A LOOK INSIDE WASHINGTON BY A DEVOUT JEWISH LEFTIST.
Counterpoint: Now is the time for a determined course of action on Iran by JINSA
Will AIPAC and Bibi get their war?
by MJ Rosenberg, Foreign Policy Matters
These are strange times for those of us who follow the debate about a possible war with Iran. It is clear that the Israeli government and its neoconservative camp followers here in the United States are increasing pressure on President Obama to either attack Iran or let Israel do it (in which case we would be forced to join in). But the idea of another war in the Middle East is so outlandish that it seems inconceivable it could actually occur.
Still, the conventional wisdom holds that it can, because this is an election year and the assumption is that no one will say no to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
War enthusiasm will rise to a fever pitch by March, when AIPAC holds its annual policy conference. Netanyahu will, if the past is any indication, bring the crowd of 10,000 to its feet by depicting Iran as the new Nazi Germany and by coming very close to stating that only war can stop these new Nazis. Other speakers will say the same. The few who mention the idea of diplomacy will be met with stony silence.
From the convention center, 10,000 delegates will be dispatched to Capitol Hill with two or three “asks” for Members of Congress. One will, no doubt, be that “containment” of a nuclearized Iran be ruled off the table (leaving war as the only remaining option should Iran get the bomb). Another will likely be that the U.S. stop all dealings with the Palestinian Authority should Hamas and Fatah permanently reconcile. A third could apply either to Iran or Palestine and will inevitably demand fealty to whatever Netanyahu’s policy of the moment happens to be. I’ve sat in on those meetings where the AIPAC “asks” are developed, and it was always clear that the substance didn’t matter all that much.
The goal of the “asks” is ensuring that Congress follow the script. Invariably at least one of these AIPAC goals will be put into legislative language and quickly pass both chambers of Congress. In fact, usually the “ask” is already in legislative form, so that the AIPAC citizen lobbyists can simply demand that their legislators sign on as co-sponsors (if they haven’t already done so). Once the AIPAC bill has the requisite number of co-sponsors, the House and Senate leadership brings it to the floor where it passes with few dissenters.
All hell breaks loose if a member of Congress objects.
One Member of Congress has actually described what happened when she voted no on an AIPAC “ask.” Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) refused to support a bill (opposed by the State Department) that would have essentially banned all U.S. contacts with Palestinians. AIPAC was not pleased with her recalcitrance.
In a letter to AIPAC executive director, Howard Kohr, McCollum described what happened next. In short, she was threatened by an AIPAC official from her district, called a terrorist supporter and warned that her behavior “would not be tolerated.” In response, McCollum told AIPAC not to come near her office again until it apologized.
McCollum was not, of course, the only legislator threatened that way. She is, however, the only one in memory who went public.
As one who worked on Capitol Hill for 20 years, I know that many, if not most, legislators who vote with AIPAC complain about its strong-arm tactics — but only in private. In fact, some of the most zealous defenders of Netanyahu and faithful devotees of the lobby complain most of all. Among staff, AIPAC’s arrival in their offices during the conference is a source of dread. Hill staff, much like legislators themselves, like to think they are perhaps a little important. AIPAC eliminates that illusion. Although AIPAC calls its requests “asks,” they are, in fact, “tells” — and “no” is not a permissible response. (Staffers who like AIPAC, and there are a few, tend to work with it hand-in-glove, which is how AIPAC invariably knows what is going on even before the elected representatives do.)
Despite all this, I do not think that either Netanyahu or his lobby are all that eager to go to war. After all, Israel’s intelligence community opposes it for a host of reasons starting with the fact that it would not eliminate Iran’s nuclear program. There is also the fear that Iran’s Hezbollah allies in Lebanon, on Israel’s northern border, have tens of thousands of missiles that they can let fly if Iran is attacked. Above all is the understanding that no one knows if an attack would make Israel safer or threaten its very existence.
So here’s a theory: Netanyahu and his camp followers here do not really want a war now. They just want it understood that they can dictate whether there is one or not. And when. In other words, they want to show who is boss (it’s not like we don’t know).
As for Obama, he may just be playing along with Netanyahu and AIPAC because he understands their strategy. Perhaps he knows that it isn’t war they want but the illusion of control.
Only, it’s not an illusion. And it certainly won’t be if Netanyahu gets the president he wants in November — a Republican who will fight the war Netanyahu wants but isn’t eager to fight himself. Surely Mitt or Rick or Newt will do it for him.
It is very painful to me having reached the conclusion that unless we as people react harshly to our internal enemies, Erev Rav, unJews by any other name, they will indeed “guide” the ever ready major anti-Semites to carry their plans as expressed and planned and as we see every day from Islam and others.
About ten years ago I promoted the concept that to defeat islamic monsters and anti-Semitic co travelers we must severely take down those in our midst that form “partnerships” with them.
As I see it, it is time to iron ourselves and close the gap into them. They must know jeopardy on themselves.
No other way is relevant.
We are in dire danger again because we fail to understand the nature of those people.
This is exactly what is needed as well. Anti-semites consider Jews people who would never resort to what you described. But sometimes violence is the only language anti-semites understand. Look at how much Muslim supremacists have gotten away with due to their use of violence and the threat of violence on US college campuses and attacks on synagogues and other symbols of Judaism. I’m not suggesting taking anyone’s life but on college campuses the Muslims and their supporters have succeeded in having pro-Israel speakers’ appearances cancelled because the universities and even Jewish campus groups like Hillel are intimidated by threat of violence. Jews in the US not only are often considered “wimps” by others but organized Jewry in the US has deliberately suppressed the history of antisemitism in America. I had heard during WWII , Irish Americans gangs almost daily in Boston and New York attacked Jews not only with total impunity but with the assistance ,at times, of the Boston PD. But it took me weeks of searching the internet to find out any details. It was disgraceful as the NYPD did nothing to protect Jews in NY while their co-religionists were being murdered by the millions. In Boston, the vile Irish who controlled the police department actually sometimes arrested the Jews who were assaulted.There were still many Jewish gangsters and boxers who may have been hired or used for free but these attacks especially in Boston went on for several years with no arrests.
@Keelie; You are absolutely correct. Jews are still afraid to make waves. Rosenberg’s life should be made a living hell since he is the lowest form of vermin,i.e.; a Jew who attempts to give credibility to the worst anti-Jewish stereotypes. I guarantee his paranoid, delusional statements will be used by Jew hating websites as well as others as “proof” Jewish American are totally disloyal,and diabolical. I will not say what I think such a lowlife deserves but use your imagination.As for Walt and Mearsheimer, if they had published a book with the same barely coherent ramblings but substituted Muslims for Jews as their target, these nitwits would not be wealthy men holding the title of professor at 2 world renowned universities. What is needed is what Dershowitz, and Anthony Julius a prominent British Jewish attorney threatened when the Island Nazis i.e. the English union for academics seriously intended to institute a boycott of Israel. A Jewish American Nobel prize winning professor also refused an invitation to speak at a British conference and specifically gave the Island Nazis’ boycott as his reason. What is needed is prominent Jews who are willing to call out Harvard for selling the Kennedy School to the Saudis to become a mouthpiece for the Saudis’ medieval antisemitism. Georgetown’s “School” of international diplomacy nothing more than a front for Muslim supremacy. American Jews have to open their eyes. How much different is the University of California at Santa Cruz where antisemitism is rampant and German universities in the early 1930s just after the Nazi takeover? The only difference is there are still Jewish professors but most are just useful idiots for Muslim supremacists. When they are no longer useful they will get the same treatment the 4 useful idiot Jews are worked for CNN Israel but were fired 2 days ago leaving only Muslims employed in Israel by the Crescent “News” Network.
How I miss the good ole times!
I was 7 years old in 1947. Father owned a lot at the Municipal Livestock Market in Buenos Aires.
He used to take me to the yard to “help” him, but in reality he was helping mother with my newborn brother.
One day I saw something that served to have a well rounded understanding how things were done then and should be done now.
Somehow amongst the staff available for hire by the lot owners, one fellwo from Germany was included. The day I remember clearly was when something happened at the shipping docks.
Father took me to see that.
The fellow, a thin, blond item, had been identified as a kapo. Hiding.
When we reached the small grouping I saw the kapo seated on a chair while three other persons were delivering some words to him. Soon after two known profssional Jewish boxers escorted the kapo to a side corner of the shipping docks and proceeded to smash him to shreds. It was not something to be specific about.
I saw the whole thing. Dad later explained and will never forget that.
I understand that a few other capos tried to settle in BA but none survived.
Who hired M.J. Rosenberg, Dennis Ross, Aaron Miller, Richard Haass, Marty Indyk, Doug Bloomfield and a bunch of other anti-Israel, Pieces-Now Self-Hating JINOs to AIPAC in the late 1970s and early 1980s?
None other than Thomas Dine, DEMOCRATIC PARTY HACK.
M.J. Rosenberg stopped being a Jew a long-time ago. He’s now a willing stooge who accepts blood money from his boss and benefactor Soros, NAZI COLLABORATOR – and Obama financier.
Need I say more. The next time some self-hating Obama ass licking Dem shrieks Neo-Con at you, just remember who hired these schmucks who willingly went to work for anti-Semites like Jim Baker, Brent Scowcroft, Ovomit – and self-haters like Madame NotBright and respond accordingly.
Rosenberg is another Leftwing Obama loon, he preaches his nonsense to those who already agree with him.
The main problem right now, is that there are no consequences for people spreading lies – defaming – Israel and the Jews. Their lives are all too comfortable. In fact many of them, such as Walt and Mearsheimer have attained a kind of celebrity status, at least among the deadhead strata in Western society.
We have to find ways of making their lives somewhat uncomfortable… Given that they are mostly cowards with a heightened sense of their own intellectual and moral grandiosity, that shouldn’t be difficult, as egos such as theirs are usually extremely brittle when they are forced to face the reality of what they really are and the mental aberrations that really drive them.
I’m sure AIPAC is “terrifying” to congressmen especially when the Arabs and Iran have 100s of billions waiting for anyone of any importance in the US who will speak and/or act with hostility towards Israel and Jews. The 2 pseudo-intellectuals Walt and Mearsheimer were rewarded with tremendous profits from one of the biggest selling anti-Jewish/Israel books since Mein Kempf although it’s incoherence sounds like it was written by an 8th grader failing English class. These 2 “professors” who aren’t qualified to teach at a community college had their incoherent, rambling article published by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard ,the same school which received 10s of millions from the Saudis. This creature Rosenberg wants people to believe AIPAC runs the US government. I will not say what this snake deserves.
Laura:
Without oil, American Military operations in the fight against Jihadi terrorism would come to an abrupt end and the terrorists would easily win. This statement is a NO BRAINER.
AIPAC isn’t always on the side of Israel–let’s not forget Barack Obama at AIPAC 2008–the Jewish audience stood and applauded when he said he supported Israel. I of course knew at the same time he was lying through his teeth!
There is nothing new about Nazism in Islam!
The revolting kapo MJ Rosenberg is clearly trying to push the “Jewish control of the U.S. government” narrative that fellow kapos tom friedman and joe klein along with antisemites walt and mearsheimer have been pushing. We are supposed to believe that members of Congress only support Israel because of the omnipotent Jewish lobby forcing them to. Otherwise they would not. As though there isn’t any moral or national security reason for America’s support of Israel. Yet as I have said before, it is the arab-muslim lobby, with billions in petro dollars, that truly has a stranglehold on our government’s policy in the Mideast. Support for Israel should be a given, it needs no lobby. On the other hand, why else would our government be catering to islamic terror states and dictatorships were it not for their vast oil resources? The Israel lobby has no such power.
What methyl ethyl ketone has to do with this, is beyond me. By the time Bibi attends the AIPAC conferance, I hope he has a good slide show presentation in hand of damage to Iranian sites. There’s just too much jibber-jabber, and too little action.
US funds, shelters, arms, and trains MEK terrorists for years, now attempting to pawn full responsibility off on complicit Israeli government.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/us-implausibly-denies-role-in-israeli-terror-squads.html