COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Hawks in the US Congress like John McCain and Lindsay Graham want war with Iran- Sanctions hard liners, such as Bob Menendez (D-NJ), backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its hundreds of Israel lobbies, are set on a course toward war with Iran. Only the US people can stop them.


A DEAL WITH IRAN — OR WAR WITH IRAN?

By: Patrick J. Buchanan
11/12/2013 06:00 AM


If Bibi Netanyahu succeeds in closing down Obama’s diplomatic path to Iran, only the road to war remains open.
Which is exactly what Bibi wants.
For what terrifies Tel Aviv, and rattles Riyadh, is not a U.S. war with Iran, but the awful specter of American rapprochement with Iran, a detente.
Thus, when France’s foreign minister torpedoed the deal John Kerry flew to Geneva to sign, France soared in neocon esteem. The “cheese-eating surrender monkeys ” of 2003 who opposed the Iraq war suddenly became again the heroes of Verdun and the Marne.
“Vive La France” blared the Wall Street Journal editorial declaiming, “Francois Hollande’s Socialist Government has saved the West from a deal that would all but guarantee that Iran becomes a nuclear power.”
Did Hollande really save the West? Or did he just rack up points with the Saudi princes for when the next big arms contract comes up for bid?
What is going on is a gravely serious matter.
If the Netanyahu cabal succeeds in sabotaging U.S. negotiations with Iran, it is hard to see how we avoid another war that could set the Persian Gulf region ablaze and sink the global economy.
And just what is it that has Netanyahu apoplectic?
A six-month deal under which Iran would freeze all enrichment of uranium, in return for a modest lifting of sanctions, while the final agreement is negotiated. The final deal would put permanent limits and controls on Iran’s nuclear program to ensure it is not used to build bombs
And there would be more and more intrusive inspections.
How would this imperil Israel?
Iran today has no atom bomb. Has never tested a bomb. Has never exploded a nuclear device. Possesses not a single known ounce of 90 percent enriched uranium, which is essential for a uranium bomb.
Nor does Iran have enough 20 percent uranium to make a bomb. And part of the stockpile it did have has been converted into fuel rods. There are inspectors in all of Iran’s operating nuclear facilities.
The Ayatollah has declared a fatwa against nuclear weapons. The Hassan Rouhani regime says it has no nuclear weapons program.
And U.S. intelligence agrees with Iran.
All 16 U.S. intelligence agencies in 2007, and, again, two years ago, said, with high confidence, that Iran has made no decision to build a bomb and has no nuclear weapons program.
How would new restrictions and reductions on an Iranian nuclear program that has never produced an ounce of weapons-grade uranium, let alone a bomb, threaten Israel, with its hundreds of atom bombs?
“You can’t trust the Iranians. They’re lying about their nuclear program,”
says Lindsey Graham.
Is U.S. intelligence also lying?
Ten years ago, it turned out Saddam was telling the truth and it was Lindsey’s friends doing the lying about Iraq’s WMDs.
Looks like the same old crowd up to the same old tricks.
To abort Obama’s Iran initiative, Bibi is moving on four tracks.
First, get Congress to accept Israel’s nonnegotiable demand — Iran must give up all enrichment, shut down all nuclear facilities and ship all enriched uranium abroad — before any sanctions are lifted.
This is an ultimatum masquerading as a negotiating position.
Acceptance would entail an Iranian surrender Rouhani could never take home.
It is a deal killer. Everyone knows it, even the Republicans now embracing the Israeli position as their own.
Second, persuade Israel’s collaborators in Congress to impose harsh new sanctions, rub Iran’s nose in them, and scuttle the talks.
Third, arouse Jewish communities worldwide to pressure home governments to block any deal.
Sunday, Bibi told the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America that what Kerry was prepared to sign was a “bad and dangerous deal”
that threatened Jewish survival, and, “on matters of Jewish survival, I will not be silenced.”
Bibi intends to use the explosive issue of imperiled Jewish survival to break Obama and Kerry and force them to abandon their Iranian initiative.
Finally, the Israeli lobby is behind the push by Lindsay Graham and Rep.
Trent Franks to have Congress preemptively surrender its war powers, by authorizing Obama to launch a war on Iran at a time of his own choosing, without any further consultation with Congress.
Remarkable. Self-proclaimed constitutional Republicans are about to vote Barack Obama a blank check for war.
What the GOP fears is another episode like the one last summer where America rose as one and told Congress not to authorize any war on Syria. A panicked Congress capitulated, and there was no war.
Today, though Obama and Kerry insist “all options are on the table,” Obama has no more authority to attack Iran today than he did Syria last summer.
Hill Republicans seek to remedy that by a preemptive congressional surrender of their war power.
One wonders if Netanyahu and his amen corner in Congress have considered the backlash worldwide should they succeed in scuttling Geneva and putting this nation on the fast track to another Mideast war Israel and Saudi may want but America does not.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?” 

152 comments:

  1. AIPAC, Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu are a far greater threat to American peace and security, than Saddam Hussein, Ghadaffi and Assad ever were. We will see if a politically weakened Obama has the courage to denounce Netanyahu for the cynical thug and dangerous religious fanatic that he is.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :) heh

      Well it was a great break while it lasted.

      Didn't last very long.

      Delete
    2. Peace in our time! Let's just let the mullah have their nukes. No harm no foul because we are a chicken shit people and nation, Peace at all costs.

      Delete
    3. So what if Iran gets the bomb.... So what if it nukes another country? Or just threatens to do so?

      So what?

      LOL

      You want war? Lift sanctions and give Iran breathing room to develop their nukes.

      You will not get "peace and security" you will have war.

      But that's what you want. America will be safe and secure.

      Dont bet on it.

      Delete
    4. Thank god the French have come to America's rescue!!!!

      Delete
    5. Netanyahu = dangerous religious fanatic

      ...sorry...not even close to the mark...

      Delete
    6. End the OccupationThu Nov 14, 02:34:00 PM EST

      Bibi is not religious, he is a secular Ashkenazi.

      To regard him as "Jewish" in a religious sense, nothing more than a libel.

      That Bibi may fit some amorphous definition of "Jewish", but that is an internal issue for that community to ponder.

      For the "Rest" of us, Bibi is a secular tyrant, in the Sultanate of Palestine.
      Direct lineage back to the Ottoman Empire, through Mr Rothschild.

      Delete
  2. George W. Bush will raise Millions, tonight, for an outfit whose goal is to bring about the "End Times." This, of course, entails "Christianiziing" the Jews, and bringing forth the "Apocalypse."

    A religious crazy is a religious crazy, regardless of which "book" he's thumping.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At last look George Bush's nonsense doesn't get Jews ethnically cleansed, hung, murdered or raped. At least not in the last 60 years.

      That's what Islamic religious crazies do....

      Delete
    2. Pentecostal Christians are the useful idiots of the Zionists.

      Delete
    3. DeuceThu Nov 14, 09:29:00 AM EST
      Pentecostal Christians are the useful idiots of the Zionists.


      LOL now that's just down right FUNNY...

      Delete
    4. You say "zionist" like it's a bad thing.

      Israel is the homeland of the Jews.

      1/900th of the middle east.

      Deuce, what is wrong with having ONE jewish state in a world with 57 islamic states? dozens of christian states?

      deuce, answer... why should Israel not be ENTITLED to 1/900th of the arab occupied middle east?

      be honest. is 899/900th of the middle east not enough? Not counting the 20% of the 1/900th that is in arab hands.

      How much would make you happy?

      one tiny Jewish reservation? maybe the size of Newark NJ?

      would that make you happy?

      Delete
    5. Re: Pentecostal Christians are the useful idiots of the Zionists.

      While most Pentecostals support Israel, Evangelical Christians form the largest block by far of Jewish supporters in the US (92 million, largest concentration in the world)..Pentecostals and Evangelicals do not share the same founding attributes. According to your perspective, both groups are "useful idiots."

      According to Rufus II, I don't know if it is the book or the thumping that makes Christians crazy.

      Delete
    6. Rufus is a "native american" he's used to thumping on drums...

      Delete
    7. What does either Rufus or drums have to do with Iran, the US or a war?

      Why do you refuse to stay on topic, but insist instead on the Ad Hominem

      Delete
    8. The Israeli ethnic bigotry is shown, once more.
      Their distaste for anything "native" or indigenous
      Little wonder then that they supported Rios Mont in the genocide he perpetrated in Guatemala.

      The Native Americans that were murdered, seen by the Israeli as just another group of subhuman 'coloreds'.

      Delete
  3. Suspects admit to killing IDF colonel 'as a gift to the Palestinian people'

    Two Palestinians admit to murder of Saraya Ofer in Jordan Valley last month; plan began as robbery but upon discovering Ofer's military background they decided to murder him, Shin Bet says.

    http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Suspects-admit-to-killing-IDF-colonel-as-a-gift-to-the-Palestinian-people-331749

    The ONLY decent response? Is to BUILD and liberate and settle the land of Israel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Home Demolitions: By the Numbers

      Since 1967, Israel has destroyed approximately 27,000 Palestinian structures in the occupied territories (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip), including more than 24,000 homes, according to ICAHD.
      Since the renewal of negotiations in August 2013, Israel has destroyed approximately 25 Palestinian homes, in addition to dozens of other structures, leaving approximately 200 people homeless.

      According to the UN, between January and September 2013, 862 Palestinians were displaced by Israeli demolitions, compared to 886 (including 468 children) in all of 2012.

      In 2012, a total of 600 Palestinian structures were demolished by Israel in the occupied territories, including at least 189 homes, according to ICAHD. This figure doesn’t include “self-demolitions” whereby Palestinians destroy their own homes rather than have Israel do it and charge them an additional fine.


      One Bedouin village, Al-Araqib, in the Negev desert in the south of Israel, has been destroyed more than 50 times by Israel since July 2010.

      Between 2005 and 2012, Israel demolished approximately 1500 Palestinian homes due to owners lacking hard-to-obtain construction permits.

      Between 1993 and 2000, when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Israel destroyed almost 1700 Palestinian homes in the occupied territories.

      Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall. In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.

      During Israel’s creation (1948-49), Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel. In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.

      Delete
    2. Three key features characterize Israeli apartheid:

      • Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.

      In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories,
      Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.


      • About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ...
      ... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.

      More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

      Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
      ... and land in present-day Israel.

      Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

      Delete
    3. For every Israel murdered?

      3000 acres should be annexed.

      The reality?

      Palestinians MURDER. Jews will not leave.

      Get used to it...

      LOL

      Delete
  4. If Bibi Netanyahu succeeds in closing down Obama’s diplomatic path to Iran, only the road to war remains open.
    Which is exactly what Bibi wants.
    For what terrifies Tel Aviv, and rattles Riyadh, is not a U.S. war with Iran, but the awful specter of American rapprochement with Iran, a detente.


    Pat, it's Jerusalem. Not Tel Aviv. Does that scare you to say????

    But pat Bibi want tough sanctions, not war. This is what Bibi has been pushing for for a decade. SANCTIONS. Force Iran to the table.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Actually no they left.

      again.

      but they will be back again and again stalling for over a decade.

      Forcing them with real biting sanctions is the only way, short of war, to get Iran to change it's path.

      I doubt sanctions, with all the exceptions Obama has put through, will do the job.

      In the end?

      America, under Obama will do nothing, France, Britain and Israel will do the dirty work.

      Delete
    3. Panama Ed Thu Nov 14, 10:00:00 AM EST
      Iran is at the table

      I don't think they have yet returned. But I will tell you who is NOT at the table, Israel...Odd that...second class citizens of the world, I guess, despite being Iran's primary target...

      Delete
    4. Allen, excellent observation, I missed that.

      israel is not at the table.

      Hmm.. maybe Iran would not sit down if the "zionist entity" were present.

      After all Iran rejects the UN acceptance of the Jewish State completely. It's actually in violation of the UN basic code of conduct, calling for the destruction of a fellow nation.

      Maybe that's what we should do, put a table up in the Hague, have israel at the tap and point the cameras at Iran's empty chair.

      Delete
    5. And when the negotiators get back together in a week, the Iranians will be there, with bells on.

      Delete
    6. The issue of a "Jewish state" is a distraction.

      The entire concept of "Jewish" is amorphous.
      Not a solely a religion, not a 'race', but a conglomeration of various archaic tribes.
      The majority of which have no historical or ancestral ties to the lands they claim.

      Why would anyone in that region accept their dubious claims of sole sovereignty, made by the Europeans.

      Delete
    7. My guess is that Iran would not negotiate with Israel at the table. I could be wrong, but 34 years of venomous rhetoric on the part of Iran suggests no face to face talk.

      Why the West is so intimidated by Iran is a perplexing question. In a conventional war, Iran's antique military equipment relegates it to a defensive array on its own turf. Like Saddam, all those toys become arcade targets. Whatever Iran is supposed to have of a retaliatory nature is already in place abroad and terrifies the West...Or the Iranians have placed a colossal bet on a pair of deuces..

      Delete
    8. Panama Ed,

      Thanks for answering my question in the only way you could, using logical fallacies and an angry irrational recitation of faux history. Were I advising Netanyahu, it would be to get Dori Gold to the next meeting with the press in tow.

      Delete
    9. But you are not Bibi, and he will lie, distort and urge the US on towards a war that is not in the interests of the US.

      Delete
  5. "If the Netanyahu cabal succeeds in sabotaging U.S. negotiations with Iran, it is hard to see how we avoid another war that could set the Persian Gulf region ablaze and sink the global economy."


    And yet Kerry stated it was the Iranians that scuttled the deal raising me demands...

    ReplyDelete
  6. First, get Congress to accept Israel’s nonnegotiable demand — Iran must give up all enrichment, shut down all nuclear facilities and ship all enriched uranium abroad — before any sanctions are lifted.


    Actually this is partial truths.

    The UNSC demands that Iran stop enriching.

    The UN, Russia, America have offered to exchange Iran's stockpile for fuel rods. SO that Iran can have fuel for as many power plants as they wish.

    But let's ignore facts...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Iranians have every right to porcess and enrich uranium.
      They are part of the Community of Nations, signatory to the NPT.

      Unlike Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan, the Real Rouge Regimes of the world..

      Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty

      ARTICLE IV
      1. Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with Articles I and II of this Treaty.

      2. All the Parties to the Treaty undertake to facilitate, and have the right to participate in. the fullest possible exchange of equipment, materials and scientific and technological information for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Parties to the Treaty in a position to do so shall also cooperate in contributing alone or together with other States or international organizations to the further development of the applications of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, especially in the territories of nonnuclear weapon States Party to the Treaty, with due consideration for the
      needs of the developing areas of the world.

      Delete
    2. What is "Occupation&quot ;Thu Nov 14, 09:04:00 AM EST
      "If the Netanyahu cabal succeeds in sabotaging U.S. negotiations with Iran, it is hard to see how we avoid another war that could set the Persian Gulf region ablaze and sink the global economy."

      What is the make up of the Jewish cabal?

      I have noticed that much of the region is already at war - some big, some small. Iran's conventional forces are "antiquated." That being the case, it's hard to see them at war other than a nuclear one. That is what the West is trying to prevent.

      Delete
  7. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Why Hitler was not so bad"...


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State John Kerry warned Congress Wednesday against scuttling a historic opportunity for a nuclear pact with Iran by pressing ahead with new sanctions while international negotiators seek to prevent Tehran from being able to assemble an atomic weapons arsenal.


      So according to Kerry, Iran has all the parts to make a bomb.

      Delete
    2. So does Japan and South Korea.
      What of it?

      Delete
    3. Panama EdThu Nov 14, 09:55:00 AM EST
      So does Japan and South Korea.
      What of it?


      Notice this completely off topic, stupid attempt at diversion.

      The issue is Iran numb nuts..

      Delete
    4. No, dickweed, the issue is nuclear weapons, proliferation and the standing of nations in the international community.

      The issue is bigotry, racism and shifting standards of behavior

      Delete
    5. The issue revolves around Iran's rights and obligations under the NPT

      Delete
    6. The ISSUE is about which of the nations involved is outside the Community of Nations

      Which is the ROGUE?

      Delete
    7. The REAL issue
      Which nation, Iran or Israel, defies the International Community, and has the longest record of defiance.

      Delete
    8. no numb nuts. the issue is iran.

      period.

      iran

      Not israel, iran.

      Delete
    9. No, the ISSUE is war in the Fertile Crescent.

      US involvement in such a conflict.

      That is the issue.
      The rest is background noise, justification, motivation and mitigation.

      Delete
    10. Whether the UNITED STATES should be involved in a regional dispute between two outlaw regimes.

      That is the ISSUE.

      Whether or no US interests are involved, which interests they are and which interests have the highest priority.

      Whether or not Economic Security for the people of the US is more vital than Iranian or Israeli concerns about colonialism and sectarianism.

      Delete
    11. Not whether or not Iran enriches Uranium, and to what levels ...
      ... but what the effects of closure of the Straits of Hormuz would have on the global and US economies

      Delete
    12. Then Israel needs to be invited to the table? Eh dickweed?

      Delete
    13. Panama Ed Thu Nov 14, 09:55:00 AM EST
      So does Japan and South Korea.
      What of it?

      Neither Japan nor South Korea have been foolish enough and religiously fanatical enough to threaten the use of nuclear weapons.

      You have evidence that Japan and Korea have nuclear weapons?













      Delete
    14. No, but there is evidence that Japan and South Korea are more nuclear capable, are a 'screw driver turn' away from the "Bomb".

      Both are closer to it than Iran.

      Use some Google skill, you can find it. I have in the past, posted it before.
      No need to do so again, and again and again.
      As it is merely a side bar, to the issue.
      If you wish to pursue it, feel free.

      Delete
    15. Japan and South Korea are not threats,

      But you know that. You just have to turn the gaze away from Iran.

      You are weak.

      Delete
    16. Desert Rat aka Panana Ed, a very weak minded person. Cannot stay on topic, must distract otherwise he loses his meaningless arguments.

      Notice how he now even posts with a 1/2 dozen signon's? this is to argue with himself....

      a very weak man.

      never amounted to anything in life....

      Delete

    17. Why do you refuse to stay on topic, but insist instead on the Ad Hominem

      Delete
    18. Is it that your positions are weak, that your arguments are laughable?

      Or just that you are weak and laughable?

      Not only do you refuse to stay on topic, but insist on the Ad Hominem

      Delete
    19. To say that Japan is not a threat, dismisses history.
      Forgets the 'Rape of Nanking"

      Dismisses Pearl Harbor.
      Casualties in the Pacific War numbered around 36 million or 50% of the total casualties of the Second World War.

      Dismisses the sacrifice of US service men in the Pacific
      United States
      111,606 - killed or missing
      253,142 - wounded
      21,580 - POWs

      Or course the Japanese constitute a threat.
      Prove is in the tasting of the historic realities.
      Rather than putting faith in fables and lies..



      Delete
  8. The following statements are half truths and are misleading statements on purpose. Reminds me of Bill Clinton on the subject of what is "is"

    Iran today has no atom bomb.

    Iran has all the pieces and parts. the uranium, the war head and the rocket.

    AND how do we KNOW what Iran has????/



    " Has never tested a bomb. Has never exploded a nuclear device. "


    Some would argue that Iran has a partner, North Korea and with North Korea has tested



    "Possesses not a single known ounce of 90 percent enriched uranium, which is essential for a uranium bomb"


    KNOWN? How about the collective intelligence outfits of the world MISSED Pakistan's nukes, North Korea's?

    Nice verbiage....

    "Nor does Iran have enough 20 percent uranium to make a bomb. And part of the stockpile it did have has been converted into fuel rods. There are inspectors in all of Iran’s operating nuclear facilities."

    Again, how do you KNOW? Several of Iran's facilities were not found out until Iranians exposed them. Iran was hiding them for years...


    "The Ayatollah has declared a fatwa against nuclear weapons. The Hassan Rouhani regime says it has no nuclear weapons program.


    I can sleep well knowing an Ayatollah that has stolen 85 BILLION in his countrymen's wealth, allow stoning of young girls, hanging and torture wrote a "fatwa"... I guess the west never heard of the concept of Taqiyya.. LOOK IT UP...

    "And U.S. intelligence agrees with Iran"

    And this was the same US intelligence that told us about iraqi WMD? Missed north korea, Missed pakistan going nuclear????

    But the report in 2007 has been discredited.

    One must wonder at Pat's motivation?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How do we know the Iranians do not have a nuclear weapon?
      Easy, Israel Intelligence tells US so.

      Israeli Intelligence Sources Contradict Bibi, Congress on Iran
      By Marsha B. Cohen (Source: Lobe Log)
      For months, top Israeli intelligence sources have been providing Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu with assessments that ought to make him welcome the progress being made at the most recent negotiations in Geneva, instead of, as one prominent Israeli journalist put it, a “party-pooper.”

      Last month, days before his visit to the U.S., Netanyahu received a report from the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence (AMAN), Major General Aviv Kochavi.
      Kochavi’s assessment described the changes in Iran’s internal politics since Hassan Rouhani’s election as president not only as real, but “significant” and “strategic,” according to Barak Ravid of Haaretz:


      Delete
    2. Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy in an interview with al-Monitor‘s Laura Rozen just before the U.S. presidential election, Halevy defended President Obama’s willingness to negotiate with Iran as ” very courageous.”

      In what appears to be an argument for a speedy wrap-up of an agreement, Friday’s New York Times quoted Halevy as saying,
      “The more you enter stages, the less you can be certain that you will get what you need in the end.”

      For Halevy, the desired end of the Iran negotiations would be an Iran without nuclear weapon capability that has reconciled itself to Israel’s existence. Halevy told Rozen in an interview last week:

      “IF, if, the nuclear file is closed, and sanctions removed, it will bring economic relief...[and] a renewed view from Tehran of the opportunities the world is offering. And then, if there will be a desire to move beyond the nuclear issue, then the Iran regime will be able to turn to the public and say, ‘we should no longer be in the business of fear mongering. If we want to move forward with the US, it will be difficult while maintaining a state of belligerency against one of the US key friends and allies.’”



      About the Author
      Marsha B. Cohen is an analyst specializing in Israeli-Iranian relations and US foreign policy towards Iran and Israel. Her articles have been published by PBS/Frontline's Tehran Bureau. IPS, Alternet, Payvand and Global Dialogue. She earned her PhD in International Relations from Florida International University, and her BA in Political Philosophy from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

      Delete
    3. Do you really think that all that the intelligence services KNOW are published in the newspaper?

      Man you are a moron.

      Delete
    4. You ask the questions, Israelis provide the answers.
      Which you dismiss.

      Why even ask the question,?

      When you disrespect Israelis so, does that mean you are an Anti-Semite?

      Delete
    5. you are numb nut.

      But the truth? you can't stay on topic because you will lose.

      signs of a weak man

      Delete
    6. quot, you just wrote and told us that Israeli officials are liars.
      That what they tell the public cannot be trusted.

      That lack of Israeli veracity extends through-out their government, from TOP to bottom
      From Bibi, through the Intelligence Community ...
      all the way to You.

      Are you an Anti-Semite for expressing the position that Israeli government officials are LIARS when their lips move in public?

      Delete
    7. weak man Panama ed, weak man, can't stay on the topic, signs of a loser...

      Delete
    8. Are you an Anti-Semite for expressing the position that Israeli government officials are LIARS when their lips move in public?


      All nations have classified information. You should know, when you were committing genocide in Guatemala I am sure your orders were classified.

      Delete
    9. Why, if there was such "Classified Information" would those Israeli officials tell us otherwise?

      Why would they lead us in the opposite direction of the truth.

      Is it some sort of Anti-Semite behavior on their part?

      Or do they lie for domestic political purposes.
      Are you saying that these Israeli lie, endanger Israel, for some personal gain?
      Or just because they do not like Bibi?

      Are you saying that they are reckless Israeli, or just self loathing?

      Delete
    10. Are you saying that Israeli LIE to advance their agendas?

      Delete
    11. I am saying that no nation gives out it's classified intel to the public.

      But you could shed some light on your participation in genocide. Did you get orders or did you improvise?

      Delete
    12. Fudd Busters InternationalThu Nov 14, 11:34:00 AM EST

      When Congress forbade U.S. forces to train the internal police forces of other countries-passed in 1974 - the Israelis stepped in and
      "set up their intelligence network, tried and tested on the West Bank and Gaza."

      Israeli noncommissioned officers were also said to have been hired by big landowners to train their private security details.

      These private squads, together with "off-duty military officers formed the fearsome 'death squads' which later spread to neighboring El Salvador, where they have been responsible for an estimated 20,000-30,000 murders of left-wing dissidents."

      The Guatemalan military is very conscious of that achievement, even proud of it.

      In 1979, the Guatemalan interior minister paid a "secret and confidential" visit to Israel, where he met with the manufacturers of "sophisticated police equipment.
      In March of the following year Interior Minister Donaldo Alvarez Ruiz was in Israel to conclude an agreement for police training.

      Following the overthrow of Lucas Garcia, the home of Interior Minister Alvarez was raided, "uncovering underground jail cells, stolen vehicles...[and] scores of gold graduation rings, wrenched from the fingers of police torture victims."

      In 1983 that there were 300 Israeli advisers in Guatemala, working "in the security structures and in the army."
      Other reports were less specific as to numbers, but suggested that these Israeli advisers, "some official, others private," performed a variety of functions.
      Israelis "helped Guatemalan internal security agents hunt underground rebel groups."

      Israeli advisers have worked with the feared G-2 police intelligence unit. overseen by the army general staff, the G-2 is the intelligence agency - sections charged with "the elimination of individuals" are stationed at every army base - which has been largely responsible for the death squad killings over the last decade.

      Delete
  9. “One must wonder at Pat’s motivation?"

    There is no wonderment. It is called America first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, we all can see Israel's "Interim Solution"

      Three key features characterize Israeli apartheid:

      • Four million Palestinians in the Occupied Territories lack the right to vote for the government that controls their lives through a military occupation.

      In addition to controlling the borders, air space, water, tax revenues, and other vital matters pertaining to the Occupied Territories,
      Israel alone issues the identity cards that determine the ability of Palestinians to work and their freedom of movement.


      • About 1.2 million Palestinian Israelis, who make up 20 percent, or one-fifth, of Israel’s population, have second-class citizenship within Israel, ...
      ... which defines itself as a Jewish state rather than a state for all its citizens.

      More than 20 provisions of Israel’s principal laws discriminate, either directly or indirectly, against non-Jews, according to Adalah: The Legal Center for Minority Rights in Israel.

      Millions of Palestinians remain refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, unable to return to their former homes ...
      ... and land in present-day Israel.

      Even though the right of return for refugees is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

      Delete
    2. again weak man..

      can't argue the topic change it...

      numb nuts.

      Delete
    3. It should come as no surprise that
      “the fear of territorial displacement and dispossession was to be the chief motor of Arab antagonism to Zionism”.

      Palestinian Arabs had seen the Jewish proportion of Palestine’s population triple from around 10 per cent at the end of World War I, while the Zionist leadership in Palestine made no bones about their political aims.

      A question worth asking then, is whether you or I would simply accept the loss of our country, or if we too would be ‘rejectionists’?

      Delete
    4. No, quot, when the answers were 'on topic' you dismissed the Israeli government officials that were quoted, as liars.

      There is no where else for the 'on topic' discussion to go.

      So now we must invesigate ALL the parties to the proosed conflict, what their positions are and why.

      It cannot be done with statements from either side of the divide, because neither side, Israeli or Iranian, can be believed ...
      This is according to YOU.

      Delete
    5. The issue is Iran.

      You cannot stand to lose, and you have.

      embrace it.

      Delete
    6. Iranian Jewish community to Obama: Seize 'unrepeatable' chance to mend ties with Iran
      By JPOST.COM STAFF
      10/14/2013 02:40

      Head of community urges US President Barack Obama to accept Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures.

      Iran's Jewish community has called on US President Barack Obama to seize an "unrepeatable" opportunity to mend ties with Tehran following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's overtures to the US, AFP reported on Sunday.

      "If the US and the international community do not make the best of this golden and perhaps unrepeatable opportunity, then it will be in the benefit of those who are against the normalization of ties between Iran and the US," the head of the Jewish community in Tehran wrote in an open letter to the US president.

      Homayoun Sameyah Najaf Abady also rejected the suggestion made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the Iranian people are denied personal freedoms.

      Speaking in an interview with BBC Persian television earlier this month, Netanyahu stated, "I think if the Iranian people had freedom, they would wear jeans, listen to Western music, and have free elections."

      He said that the Jewish community has freedom of choice in "wearing jeans and listening to music."


      Bibi, caught in another LIE.
      Its easy to do, just watch for when his lips move.

      Delete
    7. 20,000 Jews still live in Iran.



      Those who have chosen to remain – scattered across Iran but mostly in Tehran, Isfahan and Shiraz – “have an easy life,” Tehran’s Jewish community head Homayoun Sameyah Najaf Abady told AFP.



      “We do not have a problem. The government does not create problems for us,” he said in a Sukkot prayer ceremony in the Abrishami synagogue in the center of the capital, attended by some 200 faithful.



      One of the 10 active synagogues in Tehran, Abrishami, which can accommodate 500 people, is adorned with marble floors and walls and chandeliers.



      A large hut with glass walls has been set up on its roof to host families for the duration of the week-long festivity as they mark the exodus of the Jewish people from captivity in Egypt, in the Old Testament.



      “We pray for it to rain, as it is a sign of good fortune for the entire year to come,” said Eliza Masoudi Panah, a mother in her 40s accompanied by her teenage daughter under the hut.


      Well-integrated minority

      Recognized as a religious minority, along with Christians and Zoroastrians, the Jewish community has a representative in parliament and appears to be well-integrated in a society dominated by Muslims.

      It operates schools, a library and a hospital – funded in part by public funds – in Tehran.


      http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4433605,00.html

      Delete
    8. It does seem evident that the Jewish community in Iran fares much better than the Islamic community in Israel.

      Iran is a well integrated country, it is not an apartheid state, while Israel is.

      Delete
    9. All we have to do ...
      Read the words of the Jewish community in Iran ...
      Juxtapose those writings with that of the Muslim community in Ersatz Israel

      Delete
  10. Replies
    1. I gots lots of slime for anti-semites like Pat.

      Delete
    2. No, it is the obvious, predictable default position of every Israeli -firster. There seems to be no exception to the rule. The perfect metaphor of the crucifix to Dracula, the Jewish spritz of holy water on the devil.

      Delete
    3. well pat is a devil alright.

      but you are the one scrapping the chess pool of journalism to find israel-hit pieces on a daily basis.

      what does that say about you?

      your hatred of israel is thick.

      your apologies for the PA/PLO, the Mullahs is amazing.

      one standard for Israel, no standards for terrorists and their buddies.

      look in a mirror, it may shock you to see what you are becoming.

      Delete
    4. Wow, you sure have drifted a long way from the TOPIC, quot.

      Now you are attacking the other contributors, not speaking of Iran or nuclear issues, at all.

      Weakness, quot, you are showing WEAKNESS.

      Better go get a cup of courage from that strong MAN, Bibi.

      The Sultan of Palestine.

      Delete
    5. but you are the one scrapping the chess pool of journalism to find israel-hit pieces on a daily basis.

      There is no more consequential news story. Everything else is chaff. The one who doesn’t rest in trying to get the US into war with Iran is Netanyahu.

      Now let me look at the opening page of AIPACISTAN and see what is on their mind today. Be right back.

      Delete
    6. A light news day. Only four stories about Iran.

      Delete
    7. Read and learn...

      it's still possible for you

      Delete
    8. Ben White Thu Nov 14, 10:15:00 AM EST
      It should come as no surprise that
      “the fear of territorial displacement and dispossession was to be the chief motor of Arab antagonism to Zionism”.

      Long before "Zionism" was, Jews were routinely persecuted by Muslims. Zionism is merely one of the latest convenient excuses. By the way one cannot steal what one has paid for - lock, stock, and barrel. If Esau sells his land to Jacob a binding agreement has been done.

      Delete
    9. End the OccupationThu Nov 14, 11:51:00 AM EST

      How did Esau gain title to the land?
      If it was not his, legally, the subsequent title transfer has no meaning.

      If the title held Esau was fraudulent, was gained by extortion or theft, then there you go.
      All that guarantees the title is the force of arms exercised by the conspiracy of colonial Imperialists.

      Delete
    10. .

      If Esau sells his land to Jacob a binding agreement has been done.

      :)

      In the words of the Prophet of the Great White North, "you are better than that."

      .

      Delete
    11. If you had ever read the story, you would know how title was derived. I assume a modicum of cultural literacy of those who comment and criticize. I would have no problem with your ignorance of the mythology of Esau and Jacob. I would have no problem with your dismissing its historicity. But I do take exception to criticism based on nothing but a feeling based upon another feeling.

      Delete
  11. http://www.timesofisrael.com/biggest-childrens-book-publisher-erases-israel-from-map/

    Arab textbooks are not the only ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a book.

    Maybe we need to do air strikes on Scholastic, since they not only threatened to wipe Israel from the map, they actually did it.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cute, but stupid. But that's how you roll...

      How's that real erasure of your homeland? What's the death toll now?

      Amazing that Israel already has doctors on the ground.. But make stupid statements.

      Delete
    2. “True irreverence is disrespect for another man's god”

      Delete
    3. Mark Twain in the Holy Land
      Mark Twain visited Israel in 1867, and published his impressions in Innocents Abroad. He described a desolate country – devoid of both vegetation and human population:

      “….. A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds… a silent mournful expanse…. a desolation…. we never saw a human being on the whole route…. hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive tree and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”

      He was amazed by the smallness of the city of Jerusalem:

      “A fast walker could go outside the walls of Jerusalem and walk entirely around the city in an hour. I do not know how else to make one understand how small it is.”

      And he described the Temple Mount thus:

      “The mighty Mosque of Omar, and the paved court around it, occupy a fourth part of Jerusalem. They are upon Mount Moriah, where King Solomon’s Temple stood. This Mosque is the holiest place the Mohammedan knows, outside of Mecca. Up to within a year or two past, no christian could gain admission to it or its court for love or money. But the prohibition has been removed, and we entered freely for bucksheesh.”

      Delete
    4. Those Ottoman, they were not 'good' stewards of the land.
      But then the Europeons, they believe more in destruction than construction.
      At least as far as he Palestinians are concerned ...

      During Israel’s creation (1948-49), Zionist and then Israeli forces expelled approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from their ancestral lands in order to create a Jewish majority state of Israel. In the process, more than 400 Palestinian population centers were systematically destroyed, including thousands of homes, businesses, and houses of worship.

      Immediately following Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza in 1967, approximately 6000 Palestinian homes were demolished, including four entire villages in the Latrun area, along with dozens of homes in the Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, which were destroyed to make way for a plaza for the Western Wall. In 1971, between 2000 and 6000 Palestinian homes were destroyed in Gaza in an effort to pacify the newly occupied territory.

      Delete
    5. Colonialists never give much credence to the idea of "Equality" for the people the subjugate.

      Delete
    6. Refugees are created in war. How come you show no concern for the millions of new refugees brought about by the current conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt,Iraq, etc? How many homes have been leveled by Syrian artillery and air strikes? The rubble will eventually be cleared and homes may or may not be rebuilt - such is the nature of war. A word to the Arabs: stop starting wars and stop whining.

      Delete
    7. Who are you to measure the "concern" that others have for the Syrians?

      When that issue first arose, we were told, by our in house Israeli, that the Christian refugees where nothing but NAZIs. Undeserving of aid or comfort.

      As for the Muslims, they stared the war in Syria, it has been ongoing for decades, now.
      The US does not subsidize the Syrian government.
      The US helps to fund the refugee centers in Jordon and Turkey.

      You are talking out your ass, allen.

      Delete
    8. You are talking out your ass, allen.

      That was an unnecessary and childish insult.

      Delete
  12. You want to fight a war for Israel, have at it. We will take a pass.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Iran and the bomb aint a fight of Israel,

      That's where your America isolationism has got it wrong.,

      Delete
    2. But in the end, Israel will defend it's self, no matter how cowardly Obama and America become.

      Now the truth? MOST of America doesn't feel the way you and Pat feel.

      Most of America understands the threat to America if Iran gets a bomb.

      But you don't..

      Delete
    3. Former Mossad Director Ephraim Halevy not only has publicly opposed an Israeli attack on Iran as anything but a last resort; he is a longstanding supporter of a diplomatic solution to the Iran nuclear issue. In September of 2012, Halevy told Haaretz‘s Ari Shavit that Israel needed to understand the Iranian perspective:

      The basic feeling of that ancient nation is one of humiliation. Both religious Iranians and secular Iranians feel that for 200 years the Western powers used them as their playthings. They do not forget for a moment that the British and the Americans intervened in their internal affairs and toppled the regime of Mohammad Mosaddeq in 1953. From their perspective, the reason why, to this day, there is no modern rail network and no modern oil refineries in Iran is that the West prevented that.

      Thus, the deep motive behind the Iranian nuclear project − which was launched by the Shah − is not the confrontation with Israel, but the desire to restore to Iran the greatness of which it was long deprived.

      I believe that if the West could find a way to propose to Iran alternative methods to acquire that sense of greatness, Iran would forsake the nuclear road. If Iran were offered trains and oil refineries and a place of honor in regional trade, it would consider this seriously.

      Delete
    4. Iran cannot accept Israel right to be.

      Until that is fixed?

      it's all bullshit

      Delete
    5. End the OccupationThu Nov 14, 12:07:00 PM EST

      Israel is bullshit
      The idea of a "Jewish" state is bullshit.

      Total and complete bullshit.
      Indefensible bullshit, the creation of an apartheid state.

      Delete
    6. Dear End,

      What are you going to do about it?

      Post nonsense on a blog?

      Whippie….

      Meanwhile we will go back to building in Israel…

      :)

      Delete
  13. Meanwhile, the RAPE case in Idaho just keeps churning...

    Rep. Mark Patterson, R-Boise, is offering a new account of events surrounding his being charged with rape in Florida in 1974, including that a private investigator "obtained a tape recorded confession by the woman making the charge that established that she had fabricated the incident."

    Contrary to his statement to Tampa police reported in 1974, Patterson said in a news release Monday that he "had absolutely no sexual contact" with the woman. He also said he feared for his life after having been "beaten badly twice" in jail, which was one reason he pleaded guilty to a crime he said he didn't commit.

    Patterson said his family hired a lawyer and investigator to pursue the case after his felony guilty plea in July 1974. "After two years' additional work, our private investigator uncovered hard evidence that the police report was full of inaccuracies and conflict," he said in the release.

    Patterson did not reply Monday to a request for a copy of the recording. His attorney, Wade Woodard, of Boise, said he was "not authorized to comment further or to provide any additional information."

    Meanwhile, Patterson's House colleagues reacted cautiously Monday. House Ethics Committee Chairman Lynn Luker, R-Boise, and House Minority Leader John Rusche, D-Lewiston, declined to discuss possible ethics complaints.

    "There is some concern about how this reflects on the institution of the House and the Legislature," said Rusche.
    "I think there will be people talking about it, but that's probably as far as I'm going to go."


    Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2013/11/12/2864684/patterson-says-rape-accuser-recanted.html#storylink=cpy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The time was around 1 am. Patterson was at a bar when he saw a woman crying in the parking lot.
      So he offered her a ride home.
      But instead of taking her home, he drove her to his own apartment.
      The woman tried to get away, but Patterson chased her down, silenced her by clamping his hand over her mouth and forced her into his apartment.

      Patterson owned an 85-pound Doberman.
      He told the woman that he’d command the dog to attack her if she didn’t have sex with him.
      He also told the woman that he belonged to a biker gang and that his buddies would come after her if she talked.



      See more at: http://aattp.org/gop-idaho-state-rep-lied-about-rape-charge-on-gun-permit-app-twice-still-allowed-to-carry-gun/#sthash.9Dy3UVfE.dpuf

      Delete
    2. Meanwhile, off topic and meaningless.

      Delete
    3. Not at ll "Off Topic"

      The topic is credibility of politicians.
      How much faith can we put in the signed documents and statements men make.

      Earlier, up thread, quot told us that Israelis in government lie to the media, lie to the public.
      That the entire structure of the Israeli propaganda machine is built and supported by the lies Israeli officials tell us.

      It is on topic to see if this is just an Israeli trait, or not.
      .

      Delete
    4. In the Idaho case, it seems o boil down to whether the Sheriff or the Rapist is telling the truth, as to the Sheriff's motives.

      That is the 'spin' by the rapist..

      To 'Get Away' from the facts and into motive.

      Just as quot and Bibi are attempting to do with Iran.

      Delete
    5. The thread is Iran. Rat aka Panama Ed needs to change the topic since he is losing the argument.

      Weak mind and man...

      to use his words? He is a DICKWEED.

      Delete
    6. No, quot, the thread was NEVER about Iran.
      It is, always was about the UNITED STATES.

      That is where you and the rest of the Israeli war mongers have it wrong.
      Iran is just an effect, not the cause, of US political issues, and divisions.

      Iran is not the disease, it is a symptom.

      Delete
    7. You just refuse to acknowledge that the US should put ...

      America First.

      You are the walking example of why Teddy Roosevelt was correct when he said

      Our allegiance must be purely to the United States.
      We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance.”

      Delete
    8. Teddy Roosevelt?

      At last check he has been dead since 1919. the world has changed.

      You haven't.

      But Ole Teddy he was an internationalist: Roosevelt was the force behind the completion of the Panama Canal; sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to demonstrate American power; and negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize.[9]

      Formed the Rough Riders,,,,

      Certainly NOT an "American Firster"

      But you need to move into this century.

      It's an intertwined world.

      global economy.

      now maybe shoveling horse shit all day has addled your mind?

      I understand you cannot travel to a real city as your being a wanted man, but trust me the world is a big place. we all can't hide on 350 stolen acres like you do....

      Delete
    9. quot, what an ugly thing to say... does this mean we're not friends anymore?
      You know, quot, if I thought you weren't my friend, I just don't think I could bear it.

      Delete
  14. Patrick J. Buchanan is a Jew hater/baiter of long standing.

    So is rat.

    It is disgusting.

    To use his own words, rat is a professional asshole.

    So is Pat.

    Look how rat is in his element today.

    What he is really doing is showing his disgusting personality, again.

    Off to the lawyer and the realtor here......

    Good day.

    By the way, Mark Twain said folks shouldn't tell the Jews how smart they are as they would become troublesome. :)

    Like a horse that knew its strength would not allow itself to be ridden.

    :)

    "The Innocents Abroad"

    May the Jews never be ridden again.

    out



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. rat's not always wrong though. He was spot on with his self description of being an asshole.


      And most people here agree, too.

      Delete
    2. There, in the forest of the mind
      A Rat scurries in the shadows
      Yet you stand alone
      In the forest of the mind

      As light falls, the shadows grow
      The fears of Winston Smith intensify
      The Rat will gnaw his nose

      Delete
    3. The forest of the mind
      Where Robert fears to go
      From where he cannot escape

      Delete
  15. “a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification”….

    “And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country,”

    “such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils.”

    “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government….. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.”

    ReplyDelete
  16. Obama is especially squirrelly in his press conference.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Obama is arguing that the government is just messed up when it purchases IT. he has mentioned it at least four time.

    I am waiting for someone to ask him that if the Feds are bad at purchasing IT, what makes him think they will be better taking charge of Health Care?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is correct, the Federals have a truly terrible track record with technology.

      Though it is not much worse than the Federal track record on defense, education, immigration or border security.

      Delete
    2. On Health Care he could point to Medicare, which seems, from the amount of noise generated when a "change" to the program is mentioned, seems to be popular with the recipients of the Federal benefits.

      The patients, the doctors, the hospitals, the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry all seem to like it.

      Delete
    3. The ACA does not put the Federals in charge of Health Care, it mandates that all Americans either buy a private insurance policy or sign up for Medicaid.

      It leaves the "in charge" with the private market.
      Though it does dictate the 'minimums' that are covered by the mandated private insurance.

      At least it appears that is what the ACA does.
      It has been passed and signed into law, most folk still do not know what is in it, fer sur.

      Delete
    4. I would say that HillayCare, that put the Federals in charge of Health Care, it was defeated in the congress.
      The Heritage Foundation floated the "Private Insurance Mandate" as a counter to HillaryCare.

      Mitt Romney instituted mandated insurance in Massachusetts. It was his 'signature' achievement while Governor.

      Mr Obama, rather than pursuing HillaryCare or a 'Single Payer' system, embraced the mandated private insurance market program advocated by the Heritage Foundation and Mitt Romney.

      They immediately disowned the program.
      Refused to participate in drafting the enabling legislation and then campaigned against the program.

      The entire project has not gone as planned, by any of the participants.
      There have been multitudes of 'unintended consequences'
      Par for the course.

      Delete
    5. .

      The ACA was bad enough to begin with. Obama continues to make it worse.

      Worse president ever.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      "Worst"

      Guy pisses me off so much I can't write straight.

      .

      Delete
  18. Gee, why can't we all just get along?

    Suspects admit to killing IDF colonel 'as a gift to the Palestinian people'
    http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Suspects-admit-to-killing-IDF-colonel-as-a-gift-to-the-Palestinian-people-331749

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. allen does not tell 'the rest of the story'
      The motivation of the murderer, what drove him to killing the Israeli officer.

      He leaves that out, as does the US media when failing to identify the race of those assailants in Brooklyn.

      Different stories, same techniques.

      Delete
    2. Settlers torch Palestinian home after Israeli soldier killed

      (Reuters) - Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian house on Thursday, leaving behind a message saying they were avenging the death of an Israeli soldier killed by a Palestinian the previous day, residents said.

      Several Palestinian children were treated for smoke inhalation and the house in the village of Sinjil in the occupied West Bank, was extensively damaged.

      "Regards to Eden, Revenge!" the attackers spray-painted on an outside wall of the home, a reference to Eden Attias, an Israeli soldier who was stabbed to death on a bus by a 16-year-old Palestinian in the Israeli city of Afula on Wednesday.

      The incidents add to simmering violence that has dogged U.S.-sponsored peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians that resumed in July. Fourteen Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed since the negotiations began.

      Residents of the home that came under attack said four or five settlers struck at night, breaking windows and pouring petrol on the patio.

      "Suddenly there was fire everywhere, spilling into the kitchen," Ruwaida Dar Khalil, the mother of the household told Reuters. "We were terrified. We took our young children to hospital after they breathed in the smoke. Thank God they are all right."

      Delete
    3. The motivation, the circumstance that drove Eden to murder the Israeli soldier ...
      Well, since allen did not tell us ...

      The stabbing occurred at about 8.30am on a bus en route from Nazareth to Tel Aviv. A paramedic who responded to an emergency call said: "A man aged about 18 was seated in one of the seats near the back of the bus. He was conscious, and had been stabbed several times all over his body. He was in a very bad state."

      The attack follows a rise in violence in the West Bank, where 10 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli troops and three Israelis have been killed since peace talks resumed in July.

      In the past week, two Palestinians have been shot dead in separate incidents at checkpoints. Security forces said one had brandished a knife and the other fired a flare gun or firework.


      What's that they say, about living by the sword ?

      Delete
    4. According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, there were 4,806 Palestinian security prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails at the end of September. A further 1,280 Palestinians were in prison for being in Israel illegally. Most Palestinian families have experience of a relative in prison.

      http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/israeli-soldier-stabbed-bus-afula

      Delete
  19. Mr. Netanyahu and the French just got their answer. The man is a genius.

    Obama: Military strike could lead Iran to 'pursue nukes more vigorously'
    http://www.jpost.com/Iranian-Threat/News/Obama-Military-strike-could-lead-Iran-to-pursue-nukes-more-vigorously-331799

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True enough.
      It could.

      Without occupation there is not way to be sure just what the Iranians would be doing.
      The inspection regime, restarted, would end.

      The Straits of Hormuz would b a free fire zone.
      a Global Economic Calamity.

      With no guarantee of ending the Iranian nuclear program, which if they are attacked, is sure to flourish in the aftermath.

      Delete
  20. And the parrot speaks brilliantly as well.


    US Secretary of State Kerry says imposing more sanctions on Tehran will indicate to the Iranians that Washington is not willing to negotiate in good faith.

    http://www.jpost.com/

    ReplyDelete
  21. The president as polymath

    With ObamaCare? going down in flames, the president deftly waltzes through foreign affairs.

    Russian defense, foreign ministers visit Cairo to discuss strengthening military relations between the two countries.
    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Egypts-Sisi-sees-new-Russia-defense-cooperation-331772

    ReplyDelete
  22. If the Israeli did not use the corneas, why did they steal them?
    It they did use them, how will the Israeli recover them, one is left to wonder ...


    Israel agrees to return stolen organs of dead Palestinians

    Israel has agreed to return organs of dead Palestinians harvested by its forensic pathologists during autopsies, Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh told Ma’an news agency on Wednesday.

    Head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Jehuda Hiss, had admitted harvesting organs from dead bodies without the permission of their families.

    “We started to harvest corneas ... Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the family,” Hiss said in an interview with an American academic in 2000. The interview was released in 2010 and part of it was aired by Israel's Channel 2 TV.

    The Channel 2 report said forensic experts harvested bones, corneas, heart valves and skin from dead Israeli soldiers, citizens, Palestinians and even foreign workers.

    The Israeli army admitted to organ harvesting but said the practice was no longer performed. “This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer,” the military told Channel 2.

    In the interview, Hiss described how his doctors would mask the removal of corneas from bodies. “We'd glue the eyelid shut,” he said. “We wouldn't take corneas from families we knew would open the eyelids,” Associated Press reported.

    The Palestinian official said Israel will “soon be returning some of the organs,” Ma’an reported.

    Last Update: Thursday, 14 November 2013

    ReplyDelete

  23. Israel’s Troubling Walls
    November 13, 2013

    The Israeli government is planning to build more and more walls to keep Palestinians and Arabs out of Jewish-held territory, a troubling twist on a dark history when walls were used to lock Jews in, Lawrence Davidson observes.

    By Lawrence Davidson

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced his government’s intention to construct another “separation barrier” - a large fortified wall or fence referred to by Palestinians as an apartheid wall – “between the West Bank and Jordan after completing walls on the Egyptian and Syrian borders.”

    Netanyahu is doing this for a variety of reasons, such as to keep Arab and other non-Jewish refugees from coming into Israel and, in the case of the West Bank-Jordan wall, to symbolize Israel’s ongoing control of the area.

    The original Zionist rationale for the state of Israel was that it would serve as a place of safety for the world’s Jews as anti-Semitism played out its allegedly inevitable and horrid destiny. Well, the problem today is that the policies of Israel are the major motivators of worldwide anti-Semitism, and because of these same policies, there is no place in the world more potentially dangerous for Jews than Israel.

    Thus, the Israeli fondness for walls. It may very well be that when all of this wall construction is finished, Israel will look like the world’s largest ghetto. And, within these walls, Israel’s leaders are busy making their ghetto religiously pure.

    Just this week buildings occupied by 15,000 East Jerusalem Arabs were scheduled for demolition. Those serving the notices to the 200 residential blocs had to be “escorted by Israeli soldiers.” Thus, while the walls discourage the non-Jews outside from breaking in, the home demolitions (along with a host of other nasty policies) encourage the inside non-Jews to get out.

    It makes not a bit of difference that all this wall building, to say nothing of the accompanying ethnic cleansing, is illegal. The Israelis don’t care. They make their own “law” based on their military capacity to enforce their will, and their perverted psychology – the belief that their past suffering (at least that of the Jews of Europe) somehow justifies imposing suffering on others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some Related Walls

      Historically, what sort of company does Israel keep with all this wall building? Here are some examples set down in chronological order:

      – The walls of Jericho

      Jericho is a West Bank town that, according to the archaeological evidence, has existed for about 9,000 years. It is also a place dear to the hearts of militant Zionists, for it was there, according to the biblical narrative, that the ancient Israelites began the first bloody conquest of Palestine.

      According to the legend (but not the archaeological evidence), Joshua led an ancient Israelite army against Jericho and, on God’s orders, marched around the town walls six times blowing rams’ horns as they went. On the seventh revolution, Jericho’s defensive walls “came tumbling down.”

      Then Joshua burned down the town and, again on God’s orders, slaughtered every man, woman, child and animal (except for the family of the woman Rahab, who had betrayed the city by hiding Israelite spies). Finally, Joshua placed a curse on anyone who might try to rebuild the place. From a Zionist perspective, this may mark one of the few times that tearing down walls seemed preferable to building them up.

      – Wailing or Western Wall

      The Wailing, or Western, Wall was not a defense structure. Rather it was part of a courtyard adjacent to the Second Temple. The courtyard was originally part of an expansion program begun in about 19 BCE during the reign of Herod the Great. The Second Temple was eventually destroyed, along with much of the rest of Jerusalem, by the Romans in 70 CE. The Western Wall is all that is left. This destruction established the fact that it was not only Israelite armies that could bring down other people’s walls. Gentiles could do it too.

      Nonetheless, this provenance has made the Western Wall “the most sacred site” in the Jewish religion. When the Israelis took Arab Jerusalem in 1967 they turned the sacred site into a nationalist shrine. From that point on, there has been an unspoken assumption among militant Zionists that this holy of holies could stay Jewish only if the subsequently created barrier walls – and their accompanying policies of ethnic cleansing – stood firm. That makes the “separation barriers” the real symbols of modern-day Israel.

      – Ghetto Walls

      In modern times some walls have taken on a sinister character for Jews. The archetypal modern ghetto wall was constructed by the Nazis in 1940 to enclose the Jewish quarter of Warsaw, Poland. It was made of brick, stood about 10 feet high and ran for 11 miles. Like the Western Wall, only a fragment of this ghetto wall survives.

      While Zionists consider any comparison between their “separation barriers” and the walls that separated out Europe’s Jews anathema, some other very knowledgeable Jews see a connection. For instance, Sygmunt Bauman, a well-known Polish-Jewish sociologist who once taught in Israel but now lives in England, has likened Israel’s present-day barriers to those that surrounded the Warsaw ghetto. He believes that successive Israeli governments have not been interested in peace and “a younger Israeli generation was being raised on the understanding that the state of war and military alert was natural and unavoidable.” That would certainly fit well with a culture of walls.

      Delete

    2. – The Berlin Wall

      Comparisons have also been made between Israel’s “separation barriers” and the infamous Berlin Wall. Constructed by communist East Germany starting in 1961, the Berlin Wall separated the East German population from West Berlin. The Berlin Wall ran for some 87 miles and at its completion was almost 12 feet high. On its eastern side it was paralleled by a 110-yard “death strip” offering a “clear field of fire for the wall guards.” By comparison, the Israeli wall will at completion run over 400 miles, be 26 feet high, and be paralleled by a 200-foot “exclusion zone.”

      Like the Berlin Wall, Israel’s walls are designed to separate populations, but unlike the one in Berlin, the Israeli version also facilitates the systematic ethnic cleansing of elements of the Palestinian population. It is perhaps for this reason that the musician Roger Waters, a strong supporter of the boycott Israel movement, called the Israeli separation barriers “100 times more horrifying than the Berlin Wall.”

      Walls on the ground reflect walls that already exist in the mind. The Zionists came to Palestine with a wall already fixed in their minds. That wall existed as a conviction that anti-Semitism was inevitable and eternal. Only possessing their own state could protect the Jews from this incessant danger.

      Subsequent Palestinian resistance was almost instinctively seen by the Zionists as anti-Semitism. In time this led to 26-foot walls, which one can understand as the physical manifestations of the mental wall all Zionists carry with them. In this sense a culture of walls comes naturally to the Zionists.

      From a historical perspective, no physical wall can be permanent. Things change and walls crumble. The walls in our minds might prove more resistant to erosion. They can be very deep-rooted and passed on for generations. Yet even these barriers eventually give way. That suggests that Israel’s culture of walls will someday be breached. It is just a matter of time and suffering.


      Lawrence Davidson is a history professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He is the author of Foreign Policy Inc.: Privatizing America’s National Interest; America’s Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood; and Islamic Fundamentalism.

      Delete
    3. There is also that wall the US has erected - down by Mexico.

      Delete