Comments on: Um, Does This Bother You As Much As It Bothers Me?

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:44:10 +0000

I think it is self-evidently true that you can’t get elected without making all the right noises about Israel. Obama made those right noises. As for what he’s actually going to DO when he gets into office? Impossible to say yet.

For instance, if I were to run for office I could legitimately say that I believe Israel has the right to exist and the right to self-defence, and that I plan on being the best friend to Israel that they ever had.

It’s just that I firmly believe that what Israel truly needs, the one thing the US can do that would demonstrate true friendship, would be to apply as much political pressure as we can bring to bear to force Israel to abandon all illegal settlements in the West Bank, and give Palestinians back autonomy over the land they have left. It’s the only chance Israel has of ever achieving real, lasting peace, but it is a political impossibility for Israeli politicians to ever do it … UNLESS they were FORCED into it by the one power that could do the forcing…

See what I mean? Could be Obama will just be more of the same, could be he’ll be radically different. Impossible to know yet.

-me

By: felicity

felicity — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:10:54 +0000

Ray – I’ve heard that too that without AIPAC behind you financially you don’t have a chance in hell of even getting nominated for a federal office. But I don’t believe it. Unless, of course, AIPAC can generate hundreds-of-billions of bucks to finance a candidate – which I don’t think possible.

I think Israel, not hard to do considering our inability to understand or practice the art of diplomacy, has convinced us that if we don’t do their bidding they’ll stop doing ours as American fire power in the ME. Obviously this is of mutual benefit – not obvious to the numbskulls running Washington, however.

By: s

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:57:44 +0000

11 something will change….
We won’t have to hear about the press
mis-under estimating him. Is that even a word?
I like to think a lot will change.
The attitude for one!

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:11:07 +0000

Sadly, nothing will change with Obama in office. He has already been vetted and approved by AIPAC. It’s simply not possible to run for public office in this country if you don’t toe the most extremist pro-zionist party line. AIPAC will spend millions to defeat you and shut you out. See “The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy” by Mearsheimer and Walt for copious examples.

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:29:45 +0000

From what I’ve read ’round the web, Olmert almost certainly just madeup that bit about calling W away from a speech, but he also almost certainly did at SOME point talk to W, and W subsequently ordered Condi to abstain from the vote on the measure she helped build.

Possibly Condi will eventually write one of the bitter tell-all books that will inevitably come out in the years to come? One can but hope…

-me

By: Sam Simple

Sam Simple — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:39:52 +0000

When you have walking piles of feces like the Senator from Israel, Joe Lieberman, in the Senate, what do you fucking expect? We should surround and blockade Israel and shoot down anything that flies out of that shithole, until they learn to play nice in the sandbox.

By: gigi

gigi — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:40:52 +0000

Thank you , moonbat for pointing out that the opinions of the elites are at odds with the opinions of the majority of American people. Too often these distinctions are lost in the morass.

By: moonbat

moonbat — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:41:55 +0000

It goes far beyond George Bush. The Israeli right wing calls the shots here in America. I read Glenn Greenwald regularly, and he reports on this kind of thing all the time. Just he today he provided examples of how Congress routinely bows before powerful, organized lobbies, such as the NRA and AIPAC.

Greenwald has been writing a lot about the conflict in Gaza. He showed how elite opinion in the US (the media and politicians) is uniformly behind Israel, which is at odds with the majority of people in this country, who are more even minded about it. Even in Israel, you can find opposition opinion expressed in major papers against the Israeli position. Not so in America.

Israel is one of those third rail subjects in American politics, that can’t even be rationally discussed. This results is some serious, sick codependency, where our country’s aims are confused and conflated with those of Israel, to the point where politicians can’t even talk about it or publicly hold an opposing view. Greenwald does a great job of following and expressing the major elements in this story.

This dynamic has been going on before George Bush, whose far right policies intensified it, but will continue after he’s gone. I haven’t heard any Democrat stand up against this undue influence. Witness Hillary Clinton’s hawkish stances about the Middle East, no doubt due to her large Jewish consituency. Ironically, polls of Jews here in America are more even minded about Israel’s behavior than what is expressed in the political and media arenas.

By: Bonnie

Bonnie — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:59:45 +0000

Juan Cole has more details. Condi was humiliated; but, she should know by now that working with Bush has it’s surprises.

By: Dave S

Dave S — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:48:25 +0000

Can you say “lap dog”? Knew you could.

Dave S, channeling Mr. Rogers