The great Ralph Nader. He calls the attacks on Helen Thomas a ‘political execution’.
TheRealNews — 12 June 2010 — Nader: Helen Thomas apologized – she was attacked with such ferocity because she always asked ‘why’
Category: Israel Lobby
George Galloway announces new Viva Palestina convoys to break Gaza siege
George Galloway on the flotilla massacre, the changing political climate, and the new Viva Palestina sea and land convoys scheduled for later this year. (via Counterfire)
Continue reading “George Galloway announces new Viva Palestina convoys to break Gaza siege”
US Congressman: Prosecute US Citizens involved with Gaza Flotilla
by Ali Gharib
On a press call hosted by a pro-Israel organization, Rep. Brad Sherman, Democrat of California, told reporters that he intends to seek the prosecution of any U.S. citizens who were aboard or involved with the Freedom Flotilla.
“The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 [PDF] makes it absolutely illegal for any American to give food, money, school supplies, paper clips, concrete or weapons to Hamas or any of its officials,” Sherman said on the Israel Project call, conflating Hamas and Gaza’s civilian population. “And so I will be asking the Attorney General to prosecute any American involved in what was clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization.”
Sherman also said that he plans on working with the Department of Homeland Security to make sure that any non-U.S. citizen involved with or aboard the Flotilla are excluded from entering the U.S.
Hamas, considered a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and has held de facto rule over the Gaza Strip since it took the area by force in 2007 in anticipation of an impending U.S.-backed coup d’etat by the rival Fatah faction.
Continue reading “US Congressman: Prosecute US Citizens involved with Gaza Flotilla”
Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court: A Barnyard Smell in Chicago, Harvard and Washington
By James Petras
President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan for Justice of the United States Supreme Court on the basis of an academic publication record which might give her a fighting chance for tenure at a first rate correspondence law school in the Texas Panhandle.
A review of her published scholarship after almost two decades in and out of academia turns up four law review articles, two brief pieces and several book reviews and in memoriam. There is nothing even remotely resembling a major legal text or research publication.
Her lack-luster academic publication record is only surpassed by her total lack of any practical experience as a judge: zero years in adjudication, unless one accepts the line of her exuberant advocates, who point to Kagan’s superb ability in adjudicating among the squabbling faculty at Harvard Law School when she served as Dean. No doubt Kagan had been very busy as the greatest fundraising Law School Dean in Harvard’s history ($400 million), which may account for the fact that she never found time to write a single academic article during her nine year tenure (2001-2009).
Stephen Zunes and the Zionist Tinderbox
By Michael Barker
“[A]nti Zionism may be a ‘fool’s anti-imperialism,’ where Jewish nationalism itself is erroneously seen as the problem rather than the alliance its leaders have made with exploitative Western interests.”
—Stephen Zunes, 2006.1
Who is Stephen Zunes? Well according to his web-site, he is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, who in 2002 won recognition from the Peace and Justice Studies Association as Peace Scholar of the Year. Although Zunes describes himself as a committed peace loving, anti-imperialist activist, by reviewing just one of his books this article will demonstrate that in actual fact his scholarly actions belie such intent. The book in question is Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Zed Books, 2003), a popular text that received glowing accolades from Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Richard Falk, and Saul Landau (amongst others). This essay will illustrate how Zunes’ proclivity for defending Zionism ultimately leads hims to promote a “fool’s anti-imperialism.”
That is not to say that Zunes is uncritical of U.S. foreign policy, far from it, just that his work serves as a smokescreen for understanding the real drivers of U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis the Middle East.
Can Obama make “peace” in the Middle East
Our dear friend Phil Weiss makes the most impressive interventions in this debate. He is also the first we have seen who knows how to handle Tim Sebastien well.
Doha Debates takes on the potential for a US brokered deal in the Middle East.
The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. the New Afrikaners
This is the transcript of the Hisham B. Sharabi Memorial Lecture delivered by John J. Mearsheimer at the The Palestine Center today.
It is a great honor to be here at the Palestine Center to give the Sharabi Memorial Lecture. I would like to thank Yousef Munnayer, the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund, for inviting me, and all of you for coming out to hear me speak this afternoon.
My topic is the future of Palestine, and by that I mean the future of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, or what was long ago called Mandatory Palestine. As you all know, that land is now broken into two parts: Israel proper or what is sometime called “Green Line” Israel and the Occupied Territories, which include the West Bank and Gaza. In essence, my talk is about the future relationship between Israel and the Occupied Territories.
Of course, I am not just talking about the fate of those lands; I am also talking about the future of the people who live there. I am talking about the future of the Jews and the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens, as well as the Palestinians who live in the Occupied Territories.
Continue reading “The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. the New Afrikaners”
Ultra Zionists Take Manhattan, and Demand the Holy Land
Indepedent journalist Max Blumenthal has just released his latest video. This one deals Jewish extremists at a New York city rally that closely resemble members of the American Tea Party movement.
Blumenthal writes the following.
On April 25, over 1000 New York-area Jewish extremists gathered in midtown Manhattan to rally against the Barack Obama administration’s call for a freeze on construction in occupied East Jerusalem and to demand unlimited rights to colonize the West Bank. With Obama and top White House officials engaged in a charm offensive to repair their relationship with mainstream American Jewish organizations, speakers at the rally lashed out at the Jewish groups and Democratic politicians, warning that cozying up to Obama would endanger Israel and imperil their cherished settlement enterprise.
I’ll let Blumenthal’s video tell the rest.
Last year, Blumenthal, along with Joseph Dana, produced the famous “Feeling the Love in Jerusalem” video that was banned on YouTube and Huffington Post. He also produced “Bomb a Ghetto, Raise a Cheer,” a video documenting pro-Israeli teabaggers rallying in support of Operation Cast Lead. For more of Blumenthal’s works click here.
Propagandistic Anti-Semitism Report (Accidentally) Raises The Linkage Issue
by Max Blumenthal
The Tel Aviv University/Stephen Roth Institute’s newly released study on anti-Semitism in 2009 is getting loads of media attention. Among the many outlets that have reported its findings are the AP, CNN, and Haaretz.
“Anti-Semitic incidents Doubled Last Year,” blared the AP headline.
Sponsored by the European Jewish Congress and produced with help from researchers around the world, including the Anti-Defamation League’s Aryeh Tuchman, the report’s release was timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day. The Roth Institute’s director, Dinah Porat, who also sits on the board at the Israeli Holocaust research center, Yad Vashem, declared at a recent press conference that anti-Semitism is directly linked to anti-Zionism. This is also the conclusion of her group’s report, which focuses on the alleged connection between anti-Semitic acts and Israel’s assault on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009.
The Roth Institute identifies the UK and France as centers of anti-Semitism, but also centers in on American targets, including the widely praised Palestinian author Ali Abunimah and the Muslim students at UC-Irvine who heckled Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.
Continue reading “Propagandistic Anti-Semitism Report (Accidentally) Raises The Linkage Issue”
Jeff Blankfort: Whither the Israel Lobby?
George Kenney interviews Jeff Blankfort on the Israel Lobby at Electric Politics. We’ve only slightly truncated the talk here which you can listen to in full at EP. Jeff is always worth a listen and also comments on the recent developments involving General Petraeus and his report to Admiral Mullen, with this proposition for bringing down the Lobby:
If, flanked by General Petraeus and Admiral Mike Mullen, Obama went before the American people, and told them in so many words what Petraeus told Mullen what Petraeus said in his testiomony – his prepared testimony — to the Senate Armed Services Committee, that the failure of israel to step up to the plate and withdraw from the Occupied [Palestinian] Territories and continue to build [illegal] settlements is against US national interests and is endangering our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. If he did that … the Lobby, if not collapse, it would be a major defeat for them … it would change American politics.
P U L S E 