Sic Semper Tyrannis

The Gatekeepers

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

Not to horn in on BG Farrell's movie reviews here at SST, but I recently saw a documentary and wanted to bring it to the attention of the SST community.  About two weeks ago I was asked to go with our former USMC senior service rep here at the US Army War College to see the new Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh. The Gatekeepers is an oral history of Israel's internal security and intelligence service - Shin Bet.  Moreh's documentary is built around in depth interviews with the last six Shin Bet directors and spans events from the 1960s through to the last several years, combined with archival footage and computer generated reenactments.  In fact the documentary's production was delayed until the most recent former director, Yuval Diskin, retired and could be interviewed for and part of the project.  Moreh was able to get the project going, which features the first public interviews with any of these men, because one of the former directors, Ami Ayalon was willing to be interviewed after being elected to the Knesset from the Labor Party.  It was Ayalon who helped convince his peers to participate.

Moreh's documentary is divided into seven segments and includes such controversial topics as the 300 bus incident, the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, and breaking up the Israeli Jewish extremist attempts to blow up the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount. For me one of the most interesting portions of the film was when Yaakov Peri, who ran Shin Bet from 1988 to 1994, referred to Palestinian's who had engaged in attacks on Israel as melkhamim.  Melkhamim is Hebrew for warriors.  All the other former directors referred to Palestinian attackers as terroreest, which, as you can tell, is the transliteration word imported into Hebrew for terrorist.  The documentary was excellent and I cannot recommend it highly enough to the SST community.  If you're interested in counter-terrorism, intelligence, counterintelligence, and/or the Israeli/Palestinian dispute you need to see it if it is in your area. All six of the former directors interviewed demonstrated significant nuance in regards to their assignments, their adversaries, the problems Israel faces, and the politicians they work for.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the United States Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Army War College and/or the US Army.

SST Potpourri - 28 november, 2012

"Despite  official U.S. assessments that al Qaeda leadership has been  “decimated,” some experts are insisting that the U.S. maintain a heavy  military footprint in Afghanistan — a strategy that will cost billions of dollars each year. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently addressed the success of U.S. efforts against al Qaeda, saying “al-Qaeda has been significantly weakened in Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Its most effective leaders are gone. Its command, and control have been degraded, and its safe haven is shrinking….we have decimated core al-Qaeda.” The U.S. must still “finish the job” in Afghanistan, Secretary Panetta added, calling for continued commitment on both military and diplomatic fronts. "  Afghanistan Study Group

http://www.afghanistanstudygroup.org/2012/11/26/al-qaeda-decimated-but-us-considers-heavy-military-footprint-in-afghanistan/

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This is all nonsense.  The Afghans are not going to agree to a SOFA that gives US forces legal immunity in their  country and that will be the end of it.  The Pentagon should start preparing for that event.  pl

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William Hague has said today Britain will back the Palestinian bid for United Nations observer status if they agree to peace talks with Israel.  The UK will abstain from debating the issue at the UN General Assembly as there are no guarantees Palestine president Mahmoud Abbas will negotiate.   Express.coDespite official U.S. assessments that al Qaeda leadership has been “decimated,” some experts are insisting that the U.S. maintain a heavy military footprint in Afghanistan — a strategy that will cost billions

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So, the US and Israel will vote against non-member 0bserver status for the PA?  Why does the US continue with the farce of pretending to be an "honest broker" in this dispute?  The soon to be disunited Britain will abstain unless the Palestinians give up a right to press charges against Israel in the international courts?  The Palestinians will win the vote in the General assembly and then prefer charges against such as Natanyahu, Barak and Avigdor Lieberman.  This will expose these Israelis to extradition action by various member states.  Then Israel can be a prison for them in much the same way that Gaza is for the Palestinians.  pl

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/palestinianauthority/9708521/Britain-will-abstain-on-Palestinian-bid-without-assurances-says-William-Hague.html

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"Fresh clashes broke out in Cairo on Wednesday near Tahrir Square, as riot police fired tear gas and charged at Egyptian protesters angry about a move by President Mohamed Morsy to extend his powers." CNN International

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Egypt is on fire again.  There were 100,000 anti-Mursi demonstrators in Tahrir square yesterday.  The US media is obviously avoiding the subject of the imposition of a tyranny in Egypt.  It seems that the revelation of their own naivete two years ago is too much  for them to cope with.  And then there are the naifs and neocons in the governmenr who still cling to their hopes.  pl

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/28/world/meast/egypt-protests/?hpt=hp_t2

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"About 14 percent of the 1.4 million troops in the active-duty military are women. About 280,000 women were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. About 150 women died in those two conflicts. Although there may be growing support in the military to opening some jobs in combat units to women, there remains stiff opposition from the infantry, where the physical demands — like walking long distances carrying heavy loads and handling bulky weapons — are most demanding. In a widely circulated article, a female Marine Corps captain who served in Iraq and Afghanistan wrote in the Marine Corps Gazette this year that seven months in Afghanistan left her physically broken, with muscle atrophy in her leg and an ovarian condition that left her infertile. “I am confident that should the Marine Corps attempt to fully integrate women into the infantry, we as an institution are going to experience a colossal increase in crippling and career-ending medical conditions for females,” the article’s author, Capt. Katie Petronio, wrote. "  NY Times

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If I recall correctly there is a provision in law aganst womens' service in certain combat specialties in the infantry, armor and SF.  If that is so, then congressional repeal of that provision would also be necessary, but since the Congress can be expected to do anything "catchy" that appears popular, well...  I think that since these women see this as a civil rights jobs program issue they should be given the chance to "try it on." My only hope about this is that physical standards are not lowered to make this easier.  War is an equal opportunity employer.  It would be most unfortunate if some of these job seekers literally have to be carried.  pl  

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/28/us/servicewomen-file-suit-over-direct-combat-ban.html?_r=0

 

 

Hezbollah chief warns Israel

"Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel Sunday that any war with Lebanon would see thousands of rockets fired on Israeli cities.

Nasrallah's televised warning comes just days after a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and the end of Ashura, a religious holiday for Shia Muslims.

“If the confrontation in the Gaza Strip given its blockade included missiles reaching 40 to 70 kilometers [into Israel], then the radius of a battle with us will reach occupied Palestine [Israel] from the Lebanese border to the Jordanian border and the Red Sea,” Nasrallah said, according to the Daily Star.

“From Kiryat Shmona to Eilat,” he continued, in reference to Israel's most northern and southern cities.

Nasrallah has previously warned that it now has an arsenal of weapons that could reach Israel's largest city Tel Aviv."  Global Post

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Israel and the "Israel Friendly Community" should take this warning seriously. 

"As of 2010[update], the Israeli government believed Hezbollah had an arsenal of more than 15,000 long-range rockets stationed on its border with Lebanon. Some of these missiles were said to be capable of penetrating cities as far away as Eilat." Wiki on Hizbullah  

Israel's nightmare ought to be a situation in which war with both HAMAS and Hizbullah ocurs and 20,000 odd artillery rockets and short range ballistic missiles are fired at their population centers,  Iron Dome worked reasonably well against HAMAS artillery rockets, but even at the end of hostilities after a week of bombardment by Israel, HAMAS was still firing salvos of rockets at Israeli targets.  HAMAS has buried pre-aimed rockets that are very difficult for the Israelis to locate before they are fired.

A war in which both Islamist groups "unloads" the whole inventory at Israel would produce high casualties and much damage in Israel.

Would there be a lot of damage in Lebanon?  Yes.  Would that deter Hizbullah?  No.  pl  

 

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/israel-and-palestine/121125/hezbollah-chief-warns-israel-marking-e

 

 

Bibi lost at Gaza

Natanyahu looks weak.  The generally militaristic and nationalist electorate in Israel will make him pay for that in the election.  Bibi chose to mobilize for war against HAMAS and then drew back his hand when faced with; Obama, Mursi, the international media and continuing and defiant HAMAS rocket fire out of Gaza.  Iron Dome worked but but the fire out of Gaza continued unabated and Israel faced the possibility that Hizbullah might join in the barrage at some point.

The Palestinians in Gaza are celebrating because in the end the Israelis blinked.  pl 

 http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/23/opposition-parties-lambaste-netanyahu-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/ 

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NK22Ak03.html

 

Mashall says HAMAS could accept Israel

In this interview Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared a position on Palestinian statehood that is nearly identical to that of his Fatah rival, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in an interview with CNN aired Wednesday.

"I accept a Palestinian state according [to] the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital, with the right to return," the Hamas leader told Christine Amanpour in Cairo.

Pushed about his party's refusal to recognize Israel, Mashaal said such a declaration could only be made once a Palestinian state has been created.

"After this state is established, it decides its standing toward Israel," the Hamas leader said.  JPost

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This is much the same thing that Mashall insisted on saying on Charlie Rose's show in 2010.  Rose appeared to be unhappy with this and kept questioning Mashall in the apparent hope that he would express some anti-semitic thoughts.

IMO Mashall can say this until his head falls off or is blown off by the "Israel friendly community" and nothing will result.  Israel does not want peace with the Palestinians on any sort of basis of equality.  The PA has been sufficiently subjugated with money and fear to produce a peace of unequals.  HAMAS has not been subjugaed yet.  The struggle will continue indefinitely.  pl

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/11032 

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=293084&rz=n_22nov12

 

 

Will "iron dome" work against ballistic missiles?

The "iron dome" anti-rocket defense system appears to have functioned well in the recent Gaza crisis.  There remain questions as to whether saturation of the system defense by Hizbullah's massive rocket and missile inventories  could occur, and more importantly, does this system work against ballistic missiles.  pl  

http://dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Nov-22/195872-hezbollah-missiles-would-be-test-for-iron-dome.ashx#axzz2CzMQp5d5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_domestic_weapons_production

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_missiles 

 

Syria, France, Gaza, Natanyahu and Obama

"After almost twenty months, Syria's internal war appears to be approaching a decisive stage. Since early October, rebel forces have been on the offensive in key theaters, while regime forces are stretched thin, increasingly on the defensive, and giving ground. The conflict is evolving from a war of attrition (with the two sides primarily exchanging casualties) to a war of positions, with rebel forces seizing checkpoints, reducing the regime presence in the provinces, interdicting roads, and pressuring key regime strongholds and facilities. Barring a major change in Bashar al-Assad's approach or massive intervention by Hizballah and Iran, the regime's military situation will likely continue to deteriorate, perhaps dramatically, in the weeks ahead."  Jeffrey White

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"... while regime forces are stretched thin,"

White's conclusion that the Syrian Army is "stretched thin" is based on a belief that most of the Syrian Army is unreliable and cannot be used in counter-guerrilla operations.   If that is true and if only 30% or 50% of the Army is usable, then the failure of the government to mount a continuous series of operations to clear the north of rebel forces is understandable.  White does not make it clear what the basis is for his judgment that large parts of the Syrian Army are unreliable.  He is a meticulous analyst and i am sure that he has some solid basis for this judgment.  There are parts of various governments who have the means to know exactly which Syrian units have been employed and with what frequency.  Is this article a reflection of that kind of certain knowledge? 

White also opines that foreign assistance to the rebels would have a significant effect on the outcome of the war.  Well, of course it would.  The Syrian forces are very dependant on their equipment;  aircraft, armored vehicles and artillery pieces to be exact.  Training and equipping of the rebels with weaponry that is effective against these systems  would be very effective and possibly decisive.  The training could be done in Turkey or Jordan.  France has recognised the rebel kaleidoscope of groups as the government of Syria.  Is this a prelude to French action in this area?  pl

http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/syrias-internal-war-turns-against-the-regime

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"The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has exposed Obama and is forcing a reset of their mutual equations even before the US president gets started on his second term in the White House.  Asia Times

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Yes, the Gaza attacks are about Obama and not about HAMAS.  Natanyahu is demonstrating to BHO that he can do as he pleases and that the Congress will back him and not the president of the United States.  It will be interesting to learn what Obama will do about that, if anything.  pl  

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/NK17Ak03.html

 

Bibi's "friend' has been re-elected.

".... former Israeli ambassador to Washington, Sallai Meridor, suggested that Obama would not easily forget that Netanyahu had created a perception that Israel wanted Romney to defeat him. Obama is "very strategic, very disciplined", Meridor said during a panel discussion on the U.S. election at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "But I don't think we can just assume that what happened between them over past four years will have just evaporated," he said. "When people fight for their political life and have the perception that their partner is trying to undermine their chances, it's not going to disappear.""  Reuters

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Yes, "what goes around comes around."  "Payback is a bitch."  Donkeys as well as elephants have long memories.  etc.  I can't remember any more of these old "saws" at the moment.  Seems to me we ought to "unleash" people lke Carville and Plouffe to help the Israelis with their coming election.  "Fair is fair." (ah, another one) As I recall we did that once before with significant effect. 

As for the issue of Bibi's bluster and threats to attack Iran with or without US cooperation and support, I will say again (irony alert) that Israel should safeguard its sovereignty and dignity by doing whatever it wishes to about Iran and should do it alone.  The right wing in Israel "knows" that only a successful (more irony)  Israeli demonstration of its regional hegemony will suffice.  Go for it!   Do it without the US.

And then there is the issue of the Palestinians .  Bibi's coalition has no intention of agreeing to anything like a sizable, truly independent Palestine.  The (more irony) "uppity' Palestinians are trying to sneak into the UN as an observer member state.  If they achieve that goal, Israeli leaders will be liable in the international courts for what they do to a member state.  Good!  pl  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/07/us-usa-campaign-israel-palestinians-idUSBRE8A61D920121107

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/07/binyamin-netanyahu-barack-obama-victory

 

 

An Expert Artisan's View: Ephraim Halevy on Iran and the Foreign Policy Stakes in the US Presidential Election

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

On Sunday, the Al-Monitor published a very in depth and timely interview between reporter Laura Rozen and former Mossad Director and Israeli National Security Advisor Ephraim Halevy.**  The interview covers many important foreign policy issues, specifically dealing with Iran, how to approach one's adverseries, and the impact of Israel's concerns with Iran on the US presidential campaign and US foreign policy.

Some of the most important take aways were his remarks about how one should deal with one's adversaries:

    " Therefore, I realized that dialogue with an enemy is essential. There is nothing to     lose. Although the claim was, if you talk to them, you legitimize them But by not     talking to them, you don't de-legitimate them. So this convinced me, that we all     have been very superficial in dealing with our enemies. [...]

    Not everything you try succeeds. But you have to be willing to try. If you fail 10 times,     and succeed once, the success outweighs the failures.

    What happened: In order to meet public opinion, both Israel and the US governments     have tied our own hands. There is a law [...] which prohibits US officials from talking     to Hamas [...] In the end, you create an inherent disadvantage for yourself."

He also has some really important thoughts in regards to leadership at the strategic level in regards to operations, such as the one to kill/capture bin Laden:

     "I think nobody who has been involved in ordering the use of force can forget the     angst, the days and nights of concern, as to what and how it can be done.

    Romney has said, Anybody could have decided to finish bin Laden. Even [Jimmy]     Carter. This again  was a mistaken concept. President Obama didn’t just decide [one     day to kill bin Laden]. The operation to end the life of bin Laden necessitated     multiple points of decision by him. I know from operations I have been involved with     on a smaller scale.

    They are very intricate. You don’t just give the order and wait in your office for     commanders to come three months later and say it’s done. No. This kind of operation,     which is accident prone, hands on operation, one has to make one decision after the     other […] It took courage and cool headedness and leadership. Anyone who says it     was an easy thing to decide, doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. [Such     comments] show a total lack of understanding of what this kind of operation means.

    Once I was in charge of an operation and Netanyahu was Prime Minister. One day,     because of the intricacy of what we were doing, I talked to him 10 times on the phone     […] Ten times. It was a Friday, a day I will not forget.

    This kind of operation, every minute, an issue comes up, that sometimes requires a     decision on the political level.

    The Libya story, the way it’s being used, is a sordid manipulation. […]"

And he discusses something near and dear to my heart, which is trying to understand the identities of those we have to engage with - allies, competitors, and especially adversaries:

    "Over the years, both because of personal contact with some key figures on the other         side […] I realized, in order to be effective with one’s enemies, you have to have two     essential capabilities: To overcome by force if necessary — and/or to withstand their     force if necessary. And do everything you can to get into their minds and try to     understand how they see things, what their concerns are — their dreams,     aspirations, hopes, feelings are. And where if at all there is room for common ground     of one kind or another.

    I think that what we have had over the years is an abundance of one side, and a dearth     of the other.     There has been a big emphasis, and rightly so, [on overcoming     adversaries by force]. But we have paid little attention [to understanding one’s     enemies.] And I have always had the feeling to look for ways and means of creating     channels for dialogue. I was involved in channels of dialogue in one way or other,     in major and minor roles, as of 1973-1974, when I served here in Washington, D.C., as     Mossad station chief."

The whole interview is excellent.  Ms. Rozen did a great job, so click on over and read the whole thing!  It'll be far more informative on anything at the debate, in the Spin Room, or in the coverage over the next week...

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

** Hat tip to Tom Levenson over at Balloon Juice

No limits on building in E. Jerusalem - Reuters

"Israel's foreign minister on Saturday dismissed criticism by the European Union of Jewish settlement on occupied land the Palestinians seek for a state, advising the 27-nation bloc to attend to its own problems instead."  Reuters

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"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied a newspaper report on Friday that said he had agreed in principle to hand back land annexed from Syria as part of secret U.S.-mediated peace talks that broke off last year."  Reuters

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Israel bestrides the world.  Anyone who thinks that the present Israeli government is in the least interested in an equitable settlement with the Palestinians has only to contemplate these statements.  What is revealed here is a crafty use of half truth and deception used for tactical reasons to obtain the long term goal of unlimited Israeli power in the ME.

Is it part of the agenda that Israel should continue to control the US political process?  Answer that for yourself.  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/20/us-palestinians-israel-eu-idUSBRE89J08S20121020

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/12/us-israel-syria-idUSBRE89B0O320121012

 

"The Triumph and Tragedy of Greater Israel" Henry Siegman

"The Middle East peace process is dead. More precisely, the two-state solution is dead; the peace process may well go on indefinitely if this Israeli government has its way.

The two-state solution did not die a natural death. It was strangulated as Jewish settlements in the West Bank were expanded and deepened by successive Israeli governments in order to prevent the emergence of a viable Palestinian state. The settlement project has achieved its intended irreversibility, not only because of its breadth and depth but also because of the political clout of the settlers and their supporters within Israel who have both ideological and economic stakes in the settlements’ permanence"  Henry Siegman

http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-triumph-greater-israel-7438

When hope was a policy...

Most Americans believe in the idea of the inevitability of "progress" in human affairs.  This belief is descended from the hubris of the "divines" among our puritan founders in New England and the eventual triumph in our history of their thinking.  There were competing idea systems but they lost in the struggle for supremacy that came to blows in 1861.  Since then the notion of a "city on a hill,"' a kind of earthly paradise divinely sanctioned for 'right thinkers" ha prevailed.  This is ironic in light of the simple truth that so many of the "right thinkers" are now unbelievers with regard to the Providence needed to give coherence to their assumptions concerning humanity.  Nevertheless, over the decades, indeed, now centuries, the "center of gravity" in US  thinking with regard to self-image as "savior" of mankind has grown stronger and stronger until we now reach a state of perfection in our own minds that is matched only by the defects in our present situation.

The foreign policy establishment of the US is now dominated by three groupings

1- The neocon/jacobin group who have an unlimited faith in American destiny as the world power, a force for world revolution in pursuit of ancient jacobin goals of "liberte, egalite, fratenite" and also a clear allegiance to Israel as America;s "friend."  The neocons believe that the US "won" in Iraqbecause there is revolution throughout the Arab Wordl.  They seem to believe that the outcome of revolution is irrelevant.

2- There has emerged  what for lack of a better term might be called the Tea Party hyper natonalist group.  For these people  everything is a case of "my country, may she always be in the right, but, my country right or wrong." (Stephen Decatur)  Stephen Colbert does a marvelous job of ridiculing this group, but then, they don't watch his program any more than they read SST.  Mitt Romney seeks their support through a pretentious display of mediocrity.

3- The last, and presently controlling, element in the Executive Branch is the liberal/internationalist/IR trained group.  These people see themselves as shepherds for mankind.  Theiy believe that the US should support and sponsor "democratic" revolution everywhere in the belief that "popular" revolution must lead to good things for the masses across the world.  The possibility that "popular" revolution may disguise itself and secretly harbor regressive political ambitions that can lead to theocracies and sectarian oppression is not given much credence by this group.  The people in this group were taught in university that professions of adherence to ancient idea systems are merely a "surface" illusion, beneath which lie essentially economic realities. They have some things in common with the neocons but are not as fonf of military intervention.  They are often called "neo-wilsonian."

The third group rules.  BHO, HC, Anne Marie Slaughter from Princeton and oh, so many others are firmly in this "camp."  As a result the US believes the drivel fed them by the MB in Egypt, thinks that Turkey is run by "moderates," accepts the idea that fighters in Syria are liberal democrats (like them),even as those these figters cry out for defeat of the "infidel' government and proudly wear the beards that are a symbol of their faith.  Support from the Saudi theocratic plutocracy for those fighters does not seem to have meaning for the the ruling group in the US.  Ah, I forgot, they think Saudi Arabia is a "firend" to the US.  maybe that is what BHO's bow was about.

It will be said in comments here that everything in American foreign policy is secretly about ne-colonialist economic looting.  Ah, well....

I see no particular benefit in foreign policy that would emerge from a Republican victory in November.  All three groups are sailing  aboard a "ship of fools."  pl

Romney and primitive Palestinians

IMO the Israeli government behaved correctly toward Romney.  They were respectful but careful not to prejuduce their relationship with BHO's administration.  Dan Senor, the neocon mouthpice on Romney's stsff, did not succeed in having Romney compromise his freedom of action if he is elected.  Even Bibi held bsck a little,  Barak and Peres acted like the statesmen they are.

Romney, on the other hand managed to imply that the Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories are "wogs" through and through and incapable of self improvement due to their backwardness. 

I accept the fact that some cultures are more of a handicap to the improvement of the material lot of the people than others.  Do not ask.  Nevertheless, the Palestinians are the least likely candidates for that kind of condemnation that i can think of.  Did Senor "feed" Romney this "line" or was it Bolton?

In fact,  the Palestinians both at home and in the diaspora, are among the most educated populations, in the Middle East.  They enthusiastically embraced Western education under both Ottoman and British government, and my experience of them is that they have a highly developed middle class who prosper wherever they go and are valuable citizens.

Their long quarrel with the Jews is a tragedy for all mankind.  Under Israeli occupation they have suffered many indignities and deprivations.  Beyond the question of the personal humiliations of an occupied people subjected to the attentions of the Shin Bet and an occupation army made up largely of teen-aged soldiers showing off for each other, there have been crushing economic penalties inflicted by an exclusivist nationalist colonial stste.

Taxes are collected from the Paeestinians and then withheld from those who paid them.  This seems to be in the hope that this will intimidate the Palestinians into acceptance of "helot" status.  Infrastruction projects are withheld, Emplyoment in Israel is denied.  Houses and neighborhoods are demolished as "mass punishment."  After Oslo there was a period of hope for the Jews and the Palestinians.  This was the time of Barak's premiership.  Palestinian capital from abroad flowed massively into into the WB and Gaza.  The economy flourished, but that golden age was followed by a drive to wreck the Palestinians' possible state.  This drive was successful.

Was Arafat's governmet corrupt?  Yes, so what?  All government's are more or less corrupt.  The people prospered under his rule until Israel wrecked what they had built.

In such a context Romnay imples that the Palesinians are responsible for their poverty.  Either this man is without conscience or he is too ignorant to be president.  pl

Oh, Jerusalem!

"The status of Jerusalem is among the most explosive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, defying resolution throughout two decades of on-again, off-again peace talks. Today, the Arab and Jewish sections of the city are worlds apart.

Job discrimination against Arab Jerusalemites is common and investments in infrastructure and education in east Jerusalem are far below the levels plowed into the western sector. The discrimination has stifled economic development, fueled chronic joblessness and stoked poverty.

"We often use slogans in regard to Jerusalem and refrain from looking at the reality of Jerusalem. The result is that the discrepancy is something that many people have trouble adjusting to and accepting," Olmert told Israel TV."  Foxnews/AP

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Ehud Olmert was Deputy Mayor of occupied Jerusalem under that great and good man, Teddy Kollek.  At the time he looked like a genuine hard a-s on this subject and would glower at Kollek in meetings when the subject of the rights of the Arab citizens of the city came up.

When he became PM, he evidently had his "road to Damascus" moment (irony alert), and began to make offers to the Palestinians of some sort of shared sovereignty as a road to peace.  The Palestinians, never wishing to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity grandly rebuffed him with the "not enough" slogan.

The old, walled city of Jerusalem lies at the heart of any chance of a settlement not built on Arab and Israeili skulls.  The Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City plus other parts of East Jerusalem, like Shiekh Jarrah, the Mount of Olives south of Mount Scopus and Abu Dis are indispensible parts of any partition that the Palestinians might accept.

A shared administration of such necessities as electricity, water, trash disposal, sewage and policing is possible.  There have been existing plans for schemes of government based on such ideas for many years.

!n 1973 I heard Admiral Moorer, then CJCS lecture on peace for the Holy Land.  When he finished, I asked him how he would deal with Jerusalem in a settlement.  He fell silent and then said that this could be settled "at a later time."  Is this the time?  pl

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/20/former-israeli-pm-jerusalem-must-be-partitioned/#ixzz1vQgkL56M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem

 

Palestinian Unity

"Hamas, recognized as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, appears to be undergoing a worrisome process of legitimization of late.

Over the past few months, Ismail Haniyeh has been meeting and greeting the heads of numerous “moderate” Muslim states, including Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Bahrain, where he has been received with much pomp and ceremony. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, accompanied by Qatar’s crown prince, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, was, meanwhile, hosted at the end of January by Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

All of these meetings, even if they have only symbolic meaning, mark a change in the way states in the region view Hamas. In the past, Sunni Arab rulers nominally aligned with the West shunned Hamas. Sunni Hamas was forced to form allegiances with Alawiteruled Syria and Shi’ite Iran."  Jpost

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Hamas has offered Israel a long term, renewable, religiously sanctioned truce.

The US has Hamas on a "terrorist list?"  This is a policy driven list.  Did God write this list on stone tablets? Groups and countries come and go from the list.  Wasn't Qaddhafi's Libya removed from the list for policy reasons by the Bush Administration?  Do the neocons not seek the removal of MEK from the list for reasons of their own? 

The truth is that Israel does not want Hamas to be part of a coalition with which it would make peace because Israel does not want to make a peace of equals.   What it wants is a peace that involves Israel and the other side a collection of technologically primitive and economically crippled Muslim states that meekly accept the idea of Israeli hegemony in the Greater Middle East.

Note well that the story of this coalition leadership is being largely ignored in the US media.  pl

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=256906

"a fate unequaled" JD Ledell

Much of the Israeli psych is due to the shoah. They consider it the greatest tragedy to befall a people, ever. About half the Jewish population in the world was killed, a fate unequaled. Aside from the appropriateness of this conclusion, it is one deeply embedded in Jewish Israelis. What, you might ask, does this have to do with WP? I have relatives in both the IDF and IAF and there is an attitude prevalent that anything we do to the Palestinians is not anywhere near as bad as was done to us. Consequently, bombing the civilian apartment blocks in South Beirut, far from any military action, was acceptable. Killing only 1500 Palestinians in Gaza is a drop in the bucket compared with what was done to us.

Consequently, whatever brutality we visit upon the Palestinians is acceptably minor in comparison. I have a nephew who is a Golani captain and his orders in Gaza City during Cast Lead was under NO CIRCUMSTANCES let one of his men be captured, either dead or alive. Anything else is okay. He ordered tank fire on apartments if he saw any movement in windows with no consideration if that movement was civilian. His men would take over housing to place snipers on the top floor and keep the civilians inside to deter counter fire from Hamas. Its ironic that it was felt that Hamas would be reluctant to fire on civilian buildings, the IDF was not so deterred. Vaclav Linek - my current thinking is that the IDF launched another Cast Lead, Egypt would stay out of any direct action but the flow of weapons through the tunnels would increase. I suspect some Egyptian soldiers would defect and bring themselves and equipment to the fight. Another Cast Lead will cause Egypt to annul the treaty with Israel.  JD Ledell

Happy New Year to Benny Gantz

"Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz marked the three-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead on Tuesday by hailing it "an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas." However, he warned, cracks have emerged in that deterrence over time, and a second round of fighting in the Gaza Strip is not a matter of choice for Israel.

Such a round must be initiated by Israel and must be "swift and painful," he said, adding, "I do not advise Hamas to test our mettle.""  Haaretz

---------------------------------------------------------

This famous picture of a child burnt by napalm is known to all.  Less well known is the detail that the napalm was dropped by VNAF fighter bombers trying to keep the NVA from capturing her town just outside Saigon toward the end of the war.  Awful.

In Operation Cast Lead the IDF used shells loaded with white phophorus,  WP may be even worse than napalm.  The phosphorus lights itself and burns at ambient temperature.  It burns underwater.  If you have it on you the only practical thing to do is cut it out.

The ammunition is normally used for creating smoke barriers on a battlefield to obscure the movements of friendly forces.  You may remember that on one occasion the IDF used it on a school for children, a school sponsored by the UN.

"that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas."   Did it?  Did it really?  pl

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/idf-chief-gaza-war-against-hamas-was-an-excellent-operation-1.403977

Quo Vadis? The Future for Israel and the Palestinians By: Robert K. Lifton

After more than a year of stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, it is clear that for the foreseeable future there will be no deal resolving their differences and establishing a Palestinian state. It is fruitless to blame one side or the other. In my article in the Huffington Post titled “The Very Hard Decisions Required For Peacemaking Between Israel And The Palestinians” I pointed out why the leaders of both sides face obstacles to deal making that make it very difficult for each of them even if they so desired. Simply put, for the Palestinians it is giving up the right of millions of Diaspora Palestinians to return to their former homes in Israel. For Israel, it is the ability to remove thousands of settlers from their homes in areas that would be included in the Palestinian state in a two state solution. But it goes beyond the fact that these obstacles operate to frustrate the desires of the parties. In truth, neither leader seems to desire a deal enough to make any meaningful compromise. The government of Israel, led by Mr. Netanyahu and his coalition, has shown no willingness to compromise in order to make a deal and continues to expand settlements despite international pressure to stop. And the Fatah government of Mr. Abbas, by embracing Hamas, has given Israel a legitimate reason to argue that it can’t countenance any deal with an entity committed to its destruction. 

It seems appropriate, then, to speculate on what the future holds for the parties under these circumstances of a stalemate. Here are some of the scenarios that one can project. 

An Invented People? by Richard Sale

Year	Jews	Christians	Muslims	Total1
First half 1st century CE	Majority	-	-	~2,500²
5th century	Minority	Majority	-	>1st century
End 12th century	Minority	Minority	Majority	>225
14th cent. before Black Death	Minority	Minority	Majority	225
14th cent. after Black Death	Minority	Minority	Majority	150
1533–1539	5	6	145	157
1690–1691	2	11	219	232
1800	7	22	246	275
1890	43	57	432	532
1914	94	70	525	689
1922	84	71	589	752
1931	175	89	760	1,033
1947	630	143	1,181	1,970      pl from wiki cited below

^1. Figures in thousands.

----------------------------------------------

By Richard Sale, author of Clinton’s Secret Wars 

My son once asked me about a remark by a comedian who asserted that the Palestinians were never a people, and I replied to him, “That’s an AIPAC argument. I used to see it in the writings of reflexive American far-right Israeli supporters except even the hard right in Israel (some of whom I talk to) no longer disputes that the Palestinians are and were a people. Were they a people united by language, race and a common culture like the Jews? No said AIPAC. But for seven hundred years the Arabs or Palestinians made up the majority of the population of what was called Palestine before Israel became a state in 1947 -- (that’s when the U.N. vote was taken at the U.N. in Flushing Meadow New York to partition Palestine between Arabs and Jews.) 

 The Palestinians were a village people who lived in settlements ranging from a few dozen people to a thousand. They placed their villages near springs and sited them on ground that had defensive features so that they could be safe from the marauding raids of the Bedouin tribes who were always wandering in off the desert and helping themselves to what belonged to other people. There was always a low-level of warfare between the Palestinian villagers and the Bedouin tribes. 

Fire Jennifer Rubin

"or if it was an explicit endorsement of Abrams' call for murdering Palestinians, whom she described as "unmanned animals" and "child-sacrificing savages." Rubin replied matter-of-factly that it was the latter: she supported Abrams' message. According to Pexton, "But in this case Rubin told me that she did agree with Abrams. Rubin said that she admires Abrams, has quoted her a lot, thinks she’s an excellent writer and endorsed the sentiment behind the Abrams blog post.""  Blumenthal

---------------------------------------------

I guess this woman can find a job in Israel.  pl

http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/gadfly/despite-major-rebuke-washington-posts-jennifer-rubin-endorses-slaughtering-palestinians

"And Their Offspring" Rachel Abrams

"and their offspring"  Rachel Decter Abrams

---------------------------

Remarkable.  This cri de coeur is so base, so vile, so grounded in racist hatred that I am at a loss to say anyhting about it. 

This woman is of a prominent intellectual family.  How can this be? pl

http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201110190003

 

 

CAN THEIR LEADERS MAKE THE VERY HARD DECISIONS REQUIRED FOR PEACEMAKING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS?

by Robert Lifton

Now that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has applied to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state and membership in the UN, putting great pressure on all the parties, the Quartet (the United States, the UN, the European Union and Russia has presented a plan to the UN General Assembly. The plan calls for Israeli and Palestinian negotiators to meet without preconditions within a month and to have security plans in place within three months. It calls for significant progress to be made within six months and a final peace agreement by the end of next year.

“What is all the negotiation about,” many people ask, “after all the years of negotiations, doesn’t everyone know the issues and the solutions that are required for an end of conflict deal between the parties?”  I think it is true that everyone involved knows the issues and even the ultimate outline of the deal. What most people don’t realize is that two elements of the deal involve not only difficult but possibly life threatening decisions by the two leaders. Let me elaborate.

National Journal Blog - 26 September 2011

 
After Palestinian Statehood Bid, What's Next for the U.S.? - National Security Experts.

DEAFENING SILENCE by Harper

 
The deafening silence in Washington on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ heroic defiance of the Obama Administration’s efforts to kill of the Palestinian bid for United Nations full membership leads me to an obvious conclusion:  The White House has put tremendous pressure on everyone within their reach to go silent.  No doubt, similar efforts from AIPAC and others are bolstering this top-down effort to pretend that last week’s events in New York never happened.  Of course a few brave voices like Henry Siegman did not buy into the omerta, but the vast majority of people who should have commented on the Obama capitulation to Bibi Netanyahu have so far towed the line.  

            This is both unfortunate and foolhardy.  The die has been cast, and there will be a vote—sooner or later—at the UN Security Council.  It may, if the Obama Administration has its way, take months for that showdown vote to occur.  But it will occur, and likely, in the meantime, the PA will win General Assembly approval for non-member observer state status.  This will give the Palestinians access to the International Court of Justice and other UN bodies.  I know that senior Israeli Defense Force officers are very unhappy at the prospect of having to restrict their overseas travels, based on pending complaints and threats of arrest or interrogation. 

            The behavior of President Obama in New York—his patronizing scolding of the Palestinians in his address to the General Assembly, his pressure on Security Council member states like Nigeria, Gabon and Bosnia Herzegovina, to abstain from a Security Council vote on Palestinian full UN membership, and worst of all, his groveling with Bibi—cannot be swept under the rug.  An apparently deep rift has opened between Washington and Paris, after French President Sarkozy offered an alternative mediation to Washington’s hardline stance against any Palestinian action at the UN.  President Obama, according to my White House sources, pitched a fit that the French are suggesting that all roads to Middle East peace do not pass through Washington.  Europe is deeply divided over the fate of Palestine.  Saudi Arabia stepped in on the eve of the General Assembly to provide the PA with $200 million and a promise of further Gulf states aid, thus offsetting the Israeli freeze on tax payments to the PA and the anticipated U.S. Congress cut off of aid. 

            The next step is uncertain, but clearly the events in New York City last week and this will be looked back upon as a watershed.  The U.S.-led Middle East peace process has been shown for what is has been since at least the day that Bill Clinton left office, and maybe earlier:  all process and no peace.  Abbas has, for the moment, emerged from the shadows of the late Yasser Arafat and established himself as a leader in his own right.  It was a deft political move. The PA and Fatah are strengthened.  All of the good will that President Obama garnered from his Cairo speech in 2009 and his address to the same UN General Assembly in Sept. 2010 has been squandered, ostensibly in order to retain a few Jewish votes and the hope of continuing AIPAC largess.  I doubt he will realize either. 

Siegman on Palestinian Independence

 
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/palestinians-declare-independence-us-5919

Perry should register under FARA

 
"Appearing with American Jewish leaders and Israeli political figures at a hotel in midtown Manhattan, the Republican presidential candidate decried the Obama administration's approach to the Middle East as a "policy of appeasement" and "a dangerous insult" to Americans and Israelis alike. He called for a policy tilted toward Israel and to "reconsider" U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority.

"There is no middle ground between our allies and those who seek their destruction," said Perry, who is being advised on foreign policy by some of the leading neoconservative voices of the George W. Bush administration. "America should not be ambivalent between the terrorist tactics of Hamas and the security tactics of the legitimate and free state of Israel.""   SFGATE

------------------------------------------------

I take it back.  There is nothing I like about Perry.  Does that mean I am going have to vote for BO?  Ugh!

For this clown (RP) to appear with a group of Israel-first "Americans" and actual members of Izrul's (RP pronounced it that way) parliament was just insuffereable in the context of the UN meetings underway.  I acknowledge that Manhattan is a borough of Tel Aviv, but this level of disrespect to the US head of state while diplomacy is actually in progress over Palestinian statehood was so wildly transparent as a "sellout" for Jewish and Evangelical votes that it sets a new standard for political chicanery.  pl

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/20/MN0B1L76LO.DTL#ixzz1Yaxb3rTo

 

"Dangerous" to whom?

 
"Speaking at a Likud supporters’ rally in New York City, Perry said that he was “indignant of the Obama administration and their Middle East policy of appeasement that has encouraged such an ominous act of bad faith. Simply put, we would not be here today at this very precipice of such a dangerous move if the Obama policy in the Middle East was not naive and arrogant, misguided and dangerous.”"  JPost

---------------------------------------

Is Rick Perry running for the Knesset?  Or, is he seeking the position of right hand man to Jesus when the Rapture comes?  Or, is he just seeking to follow the counsel of his Middle East Ziocon adviser, Douglas Feith?

Obama is vunerable among Jewish Americans.   Some have come to believe that  he might actually not be completely at the beck and call of his big money supporters and insufficiently fearful of AIPAC, Israel's organized pals in Washington.  And then, there are all the "mouth breathers" out there in he population who are not smart enough to think for themselves about "Izrul!"  After all, didn't Paul Newman found "Izrul?"

Too bad about Perry, Obama is a lousy president, self-obsessed, vulnerable to flattery and indecisve.   There are many things about Perry that I like, but not enough to put up with his sell out to the Likud.  pl

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=238743

We should give Israel our veto in the UNSC

 
"...Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people."  Turki bin Feisal

--------------------------------------

Prince Turki is well known to Americans who deal with the Middle East.  He has a long record of close cooperation with the US Government.  He is US educated and is as comfortable in the US as anyone from abroad can be. His anecdotes of life at Lawrenceville as a boy are hilarious.  He does not enjoy telling us that we are about to lose his country as an ally. 

Saudi Arabia has long contemplated the ever more obvious tranformation of the US into what amounts to a client state of Israel.  In the last few years the nearly absolute control of Amerucan foreign policy, personnel appointments and diplomacy by Israel has reached such a level of certitude in every day matters that people are afraid to question this control in fear for their livelihoods. This is to be seen in the government itself, in the "think-tankeries" of the magalopolis and in journalism. 

The "Israel Power" now demands an American veto of Palestinian UN membership in the Security Council.  Such a veto will lose us Saudi Arabia as an ally.  People like Turki do not make such threats idly.  For an Arab, especially a Saudi, to make such blunt statements as those in his NY Times op-ed is a difficult thing.  His willingness to do that is indicative of despair.

We are told by the US Government that we will veto the application because we love peace and that UN membership for the Palestinians would be an obstacle to peace.   Such pronouncements reduce the American citizeny to the status of mushrooms, a rabble to be kept in the dark and fed horseshit. 

The truth is that our Israeli masters fear and hate the Palestinians as tribal enemies and do not intend to ever deal fairly with them.  All else is lies and mirrors.

In humble service to the hegemon we will vote this week to destroy whatever hope there might be for American influence in the Islamic World.  After that we should prepare for whatever new wars Israel may want us to fight for them.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/12/opinion/veto-a-state-lose-an-ally.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Turki&st=cse

Flotilladamerung...

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

It looks like the next round of flotilla disputes between the Israelis and the Turks is just about ready to kick off. (Hat tip to Zandar) And this time, provided the reporting is correct, the Turks are not going to just send the relief ships.  Just one more problem set to worry about as Septemeber rolls on.  We should all keep good thoughts that cooler heads prevail and that, if they don't, Turkey doesn't invoke its Article 5 rights under the North Atlantic Treaty.  Then again, that might prove very, very interesting...

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College and/or the US Army.

Bethlehem U. people attacked.

 
"Dear friends,

This kind of stuff rarely makes the news in the USA.

chm (Father Charles H. Miller) 

If you're having trouble viewing this email, you may see it online.

 

Share This:

This e   6 September 2011 Bethlehem, Palestine   Dear Alumni and Friends of Bethlehem University,   Generally, I am delighted to write to you with some encouraging news about happenings at Bethlehem University. Today, however, I have some disturbing and unfortunate news to share with you. A Bethlehem University Professor and Student Survive Two Separate Attacks by Israeli Settlers  In the early morning hours of Monday, 5 September 2011, while travelling in the West Bank between the Palestinian villages of Al-Lubban and Turmos Aya and near the Israeli settlements of Ofarim and Bet Ariye along the Nablus-Ramallah, Dr. Adwan Adwan, a faculty member in the Arabic Department at Bethlehem University, was the victim of a violent attack by some 20 Israeli settlers who threw rocks in his face, injuring his head, shoulder, and stomach. His car was blocked by a pile of burning tires when he quickly came under what he said felt like a well-orchestrated ambush. Dr. Adwan eventually was able to speed away from the scene and get himself to a hospital for treatment. "I felt lucky to escape with my life," he says.

Arab League calls for full UN seat for Palestine

 
"The Arab League will apply to upgrade the Palestinians to full member status at the United Nations, according to a draft statement from a league meeting in Qatar on Thursday.

"It was decided to go to the United Nations to request the recognition of the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and to move ahead and request a full membership," said the communique, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters."  Reuters

------------------------------

Yup, looks like "show time" at the UN.  Behind the "curtain" the Israelis and their "friends" are pulling every string they can find to block this.  If all else fails they may stage some diversion to derail the train.  Alternatively, they will order Obama to veto the UNSC resolution even though they may not be able to block
GA action.

Will full UN recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state make any difference?  I think it will because Israel and its leaders could then be subject to legal action before the ICC for aggression against a member state of the UN.  Indictments pursued with Interpol action would be likely.  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/palestinians-israel-statehood-arabs-idUSLDE76D0S920110714

It would be a Muslim state.... by Itai

We have a new guest author on SST.  "Itai" is an Israeli of whom I know nothing other than that he writes to me.  His first post appears below.  pl

 

--------------------------------------------

 

 
If there is an independent State ever created in the west bank,  it will not be a Palestinian state it will be a Muslim State. First, because the so-called Palestinians do not want such a state. They always said no. And secondly, because the Palestinians themselves make clear, from PLO to Hamas, it will be a Muslim state.

 

The are no unknown with respect to Hamas, which as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, seeks an Islamic Caliphate. Hamas charter does not mention a Palestinian state. As it relates to the PLO, the agreed upon constitution of the future Palestinian state, states things clearly.

 

Article 2  states  that “The Palestinian people are part of the Arab and Islamic nations. Arab unity is a goal. ". Article 5 states: " Islam is the official religion in Palestine.." And Article 7 also makes it clear: " The principles of the Islamic sharia are a main source for legislation”. This constitution was formulated by a serious team of lawyers, from the West and the Arab world, headed by Nabil Shaath, A Member of the PLO not Hamas. (“http://www.pcpsr.org/domestic/2003/nbrowne.pdf”)

The proposed constitution does not stop the Palestinians, like other propagandists from the Arab world, the West and Israel, to recite the mantra that there is no such thing as a Jewish state and a Jewish state is necessarily a racist state. "

 

 

Siegman on the death of the "Peace Process"

 
"Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress, no less than Congress's reaction to that speech, effectively buried the Middle East peace process for good. For what America's solons were jumping up and down to applaud so wildly as they pandered pathetically to the Israel lobby was Netanyahu's rejection of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, thus endorsing his determination to maintain permanently Israel's colonial project in the West Bank.

If Netanyahu succeeds in his objective, these members of Congress will be able to take credit for an Israeli apartheid regime that former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak, Ariel Sharon, and Ehud Olmert predicted would be the inescapable consequence of policies the congressmen cheered and promised to continue to support as generously as they have in the past."  Henry Siegman

-------------------------------------------

Henry Siegman is a good man who has labored in many vinyards in pursuit of justice.  I have known him for a long time.  His persistent pursuit of a two state solution is rooted not only in a wish to see "tikun olam" (a better world) but also in a belief that Israel cannot, in the long run, survive with a large subject Arab population. Since he does not believe that they can or should be expelled from "Eretz Israel," he long ago reached the solution that the map must be re-drawn to put them outside Israel's borders.

There have always been flaws n his theory of "the solution."  One of them is the sad problem that neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians are really resigned to the idea of the other side as co-occupants of historic and geographic Palestine.  This results in a constant effort to "out-play" the other side.  In other words, what we are really seeing on the surface of things is posturing while below the surface all is mere "tactics."  Another problem for Henry's view is that there are vitually no Palestinian Arabs, whether in the occupied territories, in the diaspora, nor among the Israeli Arabs who harbor any good will for Israel or Israeli Jews.  Druze, and the handful of Negev Beduin in the IDF?  These are not large groups.  They do not affect the situation.  Basically, Israel has no Arab friends, especially among the Palestinians.  This never boded well for agreements that could be seen as fair by both sides an the situation has not improved.

The Arab/Israeli confrontation is a catstrophe without end, a catastrophe in which the United States has been trapped by ruthless people who shrink from nothing to attain their goals.  pl

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/08/what_have_obama_and_netanyahu_wrought

Israel Kills 24 in Golan Heights, 350 Injured, Crowds in Tel Aviv March - Salem News

 
"Syrian media sources confirmed that Israeli soldiers shot and killed on Sunday 24 protesters who gathered on the Syrian side of the border of the Israeli occupied Golan Heights marking the Naksa Day, while at least 350 were injured.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees and supporters marched near the border marking the Naksa, the day Israel the illegally arrested the rest of Palestine in 1967.

The protesters were demanding their right to return to their homeland when the Israeli forces opened fire at them. At least eight of the wounded are in serious conditions."  Salem News

********************************

The original source for the news in this story appears to be the "Jewish Telegraphic Agency." (JTA) 

It has to be noted that the Syrian government has killed at least 1,500 Syrians in its current campaign of repression

Nevertheless, the willingness of Bibi's government to have its infantry use ball ammunition against unarmed Palestinian marchers is reprehensible.  They are climbing the Golan border fences?  OK  Round them up and send them back at the Quneitra crossing on the Golan Heights.  22 killed?  Maybe.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

"At a march organized by a number of Israeli center-left groups, around 5,000 protesters marched through the streets of downtown Tel Aviv Saturday night calling for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.

Participants in the march and rally included non-governmental organizations Peace Now and Gush Shalom, and political parties Meretz, Labor and the Derech faction of the Kadima party."  Salem News

----------------------------------

This is the bigger story.  5,000?  Really?  What will the Israeli government do if this happens again?  Will they use the gray uniformed Border Police.  This force is heavily Druze.  They are often used against Palestinian demonstrators since this Arabic speaking minority does not identify with the other Palestinians and does not hesitate to beat and shoot them.  pl

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june062011/palestine-uprising.php

 

"... France enters the Palestinians' run to September" - A Times

 
"“We are convinced that if nothing happens between now and September, the situation will be difficult for everyone,” Juppe said at a news conference after meeting Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

Juppe stopped short of saying his country would support the Palestinian effort if Israel turns down the French initiative, which is expected to happen, emphasizing that “if nothing happens until September … all options will be open.”"  LA Times

----------------------------------

Evidently the French are trying to gain enough leverage to persuade the Palestinians not to ask the UN General assembly for recognition and membership.

AIPAC's "apparat" is going all out to do what it can to stop this before it happens.  There are ads on television run specifically against President Obama saying that he is "siding with the Palestinians."  When did that happen?  I am hard pressed to remember the occasion.  He appears to me to be altogether on the Israeli "team." 

He said that the negotiations for a settlement should be on "adjusted" 1967 armistice lines.  Whoa!  AIPAC!  As you know that has been the basis of all negotiations for decades. 

The Likud bloc (in Israel and in the US) is so opposed to that basis for negotiations that I am led to believe that what they want is to negotiate a "Palestine" that would consist of a "spotty' series of "indian reservations" or Bantustans' within greater Israel.

The tribal cry of "never again" is so clearly the basis of all this effort that the inherent hostility of the Likud bloc to all non-Jews is beyond argument.

it apears that negotiation of a two state solution is impossible.  pl

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/06/west-bank-the-race-to-september-the-palestinians-final-run.html

On Tribalism...

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

COL Lang has absolutely, 100% hit the nail on the head regarding Dr. Krauthammer's views pertaining to US policy in the Middle East, especially regarding Israel.  The best evidence of this is MJ Rosenberg's recounting of Dr. Krauthammer's behavior at Yom Kippur (for the non-Judaica informed: The Day of Atonement, the Holiest Day of the Jewish religious calendar) services from 2001:

"About three years ago, I saw Krauthammer flip out in synagogue on Yom Kippur. The rabbi had offered some timid endorsement of peace — peace essentially on Israel's terms — but peace anyway. Krauthammer went nuts. He actually started bellowing at the rabbi, from his wheel chair in the aisle. People tried to "shush" him. It was, after all, the holiest day of the year. But Krauthammer kept howling until the rabbi apologized. The man is as arrogant as he is thuggish. Who screams at the rabbi at services? For advocating peace?"**

This would be the equivalent of going after the Archbishop at either Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve or Good Friday or Easter Sunday Mass for saying something in his homily that one disagreed with.  Dr. Krauthammer is without doubt a smart man.  He is without doubt an educated man.  He is also, without a doubt, a Jew without Mercy.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College or the US Army.

**MJ Rosenberg's original link to his archive where he recounted the Yom Kippur incident is dead/missing.  He refers to the incident in several later posts and columns, which I've hyperlinked to for you all, and then links to the Washington Monthly's post that quotes his original story, which I've also hyperlinked to for you all.

The Book of Netanyahu - Giraldi

 
"On the First Day Lord Netanyahu met with his faithful counselor Count Avigdor. Avigdor said, "O Lord Netanyahu, you must go even unto the land of the Obamaites to deal with their King. The Obamaites have rendered unto us their gold and precious goods in great abundance but now their King is seeking to treat with our enemies." Then Netanyahu spoke and his heart was full of anger. "Yea verily, we must smite them and also their wives and children and all that they hold dear. For even as we have smitten the children of Canaan we will strike them. They shall ken who is master and who is slave. Prepare for me my chariot of gold and I will journey even unto the land of the Obamaites with my host. Instruct our brethren in the land of the Obamaites to prepare for my coming with stealth. Organize them with weapons ready at hand and instruct them to deceive the Obamaites by declaring fealty and respect for the Kingdom of Obama so the King’s retainers will not fear them. When the King of the Obamaites declares his bad faith they shall be prepared to rise up and join us." And so it was done. Lord Netanyahu ascended into his chariot of gold to confront the King of the Obamaites and smite him sorely. And the children of Israel rejoiced."  Giraldi

http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2011/05/25/the-book-of-netanyahu/

The division of the Holy Land - gdledell

 
Charles - I am a dual citizen of Israel having lived there in the 1980's and I have been going back and forth to Israel twice a year for the holidays since 1956 to visit my relatives - all 37 of them live in the settlements. You ask what Bibi should have said - here is my answer. We are living in momentous times and the world is changing rapidly. Some of it good and some not so good but that is the nature of change. Israel and the United States must remain ahead of that change to remain strategically viable. To that end President Obama has rightfully committed himself to help move the Arab world towards democracy and I believe he will lead other nations in a similar direction. Israel also must do her part to help this rapid change become positive. To that end, I propose to you, our Palestinian and Arab brothers an historic opening for Peace. In the negotiations, I will be guided by these principles: All humans deserve dignity and opportunity be they Arab, Jew or other. I thus commit myself and Israel to a peace agreement that is just and allows the Palestinians to enjoy their lives with dignity and honor. I believe Mr. Abbas and Mr. Fayyad are honorable men who are capable of leading their people to peace. I propose that a border be delineated between us that will correspond to the 67 borders with the following modifications:

Bibi, as seen in Ha'aretz.

 
""A wasted opportunity" was the headline of the editorial in the Haaretz newspaper, which said the Israeli prime minister had lost an "outstanding opportunity to present a vision of a just and sustainable peace."

"Netanyahu wasted the generous credit he got from his American hosts in order to cast accusations at the Palestinians and impose endless obstacles in connection with the core issues," it said, accusing him of "leading Israel and the Palestinians into a new round of violence, along with Israel's isolation."

"We are heading straight for the wall," Haaretz correspondent Ari Shavit told army radio.

"He made peace with Congress, but he lost the world,""

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I could not have said it better. Bibi has killed any chance of peace.  In his speech to the Congress, Natanyahu dictated the terms of a peace in which the Palestinians simply surrender to Israel.  There is nothing left to negotiate. pl

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/2/8/12894/World/Region/Israeli-press-sees-Pyrrhic-victory-in-Netanyahus-C.aspx

Flash! - Israel declines annexation of the United States. (satire)

 
"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. 

"Vice President Biden, Speaker Boehner, distinguished senators, members of the House, honored guests, I’m deeply moved by this warm welcome. And I’m deeply honored that you’ve given me the opportunity to address Congress a second time. 

Mr. Vice President, do you remember the time that we were the new kids in town? 

And I do see a lot of old friends here, and I see a lot of new friends of Israel here, as well -- Democrats and Republicans alike. 

Israel has no better friend than America, and America has no better friend than Israel."

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The US Department of "Relations with Israel" has formally rejected British, Canadian and Puerto Rican claims of "closest" alliance with the United states.

In an impassioned speech today to the western (trans-Atlantic) branch of the Knesset, Prime Minister Natanyahu warmly accepted the 36 standing ovations of the US Congress, but stated firmly that in spite of Mormon claims of the early settlement of North "America" by the lost tribes of Israel and recent archaeology that the LDS church cites in support of that "fact," Israel could not in conscience accept the offer to merge the United States with Israel under the Israeli Basic Law.  Such a merger, he said would be traumatic for those "Americans" who could not claim Israeli citizenship under the Israeli "Law of the Return."

Senator Harry Reid of the district of Nevada expressed great sorrow at this rejection, saying at a press moment that he hoped that "President" Obama's disrespect, expressed earlier in the week, for the just claims of Israel to all the land between the Mediterranean and the Euprhates River (based on Biblical land grants) had not affected Natanyahu's decision.

The meaningless claims of the 'Palestinian" "South Syrians" to lands only recently and unjustly occupied (1,500 years) by their ancestors were properly dismissed by the Prime Minister with the comment that israel would deal generously with these squatters once they accepted the absolute supremacy of Israel and the status of their future enclave as a de-militarized reservation defended by Israel and under the security supervision of Israel on its "borders."

This was met with thunderous applause by the delegates, many of whom later expressed their hope that Israel would some day accept the inclusion of the US in the Zionist state.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israeli-prime-minister-binyamin-netanyahus-address-to-congress/2011/05/24/AFWY5bAH_story.html

Is Dennis Ross Israel's lead Negotiator?

 
"From the State Department, “we get good responses,” the Jordanian king said, according to several people who were in the room. And from the Pentagon, too. “But not from the White House, and we know the reason why is because of Dennis Ross” — President Obama’s chief Middle East adviser.

Mr. Ross, King Abdullah concluded, “is giving wrong advice to the White House.”"  Helene Cooper - NY Times

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The real question is whether or not Obama takes Ross's advice seriously.  Abe Foxman likes Dennis Ross?  What a surprise!  Ross was or is a member (chair) of the board of an institute in Jerusalem, "The Jewish People's Policy Institute," that is an arm of the "Jewish Agency" the core establishment of Israeli political life.  This institute exists specifically for the purpose of studying means for advancing the prosperity and well-being of "the Jewish People."  When he took the position Ross remarked something to the effect that "they are my people."  Well, if they are his people what are the rest of us in the US?

Dennis Ross is in the White House and at BHO's elbow because the money men who will float Obama's campaign demand that he and several others be there.  Donilon, McDonough and all that crew understand that kind of thing.

Ross is actually quite honest.  He does not pretend to be impartial in the issues that lie between the Israelis and the Palestinians.  In my opinion he is 100% on the Israeli side in everything that he does.  His lack of impartiality is so blatant that it makes a hypocritical farce of anything the US tries to do to resolve that most persistant of conflicts.

That being said, how is one to comprehend BHO's speech and Bibi's enraged reaction?  Let me know if you figure it out.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/21/world/middleeast/21ross.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ross

http://jppi.org.il/#

 

Israel to lobby Germany against Palestinian plan - Josef Federman

 
"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask Germany's leader to drop her support for a proposal endorsing a Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem when he meets with her this week, Israeli officials said Wednesday."  AP

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Yes, when all else fails the Israelis know that they can go to the Germans and the Germans will do what they are told to do.  This is understandable.  Anyone who has contemplated the film footage of people being herded directly from boxcars to gas chambers at Treblinka and Sobibor should understand the psychological vulnerability of the Germans.  German guilt is undeniable and the Germans do not attempt to deny it.

On the other hand, the Palestinians are not the Germans of the 3rd Reich, and the United States liberated many of the camps.  We did not run them and yet we are as obedient as the Germans.

Natanyahu glowers at the mention of the 1967 boundaries and speaks darkly of "reality,' his reality.  Since he takes that position, it must be said that without the 1949/1967 Armistice lines as a basis, the international vision of two states, Israel and Palestine in historical Palestine, is simply a farce.

Israel seized the West Bank and the Gaza Strip by force of arms in 1967.  Soon thereafter the UN Security Council created Resolution 242 which called and  still calls for the withdrawal of Israel's forces from all that land that had been seized from Jordan and Egypt.  The principle involved being that the time has passed when lands taken in war can be annexed merely because the conquerer wants them.  That principle lies at the heart of the UN's very purpose.  Natanyahu's attitude calls into question the issue of whether or not Israel ever intended to do other than retain permanently as much of the West Bank as it could manage.

Natanyahu by word, and body language has made it clear that he holds the United states in contempt as a "cash cow" that can be manipulated easily through deception and trickery.  At his meeting with President Obama he could not refrain from defying Israel's greatest benefactor by open and blatant rejection of the basic premises of Obama's speech the previous day.  How much do we give the Israelis a year?

Natanyahu's next move is to address his henchmen and flunkies in Congress in an effort to rally his "troops" against the president of the United States.  In this effort he will be supported by the editorial page of the Washington Post which today stood firmly on the side of Natanyahu against Obama.

Presumably it is obvious to all that an effort to admit an independent Palestine to the UN will be met by a US veto in the Security Council.  The Washington Post will applaud that as well. pl

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110406/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians_7

President Obama’s Speech and the Peace Process –Nothing Will Change - By: Robert K. Lifton

 
More than any other portion of President Obama’s May 19^th speech, the segment devoted to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has attracted great attention, generating heated rhetoric from both sides. Yet, in truth, there was nothing in the speech that should have surprised anyone following the process and nothing that will change the fact that as the President said, the conflict “has grinded on and on” with “nothing but stalemate” and it will continue to founder.

In the run-up to the speech, there was a struggle between those who were pressing the President to put a specific plan, even including a map, before the parties to the conflict and those like State Department Advisor Dennis Ross who advocated a less specific approach.  The President seems to have cut the baby in half, with what appear at first blush to be very specific approaches but which in the end are only general principles that the parties can continue to negotiate about endlessly, as they have done until now.

Victory for the Ross/Natanyahu team.

 
"Mitchell’s sense of frustration stemmed not just from his difficulties lty in getting the governments of Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas to move toward a final status agreement, but also from infighting within the administration. Mitchell, as reported in the Forward was irritated by the increasing role President Obama’s senior adviser Dennis Ross began to play in the peace process. Ross’s portfolio, which originally centered on Iran, was increased to include security ties with Israel."

 
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/137797/#ixzz1MiPN4tW0  The Forward

--------------------------------

Mitchell never had a chance.  Israeli tribalism condemned him from the start on the basis of his alien Lebanese blood.  Obama's political debts decided the rest of the story.

Dennis Ross negotiating with Bibi Natanyahu!  LOL  "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all."  pl

 

Israel 12+ and counting - Arabs 0

 
"Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said the demonstrators were challenging “the very existence of Israel” and, in nationally broadcast remarks, pledged that the country was “determined to defend our borders and sovereignty.”"  Greenberg for the Washpost

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During the first intifada someone asked a US diplomat friend of mine at a dinner party if he didn't think the media were being unfair to the Israelis in the matter of casualties on the two sides.  After a moment his diplomatic mask slipped a bit and he said that since the "score" then was - Israelis 900+ bagged, versus Palestinians - 9, he did not find her question to be meaningful.  Those with a tribal interest in that quarrel may think that those were good numbers, but for the rest of the world, not so much.

Now, in the midst of the "Arab Spring,"  Bibi has pronounced on his willingness to do "whatever it takes."  The boxscore will be impressive.

September or October will probably see widespread recognition of Palestine as a state.  In that context, sanctions and the ICCJ loom on the horizon for the Bibi "solution."  The Israelis will just ignore the world?

Sure they will.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/israeli-troops-fire-at-palestinian-protestors-on-borders-killing-at-least-12/2011/05/15/AF9lnF4G_story.html?hpid=z4

The Palestinians At The Cross Road of History Must Take the Right Path - Robert K. Lifton

 
The fast changing events in the Middle East have brought the Palestinians to a cross road of history. One path leads to a serious opportunity to create a successful state for the Palestinian people. The other path leads to destroying any present hope for a viable Palestinian state. The choice lies in their hands.

The first major development comes under the heading of the “Arab Spring,” reflecting the courageous peaceful protests in Egypt that deposed President Mubarak; the revolution in Libya against the regime of Muammar Quaddafi; the challenges to the Syrian government of Bashar al Assad; the effort to force the resignation of Ali Abdulla Saleh in Yemen; the leadership change in Tunisia and protests and demonstrations in Jordan, Bahrain and Morocco.

#Israeli leaders reject Palestinian unity deal - Al Jazeera

 
"In an interview with Israeli military radio, Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, said the Palestinian deal had "crossed a red line" for Israel.

The comments come a day after Hamas and Fatah reached an initial unity deal in Cairo to end a four-year-old dispute that left Fatah controlling the West Bank and Hamas controlling Gaza. The Palestinians claim both territories for a future independent state.

The Egyptian-brokered deal, which took many by surprise, has revived hopes of ending bitter infighting that weakened the Palestinians politically and killed dozens in violent clashes and crackdowns."  Al-Jazeera

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Israel does not want to make peace with the Palestinians except on the basis of the creation of a 'bantustan' that is neither a competitor economically nor a conceivable threat of any kind.  In pursuit of that "end state" they want a Palestinian leadership that is compliant and "biddable" and that will not control the borders of its possible "state."  Neither may such a "state" have any armed forces. 

Hamas refuses to recognise Israel as a permanent feature of the Middle East. Hamas has indicated its willingness to conclude a religiously binding truce with Israel for ten years.  Such truces are indefinitely renewable, but that is not good enough for Israel. They want Palesinian acknowledgement of the permanent loss of part of their national homeland.

Bottom Line:  These will be no peace in the Holy Land. 

Interestingly, the Egyptian military junta brokered this deal.  They did it in the certain knowledge that Israel would not accept a relationship with the resulting Palestinian union.  If the Egyptian Army did this, what will the elected government do about the peace treaty with Israel and the gas pipeline to Israel?

Guess.  pl

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/04/201142817747522257.html

#History According To Prof Baram by Yusuf al-Misry

 
Prof Baram,

There are many reasons why one should go back to history. It could be an effort, if analyzed neutrally, to understand how different forces play out and shape the outcome of a certain period of time, or to pick an event from here and there to prove a subjective point related to the one’s own argument about that period or the present. I believe that what counts to people on this site is reading previous chapters of history to figure out where we are going particularly in times of uncertainty like those now in the Middle East.

As many already know, what is important in looking at the issues you and I have been debating with the participation of many friends here is the context in which any event took place. For many of the friends here, this is not done merely as an intellectual exercise, or as propaganda. If we understand, from studying previous periods of history, how religious fundamentalism spreads in a place, for example, we will be able to know if it is possible to defeat it and how.

A Poisoned Chalice by David Habakkuk

 
The proposals that Israel should be admitted to NATO, discussed by Clifford Kiracofe in a post not long ago, provide yet another illustration of the inability of so many of that country's most committed supporters, both in United States and elsewhere in the West, to grasp the suicidal nature of the course they have encouraged it to follow.

At a time when the waves of unrest sweeping the Arab world are calling fundamentally into question the ability of the United States to persuade governments in crucial countries – above all Egypt – to act in ways which Israel wants, support for that country in some of the traditionally most loyal allies of the US has been collapsing. Certainly, the Israeli government's presentation of its policies towards the Palestinians – and also Lebanon and Iran – as the unavoidable defensive responses of a beleaguered outpost of Western civilisation, confronted by that civilisation's implacable Arab and Muslim enemies, retains powerful traction, particularly among neoconservatives, in Europe as in the United States.

So in Britain for example a prominent neoconservative, Michael Gove – Education Secretary in the current Tory/Liberal Democrat coalition government – has argued in his influential polemic on the Islamist threat to Western civilisation, Celsius 7/7, that Israel must be defended all costs because it 'is an integral part of the West, a vessel for its values, an example of its virtues and is hated not for what it does but what it is'.

But neoconservatives like Gove – who in 2008 described the invasion of Iraq as ‘a proper British foreign policy success’ – are not being entirely successful in persuading their own peoples. While the events of the past decade have encouraged a wave of Islamophobia in Europe, as in the United States, this has signally failed to produce an increased sense of solidarity with Israel among the population at large. The annual poll of perceptions of the global role of different countries done for the BBC World Service, published earlier this month, showed a marginal improvement in Israel's worldwide rating, which still however left Iran, Pakistan, and North Korea as the only countries surveyed ranked as having a more negative influence.  Among the generally very negative views of the country in Europe, a particularly dramatic change was the increase in negative ratings in the UK from 50% to 66% – with only 14% now giving the country a positive rating.

Peace was close in 2008

"Al-Jazeera TV reports that the Palestinian Authority offered in June 15 of 2008 that Israel annex all settlements in Jerusalem except Har Homa, the first time in history the Palestinians made such a proposal, one that they refused to in Camp David.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, also proposed in an October 2009 meeting that Jerusalem's Old City be divided, giving Israel the control over the Jewish Quarter and part of the Armenian Quarter."  Ha'aretz Service

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Peace was so close, so close...  What fool or group of fools threw this chance away? I have been present when the PA made statements nearly as pacific as this but, this is stunning.

Why did the Israelis not take this offer?  pl 

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/two-decades-of-secret-israeli-palestinian-accords-leaked-to-media-worldwide-1.338768