Lizards

by on October 15, 2009 9

Newly-minted NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and her "mentor," senior senator Chuck Schumer, have both backed out of the J Street conference that takes place later this month after their names were listed as likely attendees. Ben Smith at Politico. Why did they do it? What is the NY money saying? Where are Jews with spine?

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel Lobby

{ 9 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. former coMMenter says:
    October 15, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    J Street are always going to be politically vulnerable to attacks from the right due to the authoritarian nature of Zionism, but they won’t just draw a simple line in the sand, are they for or against the continuation of a Zionist state in Palestine.

    Humanity itself is starting to line up. This is gonna be in the history books.

    Schumer would rather be wrong than irrelevant.

  2. Citizen says:
    October 15, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    The Weekly Standard opines “there will be many more members of Congress who were likewise “unaware” that their names were being used to boost the credibility of a group that supports engagement with Hamas, opposes sanctions on Iran (only six members of the House share that position), and believes the primary obstacle to peace in the Middle East is Israeli settlements. Stay tuned…”

    Amazing how all the political opportunists with some initial display of integrity and yet with advancing careers quickly freeze before AIPAC ‘s headlights lights like the proverbial deer caught
    on the main highway.

    • Call Me Ishmael says:
      October 15, 2009 at 5:56 pm

      And that’s how it will be until there is meaningful campaign finance reform placing effective limits on contributions by lobbying groups such as AIPAC. I favor fair, mandatory government financing of all presidential and congressional campaigns supported by a required minimum number of petition signatories in the electorate – and limitation of campaign expenditures to the government-supplied amount.

      The iron law of American elections:

      (income inequality) + (big campaign contributions) = (oligarchy) + (foreign domination)

      In America, elections don’t reflect democracy; they subvert democracy.

      • potsherd says:
        October 15, 2009 at 6:17 pm

        And since it would be Congress who would have to pass such reform legislation, that’s not the way to bet.

      • Citizen says:
        October 16, 2009 at 5:56 am

        CMI, yes, that’s exactly the root of the problem and I agree with your recommendation–I would add some national public access channels should be
        devoted (government financed also) to campaign stumping, including equal time to 3rd party candidates once they meet certain minimum requirements. However, given
        what’s at issue on this blog (AIPAC) and that incumbents never favor legislation that
        would not favor them, potsherd’s right in that such reform is not a good bet. Imagine
        Ron Paul, Nader, etc getting equal public air time with Obama or Hillary and say Romney…

  3. Citizen says:
    October 15, 2009 at 2:53 pm

    “We hope you will succeed in your efforts to ensure that consideration of the (Goldstone) report at the current meetings of the U.N. Human Rights Council will not provide an opportunity for Israel’s critics to unfairly use the Council and the report to bring this matter to the U.N. Security Council,” says a letter to Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary if state, circulated by the offices of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) on September 28, last. The letter,
    based on a draft by AIPAC, notes that “Israel is in the process of conducting numerous investigations for which it should be commended not condemned.”

  4. kylebisme says:
    October 15, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    I hope Phil was just speaking metaphorically with the title here rather than going David Icke on us.

    :p

  5. Call Me Ishmael says:
    October 15, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Phil & co. –

    What happened to the post from a few hours ago about Avi Shalit’s article in Ha’aretz concerning Israel’s diminishing legitimacy and the need for a full-court press against critics? The post seems to have vanished along with the attached comments.

    Why? Too sensitive a topic?

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