A real discussion on TV regarding U.S. policy towards Israel

According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli President Shimon Peres spoke to an AIPAC mission in Israel on Wednesday and said that "Israel's aim was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel." If (as Tom Friedman suggested) that really is Israel's principal aim -- to deal "a strong blow to the people of Gaza" -- then it's easy to understand why Peres is so happy with how things have proceeded: "Implementation of the current operation had gone 90 percent according to plan, he said."

Prior commitments prevent me from writing much until later this afternoon, so I wanted to post the two-part video of a shockingly balanced, candid and informed discussion of the Israeli war in Gaza and of the U.S.'s self-destructively one-sided policy towards Israel that actually took place yesterday on a major American television outlet yesterday. Numerous people emailed and commented about this segment, which was part of MSNBC's Morning Joe show .

The commentary from Jordan's Queen Noor, in particular, is extremely insightful and articulate, virtually never heard (as the participants note) on American television, and underscores how unbalanced and incomplete is the debate most Americans hear concerning this issue of vital importance to American intersts (i.e.: virtually unquestioning American support for Israeli actions). Bill Moyers apparently received among the most intensely angry response that he has ever received as a result of his quite balanced criticism last week of Israel's war in Gaza -- including a written "rebuke" from the Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman that disgustingly accused Moyers of "anti-Semitism"-- and Moyers intends to respond on his PBS show tonight.

Perhaps it takes a highly-telegenic, American-born Jordanian monarch for America's cable networks to include these views, though it does seem, for a variety of reasons, that the taboo against discussing these matters is eroding slowly though substantially: (video)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/16/noor/index.html

towards Israel. Then it will be too late and Israel will probably be thrown under the bus. So Bill Moyer's got accused of being an anti semite?

It's funny how none of the shit heads who passionately think it's a good idea to invade Gaza can be bothered to explain why Bin Laden wanted Israel to invade Gaza? :rofl:

anti-semitism. I hope it goes away WHEN someone accuses you over the internet and they don't have any idea what your feeling is against all Jews or Jew-Semites. They have no idea what your relationships have been and they blatantly make the claim.

Just as Bush loyalists accuse people they don't know of being unpatriotic, Anti-Semite accuse people they don't know of being unpatriotic to Israel by calling them a name.

It is hackneyed, boring, and meant to make a person back off or feel guilt.

Only the accuser gets something out of it.

It's always been a weak comeback, it is particulary weak when said to someone you don't know.

I grew to have no sympathy for the policy of an eye for an eye and was critical of both sides for such a childish act.

So where did the bravado come from to up the risk?

I will try to understand. But, I will not tolerate being called an anti-semite. It is an insult and it's abusive. It is ineffective and creates division.

Are we at a turning point?