In 1990 `Nightline' town hall, Jewish leaders call Mandela 'hypocritical' and 'amoral' over support for PLO, Koppel warns it isn't politically wise to upset lobby | Mondoweiss - 6 Dec 2013 |
Watch this fascinating Ted Koppel interview with Nelson Mandela from 1990. The video is part of a New York City town hall meeting broadcast on ABC's Nightline during Mandela's first trip to the United States after being released from prison.
In it Koppel presses Mandela on his support for the Palestinians and the political fallout this may cause in the U.S. This was certainly in response to the fact that the American Jewish establishment at the time rejected Mandela over his support for the PLO. At 5:35 in the video Mandela gets a question from audience member Ken Adelman, a noted neocon who would go on to be a leading proponent for the second Iraq War. Adelman calls Mandela a hypocrite for saying he believes in human rights while supporting Yasser Arafat.
Mandela says he supports the Palestinians because they have been steadfast allies against apartheid in South Africa. Adelman is followed by Henry Siegman, then the Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress now a vocal critic of Israel, who says Mandela's answer "suggests a certain degree of amorality."
Later, Koppel makes an oblique reference to the Israel lobby and tells Mandela his comments on Palestinians were not politically expedient:
"If you were more political you might have been
more concerned about alienating some people
in this country who have it within their hands,
within their power, either to continue sanctions
against South Africa or to raise those sanctions"
Mandela doesn't get the question. Koppel restates his question more clearly focusing on the relationship between the Black and Jewish communities in the United States (and hedges a bit warning that Mandela is offending Cubans as well). Mandela takes him on, calls Arafat a "comrade in arms," and talks about the role of Jews in fighting apartheid. Suffice to say, the crowd is with Mandela. Watch here:
(extended version)
U.S. foreign policy: Who's in charge? | Politico - 22 Jan 2009 |
The appointments add more powerful figures to the crowded room of American Middle East diplomacy. Along with Obama and Clinton, National Security Adviser James Jones has worked in the region, and a former envoy, Dennis Ross, is expected to take a senior State Department role. Holbrooke, a contender for Secretary of State himself, is a larger-than-life figure and major player.
And Vice President Joe Biden unexpectedly took the stage in Foggy Bottom yielding the podium back to Clinton, who in turn stressed that "the president and I" will be the key players.
Mitchell, in his own right, brings both dramatic change and a certain continuity. On the one hand, he's a relative outsider -- "not one of the peace processers," Miller said.
But Mitchell does have his own deep experience in the region: President Bill Clinton appointed him in October of 2000 to head a commission to investigate the causes of what would become known as the Second Intifada -- the renewed wave of violence at the end of his term that blossomed during Bush's years into a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings and Israel's withdrawal from Gaza and construction of a wall around much of the West Bank. The Mitchell Report sharply criticized both sides, demanding that the Palestinian leadership disavow terrorism, and pressing Israel to put a halt to building and expanding "settlements" on disputed land.
"Whatever the source, violence will not solve the problems of the region. It will only make them worse. Death and destruction will not bring peace, but will deepen the hatred and harden the resolve on both sides," said the report. "There is only one way to peace, justice, and security in the Middle East, and that is through negotiation."
The report was delivered to the new Bush administration the next April, which essentially shelved it. But now Mitchell -- a key player in negotiating a lasting peace in Northern Ireland -- will have a chance to test his conclusions, and to pick up where the Clinton administration left off.
"It's kind of cute that the very last appointment Clinton made was Mitchell, and this would be the first appointment she makes," said Daniel Levy, a fellow at the New America Foundation.
Secretary Clinton Meets With Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell
Dennis Ross: Why the Middle East Matters
White House advisor defends Obama peace talks stance | JPost - 27 May 2011 |
White House advisor defends Obama peace talks stance WASHINGTON - A top White House advisor defended US President Barack Obama's controversial posture on peace talks, arguing that his approach was paying off by garnering European support.
Dennis Ross, a senior advisor to Obama on the Middle East, told Jewish newspapers that the president's call for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on basis of the 1967 lines with agreed land swaps has been welcomed by European leaders during this past week of international meetings surrounding the G-8 summit of world powers.
"The character of discussions with the Europeans has clearly improved for the better," he said of talks held this week. "They have been endorsing what the president had to say."
AIM TO REJECT UN VOTE ON PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD
He explained that one of the reasons Obama "became convinced" that it was necessary to lay out this basis for talks was that it would give the US leverage with the Europeans so they wouldn't support a unilateral declaration of statehood that the Palestinians are seeking at the UN in September.
"It's important for us to be able to use with the Europeans in particular the fact that there is a credible alternative, there is an alternative basis on which to pursue the negotiation," he said. "It gives us an ability with the Europeans to say this is not the right way to go. You should be opposing any effort to go to the UN."
OBTAIN EU SUPPORT TO REJECT HAMAS IN UNITY GOVERNMENT
Ross also warned that the Europeans don't always believe Netanyahu is "serious" about making peace and see the United States as the Israeli leader's enabler, Jewish leaders on the call said.
In that conversation as well, Ross defended Obama's approach, saying doing nothing would have led to a drastically deteriorating situation when it came to heading off a unilateral declaration of statehood, and that it also helped rally international support for standing firm on Hamas after it joined a unity government with Fatah last month.
George Mitchell resigns as special ME peace envoy for Obama | 19 May 2011 |
In Netanyahu's new book, Obama's disrespect, an Afghan invite, the annexation fiasco | TOI - 18 Oct 2022 |
Former and would-be PM also dishes on Clinton, Biden and Barak, thanks an army colleague for saving his life, and admits he wrote part of his memoir in the Knesset during debates
In his new memoir, "Bibi: My Story," published on Tuesday, the former and would-be prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu details his military and political careers, with a particular focus on the succession of United States presidents with whom he has interacted.
He castigates former US president Barack Obama as having been deeply wrongheaded on both the Palestinian issue and the Iranian nuclear drive, and disrespectful to him as the prime minister of Israel.
He reveals what he says was Bill Clinton's admission to him that the US administration did everything it could in a failed attempt to prevent his first election victory, in 1996.
He details how Joe Biden helped mitigate his conflicts with the Obama administration when serving as vice president, and claims Biden as president acknowledged to him during last year's Gaza conflict that the Democratic party was no longer as staunchly pro-Israel as previously.
And he offers his narrative for the chain of events that saw something go "terribly wrong" with his plan to annex 30 percent of the West Bank within the framework of former US president Donald Trump's 2020 Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal.
Netanyahu, who is hoping to return to power in the November 1 elections, also takes aim at the Naftali Bennett-Yair Lapid coalition that ousted him in 2021, and disputes his former rival and former ministerial colleague Ehud Barak's account of a celebrated rescue operation carried out by their Sayeret Matkal elite IDF unit 50 years ago.
The book shifts between the personal and public life of Israel's longest-serving leader, part contemplative review, part political sermon, peppered with inside tidbits on national and global wheeling and dealing, warm reflections on family life, and searing admonitions of his opponents and those he believes are still scheming against him.
Joe Biden helped mitigate Netanyahu's conflicts with the Obama administration when serving as vice president
Biden fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall draws Pro-Palestinian protesters
No Soul and No Courage ... Democratic Party leadership in 2024
Obama and Clinton defend Biden's support for Israel's war in Gaza | FT |
Former presidents spoke at Democrat fundraiser in New York that was disrupted by protesters
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, the former US presidents, sought to bolster Democratic support for Joe Biden on his handling of Israel's war in Gaza -- an area of angst and division within the party -- ahead of the coming presidential election against Donald Trump.
At a star-studded fundraiser held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, Obama and Clinton backed Biden's leadership on the Middle East conflict, as protesters interrupted the event to criticise US support for Israel.
The turmoil in the Middle East was "one of the most important reasons to elect President Biden", said Clinton, who repeatedly sought to broker peace in the region during his time in office between 1993 and 2001.
"He genuinely cares about preserving the existence of Israel, which Hamas doesn't. And he genuinely cares about giving the Palestinians a decent state of self governance and the support they need for self determination," Clinton added.
[WARNING: Complete Bollocks - Oui]
Obama said Biden had shown "moral conviction and clarity", adding that "he's also willing to acknowledge that the world is complicated and that he's willing to listen to all sides in this debate".
The support from Clinton and Obama comes with Biden facing a wave of criticism from the left of the Democratic party -- including Arab-American communities in key swing states, particularly Michigan -- that has threatened to harm his re-election chances in November.
Biden has been increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct of the war recently, saying he was not doing enough to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and ensure access to humanitarian aid in the enclave.
✅
Joe's quotation will haunt hom forever: "I'm a Zionist ..." and a child killer with longtime friend Bibi Netanyahu. War crimes and crimes against humanity.
It is as if I'm living in the Twilight Zone ... unreal 🥵
The future ... Armageddon
