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Still Working the New Bolton Stories. . .Seeing What is There
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Saturday, Jun 25 2005, 5:34PM
Just to clarify, there is no doubt that John Bolton became vigorously attached to undoing the "Zionism is Racism" resolution at the U.N.
What I am looking into is the position Bolton took on the resolution before the administration at that time had become committed to the course it took. Some have suggested that Bolton's enthusiasm for this effort was wanting.
More soon.
-- Steve Clemons
« Previous Article - Two New Dimples in the Bolton Story» Next Article - The White House is Planning Something. . .Sounds of Silence Don't Mean Surrender
Bolton's enthusiasm for this effort [to undo the Zionism=racism resolution at the UN] was wanting.
If so, it would be one of the first points of agreement between John Bolton and me. Insufficient hysteria against critics of Israel? Only a sin in Bolton's circles. This is no cliffhanger.
And the Negroponte relationship? Did that go anywhere?
Bolton and Negroponte info:
Until Steve reports back, online article below from Wayne Madsen 5/5/05 may give a clue as to where Steve is going.
"lead up to Iraq War, Negroponte, Bolton, and Hayden, as well as other leading neocons in Pentagon and WH, directed e-mail and telephone surveillance campaign against UN Security Council delegates to determine voting intentions ... on council's resolution authorizing military action against Iraq.
...Negroponte and Bolton received intercept data from Hayden's staff at NSA.
....Secret Security Council negotiations to reach compromise with Iraq and seek more time for UN weapons inspectors scuttled when Negroponte and Bolton made privy to private telephone conversations of UN delegates, including Mexican and Chilean ambassadors.
...Leading neocons working for Cheney and Def Sec Rumsfeld kept apprised of sensitive surge surveillance."
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/050505Madsen/050505madsen.html
AIPAC wants Bolton in place because he will put Israel's interests first.
I don't understand why Bush hasn't set-up the Oval Office in Jerusalem. They are far more loyal to Ariel Sharon then they are to the United States of America.
Hey, THX re: Boltin'Negropont!
How Hayden keeps his hands "clean" just amazes me. His ability to avoid scruitiny from media types and others is unparalleled. Is it because he's the ultimate "yes" man and wields merely ceremonial authority in the NSA? Or just 'cause he's so devious he hides behind the big bugbears of the administration?
Or...is...he...(snicker) just a nice guy?
We have a better idea. Send White House National Security Adviser Steve Hadley to the U.N. and give Mr. Hadley's current job, which isn't subject to Senate confirmation, to Mr. Bolton. As a soft-spoken type, Mr. Hadley will have no trouble being confirmed, and no one at the U.N. will doubt he has Mr. Bush's ear. Meantime, the swap will send a message to Democrats that they can't deny Mr. Bush the foreign-policy advisers he wants.
That's from the Opinion Journal. You wonder what they are smoking at the Wallstreet Journal
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006870
This point is being researched elsewhere, especially by Marilyn Karfeld http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/articles/2005/05/13/news/local/bcover0513.txt
Bolton's past is well-known, especially his times at the AEI and his work with James Baker.
Zionism is not racism! If you Americans believe that Zionism is racism then you will have to also believe that American settlers were racists when they exercised their God given right to acquire the lands of the Indians. The Indians were an obsolete fixture on the lands of the American West, as the Palestinians were in Israel. Bolton was right to defend Zionism against accusations of racism since he was defending at the same time US historical interests.
I don't think too many Americans would deny any longer that traditional American attitudes towards the Indians were indeed racist.
"when they exercised their God given right to acquire the lands of the Indians"??
I think Hopalong was being satiric.
However, if "Zionism = racism," then so does Sunnism, Shia'ism, Kurdism, Sinoism, Celtism, Gallicism... and so on and so forth.
To single out Israel as being 'racist' by mere virtue of its Jewishness is anti-Semitic. The rhetoric let loose during the debate over whether Zionism is racist leaves no doubt of that, not with so many delegates extolling the Holocaust and regretting that Hilter didn't get to finish the job.
Among self-proclaimed progressives who loathe Israel, I often find that, as the discussion wears on, they resort to blatant anti-Semitism. I can think of a few specifically, who hang out at Salon's TableTalk, who believe and promulgate every blood libel against Jews ever invented.
who cares? he wants to go to war with cuba; put him in a home.
Zionism isn't racism. It's just some people who don't particularly like the idea of living with a totally different kind of peoples. It's just like how everybody in the world acts. Nobody likes different people coming into there neighbourhood, then eventually those people take your neighbourhood over, and you are forced to leave if you can't cope with the gibberish being spoken all about you. It's some kind of Darwinism, I guess, where some peoples take over the lands of others that results in frictions brought about by survival of the fittest, natural selection and only the strong survive. It's like they say, "tough luck, pal, move on." Ya, know?
No, zionism is just Israel seeking the right to have their own country, like Palestinians.
But Israel does practice racism against Arabs living in their own country, for instance their decreased rights to property and other loss of rights.
Interestingly enough, criticism against Israel, not Jews, is so curtailed that it is illegal for an American company to refuse to trade with Israel. The Dept of State is also opening a new department who's soul purpose is to track anti-semitism in the world.
The US is obviously strongly tied to Israeli interests and chasing that story could bite Steve in the butt. Remember Howard Dean getting for calling for an even handed approach to Palestinian negotiations?
It's doubtful anyone is going to take a stand against an Israeli position, especially any of the California, New York, or Florida delegates, who are key delegates against the Bolton nomination.
For anybody who aspires to serving in US government, or otherwise participating in the public sphere, criticizing Israel will bring life shattering experience for most. Steve knows better not to go anywhere near this third rail. Amen.
No Don P,
Israel isn't racist, they're prejudiced. Just like me being for the advancement of my people over and against the advancement of others who are competing on the same playing field of life. Someone has got to be the top dog, and better for me if it's my people than others; my family than their family; me than the other guy. I look out for myself, my family, my people, and others do the same, and may the better man, family and people win. God wills it.
Don P - You should do a little research before you post things like "It's illegal for an American company to refuse to trade with Israel." If you had, you would have found out that law was passed in response to Arab countries' demanding that US companies boycott Israel if they wanted to do business with Arab countries.
As for criticism of Israel being the 3rd rail in politics: That's GOP-peddled bullsh*t. Remember Bill Clinton? Hillary Clinton? Both of them have criticized Israel and both have supported Palestinian statehood. Both are still quite active and successful in political life. As for Howard Dean's remark about Israeli-Palestinian negotiations - I think the ones who jumped on him were, again, Republicans.
There's a lot to criticize about Israel. But it's one thing to criticize a country for having a lousy civil rights policy, and another to call for that country's diplomatic/economic isolation, much less its outright destruction. The Arab countries' civil rights records suck, too. Most African countries are human rights abbatoirs. China's record isn't too hot, either; and, for that matter, neither is ours these days.
Anyway, I don't give a damn if Bolton was a major player in undoing the "Zionism = racism" resolution. I'm not Israeli; I'm American. Bolton is a louse, an incompetent, and a borderline traitor. I don't want him representing me at the UN.
Doesn't matter why the law was passed Casey, it is exercised in the US against companies that otherwise aren't doing business with Arab countries.
Howard Dean changed positions after talking to leaders of Jewish groups. Bush changed his position on the roadmap after Evangelical Christian leaders started a phone, fax, and mail program fearing Israel wouldn't regain traditional lands and start the Final Coming. There are ardent supporters of Zionism on both sides of the fence.
My main point is that while the UN campaign is a major victory that may be falsely attributed to Bolton, discrediting it might make it appear to be an attack on Israeli policies which would backfire and actually deter from support.
I'm getting pretty tired of those fanatics who label any criticism of Israel as "anti-semitics".
That is pure BUNK!
It's another intimidation tactic using the Holocaust as an excuse to do anything.
The American government should not be putting ANY ALLY above our own national interests.
AIPAC expects the U.S.A. who gives Israel over $3 Billion in military aide alone, to pander to the extremist Likud party, run by Ariel Sharon. It's stupid to do so and counter-productive.
Zionism is racist because it puts the Jewish people above anybody else. Israel can choose to do that-- it is their perogative.
But if an Arab nation chooses to put Muslims first, what are we going to do?
If another nation puts Christians first, what are we going to do?
The U.S. government should protect U.S. interests.
Bush, Bolton, Cheney and Co. have betrayed the U.S. by waging war on the Middle East. They even lied to do so. Anybody here ever hear of the U.K. Downing Street Memos?
Zionism has become the dominant ideology within Judaism. Far more Jews support Zionism than keep Kosher or observe the Sabbath.
It is impossible for non-Jews to criticize Zionism without many Jews suspecting Israel's critics are anti-semitic.
Expansionist Zionists play on Jewish fears about anti-semitism to "push their buttons" and get more moderate Jews to support Israel's territorial ambitions. Or, at least, if the moderate Jews don't support annexation of Palestinian land they can be made useful by attacking non-Jew critics of Israel as anti-semitic.
Zionism is the full flowering of Chutzpah. We are in the early stages of what will become known in human history as the Age of Chutzpah which will last a thousand years!
june 27, 2005
steve,
latest buzz is a speculation of a supreme court nomination shortly, in anticipation of a retirement announcement.
what does that do to the play of this bolton-dance? might it be that within the week, the WH will have both these nominations to congress.... setting the stage to portray the democrats as obstinate?
federenko:--
That sounds like the Nazi Regime...
The Age of Chutzpah as you call it is an in-your-face phrase that is arrogant- self-obsessed- and, dangerously ugly...
Ultimately Americans will refuse to send their kids to DIE for Chutzpah...
The "anti-semitism" label like the "race card" will grow tinny, tiresome and will be rejected when Americans see that the Zionists simply use it in order to justify their unjust treatment of the Palestinian people...
Arab peoples are human beings too-- and they should not be conquered by American or Israeli warriors-- for as history teachers, imperial mass-murderers (Hitler, Stalin) are ultimately defeated...
It is not "anti-semitic" to be appalled by some of the extremist policies of Sharon's Likud government in Israel...
It is not "anti-American" to oppose some of the extremist policies of the corrupt Bush administration...
The Zionists have over-reached and with the AIPAC Larry Franklin scandal and other betrayals by the Israeli government who are trampling upon the Palestinians, many conscientious people (including Israelis like Haim Yavin) will reject neo-Nazi-style behaviour, even coming from Zionists...
The Age of Chutzpah won't reign for 1000... I wouldn't give it a decade even...
b.russell is right:
Zionists should be careful because labelling everybody anti-semitic who disagrees with Israel is like crying wolf. After a while it becomes a joke.
Also regarding joe's news:
Is the timing of Rehnquist's announcement a diversionary tactic to take our minds off of:--
* Bush's fiasco in Iraq. Generals and others condemn Cheney's insane "happy talk"-
* Bush isn't believed because the U.K. Downing Street Memos prove Bush is a bald-faced liar-
* Bolton's nomination is looking like another "Bernard Kerik" disaster.
Perhaps if they can divert our attention (they're good at that because Americans don't "connect-the-dots") then they can shove Bolton through "on-the-sly".
We need you Steve to keep us informed.
Thanks.
Maybe it would be more accurate to say that Zionism is colonialist. I think it is unfair to call it racism, because apart from anti-semitic racism there never would have been a Zionist movement in the first place. Zionism is incomprehensible apart from a long history of anti-semitism. But the Zionist movement can be seen as a late flowering of colonialism, albeit of an ethno-religious nature. Recall that there had been other canidates for the Jewish state besides Palestine, including portions of Russia and (I think) Argentina.
Chutzpah is merely a word that describes the essential quality of those who are dominant. Winners are always endowed with great Chutzpah, while inveterate losers lack Chutzpah altogether. It is true that competing factions can all have a degree of Chutzpah, and that those with the most froward Chutzpah may not necessarily end up as the winner of a struggle. This is where Moxie comes into play as being very often the deciding factor in God's choice of a winner. A cunning mix of both Chutzpah and Moxie gives one the best chance to come out on top. Although overbearing Chutzpah is sometimes all that's needed to overcome ones opposition, it is best to always combine any use of Chutzpah with sufficient guiding doses of Moxie to achieve ones designs. This will best ensure victory after victory leading to unchallenged dominance. In the coming Age of Chutzpah the above formula should be taken to heart if you, your family, and your people are to survive the next major culling of humankind.
JNH,
The appalling history of anti-semitism did create the Zionist movement and the establishment of Israel. The Jewish people were rightly given a homeland and all forms of REAL anti-semitism should be condemned.
But I disagree with your statement. The many vicious wrongdoings and crimes committed against the Jewish people don't give them the right to turn-around and commit the same crimes against others like the Palestinian people.
Two or more wrongs don't make a right.
Blacks in the U.S.A. were wrongly enslaved and treated with vicious discrimination- but that doesn't give a Black the right to enslave Whites or Kill with impunity.
Some Israelis see that the racist policies of Israel are destructive to their own people. Look up Haim Yavin's excellent documentary about the need for Israelis to view Palestinians as human beings.
The U.S.A. provides over $3 Billion in Military Aide to Israel every year. Israelis kill 3-4 times the number of Palestinians as the reverse. Are we to continue to fund the Israeli's brutality against the Palestinians.
Zionism is racist. And to 'turn-a-blind-eye' because of the Holocaust serves to trivialize and deny man's inhumanity to man.
Israelis have an obligation to behave in accordance with international rules. We rightly condemn Mugabe and other tyrannical regimes who brutalize and kill Africans. We rightly condemn Crimes Against Humanity. Israel has an obligation to treat the Palestinian people with respect. They are not doing so.
The "anti-semitism" label is all to often recklessly thrown around to intimidate and silence critics of injustices committed by some Israelis.
That is wrong. It's just plain wrong.
1. federenko:--
You say: "In the coming Age of Chutzpah the above formula should be taken to heart if you, your family, and your people are to survive the next major culling of humankind."
That sounds very, very ugly to me.
"culling of humankind" reeks of Nazi-style rhetoric. It's barbaric. We need peace and to resolve the problems of hunger and inequity of opportunity and wealth in the world-- not to have a "culling" Nazi-style.
2. And, I still hope that Steve will address the timing of the announcement about Rehnquist, and what the White House are doing to divert attention from their many fiascos, including the Bolton affair.
3. b.russell - You are right and the U.S. is not being told the truth about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict:--
Zionism is a form of colonialism. All known forms of colonialism are underpinned by racist ideology.
Is this acceptable?
From one of Steve's colleagues:
CaseyL: so many delegates extolling the Holocaust
OK, you are going to have to point to a source for this.
I don't outright say I disbelieve you, I don't even outright charge you with overstatement.
But you are going to have to provide a source for the statement that "many" UN delagates were "extolling" the Holcaust.
Otherwise, such a claim just smells up the place. Yeah, please tell us where we might hear or read these "many" delegates' high praise of genocide.
Maybe CaseyL meant to write "extolling the virtues of the Holocaust," instead of "extolling the Holocaust," which would put his statement in a new, more distinct, light.
Re: federerenko: "This is where Moxie comes into play as being very often the deciding factor in God's choice of a winner."
Only the most self-important of human beings makes such a statement. Merging something quite incomprehensible into your most comprehensible of statements is self-congratulatory bullshit.
America-Jewish facts
America is home to vastly more Jews than any other country, even more than Israel.
America is the only country who gives Israel unqualified, uncritical support---the one Security Council member who invariably vetoes resolutions critical of Israel.
America provides fabulous financial support, to the tune of $91 billion since Israel’s inception---more than $14,000 for each Israeli. (Wash. Report for Mid East Affairs)
Israel was the only country to give unqualified support to the Iraq invasion.
A large proportion of the top people who pushed for the invasion were Jewish.
The appearance of connections beween any of the items above is strictly coincidental and anyone who believes otherwise is a DIRTY ANTI-SEMITE! DIRTY ANTI-SEMITE! DIRTY ANTI-SEMITE!
I'd hate to see this conversation go too much off on a tangent.But no matter how you feel about zionism, the zionist (or Jewish) voting block, like the NRA and AARP, has a lot of influence in Washington DC. I think AIPAC and JINSA are only behind AARP in lobbyists and donations (I've heard it but haven't confirmed it). WRMEA reports 1978 - 2004 congressional donations at almost $40 million dollars, and I don't know of any reason to doubt them.
Not even the Franklin affair has slown it down. I'm not saying that their activities are good or bad, just that they're a matter of fact. It's influence must be taken into account in foreign policy
I've also met people who've admitted to working as sayanim and know that Israel has active operations in the US.
Just a curious question for anyone in Washington. Is it true that Nancy Pelosi saluted the Israeli flag after giving a speech at AIPAC? The conspiracy sites report it but I'd like to confirm it before believing.
did anyone see these comments on kos? i don't have enough of a grasp of the details about the plame case but am curious if there's a connection to bolton.
- - - - - -
Does Bolton have anything (none / 0)
to do with this?
I had read that he might but cant remember where?
on Mon Jun 27th, 2005 at 09:39:16 PDT
Bolton may (none / 0)
the theory is that the White House would have no idea who Plame was since she was a field agent. Bolton was intent on rooting out non-partisans from the CIA. The intercepts that the Senate wants may be about Plame and her identity and job. So Bolton may be the person who leaked Plame to the leaker, who was probably Rove or a Rove henchman.
on Mon Jun 27th, 2005 at 10:52:26 PDT
[ Parent ]
c,
It is quite possible that Bolton was involved in the Plame leak since Bolton's Chief of Staff, Fred Fleitz, was a CIA bigshot in a division acronymed WINPAC that Plame was also a part of, and Flietz was on loan from the CIA to Bolton. Bolton's vindictive M.O. as well as his involvement in pushing the Niger/uranium fraud, makes him a prime suspect in the Plame affair in my book.
Soon, indeed. Ha ha ha. Some of us are on tenterhooks here!
(btw, do you all know what tenterhooks are? I always imagined being on tenterhooks as being strung up on a sort of meat hook, so that you are in agony, and every way you turn just makes it worse. Not at all, though. Tenterhooks are the hooks used by tent-makers to stretch out canvas; so the idea is that you are taut as a drum.)
You take your time Steve to get things ship shape before you say anything, ole buddy, ole pal. Nice and easy does it every time. Cross your T's and dot all them the I's. Leave no stone unturned, keep a stiff upper lip, and give the blogsphere a good show. If ya come up with nuttin', dems da breaks. Ya win some and ya lose some. Jus' do yer best and alls well that ends well. What can ya do, eh? Get a good nights rest, wake up fresh in the morning, and go get'em. Ta rah rah boomdeeyay, and all that rot.
"Some have suggested that Bolton's enthusiasm for this effort was wanting."
Well whaddaya know folks, it turns out the kook isn't ALL bad.
Everyone else's shit is called racism, hatred, intolerance, exclusion. The Jew's shit?
It's called Zionism.
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