Move along now. Nothin goin on here. From Zeke Miller at Buzzfeed Politics, yesterday:
WH: Biden met today at the White House with representatives of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
And here is MJ Rosenberg saying that the three black politicians who lately broke with Obama, notably Cory Booker, all have goldplated Israel lobby connections. His analysis:
"[Alabama Rep. Artur] Davis... received 76 percent of his 2002 contributions from outside Alabama and largely from New York City... 'I have never accepted money from AIPAC,' Davis said, 'My relationship has been with donors who are members of AIPAC.'”...
[Harold] Ford is not a creature of AIPAC but of right-wing Democrats in general. See this story on how he tried to depose Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi in 2009 for being too liberal. However, his ties to the AIPAC crowd were demonstrated after he lost his bid for a senate seat and chose, as his next career move, the chairmanship of the Democratic Leadership Council — the now defunct group whose raison d’etre can be summed up in the banner: pro-Likud, pro-big business. It’s marquee figure was Joe Lieberman. And its marquee issue was supporting the Iraq war.
The bottom line is that Booker, [Artur] Davis and Ford are Democrats with an asterisk. And the asterisk is AIPAC. That is why it is those three who are attacking Obama while every member of the House Black Caucus are out there backing Obama with all they have.
So what does their defection mean? Only that these are three ambitious guys who have sized up the political landscape and decided to stick with the guys who brought them to the party.
This is the sort of reporting I've always wanted, someone pushing the idea that the lobby is a central force in our politics, a ridgeline, and making that case. That is my belief, that George H.W. Bush lost his job in part because of the lobby and Bill Clinton got his in part through the lobby and George W. Bush learned the lesson and Obama is now learning it. But no one's really connected the dots, let alone established the facts.
MAJO appear to be losing their mojo
link to normanfinkelstein.com
The video is very interesting. Norm from Coney Island really grinds the borg into the dust.
Finkelstein and Rabbani made a good tag team on that clown….I saw F&R speak this past winter and found Rabbani to be a real force – sort of like Hever, in my opinion. his arguments are dispassionate and sober, he just tells it like it is……
Im not buying these “defections” are a result of “The Lobby” – Ford and Booker are the whoriest[sic] of the whores, they have gold plated connections with all the nefarious actors among the ruling classes.
“Israel is now a dirty word”
Delivered so coolly.
Rabbani is from al Shabaka and they are very impressive.
At one point the borg says Israel and the US have common enemies.
I never hear Norway talking about enemies.
A bigger reason Bush père lost his job was that the plutocrats saw that he could not get the Democratic Congress to accept NAFTA but believed Bill Clinton could. And events proved them right in that belief.
Similarly, the Republicans lost the White House in 2008 after W. proved unable to privatize Social Security. And I think that is the task the plutocrats thought Obama would be able to achieve and that that is a big reason why they donated so much money to his 2008 campaign. Although another, possible even bigger reason was that they wanted someone on whom they could rely in the White House after the 2008-9 financial collapse, which a lot of them presumably saw coming, and not another FDR who would launch a new New Deal.
Of course, a lot of the plutocrats are also supporters of Zionism.
my theory is they wanted a dem to take the fall for the financial crisis. they didn’t announce it ittil right before the election even tho it was in dire straights for over a year. so, they figured it would be a one term prez, come in ,take the fall and then the country would be poised to usher in another 8 years (at least) for the gop.
I think it’s stretching credulity to believe the plutocrats engineered the collapse of Lehman Bros..
The financial system is too volatile .
Even Goldman nearly went to the wall
I just got a copy of “Juarez- a laboratory of the future”
It was written about 10 years ago and it goes into NAFTA and plutocrat capitalism- things were already bad then – but that was before the nihilism of the drug gangs .
Mexico seems to be on the way to a countrywide version of inner city Detroit
And on the White House Web site: Readout of the Vice President’s Meeting with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations:
“. That is my belief, that George H.W. Bush lost his job in part because of the lobby” have heard this said many times.
I think many have connected the dots
So amazing to think how powerful Aipac still continues to be after their two top officials were caught red handed accessing highly classified US intelligence and passing that classified intelligence over to Israeli officials…but of course the case was dismissed. Undermine US national security again and nothing happens again
Lee Whitnum (US Senate candidate, Connecticut) says Israel Lobby is more powerful than AARP or The Gun Lobby, and is actually the most powerful lobby ever in existence as it is international in character.
Why else could any Jew born in Brooklyn move to Israel and take over the home and land of any Arab family who lived there for a thousand years?
“the now defunct group whose raison d’etre can be summed up in the banner: pro-Likud, pro-big business. ”
Oh, shut up, MJ. Clinton was the most the famous thing to come out of the DLC, and he was not pro-Likud.
And what’s Booker’s big connection? And how does it relate to his comments over the weekend?
booker is friends of shmully boteach, mj reports
This is interesting: I copied these paragraphs on Shmuley Boteach from Wikipedia a few months ago:
link to en.wikipedia.org
BEGIN QUOTE
Boteach received his rabbinic ordination in 1988 from the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in New York City, as a disciple of its leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson…. Boteach is strongly supportive of Israel, and critical of American policy towards the country. Boteach has argued that the Obama administration is “bullying” Israel, arguing that US Middle Eastern policy is “scandalous” and “disgusting”.
He is also supportive of Israeli settlements, including the controversial Hebron settlement, the residents of which he characterizes as marked by a particular “warmth, friendliness and hospitality” and views as being “liberated from hatred”. The settlements are viewed as illegal by the UN, and most of the world barring Israel. His support for the Hebron settlement caused Israeli journalist Bradley Burston, writing in Ha’aretz, to characterize Boteach as a “pro-occupation flack”.
END QUOTE
I rechecked the page today and the paragraphs seem to have disappeared. As far as I know they contained nothing but accurate and factual statements. Orwellian goings-on at Wikipedia? The Hasbara Squad in action?
do a search of Boteach’s family … this huckster is as noxious as the Dersh when you do some digging
RE: “[Alabama Rep. Artur] Davis… received 76 percent of his 2002 contributions from outside Alabama and largely from New York City…” ~ M.J. Rosenberg
SEE: “AIPAC’s bid to defeat Hilliard is neo-McCarthyism”, by Hassan A. El-Najjar, Al Jazeera Editorial, 6/01/02
SOURCE – link to aljazeerah.info
They did the same thing to Cynthia McKinney (also in the 2002 primaries).
P.S. ALSO SEE: A Congressional Election to Watch: The Middle East Conflict in Alabama’s Seventh, by James Zogby, Arab American Institute, 5/27/02
ENTIRE ARTICLE – link to aaiusa.org
P.P.S. “AND NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!”
FROM WIKIPEDIA [Artur Davis]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
P.P.P.S. Did Artur Davis get his “just deserts” ? ? ?
The money given to Israel should be given to the politicians instead. Cut out the middleman.