Just when Washington is calming down from the AIPAC circus, on Friday critics of the Israel lobby will be holding a national summit to re-assess the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. at the National Press Club.
It’s an all-day affair, and among the speakers are Janet McMahon; Karen Kwiatkowski; Mark Perry; Stephen Walt; Grant Smith; Michael Scheuer; Cynthia McKinney; Justin Raimondo; Paul Pillar; Scott McConnell; Ray McGovern; Allan Brownfeld; Jeff Blankfort; and Geoffrey Wawro…
It’s quite a lineup of writers and thinkers who have been unsparing critics of the lobby’s influence over US policymaking. And I’ll be on a panel myself, talking about the media, how it’s changing and why.
I know that some in the Palestinian solidarity camp aren’t enthused about this gathering, regard it as American nationalist; for my part, this is how I came to the issue. Folks like Raimondo, Walt and McConnell forced me to look at Israel/Palestine from an antiwar national-interest perspective. That’s still an important part of my perspective; as Pete Seeger told HUAC, “I love my country very deeply.” Though I wish there were Palestinians on these panels, I am sure that human rights will be an important theme.
It’s going to be a fascinating day. And Washington should be hungry for us after the locusts of AIPAC have carried off so many congresspeople. Let’s see how much press we get. I will be sure to report on the event myself.
I know that some in the Palestinian solidarity camp aren’t enthused about this gathering, regard it as American nationalist; for my part, this is how I came to the issue. Folks like Raimondo, Walt and McConnell forced me to look at Israel/Palestine from an antiwar national-interest perspective
Our system of govt expresses the democratic sovereignty of the American people, however corrupt and attenuated that principle is. Israel’s influence is fundamentally a usurpation of our sovereignty as US citizens. The foreign policy establishment and
left democrats can agree on that. The establishment may or may not be allies in the class struggle, but they are allies in the medieval-modern struggle where Zionism operates, and their insights and influence are essential.
The real story here is the failure of the left to develop any critique
of the “Israel lobby”, by the same people who sniff at “nationalism”
Wish I could be there! If I hadn’t just moved, I would be.
Tear ’em up.
Make sure to record video. Transcripts, especially incomplete second-hand ones, are not great. Summaries are even less attractive.
I think most people would be most interested in what you, McConnell and Walt have to say.
I fail to see why any Palestinian would not be in solidarity with this first American national summit to reassess the US-Israeli “special relationship,” wherein they have been the biggest factual victims and the world’s only super power’s highest values proclaim the top priority of liberty and equal rights for all under the law. Will somebody explain this?
AlJazeera’s Ukraine live blog http://live.aljazeera.com/Event/Ukraine_liveblog has live tweets from a Haaretz journalist in Crimea that shows footage of unarmed (uniformed) Ukrainians marching up to a military base and confronting soldiers guarding it with guns that they fire above their heads….
How can it not make you wonder why Haaretz journalists can’t live tweet footage to AlJazeera of protests in the West Bank being met with shooting soldiers EVERY WEEK?
Especially ironic is that Israel wants this Crimea confrontation to spark a western conflagration with Russia SO THAT Israel can CONTINUE to violently occupy and ethnically cleanse what’s left of Palestine without any significant political entity (Iran/Syria/etc) to so much as provide moral support to the Palestinians.
The two images of soldier-protest confrontation are welded together by entirely opposite treatment by Israeli journalism and western press.
F@-#%k the US State Department and their “special relationship”.