The New York Times’s (and Clinton Campaign’s) Abject Cowardice on Israel

http://samidoun.net/2016/05/take-action-palestinian-fishers-under-attack-end-the-siege-on-gaza/

Five Palestinian fishers in Gaza – Rajab Abu Riyala, Khaled Abu Riyala, Hassan Miqdad, Mahmoud Miqdad, and Bashar Abu Riyala – were arrested this morning, 31 May, by Israeli occupation forces and two fishing boats confiscated by the Israeli navy. According to the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, these arrests bring the number of Palestinian fishers in Gaza arrested by Israeli occupation forces in 2016 to 70, including eight children, and the number of boats confiscated to 20. In 2015, 71 fishermen were detained and 22 boats confiscated throughout the year.

Read full story…

https://electronicintifada.net/content/methodists-keep-investing-israels-war-crimes/16891

Like many other religious organizations, the 12 million-strong United Methodist Church has formally criticized Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians. At a 2012 policy-making conference, the UMC appealed for a global boycott of goods produced in the settlements which Israel is building in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.

Israel is never acting in “self-defense” in Gaza

More from John Dugard, former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories and emeritus professor of international law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

So given the fact that Gaza is an occupied territory, it means that Israel’s present assault on Gaza is simply a way of enforcing the continuation of the occupation, and the response of the Palestinian militants should be seen as the response of an occupied people that wishes to resist the occupation. It has taken this resistance into Israel itself, but it still remains resistance. And I think it would be very helpful to see the occupation of Gaza in the same context as one might see, for instance, the occupation of, shall we say, Netherlands during the Second World War by Germany. It’s an occupied territory, and if Israel uses force against the occupied territory, it’s not acting in self-defense. It’s acting as an occupying power.

I came across a real gem over at “Jewish Press” this morning as I was perusing this morning’s news. An odious harriden named Batya Medad, is outraged, outraged I tell ya, at the fact that some people are upset about her article claiming again, lie many of these extremists do and have done in this very thread, that there is no such thing as Palestine or Palestinians.

It is intellectual bankruptcy of the most dangerous kind. I wonder just how many people she has thus far encouraged in “price tag” attacks and the burnings alive of innocent Palestinian children based on her hate speech.

I had intended this morning to post a draft UN resolution that I have been working on based upon the already existing UNSCR 465, but first I had to share this because over on her “Jewish Press” blog and on my Facebook and BBSNews, I told her I would. Because I fully expect her to delete my response as she has closed comments elsewhere and deleted comments before, no surprise there. A lot of people see her hurtful lying antisemitism as the vile evil that it is.

Here’s the comment I left her with the link to her screed at the bottom:

I am encouraging this Web site to be included in the ongoing investigation of the Palestine “situation” by the International Criminal Court for engaging in the crime against humanity of incitement to genocide through the media.

This type of hate site should be removed from the Web, and those like Batya who lie about the existence of Palestine and the Palestinians must face criminal charges at the Hague for incitement to genocide.

This type of hate speech is causing the terrorism, it is causing antisemitism, and American Jews must get shut of these willfully ignorant, violent fundamentalist extremists like Batya who are no different than Islamic State or Osama Bin Laden.

For shame, the disgrace you do to those murdered in the Shoah, in trying to bring about another one; but this time Batya believes that it is right and good, as long as it is directed at those she hates, the indigenous Palestinians who under international law had a state twenty-four years before Israel was created under UNGA 181.

Where do you think Israel was created if not in Palestine as Arthur Balfour pointed out in 1917?

It is criminal, and it is nutty. I know it is insane because of the disclaimer above these comments:

“If you promote any foreign religions, gods or messiahs, lies about Israel, anti-Semitism, or advocate violence (except against terrorists), your permission to comment may be revoked.”

This is terrorist fundamentalism claimed to be done in the name of the world’s Jews. It is despicable, it is illegal, and this hate site should be shut down as the incitement to genocide in the media that it clearly is.

It is the most vile form of antisemitism when Batya claims that Jews must support the crimes against humanity of illegally transferring hundreds of thousands of illegal colonists over the border into the state of Palestine, contrary to Article 49 (6) of the 4th Geneva Conventions, or they are not good Jews.

It is a blood libel to claim that this is all a vast Jewish conspiracy of all Jews, in lockstep march to illegally colonize another country, Palestine, recognized by 138 nations and the Vatican, using state terror and military force.

The types of blood libels thrown around as Batya does here encourage antisemitism, and they encourage people to think that Israel is no different than any other despotic regime in the Middle East – however, a ‘beacon of light’ does not engage in ethnic cleansing and terrorism.

People like Batya are the most dangerous kind of religious violent extremists, and it is time for Web sites like this, and individuals like Batya, to face criminal charges for incitement to genocide of the Palestinian people.

This comment will be “disappeared” as so many are here contrary to Batya’s lies. But it will live on elsewhere because I am posting it to Facebook, BBSNews and The Intercept and elsewhere so others will understand what kind of vile horrendous extremists such as Batya Medad are speaking in the name of the Jews.

This hate site could be just as easily Islamic State, just change a few names here and there and there’s not a dime’s worth of difference. Don’t let her speak for you. She speaks only for pure criminal evil.

— Closed Comments to “Palestine: Fictional Country/People”

It is time to start holding these vile people, who claim to speak for Jews as they incite genocide through the media, a crime against humanity in its own right, responsible for their actions. It saddens me that more people do not reject this type of fundamentalist hate done and said in the name of the Jews.

Mona

So why DO you keep quoting Jabotinsky re the nastiness of Jews? If I didn’t know you (or at least your internet persona), I would think you were seeking to validate anti-semitism. I assume that is not your purpose, but what is?

We tend to create a personal and tribalistic god who is on our side even if we act unjustly, do unto others what we don’t want done unto us, and our hearts are filled with anger, vengeance, hatred, self-pride, desire for power and control, etc., and worship her as an inner idol.

Israel is an apartheid state

During Israel’s obscene and murderous bombardment of Gaza two summers ago, John Dugard, the former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories (now emeritus professor of international law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands) had this to say:

Well, if I look at the situation in Palestine, which I know very well as former special rapporteur, if I look at it as a former South African, then I see very similar circumstances prevailing in Palestine as prevailed in South Africa during apartheid. But I think it’s also important to look at the situation in terms of the 1973 United Nations Convention on the Suppression of Apartheid, which defines apartheid and which applies it to situations beyond southern Africa.

And essentially, it requires three conditions: first of all, that there should be two groups. Here, there are clearly two groups: the Palestinians and the Israelis. Secondly, that the governing group should commit inhumane acts against the subject group. And that clearly is happening in the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel has subjected the Palestinians to all sorts of inhumane acts. And then, thirdly, this should be done with the intention of maintaining the domination. And one can draw that inference from the presence of settlers in the West Bank, because today one has some 600,000 settlers in the West Bank who actually constitute a colonial enterprise. And as with all colonies, the colonial peoples—or, the colonial power subjects the colonized people to domination. And so, if one looks at these three conditions, I think it’s clear that, in terms of the 1973 Convention on Apartheid, Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory are tantamount to apartheid.

Zionism corrupts the finest Jewish people

Deborah Lipstadt is a premier scholar on the Holocaust. Moreover, and as Israel critic, Richard Silverstein, has said of Lipstadt, “she has railed against the moral indifference and outright hostility of the U.S. government toward Jewish European refugees both before and during the Holocaust.”

Thus, Lipstadt’s support of nations who refuse to accept Muslim refugees is appalling and almost tragic — tragic to see this women lend her reputation to demonizing the refugees and abandoning her humanitarian principles. Lipstadt writes:

“For some, the very thought of hesitating to act while working through questions in the face of traumatized children is to be hard hearted. Act now, they say, and question later. Yet the decisions that are being made now have tremendous long-term implications. With deep and abiding respect for the dead, there is still much to be learned. We need to go beyond the emotional response to desperate images and grapple with the social, political and moral implications inherent in our response.”

Silverstein gets right to the heart of this shocking statement:

Imagine Lipstadt writing about a Word War II-era politician or historian commenting on the Jewish refugee crisis in 1939. Imagine such a figure saying: Hold on, despite our sympathy for Jewish refugees, rescuing them and bringing them to safety in the United States or Palestine would have “tremendous long-term implications.” Imagine if such a figure warned that instead of falling prey to a plaintive cry for justice, we “need to go beyond the emotional response to grapple with the social, political and moral implications.”

Lipstadt would have savaged such a figure in her scholarly studies. She would have derided such moral temporizing and linked it to a lingering anti-Semitism lying just beneath the surface of the Western “civilized world.”

Lipstadt, a liberal woman, actually says: “What about Israel? … I find myself almost agreeing with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision not to accept any refugees.”

Her entire position is soul-sickening. I highly recommend Silversteins’s analysis of it: Special Analysis: She Said What? Holocaust Scholar Denies Middle East Refugee Crisis

Mona quotes Jabotinsky for the umpteenth time:

“The Jewish people are a very nasty people. Its neighbors hate it and they’re right.” – Vladimir Jabotinsky

Do you believe he is right Mona – that Jews are a nasty people?

You write,

“…………Ten years ago, a Jewish friend told me that neoconservatives and the Israel Lobby were the most dangerous thing to arise for Jews in many decades. He noted that once Americans realize the U.S. is sending their sons and daughters into Middle Eastern wars desired by Israel and promoted by neoconservatives and the Israel Lobby at home, there will be rage. There will be fury about the billions we send Israel and the way our foreign policy and politics are warped by the Lobby. And it has come to pass — we are seeing that with the antisemitic Trumpites. They realize it all, and they are furious…….”

Israel is sending Americans to fight and die on behalf of the Jewish State (now the “antisemitic Trumpites” realize it). Do you agree with Jabotinsky that Jews are just a nasty people, Mona?

Gotta go, but: Fine work here, Mona, Sparrow, Richard, Michael, Jayz, et al.

Before you leave, yourselves, consider taking another look at the thread under the Chris Kyle piece, where the Murka Fuk Yeh! knuckle-draggers are on the verge of threatening the authors with violence.

Questioning our “heroes” has always been dangerous, and there’s a long line of posts over there to serve as a reminder.

The Only Democracy™ criminalizes social media posting — for Palestinians only

Some 150 West Bank Palestinians have recently been arrested and imprisoned for “incitement” and such bullshit . Read about ten of them here.

I am able to post many revolting examples of Israeli Jews who, with complete impunity, post the most vile and murder-embracing comments and tweets about Muslims and Arabs.

http://www.nkusa.org/AboutUs/Zionism/greatgulf.cfm

THE GREAT GULF BETWEEN ZIONISM AND JUDAISM
Paper delivered by G. J. Neuberger a member of Neturei Karta at the Tripoli Conference on Zionism and Racism

Where the Torah tells about the creation of the first human being, the most prominent Jewish commentator, Rashi, explains that the earth from which Adam was formed was not taken from one spot but from various parts of the globe. Thus human dignity does not depend on the place of one’s birth nor is it limited to one region. The greatness or worth of a person is not measured by his or her outward appearance. Jews believe that Adam was created in G-d’s image and that he is the common ancestor of all mankind. At this stage in human history, there is no room for privileged people who can do with others as they please. Human life is sacred and human rights are not to be denied by those who would subvert them for “national security” or for any other reason. No one knows this better than the Jews, who have been second-class citizens so often and for so long. Zionists, however, may differ. This is understandable because Judaism and Zionism are by no means the same. Indeed they are incompatible and irreconcilable: If one is a good Jew, one cannot be a Zionist; if one is a Zionist, one cannot be a good Jew.

The Treason of Zionism

A conference such as this is long overdue, and I wish to thank those who made it possible to hold it. For over 60 years I have fought Zionism, as did my father before me, and I am therefore quite familiar with it. For those who have been in this fight for only the last ten or twenty years, what I have to say may be surprising or even shocking. Nevertheless these matters must be stated clearly and openly, because unless the disease of Zionism is diagnosed accurately, it cannot be cured. Too long have those opposed to Zionism engaged in daydreaming and wishful thinking. In order to recognize Zionism for what it is, one has to know about Judaism, about Zionism — the opposite and negation of Judaism, and about Jewish history. In the time allotted to me, I am not going to talk about the actions of the Zionists; they will be adequately dealt with by other speakers. As a Jew, I plan to discuss Zionism, which is rebellion against G-d and treason to the Jewish people.

To begin with, a few definitions: Who is a Jew? A Jew is anyone who has a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism in conformity with Halacha, Jewish religious law. This definition alone excludes racism. Judaism does not seek converts, but those who do convert are accepted on a basis of equality. Let us see how far this goes. Some of the most eminent and respected rabbis were converts to Judaism. Jewish parents throughout the world bless their children every Sabbath and holiday eve, and they have done it in the same way for millennia. If the children are girls, the blessing is, “May G-d let you be like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” Not one of these matriarchs was born a Jewess; they were all converts to Judaism. If the children are boys, the blessing is, “May G-d let you be like Ephraim and Manasseh.” The mother of these two was an Egyptian woman who became Jewish and had married Joseph. Moses himself, the greatest Jew who ever lived, married a Midianite woman who became Jewish. Finally, the Tanach, the holy writings of the Jew, contains the book of Ruth. This woman was not only not Jewish by birth, but she came from the Moabites, traditional enemies of the Jewish people. This book describes Ruth’s conversion to Judaism and is read annually on the holiday commemorating the giving of the Torah, the “Law,” i.e. the Pentateuch. At its very end, the book of Ruth traces the ancestry of King David, the greatest king the Jews ever had, to Ruth, his great-grandmother.

Apart from the Zionists, the only ones who consistently considered the Jews a race were the Nazis. And they only served to prove the stupidity and irrationality of racism. There was no way to prove racially whether a Mrs. Muller or a Mr. Meyer were Jews or Aryans. The only way to decide whether a person was Jewish was to trace the religious affiliation of the parents or grandparents. So much for the this racial nonsense.

Racial pride has been the downfall of those Jews in the past who were blinded by their own narrow-minded chauvinism. This brings us to a second definition. Is there a Jewish people? If so, what is its mission? Let us make this completely clear: The Jewish nation was not born or reconstituted a generation ago by some Zionist politicians. The Jewish nation was born on Mount Sinai when the Jews by their response, “let us do and let us hear,” adopted the Torah given to them by G-d for all future generations. `This day you become a people,” though valid still today, was spoken thousands of years ago.

According to Jewish tradition, there are seven Noahide laws which apply to all human beings. Then there are the Ten Commandments which form basic standard of morality and conduct for adherents of all monotheistic religions. In addition to these, there are 613 laws obligatory for Jews, and every Jew has to observe those which are applicable to him or her according to Halacha. It is the carrying out of these mitzvoth, “commandments,” which constitutes the essence of being Jewish, and therefore of the Jewish people and their covenant with G-d.

In what way are the Jews a “chosen people”? Every Jewish man anywhere and at any time when called to the reading of the Torah says, “Who has chosen us from all the peoples and gave us His Torah.” This is the way in which the Jews are chosen. The Jewish people are chosen not for domination over others, not for conquest or warfare, but to serve G-d and thus to serve mankind. “And the hands are the hands of Esau,” has been traditionally interpreted to mean that while “the voice is Jacob’s,” the hands- – symbolizing violence – are Esau’s. Thus physical violence is not a tradition or a value of the Jews. The task for which the Jewish people were chosen is not to set an example of military superiority or technical achievements, but to seek perfection in moral behavior and spiritual purity. Of all the crimes of political Zionism, the worst and most basic, and which explains all its other misdeeds, is that from its beginning Zionism has sought to separate the Jewish people from their G-d, to render the divine covenant null and void, and to substitute a “modern” statehood and fraudulent sovereignty for the lofty ideals of the Jewish people.

Hypocrisy and Perversion

One means of misleading many Jews and all too many non-Jews is the Zionist misuse of names and symbols sacred in Judaism. They use the holy name Israel for their Zionist state. They have named their land acquisition fund with a term that traditionally implies the reward for piety, good deeds, and charitable work. They have adopted as a state symbol the menorah (candlebrum). What hypocrisy, what perversion it is to have the Israeli army fight under an emblem, the meaning of which is explained in the Tenach (on the occasion of a previous return to the Holy Land) as, “not with armed force and not with power, but in My spirit says the Lord of Hosts.”

The infamous founder of political Zionism, may his name be cursed, who only discovered his own Jewishness because of anti-Semitism displayed at the Dreyfus trial in France, proposed various solutions to what he called the “Jewish problem.” At one point he proposed to resettle the Jews in Uganda. At another he proposed to convert them to Catholicism. He finally hit on the idea of a Judenstaat, an exclusive Jewish state. Thus from its very beginning Zionism was a result of Anti-Semitism and indeed is completely compatible with it, because Zionists and anti-Semites had (and have) a common goal: To bring all Jews from their places of domicile to the Zionist state, thus uprooting Jewish communities that had existed for hundreds and even thousands of years. Loyalty to the Zionist state was substituted for loyalty to G-d, and the state was made into the modern “golden calf”. Belief in the Torah and fulfillment of religious obligations in Zionist eyes became a private matter and not a duty for every Jew or for the Jewish people. The Zionists made divine law subject to party or parliamentary votes, and they set their own standards of conduct and ethics.

Neither the founder of political Zionism nor any of the prime ministers of the Zionist state believed in the divine origin of the Torah nor even in the existence of G-d. All prime ministers were members of a party that opposed religion in principle and that considered the Bible a document of ancient folklore, devoid of any religious meaning. And yet these same Zionists base their claim to the Holy Land on this same Bible, the divine origin of which they deny. At the same time they conveniently forget the Jewish holiday prayer “and for our sins have we been exiled from our land,” and ignore the fact that the present exile of the Jewish people is divinely decreed and that the Jewish people are neither commanded nor permitted to conquer or rule the Holy Land before the coming of the Messiah. The Jewish people do, of course, recognize special spiritual ties to that land they call it Eretz Yisrael. Every morning, afternoon, and evening, and night they mention it and Zion and Jerusalem in their prayers, and indeed a Jew does not sit down to a meal without doing likewise. To the Jew, the very soil of the Holy Land is different from that of any other spot on this globe, and wherever he is he turns his face toward Jerusalem during prayers. To live in the Holy Land or even to be buried there was always considered to be of high merit.

This love of the land and the Jewish longing for a return to it and for the coming of the Messiah have been exploited innumerable times during the past 2,000 years. Zionism has had many precursors and each has been a curse for the Jews. Individuals who proclaimed themselves the Messiah and messianic movements have sprung up from time to time, from the Roman era through the Middle Ages and down to the modern Zionists. Many of these pseudo-Messiahs posed as rabbis or as national leaders, though some of them eventually professed other faiths; many temporarily – some for longer periods – succeeded in misleading Jews, rabbis, and entire Jewish communities. All were in due course exposed and recognized as frauds, and those who had set their hope on them found only disappointment and all too often disaster.

In the early stages of the development of modern Zionism, the Mizrachi was founded, an organization of so-called religious Zionists who tried to combine their faith with political Zionism. This led to constant conflict between the dictates of divine law and the demands of Jewish nationalism. Most of the time, the Mizrachi was outvoted at Zionist congresses and served only to give the Zionist movement a false religious aura. Whenever expediency called for it, these “religious” Zionist fellow-travelers have been used by the Zionist government to underpin national claims with “religious” authority. The National Religious Party in the Zionist state has been well rewarded for giving its stamp of approval to nationalistic measures and enactments, whether these rewards were of financial nature or in the form of cabinet or other government posts. The chauvinism of these religious Zionists frequently exceeded that of other Zionists, and it was always couched in religious terms – a prime example of the abuse of religion. The fraudulence of these “religious” Zionists was demonstrated during the past year when it was revealed that two of their world leaders had committed million-dollar thefts.

A Jewish world organization was founded in 1912 on the German-Polish border with the specific purpose of fighting Zionism. This organization, Agudath Israel, “Union of Israel,” was to represent the true Jewish people in the world and to unmask the unwarranted and unjust claims of the Zionists. Rabbis everywhere joined Agudath Israel, as did masses of observant Jews. Anti-Zionist congresses were convened in Vienna and in Marienbad. In countries such as Poland, Agudists were members of parliament. Under Agudah leadership more than 50 years ago, Jews in the Holy Land opposed to Zionism obtained permission from Britain, the mandatory power in Palestine, to declare in writing that they did not wish to be represented by the Zionists or any of their groups, particularly not by the Zionist quasi-governmental organizations such as the Va’ad Leumi, “National Council.”

Haganah Assasination

Shortly thereafter, Jacob de Haan, a former distinguished Dutch diplomat who was then leader of Agudath Israel in Palestine, initiated talks with Arab leaders with a view toward the eventual establishments of a state there in which Jews and Arabs would have equal rights. In this way he hoped to forestall the creation of a Zionist state. Despite threats to his life, de Haan, fully aware of the ultimate dangers of a Zionist state, continued his talks and negotiations. On the eve of his departure in 1924 for Britain to meet with authorities there, he was assassinated by the Haganah, the Zionist paramilitary force, in the center of Jerusalem as he came from evening prayers. More than a half a century ago, this devout and visionary Jew gave his life in a fight that he considered paramount, at a time when the world at large was still blind and deaf to the difficulties and problems that a future Zionist state would entail.

Zionist Terrorism

As a result of such terrorism and increasing Zionist pressure, Agudath Israel gradually began to weaken and to compromise. During the Nazi period, it entered indo deals and arrangements with the Zionists, despite the fact that its fundamental aim had been to combat Zionism. After the Zionist state was established, Agudath Israel broke off with its past, participated in the Zionist government on the cabinet level and elected Agudists to the Zionist parliament. Still professing a nominal anti-Zionism, Agudath Israel established a network of “independent” schools in the Holy Land, but today the overwhelming part of the budget of these schools comes from the Zionist government.

In view of these developments, those Jews who wanted to continue the fight against Zionism without any compromise left Agudath Israel and constituted themselves as the Neturei Karta, an Aramaic phrase meaning “Guardians of the City,” i.e. the city of Jerusalem. The Neturei Karta in turn became a worldwide movement, known in some places as “Friends of Jerusalem.”

The greatest leader of the Neturei Karta was Rabbi Amram Blau, an inspired and dedicated leader whose compassion equaled his courage. He could not keep silent in the face of injustice, immorality, or hypocrisy. He was beloved by Jews and respected by Christians and Muslims. Born in Jerusalem, he never left the Holy Land during his entire life. In his writings he stressed many times that Jews and Arabs had lived in harmony until the advent of political Zionism. Rabbi Blau was imprisoned in Jerusalem, not by the Ottoman authorities, not by the British, and not by the Arabs, but by the Zionists. What was his crime? He defended with vigor and honesty, without regard for his own safety, the holy character of Jerusalem against the “innovations” and encroachments of the Zionists. He fought for the sanctity of the Sabbath and actively opposed the inroads of indecency and immorality made under the Zionist regime.

Unceasingly Rabbi Blau denounced the establishment of a Jewish state before the coming of the Messiah as an act of infamy and blasphemy. Under his leadership, the Neturei Karta declared year after year that they did not recognize the legitimacy of the Zionist state or the validity of its laws.

During the first period of fighting between the Zionist state and the Arabs, the rabbis of the Neturei Karta went toward the combat lines, carrying a white flag, and stated that they wanted no part in this war and that they were absolutely opposed to the creation of a Zionist state. In his last proclamation, Rabbi Blau deplored the actions of the Zionists against the Muslim and Christian Palestinians and the grievous harm done by the Zionists to the Jewish people in endeavoring to change them from “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to a modern state, devoid of spiritual foundation, based on chauvinism, built on conquest, and relying on military prowess. “The number of your cities constitute your gods,” the prophet Jeremiah had thundered to the chauvinist and idolatrous Jewish government of this day. Like it, the Zionists are now establishing a new status quo and expanding their position by founding new settlements in he territories occupied since 1967.

Rabbi Blau in his last statement severely condemned the UN for recognizing and accepting as a member the Zionist state, thus giving the Zionists unprecedented prestige and power. It is high time that the anti-Zionist nations listen to him, heed his plea, and undo this great wrong and correct this fatal error. It is well known that no action was taken concerning the expulsion of the Zionist state because of the fear that financial support for the UN would be withdrawn. Let those states, opposed to Zionism, who have become affluent during the past generation, show that they mean what they say by offering to replace any financial loss the UN may suffer as a consequence, and let the member states vote their conscience without fear and regardless of any intimidation.

There has been times before in Jewish history, as related in the Bible, when the masses were misled and only a minority of Jews clung to the true mission of the Jewish people. One of the first such of the occasions was the worship of the golden calf; today we unfortunately see a repetition of this, with the Zionist state now being the object of worship. Until the appearance and growing influence of political Zionism, Jewish leaders were chosen on the basis of their piety, decency, learning, and their love of justice and mercy. Today only too often so-called Jewish leaders, completely unqualified under Jewish law and traditional concepts, make pronouncements and decisions in the name and on behalf of the Jewish people. This is particularly true in the USA where there is the largest Jewish community in our time. I can never forget the remark of a woman in Oklahoma: “Isn’t today’s Judaism wonderful! All you have to do is give money.”

Even at his death Rabbi Blau refuted the Zionists who had often claimed that the Neturei Karta was nothing but an insignificant sect of a few hundred souls. Yet when Rabbi Blau died in Jerusalem on a Friday morning two years ago, a few hours later no fewer than 22,000 men attended his funeral.

At all times in the past, the misleaders of the Jews have sooner or later fallen by the wayside, and only those who upheld the validity of the Torah and the Talmud (the written and oral law) and of Halachah, and who resisted the demagogues, prevailed. The Neturei Karta follow in this tradition. They continue as a living rebuke to Zionism and speak in our time for the true Jewish people, those who have not been misled by Zionism.

During the Roman conquest of the Holy Land, there were Jews who on the basis of nationalism and racial pride were sure that they could not lose a war. They, like the Zionists of our day, were opposed to any compromise or settlement; there were determined to fight to the end. At that time, however almost 2,000 years ago, the fore most rabbi, Rabbi Yochanan ben Sakkai, chose a different way. The military adventurers prevented him from leaving beleaguered Jerusalem to negotiate with the Romans, so the rabbi had himself carried out in a coffin by his disciples to the Roman headquarters. He said to the Romans that the Jews need neither an army nor weapons and asked for permission to establish a yeshiva, a Jewish religious school, at Yavneh. It was this religious school, and not the militarists or generals of the time, that helped to perpetuate Judaism and the identity of the Jewish people.

It must be stated explicitly that while not all Jews are Zionists, not all Zionists are Jews. The motives of some of these non-Jewish Zionists, e.g. Lord Balfour and General Smuts, are at least open to question. From the beginning of the Zionist movement, some of the most articulate and fervent Zionists have been Christian clergymen, especially “fundamentalists,” who hail Zionism as an important “religious” movement and welcome it as a fulfillment of prophecy. They also, and significantly, serve the cause of Zionism.

One of the basic aims of Zionism is aliyah, the immigration to the Zionist state of Jews from all countries. Nevertheless, during the past few years hundreds of thousands of Israelis have outgathered themselves from the Zionist paradise, and American Jews have “voted with their feet” and have chosen not to be ingathered. These Jews recognize that the Zionist state is in fact nothing but a giant ghetto.

Instead of being able to render assistance to Jewish communities in other countries, American Jews have been mobilized to concentrate on helping the Zionist state, making the USA the real and major source of Zionist power and influence. The Zionists, true to the nature of their movement, rely on technical superiority and on a forbidding military deterrent – provided largely by the USA – for their security.

Nothing could be further from the true ideals of the Jewish people. The Jewish people were chosen in the first place “for you are the leas of all nations.” As the Psalm says, “they rely on vehicles and horsepower, but we invoke the name of the Eternal, our G-d.”

One most vital point deserves mention. A former president of the World Zionist Organization has stated explicitly that a Zionist owes unqualified loyalty to the Zionist state and that, in the case of a conflict, the first loyalty of a Zionist must be to the Zionist state. According to Jewish law, however, a Jew owes allegiance and loyalty to the country of which he is a citizen, and, of course, no faithful Jews owes any loyalty or allegiance to the Zionist state which has been condemned by the foremost rabbis of our age.

It is not my purpose to detail how Zionism should be dealt with. Let me state, however, that isolated or spontaneous acts against individuals or the mere adoption of resolutions in the UN or elsewhere are not effective means of bringing an end to Zionism. Let me state also that the battle against Zionism must be waged first, not on the shores of the Mediterranean, but in Zionism’s most powerful bastion the USA.

As an American citizen, I deplore that our government and our politicians have adopted an attitude that is in complete contradiction to the advice of the father of our country George Washington. Instead of shying away from foreign entanglements and permanent alliances with foreign powers, the establishment in Washington has embraced Zionism so wholeheartedly that in the eyes any criticism of the Zionist state and any opposition to political Zionism in the UN by any nation has become a punishable offense. And the American media do not dare to speak out against such an absurdity.

Unfortunately, thus far, each year sees still further gains in influence by American Zionists. This fact has made possible events and developments that were unthinkable even ten years ago. It takes a lot of courage to be opposed to Zionism in the USA today. It also took a lot of courage during the Second World War to be anti-Fascist in Italy or anti-Nazi in Germany. In the long run Zionism is nothing but a passing aberration in the long history of the Jewish people and of the world.

Let us take faith and hope in the certainty that eventually prejudice, hatred, and injustice will disappear, and that the prophecy will come true that all nations of the world will participate in the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

An example of the ‘reasoning’ of the defenders of the Israeli regime:

Jack Green ? nuf said
May 30 2016, 11:03 a.m.
How can you steal your own land?

Here’s the kicker, by that ‘reasoning’ the Germans who took the money, houses, even the gold fillings from the teeth, of Jews weren’t ‘stealing’ because it was German money, German houses, German gold.
Some other examples of Israeli regime propaganda that are such clunkers that they can be used to ‘defend’ the Holocaust:
There are ‘Arab Israelis’ living within the (actual) borders of Israel, therefore there was no ethnic cleansing/genocide -> the present day Jewish population in Germany invalidates calling the Holocaust ethnic cleansing/genocide
Israel has only ‘defended itself from attack’ -> Germany was the victim of Allied aggressions, because it only ‘defended itself from attack’ (it not only used the same argument, but the same ‘definition’ of what constituted ‘self defence’ that the Israeli regime does)

There’s many more examples, but these are the top few most often repeated ones

One can only tolerate so much nonsense and disinformation!

This notion that BDS is racist is complete nonsense. Or, an attempt at disinformation.

1. The concept of “race” does not have a scientific definition – it is in the eye of the beholder.
2. Calling Israeli a race is adding nonsense to nonsense – refer to 1.

TIFT calling BDS racist is complete nonsense.

https://electronicintifada.net/content/ireland-latest-eu-state-defend-bds/16866

One of the reasons for BDS being a just (and fair) cause…

[Israeli funding booted from literary festival
This wasn’t the only bad news for Israel’s propaganda, or hasbara, efforts in Ireland this week.

On Tuesday, the Listowel Writers’ Week Festival announced it would be refusing funding from the Israeli embassy in Ireland to bring an Israeli writer to the festival.

The issue came to light on Sunday when members of Ireland’s artistic community began highlighting on social media that the festival’s brochure listed an event in which the Israeli embassy was explicitly thanked for its support.

After having been contacted by concerned individuals, including many artists, the organizers announced that the fesitval would honor its commitment to host the Israeli writer Savyon Liebrecht, but was rejecting the Israeli embassy funding.

This move is in line with cultural boycott guidelines issued by PACBI, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which call for a boycott of Israeli institutions, not individuals.

“As a Palestinian woman who is exiled from her homeland, I thank the festival for refusing to take Israeli state funding for this event,” IPSC chair Fatin Al Tamimi said, “This decision is courageous, principled and absolutely the right thing to do. This is a small, but certainly significant, positive gesture that will be appreciated by the Palestinian people struggling for freedom, justice and equality, whether under Israel’s apartheid regime or living in exile.”]

Thank you Ireland…

Michael Hess has been posting some highly worthwhile information. For example:

Desmond Tutu might know something about Apartheid. In 2006 he said:

I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government.

From B’Tselem [an Israeli human rights NGO] in 2006:

By unlawfully discriminating against Palestinians based on their national origin, the Forbidden Roads Regime is reminiscent of the apartheid system that existed in South Africa. The regime violates fundamental principles of international law that are binding on the State of Israel.

B’Tselem demands that the government of Israel immediately end the Forbidden Roads Regime and that it respect the right of Palestinians to move freely on all roads inside the West Bank.

JLocke writes

If you have enough time to sift through the usual robo-arguments there’s actually a few new commenters that have some good stuff to say here.

A good deal of the pollution has been removed. But readers are advised to scroll right on past the flood of crap by craigsummers. (My kingdom for an ignore button!) Then, yes, there are some worthwhile comments here.

And if comedy is what you are looking for, Sufi Muslim is accused of being a deep cover hasbara plant.

Yup, hilarity often ensues in this space. *I* have also been called a hasbara troll (by an actual antisemite), which cracked up Gator so much he ended a sabbatical from here to post that that accusation was, alone, worth the price of admission.

Hi Mona

“……About one year ago, Craig explicitly said torture is good. I reminded him and others of this for many months, and he did not deny it. He has chosen to do so now. Who knows why?…..”

I just need a link Mona? Until you do, this is what I said about torture:

“…….Of course, those who support torture can never claim the moral high ground. That’s obvious. There is only one reason to support torture – and that is to save lives……”

“…….I do not find it objectionable to “attack” or criticize torture. That’s a perfectly reasonable position. In addition, it’s illegal. However, what I do say is that torture – or the use of some techniques (as outlined by John Yoo of the Bush Justice Department) – was a reasonable response to the attacks of 911 in lieu of further potential attacks designed to kill thousands of innocent civilians. I stand behind that without reservation. I don’t support the use of torture, in general. I do in special cases. Simple…….”

“……..Most Americans supported torture after 911 to save lives and prevent further attacks (as I have stated twice before) which is a reasonable reaction in lieu of the murder of 3000 innocent people……..”

Mona writes;

“……One should not believe anything Craig says to or about me……..”

Mona also wrote,

“……..And altho Eichmann explicitly said, “I am a Zionist,” he didn’t mean it. Not according to the way Shalev defines “Zionism” and would prefer you to define it…..To understand why Eichmann could be both a Zionist and also have committed the atrocities he did……”

By the way, Shalev is a liberal Zionist Jew imposing (you heard right) his idea of Zionism on us. Here is what Eichmann admitted at his trial in Israel:

“…….When Hausner produced evidence that Eichmann had stated in 1945 that “I will leap into my grave laughing because the feeling that I have five million human beings on my conscience is for me a source of extraordinary satisfaction”, Eichmann said he meant “enemies of the Reich” such as the Soviets.[173] During later examination by the judges, he admitted he meant the Jews, and said the remark was an accurate reflection of his opinion at the time…..”

Typical Zionist……..according to Mona.

Jack Green, a troll, spews yet again:

BDS is racist. It singles out Israel.

As so often happens, a hasabar-ist raises the issue of America’s obsession with Israel. Zionists, of course, constantly shriek about “singling out Israel” and insist doing this constitutes antisemitism.

The irrefutable answer to this Zionist talking point was written by the award-winning journalist, Mehdi Hasan, in a piece titled: We Single Israel Out Because We in the West Are Shamefully Complicit in Its Crimes. An excerpt, my emphasis:

As the country’s former foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami angrily said to me in an interview for al-Jazeera English in 2013: “You are trying to turn Israel into a special case.”

According to the likes of Ben-Ami, there are much more vile regimes, and more violent groups, elsewhere in the world. Why pick on plucky Israel?

…

Third, Israel is “singled out” today, but by its friends and not just by its enemies. It has been singled out for unparalleled support – financial, military, diplomatic – by the western powers. It is indeed, to quote Ben-Ami, a “special case”.

Which other country is in receipt of $3billion a year in US aid, despite maintaining a 47-year military occupation in violation of international law? Which other country has been allowed to develop and stockpile nuclear weapons in secret?

Which other country’s prime minister could “humiliate” – to quote the newspaper Ma’ariv – a sitting US vice-president on his visit to Israel in March 2010, yet still receive 29 standing ovations from Congress on his own visit to the US a year later? And which other country is the beneficiary of comically one-sided resolutions on Capitol Hill, in which members of Congress fall over each other to declare their undying love and support for Israel – by 410 to eight, or 352 to 21, or 390 to five?

Indeed, which other country has been protected from UN Security Council censure by the US deployment of an astonishing 42 vetoes? For the record, the number of US vetoes exercised at the UN on behalf of Israel is greater than the number of vetoes exercised by all other UN member states on all other issues put together. Singling out, anyone?

And by the way. Obama is placating Netanyahu with an offer of increasing the money U.S. taxpayers give Israel in military aid to $4 billion a year.

The U.S. is purportedly very angry about the settlements Netanyahu and Zionist terrorists won’t stop building. And aren’t we just showing ’em we mean business! If they continue stealing Arab land, why, next thing you know it’ll be $5 billion.

Yeas, I absolutely agree with troll Jack Green. The West– especially the U.S. — must stop singling out Israel.

This is funny, after holding an astrophysicist for three months and interrogating him in “administrative detention” (without charge nor trial) and just three days after what must be exceptionally brilliant Israeli jurists come to the conclusion that the university professor should be released, as he, um, hadn’t been accused of committing any crime…

evidence of the Palestinian’s wrongdoing “accumulated”

He’s now charged with “incitement” and re-arrested.

Israeli Army Charges Palestinian Astrophysicist With Incitement to Violence and Terrorism

Army prosecutors produce charges against Prof. Imad Barghouthi three days after judge rules he poses no immediate danger and orders his release from administrative detention.

…During the hearing, Boulos, who is representing Barghouthi, presented the court a petition calling for his immediate release signed by more than 350 academics worldwide.  

Signatories to the petition presented to the court included eminent researchers Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; Fields Medal laureate David Mumford, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Brown University; and Chandler Davis, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Toronto. Notable pro-Palestinian scholar Noam Chomsky also signed the petition. 

The petition stated that Barghouthi’s arrest was part of a broader oppression of the Palestinian education system. It said that Gaza University had been bombarded many times and Bir Zeit University had been closed at least 15 times by the Israeli army and its former president had been deported, adding that students and lecturers were often arrested because of their Facebook posts.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.722298

Taken in light of criticism that BDS unfairly targets educational institutions, this desperate attempt to quell the “Palestinian astrophysicist threat” is hilarious.

If you have enough time to sift through the usual robo-arguments there’s actually a few new commenters that have some good stuff to say here.

And if comedy is what you are looking for, Sufi Muslim is accused of being a deep cover hasbara plant.

The recurring theme to the arguments in favour of apartheid is: “Non Jews deserve fewer rights than Jews under Israeli rule because person X said or did something in year Y”

I’m pretty sure in all the slave revolts in the Americas, Blacks said and did some bad things. But try telling Spike Lee that he’s less deserving of human rights today because of it.

Children Of Darkness

Sure that he was divinely appointed, Nat Turner led fellow slaves in a bloody attempt to overthrow their masters

http://www.americanheritage.com/content/children-darkness

ON THE COMMENTS SOFTWARE:

It seems that one can post comments using fake email addresses.

Dear TI IT, are you aware of it?

The link Glenn provided to the 2 minute video will not play at all for me. No matter what country I set my VPN to. Here is a link to that video on youtube. I am pretty sure that it’s the same video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kUSihH-M9M

Michael Hess

You [Craig] may just be one of those people who can be reached with facts because Hasbara trolls never ever acknowledge the ICJ advisory opinion from 2004 so I won’t call you a Hasbara troll anymore if you are really interested in exploring what is factually known about this conflict situation.

I don’t characterize Craig as a troll. But I do know, as do many here — from pretty long experience — that Craig cannot be reached with facts. He will generally concede facts that are too well-documented to be reasonably denied. But that is not to say Craig is reasonable.

Craig can be counted on to resort to whataboutery when an unpleasant fact about Israel is presented, or when Greenwald writes about U.S. or another Western-nation’s wrongdoing. Craig endlessly whines and laments about the articles Greenwald and the other staff here don’t write.

He is also quite fond of the poisoning the well fallacy, i.e., he promiscuously litters his comments with claims that people like Greenwald, me, or you are “radical leftists, “fringe leftists” “anti-American” & etc. Anyone who’s not a Nazi but who is deeply critical of Israel is, by definition, “radical left” in CraigWorld. So, whatever facts we present should be dismissed because we are “those people.”

Moreover, in CraigWorld that Israel is teeming with proto-fascist people and movements — at the highest levels — is the fault of the “radical left.” “We” made them do it. Nothing is ever Israel’s fault. Nothing Zionists have ever done is especially bad, or if it is, it’s because the Palestinians or the “fringe left” pushed them there.

On the issue of Israel-Palestine, as on a number of others, Craig is an authoritarian of the first order. He’s very hostile to Black Lives Matter, and to demanding accountability from law enforcement when a black person is killed or brutalized by a cop. He’s never met a breach of the 4th Amendment the U.S> government commits that isn’t fine by him. And torture, it rocks in CraigWorld.

Craig is a Republican, an ardent Zionist and again, at his core Craig is a deep authoritarian.

But he’s not a hasbara-ist, at least not a conventional one. He’s an authoritarian for whom Israel is an ideal state conforming, as it does, to his nationalistic and militaristic notions of Western imperialism.

Dear All:

The garbage has been largely cleaned out. It smells so much better in here.

Now, the trash is gonna try to accumulate again, no doubt, but the sweeping squad is going to be more on top of things. Or so I’m told.

the problem with zions is the same as with any other insect colony – insects are programmed to propagate and kill to expand.

brain gone, program in. simple is as simple is.

Dear All

There’s been a huge clean-up here, it smells a whole lot better! Your complaints have been heard, and more effort will be put into taking out the trash sooner as it pile sup.

Good Morning Everyone…

Please visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uwr0wHeIS8&feature=youtu.be

Palestinians to Airbnb: “We Can’t Live There. So Don’t Go There.”
Jewish Voice for Peace

Citizens from around the world ask Airbnb to stop listing and profiting from stolen, illegally occupied, Palestinian land.

Steve

“…….99% of “pro-Palestinian” Internet types just seem to hate Israel’s existence. They aren’t pro-Palestinian. They don’t want Palestinians to have peace and a state next to Israel. They just want the Jewish state dead/gone. That’s their motivation, and it shows in every sentence…….”

Most “liberals” would like to see the two state solution – two states side by side. You are referring to the extreme left (or anti-colonialist left) – the folks who regularly visit this site. Fortunately, they are a relatively small population in the west infiltrating academia and the media mostly in Europe and to a lesser extent in the US.

The focus is primarily on delegitimizing the Jewish State (apartheid, Zionism equals racism etc.). The perpetual attacks on “Zionism” (itself) on this site are just one more way to undercut the legitimacy of Israel. Support for the BDS movement is ubiquitous within the political movement (for obvious reasons). They couch their hatred of the Jewish state in the human rights of the Palestinians, but their obsessive criticism of the Jewish state has its roots in the colonial era and in anti-Americanism.

By far the best example is Mona who post more than anyone – mainly to delegitimize Zionism (even supporting the position of anti-Semite, Ken Livingston when he said that Hitler “supported” Zionism). She is the classic radical leftist totally in denial over the causes for the Zionist movement in the 1800s. Ben Cohen writes (abstract; The Persistence of Anti-Semitism on the British Left, 2004):

“……..Much of the recent analysis of leftist anti-Semitism focuses on developments since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. This article, which takes Britain as a case study, seeks to situate what is commonly referred to as the “new” anti-Semitism in a historical context, arguing that many of the anti-Semitic themes currently present in leftwing and liberal discourse have been observable in the past. The article analyzes the evolution of leftist anti-Semitism, concentrating in particular on the motif of delegitimization that marks discussions of Zionism and Israel. It concludes that the organizational alignment of leftist and Islamist organizations, and the ongoing integration of Islamist and leftist attitudes toward Jews, represents a qualitative shift in the nature of leftist anti-Semitism in Britain…….”

Gator90 ? Sufi Muslim
May 29 2016, 4:51 a.m.

Sufi, best of luck with your health issues. I hope you feel better soon.

Thank you very much, Gator. I appreciate it.

There are some long-term (permanent) issues. Obviously, I can’t go into detail in this public forum. I was quite dizzy last night while unwisely scanning this thread and posting some comments on my iPad in bed. I’m better this morning as far as that specific issue is concerned.

I have a very soft spot for the Jews and Judaism. When we were young we used to read about the Holocaust and literally burst into tears with deep sadness. We could not imagine anyone committing such horrific acts.

Unfortunately, there’s quite a bit of anti-Semitism amongst the Muslims, primarily due to political reasons, but also due to what’s been written in the Muslims’ religious books, many of which I don’t consider to be authentic, some of which (e.g., the Quran), I read differently than an average Muslim and most traditional Muslim “scholars” do.

For example, I read in the Quran that a piece of land in the area (larger than where Israel today is) was reserved for the Children of Israel, and the Children of Israel were expected to become the Light unto Other Nations in terms of high moral and spiritual values.

In real life I warn the Muslims not to generalize and stereotype, and stop being conspiracy theorists. I tell them about the doctrine of Transcendent Unity of Religions, something that is not well-known and well-accepted by the Muslims, generally speaking, save a few Sufi groups I have encountered.

The differences amongst us have gone from sibling rivalry to disaster. And I feel helpless.

But there are some very good signs.

Many in the younger generations who have a chance to interact with the children of Israel are not anti-Semites. Sadly, there are hardly any opportunities for the Muslims who live in the Muslim majority countries to interact with our Jewish cousins.

Just two days ago, a local Imam spent all of his Friday prayer sermon saying very good things about the Jews, something I had never ever never heard an imam do in any parts of the world.

The ethnic cleansing that has taken place in some Muslim countries is devastating. The Muslims there have lost the opportunity to interact with the non-Muslims, learn a thing or two from them and allow the cross-fertilization of ideas. The result is that they have become frogs in a well and are mired in conspiracy theories.

There were once thriving Jewish populations in many areas, now Muslim majority modern states.

But no more.

I generally do not have the energy to read most of the comments here. So I just scan the comments section and see if something catches my eye.

I feel guilty that I don’t speak out against anti-Semitism much here, and gorsky was correct to call me out. But I see that in the comments sections of articles about Israel, the discussions are primarily on these:

1. History. I am not a student of history. And I see that each side draws a line when history of humankind began.
2. Blaming this side or that side. I find this to be futile.
3. Political dimension. I’m not a fan of politics; I see that the political systems in the world cater to the lower self.

Anyhoo, this post has become larger than I had originally intended.

So, take care,

Shalom Aleichem (We Muslims say it like, As Salaamu `Alaikum)

Decent article on the change in attitude toward Palestinian rights and the fact that Clinton is on the wrong side: http://www.salon.com/2016/05/29/hillarys_on_the_wrong_side_of_history_again_noam_chomsky_palestinian_freedom_and_a_policy_stuck_in_the_past/

99% of “pro-Palestinian” Internet types just seem to hate Israel’s existence. They aren’t pro-Palestinian. They don’t want Palestinians to have peace and a state next to Israel. They just want the Jewish state dead/gone. That’s their motivation, and it shows in every sentence.

Every time there’s an article about Israel, deranged anti-semites start screaming their crazed version of history from the mid 1900’s in their attempt to convince other people that the world’s one tiny little Jewish state should allow the jihadists that surround Israel to erase/destroy it.

It’s 2016. The tiny little Jewish state exists. Even if makes crazed jihad-worshippers on message boards angry.

Imagine what life must be like for mentally-ill anti-semites whose sole purpose for existing in this world is to sit on the Internet and spew 10-15 hours per day of rabid unhinged hate towards Jews, Israel, Israelis or “zionists.”

Jews are a very small minority group in this world.
Israel is a very tiny state, less than 1% of the Middle East.

Yet on each biased anti-Israel article there are a big stack of crazed loons whose sole reason to wake up each morning is to try to demonize Israel and promote as much hate as possible towards what they think “zionists” are.

I feel sorry for such people.

“A CIA Report from March 7, 1949 — Observations concerning Palestine and the Arab Countries:

I. The Military Situation in Palestine

The new state of Israel is strong in military equipment, finances, and
morale, and possesses a striking power which could easily seize the remainder of
Palestine as well as adjacent parts of Lebanon, Syria or of Egypt north of the
Suez Canal. It is probable that the next military adventure will be to
annex the Jerusalem area. The Arabs cannot successfully renew the appeal
to arms: they lack unity, leadership, arms and airplanes.

This is a striking reversal of the situation as it was on June 1, 1948.
Israel then was screaming to high Heaven for a ceasefire order from the United
Nations, whereupon the Great Powers forced the first truce using explicit
threats to Arab countries failing to comply. At the time, the Arabs,
assured by treaty with Britain of continued supply of arms and ammunition, were
on the offensive, had reached to a point eight miles from Tel Aviv, and had cut
to the coast between Haifa and Nakoura. With the truce and its stipulation
that neither side should get military advantage of any kind during the truce,
Britain suspended the military supplies to the Arabs previously delivered in
accordance with treaty agreements. Meanwhile, however, arms procured from
many sources — including more than fifty Messerschmidt fighters — poured into
Israel. By the time the first truce expired, these Messerschmidt fighters
took complete control of the air and were able to disperse enemy infantry and to
‘strafe’ Arab towns and villages just as before Dunkirk, British and French
troops had been rendered impotent by Messerschmidt planes.

Arab morale was further damaged by the success of British diplomacy in
detaching Trans-Jordan and Iraq from the joint Arab military program, and by the
battle defeats inflicted by Israel on Arabs in the successive seizures by Israel
of Arab territory without regard to United Nations orders to retire to positions
held at the various ceasefire dates.

II. A Long-Range Disaster

The establishment of the State of Israel by force with intimidation of Arab governments by the US and the USSR, with the cutting off of British arms and ammunitions (the Arabs’ only
source of supply), with ample sources for Israel of munitions and finance, the Israeli battle victory is complete, but it has solved nothing. If boundaries to an Israeli state, any boundaries, had been set and guaranteed by the Great Powers, peace might return to the area. On the contrary, we have actually a victorious state which is limited to no frontiers and which is determined that no narrow limits shall be set. The Near East is faced with
the almost certain prospect of a profound and growing disturbance by Israel
which may last for decades.

(a) Instead of restoring the boundaries of the province of Judea as they were
in 70 AD, the Israeli leaders now state freely though usually unofficially,
their demand for an ever-expanding empire. Their present possessions are
regarded by them as only a beachhead into the Arab and Muslim world — a large
part of which they intend to exploit. They are not prepared to live off
what the land will yield as the Arabs do.

(b) The index of the cost of living in Israel has risen to 500% of what it
was in that area from 1933 to 1939. Having driven out the Arabs from their
homes, Israel lacks cheap labor, and without a very large per capita subsidy the
economy of the state would soon collapse. This the Israeli government
intends to prevent by continuing to secure funds from Zionists and other
sympathizers abroad, by large loans, and as soon as possible, by the
exploitation of the Arab hinterland, especially the agriculture and industries
of Syria and Iraq.

(c) Alone among the Great Powers, Britain has been working on a plan to
restore a balance between the forces in Palestine, but it already appears that
this plan is probably doomed to fail. Zionist pressure in the USA,
Anglophobia in Iraq and Egypt, and above all, Russia’s determination to prolong
chaos in the Near East and to complete the discrediting of British and American
diplomacy, combine to work against the policy of the British Government and its
collaborators — King Abdulla of Trans-Jordan and the Prime Minister of Iraq,
Nuri Said.

(d) The duration of the disaster is guaranteed also by the unsolved problem
of 700,000 Arab refugees. Whether or not these refugees are fed, clothed,
and kept alive for the time being, they remain as a primary source of
resentment, distress and continuing expense. No workable plan has been
proposed for their resettlement in a gainful livelihood. Israel sneers at
the UN order to repatriate or compensate them. Riots have already taken
place in some of the refugee camps and refugee leaders have addressed their
followers in vituperative language denouncing Americans, British, Zionists and
Arab League failures of which they are the helpless victims. They include
many intellectuals who are more than ripe for Communist propaganda, some of whom
are now meeting regularly in Aleppo.

III. Arab Politics

Since the Arab military defeats and the complete rebuff of the Arab position
at the United Nations Assembly in Paris, the Arab League has practically
disappeared as a political force and the several Arab countries are pursuing
nationalistic policies looking for allies and friends.

Only Saudi Arabia, Egypt and perhaps Lebanon have a good chance to succeed in
maintaining their independence by following the new isolationist policy.
Saudi Arabia alone follows a completely realistic policy of refusing to commit
suicide for sentimental or fanatical reasons. Egypt is still internally
insecure and with recurring assassinations and riotings may face internal
upheaval and the liquidation of the upper classes.

Iraq, potentially wealthy in natural resources, would be the first to fall
into Communist control. Although intelligent leaders have managed to hold
Syria together, it is believed by some foreign diplomats and many Arab leaders
that Syria, as a nation, will break up in two or three years, with autonomous
shaikhdoms in Aleppo, Homs and Hama, a Kurdish puppet province in the Jezireh,
and with the Jebel Druze delivering Damascus to Abdulla of Trans-Jordan unless
the Israelis get Damascus first.

IV. The United Nations

The United Nations is already completely discredited in the minds of the Arab
Governments and the Arab peoples. There are many reasons for this, but the
evidence usually is the failure of the UN or the Mediator to enforce UN orders
to Israel. For example:

(a) To prevent arms and Czechoslovakian airplanes from reaching Israel.

(b) To deliver the assassins of Count Bernadotte, although their identity is
known to hundreds of Jews.

(c) To repatriate or compensate over half a million refugees.

(d) To permit UN observers with Israeli forces when they are on the
offensive.

(e) To retire to the lines occupied at the October 14 “cease fire”
period.

(f) To evacuate areas given to the Arabs by the UN proposal of November 29,
1947; although at the same time insisting upon invading the Negeb, to excuse
which they quote the same UN partition proposal. (The Arab areas occupied
in defiance of the UN include Western Galilee, Jaffa, Nazareth, and villages
over the Lebanon frontier.)

(g) To respect the international character of the Jerusalem area.

IV. Russia’s Purpose

Although Russia has officially sided with Israel she is actually on the side
of disorder and hunger. Russia and her satellites armed Israel to an
extent few people in the United States understand, but Communists are also
active among the Arabs. They may upset the Iraq Government at any time;
the have succeeded in establishing contact with the President of Syria to whom
overtures have been made; they have captured the leadership of Arabs in
Nazareth, Jaffa, and Acre, who are despairing of any effective help from Arab
countries and are turning to Communism. (In Nazareth, for example, no one
can hold or get a job without the permission of the Communist boss.) The
USSR will help Israel expand until the Arab Governments as well as British and
American policies are completely discredited. The Russians will then
decide whether to make a puppet of the Zionists or of the Arabs — if the
situation in the Near East continues to degenerate, Russia may find both parties
begging for the honor. The Prime Ministers of two Arab countries told me
they have reason to believe that, blocked in Western Europe, Russia will divert
her Cold War to the “soft-underbelly” of the Near East.

— names of dignitaries interviewed have been censored (marked as A, B,
C . . . )—

SUMMARY OF COMMENTS MADE BY CERTAIN PERSONALITIES MADE IN PRIVATE
INTERVIEWS — December 17, 1948 to January 19, 1949

Key Designation (the alphabetic key assigned to the
individual)

A. “Propaganda has failed; the UN has failed; the Arabs are
divided. What is the use of empty threats by Farouk, Ibn Saud, etc., when
there is nothing they can deliver?

“Abdulla at least has a program. No one else is acting
effectively. he is the lesser of evils, although he is not reliable
himself. But he might stop the Jews.

“Syria suffers from no program. There is profound discontent, a demand
for a real economic program. Otherwise the country will be bankrupt and in
chaos.

“Only a Greater Syria will provide the economic means to enable the northern
Arab countries to avoid revolution and escape Communist domination. This
Greater Syria, however, should not be under the crown of Abdulla of
Trans-Jordan, but under the crown of the King of Iraq, with viceroys
representing him in Syria, Transjordan, and Palestine.

“The northern countries cannot hope for support from Egypt or Saudi Arabia
from which they are separated physically by Israel and by the unreliable British
puppet, King Abdulla. In spite of the infiltration of Iraq by Communist
propaganda, I feel sure that Iraq is more secure than Egypt, where the Muslim
Brotherhood will continue its assassinations, and where King Farouk keeps a
plane fueled up for a quick departure to his happy hunting grounds in
Rhodesia.”

B. “I have no confidence in the new Syrian Government *(. . .
censored . . .) *Syria cannot be saved by a reshuffling of the same faces in
the Government — most of whom are content to hold office and draw salary.
Syria cannot be lifted from its demoralized condition after the Palestine
defeats, or preserved from the threat of bankruptcy and of civil strife unless
there is a profound reform and a constructive economic program reaching and
benefitting the common people. So far as Aleppo is concerned, we have no
reason to believe that the new Syrian Government will be any better than its
predecessors.”

C. “The last chance for a peaceful and reasonable solution of the
Major Powers was the Bernadotte Proposal for the frontiers between Israel and
Arab Palestine. At that time I still believed that there was a chance for
UN officials and the general American public to consider limiting Israel to
reasonable frontiers which would leave in Arab hands the principal centers of
Arab population. Unfortunately no Major Power supported the Bernadotte
Plan. After Bernadotte’s assassination (by an Israeli), I spoke
with the two top men responsible about the solution I have described, and both
said, ‘Yes, that is a very sensible plan and a very fair solution if it could be
arranged.’ But nothing ever happened about it. It was like a subject
of the weather — which Mark Twain said everybody talks about but no one does
anything about.”

D. “Strange as it may seem to you, I now favor the partition of
Palestine. Convinced as I am that the Zionists will continue their
aggressive policy of expansion in the effort to exploit the Arab World, I think
we Arabs are much better off to have Israel behind definite frontiers resulting
from partition than to have to include the Zionists in a single State of
Palestine and have them, with their propaganda and endless financial resources,
gradually work from within Arab Councils and the Arab League to undermine Arab
interests. I believe it is better to have your enemy in a neighboring lot
with a fence between, behind which he is supposed to stay, than it is to have
him as a part owner of your own farm with freedom to roam all over your own
house and property.”

E. “I am concerned about the nepotism in the Saudi Arab Government,
especially with regard to the Royal Family and the Minister of Finance.
Other advisors of the King seem to rise or fall in accordance with their
personal services, but the Minister of Finance is entrenching members of his
family in positions of Government responsibility without regard to their
competence. His nephew, who is practically an idiot, is getting too much
control of finances. Although the King makes good use of a few of his
older sons, some of the others are intriguing and running up debts in a way that
does not promise well for their conduct if the King should die, and they should
be free to suit themselves. In my opinion, Saudi Arabia is entirely too
much bound to the Royal Family and to the family of the Minister of Finance,
without any opportunity for others to reach positions of responsibility.”

F. “I myself and a number of my family have lost all faith in the
program of the Mufti and in any of the Arab leaders proposing plans for
Palestine. Together with three of my cousins, *(. . . censored . .
. ) *we are in close touch with the Communist agents with whom we meet
regularly. As a good Muslim, I do not believe in the Communist doctrine,
but I also do not believe that Russia is helping the Jews because she cares
about them. Opposed as we are by American sympathy for Israel, and
abandoned as we are by the British who used to supply us with arms, we shall
look for help wherever we think we may find it; and I believe that we may find
help in Russia, to whom your country also turned when you were fighting for
survival in the recent war.”

G. “We still feel the way we did about Palestine,
but the Arab program for Palestine has been defeated for the time being; in
fact, there was never really any agreement on an Arab Plan for Palestine.
King Abdulla would sell his fellow Arabs into slavery or permit them to perish
if he could increase his own power. You may be sure that Saudi Arabia will
follow a realistic course in its own national interest and will not be diverted
by any sentimental or fanatical considerations, nor by any foreign
interference. Insofar as we can do so without the loss of independence we
shall cooperate fully with Americans and British in economic matters and in the
technical developments needed in Arabia, but in politics we shall be very
careful before deciding what other countries or governments will be our
friends.”

H. “I believe that popular enthusiasm for Israel has passed its peak
with the successful establishment of that State. I understand that some of
the principal Jewish supporters are already cutting down their contributions,
and it may be that financial resources will steadily dry up. If this is
understood and believed by Israel leaders, they may be willing to compromise
their ambitions and settle down in a limited state such as the territory they
now occupy. If, on the other hand, they are confident of continuing
resources, the extremists may win out, and they may continue to seize additional
territory. This continues to be the chief threat to peace. The
United Nations has not been able to agree on definite borders for the Israeli
State which already administers territory it was never contemplated she should
have; and without agreement among the powers to establish the frontiers,
the hope for peace depends upon the reasonableness of both Jews and Arabs in
accepting boundaries that constitute a compromise, and then remaining within
those boundaries.”

I. “The leaders and the people of Israel, as I have seen them in
Haifa, Tel Aviv and elsewhere during the past eight months, are exultant and
confident as a result of their victories, and of their recognition by the world
powers. They include many men with brains and ability, and they have
ambitions plans for their State.

“In spite of what some Israeli leaders have claimed, the Israelis drove the
Arabs from their homes and never invited them to remain peacefully in Israel
until after they had left and their property had been confiscated. The
homes have been and are being rapidly filled with Jewish immigrants. This
is a true of the cities and towns; as for the small villages and farms, the
present procedure is to obliterate and plow up the Arab hamlet, or farm and
build a Jewish settlement with a new name, wiping out all trace or record of
their previous Arab location and property. The purpose in all of this is
freely admitted — that the Israelis want to make impossible the compensation of
Arabs driven out even though such compensation should be forced upon them in
principle by some world authority. How can one estimate the value of a
home and property which has been obliterated and of which no record
remains! There is no question about it in my mind: Arabs will not be
permitted return to Israel and compensation will not be made to them. On
the other hand, there is a desperate effort being made to invite back certain
Arabs with Communist leanings who may be used for propaganda purposes against
their fellow Arabs.

“The Israeli military leaders have told me that if the first truce had not
come when it did they would have lost the war. During the three months
following the first truce, the airplanes-with-mechanics which arrived from
Czechoslovakia and the arms and explosives purchased in many places, coupled
with the complete embargo on arms to the Arabs and political dissension among
the Arabs gave the Israelis a striking force which was decisive.

“Israel still faces a major problem even if she does succeed in controlling
her extremists and expansionists. This is the problem of maintaining the
standard of living which she has thus far enjoyed by virtue of a very high
subsidy from abroad. The cost of living in Haifa and Tel Aviv is 500% of
the average cost of the period 1933 to 1939. There is no cheap labor;
wages and rents are exorbitant.

“The people cannot possibly live off the land and sell their produce to
compete with the Arabs in neighboring countries, who are raising the same fruits
and vegetables at less cost. The danger in this situation is that Israel
will not accept a lower standard of living nor reduce her population to the
number which the land would support. She expects to maintain the
prosperity of the country either (1) by continued financial support from
the Jews of the world and their sympathizers, or (2) by exploitation of the
neighboring Arab countries where she expects to find the cheap labor and the raw
materials.”

J. “I have seen Bunche and General Riley several times. Both
were hopeful of a Palestine settlement, if Zionists could be restrained.

“British General Gale, commanding Suez Canal Zone, and U.S. Admiral Sherman,
are ready to act to protect their nationals, or evacuate them from the area.

“Ambassador Griffis acted on the Bernadotte Plan, sought to secure Arab
agreement to it, only to be slapped down by Washington. One day Griffis
told me he had received the same day four telegrams from Washington all mutually
contradictory . . . Wealthy Jewish friends of Griffis in the U.S.A., when he
tried to secure their support for the Bernadotte Plan, slapped him down and
refused to back him as they promised to do . . . Griffis hoped to get Egypt in
line, to have Egypt withdraw from the Arab group and align itself with the West,
leaving Syria and Lebanon in the lurch . . . Griffis never permitted any
telegram or despatch from the Embassy to carry any anti-Jewish news, nor any
anti-Arab news. Ireland is more free to report the truth of Israeli
violations, etc., since Griffis has left . . . Israeli recruits in the last six
months have been 40% from behind the Iron Curtain.”

K. “Britain is backing Abdulla of Transjordan, with the purpose of
Balkanizing the other Arab countries and making them come crawling to Britain
for protection and separate treaties. It is all a matter of arms, planes,
military transport, and Britain will deal it out to her puppets alone.”

L. “Syria will go to pieces in time. There is no powerful
friend, too many centrifugal forces pulling it apart. Abdulla is nothing
in himself, no resources, natural or financial. He must therefore be a
puppet and cannot act independently. He is a safe investment until the
British drop him.”

M. “A die-hard: Arabs must maintain morale and never compromise.
I was against war but having embarked, the Arabs must keep it up, cold and hot
until victory, no matter how many years. Morale must be sustained.
Dunkirk, Stalingrad, prove one can survive temporary battle defeats, provided
the will-to-victory remains. Abdulla will be thrown out of Arab League,
and the fight will go on. The Israelis are NOT invincible. How can
three-fourths of one million Jews overcome thirty-five million Arabs in the long
run?”

N. “Lebanon — most stable and reliable Arab country. Tapline
would be decisive in its economy and successful. Griffis is wrong in
urging Egypt as a better route. Egypt’s future will be decided by other
factors. (You cannot marry Egypt to reform her — she is too far
gone.) Egypt is less secure as a pipeline route than Lebanon.

“Syrians are convinced of Tapline’s value. When a government is formed
it will ratify early. To be sure, Syria is precarious, and in a couple of
years it may be broken up by the Greater Syria plots of Abdulla, but whoever
owns or governs the Tapline area will probably be sensible enough to protect
it.

“When I got an autographed photo from Abdulla, the King signed it in red ink,
‘the color of the Hojaz’ (Hejaz – sic), but I think Britain would not allow Abdulla to attack
Saudi Arabia.

“In time, Abdulla will probably take over the Jebel Druze and Damascus.
He will not touch Lebanon which, he said, ‘is like a beehive, very active and
full of honey, but better not stick your finger in.’ At the same time, the
Communists may take over north Syria, the Jezireh, Aleppo, etc. The
Soviet Minister to Syria and Lebanon, reported to be on indefinite leave or
transfer, suddenly returned to his post.

O. “In our opinion, no Syrian Government formed now will be
stable. The discontent is too profound.

“Well-known Communist sympathizers among the Arab refugees have been invited
back to their homes by Israel, and have gone back. Russia is arming Israel
and preparing some day to take over the internal government. The Israelis
have been successful in winning the favor of observers by lavish hospitality,
including champagne and Jewish women.”

P. “The U.S. Government has lost both Israel and the Arabs. Israel is already a tool of Russia.
The Arabs can never cooperate with Russia but they have lost all faith in the U.S. Their only hope is to refuse to agree to any rape of their land. Let the Jews seize what
they can, they will over-extend themselves and fall in the end. The Arabs will not and
cannot submit.”

Jack Green, May 28 2016, 8:14 p.m:

“No Palestinian would have been killed if Palestinians had not been murdering innocent Jews.”

LMAO…Nah, Zionism murdered your stupid little brain, you putrid, anti-Semitic zio window licker:

“Draft Memorandum by the Director of the Office of United Nations Affairs (Rusk) to the Under Secretary of State (Lovett) [1]

SECRET [Washington,] May 4, 1948.

Subject: Future Course of Events in Palestine

The refusal of the Jewish Agency last night to agree to our proposal for on-the-spot truce negotiations in Palestine on the grounds that they could not accept the “moral obligation” to undertake such conversations rather clearly reveals the intention of the Jews to go steadily ahead with the Jewish separate state by force of arms. While it is possible that Arab acceptance of our proposal might place the Jewish Agency in such a position vis-à-vis public opinion that it would have to go through the motions of looking for a truce, it seems clear that in light of the Jewish military superiority which now obtains in Palestine, the Jewish Agency will prefer to round out its State after May 15 and rely on its armed strength to defend that state from Arab counterattack.

Military operations after May 15 will probably be undertaken by the Haganah with the assistance of the Jewish terrorist organizations Irgun and Stern. Copies of Consul General Wasson’s excellent reports, as set forth in his telegram 530 of May 3, are attached, and provide the estimate of the British General Officer Commanding as to the probable course of military events after British withdrawal on May 15.

If these predictions come true we shall find ourselves in the UN confronted by a very anomalous situation. The Jews will be the actual aggressors against the Arabs. However, the Jews will claim that they are merely defending the boundaries of a state which were traced by the UN and approved, at least in principle, by two-thirds of the UN membership. The question which will confront the SC in scarcely ten days’ time will be whether Jewish armed attack on Arab communities in Palestine is legitimate or whether it constitutes such a threat to international peace and security as to call for coercive measures by the Security Council.

The situation may be made more difficult and less clear-cut if, as is probable, Arab armies from outside Palestine cross the frontier to aid their disorganized and demoralized brethren who will be the objects of Jewish attack. In the event of such Arab outside aid the Jews will come running to the Security Council with the claim that their state is the object of armed aggression and will use every means to obscure the fact that it is their own armed aggression against the Arabs inside Palestine which is the cause of Arab counter-attack.

There will be a decided effort, given this eventuality, that the United States will be called upon by elements inside this country to support Security Council action against the Arab states. To take such action would seem to me to be morally indefensible while, from the aspect of our relations with the Middle East and of our broad security aspects in that region, it would be almost fatal to pit forces of the United States and possibly Russia against the governments of the Arab world.

Given this almost intolerable situation, the wisest course of action might be for the United States and Great Britain, with the assistance of France, to undertake immediate diplomatic action seeking to work out a modus vivendi between Abdullah of Transjordan and the Jewish Agency. This modus vivendi would call for, in effect, a de facto partition of Palestine along the lines traced by Sir Arthur Creech Jones in his remark to Ambassador Parodi on May 2, as indicated on Page 3 of USUN’s telegram, May 2[2], which has been drawn to your attention.

In effect, Abdullah would cut across Palestine from Transjordan to the sea at Jaffa, would give Ibn Saud a port at Aqaba and appease the Syrians by some territorial adjustment in the northern part, leaving the Jews a coastal state running from Tel Aviv to Haifa. If some modus vivendi along these lines could be worked out peaceably, the United Nations could give its blessing to the deal[3].

[1]Drafted by Mr. Mcclintock; a marginal notation states it was not sent.

[2]Not printed.

[3]Ambassador Austin, on May 4, transmitted to the Department the text of a telegram from King Abdullah to Secretary-General Lie, received the same day in New York. The message vehemently denounced such “unparalleled massacres” as that at Deir Yasin (see telegram 431, April 13, from Jerusalem, p. 817). The King concluded his message with the statement: “We now declare our readiness to give the Jews in Palestine full Arab nationality in a unitary state sharing all that we share while yet enjoying a special administration in particular areas. Thus will end the slaughter and the people will live in peace and security forever.” (Telegram 569 from New York, 501.BB Palestine/5–448)”

[My emphasis]

There were FOUR rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas last week alone. And Hezbollah has been amassing rockets to be used against Israel and burying them underground, as per Hamas’s example. Glenn Greenwald, you know nothing because you choose to only see what fits in comfortably within the scenario that is dictated by your own political bias. You are not a journalist. You are a “commentator”, at best and a propagandist, at worst. The world needs truth-tellers, not narcissists intent on running their own agendas, disguising themselves as cutting edge “Progressives.”

Zionists lie, Part 936,032. They do, in fact, venerate terrorists.

Just watch this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIVuSc-pGHk&quot;.masterful smackdown from journalist, Mehdi Hasan. It’s less than 3 minutes long and utterly devastating.

Hasan shows a brief clip of Netanyahu solemnly intoning: “[Palestinians] consider murderers to be heroes, they name public squares after them, [pause for dramatic effect] we don’t”.

That could not be more of a lie.

Zionist terrorist commit ethnic cleansing; Lydda

Again from a review of liberal Zionist Ari Shavit’s book, My Promised Land. Shavit is a terror apologist. That is, he insists Zionist terror was justified:

In July 1948 the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Lydda, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Soldiers threw hand grenades into houses, fired an anti-tank shell at a crowded mosque, and sprayed the survivors with machine-gun fire. More than two hundred were killed. The prime minister, David Ben Gurion, instructed Yigal Allon, the operation’s leader, to deport the surviving residents. Another commander, Yitzhak Rabin, issued the order: ‘The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly, without regard to age.’

These and other episodes of what Shavit calls ‘cleansing’ were not an aberration but an integral part of the Zionist mission to create a state with the largest possible Jewish majority. ‘If Zionism was to be, Lydda could not be,’ he writes. ‘If Lydda was to be, Zionism could not be.’ ‘One thing is clear to me,’ Shavit goes on:

the brigade commander and the military governor were right to get angry at the bleeding-heart Israeli liberals of later years who condemn what they did in Lydda but enjoy the fruits of their deed … If need be, I’ll stand by the damned. Because I know that if it wasn’t for them, the state of Israel would not have been born.

Shavit admits, in painful detail, that Zionist terror gave birth to Israel. His position is morally reprehensible, but he is far more honest than most Zionists because he admits — extensively sets forth, actually — Zionism’s crimes.

Michael Hess

“…….Too bad it [Israel] was founded by terrorism and on terrorism. See Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle for Israel 1917 – 1947 by Bruce Hoffman [Knopf 2015]……”

Under your new and improved definition of “ethnic cleansing”, it is unlikely that Palestinians (or Arabs in general) ever committed any acts of terrorism After all, civilian Jews being expelled is now defined as “kicking out the invaders”. This must include the 800,000 Jews “kicked out” of the greater Middle East. Ethnic cleansing only applied to Jews expelling Palestinians – not visa versa. Ethnic cleansing is terrorism because it is applied to civilians….except if you are Jewish. So Palestinians actually committed no acts of terrorism since they always were just kicking out the invaders – even in the greater Middle East.

Based on Michael Hess’s (David’s) “new” definition of terrorism, only Jews have committed terrorism. Thanks Michael for proving exactly how credible your opinion is in this forum.

The vile person using the account “Jack Green” spews a revolting “justification” of Zionist terrorism:

There would have been no Irgun, Stern, Lehi, Palmach or Haganah if Palestinians had not been murdering innocent Jews.

First, see my quote of David Ben-Gurion just below. Second, as a reviewer of Ari Shavit’s My Promnised Land observes, driving Arab opposition to Zionist immigration in Mandate Palestine was: “the promotion of ‘Hebrew labour’, ‘Hebrew land’, ‘Hebrew produce’ and the efforts to close the Jewish economy to Arab workers…” Colonial, European Jews were overwhelming the indigenous population and shutting them out of much participation in the economy.

Zionists knew, from the outset that Zionism entailed stealing land from the indigenous Arabs:

…after the Seventh Zionist Congress in Basel in 1905 a heated debate arose about the suitability of Palestine as a national home, given its large Arab population. A lecture by Yitzhak Epstein, ‘A Hidden Question’, helped spark the debate, exacerbating tensions between the territorialists, who wanted to establish Jewish self-rule wherever they could, and the Zionists of Zion, who insisted on a national home in Zion-Palestine. ‘Will those who are dispossessed remain silent and accept what is being done to them?’ Epstein asked. ‘In the end, they will wake up and return to us in blows what we have looted from them with our gold!’

So then, Zionist terrorism was in the cards from the beginning. Not being idiots, Zionists knew the Arab population was not likely to passively accept what Zionists had in mind to do to them. It’s just that many Zionists justify terrorism when it’s their tribe that includes terrorists.

The troll account of a vile person wrote this:

shilling for Palestinians and their terrorist-supporting ways

There’s nothing wrong with terrorism, not when it’s appropriate. Zionists all accept this.

“…….As I’ve said, he operates in an alternate world where words and facts mean what he wants them to, be damned with how the real world understands these things…..”

Unlike Michael Hess who calls removing people from their homes “kicking the invaders out”. That is a new spin on “ethnic cleansing”, wouldn’t you say? Anti-Zionists will jump in bed with any bigot.

The Intercept seems to intentionally try to appeal to people who accept Arab states and accept Muslim states and accept Arab nationalism and accept Muslim nationalism yet want the world’s one tiny Jewish state erased/destroyed and hatefully reject Jewish nationalism.

There’s a word for this.

“Anti-zionists” don’t want Israel to merely hand land that Israel won from Jordan and Egypt in 1967 over to Palestinians and for Palestinians to then form a peaceful state next to Israel.

“Anti-zionists” want the world’s only Jewish state erase/destroyed. “Anti-zionists” don’t want any of the 20 Arab states erased or any of the 50 Muslim states erased. They just want the one tiny little Jewish state erased. And turned into another Muslim state, which would put the lives of millions of Jews at risk.

Because 99.999% of “anti-zionists” are just Jew-hating loons who just want Israel dead. None of them should pretend to be “peace” activists.”

Just be honest. You want Israel dead/erased/gone. You’re rooting for the jihadists.

But, Israel will keep defending itself.

Walk it off.

The comment section of every article about Israel is flooded by nazi-like loons whose sole purpose for commenting isn’t to discuss the main topic of the article, but to obsessively demonize Israel’s very existence.

Which sort of proves the Israeli right correct, actually.

Amazing how almost every article about Israel immediately turns into a deranged hatefest due to people whose entire life seems to revolve around trying to convince other people to hate the world’s only Jewish state for even existing.

Which is why if an Israeli sneezes too loudly, and there’s a topic about it, the entire comment section isn’t about that one sneeze, or the one person who did it, but instead the comment section is nothing but DEMONIZATION of all Israelis and DEMONIZATION of Israel’s very existence.

Meanwhile, tiny Israel is less than 1% of the Middle East, yet has the most DIVERSE democratic population that entire region. Israel has 1.5 million Arab citizens, while the Arab states have literally ERASED their Jewish populations.

There are a lot of sick anti-semites in this world who wake up each day and then obsessively work for 18 hours a day specifically trying to promote hate of Israel’s very existence. Nobody does this to the 20 Arab states or the 50 Muslim countries.

Because, anti-semites seem to have a lot of free time in their lives.

What about the “cowardice” of shilling for Palestinians and their terrorist-supporting ways and refusing to respect Jewish human rights and refusing to respect Israel’s basic right of self-defense?

Tiny Israel, less than 1% of the Middle East, is surrounded by irrational jihadist loons who openly want Israel destroyed and have ERASED their Jewish populations. And now they and their “pro-Palestinian” activists obsessively rant each day about how badly they want to erase Israel as a Jewish state. Israel protects itself. And then hypocritical extreme-left anti-semites demonize every single thing Israel does to defend itself.

Michael Hwess (David)

You have avoided answering the question posed in three straight posts (I don’t give one flying fuck about Jobatinsky, OK?). The reason is simple: you are wrong. Anti-Zionists are so married to a narrative that they lie and spin even the most obvious questions to fit that narrative. Yes, Jews were expelled, ethnically cleansed and run out of town(s) from the Arab-controlled sections of Palestine. Jews had a continuous presence in Jerusalem for centuries. You cannot spin that any other way. Because you cannot even admit to such an obvious conclusion, it’s clear you just spin everything to meet the story you want to tell. Additionally the Hasbara spinners at Wikipedia were right about the Jews being expelled. You are a liar and a fraud, Michael – or should I call you David.

You write

“‘Jews’ were never “ethnically cleansed” by Jordan. Invaders were kicked out.”

And,

“……My statement stands. Palestine was stolen through terrorism and ethnic cleansing, so many Israeli leaders have admitted this over the years that I am surprised that you would bother to try and deny it……”

According to the Hasbara-run Wikipedia, Jews have had a presence in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem for centuries – long before immigration began from Europe:

“……..Jerusalem’s population size and composition has shifted many times over its 5,000 year history. Since medieval times, the Old City of Jerusalem has been divided into Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian quarters.……Most population data pre-1905 is based on estimates, often from foreign travellers or organisations, since previous census data usually covered wider areas such as the Jerusalem District.[1] These estimates suggest that since the end of the Crusades, Muslims formed the largest group in Jerusalem until the mid-19th century. Between 1838 and 1876, a number of estimates exist which conflict as to whether Jews or Muslims were the largest group during this period, and between 1882 and 1922 estimates conflict as to exactly when Jews became a majority of the population…….”

According to Bennie Morris (1948; page 409):

“………During the “civil war” when the opportunity arose, Palestinian militiamen who fought alongside of the Arab Legion, consistently expelled Jewish inhabitants and razed conquered sites, as happened in the Etzion block and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Subsequently, the Arab Armies behaved in a similar fashion. All the Jewish settlements conquered by the invading Jordanian , Syrian, and Egyptian armies – about a dozen in all……..were razed after their inhabitants had fled or been incarcerated or expelled……..”

Fairly clear-cut even for someone that eats “Zionist Hasbara trolls for breakfast and evacuate[s] them by lunch”. my insert in brackets

Thanks.

Michael Hess (David)

“……..“Jews” were never “ethnically cleansed” by Jordan. Invaders were kicked out……..”

That statement just exposes the level of your hatred for “Jews” (if I may use this interchangeably with “Zionist” in your case). It certainly is a false statement while you – again – avoided answering the “hasbara” Wiki article. I will state it again for your convenience:

“……Upon its capture, the Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter. 58 synagogues were destroyed.[18][19] The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones there were used for construction and paving roads.[20] Jordan also destroyed the Jewish villages of Atarot and Neve Yaakov just north of Jerusalem (their sites became Jerusalem neighborhoods after 1967)……”

Simply a bunch of Hasbara lies Michael? After all, you did state that you cannot trust Wikipedia “because it has long been compromised by Zionist Hasbara operatives”. If you can’t even refute this particular interpretation of history by the hasbara operatives at Wikipedia, then you are just promoting more Jewish conspiracy theories, right?

How do you define ethnic cleansing if forcibly uprooting people (or even Jews) from their homes is not ethnic cleansing?

Jack Green, May 27 2016, 9:41 p.m:

“No one’s private property was affected by the Partition Resolution.”

Wrong again, you inane, ignorant, israel-worshiping, Jew-baiting, Zionist asshole.

Jack Green, May 27 2016, 9:41 p.m:

“The UN simply drew a boundary. On one side of the boundary, most of the people were Jews. On the other side of the boundary, most of the people were gentile.”

You need to stop talking out of your filthy Zionist asshole, anti-Semite:

From “Page 41” of the United Nation’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question Report of Sub-Committee 2:

“These [U.N.S.C.O.P. report] estimates must, however, be corrected in light of the information furnished to the Sub-Committee by the representative of the United Kingdom regarding the Bedouin population. According to this statement, 22,000 Bedouins “may be taken as normally resident in the areas allocated to the Arab State under the U.N.S.C.O.P.’s majority plan” and the balance of 105,000 as resident in the proposed Jewish state.

It will thus be seen that the proposed Jewish State will contain a total population of 1,008,800, consisting of 509,780 Arabs and 499,020 Jews. In other words, at the outset, the, Arabs will have a majority in the proposed Jewish State.”

[My emphasis]

Jack Green, May 27 2016, 9:41 p.m:

“The UN did not give away any land.”

Correct, it was your state-worshiping, Jew-baiting, Zionist colonizer terrorist murderer scum who stole it from the indigenous Palestinian people:

From “Page 43″ of the United Nation’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question Report of Sub-Committee 2:

“The bulk of the land in the Arab state, as well as in the proposed Jewish State, is owned and possessed by Arabs.”

As I lamented earlier in the thread, the world just lost a superb woman — Hedy Epstein just died at age 91. Hedy was a Holocaust survivor and a Jew. This is the humiliating stunt Israel inflicted on such a fine humanitarian when she was 80-years-old:

After the Sabra and Shatila massacre, Epstein began to research Israeli history. “When I was learning, I realized that I hadn’t paid attention to what was going on with Israel,” she recalled in the 2007 interview. “And the more I learned and the more I understood, the more I became disturbed by what the Israeli government was doing, and doing in my name.”

“The more I learned, the more I began to speak out publicly against the policies and practices of the Israeli government vis-à-vis the Palestinian people,” Epstein said.

In 2003, she was inspired to visit Palestine for the first time. She would return to Palestine almost every year after, health permitting.

“It’s gotten worse every time I return,” Epstein recalled in 2007. “The way they are now, they remind me of when animals are rounded up and taken to slaughter, it’s just so humiliating.”

Epstein said she faced harassment from Israeli authorities over her peace work. In Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in 2004, on her way back from a visit to the occupied Palestinian territories, Epstein said she was called a “terrorist” and labeled a “security risk.” In retaliation for her peaceful, pro-Palestinian activism, she was stripped and forced to endure a cavity search.

Do read Ben Nortons’ whole celebration of Hedy’s life.