Alison Weir by Alison Weir
Analysis on Israel, Palestine, and the American connection. I am not the British historian. Please stop threatening her.
Please become familiar with If Americans Knew
Alison Weir
Analysis on Israel, Palestine, and the American connection. I am not the British historian. Please stop threatening her.
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I am part of a wonderfully diverse movement of people of all ages, ethnicities, races, faiths, and political backgrounds.
We are secular and religious; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and many other; of all ages, economic classes, and political backgrounds; we are united by a commitment to justice and truth, opposition to bigotry, and determination to end the violence and oppression against Palestinians and others that generates war and profound tragedy throughout the Middle East and far beyond.
Please note:
For my main articles and the most important information, please go to the If Americans Knew website. Also, we post a great deal of information on our Facebook page. In addition to those, however, now and then I like to tell people about behind-the-scenes happenings, random information that I've stumbled across but not written an article about, etc. and so I place these on this blog.
I am NOT the British historian
As I write above, I am not the author of books about British history. That Alison Weir, who is English, tells me that she is receiving harrassment and threats because some people mix her up with me. These are causing her extreme concern and forcing her to end her book tours in the U.S. PLEASE, ISRAEL PARTISANS, LEAVE HER ALONE. If you must threaten to kill someone because you wish facts about Israel-Palestine to remain hidden, I'm the one you mean.
Wikipeda distortions
Everyone should be aware that Wikipedia can be edited by anonymous individuals who may or may not have a political agenda. Since Israel partisans work to dominate Wikipedia entries regarding Israel, the information on Wikipedia may be skewed. Please see "A pro-Israel group's plan to rewrite history on Wikipedia" for more on this type of thing.
My Book...
I hope people will order my quickly read book, AGAINST OUR BETTER JUDGEMENT: The hidden history of how the U.S. was used to create Israel
"Prodigiously documented... Alison Weir must be highly commended for throwing such a brilliantly hard light on the relationship between the United States and Israel. I hope this marvelous book gets all the attention it deserves." – Ambassador Andrew Killgore, Publisher, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
"This provocative book documents a history that is essential in understanding today's world. Scholarly, yet readable, it is a must for all Americans." – Senator James Abourezk, CounterPunch
Of Particular Note...
Why?
Daily news, commentary, and analysis
History
Attack on the USS Liberty
Rachel Corrie
Nonviolence Movement of Palestinians and Israelis
My articles (Go to this link and scroll down to see all my articles on Israel-Palestine)
Falsehoods about me: Please read my reply here to falsehoods about me by the "Anti-Defamation" League, and a discussion here about similar attacks by others, which are periodically repeated (and frequently exaggerated) by other groups and individuals. Obviously, the best way to evaluate claims about what I've written is to read my articles for yourself.
Why?
As I mention above, this is where I write about less important, more tangential aspects of my work. For my main articles and the most important news please go to the If Americans Knew and Council for the National Interest websites.
Previous blogs
We used to have daily news site featuring a diverse compendium of reports on Israel-palestine, focusing largely on news that is unreported or under-reported by US media. Now, however, this information is on the If Americans Knew website. We also had a site containing daily commentary and analysis, and another blog that periodically deconstructs AP coverage on Israel-Palestine. However, we haven't had the time to update these in recent years.
History
The best short but thorough history I've seen on this issue is the Origin of the Palestine-Israeli Conflict. You can order copies of this booklet and others to give out in your community (or you can just print them out yourself -- they're all available as PDFs). (We also have a one-page synopsis that sketches the outlines of the conflict and a short but I think excellent brochure on "How Palestine Became Israel".)
Attack on The USS Liberty
Because so few people know about Israel's extremely ruthless attack on the US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, I'd like to alert you to that as well. This is a profoundly important topic. The crew members, who are still waiting for justice, have waged a heroic (but to date unsuccessful) campaign to bring this attack before the American people.
One of the most important articles is the report by the independent commission chaired by former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer (among its illustrious panel members was Marine General Ray Davis, the nation's highest-ranking Medal of Honor recipient at the time). This report provides evidence that the facts on this attack were covered up at the order of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Normally, such evidence -- from such a distinguished body -- would result in Congressional hearings.
In this case, the media buried it -- even the Washington Post failed to report on this historic event on Capitol Hill. While AP had an excellent news report on the panel's briefing in the Rayburn House Office Building, this highly newsworthy story, which should have been headlined around the country, was buried in its wire offerings of the day and very few news media picked it up or gave it the prominence it deserved.
The crew has supplied a detailed legal brief on the this incident to the Secretary of the Army, the agency required by law to investigate war crimes against American citizens. Again, this has not been reported to the American public.
Such neglect by the American media is unconscionable.
Rachel Corrie
While growing numbers of people are deeply saddened at Rachel Corrie's death, numerous people throughout the US know little or nothing about it. In addition, as with the USS Liberty, there has been a concerted effort to falsify the circumstances and to blame the victim. We have done our best to supply thorough information on this tragedy.
Nonviolence Movement of Palestinians and Israelis
In addition to a vigorous Palestinian nonviolence movement, there are growing numbers of Israeli groups also working toward peace. These Palestinian and Israeli peace workers and human rights advocates deserve to have their principled and often courageous activities reported to Americans, yet this rarely occurs. (See our AP report for evidence.) We report on these in our list of the wide variety of groups working toward peace and justice.
Israeli forces have shot and viciously beaten some of these Israelis; killed and injured a number of international peace activists (for example, Tom Hurndall, James Miller, Brian Avery, Tristan Anderson, Tove Johansson , Chris Brown and Kim Lamberty; and killed, maimed and tortured a multitude of Palestinians engaged in nonviolent activities.
Swedish 19-year-old Tove Johansson was attacked while the Israeli military stood by. Chanting "We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too," members of the mob broke her cheekbone and spat on her.
Media Omissions:
We have an entire section about this on the If Americans Knew website, including our statistical studies on US media coverage of deaths among both populations.
NY Times considers Israeli goats more newsworthy than Palestinian children
CNN considers damaged motorcycle more important than injured Palestinian children
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Anti-Defamation League Defames Me - My Letter to the ADL
I’ve discovered that the Anti-Defamation League, whose devotion to Israel-right-or-wrong many people feel is extremely destructive, has listed me first in those it has decided are “anti-Israel.”
In looking through their entry about me, I've noticed a number of distortions and inaccuracies; however, I generally don’t think it’s worthwhile to take time away from productive projects to respond to the many mistruths that abound about me on websites and blogs by various fanatic Israel devotees. Instead, I expect that people will read my writings for themselves and visit the If Americans Knew website to learn about me.
However, one section of the ADL entry is so blatantly defamatory that I’ve decided to demand that they correct it. The problem is that I can’t find any contact information on their site for emailing a letter; the only option seems to be a fill-in-the-blank system that restricts comments to 1,000 characters. Therefore, I’m using that option to direct them to read my letter here:
To the ADL:
I am aware that the ADL frequently considers reporting negative facts about Israel to be "anti-Semitic," therefore, I am not surprised that your organization is displeased with my work to provide information about Israel-Palestine to the American public.
However, I would expect your writers to discuss what I write and say, not misrepresentations of these. In scanning your entry about me, I noticed that there seem to be a number of distortions and inaccuracies. While I will not bother to address most of these, I must demand that you correct the following particularly defamatory misrepresentations:
This entry claims, incorrectly, that my "…. criticism of Israel has, at times, crossed the line into anti-Semitism." As alleged evidence of this, the writer misrepresents what I had written in a piece in the Greenwich Citizen entitled, "What Our Taxes to Israel are Funding," an op-ed written in response to points raised by a previous column in the newspaper.
Your writer states that I had allegedly: "…hand-picked quotations from Jewish religious texts and used them erroneously to define and defame Judaism, which she described as "such a ruthless and supremacist faith."
This is quite false:
1. I did not hand-pick quotations. I quoted from books by two renowned scholars of Judaism whose point, as I wrote in my article, was the significance to a portion of Israelis, particularly Israeli soldiers, of some little-known (in the US) religious texts. As I wrote in my article:
" 'What makes such texts particularly significant,' Shahak explains, is that '[i]n Israel these ideas are widely disseminated among the public at large, in the schools and in the army.' In a booklet published by the Israeli Army for its soldiers, Shahak reports, the Chief Chaplain wrote:
" 'When our forces come across civilians during a war or in hot pursuit or in a raid, so long as there is no certainty that those civilians are incapable of harming our forces, then according to the Halakhah they may and even should be killed ... In war, when our forces storm the enemy, they are allowed and even enjoined by the Halakhah to kill even good civilians, that is, civilians who are ostensibly good.'
"One can only imagine what this kind of teaching means for Palestinians in Israel itself, and, still worse, for those in the West Bank who live next to settlements populated by heavily armed adherents of such a ruthless and supremacist faith…"
2. As can easily be seen, I am describing the extreme beliefs above as "ruthless and supremacist," not Judaism, as the ADL entry claims.
3. I went on to specifically note that these extreme beliefs specifically do not, as your entry claims, "define Judaism":
"While the above citations do not in anyway represent the whole of Judaism…"
4. I then went on to emphasize that these views are not representative of Jewish Americans:
"I have no doubt that the vast majority of Jewish Americans have long since repudiated these..."
5. I also specifically stated:
"…most Israelis also do not hold the beliefs touched upon above…"
6. Finally, I emphasized similarities among Jewish and non-Jewish Americans and urged moving forward together:
"… just as Christian and Muslim leaders have publicly condemned and disowned spurious dogmas and practices, I suspect it would be valuable for Rabbi Hurvitz and other Jewish leaders to do the same. Such shared honesty and humility by all our religious leaders, I believe, helps us move forward as a stronger, more moral, and more unified society."
My entire article can be read at:
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/pg-weiroped.html
I find it extremely difficult to comprehend how your writer could so seriously misconstrue my article, and cannot but feel that the intent was malicious. Please correct your defamatory and inaccurate statements and intimations immediately.
Sincerely,
Alison Weir
Executive Director
If Americans Knew
office: (202) 631-4060
Posted on Friday, February 13, 2009 at 08:19AM by
[Alison Weir | Comments Off
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. I believe in the free marketplace of ideas and sometimes post articles by other individuals and organizations when I feel they contain information or analyses that could be interesting for people to read and ponder. Such posting does not necessarily denote agreement with the article and does not necessarily denote agreement or endorsement of the author and other articles he or she may have written in the past or may write in the future.
Carry on, Alison! 👍
Just ordered it at ThriftBooks. No use shoveling excess shekels to Bezos