One effect of Gaza is the greater respect Jimmy Carter is getting on this book tour than he got on Apartheid: It's Apartheid in Apartheidville (I think that was the title). Here's a fine interview by Reza Aslan at dailybeast. Carter is speaking more openly this time about the Israel lobby (and at the very time that Ezra Klein (Reza's anagram) is saying there's no career price to be paid). Carter:
Carter and Aslan agree that things are opening up some since Gaza. I'd add that in Bahrain earlier this week Norman Finkelstein offered his line against the Israel lobby, including the statement that it controls policy in the West Bank but nowhere else. "The ruling elite," Finkelstein says, was responsible for the Iraq war. The idea that policy in the West Bank (the settlements) is somehow local is absurd. It goes to the heart of US policy in the region, and has helped to destroy the American image in the region. Even now, when Obama has spoken out against settlements, they go on expanding. This is a nullification of an important American interest. Real power. Second, Finkelstein does not believe as I do that Jews represent an American elite, and that there are political consequences of our elevation in my generation. He has never reckoned with the simple fact reported in the Washington Post some time ago that Jews contribute most of the money to Democratic Party candidates. One of the lessons of the life of Finkelstein's adversary is that Dershowitz was just a shlepper in the Brooklyn ghetto as a boy and now owns fancy houses and is wealthy. It happened to many Jews in the Jewish century (to quote the great Slezkine). Not reckoning with this sociological reality does not advance understanding.
(Phil Weiss, thanks to Peter Voskamp)
Related posts:
- Several important writers declare that Israel is committing ’suicide’
- Carter says U.S. Presidential envoys have been ‘professional lobbyists for Israel’
- Carter says he could throw a grenade over the ’separation wall’ in most places
- M.J. Rosenberg on the ’serious career risks’ in criticizing Israel
- White Hunter Dershowitz Bagged Finkelstein– Now Claims Carter Too
{ 13 comments }
well, Phil, that may be because he is a left-wing academic, not a journalist.
Given the fact that the Democratic Paerty depends so heavily on Jewish funding, perhaps the biggest step we can take to curb the power of the lobby is to push for generous public funding of national elections.
If the liberal groups that fund candidates (not that safe candidates need to be funded at all) don't care to weigh in on Palestine of FP in general, what are the chances of JSTreet being influential? Moreover, Finkelstein is right about the ruling elite. They are a permananet government, and realists. That's what we're back to (or largely never left). Obama has spoken out against settlments? Spoken? He stop them today if he wants, with a phone call and a threat. He won't, of course. Jews have been successful by adapting Jewish exceptionalism to American exceptionalism. It's the latter that is the problem.
After all Finkelstein has been through, I find it incredible that he still disbelieves the Jewish Zionist power elite theory. Of course the "ruling elite" exercise massively disproportionate and sinister influence and were behind the Iraq war — and Jewish Zionists enjoy a prominent position at the ruling elite's table. In the US today, they probably enjoy the predominate position.
Finkelstein documented the Holocaust industry scam, so one would think he had gotten over the Jew-victim imagery burned into the consciousness of average Jews by the Zionist Power Configuration for its own purposes. But apparently many Jews of a certain age can't seem to psychologically grip the idea that organized Jewry enjoys tremendous power in the US today (and exercises it ruthlessly) just as it enjoyed tremendous power in the Soviet Union for many years and exercised it ruthlessly there, as documented by Slezkine.
Finkelstein, what the hell is so hard to comprehend? Unless the guy has gone nuts, the only explanation that I can come up with is that he's posturing in order that Jews don't get scapegoated for the entirety of the ruling elite's deep moral corruption. But only idiots believe Jews are the entirety of the problem, as the masses of Zionist gentiles and Judeophiles on both the Left and Right demonstrates. They all seem to regard Jews as some kind of royalty, and would (and did) happily partner with them in the most depraved of adventures any day of the week.
Finkelstein would never conclude that criticizing the greedy, elitest and racialist ideas and agenda of gentile monarchists is somehow wrong in that it is "scapegoating" a small group of royalty for the sins of an entire community that enabled them. Yet when it comes to the Jewish monarchy, he suffers from some kind of psychological block.
"Jews have been successful by adapting Jewish exceptionalism to American exceptionalism. It's the latter that is the problem."
They are both problems, but I agree that the melding of the two exceptionalisms is what has made the Israel Lobby as strong as it is. The Israeli Jews are culturally closer to the majority of Americans than the Arabs, so it's been easy to paint the I/P conflict as good Westerners vs. evil terrorists. It fits in well with American themes from earlier in our history, most notably the good civilized settlers vs. the savage Indians.
Raising money to pay off Congresspersons who vote against AIPAC's wishes is like trying to respond to Rush Limbaugh by having Liberals engage in name-calling for schoolyard entertainment value – you're not as good at it, and you diminish yourself in the process. The solution is to thoroughly expose the process by which AIPAC controls Congress, which should have a sufficient revulsion factor to change things. W&M addressed the subject, taking a run at breaking the ice, but they didn't do a lot of investigative digging to illustrate the idea with concrete stories, the kind that can be made into movies or television episodes. In fact, that story line has been a virtual "forbidden meme" in popular news and entertainment circles, and we talk about the "price" people pay for violating the taboo. This blog has provided many telling anecdotes, but, popular as it is, it isn't the NBC Evening News in terms of reaching the masses.
Now there is a real concern that the forbidden meme of which I speak and classic Anti-Semitism are indistinguishable to some people, especially on brief contact. You can see the cognitive dissonance on Margaret Warner's face as she listens to Jimmy Carter violate the taboo. Yet, this is where truth leads us. We cannot be informed reasonable citizens without rejecting the mis-use of the Anti-Semitism smear to silence valid criticism of brutal, racist, ethnic-cleansing policies, and deliberate efforts to hide it from view through thought and message control. We cannot be good citizens and let our Congresspersons debase themselves before a foreign lobby. I believe emails will be just as effective as money, they don't cost anything, and we don't have to engage in paying politicians to act like we want them to act. I contribute to my local representatives, and I tell them what I think. You should, too. And part of that is they shouldn't have their position on policy on sale to outside fundraisers, especially for foreign countries.
David Green: He [Obama could] stop them today if he wants, with a phone call and a threat.
And the Israeli PM would make a phone call to Aipac and the next day Obama would be forced to deny he ever made that call. If Obama made that his number 1 political priority, perhaps he could move American policy towards neutrality. I hope he has higher priorities — his political capital is limited.
As the American people want US policy to lean towards protecting Israel, Barack can do no less.
He represents the american people, not you.
The American people have no access to information except what the MSM gives them.
Most Americans look to Tv or the mainstream press for any news. They have not learned about samizdat. They still believe that the
USA has freedom of the press. When and if they get objective reporting, you will quickly see a sea change in the rubber-stamping
of Israel First.
The polls showing Americans favor Israel are all based on assumptive questions that rely on American ignorance.
In the real world, if chris berel sat at a bar with average Americans,
he would be quickly keyed as a nerd and no American Firster.
During the Israeli attack on Lebanon, two and a half years ago, Tom Hayden told how he betrayed his dearest principles trying to please Howard Berman and the Israel lobby, and exhorted us not to do the same–even if it is occupational suicide.
We just need to tell the actual facts, as the Beatles might say, "Altogether now!"
The old strength in numbers, don't you know?
http://www.tomhayden.com/lebanon.htm
'Twenty five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his Congressman brother, Howard Berman. I was a neophyte running for the state assembly in a District which the Bermans claimed belonged to them.
“I represent the Israeli defense forces”, Michael said. I thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. Michael seemed to imagine himself the gatekeeper protecting the Westside for Israel’s political interests, and those of the famous Berman-Waxman machine. Since Jews represented one-third of the Democratic district’s primary voters, Berman held a balance of power.
All that year I tried to navigate the District’s Jewish politics. The solid historic liberalism of the Westside was a favorable factor, as was the strong support of many Jewish community leaders. But the community was moving in a more conservative direction. Some were infuriated at my sponsorship of Santa Monica’s tough rent control ordinance. Many in the organized community were suspicious of the New Left for becoming Palestinian sympathizers after the Six Day War; they would evolve into today’s neo-conservatives.
I previously had traveled to Israel in a generally supportive capacity, meeting officials from all parties, studying energy projects, and befriending peace advocates like the writer Amos Oz. I also met with Palestinians and wrote favorably on the works of Edward Said. As a result, one of Berman’s allies prepared a file in an attempt to discredit my candidacy with the Democratic leadership in Sacramento.
This led to the deli lunch with Michael Berman. He and his brother Howard privately leaned towards an upcoming young prosecutor named Adam Schiff, who later became the congressman from Pasadena. But they calculated that Schiff couldn’t win without name recognition, so they were considering “renting” me the assembly seat, Berman said. But there was one condition: that I always be a “good friend of Israel.”'
The rest of the essay is also eye-opening about the machinations by which religious groups "own" "our" civic debate.
Here's what Phil said at the time,
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2006/07/tom_hayden_on_t.html
Tom Hayden on the Israel Lobby's "Certification" Process
On truthdig, antiwar activist Tom Hayden offers his experience of being certified by pro-Israel forces, including the Berman machine in Los Angeles, back when he was running for state office:
Twenty-five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his congressman-brother, Howard Berman… "I represent the Israeli defense forces," Michael said. I thought he was joking. He wasn't… The certifiers were the elites, beginning with rabbis and heads of the multiple mainstream Jewish organizations, especially each city's Jewish Federation…When necessary, Israeli ambassadors, counsels general and other officials would intervene with statements declaring someone a "friend of Israel."
In my case, a key to the "friendship issue" was the Los Angeles-based counsel general Benjamin Navon… The de facto Israeli endorsement would be communicated indirectly, in compliance with laws that prohibit foreign interference in an American election. We would be seen and photographed together in public. Benny would make positive public statements that could be quoted in campaign mailings. As a result, I was being declared "kosher" by the ultimate source, the region's representative of the state of Israel.
Bear in mind: Hayden was just an assemblyman! Imagine the forces that come to bear on aspiring congressmen, who actually help effect foreign policy. Last year I got behind a friend who was thinking of challenging Republican Sue Kelly in the 19th in New York. In one meeting we had, a Dem operative told him, "It's all about money, it's only about money, and what's going to happen when you're at a group of people in a nice apartment and the first question is, 'Where do you stand on the settlements in Israel?'"
Posted at 12:05 PM in U.S. Policy in the Mideast | Permalink
'perhaps the biggest step we can take to curb the power of the lobby is to push for generous public funding of national elections'
Agreed, a great start, but the media needs reforming just as much as the politics. It may even be more important from a tactical point of view.
On another thread I wondered about how the public trust that the major media has lost might be restored by a policy that undertook to publish EVERY letter and opinion piece submitted to an outlet – no exceptions. Of course, op-editors and letters svengalis would still publish what they chose in the actual paper (or other media outlet) itself, but curious readers could check the log to ensure no skulduggery had occurred in the selection, in terms of accurately reflecting the volume and tenor of responses from adherents of all sides of an issue.
I think any particular MSM outlet that promised this would immediately establish a competitive advantage of the most important kind in their business – trust. There would of course be scope for skulduggery here too, but a commitment to transparent, open-source software to do the job would go some way to alleviating that concern.
The associate editor of my local broadsheet has admitted that an overwhelming majority of responses to an article by a brave MP who attacked Israel's behaviour were supportive of her stance, and my firm belief is that this division would hold true throughout the crisis itself – but the Zionist letters editor ensured a false 'balance' prevailed, one or two letters from each 'side', with only the more anodyne anti-Israel communiques exampled.
Had readers in general and letter writers in particular been able to access ALL the correspondence entered into on the issue, he may have thought twice about the obfuscation, which, when you think about it, is an infringement on our right and in this case I believe our need to know.
"It's all about money, it's only about money, and what's going to happen when you're at a group of people in a nice apartment and the first question is, 'Where do you stand on the settlements in Israel?'"– Susie Kneedler
This is the key. It runs Uncle Sam's car.
Thank you, Susie.
Hayden has basically said the same thing.
ACE Hardware will make you a key copy–it's owned by an Israeli firm.
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