Bibi Courting Rightwing Bloggers
Apparently there’s an organization called One Jerusalem dedicated to “keeping Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty” and therefore making any pace deal between Israel and the Palestinians impossible. And according to this email someone forwarded me, it loves
Benjamin Netanyahu and US conservative bloggers:
From: David Goder
Subject: One Jerusalem Bloggers Call with BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
To: redacted@onejerusalem.org
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 3:53 PMYOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN A ONE JERUSALEM BLOGGERS CONFERENCE WITH BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
Live From Jerusalem, on Monday, January 12 at noon Eastern Standard Time, Israel’s former Prime Minister will update bloggers on the latest developments in Israel’s War with Hamas.
To access the call, dial (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Participants joining from outside the U.S. should dial (XXX) XXX-XXXX. The Conference ID is XXXXXX.
Benjamin Netanyahu, has been on the forefront of delivering the truth about Hamas, Iran, and the West’s stake in the outcome of this conflict.
Mr. Netanyahu has been criss-crossing the State of Israel reassuring its citizens that Israel’s Defense Forces are committed to eradicating the threat from Hamas.
As head of the Likud Party, he has suspended his party’s election campaign during this time of national emergency.
Mr. Netanyahu has set aside time from his busy schedule to participate in this briefing. He will take questions but given his tight schedule we suggest that bloggers submit questions by e-mail so he can cover as much ground as possible.
Ah, the old suspension of campaign gambit — that never fails! In all seriousness, the one good thing to have come out of this war thus far has been an erosion in Netanyahu’s political position in Israel.
31 Responses to “Bibi Courting Rightwing Bloggers”
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January 9th, 2009 at 9:38 am
It may be an erosion of his political position, but it’s only because his opponents have embraced said position. From the point of view of the meme, it’s thriving.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
And anyone who questions that BN’s political position should thrive is an anti-Semite. La, la, la!
January 9th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I really get a kick out the demonization of Bibi as some kind of wild eyed right wing crazy. Actually, based on his previous record, he will be just as weak as his successors have been in confronting the terrorists. Like them, if he becomes prime minister of Israel, he will not go to the bathroom absent permission from President Osama. In no sense is Bibi a real man. He’s just sound an fury signifying nothing.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:46 am
What did Natanyahu tell the American people when he appeared before our Senate in April 2002? As a representative of Ariel Sharon’s Government?
A transcript of the speech is available here:
http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/10/se.02.html
Extract 1:
NATANYAHU: “First, I must state clearly that the need to topple Saddam is paramount. I think the commitment of America and Britain to dismantle this terrorist dictatorship before it obtains atomic bombs, before it obtains nuclear weapons, deserves the unconditional support of all sane governments and all sane people around the world. ”
Extract2:
NATANYAHU: “I must tell you that the charge that Israel, of all countries, is hindering the war against Saddam is woefully unjust, because I think that my country, more than any other, has done more to make victory over Saddam possible. 21 years ago, Prime Minister Menachem Begin sent the Israeli Air Force on a pre-dawn raid hundreds of miles away, on one of the boldest military missions in our nation’s history. When our pilots returned, we had successfully destroyed Saddam’s atomic bomb factory, and crippled his capacity to build nuclear weapons. Israel was safer, and so was the world. “
January 9th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Dude, what’s up with the “President Osama”? It’s not like the guy is a terrorist. I think calling people silly names like that really trivializes whatever argument you’re trying to make. It certainly reduces the chance that I’ll take anything you say seriously.
I’m equal-opportunity in this, I’m not particularly fond of people referring to Bush as “Chimpy”. We’re all grown-ups here.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:58 am
From Vanity Fair’s article on the Christian Right , titled “American Rapture”:
————–
No one played that card more forcefully than Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, who as prime minister used the Christian right to fend off pressure from the Clinton administration to proceed with the peace process.
On a visit to Washington, D.C., in 1998, Netanyahu hooked up with Jerry Falwell at the Mayflower Hotel the night before his scheduled meeting with Clinton.
“I put together 1,000 people or so to meet with Bibi and he spoke to us that night,” recalls Falwell. “It was all planned by Netanyahu as an affront to Mr. Clinton.”
That evening, Falwell promised Netanyahu that he would mobilize pastors all over the country to resist the return of parts of the occupied West Bank territory to the Palestinians. Televangelist John Hagee, who gave $1 million to the United Jewish Appeal the following month, told the crowd that the Jewish return to the Holy Land signaled the “rapidly approaching … final moments of history,” then brought them to a frenzy chanting, “Not one inch!”—a reference to how much of the West Bank should be transferred to Palestinian control.
The next day, Netanyahu met with Clinton at the White House. “Bibi told me later,” Falwell recalls, “that the next morning Bill Clinton said, ‘I know where you were last night.’ The pressure was really on Netanyahu to give away the farm in Israel. It was during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.… Clinton had to save himself, so he terminated the demands [to relinquish West Bank territory] that would have been forthcoming during that meeting, and would have been very bad for Israel.”
Ref: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2005/12/rapture200512?currentPage=8
———–
I’ve always wondered who talked a nice Jewish girl named Monica Lewinski into showing a certain goyim her thong underwear.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Pace SLC, Not everyone in Israel is happy about a wide-eyed nut like Bibi Netanyahu flirting with wide-eyed American nuts like Jerry Falwell and John Hagee. From the same Vanity Fair article:
————–
But this intrusion of End Times theology is of deep concern to Israelis who are not as hawkish as Netanyahu. “This is incredibly dangerous to Israel,” says Gershom Gorenberg, a Jerusalem-based journalist and the author of The End of Days, a chronicle of messianic Christians and Jews and their struggle with Muslim fundamentalists over the Temple Mount. “They’re not interested in the survival of the State of Israel. They are interested in the Rapture, in bringing to fruition a cosmic myth of the End Times, proving that they are right with one big bang. We are merely actors in their dreams. LaHaye’s vision is that Jews will convert or die and go to hell. If you read his books, he is looking forward to war. He is not an ally in the safety of Israel…
…Far from being a Prince of Peace, the Christ depicted in the “Left Behind” series is a vengeful Messiah—so vengeful that the death and destruction he causes to unconverted Jews, to secularists, to anyone who is not born again, is far, far greater than the crimes committed by the most brutal dictators in human history….
…According to LaHaye and Jenkins, it is God’s intent “that the millennium start with a clean slate.” Committing mass murder hundreds of times greater than the Holocaust, the Lord—not the Antichrist, mind you—makes sure that “all unbelievers would soon die.”
One of Steele’s colleagues decides he’ll have to talk to God about what to do next. After all, now that the secular humanists are gone and only believers remain, America is a very, very sparsely populated country. But if enough people are left, he wonders, isn’t this the perfect opportunity “to start rebuilding the country as, finally for real, a Christian nation?”
January 9th, 2009 at 10:10 am
SLC is perfectly right in this. It is absurd to keep distinguishing “Likud” policies & opinions from some imaginary anti-Likud position which does not exist in Israeli power centers. Apart from any other considerations, right now in Israel there is no political incentive (internally or externally) to pursue non-Likudnik / Labor expansionary policies with regard to the Palestinians and foreign policy.
This is why it gets so silly for U.S. liberals to keep using the term “Likud” to describe the long-existing hawk consensus in Israel.
January 9th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Now we know who SLC works for…
January 9th, 2009 at 10:11 am
the one good thing to have come out of this war thus far has been an erosion in Netanyahu’s political position in Israel.
The whole point of this war is to erode Netanyahu’s political position in Israel. The goal of this war is to make Tzipi Livni Prime Minister.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:07 am
While I realize the idea that Bibi is some kind weak-need squishy won’t have much currency with readers here, I’d still like to remind them that Marty Peretz of all people has referred to Bibi as a reactionary & a demagogue. When you’re too extreme for Marty Peretz that’s saying something.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I don’t think people like Marty Peretz really feel that Netanyahu’s basic policies are too reactionary, but that he’s precisely the wrong stereotype to sell them properly.
In the view of the U.S.’ Israel hawks on the liberal side of the spectrum, it’s better to have people in power in Israel who talk convincingly about peace and looking for moderates and express humanitarian regrets and U.S. Democrat-friendly nostrums and whatnot while you drastically expand settlements and undercut prospects for any real final state agreement.
January 9th, 2009 at 11:50 am
“Apart from any other considerations, right now in Israel there is no political incentive (internally or externally) to pursue non-Likudnik / Labor expansionary policies with regard to the Palestinians and foreign policy.”
The Palestinians have themselves to blame for destroying the credibility of the Israeli Left.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Some have said the attack on Gaza was all about out-superhawking Netanyahu. If so, hang that “Mission Accomplished” banner over the rubble.
January 9th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Fantastic! At least Israelis will once again know whom to blame as their problems continue & worsen! That’ll show those Israeli leftists what’s what!
January 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
RIGHT FUGGING ON!!
January 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Netanyah is even a bigger thug than Olmert and Tzipi Livni. He’s a true Nazi enthusiast – just like most zionists.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Do you think that winning a political election can be a sufficient justification for military strikes? I am cynical enough to think that it might be, but only if you can be sure that you won’t have to keep doing it. Absent US pressure that is exactly what will happen.
January 9th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
“The Palestinians have themselves to blame for destroying the credibility of the Israeli Left.”
The Girl Had It Coming She Shouldn’t Have Been Drunk!
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