Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• JVP: As long as US supports occupation, Israelis and Palestinians will not know peace

• One Brooklyn cong’l candidate calls for ending funds to P.A., while the other says you can’t make peace with Palestinians

• Rep. Rothman blames Hamas, and P.A. too, and Simon Wiesenthal Center blames Arab Spring

• Arabs only understand ‘somebody smacking them on the head,’ explains Israel lobbyist/archaeologist who lives in New Rochelle

• Line of the day

• Indyk says Obama has failed on Israel/Palestine, and our credibility in Arab world is ‘tarnished’

• Chicago-area activists ask, ‘Which side are you on Kirk?’

• Austerity generates ‘political violence,’ from England to Gaza

• Anti-Arab racism in Israel

• Reviving the Israeli left– Labor Party figure defends colonization project

JVP: As long as US supports occupation, Israelis and Palestinians will not know peace

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

Passages from statements issued by the leaders of Jewish Voice for Peace, condemning both the attacks in southern Israel and the Israeli reprisals in Gaza:

Within hours of the attacks, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said, “There will be a price tag to this event… Gaza will be severely hit.” (Ynet) Israel subsequently initiated lethal air strikes on southern Gaza where an already desperately poor 1.5 million Palestinians live captive with limited access to food, medical supplies and fuel due to Israeli and Egyptian policies. So far 6 have been reported dead. Israel’s “price tag” approach to Gaza, otherwise known as collective punishment, is also a serious violation of international law.

JVP Deputy Director Cecilie Surasky: “Instead of investigating and bringing those responsible to justice based on the rule of law, Israel is responding to the horror of Eilat with collective punishment by bombing a captive and struggling population in Gaza. This escalation is simply wrong and will only lead to the deaths of more Palestinians and Israelis and the continued deterioration of Israel’s standing in the world.”

JVP Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson: “Every single death is a tragedy and there can never be an excuse for deliberately killing civilians. Unfortunately, as long as the United States continues to support Israel’s decades-long practice of illegally appropriating land, destroying homes, and using disproportionate force–a policy which has proven to be both morally bankrupt and self-destructive for Israel–neither Palestinians nor Israelis will ever know peace.”

One Brooklyn cong’l candidate calls for ending funds to P.A., while the other says you can’t make peace with Palestinians

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

Candidates for the Weiner seat in Brooklyn were quick to condemn the attacks in southern Israel. Because they’re trying to out-Israel one another. First Republican Bob Turner wants to cut off the Palestinian Authority:

“Meanwhile, the Obama Administration continues to send American tax dollars to the Palestinian Authority, which in turns pays terrorists in Israeli prisons for their murderous deeds. All U.S. Funding should be cut off to the PA until payments to terrorists stop.”

The Dem, David Weprin:

This highlights the fact that giving up land for peace is never a good idea …

I would like to extend my condolences to the families of those murdered and to wish a refuah shleima to those injured….

My condolences also to Prime Minister Netanyahu and the entire nation as they grapple with yet another senseless attack. I have no doubt that the resilience Israel has shown in the past will be on full display as the rise from this brutal act of terror.

 

Rep. Rothman blames Hamas, and P.A. too, and Simon Wiesenthal Center blames Arab Spring

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

The security narrative is everything today. Just when we thought human rights might be getting on the Arab spring agenda– no, the attack in southern Israel shows that security is everything. Here’s a rush to judgment by Steve Rothman, congressman from northern New Jersey. Then after him the Simon Wiesenthal Center, same message; you can’t give a state to Palestinians. Rothman:

My condolences go out to the families and friends of the Israelis who were murdered in Southern Israel today and to all of the people of Jewish State of Israel. I strongly condemn these horrific terrorist attacks and call on the Palestinian Authority and the Egyptian government to immediately denounce this brutal violence. ..

With the efforts by the Palestinian Authority and Egypt to improve ties with terrorist groups like Hamas, today’s terrorist attacks remind us that trying to make peace with murderous terrorists only leads to more death and suffering – especially for Israel.

With an uncertain future in the Middle East, it is more important than ever for the United States to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Jewish State of Israel.

From the Wiesenthal Center officials:

“These attacks should be a wake call to world leaders who continuously pressure the Jewish state to return to indefensible borders and to accept a two state solution with the Palestinian Authority, whose president cannot even set foot in Hamas-controlled Gaza”, Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper dean and founder and associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO said.

“Meanwhile, the Arab Spring has yielded a bonanza for terrorists in Gaza and the as Egypt opened its border with Hamastan and has been unable to control the Sinai from terrorist activities. Today’s attacks also underscore the dangerous folly that the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state scheduled for the United Nations next month represents….”

Arabs only understand ‘somebody smacking them on the head,’ explains Israel lobbyist/archaeologist who lives in New Rochelle

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

The Globe and Mail, Graeme Smith reporting. Alex Joffe is formerly of the David Project, and lives in New Rochelle, an archaeologist and historian:

In a prescient article, published little more than a week before the latest attacks, Alex Joffe at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research warned that a “security vacuum” allowed more freedom for Islamists operating in the region….

Mr. Joffe now says the only solution will be for Egypt to re-establish the security apparatus that fell apart during the revolution.

“The pharaohs had the same problem in that region, and they would give you the same answer,” Mr. Joffe said. “The only thing they understand is somebody smacking them on the head.”

 

Line of the day

Aug 18, 2011

Lizzy Ratner

Congrats to Muhammad Barakei, Palestinian-Israeli Knesset Member from Hadash, who managed to sum up in just 12 words the sick spectacle of Israel’s Jewish political elite genuflecting to International Man of bigotry, Glenn Beck.

As quoted in the Jerusalem Post:

There are enough racists in Israel without importing them from the US.

Beck, of course, is in Jerusalem this week, seeding the soil for his big Restoring Hate — er,  Courage, Restoring Courage — rally next Wednesday. The rally is being billed as an opportunity “to unite people around the world from all walks of life in standing with Israel, reminding us of the need to have faith, honor and courage in our own lives,” but even the most cursory knowledge of Beck and his army of the faithful suggests that their motives align far more closely with stirring conflict and sowing violence than hand-holding their way to the Age of Unity. Why else plan to hold the rally at the contested-to-the-point-of-combustible Southern Wall excavations — a point Barakei also makes.

The lessons from Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount apparently haven’t been learned. This event isn’t for building coexistence, but to spark fires in a sensitive location ahead of the United Nations vote on a Palestinian state in September.

There is a danger that the event will lead to people being harmed, and the police should have prevented it.

This should all be bluntly, eye-bleedingly obvious but so far only a handful of prominent public figures and politicians have had the courage, moral clarity, or simple honesty to state the obvious. The rest have pretty much used Beck’s visit as a chance to practice their best High Holiday full-body prostration.

Which reminds me: the runner-up best line of the day goes to Palestinian-Israeli MK Ahmad Tibi (UAL-Ta’al), who described Beck as “a bizarre, conservative, neo-fascist comedian who is motivated by a hatred of Islam.”

Amen.

Indyk says Obama has failed on Israel/Palestine, and our credibility in Arab world is ‘tarnished’

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

They held a panel at Brookings two days ago on foreign policy, and at the very end of it, someone asked about the Pachyderm in the Pantry, the Israel/Palestine issue.  Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, took the question and said in essence that Obama has been an abject failure, in part for political reasons. By the way, Indyk repeatedly tried to defeat Walt and Mearsheimer’s Israel lobby thesis in debates when the scholars reared their heads 5 years ago. Indyk:

“There I think that we suffer far more from, difficult as it is for me to say it, from a failed theory of the case. We went about trying to resume negotations and resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict in the wrong way. Now the degree of difficulty was great given the dysfunctionalism on the Israeli side, and on the Palestinian side. But nevertheless we didn’t help.

“And you can put that partly down to political constraints, but I think it has a lot more to do with the way that we went about it…

But I think that the failure to achieve just a limited goal of getting the resumption of negotiations going again– I mean even George Bush who didn’t care about solving the Palestinian problem had final status negotiations in his last year of office– but President Obama that swore that from day one that he was going to make it a priority, in 2-1/2 years was only able to get a fitful one month of direct negotiatons, just the direct negotiations, something which has been going on for the last 15 years. And that affects our credibility.

“If we can’t be seen to be effective in trying to resolve the Palestinian problem, which is the hotbutton issue in the Arab world, then we’re badly positioned to play an influential role in these dramatic developments that are going on now [reference to Arab spring, which was part of the question]. So our credibility has been tarnished.”

The one addendum I’d make to this is that Congress gave Netanyahu 29 standing ovations as he defied President Obama, and Democrats have sandbagged Obama repeatedly on settlements. Obama has no base for even a moderate position (end settlements). This is because the Democratic Party’s power structure is committed to the settlements, and the Republican Party is even further to the right. This is a political issue. It’s not about methodology.

Chicago-area activists ask, ‘Which side are you on Kirk?’

Aug 18, 2011

Adam Horowitz

Chicago-area activists have kicked off a campaign challenging Illinois Senator Mark Kirk’s outrageous support for the worst of Israeli militarism (i.e when Kirk said during Cast Lead “To misquote Shakespeare, something is rotten in Gaza and now it’s time to take out the trash.”).  Activists will be leafleting Chicago’s Daley Plaza today to draw public attention to Senator Kirk’s statements and positions as part of a campaign to end US military aid to Israel. The protest’s message will highlight the destructive role of military aid: “Hey Senator Kirk – U.S. military aid to Israel is bad for Americans, bad for Palestinians, and bad for Israelis.”
Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine member Caren Levy Van Slyke explained in a press release from the group:

Senator Kirk has distinguished himself from other members of Congress by the stridency of his rhetoric and willingness to involve the American military in the defense of Israel’s illegal and immoral blockade of Gaza. Our government ignores the people living without homes in the bombed and bulldozed areas of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the youth protesting housing costs in the tent city in Tel Aviv, and Illinois residents whose homes have been foreclosed. It is time to challenge these policies and bring our concerns directly to the voters.

Today’s protest in Chicago. (Photo: Martha Reese)

Austerity generates ‘political violence,’ from England to Gaza

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

This morning I woke up to news of the deadly assault on a bus in southern Israel. The BBC quotes Israel officials saying Gaza militants entering from Egypt. Hamas denies the assertion.

Coincidentally, last night before I went to bed, I had teed up this analysis of “political violence” in England, from the Guardian, because it made me think about Gaza. Just compare the austerity percentage that the scholars by Jacopo Ponticelli and Hans-Joachim Vothsay produces unrest, 3 percent, with the choke collar that is on Gaza. As I wrote last night, it’s amazing there isn’t even more violence in Gaza…

To construct our measure of unrest, we looked at five indicators: riots, anti-government demonstrations, general strikes, political assassinations, and attempted revolutions. In a typical year and country, there are about 1.5 incidents of this type. The more you cut, the more incidents you get. By the time austerity measures hit 3% or more, the number of incidents has doubled. Interestingly, for the UK, the pattern is even stronger: for every percentage point of cut-backs, instability surges by more than it does on average in the rest of the countries. Importantly, these effects are in addition to the well-known relationship between lower growth (associated with more unemployment) and higher instability.

Oh to be clear: we’re against violence here; that’s why we are generally so supportive of the boycott campaign, it’s nonviolent.

Anti-Arab racism in Israel

Aug 18, 2011

Adam Horowitz

Eli Ungar-Sargon writes in The Electronic Intifada about a survey of Jewish Israeli racism and the video above:

We began our survey in February 2011 and completed it in early March. On the Israeli side, we interviewed a total of 250 Jewish Israelis in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Jerusalem and Beersheba. For this part of the survey I conducted the interviews myself from behind the camera in Hebrew. On the Palestinian side, we interviewed a total of 250 Palestinians in Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron. (Despite multiple attempts, we were unable to procure permission to enter the Gaza Strip.) Here, we collaborated with local journalist Mohammad Jaradat who, using my questions, conducted the interviews in Arabic.

The questions we asked pertained to a number of sensitive political topics and the idea was to get people to talk long enough to detect if there was any racism at play in their answers. In sociological terms, we were engaged in qualitative analysis, but unlike typical qualitative interviews, we spent minutes, not hours with our subjects. Our survey is not exhaustive and our method was very simple. We went to public places and asked people to talk to us on camera. In designing the questions, I set out to distinguish actual racism from conflict-based animosity. That is, to allow for the possibility that Israelis might exhibit animosity towards Palestinians without being racist and to allow the same on the Palestinian side in reverse.

The very first question we asked of Jewish Israelis was the extremely broad “What do you think about Arabs?” It is only reasonable to expect that people who harbor anti-Arab sentiment would mask their feelings when answering such a direct question on camera. Most people responded to this question with some variation of “They are people,” although we were surprised that a sizable minority used the opportunity to launch into anti-Arab diatribes.

One of the most disturbing trends that we noticed was the strong correlation between age and anti-Arab sentiment. The majority of Israeli teenagers that we spoke to expressed unabashed and open racism towards Arabs. Statements like “I hate them,” or “they should all be killed” were common in this age group.

When looking over the data, we divided the respondents into three groups: those who were neutral about Arabs; those who were positive about them; and those who expressed negative attitudes. Amongst the responses, 60 percent were neutral, 25 percent negative and 15 percent positive.

Read the entire piece here.

 

Reviving the Israeli left– Labor Party figure defends colonization project

Aug 18, 2011

Philip Weiss

Haaretz, showing once again that the settlements have devoured Israeli politics:

Prospective Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich has defended her party’s role in the establishment of the settlements, saying, “I certainly do not see the settlement project as a sin and a crime.” In an interview to be published in Haaretz Magazine Friday, MK Yachimovich added, “In its time, it was a completely consensual move. And it was the Labor Party that founded the settlement enterprise in the territories. That is a fact. A historical fact.”