Comments on: Is Israel the Hidden Agenda for a Hawkish ‘New Yorker’ Subject?

By: Madrid

Madrid — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Interesting that he is on the Council of Foreign Relations. I admire his stewardship of AIG, in transforming a modest multi-million dollar insurance company into the biggest insurance company in the world (right before it croaked), but I disagree with his views on the Middle East, obviously.

What this makes me think of is the fact that there have been books written about how CIA officers posed as insurance adjusters at AIG in its overseas subsidiaries in China and the Middle East. Insurance appraiser is the perfect cover for a CIA officer, because they get to snoop around industrial sites, commercial properties, government buildings, seeking out weaknesses, etc etc. When Greenberg was interviewed about why AIG should be bailed out, he practically admitted this in his despair, saying, "AIG has been more important than any other American corporation in opening up other countries to American business and American interests."

But reading that interview makes me wonder if AIG wasn't also a cover for other intelligience agencies as well.

For some more information on AIG and American intelligence officers, see Fallen Giant: The Amazing Story of Hank Greenberg and the History of AIG by Ron Shelp and Al Ehrbar.

By: peters

peters — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

i appreciate phil calling out the new yorker. it's high time someone turned the floodlights on it. my feeling is that there has been one profile after another of big jewish businessmen and that there is a code embedded here somewhere. there is something fishy about it. it is possibly purely jewish triumphalism but i don't think so. there are plenty of jewish artists or scientists or poets, but it's always businessmen who get the big write up. who cares about these guys ? they are usually pretty unpleasant characters.
remnick is a neolib/zionist, but he's trying to appear as if he is not. he gave the thumbs down to w&m in the lead article when the 'israel lobby' came out. the usual spurious reasons. i hate this hiding.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

What makes Greenberg a “rightwing” as opposed to a mainstream or a left-liberal Jewish Zionist? His support for the Iraq war (likely) as an outgrowth of his Zionism? I suspect that mainstream and left-liberal Jewish Zionists think along similar lines, but just don’t admit it.

Nearly all Jewish Zionists could be accurately described as “rightwing” on any Jews-vis-à-vis-gentiles issue; that is to say, nearly all staunch Jewish Zionists deep down regard most gentiles with the same suspicion and loathing that, for example, non-Jewish staunch right-wingers regard other out-group member. That is why “Jewish Zionist liberalism” is so unconvincing. It’s impossible to be rightwing-authoritarian in one’s perspective regarding one’s family, one’s ethnic attitudes, and one’s closest community and their interaction with out-group members, and simultaneously be authentically “liberal” in other areas. It just doesn’t work that way. And it looks like the Holocaust-related Jewish Zionist “pass” on their hypocrisy is finally coming to an end. It probably would have come to an end a lot sooner but for the wealth of Jewish Zionists like Greenberg and their ability to use their money to buy and influence public opinion and policy.

By: scorpio

scorpio — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

it's neither painful nor expensive for people like Hank Greenberg

By: JOHN DICKERSON

JOHN DICKERSON — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

"I wonder how much of Greenberg's positions on the Middle East are driven by his feelings about Israel, the Palestinians and Iran, and possibly too by his Zionism."

I WOULDN'T SPEND MUCH TIME WONDERING ABOUT IT. FOR MY OWN INTERNAL PURPOSES (NOT SPOKEN TO OTHERS), I THINK IT'S SAFE TO ASSUME HIS POSITIONS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY DRIVEN AS YOU SUSPECT. OF COURSE, I COULD BE WRONG!