esrosedotblog

It seems that the Palestine/Israel thing has been going on all my life.

Yes. It is a "thing".

Man made and concocted out of a soup of entitlement and terror to say nothing of xenophobia and pro and anti semitism.

A tutorial is laid out here.

The Two-State Solution: What It Is and Why It Hasn’t Happened

I have always been interested in how this has not worked. The impediments are so large that one wonders how we got here and, worse, how we are going.

I remember Count Bernadotte.

Look him up.

The Jews killed him. Assassinated by "Zionists". This is always the explanation by the Jewish State. So many splinter groups to blame for cover what is really an untenable situation.

Bernadotte was killed in 1948. I was 11 years old. We were just out of the Second World War. The killing seemed wrong to me and the cover up obvious.

Here we had the Jews starting their own state on someone else's territory (here we go) and actually living out the insanity of such a solution.

For decades Israel rode on the sympathy of Westerners who had seen the Holocaust. A lot of capital letters here.

Horrible.

But my take is that they took advantage. Sympathy gave them a story and a spin. And they used it.

The cover? Antisemitism. I could be accused of it here.

I worry when I type. Not too much though. How could I not be sympathetic?

Look bro', it has been almost 70 years. You have not gotten your shit together yet. Arafat, the villain you used, is dead. And you are still carrying on your entitled opera.

Now I will stop.

I love that Obama has called "bullshit" on them in his final days. Too bad he had to wait so long. HE is tired of it too.

Incidentally, these days, Israel has nothing to do with being jewish in America. Nothing.

Some American jews may be carrying water for Israel but that is another story.

This is so tiresome. Tragic. Goddam them all.

And finally? Netanyahu is a dick and has always been one.

Labels: Israel

I lack the basic information to appreciate any film about the Arab/Israeli hate fest.

I sort of come out with wishing a pox on all their houses.

Today's film capsulizes it all in stunning and disgusting detail.

Killing, torturing, lying, propagandizing. And it is everyone. Both sides.

Bethlehen (2013)

proved to be too much for me. I gave up about half way through.

You will have to see it yourself if you want to know more.

Me? I have had enough of all of it. Since I was a kid. All the movies, all the rants, all the bullshit. They deserve each other. Have at it.

Labels: arabs, films, Israel

It seems, in this country, that public opinion supports Israel.

Therefore, so do the politicians. It usually gets to do what it wants in its continuing wars with the Palestinians. Little criticism.

But occasionally a line is crossed somewhere and the US actually gets upset at them and says so.

This just happened.

US 'appalled' by 'disgraceful' UN School Shelling

It is not as though it is the first disgraceful or appalling thing the Israelis have done. And it will continue.

Years and years and decades and decades of experience show that the US is tough on the Arabs and soft on the Jews. No surprise there. The Arabs lack the political traction that the Jews have in this country.

I, myself, am not on either side. I think they both stink of blood and death. This is racial politics and ethnic violence at a level we would never countenance here. But there? Sure. Jews have the strings on the politicians.

At long last, someone in our government is saying what I usually think. But it is hard to believe that it will last or have much of an effect.

The whole regional history is fraught from the beginning. I grew up with the "Palestine question". I was around to watch the Israeli migration to their "homeland". All fakery as far as I can tell. A place to dump displaced persons who then gained an entitled status in the world because of their suffering. But there has to be a limit.

When do the victims become the persecutors? Or, when did they. That is what has happened.

For a very long time, it was considered "anti-Semitic" (gasp) to utter such thoughts. But technically, the Arabs are Semites too*. So there is enough blame to go around that tree many times.

*Sem·ite: ˈsemīt/noun, plural noun: Semites, a member of any of the peoples who speak or spoke a Semitic language, including in particular the Jews and Arabs.

Labels: Israel, Palestine

CLOSE UP

Today's film was the Palestinian film

5 Broken Cameras (2012)

Academy nominee for best documentary and a NYTimes Critics' Pick.

The cameras belong to Emad Burnat, a small farmer in the Palestinian village of Bilin. Bilin is right in the path of the expanding Israeli "settlements". These are collected in a cohesive social document along with Emad's story.

Eyewitness news. Right in our faces. On the lines.

It is one of those things we read about and have some distance from. These short films shot by just a regular guy, but with great skill, bring it all up close and personal.

First and foremost, the encroachments are illegal. It takes five years to remove a fence that the Israeli army has defended vigorously and it is taken down.

But in the meantime, five cameras, a camera a year more or less, are damaged or destroyed in skirmishes with the militant villagers.

Second thing, the "settlements" are huge, dense tenement type buildings. I sort of thought that they were little houses and shit. No. Big buildings that destroy the land forever.

Third thing. The Israelis are real bastards. Shits. Fatally.

We see Emad's family, a new son who grows to five years old during the span of the film. We get to see friends and villagers who will get hurt and worse in the fighting. Incidentally every Palestinian action, weekly demos, are non-violent. Well, rocks when it matters.

And so on.

It is a real eye opener.

Collected into a very effective documentary, Emad Burnat continues the fight through his short films.

My Dad took 8mm movies of my early life. These kids will have a lot more interesting story when they grow up. There is no doubt they will be militants too.

I will give this a 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films, Israel, Palestine

ASSHOLE

In one little exchange, we have it.

Quote of the Day:

Sarkozy Unloads on Netanyahu—By Kevin Drum| Tue Nov. 8, 2011 7:52 AM PST
From French president Nicolas Sarkozy, overheard talking to Barack Obama about Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during last week's G-20 summit:

Sarkozy: I cannot stand him. He is a liar.

Obama: You're fed up with him but I have to deal with him every day.

Netanyahu, unsurprisingly, has declined to comment.

Labels: Israel, Middle east

THE FOX KNOWS

I wrote below about the skill with which Obama has laid out the negotiation parameters on the Israel / Palestine question.

Abe Foxman, head of the Anti Defamation League, among the most rabid of Israel supporters, understands Obama's approach even if Faux News and the right wingnuts do not. He supports the "Arab spring" approach.

Foxman Gets It

Foxman is a canny pro. He knows how the game works and how it does not. The Israeli's game has not been working. Obama has opened up a new gambit. A simple on really.

Let's start telling out loud what everyone knows in their hearts. The 1967 boundaries are the basic start with swaps to go along with the process. We must have two states. Period. Or this will never, ever end.

I think that solving this issue is one of the most important foreign affairs goals Obama has. Hillary Clinton has led the way as well.

No more shifting goal posts. Just get 'er done.

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

COACHING THE NEGOTIATION

So, Obama says that they need to return to the 1967 boundaries as the basis for further debate of the Israeli/Palestinian standoff.

And Bibi Netanyahu says no way.

Exactly.

Obama just reset the negotiation to the 1967 boundaries and the negotiation has started.

That is the point of negotiation. Opening positions are opening positions.

All the Faux News screaming heads don't get it.

The actual Obama program is rather mild. Considering.

And "everyone" who knows, knows that the 1967 boundaries are exactly the place to restart.

It is all blather.

Now Bibi is going to speak to Congress next week and try to go over Obama's head.

But Obama already trumped Bibi by making his speech when he did.

Get it?

I used to teach negotiation and this is by the book.

Israel just lost the first round.

And Netanyahu lost his temper. Not good. He scolded Clinton for half an hour before the speech and Obama left all of it in anyway.

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

ANOTHER RADICAL ISLAMIST IS BORN

These people, the Israelis, are bastards. Plain and simple.

Now they claim this video is made up.

It is despicable that they treat these people this way.

Israeli Police Claim Video of Crying Palestinian Boy Was Staged

Did I mention that I think these people are right bastards?

The shoe is on the other foot. They are using the same tactics that were used on them in Europe.

No, this is not anti-semitic. It is anti-Israel which is a state that has lost its moorings. Gone rogue.

The kid is "lucky". There an uncounted number of Palestinian children in Israeli custody.

Labels: Israel, Palestine

ISRAEL EXPLAINED

The (s)State of Israel vexes me sorely.

They just piss me off.

Why is that?

It starts, for me, at the end of WWII with my own memories of the struggles in that area of the world.

I can remember the assassination of Count Bernadotte, the UN mission head. It was shocking at the time. One of the assassins became President of Israel. They were hailed as heroes.

Of course, today, it is nothing. Another death.

Since then I have moved from a supporter of the Israeli state (after all, none of us were immune from the portrayal of Zionist heroes and Paul Newman in Leon Uris' Exodus, a piece of effective propaganda as there ever was. You would want to play Arrafat?

So, I remained fixed on the paradox of a situation which, after 60 years of my own life, is still in flux.

The issues are almost always misrepresented.

Here is a great op-ed that helps demystify the situation.

Israel Without Clichés

Read it. Perhaps you, like me, can get through the morass.

We cannot write the problem of Israel off. It is the reason we have so much trouble in the Middle East. Everything rests on it.

I don't suppose that any of my anti-Israel feelings were changed by this. Rather, I now have the same opinions bolstered by some facts I don't normally run into my calculations.

Labels: Israel

TERRORISM IN UNIFORM

Deadly Israeli Raid on Aid Flotilla Draws Condemnation

I have blogged before about how Israel skates when it comes to acts which can only be described as terrorism. They are just state sponsored.

They are inflicted on civilians for the benefit of power and control over the Arabs in their country and in the Palestinian state.

Killing is just the end of it. Daily acts of cruelty and oppression abound for most Palestinians who must cross the borders to work or, particularly, in the Gaza Strip where Jewish settlements are raised as pressure actions.

This is an old story for this blog. They attacked Lebanon mercilessly and got away with it. It just totally pisses me off that we support this kind of shit and have for decades.

They will probably get away with this also but the world's patience is growing thin.

How long or far can you stretch Jewish victimhood and the pain of the Holocaust's as justification for the worst kind of brutality and torture of the Palestinians. The daily humiliations. Do you think this kid is going to grow up loving his neighbors?

No wonder Hamas wants to retaliate.

Once again, religious righteousness kills.

Labels: Israel, terrorism

MISREADING

David Remnick was an excellent piece in The New Yorker last week about the missteps that Israel has been taking with the Obamas.

Comment; Special Relationships

Netanyahu is particularly myopic and tone deaf to the present state of his US friendship.

He evidently cannot see what is in front of his face.

He is resolutely failing to see the friendship that the Obamas have for Israel, if not him personally. He is an ass.

And he went to MIT!

Well, he won't be the first ass to graduate from there.

He interned at BCG. The outfit Romney ended up CEOing.

Labels: Israel

PUSHBACK

But it didn't take Biden long to respond. I like their approach.

"'I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem. The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I've had here in Israel,' Biden said in a statement released while he was having dinner with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at his residence. 'We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them.'"

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

THEY DO IT AGAIN

From the Political Animal this afternoon:

* Israel puts Biden in an awkward spot: "Hours after Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed unyielding American support for Israel's security here on Tuesday, Israel's interior ministry announced 1,600 new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem."

There isn't a lot to say about this. I would have liked to be in the plane when Biden found out.

The Israelis will fuck you three was to Sunday.

Wait. I guess that is Saturday.

No. I am not an anti-Semite.

I just have to remember that one of the very first things the Jews did when they got to Palestine was to ambush and kill over a hundred Palestinians at Deir Yassin and they are still at it today.

I know. They are all in this together but the Israelis have gotten a free ride on a lot of their shit.

Trust? Forget it.

Labels: Israel

J STREET

You know I have been a long critic of the Israel lobby. They have "forced" all administrations since the Second World War to conform to a lock-step approach to Middle Eastern policy both to the detriment of the US and Israel itself.

They are unforgiving, inflexible and filled with hatred for the Palestinians.

I am not a big fan of the Palestinians either but I know that they have been severely kicked around by generations of Israelis and the Israeli government.

Yesterday I saw a film from Israel itself describing the horrendous Israeli record.

Now there is a new jewish lobby. More moderate.

I love the name. "J Street" rhymes with K Street. There is no J street in DC. Guess they mean "jew".

Moderate in America’s Jewish Lobby Causes a Stir

When I write this I have to think that, if I was more important, I would be attacked this afternoon as anti-semitic.

This is the game that the traditional American Jewish lobby plays.

I hate this kind of thing. They can be right bastards.

The Obamas are not going to play the old games. They are encouraging the moderate jews by reaching out to them.

Good for them.

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

DUMB QUESTION DEPARTMENT

From Today's NYTimes (my bold face):

JERUSALEM — Iran seems to be hurtling toward nuclear weapons capacity, Hezbollah could win Sunday’s election in Lebanon and Hamas is smuggling long-range rockets into Gaza again. So why is President Obama focusing such attention on the building of homes by Israeli Jews in the West Bank?

That, in essence, is the question being angrily posed by the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and underscores one of the biggest shifts in American policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in three decades.

This is nothing new.

Past administrations have said "don't do this" but somehow in the back channel, let the Israeli's know that we were not really serious about it.

The Obamas are serious.

This, as the Times article points out, is the soft and vulnerable underbelly of the Israeli position. World opinion is against them. They are in violation of the Geneva Convention. Settling in occupied territory.

They are doing just what was done to them in the beginning. Edging, pushing, provoking. And, at the same time, making life miserable for Palestinians still waiting for their own state.

I am glad that we have stopped the double talk. Time to say the truth at all levels. No give with one hand and take with another. The settlements must stop.

Read it all here:

Obama Pins Mideast Hope on Limiting Settlements

Even with the pro-Israel slant of the Times, you can see the picture.

Well, I can.

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

ISRAEL ON NOTICE

Busy day today. On another front.

Rahm Emanuel told an (unnamed) Jewish leader; "In the next four years there is going to be a permanent status arrangement between Israel and the Palestinians on the basis of two states for two peoples, and it doesn't matter to us at all who is prime minister."

He also said that the United States will exert pressure to see that deal is put into place. "Any treatment of the Iranian nuclear problem will be contingent upon progress in the negotiations and an Israeli withdrawal from West Bank territory," the paper reports Emanuel as saying.

....So far neither the White House or the Israeli government has commented on the report which, it should be noted, comes from Shimon Shiffer, one of Israel's most highly respected journalists.

Some pressure on the Israelis.

It is so totally about time.

Labels: Administration Obama, Israel

NOT SURPRISED

Israel: White Phosphorus Use Evidence of War Crimes (VIDEO)

I have said before that these guys are right bastards. Terrorists.

So are some of the Arabs.

But let's not let Israel get away with the same shit we condemn in other countries.

If you want to see what white phosphorous does go to this image page.

I was going to put one of these photos on line but thought it too grizzly.

So I have made it optional.

We should look at this though. They are probably our bombs.

Labels: Israel

FREEMAN

I have been watching this develop:

Israel Stance Was Undoing of Nominee for Intelligence Post

The minute this guy was announced, they were all over him. Schumer, the head Israel spokesman and NY Senator led the charge.

I don't know much about the details but I sure saw the firestorm.

It looks like the pro-Israel lobbies are as strong as ever. The Obamas are going to have to work covertly to get any kind of a new look at the situation and be more realistic about Israel's role as a major shit stirrer in the Middle East. Not to say anything about its role as a terrorist state.

Labels: Israel

TIED

In more ways than one.

So the Israeli's are pulling one of those 50/50 things. No one won the election and both claim victory.

Stalemate.

The moderates versus the hard liners.

We can expect more of the same intransigence with respect to settling the impasse with Palestine.

It is very discouraging.

That guy Netinyahu (I love his name) is a real asshole.

I don't know about the woman.

I don't have any point to make here. It is obvious that they don't know what they want to do and no one else can help them decide.

Labels: Israel

ABE! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY SO OUT LOUD

On the pending appointment of George Mitchell as the Middle East Special Envoy:

“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.”

This would be funny if it wasn't so tragically true.

Just like I have been saying.

The US policy in the Middle East has been anything but even-handed.

We are supporting the genocidal policies of the Israeli government.

Too strong a word? What would you call the continued ravaging of the Palestinian population?

Labels: Israel