Israel/Palestine
Related: About this forumIsrael lobby should not have veto over US president's cabinet
If you care about the direction of this country but think you don't have time to pay attention to what the Israel lobby is doing, you may want to think again. This is no conspiracy theory - it is all in broad daylight and the stakes are big, in fact they are matters of life and death right now. As we communicate, the Israel lobby is teaming up with the neocon right to prevent President Obama from choosing his Secretary of Defence.
Now you may think, well the right just prevented him from choosing Susan Rice for Secretary of State, so what's new and different here? The difference is that the fight over Susan Rice was just another stupid partisan fight over nothing, and the Republicans won because they had the power to block her nomination in the Senate. This was just a defeated party scoring points against their enemy, a Democratic president, and they gained absolute nothing as far as US foreign policy is concerned.
In fact they lost - for a handful of photo-ops and smears on the Sunday talk shows, and making their enemy look weak, they actually got a Secretary of State who is more likely to support what they don't want. For example, John Kerry is in favour of getting rid of the antiquated and failed embargo on Cuba. And of course, the right could defeat Susan Rice; whereas they can't defeat Kerry, because he is a long-time senator; and the Senate is an "old boys' club" where someone like Kerry will sail through regardless of his politics.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/12/20121230652285915.html
King_David
(14,851 posts)Hagel 'made disparaging remarks about the influence of what he called a "Jewish lobby" in Washington.'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/06/obama-chuck-hagel_n_2421363.html
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Israel lobby groups often identify themselves as "Jewish" lobby groups - Some Israel lobby groups simply cram "Jewish" into their name such as the Jewish council for Public Affairs, Jewish People Policy Institute, American Jewish Committee, while others such as ADL, B'nai B'rith, and the sort just claim to lobby on behalf of Jews, when in fact their lobbying is on behalf of Israel.
There really isn't much by way of an authentic "Jewish lobby" in Washington - since Jews are hardly a monolithic group with easily-represented common interests in the US, constructing such a lobby would be quite difficult. On the other hand there are lots of Israel lobby groups in Washington, many of whom masquerade as representative for Jewish Americans. (Far more pose as "independent research groups," to be fair.)
When Hagel says "Jewish lobby," he means "Israel lobby." Just like when the Israel lobby says "Jewish lobby" it means the Israel lobby.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Same with some other Senators, Democrats at that.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/113427516
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)I'm saying that the Israel lobby self-represents as the "Jewish" lobby. I figure Hagel - and those others - simply take the Israel lobby at their word on that.
And in case you're wondering, I don't endorse Hagel as SecDef. Granted that has nothing to do with Hagel himself, rather more to do with the fact that I don't think this candidate or that will actually result in any shift in US policy. That being the case, I'd rather have a Democrat in there, just for consistency's sake.
King_David
(14,851 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)Purveyor
(29,876 posts)King_David
(14,851 posts)I truly hope you are not saying or worse believing that Arabs per se are evil?
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)did you post this supportive article of Hagel just because of the source?
King_David
(14,851 posts)And I had no idea that you 'posted that in mocking fashion '
Strange as your post was, may I suggest if you post something in a ' in mocking fashion ' you should use this icon ,so that none of us would take your post to be 'bigoted' in any ' fashion '.
Purveyor
(29,876 posts)xxxsdesdexxx
(213 posts)LeftishBrit
(41,190 posts)who had been forced to resign for extreme incompetence if not worse, but was still an MK, was found to be actively advising the Romney campaign?
I am sure that there would be a lot of complaints about Israel 'controlling America', etc.
Yet this did happen with a British MP and ex-Defense secretary, and apart from some grumbling within the UK, I don't think there was a lot of fuss about it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-election/9500834/US-election-Liam-Fox-feeding-ideas-to-Mitt-Romneys-Republicans.html
Mind you, if Romney actually took any advice from Liam Fox, I am not surprised that he lost!