It’s at times like this that I wish I had some of the rapier satiric wit of Sadly, No! or Jesus General. Only they could really do this justice. But hell, I’ll give it a shot (and excuse the profanity, after all, I’m channeling Sadly, No!):
The head of one of the most influential local Jewish Federation branches in the United States…admitted that the appointment of Avigdor Lieberman is “not good” in terms of public relations. He quickly added, however, that the American Jewish community must nevertheless express support for Israel’s government.
“I know Lieberman, he’s not an outsider. His views have support in Israel, even if the American Jewish community doesn’t support him,” he said.
“It’s a problem that in the press he’s been labeled a fascist, but we must tell the new [U.S.] administration in no uncertain terms: ‘He’s a minister, talk to him.’
Yeah, he may be a fascist, but he’s our fucking fascist. And what’s a fascist among friends?
And hey, Brad Sherman is always good for a pro-Israel word or thousand:
“I think it’s a good thing that Labor is in the government. That creates more of a centrist government,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) said. “I think that Lieberman needs to design his rhetoric not only for the domestic Israeli market but for the world as well.
Shorter Sherman: “It’s good that Labor is in government. Now we pro-Israel shills can use it as a fig leaf to conceal the ugliness represented by Lieberman.”
Shorter Sherman II: “Lieberman needs to remember to cool his Arab-hating jets when he flys out of Ben Gurion. Non-Israelis don’t cotton to such overt racism.”
Eliot Engel, one of Aipac’s favorite ass-kissers, is also good for a few pro-Israel laughs:
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY): “The people of Israel have the right to elect any government they like, and no other country, including the U.S., has the right to criticize them or to make negative remarks when Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.
Shorter Engel: “Israel has the right to elect any goddamn fascist they goddamn well please. After all, they’re the only fucking democracy in the Middle East!”
Is it an accident that Natasha Mozgovaya only interviewed three of Israel’s best Congressional shills for this article? She wouldn’t have wanted to get an honest opinion about Lieberman, now would she?
Shorter Sherman: “It’s good that Labor is in government. Now we pro-German shills can use it as a fig leaf to conceal the ugliness represented by this man Hitler.”
Shorter Sherman II: “Hitler needs to remember to cool his Jew-hating jets when he flys out of Berlin. Non-Germans don’t cotton to such overt racism.”
Nuff said
“Is it an accident that Natasha Mozgovaya only interviewed three of Israel’s best Congressional shills for this article?”
Doesn’t this site claim to be pro Israel? Strange that you would be against pro Israel Congressmen.
This site is critical of Israeli policy, but pro-Israel in the sense of advancing Israel’s long-term interest for security & peace with its neighbors. These Congressmembers are what I call “pro-Israel true believers,” not critical of any Israeli policy no matter how destructive of that country’s long term interests they might be. The Congressmembers are also in the pocket of Aipac and the Israel lobby. That’s not in Israel’s long term interest either. I wouldn’t expect you to understand the subtlety of that distinction. But try & maybe you will.
Interesting poll of attitudes of young Palestinians:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075465.html
Note how they realize they are losing the war with Israel. Note how only 28% of them consider themselves “Palestinians” whereas 47% consider themselves “Muslims”. It is this confusion of identities that is a prime cause of the disunity that has plagued them for generations.
This is a fine confirmation of what we have been saying for years…there is no such thing as a “Palestinian nation”.
Your sentiment is as usual completely wrong-headed. Israeli Jews, especially the most right-wing and ultra-Orthodox witness the same tension causing them often to abuse their religion to justify their extremist views. This is no diff. than the phenomenon happening in Palestinian society. Further, the reason why palestinians are gravitating toward Islamism & away fr. secular nationalism is because the latter has achieved nothing for them in their battle to win their own state and end the Occupation. If Israel progressed toward such a settlement, then Palestinians would proudly embrace their national identity & shed their Islamist one. But alas no one in your country seems to have the vision to understand this, nor do you.
In denying a “Palestinian nation” you have violated my comment rules besides making an utterly stupid comment (which unfortunately isn’t again my rules). Violate these rules again and you will be permanently banned fr. commenting. Many have come here as well to deny any Jewish connection or right to Israel. I don’t allow either sentiment here. Follow the rules or you won’t have comment privileges here.
What if Israeli Jews would be asked “how do you identify yourself”? Surely the results would be something like 37 % Jews (the religious one), 30 % as Israelis (secular nationalists), 20 % as human beings (the secular intellectuals), 4 % as Americans etc. Would the conclusion of such a poll be that there is no such thing as the Jewish nation – Israel.
The same if from us Finns would be asked how do you identify yourself. Hardly the majority would answer to such a general question that one’s major identity is the citizenship of the nation.
Bar Kochba, you and Y Ben David are the same man? Or you just copy your comments from the same source?
I read at another blog that Bar Kochba (if I’m not mistaken it was him) was banned fr. a site (maybe it was TPM) & returned w. a new sockpuppet. Wouldn’t surprise me if he has various identities depending on where & whether he’s been banned elsewhere.
Reading the Haaretz article I am reminded of the linguistic contortions foreign governments had to engage in to when commenting on the Bush lunacies.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) said:
Strange! I don’t remember this argument being applied to Palestinian legislative elections. In fact it was more like “OK, Palestinian votes are in. Wrong result. Immediate sanctions.”
Lieberman a Jewish Hitler?
Lieberman and Wiping Countries off the face of the Map
Avigdor Lieberman, the Moldovan night club bouncer, is now foreign minister of Israel. The world has had a lot of fun laughing at the pronouncements of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who stands falsely accused of threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the map. But Ahmadinejad has protested that it would be wrong to kill large numbers of civilians.
In contrast, Lieberman has threatened to wipe at least two countries, Egypt and Palestine, off the map. Monstrously, he suggested bombing the Aswan Dam, which would have the effect of murdering all 80 million Egyptians and sweeping them into the Mediterranean in a vast continental African tsunami.
Lieberman promptly announced on assuming office that the Mideast peace process is dead. Well, at least we have an outbreak of frankness.
Whereas Ahmadinejad was humiliated by Columbia University president Lee Bollinger on his visit to that university, which provoked public protests, Lieberman’s acceptance into the Israeli government has been greeted mildly and he was allowed to come to the Brookings Institution and meet with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Lieberman is a Central/Eastern European ultra-nationalist in the mold of Slobodan Milosevic and Jorg Haider, and it is shameful that he was allowed into the government and more shameful that this travesty has passed without a peep in the civilized world.
The The Electronic Intifada lists “Some of Avigdor Lieberman’s infamous statements”:
‘ # In 1998, Lieberman called for the flooding of Egypt by bombing the Aswan Dam in retaliation for Egyptian support for Yasser Arafat.
# In 2001, as Minister of National Infrastructure, Lieberman proposed that the West Bank be divided into four cantons, with no central Palestinian government and no possibility for Palestinians to travel between the cantons.
# In 2002, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Lieberman in a Cabinet meeting saying that the Palestinians should be given an ultimatum that “At 8am we’ll bomb all the commercial centers … at noon we’ll bomb their gas stations … at two we’ll bomb their banks …”
# In 2003, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Lieberman called for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel to be drowned in the Dead Sea and offered to provide the buses to take them there.
# In May 2004, Lieberman proposed a plan that called for the transfer of Israeli territory with Palestinian populations to the Palestinian Authority. Likewise, Israel would annex the major Jewish settlement blocs on the Palestinian West Bank. If applied, his plan would strip roughly one-third of Israel’s Palestinian citizens of their citizenship. A “loyalty test” would be applied to those who desired to remain in Israel. This plan to trade territory with the Palestinian Authority is a revision of Lieberman’s earlier calls for the forcible transfer of Palestinian citizens of Israel from their land. Lieberman stated in April 2002 that there was “nothing undemocratic about transfer.”
# Also in May 2004, he said that 90 percent of Israel’s 1.2 million Palestinian citizens would “have to find a new Arab entity” in which to live beyond Israel’s borders. “They have no place here. They can take their bundles and get lost,” he said.
# In May 2006, Lieberman called for the killing of Arab members of Knesset who meet with members of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.’
Juan Cole
L is right wing and nationalist but i don’t see why you need to keep calling him a fascist. that has connotations that i really don’t like. you turn people off when you go overboard like and they stop listening to what you have to say that is substantive
A major American Jewish leader quoted in Haaretz complained that others were calling Lieberman a fascist. I was only mimicing this nomenclature, though I find a lot of truth in the accusation. Bibi is right wing & a nationalist. I think Lieberman is beyond that. He is anti-democratic, authoritarian, angry, intolerant, corrupt, espouses violence against fellow Israeli citizens. If it walks like duck, talks like a duck, then maybe it is one.
Yes, I am the same person. There is no conspiracy involved. I have always been “bar_kochba1” here, so I stuck with it, but the reason I switched on newer sites is because I kept getting hit with discussions about the Jewish rebellion against the Romans that Bar Kochba initiated, and I found that it was sidetracking other discussions. If anyone cares, I will switch my nom-de-plume if that would make them happy.
I don’t care what you call yrself. It’s not your name that’s the problem.
Thanks to Peter, I can see that a major portion of your comment at Realistic Dove was virtually identical to what you wrote in yr comment here. That is a violation of my comment rules because it’s not only completely lacking in creativity, it’s spammy and trollish. If you want to comment here do so. But don’t duplicate the same comments elsewhere. Those who follow this blog & others where you comment will let me know if you break the rule, so don’t.
The only proper stance to take against fascism in its many forms is art.