This is only worth responding to because you took up so much damn space. You could have fit that crap in a paragraph.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1205012429/

Uri Avnery's Column
"Kill A Hundred Turks And Rest…"
08 March 2008

This is not a joke (and this is not a week for jokes). It is a lesson in psychology. I was reminded of it when I read Ehud Olmert's statement that more than anything else he was furious about the outburst of joy in Gaza after the attack in Jerusalem, in which eight yeshiva students were killed.

I WAS reminded this week of the old tale about a Jewish mother taking leave of her son, who has been called up to serve in the Czar's army against the Turks.

"Don't exert yourself too much," she admonishes him, "Kill a Turk and rest. Kill another Turk and rest again…"

"But mother," he exclaims, "What if the Turk kills me?"

"Kill you?" she cries out, "Why? What have you done to him?"

This is not a joke (and this is not a week for jokes). It is a lesson in psychology. I was reminded of it when I read Ehud Olmert's statement that more than anything else he was furious about the outburst of joy in Gaza after the attack in Jerusalem, in which eight yeshiva students were killed.

Before that, last weekend, the Israeli army killed 120 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, half of them civilians, among them dozens of children. That was not "kill a Turk and rest". That was "kill a hundred Turks and rest". But Olmert does not understand. [...]

- - Uri Avnery

Obama said THIS AFTER the cease fire, after a thousand Lebanese had been killed by Israeli bombings. You're analysis is a stretch.

not you're

...how right you've been ever since I began reading you in 2003-2004 (when did you start your blog?). Thanks for this commentary.

Just a speech. Perhaps you should stop considering it in the same light as the sum total of all human wisdom. And please, I understand he travels on a beam of light, shatters the barriers of time and space, parts the waters, feeds the hungry and raises the dead, but someone wrote that for him while he was busy campaigning for elected office. And the office isn't the Papacy.

It is easy to be cynical, it is easy to pander and it is easy to just ignore all this and watch the NCAA tournament talking heads (and if you want to see conventional wisdom, please turn to ESPN; they are wrong before the game and always right after it). But this is such an important topic it cannot be glossed over.

In 1964, LBJ acknowledged he had lost the South for the Democrats for a generation. Barack Obama was three years old at the time, but the generation is probably not yet up. Nonetheless, he presents us with the opportunity to turn the racism that LBJ knew (as few can have known it, from the inside) on its head. Why not this time?

Arne...

Obama said THIS AFTER the cease fire, after a thousand Lebanese had been killed by Israeli bombings. You're analysis is a stretch.

Perhaps. I'm willing to reconsider.

I have not been a friend of -- nor apologist for -- Israeli militarism and occupation.

Hey, I have a idea: Let's ask "Mr. Honesty and Introspection" about this as well; see if you can get in a question about it in one of the call-in or Internet debates. Maybe we can open a discussion about another "third rail" of American political life. I'd actually welcome that. ;-)

Cheers,

Me neither, the last few are just about blaming Israel for crop failure and sunspots or something. I didn't pay attention.

It's possible, if the speech gets enough play and fair analysis, it could alter the campaign dynamics. It could have more of an impact on ordinary voters than the handicappers are able to predict right now.

-Dirigo

That's the big "if". I wish Obama had given that speech after most people were home . My first thought, even before he was quite done was "He probably just won the election". Later when I heard the FOX-fest , I got depressed .(Point of disclosure , I was skeptical in the beginning, and am late to the Obama party) I expected a "ho-hum" slightly negative reaction . Instead, it's an almost complete tranformation from what the speech actually was . The anchor's (self)reference to the "media frenzy" and Obama "desperately" trying to turn attention elsewhere , a pollster showing Obama's decline , contrary to every other one I've seen , Brit Hume purposely misconstruing things into Obama contradicting himself ,Dick Morris concluding he was permanently damaged , etc,etc,etc.After that, I couldn't stomach checking out the rest of the MSM.

I talked to a FOXophile, that heard the entire speech . His conclusion was that the speech was too good , and Obama = "Slick Willie" II .( He also thinks the whole thing was planned , even after I reminded him of the sermon dates. ) However, he was also disgusted by FOX . "They're full of shit" , to be exact.

If most get to see/hear the speech itself, instead of highlights + what the talking heads say he said , Obama might have made some good lemonade . Hoping.

DCLaw1

The babblings of approval from (most of) the media elite can be read like a diviner's casting bones to glimpse into the hearts and minds of the silently sought Superdelegates that hold the power to annoint Obama the nominee.

And PLUS, either Glenn channeled Jon Stewart or vice versa. ("Today, a politician talked to the American public as if we were adults!")

I wouldn't worry about his speech getting seen. It's already on YouTube as one of the most watched for today (coming up on a million hits)(only 78 million hits behind "The Evolution of Dance"). I thought it was excellent. Blunt and yet inclusive-- I mean, he doesn't look anything like me, but HE has a white grandmother? Hey! I have a white grandmother, too!

I think it can only help that he's discussing in a calm, rational, straightforward way the issue of race in the US. Tipping that elephant in the room over would be a big step forward for this country. I understand Glenn's skepticism, but I think most of us are ready for it.