That we hang on their every word might be seen as a victory of sorts for Iran’s mullahs. In any case, after all this morning’s talk of cooperation, the mood has shifted. Now the talk is of division in the regime and the likelihood of a negative response to the IAEA proposal. One European diplomat characterizes the Iranian stance as “basically a refusal. “We are watching. And waiting.
Archive for October, 2009
When cultural historians look back at this week’s J-Street conference in Washington, DC, they will observe that many of the participants invested its proceedings with an almost mystical significance: a Woodstock moment for Jewish politics in America which poked a finger into the flabby bellies of the establishment organizations by declaring, “change has come, move aside.”
This is a guest post by Petra Marquardt-Bigman.
Some of the most interesting material on the controversy about J-Street that has developed in the run-up to the organization’s currently ongoing conference was provided by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who recently published an interview with J-Street’s executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami.
Continue reading ‘How to Make Life Easy for J-Street’s Detractors’
War, when practised by Israel, is frequently seen as having paradoxical consequences. The more often it inflicts damage and defeat on its enemies the stronger they are held to become. Never mind that Egypt and Jordan long since grew sick of defeat and signed peace treaties with the Jewish state, never mind that Syria, with the partial exception of the First Lebanon War, hasn’t risked a direct confrontation with Israel since 1973 and never mind that part of the leadership of the Palestinians accepts Israel´s existence; victory is still seen as making Israel weak and its enemies strong.
This is a crosspost by Mark Gardner of the CST blog.
It is plain that if the Jewish state is regarded as a pariah, a compulsive serial abuser of human rights, then Jews everywhere will suffer by (real or imaginary) association.
So, it matters when Robert Bernstein, founder and emeritus chair of Human Rights Watch (HRW), and its chairman for 20 years, writes in the New York Times to regretfully inform HRW that its scrutiny and attitude to Israel “are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state”. As with HRW’s recent Marc Garlasco controversy, however, what matters even more is HRW’s public response to Bernstein:
We fundamentally disagree with Mr Bernstein’s views.
Continue reading ‘“We Fundamentally Disagree With Mr Bernstein’s Views”’
On the op-ed page of the South Carolina newspaper The Times and Democrat, two Republican officials are defending Senator Jim DeMint’s opposition to Congressional earmarking - the process whereby politicians can allocate funding to approved projects with very little oversight. Such allocations are famously dismissed by detractors as “pork” because they serve interests that are, most of the time, parochial and rather murky.
“By the end of these next two days,’ one senior administration official in Washington said, ‘we’ll know if the Iranians are serious and whether we have time” to pursue further diplomacy with Iran without fearing that it could race ahead to produce a weapon.’” So reports David Sanger from the talks in Vienna over Iran’s nuclear program. These are bold words and indicative of the fact that patience with the mullahs is not infinite, at least as far as the US Administration is concerned. But what about American public opinion?
“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain is supposed to have quipped. Currently, the blogosphere is awash with rumors emanating from Michael Ledeen to the effect that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - aka the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran - has crossed the great divide. “According to a bulletin from the Greens (Moussavi/Karroubi et al), there are widespread rumors in the Tehran Bazaar that Khamenei has died. The Greens say they cannot confirm it, but that there is an ‘abnormal atmosphere’ in the streets, which almost certainly means there are more security people than usual,” Ledeen reports. Meanwhile, Meir Javedanfar is very skeptical, while Iran’s state-run media is downright livid at such an impertinent suggestion.
There is one small ray of light in all this - another excuse to watch…
I’ve just discovered that Dore Gold (former Israeli Ambassador to the UN,) Michael Oren (current Israeli Ambassador to the US) and a few other well-known names (among them the brilliant Leon Wieseltier) all hung out at a Zionist commune at Columbia University in 1970s. An intriguing piece on Tablet by Jordan Hirsch.
This is a guest post by Kenneth Bandler, Director of Communications for the American Jewish Committee.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas must regret the failure of Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beteinu to get Balad, the nationalist party in the Israeli Arab sector, banned from the Knesset elections earlier this year. Balad party head Jamal Zahalka is now openly calling on Abbas to resign.
Z Word readers in Jerusalem are encouraged to attend this event (details below) featuring Karl Pfeifer, one of our regular contributors. Email phas1ATjcpa.org if you plan on going.
This is a guest post by Karl Pfeifer, a veteran anti-fascist and journalist based in Vienna.
A joker once suggested holding a conference with the purpose of abolishing all conferences. That witticism notwithstanding, I took up my invitation to attend the conference hosted organized by the International Press Institute and the Center for International Legal Studies entitled, “The War on Words: Terrorism, Media and the Law.” At this gathering of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy, one could learn a lot.
A couple of weeks ago, MJ Rosenberg wrote a rather pompous piece chiding AJC for our new film on Iran.
As the creator of the film, I can categorically state that I wasn’t joking about anything contained within - not the bombing of the AMIA center, not the appalling repression which Iran metes out to its citizens, not the vile public executions which the regime revels in, and certainly not the spectacle of a nuclear attack launched by the mullahs. By contrast, Hugo Chavez finds this latter prospect deeply amusing. I trust that MJ Rosenberg, political commentator and now, apparently, film maven, will be preparing an equally stern lecture for the tyrant of Caracas.
Below is testimony from US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, given today.
Chairman Dodd, Ranking Member Shelby and other distinguished members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to update you on our efforts involving Iran. I welcome the Committee’s ongoing focus on this important issue, and, more broadly, your continued support for our efforts to protect the integrity of the international financial system.
