Buddy, except among a segment that one might describe as naive “useful idiots” (e.g., Rachel Corrie), you can bet that among the “powers that be” inside the journalistic organizations, the halls of government, and in academia, many key people know very well what they are doing.

Either they are 1) actively promoting the Arab/Moslem agenda in an openly sectarian and amoral fashion (e.g., Rashid Khalidi), 2) they are knee-jerk 60s leftover hippies who see this issue as yet another platform from which to bash the “establishment” (e.g., Noam Chomsky), or 3) they are self-described foreign policy “realists” who intend to sacrifice Israel on the altar of the demands of so-called “moderate” Arabs/Moslems so as to gain their cooperation in fighting the “extremist’ Moslems (e.g., John Mearsheimer). Or, 4) they are simply “on the take”…i.e., they are lining their pockets with petrodollars by means of bashing Israel (e.g., Gwynne Dyer, or Human Rights Watch). A possible combination of all four motives might be contained in one vessel: Barack Hussein Obama (or, “Neville Carter Hussein Obama”, as I like to call him).

In all fairness though, as bad as Obama is, he is not 100% anti-Israel. I have seen credible reports of greatly increased military cooperation with Israel under his administration compared with Bush, and I’ve heard blurbs from Obama admin. officials wondering why the press does not cover these aspects of the U.S.-Israeli relationship, but only the negative. I would say that the media is even worse than Obama, that they are “egging him on”, at the behest of their petrodollar pimps.

At any rate, this does not so much represent an “unrealistic” reading of the Mideast as much as it represents a highly rationalized form of craven cowardice, and even outright base corruption. It has little to do with any sort of rational or just interpretation of this situation.

You ask “where have they been” all these years? They have been on our “elite” – and even not-so-elite – college campuses, having their brains stuffed with all of this pro-Palestinian nonsense by Middle East Studies Departments endowed by Sheikh Guess Who, who decides through proxies like the good Dr. Khalidi what gets taught, and by whom, and what point of view (that would be ours) absolutely is suppressed. That is, if they are not directly soliciting $$$ from Saudi royals or Iranian operatives, advertising themselves as opponents of Israel. Hey, it sure beats working!

Think about it, Shalom. Consider all the sorts of organizations that depend heavily on donors to keep afloat: universities, religious organizations (e.g., Presbytarian Church, United Church of Canada), politicians, public radio. Also stop to consider how precarious the balance sheet is for many news organizations, like the NYT, and many other newspapers. Who has millions of petrodollars to throw around at this, just waiting for willing recipients to do their bidding?

We know this is happening. It was revealed in the case of HRW back in 2009, and I’m sure that is the tip of the iceberg. I have no proof in the case of Gwynne Dyer, but if you are familiar with his work, I’m sure you’d agree that the Iranians could not get a better spokesman for their agenda. If he isn’t being paid by them, he ought to be. And I’m sure you’ve heard about the divestment campaigns coming out of places like the United Church of Canada that was just barely turned back…What dog do they have in this fight? Can minimally educated, informed people really be so ignorant as to the abysmal human rights record of Israel’s adversaries? I simply don’t buy that they come to their stands against Israel innocently. No way. Especially, when you consider how comparatively rare this sort of activity was even 20 years ago. What has changed?

Conversely, why, on national/international-level media, do we virtually NEVER hear points of view like Vic’s promoted by pundits? Does Vic or you or I have some esoteric, unique access to information that virtually the whole of the journalistic community is unaware of? How can they be so unanimously, uniformly ignorant? You might perceive my rant here has conspiracy-mongering, but what makes more sense? My theory, or just random, coincidental, complete ignorance on the part of legions of journalists, politicians, college professors, etc., etc.?

This is one of the great scandals of our times. These are tactics that were first developed by the Vietnamese communists during the 1960s, whom Arafat visited during that time in order to get tactical advice. Everything that is being done to Israel today, was being done to us in Vietnam then. Terrorism, suicide bombers, child warriors, hiding behind civilians in order to deliberately get us to inflict casualties on them, aggression by ruthless thugs cast as “national liberation”…the works. Only today, the bad guys pursuing this agenda have refined the tactics involved to an even greater degree, have been at it a lot longer, and have a lot more money to spend on it.

And the punchline: It is all LEGAL. What happens if the editor of the NYT, say, is discovered to have been taking $$$ under the table so as to promote an anti-Israel line? He loses his reputation. He might get fired. Their pitiful readership will shrink even further. But he won’t go to jail. These operations are low-risk, and very cost-effective.

Before we all despair too much, though, we might consider that the Soviets used similar tools during the Cold War; they called them “active measures” and were quite open about doing this, though obviously, they would not name names. I remember those days, the Soviet apologist journalists and academics, it wasn’t too hard for me to figure out who was probably who. But the Soviets still lost the Cold War.

What is most depressing to me in all of this, though, which brings us back to Vic’s article of today, is the disunity among our own people over this. I expect the Arabs and Moslems to behave like the enemy, for that is what they are. It doesn’t surprise me that some Americans and other Westerners, who are not Jewish, who have nothing they perceive to be immediately at stake (even though they do; the Islamists are their enemies as much as they are Israel’s), conveniently try to scapegoat the Jews out of bigotry or take money to do so or both. But that so many of our fellow Jews don’t “get it”, that pains me enormously. It makes it ten times harder for us to fight back effectively.

Unfortunately, it is now up to people like you, in venues like these, to get the truth out. The national and international level traditional print and broadcast media around the world actively suppress such views; the Arabs clearly own them. Even on FOX, the commentators whom one might expect to stick up for Israel, or at least give them a fair shake – i.e., Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck – studiously avoid this issue. Once in a great while, Glenn Beck will put in a positive plug in Israel’s favor; he is the only one with the guts to even do this.

The rest appear to be under orders from their bosses: “If you don’t have anything BAD to say about Israel, don’t say anything at all!” Biden was just in Israel, this is clearly the number one foreign policy issue for Obama just after the war in Afghanistan – if not even ahead of that – and not a PEEP from these guys. They’ll criticize Obama on ANY other issue – Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, cap and trade, you name it – but not a word on Israel. It is downright eerie, and frightening.

SO, I recommend to all who read this to forward Vic’s blog to your list, as I have, and otherwise, to get involved at the grassroots level as much as possible. Forward other comparable blogs; another good e-newsletter is Sarah Stern’s EMET (Endowment for Middle East Truth) out of D.C. Write letters to your newspaper, send e-mails to FOX, CNN, etc., to protest their shameful treatment of this issue. Don’t be afraid to call them out for the Arab whores that they are; the more they see that this dynamic is being exposed, the more they’ll be forced to reconsider their perfidy. And of course, write your elected representatives if you don’t already. Tell them what a farce this “settlements” issue really is, and that recognition is the REAL issue. Many of them already know this…and they need to hear from us to reinforce the courage of their convictions on this issue.

Don’t count on others to do these things, and don’t refrain just because you heard someone else say the same thing. Take a lesson from the other side: volume counts for as much as veracity. There just aren’t enough of us around for us to be able to afford people sitting on the sidelines. The longer we wait to take action, THE HARDER IT WILL BE TO DO SO.

The traditional Jewish advocacy organizations – e.g,. AIPAC – have all but collapsed in terms of effectiveness. They are failing us, for the most part. Harrassment by our own government – e.g., the arrest of AIPAC officials on trumped-up charges a few years ago – have cowed them. And other traditional voices for the community, such as the URJ, well, Vic’s piece above pretty much sums up what they are worth. With friends like these…

Final thought: Last and most, do not be reluctant to engage in Israel advocacy just because you are afraid of being accused of “dual loyalty”. I’m probably preaching to the choir with this particular audience, but for the benefit of the more passive members of this audience whose passivity has such roots, you must remember that in the current war we – the West – are now fighting, Israel is to this war what West Berlin was to the Cold War. We were willing to incinerate the whole of the northern hemisphere over West Berlin; giving in to the Soviets over Berlin would not have ended the Cold War one day sooner – instead it would have emboldened them and lengthened the war – and so too appeasement of the Arabs/Moslems over Israel is self-defeating in the extreme. We stood up to the Soviets over Berlin, I think we can stand up to the medieval, dysfunctional Arab/Moslems of SW Asia over Israel.

Sticking up for Israel is in fact one of the most partriotic things you can do, not only as Jew, but as an American, or even as a member of the civilized world community.

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Bottom line: We better steel ourselves for some decisive action. Sitting around wringing our hands, hoping the Chinese will play nice, etc., this is a waste of time that only benefits are adversaries. We can’t expect much out of Obama, but his successor in 2012 will need to break some eggs for a nice Persian omellette. I hope by then it won’t be too late. I hope before then Israel doesn’t act out of desperation, and really muck things up (unless the only other option is that Iran gets nukes for sure). I hope that Obama grows a pair…that last one is like hoping that pigs will learn to fly, I know.

Iran, is should be remembered, has an economy the size of Ohio. Their per capita income is about $8000, give or take. They have a small number of modern aircraft, but mainstay of their air force is still the 1970s technology F-4 Phantom 2. They have practically no navy. As to their army, they depended on groups of 10-year-old boys for “mine detectors” (A-jad helped lead and organize this facet of their war effort; tells you something about him).

Iran is an amazing case study of a country that has used bluff and b.s. to make them look a lot stronger than they really are. This is an excellent demonstration of the power of ‘national will’ in the absence of any other factor of national power. It also shows how the lack of this quality – even if you have everything else going for you – is so debilitating, when one looks at the U.S. response.

They are becoming an Iranian satellite.

I think it is time to boot them out of NATO. Really. I know it will drive them into Iran’s corner, and it is not good to have the Turks against you (just ask the Russians), but they aren’t ten feet tall, and I think it is worse to have a NATO member state that is, in effect, a “mole” for the other side. They don’t need to be privy to our secrets, command structure, etc., as they are within the context of NATO. And….Turkey off their leash might make the Russians a bit more cooperative with us on some regional issues (i.e., Iran).