Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

R. Daneel Olivaw

(12,606 posts)
Sat Mar 22, 2014, 06:47 PM Mar 2014

Standing up to AIPAC means supporting Israeli dissidents

http://972mag.com/standing-up-to-aipac-means-supporting-israeli-dissidents/88672/

The voice of ‘pro-Israel’ militarism has been ringing through the halls of Washington D.C. since the 1970s. Now, to end the occupation, American citizens must couple their opposition to AIPAC with support for anti-occupation groups in Israel.

In the 1970s, Israeli TV had a great program, Nikui Rosh, that was something like the country’s version of Saturday Night Live. Its most famous skit was one in which Israeli leaders would start beating the drums of war, warning against threats from across the Lebanese or Syrian borders, whenever the Israeli economy was in crisis. This is an old trick everywhere: when your leadership is being questioned, rally the nation to unite against the enemy. Today, Israeli leaders don’t need an economic crisis in order to rattle their sabers because they have a chronic political crisis: what to do with the Palestinians under their control, a population whose numbers may have already exceeded those of Jews in Israel. The leaders’ answer is, again, to point the finger elsewhere: Iran is the Boogie Man, with its (Muslim) bomb that threatens not only Israel, but all of the West’s Judeo-Christian civilization.

Is there a war that Israeli leaders or their Washington friends, especially the neocons, do not love? Was there a voice cheering more loudly for the U.S. to launch a war on Iraq in 2002 than theirs? Was there a greater disappointment than theirs when the Syrian chemical weapons crisis did not result in U.S. military strikes against Syria?

This week, at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, prominent politicians raced to the podium to declare their hawkish foreign policy credentials in order to curry favor with the powerful lobby group. Some leaders complained that the current crisis in Crimea, for example, is the result of the U.S. losing its reputation as a tough international policeman, and that the “mullahs” in Iran ought not to be trusted and that Israel and its friends in the U.S. ought to keep up the pressure. Prime Minister Netanyahu (whose speech in Congress last year received more standing ovations than President Obama’s), declared at the Conference that the stifling economic sanctions weren’t working and that a “credible military threat is needed.” The voice of “pro-Israel” militarism has been heard in Washington at least as far back as the early 1970s, when it was eloquently articulated by Nathan Perlmutter of the Anti-Defamation League. He expressed concern that “nowadays war is getting a bad name and peace too favorable a press;” that “peacemakers of Vietnam vintage– transmuters of swords into plowshares,” condemn U.S. policies in Vietnam and Central America while “sniping at American defense budgets.”
3 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Standing up to AIPAC means supporting Israeli dissidents (Original Post) R. Daneel Olivaw Mar 2014 OP
Huh. So the ADL has always been a shameful pack of guttersnipes? Scootaloo Mar 2014 #1
"i almost feel bad now, as I've been blaming it all on Foxman." King_David Mar 2014 #2
Well, I had been extending the benefit of the doubt to the ADL, but if you insist... Scootaloo Mar 2014 #3
 

Scootaloo

(25,699 posts)
1. Huh. So the ADL has always been a shameful pack of guttersnipes?
Sat Mar 22, 2014, 06:51 PM
Mar 2014
The voice of “pro-Israel” militarism has been heard in Washington at least as far back as the early 1970s, when it was eloquently articulated by Nathan Perlmutter of the Anti-Defamation League. He expressed concern that “nowadays war is getting a bad name and peace too favorable a press;” that “peacemakers of Vietnam vintage– transmuters of swords into plowshares,” condemn U.S. policies in Vietnam and Central America while “sniping at American defense budgets.”


i almost feel bad now, as I've been blaming it all on Foxman. Sorry Abe, I didn't know you're just the latest in a long line of suck!

King_David

(14,851 posts)
2. "i almost feel bad now, as I've been blaming it all on Foxman."
Sat Mar 22, 2014, 11:07 PM
Mar 2014

Guess now you realize Shaktimaan was right, you really need read more on this as you would of known.

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Israel/Palestine»Standing up to AIPAC mean...