Biden and Israel

Joe Biden's bewildering defense of the Butchers of Gaza are perplexing. His unconditional support of their war crimes, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and the much debated genocide may very well cost him the election and America its democracy.

What is going on here?

Is Biden the first Jewish president? What does his familiar relationships, where three of his children were/are married to Jews, and inner circle filled with Jews/Zionists have to do with his decision making?

 Read in the Substack post: "Biden and Israel" by Maximilien Guerrero's blog "The World Engine".

Chomsky on the Wall St. protesters, Bin Laden, & Israel

In this interview with Russia Today (RT) television Noam Chomsky discusses three main topics:

1. The current protests occurring in New York across from Wall Street and spreading throughout the world
2. The legal framework and international norms associated with kidnapping, torture, and murder
3. The current international versus American-Israeli perspective on the emergence of a Palestinian state.

For the most part I think what Chomsky has to say is true.

Criticisms leveled by Chomsky regarding economic matters and the control of the legislative process by corporations has been shown by this recent depression to have been wholly correct. America's political system is so badly broken that not even the greedy politicians can claim that the system works for anyone other than Goldman Sachs.

***

What I found disappointing about this interview is Chomsky's rather weak argument that America is a lawless country because it assassinated Osama Bin Laden, invaded the sovereign nation of Pakistan, then dumped Bin Laden's body at sea. Unlike a great number of person on the left, Chomsky has never claimed that there were grand conspiracies at work during the 9-11 attack. What he does do is make the rather odd legalistic argument that everyone under American jurisprudence is entitled to the claim of being "innocence" until found guilty. That statement is true, but misleading. Bin Laden was never after 9-11 a conventional criminal. Rather, Bin Laden was the leader of an international organization whose purpose was to engage in terrorism that indiscriminately killed as many people as possible to draw America into a wider conflict in the Middle East. Bin Laden freely admitted and repeatedly boasted of his multiple attacks on American assets abroad and on 9-11. If we are talking about US law, under public law 107-40, the US Congress authorized the president of the United States “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.” Equally, under international law the UN charter provides nation states the right to use lethal force in individual and collective self-defense.

Second, Chomsky makes the error of claiming that the assassination has inflamed Pakistan's civilian population and enraged the quasi-military rulers of the state, thus exacerbating US-Muslim tensions and further destabilizing the Middle East. What Pakistan or its illiterate masses thinks about American killing of Taliban or Al Qaeda leaders on their territory is irrelevant. Pakistan exists because the United States for decades has been propping up this little Islamic wasteland run by kleptocrats and military dunces. The country is a failed state that exists as the central exporter of international terrorism across the world. What has become completely evident after the assassination is that individuals within Pakistan and its government have been hiding and protecting Bin Laden for years. Given the overall lawlessness and criminal actions of the Pakistani state, there is little reason anyone should consider anything that this country wants as legitimate.

Chomsky further states that Obama has become even more reckless than Bush in using drone attacks on targets. The problem with this statement is that is exactly what Obama didn't do when he sent military personnel to kill Bin Laden. Today Bin Laden's family members that were hiding with him in Pakistan are alive and not dead.  Something that Bin Laden's victims cannot claim.

I for one am in complete agreement with UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, who said

“The death of Osama bin Laden … is a watershed moment in our common global fight against terrorism…Personally, I am very much relieved by the news that justice has been done.”

For all his faults, President Obama did the right thing and all civilized people should applaud his actions, instead of trying to score cheap rhetorical points in defending the indefensible.

Brazil recognizes Palestine as an independent nation

Brazil is Latin America's superpower.  For the past decade it has been part of the BRIC group of emerging markets that has grown at an impressive rate compared to the nearly stagnant and tepid grown witnessed respectively in Europe and the USA during the same period.  Today, Brazil is the 8th largest economy in the world, with a GDP $1.57 Trillion (USD).  It has a large and diversified economy with agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors.

Today, according to the Washington Post (via the Associated Press), Brazil is formally recognizing Palestine as an independent and autonomous nation state based on 1967 borders.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva... sent a letter to Abbas on Dec. 1, saying Brazil recognizes Palestine and hopes that the recognition will help lead to states of Israel and Palestine "that will coexist peacefully and in security."

With the so-called peace process continuously undermined by Israel's gimmickry and bad-faith negotiations on the part of the USA for much of the past decade, there is little reason to believe that there will ever be an independent Palestine under the current settings.  Brazil's recognition therefore is an interesting and potentially thorny issue for Israel.  The PLO formally declared Palestine as independent state in 1988 and at least 102 other nations also recognize it as such.  There are another 44 states, that have some form of informal recognition of the PLO or the PNA in governing the Israeli controlled occupied territories.

If the rest of the world realizes that Israel has no intention of ever surrendering the occupied territories over to an independent Palestinian government, then it is likely more Western countries will follow Brazil's stance.

Open Advice to President Obama

Dear Barack,

I know you don't care what I think, with all those high-paid clowns dispensing all that brilliant strategy to you on how to piss-off those loser hippies who funded, supported, and fought for you across America in 2008, but here it is.

You're a bit like Bubba, in that despite all those flowery speeches about hope or being from a place called hope (who can get it straight anymore) you've given over the past few years, we really don't know what you believe.  I mean, the nihilists and brain-dead masses think you're a Marxist Fascist with ties to Kenyan revolutionaries.  I don't know what that means either, other than interpreting it as an odd way to just call you a nigger.  I've never really thought you were the second coming of FDR, but you were a better option than the Queen corporatist Madam Clinton.  People liked what you had to say and what you represented, but back then it mostly was about voting against eight hard and dismal years under the Bush junta.  However, you waffled and instead of steamrolling what remained of the right wing yahoo's and pushing through a progressive and liberal agenda, you coddled and capitulated to their bizarre demands.  Let's recap:

• Did exactly what Bush said he would do in ending the Iraq war; that being leaving 50K troops to babysit the Shia thugocracy in Baghdad.
• Escalated the Afghan war, which everyone has already admitted is lost.
• Caved into special interests in the health care bill, by eliminating the public option and preventing the  importation of drugs from Canada.
• Created a health care bill that would force individuals to purchase lame health care coverage and subsidise the crooked insurance companies.
• Pushed through a special debt committee, filled with right-wing ideologues and hacks demanding that Social Security be privatized under the guise of bi-partisanship.
• Bailed out your friends and big-donor buddies in the banks, but left the rest of the nation submerged with debt and ever-expanding (and now illegal) foreclosures
• Failed to prosecute any of the major players in the Bush junta for war crimes, crimes against humanity, violations of the Constitution, and numerous illegal acts and unethical behavior
• Advanced the post-911 security-surveillance state to new levels
• Advanced the military-industrial complex in the face of mounting debts and limited resources
• Let Israel make a complete mockery of you, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and your entire administration relating to the Palestinian issue
• Allowed the minority blue dog Democrats to dictate the terms of major legislation, so they could retain their congressional seats (which as every poll indicates, they won't)
• Put in charge Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior, effectively creating what others have referred to as Bush's 3rd term with respect to governmental regulation and resource management of public assets
• Colluded with BP to lie to the public on the scope and severity of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

People who voted for you, in the deluded belief that government could mend it ways, are looking at a moribund economy, a Democratic Party that is incapable of defending themselves against corrupt Republican and Tea Party slander, and a crypto-fascist uprising funded by the same assholes whose jobs and balance sheets you saved from complete Armageddon.  A lot of people said early on that you were playing three-dimensional chess and were way smarter than the rest of the dolts on the Hill.  It's pretty clear that not only don't you have game, but you're really not as bright as those Harvard and Columbia degrees might imply.

So Barack, if you want to do something meaningful, do yourself a favor and grow a couple, because this nonsense you've been pedalling for the past 21-months is getting tired and no one is going to vote for you if you keep selling the same recycled shit that Bush left behind on the White House's going-out of business sale in November 2008.

Fuck-you very much.

The Lifer.

Tony Judt, Political Historian, Dead at 62

“A well-organized society is one in which we know the truth about ourselves collectively, not one in which we tell pleasant lies about ourselves.”
- Tony Judt.

Tony Judt, a historian of postwar Europe, Israel, and America's foreign policies, was one of those academics who was loathed by persons on both the right and left of the political spectrum.  As The Guardian UK newspaper succinctly put it:

In his guise as a political and historical essayist, he was a fearless critic of narrow orthodoxies and bullying cliques, from communist apologists to the Israel lobby, from "liberal hawks" to progressive educationists. And his political writings have proved not only perceptive but often prophetic.

The obituaries in the NY Times, The Guardian, and other pieces such as Stephen M. Walt's Foreign Affairs tribute, define a man of commanding intellect and fierce moral clarity. 

Mark Lilla, a professor of history, stated in the NY Times Obit that Judt, "had the unusual ability to see and convey the big picture while, at the same time, going to the heart of the matter...Most academics do neither — they float in between. But Tony was able to talk about the big picture and explain why it matters now”

The Guardian describes Postwar, Judt's seminal work on Europe, as:

A History of Europe Since 1945... it was recognised as a masterpiece, acclaimed by scholars and a bestseller in several languages. It described how Europe had remade itself after the horrors of war, totalitarianism and mass murder, helped by some degree of wilful amnesia, although towards the end of the century many repressed memories were at last being recovered.

Whereas Stephen Walt comments:

Postwar is easily the best history of post-World War II Europe yet written, and it provides a compelling account of how a battered and divided continent rebuilt, rose again, and charted a new course for itself. It weaves social, political, and cultural commentary in a clear and compelling narrative, but there are fascinating detours along the way and no shortage of heroes and villains to identify and assess. It is a tour de force that demonstrates Judt's broad and deep learning, sharp critical powers, and a masterful command of language.

His scholarship lead him to clash with intellectual classes of France, European communists, Zionists, the right-wing neo-conservatives who instigated America's Iraq war policy, and the American liberal intelligentsia who likewise supported the failed Iraq war and post-9/11 perpetual warfare narrative.

Tony Judt died at the age of 62 from a variant of the motor neurone disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or popularly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Fanatics and the Undermining of Israel

Much ink has been spilt in the last several weeks over Israel's embargo over the Gaza Strip and dueling arguments regarding the influence Jewish-American political action groups have over Washington's foreign policy.  Very little however, has been said in what may actually be the greatest threat to Israel in the long term.  That threat is the growing power of the ultra-orthodox Jews, who currently reside within Israel, and their determination to engage in their fundamentalist beliefs exclusively.

Over the past several years, tensions between ultra-orthodox Jews and secular and moderate Jews have increased to the point where Israel's future as an inclusive state for all Jewish persons is now in question.  The Haredi Jews, in particular, pose a substantial economic strain on the finances of the state, as many men choose years of subsidized religious study over paid employment.  With their third-world like birth rates, the ultra-orthodox sects are predicted to form a majority of Jerusalem's half million population by the end of the decade.  Their religio-political views are anathema to that of any liberal democracy.  For example, Haredi leaders have denounced reform and conservative synagogues as “reeking of hell” and have repeatedly said that democracy has no place in Judaism.  One leader was imprisoned for 10-months after a plot to attack the Knesset (Israeli parliament) was uncovered.  Violence in Haredi communities against all entities not belonging to their sect has become so widespread that police won't enter these areas out of fear of retaliation.  Their growing influence has pulled the political center of the country to the far-right.  Kadima, the party formed by Ariel Sharon and which is by all definitions a center-right party, now occupies the left wing in the Knesset.

On Thursday the latest installment of this culture-war was made apparent in the streets of Jerusalem.  According to the Independent UK newspaper, more than 100,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews took to the streets of central Jerusalem to protest the country's Supreme court decision on school integration policies.  Parents of Ashkenazi ultra-orthodox sects were demanding that their daughters be educated in different classrooms from schoolgirls of Middle Eastern and North African descent, or Sephardim.  They claim that the ultra-orthodox Sephardim are not as religious.  The Guardian newspaper elaborates:

Underlying the case is the rejection of what the ultra-Orthodox community's sees as state interference in their religious practice and life. "We don't give our girls all the knowledge that there is in the world," said Esther Bark, 50, a mother of seven daughters watching the male-only demonstration today. "We shelter them, and that's why they need a sheltered school. We can't mix a whole assortment of girls in one school."

The NY Times outlines the court's decision which equates the segregation policies employed by the Ashkenazi Haredi as racist and discriminatory.  Other Israelis have far sharper words about the Haredi.  The Independent article quotes a Haaretz editorial that states, "Such groups... demand state funds to strengthen the independent education system that serves their children, but are unwilling to give in on even a single convention that governs their lifestyle."   Secular Jews are enraged by the willingness of the ultra-orthodox sects to dismiss laws.

"The ultra-Orthodox community is getting stronger and stronger," said Yitzhak Brudny, a political scientist at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. "The tensions between the religious and secular communities have become especially pronounced. It's both a class war and a cultural war. The ultra-Orthodox are dirt poor. Among secular Israelis and moderate Orthodox Jews, they are seen basically as parasites. And they have no desire to integrate with other communities." (Guardian UK)

Other religious persons in the country have also condemned the actions and misbehavior of the Haredi. Rabbi Yuval Sherlo, stated that "I cannot take part in the racism and discrimination that is taking place, which is just the tip of the iceberg... It's impossible to claim that this is Jewish law or that it is sanctifying the name of God."

Many others are describing the actions of the Haredi as nothing less than a struggle for the very existence of Israel.

Yossi Sarid, a former member of the Knesset, wrote in the Ha'aretz newspaper. "Now it is happening; the war has erupted. The great Haredi [ultra-Orthodox] rebellion has begun and is raging on several fronts … It will destroy basic values, without which a democratic, developed state cannot exist. It will be lost unless it fights back." (Guardian UK)

Noam Chomsky Prevented from Entering Israel

According to news sources, this past Sunday Professor Noam Chomsky, MIT linguist and America's leading political dissident, was barred entry to the state of Israel.  The rational for his visit to Israel was to present a series of lectures at Bir Zeit University, a Palestinian university located in the occupied West Bank. 

The situation has brought strong criticisms of the state by Israeli legal experts and equal condemnation of Prof. Chomsky from right-wing politicians within Israel.  Boaz Okun, a commentator in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, describes it as, "a foolish act...[that] may mark the end of Israel as a law-abiding and freedom-loving state, or at least place a large question mark over this notion.” Carlos Strenger said in today's Haaretz newspaper,

Nobody in his right mind can claim that Chomsky represents a security threat to Israel. He’s 81 years old. He is not a specialist on armed insurrection, and he has never called for violence against Israel...

If anything, barring Chomsky gives ammunition to those who say that Israel is infringing on academic freedom in the Palestinian Authority, and that a boycott against its universities is therefore justified.

If Israel feels it can defend its actions morally and politically, it should not fear thinkers who criticize it. But Israel is beginning to tamper with free speech, and this is a truly worrying development.

If Israel feels it cannot survive free speech, then it is one step closer to flirting with totalitarianism. In fact, during his questioning, when Chomsky was asked whether he was ever denied entry into a country he said, yes: into Czechoslovakia in 1968, after the Russian invasion, when he wanted to visit his friend Dubcek. This puts Israel into very poor company indeed.

Given that Professor Chomsky is of Jewish heritage and had previously lived in an Israeli Kibbutz, during the 1950's, the entire event leaves an impression usually associated with ham-fisted authoritarian regimes. Due to Prof. Chomsky's international notoriety and known criticisms of Israel, which have not changed since his last visit to Israel in 1997, the office of Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is backtracking and claiming the whole incident was a mistake by an over-zealous customs officer and all are free to visit Israel.  However, the facts seem to dispute this statement.  According to today's NY Times and other international dailies, the following persons who have at one time or another been vocal of Israeli policies, have been barred:

• Richard Falk, an American Jew and United Nations investigator of human rights in the Palestinian areas
• Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish American scholar who is a critic of Israel and its policies
• Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin, who is known as a critic of the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza
• Singer Yusef Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) was banned from a Peace Concert to be held in Israel
• Numerous non-violent peace activist groups and Palestinian Relief Agencies

US and Israel: Strange Days

According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS) the United States has provided approximately $3 billion in grants annually to the state of Israel or roughly one-fifth of the annual foreign aid budget. Overall, Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since WWII. Israel is mandated to use 75% of its military aid from the U.S. to buy materiel from American based companies; a convenient form of corporate-socialism. In addition, Israel, a nation that has the per capita income equal to that of South Korea, receives favorable treatment and special benefits under U.S. assistance programs that may not be available to any other nations.

With such generosity, one would then expect that this client state would be as accommodating to the wishes of its Imperial master as possible. In today's Ha'aretz, protesters including one Rabbi Eliezer Waldman, the head of the Nir yeshiva in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, are stated as saying that Barack Obama is "a Racist" and "If he continues with his actions, he will bring about the disintegration of the American superpower."

The speeches were accompanied by jeers from the protesters at every mention of U.S. special envoy George Mitchell, who is currently in the region in a bid to reach a deal on settlement construction.

Opinion polls conducted within America and Israel point to a historical divergence in thinking. It was found that 79% of American Jews consider Obama pro-Israeli, while only a paltry 6% of Israeli Jews did. In Israel, disenchantment with Obama cuts across political parties, demographics, and social groups. In a poll conducted in mid-June on Americans perceptions of Israel, it was found that only 44% thought the U.S. should support Israel; down from 71% a year ago. Less than half of those surveyed considered themselves supporters of Israel; also down from over two-thirds before the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

A recently published Pew Global Attitudes survey of 25-nations found that the image of the U.S. had skyrocketed with the election of Barack Obama as president. The study determined that the, "Median level of confidence in the U.S. president among the 21 countries surveyed in both 2008 and 2009 shifted from just 17% for Bush in 2008 to 71% for Obama in 2009."

We have arrived at a very strange intersection. George W. Bush, the most loathed American president in the history of the American republic and perhaps the planet, had great support in Israel throughout his miserable reign of incompetence. While Barrack Obama on the other hand, a man who is adored across the world is uniformly loathed in Israel. With Arab states lining up behind Obama, the GCC formalizing a single currency and becoming a single economic union, Iraq a de facto American colony, and Iran in political and societal free-fall, one has to wonder if perhaps those billions in Israeli aid would be better served and appreciated elsewhere?

Because They Panicked - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Because They Panicked - The Daily Dish By Andrew Sullivan

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Firstly, if I can digress with an introductory Thomas Jefferson quote: "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

What authoritarian governments fear most is their loss in maintaining and perpetuating power. Fear, once it takes hold of an individual or a dictatorship in this case, is not easily assuaged. It tunnels deep into the primal brain and stimulates terrible imaginations, which inevitably cascade into real life horrors. The clumsy and authoritarian meanderings of the Mullahs have confirmed unequivocally that Iran is a rogue nation with little capacity for reason or goodwill (especially to its own citizenry).

Perhaps the biggest winner of this act of self-immolation in the public arena is Israel. Having hectored endlessly and hysterically this past decade over the unstable nature of the Mullahs, one can only cede the Likudist crowd a few points here. What this does to Obama's Mideast peace plans and regional stability are unknowns.

Unfortunately Ken Pollock and the rest of the so-called establishment Middle East experts have already been asked what they think. The average 3-year old would at least give a more honest answer; that being they don't know, but these partisans exist only to dissemble and divulge disinformation.