AMERICA DECIDES 2004. Kerry machine and concerns about Dean sway Iowa Jews,
By Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
January 20, 2004
"Jewish voters in Iowa turned to Sen. John Kerry in large numbers because
of a well-oiled machine that targeted Jews —
and because of ongoing concerns about Howard Dean, activists there say.
Alan Koslow, a Dean activist who hosted a caucus in West Des Moines —
where many of the state’s Jews live — said he and his wife were the only
Jews in the room Monday night voting for Dean, the former Vermont governor
who was the early Democratic front-runner in Iowa. “I was absolutely
shocked,” Koslow said. “The Jewish vote went so completely to
Kerry, from what I could ascertain. He made a strong impression.”
Koslow attributed the performance of Kerry (D-Mass.) to eight young
Jewish campaign staffers who targeted the community. Koslow also had three
helpers but said he only reached about 400 of Iowa’s 1,300 known Jewish
families in the days before the election. An evening for Jewish voters
that Koslow hosted last week with Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a
Jewish Democrat from neighboring Illinois, attracted far fewer people than
expected. “I expected 100; about 45 came,” he said. “About a quarter of
those were people who supported other candidates and who
were upset at Dean’s perceived positions on Israel.”
Dean once called for the United States to take an
“even-handed” policy in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and once
referred to Hamas terrorists as “soldiers.” Dean
says he now regrets using the term “even-handed: ... Kerry was seen
as the strongest performer at a synagogue event in Des Moines in November,
and several congregants told him afterward that he had swung their support
away from other candidates. Dean and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) also
addressed the crowd. Kerry told the crowd how he had
shouted “Am Yisrael Chai” from atop Masada, and he was the only one of the
three to invoke the Holocaust, when he called for more thoughtful U.S.
involvement in human-rights issues. Such particulars — and Kerry’s
animated delivery — registered with the crowd. “ John
Kerry has been to Masada,” David Moskowitz said at the
synagogue event. “ He knows the issues.”
AMERICA DECIDES 2004. Edwards doesn’t cultivate Jews, but his views win
Jewish support,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
January 20, 2004
"Sen. John Edwards ... is an exception in a presidential campaign marked by
loud declarations of Jewish affinity. He has warm ties
with Jews in his state, but he hasn’t made an issue of it. Edwards
was a highly successful trial lawyer in North Carolina seven years ago when
he sought a seat in the U.S. Senate and largely was able to self-finance his
campaign. That meant Edwards didn’t spend as much time as other aspiring
lawmakers courting support and dollars in the Jewish community, both in and
out of his state, North Carolina Jewish activists said. “He didn’t seek out
the Jewish community,” unlike others who “go from
candidate event to candidate event begging for money,” said
Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi, a Democratic political consultant who ran for
Congress in North Carolina in 1994. “Because he was self-financed, he could
avoid a lot of that.” Edwards nonetheless has earned the community’s
support. He has a solid record on Israel and
emphasizes the issues that resonate with Jewish voters like Dricker:
health, education and poverty. ... “If somebody had told me John Edwards was
going to run for political office, I wouldn’t have believed them,” said
Fred Baron, co-finance chairman of Edwards’
campaign and former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of
America ... “When he decided to run for political office, it made incredible
sense to me because of his incredible talent to connect with people,” said
Bill Cassell, a longtime Edwards friend and
former Jewish federation campaign chairman in Greensboro ...
Randall Kaplan, a Greensboro businessman who is a
board member for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
remembers early meetings Edwards held with Jewish leaders in the community.
“When he first started considering the Senate race, he
was a great listener,” Kaplan said. “He was as knowledgeable
as someone can get when they first run for office but didn’t have first-hand
experience.” Edwards reached out to the Jewish
community as a Senate candidate but didn’t court Jews the same way
other aspiring politicians do. “He would certainly
have ties to individuals in the Jewish community, but I don’t know
that he has had any ties in any formal way,” Broun said. The North
Carolina Jewish community also may not warrant the same treatment that Jews
in larger states merit. “It’s a different kind of Jewish community,”
Broun said. “Most of us are professional people who might be quite
comfortable but are not business people with the kind of money that one
would go to in Florida, Illinois or New York.” Laszlo-Mizrahi said, “That
huge Jewish political machine in North Carolina just doesn’t exist.”
Upon his election in 1998, Edwards continued listening. “John
would always make himself available to us,” Kaplan said ...
Kaplan now advises Edwards’ campaign on Israel and
Middle East issues. Edwards visited Israel with Intelligence Committee
colleagues in 2001 and was there when a suicide bomber attacked a
Sbarro restaurant in downtown Jerusalem. “I think the trip left on him an
understanding,” Kaplan said. “He really gets the strategic issues,
the existential issues.” In a statement to JTA, Edwards said he would
increase U.S. engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the
appointment of a senior envoy to the region, and he
signaled support for Israel’s anti-terror tactics, including the security
barrier Israel is erecting in the West Bank. “As long as the
Palestinian leadership fails to end terror, Israel has a right to take
measures to defend itself,” Edwards said. “Such defensive measures are not
the cause of terrorism — they are the response to terrorism.”
AMERICA DECIDES 2004. As Gephardt bows out, Jews lose a friend in
Washington’s high places,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
January 20, 2004
"The political career of one of Congress’ strongest advocates for Jewish
concerns may be over. Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), who served as
Democratic leader in the House from 1989 to 2002, ended his presidential bid
Tuesday, a day after he captured only 11 percent of the vote and finished a
disappointing fourth in the Iowa caucuses, which he won in 1988. “Today my
pursuit of the presidency has reached its end,” Gephardt said Tuesday in a
tearful press conference in St. Louis. “I’m withdrawing as a candidate and
returning to private life after a long time in the warm light of public
service.” Gephardt, 62, previously had announced that he would not seek
re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives, thus ending a Washington
career that began when he joined the House in 1977. “A lot of Jewish
Democrats are quite saddened by the apparent end of Dick Gephardt’s
political career,” said Ira Forman, executive director of the
National Jewish Democratic Council. “He was always a friend, not just on
domestic issues, but on Israel.” Gephardt
always was considered a friend on Middle East matters, but
Jewish officials in Washington said he became a leader
on behalf of Israel in recent years — perhaps because of his aspirations to
higher office, but also because of the new international landscape
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Gephardt
was the highest-ranking congressional official to speak at an April 15,
2002, solidarity rally for Israel at the Capitol."
US Vetoes At The UN In
Favor Of Israel Since 1973,
rense.com, January 20, 2004
"July 1973, S/10974 Vote: 13 in favor, 1 veto (US), 1 abstention. The
resolution strongly deplored Israel's occupation of the Arab territories
since 1967, and expressed serious concern with the Israeli authorities' lack
of cooperation with the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General.
January 1976, S/11940 Vote: 9 in favor, 1 veto (US), 3 abstentions .
The resolution called for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab
territories since 1967, and deplored Israel's refusal to implement relevant
UN resolutions. It furthermore reaffirmed the right of the Palestinian
people to self determination, and the right of return for Palestinian
refugees" ... [Etc., etc., etc. A long list]
Chairman Pledges Closer Cooperation with NATO,
U.S. Info. State. Gov, January 21, 2004
"Passy, de Hoop Scheffer meet in Brussels Jan. 21. The new
chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE), Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, met in
Brussels January 21 with the new secretary-general of NATO, Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer. Passy pledged to strengthen OSCE cooperation with NATO,
particularly in the fight against terrorism and
in resolving regional conflicts and building democracy
in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to an OSCE press
release. He described NATO and OSCE antiterrorism efforts as "mutually
reinforcing" and said that building civil societies in all five Central
Asian nations must be a priority. Following is the press release: ..."
Benador Associates Announce First Lecture in New 'Axis of Evil Series';
Journalist Claudia Rosett Speak on North Korea,
U.S. Newswire, January 27, 2004
"Eleana Benador and Benador Associates announce the inaugural
event in a new series of lectures, the "Axis Of Evil Series." The
first event will feature distinguished journalist Claudia Rosett, editorial
contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and fellow of the Hudson Institute
and Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Rosett will speak on "The
Need For Regime Change In North Korea: Facing Facts" on Tuesday, Jan.
27, from 12:30 -- 2 p.m. EST."
Council for the National Interest -- Public Hearing: The Middle East in
Election 2004 -- Voting Out the Neocons,
U.S. Newswire, January 22, 2004
"Contact: Terry Walz of the Council for the National Interest, 202
863-2951 News Advisory: When: Jan. 27 10:00 AM -- 12:00 PM Where: Room 2237
Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC Two former Republican
congressmen, Paul Findley (R-Ill.) and Paul "Pete" McCloskey (R-Calif.),
Edward Peck, a former Chief of Mission in Baghdad, and Civic Leader Dr. E.
Faye Williams will appear at a Public Hearing in Room 2237 Rayburn House
Office Building on Jan. 27. The Jan. 27 event, between 10 am and 12 noon,
will launch a major new series of hearings called "The Middle East in
Election 2004." The first hearing will focus on
"Voting Out the Neocons." The series will follow the presidential
candidates' statements and positions while proposing a new policy approaches
for peace in the Middle East in the interest of
Americans. Findley has stated that the central issue of the 2004
election will be the failure of the Bush administration to deal effectively
and honestly with terrorism. "The real ground zero of
the war on terrorism is in Palestine, not in Manhattan," he says. The
task for American voters in this fall's national election is to reverse the
direction of US Middle East policy and vote the
Neocons and President Bush out of office. Peck considers the war in
Iraq a Pandora's box. He believes America has made critical mistakes, with
potentially far-reaching implications for the entire world. Its effects will
have especially negative implications for the US and Israel. McCloskey will
examine whether the President has given in to the religious fundamentalists
in America, provoking an increase in fundamentalism in the Muslim world. The
speakers call on the American people to replace Bush and his Neocon advisers
with an administration that will re-earn the trust of the world and of the
American people."
Lantos to Check Libya's WMD Program,
Las Vegas Sun, January 21, 2004
"A senior Democratic congressman plans to go to Libya this weekend at the
invitation of Moammar Gadhafi to check on the Libyan leader's pledge to
dismantle his nation's nuclear weapons program. Rep. Tom Lantos,
D-Calif., will meet with Libyan officials and possibly
Gadhafi, whose decision to halt development of weapons of mass
destruction marked a major policy shift by the North African leader.
Lantos, senior Democrat on the House International
Relations Committee, will report his findings to Congress and to the
Bush administration, his office said in a statement announcing the trip. A
separate congressional group headed by Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa., is going to
Libya, as well. The visits signal a growing momentum to repair U.S.
relations with Libya, although the administration has taken no action to
remove Libya from its list of countries that support terrorism or to lift
the economic sanctions the listing requires. Through a third party,
Libya also has had preliminary discussions with Israel,
a longtime foe."
Jewish lawyer named French junior minister,
Jerusalem Post, January 22, 2004
"The government named an Algerian-born Jewish lawyer on Thursday to replace
a junior minister who resigned after being named a suspect in a corruption
probe. Nicole Guedj, 48, took over from Pierre Bedier as secretary of
state for building programs in the justice system. She
will oversee the construction of prisons, courthouses and other such
buildings. Bedier, 46, resigned Wednesday shortly after being placed
under investigation in a corruption probe centered on bribes for public
contracts in the town where he once was mayor. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Guedj was born of a North African Jewish family in Algeria in May
1955, when it was still a part of France. The lawyer helps handle human
rights issues for the UMP, President Jacques Chirac's party. She also was
part of a Chirac-appointed commission that recently called for the banning
of Islamic head scarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in
public schools to keep them free of religious strife. The government plans
to institute the ban with a law to be put in place for the start of the
2004-2005 school year in September."
Jews’ Primary Role Expanding. Race on to pick off Lieberman contributors;
N.Y. vote looming larger,
by James D. Besser, Jewish Week, January
23, 2004
"As the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination shifts to New
Hampshire, the Jewish community stands poised to play
a dramatically expanded role, observers say.
The big reason: money. That could be an especially important factor
for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the surprise victor in Monday’s Iowa
caucuses. Kerry, according to Jewish activists in the state, surged among
Jewish voters in the last days of the caucus fight. But it also could be a
major factor for Wesley Clark, the retired general who bypassed Iowa and
will make his first electoral stand next week in the New England chill.
“The importance of Jews in the Democratic Party is
suddenly greater than it was a few days ago,” said Johns Hopkins University
political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg.
“And the probable beneficiaries are Kerry and possibly Clark.” The
Iowa surprise also increases the likelihood several
primaries in states with large Jewish populations — including New York and
Florida — could figure more prominently in the Democratic free-for-all ...
Even before Iowa, several campaigns were ratcheting up their Jewish
outreach efforts. This week the Clark campaign was staging a nationwide
Jewish “house party,” bringing together young Jewish activists — Jewish
Theological Seminary students were to meet Wednesday — to watch a filmed
biography of the former NATO commander and discuss how they can help the
campaign. James Rubin, the former Clinton administration State
Department spokesman recently appointed senior foreign policy to the Clark
team, has invited New Hampshire Jewish leaders to lunch on Friday to discuss
the campaign. Clark backers have held Jewish events in Oklahoma and Florida
in the past month. Clark also received the endorsement of a senior Jewish
member of Congress, Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas). A campaign spokesman
said that “the goal is to establish General Clark as someone who is every
strong on security, but is also an active and experienced peacemaker.” A
senior Kerry campaign official said “a lot of Jewish voters have been
looking for an alternative to Dean. The Iowa results could put Kerry in that
position, and we plan to take advantage of it.” No Jewish Consensus
In New Hampshire New Hampshire Jews are
disproportionately involved in the political dogfight — a prominent rabbi in
the state estimated that “two-thirds of my congregants have met or listened
to one or more of the candidates” — but the community has not shown
an overwhelming preference for any of the major candidates ... Allen
Solomont, a Kerry campaign steering committee
co-chair, said that “people in our community
admire John Kerry for his consistent and unshakable support for Israel,
his mature and intelligent foreign policy experience and perspective, and
his positions on domestic issues. He has the whole package.” Jewish votes
are unlikely to play much of a role in the next few primaries, including the
contest in New Hampshire and the slew of Southern primaries on Feb. 3.
But with the dramatic changes in the Democratic
nomination race, Jewish campaign money is taking on even more importance
than usual. “People were saying that Dean showed a new way to
raise money through the Internet that circumvented the traditional
contributors, including many Jews,” said Ginsberg, the Johns Hopkins
political scientist. “But it looks like the old ways are still the best. Now
there’s going to be a scramble for Jewish money.” The scramble will be all
the more intense because Kerry and Clark go into New Hampshire without
enough cash in the coffers to sustain all-out campaigns. Speaking about
Kerry, Goldstein said: “To capitalize on his momentum, he will have
to raise a lot of money quickly. And American Jews are significant
supporters of the Democratic Party, and they tend to
work in networks that can produce contributions quickly" ... The Iowa
results, by slowing the Dean surge and boosting Kerry and Edwards,
also could magnify the importance of several primaries
in states with large Jewish populations. “With the possibility this
will be a more extended primary process than many had anticipated, the New
York primary could be a significant event,” said Steven Grossman,
national CO-chair of the Dean campaign and a longtime
pro-Israel activist. “And with the big Jewish vote in New York, there
will be tremendous competition between the candidates.” New York, California
and Maryland hold their primaries on March 2; in all three, the Jewish vote
could play an important role. Floridians vote the following week, another
state with a big Jewish electorate ... Grossman, the Dean campaign
CO-chair, said: “I’ve been struck by how many Jewish contributors are
staying on the sidelines even at this point. One
reason is that they have so many friends in the race; they don’t want
to make enemies.”
Report: Rumsfeld considers striking Hizbullah to provoke Syria,
By Douglas Davis, Jerusalem Post,
January 22, 2004
"US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is
considering provoking a military confrontation with Syria by attacking
Hizbullah bases near the Syrian border in Lebanon, according to the
authoritative London-based Jane's Intelligence Digest. In an article to be
published on Friday, the journal said multifaceted US
attacks, which would be conducted within the
framework of the global war on terrorism, are likely to focus on
Hizbullah bases in the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon.
It noted that the deployment of US special forces in
the Bekaa Valley, where most of Syria's occupation forces in Lebanon are
based, would be highly inflammatory and would "almost certainly involve a
confrontation with Syrian troops." Such a conflict might well prove to be
the objective of the US, said the journal, which described
Washington's strategic benefits from a confrontation with Syria. These
include: * Pressuring Damascus into ending its support for anti-Israel
Palestinian groups; * Persuading Syria to abandon its weapons of mass
destruction and to withdraw its troops from Lebanon; * Stimulating a
situation where Syrian leader Bashir Assad can be ousted; * Crushing
Hizbullah and ending its presumed connections with al-Qaida. "The political
consequences of a US attack against Lebanon. . . could result in the
destabilization of a country that is still rebuilding its infrastructure a
decade after a ruinous 15-year civil war," noted the journal. "It
would also fuel Muslim and Arab hostility toward the US at a time when
US-led occupation forces are fighting the ongoing insurgency in Iraq. "In
these circumstances, taking on Hizbullah in the Bekaa Valley is likely to
prove a highly risky undertaking. "However," it continued, "given the
Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emptive strikes, it remains entirely
possible that Washington will soon launch military strikes against Lebanon,
regardless of the consequences for wider regional stability." The journal
noted that the US administration has long considered Damascus "a prime
candidate for regime-change," along with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and,
possibly, Saudi Arabia. "Syria, once a powerhouse of Arab radicalism that
could not be ignored, has been seriously weakened, both militarily and
politically. Washington may feel that the time is coming to oust Assad and
the ruling generals ... During the past six months, it added, Washington has
increased the US military presence along the Syrian border with Iraq "and,
on several occasions, has sent special forces into Syrian territory or
penetrated Syrian air space. "In one incident, US troops pursued suspected
Iraqi militants into Syria and fought a running battle that left dozens of
people, including some Syrians, dead. "Israel's air-strike in southern
Lebanon earlier this week," it added, "is very unlikely to be the last time
Israeli forces cross the border to strike at targets alleged to be militant
bases and training camps."
American
Democrat hopefuls sticking to pro-Israel policies,
by Nathan Guttman,
Haaretz (Israel), January 22, 2004
"Surprising results this week in the Iowa primary have caused the American
Jewish community, and supporters of Israel in the United States, to take a
closer look at Democratic candidates who have up to now been trailing the
pack. In past months, the Jewish community was preoccupied with then
front-runner Howard Dean. It monitored closely what appeared to be worrisome
comments made by Dean, particularly his reference to
an "evenhanded approach" toward the Middle East conflict. Though the
obsession with Dean obscured the other candidates, the
other Democratic Party hopefuls did not forget the Jewish community.
On Wednesday, Wesley Clark's staff organized a nationwide event aimed
at his Jewish supporters. In dozens of cities around the country, rallies
were held for Clark, and the retired general greeted his supporters in
conference calls. Clark tried to allay Jewish voters' fears, most of them
related to Israel. "I believe we should take risks for peace, and we will
reach peace in the Middle East," Clark declared. He declined, however, to
detail a peace plan. He did take a hard line toward the Arab countries.
"Years ago, I saw that the Palestinians are teaching
hate in classrooms, and I am also worried about the Saudis preaching hate.
When I am president, I will take action against that," he stated.
Clark struck a similar chord in his comments on Iran. He anticipated
democratic reform in Tehran: "I am convinced that if we can get Western
culture and Western ideas that are suitable for the younger generation
[there], we will see a change in this society," he said. Clark indicated
also that Syria should undertake reforms. While he is careful not to side
with the conservatives in the Bush administration who evince full or partial
support for the military option vis-a-vis Damascus,
Clark recommended playing tough with the Syrians. U.S. policy toward
Damascus, he declared, should aim at "breaking the grip of the extremists
surrounding Bashar Assad. We want to see there an evolution that will end
the threat on Israel and will enable them to reach a peace agreement with
Israel, without Israel having to give assets
needed for its security." As far as American Jews are concerned, the jury is
still out on the Democratic Party's new star, John Kerry. An experienced
politician with 18 years on the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee under
his belt, he has a solid record of supporting Israel.
American Jewish sources in Washington indicated that Kerry's comments in
off-the-record talks recall the approach adopted by the Clinton
administration: unqualified support for Israel,
yet also insistence that a resolution to the conflict with the Palestinians
depends upon Israeli concessions in the territories ... The bottom line,
says one seasoned political observer in Washington, is that
Israel has nothing to fear from Kerry, Clark or other
Democratic hopefuls. All of the candidates endorse their party's supportive
stance toward Israel, and the candidates are surrounded by staff workers who
are long-standing friends of Israel."
Palestine Media Watch,
January 16, 2003
"The Stars and Stripes, the official newspaper
of the US armed forces, published today an unprecedented op-ed from
Adm. Thomas Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1970 to 1974
and former 7th Fleet commander, which alleges not
merely timidity by the US government in seeking the truth about what
happened to the USS Liberty when it was attacked by Israeli airforce jets,
but accuses the US government of outright cover-up and deception. The
US media, as usual taking its cues from the US government, has been very
timid in tackling this dark episode. But now that the Stars and Stripes
has run this powerful op-ed, clearly at least the US military has lifted the
taboo status off this tragedy. So, let's alert the media that it is ok for
them to start talking about and investigating this episode. Please take the
time to: 1. Write a letter: Email: letters@pstripes.osd.mil Phone:
202-761-0900 Use the
PMWATCH interface: Circulate this op-ed and push your local paper to run
this it and to pursue stories on the 1967 attack against the USS Liberty.
Media contact information can be found at:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/contact/media.html The Stars and Stripes
does not publish its op-eds on-line, but a pdf of the op-ed can be fount at:
http://www.pmwatch.org/pmw/cast/Proof_BROO_OPIN_46216.pdf For more on
The Stars and Stripes, please go to:
http://www.stripes.com/about/aboutstripes.html# Contacts: For more on the
attack on The USS Liberty, please go to:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/ussliberty.html Palestine Media
Watch http://www.pmwatch.org (610)
993-0608 "
AIPAC Hosts Annual NY Event: Rep. DeLay, Rep. Menendez to Address Dinner;
Regional Award to Be Presented to Howard Jonas,
U.S. Newswire, January 23, 2004
"On Thursday, Jan. 29, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
will host its annual NY membership event, expected to draw over 1,000
people, including numerous federal and local elected
officials and U.N. Ambassadors and dignitaries from over 40 countries across
the globe. The event brings together national and local
representatives, community leaders and Israeli officials from across the
political spectrum to focus attention on the
importance of the U.S.-Israel relationship. AIPAC's Annual Northeast
Regional Dinner is consistently the largest pro-Israel event in the region.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Democratic Caucus Chair Robert
Menendez (D-N.J.) will deliver keynote addresses.
Both Reps. DeLay and Menendez have been outstanding leaders in working to
shape U.S. Middle East policy and making sure the
U.S.-Israel relationship remains strong. The event will also honor
Howard Jonas, a long-time supporter of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship
and member of AIPAC's National Board of Directors.
Consistently ranked as the most influential foreign policy lobbying
organization on Capitol Hill, AIPAC is an American membership organization
that seeks to strengthen the relationship between Israel and the United
States ... Howard S. Jonas is widely considered a
revolutionary figure in the international telecommunications sector and one
of our community's most devoted political activists. Howard founded IDT
Corporation in August 1990 and has served as Chairman of the Board and
Treasurer since its inception. IDT is a model of upstart entrepreneurship.
Howard brings the same vitality and commitment he has for business to his
work with America's only pro-Israel lobby - AIPAC."
'Jewish lobby' is an anti-Semitic term, says US diplomat Gerald Kaufman:
Tories show faith in Jewish leaders despite tradition of prejudice,
By Mary Dejevsky, The Independent (UK), 23
January 2004
"A senior US diplomat in London has ruffled feathers in Britain's foreign
policy establishment by publicly implying that a reference to the "Jewish
lobby" in the United States is an anti-Semitic remark. The incident happened
yesterday at a Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) lecture on US
foreign policy given by David Johnson, who is the second in command at the
American embassy in London. During the question-and-answer session he was
asked: "Will the US ever be willing to impose an equitable peace settlement
in the Middle East, or is it perhaps that the Jewish
lobby in America is too strong to make that feasible?" Mr Johnson
responded indignantly, saying: "I am highly resentful of the last part of
your remarks, just because of its ethnic slur." And he went on: "During my
time here I have become increasingly troubled by the willingness of European
audiences to skirt up to the side of anti-Semitic language as a political
criticism." A retired US diplomat, now living in
Britain, rose to defend the earlier questioner, objecting that Mr
Johnson's remark reflected the American tendency to associate criticism of
Israeli policy with criticism of Jews. "There is
nothing racial about drawing attention to the existence of a particular
ethnic group," he said, noting that the US had not only "a strong
Israeli lobby" but Irish, Polish and other ethnic lobbies. There was a shout
of "hear, hear" from the audience and applause rang around the crowded hall.
Mr Johnson, who was US policy co-ordinator for Afghanistan before arriving
in London in August, is an experienced State Department hand with extensive
service in Europe. One of his tasks in London appears to be to woo back
members of the British political, academic and media circles who felt
alienated by George Bush's foreign policy, especially the war in Iraq, which
is unlikely to be advanced by the exchanges. Later, Mr Johnson said he held
"no animus" towards the questioner, saying that what he found unacceptable
about the use of the term was its inference that "somehow the Jews control
the US". He said he was surprised that the term was still so current in
Europe, and especially in Britain, noting: "That is an
unacceptable formulation."
18 Percent of Britons Don't Want Jewish Prime Minister,
Guardian (UK), PM Friday January 23, 2004
"Eighteen percent of Britons do not want a Jewish prime minister, while 15
percent believe the scale of the Holocaust has been exaggerated, according
to a poll published Friday. The ICM survey for the Jewish Chronicle,
a weekly newspaper, comes as Jewish groups warn of rising anti-Semitism in
Europe. The European Union is convening a conference on the issue.
Michael Howard, leader of Britain's main
opposition Conservative Party, is Jewish, and stands to become prime
minister if the party wins the next national election. Home Secretary
David Blunkett called the survey results worrisome. ``It means people are
prepared to set aside not only the evidence (for the Holocaust), but the
overwhelming emotion that goes with it,'' he said. The poll found that 18
percent disagreed with the statement that a Jewish prime minister would be
``equally acceptable'' to a leader from any other faith. About 53 percent
agreed with that statement. Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust
Educational Trust and vice president of the World Jewish Congress, said
opposition to a Jewish prime minister was ``extraordinary,'' considering
that Benjamin Disraeli held the post in the late 19th century.
Disraeli was born Jewish but was baptized a Christian as a child."
Israel supporters in cabinet Jewish state has friends in the new Martin
government, says Owen
by PAT JOHNSON, Jewish Western Bulletin,
January 9, 2004
"Pro-Israel members of Parliament have significantly
more strength in the new Liberal government under Paul Martin, according to
Stephen Owen, member of Parliament for Vancouver-Quadra and the new minister
of public works and government services. About a year ago, Owen and
about two dozen other Liberal MPs formed Liberal Parliamentarians for
Israel, which is now an official caucus committee. In the new
cabinet, unveiled by Martin last month, members of the
pro-Israel caucus were given significant new positions, including
Irwin Cotler's appointment as minister of justice. Cotler, MP for
the Montreal riding of Mount Royal, is a former head of Canadian Jewish
Congress. Along with Owen, other cabinet members who belong to the
pro-Israel group include Ontario MPs Joe Volpe (minister of human
resources and skills development), Carolyn Bennett (minister of state for
public health) and Jim Peterson (minister of international trade).
Vancouver-area Sen. Jack Austin, who is Jewish,
has been appointed leader of the government in the
Senate, another cabinet position. Returning to cabinet
is another member of the pro-Israel group,
Montreal MP Lucienne Robillard, the minister of industry. Owen, who was
first elected in 2000, previously served as secretary of state for western
economic diversification, Indian affairs and northern development. Earlier,
he served as parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice. Liberal
Parliamentarians for Israel have issued a number of position papers, which
were presented to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham in a meeting last
year. They outline the committee's stand on Israeli-Palestinian affairs,
expressing specific concern over issues such as the language used around the
debate. "Cycle of violence," for example, is a bugbear of a term, which Owen
said distorts the reality of the conflict, with
Palestinian terror put on an equal footing with Israel's right to defend its
civilian citizenry. "It suggests an equivalency that does not
properly describe the dynamics of violence in the Middle East," he said.
Other issues the committee has explicitly addressed include Israeli soldiers
missing in action in Lebanon, the struggle for recognition of Magen David
Adom, the Israeli equivalent of Red Cross and Red Crescent, and the
application to the CRTC by operators seeking to bring the Arab news channel
Al-Jazeera to Canadian television viewers. The committee is also set to
consider any Canadian complicity in funding Palestinian school materials
that incite young people to violence and hatred. Though Liberal
Parliamentarians for Israel is a small group of MPs, Owen said the
orientation of the committee has not met with any disagreement within the
larger government caucus. "I have not heard one thing
in three years [from other Liberal MPs] that would contradict the thrust of
[the committee's views on Israel]," Owen said.
"It's not as if there is an acrimonious debate, or any debate, going on"
... Owen acknowledged that most members of the
committee are either Jewish or represent ridings with significant Jewish
populations. Though his own Vancouver-Quadra riding is home to part
of British Columbia's Jewish community, Owen has more personal connections
as well, being married to Diane Koerner, a
member of a prominent Vancouver Jewish family."
Parents
of activist killed by bulldozer criticize Israeli investigation,
By Tarek El-Tablawy, Detroit News, January 23,
2004
"The parents of an American activist crushed to death by an Israeli army
bulldozer in a Palestinian refugee camp criticized the Israeli government
for not releasing the investigation report and renewed calls for an
independent examination of their daughter’s death. Rachel Corrie, 23, of
Olympia, Wash., was killed March 16 while trying to prevent the bulldozer
from razing the home of a Palestinian pharmacist in Rafah, along the border
with Egypt. An Israeli army investigation concluded Corrie’s death was
accidental, with officials saying the driver of the machine could not see
the woman. But Corrie’s parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie, say Israeli
officials are stonewalling efforts to release the report to U.S.
representatives. “What we want is what Prime Minister (Ariel)
Sharon promised President Bush, an open and
transparent investigation into Rachel’s death. We haven’t gotten that,”
said Craig Corrie. “If (the bulldozer driver and the commander) are
innocent, then there’s no reason not to release the report and there’s no
reason not to welcome an independent investigation,” he said shortly before
a Michigan fund-raiser for the International Solidarity Movement, the
pro-Palestinian activist group for which Rachel Corrie worked when she died.
Israeli officials view ISM activists as meddlers whose actions range from
negligence to outright abetting of terrorism. A message seeking comment was
left with the Israeli Consulate in Chicago on Friday.
Cindy Corrie said according to eyewitnesses to the incident, her daughter
was atop a mound of rubble and was clearly visible to the driver. “She stood
her place and stared him in the eye. She thought he would stop, like they’d
done in the past,” she said. “But he didn’t stop.” Joining the
Corries at the fund-raiser was Brian Avery, a 26-year-old ISM activist from
Chapel Hill, N.C. who was shot in the face by
machine-gun fire in the West Bank town of Jenin shortly after Corrie was
killed. Another ISM volunteer from Britain was also shot last April while
helping school children to safety and died earlier this month. Along
with helping raise funds for the ISM -- whose members often place themselves
between Israeli forces and Palestinians -- the Corries are hoping to muster
more support for the Rachel Corrie Resolution. The
resolution, introduced in the House last March, calls for an investigation
by the U.S. government into her death. In the past 10 months, only 51
legislators have signed it. For the Corries, it has been hard to
understand why so few have thrown their support behind the resolution. “What
Rachel was doing was trying to call attention to the suffering of the
ordinary Palestinian people. These were not the houses of terrorists that
were razed,” Cindy Corrie said. “It’s hard to explain why there isn’t more
support for it except that there’s a reluctance on the
part of Congressmen to challenge Israel,” she said."
The
Neocon Case for Imprisoning and Executing Congressional War Opponents,
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Lew Rockwell.com,
January 15, 2004
"The neocon cabal is beginning to make the case for imprisoning – or
possibly executing – members of Congress who oppose the war in Iraq. An
example of this development is a December 23 Insight magazine article
by senior editor J. Michael Waller entitled "When
Does Politics Become Treason?" (Insight is an appendage of the
Washington Times, the voice of the Washington, D.C. neocon establishment.
Just before our May 2002 Independent Institute debate on Lincoln,
Straussian neocon high priest Harry Jaffa
made it a point to tell me that he is the chairman
of the academic advisory committee of the Washington Times,
where his colleague MacKubin Thomas Owens had just published an intemperate
and apoplectic hatchet job on my book, The Real Lincoln, only a few
weeks after all but comparing Jaffa’s latest book on Lincoln to the
Bible in the same book review section.) Naturally, the
totalitarian/neocon case for imprisoning or executing the Bush
administration’s political opponents is based on precedents established by
Abraham Lincoln. "Lincoln’s policy was to have treasonous federal
lawmakers arrested and tried before military tribunals, and exiled or hanged
if convicted," Waller announces ... And according to Waller,
these words "apply to some lawmakers today," even though these lawmakers
insist that they are opposing the Bush war policy "to support the troops."
Exhibit A in the neocon case for imprisoning political opponents is
Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio, who was forcefully taken from
his Dayton, Ohio home in the middle of the night by 67 armed federal
soldiers, thrown into a military prison without due process, convicted by a
military tribunal, and deported ... So, don’t be surprised to see articles
in the near future from the Claremont Institute, AEI, National Review, The
Weekly Standard, and other neocon organs urging
President Bush to be more "Lincolnesque" in his treatment of the war
opponents in Congress."
Lieberman lodges protest with CNN over 'Jew question',
by Janine Zacharia, Jerusalem Post,Jan.
26, 2004
"Senator Joseph Lieberman complained to CNN on Friday after the cable
news channel's anchor, Bill Hemmer, asked the Democratic presidential
candidate how he felt "as a Jew" about the
security fence. A source close to the Lieberman campaign said the
senator "was offended" by Hemmer's questioning
of him "as a Jew." Hemmer called the
Lieberman campaign and apologized, a CNN spokeswoman said. The
question was posed during CNN's America Morning show, which Hemmer
co-hosts. "Senator, as a Jew, do you believe the
construction of the security wall in Israel is the right path to peace?"
Hemmer asked Lieberman. Lieberman replied: "I am
running for president, Bill, as an American who happens to be Jewish. So the
question I believe is inappropriate. I'm going to give you my answer as an
American." Lieberman
said the US should respect Israel's right to defend
itself against terrorism and said he thinks "the wall will help." He
also described it as "temporary," and said the US has "a right as [Israel's]
ally to talk to them about where that wall goes." Referring to Hemmer's
original question, Lieberman added: "But I want to repeat, it's the American
way not to judge candidates by their faith, but by their policies. That's
the way we do it in this country and that's the way I know the American
people will judge me." The source said: "The campaign did call to complain.
Bill Hemmer called back personally to apologize, did so profusely and
honorably, said he did not intend to say anything discriminatory."
The Israel Project:
For Security, Freedom, and Peace,
The Israel Project
"Our team includes the best and brightest in strategic communications:
President: Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi Mizrahi is an expert in
communications, public opinion research, media, and politics. Mizrahi
has worked with the White House, 60 members of the
United States Senate, and 114 members of the United States Congress.
She has had successful communications campaigns in more than twenty
countries. With a passion for advocacy and communications training, Mizrahi
has authored training manuals and major articles on the nuts and bolts of
winning campaigns. All the major US networks and newspapers have interviewed
her. She has degrees in Judaic Studies and International Studies from Emory
University. Mizrahi is the creator and
day-to-day manager of The Israel Project. Key Strategist for
Quantitative Research and Strategy (Europe) : Stanley B. Greenberg,
Ph.D. Greenberg has been orchestrating winning political campaigns
across the US and the world. He has served as lead
polling advisor and strategist to President Bill Clinton and Vice President
Al Gore. He was a key strategist to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder and others. The London Times noted that
Greenberg is "widely considered the father of
modern polling techniques," while Esquire voted Greenberg one
of the top twenty-one innovators, creates and thinkers of the 21st century.
Greenberg received his Ph.D. from Yale University and is the author
of several books. Greenberg conducted numerous polls for The
Israel Project and has worked with key Israeli
Spokespeople and officials communicating with the English language press.
Key Strategist for Dial Testing of Spokespeople, Messages and Ads:
Frank Luntz, Ph.D. Frank Luntz is one of
the most honored political and communication professionals in America today.
He is widely credited for his work on the “Contract with America” and as a
strategist to House Leader Tom DeLay, and to former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Time magazine named Luntz one of “50 of America's most
promising leaders aged 40 and under.” The New York Times wrote that
“his well-chosen words helped turn an election. The “Instant Response” focus
group technique Luntz has pioneered was profiled on 60 Minutes in
1998. He has been a guest on many networks and news shows
and ran focus groups in Iraq during the war for MSNBC.
Luntz got his Ph.D. at Oxford and is the author of several books.
Luntz has conducted The Israel Project's dial
testing, including sessions with opinion elites, college students and Jews.
His “Talking Points” message manuals on how to speak on Israel and the
crisis are being used by leading Israeli and pro-Israel spokespeople.
Go to www.luntz.com for more information
on Dr. Luntz's work. Key Strategist for Qualitative and
Quantitative Research: Neil Newhouse. Neil Newhouse is a
partner and co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, one of the largest
political and public affairs polling firms, recently
named “Pollster of the Year". Newhouse
and his partners have established a client base that ranges from President
Bush to Fortune 500 companies. Newhouse's
firm was behind more Republican victories in the 2002 election than any
other firm. Newhouse's other clients include Senator John
McCain, Governors Bush (Florida), Rowland (Connecticut), Taft (Ohio) and
Swift (Massachusetts) as well as more than twenty-five
US Senators and Congressmen, including Senate Majority Leader, Dr.
Bill Frist ... Go to www.pos.org for more
information on Mr. Newhouse's work. Television and Radio
Advertising Production: Mark Moskowitz. Mark Moskowitz is
one of the world's leading producers and directors of films and television
commercials made to persuade audiences. His
issue-oriented media, including over three thousand
political spots, has been awarded “Pollies” for five years and has
been the subject of features on all the major television networks.
Moskowitz has produced numerous commercials for
The Israel Project. Media & Advocacy Training: Michael
R. Shannon. Shannon is the founder of MANDATE: Message, Media &
Public Relations, a media/public affairs consulting firm specializing in
radio and television advertising. His firm has
participated in over 70 elections on three continents. A former
reporter, Shannon is an expert in media training and has worked at
the highest levels nationally and internationally, helping clients
understand how to communicate effectively with the media. He serves as a
media coach and consultant to The Israel Project. Print Media and
Graphics: Dan Hazelwood. Dan Hazelwood formed Targeted
Creative Communications, a direct marketing company based in Alexandria,
Virginia in 1992. TC2 has worked for campaigns in
virtually every state and all over the globe. His past clients include
George W. Bush for President, Bob Dole for President, several US Senators,
Governors, and members of the House of Representatives. Campaigns
& Elections magazine named Hazelwood a "rising star" of the
political consulting community in 1994 and a "Mover & Shaker" in 1996. Go to
www.targetedcreative.com for
more information on Mr. Hazelwood's work."
Mirth of a Nation, How Bill Clinton learned to tell jokes on
himself--and get the last laugh.
by Mark Katz, Washington Monthly,
January/February 2004
"He opened the door and I jumped to my feet. Watching the president of the
United States enter the room is always a startling sight. Of course, the
sight he encountered might have caught him off-guard too: a nervous guy in a
tuxedo secluded in a dimly-lit holding room with a stack of pages in one
hand and an egg timer in the other. Although this was
the fifth humor speech I had prepared for President Bill Clinton
since he'd taken office, we were about to have our very first one-on-one
meeting. The occasion was the remarks he was about to give to the Alfalfa
Club, the least known of the four annual Washington humor dinners that take
place from January through April--collectively known as the "Silly Season."
And on this snowy night in January of 1995, I was there to fulfill the
duties of what was probably the oddest job description in town:
a presidential joke writer, an adjunct member of the White House
speechwriting staff on retainer by way of the Democratic National Committee.
... Self-deprecating humor comes naturally to only the
most skillful practitioners of public power and your average Jew. At
that moment in his presidency, the benefits of self-directed jokes were not
yet evident to Bill Clinton. As the designated White
House in-house humorist, it was my job to guide him through
Washington's odd humor rituals with my best and funniest suggestions for the
things he might say ... My first conversation with head speechwriter
Michael Waldman that spring set the tone for what was to come."
AJC Expresses Horror at Jerusalem Bus Bombing,
U.S. Newswire, January 29, 2004
"The American Jewish Committee today issued the following statement after a
Palestinian policeman destroyed a Jerusalem city bus, murdering at least 10
and wounding dozens, in a suicide bombing: 'After so many senseless,
barbaric Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli citizens, it is difficult to
find the right words to express our sorrow, our horror, and our anger, yet
today we are even more outraged that a member of the Palestinian Authority
police carried out the bombing in the heart of Israel's capital. We again
are reminded that there are those Palestinians who not only oppose peace,
but who object to the very existence of Israel, whatever its final borders
may be. When the AJC Board of Governors travels to
Israel and meets with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Jerusalem in the
coming days, we will personally express our deepest sympathies to the people
of Israel, as well as our continuing, unwavering support for Israel's
longstanding quest for peace and security.'"
Jewish Members Predominate
Henry
Kissinger will present the award
Women Protest US Award to Venezuelan Coup Leader Gustavo Cisneros,
Venezuelan News, Jan 29, 2004
"The U.S. based NGO Global Women’s Strike issued a press release today
protesting an award expected to be given by the Inter-American Economic
Council to Gustavo Cisneros, a Venezuelan billionaire identified by sources
such as Newsweek, local Venezuelan publications and analysts as one of the
protagonists and financiers of the April 11, 2002 coup d’etat against
President Hugo Chavez. Cisneros is also credited with being a driving force
behind the December 2002 nationwide lock-out and sabotage of the oil
industry, which instead of ousting President Chávez from his elected office,
drove the Venezuelan economy into the ground by causing a historical drop of
27% in the country’s GDP in the first trimester of 2003. Cisneros is the
owner of AOL, Coca-Cola, DirecTV and Pizza Hut in Latin America, Univision
in the US, and Venezuela’s biggest TV network Venevision. Former U.S.
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who according to declassified
documents headed the CIA operation to overthrow Chilean
democratically-elected President Salvador Allende in 1973, will be in charge
of awarding fellow coup plotter Cisneros. The Global Women’s Strike
statement follows: The Global Women’s Strike condemns the outrageous
decision of theInter-American Economic Council
to honor Latin American media tycoon Gustavo Cisneros at its 2004 Winter
Gala on Thirsday January 29h. It shows once more the total contempt of the
US administration for people’s right to elect their own government. To
recognize as a person who “has consistently sought to create an environment
where business and government can work together in meaningful ways for the
betterment of society,” a man who has systematically used his corporate
wealth and media monopoly to illegally and violently attempt to force from
office the democratically-elected government of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, is particularly cynical ... The Cisneros Group has been implicated
in the December 2003 illegal shipment of US$2.5 million in cash seized
aboard an American Airlines flight from Miami Florida to Caracas, no doubt
intended to help finance another attempted coup against the Venezuelan
people. Gustavo Cisneros personally spoke with the U.S. State Department's
former Latin American Affairs Chief, Otto Reich and the U.S.
Ambassador to Venezuela, Charles Shapiro (currently under fire for
hosting a puppet show ridicule of President Chávez in his home in Caracas)
on the day of the coup, an event reported in Newsweek Magazine (see
Newsweek, April 29, 2002, p.10). To add insult to injury, Henry Kissinger
will be presenting this obscene award. Kissinger is himself a war
criminal and a man reviled all over Latin America, the Caribbean and the
world for leading the CIA overthrow of the democratically-elected government
of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. He justified the coup which led to the
disappearances of thousands of people and the exile of hundreds of thousands
with the infamous statement: "I don't see why we need to stand by and watch
a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues
are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for
themselves." Kissinger is also responsible for similar US policies in
Indonesia and Cyprus. He recently had to withdraw his appointment by
President Bush to head a commission investigating 9/11 because his
reputation was too unsavory to give any credibility to the findings. He
cannot travel to many countries for fear of arrest."
New
Mexico Invests in Israel in Many Ways,
Israel National News, January 20, 2004
"The American state of New Mexico has been expanding its contacts,
investments and relationship with Israel. The expanded contacts have been
both official and through private organizations in the southwestern state.
Last month, for the first time, New Mexico invested
$10 million in Israel, in the form of Israel Bonds. State Governor
Bill Richardson presented the check to Harold Albert of Albuquerque,
chairman of Israel Bonds New Mexico, and expressed his support of Israel's
security and economic well-being. In addition, Governor Richardson has
announced that New Mexico, in cooperation with the
Jewish Federation of Greater Albuquerque, is planning a Business Mission to
Israel this coming spring. Mission members will take part in a series
of business meetings customized to the particular needs and interests of
various New Mexico companies. Mission Chairman Morton Lieberman said
that the delegates would focus on commerce, research and development, and
collaboration in hi-tech, security, agriculture and water, and more. Jewish
Federation sources say that the re-opening of the Israel Office of the New
Mexico Department of Economic Development has led to increased efforts to
establish and enhance strong business ties between New Mexico and Israel,
increasing New Mexico's exports and creating more jobs in New Mexico.
Another collaborative initiative to bring New Mexicans to Israel in 2004 is
the Albuquerque Jewish/Christian Solidarity Mission to Israel, set for
March. The local Jewish Federation, in conjunction with Congregation B'nai
Israel, Congregation Albert and Bridges for Peace, is sponsoring the unique
trip."
Erdogan vows to protect Turkey's Jews,
by Melissa Radler, Jerusalem Post,
January 27, 2004
"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to stamp out terrorism
and protect his nation's Jews from future attacks during a ceremony in his
honor in New York on Monday. "We will not tolerate terrorism, and we will
act in solidarity to wipe it from the face of the earth," he said
upon receiving the American Jewish Congress's Profile
in Courage award. The first Muslim to ever receive the award, Erdogan
accepted it at an HSBC bank. An HSBC bank in Istanbul was bombed in November
just days after two synagogues in the city were attacked by terrorists.
"There's no need for our Jewish friends to be concerned about the security
of the Jewish community in Turkey because they are our citizens and have
been entrusted to us by the Jewish world," he said. Erdogan told an audience
at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier on Monday that Turkey's foreign
policy is aimed at building peace and cooperation throughout the world. He
also urged the world to recognize Turkey's past deeds,
and called on Yad Vashem to grant the Righteous Among the Nations award to
several Turks who saved Jews during World War II ... After his
American Jewish Congress speech, which was attended by diplomats from
Russia, China, Spain, Belgium, Germany, and Grenada, Erdogan asked Israel's
deputy permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Arye Mekel, to
relay a message to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. "He said that he's
ready to do whatever he can for the peace process," Mekel said. "He
said that whatever is good for Israel is good for the region."
[Morris: Kerry Likely to Tap Hillary for VP,
Newsmax, January 28, 2004
"If Sen. John Kerry winds up as the Democratic nominee next summer, the
first phone call he's likely to make is to Sen. Hillary Clinton - to ask her
to be his running mate. That's the prediction of Dick Morris, whose
advice made Bill Clinton the only Democratic president since FDR to win
re-election. "Now that Howard Dean is clearly not going to be the nominee,
there is a very good chance that Hillary will be the vice presidential
candidate," Morris told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes"
Wednesday night. "I would flat-out predict that whoever wins this nomination
makes the first phone call to Hillary to ask her to run," he said. Hillary
should take the offer from Kerry or whoever else sews up the nomination,
says Morris, as the best way to assure Sen. Clinton her own stint as
president. "If I were advising her right now, I would say take it, because
you're not going to lose by a lot," Morris urged. "And if a Democrat
wins, if Kerry wins, how is she going to stay fresh for eight years in the
Senate?" The one-time White House political guru noted also that if someone
other than Hillary takes the VP slot and wins, she'll have another rival to
contend with for her own White House bid."
Welcome to the world of J-Pandering. What have the candidates been doing for
our votes and just how important is the Jew factor?,
by Benyamin Cohen, Jewsweek, January 29,
2004
"The Iowa Caucuses are over and the New Hampshire primary votes are in. And
that can mean only one thing: election season is in full swing. Four years
ago we were just a few chads away from having the first mezuzah in the White
House. Now, a botched election, a war in Iraq, and several missteps later,
we have arrived at that precipice yet again. And this time, Joe Lieberman
isn't content with playing second fiddle, but is going for the Oval Office
... But before you start getting your tztitzit all tangled up, be
aware of this -- Lieberman is not the only yid with presidential
dreams. At last count, no less than half the
candidates are pulling their Jewish heritage out of their back pockets and
using them to bring in the votes. Consider this: Wesley Clark, whose
last name used to be Kahane, is Jewish. And John Kerry, the
Roman Catholic Massachusetts senator of Boston Brahmin heritage, recently
discovered that his own background was Jewish. In addition, Howard Dean's
wife, Dr. Judith Steinberg, is a member of the
tribe and is raising her kids to be Jewish. And then, of course is
Jumpin Joe Lieberman who, next to these other folks, looks like a
chassid in Brooklyn. For a while there, it looked like Al Sharpton was the
only one without a kosher connection. The candidates aren't stupid. (Well,
maybe they are, but they do have smart people telling them what to do.)
They know that a connection with Jewish identity can
make a huge difference on election day. With Lieberman on the
ticket, the Democrats gained 77 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, their
highest mark in years. Though proportionally Jews are but a tiny segment of
the U.S. population -- less than two percent (but we're trying) --
we've always carried importance because of our
high-profile engagement in politics, academia, and media; that we come out
to vote in numbers vastly disproportionate to our size helps out a lot, too
... Retired General Wesley Clark, the most recent entry to the
crowded field, is a religious amalgam: Raised a Southern Baptist,
his family has deep Jewish roots -- his ancestors were
eminent rabbis. But he converted to Catholicism in Vietnam and now
attends a Presbyterian church. "I go to church. I've been a Christian my
whole life," he says. As well, infamous Kabbalist
and pop icon Madonna has thrown her support behind the religiously
confused Clar ... Another issue
is that the very religious identifier that could help a candidate with the
wider electorate might hurt him within his own denomination. That is because
so many faiths are currently roiled by divisive internal debates. Thus
a Jewish candidate, for example, might be forced to
answer sensitive questions about Jewish practice or relations with Israel.
And Catholic candidates would likely become embroiled in the internecine
fights over abortion rights and perhaps face sanctions from church hierarchy
who want them to vote according to official church teaching. Indeed, when
Lieberman ran in 2000, many Jewish journalists took the side of
explaining why Jews should go out of their way to not vote for the
yarmulke-wearing Connecticut senator. One reason, they
claimed, was that having a Jewish leader of the free world would only fan
the already growing flames of anti-Semitism across the globe. The
Republicans are making a comeback For decades American Jews have been
the most solidly Democratic bloc apart from African-Americans, and for
nearly as long, Republicans have been saying they are on the verge of ending
that monopoly. This year, experts say, the GOP may have its best shot at
making that dream a reality. A July 2003 Jewsweek
cover story entitled " Enter the Jewpublicans" discussed the burgeoning
trend among younger Jews to vote Republican. The defining issue, of course,
is the Bush administration's campaign against Islamist radicals. After 9/11,
many Jewish commentators said that the United States was now experiencing,
in terms of the daily threat of terrorism, what Israel has lived through for
years. That close identification between Israel and the U.S. remains and
many Jews across America have begun to fall in love with the Bush
administration. This alliance is not without risks for the president,
however. Experts say that if the war with Iraq continues to reveal cracks in
the Bush administration's facade, or if President Bush
tries to distance himself from the hard-line policies of Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, Jews in America
could grow uneasy about the administration's commitment to defeating
Muslim-based terrorism. Moreover, the political alliance between Bush's
evangelical Christian base and Jewish groups is fraught with religious
perils. The same conservative Christians who strongly support Israel
often do so out of theological convictions about the Second Coming of Jesus
and the need to convert Jews to Christianity. These are flashpoints that can
explode at any time."
Rabbis Talk Jewish Life in Eastern Europe,
By VANESSA GERA, Newsday, February 2, 2004
"More than 100 Orthodox rabbis gathered Monday to seek ways to revive Jewish
life in eastern and central European communities still recovering from the
devastation of World War II and repression by the communists. The three-day
meeting, which began Sunday, comes a few months before the European Union
adds 10 new members, mostly ex-communist states where many Jews either
perished in the Holocaust or fled communist rule. The chief rabbi of Russia,
Berel Lazar, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and other
leaders in the ex-Soviet sphere for promoting religious tolerance and
opposing anti-Semitism. "It's a miracle that the Jewish community is
reviving after 70, 80 years of repression when synagogues were being closed
and turned into warehouses, theaters, hospitals," Lazar said. "It's
like people are coming out of prison and seeing freedom for the first time."
Austrian President Thomas Klestil, who met with the rabbis Monday, called
the gathering "a signal that Jewish people from all over the world are
welcome in Austria" ...The new school will train rabbis, who then will be
sent to former communist countries to help rebuild Jewish life there,
Biederman said. It is financed by the Austrian
government and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, which has
worked to revive Jewish life in formerly communist Europe. "The eastern
communities are reviving after decades of communism, but they have to start
from scratch and start schools," Biederman said. "We have to provide
them with rabbis." Since the fall of communism, rabbis
trained in Israel or the United States have been sent to synagogues
and schools in former Soviet bloc countries ... At Monday's academy
inauguration ceremony, European Commission President Romano Prodi will
receive a humanitarian award for his efforts to
protect minorities in Europe, according to the Rabbinical Center of
Europe, the event organizer. The award comes as
Prodi and Jewish leaders work to patch up their differences following
several disputes. Prodi said Friday the European Commission will host a Feb.
19 conference on anti-Semitism in Europe, an event put on hold after some
Jewish groups accused the EU head office of anti-Semitism. The New
York-based World Jewish Congress condemned the European Commission for
censoring a study highlighting the involvement of Europe's Arab minorities
in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe in recent years. Previously,
an EU-commissioned survey put Israel at the top of a
list of nations seen by Europeans as threatening world peace. Several Jewish
groups condemned the report, with the World Jewish Congress calling it
"flawed and dangerously inflammatory."
Israeli Cabinet Minister Tzipi Livni Available to Discuss Situation in
Israel, Peace Process,
U.S. Newswire, Februyary 2, 2004
"News Advisory: WHO: Anti-Defamation League (ADL) WHAT:
ADL National Executive Committee Meeting
WHERE: The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida WHEN: Thursday, Feb. 5 -
Friday, Feb. 6. Israeli Cabinet Member Tzipi
Livni, Minister for Immigration and Absorption,
will be available for interviews during ADL's National Executive Committee
Meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, February 5 - 6, 2004. Minister
Livni will be available to discuss the current situation in Israel, the
status of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, terrorism, the security
fence, and comment on breaking news in the Middle East."
U.S. Envoy: Violence Robs Ireland Future,
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Las Vegas Sun, February 2,
2004
"Continuing violence by the Irish Republican Army and other outlawed groups
"robs the people of Northern Ireland of their future,"
the new American envoy to this long-troubled British territory said
Monday, on the eve of another round of negotiations. Hopes were low that the
planned three months of negotiations starting Tuesday would resolve
arguments that have bedeviled the Good Friday peace accord, which proposed a
vast package of goals six years ago to end the 35-year conflict here.
The new envoy, Mitchell Weiss, met with
Britain's governor here, Paul Murphy, at the start of a three-day visit to
Belfast, Dublin and London. Weiss is a weapons
control expert who serves as director of policy planning at the State
Department. Weiss said his immediate goal was to "listen and
learn" about the province's competing factions and prospects for progress.
His predecessor as President Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, Richard
Haass, resigned last year to become director of
the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. Weiss said he
understood that many people were frustrated by the failure to sustain a
representative administration in this territory of 1.7 million people, about
55 percent of whom are British Protestants and 40 percent Irish Catholics."
Yukos-sponsored Khakamada accuses Putin,
The Russian Journal, January 14, 2004
"Yukos sponsored charity fund Open Russia will support Irina Khakamada, the
co-chairman of the Russian rightist political party the Union of Right
Forces (SPS), at the presidential elections. This was the statement made by
the rightist candidate at a press-conference today. Speaking about herself
in third person, she confirmed that Yukos sponsors her campaign: “Leonid
Nevzlin has made a public announcement that he supports Khakamada and is
ready to make a payment”. Nevzlin is one of the
majot Yukos shareholders, living in Israel. “Nevzlin offered
Open Russia members to support Khakamada”, the rightist said, not giving any
detail about the size of the expected financial aid. At the beginning of her
campaign, in the course of which she intends not to actually ‘challenge
Kremlin and Putin, but to address democratic electorate with encouragement’,
according to RIA Novosti, Khakamada nevertheless started with accusations
against Kremlin. She appealed to Russians in an open letter accusing
president Vladimir Putin of an intended and cold-blooded use of deadly gas
during the storm of the music theater during the Nord-Ost crisis in Oct.,
2002. Khakamada says she is running for the presidency to reveal the truth
about this crime and other crimes of state authorities. Khakamada told
journalists she was going to leave the Union of Right Forces in the event
the party did not support her candidacy at the presidential elections, as
she believes a candidate must not represent a party that does not support
him. Khakamada added that the possibility of nominating other SPS leaders,
Boris Nemtsov and Anatoly Chubais, as presidential candidates
would be considered at an SPS convention on Jan., 28."
Khakamada meets US officials in Washington,
Russian Journal, January 27, 2004
"Irina Khakamada, former Union of the Right Forces leader and presidential
candidate, made a trip to Washington on invitation of American congressman
Christopher Cox. There she met American congressmen, State Department
representatives and had a short unofficial meeting with US national security
advisor Condoleezza Rice. On Tuesday she spoke at Carnegie Fund before
experts on Russia and US government officials. During the trip Khakamada
tried to propagate her ideas regarding current situation
with democracy in Russia and to find support
from the US administration. “I tried to explain first of all that US-Russia
strategic cooperation is only possible"
Israel Asks State Dept. to Put Off Report,
By BARRY SCHWEID, Las Vegas Sun,
February 2, 2004
"Israel has asked the State Department to postpone its annual human rights
report for fear it could be used by the International Court of Justice
against the security barrier the Israelis are building.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the Israeli request was under consideration. Department
spokesman Richard Boucher, when asked about an article in the Israeli
newspaper Haaretz disclosing the request, said he was "not aware of
anything like that." Boucher also said the department intended to present
the report on time, at the end of February. Another U.S. official said
Israel worried contentions that its security barrier interfered with the
lives of Palestinians might be reflected in the human rights report and
influence the court in The Hague, The Netherlands.
Last week, the United States backed Israel in opposing the court's
consideration of the case. It was brought by the U.N. General
Assembly, with a request for an opinion, not a decision. Still, the State
Department told the court that cases can be brought only by states, not by
the General Assembly, and that intervention could hurt prospects for
negotiating a settlement of the issue. The European Union last Friday also
opposed the court's involvement. The court is expected to begin hearings on
the security barrier Feb. 23 with the backing of the Palestinians. It was
not known when the court might issue an opinion. Yasser Arafat, the
Palestinian leader, said nations that supported
Israel's position "don't respect international law ... but rather follow in
this mentality, the mentality of racist actions." President Bush and
other senior U.S. officials have invoked Israel's right of self-defense in
rebuffing Palestinian and Arab demands that the administration oppose the
project outright. However, Bush and the other officials have strongly
objected to parts of the construction plan on grounds that the combination
of trenches, fences, walls, razor wire and electronic sensors would
interfere with Palestinians' daily lives."
Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Frist to Address United Jewish
Communities Washington 14 Conference, U.S. Senators Join Roster of
Political, Media and Community Figures Speaking at March 21 – 23 Event,
January 30, 2004,
United Jewish Communties
"Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) will
address attendees of the United Jewish Communities (UJC) Washington 14
Conference, taking place March 21-23 in the nation’s capital. Washington 14,
sponsored by the UJC Young Leadership Department, is expected to attract
nearly 2,000 young Jewish leaders from across the continent who will hear
from top American, Israeli and Jewish political, media and community
figures, meet other socially involved Jews, and discuss critical issues
affecting the Jewish community with their representatives on Capitol Hill.
The conference theme, We Can Make a Difference,
underscores the power of the next generation of Jewish leaders,
collectively and individually, to create positive social and political
change, and to practice tikkun olam, repair of
the world. “We are honored and proud that two of the country’s most
senior political leaders will address participants of Washington 14,” said
conference Co-Chair Jonathan A. Mayer of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
and a member of the UJC National Young Leadership Cabinet. “As
majority leader, Senator Frist is the highest ranking member of the Senate,
and Senator Clinton's leadership and reputation speak for themselves. “Their
support over the years for issues of concern to the Jewish community is a
testament to the strength of our involvement in the political process, and
underscores the theme of Washington 14, We Can Make a Difference, both
politically and socially,” he continued ... Washington 14 sessions
will focus on such issues as anti-Semitism, terrorism,
Israel’s image in the media, domestic violence, and
social justice. Other guest speakers include:
political satirist Al Franken; Daniel Ayalon, Israeli
ambassador to the United States; Rabbi David Saperstein, director of
the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism; Congresswoman Shelley
Berkley (D-Nevada); Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia); Steven
Emerson, award-winning author and commentator specializing in national
security, terrorism and Middle East affairs; Rabbi Shoshana Gelfand,
vice president and acting director of the Wexner Heritage Foundation;
Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of CLAL - The National Jewish Center for
Learning and Leadership; Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of
Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta;
Dennis Prager, radio talk show host on KABC, Los Angeles; and Dr.
Sabi Shabtai, internationally recognized authority on terrorism."
France to Help Finance Jewish Security Measures,
Reuters, February 3, 2004
"France has earmarked $18.61 million to help boost
security for Jewish schools, synagogues and offices threatened by recent
anti-Semitic attacks, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on
Tuesday. "This is not just a problem for the Jews," he told the National
Assembly. "Every time a Jew is attacked because he's Jewish, it's a stain on
all of France." "We are determined to eradicate anti-Semitism in this
country," he said, adding that attacks on Jews and Jewish property had
fallen by 37 percent between 2002 and 2003. Also Tuesday, Justice Minister
Dominique Perben said police in the eastern town of Macon had opened an
inquiry after a Jewish singer was harassed with cries of "dirty Jew" and
"death to Jews" as she sang a song about Jerusalem last week. Perben
received the singer, known by her stage name Shirel, and told he was "very
shocked by these anti-Semitic insults." Sarkozy, who has been working with
France's Muslim leaders to better integrate their five-million strong
community, told legislators the surge in anti-Semitic attacks in recent
years was not a confrontation between ethnic groups. Officials have blamed
anti-Semitic attacks in recent years mostly on disaffected Muslim youths
taking revenge for Israeli policy in the Palestinian territories, sometimes
after seeing reports from the region on Arab satellite television."
Ripping of the taxpayer, student-style,
by Ben Shapiro, Town Hall, Send February
4, 2004
"While most Californians -- like me -- are looking forward to government
downsizing, some are afraid of losing benefits. Unsurprisingly, those crying
the loudest for money from the pockets of others are my fellow college
students, the "gimme" generation. A group led by the University of
California Student Association and four UC students is suing Gov.
Schwarzenegger for repealing the car tax and cutting outreach and labor
programs at the University of California. Many of these outreach programs
have admirable goals. None of them deserves state money. Private funding to
help "underrepresented" groups reach the UC system is proper and worthwhile.
But in a state where the top 4 percent of each high school class
automatically are eligible to enter the UC system, race-based outreach
should not be subsidized by public dollars. Outreach at the University of
California is designed to bring "diversity" into the college classroom.
After the abolition of affirmative action programs in California, outreach
became big business. Outreach caters to black and Latino communities to the
tune of $24 million per year ... As a UC student, I have benefited immensely
from state education, but if the taxpayers are unwilling to spend money on
my schooling, I must take personal responsibility for my own tuition. When
Californians elected the Terminator, they voted for government cuts. Cuts
hurt. But they hurt far less than tax increases, as Gov. Davis discovered."
Benjamin
Shapiro was born in 1984 in Burbank, Calif. Brought up in the
home of two Reagan Republicans, where intelligent conversation about
politics and philosophy was encouraged, Shapiro quickly developed
into a reasoned political thinker and a powerful writer. He entered UCLA at
the age of 16 and is currently a senior majoring in political science. Never
afraid to antagonize his political opposition, he was the only
counter-protester at an Affirmative Action Rally that drew over 1,500 people
on UCLA's campus, and he has repeatedly challenged liberal professors and
faculty. He was hired in the summer of 2001 by the
advertising team that had run George W. Bush's presidential campaign,
writing copy for its planned ad campaign in support of Israel. As a
staunch conservative on the modern politically correct campus, Shapiro faces
the political liberals head-on. From exposing the leftist tilt of the
professoriate on college campuses to addressing the conflict in the Middle
East, Shapiro's confrontational approach always draws a hailstorm of
response. His columns are printed nationwide in major newspapers and
websites, including Townhall.com, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Conservative
Chronicle. He is a regular guest on numerous radio shows around the United
States and Canada."
[Bush just announced his planned American budget, including a swarm of
cuts in education and social programs, YET the U.S. will be kissing the
Jewish Lobby's Omnipresent Butt and "compensating" the racist Israeli
"settler" fanatics in Gaza. Why? Jews OWN American foreign policy. It is
their personal plaything.]
The cost of a possible Gaza evacuation,
By Ellis Shuman, Israel Insider,
February 3, 2004
"A Finance Ministry team has recently begun preparing a formula for
compensating Jewish families that would leave their homes and businesses in
17 Gaza Strip settlements, Maariv reported today. The estimated
compensation that would be awarded to each of some 1,500 families would be
about $500,000. The United States will be asked to
help cover the cost. The Finance Ministry team, led by
Director-General Yossi Bachar, will present its compensation formula
to National Security Council chairman Giora Eiland, who has been asked by
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to prepare implementation of the
disengagement plan, which would include the "relocation" of Gaza settlements
to new locations in Israel. Sharon said the removal of the Gaza
settlements should be made with the settlers' consent
and the support of the American government. "We are talking of a
population of 7,500 people. It's not a simple matter. We are talking of
thousands of square kilometers of hothouses, factories and packing plants.
There are people who are third generation there," he said. Compensation to
the relocated settlers will be based on the same formula used to compensate
settlers evacuated in the early 1980s from the Sinai following the signing
of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt ... According to media reports, Sharon
plans to present U.S. President George W. Bush a detailed list and timetable
for the Gaza evacuation, which may begin as early as this summer.
Sharon is expected to ask for special aid from the
United States to help implement the plan, the reports said. Following the
signing of Israel's peace agreement with Egypt, the United States paid for a
large proportion of the cost of dismantling Jewish communities in the Sinai:
both compensation payments to the Jews who lost their homes and the cost of
relocating them in Israel, Globes reported.
That American aid may serve as a precedent if Sharon's plan to
evacuate the 17 Gaza Strip settlements is implemented."
'Irish-American' Kerry's Jewish roots revealed,
BY LYNN SWEET, Chicago Sun-Times, February 9,
2004
"Presidential candidates find their lives--and their lineage--are put under
a microscope. In the case of Sen. John Forbes Kerry, new scrutiny led
to the discovery that the grandfather of the Massachusetts Democrat was
Jewish, born Fritz Kohn in a small town that was once part of the
Austrian empire and now is in the Czech Republic. The
revelation is interesting because Kerry is most often taken as a Boston
Brahmin, mainly because his mother comes from the upper-crust Forbes and
Winthrop families, who are well-known in New England. Kerry is also a
practicing Catholic. His name and his home state, which contains the
nation's biggest Irish-American population, have led people to conclude that
he is something he is not. "People assume," said Kerry spokesman David Wade.
"Your name is Kerry, you are from Massachusetts, the land of the Kennedys."
It remains to be seen whether any issue will develop over whether Kerry
tried hard enough to wave people away from the assumption that he was
Irish-American. Several friends of Kerry who were interviewed
said they assumed him to be Irish-American. Kerry learned about his
grandfather's heritage last month from Boston Globe reporter
Michael Kranish, whose research led to Kerry discovering the
details of his grandfather's 1921 suicide in a Boston hotel washroom. The
son of a diplomat, "John has talked a lot about how he grew up in different
places, how he did not have a sense of connectiveness," said Wade. Since the
story was published last Sunday, Kerry found it "great to have a
sense of family history he did not have before." Kerry
told the Globe he had found out about 15 years ago that his paternal
grandmother, Ida Lowe, was born Jewish.
But he said he knew nothing about his grandfather's
roots. Wade said Kerry said he remembers his grandmother as a
"zealous Catholic." The Globe pieced together Kerry's genealogy
through Ellis Island immigration records, other documents in Chicago and
records from the former Austrian Empire. The paper hired Felix Gundacker,
director of the Institute for Historical Family Research in Vienna, to
examine and translate the German-language records. Kerry's
grandfather, who emigrated to the United States in 1905, was born in an
Austrian town once known as Bennisch, which today is called Horni Benesov in
the Czech Republic. Gundacker found birth records noting the 1873
birth of a Fritz Kohn and another record noting Kohn changed
his name to Frederick Kerry on March 17, 1902. The Globe
quoted Gundacker as "1,000 percent certain" that Kerry/Kohn was born
to a Jewish family because the church records were on a page listing Jewish
families. Ironically, Kerry's younger brother,
Cameron, a Boston lawyer, converted to Judaism in 1983, when he married a
Jewish woman. Kerry grew up in the dark over the circumstances
of his grandfather's suicide.""
Dana
Rohrabacher’s Troubling Friends,
By Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com,
January 26, 2004
"Top Jewish Republicans who have supported Congressman Dana Rohrabacher
(R-CA) for decades said in interviews that they have “serious concerns” with
the California Republican’s ties to radical Muslim groups and their foreign
backers, and his outspoken efforts to champion their cause in Congress.
“Before 9-11, Dana’s views seemed idiosyncratic,” said Arnold Steinberg,
a political consultant whose ties to Rohrabacher go
back to Youth for Goldwater in 1964. “We rationalized that he wasn’t
fully informed or had a blind spot” to the Islamists, who were contributing
to his re-election campaigns, hanging around his office, and sponsoring
trips by Rohrabacher and his staff to the Arab Middle East. Rohrabacher
seemingly paid back those contributors by an
“even-handed” approach toward the Israeli-Arab conflict, a key demand
of influential Muslim backers. “Even-handed” is a
code-word used by radical Muslim groups, such as the American Muslim
Council (AMC) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), to
signify support for the Palestinian cause, including Hamas, and angry
condemnation of Israel as a terrorist state. After 9-11, Rohrabacher’s views
and public actions took on a more sinister appearance, as radical Muslim
groups began to count on him increasingly as support for their positions
dwindled in Congress. In a heated May 2, 2002 exchange with conservative
talk show host Alan Keyes, for instance, Rohrabacher insisted that “[Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon and [Palestinian Authority President
Yasser] Arafat are cut out of the same cloth” and claimed that “there’s been
acts of terrorism committed against the Palestinian people as well,”
statements that made Keyes audibly gasp. ...
Steinberg is just one of a closely-knit group of Rohrbacher friends and
supporters who have been trying over the past eighteen months to get the
California libertarian to open himself up to other viewpoints. For years,
these supporters - many of whom asked not to be cited by name for this
article - have urged Rohrabacher to travel to Israel.
When he complained that no one would sponsor the trip, they offered to pay
his travel expenses, but again he refused. “He was a journalist for
years, he was in the White House, he was a member of congress since 1988,”
one donor said. “Somehow, he never went to Israel, despite trips all over
the world, and especially to Arab countries.” Rohrabacher finally traveled
to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a three-day
Congressional delegation in 2003. “Dana has a very antagonist attitude
toward Ariel Sharon,” says long-time supporter Howard Klein, a
member of the influential Lincoln Club of Orange county Republicans. “But it
goes much deeper than that. He doesn’t understand the strategic or moral
imperatives in the U.S. alliance with Israel and the forces that want to
drive Israel to extinction.” Rohrabacher refused to answer questions for
this article, on the grounds that the publisher of Frontpagemag.com,
David Horowitz, has been “actively involved in trying to recruit someone
to run against him in the Republican primary,” a spokesman said. But an aid
who accompanied him on the trip to Israel insisted that Rohrabacher “spoke
the same language” to Israeli and Palestinian leaders, infuriating them
both."
Background / Will Sharon help Bush win re-election?,
By Bradley Burston, Haaretz (Israel),
Februay 10, 2004
"When Ariel Sharon was elected to the premiership a few days after
George W. Bush took his own oath of office in early 2001, Sharon
began his victory speech by telling cheering supporters of a telephone call
he had just received, from the White House. "No one believed then," the
prime minister-elect quoted Bush as having told him, in a reference to a
visit in which Sharon had taken then-governor Bush on a tour of the
West Bank, "that I would be president and you would be prime minister. But
as things turned out, despite the fact that no one believed us, I have been
elected president, and you have been elected prime minister." They are two
men who are accustomed to being underestimated, vilified as murderers,
scorned as possessors of ill intent. They are two men who share a
commonality of neo-conservative outlook and action. And, although diplomatic
etiquette forbids them from saying so outright, they
are two men who, it may be assumed, would very much like to see the other
stay in office for the foreseeable future. No
foreign leader has visited the Bush
White House more often than Sharon, to
whom Bush has referred in talks with visitors as "my friend Arik."
For Sharon, the 2004 presidential election may be crucial to the fate
of the policies he foresees. As a consequence, the U.S. race could be a key
factor in determining outcome of a possible re-election campaign of
Sharon's own. There is little doubt that Bush has
been as congenial a U.S. president as Sharon
could have desired, allowing the prime minister historic levels of freedom
of action in both the military and diplomatic spheres. By contrast -
and with Joseph Lieberman now out of the race to the White House -
the positions of nearly all Democratic candidates are seen as likely to hew
to Oslo-influenced lines inspired by party icon Bill Clinton. In spirit if
not in detail or pace, the Democratic platform may well have its roots in
Clinton's ill-fated rush to forge a workable Israeli-Palestinian peace
before he turned over the keys to the Oval Office to Bush. Should they begin
where Clinton left off, Democrats are unlikely to abide for even a moment
such Sharon-bred notions as the creation of Palestinian cantons in the West
Bank. In many areas of the United States, Arab American activists and donors
also enjoy much better access to Democratic movers and shakers than to
Republicans. If, in fact, Sharon would prefer to see George Bush
re-elected, what can he do to help? The question is not a simple one, in
view of the complexity of U.S. Jewry's relationship to Israel in general,
and to Sharon in particular. American Jews have
been among the strongest champions of Sharon's
policies, and among the most acrid of his critics ... . The best way
for Sharon to aid the Bush re-election bandwagon may be to stay out
of its way. "On the one hand, Sharon must avoid situations that would
force Bush into a head-on confrontation with Israel," says Haaretz
commentator Akiva Eldar. "On the other, he must avoid any move that
would embarass Bush, any move that could make Bush look like a jerk with
regard to the road map and the 'Bush vision' - to avoid any move that could
add the road map to the list of fiascos in the Middle East. "From now on,
and until the election, what Sharon needs to do to help Bush is to
put the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the back burner from the president's
standpoint. To keep it out of the headlines.
This involves, first of all, refraining from making any dramatic moves such
as expelling or killing Yasser Arafat." ... Visiting Israel this week,
insider's insider Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents of
Major Jewish Organizations said Bush might fare even better when Jews go to
the polls. Jewish support for Bush "could go up higher, maybe even as high
as 40 percent, which would be a significant change," said Hoenlein,
who has been credited in the past with leading the organized Jewish
community's perceived tilt to the right ... Bearing in mind that the
Democratic majority among Jews remains strong, Bush's best strategy may be
in working to keep Jewish donors from giving to the Democratic contender -
at present, Kerry - Eldar believes. This
involves casting doubt on Kerry's support for Israel, not an easy task in
view of the senator's past pro-Israel record. "What
I believe that what Bush will do is to try to convince the Jewish
constituency that he is more pro-Israel than Kerry."
The City Politic. Cash and Kerry. The city’s wealthy Kerry backers have a
message for undecided donors: Fund the front-runner—now—or lose to Bush
later,
By Greg Sargent, New York magazine, February
16, 2004
"The cocktail party at financier Blair Effron’s Park Avenue duplex on
February 3 had a simple purpose: to persuade some of the city’s biggest
political fund-raisers to throw their considerable resources behind the one
man their hosts believe can beat George W. Bush—John Kerry. Effron
had invited a special guest, former Nebraska governor turned New School
president Bob Kerrey, to convince this deep-pockets crowd that the
front-runner was indeed electable. And there Kerrey stood, in front of a big
screen bearing an image of the nation’s electoral map, pressing his case. As
fund-raising targets like money manager Gregg Hymowitz and
real-estate magnate John Tishman looked on, Kerrey outlined a
detailed, state-by-state scenario in which the junior Massachusetts senator
could take the White House. The room buzzed with excited political chatter
... Ever since Iowa, Kerry’s New York finance team, led by Jamie Whitehead,
has done a remarkable job of diverting money and supporters his way. Just
last week, for instance, Harvey Weinstein decided to back Kerry after
a long period of fence-sitting. Weinstein was considered a coup,
since he can organize celebrity-studded events that
can move hefty sums of Hollywood cash into political coffers. And
Kerry has won other big New York backers recently, like money manager
Richard Medley and former ambassador Carl Spielvogel and his wife, author
Barbaralee Diamonstein."
Jews Choose. Will George W.
Bush get their vote come November?,
By Carl Schrag, Slate, February10, 2004
"Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish
Coalition, has been riding high lately. Who can blame him? After toiling
away as the leading spokesman of Jewish Republicans for more than a dozen
years, he's finally starting to see signs that the tiny interest group might
be growing. When the American Jewish Committee released a poll last month
showing that as many as 31 percent of American Jews
would vote for President Bush if presidential elections were held today,
Brooks could hardly contain his glee. In fact, he didn't seem to try
at all. "It [is] now undeniable that there is a major shift taking place
among Jewish voters," Brooks trumpeted in a press release commenting
on the poll ... Many would ask why the Jewish vote is so important—Jews
comprise less than 2 percent of the country's population. But their
significance comes from three key factors: First of all, Jews tend to vote
in larger numbers than other ethnic groups. Secondly, their concentration in
urban areas in high-population states means their votes help determine the
allocation of large numbers of Electoral College votes. And finally, they
don't limit their political activism to Election Day; Jews have been among
the most generous supporters of political campaigns, especially those of
Democratic candidates. While the high Jewish turnout is likely to continue,
the largest concentrations of Jewish voters may not help the president, even
if they do swing to his side. New York and California, home to the country's
two largest concentrations of Jews, account for 86 of the 270 electoral
votes needed to win, but even if Jews turn out for Bush, however, it's
unlikely their votes will be enough to tip the balance in these two states.
In swing states such as Florida, however, a change of Jewish heart could
mean the difference for the Bush campaign."
Top Cops Return From JINSA-Sponsored Anti-Terror Study In Israel,
JINSA (Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs), February 9, 2004
"Fourteen of the most senior police chiefs, sheriffs
and state police commanders returned from Israel last week after five
days of intensively studying counter terrorism techniques. These law
enforcement executives traveled to Israel on January 24 and returned January
30, 2004. They went as participants in JINSA’s Law
Enforcement Exchange Program (LEEP). Modeled after the JINSA’s
extremely successful Flag & General Officers Trip, the
LEEP program is designed to establish cooperation between American and
Israeli law enforcement personnel and to give the American law
enforcement community access to the hard “lessons learned” by the Israelis
in the interdiction of and response to all forms of terrorism. The Israeli
National Police hosted the Americans with participation by the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israel Security Agency. The delegation studied
methods and observed techniques used by Israeli police forces in preventing
and reacting to suicide bombers, and joined Israeli police on a nighttime
patrol of Tel Aviv. The agenda also focused on the critical role of
intelligence gathering and interagency information
sharing ... The group also took time to look at the Security Fence as
a defensive measure to lessen the possibility of terrorist infiltration. The
saw where the fence has already been constructed as well as planned future
sights. The consensus of the group was that in light of prior Israeli
casualties the fence has saved lives. Steven Pomerantz, Executive
Director of the Center For Criminal Justice Technology at Mitretek Systems,
in Virginia, led in the planning and execution of the
trip on the American side. In summing up the goals of the LEEP
project, Pomerantz, a former Assistant Director
of the FBI and a member of JINSA’s Board of Advisors, noted, “Nothing
can replicate American officials seeing these types of problems firsthand
and the systems that are put in place to deal with them.” This is the second
time JINSA has organized a delegation of U.S. law enforcement officials to
learn from their Israeli counterparts. Called the Law Enforcement Exchange
Program (LEEP), JINSA hopes to undertake the trip annually, each time with a
new group of officers. Participants were invited through a process that
considered geographic region, their involvement in national professional
policing organizations and their professional responsibilities in the fight
against terrorism. For example, in addition to serving as chief of his
department, Chief Joseph Polisar is the current president of the
International Chiefs of Police (IACP), the largest international police
organization in the world. All other major American law enforcement
organizations were represented on the trip including the Major Cities Chiefs
Association, Major Counties Sheriffs Association and the Police Executive
Research Forum. Participants in the program included: Chief Joseph Carter
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Col. Richard Fuentes New Jersey
State Police, Sheriff Patrick Gallivan Erie County, N.Y. [encompassing
Buffalo, NY], William Gore Special Adviser and Chief of Investigations for
the San Diego County, Calif. District Attorney, Commander Cathy Lanier
Commanding officer of the Special Operations Division of the Metropolitan
Police Department, Washington, D.C., Sheriff Patrick McGowan Hennepin
County, Minn. [encompassing Minneapolis], Col. Jeffrey Miller Pennsylvania
State Police, Bureau Chief John Miller Los Angeles Police Department's
Critical Incident Management Bureau, Sheriff Jim Pendergraph Mecklenburg
County, N. Car. [encompassing Charlotte], Chief Joseph Polisar Garden Grove,
Calif. Police Department, First Deputy Superintendent Dana Starks Chicago
Police Department, Deputy Chief Larry Thompson Chief of Uniformed Services,
United States Capitol Police, and Chief Maryanne Viverette Gaithersburg, Md.
Police Department. Mark Broxmeyer, JINSA’s Chairman traveled with the
group."
Raiding the U.S. Treasury,
By Ronald Forthofer, Palestine Chronicle,
February 16, 2003
"Like a thief in the night, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is
planning a raid on the U.S. Treasury to the tune of $12 to $14 billion. This
amount is in addition to about $3 to $5 billion Israel already receives each
year from U.S. taxpayers. Shamefully, the Bush administration agreed to this
raid, but asked Sharon not to campaign openly for these funds. Bush
wants to keep the U.S. taxpayer in the dark about this incredibly huge
transfer of our tax dollars to Israel. Bush is probably afraid that we
taxpayers would question this gift in a time when he claims we can't afford
to fund many programs here at home. For example, $12 billion could provide
health care for millions of our children who currently have to go to
emergency rooms for treatment. Or it could fund affordable housing programs
for hundreds of thousands of Americans. Some might prefer to use it to put
money into the cleanup of Super Fund sites. Others might use it to
jump-start a renewable energy program to decrease our reliance on foreign
oil. It is clear that there are many pressing needs here at home. There are
also tremendous needs internationally where this money could make a huge
difference in reducing poverty and help restore our image as a caring
nation. Some claim that Israel is our ally and therefore deserving of this
huge subsidy. This is the same country that spies on the U.S. and which
provided the Soviet Union with information obtained from Jonathan Pollard,
the American who spied for Israel. Casper Weinberger, then U.S. Secretary of
Defense, said about Pollard's treason that: "It is difficult for me ... to
conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by the
defendant in the view of the breadth, the critical importance to the U.S.,
and the high sensitivity of the information he sold to Israel." Israel has
also provided China with weapons based on advanced U.S. technology. In
addition, Israel is the nation that deliberately attacked the USS Liberty in
open waters, killing 34 U.S. sailors and wounding another 171. With friends
like Israel, who needs enemies? If this aid were granted, how would Israel
use it? Four billion dollars are for additional military aid and the rest is
loan guarantees. Sharon, a war criminal to many throughout the world,
claims Israel needs more military aid because of the second Palestinian
Intifada. Talk about chutzpah! Sharon, along with former Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Barak, were the ones who lit the match that
sparked the Intifada. Sharon can point out that it costs a large
amount to maintain the brutal, illegal and immoral oppression of three
million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Paying for bulldozers used
in the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian homes and small businesses is
costly. Maintaining thousands of Israeli troops along with supporting tanks
on Palestinian lands does not come cheap. Israel is also building a high
wall between Israelis and Palestinians and this is a costly venture. ...
The author Ronald Forthofer, Ph.D. visited Israel/Palestine twice with the
Christian Peacemaker Teams, most recently in 2001. He is a retired professor
and was a Green Party candidate for Congress from Colorado in 2000 and for
Governor of Colorado in 2002."
Cameron Kerry and his in-laws talk of the Democratic frontrunner,
By Sharon Luckerman, Detroit Jewish News (from JTA), Feb. 12 , 2004
"When Cameron Kerry fell in love with Kathy Weinman,
he chose to convert to Judaism from Catholicism.
Little did Kerry know that he already had a strong Jewish connection. His
father’s parents were Jewish — a fact uncovered last year when the Boston
Globe hired a genealogist to check into the family roots of Kerry’s more
famous brother, John Kerry, the Democratic presidential frontrunner. The
Kerry family, thought by many to be of Irish background, was traced back to
a small town in the Austrian empire, now part of the Czech Republic. There,
the paper discovered that before immigrating to America, the Kerrys changed
their name from Kohn and converted to Catholicism from Judaism. “It was
mind-blowing,” says Cam Kerry about first learning of his grandparents’ true
history from the newspaper story. Also surprising to him was the number of
Jews in his synagogue who came up to him with similar stories. “It’s an
American story,” he says. It also could be a powerful
Jewish story if John Kerry wins the White House. He would be the first
president of the United States with Jewish roots. “If my zayda
could see this election,” says Anne Weinman, Cam’s mother-in-law, who
originally emigrated from Eastern Europe along with her husband, Joe. “Joe,
and I are first-generation Americans and it was inconceivable back then that
we could be connected to the president of the United States.” Cam’s wife,
Kathy Weinman, says, “We have to pinch ourselves once in a while. It’s
amazing to have a ringside seat to history in the making.” She and their two
daughters, ages 13 and 17, also have participated in this history. They were
in New Hampshire during the primary. Her daughters campaigned for their
uncle, knocking on doors, making calls and holding up signs. Their elder
daughter worked in Iowa and volunteered for the Kerry campaign last summer.
Cam, 53, has taken time off from his law firm,
Mintz Levin in Boston, and from his position as an adjunct
telecommunications law professor at Suffolk Law School there, to work on his
brother’s presidential campaign. Last week, prior to the Michigan Democratic
caucuses on Feb. 7, he was in Detroit stumping for his brother. He stayed
with his in-laws in Farmington Hills, where, Anne says,
she keeps a kosher kitchen, and Cam, who is
knowledgeable of Jewish dietary laws, is one of the few people she trusts in
it. Cam’s wife, Kathy, 49, attended public high school and
went to Hebrew school in Southfield, Mich ...
brought up Catholic, Cam decided to convert to Judaism before the marriage.
“I was influenced by Kathy,” Cam says. “Judaism is deeply held and
meaningful to her. Early on, we established we would
raise any children we had as Jewish. So it flowed from that. To be a full
participant in their religious education, I would convert.” Cam says
what appealed to him about Judaism was the role of study in the religion,
that it valued learning and intellectual pursuits, which were comfortable
and a part of his upbringing. He adds that standing on the bimah, or
synagogue podium, for each of his daughters’ Bat Mitzvahs as a full
participant made his religious commitments well worth it. “Judaism
is central to us,” says Kathy, who is
active in her suburban Boston synagogue, Brookline’s Temple Israel. “Judaism
is a core of my life and important to our family.”
Thomas Moorer, Ex-Joint Chiefs Chair Dies,
Las Vegas Sun, February 5, 2004
"Adm. Thomas H. Moorer, a Pearl Harbor veteran who became chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Vietnam War, died Thursday. He was 91 ...
He joined one of the early generations of naval aviators, flying fighters
off of the first American carriers, according to an official Navy biography.
He was stationed at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941.
The following February, he was flying a PBY patrol plane over the water
north of Darwin, Australia, when he was attacked by Japanese aircraft. He
and his co-pilot landed the plane in the water and were rescued by a ship.
That ship was attacked and sunk later that day. He received a Silver Star
for gallantry throughout the ordeal and a Purple Heart for his wounds. He
also received a Distinguished Flying Cross for a patrol mission later that
year. After the war, he rose through the ranks. President Johnson selected
him to be chief of naval operations, the service's top officer, in 1967. He
was reappointed by President Nixon in 1969. Nixon also nominated him to be
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the following year. During the next
few years, he supervised the U.S. troop withdrawal from South Vietnam. After
he retired, Moorer appeared frequently in the news media to comment on
various issues. In 1998, CNN cited him as confirming the American use of
sarin, a nerve agent, in a mission to hunt down U.S. defectors in Laos
during the Vietnam War. But he soon said he had simply heard of unconfirmed
stories about it and had no independent knowledge. The network later
retracted the story and reached a settlement with Moorer.
He also accused Israel of deliberately attacking
the USS Liberty, an American spy ship monitoring the 1967 Six Day War.
Israel said it was an error."
A
Tragedy of Errors,
by MICHAEL LIND, The Nation, [from the February
23, 2004 issue] An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror
by David Frum and Richard Perle
"About a decade ago, I invented a game with a colleague of mine who, like
me, had once worked for Irving Kristol. We called it neoconservative
bingo. The idea was that the clichés of neoconservative discourse would be
arranged in various combinations on bingo cards: "The World's Only
Superpower"; "The New Class"; "The China Threat"; "Decadent Europe";
"Against the UN"; "The Adversary Culture"; "The Global Democratic
Revolution"; "Down With the Appeasers!"; "Be Firm Like Churchill." The free
space in the center of the bingo card would be "The Palestinian People Do
Not Exist" (nowadays it would be "No Palestinian State" or "All Palestinians
Are Terrorists"). As you read an essay or a book by a neoconservative, you
would check off each slogan on the card in the order in which it appeared.
We never printed our neocon bingo cards. But the neoconservative manifesto
by David Frum and Richard Perle, An End to Evil, which
is more a collection of talking points than a coherent argument, can serve
just as well. The United Nations "has traduced and betrayed" the dream of
world peace. The China Threat: "Eventual Korean unification will reinforce
the power of the world's democracies against an aggressive and undemocratic
China, should China so evolve." There are the Neville Chamberlain appeasers
and the Decadent Europe theme: "To Americans, [Europe's doubts about the
invasion of Iraq] looked like appeasement. But it would be a great mistake
to attribute European appeasement to cowardice--or to cowardice alone."
There are the obligatory Churchill references--a chapter is titled "End of
the Beginning"--and there is this: "We will never cease to hope for the
civilized world's support. But if it is lacking, as it may be, then we have
to say, like the gallant lonely British soldier in David Low's famous
cartoon of 1940: 'Very well, alone.'" Bingo. Paradoxically, Perle and
Frum happened to publish their manifesto of neoconservative grand
strategy at the very moment many of their colleagues were insisting in print
that neoconservatism does not exist, and that the neocons have no influence
on US foreign policy. Up until the summer of 2003, neo-conservatives proudly
championed their movement against adversaries on the left and against
factions on the right (realist, paleoconservative and libertarian) that
questioned the wisdom of invading Iraq. That summer, however, the invasion
of Iraq--planned for a decade and carried out chiefly by leading
neoconservative foreign policy experts like the Bush Pentagon's Paul
Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith--went terribly wrong. As of this
writing, more US soldiers have died in the unnecessary second war in Iraq
than have been killed in any other US military venture since Vietnam, and
several thousand Iraqis have died, with many more maimed (the Bush Pentagon
does not bother to count Iraqi casualties). As the enormity of the debacle
became apparent, neoconservatives abruptly began avowing their own
nonexistence. Not since Stalin ordered the US
Communist Party to go underground has an American political faction
pretended to dissolve itself in public like this. David Brooks
recently claimed in the New York Times that only "full-mooners" believe that
neoconservative institutions like the Project for the New American Century
(PNAC) have any influence on Bush Administration policy because PNAC "has a
staff of five and issues memos on foreign policy." But PNAC disseminates the
views not of its paid staffers, receptionists and interns, but of powerful
Administration insiders like Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Donald
Rumsfeld, in the same way that the Committee on the Present Danger used to
broadcast the views of Paul Nitze and Gene Rostow, who as government
officials were guarded in their own public comments. Brooks
continued: "In truth, the people labeled neocons... travel in widely
different circles and don't actually have much contact with one another." In
truth--to use Brooks's phrase--among those who have signed PNAC letters are
Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and Robert Kagan.
PNAC is run by William Kristol, who edits The Weekly Standard,
for which Brooks writes, and is the son of Irving Kristol,
founder of The Public Interest and former publisher of The
National Interest, who wrote a book called Neoconservatism: The
Autobiography of an Idea, and is married to the neoconservative
historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, William's mother. Norman
Podhoretz, the former editor of Commentary, is the father of
John Podhoretz, a neoconservative editor and columnist who has worked
for the Reverend Moon's Washington Times and the New York Post,
which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns The Weekly Standard
and Fox Television. Norman is the father-in-law of Elliott
Abrams, the former Iran/contra figure and former head of the neocon
Ethics and Public Policy Center and the director of Near Eastern affairs at
the National Security Council. Elliott's mother-in-law and Norman's
wife, Midge Decter, like many older neocons a veteran of the old
Committee on the Present Danger, was recently given a National Humanities
Medal after publishing a fawning biography of Rumsfeld, whose number-two and
number-three deputies at the Pentagon, respectively, are Wolfowitz
and Feith, veterans of the Committee on the Present Danger and Team
B, the intelligence advisory group that grossly exaggerated Soviet military
power in the 1970s and '80s. Perle, a member of the Pentagon's
Defense Policy Board (and its former head), is a fellow at the American
Enterprise Institute and sits on the board of Hollinger International, a
right-wing media conglomerate (including the Jerusalem Post and the Daily
Telegraph) controlled by Conrad Black, the chairman of the editorial board
of The National Interest, which Black partly subsidizes through the Nixon
Center. Perle and Feith--both PNAC allies--helped write a 1996
paper called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for
Securing the Realm," on behalf of Israel's right-wing Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. Perle,
Feith and the other US and Israeli authors called on Israel to
abandon the Oslo process and to restore martial law in the Palestinian
territories long before the second intifada began. Co-authorship is common
among the neocons: Brooks and Kristol, Kristol and
Kagan, Frum and Perle. These are people who, according to
David Brooks, "don't actually have much contact with one another."
According to Brooks, "To hear these people [the
alleged conspiracy theorists] describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish
Trilateral Commission, the nexus of the sprawling neocon tentacles." He
writes that "con is short for 'conservative' and neo is short for 'Jewish.'"
With this vicious slur, Brooks has now joined Jonah Goldberg,
Joshua Muravchik, Joel Mowbray, Robert J. Lieber and
other neoconservative writers in accusing all critics of Israel's Likud
government and its neoconservative supporters of treating
"neoconservative" as a synonym for "Jew." Among
those smeared by neocons in this way in the past year are Chris Matthews,
William Pfaff, Eric Alterman, Joshua Micah Marshall, Gen. Anthony
Zinni and yours truly. When I, the descendant, in part, of Jewish
immigrants, exposed Pat Robertson's anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in
1995, Norman Podhoretz denounced me, not Robertson, reasoning that
while Robertson was objectively anti-Semitic he could be forgiven because of
his Christian Zionist support for Israel, on the analogy of the rabbinical
rule of batel beshishim, which governs impurities in kosher bread. The most
loathsome libel in this loathsome campaign was written by Mowbray:
"Discussing the Iraq war with the Washington Post last week, former General
Anthony Zinni took the path chosen by so many anti-Semites: he blamed it on
the Jews.... Technically, the former head of the Central Command in the
Middle East didn't say 'Jews.' He instead used a term
that has become a new favorite for anti-Semites: 'neoconservatives.'"
US to hit Syria with sanctions,
by Janine Zacharia, Jerusalem Post,
February 13, 2004
"The US plans to impose sanctions on Syria in
accordance with the Syria Accountability Act, US Secretary of State Colin
Powell told a Senate panel on Thursday. During the hearing,
Powell also placed the burden for moving peace
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on the Palestinians
... In his testimony, Powell also said the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is inspiring anti-American sentiment in the
Middle East and affecting US reconstruction efforts in Iraq. "We
fully understand that this conflict between the Palestinians and the
Israelis is the source of a great deal of the anti-American feelings that
exist in that part of the world, and does affect what we're doing in Iraq,
and that part of the world," he said."
Former Holocaust denier wants to atone,
Jerusalem Post, February 14, 2004
"An ultranationalist politician accused of making anti-Semitic remarks has
promised to organize a pilgrimage to a Nazi death camp in an appeal for
forgiveness of his past statements, a newspaper reported Saturday. Corneliu
Vadim Tudor, who heads the Greater Romania Party, made the pledge in a
letter to Eyal Arad, the chairman of an advertising firm in Israel.
Tudor plans to run for president this year and wants
the Israeli firm to work on his campaign, said Nati Meir, his
adviser. The letter was published in the Jurnalul National. "I
am asking for forgiveness from all Jews," Tudor said. "I've changed."
Tudor, who once denied that the Holocaust occurred in Romania, said he would
lead a group of party members to the site of the Auschwitz camp in southern
Poland this year. He also promised that if he became
president, he would introduce the study of the Holocaust in schools
... Last month, Tudor unveiled a bust of the late Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin in central Romania. Israeli officials accused Tudor of
using the late prime minister's memory to further his election campaign."
Senator Arlen Specter is Porker of the Year for 2003,
Citizens Against Government Waste, February 5,
2004
"Citizens Against Government Waste announced today the final results of its
online poll for Porker of the Year for 2003. Senator Arlen Specter
(R-Pa.) finished first with a whopping 51 percent of the vote, outdistancing
his “porky” competitors by a 2 to 1 margin. The other finalists, in order of
votes received, were: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) (25 percent), Sen. Tom
Harkin (D-Iowa) (14 percent), Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.) (6 percent), and
Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.) (4 percent). The five finalists were chosen by
CAGW staff from among the 11 Porker of the Month winners throughout 2003,
and voted on by more than 3,300 participants. Several people wrote in other
responses, such as “the entire Congress,” but were too few to factor into
the final tally. Senator Specter was selected as the October Porker
of the Month for including language in the fiscal 2003 Emergency
Supplemental portion of the fiscal 2004 Legislative Branch Appropriations
Act that provided $1.4 million for three pork-barrel projects in
Pennsylvania. He also added several provisions to last April’s War
Supplemental Appropriations bill including language that removes wording
limiting the number of mailings senators can send to their constituents in
counties of less than 250,000 people. While Sen. Specter claimed that
such a move was vital to the war effort, it is an obvious benefit to
incumbent senators, like Sen. Specter, who are up for re-election
this fall."
Spy Ship Attack,
By James W. Crawley, San Diego Union-Tribune,
February 17, 2004
"Retired Navy Capt. Ward Boston has sparked controversy
after accusing Israel of intentionally attacking the
Liberty in 1967. Ward Boston is an unassuming octogenarian who
resides in a gated community on Coronado's Silver Strand.
A retired Navy captain, he hardly attracts
attention in a town full of active-duty and retired sailors.
Yet Boston is in the maelstrom of a nearly 37-year-old
controversy surrounding Israel's deadly attack on the Navy's spy ship
Liberty during the Six-Day War with Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The June 1967
attack killed 34 Americans and wounded 171. Last October, Boston broke
decades of silence and declared that the Navy admiral who investigated the
incident had been ordered by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara to conclude it was a case of mistaken identity, despite
evidence to the contrary. As the chief counsel for the Navy's
court of inquiry, Boston had an insider's view.
"I didn't speak up earlier because I was told not to," Boston said in an
interview. His revelation, repeated last month before a State Department
conference about the Six-Day War, has rekindled a smoldering debate over how
it happened and whether the United States and Israel
covered up the truth. Anti-Israel factions portray Boston's words –
true to his legal background, memorialized in two
affidavits but rarely spoken to an audience larger than one person –
as proof of Israel's guilt. Israel's supporters, including a federal
bankruptcy judge who researched the attack and wrote a book on it, say
Boston is lying. Some pin an anti-Semitic badge on
his lapel. On Web pages and through e-mail, an electronic brawl
is raging over Boston's disclosures among his admirers and detractors. But,
for the men who survived the attack, Boston's comments endorse views smelted
in cordite, blood and smoke. "We feel we've been
vindicated," said James Ennes, the Liberty's officer of the deck the day of
the attack, which left him severely wounded. "We've been saying for 37
years that the court of inquiry was a fraud, that it was corrupted, that
it ignored evidence and made findings not supported by the evidence," said
Ennes, whose book about the incident claims it was a deliberate Israeli
attack. Boston's cover-up allegation is "enormously significant,"
said author James Bamford, who has written several books about the
super-secret National Security Agency, which analyzed radio intercepts from
Liberty and other U.S. surveillance ships. "It's
equivalent to former Supreme Court (Chief) Justice Earl Warren coming out
and saying 'the Warren Commission report on (the) Kennedy (assassination) –
everything we said was not what we believed, but we were pressured to say
it,' " Bamford said. "It puts an enormous shadow over everything
that was in the (Navy) report," he said ... In the Pacific during World War
II, Boston flew harrowing photo-reconnaissance missions over Tokyo and Iwo
Jima in Navy Hellcat fighters, sometimes making three passes over a single
target – once to take pre-bombing pictures, then joining other planes in
attacking the target and, finally, a post-attack pass to photograph the
damage. After the war, Boston went to law school, passed the bar and entered
private practice. Meanwhile, he continued to fly Navy fighters as a
reservist, including its first jet, the FH-1 Phantom. In the late 1940s, he
joined the FBI and was assigned to field offices in San Francisco and Los
Angeles. During the Korean War, he rejoined the Navy, this time as a JAG
officer. By June 1967, Boston was legal officer for then-Rear Adm. Isaac
Kidd Jr. when the flag officer was assigned to head the hastily convened
inquiry into the Liberty attack. Unable to interview hospitalized sailors
and Israeli military and civilian officials, the
investigative panel was given just a week to examine the battered ship,
interview survivors and collect radio intercepts and other information.
Boston said it was obvious then who was responsible.
"There's no way in the world that it was an accident,"
Boston said. In his affidavits and a recent interview, Boston recounted how
he and Kidd discussed their conclusions about the survivors' testimony. "(Kidd)
referred to the Israelis as 'murderous bastards,' " Boston said.
After Kidd delivered the panel's report to Washington officials, Boston said
the admiral told him, "they aren't interested in the facts or what happened.
It's a political issue. They want to cover it up."
Then Kidd admonished Boston to keep silent.
Boston said Kidd told him privately that orders came from Johnson and
McNamara to find the incident was a mistake and not a deliberate act. ...
Boston kept quiet too, until the 2002 publication of "The Liberty
Incident," by Judge Jay Cristol, provoked him. Cristol's book,
based on more than 10 years of research and hundreds of interviews and the
collection of thousands of documents, argued that
Israeli pilots, sailors and top military officials, in the heat of combat
and the fog of war, were unaware the Liberty was a U.S. ship, mistaking it
for an Egyptian vessel. The two men spoke twice during the 1990s
while Cristol researched his book, but Boston said recently that he
only discussed his career and did not reveal details of the inquiry.
"It is Cristol's insidious attempt to whitewash the
facts that has pushed me to speak out," Boston said in a Jan. 8
affidavit, read by Bamford at the State Department conference last month.
Boston did not attend the conference."
Another
President for the Occupation? "The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America",
By SEN. JOHN KERRY, CounterPunch, February 17,
2004
"[CounterPunch] Editors' Note: We offer this unfettered
pledge of fealty to Israel by John Kerry as yet more evidence that there's
scarcely a dime's worth of difference between the major political candidates
of both parties on the life-and-death issues of our time. AC/JSC
My first trip to Israel made real for me all I'd
believed about Israel. I was allowed to fly an air force jet from the Ovda
Airbase. It was then that Israeli insecurity about narrow borders
became very real to me. In a matter of minutes, I came close to violating
the airspace of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. From that
moment on, I felt as Israelis do: The promise of peace must be
secure before the Promised Land is secure on a thin margin of land. Back on
the ground on that first trip, I toured the country from Kibbutz Mizgav Am
to Masada to the Golan. I stood in the very shelter in a kibbutz in the
north where children were attacked and I looked at launching sites and
impact zones for Katousha rockets. I was enthralled
by Tel Aviv, moved by Jerusalem
and inspired by by standing above
Capernaum, looking out over the Sea of Galilee, where I read aloud the
Sermon on The Mount. I met people of stunning
commitment, who honestly and vigorously debated the issues as I
watched and listened intently. I went as a friend by conviction;
I returned a friend at the deepest personal level.
As the only true democracy in the Middle East,
Israel has both the burden and the glory of a vigorous public square.
We as Americans must be the truest and best kind of
ally--forthright enough to say what we think--and steadfast enough to
stay the course in hard passages as well as easy days. Herzl's famous
words--"If you will it, it is no dream"--signify the promise and the
greatest power of Israel--and the hope that a fair and secure peace can be
achieved. We must be committed to support Israel in
the exacting, essential search for that dream. I will never
forget a moment on top of Masada, when I stood on that great plateau where
the oath of new soldiers used to be sworn against the desert backdrop and
the test of history. I had spent several hours with Yadin Roman
debating whether or not Josephus Flavius was correct in his account
of the siege--whether these really were the last Jews fighting for
survival--whether they had escaped since no remains were ever found. After
our journey through history--which we resolved with a vote in favor of
history as recorded--we stood as a group at the end of the cliff and
altogether we shouted across the chasm--across the desert--Am Yisrael
Chai. And across the silence we listened as voices came back--faintly we
heard the echo of the souls of those who perished--Am Yisrael Chai.
The State of Israel lives. The people of Israel
live. In this difficult time we must again reaffirm we are enlisted for the
duration--and reaffirm our belief that the cause of
Israel must be the cause of America--and the cause of people of
conscience everywhere. John Kerry is a Massachusetts Senator and a
Democratic Candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
Articleoriginally appeared in the Brown Students for
Israel publication "Perspectives: An Israel Review."
Did Jewish Problems Doom Dean?,
by James. D. Besser, Jewish Week,
Febraruy 20, 2004
"How much of a role did former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s problems with
pro-Israel leaders play in the spectacular collapse of his candidacy? Not
much, say campaign insiders. But Dean’s Jewish woes,
which began with his bumbling comments about the need for a more
“balanced” U.S. approach in the Middle East, were symptoms of a
much bigger problem that ultimately brought his campaign down in ruins. The
anti-Dean effort by some pro-Israel Jews “wasn’t a factor” in Dean’s
precipitous fall, said Steven Grossman, a longtime pro-Israel leader
and — until Monday — the co-chair of the Dean campaign. Over the weekend,
Grossman told reporters that he would leave the campaign if Dean lost
Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary; on Monday, Dean announced Grossman was
out of the campaign. But the “concerns that were
expressed some months ago by Jewish supporters and activists occupied a
significant amount of time for the campaign,” Grossman
said. “So did the scurrilous e-mails that were floating around.” Dean was
the target of a massive campaign of anonymous e-mails depicting him as
hostile to Israel — a campaign that may be starting anew, this time focusing
on Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Dean’s successor as Democratic
frontrunner. “It was a difficult and time-consuming set of issues we had to
deal with,” said Grossman, who actively reached out to Jewish and
pro-Israel groups in an attempt to put out the fires.
“But I do not fundamentally believe that when the history of the Dean
campaign is written, the concerns expressed by Jewish activists will be seen
as playing a significant role in his failure to win the nomination.” A top
Jewish Democrat said that Dean’s problems with some Jewish leaders were more
a symptom than a cause of the campaign’s problems. “His
misstatements on the Middle East played a role in reinforcing
the image that he was not yet ready for the presidency,” this source said.
“That was one of his biggest problems throughout the campaign — and
his thrashing around on the Jewish issue made it worse.”
“His statements about the Middle East were much less calculated than those
of the other candidates,” said University of Richmond political scientist
Akiba Covitz. “I don’t think he realized what was
involved in putting together a national coalition as a Democrat — and that
he couldn’t do that without mainstream pro-Israel
support. His comments on the Middle East may be paradigmatic of a
lack of understanding that words and actions make a difference in
campaigns.”
An American
Jewish lobby at the European Union,
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz (Israel),
February 19, 2004
"Last Thursday a gala evening was held to celebrate the opening of the
Transatlantic Institute, a Jewish research institute whose declared aim is
no less than strengthening the ties between the United States and the
countries of the European Union (the undeclared aim is
to serve as a lobby). After a formal dinner, there were speeches by
the European Union's Representative for the Common Foreign and Security
Policy, Javier Solana, and by Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio. Both of
them showered compliments on the heads of the body
that established the institute, the American Jewish Committee, and
heaped praise on the importance of good relations. The person who insisted
on spoiling the conciliatory and relaxed atmosphere was in fact
the United States Ambassador to the European Union,
Rockwell Schnabel, who told the guests that to the best of his
understanding, the problem of anti-Semitism has reached the point where it
was in the 1930s. Later, in the wake of the tempest caused by Schnabel's
remarks, the ambassador's spokesman published a clarification, saying that
the ambassador was relating to assessments by other bodies and was not
expressing his own opinion or that of his government.
The American Jewish Committee is an organization that sees itself as
fulfilling the function of American Jewry's "state department." The
Transatlantic Institute in Brussels joins offices that it has opened
during the past decade in Berlin, Warsaw and Geneva close to United
Nations headquarters. "Brussels today is the capital of 18 countries
and within three months will become the capital of 25 countries, with a
population of 500 million," explains David Harris, the executive
director of the American Jewish Committee. "We need to
be there, just as we need to be at the United Nations." Harris
does not believe that the name of the institute or its declared aims suffer
from any degree of pretentiousness. "The American Jewish Committee has
always been in many ways the most universal of all Jewish organizations. In
other words, we are a Jewish organization, but we have always defined our
missions very broadly. We are an American and Jewish
voice in Europe. If you take for example our position on NATO's
expansion, we were saying that what's good for the democratic countries and
for their security is also good for the Jews. If NATO expands, it's good for
the kind of world in which Jews feel more secure." The
main question is how the prominent presence of an American Jewish
organization in the heart of the EU will be perceived. The World
Jewish Congress and B'nai B'rith have maintained offices to deal with their
interests in Brussels for several years now but these offices are manned
mostly by people from the WJC and B'nai B'rith in Europe. Other American
organizations like the Anti-Defamation League considered opening offices in
Brussels, but gave up the idea, in part for economic reasons: The cost of
maintaining an office in Brussels comes to $2 million a year.
The concern that a permanent, high-profile presence
would only reinforce the myth of the influence on the world of American
Jewish power was considered by the founders but, says
Harris, "I didn't lose any sleep over this." And perhaps
with justification. Ricardo Levy, diplomatic
adviser to the European Commission President Romano Prodi,
said that he is not worried that the institute will be
perceived in the EU as an American Jewish lobby or as a source of special
power. According to him, "We have so many institutes here, the
opening of another institute will only add to the dialogue and the public
debate." American Jewish arrogance
Researchers of anti-Semitism like
Henrik Bachner
of Sweden see the resurgence of this myth, especially since the war in Iraq,
as the most worrying anti-Semitic trend today in European society.
Harris: "There are some Jewish organizations who have thought about going in
and creating, I quote a `lobby,' or trying to bring American political
tactics, importing them to Brussels. In our judgment this may not be the
most effective way to proceed. We have given a lot of thought to our own
presence in Brussels, and we decided to open not an office but an institute,
and we're calling it the Transatlantic Institute. The
stated purpose of the institute is to contribute to the strengthening of
relations between the United States and Europe." The establishment of
the institute raises another, intra-Jewish problem. After all, this is the
home arena of European Judaism. People like Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive
vice-chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations, believe that a Jewish lobby in Brussels should be run by
European Jews, and not by American Jews. "The message here for the European
Jewish establishment is `you've failed in the fight against anti-Semitism,'"
says Dr. Sharon Pardo, a researcher at the Center for European
Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and at Ghent University in
Belgium. Pardo notes the criticism that has been expressed by
American Jewish organizations of European Jewry's official line regarding
the governments of their countries, a line that in their opinion expresses
"weakness." "It is clear that there is arrogance
here on the part of the American Jews toward the Europeans," says
a former Israeli ambassador who served for many years in Europe. "Imagine
what the Jews in America would think if a European Jewish organization were
to open an office in Washington" ... Oded Eran, Israel's ambassador
to the European Union, believes that the comparison between European Jewry
and American Jewry "is not fair," in light of the huge advantages of the
community in the United States with respect to its size
and wealth. However, he thinks that
the Jewish organizations in Europe would do well to
unite in the end and set up a lobby. "On issues
like the fight against anti-Semitism, a pan-European organization makes a
lot of sense," he says. "It is possible, for example,
to influence the EU Council of Education Ministers to
decide on joint curricula against anti-Semitism or to influence
the Council of Interior Ministers, who are responsible for the police, to
formulate a uniform policy for the fight against anti-Semitic incidents."
Eran, who has also served in Washington, also believes that there is still a
huge difference with respect to lobbying between the European and the
American political cultures ... The European Commission has enormous power,
especially with respect to economic issues: It controls, for example, the
whole issue of trade among economic firms inside and outside the EU. Most of
the foreign clients of the law firms and lobbyists in Brussels are
international companies and economic organization that engage in trade with
the EU. "Brussels is the capital of Europe and its power grows day by day,"
says Maram Stern, the head of the World Jewish Congress office at the
EU. The office is personally funded by Jewish multi-millionaire Edgar
Bronfman, and Stern has headed it since it was opened nearly 20 years
ago. If Washington is the city of publicly elected representatives, says
Stern, Brussels is the capital of the bureaucrats, and
the key to the success in lobbying activities there lies in understanding
their mentality. "No one here cares too much about who sent him or
who is funding him. In Washington you introduce yourself as a pro-Israel
lobbyist and ask for 45 minutes with the senator in order to explain to him
why he ought to support the Israeli interest. In Brussels you can't present
things so directly. It has to come up at the end of a dinner and toward the
end of the conversation and after you have offered your help to your
interlocutor on a variety of other issues." The
Transatlantic Institute will deal with the variety of issues that are on the
agenda of the American Jewish Committee. Not surprisingly, it is possible to
find there the fight against anti-Semitism and Israel-Europe relations.
With respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
the heads of the Committee stick close to the official line disseminated by
the government of Israel and its head."
EU vows to tackle anti-Semitism,
BBC (UK), February 19, 2004
"European Commission head Romano Prodi has vowed
concrete action to fight anti-Semitism in the European Union. Mr
Prodi was addressing a high-level meeting in Brussels, called to address
Jewish concerns that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe. "We are not
here to beat our breasts in public and then do nothing," Mr Prodi said,
urging European governments to make anti-Semitism an
EU-wide offence. Attacks on Jewish targets have caused alarm among
Jewish groups worldwide. Indifference The seminar was organised by
the European Commission, together with the European
Jewish Congress and the Congress of European Rabbis. It brought
together political and religious leaders from Europe and beyond.
"Anti-Semitism has returned. The monster is
here with us once again," European Jewish Congress president Cobi
Benatoff told the conference. "What is of most concern to us, however,
is the indifference of our fellow European citizens."
The seminar was briefly postponed after Mr
Benatoff and the head of the World Jewish
Congress, Edgar Bronfman, accused the EU and Mr
Prodi himself of fostering anti-Semitism. The charge infuriated
Mr Prodi, who was recently honoured by European rabbis for his part in
promoting what he calls "a Europe of diversity" ...
Mr Prodi's proposals echo calls by Jewish leaders for national
governments to set up special taskforces to monitor and combat anti-Semitism
- as France and Italy have recently done - and co-ordinate action
internationally."
Greenspan Urges Care on Employment Issue,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), February 20,
2004 02:33 PM EST
"Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Friday that
"protectionist cures" being advanced to deal with the country's job
insecurities would make the situation worse. Entering the politically
charged debate over U.S. service jobs being shipped overseas, Greenspan
said that it was a lack of adequate educational
training rather "outsourcing" which posed the greatest threat to
future American prosperity. Greenspan, speaking to the annual meeting
of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, said that it was not surprising that there
was a high level of job insecurity in the country at present
when more than 2 million people in the work force have
been unemployed for more than a year. He predicted, as he did in
congressional testimony last week, that the strengthening economy should
lead to stronger employment growth in the months ahead. "We have reason to
be confident that new jobs will displace old ones as they always have,"
Greenspan said, "but America's job-turnover process is
never without pain for those in the job-losing portion." The issue of
jobs - how to create them, find them and keep them - has dominated the
Campaign 2004 early primary season talk ... Greenspan also said the recent
migration of service sector jobs, such as employees working in telephone
call centers, to India is a new phenomenon. But he cautioned that any answer
that involved erecting trade barriers in this country would be wrong."
Helsinki Commission Hearing Reviews Bulgaria's Leadership of the OSCE,
U.S. Newswire, February 20, 2004
"The United States Helsinki Commission will hold a hearing on Bulgaria's
leadership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
featuring the testimony of His Excellency Solomon Passy, Foreign
Minister of Bulgaria and Chair-in-Office of the OSCE ... This Helsinki
Commission hearing will review the OSCE's program for 2004 under Bulgaria's
leadership. Chair-in- Office Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy has
said that implementation of OSCE commitments would top the agenda for
Bulgaria's Chairmanship of the OSCE. Specific issues expected to be
discussed are the ongoing conflict in Chechnya, OSCE efforts to resolve the
Transdniestrian conflict, work to resolve the "frozen conflicts" in the
Caucasus, OSCE efforts to combat anti-Semitism
and human trafficking, the situation in Central Asia, as well as promoting
respect for human rights and democratic values throughout the OSCE region.
The hearing will also highlight Bulgaria's experience in its own transition
to democracy and ongoing human rights efforts. The OSCE is the largest
regional security organization in the world with 55 participating States
from Europe, Eurasia and North America. Its approach to security encompasses
a wide range of security-related issues including arms control, preventive
diplomacy, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights,
democratization, election monitoring and economic and environmental
security. All OSCE participating States have equal status and decisions are
based on consensus."
In Israeli president’s Paris visit, emotional symbols for French Jews,
By Philip Carmel, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
Feb. 19, 2004
"For many of the thousands of French Jews that crowded into a Paris theater
to welcome Israeli President Moshe Katsav this week, driving to the
event was a deeply emotional experience. With the theater situated at the
far west of the city, most of those attending had to drive down the Champs
Elysees. It was the first time they had seen one of
the world’s most famous avenues adorned with Stars of David. “It
gives you a warm feeling in your heart and a deep sense of pride to see the
Magen Davids like that,” Sandra Tobianah said as she fought her way
through the crowds to catch a glimpse of the Israeli president. Tobianah
was one of the lucky ones — around 2,000 people had to
be turned away — filling the Palais de Congres for the French Jewish
community’s official welcome for Katsav on Tuesday. The Israeli
president was visiting France for only the second official visit by an
Israeli head of state to France since Israel’s creation in 1948. Katsav’s
visit comes at a time when French-Israeli relations — warm in Israel’s early
years but generally cool since 1967 — are seeking to
escape from an anti-Semitism-induced low. The Jewish state has been
highly critical about the increase in anti-Semitism in France in the wake of
the launching of the Palestinian intifada in 2000, and French foreign policy
Israel regards as pro-Arab. Israel also has criticized France’s lukewarm
attitude to possible Israeli membership in the Francophonie, an organization
of nations with sizeable French-speaking populations.
Such attitudes have been echoed by French Jews. But France has taken
steps in recent months to shore up its stance on issues related to Jews and
Israel, taking the lead on cracking down on anti-Semitism ... During the
visit, Katsav took pains to smooth over the issue,
praising Chirac’s strong commitment to fighting
anti-Semitism. Darmon said the French are OK when it comes to
the Holocaust and Jews in France, but bad on Israel. “When
it comes to dead Jews, they’re perfect,” he said, alluding to the
Holocaust. “And also when they talk about Jews in France, it’s not bad
either. But when they talk about other Jews,” he said, “it’s very poor.”
Soldier for
the Truth. Exposing Bush’s talking-points war,
by Marc Cooper, LA Weekly, February 20-26, 2004
"After two decades in the U.S. Air Force, Lieutenant Colonel Karen
Kwiatkowski, now 43, knew her career as a regional analyst was coming to an
end when — in the months leading up to the war in Iraq — she felt she was
being “propagandized” by her own bosses. With master’s degrees from Harvard
in government and zoology and two books on Saharan Africa to her credit, she
found herself transferred in the spring of 2002 to a post as a
political/military desk officer at the Defense Department’s office for Near
East South Asia (NESA), a policy arm of the Pentagon. Kwiatkowski got there
just as war fever was spreading, or being spread as she would later argue,
through the halls of Washington. Indeed, shortly after her arrival, a piece
of NESA was broken off, expanded and re-dubbed with the Orwellian name of
the Office of Special Plans. The OSP’s task was, ostensibly, to help the
Pentagon develop policy around the Iraq crisis. She would soon conclude that
the OSP — a pet project of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary
Don Rumsfeld — was more akin to a nerve center for what she now calls a “neoconservative
coup, a hijacking of the Pentagon.” Though a lifelong conservative,
Kwiatkowski found herself appalled as the radical wing of the Bush
administration, including her superiors in the Pentagon planning department,
bulldozed internal dissent, overlooked its own intelligence and relentlessly
pushed for confrontation with Iraq. Deeply frustrated and alarmed,
Kwiatkowski, still on active duty, took the unusual step of penning an
anonymous column of internal Pentagon dissent that was posted on the
Internet by former Colonel David Hackworth, America’s most decorated
veteran. As war inevitably approached, and as she neared her 20-year mark in
the Air Force, Kwiatkowski concluded the only way she could viably resist
what she now terms the “expansionist, imperialist” policies of the
neoconservatives who dominated Iraq policy was by retiring and taking up a
public fight against them ...
KWIATKOWSKI: ... One person you’ve written about is Abe Shulsky.
You describe him as a personable, affable fellow but one who played a key
role in the official spin that led to war. Abe
was the director of the Office of Special Plans. He was in our shared
offices when I joined, in May 2002. He comes from an academic background;
he’s definitely a neoconservative. He is a student of Leo Strauss from
the University of Chicago — so he has that Straussian academic perspective.
He was the final proving authority on all the talking
points that were generated from the Office of Special Plans and that were
distributed throughout the Pentagon, certainly to staff officers ... So
Shulsky was the sort of controller, the
disciplinarian, the overseeing monitor of the propaganda flow.
From where you sat, did you see him manipulate the information?
We had a whole staff to help him do that, and he was the approving
authority. I can give you one example of how the talking points were
altered. We were instructed by Bill Luti, on behalf of the Office of Special
Plans, on behalf of Abe Shulsky, that we would not write anything
about Iraq, WMD or terrorism in any papers that we prepared for our
superiors except as instructed by the Office of Special Plans. And it would
provide to us an electronic document of talking points on these issues. So I
got to see how they evolved. It was very clear to me that they did not
evolve as a result of new intelligence, of improved intelligence, or any
type of seeking of the truth. The way they evolved is that certain bullets
were dropped or altered based on what was being reported on the front pages
of the Washington Post or The New York Times."
Kerry known for soliciting many views, but who has his ear on Jewish issues?
By Ron Kampeas, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
February 17, 2004
"Now that he’s running for president, Sen. John Kerry’s openness to a broad
range of Jewish opinion is making some in the pro-Israel community nervous —
and others hopeful. The very quality that attracted Jewish voters to him as
a longtime Massachusetts senator is now earning the candidate closer
scrutiny across the Jewish spectrum. Kerry’s Jewish supporters accurately
cite his solid voting record in the Senate and his
frequent readiness to meet leaders of Washington’s main pro-Israel lobby,
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. They also say he
emulates President Clinton’s activist philosophy when it comes to Middle
East peacemaking, an approach that won broad Jewish support during the
Clinton presidency. Detractors inevitably — and just as accurately — mention
Kerry’s closeness to critics of U.S. foreign policy
who say U.S. Middle East policy is a dog wagged by Israel’s tail
... Kerry’s closest adviser, according to a profile published over the
weekend in The New York Times, is his younger brother Cameron,
who converted to Judaism two decades ago when he
married Kathy Weinman ... Israel
advocates across the political spectrum are quick to say that Kerry’s voting
record is “stellar.” On the domestic issues Jews care about,
Kerry’s record is unchallenged. He actually may be one
of the few leading legislators who excites Orthodox and Reform Jews alike.
“He’s very good at navigating the waters of the diversity of the Jewish
community — the Orthodox, the Reform, the Jewish defense organizations,”
said Nancy Kaufman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in
Boston. On his Boston staff, Kerry employs Joan Wasser, a graduate of
the city’s Jewish day school system who is well respected among Jews and who
runs Jewish community outreach for Kerry. ...
Some worry that Kerry might be taking advice from Yossi Beilin, the
left-wing Israeli politician whose informal
peace proposal, the “Geneva accord,” mirrored the Taba talks. People close
to Beilin say the Geneva negotiators have met with Kerry no more than
any other leading U.S. legislators — and they note that Kerry did not sign
onto a non-binding “sense of the Senate” resolution this session that cites
the Geneva proposal as positive. Still, supporters of the Geneva initiative
give Kerry high marks and note with approval the
closeness to his campaign of Alan Solomont,
a top Boston Jewish philanthropist who raises funds
for Kerry and who is prominent in the Israel Policy Forum, which
backs greater U.S. engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. “An
engaged president and an engaged United States is what would provide the
greatest amount of security to Israel,” said Ken Sweder, a past
president of the Boston JCRC, who accompanied Kerry on a visit to Israel in
1986 ... Kerry’s supporters say the candidate will survive such attacks as
it becomes clear that while he listens to a broad range of opinion,
in the end he relies mostly on pro-Israel opinion,
diverse as it is, in his assessments of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “I’m
one of the people who call on his office,” said Glazer, of AIPAC, “and
he’ll come and meet with us personally. Most people will send their foreign
policy adviser, but John takes quite a lot of time to take questions."
AMERICA DECIDES 2004. In 2004, U.S. Jewish fund raising shifts to supporting
— not unseating — incumbents,
By Matthew E. Berger, Feb. 16, 2004|
"It was a big deal two years ago, when Jewish money helped unseat two
incumbent Democratic lawmakers viewed as anti-Israel. This year, Jewish
fund-raisers in the United States expect business to go back to normal.
This year, Jews will focus on supporting incumbents
viewed as pro-Israel, including several facing tough challenges.
While most of America is watching the presidential primaries play out,
hundreds of lawmakers are seeking to maintain their congressional seats in
the November elections and are quietly raising money.
Jews are expected to play a large role in that fund-raising effort,
with Jews engaged in some key races around the country, including Florida,
Pennsylvania and Virginia. One-third of the senators are up for
re-election, as are all House members. But only a few of those hundreds of
seats are considered “in play,” or up for grabs. Jewish backing for
challengers of incumbents in Democratic primaries made national news in
2002, when Jewish support for Denise Majette in Georgia and Artur Davis in
Alabama helped unseat U.S. Reps. Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard
respectively. The Jewish community won respect for
its role in pushing aside anti-Israel legislators. But a race in
which Jews mobilize to unseat an incumbent only happens once every decade, a
senior Jewish political analyst said. Now facing their first election as
incumbents, both Majette and Davis are expected to
receive continued donations from Jewish supporters. McKinney has yet
to take steps to indicate a run for office, but her father has suggested
that his daughter may challenge Majette, which likely
would increase Jewish contributions to Majette’s campaign ...
Morris Amitay, founder of the pro-Israel Washington PAC ... said some
Jews considered targeting Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), a powerful senator who
rarely supports pro-Israel letters or other actions. But Leahy is not
expected to face a tough challenge. “We’d love to knock off Pat Leahy, but
he’s utterly safe,” Amitay said. “He’s
basically unfriendly on Israel issues.” However, Leahy, ranking
minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is considered an advocate
for domestic issues that many Jews tout, including church-state separation
and the appointment of more liberal federal judges. Amitay also listed Sen.
Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who is facing a challenge from a Jewish Democratic
state senator, Burt Cohen, but said there has not been much
excitement in that race, as Gregg is not seen as vulnerable.
Jewish fund-raisers have switched their attention to
assisting friendly incumbents. Rep. Martin Frost (D-Texas) is
seen as being in the most trouble. Because of redistricting in Texas, Frost
will need to face off against incumbent Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) in a
redrawn district made up of mostly Sessions’ constituents. Frost,
who is Jewish, recently raised $100,000 in Jewish
money at a Houston fund-raiser. He is seen as a leader on Israel issues
and is the former chairman of the Democratic Caucus. One
political analyst said Frost has some chance in the new district, because it
is more than 50 percent minority voters, and Frost is a proficient
fund-raiser. Meanwhile, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is facing off
against a House member, Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) in a Republican primary.
While both men are seen as pro-Israel, Jewish
supporters are much more likely to back Specter,
both because he is the incumbent and because he is Jewish, one
of only two Jewish Republicans in the U.S. Senate. The winner of the
Republican primary also will face a formidable challenge in November from
Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (D-Pa.). Allyson Schwartz, a Jewish state
senator, is seeking Hoeffel’s seat. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), a
Holocaust survivor and ranking Democrat of the House International Relations
Committee, is facing two opponents from the left in next month’s primary,
and is expected to get strong Jewish support. a... In addition, Jewish
support may galvanize behind [Peter] Deutsch, an observant Jew
who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat Sen. Bob Graham
(D-Fla.) is vacating. It’s expected to be a tough race all around, with both
Democratic and Republican contenders likely to put up a good fight.
Few other Israel supporters are seen as vulnerable.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will receive
large amounts of Jewish money, but it is unclear whether she will
face a viable challenger. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
will also get Jewish money in his state. He is
a heavy favorite for re-election."
Women wore
yellow crosses and burned the Israeli flag,
By Yehuda Lahav, Haaretz (Israel),
Februry 19, 2004
"At a protest that took place in Budapest on January 11, demonstrators
burned the Israeli flag. The pretext for the flag burning was not, however,
a show of support for Palestinians. Rather, it revolved around a domestic
national disagreement in Hungary that essentially had nothing to do with
Israel. The pretext for the demonstration was an inconsequential program
carried by a local radio station called "Tilos Radio" (Forbidden Radio)
on Christmas Eve, during which the host declared: "I
would like to exterminate all Christians." The managers of the
pirate station immediately fired the host, who was drunk during the
broadcast. After sobering up, he expressed remorse for the statement. But
the slip of the tongue generated a wave of condemnation throughout Hungary.
Extremist right-wing groups zeroed in on the flap as if they'd made a great
find, in the process pumping it up to the dimensions of a national scandal.
In dozens of articles and columns the rightists
charged, without any factual foundation, that the host and his coworkers are
in fact Jews, and before long all Hungarian Jews were being placed in
the defendant's seat. The right-wing groups sought to create the impression
that the Christian public in Hungary is facing a risk of annihilation,
almost like the risk the Jews of Hungary faced in 1944. To underscore the
dangers, several women taking part in the protest in front of the radio
station studio wore yellow crosses on their clothes, intended to evoke the
yellow star worn by Jews in the Nazi years. One of the speakers at the
demonstration, the journalist Istvan Lovas (who
despite his anti-Semitic pronouncements once applied for a permit to
immigrate to Israel, and is therefore presumably Jewish) declared
that an "aggressive minority in Hungary has for the
past 50 years persecuted the Christian and Hungarian majority," and
called for showing "zero tolerance" for this minority. The burning of the
Israeli flag proved that the hint was well taken. ...
The act induced a sharp condemnation from the Hungarian Foreign Ministry
and spokesmen of the member parties of the socialist-liberal coalition, as
well as protests from the Israeli embassy in Budapest and the Union of
Jewish Communities in Hungary ... Given the circumstances,
there was particular interest in last week's visit to
Israel by Zsolt Nemeth, chairman of the Hungarian parliament's foreign
affairs committee and a leader of the Fidesz party. In his
conversations with Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid and chairman
of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, MK Yuval Steinitz,
Nemeth expressed sympathy for Israel and its
objectives. He noted that all of the parties represented in the
Hungarian parliament, both in the coalition and the opposition, supported
Israel's right to live in security and the right of the Palestinians to an
independent state."
No End to War. The
Frum-Perle prescription would ensnare America in endless conflict,
By Patrick J. Buchanan, American Conservative,
March 1, 2004
"On the dust jacket of his book, Richard Perle appends a
Washington Post depiction of himself as the “intellectual guru of the
hard-line neoconservative movement in foreign policy.” The guru’s
reputation, however, does not survive a reading. Indeed, on putting down
Perle’s new book the thought recurs: the neoconservative moment may be
over. For they are not only losing their hold on power, they are losing
their grip on reality. An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror opens on
a note of hysteria. In the War on Terror, writes Perle, “There
is no middle way for Americans: It is victory or holocaust.” “What is
new since 9/11 is the chilling realization that the terrorist threat we
thought we had contained” now menaces “our survival as a nation.” But how is
our survival as a nation menaced when not one American has died in a
terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11? Are we really in imminent peril of
a holocaust like that visited upon the Jews of Poland? “[A] radical strain
within Islam,” says Perle, “ ... seeks to overthrow our civilization
and remake the nations of the West into Islamic societies, imposing on the
whole world its religion and laws.” Well, yes. Militant Islam has preached
that since the 7th century. But what are the odds the Boys of Tora Bora are
going to “overthrow our civilization” and coerce us all to start praying to
Mecca five times a day? In his own review of An End to Evil, Joshua
Micah Marshall picks up this same scent of near-hysteria over the Islamic
threat: The book conveys a general sense that America
is at war with Islam itself anywhere and everywhere: the contemporary Muslim
world .... is depicted as one great cauldron of hate, murder, obscurantism,
and deceit. If our Muslim adversaries are not to destroy Western
civilization, we must gird for more battles ... Fear is what Perle
and his co-author David Frum are peddling to stampede America into
serial wars. Just such fear-mongering got us into Iraq, though, we have
since discovered, Iraq had no hand in 9/11, no ties to al-Qaeda, no weapons
of mass destruction, no nuclear program, and no plans to attack us. Iraq was
never “the clear and present danger” the authors insist she was ... By the
second paragraph, Perle and Frum have given us a short list of
priority targets: “The war on terror is not over, it has barely begun. Al
Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas still plot murder.” Now al-Qaeda was responsible
for 9/11. But when did Hamas attack us? And if Israel
can co-exist and negotiate with Hezbollah, why is it America’s duty to
destroy Hezbollah? ... Hastily written, replete with errors, with no
index, An End to Evil is a brief in defense of neoconservatives
against their impending indictment on charges they lied us into a war that
may prove our greatest disaster since Vietnam. And the charge of deliberate
deceit is not without merit ... Indeed, our reputation as armorers and
allies of Israel only damages us as Sharon rampages through the West
Bank and Gaza walling off Arab land and denying to Palestinians that very
right of self-determination we Americans espouse. Sharon is making
hypocrites of us, and we are cowards for permitting it.
To the neocons, however, Zionism is second nature.
They cannot conceive of a foreign policy that is good for America that does
not entail absolute solidarity with Israel. They are dangerously
close to imbibing the poisonous brew that drove Jonathan Pollard to
treason: If it is good for Israel, it cannot be bad for America. To evade
admission of the transparent truth, neocons have begun to rationalize their
passionate attachment, to sublimate it. “The Arab-Israeli quarrel is not a
cause of Islamic extremism,” Frum and Perle protest.
But when every returning journalist and diplomat and
every opinion survey says it is America’s uncritical support for Israeli
repression of the Palestinians that makes us hated in the region, how can
honest men write this?"
Jews debate use of federal money to bolster building security measures,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
Feb. 24, 2004
"It soon could be a conundrum for American Jews:
Should communities allow government money into synagogues in order to
keep terrorists out? Behind the scenes at this year’s Jewish Council for
Public Affairs plenum, officials were debating how to reconcile steadfast
support by some Jewish groups for strict separation between church and state
with the growing need for money to ease soaring post-Sept. 11 security
costs. Especially contentious is whether the money should go to synagogues
and day schools ... It is unclear yet how much money
UJC lobbyists will seek. U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), ranking
minority member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, may be a key
ally on this issue, insiders say. The project could put Jewish groups
in partnership with hospitals, museums and the American Red Cross. Some have
suggested that mosques may also get aid. According to several sources,
Jewish organizations are in almost complete agreement that seeking loan
guarantees from the federal government for the security costs would not
violate their perception of church-state separation, because no direct
federal aid would go to the organizations. However,
some are specifically pushing for grants instead of or
in addition to the guarantees, which would be one of the first instances in
which a majority of Jewish groups supported federal aid for religious
institutions. ... Some Jewish groups
believe that choosing the loan guarantees route would allow all Jewish
organizations to save face. It may also be more achievable in
Congress. Some argue that seeking money for security needs would be similar
to calling on the services of the police or fire department. “This isn’t
money that’s going to a church or synagogue, it’s going to bullet-proof
glass,” a Jewish official said, noting that the need will be based purely on
risk rather the religiosity of the institution. Even those who do not
support seeking federal aid say they understand the rationale for
the exemption from long-standing Jewish public policy.
They are likely not to contest openly the majority’s decision. “There
is not going to be a schism on this,” one Jewish leader said. “They will
either support this or step back.”
Greenspan Urges Social Security Cuts,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), February 25,
2004
"Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, stepping into the
politically charged debate over Social Security, said Wednesday the country
can't afford the benefits currently promised to the baby boom generation.
He urged Congress to trim those benefits to get
control of soaring budget deficits, which he said threatened a "very
debilitating" rise in interest rates in coming years. Democratic
presidential candidates denounced his proposals, and
President Bush and other Republicans sought to distance themselves from the
Republican Greenspan. The central bank chairman also repeated his
view that Bush's tax cuts should be made permanent to bolster economic
growth. He said the estimated $1 trillion cost should be paid for,
preferably, with spending cuts so the deficit would not be worsened. As for
specifics on trimming Social Security, Greenspan told the House
Budget Committee that one possibility would be to switch to an alternative
measure of inflation for annual cost-of-living adjustments. Instead of
relying on the Consumer Price Index, he suggested switching to a new
chain-weighted CPI that gives lower inflation readings and thus
would mean smaller payment increases.
Greenspan, who turns 78 next week, also suggested tying the retirement
age for full benefits to longer lifespans with the age continuing to rise.
The 65-year age for retiring at full benefits started increasing last year
and now stands at 65 years and four months. It will increase to 67 over the
next two decades and then stop rising. Greenspan said his comments
simply voiced views he has held since he chaired a blue-ribbon commission
two decades ago. But the remarks set off a political storm. Democratic
front-runner Sen. John Kerry said the way to address the deficit was to roll
back tax cuts for the wealthy and "the wrong way to cut the deficit is to
cut Social Security benefits. If I'm president, we're simply not going to do
it." Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., called it "an outrage' for Greenspan to call
for cuts in Social Security while at the same time endorsing making Bush's
tax cuts permanent. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, went even further and
called for Greenspan to resign as Fed chairman, saying his comments
were "a disgrace."
Rifkind wins selection as candidate for Kensington,
By Paul Waugh, The Independent (UK), February
26, 2004
"Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, began the long
road back to Westminster, and possibly Downing Street, last night after he
was selected as candidate for the Tory seat of Kensington and Chelsea. Sir
Malcolm will replace Michael Portillo in contesting what is known as
Britain's poshest Parliamentary constituency at the next general election.
True to the glitzy image of "K&C", as it is known to locals, it was none
other than Shireen Ritchie, mother of the film producer and director Guy
Ritchie and mother-in-law to Madonna, who announced the result. Mrs Ritchie,
the chairman of the local Tory association, said Sir Malcolm had been
selected in the safe Tory seat on the first round of the ballot of more than
800 party members."
Academy presents U.S. ideas in Germany,
By THOM J. ROSE, Interest Alert (from UPI),
February 27, 2004
"On the placid outskirts of Berlin, comfortable in a beautifully restored
villa, handpicked American Academy fellows are
on the front line of the international war of ideas. The American Academy,
which has been home to high-profile U.S. intellectuals such as Pulitzer
Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenidies, attracts top academic, political,
journalistic and literary talents and gives them the freedom to work
unbothered. At the same time, the privately funded academy encourages its
fellows to do more than study. "We don't want to be an academic monastery,"
director Gary Smith told United Press International. Richard C.
Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to Germany and the United Nations,
planned the American Academy in 1994 to fill the
vacuum left when the American military removed its last troops from Berlin.
With help from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former
German President Richard von Weizsäcker, Holbrooke set up what he
hoped would be an intellectual bridge between the two countries that could
remain in place after military ties loosened. In the five years the academy
has been running, its importance has skyrocketed. "No one could have
imagined that this would be as successful as it has been," Davis said.
Pursing large projects somehow related to Germany is the core of the academy
experience, but fellows are just as encouraged to get involved in the
problems of the moment -- and not just as distanced observers. The American
Academy has become a top destination for German intellectuals, politicians
and press looking to make contact with American thought ... The Iraq war and
other issues have slanted German public opinion more and more against U.S.
ideas. That tension has led to an increasingly
political focus at the academy. "I'm deeply concerned about the
different perspectives on the realities of the Middle East," Davis said. "We're
working here to get Germans on the same page with Americans." Long
considered Israel's starkest European ally, Germany has recently become more
ambivalent. Yet U.S. aims in the region have yet to find widespread
acceptance in Germany. In response to that split, a
group of U.S. experts on the Middle East is set to come through the academy
and enjoy its unique access to German political and intellectual circles.
Three former diplomats -- Dennis Ross, special Middle East
coordinator for President Clinton and now director of
the pro-Israeli think tank, the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, Martin Indyk, former U.S. ambassador to
Israel, who also headed the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
and is now director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the
Brookings Institution, and Edward Djerejian, former
U.S. ambassador to Israel and Syria and founding director of the
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University -- will
all be spending time at the academy over the next year. While there, the
three men will hold roundtable discussions at the German Chancellery and
foreign ministry. Two will have direct conversations with Foreign Minister
Fischer. In addition to Middle East experts, Davis said corporate governance
experts are a group that could well stand to be represented at the academy."
U.S.
Jews vow to pump up volume as E.U. pledges to fight anti-Semitism,
By Philip Carmel, Deep South Jewish Voice
(from Jewish Telegraphic Agency), February 22, 2004
"His tone was full of New York swagger, and clearly there was no intention
of softening it for European sensibilities. Speaking about the president of
the European Commission after an unprecedented E.U. conference on
anti-Semitism last week, the chairman of the World Jewish Congress,
Israel Singer, was very clear. “Romano Prodi says he’s gonna monitor
anti-Semitism. Well, we’re gonna be monitoring him,”
Singer told JTA. The blunt-spoken Singer came to Brussels to
take part in the E.U. conference, where Prodi, the E.C. president,
pledged to fight and monitor anti-Semitism in Europe.
But some in Europe think U.S. Jews may already be speaking loud enough. Many
participants at the Feb. 19 conference said they believe that European
governments have been prompted to take tougher stands against anti-Semitism
less because of the demands of local Jews than by pressure from U.S. Jewish
leaders. A British newspaper columnist, The Independent’s Mary
Dejevsky, went even further in an Op-Ed piece published the day of the
conference. It is “hard to escape the impression
that it suits the U.S. administration to depict Europe, especially France,
as deeply and incorrigibly anti-Semitic,” she wrote. Dejevsky
said the U.S. administration and U.S. Jewish groups
were playing with fire and running the risk of “provoking the very racist
backlash they purport to be trying to prevent.” Only last month,
Singer had rushed to Brussels to put the conference back on track
after the WJC’s president, Edgar Bronfman, and the president of the
European Jewish Congress, Cobi Benatoff,
accused the European Commission of “active and inactive” anti-Semitism
— prompting Prodi to put the conference on hold temporarily ...
Many Jews argue that much of the hostility toward
Israel in today’s Europe is simply thin cover for age-old anti-Semitis ...
“The sin is anti-Semitism and the sinner is
Europe, but conferences don’t solve sins,” Singer said.
Not all participating Jewish organizations were as critical as the WJC.
Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, praised
what he called as the “real significance of coming together to discuss the
issue.” Foxman said, “This seminar marks the end of the period of denial.”
He said the European Commission showed “the moral authority” of the European
Union in its desire to combat anti-Semitism. Foxman, who argues that
anti-Semitism today is at its worst point since the 1930s, said he always
has been troubled by the question of why so many people were silent in the
lead-up to the Holocaust. “We’re not silent anymore,” Foxman said. The ADL’s
national director also said he is reassured that “the model now exists” for
coming to grips with anti-Semitism, citing recent
moves by the French and Italian governments to set up ministerial committees
to handle the problem and cooperate closely on the issue with Jewish
groups. While Prodi called on participants at the conference to
do more than just beat their breasts about anti-Semitism,
it soon became clear that Jews were just talking to
Jews, said Henry Grunwald, president of Britain’s Board of
Deputies, a Jewish umbrella group. The conference — and the appearance of
Dejevsky’s controversial column — also came just days
after the opening of a new Jewish think tank in Brussels, the American
Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute. The institute is aimed at
strengthening bilateral relations between Europe and the United States —
and benefiting Jews in the process. Jewish leaders in Europe have
been wary of criticizing publicly U.S. Jewish organizations and their
methods — epitomized by Singer’s outspokenness — though three senior
European Jewish community leaders told JTA of their opposition to the
attacks by U.S. Jewish leaders on the European Commission. Foxman
said U.S. Jewish groups were merely following the line of European Jewish
groups, not leading the fight. “We can’t do this without them,” Foxman
told JTA. The chairman of the WJC, however, had his own ideas. Getting to
the microphone during virtually every conference session, Singer
warned European leaders that there “would be no more
playing by other people’s rules.” The Americans are “proud to be
partners,” he said. “We will listen to the way you do things here —
but we will use some of our own clout.”
New Audio in the
Archives,
Ken and Bob Show
"Mr. Ken Mehlman,
the Bush-Cheney campaign manager, is probably
the closest that John & Ken are going to get to the Bush
administration…judging from how this interview went. Right out of the gate,
he refuses to consider President Bush’s Amnesty Plan to be an amnesty plan.
He even continues to wave the Weapons Of Mass Destruction flag. Since J&K
gave his campaign manager here a lesson in “What Californians Are Pissed
About”, it’ll be interesting to see how the Bush campaign changes by the
time it gets to the west coast. Listen to the complete interview in the
Audio Archives."
U.S. pitches
Sharon plan to Europe, Arabs,
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz (Israel), February
28, 2004
"Rice tells Europeans plan could start chain of events similar to fall of
Berlin Wall The U.S. administration is trying to
persuade European and Arab states as well as the Palestinian Authority to
support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's disengagement plan.
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has been telling European
officials in recent days that Sharon is serious about his plan and
that they should encourage Arab and Palestinian officials to respond in
kind. According to American sources, Rice said small steps could lead to
larger processes and just as the fall of the Berlin Wall was the result of a
chain of events, the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza could lead to a "Middle
East parallel" of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Rice is a Sovietologist, and
often uses images and analogies from the Cold War era. According to reports
from Washington, and White House briefings to reporters from The New York
Times and Washington Post, the administration supports
the Sharon plan and the only question is at what price and whether the U.S.
will agree to Israeli demands like allowing Jerusalem to step up
construction in the settlement blocs and freeing Israel of the need to
negotiate with the Palestinians or propose any other alternative
plans as long as Yasser Arafat heads the PA."
A jolly good fellow,
by Jayme Brener, Revista Pangea Mundo (Brazil),
Nobember 2, 2003
"Brazilian President Lula da Silva starts to conquer the once resistant
Jewish community. The name of Brazil´s newly elected Luís Inácio Lula da
Silva has been enough to produce itches in the vast majority of local Jewish
community during the last 20 years, mainly for the traditional links between
Lula´s leftist Workers Party (WP) and the PLO. But a
screen on his Cabinet, named last December, shows two Jews –
Jacques Wagner (Labour) and Italian born Guido Mantega
(Planning), apart of President spokesman,
André Singer. Much more important, there are clear signs of mutual
simpathy between the community and its leadership, and the new government. “There
was an important meeting between Lula and 60 Jewish leaders shortly before
November elections, when the now President expressed his admiration to
Israel and to our community in Brazil”, says Jayme Blay,
President of São Paulo Jewish Federation (Fisesp), the most important in the
country. In spite of a long tradition of Jewish leftism in Brazil (see box)
that drove many activists to the WP – or PT, for Partido dos Trabalhadores,
in Portuguese –, the overwhelming majority of Brazilian 120.000/150.000
strong community had identified itself with former President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso and his centrist Social Democratic Party (PSDB). During
his eight years of government, Cardoso had several
Jewish aides, including Foreign Affairs minister Celso Lafer.
Cardoso (who has Jewish family ties) and
his PSDB also kept strong links with Jewish business circles. As a natural
consequence, Cardoso´s candidate against Lula, José Serra, was supported by
most of Brazilian Jews, including community leadership and rabbi Henry
Sobel who is a very popular character for his commitment to human
rights. But Lula´s skills to sew a broad political alliance and set up a new
productive economic cycle, reducing Brazilian dependence toward
international finance had seduced a good bunch of Jewish businessmen and
professionals. Leading industrialists Ivo Rosset (textiles)
and Eugenio Staub (electroelectronics)
had openly left José Serra´s campaing for Lula, who also received a more
discret support of steel magnate Benjamin
Steinbruch. “Yes, I voted for Lula, since the last government drove our
economy to a stalemate”, explains oil tycoon
German Efromovich, owner of the Maritima Petroleum
group. “We hope that the new government could promote changes for the
best; otherwise, we´re sure that any change will be done inside democratic
frames”, agrees Gerson Keila, chairman of the
powerful Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), who represents US$
8 billions/year in business. Even the traditional links between the PT and
the PLO don´t seem to haunt Jewish leadership in Brazil. “Lula has clearly
stressed his commitment both to a Palestinian State and to the safety of
Israel”, grants Fisesp´s Jayme Blay. “There´re no expectations of a
major change in Brazil´s international policy”, adds Claudio Camargo,
Foreign Affairs analyst at IstoÉ weekly magazine ...
The honeymoon that Lula da Silva and the Jewish community are now enjoying
has been prepared by a long flirt, since the very birth of the WP in 1979,
melting new rank-and-file tradeunionists, former extreme left organizations
and the catholic gauche. The party´s central slogan during its first
electoral campaign, in 1982 (when Lula runned – and was defeated – for the
São Paulo State government), was a reddish “workers shall vote for workers”,
challenging the reformism of the old Communist Party. Some leaders of the
Palestinian community, openly identified with the PLO, had then runned under
the Partido dos Trabalhadores banner. But several jews were among the first
representatives elected by the party, including now minister Jacques
Wagner (a petrochemical tradeunionist), Carlos Minc (former
guerrilla fighter converted to environmentalism) and Clara Ant, a
trotskyite leader. Yes, there were some frictions between the WP and Jewish
community along the last two decades. Ms. Luiza Erundina, then mayor of São
Paulo, has caused tensions in the kehilá in 1989, when she named a square
after State of Palestine. Incidentally, Yasser Arafat hadn´t already
formally declared the independence of his State. When
she saw the gaffe, Erundina called Jewish aides asking for names of Zionist
leaders, to baptyze other areas of the city ... The own
Lula da Silva has visited Israel, following an
invitation by Labour leaders. Former labour prime minister Shimon Peres
was one of the forefront international politicians in Lula´s possession
ceremony. A group of selected matchmakers has played a very important role
for this long engagement between Lula/PT and Brazilian Jewish community.
Among them were former trotskyite leader Clara Ant,
nowadays one of Lula´s closest informal aides;
Israeli born businessman Oded Grajew,
who is very active in social initiatives and works as a major WP´s
fundraiser; and Argentinian born Felipe Warmus. Known by his “war
name”, Luís Favre, this shadowy former
trotskyite leader, who has close connections with French socialists,
spreads jealousy over WP´s leaders for the influence
he gained after marrying one of the party´s top stars: the mayor of
São Paulo, Martha Suplicy. If Jewish community is in growingly good terms
with President Lula da Silva and his majoritary faction in the Partido dos
Trabalhadores, the same cannot be said of the fringe far left groups inside
the party. The WP is one of the stars of the Porto Alegre Forum, a broad
coalition of antiglobalization groups, set up to counterbalance the Davos
Forum high finance yearly meeting. The Porto Alegre Forum was named after a
WP stronghold in Southern Brazil, that shall host over 100.000 leftist
militants next January for its yearly meeting. Terms
like Israel and Zionism are some of the favourite blanks for those rank and
file militants. “Extremist factions, I imagine, will not play
a decisive role in the new government” evaluates economic analist André
Friedheim. “Radical voices have been put apart of the decision inside of
the party, which is showing an enormous common sense”, adds Fisesp´s
president Jayme Blay. Wishfull thinking or not, the fact is that
monthly magazine Caros Amigos, that usually voices the Forum de Porto Alegre
visions, has recently published an article written by a pro-Palestinian
activist, melting criticism to Israeli government with open racial offenses.
The article says, for instance, that Israel was created by the Nazis and
that Zionists were close collaborators to Hitler. The
magazine has refused to publish the rainfall of critics received nor
apologized to its readers, what motivated Human Rights organizations to
take legal actions. Many of those protests against Caros Amigos
came from non-Jewish and Jewish activists of the Lula da Silva´s Workers
Party.
... a tradition Simpathy towards Communism and the
Soviet Union was majoritary among Ashkenazim Jews in Brazil until the 1950s.
The Jewish Section of the pro-USSR Communist Party was even larger than the
Workers Section in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the country´s largest
cities during the 30s. There were two Jews in the CP 8 strong São Paulo City
Councilmen elected in 1946, including Elisa Kauffmann, one of the
first women elected for this post in the country. The birth of Israel and
the anti-semite campaigns led by Soviet strongman Josef Stalin had splitted
the Jewish community – even institutions, like schools and clubs – between
roitn (reds) and sionistn (zionists). Although the economic progress of the
vast majority of Brazilian Jews had pulled them to the center-right,
leftist parties had always had many Jewich activists.
Last CP general secretary, for instance, was Salomão Malina, a
veteran of the Brazilian forces which fought Nazis in Italy, during the 2nd
World War. Several Jews had died fighting the military dictatorship
(1964-1984), including Maurício Grabois, one of
the commanders of the Maoist guerrilla warfare in the Araguaia
(Northern Brazil), in the 70s, and Yara Yavelberg, wife of Carlos
Lamarca, leader of urban guerrilla forces.
Chael Charles Schreier, then a Medical student in his early twenties and
a guerrilla sympathiser, died during brutal torture. The upsurge of a new
wave of students and trade union protests, in the end of the 70s, with Lula
as the big star, also produced a new layer of Jewish
activists, mainly of Trotskyite origin. Those roitn kinder and Jewish
survivors of the antidictatorship fight – like historian and former
guerrilla ideologue Jacob Gorender – were among the founders of the
Workers Party."
Serving Two
Flags Neo-Cons, Israel and the Bush Administration,
By STEPHEN GREEN, CounterPunch, February
28-29, 2004
"Since 9-11, a small group of "neo-conservatives" in the Administration have
effectively gutted--they would say reformed--traditional
American foreign and security policy. Notable features of the new
Bush doctrine include the pre-emptive use of unilateral force, and the
undermining of the United Nations and the principle instruments and
institutions of international law....all in the cause of fighting terrorism
and promoting homeland security. Some skeptics, noting
the neo-cons' past academic and professional associations, writings and
public utterances, have suggested that their underlying agenda is the
alignment of U.S. foreign and security policies with those of
Ariel Sharon and the Israeli right wing.
The administration's new hard line on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
certainly suggests that, as perhaps does the destruction, with U.S. soldiers
and funds, of the military capacity of Iraq, and the current belligerent
neo-con campaign against the other two countries which constitute a
remaining counterforce to Israeli military hegemony in the region--Iran and
Syria. Have the neo-conservatives--many of whom are senior officials
in the Defense Department, National Security Council and Office of the Vice
President--had dual agendas, while
professing to work for the internal security of the United States against
its terrorist enemies? A review of the internal security backgrounds of some
of the best known among them strongly suggests the answer. Dr. Stephen
Bryen and Colleagues In April of 1979, Deputy Assistant Attorney
General Robert Keuch recommended in writing that Bryen, then a staff
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, undergo a grand jury
hearing to establish the basis for a prosecution for espionage. John Davitt,
then Chief of the Justice Department's Internal Security Division,
concurred. The evidence was strong. Bryen
had been overheard in the Madison Hotel Coffee Shop, offering classified
documents to an official of the Israeli Embassy in the presence of the
director of AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee.
It was later determined that the Embassy official was Zvi Rafiah,
the Mossad station chief in Washington.
Bryen refused to be poly-graphed by the FBI on the purpose and details
of the meeting; whereas the person who'd witnessed it agreed to be
poly-graphed and passed the test. The Bureau also had testimony from a
second person, a staff member of the Foreign Relations Committee, that she
had witnessed Bryen in his Senate office with Rafiah,
discussing classified documents that were spread out on a table in front of
an open safe in which the documents were supposed to be secured. Not long
after this second witness came forward, Bryen's
fingerprints were found on classified documents he'd stated in writing to
the FBI he'd never had in his possession....the ones he'd allegedly
offered to Rafiah. Nevertheless, following the refusal of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee to grant access by Justice Department officials
to files which were key to the investigation, Keuch's recommendation for a
grand jury hearing, and ultimately the investigation itself,
were shut down. This decision, taken by
Philip Heymann, Chief of Justice's Criminal Division, was a bitter
disappointment to Davitt and to Joel Lisker, the lead investigator on
the case, as expressed to this writer. A complicating factor in the outcome
was that Heymann was a former schoolmate and fellow U.S. Supreme
Court Clerk of Bryen's attorney, Nathan Lewin. Bryen
was asked to resign from his Foreign Relations Committee post shortly before
the investigation was concluded in late 1979. For the
following year and a half, he served as Executive Director of the Jewish
Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), and provided consulting
services to AIPAC. In April, 1981, the FBI received an application by
the Defense Department for a Top Secret security clearance for Dr. Bryen.
Richard Perle, who had just been nominated as
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, was
proposing Bryen as his Deputy Assistant
Secretary! ... The DOD [Department of Defense] office involved in
control of defense technology exports was the Defense Technology Security
Administration (DTSA) within Richard Perle's ISP office. The Director
(and founder) of DTSA was Perle's Deputy, Dr. Stephen Bryen. In May
of 1988, Bryen sent a standard form to Richard Levine, a Navy
tech transfer official, informing him of intent to approve a license for
Varian Associates, Inc. of Beverly, Massachusetts to export to Israel four
klystrons. This was done without the usual consultations with the tech
transfer officials of the Army and Air Force, or ISA (International Security
Affairs) or DSAA (Defense Security Assistance Agency. The answer from
Levine was "no". He opposed granting the license, and asked for a
meeting on the matter of the appropriate (above listed) offices. At the
meeting, all of the officials present opposed the license. Bryen
responded by suggesting that he go back to the Israelis to ask why these
particular items were needed for their defense. Later, after the Israeli
Government came back with what one DOD staffer described as "a little
bullshit answer", Bryen simply notified the meeting attendees that an
acceptable answer had been received, the license granted, and the klystrons
released. By now, however, the dogs were awake. Then Assistant Secretary of
Defense for ISA, (and now Deputy Secretary of State) Richard Armitage sent
Dr. Bryen a letter stating that the State Department (which issues
the export licenses) should be informed of DOD's "uniformly negative"
reaction to the export of klystrons to Israel. Bryen did as
instructed , and the license was withdrawn. ... In April 2001, with the
support of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Senator
Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) Bryen was appointed a Member of the
Commission by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Last August, his
appointment was extended through December of 2005. Informed that Bryen
had been appointed to the Commission, the reaction of one former senior FBI
counter-intelligence official was: "My God, that
must mean he has a "Q clearance!" (A "Q" clearance, which must be approved
by the Department of Energy, is the designation for a Top Secret codeword
clearance to access nuclear technology.) Michael Ledeen,
Consultant on Chaos If Stephen Bryen is the military technology
guru in the neo-con pantheon, Michael Ledeen is currently its leading
theorist, historian, scholar and writer. It states in the website of his
consulting firm, Benador Associates, that he is "...one of the world's
leading authorities on intelligence, contemporary history and international
affairs" and that...."As Ted Koppel puts it, 'Michael Ledeen
is a Renaissance man....in the tradition of Machiavelli.'" Perhaps the
following will add some color and texture to this description. In 1983, on
the recommendation of Richard Perle, Ledeen was hired at the
Department of Defense as a consultant on terrorism. His immediate supervisor
was the Principle Assistant Secretary for International Security Affairs,
Noel Koch. Early in their work together, Koch noticed with
concern Ledeen's habit of stopping by in his (Koch's) outer
office to read classified materials. When the two of them took a trip to
Italy, Koch learned from the CIA station there that when Ledeen
had lived in Rome previously, as correspondent for The New Republic,
he'd been carried in Agency files as an agent of influence of a foreign
government: Israel. Some time after their return from the trip, Ledeen
approached his boss with a request for his assistance in obtaining two
highly classified CIA reports which he said were held by the FBI. He'd hand
written on a piece of paper the identifying "alpha numeric designators".
These identifiers were as highly classified as the reports
themselves....which raised in Koch's mind the question of who had
provided them to Ledeen if he hadn't the clearances to obtain them
himself. Koch immediately told his executive assistant that Ledeen
was to have no further access to classified materials in the office, and
Ledeen just ceased coming to "work". [This article goes on and on and
it is horrifying: See the source.]
Jewish fury as Labour calls Letwin 'Fagin',
By Melissa Kite, Chris Hastings and David Bamber,
Telegraph (UK), February 29, 2004
"Ian McCartney, the Labour Party chairman, was embroiled in a furious row
last night after describing a Jewish member of the
shadow cabinet as a "21st century Fagin".
He caused outrage by comparing Oliver Letwin,
the shadow chancellor, to the loathed villain in Charles Dickens's
Oliver Twist, during a barnstorming speech meant to rally Scottish Labour
MPs at their annual conference. During an attack on Tory spending plans Mr
McCartney lampooned Mr Letwin, the descendant of Jewish refugees from
Ukraine, as "Slasher Letwin". He told delegates: "The real danger . .
. is the Tories. What would life under Slasher Letwin look like? No
Oliver Twist, this man, more of a Fagin. "This 21st century Fagin
will pick the pockets of Scotland's pensioners by abolishing the pension
credit and then plan for a new generation of poor pensioners by abolishing
the second state pension." Jewish leaders said that
the slur was the height of irresponsibility when there were growing fears
over a rise of anti-Semitism in Britain, which has 280,000 Jews.
Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue, a spokesman for
Reform Synagogues, said: "I find the remark highly offensive. It is a
throwback to the worst kind of stereotype from a bygone age. It is totally
gratuitous to compare someone to a fictitious Jewish villain from 1837.
Consciously or otherwise it is a reference to Mr Letwin's
face rather than his politics." Perhaps the
best-known image of Fagin is Ron Moody's portrayal in the musical,
Oliver, which won the 1968 best film Oscar. Moody, who is due to revive the
role at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury next month, said he was outraged
by the remarks and urged Mr McCartney to apologise. "I think it is
disgraceful and irresponsible. Someone in Mr McCartney's position should
choose his words more carefully. Fagin is a monstrous creation.
He is a fence, a thief and a corrupter of children.
"I do not think any Jewish person should be compared to him. Such a
description is anti-Semitic." Lord Janner, the
Labour peer and chairman of the Holocaust Education Trust, said he
was "amazed" by Mr McCartney's comments. He said: "I know Ian is not an
anti-Semite but comments like this do sound anti-Semitic. I know him very
well and I like him very much. I am, however, astonished by the fact that he
should make a comment like this" ... Mr McCartney said in a statement that
it was "absolute nonsense" to say his scripted remarks were racist. "I have
spent all my life campaigning against racism and anti-Semitism. No one who
reads the remarks in context could interpret them in that way. It is simply
a reference to the Tory policy on scrapping the pension credit. This was a
comment about Oliver Letwin's politics and the Tory Party's
policies." Mr Howard, the son of a Romanian Jewish shopkeeper and the
first Jewish leader of the Tories in 100 years, disclosed in his anti-racism
speech in Burnley that his grandmother died in a Nazi death camp. He is a
member of a liberal synagogue. Until December, when he stood down to devote
his time to being shadow chancellor, Mr Letwin
was a director of NM Rothschild, the London branch of
the Jewish banking dynasty. Lord Saatchi,
the Tory chairman, is also Jewish."
EXCLUSIVE: BNP's Jew Claim,
by Justin Cohen, Totally Jewish, Mar 11,
2004
"The British National Party unveiled yet another sick stunt this week after
claiming it has selected a Jewish candidate for June’s local council
elections. Mother-of-two Pat Richardson, 58, who lives in Loughton,
is set to represent the far right-wing party in the Epping Forest district
council election. The ploy was greeted with anger and derision from
community leaders, with Labour Friends of Israel’s David Mencer
branding it “a sick stunt”. Mike Whine, Board of Deputies defence
director, told TJ: “It’s a matter of great regret that a member of the
Jewish community has aligned herself with the BNP, which retains its
anti-semitic and Holocaust ideology, only just below the surface these days.
The important thing is people vote for a democratic party in order to deny
the BNP victory elsewhere.” Speaking exclusively to TJ yesterday,
Richardson spoke of how she first became involved with the party
together with her husband two years ago after being “quite impressed” when
members approached her. Referring to accusations of anti-semitism and
Holocaust denial levelled at the party, she said: “I think that is way, way
back in the past and even a different party. But as parties move on and
change, even the Labour party has moved on and changed for the worse I’d
say, a lot of their manifesto today I totally agree with – stronger law and
order, fairness for the elderly and to preserve what green spaces we’ve got
... But Gerry Gable, publisher of anti-Fascist magazine Searchlight,
questioned the party’s claim, suggesting rumours of a Jewish candidate had
been peddled around the time the BNP contested a by-election in Redbridge
last year. He said: “The challenge remains the same as last year – to
produce the person and evidence of their Jewish roots so, if it is true, the
word traitor can be attached to their name.”
Jason Douglas, the party’s organiser in Redbridge, said: “She put her name
forward and we okayed it. She happens to be Jewish, but so what.” The news
comes weeks after Tory leader Michael Howard described the BNP, which
currently boasts a record 16 councillors nationwide, as “a stain on our
democratic way of life”.
Blair Adviser Quits to Teach, [Offline
paper edition]
by Jemma Wayne, Jewish Chronicle (UK),
Febraury 27, 2004, p. 6
"The Tony Blair speechwriter who came up with the slogan "education,
education, education, education" has traded politics for the classroom.
Policy adviser Peter Hyman, 35, quietly quit his Downing Street job
to take up a teaching post ..."
'We'll Now Play by Brooklyn Rules,'
[Offline paper copy]
EU Conference Highlights Jewish Fears, and Anger, on anti-Semitism,
from Jenni Frazer, Brussels, Jewish Chronicle,
(UK), February 27, 2004, p.12
"'We are not hear,' declared European Commission president Romano Prodi, "
to beat our breasts and do nothing.' Indeed, through last week's day-along
EC conference on anti-Semitism in Brussels, by far the most sustained
applause came for those of the more than 40 speakers who put forward
practical proposals ... Throughout the day an estimated 1,000 people from
all parts of the official an non-official European community passed through
the great 'salon' conference room of the EC's Charlemagne Building, as Jews
and non-Jews lined up to denounce what Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks
described "as the greatest weapon of mass destruction -- not anthrax, but
something in the human heart, and its name is hate.'
'A sickness of the soul requires a spiritual response. Anti-Semitism is not
a doctrine, but a virus which attacks the body
politic,' he added ... [Israel Singer, vice-president of the World
Jewish Congress] by contrast, brought his native New York bluntness to the
issue. Recalling world Jewry's successful fight on behalf of the Jews of the
Soviet Union, he told delegates: ' That's a reminder today that we are going
to fight against evil, the evil of people who don't like us,
and we are going to flex our muscles ...
There is a new kind of Jew here and people better get used to him. This is a
Jew who has decided to say: 'No more.' We are going
to play by our rules, which we found successful.
We are now playing by the rules of Brooklyn and Tel
Aviv -- and I tell my European Jewish friends, we will try to do
it your way, but with some of our clout."
In Yassin
slaying, Arabs see US hand. Israel's strike solidifies view that Bush
administration has given tacit approval to Sharon,
By Howard LaFranchi, The Christian Science Monitor,
March 23, 2004
"The "wink" the United States has given Israel in the wake of its
assassination of the spiritual leader of Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance
Movement, exemplifies once again how successful
Israel has been at aligning its fight against militant Palestinians with the
US war on terror. At the same time, the
apparent tacit US approval - which contrasts with the swift
condemnation of the killing by other countries - suggests why the road ahead
in the Middle East remains so arduous for the US. What looks to Arabs in the
region like a US "green light" to Israel also raises the prospect that the
US, or at least American interests in the region, will become a target of
militant Palestinian reprisal. "The Zionists didn't
carry out their operation without getting the consent of the terrorist
American administration, and it must take responsibility for this crime,"
Hamas reportedly said in a statement Monday. That may not portend attacks in
the US, experts on the region say, but it does suggest how the deteriorating
Israeli-Palestinian situation may have growing impact on the US-led war on
terror. "Hamas is not about to shift the focus of its actions to the US,
although Americans in the vicinity could be targeted as we've seen in the
past," says William Quandt, a Middle East expert at the University of
Virginia and a former National Security Council official. "But with less
centralized control over the militants as the leadership is affected, we
could see something emerge more like Al Qaeda, with a proliferation of more
or less affiliated groups that add this kind of [assassination] to their
list of grievances against the US." As for whether the US had probably
received advance notification of Israel's act, Mr. Quandt says, "There
isn't any need to be consulted. The US is in a position of having opened the
door without having specifically given the green light, and [Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel] Sharon has become very adept at telling the US, 'We're doing
exactly what you are doing' " in fighting terror. National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Monday that there had been no
discussion between President Bush and Mr. Sharon about the plan, which
resulted in an Israeli helicopter gunship killing Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as he
left dawn prayers. But in an appearance on NBC's "Today" show, Dr. Rice
added, "Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that
Sheikh Yassin has himself, personally we believe, been involved in terrorist
planning." The killing - which the Israeli government had openly said would
be pursued after an earlier attempt on the sheikh's life failed last
September - was strongly denounced by European foreign
ministers meeting Monday in Brussels. The assassination "is
unacceptable," said British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "It is
unjustified, and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives."
That difference in response is an example of why the
US, despite its goal of championing reform and development in the Middle
East, remains in such low esteem and is so mistrusted among Arabs. The US is
seen as so unequivocally on Israel's side in the Arab-Israeli conflict - and
even more so in an election year - that acts such as the Yassin killing only
reconfirm perceptions the US is no longer the "honest broker" it once was in
the region. Yet negotiations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were
going nowhere, with or without America's good auspices, some experts
believe. They say the two sides have become stuck in a syndrome of attack
and reprisal that leaves little hope for progress in the near term. "The
situation is going to be worse for a while, as the pattern of revenge
attacks we've seen in the past is carried out following this [Yassin
killing], and it will stay that way as long as the Palestinians stick to
this phase of trying to advance through acts of terrorism," says James
Phillips, a Middle East specialist at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
Others say Hamas's vow for revenge highlights the need for the US to remain
focused on the forces of terrorism that have proved to be its central
enemies. "This only underscores the paramount importance of the US focusing
its terrorism efforts on Al Qaeda and not conflating the threat to include
other terrorist groups - such as Hamas - who do not
attack the United States," says Charles Peña, director of defense
policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington. "This in no way
justifies Hamas's or any other anti-Israeli terrorism, but simply recognizes
that the US cannot afford to make other countries'
terrorist threats our terrorist threat." Despite Hamas's warnings,
Mr. Phillips says he does not expect to see the group carry out specific
attacks against the US. "I think they understand they would be worse off
because of it," he says, explaining that "they would risk losing those
European and other friends" who see Hamas in terms of a nationalist
struggle. Virginia's Quandt notes that the
assassination was carried out with US-supplied military hardware - equipment
over whose use the US by law retains some measure of control. "If we
had objections as to how it's being used, the administration should have
informed Congress of that," he says. The lack of any
such objections tells Sharon his
equating of the Palestinian conflict with the broader US-led war on terror
is a winning strategy, he says."
SEP presidential candidate Bill Van Auken condemns US-backed assassination
of Hamas leader .“A savage act by a criminal regime”,
World Socialist Web Site, 24 March 2004
"The Socialist Equality Party emphatically condemns the March 22
assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of the
Palestinian Islamic group Hamas. This cold-blooded
state murder of a 67-year-old, blind and quadriplegic cleric as he was
pushed through the streets of Gaza in a wheelchair constitutes a
particularly savage act by a criminal Israeli regime. Spokesmen for
the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon boasted that
Sharon had personally supervised the planning of the attack on Yassin.
The murder was formally ratified in advance by a vote of the Israeli
cabinet, which has descended to the level of a
conclave of Mafia gangsters ordering a “hit.” As Hamas leaders have
charged, there is every reason to believe—despite half-hearted denials from
the White House—that the killing of Yassin was carried out in explicit
collaboration with the Bush administration, which shares the guilt for this
cowardly crime. There is no denying that the Apache helicopters and Hellfire
missiles used to massacre Yassin and nine other people were supplied and
paid for by the US government. The claim that an Israeli regime that is
wholly dependent upon economic and military aid from Washington went ahead
with this crime without obtaining a green light from the Bush administration
is simply not credible."
U.S. Supports "Naming and Shaming" of Rights Violators. Says international
community has responsibility to speak for victims,
US. Government, March 26, 2004
"U.S. Representative to the Commission on Human Rights Richard S. Williamson
said the practice of "naming and shaming" gross violators of basic human
rights provides the victims a voice and solidarity with the international
community. "It is important to keep faith with the ideals and aspirations
enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Ambassador
Williamson said in Geneva March 25. "They are noble ideals, which give voice
to the inalienable rights of every man and woman." In remarks to the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights, Williamson spoke of countries that advanced
human rights, countries that denied human rights, and the international
community's responsibility to hold countries accountable for "violations of
human rights and fundamental freedoms " worldwide. He noted that
Afghanistan, Iraq, Qatar, Yemen, Oman, Jordan, Morocco, Turkey, Liberia,
Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Kenya, Guatemala and Peru have achieved significant
progress in protecting and advancing human rights. He said Cuba, Iran,
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Russia, Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Burma, Vietnam, the
Indonesian province of Aceh, North Korea and China continue to deny their
citizens the rights to which they are entitled. He said it would be a "grave
mistake" to delete item 9, under which the "naming and shaming" of human
rights violators is conducted, from the agenda of the Commission on Human
Rights. Democracies that respect human rights have an
obligation to hold countries accountable for unacceptable behavior,
Williamson said."
Kerry aides plot Moran's defeat,
By Charles Hurt, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, March
26, 2004
"Three top advisers to Sen. John Kerry are helping to unseat Rep. James P.
Moran in an unusual effort to topple the seven-term fellow Democrat from
Northern Virginia, who is routinely re-elected by wide margins.
The Kerry workers join numerous Democratic Party
leaders in supporting Alexandria lawyer Andrew Rosenberg's
effort to oust Mr. Moran in the June primary. Among Mr. Rosenberg's
high-powered backers are Robert M. Shrum, Steven A. Elmendorf
and Steven Grossman, all top advisers to Mr. Kerry. Mr. Shrum,
a top Kerry media consultant, lists Mr. Rosenberg as a client, while
Mr. Grossman and Mr. Elmendorf, both top Kerry campaign
officials, have made financial contributions to Mr. Rosenberg. The
Kerry campaign said it takes no official position in this or any other local
primary. "We're focused on winning the White House and changing America," a
campaign official said. The most recent complaint
about Mr. Moran among many Democrats concerns a remark he made last year
blaming Jewish Americans for the war in Iraq. "If it were not for the strong
support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be
doing this," he said at a gathering of antiwar activists in Reston a year
ago. "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they
could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."
The remark brought a stinging rebuke from reliable Democratic organizations
such as the Anti-Defamation League, which called the comment "pure,
unadulterated anti-Semitism." "That's only the latest in a string of
inappropriate statements and actions the congressman has made," Mr.
Rosenberg said yesterday. "The people of Northern Virginia are aware of
his background. They know, as a member of Congress, he has repeatedly
displayed bad judgment and that has undercut his effectiveness." Past
scandals involving Mr. Moran include a questionable loan by a bank that had
pending legislation before Congress. He also has a penchant for fistfights,
including a famous 1995 tussle on the floor of the House with Rep. Randy
"Duke" Cunningham, California Republican. After his
remark blaming Jews for the war, Mr. Moran was stripped of his post as
regional whip for members of Mid-Atlantic states and asked by several
Democratic House members not to run for re-election in the fall. "I
don't think Moran should take this challenge lightly at all," said Mark
Rozell, professor of politics at Catholic University. "This is the first
time when the disgruntlement takes place more from within the party than
outside it." Indeed, a recent poll released by Mr. Rosenberg suggests
some dissatisfaction among Mr. Moran's base, which in the past has
re-elected him with 60 percent of the vote. The poll, conducted by Lazarus
Strategic Services for Mr. Rosenberg's campaign, found 45 percent of
Democrats in Mr. Moran's district approved of his job performance ... Asked
how he responds to fellow Democrats who accuse him of attacking one of their
own, Mr. Rosenberg says voters are "desperate for an alternative."
"There's a tremendous appetite for change in Northern Virginia," he said.
"We want to make sure that choice is offered by another Democrat."
PLAYING ETHNIC POLITICS AT GROUND
ZERO,
by Sam Smith, Progressive Review, MARCH 2003
"One of the reasons Rep. Jim Moran thinks Jewish leaders are powerful is
because the ones he sees are. Jews outside of Washington - like gun-owners,
doctors, and Chamber of Commerce members outside of Washington - don't have
a strong sense of just how precisely their "community" is being defined
daily by their capital lobbyists. There is no doubt - if one considers the
'Jewish community' as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and
various large Jewish campaign contributors - that Rep. Moran was quite
correct in saying that they could have had a significant effect on the
course of our policy in the Middle East. For example,
it took only three days for them to have a significant effect on the course
of Rep. Moran's career, getting his cowardly colleagues to force him out of
his House leadership position. Earlier, they helped to have a similar
effect on Rep Cynthia McKinney, who went down to defeat thanks in part to an
influx of pro-Israel money. AIPAC, after all, is a lobby powerful enough
that at its most recent conference, one half of the Senate and one-third of
the House showed up. The fact that the Washington leadership may not
accurately reflect the diversity of its national constituency is not
uniquely a Jewish problem; it is part of the displacement of democracy from
the consensus of the many to the will of a select few that is speeding the
decline of the Republic. And never have the selected been fewer than under
the present Bush. In talking about the Jewish manifestation of this,
politicians and the media use two different approaches. One is the sanitized
patois of ethnic sensitivity as when the perpetually clichéd Eleanor Clift
wrote: "Moran apologized, but the historical echoes that he awakened are so
antithetical to what Democrats claim to stand for that he might as well bid
goodbye to his political career." But in the same article in which he quotes
Clift, Greg Pierce of the Washington Times also writes, "One
political analyst said he counseled two Democratic presidential campaigns to
call for Moran's resignation. 'It would be a cheap way to reassure Jewish
voters,' he said. 'I don't understand why they haven't done it yet.'"
In other words, what is considered anti-Semitic when stated at a town
meeting, becomes in another context just your standard keen political
analysis. When you look at the facts rather than the Washington rhetoric,
you find that Moran was even more right than it appeared at first. A study
by Belief Net found that only the Southern Baptist Convention and
some Jewish groups supported the military approach and every other listed
major denomination opposed it. True, the Southern Baptists were
unequivocally in favor of war while the Jewish groups - Orthodox Union,
Union Of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform), and United Synagogue Of
Conservative Judaism - wanted to exhaust other alternatives first, but every
other religion Belief Net checked opposed the war including the Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America, Episcopal Church, Greek Orthodox Church in
America, Mormons - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Presbyterian
Church (USA), Quakers - American Friends Service Committee, United Church of
Christ, United Methodist Church, United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Unitarian
Universalist Association. The Catholics weren't included but the Pope took a
clear stand against the war. So why go to such efforts to deliberately
conceal and prevaricate concerning the role of key Jewish organizations in
supporting the Iraq invasion? Part of the answer can be found in none other
than the hypocritically outraged Washington Post, in an article
written by its White House correspondent, Dana Milbank, last November: A
group of U.S. political consultants has sent pro-Israel leaders a memo
urging them to keep quiet while the Bush administration pursues a possible
war with Iraq. The six-page memo was sent by the Israel Project, a group
funded by American Jewish organizations and individual donors. Its authors
said the main audience was American Jewish leaders, but much of the memo's
language is directed toward Israelis. The memo reflects a concern that
involvement by Israel in a U.S.-Iraq confrontation could hurt Israel's
standing in American public opinion and undermine international support for
a hard line against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. . . The Iraq memo was
issued in the past few weeks and labeled 'confidential property of the
Israel Project,' which is led by Democratic consultant Jennifer Laszlo
Mizrahi with help from Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg and
Republican pollsters Neil Newhouse and Frank Luntz. Several of
the consultants have advised Israeli politicians, and the group aired a
pro-Israel ad earlier this year. 'If your goal is regime change, you must be
much more careful with your language because of the potential backlash,'
said the memo, titled 'Talking About Iraq.' "It added: 'You
do not want Americans to believe that the war on Iraq is being waged to
protect Israel rather than to protect America.' In particular, the
memo urged Israelis to pipe down about the possibility of Israel responding
to an Iraqi attack. 'Such certainty may be Israeli policy, but asserting it
publicly and so overtly will not sit well with a majority of Americans
because it suggests a pre-determined outcome rather than a measured
approach,' it said" ... Pro-Israel PACs have poured money into campaigns for
Southern Democrats not immediately identified with their cause. For example,
the Alabama delegation voted in a bloc with Mr. Bush in both the House and
Senate. At first glance, this can be ascribed to the conservative, pro
military character of the state. But pro-Israel PACs have also cultivated
Democrats there in recent years." It is hard to imagine such a frank
description of ethnic politics today. Thus it is not surprising that few
know that the aforementioned Thomas Dines -
then executive director of AIPAC and now head of Radio Free Europe
and Radio Liberty - is a member of the advisory committee of the Committee
for the Liberation of Iraq. The Post, which didn't mentioned Dines'
involvement in plotting the seizure of Iraq, described the new organization
as "modeled on a successful lobbying campaign to expand the NATO alliance."
In fact, the last time prior to the war itself that the Post even mentioned
AIPAC was back in August before the Iraq invasion plot took full shape. So
you had to look elsewhere to find out what the Jewish leadership was up to
... We are entangled, in major part, in a religious war in which bin Laden,
Bush and Sharon comprise a triptych of theological terror that is
putting everyone at great risk. They are each involved in a vicious heresy,
falsely defining their own myopic, immoral, and sadistic ambitions as their
religion's moral faith. This is no time for politeness, politics, or
silence. And while Jews are far from alone in needing
to call their leadership back to sanity, neither are they exempt."
Nevzlin Offers to Fund Party,
By Carl Schreck, Moscow Times
[Russia], March 26, 2004
"Leonid Nevzlin, Yukos' largest shareholder
not in jail, has offered to fund the new political party of opposition
presidential candidate Irina Khakamada. Nevzlin,
who is residing in Israel to avoid prosecution in
Russia, where he is facing charges of fraud and tax evasion, said
he is ready to put his money on the line to back Khakamada's newly created
Free Russia party. "I want to allow Russia to go down the path of
democracy," Nevzlin said Thursday in a telephone interview with
Interfax. "And for that reason I'm ready to support the democratic party
that Irina Khakamada is creating." It was not immediately known whether
Khakamada would accept his offer. Her spokesman, Konstantin Lazerev, said
she would release a statement Thursday evening on her web site, Hakamada.ru,
but as of 8:30 p.m. it had not been posted. Earlier this year, Nevzlin said
he would help fund Khakamada's presidential campaign. Khakamada, however,
later denied that she had taken any money from him. Nevzlin did not
specify the amount of money he would like to give, Interfax reported, saying
only that he will likely be "one of many who is ready to support this
initiative, and that's why I'm ready to offer only partial financing
necessary for building the party." Lazerev said Free Russia is actively
seeking financial backers. Khakamada was a founder and co-leader of the
Union of Right Forces, or SPS, but it did not support her candidacy, and she
officially left the party earlier this week. Khakamada has described Free
Russia as a "democratic, opposition party" that will work to attract new
people, particularly young Russians, and build on "the energy and initiative
of civil society" to change the country's course. The party's organizing
committee held its first meeting Tuesday. Another former SPS leader,
Boris Nemtsov, has left politics. He is head of the board of directors
of Neftyanoi, and this week joined the board of Rostik Group, which
owns Rosinter Restaurants, which owns the Patio Pizza, Planeta Sushi and
Rostik's chains."
US Complicity in
Israel's Misdeeds,
by Charley Reese, anti-war.com, March 27, 2004
"The murder of Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Yassin, makes perfect sense as
long as you understand Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
strategy. That strategy is to make peace impossible. For three years,
Sharon has done everything to prevent peace. He himself provoked the new
uprising, re-invaded the occupied territories, destroyed the Palestinian
Authority, forced Yasser Arafat into house arrest and launched an
unprecedented, brutal campaign of assassinations, curfews, fences,
destruction of property and random killing of Palestinians. The Israelis
have killed about 2,700 Palestinians in the past three years, in contrast to
about 700 Israelis killed in the same period. At the same time, Sharon
has refused all offers to negotiate, and whenever the Palestinians arranged
a cease-fire on their side, Sharon broke it with a provocative raid or
assassination. No other rogue state or rogue leader
would have been allowed to get away with such behavior, but Israel has the
U.S. government in its pocket. That's the answer to the question
posed by the French ambassador to Great Britain as to why the world allows
"this (expletive deleted) little country to cause the world so much
trouble." Sharon doesn't want peace, because he knows that any peace
settlement would involve returning nearly all of the occupied territories to
the Palestinians. Israel's goal has always been Palestine without
Palestinians. He is greatly afraid that the world will lose patience and
impose a settlement on Israel. Hence, his strategy is to make peace
impossible so that he can impose unilaterally his own settlement – a
settlement, of course, that will condemn the Palestinians to unlivable
conditions. Now, that's all well and good if you are an Israeli and don't
mind condemning future generations to perpetual conflict, but what about
Americans? This is, after all, not legitimately our conflict. I've traveled
in Palestine and the Middle East, and while it's interesting, it's not high
on my list of vacation spots. We would be much better off if the only
Americans who ever went there were the crews of oil tankers. Unfortunately,
our politicians, by cravenly obeying the wishes of
Israel and its powerful U.S. lobby, have made us a part of the conflict.
We've already paid in blood and treasure. Anybody who doesn't understand
that the attack on 9/11 was directly related to the Palestinian and Israeli
conflict hasn't been paying attention. The Arab world sees us –
correctly – as an accessory before and after the fact to all the crimes
Israel commits against the Palestinians and other Arabs in the area.
We cannot load Israel down with modern weapons, with
gifts of more than $90 billion of American tax dollars, with absolute
protection from all attempts to hold it accountable under international law,
and then pretend we are innocent. We are guilty
by proxy of murder, land theft, destruction of property and all the other
human misery that Israel has caused in the region. So, if you're one of
those rah-rah Israel First supporters, don't complain when the terrorists
come looking for you. You've allowed your politicians to enlist you
in somebody else's war, and in war there are always casualties on both
sides. America has become a nation of pathological
irresponsibility. Nobody wants to take responsibility for his or
her own actions, which is the basic cause of the litigation flood. Least of
all do American politicians wish to do so. They would rather heap on the
manure that the terrorism directed at us has nothing whatsoever to do with
the policies they have followed for the past 30 years or more. In truth, it
has everything to do with those policies. So, if
you or your loved ones get bloodied by terrorists, then blame your Christian
Zionists, your Israel First crowd and your corrupt politicians who have
their tongues in the ears and their hands in the pockets of the Israeli
lobby."
[Another Jewish media mogul scandal threatens to bring down Poland's
prime minister. Lew Rywin is Jewish, as is Adam Michnick. Leszek Miller?]
Miller's tale Leader,
The Guardian (UK), March 29, 2004
"Less than five weeks before Poland joins the European Union, its
government is in chaos, its prime minister has been forced to resign, and
the opposition are demanding early elections. If President Aleksander
Kwasniewski nominates a prime minister designate today, he or she will be
the 11th Poland has had in 14 years since the collapse of communism. ...
For this, the outgoing prime minister, Leszek Miller, enjoys cross-party
support. No one is clamouring for him to leave just yet. As long as he
steers his country safely through Europe's portals on May 1, and then
resigns the day after, honour is preserved. Quite how Mr Miller got
himself into this position is unclear. He is a stubborn ex-communist and
former politburo member, but that alone does not account for his
plummeting ratings. For weeks, Poland has been gripped by the live
televised hearings of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into a scandal
that has now brought Mr Miller down. It has become Poland's answer to
Back to Reality. Adam Michnik, the editor of Gazeta Wyborcza,
Poland's best independently owned daily newspaper, secretly taped a
conversation in which Lew Rywin, co-producer
of The Pianist and Schindler's List, claimed he could
get an amendment to a media bill, which would allow Mr Michnik's
media group to buy a television channel. Palms
needed to be greased, and the price was $17.5m. Mr Rywin
denies the charges. Mr Miller says the case was absurd and claimed Mr
Rywin is a "psychotic". Mr Michnik himself is struggling to
explain why he kept a lid on the story for over five months. Poland's EU
entry is a done deal. But a virulently nationalist anti-EU party, led by
of the populist Andrzej Lepper, is growing all the time. The party began
as a protest movement of farmers, and with up to a quarter of Poles living
on the land, it will not disappear any time soon. Poland's political
shake-out will affect how this important country manages the first years
of membership."
Former Treasury Secretary Roger Altman on Kerry's Jobs First Economic Plan,
U.S. Newswire, March 26, 2004
"News Advisory: Former Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman to
host conference call to discuss Kerry's Jobs First Economic Plan today at
2 p.m. EST. WHAT: Conference Call WHEN: Today, Friday, March 26, 2 p.m.
EST DETAILS: Roger Altman, deputy treasury secretary under President
Clinton, will host a conference call at 2 p.m. EST today to discuss John
Kerry's tax reform plan that will create 10 million new jobs. Altman
is a senior economic advisor to John Kerry and will outline how Kerry's
plan, the most sweeping international tax reform in 40 years, will
encourage job creation and get the American economy back on track."
[JTR Contributor's Note about the next three articles: "Is there a
pattern forming here?"]
Advisory: U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich to Host Conference Call,
U.S. Newswire, March 30, 2004
"BACKGROUND: Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor under
President Clinton, will host a conference call Wednesday at 11:30 AM to
discuss George W. Bush's broken promises and failed policies on the
economy. Nearly 1.1 million jobless workers will have exhausted their
regular unemployment benefits as of Wednesday, without receiving
additional aid. Reich will outline Kerry's plan to create 10
million jobs during his first term in the White House and get America's
economy back on track."
Attack on the Liberty. Lifting the 'fog of war',
By David C. Walsh, San Diego Union-Tribune,
Mrch 28, 2004
"The bare bones are these: The intelligence ship Liberty, AGTR-5, on June
8, 1967 was describing a slow, dogleg pattern a little less than 13 miles
off the Egyptian coast in the Eastern Mediterranean. Without warning,
rocket-firing Israel jets, followed after an interval by torpedo boats,
pummeled her to near-death; 821 separate holes would later be counted in
the scorched superstructure. An Israeli torpedo blew a 40-foot hole in the
Liberty's hull, devastating the cryptological spaces below decks and
killing 25 U.S. National Security Agency technicians. The spy ship's
defensive armament comprised a mere four machine-guns. These had been
judged adequate, insofar as she was a noncombatant in international
waters. The Israeli attack continued for an hour and a quarter.
When the smoke cleared, 34 Americans were dead,
another 172 lay wounded. The story of the intelligence ship in a
sense resembles the Liberty herself: both refuse to go down. The
heartbreaking saga is kept afloat by mutually antagonistic partisans – I
dub them the "deliberates" and the "accidentalists." Periodically, the
dispute flares anew, each side throwing punch and counterpunch. Some
strikes are errant, or glancing, or below the belt; others, solid hammer
blows the recovery from which seems impossible. Occasionally, as now, the
action is in synch. In one "corner" are a retired Navy JAG
captain-cum-judge and the government of Israel; in
the other, Liberty survivors, former leaders of the highly secret National
Security Agency and other spooky types. The judge, A. Jay
Cristol, has written a controversial book, "The Liberty Incident." It
alleges that the furious attack on the U.S. Navy ship (tasked by the NSA
and the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff) was what Israel since 1967 has
claimed: a "friendly-fire" accident, the sort that bedevils every war.
For their part, Liberty supporters assert that the
ex-Navy lawyer is merely the latest, albeit most effective, in a long
series of apologists for Israel. He is helping Israel engage in a
decades-long campaign of disinformation and deceit, they maintain. Some
harbor their own "conspiratorial" suspicions, i.e., that Israel paid for
the many research trips Cristol made to the Jewish state over many years.
Regardless, they say the present round of rhetorical combat has exposed
their nemesis as highly selective in the use of records, disingenuous and
desperate. "He's on the ropes!" exclaims one. Perhaps. But with skeins of
the story ever spreading, knotty issues left to be untied and core truths
waiting to be teased out, neither side can declare "case closed." The sad
slugfest continues. In June 2003, I published an investigative article in
the United States Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine; one that drew on
some unusually well-informed people. These weren't Israelis (Judge
Cristol supplies those), but American intelligence leaders. They were
addressing the tragedy for the first time; partly, some said, because of
the Cristol book. Also included were interviews and conversations
with the Liberty's surviving cryptanalysts and other specialists.
In total, they pointed the way toward an unsettling
conclusion: The Cristol/Israeli explanation of "accidental attack in the
fog of war" may have grown so
threadbare as to be virtually unsustainable. Proof Two
former NSA directors – Adm. Bobby Ray Inman, Gen. William Odom – and two
ex-deputy directors – Gen. John Morrison and Oliver Kirby –
told me that there has never been any question at
the agency but that Israel's attack on the Liberty was deliberate.
Kirby, for example, is "absolutely certain" about this. A storied career
NSA official, Kirby had founded the ELINT program under which the Liberty
and her several sister ships operated. "It was my baby," he said in an
interview last year. Pressed about what made him sure the Israelis wanted
to destroy the Liberty, Kirby said it was because he'd personally analyzed
the SIGINT intercepts of their communications gleaned from various
American intelligence sources. These disclosed: 1) that the on-scene
attackers that June 8 correctly identified the ship, and 2) that
regardless, Israeli commanders at an as-yet-unknown level instructed them
to annihilate the Liberty. Why had Kirby not gone public with this
astonishing disclosure? "No one had asked me the right questions before,"
he told me. In an interview Feb. 24, 2003, retired Air Force Major General
John Morrison, the agency's then second in command (and Kirby's
successor), said he had been informed at the time of Kirby's findings and
endorsed them. William Odom, former NSA Director and retired Army
lieutenant general, said on March 3, 2003 that on the strength of such
data, the attack's deliberateness "just wasn't a
disputed issue" within the agency. On March 5, 2003, retired
Navy Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, NSA director from 1977-81, said he "flatly
rejected" the Cristol/Israeli thesis. "It is just exceedingly difficult to
believe that [the Liberty] was not correctly identified."
Inman said his conclusions were based on his talks
with NSA senior officials who had direct knowledge at the time. All
four officials said they were unaware of any agency official at any time
who dissented from the "deliberate," conclusion, based on the intelligence.
These men's comments undergird those recorded by other writers over at
least two decades. In fact, the number of
intelligence professionals who rejects the accidental, or related
"mistaken identity" explanation is growing. In 2002, the late
Richard Helms, then director of Central Intelligence, finally added his
authoritative voice to the "deliberates," telling the Navy Times the
attack was "no mistake." Previously, the then NSA director, Gen. Marshall
Carter, and his deputy, Louis Tordella, said likewise. USS Liberty
Veterans Association historian James Ennes (author of the 1980 book
"Assault on the Liberty," now updated) says more apostates to the official
Israeli – and United States – position are being heard from in sworn
affidavits. For example, two ex-USAF Intelligence personnel state that the
damning electronic signals they monitored had been captured by an
NSA-operated EC-130 flying near the attack, translated and disseminated
worldwide. Hundreds of technicians and intelligence specialists around the
world had access to these intercepts. At least a few are now coming
forward to discuss what they saw. Here it's worth reiterating something
key to this dimension of the accidentalists vs. deliberates contest. The
intercepts referenced by Odom, Helms, Kirby et al (whose existence the NSA
officially denies) were real-time intelligence gleaned as the attack
commenced. By contrast, the NSA-held material Cristol succeeded in
declassifying, which he insists validates his view, appear limited to
after-action reports by Israeli helicopter pilots. They'd arrived to
survey the damage from the attack and played no role in it. In any case,
the disparity between these intelligence officials' revelations and the
official, steadfast American government position – "no evidence of
deliberateness" – is as enormous as it is remarkable. Obviously, people
like Helms (who as director coordinated the entire United States
intelligence community) Inman, Morrison, et al were
among the world's most knowledgeable. Thus, it seems difficult to
understand why during so many years spent probing the Liberty,
Cristol apparently caged only one of like rank
for book jacket blurbs. And even this source – ex-Naval
Intelligence director Rear Admiral Thomas A. Brooks – now contradicts the
judge. He observes in the open-source intelligence journal he edits that
the case is not closed. In any event, why the dearth of American
intelligence professionals among sources cited by Cristol? Are they
to be lumped in with the "conspiracists," pro-Arabs, etc.? Cristol
does not say. (Various questions to him during the preparation of my
Proceedings piece went unanswered, on the grounds, he wrote me, that I was
biased.) The explanation is simple, Liberty men believe. They were steered
clear of because their judgments would have collided with the
"accidentalist" thesis. Why? The Liberty story entails an important
ancillary question. How did this catastrophe
occur and why would Israel – in 1967 much less tightly tethered to the
American lifeline than now – commit such an outrage? Those I
interviewed are like others who have spoken to the disaster for the past
36 years: They profess not to know about motive. Speculation here is as
rife as it is, at times, sensational. Was the coordinated attack to
prevent Washington from learning of an Israeli massacre of Egyptian
prisoners of war on the Sinai coast nearby? (The killings were belatedly
reported in 1995). Or, more plausibly, did the
Israelis put the eavesdropping Liberty out of commission to conceal
Israel's impending attack on Syria to seize the strategic Golan Heights?
Why did Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and Chief of Naval Operations
Adm. David McDonald shout orders to the two carrier commanders to recall
jets sent to help the Liberty, which was then still under deadly attack?
(This, according to Liberty's deck officer James Ennes, quoting an
electronic technician aboard the Liberty who had "patched" McNamara and
Martin together with the carrier skippers through the Naval Communications
Station at Port Laerty, Morocco). Was the recall on orders from President
Lyndon Johnson? Did LBJ fear political
retaliation at home if he punished Israel? I don't know. I can
say that McNamara once told me, as he has others in virtually identical
language, that "I have no recollection of the Liberty, and therefore can
be of no assistance to you." This is a dumbfounding remark, given the
former defense chief's ability to recount decades-old conversations
verbatim. Such tangential questions, interesting and provocative as they
are, remain for the future to answer. But they pale before the issue of
responsibility, what United States intelligence experts at the highest
levels say they knew – and now publicly maintain about the attack. The
curtain of official silence long enshrouding the Liberty seems to be
slowly rising, and the fog of war lifting. This can only be to the good
for all concerned; and for history. Human costs Never before or since,
according to survivors, has a Navy vessel come under such concerted
"friendless" fire, with officialdom's reaction being anything less than
outrage. Calls for punishment in like circumstances do seem invariably
quick and clarion. Witness for example Japan's 1937 attack on the United
States gunboat Panay, North Korea's seizure of the Navy intelligence ship
Pueblo in 1968 and the terrorist attack on the Navy destroyer Cole in
2000. This failure by any administration to probe the motive for the
tragedy is wrenching for all who experienced the horror of the attack,
cryptologic technicians and seamen alike. As Dr. Richard Kiepfer, the
ship's overwhelmed physician, has written, "Never before in the history of
the United States Navy has a Navy Board of Inquiry ignored the testimony
of American military eyewitnesses and taken, on faith, the word of their
attackers." A harsh judgment. Kiepfer was referring to a perfunctory
hearing convened barely a week following the attack, memorable to
survivors mainly for its frequent rejection of testimony and evidence that
tended to implicate Israel in a deliberate attack. Shockingly, the court's
chief legal counsel, Capt. Ward Boston, in 2002 told Navy Times the naval
court was, in fact, a politicized sham. Its
conclusions, he declared, had been preordained to exonerate Israel.
Last month, Boston expanded upon those views in an interview with the
Union-Tribune. He told Union-Tribune reporter James Crawley that a
judgment of "no evidence of deliberate intent" was ordered from Washington
to spare Israel embarrassment. Formerly, Cristol had supposed
Boston would support him. The debate on such things rages still. But the
aggrieved victims, their families and next of kin aren't really interested
in legal minutiae, foreign lobbies or the intrigues of power politics or
geo-strategies. They seek what they've always
been, and likely always will be, denied: a public forum with official
sponsorship but without back-room meddling; the opportunity to express
grievances before fellow citizens, and to demand answers to volatile
questions left too long unanswered. The questions are fundamental. To
their own government: Why did you abandon us during the attack and ignore
us until now? And to Israel: Why did you kill our friends?
History's judgment Would it serve for the United States to call Israel to
book at this late date, to insist the attackers be surrendered for
questioning along with relevant paperwork and evidence; say, the orange
life raft an Israeli torpedo boat seized after allegedly machine-gunning
it and two others in the water? At least one senior Navy lawyer has said,
yes. In 1986, Lt. Cmdr. Walter Jacobsen, writing in the Naval Law Review,
argued the case for reopening the Liberty matter. Jacobsen based his
argument partly on his belief that the attack violated international law
and that the machine-gunning of life rafts
released from the Liberty constituted a war crime. No statute
of limitations exists for murder or war crimes. One probe might examine
what the men saw and heard and wrote down in deck and radio intercept logs
during and after the attack. That would reveal, they insist, the
miscarriage of justice of the hastily convened naval court of inquiry. The
second might go to motive: why Israel attacked
this virtually unarmed, clearly unthreatening vessel on the high seas,
and, per the Watergate process, ask "what the Johnson administration knew
and when it knew it." This is, few would disagree, a calamity –
a major historic controversy with possible toxic ramifications to this
day. Does this country owe anything to the surviving crew, their next of
kin and the public? Certainly not a public reading of every encrypted
message. But also, not the boilerplate and obfuscation that have been
trotted out for the past 36 years and that smack
so transparently of cover-up. At a time when enormous amounts
of intelligence and other government records dating to the 1960s have been
declassified and released, Washington ought to come clean about the
Liberty, no matter how embarrassing that might prove. Until that happens,
the ghosts of the Liberty's dead will find no peace."
U.S., Israeli armed forces trade urban-warfare tips. American military
officials studied attack on Jenin refugee camp,
By Christian Lowe, Marine Corps Times, May
31, 2002
"While Israeli forces were engaged in what many
termed a brutal — some even say criminal — campaign to crush Palestinian
militants and terrorist cells in West Bank towns, U.S. military officials
were in Israel seeing what they could learn from that urban fight.
Likewise, just weeks after the vicious fight in the Jenin refugee camp
that ended April 15 with 75 Israelis and Palestinians dead and nearly 150
buildings in rubble, a senior Israeli Defense Force
intelligence officer visited the United States to watch U.S. Marines
experiment with new urban-warfare tactics. All this
military-to-military contact comes at a sensitive time, one in which the
Bush administration is taking pains to appear as an honest broker in the
Israeli-Palestinian standoff. Moreover,
human-rights groups and State Department officials have expressed concerns
about the IDF’s urban counterterror tactics that U.S. military officials
now are studying. A top Palestinian representative in
Washington said the military visits could adversely affect a resolution to
the Middle East conflict. “As far as it affects the Palestinians we think
that it is unwise,” said Abdul Rahman, chief PLO representative in the
United States. “Because at least the declared objective of the United
States is to achieve a permanent peace in the Middle East. Therefore they
need to judge how it really enhances this declared objective or hinders
it.” The U.S. and Israeli armed forces were
trading urban war-fighting tips gleaned from a campaign that even U.S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell had labeled “troubling” for its brutality.
In an April 21 interview with ABC News, Powell said U.S. diplomats played
a leading role in calling for a United Nations investigation of potential
Israeli war crimes in the refugee camps — an investigation that ultimately
never got off the ground. Powell told ABC News that reports from U.S.
diplomats who went into Jenin “were disturbing — the loss of life,
collapsed buildings, potential for disease. … We’re doing what we can to
relieve suffering” in Jenin. A State Department official said the
department was aware of the military visits, but
declined to comment on the potential diplomatic fallout such visits could
cause. Officials from the Israeli embassy, the Pentagon and Marine
Corps all are unapologetic about the exchange of information about
tactics, saying they are the result of a
long-standing partnership ... The U.S. military, including the
Marine Corps, is eager to learn what it can from the Israeli Defense
Force’s successes and failures during the house-to-house fighting while
those memories still are fresh. Marine Corps
Warfighting Lab officials plan to examine closely Israel’s tactics and
make changes to the Corps’ urban war-fighting doctrine to reflect what
worked for the Israelis. For instance, the use of armor and air
power in urban warfare always has been challenging, given its potential
for collateral damage, so the Marines are looking closely at how the
Israelis employed tanks and helicopters in their fight. Beyond
Marine-specific efforts to gather lessons from the Israeli-Palestinian
fighting, a Pentagon official confirmed that the Joint Chiefs of Staff
sent a delegation of more than a dozen officials to Israel for a trip of
about a week that wrapped up May 23. Led by the Joint Staff’s deputy
director for international negotiations and politico-military affairs for
the Middle East, Rear Adm. Carlton Jewett, the group gathered lessons from
the fighting and other tips to help in the
ongoing war on terrorism, according to Israeli officials. The Joint
Staff’s visit was meant in part to plan an upcoming Defense Policy
Advisory Group meeting. That session, involving
Israeli and Pentagon officials, is planned for early June in Washington
and led by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy
Douglas Feith. Earlier, on May 8, the head of the Israeli Army’s
Combat Intelligence Corps, Brig. Gen. Amnon Sufrin —
accompanied by two Israeli military attachés from Washington —
watched a Marine Corps urban-warfare reconnaissance experiment in Boise,
Idaho ... An Israeli embassy spokeswoman confirmed there have been a
number of visits between the U.S. and Israeli military both in America and
Israel after Operation Defensive Shield began in April, but would not
elaborate further. Questionable tactics It is as yet unclear just
how the IDF urban-warfare lessons will be applied to the U.S. military’s
training, but clearly, some of them are
controversial. A U.S.-based Islamic group was quick to condemn
the close U.S.-Israeli cooperation in the wake of the fighting at Jenin.
“It’s troubling if it leads to the
Israeli-ization of the war on terrorism,” said Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“The bottom line is we’ve seen how counterproductive these Israeli tactics
have been in terms of bringing peace and justice to the region. They would
hardly be something we’d like to emulate.” A
Human Rights Watch report published last month claimed witnesses to the
April counterterrorist incursion saw Israeli troops used civilians as
human shields who were forced to knock on the doors of apartments as the
Israelis searched for hiding Palestinian militants ... Human
Rights Watch claims 52 Palestinians were killed in Jenin, only 27 of whom
were militants ... According to news reports, the IDF surrounded Jenin
with tanks and sent in its most seasoned reservists to rout armed
militants and suspected terrorists. Despite the heavily booby-trapped
alleyways and near-constant sniper attacks, the IDF met with moderate
success and took relatively few casualties. The troops went from house to
house, clearing whole apartment blocks of militants after the Israelis
said they warned residents to leave. Human Rights
Watch and others dispute this, saying inadequate warning was given and
that, in some cases, the IDF unleashed U.S.-built AH-1 Cobra helicopter
gunships in indiscriminate missile attacks on apartment blocks. After
Palestinian militants ambushed an Israeli patrol April 9, killing 13
soldiers, the IDF took the gloves off and sent in armored D-9 bulldozers
to cut a swath through the city, demolishing entire apartment
blocks as they went."
Justice Dept. Creates Intellectual Property Task Force. Agency cites
growing piracy, counterfeiting by organized crime,
U.S. Government, March 31, 2004
"The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has created an Intellectual Property
Task Force that will explore ways to improve protection of patents,
trademarks, copyrights and other forms of intellectual property (IP). In a
March 31 news release, DOJ noted the importance of IP industries to the
U.S. economy and said that organized crime groups have recently increased
"the scale, scope, and sophistication of international piracy and
counterfeiting." The new task force will be headed by David Israelite,
deputy chief of staff at DOJ and counselor to Attorney General John
Ashcroft, according to the release."
Short Cuts,
by Sara Roy, London Review of Books, Vol. 26,
No. 7, April 1, 2004
"Recently, at Harvard University where I am based, a Jewish student, using
an assumed (gentile) name, began posting anti-semitic statements on the
weblog of the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice, an anti-war,
pro-Palestinian group on campus. The student, it turned out, is the
secretary of Harvard Students for Israel - which dissociated itself from
the incident - and had previously accused the HIPJ of being too tolerant
of anti-semitism. He now went undercover as part of a self-appointed
effort to monitor anti-semitism on campus. In one posting, for example, he
referred to Israel as the 'AshkeNAZI state'. Incidents of this kind, which
are becoming commonplace on American campuses,
reflect a wider determination to monitor, report, defame and punish those
individuals and institutions within academia whose views the right finds
objectionable. The campaign is directed at area studies generally
but the most virulent attacks are reserved for those of us in Middle
Eastern studies whose ideas are considered anti-Israel, anti-semitic or
anti-American. The relationship between Israel's hardline supporters and
the 'Arab professoriat', as we have been called, has been tense for a long
time. After 11 September, the right accused Middle East academics in
particular of extremist scholarship and intellectual treason. Defending
Civilisation: How Our Universities Are Failing America and What Can Be
Done about It, a report published in November 2001 by the American Council
of Trustees and Alumni, a non-profit organisation founded by Lynne Cheney,
wife of the vice-president, and Senator Joseph Lieberman,
effectively accused the academy of being unpatriotic and anti-American, a
fifth column providing intellectual support for global terrorism. In
evidence it cited over a hundred statements by academics (and others)
calling for a more critical examination of the causes of the events of 11
September and the role US foreign policy may have played. Another
indictment of Middle East studies appeared in Martin Kramer's Ivory
Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America,
published in October 2001 by the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near
East Policy. Kramer, who teaches Arab history and politics
at Tel Aviv University, claims that Middle
East studies in the US are dominated - indeed, crippled - by pro-Arab and
anti-American sentiment. The academy, he believes, failed to anticipate
and may even have concealed the growing Islamist threat that resulted in
the attack on the World Trade Center. Middle East studies, he claims, have
devoted too much attention to historical and cultural subjects that are of
no use to the state and its national security imperatives, and may even
harm them. What is needed, he says, is a new approach to the study of the
Middle East that has at its core 'the idea that the United States plays an
essentially beneficent role in the world'. There is no let-up.
September 2002 saw the establishment of Campus
Watch, a website whose primary purpose is to monitor Middle Eastern
studies faculty in departments across the US for signs of anti-American
and anti-Israel bias. Campus Watch is the invention of Daniel
Pipes, a colleague of Kramer's, and director of the Middle East
Forum, a think-tank devoted to promoting American interests in the Middle
East. 'I want Noam Chomsky to be taught at universities about as
much as I want Hitler's writing or Stalin's writing,' Pipes said to
an interviewer. 'These are wild and extremist ideas that I believe have no
place in a university.' Not only does Campus Watch
monitor universities for signs of 'sedition', i.e. views on US foreign
policy, Islam, Israeli policy and Palestinian rights that Pipes considers
unacceptable; it encourages students to inform on professors whose ideas
they find offensive. Recently, Bush appointed Pipes to the
board of directors of the US Institute of Peace, 'an independent,
non-partisan federal institution created by Congress to promote the
prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international
conflicts'. Given that the political climate here is in good part
determined by an alliance of right-wing supporters of Israel and members
of the neo-conservative establishment, it isn't surprising that the attack
on area studies may soon be enshrined in law. On 21 October last year, the
House of Representatives passed the International Studies in Higher
Education Act, HR 3077. The bill is part of the Higher Education Act
reauthorisation known as Title VI, which dates back to 1959 and mandates
federal funding of international studies and foreign languages. Title VI
renews international education and language-training programmes and has
made several important improvements, but it also contains provisions that
would impinge on curricula, faculty hiring and course materials in
institutions that accept federal funding. A key figure behind HR 3077 is
Stanley Kurtz, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an
associate of Kramer and Pipes. Testifying before the House
on 19 June 2003, Kurtz accused scholars of the Middle East and other areas
of abusing Title VI support with their 'extreme and one-sided criticisms
of American foreign policy'. He believes that the basic premise of
post-colonial theory is that 'it is immoral for a scholar to put his
knowledge of foreign languages and cultures at the service of American
power' and cites Edward Said's work in this area as the most pernicious.
Kurtz's testimony was accepted by Congress without debate and many
of his recommendations for 'repairing' the damage were adopted by the
House. Potentially the most onerous of these recommendations is the
establishment of an international higher education advisory board to
ensure that government-funded programmes 'reflect diverse perspectives and
the full range of views on world regions, foreign languages and
international affairs'. The board would have seven members: three
appointed by the secretary of education, of whom two will 'represent
federal agencies that have national security responsibilities'; two
appointed by the speaker of the House of Representatives; and two by the
president pro tempore of the Senate. One of the board's functions will be
to recommend ways 'to improve programmes . . . to better reflect the
national needs related to homeland security'. ...
What all this boils down to is an attempt to silence
criticism of US policy, and put an end to disagreement with the
neo-conservative agenda. It is not diversity that is being sought but
conformity." Sara Roy is a senior research scholar at
Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the author of several
works on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
As terror fears rise, UJC idea could help garner homeland security funds,
By Matthew E. Berger, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, March 30, 2004
"With Jewish organizations divided over the use of
federal homeland security funds to protect Jewish sites, supporters
believe they have found a way to assuage concerns over church-state
separation. The United Jewish Communities, which is spearheading the
effort to garner federal funds for high-risk non-profit organizations,
is touting a plan to give the federal dollars
directly to contractors, who would perform security upgrades at Jewish and
other vulnerable sites. “By having the flow of money go from the
federal government to the contractor, there no longer will be church-state
concerns,” said Charles Konigsberg, vice president for public
policy at UJC, the umbrella organization of North American Jewish
federations. But some Jewish groups concerned that the program may trample
on church-state separation aren’t supporting UJC’s efforts. “It’s
a gimmick to avoid the issue,” said Abraham Foxman, national
director of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s still
going to be synagogues, churches and mosques asking for money.” On
Thursday, lawmakers were expected to introduce bills in both houses of
Congress authorizing $100 million to upgrade
security at high-risk, non-profit institutions. The legislation is
expected to have bipartisan support, though it’s unclear whether there is
enough money for the proposal in the national budget. Under the plan,
non-profit sites would seek qualification from their states’ homeland
security departments. Each state then would submit a prioritized list of
sites to the Department of Homeland Security. The federal government would
decide which sites to fund and would enter into contracts with security
firms that would administer the work. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.),
who is sponsoring the bill in the U.S. House of Representatives with Rep.
George Nethercutt (R-Wash.), said he would not have supported direct
federal aid to religious institutions but feels the suggested mechanism is
acceptable. “It’s exactly equivalent to what we do in getting a cop
outside a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur,” Nadler said. The
bill, to be sponsored in the Senate by Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Penn.)
and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), would provide some of the
$1 billion that sponsors estimate is needed
to secure non-profit institutions. After last year’s bombings of
synagogues in Istanbul and Casablanca, Nadler said,
he believes the government has an obligation
to help secure U.S. sites that are vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
Konigsberg said he believes the new system would expedite the process
because money would be given directly to those performing the work.
However, some lawmakers remain concerned that using contractors would make
the process more bureaucratic — and that issue may put a hitch into UJC’s
plans to roll-out the program this week. Some groups also argue that the
use by synagogues or day schools of federal funds, even if they come
through a middle man, violates the constitutional
separation of church and state."
Kaufman wants economic sanctions against Israel,
Yahoo! News, March 29, 2004
"Labour MP Gerald Kaufman called for economic sanctions against
Israel, including cutting off arms supplies, to force it back to the
negotiating table with the Palestinians. "It is not enough for the world
community, including our own government, to condemn the Israeli government's
brutal policies of repression," he said late Sunday while addressing members
of his Manchester constituency. "Only widespread
economic sanctions on Israel, together with cutting off arms supplies, can
make any impact on this government without a conscience".
Kaufman, himself Jewish, said President
George W. Bush's father, the former president Bush, had "understood the
importance of forcing the Israelis to the conference table by imposing
economic sanctions on a previous Likud Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir."
Kaufman, once a front-bench Labour foreign affairs spokesman when the
party was in opposition, criticised a decision by George W. Bush to receive
Sharon in Washington. "Bush has shown whose side he is on
in this grossly unequal struggle by refusing to
invite the Palestinian prime minister, even though the ostensible purpose of
the invitation to Sharon is the Middle East peace process,"
Kaufman said. Sharon has received an invitation to meet Bush on April
14."
EU to Israel: Don't kill terrorists, or else,
Jerusalem Newswire, April 2, 2004
"European lawmakers Thursday accused Israel of
perpetrating state terrorism, and threatened to suspend the
current Israel-EU trade agreement if any more "Palestinian" terrorist
leaders were vaporized by IAF helicopter gun ships. A resolution presented
to the European Parliament called for the immediate suspension of Israel's
Association Agreement in response to the execution of blood-soaked Hamas
leader Ahmed Yassin. It failed to gain majority support. Two compromise
articles were passed, however, the first of which called on the body to
fully suspend the trade agreement, which elevates the Israel's trade status
with Europe, should Jerusalem carried out any more "extra-judicial"
killings. The second accused Israel of engaging in "acts of terror" by
launching anti-terror military operations that on occasion result in
collateral damage among the largely terror-supporting "Palestinian"
population."
'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with
aeroplanes' Whistleblower the White House wants to silence speaks to The
Independent,
By Andrew Buncombe, The Independent (UK), April
2, 2004
"A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she
has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks
which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's
plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.
She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that
there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".
Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with
the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating
within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001
suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the
terrorists were in place. The Bush
administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a
gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets
privilege". She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave [the
commission] details of specific investigation files, the specific dates,
specific target information, specific managers in charge of the
investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow
up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things
can be established very easily." She added: "There was general information
about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about
how they would be used and about people being in place and who was
ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were
mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers." The accusations from Mrs
Edmonds, 33, a Turkish-American who speaks Azerbaijani, Farsi, Turkish and
English, will reignite the controversy over whether
the administration ignored warnings about al-Qa'ida. That controversy
was sparked most recently by Richard Clarke, a former counter-terrorism
official, who has accused the administration of ignoring his warnings. The
issue what the administration knew and when is central to the
investigation by the 9/11 Commission, which has been hearing testimony in
public and private from government officials, intelligence officials and
secret sources. Earlier this week, the White House made a U-turn when it
said that Ms Rice would appear in public before the commission to answer
questions. Mr Bush and his deputy, Dick Cheney, will also be questioned in a
closed-door session. Mrs Edmonds, 33, says she gave her evidence to the
commission in a specially constructed "secure" room at its offices in
Washington on 11 February. She was hired as a translator for the FBI's
Washington field office on 13 September 2001, just two days after the
al-Qa'ida attacks. Her job was to translate documents and recordings from
FBI wire-taps. She said said it was clear there was sufficient information
during the spring and summer of 2001 to indicate terrorists were planning an
attack. "Most of what I told the commission 90 per cent of it related to
the investigations that I was involved in or just from working in the
department. Two hundred translators side by side, you get to see and hear a
lot of other things as well." "President Bush said
they had no specific information about 11 September and that is accurate but
only because he said 11 September," she said. There was, however,
general information about the use of airplanes and that an attack was just
months away."
Israeli envoy blames Left-wing MPs for fuelling anti-Semitism,
By Melissa Kite, Telegraph (UK), April 4, 2004
"Israel's outgoing ambassador to Britain launched a
stinging attack last night on Left-wing British politicians, accusing them
of encouraging anti-Semitism. Zvi Shtauber said he had been
shocked during his three years in London by the
anti-Semitic views of some Left-wing MPs and activists. "All along we
were afraid of the Right. Now there is an unholy
alliance between the Left and Islamic fundamentalists," Mr
Shtauber told the Observer. He singled out Tam Dalyell, the
Labour MP for Linlithgow and Father of the House of Commons, and Jenny
Tonge, the MP sacked from the Liberal Democrat front bench for expressing
sympathy with Palestinian suicide bombers. Mr Dalyell has complained that
Tony Blair relies too much on "a cabal" of Jewish
politicians. Mr Shtauber, a former adviser to the Israeli
ex-premier Ehud Barak, said that while negative references to Muslims
and Hindus were routinely deplored, denigration of Jews was tolerated. The
"terrible incitement" to hate Jews and Israel
had made peace in the Middle East hard to achieve, he said. "Why would a boy
in Gaza who has been told that Israeli agents deliberately spread Aids
[among Muslims] want to make peace with us?" He said
that much anti-Semitism from the Left was covered in a veneer of being
anti-Israeli. "Anti-Semitism is a successful ideology," he said. "It is very
important to make a stand." Mr Shtauber's outspoken remarks
follow claims by the Israeli government that news organisations,
including the BBC,
had shown a deep-seated bias against Israel ... Baroness Symons, the
foreign office minister, confronted him last month over the killing by
missile strike of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of the militant terrorist
group Hamas."
The Jewish Card. Give me my job back or I'll call the Anti-Defamation
League, you anti-Semite!,
BY BOB NORMAN, New Times (originally published
by New Times Broward-Palm Beach), Aprl 1, 2004
"Backed by rabbis, Harold Wishna meant business. Accompanied
by a handful of rabbis, Harold Wishna lowered the boom on the North
Broward Hospital District last week. The 75-year-old
political power broker stood before the district board, which is
appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, and complained that the
public hospital system discriminates against Jews. The gray and
balding Wishna, who wore a George W. Bush reelection pin on the lapel
of his dark suit, gave a ten-minute speech before the board, which met at
the North Broward Medical Center in Pompano Beach. The
gist of his claim was that too few Jews occupy supervisorial positions at
the district, the county's third-largest employer. It's the second time that
the long-time Jewish community leader has brought up the allegation.
Back in 1993, when Wishna served as a hospital district commissioner
himself, his complaints led to increased advertising in Jewish newspapers.
This time, Wishna held himself up as living proof of discrimination.
After 20 months on the payroll, the district fired him in late January from
his $52,000-a-year part-time job to promote NBHD to the Jewish community.
While the seven commissioners, none of whom are Jewish, sat in silence,
he blamed the anti-Semitic culture for his firing.
"I look at you, and I say, 'When is this going to stop?'" he said into the
loudspeaker. "We have a right to have Jewish personnel treated right."
Wishna's claims made for quite a show at the board meeting and provided
hot copy for the Sun-Sentinel, which published a story on the Local
section frontpage with the headline, "Hospital
district faces bias charge." I don't doubt that there is a dearth of
Jews working in the district's administrative offices. And Wishna is
genuinely concerned about it, I'm sure. But his
impassioned speech was, in reality, little more than a play of the Jewish
card in an attempt to get himself back on the public dole. And
his firing had nothing to do with his religion. Like most everything else
that goes on at the district, it was as political as that "W'04" button
pinned to Wishna's suit. Wishna, in fact, will tell anyone who
asks that he was really fired because of an ongoing power struggle between
the former chairman, Paul Sallarulo, and the new one, J. Luis Rodriguez. The
two commissioners have been engaged in bitter conflict for months. Wishna's
saga involves the governor's office, the upcoming presidential election,
and the George W. Bush camp's push for the South
Florida Jewish vote. To really understand why Wishna's job was
terminated, you have to know why he was hired. And the reason for that dates
back to 1979, when he moved to Broward from New Jersey and took a job
representing dozens of temples as regional director for the United
Synagogues of Conservative Judaism. As a conduit to the Jewish community,
the job made Wishna a key political property.
Politicians wooed him, hoping he would help them tap crucial Jewish votes.
Back then, Wishna was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, and he befriended U.S.
Sen. Bob Graham and the late Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles, who appointed him
to the hospital board in 1991. He was also an early supporter of Bill
Clinton, who invited him to his inauguration and again to the White House in
1996 for one of those famous coffees. But in 1998, Wishna converted.
Just eight days before Jeb Bush beat Democrat Buddy MacKay, Wishna
announced that he was backing the Republican. Both the
Herald and Sun-Sentinel reported charges by fellow Democrats that Wishna
made the switch only because he wanted to gain sway with the impending Bush
administration, which was way ahead in the polls. Wishna still denies
that allegation, saying he simply didn't think MacKay was worthy of Chiles'
legacy. Instead of reappointing Wishna (Bush had others in mind), the
governor put him on other boards, including the Council on Education Policy.
In 2000, Wishna had to make a tough choice for president: He could either
support Jeb's brother or back Al Gore and Joe Lieberman, the first Jewish
vice presidential candidate in U.S. history. Publicly, he was mum, refusing
to voice allegiance to either side. He says he wound up voting for Bush. It
wasn't until April 2002 that then-district chairman Sallarulo -- a top South
Florida supporter of the Bush brothers -- helped Wishna land his
$50-an-hour, 20-hour-a-week job to serve as a liaison with the Jewish
community and to try to drum up new patients. According to one highly placed
NBHD official, part of the deal was that Wishna would also use his
clout to help reelect the president in 2004. This, of course, is an
explosive charge. Using taxpayers' money to buy
support for a presidential candidate is the kind of thing that might draw
the interest of the federal grand jury now investigating the district's
business deals. But Wishna denies that the job entailed his public
backing of the president, as does Sallarulo, who otherwise refused to
discuss the issue. "I don't mix politics with my work at the district,"
Wishna says with a straight face. Regardless, Wishna began to publicly
support the president not long after taking the job, and in early 2003,
he was named the statewide chair of the Republican
Jewish Coalition's committee to reelect W. Last week, Wishna
told me he would resign from the Bush campaign if it would help him get his
job back. But he's adamant that the district job is completely separate from
his work for the president. Wishna, as a district "executive
consultant," tirelessly tried to drum up medical
contracts for various services with predominantly Jewish condo boards.
In his 20 months of employment, however, he never secured such an agreement.
On January 31, NBHD Vice President Bob Burton fired him, saying there was no
money left in the budget for his services. Wishna says that shortly
after that, he heard the real explanation from Jillian Inmon, executive
director of the Florida chapter of the Republican Jewish Coalition. She told
him she had learned from her GOP sources that he'd really been fired because
of the ongoing feud between commissioners Rodriguez and Sallarulo ... The
conversation degenerated into a shouting match during which, Rodriguez
claims, Wishna called him an anti-Semite.
Wishna also complained to the Anti-Defamation
League that the district was discriminating against Jews but held off making
it official until he would know if he could have his job back.
The day before his appearance at the board meeting, he still hoped to get
back on the payroll ... Long-time district activist Jane Kreimer addressed
the board shortly after Wishna sat down and blasted the former
commissioners. "It is not the province of the North
Broward Hospital District to [financially] support former board members,"
she said, adding that Rodriguez should have called law enforcement when
Wishna demanded his job back under threat of the anti-Semitism
allegations. "It's extortion."
After everyone spoke, Trower claimed that Wishna was terminated along
with 43 other people due to NBHD's ongoing financial problems."
http://cf.geocities.com/a2khedira/sarkozy.html
"Donc, Monsieur Nicolas SARKOZY, l'actuel de Ministre de l'Intérieur,
a des origines juives puisqu'au moins son grand
père maternel est un Juif. De plus, les agissements de Monsieur Nicolas
SARKOZY semblent bien mettrent en exergue une personnalité qui soit plus
juive qu'elle ne l'est congénitalement (un quart)."
His policy is decidedly jewish:
A Frenchman or a Jew?
Topic Commentary,
By FERNANDA EBERSTADT, Middle East Information Center
(originally from the New York Times, February 29, 2004
"In a working-class neighborhood of the 20th arrondissement in Paris,
on a rainy, lead-gray morning last month, the housing blocks looked like
sodden cardboard. But inside Brigitte Stora's apartment was an
explosion of scarlet, ocher and flame gold, of Israeli and North African
textiles, of pottery and a brass menorah. Stora, an
Algerian-born Sephardic Jew ... belonged for
decades to a political movement devoted to the cause of equal rights for
Arab immigrants. French Arabs were her friends and political allies, and the
integrated neighborhood in which she chose to live reflected those
commitments. In the last three and a half years, though, Stora's
perspective has changed ... Although the frequency of anti-Jewish incidents
is said to have abated somewhat in the past year (thanks in part to more
vigilant policing), many French Jews remain frightened, angry and
dispirited. In 2002, the number of French citizens
emigrating to Israel more than doubled from the year before to over 2,000.
Like many of the country's secular Jews, Stora
finds herself reconsidering the venerable French assumption that she and her
family must be French first and Jewish second. For a thoroughly
assimilated Frenchwoman (her husband is a deputy mayor
of Paris), it is no small turnabout in her self-conception ...
Secular French Jews of Stora's generation have felt the impulse to
return to their roots before. As Stora pointed out, she, like
thousands of girls born around 1960, was named after the cinema sex kitten
Brigitte Bardot, but for her own children she chose
names from the Hebrew Bible. ''I suppose I felt the need for my own
moorings,'' she said. Even so, her children have embraced a much stronger
form of Jewish self-identification -- one that is
all the more militant for finding itself besieged. ''Because of
anti-Semitism,'' she said, ''my children feel more
radically Jewish than I ever did. Their attachment to Israel has become
absolutely primary" ... ' The worsening of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict has created painful rifts among French Jewish
intellectuals, aggravating the relations between those who feel dutybound to
condemn Israel's human rights abuses and those who
maintain that support for Israel is a prime obligation of diaspora
Jews, especially in a political climate rife with anti-Zionism. Even
if they are critical of Sharon's leadership, many French Jews resist what
the lawyer and activist Serge Klarsfeld has called the pressure to
become ''political Marranos'' -- Jews called
upon to renounce Israel much as Jews during the Spanish Inquisition were
compelled to renounce their faith. In a widely condemned polemic that
appeared on the French Muslim Web site Oumma.com, Tariq Ramadan, a
well-known Swiss Muslim philosopher, accused a number of leading French
Jewish intellectuals -- including the philosophers Bernard-Henri Levy
and Alain Finkielkraut -- of having betrayed
their commitment to the universal ideals of the French Republic for a narrow
sectarianism. (Read: Zionism.) What shocked French readers most about
Ramadan's essay was that he explicitly identified his
targets as being Jewish (including, notably, one who wasn't) -- an
argumentative tactic that until recently stood in flagrant violation of the
Republican taboo against racial or ethnic profiling. Most
European intellectuals insist on a distinction between even the fiercest
criticism of Israel and an endorsement of anti-Semitism.
Recently, however, this distinction has blurred.
... Many French Jews, too, were devastated when Foreign Minister Hubert
Vedrine dismissed the anti-Semitic violence in France as ''hooliganism'' and
when a public prosecutor described three arsonists who were convicted of
burning a synagogue in Montpellier as ''petty delinquents.''
All this has changed under the center-right government
of Jacques Chirac, who was re-elected in 2002 on the strength of a far
harsher view of ''delinquency.'' Nicolas Sarkozy, Chirac's
ruthlessly energetic minister of the interior, has
waged a ''zero tolerance'' war on hate crime while also taking
steps to improve the position in French society of North African immigrants
and their children -- creating an official Muslim council, for instance, and
advocating affirmative action in government appointments ... Last November,
after the burning of a Jewish school in the Parisian suburb of Gagny, Chirac
went on national television and declared that ''an attack against a French
Jew is an attack against France.'' Since then, the
Chirac government has made the crackdown on anti-Semitism a top priority.
It has taken a series of emergency steps, from tighter policing of Jewish
sites to quicker investigation and prosecution of hate
crimes to proposing a heightened focus on the Holocaust in the public school
curriculum. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has
moved to block the broadcasts in France of Al-Manar, Hezbollah's television
station, which shows anti-Semitic propaganda. But nothing has grabbed as
much attention as the government's proposed ''anti-head-scarf'' law, which
would ban the wearing of ''conspicuous'' religious signs in school.
Joseph Sitruk, France's grand rabbi, has supported
the head-scarf ban, and many French Jews own up to a guilty sense of relief
at the reassertion of an official secularism -- from which French Jews
historically have benefited. ... After leaving Brigitte Stora's
apartment, I went to visit the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut at a
cafe across from the Jardins du Luxembourg ... But his engagement with
anti-Semitism today is now anything but theoretical. He has loudly sounded
the alarm about what he calls a new
''Islamo-progressive'' alliance, in which the political left
tolerates an age-old form of racial hatred that it has legitimized by
calling it anti-Zionism. ''The loathing of Israel
today is so thick you could cut it with a knife,'' he said. ''There
is a consistent Nazification of the Jewish state: the memory of the
Holocaust is always turned against Jews."
Former peace negotiator accuses politicians and media of anti-Semitism,
by Jason Burke, The Guardian (UK), April 4,
2004
"The outgoing Israeli ambassador to Britain has launched a stinging attack
on the British Left, accusing it of tolerating and, in some cases,
encouraging anti-Semitism. The comments are
likely to spark new controversy after a week in which
the Israeli government accused British media based in Jerusalem of
anti-Semitism and the European Union published a report showing a
significant increase in verbal and physical attacks on Jews across the
continent. In his only interview before leaving the UK after more than three
years here, Zvi Shtauber, a former soldier and university
vice-president, said that he had loved living in such a 'tolerant' country
but had been profoundly shocked by the anti-Jewish
sentiments expressed by some left-wing politicians and activists and the
lack of reaction to them. 'If there is a
concern, it is a growing anti-Semitism, covered in a [veneer] of being
anti-Israeli, that is coming from the Left,'
Shtauber
said. 'All along we were afraid of the Right. Now
there is an unholy alliance between the Left and Islamic fundamentalists.'
Shtauber singled out Tam Dalyell, the veteran Labour MP, Jenny Tonge, the
former Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on children, and the New Statesman
magazine for criticism. Tonge was sacked from her party's front bench after
suggesting that she might have resorted to violence had she been a
Palestinian. Dalyell told Vanity Fair magazine that Tony Blair relied
too much on Jewish advisers, and the New Statesman
published a cover showing the Union Jack pierced by a
Star of David to illustrate a story on the support for Israel among Jews in
the UK. Shtauber said that people paid attention to negative
references to Muslims or Hindus but not when Jews were denigrated.
'Anti-Semitism is a successful ideology,' he said. 'It is very important to
make a stand.' Last week's row was provoked by coverage of a 16-year-old
suicide bomber who surrendered to Israeli troops on the Gaza Strip. The
Israeli government accused British TV editors of having an 'agenda' and
singled out BBC correspondent Orla Guerin, alleging that she had a 'total
identification with the goals and methods of Palestinian terror groups' and
a 'deep-seated bias against Israel'. The BBC denied the accusation. The row
came as several foreign news organisations complained of increasing pressure
from the Israeli government to curtail critical coverage or to report
stories that Israel believes help to identify the Palestinian conflict with
Islamic terrorism elsewhere in the world. In a wide-ranging interview in the
heavily guarded Israeli embassy near London's Kensington Palace, Shtauber, a
former policy adviser to Israel's last Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, said
that, though he remained optimistic about an eventual settlement,
a 'terrible incitement' to hate Jews and Israel
had made peace in the Middle East very hard to achieve. 'It will not be
tomorrow,' said Shtauber, who played a key role in the Camp David peace
negotiations with the Palestinians in 2000. 'Why would a boy in the Gaza
Strip who has been told that Israeli agents deliberately spread Aids [among
Muslims] want to make peace with us? There are TV programmes all over the
Middle East broadcasting the worst anti-Semitic slurs. They have a huge
effect.' Shtauber, who retired from the Israel
Defence Forces in l995 as a brigadier-general, was appointed to the
UK before Ariel Sharon's landslide election victory in 2001."
The 10,000-Pound Elephant in the Room,
by Michael Saba, Arab News, March 27, 2004
"Richard Clarke is all over the news these days. The author of “Against All
Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror” had his book released this week,
the same week that he appeared as a key witness at the blue ribbon Sept. 11
Commission meeting which focused on what went wrong with America’s
intelligence leading up to that fateful day. Clarke, who retired from
government service about a year ago, served 30 years under 7 US presidents,
5 of them Republican, as a national security expert. Clarke has made all the
major TV talk shows and appeared on all of the TV networks chastizing Bush
and his administration for mistakes prior to Sept. 11 and criticizing
President Bush and his key officials for their obsession to go to war with
Iraq rather than focusing on Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Yet with all of
this talk and criticism, something was missing. There was a 10,000-pound
elephant in the room and, although everybody could see it, nobody wanted to
mention it. That 10,000-pound elephant is Israel.
Clarke laid the blame and the Bush administration fought back. The Sept.
11Commission also got into the act when Clarke testified. Everyone was
blaming everyone else but no one mentioned Israel as a possible participant
in the equation. And Clarke, although he was taking on
the neoconservatives, normally ardent supporters of Israel, seemed to be
avoiding the mention of the Jewish state like the plague. Some
courageous political pundits such as Pat Buchanan, have consistently pointed
out the role of Israel and the pro-Israeli lobby in driving the United
States toward war with Iraq. Then recollections of Clarke’s earlier career
came to mind. Clarke served in both the Bush 1 and Clinton administrations.
From 1989 to 1992 during Bush 1, Clarke served as the assistant secretary of
state for political-military affairs overseeing sensitive US technology
transfers. In a March 1992 report, State Department Inspector General
Sherman Funk stated “alleged Israeli violations of US laws cited and
supported by reliable intelligence information show a systematic and growing
pattern of unauthorized transfers...dating back to about 1982.” According to
other US officials at that time, those Israeli violations date back to the
early 1970s. Many of those alleged violations during the Reagan era include
Israel’s illegal transfers of American technology to China. The Funk Report
heavily criticized State’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for ignoring
scores of intelligence reports on apparent violations of retransfer
restrictions and other restrictions and for not reporting them to senior
officials and Congress, as required by law. The report
also recommended that the then Assistant Secretary of State for
Political-Military Affairs Richard Clarke be disciplined for his lack of
oversight on Israel. Clarke was reprimanded and eventually lost his
job. However Clarke, a consummate bureaucratic survivor, reappeared shortly
after that on the National Security Council staff in the Clinton
administration. When the Funk Report was issued and Clarke was removed from
his State Department position, Funk allegedly received threatening phone
calls at his home. Funk was summoned to closed-door hearings in the US House
of Representatives and was allegedly accused by Representative Tom Lantos
of California of harming Israel while others reportedly joined in a verbal
assault of Funk’s positions on Israel. At that same time the Jerusalem Post
reported, “It appears the bureaucratic target (of the Funk Report) was
Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Richard Clarke.
US officials reportedly say Clarke is being removed from his position for
negligence.” The Jerusalem Post goes on to quote a pro-Israeli activist as
saying, “Clarke was a friend of Israel in an
administration where they do not necessarily grow on trees. Somebody
was out there to get him.” Also defending Clarke at that time in the
Jerusalem Post were neoconservative, pro-Israeli advocates Michael Ledeen
and Stephen Bryen claiming that there was “lack of proof that Israel
had violated any agreements.” Interestingly, both Ledeen and Bryen
served in the Reagan administration at the same time as Clarke. Bryen
was also reprimanded during that period for alleged improprieties regarding
technology transfer to Israel. Bryen and Ledeen now
serve on the US China Commission which oversees American technology
transfers to China. Clarke himself was quoted in a 1990 article in the
Syracuse(NY) Post-Standard as saying, “The US benefits in a lot of ways from
its strategic relationship with Israel” and went on to say that Israel could
serve as a “war reserve stockpile” in expanding American military
capabilities. In Clarke’s book, he makes positive references to his friend,
Richard Perle. The pro-Israeli Perle, known as the “Prince of
Darkness” is widely credited as one of the architects of Bush’s attack Iraq
policy. And Clarke is quoted in the official biography of Steven Emerson
as saying, “I think of Steve as the Paul Revere of
terrorism...(Clarke) credits Emerson with repeatedly warning of
Al-Qaeda sleeper cells in the United States. He adds that he would attend
Emerson’s speeches whenever possible because ‘we’d always learn things
we weren’t hearing from the FBI or CIA, things which almost always proved to
be true.” Emerson is one of the strongest pro-Likud, pro-Israeli
advocates in the United States and is often cited for blaming the Arabs and
Muslims for most of the acts of terrorism around the world."
Israel's Isolation – and America's,
By Patrick J. Buchanan, Defence Talk, Mar 29,
2004
"'Israel has a right to defend itself,' said President Bush. And against
whom was Israel defending itself at dawn on Monday? A half blind and deaf
paraplegic being wheeled out of a mosque after prayers, Sheik Ahmed Yassin
was struck by missiles that blew him to pieces. In carrying out the
assassination of the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Ariel Sharon
used a U.S. Apache helicopter gunship. Thus, in Islamic eyes, we are passive
accomplices in the killing. Instantly, protests erupted in Mosul and Basra.
Ayatollah al-Sistani, the Shi'ite leader on whom we depend for a peaceful
transfer of power in Iraq, was enraged: "(T)his
morning, the occupying Zionist entity committed an ugly crime against
the Palestinian people by killing one of their heroes, scholar-martyr Ahmed
Yassin." Sharon's defenders say the sheik had sanctioned
terror attacks on innocent Israelis. But why did Israel not then seize him,
expose his complicity in murder, and put him in prison, as Israel had
before? Why convert this crippled old sheik into a martyr-saint? Why enhance
the prestige of Hamas? Has the killing made Israel more secure? If so, why
were Israeli buses deserted all week? Has it made us more secure? Why then
were the travel advisories issued to Americans in the Middle East? Why are
U.S. embassies shutting down? How does inflaming the
Islamic world against us advance the president's goal of persuading the
world that Islam is not America's enemy? President Bush must begin to
realize that his blind solidarity with Sharon, who has shown himself
contemptuous of America's interests in the larger region, is among the
greatest crosses we have to bear in the war on terror. A year after the fall
of Baghdad, Bush's men are boasting of his triumphs – the overthrow of the
Taliban, the liberation of Iraq, not one act of terror on U.S. soil in two
years. But consider the war from bin Laden's vantage point. The murderous
strike of 9-11 electrified America-haters, but produced blowback and near
total disaster for bin Laden. In weeks, Bush had united a great coalition,
smashed the Taliban and almost finished Osama himself at Tora Bora. Then
came Iraq. Here Bush played straight into bin Laden's
hand. By attacking a prostrate Arab nation
that played no role in 9-11, we united Arab and Islamic peoples in hatred of
America. We shattered alliances and ignited a guerrilla war.
According to a Pew poll, U.S. prestige in the Muslim world has never been
lower. Bush is widely detested. In Pakistan, 65 percent of the people hold
Osama in high regard, while 8 percent are positive on Bush.
We are losing the hearts and minds of the Islamic
young, creating a spawning pool out of which future terrorists will emerge.
Now, an attack in Madrid has left 200 dead and blown a hole in our
coalition. A socialist has come to power who intends to pull Spanish troops
out of Iraq. Poland, too, has begun to waver As Bush wins battles, Osama
advances toward his strategic goals: Demonization of America as the enemy of
Islam, isolation of America as an imperialist aggressor against Arab nations
and the enabler of Sharon, and unification of Islam's young behind
bin Laden's ultimate war aim: the expulsion of America from all Muslim
lands. The legendary Col. John Boyd described strategy as appending to
oneself as many centers of power as possible, while isolating one's enemy
from as many centers of power as possible. Bush I did this brilliantly in
the Gulf War, isolating Saddam. Bush II did it brilliantly in the Afghan
war, isolating the Taliban. Now Bush has fallen into the trap his father
avoided. He is letting Ariel
Sharon create the perception that America's war and Israel's war
are one and the same. In the Middle East, Sharon has no
friends. He does not care whom he alienates. But we are a world power with
friend, allies and interests in 22 Arab and 57 Muslim countries. To protect
our interests, to win our war on Al Qaeda, it is imperative that we not let
ourselves become as isolated as Israel is today. Between America and Israel
there are thus common interests and a collision of interests. Sharon
does not want us to confine our war on terror to those who attacked us on
9-11. He wants us to expand our list of enemies to
include his list of enemies: Arafat, Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, Saudi
Arabia. He wants us to escalate "the firemen's war" into an American war on
Israel's enemies, so, together, we can establish joint hegemony
in the Middle East. If Sharon and his acolytes
in the Bush administration succeed in conflating Sharon's war
with America's war, we could lose our war. Why cannot the president see what
is going on?"
AJC's determined diplomat,
By GARY STERN, THE JOURNAL NEWS, April
4, 2004
"You would never have known David Harris was in hostile territory.
Standing at the entrance to a Brussels ballroom, he
reached for the hands and embraced the shoulders of one high-level European
diplomat after another. He greeted each by first name or diplomatic
title, without looking at name tags, and appeared as relaxed as if he were
welcoming friends to a son's bar mitzvah. More than 450 leaders from 25
European nations were served the best kosher lamb chops in Brussels on this
mild February evening. Many, if not most, were likely bitter toward America
over the invasion of Iraq. Most, perhaps a large majority, were presumably
opponents of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. But Harris thrives on
tough crowds. The executive director of the American
Jewish Committee faced a ballroom full of influential minds that he could
change, if ever so slightly. "The American Jewish Committee has for
decades been a trailblazer in building bridges between Europe and the United
States," he told the ... Officially, this private gathering of European
decision-makers, which the local media called unprecedented in its scope,
was to celebrate the opening of the Transatlantic
Institute, the AJC's new think tank in Brussels. But the real pull
was the growing sense that the AJC matters, even in Europe, and that
David Harris has become ambassador-at-large for American Jews,
their secretary of state. In 14 years as
head of the AJC, Harris, who lives in Chappaqua, has become one of the three
or four most influential Jewish leaders in America. He has used an
even-tempered, behind-the-scenes style to rebuild the venerable AJC into a
unique organization. The AJC is not as well known as the Anti-Defamation
League when it comes to battling anti-Semitism and not as influential as the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee on defending Israel. But it carries
weight in both areas, and has created a new and urgent role as advocate for
the world's Jews, the diaspora-in-need. "Harris has given the AJC completely
new life, taking it where no American Jewish group went before," said
Nimrod Barkan, director of World Jewish Affairs for the Israeli Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. "He has created a role that no group filled, bringing
the concerns of American Jews to the international community. Now he is
building a bridge to Europe, and the Europeans are not used to this kind of
bridge" ... The AJC brought in $33.1 million in contributions during the
2001-02 fiscal year, according to its tax returns. Many New Yorkers know
Harris from his biweekly spots on CBS radio,
which the AJC has been airing in big cities since 2001. Aside from these
commentaries, he keeps a low public profile, preferring that the AJC itself
get any kudos. But in the Jewish and diplomatic worlds,
he is known for an uncanny ability to spread the AJC's
reach ... There are many stories about Harris' ability to woo foreign
dignitaries and make them care about the AJC's agenda, which stresses broad
ideals like pluralism, tolerance and democratic values. In Poland, Bulgaria
and other former Soviet satellites, for instance, he has made quick and
lasting relationships. The AJC has become the first American Jewish group to
build strong ties with Asia. Harris is famous for making fast friends with
German military officers. Outgoing Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, a
rising star in Europe before last month's terrorist attacks and the election
of a new government, is another who fell under Harris'
spell ... Watching Europe change Harris revealed his passionate side
one night in January at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville. The
Jewish Film Festival opened with a showing of "Decryptage," a documentary
that charges the French media with purposely distorting the truth in its
Middle East coverage in order to smear Israel. When it was over, Harris,
speaking on a panel, let loose: "More than anything
else, I am filled with rage. Rage is not an emotion that should drive
thinking, but there is anger inside me."
Americans Want Equal Mideast Accountability, Says Council for the National
Interest,
U.S. Newswire, April 6, 2004
"In a clear break with U.S. policy and in direct opposition to Congressional
attitudes, a majority of Americans now believe that
Congress should hold Israel accountable for maintaining programs of weapons
of mass destruction and for its human rights violations in the Palestinian
Territories, according to the Council for the National Interest. A
poll conducted by Zogby International for the Council for the National
Interest and released today shows that 56 percent of
Americans agree and 29 percent disagree that Congress should pass an Israel
accountability act on weapons of mass destruction and human rights
violations. Nearly one in three (30 percent) strongly agrees. Fifteen
percent are not sure. As might be expected, Muslims were strongly in favor
of such an act (72 percent), but so were a surprising percentage of Jews (45
percent). This flies in the face of repeated Congressional efforts,
spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other
pro-Israeli organizations, to penalize Arab governments for their support of
Palestinian independence and failure to rein in "terrorists." The Syria
Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 2003 and signed by President Bush
on December 11 last year, promises economic and other sanctions against
Syria for its support of "terrorist" organizations and for its "failures" to
heed UN Security Council and Congressional resolutions. Currently Congress
is considering a "Saudi Arabia Accountability Act," which promises sanctions
if Saudi Arabia doesn't stop the private financing of "terrorism" and
doesn't cooperate more fully with U.S. anti-terrorist efforts. Support for
an Israel accountability act came primarily from Democrats and independents
(61 percent), 18-29 year-olds (69 percent), progressives (70 percent), and
liberals (72 percent), but also a plurality of Republican voters (46
percent). People with annual household incomes of $25,000-$34,999 were
strongly in favor (70 percent), and also those with $75,000 and above (61
percent). There has been much written on the support of Israel by the
conservative (Born Again) Christian group, but the Zogby poll showed the
opposite: 49 percent agreed with an Israel accountability act and 34 percent
disagreed, although many held no opinion at all."
[America has fallen prey to Israel's black shadow. It has become
the Jewish nation, and broadening pockets of resistance to Jewish-Israeli
Neo-Conism flame throughout the Middle East. The American army has
become a disguised Israeli one, following all the Jewish state's tactics of
brutality and oppression:]
Iraq Intifada: U.S. Faces New Resistance Front As Shiites Join Armed
Uprising,
Democracy Now, April 6, 2004
"The Bush administration is facing a nightmare scenario in Iraq, fighting on
two fronts against both Sunni and Shia militants. The center of armed
resistance to the U.S.-led occupation has predominantly come from
Sunni-dominated areas. But the U.S. occupation entered a new phase this past
Sunday as Shiite Iraqis staged an armed uprising
against the occupying forces in four cities. A total of at least 50
Iraqis and 10 U.S. troops died Sunday. Hundreds were injured. Up to 30
Iraqis were killed in clashes in the Sadr-City suburb of Baghdad alone, the
worst the capital has seen since its fall to U.S. troops a year ago.
American officials yesterday announced an arrest warrant for the young
Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, who called for the uprising after the U.S.
forces shut down one of his newspapers and arrested one of his top aides.
The new resistance front comes less than three months before the U.S. is due
to hand over power to an Iraqi government. Paul Bremer, Iraq's top US
administrator, cancelled a visit to Washington to deal with the crisis and
military commander, General John Abizaid, was considering the reinforcement
of his 105,000-strong army of occupation. The Guardian of London reports
that Gen. Abizaid gave 48 hours to come up with ideas on where fresh troops,
American or allied, could be found. In the face of two resistance fronts,
the U.S. has opted for a high-risk strategy of attempting to crush both of
them simultaneously. U.S. forces yesterday used Apache gunships to attack
targets in Baghdad for the first time since the fall of the Saddam Hussein
regime, opening fire over the Shia neighborhood of
Shulla. Meanwhile, a force of some 1,300 US marines and Iraqi troops
began moving into the Sunni-dominated town of Fallujah. The town has been
sealed off but witnesses speak of shelling and blasts and the use of
helicopter gunships. This according to the BBC. The US has vowed to
"pacify" Fallujah, after four US mercenaries
were killed, torched and dismembered last week ...
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political
science at California State University, visiting professor at U.C. Berkeley,
author of several books, including, Bin Laden, Islam, and America’s New
War on Terrorism. He runs a news blog called the "The Angry Arab News
Service" at angryarab.blogspot.com. Welcome to "Democracy Now!" ...
It’s good to have you with us. Can you explain what you understand is now
happening in Fallujah?
AS’AD ABU KHALIL: Well, I’m still recovering from the statements of Bush
that you referred to. I think it is incredible that he feels that the
message he needs to send is that the United States is not going to run.
That's exactly what the Iraqis would like, that the United States pull back
and run out of Iraq. I think also yesterday when he made references to
Muqtada al-Sadr , he said, "This is a question of democracy vs. people who
are opposed to democracy." I think these statements may go well somewhere in
Iowa and Oklahoma; but for the Iraqis, they have watched in amazement over
the last few months, watching the United States
fighting tooth and nail against the prospects of democracy and elections,
while there is an Ayatollah in southern Iraq who has not left his house in
six years, calling on the United States to adhere to its old promises of
holding elections inside the country. I think what's going on is
extremely vague. I have always believed that once the
rage and antipathy to the United States occupation sweeps to Shiite areas,
the countdown for America’s withdrawal from Iraq could begin. If
Ayatollah Sistani, the grand Ayatollah of Iraq, is now pressured by the
street, as there are indications he is being pressured to give his agreement
for some kind of Shiite resistance against the occupation, I think a
two-sentence statement from him would read as an obituary for the American
colonial adventure inside the country. What is amazing is that the United
States is always trying to put the best face on events.
Muqtada Al-Sadr is not somebody who can be linked, for
example, to Al Qaeda or these groups, because these were heavy fanatics of
the Bin Laden ilk, have only antipathy to everything that is Shiite. He also
cannot be linked to Saddam die-hards, which is a common refrain by the
American officials whenever they talk about Sunni fundamentalists. In
this case, this is somebody who is, along with the Shiites, more anti-Saddam
than anybody else. Also, some of the demands that they are offering, is that
they feel the occupation has dealt very kindly with some of the
functionaries of Saddam's regime, who are being brought back for the
intelligence and military apparatus of the new government that is being set
up. This is certainly not a minuscule percentage of the population, as an
American official told the New York Times yesterday.
This is a movement, a mass movement ... Yesterday, I watched detailed
coverage on Al Manar TV and Al-Jazeera, and what struck me is that one
correspondent for Al Manar TV said that when he was covering the events in
al-Sadr City, which is predominantly Shiite, and in al-Azamia, which is
Sunni-dominated, he said a lot of the fighters in the streets were insisting
on national unity, and some of the slogans being chanted emphasized that
Sunnis and Shias fight together. So I would say that the blunders of the
United States may do the unthinkable, which is to unite the resistance into
Sunni and Shiite alike. Yesterday the coverage I noticed also that we don't
hear about the external terrorist conspiracies and infiltration into the
country anymore, especially after they sealed the border.
Now we know the truth that has been hidden from the
Americans for a very long time, which is that the resistance and attacks
against the Americans is largely due to a homegrown domestic and indigenous
movement inside the country. The reports yesterday indicated that the
people of al-Azamia district in Baghdad, for example, were one and the same
with the resistance. They were hiding the fighters, feeding them, sheltering
them. That is a new phenomena. We are not talking about some little tiny
movement that the United States can flesh out in a two- or three-day
operation. This is really big, and it could very well get bigger. The United
States will lose if it stays, will lose if it leaves the country. That's one
scenario that the Bush administration did not contemplate when they talked
about changing the Middle East. They did change the Middle East into a more
messy and bloody Middle East."
[JTR Contributor's comment: "How many out there will bet
against me when I say that it will be less than 40 days and 40 nights from
today (April 6, 2004) before Kalle Lasn "admits he may be mistaken" and
"apologizes for any pain and suffering" his articles might have caused, but
that "it's important to be open-minded" and everyone should "have the right
to question official accounts" of history? Any takers? link:"]
Jewish ‘neocons’
tilt U.S. policy toward Israel, says magazine,
By RON CSILLAG, Canadian Jewish News,
Aapril 8, 2004
"The editor of a left-wing Vancouver-based magazine is defending his own
recent article that singles out prominent American neo-conservative Jews
for, he says, tilting the Mideast policies of President George W. Bush
toward Israel. The March/April issue of Adbusters checked off the
names of 26 Jews on a list of 50 hawkish “neocons” said to have cozy
relations with the war-minded U.S. Defence Department. The Jewish names
include writers Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol; Deputy
U.S. Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz; former arms negotiators Richard
Perle; and academic Daniel Pipes. They appear alongside U.S.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney and former UN
ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. But the religions of those people are not
identified. “A lot of ink has been spilled chronicling
the pro-Israel leanings of American neocons and the fact that a
disproportionate percentage of them are Jewish,” states the article, titled
“Why won’t anyone say they are Jewish?” “Some commentators are
worried that these individuals – labeled ‘Likudniks’ for their links to
Israel’s right-wing Likud party – do not distinguish enough between American
and Israeli interests,” it goes on. “For example, whose interests were they
protecting in pushing for war in Iraq?” Adbusters, an alternative bi-monthly
known for its biting anti-consumerist, anti-globalization stance, says it
decided “to tackle the issue head on.” What those on
the list share “is the view that the U.S. is a benevolent hyper power that
must protect itself by reshaping the rest of the world into its morally
superior image. And half of them are Jewish.” Kalle Lasn, the
article’s author and the magazine’s editor, told The CJN he felt compelled
to write the piece because “the mainstream and
alternative media are somehow scared of talking about the Jewishness of the
neocons and the Zionism there… and the influence this has on American
foreign policy in the Middle East.” Other media
outlets “just don’t have the guts because they’re afraid of this kind of
vociferous backlash that I have experienced over the past few weeks.”
Lasn said he’s received much abusive mail and even personal threats. “I
really do understand what it feels like to be targeted by people who hate
you.” He said the negative responses show a “kneejerk political
correctness. It’s almost as if… many of them are Jews themselves. They’re in
some sort of denial. They really think that somehow it is wrong to have a
debate about the Jewishness of the neocons who are, after all, the most
powerful political/intellectual group in the world today. “They [neocons]
literally have the power to start wars and stop wars and they are the
driving force behind the Bush administration’s foreign policy, not just in
the Middle East, but throughout the world. They’re the
people who make it possible for the American administration to give $3
billion a year to Israel, and many of them are connected to the Likud party.
“It’s almost as though we have become so
politically correct that we don’t even want to discuss the obvious anymore.”
Lasn said he has “an incredible amount of respect” for Jews, who, owing to
the Holocaust’s “deep imprint” on them, have developed a keen ability to
spot dictators such as Saddam Hussein. “In that way, Jewish influence is
wonderful.” However, “if 50 per cent of the neo-cons were Arabs or
Palestinian, then this war [in Iraq] would not have started.”
Canadian Jewish Congress, Pacific region, director
Erwin Nest
said CJC “will be considering action” against
Adbusters, but declined to elaborate."
[What is "anti-Semitism?" Hostility to Jewish racism, Jewish
Power, Jewish ethnocentrism, world Jewish tribalism, Israeli brutality,
increasing Jewish cultural hegemony in the West, and the Zionist
commandeering of so much of the U.S. government. Why would the U.S.
government care so much about "all forms" of "anti-Semitism,"
which the Jewish Lobby defines to its self-protective, self-aggrandizing
needs? Because pro-Israelism and Judeocentrism have become the
ideological basis of power in America, and the West.]
Fighting Anti-Semitism a Top U.S. Priority, Jones Says,
U.S. Government, April 9, 2004
"Asst. Sec. of State Jones testimony April 8 before Senate panel
"Anti-Semitism again has emerged as a serious problem in Europe and
elsewhere in the world, including here in the United States,"
and fighting it is "one of our highest priorities,"
the State Department's Beth Jones told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee's Subcommittee on Europe April 8. Jones, the assistant secretary
of state for European and Eurasian affairs, explained in her prepared
testimony the three "tracks" on which the U.S. Department of State works to
combat anti-Semitism: -- with European allies, particularly within the
context of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE);
-- through the Task Force for International
Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research; and -- by
means of bilateral action led by Ambassadors and Embassy staffs. She
described the U.S. objectives for the upcoming conference on anti-Semitism
in Berlin April 28-29: condemnation of all forms
of anti-Semitism, unanimous agreement
by all 55 OSCE member states on a number of specific steps aimed at fighting
the problem. The steps the United States hopes to see adopted range from
promoting educational programs to encouraging informal exchanges among
experts on best practices in law enforcement and education. Jones said the
virulent old anti-Semitism of neo-Nazis and other far-right hate groups has
now assumed "new hateful forms" and is "part
of a broader template." The new forms include "anti-Semitism
masked as anti-globalism" and anti-Semitism "in
the guise of criticism of the State of Israel that goes well beyond any
legitimate criticism of Israel." "We must work together to act
resolutely to counter these lies," she said. "I
have instructed U.S. ambassadors at our missions throughout Europe and
Eurasia to be both vigilant and vocal in denouncing anti-Semitism in the
countries where they serve," Jones said ... The President has named a
number of leading individuals from the Congress, as well as outstanding NGO
members and private citizens active in the fight against anti-Semitism, to
represent the United States: Former Mayor Edward Koch, a strong and
experienced leader for many years in the fight for tolerance and racial
justice, will head the U.S. Delegation. Stephan M. Minikes, our
Ambassador to the OSCE in Vienna, and Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues
Edward O'Donnell will join him. We are pleased that Senator Voinovich, a
distinguished member of this committee and internationally recognized as a
leader in the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance,
will also be a member of the United States Delegation. We are honored by
Senator Voinovich's participation and appreciate the strong leadership and
wise counsel he will provide. Two distinguished members of the House of
Representatives will be on the U.S. delegation and play a strong role for
the United States in Berlin: Congressman Christopher Smith of New Jersey,
Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and
Congressman Benjamin Cardin of Maryland, a leading member of the
United States Helsinki Commission."
[JTR Contributor's Note: "I didn't know there were suicide
bombings in Canada."]
LEO
ADLER, DIRECTOR OF CANADIAN FRIENDS OF SWC MEETS WITH PM PAUL MARTIN TO
DISCUSS ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS AND SUICIDE BOMBING CAMPAIGN,
Simon Wiesenthal Center, March 30, 2004
"Leo Adler and representatives of other Jewish groups were invited to
meet today with Prime Minister Paul Martin, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler,
Immigration Minister Eleanor Caplan and other Toronto-area Ministers
of Parliament in order to discuss the crisis facing Canadian Jewry. The
frank 75-minute meeting resulted in a commitment by the Canadian government
to make a principled case against suicide bombings internationally; to speak
out more forcefully against antisemitism, both in Canada and in
international forums; to confirm Canada’s commitment to Israel’s right to
exist; to develop a national action plan to combat antisemitism and other
forms of racism; and to stop sending out mixed
messages about Canada’s attitude towards Israel. According to Friends
of SWC’s Director of National Affairs, Leo Adler, “The Prime Minister
has responded positively to the concerns raised and we applaud and welcome
his resolve to see to it that Canada remains a bulwark of
tolerance and civility.”
Dov S. Zakheim to Resign,
Department of Defense (U.S.
Government), March 24, 2004
"The Department of Defense announced today that Under Secretary of
Defense (Comptroller) and Chief Financial Officer for the
Department of Defense Dov S. Zakheim will resign from
government on April 15, 2004. In this position, Zakheim
initiated an enterprise architecture to achieve a vision of
simpler budget processes, activity-based costing, and a clean
audit by 2007. He oversaw three Department of Defense budgets,
each totaling more than $300 billion, and recently proposed a 2005
budget of $401.7 billion. He played a
leading role in raising in excess of $13 billion for the
reconstruction of Iraq, and walked through six wartime
supplementals in support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He further created the Defense Business Board and worked closely
with the Office of Management and Budget and the Government
Accounting Office on financial management affairs ... Zakheim
was sworn in to his current position May 4, 2001. Prior to that,
his government service included a number of key positions, to
include from 1985 until March 1987, as the deputy under secretary
of defense for planning and resources in the office of the under
secretary of defense (policy). He also held a variety of other
Department of Defense posts from 1981-1985 and served with the
National Security and International Affairs Division of the
Congressional Budget Office. During other periods of Zakheim’s
career, he served as a senior foreign policy advisor to then-Gov.
Bush, during the 2000 presidential campaign. Prior to that, he was
the corporate vice president of System Planning Corporation (SPC),
a technology, research and analysis firm. He also served as chief
executive officer of SPC International Corp., a subsidiary
specializing in political, military and economical consulting ...
Zakheim has been an adjunct professor at the National War
College, Yeshiva University, Columbia
University and Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was
presidential scholar. Zakheim has written, lectured and provided
media commentary on national defense and foreign policy issues
domestically and internationally."
CONTEXT TO
ZAKHEIM:
Dov S. Zakheim,
Disinfopedia
"Dr. Dov S. Zakheim is Under Secretary of Defense
(Comptroller and Chief Financial Officer) in the Office of the
Secretary of Defense. Dov S. Zakheim, when nominated to the
Department of Defense by President George W. Bush, was CEO of SPC
International (System Planning Corporation International) and a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). In 1998, the
Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf sent an "open letter
to then president Bill Clinton for Washington
to adopt a 'comprehensive political and
military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime',
centred on support for the INC (Iraqi National Congress) and US
air power. "That 1998 letter was signed by many of the charter
members of PNAC (Project for the New American Century), including
Donald H. Rumsfeld, and four of his top deputies at the Pentagon,
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Dov S.
Zakheim, and Peter W. Rodman."
Flight of the Lavi: Inside a U.S.-Israeli Crisis, by Dov S.
Zakheim,
Amazon.com, From Publishers Weekly
"The Lavi was a new generation of high-performance jet aircraft
that, in the mid-1980s, was supposed to be
developed and manufactured in Israel with U.S. financial support.
A great deal of prestige and money was at stake in the project,
which embodied many of the commitments and expectations at the
foundation of American-Israeli relations. But as development costs
increased and doubts arose as to whether the Lavi would be the
supreme warplane it was meant to be, the U.S. cooled to the
project. As deputy undersecretary of defense for planning and
resources during the Reagan administration, Zakheim
was at the center of the development of the
project, and of the U.S. steps to shut it down without unduly
straining relations with Israel.
His position was made even more difficult because he was, as he
puts it, a "practicing Orthodox Jew' ... From
Library Journal ... The author was
heavily involved in the discussions at the highest level in the
Department of Defense and thus is in a unique position to
provide a useful commentary. Strongly recommended for academic and
larger public library collections."
[JTR Contributor's Note: "here is a shameless
pro-Israel article Zakheim wrote back in 1999, which appeared in
the Jerusalem Post. This was in September, 1999, just before he
became then-Gov. George W. Bush's senior foreign policy advisor."]
Might Israel have an image problem?,
by DOV S. ZAKHEIM, Jerusalem Post,
September 6, 1999
"Matters relating to Israel do not appear to have come to the
fore, or at least attracted The Citizen's attention, despite the
secretary of state's trip to the Middle East and the prospects for
a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock over the Wye
agreement. Indifference on the part of many Americans to what is
taking place in the Middle East may not necessarily be a bad
thing. That this is indeed the case can be gleaned from a Harris
Poll of August 12-18, which asked over a thousand randomly
selected respondents whether they considered members of a selected
group of countries to be either "allies, friendly but not allied
to, unfriendly to, or enemies of" the United States. The poll
ranked each country in order of the percentage of respondents who
considered it an "ally," and also listed the percentage that each
country received in the other categories. Israel ranked fifth (37
percent polled) among those countries that were viewed as a close
ally of the United States. Only Canada (69%), Britain (66%),
Australia (45%), and France (38%) did better. If the rankings for
"allied" and "friendly" were combined,
Israel's position remained strong, commanding a combined 64
percent, slightly less than the combined "allied"/"friendly"
scores for Japan (67%), Mexico (66%), and Germany (65%). All these
states are formal treaty allies of the United States; Israel is
not. Nor did Israel fare badly in terms of those who viewed it
with slightly less friendly eyes. Fourteen percent considered
Israel "unfriendly," but not America's enemy. A greater percentage
had a similarly negative view of Germany, Mexico, and Japan, as
well as of the Philippines, another US treaty ally.
More troubling is the fact that 9 percent
viewed Israel as actually an "enemy" of the United States.
This result was far worse than for any other country on the Harris
Poll list other than Russia and China. It
may be possible to dismiss the 9 percent who view Israel as
America's enemy as constituting a combination of strong
supporters of the Arab cause, with a smattering - if not more
- of antisemites and just plain crackpots.
Yet combined with those who view Israel as "unfriendly,"
nearly one fourth of Americans have a
negative image of the Jewish state. Why indeed should
Israel, whose voting record in the despised United Nations is
practically the most pro-American of all Washington's allies, and
whose cooperative national security and commercial ventures with
the US have been highly successful, be seen as "unfriendly?" While
similar questions might be asked of other allies that were listed
as "unfriendly," Israel depends more heavily upon American
largesse than any other state in the world. It cannot afford to
alienate a significant part of the American public. Is it possible
that many American citizens are simply tiring of their
government's seemingly endless involvement in the Middle Eastern
diplomatic quagmire and hold Israel accountable for the lack of
progress toward regional peace? ... Whether [then-Israeli prime
miniser Ehud] Barak chooses the same media team that
helped him win the election, or another group of equally talented
"spinmeisters" is of little importance. Now that he has a new
agreement with the Palestinians under his belt,
what counts is that he moves quickly to
mobilize media experts with nationwide influence who can put his
country in the best possible light. Because it is not
only in Washington that the views of Americans matter nor just
"inside the beltway" that attitudes to Israel are likely to be
shaped."
|
[Another example of world Jewish censorial hegemony, to clear the
killing fields for apartheid Israel and the racist Jewish Lobby. Note
the totalitarian system here: Jewish Zionist activist (now Canada's
"Justice Minister") Irwin Cotler is highlighted in the Montreal
Gazette as he attacks "hatred" of JEWISH "hatred." The Montreal
Gazette is one of the Jewish Zionist Asper family's many Canadian
media holdings.]
Federal initiatives to battle evil of hate. Ethnic communities to be
strengthened. Blueprint expected to include advertising, funding for new
crime-prevention programs,
by ROBERT FIFE and JANICE TIBBETTS, Montreal
Gazette (CanWest News Service), April 8, 2004
"A national action plan to combat racism will call on law-enforcement
agencies to set up special hate-crime units
and establish initiatives to educate Canadians about the
evils of hate, Justice Minister Irwin
Cotler said yesterday. The plan, which is at the final stage of
cabinet approval, was designed, in part,
to fight growing anti-Semitism such as
the firebombing of the United Talmud Torahs school in St. Laurent school
on Monday and racially motivated incidents against Jews and Muslims in
Toronto. The 10-chapter blueprint is expected to include advertising to
get the message out that racism is poison, measures to strengthen ethnic
communities, and an influx of new money into crime-prevention programs
aimed at reducing racist acts. "We will have a national action plan to
counter racism and that, I think, in all its components, will be an
effective and comprehensive approach," Cotler said in an
interview. "It has panoply of initiatives. It has an education
component. It has a legal component and it has an inter-cultural
dialogue component ... (because) we have to mobilize a constituency of
conscience in this country." Cotler said Canada already has
strong hate-crime laws and effective federal and provincial human-rights
commissions to fight discrimination against minorities, but he noted it
is "not always appreciated that we have one of the most comprehensive
legal regimes anywhere in the world" ... The federal program is not
expected to be a copy of one that is under way in France,
where the government has told schools and colleges
to screen films such as Schindler's List, Sophie's Choice and The
Pianist, as part of a new government guide to sensitize French citizens
in light of a growing anti-Semitism that is believed to be
linked to the deteriorating situation in the Middle East."
[The ever-increasing Israelification of America. Sowing
Jewish myth, Jewish racism, and Jewish brutality.]
Israeli
General Shares Counterterrorism Expertise with American Law Enforcement,
Anti-Defamation League, March 26, 2004
"Under the auspices of the Anti-Defamation League
(ADL), Brigadier General Dov Lutzky of the Israel Police (IP)
conducted a series of special briefings for
federal, state and local law enforcement officials in California.
Brigadier General Lutzky, commander of the Galilee Sub-District
in Northern Israel, with nearly three decades of experience
fighting terrorism, provided U.S. law
enforcement personnel with the opportunity to draw upon Israel's
expertise in combating and responding to terrorist attacks, with
particular emphasis on suicide bombings. During the course of his visit
to the United States, Brigadier General Lutzky
met with representatives of nearly ninety law
enforcement agencies and presented to more than 400 personnel. In
San Diego, General Lutzky presented at the first of six
counter-terrorism conferences that will take place during the next year.
The series, entitled Counter-Terrorism: Critical Skills for Law
Enforcement, is jointly sponsored by ADL's San Diego Regional Office,
the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the San Diego Police
Department. Visiting Israeli Brigadier General meets with the San Diego
Police Department."
Kerry
Indicates He Would Continue Bush's Pro-Sharon Policy,
by Ira Glunts, The Electronic Intifada,
6 April 2004
"Lately, Senator John Kerry has been reassuring voters that he will be
as pro-Israel as President Bush. He has expressed his support for
Sharon's policy of unilateral disengagement, building of the
so-called security barrier and the political isolation of Yasser Arafat.
The candidate's present position toward Middle East peace contradicts
his past support of the Oslo peace process and provides a surprising
contrast to his views when he was a young anti-war leader in the early
'70s. In April 1971 young John Kerry, a war hero, who was a member of
Vietnam Veterans Against the War went to Washington to protest the
American military presence in Southeast Asia. In what is considered the
beginning of Kerry's public career, the handsome decorated officer
testified before the the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was
interviewed extensively in the national media. The young Kerry shocked
the nation when he related that war crimes and atrocities were being
routinely committed by American soldiers in an unjust war.
Like the Americans in Vietnam, now Israeli
soldiers are being sent by their government to battle against an
indigenous population that is attempting to rid themselves of a foreign
invasion force. The organization, Courage to Refuse, whose
members are Israeli army reservists that refuse to participate in their
country's war of occupation are reminiscent of the members of Vietnam
Veterans Against the War. Like John Kerry in the early 70s,
these reserve soldiers are telling the Israeli
public about the war crimes, atrocities and violations of the Geneva
Conventions that the Israeli army is committing routinely in the West
Bank and Gaza. The Israeli refusers are saying that Sharon's
war in the territories is not a just war of defense, but a unjust war of
occupation and oppression. They are saying, as John Kerry said to US
Senators in 1971, that what the soldiers are doing is not accomplishing
any lofty goals, but are destroying the moral fabric of their own
society. More than 30 years later, Senator John Kerry has been defining
himself as a Presidential candidate who would, if elected, continue the
Bush foreign policy in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If
you listen to what he is currently saying, you get a feeling that he
wants voters (especially Jewish voters) to believe that a Kerry
presidency would be even more supportive of the
Sharon government, and actually less even-handed in its dealings with
the Palestinians than the current administration. This is his
present position despite some previous statements Kerry made fairly
recently which indicate that he may have supported a more open-minded US
policy toward the region. Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League's
national director, who was present at a recent meeting in New York City
between Kerry and 40 Jewish leaders, reported that Kerry laid "to rest a
nagging concern - that relentless Democratic criticism of Bush's foreign
policy implied criticism of Bush's closeness to Israel." This is
according to Ron Kampeas in a column published in The Jewish Journal of
Greater Los Angeles."
[An article from Brazil, and it is fascinating. The same
Jewish-Zionist influence is spread throughout the West, wherever Jews
are, whether America or Brazil. Jews are a miniscule percentage of the
largely Catholic Brazilian populace, yet here they are in typical
fashion: many enormously wealthy, many communist/guerilla activists in
earlier times, plenty with important government positions around the
Brazilian president (some even "former" communists and some "close
aides" who are Israeli), some married to powerful non-Jewish
politicians, and there's even the requisite censorial lawsuit against a
Brazilian magazine for comparing Zionism to the Nazis. Even the
former Brazilian president, Cardoso, had "Jewish family" ties. Does
all this sound disturbingly familiar? There is a tribal web
that links this Brazilian system to parallel Jewish Power Networking in
countries around the world.]
A jolly good fellow,
by Jayme Brener, Revista Pangea Mundo
(Brazil), Nobember 2, 2003
"Brazilian President Lula da Silva starts to conquer the once
resistant Jewish community. The name of Brazil´s newly elected Luís
Inácio Lula da Silva has been enough to produce itches in the vast
majority of local Jewish community during the last 20 years, mainly for
the traditional links between Lula´s leftist Workers Party (WP) and the
PLO. But a screen on his Cabinet, named last
December, shows two Jews – Jacques Wagner (Labour) and
Italian born Guido Mantega (Planning), apart of
President spokesman, André Singer.
Much more important, there are clear signs of mutual simpathy between
the community and its leadership, and the new government. “There
was an important meeting between Lula and 60 Jewish leaders shortly
before November elections, when the now President expressed his
admiration to Israel and to our community in Brazil”, says
Jayme Blay, President of São Paulo Jewish Federation (Fisesp), the
most important in the country. In spite of a long tradition of Jewish
leftism in Brazil (see box) that drove many activists to the WP – or PT,
for Partido dos Trabalhadores, in Portuguese –, the overwhelming
majority of Brazilian 120.000/150.000 strong community had identified
itself with former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso and his
centrist Social Democratic Party (PSDB). During his eight years of
government, Cardoso
had several Jewish aides, including Foreign Affairs minister
Celso Lafer. Cardoso (who has Jewish
family ties) and his PSDB also kept strong links with Jewish
business circles. As a natural consequence, Cardoso´s candidate against
Lula, José Serra, was supported by most of Brazilian Jews, including
community leadership and rabbi Henry Sobel who is a very popular
character for his commitment to human rights. But Lula´s skills to sew a
broad political alliance and set up a new productive economic cycle,
reducing Brazilian dependence toward international finance had seduced a
good bunch of Jewish businessmen and professionals. Leading
industrialists Ivo Rosset (textiles)
and Eugenio Staub (electroelectronics)
had openly left José Serra´s campaing for Lula, who also received a more
discret support of steel magnate
Benjamin Steinbruch. “Yes, I voted for Lula, since the last
government drove our economy to a stalemate”, explains
oil tycoon German Efromovich,
owner of the Maritima Petroleum group. “We
hope that the new government could promote changes for the best;
otherwise, we´re sure that any change will be done inside democratic
frames”, agrees Gerson Keila, chairman of
the powerful Brazilian Franchising Association (ABF), who
represents US$ 8 billions/year in business. Even the traditional links
between the PT and the PLO don´t seem to haunt Jewish leadership in
Brazil. “Lula has clearly stressed his commitment both to a Palestinian
State and to the safety of Israel”, grants Fisesp´s Jayme Blay.
“There´re no expectations of a major change in Brazil´s international
policy”, adds Claudio Camargo, Foreign Affairs analyst at IstoÉ weekly
magazine ... The honeymoon that Lula da Silva and
the Jewish community are now enjoying has been prepared by a long
flirt, since the very birth of the WP in 1979, melting new rank-and-file
tradeunionists, former extreme left organizations and the catholic
gauche. The party´s central slogan during its first electoral campaign,
in 1982 (when Lula runned – and was defeated – for the São Paulo State
government), was a reddish “workers shall vote for workers”, challenging
the reformism of the old Communist Party. Some leaders of the
Palestinian community, openly identified with the PLO, had then runned
under the Partido dos Trabalhadores banner. But several jews were among
the first representatives elected by the party, including now minister
Jacques Wagner (a petrochemical tradeunionist), Carlos Minc
(former guerrilla fighter converted to environmentalism) and Clara
Ant, a trotskyite leader. Yes, there were some frictions between the
WP and Jewish community along the last two decades. Ms. Luiza Erundina,
then mayor of São Paulo, has caused tensions in the kehilá in 1989, when
she named a square after State of Palestine. Incidentally, Yasser Arafat
hadn´t already formally declared the independence of his State.
When she saw the gaffe, Erundina called Jewish
aides asking for names of Zionist leaders, to baptyze other areas of the
city ... The own Lula da Silva has visited
Israel, following an invitation by Labour leaders. Former labour
prime minister Shimon Peres was one of the forefront
international politicians in Lula´s possession ceremony. A group of
selected matchmakers has played a very important role for this long
engagement between Lula/PT and Brazilian Jewish community. Among them
were former trotskyite leader Clara Ant,
nowadays one of Lula´s closest informal aides;
Israeli born businessman Oded Grajew,
who is very active in social initiatives and works as a major WP´s
fundraiser; and Argentinian born Felipe Warmus. Known by his “war
name”, Luís Favre, this shadowy former
trotskyite leader, who has close connections with French
socialists, spreads jealousy over WP´s leaders for
the influence he gained after marrying one of the party´s top stars:
the mayor of São Paulo, Martha Suplicy. If Jewish community is in
growingly good terms with President Lula da Silva and his majoritary
faction in the Partido dos Trabalhadores, the same cannot be said of the
fringe far left groups inside the party. The WP is one of the stars of
the Porto Alegre Forum, a broad coalition of antiglobalization groups,
set up to counterbalance the Davos Forum high finance yearly meeting.
The Porto Alegre Forum was named after a WP stronghold in Southern
Brazil, that shall host over 100.000 leftist militants next January for
its yearly meeting. Terms like Israel and Zionism
are some of the favourite blanks for those rank and file militants.
“Extremist factions, I imagine, will not play a decisive role in the new
government” evaluates economic analist André Friedheim. “Radical
voices have been put apart of the decision inside of the party, which is
showing an enormous common sense”, adds Fisesp´s president Jayme Blay.
Wishfull thinking or not, the fact is that monthly magazine Caros
Amigos, that usually voices the Forum de Porto Alegre visions, has
recently published an article written by a pro-Palestinian activist,
melting criticism to Israeli government with open racial offenses. The
article says, for instance, that Israel was created by the Nazis and
that Zionists were close collaborators to Hitler.
The magazine has refused to publish the rainfall of critics received nor
apologized to its readers, what motivated Human Rights organizations
to take legal actions. Many of those protests against Caros
Amigos came from non-Jewish and Jewish activists of the Lula da Silva´s
Workers Party.
... a tradition Simpathy towards Communism and the
Soviet Union was majoritary among Ashkenazim Jews in Brazil until the
1950s. The Jewish Section of the pro-USSR Communist Party was
even larger than the Workers Section in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro,
the country´s largest cities during the 30s. There were two Jews in the
CP 8 strong São Paulo City Councilmen elected in 1946, including
Elisa Kauffmann, one of the first women elected for this post in the
country. The birth of Israel and the anti-semite campaigns led by Soviet
strongman Josef Stalin had splitted the Jewish community – even
institutions, like schools and clubs – between roitn (reds) and sionistn
(zionists). Although the economic progress of the vast majority of
Brazilian Jews had pulled them to the center-right,
leftist parties had always had many Jewich
activists. Last CP general secretary, for instance, was
Salomão Malina, a veteran of the Brazilian forces which fought Nazis
in Italy, during the 2nd World War. Several Jews had died fighting the
military dictatorship (1964-1984), including Maurício Grabois,
one of the commanders of the Maoist guerrilla
warfare in the Araguaia (Northern Brazil), in the 70s, and
Yara Yavelberg, wife of Carlos Lamarca, leader
of urban guerrilla forces. Chael Charles Schreier, then a
Medical student in his early twenties and a guerrilla sympathiser, died
during brutal torture. The upsurge of a new wave of students and trade
union protests, in the end of the 70s, with Lula as the big star,
also produced a new layer of Jewish activists,
mainly of Trotskyite origin. Those roitn kinder and Jewish
survivors of the antidictatorship fight – like historian and former
guerrilla ideologue Jacob Gorender – were among the founders of
the Workers Party." *
[The Jewish community is sick and morally bankrupt. Of all the
things to threaten lawsuits about! The Mormons want to baptize Holocaust
Jews posthumously. Big deal. It is the MORMON religion, baptizing dead
Jews across the world is an abstract idea, and the Mormons mean well.
But Jews don't want anyone's blessing. They apparently prefer to
be loathed and cursed instead, which solidifies Jewish identity.
Hilary Clinton is like a trained poodle for the Jewish Lobby. And here
we also have the omnipresent Rabbi Marvin Hier screaming Mormon
"arrogance."A guy like Hier condemning a non-Jew for "arrogance" is like
a fish condemning a rock in a desert for getting wet. ]
Clinton aids Jews in effort to end Mormon practice of baptizing
Holocaust victims, Newsday, April 9,
2004
"Despite a directive from Mormon leaders to stop posthumously baptizing
Jewish Holocaust victims into the Mormon faith, members of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have continued the practice by adding
numerous concentration camp victims to its roll of names offered
conversion in the afterlife. A New York Jewish
organization is so outraged that it has asked U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton
to intervene, prompting a meeting in early March between the former
first lady and Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, an LDS church member,
The Associated Press has learned. "It was a private meeting between two
senators," Clinton said when declining to comment on what was discussed.
Likewise, Hatch, through a spokesman, would not comment, calling it a
private matter. Proxy baptisms are conducted in
Mormon temples and offer salvation to the dead. Church members stand-in
to be dunked in water in the names of the deceased non-Mormons, a ritual
the church says is required to get to heaven. However, the
practice has caused tension with members of other faiths,
especially Jews who find it arrogant and insulting.
Ernest Michel, chairman of the New York-based World Gathering of
Jewish Holocaust Survivors, said he asked Clinton to intervene to force
the Mormon church to abide by a 1995 agreement to stop the posthumous
baptisms. It's an agreement the church has reaffirmed formally and
informally in recent years only to have watchdogs find new Holocaust
victims added to church's database of 400 million names _ each of which
has had, or will eventually receive, a proxy baptism. Michel said that
Clinton is "now involved in planning our next step." "We are very
hopeful that we will be able to convince the church to stop," he said.
If not, his group will consider other options,
including possible legal action. ... "It's
ridiculous for people to pretend they have the key to heaven,"
said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Los Angeles. "And even if they say they want to do somebody a
favor ... it's not a symbol of love. It's a
symbol of arrogance."
[Yet another dimension to the deep Zionist roots of the Bush
administration. Condoleezza Rice jumped through the right hoops to get
her job, under the tutelage of a hyper-propagandist.]
Professor Jonathan Adelman,
Israel Activism
"Professor Jonathan Adelman, a full professor at the Graduate
School of International Studies at the University of Denver,
is a frequent and popular speaker on Israel.
The Doctoral Dissertation Adviser of National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice, he is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for
the Defense of Democracies in Washington. The author and editor of ten
books, Professor Adelman just returned from Israel, where he gave
talks at the Israeli Foreign Ministry and for Hasbara Fellowships in the
Old City of Jerusalem. After 14 international speaking tours for the
State Department to 13 countries, Professor Adelman speaks on a
variety of topics, including the the Palestinian Authority: its
terrorism, corruption and incompetence;
anti-Israel professors; and antisemitism in Global Perspective."
[We re reaching the point where the affluent Jewish community --
so vehement, worldwide, in supporting brutal apartheid Israel -- wants
taxpayer funds to protect them from the consequences of their
collective, tribal racism. We think the non-Jewish world needs
government funds to protect everyone from Jewish exploitation and
manipulation.]
Ontario government urged to fight anti-Semitism,
By JONATHAN FOWLIE, The Globe and Mail,
April 14, 2004
"Two prominent Jewish groups will call on the
provincial government this morning for help in preventing further
outbreaks of anti-Semitic vandalism in Ontario.''It has gone on too
long,'' Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario branch
of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said in an interview yesterday. "We've
had one of the longest spates of anti-Semitic crime probably in the
history of the city," he said, citing recent vandalism of Jewish
gravestones, houses, cars and schools. "It's time
to think outside of the box, both in terms of protecting our dead
and protecting our living." Ed Morgan, Ontario chairman of the
congress, said the CJC and the United Jewish Federation of Greater
Toronto will ask the province for increased police
patrols -- and possibly even surveillance equipment -- for Jewish
schools, cemeteries and synagogues."
[The Anti-Defamation League is a dual loyalist organization that
masks its support for Jewish racism, Zionism, and bigotry as an alleged
anti-bigotry lobby. Enormous sums of money and accompanying wads
of chutzpah can do that.]
ADL Welcomes President's Strong Support for Israeli Disengagement Plan,
U.S. Newswire, April 14, 2004
"The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed President George W.
Bush's strong support for the Israeli government plan to disengage from
the Gaza Strip and areas of the West Bank, calling it "a historic step
in the long relationship between the two countries." Barbara B.
Balser, ADL national chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL
national director, issued the following statement following the
President's joint White House news conference with Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon: We welcome President Bush's strong statement of
support for Israel's disengagement plan, and his
reiteration of the U.S. commitment to the security of the State of
Israel and its existence as a Jewish State. The President's
verbal statements, as well as his written
commitment to Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, is a historic step in the long relationship between
the two countries and provides an important opportunity to move the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the right direction."
[Criticize Israel? It doesn't matter what else you say or do:
you're an "anti-Semite."Don't be dismayed, Ms. Robinson. In Jewish eyes,
ALL are "anti-Semites." And Jewish convention is always censorial.]
Robinson 'very hurt' by anti-Semitism allegations,
:ireland.com Thursday, 15th April, 2004
"The former president, Mrs Mary Robinson, said last night she was "very
hurt and dismayed" by allegations of anti-Semitism
made against her on a college campus in the US. Over 1,000
students and some academic staff at Emory University in Atlanta have
signed an on-line petition accusing the
former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
of being anti-Semitic and fostering hostility towards Israel.
The petitioners called on the university to remove her as commencement
speaker at a graduation ceremony on May 10th. Mrs Robinson flew to
Atlanta last week to explain her views to a group of two dozen staff and
students at the university. Mrs Robinson has been criticised for her
role in the 2001 World Conference on Racism held in South Africa. The
New York-based Irish Voice newspaper reported that pro-Israel
groups protested recently when Columbia University appointed her to a
part-time position. Prof Kenneth Stein, the director of the
Middle East institute at Emory, also questioned what he said was
Mrs Robinson's belief that "the root cause of the
Arab-Israeli conflict is the occupation". He told a college
paper: "I'm troubled by the apparent absence of due diligence on the
part of decision-makers who invited her to speak." Speaking to The Irish
Times from her office at the Ethical Globalisation Initiative in New
York, where she is executive director, Mrs Robinson said: "I am very
hurt and dismayed." She continued: "It is distressing that allegations
are being made that are absolutely unfounded." She intended to keep her
speaking engagement on May 10th, she said. "The university are strongly
siding with me. It's a wonderful university for Irish literature," she
added. Describing her meeting at Emory, she said: "Some were convinced
and some would not have been if I stayed a month. The unfortunate
problem was a very difficult conference at Durban. Everyone who was at
Durban knows I spoke out against anti-Semitism." Emory University said
in a statement that it was "unaware" of the Durban controversy when it
issued the invitation but added that "Mrs Robinson's own speeches,
interviews, and actions repeatedly and explicitly condemn anti-Semitism,
terrorist acts, and religious intolerance".
White House Pressured To Send Powell to Conference on Antisemitism,
By Ori Nir, Forward, April 15, 2004
"The Bush administration is feeling heat from
human rights and Jewish groups pressuring it to send a high-level
official — preferably Secretary of State Colin Powell — to head the U.S.
delegation to the upcoming Berlin conference on antisemitism.
The executive director of Human Rights First, Michael Posner,
sent a letter to the secretary of state last month voicing "deep dismay"
at Powell's apparent decision not to attend the two-day conference or to
appoint one of his senior deputies to head the American delegation.
Powell has tapped former New York mayor Ed Koch to lead the
delegation to the two-day conference, which begins April 28. The
conference is being organized by the Organization on Security and
Co-operation in Europe, a group made up of 55 nations in Europe, as well
as Canada and the United States. In his letter, Posner
wrote that he had "serious concern about the
absence of senior U.S. government representation." Posner's
group was formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and
remains one of the leading human rights groups in the United States.
A similar letter was sent to Powell by the
Anti-Defamation League. Other Jewish
groups confirmed that they had written or spoken to the administration
as well, but declined to have their communications made public.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer will be heading the delegation
of the host country. Posner and others warned, however, that
European governments are likely to take their cue from the American
level of representation and downgrade the level of their delegations ...
The makeup of the U.S. delegation [to the "anti-Semitism" conference]
has also prompted protests from critics who say the administration named
Jewish communal leaders based on their closeness to the administration
rather than their expertise in fighting antisemitism. The delegation was
announced by Powell in March. Those named to the delegation include
Fred Zeidman, chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council;
Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress; Betty
Ehrenberg, public affairs director of the Orthodox Union, and
Stephen Hoffman, president and chief executive officer of United
Jewish Communities, the national philanthropic network. The
administration itself will be represented by O'Donnell, the Holocaust
affairs envoy; the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE, Stephan Minikes,
and the White House liaison to the Jewish community, Tevi Troy.
Other delegation members include Senator George Voinovich of Ohio and
Rep. Christopher Smith of New Jersey, both Republicans, as well as
Democratic Rep. Benjamin Cardin of Maryland and a former Bush
White House aide, Jay Lefkowitz. Senior State Department
officials recently indicated to Jewish activists, as well as to members
of the delegation to Berlin, that Powell still may
join the delegation and speak at the conference's plenary session.
Alternatively, he may send his top deputy, Richard Armitage, or Marc
Grossman, undersecretary of state for
political affairs, sources said."
Statement on the Nomination of Allen Weinstein to Become Archivist of
the United States,
Society of American Archivists, April 14,
2004
"We are concerned about the sudden
announcement on April 8, 2004, that the White House has nominated
Allen Weinstein to become the next Archivist of the United States.
Prior to the announcement, there was no
consultation with professional organizations of archivists or
historians. This is the first time since the National Archives and
Records Administration was established as an independent agency that the
process of nominating an Archivist of the United States has not been
open for public discussion and input. We believe that Professor
Weinstein must—through appropriate and public discussions and
hearings—demonstrate his ability to meet the criteria that will qualify
him to serve as Archivist of the United States. When former President
Ronald Reagan signed the National Archives and Records Administration
Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-497), he said that, “the materials that the
Archives safeguards are precious and irreplaceable national treasures
and the agency that looks after the historical records of the Federal
Government should be accorded a status that is commensurate with its
important responsibilities.” Earlier in 1984, when the National Archives
Act was being discussed, Senate Report 98-373 cautioned that if the
Archivist was appointed “arbitrarily, or motivated
by political considerations, the historical records could be
impoverished [or] even distorted.”
P. L. 98-497 clearly states that, “The Archivist shall be appointed
without regard to political affiliations and solely on the basis of the
professional qualifications required to perform the duties and
responsibilities of the office of Archivist.” In 1984, House Report
98-707 noted, “The committee expects that [determining professional
qualifications] will be achieved through consultation with recognized
organizations of archivists and historians.” The law also states that
when the Archivist is replaced, the President “shall communicate the
reasons for such removal to each House of Congress.” President Bush has
not given a reason for the change, and there is no evidence to suggest
that it is being made because of John Carlin’s resignation. We agree
with these statements and believe that the decision to appoint a new
Archivist should be considered in accordance with both the letter and
the spirit of the 1984 law. We call on the Senate
Committee on Governmental Affairs to schedule open hearings on this
nomination in order to explore more fully 1) the reasons why the
Archivist is being replaced and 2) Professor
Weinstein’s qualifications to become Archivist of the United
States."
Castañeda raises campaign funds. THE FORMER FOREIGN SECRETARY HAS PUT
TOGETHER US1 MILLION IN HIS INDEPENDENT BID FOR THE PRESIDENCY,
BY DAVID PLUMB AND NICK BENEQUISTA, The Herald
(Mexico), April 16, 2004
"Jorge Castañeda, the former foreign secretary, said he has
raised about US1 million for a month-old campaign
to become the country's first independent president in at least a
century. Castañeda, whose frustration about stalled
immigration talks with the United States led him to resign from
President Vicente Fox's cabinet last year, said Mexico's institutions,
including the party system, are obsolete and the government should rule
in part by national referendum. "With these political parties, Mexico
can go nowhere," Castañeda, 50, told a group of bankers,
executives and diplomats at the Council of the Americas in New York late
Wednesday. "They came from, and belong to, the past."
Once a member of Mexico's Communist Party, Castañeda is
seeking to tap Mexicans' frustration with corruption and inaction among
political parties, which have been deadlocked over Fox's efforts to
boost foreign investment in the energy industry and other legislative
changes. Castañeda, who teaches at New York
University as a visiting professor of political science, is
unlikely to win the 2006 election, said analysts such as Christian
Stracke at CreditSights Inc. ... The Mexico City-native,
whose father was also foreign secretary,
speaks English and studied at Princeton University and later received a
doctorate in the history of economics from the University of Paris."
In Toronto, shaken community calls on authorities for protection,
By Bill Gladstone, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, April 16, 2004
"The longest sustained anti-Semitic attack in Canadian history. That’s
how Bernie Farber, executive director of the Ontario branch of
Canadian Jewish Congress, sums up the recent barrage of attacks against
Jewish targets here, which has mobilized Jewish officials to step up
security at schools and other institutions — and to ask Ontario’s
provincial government to supplement the police
budget to cover additional surveillance and patrolling of Jewish sites.
“Until now, the community has taken care of its own security needs, but”
the financial burden “is becoming onerous and it’s having a significant
impact on the community,” Farber said. “We
shouldn’t have to bear these costs alone,” he said. “This
is a unique situation faced only by Jews. We pay taxes like
everybody else and we’re as deserving of protection as anybody else.”
Toronto Jewish officials had hoped that the rash of anti-Semitic
incidents in March would cease after three teenagers were arrested for
desecrating the Bathurst-Lawn Cemetery. But vandals have struck three
more Jewish cemeteries in southern Ontario since then — including
Toronto’s 155-year-old Pape Avenue Cemetery, the oldest Jewish cemetery
in the province. More anti-Semitic incidents also have been reported.
According to Farber, quick action is required to extinguish these sparks
of hate. “We need something right away,” he said. “It’s like a fuse
burning out of control. We need to stop it hard and fast, and
we can best do that with the assistance of the
provincial government. We need them to be partners on this.”...
Farber, Morgan and representatives of the UJA Federation
of Greater Toronto met Thursday with the province’s attorney general,
Michael Bryant, and its minister of community safety and correctional
services, Monte Kwinter. “Both ministers were very understanding of our
situation,” Morgan said. “Of course, they
didn’t write a check for more police resources on the spot, but they
indicated that they would take the issue to their Cabinet colleagues and
see what they could do to direct more resources to the problem.”
Bryant also reportedly gave assurances to the CJC that anyone caught
perpetrating anti-Semitic attacks would be prosecuted to the fullest
extent of the law. For years, a CJC committee has been working quietly
behind the scenes, assessing and improving the community’s security
needs."
Jews for GOP?,
by Deborah Ziff, Mother Jones, April
16, 2004
"This being an election year, no government action is without its baldly
political dimension. That's true even of George Bush’s show of support
-- robust even by his standards -- for Ariel Sharon's
disengagement plan, which, while no doubt driven largely by conviction
and geopolitical considerations, might have the happy side-effect of
bringing a larger-than-usual quotient of swing-state Jewish votes into
the GOP column this November. Bush endorsed Sharon’s plan to
disengage from parts of Gaza in exchange for retaining settlements on
the West Bank won during the 1967 war. The president said it was
"unrealistic" for Palestinian refugees to return to the West Bank or
return to pre-war boundaries. But because Sharon’s plan was not
developed with Palestinian input, many argue that Bush is turning his
back on Palestinian concerns. It also signifies a major shift in U.S.
policy, held for some 20 years, that the West Bank settlements are
obstacles to peace. At a news conference, Bush called Sharon’s
plan "historic and courageous." He said: "His future depends upon his
capacity to convince the Israeli people he's doing the right thing, and
I think he is. He's a bold leader. That's what people want. They want
leadership. There is a process that got stuck, and the prime minister
steps up and leads." Palestinian reaction was angry. Prime Minister
Ahmed Qureia told reporters that Bush’s support for Sharon's plan
"kills the rights of the Palestinian people. We as Palestinians reject
that. We cannot accept that. We reject it and we refuse it." Bush
already faces growing Arab resentment over the continuing violence and
unrest in Iraq, and this latest move merely reinforces the widespread
perception that he is anti-Arab. Pollster John Zogby told the Washington
Post, "This is pretty much the final nail in the coffin of the peace
process as far as Arabs are concerned." He said his polling indicates
the Palestinian cause is among the top three issues for 90 percent of
Arabs in all Arab countries he has surveyed. "It's not even a political
issue, it's a bloodstream issue," Zogby said. But
many Republicans care much less about Arab opinon than about Jewish.
The GOP hopes that this Bush administration, which is more aggressively
pro-Israel than other recent administrations, will
sway Jewish voters, who historically have been a solid Democratic
voting bloc. (Bush generally poorly with Arab-Americans, so he doesn't
have much to lose on that front. Zogby found last year around this time
that Bush would win only 1/3 of Arab American votes.) Jews make up only
2-3 percent of the U.S. population. However, as Carl Schrag wrote in
Slate last month, they are significant for several reasons: "First
of all, Jews tend to vote in larger numbers than other ethnic groups.
Secondly, their concentration in urban areas in high-population states
means their votes help determine the allocation of large numbers of
Electoral College votes. And finally, they don't limit their political
activism to Election Day; Jews have been among the most generous
supporters of political campaigns, especially those of Democratic
candidates." In a tight election, even a small number of votes
could give Bush a crucial edge in battleground states such as Florida,
Ohio and Pennsylvania. And considering Bush only got 19 percent of the
Jewish vote in 2000, it seems he can only do better this time around. In
fact, the American Jewish Committee released a poll in January showing
that when compared with Kerry, 31 percent of American Jews would vote
for President Bush if presidential elections were held then. Nathan
Diament, a lobbyist for the Orthodox Jewish movement told the Post:
"Given that Jews turn out at an 80 percent turnout
rate, if you swing the Jewish vote 10 percent in Ohio, that could give
you Ohio." Ami Horowitz in the Weekly Standard notes the
power of Jewish Americans turn an election: "A
stunning reminder of Jewish political power came in the 2002 midterm
elections, with the ousting of two vehemently anti-Israel legislators,
Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard. Both were Democrats and both were
career antagonists towards Israel. The Jewish community targeted their
reelection efforts. Both lost. (Interestingly, much of McKinney
and Hilliard's money came from the Arab-American community.)"
Republicans argue that Bush’s move on Wednesday in support of Sharon’s
policies may mean a movement in Jewish voters
favorable to Bush. Florida is home to the 3rd largest population
of Jews in the country at 750,000 Jews, or 5 percent of the electorate.
Considering Florida was decided in 2000 by a few hundred votes, and it’s
already viewed as "the Florida of 2000" for this year’s election, it
will no doubt be a close race. "This will make it that much harder for
John Kerry to win Florida," said a Republican aide. House Chief Deputy
Majority Whip Eric I. Cantor (Va.), the House's only Jewish
Republican told the Post: "American Jews see that President Bush gets
the fact that Israel is fighting the same fight against terrorism that
we are. The very liberal Jews are not going to be able to put aside
their environmental or abortion politics. But
for the mainstream Jewish community, Israel is of paramount importance."
Another indication that more Jews may vote for
Bush this time around is that he has proven himself to be a friend to
Israel. As Horowitz writes: "In 2000, the Jewish community
viewed George W. Bush with more than a small amount of wariness as he
entered office. His father was not considered a friend of Israel and
many thought the younger Bush would continue his father's policies
towards the Jewish state. Instead, he not only walked away from his
father's views, but is perceived by many to be the
most ardent supporter of Israel to ever occupy the White House. …
How? For starters, Bush moved his administration decisively away from
the Clinton doctrine of moral equivalency. His June 24, 2002 speech, in
which he placed the blame for the current round of Middle East violence
squarely on the shoulders of the Palestinian leadership, was a watershed
policy statement. Bush has allowed Israel to take measures in self
defense and has taken bold steps to reshape the Middle East towards the
goal of democratizing the region. He has also
surrounded himself with senior policy advisors who share his desire to
support the Jewish state." It’s true that Israel is an important
issue for many Jews (Schrag says he spoke with one women who told him,
"Bush has been so good for Israel, and that's so important to me. I'm a
lifelong Democrat. How can I vote for Bush?") But it’s not true to say
that most Jews are one-issue voters. Indeed, one Republican official
said "If it were true that these voters vote only on Israel, we would
already be carrying the Jewish vote." Likewise, it’s not necessarily
true that Jews who are highly engaged with Israel are necessarily
aligned with Bush and Sharon. There are many American Jews who may not
agree with Sharon’s hardline tactics. Kerry
clearly thinks Bush’s decision was a good move politically, and he was
careful to praise it: "I think that could be a positive step.
What's important obviously is the security of the state of Israel, and
that's what the prime minister and the president, I think, are trying to
address." Kerry has a long, positive record on
Israel and is in step with mainstream Jewish ideas about
foreign and domestic issues. As Schrag concludes in Slate: "Jews would
have to overlook major points of contention on domestic issues in order
to reward Bush for standing by Israel. … If we're in for a tight race in
November, even a few thousand Jewish votes for Bush—especially in a
swing state like Florida—could be the key to a second term in the White
House."
JINSA Holds Second U.S.-India-Israel Conference on Counter Terrorism,
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs
(JINSA), April 15, 2004
"Leading experts from the United States, Israel and India met in
Herzliya, Israel, Feb. 16-17, 2004 to forge a consensus on the
importance of strategic Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
cooperation in the war on terrorism. The occasion was the second annual
trilateral conference on counter terrorism, sponsored by JINSA and
several Israeli and Indian partners. The first conference, held in
February 2003 in New Delhi, was first conceptualized - as well as
co-sponsored - by JINSA. Joining JINSA in sponsoring the 2004 conference
was the International Policy Institute for Counter Terrorism (ICT), the
Harold Hartog School of Government and Policy of Tel Aviv University and
by Prof. M.D. Nalapat of India's Manipal Academy of Higher Education and
was arranged by ICT scholar Prof. Martin Sherman. The next
conference in the series is expected to be held in Washington, D.C. in
early 2005. As a result of the conference, the American, Israeli and
Indian delegations agreed to a multifaceted action plan to be carried
out jointly by the sponsoring organizations and allied agencies as well
as Congressman Stephen Solarz. independently within the three
countries. The plan calls for fostering cooperation between
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to exchange experience and share
relevant technologies, increase counter-terrorism cooperation among
military and security related agencies in the three countries as well as
in research and the development of enhanced counter-terrorism
techniques, and establish frameworks to encourage the monitoring of
possible radical Wahabbi-Khomeinist infiltration into scientific
organizations relating to weapons of mass destruction. "Our goal is to
provide a forum where the experts can meet on an informal basis, expand
on their previous work in mapping a trilateral plan-of-action, and form
concrete goals and policy recommendations," JINSA's executive director
Tom Neumann said. The American delegation
was composed of former New York Congressman Stephen Solarz*;
former Alternate U.S. Ambassador to the UN Harvey Feldman*; Dr.
Steven Blank, Professor of Strategic Studies at the U.S. Army War
College, and; Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, an expert on the funding of
terrorism. The Indian delegation featured Prof. M.D. Nalapat, director
of the School of Geopolitics at the Manipal Academy of Higher Education;
V. Adm. K.K. Nayyar, former vice chief of the Indian Navy; B. Raman, a
former head of the counter-terrorism division of India's external
intelligence agency; Lt. Gen. R.K. Sawhney, former director general for
Military Intelligence, and; Dr. Jagdish Shettigar, head of the Economics
section of India's ruling BJP Party. The Israeli
panelists included Dr. Martin Sherman of the International
Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT); Brig. Gen. Doron Tamir,
former chief Intelligence Officer for the IDF, and; R. Adm. Yedidia
Ya'ari, commander of the IDF Navy. R. Adm. Yedidia Ya'ari.
Panel chairmen included Maj. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Ben-Israel,
former director of R&D for the IDF, and Maj. Gen. (res.) Eitan
Ben-Eliahu, former commander of the IDF Air Force. Keynote speakers
were the Hon. Raminder Jassal, Indian ambassador to Israel; Ehud
Olmert; deputy prime minister of Israel; Ze'ev Boim, deputy
minister of defense of Israel; Dr. Uzi Landau, Israeli minister
for Intelligence Services and U.S.-Israel Strategic Relations, and;
Shabtai Shavit, former head of the Mossad. * member of JINSA's
Board of Advisors"
OUTSOURCING FOREIGN POLICY
TO ISRAEL,
BY SAM SMITH, Progressive Review, APRIL
2004
"GEORGE BUSH, with the concurrence of his purported opponent, John
Kerry, has effectively outsourced his major
foreign policy to Israel, thereby creating
a substantially increased risk of further attacks on the U.S. mainland.
Both men, however, appear motivated primarily by domestic
political considerations rather than the safety of their country. It has
been clear for a long time that the single most effective thing America
could do to improve both its relationships and its security in Middle
Eastern affairs would be to end its coddling of
the right wing Israeli government, pressuring it instead to come
to a reasonable accommodation with Palestine. While much of American
'even handedness' in the Middle East over the years has been a charade,
the latest move clearly ends even the illusion of fairness. As the AP
reported, "A senior Israeli official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said Sharon thought that no American president
had ever made concessions so important to Israel as Bush did on
Wednesday." Pollster John Zogby told Dana Milbank and Mike Allen
of the Washington Post, "This is pretty much the final nail in the
coffin of the peace process as far as Arabs are concerned." ...
Republican officials in Washington said that while they are confident
Bush made his decision for sincere policy reasons, they believe the
potential impact on the politics of 2004 could be substantial. "This
will make it that much harder for John Kerry to win Florida," said a
Republican aide on Capitol Hill who refused to be
identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Associates
said Bush's strategists believe that even small inroads into the Jewish
vote could mean the difference between winning and losing Florida, and
several Republicans believe the announcement could further inhibit
Kerry's fundraising in the Jewish community. David Winston, a pollster
who advises GOP lawmakers, said that the policy change "is clearly going
to generate some favorable reaction from people who have not been
traditional Republican voters." "This expands the opportunity for the
Republican Party," Winston said. There is a big price to be paid for
viewing "the special relationship" as a political asset. Mark Mawozer,
writing in the Financial Times, notes that: The
tidal wave of anti-American feeling has eroded its position as an honest
broker over Palestine, while lavish aid has given it scant leverage over
Israeli policy. Other administrations, if not this one, have also
resented the extent of the Israeli lobby's power over Congress and White
House alike. John Foster Dulles, the late US secretary of state,
had underlined the dangers of a situation in which "much of the world -
and the Israeli government - believed Israel could in crucial moments
control US policy". President Bill Clinton was not pleased when
Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israeli prime minister, once referred -
with unnecessary candor - to the US as Israel's strategic asset. Here
surely is the partnership's paradox: despite enjoying a global supremacy
unprecedented in history, the US finds itself reacting to events, not
shaping them. Where the Middle East is concerned,
the power of initiative lies not in Washington but in Jerusalem. Can any
great power acquiesce indefinitely to such a self-limiting posture?
President George Washington had warned Americans in his Farewell Address
that "a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a
variety of evils". He was referring to their fondness for the French.
One wonders if the current US attachment to Israel will ever go the same
way. The Jewish electorate in America has changed dramatically in the
past decades. For much of the 20th century, Jewish activism, along with
mid-western populism, were major sources of the country's progressive
ideas. But with the rise of Israel as an symbol and the upward mobility
of succeeding generations, the Jewish electorate
became increasingly conservative, much of it now a part of a SUV
liberal right that is no longer much interested in populist politics.
While Muslims are an increasingly important voting bloc, they are
poorer, less well organized, and less concentrated than the Jewish vote
and thus less appealing to politicians. What is
amazing about all this is that under discussion is a policy that could
easily lead to another disaster of the scale of 9/11. It is hard to find
a parallel for such a negligently reckless foreign policy in recent
American history. While politicians have repeatedly catered
to ethnic groups with a foreign agenda, it is unusual for such behavior
to cost so much in money, goodwill, and national security ... Today, but
without a healthy left, Jewish-American politics presents some of the
same dangers that Italian-American politics did in the 1920s and 30s:
a misbegotten conversion of love of one's roots
into loyalty to a government that is a betrayal of much of what those
roots are meant to mean. And, as a result, all Americans, regardless of
their roots, are placed in danger."
Backroom bureaucrat played key role in US deal with Israel,
By James Harding, Financial Times, April 16
2004
"When George W. Bush was in Britain last November, one of the
president's aides was quietly dispatched to Rome for a discreet meeting.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, was in Italy and took
the opportunity to relay to Mr Bush his plan for unilateral
disengagement from the Palestinians. The official the White House sent
was Elliott Abrams. In shaping the Bush administration's historic
and highly controversial decision this week to endorse Mr Sharon's
Middle East vision, Mr Abrams, the National Security Council
official chiefly responsible for Arab-Israeli
relations, has played a central, if largely unseen, role. This
does not overstate his influence. Mr Abrams has worked in a trio
on Middle East policy that has included his superior, Stephen Hadley,
the deputy national security adviser, and William Burns, the State
Department official in charge of Middle East policy. Israeli and US
officials also say that the individuals who forged this week's policy
were the protagonists: Mr Sharon and Mr Bush. Mr Abrams'
role, according to a senior administration official, was to "carry out
what the president wants". In 10 weeks of consultations before this
week's announcement, US officials made three trips to see Mr Sharon
and his staff and there were two visits from Israeli delegations to the
White House. Mr Abrams and his colleagues, the official said,
were "kept on a short leash. [They] were not dreaming up policy."
The Israeli prime minister was one of the few
international figures with whom Mr Bush had a relationship before he
became president: Mr Sharon was his
guide to Israel in 1998 when he was Texas governor. "I had the
honour of traveling the West Bank with Ariel Sharon by
helicopter," Mr Bush told an audience at the Republican Jewish Coalition
in 1999. "You can imagine what it was like to be given a history lesson
by this great warrior and hero of freedom and
democracy." Mr Sharon also had praise this week for Mr
Bush. "I myself have been fighting terror for many years, and understand
the threats and cost from terrorism," he said. "In all these years, I
have never met a leader as committed as you are, Mr President, to the
struggle for freedom and the need to confront terrorism wherever it
exists." These words, say some Middle East experts, may resonate
favourably for Mr Bush among Jewish and
conservative Christian voters in an election year. Martin
Indyk, the former US ambassador to Israel, says: "The president is
in a tight spot and Jewish votes matter, particularly in some key states
such as Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio." The White House insists
election year politics did not play a part. "The poll data suggest that
there is hardly anything that a Republican president can do to move his
support among the Jewish community," the senior administration official
says. But to appreciate the internal intellectual argument within the
White House for supporting the Sharon plan, diplomats and
officials generally agree with a former US official who says: "Elliott
was instrumental." It was Mr Abrams,
a senior White House official says, who reasoned that Mr Bush should not
be bound by "myths and taboos". It was not
helpful for Arab and Palestinian leaders to continue to perpetuate the
"myth" that Palestinian refugees would one day return to their homes in
Israel. It was important to create the precedent of withdrawal from the
settlements, the official says, rather than making settlements
untouchable. And, the official says, it was important to get things
moving when there had been no progress since last August. Mr Abrams,
a Reagan official implicated in the Iran-Contra affair,
in 1991 admitted withholding information from
Congress. He was sentenced to two years' probation and community service.
In the years after he was pardoned by President
George H. W. Bush, Mr Abrams wrote a book calling for Jews
to return to their faith to stem assimilation.
He also helped found the Project for the New American Century, a
neo-conservative think-tank that included Dick Cheney, now
vice-president, Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, and his deputy, Paul
Wolfowitz. Mr Abrams supported Mr Sharon, a leader, he once wrote, who
knows "the road to peace lies through strength instead of weakness".
He is seen as one of the most effective operators in modern American
government. "Elliott Abrams is one of the best
bureaucratic artists in Washington. He has traditionally taken
bureaucratic positions and turned them into strong positions, because he
reads the president and knows what he wants," says Jon Alterman,
who was on the State Department's policy and planning staff."
EU Slams
Rantissi Killing as Unlawful, Provocative,
Yahoo! News (from Reuters), April 18, 2004
"Israel's killing of top Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was
unlawful and "not conducive to lowering tension," European Union foreign
policy chief Javier Solana said Saturday. "The European Union has
consistently condemned extrajudicial killings," Solana said in a
statement issued during talks between EU and Asian foreign ministers in
Ireland. "Israel has a right to protect its citizens from terrorist
attacks, but actions of this type are not only unlawful, they are not
conducive to lowering tension."
Qureia
blames U.S. bias; Israel: Rantisi was terror mastermind,
Haaretz (Israel), April 18, 2004
"Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia on Saturday said Israel's
assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi was a "direct result" of
encouragement from the United States. Rantisi was killed by a missile strike
on his car in the Gaza Strip, the powerbase of the Palestinian Islamic
militant group where he had been the top official. "The
Palestinian cabinet considers this terrorist Israeli campaign is a direct
result of American encouragement and the complete bias of the American
administration towards the Israeli government," he said. Israel said
it had killed a "mastermind of terrorism" by assassinating Rantisi and vowed
to keep up strikes on militant leaders. "Israel... today struck a mastermind
of terrorism, with blood on his hands," Foreign Ministry spokesman
Jonathan Peled told Reuters. "As long as the Palestinian Authority does
not lift a finger and fight terrorism, Israel will continue to have to do so
itself," he said. The White House early Sunday
declined to criticize the strike, saying instead that Israel "has the
right to defend itself from terrorist attacks" and
urging restraint in the region ... [T]he chair of the Yahad (formerly
Meretz) faction, MK Zahava Gal-On, expressed doubt about the timing
of the assassination, coming a few days after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
met U.S. President George W. Bush on his plan to withdraw from the Gaza
Strip ... A senior Palestinian Authority official condemned the killing of
the Hamas leader as "state terror." "We condemn in the strongest possible
terms this Israeli crime and state terror. It is evident now to the world
that the Palestinian people need international protection more than ever,"
Palestinian Minister Saeb Erekat said. Speaking to CNN, Erekat expressed
concern that Israel would now target PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. He said that
acts of revenge would not serve either side, and warned that Israel and the
Palestinians were in a "lose-lose" situation. Palestinian Foreign Minister
Nabil Sha'ath also attributed the decision to assassinate Rantisi on what
the Palestinians believe is a forgiving American attitude toward Israel. "I
completely condemn this Israeli crime of cold blooded killing in front of
the whole world, while America gives it bits of our land and our refugees'
rights. The mercy of God upon Rantisi... Israel
commits crimes and is rewarded by the American president. When it commits
state terrorism, it gets promises."
Bush Blows It
Again,
by Charley Reese, antiwar-com, April 17, 2004
"President George W. Bush continues to mislead the American people as to the
cause of terrorism directed against the United States.
This week he guaranteed that more Americans will die from terrorist attacks
due to his stabbing the Palestinians in the back. He has from the
beginning acted as if he were a ventriloquist's dummy and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon were the ventriloquist. He proved it again by
buying into Sharon's scheme to steal great globs of Palestinian land
in the West Bank, and by arrogantly denying the right of Palestinian
refugees to return home or be compensated. Israel has no legal right to the
land occupied by settlements; the whole world recognizes this and has for
decades. The United States used to recognize it until Bush decided to kiss
the most ample part of Sharon's anatomy. How dare George Bush tell
Palestinian refugees, ethnically cleansed in 1947–48 and again in 1967, that
they have no rights? What unmitigated gall and arrogance he shows, what
contempt for the Palestinians and indeed for the whole Muslim world. When
did God give George Bush the power to abolish the human rights of other
people? It's no wonder he has to lie through his teeth to try to explain
terrorism. We are not victims of terrorism because terrorists hate us or
democracy or freedom. We are victims of terrorism because George Bush's
policies inflict grievous harm on Palestinians, on Afghans and on Iraqis.
One hates to say it, but Osama bin Laden makes more sense than Bush. If you
doubt the role of our support for Israel's brutalizing Palestine in causing
terrorism, listen to what bin Laden says: "The greatest rule of safety is
justice, and stopping injustice and aggression. It was said: Oppression
kills the oppressors, and the hotbed of injustice is evil.
The situation in occupied Palestine is an example.
What happened on 11 September and 11 March (the Madrid bombings) is your
commodity returned to you." In plainer English, the more the Israelis
shed Palestinian blood with our unadulterated support, the more of our blood
bin Laden hopes to shed. He says quite plainly – addressing himself to the
people instead of politicians – why don't you stop shedding our blood so we
can stop shedding yours? He scoffs at being called a terrorist and says, "Our
acts are reaction to your own acts, which are represented by the destruction
and killing of our kinfolk in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine." He
goes on to say that rational people would not sacrifice their security,
their money and their children "to please the liar of the White House. Had
he been truthful about his claim for peace, he would not describe the person
who ripped open pregnant women in Sabra and Shatila (a reference to Sharon)
and the destroyer of the capitulation process (a reference to the peace
process) as a man of peace." Bin Laden says further: "He also would not have
lied to people and said that we hate freedom and kill for the sake of
killing. Reality proves our truthfulness and his lie. The killing of
Russians was after their invasion of Afghanistan and Chechnya; the killing
of Europeans was after their invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan; and the
killing of Americans on the day of New York was after their support of the
Jews in Palestine and their invasion of the Arabian Peninsula." As much as
you might hate bin Laden, he is telling the truth about the cause of the
conflict, and Bush is lying. Bush ought to come clean and tell the American
people the truth about why we are in this war instead of spreading the lie
that we were just innocent bystanders picked on by madmen. Even terrorists
have rational reasons for what they do. Bush is
following the Israeli example. Rather than address the cause of the problem,
he just tries to kill his way out of it. That policy has failed the
Israelis, and it will fail us."
Party led by Jewish politician does well in S. African elections,
by Michael Belling, Virtual Jerusalem,
April 2004
"A political party headed by one of South Africa´s
leading Jewish politicians has entrenched its position as the
second-largest party in the country. The governing African National
Congress continued its political dominance with a landslide win in the April
14 general elections, but the Democratic Alliance, led by Tony Leon,
increased its vote by almost one-third, solidifying its status as the
largest opposition party. Leon called it a mark of progress in South
Africa´s young democracy — established after the peaceful transition from
white rule in 1994 — that his Jewishness was not an issue in the campaign,
with one or two minor exceptions. "The Palestine issue was brought up and
injected into the campaign when I spoke in Lenasia," a largely Muslim area
near Johannesburg, he told JTA. There are more than half a million Muslims
in South Africa, which has a Jewish population of some 70,000. There was
also an anonymous threat by "Al-Qaida types" against his wife, Michal,
who is Israeli ... Two other senior
Jewish politicians will return to Parliament — ANC member Ronnie Kasrils,
the minister of water affairs who is outspoken in his anti-Israel views, and
Ruth Rabinowitz of the Inkatha Freedom Party,
with its largely Zulu power base. Several more
Jews will take seats in the nine provincial legislatures. Jews
largely backed the Democratic Alliance. The South African government´s
pro-Palestinian stance — it supported the Palestinian position during the
International Court of Justice hearings on the Israeli security fence —
increased this support, said Mervyn Smith, the chairman of the
African Jewish Congress and a former national chairman of the South African
Jewish Board of Deputies, the umbrella body of the country´s Jewish
community. Michael Bagraim, current national chairman of the Board of
Deputies, said Jews now felt they were really making a difference when they
voted, in contrast to the situation under the old apartheid regime. "Now you
feel free. You are proud of placing your cross. It doesn´t matter for which
party. You are contributing to the country, making a difference and are part
of the building blocks of the future," he said. Referring to an Op-Ed piece
in the Cape Times during the run-up to the elections,
which included accusations that the South African
Zionist Federation was fomenting loyalty to Israel at the cost of allegiance
to South Africa, Bagraim said he had met recently with
Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and the ANC leader in the Western Cape,
Ibrahim Rasool. "Both assured us we are absolutely equal to any other
citizen of this country and protected by the full weight of the law,"
Bagraim said. "Rasool went further and said he
respects our allegiance as Zionists and it does not
detract from our allegiance to South Africa as fully fledged citizens."
Ms.
Benador manages the media PR firm greases skids for clients supporting
Bush's Middle East policy,
by Bill Berkowitz,
Working for Change, October 14, 2002
" This column actually is about the work of Eleana Benador. She is
one of those influential public relations folks
who work behind the scenes, managing and massaging the media. Eleana
Benador runs a high-powered media relations and international Speakers
bureau called Benador Associates. With offices in New York City, Paris,
London, Madrid, and Geneva, she is a woman on a mission. The last time, and
I must confess the first time, I heard about her activities was when Brian
Whittaker, writing for Britain's The Guardian ("US think tanks give lessons
in foreign policy"), described Benador's work
promoting a gaggle of spokespeople that support Israel's objectives in the
Middle East. Whitaker's article painstakingly described the coterie
of Middle East "experts" -- nurtured by several right-wing, and mostly
Washington, DC-based think tanks -- who have come to dominate the public
discourse over Middle East policy. This domination has been aided and
abetted by the work of Ms. Benador. An expert booking agent, Ms.
Benador succeeds with remarkable ease in getting her clients maximum
exposure on cable's talking-head television programs, and in placing their
op-ed pieces in a number of the nation's major newspapers. Ms. Benador
represents a constellation of right-wing politicos and conservative think
tankers including: Alexander M. Haig, Jr., -- former Secretary of State
under Ronald Reagan who currently runs Worldwide Associates, Inc., a company
that assists "corporations around the world in providing strategic advice on
global political, economic, commercial and security matters"; James Woolsey
-- former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for two years under
Bill Clinton and one of the earliest of drum beaters for taking out Saddam
Hussein; Richard Perle -- the neoconservative icon who is one of the
chief architects of Bush's Middle East policy; Charles Krauthammer --
a regular columnist with the Washington Post who is a "hawk's hawk";
Michael Ledeen -- currently occupying the Freedom Chair at the American
Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.; Frank Gaffney -- founder and
president of the Washington, DC-based Center for Security Policy and
columnist with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times; and Arnaud de
Borchgrave -- Senior Adviser and Director of the Center for Strategic and
International Studies and former editor-in-chief of the Washington Times.
Dr. Khidir Hamza One of Benador's bright new stars is
Dr. Khidhir Hamza, the dissident Iraqi nuclear scientist who recently
charged that Iraq could have a nuclear bomb within months ... That's where
Eleana Benador comes in. Over the past
several months Dr. Hamza has been interviewed by the New York Times, Tom
Brokaw, Nightly News, 60 Minutes II, PBS Frontline, NPR: All things
Considered, and the Morning Show with Bob Edwards. Interlocking
clients The website run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq
recently linked to photos of Benador that, said website contributor
Drew Hamre, were "apparently taken at a meeting that included: US Senator Joseph
Lieberman... anti-Arab ideologue Daniel Pipes [director of the
Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum], and -- inexplicably -- Reza Pahlavi,
the former Crown Prince of Iran. Adding absurdity to inexplicability," Hamre
added, "the photos are posted on the vanity website of a Philadelphia-area
realtor active in Middle East politics." Since the beginning of August,
Michael Ledeen, one of Benador's clients, has written 6 columns in the
National Review about Iran -- most of them urging the Bush Administration to
rally around the opposition forces and add Iran to the list of future (not
too distant) targets ... Ms. Benador, along with several of her
clients, are listed as "Core Activists and Supporters" of the United States
Committee for a Free Lebanon (USCFL) at its website. According to the
Guardian's Brian Whittaker, the USCFL publishes the Middle East Intelligence
Bulletin jointly with the Pipes' Middle East Forum. The Bulletin,
which "is sent out by email free of charge -- but can never-the-less afford
to pay its contributors," reports Whittaker, "specializes in covering the
seamy side of Lebanese and Syrian politics." In June 2000, the
Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum issued a 48-page study, titled "Ending
Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role." According to a press release
announcing its publication, the report called for the U.S. to "demand a
Syrian withdrawal and restore Lebanon's sovereignty," and it "suggests a
range of specific policy recommendations, from issuing a clear statement of
policy ('All Syrian forces must leave Lebanon') to putting serious pressure
on Syria." The media contact? Eleana Benador."
NCSJ Praises Announcement that Secretary Powell Will Attend Berlin
Conference,
U.S. Newswire, April 19, 2004
"NCSJ today praised the announcement that Secretary of State Colin Powell
will attend the conference on anti-Semitism,
being sponsored April 28-29 in Berlin by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "Secretary Powell and
the State Department have been instrumental in envisioning and securing the
OSCE mechanism for international cooperation against anti-Semitism,"
said NCSJ Chairman Robert J. Meth. "Through his participation in the
OSCE Ministerial Council last December, he personally ensured strong support
from the 55 member states for both the Berlin conference and the critical
post-Berlin implementation of hate-crimes monitoring, legislation, training,
and educational programs." Dr. Meth will be leading NCSJ's delegation
to Berlin. According to NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin, who
served as a Public Member of the U.S. delegation to the OSCE's 2003 Vienna
conference, "The Secretary's participation will further raise the level of
what is already a high-profile international event.
We anticipate many of his counterparts will be more likely to attend as a
result." Mr. Levin will be joining other American Jewish
representatives as a Public Advisor to this year's delegation being led by
former New York City Mayor Ed Koch. NCSJ President Joel M.
Schindler noted, "NCSJ has drawn on its diplomatic and policy contacts,
its expertise in combating anti- Semitism, and three decades of
participation in the historic Helsinki process that produced what we know
today as the OSCE. We are very pleased to be working with a growing number
of partner agencies, and with officials from the United States and a long
list of European partners, many of whom have emerged from the Soviet
shadow." The following is a list of recent key related developments,
including new legislation in the United States Senate and a hearing in the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. April 7: Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio)
introduced S. 2292, a bill mandating an annual
Global Anti-Semitism Review by the U.S. Department of State. The text
of the bill and Sen. Voinovich's floor statement is available online at
http://ncsj.org/AuxPages/040704Voinovich.shtml. NCSJ Executive Director
Mark Levin told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "By
reporting on both the status of anti-Semitism and government responses to
it, it will hold accountable those governments
failing to take appropriate measures and recognize those moving forward.
This is the formula that has allowed our country to lead the world toward
effective enforcement of human rights standards and respect for religious
freedom." ... The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
whose 55 member states comprise North America, Europe and the former Soviet
Union, is holding a major international conference in Berlin, focused on
coordinating the fight against anti-Semitism. A broad range of information
is available online at http://Berlin2004.org
... . NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia,
Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia -- a voluntary, non-profit agency
created in 1971 -- is the mandated central coordinating agency of the
organized American Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of
the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union. NCSJ
comprises nearly 50 national organizations and over
300 local federations, community councils and committees across the United
States. Through this extensive network,
NCSJ mobilizes the resources, energies and talents of millions of U.S.
citizens, and also represents the American Jewish community in dealings with
similar national groups abroad, and at international fora."
Top: Jewish
Occupied Governments:
United States
JEW$ AND GOVERNMENT
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