Wilson Dizard reports from Cleveland, OH where the Republican convention is about to get underway. He writes, “This election is a battle between two of the most corrupt political ideologies. And they have voters jumping through rationalization hoops to justify voting for two of the most unpopular candidates a primary season has ever produced.”
Reflecting on life after neoconservatism, Scott McConnell says he demonstrated against the Iraq war with Code Pink but that the alliance between national interest types and leftwingers may be coming apart because fears of another US war have ebbed and the two groups split over immigration and identity politics.
The Iran deal is still assailed by US hardliners, who don’t even hide their efforts: Adam Szubin, Obama’s under secretary of the treasury for Iranian sanctions, parrots Netanyahu’s claim that Iran is the biggest sponsor of terror in the world and speaks at neoconservative thinktanks without any consequences.
The Israel lobby is alive and well. As the Republicans beg Sheldon Adelson to help pay for the convention, Hillary Clinton is said to be vetting retired admiral James Stavridis as a possible veep. Now a dean at Tufts, he opposed the Iran deal.
The New York Times demonstrates the iron law of institutions in its support for Clinton. Its opinion columns have been almost uniformly nasty toward Bernie Sanders. Ultimately his policy based critiques of Clinton terrifies the editors and they don’t want him or the movement he represents to have any credibility even if he endorses Clinton, because he hasn’t retracted his critique.
Cornel West likened Palestine to Vietnam as the issue of our time for young Americans, but the Democratic Party platform committee turned a deaf ear, in refusing to put the words occupation and settlements in the platform.
In light of the Democratic National Committee’s voting down of amendment to end Israeli occupation and building of settlements, Palestinian organizer Laila Abdelaziz reflects on the unrecognized intersectionalities between Native Americans and Palestinians; two indigenous peoples tied with a shared struggle against colonialism.
The Democratic Party platform committee voted down an amendment opposing “settlements” and “occupation” in Palestine, as the Clinton establishment elicited the largest boos of the day in Orlando. Bernie Sanders surrogate Cornel West ascribed the vote to racism.
Last week’s Aspen Ideas Festival often seemed like a rightwing Jewish event and it reeked of entitlement. Leon Wieseltier of the Atlantic joked that eventually “there won’t be any goyim” on the Supreme Court. The Jewish and pro-Israel character of the establishment was on display, even if no one wants to talk about it.
Hillary Clinton’s deal with the devil: she thinks that by crushing the progressive wing that supports Palestinian rights, and smearing Max Blumenthal as “hateful” for his smart criticisms of Elie Wiesel, she will gain the Israel lobby and neoconservatives’ support, which is vital for a win in November.