Fox News(!) Says Israel Wants To Wipe Iran Off The Face Of The Earth

January 24, 2015

Fox News, the rightwing Rupert Murdock TV station, finally gets it:

The Israelian leaders talk about wiping Iran off the face of the earth"

Yep, that's right. Fox News is finally talking truth. It is the Israeli leaders who want to destroy Iran. It is not the other way around as the Israel lobby always claims.

The revelation comes from Fox News White House correspondent Chris Wallace at 3:35min (vid) in a discussion with Fox News anchor Shephard Smith about Netanyahoo's "invitation" to speak to Congress which was issued by the Republican speaker without the White House's knowledge.

Fox News is bashing Natanyahoo for the invite and the quote above is the topping on the ice cream.

Fox News defending Obama against Netanyahoo? Fox News explaining that Israel wants to destroy Iran? A moment ago I would have thought that impossible. What happened?

Posted by b on January 24, 2015 at 19:45 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for our ‘Bipartisanship’ illusion.
They’re just protecting the Queen. Must mean some shet’s about to go down.

Posted by: L Bean | Jan 24 2015 19:53 utc | 1

Sounds like a Freudian slip to me.

Posted by: Almand | Jan 24 2015 19:54 utc | 2

Wonder how this will affect the standing ovations?

Posted by: dh | Jan 24 2015 20:11 utc | 3

What is Murdoch’s day to day involvement? It’s possible he isn’t as on the ball as he use to be.
I think FoxNews tends to favor a country club element of the GOP as opposed to a Christian fundie element. Huckleberry is restricted to weekends, and even Hannity originally had a run of the mill fraudulent debate show. Much of the GOP’s relative embrace of Israel versus the Democrats occurred under Dubya, a nutty Christian who replaced booze with religion.
Iran may be the perceived enemy of the religious right and neoconservatives, but I don’t think FoxNews is really their voice as much as it is meant to serve the interests of country club republicans. In this case, action that drives Iran and Russia and by extension China closer together isn’t worth supporting a microstate of road side attractions. European arm purchases matter more than Israel to these people.

Posted by: NotTimothyGeithner | Jan 24 2015 21:11 utc | 4

The Obama administration has been talking to Iran in the first part of Obama’s second presidential term (2012 – 2014) on the topic of nuclear enrichment. Obama c.s. is aware that Iran has no nuclear weapons program. Bush Jr. knew that as well but used the “nuclear weapons program” to keep pressuring Iran. Talks with Iran is something especially the Republicans hate.
Keep in mind that the Obama administration has made some (tiny) efforts to gradually distance itself from Israel & the Netanjahu government and Obama became (a little) more critical towards Israel.
Keep also in mind that the US is changing it foreign policy and that involves the “Pivot to Asia” and less emphasis on the Middle East (less support for Israel ??). But then the Middle East needs to be more stable (also think: support for Assad).
In other words, Netanjahu has some good reasons to be worried.
After the mid term elections of november 2014 the Republicans took control of both houses of Congress. The Republicans directly started to undermine those talks with Iran. (with the help of/paid for by Netanyahu ???).
– I’ll post a reply I posted previously:
“The Jerusalem Post sees a link between the Israëli attack in Syria and the israeli elections.
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/What-was-behind-Israels-strike-in-Syria-that-killed-an-Iranian-general-388759“
Netanyaho speaking to a combined session of Congress fits perfectly in that scenario. A photo-op for his election campaign and a severe blow to the Obama administration. It’s an outright provocation to Obama administration and it will indeed sour the relationship between Obama & Netanyahu.
One has to keep in mind that former US ambassador Martin Indyk was/is firmly “in the pocket” of AIPAC/the Israel lobby.
Read his bio:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Indyk
Although he was supposed to represent the US in Israel he actually did everything to delay the “Peace Process” during the 1990s and that was in Israel’s interest. When even Indyk starts critisizing Netanyahu & the Republicans in this video, then that’s a sign that the Republicans have overplayed their hand. He’s right that US-Israëli relations will sour.
Is Murdoch getting fed up with the radical foreign policy of Israel (think Attacks on Gaza in mid 2014) ??

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 24 2015 22:12 utc | 5

It sounds like the video was edited if you listen closely. Wishful thinking will do that. You must be more careful. This dork (Wallace) would never say that. Shepard Smith was trying to corner Wallace though, wasn’t he?

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jan 24 2015 22:19 utc | 6

“Chutzpah Squared: Bibi and Boehner”
http://www.lobelog.com/chutzpah-cubed-bibi-and-boehner/

Posted by: Willy2 | Jan 24 2015 22:35 utc | 7

Where is the link to the statement by the ‘Israeli Leaders’ about destroying Iran? Israel has long threatened to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities but is in no position to do even that because of Iran’s defenses and reprisal capabilities.
This seems to be just more rhetoric and saber-rattling for local consumption and election posturing.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Jan 24 2015 22:46 utc | 8

This is basically about maintaining the pretense that the White House is in control of US foreign policy in the Middle East. The Republicans don’t want their anti-Iran campaign, in fact carried out (in part) for the Israel Lobby, to be seen that way. Netanyahu coming to the US and attacking Obama over the Iran issue makes US Republicans look like Israel’s little slaves.

Posted by: fairleft | Jan 24 2015 23:37 utc | 9

5
Keep in mind that Draghi got his QE1 launched in the same week the new RINO-RINO Congress gave Wall Street Banksters full access to Americans’ own passbook savings accounts, access without liability, to ‘invest’ in the Eurotrash Junk Bonds that Draghi pumps out, leaving American taxpayers to backstop the FDIC, who will be forced to auction off 1,000s of small local banks and credit unions to the Vampire, then sock it to US taxpayers for the spread.
With that in mind, the RINO-RINO Congress has introduced three bills to unilaterally and across-the-board reduce health and human services spending, ex-Defense, ex-MIC, ex-DHS, by -8%, and put the ~$240B in diverted funds into a holding account, ‘and for other purposes’, …like covering DoD unaudited cost overruns, now that the RINO-RINO Congress is calling for NO BID contracts for both Defense (sic) and Homeland Security (sicker), for example, the uplift of US troops, arms and armor to Ukraine to backstop a collapsing Kiev Junta.
You may now return to your 60-year old vintage ‘Tales of the Ashkenazim Meshuganah’, but for the life of me, I just don’t understand your fascination for these insane clowns.
We have more important things to plan for … like a soon-coming food Depression-ocalypse, one in which now 98% of the Western world lives in urban ghettos instead of farmsteads, where the stores will be looted, the cold chain will collapse, transportation will cease, and then expect once the dogs and cats and songbirds and snails are eaten, city dwellers will go after each other next.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 24 2015 23:48 utc | 10

#10 chipni says ………….
like covering DoD unaudited cost overruns….hohoho we all know what that means…hookers coke sweet mary jane all nighters like operation winter snow in alice,s resturant where you can get the javelin thrown in for free
a ding,a dong ,a mule blessed,charlie,s ghost

Posted by: mcohen | Jan 25 2015 0:02 utc | 11

This little Fox News sideshow sure distracts the zipper heads (MSM viewership) from what is going on in Ukraine. Can anyone else remember a time where/when Fox took the side of a D President?
Just my opinion but Russia, historically has been content to await the foes attack and then draw the attacking force into a trap. This is what is happening in Ukraine at this very moment. Ask yourself why Ukraine a financially bankrupt State is such a desired piece of real estate all of a sudden?
I’m thinking the Israelis having had their collective asses kicked by Hizbollah in Lebanon and last year by Hamas in Palestine finally realize that their death grip on Palistine is not politically sustainable. They are confined by enemies who are dug in on both their western and eastern fronts. Both Hizbollah and Hamas employed Russian tactic as has Syria. Dig in, await the surge, entrap and destroy the incoming enemy troops and their armor and aircraft.
Israel, and the U.S. have politicians (read Military Industrial Complex hand puppets) making military decisions irregardless of the facts on the ground. This ideological group is now making military decisions in Ukraine based on financial consideration alone. Not being content with seizing Western Ukraine they want the East so that they might border and threaten Russia thereby starting Cold War II. This group which claims to have won Cold War I have short memories. Russia at the end of that Cold War declared ‘we are not going to play this game anymore.’ The game being spending several times the nations GNP on useless and redundant military gear.
Tel Aviv only has to be nuked once. Check Mate.
Just my opinion. I could be right.

Posted by: Alberto | Jan 25 2015 0:53 utc | 12

11
Bernanke had Americans’ Social Security Trust Fund and ‘full faith and credit of the US’ to dump his QEn junk bonds into. The SSTF is required by law to be the buyer of last resort. The only reason Yellen ‘tapered’ is because there’s a hole in that bucket now, Federal tax revenues may be up, but the number of people working is not, and I believe O’ gave a brief withholding-tax holiday, which must have been a ‘high sign’ to the Fed Banksters to taper, because recently Medicare started radically reducing payments to doctors and caretakers.
This tells me SSTF/MC is approaching ‘pay-as-you-go’ status with no reserve assets. Unless the RINO-RINO Congress floods the US with UNLIMITED H1-B high-tech Hindus, (which studies show are stealing 99% of the new high-tech jobs), there will be no more QEn buying power. They need a ‘force-multiplier’ effect on the number of employed forced to withhold SS/MC.
Now comes Draghi with his EuroTrash junk bonds, but no similar pension-fund looting scheme in Europe that requires EU states to buy Draghi’s junk with citizens pensions? I might be wrong there? In any case, I’m sure the coincidence between the RINO-RINO Congress granting the Vampires access to Americans’ passbook savings, to speculate on EUs uncollateralized debt obligations under the smoke-screen of 24/7 H8 speech and mid-term elections landslide, together, perhaps, with Ukraine™, there’s sure something fishy about Kiev’s disappearing gold bullion and the MH17 Incident, …was all Draghi needed to throw the Debt Lever.
We are all debt paupers to the UberMenschen now.
Perpetual Interest-Only Tithes Forever, …Auto-Deposit.
Why, it’s almost like Dark Ages II and a Neo Game of Thrones~!
400 More Years of the ‘Habs(burgs), and the Habs-nots’.
“Bring out your dead!! Bring out your dead!!”
Well, back to our national hysteria over under-inflated footballs!!
Oh, Ashley~!

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 25 2015 1:23 utc | 13

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/01/netanyahu-political-football
The Israel lobby has overreached at last. John Boehner’s invitation to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session of Congress and rebut President Obama on Iran is turning into a political scandal that could reduce the power of the Israel lobby inside US politics.
~~~
The Boehner invitation may have done what no other naked exposure of the lobby’s influence has done before it: force the American press and politicians to speak out on the difference between the US people’s interests and the Israelis’.
~~~
First, last night Chris Matthews took on the scandal, and all but stated that the Israel lobby is a mighty force in American politics. He called the invitation stunning and unprecedented, “ferocious” politics. “I have seen a lot of politics in all these years. And I’ve never seen anything so in-your-face as this.” To take on the president using an “adversarial” rightwing foreign leader, addressing the Congress in the middle of negotiations with a foreign country so as “to put his thumb on the scale… I’m stunned by this kind of political performance.” Matthews said that Democrats will be openly torn, and hurt by the maneuver. He all but named the Israel lobby: This puts the Democrats behind the eight ball. We all know the politics, the role of the Jewish community and the Christian right. We all know the politics and sensitivities. For any Democrat to come out and complain about what Netanyahu says, is trouble right there.

Posted by: okie farmer | Jan 25 2015 1:40 utc | 14

Haaretz has picked up this story also…..
http://www.haaretz.com/video/1.638788

Posted by: notlurking | Jan 25 2015 2:13 utc | 15

Remember that American politics is a game played out on the basis of interests, and is not calibrated, in effect, by any moral or even ideological yardstick; lest you lose sight of the fact that this is a fascist organization we are talking about. It is moved by the element of financial looting, which is fueling the system of rewards and incentives, which keeps the empire and its aggression lurching forward.
Subsequent to the looting of Ukraine’s piggy bank, the German government is paid off; and only then is allowed to lay hands on what is allegedly its own gold, from the vaults in Manhattan. And as far as the Republicans are concerned, it’s their ox that is getting gored. Yes, the sanctions against Russia are harming European interests; but they are also taking a toll on certain financial interests in the oil patch, where those conservative stooges in the US stand to take a hit in their portfolios.
I don’t think that the overreaching air sortie Netanyahu made, that resulted in the deaths of ranking Iranian and Hezbollah military, near the Golan Heights in Syria, is seen as having a very promising impact on the balance sheet of those whose sensitivities in Washington, and in the Fox media, seem to have been aroused.
There is a point perhaps at which all the recklessness might pull the whole house down. And for those who party hard, and are moving the secret trade deals onto the fast lane, such blundering could mean the end of all their fun.

Posted by: Copeland | Jan 25 2015 3:47 utc | 16

16
For Netanyahu to casually assassinate high leadership of two sovereign countries outside of Israel proper, and by that, I mean openly assassinate them with ‘fire and forget’ weapons, (as opposed to covertly with Mossad, as they’ve doe inside Syria and Iran for years), …then for Netanyahu to hold Lebanon and Syria RESPONSIBLE for any retaliatory strike for Israel’s blatant WAR CRIME, is, in itself a GREATER CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY!
And if Israel does retaliate, no doubt with standoff weapons and artillery that will slaughter 10,000s of innocents, (those cowards), that’s sufficient to hold War Crimes Tribunals in Geneva against Netanyahu, the Likud Party and the Israeli Generals.
But if there ARE no war crimes tribunals held after Netanyahu does to Lebanon and Syria what he already did to Gaza, which was ITSELF a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY, then the UN is a farce, and NATO is a farce, and Americans are justified in marching to prevent our blood and our treasure from being used to prop up a Dual-Citizen Israeli Junta in Kiev, a Junta and a nation which is NOT a member of NATO!
Therefore, if Israel makes good its threat, and the US fails to OPPOSE Israel, and at the same time supports the Israeli Junta in Kiev, then our AMERICAN CONGRESSMEN ARE ALL WAR CRIMINALS, AS WELL AS OUR MILITARY. Not just war criminals, but TRAITORS TO THE COUNTRY!
So yeah, Chris Matthews wasn’t just posturing. Like I said a few weeks ago, there was a ‘Dark Swastika Event’, and the bowels of Hell are disgorging the Vampire. That’s not just alliterative speech. Look around!
Look at the MH17 event covering the looting of Ukraine gold bullion after Netherlands’ demanded their gold bullion back from the NY Fed! Then Holland covers up the MH17 forensics! Look at the violent wrenching changes to China’s markets and Euro’s value.
Look at the Swiss peg-pull! Look at US Congress throwing the last store of wealth left, the Americans’ passbook savings, to the Wall Street Vampire, in the same week that Draghi invokes QE1 inevitable destruction of EU pension system, replacing it with Eternal Debt.
Look around! The Republicans who fought tooth and nail against Sequestration now are pushing an -8% across the board cut to health and human services, cutting payments to doctors and healthcare providers as much as -35%! But they exempted DoD, DHS, CIA, NSA!
And the sad thing is, I can’t remember what that precipitating ‘Dark Swastika Event’ was!
The Shock and Awe of ever-increasing signs and tribulations and abominations won’t cease.
“And you know what, they’ll get all of it. They don’t give a f*ck about you!” G.Carlin

Posted by: ChipNikh | Jan 25 2015 5:24 utc | 17

17
I don’t think anything Chris Wallace could say on FOX will diminish the servile and enthusiastic response that Netanyahu’s speech will receive in the US Congress. It isn’t so easy to repeal a pathology; and the glow and ardor, with which the evil man will be hailed, will be more horrifying than the speech itself.
This from ADBUSTERS Jan/Feb 2015:

Just before he killed himself with a bullet to the head, that quintessential revolutionary and author of The Society of Spectacle, Guy Debord, uncannily foretold that the geopolitical mood of life on Earth would be one of:
“…incessant technological renewal, integration of state and economy, generalized secrecy, unanswerable lies, an eternal present..”
That future has now arrived, and we can either keep sipping our lattes, or rise up and do the monster in.

The catastrophe has already occurred. The bowels of Hell are indeed disgorging the Vampire, from the unmitigated contamination of the Fukushima meltdowns, to the surveillance society of global NSA, to the complete disappearance of one Malaysian airliner and the conspiracy to conceal the facts of the destruction of another, and even to the destruction of nations, when the deposing of governments is not enough to satisfy the Vampire. Secular society, ordered society of any kind, is being shredded to improve the efficiency of plunder.
At present, I’m reading Alistair Horne’s history of the Algerian War, A SAVAGE WAR OF PEACE.
It is amazing how quickly the local French commanders turned to torture; and then it was applied in such a comprehensive way, once the local civil authority gave all power for suppressing the rebellion to the military.
In our own time a process of deconstruction is being applied to society, wherever violence has been given the upper hand to spread chaos, wherever authoritarian force can insist on compliance, and wherever infiltration, snooping, and state terror can infect public life. What will matter is how we respond, if we are capable of responding.

Posted by: Copeland | Jan 25 2015 8:49 utc | 18

I read somewhere, although I can’t find the link now, that the Mossad had a falling out with Netanyahu over his recent actions and the trip to the US without a Presidential invitation. If Fox is operating as a Mossad mouthpiece, this would explain it’s current stance.

Posted by: Gareth | Jan 25 2015 14:38 utc | 19

That future has now arrived, and we can either keep sipping our lattes, or rise up and do the monster in.
Rise up? It’s a tar pit, there is no rising up. Your only choice is to struggle and dig yourself deeper or relax and allow for a slow decay and death. At least it’s compassionate enough to provide nonstop entertainment as it slowly but surely eats away at your soul, turning you into fuel for later generations.
I guess Debord decided not to cooperate any longer and opted out of The Game, or The Game opted him out — same difference.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jan 25 2015 14:45 utc | 20

Netayahoo is adding insult to injury by accepting an invitation from wing-nut Boehner for another show at that Roman circus, a.k.a. Congress, and his boorish behavior might have reached a saturation point even for Fox Moooos. Wallace didn’t make the decision on how to cover this latest insult from Netayahoo, he wouldn’t risk his job, either it came from Murdoch or from Fox Mooos higher-ups, which is even more flabbergasting. Netayahoo might have made a mistake he is going to regret vis-a-vis the upcoming elections, it might cost him his premiership. In the background there is always the dangling question whether his attitude toward Obama comes from deep-seated, sheer bigotry. Whatever the reasons, Netayahoo has underestimated the power of the US establishment when crossed, and he can be sure Obama & Co. will work against his re-election. It is time for Netayahoo to go, he has made too many mistakes, has lost all sense of diplomacy and tact on foreign affairs, France being the last example of his brutish, uncouth behavior on the international arena. The US is looking for an interlocutor to continue the “peace” talks with the Palestinians, someone that at least is willing to seat with Abbas and pretend something, whatever, is moving forward. As it is right now, stagnation is working against Israel in all fronts, a very dangerous situation in an ever-changing neighborhood. Netayahoo has to go. Lieberman is no option. Livni? We will see. But she’s the one the US will support.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
C’est la vie.

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Jan 25 2015 15:36 utc | 21

@21 Are you suggesting Netanyahoo may think Obama is just a Schwarzer?

Posted by: dh | Jan 25 2015 15:44 utc | 22

It’s been my observation that the elasticity of puppets wears out after approximately six years. Considering, perhaps presidents should “serve” no more than that.

Posted by: Cold N. Holefield | Jan 25 2015 16:20 utc | 23

RT YouTube video @ .40 Mariupol MERC says in English “out of my face! out of my face!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_SzRHMeiBE#t=186
Schwarzwasser? Sieg Heil!

Posted by: Alberto | Jan 25 2015 19:21 utc | 24

@dh@22
@21 Are you suggesting Netanyahoo may think Obama is just a Schwarzer?
Not only that Obama is “just a Schwarzer,” but that Obama’s policies re: Israel and the ME are tainted by his race. The race issue has been in the background of the rocky Obama-Netayahoo relationship from almost the beginning. Netayahoo is cut from the same fabric as bigoted, racist, US republicans, same mindset of those behind the “Obama is African,” “Obama is a Muuuslim,” etc. Unspoken, unmentioned, the race issue played a background role at Netayahoo’s every snub of Obama, aided and abetted by his racist republican fellows .

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Jan 25 2015 19:44 utc | 25

@Gareth@19
I read somewhere, although I can’t find the link now, that the Mossad had a falling out with Netanyahu over his recent actions and the trip to the US without a Presidential invitation…
http://www.timesofisrael.com/mossad-said-to-warn-us-on-iran-sanctions-in-break-with-pm/

Posted by: Lone Wolf | Jan 25 2015 20:04 utc | 26

Sometimes the ‘paleocons’ get to say their piece on Fox News and they sound somewhat sane. Then the neocons charge back out front and growl, snap, salivate, and other animal like actions.

Posted by: Crest | Jan 25 2015 22:13 utc | 27

maybe Murdoch is just picking the next Israeli leader, instead of that leader picking them for the US.
probably still adds up to ethnic cleansing in Palestine, looting of the US, keeping Iran (and anyone else who disagrees with the ethnic cleansing) from having any power.
that’s all it probably is. Murdoch vs yet-another-notyetanyahoo term. Murdoch must like someone else better.
who?

Posted by: anon | Jan 26 2015 2:37 utc | 28

@14
Mondoweiss has another assessment of Boehner’s boner, ‘NYT’ and Matthews warn that Netanyahu speech to Congress could lead US to war, although I’m sure Boehner’s ‘invitation’ was made on the basis of ‘an offer he couldn’t refuse’ from The Lobby.
Obama has been making moves lately, trying to overlay all his crimes against the American people, to elevate his terms of ‘service’ from treasonous to mediocre : coming out ‘in favor’ of net neutrality (while leaving his hatchet man at the FCC to chop it off), ‘ending’ the embargo on Cuba (while not ending it all but opening a new beachhead for Cuba’s overhrow ) …
Maybe he can address his ‘fellow Americans’, calling our attention to the Israeli PM usurping the place of the POTUS at the invitation of the Republicrat Congress, explaining that although he has bent over backward to appease The Lobby throughout his administration, but … you know … this has even shocked him! The Lobby really does have far too much power in the US of A. And this move proves it. In fact it is time to stop expending American lives and treasure in pursuit of wars that only the present, monstrously arrogant and cruel government of Israel thinks can be in anyone’s favor.
The Lobby would go nuts, of course … but ordinary Americans would dance in the streets, and plenty of Jewish American legs would be shaking among them.
But, you see, this is fantasy. Obama is a nihilist. His eyes are on the prize … the only one that counts in neo-liberal America. Money. And his own personal revolving-door revolutionary apotheosis, his makeover as plutocrat on 21 January 2017. He cares not how he is regarded in future, and certainly not at all about the future of the United States, Israel, or any other collection of humans on the planet … he cares only for his own pocketbook.
He hasn’t played for the Wall Street Wolves for three quarters in order to throw the game now, for the sake of we the people, in the fourth.
On the other hand, you never can tell. Everything is for sale in the ‘free market’.
Maybe say, the Saudis, could make it worth his while to do just that … a (measly) billion would make betrayal of The Lobby the only ‘rational’ choice for the Nihilist Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
And then the Saudis could be The Lobby in Washington DC.
Then Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud could come and lecture the ‘US Congress’ on its correct foreign policy and its conduct.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 26 2015 7:21 utc | 29

jfl@29
[Obama] cares not how he is regarded in future, and certainly not at all about the future of the United States, Israel, or any other collection of humans on the planet … he cares only for his own pocketbook.
But not in a crude, Tammany hall sort of way. Obama is not one for envelopes stuffed full of cash passed under the table. Or, for that matter, oval office oral sex with one who is not his wife. O is a believer, willing to stand up for, make sacrifices for, and aggressively and repeatedly lie for what by his lights counts as right and true. His truth is nihilism, though – neoliberalism. That is the system he believes in, the one that he operated in and moved up within to reach the pinnacle of prestige. He is a selfless and self-sacrificing profit maximizing individual. Homo economicus as hero.
After all, he sacrificed both houses of Congress and immense nationwide popularity for his true mistress, the queen of his heart and mind since he was a child.
“Crime has its heroes no less than does virtue.” -La Rochefoucauld.

Posted by: Martin Finnucane | Jan 26 2015 14:53 utc | 30

Several observations:
– Shephard said Bohner’s invitation to Netanyahu to address congress is “unprecedented”: it’s not. One of the world’s biggest problems right now is the short memory of so many, especially leaders:

Netanyahu has long been married to the neo-conservative wing of the Republican party, working with them for years to sabotage US peace-making efforts. During the 1990’s, he collaborated with the Gingrich-led Congress to pass the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act, over the objections of both President Clinton and then Israeli Prime Minister Rabin. Once elected as Prime Minister, Netanyahu delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress, at Gingrich’s invitation, pledging to end the Oslo peace process.

I remember that vividly, and the clear sense then this was going to head us/ME precisely where it has: long term disaster, while major progress was in the cusp then
Pretty clear that effort, entirely stopping everything OSLO in it’s tracks so long ago, continues to this day not just defying a Peace Process, but as Shephard/Wallace also discuss: even GWB (and since, BO) have said ending settlements is beginning point necessity to peace, but settlement expansion continues.
Gingrich did this then, with exact same thing these guys now say is “unprecedented”: bypassing sitting president entirely, allowing Netanyahu biggest stage in US politics against the interests of the 99% of us. It was massive effort by a few ZIONISTS to direct US resources against US interests, and lie about it.
Last line from above paragraph still, all these years later… still sounds chilling:

That speech (eg: Netanyahu’s) had been written with the help of leading American neo-conservatives like Richard Perle, Doug Feith, and David Wurmser.

…
– 2nd observation: even after all these years of FOX stumping/advocating for the interests we hear them criticize in that video, a better bell-weather from that video why nothing works: those 2 speak how “troubling” this is all of a sudden, ignoring 15+ years of momentum on the same trajectory, then their attention span of about 20 seconds (in Iran discussion) seems a bit too much for them, they digress to jokes about their colleagues trivial book releases. Devoted 10x to this nonsense then their “outrage”.

Posted by: Jim McKay | Jan 27 2015 17:26 utc | 31

Backround on the “document” from which Netanyahoo’s ’90’s speech at Gingrich’s invitation which I mention above (31), is here.
Dated Sept ’96. Snippet from intro:

A disturbing yet significant document has recently come to my attention. Titled “A Clean Break,” it was prepared by what is described as “A Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000” and was published earlier this year by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies.
That Institute is headquartered in Jerusalem, but has also opened an office in Washington.
“A Clean Break” is a strategy paper that outlines a series of policy recommendations for the new Israeli government. The paper even suggested specific language which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should incorporate into his speeches during his July visit to the United States.
What makes the document significant is the fact that many of the recommendations proposed and even the specific language suggested appear to have been adopted by Netanyahu. The themes and policy proposals found in “A Clean Break” were echoed by the Israeli Prime Minister repeatedly during his many public addresses in Washington.
What makes this strategy paper disturbing, however, is the fact that the Study Group leader responsible for preparing “A Clean Break” is Richard Perle, a former Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration. Perle is currently serving as a key figure in Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole’s foreign policy brain trust. The remainder of the study group includes other Reagan era officials, who have also been identified as Dole advisors.

Here’s an ’03 Sy Hersh article in the New Yorker, profiling Perle’s connections to venture capital firms profiting from arms/defense related businesses… from Iran Contra through after this affair (beginning w/Pearle’s strong advocacy for Iraq “liberation”).
This article has decent several decade’s overview of Pearl’s activities, ending with this:

Apparently undeterred, however, Perle continued to make eyebrow-raising business arrangements, particularly in the Middle East. In 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Perle was exploring investing in oil interests in Iraq and Kazakhstan, a curious decision given the salient claims by Iraq war opponents that the war was waged over access to Iraq’s oil.[23] Perhaps more surprisingly, Politico reported in 2011 that Perle also twice traveled to Libya with the Monitor Group, a consulting firm that named Perle a senior adviser in 2006, as part of an effort to “burnish Libya’s and [then-dictator Muammar] Qadhafi’s image” in the United States.[24] – See more at: “>http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/perle_richard#sthash.viXVMBc0.dpuf

Hersh’s article received high publicity then (but never acknowledged Sy’s facts in officialdom) back then. Pearle commented on Hersh’s acticle thusly (same as above link):

When the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh documented Perle’s business dealings in the Middle East with the venture capital firm Trireme, Perle threatened to sue the journalist, saying that he was the “the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist.” – See more at: “>http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/perle_richard#sthash.viXVMBc0.dpuf

Only time I’ve ever seen Pearle smile, was photos of him in private meetings with high level Likud party members.
And here we are now, almost 15 years after disaster unveiled by these guys right after GWB and crew (literally) “took” power (remember the elections?), with Netanyahu about to do the exact same thing, the exact same way… rinse and repeat.

Posted by: Jim McKay | Jan 27 2015 18:05 utc | 32

Back to Main