Posting 13. on The Jewish-Israeli Lobby, by George Salzman

      Before the last posting in this category, 13., I first e-mailed it to a small group (small as compared to the roughly 1400 in my regular e-mail distribution list), namely:
Adam Sacks <>, activist friend, advocate of local autonomy
Alan M. Dershowitz <>, activist enemy in Israel über alles camp
As’ad Abukhalil <>, a gutsy Lebanese Arab academic
Beate Zilversmidt <>, a wonderful Israeli woman peace activist
Benjamin Melançon <>, a close friend from NarcoNews
Bill Templer <>, a Chicago-born Israeli Jewish anarchist
Dan Hughes <>, a recent mathematician friend
Dorothy Naor <>, an Israeli Jewish woman I love
Eldad Benary <>, a Jewish Israeli expatriate in the U.S.
Fred Nagel <>, a Jewish American struggler for peace
Gabriel Bolaffi <>, a brand new Jewish Brazilian contact
George Salzman <>, a Jewish rebel emeritus physicist prof
J.A. Miller <>, a new good contact from Manuel Garcia
James Petras <>, admired non-anarchist struggler for social justice
Joe Bageant <>, great friend and drinking buddy
John Mearsheimer <>, supporter of the American Empire
Joshua Holland <>, new contact
Karen Spence <>, recent contact, friend of Jeffrey Blankfort
Kirsten Sutherland <>, staff member of Almubadara in Gaza
Lawrence Salzman <>, my “kid” brother, 76 this June 10
Manuel Garcia <>, terriffic person, physicist, thinker
Marianne Torres <>, recent subscriber to my e-mail distribution list
Mark Bruzonsky <>, long time stalwart in exposing “The Lobby”
Marlene Santoyo <>, recent subscriber to my e-mail distribution list
Martin Davis <>, longest-time close friend on this list
Mazin Qumsiyeh <>, admired Arab biologist from Jerusalem
Michael Neumann <>, a Jewish Canadian academic philosopher
Nancy Davies <>, mi compañera and unrelenting critic since 1990
Noam Chomsky <>, admired friend, well-known Jewish “troublemaker”
Norman G. Finkelstein <>, a truthteller hero – just can’t stand lies
Scott Pinkleman <>, a friend of James Herod, new acquaintance
Stephen Walt <>, supporter of the American Empire
Thomas K. Wilson <>, correspondent and source of news
Uri Avnery <>, admired long-time Israeli Jewish peace activist
William Blum <>, incisive thinker and author with a sense of humor
      That limited mailing resulted in many responses. This posting has most of the correspondence (in which I was included) up through 14 Apr 2006, 5:00pm Mexican time (U.S. Central Daylight savings time) so you can see it and join in if you wish. I would prefer that you comment directly to the blog instead of writing to me, unless of course you want to write about personal things. The initial responses follow:
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From:
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 23:14:27 -0400

George, you know that I am your brother. And as such I perfectly understand that you are a peaceable intelligent human being. But I must say that while you Jews are so busy arguing whether some or all of you are in denial about Israel or whatever (and what Jew is not?) the republic which has thus far permitted us these free discussions is burning down.

For god sake will you intellectuals quit beating each other off and look at our common enemy? For the first time in forever white trash and working class and you educated Jews have something in common, despite you priviledged jackoffs who even know where Israel is on a map, but experience a knee jerk every time the word Israel comes up. Even arguing about its influence puts you inside its grasp. Not you George but all the rest of the lucky cocksuckers who had old world Jewish daddies who, no matter how poor, understood that education was important. Do you KNOW how many of my brothers in this town need YOU GUYS to save us? The biggest bunch of people who feel the effects of the Jewish lobby (even though they do not understand it even exists) are half assed educated white trash who think it is where Jesus came firm and must be defended with nukes. Look brother, I live here and I know. You fucking people are doing all right. We are dyin here from ignorance. Now the Republicans are going to own our votes again in the next election unless you people start to figure out how to talk to my people about what is important. Yes we are ugly, mean and fat. But you need to get down here and fight the fucking fight like yer grand daddies did. Forget about our ugliness, hate, and ignorance and figure out how to turn America around. You certainly will not do it by beating each other off on the net. I have the same vices as you about this internet thing. But we must fugure out how to reach to our laboring brothers.

Whattha fuck?
My solidarity and your solidarity and all of our success is hanging upon us being strong and brave…

let’s do it now. We are only old and weaker every minute. What can we lose?

Your fat hillbilly brother
joe
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Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 10:16:04 -0500

Hey Joe, just tried to call you — knew you were probably on your way to or already at work but thought maybe I could get your work number from Barbara. You’re desperate, I know, and you’re right, we’ve got to act, and right now! Trouble is, we don’t really know what to do. I’ve been trying to encourage folks to overcome the feeling of impotence that’s so effectively promoted by all the corporate media, and the only possible route I can imagine is to develop our own truly locally-based communal communication systems to displace the dominant media. We need, as Al Giordano has said, to get to ordinary, non-college educated people by radio, but it’s got to be radio based in the people, and of course it’s going to be “pirate” radio. We have to take back the electromagnetic spectrum (the air waves) that those bastards (with Clinton at the helm administering the coup de grace) stole from the public. Forget counting on a “Democratic” electoral victory. Of course we’ve got to displace the current regime. But, like here in Mexico, we can vote for the least obnoxious candidate (imagine an anarchist saying it’s OK to vote), but put the bulk of our energy into what the Zapatistas are promoting in their “other campaign”. We have to encourage all the communities in the U.S. that are beginning to challenge the power of federal, state, and county forces to override local needs, an already noticeable movement in preventing corporate control of water and sever services and now in the actions of towns to refuse to have their police help “higher” authorities in actions against “illegal” Latino immigrants. All these communities ought to be in touch with one another, the low-power “pirate” radio systems ought to be linked together into a vast popular-based network. When James (Herod) and I were visiting Al Giordano some years ago in the small town of XYZ we heard this great story of the fierce independence of the locals, who, when federal officers came to see about the enforcement of a directive that the locals didn’t accept, the Feds were undressed (I think they were permitted to retain their boots and socks) and sent walking out of the town, and told not to return. They didn’t. God damn it, Americans can do the same. But we have to have our consciousness raised first. We have to stop seeing the world through the prostituted eyes of the government-corporate media. We have to establish our local autonomy as our birthright. We have to learn what the Zapatista base communities are doing to establish self-sufficiency. We have to learn that there’s no such thing as “government money” — it’s all stolen, confiscated from the ordinary working people of America. We don’t need taxes. We need to become, as much as we can, self-sufficient. Fuck WalMarts and all the rest of the mega-giant corporations. Fuck everything that denies ordinary humble people from having pride in ourselves, from meeting our truly simple and basic needs, from loving our lives, from truly pursuing life, liberty and happiness. Joe, I know you’re desperate. Any half sane American is desperate these days. Nancy can’t even read the internet for long, and she’s a great reader, because it’s totally a horror. All the intellectuals are busy contemplating a nuclear attack on Iranian nuclear facilities — what does Seymour Hersh say?, what does so and so think, and on and on and on. Nancy is also almost crazy with despair. And I of course am furious, and wish to hell I could help find a way out. One thing that really bugs me is the near impossibility of getting those Americans who could really make a contribution to turning things around by giving up a part of their privilege to do so. Go look at my correspondence with JK, a really nice guy, by chance a Catholic, who’s having a great time and rationalizes, saying that at least that’s one happy person in the world. It’s the posting on my weblog at http://pwgd.org/gs/2006/03/12/tourism-for-the-well-to-do-another-blight-of-capitalism/. The point is that he’s really not a bad person, and very likeable. I have many friends, really good, close friends, who are so wedded to their privileged lives that in the face of the destruction of their children’s and grandchildren’s futures, they can’t consider renouncing significant parts of their privilege. Many of them, of course, are intellectuals, and not surprisingly, Jewish by birth, as I am. And part of it is the feeling they have, promoted of course by the sea of corporate-government propaganda in which we all swim, that even if they did make some sacrifice, it wouldn’t have any significant effect. A sense of impotence.
Take care Joe, with all best wishes,
George
P.S. I’m sending this out to a very limited list, still, if you want me to take your name off this list (it’s not my so-called e-mail distribution list of about 1400), please let me know.
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Subject: Re: The statement by, and the statement by someone else but signed by Dean
From:
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 12:19:25 -0400 (EDT)

george = i dont give a flying fuck about any of this shit - please get it out of my face - in solidarity johnross humanshield
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Subject: RE: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Karen Spence <>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:29:31 -0400

George:

I don’t really want to post on a blog but I need to tell you that I never said that Chomsky is “’covering’ a base for Zionists, as though he was somehow assigned to that task.” You said that. I don’t like when people make assumptions about me, so I felt I needed to correct you. I said he is a Zionist, and he never said he wasn’t. He said he was a Zionist in his youth and there was never a time when Jews did not know what that meant. I have a Jewish friend who is in her early 70’s who grew up in the Bronx, she said Jews in NY knew exactly what Zionism was, and many were against it. So believe me, Chomsky knew what he was doing and he still knows what he’s doing. If he has nothing to hide, then why won’t he accept Jeff Blankfort’s invitation to interview him? Chomsky has chosen to be a political person, a public person, an educator who is often paid with taxpayer money (since he jokes that he has been paid with defense money). The guy is almost an evangelist, and they are the worst kind. No one challenges him because no one knows any better to challenge him, oh, expect Palestinians who have challenged him, and he deals with them by ignoring the questions he doesn’t want to answer, or his answers are ambiguous. To do that is downright immature for a man of his stature. So if he is so righteous, why won’t he take Jeffrey’s offer to be interviewed? He’s accepted interviews by so many people but not Jeffrey, and that’s because he knows Jeffrey is on to him.

Chomsky is doing what he does for the cause as an independent person who supports the mission of Zionism still. People do have beliefs independently of others but it does not mean their beliefs aren’t the same as those who are “organized.” I have many beliefs myself that might be aligned with organized groups but it does not mean I am controlled by them or assigned to any task or thought.

Thank you,
Karen
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From: George Salzman <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:30:11 -0500
CC: Jeffrey Blankfort <>, “Adam D. Sacks” …

Karen,
      You wrote in your initial note, in part,
“Zionists come in many flavors … believe me, they’ve got every base covered. And Chomsky is covering one of them, a prominent position in the “left” and academia.”
      My reply was, in part,
“I don’t believe that Chomsky is, as you seem to imply, “covering” a base for Zionists, as though he was somehow assigned to that task. I think he is an independent person who makes his own decisions.”
      Your reply was, in part,
“I need to tell you that I never said that Chomsky is “’covering’ a base for Zionists, as though he was somehow assigned to that task.” You said that. I don’t like when people make assumptions about me, so I felt I needed to correct you.”
      Fine, I stand “corrected.” You did not mean to suggest that he was “covering one of [the Zionists’ bases] as though it were an “assignment”. We agree that “Chomsky is doing what he does … as an independent person.”
      It’s true, as you say, that “Chomsky knew what he was doing and he still knows what he’s doing.” For you to try to taint him with the brush of Zionism is irrational. It’s so glaringly obvious that he has been a (perhaps the) major target of the most virulent right-wing Zionists, whereas they pay hardly any attention to people like Jeffrey Blankfort, and of course none to people like you and me. What this means of course is that they see him, correctly, as a major (and effective) enemy of their program, and they would like to destroy his credibility. We lesser lights, though maybe just as ardent, maybe more so, they don’t even notice. We have to get over it. We do what we can, but we have to accept that Chomsky and others are, compared to us, giants in the camp fighting for a decent world, for Palestinians and everyone else. Do you know what Edward Said said about Chomsky? If not, you should get a copy of Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians and read Said’s Forward. And Said was no closet Zionist, you can be sure.
      You wrote in your first note, in part,
“My knowledge of the issues of Israel and the Lobby are relatively new; I have not been involved in this issue anywhere near as long as he [Chomsky] has, nor have I written any books on it as he has, and I’m fully aware of it [I think this “it” refers to the power of The Israel Lobby –G.S.].”
      I bought Fateful Triangle in July 2003. That was more or less the start of my learning anything specific about the Israel-Palestinian conflict and Zionism. So, like you, I too am a newcomer to this arena. By now I am thoroughly convinced that the entire ideology of Zionism, despite the humane decency of many believers, people like Martin Buber and Albert Einstein for example, is a totally flawed concept that implies all the racism, brutality and related horrors the Palestinians are suffering.
      But that doesn’t mean that Zionists are all bad people. Even Uri Avnery, in his early 80s, who is steadfastly fighting for decent lives for Palestinians, still retains the illusion that a good, predominantly Jewish Nation-State is possible. He remains a Zionist as well as a misguided believer in representative democracy, so-called. And there are many other Jewish Israelis who are decent people but still consider themselves Zionists. What I’m saying is that whether or not Chomsky still retains some Zionist ideas is not relevant in evaluating what he does.
      He cannot possibly accept all the requests he gets for speaking engagements, interviews, and so on. And since Jeffrey Blankfort is so hostile and accusatory, ready to attribute psychologically-driven unsavory motives to Chomsky’s position, why should he even try to be accommodating towards Jeff? Your rhetorical question, “If he has nothing to hide, then why won’t he accept Jeff Blankfort’s invitation to interview him?” is, I think, an expression of your own immature pique. Chomsky is a person, very gifted and very dedicated, but he’s not a god, only a human being, and he is capable of making mistakes, as we all are.
      I want to share a little exchange I had with a mathematician friend that shows how I regard Chomsky, who is in my experience a friendly accessible person.
———————–
About 1 or 2 April 2006 Dan Hughes <> wrote:

      I’ll tell you (privately) a story about Chomsky. I am a retired mathematician and live in Tuscany, and went to Siena a few years ago to hear Chomsky give two lectures. The first was about linguistics, the second politics. At the end of the first lecture I pointed out to him that if sentences were limited to one million letters (or to any number at all) in length, then there weren’t infinitely many sentences possible with the English language. He told me, ‘no, a mathematician could explain to me that I was wrong’. I said, ‘Sir, I am a mathematician, and I know that I’m right’. He pooh-poohed this. He’s supposed to know a lot of mathematics, and recounting this story in mathematical circles produces a very surprised reaction.

      This put me right off going to his second lecture in any case.
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My reply to Dan,
Subject: Re: Petras on Chomsky on Lobby
Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 07:43:13 -0500

Quite believable. He also thinks physics, the hardest of the hard sciences, is almost untouchable by criticism. A good and very smart guy, but stubborn. George
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My afterthought to Dan,
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 6:32 AM

      Dan, Why do you want that delightful and revealing story kept private? After all, though enormously gifted, Chomsky’s only human, and stubborn, and probably a bit egotistical, and not always correct. So what’s the big deal? I bet you’re not perfect either, nor Martin [Davis, a mutual friend of Dan’s and mine, a world-class mathematician], nor (even) I. I believe he has a sense of humour, betrayed by his genial smile. I wish I did.
Warmly,
George
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Dan’s OK,
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 11:11:36 +0200

Well, I thought about that for a short bit and decided that I didn’t want to get into a complex discussion with or about Chomsky. But you’re probably right — if you want to send my story out (ascribed to me), feel free to do so.
———————–
My acknowledgement
Subject: Your two notes
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 14:01:57 -0500

Thanks Dan,
I got both your permission to post the story about Chomsky, which I much appreciate, and also the wonderful litle vignette reflecting class conflict issues, as enjoyed in Italia. God!, I really love that country. If I have time I’ll probably post both items. But it’s crazy now. I’ve never had so much e-mail to deal with.
Best
George
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      Finally Karen, I want you to know that I think Jeff is correct about the power of what I prefer to call (following Mark Bruzonsky) The Jewish-Israeli Lobby. I totally disagree with practically every value judgement in the Mearsheimer-Walt paper, for example that the U.S. government wishes to do “good” in the world, if only it could. That’s pure horseshit as all of us on the left know, as well as almost everyone (Alan Dershowitz and David Duke perhaps excepted) who has entered the controversial discussion following the Mearsheimer-Walt paper.
      I think the power of The Lobby is finally going to become widely known among the American public, due to the untiring efforts of Bruzonsky, Blankfort, Norman G. Finkelstein, and many others who can’t stomach the brutal conquest of the Palestinian Arabs by the Israeli colonial regime. [I should of course have included the Mearsheimer-Walt paper as contributing to making The Lobby’s power better known —G.S.]
      I finally managed yesterday to read the entire March 13, 2006 so-called working paper of Mearsheimer and Walt, including the 39 pages of Endnotes, at its Social Science Research Network URL, http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=891198 and found it, if anything, more convincing than the condensed version in The London Review of Books. The Social Science Research Network has the original version Harvard posted, before its money-hungry Kennedy School of Government mutilated its posting with the cowardly now-prominent disclaimer. The only significant obvious error I came upon is in note 2 which is supposed to be the attribution on which they base their assertion ‘Since the October War in 1973, Washington has provided Israel with a level of support dwarfing the amounts provided to any other state. It has been the largest annual recipient of direct U.S. economic and military assistance since 1976 and the largest total recipient since World War II. Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars.’ However, note 2 reads in part, ‘According to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) “Greenbook,” which reports “overseas loans and grants,” Israel has received $140,142,800 (in constant 2003 dollars) from the United States through 2003. Downloaded from the “Greenbook” web site [http://qesdb.cdie.org/gbk/] on November 8, 2005.’ Obviously that number should have been $140,142,800×1,000, i.e. it was lacking a factor of 10³.
Sincerely, and with best wishes,
George
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De: Karen Spence <>
Para: George Salzman <>
Asunto: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
Fecha: Jueves, 13 de Abril de 2006 12:37 p.m.

Are you trying to get me killed, or have my life ruined? What the hell is your strategy here?
–
Karen Spence
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: George Salzman <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 13:17:17 -0500
CC: Jeffrey Blankfort <>

Karen, I don’t understand what you mean. I am trying to encourage open discussion of issues that seem important to some of us. What am I doing that you find so threatening?
George
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Adam Sacks <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:57:10 -0700 (PDT)
To: George Salzman <>, Karen Spence …

Hi All –

Well I’m Jewish, I grew up in NYC in the 50s, and I had no idea what Zionism was about (still don’t). Furthermore, and this will undoubtedly ignite some indignant replies, the fuss about Zionism strikes me as a major distraction and energy sink that gets lots of people going around in furious circles, biting each other while the oligarchy goes on its merry way.

The Precious Few (PF) who own the world could care less about Zionism, Communism, Fascism, Capitalism, or any other “ism.” These are all convenient methods of getting us to fight each other on issues fundamentally irrelevant to people’s rights, the rights of nature, and planetary survival, while the PFs merrily plunder away (until there’s nothing left to plunder, but that possibility never enters their worldview).

The issues are rights and survival. When do we drop the other stuff, stop fighting each other and start taking back our birthrights for the benefit of the seventh generation (of all creatures, not just homo sapiens)?

Cheers,

Adam

P.S. Chomsky has done some great work, and not everyone agrees with everything he says (including me), he’s not perfect, there have been worse people on the public payroll, so what. Whoever is without sin in this globalized mess of a web, find a convenient rock and toss it judiciously (just be careful you don’t hit yourself in the head).
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Dan Hughes <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 20:22:48 +0200
To: Adam Sacks <>, George Salzman …

This fellow doesn’t know what Zionism is all about? Come on, where has he been hiding? Pr maybe listening to Fox News?
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Subject: [DV] Yes, Blame the Lobby: Jeff Blankfort replys to Prof. Joseph Massad
From: Jeff Blankfort <>
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:54:35 -0700
CC: “Adam D. Sacks” <>, “Alan M. Der …

www.dissidentvoice.org/Apr06/Blankfort11.htm
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Subject: Walt-Mearsheimer “Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy”
From: Jeff Blankfort <>
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:34:04 -0700
To: George Salzman <>

FYI
stopthewarnow.net/warlobbies/harvardpaper.html#chart
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Subject: Alan Dershowitz Now Assails Finkelstein
From: Jeff Blankfort <>
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:50:46 -0700
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Israel Firster Alan Dershowitz continues to spread his filth in defense of the indefensible. Perhaps he should take on George Soros who also has said that Israel’s behavior (and it should be added, the actions of its loyal defenders such as Dershowitz) is the cause of modern anti-semitism.
news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20060412/cm_huffpost/018998;_ylt=A86.I1cO1j1E014Ajhb9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBjMHVqMTQ4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA–
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Subject: Sionismo: triste ironia da história
From: Gabriel Bolaffi - Uol <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:47:34 -0300
CC: herb fox <>

Dear George,

      I’m very glad Herb Fox sent you my E-Mail. Since than I’m receiving yours with huge interest. I’m not going to comment your debates, by now, because I want to get more familiar with all the issues and points of view involved. Of course your mailing list has many known names to me such as Norman Finkelstein, Mark Bruzonsky, Alan Dershowitz, Uri Avneri and other, not to mention Noam Chomsky. I feel at home.
      By now, I only wont to send you the copy of an article I recently published in the leading Brazilian newspaper “O Estado de São Paulo”. It caused an earthquaque here. Since you master spanish, I hope you will be able to read Portuguese.

Con abrazos,
Gabriel Bolaffi

Sionismo: triste ironia da história
Gabriel Bolaffi*

      Vivemos tempos pós-modernos. Marx continua a ser o grande filosofo e economista que sempre foi, mas suas utopias parecem ter “derretido no ar”, como se esvairam aquelas dos seus predecessores que ele tno maldosamente criticou. Como lembrou recentemente o historiador Fernando Novaes, talvez a globalizaçno as faça novamente resurgir, já nno como utopías. Mas é prematuro julgar.

      Hoje sabemos que a História jamais poderá ser uma ciLncia. Muito mais do que nas assim chamadas disciplinas científicas, o acaso e a interaçno de designos humanos distintos, afetam decisivamente o seu curso. É o caso do que eu chamaria de a trágica ironia do Sionismo, e de tantos judeus do mundo todo, que quando jovens, responderam com entusiasmo ao Sionismo Socialista Judeu, deixando seus paises de origem, para ir viver num kibutz, naquele País.

[For the entire text, write Gabriel Bolaffi –G.S.]
————————————————————————————–
From: (Karen Spence)
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 19:41:30 +0000
To: George Salzman <>

I wish we could have an open discussion about these things but, Alan Dershowitz? And even the others, who claim to care about Palestinians but are themselves Zionists, know reality, I’m not telling them anything they don’t already know. But I don’t trust people who have a personal selfish agenda, and that’s what Zionism encourages. That’s why this struggle is as difficult as it is. If people could really have a serious discussion about all of this, the reality would be that it would be proven that Israel has no right to exist as it does, and many on this list don’t want that to happen.

George, I had a personal incident that occurred to me about a year ago that I strongly believe had Zionists behind it, there is no one else who would have done it. I am one person, one individual. I know what these people are capable of and I don’t want to lose my life or my livelihood. They will stop at nothing. You must know this. Look what they’ve done so far. They are masters of deception, they’ve fooled people for so, so many years, and they’ve killed people too. You must know of the lies of the Iraq war, oddities of 9/11, and even the records that show a completely different story of world war II than these people want anyone to know. Do you think they want justice? Please! We don’t know which of them really does or which ones are working to keep Israel alive and the billions flowing to that racist state.

These people scare the hell out of me.
–
Karen Spence
————————————————————————————–
Subject: the sainted Martin Buber?
From: “J.A. Miller” <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:11:00 -0400
To:

The sainted Martin Buber? I think not.

Where a command and a faith are present, in certain historical situations conquest need not be robbery. –Martin Buber

Watch out George, that jealous Judeo-Christian god being channeled by Martin will smack you upside the head if you don’t submit to his ruling that the robbery of Palestine from the Palestinians and establishing therein an ethnically-cleansed, DNA-based state is perfectly justified in this “certain” historical situation. Chomsky seems to think so and is willing to administer said smackings (albeit of the kinder and gentler kind than say Likud) on behalf of the deity. For what is Zionism, whether Christian or Jewish, but a religious belief in the legality of covenanted real estate and the use of armament, lobbies, words, politics and gobs of money to support its continuance?

With best wishes,

J.A. Miller
www.secularavatar.blogspot.com
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From: Jeff Blankfort <>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:11:00 -0700
CC: George Salzman <>, Karen …

Adam,

Nice try. But if you’re really serious I have a very nice bridge to sell you.

Jeff
————————————————————————————–
From: lurban kohler <>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 17:15:11 -0700 (PDT)

George, I heard another unique perspective yesterday. Putting it quite succinctly, “cristian zionists” (I think they said) have sort of hijacked Israeli immunity to the criticism of progressives. Ther were several guests on an NPR radio show and I don’t think anyof them disagreed that this arrangement is now bad for Israel, and that The recent AIPAC meeting, addressed by the likes of Perle & Cheney, was way out of line with Israeli thinking OR interests!!
————————————————————————————–
From: lurban kohler <>
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 12:25:10 -0800 (PST)
To: George Salzman <>

I’m sure you are aware of and more up on this than am I, but this morning I was amazed to hear on National Public Radio that a study (from the Kennedy school of gov’t?) has been published about what I think they called the pro-Israel Lobby in the US and the conclusion was not just that American and Israeli agendas of foreign policy are harmonious, but that this Lobby (with capital L) drives US policy. I didn’t hear the complete program or get a sense of what kind of spin NPR was giving the story, but I did hear that the Kennedy School website had beefed up it’s disclaimer.

Well I’m running out of seconds on this library computer. thanks for all you do.

-Urban
————————————————————————————–
From: Lawrence Salzman <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:02:27 EDT
To:

In a message dated 4/13/2006 1:31:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, writes:

He [Chomsky] said he was a Zionist in his youth and there was never a time when Jews did not know what that meant. I have a Jewish friend who is in her early 70’s who grew up in the Bronx, she said Jews in NY knew exactly what Zionism was, and many were against it.

George: Just a comment on the above from one of your posts. As you can see, I put Chomsky’s name in brackets in the above as I assume that’s whom you were referring to. I’d suggest that you didn’t know what a Zionist was prior, at least, to your being drafted into the army during WWII. I also have a few Jewish friends in their 70s who also grew up in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan. Even knew one who lived in Staten Island when I was at Brooklyn College. You’re generalizing from a sample of one. I’m being sarcastic, but realize you have no degrees of freedom in that “survey.” In fact, Reform Judaism did tend to be against Zionism PRIOR to the establishment of Israel in May 1948. Actually, Reform Judaism began to move its thinking with the end of WWII and by the time of UN partition in November 1947, most Reform Jews had come to the realization that the formation of the state of Israel was a necessity after the Holocaust.

I was never a Zionist as I am an atheist and the land, per se, didn’t have a biblical “calling” for me. However, I was in touch and close to Alisa and her mother and, of course, mom was in constant communication with our family in Palestine and then after the state was formed, in Israel. I assume you never met Amram. You may not even know who he was. That’s a shame. He was our cousin who was born in Gedera in 1890 and was the first formally trained Jewish agronomist in Palestine. I won’t go into his history as it deserves a book, however, his father, a farmer, was wounded when he was attacked by Arabs who wanted to steal his crop. He died several months later from his wounds. That was about 1908.

Frankly, I’d guess that you didn’t really realize that Jews in Palestine were fighting for their lives, both on an individual basis and collectively through the 1920s and 1930s. They are still fighting for their lives until this day. Of course it’s become a tragedy for the Palestinians, but go back over the political history from UN partition till today and you will see that the Arabs (Palestinians among them) turned down every opportunity for a two-state solution. They have dug a political hole and jumped in. Every time the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular attacked the Jews and then Israel after the state became a fait accompli, they lost ground. Now some say, but not Hamas, if Israel goes back to the pre-June 1967 borders then they will settle. It’s a bit late for that line. The time for that to happen has faded into history.

The recent Israeli election shows that the majority of Israelis want a two-state solution and are prepared to compromise. Of course, today’s compromise would not be the same as the compromise either before or within a year after the Six-Day War.

In retrospect, since you supported the effort of the Jews to form a state of Israel in 1948, do you think that was a mistake? I remember that you had purchased an Israeli bond after the state was formed. Realize, if the Arabs had prevailed, the Jews would have been killed with the “lucky” ones escaping to another country. Los
————————————————————————————–
From: Adam Sacks <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 05:43:02 -0700 (PDT)
CC: George Salzman <>, Karen …

Thanks, Jeff, I’ll take two bridges, I’ve been running low lately - in fact, for a nice discount, I’ll take five for the price of four. Or I’ll trade you a lovely new one we have in Boston, named after a community activist actually. And while you’re out gathering the deeds, you might consider the possibility that someone’s doing some thinking that hasn’t occurred to you yet and take a look.

It never hurts to learn one new thing each day, at least (and you get a much better view from a bridge). Better yet, come to one of our Democracy Schools:

www.constitution411.org/dem_schl.php

Cheers!
Adam
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From: Karen Spence <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:05:57 -0400
To: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff Blankfort <>
CC: George Salzman <>, Alberto …

“Or I’ll trade you a lovely new one we have in Boston, named after a community activist actually.”

You cannot possibly be talking about Leonard Zakim? Spying and keeping dossiers on human rights organizations is not community activism, but I’ll defer a proper response to Mr. Blankfort.
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From: Dan Hughes <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 14:56:21 +0200
To: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff Blankfort …

Somewhere in this confusion there’s a fellow who doesn’t know what Zionism is, and surely one of these many addressees can tell him?
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From: Jeff Blankfort <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 07:31:11 -0700
To: Adam Sacks <>
CC: George Salzman <>, Karen …

That bridge, not coincidentally was named after Leonard Zakim, formerly the head of the New England Section of the Anti-Defamation League, the nation’s largest private spying organization which I helped to expose in 1992 and with two others successfully sued for having spied on me. Zakim was the author of a controversial black list of university professors and activists who were critical of Israel which he distributed to ADL members and to the media and which became one of the exhibits in our court case. That’s your “community activist.” That a bridge was named after him is just another indication of the power of the Israel lobby in the US and of one of it’s more insidious organizations.

Not only was it providing information on activists to Israel but also to South Africa. Why South Africa? Because the ADL’s position on the African National Congress was the same as that of that apartheid regime– it was a “terrorist” organization, and to cap it off its “main fact finder” Roy Bullock was not only spying on Arab-Americans and other critics of Israel but was being paid by an agent of South African intelligence to spy on anti-apartheid activists and black South African exiles as well. Bullock’s files contained the names of over 10,000 individuals and 600 organizations. Not a progressive political organization was left out. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to bring this up.

As for your earlier email that you “had no idea what Zionism was about” was, your reply shows that to be, to put it nicely, pure malarkey. So send me the check and I’ll send you the bridges.

Oh yes, I find it interesting that you rise to the defense of Noam Chomsky. I am sure he would appreciate that.

Jeff
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From: Marianne Torres <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 07:48:25 -0700
To: Dan Hughes <>
CC: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff …

Dan asks: “Somewhere in this confusion there’s a fellow who doesn’t know what Zionism is, and surely one of these many addressees can tell him?”

Well, I’m game for a try.

Zionism:
- the belief that my suffering entitles me to make another people suffer.
- the belief that something another people have actually belongs to me because I want it.
- the belief that because my ancient forefathers lived on a particular slice of land I am now entitled to take it from other people who also lived and live on that slice of land.

Nutshell. Others?

Marianne Torres
Spokane WA
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From: Dan Hughes <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 17:00:50 +0200
To: Marianne Torres <>
CC: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff …

Sounds pretty fair to me. But if someone can be (1) a Jew and (2) brought up in NTC [later corrected to NYC –G.S.], and he’s never heard about Zionism, it may not be enough.
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From: (Karen Spence)
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:02:33 +0000
To: Marianne Torres <>, Dan Hughes <>
CC: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff …

Somewhat close, except over 90% of the Jews who walk this earth cannot trace their lineage back to the Middle East. The only thing they share with the people who did walk that part of the earth is the religion. It’s a religion, therefore, although it’s not promoted, it’s something people can convert to, unlike an ethnicity or “race.” And people have converted to Judaism, lots and lots did in Europe way back when, so that’s not a valid argument or justification to steal land.

Zionism is basically an reinforcement that Jews are “the chosen ones” by a god they invented. It’s not unlike producing a blockbuster film that stars yourself as the hero.
–
Karen
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From: Adam Sacks <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 08:53:29 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jeff Blankfort <>
CC: George Salzman <>, Karen …

Dear Jeff –

If it’s true about Lenny, I retract my offer to sell you his bridge. As for Zionism, my plea of ignorance is sincere, and thanks for your insights. I have not now, nor have I ever been, a member of a Zionist organization - I haven’t even eaten a Hebrew National salami in decades. Nor do I support Israeli aggression against Palestine, or anyone’s agression against anyone else. Nor do I wholly discount Noam Chomsky (or you, for that matter, or born-again Christians, or even Progressive Democrats) because I might disagree with something he says or does. Nor do I believe the official story of September 11, 2001. And many other things . . .

What I do believe is that most of our activist energy is funneled into a black hole - the evidence of our failed ways is ubiquitous - and the rest of it is wasted fighting each other rather than the oligarchy that controls the way we think, even when we think we’re thinking “differently.”

If you’d like to learn more, check out an article I wrote for Food First:
foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2005/w05v11n1.html

Cheers!
Adam
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From: Dan Hughes <>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 19:35:20 +0200
To: Adam Sacks <>, Jeff Blankfort <>
CC: George Salzman <>, Karen …

Here’s some more ethnic cleansing I guess you could call it — America is so involved in these things (with their British poodle dogs).

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4909264.stm
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I will post subsequent e-mails in this ongoing exchange in a later posting —G.S.

Posting 12. to The Jewish-Israeli Lobby, due to Fred Nagel’s effort, posted by George Salzman

Here’s something The Lobby would really love to hide. Originally from an unidentified source (this reminds me of the great Tom Lehrer song, “Lobachevsky”, which reveals that the secret of success in mathematics is “plagierize, but please to call it always ‘research’”), it went to Miriam Reik <> to Eldad Benary <> to Fred Nagel <> to me <>, “and then”, as Lehrer sang, “begins the fun.” Nobody knew where it came from until Fred was able to discover that the alleged author, John Gunther Dean, now lives in Paris in the 16th arrondissement (Mossad, take note. Maybe you can try again to assassinate him). Fred finally, through an intermediary, got in touch with Dean and received the following message (I’ll put the info about Mossad’s botched attempt to carry out its targeted assassination in Beirut at the end). —G.S.

From:
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 08:52:14 EDT
Subject: Request by Mr. Fred Nagel
To: ,

Dear Mr. Nagel:

      In mid March [2006 —G.S.] I sent to a number of friends and former professional colleagues an E-mail regarding U.S. policy toward Palestine. The first highly personal page of the message I signed listing all the senior functions I held in the U.S. Foreign Service.

      The second part of the E-mail was “submitted” by me because I share the views set forth in the message, but I am not the author. It was written by a very erudite American friend with experience in the Middle East. Therefore, to indicate I was not the author, I submitted the section as an attachment to my personal plea.

      I am honored that you approved of the thrust of the message. Here follows the text of the entire message sent in mid-March.
Begin text

Subject: American policy toward Palestine

Dear friends and former colleagues:

      Having just celebrated my 80th birthday, I feel the need to commit to paper my outlook on the role of an American diplomat. I should add that when I took the U.S. Foreign Service examination more than 50 years ago, there were few naturalized citizens in the Service. I still believe today that an American diplomat’s first obligation is to look after U.S. long-term national interests and not to have dual allegiance due to family ties with another country or religious affiliations. As I repeated on several occasions before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee when seeking confirmation for an ambassadorial assignment, I always believed and was told that I represented a secular state and that tolerance, respect for the law, justice, fairness and perhaps compassion were qualities which Americans like to be known for around the world. In my many years of public services I tried to live up to these standards. I also always believed that speaking up for the truth was essential.

      Having fled my native land because of Nazi persecution, I became progressively appalled by the Israeli policy and actions in Palestine and against the Palestinian people. But even more alarming was the consistent American policy to support unequivalently Israeli actions and policy on Palestine. I believed while was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, and today as a retired person, that I cannot have dual values. As U.S. ambassador to Lebanon I fiercely criticized Israeli policy in Lebanon which resulted in my family and myself nearly being killed with American weapons shipped to Israel. I spoke up 26 years ago on Israeli policy in the Near East and I still speak up today about current U.S. policy toward the area which I believe is not in the long-term interest of the United States (nor in that of Israel).

      It is for that reason, as a patriotic American, who served in two wars and held senior positions in U.S. Embassies located in countries racked by civil strife, that I have put a few ideas on paper. I am sending these thoughts to you in the attachment in the hope that our leaders today will take note of them so that our descendants will continue to be proud to say “I am an American” and foreigners will continue to look at America as a beacon of hope for humanity.

Respectfully
John Gunther Dean

Former Deputy for CORDS in military Region 1 Vietnam
Chargé D’affaires á Laos
Ambassador to Cambodia
Ambassador to Denmark
Ambassador to Lebanon
Ambassador to Thailand
Ambassador to India

A problem in American foreign policy: Palestine

Submitted by John Gunther Dean

      In many ways, the Palestine problem is the most pervasive, complex and dangerous problem in American foreign policy. It is also the most difficult to address because it is so deeply embedded in guilt, emotion and fear as to be almost beyond rational thought. Americans, both government officials and private citizens, feel far freer to criticize America, Britain or France without being thought to dislike or oppose the peoples of those countries, but most non-Jews are afraid of being charged with anti-Semitism even if they are only critical of the hard-line policies of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This American attitude is not only demeaning to us Americans but is not helping Israel or Jews elsewhere. Israel is no longer, if it ever was, an international charity. It is a relatively powerful, rich nation-state. It should be analyzed, as its own citizens analyse its actions, in respectful terms.

      Like any other two states, Israel and America have national interests which do not always coincide. Only if the citizens of each rationally define their interests and understand what they are prepared to do to protect them can they correctly order and evaluate their relationship. Certainly that is how the Israelis themselves have always analyzed their relations with America. When Israel saw a conflict between its goals and ours, it naturally chose its own. America has seldom done so. At the governmental level we tip-toe around issues which have severely harmed American interests. Example: the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon was profoundly disturbing to American relations throughout the Middle East; its policy toward the Palestinians has stopped the peace process and certainly promoted terrorism directed at America.

      We have closed our eyes to events which elsewhere and by other people we would oppose, in some cases even with military force. Two of the most spectacular instances are when Israeli agents set fire to an American government library in Alexandria in 1954 in an attempt to damage Egyptian-American relations and when the Israeli air force and navy attempted in 1967 to sink a U.S. Naval ship, USS Liberty, during which attack 75 American servicemen were wounded and 34 were killed. They shot up even the life boats and life preservers with torpedo, machinegun, rocket and napalm fire, apparently attempting to ensure that there were no survivors. Such an attack by any other country in the world would almost certainly have provoked an immediate military reaction.

      Despite our own fiscal problems, the U.S. has been a cornucopia for Israel. We have given to Israel or provided in loans that were never expected to be repaid about $100 billion, have given Israel special trade relationships that in some cases remove import duties we charge other countries and have subsidized Israel armaments industry even when it has thwarted American policy by selling arms where we are trying to prevent arms sales, as it did recently with China. Mindful of the danger of being thought to be anti-Semitic, American specialists on the Middle East feel inhibited to say in public what their studies lead them to think.

      Israelis act in a far more egotistical and security-conscious fashion than Americans. Whereas Americans fear to criticize the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the outstanding Israeli scholar Avi Shlaim [1] was forthright in describing the Israeli occupation of Gaza before their unilateral withdrawal. After pointing out that in Gaza the 8,000 Israeli settlers controlled 40% of the arable land and most of the water while the 1.3 million Palestinians struggle to exist in what little remains to them, he commented that the Israeli occupation “is a hopeless colonial enterprise, accompanied by one of the most prolonged and brutal military occupations of modern times.” A non-Jewish American writing that would have been excoriated as anti-Semitic or even hounded from his academic or government post. This is unworthy of America and is misleading for the Israelis. Knowing that they have virtually a blank check to do as they wish, they pay little attempt to American government attempts to bring about conditions conductive to its interests in the Middle East. This is not to say that the Israelis are to blame; Americans are more at fault. The Israelis are merely acting rationally as they see their interests. It is America that is acting irrationally. Many senior and respected Israelis agree. They worry that the main beneficiary of the American weakness is the Israeli extreme Right and that Israeli’s long-term best
interests, and even Israeli democracy, will suffer as a consequence.

Best regards and Happy Easter
John Gunther Dean

[1] Born in Baghdad in 1945, he grew up in Israel, served in the Israeli army and is now British Academy Research Professor of International Relations at St Antony’s College, Oxford. He also commented on what we all know that “American foreign policy has habitually displayed double standards toward the Middle East: one standard towards Israel and one towards the Arabs. To give just one example, the U.S effected regime change in Baghdad in three weeks but has failed to dismantle a single Jewish settlement in the occupied territories in 38 years.

      The above paragraph, following Dean’s name, is part of his e-mail to Fred. I do not know who wrote it, or when it was written. In trying to get some information about Dean, I came upon an account of the failed attempt by Mossad to assassinate him in Beirut when he was the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. You can read it at www.rense.com/general52/idint.htm. —G.S.

Posting 4. to On the Ground, by Bill Templer

In a video “Dispatch From South Dakota: Tribal President Cecelia Fire Thunder Speaks”
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm ,
tribal president Cecilia Fire Thunder takes a stand against the new South Dakota law banning all abortions. She is invoking the Oglala Lakota tribe’s status as a sovereign nation within the state of SD to override state law, by building a family planning clinic on the reservation at Pine Ridge. Check out this extraordinary video, highlighting grassroots Native American women’s rights resistance at the local level and tribal sovereign identity. Every American county should become a kind of Lakota nation.

Posting 11. to The Jewish-Israeli Lobby, by Bill Templer

While we debate the arcane workings of U.S. policy and its ‘authors,’ the terrible slaughter by the IDF continues. Which is where our rage for justice must center. An 8-year-old Palestinian girl, little Hadil Ghraben, was killed April 10 by a shell fired by Israeli artillery at her house in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, while watching TV. Thirteen others were wounded, ranging from one year old to a kid of 17 — apparently all from the same family, all sitting or playing in the house. The photo is of some mourning relatives, including a tiny injured child. A 6-year-old boy was also killed over the weekend by IDF fire. This must be a minor highpoint for the IDF in the murder and maiming of the young nearly on the eve of Pessah. These abominations in the name of a voelkisch ideology are what never must be forgotten in this struggle.

Posting 10. to The Jewish-Israeli Lobby, by George Salzman

Oaxaca, Sunday, April 9, 2006

Friends,

There’s a new posting on my website,

The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
an exchange between
Jeffrey Blankfort and George Salzman
at
http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-04-08.htm
      Jeff and I disagree about Chomsky. Jeff thinks Noam has deliberately “sandbagged” the Mearsheim-Walt exposure of the power of the Jewish-Israeli Lobby ‘from the “left”’. I think Chomsky truly believes, though mistakenly, that The Lobby is not all that significant in influencing U.S. policy. But my concern goes well beyond that.

 
      My rejoinder to Jeff ends with the following:

 
      . . . [T]he power, or lack of power, of The Jewish-Israeli Lobby, is an interesting question for some intellectuals. But, as both Al Giordano and Joe Bageant have correctly pointed out, the great majority of Americans couldn’t care less what a bunch of pointy-heads are arguing about. In his essay, “Poor, White and Pissed”, at www.joebageant.com/joe/2005/02/poor_white_and_.html, Joe Bageant writes:
 
      “As for intellectual life, this is a town [Winchester, Virginia –G.S.] where damned few residents ever heard of, say, Susan Sontag. Even though our local newspaper editor did manage a post mortem editorial on Sontag, which basically said: Goodbye you piece of New York Jewish commie shit!, most people reading the paper at their breakfast tables around town were asking themselves, “Who the hell is Susan Sontag?” They would ask the same thing about Daniel Barenboim or Hunter S. Thompson because those figures have never been on Oprah.”
 
      Jeff, this is really why I think it’s not important for you to try to arrange for formal debates with Chomsky or [Stephen] Zunes or others in the opposing camp on the question of the power of The Jewish-Israeli Lobby. … Fact is, the folks down at Burt’s Tavern where Joe pursues his “Learning by drinking bouts” don’t give a shit.
 
      What I can’t escape is the foreboding resonance between David Duke’s perception of Jewish control of the media and Adolph Hitler’s perception of Jewish control of the major Austrian media by the end of his years in Vienna. I believe both perceptions are not without some substance, much more than I would wish.

All comments and criticisms are welcome, preferably directly to my weblog, at
http://pwgd.org/gs/

---

Here’s correspondence that preceded, followed or is related to the issue, mostly following the announcement.

---

Subject: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: George Salzman <>
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2006 17:31:00 -0500
To: Adam D. Sacks <>, Alan M. Dershowitz <>, Alberto M. Giordano …

Oaxaca, Saturday, April 8, 2006
Friends,
It has been slow going completing my response to Jeffrey Blankfort. I think it is close to being done, and expect to post it soon. If there are errors or omissions, I would appreciate learning about them.
Very sincerely,
George
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Noam Chomsky <>
Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 18:35:01 -0400
To: George Salzman <>

If you feel that you have some comment or query on what I actually have said or written, I’ll be glad to consider it and respond, as I do to 100 or so others a day.
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Noam Chomsky <>
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 22:17:16 -0400
To: George Salzman <>

Can only repeat what I said before. If you have any criticism of my brief comment on M-W, or on far more extensive discussion of these matters for the past 40 years, will be glad to see it.

Obviously it’s not true that I think the Lobby is “not all that significant in influencing U.S. policy.” As noted in the comment on M-W, and in much more detail in books and articles for many years, one of the most influential segments of the Lobby since Israel’s smashing victory in 1967 is the intellectual classes, which are extremely influential in shaping media, journals, much of scholarship. Omitting their enormous influence is a very serious analytic error. If you disagree, I’d be interested in knowing why.

But again, if you have any criticism of what I’ve actually said or written, I’d of course be interested.
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: George Salzman <>
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 22:13:42 -0500
To: Noam Chomsky <>

Oaxaca, Sunday, April 9, 2006

Dear Noam,

I will try to reply to you as soon as I can, but I am not nearly as fast as you are, and also not nearly as well informed. I have been unable to manage everything I should (or want to) do, still haven’t even looked at the Mearsheimer-Walt original working paper, let alone read it with, according to Mazin Qumsiyeh, of the order of half of the paper consisting of footnotes documenting their assertions. It will take me a little time, and of course I’ll have to go back and read again your relatively short ZNet piece to respond accurately to what you said.

These post-retirement years are turning out to be among the most interesting I’ve ever had. Certainly not boring. I hope you and your family are well and in good spirits.

All best wishes,
George
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Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Noam Chomsky <>
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 23:41:20 -0400
To: George Salzman <>

Good, but busy. Today’s typical. Afternoon talks-discussions at a meeting with Bob Fisk on the ME for several thousand people, evening meeting with Colombian Afro-American here to arouse some support for villages displaced by mines, answering mail, off early tomorrow for Iowa for talks. So it goes, every day — when I’m here. Often abroad, same story

Really no time for Blankfort-style infantilisms.
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Subject: RE: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: Newman, Stuart <>
Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 22:28:05 -0400
To: George Salzman <>

Thank you, George. This is very helpful.

Stuart
————————————————————————————-
Subject: Re: The Jewish-Israeli Lobby and Noam Chomsky
From: George Salzman <>
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:10:59 -0500
To: Newman Stuart <>

Thanks Stuart for the encouraging note. I’ve posted all the replies so far on the blog, at pwgd.org/gs/category/the-jewish-israeli-lobby/ right after the announcement, which is item 10. in that category. If you want to comment further it’s easiest for me if you post directly to the weblog. Unlike you, some of the folks who wrote were not happy with my announcement and/or essay. Clearly it’s a very “touchy” subject for some people. I retain tremendous respect for Chomsky, from whom I’ve learned a great deal over the years, but I think he understates the importance of the Israel Lobby’s impact on U.S. foreign policy.
All best wishes,
George
————————————————————————————-
Subject: [George Salzman] Comment: “8. J.A. Miller thinks I’ve been too critical of Jeffrey Blankfort. Perhaps she’s right.”
From: Carrol Cox <>
Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2006 21:46:22 -0500
To:

New comment on your post #25 “8. J.A. Miller thinks I’ve been too critical of Jeffrey Blankfort. Perhaps she’s right.”
Author : Carrol Cox
E-mail :
Comment:

The aspect of “The Jewish Lobby” concept that concerns me most is that it tends to blur the fact that the core enemy is U.S. imperialism. The authors of the LRB article seem to posit an “American National Interest” that exists independently of the imperialist policies of the u.s. government — policies which would not change in substance or even in most details did no Jewi