IHR News and Comment

A free public service of the Institute for Historical Review May 11, 2008

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Recalling Truman’s Fateful May 1948 Decision to Recognize Israel
Richard H. Curtiss
http://www.wrmea. com/backissues/ 0591/9105017. htm

… An “insider’s account” of the discussions leading up to these [1947-1948] decisions has been published by former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, one of the few living parties to the discussions leading to partition … Clifford’s story once again disproves the assertion that American diplomatic or military personnel ever viewed Israel as a ” strategic asset.” The foreign policy establishment, 43 years ago as today, saw Israel as a geopolitical liability that owes its US support to the extraordinary clout of its apologists within the American Jewish community and the American political system.

Why Truman Overrode State Dept. Warning on Palestine-Israel
Donald Neff
http://www.wrmea. com/backissues/ 0994/9409074. htm

It was on Sept. 22, 1947, that Loy Henderson strongly warned Secretary of State George C. Marshall that partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states was not workable and would lead to untold troubles in the future. Henderson was director of the State Department’s Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, and his memorandum … stands as one of the most perceptive analyses of the perils that partition would bring. Henderson informed Marshall that his views were shared by “nearly every member of the Foreign Service or of the department who has worked to any appreciable extent on Near Eastern problems.”

The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
Chalmers Johnson
http://mondediplo. com/2008/ 02/05military

… The United States finds itself in the anomalous position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment … Our public education system has deteriorated alarmingly. We have failed to provide health care to all our citizens and neglected our responsibilities as the world’s number one polluter. Most important, we have lost our competitiveness as a manufacturer for civilian needs, an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing.

History at its Most Brutal and Smelly
Telegraph (Britain)
http://www.telegrap h.co.uk/opinion/ main.jhtml? xml=/opinion/ 2008/04/28/ do2805.xml

… Gregory Clark, head of the economics department at the University of California, has written A Farewell to Alms, subtitled A Brief Economic History of the World. It is one of the most fascinating, and the most disturbing, historical works I have read. It seems to suggest that the gross inequality of our world has less to do with the inherent unfairness of global capitalism and more with scarcely ineradicable cultural difference … With a liberating lack of concern for political correctness, Clark identifies the richer and more aristocratic classes with the cleverest.

Israel at 60: Remembering the Palestinian Nakba
Nasser Barghouti and Bassemah Darwish - San Diego Union
http://www.signonsa ndiego.com/ uniontrib/ 20080507/ news_lz1e7darwis h.html

… While Israel celebrates 60 years since its establishment, Palestinians everywhere commemorate the “Nakba” (”Catastrophe” in Arabic) that befell them after armed Jewish militia raided their homes and expelled them. The exclusionary Zionist vision of creating a Jewish state in Palestine meant the elimination of the indigenous, “non-Jewish” population … Remembering the Nakba is even more compelling given what former President Jimmy Carter describes as an apartheid-like system that Israel has built to entangle the Palestinians …

Why We’re Not Celebrating Israel’s Anniversary
Seymour Alexander and others — The Guardian (Britain)
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/apr/ 30/israelandthep alestinians

… We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

Looking At the End of Israel?
Jonathan Power — Jordan Times
http://www.jordanti mes.com/? news=7569

… Perhaps we are witnessing the death of Israel by a thousand cuts, the attrition of conflict and the attrition of population. … There are few rewards in this life for being farsighted on political questions. The Zionists still have the bit between their teeth on the creation of a permanent Jewish state, even as they face self-destruction. A few perhaps can see it coming and among the few is Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Why Israel Can’t Survive
Michael Petrou — Maclean’s (Canada)
http://www.macleans .ca/world/ global/article. jsp?content= 20080423_ 11237_11237

… Israel will be Jewish, or democratic. It can’t be both. And if it can’t be both, the Zionist dream on which Israel is founded will end. This is the gravest threat Israel faces on the eve of its 60th anniversary. It won’t have another 60 years to address it … Unless Israel can disentangle itself from the West Bank, or is prepared to expel most of the Arabs who live there, its very future as a state that is both Jewish and democratic is doubtful. “If there is no two-state solution here, there will be continuous warfare until one of the ethnic groups between the river [Jordan] and the sea wins,” Israeli historian Benny Morris said …

The Great Syrian Nuclear Menace: Another Neocon Lie
Eric Margolis
http://www.ericmarg olis.com/ archives/ 2008/04/the_ great_syria. php

… Cheney and fellow militarists are pushing hard for attacks on Syria, Lebanon and Iran before President George Bush leaves office. Neoconservatives have flocked to Sen. John McCain’s banner - in spite of Hillary Clinton’s crude attempt to woo them by vowing to “obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel with nuclear weapons. The neocons believe US attacks on Arab states and/or Iran would prove decisive in winning the presidency for Sen. John McCain this November. A US attack on Syria could also be the first step of the long-planned US air war against Lebanon and Iran.

The Challenge Of Modern Slavery
Loretta Napoleoni
http://www.informat ionclearinghouse .info/article198 79.htm

… In the twenty-first century, slavery is booming on a global scale. According to the United Nations, slavery is growing at an unprecedented rate. Figures put global slavery at 27 million persons, a generation of modern slaves that, according to the International Labor Organization, produces yearly profits of around $31 billion. Population explosion and great migrations coupled with globalization have boosted the slave trade. “The increase in slavery is linked to globalization, ” concurs Kevin Bales, author of Ending Slavery: How We Will Free Today’s Slaves.

Weber, Fromm and Green to Address IHR Meeting, May 24
Institute for Historical Review
http://www.ihr. org/news/ may08_meetinga. shtml

Three seasoned speakers will address an IHR meeting on Saturday evening, May 24, in Orange County, southern California. Mark Weber, historian and IHR director, will speak on the `Good War’ myth of World War II, and why it’s dangerous. Paul Fromm, lecturer and free speech activist, will report on the battle against Internet censorship in Canada. Mark Green, author and former television talk show host, will speak on “Media Mischief, Anti-Semitism, and Moral Clarity.” For details, phone 949 - 631 1490.

Contact Information email: news@ihr.org phone: 949-631-1490 web: http://www.ihr. org/