What’s Hebrew for Chutzpah?
It seems that Yossi Peled, a retired general-turned-politician currently serving as Minister Without Portfolio in the Netanyahu cabinet, wants to sanction the United States in order to force Barack Obama to back down from his commitment to a settlement freeze. His specific proposals include “selling sensitive equipment that the Washington opposes distributing internationally, and allowing other countries that compete with the US to get involved with the peace process and be given a foothold for their military forces and intelligence agencies” moves that would be certain to backfire by depriving Israel of its valuable political capital inside the United States. But Peled also wants to deploy that capital in crude ways:
In what may be his most controversial suggestion, Peled recommends intervening in American congressional races to weaken Obama and asking American Jewish donors not to contribute to Democratic congressional candidates. He predicted that this would result in Democratic candidates pressuring Obama to become more pro-Israel.
I’m pretty certain that Peled’s suggestion of selling sensitive equipment to North Korea and giving Chinese intelligence a foothold in the Middle East would be more controversial than political attacks on congressional Democrats. Indeed, the political attacks are already happening. Representative Donna Edwards (D-MD), a strong supporter of measures for peace, came under fire from hawks and in response progressive Jewish group J Street helped her raise $15,000 from 270 donors in four hours.
73 Responses to “What’s Hebrew for Chutzpah?”
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June 10th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Fine, that’s the way you want it, Israel, here’s what we should do for you in return. There should be an immediate cessation of all military and foreign aid to your country. If you didn’t have billions of US dollars propping up your country, you’d be a sitting duck. So, why exactly do YOU get to dictate to us, to demand jack fucking shit to us?
BTW, neo-cons, I’m Jewish myself, so spare me the anti-semite jive. If Israel truly believes that Yahweh wants them to have that land, then they can ask Yahweh for help instead of the American taxpayers.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I say bring it on, Peled. If Israel ever pulled anything like this, that would at long last break the Israeli spell over the United States.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Please do not throw us in that briar patch.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Well here’s the Reverend Jeremiah Wright channeling his Mel Gibson on the MidEast:
“Them Jews aren’t going to let him [ObaFuhrer] talk to me.”
June 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
oy.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Whattup Peled?
June 10th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Yosi Peled is just an Israeli neo-conservative who believes in the maximum possible aggressiveness at all times. There’s a great deal of overlap and mutual fermentation between the American right and the Likud and ultra-orthodox parties in Israel. Hopefully, Netanyahu will adapt Peled’s approach. The American government needs to break with Israeli neo-conservativism just as much as it needs to break with the American version.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
As part of the attack on Edwards, people went on Daily Kos and trashed her as anti-Jewish in two diaries, but they sucked at it. They didn’t point to anything that actually showed she was, so they were justifiably called out by the commentators.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
That dude’s picture looks like the mug shot of a child molester. Or maybe the guy from Breaking Bad.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Remind me again why I should care about Israel? Or, to put it more succinctly, why should I care any more about what happens with Israel than say…Sri Lanka or Turkmenistan?
With this sort of idiocy on one side and Hamas on the other I’m just fatigued with the whole mess. And tired of paying for it.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
What is “The Washington”? Is that like in Dune and the “House of Washington,” or is that an epithet for the President, like “The Casear”…
June 10th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Oh please, please, please let this wingnut’s campaign get some currency.
There has been an awakening in the US MSM in the past few months in respect of I/P issues (witness the recent MSNBC segments about Israeli outrages and Palestinian suffering when before they were ignored) and this kind of Israeli insanity would be leapt upon by the MSM and shock the slumbering American public.
So, go baby go!
June 10th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Yes Peled’s ideas are crazy, but quoting him as mainstream is the same as saying Michelle Bachmann represents the United States because she’s elected to Congress.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
“Yes Peled’s ideas are crazy, but quoting him as mainstream is the same as saying Michelle Bachmann represents the United States because she’s elected to Congress.”
I don’t know much about Israeli politics, so this is a genuine question: doesn’t being a member of the Cabinet imply more connection to the country’s leadership? Bachmann isn’t even a member of the majority party.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Ah, the Jstreet JINOS and appeasers supporting an antisemite like Representative Edwards. By the way, although Representative Edwards visited the West Bank and whined about how beastly the Israelis were toward the Fakestinians, she didn’t apparently see fit to visit Sderot to see how beastly the Fakestinians were towards the Israelis.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
SLC, the idea is that “Rino” and “Dino” are real animals (even if the former is misspelled). “Jino” doesn’t mean anything and looks like it should be pronounced “JEE-no.” Sorry.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Re tomemos
Just for the information of Mr. tomemos, JINO stands for Jews In Name Only, a perfect description of the asswipes in Jstreet. The Jstreeters are the Jewish equivalent of the Uncle Toms in the black community.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Most likely just another Zionist trick. To demonstrate how nice and reasonable Netan-yahoo is.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
The Fakirs are in India, not Palestine.
Obama completely has the whip hand here, even if he didn’t have congressional support. All he has to do is NOT veto a binding UN Security Council resolution. Its only because the Soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council in 1950 that the UN authorized military action in Korea and even when the Soviets ran back to the table, it was too late to un-ring the bell.
Likewise, if Obama simply declined to veto a Security Council resolution that would impose escalating South Africa-type sanctions on Israel unless they negotiated a deal with the Palestinians, there is nothing Congress or any future president can do about it short of quitting the United Nations. Treaty obligations being “the supreme law of the land” and all that.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
My favorite list of JINO’s was something called the SHITlist, it stood for self-hating something or other but what was hillarious was that it was so damn big, and everyone on there was someone you would be proud to associate with.
These wannabe rabbis had excommunicated every decent (or even not so decent) Jew in the world, and all that were left were the most thuggish, loudly Zionist, racist pieces of shit on planet left to represent Jews. I don’t think you could make a more antisemetic formulation.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I think working in the Ministry Without Portfolio would be a pretty sweet job.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
How did SLC become a judge of who’s Jewish and who isn’t? Like, if you say “Hama Rules” enough times into a mirror in a darkened rules you become Jewish? WTF?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Maybe he should find some other most powerful nation on the face of the planet for Israel to ally itself with.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
I like this Yossi Peled. His stupid antics might be the fastest way to get Israel off of Uncle Sam’s tit.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
The Jstreet JINOs are heretics and should be treated as such.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
SLC:
“Just for the information of Mr. tomemos, JINO stands for Jews In Name Only”
…I know.
Ed Marshall: I remember the SHITlist, I found about it from Sadly, No!, I think. Wasn’t it maintained by Meir Kahane’s group, of which Pam Atlas was a big fan? Anyone have a link?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
There’s probably a reason for that.
He is a rightwinger, after all.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
So. . . what? You want to take away their Jew Cards and cut them up?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
“The Jstreet JINOs are heretics and should be treated as such.”
By whom, King David? The Jewish Pope? The Tel Aviv Inquisition? What?
June 10th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
[...] Yglesias points out, Peled’s statement has already begun to help American pro-peace process candidates raise money. As for the retaliatory sanctions game, it’s Israel who has the most to lose, as we currently [...]
June 10th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
progressive Jewish group J Street
What the fuck does that mean? I can imagine a progressive group, I can imagine a Jewish Klezmer group, but how can there be a “progressive Jewish group”?
If you’re progressive, what are you doing dividing people by ethnic categories? Are they indeed a bunch of racist swine pretending to be progressive? This seems to be the only explanation.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Re Notorious P. A. T.
I like the way the 15th century Catholic Church handled heretics. Burn them at the stake.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
how can there be a “progressive Jewish group”? If you’re progressive, what are you doing dividing people by ethnic categories?
abb1, are you going to be railing against the NAACP or NOW next? Give the anti-Semitism a rest.
June 10th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
He’s talking as if this would be a new thing.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Hebrew for chutzpah? Um….chutzpah
June 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
re MR SLC
MR SLC is a Self-Hating Arab.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
“Hebrew for chutzpah? Um….chutzpah”
God damn it, will people please learn to recognize a joke before attempting to use the Internet?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
NAACP is a civil rights organization concerned about the minorities. I don’t like it much, but I don’t think there are any restrictions on membership there, anyone can be a member.
NAACP is not a “blacks only” club. “Progressive Jewish group” – can you see the difference?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
You just like being an ass and saying offensive bullshit. You didn’t even spend one moment checking the nature of membership to JStreet, nor do you care, you just want to play bullshit word games so that you and SLC can get in a love fight again.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
All I can say is … bring it. Just try that and see what happens.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
NAACP is not a “blacks only” club. “Progressive Jewish group” – can you see the difference?
No, I sure can’t. Non-Jews can join and contribute to J Street, too, if they believe in their vision of a saner Middle East policy. I’m a non-Jew and would throw money their way if I had any. They’re a “group” in the sense of a political group, as anyone would assume from context if he didn’t have an axe to grind.
Look, anyone can see that you’re an anti-Semite, so why don’t you mosey on to a place where such people are more welcome. (I’d tell SLC to mosey too, if that hadn’t been tried a million times by better commenters than me.)
June 10th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
I’m sure that Mr. abb1 is celebrating the story in the attached link.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/06/10/museum.shooting/?iref=mpstoryview
June 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
In fact I did check their “About” page that says: “J Street represents Americans, primarily but not exclusively Jewish”.
You want to represent Jewish Americans? Fine, but then don’t call yourself “progressive”, call yourself “ethnic” or “ethnocentric”, which is what you are are.
You wanna call yourself “progressive Jewish” – now, that’s bullshit and it’s offensive to me, and you certainly won’t shut me up, El Cid, buddy.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Well, given that you’re talking just to hear yourself speak, of course neither I nor anyone else would shut you up.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
So, abb1, you called them “racist swine” for, I guess, believing that “Jewish” is a category of people? Next you’ll say that Earth First isn’t progressive because they act as if environmentalism is more important than other causes. Or, rather, you won’t, because you have a bug up your ass about Jews and no one else.
Progressives get together in groups of people like them all the time, and there’s nothing discriminatory about it. Actually, it can make them more effective; a group of (primarily) Jews can advocate more effectively for a sane Israel policy, since politicians pander to Israel partly to secure the Jewish vote. To borrow what I said to SLC, you’re not the Progressive Pope, you don’t get to decide who’s progressive and who isn’t.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Excellent, El Cid. Are we square now, or do you have more to say?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Actually, I don’t see why Mr. abb1 is bad mouthing Jstreet. Like him they hate Zionists. It would seem that they’re his kind of guys.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Isn’t “chutzpah” a Yiddish word?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
If you’re progressive, tomemos, you don’t represent an ethnic group. One can’t be progressive and tribal at the same time. Tribalism is reactionary.
This group is outright tribalistic (supporting “Jewish homeland”) and that’s all there is to it. And you’re a brainwashed idiot who’s having an orgasm from reading the word “progressive”.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
What makes you think abb1 is an anti-Semite? He’s clearly a vehement anti-Zionist, but SLC notwithstanding, those are not at all the same thing.
“Progressive Jewish group” is indeed an illogical description, and if the group really were what abb1 appears to think, it would be hypocritical. Luckily, the group isn’t really like that and Matt just described them vaguely and somewhat misleadingly.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
“The Jstreeters are the Jewish equivalent of the Uncle Toms in the black community.”
Sentences like this make me wonder why we don’t have a corollary to Godwin’s Law for comparing things totally at random to black American culture. Special Irony Points for being most often violated by the party for whom racism only exists toward white people.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
How can they hate Zionists when they are Zionists? They are just a Zionist PR group for tomemos and others like him. Or her.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Zionist punk.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Cosby’s Law? Chris Rock’s Law?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
“Progressive Jewish group” is indeed an illogical description
“Progressive GLBTQ group” is indeed an illogical description.
“Progressive women’s group” is indeed an illogical description.
“Progressive People of Color group” is indeed an illogical description.
“Progressive youth group” is indeed an illogical description.
Why do I think that abb1 is an anti-Semite, again?
June 10th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
abb1 loathes Israel. If you’re coming from that perspective then I suppose anyone who accepts the existence of Israel looks the same. This does not, in fact, make them the same.
SLC is a vicious racist; abb1 is an extreme anti-Zionist (and marxist, if memory serves, assuming he’s the same fellow banned from crooked timber.) That’s not necessarily the same as an anti-semite, but he can certainly come across as one.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
55, yes, these are all stupid names.
The first one also is (or, at least, appears to be) an arm of a militant ethnocentric racist movement with a large arsenal nuclear weapons, that started a whole bunch of wars, has been doing ethnic cleansing for over 60 years, has been destabilizing an important region for as long as I can remember, etc, etc, etc.
When you spot a “progressive GLBTQ group” with this kind of connection – let me know immediately; I promise I’ll get real excited.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I definitely don’t believe that being anti-Israel (even to a strong extent) makes one anti-Semitic. It’s the fixation on Israel at the expense of all other global issues, and the fixation on Jewishness as anti-progressive, that marks him (to me) as anti-Semitic. It’s akin to the people who, though they don’t come out and say “I hate black people,” are obsessed with urban crime, the evils of rap music, and the incorrectness of black English—at some point you have to say that if they’re not a racist they’re giving a very good impression of one.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I want Mr. Peled for PM! He can give that speech any day of the week in the US. Americans love to be threatened.
Maybe Zionists get End-Stage Zionism before they get End-Stage Alzheimers.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
If J-Street is an “arm” of Israel, even in a figurative sense, I’m Marie of Roumania.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Actually, I think that Mr. abb1 is really a Mossad agent who is trking to discredit the anti-Zionist cause with his insane remarks.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Arm of Zionism, not Israel.
See, for some reason I don’t remember any GLBTQ groups demanding a “GLBTQ homeland” for themselves.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Re abb1
Whatever the Mossad is paying Mr. abb1 for his idiotic utterances which only discredit the anti-Zionist cause, it ain’t enough. He’s doing a great job.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
My favorite list of JINO’s was something called the SHITlist, it stood for self-hating something or other
Self-Hating Israel Traitor? Just a guess.
Also, abb1 and SLC are insane. Conversing with them is a dubious proposition in the best of times and should be avoided at all costs when the topic is anything related to the Middle East. Just… reminding people.
June 10th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
SLC is pretty clearly saying that all “real” Jews in America put the interests of the right wing party in the nation of Israel ahead of the interests of their own country. This is a pretty disgusting sentiment and would make many an anti-Semite proud.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Nobody is paying me, this is a mitzvah, public service. One must give back to society.
June 10th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Ah, missed this one:
That’s not necessarily the same as an anti-semite, but he can certainly come across as one.
Right… Do you even understand what the word “anti-semite” means?
I bet you think it’s anything that someone who is Jewish might find unpleasant, don’t you?
And does it follow that someone who is against the KKK – and similar “progressive” manifestations of the same – does it follow that he must hate all the white people, eh? Does it or does it not? I want an answer.
June 10th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
You know, I kinda like this status quo. If you leftists are right, and I’m just an evil Zionist, you can keep on railing ineffectually while nothing pretty much ever changes and Palestinian women and children die in their pathetic little shitholes that some fools in my government allow them to live in.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
I live in D. Edward’s district and this attack on her simply solidifies my support for her political career. Plus, the geniuses drumming up the attack clearly didn’t bother to check out the demographics and political trends (anti-war) in her district. There’s a reason she defeated an incumbent in the D primary. Stay strong Donna!
June 11th, 2009 at 2:22 am
The scumbags in Israel have been selling military equipment to anybody with money for decades. They’ve dealt with North Korea, they’ve even dealt with Iran. They’ve stolen nuclear dual use equipment from the US and sold it to anybody. They’ve stolen US technology, spied on US companies and government facilities, and were well-informed enough about 9/11 to be set up ready to film the destruction of the two towers while they jumped around high-fiving each other.
There’s no lower scum than Zionists.
Abb1: You know the definition of an anti-Semite? There’s two of them:
1) Someone who hates Jews.
2) Someone who is hated BY Jews.
Hey, Curmudgeon, hope you have a nice day when some Arab terrorist finally gets smart, steals an Israeli nuke, and makes Tel Aviv glow in the dark. Better yet, make Haifa glow in the dark – that would end Israel’s seaport and crush the economy even better.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Re Drive-By Jewish Curmudgeon Says
Since Mr. Curmudgeon appears to be new to this blog, I will take the opportunity to introduce him to Mr. Hack. Mr. hack is a convicted bank robber who spent 9 years in the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary for his crime. He walked into a bank in San Francisco, lined up the tellers at the point of a loaded gun, and told them to empty their cash drawers on pain of being terminated with extreme prejudice. Since his release from the slammer, he has, on this blog, advocated the assassination of police officers and has threatened to shove fascist radio talk show host Michael Savage (nee Weiner) off a curb into traffic.
Re Richard Steven Hack
Mr. Hack is, apparently, unaware, that at lest 40% of the population of the Israeli City of Haifa consists of Palestinian Arabs who would, of course, be wasted if his scenario of a stolen nuke was set off there. But, degenerate scumbag that his is, I suppose that he would consider that collateral damage.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I wish the CAP cared about its comment section enough to delete the morally repulsive ones.
June 11th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
SLC: Since I’ve never advocated nuking Haifa, clearly your concerns are misplaced. I’m simply going to be amused at the reactions of Zionist scum like yourself and Curmudgeon when Israel finally goes down the tubes, as it is a historical inevitability that it will.