One of the real shifts since Gaza is that the center-left in the U.S. is accepting the Israel/Palestine issue as part of a progressive agenda–thereby ending the reign of PEP, Progressive Except for Palestine. The Center for Responsive Politics is a good government group that seems to be reflecting this trend: Its report on the overwhelming vote to condemn the Goldstone report is titled, "Congressmen Denouncing U.N. Inquiry Receive Handsome Donations from Pro-Israel Lobby." The center makes a point of singling out pro-Arab groups too, but look at these figures:
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, pro-Arab organizations have spent $70,000 on lobbying efforts since 1998, while pro-Israel groups have spent $5.8 million within the same period. Excluding trips within the United States, members of Congress travel most frequently to Israel.
Much of the pro-Israel giving, by the way, doesn’t fall into that category. Its by devoted individuals. Steve Grossman gives a ton to candidates who support Israel. He doesn’t need a group to tell him what to do.
Related posts:
- At last, Israel lobby is becoming fair game for journalistic investigation
- Big-Media Clothing Budgets Are Fair Game
- Chas Freeman speaks: By vetoing U.S. appointments, the Israel lobby is enforcing adherence to a foreign government
- Congressional Junkets to Israel: A Key Tool of the Rightwing Lobby
- Neocon holdovers want NYT to fire Roger Cohen for uttering fair statements about Jews in Iran
{ 13 comments }
Call it by the right name: bribery.
How many arab Americans work for Goldman Sachs? How many are in the Forbes top 100? It’s really easy to figure Uncle Sam out; he’s a simpleton. OTH, he knows on which side his bread is buttered. Always the same side.
Wow. That was eye-opening. I mean, it’s not as if I didn’t know it but seeing the actual numbers is still.. you know, staggering. I think mayhaps I shall have to have that report handy when I call my Representative to complain, tomorrow.
Maybe the Arabs should take a clue from their Jewish brthren and start buying the US Congress with more money. I *know* lots of ‘em got money.
That’s pathetic. I am very embarassed–only $70K?
That’s not the answer, Saleema. If all it took was cash, then African Americans, who in spite of the societal barriers have accumulated wealth and broken all many of class barriers in the US to some extent, would have been able to buy their way to full equality.
They haven’t. It works for Jews because — and I’m sorry to be blunt — because a lot of them are white.
True.
But, money still talks. And while what you say makes sense, at the same time, black aren’t really organized either.
Well, you need to look at why they aren’t organized. And it’s because white society is afraid of that happening. Believe me… as a (decidedly defiant) participant of white society, I’ve seen it. The same thing has been done to the Arab peoples as a consequence of post-colonialism.
I assume your remark was at least somewhat tongue in cheek, Saleema, but I’ll treat it seriously anyway. Trying to buy more votes doesn’t seem to be the answer. I know it’s important sometimes to try to work within the system, but this particular system is detsroying your country and taking the rest of the world with it. And it’s not just Israel. It’s energy and banks and insurance and pharma and God knows what else (oh and the God Squad too). Any ideas on how to make government actually work for the people? I’m not denying the fact that “the people” is made up of lots of different groups with lots of legitimate and illegitimate special interests, and government has to represent them all and navigate between different and even conflicting interests, but there has got to be a better way than the current method of selling to the highest bidder (simplified for rhetorical effect).
You are correct, Shmuel. The answer is publically funded election campaigns and some devoted public tv channels.
Cart before horse. Start buying TV networks…
I’m putting the following interesting post up from the truthdig site:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20091103_mcgovern_get_out_of_afghanistan/
By DieDaily, November 5 at 6:31 am #
JDmydticDJ, the source you seek was probably Vanity
Fair. It is referred to in many other articles
(hundreds) like this one in the Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1191257286817&pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull
The media, on the other hand, is more like 95%
controlled by “Jews”.
But lets be extremely clear about this. Anyone who
thinks this reflects upon the ordinary working person
who is Jewish, or virtually any Sephardic or
practicing Jew, is crazy or ignorant. This is the
great danger facing Jews right now. A very few atheist/occultist Zionists masquerading as the voice
of Jews is at work here. Jews in general are the
victims of, and not the perpetrators, of these
crimes. These people are the prime racists of the
planet. To assume that Jews in general are evil would
be to fall for one of their oldest tricks.
It’s an incredibly complex and disturbing topic, but
one we all need to talk about now. I am deeply
gratified by the increasing number of Jews who are
spearheading the effort to expose this tiny but
extraordinarily powerful subset of their “race”, such
as it is. In their shoes I too would be terrified of
guilt by association with these monsters, and of the
coming pogrom against “their own” that seems to be in
their agenda. I beg that everyone interested in this
topic exercise great care in their studies. It is
simply not true that a single race or culture of Jews
exists, and even if one did, it would still be the
case that racism is simply evil and unscientific.
It’s time that there were no more taboo subjects. I
was raised as a liberal humanist and I still am one.
But I’ve expanded my world view steadily and
carefully over the decades. It’s time we admit to
some basic facts: AIPAC runs the U.S. and Jews run
the media, Israel is a racist state that kills and
subverts virtually indiscriminately and hordes
nuclear weapons with impunity. They have attacked the
U.S. on two occasions now also with impunity.
What does this say about “the average Jew on the
street”? Practically nothing. Except that they have
been fooled as much as we have, and are beginning to
wake up just as we are. Let’s put it into a crystal
clear perspective with this analogy:
You and your spouse are overseas. Suddenly you are
surrounded and nooses are placed around your necks.
“Why are you doing this?” you plead. “Because you are
Americans”, they answer, “and Americans have killed
more than a million of our civilian population”. “But
we had nothing to do with that! We were against the
war! We HATE Bush and Cheney, we are liberals, we
were fooled about 9-11 and lied to about WMD’s!” you
persist. But you are hanged dead anyway. Because you
were American. “All Americans are the same. They are
of Satan.”, is the last thing you hear, “but at least
we are avenged.”
That’s racism. That’s primitive. That’s EASY to
believe when you are angry and seek revenge. So let’s
go after these Jews that are controlling us. But
let’s make VERY sure that NOT ONE innocent person
(that is to say 99% of Jews) is caught up in this
hunt for the criminals. And lets be clear about
something else too: just as most Jews are not
directly involved in this, likewise a large fraction
of the people who are involved in it are not Jewish.
and this is a good’n too:
It’s sad that in America politicians have to be near death to speak truth to the Zionist power structure… George McGovern and Jimmy Carter are 2 perfect examples… Their political careers are over and they are close to meeting Jesus so there is very little the Zionists can do to intiminate them… Jimmy Carter can’t get a cab anymore in D.C. because he had the courage to speak objectively about the mid east and Israel… He is now openly called an anti-semite…. So all this talk and writing about Afghanistan and Iraq is a huge waste of time… It matters not if 99 percent of Americans want out of Afghanistan and Iraq… What matters is what Israel wants… We ain’t EVER getting out of Afghanistan and Iraq because that isn’t part of the plan boys and girls… Greater Israel is the plan!! And the Goyem better get used to blood and death and waste Forever!!!
unable to get into another thread
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