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I suggest that the Democrats and Republicans take a bipartisan
approach to stifling free speech,<br>
after all, they both hate it.<br>
<br>
Construct a small "free speech cage" in some remote spot.<br>
<br>
A free speech cage is an ideal example of what the mainstream stands
for,<br>
a cage providing the perfect ironic symbolism.<br>
<br>
I know, I know. It's been done before.<br>
<br>
But it's still effective.<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 02/11/2015 10:56 PM, C. G. Estabrook
via Peace-discuss wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:88702C9F-07A7-4ACC-81B1-E686D7ABCD7A@newsfromneptune.com"
type="cite">
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<div>"Dear Mr. Netanyahu, please don’t cancel your speech"<br>
--Philip Weiss on February 10, 2015 <br>
<br>
<br>
The pressure keeps mounting on Benjamin Netanyahu to arrange
a face-saving means of cancelling his speech to both houses of
Congress next month lest he create a rift between the U.S. and
Israel. Almost every Zionist and Israel-supporter seems to agree
about this, from Nancy Pelosi to Abraham Foxman to J Street to
Michael Oren (It could hurt our efforts to act against Iran) to
Shmuel Rosner (For Israel’s sake) to Tom Friedman (“Israel and
its defenders are already under siege on college campuses across
America”).<br>
<br>
It feels inevitable that in a day or so, the Israeli government
is going to announce some lame excuse or other — Sara
Netanyahu’s bottle bill, a border incident, a new settlement
project, a collapse of a party list in the election campaign, or
a crisis over Netanyahu’s son’s dating habits — that will allow
the prime minister to change the speaking gig.<br>
<br>
Only Netanyahu himself seems determined to go forward. [...]<br>
<br>
And I agree with him. Dear Mr. Netanyahu, please don’t cancel
your speech. This speech is too important to cancel. For three
reasons:<br>
<br>
1. The speech should go on because its historical amazement —
the spectacle of a warmongering foreign leader rebuking the U.S.
president on his foreign policy before a joint session of
Congress — will catalyze an important political debate over the
American people’s interest in the Middle East. The United States
and Israel have a genuine difference over Iran policy. For a
bunch of crazy reasons, but reasons all the same, Israelis
describe the Iranian nuclear program as an “existential” threat.
No American feels that to be true. And the more vigorous
this debate, more Americans will get to talk about why Israel
has nuclear weapons, whether its regional superpower rival can
be contained (as the Soviet Union was contained within our
memories, for many years), whether all American options really
should be on the table. Americans have a right to reach the
conclusion that Iran is not a big problem for us, and that we
need to be friends with an advanced society of 75
million people, almost all Muslims. The Netanyahu speech, filled
with fire and brimstone, will allow them to do so. In fact, so
many Americans will conclude that there should be no military
response to Iran’s nuclear program that they will enable Obama
to reach a deal with Iran, and help to end the cold war between
the U.S. and Iran that has helped to make the Middle East an
east-west battleground.<br>
<br>
2. The speech will drive a wedge between an important segment of
the American power structure (progressive Democrats, led by
Barack Obama) and Israel, at last. This is the real reason that
people oppose the speech; it threatens the health and vigor of
the Israel lobby by making Israel support a political football.
These supporters don’t want any daylight between any part of the
American power structure and Israel because Israel needs the
U.S. more than anything and it must never be politicized. As Tom
Friedman explains, “Israel needs the support of more than just
Congress or one party.” J Street: “Israel… will always need
support from across the American political spectrum to feel
truly secure.” I.e., the president and Democratic liberals have
to be in bed with Israel along with everyone else in Washington.
But if the speech takes place, and the lobby loses the blind
support of progressive Democrats, the American people will get
to debate Israel policy and maybe even speak critically about
all the stuff that Israel is doing, like massacring Palestinians
in Gaza and building colonies on Palestinian land. Right now
those issues are not discussed openly in the U.S. power
structure and leading media. But if the speech happens
and Obama/Biden turn their backs on Netanyahu, and so do a dozen
or two Democrats– and the rightwing Israel groups then launch a
shaming policy against those Democrats for alleged betrayal —
progressives will then speak openly (on MSNBC and CNN) about why
they boycotted the speech. That would change American politics.
As Ari Fleischer says, wisely. “If they [Dems] boycott the
speech, they’ll be casting their lot with the more liberal, not
pro-Israel base of the party, and that would be a shocking
development. It would be a radical break.” Exactly. That’s
why several excellent groups have called on our politicians to
“boycott” the speech.<br>
<br>
3. The speech might allow a long-suppressed argument
between neoconservatives (or Israel firsters, as MJ Rosenberg
calls them) and our coalition of leftwing Palestinian solidarity
activists and national interest types to take center stage in US
politics. Think about it: the only people who want this speech
to happen now are our side, the Palestinian solidarity types,
and the hard-core neocons. Why? Because we both think we can
win. We think we will do so by having our issue discussed by the
American people, while the neocons are possessed by blind zeal;
they think they will win in the same way that they manipulated
the power structure before the Iraq war, by fearful politics, by
blustering about WMD and the threat to the U.S. and the threat
to political donations. I think the neocons have
miscalculated out of hubris. This is a group led by Bill
Kristol, who once bragged that he purged the “oldfashioned
Arabists” from the Republican Party in the 1990s. Well the
“Arabists” haven’t gone away. There are still millions of them
in America, people who actually care about Palestinian
human rights. The noble Kayla Mueller of Prescott Arizona who
just died at the hands of ISIS was one of them.<br>
<br>
If the speech goes forward, people will be openly debating
Israel’s influence in our politics, and the absence of a voice
for the other side. They will discuss whether the tail is
wagging the dog, and why we are at war in the Middle East– or
“how did we get into this mess” (as Tom Friedman puts it). They
will get to talk about the three root causes of the
conflict (Zionism, Palestinian resistance, inflexible U.S.
support for Zionism).<br>
<br>
The Netanyahu speech will be a great shock to the American
system, and a healthy one: it will set off a long needed and
long denied conversation.<br>
<br>
So please Mr. Netanyahu, don’t cancel your speech.<br>
<br>
- See more at: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/netanyahu-cancel-speech">http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/netanyahu-cancel-speech</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
<br>
<div>
<div>On Feb 7, 2015, at 4:18 PM, Robert Naiman <<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:noreply@list.moveon.org">noreply@list.moveon.org</a>>
wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">Dear C. G. Estabrook, <br>
<br>
As the controversy surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu proposed
speech to Congress on March 3rd reaches new heights, one of
the <span>Jew</span>ish community’s top leaders is calling on
the Israeli prime minister to stay home, the <em><span>Jew</span>ish
Daily Forward </em>reports: [1]
<blockquote>Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti
Defamation League, said that the political uproar ignited by
Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to a joint meeting of
Congress makes such a move unhelpful and therefore it should
be scrapped.</blockquote>
In Israel, Labor Party chief and Zionist Camp leader Isaac
Herzog said Netanyahu must cancel his speech to Congress due
to the antagonism his address has caused in Washington, the <em>Times
of Israel </em>reports: [2]
<blockquote>“The time has come when Bibi (Netanyahu) must
announce the cancellation of his visit to Congress,” Herzog
said... “In conversations I’ve held with many European and
US leaders, it is clear there is great anger over Netanyahu
diverting the discussion on Iran’s nuclear program for
political gain, and turning it into a confrontation with the
president of the United States."</blockquote>
The <em>Times of Israel</em> says that some 40 Democrats are
already expected to boycott Netanyahu’s speech if it goes
forward on March 3, a number that could grow. Vice President
Joe Biden [3], Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Rep. Jim McDermott
(D-WA) [4], Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) [5], Rep. G.K.
Butterfield (D-NC), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) [6], Rep. James
Clyburn (D-SC), Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ), Rep. Barbara Lee
(D-CA), and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) [7] have publicly said
that they will not attend the speech if it goes forward on
March 3. <br>
<br>
<strong>Reps. Keith Ellison, Steve Cohen, and Maxine Waters
are circulating a letter to Speaker Boehner among their
colleagues, urging that the speech be cancelled.</strong>[8]
The letter is supported by <strong>J Street</strong> and <strong>Americans
for Peace Now</strong>. Here’s how you can help:
<blockquote>1. <strong>Join Abe Foxman & Isaac Herzog in
calling for the speech to be cancelled by signing and
sharing our petition at MoveOn.</strong> If you’ve already
signed, thank you for taking action! Please share it again
to help us get more signers! <strong>Every signature
generates an email to Congress.<br>
<br>
</strong> <strong><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/bibi">http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/bibi</a></strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>2. <strong>Call your Rep. at 202-224-3121 and
urge them to sign the Ellison letter urging that the
speech be cancelled</strong>. If you’ve already called,
please call again! Every call counts in shaping the
perceptions of Members of Congress.<br>
When you’ve made your call, <strong>please report it here</strong>:
<br>
<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://justforeignpolicy.org/act/bibi-ellison-call-in"><strong>http://justforeignpolicy.org/act/bibi-ellison-call-in</strong></a></blockquote>
<br>
Thanks for all you do,<br>
<br>
Robert Naiman<br>
Just Foreign Policy<br>
</blockquote>
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<br>
<br>
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