dagblog - Comments for "Netanyahu: America's Favorite Thug"

Thanks Danny. Best wishes to

HSG — Tue, 03 Jan 2017 01:37:42 +0000

In reply to I agreed with the piece you

Thanks Danny. Best wishes to you and yours as well of course!

Thanks Danny, enjoy the day

Bruce Levine — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 16:05:05 +0000

In reply to Thanks for taking the time to

Thanks Danny, enjoy the day and year as well. Just to note that Kerry reiterated the only solution with respect to the religious sites in the Old City, and that is joint administration. Has the advantage and disadvantage of making sense.

I agreed with the piece you

Danny Cardwell — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:59:29 +0000

In reply to Danny - this is a good and

I agreed with the piece you wrote following AIPAC. That was one area where Hillary tried to get to the right of Trump on. I believe we can be critical and supportive at the same time. I don't think we will have any constructive criticisms coming from the Trump administration. I hope you have a great day and a better new year!

Thanks for taking the time to

Danny Cardwell — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:55:54 +0000

In reply to I appreciate the your work

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate it! Maybe I needed to say access to the Mosque. I really don't know how we can appease all of the interested parties. I sincerely thank you for your addendum. This is treacherous territory. I don't want Palestinian suffering replaced with Jewish suffering. It's too trendy on the left to lump the masses of Jewish people in with the current government, but we should try to mindfully avoid that trap. Have a great day!

I appreciate the your work

Bruce Levine — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:42:54 +0000

In reply to Netanyahu: America's Favorite Thug

I appreciate your work here Danny, thanks. Have personally taken quite a bit of incoming after taking the position that, although I think it's fair to question the wisdom of an 11th hour resolution like this and while I don't believe the UN is fair to Israel, I understand the president's position and agree with him. Simply put, supporters of Israel are being held hostage by the most hardcore, ideologically or religiously-driven settlement proponents. Also simple is the notion that there is a plain distinction between supporting Israel's security and supporting unfettered settlement growth having nothing to do with security.

One correction I think is in order You write of disputes over access to the Al Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount, and that Israel at some point occupied that space. Not sure what you mean. While not undisputed, it is the position of many that prior to 1948 and from at least the middle of the 19th century (and predating the modern zionist movement beginning in the 1880s), Jews constituted a majority of the population of Jerusalem. In 1948, every single Jewish resident of the Old City of Jerusalem was expelled by British-led Jordanian forces (in what we now refer to as an ethnic cleansing). Much of the ancient Jewish quarter, including centuries-old synagogues, was reduced to rubble (after the fighting). And no Jew visited the Western Wall, which abuts Al Aqsa, between 1948 and 1967, despite it being Judaism's holiest physical site. When Israel defeated the Jordanians in the 6-Day War, after Jordan foolishly entered the war despite pleas from Israel to stay out of it, Israel retook the Old City along with the entire West Bank. But it never occupied Al Aqsa/Temple Mount in any permanent sense of that word. Al Aqsa remains in Muslim clerical control; Jews are not allowed to pray there. It's anything but a perfect situation, but it is not an occupation of Al Aqsa by the Israelis.

Note: Edited in order to acknowledge that 19th century Jerusalem population data are not census-based or scientific in any real-sense of those concepts.

Danny - this is a good and

HSG — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:18:05 +0000

In reply to Netanyahu: America's Favorite Thug

Danny - this is a good and importance piece. I agree wholeheartedly with your criticisms of Netanyahu. President Obama and John Kerry did about as good as they could I think in trying unsuccessfully to cajole Israel to forsake its cruel and self-defeating policies - especially the settlements - towards the Palestinians. Clinton's outright rejection of those policies in her speech to AIPAC when she called for us to take our relationship with Israel "to the next level" hurt her among progressives and possibly African-Americans.