Israel Threatens War with Lebanon - by Stephen Lendman

 

Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation's unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack.

 

Why not, after so many earlier in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, and 2006. Also numerous incidents besides:

 

-- refusing to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 425 by occupying South Lebanon belligerently and illegally for 18 years until mostly, but not entirely, withdrawing in May 2000 - still holding Sheba Farms, the 14-square mile water-rich land near Syria's Golan, also illegally occupied since 1967; in addition, Ghajar, the Lebanese village bordering Golan;

 

-- during its occupation, using a proxy Christian South Lebanon Army as enforcer, UNIFIL Blue Helmets giving them and the IDF free reign instead of maintaining peace, how UN forces always operate, as paramilitaries against people they're supposed to protect; and

 

-- for over 40 years, repeatedly violating Lebanon's territory, often daily, including 12 Israeli jet overflights on August 19.

 

Hezbollah - Israel's Pretext for Incursions, Violence and War

 

Hezbollah was born out of Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion, its horrific war slaughtering around 18,000 people, mostly civilians, including in the Sabra and Shatila camps, what journalist Robert Fisk called "one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century." 

 

In 1999, it was put on the FTO list, removed after condemning the 9/11 attack, then added back by Dick Cheney after bogusly linking it with Al Qaeda.

 

Throughout his tenure, George Bush (and other administration officials) called Hezbollah, Iran and Syria "the root cause" of Middle East terrorism, despite Israel being the only threat, a notorious regional menace.

 

In mid-July 2010, Rep. Sue Myrick (R. NC) was over the top accusing the organization of being a threat on the US-Mexican border, saying:

 

"Our intelligence sources have really clarified that they are in Mexico, that there is an operation that is quite large in place there, and it's very frightening to me because this is national security. We know some of them have gotten across the border in the past....They are starting to target the United States and that's my concern."

 

She also linked Hezbollah with Mexican drug cartels, DEA assistant intelligence administrator Anthony Placido saying "There are numerous reports of cocaine proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic radical groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas" - reports as credible as Saddam's WMDs. 

 

Hezbollah, in fact, is politically legitimate, former Lebanon President Emile Lahood calling it "an integral part of the Lebanese government....(also) part of our military (and) social order," what former Prime Minister Rafik Harriri confirmed. It's also a social, charitable, educational, and medical organization, involved in establishing over 50 hospitals, over 100 schools, many libraries, and providing other essential social services, why it has broad support, especially among Shiites, comprising over 35% of Lebanon's population. 

 

In addition, its military wing is for defense, not belligerency, but it's prepared to respond effectively when attacked, what Israel learned painfully in the 2006 war, outfoxed and humiliated despite a vastly superior force. It's a lesson the IDF never forgot and wants to avenge, as well as conceal its own terrorist history, by far the region's most extensive with tentacles reaching globally. 

 

An early 2007 American University of Beirut study documented 6,672 Israeli terrorist acts against Lebanon and Palestine alone from 1967 - 2007 (plus thousands more since then), unrewarded by inclusion on America's FTO list, Israeli influence getting others on it, including Hezbollah and Hamas, Palestine's legitimate government.

 

Without evidence, Hezbollah's rap sheet includes the 1983 US Lebanon Embassy and Marine barracks bombings, highjackings, hostage taking, rocket attacks against Israel, suicide bombings, and more, charges the organization vehemently denies, saying it responds only in self-defense against militants, not civilians, its leader Hassan Nasrallah stating: 

 

"Hezbollah remains on the US and Israel 'terrorism' list for purely political reasons and to punish the organization for its resistance to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon and (America's) plans for the region."

 

Expecting its members to be charged with assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, he accused Israel of the crime, presenting visual and audio material as evidence. They included Israeli surveillance footage (intercepted in real time) of routes he used to be able to target his motorcade, Nasrallah saying:

 

"We have definite information on the aerial movements of the Israeli enemy the day Hariri was murdered. Hours before....an Israeli drone was surveying the Sidon-Beirut-Junieh coastline as warplanes were flying over Beirut. This video can be acquired by any investigative commission to ensure it is correct. We are sure of this evidence, or else we would not risk showing it."

 

He also said an Israeli spy "confess(ed) in front of a camera that he had repeatedly tried to falsely convince Hariri that (Hezbollah) intended to assassinate him." Though not a smoking gun, this information warrants serious investigation, especially given Israel's history of similar acts, inside and outside the region.

 

According to Lebanese University Professor Hasan Jouni, an international criminal law expert, Nasrallah's evidence was exceptional, saying:

 

"Logically and legally, in this stage, any new finding should be investigated by the general prosecutor. Sayyed Nasrallah submitted tangible evidence of the Israeli potential role in Hariri's assassination." It appears incriminating. "Furthermore, the previous investigations which were circulated here and there should be revised."

 

Antoine Airout, North Lebanon Bar Association head, agreed, saying: "Sayyed Hasrallah's revelations are very serious and objective," especially given Israel's long-term interest in destroying Lebanon to seize portions for itself. Hariri's assassination furthered that goal.

 

In late July, Nasrallah further disclosed the arrest of nearly 100 Israeli spies who'd infiltrated Lebanon's military and security sectors, including Ret. Army Brig. General Fayez Karam, once head of its antiterrorism/counterespionage units.

 

In his recent article titled, "Israel Takes Control of Lebanon," investigative journalist Wayne Madsen covered the same issue, saying:

 

He's "learned from (his) Lebanese intelligence sources that the Lebanese government is coming to realize that Israeli intelligence penetration of all political groups in the country is worse than originally believed."

 

"The Israeli espionage network also extends to Syria. Lebanese sources report that former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad of ordering (Hariri's) assassination, is tactically backed by Israel and the United States." He heads the National Salvation Front (NSF) effort to oust Assad, getting Israeli, American, French and German help to do it. 

 

For decades, the US/Israeli partnership ruthlessly pursued its joint regional imperial project, including assassinations, state terrorism and wars. Murdering Hariri indeed furthered their goal, and if an August 28 Press TV report is right, more is planned, the Iranian English language network saying:

 

"Israel is reportedly preparing to strike arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, claiming they belong to....Hezbollah....Tel Aviv (having) escalated its military presence in" Golan and Lebanon's Shebba Farms, according Haaretz, "citing a report in the (August 28) edition of the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. (It) quoted European sources as saying that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights (over) Lebanese and Syrian airspace, are indications that Israel is ready to start a war in the area (against) targets....far inside Syrian territory...."

 

Targeting Lebanon - Stoking Tensions, Threatening More War

 

In early 2010, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned Hezbollah to "avoid entering conflict with us, (adding that) We need to constantly prepare for a change in the status quo, though we don't know when it will occur. We don't want for it to happen, and it might not, but we will not be afraid to react if we have to fight back." 

 

Thinly veiled fighting words with July 23 elaboration, provocatively telling the Washington Post that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, saying "we will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to the Hezbollah" - the same 2006 blitzkrieg strategy causing vast destruction, billions in damage, killing over 1,000, injuring thousands more, and displacing one-fourth of Lebanon's four million population, the vast majority being civilians, including 300,000 children, Israel's "Dahiya Doctrine" strategy.

 

Named after the Beirut suburb destroyed in 2006, it's how past and future wars will be fought, including Cast Lead, applying disproportionate force against civilians and non-military infrastructure, carried out with overwhelming intimidating force in violation of fundamental international law, prohibiting collective punishment and attacks against non-combatants, Israel's preferred targets.

 

On a mid-April US visit, Jordan's King Abdullah II expressed concern, telling a "Congressional Friends of Jordan Caucus" that he fears "imminent" conflict again with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

 

At the same time, AFP reported that Washington "voiced alarm" about Syria's "possible sale of Scud missiles to Hezbollah militants, warning it would put Lebanon at 'significant risk.' " On April 13, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of doing it, saying it "claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scuds to Hezbollah whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel" - false and Peres knows it.

 

In response, an unnamed US official said a sale was suspected but not verified. Syria flatly denies it, and unmentioned was American aid to Israel, more than to all other nations combined, including annual billions of dollars in military aid, additional amounts when requested, plus the latest weapons and technology, enough to destabilize the entire region and beyond, given Israel's capacity and inclination to wage war aggressively and illegally. 

 

It's bloodstained history confirms what US major media reports suppress - that no outside threat or attack on its territory occurred since the October 1973 Yom Kippur war, nearly 37 years ago after which Israel repeatedly attacked Lebanon and Occupied Palestine. It also menaces the entire Middle East, its goal being to divide, conquer and control it, a future article dealing solely with that topic.

 

At the end of the 2006 Lebanon war, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a full cessation of hostilities on both sides, specifically that Hezbollah  cease "all attacks" and disarm, Israel given freedom to respond to perceived threats. In other words, it can claim bogus ones justify war, Hezbollah denied comparable discretion.

 

Since passage, Hezbollah refused to disarm, but committed no aggressive acts. For its part, Israel breaches the resolution daily, including regular airspace, territorial, and sea encroachments. In early 2010, Michael Williams, UN special envoy to Lebanon said:

 

"To the best of my knowledge, there is probably no other country in the world which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance," other intrusions and spying. In fact, none besides America, Israel's paymaster/partner and early mentor, both countries the world's most bellicose and aggressive, what Hezbollah understands and will respond. 

 

Lebanon's government also, saying it supports its right to defend sovereign state territory, Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami calling Israel a "permanent menace" with good reason.

 

Further, Syria said it will act if Lebanon is attacked, adding it considers a threat to Beirut's security one to its own. Hamas' Ali Baraka also avowed to back Hezbollah if attacked, stoking more tension, what Israel's expert at exploiting, manufacturing threats when none exist.

 

On August 2, the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group published a report titled "Drums of War: Israel and the 'Axis of Resistance,' " saying:

 

More war, if it comes, will be "far more devastating and broader in scope," the regional dynamics dangerously explosive, so any "miscalculations" may launch it, including against Syria.

 

Despite a deceptive quiet, "Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." Hezbollah's readiness and "escalating Israeli threats (could) trigger the very outcome" so far avoided.

 

With "no effective forum for communication, (there's) ample room for misunderstanding and misperception. Meanwhile, (Israel has waged) an underground war of espionage and assassinations....now a substitute for more open confrontation."

 

"There is scant reason for optimism on the peace front," not helped by America talking only with one side (Israel), "keeping another at arm's length (Syria), ignoring a third (Hezbollah) and confronting the fourth (Iran)."

 

As a result, "the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic conflict will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one."

 

Not explained is that Israel and America alone pose  threats, the same ones for over 40 years, what all regional states know and fear, hoping they won't end up like Iraq - destroyed by imperial lawlessness, the fake August 19 "combat" troop pullout just PR cover for permanent occupation, or as one Iraqi official said: "This is about America's midterm elections," Washington's presence is here to stay, even Newsweek calling it a "nonevent," saying:

 

"The departure of the last 'combat troops' from Iraq (more a strategic retreat than victory lap) is hardly the end of American combat there. (What about the other) 50,000....staying behind? They didn't exactly send their (formidable weapons arsenal) out with that Stryker brigade. And they're not going to transform themselves into the Peace Corp overnight," or, in fact, ever. 

 

The region's strategic importance assures permanent war, America's presence, and continued danger for everyone there - cursed, not benefitting from oil.

 

A Final Comment

 

Besides bordering on Israel, Lebanon's resources make it vulnerable, namely its water and natural gas reserves, one reason for the 2006 war, South Lebanon to the Litani River especially important. Also the Wazzini springs feeding into the Hasbani River tributary of the Jordan River. It flows into Israel two miles downstream from the Wazzini, then into the Sea of Galilee that's Israel's largest fresh water source.

 

Israel covets the 20-mile stretch from its border to the Litani to use Lebanese water for its own needs, a considerable supply if controlled, besides what's gotten from Golan, seized from Syria in 1967 and still held.

 

The Tamar and Leviathan offshore natural gas fields are also key, located off Israel's north coast and Southern Lebanon. Tamar contains an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet supply, Leviathan another 16 trillion, and on August 29, Israel National News.com said it may hold four billion or more barrels of oil, making it a richer than ever prize. 

 

The London-based Lebanese newspaper As-Safir said if Israel attempts to siphon gas from Lebanese waters, conflict could result. The paper's Israel affairs analyst, Hilmi Mousa, said Leviathan "lies mostly off Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine  (and Cyprus waters). However, Israel received a guarantee from Britain, which has no rights in Palestine, to search for oil in the area near the Lebanese shores. The map of deposits, as published in the Israeli economic papers, shows the scope of the deviation into Lebanon's international waters," ones Lebanon surely will protect.

 

Yet Mousa headlined, "Israel preparing to steal gas fields in Lebanon's waters," saying doing so "will quickly turn into a new conflict (in which) Lebanon....will defend its rights in the water." Other sites include Rut and Alon, also off Lebanese shores or in areas far from Israel. The situation bears watching given the possibility that Israel may attack Lebanon and Hezbollah, needing or inventing a pretext to do it, an old trick it may use again, Lebanon perhaps the next target.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

more evidence of a pariah Israeli state

 Yale University's Pro-Israeli, Anti-Islamic Conference - by Stephen Lendman

 

On August 25, Yale University ended a three day global anti-Semitism "crisis" conference promoting the notion that Israeli criticism is "anti-Semitic," no matter how justified. 

 

Boola boola, for shame, mighty Yale displaying the same type anti-Islamic hatred virulent throughout America, raging daily in headlines over the proposed New York City Islamic cultural center, falsely called a mosque, but does it matter? 

 

What matters is racism, hate-mongering, and persecuting Muslims for political advantage - on display at Yale for a three day propaganda hate fest. Imagine what's taught in its classrooms.

 

The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA)

 

Calling itself "dedicated to the scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with antisemitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, including racisms, as it relates to policy," YIISA presented its "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity conference,  at a time the supposed "crisis" is more rhetoric than reality.

 

Yet its mission statement states:

 

"Anti-Judaism (or) Antisemitism is one of the most complex and, at times, perplexing forms of hatred, (emerging) in numerous ideological(ly) based narratives and the constructed identities of belonging and otherness such as race and ethnicity, nationalisms, and anti-nationalisms." In modern globalized times, "it appears that Antisemitism has taken on new complex and changing forms that need to be decoded, mapped and critiqued."

 

What's needed is debunking the relationship between legitimate Israeli criticism and anti-Semitism and notion of a serious anti-Jewish crisis when none, in fact, exists.

 

Last October 29, Reuters reported that:

 

"Anti-Semitic attitudes in the United States are at a historic low, with 12 percent of Americans prejudiced toward Jews, an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey found," based on September 26 - October 4 polling with a plus or minus 2.8% margin of error.

 

ADL said its level matched 1998's as the lowest in the poll's 45-year history. Yet in his 2003 book, "Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism," national director, Abraham Foxman, said he's:

 

"convinced we currently face as great a threat to the safety of the Jewish people as the one we faced in the 1930s - if not a greater one," contradicted by Cato Institute research fellow Leon Hadar (in the January 2004 Chronicles), saying that public opinion polls "indicate (racial and religious forms of) anti-Semitism (have) been in steep decline in most of Western Europe." The same holds for America, putting a lie to Yale's "crisis" and need for a conference to hawk it. 

 

Badly needed are efforts to expose and denounce anti-Islamic rhetoric, actions and persecutions of people for their religion and/or ethnicity, but don't expect Yale to hold it or discuss it in classrooms.

 

YIISA stacked its conference with pro-Israeli zealots, omitting voices for sanity and the right of Palestinians to live free of occupation in their own land or in one state affording everyone equal rights, an apparent blasphemous notion at Yale and many other US and Canadian campuses, firing even distinguished tenured professors for supporting the wrong religion or people too vigorously.

 

Opening conference remarks were made by YIISA Director, Dr. Charles Small, Yale's Deputy Provost, Frances Rosenbluth, Rabbi James Ponet, director of Yale's Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life, and Aviva Raz Schechter, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Combatting Antisemitism. 

 

They all, of course, presented one-sided, pro-Israeli views, underscoring the notion that Israeli criticism is anti-Semetic, when, in fact, it's principled, honest and more needed now than ever to expose and halt an Israeli/Washington partnership to conquer, divide and control the Middle East by force, stealth, deceit, intimidation, occupation, and political chicanery, common tools used by rogues and imperial marauders.

 

Hebrew University Professor Menahem Milson was the first of several keynote speakers. He's also Chairman of the extremist Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), whose board and advisors include a rogue's gallery of pro-Israeli right-wing zealots, including:

 

-- Oliver "Buck" Revell, former FBI Executive Assistant Director in charge of criminal investigative, counterterrorism and counterintelligence;

 

-- Elliot Abrams, former Reagan and Bush administration official and convicted Iran-Contra felon, later pardoned by GHW Bush; and

 

-- Steve Emerson, a notorious anti-Islamic bigot, well-known for using unscrupulous tactics to accuse innocent Muslims of terrorism and instill "Islamofascist" fear over the public airwaves.

 

Its board of advisors includes:

 

-- Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister and current Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister;

 

-- Bernard Lewis, Princeton Professor Emeritus of near eastern studies, known for his anti-Islamic views;

 

-- James Woolsey, neocon former CIA director;

 

-- John Bolton, former neocon war hawk Bush administration UN ambassador, recess-appointed because Congress was too embarrassed to do it;

 

-- Rabid Zionist Elie Wiesel, a man Professor Norman Finkelstein calls "vain, arrogant, gullible, naive about international affairs, (and defender of) the worst excesses of previous Israeli governments;"

 

-- John Ashcroft, former Bush administration Attorney General, the man who indicted Lynne Stewart, famed human rights lawyer now imprisoned on bogus charges for doing her job honorably, what Ashcroft never did;

 

-- Michael Mukasey, another Bush administration Attorney General, as bad as Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales; and

 

-- many other disreputable members, known for their pro-Israeli bias, including Richard Holbrooke, a proponent of imperial wars, who stepped down temporarily to become Obama administration Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Other YIISA presenters included (among others):

 

-- Itamar Marcus, a West Bank settler movement leader, connected to the New York-based Central Fund of Israel, raising money for it in America out of a Sixth Avenue/36th Street fabric store near Times Square;

 

-- Canadian politician Irwin Cotler, who attacked the Goldstone Commission report viciously and unfairly;

 

-- Harvard Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Rush Wisse, a pro-Israeli zealot this writer once had the displeasure of debating briefly by email;

 

-- Barak Seener, Greater Middle East Section Director for the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, who believes Israeli Arabs are a fifth column threat to the state;

 

-- Anne Bayesfsky, right-wing pro-Israeli supporter, senior fellow at the neocon Hudson Institute, associated with UN Watch devoted to attacking anti-Israeli criticism, and member of the Israel-based Ariel Center for Policy Research, a Likud Party-affiliated group supporting hardline writers in the Middle East, North America and Europe;

 

-- Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, whose leaders and advisors include Newt Gingrich, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, James Woolsey, the senator from AIPAC, Joe Lieberman, neocon writer Charles Krauthammer, former Reagan assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan's UN ambassador, among others;

 

-- Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor's legal advisor, a notorious pro-Israeli group; and

 

-- Samuel Edelman, board of director member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, another Israeli advocacy organization.

 

Noticeably absent were notable figures from the Palestinian community as well as US truth and justice scholars and analysts who base their views on facts YIISA wants suppressed. There was no James Petras, Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, Joel Kovel, Norman Finkelstein, Rashid Khalidi, Phyllis Bennis, Uri Avnery, Neve Gordon, Nurit Peled-Elhannan, Ramzy Baroud, or any of the thousands of equal justice advocates listed on a so-called "Shit List," including this writer given three unsympathetic paragraphs.

 

Instead, numerous speakers discussed provocative topics, including:

 

-- Radical Islam and Genocidal anti-Semitism; 

 

-- Christianity and anti-Semitism; 

 

-- The Islamization of Anti-Semitism;

 

-- The Internet and the Proliferation of Anti-Semitism; 

 

-- Law, Modernity, and Anti-Semitism;

 

-- the Central Role of Palestinian Anti-Semitism in Creating the Palestinian Identity;

 

-- Islamism and the Construction of Jewish Identity;

 

-- Global Anti-Semitism and the Crisis of Modernity;

 

--Genocidal Anti-Semitism: Ahmadinejad's Regime as a Case Study;

 

-- Contemporary Anti-Semitism and the Delegitimization  of Israel;

 

-- Discourse of Contemporary Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Confronting and Combating Contemporary Anti-Semitism in the Academy;

 

-- Anti-Semitism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust;

 

-- Lawfare, Human Rights Organizations and the Demonization of Israel;

 

-- The Islamist Islamization of Anti-Semitism;

 

-- the Iranian Threat;

 

-- Social Theory and Contemporary Anti-Semitism

 

-- Discourses of Anti-Semitism in Relation to the Middle East;

 

-- the Media and the Dissemination of Hatred;

 

-- Global Anti-Semitism;

 

-- An Uncertain Sisterhood: Women and Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Hannah Arendt and Anti-Semitism: A Critical Appraisal;

 

-- Approaches to Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Models for Combating Anti-Semitism: The Case of the United Kingdom;

 

-- Understanding the Impact of German Anti-Semitism and Nazism;

 

-- 400 Years of Anti-Semitism: From the Holy Office to the Nuremberg Laws;

 

-- Embracing the Nation: Anti-Semitism and Modernity

 

-- Anti-Semitism and the United States;

 

-- Variations of European Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Europe;

 

-- Self-Hatred and Contemporary Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Discussions in the Study of Anti-Semitism; and

 

-- YIISA Director Small's concluding remarks.

 

Final Comments

 

On August 25, Mondoweiss co-founder Philip Weiss discussed the conference, quoting Charlotte Kates (writer, organizer, and National Lawyers Guild Middle East Subcommittee Co-Chair) saying:

 

the people invited "who attack Palestinian scholars' academic freedom find conferences such as this to be perfectly acceptable and legitimate."

 

Weiss added that it's not "possible to understand this conference without understanding the prominence of Zionist donors in prestige institutional life." He also quoted journalist/author Ben White, specializing in Israeli/Palestine issues, saying:

 

"What is the role of Yale/academia in this kind of exercise?" It's particularly galling and hypocritical that "fighting anti-Semitism - an anti-racist struggle - is being openly appropriated by far-right Zionist groupings, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lobbyists like the NGO Monitor, and Orientalist 'Arab/anti-terror experts."

 

It's especially disturbing that Yale lent its name to a three day hate fest, supporting:

 

-- wrong over right; 

 

-- state terrorism over human rights and equal justice; 

 

-- colonizers over the colonized;

 

-- what Edward Said called "the familiar (America, the West, us over) the strange (the Orient, East, them);" and

 

-- Jewish "exceptionalism" over a "lesser malevolent" Islam. 

 

Shamefully, presentations excluded discussions about: 

 

Islam's common roots with Judaism and Christianity, its tenets based on:

 

-- love, not hate;

 

-- peace, not violence; 

 

-- good over evil;

 

-- charity, not exploitation; and 

 

-- a just and fair society for people of all faiths. 

 

Also not addressed was the right of Palestinians to live freely like Jews. Yale apparently disagrees, why students against hate and bigotry should enroll elsewhere to be taught truths excluded from Yale's curriculum.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

hate and bigotry on display at Yale

 מזה שנים מנסים צה"ל והמתנחלים לגרש את תושבי דרום הר חברון מאדמותיהם. אחת הדרכים לכך היא למנוע מהם להגיע לבורות המים שלהם ואת שאיבת המים.

   בשבת, ה-7.8.2010, באו פלסטינים מסוסיה וביר אל-עיד לעטרייה כדי לשאוב מים מבורות המים במקום. הם לוו בידי פעילי זכויות אדם ישראליים.

   מתנחלים שהגיעו מהמאחז מצפה יאיר ומההתנחלות סוסיה החלו לאיים עליהם, וניסו לשפוך את המים ממיכל שמולא. חיילים שהיו במקום לא מנעו את ההתקפה. במקום זאת הוציאו צוו שטח צבאי סגור וסילקו את הפלסטינים ומלוויהם הישראליים.   

 

  

 

רבות כבר נכתב ונאמר על זיוף מסמך גלנט והניסיון הפאתטי מצד תומכיו בכל הנוגע ליצירת המסמך אשר כל ייעודו היה ונשאר קידום יואב גלנט לעבר התפקיד הנחשק – רמטכ"ל מדינת האפרטהייד, הכיבוש, האפליה והגזענות. רמטכ"ל מדינת ישראל.

 

נהוג לחשוב שמא באמת נפלה כאן טעות וכאילו מישהו מסוים שכרגע "במקרה" גם לא נוכח בשטחי מדינת ישראל, הוא שזייף את המסמך. זורקים שמות לאוויר, ההוא זייף ואז מסתבר שזה מישהו אחר. אבל הכלל העיקרי ממשיך להנחות את כולם: העיסוק האובססיבי במסמך גלנט.

 

וכולם ככולם שותפים להתעסקות ההיפותטית במסמך גלנט, כאילו שבאמת יש מישהו במדינה שבאמת קורא כל שטות הנכתבת בנושא העגום והמתיש. כזה הוא האמנם?

 

אי אפשר לפספס את הרצון האדיר מצד הישראלים הציונים, בדבר תמיכה בהמשך כהונתו של גבי אשכנזי בתפקיד הרמטכ"ל. הנה להם, גבר מחוספס וקשוח, כזה הממעיט בראיונות טיפשיים הכוללים ירידה אל העם, שיחות סרק עם הציבור כבמדינות דמוקרטיות. הנה להם, מנהיג אשר מרים את האף מעל סגניו, נוזף בחיילים, ואפילו העניש כמה באופן אישי. ממש הדמות הקלאסית בה חושקים הישראלים. ממש עגל הזהב.

 

בחירת יואב גלנט לתפקיד, גם היא חלילה לא מעוררת בי התפלאות כלשהי, הרי גם הוא כקודמו, היה אחראי ישיר למהלכי צה"ל ברצועת עזה במהלך מבצע עופרת יצוקה 2009. גלנט נתן את ההוראה, וגלנט גם נתן את הפקודות. קדימה גלנט, אתה הרמטכ"ל.

 

ואם לא הבנת את זה גלנט, החברים הקרובים בערוץ 2 כבר הבינו את זה לפניך. פרסום מסמך גלנט ע"י ערוץ 2, היה לא אחר מאשר תמיכת בעקיפין מצד הערוץ, במתמודד הבטחוניסט. הרי ממתי גוף כלשהו, ועוד אחת על כמה וכמה, ערוץ חדשות מוביל במדינת ישראל, מפרסם מסמך אשר מקורו בלתי ידוע או בלתי רשמי?

 

הזלזול באינטליגנציה הציבורית, מצד עורכי חדשות ערוץ 2 ואמנון אברמוביץ בפרט, יכולה להיכנס לספר השיאים של גינס, אם נמדוד אותה בעוצמת הפתאטיות בה היא מצטיירת. הרי ההיסטוריה כבר רשמה את "הצלחתם" של גופים הגדולים מהם, שידעו גם הם להשתמש במתק שפתיים איכותי בהרבה מהם, לצד היותם תקשורת מגויסת לרעיון הלאומני מצד הדיוויזיות השולטות בעם.

 

ההתעסקות התקשורתית הממושכת אינה אלא ספין מכוון שכל תפקידו היה ונישאר טיפוח גלנט בעיני ההמון הנבער, אשר זכה בסיקור ממוקד ומושקע בגלנט, סיקור עליו גופים מהמיזם העסקי היו מוכנים לשלם כסף רב, בהתאם לעסקיהם.

 

כמובן שלחשוב שמא מדובר רק במסמך גלנט יהיה זה נאיבי. מדובר כאן כאמור על עבודה סיזיפית מצד התקשורת הישראלית, התומכת ומקדמת אג'נדות אישיות, במסגרת מה שאמור להיות ניטרלי ואובייקטיבי.

 

בסופו של יום, הנפגעים הם לא אחר מאשר קורבנות שטיפת המוח הממושכת, אשר ביניהם טמונים גם אותם מפרסמים זדוניים. הם אלו אשר יאלצו להתמודד עם מכות כואבות כמו דו"ח גולדסטון, הם אלו אשר יאלצו להתמודד עם חקירות בדבר עצירת משטים הומניטרים, והם אלו גם אשר יעמדו לדין במרוצת הזמן, בגין פשעי מלחמה, לא רק נגד הפלסטינים והאנושות כולה, אלא גם נגד בני עמם במזרח התיכון.

 

 

* הכותב הינו יו"ר ארגון סלון דבורה

 

 The Israeli Lobby: Declassified Documents Expose Its Influence - by Stephen Lendman

 

James Petras' powerful 2006 book titled, "The Power of Israel in the United States" explained the enormous Jewish Lobby influence on US Middle East policies. Often harming American interests, they're pursued anyway because of its grassroots and high-level control over government, the business community, academia, the clergy and mass media since at least the 1960s. 

 

Intolerant of opposing views, they're suppressed for its own agenda, funded by PR propaganda domestically and overseas, America's top publications paid off to go along, now revealed by a secret document subpoenaed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (FRC) investigation into the American Zionist Council (AZC), AIPAC's parent lobbying arm.

 

"Between 1962 - 1963, the FRC subpoenaed" AZC's internal documents, examining their activities as "registered agents of foreign principals," learning that over $5 million in tax exempt (and perhaps overseas funds) "had been laundered through the Jewish Agency's American Section into the (AZC)."

 

The Agency is a quasi-Israeli government branch, funded to review legislation ahead of its submission to the Knesset under its Covenant Agreement - in violation of IRS regulations regarding tax exempt charitable funds and the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act.

 

No matter. Israel got a pass to act illegally for nearly 50 years, doing it today more aggregiously than ever. In 1962, after being ordered to register as a foreign agent, AZC transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC, "which refuses to register as (an Israeli) foreign agent" and gets away with it.

 

In November/December 1960, news and editorial content covered Israel's new nuclear reactor (for peace, not bombs they said), Arab refugees when the General Assembly was discussing them, the Eichmann case, Israel's aid to African states, and seating the UAR in the Security Council, reports presenting one-sided, pro-Israeli propaganda.

 

"It can be said that the press of the nation, during 1960, has by and large shown sympathy and understanding of Israel's position." Arab views have been largely "counteracted."

 

"The US contingent of 60 Mayors returned from Israel where they attended (an earlier) Conference....While (there), a number of them were interviewed by (US reporters) who sent (pro-Israeli) stories back to their hometown papers; they were also recorded in interviews for local radio stations."

 

Other plans were made to have those attending meet with Jewish and Christian audiences to disseminate friendly Israeli commentaries. In addition, opinion makers are invited to Israel at government expense, paid off to report friendly stories. An Israeli student got a scholarship "to transfer to the Monterey Peninsula College where propaganda carried on by three Arab professors has been most hurtful."

 

Other schools were infiltrated the same way. Further, "We continue to cultivate (pay off) faculty people in many areas and are making progress here....our friends in San Francisco (are trying) to persuade Stanford to drop Fayez Sayeh from the faculty on the grounds that he is a paid propagandist rather than an objective academician." Efforts at other US schools were similar - pressure to fire Arab professors, replacing them with pro-Israeli ones.

 

"Prof. Arnold Toynbee was invited to spend about five months in this country....When (his) accusations first broke in the press, we (enlisted) major non-Zionist groups and evolved a common policy (to): 

 

(1) Discourage all Jewish (organizations) from issuing invitations to Toynbee;

 

(2) Monitor all (his) public appearances and refrain from bringing up the subject of Israel or the Jews unless Toynbee raises the subject in his presentation."

 

Overall, measures were taken to counteract his unfriendly Israeli positions, the same policy used against all critical public figures, strike back to discredit them.

 

Calling the American Council for Judaism (ACJ) "the most effective anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli force on the American scene," efforts were made to give them "much more attention....than in the past."

 

Bribing major US publications and their writers helped do it, including at the Reader's Digest, Atlantic Monthly, Look, Holiday, Parade, Saturday Review, the New York Times Magazine, and various women's and business ones. Today, the entire US major media serve as Israel's PR arm, its mouthpiece, the fruition of efforts begun 50 years ago.

 

Earlier, and of course now, TV shows were also arranged, and "We continue to counteract Arab speakers wherever they appear, by placing our own speakers on the same platforms...." In addition, "Mailings have gone out to public opinion molders dealing with current issues...."

 

In November 1961, the Atlantic Monthly was paid off to run a pro-Israeli "64-page Supplement, (featuring) some of Israel's top names." Earlier in September, the Atlantic ran a "20-page article on "The Arabs of Palestine" which is "one of the best (we've seen done) on the subject." Jack Anderson also did a friendly piece for Parade Publications after returning from Israel.

 

In addition, AZC officials arranged speaking engagements for pro-Israeli figures throughout the country. Their mission - counteract "anti-Israeli propaganda....a careful check of newspapers, bulletins and confidential sources of our own (can) give us reliable information on the movements and itineraries of these propagandists." Community contacts were then alerted to furnish speakers to discredit them.

 

AZC's Research Bureau also analyzed books and articles on Israel. "When a book is favorable, it is recommended. When (it's not), it is analyzed and distortions are pointed up by providing the factual data required, so that our local Councils will be prepared to react....Further, we (arrange) book presentations (in) community and university libraries...."

 

Written for the AZC, Marc Siegel's play, "A Message from Dimona" was described by The New York Times as a "story of a new city in the Israeli desert," suppressing the reactor's bomb-making purpose, Israel's open secret, well known, but not discussed.

 

"The nuclear reactor story inspired (other) editorial writers, columnists, science writers and cartoonists. Most of (them) accept(ed) the thesis that the reactor was being built for peaceful purposes and not for bombs....Drew Pearson's syndicated column justified Israel's secrecy; (science writer) William Laurence in the New York Times stressed Israel's peaceful intent."

 

In 1945, the same William Laurence led a double life as both Times science writer and shill on the War Department's payroll. Writing press releases for the Manhattan Project, he mislead the public, sold the program, lied about Alamorgordo, NM tests and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki horrors. He also denied what historian/attorney Jonathan M. Weisgall later called the "silent nuclear terror of radioactivity and radiation" - that it condemns exposed people to a slow, painful death, but it benefitted Laurence.

 

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his lying, and got to fly on the plane that bombed Nagasaki, later describing the experience in The Times with religious awe. Today, the entire US major media cheerlead for Israel, even its most unjustifiable, unconscionable, criminal acts. Entirely suppressed is its history of international law violations, including:

 

-- a violence doctrine over peace;

 

-- crimes of war and against humanity;

 

-- excessive force and abuse;

 

-- collective punishment and economic strangulation;

 

-- expanding illegal settlements;

 

-- dispossessions and home demolitions;

 

-- mass arrests and political imprisonments;

 

-- targeted assassinations and torture;

 

-- land theft and crop destruction;

 

-- policies of closure, separation, isolation, checkpoints, ghettoization and curfews;

 

-- denial of the most fundamental human rights and civil liberties; and

 

-- an overall Kafkaesque "matrix of control" designed to crush Palestinians' will to resist.

 

In the old days, journalists were bought off to ignore them. They now do it willingly and reflexively, knowing the consequences otherwise, the Israeli Lobby's power to remove unfriendly voices - from Congress, academia and the media. 

 

Demanded is that Israel be portrayed as peaceful, never aggressive, surrounded, beleaguered, and victimized, acting solely in self-defense. In contrast, Palestinians are called militant terrorist threats to Israeli security, its propaganda machine relentless in pounding that message, the Senate's investigation failing to expose and halt it. 

 

As a result, it's more virulent and pervasive than ever, what no congressional committee will touch, what no major media report will reveal. Israel's power in America suppresses everything unfavorable, willing fourth estate stooges going along, or else. 

 

It's why Project Censored warns about a "truth emergency," the urgency for media reform, and need for a cadre to do what all responsible journalists should - their job, what's sorely absent in America, especially in reports about Israel.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israeli Lobby exposed

 

 The Charade Announced: Latest Israeli No-Peace/Peace Talks for September - by Stephen Lendman

 

On August 21, Haaretz writer Natasha Mozgovaya headlined, "Israel, Palestinians accept US invitation to direct peace talks," saying:

 

They'll "restart direct talks on Sept. 2 in a modest step toward forging a peace deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts."

 

Another grand illusion is assured, fudged to look real. Henry Kissinger coined the phrase "constructive ambiguity," meaning to give negotiations an appearance of progress. For others, it's putting lipstick on a pig or how Edward Said described the Oslo Accords and Declaration of Principles, saying:

 

"the fashion-show vulgarities of the White House ceremony, the degrading spectacle of Yasser Arafat thanking everyone for the suspension of most of his people's rights, and the fatuous solemnity of Bill Clinton's performance, like a 20th century Roman emperor shepherding two vassal kings through rituals of reconciliation and obeisance, (and) the truly astonishing proportions of the Palestinian capitulation."

 

It was unilateral surrender, a Palestinian Versailles, affirming Israel's colonial agenda, giving the Palestinians nothing but the right to be Israel's enforcer. All major issues were deferred, including an independent Palestinian state, the right of return, the future of settlements, borders, water rights, and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian territory and future home of its capital. 

 

Seventeen years later, they're still unresolved and won't be this time, another grand illusion planned, the same outcome assured - betrayal by unilateral surrender, or as much of it as Abbas dare give.

 

An earlier article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception," reviewed earlier efforts since the mid-1970s, quoting Netanyahu once calling the peace process "a waste of time," negotiating solely for Israeli dominance, the article accessed through the following link:

 

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html

 

Here we go again, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing on August 20 that on September 2, new talks will: 

 

"re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final-status issues which we believe we can complete in one year. There have been difficulties in the past; there will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere."

 

In November 2007, the last round in Annapolis got Electronic Intifada co-counder, Ali Abunimah, to compare it to a "big budget Broadway extravaganza; they go on for years, but with each revival the cast changes. What may seem like a tired production to some nevertheless manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the price of admission."

 

Again now, major issues won't be resolved. The conflict's root causes will be unaddressed, and failure will be papered over as success called the most able to be accomplished this time. 

 

Stay tuned. Another round's coming, as futile as this one, the process bogus because Israel and Washington want conflict, not conciliation; photo-ops, not fulfillment; and promises, not a real equitable peace affording Palestinians the same rights as Jews, what millions of them demand, what no Israeli or US leader will give.

 

September 2010 - The Cast

 

Included are:

 

-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's most extremist leader ever, a man who scorns peace and despises everything not Jewish - a despot, not a democratic peacemaker, determined to avoid it; a man who also publicly called attacking Iran his top priority; in other words, a man who feigns peace but plans war, saying in a statement that reaching a deal will be tough but possible, and that he's approaching the talks "with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security." He said nothing about equity because he won't tolerate it nor will Washington.

 

-- Mahmoud Abbas, a usurper, not head of state, who (with Israel and Washington) deposed Palestine's democratic government and took over; a delegitimized coup d'etat leader whose presidential term expired on January 9, 2009, but hasn't called new elections; a man  serving Israel's interests, not his people's.

 

-- Barack Obama, holding one-on-one talks with each leader separately on September 1, a man James Petras called "the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History," and "America's first Jewish President, (reflecting his) one-sided and longstanding commitment to the State of Israel and loyalty to" US Zionist power. Under him, like George Bush, Israel generally gets what it wants, Palestinians given quickly broken promises.

 

-- Hillary Clinton will host the first September 2 session, a woman derisive of peace; a war goddess who told ABC's Good Morning America on April 20, 2008 that:

 

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," promising the equivalent of 12 holocausts against Iran's 70 million people.

 

Hamas leader and Palestine's elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah is absent, as he was in November 2007, the first time in memory that a legitimate peace partner was excluded from talks. Again now, and that's the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner, Haniyah criticizing the new talks, saying "nothing has been achieved" to warrant them. His top priority is national reconciliation for all Palestinians before negotiations with Israel, knowing their history of futility.

 

Other day one attendees include: 

 

-- Tony Blair, a reinvented war criminal, now the Quartet's special Middle East peacemaker representative, faking it like he did as prime minister; and

 

-- Egyptian despot/President/ Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's dictator/King Abdullah II, both reliably pro-Western, disdainful of Palestinians.

 

George Mitchell, US Special Middle East Peace Envoy said America's goal is "an agreement that will end the conflict for all time and will result in the establishment of a viable, democratic and independent state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel. We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," adding that subsequent sessions between the two sides will be held in the Middle East, the Washington opener a photo-op, kicking off the process. Asked what Hamas' role would be in the talks, he replied, "None."

 

Peace or Just Talk?

 

On August 20, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner suggested the latter, headlining,"In Mideast Talks, Scant Hopes From the Beginning," saying:

 

Though accepted by both sides, "just below the surface there was an almost audible shrug. There is little confidence - close to none - on either side that the Obama administration's goal of reaching a comprehensive deal in one year can be met," given the futility of trying for the past 35 years, an impossible task for one side with no credible partner.

 

As a result, "a resigned fatalism (pervades) the air," pitting an intransigent Netanyahu against a feckless Abbas, Al Quds University vice president Zakaria al-Qaq saying, "These direct negotiations are the option of the crippled and the helpless."

 

Israeli political writer, Nahum Barnea, is also skeptical, stating, "Most Israelis have decided that nothing is going to come out of it, that it will have no bearing on their lives. So why should they care?"

 

Former Israeli Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad politician, Yossi Beilin, believes "There is not a chance in the world that in a year - or two or three - peace can be achieved. The gap between the sides is too big. Netanyahu did not come to power to divide Jerusalem or find a solution (for) the Palestinian refugees."

 

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Palestinians Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs scorned the new talks saying, "Abbas is naked before his whole community. Everyone knows that this Israeli government is not going to deliver anything," so why bother going through the charade, Palestinians expressing that view, head of the Palestinian stock exchange, Ahmad Aweidah saying:

 

"Peace process? What peace process? That's so nineties. After 18 years, don't they feel silly. There are only two scenarios. The optimistic one is more of the same. The pessimistic one is it's going to get worse."

 

According to Samir Hulileh, Palestine Development and Investment LTD (PADICO) CEO:

 

"We are the audience in a theatre. We have memorized the play so many times. It is repeated in different forms, and sometimes with different faces, but it's the same. We know the final outcome. We don't feel hope coming out of it."

 

Street comments included:

 

"There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope."

 

"It's a failure from the outset. Negotiations in this way cannot lead to a state. We have no hope." 

 

"Netanyahu will not give a thing, not in a year, not in years....the talks will never succeed."

 

They're both travesty and tragedy, the exclusion of one side and intransigency of the other assures failure. Like before, nothing new will be introduced, the deal always one-sided - capitulation, not resolution, assuring continued conflict because Netanyahu wants it, his way to blame the victims, absolving himself of high crimes, including promises he has no intention of keeping. Nor does Obama, "America's First Jewish President," his subterfuge too shallow to hide.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israel wants conflict, not peace

 

It has always seemed strange to most Israelis that the "peace now" organization have gotten permanent exposure and communicative reference. Nobody understood how a seemingly definite leftist organization could be heard frequently in the mainstream of Israeli media. Nobody understood how the Zionist media wasn't afraid of covering peace now, as a definite leftist organization and some would even say it was an extreme leftist organization.

 

Last week, in an interview in the parliamentary channel and channel <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />10, a guy named Yariv Oppenheimer was interviewed. By accident, this guy was the secretary general of peace now. Well dressed in a prestigious suit, "talking to the point", a real serious politician. But don't let the suit deceive you, because it didn't end there.

 

I'd like to note that at the beginning of the interview I thought for a moment that the parliament member of the Likkud, Ofir Akunis, was interviewed, there was an non-ignorable external similarity between them and their voices are also very alike/ A quick blink got me back to track and I recognized that it was Yariv Oppenheimer, the secretary general of peace now.

 

I sat comfortably on the couch, turned up the volume by the remote control, and listened to our "partner on our way", or it seemed to be that way. Rhetorical questions by Nekhama Duek, the experienced interviewer, that were easy to answer from Mr. Oppenheimer's worldview were asked. But with Nekhama Duek, "the big fish" were not late to arrive.

 

The first fish answered to the name "the Golan heights". So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his opinion about the Israeli occupation on the Golan heights: "There are very nice people there, so we'll have to get to an arrangement with the Syrians". There was not even one clear word about the Israeli necessity to abandon the Golan heights, not one clear word about the necessity of normalization with Syria, one of the key countries in the middle east, and not one clear word about ending the Israeli occupation on the Golan heights.

 

We're getting to the second fish, named Ehud Barack. So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his opinion about the quality of the Israeli defense minister's way of action: "A responsible and understanding man". In these exact words, while bluntly ignoring the fact that Ehud Barack was the major executor of the Cust Lead operation in which over 1300 Palestinians including women and children where butchered. Ehud Barack, who was sitting in a coalition with extreme right winged political parties that include nationalist, fascist and extremely religious characters.

 

So we're continuing to the third fish: Hamas. So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his impertinent opinion about that Palestinian organization: "enemies of peace". We thought that there was an internal consensus in the real leftist camp about the need to immediately begin with direct talks with the military and political leaders of Hamas, as Gideon Levi wrote in his article "When talking to the Hamas" in details because just like Israel negotiated with the Hamas regarding the tape of Gilad Shalit, there is no doubt that talks about the destiny of two peoples must take place. But according to Oppenheimer's words, the elected representatives of the Palestinian people, or in another words, the Palestinian people, are nothing but enemies.

 

The fourth and deep fish, is the Goldstone report, and Mr. Oppenheimer's response about it was not different in it's nationalism from his other responses in this interview in it's terrifying contempt in the proper and vindicated report by the judge Richard Goldstone. Apparently, according to Mr. Oppenheimer's point of view, the blood of the murdered Palestinians and its expensive price to the Jewish people in Israel and abroad should not be counted or published.

At the end of the interview, after watching Mr. Oppenheimer's horror show, I understood that maybe my fears at the beginning of the interview about the identity of the talking interviewee, and a momentary confusion that maybe it was the parliament member Ofir Akunis were true? I wish. But the person that "starred" in front of my eyes on the screen was Yariv Oppenheimer, "our Yariv" in person. So maybe Ehud Barack was right when he said "a healthy system should refresh its components" regarding the replacement of Gabby Ashkenazi, the Israeli military general. This was undoubtedly a serious issue to think about regarding Mr. Oppenheimer's continuance of service as the secretary general of peace now.

 

 

 

* The writer is the chairman Deborah Congress

http://www.deborah.bon.co.il/