You may recall how recently an array of high ranking Israeli officials in the Netanyahu government, including National Security Council head Ya’akov Amidror and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, briefed ultra-Orthodox rabbi and Shas leader Ovadia Yosef on the proposed war with Iran in the hopes of receiving his blessing. Both the war (which Netanyahu reportedly wants before the U.S. presidential election) and the need to get nod from a religious leader were criticized, including by some of us who noted the extreme views of Yosef. Now, Yosef has called upon Jews to pray for the death of Iranians and the destruction of the nation of Iran. Now we have spiritual leaders is both countries calling on God to annihilate whole countries as examples of divine and moral justice.
Yosef told his followers that good Jews should pray for destruction of the enemies of Israel, particularly Iran and Hezbollah. The lesson in morality came with his weekly sermon and specified that the prayers should arrange for the annihilation of the Iranian during Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year). Apparently just to be clear in the prayers to avoid the annihiation of similarly sounding countries, Yoseh stressed “When we say ‘may our enemies be struck down’ on Rosh Hashana, it shall be directed at Iran, the evil ones who threaten Israel. God shall strike them down and kill them.”
With Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also calling on God to destroy Israel, we have perfect agreement on one point from both sides: God is being who can be called upon to kill millions in the name of faith. These guys both sound and look remarkably alike.
As noted in the earlier blog, Yosef has long espoused extreme and hateful views, including likening Palestinians to snakes and calling for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “perish from this world” and describing non-Jews as “born only to serve us”. This is the person that the Israeli government wants to bless the upcoming war . Of course, as noted earlier, the scheduling of a new war against Iran before the U.S. election would be a transparent effort to use the American politics to guarantee support for the war on the assumption that neither candidate would want to risk alienating the Jewish vote and campaign donors. At a minimum, Israel would expect that the U.S. would help pay for the war — if not immediately than in a later mix of loans and military assistance. We could then ultimately find ourselves in a third war, particularly if Iran strikes U.S. assets in response to an Israeli attack. Of course we will have the comfort of knowing that Ovadia Yosef says it is all perfectly moral.
Source: Haaretz
With Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also calling on God to destroy Israel, we have perfect agreement on one point from both sides: God is being who can be called upon to kill millions in the name of faith. These guys both sound and look remarkably alike.
As noted in the earlier blog, Yosef has long espoused extreme and hateful views, including likening Palestinians to snakes and calling for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to “perish from this world” and describing non-Jews as “born only to serve us”. This is the person that the Israeli government wants to bless the upcoming war . Of course, as noted earlier, the scheduling of a new war against Iran before the U.S. election would be a transparent effort to use the American politics to guarantee support for the war on the assumption that neither candidate would want to risk alienating the Jewish vote and campaign donors. At a minimum, Israel would expect that the U.S. would help pay for the war — if not immediately than in a later mix of loans and military assistance. We could then ultimately find ourselves in a third war, particularly if Iran strikes U.S. assets in response to an Israeli attack. Of course we will have the comfort of knowing that Ovadia Yosef says it is all perfectly moral.
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The United States can fundamentally destroy Iran and their allies. Make no mistake. What about Saudi Arabia?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
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Be careful what you ask for.
Comment here are not by me, Ralph Adamo fromNew Orleans.
Justagurl, there is a difference between opposing improper behavior on the part of the Israeli government and opposing Zionism in general, which by the way is kind of a different thing now from what it was in, say, 1946. Supporting Israel is also not the same thing as supporting every action taken by the present Government of Israel, right? Take, for instance, the example of a person who might say she supported the United States of America (especially the right of the USA to continue to exist as a nation): would that mean that she also supported all of George W. Bush’s policies from 2001-2009 or that she supports all of Obama’s policies today?
There are Jews within and outside of Israel who support Zionism, and those who oppose it; there are Jews within and outside of Israel (a clique of the ultra-Orthodox) who believe that the nation of Israel has no right to exist (because God did not approve the return to the Temple yet) and of course Jews within and outside of Israel who support Israel and at the same time oppose many of its present policies and who would like to see the present government of Israel totally replaced by people who would put policies in place that are more in line with their hopes and ideals — and morals.
And none of these combinations of positions has arisen in any kind of Ivory Tower, nor could they, unfortunately. We just go along as best we can, as probably do most if not all others.
Lol, god this god that…. How many of you’ve seen his or talked to god? None! So why do you take religious leaders so seriously, it’s not like they’ve been chosen, it was their college career that got them there, they aren’t appointed by the highest law in the universe. I say strike down all people that believe that they have gods best wishes in mind, because these men have the outmost ability to brainwash and control society through their words. I don’t care if it’s a priest, a Jew master or a Muslim master. Strike them all down, think for yourself and give these men less power and then you will truly have gods best wishes with you. If god likes democracy, participate in it, don’t follow like sheep.
“To me the bottom line is that Saudi Arabia is America’s chief ally in the ME, to the point where it is uncertain who is really the “Client State”. All US policy in the ME has been focused on oil and Israel has been manipulated into providing a distraction for the entire geographical area. The poverty and oppression of the Islamic peoples, in the midst of such wealth, is among the worst in the world. Yet as has been done through all of human history oppressed people are distracted by introducing a “bogey man” as the hated other.” (Mike S)
Yes, yes, and yes. I don’t care how many times it has to be repeated … it is the truth.
Sadly they can not chart their own course for the very reasons mentioned in that quote. I wish they would but I understand why they can’t … Mike, we would annihilate them at the drop of a hat if they didn’t tow the line.
Blouise,
Regarding the annihilation, to understand that as you do, shows you can empathize with what it is to be Jewish and contemplate the world around you. Jewish history is such that we remain convenient scapegoats in times when despots need to distract those they oppress. However, as someone like Bibi shows, oppression doesn’t necessarily lead to nobility,
Words and context mean so much and as I look through the verbiage used here, in the context of the struggle for oil in the Mid-East that has gone on for at least 100 years, I see words used with meanings that I don’t recognize. first of all to be clear about where I am coming from, let me say that I am a very left-wing (a description in and of itself of many meanings) Jew who supports the right of Israel to exist. To add further precision let me also state that I have been on record here many times as being opposed to the current Israeli government, Netanyahu and AIPAC because I believe their policies actually represent a danger to Israel. Finally, completing my own position contextually, I believe in the so-called “two state” solution with an independent “Palestinian”
State and a removal of Israeli settlements from the West Bank. However, as a Jew, I believe that Jerusalem should remain in its totality as part of Israel and as its capitol. As far as this “Rabbi” and the Shas party go an easy test of when a man is using religion for power, rather than worship, is if they are leading a political party. Shas and this Rabbi are self-important fools who do
harm to Israel as they support policies that are contrary to Israels’ founding principle.
Now knowing my base position let me deal with some of what I see have been misconceptions on this thread:
Zionism: This was originally the belief emanating from 19th century Jewish intellectuals who believed that the Jewish people would always be repressed in the Diaspora until they had their own state. As a Jew I also believe this and in that sense I am a Zionist. However, there are those who call themselves Zionists that really represent aims quite different from my own and indeed from those of Israel’s founders.
United States Policy supports Israel: Although this is the meme that is widely accepted by most people here, it is not now, nor never has been true. Even though Harry Truman approved supporting the UN resolution establishing Israel, as the surrounding Arab States prepared to attack Israel he refused to let them buy arms to defend themselves. Indeed most Western powers refused to sell the Israeli’s arms and they only got them through Jews and other sympathetic individuals smuggling them in past a British blockade. Britain sided with the Arabs, even while voting in favor of the UN resolution and the famed Arab Legion (Jordan) was led by a British General.
The US policy has been to keep Israel in check ever since they improbably won their independence by defeating an overwhelming Arab force. This occurred in all of the wars that Israel has been involved in with its Arab neighbors, even though Israel was attacked time and again by overwhelming Arab forces. In the 1967 War where Israel captured the West Bank after a massed Arab attack, the US immediately began calling for the Israeli’s to give it back, even though the had only recaptured land that the UN Resolution establishing Israel had originally denoted as Israeli territory.
Wait, let me cut this short because from long past experience peoples eyes begin to glaze over when I go into the real ME history, that has been drowned through the years in the sea of propaganda financed by the Saudi’s and the Oil Cartel. In fact the reason I started commenting on Jonathan Turley’s blog was because the people on other supposedly progressive blogs couldn’t believe that I was a “Left Winger” who supported Israel’s right to exist. To me the bottom line is that Saudi Arabia is America’s chief ally in the ME, to the point where it is uncertain who is really the “Client State”. All US policy in the ME has been focused on oil and Israel has been manipulated into providing a distraction for the entire geographical area. The poverty and oppression of the Islamic peoples, in the midst of such wealth, is among the worst in the world. Yet as has been done through all of human history oppressed people are distracted by introducing a “bogey man” as the hated other.
I’ll end this diatribe now, while recognizing that to the skeptic I’ve hardly begun to make a case against all the propaganda they’ve absorbed. I’ve argued these points far too many times and even though I can back up everything I say, it wearies me to continue to do so. In the end I believe Israel’s best course is to acknowledge the the deceptiveness of US policy and chart its own course. Netanyahu, however, is not the man to do it. He is merely the puppet of Jewish Republican plutocrats, who are stupidly the puppets of humanities 1%.
idealist,
You are correct that the Jews of the rest of the world have a valid interest in aggressive attitudes in Israel. It does reflect upon them, whether or not that’s just.
Citizens of the U.S.A. also have a valid interest in Israeli attitudes. The government of the U.S.A. supports Israel, and will be drawn into any conflict in which Israel participates. Countries surrounding Israel are justified in resenting the role of the U.S.A., when Israel becomes aggressive.
Reducing our dependence on oil (there’s no such thing as “foreign oil”) would reduce the perceived need for the U.S.A. to arm, and interfere in, all of the nations in the area. We all contribute taxes to Chevron and BP.
Our position as the world’s largest arms merchant is, of course, very lucrative. But so was the slave trade. We disengaged from one, can we abandon the other?
Just my morning ramble.
What BK says.
Malisha,
Non-jews can NOT speak for Jews, simply because they don’t know what is important to be the jew, that each jew is as
an indivicual.
Of course, non-jews can speak on their life quustions as the jewish Zionist expression touches on it as a co-inhabitant of this planet.
But my question asks can a group who actively support the extablishement of a Jewish nation, steered as a nation expressing the values of Jews as various Jews there see them….can such a group claim the support of ALL jews around the world, And thus claim to speak in their name.
The jewish complainants at the site I linked to claim that Zionists speak in their name which they do not like.
Thus my questions.
AS for the jews of the world having a right to an opinion on the existence of a Zionist Israel. That IMO is doubtful, in the sense they are not living there. But they do live in the fallout of the conflict, the fallout where they live, of beion presumed to have a pro-Zionist attitude, etc. Thus they are forced to speak to defend their “life” questions.
Now what do you say to my questions as expanded above?
Idealist,
“Does Zionism speak for the jews of the world. Or do the jews of the world have the right to take a position?”
Do the non-Jews of the world?
mespo,
I refuse to live my life in fear, and make decisions according to what new bogeyman has been conjured up, this year.
A handful of mostly Saudi Arabians, directed by a Saudi Arabian, attacks New York City and the Pentagon. The U.S.A. attacks Iraq and Afghanistan, but not our ally, Saudi Arabia.
Iraq and Afghanistan must be destroyed.
Eleven years later, I’m supposed to still be hiding under my bed? I don’t think so.
Intelligence assessments are made, oddly enough, by intelligence agencies, which will cease to exist in the absence of assessed threats.
Iran is the latest Big Fear. The Iran problem was created by (wait for it) the CIA in 1953.
Pakistan, our ally, gave nuclear weapon technology to Iran and North Korea.
Iran must be destroyed.
Homey don’t play that game.
US troops urged to share faith in Afghanistan
mespo,
I believe we are making many more enemies than friends in Afghanistan. Here are some reasons why:
U.S. Troops Face Administrative Punishments Over Koran Burning, Urination Video
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/27/us-troops-koran-burning-urination_n_1833910.html?utm_hp_ref=world
Bob Kauten:
“I haven’t missed any boat. I don’t want to reason with the Afghan government or the Taliban. Neither of them needs the U.S.A. to mess up their country. They can do it all by themselves. Go away and let them do it.
We’re safer?
I’ve been protecting the U.S.A. from rampaging elephants for eleven years now. See any elephants? I’m protecting you! I need more money!”
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Every intelligence assessment — home and abroad — says you are wrong. You could have made the same argument up to 9/11 and seemed just as wise. Facts have a way of screwing up our theories, and simply put we can’t afford for you to be wrong.
It’s OK, Lona. No harm done. I just remembered his name.
It’s astounding that he’s still around.
Disturbing that he has an audience, but in the aftermath to Obama’s election, not surprising.
Lona,
I sure hope that was sarcasm
Lona:
Doctor David Duke. Interesting. Rather sullies my Ph.D.
From Wikipedia:
“In September 2005, Duke received a Kandidat Nauk degree in History from the Ukrainian Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP).
His doctoral thesis was titled “Zionism as a Form of Ethnic Supremacism.” Prior to earning his Ph.D., Duke had received an honorary doctorate[citation needed]. Anti-Defamation League claims that MAUP is the main source of antisemitic activity and publishing in Ukraine, and its “anti-Semitic actions” were “strongly condemned” by Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk and various organizations. The Anti-Defamation League describes it as a “University of Hate”. Duke has taught an international relations and a history course at MAUP.”
and
“On February 4, 2009, Duke repeatedly called MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann “untermensch” on his radio show in response to being labeled “Worst Person in the World” on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
David Duke may be offering his honest perspective. It’s the perspective of an insane hate-monger.
Olbermann is well-defined by his enemies.