Strange Oversight
Aaron David Miller is a notorious anti-semite veteran of US policy toward the Israeli-Arab conflict, with over 25 years of service in the field. And he says:
In 25 years of working on this issue for six secretaries of state, I can’t recall one meeting where we had a serious discussion with an Israeli prime minister about the damage that settlement activity—including land confiscation, bypass roads and housing demolitions—does to the peacemaking process. There is a need to impose some accountability.
Todd Gitlin writely calls this “shocking.” Kevin Drum says “It’s sort of hard to imagine an equally important topic on the Palestinian side never even being raised with its top leadership.” And indeed it is. But of course to be clear, even-handed failure to bring up hugely important topics wouldn’t be any good either. Miller’s whole article deserves to be widely read.
36 Responses to “Strange Oversight”
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January 5th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Todd Gitlin writely calls this
Too obvious. You need to dial this back if you want to continue inspiring outraged rants.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Too obvious.
Yeah I decided a long time ago that sometimes Matt is just fucking with us.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Because the US leaders don’t want to tick off AIPAC and the 13 Jews in the US Senate. The US is NOT an honest broker in this issue as our leaders have clearly sided with the Zionists – though the majority of the US thinks Palestine is in the right.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I Kant imagine disaggregating with that claws.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Re Jimboslice
Mr. JimboSlice, aka David Duke, is a fucking, cocksucking liar. Every poll shows that the majority of the American Public support the State of Israel.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Re Aaron Miller
I think it would be a fair question to ask Mr. Miller why he didn’t bring it up in these discussions. Seems to be a little Monday morning quarterbacking going on here.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:47 am
“writely”?? Reely? I guess that’s the sort of proofreading that marks you all the way down to an A- at the big H.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I may disagree with Israeli militarism and deal rejectionism, and look upon with dismay the latest corrupt & incompetent leadership asserting itself upon the Palestinians, but, yeah, polling yields the sort of responses you should expect:
I mean, I may hold the sorts of anti-militarist and anti-colonial and anti-authoritarian views of a tiny margin of U.S., Israeli, or Palestinian society, but to me that’s a horribly stupid question.
I.e., even if you’re an complete ball of anti-Zionist energy, does that mean you disapprove of Israel, the country? Its people? The buildings? The land? The archaeological sites? What would that mean? There are all sorts of governments around the world I absolutely despise, but I wouldn’t know how to answer that “approve” / “disapprove” type question for the whole country in general. Hell, when Guatemala’s evangelical generals and the Reaganites were trying their best to carry out genocide against their own Mayan and hill populations, I didn’t disapprove of “Guatemala.”
On more specific matters related to recent activities:
January 5th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
oh I call such bullshit on anyone pretending to be shocked by this. what a load!
January 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
If the US MSM had not consistently advanced pro-Israeli propaganda while demonizing the Palestinians, might not these statistics have been somewhat different?
The strangle-hold of the Israeli propaganda machine can be seen at its extreme now. The almost laughably absurd picture of “Israel as victim” in the face of 540 Gazan deaths and 2500 injured vs. FIVE Israeli fatalities has been accepted without question by the supine US MSM.
If this situation wasn’t so heart-breakingly tragic, it would be laughable.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Comparing a straight black male to a homosexual David Duke is an insult, so is your vulgarity. I am just sick and tired of the leadership in the US supporting Israel without question because they would be crushed politically by the American Jewish establishment ($, politicians, and media) if they ever backed the side of Justice and sided with the Palestinian freedom fighters.
January 5th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Matt I totally agree. But real progress will be when non-jews can say the same thing you are saying without worrying about ending carreers and other forms of potential ruin.
I would love to live in a world where support for liberal jewish ideas or honest criticism of right wing jewish ideas can be done on the merits, rather than by invoking liberal Jewish rabbi’s and other approved of jewish persons as “cover”.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
“Comparing a straight black male to a homosexual David Duke is an insult…”
Sounds like someone’s on the D.L. Who else would be so touchy about this?
January 5th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Well, he did say it writely. As opposed to speakly.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Fred: Do you hate all brown people, or just Palestinians and African Americans?
When did you stop being a racist? Do you hate Indians too? What about Africans? Have you stopped hating the people getting killed in Dafur? You must really love China beating down Tibet.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
JimboSlice,
Do you always think in terms of color? Are the folks with the darker complexion always the good guys? Your moral compass/color wheel must breakdown pretty often when confronted with the real world. Who do you root for when an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian ancestry is shooting it out with a Palestinian terrorist? Tough one, huh? Who is darker/more noble, the Han Chinese or the Tibetans? How about the Han Chinese in China versus the Han Chinese in Taiwan?
January 5th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
By the way, when will Obama call for Israel to call off its genocidal attack on the Palestinians of Gaza? Or did we just elect more of the same blindly pro-Israel leadership?
January 5th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
I thought the insult-trading squad usually showed up at night?
January 5th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
perhaps Mr Miller just wasn’t at many high level meetings.
But Millar is quite sure that Bill Clinton and Rabin never discused the settlements issue during negotiations of the Oslo Accords – which do specifically point out the need to deal with that issue. And that follwong on from that a land swap was proposed. And yet Millar is adamment that no one talked about why such a land swap was on the table.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Yeah, well, those anti-Zionist Orthodox guys in NYC really do appear to disapprove of Israel the country, since it’s not a kingdom re-established by the Moshiach. But they’re plainly blinded by their hatred for Jews.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
“Mr. JimboSlice, aka David Duke, is a fucking, cocksucking liar. Every poll shows that the majority of the American Public support the State of Israel.”
Does supporting the “State of Israel” mean supporting colonization?
January 5th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
mds: Well, in the case of the Orthodox opponents of the (human) founding of Israel, wouldn’t the question still be “Are you in favor of the founding of the State of Israel,” or “Do you support the continuation of Israel as a State,” or some such? I mean, it would be fairly pointless to ask them if they favor the very divine intervention they claim to believe in.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
You’re wrong to call Miller a notorious anti-semite. He’s more of the sly, sneaky type.
And if he thinks we’re gonna give back those damn olive trees, he’s nuts.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Re JimboSlice
I was not aware that Mr. Duke was gay. Does Mr. JimboSlice have a citation for that claim? In any event, I don’t see what the relevance is to the fact that Mr. Duke is a racist goat fucker. By the way, does Mr. JimboSlice agree with the position of his fellow black Americans in California who voted overwhelmingly for Proposition 8.
January 6th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
You called me a “cocksucker” Since I am a dude, if I were to suck cock that would make me a homosexual. I didn’t say there was anything wrong with homosexuals, but there is something wrong with calling ME a homosexual because it could lead to confusing situations.
And I would have voted NO on 8.
Being a progressive means being for progressive causes, like gay marriage and Palestinian rights.
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