The Lobby as Juggernaut

http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5290

By B. R. Gowani

The http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5166 Juggernaut scares the hell out of people. It tries to crush those who stand up against them; some suffer but persist, and the pragmatics survive by changing their tune. Nobody is immune; reporters, editors, columnists, professors, academics, politicians…. Everyone is labeled “anti-Semite” when s/he criticizes the power of the Israel Lobby or talks about the misery of the Palestinian people. Even a greeting kiss upsets them! And enquiries are never allowed to be held into Israel’s crimes.

It’s not a new phenomenon; back in the 1950s, the frustrated Secretary of State John Foster Dulles unambiguously stated: “We cannot have all our policies made in Jerusalem.” To the owner of Time Inc. Henry Luce he said: “I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy not approved by the Jews. [But I am going to try to have one. This does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what George Washington said in his farewell address, that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere.”

However, the [emotional attachment has turned into a Gordian Knot which the Isratics wouldn’t let any US leader break it. Only somebody like Alexander the Great can untie or cut it. None of the two presidential candidates have it in them to cut it. On June 16, in Detroit, Michigan, at Obama’s political rally, two Muslim women with headscarves were denied seats behind the podium because they would have shown up with Obama in photographs and on TVs all over the US sending a wrong message. The fear continues …One of the women, a lawyer, Hebba Aref realized Obama’s “change”: “I was coming to support him, and I felt like I was discriminated against by the very person who was supposed to be bringing this change, who I could really relate to. The message that I thought was delivered to us was that they do not want him associated with Muslims or Muslim supporters.”

Obama, of course, called those women and apologized.

United States’ first Muslim congressperson Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota had offered to speak on behalf of Obama to Muslims in a mosque in Grand Rapids. An aid to Obama told Ellison, “We have a very tightly wrapped message.” That is, No, thank you. His offer to campaign for Obama in North Carolina was rejected because the state is “too conservative.” (Ellison is black.)

When it came to AIPAC, Obama hadn’t felt any http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4859 to attend their annual meeting just less than two weeks prior.

James http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4904, former South Dakota senator and a victim of the Lobby describes this annual pilgrimage of the candidates in these words:

“Like a Moslem undertaking the Hajj, the once in a lifetime trip to Mecca, or a Catholic chancing to see the Pope speak from his Vatican window, presidential candidates seemingly long to trudge to the annual AIPAC conference to pay fealty to Israel and its Lobby.”

Uri Avnery, former Israeli Knesset member and a peace activist, summed it up Obama’s visit appropriately:

“And what was the first thing he did after his astounding victory? He ran to the conference of the Israel lobby, AIPAC, and made a speech that broke all records for obsequiousness and fawning.

“That is shocking enough. Even more shocking is the fact that nobody was shocked.”

Yes, nobody was shocked when Obama lied: “Israel’s quest for peace with its neighbors has stalled, despite the heavy burdens borne by the Israeli people.”

And promised: “As president, I will implement a memorandum of understanding that provides $30 billion in assistance to Israel over the next decade, investments to Israel’s security that will not be tied to any other nation.” <34>

Of course Hillary Clinton and John McCain also attended to show their political security that can only be guaranteed by the AIPAC Political Security Agency.

Some of the victims of the Israeli Lobby Juggernaut:

Cynthia McKinney (House Rep., now Green Party presidential candidate)
Earl Hilliard (House Rep.)
Charles H. Percy (Senator)
Adlai E. Stevenson III (Senator)
Paul N. “Pete” McCloskey (House Rep.)
J. William Fulbright (Senator)
Paul Findley (House Rep.)
Walter Huddleston (Senator)
Juan Cole (political analyst)
James Abourezk (Senator)
Noam Chomsky (academic)
George W. Ball (Undersecretary of State)
Eqbal Ahmad (late)
Edward Said (late)
John Connally (Texas Governor)
Jimmy Carter (former President)
Arun Gandhi (founder, M. K. Gandhi Institute)
M. Shahid Alam (Professor)
Robert Fisk (Journalist)
John J. Mearsheimer (academic)
Stephen M. Walt (professor)
James M. Ennes Jr. (author)
Tony Judt (historian)
Vanessa Redgrave (actress)

University of Chicago Professor John J. Mearsheimer and Harvard Professor Stephen M. Walt were asked to write on the Israel Lobby by The Atlantic Monthly who then backed off from publishing the article because of the Israel Lobby’s fear. It was published by the London Review of Books in March 2006. Then it came out in a book form, The Israel Lobby and the U.S. Foreign Policy. They have been vilified and labeled as anti-Semites.

http://www.counterpunch.org/gowani09012008.html

2008-09-02