Love and self-infatuation

Paul Rosenberg has a post on Open Left talking about the changes in the media environment for Israel. He ends thus

Let's put it bluntly: The "pro-Israel" crowd is not pro-Israel at all. They are pro their own narcassistic self-infatuation. They do not love Israel any more than a stalker loves a celebrity. Neither the love nor the object is real. It is self-centered, self-obsessed infatuation that is above all a cowardly, terrified retreat from the real world. And vitally important as the emergence of J Street has already proven itself to be, it represents, so far, mere baby steps at the beginning of a long pathway to recovery. Recovery from a form of addiction that deludes itself into thinking it is love.

The stalker does not love. The addict does not love. The addict kills what it thinks it loves. The addict does not know the meaning of the word "love." The addict knows nothing-nothing of themselves, nothing of love, nothing of what they claim to love.

No wonder they kill everything in their path. No wonder they make a wilderness and call it peace.

Well said.

Torture and its consequences

Dahlia Lithwick points to an important consequence of the admission by Susan Crawford, the convening authority for the Guantanamo Military commission, former chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, former Inspector General of the Department of Defense, former General Counsel for the Department of the Army, that the US had indeed tortured a prisoner.

"We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.

Not indulged in activities that "could produce effects reaching the level of torture," but plain outright "tortured." Having a senior government official declare that his treatment met the legal definition of torture leads immediately to the next step. As Lithwick points out under Article 4 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.

Furthermore

Upon being satisfied, after an examination of information available to it, that the circumstances so warrant, any State Party in whose territory a person alleged to have committed any offence referred to in article 4 is present shall take him into custody or take other legal measures to ensure his presence.

It is incumbent, by law, on the Justice department that they pursue criminal charges against those who committed torture and who were complicit in the torture. This is not a choice that the Justice department or the President-elect can make. They are required under the laws of the land to prosecute the torturers and those complicit in the torture. If, of course, we are a nation of laws.
(h/t Obsidian Wings via The SideShow )

Thomas Friedman - boy genius

Roman Hruska, senator from Nebraska, while defending the nomination of Carswell to the US Supreme court against charges that Carswell was of mediocre intellect said

Even if he were mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance?

Thomas Friedman clearly demonstrates that the New York Times is a fan of Roman Hruska. Thanks to Donald Johnson, a commenter at A Tiny Revolution, we have this gem. In one sentence Friedman claims that Israel was not directly targeting civilians and that Israel's purpose was to target civilians. Note the sentence and read it twice.

Israel’s counterstrategy was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large.

And read it again

Israel’s counterstrategy was to use its Air Force to pummel Hezbollah and, while not directly targeting the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined, to inflict substantial property damage and collateral casualties on Lebanon at large.

And then just to make sure he contradicts his own claim that Israel was not directly targeting "the Lebanese civilians with whom Hezbollah was intertwined,"

It was not pretty, but it was logical. Israel basically said that when dealing with a nonstate actor, Hezbollah, nested among civilians, the only long-term source of deterrence was to exact enough pain on the civilians — the families and employers of the militants — to restrain Hezbollah in the future.

As Donald Johnson puts it:

This is a logical contradiction worthy of Godel. Captain Kirk ended at least two robot threats to his ship saying stuff like this. It's just awe-inspiring what comes out of that man's mind (I use the term loosely).

Tail wagging dog

The White House is denying Israeli prime minister Olmert's claim that he ordered George W. Bush to abstain from a UN Security Council resolution that the US helped draft. From an IPS report by Daniel Luban at AntiWar.com

Olmert's comments were made in Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city that has been the target of rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip.

According to Olmert, he called the White House upon hearing of the upcoming UN Security Council resolution. "I said, 'Get me President Bush on the phone.' They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care: 'I need to talk to him now.' He got off the podium and spoke to me," Olmert said, according to multiple media reports.

As a result of his conversation with President Bush, Olmert claimed, the president called Rice and forced her to abstain from voting on the measure, which she herself had helped author.

"He gave an order to the secretary of state and she did not vote in favor of it – a resolution she cooked up, phrased, organized, and maneuvered for. She was left pretty shamed and abstained on a resolution she arranged," Olmert said.

The Security Council resolution passed by a vote of 14 to 0, with the U.S. the only abstention.

Gaza coverage

Here are some sources for coverage of events in Gaza.
The Real News
Democracy Now
Lawrence of Cyberia
Lenin's Tomb
AntiWar.com
Counterpunch

Hope and despair

I don't know the provenance of this video or when it was shot but this young woman inspires hope and despair. Hope for her bravery and despair - well watch it.

(via Cannonfire)

You can still view the video at Cannonfire.

Sometimes a tiny bit of the truth leaks out

Via Informed Comment a news report from the CBC.