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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY Former top CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give CounterPunchers the real scoop on the Israel lobby and precisely how powerful it is. Read how US presidents from Wilson, through FDR to Truman were manipulated by the Zionist lobby; how Israel bent LBJ, Reagan and Clinton to its purpose; how Bush's White House has been the West Wing of the Israeli government; how Washington's revolving doors send full-time Israel lobbyists from think-tanks to the National Security Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier, exclusive to CounterPunch newsletter subscribers, is a MUST read. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories May 27 / 29, 2006 Kathleen Christison May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas
MacGregor Brian J. Foley Michael Dickinson Missy Comley Beattie Pierre Tristam Joe Allen Kona Lowell Roger Burbach Website of the
Day
May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Jeff Halper Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Bob Wing Elise Gould Robert Bryce Website of the Day
May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
May 22, 2006 Alan Maass William Blum Elaine C. Hagopian Stan Cox Chris Floyd Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
May 20 / 21, 2006 Patrick Cockburn Kathy Kelly Ralph Nader Hugh O'Shaughnessy Greg Grandin P. Sainath Greg Moses Stephen Philion Landau / Hassen Fred Gardner Missy Comley
Beattie Michael Dickinson Seth Sandronsky Luke Young John Zavesky Ben Tripp Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement
May 19, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler José Pertierra John Ross Dave Lindorff Jeff Juel Alan Farago Eric Johnson-DeBaufre José Martî Jonathan Cook Website of the
Day
May 18, 2006 Bill Simpich Patrick Cockburn Christopher Brauchli Nora Barrows-Friedman Victoria Buch Eric Ruder George Wuerthner Juan Santos Website of the Day
May 17, 2006 Lenni Brenner Carlos Villarreal Larry Everest CounterPunch News Service Lee Sustar Anthony Papa William S. Lind Bruce K. Gagnon JoAnn Wypijewski Website of the Day
May 16, 2006 Ward Churchill Ted Honderich Paul Craig Roberts Annie Nocenti Charles V. Peña Ron Jacobs Norman Solomon Harvey Wasserman Michael George
Smith Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 15, 2006 Alexander Cockburn William Blum Tanya Golash-Boza
and Douglas A. Parker Dave Lindorff Debra Schaffer
Hubert Patrick Cockburn Tom Turnipseed Ken Livingstone Gideon Levy Mickey Z. Jeff Faux Website of the Day
May 13 / 14, 2006 Vijay Prashad Joan Roelofs Kathy Kelly Michael Neumann Dr. Susan Block Daniel Cassidy Christopher Reed Mike Roselle Saul Landau Robert Fisk Ralph Nader Evelyn Pringle Fred Gardner Stanley Heller Conn Hallinan Valentina Palma Novoa David Krieger Col. Dan Smith Christopher Brauchli Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
May 12, 2006 Michael Snedeker Dave Lindorff Leah Fishbein
/ RJ Schinner Brian Kwoba Chris Kromm Kai Diekmann David Swanson Virginia Tilley Website of the
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May 11, 2006 Sunsara Taylor Jonathan Cook Tariq Ali Wayne S. Smith Mike Whitney Pratyush Chandra Joshua Frank Mickey Z. Francis Boyle Edward S. Herman
/ David Peterson Website of the
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May 10, 2006 Werther Larry Birns / Michael Lettieri Ramzy Baroud Kevin Zeese Evelyn Pringle Amira Hass Michael Donnelly Ron Jacobs Sharon Smith Website of the Day
May 9, 2006 Ray McGovern M. Shahid Alam Moshe Adler Walter MIgnolo Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor William S. Lind Todd Chretien Dave Lindorff Ishmael Reed Website of the
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May 8, 2006 Kate McCabe Paul Craig Roberts Col. Dan Smith Norman Solomon Ingmar Lee Robert Jensen Ricardo Alarcon Will Youmans / M. Kay Siblani Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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May 6 / 7, 2006 Jeffrey St. Clair Ariel Dorfman Joe Allen Fred Gardner Jeff Taylor Saul Landau Stephen Philion Trish Schuh Ralph Nader Robert Fisk Paul Cantor John Holt James Ryan Lawrence R. Velvel Greg Moses Laray Polk Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Mickey Z. Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the Week
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News Service Corporate Crime Reporter Website of the
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Feingold Anthony Papa Website of the
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May Day, 2006 Norman Finkelstein Christopher Reed Michael Donnelly Dave Zirin Mike Whitney Gilad Atzmon Missy Comley Beattie Alexander Cockburn Website of the
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April 29 / 30, 2006 Peter Linebaugh Ralph Nader Robert Bryce Rev. William
Alberts Lee Sustar John Chuckman Eric Ruder Seth Sandronsky Ron Jacobs Ben Tripp Fred Gardner Don Monkerud Tommy Stevenson Lettrist International Contratiempo St. Clair, Vest
and D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
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April 28, 2006 James Ridgeway Ramzy Baroud Sarah Knopp William S. Lind Werther April 27, 2006 Winslow T. Wheeler Robert Fisk Juan Santos Robert Jensen Dave Lindorff Jose Pertierra
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Weekend
Edition The Da Vinci CodeGod Has Sex, Makes Big Box OfficeBy Dr. SUSAN BLOCK I''m not in a big hurry to see The Da Vinci Code: The Movie. I trust the critics who say it's boring beyond belief (pun intended). After all, I wasn't wild about the book. But I'm glad to hear that the film's opening weekend did record-breakingly well at the all-powerful box office, despite the lousy reviews. It shows that people really crave this story. Not the story by author Dan Brown, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, with its dull Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon (played by Tom Hanks), dour French cryptologist Sophie Neveu (played by Audrey Tautou), wooden language, farfetched situations, predictable chase scenes and disappointing ending. That story is just a semi-cleverly constructed shell; the egg inside is what people really want. That inside story is the Greatest Story Ever Untold: the simple tale of Jesus as a sexual human being married to another sexual human being, the forgotten feminine counterpart, Mary Magdalene, the "vessel" of Jesus' human bloodline, the Holy Grail. People crave this Story of the Holy Grail. People want to know that God has Sex. Then maybe it'd be okay if they have sex too. People also long to connect with the "lost" feminine counterpart to their spirituality. They want to know that where there's a Lord, there's a Lady. As I wrote a few years ago in my review of Dan Brown's book, this is what I crave, and this is what I love about The Da Vinci Code. It introduces the explosive mysteries of the Magdalene, the ancient feminist tale of Jesus' sexual humanity - directly, without metaphor - to the blockbuster-loving public. What are these mysteries? According to the Legends of the Grail (and books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar), the Catholic Church has violently repressed the "truth" about JC being hooked up with MM for 20 centuries. Why? Because the Church's power was and is based upon the idea that Jesus Christ is divine, not a mere human with a wife and kids. Obviously, if it could be proven that Jesus was a mortal husband and father, as opposed to being a celibate God and/or Son of God, Christianity could lose much of its religious appeal. Moreover, the Catholic emphasis on chastity for all, and its requirement of celibacy for its priests, monks and nuns would seem gratuitously harsh. And the Church itself would no longer be Christ's sole representatives on Earth, since Jesus' literal blood descendents would have a legitimate claim to "His" legacy. Despite the Church's powerful and often ferocious suppression of this story (not to mention it's suppression of joyful sex and women rights in general), the romantic tale of the marriage of Jesus (House of David) and Mary Magdalene (House of Benjamin) seems to have been passed down over the past couple of millennia in tarot cards and troubadour songs, as well as (so the story goes) in artistic masterpieces like Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, classic novels like Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame and provocative cinema like Martin Scorsese's Last Temptation of Christ. Now here the story is again, spelled out in easy-to-decipher "code" in the biggest weekend blockbuster opening in history next to Star Wars: Episode III. And to this I say: Hallelujah! The fact that The Da Vinci Code put Pope Benedict XVI's white lace panties into such a bunch, that he appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Archbishop of Genoa, a former football commentator and possible successor to the Papacy, to do battle with "the lies" and "absurd and vulgar falsifications" of a work of fiction is enough to make me smile like the Mona Lisa. Of course, there's no historic proof that the individual named Jesus who is described in the Gospels even existed - so both the Catholic Church and the Priory of Sion are probably chock full of poppycock. But really, which notion is more "absurd": that a man named Jesus had a wife and kids, or that he walked on water and raised the dead? I can just imagine Pope Bennie secretly wishing Jesus had worn a condom. And the thought of Mel Gibson flagellating himself over his bloody, sicko "Passion of the Christ" being so quickly and easily overtaken by another Jesus movie with the opposite message - I just love it. But I don't just love The Da Vinci Code. In fact, I kind of hate it. Not because its characters are superficial, it's "facts" often specious and its plot line preposterous. Hey, I'm from Hollywood; I'm used to all of that. I don't even hate The Da Vinci Code because it has very little actual sex. Though I am rather annoyed with it for that reason. There's barely a kiss between Sophie and Robert. Then there's Sophie's unreasonably intolerant, almost puritanical attitude towards her wonderful, loving Grandpère Jacques Saunière (played by Jean-Pierre Marielle in the film), Chief Art Curator of the Louvre and Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Just because she accidentally walked in on his private, mildly kinky group sex ritual when she was on spring break from grad school, she refused to even speak to him or open his letters for 10 years! I can understand how the sight of old Grandpère doing the nasty surrounded by chanting brethren and sistren could cause a young grad student to balk or even barf. But a decade of cold stone silence, despite his pleas for forgiveness and offers to explain? I'm supposed to sympathize with this uptight, unforgiving little snot in her high-speed pursuit of the Truth? But indeed, these are mere quibbles, and I don't hate The Da Vinci Code because of them. I hate it because in the end, it really lets the Church off the hook. WARNING: Do not go any farther if you haven't yet read the book or seen the movie (which from what I've seen of the clips and trailers, adheres to the book like a fundamentalist Christian adheres to the Gospels); that is, if you don't want me to spoil it for you. See, in addition to being a pop primer on the Holy Grail, The Da Vinci Code is a modern murder mystery. And as we solve that mystery, in the last part of the book and the movie, Grail buffs like me can't help but feel slapped in the face. Slapped, in fact, by the cold, paternal hand of the Catholic Church itself. That is, the character who is the most passionate Grail historian turns out to be the evil rotten murderous villain. The Church, which The Da Vinci Code implicates from the beginning until those last critical moments, is ultimately given a pass. The ending suggests that nobody truly murderous comes directly out of the Church (at least not nowadays), only a few misguided, well-meaning fools. The actual poor shmuck of an albino monk who pulls the trigger, Silas (played by Paul Bettany in the movie), gets off with the "abuse excuse." That is, he was beaten as a child, so what do you expect? Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina), head of the masochistic Catholic sect Opus Dei, is at first portrayed as a power-hungry hierophant, willing and eager to enable his man Silas to do whatever it takes, even to the point of committing vicious, multiple murders, to get hold of that heathen Holy Grail. But the Bishop turns out to be just a sweet lovable old Man o' God who didn't know nothing about no murders. He even gets his 20 million Vatican dollars back from the kindly (and devout) police chief Bezu Fache (Jean Reno), which he then magnanimously donates to the victims' families. So, who's the really bad guy of The Da Vinci Code? Who's the brains behind all the ghastly murders? Why, the only really likeable character in the book (aside from Grandpère Saunière who gets offed in the first few pages): the eccentric, jovial, filthy-rich, polio-disabled, goddess-loving scholar Sir Leigh Teabing (played by the always impressive Ian McKellen in the film). Teabing is the person who is portrayed as most deeply honoring the feminine principle of life. While Langdon is a stuffy cardboard Harvard hero and Sophie Neveu is a cute but prudish code-cruncher, Teabing is a man of passion, a British bon vivant, wise enough to figure out Saunière's first secret code "SOFIA" (wisdom). He wants nothing more than to share the Grail of Christ's humanity with the world, to pull the oppressive veil from the misogynist charade that the Church has perpetrated upon the world for two thousand years. But as the story awkwardly unfolds, this desire to reveal the "truth" is also Teabing's motive for orchestrating the murders of five people, all of whom take this "truth" to their graves! Not only is this ludicrous and rife with contradictions as a murder motive, it's also rather insulting to real Grail lovers who come to The Da Vinci Code hoping (if not praying) for a bit of respect. We are lulled, at first, into following this fairly fast-paced killer-thriller, crescendoing mid-thrill, with Teabing's revelation to Sophie (whom Grail lovers, by this point, have figured out is a direct descendent of Jesus and Mary Magdalene) that the Grail is the Magdalene. Then the plot unfolds, suggesting that all that provocative but rather sensible stuff coming out of Teabing's mouth has got to be twisted because, hey, the dude's a crackpot multiple murderer! Then, there's the kicker: the last sequence of the code spells "APPLE." a word suggesting not the glory of the Grail, but the downfall of Eve. Indeed, it seems to spell out the doomed folly of those, like the cursed villain Teabing, who seek to eat of the Tree of Knowledge or find the Holy Grail. Yes, I know: "Vous ne trouvez pas le Saint-Graal. C'est le Saint-Graal qui vous trouve." You do not find the Grail; the Grail finds you. So does that mean one should not seek the truth? If the Vatican wasn't soiling their ecclesiastical knickers over its "blasphemy," I'd say The Da Vinci Code was a very clever piece of propaganda for the Church. Yes, it does present Christianity, especially Catholicism, as a two thousand- year-old force of repression, right down to suppressing the truth about its own God. But in terms of the murder plot, the Church gets off scot-free. Of course, the Vatican doesn't see it this way. Apparently, all that celibacy has rendered them soft-headed, so they don't realize that The Da Vinci Code ends with a slap in the face for Grail seekers and a big sloppy kiss for the Church. In the end, Langdon solves his puzzle, Sophie finds her family, Silas the Monk dies piously, Father Aringarosa goes home innocently, and the villainous Teabing goes to jail, crying for the Grail. Ultimately, it's a Church-positive, family values, handicap-unfriendly message, pitting two intellectuals against each other: the tedious bore versus the passionate pagan, and the bore wins. I could go on and on about the annoying sins of The Da Vinci Code. And yetwe are all sinners, are we not? And despite my objections, Brothers and Sisters, Lovers and Sinners, I feel that this film is blessed. You don't have to be a cryptologist to crack this code: Record big box office despite rock-bottom reviews and a vigorous boycott by the Church. The Da Vinci Code is blessed because, at its core, it tells that simple story we long to hear, deep in our monotheistically-damaged souls. Despite its flaws, The Da Vinci Code heralds the Good News: GOD HAS SEX! Praise the Lord and the Lady. Dr. Susan Block is a sex educator, cable TV host
and author of The 10 Commandments of Pleasure. Visit
her BRAND NEW BLOGGAMY & POST COMMENTS at http://www.drsusanblock.com/blog/blog.asp
Send comments to liberties@blockbooks.com.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org. |