Throw a bone, a big one, to the Israel lobby. It looks like Dennis Ross is going to be handling the Iran portfolio under Hillary Clinton. This picture is his other portfolio: it shows Ross presenting the report of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a year ago. Ross is chairman of JPPPI, which is devoted to strengthening "global Jewish identity" and fighting what Ross calls the new antisemitism, efforts to "criminalize" Israeli behavior. Honest broker?
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Here's what you get if you follow Phil's link–no, Ross isn't an honest broker, and how sad that the "press" never reported on him accurately during the Bush-Clinton-Bush years.
"Chairman's Letter
By Ambassador Dennis Ross, Chairman of the Board
[Before JPPPI was established], I was asked if I would take part in an effort to see if it made sense to do policy planning for the Jewish people in a more systematic fashion. I certainly saw the need to do so. After all, the essence of policy planning is anticipating events, and not just waiting to be shaped by them. Didn't the Jewish people worldwide need to anticipate potential problems and dangers, as well as potential opportunities? But how, I wondered, would one go about actually doing policy planning for the Jewish people as a whole. Wasn't it the height of arrogance to assume that one body could engage in policy planning that might be accepted on a very wide basis?
Following a retreat in Caesarea, I began to think differently about the effort. I began to believe that the necessity of doing policy planning for the Jewish people might, in fact, be feasible. I began to see, together with other collaborators in this effort, that we could identify priorities to be addressed. It became clear that among thinkers from Israel and around the world of international Jewry, there was a consensus about certain issues that required not just analysis, but also policy recommendations.
Demographics, both in Israel and the Diaspora, needed careful consideration, particularly if Israel was to remain at the center of Jewish life. The rise of a new kind of antisemitism, one less geared to discrimination against the individual and more toward attempts to criminalize Israeli behavior, required recognition and strategies for contending with a dangerous new phenomenon. Identifying areas around the world where Jewish populations might be at risk, and responding to these possible threats seemed to take on new urgency with new economic realities in places like Argentina. There was a recognition that different strains of Judaism need to develop a compact for civil discourse, especially if in an era of greater challenge some of the broader and more worrisome demographic trends are to be dealt with. (Indeed, many of us agreed that the principle of Tikkun Olam – mending the world – could be very important in providing a sense of purpose for international Jewry at a time of globalization with its largely amoral compass.)
Consensus on these ideas helped to forge possible priorities for the policy-planning endeavor. Creating a think tank that could address these priorities both analytically and practically also seemed to provide the right vehicle for policy planning. And within a year, what seemed very abstract and difficult to tackle began to take a form that seemed doable. Whether the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute will fulfill its promise will be demonstrated only in time.
It must provide new insights into the nature of the challenges, but also come up with prescriptions for responding to these challenges. Affecting governments that have the potential for dealing with possible threats, including the Israeli government, must obviously shape the work of the Institute. Assessing the state of the Jewish people on an annual basis can also be one of the means the Institute uses to paint a picture about trends – both problematic and promising. While the task ahead may be difficult, it would be irresponsible not to make the effort.
There is no shortage of Jewish organizations doing good and necessary work. But it is time to add real policy planning to the mix. It is time to have an organization whose mission is to think ahead, and to think about how responses to today's problems will affect the environment we will face in the future."
Dennis Ross
And, yes, single loyalty to another country.
And, yes, single loyalty to another country.
Exactly, Susie. Accusing Ross of dual loyalty is too kind. His interest, first and foremost, is Israel.
Can anyone imagine Israel appointing a gentile to head one of its government ministries? The answer is self-evident.
Dennis Ross gleefully takes advantage of America's legendary openness and meritocracy … while in his exclusivist ethnic homeland, there is no chance of similar openness, tolerance, and reciprocity toward other ethnic traditions. As used to be argued against the Japanese during the 1980s trade wars, these folks don't play by the same rules we do.
Usgov has been penetrated by Zionist minders like Ross ever since the Roosevelt adminstration. Can't we ever get rid of these insidious termites, gnawing away at our country's foundation? My frank answer would be that if the U.S. is bankrupted, they'll move on because there's nothing left to devour. But there are many years, a lot of suffering, and a shitload of broken dreams between here and there.
Israel is our misfortune.
Can anyone imagine Israel appointing a gentile to head one of its government ministries?
Poignant.
Yet we're supposed to believe Israel is a "democracy" in the image of American democracy, the only beacon of light in the Middle East. What a load of crap.
We will now be given a million and one reasons why Israel is the way it is. But there is quite simply only one answer for the state of affairs in Israel: Jewish supremacism. Everything else is obfuscation.
Susie.
What is the best way to voice our objection to this? Or to bring attention to this? Do you have any ideas?
Because this harm's US interests. This is equivalent to hiring someone in Latin America's employ to negotiate US policy with Latin America. Or someone in North Korea's employ to negotiate a nuclear deal with North Korea.
This is unacceptable. We do not have adequate representation. And I object to the US creating policy without adequate representation of my interests.
But the American people don't really care about South America, except the number of manufacturing jobs being sucked away, or North Korea, except the fear that some maniac will launch an atomic weapon towards japan.
However, the American people (Except Phil's Phools) care deeply for Israel and want was is best for the citizens of Israel, and most don't care about how many Gazans die for being forced shields for Hamas.
Most American's likely object to Phil breathing but I'm not about to start a movement about it.
By the way, Kelly, a gentile is on Israel's Supreme Court.
Yes, the last Minister for Science, Culture, and Sport, Raleb Majadele.
Like to see how you'll move the goalposts on that one. Is it because he's the only one, or because it's not Defense?
By the way, Kelly, a gentile is on Israel's Supreme Court.
LOL. Oooooooooh, what a show of multiculturalism!
"Is it just me, or does this picture scream 'dual loyalty'?"
No it's not just you. I am sure David Duke, as always, agrees with you.
Americans do not "care deeply" for Israel. Public support is a mile wide and an inch deep. As Americans learn more and more about the contradiction in terms between democracy and "the Jewish state" fewer Americans will automatically support her. Israel will start to have to earn its support by behaving morally, just like other countries do. Shouting Hitler and Holocaust and "you owe us big time" is not enough any more.
Can anyone imagine Israel appointing a gentile to head one of its government ministries?
Posted by: Dan Kelly | February 20, 2009 at 06:19 PM
By the way, Kelly, a gentile is on Israel's Supreme Court.
LOL. Oooooooooh, what a show of multiculturalism!
Posted by: Dan Kelly | February 20, 2009 at 07:39 PM
Kelly is proven to be a liar and all he can do is whine
An exception that proves the rule. And window dressing to point to by Jewish Zionist hasbara desperately spinning to keep the American welfare spigot open. No doubt there are a few other exceptions as well. But none of them enjoy any real power, or are in a position to form a power block with other non-Jews
Nobody ever said the Jewish Zionists were stupid. They are indeed sophisticated illusionists, propagandists, and swindlers.
I hate Arabs. I want them to die. None of them deserve to live.
Americans do not "care deeply" for Israel. Public support is a mile wide and an inch deep. As Americans learn more and more about the contradiction in terms between democracy and "the Jewish state" fewer Americans will automatically support her.
Exactly. Most Americans know next to nothing about what goes on in occupied Palestine, including most Jewish supporters of Israel.
The idea that most Americans care deeply about Israel is patently absurd. Most Americans are indifferent to Israel, just as they're indifferent to most things outside their tiny little worlds.
Who's winning American Idol? That's something Americans care deeply about.
Rajab Majadele, an Arab Israeli was appointed a Minister in Israel government in 2007 with portfolio of Science, Culture and Sport.
He is the ONLY Arab EVER appointed to the ministerial level since Israel was created.
Nora bint Abdullah Al-Fayez has been appointed in 2008 as deputy minister in charge of girl's affairs in Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia. She is the ONLY woman EVER appointed to the ministerial level since Saudi Arabia was created.
Do Arabs in Israel and Women in Saudi Arabia participate meaningfully in governance of their respective countries?
Women in Saudi Arabia are 50% and they only have a deputy minister for a sexist portion of government.
Israel, only 20% Islamic Arab, have a member of the supreme court, a full minister, several minor government functions. And they all get to vote.
I'd say Eva has proven that an arab has far more representation in Israel than a woman in Saudi Arabia. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.
And speaking of Israel's flawless democracy, Chris, how many Arabs living on the West Bank get to vote — as compared to, say, the number of "settlers" on the West Bank who get to vote?
Don't pretend that the leftover government spots that Israel offers are a sign of a vibrant democracy — not when the entore system is rigged to make sure Arabs won't ever win an election and attain real power.
How many arabs get to vote for what? They are not citizens of Israel. Are they citizens of Jordan? Does Jordan let them vote?
The system is rigged so that even groups with as little as 3% of the general publics support is guarenteed representation in the Israeli parliment. If the Arabs united, they would have at least 24 seats, if not more. That voting block would be so powerful as to force redistribution of tax wealth.
@ chris berel
"By the way, Kelly, a gentile is on Israel's Supreme Court."
Right, chris. And he is really influential. Witness how he protected the likes of 13 year old arab girls from Israeli action:
link to haaretz.com
IF there is provision for dissenting opinion on Israel's Supreme Court, did he take advantage of that?
Does not appear so.
REL "Most Americans know next to nothing about what goes on in occupied Palestine, including most Jewish supporters of Israel." Further, most Israelis in Israel proper do not know what goes on in the occupied lands either. All the IDF vets willing to speak up say so, for example those who joined the
Breaking The Silence org. You can google their video clips on YouTube.
By the way, I congratulater Citizen in his belief that Americans are stupid and ignorant. What a joke.
No, they are just subjected to government propaganda, same as the average Israeli citizen–as the IDF vets I mentioned say.