Hateful Academic Lets Rip at Bibi
March 5, 2012 14:29 by Simon Plosker
Nowhere does Shlaim mention any role for the Palestinians in Mideast diplomacy. Only Netanyahu is responsible for its failure. Shlaim ignores historical facts by claiming that Netanyahu has rejected any settlement freeze, conveniently forgetting the 10 month freeze that did take place in 2009 when the Palestinians still refused to return to the negotiating table until the dying weeks of the freeze.
If we are talking about Israel-US relations then no anti-Israel commentary would be complete without some standard canards:
How can a jimcrack politician from a small country defy the most powerful man in the world and get away with it? At least part of the answer lies in the enduring power of the Israel lobby. Ever since 1967 the lobby has opposed every international plan for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli dispute that was not to Israel’s liking. But any proposal for a military strike against Israel’s enemies can count on the support of Israel’s friends in Washington, Iraq in 2003 and Iran today being the most obvious examples. In the case of Iran, Netanyahu is the war-monger in chief and he is doing his utmost to drag America into a dangerous confrontation that cannot possibly serve American interests.
In one paragraph, Shlaim breaks down the US-Israel relationship into one based on “the enduring power of the Israel lobby”, even falsely implying that the 2003 Iraq war was driven by Israeli interests. As for Iran, the US does not need Israel to define what serves American interests. The Iranian problem is not solely one for Israel alone and effects all free nations in the world who do not wish to see an extremist regime that indulges in state-sponsored terrorism in possession of nuclear weapons.
Avi Shlaim, The Independent and Israeli citizens are entitled to their views on Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli government and its policies. Shlaim, however, is clearly motivated by an intense dislike or even hatred of the Israeli PM, the result of which is a vicious personal attack on Netanyahu and a one-sided political polemic against Israel.
Please send your considered comments to The Independent – letters@independent.co.uk
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Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting.com, flickr/ultimateslug, Wikimedia Commons/ TheCuriousGnome.
Adam
11:23 am
Mar 13, 2012
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Anama
8:12 pm
Mar 13, 2012
Why in the world are we calling settlers in place of inhabitants or citizen..? It would be better to use a normal language to talk about Israelis. Also, settlements are villages or buildings or communities. And finally I think we should say Judea or Samaria in reference to the West Bank.
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Sylvie Schapira
11:52 am
Mar 13, 2012
Eugenia, there was never any proof that Hitler’s father was a Jew. But there are indeed Jews who project their own self loathing onto the Jewish people. Anti-semitism is a virus and spreads. It is in the collective unconscious (and conscious) and will never be eradicated through simply stating that it exists. We know that it does. But through evidence based information we may enable some of the ignorant, the haters and those who go with the tide to learn another perspective.
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Salim Muhammad Kalifa
4:10 pm
Mar 13, 2012
Allah, peace be upon him, has been found shot to death in a museum in Hazor. This rock god was killed by Aman Ra, a pre-Islamic god who did not want to be under some upstart new religion god.
Bibi did give away part of Israel during his previous term and is not showing his cards to the enemies of mankind. Islam is a sham religion and Sharia is a law not a religion.
Israel belongs to the people who recaptured their own lands. The Arabs (who call themselves Palestinians) are simply nomadic wanderers from surrounding Arab countries who are used as dupes of the murdering rulers of greater Islam.
It is said that it will take months to bury all Muslims in the world for they will be destroyed by the G-d of Israel.
Salam Alechem
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Aerts Francois
5:42 pm
Mar 13, 2012
Adam, the settlers in the territorities have every right to reside there : they are NOT nuts. They should be admired, for having the courage to live in that hostile environment. They are radical in that sense that they believe Adonai gave them that land, and they live up to what they believe in, and for that they should be admired. The real problem is that the Arab inhabitants of the territories refuse to live alongside their Jewish neighbours; that is why the Israeli military have to guard them day and night, why roads have to be closed, and why new roads are build for the sole purpose of transporting Israeli Jews in safety. The so-called two-state solution is not a solution, but the root of all these problems. The Israeli government should make it clear for the Israeli Arabs that they have the right TO RESIDE in Israel, but that they have NO RIGHT whatsoever TO RULE a part of Israel (or the whole of Israel, which happens to be their wet dream).
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John Williams
6:46 am
Mar 14, 2012
I think for the most part is quite accurate, maybe a bit over the top in some places. What’s the problem?
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Frank Adam
11:34 am
Mar 14, 2012
Judea and Samaria or the British Districts of Hebron and Nablus are only the “West Bank” of the Hashemite Kindom of Jordan. Geographically they are the [central] hill country of Palestine.
While the politically blinkered and geographically ignorant call the area in question: “The West Bank,” they demonstrate their ignorance; that they do not believe fully in the PA and its pretensions; and hold that the area long term should return to Jordan – which it might yet drift to after the generation of the PLO founders dies off and the end of the petroleum era dries out the political steam and dollar stream supporting the fatuity of another Arab Palestine State in addition to Jordan.
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Anama
2:24 am
Mar 15, 2012
After WWII, British gave the Palestine region (conquest by Ottoman Empire centuries before), to a bunch of new countries. That means many countries were created by the British at the same time they returned to Israelites their Jewish Ancient Kingdom, placed on the Mediterranean at the West of the Jordan River. The East of that river was for the (Arab) Hashemite people, they choose to named it as “Jordan”.. Of course if Jordanians want to give their people a creative nationality calling them as ” Palestinian”, it needs to remove the name of Jordan, because the so called Palestine country they occupy, is in the same place, at the East of the Jordan River. That means the Hashemite people choose to change it calling their new country as Kingdom of Jordan. Now is the time to the world to recognize it, stop acting as a stubborn antisemitic and bothering all the planet with empty protest. It is time to honor the truth.
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Salim Varese
9:50 pm
Mar 17, 2012
The Hashamites are from Saudi Arabia, who was itself divided, look up Hijaz and Najd,
Jordan was given to Abdulla from Saudi Arabia who becaue Emir… later King.
Bedouins came along with him but they were typically a minority in Jordan.
Weitzman said in 1922 after talking to Feisal about the brits: they sold the same dog to two masters. Feisal said earlier that it was good for the Jews to come to Palestine (from Roman Palestina) because they will develop it… Prior to that the Quran said that the Jews should live safely in their land… So what happened? Inconvenient to the Quranites? So they only follow the hateful stuff?
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Frank Adam
2:51 pm
Mar 15, 2012
Anama has half the story. The finish is as follows. At San Remo in 1920 the French took Syria and Lebanon while the British took Palestine inclusive modern “Jordan” and Iraq. This was broadly according to the Sykes Picot 1916 deal but the British had used Zionism to push the Palestine frontier further North and to eliminate the “international zone” of the Holy Land marked in brown on the map of the original pact.
The French separated Lebanon and the NE Hatay /ancient Antioch, county/province which eventually joined Turkey in 39 – 40 in which the Fall of France helped. In Lebanon the French proposed a smaller border so as to improve the chances of it staying majority Christian but it was the local Maronites (when the archives were opened) who insisted overconfidently, on the “big” L and have lost. This is often quoted against the West Bank settlement project in some Israeli circles.
The British then sorted their various allies as follows. They allowed, and armed (lorried and radio equipped machinegun units) Abdul Azziz Saud the protege of the Indian British Government to create Saudi Arabia driving out: (1) the Hashemites from the Hejaz (Western third) and (2) the ibn Rashids from the NE and South Iraq. The Saudi oil was not yet discovered. It eventually was in the process of drilling for water.
Next they put into exile in Cyprus where he died, Daddy Hashemite,the first Hussein, who had failed to get Saud, Rashid and others to agree to him being King of the Arabs.
In the person of Winston Churchill and all British pro-consuls in the area (Samuel, Cox, Peake Pasha, Lawrence, Gertrude Bell…) at the March 1921 Cairo Conference: (a) put Feisal into the Kingship of iraq having first beaten down the Kurds with air strafes inclusive mustard gas surplus from the Western Front. The Iraqi Mandate eneded in 1927. (b) Split off Eastern or “Transjordanian Palestine” which became “The Emirate of Transjordan” till 1946 or 47 when it became simply “Jordan” and (c) Mandate Palestine the projected Jewish national Home became just Western or Cisjordanian Palestine.
The Mandate’s High Commissioner in Jerusalem was the immediate chief of the British Resident in Amman (Alexander Kirkbride eventually) who tried to teach Abdullah – King Hussein’s (Hussy to a lot of us of a certain age) grandfather the niceties of: public current, capital, and private purse accounting. The resident and commander of the forces (Peake then Glubb) besides being answerable to Jerusalem also had direct line to London which annually vetted the budgets of all colonial governments.
When the British came apart on Israeli independence in 1948 because they had refused to let the Yishuv rescue the Shoah survivors, besides refusing to let the French resume Syria, Abdullah now King of Transjordan did think of changing into King of Palestine but allegedly Kirkbride talked him out of it. The information is in one of those footnotes of the memoirs that is frequently quoted by authors who do not actually follow the footnote /citation back to the original text and so it is extremely difficult to produce the proof.
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Anama
11:41 pm
Mar 15, 2012
Thank you Frank Adam, your information is so interesting!
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reeceagodwin
10:56 pm
Mar 15, 2012
there is so much support for Islam in the world today just look at the citizens of America they voted a muslim into the white house Barrack Hussein Obama can americans get any dumber, this would be one of the dopiest things ive seen any western country do, they truly have been dumbed down to be sold a muslim for president by the media. thats why i support media like honest reporting and others outside mainstream to bring the truth of whats really happening in the world today
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reeceagodwin
11:04 pm
Mar 15, 2012
Needed to add that it wasnt all Americans just those who voted for a muslim President
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Victor
3:17 am
Mar 20, 2012
Reece – this website is called “Honest Reporting”. You should read it. You should also practice it, and not make up facts or repeat false information you read somewhere else.
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Sam Bristol
12:02 am
Mar 17, 2012
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Anama
1:14 am
Mar 17, 2012
Dear Mr Bristol:
Sadly, nor Mr Netanyahu nor Israel will accept you as well even your kids. It seems Bristol family do not reach the minimum requirements to serve as human persons in any constructive way. You as your family are leveled below the minimum.
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Sylvie Schapira
12:51 pm
Mar 17, 2012
Sam Bristol. It is very disturbing to read your vitriolic rantings. I assume that you suffer from some pathological personality disorder? What is also disturbing is that you say you have children. What on earth are you doing to them? Certainly distorting their brains with your hateful abuse. It is now well known that hatred can warp the human brain! Every word you have written on this site is a drop of poison. You do have the right to an opinion, but I would suggest that you consider what your purpose is here on earth. Your vile words and thoughts, your rage and rantings are the stuff that keeps humans from evolving. Israel is a tiny country that is doing its best to survive, and faced with the onslaught of terror and hate that is perpetrated against it, the lust for Jewish blood and the will to exterminate a plucky and amazing country, Israel shows more courage and determination than her enemies can only dream of. Envy, self-hatred and rage are the despicable elements that exist in humans and have to be projected onto a scapegoat. Israel is that scapegoat; but history shows that no matter what enemies do to Israel, Israel always remains; long after the sick people in the world have vanished. Goodbye Sam Bristol….
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Salim Varese
9:58 pm
Mar 17, 2012
God by Sam, Hello Samantha…
You need a sex change and a brain transplant you hateful Moron.
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Frank Adam
4:59 pm
Mar 17, 2012
I defy Sam Bristol to write a similarly vitriolic – parallel piece about the US intervetions in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Granada! He has certainly proved that the Communist and Goebbels technique of stuffing sentences with [rude] adjectives obscures the thinness of his argument.
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Salim Varese
9:59 pm
Mar 17, 2012
Good by Sam, Hello Samantha…
You need a sex change and a brain transplant you hateful Moron.
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Victor
3:12 am
Mar 20, 2012
Salim – you hate Sam so you think he should become a woman?
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Bill Kelly
9:41 pm
Oct 21, 2012
It seems that so many Americans have much ignorance of the facts concerning the history of the modern state of Israel. Shlaim seems to be influenced by some of his American roots.To those people, Israel is persecuting a minority, as we have done here in the US. But they are ignorant of the history and the background of Israel as a nation in modern times. To them Israel seems to have just taken over the land of another nation, and deprived them of their rights.The news in the US never relates the story of how the Palestinians were offered a region of their own, and being stirred up against Israel by her enemies in neighboring countries, rejected this offer.
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