The Civic Platform - A Political Journal of Ideas and Analysis

A free public service of the Institute for Historical Review June 28, 2008

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The Two Israels
Nicholas D. Kristof - The New York Times
http://www.iht. com/articles/ 2008/06/23/ opinion/edkristo f.php

To travel through the West Bank and Gaza these days feels like traveling through Israeli colonies … It is here in the Palestinian territories that you see the worst side of Israel: Jewish settlers stealing land from Palestinians (almost one-third of settlement land is actually privately owned by Palestinians) ; Palestinian women giving birth at checkpoints because Israeli soldiers won’t let them through (four documented cases last year); the diversion of water from Palestinians. (Israelis get almost five times as much water per capita as Palestinians. )

Morality and World War Two: Trotskyite vs. Christian
Patrick J. Buchanan
http://www.worldnet daily.com/ index.php? pageId=67869

… According to British historians, however, Churchill ordered the initial bombing of German cities on his first day in office, the very first day of the Battle of France, on May 10, 1940 … “So far as air strategy was concerned,” adds British historian A.J.P. Taylor, “the British outdid German frightfulness first in theory, later in practice, and a nation which claimed to be fighting for a moral cause gloried in the extent of its immoral acts.”

Israel Prodding U.S. To Attack Iran
CBS News
http://www.cbsnews. com/stories/ 2008/06/24/ eveningnews/ main4206201. shtml

Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen leaves Tuesday night on an overseas trip that will take him to Israel, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin. The trip has been scheduled for some time but U.S. officials say it comes just as the Israelis are mounting a full court press to get the Bush administration to strike Iran’s nuclear complex. CBS consultant Michael Oren says Israel doesn’t want to wait for a new administration … Israel’s message is simple: If you don’t, we will. Israel held a dress rehearsal for a strike earlier this month, but military analysts say Israel

The Real McCain
The Observer (Britain)
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ 2008/jun/ 22/johnmccain. uselections2008

… But there is another, very different side to John McCain. Away from the headlines and the stirring speeches, a less familiar figure lurks. It is a McCain who plans to fight on in Iraq for years to come and who might launch military action against Iran. This is the McCain whose campaign and career has been riddled with lobbyists and special interests. It is a McCain who has sided with religious and political extremists who believe Islam is evil and gays are immoral. It is a McCain who wants to appoint extreme conservatives to the Supreme Court and see abortion banned. This McCain has a notoriously volatile temper that has scared some senior members of his own party.

Hitler Privately Joked About Colleagues
The Telegraph (Britain)
http://www.telegrap h.co.uk/news/ worldnews/ europe/germany/ 2185507/Adolf- Hitler-told- bad-jokes- about-Nazi- friends.html

Adolf Hitler took time out from running Nazi Germany to make jokes at the expense of his henchmen, a new book claims. The dictator would often break from the serious nature of waging his campaign to “pull the legs” of his entourage of generals and hangers on. His favourite victim was the Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering, who was notoriously fond of awarding himself medals and decorations. According to the book by the last surviving member of his bunker, Hitler recounted how Mrs Goering found her husband waving a baton over his underwear in the bedroom and asked him what he was doing.

Don’t Miss The Train
William S. Lind
http://www.military .com/opinion/ 0,15202,170341, 00.html

Improbably, an opportunity has arisen in Iraq for the U.S. to attain two of its most important goals, namely obtaining some legitimacy for the al-Maliki “government” and getting American troops out. This could be the last international express leaving Baghdad Central Station, and we should be on it. The opportunity arisies from a breakdown in negotiations to draw up a status of forces agreement and a so-called “security framework,” which is an (unequal) alliance in all but name.

Russia Condemns `Rewriting’ of World War Two History
Reuters
http://www.reuters. com/article/ gc07/idUSL227046 5420080622

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev condemned on Sunday what he described as attempts to rewrite wartime history — an attack the Kremlin said was aimed at Ukraine and the three Baltic states. In a joint declaration marking the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Medvedev and Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko denounced a “politicised approach to history”. Their countries “strongly condemn any attempt at rewriting history and revision of the results of World War Two,” they said.

Israel Training to Attack Iran
Peter Hirschberg — Inter Press Service
http://www.ipsnews. net/news. asp?idnews= 42953

Israeli defence experts were not surprised by a New York Times report over the weekend that the Israeli air force had recently conducted what appeared to be a rehearsal for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel, the experts say, has never taken the military option off the table and they therefore expect the air force to be training for a strike in Iran.

The Coming Catastrophe? : US Contingency Plans for Attacking Iran
David DeBatto — Global Research
http://www.globalre search.ca/ index.php? context=va&aid=9437

… It’s no secret that the U.S. is currently putting the finishing touches on several contingency plans for attacking Iranian nuclear and military facilities. With our ground forces stretched to the breaking point in Iraq and Afghanistan, none of the most likely scenarios involve a ground invasion. Not that this administration wouldn’t prefer to march into the seat of Shiite Islam behind a solid, moving line of M1 Abrams tanks and proclaim the country for democracy. The fact is that even the President knows we can’t pull that off any more so he and the neo-cons will have to settle for Shock and Awe Lite.

First-Rate Talks Mark Successful IHR Meeting
Institute for Historical Review
http://www.ihr. org/news/ may08meeting_ report.html

First-rate talks by three seasoned speakers marked a memorable IHR meeting on May 24, 2008, in southern California. Paul Fromm reported with insight and humor on the battle for on-line free speech in Canada. Mark Weber, in a closely reasoned and well-referenced lecture, dismantled the myth of World War II as a “good war” clash between virtue and evil. Mark Green explained why the dread label of “anti-Semitism” is inaccurate and bogus.

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