Arabs

With all the ballyhoo about the alleged "existential" conflict between Israel and Iran, you might think that the news that Iran is trying to send an aid boat to Gaza, in the wake of the Israeli military attack on the Turkish aid boat that killed eight Turks and an American, would occasion a great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the American media.

The following is a transcript of a TRNN interview with Ralph Nader. You can view the video of the interview here.

Tony Judt's boldly titled New York Times Op-Ed, "Israel Without Clichés" (June 9, 2010), is a wolf in sheep's clothing if ever there was one.

The essay advertises itself as "cleaning house" with respect to the "tired accusations and ritual defenses" typical of Middle-East discussions, as if, in effect, it will even-handedly take on the "clichés" of both sides. In fact it merely reasserts all the "tired accusations" against Israel and dismisses all the "ritual defenses."

No. 1: Israel is being/should be delegitimized

I have been a Jewish Leader for the last 26 years. This is indisputably true because I have the plaques to prove it. I remember when I first met Thomas Friedman in Israel back then he told me that he never met a Jew in Israel who wasn't a "leader." He said he had yet to meet a Jewish Follower.

I love Peter Beinart. The last time we had breakfast, in Washington, D.C., about a year and a half ago, our conversation got so lively that I think someone asked us to quiet down. We don't see eye to eye on everything, but I've been moved by his compelling logic and sense of fairness in the many opinion pieces he has written over the years.

The knives are out for Helen Thomas.

There is more outrage in this country over some bumbling comments she recently made than over the murder of a US citizen and eight others by our ally, Israel, on the high seas. Never mind the fact that she has apologized while Israel still refuses to apologize.

Judging by any standard, Helen Thomas has enjoyed a long and illustrious career. She made history as the first female member of the White House Correspondents' Association, covering the administrations of 10 U.S. presidents, beginning with Kennedy.

The PA’s efforts to strengthen its own economy by boycotting that of Judea and Samaria is facing opposition – from Arabs.

The IDF's blockade of the Gaza Strip and its interdiction of humanitarian flotillas is ironic in view of recent history. The end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi death camps left a pool of 500,000 Jewish refugees in Europe. Many wished to emigrate to Palestine, but were barred by immigration restrictions contained in a 1939 British White Paper designed to ensure that a soon-to-be-independent Palestine "would be neither an Arab nor a Jewish state." At war's end, there were 600,000 Jews in Palestine and 1.2 million Arabs.

"Where is the balance between wisdom and force?"

I've thought of that question several times over the last few days, as accusations and counteraccusations fly over Israel's May 31 fatal commando operation against the flotilla of humanitarian aid ships attempting to break the blockade of Gaza. Nine civilians were killed, including a 19-year-old American citizen of Turkish descent.

Interior Ministry seeks to permanently legislate the temporary order preventing naturalization of Palestinians married to Israeli Arabs.