Blase's Blog

Tanya Reinhart

This week was marked by the passing of Tanya Reinhart, a leading Israeli intellectual, an outspoken critic of Israeli government policies and one of the leading advocates for Palestinian national rights. She served as a professor of linguistics and media studies at Tel Aviv University and, recently, as global distinguished professor of linguistics at New York University and columnist for Israel's largest daily paper, Yediot Ahranot. Tanya had a global following for her critical perspective on the occupation of Palestine. Her books include: Israel-Palestine, How to End the War of 1948, and The Road Map to Nowhere. Tanya last appeared on my program WORLD FOCUS on November 19, 2006.
Here are some of Tanya Reinhart's positions:

Israel's policy has changed so they are now not simply defending the occupation, they are supporting the atrocities including the daily killing of Palestinians.

The recent Palestinian elections were declared to be among the best of the sixty-two which have been monitored by the Carter Center, but Israel did not like the results of the election and Israel is protected by the might makes right policy of the United States. So the Palestinian elections are not recognized and their entire population must be punished and starved.

Friends, the brilliance and clarity of Tanya Reinhart identifies something that few people in the United States understand. Tanya states that what we see now is the U.S. and Israel deliberately inciting civil wars among their enemies. They are doing this in Palestine by supporting forces like the Dahlan in Gaza.

They are doing the same in Lebanon. They are doing this in Iraq. This is the U.S./Israeli policy.

Tanya was convinced that Israel is simply not willing to recognize the right of the Palestinians to exist as a state.

Just as the Bush administration has done everything possible to recklessly endanger the people of the United States, similarly, the incredibly powerful American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is actually endangering the people of Israel by pushing for war in Iran, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. Tanya Reinhart knew that the blowback from this endless war mongering could lead to the destruction of Israel. Now that she has left us it would be wise for every Israeli and every citizen of the United States to read her books and to denounce the mindless cheering sections for endless war which reside in Washington and Tel Aviv.

Let's Start Some New Wars

Just twenty years ago, the Reagan Administration was busy illegally and secretly selling arms to the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran in order to fund an out of control mercenary army of thugs who were given the mission of overthrowing the government of Nicaragua. Elliot Abrams was indicted for giving false testimony about his role in this illicit money raising and was convicted of unlawfully withholding information from Congress. Yes, this is the same Elliot Abrams who covered up atrocities committed by the military forces of U.S. backed governments in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and his own mercenary contra army which slaughtered 40,000 Nicaraguan civilians. This is the same Elliot Abrams who reported that the El Mozote Massacre in El Salvador was not credible.

According to the Observer, Elliot also planned the Coup in Venezuela against Hugo Chavez in 2002. Oh, yes, it was the same Elliot Abrams who flew to London under a fake name to raise more money for his beloved Contra mercenaries. He scored a heist of millions from his buddy, the Sultan of Brunei, an act specifically forbidden by the Boland Amendment.

Elliot Abrams gives the following formula for covert actions:

First. Keep Congress out of it. Do not trust any friends or allies.

Second, keep the CIA out of it.

Third, do not trust the uniformed military.

Fourth, the program must be run out of the Vice President's office.

Guess what? Elliot Abrams is now being drawn forth to help the hapless Bush Administration ignite the entire Middle East into a huge bonfire. Abrams will use the above formula once again and once again it will be a formula for total failure. The plan is for Sunni Saudi Arabia to help the Sunnis weaken the Shiite Hezbollah in Lebanon. Aid will now go to the Sunnis who are hostile to the U.S. and sympathetic to Al Qaeda. How did this redirection happen? The unintended strategic consequence of the Iraq war has been the empowerment of Shiite Iran. So now, Bush in his wisdom, wants to empower the Sunnis to fight the Shiites, who are currently in power in Iraq. For clarification, we want to help the minority who previously ruled Iraq under Saddam Hussein and to oppose the majority who have allegedly been elected by the people of Iraq.

Friends, impeachment is the only way to stop Bush and Cheney from destroying The Middle East and creating world wide repercussions. If you find all of this confusing, please get help from the excellent journalist who is trying to help us understand it. Check out Seymour Hersh's article THE REDIRECTION in the New Yorker for March 5th, 2007.

Be sure to listen to WORLD FOCUS, 10:00 to 11:00 AM on Sundays.90.7 fm, Los Angeles, 98.7 fm, Santa Barbara. This program is alsoPod cast and available 24/7 at: www.kpfk.org click on WORLD FOCUS.


Pacifica Commentary For March 14, 2007
Torture Is Us

Nothing personifies our foreign policy more clearly than torture. Our policy is torture. Torture of the indigenous, torture of the slaves, torture of the poor, torture of working people, torture of our troops and torture of our purported enemies. A polity of torture has no right to exist.

Torture is the work of wimps. Wimps are sadists who enjoy bringing pain to their alleged enemies. Torture is the behavior of losers who continue its performance by the endless fuel of outrageous lies. The lies are declared to be true by way of military cult leaders whose objective is to control the minds of our troops. And what form of logic do military cult leaders use? They use the logic of authority. And what role does authority have in making a legitimate argument? Zero. The science of Logic declares any argument based on authority a fallacy. Oh, yes, authority can fire you, it can torture you and it can kill you. But it is never an acceptable part of sound logic or morality.

Military leadership with all the skills of cult leader Jim Jones insists on the following:

1. By torturing these suspects, you are protecting your fellow troops. This is a lie. Effective commanders of guerrilla troops have understood for years that captured enemies should be treated well. George Washington identified the Hessian mercenaries as terrorists and then instructed his guerrillas to take good care of their Hessian captives who might just come over to our side.

2. Torture can save the world from nuclear war. No, it can't. The only thing that can save us from nuclear war is the universal abolition of nuclear weapons.

3. Torture will make people tell us the truth. False, torture will make people say anything that might stop the torture. The truth has nothing to do with it.

In short, torture is the personification of evil. It is simply one of the many forms of rape.

So friends, now is the time to impeach our Head Torturer, George Bush and our Vice Torturer Dick Cheney. And now is the time to boycott the producers of such TV Programs such as 24 which have brought us to the ultimate cultural perversion by picturing the torturers as the good guys and implying that some truth has been extracted by their barbaric behavior.

Join us at Hollywood and Vine this Saturday at Noon in a demonstration to denounce the torture of war.
Be sure to listen to WORLD FOCUS with Blase Bonpane at 10:00 AM on Sundays.KPFK, 90.7 fm, Los Angeles, 98.7 fm, Santa Barbara.This program is pod cast and available 24/7 on www.kpfk.org where is heard internationally.