Balance
Over the past few weeks, the Obama Administration has been engaged in truly shocking behavior. It is letting Israel know when the U.S. disapproves of its actions, and appointing people to the government who have not been slavish devotees of the right-wing Likud line in the past. George W. Bush never did that!
So Hillary Clinton is under fire for allegedly telling the Israelis that they should open the Gaza borders to humanitarian aid. (The Israeli government is keeping the borders closed as a bargaining chip in the effort to get a soldier held prisoner by Hamas released from captivity.) And various of the usual suspects are bleating about the appointment of the estimable, but too pro-Saudi for my taste, Chas Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council. And others are outraged that the Obama Administration hasn't ruled out participating in a U.N. Council on racism, which usually features racist diatribes directed at Jews.
Now, many of these neocons have been gunning for Obama from the start...and have been just twitching in anticipation of the chance to paint him anti-Israel or worse. Their tendency to slime their detractors with overwrought epithets--anti-semite is the old standby--has diminished whatever power that term once held. In this case, once again, they are standing athwart America's best interests--and Israel's: it's about time that the U.S. starting calling Israel on its excesses. Clinton is right, for example: Israel's strangle-hold on the Gaza crossings gave Hamas a rationale for its rocketing of innocent Israeli civilians. And furthermore, Israel's steady accretion of settlements on Palestinian lands gives credibility to Palestinian extremists who believe that Israel has no interest in a truly viable two-state solution.
And as for conferences on racism, Israel's supporters will have less credibility to complain about international forums where slogans like "zionism is racism" are bruted about if the anti-Arab bigot Avigdor Lieberman is included in the new Israeli government.
Israel is a crucial ally. For me, as a Jew, it is a cherished restitution of an ancient homeland, and simple justice for thousands of years of atrocities directed against my ancestors. But its founding was also a last gasp of western colonialism--and its future depends on its ability to retreat from internationally acknowledged Palestinian lands and from the oppression that it routinely visits on the Palestinian people (the system of checkpoints on the West Bank, particularly in border citiess like Ramallah, seems a vicious, intentional humiliation). Israel has every right to defend itself--yes, even in Gaza, within reason, after the hail of thousands of rockets on Israeli civilians--but the U.S. has the responsibility to call Israel out when its behavior turns destructive and immoral.
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1
Amen Joe
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JK For an American (?), you are . engaged in truly shocking behavior ..
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Hmm... all these facts are hurting my brain. Can't you just tell me who are the Freedom Fighters and who are the terrorists? Thanks in advance.
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Love in Christ,
-Every single Republican -
4
Imagine that, Hillary Clinton said what many commenters have been saying ever since Israel started their military offensive in Gaza and NOW Joe Klein takes notice. Did you also notice Joe Klein what it is they aren't letting in to the Gaza? Frikkin macaroni and lentils. And surprise surprise after Hillary got on their ass they let in at least some of the aid but still won't let in a lot of the other food and essentials. There are literally millions of dollars worth of aid that WE sent over there with our tax dollars just sitting there at the border.
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Maybe just MAYBE if journalists shined a light on that situation instead of running from it then it would a helluva lot harder for the neocons to smear you Joe Klein. Do you think the American people are going to stand for them calling you an anti semite if you report on the situation in Gaza with indisputable proof? Hell no. Our country for the most part is a compassionate one and we don't like to see people starving no matter who in the hell they are. When you put out the truth to the people then the people will back you up. If you are tired of the neocons calling you and everybody else who offers even the slightest criticism of Israel anti semites then take your case to the people and let them see WHY you are criticizing and let them judge who is the real anti semite. Otherwise all you are doing is helping them make the case against you when you don't break it down to people who really don't know whats going on. -
5
"But its founding was also a last gasp of western colonialism..."
I'm not so sure about that:
http://www.aei.org/events/filter.,eventID.428/summary.asp
http://www.cfr.org/publication/6096/washington_needs_a_colonial_office.html -
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Thank You points from Boob Rubin...
CLIXON REGIMES = CRIMES AGAINST AMERICAN HUMANITY
Where's Ken Starr when we need him?
LET THE HEARINGS COMMENCE.
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7
Israel should open their borders to terrorists the same day BJ Clixon opens up ALL his Legacy For Sale lieberry archives to the American people.
You know.
When Hillary freezes over.
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"...its founding was also a last gasp of western colonialism..."
???
Not a freakin clue.
What in the wide world of warts do you have against FREELY ELECTED STATES? Hamas and Hezbollah pointing AK-47's at the heads of their locals before voting IS not representative government, sorry Say Joe.
You're the biggest flaming apologist for the Iranian export of terrorism in the known press.
Go back to writing cartoon books for D.C. cult sycophants, and leave the Israeli people alone.
They're really pretty busy, with far better things to do than shoo away the bar flies.
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9
Joe, you went and done it this time. I think you have the most accurate overall view of any pundit regarding Israel.
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Obama is going to have to do a lot of leaning, though. You have a warmonger of the worst stripe hugging an avowed racist over there, and if we can't enforce a reasonable, just peace on Israel (the government there is in no mood to), look for Bibi to try to sink Obama's ship of state, or worse, the economy, or worse yet, touch off an exchange of WMD.
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And that as most anyone knows, will make Christian fundamentalist biblical-doomsday afficianados cheer loudly. -
10
"...open the Gaza borders to humanitarian aid..."
So Hamas can steal it for re-sale on the black market, just like they always do.
[Am I allowed to use the term "black market" without approval from 53 and/or Eric WHAT PARDONS Holder?]
Why is the loon left not screaming daily for international military monitoring of the Gaza Strip and West Bank and south Lebanon?
You know why, but I'll reiterate here for the newbies:
Because IRANIAN ARMS SHIPMENTS are oozing out from under the Hamas and Hezbollah rocks worse than Bill Clinton's drip at the Cheataqua STD Free Clinic.
Hillary has her head up Mrs. Arafat's MisState Dept funded ASS, again?
Some change, those ones.
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11
Boy, are the fundies gonna be surprised when the Middle East blows itself to atomic smithereens, Christ doesn't come, and we're all stuck with the mess they created!
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I hope they enjoy radioactive clean-up, because they will be volunteered! -
12
"...look for Bibi to try to sink Obama's ship of state, or worse, the economy, or worse yet, touch off an exchange of WMD..."
= LOONTARD ACCOMPLISHED =
What did you do for work, 53, after they filled the quota for terrorists on 9-11?
It must have been a real downer, not being able to participate directly in the burning flesh of so many Jews and other innocent Americans that day, eh?
Go back to Vancouver, and stay there.
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13
Klein and 53 are picking up where Rev Wrong and David Duke left off?
BUTT of course.
After all, that IS what loons do.
Oh well.
HEZBOLLAH HAPPENS.
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14
" .. Israel is a crucial ally. .. "
Has anybody cared to explain to the hard-working, very hard-working Americans what "crucial" means here?
And explain why Israel holds every American in bondage of PAYING more than $2,000 a year to each (supremacist, indolent and belligerent) person in that country even as we have over 30 million starving American kids - and even as people in such third world countries generally survive on less that $300 a year?
[OK. Let us declare every third world country a "crucial ally" ... and thereby realize a precious dream of the 1960s .. After all, in melting pot America, those countries are cherished homelands seeking simple justice for thousands of years of atrocities (by the west) directed against their ancestors..]" .. neocons have been gunning for Obama from the start...and have been just twitching in anticipation of the chance to paint him anti-Israel or worse. .."
"worse"?
Says who?As Dick Cheney may ask, "So?"
Let us see: How many ways do we love thee - anti-China, anti-AlQueda, anti-Korea, anti-Iran, and now anti-Israel, .... anti-CEOs, anti-autoIndustry, anti-Banking, anti-wasteful spending, ... anti-Guantanamo, .. and the anti-list keeps on growing.
Maybe it is time the USA took the lead for a change. For it is said that when you always follow, the view remains the same (and stinky).
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Can it be that the old days when a leader (that is, Olmert) of some flea-bitten third world country, would order our GWB#43 - POTUS and esteemed leader of the free world - off the golf course to take fresh orders on what to say to the world at the UN are over?
Wait and see. -
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Ruh Roh, Question Hillary/ Hulagate is clearly feeling cornered- the word-vomit is being spewed at an alarming and increasing rate...
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Damn Jews!
What IS they doing, holding fair elections and freedom of speech?
You'd think they thought they were some kind of representative government or something.
Don't they know that Jihad Joe Klein does not condone their election results?
Next thing you know we'll be electing somebody in the USA he doesn't really like...
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cfukara
... ...Ahem.
WE SPEND MORE MONEY EACH YEAR ON THE PLO AND THEIR EGYPTIAN PROTECTORS THAN WE DO OR EVER HAVE ISRAEL, DUMB ASS.
Next!
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"I hope they enjoy radioactive clean-up, because they will be volunteered!"
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It's the best place for them, Friar. I'm not all that enthusiastic about rapture as they are.
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By the way, have you noticed the wind blowing here?
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It's odd, sort of like a cross between a very, very bad fart and one of those gusts of wind you feel before a thunderstorm... -
19
"...its founding was also a last gasp of western colonialism..."
???
Not a freakin clue.
What in the wide world of warts do you have against FREELY ELECTED STATES?"
It's very obvious that you, in fact, don't have a clue. The founding of Israel was a political apology for the Holocaust, creating a Jewish state on top of land held by the Palestinian people, essentially using its imperial power to side with the Jews and cede them the land instead of the Arabs who lived there. THAT's what started this whole process, so next time you get all indignant about Arabs wanting freedom and land and basic necessities, think about that fact.
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20
Hillary gives Mrs. Arafat's murdering off-sprung the big virtual MisState Dept circa 1993 hug, and Israel and her allies are supposed to ignore IS?
I DON'T THINK SO.
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53_3
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Either something very, very bad is about to happen or you live downwind of a paper-mill (used to work at one).
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Or both.
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Joe, I think if Bibi and Avigdor join forces, it will send absolutely the worst message possible to anyone trying a moderate approach to peace in the ME.
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Such a regime in Israel will complete the polarization process* at a time when Hizb Allah and surrounding entities acquire increasingly sophisticated missile capabailities.
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The Palestinians will have learned that there is only one choice left, and that is to fight. A one-state solution is not even remotely possible (if it ever was before!), and the two state solution will be dead.
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Already, Turkey has turned away from Israel and Egypt, having already been accused of helping Israel maintain a stranglehold on Gaza, will find having anything to do with Israel impossible.
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The only moderating force will be us, the US, and we can't offer the Palestinians anything, and with the military paradigm changing, we may not be able to protect Isreal from it's own worst follies. -
23
I wonder:
If some imported punks in New Rochelle or Poughkeepsie starting lobbing Iranian and Red Chinese shells into Cheataqua outside Chelsea's room, would Madame MisState Dept ask Gubner Peterbreathe to open Route 9W to the humanitarian truckers from Toronto and Teeterboro?
Hillary should stick to flying in under enemy fire in Yugoslobia, and away from adult responsibility.
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24
"...a moderate approach to peace in the ME..."
Name three Arab or Christian PLO leaders in that divine group.
Ones that will stake their careers, carpets, and lives on it, that IS.
Take your Time.
Less than 4 years until President Palin takes over.
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25
Thank you Joe Klein, Tim McGirk, and other TIME staffers for standing up to Israel's institutionalized policy of obliteration of the Palestinian people; America's continued apologetics for Israel and its 'self-defense' must end, and a decades old policy of instituionalised racism in Israel must be resisted.
Normal Americans would demand justice on this issue if NYT and other mainstream outlets had the courage to stand up to the mob of Zionist zombies.
Please, write more on this issue. Where are the photo essays and audio essays? I wish TIME would go further to SHOW the world what happened in Gaza last month, and what has been going on for years. Let people SEE the madness and HEAR the stories of real people and their quality of life.
I adimire you guys' work, and I hope eveyrone else who does too will speak up and let you know.
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