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99 Responses to “McCain Channels Aipac in Debate”

1. Richard Silverstein says:

   October 5, 2008 at 12:40 AM

   @Mazal: I am glad to hear that you do not believe in attacking Iran. Yr view is very sensible.

   But you are wrong about Israel’s leaders. Olmert asked Bush for a green light to bomb Iran. Other senior cabinet members have openly advocated bombing Iran. The stories are covered right here in this blog so do a search and you’ll find them.

   I’m not saying that Khameini’s comments about Israel should be “disregarded.” I’m as disturbed about them as you are. But I don’t believe they mean that Iran will attack Israel directly nor do I think they mean that Israel is in any greater danger than it already faces from its current foes (Palestinian militants, etc.).

   Reply
2. Mazal says:

   October 5, 2008 at 8:38 AM

   Olmert asked Bush for a green light to bomb Iran.

   Excuse me, but this is not a threat. If there is a green light, it means there is agreement on an issue.

   There is a media war, that is without a doubt correct. Assuming that every statement that Ahmadinejad makes in a passive voice, and therefore innocent of reproach, and non-threating is also nonsense.

   Today’s news:

   In an interview published Sunday in the United Arab Emirates-based al-Ittihad newspaper, the Hizbullah member said his organization was on the alert. He referred to Israel as “a cardboard country which will be destroyed by the resistance fighters, who achieved the grand victory against the entity robbing Palestine’s land in the years 2000 and 2006.”

   He added that his organization dose [sic] not believe Israel will launch an attack against Lebanon. “Israel is frustrated by many internal problems and is incapable of launching a new war against Lebanon,” he said.

   He went on to say that Major-General Eisenkot’s remarks were a “media war.”

   The senior Hizbullah member repeated remarks made by his leader, Hassan Nasrallah, that whether Israel send five or eight divisions to Lebanon – they will all be destroyed.

   Eisenkot told Yedioth Ahronoth that the next war, if and when it breaks out, must be determined fast, forcefully, and without being concerned about the global public opinion

   Both are making non-threats, as they are using the passive voice. Nothing is threatened here, am I correct in assuming that that would be your interpretation?

   Reply
3. Mazal says:

   October 5, 2008 at 8:40 AM

   The reference for the above quote is this:

   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3605259,00.html

   Reply
4. Richard Silverstein says:

   October 5, 2008 at 4:02 PM

   @Mazal: Israel was prepared to bomb Iran. It needed U.S. approval in order to fly over Iraq. If it hadn’t needed U.S. approval it would have bombed Iran by now.

   Again, I never said that Ahmadinejad statements were “innocent of reproach” [sic]. They are certainly worth of reproach. But do they represent anything more than the rabid rants of leaders boasting of their hate and destructive capacity (of which Israeli leaders have done more than their share as well?).

   Eisenkot’s rhetoric is equally pathetic or moreso than Nasrallah’s since everyone knows that Israel cannot win the next war it fights with Hezbollah any more than it won the last one. Perhaps it cannot lose the war either in the sense that Israel’s existence will never be in jeopardy. But gone are the days when Israel can “win” any war except perhaps one in which it uses nuclear weapons. And we don’t want to go there…

   Reply
5. Mazal says:

   October 6, 2008 at 9:04 AM

   Israei leaders have responded. Olmert was a little too heated in his response, it is true. Yet it was the Iranian leaders who were and are consistently, and with increasing levels of incitement and increasingly indicating their own actions (non passive voice) in the coming “destruction of Israel.” Of course Israel will respond.

   There is a media war, and clear intentions are given, just as Hitler stated his opinions and goals prior to the attempt to eliminate the Jews of Europe. No one really heeded that warning either.

   You take Hizbollah’s side in every argument, and also sound like you are anti-Israel.

   Reply
6. Richard Silverstein says:

   October 7, 2008 at 12:24 AM

   @Mazal:
   

   You take Hizbollah’s side in every argument, and also sound like you are anti-Israel.

   That’s bullcrap. Look, you’ve called me a “goon” at one of the sleaziest militantly pro-Israel site around. Lie about me again & call me “anti-Israel” & I’ll be happy to remove yr comment privileges. Maybe the RJC can get away with that sort of crap against Barack Obama, but you won’t here.

   Reply
7. Mazal says:

   October 7, 2008 at 1:21 AM

   fiddler said:

   Mazal:
   Your own quotes from Ahmadinejad, “collapse of the Zionist regime” and “deliverance from Zionists” put the “collapse of Israel” nicely in perspectve, don’t they? IOW, the Iranians are calling for regime change in Israel, not for “wiping it off the map”, “driving the Jews into the sea”, a “second holocaust”, or whatever. That’s basically the same position that Israel has on Iran, and it’s Israel and the US, not Iran, that has the incomparably bigger guns.

   I disagree with your view that Israel wants to “wipe Iran off the map” or see it “disappear from the annals of history”. Israel wants a peaceful relationship with its neighbors. There is no equation of equality between the words of Ahmadinejad and that of Israeli officials, because Israel would be defending itself from attack, even as Israel is defending itself in their media war, and the verbal attacks. Just think, who started the war of words? Who is claiming knowledge of Israel’s imminent doom?

   Reply
8. Mazal says:

   October 8, 2008 at 1:35 AM

   @silverstein:
   That’s bullcrap. Look, you’ve called me a “goon” at one of the sleaziest militantly pro-Israel site around. Lie about me again & call me “anti-Israel” & I’ll be happy to remove yr comment privileges. Maybe the RJC can get away with that sort of crap against Barack Obama, but you won’t here.

   What have I said against Obama? I am in full support of Obama’s campaign for the US presidency. He defends Israel’s right to exist, and will continue the tradition of US support for Israel.

   P.S. I’ve noted that you have a notorious antisemitic person helping you write yr posts.

   Reply
9. Richard Silverstein says:

   October 8, 2008 at 2:33 PM

   @Mazal: I was likening the RJC’s smearing of Obama to your smearing of me by calling me anti-Israel.

   No one “helps me write my posts.” There isn’t a single post written here by anyone other than me.

   I’m about to pull the trigger on you but for some reason I won’t do it quite yet. You’re on probation. The next lie or smear from you & you’re history.

   Reply