Said It To His Face

I know many progressives and members of J Street have been anxiously waiting to see how President Obama would handle a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu especially when it comes to a two state peace solution with the Palestinans. Well even though we don't know what was said behind closed doors I would say what President Obama had to say in front of the cameras was encouraging.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

One subject that is particularly tricky and contentious is the issue of Israel's settlements in the West Bank. And to my warm suprise President Obama wasn't afraid to address the issue publicly.

Haaretz reports today that “Israel has moved ahead with a plan to build a new settlement in the northern West Bank for the first time in 26 years, pursuing a project the United States has already condemned as an obstacle to peace efforts.” In a much-anticipated press conference today with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, President Obama said that new Israeli settlements “have to be stopped”:

OBAMA: Now, Israel is going have to take some difficult steps as well. And I shared with Prime Minister the fact that, under the road map, under Annapolis there’s a clear understanding that we have to make progress on settlements, that settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward. That’s a difficult thing to recognize, but it’s an important one. And it has to be addressed. I think the humanitarian situation in Gaza has to be addressed

.

Will The Media And The Politicians Ignore The Words Of Israel's Own Soldiers

I wonder if Michael Goldfarb over at the Weekly Standard will call these Israeli soldiers anti semites.

From Haaretz:

During Operation Cast Lead, Israeli forces killed Palestinian civilians under permissive rules of engagement and intentionally destroyed their property, say soldiers who fought in the offensive.

The soldiers are graduates of the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic College in Tivon. Some of their statements made on Feb. 13 will appear Thursday and Friday in Haaretz. Dozens of graduates of the course who took part in the discussion fought in the Gaza operation.

The speakers included combat pilots and infantry soldiers. Their testimony runs counter to the Israel Defense Forces' claims that Israeli troops observed a high level of moral behavior during the operation. The session's transcript was published this week in the newsletter for the course's graduates.

The testimonies include a description by an infantry squad leader of an incident where an IDF sharpshooter mistakenly shot a Palestinian mother and her two children. "There was a house with a family inside .... We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it, and a few days after that there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof," the soldier said.

"The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One mother and her two children didn't understand and went to the left, but they forgot to tell the sharpshooter on the roof they had let them go and it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he ... he did what he was supposed to, like he was following his orders."

According to the squad leader: "The sharpshooter saw a woman and children approaching him, closer than the lines he was told no one should pass. He shot them straight away. In any case, what happened is that in the end he killed them.

snip

The squad leader said he argued with his commander over the permissive rules of engagement that allowed the clearing out of houses by shooting without warning the residents beforehand. After the orders were changed, the squad leader's soldiers complained that "we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist."

The squad leader said: "You do not get the impression from the officers that there is any logic to it, but they won't say anything. To write 'death to the Arabs' on the walls, to take family pictures and spit on them, just because you can. I think this is the main thing: To understand how much the IDF has fallen in the realm of ethics, really. It's what I'll remember the most."

What Real Courage Looks Like

Yesterday Senator John Kerry and Congressmen Brian Baird and Keith Ellison ventured into the Gaza Strip in order to get a first hand view of what life their looks like after Israel's military assault last month. While Kerry took the cowards way out and declined to comment on conditions other than to once again blame everything on Hamas, Baird and Ellison decided to talk about what they had seen. This is particularly perilous for Congressman Ellison as he is the only muslim serving in Congress and there is no doubt that their words will be labeled anti semetic. But shunning any fear of blowback, these two Congressmen gave a very frank and honest assessment of what they found and posted it on the House of Representatives website.

“The stories about the children affected me the most,” said Ellison. “No parent, or anyone who cares for kids, can remain unmoved by what Brian and I saw here.”

“The amount of physical destruction and the depth of human suffering here is staggering” said Baird, “Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, schools completely leveled, fundamental water, sewer, and electricity facilities hit and relief agencies heavily damaged. The personal stories of children being killed in their homes or schools, entire families wiped out, and relief workers prevented from evacuating the wounded are heart wrenching – what went on here, and what is continuing to go on, is shocking and troubling beyond words.”

snip

“If this had happened in our own country, there would be national outrage and an appeal for urgent assistance. We are glad that the Obama administration acted quickly to send much needed funding for this effort but the arbitrary and unreasonable Israeli limitations on food and repair essentials is unacceptable and indefensible. People, innocent children, women and non-combatants, are going without water, food and sanitation, while the things they so desperately need are sitting in trucks at the border, being denied permission to go in” said Baird and Ellison.

snip

“It’s hard for anyone in our country to imagine how it must feel to have a sick child who needs urgent care or is receiving chemotherapy or dialysis, then be forced to take a needlessly lengthy route, walk rather than drive, and wait in lines as long as two hours simply to get to the hospital. As a health care professional myself, I found this profoundly troubling, no, actually it’s beyond that, it is outrageous,” said Baird.

Now just to be clear here, they didn't absolve the militants in the Gaza Strip either.

“The first and most urgent priority must be helping the people in Gaza. At the same time, the rocket attacks against Israeli cities must stop immediately. Just as the people of Gaza should not be subject to what they have experienced the Israeli civilians should not have to live in fear of constant and indiscriminate rocketing.

But make no mistake, despite those statements and because they dared to reveal the suffering of everyday Palestinians they WILL be targeted by pro Israel groups. But I have to take my hat off to both of those men for not just towing the company line and speaking truth to power about the kinds of outrages that are being inflicted on the Palestinian people. As Americans we can't allow this kind of stuff to continue. Yes the militants HAVE to stop the rocket fire, but those borders also HAVE to be opened if there is ever going to be any peace in the Middle East.


(h/t TPM)

Behind The Scenes

The Washington Post has excerpts of an interview with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the recent incident at Davos where he stormed off the stage during a debate with Israeli President Shimon Peres over the Israelis' recent military incursion into Gaza. There are some surprising revelations in the interview including the fact that Turkey was mediating talks between Israel and Syria before the Israelis took military action and that Erdogan felt they were on the brink of a major breaththrough perhaps even securing the release of the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by Hamas. It definitely changes the dynamic of the discussion I would think for most reasonable people. Two answers in my opinion are the key to the whole interview:

Why do you have such a close relationship with Hamas, which is an arm of Iran and is run by Khaled Meshal, who lives in Damascus?

First of all, Hamas is not an arm of Iran. Hamas entered the elections as a political party. If the whole world had given them the chance of becoming a political player, maybe they would not be in a situation like this after the elections that they won. The world has not respected the political will of the Palestinian people. On the one hand, we defend democracy and we try our best to keep democracy in the Middle East, but on the other hand we do not respect the outcome of . . . the ballot box. Palestine today is an open-air prison. Hamas, as much as they tried, could not change the situation. Just imagine, you imprison the speaker of a country as well as some ministers of its government and members of its parliament. And then you expect them to sit obediently?

Now please remember that Turkey is basically an ally of the United States. Yet their prime minister directly refutes what damn near all of our Congressmen and women said in the aftermath of the Israeli military actions.

It sounds like you and Prime Minister Olmert were on the eve of an actual breakthrough between Israel and Syria.

I'm sharing my excitement with you.

The Israelis have been frustrated that they couldn't talk directly to the Syrians.

We were trying to be their hope. Olmert's last sentence [as he left] was, "As soon as I get back I will consult with my colleagues and get back to you." As I waited for his response, . . . on December 27, bombs started falling on Gaza. There had not been any casualties in Israel since the cease-fire of June 2008. The Israelis claim that missiles were being sent [from Gaza]. I asked Prime Minister Olmert, how many people died as a result of those missiles? Since December 27 there have been almost 1,300 dead, 6,000 injured, no infrastructure left, no buildings left, everything is damaged, Gaza is a total wreck. It's all closed, under total siege. The United Nations Security Council makes a decision, and Israel announces it does not recognize the decision. I'm not saying that Hamas is a good organization and makes no mistakes. They have made mistakes. But I am evaluating the end result.

So on the very precipice of a breakthrough on negotiations Israel decided to drop bombs all over the Gaza Strip. This isn't some random blogger telling you this and it isn't some anti war hippie. Its the Prime Minister of Turkey giving every indications that Israel's actions were not neccessary and in point of fact they were pretty much working in bad faith. When are we going to hear the truth from our elected leaders? Honestly if we don't start being more evenhanded in this situation there is no way there will ever be a lasting peace in the middle east.

The Grown Ups Are In Charge Now

I have to say that I am both surprised and heartened by the even handed approach President Obama took today on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. When he first started speaking on the subject I thought he was going to simply recite the stale rhetoric of the United States standing with Israel. But the money quote came at about 10:10

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"As part of a lasting ceasefire Gaza's border crossing should be opened to allow the flow of aid and commerce with an approrpriate monitoring regime with the international and Palestinian Authority participating."


If there is to be peace in that region both sides have to participate and the way for that to happen is for our nation to nudge both sides along. That President Obama is willing to state that openly shows that he is truly committed to getting the job done. And that is just another instance of change I can believe in!

I Drop Knowledge Like Common

Man I have to say I thought I was done being surprised by any information coming out about the Israeli military offensive but if this report in the ipsnews.net is correct the Israelis and all of our elected leaders in both parties have a LOT of explaining to do. The sad thing is we will probably never know if the accusations are true or not because our mainstream media folks will never investigate it. Well I am posting exerpts so you can judge or yourself. The rest of the article is pretty good too so make sure you check it out. In the end we all have the ability to use "teh google" ourselves to check the veracity of the report. That's what I am going to do and I suggest you all do the same.

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (IPS) - Contrary to Israel's argument that it was forced to launch its air and ground offensive against Gaza in order to stop the firing of rockets into its territory, Hamas proposed in mid-December to return to the original Hamas-Israel ceasefire arrangement, according to a U.S.-based source who has been briefed on the proposal.

The proposal to renew the ceasefire was presented by a high-level Hamas delegation to Egyptian Minister of Intelligence Omar Suleiman at a meeting in Cairo Dec. 14. The delegation, said to have included Moussa Abu Marzouk, the second-ranking official in the Hamas political bureau in Damascus, told Suleiman that Hamas was prepared to stop all rocket attacks against Israel if the Israelis would open up the Gaza border crossings and pledge not to launch attacks in Gaza.

The Hamas officials insisted that Israel not be allowed to close or reduce commercial traffic through border crossings for political purposes, as it had done during the six-month lull, according to the source. They asked Suleiman, who had served as mediator between Israel and Hamas in negotiating the original six-month Gaza ceasefire last spring, to "put pressure" on Israel to take that the ceasefire proposal seriously.

snip

The readiness of Hamas to return to the ceasefire conditionally in mid-December was confirmed by Dr. Robert Pastor, a professor at American University and senior adviser to the Carter Centre, who met with Khaled Meshal, chairman of the Hamas political bureau in Damascus on Dec. 14, along with former President Jimmy Carter. Pastor told IPS that Meshal indicated Hamas was willing to go back to the ceasefire that had been in effect up to early November "if there was a sign that Israel would lift the siege on Gaza".

Pastor said he passed Meshal's statement on to a "senior official" in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) the day after the meeting with Meshal. According to Pastor, the Israeli official said he would get back to him, but did not.

"There was an alternative to the military approach to stopping the rockets," said Pastor. He added that Israel is unlikely to have an effective ceasefire in Gaza unless it agrees to lift the siege.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington declined to comment Thursday on whether there had been any discussion of a ceasefire proposal from Hamas in mid-December that would have stopped the rocket firing.

snip

Despite Israel's refusal to end the siege, Hamas brought rocket and mortar fire from Gaza to a virtual halt last summer and fall, as revealed by a report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) in Tel Aviv last month. ITIC is part of the Israel Intelligence Heritage & Commemoration Centre (IICC), an NGO which is close to the Israeli intelligence community.

In the first days after the ceasefire took effect, Islamic Jihad fired nine rockets and a few mortar rounds in retaliation for Israeli assassinations of their members in the West Bank. In August another eight rockets were fired by various groups, according to IDF data cited in the report. But it shows that only one rocket was launched from Gaza in September and one in October.

The report recalls that Hamas "tried to enforce the terms of the arrangement" on other Palestinian groups, taking "a number of steps against networks which violated the arrangement," including short-term detention and confiscating their weapons. It even found that Hamas had sought support in Gazan public opinion for its policy of maintaining the ceasefire.

On Nov. 4 -- just when the ceasefire was most effective -- the IDF carried out an attack against a house in Gaza in which six members of Hamas's military wing were killed, including two commanders, and several more were wounded. The IDF explanation for the operation was that it had received intelligence that a tunnel was being dug near the Israeli security fence for the purpose of abducing Israeli soldiers.

Hamas officials asserted, however, that the tunnel was being dug for defensive purposes, not to capture IDF personnel, according to Pastor, and one IDF official confirmed that fact to him

Challenging Your Beliefs

I know that several of my posts about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in Gaza have probably rubbed some people the wrong way. The truth is I hope it did. You see I WANT to challenge you to open your mind up to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, you have had it wrong. Its not your fault, our media is designed to portray a meme and they have done a great job of it over the years. Israel is always right and the Palestinians whether they be Hamas or Fatah or the PLO are always wrong. But facts actually matter. And the facts don't always add up to conventional wisdom.

Right now there are a lot of Americans cheerleading Israel on to eradicate Hamas, never second guessing if that is really what is going on here. The media and our elected leaders in this country have done a very effective job of portraying all Palestinans as Hamas terrorists and totally dehumanizing them. Well tonight I am going to post two clips from The Young Turks to once again challenge your beliefs. The first clip I warn you has footage of some of the carnage in the Gaza strip. But if you REALLY believe that Israel is just and right in their actions then I think you should be strong enough in your convictions to watch both clips the whole way through.





Now if you disagree with anything Cenk Uygur said in either one of those clips then I challenge you to find evidence to the contrary. And that's not a challenge for you to prove it to me, its a challenge for you to prove it to yourself. People who know they are right have no problems researching the subject because they know whatever they find will serve to bolster their position. So if you reject his reasoning and still say Israel is right but are not willing to take the time out to research your own opinion that will only serve to prove that in your heart you know you are probably wrong.

When Life Imitates Comedy

Put away your New York Times, turn off your CNN. If you want to see a prescient account of current events look no further than The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Strip Maul

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

What Those Crazy Lefty Libruls Over At The Army War College Had Said

Spencer Ackerman over at his spot turned me on to this Army War College Report on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict released on December 23 2008 BEFORE Israel started their military actions against the Gaza Strip. I won't even editorialize much, I will just let the report speak for itself.

Israel's stance towards the democratically-elected Palestinian government headed by HAMAS in 2006, and towards Palestinian national coherence--legal, territorial, political, and economic--has been a major obstacle to substantive peacemaking. The reasons for recalcitrant Israeli and HAMAS stances illustrate both continuities and changes in the dynamics of conflict since the Oslo period (roughly 1994 to the al-Aqsa Intifadha of 2000). Now, more than ever, a long-term truce and negotiations are necessary. These could lead in stages to that mirage-like peace, and a new type of security regime.

snip

Shifts in Israel's stated national security objectives (and dissent over them) reveal HAMAS' placement at the nexus of Israel's domestic, Israeli-Palestinian, and regional objectives. Israel has treated certain enemies differently than others: Iran, Hizbullah, and Islamist Palestinians (whether HAMAS, supporters of Islamic Jihad, or the Islamic Movement inside Israel) all fall into a particular rubric in which Islamism--the most salient and enduring socio-religious movement in the Middle East in the wake of Arab nationalism--is identified with terrorism and insurgency rather than with group politics and identity. The antipathy to religious fervor was somewhat ironic in light of Israel's own expanding "religious" (haredim) groups. In Israel's earlier decades, Islamic identity politics were understood and successfully repressed, as Israelis did not want to allow any repetition of the Palestinian Mufti's nationalism or the Qassamiyya (the armed brigades in the 1936-39 rebellion).

snip

Israel steadfastly rejected diplomacy and truce offers by HAMAS for 8 months in 2008, despite an earlier truce that held for several years. By the spring of 2008, continued rejection of a truce was politically risky as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert teetered on the edge of indictment by his own party and finally had to announce his resignation in the summer. In fact, on his way out the door, Olmert announced a peace plan that ignores HAMAS and many demands of the Palestinian Authority as a whole ever since Oslo. If the plan was merely to create a sense of Olmert's legacy, it is not altogether clear why it offered so little compromise.

On the other hand, Israelis have for over a year been discussing the wisdom of reconquering the Gaza strip (a prospect that would aid the Fatah side of the Palestinian Authority) and also engage in "preemptive deterrence" or attacks on other states in the region. This could happen at any time if the truce between Israel and HAMAS breaks down, although the risks of any of these enterprises would be high. A deal with Syria was also announced by Olmert, similarly, perhaps, to stave off his own resignation, and Syria made a counteroffer. Turkish-mediated indirect talks were to continue at the time of this writing, though they might be rescheduled. Support for an Israeli attack on Iran continues to play well in the Israeli media, despite the fact that Israelis argue fiercely about the wisdom of such a course. All of this shows flux in the region, with Israel in its customary strong, but concerned position.

HAMAS emerged as the chief rival to the secularist-nationalist framework of Fatah, the dominant member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This occurred as Palestinians rebelled against the worsening conditions they experienced following the Oslo Peace Accords. HAMAS' political and strategic development has been both ignored and misreported in Israeli and Western sources which villainizes the group, much as the PLO was once characterized as an anti-Semitic terrorist group. Relatively few detailed treatments in English counter the media blitz that reduces HAMAS to its early, now defunct, 1988 charter.

snip

HAMAS and its new wave of political thought, which had supported armed resistance along with the aim to create an Islamic society, had overtaken Fatah in popularity. Fatah, with substantial U.S. support edged closer to Israeli positions over 2006-07, promising to diminish Palestinian resistance, although President Mahmud Abbas had no means to do so, and could not even ensure Fatah's survival in the West Bank without HAMAS assent, and had been routed from Gaza.

Negotiating solely with the weaker Palestinian party--Fatah--cannot deliver the security Israel requires. This may lead Israel to reconquer the Gaza strip and continue engaging in "preemptive deterrence" or attacks on other states in the region in the longer term.

Keep in mind that this is from the Summary of the report and I encourage everyone to click the link and read not only the full summary but also the actual report (even though its pretty long). But after reading that, really what more is that to say other than why isn't the media reporting it? Let me remind you once again, this report was released BEFORE the Israeli military started their airstrikes in the Gaza strip.

And It Begins

Israel has moved ground troops into the Gaza Strip

Juan Cole Is Recommended Reading

I was dissappointed with Juan Cole for a day or two because he did not post immediately on the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Well now I take it all back. I am going to tease some of his post on the subject but if you want some straight forward insight into this conflict you should run not walk over to his blog.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani of Iraq has called upon Arab and Muslim nations to support the Palestinians in Gaza with more than lip service. Iran's PressTv translated the statement this way:

"Condemning what is going on in Gaza and supporting our brothers only with words is meaningless, considering the big tragedy they are facing . . . Arab and Islamic nations need to take a decisive stance, now more than ever, to end these ongoing aggressions and to break the unjust siege imposed on the brave people of Gaza . . ."

snip

If the Gaza population doesn't turn on Hamas, and Israeli measures don't destroy the organization (which they helped create and fund back in the late 1980s when they wanted a foil to the secular PLO), then what? They'll just go on half-starving Gaza's children for decades? Malnourished children have diminished IQ and poor impulse control. That would make them ideal suicide bombers. Plus, sooner or later there will start to be effective boycotts of Israel in Europe and elsewhere over these war crimes. The Israeli economy would be vulnerable to such moves.

snip

But by refusing to negotiate with Hamas, Israel and the United States leave only a military option on the table. The military option isn't going to resolve the problem by itself. Gaza is a labyrinth. Those Qassam rockets are easy to make. There is so much money sloshing around the Middle East and so many sympathetic Muslims that Gaza will be kept just barely afloat economically, making Hamas hard to dislodge. And the Israeli blockade of Gaza is so distasteful to the world that eventually there is likely to be a painful price to pay for it by the Israelis.

Now if you want to hear from a foreign policy wonk it doesn't get much better than Juan Cole. So for people like myself who want to know more about whats going on in the world and how it affect us and everybody else I highly recommend checking out his blog on the daily.

Greenwald PWNS Gregory

As fate would have it I was commenting over at Swampland this morning when another long time frequent commenter said that David Gregory had "challenged" Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni on the military action the Israelis have taken in the Gaza strip yesterday on Meet The Press but not as much as I would have liked. I admit that I didn't watch MTP yesterday as I am not a big fan of David Gregory. So I went to the MTP website to watch the clip of the interview and I could find not even a trace of Gregory "challenging" Livni. In fact to me it seemed almost like a scripted back and forth meant to be used to convince Americans that Israel is right in their actions. Gregory didn't mention the Israeli closing of their border which has created almost inhumane conditions for the residents of the Gaza strip including being reduced to eating grass to survive, he didn't mention the Hamas enforcement of the cease fire agreement when it was in effect, he didn't even mention the fact that Israel had been planning this attack even during the time when they were supposedly engaged in "good faith" negotiations for a new ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Glenn Greenwald wasn't impressed either:

To see what Cheney aide Cathie Martin meant when she explained that Cheney knew he could go on Meet the Press and "control the message" -- and to see in action David Gregory's model of sycophantic, unchallenging "journalism" -- one could do no better than to examine Gregory's embarrassingly deferential "interview" yesterday with Israel's Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni. It's a perfect template for how our American press corps (with some rare exceptions) functions.

Whatever one's views are on Israel's attack on Gaza -- pro, con or otherwise -- there's no denying that it's an extremely controversial matter -- at least it is in the world that exists outside of mainstream American political discourse. Even within Israel, there are scathing criticisms of what the Israeli Government is doing -- on both strategic and moral grounds. Yet none of those objections made their way into David Gregory's interview of Livni. He didn't present her with a single argument against the Israeli attack. He didn't challenge a single word she uttered. He was even more sycophantic with her than the average American journalist is with the average American political leader.

snip

Actually, the only time Gregory challenged her at all was, in essence, to demand that Israel take even more aggressive action than they're talking already. He was essentially pushing her into invading Gaza and deposing its democratically elected government ("Aren't you making the case for pushing Hamas from power? . . . . only the replacement of Hamas by Fatah, by more moderate leaders, appears to be the only answer"). It was almost as though his goal were to make Israel appear excessively restrained and pacifistic.

I honestly couldn't have said it any better. But its worth the entire read because he ties it into the how Gregory sees the press' role and how the press failed us leading up to the Iraq War.

If this interview was indicative of what David Gregory's level of asshatery will be on MTP going forward, you can pretty much count on me passing on that crap to start my Sunday morning.


In the interest of fairness I am posting the offending video so you can make your own decision on the quality of journalism, or lack thereof, Gregory exhibits in the interview.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy