NOVANEWS
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Perry embraces violent Jewish extremists, Politico’s Ben Smith calls him ‘moderate’
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Palestinians have a better chance of getting a state on Craigslist than from Barack Obama
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Ashrawi and Tibi say Obama made it sound like Palestinians are occupying Israel
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Conservative rabbis overwhelmingly disapprove of settlers and many say they’re ‘sometimes ashamed’ of Israel
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American-Israeli votes might have put Turner over top–and Israeli settler helped craft Turner speech
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Obama consulted no Palestinians for his rendition of history
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Israel’s remaining friends rally around flag outside of UN
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Deal in works to save Obama casting a veto, and continue ‘peace process’ –Guardian
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US is all alone on ‘Israel Island’ –Munayyer in Chicago Trib
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New Dem panic: If Obama’s such a great friend, why didn’t he go to Israel?
Perry embraces violent Jewish extremists, Politico’s Ben Smith calls him ‘moderate’
Sep 21, 2011
Max Blumenthal
Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry embraces former terrorist group leader Dov Hikind
Yesterday, I attended Rick Perry’s press conference at the W Hotel in New York City, where the Texas Governor and Republican presidential frontrunner denounced President Barack Obama for supposedly “appeasing” America’s enemies in the Middle East and failing to sufficiently support Israel. The Perry appearance was timed to pre-empt Obama’s speech at the UN in which the President would reject Palestinian demands for statehood.
The most remarkable aspect of Perry’s press conference was the cast of characters that assembled behind the Governor while he spoke. To Perry’s immediate right was Assemblyman Dov Hikind, the former leader of the Jewish Defense League, a terrorist group responsible for bombing attacks on numerous Arab-American targets and a conspiracy to murder Republican Rep. Darrell Issa. While Hikind’s collaborator Victor Vancier spent ten years in jail for firebomb attacks, Hikind was suspected by the FBI of numerous terror attacks of his own. After issuing numerous stentorian condemnations of terror, Perry handed the mic over to Hikind, who exclaimed, “I heard the Governor’s speeches and I said to myself, ‘He sounds like me!'” The two engaged in a sustained hug before a giant media gaggle.
To Perry’s left was Dr. Solomon “Joe” Frager, who was listed on official Perry press material as the organizer of the press conference. Frager is the Chairman of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, a front group for theAteret Cohanim organization that steals Palestinian property in East Jerusalem and hands it over to fanatically religious Jewish families. They are the spearhead of Israel’s slow motion ethnic cleansing of Silwan and the Old City. For a glimpse at the zealotry, racism and sheer sleaziness behind Ateret Cohanim’s operation, watch Louis Theroux’s excellent BBC documentary, “The Ultra-Zionists,” which follows Ateret Cohanim’s man-on-the-ground Daniel Luria as he personally orchestrates the theft of Palestinian homes.
Surrounding Perry was a sundry assortment of Jewish Israeli extremists, from Knesset Deputy Speaker Danny Danon, who advocates annexing the West Bank to punish the Palestinian Authority for pursuing statehood, to Member of Knesset Nissim Zeev, a settler from the Shas Party who has proposed “rehab centers” for homosexuals.
None of the reporters I talked to afterwards seemed to know who any of Perry’s “pro-Israel” supporters were, and very few even cared. And nothing I have read so far about the event in the mainstream American media noted that it was planned by a key orchestrator of Palestinian home seizures in occupied territory, or that Perry embraced the former leader of a group listed by the FBI as a terrorist organization. To get a sense of the kind of coverage Perry earned from the mainstream press, read Politico’s Ben Smith, who described Perry’s speech as “moderate” and “centrist.” Meanwhile, the liberal groups that howled in protest when Perry hosted a prayer rally in Houston with Christian right leaders have virtually ignored Perry’s embrace of the Jewish extreme right.
It goes without saying that if an American politician meets with any Muslim or Arab leader, they will invite vehement denunciations from their opponents and face intense scrutiny from the mainstream press. This is why Obama has not visited a single mosque during his entire term as President (former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said Obama was avoiding Muslims “out of sensitivity to the Jewish vote”). When a politician like Perry who surrounds himself with violent Jewish extremists before the national press corps, however, he is lauded as a “centrist” and treated as a serious contender.
This post originally appeared on Max Blumenthal’s blog forAl Akhbar English.
Palestinians have a better chance of getting a state on Craigslist than from Barack Obama
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Avigdor Lieberman is thrilled by a speech that called Israel the “historic homeland” of “the Jewish people.” AIPAC is over the moon: “President Obama demonstrated his understanding of Israel’s legitimate requirements.” J Street is happy, too.
Netanyahu called the speech a “badge of honor.” Of course. Because Obama’s description of “the Jewish people’s burden of centuries of exile, persecution”– and the Palestinians’ burden to amend for that– is straight from Netanyahu himself.
Not a word about settlements or occupation. Not a word about Palestinian conditions, or Palestinian nonviolent resistance, while he sang praises of the Arab spring. No sense of the strategic let alone moral urgency of ending the longest military occupation in modern history.
Zbig Brzezinski said (on PBS’s News Hour) that Sarkozy’s speech had urgency while Obama’s was a speech for a domestic audience, for the 2012 election. Brzezinski found it tragic: it abandoned any pretense that Americans would be fair in the conflict, and the loss of an American role is bad for Palestinians and Israelis. “Senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath said Wednesday that the Palestinians’ statehood bid at the United Nations is the only alternative to violence.” —Haaretz.
All our politicians belong to the Tea Party when it comes to Israel. The Times reports that the Republican Party has forged a bond with Netanyahu (surely not just for voters, but for money), and the Democratic Party doesn’t want to be left behind. They are cultivating the same government. The Washington Post says says there must be no daylight between Obama and Netanyahu, and Congressional Democrats gave Netanyahu 29 standing ovations last May.
What do people who care about Palestinian rights gain by being Democrats? Where is the left in this conversation? Where are the 20 percent of Americans who think we are too supportive of Israel? Do we have a voice in Congress or the media?
Back in the 60s, the Democrats gave up part of their coalition to choose equal rights. “We have lost the south for a generation,” said Lyndon Johnson. Will anyone in our politics be willing to take a principled step in support of Palestinian rights and risk losing those Jewish voters and donors who will back Israeli discrimination forever?
Based on today’s performance in New York, I doubt it.
Ashrawi and Tibi say Obama made it sound like Palestinians are occupying Israel
Sep 21, 2011
Ira Glunts
Hanan Ashrawi, who is part of the Palestinian delegation at the UN, reacted angrily to President Obama’s UN address. Here are some quotes from a Ha’aretzinterview in Hebrew that took place immediately after the speech (Barak Ravid, “Palestinian Anger Over Obama Speech at the UN” (original title), Ha’aretz (Hebrew))
I did not believe what I heard, it sounded as if the Palestinians were occupying Israel. There was no empathy for the Palestinians, he only spoke of the Israeli problems.
He told us that it isn’t easy to achieve peace, thanks, we know this. He spoke about universal rights – Good, those same rights apply to Palestinians.
[The Americans] are applying enormous pressure on everybody at the UN, they are using threats and coercion. I wish they would invest the same energy in an attempt to promote peace, not threats.
Ahmad Tibi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, who is in NYC with the Palestinian delegation, was also interviewed by the newspaper. He echoed Ashrawi when speaking about the Obama address:
It is possible to think after hearing the President’s speech today, that the Israelis were demanding a state from their Palestinian occupiers.
Avoiding [mentioning] the ’67 borders was biting and clear.
His message is continued suffering for the Palestinians, accompanied by long and perpetual negotiations with Netanyahu.
The fact that Tibi, who is an Israeli politician, traveled with the PA delegation to the UN is viewed by many as controversial in Israel. Many Israelis take a very dim view of cooperation between Palestinians from Israel, with officials in the territories; they see it as disloyalty to the state. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s the way they think.
Both Tibi and Ashrawi insisted that despite the pressure, the Palestinians will go forward with the UN resolution as planned. According to an AP report, Mahmoud Abbas says that he will not agree to a delay in voting for the statehood resolution despite pressure from the US and France.
Conservative rabbis overwhelmingly disapprove of settlers and many say they’re ‘sometimes ashamed’ of Israel
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
NY Jewish Week’s Eric Herschthal reports on “the increasingly liberal” views reflected in a Conservative movement survey of 100s of American rabbis:
46 percent said they were “always proud” of Israel, but 44 percent said they were “sometimes ashamed.” Sixty-three percent thought that Israel should freeze settlements in the West Bank, and another 17 percent were unsure. More than twice as many rabbis supported Obama’s call for a peace deal based on ’67 borders with lands swaps than those that opposed it, and the vast majority–78 percent–viewed the settler movement unfavorably.
And here’s another poll that suggests politicians are out of step with public opinion, a Think Progress report on a poll of Israeli opinion:
A joint poll by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the Occupied Palestinian Territories found that 69 percent of Israelis think that their country should accept United Nations recognition of an independent Palestinian state, according the Jerusalem Post.
American-Israeli votes might have put Turner over top–and Israeli settler helped craft Turner speech
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Adam Dickter, at the New York Jewish Week, reports that an Israeli settler helped craft Bob Turner’s speech blasting Obama during Turner’s successful congressional campaign in Brooklyn. (thx to Jeff Blankfort):
Turner’s campaign, which was staffed and assisted by many Orthodox Jews, also sent 5,000 pieces of direct mail to American citizens living in Israel who are registered to vote in the 9th CD, sources said. (That’s more than Turner’s margin of victory of 4,128 votes in his 33,816-win upset over Democrat David Weprin.)
Giving new meaning to Scott McConnell’s view that the special relationship is a transmission belt for bad ideas.
Obama consulted no Palestinians for his rendition of history
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Mazin Qumsiyeh on Obama’s speech:
In his first speech at the UN, President Obama stated that he prohibited torture and ordered Guantanamo prisons closed. He also said he will work to cut the nuclear arsenal of the US and Russia and move towards a world without nuclear weapons. He said that peace must be pursued by actions of all nations working together and that the era of unilateralism is finished. He said he will work aggressively to advance peace based on two states: Israel and Palestine. He said, “America does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements”. All were big fat LIES. And now comes Obama with new lies in front of the UN and at this International day of peace. Here he shows Palestinian leaders did not give him any briefing on history. I hope any Palestinian leaders should object strongly and with facts and figures to these misstatements.
“Let’s be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbors that have waged repeated wars against it. [false] Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. [correct but this should be balanced by explaining that 10 times more Palestinians were butchered]
Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. [Israelis teach hate 100 more times than the other way around and hate of the colonizer to the colonized is not the same as the reverse]. Israel, a small country of less than eight million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. [That is nonsense; Israel wiped Palestine including 530 villages and towns and now is the fourth strongest country plus having you Obama and Congress as its lackeys]. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were. [Irrelevant and highly emotional: just study the history of Nazi-Zionist collaboration to see how absurd to link Apartheid Israel with “The Jewish People”, itself a mistaken term no more valid than concepts of “The Christian People” or “The Muslim People”]. These facts cannot be denied [they are regurgitation of Zionist myths, irrelevant facts, and half truths]. The Jewish people have forged a successful state in their historic homeland [a racist apartheid state based on land theft and ethnic cleansing; is that your definition of success?]. Israel deserves recognition [no it does not, Israel deserves to be faced with the truth and pressured to transform just like Apartheid South Africa]…
All who meet with him to go back and read his first speech in the UN should level with Mr. Obama.
Hypocrisy will be more evident at the United Nations these coming few days. It is already evident in the use of bullying by the US administration to other countries to force them to not vote for a Palestinian state. This bullying will remind us of how they bullied in 1947 to get the unjust resolution recommending partition of Palestine against the wishes of its people (contrary to UN Charter and the right of self-determination). Hypocrisy will also be evident in Netanyahu’s speech in the UN that will say to the world: Israel wants peace and “why are we at the UN when Israel and the Palestinians can negotiate directly.” After decades of direct negotiations between slaves and heavily armed masters, excuse the world for not believing you.
Israel’s remaining friends rally around flag outside of UN
Sep 21, 2011
Alex Kane
Israel may be increasingly isolated globally, but you wouldn’t know it from the scene in New York today. A right-wing crowd of thousands rallied earlier today at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza against the ongoing Durban III conference and the Palestinian Authority bid for United Nations recognition of statehood.
The demonstration was organized by a group called theJerusalem Institute of Justice. But by far the largest contingent of participants came from the evangelical Christian community. The Eagles’ Wings, an evangelical Christian group, brought droves of Christian Zionists out to wave the Israeli flag, hold signs to insist that Israel will “stay on the map” and cheer against the division of Jerusalem.
“It’s important for the Christian community to stand up for Israel,” twenty-year old Rutgers University student Hannah Johnson told me. “We’re from the same roots, we both hold a lot of the same ideals and beliefs, and their God’s chosen people, so we choose to stand with them.”
The rally took aim at the Durban III conference, which marks ten years since the first UN conference against racism in Durban, South Africa. Many hard-line supporters of Israel have advocated against the Durban conferences because of what they see as an unfair focus on Israel.
“The whole Durban conference…is appalling to us, and we don’t want our children to be taught [anti-Zionism] and we don’t want it spread in the United States via the UN,” said Sheree Krause, a Christian Zionist from Virginia, as her and her son passed out free Israeli flags.
It wasn’t only Christian evangelicals that came out to the rally, though. Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), a pro-settler organization whose executive director spokeat a memorial event for the far-right extremist Meir Kahane last year, was also present. One member of Americans for a Safe Israel carried a sign that read “Jews Want Peace, Arabs Want Pieces.”
“The whole land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people,” said Helen Freedman, the executive director of AFSI.
“The unilateral declaration of independence is very, very dangerous, because what it does is signal to the Arabs that they now have a state…There’s no legitimacy to their claim for a state, but the population will get the message that they do have entitlement and the whole situation will really spiral out of control.”
And of course, the Israeli government’s point man on outreach to Christian Zionists–Likud Party member Danny Danon–was there. Danon recently appearedwith Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry at a press conference where Perry blasted President Obama’s record on Israel.
At the rally, Danon told Obama to loud cheers to “wake up” and focus on the threat of Iran.
The rally came just after President Obama finished up his remarks at the UN General Assembly for which he was praised by Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman.
Despite that praise, though, the rally served as a reminder that Obama will spend a good portion of his re-election campaign defending his record on Israel, especially against the likes of Perry. But no matter how deferential Obama is to Israeli wishes, winning over the crowd at a rally like this isn’t going to happen.
Alex Kane is a New York City-based freelance journalist who blogs on Israel/Palestine at alexbkane.wordpress.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexbkane.
Deal in works to save Obama casting a veto, and continue ‘peace process’ –Guardian
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Chris McGreal, in New York:
International efforts to forestall a showdown in the UN security council over the declaration of a Palestinian state are solidifying around a plan for the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to submit a request for recognition but for a vote on the issue to be put on hold while a new round of peace talks is launched.
The deal is being pushed by the Middle East“Quartet” of the UN, EU, US and Russia, which is attempting to persuade Abbas to back away from a diplomatic confrontation with Washington, which says it will veto the Palestinian bid.
The US president Barack Obama is expected to meet the Palestinian leader at the UN on Wednesday as Abbas comes under intense pressure from the US and Europe to compromise.
Diplomats said the proposed compromise would see Abbas submit his letter to the security council, which would then defer action.
US is all alone on ‘Israel Island’ –Munayyer in Chicago Trib
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Yousef Munayyer of the Palestine Center has a strong op-ed in today’s Chicago Tribune that begins with a haunting picture of the U.S. isolating itself by vetoing the resolution against Israel’s settlement project in the Security Council back in February, then patiently describes the absurdity of the peace process. “Just another example of how this whole issue is going mainstream,” says Mark Wauck, who sent me link. “You just wouldn’t have seen this type of op-ed as recently as a year ago.” Munayyer:
Israel Island is not simply a metaphysical place, it is a mentality — one that has preferred isolation over cooperation, stubbornness and recalcitrance over genuine concessions and abiding by law, vetoes over pressuring Israel.
A valuable lesson from the Arab uprisings is that Israel cannot expect lasting peace with Arab regimes if it does not have peace with Arab nations. It can’t simply wall itself off from neighbors it has maligned and expect peaceful coexistence.
New Dem panic: If Obama’s such a great friend, why didn’t he go to Israel?
Sep 21, 2011
Philip Weiss
Panic among the Democrats on the Jewish front. Ron Kampeas reports on a call to Jews from Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic congresswoman and head of the Democratic National Committee, along with Robert Wexler, the FL congressman turned Israel lobbyist, reminding Jewish Dems about our “values.”
Notice the defensiveness on Wasserman Schultz’s part and the real fear that Rick Perry will be able to peel away Jews on this issue (here’s the Dems new website: Jews have never had a better friend than Obama– just what New York Magazine says, in declaring Obama a Jewish president). Kampeas:
[Wasserman Schultz said,] “Beyond Israel there is nothing, I mean nothing that the Republicans are proposing …. That are in line with our values.”
She also acknowledges nervousness about Obama.
“I know many of you feel overwhelmed by the partisan fearmongering and deliberate distortions of our president’s record on Israel.
“The uncertainty within the community continues for many.”
…There is, however, a GOP/conservative response to the call and the website that seems to have real legs: Wasserman Schultz and Wexler were hyperdefensive about Obama’s failure so far to visit Israel as president.@DWSTweets protests too much on BHO not going to #Israel; it stands out b/c he was in the neighborhood for Cairo speech but stayed away.
The first Jewish leader to ask Obama why he was not planning a visit to Israel, way back in the summer of 2009 — a month or so after his Cairo speech — was Debra DeLee, the CEO of Americans for Peace Now. He still hasn’t adequately answered.