Obama had his 9th meeting with the leader of which state of 7 million people last week?
Editor: Last weekend at Occupy AIPAC, Bruce Wolman remarked that the lobby demands so much diplomatic attention from the White House that it takes away Obama’s ability to deal more assertively with China– say, by insisting that it reinvest its dollars here so as to grow American jobs. Oh no: Obama must use his diplomatic capital to get China on board with our Iranian agenda. A few days later we saw the two ads produced by Israel lobby groups making Obama’s supposed betrayal of Israel the only issue in the forthcoming campaign. We sent them to Wolman, and asked him to expound his theory.
Besides political discourse and the blatant hypocrisy between expressed values and actual deeds, what about actual diplomatic horse-trading or the utilization of capital in our soft-power account? I believe the latter has a great deal to do with the Israel government and Israel lobby’s hold over Congress and the Democratic Party, and thus in turn on the Executive Branch itself.
In all the issues I raise below, how many lobby-approved appointees are now in executive positions that deal with those issues? Even non-Jews appointed must have pro-Israel/Wall Street cred.
And consider a leading lobby organization, the American Jewish Committee. It runs its own foreign policy. There is probably not a government in the world that would refuse the request for an AJC meeting if asked for one. They are too afraid to say no. Look at these testimonials:
“AJC remains today an important partner for Germany-both in terms of dialogue with American Jewry and transatlantic relations in general.”
—Angela Merkel, German Chancellor
“Let me acknowledge those who have substantially contributed to the creation of an order of security and peace in Europe, such as the American Jewish Committee.”
—Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003)
“AJC is the most effective, most influential, and most respected of American Jewish organizations…. My door will always be open to AJC.”
—Nicolas Sarkozy, French President
Whether the lobby has power or not, the outside world thinks it does and foreign governments are constantly trying to get lobby support for their own issues in Washington.
Now some of the costs:
1. Many segments of US industry realize that they are not benefiting from US-China trade policy. Some industries such as solar power and telecom systems are getting decimated. Illegal copying pervades software, entertainment and gaming. Other industries are not getting agreed access to Chinese markets, and those that are do not earn profits or realize they are being forced to transfer their technology and marketing skills at an alarming rate. Let’s say finance, Walmart, agriculture and Boeing still benefit.
Are the rest without political influence? How much is US willingness to suffer enormous persistent trade deficits and Chinese exchange rate control due to a quid-pro-quo for a relatively free-hand carrying out our self-defeating ME policies, including the full-court press on Iran? (The trade deficit is a much more serious and immediate problem than the fiscal deficit. In fact, most of the fiscal deficit would go away if we could get our trade in balance.)
2. How much has defending Israel in the UN and reshaping the management at the IAEA cost us with respect to soft-power flexing? Besides the coercion applied, what did we give up or agree to in order to buy votes on the Security Council or other organs?
3. How much have we damaged ties with Turkey by taking Israel’s side on the dispute between them and by insisting Turkey make-up with Israel?
4. How much is our relationship with Egypt being damaged by our insistence that any new rulers maintain the status quo with respect to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty?
5. How much is our unshakeable support of Israel preventing any reconciliation with Iran?
6. How much is our unflappable defense of Israel’s nuclear weapon program preventing non-proliferation in the MidEast? (We are not even allowed to mention the notion of a Nuclear Free Zone in the Middle East, something every country in the world except one favors.)
7. How much do we concede to the ME authoritarian/royal dictatorships to buy their cooperation with our Israeli bias?
8. How much is our beefing up of Colombia and the deep freeze in relations with Venezuela due to Israel’s relationship with both countries?
9. What trade concessions have we conceded to Japan, South Korea, and the other Asian tigers to keep them in line with respect to our Mideast policies?
We have been giving up our trade leverage to benefit Israel for a long time. Our first international trade agreement was with–guess who? Israel. Said agreement is a monument to agreeing to get screwed by Israel; the net gain for Israel’s trade at the expense of our own is Gigantic! That’s been the secret model condition for all our subsequent trade agreements. If only Dick & Jane had a slight clue. I’d love to lock the lovely couple in a room and go over the fine details of all our MOUs with Israel, in addition to all our trade agreements’ fine conditions, beginning with the first, with Israel. And then show a graph of trade net loss and gain to US v to Israel.
Thomson Rutherford
March 11, 2012 12:23 pm
Excellent summary of our foreign policy dilemma, Bruce. It’s something I and some others have been saying here for years: The U,S, special relationship with Israel is the controlling factor in determining American foreign policy – wherever. It chooses our political leaders and top government officials. It works to blanket our government in secrecy and misinformation. It promotes public ignorance and manipulates public passions for its own foul ends. “It” is the special relationship pressed on America by ‘friends of Israel.’
Such is the power of the Israel Lobby and its neocon and ‘liberal’ supporters, along with its pathetic Christian ‘Zionist’ groupees. All governments and their representatives fear the ruthless power of the Lobby. In the U.S., it is a principal threat to the survival of democracy and Constitutional freedoms. It is an enemy of the people.
radii
March 11, 2012 12:24 pm
israel also sucks untold billion$ from our Treasury every single year … and they suck the loyalty right out of our Congress … as they suck t he objectivity right out of our media … and suck the credibility right out of our foreign policy … wile sucking the national interest right out of our warmaking policies … and sucks our privacy and security from our electronic communications (Carl Cameron reports right after 9/11 on Amdocs) … I guess israel is the Succubus of the United States
pabelmont
March 11, 2012 12:33 pm
Mr. Wolman: Have you any way to [1] discover if your views are shared by CEOs of disadvantaged USA industries; or [2] to put your views before them and ask them to push the issue in Washington? It might sometimes work.
OTOH, many CEOs (say in Hollywood) may be Zionists (or, worse, right-wing Zionists) and be willing for their industries (of which they are disarmingly known as fiduciaries if the industries are widely-traded corporations) to suffer for Israel’s sake. This would be, if true, another example of the corruption of USA society (this time within corporations instead of because of corporations).
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the shareholders of BIG-FILM and BIG-TV specifically directed their CEOs to use corporate political-spending to FAVOR their own industries by getting pro-industry folks into Washington jobs IN PLACE of any placemen who are NOT pro-FILM and pro-TV (even if they are, e.g., pro-Israel)!
Donald Johnson
March 11, 2012 12:46 pm
Very interesting post. Maybe others had brought up these possible links, but some of it was new ground for me, the China part in particular.
Slightly off topic, but Chris Hayes did a show on Israel and America this morning. I only saw the middle portion of a two hour program, but it was good, and way way above what you’d normally see in the MSM.
We have been giving up our trade leverage to benefit Israel for a long time. Our first international trade agreement was with–guess who? Israel. Said agreement is a monument to agreeing to get screwed by Israel; the net gain for Israel’s trade at the expense of our own is Gigantic! That’s been the secret model condition for all our subsequent trade agreements. If only Dick & Jane had a slight clue. I’d love to lock the lovely couple in a room and go over the fine details of all our MOUs with Israel, in addition to all our trade agreements’ fine conditions, beginning with the first, with Israel. And then show a graph of trade net loss and gain to US v to Israel.
Excellent summary of our foreign policy dilemma, Bruce. It’s something I and some others have been saying here for years: The U,S, special relationship with Israel is the controlling factor in determining American foreign policy – wherever. It chooses our political leaders and top government officials. It works to blanket our government in secrecy and misinformation. It promotes public ignorance and manipulates public passions for its own foul ends. “It” is the special relationship pressed on America by ‘friends of Israel.’
Such is the power of the Israel Lobby and its neocon and ‘liberal’ supporters, along with its pathetic Christian ‘Zionist’ groupees. All governments and their representatives fear the ruthless power of the Lobby. In the U.S., it is a principal threat to the survival of democracy and Constitutional freedoms. It is an enemy of the people.
israel also sucks untold billion$ from our Treasury every single year … and they suck the loyalty right out of our Congress … as they suck t he objectivity right out of our media … and suck the credibility right out of our foreign policy … wile sucking the national interest right out of our warmaking policies … and sucks our privacy and security from our electronic communications (Carl Cameron reports right after 9/11 on Amdocs) … I guess israel is the Succubus of the United States
Mr. Wolman: Have you any way to [1] discover if your views are shared by CEOs of disadvantaged USA industries; or [2] to put your views before them and ask them to push the issue in Washington? It might sometimes work.
OTOH, many CEOs (say in Hollywood) may be Zionists (or, worse, right-wing Zionists) and be willing for their industries (of which they are disarmingly known as fiduciaries if the industries are widely-traded corporations) to suffer for Israel’s sake. This would be, if true, another example of the corruption of USA society (this time within corporations instead of because of corporations).
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the shareholders of BIG-FILM and BIG-TV specifically directed their CEOs to use corporate political-spending to FAVOR their own industries by getting pro-industry folks into Washington jobs IN PLACE of any placemen who are NOT pro-FILM and pro-TV (even if they are, e.g., pro-Israel)!
Very interesting post. Maybe others had brought up these possible links, but some of it was new ground for me, the China part in particular.
Slightly off topic, but Chris Hayes did a show on Israel and America this morning. I only saw the middle portion of a two hour program, but it was good, and way way above what you’d normally see in the MSM.