BEIRUT — Although al-Qusayr may not be the decisive battle for Syria, it is irrefutably an important turning point in the crisis and has given the regime much sought military momentum. Plenty of adjectives and some clichés are being bandied about from Washington to Beirut to describe the al-Qusayr battle’s results and significance. Among them are “game-changer,” “mother of all battles,” “altered balance of power,” critical “turning point in the civil war,” and so on.
It does appear that the victory of the Syrian government forces at al-Qusayr is a strategic achievement, if also a humanitarian disaster for the civilian population still waiting for the ICRC and SARCS (Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society) emergency help. Al Qusayr is located in Homs province, an area central to the success of the Syrian government’s military strategy. It is situated just west of the shortest route from Damascus to the coast, at a juncture where regime forces have struggled to maintain control. Rebel control of al-Qusayr had disrupted the regime’s supply lines from the port of Tartus and was open for the cross-border movement of Gulf arms to rebels via Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
Government control of al-Qusayr also provides a ground base for the Assad government to move to retake control of the north and east of Syria. This crossroads city just 6 miles from the Lebanese border has many strategic ramifications: breaking the opposition’s 18 month control of much of Homs province, facilitating government forces momentum generally across Syria, and psychologically raising the morale of exhausted Syrian forces while energizing the Assad government and its allies to finish the conflict and focus on long-promised reforms and try to relieve Syria from the nearly 27 months of hell for its people.
Perhaps less appreciated here in Beirut are al-Qusayr’s effects on the Zionist occupiers of Palestine and their currently traumatized US lobby.
From conversations and emails with former colleagues at the Democratic National Committee (on which this observer served during the Carter administration) as well as with Congressional insiders, a picture emerges of nearly debilitating angst among those committed to propping up the apartheid state in the face of truly historic changes in this region that have only just begun to re-shape the region.
The reactions from various elements of the pro-Israel lobby range from the Arabphobic Daniel Pipes’ fantasy essay in the Washington Times this week entitled “Happy Israel” to Netanyahu’s increased threats issued from Tel Aviv about what Israel might do if his three cartoon “red lines” are breached, to more pressure on the White House by Israel’s agents in Congress who are demanding that Obama act immediately to undo “the major damage done at Qusayr”.
Several aspects of “the Qusayr rules and results” are being discussed at the HQ of the racist anti-Defamation League (ADL) which has summoned an emergency gathering of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to craft a solution to the problem. The tentative agenda reportedly includes for discussion and action the following:
The twin defeats at al-Qusayr and at Burgas, Bulgaria (. Bulgaria is claiming there is not probative evidence to conclude that Hezbollah was involved in the attack on Israelis last year)—the latter should not be underestimated, according to one AIPAC activist who works on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, given that it substantially knocks out the props from the lobby’s project to get the European Union to list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, thus interfering with the Islamist party’s fundraising.
The lobby is also reacting angrily to Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger’s statement about that country’s decision to withdraw its 380 peacekeeping troops, more than one-third of the 1,000 United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) contingent, from the Golan Heights.
The lobby is claiming that Austrian move constitutes an existential threat to Israel because it opens the Quneitra crossing, the door to the Golan, for the Syrian civil war to spill over the border into Israel. At the same time it is being argued that al Qusayr lifts pressure off Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria as well as the Palestinian resistance, and will gain more fighters who sense victory for the current regime and major gains for all in the political dynamics of the region.
The Israel embassy in Washington has chimed in with a statement that the Austrian withdrawal threatened the role of the UN Security Council in any future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, while at the same time encouraging Hezbollah to move into the Golan.
Israel stalwart, Eric Cantor (R-Va) told a “brown bag” lunch gathering in the House Rayburn Building cafeteria late this week that the fall of al Qusayr will facilitate the Assad regime’s advance on areas north of Homs province and will likely return to Damascus control of important rebel-held areas in the north and the east. Cantor claims that the Assad regime victory effectively cuts off an important supply route to the rebels, which will leave the armed opposition even more weakened and scattered. Israel is demanding an immediate US supported counter-offensive consistent with the demands made by US Senators John McClain and Lindsay Graham.
The apartheid state also is demanding that the White House scrap Geneva II, claiming that Assad is now too strong for the US/Israel to benefit from such a dialogue. “If the international community is serious about seeking to enforce a negotiated settlement, they will first have to do something to decisively change the balance of power on the ground ahead of any serious negotiations,” he added.
When asked about giving US aid to Lebanon, Cantor reportedly sneered, as he expressed his shock that Hezbollah had so many troops and how, without US boots on the ground, it would be very difficult for Israel to defeat, “Forget about Lebanon, it never as a real country anyway, just call the whole place over there Hezbollah and let’s send in the marines to finish the job.”
One congressional staffer who attended the meeting winced at the thought of US marines again being sent to Lebanon given their previous experience there nearly 30 years ago.
The Lobby is also concerned about the fact that the Arab League and the Gulf countries might be softening in their ardor to confront Syria and Hezbollah, who they view as now being full partners in this crisis. A media source at the Saudi Embassy in Washington has complained that the six member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has spent more than a billion dollars on the opposition and have, to date, little to show for their “investment.” Nor does Israel have much to show to date for its deepening role in the crisis given that its air strikes are widely viewed in Washington and internationally as being counterproductive and helping to unite Muslims and Arabs in the face of their common global enemy.
The ADL reportedly wants the White House to act fast “to do something” in light of a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released on Wednesday, the day of the Syrian government’s victory at al Qusayr, showing that only 15% of Americans polled advocated taking military action, and only 11% supported providing the rebels with arms. A quarter of respondents, 24%, favored taking no action, similar to the current White House position.
Abe Foxman, ADL’s President for Life, and inveterate anti-Semite tracker, myopically sees anti-Semitism, and surely not Israel’s decades of crimes against humanity as the cause for other “anti-Semitic” polls released this week. Those included the recent one commissioned by the BBC which confirmed that Israel is not only ranked second from the bottom of 197 favorably viewed countries, including as a danger to world peace, and just about the world’s most negatively viewed country, but its support globally continues to evaporate. Views of Israel in Canada and in Australia remain very negative with 57 and 69 per cent of their citizens holding unfavorable views. In the EU countries surveyed, views of Israeli influence are all strongly negative with the UK topping the list with 72 per cent of the population viewing Israel negatively.
As Ali Abunimah noted this week, “The persistent association of Israel with the world’s most negatively viewed countries will come as a disappointment to Israeli government and other hasbara officials who have invested millions of dollars in recent years to greenwash and pinkwash Israel as an enlightened, democratic and technological ‘Western’ country.” (“Israel one of world’s most unpopular countries and it’s getting worse: BBC survey,” Ali Abunimah, Electronic Intifada, June 6, 2013.)
With Wednesday’s National Lebanese Resistance (Hezbollah) victory at al-Qusayr, coming as it does 97 years to the month after the Triple Entente’s (UK, France and Russia) May 1916 secret Asia Minor Agreement, generally known as Sykes-Picot, the scheme to control the Middle East following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire has furthered crumbled. Its “Rosemary’s Baby” progeny, the colonial Zionist occupation of Palestine, is increasingly being condemned by history to an identical fate.
According to a growing number of US and European officials and Middle East analysts as well as public opinion polls, it is solely a matter of time until, like al-Qusayr, Palestine is returned to her rightful, indigenous inhabitants.
Oscar Wilde once said that you’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at the death of Little Nell. Franklin Lamb is not precisely laughing at the death of 100,000 Syrians but he is certainly gloating about the “victories” of the government that is responsible for those deaths. The principal at work in choosing sides among America haters is which side America is perceived as being on. Mubarak was perceived as a friend of America and therefore the America haters were for the protesters. Assad is perceived as an enemy of America and therefore the America haters are on Assad’s side. The net result of Mubarak’s actions against the Egyptian protesters was pretty close to zero dead. The result of Assad’s actions against the Syrian protesters is 100,000 dead. Sadat once said that he would sacrifice the lives of a million Egyptians to get Sinai back. I have the feeling that Lamb wouldn’t lose an hour’s sleep over a million dead Syrians as long as the US and Israel lobby “reeled” in the process. It is not the Arabs or Palestinians as victims that interest the haters but America and Israel as culprits. Remove them from the equation and you get total indifference, or at best a little tongue clucking, as during the genocides in Darfur and Rwanda. Hatred disguised as compassion can never disguise itself completely.
Fred buddy… that “hate” formula thing what you be inserting here is sooo tired… that you must be too – just from writing such tripe… get a good nights sleep. Then call us in the morning. Tel Aviv time.
Mr.Lamb-are You for or against any occupation?If You are against,then You must act against the 1300 -years old Arab occupation of the Land of Israel,as well as Turkish occupation of the island of Cyprus(whose 6000 years of history were always greek),the Chinese occupation of Tibet with all it’s genocide policy etc..etc…
The Arab landrobbers came to the Land of israeland it is time for them to leave.
I do not know who and why considers You a scholar-but You have no idea about Middle east and it’s history,or of the general history for that matter.
Big turnout of zionist apologists here today… seems Franklin Lamb has gotten under somebodies’ sheepskin costume!
Tell yas what servocad buddy:
y’all stop occupying America… and we might agree to lettin you continue to occupy the parcel of terror-tory that you originally ‘bought’ with the blood spilled by haganah.
Apparently it embarrasses you when some of us ‘know too much’ history.
Evidently, in 524 CE, the Yemeni Jewish Himyar tribe led by King Dhu Newas, massacred 20,000 Christian Arabs in a township in Saudi Arabia after they refused to convert to Judaism (there survives a written text describing this event written by the Bishop of Beth Arsham in 524 CE).
I only mention this because servocad can`t seem to get his head around the fact that the original Hebrews were a semi nomadic tribe of Arabs.
The historical intrinsic population of the Levant have always been Arab.
Franklin Lamb is obsessed with having Israel annihilated by Islamic Fascists.
Like someone said above, it doesn’t matter to Lamb that like 80,000 to 100,000 Syrians have been killed in the last 2 years. Most of whom were killed by Assad’s forces.
Lamb has written before that All Jews in Israel must go to Europe.
It should be noted, the Palestinians have taken their name from an invading European people called the Philistines.
I wonder if you are capable of producing an argument not premised upon fabricating some crazy view and falsely attributing it to the person you are trying to discredit. I’m guessing not.
The Palestinians have nothing to do with the name Palestine.
The name Palestine is named after the Philistines, not the Palestinians or any Arab group.
The name Palestine was applied by the Romans, as a chagrin against Israel.
It was certainly not directed or bestowed to the Arabs in this area.
The Philistines were from Crete in Europe and came to Israel 3000 years ago and were not Arabs or Muslims. Delilah and Goliath were Philistines. (Philistines died out.)Philistine is the name the Romans renamed Israel as a chagrin against the Jews.
Yassir Arafat was not a Philistine, but an ARAB born in Egypt. Philistine originates from the Hebrew verb Palash, which means to invade. So the Arabs who started to call themselves Palestinians in the late 60’s are invaders and they want to create an Invadia state.
There was never in history any state called Palestine governed by Palestinians.
Tell us when did it ever belong to Palestinians? Answer Never. It was never a Pal land to begin with, so your question is invalid.The Palestinians never governed or controlled any land before 1993. To make it simple, please tell me one Palestinian President before 1948? Keep thinking.
The Palestinians want a capital, which they never had, in a country that never existed.
The Palestinians have a right to self-determination.
Tell me Mr Genius Lamb, how do the Arabs have 22 countries when all the Arabs come from 1 country.” Saudi Arabia.
How did the Arabs get all of North Africa from the Berbers in the 7th century?
I’m talking about what is today Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya
Look at the Blacks in Sudan, Mauritania and Somalia. How did those people become Arab?
Its called Mohammad and his Jihad armies in the 7th century invaded and took the entire Mideast and North Africa and forced everyone they defeated to be Islamic and Arab.
The real problem is global Arab/Moslem insistence to spread hate, violence, wars, terrorism, lies, false accusations against Jews and reducing Jews to subhumans or second class citizens – slaves or servants – without any human rights.
Just ask the Kurds, Coptics, Berbers, Western Sahara and Black Christians of Sudan who live under the Arabs.
By the way, how many Muslims have been killed by Muslims this week in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Bahrain, Lebanon, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria? How many have been killed by Jews? Numbers please.
Palestinians should get one thing into their heads: the world does not revolve around them. They share the blame for their situation, because they always wanted everything and never wanted to compromise.
First and foremost that NOBODY, and least Israel owes them anything.
Lets see who’s about apartheid and racism.
There are 8500 Jews living in the 22 Arab countries, while their are 1.5 million Palestinians in Israel.
Jews are barred from living in every Arab country, except a few thousand Jews who live in Morocco and Tunisia.
I’m curious what it is Mr. Lamb wrote in the article you are trying to challenge.
To see the Sicko Assad, Mr Lamb supports, go on Youtube and look up, Assad’s Soldiers Torturing and Murdering civilians
To see the sickos Ken Kelso supports, go on YouTube and look up the rebel commander cutting out and eating a Syrian soldier’s organ.
Is this the intellectual level of discussion you’re interested in in?
Jeremy R. Hammond aren’t you the apologist for Richard Falk.
Do you like supporting a liar like Falk?
2 years ago Falk wrote an article claiming that Israelis were sexually abusing Palestinian children.
It turned out the Palestinians Falk listened to were the same one’s who made up the Jenin massacre Hoax in 2002.
Just google.
Latest Richard Falk slander: “IDF sexually abuses PalArab kids”gle this article.
Richard Falk has outdone himself again in his never ending quest to demonize Israel.
March 22, 2011
If by “the apologist”, you mean the guy who pointed out the deliberate lies of UN Watch intended to defame Mr. Falk, then, yes.
http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/04/26/the-demonization-of-richard-falk/
Jeremy Hammond when Falk 2 years ago put out the racist cartoon of Israelis.
You know the one that showed a bloodthirsty dog wearing a Jewish religious headcovering.
When Falk was confronted about the racist cartoon
He said, I know nothing about such a cartoon, and would never publish such a thing, ever.”
Lies, Lies and more Lies of Falk.
When someone then posted the Cartoon Falk posted,
Falk said he didn’t know it was racist.
Really, is that why Falk said he didn’t post it.
The same Falk who believes 9/11 was an inside Job by Bush.
The same Falk who says nothing when Palestinians are killed by Hamas and Fatah.
Falk couldn’t even condemn Hamas when they murdered those Palestinians tied to a motorcycle last November.
It turned out the Pals Hamas murdered were just rivals of Hamas.
Google this article.
Hamas victim dragged through the streets of Gaza City Tuesday by motorcycle was no collaborator, widow says
It was a sight that shocked the world — the corpse of Ribhi Badawi being dragged through the streets of Gaza City Tuesday by a motorcycle as Hamas gunmen fired into the air.
Comments (26)
Matthew Kalman
NOVEMBER 26, 2012
REUTERS
You are manufacturing strawman arguments in an attempt to defame Mr. Falk. Your comments also are not relevant to this article. Your comment violates FPJ’s commenting policy for both these reasons. Please familiarize yourself with this site’s terms of use.
Jeffrey Hammond.
Google this.
Counterpunch’s Franklin Lamb Linked to Fascist ‘Voltaire Network’.
What is Lamb’s Voltaire Network?
The President of the Network of Thierry Meyssan, 9/11 The Big Lie, which claimed that the 11th of September 2001 was due to an internal plot within the US administration. The Network broadcast this declaration widely. Meyssan’s works appear regularly on the Holocaust deniers’ site, Entre la plume et l’enclume.
The Voltaire Network is better known under its French title, Réseau Voltaire.*
It has faced accusations of supporting the Chinese and Russian states, anti-Semitism, and alignment with Islamists.
Supporters who resigned in 2005 said,
Under the pretext of resistance to American imperialism arrangements have been made with Russian and Chinese imperialisms, and their alignment with Islamists has led to a drift towards anti-semitism, latent amongst its leading figures.
Ken, as per FPJ’s commenting policy, comments consisting solely of ad hominem argumentation will be treated as spam and the user banned. Please familiarize yourself with FPJ’s terms of use.
Jeffrey, here is the article about Mr Falk i’m talking about.
Just google.
Latest Richard Falk slander: “IDF sexually abuses PalArab kids”
Richard Falk has outdone himself again in his never ending quest to demonize Israel.
March 22, 2011
You are outdoing yourself in your never ending quest to demonize Mr. Falk, who has honorably and with great courage performed his duties as UN Special Rapporteur in reporting on Israel’s constant violations of international law and abuses against the Palestinians.
Jeffrey, i’m not talking about a false view.
I’m talking about fascist Franklin Lamb who you support.
Falk has written 2 articles which explain his ethnic cleansing goals for Jews in Israel.
Israel will not collapse peacefully but it will dissolve: Dr. Franklin Lamb
April 19th 2011
Israelis Rush for Second Passports
FRANKLIN LAMB
June 2011
As you can see Lamb is obsessed with Israel being eliminated by Arab Fascists.
Lamb lies about everything.
First the Arabs are all colonialists from Saudi Arabia. Every country besides Saudi Arabia was never Arab before the 7th century. Mohammad’s army invaded and colonialized the entire Mideast and North Africa in Mohammad’s invasion.
2nd, Israel existed 15 centuries before Mohammad was born. Mohammad also ethnic cleansed all the Jews from Saudi Arabia.
3rd, its the Arabs who are about aparthied.
Arabs already have 22 countries, 1 in Palestine (80% of the region), the judenrein autocratic kingdom of Jordan, given by England to one family from Saudi Arabia. They also control
judenrein Gaza and most of Judea and Samaria, given to Egyptian terrorist Arafat and his PLO.
Fatah also wants a country free of Jews and to flood Israel with millions of violent Arabs.
Fatah also has a death penalty to any Arab who sells land to a Jew.
Israel doesn’t need another Arab terrorist country on its doorstep.
Another Arab country! Another Muslim Arab bloody dictatorship (like the Egypt, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Algeria, Libya or medieval kingdom, another exporter of terrorism?
No, thank you.
Ken, you are manufacturing strawman and ad hominem arguments in order to defame, which violates FPJ’s commenting policy. Please familiarize yourself with this site’s terms of use.
Jeremy R. Hammond you say, The Palestinians have a right to self-determination.
Jeremy R. Hammond do you support a Kurdish state in Iraqi Kurdistan or a Berber state in North Africa?
All people everywhere have a right to self-determination, including the Palestinians. It is you who rejects this right, not I.
I must give Ken Kelso the credit he deserves; In print “foaming at the mouth” is difficult to portray, but Ken accomplishes that perfectly well.
The Arab countries of the Middle East never had borders, until the British and French (and the US) defined the current ones after WW1.
I don`t think any reasonable person could deny Palestinians (and Kurds) have the right to Self-Determination, George Washington was keen on that idea and he accepted help from the French in order to achieve it.
What we are seeing in the Levant, is a normal human response of like minded people getting together for mutual benefit, approval or disapproval of their actions is academic, unless you can do something about it!
But it seems China and Russia have given the US a gypsies warning not to interfere in Syrian affairs. Now that is something that should give Israel cause for concern. However Zionists justify Israel`s existence, it is clear that Israel is resented and disliked by the ethnic population.
Pretty much as resentment of Brits led to the US war of Independence, and that was started by a little tax dispute!
Mike Thompson.
Poor Arabs with 22 countries.
And your point is what Ken?
I could say Poor Europeans with 50 countries!
What is the logic behind this comment? There are already many Arab countries, so the rejection of Palestinian self-determination, ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and continued theft of their land and oppression of the Palestinians is therefore justified?
Yes to rejection of Palestinian self-determination. The principle reason is that its time for Jews to be allowed to have back the land that was stolen from them by Romans, Arabs and other invaders.
No to ethnic cleansing, but since the Arab population in Israel is increasing, its clear that Israel is not engaged in ethnic cleansing.
An interesting perspective of history by Peter Morris, unfortunately it has no basis in historical fact.
The Kingdom of Israel was created in the land of Canaan (Arabs by the way), after the death of Solomon (Or more accurately Suleiman who was also an Arab)the Kingdom of Israel, after less than 80 years ceased to exist.
Those Arabs who practiced the Hebrew faith continued to live and thrive, It is not known what percentage of the population were monotheistic, but under Roman rule Jews were influential, indeed Herod the Great ruled under Roman approval, when Herod died his three sons were each appointed as rulers over approximately one third of the land Herod administered.
Jesus of Nazareth, or rather his followers, rocked the Jewish boat with claims he was the Messiah, many Palestinian (the Roman name) Jewish Arabs converted to Christianity, indeed after Constantine the Great`s conversion to Christianity, many dwelling in the Roman Empire found it “political” to do so.
The big swing in conversions from Judaism came with Islam, Mohammed accepted Jesus as a Prophet of God, but not the son of God or the Messiah. It is not known how long it took, but by 1850 an Ottoman census showed the population of Palestine as 80% Moslem, 15% Christian and 5% Jewish (As a point of interest 50% of Lebanese were Christian).
There is no historical evidence of “mass migration” of Jewish Arabs from Palestine, Even Josephus, in his “The Jewish War” makes no such claim.
Josephus`s was a leader of Jewish forces fighting the Romans, he was captured but not killed or exiled, instead he rose to great prominence in Roman society, where he continued to follow his Jewish faith.
I appreciate Peter, that this knowledge will be your worst nightmare, but land was never stolen from Jews in Palestine, most simply converted Christianity then Islam, and why not?
I think my simple history is closer to the truth.
The word Palestine isn’t mentioned in either the Bible or the Koran suggesting that even Muhammad recognized that it was not an appropriate name for Jewish land. The Bible of course refers to Israel many times.
Thanks Peter for your disarmingly honest response, I suppose it all comes down to personal beliefs.
There is a recent publication called Archaeology and the Bible, by Jonathan Tubb and Rupert L Chapman (both active archaeologist specialists in “The Holy Land”). It will confirm some of your beliefs and certainly provide a different perspective on Biblical records.
Jonathan Tubb has written a couple of similar “Biblical explanations” all fascinating stuff.
Dear Mike
I’m happy to see that you’re still at it with your comic book history. The assertion that anyone who ever lived in the MIddle East – Sumerians, Babylonians, Hittites, Israelites, Phoenicians, Philistines – is an Arab is parody, not history, and not much different from saying that anyone who ever lived in America is a Latino. Obviously no one can argue with someone who stands on his head and keeps screaming the same thing over and over again.
I don`t see why “Arab” is such a problem for you Fred.
The names you give are historical ones, only Egypt has managed to retain an unchanged name, but they were all Arabs and that`s where civilisation began.
The Franks, Gauls, Vandals, Goths, Visigoths, Saxons, to name a few are, long gone, but their descendents are still around, collectively called Europeans.
Completely different from The Americas, where the native inhabitants were submerged by European settlers, but there was plenty of space going begging, not so in Palestine.
No. Mike, not just Egypt. Israel too, without a break, for 3,500 years. And yes, all the other people were swallowed up when the Arabs came out of the Arabian desert in the 7th century and conquered them, except the Jews. Why don’t you let the Arabs tell you who they are instead of you telling them. They really don’t need you to make up their history. Saying something over and over doesn’t make it true.
If you`re comfortable with that Fred, that`s OK with me.
This article pointed out that Israel (and the US) has cause for concern regarding effective Hezbollah support of The Syrian Government forces.
Whatever you feel they should be called, the intrinsic people of the Levant have given popular support to Hezbollah, and Hamas, who are both democratically elected organisations, representing the wishes of the majority of the electorate.
They are both anti Israeli, not yet as effective as were Hagana, The Stern Gang, or Irgun, but they are showing signs of active unity rather than just rhetoric, now if I were an Israeli, or an Israeli supporter I would be concerned.
Even though I`m not an Israeli supporter, I`m concerned at the implications for the future. In a BBC interview, Netanyahu said “As a last resort Israel will use nuclear weapons”, he called it “The Solomon solution”, and in that event the UK is in line for a nasty dose of radiation.
Netanyahu has never said that as a last resort Israel will use nuclear weapons.
Oh yes he very definitely did, April 2008. Suppressed by US media of course.
And how about Martin van Creveld, in September 2003 with regard to Israel he said; “We posses several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch then in any direction, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force…… we have the capacity to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that will happen before Israel goes under”.
You are completely shameless. Neither Netanyahu nor anyone else in an Israeli government has ever said that Israel will use nuclear weapons under any circumstances. You are pretty dumb too. If such a statement had ever been made it would be the biggest media story of the decade. I notice that you are not cutting and pasting. Was it suppressed everywhere else as well? And what difference does it make what Martin Crevald says as a private citizen. But I realize that it will be more convenient for you to start arguing about Crevald than substantiating the Netanyahu fiction. Put up or shut up.
I`m certain Fred, if Netanyahu confirmed his words in person to you, you would still refuse to accept them.
Israel has a very long record of suppressing facts that are damaging. The Israeli appointed Orr Commission findings in 2003, were damning of Israeli treatment of Palestinian and Israeli Arabs, you will find no record of these findings in the Israeli Government website, just masses of rejections of Judge Theodor Orr`s findings.
The Israeli Government web site lists in great detail the 129 Israeli children who were murdered by Palestinians since 2000, it`s correct that such obscene acts should be publicised.
Yet, on the same web site, there is no mention of any Arab children killed by settlers or Israeli occupation forces, some shot while they sat at their school desks, and UN figures confirm 1,519 Palestinian children murdered by Israelis since 2000.
It allows people like yourself to claim it did`nt happen and US media to ignore Israeli obscenities.
Dear Mike
You are again sliding around something that has exploded in your face and trying to open a new front as a diversionary tactic. You made a false claim and lack the integrity to own up to it.
I have a video recording of the program Fred, it shows Netanyahu sitting on a terrace with hills in the background (I assume in Israel). I was surprised he was included as, at the time, he was in the political wilderness.
He was unequivocal in stating the Israeli nuclear option, he referred to it as the “Soloman Scenario” (not “Solution” as in my previous comments).
That you should find this unacceptable is your problem, he was not the first Israeli to make such comments, and I would bet long odds he won`t be the last.
You’re a fake, Mike. You’re saying that not only the U.S. and Israel suppressed this public statement that would have been heard by hundreds of thousands of people but the rest of the world as well, including the BBC, the United KIngdom, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, etc. In fact, you’re the only person in the world that heard it. Good for you, Mike. Netanyahu never made such a statement. Put up or shut up.
Not that I’m going to get into this with you but the Orr hearings were fully covered and reported by the press and the Israeli Government published the entire Orr Report in Hebrew. The officual English summary was published, among other places, in Haaretz, which would hardly be the one to whitewash anything negative about Israel. So you are again full of it.
That, Fred, is your most childish comment.