The neoconservative pressure group Emergency Committee For Israel (ECI) is pulling out all the stops ahead of Mitt Romney’s jaunt to Israel. Their latest salvo: television ads that criticize President Obama for not visiting Israel while in office (see above).
On their website, ECI states:
President Obama is quite a world traveler. But not to Israel. An oversight? Or an indication? According to a front-page story in the Washington Post two weeks ago, Obama has pursued a strategy of putting ‘daylight’ between the U.S. and Israel. He’s traveled to the Middle East multiple times — to accept an award in Saudi Arabia, to give a major speech in Cairo, to hold town hall meetings in Turkey — but never stopped to visit our closest ally in the region.
But Obama did visit Israel while he was campaigning for president. And Obama has presided over increased US-Israeli security cooperation and increases in military aid the country receives.
ECI, headed by Iraq War pusher William Kristol, was created in 2010 to attack Obama’s Middle East policy. The group has recently put out ads calling for a confrontational stance with Iran. ECI has also purchased newspaper ads portraying Obama as “emotionally aloof from Israel,” as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, by printing quotes that question Obama’s Israel policy from mainstream and Democratic sources. But Kristol himself has admitted that he has been “mostly supportive of the Obama administration in the last couple of years.”
The neoconservative group’s salvo against Obama is part of a strategy to paint the president as hostile to Israel. The Obama administration and the Democratic Party have responded by trying to outflank Romney–by proving they can embrace Israel more. While Romney prepares for his trip to Jerusalem, Obama held a signing ceremony at the White House today for a bill that “enhance[s] strategic cooperation between the United States and Israel.”
A version of this article originally appeared on AlterNet’s blog.
If you were being extorted, blackmailed, badmouthed, criticized and abused, would you rush off to visit those doing it?
The whole point of their strategy is that it’s never enough. Whatever he does it’s never enough.
And because of the sheer fundraising power they hold within the Jewish community(even democrats like Haim Saban is not far away from their positions, or Penny Pritzker for that matter who grumbled a lot about Obama’s supposed ‘hostility’ to Israel), their campaign essentially forces the Democrats to attack Romney from the right.
So for example, now they’re attacking Condi Rice for having the gall to try to negotitate peace, slamming her as ‘controversial’ and ‘hostile to Israel’.
And remember, this is the Democratic national committee.
We’re reaching a point in America where the most left you are allowed to go on Israel is somewhere between Likud and Shas.
Never, ever enough.
Obama doesn’t learn that lesson very well, if at all.
Sad and disastrous.
Damn, Obama hasn’t get his brains updated to ziobot 2.3 version. Must go to Israel if want’s new update. Necessary visits to Knesset, just to show a face and that you are obedient server. Without it, no chance to next round, sorry. Next slave to foreign country plz to arena.
Make sure Obama is plugged in, then reboot and reinstall Zio 2.3 :)
maybe he should treat it like the 51st state and do a campaign stopover/NOT
Annie, to me it looks like a that US is a other state for Israel. Or, as former PLO representative Afif Safieh said, US i a only super power of the world today. It faces other states like a super power, but when Israel is question, it looks like a Liechtenstein or Luxenbourg.
51st state,,,huh
more like number 1 state…..and the only one that matters
“maybe he should treat it like the 51st state and do a campaign stopover/NOT”
Maybe he should treat it like the 51st State and demand that it comply with federal law.
The Israelis have demonized Obama enough to know they could not guarantee his safety in the country. There are too many nutjobs within their security forces who might put his life in danger or endanger it themselves. The rapid disappearance from the news of the attempt on Clinton during her visit mere days ago demonstrates the truth of that. But that media control allows the ECI to get away with their sheer rubbish.
He would have to be nuts to go to Israel. His public approval there is below 10%. If he showed his face in any public gathering he would be booed off the stage and that includes the Knesset. The settlers have heavily infiltrated the IDF so it is probable that his very life would be in danger.
The intense hatred that the Israelis have for him is something that surprised me. Obviously, Obama has done as much or more than any other American President to support Israel. This has to be a manifestation of the intense racism that characterizes Israel. They just can’t help themselves — that brown skin is just too much.
Yup, that’s it. He’s a schwartze and they can’t get around that. At best, he should be a shabbos goy from their POV.
He’d be killed if he set foot in Israel.
I think it’s the fact that his father was Muslim. He’s from a Muslim background and he’s President. It drives them nuts. When they’re photographed together Netanyahu looks like he’d love to make him go through a checkpoint. Maybe raid his house and arrest one of his kids at 2 a.m. Something like that.
Toivo: This has to be a manifestation of the intense racism that characterizes Israel. They just can’t help themselves — that brown skin is just too much.
I was about to say they couldn’t possibly hate Obama just because he is black. I mean, they hated Colin Powell too and he wasn’t …. wait a minute, I guess he was black.
Okay, they hated General Zinni and he sure wasn’t black. All he did was fail to announce how much he loved Israel two or three times an hour, unlike for instance Bill Clinton who once said he would “grab a gun and die for Israel.”
It’s hard to generate any enthusiasm when you have to follow someone like that with a message that you will do your best to ensure justice for both sides. Israelis don’t want justice. They want love. More that that, they seem to have a need for it.
Did Bill really say that? That we would grab a gun and die for Israel? Jeez, no wonder I love the guy so much.
Did Bill really say that? That we would grab a gun and die for Israel?
Yeah, he actually said that. See here: link to antiwar.com
Jeez, no wonder I love the guy so much.
Yeah, who doesn’t love gun freaks and contract killers?
ya they are just like the gop in the USA….
as krauss said….it is never enough for the tribe…no matter how much they get free
Can an Israeli shed some light on why Obama is hated in Israel? I know some complain that he is “pro-pally” but really, your defense minister said there’s never been a better U.S. president for Israel. Is it racism or his meek request for a settlement freeze….jon s or Avi_G maybe?
Obama is Carter with darker skin. How do most israelis feel towards Carter?
(But there is also some racism involved. The deference that about a third of the right wing would pay to a White Christian American President is absent and in its place an attitude towards black Barack Hussein Obama.)
So the problem with Carter was that he tried to get both parties to chat at a nice wooden table and Obama meekly requested but did not carry out on a freeze on settlements that are illegal as it is under international law. So yonah do you agree with the obvious conclusion that peace is a taboo among Israelis?
Roya- A lot of history has passed since Carter was voted out of office November almost 32 years ago, almost precisely half of Israel’s life. So I don’t think conclusions regarding the attitude toward Carter reveal the essence of today’s Israel. Re: today’s Israeli Jewish attitudes: I do not think it is an obvious conclusion that peace is taboo among Israelis. I would say that the majority of Israelis are nowhere near to accepting the inevitability if not the advantage of a two state peace treaty. Nor are they near to accepting what such a two state peace treaty would inevitably have to contain. I think such a statement avoids the hyperbole and rhetoric that your statement contains.
Translation, without the BS and formalities:
yonah
He was not “voted out of office”, as you say, but he was not reelected!!
There is a little bit difference between those two.
Israel doesn’t even have sufficient security to protect the lives of its own leaders, why should America entrust it with the safety of ours? If anything, right-wing settlers have even more leeway for their actions than they did when Yitzhak Rabin was killed.
When somebody savages Romney for not visiting Togo, wake me up.
“He would have to be nuts to go to Israel. His public approval there is below 10%. If he showed his face in any public gathering he would be booed off the stage and that includes the Knesset…”
It might pay off if Obama did go. Massive displays of hostility might wake a lot of Americans up — and I suspect it all would gain Obama as many votes as it cost him in the end. At any rate, it would be morbidly interesting to see if the American media and Israel could manage to throw a Romulan cloaking device over it all.
ECI isn’t neoconserative it’s zionist neos….with 3 b0ard members listed, Kristol, Bauer and bad Rachel Abrams….what a board eh?
Here’s bad Rachel ‘s latest screed. ..it’s like looking in a cesspool.
Yom Ha Shoa
Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not,/And upon the kingdoms that call not upon Thy name./For they have devoured Jacob,/And laid waste his habitation.
Pour out Thine indignation upon them,/And let the fierceness of Thine anger overtake them./Thou wilt pursue them in anger, and destroy them/From under the heavens of the Lord. (Passover Haggadah, Glatzer edition)
Now there’s something for us Jews to remember, as we commemorate our Holocaust dead.
Does the violence offend you? The chosenness horrify you? You’re free to memorialize your disgust as you wish—and so often do—from your despotic/autocratic, left-wing/right-wing, murderous/pusillanimous, armed/prostrate roosts; you may even enter Israel’s eternal and undivided capital, Jerusalem, and cram little Israel-scourging prayers of denunciation into the crevices of the Old City’s Western Wall with your manicured, Kabbalah-braceleted hands—which is more freedom to pray or dissent than most Mussulman descendants of Nazi collaborators and “citizens” of any of the oppressive, brutalizing, terrorizing lands encircling the Jewish State will ever experience, or remember, in their lifetimes.
But please, by all means, wail on. And while you’re doing all that disapprobatory shuddering; while you’re sobbing over your false Davids and specious Goliaths; while your fingers are twitching on your pens, and your rocks, and your grenades, and your rockets; while that familiar little frisson of horror over the detested Jews who unaccountably will rise up from subjugation is snaking its way up your spine once again; while you’re whispering your “love” for Israel in the tongue of anti-Semitism; while you’re sniffing the scent of our blood, we’ll be counting our dead, and when we’re done with that, we’ll be reminding you never to forget the mighty hand and the outstretched arm—and the long memory—of the Israeli Defense Forces.”
American,
Do you have a working link for that bloodthirsty and
bloodcurdling Rachel Abrams article?
She’s a real exemplar of the American spirit at its best. :) Thomas Jefferson would embrace her as a sister in arms.
By the way, hophmi claimed that ECI (Emergency Committee for Israel) wasn’t a component of the Israel lobby!
link to badrachel.blogspot.com
link to badrachel.blogspot.com
One thought leads to another: why haven’t the Israel-lovers set up a nice squeal about holding an Olympics in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem?
It seems to be they could have a fine time with such a demand. Topical, too.
I’m sure they have brought it up, but they get dismissed pretty early on. It’s a small state that a sizable number of other countries don’t have diplomatic relations with, it’s too political to even be worth attempting, and they have to build all those stadiums and it would take away from the resources they need for settlement building.
But what an excuse to take more land!
But what an excuse to take more land!
My thought exactly!
Didn’t Biden visit early in Obamas term and the Israeli government screw him over by announcing new settlements while he was talking about new rounds of negotiations? Why would Obama risk the chance they wouldn’t pull the stunt on him as well?
If Netanyahu weren’t the head of state, im sure Obama would have visited. The two of them obviously don’t get along, and Obama doesn’t want to do him the honor of hosting the US head of State. It’s better that to let Bibi come here and not give him homefield advantage.
I think that it will be interesting to read Obama’s eventual memoirs. They will probably make it clear that he thinks that the Palestinians have a rightful place in Palestine, which is a negation of Zionism. It’s difficult to love a country founded on something that you regard as a moral mistake. He will claim that he loves Israel after his fashion, but that will be quite hard to believe. The Israelis don’t believe it now.
too bad president obama doesn’t play the wild card in this year’s campaign; namely, declaring that his government’s going to develop a new policy, vis-a-vis the mideast conflict, one that no longer offers unconditional support for israel and recognizes that without justice for palestine, peace is unattainable. he’ll never do this because he’d be buried under an avalanche of angry israel-loving voters? contrariwise, after more than a half-century of subservience to an apartheid entity, americans would see this policy change as a bold & righteous move to reclaim our nation’s sovereignty.
Political satire at its very best:
link to thenewinquiry.com
Screw Romney, he’s a jackass. Obama is the way to go. Wake up and smell the cocoa beans people, ya’ll need to see the big picture, the BIG picture! Hail Obomber, our savior and leader of the free world.
Our American security over the last decades would never have been so seriously compromised/would have been vastly improved if we hadn’t been following Israeli Lobby generated foreign policy in the Middle East for the decades leading up to the blowback of 911.
Now these continued policies, in addition to the Worldwide War on Terror to preserve those ‘Pro-Israel’ policies, is dooming us for war after war for Israel and her Israeli Lobby.
Attacking Iran for Israel will involve us in a 1000 yrs war against Iran/Islam – exactly what Israel wants
It’s the one of the grandest setups in America history – that’s for sure. The Neocons and Lobby force thru years of dangerous and often criminal Pro-Israel policies (covering Israeli Apartheid, playing divide and conquer with agents such as Saddam, etc) , then follows up on any resistance/blowback with what you can bet Israel hopes will be a 1000 yr war against Islam. On our dime and with our boys and with trillions more of aid to Israel.
Iraq was a false flag operation run by the Israeli Lobby (the Niger Uranium fraud mangaged thru Feith’s office) and again in the repeated Israeli frauds over Iran. These are false flag hoaxes Israel is running on the US, with the inside help from the AIPAC-paid/Israeli Lobby-paid wh*res for Israel.
Endless wars for Israel, directly arising from Israeli Lobby-generated policies, with the fuses lit by fraudulent false flag operations against the US
The cost of being ‘Pro-Israel’ the way the Israeli Lobby would have it is a world of terror – a world of terror for Israel.
Without the Israel Lobby we probably would not ever have had to be taking our shoes off in the airport or be having our emails read by the Israeli-style and Israeli Lobby-run National Security state. We have become a police state a la Israel, because of Israel and our Israeli Lobby
It’s time we dump our dysfunctional relationship with Israel and start buying oil from Iran
gingershot,
I agree that the Israeli lobby is a formidable source in US domestic politics as well as foreign policy. For example, JJ Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago has done some extensive work investigating the almost omnipotent power and influence of the said Lobby here:
link to mearsheimer.uchicago.edu
Also wrote a book on the subject. Then there is of course Chomsky’s amazingly detailed and well-sourced classic on this issue, called “The Fateful Triangle”.
However, with that being said, I think that US foreign policy, although definitely influenced by the Israeli lobby on ME issues, is still not the only deciding factor in the matter. In other words, there are other geopolitical factors that would still lead it to pursue disastrous and inhumane policies in that region, as it has done elsewhere, for example in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Kissinger once said that America has no permanent allies, and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Israel has of course been exempt from this equation, but I don’t necessarily think that this is primarily due to the Israeli lobby. Rather, the US would have chosen to staunchly support the state of Israel, because of its own perceived interests in the region, with or without the presence and influence of the lobby. This is evident from its foreign policy vis-a-vis Israel even prior to existence and/or consolidation of power in the lobby, as can be seen in the immediate aftermath of WWII and onward. Likewise, one may notice the unreserved and almost absolute support for Saudi Arabia, Turkey and some other countries in that region and elsewhere, also in many ways “special relationships” that go back for decades. The US does nothing to speak out or condemn the Saudis for their ongoing brutal oppression of their minority Shia population, the imprisoning and torturing of prisoners, and countless other human rights violations. The same type of relationship also existed with Iran under the Shah.
All I’m saying is that it seems erroneous to lay all the blame for the formulating of US policy in the ME at the feet of the Israeli lobby, because as mentioned above, this is not exclusively the case. The lobby does influence these policies, does to some extent draft the lines of discourse domestically within the US about what things can or cannot be discussed, does play a role in creating the framework of foreign policy, but it is not, in my opinion, the absolute deciding factor on how the US conducts itself in the ME. It does of course exacerbate and fuel the situation, but whether or not the lobby exerted this influence or existed at all, the US would still be invading/intervening/bombing countries in the ME (and elsewhere) in line with their own perceived “national” or “strategic” interests. The problem is within the system of the US government itself. A change of President, or political parties, or even a highly reduced role for the Israeli lobby, would not change much of substance in American foreign policy, IMHO.
Most recently, watch this interview with ex-British ambassador to Uzbekistan, as just a small glimpse into how the US (and its lap-dog allies) supports/defends some of the most ruthless and brutal regimes on the planet, as long as they fall within the framework of America’s so-called national interests:
link to democracynow.org
Uh oh Averroes, you have made an argument that mitigates the power of the lobby, makes reference to US foreign policy outside of the middle east, and mentions Noam Chomsky….. You have broken some sacred MW rules here, you are to lay all of the worlds problems at the feet of the lobby or remove yourself!
I have made the same mistake, and continue to do so, but its a hard, hard road around here – be forewarned
Hehe… Really? Is it that bad? I mean it is sort of simplistic, don’t you think? Classic example of mistaking the forest for the trees.
Yeah, I think the basic premise is incredibly simplistic – but there are endless examples of jewish partisans and their cohorts doing shady things, so its supported by lots of “evidence”
Personally, I blame Phil. He continues to use “war of ideas in the middle east” but his “about” page makes it clear: he’s really only talking about israel, “jewish life” and identity; I think some around here believe Phil is offering a comprehensive world view, when he is doing anything but. (just wait, if one of the extreme lobby fetishists see this lil exchange, we will be bombarded by lists of zionist jews, questions as to why we still cling to marxist ideology and so on – in other words, you will have to fight off the bats, lots of them.)
You’re right. I mean I suppose even with my disclaimers regarding the Israel lobby and my belief that they are a formidable force of power and influence, it goes way beyond that. The Israel/Palestine issue is of course a main component of any serious debate on the ME, however, ‘twould be nice to see some more focus on other issues/countries in the area as well, such as perhaps Iran (or Iraq, or Egypt), especially as the drums of war are beating with more and more enthusiasm in Washington. In any case in many ways they are all interdependent and related issues.
My main man glenn greenwald on jeff goldberg’s latest in bloomberg is worth the read – he says israel and “pro” israel people in the states should support Barry, cuz, in his estimation, Barry is more likely to bomb iran. So, it seems to the one-ups-man- ship regarding everything Israel continues. Warning to Obama Right Or Wrong Folks – Goldberg is correct in his statements
link to salon.com
Goldberg:
“On the matter of Iran, however, Netanyahu would be wrong to root for Romney. Barack Obama is the one who’s more likely to confront Iran militarily, should sanctions and negotiations fail. He has committed himself to stopping Iran by any means necessary, and he has a three-year record as president to back his rhetoric.”
“We know that U.S. voters, and world leaders, allow Obama extraordinary leeway when it comes to deadly drone strikes, precisely because of his politics, character and background. (We are talking about a man, after all, who won the Nobel Peace Prize while ordering the automated killing of suspected Muslim terrorists around the world.) Romney will get no comparative slack.”
Greenwald continues, citing Wikileaks Cables from the CIA saying Barry was their key asset to get western europe’s populations to support the war in afghanistan, being so pretty and well spoken. Greenwald also cites the many former Bush officials who praise the president on his continuation of their policies, or are shocked he has been able to undertake incredbily radical acts, with little opposition.
So, in short, this is the guy (obama) who volunteered to continue bush policy after bush policy (or has claimed even more radical power), continued the neo-liberal/globalist agenda (new free trade deals on the korean peninsula, an update to nafta, plan colombia etc) and has used outright aggression to destroy Libya and has drastically increased military operations from Yemen to Somalia, and yet, I am supposed to believe he takes a moral stance against the occupation of palestine? Hahahahahahaa. Sheee-it.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Here’s an interesting Haaretz article on Israeli spying on the US — and what the CIA thinks of it.
link to haaretz.com
Highlight would probably be:
“…During the Bush administration, the CIA ranked some of the world’s intelligence agencies in order of their willingness to help in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism. One former U.S. intelligence official who saw the completed list said Israel, which hadn’t been directly targeted in attacks by al-Qaida, fell below Libya, which recently had agreed to abandon its nuclear weapons program…”
So maybe Israel is our best ally in the Middle East — now that Qaddafi’s fallen from power.
This may not be relevent, however it mirrors the ethics of that land with milk and honey.
Der Spiegel, the largest political magazine in Europe, has a story on illegal human organs trafficking, originating and run by israelis.
Poor israelis, like russian immigrants, are asked to sell their kidney at a price of about $10,000, that later will be sold to rich europeans at $100,000!!
It is highly illegal and Interpol is looking for several israelis and turks.
Those who read german can visit http://www.spiegel-online.de.
Organ trafficking is nothing new for Israel: watch-Israel Kills Palestinians, Harvests Organs.