Arlen Specter's switch to the Democratic Party is being treated as another rebuke to the religious right. Huffpo says as much. Specter, a supporter of abortion rights and stem cell research, seemed to suggest as much too, in his press conference yesterday, when he called for rebellion in Republican circles.
I'd just like to point out that the religious right is at an all-time ebb; it helped destroy the Republican Party last year and everyone including Michael Steele knows that. But it has been a major force in our politics for over 30 years; it helped elect Jimmy Carter, then Ronald Reagan. Specter didn't have as much trouble with it when it was just part of a larger, winning coalition.
In joining the Democratic Party, Specter will help consolidate the presence in the Democratic Party of what I sometimes call the religious left: the Israel lobby. The National Jewish Democratic Council is
welcoming Arlen Specter as the 12th Jewish senator in the Democratic
caucus (including independents Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman). And
Al Franken will make 13.
Specter was a supporter of the Iraq War and has been unspectacular on Israel/Palestine issues. (Though he has always been someone who thinks for himself, and pushed the Syria initiative over the last couple years.) Let's be clear: The Israel lobby is a vital component of the Democratic coalition–Obama promoting Eric Lynn and Leon Panetta hiring Jane Harman's former intelligence aide, who is surely hawkish on Israel, being the latest evidence.
How long the Democratic Party can hold Jane Harman and Brian Baird together over the most divisive and important issue in Middle East foreign policy is the burning question. I hope this dissolution does not take 30 years.
I've been meaning to, and will take this chance to comment on the sheer number of posts the Mondoweiss writers are pushing over the transom these days. Posts of high value, too. I don't know, it just seems to me that the blog has really taken off lately! Thank you, Phil and the other writers of Mondoweiss.
If you look at the first Gulf War the Democratic-Republican split stands out. Bush I was barely able to scrape together enough votes in Congress while easily getting unanimity for military action from the UNSC. Then comes the second Intifada and 9/11. Sure Iraq wasn't involved in 9/11 but America was ready to kick ass. Bush II obliged not only by not disabusing the masses of Saddam's faux involvement but by repeatedly referring to Iraq as "The World's Leading Sponser of International Terrorism. Americans heard that and thought (wrongly) "9/11." Israelis heard that and thought "Intifada." So onward to "Drain the Swamp" Blowback.
According to the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Specter's lifetime total Israel single issue PAC contributions was $503,473 in 2008. http://www.wrmea.com/archives/November_2008/pdfs/...
Spectre is a clown. A blind clown.
For me when it comes to the overall agenda of Zionists and colonialists, there is no difference between a Republican or a Democrat…Their differences basically lie in the methods they prefer to use….
I would say that neocons and crooked business interests have had as much to do with the Republican implosion as any religious wing of the party has. Does the democratic party really turn on abortion and religious issues?
It's quite clear why Spector switched sides. he's another Lieberman. An Israeli firster who will hold as leverage an important seat in the house. He will go to Obama and say… you be a hawk on foreign policy and I'll make sure to put a stamp of approval over your domestic policies.
So there are now 13 Jewish Democrat senators, and let's say at least a couple of Jewish Republican senators, so that puts Jewish representation in the US Senate at at least 15%. And it's a safe bet that all of them are Zionists. So even though Jews make up under 3% of the US population, we've got 15% of the US Senate representing Jewish Zionism and Israel. And how many of them vacation in Israel? How many of them are planning to retire there? With a Jewish Zionist caucus like that, is it any wonder America is fighting wars for Israel? Shouldn't Jewish Zionist politicians be forced to register as a foreign lobby, and be removed from all votes pertaining to Israel, aid to Israel, and Middle East foreign policy? There's simply too much conflict of interest to believe that they represent the interests of America.
Just as Jews always make it a point to know who is in a power slot that is Israel First, eventually, all Americans will know too. I think Weimar Germany has the patent on this phenomena, no? Or was it during those countless historical regimes that ended up booting Jews out?
There are 'no' jewish republicans now: 11 Democrats & 2 Independents: Barbara Boxer [D-Calif], Benjamin Cardin [D-MD], Al Franken [D-Minn], Russ Feingold [D-Wisc], Dianne Feinstein [D-Calif], Herb Kohl [D-Wisc.], Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ], Carl Levin [D-Mich],Chuck Schumer [D-NY], Arlen Specter [D-PA], Ron Wyden [D-Or] Joe Lieberman [I-Conn] Bernie Sanders [I-VT] In the House: 31 Democrats 1 Republican — Eric Cantor [Taken from: JTA site: "The Chosen: Jews elected to 111th US Congress"] Sen. Boxer only just voted against the Iraq war — She has an election coming up where she's going to need $$ – I wonder what going to happen with her stance against Iran?
Just as being critical of Israel doesn't automatically make one an anti-semite, being Jewish does not a priori make one a supporter of AIPAC. There are legitimate concerns about Sen. Arlen Specter, regardless of whether he's Jewish. He has, for instance, been a great friend of the fringe outfit, the Zionist Organization of America, saying in 1999: "What the ZOA has done is to speak the truth, even when the truth is inconvenient to various powers that be." This is the same ZOA that this year organized a Passover tour of "Samarian Biblical and strategic sites on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the premier pioneering community, Elon Moreh." Elon Moreh, in case the term "pioneering community" isn't clear, is a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Nablus. In fact, Peace Now notes that it was the first permanent settlement founded by the Gush Emunim and established the legal basis for colonizing the West Bank. Peace Now describes it as "a politically and ideologically extremist settlement," noting that the area around it "has also been the site of some of the most aggressive actions by settlers against the Palestinian olive harvest, including attacks on Palestinians, destruction of trees and olives, and theft of the harvest by settlers." As evidence that Jewish lawmakers aren't always in lockstep with AIPAC, look at the yays and neas for an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill for 2009 that would have prevented the U.S. from exporting cluster munitions to countries that use them in civilian areas (cf. Israel during the 2006 war with Hezbollah). Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Herb Kohl (D-WI), and Carl Levin (D-MI) are all Jewish, but yet they voted for an amendment to which the Israel lobby was opposed. What's needed is to convince these same senators to vote against the lobby when it comes to the Palestinians, too, but tarring all Jews as suspect is wrong.
Being Jewish does not a priori make one a supporter of AIPAC… No, however, it does seem, in recent years that any new recruits to the Democratic party have to be.
Specter is the 13th Jewish senator in the Dem. caucus (with Franken as 14). Most people seem not to realize that new Senator Michael Bennet is Jewish.
BTW, any of you who keep calling pretty much any Jewish pro-Israel senator an "Israeli firster" and "non-American" or so are obviously anti-Semites. I don't care if you say you're not. You are. There are no Jewish senators who are as pro-Israel as Rep. non-Jewish Senators like James Inhofe, Sam Brownback, or Gov. Mike Huckabee, and many others, whose positions in favor of Israeli are incredibly extreme that they don't even support a two-state solution – Huckabee, Inhofe, etc. have stated that they want to move Palestinians to other Arab countries, etc. Yet no one would dream of calling any of them "Israeli firsters" or writing the rest of this garbage about them. Why? Because they're not Jewish. Pretty simply math.
@ Mike: "no one would dream of calling any of them "Israeli firsters" They're Israel-firsters, too. Probably Christian Zionists. So their treachery is twofold. But because as non-Jews, they're not welcome to immigrate to Israel, we don't really have to worry about them having one foot in each country, or feathering Israel's nest with an eye on one day making aliya. And because Jewish Zionists consider themselves "a nation" no matter where they are, we don't have to worry quite so much about the gentiles working as a shadow government for the Jewish Zionist nation.
"or feathering Israel's nest with an eye on one day making aliya" Are you kidding me? Do you seriously think a U.S. senator is going to immigrate to live in Israel for some reason? (in retirement or whatever). Can you give me an example of a single Jewish U.S. senator (or rep., or gov.) who has done so? (not to mention that most Senators stay in the senate till they're about 93).
I agree that Ed's comments are overheated, but Rahm Emmanuel volunteered with the IDF during the first Gulf War. If it was any other country, I think there would at least be a controversy over it. Do you not agree?
Aren't we constantly informed that Israel is essential so that Jews will have a place to go when they've worn out their welcome in non-Jewish countries, as has happened so many times throughout history? Who's to say where these Jewish Zionist politicians will go when America finally catches on to Zionist treachery of the type that is now routinely documented on the internet? Don't most Jews and probably nearly all Jewish Zionists harbor dark fears about anti-semitism? Wouldn't feathering Israel's nest at the US taxpayer's expense be a rational step of self-preservation from the perspective of a Jewish Zionist politician?
Yes. Thank you for your distinction JWells. Phil is obviously another case of a Jew who is a humanist, in the final analysis. That is, a human first, a Jew second. Witty and his low-life fellow travelers are the reverse.
You are wrong, Mike. Many of us call them Israeli Firsters and attack them equally. Christian Zionists are a disease on our body politic. They feel they will be chosen during the end of the end times; while in contrast, the zionists, the Likud Jews want to make themselves chosen on earth. The math is not so simple as you imagine. What is easy to see is that neither the zionist-likud jews nor the christian end-timers zionists have a humble opinion about their special relationship with the god they imagine–normal folks are all expendable, for the jews here on earth, for the christian zionists in their pie in the sky.
And I don't care if you say we are. We aren't. Na-na-nana. Suck it…