Walt and Mearsheimer’s landmark piece on the Israel lobby was published in 2006 in the London Review of Books
President Obama tied up traffic in New York last night. The radio said he was doing fundraisers in town after visiting Pennsylvania towns that are flat on their butts. Haaretz has the news (thanks to Max Blumenthal):
“I try not to pat myself too much on the back, but this administration has done more for the security of the state of Israel than any previous administration,” Obama said. “We don’t compromise when it comes to Israel’s security … and that will continue.”
The president was speaking to campaign donors at the Manhattan home of Jack Rosen, chairman of the American Jewish Congress, who said “it would be remiss for me not to say there are many in the Jewish community who are concerned” about the relationship between Israel and the United States…
“No ally is more important than the state of Israel,” Obama said at the fundraiser, which collected at least $300,000 from wealthy donors for his re-election bid and other Democratic campaigns.
Remember what I picked up the other day: Last summer Obama raised $1.2 million in one night at the home of David Cohen, the exec. vice president of Comcast, which owns NBC. Cohen is the former vice chairman of the Jewish Federation of Philadelphia and supportive of Israel. This is not about voters. This is about the mother’s milk of politics.
$300,000? That’s all?
I don’t like to think that Obama means to double-cross all these fine pro-Israel donors, or even to unpleasantly surprise them, after the election; and I don’t think he will. So sad. (But I hope he will, for the greater good.)
Can this explain the rift between Average Jews (who are supportive of OWS) and élite, conservative Jews who are very skeptical and quick to attack the movement as anti-semitic and/or communist rabble? (Many of them, of course, like Larry Fink put on frowny faces and says he ‘feels their pain’ but the only thing that distinguishes his and Newt Gingrich’s true feelings is that Fink is much smoother and smarter about PR than Newt ever will be).
If OWS gets it’s way, it won’t be enough to raise a few taxes here and there. You have to totally redo the entire political system and purge it away from monied interests. This will hit the Lobby at the solar plexus. It will ensure that American presidents will be much more independent than they would otherwise. Sure, you can still barrage them through the media, but at least the political process will be partly shut off. And if the rules on the so-called ‘Super PACs’ are tightned, then it will be even harder to run by opaque rules.
In my opinion, in any free democracy the most important medium is not actually pressure groups. It’s the media. If you had a genuinely free media, not run by Comcast’s David Cohen’s of the world, then it would be much easier to keep AIPAC under control.
If you doubt what I am saying, look how harsh the MSM is treating the Koch brothers. If they had true power, the MSM would not attack them.
There are plenty of people who have done much more for the splintering of the American nation along economic lines. The previously mentioned Larry Fink is one. But he’s pals with Larry Summers and people like David Cohen. So he gets a pass. Koch brothers, who I see without any redeeming quality, as not as strong – because they are visible in the media and attacked in ways that Wall St oligarchs are not and media owners.
Like the guy owning the Chicago Tribune, Sam Zell, who is a Zionist and also claimed in the run-up to the economic crisis of 2008 – that he profited from – that “This country needs a cleansing. We need to clean out all those people who never should have bought in the first place, and not give them sympathy.”
The quote is on his Wikipedia page but you don’t see frontal attacks on him in the New Yorker by Jane Mayer, like the attack on Koch brothers.
Here’s a link to the Forward about Sam Zell’s zealous Zionism.
http://www.forward.com/articles/10507/
You think that guy will be honest on the Israel Lobby or his papers?
AIPAC can be broken by the media, that’s where people should focus on. Same is true for the banking lobby, the military-industrial complex and so on.
Your previous piece on Charlie Rose was spot on, as were the comments on Chris Matthews. They are merely the outwardly faces of the deeper rot.
And people like Comcast’s David Cohen or Sam Zell are more than happy to keep the rot going.
So glad you picked up the who owns and runs Comcast Phil
When an individual repeats lies purposely. That makes that individual a liar. General James Jones is a liar. General James Jones was on Charlie Rose on Nov 30th. They touched on Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. General Jones repeated the false, debunked and endlessly repeated neocon created “Iran has threatened to wipe Israel off the map.” General Jones knows that this is a false interpretation of what the Iranian President said at one point “Zionism will vanish from the pages of history” Charlie Rose who was corrected by former Bush administration official and former CIA middle east analyst Flynt Leverett when Charlie Rose repeated this false statement when Leverett was on his program. But Charlie Rose sure did not challenge this debunked claims even though he knows it is false. No he and Jones went on to claim that Iran will be attacking someone if they get nuclear weapons.
Phil Mondo team you might want to check out that interview. They did not come close to talking about the issue that has pissed so many in that neighborhood for decades. Did not even get close.
Charlie Rose and General Jones are ihelping build the stage for an attack on Iran.
During Rep Barney Franks “exit interview” on Chris Matthews Hardball last night. Rep Frank said that the Occupy Wall Street people had not voted in elections. What an arrogant and highly questionable statement. How the fuck does Barney know how many of the OWS folks have or have not voted. No substance what so ever.
These are Orewllian times in the US. We do compromise on Israel, we compromise our own interest for it.
It would be bad enough if these politicians were just saying this to raise money, but they go all the way and carry our their promises to the Israel donors.
I wonder if they ever realize we hear them make these pledges on Israel or ever wonder how it strikes Americans when they hear this.