Am I worried about Israel?

That is the question that Mark Kirk (R-Crazyville) asks me, before asking me for a donation for his U.S. Senate race.

Nevermind that this liar Republican dipshit lied about both his military record and his teaching career, a moron so cowardly that he was worried his nursery school students would bring a gun to class... the deal is that I'm electing folks for the Senate of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA, not for ISRAEL. I want someone in office who puts America and Americans first, not Israel. Mark Kirk, on the other hand, puts Israel ahead of America and Americans, to whit (from his email to me):

Thank you for your strong support. Together, we will defend the State of Israel from those who seek her destruction ...

All I gotta ask is this question: What's in it for America and Americans to give a shit about Israel? Because that's what my Congress is supposed to be looking out for -- America and Americans -- because they're the Congress of the UNITED STATES, *NOT* the Congress of some folks overseas who speak some foreign gabble and, like, aren't Americans, doh!

-- Badtux the Patriotic American Penguin

(Note: I give the same answer to the people who say we have to stay in Afghanistan or Iraq "for the good of the Afghans" or "the good of Iraqis". Fuck that shit -- America's goverment is the government of the UNITED STATES, not of some folks overseas who speak some foreign gabble and, like, aren't American, so let them take care of themselves, yo!).

The question of Israel

Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic asks, "One question that should always be asked of an ally: what is that ally doing for the US? Since the end of the Cold War, that question has been increasingly hard to answer with respect to Israel."

Actually that question was hard to answer even during the Cold War. No U.S. troops were ever stationed in Israel, no U.S. fighter jets were ever stationed in Israel, no U.S. ships were ever based in Israel. About all that Israel contributed to U.S. efforts in the Cold War was the occasional attack on a U.S. ship and let's not forget the U.S. jets shot down over Lebanon by Syrian SAM's during the early 80's because Israel refused to give the U.S. the information needed to jam those SAM's. Frankly, Israel has never been a supporter of the U.S. in any way, Cold War or not. Turkey was a bigger supporter of the U.S. Cold War effort than Israel.

But of course that's not why the U.S. supports Israel, and I've already alluded to those reasons in prior messages:

1. It helps assuage U.S. guilt for U.S. participation in Hitler's "Final Solution" (hint: If gas chambers were the FINAL solution, what other solutions were tried? Hint#2: The U.S. would *NOT* take the Jews that Hitler didn't want, thus leaving Hitler with only one "final" solution left to the problem of, "what do we do with all of Europe's Jews?").
2. If the U.S. quit supporting Israel than Israel would likely collapse, since it is one giant welfare state. Because of #1, the U.S. would feel obligated to give refuge to the Jews fleeing Israel. Thus U.S. support of Israel keeps all those Jews over there in the Middle East, instead of over here in the USA. Important voting populations really prefer the Jews to be over there rather than over here. Ever wonder why the rabid Christianists are such fervent supporters of Israel, even though they regularly preach from their pulpits that the Jews killed Christ? Guess.

In other words, U.S. support of Israel allows the majority of Americans to be anti-Semitic without *feeling* anti-Semitic, since surely they couldn't be a bunch of Jew-haters if they support Israel, right? Right?! And that's what U.S. support of Israel accomplishes. It's a small thing, but guilt and racism are powerful forces, eh?

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

The truth that shall not be told

Patrick Buchanan brings up the obnoxious case of so-called "Americans" who put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of their supposed home country (and, specifically, the interests of one political party in Israel -- the Likud Party -- ahead of the interests of their supposed homeland), and, predictably, is immediately blasted as anti-semitic.

I have no doubt that Patrick Buchanan has some old-school Irish opinions of Jews. But this particular instance, he does not mention Jews, the Jewish faith, or anything to do with religion. He merely points out that certain "Americans" seem to have a greater allegiance to the State of Israel and, specifically, to a certain political party within the State of Israel (that is, the Likud party) than they do to the United States of America. This is not anti-semitism. It is a simple statement of fact -- there have been numerous examples of U.S. citizens who have been sent to jail for spying on behalf of Israel here in the USA, indeed, the entire Israeli nuclear weapons program (the one that "doesn't exist", smirk!) is based upon data stolen from U.S. weapons labs, and numerous examples of Likudniks who control the U.S. Israeli lobby pushing the U.S. government into taking actions against U.S. interests in the Middle East. To take the jump from that to say that Patrick Buchanan is making a blanket indictment of Jews and/or of the Jewish faith is a pure smear typical of the Israel lobby here in the United States, which is quick to libel and defame any criticism of Likud and its obnoxious and possibly genocidal policies towards Arabs as if any criticism means you want to exterminate the Jewish race.

Now, ole' Pat is a gentleman, so he ain't gonna say what needs saying about that pile of reeking bullshit, so I will. It's fucking bullshit, is what it is, and a goddamned lie, and I'm going to goddamned well call it a fucking lie and call you a liar if you goddamned well try to pull that fucking shit on me. Criticizing the policies of a political party and its supporters does *not* mean that you want to exterminate all members of that political parties, has not a goddamned thing to do with religion or race, and facts are facts regardless of whether you like them or not. So fuck that shit, and fuck the lying liars who spew that kind of shit.

-- Badtux the Rude Penguin

Friday war criminal blogging

The Jerusalem Post(1) reports on Israeli president (and war criminal) Shimon Peres's speech at an AIPAC convention: "Israel's aim, he said, was to provide a strong blow to the people of Gaza so that they would lose their appetite for shooting at Israel."

Well, that'd be nice, I suppose, if there was such a thing as "the people of Gaza" who are/were shooting at Israel. There is not. There is a few hundred, a few thousand at most, Hamas militants engaged in doing so. The rest of the people of Gaza *already* had no appetite for shooting at Israel, and all that being bombed and killed does to them is make their survivors have an *increased* appetite for shooting at Israel.

The way to deal with criminals is to take out the criminals. Not some random CARE worker and his six children. Not some U.N. compound full of women and children. All that happens when you take out non-criminals is that it motivates the survivors to decide that you're evil and need to yourself be taken out. That's not only common sense, that's what Israel's entire history demonstrates -- every time Israel has decided to do "collective punishment" of entire populations, what has happened is the radicalization of those populations. Where once there were only hundreds of criminals, suddenly there are thousands willing to take up arms against what they view as evil incarnate.

Killing innocents never turns out well. Given that IDF's current statistics indicate that over 90% of the Palestinians killed by Israeli action have no connection to Hamas, it seems clear that the end result of the action in Gaza will be to create nine new terrorists for every terrorist killed -- the nine new terrorists being the survivors of innocent people killed by Israel. But hey, Ehud Barack gets a big boost in the race for Israeli Prime Minister, so that's all that counts, eh?

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

(1) 'Solidarity during war is Israel's finest hour' Jan. 14, 2009 Greer Fay Cashman , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel cuts off last food supply for Gaza

U.N. forced to halt food aid shipments into Gaza.

As Jimmy Carter pointed out earlier, and as I verified earlier, Gaza was already getting only 66% of the calories needed for long-term survival, and over 3/4ths of all children showed signs of malnutrition. And that was before the food cut-off. It appears that the Final Solution to the Palestinian problem in Gaza is underway, Olmert's blathering about "of course we don't want a humanitarian crisis" nonwithstanding.

Y'know, what puzzles me is why Israel doesn't just do a normal bit of ethnic cleansing (normal for the region, that is) instead of this slow genocide shit. It's not as if their reputation could get any lower. You don't see it here in the U.S. media (or in the Israeli media, for you Mossad types reading this), but everywhere else in the world you see a constant stream of bloody pictures of dead or severely injured Palestinian children hit by Israeli bombs and missiles and bullets because, duh, a bomb or missile or bullet that misses its target (and not ALL bombs and missiles and bullets can be 100% accurate) doesn't ask, "are you an innocent child?", before it does its deed. The only way that Israel could have a lower reputation in most of the world would be if they started serving roast Palestinian with vegetables in their fine hotels (mmm, long pig!).

Gaza and the West Bank were both ceded to Israel as part of their respective peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt, so there's really no legal reason why Israel couldn't just send in the troops and shove out every man woman and child who's not an Israeli citizen across the nearest border like they did in Haifa when they wanted a port and those non-European wogs were in the way. Well, except for the fact that the Egyptians and Jordanians don't want the Palestinians either, but Israel has never particularly cared what Egypt or Jordan wants anyhow, and it's not as if Egypt or Jordan is going to go to war against Israel over the issue, they have their own problems right now -- Egypt is struggling against fundamentalist sects while trying to get enough economic growth to bring up its standard of living, Jordan is groaning under the weight of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees. It would totally suck to be a Palestinian forced out of your home at gunpoint, but shit, it's gotta beat starving to death in what has basically become Auschwitz South.

So it goes. I haven't the slightest foggiest idea why the hell anybody is doing anything in that region anymore (including the U.S., BTW), except that they're all fucking batshit crazy and there just isn't any sense to it. When Jordan and Syria are the bastions of sanity in the region, that's when you know we've gone through the looking glass into Bizarro World...

-- Badtux the Head-shaking Penguin

Starving wogs

Jimmy Carter claims that Israel is starving the Palestinians in Gaza to death, saying that Gazans are receiving fewer calories per day than the poorest people in Africa. Right wing commentators and Israeli newspapers, of course, quickly rush to condemn Carter. Which brings up two questions:

1) Is Carter right about the calorie count in Gaza? Are Gazans really receiving only 2/3rds of the daily caloric requirements for life? Well, first of all, let's go to that notorious terrorist-sympathizing organization, U.S. Agency for International Development. In 2003, prior to Hamas taking over in Gaza, USAID found that four out of five children in Gaza and the West Bank have inadequate iron and zinc intake, deficiencies that cause anaemia and weaken the immune system. Over half the children in each territory have inadequate caloric and vitamin A intake. And that was in 2003, before Israeli gunboats cut off Gaza's food imports from the sea and sank Gaza's fishing boats. Now the UNWRA says Palestinian children are receiving only 61% of the calories they need from U.N. relief supplies and have a 77.5% anemia ratio.

2) Is Carter right to blame Israel for the problem? Once again, quoting AFP: "Gaza has been under strict economic sanctions since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, with Israel cutting off food and fuel supplies." But the question is, has this made a difference in the number of calories that Gazans receive? It appears so. In 2002, 19% of Gaza's children had anaemia. In 2008, it is 77.5%. The only difference in that time period has been the blockade of Gaza starting in June 2007.

3) But did the Gazans bring this on themselves by electing Hamas? Hmm, well, that's a good question. First, Hamas only won a plurality in Parliament, not a majority. In other words, the majority of Gazans did not support Hamas. Hamas built a coalition government by enlisting other parties in their coalition. Secondly, all Gazans are being punished for something that a minority of Gazans voted for in hopes that this will convince the minority that voting for Hamas was a mistake. In other words, pretty much the Lidice Solution to the problem of partisan activity in Czechoslovakia except in slow motion. The morality of imposing a Lidice Solution is unclear only if you're a right-wing Likkudnik or an American neo-conservative. Otherwise, the Nuremberg Trials pretty much answered that question for eternity: No, collective punishment of an entire population for the actions of a few is not a moral activity no matter who does it or for what reason.

In short, Jimmy Carter appears to have made that most drastic of mistakes: He spoke truth. And of course we cannot have that. Why, if people made a habit of speaking truth every day, what would this world become? Why, it might even become peaceful and free, which would interfere with profits, yessiree!

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

Ahmadinejad is Hitler

All this week, the wingnuts have been whining about that mean President Ahmadinejad of Iran visiting America. "It's like inviting Hitler to visit!!" they exclaim in that cute hyperventilating manner that they all have, as if they're not getting enough oxygen to the brain and, like, have to use lots of exclamation marks!!! to make up for the fact that, like, they're blue in the face and speaking gibberish!!!!

Okay, so unlike Hitler, Ahmadinejad hasn't invaded anybody. Indeed, he *can't* invade anybody -- the Supreme Ruler (Ayatollah Khamanei) is head of the Iranian armed forces and has sole power to declare war, the President of Iran only has power over limited internal affairs. So unlike Hitler he doesn't have any armies under his control. Ahmadinejad hasn't exterminated any Jews either, indeed there are Jewish members of the Iranian parliament. And because he has no power to declare war under Iran's constitution, obviously he hasn't declared war against anybody. But... but...Ahmadinejad has SAID MEAN THINGS ABOUT ISRAEL! And saying bad things about Israel MAKES BABY JESUS CRY! WAHHH!!!! So *obviously* he's Hitler. Despite having no armies. Despite invading nobody. Despite exterminating nobody. Saying bad things about Israel is WORSE than all that, because saying bad things about Israel, like, HURTS THEIR FEELINGS! SOB!

- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

David Horrorwitch discovers enemy of Israel

This new enemy, which he talks about in his latest email to me begging, begging I say, for me to send money to him that he can use as matching funds to get more Wingnut Welfare(tm) from the Scaife Foundation, is ... uhm ... let's first talk about who it's not. It's not al Qaeda. Not Syria. Not Iran. Not Hamas. Not Hizballah. No. The threat that is so dire, so deadly, that I must, MUST I say, send money to David Horrowitz so he can swing the mighty cannon of his one-man "foundation" into action to counter it is... uhm... Jimmy Carter.

Wha? You mean some wrinkled old peanut farmer from Georgia is a threat to the very existence of Israel?

Apparently so. Seems ole' Jimmy actually is an evil super-villain, Peanut Man, who slides into his spandex super-villain uniform and flies over to Israel every day and.. and.. HURTS THEIR FEELINGS! Why, every day some innocent little blonde blue-eyed Israeli girl or boy falls over dead, clutching their heart, because, uhm, because JIMMY CARTER SAYS BAD THINGS ABOUT THEIR GOVERNMENT!

And oh, that negotiating a peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan thing? All just part of his dastardly plot. Without the Jordanians and Egyptians muddling up things with their bullets or stuff, that allows Peanut Man to swoop in and kill yet more poor innocent little blonde blue-eyed Israeli girls and boys by saying MEAN things about the Israeli government.

I am glad to have heard about that evil super-villain Peanut Man from that great American Hero David Horrowitz who single-handedly takes on evil-doers with his mighty super-powers of... of... BEGGING FOR MONEY ... and will post-forth send him all the money I can spare. In some alternative universe story like the one he wrote, that is. Uhm, David, can you leave the science fiction to Harry Turtledove? His alternative universe novels are FAR more entertaining, and more plausible too.

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin