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Archive for 'Israel'

Saving the children

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

Without any hint of irony, Daniel Mendelsohn writes an Op-Ed in the NYT about the recent discovery of letters from Otto Frank:

A Family History Like Too Many Others - New York Times

Above all, such letters demonstrate movingly the overriding preoccupation that nothing was as important as saving the children. “It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for,” Otto Frank wrote. “If only the world were open and I’d been able to send a child to America or Palestine, it would be easier,” my great-uncle mourned as he started losing hope.

[…]

[T]he fact that this latest and unexpected addition to the Frank file was casually found in a relatively neglected American archive reminds us, too, that there are many thousands of similar stories on this side of the Atlantic still waiting to surface, if only we bothered — or knew — to look for them[.]

We would not need to look much farther than the very Palestine that remains closed today, to its own inhabitants.

Hagelian synthesis

Thursday, January 25th, 2007

Crooks and Liars has video of Chuck Hagel (R-NE) laying it out to the Senate on Iraq and the [non-binding] Hagel, Biden, Snowe, Levin resolution against escalation. I guess it takes a Republican to say the things he does, such as point out that the reputation of the U.S is shot in the Middle East. Here is a rough transcript (by me) of a part that I found particularly surprising:

When people have no hope, when there is despair, little else matters. And this is not about terrorists don’t like freedom. Tell that to the Palestinian people who have been chained down for many, many years.

Will someone notify Dershowitz, please?

Israeli buffoonery continues

Wednesday, August 23rd, 2006

How do you get from the image of the most advanced and successful fighting force in the world to a pathetic joke, in the period of one month?

Israel holds Nasrallah
Publication time: Today at 12:26 Djokhar time

Unfortunately for the embarrassed Israelis, he was the local green grocer - not the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.
Leah Tzemel, the Israeli lawyer who obtained their release on Monday, said Israel had snatched the four Nasrallahs and their neighbour on August 1 in a commando raid in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon.

It would all be hilarious if the IDF silliness did not involve the death of others (15 people in this case).

More on Hezbollah

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

Writing on AlterNet, Stephen Zunes traces the history and evolution of Hezbollah and questions the motivation behind the U.S congressional attitude towards the organisation:

Was Hezbollah a Legitimate Target?

The Bush administration and an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Congress have gone on record defending Israel’s assault on Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure as a means of attacking Hezbollah “terrorists.” Unlike the major Palestinian Islamist groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah forces haven’t killed any Israeli civilians for more than a decade. Indeed, a 2002 Congressional Research Service report noted, in its analysis of Hezbollah, that “no major terrorist attacks have been attributed to it since 1994.” The most recent State Department report on international terrorism also fails to note any acts of terrorism by Hezbollah since that time except for unsubstantiated claims that a Hezbollah member was a participant in a June 1996 attack on the U.S. Air Force dormitory at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.

On Hezbollah action outside Lebanon:

In reality, other than a number of assassinations of political opponents in Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, it is highly debatable whether Hezbollah has ever launched a terrorist attack outside of Lebanon. The United States alleges as one of its stronger cases that Hezbollah was involved in two major bombings of Jewish targets in Argentina: the Israeli embassy in 1993 and a Jewish community center in 1994, both resulting in scores of fatalities. Despite longstanding investigations by Argentine officials, including testimony by hundreds of eyewitnesses and two lengthy trials, no convincing evidence emerged that implicated Hezbollah. The more likely suspects are extreme right-wing elements of the Argentine military, which has a notorious history of anti-Semitism.

On the validity of congressional resolutions:

In March of last year, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution by an overwhelming 380-3 margin condemning “the continuous terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hezbollah.” Despite contacting scores of Congressional offices asking them to cite any examples of terrorist attacks by Hezbollah at any time during the past decade, no one on Capitol Hill with whom I have communicated has been able to cite any.

On the history of U.S involvement in Lebanon and the creation of Hezbollah:

Hezbollah did not exist until four years after Israel first invaded and occupied southern Lebanon in 1978. The movement grew dramatically following Israel’s more extensive U.S.-backed invasion and occupation of the central part of the country in 1982 and the subsequent intervention by U.S. Marines to prop up a weak Israeli-installed government. In forcing the departure of the armed forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization and destroying the broad, left-leaning, secular Lebanese National Movement, the U.S. and Israeli interventions created a vacuum in which sectarian groups like Hezbollah could grow.

On Hezbollah attacks:

The Hezbollah also periodically fired shells into Israel proper, some of which killed and injured civilians. Virtually all these attacks, however, were in direct retaliation for large-scale Israeli attacks against Lebanese civilians.

[Link]

(As can be seen above, I have started adding an explicit [Link] to the original/source for quoted material, a la Boing Boing. The heading of the quoted text will continue to be linked to the original, also).

The Nation on AIPAC

Tuesday, August 15th, 2006

What the AIPAC is and the danger that it represents should be well known by now, given that two of their operatives have been charged with that most unforgivable sin, espionage, but that it is not (so known) is in itself a testament to its strength. Below is an excerpt from a recent Nation article:

AIPAC’s Hold

[…]

AIPAC is the leading player in what is sometimes referred to as “The Israel Lobby”–a coalition that includes major Jewish groups, neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists. With its impressive contacts among Hill staffers, influential grassroots supporters and deep connections to wealthy donors, AIPAC is the lobby’s key emissary to Congress. But in many ways, AIPAC has become greater than just another lobby; its work has made unconditional support for Israel an accepted cost of doing business inside the halls of Congress.

[…]

Billmon on the Israeli Lobby

Wednesday, August 9th, 2006

Billmon brings up the unmentionable (w.r.t the McKinney primary loss in GA):

Whiskey Bar: But the "Israel Lobby" Doesn't Exist:

Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s primary run-off opponent has tapped into the pro-Israel fundraising network . . . Seven pro-Israel PACs gave to Johnson on Tuesday: MOPAC in Michigan, Washington PAC in D.C., SUNPAC and National Action Committee PAC in Florida, CITYPAC in Chicago, Mid-Manhattan PAC in New York and Louisiana for American Security PAC.

The Hill
McKinney opponent rakes in pro-Israel cash
August 2, 2006

Because, of course, Jewish donors in Michigan, New York, Florida and Chicago are deeply concerned about conditions in Georgia's 4th congressional district.

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JC on Lieberman’s motives

Wednesday, August 9th, 2006

There has not been, to my knowledge, a lot of examination of the reason for Lieberman’s semi-suicidal embrace of the right’s Iraq war and that whole narrative (including the “undermining the President” bit). Juan Cole brings it up on his blog:

Lieberman’s Defeat:

[…]

Lieberman had bought into the Rove Master Narrative. Bush went to war electively, thus very conveniently making himself a war president and therefore above criticism. He got a second term that way despite having been among the worst presidents in history. Lieberman ceded to Bush a kind of invulnerability on the most important Republican Party SNAFU since its policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression. Why would a Democrat do that?

The answer is that on foreign policy issues, Lieberman is a Neoconservative, and supports the Iraq project for the same reasons that Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz (then number 3 and 2 respectively at the Pentagon) did. He tried to put himself in the tradition of Hubert Humphrey, but he was more honest when he also listed Scoop Jackson. Perle and the rest started on Jackson’s staff.

[…]

I would suggest further that the reason Lieberman is a neo-con on foreign policy is Israel.


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Alternate fact-sheet on Hezbollah

Sunday, August 6th, 2006

Recently I came across:

Hezbollah not to blame for war, reports show

which provides an alternate viewpoint of Hezbollah, some known (if not in mainstream media) and others quite new (at least to me). I hope to do a bit of additional fact-checking on the info, shortly. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Israel routinely violates Lebanese airspace (source: UNIFIL)
  • Hezbollah responds to such with anti-aircraft fire
  • Capturing and using “hostages” has been employed by both sides in the past
  • Hezbollah immediately after the capture of the soldiers called for an exchange
  • 9000 Palestinians and others are held in Israeli jail today, without recourse
  • This includes that oft-repeated category: women and children
  • Only six of the 192 U.N member nations classify the Hezbollah a terrorist organisation
  • Of course that six includes the usual suspects: Israel, U.S, Britan, Australia
  • The Hezbollah arose as a response to the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon (1982)
  • Hezbollah has condemned the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York
  • They have also called the killing of Nicholas Berg in Iraq a “despicable act”
  • Israel has carried out more bombings and assassinations than all terrorist groups in the world combined

Here is a segment of the page:

Brigadier Caliphi said the Hezbollah was well aware of Israel’s ability to respond forcefully if the rockets deployed in southern Lebanon were fired against Israel.

In an extraordinary admission he said any attack would bring havoc to the Lebanese civilian population, and in a reference to proportionality, he inferred any response would be one hundred times that inflicted.

‘If rockets fly over the north, it is better that 100 mothers in Beirut mourn than one mother in Haifa. The Hezbollah know that in such a case, we will take off our gloves and it does not want to be viewed as responsible for bringing disaster on Lebanon’s citizens,’ he said.

Then in an even more extraordinary admission, he threatened another, ‘Jenin.’

‘They saw that in Jenin we were willing to ravage a refugee camp in order to gain quiet, even if we did not use F-16 aircraft. They know the implications to their region,’ he said. The Brigadier General had no qualms about saying that any incursion by Hezbollah could result in an attack on the Lebanon government, and also said Syria could be a target.

And:

Last year, February 18, at the annual meeting of the annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Israel’s then Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly pounded the podium and passionately supported Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon.

‘Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon is a model which Israel would apply to Gaza and Samaria.’ he said. Olmert went on to say Hezbollah ‘terrorists’ now stationed in former Israeli army positions throughout Southern Lebanon had accumulated 15,000 missiles and mortars in Lebanon.

Continuing to pound on the podium, he said, ‘they have never, never, never used missiles against Israel on the northern border since Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May, 2000.’ (It was later pointed out that 5 Katyusha rockets had been fired into northern Israel in the period to 2004, a declassified Israeli army document showed).

Uniting Islamic radicals?

Thursday, July 27th, 2006

Juan Cole notes in a blog entry today that:

[…]
Ayman al Zawahiri today made a change in both policies. He wants al Qaeda to pile on in Gaza and to defend Hizbullah in Lebanon.
[…]

From Al Jazeera:

While western analysts are describing Hezbollah as merely an extension of Iran, and therefore "Shia interests," the people of Cairo and Amman, predominantly "Sunni cities" took to the streets carrying pictures of Hasan Nasrallah the Shia Arab leader, defying the "Sunni-Shia rift," described by Peretz.

Most western observers have conveniently ignored widespread Sunni support for Hezbollah throughout the Arab and Muslim world.

Consider also that Nasrullah has extended support to Sunni Palestine. As Juan Cole notes:

As usual, Israel is radicalizing the Muslim world. The US, too, will suffer.

The (U.S) people on Lebanon

Wednesday, July 26th, 2006

[via Polling Report]

At first blush, a lot of the surveys regarding the Israeli attack on Lebanon are discouraging in that they reflect the effects of media propaganda, but if you look closer there is evidence that the public is not entirely buying the single side. Here are some polling results:

  • 65% think the U.S should not support either side (USA/Gallup)
  • 45% blame Israel a great or moderate aount (USA/Gallup)
  • 43% (to 39%) want Israeli cease-fire (CNN)

Of course this is all co-existant (in the polls) with huge sympathy for Israel, and it probably looks like I am clutching at straws here.




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