With South Carolina Victory, Gingrich Rides Adelson Money Train Against Obama

by James M. Wall

Newt Gingrich is the current holder of the Republican crown. Saturday night, NBC projected Gingrich as the winner in the South Carolina Republican primary over his closet rival, Mitt Romney.

With 94% of the votes counted, Gingrich was winning by a 40% to 27% margin over Romney, much larger than advance polls had predicted.

The race for an opponent to run against incumbent President Barack Obama is down to two candidates, a former House Speaker, and a former Governor.

Romney, a wealthy Mormon (as we will see when he releases his IRS return), was second in South Carolina, a state with a Mormon population of less than one per cent (.08%), while Gingrich, a former Southern Baptist now a Catholic, won the primary in a predominantly conservative Protestant state.

The early South Carolina primary was pivotal for Gingrich and a major setback for Romney. After losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich appeared on his way out of politics. He was a distant second in polls the week before the South Carolina voting. Republican big money was lining up behind Romney.

Money dried up for Gingrich. It certainly did not help that he is a candidate who carries some of the heaviest political baggage this country has seen in these quadrennial shifts in American political power, three wives, admitted infidelities, two divorces, and an ethics charge that led to disciplinary action during his time as House speaker.

Gingrich was not giving up. He turned for help from one of the richest men in America, Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino owner and Mr. Gingrich’s longtime friend and patron. The two men share a politically conservative ideology and a deep loyalty to Israel.

(To continue reading and for advance word the President’s Tuesday night State of the Union address, click here.)

Iranian Scientists Die as Bibi’s War Looms

by James M. Wall

On Friday, January 13, Eli Lake posed a question on Newsweek’s web site, The Daily Beast:

Has Israel Been Killing Iran’s Nuclear Scientists?

Lake does not have hard evidence to answer his question. But he speculates, using the old reliable “circumstantial evidence”, to point to Israel’s Mossad,”for a string of slayings of Iran’s nuclear experts”.

Eli Lake writes, “at the very least Israel’s defense establishment would like its allies to believe its spies have pulled off these ‘events that happen unnaturally’”. To take credit for their dark deeds, Israel’s narrative shapers put out the word in their usual sly fashion:

Six weeks ago in Washington, on the sidelines of a major U.S.-Israeli meeting known as the “strategic dialogue,” Israeli Mossad officers were quietly and obliquely bragging about the string of explosions in Iran. “They would say things like, ‘It’s not the best time to be working on Iranian missile design,’” one U.S. intelligence official at the December parley told The Daily Beast.

Consider the arrogance of this scene: Saber-rattling Israeli experts, joking about the “danger” of working on Iran’s nuclear sites. They know deaths have been arranged. In their best tough-guy, B-movie swagger, they find the death of relatively low-level Iranian scientists to be a source of amusement.  (To continue reading and view Mark Perry’s video interview below, click here.)

Adelson and Ross: Yin Yang of US Politics

by James M. Wall

What unites Sheldon Adelson and Dennis Ross? And why did both show up at the same time in the weekend news in two different locations?

Here is how it came down: Casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson gave $5 million to a Newt Gingrich PAC, a huge boost to Gingrich’s fading presidential hopes.

Adelson is a strong Zionist supporter. He is described in the latest Forbes magazine issue as the eighth-richest person in America.

Dennis Ross, back on duty in a Washington pro-Israel think tank, wrote a Washington Post column with his usual solution for Middle East peace, that is, take whatever steps Israel will accept.

Still, there had to be something deeper in their connection on this particular weekend between the Iowa caucuses, which Mitt Romney “won” by 8 votes, according to media score keepers, and Tuesday’s upcoming New Hampshire primary, which home region guy Romney is expected to win by a large margin.

Finally, after hours of meditation, I remembered a phrase, yin yang. Normally, when I meditate, I reflect on the journals of John Wesley, the founder of my Methodist tribe of Protestants.

But this time I landed in new territory: Asian philosophy.

We have all heard the phrase, yin yang, but what does it mean, really? And how does it relate to Adelson and Ross? (To continue reading and view the West Wing clip below, click here.)

This Is The Right Moment for Churches To Pay Attention to Israel’s Occupation

GOP Candidates Wear the Jewish Kippah

by James M. Wall

On the 38th anniversary of the death of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, the usual memorial event was held at Ben Gurion’s graveside on December 1, in Sdeh Boker, the Negev desert village where he lived during his retirement years.

Uri Avnery wrote in his Gush Shalom column, that Israeli newspapers published a picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s current Prime Minister, speaking “under a big photo of the late leader gazing thoughtfully into the distance”.

Avnery noticed a small detail in the picture. Avowed atheist Netanyahu was wearing the traditional Orthodox head-covering of respect, a kippah, a head covering that reminds the wearer that he is always “under” Yahweh.

This surprised Avnery, the “grand old man” of Israel’s largely secular peace camp, who wonders, why was Netanyahu wearing a kippah? (To continue reading, click here.)

How Iran Could Be The Next Neocon Target

by James M. Wall

The 2012 US presidential election will reach its quadrennial crescendo November 6, 2012, less than a year from now.

Should a Republican nominee win the election, it is most probable that he will be either former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (shown here) or Mitt Romney.

No less a Republican conservative authority than Pat Buchanan ponders what such an outcome might produce:

Is a vote for Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich a vote for yet another unfunded war of choice, this time with a nation, Iran, three times as large and populous as Iraq?

Buchanan finds an eagerness for war against Iran in Republican campaign rhetoric:

Mitt says that if elected he will move carriers into the Persian Gulf and “prepare for war.” Newt is even more hawkish. America should continue “taking out” Iran’s nuclear scientists — i.e., assassinating them — but military action will probably be needed.

Sound idiotic? Of course it does, but war fever corrupts the rational mind. We should remember that many Democratic liberals joined the last neoconservative military crusade launched by George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq. (To continue reading, click here.)

What We Have Here Is A “Flagrantly Undemocratic Situation”

by James M. Wall

In the words of Ha’aretz publisher Amos Schochken, Gush Emunim has seized control of26nov11 power in Israel and driven the state into a “flagrantly undemocratic situation.”

How was it possible for this much power to be seized by ”a right-wing ultranationalist, religio-political revitalization movement”, as it is described in Israel: A Country Study?

Gush Emunim was formed in March 1974, a few months after the October 1973 War, known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War and in the Arab world as the Ramadan War.

The outcome of the 1973 conflict ended in Israel’s favor, thanks to “an estimated US $5 billion in equipment, of which more than US $1 billion was airlifted by the United States during the war when it became apparent that Israel’s ammunition stores were dangerously low.”

A few months after the war, Gush Emunim was created by the National Religious Party (NPR). When NPR joined the Israeli Labor coalition, Gush Emunim joined with other religious groups and began building illegal Jewish settlements beyond the Green Line.  (To continue reading, click here.)

Dennis Ross’ Iran Legacy Continues At WINEP

by James M. Wall

In a rare public statement about a US political figure, AIPAC had this to say about the legacy of Dennis Ross:

“In his tireless pursuit of Middle East peace, Ambassador Ross has maintained a deep understanding of the strategic value of the U.S.-Israel relationship and has worked vigorously to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.”

For True Believers in militant Zionism, AIPAC’s linkage is clear, the strategic bond of the US and Israel, very good; an Iran that even looks toward nuclear capability, very bad.

The Jewish US online Forward publication, which reported the Ross resignation, described him as “a veteran of four failed presidential pushes for Middle East peace”. (The picture of Ross, above, is from Forward.)

This is not a record of success, but an obvious absence of progress does not displease AIPAC, which, like the current right wing Israeli government, has a higher priority than peace; specifically, it desires a militarily powerful and expanding Israel. (To continue reading, click here.)

Dennis Ross Resigns As Middle East Advisor

by James M. Wall

After working for five US presidents, Dennis Ross has resigned his position as President Obama’s chief Middle East advisor.

Presidents Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama, all arrived at the White House determined to recast the nation’s role in finding a permanent peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Sometimes immediately, sometimes later, one man was involved in shaping how the US dealt with peace between Israel and the Palestinians. At first his role was small; but by the time he went to work for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, he had became the key player in the process.

That man is Dennis Ross, a non-lawyer, who has been called “Israel’s lawyer”, by former State Department official, Aaron David Miller.

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, and a former colleague of President Obama’s at the University of Chicago, was asked by the Institute of Middle East Understanding (IMEU) for his reaction to Ross’ departure. (To continue reading, click here.)

What Did The Children Learn in School Today?

by James M. Wall

In 1963, temporarily banned from American television for his “radical” views, Pete Seeger toured Australia.  On a stage in Melbourne, he introduced a new song by a then 23-year old Tom Paxton. The lyrics began:

What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine?
I learned that Washington never told a lie
I learned that soldiers seldom die
I learned that everybody’s free
That’s what the teacher said to me
And that’s what I learned in school today

Those are sentiments that drive every nation state as it seeks to shape the thinking of its children. Some states have long histories from which to develop those sentiments.

The modern state of Israel has an extremely short history. It came into existence in 1948 under trying circumstances, a tribal band of immigrants from Europe who had survived the Holocaust.

I was reminded of Pete Seeger singing Tom Paxton’s lyrics when I read an account in the Guardian, about a forthcoming book by Israeli scholar Nurit Peled-Elhanan.

Peled-Elhanan is a mother, a political radical, and the daughter of the famous Israeli general, Matti Peled, who in retirement, has become a leading activist in the Israeli peace movement.

She comes to her research from a family with deep connections to Israel’s history. Her brother, Milo Peled, is the author of A General’s Son, scheduled for publication by Just World Books in the Spring of 2012.

In her book, Nurit Peled-Elhanan describes images of Palestinians that Israel has included in its text books for children. (To continue reading, and to access the Seeger video, click here.)

Palestine Enters UNESCO in 107 to 14 Vote

by James M. Wall

To mounting excitement and wild applause, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), voted 107-14 with 52 abstentions, to approve full Palestinian membership in the international body. The vote came on Monday.

Fully aware that the negotiations track pushed by the US and Israel does nothing but enhance Israel’s continued take over of Palestinian land, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has chosen to enlist the UN in Palestine’s request for justice.

The UNESCO vote is step one, and a hugely popular step it is, outside of the US.

In addition to leaving the US and Israel with a demonstratively shrinking number of friends in the international community, the UNESCO vote has far-reaching implications for the PLO’s earlier request to the UN Security Council, which requested full statehood membership in the UN General Assembly. (To continue reading, click here.)

Ahlam and Nezar, A Palestinian Couple Released in The Prisoner Exchange

by James M. Wall

Two young Palestinians, Ahlam (left) and Nezar (right) Tammimi, were among the 477 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons, October 18.

They were in the first contingent of what is supposed to become more than one thousand Palestinians released in an exchange for Israeli Sergeant Gilad Shalit.

The Western media covered the exchange as a story about the lone Israeli soldier involved. Television captured the dramatic scenes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeting the young man who had spent five years in prison.

The Western public saw and read virtually nothing about the 477 Palestinians who were released from Israeli prisons, except for those stories that reminded the public that many of the prisoners, to use the term so popular among Israeli politicians, had “blood on their hands”.

This bias against Palestinians was so blatant that Jewish activist Noam Chomsky was moved to accuse the media of treating the released Palestinian prisoners as “unpeople”. It is time to tell their stories, and to do so without apology.

(To continue reading, click here.)

Palestinian Prisoners Are Not “Unpeople”; They Are Children of God

by James M. Wall

In a talk at New York City’s Barnard College the night the Hamas-Israeli prisoner exchange was announced, Noam Chomsky anticipated the one-sided media coverage of the exchange.

He charged the media with treating Israeli Jews as people, while dismissing Palestinians as “unpeople”.

Chomsky, who is Jewish, brings credentials to this issue as both an acclaimed linguistic scholar, and a strong advocate of Palestinian human rights.

To illustrate his point at Barnard, Chomsky described a front-page New York Times story, dated October 12, with the headline: “Deal with Hamas Will Free Israeli Held Since 2006.”

(To continue reading, click here.)

Obama and the “Terror Plot Thriller”

by James M. Wall

There are so many doubts and questions surrounding the alleged Iranian-sponsored assassination plot against the Saudi ambassador, that for Barack Obama to take a prominent role in announcing the case may prove to be a serious political and diplomatic mistake.

The American public loves intrigue and simplistic narratives, good versus bad. What they don’t like is to be lied to in the narrative. We were fooled once by the Iraq-WMDs ”mushroom cloud” campaign orchestrated by Bush-Cheney. As a result we are still fighting two seemingly endless wars in the Middle East.

By highlighting a “terror” plot that involved a Mexican drug cartel, the Saudi ambassador to the US, and a highly unstable potential assassin, Obama brought us Bush-Cheney, the Sequel.

As Obama announced the Justice Department action he promised “strong sanctions” against Iran. The Justice case alleges that an Iranian-American, Manssor Arbabsiar, was introduced to a man he thought had a connection to a Mexican drug cartel, very bad guys with assassination skills. Arbabsiar’s “contact” to the cartel was, in fact, an undercover US Drug Enforcement official, who was setting up a standard FBI “sting”.

The indictment also includes Arbabsiar’s cousin Ali Gholam Shakuri, an officer in the Iranian Qods Force. It is that elite army unit that allows the Department of Justice to claim that the plot has ties to the “highest” levels of the Iranian government. Obama said there was evidence that additional connections were made, but they have not been included in the indictment, and may never be, on security grounds.

A “sting” most often targets a major player believed to be a serious threat to American peace and security. Arbabsiar may yet emerge as a serious player, but that is no reason why Barack Obama should be in the White House as the nation’s lawyer, announcing the case . He has an Attorney General to perform those duties. Criminal case announcements should be made in the Justice Department, not in the White House. (To continue reading, click here.)

This Occupation is Brought to You by A Pattern of Racial Bigotry

by James M. Wall

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress, is withholding basic heath care from children who live in the world’s largest outdoor prison, the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Specifically, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) (at left) “is keeping her House of Representatives committee from considering approval of $192 million in humanitarian program assistance”.

JTA, a Jewish news agency, reports:

The Americans for Peace Now website is reporting that other House Republicans also are holding the money, and that Republicans in the House and Senate are holding $150 million in security assistance to the Palestinian Authority.

Republicans and Democrats have warned that such money may be withheld if the Palestinians do not pull back from their attempt to gain statehood recognition through the United Nations and absent peace talks with Israel.

If this were happening in an American community, Child Welfare agencies would descend on the offices and homes of these American adults and demand that they release the children from an unsafe and unhealthy environment. They might even move to arrest some of the leaders, including Florida Congresswoman Ros Lethiene.

Unfortunately, for Palestinians in need of this assistance, there are no officials with authority to arrest members of the US House who are eager to punish Palestinians for their bold attempt to break the bonds of Occupation. (Click here to continue reading.)

Palestinians Are “Marching To Freedom Land”

by James M. Wall

A warning to the United States and Israel is embedded in a New York Times analysis entitled, “Arab Debate Pits Islamists Against Themselves”.

The warning lies in the reality that the Palestinian people are on the same march against the same obstacles that have stirred the quest for freedom throughout the region.

The warning is there, even as the Times editors chose to leave Palestine on the editing room floor. Anthony Shadid, who co-wrote the analysis with David D. Kirkpatrick, may have wanted to include Palestinians, but it is a strong possibility the Times editors had a different agenda.

What the analysis delivers, however, demonstrates a deep understanding of the rise of a younger Arab/Muslim generation which seeks to balance secularism with Islam.

The people of Palestine know they are a part of this uprising. They, with others in the region, will not be denied. This is the “moment” when the Palestinian people are joining in the march to freedom land. Here is part of Shadid’s analysis: (To continue reading, click here.)

“Obama’s performance was pathetic,” But How Does President Perry Sound To You?

by James M Wall

Let us be perfectly clear about this. It is true, as Robert Fisk wrote, “Obama’s performance was pathetic”. It was that, and much more.

President Obama’s speech to the United Nations this week was also embarrassing, and grossly insensitive to the reality of the Palestinians who have since 1967, suffered the pain, death and humiliation of Occupation.

President Obama focused his speech on Israeli security, which has served as the excuse for Israel to continue its ever-expanding control over what is now called the West Bank and Gaza.

One reason the Obama speech was pathetic was that he studiously avoided uttering the word “occupation”. Instead, the President carefully parroted the ultra right wing Israeli narrative with even more vigor than he has used in previous talks to those annual AIPAC Israel-worshipping conferences.

The blame for this speech rests squarely on Obama. He chose his Zionist consigliere, Dennis Ross, as his in-house White House advisor. Ross has been protecting the Israeli narrative as the only Truth permitted in the White House, since he first emerged on the Washington scene as a Middle East “expert” for the first President Bush. Ross does not hide his proclivities, retreating to pro-Israel think tanks between stints in the White House.

Successive presidents from Bush One to Clinton to Obama, have allowed Ross and his Israel Lobby pals to corrode the ability of US political leaders to actually see or feel the suffering of millions of Palestinians who are incarcerated in ever-shrinking plots of their ancestral land.

The alternative? Before you totally abandon Obama, ponder this, how does a President Rick Perry sound to you? This Texas “good ole boy” has already demonstrated that he is an ultra Zionist. Unlike the former Texas governor who was president for eight years, Perry is prepared to preside over what those biblical End Times believers long for, an Israeli-owned Temple Mount to provide Yahweh with a platform on which to set off the final days.

O, Molly Ivins, why did you have to leave us so soon. (To continue reading, click here.)

Erdogan: “Israel is the West’s Spoiled Child”

by James M. Wall

On Tuesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told an Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt, that a vote to accept a Palestinian state in the United Nations “is not a choice but an obligation.”

Later, on a Cairo television program, Erdogan declared: “Israel is the West’s spoiled child. To this day it has never executed a decision by the international community.”

The Turkish leader was on his second day of an “Arab Spring” tour which was obviously designed to gain Arab support for a Palestinian state application before the UN General Assembly, which meets in New York this week.

Both Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will state their positions in back to back addresses before the UN, Friday, September 23, setting up a confrontation between “the West’s spoiled child” and a captive population fighting to escape from a military occupation.

So desperate was the US to avoid having to cast its usual pro-Israel veto in the Security Council against the Palestinian Authority/PLO application for UN membership, that it has twice dispatched its pro-Israel diplomatic team, David Hale and Dennis Ross, to Tel Aviv and Ramallah to “persuade” Abbas and Netanyahu to agree to return to negotiations.

The Hale-Ross effort was a failure from the start. The two envoys returned to the region two times, knowing full well that Netanyahu would not budge from his rejection of two Palestinian preconditions for talks: Stop building settlements and start negotiations along the 1967 Green Line border, both positions advocated in previous statements by President Obama.

In his Friday, September 16, televised address from Ramallah, President Abbas ended speculation that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (both of which he heads) might yield to US-Israeli pressure and go directly to the General Assembly, bypassing the Security Council where the Obama veto was waiting. That will not happen. Abbas is going for broke. He will present his request to the UN Security Council, fully aware that the US will veto the request. (To continue reading, click here.)

The Day The Bush War on Terror Began

by James M . Wall

President George Bush’s War on Terror began ten years ago, September 11, 2001.

Murderous crime scenes in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania, became spiritual staging grounds for an international war against what Time’s Tony Karon describes as “a tiny network of transnational extremists, founded on the remnants of the Arab volunteers who’d fought in the U.S.-backed Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union.”

It did not need to come to this.

The attacks on the US could have been a time to reinvent ourselves as a united people, bound together in our common grief. But politicians, supported by a national media that was far more concerned with drama of what happened than why it happened, began to shape a different future, a worldwide attack on Islam.

Our crime scenes of death became shrines of memory designed not to mourn the dead, but to serve as spiritual support bases for the Bush War on Terror. The deaths of more than 3000 victims were exploited to create an evolving narrative of permanent international warfare. (To continue reading, click here.)

Israel Makes Mahmoud Abu Samra A Shaheed

by James M. Wall

Mahmoud Abu Samra was killed August 19 in an Israeli air raid near Gaza City. He was 13 years old. The Palestinian news service, Ma’an, tells the story of Mahmoud’s death:

Renewed air strikes across the Gaza Strip late Thursday killed a Palestinian teenager and injured more than a dozen others amid an escalation in violence that left some 20 people dead throughout the day.

Just after midnight Friday, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids targeting Gaza City, the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and Khan Younis in the south.

Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said an air strike on a home near the former intelligence services headquarters in Gaza City killed 13-year-old Mahmoud Abu Samra and injured 18 others.”

Mahmoud (at left in the picture above) is number 150 in the list of 173 men, women and children who have been killed this year by Israeli forces.

Each person who dies in the struggle against the Occupation, is identified by Palestinians as a Shaheed, the Arabic word for “martyr”.

Some of the men killed are identified as members of the Gaza-based Al Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad. The women and children are all civilians. They are, also, all Shaheeds. (To continue reading, click here.)

Avnery Reveals “The Return of the Generals” 

by James M. Wall

Uri Avnery, intrepid columnist, ageless Israeli peace activist, and retired IDF soldier, has seen, up close, the actions of every government Israeli voters have put in office since the nation was created.

He is not fooled by the antics, decisions and deceptions of the current Israeli right-wing government. Avnery peers into the soul of the Netanyahu-Lieberman team and reports back to his readers the dark visions he finds there.

With a wisdom that was sadly missing from US media following 911, Avnery writes that the recent deadly exchange of fire in the southern Sinai gave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the excuse he needed to change Israel’s public conversation. Avnery calls his posting, “The Return of the Generals”.

At the beginning of the week, Binyamin Netanyahu was desperately looking for a way out of an escalating internal crisis. The social protest movement was gathering momentum and posing a growing danger to his government. The struggle was going on, but the protest had already made a huge difference. The whole content of the public discourse had changed beyond recognition.

The city square of Tel Aviv has been covered with protesters living in tents. There was danger the Arab Spring spirit would soon engulf the region’s so-called “Only Democracy”.

Talk of “security” was pushed aside. As Avnery put it, TV talk show panels, which had previously been filled with”used generals”, were now packed with social workers and professors of economics.

And then it happened. A small extremist Islamist group in the Gaza Strip sent a detachment into the Egyptian Sinai desert, from where it easily crossed the undefended Israeli border and created havoc. Several fighters (or terrorists, depends who is talking) succeeded in killing eight Israeli soldiers and civilians, before some of them were killed. Another four of their comrades were killed on the Egyptian side of the border. (To continue reading, click here.)

81 House Members Enjoy Hiatus In Israel

by James M. Wall

Eighty-one members of the US House of Representatives—about 20 percent of the total membership—are enjoying a late summer week-long, all-expenses paid trip to Israel.

This hasbara (propaganda) trip happens every other summer (in non-election years), but this year’s excursion to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea comes at a time when voters back home are not thinking about Israel. They are worried about their under-water mortgages and disappearing 401Ks.

Instead of returning immediately to their home districts to answer questions about the US economy, 81 House members are flying to Tel Aviv to demonstrate their loyalty and devotion to a foreign power. They are hoping, of course, as they bolster their standing with AIPAC, that financially-stressed voters will not be told that the 81 are enjoying an all expenses paid visit to Israel.

So far, the main stream media (MSM) has protected them. The only way to find out if your congress person is living in Israeli luxury for a week is to call his or her office and ask. The MSM has not bothered to identify the 81, except when a single member is mentioned in a fawning local feature story.

Allison Weir describes this bi-annual summer all-expenses hiatus trip as “extraordinary”, because “no other lobby on behalf of a foreign country comes anywhere near controlling such wealth or taking so many of America’s elected representatives on a propaganda trip to its favorite country”. (To continue reading, click here.)

It Is Time to Listen To King Hussein

by James M. Wall

From time to time, just as the Middle East political cauldron reaches one of its major boiling points, the New York Times‘ Thomas Friedman sits down to write an open letter to the leaders of a particular Middle Eastern state, offering sage advice on what action Friedman thinks the leader should take.

Thus far, I have resisted following the Friedman letter-writing format. But the time has come for me to do my own version of Friedman speaking truth to the powerful.

I do not expect my communique to have the impact of a Friedman letter; (his readership is larger), but I do have a suggestion that I think would be helpful to the six-member Palestinian delegation that will soon request full membership in the United Nations General Assembly.

I propose that they each read, very carefully, a new book, by Jack O’Connell, King’s Counsel: A Memoir of War, Espionage, and Diplomacy in the Middle East.

Here is why I believe this book is important:

Jack O’Connell was a young CIA agent who was sent to Jordan by the agency to help preserve the monarchy of King Hussein, the father of the current King Abdullah. O’Connell was 37 and King Hussein was 22 when they first met. After he retired from the CIA, O’Connell worked as Jordan’s lawyer. He worked for the King until Hussein died in 1999. O’Connell died at age 88 in 2010, shortly after completing work on this book. 

This book was the memoir that King Hussein wanted to write. O’Connell relied on his own notes and records, and on long interviews with the King over the years that O’Connell worked as Amman CIA station chief. (To continue reading, click here.)

Israeli and West Bank Women and Girls Violate Israeli Laws In A Rosa Parks Moment

by James M. Wall

The New York Times‘ Ethan Bronner reports that West Bank Palestinian women and girls have again broken Israeli laws to go swimming in the Mediterranean Sea. This is Rosa Parks country, folks.

Bronner actually evoked Parks’ name in his report. Did his editors think we would not notice?

Blogger Philip Weiss noticed, and he made sure his Mondoweiss readers noticed. By including a brief reference to the iconic moment when Rosa Parks broke the law by sitting in the front of a segregated bus, the New York Times has connected the American civil rights movement to the Palestinian struggle for human rights.

Here is that connection: Rosa Parks deliberately violated an unjust Alabama segregation law. The Palestinian and Israeli women and girls who crossed the Israeli segregation border, broke Israeli laws.

Palestinians living a few miles from the coast reach adulthood without ever seeing or entering the Mediterranean Sea because they live behind a barrier of an occupation of their land that is illegal under international law.

Illegal entry in and out of Israel by Israeli and Palestinian women and girls violates Israeli law. Rosa Parks violated Alabama segregation laws. For a group of Israeli and Palestinian women who went swimming together, this outing was their Rosa Parks moment. (To continue reading, click here.)

How Would Murdoch’s Downfall Affect Israel? Don’t Ask the US Media

by James M. Wall

JTA columnist Ron Kampeas has been a lone voice in sounding the alarm to his Jewish readers:

“Pro-Israel leaders in the United States, Britain and Australia are warily watching the unfolding of the phone-hacking scandal that is threatening to engulf the media empire of Rupert Murdoch.”

The Murdoch scandal has been extensively reported as a telephone hacking police story. Only in the JTA, the Global News Service of the Jewish People, has coverage of the Murdoch News Corp story sounded the traditional Jewish mother’s alarm: “uh oh, this will not be good for the Jewish people”.

Kampeas assumes, correctly I am sure, that his readers do have a strong interest in Murdoch’s “sudden massive reversal of fortune”. They have reason to be alarmed.

Without Daddy Murdoch’s formidable pro-Israel presence, that pesky UN September vote could tilt toward the Palestinians. After that, Israel-Palestinian border negotiations might find a disgraced Murdoch-controlled British government eager to prove its independence. Without Murdoch, Fox News will have lost its most reliable news producer.

Thus far, the Murdoch “hacking scandal” has reached ten former staffers and News Corp executives who have been arrested by British police. They are accused of “hacking into the phones of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl, and paying off the police and journalists.” (To continue reading, click here.)

Congress Blesses Israel’s Matrix of Control

by James M. Wall

The US Congress announced through two July votes that since the US and Israel are obviously the colonial bosses of the Middle East, the future of the Palestinian people must be determined through “negotiations” between unequal partners, an occupying military power and the captive population it occupies.

OK, so the resolution did not actually say that part about colonialism. But ponder for a moment what really happened in our national legislative halls this month.

By a unanimous Senate vote and a 407 to 6 majority in the US House, the Congress demanded that Palestinian leaders “cease all efforts at circumventing the negotiation process, including through a unilateral declaration of statehood or by seeking recognition of a Palestinian state from other nations or the United Nations.”

The Congress also demanded that President Obama “announce that the United States will veto any resolution on Palestinian statehood that comes before the United Nations Security Council which is not a result of agreements reached between the Government of Israel and the Palestinians”.

Furthermore, the Congress, in the words of its resolution, expects President Obama to “lead a diplomatic effort to oppose a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state and to oppose recognition of a Palestinian state by other nations, within the United Nations and in other international forums prior to achievement of a final agreement between the Government of Israel and the Palestinians.”

Stephen Zunes understands the American zeitgeist which produced the arrogance behind that resolution. He wrote:

Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are still trapped in an early 20th century colonialist mindset which believes that colonized people should only be allowed independence under the terms and conditions granted them by their occupiers. (To continue reading, click here.)

Netanyahu Panics When Folks Like Kathy Kelly Come to Visit Palestine by Sea or By Air

by James M. Wall

When the Israeli government discovered that a large contingent of American and European activists were coming to visit Palestine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went into his full military stance.

He made one huge mistake. He forgot to ask: What is the enemy’s goal? If he had asked himself that question, he would have known that the overarching purpose of the flotilla and the flytilla was to draw attention to the harsh and ugly reality that Israel maintains absolute military control over the lives of Palestinians living under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank.

Did he not know, could he not have realized, what a burden it is for the New York Times to cover up the harsh and ugly reality of occupation when Israel so dramatically shuts its doors to anyone it brands as “pro-Palestinian”?

In its report on the airport blockade, The Times was forced to use a headline that said the visitors were blocked from attending a “conference” in Bethlehem. That did not come out very well for Netanyahu. The Israeli line was that the visitors were blocked because they were a threat to Israeli security. Both the Times and Israel know that “conferences” are held in Bethlehem all the time without all this fuss.

How is this flytilla different? Could it be because this “conference” was clearly intended to draw world attention to Israel’s treatment not only of Palestinians, but also to its behavior toward friends of Palestinians?

The Times inserts a brief observation that Palestine has no airport of its own. And why, pray tell, an astute reader will want to know, is there no airport in Palestine? The Times does not say. It also fails to mention that Israel will not permit Palestinians to build their own airport. Nothing gets built in occupied Palestine without Israeli approval.  (To continue reading, click here.)

Israel Battles Gaza Flotilla on Two Fronts

Five years before the 2011 Arab Spring, Hamas won a decisive victory in the January 25, 2006, Palestinian parliamentary elections.

The United States and Israel had both endorsed the participation of Hamas in the 2006 elections, putting aside their usual “terrorism” rejection of Hamas. They had assumed the first election in which Hamas had ever participated, would lead to a resounding victory for Fatah. They were wrong.

Under the watchful eye of international monitors and media, Hamas won 74 seats in the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council, soundly defeating Fatah, which won only 45 seats. The remaining 13 seats were divided among smaller parties. Voter turnout was high, at 77.7 percent.

Writing about this surprise Hamas victory, Akiva Eldar, pointed out that the Israelis and the Bush administration should have known this was coming.   .    .   .

Five years later, the Arab Spring has dramatically changed the politics of the Middle East. Israel’s Arab neighbors are rebelling against tyrants. Today, Fatah and Hamas are on a path to a unified Palestinian government, a unity reached without the backing of either the US or Israel. (To continue reading, click here.)

Why Was This Man Standing at a Podium Before the US Congress?

by James M. Wall

This picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laying down the law to the US Congress is not just a portent of things to come. It is, in fact, a portrait of who really runs US foreign policy.

While many Americans were watching Oprah or worrying about steroids ruining baseball, Israel assumed control of our government. The picture (above) of Prime Minister Netanyahu lecturing Congress was orchestrated by Republican House Speaker John Boehner with the help of all those other Zionist politicians we elected to office in campaigns financed by the Israel Lobby.

Two things stand out about the cheering Congressional mob that greeted Netanyahu’s series of lies and distortions:

One, the American media accepted this insult to the current American president with barely a whimper of protest. Their real leader had spoken and who are they to say otherwise.

Two, the Congress cheered statements about which they were either ignorant, or had been warned by leaders of both parties, not to disagree.  (To continue reading, click here.)

Congress Becomes a Mob of Mindless, Cheering Sycophants

by James M. Wall

Scenes like the one here evoked veteran Jewish activist Uri Avnery to write this harsh description in his weekly Israeli-based column, Gush-Shalom:

It was all rather disgusting.

No one has said it better, nor with greater passion.  It was, most certainly, as Avnery described in painful detail, a disgusting exhibition of congressional subservience to the leader of a foreign power.

This Congress is also guilty of a despicable act of defiance of the President of the United States, who is currently engaged in delicate negotiations to find peaceful solutions to the Middle East quagmire.

The American mainstream media found nothing out of the ordinary as the US Congress enthusiastically embraced the words of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, in a refutation of the long-standing American understanding that “partisanship stops at water’s edge”. (To continue reading, click here.)

Obama Speech Mired In Zionist Rhetoric

By James M. Wall

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu returned to Washington this weekend for his annual love fest with AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is holding its annual Policy Committee meeting Sunday through Tuesday.

President Obama followed up his speech to his Arab Spring presentation at the State Department, Thursday, by reiterating his comments on Israel at the AIPAC conference Sunday morning.The President’s speech Thursday provided an overview of the changes now sweeping the Arab world.

Late in that address, Obama turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Unfortunately, in linking the changes emerging from the Arab Spring to the future of the Palestinian Arabs, the President was playing with a very bad hand. (To continue reading, click here.)

“I Got Vision and the Rest of the World Wears Bifocals”

by James M. Wall

Butch Cassidy is talking to the Sundance Kid:  ”Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”The line comes in one of many memorable moments in the 1967 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman (at left) as Butch, and Robert Redford as the Kid.

We lovers of classic films like to believe we remember most of the good lines from movies we admire, but it was not until a recent episode of NCIS that this line returned to my consciousness.In a flashback NCIS episode, “Baltimore”, from the 2010-2011 season, Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) has just enlisted a new agent for his NCIS team.

The new guy is Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), who recognizes the line Jethro tosses him as he walks down the hall, shouting over his shoulder,  ”Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”  Tony shouts back, “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!” Tony knows his movies. (To continue reading, click here.)

“If You Build It, the (Palestinian) State Will Come”

by James M. Wall

In the summer of 2009, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad released a lengthy document which described plans and a program to build a future Palestinian state alongside Israel, with borders along the 1967 Green Line.

He predicted that such a state would be ready for statehood within two years.  The London Guardian greeted the announcement with the optimistic observation and with a nod to the movie, Field of Dreams, ”If you build it, the state will come.”

This coming September, 2011, the two years are up. Over the past two years, Fayyad and the Palestinian Administration, have put into place a working structure for statehood. Right on schedule, the recognition of a Palestinian state will be voted on at the United Nations in September.

And something that was not anticipated in the Fayyad plan, there is a strong possibility that a unified Hamas-Fatah political structure will be in place. (To continue reading, click here.)

Why Palestinian Unity is the Only Option that Works for Palestinians

By James M. Wall

You would not know it from reading/viewing the American media, which parrots whatever Israel’s leaders say, but Bibi Netanyahu is secretly delighted that Fatah and Hamas have reached a unity agreement.

The official line, of course, is that the Israeli prime minister is outraged that the Palestinian Fatah leadership has actually embraced the Hamas leadership. The leaders of the two parties are shown here, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (left) and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.Ha’aretz reported from Jerusalem that, upon hearing of the unity agreement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid down his marker: “the Palestinian Authority must choose whether it is interested in peace with Israel or reconciliation with Hamas.” (To continue reading, click here.)

Turkish President Tells Bibi: Time for You to Adapt to a New Political Climate

by James M. Wall

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul (right) has stern words of advice for Bibi Netanyahu. He told Israel’s Prime Minister that the Arab revolution in the Middle East is aimed directly at the state of Israel. The advice came in a New York Times column by President Gul:

The wave of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa is of historic significance equal to that of the revolutions of 1848 and 1989 in Europe. The peoples of the region, without exception, revolted not only in the name of universal values but also to regain their long-suppressed national pride and dignity.

But whether these uprisings lead to democracy and peace or to tyranny and conflict will depend on forging a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and a broader Israeli-Arab peace.

The plight of the Palestinians has been a root cause of unrest and conflict in the region and is being used as a pretext for extremism in other corners of the world. Israel, more than any other country, will need to adapt to the new political climate in the region. (To continue reading, click here.)

Netanyahu Invited To Speak to His DC Friends at a Joint Session of Congress

by James M. Wall

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking on April 12 at a dinner to open the US-Islamic World Forum, hosted by the Brookings Institution and the State of Qatar, had warm words of greeting to her many friends there:

It is such a pleasure for me to join you at this first U.S.-Islamic World Forum held in America. His Highness the Amir and the people of Qatar have generously hosted the Forum for years. . . . I was honored to be a guest in Doha last year. And now I am delighted to welcome you to Washington. I want to thank Martin Indyk, Ken Pollack and the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution for keeping this event going and growing.

Indyk (pictured above) and Pollack have helped to shape US foreign policy in the Middle East for decades. They are currently housed at the Saban Center, thanks to the generosity of Haim Saban, an Israeli-American media-mogul and one of the biggest contributors to the campaigns of pro-Israel politicians in the U.S.

Saban has been described by a New York Times reporter as a “tireless cheerleader for Israel.”  (To continue reading, click here.)

The Goldstone Affair: The Loyal Zionist Judge Who Came In From the Cold

by James M. Wall

I have been studying an excellent documentary, Occupation 101, an examination of the root causes of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The case of Judge Richard Goldstone broke too late to make it into the film, but I have a suggestion for the film makers: Start work on a sequel. Call it The Goldstone Affair: The Loyal Zionist Judge Who Came in From the Cold.

On April 1, 2011, Goldstone wrote an op ed column for the Washington Post, in which he offered a mea culpa for the negative report of Israel’s 17-day 2008-09 military assault in the Gaza Strip.

Goldstone’s Post mea culpa gave Israel’s current tribal leaders the opening they demanded, an opening which they are now exploiting to rewrite the script of what actually happened in the Gaza assault.,.(To continue reading, click here.)

If Obama’s Libyan Intervention “Succeeds”, Will Palestine Be Next?

by James M. Wall

New York Times columnist Roger Cohen was one of many media liberals who was surprised to find himself supporting the President’s decision to intervene in Libya.  He had not expected Obama to embrace American exceptionalism with such enthusiasm.

Cohen is not speaking of the neo-conservative self-righteous, superior exceptionalism, but of an American exceptionalism “as a transformative moral beacon to the world.” Cohen figured the term itself made the president “uneasy”. He explains:

And yet, and yet, this cautious president, who has been subtly talking down American power — with reason — has involved the nation in a new conflict in Libya, one in which his own defense secretary holds that the United States has no “vital interest.” He has joined a long line of U.S. leaders in discovering the moral imperative indivisible from the American idea.

Michigan professor Juan Cole, another liberal who supported President Obama’s air war intervention over Libya, is now equally enthusiastic over his decision to pull back in favor of NATO. (To continue reading, click here.)

Free Congressional Trips to Israel: Learning to Embrace Your Narrative

by James M. Wall

On March 23, the Chicago Tribune presented one of its periodic reports on  overseas travel by Chicago area members of the US Congress. The country most often visited? Israel.

The Tribune‘s interest was primarily on what motivated the trips. Were they junkets to resorts or would something really be learned by actually visiting other nations?

Trips to Israel are not junkets. They are described as “educational seminars”.

The report revealed that US Senator Dick Durbin made 14 overseas trips in 2009-2010.  He did not, however, visit Israel. No need, Durbin has been one of Israel’s strongest allies in Congress since he first won the House seat previously held by Paul Findley. (To continue reading, click here.)

“Miral” Asks Questions The Israel Lobby Does Not Want You to Hear

by James M. Wall

In an early scene from the new motion picture Miral, the school principal Hind Husseini, tells a group of teenage Palestinian girls that “an uprising some people call an intifada has started”.

Miral whispers to a student next to her: “It means ‘stand up straight’”.

Which is precisely what Miral does in this film now under attack from leading organizations in the Israel Lobby.

Miral’s mother is dead. Her father enrolls her in Jerusalem’s Dar El Tifel, a school and an orphanage begun and run by Hind Husseini, a cousin of Feisal Husseini, and a member of a prominent Palestinian family.

The film is  is based on an autobiographical novel written by Rula Jebreal, a Palestinian journalist.

Miral had its official US opening at the United Nations auditorium March 14. (It had earlier been shown in film festivals around the world).

Prior to the UN screening, the AJC hit the film with tactics all too familiar to anyone or any group which schedules an event, film, or discussion that does not meet the AJC seal of approval.  (To continue reading, click here.)

Fear Goes Away When the Desire To Act for Liberation Is Shared By Others

by James M. Wall

In 1968, American civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin wrote,

“We would be mistaken to think that the only desires of young Negroes today are to have a job, to have a decent house, to be well educated, to have medical care.

All these things are very important, but deeper and more profound is the feeling of young Negroes today—through all classes, from the lumpenproletariat to the working poor, the working classes, the middle classes, and the intelligentsia—that the time has come when they should have power, a voice in the solution of problems which affect them.”

Helene Cobban, for many years the Middle East foreign correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, recently found this Rustin passage, which she described  as a “great, short piece of writing by the African-American, gay, Quaker activist”.

The passage was written by Rustin for his 1968 book, Down the Line. Rustin came to Cobban by way of Egypt, specifically from the Egyptian blog, Baheyya.  (To continue reading, click here.)

Bibi Is On “The Wrong Side of History” When He Opposes Arab Uprisings

by James M. Wall

Professor Fawaz A. Gerges explained why Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu tried to use his considerable political muscle in a failed effort to keep Hosni Mubarak in power.

Gerges, who teaches Middle Eastern Politics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, described the Arab uprising for BBC New Middle East :

Regionally, Israel is the biggest loser. It has put all its eggs into the basket of Arab dictators and autocrats, like Egypt’s deposed Hosni Mubarak. Israel fought tooth and nail to support Mr Mubarak, who played a key role in tightening the siege of Gaza and the noose around Hamas’s neck.

Few members of the US Congress would agree with Professor Gerges. A large majority of the Congress sees nothing wrong with automatically approving an annual $3 billion contribution to the government of Israel, the responsible party to that “siege of Gaza”.

A recent debate in New York City’s New School featured two Democratic Party antagonists on the Israel/Palestine issue: Brian Baird, the former Washington state congressman, and Brooklyn congressman Anthony Weiner. Philip Weiss described the debate for Mondoweiss: (To continue reading, click here.)

Will The Arab Revolutions Finally Penetrate the US Echo Chamber?

by James M. Wall

The revolutions that began in Tunisia, continued in Egypt and now threaten Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, are spreading throughout the Middle East. Perhaps, one day, the revolution may even engulf Palestine.

There are signs emanating from the echo chamber that controls US thought on all matters pertaining to Israel, that sounds of the revolutions may soon penetrate into the chamber.

What, exactly, is an “echo chamber”? It is a place where the only sounds you hear are the sounds generated inside the chamber. Or to be more precise, the sounds the Friends of Israel have steadfastly allowed to penetrate the Washington echo chamber.

Consider all those peace and justice Christian denominations that marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and embraced the South African divestment campaign against apartheid.  By any standard, they should be in the forefront of demanding an end to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian people.

With notable exceptions, they are not anywhere near the forefront. Instead, they live comfortably inside the echo chamber, brainwashed by some of the world’s finest propagandists. (To continue reading, click here.)

US Vetoes Anti-Settlement Resolution

by James M. Wall

The US has cast its first Obama UN veto, rejecting a Security Council resolution which would have condemned Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories “as an obstacle to peace”.

The BBC reported that “all 14 other members of the Security Council backed the resolution, which had been endorsed by the Palestine Liberation Organisation.”

A top Fatah leader and former Palestinian intelligence official, Tawfik Tirawi, told the Palestinian newspaper Ma’an that the veto “amounted to ‘blackmail”. He said it exposed the true face of America as well as the extent to which its role in the Middle East peace process harmed Palestinian interests.

In Jerusalem, Ha’aretz provided the official Israeli response:. . . . (To continue reading, click here.)

Obama Team Missed Egypt Signals

by James M. Wall

The Obama administration was not prepared for the Egyptian revolution. Nicholas Kristof knows this. He is highly critical of the US approach when he writes:

Egyptians triumphed over their police state without Western help or even moral support.

During rigged parliamentary elections, the West barely raised an eyebrow. And when the protests began at Tahrir Square, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the Mubarak government was “stable” and “looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.”

To be charitable, this was not our finest diplomatic moment. Paul Woodward is even tougher on the Obama team:

Commentators have repeatedly referred to the Obama administration playing catch-up during the Egyptian revolution, yet its seeming inability to track fast-changing events was merely an expression of its unwillingness to embrace the direction those events were heading.

Immediately after Hosni Mubarak resigned, Jake Tapper from ABC News tweeted that he couldn’t find anyone in the administration who thought that whatever comes next would be better for U.S. interests than Mubarak had been. (To continue reading, click here.)

Rendition: “Put Him on the Plane”

by James M. Wall

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Update: Friday 1 p.m CST.

Mubarak Resigns; Army Takes Command

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has given into popular demand and turned over all authority to run Egypt, to the Egyptian military high command. Muburak ended 30 years of autocratic rule in a dramatic step that will have repercussions throughout the Arab world.

Egypt’s recently appointed Vice President, Omar Suleiman, made the brief announcement:

“Taking into consideration the difficult circumstances the country is going through, President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak has decided to leave the post of president of the republic and has tasked the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to manage the state’s affairs.”

For more on the final days of Mubarak’s reign, read below:

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President Obama initially greeted the Egyptian revolution as the second domino to fall, following Tunisia. His instincts were correct.

This is a popular uprising which will only be satisfied with something resembling an “orderly transition” of power that allows Egyptians a future free from a dictator. Or not. And that is the dilemma the President faces.

The President must contend with Israel, which needs Egypt to continue its agreement to seal the southern Gazan border and keep tight control over the Muslim Brotherhood.

Israel, Egypt and the US are the “three musketeers” of the Palestinian Occupation. They are inseparable friends who live by the motto “all for one, one for all”.

Egypt, for its part, must balance its musketeer role with the anger felt by Arabs in the region who deeply resent Egypt’s role in keeping Gazans locked in their Israeli-controlled prison. (To continue reading, click here.)

“The Arab World Is On Fire”