Now Obama must include Iran in an axis of respect

zugzug’s comment 09 Jun 09, 11:20pm

“Hamas has not recognized Israel’s right to exist, nor will they. The Hamas charter is still in effect, and it states clearly that the land of Israel is to be reclaimed for Islam, regardless of how far in the future this occurs.”

How often must we dispel these ignorant comments on CiF? Hamas changed its charter and abides by its new Government Manifesto and no longer abides by the old founding document that was created in the chaos of the first intifada when IDF did not even allow Palestinian kids to go to school.

The new Hamas charter drops its call for the destruction of Israel.

Furthermore, Hamas has stated numerous times that they are willing to accept the two state solution based on the 67 borders just like everyone else in the International community has been asking them to.

And why should Hamas recognize Israel when Israel does not even recognize the Palestinians as a people, or even recognize Hamas as a Palestinian political party. Furthermore, which Israel should Hamas recognize? The 1948 Israel, the 1967 Israel, or the current Apartheid Israel? After all, Israel is the only country in the world to never declare its borders meaning that the Palestinians would play a risky game by recognizing such a state.

This does not even take into consideration the simple fact that the Israeli’s came to a land full of people, ethnically cleansed them and created a state on top of that sin. Do you really think the indigenous inhabitants were going to accept the theft of their land and the outright slaughter of their people? Are the Palestinians so sub-human that they would be happy til live under a brutal Israeli military occupation indefinitely?

When Barack meets Bibi

zugzug’s comment 27 Apr 09, 8:47pm

Actually the law of return as Israel uses it is incredibly racist.

The law states that only Jewish people can claim Israeli citizenship. This in spite of the fact that there are quite a lot of people that live under Israeli jurisdiction that are not Jewish. (20% of Israel is not Jewish, while those living in the occupied territories are living under Israeli occupation and are subject to Israel jurisdiction as well).

Imagine if the United States had a right of return law that stated that only Whites can move/return to America, while African Americans could not claim this right if they had left the country for more than 3 years or obtained a second citizenship (as is this case for Palestinians living in Jerusalem).

Furthermore, is it right that a Jewish American born and raised in New York with no ties to the land of Israel whatsoever (aside from a few myths in the Bible) can return to Israel, while a Palestinian with the deeds to his house, the keys to his home, and the memories of growing up in Palestine is forced to live in a squalid refugee camp in Lebanon while not being allowed a similar right?

This is why Israels law of return is racist.

What did Jeremy Bowen do wrong?

zugzug’s comment 16 Apr 09, 6:00pm

I find it ridiculous that a group like CAMERA actually exists in the United States. A full on partisan media watchdog group that pressures journalists to downplay every single Israeli atrocity.

In any case, I don’t blame Bowen for being biased against Israel. I’m sure BBC reporters stationed in South Africa during Apartheid were biased against that Apartheid regime as well.

In the settlers’ sights

zugzug’s comment 10 Apr 09, 6:08am

You Israeli apologists realize that Hamas removed its call for the destruction of Israel right?

They also accepted the 67 borders a basis for a peace based on the 2 state solution.

This is on top of the fact that Hamas is on board for the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and 2007.

Seriously, can you Israeli apologists even make an argument without lying or bringing up things that have been debunked over and over again?

Discard the mythology of ‘the Israel Lobby’, the reality is bad enough

Zugzug

18 Mar 09, 4:57am (about 6 hours ago)

Just to backtrack. Meirsheimer and Walts book the Israel Lobby does not state that Israel controls American foreign policy. It states that American foreign policy in the Middle East is heavily influenced by groups like AIPAC (the only thing controversial and disputed amongst academics in the book is whether or not AIPAC is the sole reason the US went to war with Iraq). I don’t think anyone seriously believes that AIPAC completely runs the show. What we do know is that AIPAC pulls a lot of weight and this is undisputed.

Israel provides the United States with absolutely nothing. In fact Israel is a huge detriment to the United States foreign policy in the Middle East.
Right now the United States foreign policy objective is to rally the Arab Sunni dictators to face off against Iran. However, the Arab people on the street will never fight Iran as long as Israel is oppressing the Palestinians, while at the same time Iran is showing support to the Palestinians. It was already a difficult sell to get Arabs (mainly Egyptians, Jordanians, and Saudis) to fight Iran, but with Israel in the equation its pretty much impossible. This is despite the anti-Iranian propaganda being blasted non stop in these countries. The people there are not buying it one bit.

If you want to look at it from a “realist” perspective, American foreign policy for the Middle East cannot succeed if Israel maintains its belligerent position. This has become official knowledge amongst the intelligence community in the United States, and we are probably going to see some serious action to get Israel to end the occupation. Of course, the occupation is so deeply entrenched and the Palestinian bantustans so firmly established that the creation of an independent Palestinian state is virtually impossible at the moment (how do you remove 500,000 settlers that are connected to Israel proper with Jewish only roads, electric grids, and other utilities).

Furthermore, Chas was not in the pockets of the Saudi’s he was merely the Ambassador there. Chas would have been an excellent choice for the position he speaks Arabic, understands the culture, and knows that if the Israeli occupation does not end American foreign policy for the ME will fail miserably. The only people that feel threatened are the pro-Israel crowd, who continue to fling mud with no substance attached to it. Chas is now going to go down fighting and probably damage the prestige of the Lobby considerably especially considering that every single propaganda laden thing said against him is just that: vile propaganda.

Furthermore, Chas was not in the pockets of the Saudi’s he was merely the Ambassador there. Chas would have been an excellent choice for the position he speaks Arabic, understands the culture, and knows that if the Israeli occupation does not end American foreign policy for the ME will fail miserably. The only people that feel threatened are the pro-Israel crowd, who continue to fling mud with no substance attached to it. Chas is now going to go down fighting and probably damage the prestige of the Lobby considerably especially considering that every single propaganda laden thing said against him is just that: vile propaganda.