Well I’m shocked.
Obama @StateDept hires Israel lobbyist David Makovsky to join other AIPACers running its “peace process” http://t.co/A5uSLfWz64
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) November 18, 2013
Laura Rozen broke the story.
Veteran Middle East scholar David Makovsky has joined the team of US Middle East peace envoy Martin Indyk as a strategist and senior advisor.
Makovsky is a keynoter at AIPAC and a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, AIPAC’s thinktank spawn in the 80s. A “central player” in the lobby, according to Walt and Mearsheimer’s book, Makovsky is Dennis Ross’s co-author on several occasions. He has proposed landswaps that allow Israel to keep almost all settlements in the West Bank, and encircle Jerusalem– and in exchange Palestinians get land at the margins. A Palestinian mayor stated on our site that Makovsky had misrepresented him to Congress, saying that he would accept the presence of the wall running through his community in exchange for compensation. Makovsky also told Congress that Israel should ease checkpoints through the use of “appropriate biometrics” — for Palestinians, of course:
“Another idea would be to upgrade Israeli crossing points with appropriate biometrics, in order to shorten the line for visitors.”
This is mind boggling. I have to believe that the Israelis are being intransigent and that Makovsky is the Obama team’s way of saying, We’re on your side, we love you, our team is just about all Jewish and Israel lobbyists, now please give a little, in order to save Israel (Dennis Ross and Makovsky understood that the Jewish state was at risk years ago, in calling for the two-state solution to preserve Israel’s “Jewish character”).
Israel lawyers up: David Makovsky joins Martin Indyk’s negotiating team http://t.co/sbkvLvZ8OV
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 18, 2013
Makovsky’s hire also suggests to me that the Israel lobby is reconstituted, and there is no such thing as a liberal Zionist anymore. You are either a mainstream member of the Israel lobby or a rightwinger. J Street has effected that shift. Dennis Ross and Makovsky and Indyk and J Street are on one side, and the people who support the settlers no matter what are on the right, and the outside of this administration. But both “sides” are variations of the lobby, and the liberal side is incapable of applying real pressure on Israel, and Indyk and Makovsky will accept what Ari Shavit told Terry Gross today: we can’t just end the occupation because that won’t end the conflict, because the Palestinians are stuck on that right of return. But we must manage the conflict indefinitely by making Palestinians’ lives better bit by bit. Economic peace. Appropriate biometrics to make checkpoints run smoothly. Taxation without representation. A deeply cynical idea of freedom for another people.
Appropriate biometrics to make checkpoints run smoothly.
they’ve had this plan in the works for awhile:
and check this out, the alleged need:
so you see, it has nothing to do with creating a profile database of every single person for the purpose of controlling the apatheid state/occupation, the “facts” which led to the passing of the law were merely to stop identity theft and such. riiiight.
J-Street is calling folks asking them to call their Congressperson asking said CP to vote for HR 365 (apparently recommending 2SS)..
WELL! If Indyk and Makovsky are likely to push things the way bad-baby Bibi wants them, then what’s the point **AND** is it good or bad (for I/P peace with justice etc.) to call your CP to vote for HR 365, or **NOT**.
Any chance that (say in the next 50 years, or before climate change is believed in even by the whoever inherits the mantel from the Koch Bros.) a US CP will float a proposal (or merely say out loud) that USA should require Israel to roll-back the settlements, etc.?
To get such an influential person like David Makovsky on it’s side will probably give “team Bibi” a big boost in negotiations with Palestine.
In contrast to that “team Palestine” is doing far worse. Except some promising efforts by Metropolitan Hilarion and Mr Putin to get Pope Francis on board for team Palestine, and some efforts by Mr Lavrov and Mr Shoigu to curb team Bibi’s QME a bit with some hi-tec weapon deals to Egypt and possibly also to Jordan, team Palestine has hardly achieved anything to change the equations of the region for getting into a better negotiation position against team Bibi.
”Makovsky is the Obama team’s way of saying, We’re on your side, we love you, our team is just about all Jewish and Israel lobbyists, now please give a little, in order to save Israel ”
65 years of proving that old definition of stupid was right……sucking up over and over and expecting a different result.
I would suggest what the Zios & Isr should be told to get the right results but it would never get pass moderation.
What a completely misbegotten and provocative and dismal move. Are we really this stupid???
Maybe the US does not want peace or justice, either.