So, since we are at the business of muckraking:

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Fifteen years ago, when the world was adrift on the stormy waves of the Cold War, I established The Washington Times to fulfill God's desperate desire to save this world. Since that time, I have devoted myself to raising up The Washington Times, hoping that this blessed land of America would fulfill its world-wide mission to build a Heavenly nation. Meanwhile, I waged a lonely struggle, facing enormous obstacles and scorn as I dedicated my whole heart and energy to enable The Washington Times to grow as a righteous and responsible journalistic institution.[13]

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Executive officers and editors, present and past

Editors-in-chief

James Whelan (1982-1984)
Smith Hempstone (1984-86)
Arnaud de Borchgrave (1986-1992); currently editor-at-large
Wesley Pruden (1992-present)

Other

Fran Coombs - managing editor
Tony Blankley - editor of the editorial page
Tony Snow - editor of the editorial page, 1987-1990.
Josette Sheeran Shiner - former managing editor

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If Carter's intent had been to foster a revival of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, then - as scathing critics Alan Dershowitz and Abraham Foxman have both explicitly remarked - the book can indeed be judged by its cover, and written off as a failure.

Carter's use of the word apartheid, going so far as to say in an interview broadcast on Israel Radio that Israeli policies on the West Bank were worse than those which held sway in the former South African regime, assured that Israelis would associate his stance with that of Yasser Arafat at the close of his career, and dismiss the book out of hand.

In Israel, the Carter issue remains a non-issue. His words - by any measure, in America, fighting words - merit barely a passing nod in the Israeli national discourse.

In fact, even if Carter's intent, as some observers have suggested, was to curry favor with the Palestinians and be seen and celebrated as an honest broker on the Middle East, even that effort has fallen short.

"The glaring error in Carter's book," wrote UCLA Prof. Saree Makdisi in the San Francisco Chronicle "is his insistence that the term 'apartheid' does not apply to Israel itself, where, he says, Jewish and non-Jewish citizen are given the same treatment under the law. That is simply not true."
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Small wonder, then, that on Thursday, when the Reform movement's Central Conference of American Rabbis, the rabbinic body of the largest demonination of religiously affiliated American Jews, announced the cancellation of a scheduled visit to the Carter Center in Atlanta, and that it would "firmly disassociate ourselves from Mr. Carter and the Carter Center," the rabbis' dominant tone was one of having been betrayed by a once-cherished ally.

Speaking of "our sadness," the group noted how in the past Carter and his center had been known for dialogue, honest brokering, justice and lovingkindness.

If what Carter really wanted, as he relentlessly reiterates, was to stimulate discussion, he has succeeded beyond measure.

It may be no coincidence, however, that in this curious, furious Last Hurrah, the focus of the debate has not been Palestine, nor Israel, nor peace, but Jimmy Carter himself.

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Terry Glavn On The "Wall" (aka fence)

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Mainly, though, my most foul transgression appears to have been to stray from the fashionable anti-Zionist metanarrative so far as to note in passing that Israel’s so-called apartheid wall is actually almost entirely a wire fence, built following a wave of terrorist attacks, especially a June 2001 suicide bombing that killed 21 people and injured 120 at a Tel Aviv disco.

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Terry Glavn On The "Wall" (aka fence)

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Why build it where it leaves Palestinian villages on the "wrong" side? Wouldn't that just endanger more Israeli lives since a Palestinian town is just a potential threat...Why sacrifice a bit of safety just to defend some nice parts of the W. Bank and settler areas?

Edited becuzz i hav no grammerr

[ 15 January 2007: Message edited by: quart o' homomilk ]

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Originally posted by quart o' homomilk:
But, Peech, I didn't ask you to accept it as truth because they said it. I asked if you would take a sober second look.

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Down with racism (Ha'aretz editorial today)

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A few hours after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Israel on another diplomatic mission, she hastened to meet with Strategic Threats Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Rice met Lieberman two days after the chairwoman of his Yisrael Beiteinu faction, MK Esterina Tartman, made crudely racist statements against the appointment (which has meanwhile been postponed) of MK Raleb Majadele as the first Arab minister in the country's history. [...]

Rice's meeting with Lieberman was like giving a stamp of approval to the racist positions he and his party have adopted. [...] Her meeting with Lieberman thus constituted a kind of American recognition of his status and his stances. Instead of the United States denouncing his racist positions, it has given them support, in the form of a well-publicized and unnecessary meeting.[...]

If Israel expects loyalty from its Arab citizens, it must demonstrate loyalty to them and protect them from racist assaults. The fact that it is ignoring these statements, and not making any effort to uproot this evil, therefore stains the entire government with a serious moral blemish.

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Originally posted by quart o' homomilk:
It's good to know that there are more dissenting voices in that paper besides just Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.

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All these smears about "Arab money" are uncomfortably similar to the traditional slanders against the Jewish community.

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Originally posted by Peech:
If THEY said it then it "must be true".
Just because a falsehood is repeated over and over doesn't convert it to truth. It might be fashionable, just not accurate.

Terry Glavn On The "Wall" (aka fence)

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You seem to rely quite a bit on Terry Glavin's material in the Georgia Straight.

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Originally posted by Coyote:
All these smears about "Arab money" are uncomfortably similar to the traditional slanders against the Jewish community. I hope no progressive-minded person would be party to this ugly sort of attack.

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[ 15 January 2007: Message edited by: Peech ]

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Originally posted by Peech:

If it was fair game to question one President's finical ties (G.W. Bush and Bush Sr. in alliance with the Saudis) as was done vigorously (playing fast and loose with the facts) by Michael Moore to show a bias,

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Frankly, I thought Michael Moore's film was terrible - scandalmongering, based on speculation not facts (like many of his films), and calculated to impress a U.S. audience so backward in consciousness that he had to invent conspiracy theories (Bush and Bin Laden) in order to get their attention.

It was almost as if the U.S. had no financial or strategic interests in the Middle East - just some family business connections.

It was embarrassing at best, and dangerous distortion at worst.

However, another problem I had with the whole Bush-Saudi oil sheiks theme in Farenheight 9/11, was the subtle sense of anti-arab xenophobia regarding Arabs taking over America. Same xenophobic paradigm just inverted to attack others.

[ 15 January 2007: Message edited by: Cueball ]

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Originally posted by Peech:
Terry Glavin: bio

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In 2006, Glavin came under fire from progressives and anti-war activists for a Georgia Straight column in which he had expressed support of the American and Israeli positions in the July 2006 invasion of Lebanon.

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a position widely condemned the world over and likely to cause the electoral defeat of our dear PM Steve, who parrotted the same line. Can someone say "measured response"?

and this makes Glavin a quoteable authority? does he like cluster bombs? and targeting civilian infrastructure, which is a war crime in international law? try again peech.

[ 16 January 2007: Message edited by: farnival ]

Its really too bad, I like a lot of his columns on more local issues but on foreign policy he is pure ad hominem and distortion.

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accusing the only democratic, nice, squeaky-clean-kinda-like-us government in the Middle East of anti-Arab racism:

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But there is no reason that a democratic, "kinda-like-us" government might not have racists in it.

In other words, the fact that there are racists in the Israeli government does not mean that it is undemocratic.

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Carter does not recognize the fact that Israel, tired of the burdens of occupation, also dearly wants to give up the bulk of its West Bank settlements (the current prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was elected on exactly this platform) because to do so would fatally undermine the thesis of his book.

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Originally posted by Peech:
Terry Glavin: bio

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I read this bio sketch once before when one of your earlier posts offered it as background on Glavin's expertise. It basically says what I said. Glavin has authored books on Native issues and on forestry and fisheries.

"His first book, A Death Feast in Dimlahamid (1990), dealt with the struggles of the Gitksan and Wet'su-we'ten peoples, drawing on an account of the oral traditions of Dimlahamid, also known as Temlaham, an ancient city said to have existed in that region. His second book, Nemiah: The Unconquered Country (1992), a cultural and historical account of British Columbia's Chilcotin District, included some of the Tsilhqot'in people's perspective on the Chilcotin War of 1864.

Among his best known works is The Last Great Sea: A Voyage Through the Human and Natural History of the North Pacific Ocean (2000), which was nominated for the Bill Duthie Prize and the Roderick Haig-Brown Prize, and was the winner of the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.

In 2006, Glavin came under fire from progressives and anti-war activists for a Georgia Straight column in which he had expressed support of the American and Israeli positions in the July 2006 invasion of Lebanon."

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Originally posted by M. Spector:
Tell Amazon to Treat Carter's Book Fairly

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That petition seems to be going like gang busters.

12,000 signatures so far. I see a David heap signed, is that the former MP?:

12249. David Heap London, Ontario Canada post the reviews by Yossi Beilin and Shulamit Aloni at the top!

[ 17 January 2007: Message edited by: Cueball ]

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Originally posted by Michelle:
I went to a talk yesterday by As'ad AbuKhalil (the guy who does the Angry Arab News Service blog). It was fantastic.

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Originally posted by Michelle:

And he had nothing good to say of Jimmy Carter. I would summarize his comments about Carter as: too little, too late, and totally hypocritical considering that when he could have done something for the Palestinians, he didn't, but instead supported Israeli aggression, just as all the other Presidents have.

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