This piece, Carrots not Sticks can Stop Israel’s Settlement Growth, by Mitchell Bard, illustrates more than anything I’ve yet seen the extraordinary arrogance of those American Jews who put Israel’s interests before those of their fellow citizenry. In order to persuade Israel to merely temporarily stop, not dismantle something that everyone but Israel and its supporters consider to be illegal, he would have the US 1) bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities and risk the start of another major war, 2) sign a defense treaty with Israel that would lead the US to not just arm but militarily join Israel the next time it wages war on Lebanon, 3) admit Israel to NATO with all that implies 4) pay compensation to Israeli settlers with US taxpayers money, 5) pressure Arabs to buy back the land that Jews have stolen, 6) hand over to Israel "a large number of Joint Stryker aircraft", and 7) finance, again with US taxpayers money, the building of a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.
Ironically, here’s what Bard had to say 16 years ago:
"President Clinton has asked the American people to make sacrifices to help ease the budget deficit and revitalize the economy. With everyone being asked to do their share, the question being asked is why should Israel be exempt?" (Mitchell Bard, No. California Jewish Bulletin on May 14, 1993)
At that time, when the economy was in some trouble, some Israeli journalists and their American Jewish counterparts were concerned about the appearance of Israel holding out and eventually getting its $3 billion while other sectors of the economy were having their budgets cut. As it turned out, not only was Israel’s portion not cut, Congress provided Israel with an additional billion dollars in off-budget military and economic bonuses. As was usual in those days, the vote on foreign aid was not reported in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal or the Christian Science Monitor. The Washington Post carried an AP report which chose to focus on $2.5 billion which had been awarded to Russia and the former Soviet republics. I reported on all this in the Fall I993 issue of the Middle East Labor Bulletin, which I edited and which I hope to one day get on line.
What I think is happening now is that the Israel Firsters see the current situation as a war for Israel’s future and they are ready to do whatever it takes, including bringing down Obama, to win it.
Bard is not a nobody. He is the executive director of the American-Israel Cooperative Enterprise, which has 22 members of Congress on its Honorary Committee plus Douglas Feith and Daniel Pipes. He’s the director of the Jewish Virtual Library He was formerly editor of AIPAC’s Near East Report and his 1991 book, "The Water’s Edge and Beyond, Defining the Limits to Domestic Influence on United States Middle East Policy," is one of the best and most revealing books on the subject.
