On Israel, America & AIPAC
Volume 54, Number 6 · April 12, 2007
The Bush administration is once again in the process of committing a major policy blunder in the Middle East, one that is liable to have disastrous consequences and is not receiving the attention it should. This time it concerns the Israeli-Palestinian relationship. The Bush administration is actively supporting the Israeli government in its refusal to recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas, which the US State Department considers a terrorist organization. This precludes any progress toward a peace settlement at a time when progress on the Palestinian problem could help avert a conflagration in the greater Middle East.
George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC and the Open Society Institute, is the author of The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror. (April 2007)
Kristof Pleads for More Debate Over US Embrace of Israel
By E&P Staff
Published: March 17, 2007 10:20 PM ET
NEW YORK Very little criticism of Israel and its policies is commonly voiced on editorial pages and by political figures in the United States, even though America is the prime ally and military supplier of Israel, and what happens in the Middle East impacts us greatly. Nicholas Kristof pointed this out in his Sunday column for The New York Times and called for the kind of brisk debate often heard in -- Israel....
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The silent treatment
The lack of recognition is being used to as an excuse to perpetuate the same policy.
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Our treatment of Palestine because of its refusal to recognise Israel is causing political deadlock. It's time to talk.
Oliver Miles
Since Hamas won the elections in Palestine last year the world has faced the problem: how do we push forward the so-called Middle East peace process if the Palestinian partner refuses to recognise the Israeli partner? Led by Israel and America, we have cold-shouldered Palestine, refusing economic support and permitting Israel to hold up tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian administration. So the result is not just political deadlock, but a catastrophe for the Palestinian population....
Monday, March 19, 2007
IRAQ, IRAN AND THE LOBBY
THE WAR PARTY IS STILL IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT
By: Justin Raimondo
It wasn't supposed to be like this: we weren't supposed to be "celebrating" the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. It was going to be a "cakewalk," the Iraqis would rise up and shower us with rose petals, and Johnny would come marching home in no time.
Remember? Besides that, the whole deal would be cost-free, you see, because the revived Iraqi oil industry, no longer under sanctions, would pay the costs of the war. Or so Paul Wolfowitz assured us.
Well, we know all too well what happened instead, yet one can't help wondering: how it is that the very people who got us into this war in the first place are still in a position to get us into another – and are rapidly proceeding to do so? ...
AIPAC's Heavy Hand
BY RUSS WELLEN
03.19.2007 05:59 | DISPATCHES
On March 13 Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership deleted a provision from the Supplemental Appropriations bill which forbade funds for military operations against Iran unless authorized by Congress.
On her Iran Nuclear Watch blog, Cara Ong wrote: "The move, not so coincidentally, coincides with AIPAC's annual conference, which Ms. Pelosi addressed. . . [but] Congressional sources say she is attempting to finesse the move by saying that the language will be placed in some other piece of legislation." Congressional Quarterly, as quoted by ThinkProgress, reported that she "quietly promised Appropriations Committee Democrats that she would soon bring the measure up as a stand-alone bill.
"The Democratic Speaker of the House feels compelled to stealth-legislate. Hillary Clinton, The New York Times reports, finds herself emphasizing, during the March 12 reception she gave at the conference, "as she has before, that 'no option is off the table' if a confrontation escalates with Iran."...
Monday, March 19, 2007
Some people have trouble wondering how the Lobby, representing less than 50% of a group that compromises 2% of the American population, wields so much power. From an old (2002!) articlehere) by Michael Lind on the Lobby (emphasis in red): (or
Israeli love fest in Washington
Monday, March 19, 2007
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The more than 6,000 people who attended the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) here last week are said to have shared two preoccupations: the 2008 US presidential election and confronting Iran.
According to a commentary by Gregory Levey on Salon.com, that while most of those who came to the conference were Jews, the evangelical Christian community also made a strong showing. To those feeling “apocalyptic” about the turmoil in the Middle East, pastor John Hagee, one of the many prominent speakers at the conference, said, “The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awoken!”...
STOP THE VOTE
Mar 18, 2007
By Lila Garrett
Bush has asked for 93 billion more to keep the war going in Iraq at least until the end of his term….if not forever. But that's up to the next President and the next and the next.
Now you'd think that the Democrats would kill that request on arrival. After all the people elected them to end the war. But no, they've painted themselves into a corner by only giving Bush until 08 to begin to withdrawing troops, but offering 124 billion instead of the already outrageous 93. You know that big tent the Dems always claim to have? Well in that big tent about a third of them are hawks, “blue dogs”, including Hillary Clinton (this week), Joe Leiberman, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer. Bottom line, they want this war to keep going. A major influence on them is AIPAC, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee…a benign name for the most powerful foreign policy lobby in Congress. AIPAC represents the right wing of the Israeli government, and is the most aggressively inclined toward Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon…you know the list. Israel, openly hated by these countries responds in kind. So what have we got? A lethal chokehold between two entities, who fuel their politics, their economies, their very lives by despising each other....