Having undergone genocide of the Jewish people, the Israli government will do what they think it takes to protect their people and their homeland. They have taken the hard line with other people and countries to insure that they are never again the victims in the world order. What is sad to me is that they are implementing war against innocent civilians and children and seem to have no interest in peaceful solutions. I have seen footage of the results of the war on Gaza on Democracy Now.  I hope that the peacemakers in Israel can have influence in future policies. Brutality and death to innocents do not seem to me to be legacies honoring the death of so many Jews in the concentration camps of the World War II.

Zing asks:

“How much military aid?
How much non-military aid?
How much in loans?
How much in load guarantees?
How much?”

Oh, but Zing, there’s so much more.

How about the special US tax deductions for “charitable contributions” to Israel?
How much tax revenue is lost there, for “charitable gifts” to a wealthy country
that uses them to build and extend the very settlements and conduct the other
ethnic supremacist crimes that create so much hatred against the US and are
therefore directly injurious to our security, increasing our defense costs?

How much for the Iraq war, which could not have happened without the intense
pressure of the Israel lobby and whose real rationale had much more to do with
accomplishing Israel’s “Clean Break” plan than with any conceivable benefit to the
US, including the oil companies? The oil companies wanted access to Iraq’s oil,
yes; but the reason they didn’t have access to that oil (as they have access
to Saudi oil, for example) was because the Israel lobby demanded that the US
maintain in effect a permanent cold war against Iraq. It was because of the Israel
lobby that the only way for American companies to get access to Iraqi oil was for
the US to invade and occupy the country. So, after the war, the oil companies did
indeed move in, enabling Israel’s agents in Congress and the media, including
many “liberals”, to wipe their fingerprints off the fiasco and claim that it was a
“war for oil”, instead of the war for Israel that it most surely was, as will be the
planned war against Iran.

fwdpost:

You say there are a BILLION Arabs? You sure? Can you count? Where’d you get that number from???

Also, the Palestinians choose to call themselves Palestinians, so why should they be resettled in Jordan or any other Arab country? I understand there are almost as many Jews in NY as in Israel. OK with you if Israeli Jews were all shipped to NY?

This bs that , everytime somone disagrees that the Israeli theocracy is a “democracy”, they “hate Jews” needs to stop…I heard neo-con wierdo Norman Podhoretz (“Why Are Jews Liberal?”) this weekend, bitching and moaning about Obaam “
betraying Jews” when he has done evrything but turn over backwards for campaign donations from this voting bloc..its just crap snd anyone who cares about Jewish communities in the world will stop this garbage (its not doing much for our image, here in teh US< either..)
...http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2009/10/why_are_jews_li.html

Hedges was also at this book fair (Miami) sitting on a “liberal Dems” panel, being told that Nixon was a “liberal”...people hate Hedges because he tells them the truth.

Here is what Israeli govt is spending the money on that they dont have to spend on military, courtesy of the US govt:http://www.nbn.org.il/index.php

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But we cant afford to do any of that here..we have to remain death providers to the world.

Until the Israelis stop looking upon Palestinians as unter mensch there will be no chance at any kind of equitable peace. The ghetto a nation-state? What more can they lose but the ghetto itself? They still might if the long term plan is to remove them from the land once and for all.

Just once I would like to see a major newspaper list and explain funds we provide or assist in providing to the Israelis.

You know, break it down:

How much military aid?
How much non-military aid?
How much in loans?
How much in load guarantees?
How much?

Just once in a presidential election I would like to hear the question:

Do you think it’s appropriate to provide all these forms of aid to a country that refuses to stop building settlements in violation of international law?

It’s my tax dollars.
It’s your tax dollars.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a say where they go?

Radson says

Tao Walker

“So according to your expertise there is no hope for the Palestinians except a flush down your ‘philosophies’ ,along with the Israeli tormentors,it’s almost like taking candy from a child ;or perhaps offering whiskey to your kind of people .You give no hope for a reasonable solution ,yet you criticize the PA for maintaining hope ,which you claim is a noble aspect of your tribe ,but you offer nothing but nonesence as a solution .Your
Fathers would not be to impressed with your blatant stupidity.”

Comment

I’m a strong supporter of Palestinians. I need to ask you though, do you at all feel dirty after you make a comment like that?

Beginning with the Renaissance, the era that spawned Capitalism and the philosphy of individualism, ships sailed out from Europe to explore, conquer, and enslave the world.

Colonialists practiced slavery and committed genocide. In their arrogance, and because of their falacious religious beliefs, racism was the undisputed practice of the times, and they killed, stole and persecuted at will. The abuses continued into modern times, and the animosities still exist.

If your going to claim some kind of moral authority regarding the Israeli Palestinian conflict, you personally, are not entitled to it.

Furthermore, TAO Walker’s observations may make more sense than we want to admit.

I just heard that Joe Lieberman is voicing his early opposition to a “Unilateral” declaration of Statehood by the Palestinians. Is anyone surprised?

Joe says that such a declaration would not have a positive impact on the peace process.

Meaning what? A declaration of Statehood by the Palestinians would lead to another bloody incursion into Palestinian territory by the Israeli’s?

Tao Walker

So according to your expertise there is no hope for the Palestinians except a flush down your ‘philosophies’ ,along with the Israeli tormentors,it’s almost like taking candy from a child ;or perhaps offering whiskey to your kind of people .You give no hope for a reasonable solution ,yet you criticize the PA for maintaining hope ,which you claim is a noble aspect of your tribe ,but you offer nothing but nonesence as a solution .Your
Fathers would not be to impressed with your blatant stupidity.

Truthdig would probably be doing a favor to public information in general if they would pick up an article occasionally from “The Other Israel,” published in Israel and containing information about Israelis and Palestinians working together on all kinds of projects to try to bring peace and understanding and keep the area from falling apart with hatred and resentment and give a more accurate picture of what is going on.  I believe the paper is published bi-monthly and probably has articles online.  Also information about Yesh G’vul, Israeli soldiers who refuse to fight in the Occupied Territories.  And Christian Peace Teams.  And Gush Shalom.  There are others, but this is an indication that there is a strong effort to prevent lines from solidifying into anti-fanatics and to see how some rational people are working together to solve problems.  Also, Tikkun Magazine coming out of Los Angeles.  Probably there are others I don’t know about.

I see the bought and paid for US senate poodles are in Israel jumping through rings for their campaign contributions and favorable press here in the U.S.

Just another dog and pony show.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5AF3JK20091116

By fwdpost, November 16 at 6:15 pm #

Your entire post has jew-haters out of context as jews are the haters here and in Israel. 

Israelis were involved in 9-11, the evidence is overwhelming and begs public outcry.

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/movers-and-shakers/

The author suggests going back to the 1967 borders well I completly disagree the borders should be reset to 1947 when Isreal first attacked Palestine. Even these borders were overly favorable to Isreal giving the minority the majority of the land and most af the aerable regions at that.

fwdpost,you can call me anti semetic and a KKK lover all you want all you succeed in is showing yourself to be ill informed and reactionary. There are many Israeli’s and Jews outside of Isreal who disaree with your stance.

Here is but one of them
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4478&updaterx=2009-11-16+16:42:49

They tried this a couple of times in the past and it fizzled because they refused, among other things, to change their charter.  No nation, petitioning for statehood, can have any belligerency in their charter.

Isreal has the unequivocal military, economic and political support of the only super power in the world in addition to not so overt support of the EU.
Until that changes, Israel will keep runnig amock without any restraint whatsoever with the end result of the Palestinian people being pushed gradually but methodically into scattered isolated reservations or ghettos or driven out alltogether.
If I was a believer in God, I would have said only God will help the Palestinian people, but there is no God.

I enjoy Taowalker’s Asian absurdism, but hey:  “Having befouled the Earth with their (the ‘domesticated peoples’) ‘individual’ wretched excess, they are now being purged en masse from Her Living Arrangement” is a bit heavy on the intentionalism of Nature.
  It could also be said that these ‘domesticated peoples’ are suffering because they lack individuals who are willing to step up and restore the balance. It is always individuals, one by one, who begin movements of masses in any given direction. And that’s true of the ‘wild peoples’ too.  Either you act for the group or you don’t. It’s easy to step back and say:  “Let Nature take its course” and pretend that we know what Nature “intends.”   
  Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse,  “civilization” itself seems to be more or less indigenous.  The distinction between healthy and unhealthy enters when we choose to work with or work against Nature. She beats the drums and we dance—or not, as the case may be.

To fwdpost:  A real Jew-hater would avidly support the Likud and people like you, because ultimately Israel will self-destruct from greed, arrogance, imperial overreach, and the internal decay that is inevitably caused from conducting a decades-long brutal occupation of another people.  Those who are proposing reasonable solutions—such as two-states for two people—offer the only hope Israel has.  The more that people like you resist a peaceful outcome, the deeper Israel’s hole becomes.  I’m sure Hamas is applauding your words…you’re doing their work for them.

Sure, the Palestinians could declare independence.  But then Israel would give them a huge beat down when they try to implement.

The U.S. would shrug it’s shoulders but not explicitly interfere.

Then what?

Mr. Hedges…

The next time you feel inspire to write bombastic harangue such as this kindly write it on Scot Tissue——it will be less irritating to the sphincter muscle of the recipient!

The jew haters are out in force. There are a billion Arabs, including some of the richest nations in the world. If they care about the Palestinians they would help them. It is not the job of Israel to buy new cars for terrorists who try to murder children.
The homeland is Jordan. Read history. Jordan.
It is scary when the liberals and the KKK pigs get together on a hate the jews campaign. Disgusting.
Next, we’ll hear about the jews who were the ones who really conceived 911. Oh, wait, that’s already been charged by the Arab loving hatemongers.

Cut off all US military aid to the Israelis until they stop building settlements.

So how is it really any better for the Palestinians to go down the drain of “history” as a “nation-state,” than it will be anyhow in their current CONdition as refugees in their own “homeland”?  Either way, their Shemite brothers/persecutors will still be swirling into oblivion right next to them.

The domesticated peoples, lacking any true perspective on their common predicament, have yet to notice the ‘plug’ has been pulled on the “civilization” in which they’re entrapped, and that the maelstrom enveloping them is a kind of natural mega-phenomenon over which there is no ideological/institutional/electro-mechanical CONtrol….not unlike the flushing of a toilet once the chain is pulled.  Having befouled the Earth with their “individual” wretched excess, they are now being purged en masse from Her Living Arrangement.

How could it be otherwise?  Well, except for those who walk The Tiyoshpaye Way, that is.

HokaHey!

The Palestinians haven’t anything else and if they can get UN recognition, which the USA, Columbia, Poland, & Israel will veto, [it only takes one to do that,] they will remain unofficially recognized like Somaliland (in the north of Somolia since 1991.)

It won’t play into Israel’s hands because the Palestinians will never become part of Israel. They aren’t Jews and in Israel, Jews are the “Aryans” of Israel. So apartied is the way of it and has been for 40 years.

I order to change one of the things that must be done is to end the billions given to Israel which funds their continuing slow burn war to extirpate all non-Jews from their “Holy, JHVH given land.” To do that Israel’s will have to put into office those who are not such ardent theocratic hyper-nationalists. That would be like putting into office people like Dennis Kucininch instead of those like Hukabee & Obama who continue the disasterous trend we are in. Do any of you see that happening in the next 50 years?

I believe that secular nationalist Palestinians should take three steps:

1. Declare independence, as Mr. hedges suggests.  Ignore the US veto—what’s more important will be the 150+ states who will acknowledge Palestine’s independence. But also declare that you are ready to enter immediate negotiations over the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the new state of Palestine.

2. Begin a campaign for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving a life term in an Israeli prison for the crime of defending his homeland.  Barghouti is Hamas’s nightmare: a popular, powerful and credible secular nationalist.  He also is Israel’s nightmare for the same reason, which is why they arrested him in the first place.

3. This is the important step: Declare that if Israeli forces are not withdrawn by the end of 2010, Palestinians will demand the creation of one state on the land west of the Jordan River, and will petition the UN for recognition of one state.

The Arab World needs to get on board by re-iterating the Saudi offer of 2002 for permanent peace.

At the end of the day, it always has been the US and Israel vs. the world, but with our power declining and Israel becoming increasingly fascist in nature, those days are numbered.

you got that right, thebeerdoctor

“Mahmoud Abbas, the compliant and discredited president of the Palestinian Authority, who has announced he will not run for another term, has uncharacteristically blasted Israel for deceiving the Palestinians”…the very discredited and very compliant EX-president of the PA that is! Abbas’s term of office officially expired earlier this year, he took office in January ’05 and the Palestinian Election Laws of ’05 and ’07 stipulate a term of four years before new elections. Abbas hasn’t the legal or moral standing to be acting on behalf of the Palestinian population. “The disarray within the Palestinian Authority has led to the cancellation of the Palestinian elections in January, although the elections were already in jeopardy. The militant group Hamas, which took over Gaza in 2007 after thwarting a coup attempt led by Abbas’ Fatah party”…and after winning free and fair elections the year before in January ’06. Hamas is the legal, democratically-elected government of Palestine. “The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat”…was the chief PA negotiator, not appointed by the current Hamas government. “Abbas’ time in office has been marked by repeated and humiliating concessions to Israel”…just as it was intended to do. “Israel has shown its…” dictatorialness “by ignoring Abbas’ protests for a halt on settlements and dismissing his calls for negotiations.” “It is hard to imagine any Palestinian leader”...with less credibility to declare an independent state. ““When he declares independence, Abbas should call upon the Jews living in the state of Palestine to preserve the peace and to do their part in building up the new country”….and he will have even less influence with these illegal-settler Jewish extremists than he does with his own population, which is to say none whatsoever. Abbas has no constituency on either side, except for a few quixotic journalists and the apparatchiks on the payroll in the venal PA. Of course it’s glaringly true that “the Israelis have orchestrated acute misery and poverty in the Palestinian territories over the past two decades in an effort to subdue and ethnically cleanse…” and that “the refusal by the Obama administration and nearly every member of the U.S. Congress to defend the rule of law and basic human rights for the Palestinians exposes our hypocrisy.” But to perpetuate the absurd notion that a hapless quisling like Abbas could unilaterally declare and implement an independent state is absolutely ludicrous. Unlike the craven Abbas and the decadent PA, Hamas has stood fast in defending the cause of Palestine and despite endless Israeli and American terrorism against them, Hamas has defiantly refused to buckle. The Hezbollah heroes showed how to deal with Israel in ending the occupation of southern Lebanon. “The Israelis have ensured that from now on the Palestinians will fall or rise on their own.” No one knows that better than the gallant Hamas.

So what else is new?

  Could the US inadverdantly (?) or is a more appropriate observation be that US
policy is actually targeting Muslims and Arabs to the point of encouraging the
socalled Jihad for the destruction of Israel?

Or is US policy still operating under the proposals made by Netanyahu, Perle, Feith
and a number of American Likudniks under the Zionists dream of:-
  .“A_Clean_Break:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm” or the breaking up of
all Muslim countries into little states that Israel/US can easely control?

The decades of nonsense about negotiations, including the lame response that “continued settlements are not helpful” on the part of the bought off U.S. State Department, has led to this. It is Israel that is the ultimate ganav here, or perhaps that should be “gaunef”, enabled by their dutch Uncle Sam’s unlimited purse. A dishonest negotiator time and again, but perhaps that was the goal all along: continuous conflict ensures continuous funding for the military state.

U.S. aid to Israel subsidizes Israel’s Socialized Medicine benefits to it’s citizens WHICH INCLUDES CHOCOLATE LOTION MASSAGES. The same Congress which votes to subsidize Israel’s subsidized medicine tell Americans to EAT POO AND DIE AMERICANS, NO HEALTH CARE IS BETTER than ANY/ALL GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE, well except for the government provided health care for the Congress at Bethesda Naval hospital for instance. Congratulation to the Israeli government for providing services to its citizens.

Right on Mr. Hedges!!!! 

Might I suggest that you hire a food taster from now on…  If you offer me health insurance I’ll take the job…