Cookie Points
Not that I agree with everything Carter says. There obviously is apartheid within Israel too, not only in the occupied territories.
But anyhow, I'll give him a serious bunch of cookie points for speaking some truth in his new book: Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
Carter via Democracy Now:
The alternative to peace is apartheid, not inside Israel, to repeat myself, but in the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem, the Palestinian territory. And there, apartheid exists in its more despicable forms, that Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights. Their land has been occupied and then confiscated and then colonized by the Israeli settlers. And they have now more than 205 settlements in the West Bank itself. And what has happened is, over a period of years, the Israelis have connected settlements with highways, and those highways make the West Bank look like a honeycomb and maybe a spider web. You can envision it. And in many cases, most cases, the Palestinians are prevented from using the highways at all, and in many cases, even from crossing the highways.
[..]
[I]n Israel and in Europe, these kind of issues are debated every day, in a most vehement way, particularly in Israel. Pros and cons, arguing back and forth, in the news media, television, radio, the major newspapers. Never, in this country, do you hear any of these issues proposed publicly by an elected member of the House or the Senate or in the White House or NBC or ABC or CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times. Never. And I think it's time for Americans to start looking at the facts about the Mid-East situation.
Posted by b on December 2, 2006 at 19:54 UTC | Permalink
I think that Americans are starting to look at the facts of the Middle East situation. It's getting their "representatives" to act on those facts that's the problem.
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 3 2006 2:11 utc | 2
Never, in this country, do you hear any of these issues proposed publicly by an elected member of the House or the Senate or in the White House or NBC or ABC or CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times. Never. And I think it's time for Americans to start looking at the facts about the Mid-East situation.
Are these pure random events or do they indicate a certain tendency?
israel worst brand name in the world
i think the tendency i'm picking up is that even tho the media won't talk about it in this country, people are figuring it out. palestine is like an oozing festering wound in a sensitive place on the global body. eventually the problem will dominate the agenda and if no resolution is found eradication of the problem will become paramount.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2006 2:25 utc | 3
Scroll down to the "BOYCOTT ISRAEL COMPANY LIST"
Boycott Israeli Goods
Boycott Isreali Goods, US Companies Listing
U.S. Companies with Investments in Israel [a-m]
U.S. Companies with Investments in Israel [n-z]
Posted by: John Francis Lee | Dec 3 2006 2:57 utc | 4
Most Americans hear only one side. The Israeli side. Until the issue of Palestinian rights is settled, nothing will change.
Posted by: ben | Dec 3 2006 4:47 utc | 5
I agree largely w. Carter on this question. But I do not agree that these issues cannot be found in the mainstream media, at least in the good mainstream media. If you read the NY Times or most of the other quality dailies you can find plenty of material covering & analyzing the issues critically. I write a progressive Israeli Palestinian peace blog & much of my media material comes fr. NYT (along w. Haaretz, The Forward & other pubs). The problem is you have to dig hard & most Americans don't want to dig at all in getting their media fixes.
Annie--that's a fabulous article on the Israeli brand. I may just write about that later tonight.
If you want to read some decidedly hostile reactions to Carter's books (& maybe add a more constructive voice to the debate?), follow my link to a post I wrote about Carter's book. My site attracts lots of loonie rightists so be prepared...
BTW, I'm sure this has been covered here but I miss Billmon. Is he on vacation? Does he know that his main pg. isn't displaying at all (at least not for me)?
Posted by: Richard Silverstein | Dec 3 2006 5:12 utc | 6
All post's eventually disappear off Billmon's front page, and if his latest post was a long time ago then his front page goes empty. He often puts up some sort of photoshopped picture when that happens.
I don't think the solution to the Palestine problem has much to do with the US at all. I think that when the Arabs unite there will be peace in as little as 12 months. 4 million Jews can't stand up to 300 million united Arabs, even if they have a declining superpower at their back. Its just a question of how long until the Arab countries politically develop. I can see that beginning to happen in the next decade. In many senses Arab countries have only just broken out of their own Eastern European style funk. If/when Arab governments start needing to respond to their own people to maintain power Israel will have to make peace, and quickly.
Posted by: still working it out | Dec 3 2006 5:49 utc | 7
There are similarities and differences between apartheid South Africa and Israel.
Faced with greater military might, it is a necessary condition for success that a revolutionary movement holds the higher moral ground. For instance, in South Africa the ANC's philosophy was non-racialism. Israel seems friendlier to arabs than Palestine seems to be towards jews.
@JF Lee (#4)
Thank you for those links. I was a bit surprised to see some of the corporations included, but there were none with whom I was doing any business anyway (except for buying the very occasional product from the Coca-Cola Corporation or one of its subsidiaries... which I will now stop doing). I had already stopped patronising most of them for engaging in objectionable business practices (notably Starbucks and Disney), and it is interesting to me how consistently my political objections on the one hand have dovetailed with political objections on an entirely different hand. It confirms to me that I am not as "all over the board" as some have suggested... even if I haven't been entirely conscious of it.
At any rate, I am in a position in which contributing to a boycott of this type is very easy. General poverty took care of most of those considerations for me for many years (did you notice that the majority of those corporations cater to a luxury market?) and geography is doing the trick now (just so long as Samsung, Daewoo, Lotte and LG don't make those lists... those would be difficult for me to avoid). There were a few surprises (Ah, Sara Lee... I long suspected you had a dark side), but nothing that living simply and living poorly hadn't already ruled out.
At any rate, those links are valuable resources and I thank you for providing them here.
@ben (#5)
"Most Americans hear only one side. The Israeli side. Until the issue of Palestinian rights is settled, nothing will change."
The Israeli state is very aware of that situation insofar as a state can be said to be aware of something. It is not a case of mere serendipity that the powerless have no voice; their voices are actively taken from them as far as is possible.
I linked to the Guardian story about how Israel Ups the Stakes in the Propaganda War in a recent open thread, but I think it is germane to rehost it here.
[Israeli apologist Amir]Gissin said the words of his English-speaking spokespeople could not compete with the power of the pictures of civilians killed in the Israeli attack on Lebanese towns like Qana. And the Israeli parliament will not spend the money on an Israeli counterpart to al-Jazeera.But Gissin was not down-hearted. He declared there to be a "war on the web" in which Israel had a new weapon, a piece of computer software called the "internet megaphone".
"During the war we had the opportunity to do some very nice things with the megaphone community," he revealed at the conference. Among them, he claimed, was a role in getting an admission from Reuters that a photograph of damage to Beirut had been doctored by a Lebanese photographer to increase the amount of smoke in the picture. This was first spotted by American blogger Charles Johnson, who has won an award for "promoting Israel and Zionism".
What this "megaphone" amounts to, as far as I can see, is a system of alerts to news stories deemed hostile to Zionist principles. When such a story comes up, it is immediately denigrated by countless volunteers who have downloaded this software to ensure that their point of view, and their point of view alone, is heard and digested. This gives them the impact of an Al-Jazeera or FOX News, with none of the overhead (as nearly as I can tell, the only cost involved was the initial development of the software).
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 3 2006 7:20 utc | 9
Heads up....
President Carter is the author of "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid".
JIMMY CARTER CSPAN BOOK TV Sun Dec 3 In Depth: Jimmy Carter is the guest on Book TV's December In Depth.
Sunday, December 3 at 12:00 pm and Monday, December 4 at 12:00 am
Also, thanks JFL and Monolycus , as I was about to post on the "megaphone" software issue, your post was much more elegant and to the point than I would have done it.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 3 2006 7:51 utc | 10
This gives them the impact of an Al-Jazeera or FOX News, with none of the overheadTHe pro-Israel propaganda program Monolycus writes about is called Giyus (meaning "draft" as in "military draft" in Hebrew). It is a project of the World Union of Jewish Students & other nationalist groups. LGF Watch as done a good job of covering this.
I would not say that Giyus has the scope or impact of any of the media outlets you mentioned. Only about 6,000 have downloaded the software according to Giyus' own figures. Some ultra-Israel supporters use it for sure. But it's doubtful how effective the entire project will be. To me it seems like an utter waste of time & energy. But what do I know? I hate their political guts to being with.
After reading Annie's interesting comment above, I did some research on the fascinating National Brands Index report she links to, which examines world attitudes toward Israel. For anyone who cares about Israel, whether you're an ardent nationalist or a progressive (and critical) Zionist like me--this is a deeply disturbing report. My post about the report is linked to this comment.
Posted by: Richard Silverstein | Dec 3 2006 8:40 utc | 11
richard, thank you and i cannot take credit for the link. someone posted it here last week, possibly uncle or b.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2006 9:00 utc | 12
@ Richard Silverstein (#11)
Thank you for the information. I might have overstated the efficacy of this program to compare it to the professional outlets that I did, however, I'm not inclined to believe so. The bias of Al-Jazeera or FOX News is explicit and constitutes an "echo chamber" of opinion. The GIYUS project, as it is reported here, is insidious and meant to disrupt dissenting opinion rather than to merely reinforce a particular party line. This makes it a weapon of a slightly different quality. Because of its "underground" nature, it would be impossible to quantify absolutely how effective it is.
In the interests of fairness, it should be noted that this tactic is not uniquely Israeli and will probably become more pernicious as activists and grassroots movements become increasingly disenfranchised and rely more exclusively on electronic means as the only method to promulgate views that are not sanctioned by the commercial and political halls of power. The USA has hired more than a few propaganda agencies (i.e.; the Lincoln Group, the Rendon Group, und so weiter) who have engaged in precisely these types of "trolling attacks". The major difference between them and this GIYUS initiative appears to be merely that the latter are composed of volunteers rather than professional trolls.
Somewhere in the archives of this site is a link I hosted to identify professional trolls (I've just checked my increasingly cluttered bookmarks and can't locate it). Identification, however, is a useless pursuit when they are still successful at disruption. There are certain hallmarks to watch for when dealing with professionals who have a particular agenda (as your link describes), however this gets a lot fuzzier when one deals with amateur, volunteer trolls who achieve their aims simply by ensuring that no productive debate can occur (although we have more than our share of contributors here who accomplish the same effect out of mere peevishness). In this respect, I would suggest that the impact of such a program has the potential to outstrip the effectiveness of the costlier FOX Newses and Al-Jazeeras.
Thank you very much for the supplemental information you have provided. I appreciate the input and wish you the best of luck in your pursuits.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 3 2006 9:28 utc | 13
@annie (#12)
I think it was Bea in OT 06-110... but it was useful to include here, so thanks!
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 3 2006 9:31 utc | 14
Going over JFL's resources a bit more thoroughly and there are, actually, two companies listed with whom I do business. Hmm. Also, I'm noticing as I wake up a bit more, that twice I used the word "hosted" when I should have said "posted". Those are just the sorts of nit-picky meaningless mistakes that will get one hired by the New York Times if one isn't careful.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 3 2006 9:49 utc | 15
richard, thank you for your excellent commentary on that link and also your rebranding link. i have gotten a little lost w/ following your links to links to links but wanted to come back and say thanks for the reference (as i mentioned above i was just reposting) hopefully it will bring some visitors to moon (the kind we like, not giyus, tho we seem fairly lucky to evade them ).
I'm sure this has been covered here but I miss Billmon.
actually, it hasn't been covered much. we've learned to be a little patient w/billmon around this joint but keep a close watch for the bar light to switch back on. it certainly makes his absence easier w/b pumping out such great posts (unprecidented?) of course he can't take all the credit, the times we are living in (wow material) these days and all that. anyway,can't let it go to his head.
as for billmon, if you are listening we miss you. that should go w/out saying, we don't say it enough but i don't want to jinx. hoping this won't be another long haul but at least it won't be a dry one, not w/bernhard keepin' us keepin' on.
blowin x's all around. these are some hard times globally. in solidarity.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2006 10:01 utc | 16
monolycus, thank you! i was close. b/bea ;)
speaking of bea's awesome links. bea, your link to Racism, Resistance and all that Jazz, i wrote the author, he forwarded it to gilad atzmon who wrote me! can you believe that!
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2006 10:10 utc | 17
The GIYUS project, as it is reported here, is insidious and meant to disrupt dissenting opinion rather than to merely reinforce a particular party line.
i've been dealing w/these guys at the comment sections of other blogs. wow, i recently linked to some of uncles mind control/delphi technique links and did that get a reaction! the whole point is to keep the converstion on track and marginalize critical thought so that the only consensus or resolutions are directed towards an affirmation that things are screwed, but its nobodies fault except those damn islamic/muslim/arab freaks. US/IS may have made mistakes but what can they do??
they work in teams. some are trained, no doubt about it.
Posted by: annie | Dec 3 2006 10:19 utc | 18
Gideon Levy: The cease-fire will go up in flames
Here is the forecast: In a few days, there will be a targeted killing operation. The military correspondents will recite: "He was one of the senior operatives of Hamas (or Islamic Jihad), and was responsible for producing and smuggling large amounts of armaments." In response, a barrage of Qassams will fall on Sderot. One of the residents might be injured. In the process of the targeted killing operation, some passersby might also be killed; the correspondents will then recite: "They were armed."Several days later, there might be a terror attack. The leaders of the right-wing parties and the Labor Party will be interviewed on television and will recite: "Abu Mazen has once again demonstrated that he is incapable and unwilling to fight terror. There is no one to talk to." Public Security Minister Avi Dichter will propose turning Beit Hanun into a ghost town. Eli Yishai will suggest bombing from the air. The next day, Qassams will fall again, and the IDF will enter the northern Gaza Strip. The cease-fire will go up in flames.
...
The IDF is not interested in the cease-fire. One can assume that neither is the Shin Bet. Reports on how the cease-fire is already being exploited for redeployment on the other side are flooding the media. And the end is known in advance. Instead of Israel promoting the cease-fire, it is acting to undermine it. A cease-fire is bad for the IDF, especially when it stems from its failures as in Lebanon and Gaza.How intolerably easy it is for the IDF to undermine the relative quiet that has been achieved. One assassination is enough. A single soldier at a checkpoint is capable of igniting a conflagration. When the IDF wants it, every broom opens fire. And the IDF wants it, unfortunately.
...
It is now not only a matter of the danger of renewed hostile activity, but a much more fateful question: Who rules in Israel and who is really dictating its path? During the coming weeks, Israelis should carefully monitor the developments. Let's establish a "Cease-Fire Watch," and watch to see who is once again maliciously undermining it.
props to JFL for keeping us updated on whats going on in the occupied Palestine territories.
more & more, people will see the extent to which Israel treats Palestinians as sub-human.
the collective of human dignity and respect is not a zero-sum game as we have seen in the USA & South Africa, and it will never be.
Posted by: | Dec 3 2006 13:08 utc | 20
@b #19
Gideon Levy nails it once again. This is exactly right.
Posted by: Bea | Dec 3 2006 13:54 utc | 23
Most Americans hear only one side. The Israeli side. Until the issue of Palestinian rights is settled, nothing will change."
and
I do not agree that these issues cannot be found in the mainstream media, at least in the good mainstream media
Many Americans are truly ignorant and are reduced to parroting something heard from a friend or the TV, true enough. Nevertheless, in my limited RL experience in the US, a surprising proportion are quite aware, of some aspects at least, as real news does percolate, or for other reasons - education, travel, books, gut feeling, sometimes, just a picture seen, etc. And I’m not referring to university graduates who jet about, not that they in fact are special or different.
What is disconcerting is the reaction to the topic. Many adopt a sorry, sighing pose, and say it is all horrible, we need peace, or alternatively, they need peace, while obviously being very uncomfortable with discussion of how peace might be achieved. The treat the Isr/Pal question as if it was a natural disaster, divorced from the scope of human affairs, and something you can’t insure against!
The Zionists, or the pro-Israeli people (as that is how they see it) evidence their knowledge as soon as they start to argue, which they willingly do, as they hold, they feel, the high ground of majority opinion and moral rightness.
All these people know not only what happens at checkpoints, but about repression, lack of rights, and so on, or if they don’t know precisely, they guess, and guess good, as my American X puts it. One picture of the Wall is ample material to provoke some understanding.
The nitty gritty is that critisizing Israel (except in the tired ‘strategic mistake’ or ‘incompetence’ line...) is un-American. In the conventional, politically correct, damped down world, the foreign policy of leaders is an accepted credo, as America is the most glorious, the freest, and the brightest place ever, how could her Leaders be wrong on this crucial matter? Bush may be an idiot, a liar, or a coke-head, or just a g-d Republican (and even 9/11 is gathering steam!) but the fact that Israel is a plucky little democracy resisting the Arab hordes to ensure its very existence is not really open to examination, although bickering around the edges is allowed. (Europeans are different but at heart no better, I’m not just bashing the US.)
Yet, the taboo is slowly breaking. All those signs!
Posted by: Noirette | Dec 3 2006 15:30 utc | 24
The U.S. obviously has hired Israeli media consultants:
U.S. forces in Iraq kill 6 militants
BAGHDAD, Iraq - American soldiers destroyed two buildings being used by insurgents in a town in Anbar province, killing six militants, two women and a toddler, the military said Sunday.It was the latest of several recent raids during which women or children have been killed or wounded as U.S. forces attacked insurgents in residential areas. In some of the attacks, the U.S. command accused the militants of taking over buildings for use as safe houses and of using civilians as human shields.
IDF attacks Gaza City home, kills militant, civilian
An Israel Defense Forces special forces unit yesterday killed a senior operative in Hamas' military wing. Ayman Hassanin, aged 26, was killed when the force attacked him in his house, in the Sajaiyeh quarter of Gaza. Palestinian sources said that 70-year-old Sa'adia Kharaj was also killed during the attack.The special forces entered the area during the night and made their way to the house, calling on Hassanin to give himself up. Palestinians inside the house began firing at the soldiers with mortars and light arms.
The soldiers returned the fire, killing the wanted man. IDF sources said they had no information about the death of a woman and that the fire had merely been returned in the direction from which it came.
What is a "militant" by the way?
A "militant" is someone whom the newspaper wants you to feel was justifiably slaughtered. In other words, a "bad guy who was threatening other's lives and deserved to die." Invariably applied to describe Palestinians, Iraqis, and other such as al-Qaeda fighters.
Never mind that he was killed in his own goddamned house in the middle of the night.
Posted by: Bea | Dec 4 2006 0:50 utc | 27
oops: meant to type "others' ..... others" ... not "other's.... other." Must have a mental block against that word!
Posted by: Bea | Dec 4 2006 0:51 utc | 28
Youtube-William Fletcher on Apartheid in South Africa and Israel
William Fletcher discusses Apartheid-era South Africa and compares it with Apartheid-like conditons in Israel today. He is a Visiting Professor at Brooklyn College, in NYC, an ex-CEO of the TransAfrica Forum, and a former assistant to the AFL-CIO's John Sweeney. Professor Fletcher spoke at "The Palestine Center," located in our nation's capital.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2006 1:01 utc | 29
Israel destroys water well in Bethlehem
Wait - don't tell me.
Children - I mean, militants - were refilling water pistols at the well and using Bethlehem as PR cover for Christmas.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 4 2006 1:08 utc | 30
earlier today a recommended diary at dkos entitled "all you ever need to know about israel, part I" presented a summary of a recent article by jeff halper, a professor of anthropology at ben gurion university and the coordinator of the israeli committee against house demolitions. the diary is well done and it is worth following the link to halper's article. it is the end of the semester for me and i apologize but i do not have time to write a summary or even pick out key points and will steal from dkos diarist's summary. the article historically chronicles and directly addresses how the israeli and american publics are manipulated by the israeli government propaganda and the media and:
It deconstructs the apparent reality...It integrates many topics heretofore seemingly unconnected, talks about why Israel avoids peace initiatives, the US–Israel arms industry, the preference of militarism and conflict management, and the Greater Israel dream and just how that project is being managed.
Posted by: conchita | Dec 4 2006 1:40 utc | 31
This is a prime example of how Israel operates:
Israeli Wall Separates Palestinian Farmers from Land
Read the whole article to grasp the insidiousness of it, and then imagine how you would be left to feel if faced with such a system without any genuine legal recourse whatsoever.
Posted by: Bea | Dec 4 2006 13:26 utc | 32
The comments to this entry are closed.
Semiology is the science that through the study of symptoms and signs reaches a diagnosis. The signs we have are the firing of Rumsfeld, the resignation of Zellikow. the appointment of Reyes, Carter's book. Are these pure random events or do they indicate a certain tendency? The symptoms are legion but they may be the "bordone" supporting the rest.
Posted by: jlcg | Dec 3 2006 1:56 utc | 1