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Netanyahu Lectures Obama in Oval Office
WASHINGTON -- Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Barack Obama against chasing what he called a Middle East peace "based on illusions" as he lectured the US president amid a widening rift in US-Israeli ties.
CODEPINK demonstration in front of the White House to coincide with the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Friday, May 20, 2011. Netanyahu is meeting with President Barack Obama today.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) In a dramatic Oval Office appearance, after 90 minutes of talks Friday, Prime Minister Netanyahu emphatically vowed Israel would never return to its 1967 borders and laid down a set of non-negotiable conditions for peace talks.
The exchange, which left hopes for Obama's peace drive more remote than ever, came a day after the US president called on Israel to accept a return to territorial lines in place before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with mutual land swaps with Palestinians to frame a secure peace.
But Netanyahu seized on the notion that he was being asked to return solely to Israel's 1967 footprint, which he said was nine miles wide in places and half the size of the "Beltway" highway surrounding Washington.
"While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines -- because these lines are indefensible," Netanyahu said, looking Obama squarely in the eye.
Israelis argue that returning to the former border configuration would leave Israeli population centers vulnerable and mean uprooting hundreds of thousands of settlers from homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu did not however mention the second part of Obama's stipulation -- namely that land swaps between Israel and the Palestinians, would change those 1967 lines to ensure two secure, contiguous states.
The White House insisted that it had never said that Israel should return to a narrow definition of its 1967 territorial lines.
Asked whether Netanyahu was willfully misinterpreting Obama's remarks, White House spokesman Jay Carney said such an observation was "interesting."
Privately, White House officials appeared infuriated by Netanyahu's combative approach, which even included a lecture for Obama on the historic struggles of the Jewish people.
In his first reaction to Obama's comments on the border issue, in a major speech on the Middle East on Thursday, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said that Obama should press Netanyahu to accept his position.
"Netanyahu's position is an official rejection of Mr Obama's initiative, of international legitimacy and of international law."
Obama admitted that he had Netanyahu had "differences" on language and formulations over the best approach to reviving peace talks stalled since last year, but saw a moment of opportunity amid the "Arab spring."
"I think that it is possible for us to shape a deal that allows Israel to secure itself, not to be vulnerable, but also allows it to resolve what has obviously been a wrenching issue for both peoples for decades now."
Obama also noted that he shared Israel's concerns over Syria and Iran and backed the Israeli position on the tie up between the Palestinian Fatah movement and the Islamist group Hamas.
Netanyahu said Abbas had to pick between Hamas, which advocates Israel's destruction and peace, or making peace with Israel.
The Israeli leader then launched into a history lesson of the struggles of the Jewish people, which Obama watched from a nearby chair, his hand over his mouth.
"A peace based on illusions will crash eventually on the rocks of Middle Eastern reality," Netanyahu said.
"We don't have a lot of margin for error... because, Mr President, history will not give the Jewish people another chance."
After the talks, a senior Israeli official accused Obama of raising "unreasonable expectations" that could set the peace process back "dozens of years" by seeking a Middle East deal based on the 1967 borders.
"We had to put our foot down," he added.
Analysts said Obama became the first president to specifically state that the 1967 borders should be the basis for peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, shut down over a settlements row last year.
But they also warned the statement could cost him support during next year'e elections among Jewish and pro-Israel voters.
"A lot of Democrats are not going to agree with this, and a lot of Democrats are not going to be Democratic in the voting booth," said New York political strategist Hank Sheinkopf.
On Sunday, Obama will address the powerful Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) before heading off on a week-long trip to Europe.
Netanyahu will also speak to AIPAC and will make a joint address to Congress next week, encouraged by Republican leaders who support his position.
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102 Comments so far
Show AllNuttynotyyou, you don't represent the Jewish people internaitonally. Now go play with yourself and shut your big damn mouth. If we had real president, he would have yap slapped the hell out of you when showed your proverbial arrogant damn booty. Look nobody owes you anything but a damn good booty whipping.
Nit-wit-yahoo is just a loud mouth self aggrandizing Likud brat -- A classic sociopath in a suit, and another reason why israel has lost its moral standing in the eyes of the world.
Puredeomcracy:
The Western world has degenerated into a political class of sociopaths where its social masses clearly see and are outraged at the illegal wars of aggression, illegal piracy, illegal extra judicial assassinations, like Israel's attack against internationals and the Gaza flotilla, even as Obama coddles his war criminals, as well as Israeli/Nato war criminals.
Ray McGovern, the former CIA analyst, has written a letter to Obama, to warn him about coddling criminal , ISRAELI fascists, who executed 9 flottilla Gaza activists, last year, including a 19 yr old American kid filming the illegal attack. Turkey has just warned ISRAELI fascists, not to attack the second flotilla, and by implication Obama as well, who emraces Zionist fascism, criminality, War crimes, in the same way he protects BUSH war criminals.
This time, Turkey, a Nato member, said it would retaliate, if Israeli Nazis murdered more of its citizens. Nato is required to defend a member state if it is attacked, but the West has so many dupliciotus, sociopathic, criminal standards, that it is likely that they would attack Turkey for defending itself from these Zionist fascists. So Netanyahoooo, has already told the world it is planning to violently attack the second flotilla Gaza expedition, and Obama must stop these thugs or find himself embracing more American Fascism, Empire criminality, sociopathic American politicians, promoting Western Fascism/Zionism. BIBI must be stopped this time around or the world will slap down Amerika and Israel for its Nazism, fascist Empie, embrace of Fascist Zionism. The Warnings have gone out by internatonal activists and Turkey.......the American People must take on thei own political class of sociopaths, not just Netanyahoo.....but the Western criminal, fascist alliances.
Well, Obama is taking a chance for peace now.
The Zionists are livid but maybe waking up if they are not suicidal.
I'll take the lesser evil over perpetual war the Republicans are pushing any day now.
we'll see
"I'll take the lesser evil over perpetual war the Republicans are pushing any day now."
As if Obama and the Democrats are not engaged in a perpetual war in the Middle East!
Obama has explicitly asserted his right to expand the War on Terror to any nation of his choosing. He has bombed and is bombing Libya. He's expanded the war in Afghanisatn and Pakistan.
The differences between Dems and Repubs on issues of war and foriegn policy are simply window dressing, and you are delusional to think otherwise, and dangerous because you are perpetuating a destructive falsehood.
It never ceases to amaze me how many can not see the reality of the fact that the lesser of two evils is still evil, and that in amurKKKa there is only an illusion of choice. Absolutely amazing. Have a great day, dreamjoe!
You are definitely the "expert" on Evil.
So who died and made you SATAN?
Yes there is a war on, more on.... You disgrace the great Joe Hill.
Joe Hill was not a self righteous jerk with a fake name.
You are no Joe Hill.
Your comment is a totally incoherent personal attack.
It demonstrates that you have no ability to logically refute the claims that I advanced.
Just to note, I never mentioned evil in my comment. That was someone else who chose to address your inane comment. take a deep breath and try to control the rage, Jim.
Who bombs?
Obama bombs!
No bombs!
Nobama!
You seem against my opinion that Obama is trying to let israel know that things have changed now... this is my personal opinion and you seem against that.
Also the Republicans are pushing for perpetual war with a new LAW.
There is a difference with a long war now and a law for never ending war.
If you don't get that, you need help.
We all know there is a war on with bombs that will not solve anything just in case you think we did not know.
Telling me my opinion is "delusional, perpetuating falsehoods" is is an attack on me.
You are perpetuating your own negativity on me, so don't be surprised when I fight back. You should know me better by now.
You're a real jerk Jim. Your over the top SATAN accusation, and you're confusing my comments with someone else's make you appear to be an incoherent lunatic. You react like a prima donna when challenged, and this is not the first time you've tossed dramatic but stupid insults my way. (your "I know Bob Dylan" comment was a real classist diatribe). In essence, you are a bourgeoisie elitist and you erroneously believe that your opinion carries extra weight because of your class position.
On a substantive level, I think that your splitting hairs regarding Dems, Repubs and foriegn policy. It's clear that Obama has no intention of ending the US wars in the middle east, and neither do any other Dem leaders.
If you can't see that, you are hopelessly deluded.
BTW I fight back too.
How does it go? something like, "the lesser of two evils is still evil" is that the one?
If you never laid that on me over the years we have gone at it here, like it just dawned on you, I apologize>
I should quote your opinion of me in my book.
"dangerous, destructive, delusional, perpetuating falsehoods" and now "hopeless;y deluded... and he likes Bob Dylan too!"
..... Thanks!
PS I don't believe in Satan, it was meant as a joke as the lesser of two evils is also the lesser evil.
You look at things your way and i look at them my way and then if you want you can vote and we'll see.
Okay, fine, we'll agree to disagree.
I generally vote, and mostly Green (Mckinney recently). I don't put a lot of importance on voting in national elections, and it is very improbable that American presidential elections will actually halt the US imperial wars in the middle east.
My focus is on organizing on the local level, although I do attend paece rallies etc.
At the local level I face a lot of resistance from partisan Dems, who equate criticsim of Obama with support for Republicans. It's quite frustrating and a recent study out of Michigan has demonstrated that Obama's election devastated the peace movement. Apparently there are many activists who only oppose Republican war mongers.
You have previously labelled me a working calss hero in my own mind, but I will assert that I am actually working class, and have about a zero net worth, like so many who have avoided employment or cooperation with corporate America. I've organized a union local and worked for three other unions in an organizing or administative capacity.
That doesn't make me a hero, but I am not a fraud. I take working class consciousness seriously, and abhor classism.
So while I like Dylan's music, and acknowledge his early contributions to the Left, I view today's Bob as an irrelevant rich guy who turned his back on the people and embraced some very reactionary cultural (born again) and political (zionism) ideas. At the same time he has done little over the past decades to support the movement against capitalism and imperialism.
I don't know what he is like as a private individual, but his public persona is not supportive of the left, and in many ways opposed to the left.
My guess is that you know Dylan because you are Jim Glover, the folksinger, freind of the late Phil Ochs.
Reaowwwwwrrr! Claws in, Jim.
While I have had my disagreements with this
inelegantly named poster in the past I find no problem with this particular effort. Why do you?
Because he disagreed with your position?
As it happens he is correct. Democrat or Republican, neither has really worked to rein in Israeli empire building or genocidal acts against civilians. The homeless and stateless people of Palestine were created by Israel in its birth pangs and to wonder why many of them pledge to destroy Israel is simply ridiculous.
If that bloody butcher, Netanyahu, pretends not to know why many favor Hamas he is a liar and a fraud. This is a perfect opportunity for Obama to stand firm and end aid to Israel until such time as they negotiate in good faith and stop their genocidal acts against those stateless people. Of course he won't.
"inelegantly named poster "?
WTF does elegance have to do with it?
Many of your posts have been found to insult the memory of Joe Hill, that's why. Take the compliment as offered in that post and get over yourself. We, all of us here, who post honest opinions, get savaged sooner or later. You aren't hiding behind Hill's name thinking it exempts you somehow, are you?
doubledee - two too many.
Insulting the dead?! I generally restrict myself to the living while reserving the right to except J Edgar Hoover.
I think mostly I insult self important guardians of personal party lines.
As to my moniker, take it as an imperative.
Oldy.
Your comment flies in the face of the barbarity apartheid Israeli regime.
The holocaust does not provide a blanket moral justification for Isreali barbarity and murder, and it's effectiveness as a rhetorical tool diminishes daily.
You seem to be an advocate of arab bloodshed in exchange for the maintanence of Israeli apartheid and expansionism. No need to dream about that, it's a constant occurrence and you are immoral for lending it support.
In escence you are an apologist for the murder of innocents.
Your Ersatz Israel terminology would indicate that you are perhaps a likudnik or American-Israeli neo-conservative.
If that is the case then I take my accusation that you support murder and multiply it by millions.
I'm not particularly arabist in outlook. Cut all military aid to Isreal, Egypt, Yemen...
But that won't happen. Too much oil and gold involved.
Netanyahu, Obama and the rest of the world are going to have to cut a deal with the newly unified Palestinian Resistance including Hamas, It's just that simple.
If Netanyahu continues to overtly threaten the peace process, in a hissy fit over Hamas/Fatah unity, then Israel's standing in the world plunges further, and the American Left steps up the campaign to ostracize, boycott and divest from Israel.
On a personal note, My jewish friends and social contacts are more numerous than those with arabs. It is not a matter of wishing jews were dead. It is a matter of an American Israeli kill machine run amuk.
It's a new Middle East. As usual, the United States government (and most of it's people) haven't been paying attention. Israel will not get away with being a spoiled brat any more, just as the United States will not find it so easy to deal with Arab states that are not corrupt products of European colonialism. Yes, indeed, the "American Israeli kill machine" can no longer "run amuck" with impunity.
I love fact-checking:
Israel, in fact is almost 7 times the size of Rhode Island. But it doesn't matter whether it's the size of Texas or the size of my kitchen - international law is clear on the illegality of annexing land conquered by war (and I won't even address the circumstances of the 1948 or 1967 wars, which, if ever adjudicated in an international criminal court, would have created an official record of Israel's criminal conception).
Not a shred of physical evidence supports the contention that ancient Israelites ever controlled the land that Jews now claim as "Eretz Israel" - it, like almost everything else in their tribal narrative, is an invention.
Every single news source around the world, regardless of political leaning, covers this conflict with a map showing the 1967 borders. No one is going to change this accepted reality, it doesn't matter how many temper tantrums Benjamin Yahoo throws, or how many president and congressmen are bought off by this fifth column.
Yeah more like the size of New Jersey.
Rhode Island is really small.
Your comments are confusing, inaccurate, and fly in the face of reality as well. The Balfour Declaration, upon which the State of Israel was founded, stated clearly that the rights of the indigenous peoples were to be protected in that new state.
Instead almost three quarters of a million of them were exiled from their own homes and farms. This created the problem we all now face. I , for one, am tired of the Jews playing the holocaust card in defense of Israeli expansionism while supporting genocidal acts against Palestinians. Any perusal of the casualty lists shows plainly that many, many more Palestinians are killed by the IDF than Israelis by Palestinians. Any reading of the continual extension of their borders indicates , for all not blinded by religious loyalties, that Israel is indeed the culprit here and is almost solely responsible for the continued violence in that region.
I would only add that my critique is for the govt of Israel and not its people, many of whom are working to end said violence, and passionately pursue peace. Just as there are many here in the USA who object the actions of our own govt towards so many around the world.
No one is even thinking about a Final Solution. Don't overdo it, please. Drama-queening everything harms your credibility. People really are sick of being bashed over the head with the same club decade after decade. There are 4 generations alive today who had nothing whatever to do with what happened in those 12 years of horror; stop trying constantly to guilt them into submission to today's agenda. The tables have obviously been turned for 50 years already.
The idea of two contiguous countries based on promises made in 1967 seems fair, can be adjusted to suit. But Israel has violated or ignored every agreement made since. Wouldn't it be fair also to divide the pizza respecting internationally recognized laws/agreements before one party eats the whole thing up.
Religious states are anachronistic and a source of constant problems and endless conflict in the modern world. To compound this problem, present day "israel" is in the grip of fascist expansionist warmongering Likudits who constantly flout international law. They attacked aid flotillas in international water and executed an American citizen on that flotilla with multiple shots to the head, including the back of the head. They repeatedly rammed and attempted to sink a small medical aid boat carrying a member of the US congress and several medical doctors. That makes them international terrorists by any definition. In 1973 they attacked the USS Liberty in international waters and killed and injured many US sailors in a prolonged attempt to sink that US intelligence ship with all aboard. They repeatedly bombed civilians in Gaza, and used outlawed weapons on civilians in Gaza, killing hundreds of women and children. The Likud's outrageous behavior has been a millstone on US foreign policy, and is a major threat to regional and world peace.. All assets should be impounded until "israel" removes the Likud and all other Zionist groups.
Likudit Nit-wit-yahoo is an outlaw who should not even be allowed to enter the USA.
Glover, I'd hardly call Obama's speech taking a chance for peace. So Obama speech doesn't follow the Zionist policy exactly as the Zionists would like and the pro-Zionist media and politicians are outraged. Obama's call for a Jewish Israeli state ignores the fact that 20% of Israeli's are Palestinian/Arab. What is Obama calling for, the ethnic cleansing of these people? Also, Obama said in his speech that it is up to Israelis and Palestinians to resolve the conflict; in other words, Obama's speech was just a speech and he's not got to do more than that; and worse, he will continue funding Israel's occupation with $3 billion a year.
As far for the lesser evil, Obama has expanded the perpetual war since he's been in office. Obamas contribution to the war in Libya is illegal by the Constitution and War Powers Act. The little withdrawal in Iraq was a result of Bush's Status of Forces agreement he signed with Iraq before leaving office. And if you are talking about the proposed legislation regarding trying to give the President a blank check for ongoing war, if it passes in the next year and a half, it means Democrats and Obama will have agreed to it, and currently I don't hear any rumbling from Obama against it.
I like how this Onion piece has placed 'Netanyahu' and 'Obama' and 'peace' together in a single sentence.
Very funny stuff.
If you're not Palestinian.
The US Govt. should cut off all aid to the illegal state of Israel. Israel defies international law and the UN. Since the Govt. refuses to act for justice, the people must. Boycott, Divest, Sanction all things Israeli.
Why should Hamas agree to the "right" of an illegal state to exist?
The Boycott has had a great effect.
Pete Seeger and Theo Bikel have joined too.
The changes along with Mother Nature's tough love lesson's are growing faster than revolution ever has.
I never expected to live to see this.
I am not plugged into data on how the BDS movement is actually effecting Israel yet. You say it has had great effect and it would be interesting to see actual numbers. Do you have any references to data on actual dollars lost to Israel? Interested in this. Clearly the movement is doing well in theory as in artists and so on signing on, but are there real economic sanctions happening that can be verified?
I am judging from the opinion of the world that has changed since the boycott and it appears to be growing in favor of freedom for Palestine.
Look for "data" if you want.
I support it, do you?
It was entirely predictable that Netanyahu would react like a rabid terrier, bark and ululate till his constant default dribble of froth erupted into a foamy torrent from his overworked muzzle, lift his hind leg over Obama's shoes, and finally sink his teeth into Obama's leg.
Even such a trifling provocation as Obama's typical expression of mealy-mouthed pieties, clichés, and mendacious hypocrises is sufficient to trigger this kind of grand mal seizure of self-righteous indignation from deranged leaders of the Israeli government.
Ho hum. What does this portend? More business as usual, the universal hidden-in-plain-sight message in all of Lord Obama's "groundbreaking" orations.
Amerikan presidents-- even new, improved Unitary Executives and Imperial Warlords-in-Chief-- don't have a "No More Mister Nice Guy!" mode where Israel is concerned.
Maybe Team Obama will reach into the ranks of Amerika's Elder-Statesman Senior Tour and appoint another Special Envoy to pick up where George Mitchell left off-- wherever THAT may be.
Who's up for it? Lee Hamilton? Warren Rudman? James A. Baker? Sandra Day O'Connor? Madeleine Albright? Henry Kissinger?
That'll show 'em!
I like "grand mal seizure of self-righteous indignation". As to your list of worthies to replace Mitchell, I thought you could have started and stopped with Lee Hamilton (although your inclusion of James Baker wasn't really a bad touch).
Sure, Lee hamilton would be perfect. On the 9/11 commission & leading the Iran Contar investigation, he was effective in appearing to investigate while actually covering up the culpability of the MIC and "intelligence" agencies.
Kissinger?!! Not very likely tht war criminal would be of much use.
"500,000 deaths were worth it" Albright is another non-starter. She's never seena dead arab that she didn't like.
OS,
Your observations are accurate but you are missing the point of this kabuki.
It's a FOOD FIGHT! Wall Street wants to reelect it's Oil Can Harry for another four years. Israel is on most people's shit list right now. They position Obama as a voice of logic and reason and the suckers come back to support him.
From "hope you can believe in" (otherwise known as NOPE) in 2008 to "logic you can rely on" in 2012 (otherwise known as "there's one born every minute").
Nobama!
Nope you can believe in!
Obama - Emperer with No Clothes
As Obama is again humiliated in another confrontation with Netanyahu, MSM doesn't report it. Israel's repeated announcements of more settlements on the eve of major events, Netanyahu's arrogance to Obama, and the Israel's execution of a Turkish-American (Flotilla member) with 6 bullets at close range without a US condemnation are examples of the humiliation.
Next week, Netanyahu will give a speech to the US Congress (how many foreign leaders do this by the way?) and he will get more respect (even from Democrats) than President Obama on policy (as weak as it is) in Israel/Palestine. We see whose Congress' primary allegiance is to.
I think assuming there is a correlation between anything Obama says and actual policies he implements is an error.
How can you tell when The Tom is lying?
A: His lips are moving.
All I see is another shell game, where Israel plays the part of "victim" so the subsequent "reparation" is again tilted. AIPAC is so entrenched and so owns Congress, that they openly flaunt their hubris. For example, when Steve Rubin got caught red-handed buying intelligence information directly from the Pentagon, he publicly dared the US to press charges which, of course, they didn't. He had so little concern that he openly and honestly laughed in our faces.
Delay, stall, renege, oppress, steal land. Repeat.
Who's your bitch???
AIPAC, Demcons, and Republicons are underestimating the American public.
If Obama stands firm, shows some balls and resolves the I/P issue, they will vote for him... and so will I.
I think that you were already planning on voting for him, no?
Anyway, the chances of Obama standing firm here are not good. Standing up to powerful interests? He's just not into that.
So you'll ignore Obama's three wars, his assassination of American citizens, his indefinite detention scheme (which is really torture), his tax breaks for the wealthy, his failure to help working men and women, his NAFTA deals, his Catfood Commission, etc. Resolving the I/P issue is huge (as if Obama's ever going to do that; what a joke), but it sounds as if some people are looking for any excuse that will allow them to vote for Obama in good conscience. That's sad and absurd. We should calling for his impeachment, rather than scrambling around looking for a reason to vote for this heartless narcissist.
.
Three times I have called for the relocation of Israel - lock stock & temple - to north western Australia, but not once has Netanyahu lectured me in an office of any special shape. Why? Because he knows this is the best answer and solution for the Homo sapien species, of which he is an honorary member.
Trylon
History:
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposals_for_a_Jewish_state
"The Kimberley Plan was a failed plan by the Freeland League, led by Isaac Nachman Steinberg, to resettle Jewish refugees from Europe in the Kimberley region in Australia before and during the Holocaust.
There was also a plan to offer the Jews 'Northern Australia' (the top half of what is now the Northern Territory) as their Jewish State, in 1933 however this was fought by the US who offered the current state of Israel (formerly part of Palestine) at roughly the same time."
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Incidentally in Australia, see how this news below has played out:
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Criticism over Marrickville Council's Israel boycott a 'straw man' smear, say Greens party
From: AAP -- April 15, 2011 4:21PM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/
criticism-of-marrickville-councils-israel-boycott-a-straw-man-smear-say-greens/
story-fn3dxity-1226039813880
"DAMNING criticism of a Marrickville Council boycott of Israeli products is a "straw man" designed to smear the Greens at a state and federal level, the party says.
The Greens-led inner-west Sydney council is under extreme pressure to drop its boycott of Israeli products, with NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell intimating he could sack it, and Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd calling it "nuts".
Councillors voted to implement the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy in December, in protest at the alleged mistreatment of Palestinians."
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And before that:
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http://www.indymedia.org.au/2010/12/19/
marrickville-council-first-to-support-the-boycott-israel-campaign
"Marrickville has become the first local council in Australia to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
This week the Council voted 10 to 2 for the motion to support the BDS -- an international campaign designed to stop trade and investment in companies, sporting teams and other institutions with ties to Israel.
It aims to coerce Israel to restore human rights and return occupied land to Palestinians.
The United Nations and Australian Federal and State Governments have refused to support the BDS.
But the NSW Greens are backing the campaign."
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It seems anywhere in the world where anyone dares to criticise Israeli actions & intentions, or even tries to take peaceful civil actions such as boyotts as a measure of their human feelings towards the treatment of others by Israeli's, then its almost always treated as being 'anti-Semitic', a nice emotional catch-all term to counter *any* criticism made against Israel and their actions.
You can see that even in far-flung Australia that the Israeli influence is indeed strong in making the local players jump to their tune whereas if it was another country that was to be boycotted or criticised then it would be much less of an issue, save for opportunistic robotic politicians who are always quick to jump on any bandwagon to make themselves look better or garner advancement.
This international hypocrisy whereby countries can boycott andor sanction another country but can never touch Israel in any way other than vapid whispered media comments of 'concerns', or 'care should be taken in actions', is something that ordinary people have long been fed up with and can see it for the toadying that it truly is, especially when seen against the inhuman (for that's what it is) treatment, subjugation, and murdering of other people locally and worldwide.
That's not to say that Palestinian parties, factions, and powers are let off for their actions either because they are also culpable and continue to be but in the face of overwhelming Israeli violence against them their part seems small and overshadowed in comparison and many worldwide mistakenly think they are completely without fault, but they're also to blame. That's not to say either that innocent people aren't being victimised and killed, because they are and that's despicable in itself.
But Israel as a whole has always been a belligerent, arrogant, self-serving country hell bent on being a superpower in all its overbearing blustering behaviours replete with nuclear weapons that take it out of the realm of just being yet another despotic country with a crazy religious thematic running through it like so many others.
Many make the mistake of confusing every Israeli with the actions and thoughts of their country, just like in other countries such as the USA but like so many places in the world their thoughts and actions barely are reported elsewhere in the increasingly controlled world media.
But also in the world there's an arrogant, fervent army of individuals who take it upon themselves to be the 'guardians' of Israel and of anything 'Jewish', quite often to the point of irrationality, self-serving hypocrisy, and continual claims of being victimised by way of past history as if that will forevermore simply give an open hand to do whatever it is they want.
The world is changing and so is people's attitudes particularly those who are tired and fed up with simple explanations, propaganda, and inhumanity against anyone.
Israel is a place that will be forever at war because all their actions guarantee it. The mad-dog approach has lead them here but it was intrinsic in their very first actions as history shows. But that's also just like every other country too.
Do you think Israel could rise above all this?
It's shown great scientific advances in some areas but that's also overlooked by many in the world.
What the world doesn't need is apologists and enablers who insist on the violent status quo above all else, small-minded thinkers who by way of their own self-imposed values fail to see they're not apart from the rest of humanity.
trylon...(nihilist nazi????)....i too imagine a "solution".........move the palestinians to a shining new city built with jewish funds to jordanian/egyptian land (?) (move the dome of the rock to the "new palestine" so the jews can build their temple---)
it's win/win!!!! palestinians get a brandy new city with the "dome" and are free from the heavy hand of the jewish state. the jews get "all" of THEIR land with the possibility of a rebuilt solomonic temple....damn, what's not to like?
oldy, am i a nazi too?
Trylon,
It's probably too late for homo sap. Forget the demented, dysfunctional family psychology of mankind. Forget the determination on the part of so many idiots to make the biblical prophecy true that Israel would be a stumbling block to all nations. Our problem is that mankind forgot you are not supposed to shit where you eat!
Our industrial defecation of chemical and nuclear poisons is now ubiquitous. Listen to this from a fellow tasked specifically to clean up DU contaminated ground in Iraq to understand why it just cannot be done (and it has spread all over the world).
http://newsworldwide.wordpress.com/2011/05/19/exclusive-roger-cooper-interview-with-doug-rokke-there-is-no-safe-radiation-level/
Just yesterday I read that the government of Texas has been caught red handed doctoring ground water radiation levels down as much as 50% in over a third of the counties in Texas because they didn't pass the EPA standards. That's unfucking real, man. They didn't want to be bothered with that "interfering" federal government. Now there is an increase in thyroid cancers in these communities the idiot Texas politicians kept ignorant about water radiaton levels.
http://www.khou.com/home/-Texas-politicians-knew-agency-hid-the-amount-of-radiation-in-drinking-water-122205439.html
Homo sapiens is unsustainable.
==Homo sapiens is unsustainable==
I agree entirely. We are an experiment of Nature that is the worst failure of any species in the entire history of this planet. We're like a child's Science Project that has been forgotten, in some forgotten Fridge. The inability of Human Beings, generally, to recognize this verity is definitive of the case. As I have said, Nihilism is a pass/fail intelligence test. If Noam Chomsky has a shred of remaining belief that Homo sapiens can Do Something Anything to redeem itself as a living organism, he fails my test. We are toast.
Also pass/fail is the knee-jerk, whacko, asininity of calling me a Nazi because I have lost any sympathy for the nation of Israel I ever had in my youth. Frankly, many American Jews feel the same disgust as I do - but have no answer to that Theocracy.
My reply to any Theocrat on Planet Earth is =Suck my dick; religion is the primary cause of the failed experiment with H. sapiens= which is a bit more blunt than the excellent 2007 documentary series by Christiane Amanpour called =God's Warriors=. And as always, I like to observe that the simple cockroach has a survival track record on Earth that exceeds 365 MILLION YEARS, before and after dinosaurs.
Why is "suck my dick" a punishment in your case?
Is it ugly, diseased or just smelly?
While I disagree with your choice of metaphor, read my other posts here and you will note that I don't disagree with your feelings about theocracy whether Likud, fascist Xians in the USA, or Islamic ayatollahs.
Interesting that all these have been MIC/company funded or supported.
Uncle Sammy - Funding and fondling right wing extremism and torture everywhere!
Why western Australia?
Would Americans stand for the leader of any other country in the world to rebuke the President while actually in the White House with the President sitting there beside him?
This sorry state of affairs is where AIPAC has led us