Netanyahu’s Real Goal is Not Bombing Iran; It’s Defeating Obama by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
March 19, 2012

The sage Israeli commentator and activist Uri Avnery recently published an excellent analysis of the Israel/Iran situation on The Planetary Movement (1). Mr. Avnery presents the full list of strategic reasons why it is highly unlikely that Netanyahu will launch such an attack. It would result in: the immediate closing of the Strait of Hormuz and thus cut off the flow of about 40% of the world’s oil; an immediate all-out Iranian missile assault on the Israeli cities with some missiles getting through and wreaking much destruction no matter how good the Israel/US “missile shield” is; unknown to most US citizens (including an unknown number of their political leaders, especially on the Right) anyway, Iran is very large country, “larger than Germany, France, Spain and Italy combined,” Mr. Avnery tells us;

How Many Violations of US Arms Laws are Too Many? by Franklin Lamb

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Beirut, Lebanon
March 18, 2012

On March 6, 2012, the US Congressional Research Service released a report to the US Congress concerning Restrictions on the use of American weapons by recipient countries. For those who have followed the subject there was not a whole lot new in the CRS study, yet it is instructive in identifying Israel once again as far and away the most  egregious violator of virtually every provision of every US law which purports to regulate how American weapons are used.

AIPAC Works for the 1 Percent by Chris Hedges + Occupy AIPAC Opposes War and Sanctions Against Iran

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
March 5, 2012

Barack Obama’s AIPAC 2012 Speech + Transcript

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Propaganda Alert!

AlJazeeraEnglish on Mar 4, 2012

US President Barack Obama has said he prefers to use diplomacy to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but he made clear that he will not “hesitate to use force” when necessary to defend the US and its interests.

Syria: Rogue Elements Rampant by Felicity Arbuthnot

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
London, England
27 February 2012

“The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.” (J. Edgar Hoover, 1895-1972)

Smelt any proverbial rats, lately? If not, you have not been paying attention, there are plenty about.

Consider for instance this: “Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people now” and “must step aside …” Hilary Clinton (Asia Times, 9^th February 2012.)

Transformational Politics: Awakening an American Society and the Global Community by Clive Hambidge

by Clive Hambidge
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 15, 2012

Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr

Be Part of the Evolution

“Julian Assange” said Noam Chomsky “should be congratulated for carrying out the responsibilities of a citizen in democratic societies, where the population should be aware of what their selected representatives are doing and planning.” Assange is perhaps to pay a heavy price for disclosure, as simultaneously, Bradley Manning, a soldier of conscience, is to pay the ultimate one. The effectiveness of these two men’s actions should be taken to heart, and into our collective activism “For those that have the privilege to know have the privilege to act (Einstein).

A.I.P.A.C. – Persuading Americans to break the law? by Clive Hambidge

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

by Clive Hambidge
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
January 15, 2012

Habituation writes James Austin M.D “means that repeated stimuli yield a decreasing response.” Conversely and importantly he goes on, “Sensitization implies that responses increase when stronger stimuli are repeated.” For in this understanding, “we are addressing the basis of the freshness of vision of the artist or poet; focusing on the possible ways to relieve the depressed person held in the grip of a dreary grey world”, or indeed a Nation, Palestine, gripped by the dreary politics “free of law” of an increasingly violent Israel.

The Greatest Plot Against the Ron Paul Camp To Date by Sibel Edmonds (updated)

Updated: Aug. 31, 2011 and Sept. 2, 2011

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
August 30, 2011

Image by * OaklandMofo.com * via Flickr

Who ‘Really’ Is this Bruce Fein?

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Israelis Rush for Second Passports by Franklin Lamb

Image by Chris Beckett via Flickr

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Beirut, Lebanon
June 4, 2011

Perhaps historians or cultural anthropologists surveying the course of human events can identify for us a land, in addition to Palestine, where such a large percentage of a recently arrived colonial population prepared to exercise their right to depart, while many more, with actual millennial roots but victims of ethnic cleansing, prepared to exercise their right of Return.

Ralph Nader: Maybe Israel Should Give Aid to Us (2010)

Image by Chris Beckett via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Ralph Nader presents the Keynote Speech at the ADC National, June 5th 2010.

Is the Arab Spring spreading to US Congressional staffs? by Franklin Lamb

by Franklin Lamb
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Beirut, Lebanon
May 27, 2011

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Millions of American voters were offended this week by the vulgar display on Capitol Hill which witnessed the annual rite of nearly 2/3′s of Members on Congress stumbling over one another at the annual AIPAC Conference in order to ingratiate themselves with their hosts and to protect their sinecures.

Equally nauseating to many was what some on Capitol Hill are calling “Congressional Black Tuesday” when they assert Congress cheapened its status in American and foreign eyes and fouled itself by taking the role of undignified cheerleaders for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu during his appearance before a joint session of Congress, an invitation normally reserved for august occasions and accomplished personages.

CodePink Activist Rae Abileah Disrupts Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress

Dandelion Salad

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Democracy Now!
May 25, 2011

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was warmly received by Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday. According to ABC News, he received 29 standing ovations during his address—four more than President Obama received during his State of the Union address earlier in the year. However, there was at least one dissenting voice inside the halls of Congress on Tuesday. Rae Abileah, a Jewish-American activist of Israeli descent with the peace group CodePink, disrupted Netanyahu’s speech. Standing in the congressional gallery, she yelled, “No more occupation! Stop Israel war crimes! Equal rights for Palestinians! Occupation is indefensible!” As she screamed, members in the audience tackled her to the ground, and undercover security forces later dragged her outside. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital where she was treated for neck and shoulder injuries. At the hospital, police arrested Abileah and charged her with disorderly conduct for disrupting Congress. Her protest came as part a week-long series of actions organized by CodePink called Move Over AIPAC. We speak to Abileah about why she used nonviolent civil disobedience to disrupt Netanayahu’s speech. [includes rush transcript]

via “Netanyahu is the Main Obstacle to Peace”: CodePink Activist Disrupts Israeli PM Speech to Congress

Obama’s New Middle East Policy: “Ambitious Fiction and Monarchial Bastards” by Sibel Edmonds

by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
May 24, 2011

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Escobar Brilliantly Summarizes Obama’s New Middle East Policy

Pepe Escobar had another brilliant piece on Obama’s recent Middle East speech, and as always he is on the money:

So to make a story short, here’s a concise New Middle East Obama policy. We support “our” bastards (dictators) who are sophisticated enough to beat, arrest and kill their own people in the low hundreds (Bahrain).

Move Over AIPAC 2011 Protest in Washington, D.C.

Dandelion Salad

Image by mar is sea Y via Flickr

Taytaba2 on May 23, 2011

May 22, 2011 Protesting President Obama’s speech at the AIPAC Convention in Washington DC

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy (2007)

Image by Chris Beckett via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Oct. 24, 2007
pdxjustice on Apr 24, 2011

Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, John J. Mearsheimer, and Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Stephen M. Walt, discuss their book, THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.

pdxjustice Media Productions
Producer: William Seaman