In my extended section below, you will see that on Amy Goodman today, Seymour Hersh said much what Mike Gravel said (in my previous post): the tattoo for war in Iran is being beaten by pro-Israel money in the political process. In Hersh’s case, being Jewish, he was blunt about it: "Jewish money."
This is a significant moment. Hersh is a wild man, wild and brilliant. Yet in all his anti-Bush and -Cheney interviews about Iraq over the last few years, I’ve heard him talk code on this issue. He’s attacked the neoconservatives as a crazy band of thinkers; but he’s never put the blame fully where it belongs–on a broader segment of the Jewish community that has immunized the neocons from blame for the war, on the Israel lobby, which includes many Democrats too. Now he’s done so (though apparently not in the New Yorker, which regards Walt and Mearsheimer as fueling hysteria).
This is a beautiful moment, too. Hersh is a progressive Jew. Now he is turning on other Jews. "New York Jewish money," he says. The soulsearching that I have called for within the Jewish community has begun!!!!
When we talk about free speech in America, we mean wide-open speech. That means truly independent, knowledgeable voices like Gravel and Hersh shooting off about what they think is going on. The water is changing by the hour. Any minute and Obama will jump in!
P.S. No pogroms, did you notice? In America, we talk about stuff…
AMY GOODMAN: Sy Hersh, I wanted to switch gears for the
last question, and this has to do with it not just being Republicans
who are sounding a drumbeat for war. The three leading Democratic
presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John
Edwards — have all declared no options off the table. This is a
clip from last week’s Democratic debate. It was the day the Senate
approved a controversial resolution calling on the State Department
to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist
organization. At the debate, Democratic presidential hopeful Mike
Gravel bitterly criticized Hillary Clinton for voting in favor.
MIKE GRAVEL: This is fantasy land. We’re talking about
ending the war. My god, we’re just starting a war right today.
There was a vote in the Senate today. Joe Lieberman, who authored
the Iraq resolution, has authored another resolution, and it is
essentially a fig leaf to let George Bush go to war with Iran. And
I want to congratulate Biden for voting against it, Dodd for
voting against it, and I’m ashamed of you, Hillary, for voting for
it. You’re not going to get another shot at this, because what’s
happened, if this war ensues, we invade, and they’re looking for
an excuse to do it. And Obama was not even there to vote.
TIM RUSSERT: Senator Clinton, I want to give you a
chance to respond.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON: [laughter]
AMY GOODMAN: That was Hillary Clinton laughing. Fifteen
seconds, Seymour Hersh. Your response?
SEYMOUR HERSH: Money. A lot of the Jewish money from New
York. Come on, let’s not kid about it. A significant percentage of
Jewish money, and many leading American Jews support the Israeli
position that Iran is an existential threat. And I think it’s as
simple as that. When you’re from New York and from New York City,
you take the view of — right now, when you’re running a campaign,
you follow that line. And there’s no other explanation for it,
because she’s smart enough to know the downside.
AMY GOODMAN: And Obama and Edwards?
SEYMOUR HERSH: I — you know, it’s shocking. It’s really
surprising and shocking, but there we are. That’s American politics
circa 2007.
AMY GOODMAN: Seymour Hersh, thank you very much for being
with us, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. His
piece in the New Yorker is called “Shifting Targets: The
Administration’s Plan for Iran.”
