Senate Israel/Palestine

If he's that stupid, he'll think the US was doing something ungodly or the like.

I mean, he's not really giving us cause to credit him with basic intelligence.

 

Isn't it wonderfully Americentric though. And thus probably a broadly shared sentiment.
"What, a country? With cities and little towns and quaint traditions and everything? Nah... it's a USAF aircraft carrier!"

 

Back to the subject about the Netanyahu congressional speech and the nonattendees:

Looking at the house camera it looked like a packed room. I couldn't see any noticeable vacancies.

 

Well yeah.

You take a room that seats 550. Take out 50 democrats. Add 100 senators. Take out another 10 democrats.

"Can I say a-first, we support your war of terror! May we show our support to your boys in Gaza! May Iz-ray-el kill every single terrorist! May your Benyamin Nethanyahu drink the blood of every single man, women, and child of Palestine! May you destroy their country so that for next thousand years not even a single lizard will survive in their desert!"

 

Yeah it didn't make much of a difference visually.

 

Isn't it amazing that the American Congress is so receptive overall to Netanyahoo's speech, the week it's revealed that his previous big speech about the same thing was bollocks?

 

Like how he has predicted that Iran would have nuclear weapons within a year every other year for the past decade?

 

Don't know how much good it will do, but...

http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel-election-2015/.premium-1.645757

 

weren't there a lot of guests there though?

 

Yes. But if you look at the numbers adding another 90 some senators to the room filled in a number of the empty benches.

 

Anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv draws 35,000 ahead of March 17 elections:

Tens of thousands attend anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan tells crowd of up to 35,000 that under Netanyahu, Israel faces most severe leadership crisis in country's history.

By Jonathan Lis and Yaniv Kubovich | Mar. 7, 2015 | 9:30 PM


Anti-Netanyahu rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square. Photo by Moti Milrod

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A rally seeking change in Israel’s leadership attracted tens of thousands to Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Saturday night.
According to the "Israel Wants Change" event's organizers, more than 35 thousand people attended. Other officials estimate between 25,000-30,000 protesters turned out to the rally.
Keynote speaker, former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, told the crowd that Israel faces its worst crisis ever under Netanyahu's leadership.
"No one denies that Iran's nuclear program is a threat, but going to war with the U.S. is not the way to stop it," Dagan said.
“Israel is a country surrounded by enemies, but the enemies are not scaring us,” Dagan said. “I am afraid of our leadership. I am afraid of a loss of determination, of a loss of personal example. I am afraid of hesitancy and stalemate, and I am afraid above all of the crisis of leadership, a leadership crisis that is the most severe ever here.”
“Benjamin Netanyahu has served as prime minister for six years straight,” Dagan noted, “six years in which he has not led a single genuine process of change to the face of the region or the creation of a better future. On his watch, Israel conducted the longest [military] campaign since the War of Independence.” Posing a question to the prime minister directly, Dagan added:
“Why should you be responsible for our fate if you are so afraid to take responsibility?”
“I am not a politician and not a public figure, and I came here this evening without personal aspirations, not looking for a position and without a grudge or bitterness,” he said.
“We deserve leadership that will set new priorities. It has long not been a question of left wing and right wing. It’s a question of a path, a vision, a different horizon.”
Michal Kesten-Keidar, widow of Lt.-Col. Dolev Keidar, who was killed in last year’s war in Gaza, made an impassioned plea for voters to elect a leadership that would prevent more bloodshed with the Palestinians. "How many women like me will lose their heart until we reach an agreement?," asked Kesten-Keidar. “An entire election campaign has gone by without remembering the blood that was shed over the summer,” Kastan Keidar said. “But last summer, I lost the love of my life during the war, and I came here to request of you, when you go to cast your ballots, to vote for who will prevent the next war, for who is prepared to do everything possible to prevent more deaths.”
“Mr. Prime Minister… it’s impossible to speak all the time about Iran and to turn a blind eye to the bloody conflict with the Palestinians which costs us so much blood,” she said.
Former GOC Northern Command and deputy Mossad chief Amiram Levin is also among the scheduled speakers.
The rally, which commenced at 7:30 P.M., is organized by the One Million Hands movement. The event was expected to draw people from the center and left of the political map who are seeking a change in Israel’s priorities, refocusing on health, education, housing, wages, the cost of living and the elderly.
The organizers and key speakers said the rally was be about expressing support for a return to a way of life that is normal and sane, to a life with dignity and peace between Israel and its neighbors.
“If someone doesn’t care if there are wars, why should he care about the cost of living? I do not accept the claim that there is no one to vote for so don’t vote, or the claim that the Israeli public is fated to live with war. The leadership has responsibility to those combat soldiers and a responsibility to prevent the killing,” said Kesten-Keidar.
Levin, who was one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s commanders in the Israel Defense Forces, said, “When the prime minister is in the United States he is the leader of all of us, but the little that he said in Congress would have better been said privately in the Oval Office – then there might have been a chance to exert influence.”
Speaking last week at a press conference called by Commanders for Israel’s Security, a movement of which he is a member, Levin added, “The rule of one people over another makes the strongest and most moral army in the world immoral and weak. Israel must take back the initiative, set its final borders to ensure security and a solid Jewish majority. Anyone who is afraid to lead the initiative to diplomatic and security arrangements in the region will, in the end, give it all up, down to the last millimeter. Only initiative can keep some of the territory and settlement in our hands.”
Dagan also criticized Netanyahu. “As someone who has served the country for 45 years in security posts, including during some of its hardest hours, I feel we are at a critical period for our future and security,” he said. “I have no personal interest in the prime minister, his wife, his expenses and his way of life. I am talking about the policy he leads. It is a destructive policy for the future and security of Israel. And as someone who raised children here and is now raising grandchildren here, and who believes with all his heart in the Zionist dream, I feel there is a danger to the continued existence of this dream, and that is why I will come to speak.”
Among the organizations taking part are the Kibbutz Movement; a group of combat soldiers who led the crossing of the Suez Canal in the 1973 Yom Kippur War; the Movement for the Future of the Western Negev; representatives of factory workers who recently lost their jobs; and residents of the Gaza border area.
An Israeli protester waves a national flag during a rally demanding political change, Rabin Square, Tel Aviv March 7, 2015. (AFP photo)
(AFP photo)

 

Why are we debating the optics of a speech that very few people ever watched? Most of the reaction was based on: 1)pre-speech controversy 2)the particulars of the audio/transcript 3)the reaction to the speech. The failure of the room to look empty really had nothing to do with the Obama team's strategy here.

 

So, basically what I linked above, Shane?

 

Netanyahu is in many respects a war-monger and a demagogue. I know I'm stating the obvious, but that's how I see it. As much as I dislike the theocracy that runs Iran, I consider Israel a bigger threat to the region.

I can understand the perspective of the Israeli left and most liberals critical of Israel. It's like they say, "Well, Hitler killed 6 million white Jews, so now we have the right to come in and ethnically cleanse and kill as many Palestinians as possible. The world owes us not an multi-ethnic, egalitarian state, but an exclusive, nuclear state." It's very harsh. I don't like suicide bombers and their overreactions, but I can understand why they would be desperate and sad. They are in poverty and Israel gets all the money. I mean, the culture of the Arabs (especially how they treat women and gays) is no prize, due to their own ethnocentric prejudices, but Israel didn't have a right to come in there, cause all these wars, humiliate them, and oppress the Palestinians. That's my take.

My take on the war against Palestinians, much like the war against al Qaeda, ISIS, or anything, is such: LEAVE THEM ALONE AND GET THE HECK OUT. I'm a non-interventionist. I don't have to agree with their culture. I just prefer to be compassionate and leave them alone. I feel that Israel eventually is going to be destroyed and overrun, then the USA will allow them to flee and live in Utah.

 

Oops! I missed that! But but…my post has pictures!

 

Wow, when you've the ex-boss of Mossad telling you you're being too hardline.... Come to think of it, what do you call that?

 

Crossing the river wackycon of nutsville.

 

Well the Economist wants Bibi out in the next election.

http://www.economist.com/news/leade...nts-israelis-should-back-yitzhak-herzog-bibis

Israel’s election

Bibi’s a bad deal

The prime minister’s failures outweigh his achievements. Israelis should back Yitzhak Herzog

Mar 14th 2015 | From the print edition

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BINYAMIN NETANYAHU is articulate, dashing—and distrusted, by friends and foes alike. Nicolas Sarkozy, a former French president, was once heard telling Barack Obama: “I can’t stand him. He’s a liar.” Mr Obama did not demur.
This month the Israeli prime minister offered fresh glimpses of his deviousness. Following reports that he had offered the Palestinians more generous terms than his rhetoric admits, Mr Netanyahu (pictured, right) tried to regain right-wing support by repudiating his acceptance, in a speech in 2009, of (strictly limited) Palestinian statehood. This leaves a big question: is the real Bibi a man of negotiation, or of occupation? Recklessly, he gambled with bipartisan American support for Israel when he defied Mr Obama by brazenly appearing before a Republican-dominated Congress to denounce the administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran: “This is a bad deal. It’s a very bad deal. We’re better off without it.”
In this section

• How to fire up America
• Made in China?
• The resistible rise of Marine Le Pen
• Spurious George
• A tricky business
• Bibi’s a bad deal

Reprints
On March 17th Israeli voters will have their say on Bibi (seearticle). In this newspaper’s view he has been a bad deal for Israel. It is better off without him. His challenger, Yitzhak “Bougie” Herzog (pictured, left), is not charismatic. But he is level-headed and has a credible security and economic team. He wants talks with the Palestinians and to heal ties with Mr Obama. He deserves a chance to prove himself.
Prime minister, you’re no David Ben-Gurion
In office for the past six years, having served a three-year stint in the 1990s, Mr Netanyahu is now Israel’s longest-serving leader since David Ben-Gurion. That is a remarkable feat for a man whose father once doubted his suitability for the job. Mr Netanyahu’s longevity is due to many factors, not least luck, cunning, a silver tongue and the loyalty of the Likud party. But his achievements are outweighed by his many flaws.
On the positive side, he has liberalised the Israeli economy and promoted a thriving high-tech sector. He navigated skilfully through the financial crisis and the long slump in Europe, Israel’s largest trading partner. He kept Iran’s nuclear programme at the forefront of world attention. He also kept Israel safe after the Arab-spring revolts of 2011, which toppled leaders and cracked fossilised states across the region. The jihadists and Shia militias that filled the void might have turned their guns on Israel, and may yet do so. For the time being they are killing each other. In the turmoil Israel has forged closer ties with Egypt and, more secretly, with Arab monarchies.
Against this, Bibi’s preservation of the military occupation in the West Bank and the stranglehold over Gaza Strip must count heavily against him. He has refused to make any genuine concessions to the Palestinians, on the ground that “there is no partner for peace”—even though Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has abjured violence and maintained security co-operation with Israel in the West Bank (Gaza is controlled by the Islamist Hamas movement). Mr Abbas himself has plenty of shortcomings, but he has also been deliberately weakened by Mr Netanyahu. Israel has cut off Palestinian tax revenues in retaliation for Mr Abbas’s decision to join the International Criminal Court. The pragmatism that Mr Netanyahu sometimes expresses is belied by his actions: he has expanded settlements, thus breaking up Palestinian areas and making a mockery of the very notion of Palestinian statehood.
To Israelis traumatised by missiles and rockets, Mr Netanyahu sounds plausible when he claims that giving the Palestinians control over their own land will bring more violence. The turmoil of the Arab world deepens these fears. Had Israel handed the Golan Heights back to Syria, it might now find itself facing fighters from Hizbullah, al-Qaeda or Islamic State on the Sea of Galilee.
However, without a Palestinian state, Israel will either endanger its Jewish majority or lose its moral standing by subjugating and disenfranchising the Palestinian population. Israel will lose support abroad even when it legitimately defends itself. In the final days of the campaign, Mr Netanyahu may well play up the dangers from Iran, jihadists and Hamas. But the truth is that immobilism, too, is endangering Israel.

 

Likud seems to be in the midst of a meltdown: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/bibi-gripped-by-panic-and-paranoia-as-polls-slide

 

Netanyahu is starting to sound like Erdogan...or Putin.

 

Somewhat more humorous...

http://tabletmag.com/scroll/189634/hamas-social-media-campaign-backfires#zjHkILesYcso1S2x.01

 

I don't know, I'm laughing at Netanyahu's election troubles.

 

Well, we should be, but I find all people who go on Twitter for things like this -- and it's invariably a horrible idea -- to have the same reaction of hilarity...

 

A tale of three Twitter feeds: Hamas tweets in Arabic, English and Hebrew
Speaking with two tongues, or three in this case. An informative and recommended read, excepting the final petulant sentence.

 

Likud appears to be crashing hard right now. Couldn't be a more fitting end for Netanyahu, if they do in fact lose out on being able to lead a coalition government. He's flailed around more and more over the past several years, and if I were a member of the opposition, I would just get out of his way and let him make a fool out of himself. Would be better still if a preliminary deal was announced with Iran at around the same time as a Likud defeat.

Here's hoping.