| US once threatened sanctions/tax deductions when Israel occupied land by force Posted: 18 Feb 2010 10:25 AM PST Henry Norr urges Obama to study the Suez war, when an American President and Sec'y of State actually used the UN General Assembly as a bully pulpit, and threatened sanctions, and took on the lobby too, to force Israel out of Gaza. At the end of this account, you will see that Israel didn't leave without devastation. This is also chronicled by Joe Sacco in his book, on the right side of this site. Plus ca change. Norr's analogy here is obviously to the Obama capitulation on the West Bank, also occupied, also supported by tax deductible contributions. Norr: Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, forthrightly condemned the attack. At the United Nations, where Britain and France held veto power in the Security Council, the U.S. joined the Soviet bloc — even as Soviet tanks rolled through Hungary — as well as emerging third-world governments in taking the matter to the General Assembly and approving resolution after resolution calling for a ceasefire, then withdrawal of the aggressors. Within days the British and French gave in and began pulling out their troops. A few weeks later Israel grudgingly agreed to withdraw from the Sinai. But Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion adamantly refused to give up the Gaza Strip as well as an area along the Gulf of Aqaba, despite personal pleas from Eisenhower and a sixth UN resolution calling for withdrawal. Israel's parliament, the Knesset, formally proclaimed the country's intent to keep Gaza. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Israel mobilized its lobby — already a formidable political force, if not quite as dominant as it is today — to pressure the administration to back off on its demands. Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson, with support from his Republican counterpart, William Knowland, led the campaign, with support from such luminaries as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Time Inc. publisher Henry Luce. Noting the "terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen," Dulles complained that "The Israeli Embassy is practically dictating to the Congress through influential Jewish people in the country." "I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by the Jews," he told Luce, but "I am going to have one. That does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his Farewell Address that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere." Eisenhower agreed. On Feb. 11, 1957, he sent another message to Ben Gurion, offering to guarantee Israeli access to the Gulf of Aqaba but demanding "prompt and unconditional withdrawal" from Gaza. Ben Gurion again refused, replying that "there is no basis for the restoration of the status quo ante in Gaza." At that point, instead of an Obama-style cave-in, Ike decided to take the gloves off. On Feb. 20 he sent another cable to Ben Gurion threatening to support a UN call for sanctions against Israel and warning that such sanctions could apply not only to U.S. government aid to Israel (then modest) but also to Israel's lifeline at the time, tax-deductible private donations and the purchase of Israel's bonds. That same evening the president went on national television specifically to address the dispute with Israel. "We are now," he told the American people, "faced with a fateful moment as the result of the failure of Israel to withdraw its forces behind the Armistice lines, as contemplated by the United Nations Resolutions on this subject." "I would, I feel, be untrue to the standards of the high office to which you have chosen me, if I were to lend the influence of the United States to the proposition that a nation which invades another should be permitted to exact conditions for withdrawal," he continued. "I believe that in the interests of peace the United Nations has no choice but to exert pressure upon Israel to comply with the withdrawal resolutions." Ben Gurion's initial response was continued defiance, but with no indication that Eisenhower would back down, and the General Assembly about to vote for sanctions, he had no choice but to capitulate. On March 1 Israel's foreign minister, Golda Meir, announced that her government would withdraw from Gaza after all, and by March 16 the pull-out was complete. On the way out, the Israelis systematically destroyed all surface roads, railway tracks, and telephone lines in the area, as well as several villages. But at least the occupation of the Gaza Strip came to an end — until the Israelis came storming back 10 years later. Related posts: - Israel threatened to turn West Bank into '2nd Gaza' if P.A. didn't sell out on Goldstone
- An international consensus like the one that gave us Partition now urges sanctions against apartheid
- YNET reports George Mitchell is threatening Israel with sanctions. Unfortunately, the record looks different.
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| Seven Israelis had their identities stolen – apparently by Mossad assassins! Posted: 18 Feb 2010 10:40 AM PST Jews who have been considering emigrating to Israel might be having second thoughts today following the assassination in Dubai of a Hamas official in which innocent Israelis have been implicated through a kind of identity theft. Or as Haaretz editorializes today: "Should all Jews considering coming to live in Israel from the West be concerned that their names might be linked with espionage and terror incidents throughout the world?" To the extent that Israel provides a safe haven to Jews, it turns out your religious identity might count for less than your name. The Israeli government has yet to acknowledge that the murder of the Hamas commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai last month was carried out by Mossad, but the evidence is now strong. This is one of those situations where it would be hard to find a government official (from pretty much any government) who would express any doubt, off the record. So the press is being coy, but it's really just a game. To plausibly say there's any doubt really requires coming up with a plausible theory about who else would have the motive and the means to pull this off. If there was any doubt, would the British and Irish governments be calling in their Israeli ambassadors? I don't think so. Whether or not Mossad carried out the killing may turn out to concern Israelis (and Jews elsewhere) less than the apparent willingness of the Israeli intelligence agency to put the lives and liberty of Israeli citizens in jeopardy by stealing their identities. It now turns out that five Israeli dual nationals claim their identities were stolen in order to provide the Dubai killers with fake passports. (Update – the latest reports indicate there were seven identity thefts.) Haaretz reports: At least five Israelis awoke Tuesday morning to find their names tied to the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in his Dubai hotel room last month. All were stunned to find their names displayed on passports that police in the emirate said were used by the assailants. However, the people pictured in the photos released by police looked nothing like them. All denied involvement in the affair. "I'm in shock – I just don't understand how something like this could happen," said Paul John Keeley, a British-born repairman who lives on Kibbutz Nahsholim, near Zichron Yaakov. Keeley's name appeared on the British passport Dubai authorities said belonged to one of the hit men. "From the moment I heard about it I was very worried. I'm worried for my family," said Keeley, who immigrated to Israel more than a decade ago. "The fact that it was my name that was published in this context makes me worry that someone will try to harm us." Keeley, 43 and a father of three, said Tuesday his passport was in his possession before, on and after January 20, the day Mabhouh was assassinated. "I don't know who a person calls when his identity is stolen," he said. "I'm waiting for someone from the British or Israeli government to contact me and give me answers. I don't understand how something like this could happen." Amir Oren adds: Using the identities of real, living, innocent Israelis for operational documentation is against the law. This kind of abuse also causes innocent civilians to suffer the evil that already plagues ministers and officers: being prevented from traveling abroad for fear of being arrested by Interpol on suspicion of being the Dubai assassins. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy pushed for a Mossad Law to be legislated that would enshrine the state's obligation to defend its agents caught breaking laws abroad. The initiative never got off the ground: A state can't legitimize illegality. But neither can it allow one of its institutions to arbitrarily harm civilians — not the police, not the tax authority, not the Shin Bet security service and not the Mossad. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein was asked yesterday whether an investigation will be opened following the public complaints of those whose identities were stolen from them, and whose lives and liberty are therefore now threatened. Weinstein has not yet had time to study the issue. Oren is calling for Mossad chief Meir Dagan to be fired. But why stop there? Who can be so naive as to wonder that this operation was conducted with the authorization and at the behest of the Israeli prime minister himself. Imagine a parallel in the United States. Richard Nixon couldn't get away with ordering a burglary – can Netanyahu put his own citizens in jeopardy while ordering a murder? This may end up not merely undermining public confidence in government officials; it might even shake Jewish confidence in Zionism. This is a cross-post from Woodward's site, War in Context Related posts: - Were those Mossad assassins wearing tennis outfits in Dubai?
- How they do it: Hoenlein brought Limbaugh to Israel and Mossad, many years ago
- Report on E J'lem arrests: '150 stand in the courtyard of the stolen house, double what we had last week'
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| In Justice Department ruling, everybody wins! (well anyway Barack and Ari and Rahm and Israel, too) Posted: 18 Feb 2010 07:49 AM PST From the Chicago Sun-Times, 2 weeks back, "Feds Quietly OK Ticketmaster, Live Nation merger", the real news is buried deep in the story: Widely considered to be the first major test of the Obama administration's stance on antitrust issues, the Justice Department's ruling is similar to many issued during the Clinton and Bush years, including the settlement of the Microsoft case. The government is trusting an ever-expanding big business to police itself and act in consumers' interests. For followers of politics as practiced in Chicago, it is hard not to suspect some successful influence peddling. In addition to employing the most high-powered Democratic lobbyists in Washington, Live Nation's board members include Hollywood super agent Ari Emanuel, brother of Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff and former North Side congressman, while Ticketmaster's board of directors included the president's Harvard classmate and transition team leader Julius Genachowski, until he resigned to become chairman of the FCC. Do I dare to raise the religious/sociological issue? Yes I can! Julius is an old friend of mine back when we were starting our rise (or his rise!), a wonderful outgoing guy, and just as Jewish as me. I met him when he was at Columbia. I wonder where he is on the Israel question–his parents are Holocaust survivors, his wife is doing a Holocaust movie. I know where Rahm is ($/2012). Don't know about his brother, but I could guess. As Bob Feldman (whose penetrating mind exposed Columbia University's ties to the defense industry/establishment during Vietnam era) explains to me: "Live Nation is the music industry monopoly that apparently has been arranging concert appearances in Israel for entertainers like Madonna and U2, despite the BDS/cultural campaign. Coincidentally, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's brother, Ari Emanuel, apparently sits on the Live Nation corporate board that will both benefit from the recent Justice Department decision in this anti-trust case and from the profits earned from concerts in Israel." (Oh and yes Feldman is also Jewish; which shows the varieties of Jewish identity.) Feldman: Related posts: - Walt: Barack & Rahm Have to Know that Being 'Pro-Israel' Means Bringing Big Pressure Against Occupation Now
- What Did Rahm Emanuel Do in Israel in '91?
- Rahm Emanuel's Uncle Was Killed by Arabs in Jerusalem
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| Let's take on the claim that Arab states embrace Israel to counter Iran Posted: 18 Feb 2010 07:52 AM PST Greenwald referred to this article on his blog this morning, but I thought the original was such a clear statement I bring it to your attention. From Rami Khouri in Lebanon's Daily Star, "Why Chuckles Greeted Hillary's Gulf Tour," responding to the American claim that the Arab Gulf states want Israel as a protector against a nuclear Iran. My emphasis. This sounds reasonable, but it is not an accurate description of the actual options that the Arab Gulf states have. It is mostly a description of how American and Israeli strategic concerns and slightly hysterical biases are projected onto the Gulf states' worldviews. These states in fact have a fourth option, which is to negotiate seriously a modus vivendi with Iran that removes the "threat" from their perceptions of Iran by affirming the core rights and strategic needs of both sides, thus removing mutual threat perceptions. This is exactly the same option the US used when it negotiated détente and the Helsinki Accords with the Soviet Union (and whose results ultimately brought about the collapse of Communism). Why the US does not use the same sensible approach to the perceived threat from Iran is hard to explain. Perhaps two reasons explain it: Washington would have to deal with Iran (and other defiant Middle Easterners) through negotiations rather than haughty neo-colonialism; and, Israel would have to submit to nuclear inspections and end its aggressive behavior. Weiss adds: Note the reference to the collapse of Communism. The analogy is clear. Very few of us in the west are fond of radical Islam. I don't like it one bit. How can I have any effect on radical Islam? Return to Wolman's emphasized Rx. Related posts: - MSNBC commentator pipes line that Arab states worry about Iran more than peace process. He's wrong
- Richard Engel says Arab states care more about Iran than Palestinian freedom
- Roger Cohen again. Get tough on Israel before it bombs Iran…
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| Hijab: the global disgrace of Mamilla is delegitimizing… an ideology Posted: 18 Feb 2010 08:35 AM PST Here is Nadia Hijab writing beautifully about the destruction of Mamilla cemetery to make way for a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. It begins with her own clumsy effort to bury her father's ashes on a road in the land of his origins, near Nablus. [The Moroccan Jewish cab driver] asked hesitantly, "Don't you have rites like ours, including visiting loved ones' graves?" In fact, at no time is the loss of Palestine more piercing than at a loved one's passing, reinforcing the realization that, Muslim or Christian, Palestinians are as scattered across the globe in death as in life. But how could one explain 100 years of history in a cab ride? "Yes, but you've made it impossible for us to practice ours."…
The battle over Mamilla encapsulates many aspects of Israel's approach to Palestinian rights since the conflict began, and it is worth considering five here.
First, the use of legal garb to shroud illegal acts. ..
Second, the over-reach. The move on Mamilla spotlights not just Israel's occupation of Arab East Jerusalem in 1967, but also its original take-over of West Jerusalem. The international community still does not accept Israeli sovereignty over West Jerusalem because the basis for the establishment of the Israeli state — the 1947 United Nations partition plan — provides for a corpus separatum for Jerusalem, as the European Community reminded Israel in 1999.
Third, the ongoing creation of facts on the ground to erase evidence of the indigenous inhabitants. As former Israeli leader Moshe Dayan told Technion University students back in 1969, "There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."…
Fifth, the delegitimization — not of Israel, which is a secure member state of the UN — but of the Zionist ideology that resulted in Israel's creation. These actions remind the world that one people was displaced by another. The project architect, the renowned Frank Gehry, has since withdrawn his plans. Further international attention to the Mamilla case can only add to the growing global campaign to boycott Israel until it upholds international law.
Mamilla is not just about family history but also a nation's history, as Dyala Husseini-Dajani — who comes from one long-established Jerusalem families and married into another — told a journalist while at the cemetery to say a prayer to her forebears. She added, "One day I want to be buried here. And I want my grandchildren to come and say this prayer for me." As I read those words, I wished the Moroccan Jewish taxi driver would read them too. Related posts: - Opponents of Mamilla cemetery desecration take the case to international bodies
- Israel and Iran should go out and have a beer to celebrate the dialectical creation of the global Islamic nation! says Mohammad of Vancouver
- Khalidi on Mamilla: 'this grotesque project must be stopped!'
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| We must negotiate with Taliban, say authors on NY's public radio station Posted: 18 Feb 2010 08:06 AM PST |
| Duh moment in Haaretz: Boycott of Goldstone was a mistake (Haaretz) Posted: 18 Feb 2010 07:53 AM PST |
| I heard all this at AIPAC Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:58 PM PST |
| Were those Mossad assassins wearing tennis outfits in Dubai? Posted: 18 Feb 2010 06:03 AM PST The team of assassins who killed Hamas arms dealer Mahmoud al Mabhuoh wore tennis outfits in order to avoid detection. The Dubai police who just released video, photographs and the names of the alleged team of killers consider the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad a leading suspect in the murder plot. The Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, did not miss the irony when it reported that simultaneous with these police revelations, the Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer landed in The United Arab Emirates (UAE) where she is competing in the Dubai Tennis Championship. The headline in the Hebrew version of Ha'aretz read, "Without Costume Disguise: Shahar Peer Accompanied by 16 Security Guards Plays Tennis In Dubai." The Dubai police have released the names and pictures of 11 people they claim were members of the hit team. According to the Israeli news media, five to seven of the names are shared by Israeli citizens. One of those names, "Adam Melvyn Mildiner" belongs to a UK-born man who lives near Jerusalem. Ha'aretz reports that the picture that Dubai authorities released did not appear to match a picture on a social networking site belonging to Mildiner, though "it had some similar features." Mildiner vehemently denies that he was part of a plot to murder Mabhuoh. Shahar, who is currently ranked 22nd in the world among female tennis players, was denied entry into the Dubai tournament last year, apparently due to her nationality. The refusal to allow the Israeli to participate was a cause célèbre among Israeli Jews and the actions of the UAE were strongly criticized by the Women's World Tennis Association (WTA) who levied a stiff fine against the Dubai organizers. The tournament officials claimed, according to the British daily, The Independent, that Peer's presence "would have antagonised [their] fans who have watched live television coverage of recent attacks in Gaza." The assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhuoh was widely applauded in the Israeli media. The Israelis claim that he was responsible for two separate widely-publicized murder/kidnappings of their soldiers in the 90s. He is also reported to have been a major Hamas arms merchant. The comments of Hamas officials, who gave Mabhouh a martyrs' funeral in Syria while pledging revenge against Israel, tend to validate these claims. The Israel government, as is their custom, refused to comment on whether their spy agency participated in the Dubai attack. If the Mossad is found to be involved in the Mabhouh assassination, it will be the biggest embarrassment for the spy agency since its botched attempt to kill the current Hamas leader, Khaled Meshal in Jordan in the 90s. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has vowed to investigate the use of British passports in the assassination. The Dubai police chief says it will seek the arrests in the case, soon. Shahar Peer is playing beyond all expectations. She has advanced to the fourth round by defeating the top seed, Caroline Wozniacki and is now considered to be a contender to win the championship. It remains to be seen if this week will be considered a victory or a defeat for Israeli public relations. The outcome hinges on the results of criminal investigations in Great Britain and Dubai, the forehand of the young tennis player and the ability of her 16-man security team to keep her safe.
Related posts: - Why should Israeli athletes be invited to international competitions when Palestinian athletes can't go anywhere?
- 'Times' sympathizes with Israeli athlete hurt by international politics, but not the 100s of Palestinian athletes in a similar situation
- Tennis, and Alice Walker. Gaza continues to undermine the world's opinion of Israel
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| it's time to draw inspiration from… the anti-civil-rights movement Posted: 17 Feb 2010 08:16 PM PST |
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