Netanyahu Pushes Trump Toward Wider Wars

Exclusive: Russia-gate is empowering Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to strong-arm President Trump into escalating the Syrian war by abandoning a recent cease-fire and challenging Iran and Russia, reports Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry

A weakened, even desperate President Donald Trump must decide whether to stand up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or to repudiate the Syrian partial ceasefire, which Trump hammered out with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 7.

President Donald Trump places a prayer in-between the stone blocks of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. (Official White House Photo by Dan Hansen)

Whether intentionally or not, this crossroads is where the months of Russia-gate hysteria have led the United States, making Trump even more vulnerable to Israeli and neoconservative pressure and making any cooperation with Russia more dangerous for him politically.

After meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Sunday, Netanyahu declared that Israel was totally opposed to the Trump-Putin cease-fire deal in southern Syria because it perpetuates Iranian presence in Syria in support of the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Netanyahu’s position increases pressure on Trump to escalate U.S. military involvement in Syria and possibly move toward war against Iran and even Russia. The American neocons, who generally move in sync with Netanyahu’s wishes, already have as their list of current goals “regime changes” in Damascus, Tehran and Moscow – regardless of the dangers to the Middle East and indeed the world.

At the G-20 summit on July 7, Trump met for several hours with Putin coming away with an agreed-upon cease-fire for southwestern Syria, an accord that has proven more successful than previous efforts to reduce the violence that has torn the country apart since 2011.

But that limited peace could mean failure for the proxy war that Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other regional players helped launch six years ago with the goal of removing Assad from power and shattering the so-called “Shiite crescent” from Tehran through Damascus to Beirut. Instead, that “crescent” appears more firmly in place, with Assad’s military bolstered by Shiite militia forces from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

In other words, the “regime change” gambit against Assad’s government would have backfired, with Iranian and Hezbollah forces arrayed along Israel’s border with Syria. And instead of accepting that reversal and seeking some modus vivendi with Iran, Netanyahu and his Sunni-Arab allies (most notably the Saudi monarchy) have decided to go in the other direction (a wider war) and to bring President Trump along with them.

Neophyte Trump

Trump – a relative neophyte in global intrigue – has been slow to comprehend how his outreach to Netanyahu and Saudi King Salman runs counter to his collaboration with Putin on efforts to defeat the Sunni jihadist groups, including Al Qaeda and Islamic State, which have served as the point of the spear in the war to overthrow Assad.

President Donald Trump touches lighted globe with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman and Donald Trump at the opening of Saudi Arabia’s Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology on May 21, 2017. (Photo from Saudi TV)

Al Qaeda and Islamic State have received direct and indirect support from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Turkey, Israel and even the Obama administration, albeit sometimes unwittingly. To block Assad’s overthrow – and the likely victory by these terror groups – Russia, Iran and Hezbollah came to Assad’s defense, helping to turn the tide of the war since 2015.

In his nearly half year in office, Trump has maintained an open hostility toward Iran – sharing a position held by Washington’s neocons as well as Netanyahu and Salman – but the U.S. President also has advocated cooperation with Russia to crush Islamic State and Al Qaeda inside Syria.

Collaboration with Russia – and indirectly with Iran and the Syrian military – makes sense for most U.S. interests, i.e., stabilizing Syria, reversing the refugee flow that has destabilized Europe, and denying Al Qaeda and Islamic State a base for launching terror strikes against Western targets.

But the same collaboration would be a bitter defeat for Netanyahu and Salman who have invested heavily in this and other “regime change” projects that require major U.S. investments in terms of diplomacy, money and military manpower.

So, in last weekend’s trip to Paris, Netanyahu chose to raise the stakes on Trump at a time when Democrats and the U.S. mainstream media are pounding him daily with the Russia-gate scandal, even raising the possibility that his son, Donald Trump Jr., might be prosecuted and imprisoned for having a meeting in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer.

If Trump wants the Russia-gate pain to lessen, he will be tempted to give Netanyahu what he wants and count on the savvy Israeli leader to intervene with the influential neocons of Official Washington to pull back on the scandal-mongering.

The problem, however, would be that Netanyahu really wants the U.S. military to complete the “regime change” project in Syria – much as it did in Iraq and Libya – meaning more American dead, more American treasure expended and a likely wider war, extending to Iran and possibly nuclear-armed Russia.

That might fulfill the neocon current menu of “regime change” schemes but it runs the risk of unleashing a nuclear conflagration on the world. In that way, liberals and even some progressives – who have embraced Russia-gate as a way to remove the hated Donald Trump from office – may end up contributing to the end of human civilization as well.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com).

200 comments for “Netanyahu Pushes Trump Toward Wider Wars

  1. Emily
    July 23, 2017 at 11:10

    Perhaps someone would be kind enough to answer a question for me.
    i find it very difficult to understand why the Isrealis have been handed the western side of what was Palestine at all.
    Netanyahu is Lithuanian/Polish.
    Most of the Israeli leaders and people are of similar descent.
    They apparently originated in the Russian Caucasus.
    I find it hard to understand why the ‘God of Israel’ promised these North Eastern European Caucasians – the ‘promised land’ occupied by the semite people of the Middle East.
    Why do I feel that Israel and its attitude to the Palestinian people – is actually the worst act of anti-semitism in world history.
    Can someone kindly justify to me the very existence of the State of Israel and what the actual claim to the piece of land is based upon.
    I would certainly really appreciate any explanation that will enhance my understanding here.
    The logic of it all puzzles me exceedingly.

    • Abe
      July 23, 2017 at 14:18

      Your mentioned the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, often called the “Khazar myth” by its critics. The hypothesis has a complex history and has been used at times by Jewish Rabbis, Jewish historians, Jewish secular Zionists, anti-Zionists, and anti-Semitic racists.

      Certain desperate false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara trolls may kindly insert a Khazar myth reference into the comment section to see if a whiff of soft-core “anti-Semitism” will get some play.

      Yes, Emily, it’s all exceedingly puzzling.

  2. John
    July 21, 2017 at 21:55

    American citizens are blind and apathetic ……The dual citizen jewish policymakers in America have taken over the country. You were all warned many time for many years. again you did nothing. Very soon America will reap a full harvest of death and war…..

  3. July 21, 2017 at 02:34

    Ain’t gonna happen.

  4. desert mary
    July 20, 2017 at 12:58

    It is still mind boggling that the US does Israel’s bidding…why would it do that?
    And why would Israel be treating the Palestinians so horribly while taking over their land while the US assists in that criminal undertaking?
    The US sides with Israel in all of that devastation and instead of the US taxpayers money being used to reinvest in the US infrastructure and its people, the money goes to wars..and to Israel. There is something terribly wrong with this picture. The truth of the matter is that the majority of Israelis, including those high up in government, are against the continual invasion of Palestine….but Netanyahu lied to the voters just before their election by saying that he was all for 2 separate states and would work to that end…then, not surprisingly, as soon as he was elected, he said he was not at all for the 2 state plan and Israel would continue their warring against Palestine, taking their land. Just like Trump did to the American people….turned a 180 on the people who voted for them. We should make no mistake: Russia will help Iran defend itself as it is doing in Syria and Israel and the US will have to make up their evil minds whether to continue on against Syria and Iran risking a nuclear confrontation or to just back off like they should.

  5. Abe
    July 20, 2017 at 11:49

    “Over the last seven years, several billion dollars’ worth of armament has been illegally introduced into Syria – a fact which in itself is enough to disprove the myth according to which this war is a democratic revolution. Numerous documents attest to the fact that the traffic was organised by General David Petraeus, first of all in public, via the CIA, of which he was the director, then privately, via the financial company KKR with the aid of certain senior civil servants. Thus the conflict, which was initially an imperialist operation by the United States and the United Kingdom, became a private capitalist operation, while in Washington, the authority of the White House was challenged by the deep state. New elements now show the secret role of Azerbaidjan in the evolution of the war. […]

    “the Azerbaidjani system, although requested by the United States and Saudi Arabia, was controlled from start to finish from Tel-Aviv.

    “The Hebrew state, which pretended to be neutral during the whole of the Syrian conflict, nonetheless bombed the Syrian Arab Army on many occasions. Each time Tel-Aviv recognised the facts, it pretended that it had destroyed the arms destined for the Lebanese Hezbollah. In reality, all these operations, with perhaps a single exception, were coordinated with the jihadists. So today we learn that Tel-Aviv supervised the deliveries of arms to these same jihadists, so that although Israel limited itself to the use of its air force to support them, it did in fact play a central role in the war.

    “According to the international conventions, the falsification of certificates of final delivery, and the supply of weapons to mercenary groups who overthrow legitimate governments, or destroy recognised states, are considered to be international crimes.”

    Billions of dollars’ worth of arms against Syria
    By Thierry Meyssan
    http://www.voltairenet.org/article197144.html

  6. Zachary Smith
    July 19, 2017 at 22:49

    A very interesting new headline related to Trump possibly defying his Israeli Master.

    “Trump ends CIA arms support for anti-Assad Syria rebels: U.S. officials”

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has decided to halt the CIA’s covert program to equip and train certain rebel groups fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, two U.S. officials said, a move sought by Assad ally Russia.

    The U.S. decision, said one of the officials, is part of an effort by the administration to improve relations with Russia, which along with Iranian-supported groups has largely succeeded in preserving Assad’s government in the six-year-civil war.

    At this early date I’m not entirely sure what it all means, but it seems unlikely Netanyahu requested this from a nation he is accustomed to ordering around.

    • Virginia
      July 20, 2017 at 11:42

      Zachary, I heard that news last night. Sounds encouraging. And it was added that there would be more moves like this. Maybe, too, the war/military budget will go down. Otherwise, Abe must be right (above) that this “cornering Trump” has all been staged, as in reality tv.

  7. Liam
    July 19, 2017 at 21:23

    Just released and there is nothing else like it – Truth of Ukraine War Revealed: Watchdog Media Releases Definitive Chronological Timeline Video of Ukrainian War From Euromaidan to MH-17 https://clarityofsignal.com/2017/07/19/truth-of-ukraine-war-revealed-watchdog-media-institute-releases-definitive-chronological-timeline-video-of-ukrainian-war-from-euromaidan-to-mh-17/

    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 22:20

      Fake “citizen investigative journalist” and the Atlantic Council’s Bellingcat team of fake “online investigators” just published a 73-page summary of their alleged “open source evidence” about the downing of MH17

      https://www.bellingcat.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mh17-3rd-anniversary-report.pdf

      Apparently the JIT has focused on the dubious telephone call published by the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU), and Bellingcat wants you to “tweet it out” if you find any “open source” leads. Hilarity ensues.

  8. Abe
    July 19, 2017 at 20:29

    The image of a “weakened, even desperate President Donald Trump” has been carefully crafted to equip Trump with a political alibi for the pro-Israel actions he was placed in office to perform: Challenging Iran and Russia, escalating the Syrian war, and ignoring Israeli efforts to secure Syrian territory and energy resources in violation of international law.

    Thus far it’s been a flawless performance from “Reality TV” veteran Trump.

  9. Abe
    July 19, 2017 at 20:12

    Trump isn’t being “pushed” or “played”.

    Trump is an all-too-willing accomplice with Netanyahu in a drama designed to present him as something other than the latest pro-Israel warmongering American president.

    Trump’s purported deviation from US foreign policy orthodoxy was a propaganda scam engineered by pro-Israel interests from the very beginning.

    Trump received the “Liberty Award” for his “contributions to US-Israel relations” at a February 2015 gala hosted by The Algemeiner Journal, a pro-Israel New York-based newspaper.

    Trump declared: “We love Israel. We will fight for Israel 100 percent, 1000 percent.”
    VIDEO minutes 2:15-8:06
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiwBwBw7R-U

    After the Algemeiner event, Trump did not renew his television contract for The Apprentice, raising speculation about a Trump presidential bid. Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015.

    Hints of Trump’s break with GOP orthodoxy, questioning of Israel’s commitment to peace, calls for even treatment in Israeli-Palestinian deal-making, and refusal to call for Jerusalem to be Israel’s undivided capital, were all stage-managed for the campaign.

    Cheap theatrics notwithstanding, the Zionist Power Configuration continues to enjoy front-door access to the White House and unconditional support from Trump.

    Trump’s national security appointees are part of Official Washington’s “we-love-Israel” group think, also known as “the Establishment,” dramatically increasing the likelihood of yet another major war in the Middle East waged on behalf of Israel.

    A correction of terminology is imperative if we seek to avoid wider wars instigated by Trump in collusion with Netanyahu.

    Instead of speaking euphemistically about “Iran-haters” or talking generally about “hawks”, it’s time to accurately identify these characters as “Israel Lobby money-lovers” and “pro-Israel warmongers”.

    Once accurate terminology and clear perspective are established, we can begin to address Israel’s arsenal of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, including its supply of Sarin nerve gas.

    That nasty stuff gets around, you know.

    In fact, any more of that stuff gets around, we’ll have a new and wider war on our hands for sure.

  10. SteveK9
    July 19, 2017 at 18:03

    It would not lessen Trump’s pain in the slightest. The neocons would just keep on keeping on.

  11. July 19, 2017 at 18:00
    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 19:01

      Madame Clinton was the top recipient of Pro-Israel Money for 2015-2016.

      1 Clinton, Hillary (D) $1,220,412
      2 Van Hollen, Chris (D-MD) House $630,514
      3 Rubio, Marco (R-FL) Senate $468,307
      4 Feingold, Russ (D-WI) $435,102
      5 Kirk, Mark (R-IL) Senate $434,564
      6 Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) Senate $390,801
      7 McGinty, Katie (D-PA) $385,633
      8 Ayotte, Kelly (R-NH) Senate $377,821
      9 Cruz, Ted (R-TX) Senate $352,017
      10 Duckworth, Tammy (D-IL) House $345,241
      11 Hassan, Maggie (D-NH) $339,110
      12 Schneider, Brad (D-IL) $318,749
      13 Masto, Catherine Cortez (D-NV) $301,895
      14 Ross, Deborah (D-NC) $273,681
      15 McCain, John (R-AZ) Senate $268,327
      16 Murphy, Patrick (D-FL) House $260,808
      17 Johnson, Ron (R-WI) Senate $251,164
      18 Royce, Ed (R-CA) House $242,143
      19 Lee, Mike (R-UT) Senate $236,300
      20 Portman, Rob (R-OH) Senate $235,280

      Figures are based on contributions from PACs and individuals giving $200 or more.

      The top lobbying clients for Pro-Israel Money in 2016:

      American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) $3,602,343
      J Street $400,000
      Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) $200,000
      American Jewish Committee (AJC) $150,000
      Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) $80,000

      The Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, DC manages the OpenSecrets Blog, the most comprehensive resource for federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available anywhere.

      OpenSecrets features newsbreaking original reporting about money-in-politics, including the sort of investigative work that won the Society of Professional Journalists’ 2013 award for Public Service in Online Journalism.

    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 19:08

      Donald Trump – who had never held public office – jumped into the 2016 race and ran an unconventional campaign, no doubt with plenty of Pro-Israel Money laundered via numerous SuperPACs and single-candidate groups.

      Top Trump SuperPACs

      Donald J Trump for President Pro-Trump Campaign $333,127,164
      Rebuilding America Now SuperPAC $22,610,717
      Make America Number 1 SuperPAC $20,735,129
      Make America Great Again SuperPAC $1,742,684

      While Trump raised less money than his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, he received free media attention valued at about $5 billion. At 70, Trump was older than any previous U.S. president at the time he took office, and was the fifth commander in chief to have lost the popular vote.

    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 16:41

      Jewish American non-journalist and rabid conspiracy theorist James Kirchick is a fellow with the Foreign Policy Initiative founded by Bill Kristol, Dan Senor, and Robert Kagan.

      Prior to this, Kirchick was writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

      In a 30 July 2013 screed in the New York Daily News, the neoconservative Kirchick advocated the death penalty for Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning.

      Kirchick was invited to appear on Russia’s RT TV network live panel discussion awaiting Manning’s sentencing on Wednesday, 21 August 2013. He accepted; however, once it was his turn to speak, Kirchick refused to discuss Manning’s sentencing, instead choosing to protest a Russian law that made the distribution of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors, an offense punishable by fines.

      When asked by RT news editor Ivor Crotty if he was ready to have a conversation about Manning with the assembled panel, Kirchick retorted angrily: “RT has been Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden 24/7. I haven’t seen anything on your network about the anti-gay laws that have been passed in Russia”. That account was objected by one of the program’s hosts who said they had a panel discussing it only the day before.

      Later that day, Politico reached out to both Kirchick and RT for comment. Kirchick called for a “boycott” of RT, calling its employees “not journalists, they’re propagandists”. RT responded in an e-mail, calling Kirchick’s protest “unrelated to the subject of the panel. Regretfully, RT had no other recourse but to continue the discussion without him”. The Washington Post PostPartisan blogger Jonathan Capehart commended Kirchick for his “heroic” action. The New Republic’s Julia Ioffe praised Kirchick’s “trolling of RT”.

      The next day, Kirchik’s opinion piece titled “Why I ambushed Russia’s news network with rainbow suspenders” got published by The Washington Post. In it, Kirchik further denounces RT as broadcasting “sophisticated conspiracy theories and anti-establishment attitudes to push a virulently anti-American and illiberal agenda”, while relying on “a pool of talking heads, including 9/11 truthers, anti-Semites, and other assorted extremists, who espouse the sort of views found where the far left and the far right converge”. A day later, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell invited Kirchick into his show where they discussed the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

      Kirchick was one of a number of neoconservatives, along with Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan, who supported Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton, over the Republican Party candidate Donald Trump, for the presidency during the 2016 American presidential elections. He stated that while Clinton stands for the “status quo”, Trump was instead a “brashly authoritarian populist”.

      On August 15, 2016, the Daily Beast published an article by Kirchick which listed Jill Stein, Rania Khalek, Corey Robin, Glenn Greenwald, Ishaan Tharoor, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and others as “Hillary Clinton-Loathing, Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots of the Left”. Salon’s Ben Norton contacted all of those who were mentioned in the article. All of them, except for Christopher Ketcham, stated they did not support Trump.

      Kirchick has a long history of work for various neoconservative propaganda organs. He served as a contributing editor at the New Republic, and contributed to various rightist outlets like the Weekly Standard and Commentary magazine’s Contentions blog.

      As a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neoconservative advocacy organization, Kirchuk leveled accusations of “anti-Semitism” at critics of Israel. As reported at Right Web:

      “Kirchick has wielded accusations of anti-semitism in an effort to sideline those who are critical of hardline Israeli polices and one-sided U.S. support for them. In a February 2012 op-ed for Israel’s liberal Haaretz, Kirchick defended “pro-Israel’ U.S. writers like Josh Block—a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute and former AIPAC spokesperson—who had been criticized for arguing that progressive, Democratic Party-affiliated organizations like the Center for American Progress (CAP) allowed their writers ‘to say borderline anti-semitic stuff.’ Kirchick misleadingly claimed in the article that Block was “ultimately vindicated” when CAP criticized use of terms like ‘Israel-firster’ in its publications. However, it was Block who was forced to back off his anti-semitism claims, telling a reporter that anyone “suggesting” the he thinks CAP is anti-semitic is simply trying ‘to distract from what I am actually saying.’ Kirchick apparently missed this retraction from Block.

      “According to Kirchick, the real back story to this episode is what he calls a growing ‘leftist McCarthyism’ aimed at ‘questioning the loyalties of American Jews.’ To support this claim, Kirchick argued—without providing any supporting evidence—that big-name scholars and journalists in the United States have recently experienced success in their careers precisely because of their willingness to criticize Israel. He wrote: ‘Figures ranging from University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer to journalists Peter Beinart and Andrew Sullivan have all seen their careers blossom as a result of their harsh and unrelenting criticism of Israel. Indeed, obsessively attacking Israel is a bona-fide way to resuscitate one’s career, not destroy it.’ He concluded: ‘Since the 1950s, liberals have routinely accused conservatives of ‘McCarthyism. Now the tables have turned, and it is leftists questioning the loyalties of American Jews.’

      “Responding to Kirchick’s op-ed piece, Haaretz contributor Mairav Zonszein ridiculed the FDD scholar, saying that he failed ‘to mention that many of those employing the term ‘Israel-firster’ are deeply concerned about Israel’s future and about regional stability, and are no different from members of the Israeli peace camp—not to mention that some of them are Jewish themselves.’ Zonszein added that Kirchick “blatantly ignores the highly divisive role Israel plays in U.S. politics. American Jewish organizations are constantly battling over the definition of ‘pro-Israel,’ a term monopolized by powerful groups like AIPAC to mean ‘Israel right or wrong.’ … ‘Pro-Israel’ has become political currency in the presidential race, despite bearing divergent connotations. For Newt Gingrich, the term means denying the existence of a Palestinian nation (and thus ruling out a two-state solution); for Mitt Romney, it means ensuring security at all costs (and thus discounting Israeli settlements as a problem). For Barack Obama, it means what it has meant for previous American administrations: A secure Jewish nation-state based on the ’67 borders, alongside a viable Palestinian state.’

      “Zonszein concluded: ‘Kirchick has it backward when he argues that the language of the far right has seeped into the left. It is, rather, Israel’s far-right policies that increasingly clash with American liberal and democratic values. Long before Peter Beinart became famous for pointing to a conflict between Zionism and liberalism, academics and policymakers warned that unbridled American support for Israel (spearheaded by AIPAC’s bullying influence on Congress) would backfire. This concern first surfaced in 1982 during the first Lebanon War, when many Americans began to wonder whether Israeli values were in line with American ones. It is reappearing again now within the context of a possible attack on Iran, on top of the incessant Israeli settlement project in the West Bank—a relentless policy that not only undermines Israel’s claim to being a democratic state, but undercuts America’s ability to be an honest broker of a two-state solution.'”

      http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/kirchick_james/

  12. brooklynpaul
    July 19, 2017 at 11:23

    Mr. Parry, I know that moderating so many comments must be time-consuming, and you want to allow for a wide range of viewpoints. But even free speech has its limits. Here are a few of the blatantly anti-semitic comments you may have missed for this article: “these people have diseased minds and should be put down like a rabid dog. I would rather sleep with a bed full syphilitic rats than shake hands with these horrible people.” ” Most of the corporate media is owned by Jews.” “psychopathic nature” “the rothchilds own israel anyway and practically half of the planet” “Netanyahu is a Jewish megalomaniac who uses American traitorous Jewish population” “shysters.” There was much more which was clearly anti-semitism, often not even bothering to cloak itself in anti-Zionism. Allowing such filth to be appended to your article taints your otherwise creditable reporting. Then again, maybe you are not doing the due diligence of moderating at all, in which case you won’t even see this comment.

     

    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 13:08

      Pro-Israel Hasbara propaganda trolls strive to discredit websites, articles, and videos critical of Israel and Zionism.

      A particularly despicable Hasbara smear tactic is the deliberate post of incendiary “anti-Semitic” comments or links to “anti-Semitic” and “Holocaust denial” material.

      Hasbara smear tactics have intensified due to increasing Israeli threats of military aggression, Israeli collusion with the United States in “regime change” projects from the Middle East to Eastern Europe, and Israeli links to international organized crime and terrorism in Syria.

      Another key Hasbara deception tactic is to falsely allege that legitimate criticism of Israel or pro-Israel political lobbying in the United States is somehow “anti-Semitic”.

      Readers of Consortium News are alert to these Hasbara propaganda tactics.

      There have been a number of efforts by international and governmental bodies to define “anti-Semitism” formally.

      The U.S. Department of State states that “while there is no universally accepted definition, there is a generally clear understanding of what the term encompasses.” For the purposes of its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism, the term was considered to mean “hatred toward Jews, individually and as a group, that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity.”

      In 2005, the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (now Fundamental Rights Agency), then an agency of the European Union, developed a more detailed working definition, which states: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

      The European agency adds that “such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity,” but that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”

      Criticism of particular Israeli actions or policies, even harsh and strident criticism or advocacy, in and of itself does not constitute “anti-Semitism”.

      • brooklynpaul
        July 19, 2017 at 15:42

        I would be interested in any evidence you have that anti-semitic statements are posted by Zionists as hasbara.

        • Gregory Herr
          July 19, 2017 at 17:38

          I am interested to know whether or not you think the way Israel “mows its lawn” or imposes near starvation in the open-air prison that is Gaza is in any way acceptable behavior. Do you think Palestinians living in the West Bank ought to be subject to apartheid? Do you think the dirty war on the Syrian people perpetrated in part by the state of Israel is just dandy?
          I hold no prejudice against ethnic or cultural groups. I am always of good will and good thoughts towards individuals unless or until given reason not to be. But it is incumbent upon any thinking citizen with a shred of morality to criticize the abuse of state power. The state of Israel, as others including my own, has some ‘splaining to do (in my humble opinion).

          • brooklynpaul
            July 19, 2017 at 20:32

            You appear to assume that I am an apologist for any and all things done by the State of Israel. I am not. I am here focused on manifest evidence by a number, but by no means all, of the commenters here, of anti-Semitism, as I noted above in my comment directed to Mr. Parry. As a person who holds “no prejudice against ethnic or cultural groups,” I am sure you have noticed it as well?

          • Abe
            July 19, 2017 at 21:29

            Thanks for your contribution, brooklynpaul.

            I must point out that you have simply declared that certain comments are “manifest evidence” of “anti-Semitism”.

            A pro-Israel Hasbara troll smear tactic is to deliberately post incendiary “anti-Semitic” comments in order to to discredit investigative journalism sites that are critical of Israeli actions.

            Please provide evidence, in each instance you cite, that the comment is the work of an actual “anti-Semite”, not the effort of one or more Hasbara propaganda trolls.

            Given the gravity of your allegation, this question must be addressed.

          • Gregory Herr
            July 19, 2017 at 22:02

            Sorry you misunderstood…I made a point not to assume anything beyond what you stated…that’s why I asked. Someone can be sensitive to what he considers general slurs against Jews without being an apologist for the state of Israel. So you still haven’t answered my specific questions beyond a blanket “any and all things” statement. But that’s okay…your focus can stand apart from other issues.
            What I have noticed, and you should too, is that the vast majority here are not in the habit of over-generalization or insensitivity…criticism of Zionist ideology and/or actions of the state of Israel certainly is prevalent, but slurs against Jewish people are next to nonexistent.
            The “shaking hands” comment was in reference to Netanyahu (and his political ilk), not Jewish people. There is a point in fact about media ownership. “Psychopathic” is a term I would use for neocon ideologues (who aren’t by definition Jewish, but some prominent neocons do have dual citizenship and/or Jewish ancestry–many do not)…and there may have been an unfortunate instance of conflation with American Jews in one instance. I think you have way overstated your case for indignation.

          • Abe
            July 20, 2017 at 03:48

            Interestingly, brooklynpaul, you appear to assume that any and all propaganda activities by the State of Israel are performed by people who simply “want to show Israel in a positive light”.

            That is a shocking statement.

            The State of Israel has an extensive record of international propaganda campaigns and deception operations dating back to its creation in 1948.

            In Hebrew, Hasbara means “explanation” and is also a euphemism for propaganda.

            Israeli government propaganda and Pro-Israel Lobby Hasbara activity includes:
            – lunches and free trips for influential journalists;
            – seminars for American Jewish university students;
            – invitations to congressmen;
            – election tampering in the form of pamphlets and donation of money for election campaigns;
            – telling photographers and writers what to photograph or write about;
            – lecture and concert tours by prominent Israelis;
            – frequent references to the Holocaust;
            – advertisements in American newspapers attacking Arabs and praising Israel;
            – think tanks and media pundits promoting Israeli policy agendas

            Your remark mirrors the euphemistic language that appears in the “Hasbara Fellowships” propaganda manual
            http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/uploads/Defeating%20Anti-Israel%20Propaganda.pdf

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 22:15

          I doubt if you’re actually “interested”, but here is a recent example anyhow.

          Teen arrested in Israel for threats against U.S. Jewish community centers
          Kevin Johnson , USA TODAY Published 9:54 a.m. ET March 23, 2017 |

          WASHINGTON — An 18-year-old Israeli-American has been arrested in connection with a wave of threats aimed at Jewish community centers, the FBI confirmed Thursday.

          Israeli police arrested the suspect, identified as Michael Kaydar, as part of joint investigation with the FBI.

          U.S. investigators believe the suspect is responsible for the bulk of the threats against Jewish institutions in the past several months. Kaydar, who never lived in the U.S., is facing charges related to the threats in Israel and there are no immediate plans for his transfer to the U.S. for prosecution.

          • brooklynpaul
            July 20, 2017 at 13:00

            Zachary– Thank you for that, but this amounts to just one more case, and the article itself says “investigators believe the suspect is responsible for the bulk of the threats against Jewish institutions in the past several months.” My interest here, in case it isn’t clear, is in proving or disproving the theory being promoted in these comments that there is a connection between a few individuals (perhaps mentally ill, perhaps not) and the Israeli government’s purported promotion of fake threats. There could be a connection, but I hope you would not want to be convicted of any crime whatsoever on evidence so flimsy. My broader concern is that some commenters here (I am not referring to you) see Jews as venal, rapacious, and murderous, just as in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and that colors their view of what might otherwise be an intelligent discussion of a complicated situation.

          • Abe
            July 21, 2017 at 13:55

            Zachary Smith –

            In reading your comments, I am intelligent enough to understand that your phrase “little cesspool nation” refers to a secular state of Israel and its offensive actions as a national entity, and not the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity.

            Jews worldwide recognize the danger inherent in the government of Israel’s propaganda effort to identify the secular Israeli state with the Jewish people.

            The comment above that mentioned “these people” and “these horrible people” was a reference to the Israeli government and its agents in the U.S. who constantly strive to recruit the U.S. military to advance “regime change” projects against designated “enemies of Israel”.

            There are plenty of Jews in the U.S. who agree that Netanyahu is a “Jewish megalomaniac” and recognize that the actions of American Jewish neocons are “traitorous” to the interests of the United States.

            All this amounts to thin evidence of “Jew-haters pushing hatred of Israel and Jews” as a paranoid brooklynpaul has trying to push here.

            But hey, give the guy from Brooklyn a break.

            Any intelligent Jewish person who is honest must admit that Israel’s actions have been “murderous” and “thieving” in many instances.

            However, there are many Jewish people in America who are deceived into believing that such actions are somehow “good for the Jews”.

          • Abe
            July 21, 2017 at 15:34

            Speaking of Brooklyn, Dov Hikind represents Brooklyn’s Assembly district 48 in New York.

            Hikind was a follower of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, which has been identified as “a right wing terrorist group” by the FBI. Hikind knew Rabbi Kahane very well, and is active in right-wing Jewish causes.

            Hikind is a prominent speaker at a Pro-Israel rallies in New York
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R611drTEHPA

      • Abe
        July 19, 2017 at 17:03

        For example, progressive website Common Dreams tracked down and confronted a Jewish American troll who created multiple online personas to poison online discourse critical of Israel
        https://www.commondreams.org/hambaconeggs

      • Abe
        July 19, 2017 at 17:44

        In addition to pro-Israel propagandists in the media and online, an organization closely linked to the Israeli government offers “Hasbara Fellowships”, “advocacy training programs”, and instruction from media consultants in “effectively communicating for Israel”.

        Past speakers on the “Hasbara Fellowships” two-week trip to Israel have included top leaders such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Head of the Jewish Agency and Former Knesset Member Natan Sharansky.

        2016 participants met with David Keyes, a former “Hasbara Fellowships” participant who became the Spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

        “Hasbara Fellowships” propaganda training includes a 24-page guide on “communicating core pro-Israel messages”
        http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/uploads/Defeating%20Anti-Israel%20Propaganda.pdf

        For example, in response to concerns about the decades-long Israeli occupation of areas like the Golan Heights, illegal under international law, participants are programmed to merely respond that “Israelis want peace”.

        • brooklynpaul
          July 19, 2017 at 20:26

          Thank you Abe, for your two replies. I must point out that I asked for evidence of postings, plural. You gave me one, assuming that this person is indeed the false flag you claim. Your second post discusses hasbara initiatives in general, hasbara being, as you quote, “effectively communicating for Israel.. None of the examples in that second post give any evidence of false flag activity. I did leaf through the fellowships PDF and saw nothing like that either. So you have lots of examples of people who want to show Israel in a positive light,including Israeli officials — not exactly a shock, nor suspicious. Separately, you have so far shown one false flag out of a world Jewish population of maybe 15 million. It get the impression that you suspect that false flag activity by Zionists is a significant chunk of hasbara. But it would appear the evidence for that is thin, indeed.

          • Abe
            July 19, 2017 at 22:01

            Thanks, brooklynpaul, for acknowledging that false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara trolls represent a potential threat to the Jewish population worldwide.

            As the example clearly demonstrates, a single Hasbara troll, whether paid or an unpaid Zionist “true believer”, whether American or Israeli, whether Jewish or some deluded Christian Zionist, can publish “anti-Semitic” filth online.

            While attempting to smear legitimate investigation of Israeli government misdeeds, a false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara troll also potentially endangers us as Jews.

            As a Jewish person, there is nothing to fear from even harsh criticism of Israel, Zionism, or the mis-identification of the Israeli secular state with my Jewish faith.

            What I am concerned about is extremist Hasbara troll activity, whether by Israeli Jews or “Israel First” American Jewish zealots.

            Masquerading as an “anti-Semite” is the absolute lowest form of pro-Israel propaganda tactic. Only a truly self-hating Jew would so be debased to advance the interests of the secular government in power in Tel Aviv. Sadly, there appear to be plenty around on the internet.

          • Zachary Smith
            July 20, 2017 at 21:14

            You appear determined to avoid any and all of the manifest evidence of Hasbara propaganda.

            What choice does he/she have? Denial – in the face of massive amounts of evidence – is the only option available. I spent the last ten minutes on a search I ought to have made earlier.

            ynetnews 27.06.17

            What started as small initiatives during Operations Pillar of Defense and Protective Edge has turned into a well-oiled civilian PR machine; thousands of students in Israel—most of them volunteers—wage a daily, unending battle over Israel’s image online; their new app has thousands of users worldwide who defend Israel online; and you too can lend a hand.

            h**p://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4981081,00.html

            Israel to pay students to defend it online
            USA Today Aug. 14, 2013
            JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is looking to hire university students to post pro-Israel messages on social media networks — without needing to identify themselves as government-linked, officials said Wednesday.

            The Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement that students on Israeli university campuses would receive full or partial scholarships to combat anti-Semitism and calls to boycott Israel online. It said students’ messages would parallel statements by government officials.

            h**ps://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/14/israel-students-social-media/2651715/

            I didn’t know there was a Scholarship for those writing propaganda for the murderous & thieving little cesspool nation. Probably financed with US Taxpayer Dollars.

            Hasbara Fellowships is an organization that brings students to Israel and trains them to be effective pro-Israel activists on college campuses. Based in New York, it was started in 2001 by Aish HaTorah in conjunction with the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organization claims to have trained nearly 2,000 students on over 220 North American campuses.

            h**ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasbara_Fellowships

            “Organized lying”

            Last year a “covert” Israeli government initiative came to light which planned to pay students for spreading propaganda online.

            “The whole point of such efforts is to look like they are unofficial, just every day people chatting online,” Israel expert Dena Shunra told The Electronic Intifada.

            “But in fact, these are campaigns of organized lying, orchestrated with government-approved talking points and crowdsourced volunteers and stipend recipients,” Shunra added.

            h**ps://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/07/hasbara-industry-why-israels-army-of-spin-doctors-is-doomed-to-defeat/

            Ordinary Israelis are therefore being conscripted into an army of spin-doctors in a campaign termed “hasbara” – Hebrew for “public diplomacy”, or more literally “propaganda”.

            In the latest offensive, the education ministry has launched a compulsory hasbara course for Israeli students travelling abroad. All youth delegations are now required to learn how to justify to outsiders Israel’s policies in the occupied territories. According to officials, the students must challenge those who “seek to delegitimize Israel”.

            It is yet more evidence that hasbara has become a national obsession in Israel – and that the line between support for one’s country and support for the subjugation of another people has been erased. Some 85 per cent of Israelis tell pollsters they are keen to become hasbara ambassadors for the Netanyahu government.

            h**ps://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/07/hasbara-industry-why-israels-army-of-spin-doctors-is-doomed-to-defeat/

            No, the Hasbara Industry isn’t doomed. All they’ve got to do is to throw bags of feces at the fan to keep the issue confused until Holy Israel is ready for the Final Solution – a death march to the nearest desert outside the boundaries of Greater Israel. I’m coming to the conclusion that our new Top 1% hasbara guy has a first-class throwing arm for that work.

            By the way, the examples above are on pages 1 and 2 of the results. I’d expect lots and lots of other efforts aren’t as public.

        • Abe
          July 19, 2017 at 21:07

          Your posts and replies are very interesting, brooklynpaul.

          But your assertions lack evidence.

          We have the undisputed example of an individual Jewish American Hasbara troll posting multiple comments under numerous assumed names.

          Please present clear evidence, in each instance you cited, that the comments above described by you as “clearly anti-semitism” were posted by one or more actual “anti-Semitic” persons, and not posted by Hasbara troll(s) masquerading as “anti-Semitic”.

          I’m sure you’ll agree that Israeli government officials recruiting Jewish Americans to advance the interests of a foreign power, Israel, should be of great concern to all Americans.

          • brooklynpaul
            July 20, 2017 at 13:26

            Abe — My assertions lack evidence? Surely you must be joking. If I stated, for example, that African-Americans were lazy and stupid, wouldn’t you assume, wouldn’t you be convinced, that I was a racist? The statements I quoted above speak for themselves as being anti-Semitic. It is very concerning to me that you, who self-identify as a Jew, cannot recognize anti-Semitism when you see it. Do you really believe that the Rothschilds control banking? Do you not recognize code words such as “shyster”? Why do you assume that an anti-Semitic comment MUST BE a false flag? I am a Jew also, and am not one to indulge in the paranoia that everyone is out to get us. And I accept that there is some number, whether small or large, of false flag posts. But there IS anti-Semitism out there, and you might consider that without knowing these commenters personally, there is no reason to automatically assume that they are not just the way they seem — people who actually hate you because of your religion.

          • Abe
            July 20, 2017 at 16:13

            brooklynpaul –

            Why do you automatically assume that a comment MUST BE a racist who actually hates you because of your religion?

            That unthinking emotional reaction is precisely the aim of false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara troll posts.

            Accepting the clear evidence of Hasbara propaganda, there is no reason to automatically assume that offensive posts are the work of “Jew-haters pushing hatred of Israel and Jews”.

            False flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara propaganda is an established fact.

            You appear determined to avoid any and all of the manifest evidence of Hasbara propaganda.

      • Cal
        July 19, 2017 at 18:04

        ” For the purposes of its 2005 Report on Global Anti-Semitism, the term was considered to mean “hatred toward Jews, individually and as a group, that can be attributed to the Jewish religion and/or ethnicity.”…..

        That is the correct definition of anti Semitism imo…..hating someone strictly because of their religion or ethnicity.

    • Zachary Smith
      July 19, 2017 at 22:35

      But even free speech has its limits.

      How very charming. It reminds me of the George “Codpiece Commander” Bush remark – there ought to be limits to freedom.

      Mr. Parry, I know that moderating so many comments must be time-consuming…

      Let me guess – poor overworked Mr. Parry has been obviously overlooking the nasty comments sneaking into his site, and you’re going to generously volunteer to smite the goyim swine in his stead. Lots of work to do, because some of the posters here “cloak” their hatred for Jews by talking about Israel’s murdering and stealing.

      But in a later post you admitted that you’re so open minded that you don’t personally ‘apologize’ for everything the little cesspool of a nation does. On that point, I’d like to ask a few questions. to sniff out that “neutrality” regarding Holy Israel.

      What right does Israel have to a square inch of the 1948 state without paying reparations to the people the Israeli army murdered and terrorized into running away?

      What right does Israel have to the land seized in 1967?

      Do you personally believe the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 was an accident?

      • brooklynpaul
        July 20, 2017 at 13:49

        Zachary — I believe I have managed to live all of my life without ever quoting either Bush, a record which I feel will remain intact in perpetuity. But here is a quote you might like: Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that the right to free speech does not mean you can yell “Fire” in a crowded theater. Similarly, libel and slander laws are curbs on free speech you might be okay with. (You do have to prove them in a court of law.) You might be surprised at how much we agree with on Israel, but will you automatically assume I am your enemy to be smited (smote?) (smitten?) because I dared to disagree with you? Since the election of Donald Trump, I have been concerned about the balkanization of the American people and our seeming inability to reach any common understandings. In truth,I may have contributed a bit to that myself. My sole purpose in posting all these comments is to try and get commenters to ponder the difference between legitimate opposition to Israel policy, which I have read here, and Jew-haters pushing hatred of Israel and Jews, which I have also read here. Zachary, whether of not I disagree with you on some, most, or all of Israel policy, I am not your enemy.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 20, 2017 at 19:37

          Nice bit of underhandedness. You turn around my remark about us evil anit-semites needing to be smited (smote?) (smitten?) {Moderated Into Submission} into YOU being the victim.

          Then you proceed with some very long blather about nothing in particular, while carefully avoiding the queries I asked to get a feeling for your ‘evenhandedness’.

          This part was especially cute:

          …Jew-haters pushing hatred of Israel and Jews…

          Hating Israel’s historical>>>present-day murders and thefts is neatly bundled up with hating Jews.

          How about taking a stab at those three simple little questions.

          1) What right does Israel have to a square inch of the 1948 state without paying reparations to the people the Israeli army murdered and terrorized into running away?

          2) What right does Israel have to the land seized in 1967?

          3) Do you personally believe the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 was an accident?

          I’m almost certain they can be answered in less time than it took to compose the torrent of bafflegab I’m currently replying to.

          As for the “enemy” business, if you’re a staffer of one of the Senators who want to make support of BDS a felony, you’re definitely not my friend. Ditto if you’re posting somewhere in the West Bank on recently stolen land. Come to think of it,

          4) Do you personally support BDS as a strategy against the thefts and murders of Israel?

          Kindly reply, or I WILL conclude we’re encountering some Graduate Level Hasbara with your arrival.

      • Abe
        July 20, 2017 at 17:34

        brooklynpaul and Zachary –

        The intelligence of discussion in community comments here at Consortium News make it very obvious when trolls appear on the scene.

        The contemporary term “false flag” describes covert operations that are designed to deceive in such a way that activities appear as though they are being carried out by entities, groups, or nations other than those who actually planned and executed them.

        Propaganda that purports to emanate from a source other than the true source is associated with covert psychological operations.

        The State of Israel is known to engage in deception operations.

        In addition, false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara troll actions and other deceptive “anti-Semitic” provocations by Jewish advocates of Israel are well documented facts.

        Manifest evidence of deceptive “anti-Semitic” provocation online cannot be dismissed, minimized or ignored.

        Therefore it is logical to assume that pro-Israel deception operates in the comments sections of sites critical of Israeli policy.

        Our friend brooklynpaul has repeatedly declared that comments he read are the work of “Jew-haters”, even going so far as to compare them to “the Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.

        But brooklynpaul agrees that he has no actual evidence to support such declarations.

        The concern expressed by brooklynpaul is precisely the sort of reaction that a false flag “anti-Semitic” Hasbara troll post is designed to evoke. But let’s not attempt to arouse paranoia. Don’t give trolls the victory they seek.

        Trust the intelligence of the Consortium News community.

        When deceptive trolls show up at CN (it seems most often when there is discussion of the right wing government in Israel), they are pretty obvious. So are their allies.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 20, 2017 at 19:48

          The State of Israel is known to engage in deception operations.

          The brooklynpaul poster knows that as well as we do. But when you’re defending the undefendable, ethics are going to slide way down on the priority list.

      • Abe
        July 20, 2017 at 20:16

        brooklynpaul –

        You appear to be exclusively interested in promoting your theory of a hotbed of “Jew-haters”.

        All evidence of false flag “anti-Semitism” by Jews is “just one more case” for you.

        Of course, it is necessary for you dismiss the Israeli government record of Hasbara propaganda operations, and minimize multiple confirmed incidents of Jewish individuals performing blatant “anti-Semitic” false flag provocations.

        In fact, “anti-Semitic” Hasbara propaganda is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

        After the Second World War, a well-organized international propaganda campaign dramatized the plight of Jewish refugees from Europe. The Jewish campaign hoping to generate negative publicity against Britain around the world.

        David Ben-Gurion publicly stated that Britain, the nation that helped fefeat Nazi Germany and liberated Jews from Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, had “proclaimed war against Zionism”.

        Ben-Gurion claimed that British policy was “to liquidate the Jews as a people.”

        Of particular significance was the British interceptions of the blockade runners carrying Jewish immigrants to Mandatory Palestine. Jewish propaganda claiming that the ship Exodus was a “floating Auschwitz” were disseminated around the world.

        In one incident, after a baby died at sea aboard a refugee ship, the body was publicly displayed to the press after the ship docked in Haifa. Journalists were told that “the dirty Nazi-British assassins suffocated this innocent victim with gas.”

        The Jewish “anti-Semitic” propaganda campaign against Britain was successful, reaching out to potential supporters in the United States and especially among American Jews.

        But any and all evidence of “anti-Semitic” Hasbara propaganda remains “just one more case” for our friend here.

  13. rod usa
    July 19, 2017 at 01:58

    War is a racket

  14. Typingperson
    July 18, 2017 at 22:59

    The fact that Trump is still kowtowing to Israel and Saudi Arabia and pushing US wars in Middle East shows that this country is run by oligharchs.

    War contractors, banksters want endless, destructive, murderous, illegal USA wars because they profit from them.

    (A good friend of mine went to very expensive schools paid for by war-contractor daddy–Sidwell Friends in DC for high school (Quakers! Anti-war. Ah, the hypocrisy!!!!), then Yale for college and MIT for a masters–totally paid for by her father, whose war contracting company, CACI, supplied the abusive interrogators to Abu Ghraib. He’s got a big house in Potomac and a trophy wife.)

    The USA wars in the Middle East are detrimental to the American people–and wrong. Iraq posed no threat to USA–we irrationally invaded and destroyed Iraq.

    The USA wars in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya–and the USA-backed coups in Ukraine and Honduras, instigated by Hillary Clinton under cowardly Obama administration –serve no purpose for the American people who paid for these illegal, sick, wrong, UnAmerican wars. And do us great damage.

    Libya: USA bombed it back to the stone age, causing death and harm to the Libyan people–who under Ghaddafi had free health care and college education–out of reach here in the USA, our Dem and Repub leaders tell us, cuz we spend 60 percent of federal discretionary budget on war.

    Libyan people are currently living in hell thanks to Hillary Clinton, “most qualified USA presidential candidate ever” (TM), according to her deluded, willfully ignorant followers. Liberal Democrats. Including the majority of my family and friends. Disgusting. UnAmerican.

    Hillary armed the terrorists who ran a bayonet up Gaddafi’s posterior. Sick. UnAmerican. Wrong. War crime. But not under the Obama regime!

    Totally American, according to Hillary. “We came, we saw, he died.”

    And then she oversaw the CIA ratline from Benghazi of weapons to terrorists in Syria.

    Which is why Libyans attacked the USA embassy front for CIA in the first place. Disgusting and UnAmerican. And yet that moron backwoods Republican, Trey Gowdy, who ran the Benghazi hearings couldn’t make that connection–despite spending millions in taxpayer resources. Sad!

    • backwardsevolution
      July 19, 2017 at 04:35

      Typingperson – that Trey Gowdy is an incredibly bright person, far too bright to be fooled by the Benghazi evidence. He must have gotten orders to let it go. A prosecutor with his years of experience and with his intelligence, and he doesn’t go in for the kill? No way. He was told to let it go. I think the outcome of all of those hearings are determined ahead of time. The senators just skirt around the evidence, occasionally act all tough, but it’s just for show to make it look like they’re actually doing something.

  15. Michael K Rohde
    July 18, 2017 at 22:29

    That’s nice to know, a foreign leader can be expected to intervene with our government to assist our sitting president in his impeachment battles with Congress. Anything else bibi can do for us? Like stay the hell out of our domestic politics and stop directing our foreign policy. But then that would make AIPAC mad and we can’t have that. At what point do Americans get upset that their foreign policy is directed by a foreign government with different goals? Do we need to check with bibi if we decide to go to war? Why not just make our government a merged one, with Israel’s ceo as our own? We would not end up with much difference.

  16. Typingperson
    July 18, 2017 at 22:08

    Why is the USA still allying with the two worst, most human-rights violating countries in the Middle East–Israel and Saudi Arabia? These countries are both fundamentalist religion, people-abusing, warmongering and murdering horrors. Our two top allies. My tax dollars at work.

    • Michael K Rohde
      July 18, 2017 at 22:30

      I don’t know the answer other than our Congress has been purchased by a foreign government.

  17. July 18, 2017 at 20:22

    This report from Robert Parry is for those whose cognitive dissonance embraces any notion that Israel just wants peace; whose foreign policies are premised on self-defence; or for that matter is anything but the rogue, regional hegemon whose principal aim is to create havoc, mayhem, and chaos until it gets everything it wants, e.g. energy, water, land, natural resources, total control over the Greater Middle East and even beyond etc. This, all the while getting Uncle Sam to do most if not all its dirty work for it. If anyone can provide a substantive, coherent case for another nation — or in Benjamin Netanyahu’s case, another leader — who’s more dangerous and out of control than Israel, then I’d be keen to hear about it. And to cap it all off, we’re looking at a scenario where even voicing such sentiments will be made illegal, all under the pernicious rubric that it will be deemed anti-Semitic to do so. If all this doesn’t both offend and scare you in equal measure, you need to get out more! GM

    • Bob Van Noy
      July 19, 2017 at 18:30

      G’ Day Greg. Nice to see you here. Of course you’re right, and thanks for the comment…

      • Bob Van Noy
        July 19, 2017 at 18:33

        By the way Greg you may have the best web site on the planet! I thought people here should know…

  18. exiled off mainstreet
    July 18, 2017 at 20:12

    The Neocons and Netanyahu are traitors to civilization. Hopefully Trump, despite his connections including family ones, to Israel will resist the pressure. It is lunacy for Israel to be taking this line since they would be a likely first target for wiping out should a nuclear war result.

  19. Leslie F
    July 18, 2017 at 19:49

    I’m not sure this can be blamed on Russia-gate. Trump is weak minded and has always been an admirer of Netanyahu. His is also a Putin admirer. He goes with whoever he’s talked to most recently. These tendencies were on display before Russia-gate even got off the ground. They are playing out now.

  20. Cid
    July 18, 2017 at 19:18

    I think implying that ‘Russiagate’ is weakening Trump puts the blame in the wrong place. Trump is weakening himself, and America, by his dishonesty and ineptness, coupled with his questionable judgement in choosing advisors, judging from those being fired and the new lot coming in. We do NOT want a war with Iran – that is the Israeli agenda and not ours. Iran is not directly threatening us right now (Turkey is heading to be a worse threat, once Erdogan is secure enough to put his Islamist empire dreams into full throttle) and undercutting Rouhani works against our interests. However one wonders sometimes for whom our politicians work, for us or for Israel. They are cavalier with our money and American lives, and don’t seem to mind that the Christians of the Holy Land are being dispossessed and forced out

  21. jaycee
    July 18, 2017 at 18:34

    Trump appears to lack the temperment and intellect required to navigate the cognitively dissonant terrain before him. He does not seem to know ISIS and al-Qaeda are allied proxy forces directly maintained by America’s regional allies, and that such proxy forces could be simultaneously demonized to justify U. S. miltary bases in the region or encouraged in their rampages so to apply “pressure” on recalcitrant regional political figures. The Obama team had no problem playing this game. In fact, Trump has also apparently missed that ISIS and al-Qaeda were dropped, by the Obama administration, down the list of “threats to America” well below Russia and China. Portraying radical Islamist terrorists as the #1 threat is so 2015, don’t you know.

    • Abe
      July 18, 2017 at 18:33

      Nah. Merely another near miss from hero du jour Greenwald.

      A very careful Greenwald allows himself to say:

      “There’s certainly nothing wrong with discrete agreement on a particular issue with someone of a different party or ideology; that’s to be encouraged. But what’s going on here goes far, far beyond that.”

      Indeed.

      “What we see instead” says Greenwald, “are leading Democratic foreign policy experts joining hands with the world’s worst neocons to form new, broad-based policy advocacy groups to re-shape U.S. foreign policy toward a more hostile, belligerent and hawkish posture. We see not isolated agreement with neocons in opposition to Trump or on single-issue debates, but a full-scale embrace of them that is rehabilitating their standing, empowering their worst elements, and reintegrating them back into the Democratic Party power structure.

      “If Bill Kristol and Mike Chertoff can now sit on boards with top Clinton and Obama policy advisers, as they’re doing, that is reflective of much more than a marriage of convenience to stop an authoritarian, reckless president. It demonstrates widespread agreement on a broast range of issues and, more significantly, the return of neocons to full-scale D.C. respectability, riding all the way on the backs of eager, grateful establishment Democrats.”

      What Greenwald and almost all of what passes for “journalists” these days refuse to say is the obvious:

      Most of “the world’s most militaristic, war-loving neocons” are rabidly pro-Israel partisan Jewish Americans.

      Why? Because that might be perceived as “anti-Semitic” or the even more horrific “self-hating”?

      It is high time to bury the old “anti-Semitic” Hasbara canard, and deal directly with the problem of Israel’s far worse than intervention in American politics and foreign policy, before it’s too late.

      That won’t happen until the basic language is grounded in reality, until we can finally acknowledge who we’re mostly talking about when we refer to “neocons”. And that goes for a great many so-called “liberal interventionists”.

      What drives the not-so-discrete agreement on “a particular issue” has nothing to do with party or ideology. It’s something entirely more primitive and dangerous.

      Once the language is accurate, we can easily analyze the convergence of hawkish interests that created the current clusterfuck in the Middle East. And maybe, just maybe, avert the worst of the next war(s).

      Ain’t too optimistic.

      • July 18, 2017 at 22:27

        Abe,…well said…but I remain more pessimistically positive than positively pessimistic on the issue. It needs to come to the mainstream press but I’m afraid it will take a major disaster.

      • Cal
        July 20, 2017 at 04:00

        ABE,,,

        ”It is high time to bury the old “anti-Semitic” Hasbara canard, and deal directly with the problem of Israel’s far worse than intervention in American politics and foreign policy, before it’s too late.””>>>>>

        I agree ..as long as people tell the truth about the fifth column and back it up with the evidence its not anti semitic..
        The best response to those who hurl the anti semite slur is to laugh at them.

  22. Alister
    July 18, 2017 at 17:04

    Robert…..why do you continue to call them Neocons. Call them what they are….American Jews who put Israels interest ahead of American interest…..in my book that is treason…..and it should be solved with death as our law states. The only way to bring true democracy back to the US is to rid ourselves of treasonous cockroaches.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 17:19

      “True democracy” never existed (in the US as a government). US is a republic. The decisions are held in the hands of a few “elected” folks. It is They who are responsible for overseeing “national security.” In the name of National Security means a blank check exists. Good luck in pushing back against what must surely be good for everyone- “National Security.”

  23. July 18, 2017 at 16:57

    Netanyahu is a malicious, highly dishonest land-stealing war monger!

  24. July 18, 2017 at 16:52

    I believe we are controlled by total evil. Our so-called “leaders” are puppets and do as they are told. I believe they are responsible for the destruction of Libya, Iraq, Syria and other countries. They all need to be arrested and removed from office. Otherwise:
    “Will the War Agenda of the War Criminals Result in Nuclear War?”
    http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html

  25. Cal
    July 18, 2017 at 16:23

    I wonder how many people really, really understand what we are dealing with in the Jewish state and Zionist mentality. You CANNOT deal with these people. The Zionist are truly insane ‘supremist’ with the additional problem of their superitory complex induced stupidity in believing that can control the world for their benefit.

    To understand the jewish Zionist Israel cult visit their ‘plan ‘ for Palestine. It mirrors exactly the first nazi plan floated as a solution for the Jews. Contary to the myth that the nazis started out with the plan to kill all the Jews, they originallly considered several schemes to solve their jewish problem from giving them some territory on the boarder of Germany, transfering them to other counties like south america and finally deporting them.
    This the best look into their sick delusions about themselves and their ‘humanitarian morals’. Its also a look into how stupid they consider other people of the world to be that no one would see this for what it is….a transfer plan for the Palestines under the ‘guise ‘ of humanitarian concerns.

    Read the whole page and also click on the ‘members’ link on home page and look at the names of those who are members—you will recongize some American names.

    http://www.jerusalemsummit.org/eng/hs_short_eng.htm

    excerpts…

    1. The establishment of a Palestinian State must removed from the international agenda.

    2. However, removing the issue of a Palestinian state from the international agenda will not eliminate the humanitarian predicament of Palestinians residing in Israeli-administered areas.

    3. This is clearly an issue that must be addressed and resolved. But it must be addressed not in political terms but in humanitarian ones.

    4. Thus, to successfully resolve the Palestinian problem, the Political Paradigm must be replaced by a Humanitarian Paradigm. This, however can only be done if the current Palestinian narrative, which fuels the Political Paradigm, is de-legitimized.
    5. Thus, the de-legitimization of the Palestinian narrative becomes a vital prerequisite to any comprehensive resolution of the Palestinian issue.

    D. Proposal

    1. A comprehensive Humanitarian Approach to the Palestinian issue would entail three major elements:
    (a) The dissolution of UNRWA – which will end the discriminatory treatment of the Palestinians with regard to their status as refugees;

    (b) The termination of ethnic discrimination against Palestinians , living in the Arab world – which will end the discriminatory treatment of the Palestinians with regard to their status as residents;

    (c) Generous relocation grants to Palestinians living in Israeli administered territories on an individual basis and not via any official Palestinian organization.

    2. UNRWA is an organization that perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem. It is an anomalous organization which exists solely to deal with Palestinian refugees, while all the other refugees on the face of the globe are dealt with by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

    3. The organizations not only deal differently with the refugees under their auspices, they each have different definitions for classifying an individual as a “refugee”.

    4. This difference in definition has far-ranging consequences. For in contrast to the UNHCR definition, which results in a decline in the number of refugees over time, the UNRWA definition leads to an inflation of the number.

    5. In fact, if the UNHCR’s otherwise universal definition were applied to the Palestinian case, the number of refugees would decline from 4-5 million to 200-300,000 i.e. by over 90%!!

    6. It thus appears that UNWRA is perpetuating the very problem it was designed to eliminate.

    7. Accordingly, the dissolution of UNRWA is an essential prerequisite for any comprehensive, durable settlement of the Palestinian issue.

    8. With the dissolution of UNWRA, the remaining, and drastically reduced, number of Palestinian refugees, should be placed under the auspices of UNHCR – in accordance with the accepted practice for all other refugee groups on the face of the globe.

    9. Those Palestinians no longer classed as refugees under the new arrangements, must be offered all the privileges afforded all other peoples resident in their current countries of domicile in the Arab world — including the right to acquire citizenship.

    10. In order to do this, a vigorous diplomatic and media campaign must be mounted to induce Arab governments to end their harsh discriminatory behavior towards the millions of Palestinians domiciled in their countries and absorb them into their societies as fully fledged citizens. After all, even the Palestinians assert (in the opening paragraph of their National Covenant) that they are “part of the Arab Nation”.

    11. As for the Palestinians resident in Israeli administered territory, there is only one reasonable and feasible alternative that will facilitate:
    (a) extricating them from their dire humanitarian plight;
    (b) free them from the yoke of generations of misrule by their leadership;
    (c) ensure the survival of Israel as the nation-state of the Jews.

    12. This is a generous relocation and resettlement package to allow them to build a new life for themselves and their families in countries preferably, but not necessarily exclusively, with similar religious and socio-cultural conditions.

    13. In order to minimize the ability of organized Palestinian interest groups to impede the success of such an effort, the offer of financial inducement to emigrate must be “atomized” – i.e. made to individual Palestinian breadwinners on a one-to one personal level and not on a communal level via some formal Palestinian entity.
    14. A survey conducted among the Palestinians in Nov. 2004 indicates that only about 15% of the Palestinian population resident in Israeli administered areas would reject such an offer outright. By contrast, over 70% would accept some form of material compensation as an inducement to emigrate permanently from the areas currently under Israeli administration (see http://www.jerusalemsummit.org/eng/news.php?news=102)

    15. The economic cost of such a policy of generously financed humanitarian relocation and resettlement would be eminently affordable and would compare favorably with almost all other settlement proposals on the table today. Indeed, its total cost would be around 50% of the present total US outlay on the War in Iraq!!

    16. Indeed, given Israel’s present level of GDP, it is an initiative that it could well undertake on its own over the next decade to a decade and a half. It should be realized that this is the period that has elapsed since the initiation of the Oslo process – which has brought nothing but failure and tragedy at the cost of billions of dollars and thousands of lives.

    17. Of course, if the US, the EU and other developed nations were to contribute to this effort, it could be implemented in a far shorter space of time and with almost no burden on the world economy.

    18. Quite the opposite, the Palestinians arriving in their new countries of domicile will not be impoverished refugees but reasonably affluent émigrés. The funds that they would be bringing with them would provide a considerable boost for the economies of these nations – most of which would be developing countries with a pressing need for such a substantial influx of funds.

    E. Summary

    The proposed initiative constitutes a “win-win” proposal which will:
    Alleviate, and even eliminate, the humanitarian plight of individual Palestinians

    Ensure the continued security and survival of Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish people

    Provide a Significant Boost to the Economies of the Developing World

    Transform poverty stricken refugees into affluent refugees

    *ON THE OBJECTION TO THE PLAN AS FACIST RACIST PLOT FOR GENOCIDE

    ”This is a most puzzling accusation leveled by some respondents at the proposal. For it is indeed difficult to fathom what aspect of the plan could conceivably be considered “odious”, “fascist” or “racist”?

    The proposal prescribes reassigning the treatment of the Palestinian refugees to an organization with proven record of success (U.N. High Commission for Refugees – UNHCFR) from one with a proven record of failure (UNRWA) . Should this be considered “odious”, “fascist” or “racist”? If so, why so??

    The proposal prescribes putting the Palestinian refugees on a par with all the other refugees on the face of the globe. Should this be considered “odious”, “fascist” or “racist”? If so, why so??

    The proposal prescribes demanding the elimination of ethnic discrimination against Palestinians across the Arab world. Should this be considered “odious”, “fascist” or “racist”? If so, why so??

    The proposal prescribes allowing individual Palestinians to decide, on their own, for themselves, to extricate themselves and their families from penury and privation. Should this be considered “odious”, “fascist” or “racist”? If so, why so??

    Indeed in light of the proven political incompetence of the Palestinians and their manifest lack of authentic political will to exercise self-determination, one finds it strange that that those who purport to be sympathetic to the Palestinians would persist in inflicting on them the hardship and suffering that their spurious demands for statehood have wrought upon them.

    After all isn’t giving the notion of “state” absolute dominance over individual liberties the very essence of fascism? So wouldn’t the real fascists be those who insist that Palestinian statehood must have precedence over free choice of Palestinian individuals, whatever the human cost at the personal level??

    We continue working on an Alternative Plan to the Arab-Israeli conflict which integrates plans and arguments of the best minds connected to the Jerusalem Summit.

    De-politicization implies a change of paradigm: from trying in vain to placate historically, legally and morally unjustified political demands of Palestinian leadership to caring for legitimate humanitarian needs of Palestinian people.

    • rod usa
      July 19, 2017 at 02:05

      U sick sob

    • Abe
      July 19, 2017 at 14:04

      According to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) domain registry information, the Jerusalem Summit site was originally registered in Israel in 2003 by the Chernoy Fund in Tel Aviv.

      The founder of the fund is Michael Cherney, aka Mikhail Chernoy, a Russian-born Israeli “entrepreneur” oligarch and a close personal friend of Avigdor Lieberman, the Defense Minister of Israel.

      Cherney is currently denied entry into the United States because of his indictment on various charges in Russia and Israel. However, Cherney is well-known among supporters of Israel and has contributed millions of dollars to various organizations on the right end of Israel’s political spectrum, as well as several thousands to the US Republican Party.

      Cherney is listed for organized crime and money laundering on the Interpol Red List of wanted persons. The United States has denied Cherney a visa since 1999 because of alleged ties to the Russian Jewish mafia.

      Cherney, together with his brother Lev Cherney and UK metals traders David and Simon Reuben, founded Trans-World Group (TWG) – the first and largest private company in Russia, which produced aluminium and sold it on Western markets. BusinessWeek reports that the brothers “were known for their rough style of doing business”.

      In 1994, TWG was drawn into a government inquiry into the theft of more than $US100 million from Russia’s central bank by a number of separate criminal groups during the early 1990s. In an article on TWG, Fortune magazine reported: “That a theft occurred is not in dispute, nor is the fact that the Cherneys ended up with a piece of the stolen money and used it to partially fund Trans World’s startup phase in 1992…. The inquiry’s objective was to determine whether the Cherneys knew the funds were indeed stolen.”

      In May 1994, Cherney and his future wife were detained by immigration officers on arrival in Heathrow from Geneva. It was discovered that they had attempted to enter the UK on false Polish passports and they were deported back to Switzerland. The following day they were arrested by the Swiss police on the grounds that they had made use of false identities. Both were searched and found to be in possession of two allegedly invalid Polish driving licences. Cherney gave a statement to the police in which he admitted using a Polish passport in an attempt to enter the UK, which had been successful previously.

      In an attempt to clean up its reputation and refute allegations of questionable business practices, the Reuben brothers hired Mayer Brown & Platt, a US-based law firm. Terrence Burke, an investigator employed by the law firm and former acting head of the DEA, recommended that the Reubens sever their ties with Cherney after the FBI told him that “it believed Michael himself was an organised crime figure.” As a result, Michael was paid $US400 million “just to go away” while his brother Lev remained with the company.

      In August 2001 a Fortune article notes, “the prosecutor’s office in Düsseldorf notified the Reuben brothers that it had terminated its probe into alleged money laundering, saying ‘I hereby confirm expressly that there is no remaining suspicion of money laundering or any other criminal actions.'” However, the same article states that the Kroll report “doesn’t discuss an essential part of the story”, nor does it “explore the complex business and financial relationships in Russia between the Reubens and Lev and Michael Chernoy.”

      Cherney is founder of the Chernoy Foundation that hosts the Jerusalem Summit site

      Cherney also is the founder and primary sponsor of the Intelligence Summit, a group of neoconservatives and private intelligence agencies that are benefiting from the “war on terrorism”. The annual conference run principally by John Loftus and funded by an organization he controls, the Intelligence and Homeland Security Educational Center (IHEC) in Washington, D.C.

      The stated purpose of these regular meetings is “to provide an opportunity for the international intelligence community to listen to and learn from each other, and to share ideas in the common war against terrorism.”

      According to the conference website, the Intelligence Summit meetings are run by organizers (Robert Katz and John Loftus) and an Advisory Council, which includes or included in the past “two former heads of CIA, the head of British Joint Intelligence, senior officials of the Mossad, the former Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism, the former director of the Indian Counter Intelligence Service, generals of the US Army and Air Force intelligence services, and academic experts”.

      Among the Advisory Council members are the author and consultant Yossef Bodansky, special operations expert Richard Marcinko, and retired general and Fox News military analyst Paul E. Vallely. For security reasons, the name of the chairman of the Intelligence Summit is never disclosed. In February 2006, John Deutch and James Woolsey resigned from the Intelligence Summit’s board of advisers after receiving information about Cherney’s ties to the Russian mafia.

      Cherney’s pal Loftus has come under fire from former representatives of the International Holocaust Education Center. An Internal Revenue Service spokesperson explained the impropriety: “If a tax-exempt charitable organization changes the name, the purpose or the structure, it must let IRS know by corresponding with us. And, it must remain neutral and nonpartisan.” Loftus also was criticized for listing sponsors of the Summit who never consented to being so listed, including Konica Minolta and Florida Holocaust Museum board member Bruce Epstein.

      Cherney’s close friend Avigdor Lieberman allegedly received millions of shekels from various entrepreneurs, including Cherney, while serving as member of Knesset; under Israeli law, MKs are not allowed to receive any payment beyond their salary.

      One claim is that Cherney paid a company called Path to the East large amounts of money between the years 1999 and 2006, and that these sums were then allegedly passed on to Lieberman as a bribe. Other allegations concern a company called M.L.1, founded by Lieberman’s daughter Michal when she was 21. These allegations concern money transferred to M.L.1 from unknown sources outside Israel; the money was later allegedly used for paying salaries to Avigdor and Michal Lieberman.

      In April 2007, Israeli police questioned Lieberman, then Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister, on suspicions of illegally financing his 2001 electoral campaign. According to the police, in May 2001, three months after Lieberman was appointed Minister of Infrastructure in Ariel Sharon’s Cabinet, approximately $US500,000 was transferred to the bank accounts of Lieberman associates through Cyprus. This money could be traced back to Cherney. Cherney’s attorney, Yaakov Weinroth, said the money was transferred by his client “for a totally transparent, legal wine deal”.

      In May 2011, Haaretz reported that the Israeli Attorney General had issued a draft indictment against Avigdor Lieberman for fraud and money laundering, including allegations against Cherny. A second Haaretz article detailing the draft indictment reported that a company owned by Cherney had paid $US500,000 to a company owned by Avigdor Lieberman in May 2001. It added, “Prosecutors say Lieberman then used his government posts to try to restore Chernoy’s Israeli passport, which he had been stripped of in 1999, and to assist him in other personal matters.” Cherney was acquitted. Over the years, Cherney’s passport was returned by the Israeli authorities.

  26. Jay
    July 18, 2017 at 15:28

    Thank you Mr. Parry for following and giving light to this important story. Something, however, continues to perplex: Can you, in light of your account, explain the “close relationship” (according to what we often hear from the media at large) between Netanyahu and Putin? Therein is a difficulti incongruency and it would be helpful if you could address it.

    Thanks again and continued good work!

  27. mrtmbrnmn
    July 18, 2017 at 15:26

    Nut-anyahoo’s most unforgivable sin (in a long list of them) is to make anti-semites out of people who aren’t already.

  28. Pablo Diablo
    July 18, 2017 at 15:18

    Oh yeah, “regime change” has worked out so well, hasen’t it. Gotta keep the War Machine well fed. All our wars are about controlling markets and looting resources. WAKE UP AMERICA.

  29. Virginia
    July 18, 2017 at 14:43

    Mr. Parry, Thank you for pointing out the type of threats and innuendo Netanyahu probably pulled out of his hat to manipulate Trump even further into carrying out its evil designs. The devil needs it’s emissaries! But hopefully its time is short.

  30. HIDE BEHIND
    July 18, 2017 at 14:25

    Isael as a nation is but the product of Britain, France, and newcomer to miiddle east politics in 1919-1940’s, U.S of A.
    Plain blatant truth the Jewish culture was not wanted in very very few Euro-Centric nations, we did not have any anti semitism( a term thought up by people of jewish culture, we in those nations just did not like them.
    No real thought by the nations or any guilt trip as to Germany’Nazi programs towards them, instead major thought was give them a homeland and maybe they would all go there and good riddance.
    A paralell ideology was found within a huge poryion of White Americans towards Blacks, Liberia was successful, to some extent so those who divide and conquer figured the Jews would help threir benefactors manage the Arab nationalism , and indeed a lot of DNA with but little of Semitic roots went that way, a pattern already established by the leadership of native to the area of Zionist leadership.
    So since Jewish invasion by force of allied armaments and bribes to local area tribals we began the lie of excuses that what Germany’s people had done was OUR FAULT ; a guilt trip now 70 years long, paid for eurocentrics these last 70 years.
    The Jewish cultures cohesiveness is far more powerfull than Eurocentric peoples and damn sure more than Black, Hispanic, Muslims and only matched by China.
    So US pepples who as a conglomerate of competeing for self gain as Alex de Tocqville wrote of 1800. Ammericans most singular
    cultural trait “What’s in it for me” has lost out to the best competitors and shysters in world.

    • mike k
      July 18, 2017 at 15:09

      You don’t hide your contempt for Jews. The idea that “anti-semitism” was an invention of the Jews themselves is totally contrary to reality. It’s like saying that white people in the south didn’t hate the slaves, they just didn’t like them. What world are you living in? Your circumlocutions fail to hide your anti-semtism.

      • Cal
        July 20, 2017 at 06:21

        I cant tell if Hide Behind is a troll or not but he is not all wrong in much of what he said.

        Europe did want to get rid of their Jewish problem as they called it —– Europeans found Jewish culture distasteful —the Anglo Saxon and Jewish cultures were very very different….you could call it snobbery or anti Semitism or both in the ‘we didn’t like them’ category. So a lot of people were all for getting the Jews their own homeland to live in. You can easily go back into the periodicals in Europe and read the many ‘genteel” ..lol…critiques of the Jewish manerisms.

        He is also right about the ‘guilt tripping’ of blaming the entire European world, including America , for the holocaust. There have been thousands of books and millions of articles blaming the US and Europe for the holocaust….here’s an example:

        American Wartime Indifference to the Plight of the European Jews
        ”The sickening success of the Holocaust, though masterminded and executed by Hitler and the Nazi regime, cannot be wholly attributed to one small group’s maniacal policy of racial cleansing. To Hitler’s delight, the democratic, humanitarian governments contributed to the deliberate murder of two-thirds of Europe’s Jews. As Holocaust historian Arthur D. Morse, author of While Six Million Died: A Chronicle of American Apathy, discovered, “It is as if there were no other world, as if two circling antagonists, one armed, the other unarmed, inhabited an otherwise vacant planet.” No power on earth could have stopped the killing and saved even a fraction of lives. As TIME noted in March 1943, “saving any of them would be a monumental task; saving all would be impossible. . .” But opportunities nevertheless existed for the Western nations to mitigate the horror, however slightly. Through half-hearted efforts the United States and its Allies did indeed save thousands.
        But other opportunities to save even more were stalled or rejected by such obstacles as ignorance, indifference, indolence, and cowardice. “It was a double failure,” found Walter Laqueur, who authored The Terrible Secret: “first of comprehension and later of seizing the opportunities which still existed.”
        President Roosevelt’s passivity set the tone for American wartime policy toward the Jews. “Roosevelt was not indifferent to the plight of the Jews,” found Robert Dallek in his assessment of FDR, “On the contrary, Nazi crimes profoundly disturbed him, and he looked forward to the day when Nazi leaders would face the consequences of their actions. Yet at the same time, he saw no effective way to rescue great numbers of Jews from Hitler’s Europe while the war continued.” Roosevelt articulated what was to become the most popular excuse for avoiding moral responsibility: winning the war.”
        Wining the war WAS the only way to save Europe and save the Jews. But the eternally Ungrateful types keep right on blaming the entire world.

        Probably ADL ‘s Abe Foxman best shows how some Jews think of themselves….and thinking that way they naturally thought they should come ahead of all the other billions of civilians under threat and dying every day from German bombings and of starvation.

        ADL on the Frontline, January 1994 Issue: “The Holocaust is something different. It is a singular event. It is not simply one example of genocide but a near successful attempt on the life of God’s chosen children and thus, on God Himself.”

        On God himself …..imagine that !!

        If we and allies had not defeated Hitler there would not be any Jews left alive to blame the world and Europeans would all be speaking German.

        I also object to this propaganda in our schools–it is disgusting brainwashing of children

        http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/america-and-holocaust-suggestions-classrom/

        America and the Holocaust: Suggestions for the Classrom
        Themes: The Holocaust, anti-Semitism, U.S. immigration policy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, World War II
        Complex social and political factors shaped America’s response to the Holocaust, from Kristallnacht in 1938 through the liberation of the death camps in 1945. For a short time, the US had an opportunity to open its doors, but instead erected a “paper wall,” a bureaucratic maze that prevented all but a few Jewish refugees from entering the country. It was not until 1944, that a small band of Treasury Department employees forced the government to respond.

        Before Watching
        Write the following terms on the board:
        anti-Semitism ethnic cleansing
        holocaust refugee
        immigrant quotas
        red tape melting pot

        Tell students that these words are related to the program they are about to watch. Ask them what they think these terms mean, and what they think the film will be about. Assign half the class to listen for these terms as they view the program, to broaden the definitions the class came up with before watching the film.
        Assign the other half of the class to pay attention to the sources of information made available to government officials and the public, and how these were used to influence public opinion.

        Discussion Questions
        What image do you most remember from the film? Why? What makes that image an important visual symbol for the story the film tells?
        How was the film different from what you expected? How did it change or expand your understanding of the terms you discussed before the film? How did it change or expand your understanding of the Holocaust, and of the role of the United States in World War II?
        U.S. government knew about the persecution of European Jews long before the genocide began. What sources of information did the U.S. government have about this persecution and subsequent mass murders? How was this information treated and why? When do you think the government should have become involved in helping the Jews, and what should it have done? Why do you think the government finally decided to set up the War Refugee Board?
        During the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, Roosevelt spoke with the French resident general at Rabat, Morocco, about postwar independence and the Jewish immigrants in North America. Roosevelt argued that

        …the number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc.) should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population…. [T]his plan would further eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany, namely, that while they represented a small part of the population, over 50 percent of the lawyers, doctors, schoolteachers, college professors, etc., in Germany were Jews.1

        What do you think about Roosevelt’s suggestion? How do his comments reflect the anti-Semitism of the times? How do they help explain his inaction?
        In the preface to the book The Abandonment of the Jews(Pantheon Books, 1984), David Wyman recounts the inaction of the U.S. government and much of the public to the news of Hitler’s Final Solution and asks, “Would the reaction be different today? Would Americans be more sensitive, less self-centered, more willing to make sacrifices, less afraid of differences now than they were then?” What do you think? Consider our current attitudes towards minorities and immigrants in light of the crises in Bosnia and Rwanda.
        Think about how the sources used to inform and/or influence public opinion were different during World War II and the Gulf War. How has the role of the media changed? How has this been a change for the better? For the worse?
        Suggested Activities
        Compare the coverage of local, national, and world news in your local Sunday newspaper. How is the news of trouble in countries where the United States is involved reported differently than in countries where it isn’t? What can students infer from the placement of different articles within the paper? What can they infer from the differences in headlines and the amount of space allotted to different issues? What do they think the newspaper reflects about our society? its values? its interests?
        As a class, list examples of recent hate crimes committed within your state or the country. What happened? Who were the victims? Assign students to choose one example of a hate crime and use newspapers and periodicals to research the circumstances of the crime as well as the public and legal response to it.
        Ask students to interview a recent immigrant to the United States to learn about the immigrants reasons for coming to the United States and the process of immigration. Have students research the U.S. immigration policy for citizens of their subject’s native country prior to their interviews. How has the immigration policy for residents of the native country changed during the past fifty years, and what factors have led to these changes?
        As a class, brainstorm definitions of the American Dream. Then list any associations with the term. Ask students to write an essay in which they explain what the term means to them and why.
        Educators & Librarians: You may order “America and the Holocaust” at PBS Video.

    • Abe
      July 18, 2017 at 15:22

      Right on cue, the obligatory “anti-Semitic” Hasbara troll.

      Here a hint, dummies: Dial it down with the “spelling errors”.

      You want readers to believe you at least had the language skills and intellectual capacity to read the first paragraph of the article you’re pretending to “comment” upon.

      (On second thought, if you’re another American college student, making Aliyah and trolling for beer money, you probably are accurately demonstrating your abilities.)

      And how about a different user name than “HIDE BEHIND”.

      Now, get back to work on that list of sites you’ve been assigned to “comment” upon. Snap to it! Bibi’s counting on you!

  31. Virginia
    July 18, 2017 at 14:24

    It’s really time to think about what we are all going to do about this US collapsing problem, isn’t it? Remember the old saying about “words.”

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:49

      Viagra?

      • Virginia
        July 19, 2017 at 18:40

        Really?

      • Virginia
        July 19, 2017 at 18:41

        And that was meant sarcastically.

  32. Mark Thomason
    July 18, 2017 at 14:19

    Russia-gate is like the Wolfowitz explanation of the Iraq War, a policy on which people with very different agenda can agree, serving many purposes.

    For Hillary types, it is an excuse. For the Democrats, it is something to tell angry donors to keep getting money from them. For those who want wars, it is pressure on Trump to back him into wars. There are many factions that want wars, neocons, liberal interventionists of the R2P camp, zionists who want us to fight for Israel, defense contractors who just want money for weapons systems and ammo and parts, all very expensive.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:48

      “War is the health of the state” – Murray Rothbard

      “War is a racket” – Smedley Butler

  33. July 18, 2017 at 12:49

    Another home-run for America”s premier investigative reporter. Only those Americans with I.Q.s of room temperature can afford to ignore the catastrophic consequences for humanity, if the un-indicted war-criminal succeeds in pushing Trump into wider Middle East wars.

  34. Abe
    July 18, 2017 at 12:46

    “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of the first heads of government to go to the United States to meet Donald Trump on February 16, in Trump’s new role as President. After the event major media focused on the themes of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the Iran nuclear deal or a Palestine two-state solution.

    “Virtually no mention was made by CNN or other US mainstream media of the most strategic point the two discussed. Netanyahu asked the US President to recognize the Israeli illegal occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights, something no US President has done since Israel openly declared it theirs in 1981.

    “What has unfolded in the region since Netanyahu’s February 16 Trump talks gives reason to believe the US and Netanyahu’s Israel covertly agreed to a strategy to allow Trump to recognize Israel as the de facto occupier of Golan Heights amid what they will call the growing chaos of the Syrian ‘civil war.’ […]

    “Some days after Netanyahu left Washington, in an OpEd in the Rupert Murdoch Wall Street Journal, Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director of the Washington pro-Israel think-tank, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, argued that American recognition of Israel’s control of the Golan ‘would provide the Israeli government with a diplomatic win while helping the Trump administration signal to Russia and Iran that the US is charting a new course in Syria.’ Dubowitz is an adviser to the Trump Administration on Iran and the Middle East. Other neo-conservative editorials echoed the theme. There is big change brewing in Washington and it looks ugly in terms of a possible US-backed war with Israel against Russia ally, Syria, over the Golan Heights. That immediately poses the question what Russia would do if it materializes. […]

    “Israel is carefully setting the propaganda stage that will now let it claim that a coalition of Russia, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are preparing to forcefully retake the Syrian Golan Heights from the illegal Israeli occupiers. It’s a tried and tested Israeli IDF method of provoking an opponent, here Syria, then using the opponent’s predictable reaction to provocation as pretext for military strikes that escalate a confrontation they, the IDF, initiated in the first place.

    “What no one is openly discussing is the treasure that Israel’s Netanyahu is lusting after in the Golan Heights–Oil, huge, recently-discovered reserves of black gold in the Golan Heights. […]

    “Genie Energy is no ‘penny stock’ run-of-the-mill oil company. Its board of Advisors includes Dick Cheney. It includes former CIA head and chairman of the above-mentioned Foundation for Defense of Democracies, James Woolsey. It includes Jacob Lord Rothschild of the London banking dynasty and a former business partner of convicted Russian oil oligarch, Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Before his arrest Khodorkovsky secretly transferred his shares in Yukos Oil to Rothschild.

    “Further this little-known Newark, New Jersey oil company board includes former US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, pro-Israel media mogul and owner of Trump’s favorite Fox News TV, Rupert Murdoch. Also on the board are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt. Steinhardt, a philanthropic friend of Israel and of Marc Rich, is also a board member of Woolsey’s neo-con Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, which advises Trump among other things that it would be good for Washington to recognize Israel as legitimate owner of the Golan Heights lands taken by Dayan in the 1967 War.

    “The plot thickens indeed.

    “Genie Energy, tied to Netanyahu, to Trump, to a reportedly huge oil find in the illegally-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. Something very ugly is being brewed between Washington and Tel Aviv and Newark, New Jersey.

    “Genie Energy in 2013 was granted exclusive oil and gas exploration rights to a 153-square mile radius in the southern part of the Golan Heights by the Netanyahu government.

    “On October 8, 2015 only days after the surprise Russian announcement it had accepted the request of the elected Bashar al-Assad government to militarily intervene against ISIS, Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Syria, Genie Energy made a major announcement. Yuval Bartov, chief geologist from Genie Energy’s Israeli subsidiary, Afek Oil & Gas, told Israel’s Channel 2 TV that his company had found a major oil reservoir on the Golan Heights: ‘We’ve found an oil stratum 350 meters thick in the southern Golan Heights. On average worldwide, strata are 20 to 30 meters thick, and this is 10 times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities.’

    “On January 10, 2017, Genie Energy Ltd. announced it was creating a new company, Atid Drilling Ltd., an on-shore drilling services venture based in Israel to drill for oil in the Golan Heights among other places. They will expand the drilling by Genie Energy’s subsidiary Afek Oil & Gas which since the October, 2015 announcement has completed five exploratory wells in Golan Heights.

    “The creation of Atid Drilling by Genie confirms they are convinced based on the preliminary drilling results that there is something ‘big’ in Golan. A month later, in mid-February soon after Trump is sworn in as President, Netanyahu flies to Washington to discuss US recognition of Israel’s annexation of Golan Heights.

    “A few weeks later, Israel violates the Syrian airspace in an act of war, escalating tensions over the Golan Heights. Then on March 22, in an appearance before the US Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, Defense Secretary James Mattis called for Congress to formally authorize use of US military force against ISIS/DAESH in Syria.”

    Golan Heights, Israel, Oil and Trump
    By F. William Engdahl
    https://journal-neo.org/2017/03/30/golan-heights-israel-oil-and-trump/

    • Abe
      July 18, 2017 at 12:56

      “There is in our own time an absolute taboo among the corporate news media and the political class against mentioning anything whatsoever to do with the strategic and economic reasons for war.”

      Robert Newman’s History of Oil ( 1 of 9 )
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQhhrzHKMhI

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:44

      What would Russia do? How about, what would Russia, Iran and China do?

      The religious nutcases are going to force “end of times” come hell or high water. The [self proclaimed] smartest” chimps. Sadly, this could quite possibly get us “there.”

  35. RamboDave
    July 18, 2017 at 12:34

    You have to go back 15 years to understand what is happening today.

    It is all about the “Shia crescent” that has resulted from the Iraq war. the Saudi’s are not happy about that recent development. And, to understand this, you have to examine what happened in 2002, during the buildup to that Iraq war.

    There was a deal made in 2002 between Israel (and their Neocon supporters in the US) and Saudi Arabia, in order to get the Saudis to join the Iraq war coalition. The deal was to do regime change in Iran and Syria after Saddam was removed in Iraq. That is what the Saudis demanded in exchange for the Iraq war to proceed.

    General Wesley Clark later spoke about seeing the list of regime change countries in 2001.(watch this short video)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXS3vW47mOE

    Saddam was left in place following the Gulf War in 1991 because the Saudis were fearful of a Shiite takeover back then too. And, the Gulf War was also not about oil. It was about Israeli hegemony and wanting to keep it’s enemies week so that Israel could keep the land it stole.

    Israel and their Neocon corner, must now complete their part of the bargain. The Saudis may be threatening to expose the whole thing if they don’t.

    That is why we got the Iraq war. ……. But there is more to it !

    Here is probably what happened in 2002 in a deal worked out by Dick Cheney:
    The Iraq war, and removal of Saddam, would have been impossible unless the Saudis agreed to it in advance. Therefore, in 2002 Saudi Arabia (Prince Bandar) was shown a list of seven countries where the neocons (Zionists) wanted to do regime change.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXS3vW47mOE

    The Saudis agreed that, in exchange for the high probability that, after the war, Iraq would be taken over by the Shiites, there would be regime change in both Iran and Syria to compensate the Saudi’s.

    There was also probably a side agreement made by Dick Cheney in 2002 with the neocons, that President Bush, in exchange for the Iraq war, would be guaranteed re-election in 2004, by receiving favorable media treatment through neocon (Zionist) controlled media, such as the New York Times and Washington Post.
    It all has to do with a 1998 Zionist document entitled The Project For A New American Century written by William Kristol and Robert Kagan. Seventeen of the signers of that document later got jobs in the Bush Administration. Also keep in mind that 90% of the signers were Jewish Zionists. The whole purpose of the document was to make the Middle East safe for Israel, so that Israel could keep the land they stole and dictate the settlement terms with Palestinians.

    That is where we are at today folks !

    The neocons must absolutely complete their part of a grand bargain made back in 2002 with Saudi Arabia. That is why they will not give up on their quest for regime change in Syria, or in the alternative, the partition of Syria. They absolutely have to do this first in order to isolate Iran, and then do regime change in Iran, as promised to the Saudi’s.

    If they can’t complete their grand bargain, the Israeli / Saudi alliance will fall apart. Israel will appear powerless, at a time when they are dependent upon the perception that they control Washington. The Saudis may also be threatening to expose the entire deal unless the promises made to them are carried out.

    • F. G. Sanford
      July 18, 2017 at 13:37

      “Israel and their Neocon corner, must now complete their part of the bargain. The Saudis may be threatening to expose the whole thing if they don’t.”

      Ooooooh, now it all makes sense. The Saudis might tell that they cooperated with the US. And…and…and…that would be REALLY bad. Imagine that. They buy US weapons, agree to trade their oil strictly in petrodollars, they supported Brzezinski’s Mujahideen fighters to destabilize Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, they provided Wahhabi Takfiris to destabilize Libya and Syria, they rely on US AWACS intelligence and refueling tanker aircraft to wage their campaign against Yemen, they fund CIA proxy terrorists all over the Middle East…but if anybody found out about that, Dick Cheney could be really, really embarrassed. That would be very bad. There might even be a big scandal. Jeez, the next thing you know, the public could find out about water boarding, extraordinary renditions, civilian casualties, and John McCain might even have posed for a picture with Al Baghdadi. Holy smokes, what if the public finds out we bombed a Medicins Sans Frontieres hospital? If Americans find out about that, the camel patties are really gonna hit the fan. I guess we have no choice. We just have to take out Iran!

      • Seer
        July 18, 2017 at 15:35

        And there’s 9/11, which provided the big ramp up. The Saudis have a great blackmail card to force the US to comply. Whether this is the tie that binds I do not know, but for sure it provides a heck of a lot of traction.

        • Gregory Herr
          July 18, 2017 at 19:44

          …or camel patties for the fan!
          A political cartoonist could have a field day with Bandar, Mossad, a fan, a defacating camel…

    • Abe
      July 18, 2017 at 15:36

      Lord knows, Israel can ill afford to lose “the perception that they control Washington”.

      Congress might even stop standing when they applaud themselves on cue for “standing with Israel”
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/6b4bd8f2-c1df-11e4-a188-8e4971d37a8d

  36. Abe
    July 18, 2017 at 12:23

    “Although Israel is not a direct party to the agreement, it is obvious that it has been pro-active behind the scene and using the opportunity by tapping into the US-Iran rivalry to push Iran away from its border region. Netanyahu was quick to make Israel’s involvement in this particualr issue clear as he talked about Israel’s efforts, which included ‘preventing Hezbollah from gaining force in Syria by means of acquiring advanced precision weapons, preventing Hezbollah from establishing a ground force presence near our border and preventing the establishment of an Iranian military presence throughout Syria’ to prevent the conflict from reaching their land.

    “But the crucial question that both the US and Israel seem not to have paid enough attention is how and why Russia would persuade Iran to leave the said zone? Of particular importance here is also the Syrian government’s own position vis-à-vis Iranian presence in the country. There is no gainsaying that the former continues to see the latter as crucial for its survival as the Russian military support. Russia, therefore, is unlikely to push for an Iranian exclusion. On the other hand, Russia’s resolve to keep Iran engaged in Syria is evident from the way the former is deeply involved in the Astana talks and the establishment of four de-escalation zones in Syria.

    “The bottom line is: the fate of the Israeli and US objective to use the ceasefire agreement to push Iran out of southwestern Syria is sealed, for if the objective is somehow achieved, it will run counter to the Astana talks, which is by far the actual forerunner of the current ceasefire agreement itself. Given the ambiguity surrounding the agreement and the given the projections being made from the US-Israel camp, it is obvious that they don’t see the agreement complementing, or being even a part of, the Astana talks.

    “What such a postulation means is that a US-Israel effort is at work here to jeopardize the success Russia, Iran and Turkey have achieved at Astana. By hitting on the Iranian role, the US and Israel seem to be causing a rupture that might drive a wedge between Iran and Russia and thus allow for a larger Iranian exit from the Syrian scene. It is another thing that Russia doesn’t see the ceasefire going this way. For it, ceasefire must complement the Astana talks and need to be configured in a way that satisfies, in one way or the other, all parties, including Israel, the US and Iran.”

    The US-Israel are Using Syria Ceasefire to Force Iran Out
    By Salman Rafi Sheikh
    https://journal-neo.org/2017/07/18/the-us-israel-using-syria-ceasefire-to-force-iran-out/

  37. Alan Vartany
    July 18, 2017 at 12:17

    I am a Democrat, but totally agree with the President on the Russian issue. We must work with Russia and bring them in from the cold. They are a capitalistic country ( not to western standards yet ) and their vast minerals can be useful for the EU. They are not communists and we are stuck in WWI mentality about Russia. Neocons and NATO gain by using Russia as enemy #1 of US. Lets lear a lesson from the mess we have left behind in Iraq and Libya. Syria can be worse and many CHRISTIANS can perish. So lets stop Nattan yahu. Enough is enough.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:29

      Why is is ANY business of the US to meddle in the affairs of other nations? I seem to recall this being a bit statement made by the “founders.” Just get the f%ck out! Need to learn to deal with collapsing, global supply lines; the sooner the better. International companies are the leash that’s staking us to the sinking ship.

  38. Alan Vartany
    July 18, 2017 at 12:07

    Robert parry is a very well informed man. Its about time to push back on Netanyahu , this man has no love for USA and will do all even start WWIII just to grab a few more yards of the Palestinian land. American Jews will do well by preventing this Luni to use them to manhandle the Preasdent of our country.

  39. Michael Kenny
    July 18, 2017 at 12:02

    Mr Parry has put his finger on Putin’s fatal weakness: he has become a menace for Israel. Obama’s failure to stand up to Putin in Ukraine discredited the US as Europe’s, and by extension, Israel’s, protector and discredited NATO as an instrument for the defence of both Europe and Israel. Trump, and the positions Putin’s American supporters have attributed to Trump, have, if anything, made matters worse. In Syria, Putin is waging war to prop up Assad, whom Israel wants to see gone and, once again, Putin’s American supporters are making matters worse by loudly proclaiming that Putin is “winning”, thereby further discrediting the US. And, of course, Putin is snuggling up to Iran, Israel’s proclaimed enemy No. 1. Not surprisingly therefore, Israel wants to see Trump stand up to Putin and Syria is where Putin is most vulnerable.

    • mike k
      July 18, 2017 at 12:13

      I guess we need a neocon voice here. So I am going to remove the troll label I put on you, and replace it with a neocon label. But it is still a waste of time trying to refute all the nonsense you put forth; everything shared on this site is a refutation of your stuff. I think to myself – wouldn’t it be nice if Rachel Maddow would share here? What a treat that would be!

      • mike k
        July 18, 2017 at 12:19

        Of course with the big bucks Rachel pulls down for playing Axis Sally, she wouldn’t bother with us low income types.

        • JWalters
          July 18, 2017 at 19:34

          If Rachel goes all “hair on fire” for regime change in Russia in a week or two it won’t be a surprise. She recently said, “They [Trump’s lawyers] are looking at what may be a very high-powered offensive … tied to that second prong of the Russian attack, that hack of the DNC where they stole that information and turned it back on the American people.” (7/12/17)

          She doesn’t bother to explain how revealing the truth about the DNC lies somehow nefariously “turned it back on the American people”. This glaring omission is a classic Rush Limbaugh tactic. Some news outlets seem to be switching from the “hack” claim to a “meddling” claim, but not MSNBZ.

          Maddow is tripling down on the flat assertion that the DNC emails were “hacked” by the Russians, stating it as an established fact numerous times during the show. Chris Hayes is doing the same. Especially telling and disturbing is the absence of ANY effort whatsoever at a balanced look at the evidence by either of these highly intelligent, inquisitive, professional reporters. Such a weird scenario practically screams out for an explanation.

          A big clue is in a related case, the minimal discussion of Netanyahu and Israel’s blatantly overt attempt to help Mitt Romney win in 2012. But despite Israel’s longstanding, huge efforts to influence US elections, which have been voluminously documented, e.g.
          “Let’s talk about Russian influence”
          http://mondoweiss.net/2016/08/about-russian-influence
          “Why Not a Probe of ‘Israel-gate’?”
          https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/20/why-not-a-probe-of-israel-gate

          this story and discussion are AVOIDED ENTIRELY by the MSM. These facts taken together, and considering that MSNBC is controlled by Zionist owners, strongly suggest Israel is directing the current Russia-gate frenzy. They would be using the same control of the media that they have routinely used to bury stories about Israel’s long history of crimes and atrocities. Their purpose would be to continue blocking US-Russia cooperation toward peace in the Middle East, including their engineering of the current Ukraine crisis for that purpose.
          “What Neocons Want from Ukraine Crisis”
          https://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/02/what-neocons-want-from-ukraine-crisis/

          This all is consistent with the theory that the original primary purpose of the financial backers of Israel was not to create a safe haven for anybody, but to create a perpetual, profitable religious war zone. Their war zone has hit the jackpot, and they are determined to keep the profits rolling in. For new readers, relevant historical facts are in
          “War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror”
          http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com

          As to the motives of Maddow, Hayes and others in the Vichy press and government, it could be financial security. Where that won’t work, another ancient and favorite pair of Oligarchy tactics is blackmail and scandal. Often these involve victimless “offenses” against some social norm, a favorite being sexual behavior. Such threats and attacks can be either based on facts (sometimes with entrapment), or be complete fabrications, including forged documents and hired “witnesses”.

          The American public urgently needs to learn they can trust NOTHING their MSM tells them about either Israel or Russia. The grass roots needs to spread the word. And somebody in Congress needs to be convinced to act ASAP to rescue America’s captured press and democracy from the grip of the Oligarchy. As Robert Parry repeatedly points out, this is a dangerous time.

          • backwardsevolution
            July 19, 2017 at 04:08

            JWalters – those are all great links. Thanks. “And somebody in Congress needs to be convinced to act ASAP to rescue America’s captured press and democracy from the grip of the Oligarchy.”

            As Chuck Schumer said, they have “six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” I know he was referring to the intelligence agencies, but it also applies I think to the Israeli lobby. You can be assured that the oligarchs are treating these Congressmen with lots of perks (insider trading, promises of future employment, vacations), making it harder for them to speak out. But, you’re right, surely there must be a handful who could speak up, who are sick and tired of having to roll over for the neocons.

          • JWalters
            July 19, 2017 at 18:34

            backwardsevolution, thanks for your thumbs up on the links. I selected these because they seemed to me notably informative, clear, and succinct for having a lot of information. They could be good starting points for people new to these issues, e.g. skeptical friends and family.

            Your point about Chuck Schumer’s comment is spot on. I wonder if he realized how revealing that comment was? Your larger point, that our politicians are held in multiple chains, is true and tragic. My understanding is that a good number are already “sick and tired of having to roll over for the neocons”. Increasing grass-roots awareness and pressure will hopefully pop some of them to go public.

    • Abe
      July 18, 2017 at 14:09

      The West’s army of mainstream media bloviators and online trolls have been peddling the “Putin is vulnerable” trash talk phrase for two decades.

      Putin has been perpetually “vulnerable” in Russian elections, at global leader summits from G-8 to G-20, in Chechnya, in Crimea, in Syria, and on the freaking moon. Poor guy always seems to have his fly open for the Western media to “comment” upon.

      Whenever “Michael Kenny” graces us with a “comment” from under the bridge downtown, Putin is “vulnerable” in some form or fashion.

      Call it what you will.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:26

      Sorry, but Russia has been around a LOT longer (as a nation) than Israel. The Russians were able to deal with Hitler, the Jews, well…

      Israel can throw around weight and such, but in the end it doesn’t have the long-lasting resources necessary for an enduring nation: I have called the “winners” as being: Canada; Russia and the USA; reason being real estate and resources. Not sure if I’ll live long enough to see another one of my predictions from true, but it’ll be the case.

      • Cal
        July 20, 2017 at 01:29

        @Seer

        I agree.

  40. July 18, 2017 at 11:17

    Mike K…friends indeed!…this is an old post(from2015) but unfortunately I believe it’s still relevant…

    https://crivellistreetchronicle.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-mideastwith-friends-like-these.html

  41. mike k
    July 18, 2017 at 09:37

    Israel? With friends like this, who needs enemies?

  42. Charles S. Ferguson
    July 18, 2017 at 09:12

    At least since the attempted destruction of the USS Liberty in 1967, Israel has used the United States to advance her territorial ambitions in the Middle East. As Israel has much influence in the halls of Congress, State Department, every Administration, it should be no surprise that Trump is also captured as well. The President would do well to stop tweeting, ignore the “Russia gate” innuendos and find some good advisors who understand diplomacy. By the way, what happened to his promise to prosecute Mrs. Clinton for her vile practices in Libya, with the Clinton Foundation, etc.? The man seems to speak with a forked tongue. They will have their World War but it shall turn on their own heads.

    • Joe Tedesky
      July 18, 2017 at 09:18

      I think that Trump’s going after Clinton, could serve as a counterweight to young Trump Jr’s predicament.

  43. Joe Tedesky
    July 18, 2017 at 09:10

    I sure hope that America doesn’t experience a fatal false flag, where a Syrian passport lies waiting to be found, and traces of debris prove it was a Russian made bomb. Remember dead men tell no lies, so the Syrian terrorist will be dead, and even if the Russian made bomb debris has U.S.A. written all over it, it will still be Putin’s fault. Let’s all hope my wandering imagination never materializes, and that my worries are nothing to worry about.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 15:20

      Here, pull my finger!

      I’m appalled at how people keep falling for this crap.

      Easter Island here we come… (hey buddy, can you spare a tree trunk [or some money for weaponry that won’t save us from the evil that we’re trying to protect ourselves from]?)

      • Joe Tedesky
        July 18, 2017 at 16:45

        I don’t understand your comment.

    • Gregory Herr
      July 18, 2017 at 19:23

      Those passports are a nice touch, aren’t they Joe? And while they’re at it, throw in some “drills” and have FEMA on standby. I like your “even if” (has USA written all over it) reference. Reminds me of the anthrax with hilariously absurd and contrived notes…except the funny thing was, it was signatured as military-grade USA anthrax. Better get going on that Patriot Act…message received Leahy & Daschle?

      • Joe Tedesky
        July 18, 2017 at 22:37

        I cam across an article here that ponders to what the Syria cease fire means to Israel, and Iran plus Hezbollah. Although it describes Russia protecting its allies interest, it suggests some flaws in determining which regions and who this cease fire will include. If Iran and Hezbollah are left out of the cease fire regions one can only wonder to what this means. Question is; will reducing it’s involvement in Syria allow the U.S. and Israel to go onward towards war with Iran?

        https://journal-neo.org/2017/07/18/the-us-israel-using-syria-ceasefire-to-force-iran-out/

        My originally bringing up the possible false flag we should be cautious of, to me, is a real possibly and not something to leave off the table. I mean, it isn’t as though we haven’t been down this road before.

        Thanks for your cooperative input, and helping me to make my point Gregory. Joe

        • Cal
          July 18, 2017 at 23:20

          Joe Tedesky

          July 18, 2017 at 10:37 pm>>>>>

          I’m with you on the false flag worry.

          • Joe Tedesky
            July 19, 2017 at 16:07

            Comrade…thanks Joe

  44. F. G. Sanford
    July 18, 2017 at 09:00

    It’s like I said the other day. They can’t back down. Petrodollar hegemony and multinational corporate interests collapse if they do. If they keep it up, retaliation of some sort is inevitable. The plan is sustained low-intensity conflict to retain the facade of imperial omnipotence. Our strategic thinkers cannot boast among themselves a single eminent scholar. Not one is versed in history, culture, philosophy or science. We hear geopolitics discussed in terms of stereotypes, cliches, truisms and hyperbole. The ideology which informs policy reflects obsolete theories of political economy and strategic equilibrium. Perhaps the only dissenting voice among them is Bannon, who is steeped in iconoclastic nihilism and neofascist revisionism. We’ve got the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer from Exxon Mobil at State, Foghorn Leghorn at Defense, a Vietnam apologist for national security, and Nimrata Randhawa at the UN. What could possibly go wrong?

    OK, so…Bibi Netanyahu is pushing for confrontation with Syria, Iran and Russia. We are supposed to believe that Bibi will suffer no adverse consequences, and our own victory is indubitable. This scenario leaves out the Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters factor. In Russia, there’s a guy just like him named Renko Petrovich. He’s a military analyst, just like Ralph. Putin used to think he was nuttier than a vodka swilling Cossack with neurosyphilitic dementia. But now, Putin isn’t so sure. Renko is starting to make sense.

    “I tell you, Vladimir Vladimirovych, just one cruise missile. Solves all problems. Submarine launch from Indian Ocean, will be weeks before Yankee Imperialists figure out who shot. They won’t see strategic value in retaliation. Nuclear annihilation not worth trouble. Picking target is simple matter. We toss coin. Heads is Riyadh, tails is Tel Aviv. Problem solved.

    Yep, y’all need to go to blacklistednews dot com and read an article called, “Pentagon study declares American empire is ‘collapsing'”. The solution they come up with is more surveillance, more propaganda, more aggressive military posturing and more suppression of domestic dissent. In other words, the Pentagon thinks we need more of what got us into this mess in the first place. Heads they win, tails we lose. Problem solved.

    • Joe Tedesky
      July 18, 2017 at 09:16

      The DOD believes America is becoming undone as well.

      https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pdffiles/PUB1358.pdf

      This report is long, but it takes aim at America’s unraveling from power. What the report does go on to say, is how our government and military should double down. Yeah, why change when everything is going so well (sarcasm).

      • elmerfudzie
        July 20, 2017 at 20:55

        Joe, sharing a very personal viewpoint with you. My speaking here as a “son of Israel” (now three generations Christian) I must say that the good, non-violent and God fearing Jew has somehow been overtaken-smothered, endured an almost inexplicable acquiescence to a clique of filthy rich Zionists, who are in fact, atheists. They know only nihilism for themselves and governments joined at the hip with them-examples; Germany, UK and the USA. I trust that the first five books of Holy Scripture (Torah) will properly advise religious Jew(s) through this long standing middle east crisis. So, to Israel at large I say, you have reached your majority (21 years) and at the same time, a generous Western Occident financial aid package, particularly, military aid, we in the West, now send you off, akin to a parent to their children, your On Your Own! Good luck with enemies on every side-…surely this circumstance, cannot be unfamiliar. Please!, Free the USA from any additional political commitment(s)!!!…In retrospect it began two thousand years ago, with the crucifixion (Jesus) but ends on a joyous note. Our Lords absolute forgiveness may be contingent on, Israel avoiding those quick and easy political or military, “short cuts”- I’m speaking here about bargaining with the Devil !! As the Christian scriptures plainly say, the “Jew knows the way”, so, don’t abuse this special gift given to your people from above!!

    • mike k
      July 18, 2017 at 09:34

      The Pentagon is about more, never less. Just like the rest of our Capitalism on Steroids soap opera society.

    • Brad Owen
      July 18, 2017 at 12:14

      Meanwhile, over on EIR website, “hot news” column: “U.S. Debt Bubbles Deflating…” IOW, slow-motion popping. The Great Crash. We’ll get to experience our “Soviet Union” moment of collapse, with rusting hulks moored permanently to dilapidated docks, grounded planes and tank farms sitting, rusting away in the rain. Sure there will be coups and counter-coups and counter-counter-coups, and Americans will die at younger ages due to shortages of groceries, clean water, medicines, heating, AC and refrigeration, brown-outs and blackouts, etc…but we will come out of it with our “Putin” (a solid FDR dirigist, like President Xi) lifting us out of the rubble of collapse…and the New Silk Road policies with its Great Infrastructure Projects will STILL be the answer & solution to our problems, only then we will be ready to listen to such sane proposals.

      • backwardsevolution
        July 18, 2017 at 17:11

        Brad Owen – President Xi is bankrupting his own country.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 13:20

      Yup, ALL EMPIRES COLLAPSE. Find and read Sir John Glubb’s The Survival of Civilization (it’s bootlegged out on the Internet): short but excellent read.

      We will, as do all creatures and human civilizations, keep on doing what we know to do until we cannot do it any more. What is happing now is that the masters are programming us to believe the reason for the (sure) collapse is someone else’s fault (when in total fact it is due to the nature of our systems being all dependent on perpetual growth on a finite planet): they do this in order to continue, in the rubble, to retain their positions of supremacy over others.

  45. July 18, 2017 at 08:58

    Welcome to Netanyahu’s B&B (blackmail&bribery). Erdogan and the Saudis have learned a lot from him…our foreign policy “experts”, nothing!

  46. July 18, 2017 at 08:31

    “Water wars” I put into Google and found at top a National Geographic article from about a year ago, “What You Need to Know About the World’s Water Wars”. This is definitely a serious topic to watch. All the Middle East, China, India, Africa, North America (California) Australia — it seems we are at a tipping point with Earth populations.

    • backwardsevolution
      July 18, 2017 at 17:08

      Jessica K – “…it seems we are at a tipping point with Earth populations.” Yes, that is what I’ve been trying to tell people for years, but everybody just looks at me like I’m crazy.

      We not only have to fight against the warmongers (who are usually just trying to steal someone else’s resources), but we also have to fight against the “growth mongers” (who usually have a vested interest in seeing more of it).

      These types of people (both of them), IMO, are not long-term thinkers, and yet are so very sure of themselves. No doubt ever enters their minds. Consummate salesmen, wishful thinkers. And when we get to the end of their schemes (as these self-assured types usually end up leading us), when something disastrous happens, they stand there with their hands up in the air and exclaim: “Well, nobody could have seen that coming.”

      Well, yes, some people do see it coming, but they are not listened to.

      • JWalters
        July 18, 2017 at 19:03

        Good points. These people profit from the catastrophes of others. They probably have estimates of how much money they’ll make from the various climate catastrophes they are engineering by suppressing sane discussions. People who will engineer the mass deaths of war for profit will not hesitate to kill millions of people by other means.

  47. July 18, 2017 at 08:16

    Mato48, thank you for that post. What is a good source to follow this for ecology? One gets bits of info here and there, but is there a comprehensive source?

  48. backwardsevolution
    July 18, 2017 at 07:10

    Where does Israel get the money for this? I must lead a sheltered life because I had never heard of these games before. The Maccabiah Games (often referred to as the Jewish Olympics) is the third largest sporting event in the world.

    “The Maccabiah Games are open to Jewish athletes from around the world, as well as to all Israeli athletes regardless of religion. Arab Israelis have also competed in it.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maccabiah_Games

    Does the U.S. aid package (what is it, $3 billion/year) go towards this event?

  49. July 18, 2017 at 06:47

    When Israel gets drunk and beats Trump, America has nowhere to go but the International Court of Justice. Get restraining orders.
    Defend the Constitution from pedophiles, foreign and domestic. Preserve the peace by suing for it. Yes, we can prevail in court of law.

  50. Vincent Meijer
    July 18, 2017 at 06:20

    What a stupid illogical ‘the Jews did it’ far stretched, made up, stupid, add insult to scheize story, this. Never saw anything like it. And for free on Yahoo main page. Wow. And next? Santa lives in North Kora after all? Cause Hamas paid for his reindeer, and their currency is cheaper, since the Qatar blockade they can’t spent so much. Cause Putin lives close by in Vlodiwostochalso, and that is further for Netanyahu to fly to. So that is saver. Poor Putin can’t be presured than so easily. See ?

    • JWalters
      July 18, 2017 at 18:59

      Have another bottle of wine from the “Israeli” “settlements”.

  51. July 18, 2017 at 06:11

    This report is spot on, and I comment only to add the ecological angle.

    All wars in the MENA region can be viewed as water wars, because draughts become permanent, water tables drop, aquifers are exhausted. The deserts in Iran, Iraq, and Syria expand constantly, all three countries have severe water shortages. In Iran Lake Urmia disappeared, temperatures in the city of Ahvaz recently reached a record 129F (53.7C).

    Israel has water scarcity too. The Jordan River is reduced to a trickle and the Dead Sea, at the end of the Jordan River, is constantly shrinking and will soon disappear just like Lake Urmia. In 2008, Israel teetered on the edge of catastrophe. Israel’s largest source of freshwater, the Sea of Galilee, had dropped to within inches of the “black line” at which irreversible salt infiltration would have flooded the lake and ruin it forever. Water restrictions had to be imposed and many farmers lost their crops.

    Syria fared much worse. As the drought intensified and water tables plunged, the wells ran dry and Syria’s farmland collapsed in an epic dust storm. More than a million farmers joined massive shantytowns on the outskirts of Homs, Damascus, Daraa and other cities in a futile attempt to find work and purpose.

    Israel built a string of desalination plants along the coast (Ashkelon, Hadera, Sorek, Palmachim, Eilat, Ashdod), but desalination needs lot of energy, kills marine life, and desalinated water lacks trace minerals (magnesium, calcium) which the human body needs. Israels sophisticated water treatment systems recapture 86 percent of wastewater for irrigation, yet, as the climate gets hotter, more irrigation is needed, while the rivers and wells may run dry one day.

    The scramble for water is a main reason for the Syrian war and it is the reason why Israel illegally annexed the water rich Golan Heights from Syria. It is also the reason why Israel wants to conquer the Litani river area in southern Lebanon, though at the moment Hezbollah, supported by Iran and a close ally of Syria, is in the way. It is also the reason, why Israel will not leave the West Bank, because the West Bank Mountain Aquifer is desperately needed.

    Only a quarter of Syria is arable land, and a big part of this cannot be used without irrigation. Syria has since years imported grain, mainly from Ukraine. After Maidan Russia has become the main provider of food commodities. Syria has not only lost the Golan Heights, Turkey in the north diverts water from the Euphrates River for irrigation and hydroelectric dams (Southeastern Anatolia Project).

    Syria, robbed of its most important water sources, will not be able to feed the five million or so refugees if they ever come back.

    Israel is surrounded by Arab populations who are hungry and thirsty. The Gaza Strip is nearly uninhabitable, Yemen, and after that the whole Arab Peninsula will become uninhabitable too (Saudi Arabia has stopped agriculture and instead buys Land in Africa and Latin America).

    Millions will have to look for a new place, but Europe and the USA apparently don’t want them. Where shall the thirsty and hungry people go? On Jihad?

    Can anybody imagine a kind of peace plan which would solve the water problem?

    • backwardsevolution
      July 18, 2017 at 06:40

      mato48 – great post. All that oil money enabled people to have more and more children. All that oil enabled farmers to mechanize, more food was available, and more people were brought forward. That whole area in the Middle East was never meant to house all those people. What were they thinking?

      Yes, the water shortages are really going to bite hard. As you say, Turkey is controlling the flow of the Euphrates. Good way for it to screw over its enemies. And, yes, I remember looking at a map of Israel and reading a few good articles on their dire water situation. And still they’re calling for more people to come! And still the poorest of the poor continue to have more and more children.

      Irrigating crops in the middle of a desert. Maybe Gaddafi was murdered over the huge water reservoir in southern Libya? Who knows.

      • TS
        July 18, 2017 at 07:31

        > Irrigating crops in the middle of a desert. Maybe Gaddafi was murdered over the huge water reservoir
        > in southern Libya? Who knows.

        Well, even before the Axis of Evil bombed the Libyan state to ruins, some people were saying that the market value of Libya’s underground fresh-water reserves was probably more than the market value of its oil and gas reserves…

        But I suspect the gangsters in Paris, London, Washington, Tel Aviv et al. were not that far-seeing, but looking more at the conventional political and economic gains.

      • mike k
        July 18, 2017 at 09:24

        Thank you for this rare mention of the population problem elephant which takes up so much space in the human specie’s living room, it’s getting hard to breathe. Overpopulation has become the untouchable and unmentionable third rail of ecological discourse. This is a shame, since of itself it can do all of us in unless it is dealt with intelligently. Oh well, just add it to the long list of things we are in denial about, and keep whistling Yankee Doodle as we walk past the graveyard of all our mistakes, on our way to a midnight date with extinction.

        • Brad Owen
          July 18, 2017 at 09:35

          For a different POV on the so-called over-population problem, see the 20 minute video “Farming the Galaxy” on LarouchePAC. We actually haven’t reached sufficient population for optimum division-of-labor to thrive on this planet and others (hunting and gathering was actually all that could be achieved with insufficient numbers of people…we’ve got it all backwards, and there is no such thing as “useless eaters”, except among the parasitic Oligarchy who want to “Cull their herd” of people to make us more “manageable” for their limited purposes).

      • July 18, 2017 at 15:43

        Israel, Bahrain, and Lebanon are densely populated not any others. Wealthy Qatar and Kuwait exceed 100/sq. Km. . The rest are less.

    • Bob Van Noy
      July 18, 2017 at 08:45

      Thank you mato48. I completely agree. I have been studying the magic of estuaries for a few years now and I think that most people simply don’t realize their importance. We must not because we’re destroying them at every opportunity. I’ll include a link for reference. Thank you.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary

    • Brad Owen
      July 18, 2017 at 09:27

      This is a water planet and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make fresh water from salt water (my dad was in charge of making fresh water for his ship in WWII. He’s not a rocket scientist). Hell, we can take some rubes in the mountains who run stills, and hire them for the task (my dad also made the “hooch” for the ship). What is needed is a reliable 24/7 source of power to run the desalination plants. This would be nuclear. I know USA is practically on longer in the nuke business. Not to worry, India and China are in it big-time, bringing safer 4th generation plants online (and nuclear fusion-to-come later), and interested in helping MENA develop, via New Silk Road policies. We’ll eventually have grasslands and forests, where desert now reigns. Also great progress is being made in ionization to induce rains (the vast majority of Earth’s fresh water is in the atmosphere). The population of Earth has only just BEGUN to become intelligent keepers and care-takers of our Home Planet, and biomass in general will see an increase (plants & animals) over the coming centuries, and war (and the Oligarchy responsible for war) will be recognized as the obsolete, destructive thing that it is, being renounced permanently…war is not the answer. Cooperation on scientifically thought-out Great Infrastructure Projects is. And New Silk Road is just the beginning of a centuries-long New Renaissance.

      • Brad Owen
        July 18, 2017 at 09:28

        The above view comes from EIR and LaRouchePAC.

        • Virginia
          July 18, 2017 at 14:13

          Yes, I have been studying the EIR Larouche site since someone referred to it here. Most helpful. There’s a lot to get through there but well worth it to learn of Larouche’s ideas for egalitarian life styles via political, banking and governmental changes.

          • Brad Owen
            July 18, 2017 at 14:47

            Yes it is a treasure trove of information. It takes years of reading their articles and essays to get a handle on all of their intel gathered over the decades. Lyndon himself (served in India during WWII; got first-hand exposure to how the Brits “managed” their Empire), now in his mid-nineties, personally knew many of the O.S.S. guys loyal to FDR, and knew what FDR’s death meant for the World-to-come. He has dedicated his life to seeing through FDR’s vision for the Post-War World, and knows those forces opposed to that vision, domestically and foreign. He’s also the main exponent of the science of physical economy and has been right in all of his 11(I think it’s eleven) economic forecasts…also an awesome historian on what is REALLY going on in the World. Has many good people working for him, and powerful friends that have his back, despite prison sentences and assassination attempts.

      • backwardsevolution
        July 18, 2017 at 16:55

        Brad – “We’ll eventually have grasslands and forests, where desert now reigns.” Florida at one point decided it would be a good idea to drain the swamps, gain more land. Weather patterns were altered, so they stopped this practice.

        “Also great progress is being made in ionization to induce rains (the vast majority of Earth’s fresh water is in the atmosphere).” Fool with Mother Nature too much, and she will slap you back. The Water Cycle works well already.

        The world does NOT NOT NOT need more people! It does NOT need more growth. Leave well enough alone. It’s already being destroyed.

        • Dave P.
          July 18, 2017 at 19:28

          backwardsevolution: India’s Prime minister Indira Gandhi introduced policy of two children per couple in early 1970’s. After two children male vasectomy, voluntarily at government’s expense. If not obeyed, it was implemented by police force – rounding up the offending males. You guess what happened: all the Western Countries, including U.S. were in uproar about the end of democracy in India, vilifying her as a dictator. According to their logic, Capitalism needs more and more people for the corporations to grow bigger and bigger. Population control was the foremost question for third world countries and still is.

          Family planning services were started right away after independence in India. But political and other form of help was needed from rich countries through U.N. Instead, U.S. was the main opponent to such family planning and population control programs.

          • backwardsevolution
            July 18, 2017 at 20:42

            Dave P. – Indira Gandhi was a very smart lady. She knew what was best for India, she was willing to pay for it, but they called her a dictator? My, oh my, how foolish the West is! How greedy! They don’t care whether people starve or lead a subsistence life; they just want more consumers for their precious corporations.

            I watched an interesting program on India a while back. They had hired women to go around to the various villages, informing people of the benefits of having two children. If I remember correctly, I think the program was working quite well, but it will take time.

            Then you read articles whereby China (with its one-child policy) has loosened their grip on the birth rate, allowed two births per couple now, because get this – they were worried their economy would suffer and there wouldn’t be enough consumers.

            Over a billion in China, India is expected to overtake China’s population quite soon, and Africa is set to explode off the map. India is depleting their water tables in the Punjab, having to go deeper and deeper for water. China is polluting their water to death. In Africa, you drink the water at your peril.

            I read that the rich, connected-type people were the ones who got the good farmland in Syria. Of course, they ramped up and started irrigating like crazy. I even believe they were exporting some of their crops (but I can’t quite remember). I think they could easily feed their own population, but where a lot of these countries go wrong is the rich landowners start wanting to really get rich and start exporting. They drain off too much water and leave nothing left for the people.

            Good post, Dave.

    • Zachary Smith
      July 18, 2017 at 12:10

      Excellent comment. Stealing the water in Lebanon and Syria is indeed a goal in Israel’s recent and future behavior in the region.

    • Ol' Hippy
      July 18, 2017 at 13:00

      Rarely, if ever, is mentioned about the water shortages and is one of the driving forces to the destabilization of the entire region. As more crops fail due to lack of water or higher temperatures people of the region will want to go, or not return, just so they can eat and have water to drink. These are serious issues yet are rarely, if ever, mentioned for a peaceful solution in the region. I actually applaud Trump for working out a ceasefire that has been sorely lacking by past endeavors that included removing al Assad from the Syrian government. Let’s hope this can be a new trend to keeping the influence of the neocon’s stranglehold on foreign policy. I’m not holding my breath though.

    • Seer
      July 18, 2017 at 13:09

      Thank you for bringing this up!

      The “West” won’t talk about this subject because very few people would be UNsympathetic. Who in their right mind could advocate depriving people of water? Instead, these tensions are masked by a bunch of other distractions.

      “All wars in the MENA region can be viewed as water wars”

      ALL WARS ARE ABOUT RESOURCES.

    • Cal
      July 18, 2017 at 17:02

      ” . It is also the reason why Israel wants to conquer the Litani river area in southern Lebanon, though at the moment Hezbollah, supported by Iran and a close ally of Syria, is in the way. It is also the reason, why Israel will not leave the West Bank, because the West Bank Mountain Aquifer is desperately needed”>>>>>

      Yes.

      In the 1967 war Israel gained exclusive control of the waters of the West Bank and the Sea of Galilee….. the West Bank’s mountain aquifer and the Sea of Galilee – give Israel about 60% of its fresh water, a billion cubic metres per year.
      Israel, and Israeli settlements, take about 80% of the aquifer’s flow, leaving the Palestinians with 20% and to add insult to injury Isr ‘ sells” Palestines back their own water at inflated prices.
      Israel allocates to its citizens, including those living in settlements in the West Bank deemed illegal under international law, between three and five times more water than the Palestinians.
      This,] of course also cripples Palestinians agricultural economy.
      Its a ‘genocide lite” plan.

      This world bank report also covers how Isr prevent Palestines from digging wells to access water.

      WEST BANK AND GAZA
      ASSESSMENT OF RESTRICTIONS ON PALESTINIAN
      WATER SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
      Sector Note
      April 2009

      http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTWESTBANKGAZA/Resources/WaterRestrictionsReport18Apr2009.pdf

    • Dave P.
      July 18, 2017 at 20:52

      mato48: The ecological angle you have added is very important – water is going to be more valuable commodity than the oil in the near future. You mentioned Iran, which is already facing very severe drought and water shortage situation for many years now. But you go further east, vast areas of rich agricultural land in north India are going to become deserts within thirty years or so. All the underground water aquifers have been exhausted from pumping too much water for commercial crops. With this Global warming, the glaciers of the Himalayas, which use to feed the rivers during the whole year have just about melted. In fact, the resulting disruptions of life in those countries is going to be on a gigantic scale. There are going to be violent conflicts over water.

      Instead of helping in solving these problems of population control, land use, new technologies for sustenance of the planet, the whole energy of the West has been, and is directed towards starting wars, and inflicting death and destruction on the vulnerable Nations. And the role of the character of this article Netanyahu in all these wars is central to all the strategies being implemented. Netanyahu’s arrogance is simply appalling.

      Watching all these neocons – Wolfowitz, Kagans, Feith, Krystol, Elliot Abrams, Max Boot, Perle . . . it is a long list – on TV for more than two decades, I am struck by the arrogance of these people as if they own the whole world. These people think themselves to be above the law – Domestic Laws as well as International Law. Many of them have dual citizenship. It is apparent that these NeoCons play big role in instigating these Wars. Yet a very few people left in the positions of power who disagree with the current policy of the government are hesitant to criticize this so called “full spectrum dominance” agenda of the NeoCons.

  52. July 18, 2017 at 05:59

    Netanyahu is a very dangerous man, always has been, an ideologue, intolerant, controlling. With “advisors” to Trump such as Kushner and Haley, this is scary. Of course, Netanyahu follows in a tradition of Israeli leaders of his ilk. Trump is an egocentric man and a confused president, but if Clinton were in the position right now, Assad’s and Syria’s fate might already have been sealed, as Qaddafi’s and Libya’s.

    Ironically, Netanyahu has done business with Putin. Putin even gave Netantahu a copy of a rare book by Josephus on the Jews, and Netanyahu was overwhelmed, it was reported. What will Putin make of this? What a struggle the Russian leader has to deal with among all these bizarre, cruel and twisted machinations!

    • Bob Van Noy
      July 18, 2017 at 08:32

      I like your reply Jessica K. Yes, Putin must have twisted into a knot trying to cope with all these regimes… Thanks.

    • jo6pac
      July 18, 2017 at 10:49

      Russia answer to your question.

      http://tass.com/politics/956678

      • Gregory Herr
        July 18, 2017 at 18:49

        good relevant link…
        Too bad poor Israel’s “security” issues can’t be called out for what they really are…issues of greed and a superiority complex

    • July 18, 2017 at 12:33

      Netanyahu is a Jewish megalomaniac who uses American traitorous Jewish population to make the US into a hapless host for parasitoid Israel. Netanyahu and his ilk are supremacists, the scorch of western civilization.

      • Paranam Kid
        July 19, 2017 at 13:40

        ‘yahu is a zionist megalomaniac, who uses the Jews as tools for his obsessive objectives.

  53. Pierre Anonymot
    July 18, 2017 at 05:57

    Of course. What else would one expect from a neoNazi government that has advised our brainless MIC/CIA to lead America to spend its lives, money, and reputation going into unjustifiable wars. A long time ago the Israelis spent the last of their holocaust sympathy. But not the MIC who made fortunes from every war we lost nor the CIA who owed their power to the Zionist version of ISIS.

    Obama and both Clintons were just talking heads for that same MIC/CIA mindset. That’s why they were made presidential material. Trump, as a businessman will see the profit, but he’s not gone war crazy – yet. If he goes, worse will come, but if Hillary had been elected we’d already be at war with her macho mirror image. We have been painted into a corner.

    The religious crazies who control Israel are like that kind throughout history and throughout all faiths: arrogant, self-righteous, and violently aggressive. Their relation to the Nazis is like the slaves who learned to love their masters, so they imitate them and exaggerate all of their faults. Its what they know best. It is not the fault of judaism, but of Zionism warped by dirty logic and fed to a parnoid pro-Zionist public. Fear works for extremists.

  54. john wilson
    July 18, 2017 at 04:51

    Parry doesn’t really tell us anything new in this piece except to re-affirm that these people have diseased minds and should be put down like a rabid dog. I would rather sleep with a bed full syphilitic rats than shake hands with these horrible people. Whilst I hold no brief for Trump, he has at least shook hands with Putin and made some sort of deal, no matter how tenuous it may be. He also said on his campaign trail how he wanted to stop all these endless wars and regime change and the Neocons, the criminals in the deep state etc, just hated him for it and since then have been trying to drive him out of office. They just can’t bear it that Trump actually shook hands with Trump and made a deal. Of course, Parry is right and the satanic creatures from hell who inhabit the deep state are already busy making sure it doesn’t work.

    • Peter Loeb
      July 18, 2017 at 06:17

      NO “NEWS” PERHAPS, BUT A CLEARER FOCUS

      To John Wilson, it is true that R. Parry “tells us nothing new”
      for these have been Netanyahu’s policies for years. Namely
      that the US should (again) fight its war as “cost” to the US
      (lives, weapons etc.) and the “glory of victory” to the Israelis.

      One can wonder if the Russians ever intended seriously to
      keep a cease fire in the first place. The story from Middle East
      Eye below may provide some hints:

      Home

      Country

      Search…
      SEARCH

      Russia says growing acceptance of Assad is key to Syria talks
      #SyriaWar

      The opposition has suffered military defeats at the hands of forces loyal to President Assad over the past year

      Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shakes the hand of a Russian soldier during visit to Hmeimim military base in northwest Syria last month (AFP)

      Reuters

      Saturday 15 July 2017 18:25 UTC
      Last update: Sunday 16 July 2017 8:38 UTC

      UN-led Syria talks have a chance of making progress because demands for the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad have receded, Russia’s ambassador in Geneva, Alexei Borodavkin, told reporters on Saturday.

      The seventh round of talks, which ended on Friday, had produced positive results, especially a “correction” in the approach of the main opposition delegation, the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, he said.

      “The essence of this correction is that during this round the opposition never once demanded the immediate resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and the legitimate Syrian government.”

      The HNC and its backers in Western and Gulf capitals had realised that peace needed to come first, and then political reforms could be negotiated, he said.

      “Assad must go” was long the mantra of the HNC and its international backers, a call flatly rejected by Russia, which is widely seen as holding the balance of power in Syria because of its military involvement and alliance with Assad.
      Follow

      Assad’s negotiators at the UN talks have avoided discussion of any kind of political transition, preferring to focus on the fight against terrorism.

      They have not yet had to negotiate directly with the opposition because there is no unified delegation to meet them, since the HNC and two other groups, known as the Cairo and Moscow platforms, all claim to represent the opposition.

      In the seven rounds so far, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura has met each side separately, a laboriously choreographed negotiation that has succeeded only in deciding what to discuss: a new constitution, reformed governance, fresh elections and fighting terrorism.

      The three opposition delegations’ leaders have been meeting to try to find common ground, raising hopes of direct talks at the next round in September.

      Borodavkin said the success of such a unified delegation would depend on its willingness to compromise with Assad’s team.

      “If they will be ready to make deals with the government delegation, that is one thing. If they again slide into … ultimatums and preconditions that are not realistic, then this will not fly. This will lead the negotiations, be it direct or indirect, into a deadlock.”

      He also called for wider opposition representation, citing the Kurds as a striking example, since they were Syrian citizens with their own political and military influence.

      But he said it was up to de Mistura to decide how and when to incorporate them in the peace process.

      —-Peter Loeb, Boston, MA, USA

      • peace
        July 18, 2017 at 14:49

        Mr. Loeb, in Boston, I guess you just provided proof, regime change by vote, does not work?

        • linda Doucett
          July 18, 2017 at 15:36

          where is the like button?

        • July 19, 2017 at 16:48

          Peace, do understand you to state that USA imperialism should trump Syrian Democracy?

      • Tsigantes
        July 19, 2017 at 03:17

        Just curious. You state

        “One can wonder if the Russians ever intended seriously to
        keep a cease fire in the first place. The story from Middle East
        Eye below may provide some hints:”

        but I was unable to find evidence in the ME Eye article that Russia does not intend to keep the ceasefire.
        Perhaps you can explain this to us?

    • Zachary Smith
      July 18, 2017 at 12:05

      I’m going to echo Peter Loeb here – Mr. Parry has provided a very nice “nutshell” summary.

      If Trump wants the Russia-gate pain to lessen, he will be tempted to give Netanyahu what he wants and count on the savvy Israeli leader to intervene with the influential neocons of Official Washington to pull back on the scandal-mongering.

      The pressure on Trump is clearly connected to the degree he “obeys” the dictates of the neocons. Since Trump doesn’t have a record of being a Profile In Courage, this strategy by the Warmongers For Israel is quite sensible from their point of view. For those who have grown tired of smashing small Muslim nations for the little shithole of a nation state, not so much so.

      When regime change in Moscow is added to the To-Do list of the Israel-First people, the entire affair becomes nearly terrifying.

      • JWalters
        July 18, 2017 at 18:53

        Regime change in Russia may be a bridge too far even for the extremely powerful Israel-Wall Street, war profiteering axis of evil. I suspect it’s a sign of desperation, because the truth hounds are on their trail. They didn’t foresee the internet. Their carefully concealed history of crimes and atrocities is being revealed. For new readers, central hidden facts are given clearly and concisely in
        “War Profiteers and the Roots of the War on Terror”
        http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com

        • backwardsevolution
          July 19, 2017 at 03:47

          JWalters – yes, that’s an excellent read!

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 16:20

          I’d invite readers to compare that link story with this one:

          h**p://www.debunking911.com/pull.htm

          • JWalters
            July 19, 2017 at 18:53

            I would too. I’d further encourage readers to read carefully, think for themselves, and skip over the name-calling and sneering.

      • Mulga Mumblebrain
        July 23, 2017 at 03:00

        Nutty-yahoo ‘savvy’?? Maniacal, psychotic, religiously deluded, monstrous, genocidal, arrogant-all those and more I can understand, but ‘savvy’? Do you mean dissembling, treacherous and untrustworthy?

  55. ruben lopez
    July 18, 2017 at 04:37

    netanyahu is at it again wants trump to sacrifice more american troops and start a war with iran and russia and call off the ceasefire agreement who the fuck does he think he is directing us foreign policy this is interfering with american policy fuck him if he wants war he will have to go at it alone we are tired of fighting israel’s wars fuck them welfare queens i say cut off all aid toi israel the rothchilds own israel anyway and practically half of the planet let the rothschilds fund all of israel’s wars and stop foreign aid to israel as well and force israel to sign the non proliferation of nukes

    • linda Doucett
      July 18, 2017 at 14:58

      Took my words 100% agreed

    • Miranda Keefe
      July 18, 2017 at 15:09

      This smacks of anti-semitism.

      Israel and Zionists are the problem. Not Jews.

      Jews do not have a psychopathic nature.

      Jews are not always Zionists. Most Zionists in the US are actually fundamentalist Christians.

      • John P
        July 18, 2017 at 17:35

        I agree Miranda, I admire the many brave Jews who openly criticise severe Zionist policies.
        I’m not a nationalist, I hate flag waving, and I think one human folly is a tendency to form cliques which in some cases lead to dreadful things. I think there is a tendency for some to see religion as fact, not a personal belief and those cliques are very prone to nastiness.
        At boarding school many years ago, I refused to criticise those thought gay. One poor fellow in a dorm on the second floor was placed in a blanket on night. Someone opened a window and they made out they where hoisting him out the window. In fact they held him over a bed and dropped him. I refused any part in it, but the wickedness of such extremism has haunted me ever since.

      • JWalters
        July 18, 2017 at 18:43

        Miranda, I completely agree with you. An excellent, Jewish-run, anti-Zionist website of news and analysis that has been doing a fantastic job of documenting Israel’s crimes, both today and historically, is
        http://mondoweiss.net/

        But human nature being as imprecise as it is, when a powerful and controlling part of the Jewish community drag the rest of that community into complicity with their crimes and atrocities, the rest of that community becomes vulnerable to the blowback against those crimes and atrocities. For example,
        “Rabbis want to criticize Israel but fear donors (and NYT buries the news)”
        http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/rabbis-criticize-donors

        At some point the urgency of taking out a cancer may result in some non-cancerous cells being taken out too. The hurt feelings of duped Jewish Americans cannot be an obstacle to sanity and justice.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 00:58

          An excellent, Jewish-run, anti-Zionist website of news and analysis that has been doing a fantastic job of documenting Israel’s crimes, both today and historically, is
          h**p://mondoweiss.net/

          I look at that site periodically myself, and have it bookmarked. But like with Zero Hedge, you’ve got to watch them, for they sometimes slip in some pure BS. Take for example a recent story applauding an Israeli newspaper for covering the 50th anniversary of the attempt to sink the USS Liberty and kill all aboard.

          “Israeli paper investigates 50-year-ago attack on ‘USS Liberty,’ while US papers leave it in the letters column”

          At first glance the story appears to be first-rate. But at the end – the part many people will use to finalize their conclusion – is this:

          The piece concludes in the camp of Amir Oren and Tom Segev, Israeli historians who have treated the event as a mistake without malicious intention. Credit Haaretz with the courage to raise the question — which is more than we can say for the New York Times and the Washington Post.

          Another blogger I’ve bookmarked calls the mondoweiss site Zionism Lite. The USS Liberty piece is an example of how – when the rubber meets the road – the Lites side with Holy Israel. In this case the deed was done with some finesse, but that was the result I saw. Brave Israeli Newspaper contrasted with the limp-wristed neocon rags NYT & WP, and the USS Liberty murders were a dreadful accident.

          h**p://mondoweiss.net/2017/07/israeli-investigates-letters/

        • JWalters
          July 19, 2017 at 18:41

          Zachary, thanks for your attentive comment. I see Mondoweiss as solidly anti-Zionist, not Zionism Lite. Its anti-Zionism is modulated, however, by a couple of factors. First, it does try to remain readable to the American Jewish community so it can continue educating them about the crimes and atrocities of Israel. But it speaks plainly in its coverage of those crimes and atrocities. Second, it avoids articles promoting theories that would get it dismissed as a “kook” site. Like Consortium News, it avoids promoting certain conspiracy theories despite the evidence for them. This is tactical, to maintain a level of credibility in the wider news community. Like Consortium News, it does let its readers bring those up and discuss them to a “safe” degree, where “safe” is an evolving threshold.

          On the USS Liberty story, the Mondoweiss article does not say the attack was a mistake – it says the Haaretz story concludes with that. In this case, Mondoweiss brings up the USS Liberty incident, which is good, contrasts Haaretz with the NYT, which is good, and lets its readers comment voluminously and vociferously on Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty. The net effect is to spread the word and stir up discussion. This was NOT an article that Israelis or Zionists would want to see in print. It seems to me in no way pro-Zionist, or even Zionist Lite, but slightly cautious anti-Zionist.

        • Cal
          July 19, 2017 at 20:13

          @ Smith

          ” Another blogger I’ve bookmarked calls the mondoweiss site Zionism Lite”

          I saw that USS liberty piece on mondo. I took part in discussions there regularly for many years until I felt I had learned enough and was only repeating myself in my comments.
          Phil is a decent person and I admire his efforts –but one has to understand his ‘conflicted identity’ to understand the whys of why he leans one way then another. Phil admires WASP, the kind he saw at Harvard , he would be one if he could but since he cant he strives to ‘enhance’ his own Jewish identity and/or the Jewish culture and identity. He is also afraid of The Jews, the collective, being blamed for Israel and Zionist and losing their status or worse in the US.
          So he some times goes into what I call fairy tale land to protect ‘his people and his own identity ego. One piece he wrote on how gentiles didn’t appreciate learning and Jews created the “Ivies’ was a good example of his identity ego conflict. When I posted all the info on the creation of the Ivies–Harvard, Yale Princeton, etc and their founding and financing by Dutch, Scott Irish and English gentiles he wouldnt respond to it.

        • Cal
          July 19, 2017 at 20:21

          JWalters

          July 19, 2017 at 6:41 pm
          >>>>>>>>>>>

          The audience Phil is aiming for first is Jews who can be educated on Zionism and Israel—second is gentiles who can be shown not all Jews are Zionist. I notice that he has become somewhat more lenient on discussing some aspects of Jewish ‘culture’ as part of the problem which he use to forbid.

      • Cal
        July 18, 2017 at 19:38

        I don’t think Anna is being anti semitic necessarily just very blunt.

        This……”But their psychopathic nature does not allow them to contribute to the US – they want their special supremacist toy-country in the Middle East, by any means, for whatever cost to other people.” ..Is some what accurate if overstated, The Forward poll results say that 36% of US Jews are committed uber Zionist.

        As for psychopathic natures – that really describes the Israeli Jews.

        The respected psychotherapist Avigail Abarbanel who was born and raised in Israel
        has written extensively about the Jewish trauma but how the trauma is
        is not an excuse for Israel’s behavior. iow they don’t want to get over themselves.

        This is an interview article on mondo where she explains the psychopathy. And she joins the thread to answer questions.

        \htp://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/traumatized-society-dangerous/
        Avigail Abarbanel is an Israeli-born psychotherapist who migrated to Australia in 1991.

        ”Based on this analysis, Avigail Abarbanel believes “Israel cannot be reasoned with”, that it “is a traumatised society and it is therefore very dangerous.” Applying family therapy models, she compares Israel to the abusive husband, the Palestinians to the abused wife and the United States to the enabling neighbor;.

        Psychological trauma is a result of the brain becoming stuck in survival mode (fight-flight-freeze) and losing the ability to go back to normal. In individuals trauma is an actual, observable physical injury to the brain that affects the brain’s architecture and chemistry.

        The only reason I still talk about Israel’s trauma is to try and make people, particularly those in position of influence, realize that there’s no one to talk to or reasoned with, and that Israel will not stop of its own accord.

        Trauma doesn’t necessarily happen from the event itself, but more often than not, from how it is handled afterwards.
        Children are very vulnerable to that and are very afraid a lot of the time because they are predominantly limbic and their prefrontal cortex (soothing, rationality, empathy, morality, decision making, etc…) doesn’t kick in until about age 15. Up until then they are mostly at the mercy of the naturally frightened, survival-focused limbic (mammal) brain.

        My hypothesis is following the simplest explanation (Occam’s razor). Most likely the Hebrews were a group formed around a narcissistic leader (Moses?) who like all cults went on to develop its own mythology about itself. Groups like that tend to draw people who are already traumatised or otherwise vulnerable. Then sadly, when the group is really persecuted this obviously reinforces the pre-existing belief system. All events that happen to the group are also interpreted from within the existing belief system. We know a lot about cults and you can read about how they operate in sociology and anthropology text books.

        Jewishness requires that we believe that our survival comes above everyone else’s and that it is OK to do anything in the name of *our* survival. That’s why I was taught that it was fundamentally OK to take all the land but without the people.

        My view that Jewish culture is organised like a cult. The exclusivist, insular mentality based in a fearful, mistrustful, inward focused view of the world, self preoccupation and self centrelines and what I call a ‘specialness complex’, are all part and parcel of Jewish religion and by extension of Jewish identity.

        I think that if you are really Jewish and follow proper Jewish law, you are by definition cultish. For example, if you are a religious Jew even in a progressive Jewish group, you would have to believe that your people are chosen by god, that they are different to others, that intermarrying is wrong.

        There is another born and raised Israeli, Danna who also contributes on mondo and basically echos Avigail’s analyses .

        Danaa May 1, 2017 at 3:28 pm

        In Israel, the entire educational system is steeped in hostility towards non-Jews (and not only palestinians). The result is an arrogant, cruel, crude, loud-mouthed and ignorant population with just a few who even know what Human Rights are all about.

        They both echo what I have long said—-You CANNOT deal with people like this.

        • John P
          July 18, 2017 at 23:46

          Anna’s “Draft all American Jews & Israel-firsters to the US army”

          In my view one has to be very careful about who you are talking about. Many Jews have a damaged psyche from years of persecution in Europe, Asia and even North America. One must be sensitive to that. Adding to that fact, extreme Zionists know how to push the buttons of fear within Jews and use them to their own ambition. The last things one wants to do is set off those alarms.
          I think there are many reasons for anti-Semitism, the chief one in the past amongst those in the Christian faith being they killed Jesus, (I’m an atheist by the way, but to me spirituality is the good feeling one gets from helping others). Today I think it’s perceived Zionist control of our world through banks, media, and other industries. I often wonder if the Holocaust was not amplified by events of the Great Depression. Yes many Jews were poor or out of work too, but was there a perception focused on those with the money, bankers etc which fuelled resentment. They supplied much money for the Zionist adventures in Palestine.
          I think all religions are prone to conceit. Jews the chosen people, only Christians will be saved at end times, the Exodus of Boers to South Africa and the Exodus of Pilgrims to North America for example, with little regard to the indigenous people.
          I do agree with Anna that Netanyahu, is pushing the US to do its heavy lifting as far as expansion is concerned. I think our problem is stopping foreign policies being dictated by government party funding (my past idea is to equitably divided a common pot). With that in mind, we need stricter rules on foreign government interference (Dem go on about Russia, but how about Israeli support).

        • Dave P.
          July 19, 2017 at 02:08

          Cal: Your comments are very informative. I do not know much about Judaism but our close friends for many years in the Unitarian Fellowship were Jewish (non-practicing). Coming from a place which first was subjected to a dozen very brutal Muslim invasions for two centuries and then suffered six centuries of equally brutal rule of Muslim/Turkish Emperors, I hold no grudges against Islam. It was part of History and we have to leave behind us. I cheer for secular, progressive Islam whether it is in Syria or It was in Iraq or it was in Iran in 1953 when CIA helped to overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh. I have read European and Russian History, and I do not find discrimination against Jews was anything like the brutal and sometimes murderous rule of Muslim kings which some civilizations suffered for centuries. But there were exceptions. Some Muslim rulers were wise.

          The Holocaust in Hitler’s Germany was an unfortunate event of it’s kind. But it is the Western Country as they say Civilized Society who was responsible for that horrific event. Russians also suffered a lot and lost twenty seven million people during the War. It is not the Syrians or Palestinians who did it. It is seventy years now, it is time to leave that behind. Rather, that event should have taught the Nations to live peacefully with each other. Whatever little I have read of their history, I think on the whole they – Muslims and Jews – lived together peacefully for all these centuries in that part of the World. The World would have been much better if the leaders of Israel would have realized it.
          Israel is a small country with six or seven million people. The whole world is held hostage to this Israel/Palestine problem. There were – and are now- so many pressing problems in the World to be solved. Much time has been lost. If Netanyahu has his way, what is coming in Syria will be much worse than what happened in Iraq. Syria which was the most educated and secular country in the Middle east has already been destroyed to an extent that even if the peace returns, it will be difficult to restore the unity among it’s people.

      • Paranam Kid
        July 19, 2017 at 08:20

        Your essence of your point is correct, but the antisemitism that you mention is based on ignorance of “Anna”. Since its inception the zionist movement has successfully conflated zionism & Judaism, and the rest of the world has lapped it up.

        It is therefore important that those “in the know” keep making the point that zionism is a racist ideology on which israel is predicated, while Judaism is a religion with a culture. Those Jews in the US & elsewhere who blindly support israel & everything it does are in fact zionists, and need to be treated as such.

        Jews & Arabs were living in peace & harmony in Palestine, until the zionsts appeared on the scene & subsequently became the scourge of the Middle East. israel in its current form, i.e as a nazi-onist apartheid “country”, lacks legitimacy & needs to be dismantled. israel & its zionist supporters know it, which why they are desperately fighting to burnish the “country’s” image.

      • bondo
        July 19, 2017 at 13:06

        israel is jew, jew is israel
        judaism/torah the problem

        trump not in trouble.

      • Dr.Joji Cherian
        July 19, 2017 at 22:32

        “Israel and Zionists are the problem. Not Jews.” Who are Israel and Zionists? Not Jews?

        A wonderful postulation to justify the depredations of Israel and the Jewish lobby

    • Dave P.
      July 18, 2017 at 15:23

      Anna, I agree with you. This subject is a taboo to talk about in this country or elsewhere in the Western World. If a person even whispers the words like your comments, a person is immediately vilified as anti-Semite. With the complete media control, and other organs of information in the hands of the Oligarchy, time is not far away that people may not be allowed to have such thoughts even in their heads. Aleksander Solzhenitsyn talks about this in his novel “First Circle”. A character in the novel, this Zek (prisoner) scientist in this lab is made to work on a device to read the people’s minds for subversive thoughts. But it was of course fiction. Soviets had no technology to invent such things. Here the science is far advanced and the scientists are working on producing such devices.

      In a truly Free Society, people should express their opinions openly instead of hiding behind the words.

    • exiled off mainstreet
      July 18, 2017 at 20:17

      Israel’s proven real dominating intervention in US politics for the last 50 years or so since they almost sank an American ship and the US government cooperated in the coverup of this crime is far more dangerous than the phony narrative of “Russian intervention in the 2016 election” put forward by lackeys of this proven real foreign dominance of US politics and foreign policy. For our survival,this dominance needs to be thrown off. Those giving in to it are traitors to civilization, the world, the population of America’s vassals and the American population itself.

    • Zachary Smith
      July 19, 2017 at 01:52

      2. Jews have been living in a safe and tolerant and prosperous country of the US for centuries. But their psychopathic nature does not allow them to contribute to the US – they want their special supremacist toy-country in the Middle East, by any means, for whatever cost to other people.

      This is obviously some extreme nonsense, but it could become “mainstream” in some possible shadowy futures out of the infinite numbers which might jell into reality. As in ages past, Jews might be used as sacrificial lambs to appease the mobs. From 1922:

      Not since the time of the Crusades, not since the dread period of the Spanish Inquisition have the Jews been so tortured, so martyred, as they have been since-the Fall of 1914, when Europe was transformed into a huge battlefield. For the rest of the peoples of Europe, or for nearly all of the rest, the end of the war has meant the gradual restoration of peace, at least. For the Jews, the end of the war has meant no abatement of the horrors and the torments of which they have been the chief victims. Indeed, with the end of the war, a new chapter of horrors was ushered in for them. Blamed for the war, blamed for the fortunes of war, blamed for the victory of the one force, or the defeat of another force – they have been held responsible for the economic chaos which followed the war.

      Pogrom has followed pogrom, daily, hourly, in one country after another. Thousands upon thousands of Jews have been killed because they are Jews. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, left alive, have been maimed and crippled. Thousands of Jewish communities have been ruined, annihilated. Jewish homes became the torches to light the pogrom-bands as they looted and killed. And from thousands of other Jewish communities the inhabitants have been ordered to leave – to take with them their aged, their infants, their sick, their pregnant women, their dying, and to wander.

      Any ethnic group can become a target, but the Jews have been especially victimized in the West. That’s probably because they didn’t have any real defenders. The Church of Rome has been on their case from the formation of Christianity up to WW2. Wealthy elites would have seen a nice new massacre as a chance to shed their debts. And the peasants have always been willing to engage in some “party time” – subtly or overtly encouraged by their religious and political leaders.

      The US of A is heavily armed. The nation is beginning to falter in ways never before experienced. The Corporate Media could as easily encourage Jew-Baiting as it does Russia Baiting now. I don’t know where the 2017 Vatican would stand with regard to a modern Pogrom, but American Jews would definitely be in extreme danger from their current “friends” – the Protestant Fundamentalists. These characters look around at the growing social chaos and the growing strength of Israel, perhaps also at the growing Climate Chaos (blamed on Jews?), then draw a conclusion of “Second Coming” – soon!

      Try to put yourself into their heads. There is now an Israel strong enough to be involved in Armageddon. There is turmoil all around the Mideast. All that’s really needed is the building of the Third Temple, and then it’s Katie Bar The Door. The New Testament is pretty clear about what is supposed to happen to the Christ Killers then.

      Right now demonizing American Jews seems unthinkable – but that’s also how it would have looked in pre-WW1 Germany.

      A concern of mine involves the demonstrated low morality of the Zionists. I can easily see them throwing their co-religionists under the bus if doing so helped Greater Israel in any way whatever.

      • Tsigantes
        July 19, 2017 at 03:12

        You don’t mention the source of the second quote which sadly sounds like the propaganda put out in the USA by papers like the New York Times at the time. Yes verifiable.

        Where were these pogroms taking place in Europe in 1922?
        Not Russia, where Lenin’s communist administrators were mostly jewish and his checkists almost exclusively jews. Not in England, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Netherlands, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey.

        Please for the sake of integrity supply the source of your second quote and LIST the pogroms and their years or provide a link. It is not good enough to quote without sources or to make allegations without providing proof.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 12:46

          My “second quote” – I located it again with Google Search.

          h**p://preview.tinyurl.com/y8mo4q56

          It appears you haven’t heard about how bad things got in Europe during and after WW1. Wartime living is always rough, but the Blockade made things worse than usual.

          h**ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany

          People got very hungry – and quite a few starved. This led to the collapse of the home front in wartime Germany, and as the link says, the blockade wasn’t instantly discontinued. The German Power Elites determined to undermine the Versailles Treaty by redistributing Germany’s remaining resources to the Rich People there, and this destroyed the currency. IMO the hyperinflation was done deliberately to thumb the German nose at the nations expecting any reparations – simply a publicity move. The real damage to the German people had already happened.

          In 1922 things were very bad, not just for Jews, but for everybody who wasn’t either lucky or wealthy. The link author is obviously focusing on Jews. If he had been a Catholic he’d have spoken of the suffering of that group. Given the German history of blaming Jews for any disaster, I’d expect their life was even more hellish than the other groups.

          I don’t know the exact history of the Dolchstoßlegenden/stab-in-the-back theories, but by 1922 they ought to have been in full bloom.

          Please for the sake of integrity supply the source of your second quote and LIST the pogroms and their years or provide a link. It is not good enough to quote without sources or to make allegations without providing proof.

          No.

          When you learn to use Google, do it yourself. Given the tone of your remarks, I suspect you doubt that Jews had any difficulties at all in the first half of the 20th century.

      • backwardsevolution
        July 19, 2017 at 03:41

        Zachary Smith – “The Corporate Media could as easily encourage Jew-Baiting as it does Russia Baiting now.” Most of the corporate media is owned by Jews, so I doubt that’s going to happen.

        I’ve been doing a bit of reading of history (emphasis on “a bit”), and one thing I’ve noticed is that there are many, many holes in history. We rarely get the whole story, only what the historian wants to tell us. We read about the horrific outcome, and are led to believe that ordinary people, just going about their daily lives, milking their cows or tending their chickens, one day all of a sudden up and start killing people (Jews). No cause, just out of the blue because somehow they’ve got nothing better to do and they don’t like the way the Jews (fill in the blank).

        This always seemed implausible to me. One article I read was where Jews went into very rural areas, the people befriended them, the Jews lent them money with interest. Because the peasants were ignorant, they took the money, but when they couldn’t pay it back with interest, they lost their land, land that had been in the family for generations. Now, you might say, “Well, too bad for the peasants,” or you might say, “The Jews shouldn’t have done that. They should have known that these poor people would never be able to pay them back with interest. They stole their land.” Depends on where you’re coming from.

        This is just one article I read (there are others), but people don’t just up and start burning people’s homes and killing them for nothing. It always takes two.

      • Paranam Kid
        July 19, 2017 at 08:24

        The zionists are NOT the co-religionists of the Jews: zionism is a racist ideology on which israel is predicated, while Judaism is a religion cum culture. The zionists have cynically exploited the Holocaust & the Jews as tools for their ultra-nnationalist/racist/genocidal purposes. The zionists thrive on antisemitism against Jews & exercise antisemitism against the Jews ‘ fellow Semites, the Palestinians.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 12:21

          The zionists are NOT the co-religionists of the Jews…

          I agree, but they do share the same name, and most everybody believes they also have the same beliefs.

        • Paranam Kid
          July 19, 2017 at 13:39

          @Zachary Smith
          Pardon my ignorance, but what shared name are you referring to?
          As for the same beliefs: the zionists do not have a belief, just an obsession to exterminate the Palestinians & to expand “Greater israel” i.e. swallowing up Lebanon & Jordan.

        • Zachary Smith
          July 19, 2017 at 16:09

          “but what shared name are you referring to?”

          Jesus was Jewish, and Netanyahu is Jewish.

          Same nominal religion, but except for both being male and having been born in the same region, they share few other things.

          I don’t know any Jewish Americans. My sparse knowledge of them is based on “book learning”. I sincerely hope Israel’s crimes don’t begin to directly affect their lives.

      • Cal
        July 19, 2017 at 23:46

        @ Smith

        ‘ ……the Jews have been especially victimized in the West. That’s probably because they didn’t have any real defenders.”>>>>>>>

        Not as victimized as you think. With the exception of the Nazi holocaust a number of their persecution claims don’t stand up to real history.

        After years of hearing these claims used as justification for Israel I started investigating them by taking their list of pogoms and expulsion and looking them up in cut and dried historian’s accounts of various countries.

        I’ll give you an example….this 1648 claim which they claim was a ‘Jewish’ pogom.

        List of Jewish Pogoms A History of the Jews, a list of expulsions for 2000 years
        http://www.eretzyisroel.org/~jkatz/expulsions.html

        1648 A.D.
        Leader of the Cossacks, in the Ukraine massacres 100,000 Jews and destroyed 300 communities.

        Except it wasn’t a ‘Jewish’ pogom.
        It was a large-scale uprising of Cossack and Ukrainian peasants joined by Tatar allies that swept through much of what is today Ukraine . They wanted to free Ukraine from Polish domination. Eliminating the Jews was not a central aim of the Cossacks they were simply casualties of the battles along with Catholics, Christians and others who they fought and as such they were killed along with everyone else. It is called the Khmelnytsky insurrection (not sure about the spelling of his name) in history books on the Ukraine and Russia so you can look it up.

        There are many other examples of ‘fudging the facts’ on Jewish innocence in all events going back to ancient days

        In 610 CE Jews slaughtered 60,000 Christian by most accounts when the Persians invaded Jerusalem.

        Antiochus Strategos –a writer of the time wrote that many Christians were captured by the Persians and held for ransom. Jews offered to help them escape if they “become Jews and deny Christ”. The Christian captives refused this offer. The Jews then purchased the Christians from the Persians and massacred them. He claimed that the total Christian death toll was 66,509.

        Up until a few years ago the Jews denied this ever happened…..then Opps! –archeologist digging at Mamilla in Israel discovered a huge field of bones—where Strategos had written the Christians were slaughtered and buried in mass pits.

        Now faced with the evidence here’s how the JPost presented it in 2006 after its discovery…LOL

        “Once Jerusalem was in Persian hands a terrible massacre of Christians took place, and the Jews are accused of having taken the lead in this massacre. It would not be surprising if the accusation were true, even though the fantastic stories told of Jewish revenge by Christian chroniclers are certainly exaggerated.” How many Christian prisoners of war were murdered by the Mamilla Pool? A precise number is of course now impossible to verify, but Israeli archaeologist Ronny Reich puts the tally at 60,000 before the Persian military stopped the carnage. One eyewitness, Strategius of St. Sabas, wrote: “Jews ransomed the Christians from the hands of the Persian soldiers for good money, and slaughtered them with great joy at Mamilla Pool, and it ran with blood.”

    • Rob
      July 19, 2017 at 16:43

      Anti-Semitic fool. Do you not realize that the majority of American Jews view Netanyahu and the Israeli right in general unfavorably. They oppose America’s misadventures in the Muslim world. In short, the Israeli government does not speak for them.

      BTW, how come you did not suggest drafting all Christian zionists into military service? Their numbers and influence make them a more potent force in American politics than the Jews, but my guess is that you are not capable of recognizing that fact.

    • Eileen Kuch
      July 19, 2017 at 18:26

      Anna, you’re 100% correct. Bibi Netanyahu wants the US military to complete the “regime change” project in Syria, much as it did in Iraq and Libya – meaning more more US dead, more US treasure expended and a likely wider war, extending to Iran and possibly nuclear-armed Russia. I second your motion re US Jews and Israel-Firsters.
      1. Draft all US Jews & Israel-Firsters into the US army
      2. Jews have been living in a safe, tolerant and prosperous country of the US for centuries .. But their psychopathic nature doesn’t allow them to contribute to the US .. They want their special supremacist toy-country in the Middle East, by any means, for whatever cost to other people. See the millions of civilians who died because of the joined US/Israel project of remaking of the ME: Iraq’s a slaughter field, Libya’s a slaughter field, Syria’s a slaughter field. Oil and Eretz Israel are the cause, with the Fed Reserve .. actually the Rothschild Central Bank .. as a Spiritual Leader. The obedient vassals of EU and the Saudis just follow the DC diktat.
      3. AIPAC has become the real gov’t. of the US, and the US Congress is made of traitors to the US citizenry.
      Anna, you nailed this one perfectly.

    • tina
      July 19, 2017 at 22:08

      Why not just do what the British, French, Germans, Italians, Russians, have always done. Carve the region up, impose your culture on the locals,. This tastes good.. Never would us USA citizens allow that to happen, So , the example of the First Nations is correct. Just decimate the natives and have it done with . It is that simple. I know, those pesky human beings with their demands.. It is tiresome. Just get rid of us. Then, and only then will your life be happy when you get rid of the humans you do not like.

Comments are closed.