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TechnoratiIsrael's Free Ride Ends
As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media
It's a common, almost clichéd observation that the American media is less critical of Israeli policy than the Israeli media. In mainstream American depictions of the ceaseless misery of the Middle East, Israeli righteousness and Arab violence are routinely emphasised. The reality of Israeli settlements and Palestinian suffering have been, at best, a footnote.
Conservatives often complain that the news isn't even more biased toward the Jewish state - or the most hawkish elements within it - but such carping both obscures and reinforces the real distortion in American Middle East coverage, serving as a pre-emptive warning to any outlet that might show too much sympathy for the Palestinians. (The crudeness of Israel's most vociferous detractors on the far left doesn't help, since it further marginalises criticism of Israel as the preserve of cranks who can't see a difference between Dachau and Jenin.)
Slowly, though, something is changing. As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media. The failure of the war in Iraq and the attendant discrediting of neoconservatism has opened up new space in the American conversation. With the American right dejected and weakened, there's less pressure on the press to display the kind of boorish one-sidedness that self-congratulatory conservatives like to call "moral clarity". Israel's disproportionate retaliation in Gaza is increasingly recognised as both brutal and, in all likelihood, ultimately futile. In destroying Gaza, Israel is also destroying the American taboo that has ensured the country such unstintingly favourable media coverage.
On December 31, CNN took on the contentious question of whether Israel or Hamas broke the ceasefire, precipitating the current fighting. First, the network aired a clip of the liberal Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti saying: "The world press community or media community is overwhelmed with the Israeli narrative, which is incorrect. The Israeli spokespersons have been spreading lies all over. The reality and the truth is that the side that broke this truce and this ceasefire was Israel. Two months before it ended, Israel started attacking Rafah, started attacking Hamas and never lifted the blockade on Gaza." Ordinarily, TV journalists would follow such a clip - if they even aired it in the first place - with one of Israel making its case, and would stop at that, leaving an audience already predisposed against the Palestinians to sort out the truth. Instead, anchor Rick Sanchez did something that should be commonplace, but sadly is not: he endeavoured to find out who was right.
"And you know what we did? I've checked with some of the folks here at our international desk, and I went to them and asked: 'What was he talking about, and do we have any information on that?'" said Sanchez. And he reported that his sources confirmed that Barghouti was right.
Since then, questioning and outright condemning Israeli actions have become increasingly common in the establishment press. On January 8, the op-ed page of the New York Times ran three opinion pieces critical of Israel. "When it is shelled by its neighbour, Israel has to do something," wrote columnist Nick Kristof. "But Israel's right to do something doesn't mean it has the right to do anything." Last week, a new issue of Time magazine appeared, its cover showing a star of David behind rows of barbed wire and the headline "Why Israel can't win". The extremely conservative Wall Street Journal opinion page ran a piece by George Bisharat with the headline "Israel is committing war crimes". "Israel's current assault on the Gaza Strip cannot be justified by self-defence," it began. "Rather, it involves serious violations of international law, including war crimes. ... Hamas fighters have also violated the laws of warfare, but their misdeeds do not justify Israel's acts."
No doubt, some of Israel's most aggressive partisans are going to be alarmed by this sudden shift in the American discourse. They're used to dismissing the world's criticism of Israel as the mutterings of antisemites and bien-pensant third-worldists. The US has been a cocoon that protects Israel and its advocates from facing harsh judgments. But Israel has been ill served by America's endless indulgence. What is happening in Gaza endangers, first and foremost, the benighted people who live there and who are dying by the hundreds. It also endangers Israel itself, pushing already elusive prospects for peace ever more out of reach.
An American media that turned a blind eye to Israeli expansionism and human rights abuses ultimately made the Jewish state less, not more, secure. Without the US putting pressure on Israel to dismantle the settlements and loosen the blockade in Gaza, leaders there had neither the incentive nor the political cover to do so. Now that the American press is displaying a bit of courage in facing an unfolding catastrophe abetted by American leadership, perhaps our politicians will have room to do the same.
115 Comments so far
Show AllLET US NOT FORGET
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS BROKE AND DEEPLY IN DEBT.
WHICH MILITARY PROGRAMS WILL BE CUT FIRST?
All empires fall.
Like a dysfunctional father, the US has always had money to laugh it up with rich friends, money for guns and for sports while some its children starved.
Joe
The US as Empire----- Obama soon to play the lead role. We are faced with a systemic crisis with roots that run deep and wide.
I encourage anyone interested in reading more about US Empire to read Bob Jensen's latest article:
The Rag Blog: Robert Jensen : Beyond Grief and Rage: Palestine and the Politics of Resistance
Jan 11, 2009 ... By Robert Jensen / The Rag Blog / January 11, 2009 ... U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine has to be seen as part of that ...
Jensen's book, Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity, is excellent as well. He gets to the heart of the issues we face as individuals and collectively, as a country, in a brilliant, compassionate manner.
We do have brave souls speaking out against the carnage in Gaza (usually heard on alternative media sources-NOT mainstream media).
If only our President-elect could do the same.
Obama's silence speaks volumes.
How can there be gaiety and celebration on inauguration day while we, citizens of the US empire, are sanctioning (through our leader's silence) and participating (through our supply of funds and weaponry) in the death and destruction occurring in Gaza?
Obama has called on Americans to honor Martin Luther King Jr. by volunteering to good causes----to be of service. Obama proudly stated that he and his family will volunteer their time next week. Mr. President-elect, what do you think MLK would say about your choice to remain silent on the Palestinian humanitarian crisis?
The most honorable and courageous thing Obama (and all Americans)could do to honor the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. is to call for an immediate cease fire and condemn the violence being perpetrated----- by Israel and the US----- on the Palestinian people.
There will be no Peace without Justice. NATO and US in Afghanistan and Iraq and of course the Israeli criminals will continue to shelter each other. These are war crimes. Hamas has every right to resist. Where does Israel have a right to exist? It occupies the lands of imprisoned natives and decides who it wants to represent the Palestinians without no intention of permitting the return of refugees across the middle east and indeed the world. Any Jew on the other hand is invited to occupy more of the natives lands and it steals and controls all access to natural life giving resources like water. It puts these people on a diet and blames everybody else. It indulges in the worst anti-semitic explotiation comparable only to the Nazis against Palestinians, Christian and Muslims. The UN has been structurally subverted and the war wagon is well under way to a nuclear holocaust. The media gives numbers of women and children as if men defending their families from a military onslaught don't count. They are all hamas anyway. 45% of Palestinians voted for Hamas as the Palestinian Authority was so badly corrupt they booted them out. Irony or ironies Israel chose to deal with this corrupt pliable, abetting entity. Conditions set for Hamas became three fold. Accept Israel's right to exist. Disarm under ceasefire. And abide by all agreements previously made with the State of Israel. The latter was the key because despite Israel having broken conditions of its agreements rendering them null and void Hamas had to accept that Occupated lands would be given up to Israel. They were 'given' 55% of Palestine but the natives were not asked to accept this and didn't understandably. From that moment they expanded and continue apace to do so to-day occupying parts of Lebanon and Syria to boot. Every so often they boost their military might by testing their advanced weapons to grow into becoming the fifth biggest arms exporter in the world to-day. They also have expertise in torture and terror techniques abroad and are the most militarised state in the world. They continually search out water resources in Kurdistan and in the African great lakes besides Lebanons, Jordans and Palestinians water. They divide and rule corrupting world democracies through their powerful bankers and media moguls. Unless and until Israel complies with International law and complies with all outstanding UN resolutions it cannot claim legitimacy and deserve any diplomatic of political protection. It is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. It is breeding hatred through generations. it is a rogue pariah state and public opinion will not be held in abeyance through misguided corrupt political elites forever. It is all based on lies, everything is upside down and a fog of complexity and distortion is offered through its legions of punditry and propoganda. It attempts to marry religious beliefs with fascism and barbarism. It is insidious in its attempts to subvert all morals and in its superiority over other peoples it simply co-opts gullible and fellow travellers to its narritive that is continually revised and lives on distortions and falsehoods. In 1967 it was israle that attacked its neighbours. It was pre-planned and there was never any danger to its military being other than complete victor. Under cover of a mythical spree of media blitz they did the most disgraceful prolonged second horror ridden expulsion and ethnic cleansing of hunderds of thousands of native Palestinians. They drove them into the seas off Gaza too. They continually claim arabs are taught bad things about these poor Jews in school? Their entire system is based on racism and propoganda. Their 'purity of arms' and their murderous militas are there again in Gaza for all to see. Facts have and are being created on the ground. Things would be so much better if those Palestinians would just disappear. Then would come Syria and Lebanon and Iran. Personally, I have higher hopes for Turkey looking after its own interests by making peace with Syria over water deals and kicking the Zionists ambitions in Kurdistan to kingdom come. They are up to their eyeballs in Congo too. Resources don't you know.
Pan
Oil Pipelines from Iraq to Israel was first on Iraq adjenda ..??? Who`s side are you we on ???
Liberty and Justice for ALL
Pan
Oil Pipelines from Iraq to Israel was first on Iraq adjenda ..??? Who`s side are you we on ???
Liberty and Justice for ALL
This "war" is about the control of crude oil sources and gas pipeline routes in the Gulf and Caspian.
http://www.freepublictransit.org/index.php?pr=Oil__Pipeline_Wars
This is not war! It is Cool Hand Luke. Gaza is Paul Neuman getting pounded by George Kennedy and getting up throwing a weak punch and getting knocked down again and again. The rest of the world is portrayed by Wayne Rodgers and the men on the chain gang, who are sickened by the beating. Our congress and senate are represented by the shotgun toteing road bosses. The israeli commentators are played by Strother Martin "what he wants is what he gets"
I thought George Kennedy was one of the prisoners. ??
But I must admit, it's been a long time since I watched "Cool Hand Luke"
These comments show how many people are supporting the Gaza massacre. they show how aipac controls congress and senate.
It is going to take more than just a few times where the main stream media does their job before I will believe that things are changing for the better.
t_g
Why don't we call Israel's actions at last what they are: striving for the "Endlösung" to secure ever more "Lebensraum" and to get rid of the "Untermenschen".
Sounds familiar?
Anybody read literature about the Warsaw Ghetto? Doesn't all that sounds a bit like the Gaza ghetto?
Let's do something: boycott anything and everything made in Israel! Let's boycott newspapers that publish pro-Israeli propaganda! Let's send money to Palestinian aid groups. Is it only me who is enraged at the films and pictures showing all those dead and maimed Palestinian children and women?!
Despite my complete disgust at Israel it is a simple fact that you have to be very careful who you donate money to when you support Palestinian groups.
I would recommend the Red Cross or the Red Crescent. These people are the true saints of our time, or of any age.
I am pretty sure you can send money asking them to use it to support the people of Gaza and you can be assured the cause will be a good one.
For American audiences this is the hardest part. There really are no good guys in the Middle east. Only the exploiters and the exploited.
I admit I don't understand WHY Americans cannot fathom this as most of us are in the "exploited" category ourselves and should understand this concept all too well. Perhaps it's Hollywood and the entertaining stories they always tell. They set the framework and we dutifully force every world event into their square hole.
"There really are no good guys in the Middle east"
Sort of a dehumanizing notion.
Question:
What influences in Hollywood would want to demonize all Arabs considering Hollywood's previous reputation as a "liberal preserve of cranks"?
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Re: The MSM critiquing the current collective punishment in Gaza. The best interview I've heard in weeks was PBS Charlie Rose's recent interview with CBS senior Middle Eastern correspondent Bob Simon. He is perhaps the last of the network ME correspondents who is old enough and experienced enough in the region enough to know a thing or two. Simon's conclusions were grim and blunt.
He says he believes history has passed by the chance for a two State solution for the Palestinians and Israelis. That there are now over 300,000 well-armed illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank and it would be militarily impossible for the IDF to forceably evacuate them. That it took weeks of fighting for the IDF to eject just 12 Israeli settler families from Gaza a few years back. That the settlers and IDF operate their own secured Israelis-only highway system separate from the Palestinians on the West Bank, which is still crisscrossed with checkpoints and cantonized into geographically divided Palestinian enclaves. That the IDF has many settlers and their sympathizers in it and a military operation on the scale necessary to eject the settlers from the West Bank would tear the IDF apart. That the comfortable middle-class Israelis out of rocket range in Tel Aviv are in denial about the brutality of the Occupation.
He said the only slim chance would be if an American president who did not owe AIPAC or the Israelis any favors would threaten to cut off all economic aid to Israel unless the West Bank settlers were evacuated--that might work. But that president would have to recognize that he or she would be committing domestic political suicide because of the power of the Jewish lobby in America. Simon sees only a more brutal form of apartheid ahead for the Palestinians and Israelis. The Israelis will not tolerate a one State solution because the Palestinians will soon outnumber them and they could never be allowed to vote. They will never allow the creation of a Palestinian State (still a Likud Party platform plank last I heard before Ariel Sharon's stroke) with sovereign equality to the State of Israel. They consistently practice the strategy and tactics of divide and conquer regardless of any peace talks or lack thereof.
Israel's conduct in Lebanon in '06 and in Gaza now is boxing it into a survival corner dependent on its only ally, the economically crumbling U.S., to keep it alive. The brutality and arrogance of the Israeli government is convincing more and more Earthlings (including Americans) that, in the words of one commentator I know, "they don't have a dog in this fight." Plenty of Americans facing rapidly worsening economic hardship would just as soon disentangle themselves from this never ending $3 Billion dollar-a-year blood feud--especially with another Depression staring them in the face. Most of the rest of the world is weary of the continual State vs. non-State terrorist reverberations emanating from the Israeli/Palestinian hornet nest as well. Pressure will gradually build to pinch the annual welfare tit-flow for the Israeli hot-heads so they can learn how difficult it will be to parley with Egypt, Jordan and the oil sheiks without money or military carte blanche from the Bush-Cheney psychopaths to back them.
Personally, I distrust both the Palestinians or the Israelis to ever effect an equitable peace or two State solution with sovereign equivalence over there. I think Israel should have it's American economic subsidies slashed initially by two-thirds and all US weapons flows to Israel halted. The entire country including the Occupied Territories should be "liberated" (garrisoned) by a massive internationalized security force, the rest of the annual US subsidies halted, and it should be militarily divided into sectors like West Berlin was after WWII. The holy sites should be internationally secured as world heritage sites by armed UN peacekeepers with shoot to kill rules of engagement.
Great post thanks for going beyond the hackneyed cliches offered by both sides. If a two state solution is impossible then the world is in trouble, isn't it? For that is ALL that is ever seriously offered up in my understanding. And when I say world yes I mean world considering Israel has well over a hundred nukes and I believe their leadership is insane enough to start a world wide nuclear war rather than surrender an inch of shitty desert land. :(
That was the plan all along.
What happens if the US can't afford the payola anymore to prop up the corrupt Arab regimes that suppress their own populations?
Liberation movements--that we define as "terrorists" might eventually gain control--and what will become of those Zionist zealots from Philadelphia and Brooklyn whose egos are invested in their Jewish cult identity? Maybe the religious Right can lauch a new Crusade?
Vern, how very helpful...Yes, by all means the religious right should launch a new crusade to take care of those pesky big city, east coast jews. Hymieville, i believe was the word of jesse jackson during one of his presidential campaigns.
Personally i have no patience for those who can't see beyond primitvism. I just don't find it helpful to making real change. Not just changing the puzzlepieces around.
For everyone on this post, punishment isn't justice, nor is murder on any side. I see a frightening lack of imagination in many posts on this site.
Your last suggestion is a good one but un-implementable because it would force the US to scale back the one industry we still have.
Arms sales.
A more workable solution would be to supply the Palestinians with an equal level of military support. In other words, for the USA to do what we do best. Sell Weapons and let them decide whether or not peace is the right course.
That would require the US to be a truly neutral force though....which we are not.
So my own solution is also unworkable without major changes in political thinking.
But on the other hand, my idea only requires people to change their minds, whereas yours requires the dismantling of an entire industry, loss of even more jobs, and thus the loss of a lot of congressional seats......
"Slowly, though, something is changing. As Israel pulverises Gaza, questions and doubts about Israeli policy are becoming more prominent in the American media."
And the crack American media says, with a collective realization: "D'oh! Whaaa? Huh? Duh...hey, whass dat racket? It's waking me up..."
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
I haven't read all the posts but the ones I have read failed to mention the beginnings of Hamas. When it began it was supported by the Israelis because it was supposed to be a counterweight to the PLO. Then, I guess, the Israelis sort of lost control of their golum and it took on a life of its own. The Israelis have no one to blame but themselves.
good thing Obama and the cabinet around him are all supporters of Israel. That is change! You guys voted for Obama, now live with it!
squarootofone- I just wanted to say that i love that name you created.
And i agree about obama.
As if there was any hope of a viable alternative?
Kucinich never stood a chance. That shows you just how large our 'movement' is folks.
Large enough to give a guy hope, but not large enough for much else.
That doesn't mean we should stop pushing....any moral code says we must not stop ever.
But it also means that, after the pushing and the cards fall in other ways, we have to look seriously at what the choices were.
Intelligent Black man who at least had enough political courage in 2002 to denounce the Iraq war.
Or Mr. Maverick who really isn't but who, if he died in office would leave us with:
Or Moose Hunter, Ms. Small Government who increased the Alaskan payment to every Alaskan citizen while she was in office (and these people are anti-welfare????).
Which of these pair do you think stands the best chance of hearing what we have to say at all? Even if not always and imperfectly?
And don't talk about the rescue-from-above third party saviors. I've said this many times, you can never get a third part President until you first have serious third party local government. If we are serious about THAT line then we need to form a National Wing of the Vermont Progressive Party and get serious!
http://www.progressiveparty.org/ (The Moose you can believe in!)
I voted for Obama in the slim chance that there was the possibility of something better than with McCain--and I never was as pro-Obama as I was anti-Clinton.
Obama could've gone either way-but turns out he is little more than Clinton's houseboy. He turned out to be a disappointment and now I wonder if McCain had actually won he would've screwed everything up-forcing revolutionary structural changes while Obama will maintain the staus quo with a tweak or two.
Politically, Obama is a coward.
I think some folks brought that up. I got to admit. It's similar to how the US misused bin Laden and Pakistan as their "allies" only to "lose" control of them and find us in terror hell. Not too long ago, even IDF openly admitted on the media that their goal was not to crush Hamas or even touch it. And we all know what targets that leaves.
You're finished, you zio filth.
The Plot to Destory Israel:
Arabs start wars and, utilizing the civilian death tolls these wars create, press for cease-fires that actually give the Arabs more than they had before the start of the shooting.
Using rockets and suicide bombers to shred the Israeli economy and kill the tourism industry; also to intimidate other countries from doing business with Israel. Israel is a tiny country that is heavily trade dependent.
By using the so-called "South Africa" model, Israel's enemies hope to impose internal and external pressures on Israel to force it to capitulate to Arab demands.
The Jews lose their country as the single state solution is imposed on the enemies terms.
Israel knows this is the scheme, and it is rightly defending itself against it.
U.N. occupation of the child murdering state of Israel NOW! No one believes your bullshit anymore Zionist shill.
American media? Most of it is controlled by AIPAC and Murdoch.
That's why I unpluged my propaganda box two years ago.
,
WAKE AMERICA.........U.S. Tax Dollars are ppaying for the Bombs and Bullets that are killing Palestinian civilians.........Death brought to you by the U.S.A.
Over more than 50 plus years, Israel has received more than one TRILLION TAX PAYERS' DOLLARS. Last year ,(2008) Israel got over 10 Billion Tax Payers' Dollars, plus undisclosed Military Weapons packages.
We must cut the cord.....Israeli Officers and political leaders are committing WAR CRIMES against the Palestinians.
STOP ALL U.S. Tax Dollars from going to Israel.......IMMEDIATELY.
.
I am afraid that the pendulum may now swing too far in the other direction. Wait till the family members of the dead and maimed realize our attack on Iraq was orchestrated by the ultra pro-Israel neocons in Whitehouse. "What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to decieve".
"IN WAR -- the first casualty is Truth" ...Socrates.
I should have been more specific, the American family members of the soldiers that were killed and maimed.
Hamas says it will never make a permanent peace with a Jewish state. Fact.
Massud don't you mean Mossad?
And rightly so.
why should ethnic cleansing be rewarded ? the palestinians did not leave voluntarily the territory of today's israel when the state was "created" by western powers in 1948. below is what one of the leading israel-based israeli historians of the creation of modern israel, benny morris, said during a famous interview he gave to haaretz (for link: google "morris haaretz survival of the fittest").
[...]"Remember another thing: the Arab people gained a large slice of the planet. Not thanks to its skills or its great virtues, but because it conquered and murdered and forced those it conquered to convert during many generations. But in the end the Arabs have 22 states. The Jewish people did not have even one state. There was no reason in the world why it should not have one state. Therefore, from my point of view, the need to establish this state in this place *o v e r c a m e_t h e_ i n j u s t i c e* that was done to the Palestinians by uprooting them."
morris explains what "uprooting" means elsewhere in his haaretz interview: orchestrated mass rapes, massacres, and harassments by jewish armed bands.
hence creating the jewish state was such a noble goal that it was ok for the jews to rob, rape, and massacre the palestinians "like the arabs did".
that's why the palestinians "left voluntarily" the Young Besieged State Of IsraelTM (the only democratic one!).
how long will decent people keep tiptoeing around this monstrosity and keep asking the palestinians to make "concessions"!? it's time to expand israel to cover both the west bank and gaza and to transform the racist state into a non-confessional democratic state for everybody with no special rights for anybody (btw, apartheid south africa was "democratic" too).
PS. ever heard of those negro-african tribes who said they were jewish but were rejected by orthodox jews in israel until the managed to show that their Y-chromosome DNA "belonged" ? if that is not racism of the most explicit biological kind... ;)
Correct except we do not expand israel, that is what the zionist are doing now. We re-enstate Palestine and tell the israelis live in peace or leave.
"(The crudeness of Israel's most vociferous detractors on the far left doesn't help, since it further marginalises criticism of Israel as the preserve of cranks who can't see a difference between Dachau and Jenin.)"
Who are the real cranks? We on the far left working toward the complete emancipation of all people from their slavery to the elites, or the elites themselves who rule societies with apache helicopters and abrams tanks? The author of this article makes the classic pseudo-left mistake (racket?) of tolerating and triangulating with the demon elite. Sorry, that's like feeding your fingers to the beast for afternoon snacks! Not good!
ZIONISTS as BARBARIC as the Ku Klux Klan!
In 1971, I went to an Israeli kibbutz, Hamapil (English spelling) with my Jewish American girlfriend and her family. The day before I arrived, Hamapil kibbutzniks shot and killed 3 unarmed Bedouin (Arab) nomads for "asking for water". Authorities determined the deaths "unavoidable". The taxi man from Brooklyn driving us from the Tel Aviv airport to the kibbutz described Arabs to me as "dogs" and "niggers", adding,"They are not human". In 1970, my girlfriend was shunned by these same kibbutzniks for dating a Moroccan Jew because he wasn't "white". Four days into my visit I was stopped on a beach near Tel Aviv and interrogated and photographed by plain clothes police. I was told to leave Israel. Why? "You have been seen talking with and exchanging cigarettes with Arabs" they replied.(This was true.) "You are too friendly with Arabs". My girlfriend protested and was told, "He is not Jewish and we must suspect him of aiding terrorism". I reported the incident at dinner o the kibbutz. People dismissed the severity of the Bedouin killings and my interrogation as nothing to be alarmed about. They bragged that this kibbutz operated as a "Socialist commune". Quietly, I recalled the words - national socialism - confused that Jews might institute a community like the Nazis had done. I spoke of my confusion to another American kibbutznik. He defended the practice saying "Though we run our system in a seemingly similar way you must understand that we can not be compared to Nazi national socialists because we are Jews". I was confused. I left Israel, disillusioned with its claims of democracy.
On a visit to Jerusalem in 1989, I witnessed a group of Williamsburg - Brooklyn teens terrorizing an elderly Arab man in public in West Jerusalem. Toting Uzi machine guns, demanded the elderly man dance in place, threatening to shoot him if he didn't comply. A large crowd gathered, many clearly amused, some taunting the man. I intervened, asking the youth why they were doing this? "It's against the law for Arabs to be here (West Jerusalem) after curfew". One of the teens boasted of what he described as a common practice: Arabs caught after curfew being forced to drinking from urine and feces filled toilets, threatened at gun point to do so. his story evoked much laughter from his fellow settlers and other onlookers. The man explained that he was a restaurant dish washer who got held up late at the end of his work day and was on his way home to East Jerusalem. I challenged the youth to confront me and they backed away. As we left the scene on of the teens shouted," This isn't the States where niggers run wild. Here we can shoot them". Again, loud laughter. Enraged I replied "In the States I would take that Uzi from you and shove it down your throat, punk. Do you wanna try me?" The teen barked "What kind of Jew are you?" I replied, "Human". Silence. I escorted the elderly man to the gates of the Old City, accepting his invitation to dinner with his family. The man's family was very hospitable towards me. His English speaking three sons showed deep humiliation through the evening. His wife and two daughters cried. I learned a lot that evening.
On a visit in 1990 I misrepresented myself as a potential volunteer for a Jewish settlement located in Gaza. I provided false documents provided me by a Jewish American news editor curious to find out some truths about circulating rumors alleging that settlers were fascist. I spoke to my settler hosts in racist, militarist jargon and they spoke to me in the same manner. Touring the grounds I watched men, women and children drilling, heavily armed. I saw a pack of Alsation dogs led on leashes and was told how well trained they were. The dogs, I was told were trained to attack Arabs on site, on first site of their peasant clotheing and discernable body smells from their diet. I was told by my secort that the dogs had recently attacked a small Arab child who absent mindedly wondered onto settlement grounds from a village a few hundred yards nearby. When the girl's father approached the settlement to protest the incident he was shot dead. No charges were pressed by the surrounding Israeli surveillance unit. I played the pleased listener. My escort went on to explain that the ultimate aim of the settlers was to "warn the Arabs that they all must move away or face a worse alternative". I asked what was the alternative? Cool an calculated he replied, "We will kill them all".
Many times in argument with Israelis and American Zionists, American racists and imperialists, I have been told: " You don't understand... it's very complicated in Israel". As an American I DO understand racism and violence. I do understand the mindset bent on killing people judged to be obstacles in the plans for land grabs, for domination and control of wealth, employment relations and other matters necessary to maintain racial superiority. Sadly, I understand why so many Zionists and Americans in general continue to support what is now becoming obvious in the Holy Land (sic): Cowboys and Cavalry slaughtering the Indians. Yes, I do understand.
M O E _ S E A G E R,
You're a real MENSCH, and the world needs to learn to become HUMAN, as you so well describe and aspire to.
Thank you very much for the courage to BE the instantiation of PEACE and UNDERSTANDING, as we must ALL learn to live and choose humankindness.
Namaste
I don't think Dachau & Jenin are comparable even if you compare them by stating that both the Nazis and the Zionists are doing as much as they can get away with. We don't know what the Zionists would do if the world had no ability to watch.
The problem I have with the quoted phrase is the suggestion that it's the FAR LEFT that are making these comparisons. This is the mindset that seeks to marginalize people who are not in the liberal mainstream which is in my opinion not left wing at all.
I agree that right wingers are certainly not making this comparison. I think these inflammatory comparisons are a dishonest reaction to the equally dishonest charges of anti-Semitism thrown at people who disagree with Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
Read the post above yours.
Why do you think Israel keeps the world from seeing what is going on in gaza--they did the same thing in Jenin.
We must learn to call it what it is without excuses--otherwise we are complicit, if not in silence--then in denial.
For me the most telling sign of Israel's sacred cow status coming to an end was Jon Stewart's unequivocal denouncement of the invasion just days ago.
Stewart, whose show I never miss, has always been firmly in the Zionist camp and has in the past ignored Israeli brutality. In fact, I can think of only a couple times in which he approached even being slightly critical of Israel at all. This was a major shift, and demonstrates that even many of her staunchest supporters are shamed by her actions.
Of course it is too long in coming, but it is welcome.
I agree and disagree. Stewart has not been firmly in the Zionist camp at all, he just hasn't taken a stand. Monday he came whole hog out of the closet. I liked when he commented on Bloomberg saying "if a mentally ill person is banging on your aprtment door you don't just send one policeman" Stewart added something to the effect of "especially if you have forced him to live in your hallway and he has to go through a checkpoint evertime he has to take a sh%#." I wish he had added that especially when that guy used to live in your apt., was forced out. and the cops come in and kill everyone in the next apartment 'by accident'.
You may be right. It's just that I have rarely heard Stewart mention Israel negatively or comment on any criminal behavior, while I have seen him repeatedly mock Arafat (even his death), Islam, Arabs, Gitmo, etc. This, and seeing him interviewed a few times, led me to believe he was very much a devoted Zionist, like many faux liberals (or neo-libs).
Whatever is the case, he seems to have finally had enough. And I say good on him.
Now it would be really nice if Rachel and Keith would wake up and smell the carnage.
Actually see more on the Israeli crimes against humanity on Fox news than anything--anything at all on MSNBC. There is a real blackout there.
Boycott Israel Goods and Services. Here is the web site address to get a list of hundreds, perhaps thousands of companies/goods: It is quite extensive.
http://www.boycottisraeligoods.org/modules38443.php
I am thinking it is 'rapture' time!
The u.s. replaced God, in a sense within the psyche of israel. They were the ones who liberated the death camps--"Where was God" is the question that was never answered. So, they are a mini version of the u.s. If u.s has a war in iraq that pulverizes a people, than israel wants the same thing.
Israel isn't jewish, it is american. It is a satellite military base, and has been so for some time now. I have no doubt. It is all a fraud.
Correct -- that's why even in the 60's Israel was called "AMERICA's BULLDOG".
Israel is and has always been intended as THE USA's OUTPOST in the Middle east ..connect THEIR intertwining with American "RESHAPING of the MIDDLE EAST" and its EMPIRE project..and you get the picture.
Ask yourself why we need them?
If anything, that just make everything more difficult for us--unless we want the entire planet to hate us forever.
More
Just Boycott - you don't even have to get your duffs to have an effect. How easy is that!!!
Everyone feel free to add Israeli made goods that they are aware of!!!!!
Boycott Israeli goods. Boycotting WORKS.
Do not spend your money on anything made in Israel. There are many false boycotts out there, but I have confirmed the following:
- Instead of buying Intel, purchase AMD. Intel is made in Israel, AMD is made in Dresden. Plus, AMD is much faster and more reliable according to PC Mag.
- Boycott these hotels, these are all Israeli hotels: Adam's Mark Hotel in downtown, Hilton St. Louis Frontenac, Radisson Hotel Clayton, Ritz Carlton, Sheraton Clayton Plaza.
Would be nice to fax and let them know of the boycott.
- Starbucks, although does not officially support Israel, New York Times reports that its CEO is a known Israeli supporter. Boycott Starbucks, it's too expensive anyway!
- Look for the tag, anything made in Israel do not buy. For example, Stafford Suits at JCP is made in Israel. Macy's, Bloomindale's and Saks also carry made-in-Israel products including Kalvin Klein.
- Stride Rite by Laurie's in Galleria and Midrivers Mall is all made in Israel junk.
- Dead Sea Premier - it's a scam to begin with...they try to sell you salt at high prices claiming that it is healing and all that nonsense. They are in Chesterfield Mall and West County Mall. It's all made in Israel.
Since the 1990's French cosmetics giant L’Oreal’s subsidiary L'Oreal Israel has operated a factory in the Israeli town of Migdal Ha'emek in the Lower Galilee. The settlement of Migdal Ha'emek was established in 1952 on lands belonging to the ethnically-cleansed Palestinian village of al-Mujaydil, whose original inhabitants are still denied the right to return to their homes.
Like almost all other Jewish settlements built in the midst of Palestinian villages in the Galilee, inside Israel, this village discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel, denying them the right to buy, rent or live on any part of the town, simply because they are “non Jews.”
L’Oreal exploits the Dead Sea to extract minerals for product line “Natural Sea Beauty”. One third of the Dead Sea lies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but its shores are closed to Palestinians by Israeli military operations and apartheid practices.
For peace in the Middle East: boycott L’Oreal!
For more info: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/231
I'm sure the list is much longer - but this is a start.
But I could be wrong !
We can generalize your boycott idea, hopefully without diluting the specific goal to end the current bloodshed. Intel is a model. Intel has long been one of the military-industrial complex's key enterprises for the goal of economic, military, and political domination. Intel performance has always been inferior to its competitors' (AMD copying its architecture, Motorola, MIPS, et al, competing with different architectures). Intel didn't have to compete because it is the MIC's "chosen one". This phenomenon extends to related tech sectors, with Microsoft, IBM and Texas instruments playing the same role. Look for the MIC's "chosen one" in every sector, because the elites like to reuse their success formulas. When you identify enterprises that serve the elites like Intel does, note their inferior performance and boycott them. In this way you help to make the markets deliver a better product (by allowing producers to compete on the merits) and you help suppress the elite establishment and its domination enterprises.
Boycott is fine..just keep your hands off my Kosher pickles Dude!
Done - good choice for exception!!!
Sour - but sweet
But I could be wrong !
Printed for further reference.
Thank you.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Thanks NancyH.
You guys are letting the Israeli attack pigs(blutodog,etc.) drain you energy.
BOYCOTT ISRAEL GOODS & SERVICES. The pocketbook attacks work!!
But I could be wrong !
If Israel wants peace so much why don't they offer something to the moderates in the West Bank and thereby defang Hamas?
How about removing the settlers? Rebuilding, jobs, etc.
Dr Wu, the last of the big-time thinkers
They are still stuck in their stupid paranoid mode.
I urge everyone in the U.S. to go to www.livestation.com/ and get the free download that lets you watch the Al Jazeera news network's live streaming broadcasts.
Al Jazeera is known throughout the world for their excellent reporting, but has been successfully kept off the airways in the U.S. Al Jazeera reporters have been reporting from inside Gaza for years, and they're still there, unembedded with anyone, unlike the U.S. reporters, who stay in Israel reporting what they hear from the Israeli government as gospel, and submitting their reports to Israel's censors.
As long as most of us hear only the cheerleading for Israel that passes for "news" on our televison networks, we are in the dark, not knowing what all the rest of the world knows about what our foreign policy has done.
Yesterday 3 paragons of compinchismo (accomplices) were given the Medal of Freedom from the bloody hands of George W. Bush: Tony Blair, JOhn Howard, and my personal favorite for Human Rights Abuser of the Decade: Álvaro Uribe, jefe de Cartel Colombia.
You got a long way to go, gringos, to recover even a hair of credibility in regard to protecting human rights!
lets see!
Hamas sends rockets into israel for years and israel now and then pops off and kills a hamas terrorist. ok....... then Hamas gets a feeling like they are now a big boy and start shooting rockets all over the place, and israel kicks their collective butts,,, you screm NAZIS!! ZIONAZIS. GENOCIDE!!
where the hell were the screams while terrorists attacked israel? where were your scrams when some ak walks into a pizza parlor and takes the freight elivator to allah along with 30 kids?
now the question is this, if the guy next door swore on all he calls holy to kill you , kill your family and even eat your dog would you open the gates and let him in?
those that do just found the cure for stupid!
merkavamkiii,
No and I would not go storming into his home and shoot anything that moves...Like your stupid Israeli friends are doing.
The only thing to do is to let the Courts and police in on it.... For Israel it would be international Forums and If israel had wanted peace with Hamas they could have made a deal with the UN and the Arab league guaranteeing Israeli security. The offer has been on the table for years but Israel wants to settle this on their own and now it looks like even the USA might not follow the past.
Nobody believes your lies anymore so get over it.
This war has been going on in one form or another for a long long time.
If the Zionists were as smart as they think they are they would have found the solution before the solution finds them.
Stupid is what stupid does and this is stupid.
But the Zionists aren't as stupid as they are greedy and paranoid.... Real courage... We Jews need to find real courage to make a real comprehensive peace that the Arabs have been offering for years now.
If Israel does not want to live in the Sea, they should stop asking for it.
So, how many Israelis were killed by these homemade rockets in the last 10 or more years that were fired out of the world's biggest concentration camp? 10? 15? Do you know the ratio of Israeli to Palestinian deaths overall-- 25-1? 50-1? a fact that Israel would rather us not know of course- in their efforts to paint themselves as the eternal victim. And why they do the brutalizing they complain about the ones they are brutalizing trying to kill them.
And if the Jews had fired some rockets out of their ghettos--that would've made them terrorists?
It is Israel imposing itself on the Palestinians here--so don't try to sleaze by the elephant in the room.
It is so dishonest and people who echo the lies are either shameless or ignorant.
The number of Israeli citizens killed by Qassams over the past decade is precisely 24.
http://www.ericmargolis.com/political_commentaries/gaza--bomb-them-back-to-the-stone-age.aspx
More Israelis die from infected ingrown-toenails than Qassams. Using Israeli logic, they should be amputating all legs at the groin.
Great comment. I also find it interesting that 13 Israeli's have died since the invasion/bombardment/war crime began, 10 being soldiers and 4 of those from "friendly fire." In other words, they're killing more of their own than Hamas can.
Yikes.
Yes, and Israel has attacked innocents in Gaza for years too.
I seem to remember a family on a beach being subjected to a shelling by an Israeli cruiser just before their war with Lebanon in 2006.
For every single hardly effective rocket that Hamas has launched is a highly deadly attack from Israel.
I consider BOTH these acts wrong. The deliberate attack of civilians is WRONG. Get IT!
So your whole argument, which centers around the "They done it to us..." principle, falls apart and holds no weight with me whatsoever.
Israel can bomb UN schools, Hosptials, TV presenters and press agents, people's homes, and yes, even occasionally and it seems very rarely, kill the odd Hamas fighter.
But what they are doing is still very very WRONG.
Anyone with any kind of moral compass, even a highly impaired one. Can see that.
This article is pathetic. First of all, there doesn't have to be a quantitative parallel in order to compare Dachau and Jenin; they are utterly comparable, because in both cases the killers were simply doing as much as they thought they could get away with.
Second, there is no such thing as "Israel's disproportionate retaliation in Gaza" - it's not a retaliation at all, it is an initial aggression. The latest ceasefire was broken by Israel, as she goes on to point out. And as most previous ceasefires have been broken by Israel.
Lastly, and most insidious, is the implication that the GOP is the culprit behind the Israel bias. The democratic party has been the single-biggest enabler of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and they will come to regret it, and soon.
Bingo, revo
posted in wrong position
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
I agree that the article is pathetic because of the inaccuracies that you just cited. On the other hand, the part about CNN contradicts the initial part of the article and clearly points out that 'even CNN' was forced to admit, when they actually bothered to look, that Hamas is NOT the aggressor and has, in fact, a legitimate right to defend the Gaza strip against what amounts to a direct violation of a peace agreement. (actually several violations, any one of which is really justification for armed response under international law...a blockade is, after all, recognized as an act of war)
Perhaps those initial inaccuracies are designed to get the two groups you point out, the conservatives and the democratic Jewish supporters, to actually start reading the article in the first place.
After all, one thing I notice is this willfull ignorance exhibited by so many. A complete unwillingness to dig any deeper than pre-conceived notions to find the truth as close as it can be determined. But the first step in that long and painful process is the odd article like this one that sows the seeds of doubt.
Doubt is a Very Good Thing.
And for way too long Americans have lacked this important ingredient to thoughtfulness, and following on the absence of doubt is the absence of curiosity, then debate, and finally complete ignorance follows.
So I'm not going to be overly harsh on the beginning details of this article because it has the potential to actually get some people reading who would otherwise utterly dismiss this subject matter in favor of the IDF talking points.
And that, I believe, is also a Good Thing.
"We must expel Arabs and take their places."
-- David Ben Gurion, 1937, Ben Gurion and the Palestine Arabs, Oxford University Press, 1985.
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978.
"Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country."
-- David Ben Gurion, quoted on pp 91-2 of Chomsky's Fateful Triangle, which appears in Simha Flapan's "Zionism and the Palestinians pp 141-2 citing a 1938 speech.
And then statements about the Palestinian people by Golda Meir:
"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."
-- Golda Meir, statement to The Sunday Times, 15 June, 1969.
"How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."
-- Golda Meir, March 8, 1969.
"Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen."
-- Golda Meir, 1961, in a speech to the Knesset, reported in Ner, October 1961.
"This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy."
-- Golda Meir, Le Monde, 15 October 1971.
And of particular note, the following statement about the Palestinians by Yitzhak Rabin:
"[Israel will] create in the course of the next 10 or 20 years conditions which would attract natural and voluntary migration of the refugees from the Gaza Strip and the west Bank to Jordan. To achieve this we have to come to agreement with King Hussein and not with Yasser Arafat."
-- Yitzhak Rabin (a "Prince of Peace" by Clinton's standards), explaining his method of ethnically cleansing the occupied land without stirring a world outcry. (Quoted in David Shipler in the New York Times, 04/04/1983 citing Meir Cohen's remarks to the Knesset's foreign affairs and defense committee on March 16.)
And then statements about the Palestinian people by Menachem Begin:
"[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the 'Beasts,"' New Statesman, June 25, 1982.
"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it -- And for Ever."
-- Menachem Begin, the day after the U.N. vote to partition Palestine.
And then statements about the Palestinians by Yitzhak Shamir:
The settlement of the Land of Israel is the essence of Zionism. Without settlement, we will not fulfill Zionism. It's that simple."
-- Yitzhak Shamir, Maariv, 02/21/1997.
"(The Palestinians) would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls."
-- Isreali Prime Minister (at the time) Yitzhak Shamir in a speech to Jewish settlers New York Times April 1, 1988
And then Benyamin Netanyahu (perhaps this hardliner Zionist will be elected in 2009 once again?) on the repression of the Palestinian people:
"Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."
-- Benyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, former Prime Minister of Israel, speaking to students at Bar Ilan University, from the Israeli journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.
"The Palestinians are like crocodiles, the more you give them meat, they want more"....
-- Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time - August 28, 2000. Reported in the Jerusalem Post August 30, 2000.
"If we thought that instead of 200 Palestinian fatalities, 2,000 dead would put an end to the fighting at a stroke, we would use much more force...."
-- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, quoted in Associated Press, November 16, 2000. And then statements by Ehud Barak about the Palestinian people:
"I would have joined a terrorist organization."
-- Ehud Barak's response to Gideon Levy, a columnist for the Ha'aretz newspaper, when Barak was asked what he would have done if he had been born a Palestinian.
I just used your post as a basis for a letter to the editor of the Harrisburg Patriot-News, a letter that will never be published, of course.
-- ekaton aka d.k.shaw
Ray Berthiaume
Excellent documentaion. We'll never read his in the MSM.
Thanks for the facts Nancy,
Now we know who the self hating Jews really are... the Zionists!
Actually not a silly response, Jim Glover. The Zionists have done more to spur a resurgence of anti-Semitism world wide than anyone else.
The record is clear. You can find it on the Israeli website, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Israel broke the ceasefire by going into the Gaza and killing six or seven Palestinian militants. At that point—and now I’m quoting the official Israeli website—Hamas, in retaliation for the Israeli attack, then launched the missiles.
As to the reason why, the record is fairly clear as well. According to Ha’aretz, Defense Minister Barak began plans for this invasion before the ceasefire even began. In fact, according to yesterday’s Ha’aretz, the plans for the invasion began in March. And the main reasons for the invasion are two-fold. Number one; to enhance what Israel calls its deterrence capacity, which in layman’s language basically means Israel’s capacity to terrorize the region into submission. After their defeat in July 2006 in Lebanon, they felt it important to transmit the message that Israel is still a fighting force, still capable of terrorizing those who dare defy its word.
And the second main reason for the attack is because Hamas was signaling that it wanted a diplomatic settlement of the conflict along the June 1967 border. That is to say, Hamas was signaling they had joined the international consensus, they had joined most of the international community, overwhelmingly the international community, in seeking a diplomatic settlement. And at that point, Israel was faced with what Israelis call a Palestinian peace offensive. And in order to defeat the peace offensive, they sought to dismantle Hamas. The main objective is to continue settling Palestinian territories to expand the state of Israel for Jews.
Israel's "free ride" ain't over yet as long as the US government keeps them afloating.
The US has money for fiascos in Iraq, bailing out mis-managed companise, playing the world cop and bankrolling Israel. It isn't a bottomless pit however.
AIPAC is like an American made car whose odometer has just passed 40,000 miles. Now is when the smooth running falters and the trouble starts.
Too bad America still is in "smooth" ride as long as it can borrow from China. The trouble will start and end with a total crash when China's had enough and shuts off the borrowing spigot.
"An American media that turned a blind eye to Israeli expansionism" Really? Israel has withdrawn from Gaza , So. Lebanon and 99% of the West bank. These areas are as you JEW haters would say Juden Rein ( JEW FREE). The Israelis ethnically cleansed them of JEWS not Arabs! But, in a War where Hamas the PLO and 99% of the Arab/Muslim world has never and will never accept Israel as a legitimate State on Earth the only acceptable solution for most of you or them is the FINAL SOLUTION. That Israel fights back when it's realizes this shouldn't be a surprise. In the past people where saying if Israel withdrawals from these areas a Pal state will be established the two sides will live in Peace. Hamas and Hezbollah and their patron Iran has made it very clear this is not going to happen, that the only acceptable solution is a One State solution called The Islamic Republic of Palestine. All the rest is just a side show. War is ugly and it's usually disproportionate.
All this whining over how Israel is fighting this war is just your sides propaganda. Fine but let's be honest about this, that's all it is.
If Israel was truly as you try to tell the world an expansionist power like say the US or the old Soviet Union or the English in their Imperial period then right now Beirut, Damascus and Cairo would have the Star of David flying over them and the Arabs living there would be mostly dead or driven to other places or whatever. But the opposite is true. Israel is trying to live within it's post 48' War boundaries but that isn't good enough. Nothing is good enough for those determined to see NO such state as Israel period,
Yawn.
Blutodog states: "Israel has withdrawn from Gaza..."
Do you really believe Israel called for the Gaza settlers to relocate as a solely altruistic act towards the Palestinians? Do you not realize this was done to isolate Palestinians in Gaza so Israeli imposed blockades would not harm Jewish Israelis? Do you think the IDF would be likely to use cluster bombs and white phosphorous to quell rocket attacks if Jewish settlers were still mixed in with the Palestinian population?
It's time for everyone to take a step back and start looking at these events objectively.
This just doesn't fit with the fact that there is a wall being constructed to protect settlements deep in the west bank. That wall is NOT following the pre-1967 borders except at some very brief points.
You can look up the wall's construction and proposed route and I seem to remember it eats up something like a quarter of the land in the West bank.
But it's not even just a contiguous chunk of land, it's specifically designed to make cohesion in the WEst bank impossible.
This is just one of the facts that put paid to the many many lies and inaccuracies you spout off here. And I'm really tired of lies.
We have had to deal with an inordinate number ever since Bush took office and I'm just so damm tired of the parade of lies and propaganda with obvious commercial and military support.
When I was young and even more ignorant than I am now I used to have respect for Israel. The more facts I learn the more I support the Arab cause in that region.
Believe me blutodog...when guys like me start making statements like that the group is ultimately doomed and WILL be forced to change.
So you'd better get used to the idea!
OK blutodog,
You say "All this whining over how Israel is fighting this war is just your sides propaganda. Fine but let's be honest about this, that's all it is."
Israel kills a hundred Palestinians for every single Israeli in this never ending war.
At this rate any Arab would want to drive Israel into the Sea...At this rate Israel does not have the right to exist as it is existing.
We are seeing the damage from the USA/Israel refusal to recognize Hamas and make a peace deal with them.
Hamas will survive and the militants will grow stonger from this carnage and war crimes of Israel.
Israel will be forced to get honest and make a comprehensive peace agreement with all the Arab nations if it wants to survive.
The Jews of the world see now more than ever that the Zionists Don't care about the new wave of hatred of the Jews they are now causing and the whole world is watching. So lets get honest: The Left was right and the Right was wrong and the media is beginning to see the light because the truth has its own power and when things fall apart like the world's war economy, the truth is all we got.... so yes, Lets be Honest..OK?
Shalom
Your response is laughable and indefensible. Comparing Israeli expansionist policy with US and former-USSR imperial expansionist policies is just plain stupid.
Israel demonstrates daily that it is unable to live within its post-1967 borders. Where did you read the right-wing propaganda rubbish about living within it's 1948 borders?
It is a lie.
Israel still controls everything.
It is also a lie that Hamas won't accept the existence of Israel. They have on numerous occasions--you simply ignore it and continue on with your recited talking points.
Another big talking point is the human shields charge, trying to portray the Arab as the denom terrorist, but I can't tell you hown many times I have posted links to accounts of IDF soldiers using Palestinian children as human shields and NEVER EVER one response--NEVER EVER even one acknowlegement.
You see, people are catching on to the lies--and you really don't want to cultivate that perception, do you?
it is our duty to direct others to the truth. for starters, i direct to Common Dreams & Democracy Now. Counterpunch & ZNet have been great, too. As more people in the US become aware of the full historical context of the atrocity, Congress and USan MSM will be standing in deeper isolation with their knee-jerk responses, and, hopefully, will change accordingly.