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Readers' Comments and thinking about the Middle East II08/25/2007 I promised (or threatened) a sequel to Readers' Comments and thinking about the Middle East I, if reactions were not unfavorable. As there were no more than the usual number of complaints, and those for expected reasons, herewith is another installment. The method and the goal are always the same: to leverage on someone else's forum or Web log or mailing list in order to push one's own agenda, regarding Aunt Sadie, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Trilateral Conspiracy, the Elders of Zion or whatever the person happens to be pushing. The most active sort of "interactive" reader is the one who has their own list. MidEastWeb policy is that we never sign up anyone for a list unless they ask to be signed up. These characters have a different policy - they will add any and every editor to their list, and push their on unwanted opinions on them. It is a form of readers' comments, especially when, once in a while we find our own plagiarized and unattributed work being distributed on those other lists, in order to further an entirely different worldview. Plagiarism is one form of interaction. One gentleman was very persistent. He bombarded me with conspiracy theories and canards. It seems that he is a gullible client for every unfounded Middle East rumor. He was particular enamored of Robert Fisk's fiskery about the Israeli "uranium bomb" in South Lebanon, an assertion that was denied both by the UN and the Lebanese. Presumably, this man thinks that the Lebanese government has been infiltrated by Mossad agents. He has many other "theories" too. Blocking email addresses does not help with such people. They simply come back at you with a different email address. Another gentleman sent a 4 MB PDF document which he wanted to post at the MidEastWeb forum. This document was truly amazing. It proports to demonstrate that Talat Pasha and Kemal Ataturk were Jewish, and that "the Jews" were responsible for the massacre of Armenians by the Turkish government in 1915. In proof of this, it cites the large number of Jews among the Young Turks who ousted the Sultan in 1908. It further claims that Adolph Hitler accomplished the aims of the Zionists, and implies that Hitler was a Zionist. I pointed out that there were very few Jews in Turkey during World War I, that they had no power, and that the Turkish regime interned all the non-Turkish Jews in Palestine or forced them to flee during the war, which they would not have done had they been controlled by the World Zionist Conspiracy. Ataturk and Talaat Pasha may have had some Jewish ancestors, but that didn't make them "Jewish." It was all in vain. He had an "answer." It would likely be no use pointing out that Hitler killed off the Jews whom the Zionists wanted to bring to Israel, because the man is probably a Holocaust denier as well. It is hard for me to imagine the twisted depths of moral depravity of a person who insists that Hitler was a Zionist. I have been told that I have a limited imagination. I would not be surprised if one or more of our readers subscribe to the above theses as well. That is a fair sample of the worst things dragged up by writing on the Internet. From time to time, I will try to bring you more such gems.
Ami Isseroff
Original text copyright by the author and MidEastWeb for Coexistence, RA. Posted at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log at http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000617.htm where your intelligent and constructive comments are welcome. Distributed by MEW Newslist. Subscribe by e-mail to mew-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Please forward by email with this notice and link to and cite this article. Other uses by permission. |
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Replies: 1 Comment Here's an interesting article. SAN FRANCISCO – THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY, a genre spy-thriller by Robert Spirko, was fourth on the best-seller list at Atlasbooks, Inc., a national book distributor. Ingram Books is the worldwide distributor. Spirko, a financial and geo-political analyst who has given his advice to the National Security Council, turned his attention to the Middle East in 1987, after discovering several common elements related to the Middle East question. He wrote down his analysis, and when he was finished, he not only had a solution to the quagmire, he had a story to tell. THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY foreshadowed the Persian Gulf War by three years, and the resultant Iraq War followed by the Sept. 11 attack. Spirko states, "The chief threat in the region I see right now is the threat to Saudi Arabia by Iran and Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda were to overthrow the present royal family in Saudi Arabia, cutting off the oil supply to western nations including Japan and China, it would bring down entire world economies. France and Germany would be begging us to go to war to retake those oil wells. It would be World War III." “If such a scenario were to occur,” he reiterates, “France and the European economies would collapse in a matter of weeks.” “Another looming concern is Iran which wants to develop nuclear weapons to couple with their Shahab 4, 5 & 6 missiles on the drawing boards which have a range to hit London, Israel, all of Europe, southern Russia and the United States. Also, the Iranian government has said it initially had 300 centrifuges to enrich uranium to weapons grade material. They have increased that to 3,000. They will soon increase that again to 10,000 centrifuges,” Spirko says. “They have the additional capacity to add another 20,000 centrifuges in mass production techniques that will enable them to produce at least seven nuclear bombs in about a year. Where did they get these centrifuges?” Spirko answers that question by stating an Arab proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” “Simply put,” Spirko explains, “they probably got them from Saddam Hussein before the Iraq War started and were probably smuggled out of Iraq and into Iran just like he did his air force of 600 Soviet fighter planes. In other words, he gave them to his former enemy rather than let them be destroyed on the ground.” “Why would he have done any differently with the 30,000 centrifuges he supposedly had on a decentralized basis inside Iraq before the war?” Spirko asks. “Isn’t it strange that Iran could come up with a nuclear weapons program in about six months to a year when it took the United States six years under the Manhattan Project with 5,000 of the world’s most brilliant scientists like Robert Oppenheimer, Niels Bohr, Seaborg, Einstein, Fermi, and others working on it?” Another point Spirko makes on the Mideast is that, “It is time for the Israelis and Palestinians to return to the Camp David Peace Talks or some other place, resume where they left off and "freeze in place" the already-agreed-upon negotiating points,” Spirko says. "And, it's all related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which I said back in 1987 was the crux of my book. It always has been, and always will be until it's settled,” Spirko says. “That linkage is exactly what Osama Bin Laden stated in a taped message aired the weekend before the election in November of 2004. Whether you believe him or not is beside the point. That's what's he told us, and we'd better take that into account." The novel is a mass market paperback produced by Olive Grove Publishers, and can be purchased at area bookstores through Ingram Book Group, New Leaf Distribution, and Baker and Taylor, priced at $14.99, ISBN 0-9752508-0-9. THE PALESTINE CONSPIRACY can also be ordered on the web at www.atlasbooks.com, or email orders from: order@bookmasters.com, or from Barnes & Nobles, Border's, Dalton's, efollett.com & Follett bookstores at colleges and universities, WaldenBooks, Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target.com and other popular retail bookstores. Or, readers and store managers can call 1-800-BOOKLOG, or 800-247-6553 direct, to order. Posted by Anonymous @ 08/27/2007 07:11 AM CST Please do not leave notes for MidEastWeb editors here. Hyperlinks are not displayed. We may delete or abridge comments that are longer than 250 words, or consist entirely of material copied from other sources, and we shall delete comments with obscene or racist content or commercial advertisements. Comments should adhere to Mideastweb Guidelines . IPs of offenders will be banned. |
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