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Pressure Israel, Not Iran
Neocons in Israel and the United States are escalating their rhetoric to prepare us for war with Iran. Even the infamous John Yoo, architect of George W. Bush’s illegal torture and spying programs, is calling on the Republican presidential candidates to “begin preparing the case for a military strike to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with US President Barack Obama.
Under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the legal right to produce nuclear power for peaceful purposes. The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently said on CBS that Iran is not currently trying to build a nuclear weapon.
Nevertheless, the United States and Israel are mounting a campaign of aggression against Iran. The United States has imposed punishing sanctions against Iran that are crippling Iran’s economy, and pressuring other countries and strong-arming financial institutions to stop buying oil from Iran, the world’s third largest exporter. The Obama administration is also preparing new punitive measures that target the Central Bank of Iran. And the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass the Iran Threat Reduction Act of 2011 which would outlaw any contact between U.S. government employees and some Iranian officials.
There is also evidence that Israel, with the possible assistance of the United States, has orchestrated the assassinations of at least five Iranian nuclear scientists or engineers since 2007. The New York Times reported: “The campaign, which experts believe is being carried out mainly by Israel, apparently claimed its latest victim on [January 11] when a bomb killed a 32-year-old nuclear scientist in Tehran’s morning rush hour.” These assassinations constitute acts of terrorism. There have also been cyber-attacks on Iranian centrifuges and an explosion at a missile facility last year that killed a senior general and 16 other people.
These acts of aggression are designed to provoke Iran to retaliate, including possibly closing the Strait of Hormuz, which will spark a war that could spread to the entire Middle East.
In addition, the United States has shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East, and supplied Israel with bunker-busting bombs. Moreover, President Barack Obama has deployed 9,000 U.S. troops to Israel to participate later this year with thousands of Israeli troops in “war games” to test the U.S./Israeli air defense system; this exercise will be the largest ever joint drill between the two countries. Panetta said the exercise is designed “to back up our unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.”
Iran is not a threat to Israel’s security. Iran has not attacked any country in some 200 years. In 1953, the CIA engineered a coup that replaced a democratic government in Iran with the vicious Shah. He ruled Iran with an iron hand for 25 years, wreaking torture and terror on Iranians while keeping Iran open to Western investment. When I visited Iran in 1978 as a human rights observer, there were dozens of U.S. corporations in downtown Tehran. One year later, the chickens came home to roost. The Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah, replacing him with a tyrannical theocracy that continues to violate the rights of the Iranian people. But that does not mean that Iran, if it does obtain nuclear weapons, will attack Israel. The Iranian government knows that Israel and the United States would retaliate with unimaginable military force that would devastate Iran and much of the Middle East.
Article 2 of the United Nations Charter requires the peaceful settlement of international disputes between Iran and the United States. Both the U.S. and Iran are signatories of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact of 1928, which states, “The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means.” Yet the United States has been illegally threatening war against Iran, dating back to the administration of President George W. Bush.
Security Council Resolution 687, that ended the first Gulf War, requires a weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone in the Middle East. Israel, which reportedly has an arsenal of 200-300 nuclear weapons, stands in violation of that resolution. Israel refuses to sign the NPT, thus avoiding inspections by the IAEA. As Shibley Telhami and Steven Kull advocate in a recent op-ed in the Times, we should work toward a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, and that includes Israel. They cite a poll in which 65 percent of Israeli Jews think it would be best if neither Israel nor Iran had the bomb, even if that means Israel giving up its nukes.
AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the Israel lobby in the United States, has tremendous support in the U.S. Congress. Even Zionist Thomas Friedman wrote in the Times last month that the standing ovation Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got in Congress “was bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.” AIPAC also exerts considerable pressure on Obama to be tough on Iran. When the new Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff and the new head of CENTCOM told Obama late last year they were disappointed that he was not firmly opposing an Israeli strike on Iran, Obama replied that he “had no say over Israel” because “it is a sovereign country.”
Obama does indeed have a say – a strong say – over Israel. The United States has pledged $30 billion to Israel over the next 10 years. Obama should inform his counterparts in Israel that if it launches a military attack on Iran, the U.S. will withhold foreign aid from Israel. Although pressure from the neocons to support an Israeli attack on Iran will increase as the presidential elections draws near, Obama has a legal duty to refrain from actions that will lead to war with Iran.
Additionally, the U.N. Security Council, which has the duty to prevent threats to international peace and security, should order Israel and the United States to cease their aggressive provocation against Iran.
The same voices who brought us the illegal, tragic, and ill-advised war with Iraq will continue to try to dominate the national conversation with battle cries against Iran. It is up to us to prevail upon our elected officials to avoid a tragic conflagration in Iran by pressuring Israel to cease and desist.
- Posted in
58 Comments so far
Show AllHead in sand - fat paycheck in the mail - as always.
Manysummits
=======
Obama, Keep your ....ing hands off Iran. We have done nothing but intervene around the world with our paid assassins. Oh, i mean military heroes. Tillman was onto them ergo he was offed, can't have a true hero exposing the lies of Wanker. We er Israel decide what's in their interest and then the big bully moves in. We in the ole USA used to hate bullies and loved it when they got their come-uppance. The entire planet is rooting for the USA to get their ass kicked once and for all. Then and only then will we stop killing people and pretending it is for noble purposes. Go denude Israel of nuclear weapons , what a laugh.
I think Obama needs to take a chance and act in the interest United States,and not necessarily in the interest of Israel. We Democrats have show there is a difference between us and the Republicans. We as a nation must think the Consequences of our Actions.
At this stage in the game a main-stream Dim [IE: Obama] is just a 'center-right' Repug -IE: The difference between Main-stream Dims & Repugs are Cosmetic - rather than Substantive.
How long will Iranians take these Acts of War on their own soil [not some fake hyped-up scam of a plot like last yr's 'Too Fast -Too Furious' {to be believed} phony assassination Plot]- Before they retaliate??!! If scientists, Intel / Military / Political officers were being gunned down / blown-up & acts of terrorist sabotage were being committed in the US &/or Israel- by Iran, Syria, Khadaffi agents, N-Korea, etc how long & how many such acts would it take before they retaliated??!! IMO: An undeclared low-intensity war on Iran has already begun & unless O-Bomb-em is forced to stand-down [along w taking the position vis-a-vis the AIPAC / Likudniks as outlined by this author]- it will escalate to all out war -&- then the entire World will be facing a WW!!! scenario!
"Take a chance and act in the interests of the United States", isn't that a weird thing to say about our government? Shouldn't our government act in the interests of our nation ALL THE TIME?
Peace Keeper two also makes weird comments about the Democratic party and the Republicans. He want "we Democrats" to show there is a difference between the two corporate political parties. I'd sure like someone to show me any difference at all. War? Yes say the Ds and the Rs. Give trillions to the banksters? Yes, they agree. Health care for all without the insurance companies? No, they both agree. Cut taxes on the top 1%? No, they both agree. Deprive us of the right to a trial if we are accused of a crime? Yes, they both say. Send those people off to a foreign nation for enhanced interrogation.
Peace keeper 2 is correct to say, "We as a nation must think of the consequences of our actions." We attack Iran, they fight back. The war spreads. Things get horribly worse. What is it all about anyway? Israel has taken enough land from the Palestinians---oh, I know, they did not take it from Palestine, God gave the land to them. I guess their God made a mistake and really meant them to have it all.
My concept of God disagrees. The planet earth is for all of us to share. All people are valued equally by my God. I agree with our Declaration of Independence. All men are created equal and have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I don't know what to do about people who pursue happiness by killing people.
The Obama administration is along for the ride on this crescendo of war propaganda and preparations. In between each double-step forward toward war, there's a half-step back as a mere sop to antiwar supporters of Obama. That's what all the stagecraft regarding tensions with Netanyahu amounts to: a mere sop. Obama's reluctant warrior act is a key part of how the same old war is being sold to us yet again.
Were there any substantial disagreement with this march toward war on the part of anyone in Washington, we would be seeing public displays of "pressuring Israel to cease and desist." But nobody in the Administration, and nobody in Congress that I'm aware of, is able to stand up to the juggernaut of Israel and the US military industrial complex. An election year is a great time to launch a new war, or to massively expand an old one, apparently.
I remember back in 1967 in Canada, when I was in grade 2. My teacher was in a very good mood that day when she exploded with joy and told the class that Israel won a seven day war. Everybody in class knew that winning a war was good, and only bad guys lost wars. She told us that Israel had to attack to defend itself. The class was stunned into confusion. Then, overcome with a wave of euphoria, she stared dreamily into space and told the class, in a trance-like voice, that in the future all wars will only be a couple of days long. Watching for cues, everybody in class instinctively knew that this was a good and exciting thing. Too bad I now know that wars are endless and that we are only witness to the beginning of the Forever War, a war of endless attrition.
the real story, what the u.s. is actually doing right now, by paul.c. roberts
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30271.htm
Today's joke:
"When the new Chairman of the joint Chiefs of Staff and the new head of CENTCOM told Obama late last year they were disappointed that he was not firmly opposing an Israeli strike on Iran, Obama replied that he “had no say over Israel” because “it is a sovereign country.”
Obama does indeed have a say – a strong say – over Israel. The United States has pledged $30 billion to Israel over the next 10 years. Obama should inform his counterparts in Israel that if it launches a military attack on Iran, the U.S. will withhold foreign aid from Israel. Although pressure from the neocons to support an Israeli attack on Iran will increase as the presidential elections draws near, Obama has a legal duty to refrain from actions that will lead to war with Iran."
C'mon now. You know he knows his place and he would prefer if you didn't notice him cowering in servile obeisance to the master.
"Obama should inform his counterparts in Israel that if it launches a military attack on Iran, the U.S. will withhold foreign aid from Israel. "
He doesn't have control over it, the Congress does and they have override power on any veto when it comes to Israel.
Not that Obama's against it [He' NOT]- BUT- IF he truly was Against attacking Iran, he would make that known by Veto [even if by pocket veto] & force congress to over-ride. then the people would have a written record & a national debate on this matter.
Plus though congress theoretically has the power to declare war, the Pres as Commander & Chief has the power to prosecute it- So he could block a war which he disagrees w by failing to prosecute it & thus force a national debate on the matter. But of course this is all academic because both O-Bomb-em & most of congress is all aboard the 'Lets take down Iran [Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan. Somalia, Lebanon] run-away express train'!!!
We are all Iranians, we are all Palestinians, we are all Syrians, we are all Lebanese, We are all even Americans, but we are not all Israeli for sure and that is a death sentence from the chosen. Activists please verbally and visibly be in solidarity with Iran, stop this insanity.
Iran is not our enemy. But America does have an enemy that would drag us into another war, that would sacrifice our children on the altar of their greed. Iran does not have nuclear weapons, but there is a middle-east nation that does, yet has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Iran is not threatening to attack anyone, but there is a middle east country that has attacked every one of its neighbors in .recent years and threatens to attack Iran almost daily. Iran is not a problem, but there is a country in the middle east that will cause problems for us all.
On October 3, 2001, I.A.P. News reported that according to Israel Radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael an acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and "turn the US against us. "Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying "don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America."
"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."
-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".
"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country"
-----Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff
note: i don't think anyone can accuse dulles of being a left winger or a conspiracy theory nut
Again, a great post, Med! Keep telling it like it is!
Thanks for posting the facts. Education of the American public is key to change.
A deep history of Jewish views and influence in Europe, America, and Israel is at:
whenvictimsrule.blogspot.com
It looks as though the die is cast. From here, it is a matter of politics and timing.
If Obama were to attack Iran before the election, he would surely garner support from Israel, AIPAC and a large number of American-Jews. In the process, however, his progressive base would suffer.
On the other hand, if the president gives a signal to Israel that he can be trusted to attack Iran after the elections, he would be more likely to maintain the support of both voter groups.
Either way, this war looks to be unstoppable.
"Either way, this war looks to be unstoppable."
Especially if people like you view it as such.
Sigh. I'd rather this didn't degenerate into anti-Jewish sentiment--I think AIPAC has virtually total control over Congress but not sure "influential Jewish Americans" are the main reason, which likely has more to do with plain hard cash, and perhaps dirty pictures or whatever.
Nonetheless, the conclusion is the worst part of this otherwise good piece--so we all need to pressure our representatives to not go along with a new war. Right. I don't have any representatives in DC, not having thousands of dollars for political donations--do you? There are three people who officially represent the area I live but I'm not naive enough to imagine any of them give a rat's ass what i think.
I'm sorry if this seems a quibble, but who does the "plain hard cash" come from? And "dirty pictures"??
Besides "plain hard cash", one of the mainstays of the power of AIPAC, in my opinion, is fear that criticism of Israel will be construed as "anti-Jewish sentiment."
I agree re. American Jews and Israel. Most Jews don't give a rat's ass about Israel and more and more Israelis are decamping to the USA and have been since at least the early '80s, when I was last there. The problem in the USA is Aipac which is a wholly-owned department of the Likud Party and doesn't represent American Jews or Israeli Jews but represents that foreign political party in the US Congress. If any other foreign political party had such representation in the US Congress there would be a popular revolt; the wingnut radio yakkers would explode. But it isn't any other foreign party; it's Likud, and that's OK.
I wish you were right, Rainborowe, but the fact is that most American Jews do support Israel. This has been demonstrated in poll after poll, like this one:
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=118&x_article=2050
AIPAC is extremely influential in the U.S. government because of the economic power of Jewish Americans, as even Tom Friedman of the NYT has acknowledged recently.
The day we hear U.S. rabbis, U.S. synagogues, and Jewish Americans condemning such daily events as Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, theft of Palestinian land, water, and other resources, destruction of Palestinian homes, and diversion of Israeli sewage onto Palestinian farms, for example, will be the day we will know that the Jewish American racist tide has turned. But it hasn't happened yet, despite the valiant efforts of such groups as Jewish Voice for Peace.
The majority of Jewish Americans even applauded Israel's massacre of all those defenseless Palestinians trapped in the concentration camp called Gaza during "Operation Cast Lead."
Quagmire quagmire quagmire.
What's so great about quagmires?
We've had two quagmire presidents in a row and we're about to elect a third.
Will there be any country left?
Joel Pett cartoon:
"As long as we can still run two fiascos, a quagmire, and a fool's errand at once..."
http://media.kentucky.com/smedia/2012/01/10/06/46/OrNxd.AuSt.79.jpg
We have to give Israel 3 billion dollars a year so that they can buy enough politicians to stack Congress against any reasonable and sane legislation proposed for the Middle East! AIPAC (bought and paid for by U.S. taxpayers) has done quite well in manipulating public opinion both here and in Israel, but Israel must be vigilant as a danger always lurks in the shadows that some day democracy could come to America and ruin everything!
Get a clue --- and Pressure the Empire!
Or better yet, expose, confront, and hopefully excise the cancerous tumor of this disguised Empire --- which is the seminal cause of all war, and financial looting, and vast economic inequality, and environmental destruction, and massive domestic illegality, and tyrannous injustice, and, and, ....
You would be absolutely correct to say that the corporatist Empire's media is not up-setting the rubes with ANY information about a looming WWIII.
Miss America info, yes. Golden Globe info, of course. Patriots and Broncos game, full coverage. But the little matter of half the population of the world possibly being incinerated by thermo-nuclear war, "not so much"!
Of course our former country, which has been 'captured' and 'Occupied' by a disguised corporate/financial/militarist global EMPIRE, by hiding behind the facade of the empire's bought and owned, modern, TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux-democratic and totally illegitimate government --- just as surely as the Nazi Empire 'captured' and 'Occupied' France under its crude, first generation, and single-party 'Vichy' facade --- doesn't deserve to be discussed by the media at all, as it might get the citizens; thinking, too curious, up-set, engaged, even agitated to the point of "civil unrest".
You would also be dead-right that the average, honest, empathetic, and hard working citizens of Israel and the US are vastly in favor of world peace, fair economics, justice, real democracy, equality, etc, etc., but they are far more likely to be headed to the slaughter-house of unending imperialist wars, domestic looting, tyranny, and injustice by the multiple phony 'Vichy' parties that front for the global 'Vichy Empire' in the US, Israel, UK, Germany, France, and most other former countries in this post-nation-state world in which the NWO's disguised “Vichy Empire” uses racism, nationalism, fundamentalist religion, and big big LIES to deceive and screw all citizens of the world.
The global Empire, thinking that it is God, enforces a message much different and less empathetic than WWII POW and witness to the fire bombing of Dresden, black-humorist author, skeptic, freethinker, Unitarian Universalist, agnostic, atheist, and former honorary president of the American Humanist Association, Kurt Vonnegut, who famously and frequently repeated his comment from "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" which comes as part of a baptismal speech the protagonist says he's planning for his neighbors' twins: "Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind."
No, this God damn global Empire is certainly not kind. And this God damn Empire will precipitate war through either of these phony shills auditioning for president.
Obama is not being 'lured into war' by Mittens.
Both these shills of the global corporate/financial/militarist (and media) Empire are merely auditioning for the roll of faux-Emperor/president, and both of these whores of Empire will carry-out the exact same pro-war, pro-tyranny, pro-looting, and pro-Empire policies, with the only difference being their relative skills at deceiving citizens/voters into passively acceding to the Empire's will.
If a "business-like" and "no-nonsense" approach is of more value to the underLYING Empire, then Romney will be made into the next faux-Emperor/president.
But if the more emotive, "we're in this together" but phony empathetic lip-biting act is judged more beneficial to the Empire, then Obama will be retained as the faux-Emperor/president.
Only an alternative third-party overtly anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and publicly anti-EMPIRE candidate could change the arc of Empire by one bit.
The principled anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and anti-Empire libertarian right has the guts to forward such a serious candidate (Ron Paul) --- who will mount a third party run beyond the phony Republican dog and pony show.
Hopefully, the principled anti-war, anti-looting, anti-tyranny, and anti-Empire social/economic democracy left will also forward a serious candidate to challenge Obama in the phony Democrat dog and pony show --- who will then mount a third party run, perhaps even in concert with the libertarian "Against Empire".
Best luck and love to the “Occupy Empire” educational movement.
Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality
Over
Violent/Vichy
Empire,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Thank you, Alan. Your educated, nuanced analysis makes those more fond of an easier target (and enemy) to blame likely uncomfortable. The good guy, bad guy movie has had such a long run in the theater of the human mind that expanding the plot line is a tough call for those stuck like cognitive mud in the former "model."
"You would also be dead-right that the average, honest, empathetic, and hard working citizens of Israel and the US are vastly in favor of world peace, fair economics, justice, real democracy, equality, etc, etc., but they are far more likely to be headed to the slaughter-house of unending imperialist wars, domestic looting, ...."
Actually, the majority of Israelis (those who are Jewish, as opposed to the 20% who are Arab) do NOT support "fair economics, justice, real democracy, equality, etc." Just as the majority of whites in the U.S. southern states ruled by Jim Crow, in my youth, did NOT support any of those things, nor did the majority of white South Africans during the time of Apartheid South Africa.
Poll after poll has demonstrated the racist attitudes of Jewish Israelis toward the Palestinians, and it is these racist attitudes that allow Jewish Israelis to be indifferent to the suffering of the Palestinians as Israel continues its 60+ years of ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity, all targeted at the Palestinians.
Israeli Jewish women are no less racist and cruel than Israeli Jewish men when it comes to the Palestinians, and I remember from growing up in Texas during Jim Crow that racist white women seemed to be able to keep up with the men in terms of their vicious attitudes.
I have no idea whose post you are responding to, Peter, nor where you drew that quote.
The quote is in the sixth paragraph of amacd's post, the post to which my reply is appended.
A recent book, The 10,000 Year Explosion, by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, discusses great evolutionary changes that have occurred in humans in general and in various human populations in particular since the dawn of agricultural and domestication of animals.
It devotes an entire chapter to how the Ashkenazi (German) Jews got their smarts. Basically, Rabbinical Judaic marriage laws created mutations that raised intelligence (and led to some serious hereditary diseases). But importantly, in the Ashkenazi social system, centered around highly intellectual work such as finance, the rich families did very well and had many children, but the poor faired poorly. A Jewish version of Calvinism developing at the same time in parallel to the religion of the American upper class.
Although not discussed in the book, in my view, the same insular, exclusionary social system that led to these genetic changes also created a group of people who have separated themselves from and above the rest of humanity. While humanity received great benefits from many brilliant Jewish scientists and other intellectuals, the dark side of the story has given us men like Lloyd Blankfein stealing us blind and like Avigdor Lieberman and Beni Netanyahu leading us to perpetual war. Israel separate, above, and apart from other nations. That situation cannot last. Israel must join the mainstream of nations and find a way to reconcile with its millions of neighbors.
Unfortunately the Calvinist American right has joined with this Calvinist Judaism to create this terrible impasse we face today.
Let me ask you a question, Tom. Does the realization that humanity evolved largely on the basis of institutions put in place by dominant males ever enter into your thought process? Just as a great many scientists enter into experiments with pre-conceived notions in mind, too few men recognize what the absence of Feminine Input has meant in terms of society's existing designs. Just as Freud mistook women's frustration for the lack of sovereignty over their own lives for "neurosis born of the missing penis," many men mistake conditions--which are anything but natural--with human nature.
I would ask that you consider reading any of the following: Riane Eisler, Shulamith Firestone, Germaine Greer, Gloria Steinem, or Betty Friedan.
It is excruciating for educated women, those of us who understand fully the bias behind so much that passes for scholarship or established theory, to hear elaborations on these asymmetric themes as if they qualify as the be-all, end-all of human experience and possibility.
The poster "Dante" recently stated that his wife challenged him to spend one year reading books by female authors (not those indoctrinated into patriarchy along the lines of an Ann Coulter routing for the racist home team). That recipe is the Lysastrada for our broken times. Men must listen to wise women to recognize the basis for the Partnership, rather than dominator, society. This goes WAY beyond identity politics to the very foundation structures the next era will be built upon.
Siouxrose,
Actually, the male dominated social hierarchy enters my thought process every single day and I have spent most of my life fighting it. I don't see where the feminist angle came into my discussion of the effects of rabbinical laws on evolution, but clearly those laws came out of a male dominated social structure (ask Hagar).
I have read most of the authors you suggest, including Riane Eisler. Might I suggest "Woman's Creation, Sexual Evolution and the Shaping of Society," by Elizabeth Fisher for a very well researched thesis that most of our ills today arise out of events in the distant past. Agriculture brought not only the domestication of animals, but the enslavement of men and women and the subjugation of women to a male hierarchy. Fisher presents a powerful argument and recent evolutionary biology backs her up. We accept our world as normal, when in fact humans have radically altered it in just a few thousand years, to the great detriment of all life, including human life.
Or for a view of humans from the animal side of the equation of horror, try Eternal Treblinka, by Charles Patterson.
Okay, Tom, I'll look into that title; and I appreciate the enlightened response. The Feminist angle is that of exposing how patriarchy designed societies that serve the purpose of hierarchy. There can BE no equality amid such design flaws... thus struggles that reinforce these old traditional systems are doomed to failure. Just as OWS expresses, the answers needed will emerge from outside of the current paradigms.
I don't disagree that the world needs the female perspective. You need to realize that the answer isn't to dismiss anything male and substitute everything female. We need both perspectives.
Kane: Everything I've ever written on this site: from showing how DNA is a double helix/strand taking input in equal shares from both genders, to the cosmic math as seen in the year's 2 equinoxes, one to initiate Aries (sign of spring), ruled by Mars, and its complement, to introduce Libra (sign of autumn), ruled by Venus is about the Divine balance, the need for partnership. Only the male ego projects onto the inclusion of the missing Divine Feminine counterpart, the false conclusion that it asks to obliterate the male aspect. In other words that is 100% YOUR projection!
I have also repeatedly used the reference of the boat, signifying mankind's vehicle, hopelessly circling going no where due to only one oar--that defined by the exclusive men's clubs and their particular orientations, doing the navigating.
So your attempt to put erroneous words in my mouth is NOT appreciated. If anyone has spoken up for the integration of the Divinely intended balance, it's me!
In the far distant past males created governance because they were the "protectors" of the group, the tribe, the nation, rightly or wrongly. Changed weaponry has revolutionary changed that role. Today a child can destroy a city by pressing a button. Obviously the intellectual development has lagged far behind which contributed to the "witch hunts" and explains Freud's Freudian fear. He must have sensed the handwriting on the wall. It is therefore no mystery why women can be most easily elected to the highest political office in essentially non-militaristic countries like Iceland. I believe in our case that the reverse is the most important reason why Democratic voters chose Obama over Clinton.
Another great book, written around 1895 but still available in reprint, is Bernard Lazare's Anti-Semitism. He's a Jew and comes to the same conclusion: any people who sets themselves apart and above all others is doomed. And he was writing long before Israel came into existence. His solution was the same as yours, that Jews must of their own accord join the mainstream.
IMHO they had their "big chance" after WW2. They had the world's sympathy but a few Zionists blew it. Sound familiar? (911)
And you can always find a Black conservative like Bill Cosby, ready to blame Blacks for living in ghettos!
The history of the church and its absolute control over Europeans society made ANY outside force a potential enemy. That the Jews chose to maintain their tradition, rather than become assimilated is the main reason why they were victimized again and again. We see this all the time: that the larger majorities dominate their particular regions. Its latest disgusting version is on display in Arizona with the book banning... as if burying others' identities and roots makes their Essences disappear into the great White Male Aryan Cultural Sea!
Some Jews became merchants and a percentage became wealthy. Sadly, those who know nothing about Jewish culture or history place ALL Jews into that category. And the stereotypes flow from there.
I am VERY suspicious of people who:
A. Get my position so wrong when I have spent COUNTLESS hours specifying it on this site
B. Choose an elaborate shell game of blame the victim. I forget which other poster tried to say that Jews had a problem getting along, and then offered some 3rd rate self-help axiom that thereby held the Jews, as per their alleged behavior, responsible for Hitler's purges.
You cannot "join the mainstream" if the mainstream demands that you be other than what you are. A friend of mine sent me an interesting email tonight that linked disobedience with freedom.
The authoritarian, who by nature follows rules set by others, is clueless when it comes to natural outsiders, as well as those who march to their own drummers. You come off as another authoritarian, one who thinks there is one "right" way to conduct a life.
Your posts suggest that you're just another mediocre thinker that regurgitates others' stereotypic ideas without having sought (or found) the depth that touches upon the roots of causation. Your pat "with us or against us," either-or statements show a profound lack of understanding.
A sample of your glaring ignorance:
"IMHO they had their "big chance" after WW2. They had the world's sympathy but a few Zionists blew it. Sound familiar? (911)"
AS if all Jews chose one thing after WW II, or all Amerikans stood behind Bush and the pro-war, pro-vengeance propagandized media in a uniform response to 911.
Only a child paints with such clumsy, broad brush strokes!
I wish when discussing this issue the fact that Israel actually does have unlawful nuclear weapons and refuses to sign the NPT or let IAEA inspectors in the country would get mentioned more.
The "Israel Lobby", while powerful, can not by definition be as 'all-powerful' as some, including Marjorie Cohn, make it out to be, because it has to Lobby.
If a power base, AIPAC, the 'Israel Lobby', or any supposedly powerful group (from NRA to bigPharma) has to do lobbying (ie. having to act as a supplicant to some other group) then by the very act of having to 'lobby', that group is not the ultimate power.
Only the entrenched ultimate power group does not need to lobby --- because that group is the font of power, and they don't have to ask or bow down to anyone.
In the world today, that group 'which does not have to lobby', is the disguised global corporate/financial/militarist (and media) EMPIRE which has already 'captured' and fully "Occupies" our former country, by hiding behind the facade of its modernized TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux-democratic and totally illegitimate government --- just a surely as the Nazi Empire tried to hide behind its crude first-generation, and merely single-party 'Vichy' sham of government in France c. 1940.
Unfortunately for Hitler, his Nazi Empire was destroyed by a more powerful (and militarist) Empire.
Unfortunately for the Soviet Empire, it was brought down by a more media savvy Empire (and its 'actor' faux-Emperor/president) that successfully tagged the Soviet Empire as an "Evil Empire" -- while avoiding the obvious truth that all Empires are evil, and thus keeping this last global Empire standing as not being recognized as an empire at all and squeaky clean and friendly behind its more advanced global propaganda shield.
When you are the only remaining global Empire in a 21st century post-nation-state world, you don't have to Lobby anyone of greater power --- because there is no one of greater power or better 'guile'.
Best luck and love to the Occupy Empire educational movement.
Liberty, democracy, justice, and equality
Over
Violent/Vichy
Empire,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
It's a question of relevance, parasite or host? Which of us, the US or Israel, is the parasite or the host of the parasite? It is probably the design of the powers that be that we never will know the difference between the host and the parasite.
I do not see why Iran does not simply agree to honor and fully comply with the same limits on atomic weapons, along with the same international inspection and verification regime that Israel does. Further, the apparent murder of Iranian scientists in Iran by Israeli intelligence (directly or indirectly) seems a very dangerous provocation and precedent.
Yes, let's split Israel's stock 50/50 and call it "mutually assured destruction"?
Ugly comments do not make for any dialogue. There is no Human Rights in Iran.
It is a Theocracy.
When we hear of Israel's "right to exist," it is shorthand for what they actually demand of occupied people: that Palestinians acknowledge Israel's "right to exist as The Jewish State." What else can "The Jewish State" refer to, if not a "government ruled by or subject to religious authority"?
This is the problem with Zionism: the concept of a state belonging to people of a particular religion is inherently theocratic.
"Under the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran has the legal right to produce nuclear power for peaceful purposes."
Good article but I'd like to see it pointed out that Israel is not even a signatory to the NPT and they have nuclear weapons. Apparently, Iran's mistake was signing the treaty. Or am I missing something?
Actually, their first mistake was having oil and not wanting to give it to multi-national corporations. Their second was having oil and wanting to sell it in non-dollar denominated currency. Their third mistake will be whatever we concoct to justify invasion or bombing.
[The Iranian revolution overthrew the Shah, replacing him with a tyrannical theocracy that continues to violate the rights of the Iranian people.] Sorry, not quite. The last Shah in many ways tried to resolve the foreign influence problems and domestic intelligence training of the heavy handed/politically oppressive SAVAK, Mossad being an influence, and began warning the U.S. of the arrogance and deliberate manipulation of the barely-there-Israel. He tried to atone to Iranians for how he governed swayed by those influences. It was said that the media in Iran at nearly 70% had also been bought up by the foreigners and his work was that much more. It may have been that he was staunchly Persian-culture-preservationist and secular concerning the Semitic religious delusions, as well as being outspoken regarding the MIC being manipulated, that really did him/Iran a terrible turn and brought on the IRI. The revolution was 'planned' from a flat in Paris, flown in on jumbos, and armed on many occasion by the undiscriminating arms dealing Reagan/BushVP/CIA. The small group around Khomeini was likely incompetent at such a feat, making the scheme necessarily hatched by others. The meetings of Brit./Fr./U.S., if I haven't confused time period, in Guatemala were plotting sessions for the inevitability of a Shah with cancer. So, likely we are dealing with the next progeny of dog fed by some tentacle stemming from us. A grand show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alMrLvDEh7g
I'll have a rock of salt along with Tomcarberry's post, please. At it's heart, Tom, is ingrained(learned) ideological separatism...Fanaticism to some, a psychosis to others that is far removed from an honest understanding or any continuity of intelligence/identity. Couple those beliefs/way of thinking with the advanced intelligence of the host countries being used like tp, and add a dash of contempt and greed...please don't sell us that lab rats are magical and more than a kook's fantastic experiments that end up most often being pretty ugly results, in all manner of the word. It doesn't take smart people to invest their money smartly and domineer industries. It should be considered.
People should not be complacent about speaking out against their corrupt leaders and whether they should contribute to any pro-Israeli political campaigns. The claims that not everyone is responsible for their shared ideological yet fanatical representatives is reliant upon where their historical contributions go and have gone, and span to even the complacency to speak out. Why would our government go along with such crooked Banksters and war mongering AIPAC fanatics unless we are really being governed by an ideological delusion with it's heart in a fabricated desert resort with half of both Silicon Valley and New York, respectively, proliferated over to it? After these last few years of information freedom in the last frontier of the Internet, you should think the next apartheid wall might close around your brain. http://www.democracynow.org/2012/1/18/headlines#0
The sad fact is that the majority of Jews in America support Israel over America. Yes, there are a few brave dissenters, but the majority support a racist, supremacist ideology that has condemned the Palestinian people to a miserable existence for 64 years. These Zionist Jews and the wingnut evangelical accomplices are content to see the US go to hell fighting Israel's wars of aggression. It's time to tell it as it is; the truth can't be "anti-Semitic."
That is the truest statement I've read on this site so far. Now Abby Zimet should read it. The only candidate running who puts America first and always has, is Ron Paul.