by Oui
Fri Dec 13th, 2024 at 12:46:56 PM EST
Recent writings ✍️...
How Israel Weaponized anti-Semitism Post 9/11
Obama, Netanyahu Meet Amid Discord Over 1967 Borders
The White House, Washington D.C. - 20 May 2011
President Obama welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House Friday, one day after the president's policy speech on the Arab world and Israeli-Palestinian relations called for a return to pre-1967 borders, a state Mr. Netanyahu called "indefensible."
After a closed door meeting, Netanyahu reiterated that "Israel has certain security requirements."
My earlier diaries ...
Persian Queen Esther Saved the Jews from a Pogrom, a Holocaust
The Coronation of Queen Esther, from the 1617 Scroll of Esther from Ferrara, Italy.
In the biblical book named after her, Esther is a young Jewish woman living in the Persian diaspora who finds favor with the king, becomes queen, and risks her life to save the Jewish people from destruction when the court official Haman persuades the king to authorize a pogrom against all the Jews of the empire. Written in the diaspora in the late Persian/early Hellenistic period (fourth century B.C.E.), the Book of Esther is a Jewish novella that deals with the enduring issues of preserving Jewish identity and ensuring survival amid cultural pressures and hostile enemies in a foreign land.
Dehumanizing U.S. government officials … the Jewish method.
Agudath Israel Blog Links Obama to Haman | Tikun Olam - 1 Nov 2008 |
When an Orthodox Jew links anyone to Haman it’s the same as linking him to Hitler. After all, there are only a few nations or families that Jews are historically called upon to eradicate, and besides Amalek, Haman’s is one of them.
Bibi's Purim Message to Obama | The Forward |
Benjamin Netanyahu's gift to Barack Obama summed up his message at their White House meeting.
The Israeli Prime Minister gave the President a copy of the Book of Esther, which tells the story of the Jews fighting back against a genocidal plot by the ancient Persians.
Netanyahu sees the nuclear threat posed by modern-day Iran as no less existential to Israel, and the leaders' two-hour meeting did little to bridge their differences on how to respond to this.
In their face-to-face meeting, according to officials involved, Obama stressed the need to give diplomacy a chance. His position reflected the U.S. stance that the time frame for any possible military action would be many months away.
Netanyahu, who didn't mention diplomacy, emphasized Israel's right to defend itself, reflecting a much shorter time line for acting militarily to eliminate the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
The U.S., according to a senior administration official, sees a time frame "more in the ballpark of a year than a month," before Iran can acquire nuclear weapons; Israeli officials have spoken about a deadline of several months for stopping Iran.
Aides to Netanyahu said the Israeli leader provided Obama with a copy of the Book of Esther as a form of "background reading" on Iran.
The book, which is read during the holiday of Purim starting Wednesday, tells the story of an attempt in ancient Persia, the predecessor of modern day Iran, to kill off all the Jews within its empire. The plot was successfully overturned, ending in the mass killing of those who sought the demise of the Jewish people.
Israeli officials see this as a none-too-subtle hint of Netanyahu's view of the broader situation. The Israeli prime minister believes that Iran's ultimate goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and therefore sees special urgency in dealing with this threat.
For Netanyahu, according to Israeli sources and to a brief statement made by the prime minister himself, the main achievement of his meeting with Obama was in stating what could be seen as an obvious truth: Israel has a right to take action on its own to defend itself.
#IsraelFirst
Dennis Ross, until recently Obama's top aide [pro-Israel lobbyist] on Iran and now counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), said that Israel and the U.S. have a different sense of Iran's "zone of immunity" after which a nuclear program cannot be stopped. According to Ross, Israel's vulnerability and its smaller military capability provide it with less time in dealing with Iran, as opposed to America's significantly larger military power that could stop Iran even in later stages of nuclear development.
AMALEK Must Be Destroyed First ...
Benjamin Netanyahu's use of Amalek as a Biblical metaphor for the destruction of Gaza attracted international condemnation.
It was a prescription for genocide. Looking back on the past five months, Israel has "plausibly" been carrying out, in the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Living in the desert on the outskirts of the land of Canaan, the Amalekites (the followers of Amalek, a tribal or clan chief of ancient Biblical lineage) were the first enemies of the Israelites.
They were defeated under the command of Joshua bin Nun. Thus, threatened at the outset, the destruction of the Amalekites served as the template for the ruthless extirpation of all of Israel's enemies in the land of Canaan, the Philistines among them.
The Israelites were commanded by God to wipe them all off the face of the earth, to "totally destroy all that belongs to them ... do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."
Centuries later, this battle order is being followed up in Gaza, where the death and destruction also include the deliberate killing of men and women, children and infants, through starvation and disease.
The Jewish children of Israel reared and educated to hate its neighbours, the Palestinian indigenous Semite tribes. But all evil comes from the Persians.
President Obama saw it as his responsibility to block a devastating bombing raid by Israel in the year 2012. Netanyahu was not amused ... divided his Cabinet and swore he would be back and secure the vote by selection of ministers ... this time around Bibi only managed a majority administration by adding murderous Kahanists and religious zealots ... guarantee for war and "succes".
Author Richard Silverstein @The Cairo Review of Global Affairs
