730 Former Oz PM Malcolm Fraser says Israel sank Liberty deliberately, Lobby has too much power

Former Oz PM Malcolm Fraser says Israel sank Liberty deliberately, Lobby
has too much power

Newsletter published on 6 January 2015

(1) Pope Francis visits Herzl's Grave
(2) Pope Francis shunned bulletproof vehicles during his trip to the
Middle East
(3) Pope Francis visits Wall of Separation, refers to the “state of
Palestine”
(4) Former Oz PM Malcolm Fraser says Israel sank Liberty deliberately,
Lobby has too much power
(5) Former Australian PM: Israel Deliberately Killed Americans
(6) Malcolm Fraser interview, ABC Radio - mp3 audio
(7) 'Mad' claims from former PM - Australian Jewish News
(8) The Frankfurt School stayed Jewish: Marcuse visited Israel,
Horkheimer recited Kaddish
(9) Philip Giraldi: Israel is a militarist theocracy, racist in its
orientation

(1) Pope Francis visits Herzl's Grave

http://forward.com/articles/198876/pope-francis-visits-yad-vashem-lays-wreath-at-th/?p=all

Pope Francis Visits Yad Vashem — Lays Wreath at Theodor Herzl's Grave

Pontiff Packs Decades of Symbolism Into Short Visit

By Crispian Balmer and Philip Pullella

Published May 26, 2014.

(Reuters) — Pope Francis navigated the minefield of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and humbly bowed to kiss the hands of
Holocaust survivors on Monday, the last day of a Mideast trip laden with
bold personal gestures.

“Never again, Lord. Never again!” he said in the dimly lit Hall of
Remembrance in the Yad Vashem Museum which commemorates six million Jews
killed by the Nazis in World War Two.

The fourth pope to visit Israel, Francis had earlier became the first to
lay a wreath at the tomb of Theodor Herzl, seen as the founder of modern
Zionism that led to Israel’s foundation.

At the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he also made an
unannounced stop at Israel’s “Memorial to the Victims of Terror”, the
day after unexpectedly praying at a towering Israeli security wall that
is despised by Palestinians.

In a mirror image of the halt at the graffiti-smeared wall, Francis put
both hands on the neat stone and marble monument and bowed his head - a
gesture that will please his Israeli hosts who had smarted in silence
over Sunday’s impromptu stop.

“I pray for all the victims of terrorism. Please, no more terrorism,”
the softly spoken pope said at the memorial, which is engraved with the
names of Israeli civilians killed mainly in attacks by Palestinian
militants.

Netanyahu, standing at his side, thanked him for his words.

“We don’t teach our children to plant bombs. We teach them peace, but we
have to build a wall for those who teach the other side,” he said,
accusing Palestinian leaders of incitement.

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Francis was asked by the
prime minister to go to the leafy memorial, which is engraved with the
names of Israeli civilians killed mainly in attacks by Palestinian
militants.

Israel says its barrier in the occupied West Bank was erected to
safeguard national security after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings
a decade ago. Palestinians see it as a brutal attempt to grab land they
seek for a future state.

A day packed with political and religious encounters began at the
gold-topped Dome of the Rock, the pope taking off his shoes before
walking into the Jerusalem shrine from which Muslims believe the Prophet
Mohammed climbed to heaven.

Francis then went to pray at the adjacent Western Wall, one the Jews’
most revered shrines and a sole remnant of their sacred Second Temple,
destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

There, he, a rabbi, and an Islamic leader - both friends from his native
Argentina he invited to make the trip with him - embraced in a sign of
the inter-religious dialog that Francis is convinced can be a catalyst
for peace in the region.

HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO HOLOCAUST VICTIMS

At Yad Vashem, the pope made the type of gesture of humility that has
become his custom since being elected pontiff in 2013.

As he was introduced to six survivors of Nazi concentration camps and
told of their stories of struggle and near-starvation, he bent slowly to
kiss the hand of each elderly person.

Reading a haunting personal reflection that was a cross between a poem
and a prayer, he called the Holocaust “a boundless tragedy”, adding: “A
great evil has befallen us, such as never happened under the heavens.
Now, Lord, hear our prayer, hear our plea, save us in your mercy. Save
us from this horror.”

The pope made one of his boldest political gestures on Sunday when he
unexpectedly intervened in flailing diplomatic efforts to end the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, inviting the presidents from the two sides
to his Vatican residence to pray for peace. The meeting is expected to
take place on June 6.

Both Mahmoud Abbas and Shimon Peres, who plays no decision-making role
in Israeli diplomacy and leaves office in July, accepted the offer,
which came just a month after U.S.-led peace talks collapsed amid
bitter, mutual recrimination.

“We will work together, Jews, Christians and Muslims to bring an end to
the conflicts,” Peres said on Monday, speaking alongside the pope, a
choir of children standing behind them.

However, there was little hope that the unusual prayer initiative could
break decades of mutual mistrust and deadlock or address the fraught
issues, which have frustrated generations of diplomats and negotiators.

(2) Pope Francis shunned bulletproof vehicles during his trip to the
Middle East

http://forward.com/articles/198236/pope-francis-ditches-bulletproof-popemobile-for-is/?

Pope Francis ditches bulletproof Popemobile for Israel Trip

People's Pontiff Rode Ford Focus in Brazil

By Philip Pullella

Published May 15, 2014

VATICAN CITY — (Reuters) — Pope Francis is shunning bulletproof vehicles
during his trip to the Middle East this month, insisting that he use a
normal car and be allowed to be as close to people as possible, the
Vatican said on Thursday.

The Vatican, briefing reporters on the trip, also confirmed that a rabbi
and an Islamic leader will accompany Pope Francis on his trip to the
Middle East in a gesture of the importance he attaches to
inter-religious dialog.

Francis will visit Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel during
the May 24-26 trip, his first as pope to the region.

“The pope wants an open popemobile and a normal car. The local security
official took the desire of the pope into consideration,” said chief
spokesman Father Federico Lombardi.

“I don’t think there was too much discussion about that,” he said,
hinting that local security officials had suggested the use of
bulletproof vehicles but were over-ruled.

Francis’ predecessors were driven in bulletproof limousines on their
trips, whether just around Rome or abroad. Heads of state visiting the
Middle East tend to use bulletproof cars.

Francis instead uses a blue Ford Focus in Rome and during his trip to
Brazil last July, he was driven around Rio de Janeiro in a small silver
Fiat at his own request.

At times during that trip security broke down and police were unable to
control the crowds, who surrounded the car. Lombardi said he did not
expect similar scenes in the Middle East because Catholics are a
minority there. [...]

(3) Pope Francis visits Wall of Separation, refers to the “state of
Palestine”

http://forward.com/articles/198843/pope-francis-endorses-palestine-on-surprise-visit/?

Pope Francis Endorses 'Palestine' on Surprise Visit to Israeli West Bank
Wall

Pontiff Speaks of Peace Below Anti-Israel Graffiti

By Philip Pullella and Noah Browning

Published May 25, 2014.

(Reuters) — Pope Francis made a surprise stop on Sunday at the wall
Palestinians abhor as a symbol of Israeli oppression, and later invited
presidents from both sides of the divide to the Vatican to pray for peace.

In an image likely to become the most emblematic of his trip to the holy
land, Francis rested his forehead against the concrete structure that
separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem, and prayed silently.

He stood at a spot where someone had sprayed in red paint “Free
Palestine”. Above his head was graffiti in broken English reading:
“Bethlehem look like Warsaw Ghetto”, comparing the Palestinians’ plight
with that of the Jews under the Nazis.

Such imagery seemed likely to cause unease among Israel’s leaders, who
say the barrier, erected 10 years ago during a spate of Palestinian
suicide bombings, is needed to secure its security. Palestinians see it
as a bid by Israel to partition off territory and grab land.

On the second leg of a three-day trip to the Middle East, Francis
delighted his Palestinian hosts by referring to the “state of
Palestine”, giving support for their bid for full statehood recognition
in the face of a paralyzed peace process.

But, speaking at the birthplace of Jesus in the Palestinian-run city of
Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, he made clear that a
negotiated accord was needed, calling on leaders from both sides to
overcome their myriad divisions.

Francis invited the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to come to the
Vatican to pray for an end to the enduring conflict, just a month after
the collapse of U.S.-backed peace talks.

“In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you,
President Mahmoud Abbas, together with President Shimon Peres, to join
me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace,” the Pope said at
an open-air Mass in Bethlehem.

(4) Former Oz PM Malcolm Fraser says Israel sank Liberty deliberately,
Lobby has too much power

http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-truth-will-out-first-carr-now-fraser.html

Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Truth Will Out: First Carr, Now Fraser

"Former Australian Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser has told ABC's
Jon Faine that he shares former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr's take
on 'the Jewish lobby'. Fraser appeared on The Conversation Hour to
discuss his new book Dangerous Allies. The conversation switched to
Carr's recent book Diary of a Foreign Minister in which Carr is critical
of the Jewish lobby in Australia." (Carr finds a friend, jwire.com.au,
10/5/14):

Faine: Bob Carr has managed to upset a lot of people... with his memoir,
saying that he thought that the pro-Israel... lobby* in Australia
wielded too much power. What does Malcolm Fraser think of that?

Fraser: They certainly do.

Faine: Now, somebody said this a month or two ago and there was a sense
of outrage: No, we don't have immediate access to the Prime Minister.
No, we don't have that. We're just another group. Another lobby group.

Fraser: Well, in relation to the Gillard government, certainly. I am
sure what Bob Carr said was totally and absolutely correct.

Faine: And other governments? Are you of that view as well?

Fraser: I once said that Israel had exercised excessive power in
relation to Lebanon. I got some pretty furious phone calls as a result,
and people asked to come up and see me. And I thought it was going to be
two or three [of them] and I found, well, there were so many they
wouldn't fit in my office. So I said Let's go into the Cabinet Room.
They all explained Israel's position, which I understood. And at the end
of that discussion I said, Well, gentlemen, I am glad to have listened
to you, but you know the Australian government's position. I said that
The power Israel used was excessive. That view has not changed. But I
have heard you. Thank you. But it's a continuum.

Faine: The Jewish community are generous donors to political parties,
and wield and exercise as much influence as they can muster. Any
community does the same. The Italian community, the Muslim community,
religious groups, ethnic groups, industry groups. What's the difference?
It's not unusual to single out one community?

Fraser: I don't think the Italian community, just to take one example,
try to get us to follow any particular policies in relation to Italy.
And that's the difference. The Jewish community... well, not all the
community... because I've got many letters in my office in the files
that say No, we don't agree with the publicly proclaimed leaders of the
community in Melbourne. We take a different view. But they're not going
to say so publicly. The Jewish community seek to get Australia to
support policies as defined by Israel. Look, Israel years ago, during
one of the wars, killed 30 or 40 Americans on a spy ship [the USS
Liberty*] in the Western [sic] Mediterranean.

Faine: That was a mistaken missile hit, if I remember correctly, or an
air strike. I can't remember.

Fraser: Well, the Americans tried to cover it up. It wasn't a mistake.
It was deliberate.

Faine: You believe so?

Fraser: Yes.

Faine: Based on what?

Fraser: Information I have. I am not going to tell you the source.

Faine: OK, and the purpose would have been to what? To stop intelligence
gathering?

Fraser: They wanted to be able to do what they wanted to do without
America hearing.

Faine: That's a massive claim to make.

Fraser: It is.

Faine: It borders on the beliefs that some people have, which I have
always thought were completely insane, about conspiracy theories like
9/11 and the like. And people believe all sorts of nonsense that they
choose to then pursue, with no foundation whatsoever. You can't make
that sort of a claim without backing it up, can you, even if you're
Malcolm Fraser and you used to be the prime minister?

***

Fraser: Your idea of conspiracy theories about 9/11 [being nonsense] I
think I would agree with absolutely... but where the interests of a
significant power or the interests of a country are concerned, as they
believe, then the interests of individuals... are not worth anything.

[*For the latest on the ongoing cover-up of this massacre, read (and be
totally gobsmacked by) American Legion Honchos Betray Liberty Veterans,
Alison Weir, Counterpunch, 16/5/14] Posted by MERC at 7:03 AM

(5) Former Australian PM: Israel Deliberately Killed Americans

http://www.australiamatters.com/cms/?p=4109

(AustraliaMatters) Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser joins
the recent revelations of the former Australian Foreign Minister Bob
Carr in addressing the role of Israeli influence in the foreign policy
of Australia.

Fraser is a former leader of Australia's Liberal Party who was the 22nd
Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in 1975 and led his
country until 1983.

In a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
of Melbourne, while promoting his new book, "Dangerous Allies," Fraser
pulled no punches in describing how Israel had betrayed America with the
attack on the USS Liberty,  and the influcece that the Australian Jewish
Lobby has in Australia.

Speaking to hosts Jon Faine and Professor Damien Kingsbury of Deakin
University, on the May 9, 2014 The Conversation Hour show, Fraser was
asked about Australia's "allies" and "enemies" and what had caused
Australia to become involved in wars such as Iraq--and what might cause
Australia to enter a "fourth war" (in Syria).

It was while this topic was being discussed, that Fraser took the brave
step of standing up in public and naming the Jewish Lobby as an
important factor in determining Australian foreign policy.

"Israel years ago, during one of the wars, killed 30 or 40 Americans on
a spy ship in the Western Mediterranean," [international waters] Fraser
told Faine.

"The Americans tried to cover it up. It wasn't a mistake. It was
deliberate."

When asked on what he based the claim, Fraser said: "Information I have.
I am not going to tell you the source."

Asked by Faine if he agreed that "the pro-Israel and in particular
Jewish community lobby in Australia wielded too much power", Fraser
responded, "They certainly do."

When Faine suggested other religious, ethnic and communal groups, like
the Italian community, also lobbied the government, Fraser said, "I
don't think the Italian community, just to take one example, try to get
us to follow any particular policies in relation to Italy. And that's
the difference.

"The Jewish community seek to get Australia to support policies as
defined by Israel."

His comments were naturally enough met with cries of denial, as Fraser
wouldn't name his source. The same people wanting Fraser to tell all,
usually scold whistle blowers like Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.

Welcome to the "conspiracy theorist" club, Mr Fraser.

(6) Malcolm Fraser interview, ABC Radio - mp3 audio

http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2014/05/08/4000618.htm

Talking power, politics and foreign policy with former Australian prime
minister, Malcolm Fraser.

Damien Kingsbury, Malcolm Fraser

By Louise FitzRoy

Download this mp3 file
<http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/melbourne/faineconversations/201405/r1273411_17178086.mp3>

"It's about time Australia grew up and stood on its own two feet."

These are the words from former Australian prime minister, Malcolm
Fraser's latest book called 'Dangerous Allies'.

He is the guest of Jon Faine and Professor Damien Kingsbury of Deakin
University, on The Conversation Hour today.

Malcolm Fraser talks about our allies and our enemies and what would
cause us to go into a fourth war, among many other topics.

The Conversation Hour: less interview, more chat.

The program is archived here.

(7) 'Mad' claims from former PM - Australian Jewish News

http://www.jewishnews.net.au/mad-claims-from-former-pm/34980

'Mad' claims from former PM

GARETH NARUNSKY

Australian Jewish News May 15, 2014

CLAIMS from Malcom Fraser (pictured) that Israel deliberately bombed the
USS Liberty in June 1967 is a “mad, demented conspiracy theory”,
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) national chairman Mark
Leibler said this week.

The former prime minister made the assertion while promoting his new
book Dangerous Allies during an interview with ABC Radio Melbourne
broadcaster Jon Faine last Friday, during which he also said former
foreign minister Bob Carr was “absolutely correct” in his view that the
pro-Israel lobby wielded too much power.

“Israel years ago, during one of the wars, killed 30 or 40 Americans on
a spy ship in the Western Mediterranean,” Fraser told Faine.

“The Americans tried to cover it up. It wasn’t a mistake. It was
deliberate.”

When asked on what he based the claim, Fraser said: “Information I have.
I am not going to tell you the source.”

Asked by Faine if he agreed that “the pro-Israel and in particular
Jewish community lobby in Australia wielded too much power”, Fraser
responded, “They certainly do.”

When Faine suggested other religious, ethnic and communal groups, like
the Italian community, also lobbied the government, Fraser said, “I
don’t think the Italian community, just to take one example, try to get
us to follow any particular policies in relation to Italy. And that’s
the difference … The Jewish community seek to get Australia to support
policies as defined by Israel.”

Leibler said he was “absolutely appalled” by the remarks.

“To make these allegations about Israel deliberately targeting Americans
when there’s no evidence to support it, when successive inquiries by
both the Americans and the Israelis have demonstrated that this was an
accident, I just think it is appalling beyond description,” he said.

Recalling many warm dealings he had with the former prime minister while
president of the then State Zionist Council of Victoria in the early
1980s, Leibler said there was one occasion during the first Lebanon War
when Fraser himself issued a statement saying he would discuss his
concerns about Israel’s actions with the Jewish community and seek their
support for Australian policy.

“This is a guy who says we’re too powerful as a Jewish lobby.” Leibler
said. “There never has been another case that I can remember that a
prime minister or the Australian government has issued a press release
calling on us to support a view that they had in relation to Israeli policy.

“This is not the same Malcolm Fraser … It seems he’s developed an
antagonism towards the Jewish community and Israel for reasons which are
certainly not apparent to me or to anyone else.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot concurred
with Leibler: “Fraser’s assertion, that Israel’s missile hit on an
American ship in the Mediterranean was not mistaken but deliberate, was
disgraceful given the number of international inquiries that found to
the contrary.

“The statement by Fraser that the Jewish community ‘seek to get
Australia to adopt policies as defined by Israel’, suggesting dual
loyalties, is equally wrong and particularly unfortunate.”

Zionist Federation of Australia president Danny Lamm said: “The [USS
Liberty] incident was subject to no less than 10 American investigations
and an additional three Israeli investigations, all of which found that
it was indeed an accident.

“If Mr Fraser has a credible source to back up his outlandish claims,
then he is duty-bound to reveal it.”

(8) The Frankfurt School stayed Jewish: Marcuse visited Israel,
Horkheimer recited Kaddish

Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 13:02:30 +0000
Subject: Jewishness and the 'Frankfurt School'
From: Martin Webster <martinwebstir@virginmedia.com>
To: Peter Myers <peter@mailstar.net>,
Peter Myers <pgm2@iinet.net.au>
CC: Lynda Mortl <lynjohn35@hotmail.com>

http://m.forward.com/articles/211598/deconstructing-the-jewishness-of-the-frankfurt-sch/

Forward – Saturday 3rd January 2015

Deconstructing the Jewishness of the Frankfurt School

Book Eyes Religious Background of Legendary Social Thinkers

By Benjamin Ivry

The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism

by Jack Jacobs

Cambridge University Press, 268 pages, $90.00

Most accounts of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, the grouping
of social and political thinkers briefly based at the Frankfurt
Institute for Social Research until Hitler’s arrival to power forced
them into exile, note that they were predominantly German Jews. Yet to
date, whether to praise or — more often — blame these philosophers,
sociologists, and psychoanalysts influenced by Karl Marx, there has been
no concentrated analysis of how Judaism impacted their lives and work.

Among these still-resonant names are the philosopher/sociologists Max
Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse. Horkheimer and
Adorno co-authored the weighty “Dialectic of Enlightenment” (1947),
while Marcuse’s political theorizing, updating Marxism for current
conditions, received a boost of publicity in the revolutionary 1960s.
Then there was Erich Fromm, a social psychologist and yet another
philosopher/sociologist, from an Orthodox Jewish background. Several
more noted German Jewish authors merit attention as members or in the
periphery of the Frankfurt School, such as Siegfried Kracauer and Walter
Benjamin, so it was a useful idea for Jack Jacobs, professor of
political science at John Jay College and the CUNY Graduate Center, to
offer this compellingly detailed analysis.

“The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism” is in part
biographically based, revealing the essence of thinker’s’ hearts and
lives while avoiding anecdotal trivia. As the political historian Zvi
Rosen has noted,, Max Horkheimer wrote about anti-Semitism starting
around the time of his military service in World War I. Previously,
school classmates had screamed “Jew!” at Horkheimer, but it was as a
soldier, as he remarked in a letter home from 1917, that he was
“regarded with spiteful apprehension because I am Jewish.” Citing these
and other examples, Jacobs convincingly refutes Martin Jay, an historian
of the Frankfurt School who claimed that Horkheimer was guilty of a
“facile dismissal of specifically Jewish problems.” To the contrary, the
German Jewish sociologist Leo Löwenthal (1900–1993), yet another
associate of the Frankfurt School, asserted that “in his thinking,
[Horkheimer] was always very conscious of the Jewish heritage.”

Such clarifications are useful because although professional writings
before their exile from Germany were not explicitly about Jewish
matters, “Dialectic of Enlightenment” and “The Authoritarian
Personality,” also co-authored by Adorno, would be “deeply colored by
the desire to elucidate and confront Hatred of Jews,” Jacobs reminds us.

In 1937, in a letter to the German Jewish literary scholar Hans Mayer,
Horkheimer claimed that anti-intellectualism “represents sexual envy and
resentment of a pleasurable attitude toward life of which one doesn’t
feel oneself capable. Hatred of the Jews has always been Hatred of
thinking, and naturally the Jews themselves are also in large measure
animated by this.”

This foreknowledge continued with personal ruminations by Adorno, born
Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund in Frankfurt to a Catholic mother and Jewish
father who had converted to Protestantism. Adorno’s identification as a
Jew grew along with European persecution, as noted in a February 1938
letter to Horkheimer. Written the day before Adorno fled Europe for
America, the letter predicted that any Jews who stayed in Germany would
be “extirpated,” which went against the then-more hopeful attitudes of
German Jews.

Once in America, Horkheimer and Adorno sought funding for studies on
anti-Semitism there. They may have felt that Europe was already a
familiar lost cause, but in the U.S.A., they were freshly surprised to
learn that anti-Semitism was also rife, from university quotas barring
Jewish students and faculty to popular radio broadcasts by the Roman
Catholic priest Charles Edward Coughlin, who preached Hatred of the Jews
to 1930s America.

To this effect, Adorno wrote home to his parents in 1940: “Fascism in
Germany, which is inseparable from anti-Semitism, is no psychological
anomaly of the German national character. It is a universal tendency
…The conditions for it – and I mean all of them, not only the economic
but also the mass psychological ones – are at least as present [in
America] as in Germany…and the barbaric semi-civilization of this
country will spawn forms no less terrible than those in Germany.”

The exiles of the Frankfurt School were appalled to find that in
America, some forms of prejudice were even more blatantly established
than as yet had been the case in Germany, such as openly barring Jews
from hotels and jobs. In 1942, as the tragedy of the Holocaust began to
unfold, Horkheimer wrote to Löwenthal: “These days are days of sadness.
The extermination of the Jewish people has reached dimensions greater
than at any time in history. I think that the night after these events
will be very long and may devour humanity.”

This apt grimness would be echoed by Adorno’s most famous statement from
a 1949 essay, that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. And
this corrodes even the knowledge of why it has become impossible to
write poetry today.” Continuing any culture which had produced Auschwitz
was for Adorno a dubious project, compounded by the survivor’s guilt
expressed in his “Negative Dialectics” (1966): “It may have been wrong
to say that after Auschwitz you could no longer write poems. But it is
not wrong to raise the less cultural question whether after Auschwitz
you can go on living - especially whether one who escaped by accident,
one who by rights should have been killed, may go on living.”

Possibly sharing this survivor’s guilt, Herbert Marcuse was raised in an
assimilated Berlin family which nevertheless celebrated his bar mitzvah.
Likely blocked from advancement in his academic career in the 1930s by
his anti-Semitic mentor Martin Heidegger, Marcuse would make public
protests in the 1970s about the persecution of Soviet Jewry. During the
height of his renown, he would routinely receive hate mail from
Americans such as the California author Chet Schwarzkopf, who wrote to
Marcuse that after learning of his “classroom antics, I have come to
wonder – along with many another veteran of World War II - if Hitler
wasn’t right after all.”

Perhaps due to such reminders, Marcuse always staunchly defended Israel
as an “asylum for persecuted Jews, if its role is to protect Jews from a
second Holocaust,” while freely criticizing Israeli politics. In
December 1971 Marcuse visited Israel, where he met with Moshe Dayan,,
revealing more commitment to the Jewish state than his former colleagues
Horkheimer and Erich Fromm. Yet even Horkheimer evinced an interest in
his roots, especially after an abortive effort to return to academic
work in Germany, before leaving for Switzerland in the late 1950s, due
to continuing German anti-Semitism that he attributed to “unmastered,
repressed guilt feelings.” Horkheimer recited Kaddish over his parents’
graves, attended synagogue on high holy days, and in 1971 made a special
request to the Jewish community of Stuttgart in the region where he was
born, to see if the Hebrew name which he was given at birth could be found.

While they remain appropriate targets for vehement political criticism
today, the thinkers of the Frankfurt school must henceforth be seen,
thanks to Jacobs’ lucid presentation, in the light of their Jewish
ancestry and awareness of the international blight of anti-Semitism.

Benjamin Ivry is a frequent contributor to the Forward.

(9) Philip Giraldi: Israel is a militarist theocracy, racist in its
orientation

Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2015 12:42:37 -0800
From: James Morris <justicequest2000@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Did Marine Le Pen visit Israel? - Cynthia McKinney
To: peter@mailstar.net
Cc: Cynthia McKinney

Thanks for this, Peter and Cynthia!

Happy New Year too! Doesn't look like a promising one though with the
links at http://tinyurl.com/25yeardepression and at
http://tinyurl.com/neoconmeddling and the latest added to
America-Hijacked.com (USHijacked.com) as well! Did you see the comments
added to following one by Giraldi?:

http://www.unz.com/article/why-i-still-dislike-israel/

Why I Still Dislike Israel

Netanyahu Should Leave Us Alone as a New Year's Present

By Philip Giraldi
former CIA Officer

DECEMBER 30, 2014

I little more than two years ago I wrote an article for antiwar.com that
was entitled “Why I dislike Israel.” The editors were a bit nervous
about running it but eventually allowed it to appear after I agreed to
some minor deletions. It turned out to be by far the most successful
piece I ever did for that website in terms of readership and it
attracted 166 comments. My critique was basically that the contrived
special relationship with Israel is very bad for the United States on a
number of levels. I argued that Washington should treat Israel like any
other country, based on actual American national interests. I continue
to hold those views, now more than ever as the Israeli government sinks
into something approximating madness and drags Washington along with it,
and I have often thought that it would be interesting to revisit my
discontent with Israel in light of recent developments.

There are good historic reasons to dislike Israel. In the so-called
Lavon Affair in 1952 the Israelis were prepared to blow up a U.S.
Information Center in Alexandria and blame it on the Egyptians. In the
1960s Israelis stole enriched uranium from a lab in Pennsylvania to
build atom bombs. They also obtained nuclear triggers through a spying
operation run by Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan that included current
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 1967, the Israelis attacked and nearly sank the American vessel USS
Liberty in international waters, killing 34 crewmen. President Lyndon
Johnson subsequently blocked an investigation into what had occurred, a
cover-up that has persisted to this day. In 1987, Jonathan Pollard, the
most damaging spy in the history of the United States, was convicted of
carrying out espionage for Israel. He is up for parole next year. And
Israel gets away with literally and directly killing individual American
citizens in the cases of Rachel Corrie in 2003 and Furkan Dogan of the
Mavi Marmara in 2010.

I noted two years ago that the few mainstream critics of Israel tend to
apologize in advance by explaining that they have a lot of Jewish
friends and actually like Israelis before engaging in what is usually a
very mild critique. That milquetoast approach has, fortunately, shifted
considerably in the past two years largely due to the steady march of
Israeli politics to the hard right coupled with the horrific Israeli
attacks on Gaza, which together killed more than 3,000 civilians,
including many women and children, and featured deliberate bombings of
schools and hospitals. Israel’s development into what is transparently a
racist apartheid style state has also come at great cost to the United
States, which has looked and acted increasingly ridiculous as a result
of the contortions necessary to continue to serve as Tel Aviv’s
indispensable patron and protector.

Unlike two years ago, there are now a lot of mainstream critics of
Israel and they are pulling no punches, leaving the phony narrative of
Israel as the beleaguered little democracy in a sea of nasty enemies in
tatters. Many of the most effective critics are themselves Jewish,
having finally decided that enough is enough. I defy anyone to read the
first few chapters of Max Blumenthal’s splendid Goliath: Life and
Loathing in Greater Israel and come away with any remaining illusions
about Israeli society and politics intact. And then there are John
Judis’s book Genesis: Truman, American Jews and the Origins of the
Arab/Israeli Conflict, Peter Beinart’s The Crisis of Zionism and the
Mondoweiss website run by Phil Weiss.

There are two basic complaints I have about Israel and its powerful
lobby in the United States. The first is the more important, that the
relationship with Israel does actual damage to the U.S. government, its
national interests and to the American people. One notable example of
Israel’s direct interference with the U.S. political process was evident
two years ago when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear his
preference for GOP candidate Mitt Romney over incumbent Barack Obama.
This was manifested in ads that ran in crucial swing state Florida,
where there are many retired Jews. Obama, clearly fearing to offend the
Lobby, did not even object at blatant interference from a foreign leader
when the ads appeared.

But lacking a presidential election this time around, the vetting of
candidates was less focused, though individual congressmen and other
elected officials were systematically scrutinized for their views on the
Middle East. Fact sheets were distributed to legislators explaining away
the attack on Gaza. Candidates perceived as being particularly friendly
to Israel continue to receive large donations in support of their campaigns.

In the upcoming year, pro-Israel groups will begin taking all new
congressmen on sponsored tours to Israel where they will be presented
with what might charitably described as a bowdlerized version of what is
taking place in the Holy Land. Congress responds to the largesse by
voting resolution after resolution virtually guaranteeing that
Washington will go to war on behalf of Israel even if Tel Aviv initiates
the fighting. So in the past two years Israel Lobby activity directed at
electing and controlling a malleable congress and increasingly even
officials at state and local levels continues, but it did not rise to
the intensity level seen at the end of 2012 during the presidential
race. Unfortunately, it will likely become a lot worse in 2016. Two
Jewish mega-billionaires Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban have been openly
discussing funding presidential candidates based solely on how strongly
they favor Israel.

But Israeli engagement with Washington power brokers does not end with
elections. There is also the little matter of more than $3 billion
dollars going from the American taxpayer to Tel Aviv every year on top
of more than $233 billion given in total, all in spite of the fact that
Israel has a booming economy and an average income level similar to
Western Europe.

Washington’s unlimited support for Israel also inspires terrorists to
kill Americans. Osama bin Laden described it as a major issue motivating
him and his supporters to attack the United States. The partisan U.S.
role makes all of Israel’s enemies de facto America’s enemies. Pressure
to manipulate Washington’s policy towards Iran has been incessant both
directly from Tel Aviv and from the Israel Firsters deeply ensconced in
the media and think tank punditry. Israel and its friends want
Washington to go to war with Iran and have sought to force the White
House to take “red line” positions that would trigger an automatic
military response. That an agreement over Iran’s nuclear program has not
already been achieved is largely attributable to the actions of the
Lobby and runs directly contrary to the interests and desires of
Washington and Tehran, both of which should be cooperating to meet the
threat of ISIS. Lessening regional tensions would also benefit Israel
itself if its leadership were not so immersed in crying wolf over its
neighbor while expecting the world to fail to notice its own nuclear
arsenal.

And the spying and theft of U.S. technology continues unabated. Israel
has long been the most active “friendly nation” when it comes to
stealing American secrets, and when its spies are caught, they are
either sent home or, if they are U.S. citzens, rarely prosecuted. A
little reported recent case in California revealed a new Israeli spying
operation at CalTech’s government funded Jet Propulsion Lab. A
successful attempt to steal and send to Israel U.S. high technology was
characteristically ignored by both the university and Justice
Department, leading to punishment of the whistleblower rather than the
Israeli scientist involved

Finally there is the worldwide perception of the United States as being
firmly in Israel’s pocket, a wag the dog phenomenon that has done grave
damage to the integrity and reputation of the U.S. Washington blocks any
United Nations resolution that Israel objects to, damaging its own
interests and making it complicit in a growing list of war crimes.
Further, the United States links itself to an Israeli government
identifiable as a rogue regime by most international standards, engaging
as it does in torture, arbitrary imprisonment, and continued occupation
of territories seized by its military. America’s own torture program was
in fact modeled on Israeli practices.

Tel Aviv has also played a key role in encouraging Washington’s own
foreign policy blunders, to include the Iraq invasion and a global war
on terror widely perceived to be directed against the entire Muslim
world. The U.S. also continues to humiliate itself by going through the
charade of Middle East peace talks that have demonstrated the hypocrisy
of a White House that will never pressure Tel Aviv in any substantive
way while demanding instant surrender by the Palestinian leadership.

The second broad complaint that one might have about Israel is its
behavior distinct from its ability to manipulate Washington. Some might
regard what Israel does as the heart of the problem, which in a sense it
is, but if one is concerned about American interests how Tel Aviv
behaves when it is not directly doing damage to Washington is certainly
a secondary concern. Israeli politicians are notably among the world’s
most corrupt but they only damage their own people and if Tel Aviv
chooses to do certain things to “defend” itself from its neighbors so be
it. But Israel has to grow up and take responsibility for its own
actions without an American deus ex machina to fix things, write checks
and bail it out politically every time it screws up.

And there is also the moral dimension. Israel has increasingly been
transformed into a militarist theocracy that is substantially racist in
its orientation. If Washington is truly concerned about human rights,
which may or may not be the case, it should articulate a position on
perceived abuses no matter where they occur. In a similar situation, the
United States actively opposed South Africa’s apartheid government,
which helped make Pretoria vulnerable to international pressure and
eventually led to majority rule.

The United States government is hardly a paragon of model behavior and
in truth has become more like Israel than vice versa, but I like what
Israel does even less and it is time to stake out very clearly what
should occur to break the tie that binds. No more money, no more
political support, no more acceptance of the wholesale suborning of
congress, no more tolerance of spying, and no more having to listen to
demands for red lines to go to war. The United States government was
created to serve the American people, not a powerful foreign interest.
My fervent New Year’s wish is for the monstrous Bibi Netanyahu or
whoever succeeds him in office to just leave us alone in 2015. Israel
will have to stand on its own two feet for a change while Washington
will not have to be constantly looking over its collective shoulder
concerned about “Israeli interests.” It would be a divorce that would be
beneficial for everyone involved.