I’m truly sorry I missed this presentation but maybe someone that did go tell me if he talked about Palestinian children learning from an early age to “kill Jews” since those “Jews” were surely Kurz’s fellow citizens and comrades-in-arms?

Did he show photos or films, taken by his neutral Grassroots Jerusalem, children with bullet necklaces and holding a gun which begs the question: Isn’t that child now a legitimate target and if he is killed, will Grassroots say that “Israeli’s are killing children” and posting the dead child’s photo, without armaments, on every front page paper around the world? But he is worried “that they’re sending 18-year-olds into this situation regularly?”

Did he happen to show youtube videos of the Hamas fighters shooting at Israeli’s and then jumping fences to hide in innocent people’s homes? “Kurz said the conflict between the IDF and Hamas is irrelevant to the work of the grassroots groups helping civilians on both sides.” “Helping civilians” while letting Hamas shoot rockets from apartment buildings and using “civilians” as human shields?

Did he show outdoor walls plastered with posters of suicide murderers who are praised, and even paid, for their action?

Did his group talk to independent Human Rights groups in Hamas controlled areas that prove all my above points?

“Kurz said people living in Jerusalem have no idea what happens in the Palestinian occupied territories that are only a few miles away from where they live.” I suspect that when Kurz finishes his U.S. tour, he will go home immediately to inform the “people living in Jerusalem,” who have no idea what happens only a few miles away from where they live, about those who want to kill every fellow citizen, including his own family.

NOW, just for the fun of it, I’m going to google Grassroots Jerusalem and Breaking the Silence to see if they are directly, or indirectly, connected to the International Solidarity Movement! I will also add Micah Kurz to the search but I will add many different suspicions that I have. Then again, all of you can do the same and when you find something interesting not so United, not for Peace,and not for Justice, that you Break your Silence!

Of course, it’s impossible to reason with or compromise with people who make statements like: “Hamas and the Palestinians are the same…that’s the same thing. They’re together.”

I guess that includes all the women and children killed or illegally detained by the IDF, too, huh? It seems pretty obvious to me, but terrorists aren’t born that way – they are created by hopelessness and the relentless injustices being perpetrated upon their people.

Using Ms. Eye’s “logic”, I guess it’s okay to assume that all Israeli citizens are hard-line LIKUD psychos, then? Fair enough.

Shills for the Israeli government would have us believe that all Israelis support the vile acts of their current regime – which is simply not the case.

Israeli government supporters are more than happy to de-humanize and misrepresent an entire people in order to justify the on-going IDF policy of collective punishment against the Palestinians, which is a grave violation of international law.

According to Israeli government policy apologists like Mae Eye and Steve Chavez, ALL PALESTINIANS ARE TERRORISTS, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT ENTITLED TO BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS. How quaint. And hateful. And just plain wrong.

Yet this is the sort of uncompromising, compassion-less (not to mention counter-productive) mentality we are up against with the “Israel is always right – no matter what” crowd. What government on earth is ALWAYS RIGHT? Talk about delusional!

People capable of critical thinking are not fooled by this kind of deception. Sorry. We appreciate hearing both sides of the argument.

Well Jason, I presented a side of the argument that is never heard. The news coverage of Hamas, over-whelmingly voted in to power by Palestians, which Ms. Eye probably meant about them being the same, shows your side all the time. During the last Hamas/Hezbollah and Israeli conflict, the coverage was about apartment building being bombed on purpose to kill every thing in sight. The footage showed women screaming outside the home.

I also remember a report from somewhere, that a young girl was interviewed by your side, who said her bombed out home was being used by fighters to hide in and attack from. Since it was LIVE, it could not be edited but they never used her clip. Why? I “appreciate hearing both sides of the argument.”

Who doesn’t believe in HUMAN RIGHTS? I want them to live in peace. But when HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS AND PEACE GROUPS, WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE NEUTRAL JUST BY THE MERE DEFINITION OF THEIR TITLE AND ARE LIKE REFEREE’S IN A BASKETBALL GAME, CALL ONLY FOULS ON ONE SIDE, WHO ARE SIDING AND RAISING FUNDS FOR ONE SIDE, THEN I HAVE A PROBLEM.

There will be wars but we need NEUTRAL REFEREE’S to call ALL fouls. We dont’ need referee’s who wear the white shirt, or religious people who bought their collar at Wal-Mart after they paid $39.95 to be a Reverend off an internet site, who SIDE WITH ANY WARRING FACTION ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE IN HUMAN RIGHTS SINCE KILLING A HUMAN IS THE ULTIMATE ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS!

Speaking of the UNIFORMS OF REFEREES. As far as I know, all IDF members wear them. Do Hamas and Hezbollah fighters have uniforms so Israeli’s can tell the difference between fighters and civilians? “International Law” you ask? When all is said and done, the use of Human Shields and Suicide Bombers will be what is remembered by history since ALL ARMIES, WHO WEAR UNIFORMS, WILL DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO DEFEND THEIR OWN COUNTRY AND PEOPLE. You must also know that hundreds of thousands of ARABS, INCLUDING PALESTINIANS LIVE IN ISRAEL. ANY TOUR FOR THEM TO SHOW HOW PEACEFUL THEY LIVE AND HOW THEY BLAME HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH FOR THE CONTINUED MISERY OF THEIR PEOPLE???

Mr. Kurz is an Israeli informing all of us, and his own people, of the wrongs he has seen. He is free to do so. Can Palestinians tell us, and more importantly, their own people the wrongs of their own people including Hamas and Hezbollah fighters AND THEIR TACTICS? Any tour for them funded by PEACE AND JUSTICE GROUPS? YOU TALK ABOUT “WOMEN AND CHILDREN” KILLED? IF ANY PALESTINIAN, INCLUDING MEN, SPOKE UP AGAINST HAMAS OR HEZBOLLAH, THEY WOULD BE SHOT ON THE SPOT AND YOUR SIDE WOULD TAKE THE PICTURE OF THE MASSACRE AND BLAME IT ON ISRAEL. IT HAPPENS COMRADE!

Israel has militarily occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank since 1967, installing hundreds of thousands of Jews in colonies there, called by the romantic little name of “settlements.” These colonies are cities and towns connected by Jews-only roadways. They slice the West Bank into fragments. The Israeli soldiers run the lives of the Palestinians, demolishing their houses, stealing their water, plowing down their olive trees, fencing them off from their fields. The abuses are endless. Shocking for this century! And coming from people with a long tradition of respect for justice, law, and rights for all. The only solution, as our President says, is two states, side by side in peace, with full equal rights for Palestinians, as well as Israelis. American Jews are supporting this solution ever more openly.

Steve, dude, there’s no reasoning with clueless, ill-informed terrorist sympathizers, or self-hating leftist jews. There just ain’t. Jamie Glazov’s book “United in Hate” discusses the futility of such and examines the history and pathology of their illness. If you haven’t already done so, give it a read. Very well done.

As for the rest of you anti-semitic asshats, you’re so dense you absorb light.

Liberty, not tyranny
Individualism, not statism

Guida Leicester of the Coalition for Peace and Justice: “the Israel Alliance portrays Hamas as more violent than it really is.” If Kurz was a Palestinian with a “Break the Silence” group informing the world of Hamas atrocities, he’d be burned alive and his corpse would be left there to be kicked by the children on their way school to be brainwashed to “kill the Jew pigs” and to learn how to build suicide belts!

Ann, I see your point about Israeli abuses, but I’m sure they, IDF, will legitimize all their actions no matter how maddening you think they are. “Plowing down olive trees?” Why would they do that though? Are fighters using them as shields to shoot a rocket propelled grenade, shoot a gun, or what? I would love info on why? But many legitimize teaching children to kill, which some actually do.

Many other people LEGITIMIZE suicide bombers too which is “SHOCKING FOR THIS CENTURY!” “They have to resort to those tactics because…!”

Ann, we all know that men have been the main combatants for centuries but now women are now in the IDF and other armies around the world. Do you agree that they should be used to fight in a man’s war? That’s common isn’t it so it shouldn’t be ridiculed.

But do you think women should have their vaginas mutilated due to a religion so they don’t feel pleasure or orgasm WHILE THEIR HUSBANDS HAVE PLEASURE AND EVEN RAPE THEM? Do Israeli’s do that?

Do you think they should be hung or stoned in public for being raped while the rapists are set free? Do Israeli’s do that?

Do you think women should be killed in Honor Killings even by their own family?

Do you think women should get 30 lashes for being seen with a man other than their husband?

Do you think women should be allowed an education?

“The abuses are endless! Shocking for this century.” DO YOU CARE MORE ABOUT OLIVE TREES OR MORE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS???

Kudos to Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East for bringing this speaker to UNM. And I think it is great for folks to hear the words of racists like Mae Eye —- more and more Americans are seeing the sort of white-supremacist ideology their tax-dollars support.

The bias is daunting. Kurz represents 0.02% of the population he feigns to speak for.

Should be speaking for Israel’s army? That’s like me running for president of the USA, getting my family and friends to vote for me, thus garnering 0.02% of the vote…and saying I speak for the USA.

Ridiculous. The article leaves out the unchanged racist, anti Semitic Hamas charter (Hamas voted into power by over 70% of civilian Arabs in Gaza in 2006) which calls for mass genocide of the Jewish people in Israel and complete destruction of all of Israel. It’s a public charter and is available to read.

Question for this lone soldier: Before 1967, before the Jewish people returned its sovereignty to Judea (or Judah from whence Jews are called Jews, as that is the location of the aboriginal Jewish homeland), why were there 1000’s of Arab terror attacks on Jews? before 1948, before the re-establishment of Israel, why were there 1000’s of Arab terror attacks on Jews? There was no “west bank” controversy. The west bank was ruled by the Arabs- so why did they commit 1000’s of terror attacks? why the wars to destroy the Jewish people and bring about a second Holocaust (Arab leadership in Palestine actually aided Hitler, galvanizing nazi support among Arabs and Moslems and forming Moslem SS brigades in southern Europe. Haj Husseini was a personal friend of Hitler , and, at Hitler’s invitation, stayed near the Nazi governemtn in Berlin during the war)? Again, there was no issue with the “west bank (Judea)”

I’ll tell you why.

Because no non-Muslim sovereignty in Israel or anywhere else deemed “Moslem” land, is allowed, according to Islam.

Not in Judea (aka “west bank”), …and not in Tel Aviv, the sea of galilee, or jerusalem either.

In the Jewish scripture it foresees a time when all peoples will worship the Creator and the bounty of Life in Jerusalem. In the Koran, Islam’s scripture, there is none of that. In fact, there is not one single mention of Jerusalem. Not Al quds or any of the 4 names of Jeruslem. Shows you how political this has become. Fortunately, in this case, you can’t rewrite the Koran.

Those who think this is an issue of a piece of land are naive. The issue is Islamic sovereignty in the area. The issue is non tolerance for Jewish sovereignty. “Peace peace peace” by day to UNM students and the U.N. and the US government, and “Jihad, death, and push the Jews into the sea” at night in many middle eastern mosques and behind closed doors.

In Hamas’ charter, its actually open to the public. Maybe this ex-soldier should check it out.

Oh, brother!

So, Chayal, just because I don’t support the policies of THE GOVERNMENT of Israel I am a terrorist sympathizer and an anti-semite – or worse yet, a leftist self-hating Jew?

How typical.

Boy, some folks never tire of dragging that old corpse out.

What does questioning the policies of the GOVERNMENT of Israeli have to do with anti-semitism? If I disagree with my own government’s policies (which I do, a lot) does that mean I’m UN-AMERICAN? I guess that includes all the TEA PARTY morons, too, then, and most Republicans! How does that jibe with your logic?

Am I supposed to believe that the current Israeli GOVERNMENT represents every single Jew on the planet, and if I criticize THE GOVERNMENT of Israel that means I’m anti-semitic? How stupid is that? Is this what you mean by ‘individualism, not statism?’ That seems pretty STATIST to me.

This is the kind of bizarre thinking that ignorant, hateful people spew when they have no actual arguments to back up their claims. You don’t know me, and you know nothing about me, so lay off the insults, Bub.

And try to let go of the hate.

I see no evidence of anyone on this forum “questioning” anything about the situation in Israel. It seems that forum respondents have already done their questioning, if any, some time ago and are now restating their conclusions. How many people familiar with the names of frequent Lobo letter writers are surprised by anything written here today?

Here’s a question for everyone: what should the besieged Jewish population of Israel do to defend themselves from people who believe blowing up shopping malls and restaurants is a successful day? If the answer is “nothing”, if every single action taken by the Israelis is soundly condemned under the guise of “questioning” the government, how can that person say with a straight face that he or she is not in reality the vicious anti-Semite everyone can clearly see them for? If you’re being punched in the face with brass knuckles, how far should you be allowed to go to make it stop?

To Billy W: The quote attributed to me regarding Hamas was printed out of context. I abhor Hamas violent tactics as much as I do Israeli government violent tactics.

Shockingly, I have read that since the 1970s, the Israel government has given ‘…direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas…Israel’s support for Hamas “was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative,” said a former senior CIA official.”

Fact or Fiction? It’s worth researching.

More to the point, however, do Steve Chavez and Israel Alliance representatives who live here in NM presume to know more about the situation on the ground better than an Israeli who grew up in Jerusalem, served in the IDF, and currently lives and works there every day?

Let the Israel Alliance folks show photos of Hamas horrors and CPEJMEUNM will show photos of Israeli military horrors. This was just the start of more events to come. We invite the Israel Alliance to join in a panel discussion presenting all sides of the issue. Let us have a dialogue around the ros and cons of: “Should the US end military aid to Israel?”.

FYI—The Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East UNM (CPJMEUNM ) is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian group whose goal is to educate UNM students, staff, and faculty about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, to raise awareness about how our tax dollars are being spent, and to advocate against continued military aid to the region.

“The Mission of the Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East UNM is to educate, advocate and collaborate for peace, justice, and the human rights of all people.”

Guida Leicester
CPJMEUNM CO-CHAIR

“If you’re being punched in the face with brass knuckles, how far should you be allowed to go to make it stop?” That’s a great question, Sam. If someone came to your home and threw you and your family out into the desert of New Mexico with no where to go, then bull-dozed your home, then put up a wall all around the Albuquerque metro area so you had absolutely no where to go for shelter, food, and water, how far would you go to fight for your life? I don’t condone terrorism, suicide bombing, or frankly ANY destruction of human life. I sympathize with both Israelis and Palestinians whose lives have been touched by violence. I am sick of reading and hearing statements about people on EITHER side being all the same. There are plenty of Palestinians AND Israelis who oppose the tactics of their respective governments. As long as both sides insist on revenge, nothing will ever change and we are all wasting our time talking about it. To all of you: try to have some empathy and compassion for your fellow humans, whatever their nationality or ethnicity. Please.

Guida,

Which number is bigger 14 billion or 2.4 billion?

How about a symposium on whether the US taxpayer should be aiding Arab countries?

Much to your dismay, I’m sure, the US taxpayer gives many times more aid to Arab Muslim countries than to the single Jewish country, a staunch ally, and the only democracy in the middle east.

Last year, the USA gave 11 billion to Iraq, 2 billion to Egypt, and 1.5 billion to Jordan (formerly called Palestine by the way). That is about 14 billion dollars, and I am not even including many other Arab countries who also receive aid from US taxpayers. Whereas, 2.4 billion in loans (loans are paid back, unless your Egypt in which the debt is cancelled) went to Israel. 14 versus 2.

Why should US taxpayers support this overhwelming aid to Arab countries that are racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist?

As another poster above aptly pointed out…
Do you think women should have their vaginas mutilated due to a religion so they don’t feel pleasure or orgasm WHILE THEIR HUSBANDS HAVE PLEASURE AND EVEN RAPE THEM? Do Israeli’s do that?

Do you think they should be hung or stoned in public for being raped while the rapists are set free? Do Israeli’s do that?

Do you think women should be killed in Honor Killings even by their own family?

Do you think women should get 30 lashes for being seen with a man other than their husband?

Do you think women should be allowed an education?
“The abuses are endless! Shocking for this century.” DO YOU CARE MORE ABOUT OLIVE TREES OR MORE FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS???

Where is that symposium on whether US taxpayers should support these barbaric, dark age Arab countries we give our taxpayer money to?

Jake,
You ask: “Why should US taxpayers support this overhwelming aid to Arab countries that are racist, anti-Semitic, and sexist?”

Your blanket statements and the above question mirrors the very hateful racism in you that you seem to accuse ALL Arabs of being. Here’s a hint for you: Arabs are semites, too.

Just as there are three opinions for two Jews (a wide variety of cultures make up the Jewish people, including Arab Jews), so it applies to Muslims, Arabs and the rainbow of cultures that inhabit this planet. Implying that a people are all the same is extremely racist, in my opinion.

And just because I oppose military aid to Israel does not imply that I condone abuse of Arab women nor approve of providing aid to Arab countries. Please do not make such assumptions.

You ask a good question, Jake. Why don’t we bring all that aid home and provide humanitarian health care to the uninsured in our own country instead of providing ‘death machines’ to other countries? But I digress…

As far as domestic abuse and rape, which happens in all societies, including Israel’s and our own, no, I do not condone it anywhere. I’ve heard that domestic abuse has gone up in Israel since last December’s bombardment of Gaza. War takes a lasting toll on both Israelis and Palestinians.

Statistics aside, there is no justification for oppression of any peoples. Why do folks here justify violence against the ‘other’? Instead of demonizing Arabs to justify cruel acts, why not try to get to know them, talk with them, engage with them? Who knows, you might actually find out what kind giving folks ‘they’ are. Geez, you might find you actually like ‘them.’

Enough of the hate already! Bottom line, as far as I am concerned, it’s a human rights issue—on BOTH sides.

A quote to leave you with: “They is US”—Pogo (Walt Kelly)

‘Mitakuye Oasin—we are all related’ (Lakota),

Guida

This is about international law and human rights. When a Palestinian militant group targets Israeli Jewish civilians or lobbs home-made rockets into civilian areas, this is a violation of international law and a human rights violation. It is also a war crime, according to the recent UN Goldstone Report. Justice calls for a condemnation of the targeting of civilian lives and infrastructure. But the disproportionate destruction both in human lives and in buildings between Israelis and Gazans is simply perverse. American taxpayers should not be providing aid and comfort to those who target civilians, whether that be in Burma, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, Honduras, China, Guinea, or wherever. Just because we are spotlighting American-funded human rights violations in Israel does not mean we don’t also abhor other human rights violations on the planet. But what a weak defense of Israeli oppression: “we aren’t the only ones committing human rights violations.”

I encourage UNM students to continue dialogue on this issue and further education. Let someone do a research paper and presentation on Hamas, both its political and military wings—and yes, including its charter. Let someone else research Breaking the Silence. What did other IDF soldiers say about their experience serving during Operation Cast Lead? Is Micha Kurz’s testimony rare or common? How does one explain the existence of Israeli/Jewish only roads? Does that not sound like South African apartheid? If the security wall is about security, why does the wall snake for miles into the West Bank, taking land and splitting up families? Could there be another reason for the wall? Let’s have a rational discussion about this issue and ground it under the umbrella of human rights and international law.

CPJME-UNM welcomes all students and members of the community who are interested in finding a path to peaceful co-existence. We ask for respectful open dialogue and collaboration at our meetings. Please join us—share your experiences, thoughts, and ideas. Our first public event was a starting point—one individual shared his personal experience, his personal viewpoint and his plan to organize isolated scattered individuals and groups into a more productive humanitarian network. I want to listen and learn and help create a student organization that will continue to be a productive part of the community after I leave UNM.
Carla Josephson, Co-Chair CPJME-UNM

How do supporters of Israel defend the actions of the Israeli military during Operation Cast Lead, in which 1417 Palestinians, mostly civilians and of whom 348 were children, were massacred by Israeli forces, which sustained only 6 deaths by hostile action? How could this death toll be justified by the rockets being launched from Gaza, which killed a total of zero people in the 6 month period prior to this massacre? There is no question that shooting rockets indiscriminately is a war crime, but do supporters of Israel say that the 24 Israelis killed by rockets in the 8 years prior to Operation Cast Lead justify killing 1417 people in 3 weeks? If so, they should recognize the similarity in their mathematics with that used by the German Army during their reprisals against the Resistance in WWII.

New Mexico ? What happened to the Old Mexicans, or “Indians”- who lived here ? guess the same as to the “ab-originals” who lived here. Annandale, new South Wales. Oz. Australia.
Or the Palestinians. In most of Palestine.
The difference is
that we have got
the Maxim gun *
and they have not.

• replace Maxim gun by B-52, or “Predator”

I think that in ANY army there are a MINORITY of individuals
which behave immorally and amorally.
This doesn’t mean that all the soldiers are guilty or that they
are instructed to behave like that.
To condemn Israel’s army for the scandalous behavior of a few ones is injust and doesn’t give the true image of it.

Ralph

I had fun googling “Guida Leicester” and all of you should. I found her name as a signatory to some of the biggest JEW HATING groups there are and with other personalities like Noam Chomsky and the great Ramsey Clark of the World Workers Party and who defended Saddam Hussien the great humanitarian who fought for PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE MIDDLE EAST!!!

BUT IS THIS OUR GUIDA LEICESTER? I found her name attached to “San Francisco.” She could be a different person but that name is so unusual. But if she is the same, she is just another plant who is not here at UNM to get an education but to ruin all of your education. Her goal is to recruit students into following “PEACE AND JUSTICE” and many will be fooled but those students need to ask who the leader of the group is, their history in following PEACE AND JUSTICE, and their goals. This is only the basics. Look at the info they pass out and ask yourself “Is it one-sided?” If it is,they are not for REAL PEACE AND JUSTICE, THEY SIDE WITH ONE OF THE WARRING FACTIONS THAT KILLS HUMANS AND IS SURELY NOT FOR PEACE. HOW CAN YOU BE FOR PEACE BUT YOU AID IN WAR???

This is a common recruiting tool that fools the gullible and the naive. I’ve seen it since the 80’s here at UNM and if you trace the slogan “PEACE AND JUSTICE” you’ll eventually find that it is right out of the COMMUNIST PARTY USA! LOOK IT UP YOURSELF. GO TO UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE OR UNITEDFORPEACE.ORG.. You will not find anywhere on their site that they are run by the COMMUNIST PARTY USA. But if you google “CPUSA AND UFPJ” you will find that UNITED is run by COMMUNIST PARTY MEMBERS Leslie Cagan and Judith LeBlanc BOTH HATERS OF ISRAEL. If you want futher proof, GO TO THEIR NEWSPAPER, PWW.ORG, or you can find it at the Frontier as someone leaves free copies or you can buy one from the homeless man selling it in front of Satellite coffee. YOU WILL NOT FIND ANY REFERENCE TO “COMMUNIST PARTY USA.”

Google Judith LeBlanc Hezbollah Hamas Lebanon AND YOU WILL FIND THAT SHE BLAMES ALL ACTIONS ON ISRAEL. WHAT KIND OF A CROOKED REFEREE IS THAT??? SHE ALSO LEGITIMIZES THEIR ACTIONS! LOOK IT UP SINCE IT IS HER OWN WORDS NOT MINE. I AM JUST EXPOSING LIARS AND DECIEVERS WHICH IF YOU’RE REALLY FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, YOU WOULD QUESTION YOUR LEADER ABOUT THE HYPOCRISY OF AIDING WAR AND SEEKING PEACE!

UNM has been used by many FRONT groups who in their very name sounds good. Many of you students join that group since you are also for peace. But look closely at their leaders and in this case, look to see if they side with Hamas and Hezbollah. If they are, DON’T JOIN SINCE YOU WERE JOINING A “PEACE” GROUP. If though you want to join a group that supports HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH OR ISRAEL, GO AHEAD. You are just joining one of the teams whose goal it is to win the game. BUT IF YOU JOIN THE REFEREES, YOU MUST CALL FOULS ON ALL SIDES. IF YOU JOIN THE REFEREES AND YOU SEE OTHERS WHO ARE ACTUALLY SIDING WITH AND FUNDING ONE OF THE TEAMS, THEN YOU NEED TO DROP YOUR MEMBERSHIP AND SUPPORT! THEN YOU NEED TO INFORM OTHERS NOT TO JOIN SUCH A GROUP!

IN FINAL CONCLUSION, STOP JOINING THESE “DO GOOD” GROUPS BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT SO GOOD IN THE END. THEY ONLY PROLONG WARS! THEY ARE LIKE CHEERLEADERS THAT WANT THE TEAM TO FIGHT AND WIN! BUT DO THEY SPILL THEIR OWN BLOOD FOR THE CAUSE THEY CHEER ABOUT? NO! THEY CHEER ON OTHERS SO THEY CAN SPILL THEIR BLOOD AND TO CAUSE DEATH AND MISERY OF FAMILY! IF THEY WERE SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THE CAUSE, WHY DON’T THEY SPILL THEIR BLOOD AND PUT THEIR LIFE ON THE LINE ON THE BATTLEFIELD! THEY WON’T DO THAT! CAN YOU IMAGINE IF THEY DID GO TO THE BATTLEFIELD OF HAMAS AND CHEERED THEM ON TO “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” AND ONE OF THE HAMAS FIGHTERS SAID, “HERE’S A GUN, YOU FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT.” They’ll say, “NO, I’M HERE TO ON A FACT-FINDING MISSION.”

THIS IS COMMON FOR FAKE PEACE AND JUSTICE GROUPS! THEY CHEER ON OTHERS TO FIGHT AND DIE FOR THE CAUSE OF THE LEADERS OF THESE FRONT GROUPS!!! NEED FURTHER EVIDENCE? GO TO THE LOCAL PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER, CONVIENENTLY LOCATED ACROSS THE STREET FROM UNM AND SEE HOW MANY WARS AND WARRING FACTIONS THEY SUPPORT!!! PEACE AND JUSTICE?

GET ON WITH YOUR DEGREE AND MAKE YOURSELF, AND YOUR FAMILY PROUD. DO NOT BE RECRUITED BY THESE HATERS OF REAL PEACE AND JUSTICE!!!

For Ralph:

check out IDF soldiers testimonies collected by Breaking the Silence here: http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp

For Steve:
Your ranting doesn’t warrant a reasoned response. Chill, dude.

Google Steve Chavez and UNM. A Steve Chavez graduated from UNM with a music degree and plays mirambas. A Steve Chavez wrote a Daily Lobo article about peace groups being corrupt. A Steve Chavez wrote on “Ein Shalom” (No Peace) that peace groups are KGB.

He uses capital letters A LOT (does he yell in person?) because his logic is pitiful. This guy probably loved Palin. His music probably sounds like garbage trucks.

Guida,

Please dont insult the intelligence of UNM students.

You obvioulsy have a biased Israel-bashing agenda.

From the time you take to dig up conspiracy theories on Israel, to never failing to throw Israel under the bus, to minimizing the depraved laws in most Arab countries against women, minorities,and non Muslims, its clear you have an agenda of bias.

You say you want justice in this world. But when you, Guida, mask over the thousands of Arab “honor” beheadings and murders, clitoris removal and public lashings of daughters, wives, and sisters, that take place in virually every single Arab country… how can you be taken that seriously?

When you ignore the plight of 1,000,000 Jews from Arab lands who were ethnically cleansed from their countries of birth by racist Arab governments, how do we see you as egalitarian on this issue?

When you ignore the public charters of Palestinian governments that call for a second holocaust of Jews and the destruction of Israel, I can only think it is you who have a biased dislike for Israel and the Jewish people whose 4,000 year old ancestral homeland it is.

When Islam allows for non Islamic sovereignty, when it allows for Jewish sovereignty, then the world will move into a more tolerant time. This is what it boils down to, and is why there were 10’s of 1000’s of Arab terror attacks on Jews predating the re-establishment of Israel,… pre-dating any “west bank (Judea)” controversy.

Its not about the west bank (Judea) Guida, …its about Tel Aviv, the Sea of Galilee, Masada, and Jerusalem too. Its all of Israel, and thats why there was Arab hate well before Israel regained the west bank. Before there was any so called “occupied territory”. Why was there Arab anti-semitism in 1966, 1936, 1906, if the controversy is just about the “west bank”? Because its not just about the west bank. Its about any non Islamic sovereignty in the Muslim world.

The monumentally scaled injustices in Arab countries and among palestinians against Arab and non Arab people, seem to fit the universal desire for justice. Yet you whitewash and minimize these things. Why is that? So please spare us the hyperbole and Kumbaya talk that you obvioulsy are not sincere about.

…

On a final note, any 2 state solution lies with Jordan, a country that comprises 78% of the land of the original Palestine mandate. A country whose population is already 80% Palestinian. A country whose leadership are non native British implants from Mecca post world war I. The land is “Palestine”, the people are a majority Palestinian. Let it revert back to being called “Palestine”. That would fit the best 2 state solution that exists.

Ever wonder why so many pro-Israel commenters crawl out of the woodwork, even in the backwaters of UNM? In July 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would assemble an “internet warfare” squad to spread a pro-Israel message on various websites.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cook07212009.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/1,7340,L-3744516,00.html

Some excerpts from the above articles:
Israel’s foreign ministry is reported to be establishing a special undercover team of paid workers whose job it will be to surf the internet 24 hours a day spreading positive news about Israel. … The team will fall under the authority of a large department already dealing with what Israelis term “hasbara”. “Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the hasbara department of the Israeli foreign ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis,” he said. “They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the foreign ministry developed.”

HMMM. People seem to think that OPINIONS and rhetoric peppered with catch words are enough to prove whatever OPINION and prejudice they happen to hold without question. Here are some FACTS. Unpartisan and ugly, but facts concerning current events nonetheless. : copy and paste these links!

http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article439
http://stopthewall.org/factsheets/1669.shtml
http://www.wrmea.com/us_aid_to_israel/index.htm#Taxpayer
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3387

Steve, while you’re in the GOOGLEing mood, GOOGLE Tristan Anderson, Rachel Corrie and Brian Avery. Additionally, anti-zionism does NOT = anti-semitism. Nationalism in its most extreme has brought great suffering to all of humanity, and if unchecked is a dangerous entity in our world.

Paranoid much??

Vicky falls into step by trying to smear. Lovely.
When you cant argue,… smear. Thats what good demagogues do, right Vicky?

Yes we have our board demagogue! VJ, thanks for stopping by.

As rock group “The Kinks” say, “paranoia, big detroyah”. And you VJ, are not only biased to the extreme, but paranoid too.

For what its worth I actually attended, and graduated, from UNM. And you? I would imagine that’s not as likely the case for you.

Dear “Not a fan of Steve Chavez”

In 1986, I attended MY FIRST PEACE meeting on Guatemala since the Marimba is the National Instrument. It is Marimba heaven. The meeting was sponsored by the NM Peace Council who I had no idea who they were but I went not only to see if I could find, if I was lucky, a Marimba player since I was going to D.C. that year to give a lecture and perform on Marimbas. I also went because I have my own ideas on how to create peace. I was ready to tell them MY SLOGANS: BAN ALL WEAPONS WHOSE POWER PROJECTS BEYOND THE WEAPON ITSELF. Meaning any weapon that shoots something beyond the weapon, including bows and arrows, should be banned. ANOTHER: WHEN MAN CAN ROAM THE EARTH WITHOUT FEAR OF SOMETHING HE CANNOT SEE, THEN, AND ONLY THEN, WILL HE TRULY BE FREE.”

THERE WAS A CIVIL WAR IN GUATEMALA AND INSTEAD OF TALKING PEACE, THEY ASKED AT THE END FOR DONATIONS TO SEND TO “OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS!” (Sorry for the caps but HELLO, they’re a PEACE GROUP AIDING IN WAR?????????”) I raised my hand and said, “Hey, you’re a peace group. How could you be raising money for war?” The host ANGELA DELLA SANTI said as she looked at her watch, “Sorry but it’s nine o’clock and we have to leave because the janitor needs to clean the room.”

I went to the next Peace Council meeting but this time it was on CUBA and the speaker was the leader of the Peace Council, A PUBLIC GROUP, GERRY BRADLEY. I asked more questions in that one but the main one was to Gerry: “ARE YOU A MARXIST?” He came up to me and pointed his finger one inch from my nose and said, “I’M NOT A MARXIST! I’M THE FURTHEST THING FROM IT! I’M A PATRIOTIC AMERICAN!” I told him I was sorry but everything he said was pro-Marxist about Cuba.

THEN I WENT TO ANOTHER MEETING but this time it was by the NEW MEXICO MARXIST EDUCATORS FOR SOCIALIST ACTION. EVER HEARD OF THIS GROUP “NOT A FAN?” The guest speaker was George Meyers, the Chairman of the Labor Department of the Communist Party USA. (I STILL HAVE THE FLYER FROM 2-17-1986) He advocated the “overthrow of the United States through force if necessary!” I recognized many of the same people from the two Peace meetings BUT DO YOU KNOW WHO THE LEADER OF THIS MARXIST GROUP? GERRY BRADLEY, THE SAME PERSON WHO SCREAMED THAT HE WAS THE “FURTHEST THING” FROM A MARXIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOT A MARXIST IN THE PEACE MEETINGS AND PRESIDENT OF THE MARXISTS IN ANOTHER?

I went to the next PEACE Council meeting but this time it was El Salvador. It was sponsored by the Peace Council and a Campus Committee on Human Rights. THE SPEAKER WAS IN THE REBEL GROUP, THE COMMUNIST-RUN FMLN REBELS! PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SPONSORING, AND CHEERING, A PERSON WHO CAUSES WAR AND KILLS HUMANS?????????

I raised my hand at the end and GERRY WOULD NOT CALL ON ME until a person behind me asked him too. I said, “ARE YOU A MARXIST?” This question caused a big ruckus and an older man, MARSHALL NASON, came up to me, WITH MY TAPE RECORDING NOW, and said, “I’ve known Gerry for five years and I know he’s not a Marxist!” Many people were shouting at me. Angela Della Santi, was the interpreter for the El Salvadorean and so she told her what I had asked and it started another disruption. GERRY STOOD UP TO THE PODIUM AND SAID, “WHERE DID YOU GET THAT BULLSHIT INFORMATION?”

After the meeting, Jegot Ortega McKinzey, A DAILY LOBO REPORTER came up and wanted my name so I asked him “Ask Gerry if he’s the President of New Mexico Marxist Educators.” He said, “I asked him in an interview at the beginning if his group had Marxist or Communist affiliation and he said NO. Besides, I’m the reporter and I have my own questions.” He left and many people came up to me WHO WEREN’T SO PEACEFUL SO I EVENTUALLY CAME UP WITH ANOTHER SLOGAN: “IF YOU CAN’T EVEN CREATE PEACE WITH ME, HOW DO YOU EXPECT TO CREATE PEACE AMONGST PEOPLE WHO ARE SHOOTING AT EACH OTHER?”

Jegot and Gerry left the room so I shortly followed. Jegot saw me coming but Gerry had his back to me. Jegot asked, “Are you the head of New Mexico Marxist Educators?” Gerry said, “How did you find that out?” Jegot pointed at me coming and said, “He told me.” Gerry’s face turned SOVIET RED and said, “YES I AM, SO WHAT!” Jegot flipped and said “SO WHAT?” He chewed out Bradley and he was going to report on it. He said, “End of interview. I need to interview him now.”

I told Jegot about the Marxist meeting and “overthrow” but he needed proof so we went to where I saw the flyer but it was covered by several others but we managed to find two. THE REPORT WAS NEVER PRINTED IN THE INDEPENDENT DAILY LOBO! Three months went by and Jegot saw me walking down Silver and he ran up to me. I asked about the article and he said the EDITOR wouldn’t let him print it. He asked me to write a Letter and to give it to him that afternoon at the Lobo office. I showed but he didn’t so I gave it DIRECTLY TO THE EDITOR WHO I RECOGNIZED FROM THE MARXIST MEETINS AS SHE INTRODUCED HERSELF AS BEING A MEMBER OF THE “NEW MEXICO COMMUNIST PARTY!”

I then started RESEARCHING THESE PUBLIC GROUPS THAT YOU CAN GOOGLE YOURSELF! U.S. Peace Council run by the COMMUNIST PARTY USA. World Peace Council started in 1949 by the Soviet Union and RUN BY THE SOVIET KGB! LOOK IT UP COMRADE! DON’T BLAME ME FOR WHAT I FOUND! When the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall fell, the PEACE COUNCIL’S CHANGED THEIR NAME TO UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE AND STILL RUN BY THE COMMUNIST PARTY USA!

FROM MARIMBAS TO MARX? So, my Marimba research led to uncovering the MOTHER OF ALL DECEPTIONS!

BUT WHY TAKE MY WORD FOR IT ABOUT THE PEACE GROUPS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS TO COMMUNIST PARTY’S AROUND THE WORLD. TAKE A PEACE STUDIES CLASS BECAUSE I’M SURE YOU’LL LEARN IT THERE!!!

Keep it coming, Steve. The more you type, the more eveyone knows how insane and paranoid you are.

Is that all you got? Can you dispute or correct any of my “insane and paranoid” statements? Remember I’ve been into this for over twenty years and I’ve heard it all but you need to attack me with facts not childish school yard chants!

I will admit that I am a fanatic though! I am fanatically trying to warn students not to ruin their lives. I’ve seen FORMER Peace people, who were former students, and they’re bums as they got no degree because they spent so much time “being active.” That’s Communist-code as that’s what they tell each other when they have successfully recruited a student: “He’s active.”

I saw students who went to Nicaragua to “aid the people” in Construction Brigades in the 80’s. THEY DROPPED OUT OF SCHOOL TO GO AND NEVER CAME BACK TO SCHOOL! They’re dreams, and those of their families, GONE! When Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega lost the 1990 election, the students left which proves they were not there to “help the people” but to HELP AN IDEOLOGY: COMMUNISM!

If you’re in a PEACE GROUP, OR ANYTHING NEAR IT, GET OUT NOW BEFORE THEY BRAINWASH YOU MORE AND BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! THEY ARE A CULT!

Thank you Steve for your 20 years of experience in these not-often-penetrated spheres. I dont have much experience with marxist leaders in the US who portray operation of “peace” groups, but are, in fact, far removed from being “Ghandian”…

If an individual ridicules, trying to change the topic to make it personal, it is only because they lack sufficient intellect to discuss the topic, and have to resort to pre-school sandbox politics. Keep sharing your views, we are in a western democracy!

Priceless! I love it! Seriously, Steve, keep it coming! This is great! I don’t even have to argue how crazy you are! Your insane rants speak for themselves!

So copy all my rants and pass them out to all your friends, fellow students, and family. Show them all how crazy I really am! Dare you!

a cult! that is priceless…..let’s take a tally of how many people get screwed around the world in the name of another ideology: CAPITALISM/CORPORATISM, not to mention ““democracy”“. Laughable. “Peace and Justice” is a term used in many organizations’ mission statements. Steve, you cannot seriously think any and all organizations who work for peace and justice are out to brainwash people with marxist ideologies or to overthrow ANY government. (On second thought, Marxism is far from ideal, but we cannot ignore some of its tenets). If you truly were for disarmament and peace as you defined it above, you would see that capitalism has paved the way for “innovative” technologies; most of which are rooted in the desire to control and coerce “other” populations in the name of profit and more “innovation”. Communism is NOT inherently evil. Totalitarian dictators are. There is a difference. Communism. ewwww. Scary…..Steve-you might want to pursue a career at FOX news… You would fit right in.

I would be willing to bet that almost everyone who has commented on this article has yet to actually set foot in Israel, let alone the Middle East. I considered myself to be pretty neutral when I visited the place and came home a different person. Most of the people who are upset about the wall and the checkpoints don’t know what it is to go through metal detectors when you go to the grocery store, or spend ten minutes getting searched when getting off at the bus station in Jerusalem. In Gaza, young children are taught that to become a “martyr” is the greatest thing they could do with their lives, and they are subject to lie after lie about Jews, the Holocaust and Israel from the moment they enter school. My real question for the University of New Mexico and the Center for Peace and Justice is why we never have Palestinians or other Muslims who are opposed to suicide bombings and terrorism in to talk. Why do we not talk about the quality of life for Israelis who are surrounded by countries who happily wage a proxy war on them? Above all, why do we not talk about the human rights crimes of Hamas? from suicide bombings and rockets while their people suffer to the torture and killings of gay people, people who won’t denounce Israel or show any sympathy towards Jews? The fighting in the region is certain to continue so long as we are subject to presentations of less than half of the true argument.

“C” (don’t we have the courage to give our names?)just asked “Above all, why do we not talk about the human rights crimes of Hamas? from suicide bombings and rockets…” I did talk about it this morning at 12:08 AM, but none of the defenders of Israeli policy has yet to answer my question.

Steve Chavez wrote: “If you’re in a PEACE GROUP, OR ANYTHING NEAR IT, GET OUT NOW BEFORE THEY BRAINWASH YOU MORE AND BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE! THEY ARE A CULT!”

I have read all the posts for and against the Israeli position but Chavez’s above quote has hit me right between the eyes. My brother joined a peace group during the first Gulf war in the early 90’s and he became a different person and full of hate for everything. He went to TVI (now CNM) and joined in with a group of extreme radicals including Mark Rudd who is a former Weatherman from the sixties.

He came to me one day to ask for some money since he didn’t have enough time for a job so he lived day to day with the “CULT!” The money was to be used to get a passport. I asked where he was going and he said that he didn’t have a destination but needed one just in case. I went to a meeting at the Frontier, yes in the back room, where groups of revolutionaires meet. I was introduced to some really bad people. They were planning a trip to visit the Zapatistas in Chipas which is in southern Mexico. This group took over a little town to start their revolution and so my brother wanted to help. He went for a month and came back a real brainwashed Jim Jones CULTER! There was no reasoning with him. He later went again with this CULT to Oaxaca(spelling) for a teachers rebellion. I read about this and the teachers were not the troublemakers but outsiders like my brother were the ones who incited riots.

Steve Chavez’s posts are warnings to all students to beware who you follow and the groups you join. Mark Rudd for peace and justice? But it’s not too late to get out of these CULTS! My brother finally met the right woman and they have one child and he’d be the first to join Chavez in warning others. One of the surprising stories he told me was that they had fund-raisers for the Zapatistas and they kept the money saying “we were making people aware of the Zapatistas and their struggle. It’s our job.” Yea but the money was for the campecinos, the poor people.

If you read the Steve Chavez posts, read carefully, as he is exposing groups who take your childhood dreams away and he warns not to waste away years of your prime and then finally realizing they were a waste as you promoted lies, deception, and fraud for keeping money raised for others.

I would love for my brother to write here and tell you how he wasted his school years and got no degree but only learned how to kill and to start revolutions. I just don’t want him to be reminded of this nightmare in his life.

Maybe Steve Chavez could hold his own meeting about these CULTS and my brother would be there to slap a few kids to their senses!

I would never support encouraging students to join cults or allow themselves to be brainwashed. So students, do your own research. Attend the Islamic Center of New Mexico open house and initiate a civil discussion/dialogue with the Muslims there about suicide bombings. Read articles on reputable websites that condemn human rights violations on both sides, both Hamas and the IDF, such as B’tSelem, the Israeli center for human rights in the occupied territories. As students who should be investigating these issues, I urge you to read the 500-plus UN Goldstone Report on Gaza. Then report back what you learned. What aspects of the report seem credible? Which parts need more evidence? This is analysis and it is welcomed. Ranting just wastes other people’s time.

ACTIVISM IS NOT THE SAME AS A CULT! However, i do agree that people should make sure the people they are getting involved with are legit and that organizations are working in solidarity with people, not “for them” or “leading” them. That being said, your BAD experiences are no more legitimate or universally applicable than my GOOD experiences working for peace and justice. So please be careful in how you attack organizations and coalitions. School can brainwash, too, and a degree is not always the answer for people.

Leftists are mere slaves to their loathing of the rich.. Their cries of “corporate greed” and “capitalist agenda” are only ideas that beg for some explaining other than their simple hatred for success. What a foolish arguement to make—that one’s property ought to be distributed equally!

To leftists, a good argument consists of ad hominem attacks, for example, calling your opponents “racist”, nothing more, no more thinking past that, just a ridiculous set of rationalizations.

Wrapping themselves in the mindset of “multiculturalism”, they believe that the Palensitians are merely Americans shooting for the same general goals as they are, i.e. “peace”.

Peace to most middle easterners consists under the reign of Islam rather than Christianity or even Environmentalism (the left’s true religion, they have an Armagheddon—global warming, priests—Al Gore and whole lot of subjective rationality). But there is no sense to this, and is why our “foreign policy” has failed us for decades.

Until the left begin to understand the nobility of individual rights, the right to self defense, the nobility of capitalism, there can not be any consistency to their point of view. And their foreign policy will continue to fail until war is the only answer.

V- “that organizations are working in solidarity with people, not “for them” or “leading” them.” This quote by “V” shows how brainwashed he/she, I suspect a “she,” because by working with “people” you are “for them” and “leading” them.

Let’s take CISPES, The Committee in “SOLIDARITY” with the El Salvador. This is a MARXIST/COMMUNIST REBEL GROUP SEEKING THE VIOLENT OVERTHROW OF THE GOVERNMENT OF EL SALVADOR that was funded by many in HOLLYWOOD in the 80’s INCLUDING HILLARY CLINTON, ED ASNER, ELIZABETH MONTGOMERY AND MANY OTHERS WHO HELD FUNDRAISERS “FOR THEM!

The “organizations” working in “Solidarity” included PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO THE COMMUNIST PARTY USA, THE CUBAN DGI, AND THE SOVIET KGB! HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS AIDING IN THE KILLING OF HUMANS?

The FMLN, won the recent Presidential election AND HILLARY CLINTON WAS THE HIGH RANKING U.S. OFFICIAL AT THE INAUGURATION! They were FUNDED BY U.S. GROUPS AND HUGO CHAVEZ! Daniel Ortega, also won the election in Nicaragua with funds from HUGO CHAVEZ.

Zelaya, of Honduras, ousted by his own Party and Supreme Court for violating a clause in their Constitution that says at no time in anyone allowed to end term limits. BUT ZELAYA, FRIEND OF HUGO CHAVEZ, tried to do just that in a planned referendum and was removed from power. HIS BIGGEST SUPPORTER WHO WANTS HIM RESTORED TO POWER? HILLARY CLINTON! I also suspect many are “IN SOLIDARITY” WITH HIM AS now he is holed up in the Brazilian Embassy encouraging rebellion and insurrection which will KILL HUMANS BUT HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS WILL BE “IN SOLIDARITY” “WITH THEM!”

GOOGLE: “International SOLIDARITY Movement”

V, what groups are you in so we can check if you are true to your declaration and ideals!!

V- “School(s)can brainwash, too, and a degree is not always the answer for people.” WHAT? THAT’S WHERE THEY ARE RECRUITED AND THEIR DREAM OF GETTING A “DEGREE” END FROM YOUR, V, BRAINWASHING! Leave them the hell alone and ruin your own life which is based on a lie!

Muslim-haters often bring up women’s rights, as in the comments above, but they ignore the sex trade in Israel. The United Nations has named Israel as one of the main destinations in the world for trafficked women; it has also consistently appeared as an offender in the annual US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7070929.stm Some say this is because the Talmud sanctions adultery with Gentile bondmaids and slave girls. Some link it to Russian immigrants.

Over a million Israelis came from Russia in the 1980s and 1990s. X/Chavez, if you are looking under mattresses for commies, start with Israel, not Palestine. Did you know Meir Wilner, leader of the Israel Communist Party, was a signer of Israels Declaration of Independence?

ACORN, who works for Peace and Justice, also will aid in sex slaves especially 13 year olds from El Salvador.

I hadn’t heard of the Israel trade and I am disgusted by any trade of women anywhere but I guess you want me to agree with them just because it is in Israel?

So how do Muslim’s treat their women? Do you have any UN or State Department links to that? I’ve seen pictures of a MUSLIM woman’s vagina mutilated, hanged, shot, whipped, stoned, and so does that make me a “Muslim-hater?” YOU BET! ANY DISGUST OR HATE ON YOUR PART?

I’ve also seen how you do-gooders had “slaves” from Central America to “trade” and pass them around to each other to work in your homes as you would brainwash them to believe they were “free.”

Who cares about Russians coming to Israel and a Communist leader? This only shows that some people were escaping COMMUNISM and persecution from worshipping a God to go to a country where all are free to join any Party they want including the Israel Communist Party. I applaud Meir Wilner for openly declaring her ideals instead of hiding in the closet!

If you want to see many COMMUNIST PARTIES around the world and what they are doing go to SOLIDNET.ORG. I was surprised at how many were in the Middle East. But what is more surprising is how they take their orders from the KGB/FSB AND OUR COMMUNIST PARTY USA INTERNATIONAL DIVISION!!!!!!

What’s your degree V/Israel’s Sex Trade? Are you a Prof? Why are you at UNM when “a degree is not always the answer for people.” HERE TO RECRUIT? IS THAT YOUR JOB AND WHO PAYS YOU?

To those who say most of the pro-Israel commentators here and in the Israel Alliance haven’t been to Israel, that’s an ignorant thing to say. Most of us have been to Israel, and some are Israeli. This is a good batch of arguments. If you are pro-Israel and you want to do more than talk, joint the UNM Israel Alliance. http://unmia.com

“Ever wonder why so many pro-Israel commenters crawl out of the woodwork, even in the backwaters of UNM? In July 2009, it was announced that the Israeli Foreign Ministry would assemble an “internet warfare” squad to spread a pro-Israel message on various websites.”

Excellent point, Vicks. Since only Israeli operatives could possibly defend a democracy and human-rights supporting country in a region of the world that generally has neither, you now have all the reason you need to ignore anything said that might dampen your enthusiasm for bashing decent people.

No, really. From now on when you see something in print defending Israel, you now have cosmic permission to ignore it and keep quiet. I can’t speak for others, but I’m fine with that.

Collaborators in the War Against the Jews: Norman Finkelstein

Norman Finkelstein’s luck was to be born (in 1953) to parents who had survived the Holocaust. With audacious perversity, Finkelstein has drawn upon this birthright in legitimating the anti-Semitism that he has perfected into something like a nightclub routine in his appearances on the college speaker circuit.

A political scientist who has made a point of specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Finkelstein has been a faculty member at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and most recently, DePaul University, where he was an Assistant Professor from 2001 to 2007. When he was recruited by DePaul, he had recently been fired from two New York-area adjunct teaching jobs (NYU and Hunter College) because of his lack of substantive scholarship and his obsessive rants against Jews and Israel. In June 2007, Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul.

A disciple of the historian and Holocaust denier David Irving, Finkelstein typically places in quotation marks his references to the “six million” Jews exterminated by the Nazis – to demonstrate his belief that the figure is a grossly exaggerated fabrication. In an interview with the German paper, Die Welt, Finkelstein said: “Not only does the ‘Six Million’ figure become more untenable but the numbers of the Holocaust industry are rapidly approaching those of Holocaust deniers…. Indeed, the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense if not sheer fraud.”

In his 2003 book The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Finkelstein (drawing again on his family narrative) wrote, “‘If everyone who claims to be a survivor actually is one,’ my mother used to exclaim, ‘who did Hitler kill?’” He added: “My parents often wondered why I would grow so indignant at the falsification and exploitation of the Nazi genocide. The most obvious answer is that it has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and U.S. support for these policies.”

Elsewhere in the book, Finklestein stated: “The Zionists indeed learnt well from the Nazis. So well that it seems that their morally repugnant treatment of the Palestinians, and their attempts to destroy Palestinian society within Israel and the occupied territories, reveals them as basically Nazis with beards and black hats.”

In a December 2001 interview with radical left CounterPunch Magazine, Finkelstein said of Jewish organizations that seek compensation for Holocaust survivors, “It is no accident that Jews invented the word ‘chutzpah.’ They steal, and I do use the word with intent, 95% of the monies earmarked for victims of Nazi persecution, and then throw you a few crumbs while telling you to be grateful…. They have disgraced the memory of the Jewish people’s suffering on the one hand by turning it into an extortion racket.”

From time to time, Finkelstein speaks at events sponsored by chapters of the Muslim Student Union and the Muslim Students Association, where his anti-Israel animus has made him a superstar.

In October 2005, Finkelstein was a special guest speaker at Yale University, where he delivered a speech titled “Israel and Palestine: Misusing Anti-Semitism, Abusing History.” In that address, according to a report in the Yale Daily News, Finkelstein derided Jewish Americans for their high “level of mental hysteria” about Holocaust denial. He asserted that the phenomenon of the so-called “new anti-Semitism” had been fabricated out of whole cloth by Jewish organizations. He made numerous references to the “Jewish lobby” that was allegedly manipulating U.S. foreign policy. And he depicted the Arab-Israeli conflict as a “simple one” rooted in what he called Israel’s long history of ethnic cleansing and egregious human rights violations. Notably, he did not once use the words “terrorists” or “militants” in describing the Palestinian side.

At the invitation of the Muslim Students Association of Columbia University, for example, Finkelstein delivered a March 2006 speech titled “Israel and Palestine: Misuse of Anti-Semitism, Abuse of History.” According to a report on the event in the Columbia Spectator, Finkelstein characterized the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “contrived and fabricated controversy”; declared that “regardless of intent, Israel is in effect guilty of state terrorism”; and alleged that the “only difference between Israel terrorism and Hamas terrorism is that Israeli terrorism is three times as lethal.”

Finkelstein also criticized Columbia University President Lee Bollinger’s refusal to support an anti-Israel divestment campaign or to depict Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as “apartheid.” Accusing Bollinger of “intellectual terrorism,” Finkelstein declared: “I think it’s a sorry truth when the president of … [Columbia] subordinates the pursuit of truth to the pursuit of fundraising.”

In May 2007, UC Irvine’s Muslim Student Union sponsored a talk by Finkelstein in which he stated, “Most peace initiatives came from the Arab world…. Arabs showed a remarkable tendency for compliance with negotiations. It was Israel that violated formal and informal agreements.” Finkelstein also said the following about the terrorist group Hezbollah: “I have no interest whatsoever in Hezbollah as a political organization. I have only one interest: … Do the Lebanese people or does Hezbollah have the right to resist foreign occupiers? … Every victory of Hezbollah, I celebrate.” In response to this, his captive audience cheered loudly and shouted “Allahu Akbar” [“God is great”].

In a January 2008 interview on a Lebanese television station, Finkelstein (who very recently had met with Hezbollah leaders) said this about the terror group:

“I was of course happy to meet with the Hezbollah people … And I have no problem saying that I do want to express solidarity with them … People have the right to defend their country from foreign occupiers, and people have the right to defend their country from invaders who are destroying their country…. There is no way that the United States and Israel are going to tolerate any resistance in the Arab world…. Israel is determined, with the United States, to put the Arabs in their place and to keep them in their place…. Israel and the United States are attacking, because they will not allow any military resistance to their control of the region…. If Hezbollah laid down its arms and said, ‘We will do whatever the Americans say,’ you wouldn’t have a war — that’s true. But you’d also be the slaves of the Americans. I have to respect those who refuse to be slaves…. There will [someday] be a leader who comes into power in Israel, who is willing to make the concessions, after the conditions have been created — namely, Israel has to suffer a defeat.”

As is invariably the case with Israel-haters, Finkelstein’s contempt for the Jewish state also colors his assessment of Israel’s closest ally, the United States. When asked whether he thought that “the West was in some way responsible for the tragedy of September 11,” Finkelstein replied:

“Regrettably, it’s payback time for the Americans and they have a problem because all the other enemies since the end of World War Two that they pretended to contend with . . . were basically fabricated enemies…. Frankly, part of me says … ‘you know what, we deserve the problem on our hands because some things bin Laden says are true.’ One of the things he said on that last tape was that ‘until we [Muslims and Arabs] live in security, you’re not going to live in security,’ and there is a certain amount of rightness in that. Why should Americans go on with their lives as normal, worrying about calories and hair loss, while other people are worrying about where they are going to get their next piece of bread? Why should we go on merrily with our lives while so much of the world is suffering, and suffering incidentally not with us merely as bystanders, but with us as the indirect and direct perpetrators.”

In a similar spirit, Finkelstein said on another occasion: “If you understand terrorism to mean the targeting of civilian populations in order to achieve political goals, then plainly the U.S. qualifies as the main terrorist government in the world today.”

In recent years, billions of dollars have poured into Gaza from hundreds of countries and international organizations. How much of that money has actually reached Palestinian civilians, effectively improving their quality of life and economy, has yet to be completely determined thanks to vague audits and on-line information.

Only recently, with a relatively silent international press, have there been questions from top political leaders, primarily from US, about the way in which the donor money will be transferred into Gaza.

At an Egyptian donor’s conference organized by Norway and Egypt in early March, more than 75 international donors and organizations met to announce their financial support of the reconstruction in Gaza. Over $5.2 billion were pledged at the conference, surprising the Palestinian Authority who originally called for $2.8 billion needed to build-up Gaza.

In light of the US pledge of $900 million, the second largest following Saudi Arabia‘s $1 billion at the conference, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton stated that no US funds earmarked for Gaza would end up in the “wrong hands.”

By wrong hands, Clinton meant Hamas, the militant Islamist Palestinian party in complete control of the Gaza Strip. Over $300 million dollars of the US pledge money will be going to Gaza reconstruction, while the rest of the $600 million has been earmarked to Palestinian Authority‘s Mahmoud Abbas.

However, there is another set of “wrong hands” in this scenario through which the transfer of funds may very well pass through, hands that are not considered a neutral player in the Arab-Israeli conflict. US State department spokesman, Gordon Duguid stated that Gaza support would be provided through USAID, in coordination with UN agencies that will most likely include UNRWA.

UNRWA, the United Nations Relief Works Agency, established in 1949 to aid Palestinian refugees, has shown dangerous partiality to Hamas terrorists.

In 2004, former UNRWA commissioner-General Peter Hansen revealed to the Canadian Broadcasting Company that UNRWA may very well employ Hamas members. “I am sure that there are Hamas members on the UNRWA payroll and I don’t see that as crime,” Hansen infamously stated. He further added, that “We do not do political vetting and exclude people from one persuasion as against another.”

UNRWA has employed several high profile terrorists which include top Islamic Jihad rocket maker, Awad Al-Qiq who was killed in an Israeli air strike last May 2008. Al-Qiq was the headmaster and science instructor at an UNRWA school in Rafah, Gaza. Another terrorist, Hamas’s interior minister and head of the Executive Force, Said Siyam, was a teacher for over two decades in UNRWA schools.

Fox News recently reported that UNRWA does not ask its employees whether they are members of, or affiliated with, a terrorist organization such as Hamas or Islamic Jihad. UNRWA also offers no formal screening to ensure that its employees are not affiliated with terrorist organizations.

During Operation Cast Lead, UNRWA officials accused Israel of firing into an UNRWA school, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians seeking refuge. Israel maintained that Palestinian rocket launchers locate next to the school had fired mortars on IDF soldiers, which prompted the army’s response. Later, UN official Maxwell Gaylord, reversed the UN’s stance stating that the shelling and fatalities had actually taken place outside of the school. But the media damage to Israel had already been done.

Jonathan Halevi, a former IDF intelligence officer who specializes in Palestinian terrorist organizations, recently told Fox News that he estimates that 60 percent of homicide bombers are educated in UNRWA schools. Past UNRWA textbooks blatantly deny the Jewish connection to Israel and are filled with anti-Semitic remarks.

In any case, the United States remains UNRWA’s largest sponsor, providing the organization with over 75% of its initial budget according to UNRWA‘s former senior legal advisor, James Lindsay. Lindsay, who served as an attorney for the US Justice Department for two decades asserts in his publication for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy which came out on January 29 that UNRWA is providing services to those who are actually not in need of them.

Almost the 2 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan have Jordanian citizenship and are fully eligible for government services, but are continuing to receive UNRWA assistance as the agency regards them as refugees, according to Lindsay‘s report.

Michael Danby, a longstanding legislator in the Australian Parliament has also accused UNRWA of being “notoriously corrupt. “ Since 2007, Australia has provided $30 million in funding for the Palestinians through the UNRWA agency, which Danby accused of diverting funds to “arms purchase, terrorist operations, and anti-Israel incitement as well as into the pockets of the PA leadership.“

“It is a betrayal of that generosity [by Australians] for this money to be wasted, stolen, or misspent on rockets, guns, and terrorism,” Danby said one month ago to the Australian Federal Parliament on February 26.

Other countries actively fundraising for Gaza include France, who hosted a Paris donors conference for Palestinian Authority‘s President Mahmoud Abbas in December 2007. The conference raised over 7.4 billion dollars in Palestinian aid (for a three year period: 2008-2010) from over 90 countries and international organizations that attended. During 2008, over 3 billion dollars pledged at the conference were distributed through the PA.

But that’s not all. By mid-January 2009, TV stations across the Arab world collected over half a billion dollars in a telethon for Gaza, according to Johan Eriksson, a spokesperson for the U.N.

As the Gaza Strip soon teems with money, world donors and leaders must ask the following question: Who will monitor the transfer of these funds and account that they are indeed effectively used for Gaza reconstruction and not for restoring the Hamas terrorist infrastructure?

Commentators on Jewish matters have noted a paradox: a surprising number of Israel-bashers – including some who call for the elimination of Israel as a specifically Jewish state – are themselves Jewish. Consider Noam Chomsky, George Soros, Michael Lerner, Marc H. Ellis, Eli Pariser, Tony Judt, Ilan Pappe and Norman Finkelstein, to name but a few. It sometimes appears as though anti-Israel Jews are more numerous than the high command of Hamas. They are not only vocal but also militant. For example, many members of Moveon.org. and The International Solidarity Movement hamper IDF troops as they confront the Jihadists. Likewise the leaders of JStreet, a new organization, is mobilized to oppose the long-established pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC.

This is not a new war of the Jews: the Radical Left, with its large complement of Hebrews, has from its beginnings in the nineteenth century condemned Zionism as a reactionary, parochial movement – one that attempted to solve the Jewish problem in just one land and for just one people, rather than through universal socialism for all the workers of the world. But the supply of Jewish red-diaper babies has declined over the generations; there are no longer enough crimson nappies to account for the increasing numbers of Jews defiantly proclaiming, “Not in our name!” New forms of protest and new rationalizations for invigorated Jewish anti-Zionism have clearly come into play.

The chief excuse offered by the Jewish quislings and their apologists holds that the Jews are uniquely endowed with a strong, often oppressive conscience. Because our long history of suffering and victimization have, understandably, made us particularly sympathetic to the pain of other vulnerable groups, we are not allowed to be violent against those who, like the Palestinians, carry the title of “victim.” Even when they murderously attack us, the victims can never be blamed – certainly not by us Jews, who turned those innocent, agrarian Palestinians into victims. It is only we, the Victimizing Jews, who merit censure.

This rather glib rationale both flatters us Jews and lets the quislings among us off the hook: “When we abandon Israel it is for the purest of motives; indeed, it is we who are morally superior to the bloody-minded Jewish hawks that we condemn.” You can in short bash your fellow embattled Jews, and acquire merit for so doing.

I have been a clinical psychologist since the 1950s, and have treated and evaluated many patients for whom guilt was a central feature of their psyches. These Hamlets tend to be hesitant, unable to act decisively, self-deprecating, and tending to punish themselves for often imaginary crimes. Never do the truly guilty show the kind of arrogant, condescending, holier-than-thou self-assurance that I routinely encounter among the typical Israel-bashers. These are not shrinking violets, allergic to their own anger. Nor are they in any sense self-hating Jews. Quite the contrary: the Israel-bashers are full of sincere appreciation of their own righteousness. They congratulate themselves profusely on being immune to the sentimental claims of people-hood. They may despise other less rational Jews, but not themselves. These militants are in effect addicted to the aroma of their own resentments, affects that are turned outwards, away from rather than toward themselves. They vigilantly sniff out injustices, victims, and oppressions to be enraged about. They long for opportunities to demonstrate their moral uniqueness and superiority.

Thinking along these lines, I concluded that these ultra-virtuous, Israel-bashing Jews are not for the most part persecuted by guilt, by defamation of self, but over–stuffed with its converse: an excess of self-love, or narcissism. In this condition, the unique self and is prized above all those entities – intimates, spouses, children, friends, professions, communities and nations – that normally draw our love and allegiance away from an exclusive fixation on the anointed self.

Narcissism, including Jewish narcissism, develops very early in the individual life cycle, and influences not only the posture towards Israel, but also a whole range of political and life-style choices. Generally speaking, the narcissistically inclined react strongly against what they experience as conventional limitations imposed on their ineffable uniqueness by parents and “Society,” long before they had any say in the matter. For example: to be a boy or a girl, to be a patriotic American, to be heterosexual, to be white, to be a Jew, (and as a Jew, automatically pro-Israel.)

In their eyes they had been, without consultation, deprived of choice regarding these crucial matters of gender, race, sexual preference, or national and political loyalties. Starting in the 60’s, the streets, the arts, the media have been vivid with the noisy attempts, by insulted, disenfranchised narcissists, to restore their power of choice in these matters. Generally, they do this by espousing or even becoming the socially tabooed alternative to what they were “programmed” to be: “You declare me to be a Boy? Not after my Sex Change.” “You think I like girls? Meet my partner, Melvin.” “You say I’m White? I say you’re a Ho.” “You insist that I’m an American? Hey, I’m off to Canada until the war’s over.” “You assume that I’m Jewish? Then after I finish at the Ashram, I’m away to Ramallah with my blonde WASP wife, to help guard Yasir Arafat against Mossad assassins.”

Our Jewish narcissism may believe that they are, by such “revolutionary” acts, restoring some lost freedom of choice. But clearly, they are not. Their “Unconventional” choices are as pre-programmed, stereotyped and externally imposed as the most vapid of the conventions that they reject. Their narcissism may be temporarily satisfied, but they have meanwhile cut themselves off from the great shared traditions, which are the true sources of identity, and they have put their already imperilled people at greater risk.

Hey folks, notice how the last three posts are a little different than the rest: the national pro-Israel thought-police have been activated to overwhelm our local conversation.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Nakba (catastrophe) for Arabs, and the aggression by five well-armed Arab countries, assisting local Arab gangs and militias who had been attacking Jews for years, placed Jews in Israel and the state in mortal danger.

Fighting back, Israel eventually negotiated an armistice in 1949 that allowed it respite from open war, albeit not terrorism, and without peace. The Egyptians occupied the Gaza Strip; the Jordanians occupied Judea, Samaria, and the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City and Temple Mount; Syria continued to occupy the Golan Heights, from which it constantly shelled Israeli settlements; all trained and supplied terrorists who raided Israel. The UN did nothing.

Arabs who left homes and property in Israel, and many from other countries who joined Arab armies and did not want to return, remained in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, most as “refugees” under the care of UNRWA.

This heterogeneous population was called “Arab refugees,” not “Palestinians,” because at the time there was no such group or people.

One reason they were called “Arab refugees” was that there were a lot of other refugees in Palestine who were Jewish. Hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Arab countries streamed into Israel. UNRWA offered no aid, although Jewish refugees had lost everything and the newly established state had few resources.

It took a crafty Egyptian, Yasser Arafat, to create the PLO with his friends to promote the destruction of Israel and the return of Arab refugees. Arab countries saw them as convenient proxies in their war against Israel, to “liberate Palestine.”

Except for Jordan, no Arab host country permitted the newcomers to obtain citizenship; as temporary residents, their civil and humanitarian rights were harshly restricted.

The designation “Palestinian” did not become widely accepted until after the war in 1967, in which Israel, in self-defense, captured areas that had been assigned to a Jewish state by the League of Nations and Mandate, and then occupied by Arab countries: Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem; the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights, rich in Jewish history and archeology; and the Sinai Peninsula.

As the PLO launched mega-terrorist attacks around the world, “Palestinianism” became accepted, backed by the Arab League, Muslim and “non-aligned” countries, and the United Nations.

As the proportion of anti-Israel countries in the UN grew, “Palestinians” were given more and more recognition, support, and legitimacy, unlike any other group.

And the fraud worked! It worked so well because the world’s media accepted the Palestinians’ self-definition and their cause. Even the Israeli media, politicians, and jurists adopted this myth. Academics promoted “Palestinian archeology” and “Palestinian society and culture.” Every time someone writes or speaks of “Palestinians” it reinforces this myth.

Most major newspapers use only the term “West Bank” — a Jordanian reference from 1950 to distinguish the area from the “East Bank” — rather than its authentic names, Judea and Samaria, apparently to deny its Jewish history.

“Palestinian” came to mean Arabs who lived in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza — as well as those in UNRWA-sponsored “refugee camps” in Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, and hundreds of thousands of “Palestinians” living throughout the world. By UNRWA’s unique and controversial definition, anyone who claims to live or have lived in Palestine and all descendants, forever, are considered “Palestinian,” with full rights and privileges.

Spread among 58 “refugee camps” (in many cases entire towns), UNRWA’s over-half-billion-dollar budget supports about one and a half million “refugees in camps” and five million “registered refugees”; the total population is expected to reach seven or eight million next year, and growing.

As Palestinian nationalism spread among Israeli Arabs, the term became an identity magnet for Arabs on both sides of the 1949 armistice line — the “Green Line” — as well as those living in other countries. Today, “Palestinian” can be anyone who for whatever reason identifies as such, including their children, grandchildren, etc.

This amalgam of national identity is possible because “Palestinian” is not a separate and unique linguistic, cultural, ethnic, religious, or racial group. Nor does this motley group, currently led by the Fatah and Hamas terrorist organizations, aspire to a country with clearly defined borders. Their goal is not statehood, but exterminating the Jews, thereby “liberating Palestine.”

The success of “Palestinianism” is a tribute to what money, influence, and Jew-hatred will buy and attract. That Jewish and Israeli media and NGOs support Palestinianism stems from liberal ideals of helping those who are less fortunate, the underdog, and even a genuine, although misdirected, desire to live in peace, a supreme Jewish value.

Although there’s probably no way to prevent the virus of “Palestiniansm” from spreading, there’s no reason to ignore it and less to accept it. Like pollution, it may be one of those things we have to live with; but we can and must resist its proliferation.

Arabs of Palestine are entitled to civil and human rights in the countries in which they have resided for generations. That there needs to be a second Arab Palestinian state in addition to Jordan, which was carved out of Palestine and whose population is two-thirds “Palestinian,” and whether such a state will resolve all the attendant problems are extremely doubtful.

That the State of Israel should commit suicide to accomplish this goal is unthinkable.

Paranoid much armen?

When the Israel Bonds appeal was made in many synagogues this year, congregants heard something that would have been unnecessary a generation ago: a strong reminder of the ties that bind American Jews to Israel.

Given a choice between ties to Israel and commitments to leftist politics, American Jews will choose their politics.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the support among Jewish Democrats (92%) for the policies of Barack Obama and their contrasting rejection by Israelis (4% support Obama’s policies).

The explanation for the divergence is typical of the hubris of leftist Jews. They see themselves and President Obama as the embodiment of Democratic and Jewish ideals, while Israeli Jews, especially the Orthodox and Russian immigrants, have moved decidedly to the right and spurned both Jewish and Democratic values.

In the boardrooms of Jewish organizations, discussion of “divergence,” as it is being called, takes place with the consummate acceptance of this explanation.

I will not dispute the numbers, but as any undergraduate with an exposure to the logic of inference will note, there is no concatenation between the data and the explanation. What exists is a bunch of brain-atrophied liberals sitting around a table indulging smug notions of their political self-esteem.

The strange thing about leftist Jews, who are generally secular, talking about Jewish values is those values are always aligned with Democratic policy positions.

Perhaps in their version of Exodus, Franklin Roosevelt led the Israelites out of Egypt, climbed atop Mt. Sinai, and returned with two tablets, on which were etched the New Deal.

The policy implications for divergence is that the Israelis had better return to the same Jewish values as leftist American Jews, or there will be no affinity between the two communities and no support for Israel.

The hubris of this is seen in just what Jewish values the Obama administration represents.

I never thought that the intrusion of government into every private sphere was somehow a Jewish value. Tzdaka (charity) isn’t socialism. If it were, the Orthodox Jews, who appear to know something about Jewish values, wouldn’t have voted disproportionately Republican.

Centralization has never been a democratic value. If it were, Stalin, not Jefferson, would be the paragon of democracy.

An administration that in nine months created more czars than the Romanovs were able to create in three hundred years does not seem to embrace democratic values.

What liberal American Jews don’t want to confront is they have helped put into power an administration that is more vexed over a Jew building a home in Jerusalem than a Muslim building a nuclear bomb outside of Tehran.

Liberal Jews don’t want to admit that in Cairo and again at the United Nations, President Obama not only recited the Arab narrative of the Palestinian-Israeli dispute; he embraced the Palestinian position a priori before forthcoming negotiations.

As Poland and the Czech Republic were taking the knives out of their backs after Obama’s abrogation of American commitments on missile defense, Israelis were finding they were next on the list of Obama’s betrayal.

But liberal American Jews lusting after Obama as some political messiah who will bring peace to the Middle East can’t deal with the dissonance of what they are witnessing. Like all true believers who end up facing what sociologists call the “crisis of non-appearance,” liberal Jews simply have increased their zealotry and sought a convenient scapegoat, Israel.

It is not that liberal American Jews helped elect one of the most intrusive and authoritarian administrations to ever come to Washington or one of the most anti-Israel. It is that those stiff-necked Israelis, especially those Russian immigrants, just haven’t been properly socialized into Democratic values the way America socializes its immigrants.

Have you been to the parking lot of a Home Depot lately? Take a look and then tell me about the glories of America’s immigration and socialization policies. I’m sure all that exploited day labor is just bursting over with concerns for democracy, especially if ACORN signs them up to vote.

I wonder, do you press “8” in Tel Aviv for Russian?

What explains divergence is that on the one hand you have a group of Jews living in the security and luxury of American suburbia, whose primary existential threat is whether the crabgrass will take over their backyard. On the other hand, you have Israeli Jews living in a state of perpetual war, who worry about where the next missile or suicide bomber will come from.

The Jews living in such upscale suburbs as Evanston, Illinois, pontificate about moral equivalence and what the body count in Sderot should be in order to justify a military incursion into Gaza. All the time, they worry about what they need to say to stay in the good graces of their interfaith neighbors and colleagues.

Leftist American Jews should realize that there is no rationale that will make the Obama administration anything other than the political fiasco it is. It is an administration honed in the machine politics of Chicago, where perpetuating power is the paramount goal. It is an administration that buys every leftist shibboleth about the causes of and solutions to the Middle East conflict. It is the most treacherous and anti-Israel administration ever to come to power.

American Jews need to stop blaming Israel for their own political failures. If American Jews are the embodiment of Democratic and Jewish values, where is the Jewish value in scapegoating one’s brethren?

The Jewish community has made a terrible political mistake. Among the delegations that had no shame, no decency, and no commitment to truth and listened to Ahmadinejad spew his venom at the UN was an American delegation that accepts his narrative of Middle East history. It is time for American Jews to face the reality of what they have created.

“Paranoid much armen?”

Not paranoid, just resentful that a local dialogue has been hijacked by outsiders posting long pre-written articles. Must be national campus-watch SOP for stifling local criticism of Israel.

I’ld rather have Joe McCarthy back. At least he was from around here.

Amazing! Where did you guys come from? What a snow job!

Keep it simple, folks. To the point, guys from elsewhere, as Armen posed below direct quesion and no one responded to:

How do supporters of Israel defend the actions of the Israeli military during Operation Cast Lead, in which 1417 Palestinians, mostly civilians and of whom 348 were children, were massacred by Israeli forces, which sustained only 6 deaths by hostile action?

How could this death toll be justified by the rockets being launched from Gaza, which killed a total of zero people in the 6 month period prior to this massacre? There is no question that shooting rockets indiscriminately is a war crime, but do supporters of Israel say that the 24 Israelis killed by rockets in the 8 years prior to Operation Cast Lead justify killing 1417 people in 3 weeks?

Now, please, answer this question directly and keep it short!!

IDF shoots better than Hamas and friends. Israel makes shelters for civilians and has alarms to warn them. They spend many hours in those shelters because of Arab politics. Hamas sends civilians into targeted houses and onto rooftops to get killed for propaganda, and shoots from houses, schools hospitals and mosques. Then they brag about it on video.

So, lots more Arabs killed than Jews. But not near as many Arab civilians as the anti-Israel people like to say.

And Guida, it’s not up to you or Armen Chakerian to decide who can write here and how much. You don’t own the paper, the university or NM. If money was being given out to defend Israel around here, I wish I knew where to find it. What brings you guys out of the woodwork?

HAMAS OR ISRAEL?

1. Who has laser-guided weapons to minimize collateral damage/civilian deaths?

2. Who has cameras, and helicopters, video taping many of those targets of laser guided weapons?

3. Who has cameras, with videos anyone can see on youtube, of fighters striking and then hiding in homes of innocents?

4. Who hides behind women and children?

5. Who wears uniforms required by International Law?

6. Who uses children to fight?

7. Who teaches children to kill the other and even their neighbors, friends, co-workers, and even relatives?

8. Who glorifies suicide bombers and rewards their family with money?

9. Who kills and dies in order to be rewarded with 72 virgins in heaven?

10. Who burns alive members of their own?

11. Who stones their raped women while the rapists go free?

12. Who whips their women?

13. Who has cartoon shows teaching kids about killing?

14. Who bulldozes down homes that were used by the not-so-innocent to make, hide, or shoot weapons from?

15. Who has more Palestinians living in peace and freedom?

16. Who cheered and danced on 9-11?

17. Who do Peace and Justice groups side with?

18. Who do Human Rights groups side with?

19. Who has the support of numerous groups Guida Leicester is signatory to?

20. Who had a protest at the UNM bookstore that had around 300 supporters glorifying and legitimizing the use of suicide bombers and the use of human shields?

Guida: “We invite the Israel Alliance to join in a panel discussion presenting all sides of the issue.” Why would you need to do that since YOU are in a “peace and justice” group and by its very name, YOU should be “presenting all sides of the issue.” We all know who Israel Alliance sides with. So what! BUT IF YOU ARE A REFEREE, HOLDING UP THE PEACE FLAG, YOU SHOULD BE CALLING FOULS ON ALL SIDES!

GUIDA, YOU ARE A CROOKED REFEREE! STOP LIVING A LIE AND RECRUITING THE YOUNG AND NAIVE WITH YOUR LIE AND JUST GO AHEAD AND START A “HAMAS ALLIANCE!”

“BLESSED ARE THE CROOKED PEACEMAKERS?”

The Palestinian Authority’s actions and rhetoric, especially in the past few weeks and months, show that hypocrisy has become a major component of its official policy.

World One sometimes wonders whether the PA that speaks and acts during the day is the same PA that speaks and functions during the night.

During the day, the Palestinian Authority acts and speaks as if its leaders had never signed a peace treaty with Israel. During the day, Israel is the enemy that continues to deny the Palestinians their rights, seize their lands, arrest and kill their innocents, and expand existing settlements.

But during the night, the Palestinian Authority changes its colors and speaks and acts in a completely different manner. During the night, the Israeli enemy becomes a friend and peace partner with whom it’s legitimate to conduct security coordination and eat in fancy restaurants.

During Operation Cast Lead, Palestinian security officers in the West Bank provided Israel with valuable intelligence that contributed to the elimination of many Hamas operatives and “military targets.” Moreover, the PA even pressured Israel not to stop the war unless Hamas was removed from power. In other words, the Palestinian Authority was telling Israel that it should continue bombing the Gaza Strip until Hamas surrendered.

Palestinian officials, including some of Mahmoud Abbas’s top aides, did not hide their disappointment when the war ended without the removal or collapse of Hamas.

As soon as the war ended, the same Palestinian Authority that had urged Israel to “finish off the job,” and that had provided Israel with vital information about Hamas figures and installations in the Gaza Strip, started accusing Israel of committing “war crimes.” The PA even appealed to The Hague court to launch an investigation into the alleged war crimes.

The Palestinian Minister of Justice, Ali Khashan, was dispatched to The Hague to follow up on the issue with the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

Now the PA, which is holding some 1,000 Hamas “supporters” in its prisons without trial, is urging the UN Human Rights Council to adopt the Goldstone Commission Report in full and to pass it on to the General Assembly for action.

The PA’s “generals” and “colonels” hold daily meetings with their Israeli counterparts to discuss security-related issues. Unlike ordinary Palestinians, senior Palestinian officials can travel to Israel and anywhere they want thanks to VIP cards and other privileges they receive from the Israeli Defense Ministry.

During the night, Palestinian security officials hold secret meetings with their Israeli counterparts. But during the day, the Palestinian Authority is demanding that the same Israeli officials be tried as war criminals. Some of these “war criminals,” by the way, are responsible for the fact that the senior PA leaders and their families are able to receive free medical treatment in Israel – a privilege that most Palestinians can only dream about.

This hypocrisy is also evident in the PA’s approach toward normalization with Israel and the status of the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem.

On the one hand, the Palestinian Authority is publicly combating normalization, exactly as Israel’s two other Arab peace partners, Egypt and Jordan, are doing. However, this anti-normalization drive obviously does not apply to the leaders of the PA and their sons, who continue to do business with Israel both openly and secretly. This, in addition to regular meetings that take place – away from the spotlight – between Palestinian government officials, businessmen, journalists and physicians and their Israeli counterparts.

These days the PA is leading a fierce campaign against what it calls Israel’s efforts to destroy the Aksa Mosque. This campaign intensified immediately after the failed tripartite summit in New York on September 22 that brought Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together with US President Barack Obama.

Abbas went to the meeting against his will and after he had spent the last few months promising the Palestinians that he would not meet with Netanyahu or resume the peace talks until Israel halted construction in the settlements. Abbas was dragged to the summit under immense pressure from the Obama administration.

Now that his pride has been hurt and his credibility shattered in the eyes of his constituents, Abbas has stepped up the verbal assault on Israel. Palestinian spokesmen and Abbas advisers have been exploiting every available platform to tell millions of Arabs and Muslims that the Jews are destroying Islam’s third holiest site. Earlier this week, this campaign resulted in an outburst of violence in Jerusalem – the worst in years.

Israeli government officials have been working hard to explain to their Palestinian counterparts that there is no such thing as an Israeli “conspiracy” to destroy the mosque. Although many Palestinian officials and spokesmen have privately and quietly accepted the Israeli version, they nevertheless continue to shout that the mosque is on the verge of collapse.

guida: your bias is obvious and shameful to see. of the total # you quote killed in cast lead, how many were innocents used as human shields by the cowardly pa and hamas? how many un-uniformed fighters (ha!) were killed by the other faction, ie pa or hamas? You say “massacred,” this implies cold-blooded fore thought by idf against innocent non-combatants: where is the proof of that? and no the pa and hamas are not credible. ever heard of “palliwood?” those asshats make shit up and the gullible true believers buy it all. how many times do they have to be caught red-handed fabricating stories and photos and re-using dead babies for photo ops, etc, etc, etc … ad naseum and still people like you believe it! Freaking incredible! And you claim to be a college student. Where is your sense of honesty and objectivity? Are you so consumed with jew-hatred that you will believe anything, no matter how outrageous, so long as it paints the jews in a bad light? It is beyond disgusting how eager so many students are willing to be used and propagandized by the terror supporters on the left. Disgusting!

Oct. 7

Who showed up in Palestine around 1880-1890 —- un-invited —- after Arabs and Jews had been living there in relative peace for over 1500 years?

Who did not acknowledge or realize until some five years after they began arriving that Arabs might object to their immigrating to Palestine?

Who bought land that Arabs had lived on, farmed, and grazed on for hundreds of years and then refused to ever re-sell that land to Arabs?

Who refused to so much as allow Arabs to work as laborers on the land they had bought from the Arabs?

Who had the goal of establishing “a closed Jewish economy” in Palestine?

Who showed up in Palestine and refused to learn the Arab language, and refused to understand Arab customs and practices?

I could go on at some length, however I’m sure my point has been made.

In 1891, Ahad Ha’am, a Jewish writer and the founder of spiritual Zionism, warned his fellow Jews that the Arabs realized what the Jews wanted in Palestine. That the Arabs realized the Jews (Zionist Jews) wanted to drive out the Arabs and establish a Jewish state. Over 100 years ago, Ha’am warned his fellow Jews that Arabs “will not easily give up their place,” by which he meant their land.

Zionism has always been a minority movement, and has had a great deal of opposition from Jews. It was not a movement that came from the bottom up. It came from the top down, and was advanced by a small cadre of stubborn, determined, and tenacious Zionists, who managed to worm their way into influential circles in the highest levels of the British government.

Because of their foreign policy interests, and their imperial objectives, the British government was only too willing to put its weight behind a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This homeland would serve to keep the French (in what is now Syria and Lebanon) away from the British-owned Suez Canal. The British were obsessed with controlling Palestine after World War One, and supporting a Jewish homeland would give them substantial foothold there.

I would invite the participants in this discussion, or debate, or dispute, to stop throwing vitriol and spend a few months in a library learning the history of Zionism and the history of Palestine, of the Levant, and of the Middle East. If you decide to return, you will likely do so somewhat chastened.

Steven Dapra

Sam Oct.1,2009…A “besieged” Jewish population? You are kidding right? Lesson number one..Israel is not a victim. Repeat after me Sam “Israel is not the victim.” All of Gaza was bombed 1400 people killed 380 of those were children. Those were the actions, not of a victim but, of the 4th largest military might. Weapons made in the USA..that is our implication in the massacre, we are not victims either rather we are the enablers of the perpetrators. When do victims and beseiged populations come equipped with nuclear weapons. Sam you are right what do you do if you and your families are being constantly attacked, your land is being confiscated, your homes are being demolished, your lively hood is taken from you, yeah what do you do? You have no military might. With that said “desperate people do desperate things.” From the ashes of stolen land, demolished homes, families killed, hopes diminished, a suicide bomber is born.

Kill the Jews, save the world.

Iran closes in on nuclear weaponry, five million Jews in Israel edge toward Armageddon, and Barack Obama is doing very well, thank you.

When it comes to the Jews, he is Alfred E. Neuman happy, imitating the Mad Magazine icon whose solution to the problems of life is summarized in the catchphrase “What, me worry?” Iran has the bomb — what, me worry?

The key to understanding an administration which talks — and only talks — while Iranian atomic weapons are developed is, as Obama mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright puts it, “them Jews.” “Them Jews” packed into a nation the size of Maryland are, in the end, just Jews, oppressors by definition in the lexicon of the intellectual, elite left of this president.

No, Barack Obama is not worried. The face smiling at him from the other side of the mirror, a view that thrills him every bit as much as it does his media admirers, knows that Jews are a useful lot. Soaking up blame like a sponge, they provide a handy excuse for the growing list of domestic and foreign policy debacles of America’s first radical president who, according to Politico, is “failing miserably.” For Obama, Jews are a cornucopia, a kosher horn of plenty offering endless excuses for failures great and small.

Already, a third of the Democratic Party he leads blames the Jews for the current financial crisis, according to a recent Stanford University study. And too many Jewish doctors is one of the reasons that health care is in crisis in urban areas, says the president’s White House and congressional teams, who have inserted into pending health care legislation quotas that will, in effect, exclude most Jewish applicants — who are not a preferred “race and ethnicity” — from medical education.

What, me worry… about escalating tension in the Middle East? Not when I can blame Israel and the Jews.

Yes, the psychopath leading Iran has repeatedly said he will “clean these sources of corruption (Jews) from the face of the earth.” A bit aggressive. But, hey, “all nations have the right to peaceful nuclear energy,” Obama proclaimed, inviting the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism to reassure him that facilities devoted to nuclear weapons development will be used for peaceful purposes — like powering the cattle prods its police use during interrogations of Iranian citizens.

Obama, whose Middle East team shares Jimmy Carter’s love of all things Jewish, is the first American president to give credibility to a time-honored strategy of despots and thugs: Kill the Jews, save the world.

And so Iran, unimpeded, readies its assault against what it calls “this filthy bacteria,” “the most detested people in all humanity.” In response, Obama — as one conservative commentator noted — boldly proclaims “a new meekness.” When all is said and done, Barack Obama is channeling his inner Dr. Strangelove, the crazed character who rode a nuclear bomb to oblivion in Dr.Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Iran goes nuclear — no problem. The leftist intellectuals who populate the White House reflexively look for a “root cause,” the underlying reason for a situation. And that root cause is inevitably freedom, racism or, as one Democrat legislator put the reason for an election loss, “Jews…J-E-W-S!”

Time to “stop worrying and love the bomb” when the root cause of Middle East violence is Israel, which is peopled by Jews who have violated the Allah-given right of Palestinians and assorted Islamists to lob explosives at Jewish women and children. Ed Lasky has noted that anti-Semitism has found a home in the Democratic Party. And the head of that party has given it a home in the White House.

What, me worry? Having been told almost a year ago about the frenzied pace of Iran’s nuclear weaponry program, Obama said nothing while committing the United States to an aggressively anti-Semitic United Nations, which Forbes magazine described as the center of an “anti-Semitic web now being rewoven around the globe.” And now a UN official has declared the nuclear weapons of Israel, and not Iran, to be the “number one threat to Middle East” peace.

Again, them Jews. Yes, Israel may be a prosperous democracy that leads the Middle East and much of the world in living standards and political freedom, enjoyed also by its Arab citizens. But it is a Jewish state and, as such, the root cause of the misery of the Palestinian people — never mind that Palestinian leadership is among the most corrupt in the world. Deceased radical left rock star Yasser Arafat, for example, stole close to $4 billion from foreign aid while more than three-quarters of his people lived in numbing poverty.

Forget the facts. We’re talking radical worldview, with the Iranian president merely the latest in a long line of Obama consorts who, as rabid anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, put it, regard the Jew as a “leech” who “sucks your blood.”

Nation of Islam head Farrakhan was honored as a leader who “epitomized greatness” by the church where Obama sat for more than twenty years listening to its pastor spout race hatred. Van Jones, the advisor enthusiastically recruited and embraced by the White House until Internet news and commentary sites, talk radio and Fox News combined to force his resignation, said Israeli Jews have out-Hitlered Hitler, engaging in “the worst racial practices of the past century.”

In similar fashion, he has surrounded himself with anti-Semitic despots on the international scene. He has, for example, cultivated a friendship with Venezuela thug Hugo Chavez, who has vowed to eliminate the Jews “who have taken possession of all of the wealth in the world” and is cozying up to Fidel Castro, who is particularly fond of “hook nosed caricatures” in his war against the “Jewish Zionist conspiracy.”

And so Barack Obama accepts Iran’s nuclear program, knowing full well, as James Lewis of American Thinker points out, the Jewish state “is bound and determined to defend herself.” At which point, faster than you can say “Auschwitz-Birkenau,” an Iran problem morphs into a Jewish problem.

But Obama certainly knows what to do about that. As his spiritual mentors, from Rev. Wright to the Catholic sociopath Father Michael Pfleger, have advised, as his political associates — from Carter acolyte Zbigniew Brzezinski to UN ambassador Susan Rice — have counseled, the best chance for world peace rests in an old remedy… let the Jews be killed.

What, me worry…when the worst case scenario is the Jewish state nuked out of existence? Sure, gone are world-class medical, technology and agricultural sectors. However, so too are air conditioners, coal-gulping factories, farms that inhale water, and households with multiple, gas-guzzling automobiles…the largest carbon footprint in the Middle East — all because “them Jews” have defied the natural order of neighboring Arab states, also known as grinding poverty.

What, me worry? No Israel, then no oppression of people and environment. Barack Obama is doing very well, thank you, and perhaps thinking that American taxpayers could finance a sign for his brave new world of the Middle East: “This Wasteland Maintained by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Kill the Jews, save the world.

A few questions for you Stuart. Is Israel a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty? Has Obama or any other President asked Israel to open it’s Nuclear facilities for inspection? Obama’s policy on Palestine/Israel demonstrate that there will be no change. It will be business as usual for Israel is bent on destroying Palestine and it’s people. Obama and the Israeli Government forced, more like bribed, the Palestinian Authority to drop any and all inquiries into the Goldstone report. The report in which Judge Robert Goldstone expresses the need for futher investigation to the war crimes committed by the Israeli Military. Where do you get off claming “poor me Israel, everybody hates me.”

Who are you “steves”, “maes”, “jakes”, “moshes”, and so? If you all defend Isarael why do not go, get in the israeli army, be in the front line, and shoot people “legally”?

Why you care about what happens en Israel?

Why you care about peace?

Why too much hatred in your souls?

Why so afraid?

And, why you all interfere in our Coalition, STUDENT Coalition?

If you want to fight, why do not go and fight with your friends and family?

the most recent work i have done has been with the Chainbreaker Collective in Santa Fe. We work IN SOLIDARITY with our community around transportation issues and social justice in my hometown. SO “X” or shall i say “Steve”, while i work for my people, i also know when to step back and let them steer their lives.
V
ps i identify as transgender, not he or she. asshole.

a pre-emptive apology for the above post. i let my emotions get the best of me. Moving on… it sounds like the only brainwashing being done here is by Steve Chavez, otherwise he would have quit this shit a long time ago.

V, you are the one brainwashed and thanks to Steve Chavez you have been caught RED-handed!

Any neutral observer would see your obvious bias for Hamas, Hezbollah, and all their tactics including murder which to you is achieving “peace and justice.”

You also seem pre-occupied with activism instead of a getting a real degree. Go ahead and be a life-long hypocrit!

You also must make “peace” and create understanding with the likes of Steve Chavez. Isn’t that the creed of your group? You obviously can’t so Move-on!

What was interesting about the commentaries made in France about Obama’s award of the Nobel were referring to how the Nobel committee wanted to actually give back to the U.S. their status of superpower, a status lost and no longer deserved through unpopular “military imperialism” under George W. but restored through Obama’s skillful capacity to control less friendly countries by the means of (bloodless and sly) diplomacy. Now, of course, everyone is delighted that under Obama’s “visionary leadership,” we could all stop fearing our appeased ennemies, and breathe more easily but… still objecting that the results are still to be seen… This award is a poisonous gift.

It is Europe, France and England who will have to do the dirty work if Iran gets out of hand. They well know that Obama can smile, speak and be cute – because it’s them that will have to deal with the Iranian political lunatics and their military if they get nuclear arms. Israel is an aly, a staunch defender of rational productive life. We owe them and they owe us, we are inevitably linked together. Obama is merely an agent, and the republicans need to find a messenger who can begin to right his wrongs.

Hey Stevie, ever wondered why the coverage of fighting in Israel is more centered on the Palestinian side of the fighting? Because Israeli censors don’t allow the public to see what their soldiers are doing.
Of course all Palestinians don’t agree with Hamas, but I think, if Americans were in the same situation, the same result would occur. They would support the group that gives them the most power against their oppressors, one which would be very violent as well. While I don’t think blowing up oneself in public places or hiding behind civilians to shoot at said oppressors is the solution; or, in fact, violence at all, of the two parties, it is Israel who needs to make the first concession for peace. Palestinians are the ones who have had to lose their loved ones and their homes. Israel can afford to make concessions; Palestine cannot. Israelis need to learn to live with the old inhabitants of their new country. Of course the Jewish people was decimated after the holocaust, and of course they needed somewhere to go. But they should have been and should be civil and grateful to their new country-mates. The holocaust was a terrible thing, but it wasn’t the Palestinians’ fault. One would think that a people who had just been almost destroyed would have a little more compassion.

Does anyone ever wonder what Steve Chavez does for a living since he has so much time to comment an entire books worth of gibberish information on EVERY Arab/Israel article in the Lobo? I honestly don’t even read his comments anymore, he’s absolutely psychotic and should seek some help.