COLLECTIVE MADNESS


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

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

A bad day for the Lobby is a good day for the US, free speech and US security


When you’ve Lost Bernie Sanders: How Netanyahu destroyed the Israel Lobby

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) –
Senator Bernie Sanders, the most consistent and prominent progressive in the US Senate, has decided to skip the speech of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Congress on March 3, which was orchestrated by Israel’s ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and Speaker of the House John Boehner in an attempt to derail President Obama’s negotiations with Iran over its civilian nuclear enrichment program. It is Bibi’s Kanye West moment.
Sanders’s announcement may well signal a turning point in the domestic politics of Mideast policy. Sanders runs as a Socialist but might well announce his candidacy within the Democratic Party for president in the 2016 race. He can’t win, of course, but could push the electoral issues to the left. He in any case caucuses with the Democrats. Despite his strong progressive vision, Sanders has in the past been reluctant to criticize Israel. He, like many on the American left, held up Israel in general as a progressive cause, regardless of the country’s colonial actions in the Palestinian West Bank or its illegal blockade of Gaza
Obama believes that a deal can be had whereby Iran is allowed to enrich uranium for reactor fuel but through restrictions and inspections can be kept from ever militarizing the program. Boehner and Netanyahu believe that Iran’s enrichment program must be closed down to forestall the development of a bomb by Tehran. Israel is currently the only nuclear power in the region, which makes it a regional hegemon, a position it might lose if it were one of many nuclear powers.
The Israel lobbies as a project of Jewish nationalism have long depended primarily on three tactics for their success. 1) They brutally punish those critical of Israeli policy (no matter how justified the criticism) with boycotts, smears and blackballing; 2) They marshal American Jewish groups into unanimity in support of Israel regardless of the latter’s feelings about certain policies, and 3) they use political donations to shape Congressional and general political discourse on Israel in official circles.
The Israel lobbies are not by any means unique, since there are Cuban, Armenian and other ethnic lobbies. And of course there are many ideological lobbies, including that of the Koch brothers for a peculiar kind of conservatism (they say they are Libertarians but seek government policies favorable to their Oil businesses).
But the Israel lobbies are, while sometimes dealt defeat, remarkably successful among lobbies. And, whereas many wealthy conservatives might have objected to the views of Native Americans specialist Steven Salaita at the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, none of them pressured the chancellor with withdrawal of donations on the basis of conservatism. A Jewish nationalist donor did get Salaita fired over his private tweets, done on his own time and unconnected to his position in Native American studies, about the brutality of the Gaza War. Jewish nationalist legislators or those beholden to the Israel lobbies also routinely shoot down government appointments of officials insufficiently obsequious to Israel as a cause.
Rep. Steven Cohen (D-Tenn.) is also said to be leaning toward a boycott of Netanyahu’s speech. So are a number of other Jewish Congressmen on the Democratic side. And, Vice President Joe Biden’s own decision to boycott may sway many Democrats in Congress.
This stampede of Democratic legislators away from Netanyahu’s speech disrupts principles 2) and 3) above, and makes it difficult for the Israel lobbies to implement 1) consistently. Biden has been close for his entire career to the positions of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a coordinating body for 16,000 smaller lobbies that throw millions into congressional races. He may not have another race to run, and for the lobbies to try to smear or punish him would surely backfire on them. It would also signal to younger politicians that it is dangerous to take their money because they are fickle and intolerant of the slightest dissent. I have argued that for many reasons, Israel is becoming more a Republican Party project than a Democratic one. Many in the GOP agree and hope this development will bring US Jews, who vote overwhelmingly Democratic, over to the Republicans. But another development is possible, which is that Jewish Democrats may become less supportive of an increasingly far rightwing Israel.
By overreaching, Netanyahu may be shattering the hammer his partisans in the US have used to destroy critics of his policies in America. And Mideast policy in the US may never be quite the same.
Related video:


67 comments:

  1. Why would Republicans who are overtly and in the majority loathed by US Jews, be so pro-Israel? There are two explanations:

    1. Republican politicians are fearful of the Cro-Magnon wing of the Christian fundamentalists, without whom the Republican Party would wither, die and go to heaven because that is how it is written somewhere by someone, some time ago.

    2. Republicans privately respect and return the loathing of US Jews but don’t care as long as the Lobby does not turn against them. There was hardly a Republican country club, social club, neighborhood, private school or WASP anything that condescended to have a Jew closer than the nearest dell up through the seventies. Old habits die hard.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You limit the argument to fit within your perceived world view.

      Baloney.

      The Jews that "loath" the GOP? Are not the Jews of Israel, nor are the the growing substantial minority of Jews that are NOT progressive, commie hacks.

      American Jews are waking up, albeit not in droves, but those Jews that have motivation and ability are leaving the democrat party.

      It;s not a volume game, never has been.

      The Democrat party has been going over the falls in a leftist, progressive, anti-traditional way for years now and it's now becoming apparent even to many progressive Jews.

      The Juan Cole article is to be what is expected, wishful thinking. Bernie Sanders? LOL They don't get more leftist radical than that. Oh my Bibi has lost 10 congressmen and one senator!

      Big freaking deal....

      Delete
    2. But what Obama is doing is telegraphing a message to Israel.

      America, under Obama, will not do anything to stop Iran from having a fully deliverable nuclear weapons program.

      Funny thing Deuce?

      Iran doesn't need a ballistic missile program to hit Israel. It needs it to hit America. And that's what Obama is allowing..

      Good luck with that...

      Delete
  2. It's actually quite comical that Obama and company are SO AFRAID of Bibi and what he wants to SAY that they have orchestrated this PR event against him. The NYTimes has printed a retraction that shows that this is a bullshit crisis.

    http://tabletmag.com/scroll/188814/the-correction

    ReplyDelete
  3. Correction: January 30, 2015
    An earlier version of this article misstated when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel accepted Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to address Congress. He accepted after the administration had been informed of the invitation, not before.


    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/30/us/politics/benjamin-netanyahu-is-talking-to-harry-reid-and-leading-democrats-to-little-effect-so-far.html?_r=0


    Notice where the NYTimes BURIES the correction/ LOL

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The premise of the Times‘ original reporting, and the massive political and diplomatic firestorm that followed, was that Bibi had committed a truly unpardonable sin—the word “unprecedented” was used by MSNBC and Fox News alike—by failing to even bother notifying the White House before accepting Republican Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address Congress on the Iranian nuclear program. In doing so, Bibi had not only disrespected the current occupant of the White House, whose aides have called Bibi a “chickenshit,” but much more seriously—the institution of the Presidency itself.

      The Times‘ original version of events, which was based on the word of senior White House sources—who else could be authorized to state with certainty that Bibi hadn’t bothered to inform the White House of his visit?—quickly went viral. Israel’s Prime Minister hadn’t simply accepted an invitation to address Congress on the Iranian nuclear program, an issue that he has been insisting for years is of existential importance to his country, while also boosting his own re-election prospects—all of which would have been fair pool (American Presidents, including Obama, have been known to use visits to Israel for similar purposes). Instead, the Prime Minister of Israel was planning to waltz into Congress like he owned the place while giving the Institution of the Presidency the finger, in open violation of established diplomatic protocol. Commentators across the political spectrum united in stuttering outrage at Bibi’s hubris, and his stunning disregard for American Constitutional norms. The American-Israeli relationship had hit a new low, everyone agreed—and Bibi, the self-regarding jerk, with his rude, blatantly partisan behavior, was clearly and entirely at fault.

      Only, now it turns out that—according to the Times—the story wasn’t true at all. In fact, Netanyahu had informed the White House of his visit before announcing it to anyone—a minor detail which means that the paper’s original reporting and all the huffing, puffing outrage that followed was dead wrong. And if Bibi had followed standard protocol, and given the White House the diplomatically-appropriate heads-up, as the Times‘ correction clearly and unequivocably stated, that meant that the Times‘ White House sources had been woefully and entirely misinformed about a key matter of protocol—or, more likely, had invented the tale of Bibi’s outrageous behavior out of whole cloth in order to blunt his unwelcome criticisms of the Administration’s Iran policy.

      The decent thing to do would’ve been to write another piece altogether, contemplate why the paper of record got suckered so badly by the White House—which gained plenty from the manufactured story—and amend any and all implications of Bibi’s perfidy and bad manners that arose from the original report.

      But hey, it’s only Bibi, a man whose villainy is so inherently assumed by the Times’ writers and readers alike that correcting the record with anything more than a footnote is hardly worth the trouble. There’s no reason to spoil The Narrative, the great story of a benighted Israel governed by hard and bad men and growing increasingly intransigent and soulless and mean—as evidenced by their opposition to Obama’s attempts to reach a mutually-beneficial nuclear deal with Iran. When it comes to Israel, it’s the only story the Times knows how to tell, even when the facts get in the way. For that, we’ll always have The Correction.

      Delete
    2. The fear that this administration has of Bibi is quite refreshing....

      How can a SPEECH provoke so my fear in Obama's Whitehouse?

      Maybe it is because Bibi will lay out the case that Iran is racing towards a nuclear weapons program and delivery?

      Maybe Bibi will illustrate that the current zero strategy of the USA concerning the islamic turmoil in the middle east?

      Maybe Bibi will tell America that as correct as it is to fight the evil of Isis, one must not ignore the evil of Assad, Hezbollah and Iran whose actions have butchered 100 times as many arabs and created the world's largest refugee crisis numbering into over 11 MILLION...

      yeah the truth is scary... Censor Bibi...

      that's the ticket..

      Whos afraid of the big bad bibi... you are...

      Delete
    3. .

      Bibi: Hey, Barrack, in the first week of March, I will be giving a speech to a joint session of Congress regarding the existential threat Iran presents to Israel and more importantly the US and the world and why trying to negotiate with them is a futile and dangerous endeavor.

      Obama: But...

      Bibi: Say, I have to run. I have to get AIPAC's daily talking points drafted before I head over to officiate a new settler block in the WB we are opening up today.

      Obama: But...

      Bibi: Just wanted to give you a heads up. Shalom.

      Click

      .

      Delete
    4. Try again Quirk, the point is that the White house was NOT sandbagged

      Spin it any way you wish.

      The PLAIN facts speak thru...

      Delete
    5. SO the Whitehouse lies....

      creates a fake crisis to what end?

      Why is the Whitehouse so scared of Bibi's words?

      Delete
    6. .

      Try again Quirk, the point is that the White house was NOT sandbagged

      So what, that is hardly the issue though you might want to make it such.

      .

      Delete
    7. That was the issue that the press via Obama complained about, that they were sandbagged

      Delete
    8. There was no break in procedure or precendent

      It was a manufactured crisis by Obama..

      Delete
  4. .

    JON STEWART: Now that we know everything we hold dear in this world is a lie, especially about the middle east, it makes you wonder. What is going on over there?

    ...

    Here to help us make sense of it, Egypt's foremost political satirist, former host of a now-banned TV program, Bassem Youssef. Right now, the middle east is spiraling out of control, what should America do about this?

    BASSEM YOUSSEF: How about nothing?

    ===============================================


    BASSEM YOUSSEF: Are you listening to yourself? Let it go! Seriously, you can't let it go. America is like a dog with a hot spot on its butt called the middle east. You think you have to keep licking it, but you are just making it worse...

    ==================================================

    JON STEWART: I'll ask you one more time, what should America do?

    BASSEM YOUSSEF: We want you to fuck off and leave us alone.

    JON STEWART: Done.

    BASSEM YOUSSEF: But not right away. We could still use the aid money, and a few weapons, and some investments, what I'm saying is if you could fuck gradually off, that would be better for everybody.


    John Steward on the ME

    .

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Zionist problem is that the Democrats don't need them as much as they used to.

    It's a small voting bloc, and any losses there will be more than overcome by gains in the Latino, Black, and College Educated White Women categories.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "zionist" problem? Rufus you are still a bigot.

      Do you really think it's about NUMBERS?

      LOL

      Of course you do...

      It aint about votes you retard....

      But you keep playing the identity politics

      Delete
    2. The good news? the Democrats now can be proud to announce that 43% of all african american conceptions now are aborted!!!!

      45% talk about limiting voters!!!! Maraget Sanger could not be prouder...

      Delete
    3. .

      It aint about votes you retard....

      Too simplistic. It isn't 'all' about votes. It depends on the demographics. If you are in a conservative state, city, locality that has a particular demographic (i.e. evangelicals or fundamentalist Christians) it could be about the votes. In the others, its about the money and funding and the support, the legwork and the get out the vote efforts.

      .

      Delete
    4. Quirk, correct, it's also about the motivated 3% of any population demographic.

      It's not a numbers game.

      Delete
  6. How Orwellian: A bad day for the Lobby is a good day for the US, free speech and US security

    LOL

    Who's afraid of Bibi's words....

    You are.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Who's afraid of the big bad bibi...

    you are...

    LOL

    Afraid of a 5 foot 8 inch chubby little Jew...

    All bibi can do is give stupid speeches, as reported here at the blog....

    So why the fear?

    Why the angst?

    Why the lies?

    Hmmm...

    Truth sucks..

    ReplyDelete
  8. "Why the angst?"

    Because if he manages to convince enough congress critters to tie Obama's hands in negotiating with the Iranians it will be bad for the US.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ash, Appeasing a violent, racist dictatorship, hell bent on WMD and the genocide of BOTH the west and Israel will get you dead.

      Giving the President sanctions as a tool, IF the Iranians don't make a deal, gives the President the ability to use carrots AND sticks to avoid war.

      Delete
  9. Yeah, it's mostly about the money - Campaign Contributions, to be precise.

    It's doubtful that this Netanyahu dust-up will have much of an effect on those.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus, once again you just don't GET it...

      The reason Israel and it's issues rate strongly with both houses of Congress?

      Is that the American people understand and share values and ethics with the Israel people and nation.

      Just because you don't?

      Doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

      It's not about the money, it's about the sincere relationships that good decent Americans have with their elected representatives.

      You just don't understand..

      GOOD

      Delete
    2. .

      It's not about the money, it's about the sincere relationships that good decent Americans have with their elected representatives.

      :o)

      Congressional Job Approval

      RCP Average:

      Approve 16.3%

      Disapprove 73.3%

      Spread -57%

      .

      Delete
    3. .

      It appears there are not that many 'good decent Americans' out there.

      .

      Delete
    4. quirk, your "poll" is nonsense.

      but of course we knew that ...

      Delete
    5. .

      My poll?

      WiO, take it up with RCP. There's is merely the average of the other major polls out there.

      You can check it out here.

      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/congressional_job_approval-903.html

      .

      Delete
  10. Poor little "O"rdure.

    His panties are wadded up and clinging to his ass.
    Without Mr Sheldon, the source of Charlie Chi-com money for both Bibi and the GOP, neither Likud or the Republicans could sustain their operations.

    ReplyDelete
  11. As to your complaint "O"rdure, of being outed.

    You have claimed not to be connected with Chocolate Emporium Inc.
    Who is being outed if you have no connection with that corporation?

    {;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The study of that corporation well illustrates how corporations are not people, but have a life of their own.
      How their operations and structure shift, morph and change with the times.

      How different corporations blur their identity, to confuse the consumer, purposefully.

      Delete
    2. It is evident that Original did, or at least claimed to have a connection to Chocolate Emporium Inc.
      When "O"rdure claims to be the "O"riginal, while at the same time denying he has any connection to Chocolate Emporium Inc. it raises an issue concerning his veracity.

      Since "O"rdure consistently posts articles and statements without any references, beyond his own veracity, the issue of his 'truthfulness' is germane to the readers and contributors of the EB.

      Delete
    3. .

      It is evident that Original did, or at least claimed to have a connection to Chocolate Emporium Inc.

      I missed that. Do you have a link, linkmaster?

      .

      Delete
    4. Regardless of whether or not I have any connection to Chocolate Emporium, you think and have acted as I did.

      You are a scoundrel.

      But you stalked the WRONG Jew for a decade.

      You are an obsessed, anti-Semitic, violent potential terrorist.

      Delete
    5. There has never been, nor any connection to the Chocolate Emporium of Cleveland Ohio, nor any business by that name.

      However once again, Jack your efforts to harm folks speaks volumes to your slimy intentions.

      Delete
  12. Jobs openings increased in December to 5.028 million from 4.847 million in November.

    The number of job openings (yellow) are up 28% year-over-year compared to December 2013.

    Quits are up 12% year-over-year. These are voluntary separations. (see light blue columns at bottom of graph for trend for "quits").

    This is another very positive report. It is a good sign that job openings are over 5 million, and that quits are increasing year-over-year.

    Read more at http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/#yGagOseWcLix7Vb1.99


    JOLTS

    ReplyDelete
  13. .

    The following link is from one of the local newspapers here in my area.

    The Detroit Free Press

    At the bottom of the page, there is a photo gallery of cartoons that intend to mock what are now called by the opposite side 'climate change deniers'.

    You will note that all the cartoons are about cold winter weather. I find it ironic that a decade ago the same groups that were hyperventilating about 'global warming' were forced by circumstance to change their meme to 'climate change' as if all climate change were a bad thing in every situation, as if there weren't a lot of places in the world that couldn't stand a little climate change.

    As they say in another context, it's always 5:00 o'clock somewhere.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  14. Well this should get interesting:

    "UNITED STATES: WAR VOTE WOULD BE CONGRESS’S FIRST IN 13 YEARS

    In the U.S.-led coalition’s conflict with Islamic State, Obama so far has relied on congressional authorizations that former U.S. president George W. Bush used to justify military action after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics say the White House’s use of these authorizations to fight the terrorist group is a legal stretch at best. Now, the President is preparing a new appeal to Congress to authorize military force.

    Presidential counsel Neil Eggleston was set to address the Senate Democrats’ luncheon, the day before Obama is expected to formally unveil his proposed authorization, a Democratic official told Associated Press.

    To get congressional approval, Obama must find a balance between lawmakers who want wide authority to fight the Islamic State group and others, including members of his own party, who worry that a new authorization to use military force will lead to another American entanglement in a protracted war. So far, no formal language has been submitted, although the White House has completed a draft, according to a senior congressional official who spoke only on grounds of anonymity because this person wasn’t authorized to discuss by name a strategy being discussed privately.

    Another congressional official said the president will ask for a three-year authorization so the next president will have to seek renewed authority to fight Islamic State. The official said Obama wants to leave open the option to send in combat forces if needed, but is not seeking an authorization that would permit a prolonged U.S. troop presence on the ground."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/islamic-state/article22886854/

    ReplyDelete
  15. "Down in the dumps in Baghdad where sense of hopelessness pervades

    The Globe and Mail
    Published Friday, Feb. 06 2015, 3:00 AM EST
    Last updated Thursday, Feb. 05 2015, 9:28 PM EST




    The trip to Iraq in November and December was my seventh assignment to that complicated country. While Iraqis no longer suffer under the dictator Saddam Hussein, are back to pumping oil from their enormous reserves and are free from international sanctions, this was the most depressing that I have ever found Baghdad to be.

    It’s not just because the radical jihadist group Islamic State has occupied more than a quarter of the country – that’s just the last straw. There’s a sense of hopelessness pervading the place. Those who are able have all left, it seems; the ones remaining are either the poor, uneducated and needy or the corrupt ones who operate in every ministry, military brigade and police unit bent on profiting from it all.

    At least that’s the perception.

    Meanwhile, the war against Islamic State is being waged almost entirely by Shia militias, since the Iraqi army isn’t ready to go into battle. The Shiites have welcomed the chance to rid the country of these Sunni extremists and to get rid of a lot of regular Sunni citizens at the same time.

    Many Sunnis, for their part, are looking to make a deal with the IS devil in order to maintain position in Iraqi society.

    ..."

    http://2164th.blogspot.ca/2015/02/when-youve-lost-bernie-sanders-how.html?showComment=1423591480270#c3097075750065018337

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well, the IS Devil is a Dead Devil Walking.

    The beginning of the end begins sometime before Feb. 28.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Just a short excerpt from a much longer article, which is quite good:

    "...

    A senior Sunni imam at the 1,000-year-old Abu Hanifa mosque in Baghdad’s Adhamiyah neighbourhood insists that people must understand what provoked Sunni Iraqis to support Islamic State movement: Iran, the pre-eminent Shia state, which borders Iraq on the east, is running things here, complains Dr. Abdul Wahab al Samari, 41. “Our country’s military is completely dominated by the Shiites … and we have no [Sunni] militia to turn to for help.”

    Indeed, Shia religious posters and banners are prominently displayed at Iraqi military bases and checkpoints throughout the country, underscoring the religious bias of these national institutions. And, because the Iraqi army is still not capable of tackling the jihadists on its own, Shia militias often fight alongside or instead of regular forces, adding to apprehension in the Sunni areas in which they are battling.

    “People hear about [Islamic State fighters] burning Shia mosques and Christian churches, but six Sunni mosques in Diyala province were [recently] destroyed,” Dr. Samari says. “These acts were carried out by Shia militias.”

    In Mosul, he says, before Islamic State arrived, the Iraqi soldiers, who were mostly Shiites, stopped Sunni weddings from taking place during the month of Shia mourning, and “forced people to observe Shia holy days – to wear black on the day of Ashura.”

    The Sunni population welcomed Islamic State movement, he says, because “we are fighting for survival here in Iraq.”"

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-fissures-that-divide-iraq-are-widening/article22831471/

    ReplyDelete
  18. The poor Sunnis. And, to think, they treated the Shia so well when "they" had the whip hand.

    BTW, the Minister of Defense is a Sunni.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 300,000 civilian sunnis dead, 11 million refugees.

      and that's your take…

      but mention Hamas and Gaza?

      you sure throw a shit fit

      Delete
    2. 11 Million refugees? You really are an innumerate asshole, aren't you?

      And, I don't "throw a fit" at the mention of Hamas and Gaza. I merely point out that Israel is acting lawlessly, and that I would be a member of Hamas were I a Palestinian trapped in Gaza.

      Delete
    3. Let me reiterate one more time; I could care less about your shitty little "country." The only time I Ever think about it is when someone on this blog brings it up.

      If I didn't frequent this blog, I'm quite sure that I would go years without It ever crossing my mind.

      Delete
    4. My shitty little country is America

      Just like your, our shitty little country America, bombs babies in Syria and doesn't even report it on the news..

      Delete
    5. Good ole rufis - hates the bombs in Gaza but luvs the bombs in EyeRaq

      Delete
  19. Israel acted "lawlessly"?

    3000 American airstrikes on "head cutters" and not a peep out of you about civilians…

    LOL

    ReplyDelete
  20. From Remarks on the present condition and future prospects of the Jews in Palestine, by Arthur George Harper Hollingsworth, 1852:

    The population in Palestine is composed of Arabs, who roam about the plains, or lurk in the mountain fastnesses as robbers and strangers, having no settled home, and without any fixed attachment to the land. In many of the ruined cities and villages there exists also, a limited number of Christian families, uncivilized, and not knowing correctly from what race they derive their origin. Poor, and without influence, they tremblingly hold their miserable possessions from year to year, without security, and without wealth, in a land which they confess is not their own. ...

    The Arab and Christian populations diminish every year. Poverty, distress, insecurity, robbery, and disease continue to weaken the inhabitants of this fine country. Ruins fall upon ruins; solitudes increase in the deserted vallies. The land mourneth for its inhabitants. ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Amongst the scattered and feeble population of this once happy country, is found, however, an increasing number of poor Jews; some of their most learned men reside in the holy cities of Jerusalem, Hebron, and Tiberias. Their synagogues are still in existence. Jews frequently arrive in Palestine from every nation in Europe, and remain there for many years'; and others die with the satisfaction of mingling their remains with their forefathers’ dust, which fills every valley, and is found in every cave.

      This Jewish population is poor beyond any adequate word ; it is degraded in its social and political condition, to a state of misery, so great, that it possesses no rights. It can shew no wealth even if possessed of it, because to display riches would secure robbery from the Mahometan population, the Turkish officials, or the Bedouin Arab. These Jews live chiefly on alm, collected from the nation in all parts of the world. There is no people more charitable, though that charity is generally exclusive, than the Jew. This money is precarious in .its amount, frequently tardy in its arrival, always uncertain when it may be received, lost sometimes in its passage, and accompanied ever by the degradation of receiving a distant and unsettled charity, supporting a wretchedly impoverished and famishing people. No advancement is made by the Jew of Palestine, in trafficking, in commerce, in farming, in the possession of settled houses or lands. There alone, where he ought to be first, he is last; and where in all other countries a Jew thrives and increases in wealth, in that one he is spiritless from oppression, and without energy, because without hope of Protection. He creeps along that soil, where his forefathers proudly strode in the fulncss of a wonderful prosperity, as an alien, an outcast, a creature less than a dog, and below the oppressed Christian beggar in his own ancestral plains and cities. No harvest ripens for his hand, for he cannot tell whether he will be permitted to gather it. Land occupied by a Jew is exposed to robbery and waste. A most peevish jealousy exists against the landed prosperity, or commercial wealth, or trading advancement of the Jew. Hindrances exist to the settlement of a British Christian in that country, but a thousand petty obstructions are created to prevent the establishment of a Jew on waste land, or to the purchase and rental of land by a Jew. “

      ...Agricultural pursuits are attended with much hazard, for, in the vicinity of the Jordan there are many Arabs, who support themselves chiefly by plunder. ...What security exists, that a Jewish _ emigrant settling in Palestine, could receive a fair remuneration for his capital and labour? None whatever. He might toil, but his harvests would be reaped by others; the Arab robber can rush in and carry off his flocks and herds. If he appeals for redress to the nearest Pasha, the taint of his Jewish blood fills the air, and darkens the brows of his oppressors ; if he turns to his neighbour Christian, he encounters prejudice and spite ; if he claims a Turkish guard, he is insolently repulsed and scorned. How can he bring his capital into such a country, when that fugitive possession flies from places where the sword is drawn to snatch it from the owner’s hands and not protect it ?

      ,,,Now, how is this poor, despised, and powerless child of Abraham to obtain redress, or make his voice heard at the Sublime Porte? The more numerous the cases of oppression, (and they are many), the more clamorous their appeals for justice, the more unwillingly will the government of the Sultan,—partly from inherent and increasing weakness, partly from disinclination,—act on the side of the Jew. They despise them as an execrated race ; they hate them as the literal descendants of the original possessors of the country. ...

      Delete
    2. Maybe the Jews should act like Hamas?

      Would you like us then?

      Delete
    3. I like "Jews" just fine. It's you, Netanyahu, and the other asshole racist Zionists that I can't stand.

      Delete
    4. Lol. UR bullshit it runs thin....

      Fuck u

      Delete
    5. Then leave me alone, sweetpea, and I'll leave you alone.

      Delete
    6. and the other asshole racist Zionists that I can't stand.


      So you hate Jews who dare believe they have a right to self determination and statehood.

      Just clarifying..

      You find Israel a racist place but have no issues with any of the arab nations that surround it?

      Just clarifying your hatred.

      Delete
    7. I don't "Hate" Israel. It's just a crappy, apartheid "country."

      Delete
    8. Really?

      Do you even KNOW what apartheid is?

      Or do you just parrot what others tell you...

      SO now you say, you don't "hate" Israel, just Jews who are zionists.

      Why are you hateful of Jews that seek the same rights as all other peoples in the world?

      Self determination is a right of all people, EVEN Jews.

      Delete
    9. Is arab controlled territories an apartheid area?

      Is Gaza?

      Doesn't hamas and the PA demand a Jew free land?

      Maybe that's not "apartheid", just Nazism....

      Delete
    10. We expect so much more from Israel.

      Delete
    11. But, alas, all we can expect from Rufus is hypocrisy.

      Delete
    12. Rufus IITue Feb 10, 07:25:00 PM EST
      We expect so much more from Israel.

      And you get it....

      If fact, Israel does set the bar even higher than America does. ALL THE TIME.

      All CITIZENS vote, male and female, black and white, arab and jew.... Always since the day the Modern State was founded.

      Three languages, all official, hebrew, arabic and english...

      Israel in war, goes beyond any other nation to not kill civilians.

      PERIOD.

      You and others that put up bullshit about Gaza? Are just being dishonest.

      If any area of this nation was under CONSTANT terrorist bombardment?

      you would be 1st to shout, KILL the HEADCUTTERS

      Delete
  21. If you want to solve the iranian/syrian/hezbollah mass murder and the isil mass murder?

    take the profit out of it....

    bring oil down to 30 dollars a barrel

    ReplyDelete
  22. I am wrong I said, 11 million refugees were created by Assad, Hezbollah and Iran...

    it was 9.5 MILLION...

    My bad.

    According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), over 3 million have fled to Syria's immediate neighbours Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. 6.5 million are internally displaced within Syria.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The entire palestinian population that was displaced in 1948 was less than 400,000, more jews were displaced by the arabs.

      But you can blow off 9.5 MILLION refugees as meaningless cause the Jews didn't do it?

      Delete
  23. Fuck the democrats.

    Bunch of assholes.

    ReplyDelete