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Department of Projectile Vomiting

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Netanyahu opposing the Iran deal in Congress.

Kind of a step down from speaking to Congress. The neoconservative thinktank, American Enterprise Institute, announces:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive the 2015 Irving Kristol Award on November 9, 2015, in Washington, DC. The annual award, AEI’s highest honor, is given to individuals who have made exceptional practical and intellectual contributions to improve government policy, social welfare, or political understanding. The winner is selected by AEI’s Council of Academic Advisers. The award ceremony and dinner will be held at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.

Currently in his fourth term, Prime Minister Netanyahu will share his insight into the Middle East;

“I am honored to have been chosen to receive the Irving Kristol Award,” said Netanyahu. “I was fortunate to have known Irving, who was a towering intellectual, a stalwart friend of Israel, and a great champion of the US-Israel alliance. I look forward to receiving this award and discussing ways in which the unique friendship between Israel and the United States can continue to grow deeper and stronger as we confront the enormous challenges we face together.”

But you kiboshed that friendship, Mr Prime Minister.

The speech will take place the same day that Netanyahu is due to see President Obama. Showing up the president, again?

The AEI Council of Academic Advisers that selected the speaker is an “outside” body. It includes Bard historian Walter Russell Mead, longtime opponent of the Israel lobby theory. I wonder if he signed off on this?

Also, remember that Irving Kristol wrote that he left the Democratic Party in 1973 for the following reason:

Senator McGovern is very sincere when he says that he will try to cut the military budget by 30%. And this is to drive a knife in the heart of Israel… Jews don’t like big military budgets. But it is now an interest of the Jews to have a large and powerful military establishment in the United States… American Jews who care about the survival of the state of Israel have to say, no, we don’t want to cut the military budget, it is important to keep that military budget big, so that we can defend Israel.
Pretty straightforward, huh. Kristol helped found neoconservatism with hawkishness for Israel as a core principle. That is why Alan Dershowitz, Jacob Heilbrunn, and Benjamin Ginsberg among other writers have described neoconservatism as originating in the Jewish community.

 

Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.

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27 Responses

  1. a blah chick on September 22, 2015, 12:23 pm

    Phil, i wonder of this trip is an attempt to ditch Sara.

    If you tool over to 972mag there’s an article up by Lisa Goodman detailing the current “trials,” in every sense of the word, of Mrs Sara Netanyahu. Just a taste of the insanity:

    “Naftali [an employee] has accused [Mrs.] Netanyahu of inappropriate and abusive behavior like calling him at 3 a.m. to berate him for purchasing milk packaged in plastic bags rather than in carton. All three witnesses — Eliahu, Naftali and Haim — spoke of being forced to work up to 16 hours per day on a regular basis, of Sara Netanyahu addressing them in an abusive manner that included ethnic slurs, and of having to respond to inappropriate demands. They also describe an atmosphere of paralyzing fear that permeates the prime minister’s residence and bureau. Everyone, including the prime minister, is deeply afraid of Sara Netanyahu.”

    Not only that but she’s a mean drunk.

    I feel for the staff but the thought that this wretched women is making Bibi’s home life hell is exquisite schadenfreude.

  2. yourstruly on September 22, 2015, 1:50 pm

    For his contributions to improve government policy, social welfare, or political understanding, the American Enterprise Institute is honoring the still at large war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu? Who will the AEI honor next, the also still at large war criminal George W Bush, for having eliminated Iraq’s nonexistent WMD and {not} bringing democracy to that nation? And just think, he accomplished all this at the bargain price of 5000+ American lives, not to mention the half-million Iraqi lives wasted.

  3. Marshall on September 22, 2015, 1:53 pm

    Bwahahahahaha. Hahahaha. Hahaha. Haha. Ha.

    “Council of Academic Advisors,” such as Professor Richard Zeckhauser of Harvard (known for signing off on that PhD thesis that argued Mexican immigrants are genetically inferior to American-born population), Professor Sam Peltzman of UChicago (known for arguing that Nader-era regulation of auto safety would reduce traffic fatality rates)…

    Professor Alan Auerbach of Berkeley (privatize social security, institute massive capital gains tax cuts and other goodies for the rich)

    Professor Marty Feldstein of Harvard (Auerbach’s PhD advisor; seminal opponent of capital gains taxes, routine publisher of terrible papers arguing that reducing them increases economic growth)

    Professor Glenn Hubbard of Columbia (architect of Bush 1’s tax cuts)

    Professor Erik Hanushek of Stanford (leader of the standardized testing/”accountability” school with respect to teacher contracts)

    Can’t you feel the accumulated wisdom that would lead this august group of academic worthies to award the Irving Kristol Prize to the Great Intellectual Bibi?

    • Marshall on September 22, 2015, 1:57 pm

      … oops, forgot Fama, who invented the “Efficient Markets Hypothesis” which can never be wrong, because it has no predictions and yet is worthy of a Nobel Prize.

      http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/11/after-the-blowup

      http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/interview-with-eugene-fama

    • Marshall on September 22, 2015, 2:17 pm

      The archive of past speeches by Kristol Award winners is a Festival of Wrong. My colleague pointed out this one, by Charles Murray:

      https://www.aei.org/publication/the-happiness-of-the-people/

      “Within a decade, no one will try to defend the equality premise. All sorts of groups will be known to differ in qualities that affect what professions they choose, how much money they make, and how they live their lives in all sorts of ways. Gender differences will be first, because the growth in knowledge about the ways that men and women are different is growing by far the most rapidly. I’m betting that the Harvard faculty of the year 2020 will look back on the Larry Summers affair in the same way that they think about the Scopes trial–the enlightened versus the benighted–and will have achieved complete amnesia about their own formerly benighted opinions.”

    • Marshall on September 22, 2015, 2:43 pm

      EDIT: Should say “Professor Sam Peltzman of UChicago (known for arguing that Nader-era regulation of auto safety would INCREASE traffic fatality rates)”

  4. Citizen on September 22, 2015, 2:36 pm

    Not hard to see who provides the ooopmh behind all these POTUS candidates saying we need more funding for the US military, a stronger US military, which at present is merely on a budget the size of the 15 biggest military spending countries in the world. Food stamps for the US public, more money to arm Israel, more tons of big money to big banks, food stamps for the US public. Disgusting.

    For the past 13 years spending on US military has increased 114%: That’s 8% higher than at the height of the Cold War under Reagan. http://www.businessinsider.com/military-spending-budget-defense-cuts-2011-10?op=1

  5. Citizen on September 22, 2015, 2:47 pm

    As of 2013, 20% of US families were on food stamps. http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/record-20-households-food-stamps-2013

  6. Krauss on September 22, 2015, 3:36 pm

    I can’t wait for the era of Naftali Bennett.

  7. yourstruly on September 22, 2015, 4:22 pm

    With AIPAC et al discrediting themselves on account of their Israel-firstness being exposed, there’s more space not only for us to further reduce their influence, but to advance the cause of justice for Palestine. Simply stated, as they go down, we go up. Assuming, of course, that we take advantage of this opening.

  8. eGuard on September 22, 2015, 6:26 pm

    IAEA rejects proposal on oversight of Israeli nuclear facilities

    http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran/IAEA-rejects-proposal-on-oversight-of-Israeli-nuclear-facilities-416500

  9. JLewisDickerson on September 22, 2015, 8:25 pm

    RE: “Department of Projectile Vomiting”

    MY COMMENT: Is “projectile vomiting” an Olympic sport? If not, it certainly should be!
    Also, “explosive diarrhea”!

  10. traintosiberia on September 22, 2015, 10:20 pm

    Irving Kristol – Jews don’t like big military budget
    Ooms, They don’t like shedding blood also .
    Irving was different . he liked it. his son laments that America is not ready . america is cutting back . America is failing in its obligation.
    He wants more It is someone else’s budget and blood .

  11. just on September 23, 2015, 7:03 am

    Also brought to you from the “department of projectile vomiting”, hubris, and hypocrisy:

    “The United States has warned that Russia’s continued blanket use of its UN veto will jeopardise the security council’s longterm legitimacy and could lead the US and like-minded countries to bypass it as a decision-making body.

    The warning comes as the UN reaches its 70th anniversary and the security council faces a crisis caused by its paralysis over Syria. It has failed to agree concerted action to try to stem the bloodshed, even after more than 220,000 Syrians have died and more than 11 million have been forced from their homes.

    Russia has used its veto powers four times to block resolutions on Syria that Moscow sees as damaging to its ally, the regime of Bashar al-Assad. It has also forestalled common action on Ukraine where it is a party to the conflict, having annexed Crimea and pursued a covert military campaign in support of eastern separatists.

    Samantha Power, the US permanent representative to the UN, said that US and other countries had increasingly been going elsewhere to have atrocities investigated, and said that a “forum-shopping” trend is likely to continue.

    “It’s a Darwinian universe here. If a particular body reveals itself to be dysfunctional, then people are going to go elsewhere,” Power told the Guardian. “And if that happened for more than Syria and Ukraine and you started to see across the board paralysis … it would certainly jeopardise the security council’s status and credibility and its function as a go-to international security arbiter. It would definitely jeopardise that over time.”

    Power was one of seven ambassadors to the UN who gave their views on the plight and future of the security council, at a time when it is being assailed on all sides, not just for its failures over Syria and Ukraine, but on broader and longer-term issues such as the fairness and relevance of its structure in the 21st century, and the veto rights of the five permanent members. …

    …The US has used its veto three times in the past decade, to shield Israel from rebuke for its actions in the Palestinian territories. China has used six vetoes, each time in tandem with Russia, while Moscow has used its the veto 10 times over the same period. The man with the job of voting ‘No’, Russia’s permanent representative, Vitaly Churkin, is unapologetic. He portrays the vetoes as aimed at protecting the security council’s integrity by preventing it from being used as a vehicle for toppling governments.

    “Some countries were trying to involve the security council in regime change operations in Syria and we were telling them that it’s not the business of the security council to go into regime change mode,” Churkin said. “This is a fundamental difference and it’s not the fault of the security council that this difference is there.”

    France is proposing that the five permanent council members (the US, Russia, France, UK and China) voluntarily suspend their veto rights in situations where genocide or other mass atrocities are being committed.

    “Our initiative is based on the key and core conviction that veto power is not a privilege. It’s a responsibility,” the French ambassador, François Delattre, said. …”

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/23/russian-vetoes-putting-un-security-council-legitimacy-at-risk-says-us#comment-60064121

    Nice of The Guardian to start the veto clock only “in the past decade”, eh? (The commenters are NOT failing to point out the hypocrisy at play here…)

    US vetoes on behalf of Israel started in 1972 and reached 32 by the end of the Clinton administration.

    http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/p-neff-veto.html

    In the part of my brain that harbors hope I’m thinking that this is a signal that the US will not continue to shield Israel and its own brand of genocide and grand theft and pillage…

    • Kay24 on September 23, 2015, 7:36 am

      The reality is, Israel keeps perpetrating massacres, attacks civilians in their homes, steal lands for cursed illegal settlements, and breaks international laws, because the world’s greatest superpower has shown for years, that it is Israel’s keeper, protector, aid and weapons provider, and will protect it from deserved condemnation at the UN. Ever day we hear about the human rights violations, and the murders of unarmed civilians, by Israel, but not one word of condemnation by the US, because what Israel does seems to be acceptable at all levels in this country. Leaders in Congress stand up and pledge their love and loyalty to Israel even before they do for their own country. Israel will never change it’s nazi like behavior, until the US decides to stop this sick relationship.

      • inbound39 on September 23, 2015, 10:58 am

        America uses words like,deplorable,unhelpful,destructive,provocative.America prefers wasting its breath more than taking decisive physical action like cutting off AID and WEAPONS and AMMUNITION to Israel thus solving the conflict in a matter of hours.

      • Kay24 on September 23, 2015, 4:44 pm

        Yeah, this is the usual US good cop/bad cop routine. They pretend to condemn, then send the rascals more weapons and ammunition. This is a world class performance of pretending the US is outraged, yet does sweet nothing to stop the flow of Palestinian blood. Disgusting.

  12. Kay24 on September 23, 2015, 8:10 am

    So with the Pope scheduled to address Congress tomorrow, any bets how many standing ovations he will receive, and will it be MORE than a certain war monger?

    After all, this good man stands for peace, and is not responsible for the deaths of many helpless civilians. He certainly deserves much, much, more than the man Congress adores (but is afraid of). Let’s count.

    • eljay on September 23, 2015, 8:16 am

      Pope: “Justice, accountability and equality!”
      Congress: *crickets*

      Pope: “San Dimas High School football rules!”
      Congress: *crickets*

      Pope: “Errr…ummm…I♡Jewish State?”
      Congress: “Hooo-ahh!!!”

      • Kay24 on September 23, 2015, 10:19 am

        Strange, Chris Matthews just mentioned that he hoped the speech to Congress tomorrow by

        the Pope, will not be like Bibi Netanyahu’s – divisive. Wow, so nice to hear someone say that.

    • just on September 23, 2015, 8:26 am

      I can bet you that the Cuba Lobby and the Israel- firsters/ money- grubbers will be sitting on their hands.

      (Maybe Menendez and Schumer will try to smile and nod politely since they are on camera and are in trouble…)

      Those not in favor of peace and rapprochement will be suffering through it. There will be a lot of suffering…

      • Kay24 on September 23, 2015, 10:06 am

        There will be suffering all right. They will feel their conscience pricking if he speaks of human rights abuses done in our name, and by those we give unwavering support (yeah, not likely to happen), but it will be immediately dismissed and never referred to. I would love to hear him endorse the Iran nuclear deal, and hopefully the cameras would pan on those who chose the path of war with Netanyahu.

  13. tombishop on September 23, 2015, 9:15 am

    A look at the the AEI website Scholars section (left panel) https://www.aei.org shows the rightwing neocon lineup of their supporters. The president of the the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, has been collaborating with them. http://goo.gl/zGzFCp

  14. CigarGod on September 23, 2015, 10:36 am

    Hmmm….
    Sounds like a transaction, to me.

  15. inbound39 on September 23, 2015, 10:51 am

    The only fitting award I could see Netanyahu deserving is a long prison sentence for his many contributions to war crimes against the Palestinian People.

  16. a blah chick on September 23, 2015, 2:35 pm

    inbound39 said: “America uses words like,deplorable,unhelpful,destructive,provocative..”

    And the proverbial “We are deeply concerned…”

    • inbound39 on September 24, 2015, 4:28 am

      So concerned they veto any Resolution presented at the UN to alleviate the situation for Palestinians. America is as bad as Israel itself at the moment and the cost will make Americas financial recovery that much more harder. America really needs to get on the right side of history and cut Israel loose from its skirts. Let Israel face the music for its folly and its International insult to humanity.

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