abu mazen & erdogan --classic Muslim diplomacy updated to the 21st Century

UPDATINGS see at bottom

Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools

Everyone has heard of how Abu Mazen, head of the sinister Fatah party/terrorist group and now of the Palestinian Authority, an outgrowth of the illegitimate Oslo Accords, is appealing to the UN to recognize another Arab state to be called "palestine," whereas there are already too many Arab states cluttering the map as it is. In appealing for recognition of a state without Israel's agreement, having refused to negotiate with Israel for three years, Abu Mazen is violating the Oslo Accords signed by the PLO and Israel, as well as UN SC resolution, 242. The OsloII Accords had stipulated that neither side was to change the status of the territories in dispute by unilateral action. Yet that is what Abu Mazen [= Mahmoud Abbas] is trying to do.

Likewise, Erdogan, Islamist prime minister of Turkey, is showing contempt for international law and even the UN. Erdogan has demanded an Israeli apology for killing nine Turkish jihadist thugs on the Mavi Marmara who had murderously attacked Israeli naval commandos boarding the ship while enforcing the rightful blockade of the Gaza Strip. Indeed, the UN Palmer Commission found that the blockade was right and proper and that the Turkish IHH jihadist terrorist group --to which the thugs belonged-- had received help and encouragement from its own govt. Erdogan disregards all that, demanding an Israeli apology for killing the thugs plus an end to the rightful blockade of Hamas-ruled Gaza, plus pecuniary compensation for the victims' [the jihadists'] families. After release of the Palmer Report, Erdogan threatened to send Turkish warships to escort "humanitarian aid" ships on the way to Gaza, this time threatening to break the blockade by direct military force.

But Erdogan does not stop with Israel. He threatened Cyprus not to carry out explorations for oil and natural gas in its own exclusive maritime economic zone, justifying these threats by self-invented international law. Supposedly if Cyprus drilled for oil and gas, that would violate the rights [Note that term "rights" again used to justify threats of war!] of Turkish Cypriots in the Turkish occupation zone of northern Cyprus. So Turkey's dubiously legal occupation zone in northern Cyprus [covering about 35-40% of the island] becomes a pretext used to justify threats made on Cypriot drilling off the southern coast of the island!!

But the best comes last!! Turkey is now threatening the EU --those wonderful, world-scale peacemongers-- that if they allow fellow EU member, Cyprus, to assume the rotating EU presidency for three months in its turn, then Turkey will freeze relations [or maybe break relations --it's not clear] with the EU. This was reported by Anatolian News, the Turkish state news agency. He also issued another condition: that peace negotiations over Cyprus must be concluded by July 2012, when Cyprus is supposed to rise to the presidency. Otherwise Erdogan will freeze relations [see Il Giornale qui]. What this implies is that negotiations must be concluded to Erdogan's satisfaction. He must be satisfied with the resulting agreement --or else!! We don't know whether or not the corrupt EU, caught up in its own Judeophobia, as well as in the cobweb of a Eurabia of its own making, will withstand this ultimatum.

What we do see is how Erdogan's methods parallel Abu Mazen's. Abbas is the one who stopped negotiating with Israel. That occurred three years ago when the corrupt and pliable Olmert was prime minister. Yet Abu Mazen now blames Israel for the lack of negotiations, while he demands Israeli capitulation to his terms and conditions before negotiations even begin, whereas settlements, for instance, were supposed to be a final status issue left for final status negotiations, not for unilateral declaration of a state [which is indeed tantamount to a declaration of war]. Likewise, Erdogan basically demands that the EU force capitulation to his demands on the part of Cyprus, otherwise. . .

Abu Mazen now has Britain, France, and the EU's foreign affairs commissioner, the veddy Bwitish Catherine Ashton [Baroness Ashton no less!!] urging Israel to accept a "compromise" not contained in previous agreements, and promising the PLO/PA other goodies if he plays the good boy at the UN and doesn't ask for more than they are ready to give him at this time [maybe in six months. . . ]. Just this morning, 20 September 2011, the international media announced that Abu Mazen was ready to negotiate at any time with Netanyahu, thus responding to Netanyahu's previous proposal to meet with Abu Mazen in New York around the UN session and start negotiating there. However, Saeb Erikat, Abbas' spokesman and designated chief of negotiations for the PLO/PA, made it clear that Israel would have to accept at least two pre-conditions before Mahmud Abbas would meet him, 1) immediately freeze all settlement activity; 2) accept the so-called "67 borders" [= 1949-1967 armistice lines] as borders. Of course, it was agreed by the PLO/PA on several occasions that these two issues would be left for negotiations.

Note that the arbitrary, bullying style of Erdogan matches that of Mahmud Abbas who also violates signed agreements at will, makes extravagant demands for /observance of/adhesion to/ already concluded accords and/or chisels away at existing agreements in order to improve his position, and threatens war on suitable occasions, backs down if the prey/enemy becomes aroused, etc. [Erdogan backed down slightly on some of his threats]. This kind of behavior thus is not restricted to Turkey's Erdogan or to the PLO/PA's Abu Mazen. Rather it seems like a widespread pattern of Muslim diplomatic behavior. This is because many recent Arab and Muslim non-Arab leaders, like saddam hussein, Nasser, hafiz assad, arafat, erdogan, A-jad, Qadafi, Ibn Saud, share the notable traits of Rodomonte, an Arab character in the Italian epic poem, Orlando Furioso, and later in the operas Orlando Furioso [Vivaldi] & Orlando Paladino [Haydn]. He is full of braggadoccio [often called after him, rodomontade], he makes threats [think of Saddam hussein's "the sea will run red with American blood," --the "mother of all battles,"], he obeys no law --so it seems--, is totally arrogant, lawless, unrestrained, contemptuous of others, etc. He is described as a hyperbolic character, his deeds and actions and undertakings are hyperbolic. Erdogan fits or wants to fit into that mold.

Rodomonte: figlio di Alieno e re di Sargel nell’Algeria. . . . Rodomonte possiede doti fisiche sovrumane, è un personaggio iperbolico, e iperbolici sono i suoi gesti, le sue azioni, le sue imprese.

Again, these tactics are not Erdogan's or Abu Mazen's. They are Standard Operating Procedure for Muslim strong men. They demand concessions before negotiations. They demand what they had agreed not to demand. They cry "injustice", "aggression" and threaten, they set loose a shower of lies of all sorts, lies about history --current, medieval & modern-- lies affirming atrocities, including the most bizarre [that Israel gave aphrodisiac substances to Arab young women & teen age girls, etc]. They have to be bribed to get them to do what they had already agreed to do. Abu Mazen uses these same tactics with his approach to the UN and the associated demands. He violates the Oslo accords, refuses to negotiate and accuses Israel of refusing to negotiate. And many MSM organs, such as CNN [by its kevin flowers] and France24 go along with this crap [by allowing Mustafa Barghouti offer his smorgasbord of lies]. But this is SOP. Negotiating with Muslims/especially Arabs is always an exasperating exercise.

As the blogger J E Dyer points out, Erdogan's "objective is to make what Cyprus was going to do anyway -- and what is none of his business -- the subject of negotiation, because that gives Turkey an officially acknowledged veto. Think of it as leveraging himself into an imperial situation, by acquiring an ever-larger region over which he holds an acknowledged veto on one thing or another."
This is a pattern of diplomacy that I've noticed on the part not only of Erdogan and Abu Mazen, but of Iran and Pakistan and Indonesia, all Muslim states, although Hitler used some of these methods in the 1930s, before WW2 began. He too threatened war but promised peace if only -- if only he were given suitable bribes in the form of territory -- The Saarland, Sudetenland, Danzig, Memel, etc.
- - - - - - -

Other Views on PLO/PA UDI:
Previous post by Eliyahu m'Tsiyon [here& here&here]
Gov Rick Perry in the JPost [here]
Alan Baker & Dan Diker [here]
Rick Richman [here]
Evelyn Gordon [here]
Michael Rubin [here]
A summary in French reminding us of how the PLO/PA is violating prior agreements and commitments, & how EU member states will be violating an EU commitment if they vote for PLO/PA UDI. This is quoted from an open letter to the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, from the Marseille chapter of the pro-Israel group, Association France-Israel --General Koenig. French original follows the English translation:
"All the resolutions by international bodies (UN resolution 242 and those that reiterate its terms) and the treaties made between the parties in the framework of the Oslo accords refer the settlement of differences and the working out of solutions to negotiations between the parties. Moreover, the European Union --that includes France-- is a co-signatory and guarantor of the 1995 Interim Accords, called Oslo 2, which reaffirm the principle of negotiation between the parties and forbid unilateral initiatives like the one that the Palestinian officials in Ramallah now want to promote.

"It is up to you to work to ensure the fidelity of the European Union to its own signature."

Toutes les résolutions des instances internationales (la résolution 242 de l'ONU et celles qui reprennent les termes) et les traités passés entre les parties dans le cadre des accords d'Oslo renvoient le règlement des différends et l'élaboration de solutions à des négociations entre les parties. De plus, l'Union européenne, - elle implique la France -, est co-signataire et garante de l'application des Accords intérimaires de 1995, dits "Oslo 2", qui réaffirment ce principe de négociation entre les parties et prohibent les initiatives unilatérales comme celle que les responsables palestiniens de Ramallah veulent aujourd'hui promouvoir.

Il vous appartient d'œuvrer pour assurer la fidélité de l'Union européenne à sa propre signature.

The Iranian ambassador to Egypt says that Abu Mamzer's UDI gambit at the UN is a step toward destroying Israel [here][thanx Isreallycool].
9-27-2011 Erdogan's bodyguards attack UN guards [here] -- and a wonderful time was had by all.

Mahmud Abbas' Comrades Set Up Oriana Fallaci to Be Blown Apart -- Give Them a State!!

The Euro Thugs are collaborating with the fake "moderates" led by Mahmud Abbas to upgrade the PLO/PA's status against Israel.

France and Spain, along with the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, are in advanced stages of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority over a "package deal" that will enable the 27 member states of the EU to vote at the United Nations General Assembly in favor of upgrading the PA to the status of a non-permanent member of the UN.

The Europeans are also trying to gain the United States' agreement to abstain from the vote and continue its financial aid to the Palestinians, in return for a promise by PA President Mahmoud Abbas not to take Israel to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Three senior European diplomats involved in the negotiations told Haaretz that the PA president had informed the EU of his decision not to turn to the UN Security Council on September 20 and request that Palestine be accepted as a full member of the organization.

Abbas, who realizes that the United States will exercise its veto power at the Security Council, has decided to turn to the UN General Assembly, whose resolutions are less binding, in order to seek the support of the European Union member states in the vote.

Abbas is expected to meet in Cairo today with Ashton, who is in charge of the EU's foreign policy, and with the foreign ministers of the Arab League Monitoring Committee. During both meetings the diplomatic deal being worked out will be discussed. [HaArets, 9-12-2011]

But who does Mahmud Abbas represent? He was one of the top leaders of Fatah for years under arafat's overall leadership. And what is Fatah? What do they represent? Do they represent hope for a better world perhaps? Or hope for barbarism perhaps? The late Oriana Fallaci, the noted Italian journalist, had good reason to hate and despise Fatah:

. . . come stroll with me along the Street of Contempt that Muslims harbor for women. A contempt that I experienced even in circumstances when it would have been justified to expect at least a little humanity. In 1973, I experienced it in a unit of Palestinian fedayin who were being hosted at that time in Jordan by King Hussein. The only civilized, simpatico leader that I met in the Islamic world of today, aside from Ali Bhutto. (. . .)
And here is the story of my experience with the Palestinian fedayin. One night the secret base of that unit was struck by a violent aerial raid by the Israelis. When the first bombs fell, everybody started to run towards the solid refuge offered by a cave across a field, and I did the same. But in front of the entrance the commander stopped me. He grunted that to allow a woman to be elbow to elbow with his men would be an obscenity, an insult to Allah. He then ordered two deputy commanders to install me somewhere else. And guess where those evildoers locked me up? In an isolated shack, a wooden shed used to store explosives. I only realized this when I lit a match in order to understand where I was. The flame illuminated dozens of boxes with the inscription: "Explosives-Dynamite-Explosives." But the worst was not even in this detail. It was in the fact that they had not locked me up there out of stupidity or haste or by mistake. They locked me up there on purpose. In order to enjoy themselves. Almost that the chance of seeing me blown into the air because of the explosion of a bomb was the funniest thing in the world. In fact, after the raid, they all split their sides laughing, scornfully laughing with pleasure: "We never had such fun. We never had such a good time." [Oriana Fallaci, La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio (Milano 2004), pp 111-112; English title: The Rage and the Pride; in הזעם והגאווה, the Hebrew edition, pp 87-88]

But doesn't the EU know what the Fatah really stands for? That the Fatah has not changed its stripes since they obtained a mini-state in Judea-Samaria in 1974? I'm sure that the EU does know all of these things. But their hatred for Jews leads them to pretend that Fatah is ready to live at peace with Israel. It is not only the Fatah/PLO/PA that has not changed, the major EU states, UK, France, Germany have not changed their basic hatred for Jews since Hitler was forced to abandon Auschwitz.

Moreover, the EU support for Fatah [= PLO/PA] tells us that the EU does not honor agreements with Israel. Just as European states did not honor the rights of their own Jewish citizens before and during the Holocaust --when Hitler told them that Jews have no rights that Europe is bound to honor-- the EU spits on international law that supports Israel's rights, allies with Israel's bloodthirsty Arab enemies, and does not care that Arabs honor the accords that they made with Israel, such as the Oslo accords, the Israel-Egypt treaty, etc. The Arabs are tools for satisfying the genocidal urges towards Jews of leading EU member states.

- - - - - -
Previous links on the PLO/PA UDI on Emet m'Tsiyon [here & here]
Raison Garder has issued an important statement [in French] on the PLO/PA UDI. Here is the title:

UNE DECLARATION DE GUERRE TRAVESTIE

EN DEMANDE DE RECONNAISSANCE

Nous sommes à la veille d’une intense campagne de propagande qui vise à pousser les opinions et les gouvernements européens à soutenir la demande unilatérale de reconnaissance d’un Etat de Palestine à l’O.N.U.

Nous sommes inquiets devant la décision à venir de la France et de l’Union Européenne.

This statement correctly identifies the PLO/PA UDI as a declaration of war disguised as a request for recognition.

A Declaration of War -- The "Palestinian Authority's" UDI [unilateral declaration of independence] Gambit at the UN

UPDATED 10-2-2011 at bottom

Barry Rubin points out that the PA/PLO's gambit of asking the UN --whether the Security Council or General Assembly is secondary-- to approve an Arab state in the Land of Israel without negotiating borders and other issues with Israel could lead to a lot of violence and violates all prior agreements with Israel as well --I would add-- as violating Security Council resolutions 242 & 338 that call for Israel and its Arab neighbors to negotiate the issues between them in order to make peace. I will quote from 242 at the end [338 is just a reconfirmation of 242] so that readers can see that the PLO/PA is violating the Security Council's own resolutions that are supposed to be binding, according to the UN charter.

Bear in mind that if borders are not agreed on with Israel, then the PLO/PA will be declaring a state which will spread over land that rightly belongs to Israel or --in any event-- is claimed by Israel or perhaps their own declaration will be phrased in such a way as to claim all of Israel --all the land from the Jordan to the sea. This is what the PLO did in its 1988 Algiers Declaration --its previous declaration of a state-- by implication. Now, if today's PLO/PA claims any land that Israel also claims and that can be shown to already belong to Israel or is claimed by Israel, then a PLO/PA UDI [unilateral declaration of independence] will essentially be a declaration of war.

Rubin starts by quoting from the cynical and amoral Obama henchman, Rahm Emanuel:

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” –Rahm Emanuel

By Barry Rubin

One of the amazing things about the amazing incompetence of the Obama Administration is that we’ve become so accustomed to it that we take for granted things that would have made opinion makers during past presidencies clutch the upper left side of their chests and collapse, writhing in agony.

Or to put it another way, if an Obama policy falls in the public arena and the mass media acts deaf will anyone say: “OMG! Can this really be happening?” Well, I will follow Rahm Emanuel’s advice and hope that this serious crisis could be for this administration an “opportunity…to do things you think you could not do before” or to start looking for a new policymaker.

Consider that the United States is on the verge of a foreign policy disaster that could easily have been averted by proper statecraft. The Palestinian Authority (PA, technically speaking, along with its Hamas partner) is about to demand that the United Nations break every Israel-Palestinian agreement over almost twenty years, destroy any possibility of serious future negotiation, reward Palestinian intransigence, and generally make a mess of the Middle East.

The specific issue is recognition of a Palestinian state as existing right now. The result, as I’ve outlined previously, would be catastrophic and don’t let anyone get away with pretending that this isn’t a bad thing or won’t make much difference.

A “normal” U.S. policy would have begun pressing the PA to back down from this strategy almost a year ago, when PA leaders began talking about it. Rather than take quick action—or, indeed, punish, pressure, or even criticize the PA for anything it did—the Obama Administration stood by and made disapproving murmurs from time to time.

We are now facing the consequences of the policy of: let’s be weak so people will like us; leading from behind; not rewarding friends or punishing enemies,; refusing to use U.S. leverage (Turkey votes against sanctions on Iran? Let’s put them in charge of Syria’s future!); and generally letting other countries walk all over the United States. I’d love to list other examples of similar issues here but don’t want to take your time so you can fill in the additional details.

Now, the cloud once the size of a man’s hand has turned into a more serious big brother of Hurricane Irene. If you don’t mind my mixing hurricanes, think of U.S. foreign policy as New Orleans.

A colleague suggests that the administration is now panicked. I think it isn’t panicking but should be. A sign of not understanding the magnitude of the problem is that it is only now starting to do what should have begun around September 2010, not September 2011. If you are a U.S. citizen living in a Muslim-majority country you might think about what you will be doing later this month.

As a result, the United States has no leverage over the PA, a client that depends on Washington for any possibility of actual peace, having a real state, and paying its bills. Equally, it has no leverage over virtually any other country in the world in terms of voting on this issue. America has been transformed from superpower to super-cower, begging the PA to take pity on it and back down from an obviously successful strategy.

I love the way the New York Times’ article puts it:

“The Obama administration has initiated a last-ditch diplomatic campaign to avert a confrontation this month over a plan by Palestinians recognition as a state at the United Nations. It may already be too late, according to senior American officials and foreign diplomats.”

Yes, it might also be too late—just maybe—to stop the American Civil War or prevent the 1929 stock market crash. What the Obama Administration has done is to:

–Propose a new round of PA talks with Israel.

–Made clear that it will veto the PA bid in the Security Council.

This is about the most serious threat since a small mammal (I don’t want to offend anyone by mentioning its precise species) told the Big Bad Wolf not to blow down its house of straw and eat him or he’d bleed all over the Wolf’s clothes.

First, the PA doesn’t want negotiations with Israel. It has been rejecting talks for two years, even refusing them during a requested Israeli freeze of construction on West Bank settlements, even when an east Jerusalem freeze was added to it. The PA also rejected talks within minutes after Obama laid his personal prestige on the line in September 2009 to announce a high-level summit at Camp David.

Let’s face it: these people don’t want serious negotiations. Why? Because they don’t want a peace agreement with Israel; they want a state unfettered by concessions or compromise so they can pursue total victory and Israel’s destruction. (There’s nothing “right-wing” about that conclusion. All the facts point to it and only wishful thinking says differently.)

As for the U.S. vetoing the proposal, what does the PA care about that? It will mainly hurt the United States. There will be a vote in the General Assembly with a margin of support for the PA (cowardly Western democracies which know the idea is terrible will abstain and let the United States take the heat) similar to the size of the majority in the U.S. Congress supporting a declaration endorsing Mother’s Day. Second, there will probably be anti-American riots throughout the Muslim-majority world. Any good done by Obama’s almost three-year-long effort to make Arab and Muslims like him will be cancelled out.

Fortunately, though, Obama doesn’t hold a grudge, at least against foreign enemies who “diss” him and America.

I know that I’ve tried to be entertaining here through the use of sarcasm and humor. But my warning and critique are not exaggerated. This was an avoidable crisis and will be much worse than almost anyone recognizes.

The non-EPA approved icing on the cake is that afterward the Obama Administration will do absolutely nothing to the PA or to affect negatively those who voted for it which will, of course, encourage additional acts of diplomatic hostility and real world disasters of this type. The Obama Administration’s apparent motto is expressed by wearing a large sign that says, “Kick me.” Unfortunately, the object being kicked isn’t the personal property of the chief executive but belongs to the United States of America.
- - - - end of Rubin article [see at Pajamas Media here]- - - - -

UN Security Council resolution 242 [relevant excerpts]:
The Security Council
. . . .
Affirms that the fulfillment of [UN] Charter principles requires the establishment of a just and lasting peace. . .
Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force. . . .
Requests the Secretary-General to . . . promote agreement and assist efforts to achieve a peaceful and accepted settlement. . . --end--

Obviously, a declaration of a state that has not obtained the agreement of Israel violates the Security Council's principle of agreement and is not likely to be peaceful and accepted, nor is it likely to lead to a just and lasting peace. In addition, secure. . . boundaries refers to defensible borders. Otherwise, indefensible borders can tempt a belligerent power that wants to land from another state to go to war. Not only do the PLO/PA reject secure boundaries for Israel but by refusing to negotiate boundaries with Israel and by implicitly or explicitly claiming all of the land from the Jordan to the sea, the PLO/PA is rejecting peace with Israel. It is important to note that Obama himself, in his notorious May 19, 2011, speech, also rejected secure boundaries for Israel by demanding that Israel agree to go back to the very insecure 1949 armistice lines [he said "1967 lines"]. Let us bear in mind that those insecure lines tempted Jordan, Egypt and Syria to instigate war on Israel in June 1967. Curiously, Jordan is now warning against a PLO/PA UDI which it believes will be negative for Jordan. Jordan has also stated that it would vote against the UDI in the General Assembly.

Furthermore, whereas Rubin addresses the likely real world outcomes and causes of a PLO/PA UDI, we ought to also mention the injustice that it would represent. Here is an immoral, unjust, murderous entity, speaking in the name of a people that no one had heard of 100 years ago, that now demands a state without negotiating with Israel. Indeed the Arab leadership in the Land of Israel [Arab Higher Committee] had denied the very existence of a country called "palestine" in testimony in 1946 before the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry on Palestine. And in the name of this entity, invented apparently by psychological warfare/cognitive warfare experts after Israel's reestablishment as a state in 1948, a new state might be recognized in the name of a people that did not exist in history. And this injustice is being perpetrated against the Jews, oppressed, exploited, humiliated and reviled for centuries in both Christendom and Islam.
- - - - - - - - -
10-2-2011 Emanuele Ottolenghi discusses the PLO/PA's UDI gambit at the UN [here]. Ottolenghi, Jerry Gordon, & Mike Bates in discussion. Ottolenghi points out the PLO/PA side refuses to negotiate, instead making impossible demands for pre-conditions.

Is Israel Being Alinskyed or Greenberg-Carvilled?

UPDATING 9-8-2011 at bottom
Anti-Zionism is the anti-imperialism of fools.

When fascism comes to America, it will be
called anti-fascism. Huey Long

Stanley Greenberg is the brains behind the current Israeli "social protest." This has emerged through a recent report by Israeli investigative journalist, Kalman Libeskind of Ma`ariv [כאן], and was suggested in an opinion piece by Dror Eyder in Yisrael haYom about six weeks ago [7-29-2011; weekend supplement, p7]. Greenberg is a pollster and political strategist close to the Clinton White House, less so to Obama. His PR and political strategy firm took part in giving BP a clean, "green" ["environmentally friendly"] image, even winning over eco organizations, whereas BP in fact was less concerned about safety violations in its quest for profits than were other oil companies. It was BP that did much to cause last year's offshore oil platform explosion in the Gulf of Mexico which resulted in an environmental disaster.

The astute commentator and blogger, J.E. Dyer, wrote an excellent piece on the Greenberg connection and the reality of the "protest movement" in Israel. Here are parts of it:

Is Israel Being Alinskyed … or just Greenberg-Carvilled?

An MSNBC news spot on The Weather Channel (TWC) this morning caught my attention. Out of the blue, for no apparent reason, the news announcer informed his audience that thousands had taken to the streets in Israel this weekend to protest the high cost of living. It was, he said, the eighth week of protests there.

TWC is usually about as interested in foreign social-protest news as Sports Illustrated. In fact, street demonstrations abroad basically have to bleed if they’re going to lead in the American mainstream media. People are out demonstrating around the globe all the time, and the average American hears about it only if he frequents the right specialty websites. I couldn’t help noticing these few out-of-place sentences on Israel, because they were so unusual.

What possessed NBC-Universal properties MSNBC and TWC to feature protests in Israel in their news coverage this morning? That’s an interesting question. It is not, shall we say, made less interesting by the report of Maariv’s Kalman Libeskind, referenced by Arutz Sheva on 3 September, that American Democratic strategist Stanley Greenberg orchestrated the protests in Israel’s major cities this weekend.

According to the report:

Greenberg directed the strategists to create a protest that was not led by one specific group, in order to create social ferment. An unnamed left-wing leader would eventually step into this ferment and take the reins, Greenberg predicted.

The Israeli strategists reportedly include Boaz Gaon, Moshe Gaon and Eldad Yaniv, who worked in Ehud Barak’s successful race for Prime Minister in 1999, also in cooperation with Greenberg.

Greenberg, who advised Bill Clinton on campaign strategy in the 1990s (and Al Gore and John Kerry in their campaigns), runs the Democratic strategy firm Democracy Corps with James Carville and Bob Shrum. He’s also a pollster with his own research firm, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. Married to Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), he gained national fame for providing living quarters for Rahm Emanuel rent-free for five years. He acquired additional notoriety for spearheading the effort to rebrand British Petroleum as the Greenest Big Oil Company in the Whole Entire Universe.

That’s the yada-yada most websites have on this today. What I haven’t seen yet is an analogy to the fascinating project undertaken by the Greenberg-Carville firm in the Bolivian presidential election in 2002, when they were known as GCS. The company was hired by incumbent president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (“Goni”) to run his reelection campaign, an essay in expeditionary politics that was captured in a documentary released in 2005 called Our Brand is Crisis.

. . . . . . . . .
Given that Stanley Greenberg is one of this group’s leading lights, it should be no surprise that his approach, in enriching Israeli politics again in 2011, is to “create social ferment” so that an “unnamed left-wing leader” could step in and take the reins. The country’s falling apart, so who will the Israelis turn to? Libeskind seems to think Ehud Barak is being positioned as the turn-to guy – and given Greenberg’s connection with his 1999 campaign and the trio of Barak advisers, that doesn’t appear to be a bad guess.

Israel isn’t falling apart, of course. Commentators there have had a healthy suspicion of the organizing force behind the series of protests, which started in mid-summer with demonstrations against the high cost of housing in the major cities. In early August, Caroline Glick cited the work of Israeli bloggers in uncovering the following facts:

[A]s a handful of bloggers have shown, more than eighty percent of the protest leaders are professional far Left activists. For instance, Maariv bloggers Uri Redler and Rotem Sela researched the affiliation of all the speakers at the July 23rd rally in Tel Aviv. They found that out of 27 speakers, 21 are known leftist activists affiliated with Hadash, the communist party, with Meretz, with the New Israel Fund, with the Nationalist Left proto-party, and with the anarchists.

Redler and Sela also exposed that several “grassroots,” leaders are in fact professional political operatives affiliated with communist politicians and radical pressure groups. For instance, an activist named Tzika Bashour announced on Facebook that he would begin a general strike on August 1. Yediot Ahronot and Ynet covered his move as an authentic call of distress by an Average Joe.

The papers failed to mention that Bashour is a public relations executive who ran communist MK Dov Hanin’s campaign for the Tel Aviv mayoralty.

None of this means housing costs aren’t insane in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, or that Israelis don’t have legitimate beefs. But with a little professional spadework, the blogging community has demonstrated that the “popular protests” look a lot like the ones orchestrated by the usual-suspect organizers in the United States; i.e., “Astroturf.”

Israeli-in-the-street bloggers aren’t buying the “social justice paroxysm” theme either. Jerusalem Diaries is typical in reporting that the “protesters” out this weekend were mainly out for a nice time on a summer evening, with friends and food headlining the “protest.” The Muqata called the demonstration in Tel Aviv the city’s “biggest block party ever.” The socially-fermenting events featured well-publicized pop music and crowds snarfing down all the beer, cappuccinos, pizza, and puu-puus they could get their hands on. There are highly organized professional malcontents manning these protests, certainly, but not an enraged citizenry ready to man the barricades and go to the mattresses with the Netanyahu government.

In light of this array of facts and associations, it’s no real surprise that Greenberg & Co participated in the 2006 Take Back America Conference sponsored by Campaign for America’s Future, an organization closely connected to the Apollo Alliance and funded by major unions, MoveOn.org, and the Tides Foundation [The Tides Foundation is funded by George Soros -- note by Eliyahu].

. . . . . . . .

[Greenberg has a] manipulative, media-theme-building approach to politics. . . . He doesn’t have a history of being anti-Zionist; that’s not the point here. Although he bills himself as a triangulating, “Third Way” centrist, his affiliations are very much with professional left-wing manipulators of public sentiment, and that is how he comes off in the latest instance with the protests in Israel.

To the question, “Why now? Why in the summer of 2011?” the obvious answer would be, “Because the UN vote on Palestinian statehood is coming up in September.” But I don’t assess Greenberg to be a mastermind here. He’s a hired strategist. His specialty is positioning politicians to be the turn-to guy. Something else is going on. As usual, the fact that GE-owned NBC networks are pointedly reporting faux “social ferment” as if it’s the real thing suggests a manufactured-news campaign. Rockets from Gaza aren’t the only thing coming at Israel as the UN vote nears.

- - - - - - end of JE Dyer article - - - - - [read it all here] - - - - - -

UPDATING 9-8-2011
The novelist David Grossman is a hero of the Israeli "Left" or anti-national camp. I personally see him as one of our very own Vichyites. Be that as it may, speaking during a book tour in Paris on the occasion of publication of one of his books in French, he showed how sneaky, cynical and sinister he is when it comes to politics. He wants the protest movement's leaders to hide their real goals until the time is ripe, perhaps for a putsch or coup d'etat. Note that our great humanitarian is eager to throw more than 500,000 Jews out of their homes. In the name of peace, of course. He also extols the value of solidarity. This obviously does not mean solidarity with Jews --especially Jews who live where he and the Arab Islamofascists and the pan-Arabists do not want them to live.
Quoting from the Walla site:
The Israeli writer David Grossman believes that the social protest must . . . transform into a substantial political force and leverage its public success. . .
"At the moment there is a consensus among all the participants in this protest not to speak of politics. . . But I believe that soon all these marchers will become a political force because this protest cannot remain a matter of good will alone. It must become a political means that will finally ask where did the money go, where did all those billions go over the years. The answer is that most of it went to the settlements, the settlers, and the army [A FALSE CLAIM] that defends the settlements that are a distorted situation and in any event will be evacuated in a future peace accord with the Palestinians."
Grossman indicated that, "Now is not a good time to speak of politics and the occupation because the moment that they start to talk about it, the support for the protest will go down by hundreds of percentage points." He added: "Finally Israelis are going out of their houses in masses, more than 400,000 [INFLATED NO.], so it's a positive thing to put differences aside because what we see here is a society that is trying to return to the values that built it, first of all the value of solidarity. . . . to take the bold step towards an accord [with the Palestinian Arabs]."
. . .
[Grossman also stated]: "To this day, the Arabs have really not yet recognized the Jews' right to live here and maintain a state of their own. We must not forget this. Therefore, we must have a strong army."