It's open season on the Israel lobby. Thank Palestinian statehood initiative, thank Bob Turner in Brooklyn. Tom Friedman sounded the bugle this morning and the hounds are in the hedges. John Farmer in the Star-Ledger:
Palestinians look to America, Israeli’s can’t-do-without ally, to squeeze concessions out of Netanyahu. But they’ll look in vain. Why? The Tip O’Neill rule again.
Facing a tough re-election fight next year in which U.S. Jewish votes and money will be critical, Obama’s in no position to make demands of Netanyahu. He’s already in trouble with American Jews who think he’s insufficiently sympathetic to Israel, as witness the loss of a House seat last week in a New York congressional district heavy with angry Orthodox Jewish voters.
Obama has promised Israel he’d veto any Palestinian statehood bill that reaches the U.N. Security Council, even though it further damages U.S. standing in the Arab Muslim world. What he’s hoping for is a deal that diverts the issue to the General Assembly, where no veto is involved and the PLO is given the fig leaf of non-member status.
Another kick-the-can-down-the-road solution.
I have felt that the press is more culpable than the politicians for “the american debacle”…no one expects anything from the politicians, but americans are fooled into believing that our press is different from the Russian pravda of stalinist times, our press are the gatekeeper and still hold sway over what our citizens are told to believe. Chris, you as a member of the press, are the first line of assault on us.
You, Chris Mathews as a highly credentialed member of that press, assault us with lies and cover ups when we expect the truth and revelations, shame on you.
Chris Mathews is a sad example of that sector of the bureaucracy, because surely the national press are employees of the gov’t if they wish to stay on and be allowed to speak to us, they may work for private corporations but it is evident that to keep their positions they must read from the same song sheet.
Break ranks already Chris Mathews, you are an embarrassment to those in your profession who over the years have risked their lives and jobs to speak truth so that we the people can be best informed.
Is it contempt for the citizens of this nation that makes the press join ranks with the elites in our gov’t, or is it just the price they are willing to pay to be included in the club of elitism.
Phil, I for one am glad that you unhinged yourself from the elites and decided to come down and inform us of these truths, your training and credentials have produced some excellent critical analysis for me to learn from.
My first foray into this particular issue (israeli control of our foreign policy through the jewish lobby in america) started when i attended a meeting of CAMERA in a synagogue in NYC which you also attended back around 2006.
Youv’e come a long way Phil, and have been proven to be correct to have gone in this direction, your track record on this issue has been spectacular.
Keep peeling the onion Phil, though your eyes may water, the odour that it puts forth will be turned into a perfume of truth.
Thanks for saluting Phil, those are my thoughts too.
I’ve been saying it for years: Concerned Americans dont need millions of dollars to counter campaign contributions by AIPAC in order to reduce their influence. All that is required is discourse. Once Americans begin to openly and honestly discuss the lobbys effect on Americas interests, their power will begin to wane.The lobby is well aware of this fact which is why they refuse to allow even the slightest criticism or compromise of Israel’s demands.
Israel is speeding toward their own demise. Which in turn forces AIPAC to support and enforce Israel’s damaging policies. Which in turn will drag America to the worst international standing ever, open the door for another 9-ll attack, and force us into another war with the Muslims. Possibly the next world war.
Maybe Jews should not be allowed to vote?
why vote for a politician if you can buy them.
“Maybe Jews should not be allowed to vote?”
Where is victimhood when you just need it? Why! It’s just here!
RE: “It’s open season on the Israel lobby.” ~ Weiss
MY COMMENT: And only a few years ago many intelligent, reasonably sane people insisted there absolutely was no such thing; it was all just a crazy “conspiracy theory”. Consequently, one dared not speak its name!
Thanks Phil- I agree. Given the “cover” now provided by the Abramowitz’s opinion piece in the Washington Post and Thomas Friedman’s column, there’s no reason Matthews or Rachel Maddow can’t at least take baby steps toward bringing the Israel Lobby out into the sunshine for public discussion. If their producers want to play it safe, they can at the very least play dumb and ask “Is there an Israel Lobby?” and bring on some safe J Street types to discuss the opinion pieces above (of course the other side MUST be provided a platform for immediate and contemporaneous “balance” or “context” on the same show, a balance that never tilts the Palestinian way…)
bill quote “there’s no reason Matthews or Rachel Maddow can’t…..”
the reason is neither of them have any leadership abilities or skills.. they are shills without skills as opposed to media types with a vision…
Chris has come far closer than Maddow. I keep wondering about a special coming out on the conflict by Chris Matthews. He spent a solid week over there awhile back. I believe MSNBC related.
I challenged him about his silence about this conflict on his program when I met him and talked with him at the Libby trial. He responded “I do not control the programming” Maddow takes the hypocrisy even further. She will repeat unsubstantiated claims about Iran (working for the I lobby). She and Richard Engel will endlessly cover and celebrate rebels in Libya carrying guns, knocking down door, killing people for their freedom. But they never ever turn their attention or cameras towards the decades long peaceful Palestinian marches etc.
SILENCE IS COMPLICITY. Clearly the money the position are far more important than pushing the envelope. There is a way for them to cover this issue without jeopardizing their positions. I think.
“SILENCE IS COMPLICITY. ”
I guess, then, that means that you’re complicit in Palestinian terrorism, Kathleen.
Has Obama or the administration really promised to veto? The closest I found was Obama himself saying “If this came to the Security Council we would object very strongly, precisely because we think it would be counterproductive” which says nothing of a veto. They could vote in favor or abstain and still say “we oppose very strongly to this but……” for example.
Obama is facing a losing battle. He lost the coveted “Jewish Vote” (aka rich donors sympathetic to Israel and not actual Jewish voters) when he uttered the words “1967 borders.”
It didn’t matter that this was the official position. It didn’t matter than he mentioned and later clarified land swaps. He said “1967 borders” in a live speech on national TV and for the “Jewish Vote” that is all they needed to hear in order to divert their funds elsewhere. Obama, even with low approval ratings, need not worry about losing actual Jewish voters. The majority vote democratically. The majority aren’t going to vote for a Romney or Perry or Bachman. Are people nuts?
The only way Obama could get back the “Jewish Vote” is if he ordered a US-led strike on Iran along with a NATO regime change in Syria. That and told Netanyahu to tear up the Oslo Accords and condemn all Palestinians as terrorists. MAYBE then he might win back the “Jewish Vote” but even that is uncertain. Obama should show some guts and show Netanyahu who the boss is. He should take on the lobby and expose congress for being the shills that they are. The American public is mostly unaware of these things. The “Jewish Vote” won’t be able to buy a Republican president if Obama actually had some guts.
This week FAIR’s CounterSpin reported that a Washington Post headline referred to the effort to get their statehood recognized by the UN as a “gambit” of the Palestinians compared to the “diplomatic efforts” of the superpowers to stop it. CounterSpin noted the paper was unlikely to have a headline, “US gambit unlikely to derail Palestinian diplomatic efforts,” though that seems a more accurate headline than the Post’s.
link to fair.org
From the same article:
” Arafat was offered the “deal of a lifetime ” — a
recognized state with roughly 90 percent of
occupied West Bank. To Israel’ s surprise —
and relief among hard- liners — he turned it
down, reportedly fearing the retaliation he’ d
face from opponents of any bargain implying
recognition of Israel. He even moved his
family to Paris.”
“a recognized state with roughly 90 percent of occupied West Bank”..Hophmi
And you personally agree that this BS is the “deal of a life time”?
Homphi, like the rest of them, think (or act like they think) that the rest of us are stupid.
Because, after all, if I gave you full ownership and possession of 90% of a 10 story building, that would be a deal of a lifetime. I wouldn’t mention, of course, that I’m controlling the ground floor, and, with it, access to, and control of, the other 9. Instead I’ll just repeat, ad nauseum, 90%!! 90%!!
Hey, listen, many Jews interpreted the Balfour Declaration as including land on both sides of the Jordan. We settled for something much smaller than that.
Maximalism comes with a price. The Palestinians can choose their strategy, but there are always consequences, as Annie might say.
“Hey, listen, many Jews interpreted the Balfour Declaration as including land on both sides of the Jordan. We settled for something much smaller than that. ”
First of all, who the hell cares what some Jews thought about the Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration was nothing less than a crime against humanity.
Further, the issue here isn’t size, it is the fact that the Israelis continue to insist on controlling the lives of the Palestinians, even while they blows smoke up everone’s asses about how the Palestinians were offered 90% of the 22% of their own land that was stolen from them by an invading horde of foreign Zionists.
I offer you 90% of a swimming pool for you to occupy. The 10% you don’t get is the 10% from the surface down. Not much of a deal.