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A Rose By Another
Other Name The Bush Administration's Dual Loyalties,
by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON, former CIA political analysts,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002 [IMPORTANT
ARTICLE!]
"Since the long-forgotten days when the State Department's Middle East
policy was run by a group of so-called Arabists, U.S. policy on Israel and
the Arab world has increasingly become the purview of officials well known
for tilting toward Israel. From the 1920s roughly to 1990, Arabists, who had
a personal history and an educational background in the Arab world and were
accused by supporters of Israel of being totally biased toward Arab
interests, held sway at the State Department and, despite having limited
power in the policymaking circles of any administration, helped maintain
some semblance of U.S. balance by keeping policy from tipping over totally
toward Israel. But Arabists have been steadily replaced by their exact
opposites, what some observers are calling Israelists, and policymaking
circles throughout government now no longer even make a pretense of
exhibiting balance between Israeli and Arab, particularly Palestinian,
interests. In the Clinton administration, the three most senior State
Department officials dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process were
all partisans of Israel to one degree or another. All had lived at least for
brief periods in Israel and maintained ties with Israel while in office,
occasionally vacationing there. One of these officials had worked both as a
pro-Israel lobbyist and as director of a pro-Israel think tank in Washington
before taking a position in the Clinton administration from which he helped
make policy on Palestinian-Israeli issues. Another has headed the pro-Israel
think tank since leaving government. The link between active promoters of
Israeli interests and policymaking circles is stronger by several orders of
magnitude in the Bush administration, which is peppered with people who have
long records of activism on behalf of Israel in the United States, of policy
advocacy in Israel, and of promoting an agenda for Israel often at odds with
existing U.S. policy. These people, who can fairly be called Israeli
loyalists, are now at all levels of government, from desk officers at the
Defense Department to the deputy secretary level at both State and Defense,
as well as on the National Security Council staff and in the vice
president's office. We still tiptoe around putting a name to this
phenomenon. We write articles about the neo-conservatives' agenda on
U.S.-Israeli relations and imply that in the neo-con universe there is
little light between the two countries. We talk openly about the Israeli
bias in the U.S. media. We make wry jokes about Congress being
'Israeli-occupied territory.' Jason Vest in The Nation magazine
reported forthrightly that some of the think tanks that hold sway over Bush
administration thinking see no difference between U.S. and Israeli national
security interests. But we never pronounce the particular words that best
describe the real meaning of those observations and wry remarks. It's time,
however, that we say the words out loud and deal with what they really
signify. Dual loyalties. The issue we are
dealing with in the Bush administration is dual loyalties-the double
allegiance of those myriad officials at high and middle levels who cannot
distinguish U.S. interests from Israeli interests, who baldly promote the
supposed identity of interests between the United States and Israel, who
spent their early careers giving policy advice to right-wing Israeli
governments and now give the identical advice to a right-wing U.S.
government, and who, one suspects, are so wrapped up in their concern for
the fate of Israel that they honestly do not know whether their own passion
about advancing the U.S. imperium is motivated primarily by America-first
patriotism or is governed first and foremost by a desire to secure Israel's
safety and predominance in the Middle East through the advancement of the
U.S. imperium. "Dual loyalties" has always been one of those red flags
posted around the subject of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, something
that induces horrified gasps and rapid heartbeats because of its implication
of Jewish disloyalty to the United States and the common assumption that
anyone who would speak such a canard is ipso facto an anti-Semite ... But an
examination of the cast of characters in Bush administration policymaking
circles reveals a startlingly pervasive network of pro-Israel activists, and
an examination of the neo-cons' voluminous written record shows that Israel
comes up constantly as a neo-con reference point, always mentioned with the
United States as the beneficiary of a recommended policy, always linked with
the United States when national interests are at issue ... Deputy Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz leads the pack. He was a protégé of
Richard Perle, who heads the prominent Pentagon advisory body, the
Defense Policy Board. Many of today's neo-cons, including Perle, are
the intellectual progeny of the late Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a strong
defense hawk and one of Israel's most strident congressional supporters in
the 1970s. Wolfowitz in turn is the mentor of Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
now Vice President Cheney's chief of staff who was first a student of
Wolfowitz and later a subordinate during the 1980s in both the State and
the Defense Departments. Another Perle protégé is Douglas Feith, who
is currently undersecretary of defense for policy, the department's
number-three man, and has worked closely with Perle both as a lobbyist for
Turkey and in co-authoring strategy papers for right-wing Israeli
governments. Assistant Secretaries Peter Rodman and Dov Zachkeim,
old hands from the Reagan administration when the neo-cons first flourished,
fill out the subcabinet ranks at Defense. At lower levels, the Israel and
the Syria/Lebanon desk officers at Defense are imports from the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank spun off from the pro-Israel
lobby organization, AIPAC. Neo-cons have not made many inroads at the State
Department, except for John Bolton, an American Enterprise Institute
hawk and Israeli proponent who is said to have been forced on a reluctant
Colin Powell as undersecretary for arms control. Bolton's special
assistant is David Wurmser, who wrote and/or co-authored with
Perle and Feith at least two strategy papers for Israeli Prime
Minister Netanyahu in 1996. Wurmser's wife, Meyrav Wurmser,
is a co-founder of the media-watch website MEMRI (Middle East Media Research
Institute), which is run by retired Israeli military and intelligence
officers and specializes in translating and widely circulating Arab media
and statements by Arab leaders ... In the vice president's office, Cheney
has established his own personal national security staff, run by aides known
to be very pro-Israel. The deputy director of the staff, John Hannah,
is a former fellow of the Israeli-oriented Washington Institute. On the
National Security Council staff, the newly appointed director of Middle East
affairs is Elliott Abrams, who came to prominence after pleading
guilty to withholding information from Congress during the Iran-contra
scandal (and was pardoned by President Bush the elder) and who has long been
a vocal proponent of right-wing Israeli positions. Putting him in a key
policymaking position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is like entrusting
the henhouse to a fox. Pro-Israel activists with close links to the
administration are also busy in the information arena inside and outside
government. The head of Radio Liberty, a Cold War propaganda holdover now
converted to service in the "war on terror," is Thomas Dine, who was
the very active head of AIPAC throughout most of the Reagan and the Bush-41
administrations. Elsewhere on the periphery, William Kristol, son of
neo-con originals Irving Kristol and Gertrude Himmelfarb, is
closely linked to the administration's pro-Israel coterie and serves as its
cheerleader through the Rupert Murdoch-owned magazine that he edits, The
Weekly Standard. Some of Bush's speechwriters including David Frum,
who coined the term 'axis of evil' for Bush's state-of-the-union address but
was forced to resign when his wife publicly bragged about his linguistic
prowess have come from The Weekly Standard. Frank Gaffney,
another Jackson and Perle protégé and Reagan administration defense
official, puts his pro-Israel oar in from his think tank, the Center for
Security Policy, and through frequent media appearances and regular columns
in the Washington Times. The incestuous nature of the proliferating boards
and think tanks, whose membership lists are more or less identical and
totally interchangeable, is frighteningly insidious ... Probably the most
important organization, in terms of its influence on Bush administration
policy formulation, is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA).
Formed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war specifically to bring Israel's
security concerns to the attention of U.S. policymakers and concentrating
also on broad defense issues, the extremely hawkish, right-wing JINSA has
always had a high-powered board able to place its members inside
conservative U.S. administrations. Cheney, Bolton, and Feith
were members until they entered the Bush administration. Several lower level
JINSA functionaries are now working in the Defense Department. Perle
is still a member, as are Kirkpatrick, former CIA director and leading
Iraq-war hawk James Woolsey, and old-time rabid pro-Israel types like
Eugene Rostow and Michael Ledeen. Both JINSA and Gaffney's Center
for Security Policy are heavily underwritten by Irving Moskowitz, a
right-wing American Zionist, California business magnate (his money comes
from bingo parlors), and JINSA board member who has lavishly financed the
establishment of several religious settlements in Arab East Jerusalem. By
Their Own Testimony Most of the neo-cons now in government have left a long
paper trail giving clear evidence of their fervently right-wing pro-Israel,
and fervently anti-Palestinian, sentiments ... A recent New York Times
Magazine profile by the Times' Bill Keller cites critics who say that
'Israel exercises a powerful gravitational pull on the man' and notes that
as a teenager Wolfowitz lived in Israel during his mathematician
father's sabbatical semester there. His sister is married to an Israeli.
Keller even somewhat reluctantly acknowledges the accuracy of one
characterization of Wolfowitz as 'Israel-centric.'"
Thoughts At The End Of A Tumultuous Year,
by Ed Koch (former mayor of New York, 1978-1990)
Jewish Press, December 11, 2002
"We are now going through the most virulent anti-Semitic period since Hitler
and Stalin. Nearly 60 years after the end of World War II almost every
country on the European continent, including England, France, Germany,
Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries, has seen major outbreaks of
physical violence against its Jewish citizens, and against Jewish
institutions, including synagogues and cemeteries. At the same time, open
hostility toward the State of Israel is at an all-time high. Only in the
United States have we seen a full acceptance of Jews as citizens and the
Jewish state treated as a friend and ally by an overwhelming number of
fellow citizens. In the U.S., Jews have been permitted to rise and fall
based on their individual talents, virtues and faults. In one elite bastion
after another, Jews have been selected to head institutions heretofore seen
as beyond their reach. Today the presidents of Harvard and Yale Universities
are Jews, as are recent former presidents of Columbia and Princeton. Having
been elected three times as mayor of the City of New York, I have been the
beneficiary of this country`s generosity and freedom from bigotry, and I
will be eternally grateful. Americans traditionally make New Year`s
resolutions. Before I list my own resolutions, I want to thank President
George W. Bush and his advisers, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for their support of the State of Israel.
They could easily have jettisoned Israel as a liability in their efforts to
forge an international coalition against worldwide terrorism. I will be
forever grateful to them, and I hope that many other supporters of the State
of Israel will recognize and appreciate what they have done. Fortunately for
Jews and the State of Israel, American support of the Jewish nation has been
bipartisan ... France leads those countries in the Security Council who are
the enemies of the State of Israel. So too is Mexico, joining as a
consistent supporter of resolutions unfairly denouncing Israel at the U.N.
Security Council. I will not support National Public Radio in any way. NPR`s
reporters and management delight in unfairly attacking Israel. I will no
longer lend financial support to New York`s Channel Thirteen public
television station. That station recently showed a documentary that was
blatantly biased against Israel and has refused to acknowledge the bias or
to try to correct it. I will not watch ABC`s World News Tonight anchored by
Peter Jennings. For many years, Jennings has specialized in vicious and
unfair portrayals of Israel intended to injure the Jewish state and lionize
Palestinians. BBC News is horrifically anti-Israel and I will shun it
completely. Susan Sontag will occupy the Ninth Circle of Hell for her
outrageous assaults on Israel. I will no longer read her works. Regrettably,
there are many others whom I could include on this list, but I will leave
that for another day. I must confess I got enormous pleasure from the defeat
of [African-American] Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and her father in the
recent primary elections in Georgia. In my view, both are anti-Semitic and
anti-Israel. No longer able to feed at the public trough, I doubt that
either will make a comparable living in the private sector."
Newest Jewish member of the House makes an impact his first day on the job,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 7, 2002
"With 20 years of experience in national politics, Rahm (D-Ill.)
Emanuel [D-Ill.], 43, who took the oath of office Tuesday along with his
434 colleagues in the 108th Congress, is far from your ordinary freshman.
For many Democrats, with their party in the minority in both houses of
Congress, the arrival of this Jewish rising star on Capitol Hill comes not a
moment too soon ... Emanuel steps into the Washington spotlight as
the only new Jewish member of the U.S. House of Representatives. His father,
a pediatrician still practicing near Chicago, immigrated to the United
States from Israel and spoke Hebrew with his son when Emanuel was a boy ...
Swiftly moving up the ranks of the Democratic Party in the Midwest, he went
on to fund raise and direct a number of successful Illinois campaigns before
assuming a larger national role with the Democratic Party’s fund-raising
apparatus. In 1991 he was drafted to join the nascent Clinton campaign in
Little Rock, Ark. Toughness and good political instincts earned him
Clinton’s respect at the beginning of his relationship with the president.
As a top aide on the 1992 presidential campaign at age 32, Emanuel
sparred with then-Gov. Clinton over the campaign schedule, urging the
candidate to focus heavily on fund raising rather than campaigning in New
Hampshire, say former Clinton colleagues. Clinton acquiesced, eschewing the
New Hampshire trail for much of late 1991 in favor of feverish fund-
raisers. Emanuel’s gambit paid off, with the money providing a
crucial cushion as the negative attacks hit Clinton hard later on. 'It was
that million dollars that really allowed the campaign to withstand the storm
we had to ride out in New Hampshire' over Clinton’s alleged relationship
with Gennifer Flowers and the controversy over his draft during the Vietnam
War, said Richard Mintz, a Washington public relations consultant who
worked with Emanuel on the campaign. Emanuel’s knowledge of
the top donors in the country, his rapport with the heavily Jewish donor
community and his sheer chutzpah made the difference, as Clinton amassed a
then-unheard-of $72 million, say those involved with the campaign. 'He
schmoozed many, many millions all over the country, including
money from traditional Democratic party givers, who
are disproportionately Jewish, and new Democratic givers,' said
Steve Rabinowitz, a political and public relations consultant in
Washington who worked with the White House throughout the Clinton
administration ... Running for the House last year, Emanuel got his first
glimpse of politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty
primary battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism when the
president of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting
candidate Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen
and served in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a
'millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing' about 'our heritage.'
Emanuel had served a noncombat stint as a
volunteer in the Israeli army during the Gulf War, but he never held
Israeli citizenship. Emanuel responded coolly, supporters say,
bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy together to denounce the incident ...
A defining moment for Emanuel during his White House stint was an
event which touched his political sensibilities and his personal ties to
Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing ceremony after the Oslo accord between
Israel and the Palestinians. Rahm directed the details of the
ceremony, down to the choreography of the famous handshake between Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat."
Washington
Scene: Rahm Departs. Israel's Man in the White House,
Mid-East Realities (Monthly Magazine), October
1998
"Enter Rahm Emmanuel. Until 1978 a dual
Israeli-American citizen, and a former officer in the Israeli army
some allege (unsubstantiated), Emmanuel was an up and comer, a Jewish
money man, a political fixer. And he was essentially tasked by 'the lobby'
to join the Clinton campaign in Little Rock. Emmanuel had never met
Bill Clinton. But alot of the big-boys in 'the lobby' had, and they were
increasingly putting their hopes, and their money, on Bill Clinton not only
to retire and replace George Bush, but to do their things way in Washington.
A few months later, during the campaign, the President of AIPAC [American
Israel Public Affairs Committee[, the main front-organization in Washington
of 'the lobby', was forced to resign after a recording of his bragging about
his group's tremendous clout was made public. 'We have a dozen of our guys
in Little Rock' the AIPAC head proudly proclaimed one afternoon. 'And when
Clinton is elected he's going to be our man in Washington.' One of those men
was Rahm Emmanuel, who after 7 years at Clinton's side leaves the
White House today, his job completed. Another of those men was Martin
Indyk, at the time an Australian citizen heading up the lobby's
think-tank in Washington. Indyk and many many others remain on the
job -- he is now the Assistant Secretary of State for the Middle East ...
Far more scandalous than anything relating to Monica [Lewinsky],
or anything relating to a few foreign dollars in recent campaigns, Bill
Clinton's near complete capitulation and sell-out of U.S. policies and
interests to the Israeli/Jewish lobby is the scandal no one in the American
political or media establishment dares investigate, or even mention."
Jews in
the Bush Adminstration,
Jewish Virtual Library ( from the Republican
Jewish Coalition),
Jews in the Bush Administration:
Ari Fleischer White House Press Secretary; Josh Bolten Deputy
Chief of Staff; Ken Melman White House Political Director; David
Frum Speechwriter; Brad Blakeman White House Director of
Scheduling; Dov Zakheim Undersecretary of Defense (Controller);
Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense; I. Lewis Libby
Chief of Staff to the Vice President; Adam Goldman White House
Liaison to the Jewish Community; Chris Gersten Principal Deputy
Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and Families at HHS;
Elliott Abrams Director of the National Security Council's Office for
Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations; Mark D. Weinberg
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs;
Douglas Feith Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Michael Chertoff
Head of the Justice Department's criminal division; Daniel Kurtzer
Ambassador to Israel; Cliff Sobel Ambassador to the Netherlands;
Stuart Bernstein Ambassador to Denmark; Nancy Brinker Ambassador
to Hungary; Frank Lavin Ambassador to Singapore; Ron Weiser
Ambassador to Slovakia; Mel Sembler Ambassador to Italy; Martin
Silverstein Ambassador to Uruguay; Jay Lefkowitz Deputy Assistant
to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Notorious brothers brush aside scandal and crimes in race for power,
Questions of character matter little as Israeli political parties jostle for
position in the elections,
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), December 14,
2002
"The next Israeli parliament is shaping up as a rogues gallery, the last
refuge for scoundrels clinging to public power. That is the picture that
emerged when the political factions submitted their candidates for next
month's elections. The ability of some figures to survive scandal and
intrigue in the name of 'democracy' is perhaps best illustrated by the
Yatom brothers. Ehud Yatom, a self-confessed murderer of
Palestinians in custody, was barred from becoming parliament's
sergeant-at-arms but there is no legal impediment to him becoming an MP for
the ruling Likud party. His older brother, Danny, a former head of
the Israeli spy agency Mossad who made headlines when he organised a bungled
assassination attempt in Jordan, is set to become a Labour Party MP. Of the
two, Ehud, 54, is remembered for his role as a member of Shin Bet, Israel's
secret police, in what became known as the Bus 300 affair, involving four
Palestinians who hijacked a passenger bus in 1984. After he retired from the
agency in 1996 he admitted in an interview that he killed two of the
surviving Palestinian terrorists, who had been taken into custody. 'I
smashed their skulls, on orders of [the then Shin-Bet chief] Avarham
Shalom, and I'm proud of everything I've done,' the newspaper Yediot
Ahronot quoted him as saying. He later denied having made the statement
but few doubted that he had been quoted correctly ... Danny Yatom has
also been prone to scandal. He resigned as head of Mossad in 1997, after he
ordered the assassination of the Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the
Jordanian capital, Amman. Mr Mashaal survived the attempt to kill him with a
lethal injection in a busy street. Two of the Israeli agents involved in the
operation were caught by Jordanian security forces, and Israel only secured
their release by agreeing to release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the then spiritual
leader and founder of Hamas, from an Israeli prison. But Danny Yatom
survived the embarrassing affair and later became security adviser to the
then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, who lost power to Mr
Sharon last year. This week he secured the safe 12th spot on the Labour
Party ticket, which, according to recent opinion polls, will guarantee him a
place in the next parliament ... If, as the opinion polls suggest, Israel is
moving to the right, other controversial names will soon surface. One of
them is Baruch Marzel, who has the No 2 spot on Michael Klenier's
right-wing Herut list. A discipline of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane,
who formed the now outlawed anti-Arab Kach movement, he is now confined to
Jerusalem under a court order. The Kach organisation was banned after the
1994 massacre of 29 Muslims in the divided West Bank town of Hebron by a
Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein. After the massacre Mr Marzel,
a resident of the Jewish enclave in Hebron, was placed under administrative
detention for nearly three years."
The Hypocrisy of
Lott's Critics,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002
"[Al] Gore ran his 2000 campaign with the unflagging support of the
pro-Israel lobby. For years, as discussed by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St. Clair in Al Gore: A User's Manual, Gore has pandered to the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), taken direction from rabid
Zionist Martin Peretz (whose New Republic has also come out
with a duplicitous condemnation of Lott), and steadfastly defended Israeli
settlement policy. Pelosi (whose rise to leadership is supposedly indicative
of a 'liberal shift' in the Democratic Party) has argued that 'Prime
Minister Barak made a generous and historic proposal at Camp David in 2000'
... [Senator Joseph] Lieberman has prided himself over the
last two years as being further to the right on Israel than President Bush.
Commenting on Colin Powell's 'peace mission' to Israel and Palestine in
April 2002, Lieberman stated, 'I believe strongly we should not ask
Israelis to stop their war against terrorists until they have achieved
greater homeland security.' Later that month, in a statement of support for
a 'Resolution Expressing Solidarity With Israel,' he argued that 'in
supporting Israel's right to protect itself, to defend itself, we are
supporting our own war against terrorism,' adding that we must not 'lose our
bearings and muddy the moral clarity with which we began and are carrying
out our campaign against terror.' This 'moral clarity' quickly becomes
opaque when we compare outrage at American apartheid with support for
Israel's version of 'Jim Crow.' The 'Jewish State' has achieved a system of
Apartheid that would make Strom Thurmond blush. From schooling to housing
grants, from police protection to simple freedom of movement, Palestinians
not only in Israel, but especially in the Occupied Territories, face
ever-increasing deprivations in the face of domination by 'God's Chosen
People' ... Both the United States and Israel were founded as racist states,
though Israel more overtly so. Where, at its inception, the US did pay some
lip service to pluralism, the entire idea behind the founding of Israel was
that there should be a homeland where Jews would have special status. This
special status, defended by the likes of Gore, Lieberman, and Pelosi, was
what Strom Thurmond sought to preserve for whites in 1948. One would only
have to look as far as these politicians' support for the racist,
segregationist State of Israel to see the hypocrisy of their horror over the
racist nostalgia of Trent Lott."
GMT Cherie remains
focus of newspapers,
BBC, Sunday, 15 December, 2002
"The daily diet of stories about Cherie Blair [the wife of the British prime
minister] and her dealings with the conman, Peter Foster, has, according to
the Independent on Sunday, led to her husband backing a new
anti-sleaze law. Worried at the mistrust of politicians being made worse by
the fortnight of intense scrutiny of his wife's affairs, the prime minister
apparently wants MPs to be made subject to the same anti-corruption laws as
other public officials ... The Sunday Express claims Mr Foster was
ready to sell secrets of his dealings with Mrs Blair to the Israeli secret
service, Mossad. Intelligence sources have told the paper that Mossad was
also interested in Mr Foster's girlfriend, Carole Caplin, because -
as Mrs Blair's so-called life-style guru - she has close links to the
family."
Lieberman Mulls Run As Gore Steps Aside,
Yahoo! (from Associated Press), December 16,
2002
"Al Gore left the field of potential 2004 Democratic presidential candidates
in a surprise move that immediately raised the stakes for a half-dozen
others pondering a run for the White House. Sen. Joseph Lieberman
said Monday he'll announce early next month whether he plans to run ...
Potential rivals moved quickly to praise Gore, who still has a considerable
following among Democratic voters. 'I want to simply say thank you to Al
Gore for his leadership, for his service and for the opportunity he gave me
to be his running mate in 2000, which makes possible the decision that I'm
going to make in the next couple of weeks,' Lieberman said late
Monday morning. 'I said I probably would run if Al Gore doesn't run and that
remains the case.'
Players: Eric I. Cantor. From Freshman To Deputy Whip With Choice of
2nd-Term Va. Lawmaker, GOP Hopes to Attract Jewish Voters,
Washington Post, December 16, 2002; Page A23
"You know you've made it in Washington when someone names a sandwich after
you. Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and co-owner of the newly opened
kosher deli Stacks, is already preparing to name one of his offerings after
Rep. Eric I. Cantor, the Virginia Republican who will be starting
only his second term when the new Congress convenes -- but he'll be starting
it as chief deputy whip for the House GOP. Although Abramoff hasn't
decided on the exact sandwich, he's ready to put Cantor's name on the
menu along with that of former vice president Al Gore's 2000 running mate.
"He and [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman will be the first two,"
said Abramoff, who is sponsoring a fundraiser for Cantor next
month. After just two years in office, Cantor, 39, a Richmond native,
has secured a place at his party's leadership table and emerged as one of
Israel's most prominent defenders. As the only Jewish Republican in the
108th Congress, he's also at the forefront of the GOP's efforts to woo the
Jewish community, seeking both dollars and votes from a group allied with
the Democrats for decades. 'We have a great opportunity to reach out to
Jewish voters, and Eric's been doing that already,' said incoming Majority
Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). 'Now he'll be able to speak as part of the House
leadership.' Blunt surprised many in Washington when he tapped Cantor
after only one term to be his chief deputy. ... Cantor, who sits on
the House Committee on International Relations and heads the House GOP Task
Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, is best known on Capitol Hill
for his work on the Middle East. He has taken a hard-line approach to the
Palestinians, sponsoring two separate bills cutting off all aid to the
Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Yasser Arafat ... Cantor has
used his ties with the Jewish community and business groups to pad both his
campaign coffers and aid his Republican colleagues. He raised almost $1.3
million for his reelection effort, more than 10 times his opponent's total."
[NOTE: Eric
Cantor also "serves as Vice Chair of the Republican Israel Caucus."]
Likud sees lead wilt as inquiry mounts into alleged vote buying,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 17, 2002
"Pundits say a police investigation into allegations of corruption in the
selection of its Knesset candidates could cost Likud enough seats to lose
the election. While the Labor Party is facing its own investigation,
analysts say the scope of the Likud scandal could be enough to swing the
Jan. 28 election to Labor. According to the Likud’s own internal polls, the
scandal — which broke last week with allegations that aspiring Knesset
members had been asked to pay for political support — already has cost Likud
two or three seats. Party insiders say the trend seems to be continuing ...
A secretary for one candidate told Israeli television that her boss had
asked her to hint to Central Committee members that she would be willing to
have sex with them in return for their votes ... Two members of the Central
Committee were detained Monday and place under house arrest Tuesday. The
arrests, carried out by the Israeli police force’s fraud division. Some of
the money for this heavy-duty canvassing was believed to come from
underworld figures, some of whom recently joined Likud. Enigmatic reports
surfaced in the press about 'criminal families' having funded campaigns of
Cabinet ministers and Knesset members, and of 'current or past criminals'
who had hosted senior ministers at their homes for lunch or dinner ...
Chemi Shalev, an analyst for the Ma’ariv daily, wrote that 'there
always was and always will be corruption in politics, but in a place where
representatives of the underworld are elected directly to the legislature,
it’s only a matter of time before the pagan idol takes over the temple from
within' ... The Likud is seriously considering hiring American spin doctor
Arthur Finkelstein, master of the negative campaign, who ran
Benjamin Netanyahu’s 1996 and 1999 prime ministerial bids. Labor is sure
to keep the Likud bribery and corruption allegations on the public agenda
for as long as possible."
Poll Analysis: Americans Are of Two Minds About War in Iraq,
by Susan Pinkus, Los Angeles Times, December
17, 2002
"More than half of the American public believe George W. Bush is not getting
a balanced view of whether to go to war or not from his advisors, but rather
a more hawkish view favoring military action in Iraq, according to a new
Los Angeles Times poll ... Fifty-one percent believe Bush is only
listening to the advisors who advocate war, rather than receiving a balanced
perspective (20%) or even a view opposing the war (11%)."
Arab Nations Seek to Condemn Israel,
Associated Press (here at Earthlink), December
17, 2002
"Arab nations pushed for condemnation of Israel for the recent killings of
three U.N. workers and the United Nations urged the Israeli government to
stop using excessive force in civilian areas. Syria circulated a resolution
expressing 'grave concern' at the killings by Israeli troops after U.N.
Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Monday strongly criticized Israel's
conduct at an open Security Council meeting and called for its defense
forces to behave 'with greater restraint and discipline.' Several council
diplomats said the resolution might get the backing of 14 of the 15 members
but the United States, Israel's closest council ally, was almost certain to
oppose it and would likely cast a veto if necessary."
The political wing of organized crime,
by Amir Oren, Ha'aretz (Israel),
December 17, 2002
"The how-to guide to making an MK [Member of Knesset, Israel's Parliament] :
Take all your relatives, friends, acquaintances and employees, have them
sign on as members of the Likud, use all your clout at the local branch to
be elected to the central committee, and proceed to wheel and deal. It pays
off. To gain election to the central committee from the largest local branch
of the party (in Tel Aviv) all it takes is about 50 registered members, and
if you've covered their expenses, the NIS 3,200 you spent on their
membership dues will soon be recompensed by Knesset hopefuls ... In Labor,
but mainly in Likud [the two major Israeli political parties] , the
primaries are tainted by criminal behavior - they might better be known as 'crimaries.'
Criminologists find parallels between terror groups and criminal
organizations, which pose a similar level of danger to the foundations of
the state ... Organized crime has spawned a political wing, and is
penetrating the government echelons. It is literally taking the law into its
own hands. Its influence will be felt in legislation, votes (for the
Judicial Selection Committee, the president - the vital partner in the
pardoning process - and the State Comptroller) and the immunity granted from
surveillance of home, office, car and telephones registered in the name of
an MK, unless a judge issues a permit ... No longer a party [Likud] that has
criminals in it, but criminals who have a party. When three high-ranking
officials of the Public Security Ministry - the minister, his deputy and his
assistant - were all subject to the mercies of the central committee in the
struggle over their places on the list, very few organs of power remained
outside the control of crime, although perhaps in its sights - television
(the "Broadcasting Committee" of politics), the polling companies, and the
Shin Bet - whose higher echelons also were also clouded over early in the
last decade by their over-closeness to Aryeh Deri, who was then under
police surveillance - which deals only with political subversion. When the
police investigations division threatens the power of sources of criminal
subversion, the latter enlist their political partners to disrupt the
investigators and the law."
The new Latino-Jewish coalition?,
by Mica Rosenberg, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
December 16, 2002
"... the organization [Rabbi Mark] Schneier heads, the
Foundation for Ethnic Understanding -- which has 13 years of experience
fostering intergroup ties -- is trying to expand its operations, especially
in the field of Latino-Jewish relations. So, too, is the Latino-Jewish
Leadership Council, which was created at the first-ever Latino-Jewish Summit
in March 2001. As the number of U.S. Latinos grows, members of the council
say it makes sense to link Jewish political experience with Latino
demographic influence. 'Hispanics and Jews have been working together for
many years, but only in an informal way,' says Dina Siegel Vann,
director of United Nations and Latin American affairs at B'nai B'rith
International. B'nai B'rith is one of the leading forces on the council,
which is headed by 15 board members ... The Foundation for Ethnic
Understanding plans to open a Washington office by next summer to focus
primarily on Capitol Hill, working directly with legislators in the Hispanic
and black caucuses. Working together on a leadership level will allow
Latinos and Jews to mutually support each other on foreign policy concerns:
Latino leaders say they are willing to support Israel in exchange for Jewish
support for economic development aid to Latin America ... The goal of the
Council is to build a common agenda where possible, and to `find issues
which we can advocate together' said the AJCommittee's Ann Schaffer,
director of the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Center for American Pluralism."
Jew Lichtinger Waisman behind eviction of
Zapatista settlements in Chiapas,
La Voz de Aztlan, December 17, 2002
"The Mexican Army was mobilized over the weekend to forcefully remove
Indigenous populations from the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas. The forced
evictions will effect eight indigenous communities, five of which are bases
of Zapatista support within the Montes Azules Biological Reserve. The rich
Lacandon forest of eastern Chiapas is under direct assault by the Plan
Puebla Panama. PPP is a gargantuan development project which would open up
the region stretching from Puebla, Mexico to Panama to facilitate
international business, including maquiladoras, oil extraction, genetic
prospecting (Mexico has 10% of plant species in the world, half of which
reside in Chiapas), logging, land conversion to plantations and ecotourism
for rich foreigners. This violent eviction is being implemented under the
guise of protecting the biological diversity of the region by Victor
Lichtinger Waisman, a cabinet level appointee of President Vicente Fox.
Lichtinger is a Jew that heads La Secretarªa de Medio Ambiente y
Recursos Naturales, SEMARNAT. The daily La Jornada of Mexico reported
today that there have been large caravans of yellow jeeps carrying
foreigners and inspecting the area. La Jornada was told that they were
groups of tourists and that each jeep carried the flag of their respective
countries. However, when La Jornada inspected photographs of the
caravan this is what they said (translation follows): 'Revisamos
minuciosamente las fotografªas y en los 38 vehªculos s£lo aparecen la
bandera israelita y la mexicana.' Translation: 'We reviewed in detail the
photographs and noticed that in the 38 vehicles only Israeli and Mexican
flags were visible.' Vicente Fox won the Mexican Presidency with Zionist
money. Now it is time for the Zionists to collect on their investment. (Read
http://www.aztlan.net/foxfunds.htm)"
Australian Labour MP
Attacks 'Jewish Lobby,'
by Bernard Freedman, rense.com [from
Jewish News], December 19, 2002
"'You have taken on the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby
in the country.' -- media warning to Australia Labour Member of Parliament
A scathing attack on 'the Jewish lobby' was launched by Australian Federal
Labor MP Julia Irwin this week. She charged 'the Jewish lobby' with being
responsible for a 'code of silence' forbidding parliamentary debate on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and quoted an email from an unnamed 'senior
media commentator' warning her: 'You have taken on the most implacable,
arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country', and advising that she
would be 'singled out for vilification and, if possible, political
destruction'. Asked why the commentator she quoted was anonymous, Irwin told
the Australian Jewish News she had promised not to reveal the name
because the commentator had 'felt the full force of the Jewish lobby's fury
a long time ago and had gone through hell'. 'Anyone speaking or writing
publicly on the Middle East can expect to be subjected to personal attacks
and to have assumptions made about their reasons for raising the issue,' she
said. Irwin -- who four weeks ago moved a private member's motion attacking
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, leading to a vociferous
debate -- told Federal Parliament she believed her motion had broken a taboo
on discussing the conflict. She said she had received 'hundreds of
messages', mostly supportive, following the extensive media coverage of her
motion, the debate it provoked and the attempt by fellow-Labor (and Jewish)
MP Michael Danby to have the motion withdrawn. Her attack brought a
swift response from Executive Council of Australian Jewry president
Jeremy Jones, who accused Irwin of 'conjuring up the bogeyman of a
powerful Jewish lobby [that] might appeal to antisemites, but certainly not
to any reasonable observer'. 'She is acting to protect herself from the
criticism she deserves,' Jones said. 'She puts her ignorance [on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict] on display and then complains about people who
might point out her ignorance."
Bush Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet,
New York Times, December 20, 2002
"The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service
providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of
the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal is
part of a final version of a report, 'The National Strategy to Secure
Cyberspace,' set for release early next year, according to several people
who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort to
increase national security after the Sept. 11 attacks ... . While the
proposal is meant to gauge the overall state of the worldwide network, some
officials of Internet companies who have been briefed on the proposal say
they worry that such a system could be used to cross the indistinct border
between broad monitoring and wiretap. Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer who
represents some of the nation's largest Internet providers, said, 'Internet
service providers are concerned about the privacy implications of this as
well as liability,' since providing access to live feeds of network activity
could be interpreted as a wiretap or as the 'pen register' and 'trap and
trace' systems used on phones without a judicial order ... The new proposal
is labeled in the report as an 'early-warning center' that the board says is
required to offer early detection of Internet-based attacks as well as
defense against viruses and worms. But Internet service providers argue that
its data-monitoring functions could be used to track the activities of
individuals using the network. An official with a major data services
company who has been briefed on several aspects of the government's plans
said it was hard to see how such capabilities could be provided to
government without the potential for real-time monitoring, even of
individuals. 'Part of monitoring the Internet and doing real-time analysis
is to be able to track incidents while they are occurring,' the official
said. The official compared the system to Carnivore, the Internet wiretap
system used by the F.B.I., saying: 'Am I analogizing this to Carnivore?
Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10 times worse. Carnivore was working on much
smaller feeds and could not scale. This is looking at the whole Internet.'"
U.S. Vetoes U.N.'s Israel Condemnation,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December 20,
2002
"The United States vetoed an Arab-backed resolution Friday that would have
condemned Israel for the recent killings of three U.N. workers. The U.S.
ambassador called the resolution one-sided and not conducive to Mideast
peace efforts. Twelve other council members - including close U.S. ally
Britain - voted in favor of the resolution. Bulgaria and Cameroon abstained.
The resolution expressed 'grave concern' at the killings by Israeli troops
and demanded that Israel 'refrain from the excessive and disproportionate
use of force in the Occupied Palestinian territories.' It also demanded that
Israel comply fully with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention,
which deals with the protection of civilians during war. But the veto by the
United States - one of five permanent council members with veto power -
means that the resolution was not adopted. The last U.S. veto, in December
2001, was also cast against a Mideast resolution. Syria's U.N. Ambassador
Mikhail Wehbe, the only Arab member of the council, rejected U.S. attempts
to amend the resolution to eliminate the reference to Israel's
disproportionate use of force. The United States also wanted to drop the
demand for Israel to comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention ... Three
workers for the U.N. agency that provides relief for Palestinian refugees,
known as UNWRA, were killed in recent weeks. Israeli soldiers shot and
killed Iain Hook, of Britain, on Nov. 22 during a gunbattle with armed
Palestinians in the West Bank. The army said its soldiers mistook a cell
phone Hook was using for a weapon and that gunmen had entered the walled
U.N. compound. The U.N. relief agency denies that gunmen had entered the
compound. Two Palestinian school employees working for UNRWA were among 10
Palestinians killed when Israeli troops conducted a raid into a crowded Gaza
refugee camp on Dec. 6 hunting for militants."
Illinois invests in Israel Bonds,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 20, 2002
[This item is in the pop-up box at the JTA home page, "Breaking News"
column]
"The state of Illinois invested $10 million in Israel Bonds. State officials
attended a ceremony in Jerusalem at which a symbolic check was turned over.
Also present were Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom and Israel
Bonds President Joshua Matza. Matza called the investment a vote of
confidence in Israel’s future economic development."
Lieberman,
Moving Fast, Eyes a Staff, Political Team Honing Message,
[Jewish] Forward, December 20, 2002
"Despite his public ambiguity, Senator Joseph Lieberman seems to be
moving full steam ahead in his candidacy for president, assembling the core
of a campaign staff and trying to answer the concerns of those who feel his
centrist politics are too far to the right to excite the usually liberal
Democratic primary electorate. Democratic hands say he's doing well in what
they call 'the invisible primary' — the scramble to gather the small number
of experienced troops who know how to wage a national campaign ... Smith
said he does not think that Lieberman's Orthodox Judaism will be an issue
for voters. 'As I've traveled the country, the only people who raise the
issue are members of the Jewish community,' said Smith, a native of
Arkansas. 'Nobody else brings that up. Voters vote for the man, not the
religion' ... Lieberman's spokesman, Daniel Gerstein, told the
Forward that it's too early to say what kind of platform Lieberman
might run on ... Jewish donors, who supply a major
share of the contributions financing any Democratic presidential bid,
had mixed things to say about the Lieberman candidacy. Chemicals
magnate Jack Bendheim, an Orthodox Jew who shares a pew with
Lieberman when the senator visits his mother-in-law in the Bronx, said
he found it exciting that Lieberman had met with so little prejudice
during his vice presidential run and predicted that Lieberman's
religiosity would redound to his benefit as 'the country looks to become
more faith-based.'"
Former
Judge Says Congressman Maintains Anti-Israel Stances,
Metropolitan News Enterprise, December 20, 2002
Page 6
"Former Los Angeles County Bar Assn. president Sheldon D. Sloan — who
was reputedly influential with Republican Governors George Deukmejian and
Pete Wilson and is said to maintain strong GOP ties — is engaged in efforts
to dump Dana Rohrbacher, a seven-term Republican congressman from Orange
County. Sloan, a retired Los Angeles Municipal Court judge, accuses
Rohrbacher of maintaining an anti-Israeli and pro-Arab policy, which the
legislator denies. In a recent letter addressed 'Dear Friends,' Sloan
wrote: I seldom get as
exorcised about a public official as I am about Dana Rohrbacher, the long
term Member of the House of Representatives from Orange County. Congressman
Rohrbacher is an embarrassment to the Congress of the United States, to the
President of the United States, to the Republican Party, and to his
constituents ...
Rohrabacher wrote to Sloan: I was saddened by your
accusatory letter sent to our fellow Republicans. It was both factually
inaccurate and unnecessarily derogatory in its tone. Perhaps you are unaware
of my record or you would not have suggested in your letter that I have
voted against the President and against Israel in all matters. Whoever told
you that is a liar of the first order and in the future you should not be
passing on information from that source without verification. On the vast
majority of votes concerning Israel I have been on the side of that country,
including votes condemning terrorist acts against Israel and supporting
efforts to prevent Israel or Israeli citizens from being targeted by hostile
forces. The outrage that has been pointed in my direction derives from my
votes in opposition to legislation concerning Israel when that legislation
is not also in the interest of the United States. But yes, sometimes what is
in Israel’s interest is not in the interest of the United States, although
that is difficult for some people to grasp. Unlike many other Members of
Congress, I do not feel compelled by political pressure to vote for every
bill supporting Israel, especially when that legislation may be harmful to
our country, the long term cause of peace in the Middle East and damaging to
the prestige of our President. Contrary to your letter it was my vote
supporting the position of the President of the United States that has
created such a stir. Even though my overall voting record concerning issues
regarding Israel remains at a high level. Your suggestion that I coddle up
to Arab interests certainly does not take into account my strenuous efforts
and leadership to defeat Islamic extremism and the Arab enemies of the
United States ...
Sloan retorted: I received your email of 12/6/02 with some mild
surprise.… [I]n your letter to me I find no expression of support for Israel
nor repudiation of what is generally referred to as the 'moral equivalency'
line, used mostly by the liberal press in supporting the Palestinian
position of terrorism against the State of Israel. Perhaps it was just an
oversight; if so, I invite you to correct it ... Privately, you are alleged
to: Equate [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon with Arafat,
and view Sharon as a terrorist; Be unwilling to meet with Sharon;
Display an uncooperative attitude towards those who seek to arrange for you
to go to Israel, in order to attempt to educate you on the living conditions
... Stop coddling up to the Arabs and look at the situation from the point
of view of Israel. Israel is the best friend the United States has in the
world, and there are very few issues wherein the interests of the United
States and those of the State of Israel differ. The choice is yours; if a
five term Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia can be defeated in a primary
election, so can an eight term Republican Congressman from California."
Frist Likely to Lead Senate GOP; Lott Out,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December 21,
2002
"It took Republicans little time to anoint Bill Frist as Senate majority
leader after Trent Lott's historic resignation over his apparent nostalgia
for segregation, and not long for critics to launch a scrutiny of Frist's
own history with race." [WHAT DOES FRIST THINK ABOUT ISRAEL?]:
Remarks by
U.S. Senator Bill Frist, M.D. to the Desert Caucus,
U.S. Senate, November 14, 1999, Speech Of
Senator Bill Frist, M.D. US-Israeli Relationship: "And there are few
relationships more important to America than the one we share with Israel.
Friendship The United States has shared a special bond with Israel almost
from the moment of its founding. America was the first country to recognize
the new state of Israel – only 11 minutes after it was created. And over the
last 50 years, that relationship has blossomed into a strategic, economic,
and political partnership that is unique and precious. And there are good
reasons for this: No people in the world have more in common with Americans
than the people of Israel ... And I believe every member of Congress should
do all that he or she can to ensure that nothing ever happens to change that
relationship. These things were never clearer to me than they were when I
visited Israel in 1997. It was, in fact, my first foreign visit as a member
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. What I learned and saw there will
remain with me for the rest of my life. Together with my wife, Karyn, I
visited Jericho, Haifa and Tel Aviv. I traveled to the Golan Heights, spent
a night on a kibbutz, and stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. I met
with diplomats and military leaders, visited industries and hospitals, and
throughout it all I was excited by Israel’s economy and impressed with its
commitment to technological excellence ... Israel is much more than its
collected history, as the last five decades have decidedly proven. It is a
demonstration of what can be accomplished when a people are determined to
overcome every obstacle to freedom and self-determination ... And I think
its important to note, that while America maintains about 135,000 troops in
Europe and spends about $80 billion every year on its defense, no US troops
have ever been required to defend Israel. In fact, when compared to our
relationships with many other countries, the US-Israeli partnership has been
very cost-effective. We benefit from joint military exercises,
intelligence-sharing, and the pre-positioning of materiel that will enable
us to respond to any future conflict in the region. In other words, when we
support Israel's vital national interests, we also support our own."
Many Tools of Big Brother Are Up and Running,
New York Times, December 23, 2002
"In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by electronically
monitoring the civilian population, the most remarkable detail may be this:
Most of the pieces of the system are already in place. Because of the
inroads the Internet and other digital network technologies have made into
everyday life over the last decade, it is increasingly possible to amass Big
Brother-like surveillance powers through Little Brother means. The basic
components include everyday digital technologies like e-mail, online
shopping and travel booking, A.T.M. systems, cellphone networks, electronic
toll-collection systems and credit-card payment terminals. In essence, the
Pentagon's main job would be to spin strands of software technology that
would weave these sources of data into a vast electronic dragnet.
Technologists say the types of computerized data sifting and pattern
matching that might flag suspicious activities to government agencies and
coordinate their surveillance are not much different from programs already
in use by private companies. Such programs spot unusual credit card
activity, for example, or let people at multiple locations collaborate on a
project. The civilian population, in other words, has willingly embraced the
technical prerequisites for a national surveillance system that Pentagon
planners are calling Total Information Awareness."
Move against Arab party could spark crisis in Jewish-Arab ties,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 23, 2002
"Nearly two years ago, in Israel’s last elections, members of Azmi Beshara’s
Balad Party spearheaded the public campaign among Israel’s Arab citizens to
boycott the elections. Now Balad has taken a U-turn: It is launching an
international campaign against Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein’s
demand to ban the party from running in the upcoming general elections.
Rubinstein’s request to the Central Elections Committee to disqualify
Balad relies on a recent amendment to the Basic Law: The Knesset banning
parties that negate 'Israel’s existence as a Jewish state and express
support for the armed struggle against Israel.' At stake not is only the
status of one Arab party: The attempt could impact the already-fragile
relations between the Jewish state and its Arab citizens. The Central
Elections Committee will have to define the thin line between the political
rights of the Arab population and the possible challenge to the very
existence of the state. In other words, it will have to decide how Arab an
Arab party can be. Rubinstein came to the elections committee with a
thick portfolio of documents — many of them from the Shin Bet security
Service’s secret archives — designed to prove that 'Balad is putting on a
mask.' In other words, the party, which claims to be a legitimate political
organ of Israel’s Arabs, actually is a tool in the effort to destroy Israel
as a Jewish state, Rubinstein claims."
Passionate
attachment to Israel,
by James J. David, Media Monitors, December 24,
2002
"Is there any criminal act that Israel can do without being protected from
criticism from the United States? If there is I haven't seen it. And I
haven't seen it from the Bush Administration or from the Clinton
Administration or from any administration before them. But when you consider
the influence of Israel's lobby and its political action committees and the
more than $41 million they've given to Congress and the White House, is it
any wonder Israel is shielded from any shame? For more than 54 years the
Israelis have committed acts that no other nation would dare get away with.
But even here in America, where it is not yet illegal to publicly ask the
wrong questions, any public figure that does so is subjected to smears,
intimidation, and the attempted destruction of his career and reputation by
Jewish organizations and by the very cooperative news media ... Although
September 11th brought the fight on terrorism to the front burner, it seems
that the United States protects Israel from any criticism here too. An
Israeli instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed that two employees received
text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two hours
before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks. (Ha'aretz,
December 20, 2002.) Is it possible that Israel had foreknowledge of the
attack? Could this be the answer why the 4000 Israeli employees at the World
Trade Center never showed up for work that tragic September morning? If this
is the case then the fact that Israel's government had prior knowledge of
the pending attack and not warned the Americans makes them as guilty as our
enemy. Whatever the case, our government must make a complete and thorough
investigation without any threats from Jewish and Israeli interest groups.
Shielding Israel from criticism and supporting the Jewish state no matter
what crimes she commits has caused the United States the loss of respect
around the world. In addition, Israel has cost American taxpayers more than
$120 billion in the past 40 years. Our one-sided unbalanced Middle East
policy has created the hatred of millions and the primary cause of terrorism
that has landed on our own soil. Criticizing our government's dangerous
policies and its submissions to the Jewish lobby doesn't make anyone less
patriotic or any less of an American. George Washington said it best when he
stated that 'passionate attachment to another nation produces a variety of
evils...the illusion of common interests where no real common interests
exist; adopting the enmities of the other; and participation in the quarrels
and wars of the other without any justification. Still another evil is that
such a passionate attachment gives to ambitious, corrupted or deluded
citizens the facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own
country.'" James J. David is a retired Brigadier General and a graduate
of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, and the National
Security Course, National Defense University, Washington DC. He served as a
Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in the Republic of
Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. 1967-1969
VIEWS: US silent about Israeli nukes,
By Hassan Tahsin, Daily Times (Pakistan),
December 25, 2002
"International politics has a number of contradictions. At present, we see
the United States leading the world against Iran, Iraq and North Korea
because they allegedly possess weapons of mass destruction. We see the
United States at the same time approving the idea of Israel building a new
nuclear reactor. The new reactor will chemically process uranium and will
obviously increase the size of the Israeli arsenal. The world is in general
agreement with the United States about the necessity of eliminating weapons
of mass destruction. The existence of these weapons which includes nuclear
warhead threatens the entire world. It is not enough to disarm the so-called
“axis of evil.” All weapons of mass destruction must be eliminated,
including those of the superpower permanent members of the UN Security
Council ... If we look at Israel and its weapons of mass destruction, we
join many countries and governments which have wondered why Israel is always
an exception to rules that are scrupulously applied to other countries. It
is certain today that Israel possesses between 100 and 200 nuclear and
hydrogen warheads of all sizes. This is confirmed by published American
satellite pictures and scientific reports. These same reports also indicate
that Israel is about to produce a neutron bomb. Israel also has nuclear
bombs which are designed for use from airplanes. They can be used in battle
without fears of side effects. Israel also has spy satellites which can
identify targets on the ground very easily. In cooperation with the former
racist government in South Africa, Israel conducted nuclear tests in 1979 in
the South Pacific. Further information about Israeli weapons is not
available though it is known that some were used for the attempted
assassination in Jordan of Khalid Meshaal, the Hamas member. Closing the
world’s eyes to Israel’s nuclear arsenal and weapons of mass destruction can
only lead to suspicion and rejection. Since Israel was the first country in
the region to possess these weapons, it should be the first to get rid of
them."
Overview of the Shank anonymous hate speech case,
American Civil Liberties Union of Florida,
"Lloyd Shank is a 73-year-old man who lives in Broward County. He has a long
history of arrests for distributing racist literature at the Ft.
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. For years he has been sending
officials rambling letters decrying Jews and the federal government. He
served two years in federal prison for threatening President Ronald Reagan.
He served time in a mental institution. On August 23, 1999, Shank sent an
unsigned letter to six of seven Broward County commissioners –
all of whom are Jewish, except for one whose spouse is
Jewish – in which he made anti-Semitic comments and allegations. In
his letter, Shank attacked the Clinton administration and Christianity, and
he claimed that Jews promote hatred and murder. He blamed major terrorist
attacks on Jews, closing his letter: 'You Jews and puppets murdered 10,000
innocent people in those bombings. Federal, state, local judges are Jewish
gangsters and controlled by evil Jews. They are warmongers, terrorists,
hate-filled liars and perverts.' Recognizing Shank as the likely author of
the diatribe, detectives confronted Shank. He admitted writing the letter,
explaining that he left it anonymous because he thought he would be
prosecuted if he signed it. On September 8, 1999, Shank was arrested and
charged with a third-degree felony under Fla. Statute 836.11, punishable by
up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, for sending an anonymous
publication 'exposing persons to hatred, contempt or prejudicial ridicule'
... On September 10, two days after Shank's arrest, the ACLU of Florida sent
a letter to Broward State Attorney Michael J. Satz and Broward Sheriff Ken
Jenne, calling the statute "plainly unconstitutional" and urging them to
release Shank from custody. The State Attorney's office reduced the charge
against Shank to a first-degree misdemeanor on September 17. The decision to
charge Shank has opened a debate on whether the 1945 Florida law is
unconstitutional."
The Role of
Politics in Contemporary Anti-Semitism.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. September 15,
1999
"That Jews control a disproportionately large share of the Russian economy
and Russian media certainly has some basis in fact.
Between 50 and 80 percent of the Russian economy is said to be in Jewish
hands, with the influence of the five Jews among the eight
individuals commonly referred to as 'oligarchs' particularly conspicuous. (An
oligarch is understood to be a member of a small group that exercises
control in a government. The five oligarchs of Jewish descent are
Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Friedman, Vladimir Gusinsky,
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexander Smolensky. The other
oligarchs are Vagit Alekperov, Vladimir Potanin, and Rem Vyakhirev.) Perhaps
the most famous (and simultaneously the most infamous) of the oligarchs is
Boris Berezovsky. In common with most of the other Jewish oligarchs,
Berezovsky controls industries in three critical areas: the extraction and
sale of a major natural resource, such as oil, as a source of great wealth;
a large bank (useful in influencing industry and transferring assets
abroad); and several major media outlets (useful for exerting influence and
attacking rivals). He also controls a significant share of the Aeroflot
airline and the Moscow automobile industry."
Fallen Lott
Urged Christians To 'Take Back' U.S.,
[Jewish] Forward,
December 27, 2002
"Senator Trent Lott told reporters this week that he had fallen into the
'trap' of his political enemies who were happy to take aim at a conservative
Christian from Mississippi. But, according to a 1987 report in the
Washington Post, Lott eagerly compared his initial senate campaign to a
religious crusade. 'Conservative, God-fearing, hard-working Christian people
make a mistake by not being more aggressive,' Lott reportedly declared
during a Mississippi Right to Life convention in 1987. 'This is our country
and it's time we take it back.' The remark was brought to light last week by
the National Jewish Democratic Council, a day before Lott's resignation as
Senate Republican leader. 'Trent Lott's chronic problem of giving voice to
his exclusivist worldview is not just Trent Lott's problem — it's the
problem of many in the G.O.P., and especially its leadership,' said the
Democratic council's executive director, Ira Forman, in a December 19
statement on Lott's 1987 remarks. Forman also criticized incoming House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, for urging a crowd of
Christian Coalition activists during a pro-Israel rally in October to 'put
people in office who stand unashamedly with Jesus Christ.' 'The real problem
with these Republican leaders is not the occasional slip of the tongue; it's
that they speak honestly about their beliefs,' Forman said. 'And until their
exclusionist views change, it's going to be increasingly hard for large
numbers of Americans to vote with the Republican Party.' The same day that
the Jewish Democrats issued their press release, B'nai Brith International
became the only major American Jewish organization to issue a statement
calling on Lott to resign from his GOP leadership post."
'Misuse of Canada's identity' questioned Israeli spy operation,
by Stewart Bell, National Post,
December 24, 2002
"A senior Cabinet official questioned the head of Israel's security service
about allegations Israeli undercover agents posed as Canadians during an
operation to assassinate a Palestinian terrorist leader, newly released
documents show. Although Ottawa has said publicly it was convinced all along
the spy claims were false, internal documents obtained yesterday show the
matter has continued to concern the government and has been the subject of
behind-the-scenes diplomacy. In a confidential report, officials said they
were concerned about 'other countries' intelligence services misusing
Canada's identity' and that 'such misuse endangers Canadians travelling
around the world and undermines the integrity of Canadian passports.' Ronald
Bilodeau, the Privy Council Office security and intelligence co-ordinator
and Cabinet assistant secretary, met on Oct. 1 with the head of the Israeli
Security Agency, whose spies allegedly used false Canadian identities during
the operation in Gaza ... Israel has denied the claims. But the papers show
Ottawa was worried about being linked to a spy operation and a botched
assassination that killed 14 bystanders, nine of them children. The
allegations surfaced in August, when Mr. Zatmeh publicly detailed how he was
lured into becoming an Israeli informant by agents who told him they were
Canadians and could help him immigrate. Mr. Zatmeh said he was recruited by
three 'Canadian' agents who brought him to the Canadian embassy in Tel Aviv
before coercing him into helping them, with doctored photos that showed him
with naked women ... Sept. 4 they were satisfied the claims were false.
However, hours after the Post report on Sept. 5, John McNee, assistant
deputy minister for Africa and the Mideast, discussed the matter with Haim
Divon, Israel's ambassador to Canada."
Report: Rendell
Still Has Knack For Recruiting Big Donors. Former Mayor Of Philly Sets Up
Club For High Donors, NBC (Channel 10), December
29, 2002
"As chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2000, Ed Rendell
set up a club for people who donated at least $100,000 to the cause. That
club was called the Jefferson Trust. Rendell, the former mayor of
Philadelphia, is now the governor-elect of Pennsylvania. And it appears he
hasn't lost his knack for fund raising. The Philadelphia Inquirer
reported today that Rendell appears to have had more $100,000
contributors than all but two others who ran for office in the United States
this year. The Inquirer reported that at least 53 individuals and
organizations gave at least $100,000 to Rendell. Only California Democrat
Gray Davis and Texas Republican Rick Perry eclipsed that number. Both were
elected governor in their respective states."
VICE
PRESIDENT AL GORE REMARKS AT ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE,
Welcome to the White House (
http://clinton3.nara.gov ) May 9, 2000 (As delivered)
"I thank you, Howard, for the warm introduction and also for the tireless
work that you do on behalf of the ADL. And to let me also be quick to add,
that I know that I speak for all of us here today when I say that my hearts
are with Abe Foxman (ph) and his wife, Golda. I wish Abe
-- now I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right. You help me. Refua
shalama (ph). Is that right? (APPLAUSE) A full and speedy recovery. It's
great to hear these inspiring stories and indeed we have been allies and
partners. One of the ways you can find that out is by cataloguing the mutual
enemies that we have. Some of the same groups and people have condemned the
ADL and me in the same breath and the same sentence, which is one of the
greatest honors I can possibly thank God. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) And I am
really grateful for it ... But we started our family in Nashville, and, as
many of you know, Nashville is the world capital of country music and the
capital of songwriting of all kinds. And it's not just the music of the
South, it is the music of America. And to prove it to you, let me just share
with you the latest hit list from one of the many proliferating subgenres in
country music, the latest top songs on the Jewish country and western song
title list. Number four this week is: `I Was One Of The Chosen People Until
She Chose Somebody Else.' (LAUGHTER) Number three this week is: `The Second
Time She Said Shalom, I Knew She Meant Goodbye.' (LAUGHTER) And number two
on the list this week is: `I've Got My Foot On The Glass, Now Where Are
You?' (LAUGHTER) (LAUGHTER) ... I really am happy to be back with the ADL. I
feel right at home here. Since your founding in 1913, you have been an angel
on America's shoulder, summing us to our highest ideas. From your work to
unmask klansmen in the 1940s to your fight against McCarthyism in the 1950s
-- and incidentally, when my father went to the United States Senate, he had
one request, Do not assign me to any committee that has Joe McCarthy on it
-- to your efforts to monitor hate on the Internet today, in all these
activities and over all these years, you have kept a watchful eye on
extremism in every form ... Hate crimes are acts of violence, not just
against the person, not just against individuals, but against our ideals. It
is long past time for a national law to punish hate crimes and prevent them,
once and for all. I call for the passage of national hate crimes
legislation... (APPLAUSE) ... in this session of Congress. It is time.
(APPLAUSE) There is still time for Congress to take action this year and the
lobbying that you do on this issue can make the critical difference. We have
to send an unmistakable message: If you commit a hate-crime, we will find
you, we will punish you, that punishment will be swift, certain and severe.
So let us stand together and work together and tell Congress to make the
Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of our land."
The
Neocons and Nixon's southern strategy,
by Pat Buchanon, World Net Daily, December 30,
2002
"Lear's reflection upon ingratitude comes to mind as one reads of the
squabble among neoconservatives over who among them was first to stick his
nail file in the back of Trent Lott. Charles Krauthammer enters a
claim for the Kristol-Bennett crowd, while Jonah Goldberg of
National Review and cashiered Bush speech-writer David Frum insist
they, too, played supporting roles. Whether Lott may have been innocent of
any hate crime, or whether they might have had a moral duty to step in to
stop a lynching of one of their own – even had Lott blundered – seem to be
thoughts that never once intruded upon these tiny minds. Yet their collusion
in ruining Lott, their relish in the pats on the head they are receiving
from the left, confirm the suspicion: Neoconservatives are the useful idiots
of the liberal establishment. With Lott gone, Bill Kristol is now
collaborating with the New York Times in its rewrite of the history
of the 1960s, a decade of liberal debacles, to credit racism for the
Republicans' success. 'Lott is really virtually the last of the products of
Richard Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' to be in major positions of power in the
Congress,' Kristol assures the Times. 'With his leaving, you will
have cleared out people who ... have a somewhat compromised image to the
country as a whole.'"
Breaking the
Silence on the Israel Lobby,
by Jeffrey Blankfort
itszone, December 31, 2002 (originally from
Anderson Valley Advertiser, February 2002)
"On a Saturday in mid-February a little less than a year ago, I had two
experiences, one very positive and encouraging --the other negative and
disturbing. The first was at the Marin Community Center in Mill Valley,
across the Bay from San Francisco, where more than 200 ( 210 signed in)
people, and not what we refer to as "the choir" or "the usual suspects,"
turned up to hear Palestinian legal scholar Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian
professor Jess Ghannam, Stanford-based Israeli scholar Yael Ben-Zvi and
myself speak on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... All of the
presentations were well received but the enthusiastic reception for mine, in
particular, was significant because my subject was the pro- Israel lobby and
its negative influence on the American body politic. I placed much of the
blame for the escalation of violence in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict on
the actions of the organized American Jewish community and by individual
Jews working independently who over the years have successfully stifled,
intimidated, and marginalized critics of Israeli policies. I expected an
uproar from the audience because, from my experience, Marin had always been
another 'occupied territory,' but even among the many Jews there, none
challenged by premise or my evidence. What they heard and saw was factual
and visual evidence of the power of Israel's supporters over Congress and
politicians at every political level and. equally damning, their
effectiveness in preventing the various anti-war and anti-intervention
coalitions over the years from taking any position that might touch on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even one as mild as, 'US Out of the Middle
East." After I spoke and after the applause, a number of people, Jews and
non-Jews, and several students came up to me wanting more information . Then
I went over to Berkeley to the second day of a three-day conference
organized by Students for Justice in Palestine where the issue of the Israel
Lobby was nowhere on the agenda. I arrived during Phyllis Bennis's
presentation. Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, a
Washington-based liberal think tank, is one of the left's more well known
talking heads on the Israel-Palestine conflict and can frequently be heard
on KPFA and other Pacifica stations. Over the years, like most of the other
'experts, from the 'left,' with the notable exceptions of Columnist
Alexander Cockburn and Prof. Ed Herman, she has never recognized, let alone
been willing to discuss, the power of the Israel Lobby over US policy in the
Middle East, despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence of its existence
and of its influence. What happened when I arrived in the auditorium was
astonishing. Seeing me in the back of the auditorium where I was sitting
with a friend, totally out of the blue and raising her voice, she
interrupted her talk to blurt out, 'Congress is not Israeli Occupied
Territory!' ... Then I took the anti-war movement to task. Like every other
political sector of US society, I said that pro-Israel Jews within its ranks
and others who are fearful that raising the issue of the pro-Israel lobby
would provoke 'anti-Semitism, have not only kept the lid on that issue, but
have kepy the Palestinian cause isolated from the movement's overall agenda.
Whatever the reason, I emphasized, there are no excuses for the silence of
the movement on the issue of the lobby nor for it's genuflecting to 'Jewish
sensibilities' regarding the overall struggle. Neither Bennis nor her
co-panelist, a Jewish professor, said a word when I finished. After the
program, I went down to say hello to her, and jokingly mentioned that she
still had not yet understood the role of the Israel Lobby. She was neither
friendly or amused. 'The issue is dead and has been dead.' End of
conversation. What is disturbing is that her position regarding the Israel
lobby is that long held by Noam Chomsky, as well, as by professors Joel
Beinin of Stanford and Stephen Zunes of USF. Bennis's position is puzzling
since she is based in Washington, where, for the politically aware, "the
lobby's" power is a given.. To their credit, all of them, and Chomsky in
particular, have, through their writing and speaking, have exposed American
audiences to the history of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, but their
refusal to acknowledge the critical domestic aspects of the struggle are
indefensible and can no longer be left unchallenged. (In 1989, Zunes wrote
an excellent piece on the power of the pro-Israel lobby for The
Progressive, but he soon changed his position, perhaps when he realized
that 'blaming the Jews' is the fastest way to get marginalized in US
academia. The facts and the quotes in his article, however, did not change.
In his recent book, Tinderbox, he writes that Arabs have mistakenly blamed
Israel for its problems and that Israel is actually a victim of US policies.
He would have us believe that Israel is forced to play the same role for the
United States that Jews played under feudalism when they were the
middlepersons between the lords and the serfs. This analysis would have us
believe that Israel and its Jewish supporters today are somehow in the
precarious position that European Jews found themselves in several hundred
years ago This is absurd. The first situation represented Jewish weakness.
Today, Jews have more than at any time in their history. Zunes ignores the
fact that Jewish supporters of Israel are far and away the leading
contributors to the Democratic Party and dominate every sector of the media:
movies, TV., radio, and the press. Since 1978, the amount of money
contributed by pro-Israel PACs alone is over $34 million, as compared to
Enron whose $6 million over 10 years given to many of the same politicians
is held up as an example of an abuse of the system ... On the Mother Jones
magazine website one finds the leading individual
contributors to both political parties in the 1999-2000 cycle. Eight of the
top ten are Jews who contributed, with one exception, exclusively to the
Democratic Party ... Why is the Israel Lobby a taboo subject among the left
and the anti-war movements?"
Totalitarianism nears. Without protest, Americans are giving up freedom,
by Glen T. Martin, roanoke.com, Thursday,
January 02, 2003
"Today, people of the United States have given up their rights through the
'Patriot Act,' the 'Homeland Security Act' and the Pentagon's new system of
'Total Information Awareness.' The astonishing thing about this 'land of the
free' is that most Americans now have no effective rights and do not care.
As long as they are free to shop in department stores and have traffic in
the streets (with automobiles burning oil stolen from dying Iraqi children),
they do not care. And to a greater degree every day, those few who do care
about our liberties and rights are too terrified of our government to speak
out. The so-called 'Patriot Act' expanded our government's secret search and
wiretapping powers enormously. It empowered racial profiling as a recognized
police practice and allowed broad sweeps of people of Middle Eastern or
Asian origin. It effectively abolished immigrants' rights, allowing
noncitizens to be held in secret locations on secret 'evidence,' without
right to an attorney, for as long as the government wishes. The government
now has the power to enter your home or your computer and secretly record
whatever they find without ever having to notify you. They do not even have
to obtain a warrant from a publicly accountable judge showing reasonable
suspicion that a crime is being committed ... The government will soon be
amassing a file on every American that includes every magazine subscription,
credit card purchase, Web site visit, medical record, library record, bank
deposit or withdrawals, every airline purchase, as well as judicial, divorce
records, and so on. This will be recorded in a central data base, not by a
publicly accountable authority, but by the Pentagon, which already operates
in total secrecy from the American public. Government intimidation for
political reasons is real and it has begun. Our government already is using
its secret data bases to harass American ... The government has begun
harassing people maintaining Web sites they consider politically
objectionable. The Justice Department announced a plan to use its newfound
power to designate U.S. citizens as 'enemy combatants' to place such people
in concentration camps. Declaring them 'enemy combatants' would strip them
of their constitutional rights, their access to the courts and allow the
government to indefinitely hold them without trial. This is identical in
purpose to some of the Nazi concentration camps. Do we citizens care at all
about the future of our children or the plight of the millions of citizens
in this country of Arab descent, or those who nonviolently oppose government
policy? We have repeated for so long the slogan 'it can't happen here.' But
the darkness and terror of totalitarianism is coming rapidly. Do we have the
courage and integrity to speak out now, before it is too late?"
Senator Lieberman: Your Peace is Our Demise,
arabia.com, January 02, 2003
"US Senator and likely Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman is
touring the Middle East. His visit will most likely be described as a
success. And why not? Lieberman conversed with Ariel Sharon and top
Israeli leaders. He vowed time and again to stand by Israel in its war on
terrorism, and its right to self-defense. He managed to completely ignore
the elected Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, meeting instead with Saeb
Erekat, the former head of the Palestinian negotiation team. When asked
about who was to blame for a bloody two years of occupation and bloodshed,
he uttered, the blame goes on the terrorists, the Palestinians of course.
With that said, Lieberman managed to squeeze in a few statements
about the need for peace, and Palestinian reforms, and a Palestinian
crackdown on terrorism, and Palestinian willingness to negotiation and a new
Palestinian leadership, etc. To be fair, Lieberman did briefly
address the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians. But of course, it was
not Israel who received the blame for the growing humanitarian catastrophe,
but the terrorists. But once again, the trip was a complete success if one
considers official American policy in the Middle East; scolding and blaming
the Palestinians, pretending that there is no such thing as a deadly Israeli
occupation, illegal settlements or even occupied territories (For now,
according to Donald Rumsfeld, they are known as so-called occupied
territories). I followed the news of Lieberman's visit to the Middle
East, although I expected nothing out of the ordinary, no surprises, until
he visited Saudi Arabia, another leg on his tour, one mainly aimed at
building war alliances against Iraq. In an interview with Saudi Arabias
English daily, Arab News, on Dec 26 ... Lieberman's statement appeared to
subscribe more to the official Israeli viewpoint, and that of pro-Israeli
lobby groups in the US, than that of the US administration itself ... But
again, why should I even raise such an issue as if I indeed held any
expectations of the pro-Israeli Senator? On May 2, 2002, as the bodies of
scores of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank were
decomposing in the streets of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and elsewhere,
Lieberman rushed to the Senate, co-authoring a resolution (S. Res. 247).
The urgent resolution didn't call on Israel to allow the Red Cross to
collect the Palestinian corpses or to allow water supplies to reach Jenin or
Nablus. Instead, it equated the US fight against terrorism with Israels
ruthless attacks on heavily populated Palestinian centers. The resolution
passed quickly, yet Lieberman's fight for Israel is yet to fade. He
continues to blame the victim, to fight for security for the occupier, he
wants to attack Iraq and he blames the UN for being too harsh on Israel.
True, Lieberman's actions are no surprise. They are very much in tune
with his political philosophy. After all, it was no coincidence that he was
the top recipient of pro-Israeli PAC contributions during the 2000 election
cycle. I only wish, however, that Lieberman didn't tell journalists
in Israel that his visit was aimed at fostering peace and reviving the
stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinian leadership.
Lieberman defended Israel, blamed Palestinians and called for war on
Iraq. Such an agenda can hardly be argued to be that of a peacemaker,
although one can hardly deny that according to todays standards of American
foreign policy, the Senators Middle East tour was a great success."
Speaker Cantor? Eric Cantor, the quick-rising Virginia Republican, may be
angling to become the first Jewish House speaker,
Jewish Week, January 3, 2002
"When Rep. Eric Cantor was appointed chief deputy majority whip for
the 108th Congress, which opens next week, the hopes of Jewish Republicans
across the country fell on his shoulders. It’s a burden Cantor — now
the only Jewish Republican in the House — acknowledges and welcomes. He says
he is a bridge builder who can help his party cross the chasm of distrust
that has kept Jewish voters out of the Republican ranks. That won’t be easy,
he concedes, but Cantor insists that logic — and surging support for
Israel among conservative Christians — will eventually change Jewish voting
behavior. 'What I see all round the country are ongoing efforts to forge
relations between religious conservatives and the Jewish community,' he said
in a recent interview. 'There’s so much common ground, especially on the
Israel issue' ... Cantor is still in the early stages of his career,
but friends and acquaintances wouldn’t be surprised to see him become the
first Jewish speaker of the House ... Cantor said his new job will
add to the punch of his pro-Israel activism in Congress. In his first term,
Cantor sponsored several bills threatening sanctions on the Palestinian
Authority, including the Temple Mount Preservation Act, which would cut U.S.
aid if Palestinian authorities don’t stop 'unauthorized excavations' from
the Temple Mount. Cantor has also emerged as a leading congressional
critic of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA), the agency that
provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees — and which Cantor
said has allowed refugee camps to become prime breeding grounds for
Palestinian terrorists. Cantor agreed that Mideast-related
legislation would remain a priority even though his new leadership position
will focus more on domestic matters. 'Obviously the Israel issue has always
been front and center of what I do politically,' he said. “But this job is
much broader than any single issue.'"
Israel compared to Nazi Germany,
icwales, Wales, January 3, 2003
"A politician caused outrage today by comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
Labour councillor Ray Davies condemned Israel's 'apartheid regime' and
likened it to Hitler's occupation of Europe. The councillor, from Caerphilly,
said: 'Hitler's Nazi regime occupied Europe for four years only. Palestine
and the West Bank have been occupied for 40 years.' Speaking on BBC Radio
Wales, Mr Davies, who is vice chair of CND in Wales, refused to withdraw his
controversial comments, adding: 'I do draw that comparison because (this is)
one group of people who should understand what oppression is and what it is
like living under occupation.' Mr Davies urged Welsh business minister
Carwyn Jones and Tory AM Alun Cairns to boycott a trip to Israel next week.
The pair have been invited as part of a visit organised by the Israeli
government. Mr Davies accused the Israeli government of treating the
Holocaust 'like an industry' to justify its actions against Palestinians.
The councillor has himself been on a fact-finding trip to the occupied
territories but he said he had 'utterly resisted' an invitation by the
Israeli government. 'When they go out there they will be treated like Lords
and taken to the Holocaust museum to try to engineer as much sympathy as
they can and shown the bright side and the pleasant side and the sort of
life the Israelis are enjoying,' he said."
Ariel Sharon's Shakedown,
by Patrick Buchanan, American Conservative,
January 2003
"May we now expect the [Wall Street] Journal to call on Mr. Bush to reject
the $10 billion in loan guarantees demanded by Ariel Sharon? Don't
bet on it. Yet, Sharon's demand is astonishing in its audacity.
California and New York face huge budget shortfalls. The U.S. Treasury is
running a deficit nearing $200 billion. Yet, Sharon, who ignored Bush
when the president publicly called on him to pull his army out of West Bank
cities, is demanding that U.S. taxpayers fork over $4 billion in new
military aid and agree to pay off $10 billion Israel intends to borrow
should Israel decide to default. Why should we do this? What does America
get out of this? What has all the $100 billion in aid we have shoveled out
to Israel bought us, other than ingratitude and the enmity of the Arab
world? While Israel has a first-rate military, it is of no use to us. In
Desert Storm, Bush I had to bribe Yitzhak Shamir with $5 billion in
aid, $400 million in loan guarantees, and Patriot missiles to stay out of
the fighting, lest Israeli intervention dynamite our coalition. Journalists
and diplomats alike, returning from the Mideast, attest that our
almost-blind support of Israel is a major cause of the anti-Americanism that
is sweeping the Islamic world. When the price of Israel could be paid in
dollars alone, $3 billion a year, most members of Congress chose to pony up
rather than face the retribution of an Israeli Lobby that has in its trophy
case the scalps of two chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
J. William Fulbright and Chuck Percy. But now the price of the Israeli
connection has begun to rise. U.S. weapons technology given to Israel has
been sold to China. Only direct U.S. intervention prevented Israel from
selling Beijing AWACS technology. The Patriot missile, the Phoenix
air-to-air missile, the Lavi fighter, based on the F-16, have all been sold
to Beijing. In the Reagan era, Israel had the loathsome Jonathan Pollard,
whom it suborned into treason, loot our innermost national security secrets,
some of which are believed to have been traded to Moscow. Israel refuses to
return the roomful of documents it stole and has pressured presidents for
Pollard's release so he can be brought to Israel where he is a hero. Now
Mr. Sharon has handed us Israel's bill for abstaining from war with
Iraq while President Bush is at maximum political risk. Not since 1957, when
Dwight Eisenhower ordered Ben-Gurion to get his army out of Sinai,
has a U.S. president faced down an Israeli Prime Minister. To his credit,
the president's father tried. In 1991, having driven Iraq out of Kuwait,
with his approval at 70 percent, Bush I was asked by Shamir for $10
billion in loan guarantees to bring a million Russian Jews to Israel. Bush
assented, on one condition: Shamir must not settle them on the West
Bank and must stop expanding settlements. Shamir rejected the
condition, and the Lobby went to work. Bush warned he would veto the
guarantees. An Israeli minister called him an anti-Semite. While Shamir
was defeated in June of 1992, Bush, his own election in trouble,
eventually gave in and gave Israel the loan guarantees. Who was the Housing
Minister who announced new settlements even as Bush I was denouncing them?
Ariel Sharon. Sharon now wants to repeat Israel's victory over
Bush's father by making the son give Israel $4 billion in hardware and $10
billion in new loan guarantees as Sharon's price for permitting us to
crush Iraq while he holds America's coat. It is a shakedown: Ariel Sharon's
big sting ... If members of the Knesset can refuse to follow the suicidal
path of Sharon & Netanyahu, why is Congress so cowardly?"
An Invisible Aide Leaves Fingerprints,
By Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, January
6, 2003
"Josh Bolten is the White House aide you've never heard of who has
his fingerprints all over President Bush's new $600 billion economic plan,
the legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security and just about
every other domestic policy concocted in his powerful little corner deep in
the West Wing. Mr. Bolten, 48, once made a lot of money working for
Goldman Sachs and grew up in northwest Washington as the son of a
Central Intelligence Agency officer who worked in the directorate of
operations, the agency's covert espionage arm. Perhaps taking a lesson from
his father, he declined to be interviewed for this article, saying he liked
his life undercover. Still, Mr. Bolten can't hide his revealing title
— White House deputy chief of staff for policy — and a growing reputation as
the hub of the administration's domestic agenda, which is increasingly set
by a small handful of West Wing aides under the command of Karl Rove, the
president's chief political adviser, and Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House
chief of staff ... Mr. Bolten is the one who oversees the 45 minutes
that Mr. Bush has scheduled for 'policy time' on most days the president is
in Washington. Mr. Bolten is in charge of parceling out those
precious minutes, usually in the afternoons. He decides what is discussed,
when it is to be discussed and who is invited ... Mr. Bolten, who was
the issues director of Mr. Bush's presidential campaign, graduated from St.
Albans, the exclusive private boys' school in Washington, and Princeton and
Stanford Law School. On Hanukkah, he brought in dreidels and gold chocolate
coins for the entire senior staff. 'He's the explainer of all things Jewish
to the White House,' Mr. Rove said ... When Mr. Bolten was growing
up, he was instructed to tell his friends that his father worked at the
Defense Department, not the C.I.A."
Letters [to the Editor],
Re: The Left and Israel, letter to the editor, Pat Martin, Jan. 3,
National Post (Canada), January 07, 2003
"I too am a socialist, a trade unionist and an NDP Member of Parliament, but
Mr. Martin does not speak for me. The starting point for any consideration
of the situation in the Middle East should be based on the principles of
international law. In this light, while the world's attention is focused on
Iraq's compliance with United Nations resolutions, the true double standard
is the fact that the Israeli government can repudiate and violate United
Nations resolutions on a continuous basis with impunity. The tragic plight
of the Palestinian people continues under the heavy weight of Israeli
military occupation. The imprisonment of a whole population denied food,
health care, employment and education is compounded by the daily killing of
civilians by Israel's military forces. And yes, it is plain to all that
oppression and occupation breed resistance and terrorism: Indiscriminate
killing of civilians on both sides must be resolutely condemned by all of us
looking for a peaceful resolution. Nor is the resistance only Palestinian.
The year 2002, according to Israel's former minister of education
Shulamit Aloni, 'was a year of moral degeneration during which we became
an apartheid state ... we transformed ourselves into barbarians, we turned
3.5 million human beings into hostages, we turned every town and village
into a detention camp' ... We are at a historical moment of crisis. Iraq may
be the focus but Palestine is the heart of the matter. The drums of war are
beating, and as usual, whole peoples are being vilified and targeted. It is
time for those of us who call ourselves democrats and defenders of peace,
justice and equality to act. Canada's entire reputation as 'the peaceable
kingdom' is at stake. Will history record that we were with the warmongers
or the peacemakers? Joe Comartin, MP, Windsor St. Clair."
Specter Junket
Fit for a Rock Star Tuesday,
Fox News, January 7, 2003
"Sen. Arlen Specter spared no expense on a junket last week to Europe
and the Middle East — ordering cases of Evian water, a driver, a personal
assistant, Boca Burgers and daily squash matches. During last week's holiday
tour, Specter's staff scrambled to rustle up people for him to meet —
even as they focused on plans for Specter (R-Pa.) and his wife, Joan,
to enjoy the finest dining, opera, theater and social gatherings. Specter's
team demanded that he get one meeting in Berlin on Dec. 31 — but only one
meeting so he could enjoy himself that day. Joan Specter was to be
shown parts of 'local cultural products' and 'unique marketplaces & bazaars'
wherever the couple went. Specter's demanding travel needs surfaced
this week after e-mails detailing his Dec. 23 to Jan. 6 junket plans were
obtained by the Washington Post. One e-mail that said that when in
Israel, Specter 'will want a driver and escort — even for visit with
his sister.' During the junket, diplomatic types were warned never to
schedule events in the evening, since Specter and his wife 'like to do their
own thing' at night, an e-mail said. Specter also was to have a squash court
reserved for him every evening at 5 p.m. on the dot. 'This guy is a prima
donna,' fumed David Williams, vice president of Citizens Against Government
Waste. 'This guy is no friend of taxpayers.' After starting his trip in
London, Specter's office scheduled him meetings with Egypt's Hosni
Mubarak, Syria's Bashar Assad and others. Mrs. Specter 'will want an
escort at each country and will likely be interested in sightseeing or
shopping,' according to one e-mail." [Note: former President Bill Clinton
named Specter's wife Joan to the National Council of the Arts].
New Congress Has More Hispanics,
Washington Post, January 7, 2002
"[Mario Diaz-Balart] is one of a record 22 Hispanics who will be sworn into
the House, a gain of three from last year. Sixty women will serve in the
House – the same as last year – and an unprecedented 14 women will be in the
Senate ... There are no blacks or Hispanics in the 100-member Senate. The
House will have 37 blacks, one more than last year but fewer than the record
39 who served from 1993-1995. There are no black Republicans in Congress
since Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts retired last year. Only 8.5 percent of the
House is black and only 5 percent is Hispanic, even though Hispanics and
blacks each make up 12 percent of the U.S. population." [Hmmm. If it's
complaint time, and ethnic numbers are getting tossed around, where is the
article that notes that Jews are only 2.5% of the American population and
yet 11 of our 100 senators are Jewish -- an overrepresentation of
about 450%? And if fair representation of ethnic groups is what's at root in
this article, and we need to get the percentages all straightened out, how
come THAT's not news?] (There are also 26 Jewish members of the House
of Representatives)
Schumer vows filibuster to fight renomination of Miss. judge,
Newsday, January 8, 2003
"Sen. Charles Schumer on Wednesday vowed a filibuster if necessary to
block the White House's renomination of a Mississippi judge accused by
Democrats and civil rights groups of being racially insensitive. Charles
Pickering, a U.S. District Court judge in Hattiesburg, Miss., has been
renominated for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals after being rejected 10-9
in the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee last March. Schumer,
D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday he was willing to resort to a filibuster to
reject Pickering. 'To me, this is a moral issue,' said Schumer."
Israel wants more
than total US foreign aid budget,
Financial Review, January 8, 2002
"A delegation from Israel, the largest recipient of US foreign aid, has
sought $US12 billion ($21 billion) in assistance at a meeting with State
Department and White House officials, Israeli officials said. The request,
covering the next three to five years, exceeds the
total $US11.6 billion budgeted last year by the US
for all countries. The request is to help
Israel weather the Palestinian uprising and a possible US war with Iraq ...
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office said Israel was asking for $US4 billion
in direct assistance and $US8 billion in loan guarantees. A US official
indicated before the meeting that the US was open to the request. 'We always
try to do what we can to help our friend and ally,' the official told
reporters. The meeting was intended to focus on "Israel's current economic
situation and Israel's expected request for supplemental assistance", he
said."
Bush Decides Against New Aid Grants for States,
Reuters, January 7, 2003
"President Bush has decided against offering grants to cash-strapped states
as part of a $674 billion economic stimulus package he is to unveil on
Tuesday, the White House said. The White House had been considering
providing $10 billion to states to reduce budget woes but White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush had decided against
it. 'The goal of the package is to stimulate the economy, not transfer money
from one taxpayer-funded source in the government to another taxpayer-funded
source in a different government,' Fleischer said."
Israel: America's Shame
and Humanity's Stain,
by Mohamed Khodr, Media Monitors, January 9,
2003
"While the American people are fiercely proud, independent, and will not
submit to any nation or any person who dares stomp on the world's sole
superpower, they do submit willingly and unwillingly to the dictates of a
foreign nation, Israel, whose economy and political support is the prime
priority of Washington D.C., even at the expense of the needs and lives of
the American people themselves. Inquiring Minds Around the World Want to
Know: Why are the American people so loved and respected around the world
for so long (prior to Israel's founding in 1948) for their freedoms,
educational and technological superiority, their friendliness, generosity,
and respect for other people's beliefs and needs, are so naive to the
destructive influence of Israel's 'Jewish Power' upon their domestic and
foreign policies? Why are they so blind and uninformed despite having the
world's largest and most advanced educational system, the world's largest
media outlets, the ability to travel around the world freely, the world's
largest interdependent economy that sells to every nation on earth, except
to Israel where it loses on trade; a nation with more military bases around
the world than any other, a nation of immigrants from around the world, a
nation in possession of the wondrous law unavailable to most of the
world--the 'Freedom of Information Act--whereby a citizen can seek
governmental answers on policies, but doesn't when it comes to foreign
policy? WHY, WHY, WHY? Why has the world been engulfed in continuous wars
and conflicts in the Middle East ever since Israel was founded in 1948? Why
did Islam suddenly become America's enemy immediately after the collapse of
Communism in 1991? Why 9/11? ... There is a reason that Bush appointed Henry
Kissinger, a powerful Pro-Israeli Jew to head the Independent Commission but
who later resigned rather than reveal his "conflict of interest" nations.
The reason is Israel and the answer as to WHY there is new found HATE
between the U.S. and the Muslim world is simple: Why do THEY hate US?
ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL Why do WE Hate Them? ISRAEL,
ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL Despite the fact that most Americans,
including our Government understand this truth, America is too fearful to
admit that Israel is the barrier between the West and Islam, between
perpetual war and peace, and between the interests of the American people
and the Pro-Israel politics of our Government too greedy for Jewish money
and votes and too cowardly to face the Pro-Israeli Media backlash should
they ever so slightly oppose the 'Israel First' policy. There is ZERO
TOLERANCE in America’s Media for any criticism of Israel. The Political
Unemployment line is filled with politicians who fought for America's cause
and independence from Israel and who sought peace in the Holy Land. Among
them are former Senators William Fulbright, Charles Percy, Reps. Paul
Findley and Cynthia McKinney. The American Government, Media, Wall Street,
Hollywood, and 'experts' on television are ensuring through daily
bombardment of intimidating sound bytes that the American TAXPAYER, who is
the ultimate VICTIM in this charade of 55 years of Israel's democracy and
'special relationship' with the United States, will never know the truth
about Israel's grip on this nation or if he/she does, that they will never
have the courage to ever speak out publicly. THE ANSWER MY FRIEND AS TO WHY
MUSLIMS ARE DYING EVERYDAY AND WHY AMERICANS HAVE BEEN KILLED BY ISRAEL (USS
Liberty in 1967, Marines in Beirut) and will continue to die around the
world for Israel’s interests, not America’s, especially in Israel's push for
America to attack Iraq, and not North Korea, IS BLOWING IN THE WINDS OF
'JEWISH POWER'."
Israeli at US loan talks is implicated in massacre,
by Robert Fisk, Independent (UK), January 12, 2003
"Israel is asking the United States for $8bn (£5bn) in loan guarantees – and
has sent to Washington one of the former army officers implicated in the
1982 Sabra and Chatila massacre of Palestinian civilians to persuade the
Bush administration to grant the money. Amos Yaron, who is now
director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defence, was the Israeli
military commander in Beirut when Lebanese Phalangist militiamen entered the
refugee camps and slaughtered up to 1,700 Palestinian refugees. He ordered
flares to be dropped over the camps, at the request of the Phalange, and
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