Friends of the Earth, which had earlier endorsed John Edwards (like Peter and a certain Trust Fund Scumbag), hops on the Obama bandwagon, citing his solid climate change plan and his principled stand in favor of good sense on the gas tax question.
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Friends of B
04 May 2008 03:05 pm
Comments (32)
More evidence that Osama Obama is an enemy of Israel.
Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance
29 Nissan 5768, 04 May 08 10:30
by Gil Ronen
(IsraelNN.com) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is currently hiding his anti-Israel views in order to get elected, according to a well-known anti-Israel activist. The activist, Ali Abunimah, claimed to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.
In an article he penned for the anti-Israeli website Electronic Intifada, Abunimah wrote:
"The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.
"As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, 'Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.' He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy [and said:] 'Keep up the good work!'"
Barack, Michelle, Edward and Mariam
Abunimah's report included a photo of Obama with his wife Michelle seated at a table with virulently anti-Israeli Professor Edward Said and his wife Mariam, in what Abunimah said was a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Said gave the keynote speech.
In an interview earlier this year for the leftist radio show "Democracy Now!," a daily TV and radio news program hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Abunimah said he knew Obama for many years as his state senator "when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time."
"I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank," he recounted. "And that's just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation."
About face 'to get elected'
The Arab-American activist went on to say: "In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."
"Obama's about-face is not surprising," Abunimah wrote. "He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power."
When Obama first ran for the Senate in 2004, the Chicago Jewish News interviewed him on his stance regarding Israel's security fence. He accused the Bush administration of neglecting the "Israeli-Palestinian" situation and criticized the security fence built by Israel to prevent terror attacks: "The creation of a wall dividing the two nations is yet another example of the neglect of this Administration in brokering peace," Obama was quoted as saying.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com
SLC is so freakin' nuts that if it weren't for his cute little verbal tic about "Hama Rules", it would hardly be worth the time.
So, Obama, like, this one time, he apologized for not speaking enough about Palestine and the Palesinians.
ZOMG!!!! HE GON' BLOW UP JOOSALEM WIF BILL AYERS!!! RUN FER TEH HILLZ!!!!111!!!
Hawks!
Yo,
is that true? MY was a Breck Boy supporter before he dropped out?
Is that just some non-conformist move or somethin?
Re El Cid
In fairness, I can't take credit for the aphorism Hama Rules. The credit goes to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in his book, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," who devotes part of a chapter to what happened in the Syrian City of Hama in 1982.
SLC: I know. I wasn't suggesting you invented the phrase -- just that you really, really, really, really, really liked it. To an amusing degree.
Of course, almost no one ever cites the follow-up Friedman himself included: "This was "Hama Rules" — the real rules of Middle East politics — and Hama Rules are no rules at all. I tell this story not to suggest this should be America's approach... Part of the problem America now faces is actually the fallout from these crackdowns."
Yes, I know, I know, the subtleties don't really matter, and people who like the "Hama Rules" will like them no matter what and the people who don't, won't. But still, it's interesting that it's nearly always referred to as if Friedman was endorsing the notion when, in fact, it was the opposite, whether well or badly argued.
SLC,
"Even-handed" is a bad thing? Where's the scandal? Call me when you find a copy of the Protocols of Zion in B.H.O.'s breast pocket.
SLC,
The point of Abunimah's comments was not that Obama is really pro-Palestinian, it is that he will be a supporter of Israel as long as it keeps him in power. Relax, you have nothing to worry about.
William Burns: No, SLC & co get it. They know what they're posting & why. It's not a mistake.
SLC, pass the bong dude.
virulently anti-Israeli Professor Edward Said
That's where I stopped reading. I know I probably shouldn't have started, but your postings are like a cut one can't help but press on.
Dude, Matt, don't let a tiny minority of heavy commenters tug you into a total-perspective-vortex attitude. Dirt off the shoulder, man.
Matt, have you ever heard the expression "DNFTT"?
Re Edward Said
The late and unlamented Prof. Edward Said was a vociferous opponent of both the Oslo Accords and a two state solution. He was also a congenital liar who falsely claimed to have been born in Jerusalem.
Actually, according to the same debunker that SLC is relying on -- Justus Weiner -- Edward Said was born in Jerusalem, although it appears he made up a lot of the rest of the martyr narrative, particularly downplaying the family's suffering at the hands of Egyptian authorities.
Here are the bare bones of the truth: Mr. Said's father, Wadie, grew up in Jerusalem but evidently emigrated in 1911 to the U.S. During World War I, Wadie reportedly served with American forces in Europe before returning to the Middle East with a U.S. passport to start what would become a successful business career. For at least nine years prior to his son's birth in 1935, Wadie Said was residing permanently in Cairo, where he and his family remained until 1962. And Jerusalem? In that city lived Wadie Said's sister and her family. To these relatives, as to other destinations throughout the Middle East, the affluent Cairo-based Saids made periodic visits. In November 1935, during one of those visits, Edward Said was born. On his birth certificate, prepared by the Ministry of Health for the British Mandate, his parents specified their permanent address as Cairo, and, indicating that they maintained no residence in Palestine, left blank the space for a local address.
Sure, it's a small detail, but I wouldn't let a minor thing such as a fact from SLC's key source deter him from making statements he wishes to make.
Edward Said: Born in Jerusalem, according to anti-Said researcher Justus Weiner.
And of course Said is head and shoulders (and the rest of his body and probably quite a few other bodies) over the sort of Zionist scum SLC represents, like Dershowitz.
Being anti-Israeli should be a known badge of intellectual integrity, given that being a Zionist is a known badge of intellectual dishonesty and intellectual cowardice (see Marshall, Josh).
Re Richard Steven Hack
I would agree that the late and unlamented Prof. Said was head and shoulders above fucktard Hack. At least Prof. Said, unlike Hack the crack didn't stick up any banks and shove a gun in some tellers' face. Also, Prof. Said, unlike Mr. Hack the crack, didn't endorse the assassination of police officers.
I feel that a touching moment of a sort of rhomboid-angled agreement has just occurred between RSH and SLC! It must still be Spring!
Just can't admit you had it wrong on the Jerusalem thing, can you, SLC?
Obviously scumbag is subjective, but you're going to have to come clean on that trustfund.
A certain Trust Fund Scumbag.. trademark it now, Matt. It only adds to your legend.
So in other words, his official papers say he was born in Cairo, which was part of the British Mandate in 1935; but because he wanted to believe he was born in Jerusalem. Arafat, by the way was also born in Cairo in 1928. Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen, the financier behind Black September's Munich caper was actually born in Palestine. Now onto Hamas rules, Assad did kill 20,000 Muslim brotherhood members yet unlike with Saddam and the Shia; there wasn't much in the way of retaliation; that would be warranted by such an act. Instead former Syrian Ilkwan like Mustafa
Nasir,(planner of the London and Madrid bombings)
Zammar and Darkanzali (support staff for the Hamburg cell)either direct their ire at the United
States,witness the AbuQuaQua jihadist pipelines into Iraq. or as in the case of the Hariri assasination with Jund al Shams operatives work with Syrian intelligence. So anti-Zionist is a sign of intellectual courage, that's a laugh.
Oh, the Kahanist troll has a little Sir Echo now!
It wouldn't matter to SLC if Edward Said personally saved Israel from destruction at the hands of Nasser because SLC doesn't recognize Said's ethnic group's right to even exist. That would be like claiming that Jews aren't real because much of Jewish religious belief was only written down during the Babylon captivity, which means that Judaism is just a form of anti-Babylonian bigotry. Of course such an argument would be nuts and bigoted, but don't expect that to dissuade SLC, who hates Israelis as well. Meanwhile, someone like me who has friends who have trained with the IDF and have friends who have actually gone to Israel to get in touch with their Jewish roots is somehow an anti-Semite because I recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination and not to be massacred en masse in state-directed ethnic violence.
Once again, anyone who thinks that an attempt to out-crazy suicide bombers (Hama Rules) will work is crazy himself.
Jesus, did you guys bother to read the subject of this post? You know, about Obama picking up an enviro group's endorsement? How did this become an Israel/Palestine flamewar?
Aaaanyhoo, this might potentially cause Obama some problems in the Pacific NW, since Friends of the Earth has supported breaching the Snake River Dams to improve salmon flow, an extremely unpopular position among growers in the area.
So in other words, his official papers say he was born in Cairo, which was part of the British Mandate in 1935;
Posted by narciso
Are you drunk? Did you read what I posted? Do you understand the written word? Did you follow the link and ignore it too?
"Cairo" is not part of the "British Mandate". Jerusalem, also importantly, is not in Cairo.
Good god. Justus Weiner hates Edward Said. The entire article is about debunking much of Said's claimed life story.
But Weiner just established that Said was born in Jerusalem.
And Jerusalem? In that city lived Wadie Said's sister and her family. To these relatives, as to other destinations throughout the Middle East, the affluent Cairo-based Saids made periodic visits. In November 1935, during one of those visits, Edward Said was born.
That sentence tells you that Wadie Said (Edward's father) lived in Cairo but had relatives in Jerusalem. Sometimes they visited their relatives in Jerusalem -- it wouldn't make much sense for Weiner to argue that the "Cairo-based Saids" made "periodic visits" to Cairo, now, would it?
The "Ministry of Health" was in the "British Mandate" which was Palestine / future Israel. If Said's birth was not there, then there wouldn't have been much point in the British Mandate Ministry of Health preparing a birth certificate for a baby born in Cairo, now, would it?
Now, go ahead and feel free to use the rest of the story as intended, to delegitimize Said's re-working of his personal history into a narrative of an-Nakba.
But good god, fool, if you're going to be sarcastic and dismissive, please try at least not to directly contradict yourself.
"Friends of the Earth, which had earlier endorsed John Edwards (like Peter and a certain Trust Fund Scumbag)"
Jesus Christ. Petey is not short for anything.
It's a fucking screenname, not a nickname for some actual person named Peter.
-----
And I think a fairer description of Matthew's 2007 state of mind, (the one post southpaw links to aside), would be 'anyone but Clinton' with a distinct preference for Obama among the anyone.
"Jesus Christ. Petey is not short for anything."
And besides, my RSS "petey" search feed won't pick up posts like this one.
If you want me aware of the beef in a timely manner, use the normal spelling of the screenname.
"Jesus, did you guys bother to read the subject of this post? You know, about Obama picking up an enviro group's endorsement? How did this become an Israel/Palestine flamewar?"
Ever since the spotted owls came out against moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jeruslalem things have become very complicated.
I've been an Obama supporter for awhile, voted for him in Phila, but only gave money to him after Clinton dismissed economists for their sin of being right about the gas tax holiday.
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Heads in the Sand
THIS IS EXCELLENT NEWS!! FOR HILLARY!!!! AND PETEY!!!!!
Posted by i remember idiotic | May 4, 2008 3:20 PM