R
Raymond
Guest
On Jan 14, 1:04 am, Millie James <ma...@eagle.ptialaska.net> wrote:
> a.p.b.,
> [from "What is AIPAC?" webpage...]http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/default.asp#
>
> the American Israel Public Affairs Committee =
> ...Champ, blame Israeli fear of anti-Semitic truce.
>
> _ _ _ _ _
> Millie ma...@eagle.ptialaska.net
>
> 9 shades of jade.
Shalom aleichem
"Aidel gepotchket "-[ Delicately brought up subject.]
AIPAC is the most powerful lobby in Washington and has pushed this
Iraq war from the beginning ...Let's look back at a motivation for the
Iraq war.
http://zionofascism.wordpress.com/category/netanyahu-watch/
Under a 1975 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the US guaranteed all
Israel's oil needs in the event of a crisis. This MoU is quietly
renewed every five years. It commits US taxpayers to maintain a
strategic US reserve for Israel, equivalent to $3 billion in 2002
dollars. Special legislation was enacted to exempt Israel from
restrictions on oil exports from the US. Moreover, the US government
agreed to divert oil from the US, even in case of oil shortages in the
US. The US government also guaranteed delivery of oil in US tankers if
commercial shippers become unable or unwilling to carry oil from the
US to Israel.
SEE
Israel-United States Memorandum of Understanding
(September 1, 1975)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/mou1975.html
We are All Jews Now
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Jones_Palestine.htm
NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN
AIPAC, the Religious Right and American foreign policy......Pressure
Groups and US Middle East Policy..... The Israel Lobby
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/lrblobby.html
By Rodrigue Tremblay
"Most citizens are unaware of the startling fact that for years our
U.S. Middle East policy has not been crafted by seasoned experts who
are committed to America's basic national interests."
--Paul Findley, U.S. Republican Congressman, (1961-83)
"Thank God we have AIPAC, the greatest supporter and friend we have in
the whole world,"
--Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister
"Either I make policy on the Middle East or AIPAC makes policy on the
Middle East." --Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter administration National
Security Advisor
Congressman Jim Moran: 'Cross AIPAC and it Will Destroy You ...
08/29/06 "Online Journal" -- -- Nobody can understand what's going on
politically in the United States without being aware that a political
coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative
intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously
powerful influence on the American government and its policies.
Over time, this large pro-Israel Lobby, spearheaded by the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has extended its
comprehensive grasp over large segments of the U.S. government,
including the vice president's office, the Pentagon and the State
Department, besides controlling the legislative apparatus of Congress.
It is being assisted in this task by powerful allies in the two main
political parties, in major corporate media and by some richly
financed so-called "think-tanks," such as the American Enterprise
Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy .
AIPAC is the centerpiece of this coordinated system. For example, it
keeps voting statistics on each congressional representative and
senator, which are then transmitted to political donors to act
accordingly. AIPAC also organizes regular all-expense-paid trips to
Israel and meetings with Israeli ministers and personalities for
congressmen and their staffs, and for other state and local American
politicians. Not receiving this imprimatur is a major handicap for any
ambitious American politician, even if he can rely on a personal
fortune.
In Washington, in order to have a better access to decision makers,
'The Lobby' even has developed the habit of recruiting personnel for
senators and House members' offices. And, when elections come, 'The
Lobby' makes sure that lukewarm, independent-minded or dissenting
politicians are punished and defeated. It is a source of such
political power, campaign financing and media propaganda that no U.S.
politician can dare ignore its demands without fear of being
destroyed. As veteran columnist Robert Novak recently pointed out,
thanks to the influence of AIPAC and 'The Lobby,' "Washington remains
largely a bipartisan, criticism-free zone for Israel."
This is understandable. AIPAC's techniques are so efficient that one
can easily have the impression that it is a 'parallel government' in
Washington, D.C. In the words of its president, Howard Friedman,
consigned in a hubristic bulletin to supporters, it relies on two
techniques in particular:
1. "AIPAC meets with every candidate running for Congress. These
candidates receive in-depth briefings to help them completely
understand the complexities of Israel's predicament and that of the
Middle East as a whole. We even ask each candidate to author a
'position paper' on their views of the U.S.-Israel relationship, so
it's clear where they stand on the subject."
2. "Members of Congress, staffers and administration officials have
come to rely on AIPAC's memos. They are very busy people and they know
that they can count on AIPAC for clear-eyed analysis. We present this
information in concise form to elected officials. The information and
analyses are impeccable, -after all our reputation is at stake. This
results in policy and legislation that make up Israel's lifeline."
I doubt that there is any democratic country in the entire world where
candidates have to pass an ideological litmus test, if they want to
have a chance of being chosen candidates and being elected. Thus, who
could blame AIPAC from being convinced that it has the U.S. Congress
on a very short leash? If AIPAC were a company, it could be subject to
a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust and anti-cartel
investigation for cornering the market.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that, on Capitol Hill, 'The Lobby'
seems to be in charge, so much so that its near complete control of
U.S. foreign policy and other policies, such as defense, has become
the equivalent of a joke. We are not witnessing consensus here, but
rather a situation tantamount to unanimity in the desire to align
American policies to Israeli policies, each time Israel's interests in
the Middle East are on the line. A totalitarian country would not
function differently.
AIPAC has such a grip on Washington that sometimes one can be forgiven
for confusing Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C. A recent example: AIPAC
penned a resolution of support for Israel in its savage and illegal
bombings of Lebanon. On July 20, 2006, the resolution was voted
unanimously by the 100-member Senate and the vote in the House was 410
to 8. Case closed.
For many years, the influence of 'The Lobby' remained under the radar,
being ignored or concealed by the media it controlled and by most
commentators. On March 10, 2006, however, two respected American
scholars, professors Stephen Walt from Harvard University and John
Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago published a study in The
London Review of Books, entitled The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy, about the disproportionate influence that this special
interest Lobby has on American foreign policy. It said that AIPAC was
"the most powerful and best known" organization in a pro-Israel lobby
that systematically distorts American foreign policy. The study
concluded that Israel played a major role in pushing the Bush
administration toward a war with Iraq, and it argued that the pro-
Israel lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy was bad both for
Israel and for the U.S. Thereafter, nobody could feign ignoring the
corrosive influence of this powerful lobby on U.S. foreign policy.
Another example of the type of power 'The Lobby' carries these days in
Washington, D.C., is its success in establishing within the State
Department, with taxpayers' money, a special interest agency, called
the 'Office of Global Anti-Semitism'. In a move reminiscent of what
happened during past centuries under totalitarian regimes, this new
'agency' is totally devoted to monitoring around the world instances,
among other things, of criticism of Israel or of American pro-Israel
policies. The creation of this new department of Inquisition was
mandated by a law, [H.R. 4230], that President George W. Bush signed
on October 16, 2004. Who says that reality is not stranger than
fiction!
So-called Christian Zionists also have a significant influence on
American foreign policy, especially as it relates to the Middle East.
Their propaganda has been so successful that today, 40 percent of
Americans believe that Israel was directly given to the Jewish people
by 'God'. One-third of Americans even believe that the creation of the
state of Israel, in 1948, after a terrorist campaign against Great
Britain, was a step towards the 'Second Coming of Jesus Christ' and
the 'End of the world'. For the most fanatical ones among them, the
'war on terrorism,' whatever it means, is a war of religion between
Christianity and Islam. With such thinking, the world is thrown back
four centuries, since the last war of religion was the 1618-1648
Thirty Years' War between European Protestants and Catholics.
These days, the American religious Right has its own special interest
office within the State Department. It is called the 'Office of
International Religious Freedom,' whose principal mission is to meddle
in the domestic affairs of other countries. Such a state agency would
seem to run contrary to the "wall of separation" between church and
state that President Thomas Jefferson thought he had erected with the
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such governmental forays in
religious matters are in addition to the state-financed 'Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives' that the Bush administration
created soon after it took office.
Since the current occupant of the White House is a born-again
Christian who harbors ideas which are close to those advanced by the
American Christian Right it should not be too surprising if the Bush
administration's policy in the Middle East has very strong religious
overtones.
In any government, one has to look behind the curtains to see who is
really pulling the strings and who is steering the policies. In the
case of the Bush-Cheney administration, one has to know about 'The
Lobby' and the 'religious Right'. Without that knowledge, one is in
the dark when it comes to understanding the direction taken by certain
policies.
Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University
of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@ yahoo.com. He is
the author of the book 'The New American Empire'. Visit his blog site
at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Alaichem sholom
> a.p.b.,
> [from "What is AIPAC?" webpage...]http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/default.asp#
>
> the American Israel Public Affairs Committee =
> ...Champ, blame Israeli fear of anti-Semitic truce.
>
> _ _ _ _ _
> Millie ma...@eagle.ptialaska.net
>
> 9 shades of jade.
Shalom aleichem
"Aidel gepotchket "-[ Delicately brought up subject.]
AIPAC is the most powerful lobby in Washington and has pushed this
Iraq war from the beginning ...Let's look back at a motivation for the
Iraq war.
http://zionofascism.wordpress.com/category/netanyahu-watch/
Under a 1975 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the US guaranteed all
Israel's oil needs in the event of a crisis. This MoU is quietly
renewed every five years. It commits US taxpayers to maintain a
strategic US reserve for Israel, equivalent to $3 billion in 2002
dollars. Special legislation was enacted to exempt Israel from
restrictions on oil exports from the US. Moreover, the US government
agreed to divert oil from the US, even in case of oil shortages in the
US. The US government also guaranteed delivery of oil in US tankers if
commercial shippers become unable or unwilling to carry oil from the
US to Israel.
SEE
Israel-United States Memorandum of Understanding
(September 1, 1975)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/mou1975.html
We are All Jews Now
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Jones_Palestine.htm
NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN
AIPAC, the Religious Right and American foreign policy......Pressure
Groups and US Middle East Policy..... The Israel Lobby
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/lrblobby.html
By Rodrigue Tremblay
"Most citizens are unaware of the startling fact that for years our
U.S. Middle East policy has not been crafted by seasoned experts who
are committed to America's basic national interests."
--Paul Findley, U.S. Republican Congressman, (1961-83)
"Thank God we have AIPAC, the greatest supporter and friend we have in
the whole world,"
--Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister
"Either I make policy on the Middle East or AIPAC makes policy on the
Middle East." --Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter administration National
Security Advisor
Congressman Jim Moran: 'Cross AIPAC and it Will Destroy You ...
08/29/06 "Online Journal" -- -- Nobody can understand what's going on
politically in the United States without being aware that a political
coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative
intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously
powerful influence on the American government and its policies.
Over time, this large pro-Israel Lobby, spearheaded by the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has extended its
comprehensive grasp over large segments of the U.S. government,
including the vice president's office, the Pentagon and the State
Department, besides controlling the legislative apparatus of Congress.
It is being assisted in this task by powerful allies in the two main
political parties, in major corporate media and by some richly
financed so-called "think-tanks," such as the American Enterprise
Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy .
AIPAC is the centerpiece of this coordinated system. For example, it
keeps voting statistics on each congressional representative and
senator, which are then transmitted to political donors to act
accordingly. AIPAC also organizes regular all-expense-paid trips to
Israel and meetings with Israeli ministers and personalities for
congressmen and their staffs, and for other state and local American
politicians. Not receiving this imprimatur is a major handicap for any
ambitious American politician, even if he can rely on a personal
fortune.
In Washington, in order to have a better access to decision makers,
'The Lobby' even has developed the habit of recruiting personnel for
senators and House members' offices. And, when elections come, 'The
Lobby' makes sure that lukewarm, independent-minded or dissenting
politicians are punished and defeated. It is a source of such
political power, campaign financing and media propaganda that no U.S.
politician can dare ignore its demands without fear of being
destroyed. As veteran columnist Robert Novak recently pointed out,
thanks to the influence of AIPAC and 'The Lobby,' "Washington remains
largely a bipartisan, criticism-free zone for Israel."
This is understandable. AIPAC's techniques are so efficient that one
can easily have the impression that it is a 'parallel government' in
Washington, D.C. In the words of its president, Howard Friedman,
consigned in a hubristic bulletin to supporters, it relies on two
techniques in particular:
1. "AIPAC meets with every candidate running for Congress. These
candidates receive in-depth briefings to help them completely
understand the complexities of Israel's predicament and that of the
Middle East as a whole. We even ask each candidate to author a
'position paper' on their views of the U.S.-Israel relationship, so
it's clear where they stand on the subject."
2. "Members of Congress, staffers and administration officials have
come to rely on AIPAC's memos. They are very busy people and they know
that they can count on AIPAC for clear-eyed analysis. We present this
information in concise form to elected officials. The information and
analyses are impeccable, -after all our reputation is at stake. This
results in policy and legislation that make up Israel's lifeline."
I doubt that there is any democratic country in the entire world where
candidates have to pass an ideological litmus test, if they want to
have a chance of being chosen candidates and being elected. Thus, who
could blame AIPAC from being convinced that it has the U.S. Congress
on a very short leash? If AIPAC were a company, it could be subject to
a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust and anti-cartel
investigation for cornering the market.
Therefore, it should be no surprise that, on Capitol Hill, 'The Lobby'
seems to be in charge, so much so that its near complete control of
U.S. foreign policy and other policies, such as defense, has become
the equivalent of a joke. We are not witnessing consensus here, but
rather a situation tantamount to unanimity in the desire to align
American policies to Israeli policies, each time Israel's interests in
the Middle East are on the line. A totalitarian country would not
function differently.
AIPAC has such a grip on Washington that sometimes one can be forgiven
for confusing Tel Aviv and Washington, D.C. A recent example: AIPAC
penned a resolution of support for Israel in its savage and illegal
bombings of Lebanon. On July 20, 2006, the resolution was voted
unanimously by the 100-member Senate and the vote in the House was 410
to 8. Case closed.
For many years, the influence of 'The Lobby' remained under the radar,
being ignored or concealed by the media it controlled and by most
commentators. On March 10, 2006, however, two respected American
scholars, professors Stephen Walt from Harvard University and John
Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago published a study in The
London Review of Books, entitled The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy, about the disproportionate influence that this special
interest Lobby has on American foreign policy. It said that AIPAC was
"the most powerful and best known" organization in a pro-Israel lobby
that systematically distorts American foreign policy. The study
concluded that Israel played a major role in pushing the Bush
administration toward a war with Iraq, and it argued that the pro-
Israel lobby's influence on U.S. foreign policy was bad both for
Israel and for the U.S. Thereafter, nobody could feign ignoring the
corrosive influence of this powerful lobby on U.S. foreign policy.
Another example of the type of power 'The Lobby' carries these days in
Washington, D.C., is its success in establishing within the State
Department, with taxpayers' money, a special interest agency, called
the 'Office of Global Anti-Semitism'. In a move reminiscent of what
happened during past centuries under totalitarian regimes, this new
'agency' is totally devoted to monitoring around the world instances,
among other things, of criticism of Israel or of American pro-Israel
policies. The creation of this new department of Inquisition was
mandated by a law, [H.R. 4230], that President George W. Bush signed
on October 16, 2004. Who says that reality is not stranger than
fiction!
So-called Christian Zionists also have a significant influence on
American foreign policy, especially as it relates to the Middle East.
Their propaganda has been so successful that today, 40 percent of
Americans believe that Israel was directly given to the Jewish people
by 'God'. One-third of Americans even believe that the creation of the
state of Israel, in 1948, after a terrorist campaign against Great
Britain, was a step towards the 'Second Coming of Jesus Christ' and
the 'End of the world'. For the most fanatical ones among them, the
'war on terrorism,' whatever it means, is a war of religion between
Christianity and Islam. With such thinking, the world is thrown back
four centuries, since the last war of religion was the 1618-1648
Thirty Years' War between European Protestants and Catholics.
These days, the American religious Right has its own special interest
office within the State Department. It is called the 'Office of
International Religious Freedom,' whose principal mission is to meddle
in the domestic affairs of other countries. Such a state agency would
seem to run contrary to the "wall of separation" between church and
state that President Thomas Jefferson thought he had erected with the
First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Such governmental forays in
religious matters are in addition to the state-financed 'Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives' that the Bush administration
created soon after it took office.
Since the current occupant of the White House is a born-again
Christian who harbors ideas which are close to those advanced by the
American Christian Right it should not be too surprising if the Bush
administration's policy in the Middle East has very strong religious
overtones.
In any government, one has to look behind the curtains to see who is
really pulling the strings and who is steering the policies. In the
case of the Bush-Cheney administration, one has to know about 'The
Lobby' and the 'religious Right'. Without that knowledge, one is in
the dark when it comes to understanding the direction taken by certain
policies.
Rodrigue Tremblay is professor emeritus of economics at the University
of Montreal and can be reached at rodrigue.tremblay@ yahoo.com. He is
the author of the book 'The New American Empire'. Visit his blog site
at www.thenewamericanempire.com/blog.
Alaichem sholom