NOVANEWS
- MSM jailbreak: Chris Hayes devotes 2 hours to conflict with panel of 2 Zionists and 2 Palestinians
- Israel is sucking up all the oxygen in the White House
- Israel’s bogus case for bombing Gaza obscures political motives
- #USWeaponBombGaza trends globally
- US attack on Iran would alienate Muslims worldwide — NPR
- Obama victory over Netanyahu gained support, time
MSM jailbreak: Chris Hayes devotes 2 hours to conflict with panel of 2 Zionists and 2 Palestinians
Mar 11, 2012
Philip Weiss
Chris Hayes and Mustafa Barghouti
This morning marked a historic day in the mainstream discourse: Chris Hayes devoted two hours of his MSNBC show “Up With Chris Hayes” to a discussion of the Israel/Palestine conflict,with a balanced roundtable. Let me repeat, with a balanced roundtable.
I’ve watched about half the show so far and I’m blown away by the fact that in the discourse Hayes established, two Zionists, Jeremy Ben-Ami at the center-left and Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahiat the far right, must share the forum with Palestinians Rula Jebreal, the author of Miral, andLeila Hilal of the New America Foundation.
Jebreal repeatedly takes on Laszlo Mizrahi for distorting her views, once puts her head in her hands as Laszlo Mizrahi talks; while Laszlo Mizrahi looks like she has a stomach ache.
Some of the highlights: in segment 1, Jebreal says the whole debate over Iran is “irrational,” driven by Jewish fears; Hayes seems to endorse this view when he describes Netanyahu’s gift to Obama of the Purim chapter of the bible, and Netanyahu’s reported comment, “Even then they [Persians] wanted to wipe us out”; Hilal also says the bias in the U.S. debate is the contention that Iran won’t behave as a rational actor; Ben-Ami boldly chimes in that it doesn’t make any sense to contend that Iran will drop a bomb on Tel Aviv, because it would be destroyed if it did so…
In segment 3, Hayes insists on talking about the settlements. He brings on a surprisingly refreshing retired Israeli general, Shlomo Gazit, who says he thinks there is no likelihood of a two state solution. “I don’t see the possibility of an Israeli government capable of taking the decision of removing [60-80,000 settlers so as to achieve a] border that can allow the establishment of a viable Palestinian state… It will be literally a civil war in Israel.”
For his part, Hayes says that the political consensus for a two state solution has been “vastly eroded,” and Ben-Ami says that this is the right wing’s doing (ignoring the liberals and leftists who support a one state solution). And Gazit does little to promote the two-state solution when he says it is necessary to preserve a strong Jewish majority, of 80 percent Jews in Israel…
More to come tomorrow. Meantime, we really must applaud Hayes, who states in segment two that the debate over Israel and Palestine “is grounded within the special relationship” — which means, no Palestinians get to speak. He has done a ton to reverse that. Let’s hope his bravery is contagious.
(I guess this means I have to apologize to David Cohen of Comcast? No; I’m still waiting for the other Chris.)
Israel is sucking up all the oxygen in the White House
Mar 11, 2012
Bruce Wolman
Obama had his 9th meeting with the leader of which state of 7 million people last week?
Editor: Last weekend at Occupy AIPAC, Bruce Wolman remarked that the lobby demands so much diplomatic attention from the White House that it takes away Obama’s ability to deal more assertively with China– say, by insisting that it reinvest its dollars here so as to grow American jobs. Oh no: Obama must use his diplomatic capital to get China on board with our Iranian agenda. A few days later we saw the two ads produced by Israel lobby groups making Obama’s supposed betrayal of Israel the only issue in the forthcoming campaign. We sent them to Wolman, and asked him to expound his theory.
Besides political discourse and the blatant hypocrisy between expressed values and actual deeds, what about actual diplomatic horse-trading or the utilization of capital in our soft-power account? I believe the latter has a great deal to do with the Israel government and Israel lobby’s hold over Congress and the Democratic Party, and thus in turn on the Executive Branch itself.
In all the issues I raise below, how many lobby-approved appointees are now in executive positions that deal with those issues? Even non-Jews appointed must have pro-Israel/Wall Street cred.
And consider a leading lobby organization, the American Jewish Committee. It runs its own foreign policy. There is probably not a government in the world that would refuse the request for an AJC meeting if asked for one. They are too afraid to say no. Look at these testimonials:
“AJC remains today an important partner for Germany-both in terms of dialogue with American Jewry and transatlantic relations in general.”
—Angela Merkel, German Chancellor“Let me acknowledge those who have substantially contributed to the creation of an order of security and peace in Europe, such as the American Jewish Committee.”
—Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003)“AJC is the most effective, most influential, and most respected of American Jewish organizations…. My door will always be open to AJC.”
—Nicolas Sarkozy, French President
Whether the lobby has power or not, the outside world thinks it does and foreign governments are constantly trying to get lobby support for their own issues in Washington.
Now some of the costs:
Israel’s bogus case for bombing Gaza obscures political motives
Mar 11, 2012
Max Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal
In the last two days, Israeli forces have killed at least 15 residents of the Gaza Strip and wounded over 30. Among the dead are two young boys (see here and here), while the wounded included a reporter from the Ma’an News Agency and his pregnant wife. Militant factions in Gaza have responded to the Israeli assault by launching several homemade rockets at Southern Israel, leaving two injured and no one dead.
The Israeli army claimed that it initiated the assault on Gaza in order to kill two alleged militants who supposedly “masterminded” a brazen and deadly terror attack near the Israeli city of Eilat in August of last year. The army also claimed the two were planning a new operation. According to Al Jazeera English’s Jerusalem correspondent Paul Brennan:
The Israeli army is saying these two people it targeted with its clinical airstrike on Friday night were senior militants who were plotting an attack.
The Israeli army says that last year’s attack on the road that runs alongside the Egyptian border, where eight people were killed and 25 Israeli soldiers were wounded, was masterminded by the two men they targeted.
“Zuhair Al-Qaissi and Mahmoud Al-Hannani were said to have been behind these attacks, and the Israeli army said that these two men were planning a similar attack and that is why they launched their aerial clinical attack.
The Jerusalem Post, which functions as a virtual bulletin board for the Israeli army, told asimilar story: “The IDF said it decided to bomb Qaisi’s car due to intelligence that he was plotting a large terrorist attack along the border with Egypt,” the paper reported, “similar to the one the [Popular Resistance Committee] carried out last August that killed eight Israelis.”
As is so often the case, the Israeli army is lying through its teeth. According to the army’s own investigation of the Eliat attack last year, the attackers were not from Gaza as Israeli government spokespeople initially claimed — they were Egyptian. The army’s investigative findings were first reported by Alex Fishman, the military correspondent for the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharanoth, who had treated the earlier attempts to blame Gaza’s Popular Resistance Committees for Eilat with extreme skepticism. Bloggers Idan Landau [Hebrew only], Richard Silverstein and Yossi Gurvitz also marshaled evidence shredding the army’s case against Gaza.
Finally, in November, Egyptian security forces arrested the suspected mastermind of the Eilat plot, shattering the Israeli army’s initial claims about Gazan culpability. By then, however, Israeli forces had already killed 30 Gazans in retaliation for an attack they had absolutely nothing to do with.
This weekend, the Israeli army reverted to falsely blaming Gazans for last August’s Eilat attacks, contradicting its own investigation and heaps of evidence proving the attacks were planned in Egypt and carried out by Egyptians. The army has no proof that the men it assassinated on Friday — Al-Qaissi and Al-Hannani — were involved in the Eilat attacks, or that they were planning any military operations. So in order to manufacture a violent confrontation, the Israeli military simply concocted a lie that conceals what appears to be political considerations.
The renewed assault on Gaza coincided with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to Israel after days of discussions in Washington with President Barack Obama about Iran’s nuclear program. Netanyahu had hoped to secure a solid commitment from Obama to authorize an attack on Iran, or to at least support an Israeli strike in the near future. Instead, he was rebuked, with Obama condemning Netanyahu’s “loose talk of war” and warning himnot to strike Iran. During his speech at AIPAC, Netanyahu was forced to mute his demand for Obama to agree to “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program that would trigger a US attack, and he descended instead into an incoherent, demagogic rant about a “nuclear duck” and the Holocaust. If Bibi accomplished anything during his visit to Washington, it was keeping the Palestinians off the discussion table, guaranteeing his government a free hand to build expand settlements in the West Bank and attack Gaza with impunity.
Almost as soon as he limped back to Jerusalem in frustration, Netanyahu gathered with his generals to gin up a case for pounding Gaza. The Gaza Strip, with its warehoused population of stateless refugees, would serve as their punching bag and pressure release valve. They could not have their war on Iran — not yet, at least — but they could assault Palestinians in Gaza without fear of repercussions from Washington.
Yesterday, as the Gazan death toll climbed into the teens, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice took to Twitter to declare: “We thoroughly condemn terrorist rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israeli towns & cities and call on both sides to restore calm.”
(Originally published on Al Akhbar)
#USWeaponBombGaza trends globally
Mar 11, 2012
Today in Palestine
She tweeted…
We thoroughly condemn terrorist rocket fire from Gaza into southern Israeli towns & cities and call on both sides to restore calm.
— Susan Rice (@AmbassadorRice) March 11, 2012
and we responded by trending globally and carrying the lead story on Twitter Discover
#USWeaponsBombGaza and kill invisible children twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/…
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) March 11, 2012
#USWeaponBombGaza is number ONE in stories. twitter.com/imNadZ/status/…
— Nader (@imNadZ) March 11, 2012
War on Gaza & Other Violence and Aggression
At least 15 killed as Israel pounds Gaza
Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed 15 Palestinians, including the leader of a resistance group, medics said on Saturday. These have been the deadliest 24 hours of attacks on the area in more than three years. Two men riding a motorcycle in the town of Khan Yunis were killed in a raid on Saturday, medics said. Israeli media said three of the casualties were Thai agricultural laborers working on a farm near the border with Gaza. The Israeli military said an aircraft attacked “a terrorist squad” planning to fire rockets, but provided no evidence for these claims.
link to english.al-akhbar.com
Egyptian FM asks for immediate end to the Israeli aggression on Gaza
Egyptian foreign minister Mohammed Amr has condemned the Israeli military escalation against the Gaza Strip that killed 14 Palestinians and wounded 21 others since Friday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
A number of armed extremist Israeli settlers attacked, on Saturday, the outskirts of the towns of Yatta and Bani Neim, near the southern West Bank city of Hebron, while the residents were ordered by the army to stay home.
Miles of Smiles 10 Makes It Into Gaza
The Miles of Smiles 10 humanitarian convoy managed to enter the Gaza Strip on Saturday via the Rafah border terminal, between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, carrying humanitarian supplies.
link to www.imemc.org
The Gaza Strip’s sole power plant shut down on Saturday for the third time in a month due to a shortage of fuel, the territory’s energy authority said.
Hana Shalabi
Active Stills has posted an amazing series of photographs from the Women’s Day demonstration against the occupation at Qalandiya checkpoint Thursday.
Activism / Solidarity / BDS
Declaration of Support for the Global March to Jerusalem
We, the Advisory Board of the Global March to Jerusalem, are alarmed and deeply troubled by the continuing repression of Palestinians in Jerusalem and by the deliberate and systematic attempts to expel and reduce the Christian and Muslim Palestinian population of the city as part of the policy called “Judaisation,” which is being applied to every part of historic Palestine.
link to palsolidarity.org
Naji Tamimi, the 49 year-old father of five from the tiny village of Nabi Saleh, is finally back at home again, after spending almost a year within the Israeli prison system.
Another indication of the inevitable demise of the state of Israel
“That number fell by 70 percent the following decade, as the number of Jews living in threatened communities dwindled. Last year, only 17,500 immigrated to Israel, one of the lowest totals in the state’s history.”
link to angryarab.blogspot.com
At the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAX conference this week, it was Iran, not Palestine that dominated proceedings. World leaders may be looking elsewhere, but the clashes at Israeli checkpoints are on the rise. Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike in Israeli detention centres, and a growing sense of impotence and frustration is fuelling talk of a third intifada. The Palestiniand Liberation Organisation executive are finalizing a letter, listening all the ways, over the last 20 years, that they say Israel has blocked peaceful progress. They will deliver it first, out of courtesy, to the Israeli government, and then circulate it to the international community. Al Jazeera’s Paul Brennan reports from the Occupied West Bank.
Flying into Tel Aviv? ‘Welcome to Palestine!’
The other day someone kindly sent me an old link to an aviation forum where an irate passenger had written: ‘This morning (6 May 2003) on a flight from Rome to Tel Aviv, after landing the pilot announced in the microphone: ‘Welcome to Palestine’. I think this is the most disgusting thing for a pilot to say.’
link to palestinechronicle.com
The Winter 2012 edition of Palestine News features a photograph of an old man. His white beard and traditional jalabiya give him the appearance of any Palestinian grandfather. His name is not given; he could be a Muslim or a Christian. We know that he comes from the West Bank village of Qusra, and that he is holding the broken branches of his olive trees.
In Bahrain, hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets across the country to demand an end to the rule of Al Khalifa dynasty.
Human rights expert on Bahrain torture report
The head of the fact-finding committee formed to investigate the protests in Bahrain says all torture there has stopped. Egyptian human rights expert Mahmoud Sherif Basyouni published his report in November. He told Al Jazeera’s David Frost that crimes against humanity are no longer being committed.
Saudi Arabia
A year after the planned “Day of Rage” demonstration in Riyadh, at least six men are languishing in jail for their involvement in the event, Amnesty International said today in a new briefing paper.
Annan Syria comments spark anger
Syrian opposition activists angrily reject calls by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, for dialogue with the government.
Foreign Ministry source confirms that singer-songwriter Arkadi Duchin called and volunteered to recruit leading Israeli performers for a charity rock concert.
US attack on Iran would alienate Muslims worldwide — NPR
Mar 11, 2012
Philip Weiss
Paul Pillar
In the last week or so, Robert Siegel at National Public Radio has raised American blood pressure with three interviews of hawks on Iran: American-Israeli ambassador Michael Oren, Atlantic correspondent and former Israeli soldier Jeffrey “Point of No Return” Goldberg, and Israeli security analyst Amos Yadlin. Not a lot of bandwidth, huh.
Well, NPR hosts have also interviewed two American realists who disparage the idea of war. One of them, Steve Walt, even stated the heretical belief that Israel can live with a nuclear Iran.
Steve Inskeep interviewed Paul Pillar on Morning Edition a couple days ago:
PILLAR: As my friend Richard Bass of Columbia puts it: Anyone who talks about a surgical strike ought to get a second opinion. That’s a euphemism for war with Iran. No one knows exactly what the consequences of such a war would be, whether it was started by Israel or by the United States. Iran would find ways to strike back. The economic consequences are literally incalculable, but no doubt would be immense.
And then there are hosts of other consequences. Internally, in Iran, this would no doubt lead the Iranians to make that decision they don’t seem to have made yet, which is to move full speed ahead and try to make a bomb. It would also further color views of the United States throughout the Muslim world, and this would be referred to again and again as yet another instance in which the United States is against the interests of Muslims worldwide and, if anything, is out to kill them.
You know, I’m thinking as you’re talking, President Obama has warned of the costs of war, but has also said all options are on the table. Republican presidential candidates have not specifically called for war, but have certainly said they would be very, very tough on Iran. Why do you think that there are so many people across the political spectrum who are willing to entertain the thought of military action here?
Guy Raz spoke with Stephen Walt yesterday:
Though it is still unknown whether the Iranians plan to develop a nuclear weapon, Walt says the question that should be considered is just how significant it would be if they did.
“People who are opposing military action now would argue that even if Iran did get a nuclear weapon, it is not a very militarily powerful state,” he says. “Israel has a sizeable nuclear arsenal and could retaliate if it were attacked.”
Walt doesn’t believe the drumbeat of war with Iran in the media will lead to any sort of “self-fulfilling prophecy” and says that ultimately the decision for war is a conscious choice.
“We are talking about a preventive war, an unprovoked war,” he says. “That’s not a decision you get driven to by articles and op-eds. Ultimately, leaders in question have to make that choice and that means they always have the option of deciding to pursue a different course.”
Obama victory over Netanyahu gained support, time
Mar 11, 2012
Philip Weiss
Chris McGreal in the Guardian says that Obama slam-dunked Netanyahu this week, and that the world applauds it, even Israel. By doing so, Obama has gained time, McGreal says.
In his speech to Aipac, Obama took aim at Israel for “too much loose talk of war”.
The Jewish state’s more ardent supporters in the west, ever ready to play down differences between the White House and the Israeli leadership, tried to deny Obama’s comments were aimed at Netanyahu’s government. But the president’s warning that such talk was driving up oil prices and so helping fund Iran’s nuclear programme suggested he wasn’t talking about the armchair generals in the Republican party but the real ones in Jerusalem.
Levy argues that Obama’s stand will strengthen the hand of influential voices inside Israel, such as the former heads of Israel’s intelligence service, Meir Dagan and Efraim Halevy, who are opposed to an attack on Iran in the near future.
Dagan this week crossed Netanyahu by saying it is wrong to portray the Iranian government as irrational and that he trusts the US to make the call on whether or not to attack.
“An attack on Iran before you are exploring all other approaches is not the right way,” he told CBS. “[Obama] said openly that the military option is on the table and he is not going to let Iran become a nuclear state and from my experience, I usually trust the president of the US.”
That view is shared by many Israelis. A poll by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz this week showed that 58% of the population opposes a strike on Iran without US backing.
There has also been strong criticism inside Israel of Netanyahu’s invoking of the Holocaust. The opposition leader, Tzipi Livni, called it “hysterical” and said that it scared Israelis and cast the Jewish state as weak.