The big takeaway at this year's AIPAC policy conference is that Iran is the source of terror. There are endless images of goosestepping soldiers and of missile firing from the desert. The public urging is, Divest, sanction, yes, try all peaceful methods. And then if they defy you– well. And meantime, Israel may go into Gaza any minute now, and must count on America's support for doing so.
Anyway, in the speech Ehud Olmert, Israeli P.M., just gave to the policy conference, he avoided George Bush's misstep at the Knesset ten days ago. Bush said we must not appease Iran. Olmert's speech was circulated ahead of time and included the same word: "Israel will never capitulate to terrorism or choose appeasement in the face of evil." When he delivered it, Olmert changed the line to "show weakness in the face of evil." I guess we have to count that as moderation.
Related posts:
- Bush Suggests Obama’s an Appeaser at Knesset–the Israel Lobby Finally Enters Our Political Discourse
- Olmert op-ed uses the word ‘Jewish’ only once (and hints at one-state)
- Israel Is ‘Megalomaniacal’ and Has Lost a Sense of Proportion About Itself– Says Mearsheimer, Sorry I Meant Olmert
- Bush Saw Clinton as ‘Satan’s Finger on Earth,’ Says Former Bush Aide
- Rightwing Israelis Helped Write Historic 2002 Bush Speech Setting Conditions for Palestinian State, Miller Writes
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"APN is part of AIPAC. APN is a member of CPMAJO, and all the members of CPMAJO are on AIPAC’s executive committee. This is one of the marvels of the Israel lobby: it is a loose coalition. When I learned as much earlier this year, I wondered why APN doesn’t resign from AIPAC to protest AIPAC’s role in the Iraq war, or in the Syria Accountability Act, or in defending the settlements, or in supporting the Lebanon War. But APN doesn’t resign." (Nov. 1, 2007)
– is this still the case, Phil?
Olmert's done. It's Net&Yahoo or Barak.
read Uri Avnery at:
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1212277355
"The big takeaway at this year's AIPAC policy conference is that Iran is the source of terror."
As best I can recall, "Iran as the source of all evil" has been the theme of EVERY Aipac policy conference for the past five years (i.e., since the Iraq invasion).
In its endless campaign to vilify the Persians, the Lobby begins to remind one of Hugo Chavez, bellowing from his tropical redoubt against the perfidious yanqui imperialists — HIS source of all evil; his Persians, as it were.
Aren't we getting tired of this ceaseless emigre kvetching about the resentment in a distant corner of the Mediterranean against their millenia-old Asian enemy? Dudes, this is North America, and your byzantine oriental squabbles just ain't our problem.
BTW, I have managed in my characteristically graceless way to disavow zionism, I suppose:
"I’ve tried to be nice to all factions in Israel, to see the idealism, however warped, in even the most right wing factions, to see the visionary and mystic qualities in settler theology, and so forth, but, when I listen to my favorite Israeli Jewish rock and punk bands, even with my distinctly limted comprehension of hebrew, I can’t help noticing that the majority of them wish zionism had never been born, and who am I to argue with them?"
http://tinyurl.com/6dzqar
Iran is very aggressive, maintaining two proxy militias on Israel's borders.
It is reasonable for Israel to regard Iran as intending harm.
The best way to isolate Iran is to form a genuine peace agreement with Syria and Palestine.
Iran is irrelevant in that setting.
Both Hillary and Obama will be speaking there today.
Talk about historical settings.
Middle East Jun 3, 2008
THE ROVING EYE
And the winner is … the Israel lobby
By Pepe Escobar
WASHINGTON – They're all here – and they're all ready to party. The three United States presidential candidates – John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Madam House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Most US senators and virtually half of the US Congress. Vice President Dick Cheney's wife, Lynne. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. And a host of Jewish and non-Jewish political and academic heavy-hitters among the 7,000 participants.
Such star power wattage, a Washington version of the Oscars, is the stock in trade of AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the crucial player in what is generally known as the Israel lobby and which holds its annual Policy Conference…
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JF03Ak01.html
manchurian man …will do what wilson and roosevelt did.
The idea that Obama is going to save us from World War IV, as the neocons gleefully refer to the impending conflict, is, it turns out, a pipe dream. The sad fact of the matter was underscored by Jonathan Landay in the McClatchy newspapers:
"The presumptive Republican nominee for president and the leading contender for the Democratic nomination are exaggerating what's known about Iran's nuclear program as they duel over how best to deal with Tehran.
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12942
if you think the iraq debacle shed the disinfectant light of truth on the neocons, what do you really think the coming iranian debacle will do to americans perception of the jewish lobby and its supporters?
"I'm in my first day at AIPAC, on assignment for The American Conservative."
– I only just spotted that, not having visited for a while and now going back across a few of your recent threads for context, depth, in-fill, or whatever journos call it. What can I say? From your mouth to Pat Buchanan's ear.
You'll AIPAC has really lost it when they start showing film clips from the movie "300" behind the speakers as a sort of Two Minutes Hate. (Heavy satire alert.)
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