Jesus and Muhammad and the Question of the State |
Juan Cole
Informed Comment
http://www.juancole.com/2013/04/jesus-muhammad-question.html
You can’t compare Christianity and Islam on the basis of this kind of characterization of the founders of the two religions. The characterization is in any case unfair (the New Testament texts imply just as many ‘scientific principles’ as does the Qur’an, e.g. They think the world has three levels, that there are demons and angels, etc. etc.)
Josh Block purged the Democratic Party
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/09/blacklist-4-israel-critics-have-now-been-purged-from-democratic-party-li
— Zaid Jilani left CAP last winter for Republicreport. Jilani had used the term “Israel firster.”
–- MJ Rosenberg also used the term “Israel firster.” He left Media Matters last spring, not long after Alan Dershowitz said he was going to Obama to make sure
Rosenberg’s head was displayed on the White House fence. Rosenberg now has his own blog.
–- Eli Clifton left CAP earlier this summer. He now works at the American Independent News Network. Clifton is notable for this genius post of last summer saying that AIPAC’s push for war on Iran mirrored its conduct leading up to the Iraq war. CAP issued a lengthy correction of that post after the neocon campaign was launched, four months after it was published.
–- Now Gharib. Gharib duly apologized for his remarks (calling them flippant and crude), but he seemed to be operating with a muzzle after the neocon campaign began. (Just look at his output at Open Zion in the last week, including this important piece saying the Jerusalem platform fight is a fight between Romney and Obama for Jewish money.)
So: the blacklist worked.
Only Matt Duss among those named in the original smear campaign of last November is still in his job at the Center for American Progress.
I find it shocking that no one has written about this important story. No; Israel lobby beheadings are common. Move along now.
International - Conor Friedersdorf - What Bush’s Iraq War and Obama’s #Drone Strikes Have in Common - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/what-bushs-iraq-war-and-obamas-drone-strikes-have-in-common/258533
People are killed even when we don’t know their identities! Civilian casualties are commonplace! Saying that a drone program “has to be conducted with extreme care” is empty rhetoric if you support it despite the obvious lack of extreme care. Does anyone’s notion of “extreme care” include killing groups of people whose identity you don’t know via a remote control robot flying over a faraway country at 20,000 feet in the air?
Jillian C. York: Not Twitter, Not WikiLeaks: A Human Revolution
http://jilliancyork.com/2011/01/14/not-twitter-not-wikileaks-a-human-revolution
But to call this a “Twitter revolution” or even a “WikiLeaks revolution” demonstrates that we haven’t learned anything from past experiences in Moldova and Iran. Evgeny Morozov’s question–”Would this revolution have happened if there were no Facebook and Twitter?”–says it all. And in this case, yes, I–like most Tunisians to whom I’ve posed this question–believe that this would have happened without the Internet.
The real question, then, is would the rest of us have heard about it without the Internet? Would the State Department have gotten involved early on (remember, their first public comment was in respect to Tunisian Net freedom)? Would Al Jazeera–without offices on the ground–have been able to report on the unfolding story as they did? Most importantly, would any of that have mattered?
En revanche, cette histoire de Wikileaks qui aurait déclenché la révolution tunisienne, témoigne de la bêtise des journalistes occidentaux :
http://www.businessinsider.com/tunisia-wikileaks-2011-1
Il faut en tenir une bonne couche journalistico-centrée pour croire que, parce que le New York Times n’a jamais publié de dossier sur l’autoritarisme et la corruption du régime Ben Ali, les tunisiens, eux, n’en savaient rien...
La publication de phrases disant « d’autorité américaine » que Ben Ali n’avait plus beaucoup de soutien dans l’appareil et pas de successeur crédible a pu faire partie des éléments déclencheurs — moins important évidemment que l’immolation de Mohammad Bouaaziz. Le ras-le-bol et la mobilisation se nourrissent toujours de plusieurs sources, causes profondes et éléments conjoncturels. Il est vain de chercher UNE raison unique.
c’est bien dit dans cet article de nawaat :
http://nawaat.org/portail/2011/01/11/une-jeunesse-vecue-sous-lombre-de-ben-ali
On en parle, on en discute entre nous, tout le monde est au courant, mais on n’agit pas (...)
Et là, Wikileaks révèle au jour ce que tout le monde se murmurait.
Et là, un jeune s’immole par le feu.
Et là, 20 Tunisiens sont tués en un jour.
Et pour la première fois, on y voit l’occasion de se rebeller, de se venger de cette famille royale qui s’est tout approprié, de renverser l’ordre établi qui a accompagné toute notre jeunesse.