Originally posted at Dispatches from Reality, by Scipio Eruditus. dfreality.substack.com
— Senator Joe Biden, Freemason. June 5th, 1986
Continue reading “The Wolves Within, Part IV”
We know the pull of the Israeli lobby is strong in D.C. We also know that Donald Trump’s foreign policy has centered around Israel’s security.
But what we didn’t know for certain was just how far Trump is led around by the whatever AIPAC wants. Until Sunday morning…
However Trump’s invoking Iranian influence as a rationale for staying further contradicts his prior December statement that the defeat of ISIS was “the only reason” he was in Syria in the first place.
MARGARET BRENNAN:How many troops are still in Syria? When are they coming home?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: 2,000 troops.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When are they coming home?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: They’re starting to, as we gain the remainder, the final remainder of the caliphate of the area, they’ll be going to our base in Iraq, and ultimately some will be coming home. But we’re going to be there and we’re going to be staying—
MARGARET BRENNAN: So that’s a matter of months?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We have to protect Israel. We have to protect other things that we have. But we’re- yeah, they’ll be coming back in a matter of time. Look, we’re protecting the world. We’re spending more money than anybody’s ever spent in history, by a lot. We spent, over the last five years, close to 50 billion dollars a year in Afghanistan. That’s more than most countries spend for everything including education, medical, and everything else, other than a few countries.
Guest Post by Tom Luongo
The world is not shedding any tears now that Lil ‘Miss AIPAC, Nikki Haley, has finished her time puffing up her political resume at the U.N. To describe her performance as U.N. Ambassador over the last two years as strident and obnoxious would be a kindness.
Haley, simply put, was out of her depth as a diplomat, preferring to pre-run for President and shore up the support of the Israeli lobby in the U.S. rather than do her job with any modicum of honesty or integrity.
Her resigning quickly after the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is interesting, however.
While she has been, nominally, one of President Trump’s most public supporters she has also been instrumental in undermining Trump on foreign policy initiatives that do not comport with the wishes of her pay-masters at AIPAC.
Continue reading “Lil’ Miss AIPAC Nikki Haley Ends Her Reign of Terror at the U.N.”
No big deal here, just a bunch of treasonous whores exhibiting their true alliegance.
Last week, all 100 US senators signed a letter to the UN Secretary General, demanding ‘equal treatment’ for Israel.
The letter, sponsored by Florida Republican Marco Rubio and Delaware Democrat Christopher Coons, was an ostensible display of bipartisan unanimity about UN ‘anti-Israel bias’.
While bias should definitely be examined, the blind cannot lead the blind. This letter is an exhibition of bipartisan bias – on behalf of Israel.
Guest Post by
In addition to the 21% of responses in the “dishonest/don’t trust her” category, another 7% of Americans use even stronger words in a similar negative vein, including “criminal,” “crooked” and “thief.” Nine percent say they dislike her. Smaller percentages (shown at the end of this article) associate her with Bill Clinton, with the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while secretary of state and with the Benghazi terrorist attack.
The perceptions of Hillary Clinton as dishonest are not new. When Gallup asked the same question in 2008, “dishonest” was Americans’ most frequent response.
– Results of a recent Gallup poll
Before I get into this post, I want to make one thing clear — I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m neither a Hillary Clinton nor a Donald Trump supporter; in fact, I’ve spent quite a bit of time sharply criticizing both of them here on these pages.
Donald Trump checks none of my important boxes when it comes to policy. He’s horrible on civil liberties, shows no real interest in reining in Wall Street criminals, and is unlikely to view the Constitution any more respectfully than Barrack Obama or George W. Bush before him. I simply cannot support such a man. With Trump, one has to hope he’s the anti-Obama, i.e., says all the wrong things but then does the right thing. In this sense it is possible that Trump could be a decent president, but he could also be an unmitigated nightmare. He’s the ultimate wildcard, potentially far worse than even Hillary, but also conceivably far better. There’s simply no way to know for sure.
When Republican Presidential contender Senator Ted Cruz announced his intention to run before a packed audience at Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia, the one line in his speech that drew themost applause was “Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel.” I do not know if those who were cheering were really aware of what Cruz was saying, but the preposition “with” committing President Cruz to some kind of ad hoc equal partnership with a foreign government was both unseemly and ultimately un-American. A President of the United States should be prepared and expected to advance only American interests.
There is no ambiguity in Cruz. As keynote speaker for a conference held last September by the newly formed In Defense of Christians group, he demonstrated that even in front of Middle Eastern Christians it was necessary to play the Israel card, bringing Jewish “persecution” into the discussion before walking off stage. Just before exiting, he said, “If you will not stand with Israel and the Jews, then I will not stand with you. Good night, and God bless.”
A day after Cruz and Liberty it was Jeb Bush’s turn. He repudiated James Baker, his father’s secretary of state, after Baker had mildly criticized Netanyahu’s rejection of a possible Palestinian state, with Bush’s press spokesman asserting “Governor Bush’s support for Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu is unwavering.” In a follow-up op-ed last Wednesday, Bush cemented his credentials as a worthy heir to his brother George in terms of intellectual vacuity by opposing nuclear negotiations with Iran before asserting “The Obama administration treats announcements of new apartment buildings in Jerusalem like acts of aggression.” Jeb is apparently unaware that there are half a million settlers on the West Bank on stolen Palestinian land.
I know it will come as a shock to many of you, but politics is money and gaining high office in American politics requires kissing the ass of a tiny, far away rogue state who has attacked us at least twice and whose disappearance from the map tomorrow would affect nobody in North America, except in a positive way, with the exception of some “defense” contractors.
Everyone’s sending this around today. It’s part of a fundraising memo for Michelle Nunn’s campaign for Senate in Georgia, published at Vox. Say the right thing on Israel and you can raise a quarter-million dollars.
Matthew Yglesias says we all know about this, but journalists are inhibited to describe the importance of this money because it’s an “anti-semitic trope.”
To anyone who’s familiar with Democratic Party fundraising — particularly for non-incumbent underdogs, who typically have trouble raising money — this won’t be too surprising.
Jewish donors are very important to Democratic Party finances, some of these donors have strongly held hawkish views on Israel, and the financial clout of AIPAC is the stuff of legend. At the same time, talk of rich Jews throwing their financial muscle around to influence policy in favor of Israel touches far too many anti-semitic tropes to be regularly mentioned in political discourse. But the concrete world of political fundraising doesn’t leave a ton of time for beating around the bush, so we get a little window here into how it looks to the finance people: if Nunn wants to maximize her donations, she needs to take the right stance.
Right. Everyone knows it, no one can talk about it. It’s been estimated that on the Democratic side at the congressional level on up, Jews account for half to two-thirds of the funding.
Now here is the same story told in a different way. Tim Mak at the Daily Beastasked some leftleaning congress-people why they weren’t reflecting the grassroots outrage over Gaza:
Democrats, when asked a question about Israeli operations in Gaza, had two standard responses: irritation, or else a statement of their broad support of Israel, without going into specifics. It was as if the very mention of Israel turned the question into a hostile interview.
“Look, man, I’m a politician, with multiple constituencies. Why should I alienate one just so that you can write a story?” Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison angrily told The Daily Beast. Ellison, a stalwart progressive, was the first Muslim-American elected to Congress….
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a darling of the left who identifies as a democratic socialist, was curt. His tone changed suddenly when the topic shifted from the Veterans Administration bill that he had been shepherding through Congress to Israel’s operation in Gaza.
“That’s not where my mind is right now,” he told the Beast.
Democratic Rep. Sandy Levin said he was on his way to a meeting and didn’t have time to discuss the issue. (He did, however, stop for another reporter, who asked about transportation funding.) When Rep. Krysten Sinema, a Democrat from Arizona, was approached, she simply repeated that she supports the right of Israel to defend itself.
There has been essentially no congressional criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
As I wrote six years ago when an acquaintance at Harvard was scolding Stephen Walt to me for his alleged naivete in having written The Israel Lobby:
[Acquaintance’s scold:] “Walk around Harvard and the Kennedy School, what are the names on the buildings? Taubman, Rubenstein, Belfer, Weiner. Where do you think the money is coming from in academia?”
This is a reminder that you cannot honestly describe the formation of Middle East policy without acknowledging that Jews are principals in the establishment, and Jewish wealth is a significant factor in public life.
Walt wasn’t naive; he was brave, he had tenure and decided that the cost to his ambition was worth his freedom to state his beliefs. Maybe Yglesias and other MSM journalists should emulate him now that another 1000 Palestinians have been slaughtered.
Andrew Sullivan agrees the subject is important, and says the internet has liberated us to say so.
not so long ago, anyone saying that Jewish donor money made an even-handed approach to Israel-Palestine a pretty dead letter would be deemed ipso facto an anti-Semite.
More to the point, such a view would not be allowed into print in any mainstream outlet. It would be regarded as an anti-Semitic trope – even if it were factually true.It’s as if a libel law did not allow for the truth as a defense!..
It’s also a matter of record, I think, that there is no way I could have written or published anything along these lines before the blogging era. Having my own space to think out loud, outside the parameters of an existing institution, without all the caution around the subject that was baked deep in Washington journalism, was critical to my changing views in response to changing facts. The intimidation had an effect. It was designed to.
The good news is that America is finding a way to talk about this, and American Jews, confident and unthreatened, are participating in the conversation.
100 is a pretty pathetic number, but it’s a start.
In three days 100 Jews from around the world signed on to a statement sharply critical of AIPAC and other Jewish bodies lobbying for President Obama’s war resolution against Syria. Hopefully people will refer to it in their efforts with the media, Congress, teach-ins and rallies. It reads:
We Jews Oppose Calls for the U.S. to Bomb Syria
We are appalled that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is sending hundreds of people to lobby Congress to approve a resolution to bomb Syria. The media also reports that Sheldon Adelson and the Republican Jewish Coalition are pushing hard for war. We don’t want it to be known that Jews stood silent as the powerful Israel lobby helped push the U.S.into a war in defiance of international law and American public opinion.
The Israeli government should stop pointing the finger and admit its own abuses of chemicals. It used white phosphorus in its terrible 2008 attack on Gaza. Over the years it has used tear gas recklessly and killed and sickened many, many Palestinians.
The Israeli government’s apparent belief that Jews are better off if Arab or Muslim countries are devastated one after another must be challenged and repudiated.
Petition started 9/9/2013
Stanley Heller, host of The Struggle Video News, Connecticut
Liz Aaronsohn, Ed.D., retired professor, daughter of a rabbi
Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Lenni Brenner, Hamden, Connecticut, Author, Zionism In The Age Of The Dictators
Seth Farber, New York
Tamar Pelleg-Sryck, Human Rights Lawyer, Tel Aviv
Tony Greenstein, UK
Dan Fischer, Bridgeport, CT
Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, Advocacy Officer, The Jahalin Association, (Al Khan el Ahmar)
Alisa Klein, Leeds, MA, Public Policy Consultant and anti-war activist
Miriam (Goldberg) Swenson, New Jersey, retired professor
James Cohen, Paris, France, Professor, University of Paris 3 (Sorbonne- Nouvelle)
Judith B. Solomon, NYC, Women in Black
Jennifer Loewenstein, Wisconsin
Diana Neslon, Greater London in the United Kingdom
Joseph Levine, Professor of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts
David Finkel, managing editor of AGAINST THE CURRENT (affiliation for identification only)
Tsilli Goldenberg, Jerusalem, Israel
Darlene Wallach, California, Justice for Palestinians
Savvas Michael-Matsas, Greece
Steve Krevisky, Congress of Conn. Community Colleges-4C’s/SEIU
Ivy Sichel, The Hebrew University, Israel
Aram Saroyan,Los Angeles, writer
Jane Harries, Wales, United Kingdom, Coordinator for Fellowship of Reconciliation in Wales
Dustin Friedman, New York
Alice Rothchild, MD
Dorothy Naor, activist against the Colonization of Palestine, Israel
Dorothy M. Zellner, New York member, Jews Say No!
David Makofsky, retired Anthropologist, Oakland, California
Tamar Yaron, Israel, Encounter-EMEM for Israel-Palestine peace activities
Warren Davis, Philadelphia, Exec. V.P. (retired), AFGE L. 2006
Stewart Robinson,Jewish Voice for Peace
Karen Platt Albany CA JVP member
Beverly Stuart, Seattle, WA
Alice Kisch, JVP and am also a steering committee member of NorCal FOSNA (Northern California Friends of Sabeel-North America
Sylvia Finzi (London)
Yom Shamash, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Independent Jewish Voices
Neil Hertz, Ithaca, NY, Professor of Humanities, emeritus
Ethan Young, Brooklyn NY
Ned Rosch, Portland OR
Gilbert Wald, New Jersey, small businessman, Yale graduate 1972
Ken Cornet, Washington, CT USA
Sherna Berger Gluck – retired academic, activist
Judith Kolokoff , Seattle WA., Human rights activist
Michael Letwin, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Marcia Bernstein, Brooklyn,retired social worker
Lenny Lapon, Springfield, MA, Educator
Murray Polner, USA. editor-writer
Kimberly Dugan, West Hartford, Connecticut
Seth Godfrey, New Haven, Ct., Business Reference Librarian-New Haven Free Public Library and Commissioner on the City of New Haven Peace Commission
Hedy Epstein, St. Louis
David Letwin, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Lyn Stein, San Francisco, CA
Libby Frank, Philadelphia, Pa. Member Middle East Comm., Women’s Int’l. League for Peace & Freedom
Paula Orloff, Nevada City, retired teacher
Yoram Gelman, Tarrytown, NY — and Haifa, 1940
Paola Canarutto, Italy
Laura Myerson, WESPAC
Lillian Rosengarten, only American on the Jewish Boat To gaza in 2010, psychoanalyst, poet and writer
Rael Nidess, M.D., Marshall, TX USA
Leslie Lomas, Ph.D., Boulder, Colorado
Mike Kurland, Mansfield Center, Ct.
Miriam Kurland, Mansfield Center, Ct.
Aram Ayalon, professor of Teacher Education, CCSU, New Britain
Elizabeth Block, Toronto, Canada
Kit Wainer, teacher, NYC
Diane Isser, Philadelphia
Dr Brian Robinson, Retired NHS psychiatrist
Milton Keynes, England UK
Moshé Machover, Professor(emeritus), Israeli dissident
Abe Hayeem, Chair, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (APJP), UK
Rosamine Hayeem, London, UK
Charles Post, NY, PSC-CUNY/AFT 2234
Sherry Wolf, International Socialist Organization
Robert Naiman, Urbana, Illinois, Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy
Carol Walter, Farmington CT
Richard Kuper, Highgate, London, UK
Martin Oppenheimer, retired professor, Franklin Twp. N.J.
Henry Norr, Berkeley, CA USA
Beryl Maizels, Wembley, Middx., retired language teacher, JfJfP
Batya Hecker, Austin, Interfaith Community for Palestinian Rights
Tikva Honig-Parnass, Israel, Jews for the Palestinian Right of Return
Hillel Tictin, Professor-Emeritus, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Roland Rance, Britain
Inbar Tamari, Britain
Malkah Feldman, MA, USA
Myrna Fichtenbaum, Lawrenceville,NJ
Annie Zirin, Evanston, Il
Professor Dennis Kortheuer, Long Beach, Ca.
Emily Chisefski Alma, Coordinator, Chico Palestine Action Group, Chico, CA
Jean Pauline, Bay Area Women in Black, Oakland, California
Tami Etziony, Bay Area Women in Black, Oakland CA
Judith Bernstein, Munich, Germany
Carl Rosenberg, Vancouver, BC, editor of Outlook: Canada’s Progressive Jewish Magazine
Sid Shniad, Surrey British Columbia, Member, national steering committee, Independent Jewish Voices Canada
Kamran Ghasri, Iranian-American Jewish from Los Angeles, active with Israel Divestment campaign www.israeldivestmentcampaign.org, CA Green Party
Judith Weisman Toronto Ontario, Independent Jewish Voices
Dorothy Field, Victoria BC Canada
Sam Bernstein, Seattle, WA
Sarah Wolf
Paula Friedland Panzarella, New Haven, CT, poet and peace activist
Sherry Gorelick, Women in Black Union Square, NYC, Professor Emerita, Rutgers University
Phyllis Bloom, L. Ac., Woodstock, NY
Marian Feinberg, Environmental and Social Justice Activist
Sid Frankel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Work, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Marcia Almey, Ottawa, ON
The petition will be updated at:
http://www.thestruggle.org/jewish%20petition.htm
New names welcomed: [email protected]
