So much for the 'all-powerful' Israel lobby
For the past two months, those invested in the Israel-U.S. relationship have been fixated on whether or not Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel would fundamentally alter U.S. policy toward Israel. In addition to his revealing statements about Jews, the former senator from Nebraska voted against sanctioning Iran and against designating the Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.
Yet AIPAC has remained totally mum. The group says it focuses its energies on matters of policy rather than personnel. If it campaigned against Hagel, where would it stop? The organization would potentially have to take a position on every Cabinet nominee. Meantime, in the absence of AIPAC, other pro-Israel organizations have come out publicly against Hagel, like the Emergency Committee for Israel. For taking the lead on this issue, they have been labeled partisans, while AIPAC has preserved its bipartisan status.
But it’s not clear how much that label matters when a very influential segment of the Democratic party has made it plain that supporting Israel isn’t a top priority. I’m not just referring to the delegates who booed pro-Israel changes to the party platform on the floor of the convention in Charlotte last summer. I’m talking about the White House.
Pro-Israel Obama supporters on the Hill and in the press keep trying to make the case that in spite of how it might look on the surface, the administration cares deeply about the U.S.-Israel relationship. They point to the success of Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile defense batteries as evidence that the security and military cooperation between the United States and Israel has reached unprecedented highs under Obama’s stewardship. But politics is mostly about how things look. And if the administration really cared that much about Israel, it wouldn’t nominate a secretary of defense who referred to defenders of the U.S.-Israel relationship as “the Jewish lobby.”
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The paradox is that by giving personnel a pass, AIPAC has lost the policy debate. Policy is made by people who believe in certain ideas, principles, and even fantasies. What Hagel seems to have learned from his tours of combat in Vietnam is that it is a fantasy to imagine that you can bomb a country into submitting to the will of the United States. Presumably, this is why he also opposed the war in Iraq. The problem is that deconstructing such a fantasy does not necessarily leave you with reality. In Hagel’s case it has left him only with an equally dangerous fantasy: that instead of waging war, it is possible to reach an accommodation, if not an amicable understanding, with nations that have clearly identified themselves as adversaries.
Read the whole thing.
Not going after Hagel was a serious mistake by an organization that can be taken for granted by the Democratic party.
Labels: AIPAC, Chuck Hagel, Iranian nuclear threat, Israel Lobby
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:43 PM
3 Comments:
I'm having trouble figuring out why anyone thought AIPAC would do anything except support the Obama Team. It was at their convention in 2008, where candidate Obama said wonderful things about Israel and Jerusalem. Those videos went out all over the country, supported by the Israeli consulate people and the Federation people. When the Obama message was retracted and backtracked within days, the Israeli consulate people, the Federation people, and the AIPAC people did NOTHING to change their glowing support for an Obama election. They are New Left marcuse advocates, now rolling in the Gaia Green $lu$h mud ($4 BBBillion and counting). Why would Lee Smith think anything else would happen and why would we listen to Lee Smith if he doesn't do an anaylsis of the effect of $$Billions on these organizations and the life (staying alive, that is) prospects of Israel, etc. Every bit has been predictable and ignored by people who should be screaming bloody murder, which is what is in the pipeline. WAKE UP!!
I TOTALLY agree with Sunlight.
American Jews must WAKE UP!!!
AIPAC has been a tool CLEARLY in the hands of liberal Jews AT LEAST since their OPEN ADVOCACY for Oslo.
Look at the leaders' names and whom they are connected to...
HaDaR... Israel must WAKE UP! and reject and refund all Green $lu$h and start screaming for your safety. Yell for your politicians, etc. to scream WARCRIME @ every rocket from Gaza or Leb... Unless you are lined up with the Progressives, you need to be AGAINST them. Remember John Kerry was the DEM PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE in '04. That guy was pivotal in clearing the U.S. military out of the way for the Khmer Rouge and No. Vietnamese Commies to slaughter 2.5+mil people in the '80s. And all the Progressives can say is What Difference Does It Make. They don't care how many people die. As a matter of fact, unlike the Torah, they think humans are a blight and the more dead the better. They say this in public. Because if Israel stays in the tank with these Progressives, Hillary2016 will be sweeping up any remnants of a Jewish nation of Israel... It's just mindboggling to me. Don't waste energy on the US Jews; look at what your Israeli marcuse new left Gaia people are doing.
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