Bravo! I'll vote for you as Bernie's VP.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 9:52 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
At the risk of over simplification, said Simple Simon, we seem to have an
"Over Complicate Everything" gene.
This thought struck my mind when I read that it takes a 26 page law to tell
our children which toilet they may use. Untangling the complexities we have
contrived is going to take at least a 3,000 page book of instructions. I'm
writing it as we speak...well, we're not really speaking, but you know what
I mean.
So I listen to bits and pieces of the so called Presidential campaign and
marvel at how complicated we have made the simple process of electing a
president. We've created caucuses, primary elections, delegates, super
delegates, county conventions, state conventions, national conventions, and
finally we head to the polls to cast our ballot, not for the candidate of
our choice, but for some nameless person we hope will take our vote to
wherever the Electoral College meets.
For one office, it takes over 2 years, billions of dollars and thousands of
hours of lip flapping, making hundreds of contradictory promises and
glutting the Airwaves with political lies and innuendos.
But that is just one small example of how we are programmed to complicate
simple tasks. So when I see all of the groupings that we have created in
order to tell our people from everyone else, I cringe.
Frank's list demonstrates how muddy we can make the waters. In my mind
there are only two social divisions. Controllers and Controlled.
The Controllers are a very few in number, and they tend to jockey for
control over one another, but they have one understanding among themselves.
They must always keep the Masses(the Controlled) divided, confused and
fighting among themselves.
The Controlled are the majority of us. Besides being lied to and misled by
the Controllers, we, because of that Over Complicate Everything gene, we
make up even more ways of splitting into warring groups.
Besides the usual separators like sex, color, age, nationality, religion,and
sex, we also use such dividers as snobbery, elitism, level of education,
ancestry(whose blood flows in our veins), and on and on and on.
Over Complication becomes our enemy, putting all of these imagined
differences between us and the question of what to do with our Controllers.
But because of our making such mountains out of molehills, we will stay
divided unless, or until we overcome our need to feel superior to others.
Regardless of where we were born, or how much education we have, or what
skills we possess that others do not have, as long as we are under the heel
of the Controllers, and as long as our labor is on behalf of the
Controllers, none of us are any better than anyone else.
We need to use our differences to mold a strong People.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/31/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is because, as Carl often points out we have been victims of thesystem to
divide and conquer routine by the ruling class. It goes something like
this divide us into an India like caste system and then create a straw
man enemy to set the divided factions against. That fall guy is the
working class. Let's look at the classes that have been created:
. The welfare class. This class is dependent upon a bureaucratic
either in part or, in some extreme cases, whole to receive subsidencefrom.
Although no real threat to the ruling class here; the ruling class hasof living.
used its media to whip up anger and strife within this class. The
media brainwashing with all of its day time TV ideal imagery has left
this class with a conclusion that they are entitled to a better standard
This results in feelings of despair, anger, and violence which fuelstargeted for the abuse.
their hatred of those they perceive have oppressed them. While you may
think that the despair, anger and violence of this class is brought
down on the ruling class that would be completely incorrect. It is
actually brought down on the working class because that is the only
other class they have access to. Just look at a social security
office, or any other social services office and see how the workers
are routinely abused by this class, or look at the average gas station
attendant or convenience store clerk who is pistol whipped, beaten and
often killed in the most violent of examples of how the working class is
. The working class is next and is the victim of choice. This is theclass
that is often the silent majority with never a voice or mention in thethe
mainstream media. The welfare class and the elite classes, both
liberal and conservative make for better TV backdrops. This class is
identified by being one bad diagnosis or one small period of
unemployment away from total destruction. The fear of this keeps the
working class from rising up. That is why such essentials and housing
and health care are more readily available to the welfare class than
the working class. That is the preferred means of keeping this class down.
. Next comes the liberal elites. This class usually is dominated by
intellectuals, academics, artists, and whites with financial securityno risk for them.
from their families and spouses. This group likes to tout their far
left values of socialism, egalitarianism, and a new world order.
However, this is often disingenuous because they look upon the working
class as a life form lower than they are, a mass of sub-humans. This
is why they oppose such progressive ideas such as a living wage for
all and do not value physical labor. They feel they are superior to
that and do not, under any circumstances bow to doing blue collar
labor. They feel that is to be done by the lower working class and
they vilify the working class if their labor is not up to any
arbitrary standard they propose. One may wonder why they would risk
their financial positions by touting socialism and egalitarianism.
They reality is that they know there ideals will never come to
fruition and for now their financial position will comfortably keep
them in their ivory towers, so a platform as they profess is essentially
. Next comes the conservative elites. These are the police, doctors,knights of the ruling class's court.
lawyers, and the mom and pop small business owners. Their position in
life earns them immunity to the laws, norms, and crosses to bear that
the working class faces every day. They directly profit from the rape,
pillage and plunder of the working class. Direct attacks on the
working class are very profitable for this class. The cop uses his gun
to keep up the statistics that feed his federal grants, the doctor
kills and manes with his prescription pad while getting rich on health
insurance and denying health care, the lawyer bleeds the working class
dry when they get wrapped up in a kangaroo court of a legal system
that is stacked against them, and mom and pop business owner get rich
on the low wages of the working class they pay those that haven't been
killed off by the cops, doctors and lawyers. This class also has been
brainwashed by the mainstream media to believe that the working class
is sucking down their tax dollars; a concept that falls apart under
even the slightest fact check. This class sees themselves as the shiny
. Then there is the ruling class. Need I say even more about thisclass, the
name shall speak for itself?put down.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2016 1:06 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
You see, by my using the label, Working Class, I distract from the
point I am trying to make. Since every revolution begins with an
oppressive group that maintains control by whatever means necessary,
and since their overthrow, when successful, is called a revolution, it
rises up from the oppressed. Whether this reaction to the oppression
is developed over long years or springs quickly as conditions become
intolerable, it is, by its very nature, organized. And, in most
revolutions, some of those who are oppressed choose to side with the
oppressors, because they see more advantages in the event the revolt is
In her note, Alice said in part, "what brings them to Trump is theirthings..."
ignorance, stupidity, bigotry, envy, inability to let anyone have
anything they don't have, lack of education, lack of cultural or
historical perspective, narrow-mindedness, fear born of all those
Certainly we will find an abundance of such people among the Trumpthey have no clue as to what is true and what is false.
followers. But to leave the impression that this is the majority of
his followers is a mistake we should avoid. There are many very
bright, clever people behind Trump. They are sizing up their options
if he wins. Trump himself is not the fool the media has made him out
to be. Trump has built a fortune through his own cunning and his
ability to play by the systems rules. We should never become so
careless as to underrate those who oppose us. But Alice's description
should remind us that the American Empire's propaganda machine is
highly effective. People appear to be all of the things she says,
simply because they are confused and have been misled and lied to until
Anyway, a revolution is most certainly in the future of our Empire.continue.
It has always happened to every oppressive government. Revolution is
as natural as Summer turning into Autumn. When our leaders begin
treating us in the same manner that we treat our natural resources,
believing that they exist for the taking, then servitude is replaced
by hatred, resentment and refusal to serve.
And, organized or not, revolution erupts.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/30/16, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Yes, we have seen over and over again what happens when an organized
working class rises up. I notice that you neglect to mention what has
happened in Cuba or - going further back - places like Russia.
On 5/30/2016 8:36 AM, Alice Dampman Humel wrote:
this is far from the original article, but a few comments on
subsequent messages. Carl, if you really believe that the working
class, and I'll get to whatever that means in a minute, has the
power to bring the ruling class to its knees by the sorts of actions
you outline, IMO, you are deluding yourself. We've seen over and
over again what has happened to such actions, from the actions of
the fledgling unions, including
strikes and riots, from the 19th century through the present day,
both here and elsewhere. Even when some ground is gained, it is
minimal. And the loss of life, freedom, the beatings, the
imprisonments, etc. are, for each individual and the ripples outward
from that individual to include his family, friends, community are
high prices.
As for the working class as an entity, I think Trump's supporters
show quite glaringly that the working class is not a unified entity.
It, like other classes, is divided in several ways, and the one
pointed up so harshly in Trump's followers is, yes, largely working
class, but what brings them to Trump is their ignorance, stupidity,
bigotry, envy, inability to let anyone have anything they don't
have, lack of education, lack of cultural or historical perspective,
narrow-mindedness, fear born of all those things...need I go on?
These qualities are not found across the board in the working class.
As for the question Miriam posed, "Yes, they're waking up and
they're angry. But are they angry because
getting what they want?", I think the answer is obvious: they'reour country isn't caring for all of us or because they aren't
only interested in their own wants and couldn't care less about "all
of us." The "I've got mine" mentality is so blatantly obvious in the
behavior we see at those scary, depressing rallies. And also in the
very fact that Trump has made it as far as he has.
On May 29, 2016, at 11:57 AM, Carl Jarvis <carjar82@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Frankly speaking Frank, I have believed for some time that we are
watching our nations morph into Corporate Nations. Traditional
national boundaries will blur and the Working Class will find
themselves being controlled by Corporate Governments. If I'm
right, then the Corporate Masters here in what was once the USA,
are part of a new "Nation" that includes the Ruling Class in Israel.
While we are being directed to place blame for our economic woes at
the feet of Russia or China, our Ruling Class will actually be in a
tussle with other international corporations for world dominance.
Even now, just who are we "defending"? What democracies have we
supported around the world? How much Peace now exists on Earth?
The fact is, we are being fed crap. Not by our good old USA,
remember that Republic? No, we may be told that we are protecting
Freedom and Democracy and protecting our nation, but it is the
Empire we are really serving. And our interests are far from those
of the Empire.
But the interests of the American Empire embraces the armed camp we
call Israel. Along with the Empire's network of similar war camps,
we are seeing former nations stripped of their resources and their
citizens reduced to the level of slaves. We are living in the most
critical times in Human history. The next decade or two will
determine whether we survive as a Free People, or as Slaves, if we
even manage to survive.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/29/16, Frank Ventura <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
OK there is some truth there but there are so many international
corporations, often based in Israel, that are doing the job to us
as well.
Even corporations that we consider to be "American" have their
financial holdings in international venues.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Sunday, May 29, 2016 10:50 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
Certainly we can draw similarities between pre-WW II and our
present mess, but one difference is the economic pressure that was
placed on the backs of the German people, following WW I, was put
there by those wishing to control Germany and suck up her
resources to enrich the emerging corporations in England, Europe
and, to some degree, the USA, while today's economic mess is
caused from within our own borders by Corporate Terrorists,
sucking up all our resources for their own enrichment.
Of course, in both cases, it is the working class that suffers and
bears the brunt of the financial burden as well as for the blame
when the house of cards collapses.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/28/16, joe harcz Comcast <joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:joeharcz@xxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
The scary thing. And I mean the really scary thing is this is all
like, or similar to Weimer Germany in 1933, or the early 1920's
with the bombast Mussulini.
And what makes it wors or, even more scary is we've got Hilliry
playing the
puppet.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Ventura" <frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:frank.ventura@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2016 11:04 AM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
As well as the white, daytime TV watching soccer moms.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of joe ;
harcz Comcast
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2016 9:31 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
One correction: It isn't the entire working class that is behind
Trump. It is the white, male, older working class.
It is a reactionary element that got all it had by fights of
socialists in the past and now betrays the history of it all.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Vieni" <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
To: <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 10:08 PM
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
Well, I don't want to be cynical or anything, and maybe it's
because I just finished that book on BARD about Trump, but let's
remember that it is the working class who are his zealous
followers. It is they who avidly watch reality TV and read all
those gossip columns and articles in People Magazine for all
these years, all about celebrities. It is the working class, who
want to be rich like Trump keeps bragging about and who want to
keep outsiders, meaning anyone who looks different from them,
out of our country.
Yes, they're waking up and they're angry. But are they angry
because our country isn't caring for all of us or because they
aren't getting what they want?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl ;
Jarvis
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2016 9:04 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel Veers Even Further Right
It might have been on the streets of New York or Chicago, but
this was not a police action, it was, "an Israeli soldier who
was caught on videotape shooting in the head, at close range, a
Palestinian man who was wounded and lying on the ground, already
subdued and obviously not a threat."
But whether it be soldiers in Palestine or Police in American
Slums, the message is the same. Obey or suffer.
But the tide is turning. The Working Class has begun to stir.
Long suffering men and women are beginning to understand that
while the Ruling Class has the guns, the Working Class has the
power to bring the Empire to its knees, simply by doing nothing.
Just staying home, or under the bridges and in the tent cities.
Refusing to harvest the Master's crops or haul them to market,
or to build his mansions or glass towers, or march in his
armies, or patrol the streets and keeping the Ruling Classes laws.
But it will take understanding by all of those people who are
bound to serve the Empire's Rulers through the purchase of their
loyalty and the promise of a better life than that of the masses.
They must understand that they cannot serve the Masters and be
Freemen.
Submitting to the Ruling Class demands obedience. All who serve
this monster will never be free. And they will never be truly safe.
Carl Jarvis
On 5/27/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
all-important.
Pillar writes: "There already shouldn't have been any doubt
about the orientation of the current Israeli government and the
associated obduracy of that government in blocking any path
toward resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state."
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel's new defense
minister Avigdor Lieberman. (photo: Getty)
Israel Veers Even Further Right By Paul R. Pillar, Consortium
News
26 May 16
Hillary Clinton says she wants to take the U.S.-Israeli
relationship "to the next level" even as Prime Minister
Netanyahu's right-wing regime plumbs new depths of extremism,
as ex-CIA analyst Paul R.
Pillar notes.
here already shouldn't have been any doubt about the
orientation of the current Israeli government and the
associated obduracy of that government in blocking any path
toward resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who comes across as one of the more moderate members
of his own coalition, has paid more lip service than some other
members of that coalition to the idea of an eventual
Palestinian state, but he has made clear with other words and
actions that he has no intention of any such thing coming into
being on his watch, or of taking any meaningful steps toward
such a state coming into being.
Now come reports that Netanyahu is offering the Defense
Ministry to former Moldovan nightclub bouncer (and resident of
a West Bank
settlement) Avigdor Lieberman. This will bring into the ruling
coalition Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which even within
the Israeli context is usually described as "hard right."
Bringing Lieberman into the government is indicative not only
of the overall orientation of that government but also of some
larger disturbing trends in Israeli attitudes that the
government has fomented more than it has discouraged.
If Lieberman is made defense minister he would replace Moshe
Ya'alon, who in recent days has backed the Israeli military in
prosecuting (though only for manslaughter, not the murder that
occurred) an Israeli soldier who was caught on videotape
shooting in the head, at close range, a Palestinian man who was
wounded and lying on the ground, already subdued and obviously
not a threat.
Lieberman has joined other hardliners in expressing support for
the soldier.
(Netanyahu has visited the soldier's family to express
sympathy.) Netanyahu had been trying to recruit another
coalition partner to increase his government's thin majority in
the Knesset. Talks with centrist leader Isaac Herzog fell
through; the government evidently had more in common with the
crude hard right tendencies of Lieberman.
Perhaps the timing of this latest political move was a natural
outcome of this sequence of negotiations.
Or maybe it was at least as much another example of Netanyahu's
proclivity for poking a stick in the eye of foreign leaders who
look like they might be getting on his case about the
Palestinian conflict
- such as timing an announcement of more settlement expansion
to coincide with a visit of Vice President Biden. This time the
stickee is the French government, which is organizing an
international conference for later this year on
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
All honest outside observers should use the report about
Lieberman coming into the Israeli government as an occasion to
remind themselves that this tragic and long-running conflict
continues to run because one side refuses to end it. The gross
asymmetry between the two sides is
One side, the occupying power - the side with the firepower -
has the ability to end the occupation and resolve the conflict
if it decided to do so. The other side has no such power. That
other side, the Palestinian side, has tried to use violent
resistance but has subsequently and correctly drawn the
conclusion that such violence is not the answer; the violence,
unsurprisingly, only stokes legitimate fears among Israelis
about their security.
Violence has been continuing in the unplanned, spontaneous, and
frustration-driven form of young people grabbing knives and
stabbing the first Israelis they can find. The Palestinian
leadership has turned to multilateral diplomacy, which, besides
popular boycotts, is about the only tool it has left. And the
Israeli government does everything it can to impede and to foil
such diplomacy, as it is trying to do now with the French
initiative.
A common urge to sound impartial leads to the common refrain
that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists because neither
side has the political will to settle it. Nonsense. The
overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not want to continue
to live under Israeli occupation.
They have the will but not the power to settle.
There certainly are divisions and political weakness on the
Palestinian side
- of which the Israeli government has striven to prevent any
repair, such as in "punishing" the Fatah-dominated Palestinian
Authority through withholding tax revenue whenever it has moved
toward reconciliation with Hamas - but there is no significant
pro-occupation party among Palestinians.
The hardliners who control Israel policy have the power but -
as ample evidence, even without Avigdor Lieberman, has shown -
not the will, as long as third parties do not make them suffer
any meaningful consequences. They do want the occupation to
https://consortiumnews.com/2016/05/21/israel-veers-even-further-right/https:The Netanyahu government's repeated claim that it wants tomonths of the Obama administration.
negotiate with the Palestinians should be described as the
charade that it is.
It is understandable that Palestinian leaders have no desire to
engage in talks that have no prospect of leading to anything,
when such engagement would just mean participating in the
charade while the occupation continues and more facts are built
on the occupied ground.
The insincerity is all the more obvious when Netanyahu speaks
of talks with "no preconditions" while at the same time
insisting that the Palestinians pronounce Israel to be a
"Jewish state" - a precondition that implicitly limits how the
issue of Palestinian refugees and right of return can be
resolved, and also would mean the Palestinian leadership
formally signing on to a declaration that non-Jewish Israelis
are second-class citizens. Those are the only things such a
pronouncement would mean.
The Palestinian leadership long ago recognized, formally and
unequivocally, the state of Israel. As Palestinian leaders have
noted, that state is free to describe itself any way it wants.
With the American political system still wearing its usual
straitjacket on this issue, the main hope right now for taking
any steps out of this tragic situation lies with the French
initiative.
If the United States is to do anything helpful any time in the
foreseeable future, it probably will have to come in the
remaining eight
One of the two presumptive presidential nominees speaks of
taking U.S.-Israeli relations "to the next level" - and it is
safe to assume she doesn't mean that the next level will
consist of imposing consequences for the continued occupation.
The other presumptive presidential nominee caused nervous
moments in the Israel lobby when he talked about being
impartial, but the nerves were soothed with a speech to AIPAC
that said all the "right"
things.
And now he has Sheldon Adelson and Adelson's heavyweight
bankroll on his side, with everything that implies for this
nominee's future posture on Israel-related issues if he were to
be elected.
________________________________________
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence
Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He is now
a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security
studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The
National Interest's Web site.
Reprinted with author's
permission.)
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. Error! Hyperlink
reference not valid.
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu with Israel's new defense
minister Avigdor Lieberman. (photo: Getty)
continue.//consortiumnews.com/2016/05/21/israel-veers-even-further-rightall-important.
/ Israel Veers Even Further Right By Paul R. Pillar, Consortium
News
26 May 16
Hillary Clinton says she wants to take the U.S.-Israeli
relationship "to the next level" even as Prime Minister
Netanyahu's right-wing regime plumbs new depths of extremism,
as ex-CIA analyst Paul R.
Pillar notes.
here already shouldn't have been any doubt about the
orientation of the current Israeli government and the
associated obduracy of that government in blocking any path
toward resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The
government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is firmly rightist,
dominated by those opposed to the relinquishing of occupied
territory or the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu, who comes across as one of the more moderate members
of his own coalition, has paid more lip service than some other
members of that coalition to the idea of an eventual
Palestinian state, but he has made clear with other words and
actions that he has no intention of any such thing coming into
being on his watch, or of taking any meaningful steps toward
such a state coming into being.
Now come reports that Netanyahu is offering the Defense
Ministry to former Moldovan nightclub bouncer (and resident of
a West Bank
settlement) Avigdor Lieberman. This will bring into the ruling
coalition Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu party, which even within
the Israeli context is usually described as "hard right."
Bringing Lieberman into the government is indicative not only
of the overall orientation of that government but also of some
larger disturbing trends in Israeli attitudes that the
government has fomented more than it has discouraged.
If Lieberman is made defense minister he would replace Moshe
Ya'alon, who in recent days has backed the Israeli military in
prosecuting (though only for manslaughter, not the murder that
occurred) an Israeli soldier who was caught on videotape
shooting in the head, at close range, a Palestinian man who was
wounded and lying on the ground, already subdued and obviously
not a threat.
Lieberman has joined other hardliners in expressing support for
the soldier.
(Netanyahu has visited the soldier's family to express
sympathy.) Netanyahu had been trying to recruit another
coalition partner to increase his government's thin majority in
the Knesset. Talks with centrist leader Isaac Herzog fell
through; the government evidently had more in common with the
crude hard right tendencies of Lieberman.
Perhaps the timing of this latest political move was a natural
outcome of this sequence of negotiations.
Or maybe it was at least as much another example of Netanyahu's
proclivity for poking a stick in the eye of foreign leaders who
look like they might be getting on his case about the
Palestinian conflict
- such as timing an announcement of more settlement expansion
to coincide with a visit of Vice President Biden. This time the
stickee is the French government, which is organizing an
international conference for later this year on
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
All honest outside observers should use the report about
Lieberman coming into the Israeli government as an occasion to
remind themselves that this tragic and long-running conflict
continues to run because one side refuses to end it. The gross
asymmetry between the two sides is
One side, the occupying power - the side with the firepower -
has the ability to end the occupation and resolve the conflict
if it decided to do so. The other side has no such power. That
other side, the Palestinian side, has tried to use violent
resistance but has subsequently and correctly drawn the
conclusion that such violence is not the answer; the violence,
unsurprisingly, only stokes legitimate fears among Israelis
about their security.
Violence has been continuing in the unplanned, spontaneous, and
frustration-driven form of young people grabbing knives and
stabbing the first Israelis they can find. The Palestinian
leadership has turned to multilateral diplomacy, which, besides
popular boycotts, is about the only tool it has left. And the
Israeli government does everything it can to impede and to foil
such diplomacy, as it is trying to do now with the French
initiative.
A common urge to sound impartial leads to the common refrain
that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists because neither
side has the political will to settle it. Nonsense. The
overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not want to continue
to live under Israeli occupation.
They have the will but not the power to settle.
There certainly are divisions and political weakness on the
Palestinian side
- of which the Israeli government has striven to prevent any
repair, such as in "punishing" the Fatah-dominated Palestinian
Authority through withholding tax revenue whenever it has moved
toward reconciliation with Hamas - but there is no significant
pro-occupation party among Palestinians.
The hardliners who control Israel policy have the power but -
as ample evidence, even without Avigdor Lieberman, has shown -
not the will, as long as third parties do not make them suffer
any meaningful consequences. They do want the occupation to
The Netanyahu government's repeated claim that it wants tomonths of the Obama administration.
negotiate with the Palestinians should be described as the
charade that it is.
It is understandable that Palestinian leaders have no desire to
engage in talks that have no prospect of leading to anything,
when such engagement would just mean participating in the
charade while the occupation continues and more facts are built
on the occupied ground.
The insincerity is all the more obvious when Netanyahu speaks
of talks with "no preconditions" while at the same time
insisting that the Palestinians pronounce Israel to be a
"Jewish state" - a precondition that implicitly limits how the
issue of Palestinian refugees and right of return can be
resolved, and also would mean the Palestinian leadership
formally signing on to a declaration that non-Jewish Israelis
are second-class citizens. Those are the only things such a
pronouncement would mean.
The Palestinian leadership long ago recognized, formally and
unequivocally, the state of Israel. As Palestinian leaders have
noted, that state is free to describe itself any way it wants.
With the American political system still wearing its usual
straitjacket on this issue, the main hope right now for taking
any steps out of this tragic situation lies with the French
initiative.
If the United States is to do anything helpful any time in the
foreseeable future, it probably will have to come in the
remaining eight
One of the two presumptive presidential nominees speaks of
taking U.S.-Israeli relations "to the next level" - and it is
safe to assume she doesn't mean that the next level will
consist of imposing consequences for the continued occupation.
The other presumptive presidential nominee caused nervous
moments in the Israel lobby when he talked about being
impartial, but the nerves were soothed with a speech to AIPAC
that said all the "right"
things.
And now he has Sheldon Adelson and Adelson's heavyweight
bankroll on his side, with everything that implies for this
nominee's future posture on Israel-related issues if he were to
be elected.
Paul R. Pillar, in his 28 years at the Central Intelligence
Agency, rose to be one of the agency's top analysts. He is now
a visiting professor at Georgetown University for security
studies. (This article first appeared as a blog post at The
National Interest's Web site.
Reprinted with author's
permission.)
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
http://e-max.it/posizionamento-siti-web/socialize
