Mondoweiss

Conspiracy Theory: Yielding on Territory, Olmert Was Lucky to Escape With His Life

I don't know Israeli society, and I would like to be wrong about the degree of extremism in it, but it's hard to explain the endless colonization of the West Bank without concluding that extremists have power in that society. Then too--further rationalization for what's about to follow--Israel's in crisis, and it's important to look at that crisis with a cold eye, but the media in the U.S. tend to overlook the rightwing radicalism that paralyzes the government. Though the Times has been catching up lately. Enough throat-clearing. Here's a piece on Tzipi Livni in the Middle East Report by Peretz Kidron that argues that Livni is too claimed by the right to try to undo the settlements.

What struck me was Kidron's conspiratorial take on Olmert's exit:

UN: Israel Has Increased Checkpoints and Roadblocks in West Bank

From the Palestinian media: "A report published by the United Nations this week revealed that in spite of Israeli vows to ease restrictions on movement in the West Bank, the Israeli army increased the number of roadblocks and search points." 19 more roadblocks and checkpoints since April, up to 630 in all. Reuters has the same report. And this while the Prime Minister is saying that Israel has to give up the territories. Israel is in crisis. The U.S. must lead.

Matthews Calls Bush--and Palin--a 'Cover' for Neocon Agenda

Chris Matthews inched up to the line on the neoconservatives tonight in a conversation with Pat Buchanan about the briefing of Sarah Palin.  Don't you think, Matthews said, that McCain's foreign policy guru Randy Scheunemann is scripting her on this stuff. This is the neoconservative way, he said in so many words (I was eating ye olde spag-bowl when he said it, and lunged for a pen). "They find a cover" and here he mentioned Dan Quayle and George W. Bush, and then they brief them. Sort of invasion of the body snatchers, neocon style. And lest there was any doubt in the viewer's mind about what the neocons care about, he then mentioned Palin's thrice-repeated "I won't second guess Israel" line to Charlie Gibson. "Someone with an ideological point of view has given you exact words to use," Matthews said.

So Chris Matthews called George W. Bush a "cover" for the neocons' agenda, which he suggested was Israel. So much for the single-gunman-theory of the Iraq war, that it was all Bush. When will Chris give full throat to what he really believes, and have Walt and Mearsheimer on his show to explain it?

P.S. Recall that at AIPAC in June, Bill Kristol told a political session that it's all about relationships and then said that Dan Quayle was great on Israel because Hart Hasten, a Holocaust survivor and Indianapolis businessman, helped him from early on. And of course Kristol was Quayle's chief of staff and then the choirmaster for the They-will-greet-us-with-flowers strategy re Iraq. Matthews was really talking about Kristol. Say it, dude.

'J Street' Stopped AIPAC From Getting Congressional Signatures on Anti-Iran Napkin

I just learned that the new Israel lobby, J Street, played a key role in dealing that astonishing defeat to AIPAC in Congress last week--in which a coalition of peace groups and religious groups spearheaded by the National Iranian American Council lobbied effectively against a belligerent resolution, House 362, that had been expected to pass overwhelmingly and that would have urged Bush to impose a kind of embargo on Iranian exports. In the end the House leadership tabled the thing lest it prove to be another Iraqi War trojan horse. I'm told that J Street sent out an appeal to its members on the legislation. At its site, you will see that J Street took a hard line against military action against Iran. (Though they were all for the rally against Ahmadinejad at the U.N. last week.)

At the AIPAC policy conference last June, maumauing Iran was the chief order of business, and right after the policy conference, AIPAC legions flooded the Hill to urge Congress to take harsher action against Iran. Among the 270 sponsors of the measure that would have recommended a virtual blockade of Iran were the insouciant Robert Wexler, who later backtracked in this piece on Huffpo, and Barney Frank, who backtracked to David Swanson here. 

I sure hope I see journalism on this remarkable coalition of Iranian-Americans led by the realist scholar, Trita Parsi, Christian groups, and the Jewish center-left. J Street says that most Jews are against the Iraq war (and a lot of the others, including some foolish congressmen, are having buyers' remorse); and J Street put its money where its mouth is here and has knocked out Sonny Liston. I'd email the boys over there, but it's Rosh Hashanah. Come to think of it, I'm headed out myself...

Did 'The Sun' Have Bad Juju?

Well the NY Sun is no more. Today's its last issue. Seth Lipsky announced that he could not find another partner, for that fearsome front line of Steinhardt, Hertog, Kovner, and Tisch. Israel is everything to Steinhardt and Hertog. "I cannot exaggerate my visceral bonds to Israel," Steinhardt wrote in his (charming) autobiography, No Bull. It is amazing that the Times story on the Sun's demise doesn't mention Israel, but this is the Emily Post etiquette when dealing with neoconservatives, Do not mention Israel. Again I must cite my one interview with Lipsky a couple years ago when at the bar of the Harvard Club I asked him what the paper was about and he gave me a laundry list of issues, including fiscal conservatism and municipal watchdoggery, and finally I had to say, What about Israel. Oh of course, he said, we care about Israel. That's a hidden agenda, or an unstraightforward one. Israel was everything to the Sun. Lipsky was reported to have Jabotinsky's portrait on his wall. Too bad the Times is recruited in the subterfuge. Journalists should talk about what matters most to them.

A couple of my friends sent me crowing emails. I'm not crowing. I always feel for the inkstained wretches who are out of work, and the loss for the discourse. The Sun did a lot of good journalism.

Though again I'd note that the Iraq war chickens are coming to roost. One of the men hunting for money for The Sun was Ira Stoll, who is said to have written this editorial in Feb. 2003 saying that those who demonstrated against the war should be investigated  for treason. A disgusting statement. Tim Noah called it "fascist rantings." And as Lucianne Goldberg said (in a different context), That's when they drank the Strontium-90.

One other point. I liked calling The Sun the New York Moonie newspaper, likening it to the Washington Times, published by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, or one of his tentacles. Well the Times has outlived the Sun. And why? How about a spiritual answer. The Sun really did promote war. I'd note that whatever else he does in the world, Moon was the force behind the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, which has sponsored the Middle East Peace Initiative, which has sponsored conferences of Muslims and Jews. A good thing. Light and darkness. (Thanks to Chris Varley for the Middle East Peace Initiative info.)

U.N. to Consider Israeli Nukes

The UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, begins meeting in Vienna with the focus on Iran. But it has also put Israeli nukes on the agenda, at the request of Israel's Arab neighbors. You see: Israel is not the only country that feels threatened in the Middle East. The US opposed the move but folded. As the US is also reported to have stymied Israel's plans to attack Iran. And then there's House 362, calling for belligerent moves against Iran, which AIPAC backed but the House leadership shelved, at the urging of the National Iranian American Council. Are we all growing up?

Has Israel Got a Taliban Too?

Two journalists liken Israel's radical settlers and its orthodox haredim to the Taliban.

Rosh Hashanah and the Financial Crisis

Drudge had a great headline today, Rush Hashanah. Sorry to be so irreligious, but if it's the greatest crisis in the financial system in 80 years, shouldn't some of our Jewish lawmakers get on the stick? And Congress won't do anything till Thursday because of the Jewish New Year, but the markets are open? Help me, rabbi. Is this Koufax not going to the mound in the Series on Yom Kippur because he had to represent his people, or is this Lieberman promising that if he was elected veep, he would come to work on Saturday if the Russians were coming? May I point out for the 500th time that Jews are now principals in the American establishment? Will others wake up to this now? Is this a defining moment? Is it good for the Jews that these legislators are going back to their districts when the economy is in flames? As I read Israel Shahak's book on Jewish fundamentalism, some rabbis might say that it is actually important to treat the economy on a holy day so as to fend off the resentment of gentiles.

'Most' Programming for Young Jews Is 'Crusade' Against Intermarriage

Here's a smart kid, Josh Nathan-Kazis, writing about how fears of intermarriage drove the organized Jewish community into the arms of the Chabad, the Orthodox Lubavitchers who think women should make the home.

 It's a poorly kept secret in the Jewish community that most programming for young Jews is supported out of a desire to prevent intermarriage... Hillel was reinvented as a matchmaking service, [lacerating wit] operating under the almost lewd motto, "Maximizing the number of Jews doing Jewish with other Jews." In the years that followed, the language and strategies of the anti-intermarriage crusade were refined. It was renamed Jewish continuity...At its best, Jewish continuity offers a vocabulary with which innovative young Jews can express the importance of a vibrant Jewish culture to older donors. [If this is ironic, it's genius] At its worst, however, the anxiety surrounding continuity causes the community to let statistics drown out content, values, and ideology.

Nathan-Kazis says the organized Jewish community should lose Chabad. I have advice for him: Talk about Palestinians. Poisoning goats and stealing the land of poor people is not good for anyone's marketing. Oh, sorry, I forgot, I married a non-Jew. I better shut up now. (And I was just telling my wife, I couldn't do this blog if I didn't have her behind me.)

Happy New Year (Jewish New Year--Apologies to Gentile Readers) to Seliger

Ralph Seliger has responded to my note of yesterday. I'm going to try to do a roundup later of other comments he and Steve F. have made, especially around the Sternhell attack in Israel, which is truly a bellwether event that disturbs me and Seliger. Readers ask why I'm privileging Ralph Seliger on this blog. A few reasons: he's been working on this stuff a long time, from the left; he's part of a community I'm alienated from, Jewish organizational life, and so I'm going to keep up that dialogue for my own sake if not for others. I can't say that I've been convinced of anything, and I won't do this forever, but I guess I'm saying it's important for me, might help me learn how to talk to my mom about this stuff. And it's Rosh Hashanah. OK, here's Seliger:

Phil, you are an example of the diversity of voices among American Jews. But you and Tony Judt, as another example, are in the minority because you are so shrill and strident in your point of view. Where you are so wrong is to place those of us who favor the existence and well-being of Israel all in this nasty category you call "the lobby" or characterize as "Zionist."

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