StandWithUs Northwest is hosting its annual luncheon here in Seattle this October. An ad in this week’s JTNews notes the keynote speaker will be that Jewish Benedict Arnold, Kenneth Stein who, after serving as the Carter Center’s first executive director 25 years ago, turned on his former boss and knifed him in the back regarding his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
Stein’s views are devoutly pro-Israel but less so than SWU. In fact, Stein might be considered a leftist by SWU, which is probably why they invited him. So what’s extraordinary, and what I’ve never seen before in such a situation, is the disclaimer:
Dr. Stein is an independent scholar; his participation in public functions does not imply any support directly or indirectly for any organization that is represented where he is speaking unless he otherwise so states himself.
Besides the writing sounding like it just came out of a washing machine, there are two rather astonishing issues here. First, Stein seems so leery of SWU that he dissociates himself from the group even before he speaks to it. Second, the academic seems to believe he can have his speaker fee and eat it too. Of course when you speak to a group you are either endorsing its views or at the very least bolstering its credibility by lending your good name to its efforts. It seems the height of disingenuousness to say I’ll speak to SWU, but won’t endorse its extremist pro-Israel agenda. But knowing Stein and his previous behavior, this type of chutzpah doesn’t surprise me in the least.
This quotation from Stein about Carter tells you all you need to know about the former’s pompousness:
A former president of the United States doesn’t have a special privilege or prerogative to write history and perhaps to invent it.
If a president of the United States doesn’t have the right to write history then who does? Especially regarding an issue that was so dear to Carter’s heart and in which he invested tremendous time, energy and political capital. Talk about chutzpah. Come to think of it, SWU and Stein were made for each other.
The SWU ad has a rather ironic tag line:
Education is the road to peace. Building positive honest relationships to Israel Across Generations.
News flash for SWU: pro Israel advocacy is NOT education. It is propaganda. What they really mean to say is: “propaganda is the road to Israel-imposed peace.” Using the term “honest” in anything related to SWU is a laugh and a half. The group is entirely built on distortion, spouting the views of the Israeli right and Israeli intelligence agencies, and smearing their enemies whether Jewish or Arab.
Just as friends don’t let friends drink and drive, if you know anyone thinking of attending this luncheon do them a favor and warn them off it.
“It seems the height of disingenuousness to say I’ll speak to SWU, but won’t endorse its extremist pro-Israel agenda. ”
This is a ludicrous statement. You shoot at people, Richard, unnecessarily.
Your comment on Carter “having the right to write history”, is also odd.
NOONE has the right to write history. That’s what fascism is constructed of. History is written by research, dialog and review.
Let the man speak. Personally ask him some critical question if you differ.
Richard W.: here I go & write a comment expressing gratitude for the naysayers among my readers who enliven the debate here…no sooner do I do that than you come back & write the most inane, patently absurd comment. “Writing history” is something that is done by historians, presidents, first-hand witnesses to major events all the time. Why else do you think almost every president in recent memory has written a book about their presidency? What is that if not “writing history?”
Pls. Richard, if you want to write a comment could you expend some time & energy writing something half-way cogent?
Sorry you didn’t understand what I meant.
LET THE MAN SPEAK!!! is the point.
Without the adjectives.
THE MAN SPOKE!!! like a charlatan.
The fact that it pains you to see him called out for it is your own bag.
No, everyone has the right to write history, and to have their history judged by impartial standards.
“NOONE has the right to write history. That’s what fascism is constructed of. History is written by research, dialog and review.”
So history is written by reified entities called “research, dialog, and review”, not actual human beings like Jimmy Carter who do research, dialog, and review (and no doubt make mistakes, as virtually all historians do). The idea that actual humans might write history is, um, fascist. Okay.
Really, Witty, you might try to restrain yourself from taking cheap shots when they come out looking this silly.
Aside from the sheer silliness of your formulation, Witty, notice that Stein was the one being huffy about an individual writing history–if you want to be ridiculous and start throwing around the word “fascism” you could more properly assign it to Stein. But I wouldn’t do that and I’d suggest you not use the word at all if you’re going to use it so loosely.
Richard why dont you read todays headline in Haaretz and Jerusalem Post. Fatah demands all Of Jerusalem, East and West. Fatah want to remove all Jews also from the outlying villages from Jerusalem. In Fatah’s own words, Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem will be returned to the Palestinians clean of settlements and settlers. It should be worth noting, Fatah considers all Jews settlers. If anyone has read Pal Media watch for the last 16 years, Fatah leaders and its racist mufti’s have been speaking of ethnic cleansing the Jews from Israel and Jerusalem.
Just last week, Fatah had an hour long tv show glorifying the coastal road massacre in 1978 in which 38 Israeli civilians and 13 children were burned to death, when Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus and blew it up. Its to long to go into detail how Fatah celebrated this massacre, but Pal Media watch goes into detail word by word what Fatah leaders say about this. But ofcourse Kenneth Stein is wrong. I would also say, this is nothing new. Arafat always talked about this stages plan. Faisal Husseini talked about Oslo being a Trogan horse for eliminating Israel.
The Palestinian media has been the most hate infested pro terrorist supporting media in the world. I think its urgent left wing Jews like Richard Silverstein, Uri Averny, Jeff Halper, Jeremy Ben Ami, Amira Hass, Akiva Eldar speak out against Arab racism and their plans.
Palestine Media Watch is NOT a credible source & specifically prohibited in my comment rules which I urge you to read.
Since typically you don’t provide any links I can’t tell what you’re talking about. But this is from Akiva Eldar in today’s Haaretz quoting Abu Mazen & an Israeli expert on Fatah. It doesn’t correspond at all to anything you claim. Yr claims are bogus & simply not credible. While it’s possible that an individual Fatah member of delegate MAY hold these views (which I don’t concede), but the movement as a whole does not & you are a liar to claim otherwise:
The next time you attempt to publish a comment that has absolutely no basis in fact your comment privileges will be suspended. I’m not interested in yr opinions when they are little more than lies warmed over. If you can bolster arguments with facts, that’s fine. But you haven’t done this.
I finally found the article you referred to & it does appear to confirm the general outlines of what you claim. However, I would note that the report is from Israel Radio, not a source that was at the conference & certainly not a Palestinian source. I tend to be careful about trusting Israeli sources on contentious issues & claims like this one. If the claim is true then it would be distressing. But this rpt doesn’t by any means guarantee that the rpt is accurate or reliable.
“However, I would note that the report is from Israel Radio, not a source that was at the conference & certainly not a Palestinian source. I tend to be careful about trusting Israeli sources on contentious issues & claims like this one.”
Israeli Radio broadcast large portions of the Bethlehem speeches live in Arabic. Their translation was correct.
I’d like to see yr report verified by other Israeli readers before I grant it credence. I find it unlikely that Israel Radio would broadcast live to a largely Hebrew speaking audience long speeches in Arabic. In the years I lived in Israel I virutally never saw or heard such a thing in Israeli media. They might show a short shot on TV news of a Palestinian speaking or an audio clip, but never very long.
I particularly appreciated this from Israeli Knesset member Ahmed Tibi’s speech in Bethlehem – which sounds a lot better in Arabic with the accompanying intonations-
“the land will be CLEEEEEAN of “settlers”. Like in the Algerian revolution.”
As we know, the second important revolutionary act of the Algerian independence was to CLEANSE the land by introducing a “grandfather clause” in the 1962 constitution stripping anyone whose grandfather wasn’t a Muslim of Algerian nationality – thus effectively making for the first time since antiquity the land judenrein.
Subtle.
And you are surprised that an Israeli Palestinian wants the land clean of settlers? I’d like the land clean of settlers too. Unless you’re trying to claim that he means Israelis within the Green Line as well, which he does not.
And in case you’re not up on inconvenient facts for yr partisan views, Mahmoud Abbas has said that Israeli settlers may stay in Palestine as long as they accept Palestinian sovereignty, which seems an eminently fair offer.
It is not impossible that they got tired “In the years I lived in Israel I virutally never saw or heard such a thing in Israeli media.”
Well they did now and without voice over. But it must be said that in this particular case many speeches contained what could be called new news. And maybe in Arabic so the speakers won’t say -as they did in the past – that their words were misconstrued.
[comment deleted for violation of comment rules & commenters privileges suspended]
RE: “…that Jewish Benedict Arnold, Kenneth Stein who, after serving as the Carter Center’s first executive director 25 years ago, turned on his former boss and knifed him in the back…”
MY COMMENT: Back when this occurred, I took a look at the funding for the ‘Institute for the Study of Modern Israel’ and concluded that he probably had no choice in the matter (aside from resignation). I’m confident that he was given an ultimatum by one or more of his major donors. In stark contrast to such machinations, President Carter handled Stein’s backstabbing with real class.
The ‘Institute for the Study of Modern Israel’ was established to counter what the right wingers perceive to be the “pro-Palestinian bias” of many Universities. In reality it was established to disseminate propaganda rather than to educate.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: (excerpt)…About his resignation from the Carter Center, he said: “I had to make a clean break…. My professional reputation was being affected.”[4]…
SOURCE – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_W._Stein
Richard
I hope you will attend and publically expose his lies
I think the Carter Center is getting by just fine without Kenneth Stein. For one thing, it relies just as much on human sweat as big $$$, and lots of those dollars come from ordinary working Americans. The loss was Stein’s, not the Center’s, in that he used to be part of something that really mattered, and now he’s not. The Carter Center is one of the most effective, doing on-the-ground work and help, humanitarian organizations out there. Habitat for Humanity alone helps countless regular, lower-income people get into a real house, that they own! It’s amazing. Having worked for Habitat for Humanity helping build a house, I can tell you it’s a wonderful experience.
I guess, in the end, Stein’s tribalism trumped anything else, rather revealing.
“”Unless you’re trying to claim that he means Israelis within the Green Line as well,”
I didn’t say it. You did.
And why do you call any views/facts you don’t agree with “partisan”??
No, I didn’t. Since you didn’t mean that then your statement was even weaker since wanting a Palestine w/o hooligans like those in Hebron & other places who kill & injure with impunity seems a reasonable objective.