The Holocaust-denying Bishop

[Strangelet]

then there's this. just search "freeman" on andrew sullivan and you'll have a whole narrative of a smear campaign against a minor government position candidate who openly criticized israel.

There are a couple of things worth noting about this minor, yet major, Washington spat. The first is that the MSM has barely covered it as a news story, and the entire debate occurred in the blogosphere. I don't know why. But that would be a very useful line of inquiry for a media journalist.
The second is that Obama may bring change in many areas, but there is no possibility of change on the Israel-Palestine question. Having the kind of debate in America that they have in Israel, let alone Europe, on the way ahead in the Middle East is simply forbidden. Even if a president wants to have differing sources of advice on many questions, the Congress will prevent any actual, genuinely open debate on Israel. More to the point: the Obama peeps never defended Freeman. They were too scared. The fact that Obama blinked means no one else in Washington will ever dare to go through the hazing that Freeman endured. And so the chilling effect is as real as it is deliberate.
When Obama told us that the resistance to change would not end at the election but continue every day after, he was right. But he never fought this one. He's shrewder than I am.

The blackballing of Freeman is also about the intimidation of Blair. My concern remains that many of the same people that led us into the groupthink that gave us the worst intelligence blunder in American history are now dictating who gets to review intelligence for the next historic analysis: on Iran. I realized my mistake and have tried to adjust to allow for it. Others have dug in more deeply.

This is Freeman's cardinal sin among his critics: to blame Israel, even in part, for the plight it finds itself in, and to ask that US foreign policy be more neutral with respect to the parties in the Middle East. This is the third rail no one is allowed to touch and have access to real power in Washington. Even when the horrifying Gaza assault was going on, it became evidence of anti-Semitism to find the civilian casualties morally repellent and the siege itself counter-productive. This kind of intimidation must end.

and from evil, vile, horrible freeman himself

Tragically, despite all the advantages and opportunities Israel has had over the fifty-nine years of its existence, it has failed to achieve concord and reconciliation with anyone in its region, still less to gain their admiration or affection. Instead, with each decade, Israel's behavior has deviated farther from the humane ideals of its founders and the high ethical standards of the religion that most of its inhabitants profess. Israel and the Palestinians, in particular, are caught up in an endless cycle of reprisal and retaliation that guarantees the perpetuation of conflict in which levels of mutual atrocities continue to escalate. As a result, each generation of Israelis and Palestinians has accumulated new reasons to loathe the behavior of the other, and each generation of Arabs has detested Israel with more passion than its predecessor. This is not how peace is made. Here, too, a break with the past and a change in course are clearly in order.

so there you have it. us "anti-semites" are gaining in numbers and voice.

[Strangelet]

wow. i don't know much about this galloway guy, but holy fuck this is impressive.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Impressive, yes, but I would not be shocked if nothing comes of it.

Come on, it's from 2005.

[BeautifulBurnout]

George Galloway rocks. I may not agree with everything he says, but he has the cojones to take people to task, that's for sure. He ripped the US Senate Committee a new asshole that day.

BTW - is there any reason why this is on the holocaust-denying Bishop thread? Just askin'

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

...BTW - is there any reason why this is on the holocaust-denying Bishop thread? Just askin'

You cannot be serious.

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

BTW - is there any reason why this is on the holocaust-denying Bishop thread? Just askin'

I kind of thought it was distasteful to start a Jewz are ruling our Asses!!! !!! thread, or anything that could be construed as such. But then having this conversation tie in to a holocaust denying bishop is just as unsavory, innit? feel free to move it to another thread entitled something like "Rex's desperate attempt to show its possible/necessary to criticize Israel outside of hate and racism."

[BeautifulBurnout]

Soz chaps - saw the link to Galloway without reading the previous post and thought it was uniquely about Galloway's barring from Canada without making the connection.

I agree that, in general, it is really difficult to criticise Israel or, for that matter, the Jewish lobby without being accused of being anti-semitic. So we might as well keep it under the same topic heading I guess.

I think what I find quite bizarre is that it is perfectly acceptable for US, British or Canadian citizens to go and fight for the IDF with nary and eyebrow raised - like this Weinstein guy from Canada - yet any Brit/American/Canadian who went to Afghanistan in 2001 is arrested as a traitor and a terrorist. Double standards abound. Ah well.

[Strangelet]

Originally Posted by BeautifulBurnout

I think what I find quite bizarre is that it is perfectly acceptable for US, British or Canadian citizens to go and fight for the IDF with nary and eyebrow raised - like this Weinstein guy from Canada - yet any Brit/American/Canadian who went to Afghanistan in 2001 is arrested as a traitor and a terrorist. Double standards abound. Ah well.

yes exactly. And as chilling as it is, and a destructive to the free market of ideas as it is, I don't think Canada's move comes from a nefarious right wing conspiracy, as much as it does from their religion of tolerance. I love Canada, but placing tolerance above critical thinking is something that unfortunately tends to happen up there.