more he preferred to sacrifice Israel’s interest, the shreds of its name as not-entirely-out-of-its-mind country, on the altar of his coalition.

Foxman: American Jews should shut up about Israeli policy and fall into line

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

Abe Foxman in the Jerusalem Post. By the way, the one position he mentions the American Jewish community shutting up about is Jerusalem, which is the “supreme” issue, the “heart and soul” of the Jewish people. Even though he doesn’t even live there, and could. Let’s not forget that Partition, which Strawson says was based in international law of its time, stated that Jerusalem and Bethlehem would not be controlled by either side. Herzl made the same promise. So law and equity go out the window. And so does the peace.

Here is Foxman describing how the Israel lobby works:

the two main arguments for this position [American Jews lining up behind the Israeli position] remain as potent as ever. First was respect for the people of Israel who every day face life and death decisions because of the threats that are ever present. I consider myself as staunch a Zionist as anyone, but I always understood the difference between my living comfortably in America and the Israeli people who were on the frontlines of the struggle. Respect for that reality and faith in the democratic process of Israel generated a profound sense of reserve about telling Israelis what they had to do.
Second was the impact on the American domestic scene. The ability of the community to have influence with Congress and the administration, not to mention the public at large, at any given time was deemed to be related to the perception of how strongly the community was supporting Israel. A divided community, one where there was a free-forall with everyone telling Israel what to do and many criticizing its policies, was seen as weakening the community’s impact on American policymakers.
Politicians had less of a need to pay attention if they were hearing a cacophony of voices.

Fayyad plan: Eat, drink, go to the toilet and shut up

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

Novelist Robin Yassin-Kassab has a fine piece at Al Jazeera touring the political landscape of the West Bank and showing how remote is the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state. I was struck particularly by the insult of the “economic peace” idea; Americans threw the tea over the gunwhales when the English offered us this. Also by the indomitable resistance to occupation. Palestinians didn’t want Jewish emigration and they didn’t want a Jewish state in their lands. How do Americans deal with these long-suppressed truths?

We can seek to divide and crush Palestinians, but this project has been going on for more than 60 years and has sown global rage. Legal scholar John Strawson has written that partition had a legal basis but required imposition, and still does. But it has never been imposed; and the Palestinian share of the land continues to be chewed away, mocking fairness, and leaving an obvious question, When do we try democracy? Yassin-Kassab:

Popularly known as Jabal an-Naar, the Mountain of Fire, the Nablus area has lost 1,600 martyrs in the last decade. Each quarter has a plaque listing local names, and the faces of fighters adorn the Old City walls.

…After one Friday’s prayers I visited the grave of a friend’s mother, Shaden al-Saleh. Shaden was a teacher and community organiser. She was executed by Israeli soldiers while embroidering on the step at home. After we had paid our respects, her son and I brushed the needles from the grave of Jihad al-Alul, who was shot in the head on the first day of the Second Intifada, ten years ago.

The 20-year-old had been part of an unarmed crowd confronting soldiers at the Hawwara checkpoint which blocks the city’s southern exit. As we swept the needles from Jihad’s memorial we chatted with Abu Fadi, whose two martyred sons are nearby. A warm, mournful man, Abu Fadi has made a garden of their tombs. My friend knows him well, as he knows all the families who visit these graves. He says that when his mother died he became part of the great family of the martyrs….

I saw Haneen al-Zoabi giving a lecture. She is the Knesset member who sailed with the Gaza Flotilla and was so shabbily abused while attempting to give her account of events to Israel’s parliament. In Nablus, she spoke emotionally about the situation of Palestinian-Israelis, the descendants of those few who escaped ethnic cleansing in 1948.
Citizens but not nationals of the state (nationality is for Jews only), Palestinian-Israelis receive a fraction of the services offered to Jews, are forbidden from teaching Palestinian history in schools and are as likely to be victims of land confiscation as fellow Palestinians in the West Bank. Ninety-three per cent of Israel’s land is off-limits to non-Jews and half of Palestinian-Israeli families live below the poverty line…

Meanwhile, as Neta Golan, a West Bank national of Jewish origin, told me: “They’ve made it very easy to get loans. People in Ramallah have bought cars. The rents are sky high. For the next few years a lot of people are just going to be pleased to pay off the loans.”
This is the Tony Blair-Salam Fayyad plan for the West Bank reservations. In the words of political geographer Saed Abu Hijleh the message is “eat, drink, go to the toilet and shut up”.

The landscape tells anybody who lives here, squeezed between towers, checkpoints and red-topped Jew-only housing, that it is far too late for two states.

For the refugees caged in camps, still holding the keys to their destroyed coastal homes, two states never sounded like a solution anyway. Palestine-Israel has always been one country.

Milbank’s progress

Nov 15, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

Snarky Dana Milbank at the Washington Post once smeared Walt and Mearsheimer as white-knuckled Teutons but he now seems to have imbibed their wisdom. Lately he was disturbed by Netanyahu’s response to the hecklers in New Orleans. And today he is upset about Republican Eric Cantor’s presumption.

Eric Cantor seems to be settling in well as secretary of state. Technically, his position is expected to be majority leader of the House next year, but he is already operating his own foreign policy. He held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and, according to the congressman’s office, “stressed that the new Republican majority will serve as a check on the administration” in U.S.-Israel relations. As the administration seeks ways to revive peace talks in the region, it must be reassuring to all sides that Cantor will serve as a vital check on peacemaking efforts.

Come on Milbank, be a non-Zionist…