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."

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Hillary Clinton’s War in Syria to help Israel



A Top donor to Clinton super PAC is Haim Saban


The great news is that Palestine has become the central issue in the looming platform battle between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton forces ahead of the Democratic convention. As the New York Times did a few days ago, the LA Times puts the story on its front page and says the fight could “splinter” the Democratic Party. The article is written from Clinton’s perspective: it quotes mainly Israel supporters shaking their heads over the Sanders insurgents as if they’re possessed.

The establishment just doesn’t get it. This fight is important to Sanders’s base because 1, they believe that the issue is yet more evidence of Clinton deferring to big donors. She needs wealthy rightwing Jews to keep her campaign moving. And because 2, the stakes are huge: Clinton’s hawkish positions are driven by her attachment to Israel. The NY Times has reported that Clinton was “swayed by” Benjamin Netanyahu to oppose the Iran deal, and that if it had been up to her there would be no deal. That Times reporter also said that Clinton’s most grievous mistake, support for the Iraq war, came out of concern for Israel, too.

And below I quote a Clinton State Department email showing that a political ally, said to be James P. Rubin, supported a US intervention in Syria in 2012-2013 “to help Israel,” and help the White House ease its “tension” with Israel. I.e., let’s make nice to the Israel lobby and perform another regime change, believe me it will be very easy.

First, the latest news on Hillary Clinton’s super PAC underlines the view that she’s corrupted on foreign policy: her biggest supporter is Haim Saban, the toymaker who has said, “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”
Forbes reports that  of $76 million her super PAC raised in the first quarter of the year, nearly 15 percent came from Saban and his wife. And Forbes dares to connect that support to Hillary Clinton’s craven speech to AIPAC, the Israel lobby, when she promised she’d invite Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House in her first month as president, and to her pledge to Saban to fight the BDS movement (boycott, divestment and sanctions), which Clinton has said is anti-Semitic.
Haim and Cheryl Saban, who top our list with $10 million in contributions, are longtime supporters of the former Secretary of State. They gave to both her Senate campaigns and donated at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. The couple also co-hosted a fundraiser for Clinton this past April with George and Amal Clooney. Tickets started at $33,400 a person….
What Saban, born to a Jewish family in Egypt, and Clinton have in common is their pro-Israel stance. In March, she gave a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee saying, “If I’m fortunate enough to be elected president, the United States will reaffirm we have a strong and enduring national interest in Israel’s security.” Clinton also wrote a letter to Saban in July 2015 asking for the billionaire’s “recommendations on how leaders and communities across America can work together to counter BDS [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions],” a movement aimed to pressure Israel into accommodating Palestine’s demands.
It should be noted that among the other top 20 funders of the super PAC are other Israel supporters, including S. Daniel Abraham, Steven Spielberg ($1 million), Jeffrey Katzenberg ($1 million), Herbert Sandler ($2.5 million), George Soros, who has funded liberal Zionist groups, and Bernard Schwartz ($1 million).

Just how committed is Clinton to Israel as a homegrown political cause that will help her presidential campaign? Look at this State Department email released last year by Wikileaks–which has been going around on leftwing sites, and this Sanders site, as evidence that Clinton stoked the Syrian war. The author’s name was redacted; but Antiwar says that the email was written by Clinton ally James Rubin, who was then serving in the Cuomo administration in New York. Rubin had been on Clinton’s foreign policy team in the 2008 presidential campaign and the email shared the draft of an article he was writing for Foreign Policy. Hillary Clinton then passed the ideas along to unnamed recipients.

The email was evidently written in 2012, before Clinton left the State Department, and makes a strenuous case for regime change in Syria– which was Clinton’s position.
The very first sentence is a bald assertion of Israel’s interest in regime change:
The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad.
Before long Rubin addresses Obama’s Israel problem:
With Assad gone, and Iran no longer able to threaten Israel through its, proxies, it is possible that the United States and Israel can agree on red lines for when Iran’s program has crossed an unacceptable threshold. In short, the White House can ease the tension that has developed with Israel over Iran by doing the right thing in Syria.
This is an obvious reference to the Israel lobby, which was active against Obama as he signaled a more dovish policy with Iran.

John Kerry was already undertaking negotiations with Iran. But the anonymous author of the Clinton email opposed negotiations with Iran, again citing Israel:
Negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program will not solve Israel’s security dilemma.
Here is something else very important in the email. Clinton has said during the presidential campaign that Iran is an “existential threat” to Israel. But that’s not the line in this realist email: Iran doesn’t threaten Israel with nuclear destruction, Iran would merely end Israel’s nuclear monopoly. And in order to prevent that outcome, the US and Israel might have to go to war against Iran!
Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel’s security, it would also ease Israel’s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly. Then, Israel and the United States might be able to develop a common view of when the Iranian program is so dangerous that military action could be warranted.
Israel’s security means the threat posed by Hezbollah and Hamas, with backing from Iran and Syria:
Israel’s leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests. Speaking on CNN’s Amanpour show last week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak argued that “the toppling down of Assad will be a major blow to the radical axis, major blow to Iran…. It’s the only kind of outpost of the Iranian influence in the Arab world…and it will weaken dramatically both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza.”
Here is more of Rubin’s analysis that the real problem with Iran going nuclear isn’t that it would attack Israel, it would just shift the power balance:
If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself. Back to Syria. It is the strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria that makes it possible for Iran to undermine Israel’s security — not through a direct attack, which in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and Israel has never occurred, but through its proxies in Lebanon, like Hezbollah, that are sustained, armed and trained by Iran via Syria. The end of the Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance
And for anyone who wonders why neoconservatives like Hillary Clinton, here is the usual ideological claptrap about war won’t be easy but it will remake the middle east and they will greet us with flowers! And help Israel too. At least here Rubin addresses the Syrian people’s needs:
Victory may not come quickly or easily, but it will come. And the payoff will be substantial. Iran would be strategically isolated, unable to exert its influence in the Middle East. The resulting regime in Syria will see the United States as a friend, not an enemy. Washington would gain substantial recognition as fighting for the people in the Arab world, not the corrupt regimes. For Israel, the rationale for a bolt from the blue attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would be eased. And a new Syrian regime might well be open to early action on the frozen peace talks with Israel. Hezbollah in Lebanon would be cut off from its Iranian sponsor since Syria would no longer be a transit point for Iranian training, assistance and missiles. All these strategic benefits and the prospect of saving thousands of civilians from murder at the hands of the Assad regime (10,000 have already been killed in this first year of civil war). With the veil of fear lifted from the Syrian people, they seem determine to fight for their freedom. America can and should help them — and by doing so help Israel and help reduce the risk of a wider war.
So Rubin was taking Israel’s side in a regional power struggle, and pledging the U.S. to go to war for that aim. BTW, Jamie Rubin has lately collaborated with neoconRobert Kagan, another Clinton ally, to support more muscular foreign policy.

Three more comments on Clinton’s foreign policy agenda.
Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia economist who directs the Earth Institute, published an excellent piece on Hillary Clinton’s Syria policy at Huffpo in February, saying Clinton’s misrepresentation of her own record in opposing a ceasefire in 2012 and prolonging the Syrian bloodbath makes her unfit to be president. Here he describes her love for covert military operations:
Clinton herself has never shown the least reservation or scruples in deploying this instrument of U.S. foreign policy. Her record of avid support for US-led regime change includes (but is not limited to) the US bombing of Belgrade in 1999, the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Iraq War in 2003, the Honduran coup in 2009, the killing of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, and the CIA-coordinated insurrection against Assad from 2011 until today….
Hillary Clinton has never shown an iota of bravery, or even of comprehension, in facing down the CIA. She has been the CIA’s relentless supporter, and has exulted in showing her toughness by supporting every one of its misguided operations. The failures, of course, are relentlessly hidden from view. Clinton is a danger to global peace
Next, consider that Dennis Ross is sure to be mentioned as a possible secretary of state in a Clinton administration and Ross is a favorite of the Israel lobby (not to mention chair of a Jewish people” institute based in Jerusalem that opposes intermarriage). Clinton polished up her Israel lobby bona fides by bringing Ross into the Obama administration in 2009– and Ross then argued Israel’s side in the White House for the next two years. Ross covers up for the Israeli nuclear program in his recent work of propaganda on the strength of the Israel-U.S. relationship, Doomed to Succeed.

“After Johnson, American presidents took Israeli nuclear weapons as a given but to be used only as a last resort,” Ross writes. That’s about it. Complete vagueness. This purposeful mystification is why so many on the left and the non-interventionist right want to end the official hypocrisy about Israel’s nuclear program: because we could then debate whether it’s reasonable for Israel to maintain its “nuclear monopoly” as a principal foreign policy goal, and whether the U.S. should go to war for such a policy, as Hillary Clinton’s team recommended.

Lastly, I mentioned that LA Times article on the platform battle that sees the story entirely from Clinton’s side. For instance, it mentions Sanders proxy Cornel West’s view that the 2014 Gaza war was a “massacre” but never even cites the casualty figures, including 500 dead children. Here is a great comment on that article by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-U.S., on Facebook:
The Los Angeles Times had an important story in its Sunday, May 29, 2016, edition deserving many rebuttals in letters-to-the-editor.
The topic was the impending platform fight at the Democratic convention over US government policy toward Israel. Top of the fold, on page 1. Despite its prominent location and length, the article never mentioned Haim Saban and his ilk financially supporting Hillary Clinton, legal discrimination against Palestinian Israelis and asylum seekers within the Green Line, the occupation and the construction of an apatheid state, Kerry’s failed peace talk initiative and the end of the two state option, Martin Indiyk blaming the Israeli government for the failed peace talks, Israel’s refusal to define its own borders, many ed-op pieces in the LA Times critical of the Israeli government, J Street, JVP, local groups like LA Jews for Peace, 42 US vetoes to protect Israel from sanctions at the UN Security Council, killing of the Goldstone Report, investigations of the IRS tax exempt status for philanthropies supporting settlers and Jewish terrorists, Avidgor Lieberman’s new role as the civilian head of the Israeli Military, and the increased US military sales to Israel totally $3.5 billion, intelligence sharing, and many violations of the Leahy and US Arms Export Acts.
So the Goldstone Report won’t go away, nor all those Gaza killings Clinton supported. Out damn spot.

Update. I revised this article to reflect the fact that Antiwar reported that the author of the State Department email released by Wikileaks was likely James P. Rubin; Rubin was passing along an article he was writing for Foreign Policy a month ahead of publication. The article was significantly less pro-Israel than the draft Rubin shared. Rubin is a Clinton ally, but was not a member of the State Department staff at the time, 2012. The original headline of the piece was “Clinton team pushed Syria war to ‘help Israel,'” which I have revised. Though Rubin appears to reflect Clinton’s ideas on foreign policy, including Syria intervention. 

Thanks to Scott Horton.

57 comments:

  1. Israel Is Cautiously Arming Syria’s Rebels — And Has A Fragile Unspoken Truce With An Al Qaeda Affiliate
    The Washington Institute For Near East Policy


    Ehud Yaari, The Washington Institute For Near East Policy
    Oct. 7, 2014, 12:42 PM 7,541

    In recent weeks, a new situation has emerged in southern Syria, one that could present dangers to Israel but also significant opportunities to help shape the area's future.

    Many observers still perceive the south as merely a secondary front in the ongoing civil war, but this view ignores the potential for drastic change there in a matter of months. In particular, the southern governorates of Quneitra and Deraa could become either the latest territories captured by radical forces — namely the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) — or a safe haven for non-Islamist rebel groups, some of which maintain contacts with Israel.

    Given these rapidly changing developments, Israeli strategists are quietly considering their options. The main question is whether to stay the course of limited involvement in the frontier fighting or be more proactive in influencing the outcome.


    http://www.businessinsider.com/its-not-too-late-to-empower-the-moderate-rebels-of-syria-2014-10

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Syria's destruction lays squarely at Assad's feet.

      Am I sad that the butcher of Damascus imploding in a epic battle that is destroying more of syria than I could dream?

      Hell no.

      Delete
    2. Hezbollah is killing Sunni arabs and more, Revolutionary guards are butchering like an orgy of violence, Shia militias and others imported by Iran? Killing and being killed...

      Assad using barrel bombs on his citizens, creating 1/2 million dead, 14 million refugees. ISIS fighting back as the savages they are...

      Yeah, not my party, nor Israel's, but the violence and destruction they do to EACH other is a lesson in what they would DO TO JEWS if given the chance.

      Very instructive.

      The people of Syria, for decades supported the terrorist attacks on Israel and it's people. Those very same technics are being used on each other BY EACH OTHER, hard to have sympathy for a people who wish me and mine dead.

      Delete
  2. When you're an 88 year old legend, you call a disaster what it is, then you go back to calling the game, caring not a whit what is said on Twitter and Fakebook:

    Legendary sports broadcaster Vin Scully ranted against socialism on air Friday after introducing Milwaukee Brewers infielder and Venezuela native Hernan Perez.

    “Perez, 25 years old, originally drafted by the Tigers. Lives in Venezuela,” the Hall-of-Famer said during the Brewers-Dodgers game. “Boy, can you imagine you’re a young kid, you’re playing in the United States, you’re from Venezuela, and every time you look at the news it’s a nightmare.
    “Socialism failing to work, as it always does, this time in Venezuela,” Mr. Scully continued.

    “You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden there’s no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello! Anyway, 0-and-2.” (Maria Gabriela Chávez is worth $4.2 billion.)

    Some commenters on social media criticized Mr. Scully for choosing a baseball game to air his political views, while others praised him for denouncing a political ideology embraced by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/20/vin-scully-destroys-socialism-during-brewers-dodge/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump on Hillary Clinton. "She's a world class liar."

      - June 22, 2016 -Donald J. Trump on the Stakes of the Election

      She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund – doing favors for oppressive regimes, and many others, in exchange for cash.

      Then, when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests – in less than 2 years – secret speeches that she does not want to reveal to the public.

      Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001.

      They totally own her, and that will never change.

      The choice in this election is a choice between taking our government back from the special interests, or surrendering our last scrap of independence to their total and complete control.

      Those are the stakes.

      https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-on-the-stakes-of-the-election

      ...Maybe the crook will end up richer than Gabriela.

      Rufus can dream.

      Delete
    2. "We Got Here Because We Switched From A Policy Of Americanism To A Policy Of Globalism"

      "Our country lost its way when we stopped putting the American people really first," he said. "We got here because we switched from a policy of Americanism – focusing on what’s good for America’s middle class – to a policy of globalism, focusing on how to make money for large corporations who can move their wealth and workers to foreign countries all to the detriment of the American worker and the American economy."

      "This is not a rising tide that lifts all boats," he said. "This is a wave of globalization that wipes out our middle class and our jobs."

      "They totally own her," he said about foreign nations' influence over the Democratic frontrunner. "And that will never change."

      Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001.

      They totally own her, and that will never change.

      http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/06/22/trump_we_got_here_because_we_switched_from_a_policy_of_americanism_to_a_policy_of_globalism.html

      Delete
  3. So the Goldstone Report won’t go away, nor all those Gaza killings Clinton supported. Out damn spot.


    The Gaza was was and is Hamas's responsibility.

    It started it, it refused to abide by cease fires and it increased it with tunnels and more rockets.

    The dead are all on Hamas's legal shoulders.

    The Geneva Convention is quite clear, those (hamas) using hospitals, schools, apartments as cover for war and war materials are responsible for any and ALL deaths and injury arising from said conflicts.

    But the dead in Gaza is a pittance when one looks at what is happening in Syria, Iraq or Yemen.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Judge Richard Goldstone, head of the infamous UN panel that issued the Goldstone Report in 2009, backtracked on his most serious accusations on Friday.

    The Goldstone Report had accused Israel and Hamas of “actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity” during the 2008 Gaza War.

    Goldstone’s about-face includes a reversal on the contentious claim that Israel intentionally targeted Palestinian civilians.

    Investigations into some 400 incidents from the war, cited by another recent UN report, “indicate that civilians were not intentionally targeted as a matter of policy,” Goldstone wrote in an op-ed published in the Washington Post:

    “I regret that our fact-finding mission did not have such evidence explaining the circumstances in which we said civilians in Gaza were targeted, because it probably would have influenced our findings about intentionality and war crimes.”

    Goldstone starkly admitted, “If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document.”

    http://honestreporting.com/goldstone-if-i-had-known-then-what-i-know-now…/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Time to send General Quirk on a fact finding mission to Syria so he can report back just exactly our nation should do or not do at this time.

    Since Q is our house Ethicist, a recommendation from an ethical point of view should be included.

    Quirk has ruled out of bounds no fly zones and safe zones as being war mongering.

    I look forward to and await his list of specific recommendations to stop the slaughter, by USA or others.

    ReplyDelete
  6. TRUMP: HILLARY MOST CORRUPT EVER TO SEEK PRESIDENCY...
    'We Switched From Policy Of Americanism To Policy Of Globalism'...
    'For amount Hillary would spend on refugees, we could rebuild every inner city in America'...
    She Takes Millions From Anti-Gay, Anti-Woman Regimes, Wants Sharia Migrants...
    I'M WITH ... YOU: THE PEOPLE...
    VIDEO: SPEECH...
    ((((Reporters Laugh After Hillary Avoids Questions...))))
    200+ DAYS SINCE LAST PRESS CONFERENCE...
    Clinton IT Aide Bryon Pagliano Invokes Fifth Amendment More Than 125 times....Drudge

    ReplyDelete
  7. For Quirk:

    Wonderful speech by Trump....calm, cool, collected, hitting an the points, and ripping Hillary's
    guts out....

    http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/22/full-speech-trump-goes-nuclear-on-hillary/

    40 minute speech

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yes let's ignore the 500,000 dead is syria, including 125,000 children when we can bash Israel.

    It interesting that we don't count how many dead America is killing when they bomb ISIS targets...


    silence.

    ReplyDelete
  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  10. In a speech at the Herzliya Conference, Israel’s military intelligence chief, Major General Herzi Halevy, took Israel’s long-standing position that it “prefers ISIS” over the Syrian government to a whole ‘mother level, declaring openly that Israel does not want to see ISIS defeated in the war.

    Quoted in the Hebrew-language NRG site, linked to Maariv, Maj. Gen. Halevy expressed concern about the recent offensives against ISIS territory, saying that in the last three months the Islamist group was facing the “most difficult” situation since its inception and declaration of a caliphate.

    Israeli officials have regularly expressed comfort with the idea of ISIS conquering the whole of Syria, saying they find it preferable to the Iran-allied government surviving the war. At the same time, they were never so overtly supportive of ISIS and its survival.

    Halevy went on to express concern that the defeat of ISIS might mean the “superpowers” leaving Syria, saying this would put Israel “in a hard position” after being so opposed to the survival of the Syrian government.

    He then said Israel will do “all we can so as to not find ourselves in such a situation,” suggesting that the Israeli military is looking at direct support for ISIS as a matter of policy, and not just rhetoric.

    ReplyDelete
  11. WASHINGTON (CNN) -November 6, 2001 Posted: 10:13 p.m. EST (0313 - President Bush said Tuesday that there was no room for neutrality in the war against terrorism.

    In a joint news conference with French President Jacques Chirac, Bush said coalition partners would be called upon to back up their support with action. He said he would deliver that message in his speech Saturday to the United Nations.

    "A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform," Bush said. "That means different things for different nations. Some nations don't want to contribute troops and we understand that. Other nations can contribute intelligence-sharing. ... But all nations, if they want to fight terror, must do something."

    Bush said he would not point out any specific countries in his speech.

    "Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. “You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."


    ISRAEL IS NO FRIEND AND NO ALLY - Israeli officials have regularly expressed comfort with the idea of ISIS conquering the whole of Syria, saying they find it preferable to the Iran-allied government surviving the war. At the same time, they were never so overtly supportive of ISIS and its survival.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. deuce do you think we are all stupid?

      Do you think we don't remember how in the 1st Gulf war "the coalition" do NOT ALLOW Israel to be in any way shape or form a part of since the arabs (at that time) boycotted Israel.

      Of course, we remember how Israel took iraq scuds up the ass and could not respond under direct threat by Bush to "stay out of it and sit on your hands".. Of course those patriot missiles were deployed and it was a mental lift to the Israelis but as we all now know they were useless...

      Now about your inane statement about Israel and ISIS and Iran.

      Now Isis is a bunch of head cutting savages. We can all agree, but they are not a nation like Iran.

      ISIS has butchered what 30 to 40 thousand civilians?

      Assad and Iran have butchered 450,000 to 500,000, IN SYRIA.

      Iran is stirring the pot in a dozen nations from Yemen to Iraq as well....

      Iran has an undisclosed nuclear bomb program, JUST admitted by the UAEA and the Obama administration...

      Iran finds Hamas and Hezbollah to the tune of a billion a year or so in the direct purpose to murder Jews...

      So why is it shocking for Israel to find it preferable to a continued Iranian proxy in Syria?

      Israel is no friend or ally to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, ISIS, ISIL, Islamic Jihad, the PLO, the PA, Fatah el Islam,, Force 17 and many other head cutting Islamic savages.

      Israel is the tip of the spear when it comes to fighting terrorism.

      But there are those, like you, that do not accept the idea that Hamas's kidnapping and murder of Jews, Hezbollah, kidnapping and murder of Jews, Iran's kidnapping and murder of Jews, Hamas, Hezbollah and Fatah's planting IEDs, stabbing Jews, blowing up, shooting up pizza shops and cafes is terror.

      you do not accept that terror tunnels by Hamas AND Hezbollah, built to kidnap and or murder Jews is terror.

      you do not accept that hamas and hezbollah launching rockets at civilians is terror...

      you live in the bubble of jew hatred and nothing seems to penetrate that bubble except how Israel sucks.

      Delete
  12. If Hillary Clinton received some money from someone she shouldn't have it will be in her Income Tax Filings - 33 Years of which she has released.

    We can't check on the scam artist, because he refuses to release his tax returns.

    (and, don't give us any bullshit about being "audited," the IRS stated emphatically that being audited has nothing to do with the making public of any tax returns.)

    ReplyDelete


  13. Clinton Foundation amends four years worth of tax returns

    By Rosalind S. Helderman November 16, 2015 


    Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel (from left), former president Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton speak during a student conference for the Clinton Global Initiative University at Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., on March 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Matt York)

    The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation announced late Monday that it had amended its tax returns for the last four years to more accurately account for revenue received from government sources.

    In a statement, Clinton Foundation President Donna E. Shalala said the revised returns came as the result of a voluntary review of the global charity’s past tax returns. She said the changes were not required by law and did not indicate that the charity owed any money to the Internal Revenue Service.

    Still, the amendments, which came in response to increased scrutiny on the charity as a result of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, are sure to raise new questions from conservative critics of the foundation.

    Founded by former president Bill Clinton initially to raise money for a presidential library, the foundation has become a $2 billion charitable behemoth, devoted to combating global poverty, improving health care and promoting education around the world.

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    The amendments came as the foundation filed its tax return for the 2014 calendar year, indicating it raised $177.8 million in the year preceding Hillary Clinton’s presidential run.

    Shalala said the amendments were a result of the foundation’s commitment to “disclosure and thoroughness” and came as a result of a review of the charity’s past returns conducted by Kathy Keneally, a former assistant attorney general who now works for the firm DLA Piper. The Foundation had indicated it was likely to amend its returns in April to better reflect government funding.

    According to Shalala, past returns accurately reflected the Foundation’s overall revenues and spending. Still, she said the forms had failed to properly account for the sources of the charity’s revenue, particular failing to note millions in government grants.

    Shalala said “there is no change in our bottom line numbers: assets, liabilities, and net assets.” She said the decision to refile was based on the fact that the tax return “serves as a public disclosure document for our friends, supporters, partners, and the general public.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/16/clinton-foundation-amends-four-years-worth-of-tax-returns/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FBI Primary still coming up.

      Delete
    2. According to Shalala, past returns accurately reflected the Foundation’s overall revenues and spending. Still, she said the forms had failed to properly account for the sources of the charity’s revenue, particular failing to note millions in government grants.

      And, Shalala works for the Clintons.

      hardy har har

      There's much much more than that.....

      Delete
    3. Hillary Clinton’s IT guy invokes 5th Amendment more than 125 times


      posted at 9:21 pm on June 22, 2016 by John Sexton

      Bryan Pagliano gave his deposition today in a lawsuit brought by Judicial Watch. Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reports he repeated the same statement invoking his Fifth Amendment rights more than 125 times:


      Hillary Clinton IT specialist Bryan Pagliano invoked the Fifth more than 125 times during a 90-minute, closed-door deposition Wednesday with the conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, a source with the group told Fox News.

      The official said Pagliano was working off an index card and read the same crafted statement each time.

      “It was a sad day for government transparency,” the Judicial Watch official said, adding they asked all their questions and Pagliano invoked the Fifth Amendment right not to answer them.

      Judicial Watch filed the suit claiming the State Department had not been responsive to FOIA requests for Clinton’s emails while she was Secretary of State. A judge granted the group the right to depose witnesses in the case, including Clinton’s top aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin. Mills has already been deposed in the case and claimed she knew nothing about the details of Clinton’s email server until after the Secretary left office. Conveniently, Mills once again began working as Clinton’s private attorney at that point which means Mills does not have to divulge anything she discussed with Clinton after that point.

      Earlier this month a judge delayed Pagliano’s deposition in order to learn more about the cooperation deal he had reached with the FBI. At the FBI’s request, the judge agreed to keep the details sealed. The FBI has been investigating Clinton’s private server since last year after a referral from the Inspectors General for the State Department and the Intelligence Community warned that classified information may have been mishandled.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2016/06/22/hillary-clintons-it-guy-invokes-5th-amendment-more-than-125-times/

      Hmmmm....I wonder what in the world he could be hiding, and why.... ?

      Delete

  14. D.C. circuit court: Hamas-linked CAIR must stand trial for massive fraud

    June 21, 2016 4:28 pm By Robert Spencer 60 Comments


    This is an unexpected and welcome victory that could mean the beginning of the end for this unsavory gang of thugs....

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/06/d-c-circuit-court-hamas-linked-cair-must-stand-trial-for-massive-fraud

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About time these CAIR arseholes get theirs....past time....

      Delete
  15. Now the interesting story is that Iran is not a friend or an ally of the USA.

    Uranium Provides New Clue on Iran’s Past Nuclear Arms Work
    Obama administration says IAEA discovery during inspection last year points to weapons program

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/uranium-provides-new-clue-on-irans-past-nuclear-arms-work-1466380760

    They are also liars.

    Congressmen Respond to Letter from Iranian Government
    'It is deeply disappointing ... Iran would respond to our legitimate request with insults and deflections.'

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/congressmen-respond-to-letter-from-iranian-government/article/2002724

    And kidnappers

    Former Argentine FM Admitted Iran Blew Up Jewish Center: Recording

    http://www.jewishpress.com/news/former-argentine-fm-admitted-iran-blew-up-jewish-center-recording/2015/12/19/

    And terrorists...

    2011 Iran assassination plot
    On 11 October 2011, United States officials alleged there was a plot tied to the Iranian government to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in the United States. The plot was referred to as the "Iran assassination plot" or the "Iran terror plot" in the media, while the Federal Bureau of Investigation named the case "Operation Red Coalition".[1][2] Iranian nationals Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri were charged on 11 October 2011 in federal court in New York with plotting to assassinate Al-Jubeir.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Iran_assassination_plot

    and murderers...

    ReplyDelete
  16. From Fox News -

    Omar likely was talking to a co-conspirator on the phone while he was in the gay club shooting folks.

    Means he was controlled, or part of a group, and the homosexual angle recedes.

    ReplyDelete
  17. AG Lynch: Most effective weapon against terrorism 'is love'

    American Thinker Headline

    She's a true goofball, like her boss.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sieg Heil !

      HUG HITLER !



      From conversation on Fox News.

      Someone said though the best way to stop terrorism is to put a bullet between the eyes of the terrorists....

      Delete
  18. GOD, I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!! :):):):)

    The Dems are singing "We Shall Overcome" on the floor of the House. :)

    Unfuckingbelievable :) :) :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :)

      Literally on the floor of the House...SIT IN !

      Delete
    2. Total theater

      Want to stop gun violence?

      Ban gang members from owning guns.

      Delete
    3. WiO comes out in favor of gun control - who woulda thought?

      Delete
  19. Six members of a violent, white supremacist prison gang and a female gang associate were arrested on outstanding arrest warrants by FBI agents and SWAT officers from several Front Range police agencies on Wednesday.

    ...

    FBI spokeswoman Deborah Sherman confirmed that FBI agents participated in an area-wide operation in which seven people were arrested on state drugs and weapons charges.

    ...

    Members of the 211 Crew have been tied to the murder of former Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements. Sherman declined to comment about whether the investigation pertained in any way to the Clements case.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Strikes in Syria

    Bomber, attack, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 18 strikes in Syria:

    -- Near Abu Kamal, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    -- Near Raqqah, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit, an ISIL headquarters and an ISIL finance center and destroyed two ISIL oil pump jacks.

    -- Near Manbij, 12 strikes struck 12 separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed six ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL front-end loader.

    -- Near Mara, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Rocket artillery and bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 17 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of the Iraqi government:

    -- Near Beiji, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed eight ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL vehicles, an ISIL improvised explosive device, an ISIL vehicle-borne IED, four ISIL rocket rails, two ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL supply cache and an ISIL anti-air artillery piece and damaged five ISIL berms.

    -- Near Fallujah, three strikes struck two separate large ISIL tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, two ISIL heavy machine guns, five ISIL light machine guns, five ISIL rocket propelled grenade systems and two ISIL mortar systems and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Kisik, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas, an ISIL tunnel and three ISIL rocket rails.

    -- Near Mosul, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL vehicles, six ISIL assembly areas and an ISIL rocket system.

    -- Near Qayyarah, three strikes destroyed three ISIL rocket rails and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed nine ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL light machine gun, an ISIL rocket-propelled-grenade system, an ISIL boat and three ISIL weapons caches.

    -- Near Tal Afar, a strike suppressed an ISIL heavy machine gun position.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How many babies and women did we kill today?

      How many terrorists have we created?

      How much treasure did it cost to do these military operations?


      Delete
  21. Good Queen Mum -



    Jihad Watch

    Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

    Queen Elizabeth for Brexit: “EU courts ‘denigrate’ Britain by protecting terrorists”

    June 23, 2016 12:49 am By Christine Williams 11 Comments


    Even the usually neutral Queen is fed up with European courts protecting Islamic jihadist hate preachers saying that they “denigrate Britain” and asking the question: “Give me THREE good reasons” to remain inside the European Union. Pity that the Obama administration and Western leftist authorities are not as wise as the Queen on this matter, as she has now signaled her position on Britain leaving the EU and the critical reason for doing so.

    queen

    “Her Majesty The Eurosceptic Queen: EU Courts ‘Denigrate’ Britain By Protecting Terrorists,” by Liam Deacon, Breitbart, June 22, 2016:


    Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II thinks European courts that protect Islamist hate preachers “denigrate” Britain and has demanded her dinner guests “Give me THREE good reasons” to remain inside the European Union (EU).

    The loaded challenge has been widely interpreted as an expression of Euroscepticism since the Royal biographer Robert Lacey made the revelation in a blog post in the Daily Beast.

    The EU and the European Court of Human Rights are known for their history of protecting the “rights” of extremists and blocking deportations.

    Last night Breitbart London revealed that Islamist hate preacher, terrorist apologist and Caliphate agitator Anjem Choudary supports Remain because “there are certain principles and caveats” in EU law that offer “recourse” to Islamist radicals.

    According to Mr. Lacy: “We know from another leaked royal conversation that the European Court of Human Rights has annoyed the Queen as much as many Britons.

    “She felt that the Court’s shielding of Abu Hamza, the extremist Muslim cleric whom the Home Office wished to deport in 2012, ‘denigrated’ Britain.”

    EU courts blocked the deportation of the Egyptian militant Islamist from the UK for eight years, even after he had been found guilty of numerous terror-related crimes.

    The Queen is often lauded the model of a responsible constitutional monarch — going to great lengths to remain neutral on big political issues of the day. However, she is said to enjoy “robust” debate and has strong personal views.

    The evidence for her majesty’s Eurosceptic tendencies is building. In March, it wasrevealed that she had spoken out strongly against the EU in a private 2011 discussion with the then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg – himself a committed Europhile.

    A senior source said: “People who heard their conversation were left in no doubt at all about the Queen’s views on European integration…..

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/06/queen-elizabeth-for-brexit-eu-courts-denigrate-britain-by-protecting-terrorists

    ReplyDelete
  22. American Thinker Blog

    Corrected polls show Trump had large lead over Clinton just before Lewandowski was fired - 6/23/16
    Was bad polling data used to justify Corey Lewandowski's unceremonious firing? More


    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/06/6_22_2016_15_16.html

    ReplyDelete
  23. In total, around 400,000 people were believed to have been displaced to Duhok and Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. Earlier this month IS militants reportedly burned 19 Yazidi women to death in iron cages, for refusing to have sex with the jihadists in Mosul in northern Iraq.

    Women's rights emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch, Skye Wheeler, said: "The longer they are held by ISIS, the more horrific life becomes for Yezidi women, bought and sold, brutally raped, their children torn from them.

    "Many of the abuses, including torture, sexual slavery, and arbitrary detention, would be war crimes if committed in the context of the armed conflict, or crimes against humanity if they were part of ISIS policy during a systematic or widespread attack on the civilian population."

    ReplyDelete
  24. this is for quirk:

    Israel Police crack down on stone-throwing in Bedouin areas of Negev
    DEBKAfile June 23, 2016, 3:22 PM (IDT)
    Five suspects, including three teenagers, have been arrested by the Israel Police on suspicion of throwing stones at passing vehicles on Route 25 between Nevatim and Aruar in the Negev. The arrests came during an operation by elite police units with assistance from the air. In a statement, the police spokesman's office said operations will continue with zero tolerance regarding stone-throwing. The five suspects were brought to a hearing at a district court in Beersheba on Thursday regarding the extension of their arrests.


    Sadly Israel missed an opportunity to be like the USA and simply bomb them... I am HIGHLY critical of Israel's lack of American style law enforcement. In this thread alone Rufus has shown us how to win a war against these thugs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Often, along with stones, they throw Molotov Cocktails.


      What Is A Molotov Cocktail ?

      This is a photo of an ignited Molotov cocktail. Indymedia

      By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

      Updated April 12, 2016.

      You may have heard about Molotov cocktails on the news or seen them in video games, but do you know what they are? Here's a description of a Molotov cocktail and a little history of the device's invention.

      What Is a Molotov Cocktail?

      A Molotov cocktail is also known as a petrol bomb or alcohol bomb. It is a simple type of improvised incendiary device. The simplest form consists of a stoppered bottle filled with a combustible liquid, such as gasoline or high-proof alcohol, with a fuel-soaked rag stuffed in the neck of the bottle. The stopper separates the fuel from the part of the rag that acts as a fuse. To use a Molotov cocktail, the rag is ignited and the bottle is thrown against a vehicle or fortification. The bottle breaks, spraying fuel into the air. The vapor and droplets are ignited by the flame, producing a fireball and then a burning fire, which consumes the remainder of the fuel.

      Origin of the Molotov Cocktail

      The Molotov cocktail traces its origins to an improvised incendiary device that was used in the 1936–1939 Spanish Civil War in which General Francisco Franco had Spanish Nationalists use the weapons against Soviet T-26 tanks.

      In World War II, the Finnish used the weapons against Soviet tanks. Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs claimed in radio broadcasts that the Soviet Union was delivering food to the starving Finns rather than dropping bombs on them. The Finns started referring to the air bombs as Molotov bread baskets and to the incendiary weapons they used against the Soviet tanks as Molotov cocktails.

      Revisions to the Molotov Cocktail

      Throwing a flaming bottle of fuel was inherently dangerous, so modifications were made to the Molotov cocktail. The Alko corporation mass-produced Molotov cocktails. These devices consisted of 750 ml glass bottles that contained a mixture of gasoline, ethanol, and tar. The sealed bottles were bundled with a pair of pyrotechnic storm matches, one on either side of the bottle. One or both of the matches were lit before the device was thrown, either by hand or using a sling. The matches were safer and more reliable than the fuel-soaked cloth fuses. The tar thickened the fuel mixture so that the fuel would adhere to its target and so the fire would produce a lot of smoke. Any flammable liquid could be used as the fuel. Other thickening agents included dish soap, egg whites, sugar, blood, and motor oil.

      The Polish army developed a mixture of sulfuric acid, sugar, and potassium chlorate that ignited upon impact, thus eliminating the need for a lit fuse.

      http://chemistry.about.com/od/firecombustionchemistry/a/molotovcocktail.htm


      Delete
    2. Vyacheslav Molotov

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyacheslav_Molotov

      Delete
    3. Winston Churchill called Molotov a robotic survivor.

      Delete
  25. MAINZ, Germany — A gunman reportedly opened fire and barricaded himself in a German movie theater complex on Thursday, according to local media.

    Heavily-armed police run outside of the movie theater complex in Viernheim, Germany. Alexander Scheuber / Getty Images
    The Bild newspaper was among those reporting on the incident at the Kinopolis movie complex in the southwestern town of Viernheim. It said special forces were on the scene.

    Footage from outside of the theater showed heavily armed police strapping on bulletproof vests and running towards the building as sirens blared.

    ReplyDelete
  26. A masked man who reportedly fired shots in a cinema complex in western Germany has been shot dead by police, the state’s interior minister has said.

    Peter Beuth told the state of Hessen’s parliament that police stormed the Kinopolis complex in Viernheim, near Frankfurt, after shots were reported.

    "The police thought that the gunman was holding hostages and because of that he was shot dead," he added.
    At least 20 people are said to have been hurt.

    Most were apparently suffering the effects of tear gas released as police stormed the complex. It is not clear whether anyone was wounded by the attacker.

    Heavily armed police surrounded the complex after the incident began.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most probably another Jewish terrorist getting revenge for the Holocaust or some other minor matter. Eh ?

      Delete
  27. .

    this is for quirk

    Sadly Israel missed an opportunity to be like the USA and simply bomb them... I am HIGHLY critical of Israel's lack of American style law enforcement. In this thread alone Rufus has shown us how to win a war against these thugs.


    WiO complains about Israel not killing enough Palestinian protesters. In this, he represents much of the Israeli public and most of the right wing government. The IDF is trying to uphold its reputation as a killing machine but evidently not fast enough. They did kill that kid in the car the other day and wound a few others. By mistake. But as some conservative rabbis have argued the killing of children is justified since they might grow up to terrorists. And now, WiO argues for more blood. No, doubt WiO thinks the cold blooded and premeditated murder of that Palestinian knife wielder as he lie incapacitated and bleeding out on the ground was excellent. Much of Israel seems to agree. Huge protests were launched when the soldier was indicted for ‘manslaughter’ and there is a major campaign on right now against his commander because he testified against him.

    But the right wing government is doing its part. The only one ever executed in Israel was Adolph Eichman back in the '60s. Now, before becoming defense minister, Avignor Libermen put up a bill in the Knesset that has gone through at least one reading so far designed to bring back the death penalty for terrorists. Of course, the way it is set up it would only apply to Palestinian terrorists not the Israeli terrorists.

    Likud Source: Israeli Death Penalty for Terrorists Won’t Apply to Jews

    read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.720896

    And WiO’s minion also joins in with…

    Often, along with stones, they throw Molotov Cocktails.

    One can only assume he is talking about the Palestinians. After all, you won't find stories of Israeli protesters or rioters throwing molotovs in Jihad Watch. You have to go to the regular papers in Israel or to You Tube. Of course, there are some high profile cases like the Israelis that burned that kid alive. Or the settlers that threw the molotov into that Palestinian house in the middle of the night while the family slept killing most of the family including a small child and leaving one small boy, now and orphan, with burns over most of his body.

    Funny thing about all this though, of all the cases reported of settler attacks and violence only about 7% bring indictments and the convict rate is much smaller than that. And while Israel routinely destroys not only the homes of the ‘suspected’ Palestinian perps they never seem to do the same thing with the Israeli perps. Recent examples include those above where the kid was burned alive and the family was murdered in their sleep. SOP

    Just by reading the Israeli papers you could fill up the blog daily with the injustices placed on Palestinians by the Israelis. Yet, after 60 years of occupation, WiO seems surprised that the Palestinians protest.

    I am getting tired of using the words, stupid, moron, nitwit. Time to go to the thesaurus.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  28. ‘ISIS members surrender before Iraqi forces in Qayyarah’

    (IraqiNews.com) Nineveh – A security source in Nineveh province said on Thursday that the Anti-Terrorism Command carried out a military operation against ISIS at Qayyarah in Mosul, indicating that the ISIS members in the area have surrendered themselves before the security forces.

    Revealing in details the source said, “A special force belonging to the Anti-Terrorism Directorate (Golden Division), based on accurate intelligence information, carried out a covert operation at the order of the Prime Minister at Qayyarah in Mosul, where a number of prominent ISIS leaders were present.”

    “The force was surprised that the ISIS members surrendered themselves without much resistance, fearing the repetition of what happened to them in Fallujah,” the source added.

    It is worth mentioning here that the Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi announced last week about the launch of a military operation with an aim to liberate the area.

    Iraqinews

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Strikes in Syria

      Attack, fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 12 strikes in Syria:

      -- Near Raqqah, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL-used bridge and destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

      -- Near Manbij, nine strikes struck eight separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions and two ISIL vehicles.

      -- Near Mara, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

      Strikes in Iraq

      Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 22 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

      -- Near Baghdadi, a strike destroyed an ISIL tunnel system.

      -- Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun position.

      -- Near Bashir, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL command-and control-nodes.

      -- Near Beiji, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL mortar system, an ISIL tunnel entrance and an ISIL vehicle bomb.

      -- Near Fallujah, four strikes struck four separate ISIL tactical units; destroyed seven ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle, five ISIL light machine guns, an ISIL rocket-propelled grenade system and an ISIL boat; damaged two separate ISIL fighting positions; and denied ISIL access to terrain.

      -- Near Mosul, eight strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units, an ISIL oil ministry headquarters and an ISIL vehicle bomb factory and destroyed three ISIL vehicles, two ISIL weapons caches, 10 ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL command-and-control nodes and an ISIL tunnel entrance.

      -- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL assembly area and eight ISIL boats and denied ISIL access to terrain.

      -- Near Ramadi, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed 14 ISIL boats and two ISIL weapons caches.

      Delete
  29. .

    What Hath Bernie Wrought?

    Most damning was his charge that the “roots of fascism” have taken hold in the Netanyahu government.


    Bernie Sanders and Ehud Barak are 74-year-old secular Jews who probably never met. One is Israel’s most decorated soldier and former prime minister, and the other a US senator, socialist and presidential candidate. Barak was born on a kibbutz; Sanders lived on one briefly in his 20s. Differences aside, each in his own way is opening a window on Israel’s future relations with American Jewry.

    While they seem to have little in common, they agree on something important, namely that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading his country in the wrong direction and is causing a schism in US-Israel relations.

    Sanders shocked many, especially in the Jewish community, when he said in a Brooklyn debate with Hillary Clinton, “Netanyahu is not right all the time.”

    That view was echoed more emphatically in recent speeches by Moshe Ya’alon, who like Barak is a former defense minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet and former IDF chief of staff.


    It also sounds a lot like something candidate Barack Obama told a Jewish audience eight years ago: “There is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel that you’re anti-Israel.”

    Ehud Barak was a lot tougher, using words like weak, feeble, deceitful, extreme, obtuse, blind and hubristic to describe the prime minister.


    Most damning was his charge that the “roots of fascism” have taken hold in the Netanyahu government.

    On the right, Ya’alon said “racist and extremist elements” are taking over Israel and the Likud and Netanyahu is “inflaming passions and causing fear between Jews and Arabs.”

    Barak, reflecting what many Jewish leaders here fear in private but won’t say in public, said Netanyahu is swinging Israel so far to the Right that it is alienating young American Jews. That can be seen in recent polls and other studies here and was evident in the Sanders campaign.

    The senator’s call for a more even-handed approach toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict frightened many in the Jewish establishment, but there was barely a ripple among the millennials, Jews and non-Jews, backing his campaign. His followers are younger, more liberal and more fed up with the status quo. To this generation of Jews being pro-Israel does not mean giving unqualified support to Israeli policies any more than they would give to the policies of their own government.

    Sanders defines himself as “100 percent pro-Israel,” has spent time there, has family living there and is a proud Jew, but says that doesn’t mean obsequiously following Netanyahu. And he will try at next month’s Democratic Convention in Philadelphia to make the party platform more even-handed. To that end he appointed to the platform committee two pro-Palestinian activists, James Zogby and Cornel West. They’re already running into strong resistance from Clinton forces. Ultimately it will make no substantive difference because if Clinton is elected she will pursue her own policy, as all presidents do.

    Sanders may not change US Mideast policy but he is focusing needed attention on the growing gap between American Jews and Israel, and between US and Israeli policy. His critics unfairly accuse him of being anti-Israel, a self-loathing Jew and trying to put “Israel-bashing language in the platform.”

    What he’s really done is much more serious than the hysterical rhetoric from the far Right, which insists being pro-Israel really means supporting their extreme ideological positions. Like Barak, he has revealed some inconvenient truths.

    {...}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. {...}

      What Sanders and his progressive followers, notably a younger generation, see is an Israel that marches steadily rightward toward intolerance and domination by religious and nationalist extremists.

      They see a prime minister who, Barak said, only talks about two states but really want does not want to see a Palestinian state, and is just waiting for the rest of the world to lose interest in the conflict so he can impose his one-state solution.

      Polls show support for Israel is diminishing among Democrats and growing among Republicans, where it is bolstered by Evangelicals and a growing number of Orthodox Jews. Some may try to blame the change on Obama’s supposed “hostility” toward Israel, but the real problem lies 6,000 miles away.

      Netanyahu’s contemptuous treatment of the first African-American president, endorsing his opponent four years ago and last year’s leadership of the Republican lobbying campaign against the president’s nuclear agreement with Iran, alienated many African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities, to say nothing of traditional Democrats.

      To younger and progressive Jews the treatment of Reform and Conservative movements – the majority of American Jews – by ultra-Orthodox rabbis on the Israeli government payroll sends a message: This is not your Israel.

      Dov Waxman, professor of Israel studies at Northeastern University and author of Trouble in the Tribe, writes growing numbers of American Jews, although they still care about Israel, have become increasingly critical of Israeli government policies, especially concerning the Palestinians. Many want Israel to stop expanding West Bank settlements and start seriously negotiating peace with the Palestinians.

      Sanders will press his call to “treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity” at the convention, and Clinton will say that is standing US policy, but it is unlikely to be much of a campaign issue beyond some wild accusations and incendiary rhetoric from Donald Trump.

      When Jews go to the polls on November 8, three out of four can be expected to vote Democrat, although Trump could send that number higher.


      http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/What-hath-Bernie-wrought-457500


      No doubt WiO give give us his pro forma 'all of these guys, including the left wing in Israel and the progressive Jews in the US are anti-Semitic.'

      .

      Delete
  30. .


    Have Decades of US Interference and Paradoxically Indifference Delivered Central and South America to China?

    Central America’s anti-communist regimes used to be closely allied with Taiwan, but growing trade with China has broken that link.

    Oscar Arias Sánchez, who was president of Costa Rica in 2007, described his decision to recognise the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that year as an act of realism. Taiwan had seen itself as a figurehead of the fight against communism ever since 1949 when the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalists were defeated by the communists and went into exile in Taiwan; from early on, it was able to count on the support of Latin American leaders whose foreign policies were aligned with the US, and forged close links with military regimes in the region. In Paraguay, an imposing statue of KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek, erected by President Alfredo Stroessner (1954-89) in the centre of the capital, Asunción, still witnesses the friendship between the two dictators. Both were active members of the World Anti-Communist League (now the World League for Freedom and Democracy) founded by Chiang Kai-shek in 1966. Paraguay is still a bridgehead for Taiwan in South America, and its only point of access to Mercosur, the South American common market.

    In 1969 Cuba had been the only country in Latin America to recognise the PRC. But after China won a UN seat in 1971, displacing Taiwan as the sole representative of the Chinese people, and began its rapprochement with the US, it set about dismantling the diplomatic network its rival had established. Taiwan lost valuable potential allies: despite repeated requests, it remains excluded from international organisations, except for the WTO (World Trade Organisation), which it joined in 2001. The PRC also forced countries to make a choice: opening an embassy in Taipei automatically meant breaking off diplomatic relations with China — a non-negotiable rule intended to help China further isolate Taiwan.

    China managed this more easily in South America than in Central America, which remained a bastion of support for Taiwan, even in the 2000s. So it was a surprise when Costa Rica changed sides in 2007; though its recognition of the PRC has not changed the balance of power between China and Taiwan in Central America (1), Arias Sánchez’s realism could spread to other countries — at a political level (Latin America’s anti-communists are well aware that the “red peril” has dissipated), and especially at an economic level...


    http://mondediplo.com/2016/06/10taiwan

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have Decades of US Interference and Paradoxically Indifference Delivered Central and South America to China?

      No.

      China's a world power now, they trade with everyone.

      And by the way, Cuba would be a hell of a lot better off if we'd stopped the Castro boys in their tracks.

      It was only after Castro that Cubans began risking their lives on inner tubes and rafts to get the hell out of there and come to the USA.

      You're a Quirk.

      Delete
  31. Thank you for your interesting and informative blog. I have enjoyed reading it and appreciate the work you have put into it. Here is some relevant information for you to review .
    Kids SWAT Commander Vests

    ReplyDelete