Neocon Scooter Libby has lots of friends, and many wrote letters to his judge, alas to little effect. (Pat Buchanan believes the huge sentence to be "punitive." I agree.)
A couple things interest me about the letters. Paul Wolfowitz says that Libby is one of "the least partisan individuals" you will find in D.C. Libby’s wife is a Democrat, and prior to going to work for Wolfie in the State Department in 1981, Libby had worked on two political campaigns: Gov. Michael Dukakis of MA and Sen. Abraham Ribicoff of CT–two Dems. Mary Matalin notes that Libby’s wife’s politics are close to her own husband’s, James Carville’s. Leonard Garment says that Libby worked with him on the Marc Rich case, the fugitive financier who is dedicated to Israel, and was pardoned by Clinton. Wolfowitz notes that Libby had many friends who held senior position in the Clinton Administration. Natan Sharansky, Israeli extremist, says that he met with Libby "numerous times," officially and in private. Leon Wieseltier of TNR speaks movingly of Libby’s great generosity to him in a legal matter some years back, but notes that he doesn’t share Libby’s politics. "I am in no sense a neoconservative, as many of my neoconservative adversaries will attest," Wieseltier says (as if the judge would care). "I am, to the contrary, the kind of liberal whom many neoconservatives like to despise (This is fine with me)."
The letters are interesting because they touch on the social world of the neoconservatives, which is as important as their intellectual universe. The success of the neocons turned not just on the force of their ideas, but their membership in a new Jewish segment of the establishment that entered high political life in the Clinton Administration, which David Frum justly called the most "philosemitic" administration in history. Though he obviously has many non-Jewish friends, Libby’s social connections have a Jewish flavor; and defy easy ideological pigeonholing.
Those connections help to explain the fact that connected Jewish liberals have, by and large, failed thus far to dissociate themselves forcefully from neocon ideas on Iraq, because they are friends with some of those neocons, or share some of their ideas.Wieseltier attempts a dissociation here; but I would ask Wieseltier (a close friend of the late neocon Eric Breindel, and a particularist Jew in his own right), "Why do the neocons hate you? Where is the evidence?" I don’t believe they do. I believe the attitudes of a Lewis Libby shade subtly into those of liberals like Alan Dershowitz, Stephen Pinker, and Wieseltier. A fascinating world, which hasn’t been explored…
Related posts:
- Like Lewinsky, Rich, and Libby, Madoff Scandal Exposes Jewish Social Cohesion in Establishment
- David Gregory, Pls Come Forward in Libby Case
- Why No McClellan of the Neocons? Or the Clintons?
- Democratic Neocons
- As Asian-Americans Soul-Search Over Va.-Tech Shootings, Liberal Jews Must Soul-Search Over Neocons and Iraq
{ 19 comments }
The parentage of most Neocons can be traced to 1920s-30s American or European followers of Vladimir Jabotinsky.
Militant Zionism in America by Rafael Medoff is a good book to read if you want to get a sense of Neocon origins.
Interesting, Joachim. In his book, Kaddish, Wieseltier notes that his dad was a Jabotinskyite
Interesting, Phil? This is such a mad line of thought that on the net – at least considering the propagandists – it easily merges with the larger extreme right wing conspiracy lore: freemasons, jesuits, jews and somewhere secretly in the back a black pope pulling strings.
I wouldn't touch any of this stuff, if it wasn't written by someone with superior knowledge of European and especially Russian history.
Philip,
You are publishing the truth about Jewish Americans that many of them don't want to hear. Good for you and stay strong.
I agree with Phil that the social links are the most intriguing aspect of this (although "social" isn't really the right word).
However, there is also a revealing tidbit in Feith's letter that sheds some light on the inner mechanisms of the administration:
"When he worked for the Vice President, I was the Under Secretary of Depfense for Policy and we spent several hours together in meetings every week day, more or less, and occasionally on weekends too."
Several hours every day is a pretty tight linkage between the OSP (Feith at Defense) and WHIG (Libby at OVP).
A good post, however: the Clinton Administration the philo-semitic in American History? What about FDR? Truman? Carter? Otherwise it seems pretty accurate-and revealing of the Clinton Presidency and of it's foreign policies.
"In his book, Kaddish, Wieseltier notes that his dad was a Jabotinskyite."
Doug Feith can top that. His dad was active in Betar as a youngster in Poland.
(BTW, Feith, Wolfowitz, and Daniel Pipes all happen to be first-generation Jewish Polish immigrants.)
(That is to say, children of Jewish Polish immigrants.)
When it comes to Israel, Wieseltier might as well be a neocon. He's as right wing as his boss, Marty Peretz, & that's pretty right wing.
I thought that the neo-conservative movement originated from disaffected Trotskyite perspective.
Commentary
Isn't the name "neo-con" used similarly now to dismiss one's ideas without reading them, same as has been done to the left?
Why repeat a wrong and then call it acceptable political ethics?
Keep on exposing those Jews Philip. You are a true patriot and will be spared the punishment that is dished out to those deemed to be guilty.
Good for you and stay strong.
The story of the Trotskyite origin of the Neocons always struck me as a sort of blind to conceal the real origins of the group, but I think the issue may be slightly complex.
In a few cases where a Neocon or a Neocon's father had a flirtation with communist ideology of some sort, a marriage to a follower of Jabotinsky resulted in a radical change of political orientation. (The stereotype of dominant ethnic Ashkenazi females has some truth.)
If we go beyond economic theory, the attitudes of pro-Bolshevik and pro-Zionist ethnic Ashkenazim in Russia of the nineteen-teen's do not look so different.
Both groups believed that there was something radically wrong with goyish society and that Jews had to take radical action to change the dynamic.
Bolshevik Ashkenazim as Soviet intellectuals planned to create a new Soviet Man that would transcend traditional ethnic boundaries and yet would still leave the revolutionary vanguard in charge.
Zionist Ashkenazim wanted to create the new Man of the Zionist Revolution. (See Haadam hahadash shel hamahafakh hatzioni by Rina Peled). And they also had several plans to remake the local non-Jewish population accord to the Zionist program. Alt-Neuland by Herzl is quite explicit with regard to the landed elite and less explicit but quite suggestive about the poor peasantry.
Bolshevik Ashkenazim intended to remake goyim directly (by means of the Party through the use of force if necessary).
Zionist Ashkenazim expected Jews to withdraw to their own country but would use overwhelming force against the local non-Jews and would work on non-Jewish populations outside Palestine by collaborating with the non-Jewish leadership.
The current obsession of Jewish American Zionists with finding or creating a class of secular or moderate Muslims looks like a reprise of the goals of both the Zionist and Marxist ethnic Ashkenazi political elites of the early 20th century.
BTW, in the context of Eastern European ethnic Ashkenazim I believe it makes sense to discuss and analyze the behavior of ethnic Ashkenazi political elites over time. (In Germany and in the core of Austria, Jews were more typically contributors to political groups or factions that were not specifically Jewish, but in Eastern Europe where Jews were much more numerous and ethnically distinct the development of specifically Jewish political elites was inevitable and typical of Eastern European political culture in general.)
Circa 1920-30, I identify 5 elites.
1) Yiddishist (Bundists, Agudas yisroel)
2) Marxist (of various factions)
3) Socialist Patriotist Zionist (Ben-Gurion and similar Zionists)
4) Jabotinskian Zionist
5) Kookian Zionist (Kooks as Noam Chomsky calls)
The first two groups no longer exist while the third has fallen apart.
The last two are still with us, both in Israel, where the Jabotinskians hold state power, and in the USA, where as Neocons they have strong influence over both major political parties.
Kookians dominate the settler movement in Israel and are represented by operatives like Jack Abramoff in the USA.
[By the way, I do not use the identifier Neocon to dismiss Neocon ideas. I have considered the developing Neocon ideology dangerous ever since my first meeting with Bill Kristol in the late 1970s when he was still a grad student.
I have read the political writings of the major Neocons as well as those of predecessors like Leo Strauss, Jabotinski and important Jabotinskians from the early 20th century through the present day.]
So, what specific idea, or set of ideas, are you objecting to?
Please, could you describe it clearly, so we don't have to play "which side are you on?".
David Brown and David White
_______________________________
They are one and the same: A German right-wing troll. I can tell from the wording. Anyway, the German 'Davids' like Phil Weiss, so what?
Klaus
Frankfurt, Germany
I am trying to argue that treating Neoconservatism as the latest manifestation of Jabotinskianism is the best way to understand the movement as long as one makes an effort to understand the Fin de siecle Eastern European and Russian political milieu in which Jabotinskianism originated and which migrated to the New Yishuv during the period of the Mandatory.
We a dealing with a single political elite that nowadays manifests itself both in the State of Israel and in the USA.
I will move this discussion to the "As Asian-Americans Soul-Search Over Va.-Tech Shootings, Liberal Jews Must Soul-Search Over Neocons and Iraq" comments.
What do you understand is "neo-conservatism"?
And what do you understand is "Jabotinskyism"?
How specifically are those terms meaningful at all?
I read a bunch of those letters. crazy stuff. one of them faoud ajami wrote an oped in the WSJ that is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever read, referring to libby as a "fallen soldier".
lester,
Ajami's "fallen soldier" comment is true if you consider that the Mafia used to call their henchmen "soldiers." Maybe he's really trying to say, "Scooter Libby sleeps with the fishes."
THE SECRET AIPAC COVERT AND OVERT WAR {JUAN COLE} IN COLLUSION WITH THE PUBLIC SUBSIDIZED BROKEN TRUST LEGACY IN HAWAII & WASHINGTON DC
REF: THE CRIMES OF PATRIOTS {KWITNY}; THE CONSPIRATORS {AL MARTIN}; BUSHWHACKED {URI DOWBENKO}; LAND AND POWER IN HAWAII UNDER ORGANIZED CRIME {COOPER & DAWS}; FOR "DEFRAUDING AMERICA" {RODNEY STICH} LINKED THE BROKEN TRUST LEGACY {KING & ROTH}.
HAWAII'S AIPAC "JEWISH QUEEN" GOVERNOR, LINDA LINGLE, THE FEATURED SPEAKER AT THE 2004 NEW YORK RNC POLITICAL CONVENTION AND HER CLOSE POLITICAL LINKS TO EXTREMIST POLITICAL CABALS WITH FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON UNDER THE NEW YORK AIPAC PUBLISHING CLEARING HOUSES AND MEDIA OUTLETS {WENNERS WORLD} LINKED TO CONVICTED WHITE HOUSE – AIPAC ASSOCIATES: JACK ABRAMOFF, GROVER NORQUIST, I. SCOOTER LIBBY; PAUL WOLFOWITZ; JOSHUA BOLTON, MICHAEL CHERTOFF, MICHAEL MUKASEY, KEN MEHLMAN,NORM BROWNSTEIN, GALE NORTON, AND THE HAWAIIAN – ISRAELI SOVRIEGNTY LOBBYIST: DOUGLAS FEITH {COX AND ZELL} WITH BEN GINSBERG {PATTON BOGGS} IN COLLUSION WITH LIIPFERT, BARNDHARD, MCPHERSON, HAND, WAIHEE {FORMER HAWAII GOVERNOR / ACTIVIST UNDER STATE INVESTIGATIONS FOR MORE FRAUD & CORRUPTION}, AND NIP {FORMER HAWAII LAND USAGE COMMISSIONER}. THE HAWAII GOVERNOR'S CHIEF OF STAFF, BOB AWANA, HAS RECENTLY RESIGNED LINKED TO PHILIPPINE ESCORT SERVICES, SAIPAN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS, AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES IN THE SECLUDED SOUTH PACIFIC {ABRAMOFF, DELAY, NORTON, GRILES}.
"IN GOVERNMENT, THE LIE {GEORGE W. BUSH, ET AL} HAS MANY FATHERS {FORMER CIA DIRECTOR, VICE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT – GEORGE H. BUSH} WHILST THE TRUTH REMAINS AN ORPHAN"? JEFFERSON
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