Foxman: Mitchell is “Fair” and I’m Unhappy About It
I think Anti-Defamation League honcho Abe Foxman better think harder about this:
Some Jewish leaders say the very qualities that may appeal to the Obama administration — Mitchell’s reputation as an honest broker — could spark unhappiness, if not outright opposition, from some pro-Israel groups.
“Sen. Mitchell is fair. He’s been meticulously even-handed,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been ‘even handed’ — it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support.”
“So I’m concerned,” Foxman continued. “I’m not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.”
For one thing, I’m not thrilled to see Foxman talking about this issue at all which seems far afield from the ADL’s mandate. But the position he’s taking is also incredibly stupid—nobody comes out against fairness. It’d be one thing to complain that Mitchell is somehow biased against Israel in a problematic way, but Foxman’s complaining that he’s too fair and even-handed. That’s absurd. Fair is a good quality in an envoy.
60 Responses to “Foxman: Mitchell is “Fair” and I’m Unhappy About It”
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January 21st, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I dunno; maybe it’s better that the Foxman types freak out, so more see their militarism as unhelpful as it is. Fantasy, I know.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:19 pm
nobody comes out against fairness
I think that’s wrong, too. Didn’t someone in Congress get in trouble in the last four years for suggesting that the US could be an “honest broker” between the Palestinians and the Israelis. I think the complaint was the same then: the US never has been an honest broker, has always favored Israel, and should continue to do the same. I was surprised at the time at the openness of this, but I don’t remember anyone remarking on it much.
Perhaps my memory is faulty, but, if not, I don’t think you can blame Foxman for going back to the same well that worked before.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Hey, Foxman’s the guy who also believes that it’s Anti-Semitic to recognize that there was an Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire. Because today Turkey is a supporter of Israel, and criticizing Israel’s supporters is Anti-Semitic. Or something.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:25 pm
But the Jews are the Chosen People. They are better than the rest of us and deserve special treatment, not fairness. Fairness is only for the Little People.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Abe Foxman: the apotheosis of concern trolls.
January 21st, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Abe Foxman wants Al Czervik fairness.
“Hey ref, keep it fair, keep it fair.” [Hands him some money]
“Oh, no, I can’t accept that.” [Puts money in pocket]
January 21st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I think Foxman is a breath of fresh air. Nobody really cares about process integrity–they only care about outcomes.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Within the ADL and among others he associates with, Foxman’s quote may well sound perfectly reasonable. However, in a larger sense, what he’s suggesting is that Israel is no more than a latter-day Crusader State, forever tittering on the edge, without the support of powerful western patrons.
This isn’t the case, anymore. Israel is an industrial nation, with a motivated citizenry. That’s not to say that it wouldn’t get interesting for a while, if a US Administration suddenly made it policy to treat Israel no differently than – say – Tunisia. But, the nation would adjust, and they would make it.
But, I realize they prefer keeping the powerful patron, just in cases, particularly if they think they’ve got sufficient strings to pull.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I hope Foxman understands that we have higher priorities than Israel now: rescuing our capitalist system, fixing our healthcare, Iranian nuclear ambitions, Pakistan as a focus of terror war, extraction from the Iraq quagmire, etc.
If people like Foxman or Likud politicians think they can jerk Obama around, they are going to find that sentiment for letting Israel charting is own course is going to rise in the US.
January 21st, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Yeah, it’s a good thing Foxman speaks his mind: “we are against fairness”. Thanks for telling the world what it needs to know.
Not that we didn’t know already. Foxman has in the past spoken up in favor of Italy’s right wing politician Silvio Berlusconi, whom he called a “friend of Israel”, *after* the latter had said that Mussolini wasn’t that bad (and Foxman brushed aside the fact that Berlusconi was being kept in power by his alliance with a fascist and a racist party). Few would have thought that the Anti-Defamation League was in the business of defending fascist dictators but apparently nobody cares about anything any more when it comes to “defending Israel”.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Matt, I would have thought you would know better. “Even-handed” has long been a curse-word to Israel’s apologists.
Somewhat OT but related, Chomsky’s considered and devastating take on recent events in Gaza reminds us all why he’s possibly the world’s best-known public intellectual.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Abe Foxman is an annoying itch. Apply a good cream with antibiotic on it and you’ll be fine.
The fat f— takes himself really seriously.
January 21st, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Kal says:
“Chomsky’s considered and devastating take on recent events in Gaza reminds us all why he’s possibly the world’s best-known public intellectual.”
Chomsky is the world’s best public intellectual. No possibly no probably no likely. He epitomizes the word logic.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:07 pm
No. He epitomizes the word sophist. I say this as someone whom often agrees and sympathizes with the points that Chomsky is trying to make.
Chomsky plays language games, and regularly omits large sections in his quotes in order to distort the arguments of others. Chomsky’s intellectually dishonest attack on Patrick Moynihan was particularly bad.
More details can be read on Oliver Kamm’s blog, who has Glenn Greenwald-style takedowns of Chomsky’s rampant intellectual dishonesty over the years.
Chomsky is not half the man that Gore Vidal is.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Gee, maybe if the USA can be even-handed there, there will be fewer dead and maimed people.
Of course, that’s not a goal shared by all, including, apparently, the ADL.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I hope that people will forgive themselves for the time out of their lives they lose from reading the raging ego of Oliver Kamm.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:39 pm
An envoy who isn’t acting fairly isn’t doing his job. Mr. Foxman should stick to civil rights issues in this country (if he must) and leave international conflict resolution to the grown-ups.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:50 pm
But the position he’s taking is also incredibly stupid
Yeah. If you haven’t noticed, Abe Foxman is a fucking idiot.
More details can be read on Oliver Kamm’s blog, who has Glenn Greenwald-style takedowns of Chomsky’s rampant intellectual dishonesty over the years.
Oliver Kamm? The neocon scumbag who works for David Horowitz’s outfit? Are you fucking kidding me?
January 21st, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Walker
You’re of course entitled to your opinion; however, it doesn’t necessarily mean they are supported by facts.
Your line of argument is like, I’ve read Chomsky ain’t so good ergo I believe Chomsky ain’t so good.
Have a higher standard will you?
January 21st, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Clearly the best way to show that we wish to avoid any appearance of fairness or even sanity would be to send John Bolton to be the envoy, and before we send him we give him an enormous pallet of highly caffeinated drinks and coat everything he has in itching powder.
January 21st, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Here’s the bottom line: Neither the Israeli’s nor the Palestinians have to agree to anything that they don’t think is in their best interest. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and George Mitchell are only brokers in a negotiated settlement. Frankly, the Palestinians can’t make peace among themselves so how one negotiates with the Palestinians until they do come under one leadership is a fair question. As for the Israeli’s: knowing the above, does the U.S. really want to risk alienating the one true friend it has in the Middle East? The Geo-political dynamics don’t work in the Palestinian’s favor. Are we to trust the Arabs with our future, which is the alternative to selling out Israel? We know that the Arab Oil nations were willing to put the world into economic chaos to fatten their coffers. We know oil and terrorism is what the Arabs and Iran hold over America’s head. Fear of al Qaeda is no reason to change alliances. But all of this is mind-games. Everyone should stop second-guessing the Obama administration. Cooler heads should prevail until the President and his foreign policy team lay their cards on the table.
Halli Casser-Jayne
http://www.thecjpoliticalreport.com
January 21st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I found this post from steve benen’s; I thought it would be a good idea to place my comment here as well:
I think what Foxman is saying, in an honest but perhaps not so elegant way, is that, given the current world climate and attitudes towards Israel and Zionism — as clearly exemplified by many of the comments above [this is based on the comments on washingtonmonthly, not here] — “fairness” or “balance” in a syntactic sense may not be a particularly relevant capacity.
I agree with that. Where I differ with him is in trusting Senator Mitchell to do the right thing. He’s a person of outstanding integrity who has proven his political skills in the US Senate, and his negotiating skills in Northern Ireland. And as someone with Lebanese Christian ancestry he probably knows as well as any American can the problematic nature of Arab political culture in the Middle East.
January 21st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
LOADS AND LOADS OF CRAP.
In other words the fat fuck wants some douchebag like Bolton to fuck up another chance for Palestinian to have their state.
FUCK THAT MOTHERFUCKER ABE FOXMAN.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:37 pm
true friend it has in the Middle East- israel?? Really??
That the root of most of our problems in the US!
We would be happier and less in debt if it wasnt for them.
Stop the aid, weapons and lets help our own people first!
January 21st, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Farid, I appreciate your insightful contribution. If I can figure out what it means, other than that you don’t like Foxman or Bolton (where did that come from?), I’ll try to respond.
January 21st, 2009 at 11:47 pm
muslims seek domination and destruction of all who resist.
you can not be fair with evil.
israel seeks to peacefully coexist.
Hamas the destruction of Israel.
fuck palestinians to hell
January 21st, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Wow! I’ve hrard about these websites but never visited. Are you guys part of the whacked-out anti-semitic left, or are you typically right-wing jerkoffs?
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:17 am
Abe Foxman is wonderful. As a Palestinian and Armenian Holocaust Denier – he represents the best of American Jewry. Anyone who harshly criticizes Israel is (as Larry Summers, another great man said) a virulent anti-Semite. Israel faces grave threats from Amalek and who could blame this fine haimishe country if it now forced the West Bank filthy shvatz goyim to in J. Sturmer’s -, uh, I mean Tom Friedman’s words to suck on this. Let the cockroaches run wild while Israel incinerates them from the sky. mazel tov!
January 22nd, 2009 at 2:28 am
Let’s analyze this post.
Halli Casser-Jayne Says:
“Here’s the bottom line: Neither the Israeli’s nor the Palestinians have to agree to anything that they don’t think is in their best interest. President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and George Mitchell are only brokers in a negotiated settlement.”
True, as far as it goes.
“Frankly, the Palestinians can’t make peace among themselves so how one negotiates with the Palestinians until they do come under one leadership is a fair question.”
One of the main points in Israel’s actions over the years has been to directly prevent the creation of one leadership in Palestine.
Look up the story about how Israel supported Hamas back in the day as a means to undermine the PLO.
These facts make hash of your comment.
“As for the Israeli’s: knowing the above, does the U.S. really want to risk alienating the one true friend it has in the Middle East?”
How much oil does Israel have? Who gives a shit whether Israel is a “true friend”? And how “true” a friend is Israel when it viciously attacks a US ship (the Liberty incident), sends spies into the US (read up on the “Israeli art students”, including spies who followed the 9/11 hijackers around for weeks but Israel only advised the US about it a couple weeks before 9/11)?
Or are you saying that if Hitler had been a “true friend” of the US (and in fact, Hitler did admire the US to some degree) that therefore Germany’s criminal state terrorism should have been ignored? And therefore ditto for Israel?
“The Geo-political dynamics don’t work in the Palestinian’s favor.”
Which means what? The entire Muslim world sympathizes with the Palestinians (if not enough to actually do anything concrete about it). Or are you saying that since the Palestinians have “lost”, they should accept defeat and move to Jordan?
“Are we to trust the Arabs with our future, which is the alternative to selling out Israel? We know that the Arab Oil nations were willing to put the world into economic chaos to fatten their coffers. We know oil and terrorism is what the Arabs and Iran hold over America’s head.”
This is bullshit for so many reasons. First, the US doesn’t have to “trust” anybody.
Second, the Arabs have to sell their oil. Sure, they will maximize their revenue. But they can’t hold oil over the US. And if the US spent the same money they spend on military adventures in the Muslim world on alternative energy, the Arabs wouldn’t be able to do that in any event.
Third, the only reason Muslim terrorist groups threaten the US is precisely because of US support for both Israel and the corrupt monarchies and dictatorships of the Middle East. Remove those policies and bin Laden couldn’t care less about the US.
“Fear of al Qaeda is no reason to change alliances.”
Fear of being called “anti-Semitic” is no reason to allow Israel to drag the US around like its bitch.
“But all of this is mind-games.”
No it isn’t. Your post is a mind game, trying to confuse the quite clear and plain issues resulting from US support of an illegal, rogue, terrorist state.
“Everyone should stop second-guessing the Obama administration. Cooler heads should prevail until the President and his foreign policy team lay their cards on the table.”
I’d say having Joe “I’m a Zionist” Biden as Vice President, and Rahm “I Fought for the IDF” Emmanual as chief of staff, and Hillary “Obliterate Iran” Clinton as Secretary of State, and considering Dennis “Israel Can Do No Wrong” Ross as the lead figures in dealing with the Muslim world pretty much lays the cards on the table.
Not to mention Obama’s explicitly stated intent to pressure Iran to remove all centrifuges, which Iran will never do, as well as refusing to take the military option off the table, despite almost zero evidence that Iran has or ever had a nuclear weapons program.
January 22nd, 2009 at 3:12 am
“Let me first tell you one thing: It doesn’t matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn’t matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won’t survive.” –Ben-Gurion
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:12 am
What a slanted piece of propaganda. Foxman is right on, think about it people. 23 Islamic states and 1 Israel. Even handed does not work its already 23+ Islamic countries stacked against Israel. USA is that counter balance.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:15 am
er … who is this Loxman fella? Although living in the UK, I thought I had a handle on all the important elected people in the States, but we never heard of a ‘Loxman‘ here. Is he some guy that works for an Israeli bagel charity or something? If so, he needs to know that the Israeli embassies in NY, London and Paris etc are posting hundreds of propaganda stuff all over the web – so he doesn’t really have to exercise himself unduly. It’s all all taken care of – so they think.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:18 am
First of all, Israel has an OBLIGATION to defend its soveriengty. 6000 rockets attacks, no matter how ineffective, is a clear violation of Israel’s sovereinty, especially considering the increasing range. It doesn’t matter whether they kill 13 or 1300; every one of those rockets has the INTENT to kill Israelis, civilian or otherwise. Over 1,000 Palestinians, many (maybe most) of them civilians, have been killed in Israeli retaliation, but a large part of that has to due with the fact that Gaza is an incredibly small strip of land with one of the highest population densities on the planet. If a Palestinian family allows militants to operate from their home, they just became a legitimate military target. On the flip side, if an Israeli family uses their basement as a weapons cache, they are legitimate targets, but that has not been the case. Collateral damage, while tragic, is not illegal nor unjust, it is simply a fact of war.
Hamas is a legitimately elected government, however it doesn’t even control all the Palestinian territories. Fatah controls the West Bank. Even if it did, it still does not preclude Israel from acting in its own best interests. Hamas does not want Isreal to exisit and their ultimate goal is the destruction of Israel. The Israeli government has every right to safeguard its citizens.
Who cares if Israel supported Hamas in the past? The US has supported bin Laden, Saddam, and others in the past. Its about balance of power and bigger threats. In the 80’s, communism was viewed as the bigger threat, our primary goal was to stop the Russians. As for Iraq, the US needed a strong Iraq to counter Iran to help ensure regional stability. Israel needed Hamas to counter the PLO. Clearly Israel felt that the PLO was a greater threat. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 am
No matter, ALEX, how erudite your argument – shooting hundreds of Palestinian children and dozens of women in the head or bombing them in their houses, IS A WAR CRIME. It is NOT ’simply a fact of war’. In civilized societies, we don’t deliberately kill unarmed civilian women and children and then write it off to collateral damage.
You need to understand a very simple fact: a Palestinian child or a Palestinian mother is of no less value than an Israeli one: no lesser value than YOUR own child or YOUR own mother. God did not say that Israelis are a superior race or have a mandate to decide who lives and who dies. That is God’s prerogative – not yours, or Barak’s, or that of Ehud Olmert.
Of course, what nobody can comprehend, is how the IDF has managed to dehumanize the Palestinians to such extent that they can brutal kill women and children.
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:39 am
Wow, anti-Semitism in so many forms, the f-word used several times, but we’re to believe the Israel-haters are not Jew-haters. And if one equates being anti-Israel with being anti-Jew, he is told that is prosterous; yet I’ve never seen an Israel-basher who wasn’t a Jew-basher, myself.
Foxman stands for one thing: eradication of violence and murder against others, particularly when based on ethnic prejudice. He’d like the eradication of all hatred, too, but he isn’t expecting that to go away very soon, though he is dedicated to it. No doubt he is staunchly focused on Jews as the victims needing particular protection, but why not; Jews are the most persecuted people throughout history (and I’m sure many here feel that is deserved and a good thing, right Farid?). And members of Foxman’s family died in the Holocaust (which some here will say didn’t happen, right?), hence his particular concern about anti-Semitism.
Muslims in the US cry and whine about anti-Muslim incidents, which rose after 9/11, but EVEN STILL, they do not approach the number of anti-Jewish attacks in the US (nor of anti-black and anti-gay). Possibly because Muslims commit so many of the anti-Jewish attacks, whereas Jews don’t go attacking Muslims or their mosques here in the US. Even-handed, indeed. No Muslim is looking for even-handed treatment of the Israli-Palestinian issues, they seek the extinction of Israel.
A bit more facts: Palestinian schools–funded by US dollars–teach anti-Semitism and anti-Israel lessons to their kids soon after they leave the womb. With “death” being the only thing they want for Jews and Israel. This goes on all over the Arab world, actually. Israel, conversely, doesn’t teach its kids to hate anyone.
The Arab Muslims can complain all they want that Israel fights back and inflicts more damage when FIRST attacked by rockets for weeks. The Muslims are ALWAYS the victims, right, even when they attack first, and hide weapons in schools, ambulences, hospitals, and around civilians; how honorable and righteous. Putting bombs on pregnant women, then complaining that Israel actually would search such women.
Always seeking to kill Jews who are babies, teens, and women; yet when Israel, which seeks to avoid civilian casualties, kills any civilians accidentally, the Arab Muslims are indignant (though they seek the deaths of their civilians as propaganda, 2nd only, as their goal, to the deaths of Jews). What hypocrites; you have no value for human life here on earth–yours or your victims–but whine like pigs when Israel actually fights back and kills one civilian in defense of its own civilians, WHOM YOU TARGET. Palestinian suicide attacks in pizza parlors, murders at the 1972 Olympic Games, blowing up planes throught the 1960s and 1970s, etc. Dancing in the streets on 9/11. “Honor killing” their own women after they rape them, even 4-year-old girls. Because the girls supposedly “dishonored” the family when raped, often by Daddy or a brother. Cutting their women’s eyes out, or the nose, lips, ears, or all of these together, because the wife might want a divorce from an abusive husband. Throwing acid in her face. Ah, the Palestinians are such decent people. Ooops, my error; this goes on all over the Arab Muslim world, not just among the Palestinians.
Bottom line: no peace is possible with the Palestinians who, for religious reasons, have persecuted their Jewish neighbors going back over 1000 years BEFORE 1948, including murdering Jews, extracting special taxes from them, stealing their wives and daughters, etc. The 1920s anti-Jewish pogroms in “Palestine,” stirred up by the Grand Mufti in Jerusalem (Arafat’s uncle, who famously met with Hitler), are just one example. Read the book, “From Time Immemorial,” for many, many more examples.
Peace is not possible with the Palestinians who, also for religious reasons, don’t want Jews anywhere in the middle East; ooops, here again I meant MOST Arab Muslims feel this way. As it is, Israel has but a sliver of land that accounts for what, less than 1% of the land in the Middle-East, yet that’s way TOO MUCH for a Jewish state to have, as far as the Arab Muslims are concerned.
Is it not just kidding ourselves to be “fair,” as Mitchell is alleged to be, when one side OPENLY seeks the annihilation of the other side? It’s in the Hamas charter, and was in the PLO charter. Arafat removed the language in the PLO charter to assuage the West, yet still spoke of annhilating Israel since then, when speaking in Arabic to his people and to leaders elsewhere in the Middle-East.
To all those who call Israel an illegal state, a rogue state, etc., just be honest with yourselves: please state what terms Israel can agree to that the Arab side will agree to, so that Israel is not constantly threatened by its neighbors as it has been since 1948–most recently with Iran threatening to wipe it off the map? What terms will make the Arab Muslims stop hating Jews and wanting to extinguish Israel, other than Israel agreeing to leave the Middle East entirely and swallow poison?
Again, what terms will the Arab world accept AND live up to—WHEN THEIR RELIGION DEMANDS THE KILLING OF JEWS WHEREVER THEY ARE? (Read your Q’uran or the Hamas charter for the Muslim Jew-killing trees…).
Is there an Arab Muslim who REALLY wants to live peacefully with Israel? Only with a “Right of Return,” you say? The famous red herring that the Muslims use to prevent peace; make Israel give away its land AND allow all Palestinians to come back to Israel and live as suicide bombers, in the meantime making the one tiny Jewish nation in the world non-Jewish. Will you grant a “Right of Return” to the JEWS murdered and exiled from their homes in ARAB countries in 1948? Hardly.
As a separate issue, ask yourselves why NO Arab country has ever taken in the Palestinians and integrated them as citizens, when they are “suffering” so badly and their Muslim brothers love them so? The Jews expelled from Arab countries in 1948 have all been absorbed elsewhere . . .
January 22nd, 2009 at 6:49 am
P.S. – Please don’t think I hold ALL Palestinians in low regard. Many are decent people who would happily live peacefully with Israel. Ooops, I forgot… those Palestinians who dare to say this aloud in that part of the world are killed by their Palestinian “brothers” for saying so.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:10 am
This, makes me cry for the World.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:13 am
Oaths to “push Israel into the Red Sea”, call for anything but fairness. If you come against Israel in this fashion, I will gladly admit to you that I will be extremely unfair and proud of it, biased, as well as cheater, and a total never-give-you-a-moment’s-rest prick.Yahwh in Heaven, bless Isreal and crush her enemies.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 am
Noam Chomsky is a high-minded joke. Totally intelligent, totally blathering. “Israel has a right to defend itself: just not by force”, Chomsky says. Nice try. Utter, utter doubletalk. “Defend themselves, but just not defend themselves by force”. Utter doubletalk. Postscript, Chomsky: you speak of the Israeli invasion, but this is absurd, as it is impossible for a country to invade its own country. Israel cannot “invade” Gaza, because Israel owns Gaza.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 am
This Foxman quote really is a perfect summation of why the US needs to rethink it’s Israel policy. Friends don’t ask friends to be openly unfair.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:59 am
Lindale says :
“In civilized societies, we don’t deliberately kill unarmed civilian women and children and then write it off to collateral damage”
Very Interesting; isn’t that what Hamas is doing when firing rockets indiscriminately?
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Everyone saw Foxman’s recent attack on Bill Moyers, right?
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2009/01/exchange_between_bill_moyers_a.html
The ADL needs a new spokesman.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
You need to meet some Israelis then. They’re like New Yorkers but without the nice bits.
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:03 am
With friends like Abe Foxman, Israel needs no enemy’s.
Yes, Foxman speaks the uncomfortable truth. Israel foolishly never wanted even handed treatment in the Middle East. Like a spoiled child, it demanded and received special protections and a huge allowance of money. We’ve seen what has happened. Israel now rules, according to its generals, by terrorizing Arab populations.
Of all the nations in the world, with all the talent of its people, its vibrant democracy, and the history of its people, one would think it could devise a means to live in peace and security with its neighbors. But as long as it is allowed to cling to its security blanket, the USA, it will remain unable to comprehend that it can’t have its land and peace.
January 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am
And if one equates being anti-Israel with being anti-Jew, he is told that is prosterous; yet I’ve never seen an Israel-basher who wasn’t a Jew-basher, myself.
Alright, fuck you. There are plenty of us who are actually Jewish who are severely critical of Israel (among them: Matt Yglesias, who wrote this post). Not only that, there’s plenty of Jewish Israelis who are heavily critical of the activities of the State of Israel, and of the Zionist project as a whole.
This kind of effort to conflate anti-Israel sentiment with anti-semitism is just totally outrageous. Anti-Israel sentiment obviously often can be motivated by anti-semitism. I’d say that things often go in the other direction, as well – especially in the Arab world, endemic anti-semitism is a result of anti-Israel sentiment. But the claim that all anti-Israel sentiment is actually anti-semitic is just completely poisonous. So fuck you.
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 am
Walker -
The thing about Chomsky is that he sometimes does seem to take things out of context. Let me give an example:
Fluffy bunnies blah blah. Happy rainbows blah blah. Smiling children blah blah. We were responsible for destroying all these things. More fluffy bunnies blah blah.
So – Chomsky will cut through the rhetoric & quote “We were responsible for destroying all these things,” and then people like Oliver Kamm will get very upset, because Chomsky didn’t quote “in context,” with all that nice rhetoric about fluffy bunnies. Well – sorry. He quoted what was important, the truth, when it happens to slip out, as it tends to do, amongst all the fine rhetoric.
But the fine rhetoric is meaningless – every tyrant uses fine rhetoric. Every invading nation will claim selfless reasons. It carries, as Chomsky likes to say, “no information.”
January 22nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
“Foxman stands for one thing: eradication of violence and murder against others, particularly when based on ethnic prejudice.”
Exactly, and that’s why he found it pertinent to honor a politician who publicly stated his belief that fascist dictators are really not so bad. What else can you say about this morally bankrupt individual?
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:09 pm
“For one thing, I’m not thrilled to see Foxman talking about this issue at all which seems far afield from the ADL’s mandate…”
That is no nice of you, you fucking douchebag. Are you his lawyer?
January 24th, 2009 at 3:31 am
To daveNYC and “Mr. Double ‘fuck you’ John” with his clean and clearly intelligent mouth:
I am simply for Israel’s right to live. They are the one Jewish country in the entire world, surrounded by 20+ Muslim countries who, for large parts or majorities of their populations, wish all the Israelis dead–because they are Jews. NOT because of any border issues or alleged mistreatment of Palestinians, but because their Muslim religion tells them that Jews are apes and pigs, and evildoers.
Any self-respecting Jew who loves his family cannot countenance Arab Muslim terrorism aimed at Jews–which often happens elsewhere in the world because Muslims so hate Israel, and they attack Jews everywhere.
Now you, allegedly a Jew, come here and say that many Jewish Israelis are against Israel’s “Zionist project.” Meaning they want Israel to disappear, it would seem. I believe you are as Muslim as the Grand Mufti.
My response to you is that these are either the self-hating Chomsky-like Jews who are so chickenhearted they side with the Jew-hating Muslims, so that they alone will be–they think– Jews who are actually LIKED by the Arab terrorists and will be spared. Or, they are people who actually BELIEVE that the Arab Muslims love their Jewish neighbors, if only the Jews would only give up more land (of which Israel has a mere speck of sand, compared with the Arab countries).
Either way, your thought process and utter fear of Arab Muslim opinions make you a loser, John. If you were married to a Jewish woman and had children, explain to them how wrong Israel is and how wonderful the terrorists are when they cut the heads off of each of your kids and wife–something the Arab Muslims indeed love to do, and to videotape.
Wake up. Peace may one day be possible with the Arab Muslims, but is NOT possible with their in-bred, and taught, VIOLENT hatred of all other religions, especially of Jews. The problem isn’t Israel’s activities, even if sometimes they actually kill more innocents, by accident, than the Muslims TARGET for death. The problem is Muslim anti-Semitism.
If you doubt that, you are kidding yourself. Google the various (and I mean thousands) of anti-Jewish rantings coming from the imams of the Muslim world, all ending with a desire to slit the throats of Jews, and similar sentiments.
Then tell me how Jewish Israelis, apparently high on crack, think Israel is the bad guy and the Muslims are noble.
As I wrote in my earlier post, your argument falls flat when one considers the murderous hatred toward, and bloodletting of, Jews by Arab Muslims throught the centuries, and in the 20th century, BEFORE ISRAEL EXISTED to commit the wrongs you blame her for.
The Jews in this world are lucky just to be alive. No thanks to weakling losers like you.
As Golda Meier said, “There will not be peace until the Arabs love their children more than they hate ours.” She knew the score a lot better than you do, sir.
January 25th, 2009 at 2:18 am
But the Jews are the Chosen People. They are better than the” rest of us and deserve special treatment, not fairness. Fairness is only for the Little People.”
What the hell, so we would live in a jungle if we started believeing this way. Just remember we are in the twenties century, not in the middle ages !
January 25th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Wow, I was ready to puke when I was reading the top half of these comments from the stupid left wing Muslim sympathizing losers up there who probably enjoy seeing “diplomatic” talks that accomplish nothing because they probably accomplish nothing in their own lives. So they live vicariously through the controversy of the day that CNN and the BBC provide for them because soap operas and other TV dramas are just not a good enough break from their boring lives. So they follow Israel because it is the in thing to do. I’d love to see any of the anti-semites on here say anything like this direct to a Jew’s face. They’d either get the crap beaten out of them or they’d get fired from their job by the Jew that hires them.
I want to thank the people in the second half of the comments here for standing up and speaking the truth about Israel’s right to defend itself and acknowledging that Israel is a thriving democracy and prosperous nation which is a modern miracle given the intentions of its neighbors. We are seeing a huge shift in sentiment for what is simply right. As for the losers who favor what they call “diplomacy” and “fairness” in this brutal war, you accomplish nothing and get nowhere and most are getting tired of it. Many people would like a solution and Israel should have finished the solution by completely wiping out Hamas. Then we can establish a Palestinian state, which their leaders have always rejected in favor of the destruction of Israel. Palestinians have never built anything, but if Hamas is gone there might be a chance.
February 10th, 2009 at 2:25 am
uZ7X19 hi! hooli?
February 28th, 2009 at 3:25 am
To stupid, weakling John #45: Israel attacked Hamas, and the rest of the world attacked Jews. Not Israelis. Not Zionists. Jews.
February 28th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
To Rick Mears:
You may be the biggest piece of shit I’ve ever encountered. Oh no! I just swore! You call people stupid weaklings, anti-semites, spew some of the most hateful anti-muslim and anti-Arabic bile I’ve ever heard, and still feel the right to retreat into a shell of righteous indignation at the mere thought of somebody using a dirty word. I’ll second the “fuck you” claim.
Here’s the deal: I believe that Jews aren’t better than Muslims, and I believe Muslims aren’t better than Jews. I don’t believe Christians are better than either of them. I believe murdering innocent people is wrong, and I believe that the United States should not make any exceptions to this rule. I believe that anybody who attempts to argue that God himself bestowed special privileges to them is a liar, or has been counseled by liars, or delusional.
Your ugliness, pomposity and racism is a perfect example of where we sit in the debate on Israel. You and Abe Foxman make perfect bedfellows. Accusing everybody you don’t like of being Protocols-Of-The-Elders-Of-Zion-Reading, Jew-hating (or not really Jews or self-hating Jews whenever the inconvenient truth of Jewish opposition to Israeli favoritism arises) militants, and pretending to give a flying fuck about innocent lives being destroyed while doing your best to not acknowledge it when Muslims and Arabs are targets.
What’s funniest is that people like you don’t even understand why the American right-wing is so gung-ho about Israel. You honestly think they give a shit about them. Guess what? They just do it because they think it’ll bring about the Rapture. Meaning then that Jewish people will be thrown into a Lake of Fire, where they believe they deserve to be. It’s just as crazy as believing you have a God-given right to a land you extinguished an indigenous population off of and took from them. In the U.S., we called that belief Manifest Destiny, and since then we’ve admitted it was wrong. I wonder if Abe Foxman, Great Defender Of The Downtrodden will release a retroactive apology to the Canaanites for this?
Nobody can take seriously your, or any like-minded individual’s claims that it is you who are defending those who can’t defend themselves when you cannot bring yourself to admit that the murder of innocent Palestinians who did not launch rockets is wrong, simply because they’re Palestinians. You don’t even allow for the possibility that there are Jewish Americans and Israelis that don’t think like you, and that also makes you a bigot. You don’t have a right to speak for all Jewish people whether or not you yourself are Jewish, and you certainly don’t have the right to accuse people of being weak, prejudiced or stupid when your opinions on this subject are a volatile combination of fear and hatred.
I close by asking you this: how many nuclear weapons do the 20+ Arab nations have? How many nuclear weapons does Israel have? Where does Israel’s military stand in conjunction with the Arab nations? The answers to those questions expose the myth that is the fear-mongering over Israel “teetering on the brink”.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am
One last thing, Rick, because I really want to impress upon you the level of your ignorance and bigotry. Read this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/11/gaza-israel-political-attitudes
I guess Yeela Raanan, Israeli mother of a 20-year old serving in the IDF is a rampant anti-semite. Hell, according to this article, most of Israel would appear to be a bunch a bunch of Jew-hatin’, Arab-lovin’ terrorist appeasers.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Incredible site!
March 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
March 15th, 2009 at 9:17 am
Hello Mr. Foxman:
Below is my article about Obama:
Now that Barak Obama administration has been in power for more than a month one is still wonders why he won the 2008 presidential election. Some answers come to mind. At the start of his campaign he declared his intention to stop the Iraq War at once. Then he said that he intends to withdraw our troops in 16 months and accused John McCain of running for “Bush third term.” The liberal media proclaimed “failures” of Bush’s policies and predicted his “disastrous legacy.” Ever since I came to this country in 1962 I have been reading the media reports and editorials in between the lines as I did read the Soviet Pravda some 50 years ago, forming my own views for which I was sentenced to 10 years in Gulag. I do not fear now to be punished for my views.
Bob Herbert in his Op-Ed article wrote, “Anger at George W. Bush is white-hot.” (NYT, August 26, p.19) Leaders who failed to deliver a quick and glorious victory on a silver platter have been hated by their people whose anger was “white-hot.” Their people demanded a change. Obama made “change” the battle cry of his campaign. Harry Truman had even lower rating during the long Korean War than Bush suffered by the end of his administration. After the protracted WW1 the German Emperor was exiled and the Russian Tsar and his entire family were murdered. The German and Russian people were angry and demanded a change. They got it in Hitler’s fascism and Stalin’s communism. French history offers another example of “change.” Dissatisfied with protracted wars and taxation, the Paris mob on July 14 1789 stormed Bastille prison, freeing 7 common criminals, among them Marquis de Sade, the infamous sadist, who shouted to the enraged mob, “They are killing the prisoners here!” which caused a riot. King Louis XVI was guillotined and his wife Marie-Antoinette, who was accused of changing her dresses every day, met the same fate. Their son, the Dauphin, suffered a terrible death in prison. Napoleon became the Emperor of France. Hitler the Fuhrer, Stalin the Vozhd and Napoleon the Emperor popped up from nowhere. Because of the obvious success of the surge in Iraq, Barak Obama stopped talking about the war, folded the white flag of surrender and jumped instead on the tidal wave of economic tsunami which carried him into the White House. The voting public rushed past him towards the abyss without realizing that this tsunami had its origin in the “spread the wealth” ideology of the “community organizers” and their ideological allies in the Congress who intimidated American banks into lending mortgages to people who could not afford them.
Now is time to make some predictions. The early test of Obama’s promises will be the Arab-Israeli conflict. In his speech at the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to out promise Hillary Clinton who earlier threatened to “obliterate Iran if Israel was attacked,” Obama declared that “security of Israel is sacrosanct and if Iran attacks Israel, I will use any means, I mean, any means, to defend Israel.” In his lapel Obama wore an Israeli flag next to American flag. Jimmy Carter, who supported Obama in 2008 election, also used to proclaim his unwavering supporter of Israel. His presidency turned out to be Israel’s nightmare. (Roman Brackman, “Israel at High Noon” (2006) Chapter 9 – “Israel’s Nightmare: The Carter Presidency.”
Obama also declared:
Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided. (New York Post, February 18, 2008, p.6)
But he immediately took back his “undivided Jerusalem” comments, saying that they were “badly phrased” and were “an example where we had some poor phrasing.” He “clarified” his comments, saying:
Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means this status, has to be negotiated between the two parties. (New York Sun, April 4, 2007, p.6)
His sympathy towards one of the “parties” in this conflict was revealed when he stated:
Nobody is suffering more than Palestinian people. That is why I hope for loosening up aid restrictions to the Palestinian people. (New York Post, March 24, 2007, p.17)
Does Obama shed his crocodile tears because of his compassion for the Palestinian people, or because of his animosity towards the Jewish people who suffer daily Palestinian violence? In a closed-door meeting with several members of Cleveland‘s Jewish community on February 25, 2008, Obama said:
I think there is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt pro-Likud approach to Israel, then you’re anti-Israel, and that can’t be the measure of our friendship with Israel. (Jerusalem Post February 26, 2008)
In February 10 Israeli election the Likud party led the hawkish parliamentary coalition to victory which would insure a clash between the “pro-Likud approach to Israel” and the Obama vision of the “measure of our friendship with Israel.” Obama promised to use the “strong backing of the United States” to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to accept his vision of “Israel living in peace with its neighbors.”
In April 2008 Los Angeles Times published a report about Barak Obama’s ties to Rashid Khalidi, “a professor of Arab studies at Columbia.” Khalidi was barred from lecturing in New York Public school because he was accusing Israel of being a “racist, apartheid state.” A New York Times article quoted “Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a Liberal synagogue on the Upper West Side” who said he had known Mr. Khalidi for years and called the allegations of his bias “completely absurd and uncalled for and malicious.” (New York Times October 31, 2008, “Political Storm Finds a Columbia Professor” p. A28) Rabbi Matalon represents a group of the left-leaning Jewish appeasers who break their spines bending over backwards while proudly calling themselves “progressives” to parade their “fairness and impartiality.” They also bend their knees to ingratiate themselves to the people who hate Israel. Dick Morris said that many American Jews do not find “Obama’s ties to Rashid Khalidi and other radicals alarming because they are not concerned with self-preservation.”(Fox News, October 30, 2008) David Axelrod, Robert Wexler, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and their left-leaning Jewish ilk do not care about the security of Israel. These Jewish “lemmings” feel secure in their privileged life in America. They are like the Jew Suess (Sweet Jew), the personage in Leon Feuchtwanger’s novel Jew Suess, who lived a life of privilege at the court of a German king but at the end was hanged for being Jewish. The Israeli Jews struggle for their self-preservation. They are surrounded by enemies who want to destroy them. Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger stated that the election of Obama poses a threat to the stability of the Middle East. He calls Obama a “charlatan,” citing his murky past, ties to radicals as well as his many “flip-flops.” (Fax News Mike Huckabee show, November 2, 2008)
I predict that if Obama tries to swing his scythe by using “strong backing of the United States” to extract unacceptable concessions from Israeli government, his scythe will break against Israel’s rock, as it did in Carter’s case. In 1976 election 87% of the Jewish vote went for Carter. Those who voted for him then regret their votes now. In the 2008 election 78% of the Jewish vote went for Obama. Soon these Jewish lemmings too will regret their votes. Israel haters in Arab and Muslim countries will celebrate Obama’s victory by dancing in the streets and shouting “Inshallah! Obama is one of us!” The Jewish people in Israel and beyond should brace for trouble. During his campaign Obama accused McCain of running for “Bush’s third term,” but now his supporters are disappointed, realizing that his cabinet appointments negate his promised “change” and that he intends to implement “Bush’s third term.” What they do not yet realize is that he is already running for “Bush’s fourth term.” He used to tell them, “It is not about me, it is about you!” It has always been about him, his insatiable thirst for aggrandizing himself. He will cast aside his supporters on the left as he cast aside and walk over Rev. Wright, Lois Farrakhan, Rashid Khalidi, William Ayers, Antoun Resko and others whom he does not need now. I predict that for all of Obama’s phenomenal shrewdness, political cunning, craftiness and verbal virtuosity he will at some point stumble over some issue and expos his hidden self, stimulating curiosity of Freudians for years to come.
Barack Obama is a brilliant, even phenomenally eloquent orator who has, as the Russian saying goes, a “boneless tongue.” It is enough to hear him wiggle out of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright deadly noose, out of Lois Farrakhan’s endorsement, out of ties to Rashid Khalidi and the Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, out of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by a nonexistent “uncle,” and so on. He changes his claim and denials as a chameleon changes its colors. He is a gifted political con-artist, or as Lawrence Eagleburger characterized him, a “charlatan.” I would like to hazard some predictions. America will survive. Israel will survive too – it survived Carter. As another Russian saying has it, “There is no evil without some good in it.” I believe that with Barak Obama in the White House, the world will realize that Americans are not racist, mean and intolerant people. I also believe that Obama mania will fade away after a while. After Carter came Reagan. After Obama will be a Reagan-like president.
I also predict that President Bush will stand tall in history. The hatred for Bush, which had fueled Obama’s campaign, became contagious and now afflicts even some republicans. Apparently, it became fashionable to kick Bush around. But this hatred will subside as Obama mania fades away and the appreciation grows for Bush’s success in keeping America safe during his two terms, for his decisions to remove Saddam Hussein and to expel bin Laden and Taliban from Afghanistan, as well as for the orderly transition of power to Obama, his critic and successor. Bush was a lame duck in terms of the time he had left in office, but he was not a crippled hawk as long as he remained our Commander-in-Chief. He still had time for adding some more luster to his legacy by hitting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who had been stirring mayhem in Iraq and whom the US Senators, including Hillary Clinton, declared “terrorist organization.” It has been the duty of an American President to protect our troops and the missions he sends them to carry out. By hitting the Revolutionary Guards Bush might have delivered a powerful message to the Iranian people that would have gone a long way to change the regime in Iran as well as to ensure the stability in Iraq. Perhaps in his books Bush will reveal why he failed to do this. The tribal areas of Pakistan are being attacked now by our troops. General Petraeus is about to replicate his Iraq miracle in Afghanistan and possibly to deliver bin Laden, dead or alive, to his well deserved destiny.
Roman Brackman Ph.D.
Tel. (212) 740-8744
E-mail: nadrom@nyc.rr.com
Website: romanbrackman.com
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:58 am
tramadol
Great site. Good info
April 16th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Could you help me. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
I am from Sao and too poorly know English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “How do I book cheap airline tickets online.”
With love 8-), Teshi.