| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:22 pm Post subject: A Democratic congressman accused AIPAC of pushing Iraq war |
| Wonder if Moran heard the viewer call ( http://tinyurl.com/2KHCED ) for GAO head David Walker on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' last week (it repeated at least one more time during the day after it initially aired that morning):
Published: 09/09/2007
A Democratic congressman accused AIPAC of having "pushed" the Iraq war.
"AIPAC is the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning," U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said in this month's Tikkun magazine. "Because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."
Moran has stirred controversy in the past for his criticisms of the Israel lobby. The National Jewish Democratic Council called on Moran to retract the comments about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
"It is never easy nor pleasant to criticize a fellow Democrat, but sometimes it is necessary," the Democratic council said in a statement. "While there is nothing wrong with criticizing AIPAC -- or for that matter any organization with which you disagree -- spreading false statements is clearly irresponsible."
Noting that Moran's comments came as American political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt have published a book positing the same argument, the Democratic council said, "Moran's comments are not only incorrect and irresponsible, they are downright dangerous
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/104067.html
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Democratic Party Arm Calls Walt & Mearsheimer's Ideas 'Downright Dangerous'
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2007/09/democratic-part.html
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Jim Moran's Mouth, Again
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091401542.html?sub=AR
justicequest2000 wrote (in the comments section associated with the above Op-Ed appearing in the Washington Post today):
Can I assume that Mr. King hasn't even read the new book (The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy - see israellobbybook.com) by respected political science professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt about the power/influence of the pro-Israel lobby (AIPAC, JINSA, etc) and how it pushed for the attack on Iraq and has been doing similar to get US to attack Iran. Can I assume that Mr. King also hasn't read the third edition of former Republican Congressman Paul Findley's 'They Dare to Speak Out' book either. Mr. King might be interested in accessing the following URL as well which conveys how CBS '60 Minutes' is refusing to do a segment about the Mearsheimer/Walt book:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2007/09/06/walt-mearsheimer-book-mentioned-to-gao-head-david-walk.php
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Congressman Under Fire for Mentioning AIPAC
U.S. House Democrat Said Pro-Israel Lobby Promoted War
By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2007; B05
Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq.
In an interview with Tikkun, a California-based Jewish magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."
Moran's remarks were criticized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the National Jewish Democratic Council. Ronald Halber, executive director of the first group, said Moran's remarks are anti-Semitic and draw on ugly stereotypes about Jewish wealth, power and influence.
"He uses several age-old canards that have been used throughout history that have brought violence upon Jews," Halber said this week. "He uses clearly anti-Semitic images such as Jewish control of the media and wealthy Jews using their wealth to control policy."
Ira N. Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said in a published statement that there is nothing wrong with criticizing the pro-Israel lobby but that Moran's statements go beyond that to defamation by making a "phony" connection between AIPAC and the Iraq war.
"Rep. Moran's comments are not only incorrect and irresponsible," Forman said. "They are downright dangerous."
In an interview last night, Moran said he was dismayed at the reaction to his remarks, which he stands by. The pro-Israel lobby has not represented mainstream U.S. Jewish opinion in recent years, he said -- most notably with its Middle East policies, which he characterized as directly aligned with those of the Bush administration.
"The problem with addressing the groups who have argued strongly in favor of a long-term American military presence in the Middle East is that they raise arguments that are not related to the point," Moran said. "I would like to have a reasonable, objective discussion about AIPAC's foreign policy agenda. But it's difficult to do that because any time you question their motives, you are accused of being anti-Semitic."
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun also defended Moran's position in the article, which appear in the magazine's September-October issue http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/israellobby .
"It's the kind of statement I would have made to any religious community, or to any labor movement audience, citing their own failures to act as a critical factor in why we had gotten involved," Lerner wrote in the article.
Halber said he welcomes criticism of AIPAC's policies, but he said Moran is wrong that the advocacy group supports the war in Iraq. Most American Jews oppose U.S. involvement in Iraq, he said, and AIPAC has remained neutral.
According to the organization's Web site, AIPEC supports U.S. military aid to Israel but does not openly support U.S. intervention in the Middle East.
"I think Mr. Halber's being disingenuous in suggesting that the AIPAC board has not been strongly supportive of military involvement in Iraq and now in Iran," Moran said yesterday.
Although hailed for forging ties with the region's Muslim community, Moran has gotten into trouble with the local Jewish community before. In 2001, he angered groups by saying in an appearance before the American Muslim Council that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was coming to Washington "probably seeking a warrant from President Bush to kill at will with weapons we have paid for."
The next year, Moran returned $2,000 in political contributions from a Muslim activist with ties to the anti-Israeli groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
And in 2003, at an antiwar forum in Reston, Moran said: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."
Said Halber this week: "There are only so many mistakes he can make before it's fair to call him an anti-Semite."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402171_pf.html
Last edited by Alpha on Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:18 am; edited 3 times in total | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:52 pm Post subject: |
| Subject: Re: Mearsheimer/Walt book: 'Anti-Semitic' label curbs talk about Israel
Forwarded:
Cynthia wrote:
Whooooooooa...the herd is bolting. I've heard Smerconish and he's been as pro-Israel as they come
Click here: CRIMES AND CORRUPTION OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER NEWS: 'Anti-Semitic' label curbs talk about Israel
http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/09/anti-semitic-label-curbs-talk-about.html
Head Strong | 'Anti-Semitic' label curbs talk about Israel
By Michael Smerconish
The book by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt.
One year after 9/11, I visited Israel as a guest of the Jerusalem Post. In the midst of the intifadah, the hard-line newspaper arranged for me to broadcast my daily radio show from Jerusalem. At the time, I was also filing one-minute commentaries for KYW-AM (1060). One of them caused some consternation at home. Here is what I said:
"Yesterday, an Israeli guide was anxious to show me the community called Gilo.
" 'Look,' he said, 'at the sandbags that these people have to place in their windows to shield them from sniper fire from a neighboring village called Beit Jala.'
"Sure enough, there were sandbags in windows and bullet holes in walls. Thinking of my kids, I said, 'That's no place to raise a family.'
"Today, I had a different guide with a different perspective. He wanted me to tour an Arab neighborhood in the West Bank.
" 'Look at where Israeli tank fire has destroyed these homes,' he said to me. I looked. The devastation was terrible. 'This is no place to live,' I said to myself.
" 'Where are we?' I asked.
" 'This is the village called Beit Jala,' he told me, 'and the tank fired from over there, in Gilo' - where I had been the day before."
I ended the commentary by saying: "And so it goes."
My intention was only to present a form of geopolitical glass half empty/half full, not to assert any moral equivalency. But that didn't spare me an onslaught of e-mail from Jewish listeners disappointed in what I had said, or what they thought I was implying. Some told me my "comparison" was anti-Semitic, which stunned me, given that my entire trip had a palpable, pro-Israeli tone.
I was reminded of that experience this week while considering the backlash against the release of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt. Mearsheimer is a political scientist at the University of Chicago. Walt is a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Their book is an outgrowth of their lengthy online article on the same subject, and of a 40-page essay published last spring in the London Review of Books. Their premise is that the United States has set aside its own security to advance the interests of Israel, owing to the existence of a "lobby," which they define as a loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively work to steer U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.
Among their observations is that anyone who criticizes Israel's actions or argues that pro-Israel groups have a significant influence over U.S. policy stands a good chance of being labeled anti-Semitic.
Labeling has become all too common in today's political debate, overlooking that few of us can neatly be compartmentalized under words such as liberal or conservative. Speak against same-sex marriage? You must be a "homophobe." Oppose affirmative action? That sounds "racist."
Similarly, to question U.S. support for Israel runs the risk of being branded "anti-Semitic." Perhaps it's only a small minority who assign the labels. Still, each debasing generalization stifles conversation about issues of the day. The shame is that some people, who already have a seat at the table, resort to such language as a way to prevent those of different views from even getting to the table at all.
Here's hoping that, six years removed from 9/11, Mearsheimer and Walt can initiate a reasonable conversation about Israel. No subject with implications for U.S. security should be off-limits. Among their words worthy of debate are these: "[S]aying that Israel and the U.S. are united by a shared terrorist threat has the causal relationship backwards: the United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it is so closely allied with Israel, not the other way around."
Of course, others conclude that the origins of America's terror problem are much wider in scope than Israel alone; they argue that disdain for America's relationship with Israel long preceded the modern terrorist threat. I say let's air it out.
Mearsheimer and Walt's arguments sound similar to words spoken to me by Michael Scheuer, author of the book Imperial Hubris and a man who spent 22 years with the CIA. From 1996 to 1999, he ran "Alec Station," the Osama bin Laden tracking unit at the CIA's Counterterrorist Center. He told me he agreed with Mearsheimer and Walt that the Israeli lobby had "distorted and burdened" U.S. foreign policy.
"The most dangerous aspect of the Israel lobby," Scheuer said, "is that it threatens free speech in America. Very few Americans will exercise their right to free speech if criticizing Israel earns them identification as an anti-Semite."
Which reminds me that after I recently interviewed Scheuer, a blog posting said: "He won't out-and-out claim he hates Jews, but everything he criticizes centers around Israel and the 'dual loyalty' of neo-cons. You would be smart to avoid using this man as a reference. Soon he will reveal himself to be the true anti-Semite he is."
Scheuer argues that he was hired by the CIA not to be guardian of the world, but to be a guardian of the American people, and that our foreign policy should be designed to protect Americans first. This is exactly what Mearsheimer and Walt say we have abdicated.
Hardly an anti-Semitic view, and these well-credentialed academics have gone to great lengths to defuse any accusations of personal animus toward Israel.
"In its basic operations, the Israel Lobby is no different from the farm lobby, steel or textile workers' union, or other ethnic lobbies," they write in the London Review of Books. "There is nothing improper about American Jews and their Christian allies attempting to sway U.S. policy; the Lobby's activities are not a conspiracy of the sort depicted in tracts like the Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
Their words are falling on deaf ears in certain quarters. A number of potential forums for discussion with the authors have turned down or canceled events. According to the New York Times, these include the Center for the Humanities at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a Jewish cultural center in Washington, and three organizations in Chicago.
This would seem only to strengthen their argument.
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Michael Smerconish's column appears on Thursdays in the Daily News and on Sundays in Currents. Michael can be heard from 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays on "The Big Talker," WPHT-AM (1210). Contact him via the Web at http://www.mastalk.com.
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C-SPAN viewer Call for GAO head David Walker which mentioned Walt and Mearsheimer book
http://neoconzionistthreat.blogspot.com/2007/09/israel-lobby-and-us-foreign-policy.html
Here is a tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/2KHCED
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