-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: September 19, 2007 9:13:53 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: DEMS Eating Their Own to Defend A.I.P.A.C.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) made a very big mistake as far as the
Democratic leadership in the House is concerned. He told the truth
about A.I.P.A.C.'s unhealthy influence on American politics:
Moran had said, "I would like to have a reasonable, objective
discussion about A.I.P.A.C.'s foreign policy agenda. But it's
difficult to do that because any time you question their motives,
you are
accused of being anti-Semitic."
And for that transgression, House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer
(D-Md) had to take Moran to the woodshed. Hoyer demanded that his
fellow Democrat retract his comments about the Israel lobby. "His
remarks were factually inaccurate," Hoyer said at a news conference
in the Capitol.
See what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.
From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: September 19, 2007 8:04:48 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: DEMS Eating Their Own to Defend A.I.P.A.C.
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/9/18/19318/7181
*Dems Eating Their Own to Defend A.I.P.A.C.*
by Steven D
Tue Sep 18th, 2007 at 07:03:18 PM EST
Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) made a very big mistake, at least as far as
the Democratic
leadership in the House is concerned. He told the truth about
A.I.P.A.C.'s
unhealthy influence on American politics:
In an interview with "Tikkun," a California-based Jewish magazine,
Moran said the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee (A.I.P.A.C.) is "the most
powerful lobby
and has pushed [the Iraq] war from the beginning. I don't think
they represent
the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they
are so well
organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most
of them are
quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power." [...]
"The problem with addressing the groups who have argued strongly in
favor of a
long-term American military presence in the Middle East is that
they raise
arguments that are not related to the point," Moran said. "I would
like to have a
reasonable, objective discussion about A.I.P.A.C.'s foreign policy
agenda. But
it's difficult to do that because any time you question their
motives, you are
accused of being anti-Semitic."
And for that transgression, House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer
(D-Md) has
decided Moran needs to be taken to the woodshed:
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) went after fellow
Democrat Jim Moran of
Virginia Tuesday, calling on him to retract his comments about the
Israel lobby.
"His remarks were factually inaccurate and recall an old canard
that is not true,
that the Jewish community controls the media and the Congress,"
Hoyer said at a
news conference in the Capitol.
First of all, Moran never said the Jewish community controls the
media and
Congress, so Hoyer is the one lying. What Moran said was that
A.I.P.A.C., the
ultra-conservative pro-Israeli lobby which doesn't represent the
views of the
majority of Jewish Americans, is the most powerful lobby in
Washington which
pressed for, and has continued to support, President Bush's war
with Iraq, a
statement which is factually true.
Indeed, A.I.P.A.C. is so powerful that it was able to force Speaker
Nancy Pelosi
to remove language from legislation earlier this year that would have
specifically required President Bush to get authorization from
Congress before
attacking Iran even though the majority of Americans oppose another
war in the
Middle East.
To take an example from these past few months of the Israel Lobby
exercising its
power, liberals in the House of Representatives in the spring of
2007 sought to
include in the defense-funding budget an amendment that would
require specific
authorization from Congress before the Administration could use the
defense
budget monies for a military strike at Iran. The amendment
failed. Most
liberals in the U.S. today oppose preventive wars in general and a
military
strike against Iran in particular. So who supports such a move?
The answer is:
the right-wing government of Israel and its champion in the U.S.,
the Israel Lobby.
Practically no one thinks it would be a smart idea (much less
legally justified)
for American forces to attack Iran outside of Joe Lieberman and
Dick Cheney, and
A.I.P.A.C. obviously. Yet Pelosi was forced to back off a simple
statement that
merely reflects the mandates of the Constitution because A.I.P.A.C.
wants to
leave President Bush every opportunity to attack Iran without any
hindrance by
Congress.
But dare to speak the truth about A.I.P.A.C.'s influence on
American foreign
policy as it relates to Iraq, and they will quickly send the House
Majority
Leader out to verbally attack you. And why are Democrats doing
this on behalf of
a group that is fundamentally opposed to their party on most
issues? It's simple
really. They are scared to death of A.I.P.A.C., as this story by
Rabbi Michael
Lerner, editor of TIKKUN MAGAZINE, and a proponent of a progressive
"middle path"
approach to Israeli-Palestinian relations illustrates:
When Tikkun held its 2004 conference in Washington to ask Congress
to support our
Resolution for Middle East Peace, we brought hundreds of people
from around the
U.S. to speak to their elected officials. Through the intervention
of one
Democratic Congressperson (not Moran) I was able to meet with about
eight
"Members" in a private meeting in which I was told that people
would only sit
there if their names were guaranteed confidentiality. They had all
read the
story in The Washington Post that day about the Tikkun Community/
NSP and its
efforts to present a "Progressive Middle Path" that would be both
pro-Israel and
pro-Palestine, based in large part on the Geneva Accord that had
recently been
signed by Yossi Beilin and Yassir Abed Rabbo. "Tikkun" had also
raised money to
pay for a full-page ad in The New York Times, signed by thousands
of people,
calling on the U.S. to support this path. Tikkun Community members
had had
meetings that day with hundreds of Congresspeople, and almost all
of them had
said the same thing: "We agree with your perspective, but we are
not going to
fight the Jewish community on this topic. As long as they feel the
way they do,
we are not going to make this our issue."
Sitting in that room I heard a clearer articulation of what our
Tikkun people
were hearing in these other meetings: A pronounced fear of
A.I.P.A.C. and what it
could do to them. At the meeting I was at, every Member of
Congress tried to
explain why Nancy Pelosi would never let me address the Democratic
Caucus of the
House (at that time, the minority caucus): House Democrats are too
fearful of
what A.I.P.A.C. might do in response. I told these Members of
Congress that I
didnt believe them; that I thought that House of Representative
liberals were
just pretending to be fearful of A.I.P.A.C. in order to avoid a
battle and stand
up publicly for Tikkuns middle path position. But, then they
began to tell me
specific stories from their own experience of the threats they had
received from
the Israel Lobby people about being labeled as "anti-Israel." They
told me
stories of it being impossible to convene a private meeting of
Democrats who
would want to challenge the Israel Lobby because when they had
tried that they
had found that every name of the attendees was in the hands of
A.I.P.A.C.
lobbyists within an hour of the conclusion of that meeting and many
of the
attendees had been subject to immediate and intense pressure as
though they had
decided to abandon Israel (which they had not, nor is that what
"Tikkun" calls
for). And what they told me rang true: that A.I.PA.C. and the
Israel Lobby had a
large constituency of single-issue voters who would support a
challenge to them
in their next primaries, or possibly even in the general elections,
should they
not retain A.I.P.A.C.'s approval. A perfectly legitimate tactic by
A.I.P.A.C.,
but used in this instance to support very bad policies.
So much for electing Democrats to change the course. They say one
thing to us,
but when push comes to shove, they will follow A.I.P.A.C.'s lead.
Which is why
we are still in Iraq, why the inauguration of a Democratic
President in January,
2009 doesn't necessarily insure a withdrawal of U.S. forces from
Iraq, and why
Congress will likely stand impotently by if Bush decides to give
the order to
attack Iran.
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