WWL Radio #138 Norm Finkelstein Interview

by: Diane Gee

Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 09:48:56 AM EST

Norman G. Finkelstein is an author and lecturer living in Brooklyn.  He received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
He is currently working on a new book entitled KNOWING TOO MUCH: Why the American Jewish love affair with Israel is coming to an end.  

Norm is a fiery speaker, pulls no punches and is an endless advocate for moving the factions of the Right back to the ideals of the Left: Peace and Human Dignity for All.  I cannot wait to speak with him!

His other books include:

"This Time We Went Too Far": Truth and consequences of the Gaza invasion

Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the exploitation of Jewish suffering

Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen thesis and historical truth

The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A personal account of the intifada years

The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!

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Join Wild Wild Left Radio every Friday at 6pm ET, with Hostess and Producer Diane Gee to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective....  

A message from Alice Walker Sailing on the "Audacity of Hope"

by: ny brit expat

Sat Jun 25, 2011 at 15:30:18 PM EDT

Israeli Apologists and Freedom Fighters

by: Diane Gee

Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 09:13:29 AM EDT

According to the Haaretz article, in an Israeli government briefing on April 12, officials said that Israel's policy concerning the event has not changed, saying that "ships would be stopped by force if they sailed to Gaza."

Worse, besides all the punitive border closures into Gaza of late, making medicine and basic food unavailable, Gaza has been getting pounded by Israeli forces. It seems the Left has abandoned the cause, it is being ignored since Goldstone kinda-sorta recanted under enormous pressure, barred from his Grandsons Bar Mitzvah and attacked by vile smears by the power machine behind the Zionist Right Wing.

For the past two months, the Israeli military has attacked houses and facilities in Gaza almost daily, either by US F16s, Apache helicopters air or from tank shelling, mortars or sniper fire from fortified concrete bunkers overlooking the Gaza border. From March 16-29, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed 14 Palestinians, including six civilians, and injured 52 Palestinians, including at least 40 civilians (19 children), between 16-29 March, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Post-Ideology in Egypt or "What Happened to the General Strike?"

by: fairleft

Thu Feb 03, 2011 at 15:59:17 PM EST

Abdelrahman Amr Zaki, 15, rejected what he said were claims the protests are just about economic conditions.

"They are not. My father drives a BMW and I have a very good home. There is no democracy, no freedom. We just want Mubarak to go."

The U.S. media and some progressives and a substantial number of demonstrators will apparently be satisfied with an Egyptian revolution that devolves into just 'Mubarak out'. As we see in the quote at the top and the blockquotes below:

But a coalition of activists ... said they would not talk with [Prime Minister] Shafiq.

Amr Salah, a coalition representative, told AFP that those who had launched the call to protest last week "will not accept any dialogue with the regime until our principal demand is met, and that is for President Hosni Mubarak to step down."

"Our principal demand"? The subtitle and then a couple paragraphs from Code Pink Medea Benjamin's article on alternet:

It's the U.S. vs. the Egyptian people (Mubarak's just our dictator)

by: fairleft

Fri Jan 28, 2011 at 19:53:17 PM EST

One protester pointed to the fact that the tear gas canisters being used by the police are made in the U.S.

This is not about Mubarak. The U.S., us, we're the real boss in Egypt. The people in the Egyptian streets want democracy. The U.S. certainly does NOT want to give them that, because it rejects who the Egyptians would vote for. If you're uncertain of the preceding truths, simply read more Wikileaks (see below for links).

And then there's why the U.S. requires an oppressive, anti-democratic Egypt, briefly and from an unlikely source, JTA:

Egypt's $1.3 billion in annual aid [from the U.S.] -- most of it in defense assistance -- is rooted in its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

More on that topic here, in this interview with U.S. state dept spokesman P.J. Crowley on Al-Jazeera (hat tips to Mondoweiss and shergald):

Rattansi: But you have more leverage than that. Surely the secretary of state or the President can speak to President Mubarak and say, "Call off your repressive security forces, now begin a transition to democracy, and stop torturing people."

Crowley: But again, you're casting that in zero sum terms and I reject that. We respect what Egypt contributes to the region, it is a stabilizing force, it has made its own peace with Israel, and is pursuing normal relations with Israel, we think that's important, we think that's a model that the region should adopt broadly speaking. at the same time, we recognize that Egypt, Tunisia other countries do need to reform, they do need to respond to the needs of their people, and we encourage that reform and are contributing across the region to that reform. ...

In any case, if you read and watch the news using my title as your filter, it becomes easy to understand U.S. reaction, and easy to figure out what President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are likely saying to Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak behind the scenes. The second is way more important, by the way. You wouldn't expect anything different than the following from Ms. Clinton, on ABC:

Vanessa Paradis boycotts Israel? She cancels concert there

by: fairleft

Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 18:15:15 PM EST

Feel good as the Israeli correspondent's frustration (reporting for the right-wing Israeli 'news' agency Ynet) rises off the screen. Slowly but surely the boycott's working:

Vanessa Paradis cancels Israel concert
French singer calls off visit due to 'professional reasons' while rest of tour goes on. Some say political pressure at play
Or Barnea
January 17, 2011

Yet another artist cancelation: French singer, model and actress Vanessa Paradis canceled her performance in Israel, which was scheduled to take place on February 10 ...

Cropped; original by Benoit Derrier at wikipedia

Noam Chomsky on Wild Wild Left Radio #94 !!!

by: Diane Gee

Thu Jan 13, 2011 at 17:46:04 PM EST

Listen live by clicking the link icon below:

The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!

The live chat link will go live around 5:45.. found at the bottom of the show page when you listen, or by clicking the link below. Chat will be monitored for comments and questions by the host.

CHAT LINK

Tip: In order to comment in chat, you must create a BTR account, its free and only takes seconds.

Miss the show? The podcasts are available at the link above, or at Wildwildleft.com.

Tonight we have the honor of speaking to world renown Noam Chomsky, one of the most brilliant minds of our times!

Hear Professor Chomsky on the "information wars," free speech, socio-economic stressors, Wikileaks, Gaza, the Settlements and more!

Thank you for your patience in this rescheduled event; Noam and his assistant (goddess and coordinator of all things Chomsky) Bev Stohl have bent over backwards to provide us this opportunity to speak to him, and bring him to the working class left!

Join Wild Wild Left Radio every Friday at 6pm EST, via Blog Talk Radio, with Hostess and Producer Diane Gee to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective....  her Joplinesque voice speaking straight from the heart about the real-life implications of the Political and the Class War on everyday American Citizens like you.

Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread.... all with a grain shaker of irreverent humor.

WWL Radio: Bringing you "out there where the buses don't run" LEFT perspective with interviews, op/eds and straight talk since January of 2009!

Wikileaks teaches (at least 11 things), but what will we learn?

by: fairleft

Tue Dec 14, 2010 at 22:03:42 PM EST

Knowing Saudi Arabia has urged the bombing of Iran, that Shell maintains an iron grip on the government of Nigeria, that Pfizer hired investigators to disrupt investigations into drugs trials on children, also in Nigeria, that the Pakistan intelligence service, the ISI, is swinging both ways on the Taliban, that China launched a cyber attack on Google, that North Korea has provided nuclear scientists to Burma, that Russia is a virtual mafia state in which security services and gangsters are joined at the hip ... means we are far more likely to treat the accounts of events we are given in the future with much greater skepticism.

... What is astonishing is the number of journalists out there who argue that it is better not to know these things, that the world is safer if the public is kept in ignorance. In their swooning infatuation with practically any power elite that comes to hand, some writers ... argue in essence for the Chinese or Russian models of deceit and obscurantism. They advocate the continued infantilising of the public.

-- Henry Porter

Though who knows how many will take advantage, Wikileaks is potentially a destroyer of the government and corporate media enforced/generated naivete about how U.S. foreign policy works and what its real goals are. Let's then understand, my fellow non-naive readers - we who are already well-informed by good, empirical sources and ideologically smart guesswork - that of course for us the leaks mainly remind and confirm rather than reveal (though there are some important revelations 'even' for us). But that doesn't make meaningless the leaks revelations of the expected massive hypocrisy, condescension and brute force neo-imperialism.

Wikileaks' contribution is not to slightly better enlighten the already well tuned in. Its purpose is to replace the naive, idealistic and U.S.-cheerleader 'mainstream media' perspective with the truth, for newbies wanting to go that route. So, yeah, 'we' already knew that the U.S. is the world's most abusive neo-imperial state, reliant on blunt military and economic force. But most Americans, and most people around the world, don't know that.

But if many more Americans did get clued in, what difference would 'just knowing' make? Very little, I think, if those Americans - like those of us here in the internet whineysphere - remain isolated individuals, now wisely skeptical if not dismissive of reality's official media version. Hell, without some minimal ideological smarts and then political solidarity and action the only 'real' effect might be that the newly enlightened drone becomes a career-detractingly excessive dissident within the official reality prevailing at 'the office'. (Not to be overly U.S.-centric: particularly in the greater Middle East, the revelations of various countries' U.S. stooge status aids democratic and anti-imperialist movements.) ...

Send Barbara Boxer a human rights for Palestinians message

by: fairleft

Tue Oct 19, 2010 at 19:26:34 PM EDT

Barbara Boxer Gets Progressive Support Despite Checkered Record on Human Rights, International Law
Boxer takes the positions she does not because AIPAC forces her, but because she can get progressives to campaign for her, donate money to her, and vote for her anyway.
By Stephen Zunes
October 18, 2010

Barbara Boxer shaking hands with Ariel Sharon

"The army knows the kids are there to collect. They watch them every day and they know they have no weapons," said Mohammed Abu Rukbi, a fieldworker with DCI. "They usually fire warning shots but the kids don't take much notice."

Mohammed Sobboh, 17, [ABOVE] was shot just above the knee on August 25 when he was 800 metres from the border, he said. The 12 people in his family have no other income and are not entitled to aid from the UN as they are not refugees.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a horse and a donkey used by Mohammed and his brothers to carry the rubble, he said.

Gaza teens brave IDF fire to collect salvaged building materials
In three months, soldiers shot and wounded 10 youths collecting building materials in expanded buffer zone.
By Amira Hass
October 10, 2010

In the course of three months this summer Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 10 Palestinian teenagers who collect building materials from demolished structures in the former Israeli settlements and the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, dozens or hundreds of meters from the border. Palestinians believe the shootings are aimed at keeping people away from these areas, but despite the great risk dozens of nearby residents, many of them minors, continue to come in order to collect bits of cement and gravel from inside the buildings that were destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces around the time of the 2005 disengagement, and sell them to contractors and factories in the Strip. ...

Every day dozens of people come to the ruins of the industrial zone and the settlements, such as Elei Sinai, in wagons drawn by donkeys or horses. One of the teens, who was shot on August 25, told Defence for Children that in recent months soldiers also shot and killed one of the donkeys and three of the horses.

Most of the children tell of a father who is unemployed. Some were among the thousands of Gazans who worked in Israel up until 2006, when their work permits were revoked. The father of one of the teens was forced to close his store as a result of Israel's ban on the entry of goods it did not define as "humanitarian" into the Strip. After the death, about two years ago, of a 14-year-old shooting victim identified as "N.," the teen dropped out of school to help support his family. That is the story of all these teens, dropping out and going out to work. They all said in their statements that they are afraid to go back to collecting gravel. Some have difficulty walking or carrying heavy loads as a result of their injuries.

'Show us a map; we'll recognize an Israel that doesn't include West Bank & E. Jerusalem'

by: fairleft

Wed Oct 13, 2010 at 15:51:57 PM EDT

We officially demand that the US administration and the Israeli government provide a map of the borders of the state of Israel which they want us to recognize. ...

We want to know whether this state includes our lands and houses in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. ...

If this map is based on the 1967 borders and provides for the end of the Israeli occupation over all Palestinian lands... then we recognize Israel by whatever name it applies to itself in accordance with international law.

-- Senior Palestinian Official Yasser Abed Rabbo

This of course under-reported in the U.S. move by the Palestinians (the latest U.S. 'news'/propaganda on I/P, by the way, is "Israel offers settlement freeze in exchange for recognition; Palestinians say 'no'") is smart if it increases international attention on what the U.S. and Israel are asking Palestinians to recognize: a borderless state fully expanded into Palestinian territory. Abed Rabbo added:

It is important for us to know where are the borders of Israel and where are the borders of Palestine. Any formulation the Americans present - even asking us to call Israel the 'Chinese State' - we will agree to it, as long as we receive the 1967 borders. We have recognized Israel in the past, but Israel has not recognized the Palestinian state.

Other Israel occupation news:

Israel Now Punishing Palestinians Shamelessly

by: fairleft

Thu Oct 07, 2010 at 17:49:21 PM EDT

This is a mere footnote in the chronicle of the Palestinians' life under foreign rule. But this footnote is a typical chapter in the history of Israeli society: a democratic society that gives those wonderful fellows from the Shin Bet a blank check to act like the last of the great dictators and juggle with their subjects' lives - without elections, without oversight, without supervision. Their word is sacrosanct. And if they say, as they did in reply to Haaretz, "Relevant information exists indicating that [Jarrar's] exit from the area poses a risk to our security," we all salute.

'Salute' cuz that's what's done in an incorrigibly (?) militarized society (things seem to have gone much further militarization-wise than they have in the U.S., though Americans can relate). And, of course, as Hass notes, if there were any evidence that Jarrar was dangerous, she would've been arrested long ago. The real explanation for her brutal treatment may relate to the fact that she is a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, representing the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. She wants the Israel occupiers out, and the occupiers don't like that.

Why the peace talks will not continue

by: augurgirl

Tue Oct 05, 2010 at 01:00:32 AM EDT

I'd like to know if the peaceful people of East Jerusalem having their houses bulldozed are entitled to these things? Or the Bedouins? Settlement expansion is part of the same manifest-destiny mentality that makes people like Mr. Boteach feel entitled to the entire West Bank. And I wouldn't call this an act of peace.

Dear Mr. President,

Rumor has it you've been writing your own letters lately. I don't know if this account is true or not, but I do believe that you are desperate enough to continue the peace talks that you would make the offer you're rumored to have made to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Increasing our aid money, our weapon sales, our UN-veto frequency in exchange for a 2-month extension on the settlement freeze might seem like a good deal. Let's be honest, the US was going to veto those resolutions, sell those weapons and send that money anyway. I'm sure you still will, and so is Netanyahu, which is why he rejected your offer. I suppose in this sense you had nothing to lose by making it.

But the nature of your offer to Netanyahu highlight the utter foolishness of our policy toward Israel. Unconditional veto of UN resolutions? What does that say about our respect for the UN, the Security Council, or the process of seeking international justice? That no matter what Israel does, the US will use our veto to defend it. I suppose I was foolish to think that your administration had more respect for the UN than the previous one, but it really is disappointing to see how little you care for the institution and its purpose. Your alleged offer makes it clear that Israel may commit whatever human rights violations it sees fit and count on US support. Just like your reaction to the Mavi Marmara. Or the Goldstone Report. Or the Gaza war. Just like your complete lack of outrage over the cold-blooded murder of Palestinian children by Israeli troops. Your policies make it impossible to defend your administration against those on the left who wonder what the point of voting is, any more.

So the settlements will expand. The peace talks will break down. You can't ask President Abbas to abandon his already fragile legitimacy for peace talks that Israel has done nothing to indicate sincerity about. I am sorry, if not surprised. This is why it doesn't matter if you really made that offer to Netanyahu or not. The US cannot continue to pretend to play an honest broker while being this cozily in bed with one side of these negotiations. If you are serious about peace, if you want to earn your Nobel or secure your legacy or if you honestly want to ease the suffering on both sides of this conflict and leave the world a little safer for Sasha and Malia than you have to cease the charade of neutrality. The US can be neutral, it can be an honest broker and can lead both sides to a just and peaceful future. But it has to be more than just lip-service. We have to end the funding of Israel's occupation forces and insist that the Israeli people pay the bill themselves. We have to end our unconditional defense of Israel to the world and base our positions on the values of the United States of America- respect for human life, human rights, and for international law. We have to stop selling weapons to a regime that targets civilians and stop giving tax breaks to us groups funding illegal settlements. If we can practice real neutrality, we can achieve real peace.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Cross-posted at dearmrpresident365.  

'Why No Openly Gay U.S. Heroes Killing Afghan Peasants' w/ Explanation & Photos

by: fairleft

Wed Sep 29, 2010 at 16:23:43 PM EDT

US escalates killing on both sides of Afghanistan-Pakistan border
29 September 2010, wsws.org

... The Karzai regime has appointed a commission to investigate a US air strike that killed 31 Afghans last Friday. While occupation spokesmen claimed that all those who died were "insurgents," local residents demonstrated against what they charged was the slaughter of innocent men, women and children, and now the local governor has acknowledged that roughly half of the victims were civilians.

Meanwhile, the US military and the Central Intelligence Agency have dramatically escalated their shadowy war on the other side of the border in Pakistan. According to the New York Times, the number of missile strikes by pilotless drone aircraft has been doubled, with at least 21 having been conducted so far this month. ...

According to Pakistani authorities, 708 people were killed in 51 drone strikes in 2009, and another 600 or more have died in the 75 such strikes carried out so far this year. This adds up to more than 1,300 slaughtered since Obama entered the White House. The overwhelming majority of the victims - referred to vaguely by officials and the media as "suspected militants" - are civilians, including women and children.

From 'Tears for Gaza'

Shooting Handcuffed Children
By David Swanson
January 2, 2010
OpEdNews.com

The occupied government of Afghanistan and the United Nations have both concluded that U.S.-led troops recently dragged eight sleeping children out of their beds, handcuffed some of them, and shot them all dead. ...

WikiLeaks VIDEO Exposes 2007 'Collateral Murder' In Iraq
April 5, 2010
HuffingtonPost.com

Bloggers Behaving Badly: Rayne at FireDogLake.com

by: Michael Kwiatkowski

Sat Sep 18, 2010 at 12:37:12 PM EDT

Rayne's latest round of abuse began when truthexcavator posted an entry on what turned out to be a five-year-old news article about an israeli soldier acquitted of murdering a 13-year-old Palestinian by filling her body with enough bullets to drop a charging rhinoceros.  Truth made the horrendous mistake of comparing what Israel is doing to palestinians to what the Nazis did to Jews during the Holocaust.

I was shocked when I heard about this story, but I am less shock of the verdict by the Israeli Army. I'm passed the point of getting mad at Israel. I don't even think of it as a country anymore. I wish it was a country because the Jewish people deserve better. But it's not a country, just as Nazi Germany wasn't a country.

Wild Wild Left Radio #74 World Colonization by Force

by: Diane Gee

Fri Jul 30, 2010 at 16:08:21 PM EDT

Gottlieb and Diane G. are live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio Friday night at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.

Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!

Tonight we will continue our discussion from last week on the tool of Racism, a very real and rising tool. We will also speak to the ridiculous counter-racism claims, and paranoid accusations that always seem to stop truth being told.

They say all war is Class War, and the numbers certainly belie that domestically... but tonight we will also be forging ahead to the larger Foreign Policy - and clarify just how our enemies are created: Fear and "isms" to one end: Make colonies of those who do not serve Western Interests.

Of course, its not all gloom and doom, there are plenty of idiots to satire in this weeks headlines... and you know us. So we shall!

******

Be heard by joining in our live chat, or calling in! Spread the message by telling your friends to listen in or sending them the podcasts!

Please join us for the only "out there where the buses don't run" LEFT perspective on the breaking news!

Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread.

Call In!

Join Diane and Gottlieb every Friday at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio, for News from the Real Left. No hand-wringing, no PC, just straight talk from reality based politics.

WWL Radio: Free Speech in Practice.

The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will go live around 5:20.. found at the bottom of the show page, or by clicking the link below!

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HR 1553

by: augurgirl

Fri Jul 23, 2010 at 17:17:37 PM EDT

What we absolutely need right now, more than anything, is a war between Israel and Iran. This is why I was so pleased to see House Republicans doing their legislative best to egg on the most hawkish elements on either side. Do the ramifications of their votes, the lives and blood and suffering that they are calling for ever occur to them? Or does it stay hidden, disguised in legislative language and washed out in clean black letters on clean white paper?

Like school boys crowding around two arguing fellows to scream "FIGHT!", these petty, small-minded individuals are playing politics with the kind of war that people of Iran (and, for that matter, much of Israel) live in constant fear of. It's disgusting and it is beneath even the House of Representatives, who, in their childishness, cannot claim that about very much, these days. While I am gratified to see that leveler heads are prevailing, at least at the DOD, I am still too afraid of the power of neoconservatives lusting after more Islamic blood. John Bolton, and every Republican signing on to this bill, ought to be made to spend one night as a civillian war zone before they ever call of that kind of violence with this kind of casual disregard for the consequences.

While I am optimistic in thinking that this bill will not make it to a general vote, I sincerely hope that, should it gain more traction, the White House will put its political influence to use and discourages any Democrats from supporting this awful piece of legislation. This is not what I elected my public servants to do. Mr. President, I understand that you cannot possibly dignify every republican spasm of absurdity that comes out of the House of Representatives with a response, but I hope that you will do what you can to see that this bill is not allowed to reflect the views of the government, or the people, of this country.

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Send your letter demanding that House Republican Leader John Boehner denounce the Iran War Resolution

Click here for a list of co-sponsors to see if your representative is on the list.

3 kinds of ironic

by: augurgirl

Sat Jul 17, 2010 at 02:55:45 AM EDT

Today you issued a proclamation. I wanted to use today'd letter to comment on this, but I thought I'd let your words speak for themselves. (I think you'll see where I'm going with this.)

For Immediate Release July 16, 2010
Presidential Proclamation--Captive Nations Week

CAPTIVE NATIONS WEEK, 2010

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

In 1959, President Eisenhower issued the first Captive Nations Proclamation in solidarity with those living without personal or political autonomy behind the Iron Curtain.  Since that time, once-captive nations have broken free to establish civil liberties, open markets, and allow their people access to information.  However, even as more nations have embraced self governance and basic human rights, there remain regimes that use violence, threats, and isolation to suppress the aspirations of their people.

One state

by: augurgirl

Tue Jul 13, 2010 at 03:26:19 AM EDT

The "threat" of the one-state solution has long been tossed about in discussion of the fate of Palestine and Israel. I find myself ambivalent on the subject. In some respects I think it is a good idea; it would end the apartheid system of segregated "Arab" and "Jewish-only" neighborhoods and streets (at least in the law, though, obviously, de facto segregation would likely continue.) It would incentivize working together, learning from one another, and mutual respect, as both Palestinians and Israelis became responsible for the fate of their country. I think it might also mitigate the inequitable resource usage, especially regarding water. It would help both sides, economically and educationally. It would offer legitimacy of each in the eyes of their current enemy's allies.

On the other hand, I worry about the backlash. Ethnic and religious violence on a larger scale. I don't imagine the leaders of the Likud party (or even Labor) being too eager to share their nuclear launch codes (and other military secrets) with the leaders of Fatah, or the PFLP, or Hamas. The military would certainly have a had time adjusting, and the mandatory service for all citizens might need to be reconsidered. It would be ugly, difficult, maybe even bloody, for at least another generation. I, for one, am not confident enough in the outcome to be comfortable calling for a solution that would lead to more lives lost. But doing nothing is also a choice, and the status quo of slow partition is also ratcheting up the body count.

In an International Relations course at Boise State University, one the best professors I ever had gave us an assignment. He divided us into three teams- A, B, and the UN. We were given a map, with different symbols for resources and different concentrations of ethnic groups A and B. He said, every one divide up the map, let's see what we end up with. Needless to say, a heated and unresolved argument ensued. Had we been dividing anything besides land, I would have said, let team A divide it up, and let team B pick their half first. But land is not a heard of cows. Land has history, people's homes, holy sites, cemeteries. I never thought to suggest that we forget the partition all together, and neither did any of my classmates. Looking back, I wonder if, at least in simulation, it would have been a wise idea.

I know that your administration is publicly opposed to the one-state solution. But I'd like to know what your ideal endgame looks like. What outcome can you imagine as best? I think, no matter where you draw the borders, Israel and Palestine will have to work together, rely on one another, trust one another, to a degree that does not yet seem possible. South Africa today did not seem possible during the years of apartheid, either. And it has been a long and bloody road to a present that is yet far from ideal, but I don't think that a South Africa White and a South Africa Black would have been a better solution. What are your thoughts on the one-state solution, Mr. President? I don't believe it isn't something you've given thoughtful consideration. Have you, entirely, rejected the possibility? If so, what was your reasoning for doing so? How do you envision the region, ideally, in 10 years? In 50? What does a solution look like, to your mind?

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

Wild Wild Left Radio #70 Cmdr Jeff Huber on General "Chess" & Afghanistan

by: Diane Gee

Fri Jun 25, 2010 at 16:12:00 PM EDT

Gottlieb and Diane G. will be live and in color (or is that off color?) on WWL radio tonight at 6pm Eastern Time to guide you through Current Events taken from a Wildly Left Prospective.

Hear the Unreported & Under Reported Headlines stories you should be paying attention to, from US Politics, to the farthest reaches of the Earth by the WWL coalition of subversion: undermining the PTB by speaking Truth to Power!!!!

This week we are honored to again host our returning Special Guest Cmdr Jeff Huber, author of "Bathtub Admirals," columnist for Antiwar.com and his own blog, Pen and Sword, as well as a frequent essayist on yours truly, WWL.

Jeff will be analyzing the dismissal of General McChrystal and the replacement with General Petraeus and its possible portends for our theater in Afghanistan. He will also try and shed light on the Naval escalation in the Red Sea, as we join Israel in threatening Iran.

Time permitting, an update on the never ending Gulf Disaster will be provided as well.

Speak up, as we do every Friday, with us on-air, or by telling your friends to listen and sending them the podcasts!

Please join us for the only "out there where the buses don't run" LEFT perspective on the breaking news!

Controversy? We face it. Cutting Edge? We step over it. Revolutions start with information, and The Wild Wild Left Radio brings you the best in information and op/eds from a position that others on the Left fear to tread.

Call In!

Join Gottlieb and Diane every Friday at 6pm EDT on Wild Wild Left Radio, via BlogtalkRadio, for News from the Real Left. No hand-wringing, no PC, just straight talk from reality based politics.

WWL Radio: Free Speech in Practice.

The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will go live around 5:20.. found at the bottom of the show page, or by clicking the link below!

CHAT LINK:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/f...

Is it a stomach bug, or is Chuck Schumer talking again?

by: augurgirl

Fri Jun 11, 2010 at 18:54:38 PM EDT

Senator Schumer has inspired me. Instead of just a tepid boycott  of Arizona, let's close off the borders, (I'm sure we can get Mexico's cooperation on this from the South.) We can keep out all but the most essential medical supplies and some food. (No potato chips though, at least not until we get some heat from the international community.) We'll allow a few Arizonans out, if they need medical treatment, but they'll need to apply for permits and not be on any lists of registered voters. You see, I think their immigration law is indicative of a dangerous trend of radicalized, religiously-based extremism, and, as Sen. Schumer propses, we ought to "strangle" them, (economically, of course,) until the population can be made to see the error of their votes.