Yesterday’s presidential forum at the YearlyKos convention was all about bashing lobbyists, but there was one lobby they didn’t touch. According to the official chatroom at YearlyKos, Israel was off the table:
[11:52] Quirinal Raymaker: [Apropos of fighting Al Qaeda] this gets to the question of us support for israel, which NONE of them will touch..
[11:52] Jillan McMillan: / yeah!!
[11:52] MeiLin Miranda: / q, that’s the third rail of politics
[11:52] Kiala Ireton: /exactly meilin
Another chatter states that support for Israel is simply "ingrained" in American politics. This is a tautological statement. It is ingrained because a bunch of people want it to be ingrained. It doesn’t have to be. The netroots can’t open the issue up–in a forum bashing lobbyists, no less–because more than half of Democratic presidential giving is
Jewish, and a high percentage of that Jewish money is concerned with
Israel (out of a devotion similar in character to rightwing Christians’ opposition to gay marriage and abortion). There’s a word for the failure of a political conference to discuss an important issue because of money: corruption.
Yes, support for Israel is "ingrained" in American politics because Israel is a bastion of freedom, a light unto nations, a democracy which shares the same values as America:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/889718.html
Palestinian shepherds have water tank, tractor confiscated
By Amira Hass
"The Civil Administration confiscated a tractor and a water tank belonging to Palestinian shepherds living in the northern Jordan Valley.
This was the only readily available water source for the approximately 60 members of the Basharat and Bani-Oudeh families and their 1,500 heads of sheep and goats.
The Civil Administration is reportedly prepared to return the equipment if its owners agree to leave the area and pay transport costs.
It said the tractor was confiscated during a regular patrol because it was being used "in the commission of the offense of presence in an area declared a closed military zone."
The tractor driver, Ahmed Bani-Oudeh, said he was stopped near the Beka'ot roadblock when he was on his way to fill the tank with water.
After the equipment was confiscated last Sunday, the families have had to buy water at three times the price from nearby water tank owners.
The shepherds have been living for decades in the area of Hadidiya, east of Beka'ot, on lands owned by their home villages of Tamun and Tubas. After the 1967 War, Israel declared large areas in the northern Jordan Valley closed military zones.
Palestinians have been evacuated from these areas four times, including from privately owned lands.
At the end of 2006, the High Court of Justice rejected a request from the residents to rezone their land as residential, even though the settlement of Ro'i is located a kilometer away.
The High Court ordered the Palestinians to move to an area recommended by the Civil Administration in Area B, under Palestinian administrative control, which the residents rejected as unsuitable for farming and grazing.
In April, the Civil Administration destroyed their corrals, and they moved to an area south of Hadidiya.
In May, the residents were warned that their presence in the area would be considered illegal."
War on poor shepherds. How's that for "sharing the same values"?
Jean Bricmont has a nice analysis of the lobby in the current CounterPunch. No fireworks, but sane and balanced in my opinion. It might make a good introductory primer for someone you are introducing to the issue.
He identifies the different levels on which the lobby works (money, "anti-semitism", and Islamophobia) and, rather uniquely for a Left analysis, talks about how it should be fought. He makes the interesting point that effective opposition can be grounded in appeals to justice and generosity, or appeals to national self-interest. Both are needed, but because the latter has typically been the stance of the conservative and libertarian struggle against the lobby, many on the Left hesitate to make common cause (as if "U.S. national interest" is a tainted, imperialistic project). This is a mistake, and allows the Zionists to divide and rule.
Zionism and war have a way of making the left-right distinctions recede in importance.
The De-Zionization of the American Mind
The establishment fights back: Jim Lobe has a good article on how corporate interests are clashing with the Likkudnik program over at the American Enterprise Institute. The inherent contradictions between neocon-ism and conservatism are getting harder to hide.
“>link to thewashingtonnote.com
And just to close the circle, Bonds acts threaten THE GAME, while Vick's acts don't, although the strong reaction indicates that Vick's acts threaten advertising revenue, which is also very serious.