I will be co-hosting an informal blogger session during J Street’s national conference in Washington DC. The event will be on Monday, Oct. 26th at 12:30pm in the Grand Hyatt’s McPhearson Sq. Rm. We will feature bloggers like Phil Weiss, Helena Cobban, Jerry Haber, Max Blumenthal, me and Laila el-Haddad. Pls. join us.
Updates from richard RSS
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richard
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richard
Hollywood rabbi Marvin Hier’s glitzy new Museum of Tolerance to be built on an old Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem betrays an elementary ignorance of Islam. In an interactive map on the Museum’s website there are numerous Jewish and Christian sacred sites. Only the Dome of the Rock is displayed for Muslim holy sites. Missing are Al Aqsa mosque and the Mamilla cemetery which will be desecrated in order to build the Museum.
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richard
American Jews denounce Gaza massacre. Verso Books, publisher of A Time to Speak Out, Jerry Haber of Magnes Zionist and I have created a statement of protest by American Jews against Israel’s war against Gaza. Please urge any Jewish Americans you know to consider signing it. Our goal is for it to be published in The Nation.
Signatures should be e mailed to this address.
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richard
Hasbara Lives!
I’ve uncovered an official Israeli foreign ministry campaign to manipulate media coverage of the Gaza campaign. It involves recruiting pro Israel volunteers to flood targeted newspaper websites and comment threads deemed anti-Israel in order to slant coverage in a direction more favorable to Israel.
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richard
The AP has written a great investigative report documenting the theft of a particular plot of Palestinian land by West Bank settlers. I call my post on this, Anatomy of Settler Land Theft. Warning: it will make you very angry.
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richard
You know how bad things are among Islamophobes, when one Muslim-hater says he’s better than another because he doesn’t hate the religion as much as the other guy. This is the case with Daniel Pipes who spoke at an Israeli conference of far-right “anti-jihadis” and noted that he’s actually more “moderate” in his anti-Muslim position because Geert Wilders thinks there’s no such thing as a “moderate” Muslim, while he, Pipes, thinks there is.
For more on this wild collqouy, check this out.
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richard
Rick Warren not only invokes a fatwa approving the assassination of Ahmadinejad, but he’s one of the keynote speakers at the MPAC national conference on December 20th. I hope he gets eaten like those ancient Christians in the lion’s den. What effrontery to endorse offing a Muslim leader one day & then sailing into a Muslim convention the next as if you’ve said nothing in particular that anyone should take offense at.
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richard
I’ve been debating seemingly hundreds of my blog readers and others attacking me at Comment is Free, the Jerusalem Post, Harry’s Place and Engage, who dispute my contention that the Mumbai terrorists were intending to attack an Israeli target when they killed at Chabad House (since Kasab, the surviving terrorist, said they were avenging Palestinian suffering). The distinction I’m trying to make is that many Jews believe this incident signals a mounting Muslim holy war against Jews, rather than a sign of Muslim grievance over the ongoing failure to resolve the Israeli Arab conflict. I’m hoping to argue the latter rather than the former.
I thought I was making a cogent pt. until I read this disturbing column in the NY Times which claims that Lashkar IS an out & out anti-Semitic outfit which DOES want to foment holy war against the Jews. I wonder what’s your take on this & whether you anyone currently living in Pakistan has anything to say on the subject.
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richard
So you thought you Muslims were the only ones with jihadis of your own…Not so. We Jews have our own brand. They’re the ones who tell you the only way to deal with Muslims is to match their hate with our own. To match their violence with our own. To match their terror with our own. The Hebron pogromists are Jewish jihadis.
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richard
Extremists, whether Jew or Muslim both speak the language of hate. And their hate and violence has enormous hypnotic power. We must resist it.
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richard
“Something’s happenin’ here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.”
In Tikun Olam, I report that The N.Y. Times reports that Obama will make a major foreign policy address in a major Arab capital in his first 100 days. Wouldn’t it be something if he commits himself to realizing the goals of the Saudi peace initiative before the end of his first term (or sooner)?
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richard
Big news on Clarion Fund, the rancid non-profit behind Obsession and Third Jihad. Turns out Clarion had concealed the identity of both producers of Obsession behind fake names. One of the producer’s real name is Erik Werth, a former Clinton-era undersecretary of the treasury responsible for the Secret Service. Only problem was Erik got himself arrested for trying to impersonate a Secret Service agent once.
Also, Clarion hired a Republican PR firm to market Third Jihad. The PR consultant arranging for west coast screenings was Rudy Giuliani’s former campaign director in California.
Small world. Keep in mind that Clarion is a 501c3 which isn’t allowed to endorse or oppose political candidates. Right.
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richard
The Third Jihad, spawn of of the devil Obsession, premieres October 5th. One of my blog readers calls it “Obsession on steroids.” A reporter at Inter Press Service I was talking to today likened it to an anti-Muslim version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
If you hated Obsession and wondered who the hell is the Clarion Fund and why do they hate Muslims so, you owe it to yrself to become aware of the latest Muslim smear.
I’d like to find out more about the Muslim “star” of Third Jihad, M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder and president of the American Islamic Forum. He’s a strange bird: a Muslim, neocon, libertarian, Republican.
More at Radical Islam Wants YOU…and America.
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richard
The latest on Obsession, the anti-Muslim film…an anti-Obama political consultant screened the film in Dearborn, home to a large Muslim-American community. The consultant refuses to say who paid him.
And to combat claims that 28 million copies of the DVD were distributed to help John McCain in the election, the Clarion Fund (the film’s sponsor) has hired a top N.Y. Democratic political consultant. Curiouser & curiouser…
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richard
Israeli Rightists Wound Ze’ev Sternhell in Bomb Attack
Haaretz reports that distinguished Hebrew University political scientist Zeev Sternhell was lightly injured by a pipebomb blast at his home. Police found flyers nearby which offered a $300,000 reward for anyone who killed a member of Peace Now:
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richard
Is the Republican Jewish Coalition Obsessed?
I think we may be zeroing in on the secret funder behind the distribution of 28 million copies of the virulently anti-Muslim “documentary,” Obsession. The evidence is circumstantial. I haven’t been able to ask the source for reasons I’ll explain in a bit.
But consider the following:
1. The Republican Jewish Coalition admits it funded at least 750 push poll calls to Jewish voters in swing states testing out which lies and smears would be most effective against Barack Obama. I’ve already reported the types of “questions” asked. But The Forward yesterday came up with a few new, and even more infamous ones. One caller asked how the voter would feel about Obama if he knew Mahmoud Ahmadinejad endorsed him; or if Obama’s advisors were “pro-Palestinian.”
2. The RJC is flooding Jewish media like Haaretz and The Forward with sleazy ads equating Obama with Pat Buchanan and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (see representative image).
3. Haim Dov Beliak of Jews on First reports he has received a copy of Obsession mailed to him as part of a rabbinic mailing list by…you guessed it–the RJC.
Considering the other dirty tricks the RJC has ADMITTED to being involved with lately it seems only a small step from that to circulating 28 million copies of Obsession. But even if the RJC admits to its participation, it’s not really the RJC that’s funding it since the group receives its funding from a rather narrow group of arch right-wing Jewish donors like Sheldon Adelson.
More at Tikun Olam…