MONDOWEISS ONLINE NEWSLETTER

11/17/2010

• Siegman and Walt both doubtful
• After FBI came to his door in ‘04, AIPAC staffer promptly called Israeli embassy
• Slater says Jewish state is warranted by likelihood of recurrence of anti-Semitism
• More Shabbos goy
• Three Silwan youths are sentenced to house arrest– in neighboring towns
• ‘Palestine, and the livin aint easy’–Israeli boycotters strike Tel Aviv opera
• But what if the Palestinians are the victims?
• The handshake on the White House lawn
• In tribute to the ‘Young, Jewish, and Proud’
• $17m Islamophobic push during 2008 campaign is tied to shadowy figure in Israel lobby

 

Siegman and Walt both doubtful

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

Henry Siegman is cynical (at the National Interest) about Obama’s concessions to Netanyahu. Note Siegman’s blistering tone. Note the frank description of Palestinian rightlessness (emphasis mine). Siegman’s piece highlights the amazing fact that East Jerusalem is free for Netanyahu’s picking:

That said, it really should not come as a great surprise to President Obama that Netanyahu seems to believe it is Israel’s prime minister, not the White House occupant, who determines U.S.–Middle East peace policy. In the wake of President Obama’s recent proposal to lavish a stunning cornucopia of gifts on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—giving away Palestinian rights that were not his to give—reportedly in return for nothing more than Netanyahu’s agreement to talk to President Mahmoud Abbas for another two months (which Netanyahu, in turn, disdainfully rejected because he thought he could obtain even more), it is not an unreasonable conclusion.

How else to understand what Vice President Joe Biden told Netanyahu on November 8 in New Orleans before a gathering of Jewish Federation officials that differences between Israel and the United States on the subject of construction in Jerusalem and in the West Bank are nothing more than “tactical in nature.” Is the continuation of Israel’s military occupation and its denial of all rights to millions of Palestinians for nearly half a century nothing more than a minor tactical issue for the United States? Is that what President Obama told the Arab and Muslim world in his speech in Cairo?

President Obama will have to take his own words about the Middle East peace process and its deep moral and strategic implications for America more seriously than he has so far if he expects Bibi Netanyahu to do so as well.

Steve Walt is also pessimistic, and also talks about East Jerusalem. He says Obama must threaten to expose Israel’s gameplaying if the talks fail, as a way of making Israel play fair. Note his reference to the original Partition plan as a fair one. I.e., half and half more or less. Strawson says that Partition had to be imposed. Where’s the imposition, ever? Walt:

All told, Netanyahu got a pretty big reward for being recalcitrant. At first glance, there’s not much to stop him for halting some (but not all) settlement building, digging in his heels for 90 days, and then going back to business-as-usual…. 

And remember: The goal here is a viable Palestinian state, not a bunch of disarmed and disconnected Bantustans. Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama have all made it clear a viable state for the Palestinians is the only alternative that the United States can get behind. It is what the original U.N. partition plan in 1947 called for, and all the other alternatives (binational democracy, ethnic cleansing, or permanent apartheid) are either impractical or directly at odds with U.S. values.

After FBI came to his door in ‘04, AIPAC staffer promptly called Israeli embassy

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

Grant Smith has long argued that AIPAC should have to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Well here is a snippet from Smith’s eyebrow-raising report on depositions in the 2009 lawsuit against AIPAC by former staffer Steve Rosen. You’ll remember that Rosen was indicted in 2005 by the Justice Department under the Espionage Act– a case that the government has since dropped– and that Rosen is suing AIPAC for millions because he felt that the lobby defamed him and hung him out to dry.

The case involved classified information Rosen got from Defense Department analyst Larry Franklin in 2004 (that Iranian agents were going to undertake attacks against American soldiers and Israeli agents in Iraq). Note that Rosen seems most alarmed that the FBI indicated that it knew Franklin had also passed this info on to the Israelis– another Jonathan Pollard case in the making.

Before I get to the Smith excerpt, note that the Forward has picked up the story and is playing up the revelation that many in AIPAC watched porn, and then there is this from MJ Rosenberg:

Former AIPAC staffer and now liberal columnist M.J. Rosenberg [says] …if Rosen proves that his operations, including going to a foreign official to warn him about the investigation, were all part of AIPAC’s standard operating procedures, “that would mean that AIPAC is not a domestic lobbying organization at all, but something very, very different.” 

Now here is Grant Smith:

Rosen detailed his [August 2004] doorstep confrontation with the FBI followed by rushed consultations with the Israelis.

Rosen: “They [the FBI] were accusatory toward me. They were accusatory toward the government of Israel. They were accusatory toward AIPAC.”

[AIPAC attorney Thomas] McCally: “And tell me how they were accusatory.”

Rosen:

“They said that they had a recording of [Lawrence] Franklin giving a classified document to an Israeli government official. That was the most serious accusation. It’s true, it wasn’t about me or AIPAC. But it was the most serious accusation. They said they had reason to think I was lying when I told them that I did not receive classified information from Franklin, or that I didn’t know of somebody who received – I don’t remember the word formulation. They said that I better get a lawyer by 10:00 a.m….

Rosen: “I called [AIPAC general counsel] Phil Friedman.”

McCally: “Was he first?”

Rosen: “I believe – I don’t know. I believe I tried to call [AIPAC executive director] Howard Kohr. But I somehow didn’t get through or something….I called Rafi Barak, the deputy chief, the number two, like deputy ambassador, they call it deputy chief of mission, of the embassy of Israel. …

McCally: “You called Rafi Barak, deputy chief mission for the embassy?”

Rosen: “Yes, the number two official of the embassy.”

McCally: “What did you discuss with him?”

Rosen: “I told him I had to see him right away. And he said, I can’t, I’m going to a meeting. I said, no, you’re not. I said, this is extremely serious, I have to see you right away. And he said, okay, okay, I’ll meet you at Bread & Chocolate, which is a place we usually met for breakfast, often on Fridays, which this was.”

Slater says Jewish state is warranted by likelihood of recurrence of anti-Semitism

Nov 16, 2010

Jerome Slater

 

Jerome Slater has a provocative post saying that Israel’s demand that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state is not a deal-breaker. Weiss has pulled out a portion of his analysis, in which he seeks to answer the charge that a Jewish state discriminates racially and he argues for the need for a Jewish state:

In the last few months, Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government have demanded that the Palestinians formally recognize Israel as a “Jewish State.” Depending on the latest iteration, this new demand has been presented either as a precondition for negotiations over a two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or as a necessary component of such a settlement. The demand has been strongly rejected by leading Palestinian officials: Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian National Authority, Nabil Shaath, the deputy prime minister, and Saab Erekat, the PNA’s chief negotiator have all said that while the Israelis can call their state whatever they want, the Palestinians will “never” recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Most of my liberal Jewish colleagues and other critics of Israeli policies also oppose the Israeli demand….

Is the Demand for a Jewish State Racist? In a famous or infamous 1975 resolution (later revoked in 1991), the UN General Assembly stated that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” Aside from its political stupidity, that argument is untrue on the merits. To be sure, it is evident that many Israelis have racist attitudes towards Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular. Still, it is important to distinguish between Zionism in principle and its increasing corruption in practice, and to consider whether Zionism and the demand for a Jewish state is inherently racist. 

If it is to have any objective meaning, as distinct from being merely an instrument of denunciation, the term “racism” must include the belief that other races or peoples are inferior to one’s own. In that sense, Zionism is not inherently or necessarily racist: the driving force behind the Zionist quest for a Jewish state was not the belief that it was imperative because the Jews were superior but the belief that it was imperative because the Jews were vulnerable. 

Israel today is increasingly compared with South Africa under apartheid, and there are substantial reasons to do so. However, there are also important differences, among other reasons because South African apartheid was inherently racist, based as it was on the belief that whites were superior to blacks and therefore should rule over them, when necessary by great force and violence. Moreover, South Africa could not claim that because whites were vulnerable all over the world, they needed a state of their own.

To reiterate, by any reasonable definition the Israelis have become increasingly racist. Even so, the argument for a Jewish state is not racist by its very nature, and even in Israel today the predominant driving force behind the demand for formal Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state is not so much racism as it is a consequence of a continuing and probably growing sense of Jewish vulnerability in what is believed to be an inherently anti-Semitic world. Of course, this belief blindly equates opposition to the Israeli occupation and repression of the Palestinians with hatred of Jews as such; nonetheless, however paranoid and mindless, genuine beliefs have real consequences, including consequences that the Palestinians have to take into account.

Zionism and Democracy. Whether or not the Jewish state concept is inherently racist, there is a clear tension between a continuing commitment to a Zionist Jewish state and the requirements of democracy in the context of a substantial non-Jewish minority. This is the most difficult issue for defenders of the Jewish state concept, for once the tension between Zionism and democracy is acknowledged, as it must be, the issue of whether Zionism was ever justified or at least is justified today, is unavoidable. 

In thinking about this issue, it is important to distinguish between anti-Zionism and “post-Zionism.” Anti-Zionism usually entails the belief that the state of Israel should never have been created–though except for a handful of well-known crazies it does not include opposition to the continued “existence” of that state and its people, despite disingenuous or hysterical Israeli claims and propaganda. Post-Zionism accepts the need for the creation of a Jewish state in the past but holds that Israel today should no longer be regarded as a Jewish state, as opposed to the state of all its citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish alike; indeed, some post-Zionists accept the full logic of their position, in the sense that they would be prepared to accept an Israel in which Jews eventually might become a minority.

It is my view that in light of the long history of anti-Semitism, often murderous anti-Semitism, few if any other nationalist movements have had a more convincing claim to an imperative need for a state of their own than Jewish nationalism, or Zionism. Thus, the anti-Zionist argument, as applied to the founding of Israel, is quite unpersuasive. Post-Zionism today is another matter; even so, in the final analysis it is not convincing, for on what basis can one be confident that anti-Semitism will never again make life difficult—or impossible—for Jews anywhere in the world? 

For that reason I cannot agree with my estimable colleague Tony Karon, who writes: 

“The majority of the world’s Jews have not claimed a right to self-determination as Jews. On the contrary, we’re very happy that anti-Semitism in the West has been marginalized to the point that we can freely integrate ourselves into the democratic societies in which we’ve chosen to live….most young Jews in the West today are not assuming that their gentile neighbors are going to turn on them.”

True enough—today. However, go back to the 1920s and substitute the word “Germany” for “the West.” 

In short, it is historically short-sighted to be confident that the problem of anti-Semitism– a problem that has repeatedly and with disastrous consequences recurred for more than two thousand years–has now been solved and will not reappear in the future, anywhere. Nor is it necessary to cite the Holocaust to cast doubt on the End of History assumptions implicit in post Zionism–in the last thirty years there has been considerable Ethiopian and massive Russian Jewish immigration into Israel in order to escape growing anti-Semitism and persecution in those countries. In that light, the case for a continued Zionism and the need for a Jewish state remains a reasonably strong one. 

All that said, there is no denying that there is inherent tension between the requirements of Zionism and the requirements of democracy, a tension that already is a problem in Israel today and one that could become far more acute to the degree that the Israeli Arab minority becomes larger or increasingly alienated from the Jewish majority. While it is not only the size of the minority that matters, it is worthwhile to consider that issue: if the Israeli Arab minority should become substantially larger, would the tension between a Jewish state and a democratic one become irresolvable? 

Perhaps surprisingly, Moshe Arens, one of Israel’s most prominent rightwing politicians, has addressed this issue in an interesting and forthright manner:

“Most Israelis are determined to assure the state’s Jewish character…while respecting its Arab citizens. We insist on continuing the mission that the Jewish state has set for itself of providing a haven for those Jews throughout the world who may need one. What happened during the Holocaust can never be allowed to happen again. This requires a substantial Jewish majority.” 

“How big a majority? That’s a question that needs to be pondered. Is the present 80 percent Jewish majority sufficient? Would a reduction to a 70 percent Jewish majority be a catastrophe? Is it solely a question of numbers or is it also a function of the degree to which Israel’s minority population has been integrated into Israeli society?”

As implied in Arens’ argument– but not sufficiently emphasized–the degree of tension between two legitimate goals, a Jewish but still democratic state, depends not only on the size of the minority but also whether it is satisfied to continue to live in a Jewish state. Today the Arab minority is about 20% of the Israeli population; to some degree it is integrated into the fabric of Israeli life (although, of course, not equally so) and to some degree–apparently increasing–it is at odds with it. / In the context of an overall peace settlement with the Palestinians and the Arab world—readily attainable if only the Israelis would agree to it—the size of the minority might well decrease rather than increase because of the likelihood of some voluntary emigration of Israeli Palestinians into a full Palestinian state, especially if it becomes a political and economic success.

Perhaps more importantly, if Israel finally makes good on its commitment to full equality and rights for all its citizens, the “demographic problem,” to employ the Israeli euphemism, would likely become increasingly less important as non-Jewish citizens become fully integrated into the Israeli political system, economy, society, and culture.

More Shabbos goy

Nov 16, 2010

Anonymous

 

Netanyahu wants it in writing from Obama. Insolence without parallel.

Three Silwan youths are sentenced to house arrest– in neighboring towns

Nov 16, 2010

Seham 

and other news from Today in Palestine:

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

Sheikh Jarrah: Fighting For Survival, Palestine Monitor
Hundreds of people gather every Friday afternoon in the village of Sheikh Jarrah to protest the Israeli evacuation of Palestinian families from their homes. Jewish, Palestinian, and international demonstrators join together in solidarity each week to peacefully protest the seizure and demolition of an entire Palestinian community. Written and photographed by Brynn Ruba.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1614
New settlement freeze will be harder to enforce, Israel Police says
Series of obstacles include the willingness of settlers to counter the freeze order more aggressively than in the past because of their disappointment over the imposition of another moratorium.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/new-settlement-freeze-will-be-harder-to-enforce-israel-police-says-1.324912?localLinksEnabled=false
’No Rights’ for Palestinian Labourers in Settlement Industrial Zones, Palestine Monitor
High unemployment and restrictions on travel into Israel have forced 25,000 labourers into working on Israeli-owned industrial zones in the West Bank. Beyond the reach of PA control, these workers are exploited by their Israeli employers.
http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1613
Residents say settlers behind torched grove
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Fires ravaged agricultural lands in the southern West Bank near Hebron on Monday afternoon, destroying 15 dunums of fruit grove and greenhouses.  Beit Ummar farmers, whose lands were affected, said they believed setters from the nearby Bat Ayin colony were behind the arson, which destroyed dozens of fig, olive and pine trees.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333899

Watch: Footage contradicts arson allegations
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — International solidarity activists hit back this week at allegations broadcast in Israeli media that they and Palestinian farmers set fire to “state land” in the occupied West Bank.Ynet news and Arutz Sheva, two Israeli media outlets, reported Sunday that “leftists” and “foreign anarchists” were caught in an arson attempt near an illegal settlement between Bethlehem and Hebron.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333775
Israeli-Palestinian clashes over olive groves feed distrust
With Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations in limbo, a feud is escalating between Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers over olive trees – and the land in which they’re rooted.
http://rss.csmonitor.com/%7Er/feeds/world/%7E3/0QdusLQyoDM/Israeli-Palestinian-clashes-over-olive-groves-feed-distrust
Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions

Leftists chant ‘stop Apartheid’ outside Tel Aviv opera
Activists denounce Israel as South Africa’s Cape Town Opera performs Porgy and Bess. Counter rally: We are all Israel. We are all Ariel.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985119,00.html
Deported by Israel, but not discouraged
I was deported by the Israeli government for publicly expressing support for and participating in the growing global movement for Palestinian human rights and freedom. Israel’s increased deportation of witnesses and activists such as myself comes as the solidarity movement including the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions gains momentum around the world.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11623.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Right-wing Israel advocacy group StandWithUs attacks Jewish Voice for Peace meeting with pepper spray, Adam Horowitz
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.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/right-wing-israel-advocacy-group-standwithus-attacks-jewish-voice-for-peace-meeting-with-pepper-spray.html
Physical Attack on Jewish Voice for Peace Indicates Israeli Intimidation of Jewish Dissidents Comes Home, Alex Kane
Under the reign of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right coalition, dissident Israelis have been under attack (not to mention the continuing assault on the human rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel and the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank.)
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/israeli-intimidation-of-jewish-dissidents-comes-to-the-u-s
Former Israeli soldier seeks to shine a light on Hebron
Yehuda Shaul of the group Breaking the Silence opposes the military’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank city.  Prepare to be pelted with eggs, the tour guide warns. Or maybe it will be rocks, bricks or spit wads.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/JIlgHWX1OFA/la-fg-hebron-tour-20101116,0,3045808.story
In tribute to the ‘Young, Jewish, and Proud’, Mohammad Talat
Last Monday a group of Jewish youth calling themselves Young, Jewish, and Proud (YJP) debuted by coordinating a widely covered disruption of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Jewish Federation National Assembly (JFNA) in New Orleans. In the extensive coverage and exchanges that followed, much was said. Nevertheless, I am left with the feeling that some meaningful insights were largely left out.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/in-tribute-to-the-young-jewish-and-proud.html
little brown-shirts, Max Ajl
Mohammad Mahmud, a member of UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), sent me the following report:  This was the first time I attended a JVP meeting. I was probably the only person in the room who didn’t identify as Jewish. It was not the first time I thought about attending, but this time I matched action to intention and went, primarily to show appreciation for our colleague’s act of courage that touched me. The meeting was held in a space JVP rents regularly at the Berkeley Senior Center on Ashby, starting 6:30. I arrived at 6:40 and walked in. There was a large circle of some 50 to 60 seated attendees. There was a stage to the right. The four guest speakers were sitting on the edge of the stage. There was obvious tension as I sat next to a lady friend. She mentioned that there was a group hostile to JVP in the room and that they were trying to start the meeting peacefully. I looked around the room and saw many familiar faces. Two women on opposite sides of the room had come to our (SJP’s) teach-in on the Gaza Flotilla back in September and tried to disrupt it. One of them goes by the name of Faith. I noticed at least five more hostile faces which were familiar from recent SF City Hall and UIC Berkeley Senate sessions, where they had gathered under the organization name “Stand With Us (SWU).” They were dispersed in twos and threes throughout the room. It couldn’t be a coincidence, and later I would count at least 11 SWU people who worked in concert. Apparently, before I arrived, some of these hostile participants had tried to film the meeting, and JVP leaders brought in the night shift supervisor of the building who told everyone that they would have to leave the room if they disobeyed the organizers’ rules that prohibit filming.
http://www.maxajl.com/?p=4428&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+http%2Fwwwmaxajlcom%2Ffeedrss2+%28Jewbonics%29
Danny Ayalon to Norway: Why can’t you keep your artists under control?, Didi Remez
The Israeli government reaction to the homegrown cultural boycott of the West Bank settlement of Ariel was forceful and blunt: Threaten funding, establish a “Zionist Art Prize” and de-legitimize whoever takes part as fifth-columnists. This should not have been a surprise, coming from a government that has overseen an unprecedented assault on domestic freedom of expression and association. The campaign has been so successful locally that the Foreign Ministry is now trying it on the international stage.
http://coteret.com/2010/11/16/danny-ayalon-to-norway-why-can%e2%80%99t-you-keep-your-artists-under-control/
Luxurious magazine fights Israel
Comprehensive study reveals London Review of Books presents ‘starkly one-sided and fringe approach’ against Jewish state. Israeli, Jewish contributors among harshest critics.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985263,00.html
Silwan youth clean up the Bab el-Rahma cemetery
The Silwan Youth Movement, in collaboration with a committee that cares for Islamic cemeteries, led a massive campaign on Sunday to clean up the Bab el-Rahma cemetery in Jerusalem. Ahmed al-Ghoul, one of the founders of the Silwan Youth Movement, said that this project came as part of the organization’s activities for Eid al-Adha. He added that the Movement would organize visits to the families of prisoners and martyrs during Eid, as well as organizing recreational activities to bring joy and entertainment to the children who have suffered under Israel’s repressive policies. The founders of the Silwan Youth Movement, which was recently established, explained that the group does not pursue any political activities, but instead focuses on social work which aims to improve cultural awareness and social relations among the Palestinian population of Silwan. The Bab el-Rahma cemetery is a Muslim cemetery that is more than 1,400 years old, and located along the eastern wall of the Haram al-Sharif. The cemetery includes a number of graves of Islamic figures from the era of Caliph Umar bin al-Khattab as well as from the Ayyubid era.
http://silwanic.net/?p=8613
In First Interview Since Critical Injury at West Bank Protest, U.S. Peace Activist Tristan Anderson Urges Iran to Free Jailed Hikers
The U.S. peace activist Tristan Anderson has given his first interview since being critically injured when Israeli soldiers fired a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at his head in 2009. Anderson was taking part in a weekly nonviolent protest against Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank. On Sunday, he helped unfurl a banner calling for the release of his friends Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, the two U.S. hikers who remain imprisoned in Iran. Anderson and the freed American hiker Sarah Shourd also sat down for a joint interview.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/16/in_first_interview_since_critical_injury
Abuse of Palestinian Children

Report: Mass arrests of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem
In October, DCI-Palestine collected information relating to the arrest of 17 children from the Silwan neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem, although lawyers and fieldworkers for DCI-Palestine estimate that the overall number of children arrested in the Silwan neighbourhood in October is considerably higher.
http://www.tadamon.ca/post/8385
Silwan youth placed on house arrest in neighboring towns
The Israeli Magistrate’s Court sentenced three Silwan youth – Islam Aouda, 17,  Ayed Abbasi, 21, and Ala’a Zaytoon, 20 – to house arrest yesterday, to be served outside of Silwan. Islam Aouda will spend his house arrest in Beit Hanina, Ayed Abbasi in Ras el Amoud, and Ala’a Zaytoon in Beit Safafa. Ala’a Zaytoon was arrested nearly a week ago from his relatives’ home in the neighborhood of Bir Ayyub. Islam and Ayed were arrested separately more than twenty days ago. The three young men are charged with throwing stones at and damaging police vehicles.
http://silwanic.net/?p=8609
Siege/Humanitarian Issues/Rights Violations/Restriction of Movement

Gaza-Egypt border sealed for 6 days
RAFAH (Ma’an) — Border officials said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would close Monday for six days over the Eid Al-Adha holiday.  An Egyptian official said the closure also applied to Egypt’s port Awja in central Sinai, and that the Rafah crossing would follow the port’s weekend closures, shutting down every Friday and Saturday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333812
Eid al-Adha: sheep smugglers kept busy for Muslim festival
Muslims in the Gaza Strip and West Bank were preparing for the Eid al-Adha holiday, which will be celebrated in the coming days across the Muslim world.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8134603/Eid-al-Adha-sheep-smugglers-kept-busy-for-Muslim-festival.html
Lebanon’s refugee camps no better than those in Gaza
The conditions of Palestinians living in and outside of Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps are equal to, or even worse, than those in Gaza, a top United Nations Refugee and Work Agency (UNRWA) official said Thursday.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=120905&categ_id=1#axzz14zfnrnDu
Poverty kills Muslim feast happiness in Gaza
GAZA, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — Um Ibrahim Salah, a 42-year-old woman, can not buy all she needs for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of sacrifice, since her husband have been jobless for years.  “Prices double every year and most of the people are unemployed, ” Salah said, who lives in the Jabaliya refugee camp of Gaza, one of the most densely populated spots in the world.  The mother spent most of the money buying sweets, nuts and shirts for her four sons. “I have no more money now to afford meat or more clothes for my kids,” she added.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-11/15/c_13608058.htm
Jenin center director: “I want to create hope”
In 2005, three years after the Israeli army perpetrated a massacre and razed dozens of homes in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, a group of Palestinian youth established the Jenin Creative Cultural Center. The center provides cultural and educational services for children and youth ranging in age from six to 25. The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof interviews the center director Yousef Awad on the situation of children in Jenin.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11624.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
Violence and Detainees

Israeli artillery, navy randomly shell east and west of foggy Gaza
PIC 15 Nov 2010 – 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=U6Qq7
IOF troops kidnap three Palestinians and raid two mosques
IOF troops on Monday kidnapped three Palestinian residents of al-Khalil city in the southern West Bank, raided two mosques and set up roadblocks at the centre of the city.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U
Israel pardons 45 wanted Palestinians
Amnesty granted to Fatah men as gesture for Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha; part of deal signed between Israel, PA following Hamas takeover of Gaza.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985052,00.html
Israel’s Arab Helpers

Abbas’s militia kidnap seven Palestinians
On the eve of Eid al-Adha militias affiliated with the de facto President Mahmoud Abbas continue to kidnap supporters of Hamas in West Bank. They kidnapped seven in the Tulkarem district on Monday.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bc
Egypt denies not cracking down on Gaza smuggling (AFP)
AFP – A top security official said on Monday Egypt has cracked down on tunnels to Gaza and intercepted explosives destined for the enclave, a day after an Israeli official criticised its anti-smuggling efforts.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101115/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflictgazaegypthamas
War Criminals

Belgian citizens set to sue Israel
Four Belgian citizens who were on board the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza when it was attacked by Israeli forces on May 31, 2010 are planning to sue the Israeli government.  The four, Fatima el-Mourabiti, Inge Neefs, Kenza Isnasni and Griet Deknopper, were victims of, and witnesses to, the attack and have applied to the Belgian courts to hear their complaint.

Belgian Citizens Set To Sue Israel

Political “Developments”

Hamas confirms continuation of unity talks
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas leader Ismail Al-Ashqar confirmed Monday, earlier reports by Fatah officials that the reconciliation meetings would continue at the end of the Eid holiday in Damascus.  Al-Ashqar led a Hamas delegation from the Gaza Strip to the last unity talk meetings in the Syrian capital, which was initially hoped to be the final meeting between parties, resolving the issue of the re-structuring of the Palestinian security forces and paving the way for reconciliation to begin.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333906
Palestinian factions reject US proposal
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Palestinian political factions rejected on Monday a partial, one-off 90-day settlement freeze as a basis to return to talks with Israel.  The US has offered Israel military and political incentives, including 20 fighter jets and a guarantee of US support at the United Nations in exchange for the freeze, which would exclude occupied East Jerusalem.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to accept the offer, which reports say has not yet been finalized. Israeli media reports suggested Netanyahu’s security cabinet would pass the proposal by a slim majority.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=333834
Strains in Israel coalition over U.S. freeze package (Reuters)
Reuters – Cracks emerged in Israel’s right-wing coalition on Tuesday ahead of an expected cabinet vote on whether to accept U.S. inducements to freeze West Bank settlement building so that stalled peace talks can resume.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel
US says timeline for Mideast peace deal may slip (AP)
AP – The Obama administration is hinting that next year’s deadline for an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal may slip even if both sides quickly return to direct negotiations.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101115/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_mideast
Netanyahu strikes a deal on Israeli settlements could it freeze peace, too?
The Christian Science Monitor – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long caught between intensifying US demands and the restlessness of his right-wing allies, appears to have struck a deal to delay Israeli settlement expansion without unsettling his government.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20101115/wl_csm/343429
Other News

Eyeing Iran, Israel slates missile shield for 2015
Production schedule of defense network combining rocket interceptors, kamikaze satellites corresponds to Israel’s assessment of when Iran might develop nuclear weaponry. Project director: We are talking about hermetic protection.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3985020,00.html
Top Israeli cop met Dubai police chief: report (AFP)
AFP – A top Israeli policeman has met with the chief of police of Dubai, who has led accusations that Israel was behind the slaying of a Hamas commander in the emirate, an Israeli newspaper said Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101115/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflicthamasuae
Commissioner rebuffs growing number of Israel police brutality allegations
According to data presented at the meeting, in 2009 the department for investigation of police officers closed 1,360 complaints without investigation, for ‘lack of public interest.’
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/commissioner-rebuffs-growing-number-of-israel-police-brutality-allegations-1.324921?localLinksEnabled=false
Shas minister: Procreate instead of complaining
Minister of Religious Services Yacov Margi calls on secular public to boost birth rate in effort to thwart demographic threat.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3982798,00.html
Israeli troops raid West Bank home of Hamas moneyman (AFP)
AFP – Israeli forces overnight raided the home of a jailed Hamas moneyman in the West Bank town of Tulkarem and seized cash and property, the Israeli military said on Monday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101115/wl_mideast_afp/israelpalestiniansconflicthamas
Uruguay to begin bilateral relations with Palestinian state
Uruguay has formalised its relationship with the Palestinian government and has indicated it will be represented at a mission in Ramallah.  President Jose Mujica confirmed that Uruguay had recognized the Palestinian State and said bilateral relations were now in place.  The announcement made at the sixteenth congress of Ferab, the Federation of Arab entities in Latinamerica, took place in Montevideo last week.
http://www.albuquerquenews.net/story/707792
Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest

Hamas’ pragmatism is worth searching out
Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas’ political wing, told Newsweek on October 14 that “there is a position and program that all Palestinians share. To accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as the capital. With the right of return. And this state would have real sovereignty on the land and on the borders.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=121590
Ethan Bronner and New York Times justify the colonization of the West Bank
“The West Bank, although inhabited by millions of Palestinians, is the heartland of much ancient Jewish history, so for many Israelis, giving it up is a painful prospect…”
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2010/11/ethan-bronner-and-new-york-times.html
U.S. taxpayers are paying for Israel’s West Bank occupation, Akiva Eldar
According to a June 2010 fact sheet on the USAID Internet site, last year American taxpayers funded the paving of 63 kilometers of asphalt roads in the West Bank.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/u-s-taxpayers-are-paying-for-israel-s-west-bank-occupation-1.324941
Too late for two states, Robin Yassin-Kassab
Nablus is built over deep wells on the narrow valley floor between Mount Jarizeem and Mount Aybaal. Its alleyways brim with ground coffee and spices, abrupt wafts of aniseed, plus honied tobacco bubbling from the argilehs, meat vaporising on the grills, traffic fumes, baking odours, pavement rubbish and dust. By day there is plenty of friendly Arab noise; by night barks and cock crows take over.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2010/11/2010112112241975781.html
Did Bibi Win the Midterms?, James Traub
As a general rule, American politicians do not rally to the side of foreign leaders when those leaders directly confront the president of the United States. I don’t, for example, recall liberal Democrats cheering on French President Jacques Chirac when he defied President George W. Bush on Iraq, even though they thought he was right.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/12/did_bibi_win_the_midterms?page=0,0
Milbank’s progress, 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.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/milbanks-progress.html
De-Zionising Israel, Bassem Hassan
Recent plans by the Israeli government and the Knesset to amend existing laws concerning citizenship rights in Israel have generated waves of criticism in liberal circles, including Israeli ones.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/1023/op5.htm
Radical Solutions for Palestine, David Kenner
Hanan Ashrawi has lived through all the ups and downs of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. She was present at the birth of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at the 1991 Madrid Conference, where she served as a spokeswoman for the Palestinian cause. Two decades later, Ashrawi, now a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s Third Way Party, fears that she is witnessing the death of the peace talks.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/11/09/radical_solutions_for_palestine?page=0,0
$3 billion in fighter jets to Israel: reward or bribe?, 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!
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/3-billion-in-fighter-jets-to-israel-reward-or-bribe.html
Palestine and the Fate of the UN, LAWRENCE DAVIDSON
The United Nations celebrated its 65th birthday (1945 to 2010) on 24 October 2010. At 65 the world body has lasted 27 years longer than its predecessor, the League of Nations (1919 to 1946). Will the UN go another 65 years? To help answer that question a quick look at what did in the League of Nations is in order.
http://www.counterpunch.com/davidson11152010.html
AIPAC Bares All to Quash Lawsuit: Sex, Spies, and Videotape, Grant Smith
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/
Helen Thomas on Her Resignation and Middle East
Brave and outspoken: the great Helen Thomas. Thomas: Israel should get out of Occupied Territories; White House Correspondents Association were out of line.
http://pulsemedia.org/2010/11/16/helen-thomas-on-her-resignation-and-middle-east/
Open Letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton, George S. Hishmeh
Dear Secretary Clinton,  My apologies for this open letter but I have been worrying that your briefing papers are not providing you with much-needed background for some of your decisions on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now in its sixty-second year, or that you do not have the time to read all the significant information that may be in your files.  To start with, I must confess that I have been dismayed and disappointed since I read in the newspapers that you have offered several deplorable “incentives” to the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, during your nearly eight-hour meeting in New York last week in return for a measly 90-day moratorium on Israeli colonial expansion in the occupied West Bank but not Arab East Jerusalem. Why not the Arab sector of the Holy City and why only 90 days?!
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16419
One-Sided Deal, Neve Gordon
Imagine a sheriff offering the head of a criminal gang the following deal: ‘If you agree to stop stealing from your neighbours for three months, I’ll give you cutting edge weaponry and block any efforts by other law enforcement authorities to restrain your criminal activities.’
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16418
Hitchens says latest deal only dispossesses Palestinians and exposes U.S. servitude to Israel, Philip Weiss
Christopher Hitchens has a great column at Slate describing the “national humiliation” of the United States by Israel in the latest deal that Netanyahu has extracted. Hitchens’s language is colorful, and is a reminder that generally when a writer writes with literary freedom about gentile-Jewish relations, in a critical manner, he/she gets smacked down for anti-Semitism. I wonder whether this will happen to Hitchens. He says Netanyahu has made a Shabbos goy of Obama (a servant who can perform duties a Jew can’t on the Sabbath) and links the U.S. treatment with extreme Jewish religious attitudes– with the idea that gentiles must serve Jews, as articulated by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/11/hitchens-says-latest-deal-only-dispossesses-palestinians-and-exposes-u-s-servitude-to-israel.html
Netanyahu Reigns While Obama’s Away, James Gundun – Washington, D.C.
Should anything else be expected from Benjamin Netanyahu? Fresh off his jet, the Israeli Prime Minister hit New Orleans running with a loaded freight train – plans from the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee for 1,300 settlement units in East Jerusalem. US State Department officials reacted in pseudo-horror. Then plans surfaced for another 800 units in the West Bank settlement of Ariel, with final approval due in several months. Meanwhile incremental construction has broken ground across the West Bank. US and Israeli media reports increased their wonder as to the effects on Netanyahu’s upcoming meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – but why would there be any trouble?
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16421
Letter to the British Liberal Democrats, Stuart Littlewood
Subject: Protecting war criminals ‘just about the lowest thing anyone could do.’  LibDem leaders know perfectly well that under ‘universal jurisdiction’ all states that are party to the Geneva Conventions are obliged to seek out and prosecute or extradite those suspected of grave breaches of the Conventions and bring them justice, regardless of nationality. “Grave breaches” means willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and other serious violations of the laws of war… the sort of atrocities that have been (and still are) committed wholesale by Israelis against civilians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and on the high seas.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16420
The Demasking Law
The Loyalty oath law supports the stance of all the Zionist parties; It demasks the take over of fascism in Israel. The new citizenship law is a good law. According to the latest trends, it works in the interests of Israel. First of all, it makes clear the state of affairs in the country, that in the past year or rather since the summer of 2010, the country’s fascist side strengthens. It will increase the international pressure on Israel and it looks like it may be the only thing that can rescue Israel from the current bleak state of affairs.
http://www.israeli-occupation.org/2010-11-15/hanan-hever-the-demasking-law/
Lebanon

Lebanese struggle to make ends meet for Eid al-Adha
BEIRUT: People across the country prepared for three days of relative calm as they planned to gather with family and friends Tuesday to celebrate Eid al-Adha.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=121611
Lebanon radical cleric names Hezbollah MP as lawyer (AFP)
AFP – Radical Islamist preacher Omar Bakri has appointed a Hezbollah legislator as his defence lawyer when he goes on trial, a judicial source said on Tuesday, following his arrest in northern Lebanon.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101116/wl_mideast_afp/lebanontrialbritainbakriarrest
Iraq

Gunmen kill 2 Christians in northern Iraq (AP)
AP – Gunmen killed two Christians in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul in the latest assault on the country’s dwindling Christian community, officials said Tuesday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101116/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq
Monday: 10 Iraqis Killed, 43 Wounded
At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 43 more were killed a day ahead of Eid observances in Iraq.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/11/15/monday-10-iraqis-killed-43-wounded/
Seeds of doubt in Iraq’s consensus
The fragile power-sharing deal to end Iraq’s post-election stalemate sees ex-premier Iyad Allawi take charge of a new National Council for Strategic Policy. But sectarian tensions could be reignited if the new body emerges with too powerful a mandate, while Allawi’s bloc will not be satisfied with a merely ceremonial role. – Sami Moubayed
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK17Ak03.html
US scheming to extend Iraq adventure
In a secret meeting with Iraqi officials, the United States has offered to leave 15,000 soldiers in the country after the 2011 deadline for withdrawal. Such a deal could embroil American troops in Iraq’s internal conflicts for years to come. – Gareth Porter
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LK17Ak01.html
U.S. & Other World News

Church in Arizona protested because it looks like a mosque
Islamophobia may have reached a point in this country where people condemn Christians that they suspect are Muslims without ever checking the facts. In Phoenix, Arizona, a new Christian church has residents fearing that it is an Islamic mosque.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/church-arizona-protested-mosque/
Afghan President Karzai call for less troops frustrates U.S. general
Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus, was frustrated by the Afghan president’s blunt call for a reduced military footprint in the country — a remark that threatens to undermine efforts to maintain international support for the war at this week’s NATO summit.
http://www.toledoblade.com/article/20101115/NEWS14/101119697/-1/NEWS
Karzai opposes drone attacks in Pakistan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, in a newspaper interview published Sunday, voiced his opposition to US done attacks in Pakistan, and said that he now realises that the Pakistanis are suffering more than Afghans due to terrorist violence afflicting the region.
http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Politics/15-Nov-2010/Karzai-opposes-drone-attacks-in-Pakistan
Mubarak’s Critics See Hypocrisy in U.S. Support
The Egyptian government’s crackdown on political opponents continues unabated in advance of parliamentary elections Nov. 28, even as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week hailed the “partnership” between the two countries as “a cornerstone of stability and security in the Middle East and beyond”.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=53558
Egypt police blamed for death
Police brutality back in focus after dead teenager’s relatives say police in Alexandria tortured him.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/11/2010111516111485865.html
Foreign couple to be lashed for sex in UAE
DUBAI: A Filipina maid and her Bangladeshi lover will receive 100 lashes and be deported for having sex out of wedlock in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a newspaper said Monday. The Sharjah Sharia Court ordered the Filipina to be lashed 100 times and deported for “unlawful sex,” said the Gulf News report.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=121596
Bahrain activists make new torture allegations
Some of 23 detainees say they have been beaten, deprived of sleep and forced to stand for long periods in reprisal for previous torture claims.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/bahrain-activists-make-new-torture-allegations-2010-11-16
Sri Lankan maid claims Kuwaiti torture
A Sri Lankan maid has claimed she was tortured by her Kuwaiti employers, who allegedly jammed 14 metal pins into her arms and legs after she asked for her wages. The pins were removed from Lechchmi’s body in a hospital in the Sri Lankan city of Kurunegala after two long operations. The allegation is the latest in a series of abuse claims by Asian workers employed in the Arabian Gulf region.

In August, another Sri Lankan housemaid returned to the country with 24 nails driven into her body, saying her Saudi employers were responsible. Al Jazeera’s Minelle Fernandez reports from Kurunegala.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_Qq4rMOAFY&feature=player_embedded

www.TheHeadlines.org

 

‘Palestine, and the livin aint easy’–Israeli boycotters strike Tel Aviv opera

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

The ground really is shifting. Here’s incredible video from Israel of Israeli boycott activists trying to submarine the Cape Town Opera House’s performance of “Porgy and Bess” in Tel Aviv last night. Boycott apartheid! they sing. Note the big turnout of activists, the inspiring songs. Ynet reports 40 activists. Wow. This is inside Israel. And it’s civil society: people of conscience around the world waking up to the humiliation and dispossession and statelessness of the Palestinians– and seeing that they can take action.

But what if the Palestinians are the victims?

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

Roger Cohen praises Fayyad, and pushes the Obama-Clinton efforts. The settlement deal with Netanyahu is “positive but a detail.” (I’m not sure what he means by that.) His take on the Palestinian change of attitude reminds me a little of patronizing comments on lamentable Jewish attitudes of yesteryear. Of course then we got the IDF! But really I don’t know that it is self-pitying and a cult of victimhood for people to talk about the denial of their basic rights for six decades:

“A bit of an epiphany,” in the words of one [Clinton] aide, came in March 2009 on the road to Ramallah. “We drove in a motorcade and you could see the settlements high up, and the brutality of it was so stark,” this aide said. “Everyone got quite silent and as we approached Ramallah there were these troops in berets. They were so professional, we thought at first they were Israel Defense Forces. But, no, they were Palestinians, this completely professional outfit, and it was clear this was something new.”

That “something” is fundamental: the transition from a self-pitying, self-dramatizing Palestinian psyche, with all the cloying accoutrements of victimhood, to a self-affirming culture of pragmatism and institution-building. The shift is incomplete. But it has won Clinton over. And it’s powerful enough to pose a whole new set of challenges to Israel: Palestine is serious now.

Another moment came in September 2010 when Clinton held a meeting with Fayyad that threw her schedule off because it ran so long. Fayyad is Mr. Self-Empowerment, the Palestinian who, at last, has put facts before “narrative,” growth before grumbling, roads before ranting, and security before everything. Clinton, I was told, has “strong views” on Fayyad. She said last week she had “great confidence” in him.

By the way, here is Brant Rosen on those details of the settlement freeze deal with Netanyahu. I begin with Rosen’s quotation of Mark Lynch.

From Mideast analyst Mark Lynch (aka “Abu Aardvark”) writing in September 2009:

Indeed, “borders first” negotiations under current conditions — especially if Gaza is ignored and the Jersualem area either deferred or ratified — might well lead not to a two state solution but to what I’ve heard described as a “five statelet” outcome: Israel, Gaza, Ramallahstan, Nablusstan in the northern West Bank and Hebronstan in the southern West Bank.  Does anyone really think that this would be the foundation for an end of conflict agreement?

I was full agreement with Mr. Aardvark then as now. But now it’s one year later and it seems to be deja vu all over again.

While the US again pushes “Borders First,” other core issues are being completely ignored: Israel is still Judaizing East Jerusalem with abandon – and as for the crisis in Gaza, well, no one seems to consider the plight of that region issue even germane to the discussion any more.

The handshake on the White House lawn

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

 

By now, readers must know that I possess one of the hallmarks of weak judgment, I believe whatever the last person I talked to has told me; and in that spirit, let me pass along what a friend told me yesterday in favor of the two-state solution. Here’s what he said:

Obama seems determined to get a handshake on the White House lawn between Abbas and Netanyahu. He has in spite of the humiliations not dropped the issue, he knows how central it is, and smart people who have met him say that he “gets” it. Hillary’s spending eight hours with Netanyahu shows Obama’s determination, now that the midterms are passed. He seems to believe that taking a stand will not hurt him or help him in his hope of being reelected. And he is buying the Israelis off on the Iran piece by giving them planes that can reach Tehran.

The deal will not make a contiguous or viable Palestinian state? Obama is determined to get past that; states in this day and age are less important in territorial terms and more important as international actors; he means to make the Palestinians sovereign international actors. The Palestinians are divided? Abbas and the world will sell the deal to the Palestinians, and they will want political freedom and peace, and many will come along, Hamas will be divided, and even Gaza will come along.

I used to think that Obama had a 10 percent chance of getting a handshake on the White House lawn; now I think he has a 50 percent chance, said my friend. I don’t know what to think of the deal; I am waiting to see what Steve Walt says about it.

The conversation left me uneasy. If the handshake should happen, it would mean that the community I am in, of Palestinian solidarity, will also be divided; some may say that a deal is worth it to end the struggle and others will say that it is not a just peace and should be rejected. Adam Horowitz warned me about this over a year ago; he said, I think Obama is going to get a handshake on the White House lawn, and our community will have to figure out what to say about it.

I think I would be personally torn because my chief impulse here was not the Palestinian solidarity impulse, it was to get this thorn out of the U.S.’s side, in a fair way. I’m reminded of my friend who lectured me last winter on this score. He said, The game has not yet been played by Obama. “Maybe you’re arguing that you can get to one state without a high apocalypse risk and if that’s true, then I could get behind it, but I don’t think it’s true. So you’re in danger of advocating a kind of nihilism.” And I’m reminded of British legal scholar John Strawson’s argument in his book on Partition, published by Pluto: “Partitioning Palestine remains the only viable way of ending the conflict… All those who insist on recycling the old narratives will delay the decolonizing of Palestine and lay the basis for the next war.” And of course Roger Cohen, pushing the plan today, tells the Palestinians to give up their “narrative.”

I can’t say I agree with these folks. If you’re going to impose a solution on one side, why not impose a fair one, on both? But I wanted to put all this out there…

In tribute to the ‘Young, Jewish, and Proud’

Nov 16, 2010

Mohammad Talat 

Last Monday a group of Jewish youth calling themselves Young, Jewish, and Proud (YJP) debuted by coordinating a widely covered disruption of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Jewish Federation National Assembly (JFNA) in New Orleans. In the extensive coverage and exchanges that followed, much was said. Nevertheless, I am left with the feeling that some meaningful insights were largely left out.

I am in awe still. While this action is not as risky as what many Palestinians and others face daily, it took courage – a kind of courage different from what it takes to face a sworn enemy. It is one thing to disagree with your community, be known even as an extreme voice or an odd member, and another all together to be counted as an embarrassment and, consequently, an outcast.

While a few YJP members had already crossed that line, the majority had not. For the audacity to poop on Bibi’s parade and “insult their community” publicly instead of behind closed doors they will force many of their friends, school mates, family even, to sever ties with them and give them the cold shoulder. They will become toxic in a large part of their community – a community they strongly feel a part of despite their deep disagreements. I am not speaking about the ardent Zionist community, but the community of Jewish Americans which has romantic emotional connection to a “Jewish homeland” and vague moral qualms about what is happening to the Palestinians that they wish to see change but haven’t come about yet to change their understandably victim-centric worldview and accept that their beloved state of Israel is a criminal state that practices systematic apartheid.

Consider this inferior analogy, since no community is immune to any number of maladies. In Islam, imagine some young Muslims standing in the middle of Eid prayer this Tuesday on Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia and shouting at the top of their lungs that the Saudi monarchy silences dissent in the name of Islam and that true Islam calls for women to have equal legal and political rights (not to mention Shias and non-Muslims) – then post this footage on YouTube for all to watch. A vast majority of Muslims would agree with the premise, and privately condemn the Saudi monarchy as medieval and Islamic in nothing but name, but most of this very majority if asked would describe such protest action as provocative, unseemly, ill-timed, needless, and rude on this revered occasion. While a few secret admirers and a handful of radical figures will celebrate them on Facebook, the perpetrators will be roundly ostracized in their mainstream communities, and less than a few will lift a finger, probably behind closed doors, to advocate against their being made an example of bad behavior. This analogy is not a perfect fit, but it gives the picture of what these protesters had to grapple with before standing up, raising their banners, signing their statement, filming their action, or writing about it.

Some voices I respect have mulled over the extensive coverage this event has generated vis-à-vis other news involving Palestinians dying and people risking more than a few scratches and mean name-calling. Some spoke disapprovingly of Jewish and white privilege. I loved what YJP member Emily Ratner had to say in her post about what she did, “And while I’m proud of what we’ve done, our actions are a small, highly-documented moment in a long history of resistance, led by people who have risked and lost far more than we have, or will.” Jewish and white privilege exists; these young Jews did not invent it and cannot dismantle it overnight. They employed it responsibly to attract the spotlight and focus it where it belongs.

Speaking of privilege, I feel so privileged – non-Jewish and non-white as I am – when I realize that more than half the YJP founders, pictured here, are people I have known and met. The only Jews I have grown up with were Israeli politicians and military leaders (excuse the redundancy), or stereotypical characters in caricatures and nationalist TV series. This connection would have not taken place if I hadn’t been blessed to travel and come in contact with Jewish friends whose display of moral courage helped me realize and overcome my own prejudice. Incidentally, a few weeks ago I was chatting about how I’d met some of these friends years back and concluded after speaking to them that the most they would ever do is talk and dialogue to relieve their troubled conscience towards the Palestinian suffering. I then remarked on how it has been such an experience to observe their transformation and, upon uttering this, realized that not only they, but I, have been transformed. I am reminded of Phil Weiss’ recent postings about his own racism, and feel eternally grateful that I’ve shed a good deal of mine.

Finally, on moral courage, conspicuously absent from the JFNA protest message was any critical mention of Zionism or the right of return to Palestinian refugees. The protest message was consistently framed around “occupation, settlements, siege of Gaza, loyalty oath, and silencing dissent.” Some puritans would point to this as a capitulation unworthy of wide celebration. This is irresponsible armchair sloganeering. What one has an opportunity to say in a quiet lecture hall cannot be delivered in a few seconds while being dragged out and shouted down, so one has to aim their best shot. What are the achievable objectives of this action? To open up the eyes of other young Jews present at the convention, the ones being courted by J-Street and the David Project, to their peers being brutally choked, dragged, and silenced by their elders for expressing universal truths whose validity is unquestionable. Quoting again from the Muslim tradition, the scripture relates the story of an early follower of Muhammad who confronts his abusers imploring “Would you kill a man because he says: `My Lord is Allah?’” He did not protest that they denied his right to take four wives – and he was Muhammad’s best friend and ally!

While united by their opposition to the Israeli establishment, these brave souls differ individually, and it is their right, on how they approach the problem and imagine a solution. Some are Zionists, whatever this means to them that preserves their inner peace. Others have moved beyond that, or come from an opposite direction. The slogans they raised represented points of unity upon which they agreed. As their transformation continues, this may change. It is not my role today to criticize but to congratulate, and wait to continue these difficult discussions of our intellectual disagreements at another time.

Today I say todah.

Mohammad Talat is an assistant professor of civil engineering at Cairo University and a UC Berkeley alum.

 

$17m Islamophobic push during 2008 campaign is tied to shadowy figure in Israel lobby

Nov 16, 2010

Philip Weiss

Salon’s Justin Elliott is on the trail of the mysterious donor who funded the wide distribution of an Islamophobic film, “Obsession,” during the 2008 campaign, to the tune of $17 million. And he suspicions someone who’s in the Israel lobby: Barry Seid, whose name shows up on an IRS filing by the film’s distributor, Clarion:

There’s only one Barry Seid Salon could find who might fit the profile of a $17 million donor to Clarion. That would be businessman Barre Seid (note the different spelling) of Illinois, a longtime contributor to right-wing and Jewish causes. But his representative flatly denied to Salon that he has ever given money to Clarion.

The elderly and press-shy Seid is president of Tripp Lite, a large Chicago-based manufacturer of power strips that got into the personal computer market on the ground floor back in the 1980s. Seid has personally poured millions of dollars into Republican campaigns and conservative causes, and his foundation has given generously to the Cato Institute, the Americans for Limited Government Foundation, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This year, Seid received an honorary degree from Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv for his work “supporting those organizations which will fortify Israel’s position in the world.”

But Seid assistant Joan Frontczak told Salon in an e-mail: “Mr. Seid did not make any contributions to the Clarion Fund.” And she added: “Mr. Seid is a very private person and doesn’t seek publicity of any kind.”