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TechnoratiGiving Israel a Pass
As I was reading through several news items last week on the Internet about the appalling situation in Gaza, I received an e-mail alert from my wife. It had been forwarded to her by a Parisian friend who is an expert in Orientalist art; she had received it from a well-known French television actress.
According to the alert, courses in England about the Shoah had just been withdrawn from British schools because they "shocked the Muslim population which denies the existence of the Holocaust."
The e-mail continued, "This is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.
"Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!
"Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world."
My attention was now torn from the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza and shifted to the charge that British schools had just stopped teaching the Holocaust.
My curiosity piqued-I hadn't heard that news about Britain-I went to Snopes.com, a Web site that examines such charges. The story, it turned out, first appeared in April 2007, not last week; according to the site, the report was also wildly inaccurate.
The truth was that "One history department in a northern UK city stopped teaching about the Holocaust because it wished to avoid confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils."
That fact was originally disseminated in a government-sponsored study-a study which was then grossly misreported by a British newspaper to indicate that, rather than in just one history department in the northern UK, Holocaust studies had been terminated across the country.
That error was further magnified by a British group which launched a worldwide alarm on the Internet with the headline: "Recently, this week, UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum. ..."
The group made an urgent plea for a global "chain of memory"-the same plea that my wife had just forwarded to me. In other words, nine months later it was still careening around the Internet.
In the process the message had become further distorted. In September 2007, someone surmised that the "UK" as in "UK removed The Holocaust from its school curriculum" referred not to a country but to the University of Kentucky. A slight "fix" was made in the message, and a new storm of outrage zapped across the Internet, now targeting a hapless American university.
On Nov. 8, 2007, UK Assistant Provost Richard B. Geissman issued a press release categorically denying that the university had cut Holocaust studies from its curriculum. "The academic administration of the University of Kentucky" he declared, "would never permit such a grotesque lapse in its commitment to the principle of academic freedom."
I found that Snopes.com had also investigated another similar flurry: "Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear colored badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims," began that e-mail.
" 'This is reminiscent of the Holocaust,' said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. 'Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis.'
"Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth. ...
" 'The world should not ignore this,' said Rabbi Hier. 'The world ignored Hitler for many years-he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power-and we were all wrong.' "
That story also turned out to be false.
Which is not to say anti-Semitism is no longer a problem in the world. Of course it is. But surely it is not the major threat to humanity that this planet confronts.
The question I raise is this:
Why is it that so many of my fellow Jews have a hair-trigger response to the slightest suggestion that anti-Semites may once again be on the prowl in England or France or Iran-that another Hitler lurks just over the horizon?
Why are they so quick to demand that academics who suggest that Jews wield considerable political influence be banned from speaking, or, better yet, fired? Why so ready to dismiss criticism of Israel from Desmond Tutu or Jimmy Carter as anti-Semitic garbage? Why so swift to call meetings, launch petitions, take to the streets, bombard their congressmen, demand embargoes, sanctions, pre-emptive strikes, targeted bombings, invasions-whatever it takes to destroy any perceived menace to Jews or the state of Israel, even if it later turns out the threat was a fabrication of someone's inflamed imagination?
"Well, why not?" comes the reply. "Better to act than to remain silent. Are you saying we have no enemies? That there was no Holocaust? We know how the world stood by as our people were slaughtered by Hitler. If history has taught us anything, it's that we Jews have to defend ourselves. Never Again!"
But never again what? Never again massacres of Jews as the world looks on? Or never again should we Jews, who suffered so horrifically in the Holocaust, never again should we stand silent as innocents are slaughtered or driven from their homes by ethnic cleansing, or entire populations are punished for the actions of a few.
To get to the point, what causes so many Jews to turn ethically deaf and morally blind when the state of Israel itself is concerned?
As Sara Roy, a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, asked in an essay, "Why is it virtually mandatory among Jewish intellectuals to oppose racism, repression and injustice almost anywhere in the world and unacceptable-indeed, for some, an act of heresy-to oppose it when Israel is the oppressor, choosing concealment over exposure?"
I continue: Why the refusal to recognize that in 1947 and 1948 Jewish fighters embarked upon a policy of ethnic cleansing that succeeded in driving tens of thousands of Palestinians from their fields and villages?
This is not a charge made by hate-filled Iranian or Syrian propagandists but one that has been meticulously researched and documented by Israeli historians themselves.
Why the reluctance to speak out when Israeli forces wreaked appalling death and destruction among civilians after they invaded Lebanon in 1982 and again last summer?
Hundreds of Jewish soldiers in Israel refused to take part in the campaigns. Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets in protest. Why were major Jewish organizations in the rest of the world so silent?
Why no horrified response to Israeli leaders who measure success these days in body counts and order so-called targeted assassinations with rockets in densely populated civilian areas, knowing that many innocents may be blown apart for every terrorist who is hit? Are the 27 decorated Israeli pilots 27 decorated Israeli pilots who refused to take part in such attacks to be considered anti-Semitic by their American cousins?
Why no outcry when Israel launches a brutal blockade-a collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinian men, women and children-threatening their supplies of fuel, food and medicines?
Israel's own domestic Jewish critics, far more vociferous than most Jews abroad, point out that there is another way to end the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli settlers: start talking with Hamas. You wouldn't know it from most of the American media, but Hamas has, in fact, repeatedly offered a cease-fire if Israel will also cease targeted assassinations and attacks on Gaza.
Israel, however, refuses to talk to Hamas. To do so would be to recognize the movement, just as the United States refuses to open unconditional talks with Iran. Instead, the Israeli government continues its bloody dead-end policies.
I was in the course of such reflections when I received the e-mail alert from my wife about the purported end of Holocaust studies in the UK.
Of course, one way of not forgetting the Holocaust would be for the same people who call for a global "chain of memory" to also condemn both Hamas' rocket attacks and Israel's brutal policies, and demand that Israel explore the Hamas offer of a cease-fire. What better option does Israel have?
It's as if, because of the horrendous suffering of Jews in the Holocaust, Israel has won the right to ignore international law, to visit mayhem on civilians and terrorist fighters alike in the name of national survival. It's been given a free pass. Anyone attacking the country's policies are either hopelessly naive, anti-Semites or self-hating Jews.
That's the position of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the very conservative Washington lobby which claims to represent most American Jews interested in Israel. AIPAC has donned this mantle by default. Surveys indicate that the majority of American Jews hold views more liberal than most Americans. The problem is they no longer feel strongly tied to or concerned about Israel. Many other Jews, though morally uncomfortable with Israel's policies, have kept silent, not wanting to publicly criticize the Zionist state.
The upshot is that the role of lobbying U.S. policy in the Middle East has been left to organizations whose members do strongly care about Israel, like AIPAC.
AIPAC doesn't dictate single-handedly Washington's Middle Eastern policy, but it is one of the most powerful lobbies in the capital. That's a fact Jews relish discussing among themselves, but are quick to brand an anti-Semitic fabrication if the charge is made publicly.
A few years back I did a report on AIPAC for "60 Minutes" with Mike Wallace. One after another, all the congressional offices I contacted confirmed the tremendous influence that AIPAC wielded, and the fear that could be inspired by an AIPAC threat to target a particular candidate.
We were, however, unable to convince a single sitting House member, senator or staff person to talk on the record. Not that they disagreed with the premise. They were just terrified of taking about AIPAC.
That included the late John Chafee, the powerful U.S. senator from Rhode Island, who at the time was being targeted by AIPAC in his re-election campaign. Normally a stalwart supporter of Israel, Chafee had once contravened AIPAC policy by voting to supply an AWACS plane to Saudi Arabia.
When the report was finally aired it was the target of more irate mail and phone calls from Jewish organizations across the country than just about any other report I ever did for "60 Minutes."
There are signs, however, that the situation could be changing, that more Jewish individuals and groups in the United States-as well as in Europe-are willing to criticize Israel's policies. Groups like Peace Now, activists like Rabbi Michael Lerner in California, journalists and bloggers like Richard Silverstein, who recently forwarded me the Sara Roy essay I've quoted above, which says in part:
"... the Jewish community demands unity and conformity: 'Stand with Israel' read the banners on synagogues throughout Boston last summer. Unity around what? There is enormous pressure-indeed coercion-within organized American Jewry to present an image of 'wall to wall unity' as a local Jewish leader put it. But this unity is an illusion-at its edges a smoldering flame rapidly engulfing its core-for mainstream Jewry does not speak for me or for many other Jews. And where such unity exists, it is hollow built around fear not humanity, on the need to understand reality as it has long been constructed for us-with the Jew as the righteous victim, the innocent incapable of harm."
A solemn visit to the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem was de rigueur for President George W. Bush during his recent trip to Israel, just as it is for any other foreign dignitary. Israel uses these ceremonies to convey a message: You see, Mr. President and the world looking in, this is what our people suffered from our enemies. This is why we have the right-indeed the duty-to act in any way we judge necessary to ensure our nation's survival.
Imagine, instead a different message: This is to put you on notice, Mr. President and the rest of the world. We ask that you join with us in our determination to ensure that such atrocities as we Jews suffered shall never again be visited on any people by any state-including our own.
Barry M. Lando, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia University, spent 25 years as an award-winning investigative producer with 60 Minutes. The author of numerous articles about Iraq, he produced a documentary about Saddam Hussein that has been shown around the world. He lives in Paris. His latest book is "Web of Deceit: The History of Western Complicity in Iraq, from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush."
©2008 TruthDig.com
36 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Mr. Lando for this insightful article. Its always great to know someone understands the truth about our troubled region.
Please check out this award winning documentary titled occupation101
www.occupation101.com
This documentary won numerous awards in US and Europe. It explains a lot of core issues in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
Also, don't forget to put musician Daniel Barenboim in the list of courageous Jews who criticize Israeli policy. He recently accepted a Palestinian passport in protest.
We cannot crack the whip on Israel because our country was built on exterminating one people and enslaving another. Our mental habits include a well-developed ability to ignore humanity and inhumanity.
Israel used to be called "a land without people for a people without land". That sounded great to me when I was young, but OOPS: there were people there. The only way that flies is if Palestinians are considered non-human, an opinion I have heard from Israelis. Also, I never expected Israel to be a Jewish state in the backwards sense that other religions are not considered worthy of rights, religious intermarriage is banned etc.
So why am I not surprised that the analogy to the Warsaw ghetto does not appear in every story about Gaza? As Bob Dylan said "How many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn't see?" My impression is that outside the US and Israel, and perhaps Saudi Arabia, the rest of the world can see.
Neumann, Finkelstein, Mearsheimer, Chomsky, Lando are all courageous and far-seeing Jews who have chosen to confront the single most destructive force in world affairs today --- Israeli thuggery and its enablers in its client state the Yoo Ess of Ehhhh. Imagine if a non-Jew wrote anything like what Lando has penned here; the author/s would be swarmed by AIPAC hoodlums and assassinated by the swaggering Harvard conman Dershowitz. Actually, being Jewish does not save you from the treatment as some of the above have found out. The rest of the world is appalled by the repeated acts of fellatio performed by American elites on Israeli extremists and their Zionist supporters. About time the Americans cracked the whip on the Israelis if only to save Israel from itself. And, hey, hasn't Lieberman (I-Tel Aviv) thrown his arms around Obama? So don't be too hopeful of a solution even if Barack is elected...
AndyUK :"we are dumbing down so much in the UK, that any form of excellence is to be ridiculed, or at best, glossed over. We have lost the ability, on a nationwide scale to be proud of being intellectual."
So sad but yet so very true. Your second sentence says it all.
But its not as if some of the very finest minds aren't out there - especially in the sciences . ( One only needs to think of the likes of Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking .)
However ,most ominously ,it is the system ( especially at the high school level ) that is really tripping the Brits up .
Although it might not be entirely relevant ,let me give you a personal example .A while ago ,I'd applied to Oxford for admission to their Master's Degree Programme in Creative Writing .After going through samples of my writing, the Professor turned me down , saying words to the effect that I needed to brush up on my basic English.
One would be hard put to come up with a more telling example of the truly upside down world we live in.
Michael Moore in 'Stupid White Men' has some suggestions for 'The Holy Land', which he claims is "a place with more evil acts per square mile than the VIP room at Satan's annual marshmallow roast!"
He suggests that the US Congress should inform Israel that it has 30 days to end the bloodshed perpetrated it its name - failing which the US will cut off the $3 billion that it doles out to Israel each year. If it wants to continue to receive these billions, Israel should within a year work out a plan with Palestinians to create a Palestinian state
The US should give the Palestinians double what it gives Israel through a 'Marshall Plan' style to build infrastructure in the new state
The United Nations should then commit to defending Israel against anyone who wants it destroyed
Moore's suggestion for Arafat was to adopt a Gandhi/King/Mandela style mass nonviolent civil disobedience. Moore claims that there are over a million Israelis who want peace and that they will come to the aid of the Palestinians if they adopt nonviolent ways
Here's a little news item not on the US radar: Internet cable cutting in the gulf region:
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/155244
Thommo :"Moore claims that there are over a million Israelis who want peace and that they will come to the aid of the Palestinians if they adopt nonviolent ways."
This is perfectly credible . The irony is the Jews in the West, are perhaps among the most liberal and open minded people ever. Most in fact are deeply disturbed and chagrined by the actions of the rabid Zionists who claim to speak for them. Given half a chance ,many would love nothing better than to publicly spurn and repudiate the sinister designs of all these depraved Jewish and Christian Zionists.
RJKT, I get the feeling that we are dumbing down so much in the UK, that any form of excellence is to be ridiculed, or at best, glossed over. We have lost the ability, on a nationwide scale to be proud of being intellectual. There are fine minds out there, in the arts, modern literature, science etc. but current role models are often dysfunctional or bordering on the insane - Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Robbie Williams to name but a few.
Although I am going off topic here, I think that this serves to explain why the popular media is not questioned about anything, by the masses. The general populace is not really bothered what happens outside of it's little World.
So, When Israel attacks Lebanon/Syria/Iraq, our media will only feed the sheeple what they want them to consume - lies and propaganda, safe in the knowledge that Joe Public only wants easy to read headlines, and an uncomplcated story line.
It took me most of my life to realize the truth: That Israel stole the Palestinian's land and has no right to exist. I call on all progressive Americans to advocate the total end of U. S. financial and military aid to Israel, and leave their fate to their neighbors and the oppressed Palestinians.
Contd. Earlier the best of the Brits -people such as T.E. Lawrence, Somerset Maugham-used to wear their considerable erudition lightly . The way things are going though ,encountering the finest and the most erudite minds , may well be like looking for that needle in a haystack.
"The BBC today, now resembles a tabloid media channel, more concerned with Britney Spears and frivolous national issues, than the Palestine/Iraq/Afghanistan situations.
The coverage of Israel's assault on Lebanon was disgusting, with a very heavy slant in favour of Israel sheltering from rocket attacks."
Couldn't agree with you more. You don't need to look further than the BBC's 'Have Your Say' Debates . They're little more than a compendium of "Homes and Gardens', "Horse and Hound' and 'Dogs and Pound' . Appropriately strung together and trotted out ( presumably for the delectation of their audiences ).
Bucolic and heart -warming though they be -they're hardly likely to fire up too many intellects . (Or set the Thames on fire .)
But in all likelihood ,this seems to be precisely their objective : Rendering the British public thoroughly dumbed-down ,and dull-as-ditchwater . Incapable of asking inconvenient questions . And more than amenable to being led by the nose.
If so ,the BBC is right on track.
Thanks Barry. I am currently reading Joel Kovel's "Overcoming Zionsim" and commended to all who read this note. Keep up the good work.
There's a question that I'd love to hear someone ask the candidates, and their friends who support Israel, "Is there anything that Israel could possibly do that would make you not support it? Is there any line beyond which they could not go and no longer receive your approval?" I am afraid that for some the answer would be "no" but at least then we'd know.
There is no doubt in my mind, that Israel gets preferential treatment to all other nations in the World. You may have heard the saying "I am going to dine out on that story for a long time", well Israel have been "dining out" on the holocaust for the last sixty years. As Balakirev and many others have pointed out, they see themselves as the only victims in the World, and intend to let nobody forget that fact.
I believe that the Murdoch press, as Medusa says, has been responsible for much of the current reporting of supposed anti semitism. The brand of Murdoch media appeals to the masses, because they are too moronic to understand the truth, and complexities of politics. They would prefer to see shock and awe headlines, which are often based on lies, than carefully considered opinion, which looks at both sides of the story.
Murdoch was a great supporter of Margaret Thatcher, who ran a very right wing Conservative government. In 1997, Murdoch changed his allegiance to Tony Blair, the leader of the Labour party (who had always been the worker's party of choice). This "partnership" saw Murdoch and Blair having private talks about policy which would affect the nation and foreign policy. It also saw the marriage between the Bush administration and Blair's "New Labour". We had the death of Dr David Kelly, who had questioned the truth behind the claims made for going to war with Iraq. Following the publication of the Hutton report into the leaked information, and accusations made against the BBC, the director of the BBC resigned, and we lost the most honest man in British media. The BBC today, now resembles a tabloid media channel, more concerned with Britney Spears and frivolous national issues, than the Palestine/Iraq/Afghanistan situations.
The coverage of Israel's assault on Lebanon was disgusting, with a very heavy slant in favour of Israel sheltering from rocket attacks.
Once again "giving Israel a pass" is a superb and factual article, and Barry Lando has highlighted the reality of the power of the Israel lobby in politics and the media.
Earlier, Israel directed resources toward the emergent Hamas movement in order to both limit power of the secular Fatah organization and to play one off on the other.
In other words, Hamas is partially Israel's Frankenstein monster. Blowback!
For me, the problem with the Holocaust as it is now framed, is that there were other groups who were either slated for full or partial extermination.
For expample, the Nazis planned to exterminate all Roma or gypsies. And they were almost successful. Has a holocaust memorial been constructed to honor their memory? They still face unbelievable levels of persecution and economic discrimination.
Gays were on the extermination list. I believe a holocaust memorial is being constructed in Berlin to honor their memory.
All communists, socialists and anarchists were to be exterminated. And their various political ideas and their diverse political cultures were to be thoroughly erased from histroy (ethnocide). As far as I know,nobody cares about this form of genocide or ethnocide.
(Remember the basically positive spin given Suharto in response to his death. It really didn't matter that he was Indonesia's Pol Pot...because he only killed 600,000 to a 1,000,000 communists. These humans were mass murdered because of their secular beliefs.)
Of course, millions of Slavs were exterminated in Poland and Russia. Millions died in Nazi death camps, or were slaughtered by roving death squad units.
In the case of the Slavs, the Nazis plannd to severely reduce their numbers through mass murder and exploit the residue as slave labor.
They were to work for the newly arrived German colonists who were to (and many did) settle the newly emptied Slavic lands.
All educated, professional, and artistic Slavs were to be (and were)executed. The few remaining Slavs who were to be enslaved would be allowed a rudimentary education which would be conducted in German. Thus ethnocide.
Members of pacifist (anti-war) religious orders were to be either imprisoned or exterminated. Most Unitarians were slaughtered and many Jehova's Witnesses were imprisoned under very harsh conditions.
Last, there should be holocaust memorial dedicated to the millions of civilians that were mass murdered by Allied terror bombing of cities. (The Axis aerial bombing crimes should also be included.)
The point of all this is that by tearing the Jewish holocaust out of the fabric of the many intwining holocausts of WWII 1. it allows many Jews to see themselves as the only victims 2. it doesn't allow us to see the holocaust of modern warfare 3. it allows many of us to accept the underlying premises that led to mass murder of urban civilians, political Leftists, people with alternative sexual orientations, Slavs (remember the post-Communist economic shock therapy and the consequent disastor it was for millions), intellectuals and artists especially those with non-mainstream, alternative visions (remember the right-wing Congressional members' and Mayor Giuliani's constant attacks against high-profile alternative visual artists)and it allows us to label pacifists as traitors (which can lead to a death sentence or long-term incarceration).
Wasn't it Rupert Murdoch who planted that lie about Iran forcing Jews to wear yellow badges in his news-rag? Isn't he Jewish, too? Now, why would he do that?
He's one of Hillary's big supporters, too, isn't he?
Maybe Israel's behavior is a pathology of sorts, a national pathology, kind of adolescent. If you feel everyone hates you, you can gain power through sharpening that negativity. At least then you have an identity, won through rebuffing the manufactured hostility. It also frees you up to do whatever you want, as it's impossible to gain approval anyway. It's a sick kind of power, but it's a power. If Israel were a person, maybe that's what he'd be like.
Anyway, BARRY, thank you for opening a window and letting in some light and air.
Actually my interest in mideast affairs began with reading The Diary of Anne Frank as a kid and then anything Holocaust related I could get my hands on. Movies, books, documentaries, I've seen them all. It took decades to realize the problem wasn't anti-Semitism per se but just than humans can be unspeakably evil to each other. Guess what Jews, you are human.
One possible answer to Lando's excellent piece is that the myth of "The Chosen People" has become so powerful that the majority -- or a significant and influential minority -- of the Jewish population, especially in the U.S. has actually come to believe it:, i.e. they think that Jews are, in fact, an inherently superior people.
This myth is certainly not unique to Jews in Israel or the Diapsora. Many of the early Protestants who conquered the indigenous peoples of North America did so with the weapons of gun powder, disease and the myth of "predestination," another word for chosen-ness. They became the rulers because a god willed it and thus were inherently superior.
And of course there is the myth of white supremacy, which colors (intentional use of that word) all of the other myths.
Many Asian peoples have their own versions of myths of inherent superiority.
So while Zionists claim that Jews are exceptional because their god wills them to be, that claim is as common as it is wrong.
I don't think Barry Lando even needed to ask the question. The rest of his piece clearly describes the horrors of one particular kind of exceptionalism -- quite exceptionally.
Israel needs a constant stream of global anti-semitic incidents to justify its existence as a homeland for Jews fleeing persecution and to convince Jewish people that they are not safe in other countries. Victimization also equals sympathy from non-Jews and a willingness of non-Jews to look the other way about the atrocities Israel commits against the Palestinian people. That is why there are so many anti-semitic hoaxes such as the recent arrest of a New York Jewish mossad agent who went around spraying swastikas in his NYC neighborhood-he was caught red-handed. Or the emails mentioned above annoying since the UK set aside tons of taxpayer dollars so British kids could learn about the Holocaust, or the Jewish girl from GWU who drew swatistikas on her dorm room door and blamed anti-semites or the fake stabbing that have happened in Paris where a Jewish woman stabbed herself and said anti-semites did it.
That being said real anti-semtism is horrible and Jews like all groups on earth should be protected from hate and persecution nothing justifies the horrendous atrocities that took place during the Shoah/holocaust in Europe. I applaud the many Jewish people who are working for real peace and Justice between their people and the Palestinians. It takes great courage and we should support them. I also applaud those who expose the negative side of Zionism as these stories need to be told and the truth needs to see the light of day. Thanks to Barry Lando and others.
It's a myth the Iran says the holocaust is a myth.
What Ahmadinejad basically said was the the holocaust certainly occurred but that a myth had been built up around it, meaning that it is used for political purposes in inappropriate ways.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12790.htm
http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/1167
Neither did he call for Israel to be wiped off the map. He said (quoting Khomeni) that the Israeli (zionist) regime would vanish from the page of time.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16218.htm
"A lie told often enough become the 'truth'"
It is the fierce god of invading goatherds that destroys all in it's path. That's what happens when a people carry eons of revenge on their backs.
mikep said: "Because of thousands and thousands of articles like this, which blatantly distort the facts, ignore the countless Palestinian attacks on Jews over the past 100 years, and attempt to blame Israel for Hamas' hatred of Jews and addiction to violence. Refusing to negotiate with Hamas, or any other Palestinians? Not so, the Israelis have repeatedly offered peace in exchange for recognition of Israel, which international law requires. The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected it in favor of continuing to fight a war that they have long since lost, both on the battlefield and in the court of world opinion."
BUZZ! Wrong my friend. The two sides are very disproportionate in their use of force. Ah, actually, I'm not going to get into it with you. It's very tiresome countering all the zionist lies and misinformation. Fuck Israel.
"The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected it in favor of continuing to fight a war that they have long since lost, both on the battlefield and in the court of world opinion."
The Palestinians may have lost the 'war' (because they dont drive armoured tanks !!) but they definitely havent lost out in the court of world opinion, which, if you actually take time to read/view/hear news other than the ooze that seeps out of your living room (foxcnnabcnbccbs), is solidly behind the Palestinians, overwhelmingly so.
The US and Israel are one and the same. The mentality is very similar: the best cooperation you can get is from someone you have by the balls. Israel is a tool of the US and viceversa. Why should your twin and ally not get special treatment?
As someone who was educated in an English Catholic school in the seventies, I can say that we were never fully informed about the potato famine in Ireland, which killed thousands, or the British empire's rape of Africa and India, which may have killed millions, or Stalin's great purge, which certainly killed more Jews and other people than Hitlers disgusting campaign.
There certainly was a form of ethnic cleansing by Israel from 1947 onwards, but we are not allowed to talk about that.
There has been a catalogue of lies published about other nations designs against Israel - the most notable being the misquoted statements about Ahmadinejad, who never alluded to the destruction of Israel, and the misinformation about Jews and Christians in Iran having to wear some "special" identification mark, in order to compare Iran with Hitler's Third Reich.
I thank Barry Lando for this article, which highlights dangerous and disgusting propaganda.
This is why I call the US of A the US of I....The whole govt is afraid of AIPAC, not the citizens of the US of A.
I believe N. Chomsky in his latest book also talks about a similar snowball effect withEmail inrelation to 911 Conspiracy Theory.
I don't believe most intellectual jews buy into this one-dimensional thinking period.
With reference to historical trauma and WW 2, the bleak scientific tale of new possibilities for murder should include 1)fire-storm bombing of cities (beginning with Guernica, Spain), 2)the gas crematoria (and other efficincies) and 3)nuclear weapons (Hiroshima, Nagasaki).
Great article Barry Lando! Good information on snopes and the phoney emails. Good first person account and perspective, speaking truth to power.
"Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets."
Why is it less important to "never forget" the plight of Native Americans under the guise of "Manifest destiny"?
My reaction to the former is: open a casino and STFU!
So, what else is new? Thanks to their Holocaust-mongering over the past couple of decades, Zionists have thoroughly discredited the importance of remembering this antisemitic atrocity. As an educator, I can testify to the increasing difficulty of getting students to take the Holocaust seriously; they think it's all hype -- and I can hardly blame them.
So, what else is new? Zionists have thoroughly discredited the importance of remembering this antisemitic atrocity through their Holocaust-mongering over the past couple of decades. As an educator, I can testify to the increasing difficulty of getting students to take the Holocaust seriously; they think it's all hype -- and I can hardly blame them.
"Why is it that so many of my fellow Jews have a hair-trigger response to the slightest suggestion that anti-Semites may once again be on the prowl in England or France or Iran-that another Hitler lurks just over the horizon?"
Because of thousands and thousands of articles like this, which blatantly distort the facts, ignore the countless Palestinian attacks on Jews over the past 100 years, and attempt to blame Israel for Hamas' hatred of Jews and addiction to violence. Refusing to negotiate with Hamas, or any other Palestinians? Not so, the Israelis have repeatedly offered peace in exchange for recognition of Israel, which international law requires. The Palestinians have repeatedly rejected it in favor of continuing to fight a war that they have long since lost, both on the battlefield and in the court of world opinion.
And guess who Haaretz endorses the least friendly to israel as president of megaisrael: Obama. And Haaretz even called him a "crypto-Islamofascist". So he gets my vote on Tuesday.
Ha'aretz: "The Israel Factor: Ranking the Presidential Candidates,"
Now that Guiliani's toast, the top two are (drum roll, please!) -
Clinton and McCain.
So there's your Presidential candidates, folks.
war hero McInsane v.s. Mrs. BJ Clinton
Woohoo!
"Why is it that so many of my fellow Jews have a hair-trigger response to the slightest suggestion that anti-Semites may once again be on the prowl...?"
A: Because they would have to acknowledge their own hatreds and inhumanity.
I repeat the links from another article -
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: "You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable," (marking the Jewish festival of Passover). (BBC: "Rabbi Calls for Annihilation of Arabs", April 10, 2001)
Rabbi Dov Lior: issued a ruling that killing civilians during warfare is permitted if it will save Jewish lives.
Rabbi Yousef Falay: he called for the killing of all Palestinian males refusing to flee their country.
Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu: Jerusalem Post, "Eliyahu advocates carpet bombing Gaza", May 30, 2007
We have to make sure that no Palestinian individual remains under our occupation. If they (Palestinians) escape then it is good; but if anyone of them remains, then he should be exterminated. - Rabbi Yousef Falay, "Ways of War", Lahba (an Israeli magazine), September 2006.
(thanks, WTF)