Wallwritings

By James M. Wall

My first encounter with Jack G. Shaheen came in the summer of 1978. He was a professor of communications at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.

I was the editor of the Christian Century magazine in Chicago, Illinois. Jack sent me a manuscript entitled “The TV Arab”, which I immediately accepted for publication.

In October, 1978, the Wall Street Journal published an expanded version of the essay. In 1984, Shaheen expanded the article into a book with the same title.

In 2001, Jack Shaheen produced his break-through work: Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies A People (Olive Branch Press, 2001), described by film scholar Henry Girous as a “pacesetting and courageous book”, focusing on “Hollywood’s production of long-standing racist stereotypes aimed at Arabs and Middle East culture.”

This publishing history is important as background for Jack Shaheen’s latest book, Guilty: Hollywood’s Verdict on Arabs after 9/11 (Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press. 2008) because it became immediately apparent after the attacks of 911, that Hollywood would exploit the emotions evoked by the horrors of that day. (To read the entire story, click here.)

Carter and the Elders Challenge “Injustice Wherever We See It”

A Man Kills His Parents and Begs for Mercy Because He is an Orphan

The Thieves Pause: Israel “Open” to Summer Building Freeze

Bibi Uses “Recognition Plus” to Defy Obama and Block Peace Plan

Carter’s Middle East Trip: If Its Tuesday, This Must be Gaza

by James M. Wall

In a practice which sounds disturbingly familiar to Middle East election watchers, the Iranian government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has “detained” leading supporters of the man who “lost” the election, Mirhossein Moussavi.

It has become increasingly obvious that the election was “stolen”. (see earlier update below). Of course it was.

The familiarity comes from a reminder from Helene Cobban that the January 2006 Palestinian legislative election did not result in the ending Israel and the U.S. wanted.  So Israel and Iran took the same action to change the results, arrest the opposition. (For more on this update, click here.)

Update 4 p.m. Saturday; A Stolen Election?

According to today’s New York Times, Ahmadinejad won Friday’s election by a large margin.  Moussavi insists he is the winner, and speculation has begun that the election results were falsified.

Juan Cole suggests the election may be a “crime scene”.

I am aware of the difficulties of catching history on the run. Some explanation may emerge for Ahmadinejad’s upset that does not involve fraud. For instance, it is possible that he has gotten the credit for spreading around a lot of oil money in the form of favors to his constituencies, but somehow managed to escape the blame for the resultant high inflation.

But just as a first reaction, this post-election situation looks to me like a crime scene. And here is how I would reconstruct the crime. . . .

Obama Speech and Moussavi Campaign Weaken Zionism’s Iran Narrative

by James M. Wall

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election four years ago as president of Iran was the gift that kept on giving to the Zionist narrative, the worldview that before the arrival of Barack Obama, dominated U.S. politics and media.

Not, I hasten to add, a gift to the Israeli people, far from it, but a gift to the Zionist zealotry that is driving the Israelis deeper and deeper into a dark future.

What zealotry? The zealotry personified by Israel’s drive-the-Arabs-into-the-desert foreign minister, the far-right Avigdor Lieberman, who resides in one of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.

Helene Cobban’s blog, Just World News, is my inspiration for believing Mirhossein Moussavi (whose campaign colors are green; see above) will win the Iranian presidency. (To continue reading, click here.)

Obama Speech Draws Spirited Response From DC To Damascus

by James M. Wall  

Reactions to Barack Obama’s Cairo speech were largely positive, with one notable caveat.

Start with the ongoing struggle between two Washington, D.C. lobby groups, AIPAC, and its emerging challenger, J Street.

The more moderate challenger’s rise to prominence was timely, just before Obama took off to Cairo where the President’s speech was praised worldwide.

There remains, however, a dark cloud hovering over Obama’s rhetoric: His plans for Palestine, specifically, his failure to reverse the military assistance program George Bush gave Fatah in its attempt–backed by Israel–to defeat Hamas.

Obama is in a position to stop favoring Fatah. He has backup at home where that struggle between two sides in the DC Lobby wars, as reported pre-Cairo by the Atlantic.com blog, is starting to tilt away from AIPAC. (To continue reading, click here.)

Can Obama Take His Cairo Show on the Road to Jerusalem?

by James M. Wall

President Obama has a massive educational task on his hands. In his long-awaited Cairo speech, he addressed a world audience of more than 1.2 billion Muslims, an estimated 22% of the world’s population, second only to Christianity, which has an estimated 33% of the world’s inhabitants.

Obama chose a university campus in Cairo, Egypt to give his address, a city historically identified as a major center of Arab culture. Complicating his task is the fact that only 12% of the world’s Muslim population is Arab.

Beruit journalist Rami Khouri notes that while The Speech will no doubt inspire, its true impact will finally be judged by how it affects Muslims who live in Gaza, Jenin, Ramallah, Beruit or Riyadh. Can the leader of what is currently the world’s major superpower take his Cairo show on the road to Jerusalem? (To continue reading, click here.)

The Narrow Visions of Dick Cheney and Benny Morris

by James M. Wall

This is a quick visit into the thinking of two men, Dick Cheney and Benny Morris, one an American, the other an Israeli. Both have formulas they have developed to deal with “others”.

You would have thought Cheney, defeated in 2008, could no longer find audiences eager to listen to his message. You would have thought wrong.

Cheney has emerged from his bunker and is once again taking his show on the road.

He preaches to a public which gave him an approval rating of 29% in November, 2008. His most recent favorable ratings are up to 37%. He still faces a 55% unfavorable rating.

Since Dick Cheney came out, blinking into the sunlight, he has been officially designated by both Leno and Letterman as the “former president”, which, of course, accurately describes the man who also answers to Darth Vader. (To continue reading, click here)

Between Netanyahu and Obama, The NYT Picks Fear of Amalek

By James M. Wall

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu came to Washington with one thing on his mind: Attack Iran.

President Obama was not buying it. His focus was on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

How did the venerable New York Times report the high-level meeting? Bibi’s spin was the winner, going away.

When the New York Times reports a story, it becomes the gospel which the rest of the nation’s media follows with the fervor of an evangelical preacher with the literal biblical truth clutched in his hand.

David Bromwich begins his Huffington Post column with this scathing exposure of the Times’ biased coverage, a blatant pro-Israeli spin that recalls the days when Judith Miller was feeding the Bush-Cheney WMD line to a frightened American public. (To continue reading, click here.)

Obama Is The “tough-loving, truth-telling friend” Israel Needs      

by James M. Wall

Early in my writing career, I received a personal note from a well-known writer which so boosted my morale that fifty years later, his note remains deeply embedded in my memory bank. What I had written prompted this response: “I wish I had written that”.

I cannot remember what prompted such praise. I seriously doubt that my words were that special. Nevertheless, I was happy to read them.

The purpose of this blog is to point to the wisdom, research, creative thinking and well crafted writing of many people. I try to include as many links to these writers as possible. I have long ago decided that there are far better and much wiser writers out there than the author of this blog.

Now, instead of saying ”I wish I had written that”, I spend my time telling others what the wiser ones are writing and saying.

I want to start with a conference I attended last week at the Carter Center, in Atlanta, Georgia, under the auspices of the Human Rights Program, of the Center. (To continue reading, click here.)

EFCA Could Lose: We Need Frances Perkins Today

by James M. Wall

Your reading assignment for today combines New Deal history with a current news story.

The book is by Kirstin Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday, 2009).

The current news story? The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is in danger. Democratic senators are wobbly. We need a Frances Perkins for today who will push Congress to do the right thing.

The original Frances Perkins chaired New York State’s Industrial Commission under two successive governors, Al Smith and Franklin Roosevelt. When Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, Perkins became his Secretary of Labor, the first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet.

Before his inauguration, Roosevelt invited Frances Perkins for an interview in his New York City residence on East 65th Street. Kirstin Downey, the author of this stirring biography, describes their historic 1933 meeting on “a chilly February night”. (To continue reading, click here.)

The Pope Skips Gaza: “I was in prison and you visited me not”            

by James M. Wall

A friend writes from Bethlehem:

His Holiness will arrive in Jordan at the end of this week, then cross the river to Israel-Palestine and spend a few more days here.

Sad to say, he will not visit Gaza.

It would have been a huge encouragement for the people of the region especially the Christians in Gaza, and provided a good “media op” to highlight the devastation and on-going problems inside the prison that is Gaza.

To be fair to Pope Benedict XVI, he does not have total control over his May 8-14 travel itinerary which begins in Amman, where he plans to visit a mosque. From Jordan, the Pope will cross the Jordan River into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

On the Israeli side of the river he will be met by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who will serve as his constant companion and guide before he returns to Rome. (To continue reading, click here.)

“Congress is Israeli-Occupied Territory”; You Got a Problem With That?

(With May 5 Update)

by James M. Wall

It is Springtime in the nation’s capitol. The cherry trees are in bloom. And once again, just after the robins return, AIPAC gathers for its annual conference, May 3-5.

AIPAC, in case you have just arrived from Mars, is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobby which gives the U.S. Congress its marching orders on all matters pertaining to the best interests of the state of Israel.

If you have to ask if AIPAC is also concerned with the best interests of the people of the United States, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan has news for you:

The U.S. Congress is “Israeli-occupied territory”.

Occupiers, as the Palestinian people can testify, have only the best interests of the Occupier at heart. (To continue reading, click here)

Thomas More: “I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake”

by James M. Wall

In his press conference Wednesday night, President Obama was asked two questions about torture. In his first answer he referred to an article he read recently. His staff did not initially provide the source, but Huffington Post suggests his source could have been a blog posting by Andrew Sullivan:

In his blog, The Daily Dish, Sullivan wrote:

Most ordinary people lived through the Blitz, a random 9/11 a week, from an army poised to invade, and turn England’s democratic heritage into a footnote in a Nazi empire.

As all that was happening, and as intelligence was vital, the British captured over 500 enemy spies operating in Britain and elsewhere. Most went through Camp 020, a Victorian pile crammed with interrogators. As Britain’s very survival hung in the balance, as women and children were being killed on a daily basis and London turned into rubble, Churchill nonetheless knew that embracing torture was the equivalent of surrender to the barbarism he was fighting.

Responding to a second torture question: ”Do you believe that the previous administration sanctioned torture?” Obama ignored the “previous administration” reference, evoking instead the Churchillian rationale: (To continue reading, click here.)

Arlen Specter’s Switch Is a Mixed Blessing to Progressives

by James M. Wall

Not to be churlish about it, but news that Arlen Specter has switched parties to save himself from certain defeat in the 2010 Republican primary comes as a mixed blessing for peace and justice progressives.

Specter brings Senate Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, 60 votes, assuming Al Franken survives Norm Coleman’s prolonged court struggle in Minnesota.

On progressive issues, Specter’s record is not encouraging. Now 79 years old, he announced his late in life political conversion by reasserting his opposition to a major labor reform bill, the EFCA (Employees Free Choice Act). (To continue reading, click here.)

U.S. Justice Department May Drop Spy Case Against AIPAC Lobbyists      

by James M. Wall

Pro-Israeli Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-Ca) may not be in so much trouble after all. The U.S. Justice Department may drop the spy case against former AIPAC Lobbyists Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman.

Harman might have figured in the case, had it gone to trial, as scheduled on June 2, The case, however, has been postponed repeatedly. It could open on June 2, but all signs point to Justice dropping it. This is good news for Harman, who was caught in an FBI wire tap of her conversation with an Israeli “agent”.

On the wire tap, Harman is reported to have promised the agent she would “wade into” the case on behalf of Rosen and Weissman.

Three days after her comments were revealed by Congressional Quarterly (April 19), the Washington Post (April 22) brought her the welcome news: (To continue reading, click here.)

Jane Harman Caught on NSA Wiretap Cutting a Deal with an Israeli “Agent”  

by James M. Wall

Representative Jane Harman (D-California) is in a tough spot. She has been caught on an NSA wiretap cutting a deal with an Israeli agent.

Will Representative Harman become the Rod Blagojevich of Washington, accused of “pay for play”? Don’t count on it. Harman has many friends inside the Israel Lobby. And the Lobby knows people who know people.

Nonetheless, a story has just been published that reports that Harman was wiretapped in a conversation in which she promised to help AIPAC in an Israel Lobby staff problem. In return, so the story reports, she expects help from AIPAC.

The story identifies the wiretap conversation as one between Harman and someone involved in “alleged Israel covert action operations in Washington.” (To continue reading, click here.)

Wingnuts, Blinders and Bubbles: Obama Continues U.S. Obeisance to Israel

by James M. Wall

The right wing media wingnuts (Urban Dictionary: “A wingnut: An outspoken, irrational person with deeply-held, nominally conservative, political views”) went wild over the slight bow they detected when President Obama greeted Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah with a cordial two-handed shake. It was an ignorant and silly objection.

But what word can the Urban Dictionary suggest to describe liberals, moderates, and progressives who cling to their own deeply-held, rigid political views? What word best describes the entire U.S. media corp and the U.S. Congress, for that matter, who continue to enable President Obama to pretend he does not know how tightly the state of Israel controls U.S. foreign policy.

You will not find any need for a wingnut equivalent in the MSM; wingnuts don’t know they are wingnuts. Instead, go to the internet to find the spotlight thrown on the enabling behavior of our leaders. And develop your own wingnut word equivalent.

Start with Kathleen and Bill Christison who have just published a scathing critique of the Obama administration’s continued obeisance to Israel. (To continue, click here.)

Yes to Tutu, Cuba Travel, and Marriage in Vermont

By James M. Wall

The times they are a’changing. Not immediately and not fast enough, but the signs are promising. Consider these three stories:

Michigan State President Says No to ADL

Michigan State University invited retired South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to deliver the university’s 2009 commencement address. Tutu is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to apartheid in his native South Africa in the 1980s. He is a widely admired Christian world leader.

Two Anti-Defamation League officials, including the Jewish advocacy group’s director, Alexander H. Foxman, sent a letter of protest to MSU President Lou Anna Simon, objecting to the presence of Tutu at MSU. The officials claimed that Tutu was a “poor choice” to deliver the commencement address because he had made statements about Israel that “conveyed outright bigotry against … the Jewish people.” (To continue reading, click here)

Could Avraham Burg Be Israel’s Future Barack Obama?

by James M. Wall

Avraham Burg is the former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament and former Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. Winding up a recent book tour in the United States, Burg was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.

Burg was in the U.S. to discuss his new book, The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes.

In the 2008 English foreword to his book, which was initially published in Hebrew in 2007, Burg wrote:

I wrote this book in order to open up the heart, mouth, and eyes for a new vision. I have tried to touch on our [Israel's] maladies and afflictions and to offer preliminary directions of cure and recovery on the road to a new national and global vision for the Jewish people. . . .

Now, the book has been published in other languages and I am once more ridden with anxiety. Can a foreigner understand Israeli intimacy? Is it possible for someone who is not part of the Jewish family to perceive the loving tension that characterizes family members who sometimes do not see eye to eye with one another and yet remain whole? Will there be people who take my words, distort them and use them as weapons against me, against my nation? Probably.

In an answer to a question from Goodman, when he appeared on Democracy Now, Burg spoke of his earlier years: (To continue, click here)

Jewels in the American Crown: Obama, Hightower and Maddow        

by James M. Wall

Elections do have consequences. Imagine any other current American politician handling questions from the international press corp and town hall meetings the way Barack Obama has been doing on his European trip.

We have much for which to be thankful this spring, starting with the fact that our democracy awoke from its stupor in time to invite Barack (and never forget, Michelle) into our White House for four and hopefully, eight years.

Obama has elevated our national sense of purpose. He has inspired us to look on the brighter side of life. Sometimes we even feel like Wall-E poking through mountains of trash and coming up with a jewel. . . (To continue reading, click here)

Looking for a Bishop in The Family Tree

By James M. Wall

This blog is concerned, among other things, with current events, history, and religious connections. You don’t like family history? Well stick around, at least long enough to hear, below, a rousing rendering of ”Old Dan Tucker” from Bruce Springsteen.

My history is also your history. Our joint histories are our world’s history. We are all connected. You may find these connections to be of interest, and, just maybe, you could decide to launch your own search for a bishop in the family tree.

When I started building on the research of Florence Day Ellis (my Aunt Florence) I knew we had a connection to a famous name (famous in church circles, that is) but we had never been able to confirm a “blood kin” connection.

McKendree is the “M” in my byline above. McKendree was my grandfather James McKendree Day’s middle name; my son and grandson both have McKendree middle names. The McKendree name is significant in our family history.

My Aunt Florence, who died before she could enjoy the luxury of internet searching, uncovered the first appearence of a McKendree in our family history. . . . (To continue, click here.)

The Public Is Mad at Big Business; So Why is EFCA in Trouble?            

by James M. Wall

Things are becoming “curiouser and curiouser” in Wonderland. We have fallen into that deep hole with Alice where up is down and down is up.

“Who are YOU?” said the Caterpillar.
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I–I hardly know, sir, just at present– at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

The Republican party should be hiding from pitchfork mobs angry because bankers, bonus babies, and venture capitalists have stolen 401-K retirement funds, closed factories, and shipped jobs overseas. But the Republicans are not hiding. They are gearing up to prevent Democrats from delivering a long awaited gift to American workers.

After six long years of being turned away by the Bush White House, labor unions finally have a president who is on their side. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) has once again been introduced in Congress. (To continue reading, click here).

Israel’s “revolting” Marriage Law Faces A Court Challenge

by James M. Wall

Veteran Israeli journalist Uri Avnery is constantly outraged at the conduct of the nation he loves.

In a column in the Palestine Chronicle, Avnery writes about a case now before the Israeli Supreme Court in which a group of Jews and Arabs seek to overturn a draconian Israeli law that attacks the core of Palestinian families.

Though security was the pretense for the passage of the law, Avnery knows the real reason for this “temporary” law was to make life untenable for Palestinians who live both inside and outside the border of Israel, a border that continually expands, also under the pretense of “security”.

Israel has no constitution. Instead, the nation is governed under what is known as “Basic Laws”. The case now before the Supreme Court insists this marriage law violates the “equal rights of all citizens” provision of those Basic Laws. (To continue reading, click here.)

Ron Holloway Finds “Political Movies” at the 2009 Berlin Festival

By James M. Wall

Ron Holloway was one of my earliest mentors in relating film to religion. We met during the 1960s, the peak era for art movies when European imports were arriving in the US from directors like Ingmar Bergman, Francoise Truffaut and Michelangelo Antonioni.

Ron was instrumental in creating a Chicago-based organization for film education that became the National Center for Film Study. He and his actress wife Dorothea continue their intense involvement with film, and their exhaustive coverage of festivals, from their home in Berlin, Germany. A posting he wrote for this blog on the 2008 Cannes Film Festival continues to attract readers.

Ron has sent me his report on the 2009 Berlin Film Festival. He graciously allowed me to trim it to fit this space.

His edited version runs below. (To continue, click here.)

Jimmy Carter’s New Book Is Must Reading for Freeman’s Successor

by James M. Wall

While keeping up with L’Affaire Freeman, which has been consuming this blog of late, I have been rereading Jimmy Carter’s We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work.

I started this post on Carter’s book the morning that Ann Hafften sent me her latest blog posting from “A Texas Lutheran’s Voice for Middle East Peace”.

I have a double motive for linking to Ann Hafften’s blog. First, her sources are well chosen. Second, I need to point out that progressive peace and justice bloggers like Ann Hafften were following Charles Freeman’s rise and fall as the potential NIC chair. The arrival of Carter’s book was timely, a break in the dark clouds of the Israel Lobby’s grip on our political life. (To continue, click here.)

David Broder: Obama Suffers an Embarrassing Defeat

by James M. Wall

There are few journalists working today I admire as much as I admire David Broder. We go way back. As far back as the George McGovern campaign of 1972.

This is a man I trust and what is more important, he is trusted by the Washington political and media community. His column appears regularly in the Washington Post. It is also syndicated to the more fortunate news outlets in the country.

His column this week on Charles Freeman was so on target, so personal and so insightful that it is command reading for everyone who has shown interest in the rise and fall of Charles Freeman.

He begins in his usual pithy style with the following words, and he concludes with a zinger on how the White House has handled this matter. To continue reading, click here.

The Times Wakes Up While Schumer Says He Helped the White House Do the Right Thing

by James M. Wall

The New York Times finally woke up to the Charles Freeman affair and wrote about Freeman’s withdrawal in its news pages this morning.

The Times called AIPAC for a statement and allowed a spokesman to deny involvement while treating the withdrawal as a “new” story, even though the assault on Freeman has been waged for weeks in the blogosphere. (The Times’ promotion of the Iraq war creeps sadly back to mind).

Greg Sargent explains in Who Runs Gov.com:

The Times didn’t seem that interested in figuring out why Freeman was ousted. The paper quotes Freeman blaming the “Israel Lobby,” and then places one call to AIPAC, whose spokesperson says that the group never took a formal position on Freeman. The paper lets the matter rest there.

Now that the Times has finally put words on paper in its news section, the rest of the MSM (Main Stream Media) will follow the Media Godfather’s lead and gingerly touch upon the topic with its usual lack of insight or perspective. (For links and to continue reading this post, click here)

Good: Cohen Calls Hamas a “political phenomenon” in the Palestinian National Fabric; Bad: Freeman Withdraws

By James M. Wall

Back in the Israel Lobby’s halcyon days, could you imagine a New York Times leading columnist writing the following paragraphs? And keeping his job?

Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has long been treated by the United States as a proscribed terrorist group. This narrow view has ignored the fact that both organizations are now entrenched political and social movements without whose involvement regional peace is impossible.

Britain aligned itself with the U.S. position on Hezbollah, but has now seen its error. Bill Marston, a Foreign Office spokesman, told Al Jazeera: “Hezbollah is a political phenomenon and part and parcel of the national fabric in Lebanon. We have to admit this.”

Hallelujah.

But that is what Roger Cohen wrote in a column entitled, “Middle East Reality Check”. Hallelujah, indeed. But wait, there is more: (To continue, click here)

Yes Virginia, There is an Israel Lobby and It is Still Fighting Charles Freeman

by James M. Wall

Yes, Virginia, there is an Israel Lobby, and it is still fighting to block Charles Freeman’s recent appointment.

We thought the matter was settled when the word came down that Charles Freeman would be named chairman of the National Intelligence Council. This decision evoked great rejoicing among those of us who are counting on President Obama to tell the Israel Lobby, no single lobby will control what happens in the Obama Oval Office.

It is important to remember, Virginia, that the Israel Lobby has a role to play along with all the other special interest pleading groups in Washington. But, Virginia, you and all your other little friends, should never forget that a lobby’s role is to plead a case, not to control government policy. (To continue reading, click here.)

The Palestinian Democracy that Might Have Been After the 2006 Election

By James M. Wall

The map to the right shows the final results of the 2006 Palestinian legislative district elections. It was distributed by the Central Elections Commission of Palestine and published on the BBC website. One half of the legislators in the 2006 election were chosen in districts (66 seats); the other half were chosen in a “countrywide” vote (66 seats).

As this map indicates, Hamas won an overwhelming majority of the legislative seats chosen by districts in both the West Bank and Gaza. The border drawn on this map follows the internationally recognized 1967 border. Note carefully how many green Hamas legislative seats on this map are in the West Bank. The 2006 legislative election was a major electoral triumph for Hamas throughout the entire country, not just in Gaza, as post-election propaganda would have us believe.

American media did not cover this election as a Palestinian election. They covered its implications for Israel while viewing it entirely through Israeli lens. This was an election I viewed up close, talking with voters and officials. I am certain it was the sort of election US political writers would have loved to cover. (To continue reading, click here.)

Carter, Walt and Mearsheimer, This One’s for You; Freeman Named National Intelligence Council Chairman

by James M. Wall

It is official: Ambassador Charles Freeman has been appointed chairman of the National Intelligence Council. The announcement came Thursday afternoon from the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis C. Blair.

From the Office of the Director of National Intelligence:

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair has selected Charles W. Freeman, Jr. to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC). As Chairman, Ambassador Freeman will be responsible for overseeing the production of National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) and other Intelligence Community (IC) analytic products. (To continue reading, click here.)

Update on Israel Lobby Attacks on Freeman’s NIC Appointment

by James M. Wall

The Washington Post’s Al Kamen has a follow up story on the State Department assignment given to Dennis Ross, discussed in my earlier posting, However, the smear tactics now being used by the Israel Lobby against Ambassador Charles Freeman’s appointment as the new NIC chairman are not in the Kamen story.

His story focuses on Ross, a favorite of the Israel Lobby.   His silence on Freeman is revealing.

Still, as background to the ban on Freeman stories. Kamen’s report makes for fascinating inside baseball reading.  The shifting about he reports on may or may not have long term diplomatic significance, but it does suggest that strong personalities are in play in Hillary Clinton’s State Department.   (To continue reading, click here.)

Israel Lobby Smears Ambassador Freeman with Angry Distortions    

by James M. Wall

The MSM (Main Stream Media) still has not noticed, but the Israel Lobby is out in full force to scuttle the appointment of Ambassador Charles W. Freeman as the new chairman of the National Intelligence Council.

Once the word swept across the blogosphere, the battle was joined. You will not hear about this from the MSM until the Freeman appointment is confirmed (or blocked). Then the MSM will report the news as a “controversy” between supporters and enemies of Israel, a total distortion of the story.

Within the Jewish blogosphere, however, the debate is intense between the Israel Lobby and progressive Jewish forces. (To continue reading, click here)

Why Israel War Backers Are Unhappy With Obama for Considering Freeman For NIC

by James M. Wall

In his new book, The Inheritance, David E. Sanger describes the impact of a 140-page NIC-produced National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the Bush White House just before Thanksgiving, 2007. The report was not what the war-oriented forces in the White House wanted to see. The NIE brought to a screeching halt, perhaps for years to come, any US military action against Iran.

As President Bush’s national security team gathered in the Situation Room they were given the news that the NIE had found that while Iran was indeed “racing ahead to produce fuel that would give it the capability to build a bomb, it had suspended all of its work on the actual design of a weapon in late 2003″.

We now know that much to the disappointment of the “bomb Iran” crowd in Washington, there was no longer any chance of mustering sufficient public support for any attack or invasion of Iran during 2008, the crucial presidential election year. (To continue reading, click here).

There is Joy in Mudville! Samantha Power Now Batting for the Obama Team

by James M. Wall

Samantha Power first gained national attention with her 2003 Pulitzer Prize winning book, From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Then Senator and future President Barack Obama read the book. In 2005 he invited the 38 year old Power to his office for a discussion.

Powers recalled the meeting in an interview with theNew York Times:

“I was supposed to meet him for an hour,” she recalled. “And entering the fourth hour, I heard myself say, ‘Why don’t I leave my job at Harvard and intern in your office?’

Which she did, later taking a longer leave to become a full time volunteer for the Obama campaign. The position she left behind was Professor of Practice of Global Leadership and Public Policy, at Harvard’s Kennedy Center. A passionate human rights advocate, Power has also served as a war correspondent. Her most recent book was Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World. . . .  (To continue reading, click here.)

Tom Geoghegan Is A Progressive Running to Replace Rahm Emanuel In Illinois’ Fifth; He Could Win

Update: Thursday, February 19:

Tom Geoghegan has just been endorsed in the Fifth District Democratic primary by Democrats for America (DFA).

by James M. Wall

At last count, 14 candidates are competing in the special March 3 Democratic primary to fill Rahm Emanuel’s Illinois 5th Congressional District seat. There will be an April 7 General Election, but this is Chicago, so the primary will pick the next congressman from the Fifth.

Don Rose, veteran independent political operative and columnist, describes the district in a recent Chicago Sun Times column:

The 5th is the second-toughest Machine-controlled Democratic congressional district in Chicago. It differs slightly from the conservative 3rd District because of a handful of independent-liberal lakefront precincts comprising 18 percent of the vote. . . .

High profile congressmen from the Fifth have included Dan Rostenkowski, who served the district for 36 years before his imprisonment on fraud charges, and Rod Blagojevich, who stopped by the district long enough to become governor before he crashed and burned.

Rahm Emanuel held the seat between two stints in the White House, first with Bill Clinton, and now as Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff. Emanuel also managed to shoe horn in two years out of politics in the world of financial deal making, during which time he built a $18 million personal kitty and an enhanced rolodex, both of which were assets in his successful run to become Blagojevich’s successor. (Click here to continue reading.)

A Good Samaritan Comes Upon a Homeless Woman; She is Homeless No More

by James M. Wall

There are not many “good news” stories in politics these days. But a Florida woman, Henrietta Hughes, was central to one of the few “good news” moments that reached national attention in Fort Myers Thursday.

Huffington Post has the story with two videos, one with the beginning of the story, the other with the aftermath.

As Henrietta Hughes told the story to CNN, she had been unable to find work since 2003. She and her son Corey, have been homeless, sleeping wherever they could find a place to bed down.

Hughes had thought of writing the President to tell him her story. Then Hughes learned from her son that President Obama was to be in Fort Myers Tuesday. Someone told her she could stand in line and possibly get a ticket to see the President.

She stood in line for 12 hours. She got into the hall and was standing close to the platform where the president was speaking and taking questions. He called on her. Tearfully, she told Obama her story. (See the video here, posted by Huffington Post).

Hughes told the President she needed a place to live. Touched, he came over, kissed her and promised to have his staff look into her situation. What neither of them could have anticipated is that another woman, Chene Thompson, learned about Hughes’ meeting with the president. (To continue reading, click here.)

Helen Thomas is Back and Obama Has Her; Now What Does He Do?

by James M. Wall                                          

It was yet another sign that the Bush years are over when 48 minutes into his first White House presidential press conference, President Obama turned to Helen Thomas, who, at least for the moment, is back on the White House predetermined questioner list.

Writing for Slate in March, 2003, Jack Shafer described Thomas’ snub by the Bush media handlers.

At his televised news conference last week, President George W. Bush deliberately snubbed several reporters he ordinarily calls upon, including journos from the Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today.

But the most conspicuous recipient of the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. freeze-out was longtime UPI reporter Helen Thomas, who has barbed and grilled every president since John F. Kennedy and almost always gets to ask a question. Bush pointedly ignored her.

Bush then dealt Thomas a second slight. By custom, Thomas concludes White House press conferences at the president’s signal by saying, “Thank you, Mr. President.” Bush denied her that supporting role, ending the conference with his own sign off, “Thank you for your questions,” and flushing a decades-old White House custom.

George Bush is now back in Texas.  Helen Thomas, the daughter of Christian immigrants from Lebanon, has covered every US president since John F. Kennedy. Now 88, she remains active on the lecture circuit and still writes a syndicated column.

Barack Obama chose to bring Thomas back to the White House press conference privilege list, no doubt aware that in a recent column she addressed the tax problems of Timothy Geithner, the new Secretary of the Treasury, by noting the irony that the Treasury Secretary administers the Internal Revenue Department. (To continue reading, click here.)

Tom Harkin and Raul M. Grijalva Push Howard Dean for HHS

by James M. Wall                      

I first met Howard Dean during the early days of his 2004 run for the presidency. He struck me then, as he does now, as a passionate man with progressive ideas, a politician willing to take risks.

It is therefore, no surprise that two prominent Democratic members of Congress, Iowa’s Senator Tom Harkin and Arizona Representative Raul M. Grijalva have this week, separately, recommended that President Obama consider naming Howard Dean as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

The Hill story that reported these endorsements traces the history of Dean’s campaign for president and his tenure as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. It also reports on an unverified story circulating in Washington: Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has been blocking Dean from the HHS position. (To continue reading, click here).

Mitchell’s Two Big Problems: Israel Attempts to Ban Arab Political Parties as Lieberman Grows Stronger

Updated:

by James M. Wall                        

Obama envoy George Mitchell faces two big problems in his effort to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Because the problems are intimately connected they will have a major impact on the Israeli Knesset election, February 10.  The first problem involves the initial banning of two major Arab political parties, Balad and the United Arab List-Ta’al (UAL-T), from taking part in the election.

The reason for the banning? Party members, all of whom are Israeli citizens, had openly protested the war in Gaza. Israel’s Election Commission voted on January 10 to ban the two Arab parties from the February 10 election.

After the two parties protested, on January 21 Israel’s High Court of Justice restored them to the ballot. This legal victory, however, will not reverse a growing trend in Israel politics: A mood of intolerance toward its own Arab citizens. (To continue click here.)

A Sad Reminder from Illinois:”Money is the mother’s milk of politics”

By James M. Wall              

Listening to the 59 Illinois state senators solemnly repeat their “yes” vote to remove Governor Rod Blagojevich  from office, one had to wonder: How many of them thought, “there but for the grace of God go I”?

Everyone of those senators got to their senate seats in Springfield by raising money, some of which came from $25 checks from the average vote.

But most of the money that lifted those senators up the political ladder came from persons of wealth, lobbyists, contractors, lawyers, and other citizens who had something other than “good government” on their minds when they wrote out their checks.

Jesse Unruh, Speaker of the California Assembly from 1961 to 1968, is credited with coining the phrase, ”Money is the mother’s milk of politics.” Every office holder or aspiring office holder in every state in the union knows this is true. (To continue reading, click here)

In “Waltz With Bashir” Art Connects Gaza to Sabra and Shatila

By James M. Wall                                          

Waltz With Bashir, an animated documentary film by Israeli Director Ari Folman, arrived in U.S. theaters during the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza.

During the invasion, Gary Kamiya wrote a review of the film for Salon.com. He entitled it: “What Waltz With Bashir can teach us about Gaza”. Here is an excerpt from that review. . .  (To continue reading, click here.)

Obama Names George Mitchell Top Middle East Envoy

by James M. Wall

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Or, if you prefer, there is a God in Heaven who has finally figured enough is enough. You know the God I mean, the One who led President Barack Obama to choose George Mitchell as his Middle East envoy.

OK, if you don’t like this theology, or any theology, at least, accept Mitchell as a gift from Santa Claus one month late. (To continue reading, click here.)

“Lift Every Voice and Sing”

by James M. Wall

After Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States, he delivered a stirring inaugural address that called on Americans to join with him in addressing the problems facing the nation. . . .

Obama’s speech was followed by a benediction from 87-year-old Joseph Lowery, from Atlanta, Georgia, whose opening words must have sounded familiar to the millions of African Americans in the crowd and around the nation. . . To continue, click here)

Pastor to Obama:”Perhaps you are where you are for such a time.”

by James M. Wall

On Sunday morning, President-elect Barack Obama and his family worshipped together at the 19th Street Baptist Church. The Obamas’ new hometown newspaper, the Washington Post, covered the event:

President-elect Barack Obama and his family attended services this morning at one of the oldest historically black churches in Washington . . .  The pastor, Derrick Harkins, focused his sermon on how God prepares people for challenging situations.

He told Obama: ” . . . perhaps, just perhaps, you are where you are for such a time.” . . .. (To continue reading click here.)

Israel Calls a Timeout While Gaza Continues to Suffer

By James M. Wall

Late Saturday night, Israel and its allies, the US and Egypt, made a grand show of calling a “time out” (also known as a “ceasefire”) in Israel’s relentless attacks against Gaza’s civilian population.

The US has agreed for its part to monitor the border between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt’s President Hosni Muburak will inform his people that he favored a ceasefire to end the bloodshed.

And, of course, Israel went through its “democratic” dance by letting the Knesset vote on the ceasefire. But not before killing a few more Gazan children. Don’t want those Palestinians to think we are getting soft, do we fellows? . . . To continue reading, click here.

War crimes? Or “part of a new strategic ballgame in the Arab-Israel arena”?

by James M. Wall

With the invasion of Gaza ending its third week, the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported Friday, January 16, that the Palestinian death toll is now 1115, of whom 370 are children and 85 are women.

The number of injured is at least 5,015, of whom 1,745 are children and 740 are women. An estimated 400-500 are critically injured.

Mindful of these mounting death and injury figures, the International Federation for Human Rights, has urged the UN Security Council to refer Israel to the International Criminal Court for possible war crime charges in Gaza. . . To continue reading, click here.