Let's Talk About Israel

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Paranoid Dot Calm

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jimmoyer

jimmoyer

jimmoyer
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It is not a matter only of a very strong pro-Israel lobby; it's not only the influence of a very manipulative media. These are all part of it, but the frame of reference through which policymakers have always shaped policy began to develop well before 1948, and it's a much broader phenomenon than just skillful lobbying or media misinformation.

The entire process has been cumulative. I want to emphasize that point: no one event, no one trend in public thinking, no one policymaker brought this frame of reference into existence.

So let me trace the cumulative nature of this frame of reference or mindset. American impressions and stereotypes of Arabs began to take shape in the 19th century.

This was a period in which travel to Palestine became immensely popular, not only for scholars in many fields but for ordinary citizens wanting to retrace Christ's footsteps in the Holy Land.

Travel writing flourished, adventurers toured the speaking circuit to talk about their experiences, missionaries returned to preach to their congregations.

The word got around widely--and virtually all of them conveyed extremely negative images of the Arabs they encountered. Then, when Zionism emerged around the turn of the century, it seemed wholly appropriate to an America steeped in biblical teachings that Jews should return to the Holy Land.

This notion was given added impetus by the prevalent view that Arabs and Muslims were somehow alien to that land and were inferior human beings in any case--warlike and barbaric and not fit to associate with civilized Westerners.

This kind of thinking had a inevitable impact on policymakers of the early 20th century--including Woodrow Wilson, the first president who made a policy decision on Palestine, by endorsing the Balfour Declaration, and Franklin Roosevelt, who followed along because supporting Zionism was already part of the mindset. It's no accident that, after a century of denigration of the Arabs, the only arguments about Palestine that these presidents found convincing were those from the Zionist side.

By the time of Harry Truman, the mindset had .....



http://www.counterpunch.org/kchristison0715.html
 
jimmoyer

jimmoyer

jimmoyer
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In the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a litany of Christian travelers - Siebald Rieter and Johann Tucker, Arnold Van Harff and Father Michael Nuad, Martin Kabatnik and Felix Fabri, Count Constantine Francois Volney and Alphonse de Lamartine,
......
Mark Twain and Sir George Gawler, Sir George Adam Smith and Edward Robinson -
found Palestine virtually empty, except for :

Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Shechem, Hebron, Gaza, Ramleh, Acre, Sidon, Tyre, Haifa, Irsuf, Caesarea, and El Arish, and throughout Galilee towns - Kfar Alma, Ein Zeitim, Biria, Pekiin, Kfar Hanania, Kfar Kana and Kfar Yassif.

To stay, these Jews had submitted to innumerable conquerors, taxes, pogroms and degradation. But they stayed. In 1799, Palestine was still so much in need of people that Napoleon Bonaparte championed a full-scale return of Jews.

In the early 19th century, Palestine was a backward, neglected province of the Ottoman Empire. Travelers to Palestine from the Western world left records of what they saw there. The theme throughout their reports is dismal: The land was empty, neglected, abandoned, desolate, fallen into ruins.

In Jerusalem, all reports and journals of travelers, pilgrims and government representatives during these years, repeatedly record the poverty, filth and neglect and the desolate nature of the countryside. Early photographs show lepers in rags and dilapidated buildings.

Jerusalem was surrounded by marauding bands of Bedouin Arabs and had to close her gates at nightfall and reopen them at first light, a practice that was similar in Biblical times.
 
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Paranoid Dot Calm

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RE: Let's Talk About Isra

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in hospital

A teaser:

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 77, is recovering in hospital after suffering a minor stroke Sunday, officials said.

Sharon had just finished a Sunday evening meeting with government officials when he felt weak, local media reported.

He was immediately rushed to hospital, according to reports, where his sons Omri and Gilead joined him. [/teaser]

Well I hope he recovers.
 
jimmoyer

jimmoyer

jimmoyer
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Actually I hope this man does survive, despite his past,
despite his nickname, The Bulldozer, he is actually
creating a new centrist party in pulling out of Gaza,
getting rid of settlements (not all unfortunately)
and has to do this all with bitter infighting in the Knesset
while surrounded by attackers from all nations.

And the Palestinians have a leader who resigned under
disgust under Arafat who is also standing on a
tightrope with those Palestinian groups who promote
the industry of self-destructive violence while
trying to get the Arab world to invest, create jobs,
create opportunity without leaving that all to the
zionists.

Also, Sharon's Wall, has been more effective in
reducing the number of suicide attackers and this
alone allow more of a chance for peace than anything
else we've seen for decades.

But of course, this Wall isn't totally pure as it seeks
to nibble around the pre-July 1967 boundaries.

But where will we go without some compromise
in Israel's internal politics and compromise within Palestine's
internal politics ?
 
jimmoyer

jimmoyer

jimmoyer
Apr 3, 2005
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That group would do more, if it offered investment
and jobs to the Palestinian people ----- something
the oil rich Arab world never seemed too motivated
to do.

As it is, the irony is that the Palestinians depend
greatly on this boycotted zionist economy.
 
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