Leibowitz and Silverstein, their story.

"In 2009, Shamai Leibowitz was working secretly for the FBI, translating wiretapped conversations among Israeli diplomats in this country. He passed some transcripts of these conversations to me, which described an Israeli diplomatic campaign in this country to create a hostile environment for relations with Iran. I published excerpts from them in my blog, Tikun Olam."  Richard Silverstein

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Now, this is interesting...  It remains true that if it were not for patriotic Jewish Americans we would all be in deep trouble, or at least deeper trouble.  pl

http://www.truth-out.org/why-i-published-us-intelligence-secrets-about-israels-anti-iran-campaign/1316550301

Comments

[John Kirkman]

As one who voted for Obama, this is a wrenching truth about a very dishonest and cowardly incompetent who had no qualifications for any government office. To say that Obama has been a disappointment would be to understate considerably the true nature of the situation.
What to do now? There is no one to vote for. Our country is sliding off the edge due entirely to the deception of those elected to office to represent our country but chose to destroy it instead.
The author did not suggest any way that individuals who chose support the courage of Shamai Leibowitz could act.

[[email protected]]

This is the scariest thing I've seen in my 70 years. If we keep going down this road America will become history.

[J]

Colonel,

Why did he choose to serve in the IDF rather than our U.S. Armed Services? According to bio data,he served in the IDF as a tank gunner.

[turcopolier]

J

When he was a Israeli he served in the Israeli Army. you find that odd? pl

[[email protected]]

This is really serious stuff. It is another reflection of how the mix of ignorant on one hand and complicit on the other, leadership has been able to drive us down a road leading to destruction. Will we wake up before it is too late?

[J]

Colonel,

Not him as an Israeli serving in the IDF, but he as an American, yes I do find that odd.

If one has dual-citizenship/split-citizenship and decides to serve in their one-half's foreign military, then they should also serve in our U.S. Armed Forces as well, that way there is no favoritism towards a foreign flag, especially since they claim American citizenship/rights/privileges.

Look at all those kids from Central America who want to serve in our U.S. Armed Forces and salute our American Flag 'first' above all others.

[[email protected]]

This really woke me up!!!
How incredibly ironic! Leibowitz has suffered for giving us a wake up call to avoid
Armageddon. It is precisely the back room activities of misdirected individuals that only become known after the fact (read twisting of intelligence on WMD in Iraq as an example) that have already brought us to edge of an abyss. Leibowitz should receive an award, not punishment.

[Adam L Silverman]

J,

Provided Mr. Leibowitz followed the normal trajectory of all Israeli youth (except for Arab Israelis and the ultra devout Jewish ones), then he would have automatically done three years of service upon completion of secondary school. This is mandatory for all Israeli males, Israeli females do two years. Given that he didn't emigrate to the US until he was much older, it shouldn't be surprising. Unless he has somewhere indicated that he always intended to move to the US and seek American citizenship, it might not have even been something he was considering at the time. And please remember that a host of Israeli social insurance programs are tied to fulfilling the national service requirement. These include, or are supposed to include (as in once upon a time before the same economic policy advisors that have made the US dysfunctional managed to get their hooks into the Israelis - does anyone know how to say Grover in Hebrew?), subsidies for higher education and for housing.

[rjj]

Formatting issue --

MOA which also uses typepad avoids the bold bomb problem by automatically appending this string of /close html tags to every post:

[/A][/A][/B][/B][/I][/I][/U][/U][/blockquote][/ul]

The square brackets are replaced with pointy brackets.

[turcopolier]

rjj

I have no idea what you are talking about. pl

[rjj]

Never mind. Am wrong. That happens a lot. Practice. Practice. Practice.

[Jose]

This should end the Bold Monster

[DanM]

'' (that may have done it)

[J]

Colonel, Adam,

I'm sorry, but I have never been able to wrap my head around the concept of dual-national/dual-flag/dual-masters. One serves one flag, and one flag only (even if their conscious mind doesn't want to admit it). 'If' given a 'conflict' between the two states of the 'dual' nationality, which flag would they salute, and which would they be willing to fight for and protect?

[securecare]

Bold monster check

[mac]

John Le Carre had a great character in The Russia House, a scientist named Yakov who said something to Barley, the reluctant spy that has always stuck with me and, over the years, I find myself coming back to it again and again. Yakov said to Barley that, and I'm paraphrasing here, that in the end, what mattered most was that we each had to confront the monsters in our in own communities, so to speak....for Yakov, this meant betraying the Politburo....for some of us, like the gentleman in this article, it meant other things...

[Diane Mason]

The author did not suggest any way that individuals who chose support the courage of Shamai Leibowitz could act.

Depending on what kind of support you mean, I'm sure Richard Silverstein would be able to advise you if you contact him via Tikun Olam.

[turcopolier]

J

I am at a loss to understand what Leibowitz could have done to demonstrate his loyalty to the US more than what he did. What are you, anti-immigrant? pl

[FB Ali]

Would someone please tell Stanley Henning what to do to avoid setting off the BOLD bomb. If he keeps doing it, Col Lang will again shut off the HTML tags, reducing us to nursery school nitwits who can't be trusted with such complicated toys!

It's something he puts at the end of his posts, because the bomb goes off with the next post. And nobody seems able to turn the damn thing off.

[J]

Colonel,

No, Leibowitz did our U.S. a 'great service' which I value and appreciate, what I wonder about, what was his underlying motive. Reading Silverstein's write-up, denotes several factors at play, my question is which was the major riding factor in Leibowitz doing what he did, which nation's benefit was in the forefront of his mind? It's just my inquiring mind wants to know.

[The beaver]

J

Since I am the one who has been mentioning about Richard's involvement with Shamai Leibowitz on this blog ( twice or three times since September 6th), I would like to point to you that he is an Israeli who came to the US as a student on a scholarship and decided to settle in the US - hence his dual nationality.
BTW: what he did was very courageous - he was scared s--- what Israel was/is planning to do.
and he was also one who signed this:
http://www.seruv.org.il/english/combatants_letter.asp

check # 47
http://www.seruv.org.il/english/signers.asp

At least he is not a Dr Lani Kass , remember this:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Navy_veteran_questions_why_six_nuclear_1008.html

[dalybean]

For his whistleblowing to try and warn the people of our country about the actions Israel was taking inside the US to foment war against Iran and which the US Government was trying to bury, Shamai Leibowitz was thrown in federal prison for almost two years, away from his wife and babies, and got his law license suspended. He was seriously punished for his actions. Of course, the Israelis inside this country trying to set the table for a war with Iran and the AIPAC spies who stole our Iran strategies and handed them over to the Israeli embassy went free.

When he lived in Israel and before he came to the US, he was one of the first 50 IDF soldiers and officers to sign the Combatants’ Letter. The Combatant's Letter publicly condemned the occupation and was a pledge to refuse to to serve in the occupied territories,a jailable offense. As a criminal lawyer, he represented Marwan Bargouti, said to be the Palestinian Mandela, and was shunned from society for it, refused entrance to synagogues. That is likely why he came to the US and I don't imagine that now he could ever go back to Israel.

He is a very brave and principled man who has paid a steep price for his actions and I feel blessed we have him as a citizen. He is a hero.

[eakens]

FB Ali, I suggest you refer the matter to the UN.

Stanley, prepare for attack.

[rjj]

new format hides post content - before view source showed < b > (but without the spaces) at the end of all SH posts. Seems to be added automatically either by a program or out of habit.

SH are you writing posts in another utility and pasting them into the content box? If so, consider ...

1. cut and paste plaintext only, or
2. use another utility to compose, or
3. proof read your text in the comment box and make sure there are NO pointy brackets anywhere whatsoever in your posts, or
4. if there is anything in pointy brackets, make sure it has an / before the letter, i.e., it should look like this without the spaces < /b > or < /i >

Proofreading and deleting tags before hitting the post button would be the simplest.

[FB Ali]

By God, I think I did it!!! All it took was putting the /b off sign before I started composing my post. I'm sure others have tried that (I probably did, too, last time it happened, but it didn't work). Anyway, I can now comment on the subject of this post.

I think Shamai Leibowitz is a very brave man, a man of high principle, someone of great moral stature. He represents the very best of his faith, a faith that, unfortunately, desperately needs such men to step forward and represent it, instead of those who claim to do so today.