Comments on: Roger Cohen And Wishful Thinking, Part 974

By: David Matthews

David Matthews — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:37:33 +0000

Are the Islamic fundamentalists who attack Israel precisely those who want Islam to retake Spain, Sicily, and the former Ottoman lands of Eastern Europe and then to establish Islamic control over the whole world? Is Roger Cohen somehow paid by Arab oil money?
Money is the mother’s milk of politics. — Jesse Unruh
Is the financial corruption of politics the rule rather than the exception? Are many political opinions expressed as a result of pay-offs?
Consider 4 books explaining how money influences political developments:
(1) “Confessins of an Economic Hit Man” (2004) by John Perkins;
(2) “War Is a Racket” (1935) by General D. Butler;
(3) “Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich” (2002) by Kevin Phillips;
(4) “The Washington Pay-Off” (1972) by Robert Winter-Berger.

By: Frederick Guggenheim

Frederick Guggenheim — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:14:29 +0000

Roger Cohen’s comments at NYU last week were even more reprehensible. Cohen teamed up with radical antiIsrael activist Rashid Khalidi to urge that the US end the special relationship with Israel. Cohen was selected for this speech solely because he is nominally Jewish. Without the name Cohen, he would never have been selected to argue on behalf of the Palestinian side in the debate. Cohen’s comments bordered on antiSemitism. Cohen said in the debate that “I have heard” that “Jewish Congressmen from Florida” blackmailed President Obama. Cohen refused to state the source of his information about the blackmail of Obama by Jewish congressmen. It was modern day McCarthyism. Cohen said the blackmail worked this way” The Jewish congressmen from Florida met with Obama and told him that they would block healthcare reform unless Obama cleaved to a proIsrael policy. Cohen declined to name any of the congressmen or to say when the blackmail took place. Obviously, Cohen made it all up. He is a new Jayson Blair at the Times. Cohen’s claim id idiotic when one considers that all of the Jewish members of Congress from Florida are Democrats and they campaigned on a health care reform plank. It is absurd to think that they are guilty of the dual loyalty that Cohen claims and would sacrifice American health care for a more proIsrael policy. Cohen’s remarks, which are videotaped and partiall published in Newsweek are on the cusp of outright antiSemitism.

By: konshtok

konshtok — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:50:56 +0000

You missed a point I think
If Cohen wrote:

“three years before the Palestine Liberation Organization revoked the annihilationist clauses in its charter.”

Then he didn’t even bother to check wikipedia

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:58:14 +0000

When you say the following:

“During the 19th century the idea began to gain traction among Jews in Europe that they were as entitled to their own nation state as anyone else. The same idea started to gain presence among many other peoples without states at the same time. Eventually the Jews got their state. Not all were so lucky.”

Were the Palestinians simply “not so lucky” or do you see something slightly more troubling in the fact that the Jewish community’s “luck” ensured the destruction and displacement of about 75% of Palestine’s Arab population?

To what extent do you consider Zionism’s success in relation to Palestinians’ demise?

I’d like to know if you have entertained the Palestinian view of the Zionist movement and success and how you deal with it.

Since there’s no terminal point of national consolidation (new, luckier communities can eventually get their own states), would you accept the destruction of Israel as an expiration of Jewish luck? I ask because, if you don’t, then where do you draw the line between legitimate, moral “luck” and the luck of the wicked?

Do the “lucky” (I’d hardly characterize the success of the Zionists as luck) bear any responsibility for the misfortune of their victims?

By: Kristian

Kristian — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:45:33 +0000

Solid points there.

Regarding the documentation behind the Oslo accords they mysteriously vanished from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry archives in 2006 and have never been seen since. See Dagbladet here http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2006/01/27/455995.html, by journalist Veslemøy Lode, on January 27th 2006.

Better read it fast before Lode’s article vanishes as well…