Old neocons never die, they just keep testifying to Congress

by on September 12, 2011 19
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Wow is this crazy. The House Committee on Foreign Affairs is threatening to punish the Palestinian Authority for daring to ask for a state from the int'l community and it's convening a hearing of neoconservatives on Wednesday. Well I don't know about this guy Phillips, but the other three-- Makovsky, Elliott Abrams, and Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies? My god. It never ends. Apparently Makovsky is the soft neocon, acceptable to Democrats. From the announcement:


The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs will hold a hearing on Wednesday entitled, “Promoting Peace? Reexamining U.S. Aid to the Palestinian Authority, Part II.”

The Committee will examine U.S. assistance to the Palestinian Authority, a central pillar of the Administration’s policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This hearing will offer Members an opportunity to hear testimony on various aspects of this policy, especially in light of recent developments on the ground and the upcoming potential Palestinian action at the United Nations.

When: Wednesday, September 14, 2011 10:00 a.m.

Where: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building

Who:

The Honorable Elliott Abrams Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies Council on Foreign Relations

Mr. James Phillips Senior Research Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs The Heritage Foundation

Jonathan Schanzer, Ph.D. Vice President of Research Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Mr. David Makovsky Ziegler Distinguished Fellow Director of Project on the Middle East Peace Process The Washington Institute

About Philip Weiss

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

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

  1. lysias says:
    September 12, 2011 at 5:13 pm

    The committee is chaired by Ileana Ros-Lehntinen.

    For the Love of Israel: Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s Misguided War on the UN:

    Ros-Lehtinen’s resume is a distressing read. The congresswoman “endorses US imperial wars, police state laws, corporate empowerment, tax cuts for the rich, laying waste to Libya, perhaps a second Bay of Pigs, and Israeli lawlessness, while, at the same, opposing Palestinian statehood,” according to Lendman.

    It is, in fact, the “Israeli lawlessness” and her opposition to a Palestinian statehood that has made her a darling to Israel and its lobby. Unsurprisingly, Ros-Lehtinen has been rewarded handsomely for her die-hard support of Israel by some of the most powerful pro-Israeli individuals and lobby groups in the United States. One of these individuals is Irving Moskowitz.

    “The benefactor of a controversial Jewish development in eastern Jerusalem is a major donor to U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,” reported the Jewish Telegraph Agency on January 11, shortly after the congresswoman claimed her new post.

    Moskowitz, the well-known American Jewish millionaire, made his fortunes as a ‘casino magnate’. A high proportion of the revenue he made from the gambling industry has been used to demolish Palestinian homes, raze ancient olive trees and fund Jewish settlements. It has also been used to finance Ros-Lehtinen’s campaigns.

  2. lysias says:
    September 12, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    Ros-Lehtinen Introduces United Nations Reform Bill Legislation seeks changes to UN funding mechanism, opposes anti-Israel policies (Aug. 30, 2011):

    (WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today introduced the United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act (H.R. 2829), which places conditions on U.S. funding to the UN in order to achieve long awaited reform at that body.

    . . .

    The legislation also prohibits U.S. contributions to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Goldstone Report, and the Durban process, and would cut off contributions to any UN entity which upgrades the status of the Palestinian mission to the UN.

  3. annie says:
    September 12, 2011 at 5:25 pm

    fine, i hope they pull their aid. really i do, this is gross. what business do we have pushing palestinians around pretending like we care or that they owe us something. we should take the facade off and admit the US treats palestine like an enemy. because we do.

    i am so sick of this BS.

    • lysias says:
      September 12, 2011 at 5:29 pm

      Meantime, it looks as if a U.S. veto of a Security Council resolution recognizing Palestine may have unfortunate consequences for the U.S.: Turki al-Faisal Picked the Wrong Day to Make Veto Threats:

      The United States must support the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations this month or risk losing the little credibility it has in the Arab world. If it does not, American influence will decline further, Israeli security will be undermined and Iran will be empowered, increasing the chances of another war in the region.

      Moreover, Saudi Arabia would no longer be able to cooperate with America in the same way it historically has. With most of the Arab world in upheaval, the “special relationship” between Saudi Arabia and the United States would increasingly be seen as toxic by the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims, who demand justice for the Palestinian people.

      Saudi leaders would be forced by domestic and regional pressures to adopt a far more independent and assertive foreign policy. Like our recent military support for Bahrain’s monarchy, which America opposed, Saudi Arabia would pursue other policies at odds with those of the United States, including opposing the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq and refusing to open an embassy there despite American pressure to do so. The Saudi government might part ways with Washington in Afghanistan and Yemen as well.

  4. PaulRepstock says:
    September 12, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    Might is Right!
    As shown in this diclosure from WikiLeaks, Israel would treat any attempt by Palestinians to seek remedies from the International Criminal Court, as “an act of war”. What i God’s name was ‘CastLead’ if not an act of war?

    * Palestine Authority pursuit of Israel through the ICC would be viewed as war by Israel.
    link to wikileaks.org

  5. Real Jew says:
    September 12, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    These souless characters support and perpetuate the occupation and the blockade which is undoubtedly the reason why the PA needs aid to begin with. And now they are trying to take away their only remaining life line. how absolutely disgraceful.

    What do they expect to accomplish by starving the Palestinians? This will only push the PA further away from the West and cause a worsening crises for the PA and the people

  6. Kathleen says:
    September 12, 2011 at 6:36 pm

    Calling Code Pink and Move over Aipac. Calling all pro Palestinian groups in the DC area. they need to be at this meeting to combat Ros Lehtinen and the rest of the crews lies.

    August 30, 2004
    AIPAC’s Overt and Covert Ops

    by Juan Cole
    link to antiwar.com
    and the younger brother of David Makovsky, a senior WINEP fellow and former executive editor of pro-Likud Jerusalem Post.

  7. Kathleen says:
    September 12, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    Sent this out to a bunch of folks and organizations

  8. petersz says:
    September 12, 2011 at 6:54 pm

    Saudi Arabia is plotting with China, Russia and other Gulf countries to end the Dollar as the world’s reserve currency within 10 years as reported by Robert Fisk 2 years ago. Once that happens the special relationship between the USA and Saudi Arabia will be dead. I wonder what Ros-Lehtinen thinks about that?

  9. Kathleen says:
    September 12, 2011 at 7:01 pm

    Ros Lehtinen’s has been busy undermining US National Security for quite some time

    link to thecable.foreignpolicy.com

    link to arabnews.com

    THIS IS A CLASSIC
    Rep. Ros-Lehtinen Refuses To Allow The Goldstone Report Into The Congressional Record
    link to youtube.com

    link to pomed.org

    link to rawstory.com

  10. Kathleen says:
    September 12, 2011 at 7:35 pm

    Here you go Phil
    “where are the neo cons”
    link to msnbc.msn.com

  11. yourstruly says:
    September 12, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    if the u.s. government actually punishes the palestine authority by discontinuing its billion dollar aid package, look for this move to backfire, with the gulf oil nations, among others, making up for the PA’s loss of u.s. funds. hopefully the arab/islamic masses won’t settle for anything less from their leaders. are we at the beginning of the end for the zionist entity?

    • Bumblebye says:
      September 12, 2011 at 11:32 pm

      yt
      Billion dollar? I was listening to a report by (I think) John Donnison a couple of hours ago, he gave figs for 2010 – US, $220m, EU £410m.
      By the way, the US fig is almost the same as the next Euromillions Lotto prize tomorrow night.

  12. PaulRepstock says:
    September 12, 2011 at 11:14 pm

    What I have feared since the first Gulf War, was the existence of a Global Domination agenda in the United States.
    By initiating a serries of events which would lead to a conflict involving all the oil producing nations of the Middle East and North Africa, and then ending that conflict in such a manner as to leave the region a smoking cinder, unable to produce oil for decades, the US would be the only Nation other than Russia with sufficient hemispheric control of oil supplies to continue as a modern nation.

    The people making decisions and pulling the strings have absoultly no regard for human life. All they care about is control.

  13. DICKERSON3870 says:
    September 12, 2011 at 11:56 pm

    RE: “Mr. David Makovsky Ziegler Distinguished Fellow Director of Project on the Middle East Peace Process The Washington Institute”
    MY COMMENT: Notice how WINEP has morphed into “The Washington Institute”.

    RE: “The Honorable Elliott Abrams”
    MY COMMENT: Honorable? So it’s honorable to lie under oath to the Congress? Does a presidential pardon restore honor?

    P.S. “I ♥ Rick Perry.” “The Rick Factor!”

    • DICKERSON3870 says:
      September 16, 2011 at 7:13 am

      P.S. SEE: Was Elliott Abrams Hitler’s Senior Advisor? ~ by Ran HaCohen, Antiwar.com, 9/16/11

      (excerts) Probably not: Abrams was born 2.5 years after Hitler died. But then again, who knows…
      …The Jewish-American lawyer and policy analyst who served in foreign policy positions under Reagan and George W. Bush, currently a senior fellow at the CFR, cannot claim innocence nor ignor ignorance. He knows the Middle East better than many others. So when he says the Palestinian State “would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews,” Abrams knows what he is doing. And what he is doing is much dirtier than the manipulative title I gave this column.
      Abram’s malicious demagoguery was triggered by the words of Palestinian ambassador to the US Maen Erekat, quoted saying that “after the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated.” That’s what Erekat said; he didn’t say no Jews would be allowed into Palestine; he didn’t say all Jews would be butchered and their corpses sliced and pickled; he didn’t say all Jews would be annihilated or gassed. He just said it would be in the interest of the two peoples to be separated…
      …Abrams is reported to have met several times with Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington.
      Now you may wonder: how can that be true? How can Abrams, who finds a moderate call for separation between Palestinians and Israelis a despicable anti-Semitic manifesto unprecedented since Nazi Germany, how can this idealistic person meet several times an official representative of a state that officially prohibits Jews from entering its borders, where even Jewish-American soldiers (stationed there to defend the backward — but US-friendly — dictatorship) have to hide their identity and carry false “Protestant ID cards” for a rainy day?
      Well, you’ll have to ask Abrams about that. While you are at it, do ask him if he didn’t happen to be Hitler’s close advisor after all. You never know.

      ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com