According to the Jerusalem Post today (10/22/2006), Israel's DM Amir Peretz said:
"...Israel should explore the possibility of making peace with Syria."
But just three days ago, this same DM was quoted at ynetnews.com as being of the opinion that:
"We mustn't respond to the peace mutterings of Syria as long as it continues threatening war and as long as it is in contact with Iran and the terrorist organizations."
Now, unless I'm mistaken and Syria has fundamentally changed it's foreign policy over the last three days, Mr. Peretz has some explaining to do. Or does he? Maybe he's just doing what Israel has always done - prolonging the conflict as long as possible by spewing non-commital rhetoric about peace until they can find the next excuse to launch an attack on their neighbors, all in order to keep Zionism alive?
Bill Moyers is an American hero and a great patriot.
This spontaneous burst of tribute brought to you by Democracy Now.
samir: Moyers is indeed one of our greatest American commentators. And as significant as this latest documentary promises to be, it seems that something is missing. I wouldn't assume to premise as to why it's missing (too slippery a slope even for me), but where's the investigation into the Israeli connection?
Moyers notes that he "realized that we needed to put this together for the American people so that they could see that these isolated stories out of Washington represented a larger pattern of corruption that defies the imagination." Shouldn't the American people also be given a window into the extent to which this trail of deceit is inextricably linked to the Israeli "settler" movement, especially given Israel's most recent flaunting of international law vis-a-vis the West Bank?
I guess we'll have to wait and see if the full documentary reveals even an inkling of this.
samir: Pardon me for conversing with myself, but thought I'd add to the list of American patriots of the pop-culture bent. Nothing's more impressive than standing up for what you believe in when you're famous and stand to loose a lot by betraying your carefully groomed image. The Dixie Chicks have bent so many Bushites out of shape, I may just have to make my first itunes purchase ever and download their latest album in tribute, even though I'll probably be compelled to listen to it no more than once.
abraham: While I greatly admire the Dixie Chicks for their heroic and principled stand, I simply cannot stomach any music that was produced with a fiddle (violin, yes; fiddle, no :) Ok, I'll add that I admire Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, and I definitely enjoy Bluegrass, but mainstream country music just offends me.
Retired Lieutenant General William Odom writes in this LA Times article about his suggestions for solving the Iraq problem, and in a nutshell it is summarized as "cut and run". Notice the ever present and conspicuous but always ignored admonition of his fourth initiative: solving the Palestinian issue. Of course the Zionists in Washington will have none of this, insisting that we continue to promote Israel's "security interests" at the expense of our own, not realizing that the continued policy of aggression and slow-motion genocide currently being practiced are only undermining their security.
samir: Something troubling about this "common sense solution" is that it shows a certain lack of understanding of the underlying problems in the region. It talks a lot about peace but doesn't mention Syria once. The brunt of the Arab-Israeli conflict is, without a doubt, being born by the Palestinians. But even Kissinger realized that there can be "no war without Egypt, and no peace without Syria." The reason that solving Palestine will not bring peace to the region is because Israel still occupies a considerable expanse of Syrian territory. Syria has, up to now, been abiding by UN resolutions regarding the dispute but after Israel's failure in its most recent aggression against its neighbors, options are being reconsidered.
I would bet that Lieutenant General Odom agrees with those that believe Bush was the quite the fool on May 1 2003 in declaring an end to major combat in Iraq under a "Mission Accomplished" banner. The thing is, those that pull his strings from behind the scenes had him speaking exactly the truth, though I doubt he was let in on the secret. The secret of exactly what mission was accomplished - Iraq was beyond the point of no return, and would remain in constant turmoil for years, if not decades, to come.
Ok, you idiot Dummycrats, here's your chance to save the Republic. I sullied my soul in 2004 by voting for Bush with the distinct intent of keeping him in office so that you morons could impeach him.
So get to it already.
samir: So let's see here. What do we Arab Americans have to look forward to in this "sea change" of the American political spectrum. A new Speaker of the House who actually believes that: "There are those who contend that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation, and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist." And in the Senate, the Dems are projected to win 50 seats and the Reps 49. In the remaining seat sits Lieberman, who is one abstaining-Dem away from holding the controlling vote in the Senate. This is not as innocuous as it seems since it's real easy to mistake Lieberman for a Rep.
abraham: Well, at this point I'd be satisfied with Bush getting impeached, or better yet, turned over to the International Criminal Court and prosecuted as a war criminal. Expecting them to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict is asking a bit much.
I mean, this is the same "opposition" that couldn't muster the courage to oppose the war in Iraq (or voted for it), couldn't fend off the so-called PATRIOT Act (or voted for it), couldn't demand accountability for this administration's egregious human rights violations (and sought to justify it), couldn't fight the executive's gutting of habeus corpus (or voted for it), etc. Their track record is such that people will find their euphoria of a Democratic sweep of Congress wane quickly when they realize the Democrats are just as clueless and idiotic as the Republicans.
The Democrats are just as beholden to AIPAC and Israel as the Repugnantcans, so they will continue to spout the same anti-Palestinian garbage they've been spewing for the past six years. On this issue, Democrats and Republicans are in perfect alignment: Israel's "security" is more important than dead Palestinian children.
I'd like to hear what the "Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism" freaks have to say about this:
This one has extraordinary entertaiment value:
Then there's this:
Yes, the IDF, brave defenders of Christianity's holiest of shrines. Excuse me while I puke. Of course, conveniently ignored is the IDF siege of the Church, whereby they desecrated it by firing on the refugees within, and their killing the bell ringer. If not for all the international press covering the siege they would have surely brought in the Caterpillars. This kind of naked propaganda is a typical product of Zionism.
samir: It's amazing how hard they try, and how successful they are, at spinning Israel's image. What's worse is how readily the American public eats it up. Actually, it's not amazing. It's the status quo.
I just listened to Jimmy Carter's interview on The Snooze Hour with Jim Lehrer and I must say, it's almost shocking to hear such honest truth spoken about the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians without the ever-present "Opposing View" (i.e. the Zionist spin). I feel like I should write a letter of complaint to PBS over how imbalanced it was ;)
Carter has done more for peace as an ex-president than the combined terms of Clinton, Bush Sr., and Reagan combined. When you add the (albeit flawed) Camp David Accords, the impact of his peace-making eclipses all the presidencies going back at least as far as FDR (smashing through Truman, that scumbag). Carter achieved his legacy through diplomacy, that lost art of the American political beast. There is something to be said about a man whose legacy does not include the initiation of any war or invasion of another country. The same cannot be said for the successive presedencies of Reagan (central America, Grenada), Bush Sr. (Iraq, Panama), and Clinton (the former Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan), and the preceding presidencies of Nixon (Cambodia, Laos), Johnson (escalation in Vietnam), and even Kennedy (Cuba, Vietnam). Contemporary right-wing zealots have nothing but piss and vinegar for Carter, their primitive thought processes only capable of understanding the language of warfare, and diplomacy seemingly considered a blasphemy to them. Pay them no mind. They are but irritating fleas, whose doctrine has proven itself to be a failure of Biblical proportions.
Ironically, it might come to be written that the current Idiot in Chief has struck a blow for peace that no other president can boast, for he has made war and invasion such an unpalatable option that Americans may well decide diplomacy and peace are the preferable salves for global conflict. At least for the next two years. Maybe.
samir: I'm going to buy his new book, Palestine Peace not Apartheid, this weekend. Near the beginning of the interview, he goes out of his way to say that he is not calling Israel "racist", an attribute that goes hand in hand with "Apartheid". In his view, the minority of Israelis who are causing so much grief for the Palestinians are simply out to take their land and colonize it. But they're not racist. Ah yes... diplomacy at its best. John Dugard is someone who knows what they're talking about when it comes to Apartheid -- and he's not shy about being undiplomatic:
In principle, the purpose of military occupation is different from that of apartheid. It is not designed as a long-term oppressive regime but as an interim measure that maintains law and order in a territory following an armed conflict and pending a peace settlement. But this is not the nature of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Since 1967 Israel has imposed its control over the Palestinian territories in the manner of a colonizing power, under the guise of occupation.
Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid.
He draws an all too obvious conclusion at the end of the article from which the quote above came.
Futt-bucker Bolton decided to resign today and his boss aint happy. Best of all, he's following not too far behind the formerly Pathetic Excuse for a Defense Secretary (now considered to be the Pathetic Excuse for an Ex-Defense Secretary).
Any bets on who's next?
abraham: Bye bye, Brush Lip. Don't fret: I'm sure your next job in whatever Zionist propaganda outfit you end up in will be far more lucrative than your silly Amateur-hour stint at the UN.
samir: Personally, I'm Jonesin' for some developments on the Libby indictment. It's nice that he's behind bars, but I want him to stay there. It's where all Neocons should be. All of them.
In a feeble attempt to actually do something useful, outgoing Representative Cynthia McKinney announced a bill today to impeach President Bush. Not realizing that she actually DOESN'T represent the Deomcrats, Nancy Pelosi rushed to Bush's aid in making it clear that she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush when she ascends her throne as Speaker of the House.
By the time Nixon resigned his numbers were down to 24%. Only 6% more to go. Of course, being highly competitive, Bush may well hold out until it dips below 24%, just so he can claim the dubious honor of having the lowest recorded approval rating of any modern president.
samir: Is it too naive to hope for guiltyverdicts all around just about when Bush's numbers dip into the teens, making the Dems look all to stupid for not moving forward with his impeachment fast enough? Probably... wake me up when it's over.
These two reasons are more than enough for Iran's leaders to think they need nukes.
According to its Prime Minister, Israel has nukes, and is a sworn enemy of Iran.
According to the US Secretary of Defense, "they would see it in the first instance as a deterrent. They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf."
By acquiescing to Israeli demands yesterday and preventing Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from entering the Gaza Strip with the cash he was attempting to bring in, Mahmood Abbas has exposed himself in plain view as a de facto agent of Israel.
For too long, Abbas has subverted the will of the majority of the Palestinian people by interjecting his corrupt Fatah goons and failed policies into the Palestinian political scene, answering basically to Israeli and US demands rather than serving the Palestinian people. He's a piece of garbage that needs to be swept up into the dustbin of history.
Whether by popular ouster or behind the scenes pressure, Abbas needs to go, and quick. I would advocate assassination but that would almost certainly plunge the Palestinians into all out civil war, and that has to be avoided. But it must be made clear that under no circumstances will the Palestinians tolerate a puppet ruler such as Abbas any longer.
samir: It's the usual frustration for most of the Arabs throughout the entire Arab world: the choice of leadership is between undesirable and more undesirable. In this case, they basically have to choose between religious conservatives (that represent a minority of the entire religious mosaic) and a sell-out of a faction that has proven itself incapable of standing up for its people. How bad a sell-out? The religious conservatives looked better to the majority, who are clearly not religiously conservative, to the extent that they would cast their votes against secular sell-outs. Sort of like here in the States where our "democracy" has degenerated to an exercise of "voting against". Only here, we don't have foreign powers applying strangulating sanctions on our democratically elected representatives, and thereby manipulating, well, everything.
Is it peace they want or what?
According to the Jerusalem Post today (10/22/2006), Israel's DM Amir Peretz said:
But just three days ago, this same DM was quoted at ynetnews.com as being of the opinion that:
Now, unless I'm mistaken and Syria has fundamentally changed it's foreign policy over the last three days, Mr. Peretz has some explaining to do. Or does he? Maybe he's just doing what Israel has always done - prolonging the conflict as long as possible by spewing non-commital rhetoric about peace until they can find the next excuse to launch an attack on their neighbors, all in order to keep Zionism alive?
Thanks, Bill.
Bill Moyers is an American hero and a great patriot.
This spontaneous burst of tribute brought to you by Democracy Now.A Common Sense Solution to the Iraq Quagmire
IMPEACHMENT NOW!
Fun With Zionism
Carter and the Lost Art of Diplomatic Peacemaking
I just listened to Jimmy Carter's interview on The Snooze Hour with Jim Lehrer and I must say, it's almost shocking to hear such honest truth spoken about the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians without the ever-present "Opposing View" (i.e. the Zionist spin). I feel like I should write a letter of complaint to PBS over how imbalanced it was ;)
Carter has done more for peace as an ex-president than the combined terms of Clinton, Bush Sr., and Reagan combined. When you add the (albeit flawed) Camp David Accords, the impact of his peace-making eclipses all the presidencies going back at least as far as FDR (smashing through Truman, that scumbag). Carter achieved his legacy through diplomacy, that lost art of the American political beast. There is something to be said about a man whose legacy does not include the initiation of any war or invasion of another country. The same cannot be said for the successive presedencies of Reagan (central America, Grenada), Bush Sr. (Iraq, Panama), and Clinton (the former Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan), and the preceding presidencies of Nixon (Cambodia, Laos), Johnson (escalation in Vietnam), and even Kennedy (Cuba, Vietnam). Contemporary right-wing zealots have nothing but piss and vinegar for Carter, their primitive thought processes only capable of understanding the language of warfare, and diplomacy seemingly considered a blasphemy to them. Pay them no mind. They are but irritating fleas, whose doctrine has proven itself to be a failure of Biblical proportions.
Ironically, it might come to be written that the current Idiot in Chief has struck a blow for peace that no other president can boast, for he has made war and invasion such an unpalatable option that Americans may well decide diplomacy and peace are the preferable salves for global conflict. At least for the next two years. Maybe.
Another One Bites the Dust
Futt-bucker Bolton decided to resign today and his boss aint happy. Best of all, he's following not too far behind the formerly Pathetic Excuse for a Defense Secretary (now considered to be the Pathetic Excuse for an Ex-Defense Secretary).
Any bets on who's next?
Nancy Pelosi to the Rescue
In a feeble attempt to actually do something useful, outgoing Representative Cynthia McKinney announced a bill today to impeach President Bush. Not realizing that she actually DOESN'T represent the Deomcrats, Nancy Pelosi rushed to Bush's aid in making it clear that she will not entertain proposals to sanction Bush when she ascends her throne as Speaker of the House.
The Impeachment Watch continues...
When Two Reasons are More Than Enough
These two reasons are more than enough for Iran's leaders to think they need nukes.
- According to its Prime Minister, Israel has nukes, and is a sworn enemy of Iran.
- According to the US Secretary of Defense, "they would see it in the first instance as a deterrent. They are surrounded by powers with nuclear weapons: Pakistan to their east, the Russians to the north, the Israelis to the west and us in the Persian Gulf."
Any questions? Didn't think so.Mahmood Abbas: Tool of Israel
By acquiescing to Israeli demands yesterday and preventing Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh from entering the Gaza Strip with the cash he was attempting to bring in, Mahmood Abbas has exposed himself in plain view as a de facto agent of Israel.
For too long, Abbas has subverted the will of the majority of the Palestinian people by interjecting his corrupt Fatah goons and failed policies into the Palestinian political scene, answering basically to Israeli and US demands rather than serving the Palestinian people. He's a piece of garbage that needs to be swept up into the dustbin of history.
Whether by popular ouster or behind the scenes pressure, Abbas needs to go, and quick. I would advocate assassination but that would almost certainly plunge the Palestinians into all out civil war, and that has to be avoided. But it must be made clear that under no circumstances will the Palestinians tolerate a puppet ruler such as Abbas any longer.