There is no issue like the Israel issue on which deviation from the line will likely get you fired unless you are big enough, like Tom Friedman, that you are untouchable. Look at Congressional Democrats like Al Franken and Barbara Boxer pretending to be Likud zealots out of fear. (The Republicans don’t have to fake it! ) Look at MSNBC which never even mentions the lobby that is controlling US Mideast policy– with the great exception of Chris Hayes the other night at DNC. Look at the big name bloggers with the exceptions of Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan.Not even the NRA exerts this kind of control and, in any case, it represents a domestic not a foreign issue. The good news is this. The lobby is terrified by us. That is why the Israel Firster meme caused them to go into purge overdrive.But it’s too late. We have succeeded in making them self conscious and nervous. And it has affected the drive to war with Iran because they know that this time there will be no argument about who coerced us into war. Everyone knows it is them.
As a progressive Democrat, I am convinced that on issues as important as the US-Israel alliance and the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program, there is no room for uncivil discourse or name calling, like ‘Israel Firster or ‘Likudnik’, and policy or political rhetoric that is hostile to Israel, or suggests that Iran has no nuclear weapons program, has no place in the mainstream Democratic party discourse. I also believe that when it occurs, progressive institutions, have a responsibility not to tolerate such speech or arguments
Block paid for the campaign by losing a job of his own– he had to resign from a thinktank because of his tactics. (Though he keeps landing on his feet; he is now head of the rightwing Israel Project.) His smear campaign was soon joined by Commentary magazine and Kristol’s Emergency Committee for Israel, which published a full-page ad in the New York Times attacking the Center for American Progress as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
After that Block’s antisemitism charge was echoed by another “liberal” Democrat, Spencer Ackerman in Tablet.
In February Alan Dershowitz said that Media Matters should fire MJ Rosenberg, and he was going to the president about it.
“I don’t know whether President Obama has any idea that Media Matters has turned the corner against Israel in this way,” he said. “I can tell you this, he will know very shortly because I am beginning a serious campaign on this issue and I will not let it drop until and unless Rosenberg is fired from Media Matters, or Media Matters changes its policy or the White House disassociates itself from Media Matters.”
First, in a full-page ad in the New York Times—featuring an image of a particularly malevolent-looking wolf, attired in a suit and tie, and holding a sheep mask—E.C.I. attacked two liberal advocacy organizations, the Center for American Progress (closely aligned with the White House) and Media Matters. It quoted the American Jewish Committee; the Anti-Defamation League; Alan Dershowitz, of Harvard Law School; and others, denouncing the groups’ work as anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic. Listing some of CAP’s and Media Matters’ donors, and their phone numbers, E.C.I. demanded, “Call these foundations and ask them: Why are you funding bigotry and anti-Israel extremism?”
Ms Bruck, time to follow that up!
Great piece of journalism, Phil.
There are very, very clear echoes of the early nineties but when it came to conservatives. As Kristol alluded to, he and his friends(like David Frum, who these days try to pretend to be a wounded moderate wanting a sensible GOP, instead of the extremism we have today, an extremism he worked overtime to bring about) purged significant numbers of paleoconservative writers.
Some of them were clearly reactionary, but that isn’t the point. The point is that their reactionary politics had the wrong angle. On issue after issue, various pretexts were being trumped out but there was a common thread: they weren’t buying the Likudnik line. Back then, William Buckley was the useful tool of the neocons, doing their dirty work.
This time, there is no such easy tool. Sure, Podesta is spineless, but he isn’t eager about this. Second, the radicalism of the Likudniks today are far more clearer. It isn’t as theoretical as it was back then, the Oslo sham process had just begun.
Today we know what happened – settlements increased by a record amount – and the 2SS is all but dead. Second, even if those conservatives were paleocons, they weren’t exactly human rights activists. They were moderate realists, concerned with the welfare of the U.S, rather than Israel and didn’t buy the propaganda line of “idenitcal interests”(they were too smart to fall for that obvious crap).
Today, you have not only moderates but genuine liberals. People who aren’t only mostly looking out for the U.S. but want a just and peaceful solution for it’s own sake.
Because it is the liberal position.
And these people know who the true liberals are – and it sure hell ain’t Spencer Ackerman, Dershowitz, Goldberg and their neocon alliance with Kristol and the other Likudniks.
Despite a few tactical noises employed, when it chips are down, you know which side they are going to take and sure enough, they lined up exactly how we thought – together with the neocons.
The second part is that the internet allows people to stay relevant, MJ is a case in point. People read him because he’s smart and he knows those people. You can’t quote him, he’s too toxic for that, but people do read him.
The campaigns are very similar in structure. The neocons(who are in both parties and draw considerable support from ‘liberal’ organizations like the ADL – which never bats an eye to support Christian fundies if they are pro-Likudniks – and other mainstream Jewish organizations) never believed in open discussion.
They never have. They may have rejected the Stalinist left’s politics but they never forgot to use the Stalinist methods of silencing dissent.
I don’t think it will work this time around for the reasons stated above, Israel is today much further along the Apartheid line and it’s very hard to protect Apartheid in the name of anti-Semitism; the counter-question becomes obvious: are Jews and Apartheid naturals together? If no, then why do you treat it like that?
This time they’re forced to rely more on brutal power, donor power and organizational heft. It can carry them some way, but something that has changed now is the soft alliance between realists(from both parties) and the left on foreign policy and especially on I/P.
You have a good chunk of writers from the Atlantic writing on Israel as it is(the Atlantic was always too WASPish to follow the Likudnik line, is that partly of the reason why Goldberg diversified to Bloomberg?). You have people from the National Interest writing about Israel as it is. The American Conservative mag, still on the margins, but less so among the young.
It’s a broader coalition. The targets may be specific, but the sentiment around Israel, it’s obvious Apartheid(just today the government officially approved Ariel University and cemented it further) is simply too large an issue to hide.
The RNC never had a moment like the DNC had last week.
This time, there are simply too many targets to shoot.
And the fortress to defend is uglier than ever – with no improvement in sight for embattled.
Did Buckley do this because of his association with the CIA?
Other possibilities: blackmail, bribery, financial manipulation, psychological manipulation, social manipulation, etc.
Another possibility: Buckley thought the neocons would be a useful tool and ended up becoming their tool — he miscalculated the power balance.
In any case, the neocons invaded and infiltrated National Review and now totally dominate it. National Review, like the Washington Post, is a propaganda arm of the Israeli government and Likud.
Buckley did it for much more selfish reasons than fear or blackmail; that would imply a man with principles but who is under duress.
The story of William F. Buckley is far more banal and mundane, I’m afraid. But the conspiracy theory of a man with great secrets is more appealing; I’ll grant you that much.
In the end, we have to view Buckley the same way we have to see Henry “Scoop” Jackson; political henchmen serving higher interests. Both were favourites of the neocons for similar reasons.
grrrreat post phil
Ditto, Phil; very informative.
It’s a political disaster for Israel, and for American Jews, that controversies over Israeli politics have escalated to this level of noisiness and ugliness in American politics. It will be all downhill from here for the Israel lobby, which needs to operate entirely in the shadows to survive.
Alan Dershowitz and William Kristol bragging, boasting and gloating before the entire world about the power of the Israel lobby to crush its political opponents strikes one as being quite mad. Pro-Israel militants, as they have become increasingly strident and shrill, have gradually lost their bearings and situational awareness.
If the American Jewish community doesn’t cut loose from the Israel lobby, the Israel lobby will severely damage the American Jewish community.
“…the Israel lobby, which needs to operate entirely in the shadows to survive.
Alan Dershowitz and William Kristol bragging, boasting and gloating before the entire world about the power of the Israel lobby to crush its political opponents…”
This parallels the recent stunningly hubristic behavior of the ‘triumphant’ settlers. First, Dani Dayan in the NY Times (“Worldly and Pragmatic,” says Jodi Rudoren) and now this new one in Ynet (WARNING: People with high blood pressure: consult your doctor before reading this.)
Israel is just one giant, smug gloatfest now, as it begins circling — faster and faster –the porcelain bowl.
Good putting together Phil.
Now why doesn’t the Media corner of Garfield and Gladstone on NRP do this story….like to see a media interviewing of the character assassins and their victims re journalism and the media.
If Dershowitz, Block, Kristol and the rest of the rest of the gang go ballistic over the I-Firster designation wonder how they’re gonna like being designated Anti- American.
The Neos and Zios are Anti American– censorship, war, torture, empire, I-First, racism, elitness– all of it Anti American.
Obama needs to kick it up a notch and introduce ‘ Anti American’ into the debate, put it into play against Romney and the zio -neos, so we can have that national conversation about what America is suppose to be and what it’s real interest are.
American,
Some of the ways in which pro-Israel militants like William Kristol are anti-American:
1. anti-civil liberties
2. anti-conservatism
3. anti-due process
4. anti-foreign policy realism
5. anti-free speech
6. anti-government and corporate accountability
7. anti-government and corporate transparency
8. anti-liberalism
9. anti-privacy rights
10. anti-tolerance
11. anti-US Bill of Rights
12. anti-US Constitution
13. pro-apartheid
14. pro-assassinations
15. pro-censorship
16. pro-collective punishment
17. pro-ethnic cleansing
18. pro-ethnic nationalism
19. pro-ethnocracy
20. pro-hate speech
21. pro-police state methods
22. pro-racism
23. pro-radical wealth inequality
24. pro-religious fanaticism
25. pro-religious nationalism
26. pro-segregation
27. pro-state terrorism
28. pro-theocracy
29. pro-torture
30. pro-warrantless wiretaps
And of course they are the ringleaders of endless bankrupting foreign wars on behalf of Greater Israel that greatly injure the American interest.
anti health care for all
Kristol led the attack against Hillary care
anti-health care
anti-environment
anti-rule of law
American,
Check out:
BEGIN ARTICLE
TITLE How We Became Israel
AUTHOR Andrew J. Bacevich
PUBLICATION The American Conservative
DATE September 10, 2012
URL link to theamericanconservative.com
COMMENT author=entre nous
Most Americans still consider torture, assassination, indefinite detention and mass surveillance to be not just repugnant but deeply un-American.
Working through neoconservative intellectuals and other agents of influence, Israel clearly intends to hurry us on from the residual republican, Christian America that condemned such practices, to the post-Christian, post-moral empire that they believe is required for the defense of Israel. It is also very important to them that if Israel does it, then we must do it also, so that we cannot say “we would not do that; we are better than that”. And so we are groomed, accustomed to doing things that would have aroused disgust and contempt in our forefathers.
END ARTICLE
@ sean
Link doesn’t work…something going on at TAC site..but here is cache page if anyone wants to read it..
link to webcache.googleusercontent.com
”What’s hard to figure out is why the United States would choose to follow Israel’s path.
The process of aligning U.S. national-security practice with Israeli precedents is now essentially complete. Their habits are ours. Reversing that process would require stores of courage and imagination that may no longer exist in Washington. Given the reigning domestic political climate, those holding or seeking positions of power find it easier—and less risky—to stay the course, vainly nursing the hope that by killing enough “terrorists” peace on terms of our choosing will result. Here too the United States has succumbed to Israeli illusions.”
Although I don’t know why he bothers to ask why or how the US got “Israelified”. …he knows how, he just doesn’t want to make a point about it I guess.
It is not like the naive American virgin was seduced by “national-security practice” from “Israeli precedents”. Read about School of Americas, this is pretty serious stuff. Now USA is preoccupied with “Islamic terrorists”, before it was Latin American leftists. The main difference is that we cannot outsource as much to death squads anymore (who got some training in School of Americas). So we have this cultural strain that allows to ponder on a religious TV show “why we can’t simply assassinate Hugo Chavez?” What would Christ do to secure oil supply? link to usatoday.com
And exactly same Christian clergy forms the core of “Christian Zionists”. Are these people at the margin, like skinheads, or smack in the middle of Establishment?
It is true that USA has a Constitution and some cult of Founding Fathers, and they have some tempering efffect. But while nobody will say outright loudly that Founding Fathers were well meaning idiots, in effect this is the popular sentiment: inalienable rights of ALL people? even terists? You can’t be serious!.
I just wonder, and perhaps someone can investigate that: you can survive in outfits like CAP while criticizing US “bipartisan policies” like assassinations and killing with drones, but not while criticizing Israel? Or serious critiques must find platforms that are not related to either of the major parties, like personally run blogs or columns in non-traditional media like Salon Magazine?
Thanks for posting this. Bacevich is always a good read. A smart realist/paleo-con who really soured on American imperial adventurism after his son was killed in Iraq.
The Israelification of the US means that we no longer “speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Instead, like the Zionist State, we shriek loudly and act like a big dick.
Phil/Annie you are going to be very interested in the last hour of the Diane Rehm show focused on Israeli perspectives on Iran like our MSM is not always sharing Israel and the I lobbies focus on Iran we need another whole hour. Diane allowed one inaccuracy after the next to be repeated. Read the comments and facebook comments. The Rehm team continuing to do their part in normalizing an attack on Iran based on unsubstantiated claims. When will they have a truly opposing views on this issue as well as helping the American public to become far more educated on the issue based on facts? By having the Leveretts on the program. When. Diane said some very pathetic things like” If Israel has nuclear weapons” What a kiss ass she has turned out to be
I just made a polite comment over there. However I did call Rehm Anti- American for constantly promoting the one sided Israeli war propaganda to the US listening public.
Probably won’t stay up long..:)
the truth. Hope you will contact them and ask them to have the Leveretts on. Great interview with Flynt over at Race for Iran. Clear and concrete. Unlike the inflammatory rhetoric Diane allowed to be repeated on her program about Iran. She is helping set the stage for an attack. Normalizing the demonization of Iran. No challenges just goes along
Really something how the Diane Rehm show’s title was “Israeli Perspectives on Iran” as if Americans hear any other perspective on Iran in our MSM. The Rehm show has been continually getting worse by promoting the normalization of an attack on Iran. Their were no opposing views on this program. Just opinions on when not if
Thanks for letting us know what’s going on out there Kathleen, but I’m not sure why you continually torture yourself by listening to crap like NPR, Rachel Maddow, etc.
We have to know where, when, why and by who these falsehoods are being repeated. And apply pressure to stop this very dangerous rhetoric. We are talking about lives on the line
I found that I became much better informed about the world after I stopped watching ALL cable TV news a decade ago. Cable TV news is intolerable. I can scan and absorb much more high-quality information on the Internet in an hour (especially using smart news readers like Prismatic and My6sense) than I can watching cable TV news for a month.
Rachel Maddow is what passes for an independent and skeptical mind on cable TV news. Hilarious.
Hound and pound the warmongers where ever they go and whenever they repeat unsubstantiated claims. Hammer them as well as the host who have them on and often like Diane did today allow them to get away unchallenged. Again this is not the first time Diane has allowed this type of warmongering to go on her program unchallenged. And it more than likely will not be the last. Shine the light
I found that I became much better informed about the world after I stopped watching ALL cable TV news a decade ago. Cable TV news is intolerable.
there was a study some time back that found that factual knowledge of events surrounding the first gulf war (i believe) was negatively correlated with the number of TV news hours watched. (i think got that right) iow, the more TV ‘news’ ingested, the less you knew. this would seem to be the case with most issues, as a significant number of americans still believe that sadaam hussein had something to do with 9-11, or, and this is just friggin’ depressing, the recent poll in which 6% of persons polled believe that romney had more to do with the death of bin laden than BHO, which is probably the result of some psychopathological ‘bounce’ from televised BHO is a muslim rhetoric. (just as depressing is the 31% who are ‘not sure’ if romney had more to do with the death of bin laden than the sitting president. yes, i am assuming that BL was assassinated in 2011 for the sake of argument, although even my pre-teen doesn’t believe that.)
link to publicpolicypolling.com
Your pre-teen is very wise, marcb. OBL was in the advanced stages of kidney failure in 2001, and the ghost they show looking at the TV in Abbotabad looks nothing like him.
Funny how not producing a body leads to ‘conspiracy theories’, eh?
More under belly dirt…
“Anti-Islam groups in America have provided financial support to Dutch politician Geert Wilders, an anti-immigration campaigner who is seeking re-election to the Dutch parliament this week”
…. And who might that be? Noneother than Daniel Pipes and his sidekick David Horowitz
link to reuters.com
There is no issue like the Israel issue on which deviation from the line will likely get you fired unless you are big enough, like Tom Friedman, that you are untouchable.
is that it? friedman’s too big to fail. or is it that his trained nose for the *ss of authority seemlessly led him to serve in some other capacity after he was thoroughly discredited on matters of ME politics? he is now an expert on the environment and the economy, no small issues, but thankfully for friedman there is an internet’s worth of material to crib from. (i am personally grateful for his recent series of articles on technology and education where i’ve learned that it is important to be able to ‘adapt’ to a rapidly changing work force, and that robots will eliminate jobs, just as the PC did . . .. that’s quite a hypothetical limb to step onto in 2012, but our nostradamus is a naturally fearless prognosticator.)
Flynt Leverett has a great interview up about Israel/Iran/U.S. over at Race for Iran
Definition of “Israel Firster”: someone who is more preoccupied with the Israeli interest than with any other issue. Many pro-Israel activists (not all) are obviously Israel Firsters.
How to spot Israel Firsters? Content analyze their public writings — how much attention do they pay to promoting the Israeli interest and attacking Israel’s enemies compared to discussing other issues?
Jeffrey Goldberg, William Kristol and Alan Dershowitz, for instance, are clear-cut Israel Firsters — they leave no room for doubt on the matter. And for them it is all a matter of ethnic self-interest — the larger public good plays little role in their political calculations.
I wrote that being he a lawyer, Dersh has to be of course – so to say – a professional liar. And maybe he’s even proud of that. Moreover, that as legal counselor he makes his job, and he’s capable of advocating any crap in order to defend his case, whatever.
But I must say that as tenacious slanderer, he is even better. A first prize firster. So, irrational, unworthy of trust. Pure garbage on the net and anywhere.
Recalling Norman Finkelstein when the latter was trying to get his tenure, his argue – against full evidence – he did not try to influence Schwarzenegger was even laughable.
Insofar as he is a famed lawyer, though, and people are well aware of any legal trickery, it is amazing the fact he’s able to talk in public (let alone look at himself in the mirror) without blushing to death.
“… Barbara Boxer pretending to be Likud zealots out of fear…”
…Barbara Boxer being one of my senators.
I suppose it’s some consolation that she’s faking it. Is it?
She used to be mine, and I never got the impression it was fake. Like Feinstein — two zio-peas in a pod…
But maybe MJ speaks the truth. As you imply, though, it doesn’t make a whole hell of a lot of difference — not as long as they’re all afraid to stop faking it.
tear-stained uzi says: “…Like Feinstein — two zio-peas in a pod…”
Actually, both failed to vote for or sign or whatever that last ‘let’s bomb Iran’ resolution or letter. I wasn’t surprised that Feinstein refused; it was a pleasant surprise — and perhaps a straw in the wind — that Boxer refused as well.
While I don’t pretend to follow domestic politics with rapt fascination, Boxer has always struck me as a twit, while Feinstein has exactly the sort of sense of responsibility for her actions that we could use more of among politicians today. I don’t necessarily agree with her specific views — particularly on Israel — but she’s an example of a species we could use more of.
Its questionable that she is “faking it”. Zunes had a good article detailing Barbara Boxer’s horrible record on foreign policy and not just the Middle East.
link to huffingtonpost.com
Most Californians have no idea her foreign policy votes are so bad.
rws450 says: “Its questionable that she is “faking it”. Zunes had a good article detailing Barbara Boxer’s horrible record on foreign policy and not just the Middle East.
link to huffingtonpost.com
Most Californians have no idea her foreign policy votes are so bad.”
I imagine Boxer diligently does what is in her political best interest. That’s precisely why her refusing to participate in the last exercise in ‘let’s get Iran’ was so significant.
When it is no longer politically advantageous for American politicians to support Israel, Israel will be over.
OT, plenty of speculation about the murder of the Iraqi/British family in the Swiss Alps up on Craig Murray’s Web site: The Al Hilli Conundrum. The predominant view among the commenters seems to be that it was the Mossad.
I’ll go read that. Must admit my thoughts went that direction too. Engineer, satellite company, etc. Seems too professionally carried out to be the ‘family’ element.
i don’t know if you remember, but there was a woman, a swiss national i believe, who was a nuclear engineer and wound up dead somewhere in switzerland or s.germany under similar circumstances back in the early 90s. i tried doing a search on lemonde where i think i saw the story originally, but no luck.
omg i am going to be so glued to that for awhile. thank you lysias
There was a lot about that 2 days ago on your favorite web-site:
link to moonofalabama.org
Strange that Iranian TV breaks the news about the nuclear scientist, then UK news follow up with a watered down story about satellites…
link to presstv.com
thanks mndwss, i’d read the post but not the thread. i got a little distracted on the day after link too. btw, i love moon (and will always read b anywhere anytime) , but mondoweiss is now my favorite website.
Correction: the murder was in the French Alps.
Semi related–
link to news.antiwar.com
Clinton: US ‘Not Setting Deadlines’ for Iran
Israeli war hawks seem to have buckled to a firm US position of favoring talks and sanctions over military action
However, since it appears I-firster aren’t going to be able to push the US into a military attack on Iran — a slow starvation and regime change is the next best thing according to the democrats.
Press full of news of Dem leaders demanding another third round of ‘crippling’ sanctions on Iran.
Perhaps enough of the world is tired enough of ISR’merica to ignore many of the sanctions…as some are already doing.
Clinton: US ‘Not Setting Deadlines’ for Iran
american, i just happened to post this on another thread w/wapo link
link to mondoweiss.net
@ annie
o.k. didn’t see it before.
Annie says: “american, i just happened to post this on another thread w/wapo link “
My — and so did I.
link to mondoweiss.net
I realize this ‘long-lost twin’ thing might make you nervous — but were you adopted?
no i wasn’t colin and i share the same blue eyes with all my siblings and we all have the same speaking voice so i’m pretty sure i know from whence i came.
but hey! were you? maybe my parents they left another by the side of the road. we were a handful.
Annie says: “…but hey! were you? maybe my parents they left another by the side of the road. we were a handful.”
It’s possible, I suppose. The ‘handful’ bit fits. I ran into a former baby-sitter of mine — and the memory still made her shiver. That would have been forty years or so after the fact.
The sanctions are a total waste of time. It is amazing that the American government has permitted the Israeli government to get Americans bogged down in this nonsense.
Iran has every right to develop any technology that Israel has developed in any sphere, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise.
At some point, Americans are going to grow weary of listening to the Israel lobby dictate to them whom to hate, punish, cripple, torture, kill, starve to death, annihilate, etc.
We need to get refocused on rebuilding our own nation and reestablishing the values of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. We need to recover an America-centric (and global) outlook on the world, and free ourselves of the Israel lobby. Supporting apartheid states driven by ethno-religious nationalist messianism is a losing proposition in the contemporary world.
this will be interesting american, since iran is not iraq, and the US does not have the same relative power it had when madeline albright was okay with starving iraqi infants to death. see this on asian interest in iranian oil:
link to india.nydailynews.com
“…since it appears I-firster aren’t going to be able to push the US into a military attack on Iran — a slow starvation and regime change is the next best thing…” — American
Funny coincidence, but Netanyahu’s got his heart set on regime change, too.
– Oh, were you talking about Iran?
Time to get a little angrier, Phil. So far it’s been reportage, and bringing out the facts. The results of these actions are apparent. But what is not are the consequences down the road. Think about them.
This is sort of related: How we became Israel by Peter Bachevich in todays “American Conservative.”
link to theamericanconservative.com
The process of aligning U.S. national-security practice with Israeli precedents is now essentially complete. Their habits are ours. Reversing that process would require stores of courage and imagination that may no longer exist in Washington. Given the reigning domestic political climate, those holding or seeking positions of power find it easier—and less risky—to stay the course, vainly nursing the hope that by killing enough “terrorists” peace on terms of our choosing will result. Here too the United States has succumbed to Israeli illusions.
Party functionaries and those in the media operate in their own echo chamber. Those who do not echo along are purged. But slowly, ever so slowly, Americans “get it” and are suspicious of their own leaders following Israel über alles as it brings us all down.
In the end, maybe there is simply too much money involved to keep this conflict going. The most powerful and richest families in Israel are in the business of weapons. Take away war and conflict and fear and what is there to keep an essentially multi cultural society together? In this way, the US and Israel are so very similar.
Ah, but retribution could be sweet! They’re stepping up finally and you’re documenting it. Which put’s you in a dangerous position as it unravels. This will not end in a debate and there will be serious collateral damage. “Their habits are ours”, not at all, our leadership is compromised by massive bribes and they’ve mastered it. Nothing could be clearer after the Demo\Republican beauty pageants. If you think you can reform this situation through debate, go plant some flowers. A better use of your time.
Hej! Tumta
It isn’t just the two main parties that have been purged, or the news departments in mainstream media, but the State Department. A series of articles in The Atlantic and other media in the 80′s and 90′s led to a purge of ‘Arabists’ in the State Department. So long time career diplomats with unique experience of the Middle East were replaced by people best qualified as blindly loyal to Israel or too scared to speak up.
I can see why.
“4 Israel critics have now been purged from Democratic Party-linked orgs”
Right, and any of you who in the face of all the evidence still continue to vote one or the other power party are complicit.
Repeat: by voting “Democrat” all you do is voting Likud and AIPAC. Period.
“Not even the NRA exerts this kind of control”
Of course not. The NRA is not supported 100% by the “Democratic” dictatorship party, with the complicity of anyone who votes for it.
And those who aren’t complicit, like Cynthia McKinney, are also, purged.