Mark Kirk’s recent legislation seeking to cut the number of recognized Palestinian refugees has brought new attention to the senator’s track record of being one of Israel’s strongest supporters in Congress (no small feat). But it is also well known that Sen. Kirk suffered a very serious stroke in January and has not made a public appearance since. I find it odd that Kirk would be sponsoring legislation during the early stages of his recovery process from a massive stroke. It simply does not make sense that in the course of months-long rehabilitation he would be focusing on the money Americans could save by slashing the funds paid out to UNRWA. Not logical. Look at Gabrielle Gifford’s legislation during recovery. Projects for the people of Illinois? Yes. Our troops? Sure. Legislating the number of Palestinian refugees? I don’t get it.
To understand where this legislation is coming from, it’s helpful to look at who’s running the shop in Kirk’s absence. A quick review of some of Kirk’s key DC staff reveals that this bill shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
The most immediately relevant staffer would seem to be foreign policy assistant Igor Khrestin. Khrestin was a researcher at the American Enterprise Institue (AEI) and has written about Israel and Iran for Daniel Pipes’s Middle East Quarterly, which would seem to be relevant as Pipes has been outspoken on the legislation. Khrestin has also written for the Kristol’s Weekly Standard, NRO and the National Interest.
Kirk’s Deputy Chief of Staff Richard Goldberg also has deep ties to the lobby and is clearly a partisan looking to use his position to help Israel.
There’s this call for a Hasbara Fellowships AIPAC After Hours Events:
AIPAC After Hours Event
Sunday, March 4th 2012 8-11 PM
The Warehouse Theater @ The Passenger
1021 7th street, NW (between New York Ave & L street)
http://www.hasbarafellowships.org/alumni-young- professionals-events
200 Young Jewish Professionals & Hasbara Fellowships alumni attended the Hasbara AIPAC After Hours cocktail event. Richard Goldberg, Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Kirk (R-IL) and Lieutenant in the Navy Reserve spoke about the Arab Spring & implications for Israel & a casual “no-holds” bar.
But more importantly this speech he gave to the Ida Crown Jewish Academy last year: Richard Goldberg Addresses Class of 2011
Graduates, when I think about how much has changed in the last 10 years, I am struck more by what has stayed the same.
In June 2001, we sat where you sit now. For us, our childhood memories were of a wall coming down, Scud missiles falling on Israel and a decade of peace and economic boon. On graduation day, as I stood here to deliver the Senior Class address, none of us could have imagined how our world would change in just three short months.
But for you, September 11th defined your childhood – your adolescence spent knowing only an America at war.
At the same time, when it comes to Israel, it’s amazing to think how much has remained the same.
Ten years ago, we watched the explosion of the second Intifida – we prayed for the safety of three Israeli soldiers kidnapped on the Lebanese border – and our parents trembled as we prepared to set out for Israel or college campuses to face unknown danger and persecution.
Today, we prepare for a political tsunami in September with the potential to spur a third Intifada – we pray for the safety of an Israeli soldier kidnapped in Gaza – and I’m certain your parents are feeling the same trepidation that ours felt before them.
This morning, I returned from a week-long Jewish Federation mission to Israel led by one of the greatest champions of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Washington, Senator Mark Kirk.
Our focus was on the strategic relationship between the United States and Israel – and the range of threats now facing the Jewish state.
After meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Gantz and many others, I can tell you one thing for certain – Israel needs you now more than ever.
………
Al tikra banaich ela bonaich. Do not call them your children, call them your builders. Take with you what you learned at the Academy – and together, build a life filled with Torah, chesed, yiddishkeit and an undying commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel. You are the builders now – and, together, you will succeed.
This is unbelievable, Annie. Thank you for digging this up. Every time I get over my shock over the pervasiveness of the pro-Israel forces in the Congress, I get a bigger shock. I dont doubt that Mark Kirk is completely “sincere” in sponsoring this legislation, whatever political sincerity means, but you’d hope that his constituents might call his office out for this….
It is obvious that the lobby backs up its offensive on the US by not only corrupting a politician, it makes sure to surround him/her with enough sayanim to ensure that they do not waver from their obeisance to Israel’s interests. Most of us were shocked when Obama was elected, and immediately declared his cabinet, replete with Israel sympathizers like Rahm. Romney looks like he is going to make John Bolton his Secretary of State.
So, it won’t be enough to displace each politician, we will need to sever all the heads of the hydra – a Herculean task, indeed! Maybe, that’s why the French invented the guillotine – to literally sever the heads of the ruling class.
Annie what a dig. Thanks. The I lobby driving Kirks office. Which seems like the case before and after the stroke. Thanks for digging up those names Goldberg and Kreshtin and what they have been up to.
I have been thinking about how the I/P issue and the I lobby owning the U.S. congress on U.S. foreign policy in the middle east was talked about and dealt with before Carter’s book “Palestine Peace..Not Apartheid” , Walt and Mearsheimer’s book “Israel Lobby” and Mondoweiss. I know U.S. citizens who have been lobbying(and many other efforts) their Reps to base their decisions on the I/P issue on facts for decades. But there was a distinct shift in the conversation on the internet B.M (before Mondoweiss) and A.M. (after Mondoweiss). You could go to Al Jazeera and hunt around for articles about the issue. Now all you have to do is come to Mondoweiss and still hunt around but not as necessary. David Corn did try to break through this about 10 years ago on his first website. Great conversations were taking place. But his site was really attacked by trolls etc. But now we have Mondoweiss and Al Jazeera. If only we could push the MSM outlets to take down their wall of silence on these issues. Dylan Ratigan and Chris Hayes are getting close. We need to keep pushing.
I want to thank Phil, Adam and their Mondoweiss team once again for all they are doing for human rights and justice on these critical issues!
A great symbol of how Congress is represented by faceless and integrity-free figureheads, whilst owned and run by networks of special interests, and of course in particular the pernicious, subversive Israel lobby. There can’t be democracy under these circumstances. This epitomises the irrelevance of the senators to the decisions that are made in their name, bought and sold to special interests.
I’ve continually been thinking about what this “Jewish” thing all means. . . . That basic question: What is it?
It seems that, at least for many in the organized Jewish community, being Jewish is loving other Jews and showing love for Jews by actively helping or aiding the Jewish community.
“Ten years ago, we watched the explosion of the second Intifida – we prayed for the safety of three Israeli soldiers kidnapped on the Lebanese border – and our parents trembled as we prepared to set out for Israel or college campuses to face unknown danger and persecution.”
Or:
“Take with you what you learned at the Academy – and together, build a life filled with Torah, chesed, yiddishkeit and an undying commitment to the safety and security of the State of Israel.
But the intensity of the love and commitment that some have for their fellow ethnics begs the question: Okay, they love there fellow Jews, but do they love the gentiles around them as much as they should? Why are we second best?
If I have two brothers but I proclaim that I love one more (and here I’m not simply talking about natural affinity but rather a will to love one more), is the brother I love less really a brother at all?
And for those who don’t like this question being asked: Would you really, really be able to respect me if I didn’t ask it?