The Civic Platform - A Political Journal of Ideas and Analysis

A free public service of the Institute for Historical Review July 29, 2008

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~

Your tax-deductible help is needed. Please donate.

Rendering Public Opinion Irrelevant
Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
http://www.salon. com/opinion/ greenwald/ 2008/07/20/ israel/index. html

… The worldwide consensus is crystal clear — citizens want their governments to be neutral and even-handed in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, not tilted towards either side. And that consensus is shared not just by a majority of American citizens, but by the overwhelming majority. Few political views, particularly on controversial issues, attract more than 70% support among American citizens. But the proposition that the U.S. government should be even-handed — rather than tilting towards Israel — attracts that much support.

Howard Berman: Profile of a Powerful Pro-Israel Politician
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
http://www.jpost. com/servlet/ Satellite? cid=121413266371 4&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle% 2FShowFull

Howard Berman likes to joke that he became a Zionist before he became a Democrat. Aside from the moment when he learned that president Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died, the 67-year-old congressman’ s earliest political memory is of being at a rally at a Los Angeles stadium celebrating the birth of Israel in 1948. Today, as the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he’s in a position to do more than wave flags and cheer. He has the helm of one of the most powerful bodies shaping US foreign policy, and he says his decision to run for Congress and focus on international relations while in office was intimately connected to his Jewish background and ties to the Jewish state.

Obama: The Democratic `War President’
Eric Margolis
http://www.ericmarg olis.com/ archives/ 2008/07/obama_ the_democ. php

Barack Obama wants to withdraw US troops from Iraq and send them to Afghanistan, which he calls the real front on the `war on terror.’ He also has repeated threats to attack Pakistan `if necessary.’ One understands Obama’s need to sound macho. Rival John McCain has been beating his chest, proclaiming, `I know how to win wars.’ Polls show Americans trust McCain three to one over Obama as a war leader. Unfortunately, recent US presidents seem to require small military conflicts to prove their political virility … Obama and McCain believe Afghan resistance can be crushed by more brute force. They are wrong. More western troops and more bombed villages will mean fiercer Afghan resistance.

A Brazen Evil
Justin Raimondo
http://www.antiwar. com/justin/ ?articleid= 13168

Evil usually hides its face, because the sight of it repulses all but the depraved. However, in the case of Benny Morris, writing in Friday’s New York Times, we see something new: a proud evil, glorying in pure malevolence. His piece is a cold, calculated attempt to simultaneously shock and intimidate, one that succeeds at the former but fails miserably at the latter. Here’s the shocker, really a double jolt: “Israel,” he avers, “will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months.” Either that, he writes, or else Israel will eventually have to launch “a preemptive nuclear strike.” His message to the West: take out Iran, or we’ll nuke ‘em!

Using Bombs to Stave Off War
Benny Morris –The New York Times
http://www.iht. com/articles/ 2008/07/18/ opinion/edmorris .php

Israel will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months - and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country’s nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war - either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange shortly after Iran gets the bomb.

Israeli Soldier Shoots Palestinian Prisoner
The Guardian (Britain)
http://www.guardian .co.uk/world/ video/2008/ jul/21/palestini anshooting

An Israeli occupation army soldier earlier this month shot from a close range and injured a handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee, an Israeli human rights group revealed Sunday. According to B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the incident took place on July 7, in Nil’in, a village in the central West Bank.

Running the Narrows
William S. Lind
http://www.military .com/opinion/ 0,15202,171949, 00.html

… In foreign affairs, most of the rest of the world is now hoping to see America take a fall. We have alienated the Russians, irritated the Chinese and dragged the Europeans into a “war against terror” that finds little support outside ruling elites. Virtually every European public would vote to pull out of Afghanistan tomorrow if given the chance. The elites go along only because of a residual fear of “losing the Americans” … All the public wants are more nostrums, more empty promises that somehow Big Brother will enable them to party on.

An Interview With Iran’s Only Jewish Parliament Member
Trish Schuh - Counterpunch
http://www.counterp unch.org/ schuh07142008. html

Morris Motamed is the only Jewish member of Parliament in Iran’s Majlis, and is the official representative of the largest (25,000) Jewish community in the Middle East diaspora outside of Israel … But now those ties are under strain. President Ahmedinejad has repeatedly offended the Iranian Jewish community with his attacks on Israel and the Holocaust, and there is worry for the community’s safety if Israel attacks Iran. Concerns abound that the Jewish community could be pressured as they were during the Israel-Hezbollah War of 2006.

Across the US, Grave Robbers Pilfer Metal for Quick Cash
The Associated Press
http://www.cnn. com/2008/ CRIME/07/ 17/grave. robbers.ap/ index.html

Grave robbers, a curse of burial grounds for centuries, are back for new valuables: metal ornaments that can be melted down for quick cash as copper and other metal prices climb … “It’s a crisis of the times,” said Ruth Shapleigh-Brown, executive director of the Connecticut Gravestone Network, which monitors cemeteries for theft and vandalism. “People are finding a way to make money.” Across the country, police have reported mounting scrap metal prices translating into increased thefts that range from manhole covers and church downspouts to telephone and power lines.

Germans Seek an Iron Cross Fit for Heroes
The New York Times
http://www.iht. com/articles/ 2008/03/19/ europe/cross. php

The German army has no awards for courage, only for attendance. But calls to revive the famed Iron Cross to fill that gap have exposed how Nazi atrocities still haunt modern-day life in Germany. As allies, including the United States, are pressing Germany to send more troops into the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan, not only does the German Bundeswehr lack medals of valour, nor does it have anything for wounded soldiers.

Oil or `The Lobby’: A Debate on the Iraq War

http://www.realjewn ews.com/? p=186

An interview-debate on the motives and forces behind the US invasion of Iraq. Opposing views are presented by Mark Weber, director of the IHR, and by Stephen Zunes, professor at the University of San Francisco. Brother Nathanael Kapner arranged the exchange.

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