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At Large
Obama’s UNESCO Fiasco
A reluctance to defend Israel against the latest pro-Palestinian Authority power grab.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) claims it “works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values.” In fact, as Monday’s vote to make the Palestinian Authority a UNESCO member suggests, UNESCO views its primary mission as a cultural change agent to be consistent with its half-century campaign to marginalize Israel.
The Obama administration voted against the Palestinian application because it was another effort to create a Palestinian state using the land, borders, resources and capital city of another country without asking for it. Instead of proudly defending Israel against UNESCO’s power grab, however, the administration was nearly apologetic. David Killon, the U.S. representative to UNESCO, pledged to “find ways to support and strengthen the important work of this vital organization.” State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland stated, “Not paying our dues into these organizations could severely restrict and reduce our ability to influence them, our ability to act within them, and we think this affects U.S. interests.”
There is concern the Palestinians will go through the UN Directory and apply for membership to every other agency the UN operates, including the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency and B’nai B’rith. (OK, I made the last one up.) The law requiring that we not fund the UN organization that grants the Palestinians membership applies to all of the above agencies. So the goal is to pressure and isolate America so that it will support or not oppose Palestinian membership in the UN General Assembly.
But the claim that standing up to such tactics undermines American interests has to be weighed against two other considerations. First, the only thing that gets UNESCO’s or the UN’s attention is cutting of its allowance. Second, it’s the only tool short of resigning membership that seems to stop UNESCO from pursuing anti-American and anti-Israel activities. The only way to avoid a UNESCO fiasco is to stop underwriting such activities no matter what the agency.
In 1974 UNESCO voted to exclude Israel from its European regional group for engaging in archeological exploration and construction. This anti-Jewish ostracism was not abandoned until 1978, after the United States withheld $40 million in payments from the organization in protest.
In 1984, the Reagan administration (along with Britain and France) stopped funding UNESCO because the agency was sponsoring programs, proposals and materials that were hostile to the idea of freedom (and enthusiastic about Soviet-style government) and was particularly critical of Israel. It worked for a while. But as soon as the U.S. resumed making contributions to UNESCO in 2002, efforts to isolate Israel increased.
Since 1967, Arab states have tried to portray Israel as the usurper of Arab lands. Denying historical Jewish ties to Israel is part of that campaign, one that UNESCO has financed and participated in. UNESCO has called for financial sanctions against Israel and passed hundreds of resolutions criticizing Israel’s efforts to restore historic and holy sites in Jerusalem. When the UN celebrated its 50th anniversary, UNESCO refused to mention the Holocaust in its World War II resolution, intentionally ignoring Israel’s request to include a specific reference to the destruction of European Jewry.
In 1989 UNESCO stated, “Israel’s occupation of Jerusalem” was destroying the holy city by “acts of interference, destruction and transformation.” UNESCO claimed in 1974 that Israel’s control over a united Jerusalem was a “cultural crime against humanity.” In 1996, UNESCO organized a symposium on Jerusalem at the body’s Paris headquarters. But no Jewish or Israeli groups were invited. Maybe the invitation got lost.
Over the past decade UNESCO has worked with Arab organizations to deny Jewish claims to religiously important historical sites in Israel. In 2010 UNESCO declared that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem is a mosque and claimed the Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs were Palestinian sites and “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territories.”
In 2009, UNESCO designated Jerusalem as a “capital of Arab culture,” working with Palestinian Authority officials and key Arab figures to protest against what they described as “the Israeli occupation of Holy Jerusalem.”
These actions helped UNESCO with its other major responsibility: the development of curriculum and textbooks in Palestinian and Arab communities. As UNESCO eliminates Jewish historical ties to Jerusalem and holy sites, Palestinian textbooks have been revised accordingly. Textbooks have erased Jewish claims to the Western Wall and Rachel’s Tomb. For example, National Education, a textbook for seventh-graders published in 2010, refers to the Western Wall as the “Al-Buraq Wall,” and to Rachel’s Tomb as “Al-Bilal Mosque.”
The Obama administration voted against UNESCO’s latest effort to isolate Israel and then nearly apologized for it. That’s less than enough, since it must do what is necessary to stop the madness from spreading. It has to take a stand, in other words. Leading from behind won’t cut it.
About the Author
Robert M. Goldberg is vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and founder of Hands Off My H ealth, a grass roots health care empowerment network. His is new book, Tabloid Medicine: How the Internet is Being Used To Hijack Medical Science For Fear and Profit, was published last month by Kaplan.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (69) | Leave a comment
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Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 7:39AM
The Israeli supporters on this site have tried to eliminate the 5000 year old history of the Palistinian people in the area. The ancestors of both peoples go back to the beginning of recorded history. The charges of Israeli archealogists have destroyed Christian and other non Jewish sites is not new. All the charges mentioned by Mr. Goldberg could be turned around to be used against the the Israeli's.
Why is this 5000 year old squabble any business of the American people? Israel was founded on stolen land and the Israeli's keep stealing more and more. In 1917 the Arab and other non Jewish Palistinians were 95% of the population. When Israel was founded over 50% of the population was still non Jewish. Even today the population of Israel Palistine is about 50 50.
Israel has cost this country many hundreds of billions in direct costs and several trillion in indirect costs. It is against the 1st Amendment to supprt 1 religion over another. Yet we support this religious fantasy in the Middle East. If one penny of money is given to a Christian group we can expect the anti christian hate groups like the ADL, ACLU, or SPLC to sue on 1st amendment grounds. Yet these same people have problem with supporting the Jewish state.
Obama has been in the pocket of the Israeli lobby his whole career. All of his key advisors have been rabid Zionists, Biden, Hillary, Clinton, Emannuel, Summers, Rubin, Goldman Sachs, all his Middle East advisors, Ratner and most of his czars. It is bizzare that Mr. Goldberg says Obama has been unsupportive of Israel. He has caved on every occasion when tried to do something else that might ease tensions in the area
I have no problem with dumping UNESCO but that should have been done decades ago and for different reasons.
Wayne| 11.2.11 @ 10:40AM
You could make the same case for American Indians.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 3:53PM
Defund Israel. Defund the Arabs. Defund the UN. Defund NATO. Defund the Bureau of Indian affairs. Defund the Dept. of Transportation. I could keep going for several more pages. Ron Paul for President and Rand Paul for Vice President or ruin.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 4:43PM
Problem with defunding the Bureau of Indian Affairs is that there are treaty obligations to be monitored.
That being said, from 1st hand experience, the Indian Health Service does NOT do the most intense work that it could with the population it serves. It is very similar to New Zealand's NHS, which also blows chunks in many ways.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 11:42AM
The reason that all of Obama's key advisors have been pro-Israeli is that Americans are overwhelmingly pro-Israeli, and rightly so, Jack. It's only the small minority of Ron Paul/Pat Buchanan antisemites on the right, and Maxine Waters/Dennis Kucinnich antisemites on the left who disagree.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 2:44PM
The Slandering Liar Obama Israel Firster PropagandaBoy RCV Plays His Dog Eared Anti-Semite Card.
Dr.Ron Paul,
" While President Obama’s demand that Israel
make hard concessions in her border conflicts may very well be in her
long-term interest, only Israel can make that determination on her own,
without pressure from the United States or coercion by the United
Nations.
“Unlike this President, I do not believe it is our place to dictate how
Israel runs her affairs. There can only be peace in the region if those
sides work out their differences among one another. We should respect
Israel’s sovereignty and not try to dictate her policy from Washington."
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 3:10PM
"But I would cut off selling to Israel if Israel defends herself against Iran." Clintbot.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 3:28PM
You'rer A Serial Slandering Liar,Screwball Israel Firster Maniac,Tool Job.
That's A Bogus Quote.
But,You Already Knew That Since You Made It Up, Maniac Screwball Israel Firster PropagandaBoy,Tool Job.
Dr. Ron Paul introduces amendment to defund UNESCO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIXSQJlE2U
The Tea Party Rebellion Is here.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 4:45PM
Shall I dig up the Michael Schuer quote from you, Clint? This word slander---I do not think it means what you think it means. Saying that you fellate Jihadists---that MIGHT be slander. Saying that you would support cutting off aid to Israel if it defends itself against Iran, I got the quotes from you. HUNDREDS OF THEM. ON THIS SITE.
Screw yourself.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 7:16PM
Yeah, Screwball Israel Firster Fanatic Queer Mouth, Tool Job, Dig It Up.
I Know Exactly What The CIA's Former bin Laden Unit Chief, Michael Scheuer Wrote.
You're An Israel Firster PropagandaPunk Liar,Who Wrote:
" Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 3:10PM
"But I would cut off selling to Israel if Israel defends herself against Iran." Clintbot. "
Go Screw Your Goat,Billy, Neo-Chickenhawk Asshole,Tool Job.
Occam's Tool| 11.6.11 @ 5:17PM
"Dr.Ron Paul's Foreign Policy Advisor Michael Scheuer, Former CIA Chief of The bin Laden Unit.
"On Iran, The President should:
1.) Explain to the American people that Iran is no threat to the United States unless we or Israel attack it first, and then it would be a serious threat to U.S. access to energy and would likely stage terrorist operations in the continental United States. [The last thanks to 30-years of federal immigration policies that leave us without knowledge of who is in the country or what they are capable of doing.]
2.) Publicly state that there will be no U.S. surprise attack on Iran, and no U.S. attack at all on Iran unless the president asks for a formal declaration of war and the Congress votes its approval in a constitutional manner.
3.) Call in Israel's ambassador to the United States and tell him that we understand that Israel believes Iran is a threat to its survival, and that we agree that Israel has every right to defend itself. If Israel believes it must go to war with Iran, then so be it. But also tell the ambassador that if Israel attacks Iran, the U.S. administration will declare U.S. neutrality in the war and immediately cut off military and financial support to all combatants in the war."
This is your quote, Clint, from August 24, 2011. If Israel attcks, cut off military and financial support to it.
You need to keep up with your own blatherings. Here's one suggestion: always tell the truth. It is easier to keep up with.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 3:57PM
The reason all Obama's advisors are rabid Zionists is because Obama is their boy. He gives them what they want. Most Americans want all foreign aid cut off. We are sick of the wars and the Israeli's. Israel has been in business for 63 years. It is time for the greatest welfare queen in the world to support itself. If it can't it should go out of business, like any other failed operation.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 4:46PM
What if it decides it needs to use NUKES, Jack?
TrueBlue| 11.2.11 @ 5:24PM
Works for me, let them glass Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Eventually the Muslims will get the point, that or they'll all be dead and Israel will have the world's largest parking lot.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 6:31PM
Do you really think Israel would survive if it used nukes? It would be an end of the world scenario. I know you lunatics crave such a solution but the rest of us can see what would happen.
Occam's Tool| 11.6.11 @ 5:23PM
Yup. Israel would survive if it used nukes. There, Jack, I've said it.
Neither Russia nor China would use nukes to defend Iran. No one else would, either. The Saudis would be thrilled, the Pakis wouldn't give a shit. The Pakis are majority Sunni, not shiites.
Jack, you are an idiot. TrueBlue has it accurate.
The System Works | 11.2.11 @ 5:01PM
Scotland is FAR more dependent on England than Israel is on America. US assistance is only a small part of Israel's total GDP.
TrueBlue| 11.2.11 @ 5:24PM
You don't want Israel let go. They'd roast the entire region if anyone attacked them if it wasn't for us holding them back all the time. The only reason they have EVER pulled back from the territories they have gained after being attacked is because Israelis are good people.
TrueBlue| 11.2.11 @ 5:20PM
Nobody wanted the dang area until the Jews went back in the early 1900s and turned the place from arrid desert to liveable countryside through significant amounts of time and money. The funny thing is, they employed a ton of PALESTINIANS because there weren't enough Jewish people to cover all of the lands they had purchased. Heck, up until World War 2 when Hitler was trying to get support with the Middle Eastern countries was there any real negative feelings against them doing this. The Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini being one of the prime examples of locals screaming about how evil the Jews were.
It all comes down to envy.
KyMouse| 11.2.11 @ 8:05AM
I've been against UNESCO ever since I learned about its 2002 document "Unwanted Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion," which called for governments to make abortion available to pregnant women without restriction.
UNESCO demanded that governments "make abortion legal, safe and affordable." Abortion is never safe for unborn babies, and often causes injury (or death) to the mother.
The agency demanded a guarantee of privacy for girls who want to abort their babies, without parental notification.
Concerning the current issue, God has promised to preserve Israel (e.g Psalm 105:8-11; Deuteronomy 30:1-10), and neither UNESCO nor Jack in Wi can defeat His purposes.
Intelligent Design| 11.2.11 @ 8:16AM
The U.S. Congress should cut off aid to the Palestinian/Hamas coalition, and defund the UN program called UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). If it doesn't, then American taxpayers will continue to fund terrorists.
loulou| 11.2.11 @ 10:41AM
We need to defund the UN and remove them from NYC.
The Clintidote| 11.2.11 @ 11:29PM
WGAS about UNESCO, the UN or any of these vicious clowns? Let the little death-cult bastards starve and defund it all.
It's time for Liechtenstein to step up if they need cash - what have those mooches done for the world lately?
nister| 11.2.11 @ 8:36AM
God promised all of Earth to the Tau Cetians. When their fleet orbits overhead, we'll prostrate ourselves to our new alien overlords. Right?
"If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal. we have taken their country. It is true that God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs, There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler and Auschwitz..but was that their fault? They see but one thing; we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?" - David Ben Gurion
Sweet Robinson| 11.2.11 @ 8:46AM
As far as I know, the term Palestine was first used by the Romans to designate an area, a region, not a State, a bit like "the Iberian peninsula" or "the Balkans". As far as I know, until the end of WW1 it was part of the Ottoman Empire, then part of the British Mandate for Palestine, half of which was given to Jordan (which would therefore be a Palestinian State). When I am told that Israel exists on Palestinians' land, I always ask: if Palestine existed before Israel occupied it, when and by whom was Palestine founded? What were its borders? Who were its rulers, what was its coin, who were its politicians, apart from the Gran Mufti who was Hitler's ally and Arafat, who was born in Egypt well before Israel occupied Palestine? Where are their laws, their typical foods, their artists or scientists? If Jerusalem is so holy for the Muslims, why is it never mentioned in the Qu'ran, whereas it is mentioned thousands of times in the Bible? I have never seen any records of a Palestinian State. And why some territories are described as "occupied Palestine", when before being occupied by the Israelis they belonged to Jordan (West Bank) or Egypt (Gaza strip)? And why no one mentions the 500,000 Jews who were expelled from the Arab States, in which they had been living for many hundreds of years, in 1948? Wouldn't they be refugees, exactly like those Palestinians who left Israel in 1948? I also don't understand why Israel is described as racist, considering that 20% of its population, including judges, politicans etc, are Arab/Palestinians, while the new State of Palestine would be Judenrein? And why did they refuse all partition plans (from the British / Un plans of 1947 to the Oslo agreement)? And why do we tend to forget that the decision to create a Jewish State (again, at the end of the Ottoman Empire) was reinforced by the fact that six million Jews were killed because of their being Jews?
Having said this, I sincerely wish the new Palestinian State all the best.
Pecos Pete| 11.2.11 @ 8:48AM
I hope the Palestinians apply for, and receive membership in all UN organizations. Then we can stop paying anything to the UN.
That is until King O signs an executive order requiring payments to the UN regardless of Palestinian actions. Probably tomorrow.
hardcard| 11.2.11 @ 9:18AM
Get out of the UN,stop supporting it with our taxpayer $$$$,demo the UN building in NY and remove all UN functions and operations in the USA.
lonespectator| 11.2.11 @ 11:45AM
We should remove the UN from our shores. It's a sham organization that continues to thumb it's nose at America just like a child who continues disrespect it's parents who give them everything free. It has no teeth or purpose . Close the doors and send to lunatics packing...
David W| 11.2.11 @ 9:24AM
I wonder what cultural benefits the so-called Palestinian people can provide the rest of the world? How to best pass out candy when their citizens slit the throats of babies? How to desentizise their children so that they will be the perfect suicide bomber? Or maybe how to build a missile or rocket that can actually hold a course instead of just randomly flitting about before it strikes a school or hospital or old folks home. Or how the beauty of Islam is expressed as a woman is whipped for showing just a little too much ankle?
We have paid millions to a group of jackals and whores who are probably the most corrupt group of dictators and sycophants this world has ever seen (okay, with the exception of Hollywood). It is a shame we couldn't convince the free world to basically dump the UN. Let them meet in Cairo or Tehran or the dump that is N. Korea instead of the free New York. Maybe they would have a little respect for the values we have instead of taking it for granted.
nister| 11.2.11 @ 9:36AM
Israel was supposed to be America's landing strip/gas station in the Middle East; the Gibraltar underpinning America's campaign to take Arab oil. It was a naive idea. America could sit astride the oilfields; she has the military might. What America can never do is bring that oil to market.
Give Palestine back.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 3:11PM
Nister---incorrect, and incorrect. Truman's cabinet opposed recognizing Israel, almost to a man. Truman himself laid an arms embargo down.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 4:10PM
Occam is the usual liar. The Defense Dept and the state Depts. and their Secretaries were very against recognizing Israel. The reasons were obvious to all that recognition was against the intrests of the American people. We can see today that George Marshall was right. Israel has been a disaster for America, and even for the Jews themselves. Israel was supposed to be a place where Jews could be safe. Is there anymore unsafe place for Jews? Is this what 3000 years of Jewish history has come down to, a walled ghetto, hated rightfully, by the neighbors?
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 4:49PM
How was I lying above, Jack? You just restated my comment on Truman's cabinet
By the way, Jack, Israel is a hell of a lot safer place to be a Jew than Europe. Marshall was wrong on this, as are you. You have no clue on Jewish history, terrorist fellator.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 6:40PM
I mentioned Truman's Secretary of Defense but had to look up his name. James Forestal, the first Secretary ot Defense was bitterly opposed to the Zionist experiment. He knew how it would end up in being a disaster for America. Forestal was either murdered or committed suicide just before Truman's decision was made.
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 6:50PM
Oops I made a mistake. Forrestal's death came after Israel was founded. He was however bitterly opposed to giving Israel recognition.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 6:51PM
I'm sure the Jews killed him, Jack. (As if Truman didn't know how to deal with subordinates who wouldn't follow his direction.) He actually suffered a nervous breakdown after Truman fired him, and then committed suicide at Bethesda Navel Hospital. In addition to the other mental problems he suffered from (serious depression, confusion, anxiety attacks), Forrestal, like Jack, saw Jewish conspiracies everywhere.
Not surprisingly, Senator Joe McCarthy was a big fan of his.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 7:40PM
ObamaBoy Israel Firster RCV Tries To Play His Dog Eared Anti-Jew Card.
" Former Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State George Marshall and his deputy, Robert Lovett, made the case for delaying recognition -- and 'delay' really meant 'deny.' Truman asked his young aide, Clark Clifford, to present the case for immediate recognition. When Clifford finished, Marshall, uncharacteristically, exploded: 'I don't even know why Clifford is here. He is a domestic adviser, and this is a foreign policy matter. The only reason Clifford is here is that he is pressing a political consideration.'
"Marshall then uttered what Clifford would later call 'the most remarkable threat I ever heard anyone make directly to a President.' In an unusual top-secret memorandum Marshall wrote for the historical files after the meeting, the great general recorded his own words: 'I said bluntly that if the President were to follow Mr. Clifford's advice and if in the elections I were to vote, I would vote against the President'."
After this "stunning moment", says Holbrooke, the meeting adjourned in disarray. "
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 11:23PM
I am glad you admit that Forrestal was hounded from office by Israel's supporters. At least he thought he was. Was his death murder or a suicide? I suggest you google the strange death of James Forestal. There are several hundred thousand hits. I don't know myself I wasn't there.
As long as we are on conspiracy theories. How about the one about JFK getting wacked by the Mosssad for opposing the Israeli Nuclear program? Ruby, a rabid Zionist was used to eliminate the hit man in that scenario. Of course as an Italian myself, I have had to suffer all the conspiracy theories about Kennedy being a Mafia hit. There are so many books about the Kennedy assassination that anybody can take their choice. Did The CIA, The Mafia, the Cubans, the KGB, etc. do it?
Jack in Wi| 11.2.11 @ 11:27PM
Joe McCarthy was no antisemite. He was done in by his 2 gay Jewish aides David Shine and Roy Cohn. They led him over the cliff and he was politically destroyed. Like Bush and Obama he listened to a lot of bad advice from rotten sources.
RCV| 11.3.11 @ 2:45PM
I agree with you, Jack, that Cohn and Shine were slime, but not because they were Jews. They were slime just like McCarthy was, and for much the same reasons.
The System Works | 11.2.11 @ 5:07PM
Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish National Home has required sacrifice, but it was worth it as much as America's War of Independence was worth it.
nister| 11.2.11 @ 10:55PM
Look up TransArabianPipeline, circa 1948, terminus Haifa.
Ted| 11.2.11 @ 9:48AM
Ah, yes... Our dear friends from the UN... Brought to us by the same dear band of merry leftists in the U.G. Government that saddled us with the IMF and the World Bank.
They have never really been anything more than tools for totalitarians and leftists.
nathan| 11.2.11 @ 9:52AM
Israel is the occupying authority on the west bank. They control whatever you want call those people, Arabs, Palestinians, name them anything. Occupying authorities have certain obligations as occupiers. We can talk about Israel's historic claims to what we refer to "Israel" all we want.
But Americans believe the "unalienable rights doctrine" to be universal and believe any person can claim it in the sense that rights can not be taken from them only forfeited by them and all governments are supposed to abide by it. We also believe in due process rights.
Palestinians/Arabs play Shakespeare here and ask what's in a name can claim to have had homes/farms on the west bank going back hundreds of years. Explain the legal/moral/ethical basis for seizing the home/farm from someone the Israelis have neither accused nor convicted of any crime, and giving that home/farm to another person, a settler. That sounds strangely like Kelo versus New London to me something that conservatives screamed about. Why should these Palestinians/Arabs/simply human beings be any happier about this than Kelo was? What is worse is that the "person" call him/her anything, got an Israeli court decision in their favor and the Israeli government went all Andrew Jackson on them.
Now dust off your copy of the Declaration of Independence and read what Jefferson wrote about being reduced to a state of despotism. Have the law abiding whatever we call them reached that point? We're not talking jihadists, we're not talking law breakers, we're talking those minding there own business tending their sheep who suddenly get a knock on the door and are told, you don't live here any more.
Remember, the early terrorists were not muslim, the early terrorists in the area were Christian who the Israelis did exactly this to. When the Israelis do this to thousands if not tens of thousands of again law abiding people, when the graffiti on the west bank reads "Palestinians to the ovens", when the official policy of the Israelis is to not use deadly force against a settler who has gone beserk and is killing whatever we want to call them, then what are they supposed to do? How would Patrick Henry have responded? "Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" How are they supposed to answer that question? Again the law abiding whatever we call them. If any of you lived there, obeying the law, how would YOU respond?
Do the Israeli settlers, some from this country who maybe should know better? have legal/ethical/moral rights to land that has been in the families of some of these people since before Columbus left Spain? Is the Israeli government really behaving all that well regarding the law abiding whatever we call them here? Have they done everything they can to raise the standard of living, the best medical care, education etc? We read stories of malnutrition, other problems. Sorry occupying authorities have primary if not sole authority to see to the well being of those they occupy.
And of course we really don't want to get into the massacres at refugee camps at Beirut that Sharon allowed do we? Hundreds of women and children murdered by the I won't even call them christian because no christian should ever act like this militia while the IDF watched and even wouldn't allow the refugees to flee the camps. And you see folks, not only was Sharon not jailed for his complicity in the massacres he was elected prime minister later. When you elect human rights violaters as prime ministers not once but twice (Begin was the other King David Hotel ring any bells, he was a member of the Irgun a real live terrorist group) then you can't complain too much about other terrorists. Not really.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 4:51PM
Yes, you can, and yes, we do. I don't seem to recall Begin ordering 14 month old Arab babies having their heads cut off. The King David Hotel was a legitimate military target and Irgun gave fair warning so that the Brits could evacuate.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 6:41PM
The King David Hotel was being used as British military headquarters at the time.
vtwin to Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 7:44PM
As a former officer of Her Majesty Armed Forces, I hate to admit it but King David Hotel was a legitimate target. We really messed everything up, there at the time, as we're used to do. We got terrible politicians who let outstanding soldiers get killed for absurd motives.
Anyway, despite not being particularly fond of Jews, I really admire their no hold barred attitude, and the way they'll do anything to survive and keep Israel ticking. As a British officer I was sick and tired to witness the fast decay of Western Europe. France, Holland, Belgium are about to be part of the next caliphate and nobody seems to care. "Her fall must have been very slow, or the pitt must have been very deep because she had all the time necessary to watch around and ask herself what would happen to her..."
Nathan, with all undue respect you're talking trash: The arabs are scumbags, no one owes them a f... s... !!! Whatever they claim is theirs, is ours anyway. Whatever is "stolen" to them, they stole it before to someone else, so it's just fair compensation. And I don't want to consider whoever or whatever is repossessing the raghead loot, it could be Jews, or Brits or locusts, I dont give a rat's ass about a raghead's feelings. Before fighting in Iraq, I had to suffer their unbearable presence in Londonistan, but after my stint in Basra I don't even consider them as human beings anymore.
Occam's Tool| 11.6.11 @ 5:27PM
Vtwin, the offer of a steak in Fargo stands. You just keep on being not particularly fond of me in the way you are. Bring your SO, too. I've got two friends who would love to discuss your adventures in the Dar-es-Islam.
If you get serious about doing this, say, next summer after hitting Sturgis, let me know and I'll get my specifics to you via Ken. G-d Bless and take care, sir.
TrueBlue| 11.2.11 @ 5:36PM
The best part is, since Hamas was "elected" to power, now accepted as the government body in the region, any terrorist attacks on Israel they have laid claim to are in fact acts of war. By international law allowing Israel to defend itself and retaining control of any land gained during that defensive action. They were under no obligation to return ANY lands after the Six Day War, yet they returned the vast majority of them.
Also, given the sheer millions of Palestinian refugees that have lived in refugee camps in the various other countries since the Six Day War it is obvious that the Palestinian people are being used as nothing but pawns by the other Arab states in the area. Those people could have been granted citizenship in those countries by now, but have been repeatedly refused. You want to talk about human rights violations, how about you start with those camps?
John786| 11.2.11 @ 10:42AM
I thought both America & Isreal supported the creation of Palestinian state. This hurts no one but religious rapturing nuts. The US position is therefore nonsensical. Palestine is coming on a map near you. The sooner the better.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 6:43PM
We do, but the only way such an outcome can be achieved is if the Palestinians get back to negotiations with Israel. No state will be achieved without the approval of both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and part of that process will require a sincere renouncement of the desire to wipe Israel off the map, which Hamas hardly seems ready to do.
Melvin| 11.2.11 @ 11:58AM
Do we actually think for one moment that Obama is going to stop any funding of UNESCO regardless of any law on the books.
Constitutional Law means nothing to this man. He views Constitutional Law as a hindrance and roadblock to his ideology, and core values.
UNESCO and the Palestinians are going to get their money hook or crook.
For those attending the pity party for the Palestinians. After all these years of foreign aid that has amounted to billions upon billions of dollars, and the poor buggers still live in the refugee camps while the Palestinian leadership lives in seaside villas.
If the Palestinians truly want a homeland, then let them go back to Jordan, because that is where they are originally from.
WilliamInWien| 11.2.11 @ 12:15PM
Returning to the issue of the UN and UNESCO, from my experience with a UN agency, whatever country or issue the USA backs within the realm of the UN, it is the responsibility of most of the representatives of the Member States to take a stand exactly opposite that of the USA. In UN terms, Israel would not and could not exist without support from the USA, so resist the USA on every level. When the US decided to topple Saddam in Iraq, uniform copies of a sign noting that the occupant(s) of the office displaying the sign support(s) "Peace" appeared almost overnight. A less than obvious protest against US foreign policy. I suspect, again based on experience, that there are a goodly number of State Department employees who share the sentiments of their UN colleagues.
DANSHANTEAL| 11.2.11 @ 1:23PM
I PRESUME THE U.N. MONEY FLOWS FROM THE U.S TREASURY THROUGH THE STATE DEPARTMENT TO THE U.N. AND ITS AGENCIES. LET'S SIMPLY CUT OFF UNESCO AND ANY MONIES TO ANY PALESTINIAN ENTITY INLCUDING THE FOLKS IN GAZA.NEXT, UNLOAD THE WEAK SISTERS AT STATE AND THE U.N. LIKE HILLARY AND RICE. THE VOTE AT UNESCO WAS SO LOPSIDED THESE LADIES SHOULD PAY A PRICE.
Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 3:13PM
I look forward to Palestine getting a State so that when it fires its rockets Israel can declare war and wipe Hamas, Fatah, etc. off the map. Should have been done a long time ago.
Always nice to see Jackboot Jack and his friends out slathering.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 6:38PM
Ocaam: If the reports floating today are correct that Israel is about to nuke Iran's nuclear facilities -- which I would be more than delighted to see -- a whole new dynamic will be introduced into (a) the Palestinian equation; (2) the Syrian mess; and (3) our own Presidential race.
What do you think?
vtwin to Occam's Tool| 11.2.11 @ 7:13PM
Hi OT,
I posted an answer to your post at yesterday's "So Long Tony"
Take care,
T.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 3:30PM
Ron Paul introduces amendment to defund UNESCO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAIXSQJlE2U
The Tea Party Rebellion Is here.
RCV| 11.2.11 @ 6:40PM
There's no need for a new amendment. My understanding is that existing law prohibits funding any UN agency which recognizes the Palestinians as an entity.
Clint| 11.2.11 @ 8:13PM
Do Your Homework Obama LawBoy RCV.
Congressmen can introduce an amendment to defund UNESCO.
When Dr.Ron Paul introduced that Amendment Palestinians were not recognized as an entity.
The Amendment was not passed.
John II| 11.2.11 @ 9:17PM
UNESCO? Isn't that the United Network of Endowed Slanderers, Creeps, and Obamists? Why would the Professor want to defund one of his own? Boy, today's lefty politics are just too complicated for me.
And now back to "Exodus" (1960), a dazzling flick made back when liberals still believed in freedom and Hollywood was not yet dominated by the mindset of Michael Moore (who was a fat six-year-old when the flick was produced) and George Clooney (who wasn't even born yet). Hell, the screenwriter was Dalton Trumbo, an old-style lefty who despised all the pretense of leftism. They just don't make 'em that way any more. Screenwriters, I mean.
POST American| 11.2.11 @ 11:34PM
"Everyone has this idea that the UN
is some kind of benevolent, democratic
entity working in the public interest.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The UN is a PRIVATE corporate borg,
entirely organized, funded, directed
and sustained by some of the most
osychopathic Social Darwinist monsters
you'd care to name. UNESCO was put
out there decades ago to DESTROY
local culture, standardize (ie franchise
slums/ porn/ EUGENICS) the globe.
Their stated aim is to get rid of ALLL
teaching of history prior to WWII,
ALLLL history of peoples, cultures,
religion --except the Luciferian doctrines
of 'SS-US--STAIN--Abel--IT--he'
funded by Rockefeller. Better wake up
folks."
-ALAN WATT
(essential online coverage of
the CON)
----In a word ---'benny violence' at the
'SIR--vice' of an inbred, USURY feuled
'EEL--EAT'.
Dimitri Aleksandrovich| 11.3.11 @ 4:46AM
All you people defending Israel because they are considered an enemy by the majority of Muslims should remember that the zionist occupation of Palestine in 1948 saw 51% of the regions Palestinian Christians pushed off their lands. To this day Christians in the Holy Land face fierce discrimination at the hands of Israeli Jews. I don't understand how anyone who considers themselves to be Christian can defend the state of Israel.
nathan| 11.3.11 @ 8:00AM
You know the problem here? VTWIN is representative of far more people than we care to believe. "We hold these truths to be self evident, that ALL MEN are created equal, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable rights . . ." For us living now, there are no caveats, there are no, "unless they are someone we don't like such as how did VTWIN put it ragheads, scumbags? Go back to the 30's, weren't the Jews dehumanized too? Isn't that what paved the way for the camps?
Tom Paine wrote that to secure our own freedoms we must defend the freedoms of those we hate. If we don't defend the freedoms of law abiding muslims, arabs, Palestinians, then we will lose our own. I'm not talking about military invention which I oppose. But I am talking about speaking against those who would try to dehumanize any other human being. Do that, and that's what we saw in Rwanda by the way, and you might as well reopen Auschwitz. Or build a copy of it here. And don't assume you won't end up there yourself.
Reverend Martin Neimollor a German during WWII said, "They came for the communists I said nothing, they came for . . . and when they came for me there was no one to speak out for me. We as conservatives, the rightful heirs to the Founders, must stand up and speak out for the rights of law abiding people, the emphasis on law abiding.
We are reminded that during the Holocaust it wasn't just the Germans who killed the Jews. The Military Channel is doing a series called Hitlers Willing Collaborators. Eastern Europeans served as camp guards. Good French Catholics willingly pushed French Jews into trains bound for Auschwitz. Poles by and large did nothing to help the Jews and in one case were responsible for a massacre on their own.
When I look at what VTWIN wrote, change a few words and it could have been written in 1938 in Germany. Same sentiment, and if we're not careful it will lead to the same outcome with just different cast. We need to be very careful here.
John II| 11.3.11 @ 2:35PM
"Good French Catholics willingly pushed French Jews into trains bound for Auschwitz."
Then they weren't good and they weren't Catholic. French: yes, that's plausible.
My dear Nathan, your cheap rhetoric betrays an ignorant and diseased mindset sozzled with ideology. Get a life. Or, as the Romans used to say, Fac ut vivas!
Failing that, go join your brethren in the current round of spoiled-brat demonstrations, which usefully demonstrate the ugly countenance of a culture in precipitate decline. We can only hope that the slight majority of Americanos yet untouched by the degenerate culture of entitlement will swamp the polling places in November of next year.
The face of the Obamanation is now on full display, and the reckoning is nigh. I plumb reckon.
And now back to "One Against the Wind" (1991) and "The Scarlet and the Black" (1983), a double feature in which, respectively, Sam Neill and Gregory Peck play sure-enough "good Catholics" going toe-to-toe with the Nazi renegade.
"Good French Catholics" my ass. What rhetorical drivel! What degenerate bigotry masquerading as moral umbrage. Oh, why do I bother wasting my wit and wisdom and hard-earned knowledge on such persiflage? Perhaps I too should get a life.
Actually, I'm just wasting time because I don't feel up to grading another batch of moronic student essays.
RCV| 11.3.11 @ 2:49PM
John, I recommend to you a fine book I just finished while vacationing in Paris: "For the Soul of France: Culture Wars in the Age of Dreyfus." Unfortunately, antisemitism in its ugliest forms infested the French Catholic Church, certainly right up through the Second World War. It's not a pretty history.
John II| 11.3.11 @ 5:10PM
Yes, Roberto, I know that history. And the antisemitism wasn't an exclusive enthusiasm of the Vichy Frenchies, or of the Frenchies generally and their history. My objection is to Nathan's cheap rhetoric, not even to his cherry-picking historiography.
In graduate school, lo now, these two generations past, one of my closest drinking buddies was a (secular) Jew. One Friday evening, we were on our third or forth beer at a favorite watering hole near campus after a particularly grueling week of seminar 10-pagers and class midterms. Amid expansive commentary on the personal oddities of our department's professors, my friend suddenly launched into an energetic diatribe against Christianity.
This turn in the conversation seemed like heady stuff to my 26-year-old imagination; the gray, chilly, rarefied secularist atmosphere of academia had moved me to a serious private interest in religion, and I was spoiling for an argument anyhow. So I moved aside my beer glass, leaned forward somewhat boozily, and intoned: "Exactly what do you mean by 'Christianity'?"
He looked at me blankly for a moment, recovered himself, and then blurted an answer that left me speechless:
"I mean the Catholic Church, of course! The rest of it isn't serious!"
I was stunned by the backhanded compliment to an institution I knew so little about. Haven't seen him in 40 years. I guess he'll never know that he set me on a road to discovery--and conversion to what I believe is much more than a flawed human institution.
And now back to "The Life of Emile Zola" (1937), in which Paul Muni becomes indignant and composes 'J'Accuse.' . . . Any excuse to delay reading those student essays.
mzk1| 11.3.11 @ 11:05AM
Where do you get this stuff from? The settlements were not built by chasing anyone off land they owned. On the other hand, Jews were chased from land THEY owned. For that matter, there is a freeze on new settlements and building on current ones is (unfortunately) restricted.
Nathan, I think you really believe the stuff you wrote, but as an Israeli (and no left-winger either) that the only possible holocaust here is the one the Arabs have been planning since the 20's.
mzk1| 11.3.11 @ 11:06AM
Christians are a heck of a lot freer now in Israel than they were under the Moslems. And it is the Moslems here who are driving them out.