Letters to the Editor
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Interesting NPR This Morning
Morning Edition kicked off their week of 6-Day War coverage this very morning with a review of how it started. It presented the Israeli initiation as pre-emption of certain attack, while citing the 100,000 Egyptian troop figure. There was no hint that this view is not agreed-upon; it was presented as indisputable fact.
If RealName is so paranoid about people seeing a Jewish conspiracy everywhere, maybe he should oppose such shoddy journalism that encourages this view?
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Truly Amazing Myopia and Hypocrisy
"First, the blocking of the straits is an act of war under international law....
This is the same reasoning that Solena uses when Israel is criticized for occupation, when it unilaterally pulled out of Gaza and the Palestineans (elected by the Gaza population) used this as an excuse to shoot rockets at civilians."
So if Egypt's blocking of the Straits of Tiran was an act of war, what should Israel's blockade of food and medical supplies into Gaza following their "withdrawal" be called? How about their near daily artillery barrages aimed at Palestinian civilians, or their bombing attacks, or their aircraft flying over head every night delivering sonic booms? Or targeted assassination of Palestinian leaders? Or destruction of critical infrastructure such as power plants and wells?
Oh, that's right, none of that counts, because Israel by definition can do no wrong.
No matter how inexcusable Israel's behavior is, there will always be some whiner crass enough to complain about how there is an "Israel-bashing" double standard when someone calls them on it. Whatever Israel's excuse for launching a "preemptive" war was, there is no excuse for the occupation and theft of territory that occurred afterwards.
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Where Was The Author Fifteen Years Ago?
Some fifteen years ago the writer of Unholy Grail: The US and the Wars in Vietnam had all of the documents relevant to the run up to the Six Day War declassified. Amongst them (and unfortunately not mentioned by the Sandy Tolan) were the most important-those relating to the request by the Government of Israel regarding the purchase of the most advanced US fighter bomber, the F-4 Phantom and latest US tank, the M-60. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recommended strongly against the purchase noting that the range of both systems provided an unneeded offensive capability. They suggested replacing the requested items with the equally competent but shorter ranged A-6 aircraft and upgunned M-48 tank.
CIA shortly after the sale of F-4 and M-60 systems was approved by the White House estimated that the IDF would undertake offensive operations as soon as the new systems were "assimulated." The Pentagon concurred in the estimate. The Six Day War commenced within thirty days of the predicted period of assimulation.
The other documents referenced by Toland have been known for years to historians of modern military history. Thus, both the documentary base and the conclusions are not new to any serious student of the Mideast or War and have been referenced in detail to this writer's direct knowledge at the US Army Command and Staff College and National War College as far back as 1995.
Dr Mark Mercer
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Anybody read this?
http://meria.idc.ac.il/journal/2000/issue4/ginor.pdf
How about this?
http://www.amazon.com/Foxbats-Over-Dimona-Soviets-Nuclear/dp/0300123175
See the thing is, if the only thing you folks hang your hat on is who started shooting first, why do you give all the Arabs a pass in the Yom Kippur war or the approx 5850 Katushya rockets that have fallen in Sderot, Golan, northern Israel and the Negev in the past 2 years?
Oh wait, I forget, blame the Jews. Uh gotchya. Thanks for clearing that up.
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When Iran lobs a nuke into Tel Aviv
Remind me to remind you to scold them for shooting first.
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i came back from the dentist to find all my posts deleted - i thought i must be going crazy
somehow confusing "Preview" and "Publish" but no, there is Fer Servadu's post, "To David Sugarman and RealName". as i recall it was innocuous a thank you to pubpundits RealName and Ross Johnson and a quote from gandhi. no, that was before i wrote Fer Servadu. his attitude i view with distaste so i'm sure i wasn't flattering, but not as much as i was to LWM whom i referred to a "Low Witted Monkey" but par for the course, especially if you *read* his posts. ENQUIRING ME WANTS TO KNOW! am i personna non grata? will all my posts be deleted? is andrew leonard stalking the halls? (if the last, i have an anecdote. i was in 4th grade when i was made hall monitor. the power went to my head. every time some kid licked his lips i'd say it was sticking out their tongues, an act of insolence and insubordination - undermining and mocking my authority. and i'd keep them there so they'd be late to their next class. it lasted one day. the end of my stairwell dictarship. BUT, i was NINE! GROW UP ANDREW!)
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Liberalizing Slavery
Just one last thing. I think its important to remind progressive people that the two state solution is not a path to peace, nor was it meant to be. Imagine that Israel allows Palestine to become a nation with full sovereignty--that would also require Israel and Palestine to be friendly neighbors and that the state of Palestine have soveriegnty over its foreign relations. One minor consequence of that would be that Israel would have no rationale for banning marriages between Israeli-Palestinians and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and no reason not to recognize such marriages within its own borders. Over night, Israel would be facing a lethal demographic threat--the population of Arab-Israelis could nearly double in a decade. Israel would then have to create a new form of apartheid, by claiming outright that Palestinians cannot be citizens of its nation unless they are born there, while maintaining the right of any Jew--even Jews who converted to Judaism a week before they put in their residency papers--to become a citizen.
Thus the problem is not that Palestinians are oppressed by the occupation, the problem is that Israel requires that oppression in order to maintain its demographic Jewish superiority. Taking away the occupation requires Israel to find other ways of preventing the demographic threat to its Jewish-only apartheid system--it can't be a solution.
As with slavery, you cannot liberalize the occupation or apartheid--you cannot make slavery 'more free'. Think about it.