Netanyahu easily moved U.S. policy for over a decade, due to the force of his will and the use of the powerful Israel lobby in U.S. politics, especially on the Democratic side. Today one force is gone– Netanyahu is an opposition politician to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett — and the other is in disarray.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent refusal to criticize Israel in comments to an Israel lobbyist remind us that the lobby is still entrenched in the Democratic Party. We thought that narrative was over, but it’s not. Israel critics turn into Israel praisers when they have political ambitions.
Bob Menendez is risking a war with Iran by opposing Biden on Iran deal. He owes as much to the right-wing Israel lobby, which saved his hide in 2015 when he opposed the deal, the Obama Justice Department indicted him for corruption, and Haim Saban and Seth Klarman supported his successful defense.
Joe Biden is dithering on his promise to return to the Iran deal, under pressure from Bob Menendez and other Democrats beholden to the Israel lobby. The lobby’s ability to influence the White House’s definition of the American interest in the Middle East in Israel’s favor is a longstanding tradition, and it’s just a pity the media continually fall for it.
Former Obama national security aide Ben Rhodes says the Israel lobby uses money to get its way in Congress. “Members would call me at the beginning of the August recess in 2015, when we’re having the Iran [deal] fight, and be like, AIPAC put out a press release saying they’re going to spend $40 million on ads on this. The money issue became acute. And people started to say, AIPAC told me they’d cancel my fundraisers if I vote this way. We’re never supposed to name the issue of money. But when AIPAC is threatening people that they’re going to cancel fundraisers, suddenly you’re having that conversation.”
“We pretended to my shame at times in the Obama administration that Netanyahu was interested in the two-state solution. When I dont think he was, ever,” Ben Rhodes says. And Rhodes is just as cynical about Palestinian opportunities for sovereignty under the Obama administration. “I can tell you we didn’t really give them one when I was there. Not a real one.”
Announcing construction on a key Jerusalem settlement 5 hours before inauguration, utterly foreclosing the possibility of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu sought an “altercation” with Joe Biden, says Jerusalem watcher Daniel Seidemann. And who won? Biden has said nothing.
Historian Jerome Slater reinterprets the Cold War in the Middle East: “It’s an easy case to make that it was the United States, specifically Nixon and Kissinger… who sabotaged Soviet inititatives that I think were very fair for a two state settlement guaranteed by the super powers.” The Soviets wouldn’t have been in the Middle East if the U.S. hadn’t supported Israel so vigorously, which left Arab states no choice but to align with the Soviet pole. But the Soviets pushed peace in an effort to thwart a global conflict.
By giving hundreds of millions to Bush and Trump, the late Sheldon Adelson helped destroy the peace process and crush peace with Iran. Sadly the media never sought to expose and discredit his antidemocratic power, bigotry and extremism, because his mere presence fed antisemitic stereotype, of the puppetmaster, as even Trump referred to him.
Sheldon Adelson, who died last night, set out to destroy the Iran deal and the peace process and succeeded through his campaign contributions to Republican presidents. A fierce advocate for Israel, he wielded an incredible degree of power over U.S. policy.