Month: March 2015

An American translation of Netanyahu’s racist GOTV speech | Mondoweiss |

The Republican leadership is in danger.
Black voters are coming out in droves to the polls
Left wing organizations are busing them out.

Get out to vote, bring your friends and family,
vote Republican in order to close the gap
between us and the Democrats.

With your help and the help of God,
We will build a nationalist government
that will protect the United States of America.

At the end Halper asks “Can you imagine if an American politician said that?” There’s been an excess of commentary about the racist nature of the speech on social media with many wondering how it would fly in this country. Of course all hell would break out in the press if during a U.S. presidential campaign one of the leading candidates warned blacks, or Jews, were flooding to the polls funded by foreign interests and we should all go out and vote to counter them.

…
The issue here is that Netanyahu did exactly this in 2015, and in a place like Israel it works. Why is that? And what does it say about the supposed shared values between Israel and the United States?

Bibi Played Elections Race Card, Implying Obama, Israeli “Arabs” Conspired to Defeat Him | Tikun Olam |

An Israeli has just sent me some very compelling evidence I hadn’t yet seen about Bibi’s election day shenanigans.  In the sturm und drang over his anti-“Arab” tirade, another important Bibi-meme has gotten lost.  In my election post, I translated the PM’s infamous video exhorting Jews to vote because the Arab masses were storming the election booths.  Bibi also claimed in the video that “foreign governments” were funding his defeat.  This was clearly a reference to V15, the Zionist Camp campaign team consisting of former Obama campaign operatives.

But until now I didn’t realize that the Likud explicitly blamed “American money” for getting all those “angry Arabs” to the polls.  “American” is code for “Obama.”  Linking Obama to the Arab vote is itself racist since it links a Black American president to Israeli-Palestinians (Obama=Arab) in the minds of Israeli Jews.  Yes, Bibi Netanyahu played the race card not just in an Israeli election, but in the American political arena as well.

Israel’s Election: Bibi and Blood in the Water

○ Ted Cruz tells a 3-year-old girl “The World Is On Fire” … The musical video!

Richard Cohen sent me a blogger alert:

Now for a blogger alert: Please note that I do not think racism is no longer a problem or that campus rape has not been an unaddressed horror. I know better. But I also believe that distorting the facts can impede progress. The dead of anywhere — Ferguson or Benghazi — do matter. And so does the truth.

This is very cool. I want all bigfoot columnists to end their columns with blogger alerts so I will know what I can and cannot say about what they’ve written above.

Here’s a sample for Tom Friedman:

Now for a blogger alert: I know I shouldn’t have said “Suck.on.this.” Please stop mocking me for it.

Here’s a sample for Chris Matthews:

Now for a blogger alert: I know I shouldn’t have said that there’s a sunny nobility about George W. Bush. Please don’t disregard everything I have to say, ever.

Go ahead and craft your own blogger alerts. They can be pasted on the bottom of many columnists’ opinion pieces.

One last example, for Peggy Noonan:

Now for a blogger alert: I know I drank a half a bottle of gin before I wrote this. Please don’t mention it.

Your turn.

This made me laugh out loud.

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” the Republican congressman opted not to walk back his comments but instead take about a dozen steps forward.

“We need intelligent debate in the country. Ted Cruz may be an intelligent person, but he doesn’t carry out an intelligent debate,” King said. “He oversimplifies, he exaggerates and he basically led the Republican Party over the cliff in the fall of 2013. He has shown no qualifications, no legislation being passed, doesn’t provide leadership and he has no real experience. So, to me, he is just a guy with a big mouth and no results.”

But would King support Cruz if he ended up becoming the Republican Party nominee for 2016?

“I hope that day never comes,” King told Blitzer. “I will jump off that bridge when we come to it.”

I might add that Rep. King lumped Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in the same lack-of-talent pool.

This is what I predicted would happen. The early attacks on Senator Cruz are more personal than ideological in nature. Of course there is a big ideological divide between Rep. Peter King and Senator Cruz, but King would rather not get into the specifics too much. Rather than pointing out precisely where he disagrees with Cruz, he attacks him for lacking experience, temperament, judgment, and seriousness. I expect this to be the path that most of the Republican candidates follow.

Will update …

My very first impression/fear was a hijacking … the intentional destruction of passenger airliner is mind-boggling, just too horrific!! RIP

LATEST HEADLINE: French prosecutor confirms the NY Times article of yesterday!
○ Alone at controls, co-pilot sought to ‘destroy’ the plane

A320 de Germanwings : le copilote a délibérément voulu crasher l’avion, selon le procureur

Germanwings co-pilot ‘intentionally’ sent plane into descent, prosecutor says | France24 |

The co-pilot of Germanwings flight 4U9525 “intentionally” sent the plane into a descent and was in sole control of the aircraft in the minutes before it crashed in the French Alps killing all 150 people on board, French prosecutors say.

Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin, in charge of the investigation, confirmed reports that the captain left the cabin minutes before the crash and was unable to get back in.

He said pounding could be heard on the door during the final minutes of the flight as alarms sounded to signal that the aircraft was nearing land.

Robin said information pulled from the black box cockpit recorder suggested that the co-pilot, identified as German citizen Andreas Lubitz, refused to open the cabin’s door and “intentionally” sent the plane into its doomed descent.

Screen capture of Facebook photo, deleted a few days ago - link

○ Breaking News Dutch NRC newspaper – all 150 crew and passengers feared dead in French Alps

Full flight information and flight history for Germanwings aircraft D-AIPX

Playback of flight #4U9525 with speed and altitude graph is available on FlightRadar24

 « click for more info
Tracking flight 4U9525 Barcelona - Dusseldorf  

Crash: Germanwings A320 near Barcelonnette on Mar 24th 2015, lost height and impacted terrain | Aviation Herald |

A Germanwings Airbus A320-200, registration D-AIPX performing flight 4U-9525 from Barcelona,SP (Spain) to Dusseldorf (Germany) with 142 passengers and 6 crew, was enroute at FL380 about 30nm southeast of Marseille (France) when the aircraft initiated a rapid descent. Radar contact with the aircraft was lost at about 6800 feet at approx. 10:45L (09:45Z) about 12nm southwest of Barcelonnette (France), 75nm northwest of Marseille.

French Police reported two helicopter spotted the remains of the aircraft on the ground between Prads-Haute-Bleone and Barcelonnette (France), about half way between the two cities there is a mountain ridge rising up to 8600 feet.

France’s DGAC reported the crew transmitted an emergency call just prior to the aircraft disappearing from radar near Bassinet.

LIVE REPORT Le Dauphine local:
○ Un A320 s’écrase dans la zone de Barcelonnette : il n’y aurait “aucun survivant” selon François Hollande
○ Airbus A320 passenger plane crashes in southern France | France24 |
○ Airbus A320 was travelling from Barcelona to Dusseldorf with 150 passengers and crew on board | Ynet News |

(One in a series of posts on George Fredrickson’s 2002 book, Racism: A Short History.)

Fredrickson begins the second chapter of Racism: A Short History by reemphasizing both the extent to which Europeans had developed racist ideologies in the centuries leading up to the 1700s CE, and the limits that constrained those ideologies:

“When Europeans of the late medieval and early modern periods invoked the will of God to support the view that differences between Christians and Jews, or between Europeans and Africans were ineradicable, they were embracing a racist doctrine.  The curses on Jews for the killing of Christ and on blacks for the sins of Ham could serve as supernaturalist equivalents of biological determinism for those seeking to deny humanity to a stigmatized group.  But the highest religious and temporal authorities generally avoided sanctioning this form of ethnic predestination.” (p. 51)

While there were unorthodox beliefs (e.g., the theory of human polygenesis) floating around, “the orthodox Christian belief in the unity of mankind, based on the Bible’s account of Adam and Eve as the progenitors of all humans, was a powerful obstacle to the development of a coherent and persuasive ideological racism.” (p. 52)

It’s not until the 18th century that Europeans develop the modern conception of “race” based primarily on skin color.  “The scientific thought of the Enlightenment was a pre-condition for the growth of a modern racism based on physical typology.” (p. 56)  Scientific giants like Linneaus and Blumenthal (the father of physical anthropology) “opened the way to a secular or scientific racism by considering human beings part of the animal kingdom rather than viewing them in biblical terms…“. (p. 57)

Fredrickson also argues that “the purely aesthetic aspect of eighteenth-century racial attitudes deserves more attention…” (p. 59) and that “aesthetic prejudice may have been more central to the negative assessments of non-Europeans and Jews in the eighteenth century than the tentative and ambiguous verdict of science about their intellectual capacities“. (p. 61)  Basically, white Europeans of the day (and their American cousins)—while they debated whether other races were the intellectual and moral equals of whites—had little doubt that whites were the most beautiful race (a conclusion based in part on neoclassical conceptions of beauty inspired by “the milky whiteness of marble and the facial features and bodily form of the Apollos and Venuses that were coming to light” (p. 59) with the rediscovery of Greek and Roman statuary.

Fredrickson calls the Enlightenment “a double-edged sword” in the development of modern racism:

“Its naturalism made a color-coded racism seemingly based on science thinkable and thus set the stage for nineteenth-century biological determinism.  But at the same time, it established in the minds of some a premise of equality in this world rather than merely in heaven or under God, an assumption that could call into question the justice and rationality of black slavery and Jewish ghettoization.“

And he points to Voltaire (“the first thoroughgoing modern racist” p. 62) as an example of “the dual character of Enlightenment rationalism—its simultaneous challenge to hierarchies based on faith, superstitution, and prejudice and the temptation it presented to create new ones allegedly based on reason, science, and history.” (p. 63):

“(Voltaire’s) opinion of the black or African ‘species’ can only be described as extremely dismissive and derogatory.  His reading of the Old Testament and his observations of the contemporary descendants of the ancient Hebrews made him thoroughly unsympathetic, not only to Judaism, but also to Jews….

On another level, however, his general defense of religious toleration and civil liberties promised more to Jews than did the traditional Christian view….  Despite his contempt for blacks, Voltaire was generally critical of slavery and condemned Christianity for having tolerated it.”  (pp. 62-63)

Crossposted at: masscommons.wordpress.com

Not mincing words about illegal settlements and occupation of Palestinian land, not calling it “disputed territory.”

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough Remarks As Prepared at J Street Annual Conference

In the end, we know what a peace agreement should look like. The borders of Israel and an independent Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps. Each state needs secure and recognized borders, and there must be robust provisions that safeguard Israel’s security. An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end, and the Palestinian people must have the right to live in and govern themselves in their own sovereign state.

President Obama still firmly believes what he said in Jerusalem two years ago–that peace is necessary, just, and possible. Peace is necessary because it is the only way to ensure that a secure State of Israel is both Jewish and democratic. Israel cannot maintain military control of another people indefinitely. That’s the truth. And as President Obama has said, neither occupation nor expulsion of Palestinians is the answer. Anything less than true peace will only worsen the situation. A “one-state solution” would effectively end Israel’s nature as a Jewish and democratic state. Unilateral annexation of the West Bank territories would be both wrong and illegal. The United States would never support it, and it’s unlikely Israel’s other friends would either. It would only contribute to Israel’s isolation.

Peace is also undeniably just. Palestinian children deserve the same right to be free in their own land as Israeli children in their land. A two-state solution will finally bring Israelis the security and normalcy to which they are entitled, and Palestinians the sovereignty and dignity they deserve.

And we cannot give up on the idea that peace is possible, because peace will make Israel stronger. It would provide clear, secure borders that would increase Israel’s security. It would deal a knock-out blow to calls for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions, which many of you have fought hard and courageously to oppose. It would undercut efforts to isolate Israel in the international community and roll back de-legitimization efforts.

Achieving peace won’t be easy. It will require political courage. But nothing would do more to improve Israel’s security or its relations with its neighbors than to bring about a sovereign and contiguous Palestinian state alongside a secure, democratic, Jewish Israel. No nation has done more to stand with Israel in the world, including at the United Nations, than the United States. And so, as difficult as it is, the United States will never stop working for a two-state solution and the lasting peace that Israelis and Palestinians so richly deserve.  

○ White House warns Netanyahu that ‘occupation must end’
○ Netanyahu’s Reelection Pushes J Street to the Left
○ Israeli Left Splits on Tactics at J Street Conference

If they really want me to ever buy their gasoline again, they’ll give their executives some scuba gear and send them into the Gulf of Mexico with wire brushes so they can clean mussels for the rest of their lives, but this is a start:

Major oil-and-gas corporation BP announced Monday it is parting ways with the American Legislative Exchange Council, marking just the latest—and likely most significant—departure of a blue-chip company from the conservative group in recent months, National Journal has learned.

A BP spokesman confirmed that the company had chosen to not renew its membership in ALEC, a controversial coalition of corporations and state legislators that actively opposes environmental regulations, at the end of the year.

It’s a start, but I will probably never shop at BP again, ever.

So, this happened in The Hill.

The other Patrick Murphy is going to run for Marco Rubio’s Senate seat. He’ll make the announcement today and it won’t excite progressives, most of whom are probably hoping that a different Florida congressman, Alan Grayson, will challenge Murphy for the nomination.

Murphy is younger than me, but he and I did attend high school in the same community: me at Princeton High School and Murphy at the elite Lawrenceville School.

His greatest service to the Democratic Party was defeating Allen West in the 2012 election. He carried his Republican district with over 60% of the vote in 2014, and has been one of the best fundraisers around.

His voting record reflects his deep red district, but he has occasionally gone a bit further into the Republican/corporate camp than seems necessary. He supported the Benghazi commission, voted for a congressional override on the Keystone pipeline, opposed a crackdown on for-profit college scam artists, and has voted to trim the Affordable Care Act on the margins, despite opposing its repeal.

It’s hard to predict how he’d vote as a statewide office holder. To use one recent example, Kirsten Gillibrand also had a very centrist voting record when she served in a competitive seat in the House of Representatives, but became much more progressive when she was elected to the Senate. The same thing might happen with Murphy.

Having said that, his father is a Republican and Murphy donated the maximum to Mitt Romney’s 2008 campaign. He appeared to turn against the GOP only after Obama was elected and the Tea Party snapped into existence.

People considering Alan Grayson won’t have to worry very much about how he’ll vote. They have to consider, instead, the way he completely imploded in his first term in office and was absolutely crushed in his then-competitive district. They have to consider his character and whether he’ll sabotage his political career and electability (or re-electability).

Back in 2009, prior to Grayson failing to crack 40% in his first reelection bid, I told you exactly why I didn’t see Grayson as a good fit for competitive seats and why I would never recommend him to my readers. That has not changed, at all. Since then, my suspicions about his political instincts were confirmed by his thumping defeat.

As for my estimation of his character? Well, reading stuff like this doesn’t help.

The bizarre bigamy trial for the estranged wife of Florida Rep. Alan Grayson opened Monday with a day of testimony meant to help prove his spouse was actually wed to another man when the couple exchanged vows 24 years ago.

At stake in the trial — the start of which had been delayed since January after the congressman’s spouse, Lolita Grayson, underwent emergency surgery to have her leaking breast implants removed — is the couple’s $30 million fortune.

So, no, I would never put any eggs in Alan Grayson’s basket. There are things I like about him and he’s certainly smart and entertaining. But given a choice between these two flawed candidates, I’d only tell you: NOT GRAYSON.

If someone else gets in the race, I’d be eager to see if they’re someone I could actually get excited about.

I think Murphy can win this seat regardless of whether or not Rubio runs for reelection. Grayson might be able to win an open seat, but I wouldn’t trust him to keep it even if he did win.

More options, please.

I already said this, perhaps a little more politely. I honestly don’t like to be the person to say it, but it is kind of predictable. There used to be a bit of a generational divide about how American Jews feel about Israel. But, increasingly, the divide is going to be simply between American and European Jews on the one hand and Israeli Jews on the other. Ironically, Israel’s status as a European colony made it is easier to identify with and like, even if that colonial flavor and colonialist temperament made it abrasive. But, as a Middle Eastern country like any other, the sense of shared values is just going to slip away.