DN! | Chomsky on Afghanistan, NATO, and What Obama Should Do in Israel-Palestine

Democracy Now! | Noam Chomsky on US Expansion of Afghan Occupation, the Uses of NATO, and What Obama Should Do in Israel-Palestine:

"We speak to Noam Chomsky, prolific author and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As NATO leaders gather for a sixtieth anniversary summit in France, Chomsky says, “The obvious question is, why bother celebrating NATO at all? In fact, why does it exist?” Chomsky also analyzes the Obama administration’s escalation of the Afghanistan occupation and reacts to the new Netanyahu government in Israel."



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Noam Chomsky: The United States - Israel's Godfather

Noam Chomsky: The United States - Israel's Godfather:

"Noam Chomsky speaks about Gaza, Palestine, Israel at a meeting in Boston. 1-21-09
filmed by Paul Hubbard at the Palestine Cultural Center for Peace
www.socialistworker.org"



Noam Chomsky: Israel - Servant to US Empire. Q&A at Palestine solidarity meeting Boston MA 1-21-09
filmed by Paul Hubbard at the Palestine Cultural Center for Peace



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Noam Chomsky: Obama's Stance on Gaza Crisis "Approximately the Bush Position"

Chomsky: Obama on Gaza is similar to Bush-1/3:

"Noam Chomsky: Obama's Stance on Gaza Crisis 'Approximately the Bush Position'

In a visit to the State Department Thursday, President Obama made his first substantive comments on the Middle East conflict since Israel's attack on Gaza. Obama first mentioned his commitment to Israel's security, without affirming his commitment to Palestinian security. He condemned Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israeli towns, but didn't criticize the US-backed Israeli bombings of densely populated Gaza. But in a departure from the Bush administration, Obama acknowledged Palestinian suffering and said Gaza's borders should be opened to aid. We speak with MIT professor, Noam Chomsky."

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Chomsky on Gaza, 1/13/2009 (6 parts)

Chomsky on Gaza, 1/13/2009 (1/6):

"Noam Chomsky's recent address on the Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

Jan. 13th, 2009
Wong Auditorium, MIT
Cambridge, MA"

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


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Chomsky on Gaza | MIT World

Chomsky on Gaza | MIT World: "About the Lecture
While he admits to no surprise about events in Gaza, Noam Chomsky does consider “the latest U.S.-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians” a step beyond terrorism and aggression. He says “some new term is needed for the sadistic and cowardly torture of people caged with no possibility of escape, being pounded daily by the most sophisticated products of U.S. military technology.”

Chomsky says these “new crimes” don’t fit easily into any standard category except for “familiarity,” and his talk recaps the history of Israeli relations with Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere. He notes that while many are engaged in “sober debate on what the attackers hope to achieve,” he doesn’t find Israeli motives at all “obscure.” Chomsky says “rational Israeli hard-liners” decided it was senseless to subsidize the illegal Israeli settlement of Gaza in 2005, which would have required significant resources. Instead, they decided to back settlement of the West Bank, a more valuable territory, with its arable land and water supplies. The intent of this criminal annexation is “a vastly expanded Jerusalem.” Says Chomsky, “It made more sense to turn Gaza into the world’s largest prison, and let people rot.”

Upcoming elections influenced the timing of the Gaza invasion, he continues. Ehud Barak was lagging badly in the polls, and an attack in the name of defending Israel against Hamas rockets was calculated to buy Barak parliamentary seats, says Chomsky. And while every state has a right to defend itself against criminal attacks, there’s “a matter of choice of action in the first place, proportional or not. Any resort to force always carries a heavy burden of proof.” Israel surely has a “peaceful alternative to the use of force on its territory,” says Chomsky: It could accept a ceasefire.

Chomsky recites a litany of examples of Israeli and U.S. hypocrisy in action and policy around Israel’s claimed desire for peace. “Of course it wants peace, everyone wants peace. Hitler wanted peace, for example. The question is, on what terms.” Going back to the earliest days of the Zionist movement, it was clear that Israel wanted to delay a political settlement, “while building facts on the ground.” Says Chomsky, “Today Israel could have security, and normalization of relations and integration into the region, but it clearly prefers illegal expansion, conflict, repeated exercise of violence, to teach lessons to the ‘two-legged beasts,’ actions that are severely eroding its security even if it gains short-term military victory.” He concludes, “We’re observing a rare moment in history: politicide, the murder of a nation at our hands.”"



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Noam Chomsky: "I wouldn't be too surprised if the Obama Administration is, in some ways, a continuation of the second Bush Administration"

Afshin Rattansi talks to Noam Chomsky : the eve of his 80th:

"PART ONE..just after George W Bush delivers his final speech on the Middle East as President."



Part 2



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The Current Crisis in the Middle East | MIT World

The Current Crisis in the Middle East | MIT World:

September 21, 2006
Running Time: 1:50:26

"True to form, Noam Chomsky makes a sweeping and copiously detailed indictment of U.S. Middle East policy, brooking no contrary or alternate views. His history-filled lecture (interrupted by occasional applause) focuses on four crises, involving the Palestinians, the Lebanon invasion, the Iraq war and the “impending catastrophe in Iran.”

While to many the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel seems hopeless, “degenerating to tribal warfare, an endless cycle of revenge and fanaticism,” says Chomsky, a “very clear solution” has long existed: For years, UN resolutions have proposed recognizing the rights of all states in the region to live in peace and security, and called for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Chomsky says that while Arab states have supported these ideas, the U.S. and Israel have deliberately undermined and opposed them. The “threat of peace has arisen constantly,” says Chomsky, but U.S.-Israeli “rejectionism” has blocked all efforts and led to “continued theft of lands” and a “weakening of the Palestinian collective.”

Chomsky calls the Israeli rationale for attacking Lebanon “pure cynical farce.” The claim that Hizbollah’s capture of an Israeli soldier necessitated a savage assault flies in the face of Israel’s decades-long practice of kidnapping Lebanese civilians, says Chomsky. Israel, with U.S. collusion, he continues, did as much damage against the Lebanese infrastructure as possible before a ceasefire was accepted. Israeli rockets destroyed a fuel storage tank, creating a giant oil spill that has poisoned the coast line up to Syria.

With respect to Iraq, Chomsky believes the invading armies are obligated “to pay massive reparations for crimes of aggression,” and that the people responsible for the extreme crimes” should be put on trial. The prospect of “a sovereign Iraq would be a complete nightmare,” given the nation’s increasing solidarity with Shiite allies in oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Iran. Since “controlling the world’s energy resources has been a prime objective” of U.S. foreign policy for much of the last century, serious withdrawal plans seem pretty remote to Chomsky.

Finally, Chomsky scoffs at the Bush Administration’s “willingness” to negotiate with Iran about its nuclear ambitions, since a U.S. precondition for talks requires no uranium enrichment, and the U.S. “refuses to withdraw threats of attack.” Chomsky claims that U.S. threats are real, with recent deployment of U.S. air power in the area. The impact of such threats harms Iranian democracy reformers, “who are complaining bitterly,” and further blackens the U.S. reputation in the world, where we are perceived as a peace-threatening “lawless and dangerous rogue state.”

Chomsky concludes by reminding everyone that this “awful news is actually good news,” since the “means and power to end these crimes and further ones lies in our hands.”



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Apartheid Paradigm Palestine-Israel Noam Chomsky Annapolis summit

Apartheid Paradigm Palestine-Israel Noam Chomsky Annapolis summit:

23 min - "Air date 27 Nov 2007 Chomsky says U.S. backing of continued Israeli occupation and annexation of Palestinian land is the biggest obstacle to peace. He says: “The crimes against Palestinians… are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them. We have to face the reality that our actions have consequences, and they have to be adapted to real-world circumstances, difficult as it may be to stay calm in the face of shameful crimes in which we are directly and crucially implicated.

Leaders from around the world are gathering in Annapolis, Maryland today to take part in a U.S.-sponsored summit on the Middle East. President Bush met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Monday. More than 40 organisations and countries, including Saudi Arabia and Syria, are attending the conference today. Hamas was not invited.

A final agenda has not yet been drawn up, but a draft of a joint document was leaked to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. It makes no mention of the situation in Gaza or of core issues like the status of Jerusalem, settlements, borders, the separation wall and Palestinian refugees.

Chomsky recently spoke at a conference in Boston, sponsored by Sabeel, a Palestinian Christian organization. The conference was titled “The Apartheid Paradigm in Palestine-Israel: Highlighting Issues of Justice and Equality.”

We begin with Noam Chomsky. A professor of linguistics at MIT for over half a century, Chomsky is the author of dozens of books on US foreign policy. His most recent is called “Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy.” Chomsky spoke before a packed audience at Boston’s historic Old South Church. Transcript: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/27/1547221"


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Noam Chomsky Lecture @ MIT - Middle East Crisis

Noam Chomsky - Middle East Crisis - MIT 06:
65 min - 09/21/06

Noam Chomsky. Professor Emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of dozens of books on linguistics and U.S. foreign policy. His latest book is Hegemony or Survival Americas Quest for Global Dominance.