White House insists Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories must end
- Chief of staff Denis McDonough reaffirms support for two-state solution
- Netanyahu remarks ‘raise questions’ about Israeli commitment to peace talks
The White House issued a passionate call for eventual Palestinian
statehood on Monday as it stepped up criticism of the Israeli prime
minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, for appearing to question a two-state
solution to Middle East peace.
“An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end,” Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, told a conference of liberal activists in Washington. “Israel cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely,” he added.
Despite Netanyahu’s efforts to distance himself from pre-election comments that appeared to rule out a Palestinian state, the US administration remains sceptical about his commitment to peace.
“We cannot simply pretend that those comments were never made, or that they don’t raise questions about the prime minister’s commitment to achieving peace through direct negotiations,” McDonough told 3,000 delegates at the national conference of J-Street, a Washington lobby group which describes itself as pro-Israel but supports a two-state peace process for a Palestinian state.
“Palestinian children deserve the same right to be free in their own land as Israeli children in their land,” he added. “A two-state solution will finally bring Israelis the security and normalcy to which they are entitled, and Palestinians the sovereignty and dignity they deserve.”
Though official US policy has long favoured a two-state solution, the stridency of McDonough’s comments in front of the sympathetic J-Street audience perhaps also reflects a desire to stop peace talks disappearing from the Israeli political agenda as Netanyahu forms a new government.
“The United States will continue to keep an open line of communication, starting at the top levels, but also among other senior members of the Netanyahu administration as they form a government,” said the press secretary, Josh Earnest, when asked about the issue at the White House media briefing.
However, McDonough denied suggestions that their clash was simply “a matter of personal pique” with Netanyahu due to his separate opposition to US nuclear talks with Iran.
“We cannot give up on the idea that peace is possible, because peace will make Israel stronger,” insisted the chief of staff.
“A ‘one-state solution’ would effectively end Israel’s nature as a Jewish and democratic state,” he added. “Unilateral annexation of the West Bank territories would be both wrong and illegal. The United States would never support it, and it’s unlikely Israel’s other friends would either. It would only contribute to Israel’s isolation.”
Just two days after apparently ruling out a Palestinian state on the eve of Israel’s general election, Netanyahu attempted to row back on his comments, implying he was still open to talks. But he has come under unusually forthright criticism from a string of Obama administration officials – including the US president himself.
On Sunday, Obama renewed his criticism of the Israeli prime minister’s pre-election comments, saying that Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a two-state solution had made it “hard to find a path” towards serious negotiations.
On Monday, Netanyahu apologised for a statement on election day that appeared to warn against the influence of Arab-Israeli voters.
“I know the things I said a few days ago hurt some Israeli citizens,” he said. “My actions as prime minister, including massive investment in minority sectors, prove the exact opposite.”
But this apology did little to mend relations with the White House, which stressed the true test would be Netanyahu’s actions on the peace process.
“It certainly seems like his comments [on Monday] were appropriate,” said Earnest. “But the statements that we have made over the last week about the need to re-evaluate US policy is actually predicated on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments that legitimately call into question his commitment to a two-state solution.
“At the heart of any democracy is the right of all citizens to participate equally,” added McDonough in his speech.
“An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end,” Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, told a conference of liberal activists in Washington. “Israel cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely,” he added.
Despite Netanyahu’s efforts to distance himself from pre-election comments that appeared to rule out a Palestinian state, the US administration remains sceptical about his commitment to peace.
“We cannot simply pretend that those comments were never made, or that they don’t raise questions about the prime minister’s commitment to achieving peace through direct negotiations,” McDonough told 3,000 delegates at the national conference of J-Street, a Washington lobby group which describes itself as pro-Israel but supports a two-state peace process for a Palestinian state.
“Palestinian children deserve the same right to be free in their own land as Israeli children in their land,” he added. “A two-state solution will finally bring Israelis the security and normalcy to which they are entitled, and Palestinians the sovereignty and dignity they deserve.”
Though official US policy has long favoured a two-state solution, the stridency of McDonough’s comments in front of the sympathetic J-Street audience perhaps also reflects a desire to stop peace talks disappearing from the Israeli political agenda as Netanyahu forms a new government.
“The United States will continue to keep an open line of communication, starting at the top levels, but also among other senior members of the Netanyahu administration as they form a government,” said the press secretary, Josh Earnest, when asked about the issue at the White House media briefing.
However, McDonough denied suggestions that their clash was simply “a matter of personal pique” with Netanyahu due to his separate opposition to US nuclear talks with Iran.
“We cannot give up on the idea that peace is possible, because peace will make Israel stronger,” insisted the chief of staff.
“A ‘one-state solution’ would effectively end Israel’s nature as a Jewish and democratic state,” he added. “Unilateral annexation of the West Bank territories would be both wrong and illegal. The United States would never support it, and it’s unlikely Israel’s other friends would either. It would only contribute to Israel’s isolation.”
Just two days after apparently ruling out a Palestinian state on the eve of Israel’s general election, Netanyahu attempted to row back on his comments, implying he was still open to talks. But he has come under unusually forthright criticism from a string of Obama administration officials – including the US president himself.
On Sunday, Obama renewed his criticism of the Israeli prime minister’s pre-election comments, saying that Netanyahu’s apparent rejection of a two-state solution had made it “hard to find a path” towards serious negotiations.
On Monday, Netanyahu apologised for a statement on election day that appeared to warn against the influence of Arab-Israeli voters.
“I know the things I said a few days ago hurt some Israeli citizens,” he said. “My actions as prime minister, including massive investment in minority sectors, prove the exact opposite.”
But this apology did little to mend relations with the White House, which stressed the true test would be Netanyahu’s actions on the peace process.
“It certainly seems like his comments [on Monday] were appropriate,” said Earnest. “But the statements that we have made over the last week about the need to re-evaluate US policy is actually predicated on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments that legitimately call into question his commitment to a two-state solution.
“At the heart of any democracy is the right of all citizens to participate equally,” added McDonough in his speech.
So when is America going to stop occupying Mexican lands? Hawaii? Indian Lands?
ReplyDeleteRussia is going to stop occupying Crimea, Georgia?
China Tibet?
Turkey Cyprus?
England, the Faulklins?
and on and on...
Not to mention Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria occupying the Kurds lands...
One standard for Israel and the Jews, no standards for anyone else...
typical
Rubbish. The magic is gone.
ReplyDeleteNice not answering the question.
DeleteRubbish?
One standard for israel, no standards for any one else at all....
Same standard the Calvinists in South Africa were held to.
DeleteApartheid regimes that claim to be "Western" are held to that standard.
Economic boycotts, divestiture and sanctions are the remedy.
Look at how well it has gotten the Iranians to modify their behavior.
The World condemned the Afrikaners, not for being Dutch or Calvinist Protestants. They sanctioned them for being racists, segregationists, ghetto keepers and defenders of apartheid.
ReplyDeleteQuit being so weak and pathetic hiding behind the fact that being a Jew gives one a special dispensation or indulgence from criticism over wrongdoings.
Israel is on the wrong side of history and accepted human behavior. Last summer and the blatant murderous assault on the people of Gaza changed the future of Israel and Palestine. There is no going back and the petty apartheid model has no future whether it is practiced by Calvinists or Jews.
The People of Gaza do nothing but smuggle missiles and fire them at Israel.
DeleteThe moslems are the true racists, segregationists, ghetto keepers and defenders of apartheid in our world.
Just look to your beloved Iranians, or the Saudis or ISIS or Hamas, or any of the savages.
The Jews were run out of all the moslem countries long long ago.....and most Christians, too.
The moslems are responsible for the deaths of between 80 million and 100 million Hindus.
DeleteMoslems are involved in over 90% of the conflicts in the world today. The moslems vs whoever is near.
Always the same, for 1400 years.
Israel is on the wrong side of history and accepted human behavior. Last summer and the blatant murderous assault on the people of Gaza changed the future of Israel and Palestine. There is no going back and the petty apartheid model has no future whether it is practiced by Calvinists or Jews.
DeleteHamas is ISIS. The world KNOWS that. That's why America is bombing men, women and babies trying to kill headcutters. Iran is mass murdering men women and babies to kill head cutters...
One standard for Israel no standards for anyone else..
Hamas is not the Islamic State, ISrael is.
DeleteISrael flies close air support for the Islamic State, in Syria.
ISrael flies strategic bombing missions for the Islamic State, in Syria.
ISrael provides medical care for Islamic State combatants, from Syria.
ISrael created Hamas, and the Islamic State.
The unintended consequences are coming home to roost.
ISrael prefers Daesh (al-Qeada) in Syria, over the Alawites, Christians and their Kurdish allies
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren told the Jerusalem Post that Israel so wanted Assad out and his Iranian backers weakened, that Israel would accept al-Qaeda operatives taking power in Syria. “We always wanted Bashar Assad to go, we always preferred the bad guys who weren’t backed by Iran to the bad guys who were backed by Iran.” Even if the other “bad guys” were affiliated with al-Qaeda.
http://www.jpost.com/Syria-Crisis/Oren-Jerusalem-has-wanted-Assad-ousted-since-the-outbreak-of-the-Syrian-civil-war-326328.
Support for Israel remains as strong as ever in the USA.
ReplyDeleteOnly the President has changed.
There is never going to be a two state solution.
The Palestinians don't want it.
They are pledged to, as always, exterminate the Jews, just the same as in Martha Gellhorn's day.
The Israelis have no one to negotiate with. They have tried. Arafat was given 95% of what he wanted back in his day, and walked away.
I have zero sympathy with the 'Palestinians' any longer.
***********
American Doctors Are Killing Themselves
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/23/american-doctors-are-killing-themselves-and-no-one-is-talking-about-it.html
A real problem. My brother told me long ago that doctors have more problems than anyone else.......he was right.
We need to create many more doctors and at least lower their work load a lot. That would help.
Long, sad article.
Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, blaming the victim Palestine.
DeleteBut then he blamed the bank, when he ripped it off.
bob Thu May 27, 12:52:00 AM EDT
But I did rip off the bank for $7500 hundred dollars, when I was on my knees, and fighting for my economic life, on my aunt's credit card. But that wasn't really stealing, just payback. …
Why Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you are living in a world of your own delusions.
DeleteBuddy Larson and Trish both said that 'desert rat' was right.
Buddy Larsen Thu Aug 28, 02:03:00 PM EDT
Naw --BC was shut down, so i thought to check in & do some housekeeping --something i've been meaning to do for some time now --which is to acknowledge a ''ok, so you were right'' to DR's early crit of foreign policy stuff.
trish Sun Dec 24, 12:35:00 AM EST
The old fashioned way: Declare victory and come home.
Rat WAS always right about that.
http://2164th.blogspot.com/2008/08/european-concerns-over-russia-increase.html
Now when you can find the statements you say were made, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, please provide them.
{;-)
Probably going to bed before the shit throwing starts again......
ReplyDeleteCheers !!
.
ReplyDeleteSmoke on the Water
.
.
DeleteHighway Star
.
I'm sorry I called you an asshole, Quirk.
DeleteI didn't really really mean it.
I feel badly about it.
:(
d. rat is the only asshole here.
DeleteAnd he has not posted for months.
DeleteJihad Watch
ReplyDeleteExposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Raymond Ibrahim: Jihadis Cleansing Pakistan of Christians
March 23, 2015 5:52 pm By Raymond Ibrahim 18 Comments
lahoreblast-church-Punjab-Attack_3-15-2015_178233_lOn Sunday, March 15, as Christian churches around the world were celebrating morning mass, two churches in Pakistan were attacked by Islamic suicide bombers. At least 17 people were killed and over 70 were wounded.
The two churches (located in Youhanabad, Lahore’s Christian quarter) were St. John’s Catholic Church and Christ Church (Protestant). The Taliban claimed responsibility. It is believed that the group had hoped for much greater death tolls, as there were almost 2,000 people in both churches at the time of the explosions.
According to eyewitnesses, two suicide bombers approached the gates of the two churches and tried to enter them. When they were stopped — including by a 15-year-old Christian who blocked them with his body — they self-detonated. Witnesses saw “body parts flying through the air.”
Thus did the jihadis “kill and be killed,” in the words of Koran 9:111, the verse most often cited to justify suicide attacks… Keep reading
Jihad Watch
Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts
Raymond Ibrahim: Jihadis Cleansing Pakistan of Christians
March 23, 2015 5:52 pm By Raymond Ibrahim 18 Comments
lahoreblast-church-Punjab-Attack_3-15-2015_178233_lOn Sunday, March 15, as Christian churches around the world were celebrating morning mass, two churches in Pakistan were attacked by Islamic suicide bombers. At least 17 people were killed and over 70 were wounded.
The two churches (located in Youhanabad, Lahore’s Christian quarter) were St. John’s Catholic Church and Christ Church (Protestant). The Taliban claimed responsibility. It is believed that the group had hoped for much greater death tolls, as there were almost 2,000 people in both churches at the time of the explosions.
According to eyewitnesses, two suicide bombers approached the gates of the two churches and tried to enter them. When they were stopped — including by a 15-year-old Christian who blocked them with his body — they self-detonated. Witnesses saw “body parts flying through the air.”
Thus did the jihadis “kill and be killed,” in the words of Koran 9:111, the verse most often cited to justify suicide attacks… Keep reading...
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/03/raymond-ibrahim-jihadis-cleansing-pakistan-of-christians
Here you have real cleansing.
DeleteJihad Watch has this stuff every day. Eight or more articles each day about the latest moslem atrocities around the world.
It's sickening.
Who killed John Galt ?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIs he buried in Galt's Gulch ?
DeleteDid that danged Dagny do it ?
DeleteDid Deuce do it ?
Someone has taken him far away.
Deuce ☂Mon Mar 23, 11:59:00 PM EDT
ReplyDeleteThe World condemned the Afrikaners, not for being Dutch or Calvinist Protestants. They sanctioned them for being racists, segregationists, ghetto keepers and defenders of apartheid.
Quit being so weak and pathetic hiding behind the fact that being a Jew gives one a special dispensation or indulgence from criticism over wrongdoings.
Israel is on the wrong side of history and accepted human behavior. Last summer and the blatant murderous assault on the people of Gaza changed the future of Israel and Palestine. There is no going back and the petty apartheid model has no future whether it is practiced by Calvinists or Jews.
The World?
the same world that is silent when 300,000 syrians are murdered by Assad and Iran?
the same world that was silent when the Rwandan slaughter occurred? The Killing Fields of Cambodia? As North Korea starves it's people?
That same world?
The same world that sat by and did nothing to stop the million murdered in Sudan?
The same world that did nothing to stop the holocaust?
That same world?
LOL
Gaza was tragic, brought on and brought to us by Hamas, the Palestinian version of ISIS.
That a fact Jack.
The only magic that is gone is the world's. The world is consuming it's self.
The middle east is on fire, except Israel.
The only place that moslem, christians are safe?
ISRAEL.
Keep pointing your bony fingers at Israel as the rest of the world crumbles...
Did I ever tell the story about the time Quirk got caught drinking vodka, smoking a cigar, and reading the Bible in Saudi Arabia ?
ReplyDeleteIt was during the holy month of Ramadan, and Quirk and Maria had slipped into Mecca, and they were......
Maria was in a very short dress, low cut with bosom bouncy, and Quirk in cowboy boots and hat and sunglasses.....Maria was driving......
DeleteThe only place in the middle east that I'd feel safe is Israel.
ReplyDeleteIt's also the only place in that part of the world that I would wish to visit.
DeleteBut for some reason, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, you never managed to get there.
DeletePerhaps because you are afraid of those folks that discriminate against Christians, that burn the New Testament?
A hundred years before the advent of Hitler, the German-Jewish poet, Heinrich Heine, had declared:
"Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too."
On the night of May 10, 1933, an event unseen in Europe since the Middle Ages occurred as German students from universities once regarded as among the finest in the world, gathered in Berlin to burn books with "unGerman" ideas. …. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-bookburn.htm
May 20, 2008 - Orthodox Jews burn hundreds of New Testaments in latest act of violence against Christian missionaries in Israel. ... The Maariv newspaper reported Tuesday that hundreds of students took part in the book-burning. . . .
https://www.google.com/search?q=israel+book+burning&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb
Or is it folks that kill US sailors on the high seas that you find 'scary', but do not want to admit to it?
DeleteSoon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran’s nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks.
ReplyDeleteThe spying operation was part of a broader campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to penetrate the negotiations and then help build a case against the emerging terms of the deal, current and former U.S. officials said. In addition to eavesdropping, Israel acquired information from confidential U.S. briefings, informants and diplomatic contacts in Europe, the officials said.
The espionage didn’t upset the White House as much as Israel’s sharing of inside information with U.S. lawmakers and others to drain support from a high-stakes deal intended to limit Iran’s nuclear program, current and former officials said.
“It is one thing for the U.S. and Israel to spy on each other. It is another thing for Israel to steal U.S. secrets and play them back to U.S. legislators to undermine U.S. diplomacy,” said a senior U.S. official briefed on the matter.
The U.S. and Israel, longtime allies who routinely swap information on security threats, sometimes operate behind the scenes like spy-versus-spy rivals. The White House has largely tolerated Israeli snooping on U.S. policy makers — a posture Israel takes when the tables are turned.
The White House discovered the operation, in fact, when U.S. intelligence agencies spying on Israel intercepted communications among Israeli officials that carried details the U.S. believed could have come only from access to the confidential talks, officials briefed on the matter said.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
LOL
DeleteThe White House discovered the operation, in fact, when U.S. intelligence agencies spying on Israel intercepted communications among Israeli officials that carried details the U.S. believed could have come only from access to the confidential talks, officials briefed on the matter said.
WHEN AMERICAN SPIES, SPYING ON ISRAEL, DISCOVERED DETAILS…
LOL
How DARE ISRAEL give information, promised to be given by The Obama Administration but hidden, give this information to ELECTED American OFFICIALS…
Take about transparency…
LOL
BUt oh wait, the Israelis say they didn't NEED to spy on the Americans as Israel was receiving all the intel from the French and Germans and their efforts at spying on the Iranians..
DeleteLOL
But wait there is more…
Why are the Israelis being EXCLUDED from the p5+1?
After all the Iranian DEAL concerns Israel….
The DOJ needs to get on this. The GOP Likuds Force is involved in this.
ReplyDeletehahahahahaha
Delete
ReplyDeleteIraq Opts for Consolidation Over Advance in Battle Against ISIS
Most of the forces around Tikrit are Shiite militiamen, who are being guided by Iranian military advisers. Their advance into heavily Sunni areas has worried some American officials, and the United States-led coalition has not yet conducted airstrikes centered directly on the Tikrit mission.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
Given those concerns, as well as political and ethnic tensions and differing terrain and battle dynamics, a lineup of forces that works on one front may not work on another, analysts and officials say.
Yet it is hard to see how a large enough force to take Mosul — with hundreds of thousands of residents and thousands of ISIS fighters — could be built without drawing on all the available forces, regardless of the difficulties.
Iraqi officials insist that their urgent efforts to build up the regular army, with the help of American trainers, will deliver at least two or three more divisions — thousands of troops, theoretically — to help with the Mosul offensive. But recruiting and retraining efforts for the Iraqi Army have not produced as many fighters as the parallel efforts by Shiite militias.
At times, Shiite forces and pesh merga have cooperated against the Islamic State, and Iraqi officials say both groups operate under the central military chain of command. But they have been at best only loosely subsumed. And neither is well suited to Anbar, a province dominated by Sunni Arab tribes and a longtime cradle of Iraqi insurgencies. ISIS leaders first came together battling the United States occupation there.
Iraqi officials say more local Sunni fighters are needed in Anbar, along with regular forces. But the leaders of the so-called Sunni Awakening militias, which turned against Al Qaeda in Iraq with American backing starting in 2007, have been discredited or displaced, and new allies must be found, cajoled or bought.
Graphic
Multiple Fronts in the Fight Against ISIS
A visual guide to the crisis in Iraq and Syria.
At the same time, the Islamic State is believed by Iraqi and American officials to be pulling back fighters from other fronts to defend Mosul. The group continues to draw new recruits and move freely across the uncontrolled border with Syria. ISIS recently released a new video of fighters training, purportedly part of a new force formed to defend the city.
Rafid Jaboori, the spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said recently that the government envisions the battle for Mosul being led by new army forces, Sunni residents in and around Mosul, and Kurdish pesh merga, all supported by airstrikes from the United States-led military coalition.
Yet some of the Shiite militiamen fighting to take Tikrit have vowed to participate in an advance on Mosul as well, saying they had earned the honor.
“We haven’t fought anywhere and lost,” said Sayed Qasemi, a leader in Kirkuk of the popular mobilization units, the umbrella name for the many Shiite militias.
{;-)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/25/world/middleeast/iraq-opts-for-consolidation-over-advance-in-battle-against-isis.html?_r=0
Still, the militias and Kurds have cooperated at times. As the battle raged for Tikrit, pesh merga cleared more than 40 square miles of territory south and west of Kirkuk, the oil hub city that is central to Kurdish independence aspirations. That progress, which included help from Shiite militiamen, has effectively sandwiched some ISIS units between the main Kurdish and Shiite forces.
DeleteThe Islamic State fighters around Kirkuk were demoralized, according to General Rasoul Omar, a Kurdish commander. He said the militants lacked “spirit in their attack and even defense” and withdrew “wildly,” failing to leave behind their trademark lethal booby-traps.
How's that Memorial Day 2015 Prediction Date for an ISIS free Iraq workin' out for ya, military genius ?
DeleteBwabwabwabwabwahahahahahaha
You find that amusing do you?
DeleteYes, I do. Given that the fellow doing the predicting has always made such a big deal about his military expertise.
DeleteI have no military expertise at all, but it doesn't take a genius to have seen that ISIS has a lot more support than most here have given it.
I find it extremely amusing.
So the Iranians and their militias are killing scores of civilians in Iraq to no protest from the Elephant Bar…
DeleteTypical
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI will be removing persistent redundant comments from both of you.
DeleteWell, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson, we have a timestamped and dated remark from Trish, it says that 'rat' WAS right.
DeleteYour delusional rants concerning her statements are not confirmed.
Buddy Larson, he echoes the sentiment that rat was right'
No delusional rants, there.
I hope you do, Deuce. I get tired of responding. As you will have surely noticed, I am the one doing the responding.
DeleteYou can start on ratass right above, at
Jack HawkinsTue Mar 24, 11:17:00 AM EDT
if you are serious.
I hope you start taking his crap down.
If you do there will be no reply from me.
Off to work.
ReplyDeleteHave a great day.
Long live Israel.
Cheers !!
lordy, the b00bie feels the need to bless us with a few turds just for the sake of it...
ReplyDeleteI wanted to wish you a great day, Ashlikins, you moron, because you are Noble, and have admitted when you are wrong.
DeleteI also feel the need to try and Cheer everyone up.
Republican #1 " I support Israel first!"
ReplyDeleteRepublican #2 "Well, I also support Israel first, and I am willing to commit treason to prove it,"
Republican #3 "Death to America!"
Republican #4 "Death to the Democrat Jihadis, The American Wing of the Iranian Al Quds Force!"
Deletestill no imagination.
DeleteMockery, just mockery, my good man.
DeleteSpeaking of a lack of imagination:
Iran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites
Mar. 24, 2015 12:56 PM EDT
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian official on Tuesday rebuked the chief of the U.N. atomic agency for demanding snap inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying the request hindered efforts to reach an agreement with world powers, state TV reported.
The United States and five other world powers face an end-of-the-month deadline to reach a framework agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. Western nations suspect Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside the civilian program. Iran denies such allegations, insisting its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
Earlier this month Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran should agree to snap inspections to reassure the international community.
Iran's nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said Amano's comments harm the delicate negotiations. "It would be much better if Amano only talked about the IAEA's seasonal and monthly reports," he said, according to state TV.
Last June, Kamalvandi said Iran may accept snap inspections as part of a final nuclear agreement.
Iran and the so-called P5+1 -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany -- hope to reach a rough deal on the nuclear program by the end of March and a final agreement by June 30. Iran has called for a single-stage final accord soon.
Among the unresolved issues meant to be part of an agreement is a ruling by the atomic agency on whether Iran worked on nuclear arms in the past.
Tehran denies that, but the agency says it has information suggesting otherwise. It has remained essentially stalemated for a decade, however, in attempts to follow up on its suspicions.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9f85485c0bc5403391a55bf083fca2af/official-iran-wont-accept-snap-inspections-nuke-sites
Anyone that supports this kind of horse shit nuclear 'deal' has no imagination or understanding of what is happening at all.
That would be people like you.
Got to get going again.
Work is the curse of the drinking class.
Cheers !
And by the way, Israel recalls full well what it is to be in the ghetto.
They are determined to never allow themselves to be treated that way again.
The Palestinians are pledged to not only ghetto them, but exterminate them.
Read their Charters.
You can read all the charters you wish. Listen to all the speeches or simply open eyes and see what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians. Even your lying eyes can’t miss the distinction between the ghettos and the ghetto wardens.
DeleteYou really don't KNOW what a Ghetto is do you?
DeleteI know one when I see one.
DeleteThen you are ignorant.
DeleteMany of your darlings the 'Palestinians' came in from the desert when Jewish creativity got going and jobs were available. They were tired of burning camel and donkey dung for heat at night.
DeleteThen your darlings said thanks by helping attack the Jews right after Independence.
The 'Palestinians' don't deserve a state, couldn't handle a state, and it would just be used a the front lines of the perpetual Islamic war against the Jews, as mandated in their book, the Koran.
Sisi has offered them land in eastern Egypt.
Let them go there.
*********
A ghetto ?
I think Philly is a ghetto, myself.
The 8th largest economy on Earth is currently drawing 30% of its electricity from Renewables.
ReplyDeleteCaISO
Due to its embrace of the Affordable Care Act, Kentucky has cut its number of uninsured by 50%.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, Deloit expects that Obamacare will be responsible for Ky. creating 40,000 jobs, and seeing an increase of $800 Million in Revenues in the next 6 years.
Give KY to the Dems
DeleteI don't know, Deuce; them Kentuckians are some awfully strange folks. :)
DeleteFor Instance:
Delete"The analysis found that red states, or those that voted Republican in the 2012 presidential election, were much more likely to depend on the government than blue states.
That's somewhat ironic, considering the Republican Party's general reluctance to support federally funded initiatives like Medicaid expansion, and its long-term dedication to across-the-board budget cuts to slash the federal deficit."
Republican States the Most Dependent on Government
ReplyDelete(Reuters) - Iraq's request to the U.S.-led coalition for air strikes in the campaign to retake Tikrit from Islamic State insurgents is "imminent", a senior diplomat from a Western nation that is part of the coalition told Reuters on Tuesday.
If the coalition accepts the request, it would see by far the biggest collaboration so far against the militants by Iraqi forces, the Iranian-backed paramilitaries and their Iranian advisers on the ground, and the United States and its allies.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Iraq government about the request, which the diplomat said would be positively received. "Once that's happened (that) we have gotten the request, we will do whatever we are asked to do," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The coalition has been absent so far from the Tikrit campaign launched three weeks ago, the largest to be undertaken by the Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite Muslim militias since Islamic State overran a third of the country last year.
A military official within the coalition told Reuters on Tuesday that the coalition began providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for the Tikrit operation on March 21 after a request from the Iraq government. "The U.S. is now providing that support," he said.
More than 20,000 troops and allied Shi'ite paramilitary groups are taking part in the offensive which has been on pause for nearly two weeks after they suffered heavy casualties on the edge of the city, 160 kilometres (100 miles) north of Baghdad.
The Iraqi military had lobbied for U.S.-led coalition air strikes while Shi'ite paramilitary forces opposed such a move. One militia leader, Hadi al-Amiri, boasted three weeks ago that his men had been making advances for months without relying on U.S. air power.
SEEKING MOMENTUM
The mainly Sunni city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's home town, was seized by Islamic State in the first days of their lightning strike across northern Iraq last June.
If Iraq's Shi'ite led-government retakes Tikrit it would be the first city wrested from the Sunni insurgents and would give Baghdad momentum for a pivotal stage of the campaign: recapturing Mosul, the largest city in the north.
The diplomat added any strikes in Tikrit would be based on the model in the north where the coalition has carried out air strikes in tandem with the Kurdish pershmerga forces.
"I guess (the strikes) will be targeted against machine gun posts" and strike fighters if they fled to open ground, the diplomat said.
The most prominent Iranian military officer seen on the battlefield during the Tikrit offensive is Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the al-Quds brigade of Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
"Iranians fighting alongside the coalition is not a bad thing," the diplomat said, comparing the potential U.S.-Iranian alliance against Islamic State to the Western allies and Soviets battling Nazi Germany in World War Two.
"Strange bedfellows, isn't it?" he said. "What did Churchill say? 'I would sup with the devil himself if it defeated Hitler.'"
(Additional reporting by Isabel Coles in Erbil; Writing by Maggie Fick and Ahmed Rasheed; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Dead Men Walking Face Imminent Death
We supped with al queda in Afghanistan
DeleteWe supped with IS in Syria
and now we sup with paramilitary forces and Iran
some might call that progress...
(Reuters) - Two Iraqi local officials and a police officer accused Shi’ite paramilitary forces on Saturday of burning and looting homes in the town of al-Dour after capturing the area during a military campaign to oust Islamic State fighters.
ReplyDeleteA spokesman for the armed faction, Kataib Hezbollah, denied the allegations, while a security commander in the area also said there had been no incident in al-Dour.
Salahuddin Provincial Council member Sahar Mawlood, parliament member Dhia al-Douri and a local policeman said that Kataib Hezbollah fighters, who have been battling Islamic State, had looted, blown up or set fire to houses in the town.
"More than 150 houses were burned. Today witnessed the largest targeting of houses, more than the previous days," Mawlood said.
Iraqi security forces backed by Shi'ite paramilitary groups have paused their push to drive Islamic State out of the city of Tikrit, which it seized last June in a lightning advance across central Iraq, although they have captured al-Dour and nearby communities.
The Shi'ite paramilitary forces have been hailed as heroes by fellow Shi'ites, but accused by the Sunni minority of punishing Sunnis with extrajudicial killings and by driving ordinary people from their homes for failing to resist Islamic State.
They strongly deny the allegations. Kataib Hezbollah's military spokesman Jaffar al-Husseini called the al-Dour accusations a smear campaign, saying: "There aren't any attempts to destroy or burn houses in al-Dour."
He said the group that controls al-Dour had been defusing booby trap bombs rigged up in houses by Islamic State, and that security commanders and officials from Salahuddin province had witnessed the operations.
A national police commander, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters he had not seen anything unusual in the town on Saturday.
The operation to retake Tikrit was halted last weekend, as the Iraqi government said it wanted to make sure all civilians had been evacuated, and to protect soldiers and volunteer fighters who were facing stiff resistance.
Hard-line, neoconservative Zionists have overtaken the US government and are pushing for a war against Iran on behalf of Israel, an American scholar and journalist says.
ReplyDelete“This treasonous, neoconservative, Likud faction in the American government, which is financed by big money, hard-line, extremist Zionists, such as Sheldon Adelson… have essentially taken over the US government on behalf of the Likudnik faction in Israel, said Kevin Barrett, who is the founding member of Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance.
“They are desperately trying to derail a [nuclear] agreement with Iran,” Barrett told Press TV on Tuesday.
“They want to keep war going in the Middle East in order to allow endless Israeli expansion, to allow endless Israeli crimes against the Palestinians,” he added.
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have signed a letter telling President Barack Obama that any nuclear accord must constrain Iran's nuclear program for “decades” before Congress will roll back sanctions.
The letter, which was signed by 367 members of the House of Representatives and released on Monday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said, "A final comprehensive nuclear agreement must constrain Iran's nuclear infrastructure so that Iran has no pathway to a bomb, and that agreement must be long-lasting.”
In any agreement, “Congress must be convinced that its terms foreclose any pathway to a bomb, and only then will Congress be able to consider permanent sanctions relief,” according to the letter.
This letter is an “attempt by the Israelis to start a war against Iran,” Barrett said. “Every one of these Congress people, who’ve signed this letter, are traitors to the United States of America.”
“Because Zionists give about half of the campaign money that flows into the coffers of American politicians as thinly disguised bribes, they have a chokehold, a stranglehold over our Congress," Barrett stated.
Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist, is one of America's best-known critics of the War on Terror. Dr. Barrett has appeared many times on Fox, CNN, PBS and other broadcast outlets, and has inspired feature stories and op-eds in the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Chicago Tribune, and other leading publications. Dr. Barrett has taught at colleges and universities in San Francisco, Paris, and Wisconsin, where he ran for Congress in 2008. He currently works as a nonprofit organizer, author, and talk radio host. His website is http://www.truthjihad.com
DeleteWhat a lot of pure bullshit.
Delete.
ReplyDeleteIran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites
Mar. 24, 2015 12:56 PM EDT
It is no surprise that the article from bigstory.ap.org that follows the statement above does not support it.
.
You numbskull, Iran is not complying with the UN now.
DeleteAnd you expect them to do so under this phony agreement ?
You are often an idiot, though not an asshole.
Iran urged to comply with UN nuclear inspections -...
www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/05/14/iran-urged...
May 14, 2012 · The U.N. nuclear agency urged Iran on Monday ... persuading Tehran to allow IAEA inspectors to visit a suspect ... Iran urged to comply with UN ...
Iran urged to comply with UN nuclear inspections - The...
www.boston.com › News › World › Europe
May 15, 2012 · The U.N. nuclear agency urged Iran on Monday to give it access to the sites, people, ... UN agency pushes Iran on nuclear inspections
Iran Blocked UN Inspectors on Test Visit to Nuclear...
www.aina.org/news/20070511155458.htm Cached
... Iran blocked UN atomic experts on a first unannounced test inspection of an underground nuclear ... At stake is Iranian compliance with inspections by the ...
Ted Cruz is the newest Obamacare Enrollee.
ReplyDeleteOkay, NOW you can break out the "death panels." :)
BREAKING NEWS !!!!
DeleteRufus admits "Death Panels" exist !!!
:)
Just as Sarah said.
I may die of laughter if Deuce votes for Hillary Clinton.
DeleteWhat an Odyssey he has been on !
Sailed the seas and migrated from Ayn Rand all the way over to Islamism and Obama. Only to end up voting for Hillary ?
I am afraid I might die laughing.
“They want to keep war going in the Middle East in order to allow endless Israeli expansion, to allow endless Israeli crimes against the Palestinians,” he added.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the truth?
Israel has given up the SInai, Gaza and Southern Lebanon all for so called "peace"
I find it laughable the abuse of the English language to describe a few hundred acres as "endless Israeli expansion" the the writer, a Jew putting in an extra shower is "endless Israeli expansion".
It's comical the terms thrown out about Israel that are sheer garbage.
I challenge you all, look at a map of the arab occupied middle east and see that tiny sliver called Israel.
Delete1/900th.
Israel is STILL 20% arab and yet? the other 899/900th has been scrubbed clean of almost every Jew.
And yet it's "endless Israeli expansion" not the reverse "endless arab expansion" that is screamed.
Arabs can build on disputed lands and it's ok…
Arabs can slaughter and genocide and it's ok
Arabs can ethnically cleanse and it's ok…
But if Israel builds?
It's a war crime..
The ISraeli did not give the Palestinian citizenship, either as a part of ISrael or their own country.
DeleteThat is all that matters, now.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. has started providing Iraq with aerial intelligence in the stalled battle to oust Islamic State from Tikrit, drawing the American military into closer coordination with Iranian-backed militias spearheading the offensive.
ReplyDeleteMilitary officials said they aren’t working directly with Iran. But the intelligence will be used to help some 20,000 Iranian-backed Shiite militia fighters who make up the bulk of the force that has been struggling for weeks to retake the strategic city.
The Pentagon said Tuesday that the campaign had stalled amid tough fighting by hundreds of Islamic State fighters still holding most of Tikrit. At the request of the Iraqi government, the U.S. military began providing aerial video of the city, said an official with the American-led coalition helping Iraq fight Islamic State.
The U.S. involvement could pave the way for American airstrikes in Tikrit, hometown of onetime dictator Saddam Hussein.
The real-time aerial video surveillance sets the stage for the U.S. military to play a deeper role in the fight for Tikrit—if Iraq reduces its reliance on Iranian support.
“Right now, the Shiite militias are out there independently doing their thing—and failing,” said one U.S. defense official. “They’ve been failing for weeks now, and I think the Iraqi government is finally realizing that Iranian assistance is not going to get it done in Tikrit.”
The new aerial intelligence, which the U.S. started supplying to the Iraqi military in the past few days, could provide critical aid to reinvigorate the stalled Iraqi offensive.
The Iraqi military surprised the U.S. government by launching the fight for Tikrit earlier this month. Rather than relying on U.S. air support, as it has in other parts of Iraq, the Baghdad government sought help from Iran.
Qasem Soleimani, a senior Iranian commander, has played a very public role and was photographed meeting Shiite militia forces fighting for Tikrit. Mr. Soleimani heads the overseas unit of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is known as the Quds Force. Revolutionary Guard members provided Iraqi forces with artillery and rocket support in the fight, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. military had steered clear of the fight while predicting that Islamic State forces would be pushed out sooner or later. On Tuesday, Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the offensive in Tikrit had stalled, raising new questions about Iraq’s ability to push the extremist group out of the country.
The U.S.-led fight against Islamic State is complicated by Iran’s own effort to force the radical Sunni fighters out of Iraq. Some U.S. lawmakers have criticized the Obama administration for pursuing a policy in the Middle East that they see as aiding Iran, a longtime American adversary currently in controversial talks with U.S. and other world powers over its nuclear program.
DeleteBut U.S. officials said Tuesday that injecting American forces into the fight for Tikrit would send a subtle message that Iraq’s decision to work closely with Iran was a mistake.
“The Iraqi partnership with Iran has proven unfruitful, and now it’s time for the Iraqis to come partner with us,” said a second U.S. defense official.
For now, the U.S. military is providing the Iraqi government with video feeds from surveillance drones flying over Tikrit, American officials said. The information gives Iraq’s military vital, real-time information on Islamic State forces and will help them prepare to push the fighters out of town.
U.S. airstrikes in Tikrit are a much more complicated and more remote option.
“It’s a possibility, but intelligence and surveillance doesn’t directly equate to targeting and lighting something up,” said a third U.S. defense official.
Haidar Al-Wardi, a spokesman for the Iranian-backed Badr Corps, one of the largest Shiite militias fighting alongside the Iraqi army, said the operation to recapture Tikrit was on hold until . . . . . . . .
Will They, or Won't They?
They can't even take Tikrit.
DeleteMosul ?
hahaha a joke
There is much more support for ISIS in SunniLand than people suppose.
The important story is that southern Iraq is becoming an Iranian satrapy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satrap
The American People have finally gotten what they have always wanted..........a total fool in the White House.
If you are a 'Palestinian' and you sell land/homes to Jews you get a bullet in the back of the head.
ReplyDelete>>Two Palestinians, suspected among other things of selling land to Jews, were killed in the West Bank under suspicious circumstances. In 1997 PA Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein announced that the death penalty would be imposed on anyone convicted of ceding "one inch" of land to Israel. A Palestinian land ownership law that was passed by the Palestinian Council forbids Palestinians from brokering or facilitating the sale of Palestinian land to non-Palestinians and provides that such activities be considered "high treason." The PA has arrested and continues to hold several suspected land dealers for violating the Jordanian law in force in the West Bank that prohibits the sale of land to foreigners.
Mohammed Anqawi, age 50, was found shot to death near Ramallah. Anqawi was suspected of selling land to Jews and collaborating with Israel, and family members say that he had been summoned to Palestinian intelligence headquarters in Ramallah immediately prior to his death. The Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group accused the PA of murdering Anqawi. The next day, Riboi Musfi Awad was found dead in an Israeli-controlled area near Ramallah. Awad, who was reputed to be a collaborator, had been shot in the head. Palestinians say that he had been summoned to Palestinian police offices to discuss allegations that he sold land to Jews. Palestinian authorities say that because the body was found in an Israeli-controlled area, they did not investigate the death.
In short, selling property to a Jew is punishable by death in Jordan and in the PA. Where are the liberals on this issue? <<
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrSnJ8BHxJV12EAQO5PmolQ?qid=20070402024907AAsCPbC
Where is DEUCE on this issue ?
Is this apartheid ?
Is this ethnic cleansing ?
Fucking 'Palestinians' are the cause of all the trouble.
If there were Canadians, Americans or (today) Europeans living there instead of the fucking 'Palestinians', many of whom came in from the desert for the jobs that Jewish creativity created, there would not be the 'problem'.
The Israelis have no one with whom to negotiate.
A 'Palestinian' state would soon become just another launching pad for missiles aimed at Israel. It would be the front lines of the Islamic war on the Jews. We recall the Koran says to kill all the Jews.
And we recall that the Charter of Hamas, and the PA too in different language, calls for the extermination of the Jews.
And yet we have a well educated man here who thinks it's all the Jew's fault.
There is something about rock gut anti-semitism that takes all logic and rationality away.
It is called ...
DeleteCollaborating with the Enemy, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson.
It was also punishable by death in France, when collaborators made deals with the NAZI.
It was a death sentence in the Soviet Union, too
When collaborating with invaders, that is often the prescribed penalty.
The ISraeli will not allow sales of land to Palestinians ...
The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership.
Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF. This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated.
Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases.
Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.
http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership
Fuck off and quite following me around.
DeleteEveryone has at one time or other expressed themselves about you.
The vast majority say you are a liar.
Deuce has asked you to cease and desist with the continual harassment.
Leave me alone and I won't need to answer you.
Make for a much more pleasant place.
.
Deletehttps://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AwrSnJ8BHxJV12EAQO5PmolQ?qid=20070402024907AAsCPbC
:o)
.
Report from O'bozo's shining success story, Yemen........
ReplyDeleteYemen's Houthis enter southern town near Red Sea strait
ADEN, Yemen, March 24 Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:37am EDT
(Reuters) - Fighters from Yemen's dominant Houthi movement have entered the Red Sea port of al-Mukha, bringing them closer to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's refuge in Aden, security officials and residents said on Tuesday.
The advance also placed the Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital Sanaa in September, a short drive from the Bab al-Mandeb strait, a Red Sea shipping lane vital to oil shipments.
To the east, Houthi units on Tuesday entered Dhalea town, traditionally a hotbed of southern separatism, and fought gun battles with tribesmen and militias from the southern independence movement, residents said.
To the north in Taiz province, clashes erupted between anti-Houthi protesters and troops in Turba village and nearby Taiz city. The soldiers opened fire on the protesters, killing at least four and wounding several others, medical officials said.
The latest action deepened the conflict in Yemen, a perennially unstable neighbour of oil power Saudi Arabia and a frontline in U.S. efforts to combat Islamist militants.
The Houthis, a Shi'ite Muslim group backed by Iran, captured Sanaa last September. Hadi, a former general seen by the Houthis as a pawn of Gulf Arab monarchies and the West, fled the city in February and is trying to stage a comeback from a base in Aden.......
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/content/yemens-houthis-enter-southern-town-near-red-sea-strait
Are we not BLESSED to have such a Napoleon in D.C.as our O'bozo ?
The Opinion Pages | Op-Ed Columnist
ReplyDeleteHow to Fight Anti-Semitism
MARCH 24, 2015
Continue reading the main story
[David Brooks]
Anti-Semitism is rising around the world. So the question becomes: What can we do to fight it? Do education campaigns work, or marches or conferences?
There are three major strains of anti-Semitism circulating, different in kind and virulence, and requiring different responses.
In the Middle East, anti-Semitism has the feel of a deranged theoretical system for making sense of a world gone astray. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, doesn’t just oppose Israel. He has called it the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.” He has said its leaders “look like beasts and cannot be called human.”
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran reinstated a conference of Holocaust deniers and anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. Two of Iran’s prominent former nuclear negotiators apparently attended. In Egypt, the top military staff attended a lecture on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The region is still rife with the usual conspiracy theories — that the Jews were behind 9/11, drink the blood of non-Jews, spray pesticides across Egyptian lands.
This sort of anti-Semitism thrives where there aren’t that many Jews. The Jew is not a person but an idea, a unique carrier of transcendent evil: a pollution, a stain, a dark force responsible for the failures of others, the unconscious shame and primeval urges they feel in themselves, and everything that needs explaining. This is a form of derangement, a flight from reality even in otherwise sophisticated people.
This form of anti-Semitism cannot be reasoned away because it doesn’t exist on the level of reason. It can only be confronted with deterrence and force, at the level of fear. The challenge for Israel is to respond to extremism without being extreme. The enemy’s rabidity can be used to justify cruelty, even in cases where restraint would be wiser. Israeli leaders try to walk this line, trying to use hard power, without becoming a mirror of the foe, sometimes well, sometimes not.
In Europe, anti-Semitism looks like a response to alienation. It’s particularly high where unemployment is rampant. Roughly half of all Spaniards and Greeks express unfavorable opinions about Jews. The plague of violence is fueled by young Islamic men with no respect and no place to go.
In the current issue of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg has an essay, “Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?” He reports on a blizzard of incidents: a Jewish school principal who watched a Frenchman of Algerian descent pin his 8-year-old daughter down in the schoolyard and execute her; a Swedish rabbi who has been the target of roughly 150 anti-Semitic attacks; French kids who were terrified in school because of the “Dirty Jew!” and “I want to kill all of you!” chants in the hallway; the Danish imam who urged worshipers in a Berlin mosque to kill the Jews, “Count them and kill them to the very last one.”
Thousands of Jews a year are just fleeing Europe. But the best response is quarantine and confrontation. European governments can demonstrate solidarity with their Jewish citizens by providing security, cracking down — broken-windows style — on even the smallest assaults. Meanwhile, brave and decent people can take a page from Gandhi and stage campaigns of confrontational nonviolence: marches, sit-ins and protests in the very neighborhoods where anti-Semitism breeds. Expose the evil of the perpetrators. Disturb the consciences of the good people in these communities who tolerate them. Confrontational nonviolence is the historically proven method to isolate and delegitimize social evil.
DeleteContinue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story
The United States is also seeing a rise in the number of anti-Semitic incidents. But this country remains an astonishingly non-anti-Semitic place. America’s problem is the number of people who can’t fathom what anti-Semitism is or who think Jews are being paranoid or excessively playing the victim.
On college campuses, many young people have been raised in a climate of moral relativism and have no experience with those with virulent evil beliefs. They sometimes assume that if Israel is hated, then it must be because of its cruel and colonial policies in the West Bank.
In the Obama administration, there are people who know that the Iranians are anti-Semitic, but they don’t know what to do with that fact and put this mental derangement on a distant shelf. They negotiate with the Iranian leaders, as if anti-Semitism was some odd quirk, instead of what it is, a core element of their mental architecture.
There are others who see anti-Semitism as another form of bigotry. But these are different evils. Most bigotry is an assertion of inferiority and speaks the language of oppression. Anti-Semitism is an assertion of impurity and speaks the language of extermination. Anti-Semitism’s logical endpoint is violence.
Groups fighting anti-Semitism sponsor educational campaigns and do a lot of consciousness-raising. I doubt these things do anything to reduce active anti-Semitism. But they can help non-anti-Semites understand the different forms of the cancer in our midst. That’s a start.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/opinion/david-brooks-how-to-fight-anti-semitism.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1
>>>Ayatollah Ali Khamenei doesn’t just oppose Israel. He has called it the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region.” He has said its leaders “look like beasts and cannot be called human.”<<<
ReplyDeleteI have read on these very pages here that the Israelis/Jews are 'the scum of the earth'.
We should all fight anti-semitism with all our might.
It is a psychological illness that can lead to horrendous consequences.
The ISraeli kill US citizens with impunity, they are a scourge upon the region.
DeleteThey should not be given any special consideration by US.
“You can only rule over a subject race, especially when you are in a small minority, if you honestly believe yourself to be racially superior, and it helps towards this if you can believe that the subject race is biologically different.”
― George Orwell
DeleteTo conflate Judaism and ISrael, that is a psychological illness that has led to horrendous consequences
That two states is not what Israel’s enemies want was made clear enough when President Clinton brought then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat to Camp David in 2000. Barak offered Arafat virtually everything he asked for — 95 percent by some estimates — and Arafat rejected the offer.
ReplyDelete...
In Deuteronomy 17:7, God instructs the ancient Israelites: “You must purge the evil from among you.”
In his dangerous pursuit of a problematic nuclear weapons deal with Iran and his attempt to marry a cancerous Palestinian state to the land of Israel, President Obama is not purging evil; he’s inviting it to spread. History will judge him for this as it has every other nation that has harmed “the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)
- Cal Thomas
Idiotic.
DeleteI mentioned Arafat just a while ago.
DeleteExcellent.
The evil that exists amongst the Jews are the Ashkenazi, who are not Israelites but have come to Judaism through the process of proselytization.
DeleteGaza Professor of Koran: When Fish Fight Other Fish, It’s Because of the Jews
ReplyDeleteMarch 24, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield
If only it wasn’t for the Jews, the salmon would co-exist with the shark, the killer whale would play with the goldfish and the great barracuda would swim with the tuna.
But the Jews… always the Jews.
Just ask Imad Hamato, Professor of Quranic Studies at the University of Palestine and host of a TV program on Islam for the Palestinian Authority, Israel’s terrorist peace partners.
The Jews are behind all that is wrong in the world, according to the host of a weekly Palestinian Authority TV program on Islam. Even when fish fight in the sea, “the Jews are behind it,” said the Muslim preacher and professor of Quranic Studies, Imad Hamato.
“Humanity will never live in comfort as long as the Jews are causing devastating corruption throughout the land. Humanity will never live in peace or fortune or tranquility as long as they are corrupting the land. An old man told me: If a fish in the sea fights with another fish, I am sure the Jews are behind it. As Allah says: ”Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. They strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters” (Sura 5:64).”
The solution for Muslims, according to the professor, is to fight Jews: “Our real Jihad is to take revenge.”
Someone must avenge the fish. When the Jihad is complete, then the shark will frolic with the guppy. And if not, then it’ll be the fault of the Christians, Yazidis, Hindus, Buddhists or any other surviving non-Muslims who will have to be killed… for the fish.
Filed Under: The Point
About Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.
********
University of Palestine......hmmmmm
I wonder if one can get an on-line degree from UP?
Some here seem to have already mastered the subject matter and could easily coast to an 'A' grade. Or could go to Gaza and sit at the feet of this master himself.
Now That would be an education.
It's the very same kind of crap they were preaching back in Martha Gellhorn's day, and for the last 1400 years.
DeleteIsrael does not have a partner for peace.
There is no one sane on the other side to talk to......they've all graduated from the University of Palestine.
"Their media are one long scream of hate."
DeleteMartha Gellhorn
Mətušélaḥ Thu Dec 20, 11:18:00 PM EST
DeleteIsrael is wrong on this issue, as it does not follow the Biblical precepts. The Talmud is an abomination, and is not a source of authority. The Tanah is the only authoritative source we should be referring to. As far as the Sanhedrin goes, it, as well as the Temple Complex should never have existed. That they no longer exist is good thing.
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DeleteTwo nitwits quoting nut jobs on the opposite extremes to support their positions.
.
g'nite
ReplyDeleteGot doctor's appointment tomorrow. An excuse not to work.
Cheers !!
Netanyahu’s Victory did us the favor of ending the Charade
ReplyDeleteBy contributors | Mar. 25, 2015 |
By Yigal Bronner | (Informed Comment) –
(Jerusalem) | The results of the Israeli elections are good for everybody. Good, because any remaining fog has cleared, and we now have a perfect view of where the country is heading. The elections were won on two straightforward and simple principles. First, as Netanyahu said very clearly, voting for him meant that there will never be a Palestinian state, only one Israel, in which the Palestinians will forever be occupied and governed by a separate set of laws. They will not have citizenship, will not vote, will have no basic rights, and remain a criminal caste to be dealt with by the army and military courts.
This is Apartheid, and Israel embraced it last week willingly and with open eyes.
Second is the video Netanyahu released on election day (echoing many similar statements by him and his partners during the campaign), where he warned that “Arabs are heading to the polls in droves.” The racist premise on which Israel’s demand to be (and recognized as) a Jewish state came out of the hat in the clearest possible terms. The Jewish state, this can no longer be denied, is a place where minority vote is an imminent danger, just like black vote in George Wallace’s Alabama. The elections were by and large a referendum on this racist principle, and the voters affirmed it unequivocally.
The alternative outcome of the elections, the one predicted by the polls, was that some of Netanyahu’s voters would drift to his often more extremist partners, weakening him and allowing the centrist parties such as Herzog’s Zionist Union into some sort of coalition, most likely with Netanyahu himself. Such an outcome, we must now realize, would have only helped mask, wittingly or unwittingly, Israel’s Apartheid and its racist premise. This mask is now gone, and gone for good.
Yes, it is good to know where one stands. We still live in 1967. Selma 1967. Or Johannesburg. That much is now as clear as daylight. Of course, a lot is still unknown. What is the best path for a nonviolent popular resistance in the region? When will the world join the pressure for real? Will the Palestinians find their MLK or Mandela? And will there be an Israeli Johnson, or De Klerk, or even de Gaulle? The future, as always, remains uncertain. But it is no small thing that the present moment is crystal clear.
Yigal Bronner
HEY QUIRK YOU DUNDERHEAD STICK THIS IN ONE OF YOUR CLOWN NOSTRILS AND SNIFF IT
ReplyDeleteUN nuclear watchdog says Iran not providing needed information, access.........Drudge
Satisfied with trying to enlighten Q, a tough task, I go to bed at peace with the world.
DeleteIran isn’t providing needed access or information, nuclear watchdog says
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), speaks at the Carnegie International Nuclear Policy Conference in Washington on Monday. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)
By Steven Mufson March 24 at 2:23 PM
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran has failed to provide the information or access needed to allay the agency’s concerns about the weapons potential of the country’s nuclear program.
With the deadline nearing for international talks on constraining Iran’s nuclear program, Yukiya Amano, director general of the IAEA, said in an interview that Iran has replied to just one of a dozen queries about “possible military dimensions” of past nuclear activities.
Amano said that Iran has provided only “very limited” information about two other issues, while the rest have not been addressed at all.
“Recently, the progress is very limited,” he said.
The IAEA is the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, and its inspections are considered a key safeguard against countries using civilian nuclear energy technology to produce weapons. Failure by Iran to comply with IAEA demands would undermine the country’s efforts to win the lifting of U.N. sanctions.
View Graphic
Graphic: Iran's potential nuclear capability
[Kerry on Iran nuclear talks: ‘We have the opportunity to do this right’]
Amano said that the six global powers negotiating with Iran should insist that the country implement the additional protocol that would allow IAEA inspectors to go anywhere at any time to examine sites suspected of harboring secret nuclear weapons development.
He said that he spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Feb. 7 in Munich but noted that Iran has not yet provided the information the agency needs.
America needs to wake up to the danger of grand apartheid in Israel
ReplyDeleteTuesday’s election in Israel delivered a familiar result: another victory for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud Party walloped the leftist Zionist Union.
Still, the election was a strange one for Israel. It's rare enough for the Israeli prime minister to give a speech before the U.S. Congress; it's rarer to do it with the object of undermining a major American diplomatic initiative as part of a triple-backflip election maneuver to distract from your nation's wretched economy.
But that's exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu did. Falling behind the center-left Zionist Union in the polls over the last several days, he turned hard right, announcing an explicit rejection of a Palestinian state. As voting approached, he sank to gutter racism in an attempt to stoke the ultra-conservative vote, warning on his Facebook page that "Arab voters are going to the polls in droves. Left-wing organizations are bringing them in buses."
The hidden upside of this rancid politicking is that Netanyahu did both America and Israel a favor by clarifying in plain words what was already the de facto reality in Israel and the occupied territories. And if America and Israel had any sense at all, they'd seize this opportunity to stop heading down the road to grand apartheid.
In South Africa, grand apartheid was the system of major racial separation that forced blacks out of the most developed parts of the nation (as opposed to petty apartheid, which consisted of smaller measures like a ban against interracial marriage). The keystone of grand apartheid were the bantustans, which were small, usually geographically non-contiguous "homelands" for each black tribe. With several fake nations set aside for blacks, the white government could pretend like it was doing "separate but equal" while stealing all the best land and mercilessly exploiting a politically powerless black working class.
I know that any invocation of the A-word inevitably sets off a storm of controversy. But the facts are these: Gaza and the West Bank have been dominated by Israel since 1967, and Palestinians who live there have few rights. They already live Israelis' worst nightmares. It's not democracy, to say the least.
Netanyahu openly says that there will never be a Palestinian state or an end to the occupation so long as he is prime minister. If that's not grand apartheid then the words have no meaning. As former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak once said, "If there is one state, it will have to be either binational or undemocratic. ... if this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state."
Netanyahu's recent comments are not only revealing, but they could put America in quite a bind. Jonathan Chait summarizes the situation as a serious danger for the U.S.–Israel relationship.
http://theweek.com/articles/544794/america-needs-wake-danger-grand-apartheid-israel
....and this:
DeleteRallying his supporters to the polls, Netanyahu warns, “Arab voters are going to the polls in droves. Left-wing organizations are bringing them in buses.” Of course, the availability of Arab voting rights is a longtime point of Israeli pride, a fundamental defense of the principle of Zionism against its existential critics.
Taken together, Netanyahu’s comments present a coherent and chilling vision of his long-term strategy. His intention is to maintain singular Israeli control in perpetuity over the entire territory that the early Zionists were once happy to partition into two states. This course will eventually lead to pressure for Palestinians to gain a democratic voice within the institutions that control their lives, but Netanyahu treats that as illegitimate, as well. He proposes to snuff out every peaceful outlet for Arab political aspirations.
In this light, his bumbling attempts to transform Israel’s alliance with the United States into an alliance with its conservative movement looks less like a blunder (as his former ambassador Michael Oren has described it) and more like a plan. In the long run, a deep American alliance with the kind of garrison state Netanyahu envisions will become untenable. The only remaining diplomatic strategy will be to deepen Israel’s ties with right-wing America, whose support for Israel is not contingent upon it fulfilling its liberal, democratic ideals. The Republicans who hailed Netanyahu as a Churchillian prophet are cheering a figure who no longer disguises his intention to bury forever the original Zionist dream.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/03/netanyahus-vision-for-post-democratic-israel.html
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteIf a 'Palestinian' SELLS land to a Jew, he gets a bullet in the back of the head.
DeleteNow THAT'S apartheid.
This behavior is probably taught in the Islamic Ethics Class at the 'University' of Palestine.
If a 'Palestinian' SELLS land to a Jew, he gets a bullet in the back of the head.
DeleteNo, Robert "Draft Dodger" Peterson that is collaboration with the enemy.
The ISraeli cannot sell land to Palestinians, by their own adherence to Islamic Law, that is Apartheid.
The Israeli government has, to a large extent, continued the Ottoman legal system in regard to land ownership.
Thus, today the vast proportion of land within the State of Israel (roughly 93%) is owned and managed either by the Israel Lands Administration (ILA) or the JNF. This figure includes much of such extensive regions as the Negev and the Judean Wilderness (near the Dead Sea), which are sparsely populated.
Jewish settlements in the State of Israel usually are located on lands that are owned by the ILA or the JNF and that have been consigned to each settlement through long-term leases.
Less than 7% of the land in the State of Israel is privately owned.
http://elearning.la.psu.edu/jst060/lesson_2/land-ownership
What's happened in Bethlehem ?
ReplyDeleteNo one ever mentions it, and it is just one instance.
Now THAT is apartheid.
And Ramallah.
As the CBS report showed, Palestinian Christians today have to speak out against “Israeli occupation,” because if they don’t, their silence will be perceived as pro-Israeli by the Muslims. Christian leaders don’t mention the fact that they have suffered the most from the mafia-style rule of Yasser Arafat’s kleptocracy, that slogans like “Islam will win” and “First the Saturday people then the Sunday People” have been painted on their churches, and that PLO flags were draped over crosses.
After the 1948 war, Christian communities suffered most in the West Bank, not under “Israel’s occupation,” but because Muslim refugees were cynically settled in their midst by the Arab leadership. Ramallah was 90% Christian before the war, while Bethlehem was 80% Christian. By 1967, more than half of Bethlehem’s residents were Muslim, while Ramallah is a large Muslim city today.
In a process of “Lebanonization,” Arafat changed Bethlehem’s demography by bringing in thousands of Muslims from refugee camps. Arafat then turned the city into a safe haven for suicide bombers and transformed the Greek Orthodox monastery, located next to the Church of Nativity, into his residence. Christian cemeteries and convents were desecrated and Christians became the PLO’s human shields.
In the first year of the second Intifada, when Arafat’s terrorists ravaged Christian towns by gunfire and mortars, 1,640 Christians left Bethlehem and another 880 left Ramallah.
In 2007, one year after Hamas’s Gaza takeover, the owner of the Strip’s only Christian bookstore was murdered. Christian shops and schools were firebombed. Ahmad al-Achwal is just one of the many Palestinians converted to Christianity killed by Islamic militants.......
http://jerusalemworldnews.com/2012/05/01/bethlehems-last-christians/
And Deuce talks of Israeli apartheid.
When Arabs sit in the Knesset and vote in the elections.
Give me a goddamn break.
It is sickening.
That you can even count the numbers of "Arabs", that there are 'official' ethnicities within ISrael, that is Apartheid.
DeleteAPARTHEID AND OCCUPATION
More than 5 million Palestinians are denied equal rights by the state of Israel under a system of apartheid, a deliberate policy of racial or ethnic segregation.
Under Israeli military occupation, millions of Palestinians live in conditions which closely resemble the apartheid system that existed in South Africa:
• No right of free speech, assembly or movement
• Arrest and imprisonment without charge or trial
• Torture
• House searches without warrant
• Assassination, extra-judicial murder
• No right to vote for the Israeli government (even though it controls their lives)
Israel controls all Palestinian borders, all imports and exports, and all movement between towns and cities.
THE GAZA STRIP, still surrounded, besieged and controlled by Israel, has been sealed off and effectively turned into the world’s largest open-air prison.
WHAT IS ISRAELI APARTHEID?
Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter was the first prominent figure in this country to apply the term apartheid to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories—East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. Israel’s apartheid system, however, also affects Palestinian Arabs who make up 20 percent of the population within Israel itself.
Apartheid is a central feature of the Zionist state that proclaims it is exclusively for Jews.
http://www.seamac.org/EqualRights.htm
And speaking of apartheid, I wonder if Deuce is aware of the insistence of the Palestinians that there shall be no Jews allowed in their areas of their future state, ever.
ReplyDeleteAre you aware of that Deuce ?
Search results
DeleteNo Jews in future Palestinian state, Abbas says |...
www.jewishjournal.com/israel/article/no_jews_in_future... Cached
No Jews in future Palestinian state, Abbas ... Abbas insisted that “East Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Palestine” and “we’ve already made all ...
Abbas pledges: There will be no Israelis in Palestine |...
www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-says-there-will-be-no... Cached
... There will be no Israelis in Palestine ... territory from Israel to make up for settlement areas that would become a permanent part of the Jewish State. ...
Abbas: No Jews in Palestinian State - The Israel...
israelsituation.com/abbas-no-jews-in-palestinian-state Cached
Abbas: No Jews in Palestinian State. ... Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made it clear that a future state called Palestine will not be a home to Jews.
(Media Ignore Palestinian Talk of No Jews Allowed in...
newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2011/09/22/media... Cached
Sep 22, 2011 · As attention has turned to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Palestinian Authority planning to seek recognition for a Palestinian state by the ...
PA’s Erekat: No Jews Allowed In Palestinian State – PA...
zoa.org/2009/07/102461-pas-erekat-no-jews-allowed-in... Cached
... No Jews Allowed In Palestinian State ... has said in a detailed interview with an Arabic newspaper that no Jews should be permitted to stay in a Palestinian ...
Palestinians: No Jews in our state - Israel Today |...
www.israeltoday.co.il/News/tabid/178/nid/22948/language/... Cached
The Palestinine Liberation Organization (PLO) ambassador to the US, Maen Areikat, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the Palestinian state his regime is ...
Palestine: No Jews allowed! - Israel Today | Israel...
www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24014/... Cached
... be permitted to live in future Palestinian state. ... Palestine: No Jews allowed ... was aiming for was an independent state ethnically cleansed of all Jews. ...
PLO Ambassador: No Jews in New Palestinian State -...
www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/09/14/plo-no... Cached
According to this report in USA Today, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative in Washington has declared there will be no place in any future ...
PLO: No Jews in a Palestinian state | reportergary.com
reportergary.com/2011/09/no-jews-in-a-palestinian-state Cached
PLO: No Jews in a Palestinian state. ISRAEL TODAY. WASHINGTON – The PLO ambassador to the US, Maen Areikat, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the ...
You really should give the apartheid thing a rest Deuce.
DeleteYou are at odds with reality.
Reality bats last.
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.
DeleteMillions 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.
Except for the millions of Jewish refugees that the arabs threw out?
DeleteThe right of return is enshrined for all peoples.
Now if those arabs want to go to the arab controlled areas of the west bank and gaza?
GO FOR IT....
In an especially perceptive passage, the authors write:
ReplyDelete“Israel’s version of apartheid is more sophisticated than the South African version.
South African apartheid was rudimentary, petty, primitive —
literally black and white, clear separation, no rights.
Israel’s apartheid is more hidden with the deceptive image of ‘democracy.’
Palestinian citizens of Israel have the right to vote.
However, in every other area they are discriminated against by law and policy.”
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-apartheid-more-sophisticated-south-africas-says-new-book/12581
ReplyDeleteThe Economy, Like Arithmetic, Is Not Complicated; Even If Robert Samuelson Does Not Understand It
Print
Wednesday, 25 March 2015 04:39
Robert Samuelson (sorry, he's not going to take advantage of my vacation) gets it badly wrong about the economy again. He began his Monday column by telling readers:
"The Federal Reserve is at a crossroads, and it doesn’t know where it’s going."
Really? The Fed doesn't know where it's going? How about Robert Samuelson doesn't know where it's going?
It gets worse:
"There was a time when we were more confident. We didn’t pay attention to details, because the experts had matters in hand. During the Alan Greenspan era (1987-2006), the Fed was routinely seen as an economic superman. Its surgical shifts in the federal funds rate seemed to stabilize the economy: Expansions were long, recessions rare and mild."
Umm, no. "We" did pay attention to details. We yelled as loudly as we possibly could that there was a huge housing bubble that would sink the economy when it burst. Of course papers like the Washington Post did not pay attention to us because it did not fit their story that the Fed was an economic superman. Such nonsense was the conventional wisdom at the time and the paper did not want to give those who challenged the claim a voice. Now, it wants to pretend that people who understood the basic economics of the housing bubble, and the stock bubble before it, did not exist.
And Samuelson gives us more error:
"It’s true that during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the Fed arguably averted another Great Depression. It supplied credit when frightened private lenders wouldn’t. Since then, it has been less successful. To revive the economy, it unleashed massive amounts of financial stimulus. The federal funds rate has stayed near zero since late 2008, and the Fed bought more than $3 trillion of government and mortgage bonds to reduce long-term rates. For this energetic exercise in money creation, all it got was a sluggish and frustrating recovery."
DeleteNope, it is not arguable that the Fed averted another Great Depression. If the Fed had let the market work its magic on Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and the rest, what is the argument as to why a massive stimulus program would not have boosted the economy back to health? Is there something that would have prevented spending on infrastructure, education, and research from creating jobs and spurring growth in the same way that spending on World War II created jobs and spurred the economy seven decades ago?
If Samuelson has such an argument he could probably earn himself a Nobel prize for it. Even if he can just produce a remotely plausible story to this effect he can probably get a good script for a new Twilight Zone.
The economics is pretty simple: spending creates jobs. The economy doesn't care if it comes from the private sector or the public sector. There is a possible political argument. We have so many ignorant people in positions of authority that it is possible they would have prevented the necessary spending and thereby forced the economy to endure another Great Depression. But that is a political argument, not an economic argument.
In the real world, the bailout saved the biggest banks in the country and ensured that the same arrogant bastards who brought us the stock and housing bubbles would continue to be hugely rich. It also ensured that they would continue to be major actors in national politics (yes, we're thinking of Robert Rubin types). The more liberal members of this Wall Street gang get to engage in serious handwringing over the causes of inequality.
DeleteNow to get to matters at hand:
"Policy has been neither a glorious success nor an abject failure. It’s been a pragmatic muddle. The plodding recovery has reduced the unemployment rate from 10 percent in October 2009 to 5.5 percent now. Extravagantly easy money seems less defensible. The Fed has ended its program of bond buying. Yellen is saying that — assuming the recovery continues — the Fed should wean the economy of near-free money.
"This seems a good idea, but how it can be done is an open question."
Well, for fans of economics data, it does not seem like a good idea to raise interest rates and slow the economy. While the unemployment rate has fallen back to 5.5 percent, the percentage of the population that is working is still close to 3.0 percentage points below its trend level. This is even after adjusting for the aging of the population. That translates into a gap of more than 4 million jobs.
The lost jobs don't just mean millions of people not working. It means that tens of millions of workers lack the bargaining power to push up their wages. Would Samuelson think it was a good idea to raise interest rates and slow the economy if the people going unemployed and losing out on pay hikes were Robert Samuelson and his friends and family? Somehow, we doubt it. (Hey, if he gets to use "we" so do I.)
Anyhow, the question here is pretty simple in spite of Samuelson's efforts to sow confusion. There is very little plausible benefit from raising interest rates and slowing the economy at a point where the economy is far below its potential by almost any measure and there is no evidence of inflation anywhere. There are enormous costs from such pre-mature rate hikes. (Deficit hawks would join in the anti-rate hike yelling if they really cared about the budget deficit, but apparently "honest deficit hawk" is an oxymoron.)
If we want to fight inequality, poverty, single-parent families and reduce the budget deficit, then the Fed should keep interest rates low and do everything possible to spur growth. But, if we want to ensure that workers have no bargaining power and there will be a big market for thoughtful tomes on the origins of inequality, then we should want the Fed to raise interest rates and throw people out of work.
DeleteDean Baker
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DeleteWell, I got that one wrong. I assumed this piece was from that nitwit Krugman.
:o)
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's President Fouad Massoum said on Wednesday that the U.S.-led coalition will soon carry out air strikes against Islamic State in the Sunni city of Tikrit, after starting aerial reconnaissance flights this week.
ReplyDeleteA three-week offensive by Iraqi government forces and Iranian-backed Shi'ite paramilitaries has failed to flush out Islamic State fighters from Tikrit, the birthplace of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
“Since yesterday, aerial support and reconnaissance flights started in Tikrit. They first begin with reconnaissance missions; then they compile the aerial reports; and afterwards the aerial (strike) operations start," Massoum told Reuters in an exclusive interview at . . . .
Point Made
the Rat Doctrine will be proven the most productive use of US military might, in Iraq.
DeleteIf the 'Coalition' would coordinate and communicate with Assad's forces, it would prove effective there, as well.
Well sure - the US has much more powerful and effective weapons that can be delivered from the air that the barrel bombs currently being deployed by the Syrians.
DeletePARIS — If an agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear capability is reached by deadline in the next seven days, one thing may be missing: an actual written accord, signed by the Iranians.
ReplyDeleteOver the past few weeks, Iran has increasingly resisted any kind of formal “framework” agreement at this stage in the negotiations, preferring a more general statement of “understanding” followed by a final accord in June, according to Western diplomats involved in the talks.
Should that position hold — one of the many unknowns of the coming days — the United States and its five negotiating partners may find themselves in the uncomfortable position of describing the accord as they understand it while the Iranians go home to offer their own version.
That poses a weighty political challenge to the Obama administration, which is already under pressure to present Iran’s commitments to a suspicious Congress by early April, in an effort to hold off the passage of sanctions or a bill that would require Congress to sign off on any agreement.
Just last week, as the previous round of talks with Iran came to a close, a senior American official involved in the negotiations said that the framework accord with Iran would have to be more than a political declaration of intentions. Rather, it would have to contain a “quantifiable dimension.”
There is a lot to quantify, from the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges that would remain spinning to exactly how Iran would change the design of a reactor that is under construction to limit the production of plutonium, another pathway to a bomb. But Iran says it will not agree to such specifics, at least for now.
“This is one of the biggest challenges we face,” one European diplomat involved in the talks said in recent days. “The politics in America demand specificity, and an Iranian commitment. And the politics in Iran demand vagueness” and no commitment until a possible final deal — with all its technical annexes — is reached in . . . . . .
Tough Business
.
DeleteA key point. What is suggested here is the 'business as usual approach' to these types of negotiations. Hopefully, it won't be what we end up with. If we come out of this with just a 'declaration of intentions', Obama's effort could be in serious trouble.
Unfortunately, that outcome is a distinct possibility. Iran will push for as hard a deal as they can get. They could mistakenly think that time is on their side rather than the opposite. Obama on the other hand wants this deal to assure his legacy. It is unclear how far he will go to assure it. Lastly, we have seen that diplomats tend to like the fuzzy language we are talking about so as to give them 'flexibility' in the future. However, what we have seen is that it allows both sides the 'interpret' the agreement any way they want.
.
An 'upside' to the Congresscritters letter is that it can be used while negotiating to bolster the US position that they need specifics in an agreement to get Congress and future administrations to go along.
Delete“The Arab world's version of apartheid is more primitive than the South African version.
ReplyDeleteSouth African apartheid was rudimentary, petty, primitive —
literally black and white, clear separation, no rights.
The Arab world's apartheid is more straight forward with the honest image of ‘genocide.’
There are NO Jewish citizens left in the Arab world to vote, with the exception of a few tokens, otherwise it was just more Islamic to drive them off or kill them.
So in matter of law and policy, there is no need to "discriminate" once they are all dead.
In 1948 the Ashkenazi invaded Arabia in the name of Judaism.
DeleteThose Jews that were already well integrated in the Semitic culture of the region paid the price for Euopean hubris.
The Crusader state that the Ashkenazi Zionists established, unilaterally, in Arabia will not long survive.
DeleteHow ever that state ultimately devolves, will not be the fault of the victims of European colonialism.
“It is time to honestly admit that Israeli society is ill – and it is our duty to treat this disease,”
“I’m not asking if they’ve forgotten how to be Jews, but if they’ve forgotten how to be decent human beings.
Have they forgotten how to converse?”
- Reuven Rivlin, President of Israel
Thanks Jack for the revisionist history..
Deletethe good news?
The islamic/arab world is killing more of their own on a monthly basis than ever lost their lives to the "jews"
Your friends, the islamic world, is doing a FINE job at genocide. To which we all salute.
You can gripe, complain all you wish about israel.
Call it funny names and slurs.
But we BOTH KNOW, the only safe place for christians and moslems in the entire middle east ? Is in ISRAEL.
You can thank G-d for that...
As for Hamas and Gaza? A super story going on, Hamas has boasted it's ready for another war against Israel!!!
That should cost the Gazans another few billion and cause some more misery. And the good news? Hamas is now legally a terrorist nation by Egypt and they are bulldozing Gazan homes daily!!!!
Cheers...
.
ReplyDeleteIdaho BobWed Mar 25, 03:10:00 AM EDT
HEY QUIRK YOU DUNDERHEAD STICK THIS IN ONE OF YOUR CLOWN NOSTRILS AND SNIFF IT
UN nuclear watchdog says Iran not providing needed information, access.........Drudge
You idiot. You are constantly posting headlines from Drudge. Most of the time they prove to be bullshit once you become aware of the actual story.
Worse, have you ever gone to the Drudge website and tried find one of these stories. It's almost impossible. If you are too fucking lazy to go there, find the story, and post a link, stop wasting our time with this shit. The last time Drudge came up with anything interesting it involved a dress stained with POTUS jizz.
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Yeah, not only what Quirk said, but that's part of the goal in the ongoing negotiations - to get Iran to provide enough information and access so that the watchdog's can assess compliance.
DeleteThere is no use in trying to tell Bob such a thing though as it'll go in one ear and out the other because it doesn't conform to his pre-conceptions.
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DeleteOn another issue, I put up this post yesterday.
QuirkTue Mar 24, 04:51:00 PM EDT
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[Idaho Bob] Iran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites
Mar. 24, 2015 12:56 PM EDT
[Quirk] It is no surprise that the article from bigstory.ap.org that follows the statement above does not support it.
Instead of accepting the rebuke, you came back a couple of times arguing that I had it wrong. I assume this is because you are from Idaho and are an English major but perhaps I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
If you want to prove your point, I would challenge you to go back to the original article you posted from bigstory.ap.org and pull and post that part that says "Iran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites".
.
TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian official has criticized the chief of the U.N. atomic agency for demanding snap inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying such a demand stands in the way of Tehran and world powers reaching a deal on the country's controversial nuclear program.
DeleteThe so-called P5+1 group — Britain, China, France, Russia, the U.S. and Germany — face an end-of-the-month deadline to reach a final nuclear deal with Iran.
ADVERTISEMENT
Iran's nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi was quoted Tuesday on Iranian state TV's website as saying that snap inspections are "illegal." He did not elaborate.
Kamalvandi was responding to the demand earlier this month by Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, that Tehran agree to the inspections.
The IAEA suspects that Tehran has worked on nuclear arms in the past.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/03/24/iran-official-criticizes-demand-for-snap-inspections-nuclear-sites-says/
Iran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites
DeleteTEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian official on Tuesday rebuked the chief of the U.N. atomic agency for demanding snap inspections of Iran's nuclear sites, saying the request hindered efforts to reach an agreement with world powers, state TV reported.
The United States and five other world powers face an end-of-the-month deadline to reach a framework agreement with Iran on its nuclear program. Western nations suspect Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability alongside the civilian program. Iran denies such allegations, insisting its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful.
Earlier this month Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran should agree to snap inspections to reassure the international community.
Iran's nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said Amano's comments harm the delicate negotiations. "It would be much better if Amano only talked about the IAEA's seasonal and monthly reports," he said, according to state TV.
Last June, Kamalvandi said Iran may accept snap inspections as part of a final nuclear agreement.
http://trib.com/news/world/middle-east/iran-says-no-snap-inspections-of-nuclear-sites/article_65122cc7-f6d0-54f0-b70a-a269b06236f6.html
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DeleteMy post from yesterday that Bob objected to.
QuirkTue Mar 24, 04:51:00 PM EDT
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[Idaho Bob] Iran says no snap inspections of nuclear sites
Mar. 24, 2015 12:56 PM EDT
[Quirk] It is no surprise that the article from bigstory.ap.org that follows the statement above does not support it.
I offer you the same challenge I offered your bro, showing me in the article where it says Iran said no snap inspections of nuclear sites.
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This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI am not part of your "challenge"
DeleteI simply posted 2 news reports that showed that Iran had issues with snap inspections.
Of course we cannot inspect locations we don't even KNOW about...
And yes the Iranians have LIED about locations and they have been outed.
What snap inspections have the Israelis agreed to and what lies have they told about their activities?
Deleteblah, blah, blah!
DeleteThey are negotiating and, by the looks of it, they are trying real hard not to negotiate in the press but rather 'behind closed doors' - I'm sure the details of inspections are all part of the complexity involved in the negotiations. We shall see what they arrive at if at anything.
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ReplyDeletesamWed Mar 25, 01:10:00 AM EDT
That two states is not what Israel’s enemies want was made clear enough when President Clinton brought then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and PLO leader Yasser Arafat to Camp David in 2000. Barak offered Arafat virtually everything he asked for — 95 percent by some estimates — and Arafat rejected the offer.
See articles below from Haartz and The New York Times Review of Books.
In Deuteronomy 17:7, God instructs the ancient Israelites: “You must purge the evil from among you.”
In his dangerous pursuit of a problematic nuclear weapons deal with Iran and his attempt to marry a cancerous Palestinian state to the land of Israel, President Obama is not purging evil; he’s inviting it to spread. History will judge him for this as it has every other nation that has harmed “the apple of His eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)
- Cal Thomas
Deuteronomy? Zechariah?
Really?
Now we are getting into Bob and rat territory.
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DeleteOnly rarely does the New York Times devote half its front page and two full pages inside its international news section to a historic description and analysis of events that don’t have immediate news value. A week ago, Deborah Sontag published a special report called “Quest for Mideast Peace: How and Why It Failed.” Its conclusion: “Many now agree that all the sides, and not just Arafat, were to blame.”
In the New York Review of Books, in an article due to appear next week, Robert Malley and Hussein Agha, who were involved in the negotiations at Camp David, reach the same conclusion, backed by eyewitness testimony by several of the participants.
Ostensibly, Sontag’s detailed, balanced and unprejudiced report in the prestigious newspaper should have been thought-provoking and won accolades. But it never had a chance. It was perceived as anti-Israeli because, in Sontag’s own words, it dared challenge the “potent, simplistic narrative that has taken hold in Israel and to some extent in the United States. It says: Mr. Barak offered Mr. Arafat the moon at Camp David last summer. Mr. Arafat turned it down, and then `pushed the button’ and chose the path of violence.”
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DeleteThat narrative is immune to fact or proof because it has become a myth in the service of a cause and like all myths, once it has caught on, it becomes more real than reality itself. Israeli society needs the myth, because it is unifying and justifies all actions, clears the conscience, defines the enemy as bloodthirsty and allows society to cope with the tough reality of “no alternative.”
The narrative blaming Yasser Arafat now joins a whole string of myths: the Tel Hai myth, the myth of the runaway refugees in 1948, the myth of the War of Independence as a defensive war that broke out because of an invasion by Arab armies, the myth of the few against the many, and the myth of the liberation of the homeland from the British boot - just to mention a few of the many myths that have been created here to deal with the reality that gave birth to many crises and second thoughts about the situation.
Myths are not illusions but a salad of real and legendary events aimed at creating an image that the society wants to show to the world and itself - and God help anyone who dares to doubt them. No wonder that nearly every learned analysis of the “situation” is based on the careful calculation of “the nearly 100 percent Barak offered Arafat, the breaking of the Jerusalem taboo, the Palestinians’ stubborn insistence on the right of return that means the destruction of Israel and the terrorist attacks that are aimed at winning with blood what they failed to get through negotiations.”
Anyone who tries to present a more complex and balanced view that doesn’t clear the Palestinians but also criticizes Barak for his management and Clinton for his panic - and particularly criticizes the hubris of trying to “end the conflict” - is immediately branded an enemy, or “extreme leftist.”
But the ramifications of the myth are far-reaching: It’s not the settlements that are an obstacle to peace, because in Arafat’s ey eyes there’s no difference between Psagot and Netanya; it’s not the occupation that is the root of the violence, but the murderous instincts buried in Arafat’s genes; there’s no partner for negotiations and the conflict is existential.
The trouble, of course, is that myths are inherently subjective for the society that creates them for its own needs, and that society’s opponents create their own, contradictory myths, like mirror images. Therefore, there’s no chance that third-party observers will be able to confront either side with objective facts. In such a binary situation, there is no place for a third party. If you don’t buy the myth, you’re against me, so I’ll have to hire a better public relations firm to successfully sell you my self-image.
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DeleteThe NYT Review of Books article that the Haartz article discusses.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2002/jun/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-2-a-reply-to-ehud/
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THE ARABS DECLINED A STATE IN 1948
ReplyDeleteThe arabs declined to create a state in the west bank and gaza and jerusalem from 1948 - 1967
Let's start there.
Just like The Dutch, The French,The Greeks, The Belgians and The Russians rejected the Germans when they occupied their lands.
DeleteIt would have been interesting if they would have accepted the deal back then and see if Israel would have remained inside the 1948 boundaries...
Delete...all moot now though.
"Earlier this month Yukiya Amano, the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tehran should agree to snap inspections to reassure the international community.
ReplyDeleteIran's nuclear spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said Amano's comments harm the delicate negotiations. "It would be much better if Amano only talked about the IAEA's seasonal and monthly reports," he said, according to state TV.
Last June, Kamalvandi said Iran may accept snap inspections as part of a final nuclear agreement."
So, my reading of this is that Mr. Kamalvandi has made One statement on "snap inspections," and that in that June statement he said that Iran May Accept Snap Inspections as part of a final nuclear agreement.
DeleteIn the referenced recent statement, Kamalvandi said: "It would be much better if Amano only talked about the IAEA's seasonal and monthly reports,"
DeleteThis Is a statement concerning Mr. Kamalvandi's preferences toward the subjects of Amano's topics for comment, Not a statement that Iran Will Not accept snap inspections.
Bob claims to be "Well Read."
DeleteReminds me of that Star Kist Tuna commercial:
Sorry, Charlie, Star Kist doesn't want hicks that are "Well Read."
They want those that "Read Well."
LOL
DeleteGiven Bob's reading skills he might need be led, forcefully, to this post.
DeleteYo, BOB! DID YOU SEE THE FUNNY RUFUS MADE???
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior U.S. official says the U.S. has begun airstrikes in Tikrit in support of a stalled Iraqi ground offensive to retake the city from Islamic State fighters.
ReplyDeleteThe official says the airstrikes began after the Iraqi government requested U.S. help. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the American attacks had not yet been officially announced.
An Associated Press reporter in Tikrit reported hearing warplanes overhead late Wednesday, followed by multiple explosions.
Cue the "Dead Men Dying" music
This is awfully bad news for "ISIS Bob," and the Likuds Force.
DeleteIt's also not great news for General Soleimani, and the hard-line Iranian "Warriors of God" Force.
Ah, America is HELPING Iran genocide the Sunnis of Iraq....
DeleteHow lovely...
ah c'mon WiO, if you just think of the mountaintop Yazidis all will be warm and fuzzy!
Delete