Letters to the Editor
Ben Sen
Published Letters: 541 Editor's Choice: 98
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Once a Dreamer
[Read the article: Journalism and its discontents]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It didn't take long for the trolls to find this discussion.
I can't say I've seen a reliable source tracking the history of American/Israel populist relations that rings true with what I've seen and experienced.
In the beginning, during the anti-war movement in this country support for Israel came from the left, liberal, and dare I say Democratic coalition at the time. That's who cheered during the Six Day War. That's who went to Israel to work on the Kibbutz--Jewish and non-Jewish. I remember only a few of my friends returning from the Kibbutz disillusioned, and they were Jewish but "liberal" and secular.
My Israeli friends living in this country during the 80's were fed up with war. That's why they left, telling me the real radicals came from the conservative Jewish community in this country so they could occupy Palestine. That struck me as peculiar. I was aware at this time there were Jewish intellectuals who were evolving a new ideology beyond the original Zionism that founded the country, but not yet aware of what it would become, i.e. the neo-conservative movement.
Sad to say, despite the incredible body count numbers (an Israeli soldier wounded, 20 Palesinian woman and children gunned down by accident) but didn't turn around until hearing a Sixty Minute Broadcast by Mike Wallace showing how Israel had so manipulated the infrastructure of Israel and Palestine so as to create ghetto like conditions so the population could be better "controlled" and attacked by the Israeli army that surrounded them--and did so given the slightest provocation. I remember an Israeli being asked why this was true and the answer was: "they started it."
We had been told again and again that Israel couldn't exist without American support, but now I was starting to wonder what Israel was doing with that support. A reading of Thomas Friedman's book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" cleared it all up. While trying his best to portray the Israeli side, Mr. Friedman made the case for the Palestinians more powerfully than I'd seen it made before and I was a convert.
It is embarrassing for me now to admit how long it took.
In early outings on the internet and with journalists around the world to discuss the matter, I was instantly branded anti-semetic for even questioning what was really going on. I recall being told all of Europe was anti-semetic by a columnist from the NEW YORK POST.
The topper was one day reading a speech by Tom DeLay extolling the virtues of the fundamentalist coalition with the right wing of Israel on biblical grounds. That, and talking to secular liberal American Jewish friends who realized Israel had betrayed its intentions as a peaceful nation long ago--as a result of the domination by the right wing.
Bingo. I'll leave it to writers with the background and time to fill in the events and personalities that compose this history but the outline is there. When Sharon came to the states after 9/11 to scream "Terror, Terror, Terror" into the camera I saw how I had been used; the tail had been waging the dog all along.
With the summit approaching, it may be time to ask: if the fundie coalition breaks up who will support Israel on a populist level then? We know the current US government can't be trusted and the next is going to be in a very difficult position.
Corruption appears to be catching up with the right wing in the Israel fast. Barak, the one who came closest to peace with Arafat is back in the picture. And as incompetent as Bush is and militant Cheney is--an end to the slaughter could be their one contribution to something other than war and destabilization.
But once a dreamer, always a dreamer.
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The More Things Change
[Read the article: When Rudy goes waterboarding]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I was raised working Catholic in Detroit and lived in "Rudy's town" more years than I wish to divulge.
He's running as a Republican in 2007.
That's it. End of the story. He don't know from waterboarding. He don't know nothin' except he can't be a softie. The boys on the playground would laugh and one of the bullies would try to get on top.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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Republican Type Casting
[Read the article: Which Republican candidate is más macho?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It was good to see the "performance" of Thompson evaluated. He is an actor, after all, and not a very good one. (It was nice to see Hillary off the hook.)
If innocusousness is a prerequisite for a candidate, it sounds like Thompson is ahead of the pack. This is where being from New York gives Giuliani an edge. In this town, if the cat catcher isn't tough as nails he doesn't last long, much less the mayor.
It's McCain's jaw that makes him so formidable. I still don't know the story of it, but on the man who is the real deal it adds gravitas if nothing else. It's just that I can't get a fix on his politics. A bomber with a heart? It sounds too much like a contradiction in terms in this country.
I like Mitt cause he looks so much like a car salesman, the kind you think is giving you a good deal. Look at Reagan. I mean look at Reagan. Look at Mitt. It's Republican type casting.