THE SPINE DECEMBER 26, 2009
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Jews usually go out to the movies on Christmas ... and then they go out to eat "Chinese." I've spent it writing. Below is my harvest. I wish you all good cheer.
Here are the motifs of my writing day. Alas, none of them cheery.
1. THE REAL GRIM REAPER: HOLY DAY VICTIMS IN IRAQ AND PAKISTAN
2. COLD COMMON SENSE ABOUT IRAN FROM, MIRABILI DICTU, "THE NEW YORK TIMES"
3. A WISE EUROPEAN FOREIGN MINISTER: "WE SHOULD SHUT UP ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST"
4. A SOBER "TIMES" PIECE ON ISRAELI MILITARY DOCTRINE
5. THE SON OF THE MAN WHO WAS KILLED BY TERRORISTS IN THE WEST BANK: "REVENGE IS NOT FOR JEWS"
6. THE PRESIDENT AND ONE DUMB JEWISH WOMAN, THE ANTI-ANTI-SEMITISM CZARINA IN WASHINGTON
7. COPENHAGEN AND THE UNSEATING OF AMERICA AS A GREAT POWER
8. THE CHRISTMAS TERRORIST
So here goes:
1. THE REAL GRIM REAPER: HOLY DAY VICTIMS IN IRAQ AND PAKISTAN
There are many grim reapers in our culture: ten of them are enumerated in Wikipedia. Before this proliferation and way back into the 15th century the reaper was depicted as a skeletal "black-cloaked, scythe-wielding personification of death," as William Harris describes the phenomenon in "How Stuff Works." But this was for any death.
The real grim reaper in our civilization--isn't this a contradiction in terms?--is an ordinary-looking Middle Eastern man or woman sequestering a bomb under his ample garb. Some of remaining Christians in the region are always targeted around Christmas, and in Mosul alone a Christian bus driver was ambushed and killed and a 1,200 year-old church was also targeted.
Sunnis took the offensive at the dawn of Ashoura, the holiest days of the Shi'a calendar. At least 27 Shi'a were murdered in Baghdad and in Hillah, where no less than 13 were left dead and 74 injured. Then there were the post-scripts: five dead Shi'a and 16 wounded on their way to the holy city of Karbala; and at a funeral in the capital city nine were taken to their maker and 33 were left injured and maimed.
This, of course, is a common form of warfare in the Arab and Muslim orbits. It is, in fact, a daily form of warfare. And the grim reaper is met with neither shock nor outrage. No Judge Goldstone will judge the perpetrators whose immediate sponsors and slightly more remote sympathizers pontificate and vote in the U.N. Human Rights Council. (On the evidence Goldstone doesn't care a fig about these forms of warfare. Otherwise he would have some concern and actual sympathy for those trying to fight them.) These happenings are so common that almost no one else even notices. The grim reader, indeed.
2. COLD COMMON SENSE ABOUT IRAN FROM, MIRABILI DICTU, "THE NEW YORK TIMES"
The "realists" have given up their concern about the Iranian bomb. Even Hillary Clinton must be embarrassed at stretching out the deadline for doing some decisive--even more and really mere sanctions--further, now into 2010. You may have noticed that the president has left to others, probably without instructions, the issuing of dicta on Iran. One person who has tried to move the discussion in the country towards a truly firm stance on Tehran's aggressive aspirations is Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Bowing towards the White House, Mullen said the preferable way to handle the atomic designs of the Iran is still with diplomacy. Yes, of course. But the United States must be ready a "military option."
Maybe it already is. Maybe not.
Alan J. Kuperman, a senior fellow at the Nuclear Proliferation Prevention Center of the University of Texas, Austin, made the argument in the Times for taking the military option more or less now. The more you delay the more you encourage. And this scholar on atomic warfare makes a powerful argument for the utility and effectiveness of air strikes. Air strikes without illusions and also air strikes that can be repeated. I know that many TNR readers are appalled by this idea. But just think what happens if the Iranians have the bomb. The deterrence model is nonsense. The risk of heading down that road is much worse, entails much more peril than a readily simple taking out of some nuclear facilities. I also believe that Iranian demos is sensible, very sensible. It will grasp why the ayatollahs are not to be trusted with the bomb. After all, they cannot be trusted with a nightstick.
3. A WISE EUROPEAN FOREIGN MINISTER: "SHUT UP ABOUT THE MIDDLE EAST"
Surprise! Surprise! Until a few years before the American Revolution Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. It is, of course, no longer that, not even close. Europe itself is actually a mess, while the "Europeans" delude themselves with the idea of Europe, a great phantasy of deeply troubled capitalism.
Well, why do I mention Lithuania? Not because of its size, although it is a member of the European Union, NATO and the Council of Europe. But because its foreign minister, Vyagaudas Usackas, has noticed something that, frankly, also drives me bananas: the obsession of Europe with Israel and the Palestinians, Israelis, and the Arabs. "My message that I'm bringing back to my colleagues in EU member states: Stop talking so much about the Middle East."
First of all it is an illusion--no, a delusion--that the Europeans can have any influence on the situation. The hostility of some of their governments towards Israel and of elements in their populations (mostly young, given-to-fashion ultra-leftists, for whom the Palestinians are the new Cubans and Vietnamese, and anti-social unemployed Muslims, many easily prone to riot) alone disqualifies them. Israel does not trust them. For that matter, most Americans don't either.
Russia wants Moscow to be the site of an international peace conference. What credentials, aside from diplomatic ambitions, does the Kremlin bring to the table for such expectations? Perhaps it's membership in the Quartet in which the only effective participant was--don't shoot me--George Bush, who got the principals to agree (vaguely) on a "road map." Tony Blair wasted much time but little energy as the Quartet's rep. Poor man, he's now nobody, a richer nobody, to be sure, but a nobody just the same. I hope he gets satisfaction from his conversion to Roman Catholicism. I really do. Maybe he will stop imitating Hugh Grant in his life.
Spain is about to take its six-month turn as the next president of the European Union. And what do you know? Miguel Angel Moratinos, the country's foreign minister, has already announced his priorities (not about Europe, by the way) at a news briefing in Brussels:
My idea and my dream ... is to work for having in 2010, finally, a Palestinian state that could live in peace and security with Israel ... It's not going to be easy, but I think it's needed. We need a Palestinian state, the sooner, the better, and that is going to be our objective.
There's an ugly chutzpah in Spain's trying to play a big role in whatever deliberations there between Israel and the Palestinians, which are not only about statehood and borders, but about how to keep a new Palestine from having weapons ... and using them. But the effrontery of Spain making demands on Israel about territorial issues is quite galling. The Spaniards have two and a half territorial dilemmas themselves. They are as urgent to the locals as Palestine is to the Palestinians. The first is the status of the Basque country and Navarre, morally compromised by terrorism much as the Palestinian question is. The second is Catalonia whose just claim for independence should be undeniable. The half-issue is Western Morocco, which subsists under a questionable status of autonomy.
Besides Spain itself has been declared "unsustainable" by The Economist. Actually "the new sick man of Europe" and nearing its seventh quarter of financial decline, with the highest unemployment (after Latvia) in Europe. Someone should tell the prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero that a country with such financial credentials is just not plausible on any complex matter having to do with territory, economics and historical responsibility.
The same is true for Greece which will be giving Spain a good run for the money ... oh, this is becoming a bad metaphor. But you know what I mean. Greece is the Dubai of Mediterranean Europe, and worse. It also has strong and irrelevant views on the Israel-Palestine question--irrelevant, given the fact that its settlement with Turkey during 1921-1922 was based on an exchange of populations. I don't think we want to go down that route, do we?
Sweden also has pronounced opinions on the matter. This is an historical conceit for the country. "Neutral" during the Second World War, prosperous from essential trade with the Axis and devoid of any meaningful resistance (as opposed to occupied Denmark and even Quisling Norway), its diplomatic personnel have always tried to limit the defensibility of the Jewish state. Predictably, Sweden tried at the last meeting of "Europe" to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Its proposal was not exactly shot down but defanged. And, anyway, how can a country, the third largest in Europe, with 21 persons per square kilometer, grasp the anxieties of Israel which can be crisscrossed at its population centers in as little as half an hour?
Catherine Ashton (the Baroness Ashton of Upholland), whose designation as High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs I welcomed in the misconception that she was not another Javier Solana, is a very dour lady. No sooner did she open her mouth that she came down on Israel. Hard, very hard. The fence, the security barriers, Jerusalem, East Jerusalem, the occupation itself. I suppose she would like to settle these matters all by herself. I was wrong about her. She did not leave Bertrand Russell's nutsy politics behind. Here is its remnant. For a very intelligent comment on the foreign ministress of Europe read the editorial, "Europe's Israel Obsession," in the European edition of the Wall Street Journal.
The Palestinians declared their independence in 1988, and more than 100 states have recognized it and received (and dispatched) their diplomatic emissaries. This is a joke ... so much a joke that the Palestinian Authority again, during early fall, declared its intention to pronounce itself independent. Yes, once more. Now? In two years? Does the crowd or the mob, whichever it is, believe this will change anything? Still, there must be ordinary Palestinians (perhaps millions of them) who want real lives without the polemics and disappointments of revenge. They may even be a majority. But no one represents them. Except possibly for Salam Fayyad, the practical visionary swamped by his mad comrades.
Diplomacy will take place between the two parties. But only when the Palestinians agree that their must be reciprocities in any arrangement. Now, there may be some play diplomacy before that time. But without the reciprocities it will fail.
4. A SOBER "TIMES" PIECE ON ISRAELI MILITARY DOCTRINE
I respect Isabel Kershner very much, although over years we've had many differences. In person and, from my side, in print. She is accurate and honest, making the two-person team in Jerusalem (the head of the bureau being my friend Ethan Bronner) the best in decades. They are also very smart. They get the intricacies and the subtleties, the underlay and the overlay. They also are, in the requisite manner, sympathetic to both the people of Israel and the Palestinians.
Kershner's dispatch from Israel in the New York Times on Christmas Day, "A Tougher Military Policy Stirs Little Debate in Israel" has a caption above the headline: "MEMO FROM TEL AVIV." The article reads, in fact, like an explicatory memorandum about why Israel's military doctrine has become more muscular, more implacable, more phrenic and conceptual. And less and less challenged. The truth is that the fragile boundaries of armed war have broken down, and (the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities by the United States aside) the pioneering work of terror as both tactic and strategy has become the common, the preferred way of combat.
The established rules of war with its old conventions and Conventions put their adherents into what is quite literally a "no win" situation. The people of Israel understand this in their experience, in their guts and in their brains. Which is why the Goldstone report had almost no impact--either moral or psychological--on the populace, although the Israel Defense Forces revealed to the Jerusalem Post today that it was continuing to update its proscribed list of buildings and facilities (1,500 during the Gaza operation) that were off-limits to all air force and ground operations, having added several hundred in the past year.
The Obama administration has not yet been publicly seized with this matter. But its use of drones and missiles in Pakistan and Afghanistan will hasten the issue onto its agenda. The issue is already being bruited about at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Were it to come to a vote what do you think would be the outcome?
5. THE SON OF THE MAN WHO WAS KILLED BY A TERRORIST IN THE WEST BANK: "REVENGE IS NOT FOR JEWS"
Enuf said.
6. THE PRESIDENT AND ONE DUMB JEWISH WOMAN: THE ANTI-ANTI-SEMTISM CZARINA IN WASHINGTON
Her name is Hannah Rosenthal. You've never heard of her. Or, to be precise, you never heard of her until a few days before Christmas. There are so many czars in Washington (health care czar, trade czar, TARP czar, etc.) that I've given her the title "Czarina." The title descends from F.D.R., and the truth is that there were just as many czars under George W. Bush as there are under Barack Obama, some really smart, some not. But, believe me, Czarina Hannah should not have pretensions. She is no where near as smart as Catherine the Great. In fact, she is actually quite stupid.
Ms. Rosenthal was designated the State Department's Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism (shouldn't "monitor" come first and "combat" second in this title?), and the first news of the appointment was published, well, nowhere. Except that Eric Fingerhut, a very alert and smart journalist for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a world-wide press syndicate on the board of which I sit, noticed that no one announced the hiring. No one. Not the White House. Not the State Department. Fingerhut remarked that, though the appointment had been rumored about for a week, "the administration isn't going around making sure that anyone knows about it, for reasons I can't explain."
It was as if the J.T.A. reporter dragged the notice of the appointment from very reluctant folk. But Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, paid tribute to Secretary Clinton for authorizing ... etc ... "We look to working with Hannah Rosenthal ..." It was clear that he hadn't the slightest idea of who she was. Another Jewish organization praised the president for making the assignment.
It took almost a month to get a handle on why the administration was so skittish about even making the selection public. I give the president the benefit of the doubt for this choice, although I don't really have any reason why. Maybe it's Valerie Jarrett who did the picking, like with Van Jones.
Anyway, Rosenthal is a very strange choice. Her first public statement, made to Ha'aretz, attacked Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to our country and my good friend, for distancing himself from J-Street, about which I and Jon Chait have written in these columns. Now that I know about poor Hannah, I'd say that her board membership on J-Street should by itself have disqualified her from the post. After all, Arab countries and movements have been primary movers in the epidemic of anti-Semitism in the world. And the sad truth is that J-Street is not alert to this fact, or if alert doesn't care. Indeed, it speaks up for these offenders and finds the vilest of them appropriate partners for negotiations and peace with Israel.
Like Hamas.
The president has a way of shooting himself in the foot with both Israel and the mainstream of the Jewish community. Presumably, he has understood that his craven courting of the Saudi royal house and other dictators in the Arab world has not been, let us say modestly, at all productive. Hannah Rosenthal is not in as significant a position as Chas Freeman would have been had he not been flagged by folks like me and, to be sure, many others. Of this, I am immodestly proud. Obama would do well to extract this brittle woman from his entourage and send her, say, to Riyadh, where she might engage in her assigned task of "combatting and monitoring anti-Semitism."
7. COPENHAGEN AND THE UNSEATING OF AMERICA AS A GREAT POWER
The Republicans are off their rockers, especially on the environment. They have latched on to pseudo-science as if it were the Bible. And, as Bob Jones, Sr., pronounced, "what the bible says is so." But this biblical text of the anti-environment crowd is puny, and it pales beside the volume and depth of research which brings shivers and engineering initiative to the scientifically learned men and women who are enlisted in the effort to save the earth and the planet beyond.
President Obama grasps the enormity of the problem and, thus, the enormity of the challenge. But, if his first adversaries will be the political opposition in Washington, the second but more structurally entrenched will be the richest of the poor countries. In fact, China, India, Brazil and South Africa tried to play a disappearing act in Copenhagen so that the president could not participate in what would have otherwise been a successful cabal of sabotage against the very idea of environmental rescue.
He saved the day and his very status by barging into the closed meeting of the four heads of state who were conspiring against the planetary common good. But how did we come to a circumstance where these men would even dare such a trick against the president and the country he represents?
I am afraid that Obama bares some responsibility for this chicanery. Aside from his recent speeches at West Point and at the Nobel ceremonies, he had already signalled to the world that he claims no special moral or strategic authority as the president of the country and that he does not believe the country itself can assert that authority. Here we may be seeing his adherence--I hope only residual adherence--to his Third World view of what is just power in the relations between states and nations in the order of things. As it happens, there are many venal claimants to the scepter of wise and good dominion. But they are not wise and they are not good. If the president wants to be in the room, if he wants to lay claim to this dominion for the United States he had better behave and speak as if he does.
8. THE CHRISTMAS TERRORIST
The culprit was caught "red handed." I suppose the proper civil libertarians would say "suspect." But there he was trying to ignite an incendiary device with 278 passengers, many of them actually witnesses to the deed, on board an Airbus A-330 wide body Northwest Airlines flight which, coming from Amsterdam, was about to land in Detroit. He was not an American Muslim and not even an American. He was a Muslim from Nigeria, named Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab, age 23.
The aircraft landed just before noon on Christmas day. News of the incident was not released until near midnight and appeared in the New York Times just about then. I didn't see it until about 1:15 a.m. As of 2 a.m. there was nothing about the happening on the Boston Globe web-site.
Apparently, Abdul Abdulmutallab was on some government security data-base. This had no effect on his ability to get through the ticket counter where there is some interface between reservations and risk or other check points. The Times cites John O. Brennan, the White House counter terrorism chief, as preparing reports for the president. Brennan is a strange kind of political animal. When his appointment was announced in January the left felt betrayed by the president. The designee, it was charged, was a C.I.A. stooge, complicit in President Bush's illegal and immoral programs.
At just about the same time, Brennan gave a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. I found it rather touchy-feely and supine. This is a man of two minds. Let's see how he deals with the case of the Christmas terrorist.
Merry Christmas and a vibrant New Year.
27 comments
There is very little doubt anymore about the true value of J-street. It is spelled out quite clearly here: "In a recent column in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad, columnist Dr. As'ad 'Abd Al-Rahman wrote about the Jewish-American advocacy group J Street, arguing that its importance is in that it provides the U.S. administration with "political and media ammunition" against Israel, especially in the absence of an Arab lobby in the U.S. [-]" http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/3756.htm This organization acts, de facto, as an Arab lobby, And more particularly, as a pro-Hamas lobby http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000726.html
- noga1
December 26, 2009 at 10:58am
Good lord, this is what you offer? You need help Old Man. Seriously. Real help. Would someone who loves this guy step up and get him the help he needs before he turns this magazine into a complete laughing stock?
- MrCookie1
December 26, 2009 at 11:30am
Excellent comments, Marty, especially about the European obsession with the Middle East and especially Israel.
- jacksondyer
December 26, 2009 at 12:56pm
Shut up Cookie, you are obsessed with marty peretz. Go do something else, will you, like get some help or go post at some anti Peretz web site of the left.
- jacksondyer
December 26, 2009 at 12:57pm
Who orchestrated the Hannah Rosenthal appointment?! That it was not announced is particularly strange.
- amidut
December 26, 2009 at 4:25pm
jackson, You don't find it bizarre that someone states that he wants to craft a Xmas message for the Christian community - an offer of good cheer - and this, this is was he offers? If you don't find this disturbing, then perhaps you are as twisted and in need of help as your friend. When we see someone who is drowning in their own obsessions and hate, the Christian thing is to offer help. Peretz needs help. Period.
- MrCookie1
December 26, 2009 at 7:53pm
MrCookie1 "jackson, If you don't find this disturbing, then perhaps you are as twisted and in need of help as your friend." Perhaps, but you seem to lack a sense of irony. And you are obsessed with Marty. Do get some help, for your own sake.
- jacksondyer
December 26, 2009 at 10:06pm
MrCookie is being so disingenuous. He's got the vector of hate wrong. Israel and the Jewish people are really taking it on the chin these days outside of the USA. Marty's sourness and obsessions are justifiable. I also find MrCookie's nattering about the "Christian thing is to offer help" insulting. While I love my Christian friends and respect Christianity, I can also show plenty of evidence for Jewish charitableness and unrequited love for the rest of humankind, even the Muslim part of it.
- amidut
December 26, 2009 at 10:14pm
So Peretz spent Christmas writing, forgoing movies and various moo shis. I am grateful he did, grateful he said with such verve what's on his mind these days and began, as I read him, to wrap up his thoughts about 2009. I enjoyed reading his takes and to hand analyses, most of which I agree with. They're spirited, direct, sourced, bristling with competent knowledge and refreshingly free of pulled punches. On what planet is it inappropriate this time of year for Peretz to talk about the the way things are as he sees them? By my lights, certainly not this one! I once online heard Mickey Kaus speaking with someone, it might have been Michael Kinsley, about what Peretz and Larry Summers were like socially. Kaus said they are very direct and not prone to rest on niceties when a spade needs some spade calling. That straight talking—getting what you see and read, knowing without equivocation where the man stands—is part of the magnet of this site attracting me to it so often. So Mr. P., thanks and Merry Christmas and a vibrant New Year right back atcha'.
- basman
December 27, 2009 at 1:40am
MP seems to have moved over to The Plank, at least temporarily perhaps because of the holiday season lull. The last two posts there (as of now), both on the Delta / Northwest airline bombing attempt (here and here), are his. Hershel Ginsburg Jerusalem / Efrata
- ginzy
December 27, 2009 at 7:04am
Mr. Peretz, you should have gone to the movies...
- luispc
December 27, 2009 at 11:57am
jackson, You and I have very different definitions for obsession. I would say that someone who is obsessed is continuously tending the obsession, on a quotidian basis, to the exclusion of other things. I believe that it would be a huge stretch to say that I am obsessed with the Spine. I rarely comment on the posts. For every five, I probably comment upon one. I would hardly call that an obsession. You on the other hand, comment upon almost every post. Are you obsessed? Personally I would say no because I see nothing wrong with doing what one enjoys and you obviously enjoy participating on the Spine. I would say that I have a consistent opinion of Martin H. Peretz and it is clear that you and I disagree. I also believe that one could say that I enjoy criticizing peretz and I would agree. I have 30 years worth of experiences with this guy's brand of "journalism" and I think he is borderline nuts and is bad for the reputation of this magazine You OBVIOUSLY disagree. C'est la vie. Do remember though that I pay my way - just like you - and I can express my opinion just as you. You don't like it but you cannot control my posting habits nor anyone else's. And the fact that I spend very little time on the Spine shows that I realize my "obsession" and am taking measures to control it. I do this for my sake and sure they hell not for you or anyone else. amidt You know, I reread my last post and I must admit that I am not entirely comfortable with how it came out either. Thanks for the criticism. But remember, before peretz changed the title of this post, he was offering this as an "offering" to his Christian friends. As I read that intro, I was expecting something entirely different. To read a laundry list of his obsessions - irrespective of the validity of the actual list - is still, in my opinion, a very twisted and inappropriate way to send his Christian friends an "offering." Anyhow, I did not mean to imply that Christianity was better than Juduaism and because that was how it came out, I apologize.
- MrCookie1
December 27, 2009 at 5:22pm
I'm with basman, jackson and amidut - keep 'em coming Marty! And whether we have agreed or disagreed, to one and all, a Happy and Healthy New Year.
- malahat
December 27, 2009 at 5:30pm
..Mr. Peretz, you should have gone to the movies... Luis I could say why do you say this; and you would say such and such; and I might say this and that and so on and on. Better I think simply to wish you and yours a happy New Year. And I extend that wish to other dudes and dudesses here, there and elsewhere.
- basman
December 27, 2009 at 6:41pm
Come on Cookie, you may post here infrequently but when you do post it’s almost always an attack on Peretz and not just his comments. You never have anything positive to say about his comments. And even your critiques of Marty’s posting are framed in a personal dislike of the man. If you dislike the man so much and if you keep reading his blog, I can only conclude that you are obsessed with Marty Peretz.
- jacksondyer
December 28, 2009 at 10:43am
"The President And One Dumb Jewish Woman" I'm pleased Dr. Peretz did some writing over the Christan Holiday. I'm not surprised that Dr. Peretz has characterized Ms. Hannah Rosenthal as "One Dumb Jewish Woman." I read the Ha'aretz story and found their description of her background enlightening. Ms. Rosenthal is the daughter of a holocaust survivor. Expresses humanistic concerns for the effects of prolonged war on the psyche of Israeli civilians. She would fit quite nicely into liberal reform Jewish, Park Slope, Brooklyn, for example. She says she pays her dues to the 'established' pro-Israel organizations and has served on the Board of Directors of the upstarts, like J Street. She maintains the UN is grossly out of touch with its 170 resolutions condeming Israel and 5 condeming the Sudan. She identifies the rise of born again anti-semitism in Europe. Jewish conferences and congresses come and go. There are so many conferences and congresses that it is nerely impossible to tell what is the real agenda item of the moment. Israel is surrounded by despotic, dictatorial, one-party states, with doubious historical backgrounds, sometimes the object of European colonilization, sometimes just sandy desert with vast oil reserves. Unfortunately, this is the collection of states which must be negotiated with. Who is Israel going to negotiate with, Peru? To say that J street advocates negotiating with despotic regimes and to say exactly what? This Israeli government is able to defend its positions and policies. J-street has not earned the same respect from the Foreign Minister that AIPAC has. Why insult Obama's new director as a "dumb woman?" As a reader and subscriber to TNR, I want to know more about her and her office's goals and activity. This position, created by George Bush is really something quite new in American government. Why so heavy handed, opening yourself up to all sorts of nasty attacks? Attack or criticize the policy position, not the woman.
- LawrenceGulotta
December 28, 2009 at 11:32am
Eight pieces, make that nine: "East London Mosque Linked To Nigerian Aeroplane Bomber" Lucy Lips, December 28th 2009, 1:05 pm "It has received visits from Prince Charles. Boris Johnson visited it to encourage non-Muslims to fast during Ramadan. The then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, delivered a speech in which he envisaged a ‘role’ for Sharia within the English legal system. It has received huge wads of “Prevent” cash from the Government. It has also hosted fundraisers for Interpal, which is associated with Hamas. It has been used by Awlaki and his supporters, to urge Muslims not to assist the police. The antisemite, Al Sudais was a guest of honour, earlier this year. The name of its Imam, Qayuum, appears on the pro-terrorism “Istanbul Declaration”, having apparently attended the conference at which it was produced: although he now denies having signed it. Its management has included those who are the subject of serious allegations of Jamaat-e-Islami war crimes during the Bangladesh War of Liberation. Other senior figures involved with the Mosque are closely connected to Islamic Forum Europe, a Jamaat-e-Islami front organisation...." http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/12/28/east-london-mosque-linked-to-nigerian-aeroplane-bomber/
- jacksondyer
December 28, 2009 at 11:44am
jackson, I have to admit, on your last post, you finally have a point. I cannot deny that. So, I will think about it, how about that?
- MrCookie1
December 28, 2009 at 1:04pm
Gulotta, Wouldn't you find it strange and unprofessional if some low ranking official in the Obama administration would publicly scold the French ambassador for refusing to participate in a conference about whether France should adopt more leftist policies? It seems unthinkable, doesn't it? Don't you find it strange that with all the antisemitism that is happening everywhere, and is most particularly vicious and dominant among the Arab nations, that the first thing Ms. Rosenthal attacks is the Israeli ambassador? What does it mean? It goes to show the level of contempt some American Jews have for Israel. J-street Jews, more precisely. Of course with her incontinent bile she has lost any credibility she had with the Jewish community. How can they trust her to fight against antisemitism when she acts in this manner, showing a thorough lack of understanding? Stupid woman.
- noga1
December 28, 2009 at 1:39pm
noga1 The Ha'artz article notes that the Ambassador was invited to give a key note speech at the first conference of the new pro-Israeli--pro-Peace group J-street. The article doesn't say that J-street gave the Ambassador a script to read; recommended any particular policy for the Ambassador to advocate, or suggested the topic of the Key Note Address. There were no ideological pre-conditions attached to the Ambassador's key note address, from what I read in Ha'artez. Someone outside the organized Jewish community might think that J-Street was providing a forum for the Ambassador from Israel. What a thoughtful jesture for J-Street to extend an invitation. The Ambassador turned down the invitation. The article doesn't quote the Ambassador's remarkes that Ms. Rosenthal found objectionable. It simply notes that the Israeli Ambassador believes the positions taken by the J-street lobby are objectionable and do not support Israel. Like so many other conference and congress goers, Ms. Rosenthal many have an inflated view of her importance, the importance of her new job and the importance of J-street. She found the Ambassador's snub regretful and said so in public. Big deal. Regarding anti-semitism in the Arab countries--what else is new? Nothing new here. Anti-semitism in Europe--nothing new here. If the Jewish community was relying on Ms. Rosenthal to fight anti-semitism- everywhere-which they are not--then they would be set for a big disappointment. That is not the point here. I think a few people are insulted that a woman has the job; that J-street has the 'perception of influence' in the administration and that Obama is snubbing the Jewish "establishment." In the 1930s, the internecine snubs were shared by and between the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress and B'nai B'rith. Today, the acronyns have changed but the snubbing continues. The big difference, of course, is that there is a strong and healthy State of Israel, where once there were only a few dozen orange plantations.
- LawrenceGulotta
December 28, 2009 at 2:46pm
"The article doesn't say that J-street gave the Ambassador a script to read;..." You are not answering my question. Your response is completely irrelevant. If the Israeli ambassador rejects an invitation to attend a conference it is not the business of the Obama administration to scold him for it or to argue with him that he should. No such scenario is even remotely conceivable with regards to any other country on earth. Am I right or am I wrong?
- noga1
December 28, 2009 at 7:55pm
noga1: If Secretary of State Clinton had made the scolding remarks, you would have a point. In your own estimation, however, Ms. Rosenthal is a low level bureaucrat, a former Board member of J-street, occupying a relatively new governmental office, with a grandiose title, and an undefined mandate, with few, if any, powers. From a diplomatic standpoint, it is a non-event. Ms. Rosenthal does not speak for the United States of America or the POTUS. Dr. Peretz should not engage in "loshon hara."
- LawrenceGulotta
December 28, 2009 at 8:47pm
I take it , Gulotta, that you agree with me, then, that it is strange and unprofessional of some low ranking official in the Obama administration to publicly scold the French, or Israeli, ambassador for refusing to participate in a conference about whether France or Israel should adopt more leftist policies. Wouldn't you say that such a low ranking official, who suffers from an inflated sense of importance, acted foolishly when said what she said? Is she, or is she not, then, a stupid person, at least in this public test? So where is Marty's malicious gossip about her that you accuse him of? He called her a dumb woman. Seems quite an accurate assessment. Leshon Harah is about slander, the spreading of malicious lies about someone. Can you point to a lie in Marty's comments about this woman?
- noga1
December 28, 2009 at 9:06pm
noga1 As I wrote: "If Secretary of State Clinton had made the scolding remarks, you would have a point." You disagree with Ms. Rosenthal; you think she was intemperate and she may be unschooled in the nuances of diplomacy. When Dr. Peretz and others call Ms. Rosenthal a "dumb Jewish woman" and "stupid" you transgress into the arena of name calling or the ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin: "argument toward the person" or "argument against the person"). A case can be made that Dr. Peretz engaged in "sexist" ad hominem argumentation. Calling Ms. Rosenblat a "dumb Jewish woman" in TNR is "leshon harah." I expect more from Dr. Peretz. I appreciated the article from the Ha'artez newspaper. It was journalism, without hysteria, ad hominem argumentation and "loshon hara." Notice how gently Dr. Peretz writes about Ms. Napolitano. He does not have the courage to call Ms. Napolitano a "dumb Italian-American woman." Dr. Peretz's sense of Jewish male entitlement does not extend to Ms. Napolitano. It comes to the surface with his treatment of Ms. Rosenblatt.
- LawrenceGulotta
December 28, 2009 at 10:43pm
Gollutta: I think you have now entered the stage where you over excite yourself with meta interpretations of the third and fourth kinds. One more comment from me and you'll have Marty tangoing with David Duke, I daresay. You concern for the honour of my gender makes me quite giddy with gratitude. Such a champion of the Ladies, and Jewesses, no less! I would urge a little circumspection with regards to leshon harah, which is a serious transgression in Judaism. It is not ad hominem and to insist on this is to reveal the extent of your ignorance. As you so wisely pointed out, Haaretz published an article, a report of information. Marty published a blog post in which he editorializes on this information, in accordance with his position about Israel, and J-street. Apparently you do not dispute the veracity of the information. You only mind Marty's position, which is no more and no less than the position of many other respectable journalists (Jeffrey Goldberg, for example) as well as that of the Obama administration and some of Obama's most enthusiastic admirers. That Ms. Rosenthal over reached and made a big booboo. For such a talented woman to do so would require a certain amount of stupidity and total lack of self awareness or self-control. Hence Marty is right when he calls her a stupid woman. You are, of course, right that Ms. Rosenthal has every right to be as stupid as the next person. There should be no expectation that a Jewish person could not be stupid. Anyway I'm glad we agree about the basics, that that it is strange and unprofessional of some low ranking official in the Obama administration to publicly scold the French, or Israeli, ambassador for refusing to participate in a conference about whether France or Israel should adopt more leftist policies.
- noga1
December 28, 2009 at 11:48pm
Having not been there the moment Rosenthal made her alleged remark, it's difficult for me to say exactly what my assessment might be, but I might agree it was a rather a dumb (i.e., insensitive to and seemingly unaware of how her words might be interpreted, in context) thing to say. (If I sound as if I am bending over backward it's only that I mean to give a maximum benefit of the doubt to Rosenthal.) What does occur to me, however, is that, having just been appointed to what seems to me an odd position, Rosenthal might well be making the effort to say the right thing to her boss (and her boss's boss). After all, her statement is unremarkable if taken to represent the Obama Administration's official party line - something the Prez is well known to be exquisitely attentive to.
- Tgossard
December 30, 2009 at 3:57pm
I appreciate Peretz's writing as he does *particularly* in light of these days, with as many celebrations of diverse holy days of the three Abrahamic faiths. My thoughts and meditations during this year's Advent-to-Christmas season, and especially in this several day interval between Christmas and the New Year, have been focused on times of deepening darkness in human history, marking by especially terrible and discouraging events, contrasted with but a very few small events that shed a hopeful light into the hearts and minds of peoples of many faiths and beliefs - and none - down through centuries. For Christians it is a season full of wondrous visions and heroic journeys of humble Jews living day by day under the shadow of a corrupt, merciless regime obsessed and occupied with annihilation of every newly-born Jewish son, aiming to crush any possible hope of relief and release from the power of Rome. I am deeply concerned for the welfare and survival of Israel, it's people, and Jews everywhere these days with the alarming rise of anti-semitism throughout the world, even here in the United States. And I want to remain awake and informed of events and developments small and great at any time of the year in these times in unfolding human history. It is my belief that hope for the fate of Jews is likewise hope for the fate of Christians and all people of goodwill. Once again, great Evil is out and abroad and on the prowl, and that's no fairy tale. So, yes, I appreciate very much reading Marty's post today. May they continue to be published, unbent and unbridled, in 2010!
- Tgossard
December 30, 2009 at 4:36pm