I too agree with Utley.
On Thu, Mar 5, 2015 at 6:05 AM, Bruce Majors <[email protected]> wrote: > Jon is such a nice guy. I know him personally. He donated to one of my > campaigns. He lives about 8 blocks from me (well off, as he made money in > commercial insurance in Latin America and then buying rental property in > DC, he lives at Georgetown Harbor, the ruling class condo on the Potomac > where Pelosi is his neighbor). > > I'm going to read this. He passed it out and spoke about it at the Grover > Norquist meeting yesterday. I'm afraid most people just think you are > simply an anti Semite when you focus on these issues. > > > On Wednesday, March 4, 2015, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> March 2, 2015 >> >> *Netanyahu and the Crumbling Israeli Lobby * >> *Support for the Israeli prime minister's hardline policies is fading >> among American Jews and Christians alike. *By Jon Basil Utley >> >> Jewish resistance to Netanyahu’s invitation by Republicans to address >> Congress is showing cracks in the Israeli Lobby’s influence over Congress. >> The leading Jewish newspaper *Forward* reports, “the biggest casualties >> may be the normally omnipotent pro-Israel lobby and its allies in the >> Jewish community, who have seen their credibility and political power >> severely shaken.” CNN reports that 63 percent of American oppose the >> invitation. >> >> The Israeli Lobby represents less than half of American Jews. The real >> lobby today is an amalgam of mainly older Jews, evangelical Armageddon >> believers, and the military-industrial complex, which prospers from >> unending wars and chaos in the Middle East. A recent Pew poll shows 31 >> percent of Jews do not feel attached to the state of Israel while another >> 39 percent feel only “somewhat” attached. A massive 83 percent think that >> construction of settlements on Palestinian lands on the West Bank do not >> help Israeli security. Sixty-two percent believe that the Israeli >> government is not negotiating in good faith with the Palestinians. >> >> Media reporting about the growing American Jewish opposition to Israel’s >> Likud Party hawks is especially scarce. Republican media such as the *Wall >> Street Journal* op-ed pages and Fox News disregard such news. I have >> attended three meetings of the pro-peace and fast-growing Jewish >> organization J Street. The last meeting’s dinner banquet in 2013 was >> attended by 60 members of Congress and sponsored by 41 major Jewish >> organizations. (I wrote about their counter-influence in “ J Street and >> the Israeli Lobby >> <http://www.theamericanconservative.com/j-street-and-the-israeli-lobby/>,” >> reporting on how so many Jews oppose the Israeli government’s hawkish Likud >> regime of Netanyahu.) Rarely in America does one see such exhibits as one >> finds at their meetings that show the suffering of the Palestinians under >> Israel’s brutal occupation and the many Jewish groups trying to alleviate >> their suffering. There are many other Jewish and Israeli organizations >> promoting compromise and peace with the Palestinians, as well. >> >> The hawkish Israeli Lobby’s massive strength in Congress depends for its >> power upon a myththat it represents nearly all American Jews. Instead, >> today it depends upon others, especially Bible Belt Republican >> evangelicalsthink Mike Huckabee. About them I once wrote “The Strangest >> Alliance in History,” explaining how each side thought it was using and >> fooling the other. Above all it is their longing for Armageddon that >> motivates many so-called Christian Zionists. They fervently believe and >> want Israel to help bring about the end times. Indeed I called them the >> Armageddon Lobby. Journalist Max Blumenthal recently did video interviews >> of some of these evangelical supporters of hardline Israeli policies, >> including former Republican congressional leader Tom Delay, at the massive >> convention of Christians United for Israel. Delay said how he longed for >> the end times, which “our connection” to Israel would help bring about. >> Others voiced similar aspirations. >> >> >> >> * http://youtu.be/mjMRgT5o-Ig <http://youtu.be/mjMRgT5o-Ig>*Yet there is >> now extraordinary ferment, especially among younger evangelicals, >> questioning and weakening Christian Right support. Fifty-eight years after >> Israel’s founding, the idea of imminent Armageddon, promised in the >> Scofield Bible, is wearing thin. The *Middle East Quarterly *reports, >> “How quickly things change. The days of taking evangelical support for >> Israel for granted are over … anti-Israel Christians are penetrating the >> evangelical world at its soft underbelly, the millennial generation. Young >> believers are rebelling against … the excessive biblical literalism of >> their parents … as they strive to imitate Jesus’s stand with the oppressed >> and downtrodden.” The article’s author, CUFI executive director David Brog, >> warns that polling shows only 30 percent of evangelicals sympathize with >> Israel, while 49 percent sympathize with Israelis and Palestinians equally. >> Brog warns, “The day that Israel is seen as the moral equivalent of Hamas >> is the day that the evangelical community will cease providing the Jewish >> state any meaningful support.” An article in *Counterpunch,* “Christian >> Evangelicals Increasingly Support Palestinian Human Rights,” has very >> detailed information on all sorts of changes and challenges to the formerly >> monolithic Israeli Lobby. >> >> Allied with the Christian Zionists is much of the military-industrial >> complex. It is a key industry in many congressional districts benefiting >> from unending wars, that create more and more enemies for America. See “The >> *Unholy >> Alliance Between the Military-Security-Industrial Complex and the Israel >> Lobby,”* which explains how “irrational and conflicting U.S. policies in >> the Middle East are quite logical from the viewpoint of economic and >> geopolitical beneficiaries of war.” Noam Chomsky argues that the >> military-industrial complex’s “lobbying influence and campaign >> contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted Zionist lobby and its >> allied donors to congressional races.” >> >> Republican pandering to the hardline Israeli Lobby through Netanyahu and >> his push for America to start a third war against another Muslim nation, >> this time with Iran, may not be so politically beneficial as the GOP’s >> leaders imagine. >> >> *Jon Basil Utley is publisher of *The American Conservative >> >> *. >> http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/netanyahu-and-the-crumbling-israeli-lobby/ >> <http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/netanyahu-and-the-crumbling-israeli-lobby/> >> * >> >> -- >> -- >> Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. >> For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum >> >> * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ >> * It's active and moderated. 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