Masada Again?
http://mosaic.lk.net/g-masada.html
Last night CNN was reporting the resumption of Israeli bombing of residential areas south of Beirut -- an aerial photo comparison was made of a quarter square mile of buildings housing Shia residents before the war and now showing that the buildings there (presumably being bombed again) had been virtually all destroyed.
A few minutes ago I caught the Amy Goodman Democracy Now coverage of the Israeli pr activities that have virtually crippled unbiased news reporting here in the U.S. I gather that the Israeli Press Office has local branches in key American cities that police the news released in them on a daily basis.
I have had a bit of experience with the Israeli pr effort on my Yale class email list which has several vehement supporters of Israel who condemn my postings with ugly personal slams and the usual accusations -- that I am anti-Semitic along Mel Gibson lines or am a secret supporter of Hezbollah. Of course they know that neither is for real -- I was the Yale Daily News Chair who broke the silence on Yale's anti-Semitic restrictions on student admissions and Yale faculty appointments -- and faced charges of disloyalty to Yale. I was also threatened with expulsion when I condemned the abuses of women by the Bush frat, DKE, which prior to his time ran events such as "Pig Night" to which the most ugly "townies" that pledges could find were invited to a "big Yale party" to be told at midnight that they had been selected as pigs. We had no few gang rapes carried out with impunity by such types. Fortunately unknown to our college president imported from Wall St., I had two relatives then on the Yale board, so could ignore such threats. Ben Scotch (an active civil rights and peace worker):
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/02/154235
and I told it as it was as the only independent student voices that Yale had in those days. It is sad, then, to have the ugliness of our classmate Israeli lobbyists -- one of whom boasted that he had personally suggested to the Israeli Press Office that it substitute "homicide" for "suicide" bomber back then which Fox News took up the next day -- using party line smears.
What I worry about, however, is that Blair and Bush are allowing a naive Olmert to lead Israel into a nightmare scenario with its manifestly scorched earth approach to Lebanon (and Gaza) -- with possibly worse to come. Our American media may be intimidated by AIPAC and ZOA, but the rest of the world is not and even some of our well fed media types -- particularly any who actually give a damn about the well-being of Israel -- might actually start speaking out?
Personally as a teacher at a port of entry college, I am all too much aware of the nonsense that is being fed to the American public about MY STUDENTS -- Jewish and Muslim -- about whom I care deeply as they worry about the safety of their friends and families over there.
Blogging may be the way to cut through the pr fog which does not benefit Israel and which may lead to its ultimate self-destruction.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
Last night CNN was reporting the resumption of Israeli bombing of residential areas south of Beirut -- an aerial photo comparison was made of a quarter square mile of buildings housing Shia residents before the war and now showing that the buildings there (presumably being bombed again) had been virtually all destroyed.
A few minutes ago I caught the Amy Goodman Democracy Now coverage of the Israeli pr activities that have virtually crippled unbiased news reporting here in the U.S. I gather that the Israeli Press Office has local branches in key American cities that police the news released in them on a daily basis.
I have had a bit of experience with the Israeli pr effort on my Yale class email list which has several vehement supporters of Israel who condemn my postings with ugly personal slams and the usual accusations -- that I am anti-Semitic along Mel Gibson lines or am a secret supporter of Hezbollah. Of course they know that neither is for real -- I was the Yale Daily News Chair who broke the silence on Yale's anti-Semitic restrictions on student admissions and Yale faculty appointments -- and faced charges of disloyalty to Yale. I was also threatened with expulsion when I condemned the abuses of women by the Bush frat, DKE, which prior to his time ran events such as "Pig Night" to which the most ugly "townies" that pledges could find were invited to a "big Yale party" to be told at midnight that they had been selected as pigs. We had no few gang rapes carried out with impunity by such types. Fortunately unknown to our college president imported from Wall St., I had two relatives then on the Yale board, so could ignore such threats. Ben Scotch (an active civil rights and peace worker):
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/02/154235
and I told it as it was as the only independent student voices that Yale had in those days. It is sad, then, to have the ugliness of our classmate Israeli lobbyists -- one of whom boasted that he had personally suggested to the Israeli Press Office that it substitute "homicide" for "suicide" bomber back then which Fox News took up the next day -- using party line smears.
What I worry about, however, is that Blair and Bush are allowing a naive Olmert to lead Israel into a nightmare scenario with its manifestly scorched earth approach to Lebanon (and Gaza) -- with possibly worse to come. Our American media may be intimidated by AIPAC and ZOA, but the rest of the world is not and even some of our well fed media types -- particularly any who actually give a damn about the well-being of Israel -- might actually start speaking out?
Personally as a teacher at a port of entry college, I am all too much aware of the nonsense that is being fed to the American public about MY STUDENTS -- Jewish and Muslim -- about whom I care deeply as they worry about the safety of their friends and families over there.
Blogging may be the way to cut through the pr fog which does not benefit Israel and which may lead to its ultimate self-destruction.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Israel_Palestine
http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/
http://www.bloggernews.net
posted by Ed Kent at 9:44 AM
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