i think that Hedges' piece is one of the best, most honest, most inclusive
pieces of writing on Israel and its influence, that I've seen.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2019 12:04 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Israel's Stranglehold on American Politics
"Birds of a feather flock together", my grandma Ludwig would remind me. Anyone
notice how the Empire Builders and Empire Wannabees suck up to one another?
The American Empire may lead the pack in numbers murdered and raped and
pillaged, as it marched from Sea to Shining Sea. Of course this does not begin
to count the lives lost, or the suffering inflicted, or the property stolen, as
the Empire took possession of Central and South America, and later turned to
Iraq and the Middle East. Like a monster Mutant Whirling Dervish, The American
Corporate Empire is spreading death and dehumanization in the name of Peace and
democracy.
Our very survival instincts have turned on us like a fast growing cancer.
Carl Jarvis
On 3/11/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Israel's Stranglehold on American Politics
The Israel lobby's buying off of nearly every senior politician in the
United States, facilitated by our system of legalized bribery, is not
an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The lobby's campaign of vicious
character assassination, smearing and blacklisting against those who
defend Palestinian rights-including the Jewish historian Norman
Finkelstein and university students, many of them Jewish, in
organizations such as Students for Justice in Palestine-is not an
anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact.
Twenty-four state governments' passage of Israel lobby-backed
legislation requiring their workers and contractors, under threat of
dismissal, to sign a pro-Israel oath and promise not to support the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is not an anti-Semitic
trope. It is a fact. The shameless decision in 2014 by all 100 U.S.
senators, including Bernie Sanders, to pass a Soviet-style plebiscite
proposed by the Israel lobby to affirm Israel's "right to defend
itself" during the 51 days it bombed and shelled homes, water
treatment plants, power stations, hospitals and U.N. schools in Gaza,
killing 2,251 Palestinians, including 551 children, is not an
anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The U.S. refusal, including in the
United Nations and other international bodies, to criticize Israel's
apartheid state and routine violation of international law is not an
anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact. The well-funded campaigns by the
Israel lobby, which works closely with Israel's Ministry of Strategic
Affairs, to discredit any American politician or academic who even
slightly deviates from Israeli policy is not an anti-Semitic trope. It
is a fact. (One infamous example of a U.S.
politician kowtowing was the unconstitutional invitation by then-House
Speaker John Boehner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to
address Congress in 2015 to denounce President Barack Obama's Iranian
nuclear
agreement.) The massive interference in our internal affairs by Israel
and the Israel lobby, far exceeding that of any other country,
including Russia or China, is not an anti-Semitic trope. It is a fact.
Israel's lackeys in the political class, along with bankrupt courtiers
in the U.S. press, including former American Israel Public Affairs
Committee
(AIPAC) employee Wolf Blitzer, are making a serious mistake, however,
in refusing to acknowledge Israel's outsized, transparent and often
illegal meddling in the American political system and Israel's brutal
oppression of Palestinians. It is too obvious and too egregious to
hide. The longer the ruling elites ignore this reality and censor and attack
those such as Rep.
Ilhan Omar who have the temerity to name this interference and the
human rights abuses perpetrated by Israel, the more it gives credence
to the racists, bigots, conspiracy theorists and white hate groups,
many rooted in the Christian right, who are the real anti-Semites.
Israel and its lobby, rather than protecting Israel and Jews, are
steadily nullifying their moral and ultimately political force.
Criticism of Israel and the ideology of Zionism is not anti-Semitic.
Criticism of Israel's influence and control over U.S. foreign policy,
and of Israeli efforts to silence those who champion Palestinian
rights, is not anti-Semitic. Criticism of Israel's oppression of the
Palestinians or its dangerous campaign to orchestrate a war with Iran
is not anti-Semitic. The more Israel and the Israel lobby abuse the
charge of anti-Semitism, a charge the Israel lobby has leveled against
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, among many others, the more
they lose their effectiveness against the dangerous anti-Semites whose
ranks are growing within the far right and across the Muslim world.
Israel and its lobby do not care if its political allies, including
those in the Christian right and the Trump White House, possess warped
and racist attitudes about Jews. The Christian right and many of those
in the White House, while embracing Zionism, are also anti-Semitic.
President Donald Trump has called neo-Nazis "very fine people" and
once tweeted an illustration of Hillary Clinton against a background
of hundred-dollar bills and with the Star of David superimposed near
her face. The sole criterion of Israel and the Israel lobby in
determining who to support and who to demonize is identifying who
backs the far-right agenda of the apartheid state of Israel and who
does not. Genuine anti-Semitism is irrelevant. For Israel, the world
is divided along the fault line of Palestinian rights.
Stand up for the Palestinians and you are an anti-Semite. Cheer their
marginalization, oppression and murder and you are a friend of the Jews.
Have Jewish leaders forgotten their own history? Anti-Semitism is
wrong and dangerous not only because it is bad for the Jews, but
because the dark forces of ethnic and religious hatred, used by Israel
and the lobby against critics, are bad for everyone, including the
Jews and the Palestinians. You open this Pandora's box of evils at your peril.
The interference by Israel in the American political system is amply
documented, including in the Al-Jazeera four-part series "The Lobby,"
which Israel and its supporters managed to block from being broadcast.
In the film, a pirated copy of which can be watched on the website
Electronic Intifada, the leaders of the Israel lobby are repeatedly
captured on a reporter's hidden camera explaining how they, backed by
the intelligence services within Israel, attack and silence American
critics and use huge cash donations to control the American electoral
process and political system. The Israel lobby, lacking any plausible
deniability, has remained stunningly silent about the film. The
corporate press, in the face of pressure by the lobby, has ignored the
documentary.
The series exposes the various machinations of the Israel lobby.
"We made sure that there were people [agents of the lobby] in every
single congressional district," M.J. Rosenberg, a former editor of the
AIPAC policy journal Near East Report and now a critic of AIPAC, said
in the film in an on-the-record interview with Al-Jazeera. "You call
[politicians] and say, 'I'm calling from AIPAC in Washington.' I did
these calls. 'We hear you're good friends with Congressman So and So.'
'Oh my God, yes, we've been friends with so and so.' 'Well, what does
he think about Israel?' 'I never talked to him about Israel.' 'Well,
can I come down and talk to you? And help you figure out a way to talk
to him about Israel?' 'No, just tell me.
What should I say? I'll just tell him.' "
Craig Holman, who campaigns for lobbying reform with Public Citizen,
is another participant in the film who denounced the Israel lobby's
fundraising practices.
"Right now our current [federal] contribution limit from any person to
a candidate is $2,700," Holman says. "That's a lot of money. It can
certainly buy . some gratitude with a lawmaker. But if you really want
to add punch to that type of buying of favors, what you do is you get
50 or 100 people together at an event like this, all chipping in
$2,700 and then you bundle it all together and hand the total amount
to the lawmaker. At that point, we're talking anywhere around a
quarter-million dollars. So suddenly you've got a group of people with
the same demand they want from the lawmaker, handing over a quarter of
a million dollars. That buys a lawmaker."
One of the fundraising events captured in the film was for Anthony
Brown, a Democrat who successfully ran for Congress in Maryland in 2016.
"You strategically pick the ones who are in close races and [whom you]
want to build relationships with," David Ochs, the founder of HaLev
and an activist for Israel, says in the documentary. "We want the
Jewish community to go face to face in this small environment-50, 30,
40 people, and say, 'This is what's important to us.' "
"They're actually buying these officeholders," Public Citizen's Holman
says in the documentary. Speaking from the lobby's point of view, he
says "we're chipping in all this money so we can hand over $100,000 or
$200,000 to the officeholder so we can buy them."
"What [the] group is doing to avoid that [federal] disclosure
requirement is it isn't taking money and putting it in its own account
and then handing it over to the officeholder," Holman says of the
Israel lobby. "It's just collecting credit card information and
turning that over directly to the candidate. Therefore, it's not
violating the earmarking law and they're not reporting this. All we
can see on the campaign finance reports are the individuals who
contributed. But there are no records on those campaign finance
reports that they weren't together in a bundling group who are all at
this event. All we'd know is Person A gave $2,700; Person B gave $2,700.
And we'd have no idea they're working in tandem with each other."
The Israel lobby also flies hundreds of members of Congress, often
with their families, to Israel every year for lavish junkets at
expensive resorts. These Congress members run up individual bills that
frequently exceed $20,000. The Honest Leadership and Open Government
Act of 2007 attempted to restrict lobbyists from offering paid trips
lasting more than one day to members of Congress. But AIPAC, which has
never been forced to register as a foreign agent, used its clout to
insert a clause in the act to exclude so-called educational trips
organized by charities that do not hire lobbyists. AIPAC is affiliated
with such a charity, called the American Israel Education Foundation.
"It doesn't have an office," Holman says about the foundation. "It
doesn't have any employees. It's just a tax form they [Israel lobby agents]
file.
Gives some dinners, gives some wonderful resorts to stay at,
entertainment, all of which is packed up into one of these trips. It's
a very, very effective tool at influence peddling."
The investment by Israel and is backers is worth it. The United States
Congress in 2018 authorized a $38 billion defense aid package for
Israel over the next decade and has spent over $5.6 trillion during
the last 18 years fighting futile wars that Israel and its lobby
pushed for in the Middle East.
"If you wander off the reservation and become critical of Israel, you
not only will not get money, AIPAC will go to great lengths to find
someone who will run against you," John Mearsheimer, professor of
political science at the University of Chicago and co-author of "The Israel
Lobby and U.S.
Foreign Policy," says in the documentary. "And they support that
person very generously. The end result is you're likely to lose your
seat in Congress."
The film focuses in part on former Rep. Jim Moran, who was in the U.S.
House
of Representatives from 1991 to 2015 and who was an open critic of the
Israel lobby.
"They have questionnaires," Moran says about AIPAC in the film.
"Anyone running for Congress is [presented with a demand from AIPAC]
to fill out a questionnaire. And they evaluate the depth of your
commitment to Israel on the basis of that questionnaire. And then you
have an interview with local people. If you get AIPAC support, then
more often than not you're going to win."
"You are told that 'Israel continues to be under siege from hundreds
of millions of its neighbors who are Muslims and they hate Israel and
Jewish people,' " Moran says. "You're told, 'They have only survived
because of the United States, because of American politicians like you
who support us.' "
"You realize it's not just the money," he goes on. "A number of
concerned activists will send out postcards, make phone calls, they'll
organize.
That's the democratic process. They understand the democratic process."
"They threaten," M.J. Rosenberg says of the Israel lobby leaders'
response to elected officials who become critical of Israel. "They
immediately threaten. Even if [politicians] know AIPAC can't defeat
them, AIPAC can make their lives more difficult. They can make sure
that their next town meeting or something, some members of the Jewish
congregation jump up and say, 'But you're anti-Israel!' "
Moran was targeted by the Israel lobby because he raised questions
about the
2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force Act, which authorized the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Moran told a Jewish constituent at a town hall meeting in his district
that "if the Jewish community was opposed to the war, I think that
would make a difference" in whether the United States would invade
Iraq. He was immediately accused by the Israel lobby of being an
anti-Semite and fostering the belief that there was a Jewish
conspiracy to push America into war.
"There was a conservative rabbi in my district who was assigned to me,
I assume, by AIPAC," Moran says. "He warned me that if I voiced my
views about the Israeli lobby that my career would be over, and
implied that it would be done through the [Washington] Post. Sure
enough, The Washington Post editorialized brutally. Everyone ganged
up."
The film shows a screen shot of a 2003 headline in The Washington Post:
"Sorry, Mr. Moran, You're Not Fit For Public Office." In following
years there were a number of other negative commentaries.
In the film, Eric Gallagher, then with The Israel Project, tells the
undercover reporter that AIPAC has a close relationship with the
Washington Post editorial board.
Moran says, "The principal editorial board of the Post itself has been
a very effective instrument because they have been able to maintain
their credibility. It's a great paper in every other way. Because they
have such credibility, they're extremely effective."
"Both of my daughters married Jewish men," Moran says. "My
grandchildren are Jewish. Anybody who considers me an anti-Semite is
ignorant."
AIPAC, while it presents itself as an impartial supporter of Israel,
has long been an arm of the Israeli right. It vehemently opposed the
Oslo Accord and the peace process with the Palestinians engineered by
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. It poured money and resources into the
1992 Israeli election campaign to back Rabin's political opponents in
the Likud party. Rabin did not invite the leaders of the Israel lobby
to his inauguration and, according to an aide in his office, referred
to the leaders of the Israel lobby as "scumbags." He repeatedly
denounced the lobby as an impediment to Israel's security and
democracy.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz characterized Rabin's remarks to
American Jewish leaders during a visit to the United States as
"brutal." "You have hurt Israel," the newspaper quoted Rabin as
saying. "I will not allow you to conduct my dealings with the [U.S.]
administration."
Washington Jewish Week reported that Rabin told the AIPAC leadership,
"You failed at everything. You waged lost battles. . You caused damage
to Israel.
. You're too negative. . You create too much antagonism."
The Israel lobby, after Rabin's assassination in 1995 by a right-wing
Jewish fanatic and the 1996 electoral victory by Likud under the
leadership of Netanyahu, returned to the good graces of the Israeli
government. The lobby, as Israel has lurched further and further to
the right and adopted ever more overtly racist policies toward the
Palestinians under Netanyahu, has become more intrusive in American
political life. Israel's apartheid state, racism and murderous
assaults on unarmed Palestinians increasingly alienate many of its
traditional supporters, including young American Jews. Israel, unable
to justify its human rights abuses and atrocities, has opted for
harsher forms of control including censoring, spying on and attacking
its critics. It has pressured the U.S. State Department to redefine
anti-Semitism under a three-point test known as the Three Ds: the
making of statements that "demonize" Israel; statements that apply
"double standards" for Israel; statements that "delegitimize" the
state of Israel. This definition is being pushed by the Israel lobby
in state legislatures and on college campuses.
It
spreads the hate talk of Islamophobia, including by sponsoring the
showing of the racist film "Unmasked Judeophobia" on college campuses
on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The film argues that Muslims embrace a
Nazi-like anti-Semitism and are seeking to carry out another holocaust
against Jews.
Nearly all American Muslims targeted by law enforcement since 9/11
were singled out for their outspokenness about Palestinian rights.
Most of those arrested had no connection to al-Qaida, Hatem Bazian,
lecturer in the department of Near Eastern studies at UC Berkeley,
says in the film-"no relationship whatsoever to what is called transnational
terrorism."
There are fractures in the Democratic Party, evidenced when House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced a revolt by younger, more progressive
members of the House over her proposal to pass an anti-Semitism
resolution pushed by the Israel lobby and designed to shame Rep. Omar.
A reworded resolution, one that did not please the lobby, was passed,
condemning anti-Muslim bias and white supremacy and citing
"African-Americans, Native Americans, and other people of color, Jews,
Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, immigrants and others"
victimized by bigotry.
Israel's dominance of the Democratic Party is eroding. It is losing
legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Israel's tactics, for this
reason, will become more vicious and underhanded. Its interference in
the democratic process will be characterized less by an attempt to
persuade and more by the use of money to ensure fealty to its
policies, censorship, the enforcement of legally binding oaths in
favor of Israel to blunt the BDS movement, and the kind of racist hate
talk it unleashed against Rep. Omar. The lobby, as Rabin understood,
was never a true friend of Israel.
Chris Hedges
Columnist
Chris Hedges is a Truthdig columnist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist, a New York Times best-selling author, a professor in the
college degree program offered to New Jersey state prisoners by
Rutgers.
