Yesterday one of my many moles inside the Council on Foreign Relations sent me the 2008 annual report. Beautiful cover. Rocks my world.
You flip the book open and you see Jewish names. You see Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, who were just on stage with Obama, in a picture together, see Leslie Gelb's name, see Richard Haass, CFR President, who is Jewish. The pages dedicated to endowed chairs and events are filled with Jews. The David M. Rubenstein Chair. The Maurice R. [Hank] Greenberg Chair, two of them. The Roger Hertog Senior Fellowship. Giant neocon. The Stephen Friedheim symposium, Darryl Behrman lecture, Bernard Schwartz Lecture, the Schwartz senior fellowship– Schwartz who went to City College with my dad and gives tons to Israel.
As for donors, I don't want to become tedious here, but: Kravis, Janklow, Robert Rubin again, Hertog, Sidney Harman, husband to Congresswoman Jane Harman who represents AIPAC, Penny Pritzker, Obama's backer, Lester Crown, of the other Chicago billionaire family to the Pritzkers, Iran hawk. Ken Bialkin formerly of ADL, and wild. Robert Belfer of WINEP, who endows Steve Walt's chair at Harvard, bless his heart. Douglas Schoen, pollster to Menachem Begin. James Tisch, a leading Israel lobbyist.
Jewish money is a necessary engine of the economy, and we're all over the Establishment. Are there non-Jewish names? Of course, many. Nothing like their proportion at CFR in days past. And they defer to Jews on Israel policy. Like rubicund Walter Russell Mead, who is the Kissinger fellow at CFR and attacks Walt and Mearsheimer. We're just there, there's no arguing with this fact. We're a dynamic rising force, with esprit de corps, at least till the mutt grandchildren come of age. It's the water Obama's swimming in in a way that Bill Clinton wasn't, and that even George W. Bush held himself back from, somewhat. On the stage with Obama, I think there were 4 or 5 Jews right now, his economic-policy braintrust. Pritzker, Emanuel, Summers, Rubin…And two of them are on the President's page of the Council on Foreign Relations, which has nothing to do with the economy.
The point is, Jews compose a huge segment of the power structure, and for some confounded reason these people have decided they are joined at the hip with Israel, which is why I have a Jewish identity clinic on this blog, to show them they don't have to stand up for apartheid. But when everyone is expecting Obama to tell Summers and Emanuel to get lost, he can't. He needed the Jewish establishment, it got behind him early or late, because they thought he was a winner, and they funded him, and they're all over him, the moreso because they worry about his associations with Palestinians. And so it is simply impossible to speak about Middle East policy without speaking about Jewish power.
Avraham Burg, in his new book: "Jews hold stunningly powerful positions and clout in the United States. The combination of the American state's power and the Jewish power in the areas of legislation, administration, media, law, business, culture, and entertainment have made the Jews a defining factor of contemporary America. Because Israel is inseparable from the identity of American Jews, Israel is inseparable from the American experience."
And now what? Change.
Related posts:
- Yet Another Post About Why I Identify Jewish Public Figures as Jewish
- Larry $ummers and the new establishment
- More About Clubbiness in the Jewish ‘Parallel Establishment’
- Will Hillary’s Exit Signal the End of the Jewish Establishment?
- ‘New Yorker’ Makes Adelson Out to Be Nutjob Likudnik– and Fails to Describe His Broad Following in the Jewish Establishment
{ 25 comments }
"But when everyone is expecting Obama to tell Summers and Emanuel to get lost, he can't. He needed the Jewish establishment, it got behind him early or late, because they thought he was a winner, and they funded him, and they're all over him, the moreso because they worry about his associations with Palestinians. "
Quite a projection there.
I'm sure Israel is important to many of Obama's Jewish supporters. Probably around 8th on their list of priorities, maybe first on some.
"Joined at the hip". Trees, fresh swimming water, car-free zones join me at the hip.
And now what? Change.
Only if you consider Rahm the Knife saying 'fuck' all over country as change.
"But when everyone is expecting Obama to tell Summers and Emanuel to get lost, he can't. He needed the Jewish establishment"
I don't know. I am not convinced that this is true. What are you basing this on? Obama did not seem to have trouble raising funds even before the Jewish establishment jumped on the bandwagon (I would say they did it very late in the game, when Obama was already believed to have set his stage for his election as president). Even if having the Jewish establishment on his side would've been a plus, it would not have been a game-changer, I would argue. At least there is no indication that this is the case. Are you saying that the American-Jewish community at large is attached to AIPAC at the hip? If so, that would raise the issue of dual loyalty in a most alarming manner (AIPAC being, let's not mince words, a foreign lobby group). If this is so, then American Jews need to know that they can't have their cake and eat it too. With great power comes great responsibility, and when those responsibilities are ignored and trampled, it is only natural for people to start asking questions, and when no answers are forthcoming from Jews, attempt to answer those questions themselves. No ethnic or Religious group in America has wielded such immense power and used it so irresponsibly and for the service of another country, as American Jews have, let us not mince words. After all, your AIPAC lobbyists might hold Israeli citizenship, but they also hold American citizenship. They are Americans. And they are openly serving the interests of another nation, at the expense of the welfare of the country that has facilitated their functioning. Unless the American Jewish community exorcises the demon that is Israel from its racist, sick soul and identity, it will be threatening its welfare and, who knows, even endangering its very existence. Tragic.
Projection?
Imagine if all those names were Arab.
The P-I issue would be 8th on their priority list.
Who joins the American GIs at the hip?
Why am I getting the feeling that Obama is just a pawn in a PR campaign to make the coming war with Iran seem justifiable, the only option? We pretend like we are negotiating in good faith for a few months. The talks collapse, and bingo, Messiah Obama is able to lead Western leaders on a new crusade. Look at the ideology of all European leaders: Sarkozy, Merkel, Berlusconi, Brown. The only one that would be against wat would be the insignificant Zapatero. Whereas McCain or even Hillary would have struggled mightily to get such leaders in line, Obama will provide sufficient cover against antiwar European populations that it's all kosher, as they say. After all, the Euros love Obama. The fix is in.
For context, consider this article from the normally naive Nation magazine:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/381513/obama_and_iran?rel=hpbox
Look for more rabid zionists to assume important positions in Obama's administration.
His unrealistic supporters will respond to the coming war by first displaying signs of denial, "You can't blame Obama, he gave the Iranians a chance," and finally when they see the civilian effects of another bombing campaign, you will see disillisionment and depression.
In this respect, the true vote for peace would have been one for McCain, whose incompetence would have meant that he would be unable to motivate anyone. I myself voted third party– as I couldn't stomach voting for the maverick.
My only hope is that Obama succeeds in destroying the Democratic party with the same speed that Bush has destroyed the Republican party. Enough of Democrats and Repuglicans– we need a new start.
Ok, again I ask for the umpteenth time. Phil is an advocate of the destruction of Israel. He married out. He observes nothing of the religion and in fact holds it up for ridicule. He goes to a "nakba" event on erev yom kippur. And he is incredibly popular among the neo-nazi, jihadi battalions. And he has an obsession with counting Jews in any venue. ( sure would be easier with the tattoos and yellow stars) so I ask again WHAT MAKES THIS GUY JEWISH
These top appointments who are Jewish are highly visible lines connecting Obama to the Jewish elite, who can continue to celebrate their oversized influence. Will they turn out to be puppet strings? Or will Pinocchio use the strings to pull Geppetto to where he wants to go? Where Geppetto needs to go for his own good?
Obama's response to questions about Iran:
Q: Senator, for the first time since the Iranian revolution, the president of Iran sent a congratulations note to a new U.S. president. I'm wondering if, first of all, if you responded to President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad's note of congratulations and, second of all, and more importantly, how soon do you plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive?
OBAMA: I am aware that the letter was sent. Let me state … repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign.
Iran's development of a nuclear weapon I believe is unacceptable. And we have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.
Iran's support of terrorist organizations I think is something that has to cease.
I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad, and we will respond appropriately. It's only been three days since the election. Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through.
But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals to the world as a whole that I am not the president and I won't be until January 20th.
[Count on it: War with Iran is coming, and us little people ain't gonna be able to stop it]
If — Obama wants to take the high road on Israel and the Palestinians, all his Jewish advisers (one father was in the Irgun!) could make it more possible for him to do a Nixon-recognizes-China kind of thing with the built in ability to assure Israel that its existence is secure — if.
Obama needs the Zionists like Stalin needed the Judeofascist Bolsheviks. He understand they're scheming, ruthless, hyper-ambitious, arrogant, greedy and back-stabbing; that they have few to no loyalties to the country he is trying to "reform," and so are extremely useful to his agenda. The crude, violent, borderline psychotic Rahm Emanuel is a neo-Jewish Bolshevik personified. It's now clear that Obama doesn't have a Christian bone in his body. Christians and lovers of America, liberty and freedom — begin preparing for an existential struggle immediately, because the murderous Bolsheviks are again on the hunt.
Bingo!
The Clinton Administration Ruled Fannie And Freddie Could Satisfy Affordable Housing Obligations By Purchasing Subprime Mortgages.
“If Sen. Obama were truly looking for a kind of deregulation that might be responsible for the current financial crisis, he need only look back to 1998, when the Clinton administration ruled that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could satisfy their affordable housing obligations by purchasing subprime mortgages. This ultimately made it possible for Fannie and Freddie to add a trillion dollars in junk loans to their balance sheets. This led to their own collapse, and to the development of a market in these mortgages that is the source of the financial crisis we are wrestling with today.” (Peter J. Wallison, Op-Ed, “Obama Voted ‘Present’ On Mortgage Reform,” The Wall Street Journal, 10/15/08)
And Emanuel Made Millions As An Investment Banker Off Insider Connections With High-Profile Democrat Donors Influential In The Clinton Administration:
After Leaving His Position With The Clinton White House, Emanuel Worked For Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, An Investment Bank, From 1999 To 2002.
To Madrid:
it is not easy to see how Obama resists pressure to bomb Iran….but the Iranaians will respond against us in Iraq and Afghanistan…..it seems to me that we will escalate the attacks and keep bombing until they stop.
I wonder what the military will say to an Iran attack b/c they will be aware of the consequences.
Will Iran shut down the oil supply? will oil be back at $147?
Where does this leave Phil? And all others who so passionately wished an Obama change. The dream has sunk in a matter of days.
You know, Admiral Mullen told the Israelis, in apparent connection with their plans to bomb Iran, plans which the US military deeply opposes if only for military reasons [It's not a recognizable military strategy to occupy with all your land forces two large Muslim countries with insurgencies running and then bomb the heck out of a much larger third country that lies between them in order to see what will happen], he told the Israelis we need to coordinate closely, so we don't have another mistake as happened with the USS Liberty.
Now there is a masterful comment of caution. He doesn't say what the mistake was. He knows the Israelis aren't going to ask him to elaborate on that reference. He is however the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, immediate past CNO, and he obviously remembers the USS Liberty! How many ways can the "mistake" reference be interpreted? If Israelis decide to fly without US approval, might they be shot down because this time it's the Americans who might mistakenly think it must be the Egyptians? Or was it a mistake to let the Israelis get away with their treachery forty years ago, not to be repeated again, not on my watch? Or was it the Israeli's self-described propensity to accidentally shoot up the wrong place that is the mistake to be avoided? Yeah, that must be it. Masterful!
"But when everyone is expecting Obama to tell Summers and Emanuel to get lost, he can't. He needed the Jewish establishment, it got behind him early or late, because they thought he was a winner, and they funded him, and they're all over him, the moreso because they worry about his associations with Palestinians. "
Richard Witty: Quite a projection there.
Please explain. How can the above be a projection of Phil?
projection: # Psychology
1. The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or suppositions to others: "Even trained anthropologists have been guilty of unconscious projectionof clothing the subjects of their research in theories brought with them into the field" (Alex Shoumatoff).
2. The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.
In what way does Phil need the Jewish establishment to get behind him, support and fund him?
Are you suggesting he writes this blog in the expectation "the Jewish establishment" pays him to stop it?
Ed
I don't disagree with some of the thrust of
you comment, but Stalin's Jews were by no means Judeofascist as the word is contemporarily used,that is,(lite or heavy) Likudists,wherever residing.
Doppler:
It must be terribly difficult to be Israels ally.
Cullen is saying: we are not sleeping, we are not looking the other way.
It sounds like an uneasy partnership, suggesting the US Generals don't want Israel to start a war for them, which it could do.
http://www.energypublisher.com/article.asp?id=16637
I lean to the proposition Iran has the US checkmated.
BEAUTIFULLY STATED !
Rahm Emanuel is no Reason for Hope or Celebration
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
Election night tens of millions of us wept for joy. We sang the songs that we had sung as young men and women when we were fighting segregation in the south and then in the North, some of us being beaten, others jailed, some even killed. For the first time in three decades we could sing “Imagine” and “The Times They are a “Changing” without feeling that we were holding onto utopian fantasies that had been buried by the cynical realists who have shaped public discourse.
How exciting to believe again in the possibility of America as the potential embodiment of our ideals for social justice, peace, and ecological sanity. We could hardly believe our own eyes-we were living through the rebirth of a nation and its attempt to heal its racist past……
ENTIRE POST- http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/11/06/rahm_emanuel_is_no_likudnik/index.php#comment-3280465
@ Ken Hoop,
I don't view the term 'Judeofascist' as necessarily Left or Right, I view it as having to do with a certain interpretation of Judaism consonant with what we now regard more or less as fascist, ie: racist or viewing the world in a racial us-vs-them survivalist paradigm; elitist; conspiratorial; material-power oriented; either Godlesss or holding a cynical interpretation of a ruthless, punishing, exclusive God; etc.
As a “Leftist” group, the Judeofascist Bolsheviks didn’t meet all of the technical definitions of fascist in the Soviet era (particularly those requirements having to do with corporatism and the collusion of big business or industry with the state) and they couched their power and material grab in a lot of appealing “social justice” and “egalitarianism” rhetoric, but in retrospect, and with the added knowledge of history demonstrating Jewish Bolshevik racial consciousness and networking, and their racial hostility to Christians and other non-Jews, it is fair to say they certainly subscribed to many fascistic views. And today, the Jewish Neocons, Neolibs and Zionists have now fulfilled the corporatist requirements for fascism.
Again, in retrospect and with the weight of history, I think it is entirely reasonable to judge that a fairly large segment of Jews (not all) subscribe to a fascist interpretation of their religion or religo-ethnic network, and to judge that that interpretation comes through in their chosen ideologies to varying degrees.
What does it mean to have moles in the CFR?
SOG keeps asking, "What makes this guy (Phil) Jewish?
And in each such post he demonstrates his own ignorance.
Not all Jews are Zionists. And, not all Zionists are Jews.
http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/differencejudzion.html
To SOG, with love:
Traditional Rabbinic Halakhic perspective:
According to the traditional Rabbinic view, which is maintained by all branches of Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism today, only Halakha ("Jewish law") can define who is or is not a Jew when a question of Jewish identity, lineage, or parentage arises about any person seeking to define themselves or claim that they are Jewish.
As a result, mere belief in the principles of Judaism does not make one a Jew. Similarly, non-adherence by a Jew to the Jewish principles of faith, or even formal conversion to another faith, does not make one lose one's Jewish status. Thus the immediate descendants of all female Jews (even apostates) are still considered to be Jews, as are those of all her female descendants. Even those descendants who are not aware they are Jews, or practice a faith other than Judaism, are technically still Jews, as long as they come from an unbroken female line of descent. As a corollary, the children of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother are not considered to be Jews by Orthodoxy or Conservatism unless they formally convert, even if raised practicing Judaism.
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