Destiny & Powerlessness: The American Odyssey of GHW Bush

Israeli settlers are illegally invading occupied East Jerusalem and the Palestinian West Bank as we speak.

Their numbers have metastisised from 100,000 in 1982 to 850,000 today. They control 42% of the West Bank (itself only 22% of historic Palestine), and consume 80% of its water. (If you want to know what else they do, just google 'Dawabshe'.)

And American presidents, reputedly the most powerful men on the planet, have had about as much success as the legendary King Canute in halting this toxic tide.

The last substantial (this is a relative term) attempt to do so came from President George Herbert Walker Bush - Bush senior - in 1990. You can read about it, and Bush's ignominious backdown, in my 9/6/09 post 'Only One Lonely Little Guy'.

Jon Meacham's new biography of GWH Bush, Destiny & Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush (2015), does not, of course, do the subject of the raw power of Israel over the United States justice. (It's a Pulitzer Prize winner for God's sake!)

The following anecdote from his book, however, says it all about who holds the whip hand in the US-Israel relationship and the sheer cluelessness of American presidents in this matter. Read and weep:

"The politics of the Middle East were always in play. Despite their cooperation in the Gulf war, the American president and the Israeli prime minister did not have the warmest of relationships. In 1989, when Yitzhak Shamir had come to the United States, Bush had urged Israel to stop building settlements in the occupied territories in the hope that such a concession might improve relations with the Palestinians. As Richard Haass, who was in the Oval Office with the two leaders, recalled it, Shamir gestured dismissively and said 'no problem.' The exchange led to great confusion. 'Bush thought he had an understanding from Shamir that the Israelis would not cause any problems with their settlement activity, meaning that they would cease building new ones,' Haass recalled. 'Shamir, I later learned, thought he was telling the president that the settlements... should not cause any problem and that all the debate was much ado about nothing. Shamir thus continued authorizing them; Bush thought the Israeli leader had broken his word'." (p 494)

Think of the implications here:

'... in the hope that such a concession might improve relations with the Palestinians."

Concession? When did this word start creeping into use in this matter? International law does not call for concessions from occupiers (or the occupied for that matter). International law demands that occupiers end their illegal occupations NOW - no ifs or buts or maybes - or face the consequences.

After all, wasn't that GHW Bush's message to Saddam Hussein when he invaded and occupied Kuwait in 1990? And when Saddam refused to comply? Why, Bush dislodged the Iraqis from Kuwait by force in the same year.

But, hey, that was Iraq. This is Israel.

"Shamir gestured dismissively and said ' no problem'."

And Bush just accepts that, no questions asked? A bloody rude hand gesture and two muttered words plus eye-roll? That's it? You're kidding me!

Did Bush even know he was dealing with the former leader of the Stern Gang whose hands were dripping with blood? Rhetorical question, of course.

And did Bush lie down on the floor on the floor of the Oval Office so the Stern Gang boss, with a smirk on his face, could walk over him on his way out?

Meacham doesn't say. His book's title is Destiny & Power. Power? What power?

Land of the Not Free & Home of the Not Brave

Michael Singh's Valentino's Ghost: Why We Hate Arabs (2015) "is an epic documentary that resituates the whole question of anti-Arab/-Muslim stereotyping as a matter of the 'special relationship' between the US and Israel... " (Valentino's ghost makes comeback after 4 years of suppression, Terri Ginsberg, mondoweiss.net, 27/12/15 )

Which explains why it's encountering censorship in USrael, land of the not free and home of the not brave:

"... perhaps the most troubling instance of the film's censorship was evidenced by Singh's encounter with PBS's [Public Broadcasting Service] David Fanning... Singh simultaneously transcribed one of his revealing telephone conversations with Fanning...

FANNING: I agree with your premise and your arguments, but I will do everything I can to block the broadcast of your film on WGBH or in fact any other PBS affiliate in the country.
SINGH: Why is that?
FANNING: Because it'll piss off my rich Jewish friends.
SINGH: So this huge subject will remain under the rug?
FANNING: It's not a huge subject. You can cover your premise in about 4 minutes. What will you do for the next 50 minutes?
SINGH: I actually have enough material for a 3-hour miniseries.
FANNING: How are you going to fund that?
SINGH: I don't know. Get grants.
FANNING: And if you get Arab money, I'm going to find you out.
SINGH: What about Holocaust films made with Israeli money?
FANNING: That's OK. Not a problem.
SINGH: That's a double-standard.
FANNING: Yup. It's a double standard, and you're going to have to get used to it. 
SINGH: That's hypocritical
FANNING: Well, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
SINGH: That's the opposite of PBS's mission. In fact, it is a violation of their charter for the money people to influence filmmakers editorially.
FANNING: That's the way it is, and if you quote me, I'll deny it.

And When I Knock on the Door...

I love this:

"As a Palestinian, whether I live 'here' or 'there,' I live in an existential homeland. Since my childhood I have known no other. But I have not yet wanted to reconcile myself to the notion that my history should be deflected from its preordained course and that I should be robbed of my patrimony. I still consider the punishment meted out to us to be unspeakable. To be punished beyond the call of our guilt is a terrible front to our sensibility and sense of justice. To be punished with no implication of guilt is to be brought to the edge of hysteria, a clamour to prove to one's self that our account with men and their gods do not balance.

"And the accounts do not balance, and they have never balanced.

"For the Palestinian, just to explain himself, 'here' as well as 'there,' he has to exert torrential energies.

"In Long Island, I gave a talk to a predominantly Jewish audience. I speak about Palestine and the Palestinians. Mine is a narrative, not a lecture, that I deliver without cant. I am not a threatening figure. I have a beard and long hair. I have Semitic features. I am wearing a corduroy suit. I am at home in English and its nuances. When I finish, in this stark surrounding of upper middle class affluence, I know my tale has a tone, a presence, a spell and a desperate integrity to it. I know its honesty has played on the nerves with disquietening intimacy, making such immediate, such urgent claims on the intellect and on emotions. But this audience does not flinch.

"Instead, I hear this: You people have never had it so good under occupation, now you're looked after medically and educationally, and have the highest standard of living among all Arabs. Palestine was desert before the Jews went there. The 'Arab refugees' left Palestine voluntarily. If it were not for the Arab governments, you people would have been resettled a long time ago. If we granted you a separate state, you people would be at the gates of Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa.

"Yes. Yes. Yes, that is where I want to Return. Where I want to be. At the gates of Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa. And when I knock on the door, I shall be there listing every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every floor, every shadow of every olive tree that I had left behind." (Fawaz Turki, The Future of a Past: Fragments from the Palestinian Dream, Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring, 1977, p 69)

Propaganda 101 by The New York Times

A rejigging of the Angry Arab's piece Just look how the New York Times (with a byline by a token Arab reporter) characterizes the murder of Palestinians (26/12/15):

"Palestinians using knives, guns and vehicles have killed 19 Israelis, an American and a Palestinian resident of the West Bank over the past 3 months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed during the same period, about two-thirds of them in carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks. Others were killed during violent clashes with Israeli forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and demonstrations along the Gaza border."

Notice how:

- We know that Palestinians "killed" 19 Israelis. But we don't know who killed 130 Palestinians, only that they "have been killed."

- Israeli victims always precede Palestinian 'victims'.

- Palestinians are always killed for a reason. They were all "using knives, guns and vehicles" in "carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks." Regarding those Palestinians "attempting to carry out attacks," all the 'evidence' comes, of course, from Israeli sources.

- We have no idea why Palestinians are killing Israelis because the word 'occupied' is missing in action.

 - Those Palestinians who weren't killed for "carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks," were killed "during violent clashes... and demonstrations... " Presumably, whether they were throwing stones at the trigger-happy thugs of the Occupying Power, or engaged in "demonstrations along the Gaza border" (in which case the demonstrating Palestinians are situated behind a fence), they were all criminals and deserved to die, throwing stones at, and demonstrating against, the trigger-happy thugs of the Occupying Power being hanging offences in the apartheid state.

- Those 19 Israelis are presumably, one and all, as pure as the driven snow.

Seriously Weird Shit in Murdoch's Australian

Beyond its usual fear & smear, the Australian has carried some seriously weird shit this month. For instance, this 'opinion' piece by Peter Baldwin, billed as "a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments." Extract:

"Recently Bob Carr made a short speech at an event marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People... Extraordinary stuff, coming from one of the founders of Labor Friends of Israel 40 years ago... [not even] a scintilla of balance. All the violence is put down to Israeli villainy. The Palestinians... are treated as helpless victims, devoid of agency or moral responsibility. The Palestinian narrative is embraced wholesale, without qualification..." (Bob Carr has joined the hard-left Israel-bashers, 22/12/15)

Now what interests me here is not Baldwin's railing against Bob Carr. Bob has simply evolved on this issue. Woken up. Seen the error of his ways, partially at least. An all too rare phenomenon in a politician, but one to be applauded. Think Amazing Grace.

No, what really interests me is the phenomenon of Peter Baldwin. As in, What has possessed him to leave behind a long and comfy retirement and come out swinging for Israel in the Murdoch press? (See for example my 3/4/15 post Baldwin's Balderdash.)

Now I must confess to knowing nothing about this bloke's background. Maybe he's like Greg Sheridan. Maybe his mind simply shut down after an Auntie Poppy figure whispered in his ear at a tender age that he must never forget that the Jews are God's chosen people (See my 3/8/15 post Greg Sheridan: The Making of a Gentile Zionist).

If not, then why has he suddenly taken up the cudgels? Extraordinary stuff, indeed.

Then there's this other weird shit too. I mean, how does one explain the sudden possession, in the same week, of letter writers John Bell of Heidelberg Heights, Vic, and Peter R.Tredenick of Paddington, Qld by that most virulent strain of Jerusalem Syndrome  - Temple Mount Syndrome?

Behold:

"Palestinian sympathiser Bob Carr ignores an inconvenient fact when he claims Israel is guilty of eliminating the Arab character from the great Arab city of Jerusalem... The Temple Mount, the sacred site that is central to the Jewish religion, is located in Jerusalem and came into existence hundreds of years before the birth of Christ." (Bell, 5/12/15)

"If Muslims weren't invading every country they could, and had not taken Jerusalem by force for themselves, then rubbed salt in the wound by building the Dome of the Rock on top of the site of former holy Jewish temples, there would have been no need for the Crusades in the first place..." (Tredenick, 9/11/15)

Like I said, seriously weird shit, eh?

Merry Christmas, Judeo-Christians

(And yes, that includes you too, Geraldine D.)

Benzi Gopstein has a message for you:

"Benzi Gopstein, leader of the extremist anti-assimilationist group Lehava, has called for the prevention of Christmas celebrations in Israel and the expulsion of Christians whom he compared to 'vampires.' 'Christmas has no place in the Holy land,' Gopstein wrote in an article posted a few days ago on the Haredi website Kooker... Gopstein wrote in the article that he is disturbed by 'the fall of the line of defense of the Jewish people against our deadly enemy for hundreds of years... the Christian Church.' He said the Church had used 'the maximum tools at its disposal to destroy the Jewish people,' and that today 'the Church has been defeated roundly when the Jewish people has one of the strongest armies in the world and they have no chance any longer of destroying our body.' However, Gopstein said, the Church has not given up. 'A last hope remains to those vampires and blood suckers - the mission. If Jews cannot be killed, they can still be converted'." (Jewish extremists' leader: Christians are 'blood-sucking vampires' who should be expelled from Israel, Sharon Pulwer, Haaretz, 22/12/15)

Natural Born Zionists 4

"Four months after settlers threw firebombs into the Dawabshe home as the family slept, the residents of Duma are struggling to face their loss. Rihab's brother Hassan, 31, unlocks the front door of the house that sits on the edge of town. An old olive tree still grows outside, untouched by the flames. The prognosis for 5-year-old Ahmad, who has burns to 60% of his body, is harrowing. 'The doctors tell us there will be skin grafts, plastic surgery and physiotherapy for at least the next 10 years,' Hassan says. The little boy has not been told that he is the sole survivor of the fire. 'Ahmad is the only thing keeping the family from falling apart,' Hassan says. 'We are afraid that the small progress he has made will be destroyed by the news.' Hassan's brother-in-law Nasser, a 42-year-old teacher, says the attack was one of many attempts to force Palestinians from their land. 'It has only made us more determined to seek our freedom and independence,' he says. 'The Netanyahu government supports these settlement groups all the way up to the most senior members of the cabinet,' he says. 'They are the ones who encourage terrorism against our people.'

"On December 3, the Shin Bet announced they had arrested 'several Israelis' in connection with the Duma attack. Fairfax Media contacted the Ministry of Defence and the office of the Defence Minister with a set of questions regarding the administrative detention of Evyatar Slonim and the investigation into the attack on the Dawabshe family. We did not receive a response by the time of publication."