N
NOMOREWARFORISRAEL
Guest
Commentary: Of yarmulkes and epithets
http://www.upi.com/International_Se...26/commentary_of_yarmulkes_and_epithets/2444/
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE
UPI Editor at Large
WASHINGTON , March 26 (UPI) -- To understand the chasm between
mainstream media and the blogosphere, Lewis Carroll's "Through the
Looking Glass" is a helpful guide. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they are
not. But they are frequently fact and factoid (an invented fact that
is taken to be true because of its appearance in print). And many
blogs have achieved the status of print by virtue of the fact that
countless millions get their news online. The average age of a
newspaper reader is 55. Onliners? Try 30.
Sen. John McCain and his independent (formerly a Democrat) fellow
traveler Sen. Joe Lieberman wound up their most recent Mideast foray
in Israel where the Republican candidate for the presidency got a
little help from the man widely tipped to be his choice for vice
president in adjusting his yarmulke. For many Mideast bloggers, the
yarmulke gesture was proof McCain would be even less inclined than
President Bush to coax/cajole/pressure Israel into the kind of
concessions that would make a Palestinian state possible.
McCain also fueled the speculation when he said Jerusalem was to
remain the indivisible capital of the Jewish state and that Israel
must not be asked for anything that might jeopardize its security.
Without a Palestinian capital in Arab East Jerusalem, no Palestinian
leader could sign a peace agreement -- and expect to stay alive.
Anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic epithets flooded the blogs, a lethal
blend of extremist outbursts from the far right to the far left, e.g.,
"Hitler saw the tremendous danger posed to Germany by communism" and
"although Jews formed less than 5 percent of Russia 's population,
they formed more than 50 percent of its revolutionaries."
Or, "the major role Jewish leaders played in the November (Russian)
revolution was probably more important than any other factor in
confirming (Hitler's) anti-Semitic beliefs." Holocaust deniers, along
with those who say the 6 million Jewish victims of Hitler's death
camps were wildly exaggerated, get a free ride in the blogosphere.
Another free-fire zone among the millions of blogs is the notion that
Bush will have one last throw of the geopolitical dice by bombing Iran
's nuclear facilities. Vice President Dick Cheney, on his most recent
trip to the Middle East, left little doubt he believes the Iranian
mullahs have resumed their nuclear quest after a brief interruption
following the U.S. invasion of Iraq . Tehran ran scared in the spring
of 2003 and concluded Iran might be next on Bush's hit list. That fear
subsided quickly as the insurgency, stoked in part by Iranian
Revolutionary Guard agents, spread all over Iraq . Cheney indicated
clandestine lethal aid from Iran was still continuing.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, went one
better when he said the Easter Sunday rocket-and-mortar barrage
against Baghdad 's Green Zone was made possible by Iran providing the
rockets -- in complete violation of promises made by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi
counterparts.
And if Bush doesn't order the bombing of Iran , bloggers write matter-
of-factly, McCain, as president, will not hesitate. Both McCain and
Lieberman have said on separate occasions that there is only one thing
worse than bombing Iran -- and that's Iran with nuclear weapons.
Bombing thus becomes the lesser of two evils. Blogs also speculate on
whether one Iranian nuclear weapon against Tel Aviv would knock out
the state of Israel . Blog opinion is evenly divided between those who
say Israel could not survive such a blow and those who say Iran would
be pulverized by nuclear retaliation from Israel and the United
States , and the Western world would coalesce around an Israeli
reconstruction effort.
Important pieces of the Mideast jigsaw fail to make it into mainstream
media but can be found online. The United Arab Emirates-based
newspaper Gulf News said last week that with Bush in office Washington
is effectively maintaining low-intensity warfare with Iran and the
potential exists to ratchet it up to more open hostilities. Recurring
visits by Cheney and McCain to Iraq and Israel, added Gulf News, are
"surely not 'coincidences' but a means to ensure Israel remains fully
in the picture for any plans the U.S. could have against Iran."
The latest iterations about Iran's nuclear ambitions are seen by Arab
blogs as a pretext for fresh adventurism in the region, bearing in
mind that Iraq has now suddenly taken a turn for the worst and
Afghanistan isn't faring well either. Arab media speculate the Bush
administration may feel engaging the United States militarily in Iran
is its only option for seeing a Republican president elected in
November. Blogs -- factoid or fact? -- quote an aide to Cheney saying
the United States will need the cooperation of Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Israel and Turkey to mount air attacks on Iran.
Blogs, newspapers, radio, television, all in fierce competition, al-
Jazeera's forced competition in the Iraqi war zone, imams double-
shifting as spies, thousands of volunteer Pakistani spooks for
temporary duty in Afghanistan , and it soon becomes multidimensional
chess. Reporting these days requires speed reading -- and what
Hemingway called a bullfeathers detector.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John McCain, NeoCons, the Israel Lobby and Weekly Standard (picture of
Lieberman pinning the yarmulke on McCain's head in Israel says it
all!):
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2008/03/make-people-aware-subscribe.html
Here is a tiny URL of the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/358b8c
Here is the direct link for the youtube of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfLeZXrluZw
Be sure to also access both pages of http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.BLOGSPOT.COM
(click on the pictures).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Arab media warns Bush wants Iran war (for Israel)
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=48607
http://www.upi.com/International_Se...26/commentary_of_yarmulkes_and_epithets/2444/
By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE
UPI Editor at Large
WASHINGTON , March 26 (UPI) -- To understand the chasm between
mainstream media and the blogosphere, Lewis Carroll's "Through the
Looking Glass" is a helpful guide. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, they are
not. But they are frequently fact and factoid (an invented fact that
is taken to be true because of its appearance in print). And many
blogs have achieved the status of print by virtue of the fact that
countless millions get their news online. The average age of a
newspaper reader is 55. Onliners? Try 30.
Sen. John McCain and his independent (formerly a Democrat) fellow
traveler Sen. Joe Lieberman wound up their most recent Mideast foray
in Israel where the Republican candidate for the presidency got a
little help from the man widely tipped to be his choice for vice
president in adjusting his yarmulke. For many Mideast bloggers, the
yarmulke gesture was proof McCain would be even less inclined than
President Bush to coax/cajole/pressure Israel into the kind of
concessions that would make a Palestinian state possible.
McCain also fueled the speculation when he said Jerusalem was to
remain the indivisible capital of the Jewish state and that Israel
must not be asked for anything that might jeopardize its security.
Without a Palestinian capital in Arab East Jerusalem, no Palestinian
leader could sign a peace agreement -- and expect to stay alive.
Anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic epithets flooded the blogs, a lethal
blend of extremist outbursts from the far right to the far left, e.g.,
"Hitler saw the tremendous danger posed to Germany by communism" and
"although Jews formed less than 5 percent of Russia 's population,
they formed more than 50 percent of its revolutionaries."
Or, "the major role Jewish leaders played in the November (Russian)
revolution was probably more important than any other factor in
confirming (Hitler's) anti-Semitic beliefs." Holocaust deniers, along
with those who say the 6 million Jewish victims of Hitler's death
camps were wildly exaggerated, get a free ride in the blogosphere.
Another free-fire zone among the millions of blogs is the notion that
Bush will have one last throw of the geopolitical dice by bombing Iran
's nuclear facilities. Vice President Dick Cheney, on his most recent
trip to the Middle East, left little doubt he believes the Iranian
mullahs have resumed their nuclear quest after a brief interruption
following the U.S. invasion of Iraq . Tehran ran scared in the spring
of 2003 and concluded Iran might be next on Bush's hit list. That fear
subsided quickly as the insurgency, stoked in part by Iranian
Revolutionary Guard agents, spread all over Iraq . Cheney indicated
clandestine lethal aid from Iran was still continuing.
Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq, went one
better when he said the Easter Sunday rocket-and-mortar barrage
against Baghdad 's Green Zone was made possible by Iran providing the
rockets -- in complete violation of promises made by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad and other most senior Iranian leaders to their Iraqi
counterparts.
And if Bush doesn't order the bombing of Iran , bloggers write matter-
of-factly, McCain, as president, will not hesitate. Both McCain and
Lieberman have said on separate occasions that there is only one thing
worse than bombing Iran -- and that's Iran with nuclear weapons.
Bombing thus becomes the lesser of two evils. Blogs also speculate on
whether one Iranian nuclear weapon against Tel Aviv would knock out
the state of Israel . Blog opinion is evenly divided between those who
say Israel could not survive such a blow and those who say Iran would
be pulverized by nuclear retaliation from Israel and the United
States , and the Western world would coalesce around an Israeli
reconstruction effort.
Important pieces of the Mideast jigsaw fail to make it into mainstream
media but can be found online. The United Arab Emirates-based
newspaper Gulf News said last week that with Bush in office Washington
is effectively maintaining low-intensity warfare with Iran and the
potential exists to ratchet it up to more open hostilities. Recurring
visits by Cheney and McCain to Iraq and Israel, added Gulf News, are
"surely not 'coincidences' but a means to ensure Israel remains fully
in the picture for any plans the U.S. could have against Iran."
The latest iterations about Iran's nuclear ambitions are seen by Arab
blogs as a pretext for fresh adventurism in the region, bearing in
mind that Iraq has now suddenly taken a turn for the worst and
Afghanistan isn't faring well either. Arab media speculate the Bush
administration may feel engaging the United States militarily in Iran
is its only option for seeing a Republican president elected in
November. Blogs -- factoid or fact? -- quote an aide to Cheney saying
the United States will need the cooperation of Oman, Saudi Arabia,
Israel and Turkey to mount air attacks on Iran.
Blogs, newspapers, radio, television, all in fierce competition, al-
Jazeera's forced competition in the Iraqi war zone, imams double-
shifting as spies, thousands of volunteer Pakistani spooks for
temporary duty in Afghanistan , and it soon becomes multidimensional
chess. Reporting these days requires speed reading -- and what
Hemingway called a bullfeathers detector.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
John McCain, NeoCons, the Israel Lobby and Weekly Standard (picture of
Lieberman pinning the yarmulke on McCain's head in Israel says it
all!):
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2008/03/make-people-aware-subscribe.html
Here is a tiny URL of the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/358b8c
Here is the direct link for the youtube of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfLeZXrluZw
Be sure to also access both pages of http://NEOCONZIONISTTHREAT.BLOGSPOT.COM
(click on the pictures).
------------------------------------------------------------------
Arab media warns Bush wants Iran war (for Israel)
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=48607
