Sunday, June 20, 2010
What's a Nice PLO Boy Doing Aiding the Gaza Flotilla?
Husam Zomlot has been the toast (Visiting Fellow) of Harvard's Center for Middle East Studies for some time now. He is best buddies with Sara Roy, the Hamas apologist, CMES Director and conduit for all things propagandistic for the most right wing, anti-semitic segments of the Palestinian population (and, of course, she is the daughter of a Holocuast survivor). Mr. Zomlot served as PLO representative to the UK from 2003 to 2008 and holds a PhD in economics and political science from Bir Zeit University near Ramallah (you remember Bir Zeit, the wonderful folks who gave us the celebratory reenactment of the Sbarro massacre in 2001):
Among other accomplishments, he represented the Palestinian "narrative" in a debate with Israel's Consul General in Boston, Nadav Tamir, two years ago. Now, let's remember that the PLO under "Mr. Moderate", Mahmoud Abbas, is Israel's official Peace Partner. If that's the case, then why is Mr. Zomlot acting as one of the chief strategists for "Breaking the Siege of Gaza?" and aiding his chief rival, Hamas?
In Cambridge last week, Mr. Zomlot led an event called "Breaking the Siege of Gaza: UJP Strategy Conference" UJP, or United for Justice with Peace (one of the extreme anti-Israel front groups that pop up and disappear within a few months). Aside from Zomlot, the program featured Ret. Colonel Ann Wright, Gaza Flotilla passenger and clumsy apologist for the would-be killers aboard the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara. Read the full skinny on her here:
Breaking the Siege of Gaza: UJP Strategy Conference
When: Saturday, June 19, 2010, 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Where: Cambridge Friends Meeting Center • 5 Longfellow Park • Harvard Square T • Cambridge
Ann Wright
Husam Zomlot
Jeff Klein
The deadly Israeli attack May 30 on a humanitarian flotilla delivering aid to blockaded Gaza has aroused the condemnation of the world, further isolated Israel's intransigent regime, and challenged the U.S. to review its Middle East policy lest it, too, face isolation. There is a new situation and new opportunities to build the movement to end the siege of Gaza and US support for the occupation of Palestine. Three speakers will lead off our discussion:
- Ann Wright was a passenger on the Challenger 1, one of the six boats in the Gaza flotilla that was raided by Israeli commandos on May 31, and will give us an eyewitness report. She is a retired U.S. army colonel who also served as a State Department diplomat. She resigned her State Department post in 2003 to protest the war in Iraq. (After the conference Saturday night, Ann will also give an in-depth presentation at the Palestinian Cultural Center - NOT on Friday as previously posted).
- Gaza-born Palestinian scholar and diplomat Husam Zomlot served as a PLO diplomat to the UK from 2003 to 2008. He is a specialist in the political economy of conflict, has a PhD in economics from the University of London, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
- Dorchester People for Peace activist Jeff Klein will put the current crisis into perspective and kick off our discussion of what UJP and the peace movement can do.
- The conference will also address peace movement strategy, which will be up for discussion this summer. UJP will be presenting a workshop at the US Social Forum in Detroit June 22-26. The Unified National Antiwar Conference will meet in Albany July 23-25, and One Nation One Dream will march on Washington in October. Our strategy conference will review these and other initiatives and discuss UJP's response to, and participation in, them.
Colonel Wright (just how low our military has sunk is no better illustrated than putting this America-hating whacko in uniform) is also memorably recalled for an interview she gave to Bill O'Reilly following the abduction of British sailors a few years ago by Iran):
But I digress. UJP is interchangeable with AJJP , American Jews for a Just Peace, another born yesterday hate-Israel group that will no doubt re-form under a different acronym but with just as lethal a purpose. Mr. Zomlot is advising this "Jewish" group on how best to break the blockade of Gaza and get weapons to Hamas. The strategy session was attended by someone who identified himself as a "rabbi" for human rights. I could tell, because he was wearing a kippah along with a "talis" emblazoned with a Palestinian flag.
Straightjackets all around.
[Crossposted from JStreetJive.]
For sure that Ann Wright, Husam Zomlot, Jeff Klein are nasty pieces of work; the interviews make it very clear what a dirt-bag Ann Wright is, both the softball questions for Al-Jazeera and the unfriendly but probing and honest questions from Bill O'Reilly.
But why do you call UJP (a) Jewish or (b) one of these ephemeral Israel-bashing groups.
Their web site claims they formed after 9/11 as a coalition of local P&J groups. Going on nine years is not exactly fly-by-night.
Although they do take great pleasure and pride in bashing-Israel, they're not monomaniecally focused on it. Their concerns are much broader, as a glance at their events calendar shows. Their site has the countdown calendar to retreat from Iraq.
They've listed tonight's the phoney-baloney, wolf in sheep's clothing event that J Street and JCRC are putting on tonight, where a Congressman who votes against Israel will spin J Street's warmed over talking points in controlled climate specifically designed to prevent follow-up questions or honest discussion. The loathsome Nancy Kaufman calls this "dialogue." UJP lists the event without comment, so it's not clear whether they endorse it or they're giving a heads-up to David Rolde, Bob Bowes and their posse to protest outside, as if this were a pro-Israel event. (Nappy doesn't doubt that the delusional leftists at JCRC and J Street might actually believe they're showing support for Israel.)
About UJP. ¡Viva la revolución! Marque marque el dos para Español.
The deadly Israeli attack May 30 on a humanitarian flotilla delivering aid
There was no humanitarian aid whatsoever on the Marmara where the violence broke out. Only the humanitarians and their personal possessions.
What aid there was was on the other boats, which accepted the inspection, and the medical aid was all with dates that were expired or close to expiry.