[Peace-discuss] NYT terrorism

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Another indication that the most influential pro-Israel lobby in the US is not 
AIPAC: it is American liberal intellectuals.  For parts of the left, if you can 
exonerate the US and make it look like the problem is the Jews, you don't have 
to come into direct confrontation with real power.  --CGE]

	Published on Wednesday, January 14, 2009 by Salon.com
	Tom Friedman Offers a Perfect Definition of 'Terrorism'
	by Glenn Greenwald

Tom Friedman, one of the nation's leading propagandists for the Iraq War and a 
vigorous supporter of all of Israel's wars, has a column today in The New York 
Times explaining and praising the Israeli attack on Gaza. For the sake of robust 
and diverse debate (for which our Liberal Media is so well known), Friedman's 
column today appears alongside an Op-Ed from The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, 
one of the nation's leading (and most deceitful) propagandists for the Iraq War 
and a vigorous supporter of all of Israel's wars, who explains that Hamas is 
incorrigibly hateful and radical and cannot be negotiated with. One can hardly 
imagine a more compelling exhibit demonstrating the complete lack of 
accountability in the "journalism" profession -- at least for those who are 
loyal establishment spokespeople who reflexively cheer on wars -- than a leading 
Op-Ed page presenting these two war advocates, of all people, as experts, of all 
things, on the joys and glories of the latest Middle East war.

In any event, Friedman's column today is uncharacteristically and refreshingly 
honest. He explains that the 2006 Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon was, 
contrary to conventional wisdom, a great success. To make this case, Friedman 
acknowledges that the deaths of innocent Lebanese civilians was not an 
unfortunate and undesirable by-product of that war, but rather, was a vital 
aspect of the Israeli strategy -- the centerpiece, actually, of teaching 
Lebanese civilians a lesson they would not soon forget...

Full article with links at <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/14-14>