Tuesday, August 28, 2012

US Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East? - By Franklin Lamb - Foreign Policy Journal

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2012/08/28/us-preparing-for-a-post-israel-middle-east/

Foreign Policy Journal

US Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East?

by Franklin Lamb

August 28, 2012

BEIRUT — Congresswoman Illena Ros-Lehtinen will have her hands full as she makes the political and social rounds at this month’s Republican National Convention.  Illena is the only female committee chair in the House of Representatives and arguably Israel’s most ardent agent.  She is a constant thorn in the Obama administration’s side, regularly castigating the president for playing “political games with U.S. foreign policy” and being “soft on Iran” and undermining the legitimacy of Israel.  Ros-Lehtinen is a congressional cheer leader also for her Jewish voters in Florida—a key battleground in the rapidly approaching US presidential election. Most recently, Ros-Lehtinen helped shepherd through Congress yet another bill tightening sanctions against Iran while calling for US military action against the Assad regime in Syria.

The Congresswomen’s focus will likely not be on pushing the republican’s talking points regarding her party’s nominee, Mitt Romney, the former “moderate Massachusetts governor” who she is aware is unlikely to win the White House. Nor, according to a source at the Democratic National Committee, frantically putting together final touches on their own Convention, to be held the week of September 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina, will Ileana spend much time with or promoting Mitt’ running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Ryan, an Ayn Rand (author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as well as founder of the Objectivism movement) follower, regularly tells audiences that “Ayn Rand’s teachings have been one of the most profound philosophical influences of my life”—well, except for religion and abortion, as Ayn who passed away in 1982 was an avowed atheist and strongly pro-abortion,  the opposite of  what Ryan tells audiences he is.

Rather, Ros-Lehtinen will be meeting with local, national, and international Jewish leaders in this must win state where she has been assigned the task of reassuring them that the Republican Party is Israel’s best friend and that a recent US government draft report urging a US re-think of its relationship to Israel is the responsibility of none other than Barack Obama, and it reveals his true disdain for Israel.

Helping her smear the White House with the findings in the draft  analysis will be  William Kristol, publisher of the neoconservative Weekly Standard and Director of the New American Century, an “Israel first” Washington-based lobby “promoting joint Israeli and American political and military leadership across the globe, while bringing democracy to the Middle East”.
So what is all the fuss about?

It’s a paper entitled “Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East”, an 82-page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors conclude that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations  with  Arab and  Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.

The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies with an annual budget in excess of $ 70 billion. The IC includes the Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Defense Intelligence Agency, Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, State, Treasure, Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency commissioned the study.

Among the many findings that Ros-Lehtenin and Kristol and other unregistered agents of Israel will likely try to exploit politically between now and November 6, by using them to attack the Obama Administration are the following:
  • Israel, given its current brutal occupation and belligerence cannot  be salvaged any more than apartheid south Africa could be when as late as 1987 Israel was the only “Western” nation that upheld diplomatic ties with South Africa and was the last country to join the international boycott campaign before the regime collapsed;
  • The Israel leadership, with its increasing support of the 700,000 settlers in illegal colonies in the occupied West Bank is increasing out of touch with the political, military and economic realities of the Middle East;
  • The post Labor government Likud coalition is deeply complicit with and influenced by the settlers’ political and financial power and will increasingly face domestic civil strife which the US government should not associate itself with or become involved with;
  • The Arab Spring and Islamic Awakening has to a major degree freed a large majority of the 1.2 billion Arab and Muslims to pursue what an overwhelming majority believe is the illegitimate, immoral and unsustainable European occupation of Palestine of the indigenous population;
  • Simultaneous with, but predating, rapidly expanding Arab and Muslim power in the region as evidenced by the Arab spring, Islamic Awakening and the ascendancy of Iran, as American power and influence recedes,  the US commitment to belligerent oppressive Israel is becoming impossible to defend or execute consistent given paramount US national interests which include normalizing relations with the 57 Islamic countries;
  • Gross Israeli interference in the internal affairs of the United States through spying and illegal US arms transfers. This includes supporting more than 60 ‘front organizations’ and  approximately 7,500 US officials who do Israel’s bidding and seek to dominate and intimidate the media and agencies of  the US government which should no longer be condoned;
  • That the United States government no longer has the financial resources, or public support to continue funding Israel. The billions of dollars in direct and indirect aid from US taxpayers to Israel since 1967 is not affordable and is increasingly being objected to by US taxpayers who oppose continuing American military involvement in the Middle East. US public opinion no longer supports funding and executing widely perceived illegal US wars on Israel’s behalf. This view is increasingly being shared by Europe, Asia and the International public;
  • Israel’s segregationist occupation infrastructure evidenced by  legalized discrimination and increasingly separate and unequal justice systems must no longer be directly or indirectly funded by the US taxpayers or  ignored by the US government;
  • Israel has failed as a claimed democratic state and continued American financial and political cover will not change its continuing devolution as international pariah state;
  • Increasingly,  rampant and violent racism exhibited among Jewish settlors in the West Bank is being condoned by the Israeli government to a degree  that the Israel government has become its protector and partner;
  • The expanding chasm  among American Jews objecting to Zionism and Israeli practices, including the killing and brutalizing of Palestinians under Israeli occupation,  are gross violations of American and International law and raise questions within the US Jewish community regarding the American responsibility to protect (R2P) innocent civilians under occupation;
  • The international opposition to the increasingly  apartheid regime can no longer be synchronized with American claimed  humanitarian values or US expectations in its bi-lateral relations with the 193 member United Nations;
  • The Draft ends with language about the need to avoid entangling alliances that alienate much of the World and condemn American citizens to endure the consequences.
Interestingly, it notes Iran as an example of a country and people that have much in common and whose citizens have a real interest in enjoy bilateral associations (here an apparent reference to Israel and its US lobby) not determined by the wishes of other countries and their agents. It also highlights the need for the US to undertake the repairing of relations with Arab and Muslim countries, including the drastically curtained use of drone aircraft.

The coming days will clarity the success of Israel’s in making an issue of the finding in the soon to be published daft report and the degree to which the Republican Party will gain for its findings in the race for the White House.


How Osmania University’s Journalism Dept. came into being



http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3815176.ece




 Return to frontpage

News » Cities » Hyderabad

How OU’s Journalism Dept. came into being

By Dasu Kesava Rao

It was an American, DeForest O’Dell, who founded the department about 60 years ago

It was the summer of 1954. Looking out of my living room window, opening on Barkatpura chaman, I found a rundown bus stop north of the chaman and offload a foreigner into a heavy downpour. At once I ran to him with an umbrella and brought him in.

“I am O’Dell. DeForest O’Dell from America. I am here to set up a department of journalism at Osmania University,” quaffing an inviting cup of coffee our guest told my father. “What, a department to turn out journalists?” It sounded strange at that time. 

We thought journalists are born, not made. We learnt that journalists like Kotamraju Rama Rao, M. Chalapati Rau, Khasa Subba Rao, C. Y. Chintamani, Kunduri Iswara Dutt did not go to a journalism school.

Journalism was then considered a mission and not a profession. Independent India felt the need to train young men and women in the craft and practice of journalism and also introduce them to its principles and values to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding newspaper readership and industry. P. P. Singh founded the School of Journalism in Lahore in 1941 and shifted it to Chandigarh after India became free. Then followed the Hislop College of Nagpur, a private institution, which introduced a course in journalism in 1952.

The credit for laying a strong foundation for journalism education in the country went to Osmania University. It got in touch with American Universities and academicians for help in setting up a separate department of journalism. O’Dell, a veteran newsman and journalism educator from the US was entrusted with the task.


Man of many parts

Born in Atlanta on January 1, 1898, he was actively involved with the campus newspaper and yearbook at Butler University from where he graduated in 1921. He went on to head its journalism department. He earned a Master’s degree and Ph. D. from Columbia University in New York City. During his college years, O’Dell worked for various newspapers in Indiana and New York. He had worked as a copy boy and reporter on The Indianapolis News and The Indianapolis Times. He later became city editor of The Crawfordsville Review.

Besides writing for various New York newspapers, he served as a copy editor at Associated Press in New York City for a long time. He also taught and headed journalism departments at six colleges and universities in the US.

Dr. O’Dell came to India in 1954 as the founder-head of the department. He started with the introduction of diploma and certificate courses mainly benefitting reporters and sub-editors working in various English and language newspapers in Hyderabad. Osmania was the first University in the country to introduce such a course.

From the very first year the department ran a journal The Osmania Courier founded and edited by my brother Krishnamoorty who enrolled for the first batch of 1954-55. The Courier served as a laboratory newspaper serving the campus community. A month-long internship in a major newspaper in New Delhi, Bombay or Madras was integral to the course and gave the students a lot of exposure as well as avenues for employment.

The Journalism department was the envy of others in the University as it boasted of a rich collection of copies of foreign newspapers like The Daily Mirror, The Daily Telegraph, (Manchester), Guardian, etc, thousands of books gifted mostly by the World Literacy Inc. and a good number of brand new portable typewriters (dream possession of any reporter of the times) and cameras.

Dr O’Dell stayed on as head of the department until 1956 to ensure that the department stood on a strong foundation and returned to Butler University. He died in Indianapolis on June 19, 1958. The OU Department of Journalism grew from strength to strength over the past 60 years adding courses at post-graduate and master’s level (BCJ and MCJ), M. Phil and Ph. D.

(The writer belongs to the 1970-71 batch of BJ and
1980-81 batch of MCJ)

Keywords: Journalism DeptOU
More In: Hyderabad