Last week Hillary Clinton sucked up to the Israel lobby in a speech questioning President Obama’s strength vis-a-vis Iran, and yesterday Chris Christie sucked up to donors Sheldon Adelson and Michael Steinhardt with his own foreign policy speech delivered at the “Champions of Jewish Values Awards” gala in NY. For all who think Zionism is the bomb of Jewish identity and American image overseas– the Associated Press doesn’t try and put any lipstick on Christie’s speech:
Courting powerful Jewish donors for the second time in two months, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called Sunday for a more aggressive foreign policy that defends American values abroad, but he also said he is concerned about the direction America is heading in.
“The rest of the world watches in desperation and hope that America will realize and act upon once again its indispensable place in the world,” Christie, a prospective Republican presidential contender, said in a keynote address Sunday at the Champions of Jewish Values International awards gala in New York. “We must lead.”
Christie didn’t mention Israel in the speech but he overcame his earlier mistake of referring to the West Bank as “occupied territories,” for which he had had to apologize to Adelson. More of yesterday’s bellicosity, from Time Magazine:
Christie criticized Obama for failing to follow through on his threat to punish Syria for using chemical weapons on its citizens, acknowledging there may be a debate about drawing a “red line.” “Here’s something that should not be up for debate, that once you draw that red line, you enforce it, because if you don’t, America’s credibility will be at stake and will be at risk all over the world,” he said.
The evening was bipartisan. Sean Penn the wonderful liberal received an award. So did Sen Cory Booker, shown below at the taping of his speech, posing with the shrewd leader of Champions of Jewish Values, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Here is Hillary Clinton’s speech, to the American Jewish Committee, from last Thursday, saying “no deal with Iran” was better than a bad deal. Notice the tough talk about a military threat:
She said that the current negotiations on a permanent deal would test if Iran was serious about an accommodation with the West, and expressed her own skepticism. The United States, she said, “will have to be tough, clear-eyed and ready to walk away and increase the pressure if need be.” If the talks fail, Clinton noted, “Every option remains on the table.”…
And she swipes at the Palestinians, of course:
Referring to the stalled talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the former Secretary of State observed that “the parties were not ready to make the choices and compromises necessary to reach agreement on core issues,” even though it was “no mystery” what a peace agreement would look like. She considered the new cooperative arrangement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas a blow to peace, and insisted that Hamas would remain a “pariah” until it renounced violence, recognized Israel, and accepted all existing agreements.
P.S. More from Rabbi Boteach, celebrity adorer: “I want Sean Penn to know that I have accepted his offer to be his running mate.” I.e., it’s no problem for a progressive human rights figure to team up with a defender of attacking Iran, in Boteach’s view. It’s amazing that people like Booker and Penn would even share a stage with Adelson after he called for nuking Iran, but that’s the climate of the Israel lobby. Here are the powerful rightwing donors, on stage:
When di humanitarian liberals merge with the military industrial complex?
US-Ukraine ambassador with an Iraq war architect and anti-Muslim bigot Jamie Kirchick.
https://twitter.com/ZaidJilani…
Or did basic political economy merge Zion with the MIC ?
Track the profits from a new cold war , to whom do they flow?
“‘Here’s something that should not be up for debate, that once you draw that red line, you enforce it, because if you don’t, America’s credibility will be at stake and will be at risk all over the world,’ [Christie] said.”
This is a seriously dumb statement. Obama did the right thing and took advantage of a opportunity to remove the weapons from the Syrians. Indeed, it was Obama’s Bush-aping, stupid-cowboy-line-in-the-sand nonsense that got him in trouble and let Putin look statesmanlike by comparison.
The problem is that the foreign policy that the neo-cons, chicken hawks and American-exceptionalist types is built on an unsustainable premise: that states with governments the US dislikes exist at the sufference of the US and that, should these unliked governments step out of line, that the US not only has ability to remove them (regardless of the feelings of the people of that state, the international community, the law, or anything), but an obligation to do so, and that, to fail to act would be to commit a greater sin (i.e., to endanger the US’s self-imposed image among its allies.) It is a dangerous and pathological mindset.
Anyway, no one should take anything that a blowhard like Chris Christie says. To give you an example of the total lack of character of the man: he gleefully reduced the pay of public employees, saying that the state of NJ couldn’t afford it, and then wasted millions so he, himself, would not have to be on a ballet with Corey Booker in a re-election that Christie was virtually certain to win in a landslide.
Clinton..”insisted that Hamas would remain a “pariah” until it renounced violence, recognized Israel, and accepted all existing agreements. Has Israel renounced violence? No. Has Israel recognized Palestine? No. and has Israel accepted all existing agreements? You must be joking.
Is there any nation, or superpower out there in the world, that has almost every politician that runs for office, first pay homage and devotion to a parasitic, and condemned occupier, FIRST, court it’s wealthy donors, that gives with devious intentions, and must stand in front of their lobbies and vow to defend, and support it, forever?
Do they FIRST stand before the American people and vow to put our nation above others, and take care of it’s own interest first? Are they so desperate to win, they will sell their soul, and integrity, to the devil?
Does Chris Christie applaud Israel’s continuing expansion of illegal colonies of Jews in the West Bank? Does he want the Palestinians to disappear, to please Sheldon Adelson and other rich and powerful Jews in the US?