Too Important to Miss ... Why Did Israel Attack Gaza?

This is an important but lengthy thesis on why Israel attacked Gaza, the timing of it, and the political landscape behind the attack. On my site there are many other posts relating to Gaza, but since the cease-fire I think it is important to inspect the WHY of it all.

I had a suspicion the elections were involved, but Norman Finkelstein makes an interesting and supported thesis on why Israel attacked Gaza in the manner in which it did, and he might be correct. Normally the simplest explanation is the most plausible one.

An Israeli's Opinion on the Saudi Initiative

A columnist from Israel writes a nice commentary on the renewed Arab League Proposal (Saudi Initiative) and why Israel should embrace the proposal, and not continue its legacy of rejectionism.

Why does this go unreported in the US?

My stepdad's daughter who works for the UN took my step-dad to Hebron last spring, and he told me last summer what was happening to the Palestinians there was unspeakable.

There were several hundred illegal settlers who occupied the upper floors of a building in Hebron, and then when the Palestinians go outside in the streets above the building, the settlers would throw trash, feces, and other undesirable stuff on them.

They eventually put up a net to catch most of the debris, but it seems the 4,000 IDF soldiers used to protect these some 600 illegal settlers has taken its toll on the Palestinians town of Hebron.

Of course, not a mention of this in mainstream US presses. This link is from the BBC.

Only Nutballs Defend Finkelstein !

Hopefully, people can detect sarcasm in the title !

A Palestinian Speaks Against Israeli Prejudices

Amen Amen Amen, Azmi sums up an essential problem with the conflict ; it is based on an irrational push to create a democratic society in which only jews may participate, but can such an underlying racist doctrine provide the foundation for a democracy.

Anti-Americanism : Some Root Causes

My 2nd contribution to Muckrakerreport :

Do not read if you want to cling to your illusions !

Duh !

Been saying it for years, but thank you Gideon for re-iterating a worthwhile point, and offering a dissenting Israeli perspective.

Resistance or Terror?

Forget for a moment that the Mossad helped create Hamas as a counterweight to the PLO, and forget that Condaleeza Rice has been so pro-Israel in all other matters, do one tiny thing out of line with the Zionist agenda, and they throw a temper tantrum !

The french and the Jews, more recently

I think French policy indicates that you can't simply allow millions of immigrants (in their case, Muslim) into your country and then ghettoize them and prop them up with subsidized housing, all the while barring entry into good jobs. For the most part France and the EU has bought into the concept that allowing any immigrants from anywhere to come in, but the heavy-duty cradle to grave socialism, and it's subsequent slow growth economy, simply cannot accomodate, much less assimilate, the new "citizens". The result...

France's Jewish population has been variously estimated at between 500,000 and 700,000 and its Muslim population at five million to six million. But French Jews here say the community has been depleted by frequent departures, the majority to Israel. Jewish Agency figures show that almost 14,000 French Jews have resettled in Israel since 2001.

These Jews have a lot of intellectual resources, and a lot of French capital. This is good for Florida and Israel, and ultimately bad for France. Regardless of any criticism of AIPAC or Israel, the suburban ghettos of France are far removed from Israel, and many of the French Muslims hail from nowhere near Palestine. Nonetheless, the Jews there are harassed and murdered by Muslims, regularly enough for the Jews to leave.

We'll see who backs out of the talks

Great article on the resurrection of the Arab League proposal of 2002. I especially like the comment by Livni halfway down the page concerning a "symbolic" right of return. The next sentence is fascinating to me.

Uri Avnery, James Baker, and the Iraq Study Group

One of the best articles I've read in a long time. I really like Uri Avnery, and that a man can serve in the Israeli Knesset and now be a spokesperson for Palestinian rights and justice is a testament that peace could be achieved if only the zealots would get out of the way.

Hezbollah: Coming Soon To Your Hometown

Some great propaganda. Enjoy.

Hope for peace in Jerusalem?

Ok, my last post Re: Israel until 2007.

Make Nice Diplomacy

Classy diplomacy from Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria. While ambassador to Syria (80s) he helped to found Hezbollah and has supplied Hezbollah with rockets ever since. He could sure teach ambassador whatshisname in Australia a thing or two about diplomacy, and tolerance. But I guess since he just wants to kill Jews and not make fun of their noses, this is probably a red herring.

In an interview with a Tehran newspaper on August 3, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, who, as Iran's ambassador to Syria, helped found Hezbollah after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, boasted of the military experience that Hezbollah fighters gained while fighting alongside Iran during the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s. Although Iran continues to deny that it is a major supplier of Hezbollah rockets, Mohtashamipour acknowledged that Hezbollah has medium-range Zelzal-2 missiles and short-range Katyusha rockets, which are both made by Iran. He also referred to the Hezbollah militia as Khomeini's "spiritual offspring."^[2]

He also wishes to forbid immigration of European and American Jews to Israel.

Over-ruled?

I didn't want to do this, but Scottie put me up to it. I couldn't find any logical way to defend the systematic racism of David Duke. I invite the millions and millions of Logifans out there to attempt to do so for themselves by clicking the link above (you'll have to search his name) and coming to their own conclusions. Perhaps if the Isreali ambassador simply held a contest to pay cartoonists to insult Asians or Arabs, as Ahmadinejad had done against Israelis, he would have been fine. There's good diplomacy. Excuse me while I NOT self-flagellate.

Interesting Walt and Mearsheimer rebuttal

The above article makes some interesting points about the influence and history of AIPAC and Israel. In all honesty the Walt and Mearsheimer paper is a rather sober account and not an Israel bashing diatribe...however I think it does minimize the threat to Israel to makes it's point. I haven't read the whole W & M paper (dissertation, remember?) but I think it is a worthy read. I also think the above is a solidly researched history as well. I think there are bigger foreign policy threats to US than Israel, namely Iran and, in the long run, China. As mentioned in one of the previous links the Saudi lobby is probably more dangerous (i.e. representing a government which is far less of an ally than Israel, and highly tolerant of anti-American terrorists) than the Israel lobby.

Bound to start trouble

David Duke agrees with Harvard school of government. Worth reading the whole thing. I'm sure someone out there has something to say about this. I like Dershowitz' quote.

Posted at 08:52 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by scottie @ 03/21/2006 03:47 PM PST
	I read the article. Alan Dershowitz has lost any credibility discussing affairs pertaining to Israel when he decided to plagiariaz from a hoax in his book "The Case for Israel". So his inclusion in the article is basically void. He has shamed himself, his reputation, and his university. The Harvard President Summers felt great pressure to oust Dershy, which did not happen. Dershowitz's fraudulent scholarship was exposed by Norman Finkelstein in a downloadable debate from "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman, and Finkelstein goes into greater depth exposing Dershowitz's fraud in his new book "Beyond Chutzpah", which I have read quite closely. Dershowitz recently slipped even farther by attacking Finkelstein's dead mother, who survived a WWII Nazi deathcamp, by saying she must have been a "kapo", one who collaborated with the Nazis. I wrote a letter to Dershowitz myself telling him that he had sunk to a new low, and he responded with a template response, which contained a plethora of logical fallacies, which I kindly diagrammed for him and emailed back to him. Still waiting on a response ... So to quote this guy is ludicrous ... This is not the OJ trial!

	Posted by John Broussard @ 03/22/2006 07:44 PM PST
	This Dershowitz guy is a slippery one. It's amazing that a guy who has a knack for keeping very wealthy murderers out of jail has ascended far into a very tall ivory tower, and into American consciousness. Until recently, I'd say around 2001, he was lionized by the media. These days I don't "watch" news, so it's hard to tell. Still, on the other side of the argument is David Duke, so there's that to consider.

	Posted by John Broussard @ 03/22/2006 10:13 PM PST
	Scottie, I think your email to Dershowitz and his response would make a good post.

Memri

Check out this website:

http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD85605

Either Zarqawi is a CIA agent perpetuating the propaganda myth that Islamism has set it's sights on the US because of objections against democracy, or, well, see for yourself.

http://memri.org

Recommended regular reading, for those who don't already know. Middle East Media Research Institute, they translate speeches and news reports from the middle east without watering them down.

Posted at 08:41 am by Johnny B

	Posted by BP @ 02/01/2005 09:01 AM PST
	Is anyone getting the feeling that Scottie doesn't love us anymore?

Giving Scottie some propaganda

Hey everybody,

Natan Sharansky, a soviet dissident who is also a dreaded zionist (double whammy!) wrote this:

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/sharansky200412090812.asp

Just to be fair and balanced, here is the personal political website of a faculty member I was thinking of working with:

http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~sereno/war.html

(Hint: America is bad y'all)

Posted at 04:50 pm by Johnny B

	Posted by BP @ 12/10/2004 09:42 AM PST
	Wow...what a nincompoop. A bunch of statistics without any context. Not surprising. However the most interesting were the "human rights disasters". Hell this is worthy of a post.