The Palestinian Authority expects “big movement” toward taking over most of the areas that would encompass a future Palestinian state by the end of the year, senior PA officials told this column.
The PA officials said the U.S. has been negotiating the borders of a future Palestinian state that would see Israel eventually withdraw from most of the West Bank and some areas of eastern Jerusalem with the exception of what are known as the three main settlement blocks – Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim and Ariel.
While the PA does not believe it will see an actual Palestinian state by the end of the year, it expects to take over many more neighborhoods in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem that are normally controlled on the ground by Israel.
PA officials said the expectation is based on pledges by the Obama administration.
Further, the officials said talks are at such an advanced stage that the U.S. has floated the idea of Israel leasing land in the Jordan Valley after the establishment of a Palestinian state that would see the PA officially take over that territory. Israel has not responded to that proposal, the PA officials say.
The officials claim the U.S. supports the concept of stationing international troops along the Palestinian side of a future border. They also said the parties discussed the possibility of a contingent of Jordanian troops as well as private Palestinian firms participating in the patrol of the Palestinian side of a future border, the officials said.
PA officials have said that if Israel and the Palestinians fail to reach an agreement to create a Palestinian state, the Obama administration will support a resolution at the United Nations that would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
Organizations Call On FCC
To Investigate Talk Radio
A George Soros-funded, Marxist-founded organization with close ties to the White House has urged the Federal Communications Commission to investigate talk radio and cable news for “hate speech.”
The organization, calling itself Free Press, claims media companies are engaging in “hate speech” because a disproportionate number of radio and cable-news networks are owned by non-minorities.
This column previously reported that Free Press published a study advocating the development of a “world class” government-run media system in the U.S.
Now Free Press has joined 32 other organizations in drafting a 25-page petitionasking the FCC to “initiate an inquiry into the extent and effects of hate speech in media and to explore non-regulatory means by which to mitigate its negative impacts.”
“Hate speech thrives, as hate has developed as a profit-model for syndicated radio and cable-television programs masquerading as ‘News,’ ” claims the petition.
The petition contends “traditional media” have “largely failed” to “provide the accurate information needed for an informed democracy.”
“These failures often damage communities of color at disproportionate rates,” the petition states.
The paper singles out talk radio as “particularly problematic.”
“Hate has seemingly emerged as a profit-model for many radio programs syndicated throughout the country, because only a few companies own the majority of the radio stations nationally.”
The paper claims a disproportionate number of media companies are owned by non-minorities, causing “hate speech” to fester.
The founder of Free Press, Robert W. McChesney, is an avowed Marxist who has recommended that capitalism be dismantled. McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois and former editor of the Marxist journal Monthly Review.
In February 2009 column, McChesney wrote, “In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick-by-brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.”
In May, this column reportedFree Press Policy Director Ben Scott was named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department.
More Obama Associates With
Questionable Pasts
Former Democratic Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a close friend of President Obama and a gubernatorial candidate in Hawaii, was listed as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America in the November-December 1990 issue of the organization’s official magazine, the Democratic Left.
Abercrombie’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Abercrombie has been closely linked with the socialist organization for years. According to the organization magazine’s Winter 2007 edition, Abercrombie spoke at the socialist group’s political-action-committee event in Washington, D.C., at the home of philanthropist Stewart Mott.
A former aide to Abercrombie, George (Skip) Roberts, has long served as a Democratic Socialists of America representative to the Socialist International, the socialist group for which White House energy-environment czar Carol Browner was recently discovered to be a commissioner until 2008.
Abercrombie’s wife, academic Nancie Caraway, was listed in 1985 as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Feminist Commission.
President Obama has also been closely tied to the Democratic Socialists of America. He spoke at a forum organized by the group at the University of Chicago in early 1996 called “Employment and Survival in Urban America.”
He also spoke at the March 29, 1998, memorial service for Chicago Democratic Socialists of America member Saul Mendelson.
Obama’s friends, too, have been associated with the organization. Quentin Young, considered the father of the U.S. single-payer movement, is a longtime Democratic Socialists of America activist who reportedly advised Obama on health care in the 1990s.
Eliseo Medina, who served on Obama’s National Latino Advisory Council during the 2008 presidential campaign, has been honored by Democratic Socialists of America.
Timuel Black, a member activist, mediated political disputes on behalf of Obama in the 1990s and was reportedly involved in Obama’s campaign committee during his successful 2004 Senate race.
Longtime member activist Arnold Wolf was a member of “Rabbis for Obama” and has held fundraisers in his home for Obama, including a function in 1995 that was aimed at introducing Obama to the Hyde Park activist community.
Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief and senior reporter for Internet giant WorldNetDaily.com. He is also host of an investigative radio program on New York’s 770-WABC Radio, the largest talk radio station in the U.S., every Sunday between 2-4 p.m.
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