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Today's Stories April 21, 2010 Andrew Cockburn April 20, 2010 James Bovard Dean Baker Bill Quigley Alan Farago Evelyn Pringle Bouthaina Shaaban Joanne Mariner Eric Walberg Franklin Lamb Billy Wharton Website of the Day April 19, 2010 Pam Martens Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Jeb Sprague Gregory Harms Michael Leonardi Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Robert Jensen Gary Leupp Website of the Day April 16-18, 2010 Cockburn / St. Clair Alan Nasser Russell Mokhiber Ray McGovern Gareth Porter Mike Whitney Mark Weisbrot Paul Krassner Steve Early David Rosen Nadia Hijab Ramzy Baroud Tom Turnipseed Dr. Margaret Flowers, MD Rannie Amiri John Ross Richard Grossman Missy Beattie David Michael Green Emily J. Kirk, John M. Kirk and Norman Girvan David Macaray Down With Democracy David Ker Thomson Alexia Eastwood Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend April 15, 2010 Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Clancy Sigal Alan Singer Tolu Olorunda John Stanton Laura Flanders Bill Piper David Rovics Website of the Day April 14, 2010 Dean Baker Robert Sandels Julien Mercile Patrick Bond Julie Hilden Kevin Zeese Ron Jacobs Benjamin Dangl Binoy Kampmark Susan Galleymore Website of the Day April 13, 2010 Gareth Porter Shooting in the Dark Zoltan Grossman Mike Whitney Corey D.B. Walker Nadia Hijab Jonathan Cook Joshua Frank Will Allen / Dave Lindorff Cal Winslow Website of the Day April 12, 2010 Conn Hallinan Ralph Nader Adrienne Pine Uri Avnery Gary Leupp Mike Whitney Franklin Lamb Jayne Lyn Stahl Jeff Klein Stephanie Westbrook Website of the Day April 9 - 11, 2010 Alexander Cockburn David Price Dean Baker Michael Hudson Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Saul Landau Jean Casella / Rannie Amiri Gila Svirsky Alan Farago Dave Lindorff David Macaray William L. Anderson Harry Browne Maradona and Messi: Immortality Beckons Missy Beattie Mark Weisbrot Binoy Kampmark Farzana Versey Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Kim Nicolini Poets' Basement Three Poems by Jared Carter Website of the Weekend April 8, 2010 James Bovard Andrew Cockburn Mike Ely Gareth Porter David Swanson Christopher Brauchli Richard Neville Website of the Day April 7, 2010 Jonathan Cook Dean Baker Julien Mercille Julie Hilden Robert Elias Ron Jacobs Linda Greene David Macaray Joshua Brollier Randy Shields Website of the Day April 6, 2010 Mike Whitney Ralph Nader Patrick Cockburn William Blum Stephen Soldz Dave Lindorff Mark Schuller Roger Burbach Laura Flanders Charles R. Larson Website of the Day April 5, 2010 Bill Quigley Uri Avnery Saul Landau Nikolas Kozloff Xavier Monthéard Mark Weisbrot Suzan Mazur Billy Wharton Damien Millet, Sophie Perchellet and Eric Toussaint Johanna Isaacson Valuable Things: "Shutter Island" and the Radical Viewer Website of the Day April 2 - 4, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Pam Martens Afshin Rattansi Patrick Cockburn Anthony DiMaggio Ramzy Baroud Bruce E. Levine M. Shahid Alam Fractures in the Rannie Amiri Stewart J. Lawrence John Ross Adam Parsons Rev. William E. Alberts Alvaro Huerta David Ker Thomson Ron Jacobs Dave Lindorff Greg Moses David Rosen Laura Flanders Nikhil Aziz Alan Farago Chris Genovali, Paul Paquet and Misty MacDuffee: Missy Beattie Charles Davis David Rovics Jack D. Forbes Farzana Versey Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Lorenzo Wolff Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend April 1, 2010 Gareth Porter Daniel Kovalik Ellen Brown Emily J. Kirk / Tanya Golash-Boza David Macaray Russell Mokhiber Binoy Kampmark Website of the Day March 31, 2010 Samuel Singer Dean Baker Esam Al-Amin Gareth Porter David Rosen Mike Whitney Anita Sinha Michael P. Bradley The Dawning of a Liberal Apologetics for Iraq Nikolas Kozloff Mary Lynn Cramer Website of the Day March 30, 2010 Conn Hallinan Kathy Kelly Rafael Hernandez Russell Mokhiber Poyan Nahrvar Ralph Nader Alan Farago Anthony Papa Laura Carlsen Lawrence Reichard Website of the Day March 29, 2010 Vijay Prashad Uri Avnery Patrick Cockburn Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Kevin Zeese David Swanson Harvey Wasserman Jayne Lyn Stahl Martha Rosenberg Website of the Day March 26 - 28, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Pam Martens Mike Whitney Andrew J. Bacevich David Yearsley Anthony DiMaggio Dave Lindorff Jonathan Cook Robert Alvarez Linda Greene Ramzy Baroud Jayne Lyn Stahl David Swanson Frank Olson, Enemy Combatant: LSD, Murder and the CIA Laura Flanders Rannie Amiri Mark Schuller David Macaray Robert Jensen Boris Kagarlitsky Bouthaina Shaaban David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson Prairie Miller Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend March 25, 2010 Jonathan Cook Dean Baker Laura Carlsen Mats Svensson Jayne Lyn Stahl Patrick Irelan Rose Ann DeMoro Christopher Brauchli Sandy Mayes Website of the Day March 24, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Saul Landau Vijay Prashad Robert Alvarez Dave Lindorff Laura Flanders Chris Floyd Brian M. Downing Gregory Elich Rosie Wong Website of the Day March 23, 2010 Noor Elashi Carl Ginsburg Paul Craig Roberts Jonathan Cook Clancy Sigal Sonja Karkar Don Monkerud Greg Moses Shamus Cooke John V. Walsh Website of the Day March 22, 2010 Uri Avnery Craig D. Rose Mike Whitney Allan Nairn Gareth Porter Andy Worthington John Ross Gary Leupp Dan Bacher David Michael Green Dave Lindorff Charles R. Larson Website of the Day March 19 - 21, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey Blankfort Alan Nasser Dean Baker Barbara Rose Johnston Mike Whitney M. Shahid Alam Rannie Amiri Alan Farago Wajahat Ali Christopher Ketcham Technophilia, Technotyranny, Techno-infantilism David Rosen Patrick Bond Todd Gordon / Jeffery R. Webber Mark Weisbrot Norman Solomon Ramzy Baroud Martha Rosenberg The Wild Man Fawzia Afzal-Khan Laura Flanders Clare Bayard / Sarah Lazare David Ker Thomson Buy This Article: the Politics of Doing Squat Binoy Kampmark Charles R. Larson David Yearsley Ron Jacobs Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend March 18, 2010 JoAnn Wypijewski Neve Gordon David Macaray Patrick Cockburn Ralph Nader Winslow T. Wheeler Harvey Wasserman Missy Beattie Tolu Olorunda David Swanson Website of the Day March 17, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Mike Whitney Anthony DiMaggio Christopher Fons Mark Weisbrot Dave Lindorff Joe Allen Carl Finamore Yifat Susskind Laura Flanders Website of the Day
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April 21, 2010 How Elie Wiesel Perpetuates the FraudIsrael's Enabler in the U. S.By ESAM AL-AMIN Wiesel is simply “a terrible fraud.” -- Noam Chomsky Every now and then Israel’s enablers in the US embark on a public campaign to apply as much political pressure on US policymakers as they can possibly get away with. Elie Wiesel , a Holocaust survivor and 1986 Nobel laureate, is one of those apologists that Israel employs when it is in trouble. Wiesel ’s disgraceful history of dismissing the suffering of some in favor of others is well documented. The late historian Howard Zinn called Wiesel’s refusal to include the suffering of non-Jews at the hands of the Nazis at the Holocaust Museum, along with exhibits documenting Jewish suffering, one of the most “shameful moments” in recent memory. In that episode, Wiesel described the inclusion of the terrible affliction of non-Jews by the Nazis in the Museum as an attempt to “falsify reality” and that such calls were tantamount to “stealing the Holocaust from us.” Two months ago, Wiesel’s name was on a full-page ad in the New York Times, urging atrocious and lethal actions against Iran because of its nuclear energy program. On April 18, a Wiesel-endorsed ad ran in several prominent U.S. dailies, including the NYT and the Washington Post, tackling the issue of Jerusalem because of the public spat between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government. Since one can hardly think that Wiesel is ignorant of the facts, the number of deliberate lies and misleading information included in the ad was astounding. He asserted that Jerusalem “belongs to the Jewish people,” while dismissing its Islamic and Christian dimensions. His rationale was that Jerusalem was mentioned in the Torah “more than six hundred times,” while “not a single time in the Qur’an.” Such an ignorant statement demonstrates not only a total lack of knowledge regarding Islamic scriptures but also a distortion of history. Even so, resorting to citing the sheer volume of scriptural references reveals the hollowness of Wiesel 's argument. Is it pertinent to the place of Mecca in the Islamic conscience that the holiest city in Islam is mentioned by name only once in the Qur’an? Moreover, the historical figures of the Bible such as Moses, Aaron, Mary and Jesus are mentioned in the Qur’an 136, 20, 34, and 25 times respectively, while Muhammad is only mentioned five times by name. What does that prove? Yet, Wiesel conveniently ignores the significance in Islamic doctrine of the Muslim prophet’s seminal journey to Jerusalem, in which he prayed in the Aqsa mosque, an event that is not only mentioned vividly in the Islamic scripture, but has been celebrated every year by Muslims around the world for over 1400 years. Not only does Wiesel ignore history and disregard international law, but he also perpetuates the lie that Israel was attacked in 1967 to justify its occupation of Jerusalem and other Arab lands. Describing Israel’s aggression in June 1967, UN Security Council resolution 242 declared the “inadmissibility of acquisition of land by force,” calling for the total withdrawal by Israel from its recent occupation of Arab lands. In May 1968, the UN Security Council passed resolution 252 that “deplore[d] the failure of Israel to comply” with international law, and “considered[d] that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including the expropriation of land and properties, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status.” Oblivious to reality, Wiesel falsely asserted that “for the first time in history, Jews, Christian and Muslims may freely worship at their shrines.” But the reality of Palestinian daily life is that Israel does not allow any man under 50 years old to pray at al-Aqsa mosque or at the Dome of the Rock. This discriminatory policy has been in force for years, facilitated by over 500 Israeli military check points, planted across the West Bank, in an apartheid-like control of all aspects of Palestinian civil life. Recently, the historian, Professor Walid Khalidi, presented a remarkable speech about Jerusalem’s history before the United Nations, chronicling its long-established Islamic and Christian roots and exposing the brutal Zionist policies of discrimination and exclusion. In his address Khalidi stated that, “Israeli colonization in and around east Jerusalem aims at geostrategic control, demographic domination, psychological browbeating, economic and social disruption, doctrinal affirmation, religious fulfillment, and territorial expansion.” Hence, the real objective of Wiesel’s ad was to alleviate the pressure by the Obama administration and the international community over Israel allowing it the time needed to complete its colonization plans. Israel’s continued attempts to create facts on the ground in Jerusalem by depopulating its Arab residents (both Muslim and Christian) in favor of Jewish settlers and colonialists are well documented. The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reports that the Israeli government’s primary goal in Jerusalem has been to “create a demographic and geographic situation that will thwart any future attempt to challenge Israeli sovereignty over the city.” It lists the various methods utilized to achieve this goal, including policies of institutionalized discrimination, expropriation and harassment. Rabbi Brant Rosen of Evanston, IL, also presents a compelling Israeli-produced video that documents the systematic discriminatory and brutal policies of the Israeli government. So much for Wiesel ’s false declaration of Palestinians’ ability “to build their homes anywhere in the city.” Furthermore, according to Ziad Hammouri, the director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, more than 30,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem lost their residency rights in the past twenty years. In addition, around 165,000 people are living east of the separation wall that separates Jerusalem from the West Bank. In early April of this year, the Israeli military authority in the West Bank announced that in the near future it will deport over 70,000 Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem because “they have no residency rights.” Wiesel’s history of justifying Israel’s aggressive policies is long and extensive. From as far back as 1947-1949, Wiesel worked as a journalist for the Zionist terrorist group (as designated by the British), the Irgun. He knows the details of the infamous 1948 Deir Yasin massacre of innocent Palestinians (as well as others) perpetrated by his organization, which at the time was led by Menahem Begin and Yitzak Shamir. Yet, he still argues that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians left their homes in 1948 voluntarily, ignoring the overwhelming evidence that exists, not only in dozens of UN- sponsored reports and live testimonials of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, but also in evidence unearthed by Israeli “new historians” such as Ilan Pappe and Benny Morris. Wiesel persists in demanding public apologies for crimes committed against Jews but never expresses any sympathy or a whimper for atrocities committed against the Palestinians. Wiesel once publicly stated, “I support Israel—period. I identify with Israel—period. I never attack, I never criticize Israel.” The hypocrisy abounds. Wiesel stood before the world during his Nobel peace prize address in 1986 and said, “The world did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.” He certainly took sides, choosing to praise the oppressor and condemn the victim, not even remaining silent, but enabling brutality, and justifying exclusion despite daily Palestinian suffering and humiliation. Esam Al-Amin can be reached at: alamin1919@gmail.com
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