Stephen Lendman

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan (left) and the New
Republic Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier (Photo by Reuters)

Israeli racism is longstanding. It's institutionalized. Imagine honoring it. Israel did so. It finds new ways of reaching new lows. It disgraces itself in the process.

It shouldn't surprise. It's common practice. Jews alone matter. Arabs are considered subhuman.

Mondoweiss co-editor Philip Weiss headlined "Defense of separation wall = Prize for service to humanity."

"Israel honors New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier." [He's] "in the money."

He got the million dollar Dan David prize. It's from a Tel Aviv University foundation. It's awarded for innovative and interdisciplinary research. It's been done since 2002. Israeli critics are excluded. Past honorees include Tony Blair and Al Gore. They're war criminals. They deserve prison time, not awards.

Wieseltier's a notorious racist. He supports occupation harshness. He opposes Palestinian liberation. He's against their right to resist. He shames himself for doing so.

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Paul Craig Roberts

The tenuous connection between the US government and the interests of citizens is on its way to being severed entirely.

Americans have been shamed many times by their elected representatives who cravenly bow to vested interests and betray the American people. But no previous disgraceful behavior can match the public shame brought to Americans by the behavior of the Senate Republicans in the confirmation hearing of Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.

Forty Senate Republicans made it clear that not only do they refuse to put their service to America ahead of their service to Israel, but also that they will not even put their service to America on a par with their service to Israel. To every American’s shame, the Republicans demonstrated for all the world to see that they are wholly owned subsidiaries of the Israel Lobby. (The Israel Lobby is not their only master. They are also owned by other powerful interest groups, such as Wall Street and the Military/Security Complex.)

The most embarrassing behavior of all came from the craven Lindsay Graham, who, while in the act of demonstrating his complete subservience by crawling on his belly before the Israel Lobby, dared Hagel to name one single person in the US Congress who is afraid of the Israel Lobby. If I had been Hagel, I would have written off the nomination and answered: “You, Senator Graham, and your 40 craven colleagues.”

Indeed, Hagel could have answered: The entire US Congress, including Rand Paul who pretends to be different but isn’t. The real question is: Who in the Congress is not afraid of the Israel Lobby? The hatchet job on Hagel is driven by fear of the Israel Lobby.

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Stephen Lendman

■ Multiple previous P5+1 talks were held. America manipulated them to fail. So did Israel covertly. Western nations were pressured to go along.

■ On February 26, new talks will be held in Almaty, Kazahhstan. Expect no more this time than earlier. It bears repeating. Tehran's nuclear program isn't at issue. It's red herring cover for imperial aims. It's the oil, stupid, and regional dominance. Iran's sovereignty stands in the way. Its program is peaceful. It complies with NPT provisions. World leaders know it. So do IAEA inspectors.

■ Washington targets all independent governments. It wants pro-Western puppet ones replacing them. It invents reasons to do so. It operates extrajudicially in defiance of rule of law principles. It gets UN Secretary-Generals to go along. Ban Ki-moon is one of the worst. He shames the office he holds. He spurns UN Charter principles. He's complicit in war crimes. He's well rewarded for doing so. He lies for Washington. He's a longstanding imperial tool.

On February 14, the Washington Post headlined "Iran could use UN talks as cover to build bomb, Ban K-moon says." He knows Iran has no such intention. He lies and claims otherwise. Decisive swift action should prevent what doesn't exist, he urges. Accelerated action should be prioritized.

"We should not give much more time to the Iranians, and we should not waste time," he says. "We have seen what happened with the DPRK." "It ended up that they (were) secretly, quietly, without any obligations, without any pressure, making progress." The Security Council must "show a firm, decisive and effective, quick response."

Like America and Israel, he wants Iran to prove a negative. He told Imam Khamenei he's not satisfied with peaceful reassurances. He did so on orders from Washington. He's "frustrated" about failed international talks. He points fingers the wrong way. He blames Iran for Western intransigency. He speaks with forked tongue.

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