In 2002 when neo-cons within the U.S. military and inside the Bush White House worked hard to deceive Congress and the American people into cheering for an unprovoked attack against the non-threatening nation of Iraq, steady and repetitive neo-connish messaging cleared the pathway to aggressive war.

Not only was Saddam Hussein's Iraq not a threat to the U.S. in 2002-2003….after a decade of harsh sanctions mainly affecting non-military Iraqis….but Hussein's military capabilities had never returned to pre-Iraq War I levels. The con by the…umm….neo-cons was to convince Americans who didn't know any better, and were still filled with vengeful hate from 9-11, that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were about to devastate the east coast of the U.S., as well as Israel and Europe…or all three simultaneously.

In 21st century America, it's all about the messaging. Veracity has nothing to do with any of it.

The Iraq Sequel.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that sanctions so far had not caused Iran's leaders to change their pursuit of nuclear capabilities.

But he said some Iranian officials appear more willing to conduct an attack in the United States if they feel threatened, citing last year's alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

"The 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States shows that some Iranian officials – probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime," Clapper said in his Senate testimony.

"We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas," he said.

Insert 2002 Bushie claim here. "Smoking gun-mushroom cloud", "grave and gathering danger", "there's no doubt Saddam is reconstituting blah, blah effing blah"…..you know how it works, or should by now. But Americans in the beginning of the 21st century have become a caricature of a "short attention span theater" skit…..can't recall what happened last week, let alone what happened almost a decade ago.

And so the deceptive and duplicitous neo-con message machine cranks up again. This time in order to dupe U.S. citizens into accepting yet another military assault on yet another middle eastern sovereign nation.

How it's done.

In October of 2011, U.S. officials launched a new propaganda message against Iran claiming that Iran planned an assassination attempt of the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Why Iran would risk nuclear annihilation at the hands of the U.S. and/or Israel over some cockamamie Mexican drug cartel/Quds Force story of clusterf*ckness…..was never explained.

Alireza Nader, an Iran analyst at the Rand Corporation, found it "difficult" to believe that Khamenei or Suleimani would order such an attack that "would put all of Iran's objectives and strategies at risk".

Reza Sayyah from CNN questioned the plausibility of the claim by asking, "Did an elite branch of Iran's military handpick a divorced, 56-year-old Iranian-American used-car salesman from Texas to hire a hitman from a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the ambassador to Saudi Arabia by blowing up a bomb in a crowded restaurant in Washington?"

Sure it's ridiculous…but then Saddam Hussein plotting to spray anthrax down on the eastern seaboard of the U.S….was a ridiculous notion as well…and yet that deceptive and ridiculous story reached the homes of millions of post-9-11, still-feeling-vengeful Americans.

See how DNI Chief James Clapper carefully constructs his misleading message meant to gin up support for a U.S. attack of Iran?

"The 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States shows that some Iranian officials – probably including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,"

Using the laughable, really, claim that a used car salesman from Texas, allegedly hiring a Mexican drug-cartel hitman, was about to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S…..and that the highest leaders in Iran were behind the laughable story….using that as his springboard of disinformation, Clapper then implies that Iranian leaders are…"probably", "more willing"…to do what?

"conduct an attack in the U.S."

See? Just like Saddam was about to do in 2002.

Of course, when disinformation…like Saddam spraying anthrax over New York using small prop planes…. doesn't carry quite the deceptive punch neo-cons are looking for…any DNI can always fall back on the old American standby….

"We're doing a lot with the Israelis, working together with them. And of course for them, this is, as they have characterized, is an existential threat," Clapper said.

I wonder if Iran considers the 200 nuclear-tipped warheads the Israeli government has pointed in their direction to be, you know, "an existential threat"?

The WTF-ness of this latest propaganda salvo ginning up support for an eventual military attack against Iran is found in this Clapper comment….

"We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that better position it to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so," he said in written testimony. "We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons."

Iran does not have a nuclear weapon right now and Clapper admits that he and his smart guys don't know if Iran will "eventually decide" to make one or not, but those wily Iranian leaders are, you know, keeping their "options" open…..so who knows, right?

All I can conclude about this clumsy, juvenile attempt to rah-rah the nation into another act of pre-emptive military aggression….is that the militaristic neo-cons who work so hard to deceive us into slaughtering more Muslims…..are in need of better script writers.

Imagine members of Hezbollah, recognized by the U.S. and Israel as a "terrorist" group, covertly entering Israel and over time assassinating a half a dozen of Israel's most distinguished science professors, one by one. James Bond movie style assassinations. Assassinations where a "terrorist" rides a motorcycle alongside a car carrying the targeted Israeli science professor and places a bomb with a magnetized base on the side of the car, and then speeds off.

If members of Hezbollah carried out such spy movie activities against Israeli science professors, is there any doubt that Israel and their lone defender in the world, the United States, would be calling those assassinations "terrorist acts?" Further, if Hezbollah extremists did such a thing wouldn't Israel and the United States be calling for reprisal the moment it happened?

According to a story out yesterday, a fourth Iranian scientist involved in Iran's nuclear program was assassinated Wednesday. The fourth. A fifth assassination attempt against the current head of Iran's atomic agency failed in November 2010.

A sixth key figure in Iran’s military program, Maj. Gen. Hassan Moghaddam, an Iranian missile expert who was charged with “ensuring self-sufficiency” in armaments, was killed in November in a huge explosion at the Bid Ganeh base outside Tehran.

Liars for hire in both Israel and the United States vehemently denied any complicity in these assassinations.

However, consider these comments by Israeli officials concerning the assassinations….

“Whoever carried out this attack, there is no doubt that it is positive, and should be seen as such,” the official said.

“I don’t know who took revenge on the Iranian scientist, but I am definitely not shedding a tear.”

On Tuesday, Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that 2012 would be a “critical year” for Iran — in part because of “things that happen to it unnaturally.”

“Many bad things have been happening to Iran in the recent period,” said Mickey Segal, a former director of the Israeli military’s Iranian intelligence department. “Iran is in a situation where pressure on it is mounting, and the latest assassination joins the pressure that the Iranian regime is facing.”

Keep in mind here that there is still no evidence that Iran is working towards building nuclear weapons. None. Iran still claims that their pursuit is for energy purposes.

Also keep in mind that Israel, the nation who is most likely responsible for all the Iranian scientist assassinations, has somewhere between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons stockpiled. Iran has none.

In spite of there being no evidence that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapon, rigid sanctions have been placed on the Iranian government and the Iranian people by "non-terrorist" nations. Iranian banks have been hardest hit by these sanctions. Before the U.S. attacked Iraq in 2003, Iraq had suffered under a decade of such harsh economic sanctions. Iraq didn't have nuclear bomb capabilities either….even though many, many bloodthirsty westerners made that claim.

What about the question of whether or not Israel should be considered a "sponsor of terror" or a "terrorist nation" for conducting targeted assassinations against select Iranian nuclear scientists? Is Israel in a declared war with Iran? If not, what should assassinating five important scientists inside Iran be called? Freedom fighting? Self-defense?

Ever since George W. Bush floated his "axis of evil" nonsense, including Iran in the trio of nations marked for invasion and/or regime change, it has only been a matter of when the U.S. and Israel, and any other weak European nations the U.S. can blackmail into helping them, will launch their attack into Tehran.

What seems odd to me is that all of this is considered part and parcel of some fictitious "war on terror."

So I ask….based on the five successful Israeli terrorist assassination attacks against Iranian nuclear scientists….carried out inside Iran……who is the "terrorist nation" or "nations?"

Who was the terrorist nation when Israeli commandos assassinated unarmed, humanitarian volunteers on Turkish flotillas? Who was the terrorist nation when Bebe ordered the slaughter of Gazans in late 2008?

And now, who is the terrorist nation…the state sponsor of terror…in the assassinations of five Iranian nuclear scientists?

Not a trick question.

According to the U.S. Senate in a vote of 93-7….the U.S. president has the power to declare any U.S. citizen an "enemy of the state", order the indefinite detention of that U.S. citizen, order the assassination of that U.S. citizen, or place that U.S. citizen in Guantanamo to never be heard from again.
All of these new found presidential powers violate the 5th and 6th amendments…..

"No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

These claims of extra-constitutional powers of the presidency have all been justified since 9-11 on the basis of: "the Constitution is not a suicide compact"…or something similar. Which is supposed to mean that the Constitution, with all its prohibitions on presidential power and guarantees of rights for citizens, is a nice, quaint document and all….but we really can't afford those rights and prohibitions right now. If those rights and prohibitions are continued as outlined by the Framers, it has been claimed repeatedly by our Leaders since 9-11, then those leaders will not be able to guarantee our safety.

Other more cynical and jaded Leaders, like Don Rumsfeld for example, have instructed us that freedoms and constitutional rights are basically meaningless, you know, if you're dead. Translation: constitutional rights and presidential prohibitions are optional during "the long war", "the endless war."

How long will "the long war" continue? How long will Americans be deprived of their rights? How long will the executive branch claim extra-constitutional powers to assassinate U.S. citizens? How long will the U.S. president claim that it's necessary to indefinitely detain anyone, including U.S. citizens, in offshore gulags without rights to due process?

No one knows. That's the benefit of "a long war."

Our permanent military state has arrived….and it's never going away. 10 years and counting and there are no signs that "the long war" is anywhere near over…..Iran, obviously, is our next target. There's much more to destroy in the middle east. There are many more regimes which need changing.

Along similar lines, I was not shocked…but a little surprised….to learn from this Max Blumenthal article that Israeli Border Police and "a unit from the military of Bahrain" assisted the training of U.S. SWAT teams during Urban Shield 2011 held in October in California.

Why were trainers from Israel and Bahrain assisting our civil law enforcers?

At the time, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department was preparing for an imminent confrontation with the nascent “Occupy” movement that had set up camp in downtown Oakland,…

Although this "training" went on just a few weeks ago….it was not reported anywhere in U.S. media….

Training alongside the American police departments at Urban Shield was the Yamam, an Israeli Border Police unit that claims to specialize in “counter-terror” operations but is better known for its extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders and long record of repression and abuses in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Urban Shield also featured a unit from the military of Bahrain, which had just crushed a largely non-violent democratic uprising by opening fire on protest camps and arresting wounded demonstrators when they attempted to enter hospitals. While the involvement of Bahraini soldiers in the drills was a novel phenomenon, the presence of quasi-military Israeli police – whose participation in Urban Shield was not reported anywhere in US media – reflected a disturbing but all-too-common feature of the post-9/11 American security landscape.

I'm not quite sure why the U.S. would want civil law enforcement agencies to imitate the storm trooper tactics of intolerant states, but apparently, we are. Blumentahl calls this "the Israelification of America's security apparatus."

Interestingly enough, even the new torture tactics used by U.S. intelligence officials at the direction of George W. Bush after 9-11 came from Israeli influences…

Karen Greenberg, the director of Fordham School of Law’s Center on National Security and a leading expert on terror and civil liberties, said the Israeli influence on American law enforcement is so extensive it has bled into street-level police conduct. “After 9/11 we reached out to the Israelis on many fronts and one of those fronts was torture,” Greenberg told me. “The training in Iraq and Afghanistan on torture was Israeli training. There’s been a huge downside to taking our cue from the Israelis and now we’re going to spread that into the fabric of everyday American life? It’s counter-terrorism creep. And it’s exactly what you could have predicted would have happened.”

Yes, and The Reverend did predict just such counter-terrorism creep. If constitutional prohibitions on our Leaders can be discarded so easily, if constitutional guarantees to U.S. citizens can be denied so quickly and so easily after 9-11……how can this blatant sense of lawlessness NOT creep into civilian law enforcement.

And so it has.

Not sure about others, but I, for one, do not have any desire to see the U.S. turned into Israel. While Israelis have every right to live in peace in the middle east, as well as elsewhere in the world…..America has no need of Israel's guidance in acting intolerably. And America sure as hell does not need a closed society like Israel's with secretive assassination squads roaming the land in search of enemies. America has no need for occupations of our neighboring countries, America has no need for apartheid.

But it looks like our civilian law enforcers think we do.

Recently, Israel did something America does not do….negotiated with people they consider to be "terrorists"…..

Gilad Shalit, the Israeli sergeant who was held captive for five years by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, was released early this morning and handed over to Egyptian officals, reports said.

While there was no immediate confirmation by Israeli officals, the move appeared to be the beginning of a stunning prisoner swap in which Israel agreed to free 1,027 violent Palestinian inmates in exchange for Shalit.

Often, I have been accused of siding with the "terrorists" in the decades-long dispute between nuclear-armed Israel and, basically, unarmed Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Simply pointing out that Israel's U.S. equipped military murdered unarmed protesters, including a U.S citizen, on the Turk humanitarian flotilla at pointblank range…or explaining that Israeli helicopter gunships massacred some 600 Palestinian women and children in December before Obama was inaugurated……draws cries of anti-semitism and Israel-bashing from most conservatives critics.

Since 9-11, Muslims have been described repeatedly by American conservatives as medieval savages intent on eliminating all Jews…and then taking over the world. In America today, the word "terrorist" now only applies to Muslims. If a non-Muslim plots or commits a horrendous act of violence, one which is as violent as anything a Muslim jihadist has done…..American corporate media never labels that person a "terrorist."

The reason? Muslims are the "terrorists." No one else.

From the national hysteria over opening an Islamic Center a few blocks from Ground Zero, to the constant drumbeat over the non-existent imposition of "sharia" law, to the totally embarrassing "Muslim radicalization" congressional hearings held by Peter King (R-NY), to the new unconstitutional power of an American president to order the assassination of a Muslim U.S. citizen without due process…..the U.S. messaging has been clear. Muslims are savages bent on taking over the whole world while killing as many westerners as possible in the process. Muslims hate all non-Muslims with a bottomless hate. And it is this unexplainable hatred that Muslims have for western "freedom" which makes them different from all other religions or nations.

I've said all that in order to show you something which is particularly vile. Upon the release of Israeli Sergeant Shalit, this was written….

He’s free and he’s home in the bosom of his family and his country.

Celebrate, Israel, with all the joyous gratitude that fills your hearts, as we all do along with you.

Then round up his captors, the slaughtering, death-worshiping, innocent-butchering, child-sacrificing savages who dip their hands in blood and use women—those who aren’t strapping bombs to their own devils’ spawn and sending them out to meet their seventy-two virgins by taking the lives of the school-bus-riding, heart-drawing, Transformer-doodling, homework-losing children of Others—and their offspring—those who haven’t already been pimped out by their mothers to the murder god—as shields, hiding behind their burkas and cradles like the unmanned animals they are, and throw them not into your prisons, where they can bide until they’re traded by the thousands for another child of Israel, but into the sea, to float there, food for sharks, stargazers, and whatever other oceanic carnivores God has put there for the purpose.

That is what genocidal hatred looks like. As Glenn Greenwald puts it,…

"I generally avoid as unproductive Nazi comparisons in politics — especially when it comes to the Middle East – but if this isn’t a pure expression of the Nazi mindset of hatred, bigotry, dehumanization, and yearnings for genocidal extermination, then nothing is."

The shocking, or not, part of this is who wrote those vile words. They were blogged by Rachel Abrams. Who is Rachel Abrams?

Rachel Abrams is the wife of Reagan and Bush 43 neocon official Elliot Abrams, the daughter of Midge Decter and step-daughter of Norman Podhoretz, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the “Emergency Committee for Israel,” the group founded by Bill Kristol and run by Noah Pollack to attack any American politician displaying less than absolute fealty toward Israel.

In other words…

This isn’t from some fringe Arab-hating figure but from the heart and soul of the American neocon movement.

Elliot Abrams, Bill Kristol and Norman Podhoretz are as neo-connish as neo-cons can be. Bill Kristol is the modern father-figure for neo-conservatism….a philosophy which brought us the criminal attack of Iraq….a philosophy which is leading the U.S. into attacking Iran….a philosophy which hinders any two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute…a philosophy which sets forward the proposition that America in the 21st century should exploit the ending of the Cold War by controlling the middle east, through whatever unilateral military means we determine.

However, as you can see from Mrs. Abrams blog post…..savage, vile, genocidal hatred towards Muslims also motivates these neo-cons.

Naturally though, it is only the world's Muslims who hate so bitterly and fiendishly….because Muslims, you know, are the "terrorists."

The U.S. is planning to block an upcoming U.N. Security Council vote to recognize a Palestinian state.

The reason given by the Obama administration for a U.S. veto vote in the Security Council?

The Obama administration and Israel both say that only direct peace talks can lead to peace with the Palestinians…

According to the Obama administration, the reason the U.S. will vote to deny Palestinians statehood in the U.N. is because "only direct talks can lead to peace."

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed a year ago after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on new settlements in areas the Palestinians want for a future state.

In effect, what is happening in this upcoming U.N. Security Council vote, is a demonstration by the U.S. that whatever process, or non-process, that Israel wants vis-a-vis Palestinian statehood,…..is what the U.S. wants. The process, or non-process, doesn't have to make sense…or be equitable in any way. If it's what Israel wants, or at least Israeli leaders, then it's what the U.S. wants.

This is a very sad and dangerous situation for the U.S. to have placed themselves in. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it crystal clear through his duplicitous ways that he has no intention of EVER supporting a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. That explains the continued "settlement" expansion in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Ongoing Jewish "settlement" construction is one of the biggest sticking points preventing a peace accord which includes a two state solution.

Bebe Netanyahu has made it clear by his refusal to stop stealing Palestinian land that he will never reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The Palestinian people have often been accused of denying the right of Israel to exist as a sovereign state…..but by his actions, Netanyahu has been continually making the statement that Palestinians are the ones who have no right to exist as a sovereign state.

Apparently, the U.S. and the Obama administration agree with Bebe. A two state agreement cannot be attained through direct negotiations between the two parties because one party, Israel, will not stop stealing Palestinian lands. A year ago Israel "refused to extend a moratorium on new settlements." To Palestinians, that "moratorium" was crucial to any direct negotiations between the two parties.

Yet, the U.S. is now set to block any Palestinian effort via the U.N. to move to a two state solution.

If you have been paying attention to the disgustingly incompetent U.S. corporate media on this issue, you will not find an explanation which outlines what I have outlined here. For some unknown, or unknowable, reason, the U.S. seems to be willing to stand alone in defense of a continuing land grab by our ally Israel.

Yes, Israel has every right to exist as a nation. But, then, so do the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank. Without a two state solution, Israel is guaranteeing that it will, eventually, not exist as an Israeli state in the future.

President Shimon Peres is concerned that Israel might become a binational state, in which case, he warned, it would cease to exist as a Jewish state.

"I'm concerned about the continued freeze [in the peace talks]," Peres said to people who visited him this week. "I'm concerned that Israel will become a binational state. What is happening now is total foot-dragging. We're about to crash into the wall. We're galloping at full speed toward a situation where Israel will cease to exist as a Jewish state."

What the U.S. will be doing by voting to block a two state solution in the U.N., though pleasing Bebe Netanyahu and the other Israeli rightwing radicals in the short term, is, in essence, voting for the eventual dissolution of an Israeli state.

Additionally, by vetoing the Palestinian request for a two state solution, the U.S. will be regarded by other nations of having a "double standard" when it comes to peace and freedom in middle eastern countries….

"A U.S. veto … will be seen by the region as once again a double-standard policy of selectively standing by certain people in the region yearning for freedom, but not others," said Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister and now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment.

How, exactly, that makes any sense…..is beyond me.

But then, I don't pretend to understand why the U.S., with a Jewish population amounting to 2% of our total population, is oh-so-willing to defend any and every action, or inaction, of the state of Israel.

I think I'll leave it at that….for now. I'm fully aware of the odd Israeli-U.S. dynamic which prohibits any discussion which includes criticism of Israel. At times, it seems that even the mention of Israel….unless that mentioning includes lofty praises for everything Israeli….is a taboo inside proper American circles.

Read Glenn Greenwald's blog post on….dare I type it….The Israeli Lobby in America…to find out why America does what it does to defend Israel at all costs.

Countering the recent batsh*t crazy WingerPalooza frenzy over the audacity of our American Dark Knight to speak in clear, accurate and understandable language…..

There has been a lot of attention paid to the president’s statement that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” This exact language may be new for a U.S. president, but the sentiment it describes is not. George W. Bush himself made a similar reference to ’67 in a 2005 speech.

……

This really shouldn’t be as controversial as it probably will be. Treating the 1967 lines as a basis for negotiations in this way represents the overwhelming consensus of the international community, enshrined in multiple UN resolutions. That anyone should be confused or surprised about this probably goes to the success that Israeli leaders have had over the years in obscuring it, and the indulgence that American leaders have often shown toward those efforts.

"Indulgence" by "American leaders", like this….

“President Obama has thrown Israel under the bus,” Mitt Romney charged in a statement. “He has disrespected Israel and undermined its ability to negotiate peace…"

Michele Bachmann said Obama had “betrayed our friend and ally Israel.”

“Obama’s call for 1967 borders will cause chaos, division & more aggression in Middle East and put Israel at further risk,” Bachmann said

Tim Pawlenty called a return to 1967 borders "a mistaken and very dangerous demand."

The oh-so-golly gee whiz-Orrin Hatch (R-UT)….

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) issued a press release today stating his intention to introduce a resolution next week disapproving of the policy concerning Israel that President Barack Obama announced on Thursday. “Israel is the United States’ strongest friend and ally,” Hatch said in the statement. “By calling for a return to the pre-1967 borders, President Obama has directly undermined her.”

Instead, Hatch said, “President Obama is rewarding those who threaten Israel’s very right to exist.” “This is not only ridiculous, but dangerous,” he said.

What President Obama stated about the Israeli-Palestinian situation was not extreme or unusual in the slightest. But because Jewish influence on American media has been so successful,…and because the conservative right in America has basically lost their goddamn minds about everything…..the commonplace, the normal….the simple truth is met with wingnut rage and frothing at the mouth.

Sean Hannity invited the certifiably insane Pam Gellar onto his radio show yesterday to talk about this issue. It truly is impossible to describe the sh*t storm of wingnuttery which ensued. It was a Category 5, at least…..I nearly lost control of my vehicle.

Obama, whether the Tea-addicts in America understand it or not, was looking out for Israel's interests by speaking so clearly the other day about the ongoing occupation in Palestine. Without an Israeli recognition of the 1967 borders (plus swap adjustments) as the starting point of a two-state peace agreement…there will be no agreement. Without an agreement and a two state solution, and with a continuation of radically extreme Israeli leadership, like Netanyahu…..Israel will be the eventual loser.

Netanyahu, while basking in American wingnut approval, is not so appreciated back home in Israel. Bibi openly criticized and lied about Obama's peace process speech. Netanyahu, while visiting the U.S., condescended arrogantly in his response to Obama. That provoked Obama to restate his wording yesterday…in effect backhanding the radical little man for his misplaced petulance.

Other leaders in Israel, even if U.S. Republican leaders do not, recognize the failings of Mr. Netanyahu….

Tzipi Livni, leader of Israel’s opposition Kadima party, also backed Mr Obama’s two-state solution and accused Mr Netanyahu of putting Israel at risk in order to save his right-wing coalition.

“The prime minister has violated relations between Israel and the United States,” she said, speaking after Mr Obama’s speech but before the Oval Office meeting. “He has endangered the security of Israel and its power of deterrence.”

Notice the dissonance. American opposition leaders say Obama is endangering Israel….Jewish leaders say that Netanyahu is endangering Israel.

The only way for Israel to remain a secure Jewish nation, is to accept the 1967 parameters with some adjustments….recognize defined borders which encompass two distinct states, Israel and Palestine, and stop the incursion of "settlements."

If Israel refuses, which it looks like they will under the radical and obnoxious Netanyahu, then Israel will only have itself to blame for it's continued isolation in the world. The violent aggression on Gaza and the murderous raids on the flotillas have left a bad taste in the mouths of world citizens over Israel. The decades-long Israeli occupation of Palestinians, much of it under intolerable circumstances, is becoming more and more unacceptable in light of the "Arab spring."

Netanyahu should embrace this opportunity being laid out by President Obama. Instead, Bibi is acting just like the conservative extremists in America act, bashing Obama for stating widely accepted truth.

Israel deserves better leadership.

Also read this from a Jewish American who knows a few things about Israeli-Palestinian relations and history.

On June 1st and June 4th of this year, I blogged about the illegal act of aggression perpetrated by Israeli commandos against the peaceful relief-aid "flotilla" bound for Gaza.

During the time of those events, U.S. media, predictably, and obediently, propagandized the American public, defending the Israeli crime, by continually running an edited video showing Israeli military descending from helicopters and being beaten by unarmed flotilla passengers.

As a memory refresher…

Now, four months later we have this….

Last week, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights released a comprehensive report detailing its findings regarding the May, 2010, Israeli attack on the six-ship flotilla attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Israel-blockaded Gaza.

During the time that U.S. corporate media was propagandizing consumers of news for the sake of protecting Israel from U.S. criticism of it's terrorist actions, little was said about the U.S. citizen, Furgan Dogan, who was brutally murdered by the Israelis that day.

An unarmed U.S. citizen was murdered, Tony Soprano style, by Israeli military while the humanitarian-aid-carrying vessel the unarmed U.S. citizen was traveling aboard was in international waters.

Seemed odd at the time that virtually no U.S. corporate media outlet made much of the assassination of a U.S. citizen. Signs of outrage over what Israel had done were rarely, if ever, seen on U.S. teevee.

Just as the devilish Karl Rove believes that he can "create reality" through propaganda obediently circulated by a corrupt and rotted U.S. corporate media….so too the Israelis….

The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.

The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.

The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range." The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back."

Keep in mind…..Dogan was a U.S. citizen who had done nothing to provoke his brutal assassination by Israelis.

Based on both "forensic and firearm evidence," the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 "can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions."

I post this information not because these brutal killings are something unique for Israel. Just before Barack Obama took office, you may remember, the Israeli military butchered some 1300 Gazans, half of whom were women and children. 13 Israelis died.

The U.S. position at the time?….

"These people are nothing but thugs, so Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas that indiscriminately kill their own people," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

In January of 2009, the U.S. Congress, led by Democrats, voted almost unanimously to remind Israel of the U.S.'s undying love and support for their mideast partner……

"expressing vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security, and survival of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure borders."

The U.S. stood virtually alone in the world in support of Israel's acts of aggression in 2008.

Back to the flotilla incident……here is what Democrats said at the time about Israel's violence against the humanitarian ships bound for Gaza…..

Gary Ackerman (D-NY)….the killings were "wholly the fault and responsibility of the organizers of the effort to break through Israel and Egypt's legitimate closure of terrorist-controlled Gaza." According to Rep. Ron Klein (D-FL), due to the determination of activists on the ships to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of the besieged Gaza Strip, "Israel was left with no choice but to ensure the safety of its people." Similarly, Democratic majority leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) insisted that in attacking an unarmed flotilla carrying humanitarian aid in international waters, Israel had simply "invoked its right to self-defense."

There has been very little coverage of the U.N.'s report depicting the assassination of the U.S. citizen, Furgan Dona. I don't expect that to change in the weeks to come.

However, I'm thinking there is a very good chance that the U.S. Congress will pass another unanimous resolution condemning the U.N. report. Condemning the report for daring to share the truth about Israel's crimes with the rest of the world.

In summary: There is nothing, whatsoever, that the U.S. government and the U.S. media will not defend if Israel is the one doing it. Sadly, we now even defend Israel's right to brutally murder U.S. citizens without even a peep-of-protest from U.S. leaders.

Embarassment isn't a sufficient enough word anymore…..doesn't quite capture the powerlessness one feels as one watches a nation disintegrate into a state of ignorant confusion.

On 9-11, 19 extremist Muslims hijacked planes and crashed them into buildings killing almost 3000 U.S. citizens. We were told by the president at the time that those 19 attackers did the deed because of America's "freedoms." For some unexplained-at-the-time reason, those hijackers, and the leaders who sent them, "hated our freedoms."

In Osama Bin Laden's two fatwahs of 1996 and 1998, he lays out his justifications for conducting extremist acts against America and Americans. Hating U.S. freedoms is not one of the reasons given.

Instead, Bin Laden talks about America's first war with Iraq, the presence of U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim lands, the devastating sanctions against the Iraqi people during the 90's, and America's unquestioning support of Israel while Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are basically being held hostage.

Here is Bin Laden…..

First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples.

If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless.

…….

….if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula.

Don't misunderstand. In posting Bin Laden's ramblings, I do not defend Bin Laden or anything he has done. Violence is never the answer, and, transparently, Bin Laden has a few religious screws missing.

At the same time, the United States population has never had clearly explained to them the answer to the question, "why do they hate us and want to kill us?"

Whether it's the blindness caused by a misguided understanding of 'American exceptionalism'…..my country, right or wrong stuff…..or whether it's the ignorance of Americans so gullible to believe whatever even a failed and disgraced president utters……whatever the reason…..we're now 9 years into some ludicrously named "war on terror" and Americans are more confused and ignorant than ever.

My point here is that extremist Muslims have been riled up against the actions and non-actions of the U.S. for a good long time. It is only the Americans who refuse to be confronted with the reasons why guys like Bin Laden seek to retaliate.

When Abu Ghraib torture pictures surfaced, we were told that America couldn't see those pictures because our troops would be endangered if they became public. Obama flip-flopped on releasing the second batch of 'America torturing' pictures for just that reason. Our leaders, once again, were being actively dishonest about explaining "why they hate us."

What looked like an attempt to cover up war crimes was explained away as "endangering the troops." Ignorant Americans stayed clueless about "why they hate us."

Now the confusion and stupidity and political manipulation has gotten so out of hand, that we find Defense Secretary Gates calling some nothingburger down in Florida….telling him that if he burns Korans on Saturday…..he will….wait for it….."endanger the troops."

Do you know who has "endangered the troops?" Our leaders. By not educating the American people about "why they hate us", by pre-emptive wars of choice, by opening and keeping open Guantanomo, by continuing renditions, "interrogations" and assassination programs, by escalating the U.S. military occupation of Afghanistan, by the 50,000 occupational troops still in Iraq, by America's continued failure to address the Palestinian problem…….by all of that plus more…..our leaders are "endangering our troops."

Yet, in our current state of ignorant confusion, we find Hillary, Gates, Obama, Petreaus and the usual-suspect Village assh*les all going ballistic over some no-name religious nut down in Florida. We're being told by all the Very Serious people that if a no-name religious nut burns a few Korans tomorrow, then, worldwide Muslims will be inflamed and then guess what? "Our troops will be endangered."

Extremist Muslims who want to kill Americans, like Bin Laden's minions, have been inflamed for a very, very long time. Extremist Muslims in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere don't require any more evidence to be inflamed. Bin Laden made it clear over a decade ago.

9 years out and now it's Americans who are being inflamed to hate all Muslims for stated reasons that even morons could identify as crass political posturing. It's Americans who are ignorant and gullible about why 9-11 happened. It's Americans who are being told that they must give up their rights or our "troops will be endangered."

It's Americans who are becoming self-enslaved by their own ignorance…….and it's ugly to watch.

UGLY UPDATE: Pentagon plans to destroy 10,000 books.

It came as no surprise following the Israeli terror attack on the Turkish flotilla a week ago, which included the point-blank, 5 shot murder of a 19 year old American by Israeli commandos, that the United States President would timidly parse every word of his response to the act of violence.

Why? Because in this case, the needless violence was perpetrated by Israelis.

So, dutifully, President Obama, still refusing to condemn Israel's obvious unilateral lawlessness as seen in this most recent cold-blooded act of mass murder, appeared on Larry King Live Thursday night to reinforce his non-condemnation of Israel……

KING: A couple of other things. Former President Carter has condemned the Israeli raid against those ships in the — the flotilla trying to break the blockade of Gaza.

Where do you stand on that?

A former American president has condemned it.

OBAMA: Well, you know, the United States, with the other members of the U.N. Security Council, said very clearly that we condemned all the acts that led up to this violence. It was a tragic situation. You've got loss of life that was unnecessary. And so we are calling for an effective investigation of everything that happened.

Witness how carefully the American President chose his words. Obama simply could not condemn Israel in any way…..just as Israel was not condemned in December, 2008 when they massacred some 600 defenseless and caged Gazan women and children. Instead, Obama stated that the U.S., along with other members of the U.N. Security Council…"condemned all the acts that led up to this violence."

Condemning all the acts that led up to this violence…..is condemning no one in particular…..and that was exactly why Obama chose the words he did.

However, President Obama dared to call the loss of flotilla passenger lives "tragic" and "unnecessary." The word "unnecessary" can be interpreted as a suggestion that Israel had done something which shouldn't have been done. The word "tragic" can be interpreted as a suggestion that Israel's murdering of unarmed activists seeking the end of a crippling blockade of Gazans….is a bad thing, even a terrible thing.

Of course, amongst American facist-minded neo-conservatives, the murder of anyone protesting Israel's apartheid actions is anything but "tragic."

Cue Cruella-de-Neo-Conservative……The Dick's offspring….Liz Cheney……

Yesterday, President Obama said the Israeli action to stop the flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip was "tragic." What is truly tragic is that President Obama is perpetuating Israel's enemies' version of events. The Israeli government has imposed a blockade around Gaza because Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction…

President Obama is contributing to the isolation of Israel, and sending a clear signal to the Turkish-Syrian-Iranian axis that their methods for ostracizing Israel will succeed, and will be met by no resistance from America.

There is no middle ground here. Either the United States stands with the people of Israel in the war against radical Islamic terrorism or we are providing encouragement to Israel's enemies — and our own. Keep America Safe calls on President Obama to reverse his present course and support the state of Israel immediately and unequivocally.

As Ezra Klein says in his analysis of Ms. Cheney's response…..Obama did not call Israel's ACTIONS "tragic"….he called the loss of life tragic. So, firstoff, not that it comes as any surprise…..the Dick's Daughter is making sh*t up.

Also note how Ms. Cheney, as predicted would happen by progressives the moment this Israeli action of bloody aggression took place on Turkish vessels,….throws Turkey in with Syria and Iran now as kind of a new axis of evil amassed against Israel.

The facts, naturally, don't call for such over-the-top, Dickian bellicosity….

Uniquely among Muslim countries in the region, Turkey has strong trading ties with Israel.

The Turkish military buys weapons from Israel and trains with its armed forces, and in 2008 Turkey played host to more than half a million Israeli tourists, making it their favourite overseas holiday destination.

But I think the worst part of The Dick's Daughter's comment was her call for Obama to "reverse his present course."

You see….to many neo-conservatives in America…..the needless murders of unarmed protesters who hold a different view of the Israeli apartheid in Gaza than they do…..is anything but tragic. It is desired.

Therefore, Obama, according to Cheney, should reverse his course of calling those murders "tragic" and "unnecessary."

Depending on your point of view…..this is either a new low for neo-con defenders of all things Israeli…..or a vindication.

The U.S. corporate media was noticeably muted yesterday about the Israeli terrorist raid on a Turkish humanitarian aid-carrying flotilla late Sunday. A raid in which Israeli soldiers murdered at least 9 unarmed passengers (at least one American) after having commandeered the flotilla, illegally, while it was in international waters.

That's how the U.S. media and the majority of U.S. politicians always respond when credible reports about Israeli war crimes or Israeli terrorist assassination capers leak out.

Nothing unusual about any of it.

However, as Paul Craig Roberts over at Counterpunch writes, what might seem odd to many non-far-right American conservatives, is the fact that far-right American conservatives actually think the U.S.A. should follow Israel's "we'll do whatever we want" example.

Many Christian evangelicals, brainwashed by their pastors that it is God’s will for Americans to protect Israel, will believe the Israeli story, especially when it is unlikely they will ever hear any other. Conservative Americans, especially on Memorial Day when they are celebrating feats of American arms, will admire Israel for its toughness. Here in north Georgia where I am at the moment, I have heard several say, admiringly, “Them, Israelis, they don’t put up with nuthin.”

Conservative Americans want the US to be like Israel. They do not understand why the US doesn’t stop pissing around after nine years and just go ahead and defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. They don’t understand why the US didn’t defeat whoever was opposing American forces in Iraq. Conservatives are incensed that America had to “win” the war by buying off the Iraqis and putting them on the US payroll. Israel murders people and then blames its victims. This appeals to American conservatives, who want the US to do the same.

Exactly right.

And so is this….

No one in the world will believe that Israel attacked ships in international waters carrying Israeli citizens, a Nobel Laureate, elected politicians, and noted humanitarians bringing medicines and building materials to Palestinians in Gaza, who have been living in the rubble of their homes without repairs or medicines since January 2009, without first clearing the crime with its American protector. Without America’s protection, Israel, a totally artificial state, could not exist. No one in the world will believe that America’s spy apparatus did not detect the movement of the Israeli attack force toward the aid ships in international waters in an act of piracy, killing 20, wounding 50, and kidnapping the rest. Obama’s pretense at ignorance confirms his complicity.

Once again the US government has permitted the Israeli state to murder good people known for their moral conscience. The Israeli state has declared that anyone with a moral conscience is an enemy of Israel, and every American president except Eisenhower and Carter has agreed.

I'm not sure why this is, really. Jewish money in American elections? Too much Jewish lobbying inside America? A Judeo-Christian religious hybridization that considers Israel and the U.S. divinely linked in God's plan? Lingering guilt from the Holocaust?

What I am sure about is that Israel can spy on American national security secrets……Israel can unilaterally attack and kill American armed forces….Israel can possess dozens of nuclear weapons without any American acknowledgment….Israel can attack a caged group of Gazans, killing some 600 women and children…..Israel can attack and commandeer an unarmed humanitarian vessel in international waters, murdering an AMERICAN passenger………

…and not one word of condemnation or threat to Israel will be uttered by any American leader of substance.

Is not this dynamic the very definition of dysfunctional?