Is Barack Obama Israel’s running dog? Yes, I know it’s harsh. But how else can you think about Michael Posner, the U.S. representative to the UN Human Rights Council, when the ambassador of Israel, a nation accused of mass murder and war crimes praises you so effusively?
Oren…stress[ed] how pleased Israel was with the US criticism of the Goldstone Report and its efforts to keep the United Nations from taking action based on its findings of Israeli violations during the Gaza war last winter. He particularly lauded the US statement on the report.
“It could have been drafted in Tel Aviv, it was so wonderful. The statement upheld the morality of the IDF, it upheld Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, it upheld the integrity of the Israeli legal system,” Oren said.
“I spent several hours calling people in Washington, thanking them [for being] willing to show such courage and such commitment to the US-Israel alliance. It was very, very inspiring.”
This does make you wonder to what extent U.S. policy, especially concerning the Goldstone Report, IS drafted in Tel Aviv.
You’ll have to excuse me Mr. Ambassador, but I saw nothing in the U.S. statements that were as sweeping as you’re making them out to be. Posner said Goldstone was “one-sided” against Israel. But he didn’t justify the killing in Gaza. Posner may’ve said Israel deserved a chance to prosecute breaches within its own justice system. But he never said that the U.S. would continue making such statements if in March Israel has done as poorly at investigating itself as it’s done thus far (only one soldier found guilty of stealing a Gazan credit card).
Obama may want to examine whether having the Israeli ambassador state publicly that the U.S. is committed to an “alliance” with Israel is useful for its Mideast diplomacy and overall relations with Arabs states in the region.
H/t to Rabbi Brian Walt.
The real problem now is not the Goldstone Report and its evidence of war crimes in Gaza, but is the nuclear arms race in the ME.
There is an absolute imperative to control NUCLEAR WEAPONS and their proliferation and NO SERIOUS DISCUSSION can take place on nuclear arms reduction and non proliferation until full exposure takes place of the massive, secret ISRAELI nuclear arms arsenal in the Negev desert, that is currently completely outside of IAEA inspection.
To do so and ignore this ‘giant elephant in the room’, would simply be nonsensical.
It would lead to a situation whereby not only US foreign policy lies with the Israeli lobby but also global military and political control.
Such a decision would be indefensible.
The immediate danger that President Obama has to face is the reality of the fact that his immediate predecessor helped built Israel into possibly the 3rd most powerful nuclear state on the planet – the agenda for such totally irresponsible action, being incomprehensible.
To have made Dimona in the Negev the largest secret nuclear weapons store anywhere, cannot have been to ensure the safety of America, or Europe or the Middle East – but it has virtually ensured that, under the control of a political system that has little integrity, there will inevitably be a nuclear weapons strike in the region within the near future.
The region is now so unstable and the politics so unpredictable and the hatred so fierce, in the aftermath of the massacre in Gaza, that it is a merely a matter of time. That is the danger we face, in the UK, in Europe and eventually in the US and the Americas.
It will then not be a matter of oil or carbon footprints but of human survival on a planet blind to the dangers it faces and the absolute imperative to control nuclear weapons and the ambitions of those who will kill without compunction in order to achieve their aims. I have no doubt that Mr Obama is more aware of these dangers than I am – the point is, how far will he be opposed by the powerful, Israel lobby?
Iran is not the huge elephant in the room. Whilst America, Russia, France, China and Britain are considering reducing nuclear weapon stockpiles – Israel is increasing hers.
Whilst the UK is proposing to reduce its nuclear strike submarine fleet to three, Israel is reported to be increasing its nuclear strike submarine fleet to five!
Where is the logic in this Kafkaesque scenario?
I thought it was highly inappropriate for the US to issue any comment whatsoever on the Goldstone Report, especially when it was done before anyone in Washington could possibly have had time to read it. And I have to agree 110 percent that the handwringing and tut-tutting over the report were an insult to the suffering of the Gazan people and appeared to be nothing more than words setting the stage for a massive campaign to sweep the entire ugly mess under the rug for good – just like all those other times, and just like every day when the Israeli government causes the deaths of Palestinians.
Have a look on digg.com and enjoy my one-person battle against the Hasbara Brigade. It’s a lonely job, but someone’s got to do it, and I could use some reinforcements.
“might have been drafted in Tel Aviv”? Oren might consider running these statements by an editor first.
Oy “Tikun Olam”. Waht can one say about such misguided and horribly uneducated folks. the reason you guys are fighting an absolutely lonely and worthless “battle” is that you occupy the heretofore unexplored territory(if i have my nuance right) of sneering, disparaging and insulting the behaviour of every Israeli govt in history, entertain the BDS( i always thought that stood for Bush Derangement Syndrome) movement, and yet maintain h non-sequitor of being Utopian Zionists, i guess. In other words, you dont hate or dislike or disown Israel aka “The Zionist Entity” enough to be on the the Jihadist side/anarchist/whoeverist position, nor are you equal to or more Zionist as even
Meretz. Thats a mighty small pin-head your balancing on. Come on guys, I don’t hate you, I pity you and laugh at you. As confucius should have said “piss or get of the interwebs”
In memory of Avrahm Stern, who resurrected the Torah madated concept of reciprocal violence.
Shalom
I’m not lonely at all and the battle we fight isn’t worthless either. If we needed yr approbation for what we do we would indeed be deeply depressed by the dead end that your Sternist politics represents.
Speaking of a “small pin-head,” there aren’t too many fans of the Stern gang left. Mazel tov for being one of the few. And even if we could the Feiglinites and other settler extremists you’re still dancing on the head of a pin.
As for achdut (“brotherhood”), not with you my friend.
The usual grotesque analogies, i. e., Stern Gang, usually accompany an attempt at criticism which is completely devoid of valid ideas.
It is not a worthless battle to seek justice. I believe that the worthless battle in the long run is the cut throat Zionist ideology that has carried on its murder and mayhem against the Palestinians for 61 years. Justice will prevail. Nothing lasts forever.
Hey, the Stern Gang! How’d that attempt to collaborate with the Nazis work out?
Thanks for that laugh!
P.S. I apologize for the poor spelling, i am tired and about to go to sleep.
P.P.S. Mr Silverstein, I respect you for your passion and I hope you have the courage to publish this dissenting view
Achdut