Afraid of the leftwing insurgency against Joe Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Party, the pro-Israel lobby is rallying to the Senator’s side, so reports the Forward.
This is further evidence for my political hobbyhorse: That the Israel lobby is one of the strongest constituencies behind the disastrous Iraq war and that the conflict between liberal pro-Israel hawks and populist antiwar left, is dividing the Democratic party, even if David Brooks and other MSM commentators are afraid to talk about it. Though they’ll talk about Christian evangelists—people they don’t know— till the cows come home.
This underlines the political significance of Walt & Mearsheimer: they may be intellectuals, but their work has had enormous political resonance. High noon.
The Iraq War is not a disaster- it is an absolute success for those that created it and are making hundred of millions of dollars off of it.
The military industrial complex- United Technologies, Northrop Grumman Corporation, the contractors – Halliburton, etc. and the the Oil companies are loving every second of the War.
If you had a contract selling bottled water the to troops and were making millions, you might not hate the war so much yourself. You would probably make a contribution to the Republican party.
Into whose hands did the squandered 500 billion dollars go? Right into the hands of Corporate America.
Don't you get it? Money and corporate America made the War. You probably made a few bucks off of it yourself, if you had the right investments.
Blaming the Israel Lobby and the Jews is exactly what they want you do.
Wake up.
Anonymous: Blaming the Israel Lobby and the Jews is exactly what they want you do.
There's nothing illegitimate about blaming Jewish neocons for the Iraq War. Without their passionate support for it, the war would have never happened.
I remember Lieberman addressing the Arab American Institute Conference in October 2003. Most of the 9 (at the time) Democratic contenders for the Presidential nomination turned up. The headlines the next day read "Lieberman heckled by Arabs" although the truth was there was one woman, who was not even an Arab-American, screaming at Lieberman in the middle of his remarks, "WHAT ABOUT THE WALL!!!" She was later rebuked in private by several people ashamed of her behavior.
Lieberman deserves credit for facing a likely uninviting audience, although the best he could do was to say, "the taking of land is regrettable" when asked about the boundaries of the wall.
I am looking forward to the next installment of this conference in 2007, considering that the upcoming Presidential primaries will probably have 2 simultaneous 6-ring circuses.
Generally, opposition to the Iraq invasion breaks along classic left/right lines : the leftists blame 'the military-industrial establishment' (a class analysis, based on Marx, and this bloc includes soi-disant 'anarchists' like Chomsky), and the rightists blame the Jewish neocon cabal (an analysis based, not really on 'race', but on ethnic and religious pressure politics, and on the fact of disproportionate Jewish financial power, a factor which is completely taboo for discussion in left circles).
This is where I congratulate Phil : because of the sheer quantity of his inside knowledge of the US Jewish scene, he breaks the mould, and expresses support for what is normally the 'right wing' analysis, but from what is nevertheless palpably a left wing ethnic Jewish protest viewpoint.
However, at the same time, I consider this ethnic Jewish protest viewpoint itself to be based on the most preposterous self-regarding myths.