American Hummus

Democracy Now
Amidst signs reading “Islam = Cult of Hate” and “Kick Hamas’ Ass,” Senator Chuck Schumer and NY Governor Patterson rallied thousands gathered to support the massacre being carried out by the state of Israel against the Palestinian people who are locked in an open air prison in Gaza.The assault is being carried out with US weapons and US political cover at the UN,

Max Blumenthal did another great job of allowing people to express themselves honestly.

Jamal Dajani for the Mosaic Intelligence Report

Watch a report from Channel 4 in London for the type of reporting you would never see in the US.
Meet the children left to die among the bodies of their parents and families

Keith Olbermann does a good job here of summarizing the situation, unlike his counterpart Rachel Maddow.

Two very important points: one is that he identified Israel’s incursion into Gaza as the reason the cease fire was broken. Another is the very scary point made by former National Security Persian Gulf Director, Hillary Mann Leverett, that with Hillary Clinton as secretary of State — with her advisers “we may long for the days of George W. Bush.”

And unlike anyone else in the US media, has the integrity to show it.

The absolute silliness of the US media and US politicians in talking about the massacre Israel is carrying out in Gaza is wonderfully satirized by John Stewart and The Daily Show. Well, the politicians at least.

See the full episode here

Mayor Bloomberg is priceless. He actually got on a plane and traveled to Israel to show support for the Jewish state in this time of desperation and need. It’s not easy carrying out a massacre of a civilian population while being supported by the world’s only superpower and cheered on by that superpower’s vast media network.

But Mr. Bloomberg was welcomed home by shoe throwing New Yorkers as he should be.

Later in the show his guest was David Gregory, the new host of NBC’s Meet The Press. David was let out of John’s little satire but he is clearly vying to be the new face of Israeli propaganda in the US. But I think George Stephanopolous has him beat.

Let’s compare Sunday’s shows to see.

Who Supports Israel more?? You decide.

George Stephanopolous
Guests include: Israeli president SHIMON PERES
Senate Minority Leader, MITCH MCCONNELL
Senator DICK DURBIN, democrat

All guests fully supported the massacre and parroted Israeli talking points with precision. There were no challenging questions. Much of John’s material came from that show actually.

David Gregory and Meet the Press
Guests include: SEN. HARRY REID, Majority Leader
RICHARD ENGEL, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC
NBC News

We’ve seen Richard Engel’s reporting on Gaza, especially with Rachel Maddow.

It is with great sadness that I provide this video. Rachel is one of the few anchors in the US that I really like. It is clear that she did not do the usual research that she has become known for.

Worse than Rachel, who may not know better, is Richard Engel who does or at least should know better and provides only the zionist perspective of this history in addition to some extremely racist comments.

According to Engel, the reason for the disconnect between the Arab governments and the Arab people is the ignorance of those people and the education of the Arab elite in Western countries. Could it not have something to do with the corruption of those governments? Where does one begin???

We would like to focus on and help Rachel with the history she so painfully struggled through, which we hope was written by someone else. It is our sincere hope that she take the commentary and suggestions below as constructive and take this as an opportunity to get acquainted with the facts as opposed to the myths that are repeated to us over and over again.

TRANSCRIPT AND COMMENTARY OF THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW ON GAZA

“You undoubtedly saw the headlines today. “Israel launches third day of attacks on Gaza.” “Chaos in the Middle East.” “Arab-Israeli Conflict Erupts.”

(This opening is launched in Maddow’s usual cheerful, punchy fashion, against a background photo: plumes of black smoke surge out of one doesn’t know where – it is Gaza, but she doesn’t say it. Superimposed on this evidence of savage air war is a banner, WIDE WORLD (in black) OF SCARY (in red.) It is as if we were entering the world of the Muffets. This sets the visual tone for what follows.

“Again?” asks Maddow. “Yes. Again.” (Implication: this has been going on for so long that you’re all sick to death of it, as am I.) This also supports a narrative, Myth #1, that this conflict has been going on for thousands of years and myth #2: is too complicated for you simpleton US viewers to understand. Both of these are lies which are meant to stifle discussion and to keep us from asking questions.

“Now, there’s a reason these headlines are, uh, so familiar. Um. Here is where Israel IS. [Large global projection] It is a tiny country, a Jewish state, right smack dab in the middle of the Arab world, surrounded on all sides by Arab nations many of whom do not recognize Israel’s right to exist

(underline here indicates Maddow’s verbal underscore.)

Well, uh, that’s not quite right. Yeah, Israel’s little. But it happens to be the world’s fourth greatest military power backed by the world’s only superpower and despite occasional protestations, supported by all of Europe. It has been handsomely underwritten by the US from Day One. According to Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington and reported in the Christian Science Monitor: from 1973 to 2002, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by today’s population, that is more than $5,700 per person.

The US gov’t was apparently convinced that in Israel it had found the proper billy club to beat any unruly natives into submission in an area that contained, as one State Department spokesman put it in 1945, “the greatest material prize in human history.” Oil. Israel also became an important ally in the Middle East during the cold war as Arab countries leaned toward the Soviet Union.

As for that ‘right to exist.’ Well, we’ll give Maddow a small break on this, since the phrase has been so bandied about that even smart journalists unwittingly use it (or maybe bot so Unwittingly). But since Maddow is so super-smart and so principled in all other arenas, we expect she’ll understand us when we say that “right to exist” isn’t something accorded to any other state on the planet. No state has a “right to exist.” States have the right to be recognized by other states. And – this is important – to be recognized within established borders. The thing about Israel is that since 1967 it has refused to declare its borders. This is because, since Ben Gurion and earlier, the Zionist aim has been total hegemony in what used to be historic Palestine. The UN in 1967 passed Resolution 242 which calls for Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders (in other words, to where it had expanded after it conquered all the Arab armies in 1948, gaining considerably more land than the UN gave it in the Partition Plan of 1947 (the Jewish minority was granted 55%, the Arab majority 45%.) But Israel has never wanted to do that, thus it has ceaselessly settled the West Bank, major bone of contention for the Palestinians and their leadership since the most fertile land and aquifers in what remained of historic Palestine after 1948 lay there.

To summarize simply: the UN, built and created in part to end colonialism and the acquisition of land by war, both supported and then condoned colonization of Palestine and the resulting expansion of the Jewish state of Israel through acquisition by war.

It is very important to understand that until Jewish European colonization of Palestine began there was no history of conflict between Jews and Muslims or between Jews and Arabs. In fact the Spanish Renaissance was the result of Jewish Muslim cooperation. It was the Catholic monarchy of Isabella and Ferdinand II who dispelled both. So please stop saying that this conflict has gone on for thousands of years.

It’s not easy killing people.

After a powerful report by CNN chief foreign correspondent Christianne Amanpour about civilians, especially children being killed by the Israeli assault, Rick completely ignores the report and focuses on the usual Israeli talking points. The mantra of Hamas hiding among civilians continues with Rick providing a platform for an IDF special forces soldier to whine about all the extraordinary measures the Israeli army must take to avoid civilian casualties.

One ton bombs dropped on apartment buildings, depleted uranium, phosphorus, and in the case of Lebanon: millions of cluster bombs left strictly for the children and other civilians of Lebanon. And they call it “purity of arms.”

This is probably due to the grief he took for allowing Mustapha Barghouti to challenge another mantra in this massacre “Hamas broke the cease fire by firing missiles into Israeli towns and Israel is defending itself.”

Rick conducted his own investigation.

Israeli army declares ancient city of Hebron a “closed military zone.”