Colin
Powell's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The US
secretary of state made this speech to the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee's annual policy conference in Washington yesterday, Monday,
The Guardian (UK), March 31, 2003
"There are so many, many people here tonight who are friends of mine. I
can't see all of you, but there is one very dear friend that I can see and I
must acknowledge, and that's my dear friend Shimon Peres. And I am
very pleased to be sharing the stage this evening with my new Israeli
colleague, minister Silvan Shalom. The minister is a true Israeli
success story. He has distinguished himself in so many ways - as a
journalist, as chairman of the Israel Electric Corporation, as a member of
the Knesset, and as minister of finance. And now he brings his many talents
and all of his experience to the foreign ministry at a most important time
in the life of the state of Israel. So Mr Minister, I congratulate you again
on your appointment and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to
working with you, sir. Congratulations. My friends, all of us here tonight
are brought together by a deep commitment to Israel's security, prosperity,
and freedom, and to the strongest possible relationship between Israel and
the United States. AIPAC came into being half a century ago to help the
young Israel state meet the challenges of independence. Since then, AIPAC
and its members have worked tirelessly and effectively on Israel's behalf.
You have a world-class reputation for being one of the most effective such
organizations in that regard. And at the same time, it is America's
commitment that also is long and enduring, a commitment that stretches back
to Israel's founding. From the very moment of Harry Truman's historic
decision, in war and peace, the United States has stood proudly at Israel's
side. Our two nations and peoples are bound together by our common
democratic values and traditions. So it has been for over 50 years. So it
will always be ... We will drive Saddam and his regime from power. We will
liberate Iraq. We will remove the shadow of Saddam's terrible weapons from
Israel and the Middle East, and we will keep them from the hands of
terrorists who would threaten the entire civilized world ... While we deal
with Saddam Hussein, we must not forget the burdens that the conflict with
Iraq has placed on our Israeli friends. I am very pleased that President
Bush has included in his supplemental budget request that just went to
Congress $1b in foreign military financing funds to help Israel strengthen
its military and civil defenses. And that's just for starters. The president
is also asking for $9bn in loan guarantees. These loan guarantees will help
Israel deal with the economic costs arising from the conflict, and will help
Israel to implement the critical economic and budgetary reforms it needs to
get its economy back on track. And I am hopeful that Congress, with your
encouragement will act quickly on this request ... Continued terror and
instability is having a terrible effect on the Israeli economy. Tourism and
investment are down. Breadwinners are worried about their jobs. Young people
are increasingly worried about their economic futures. The people of Israel
are coping. They always do. They always have. But Israelis should not just
cope, not just survive; they should thrive. And with our help, they will
..." [Etc., etc., etc.]["Neo-cons" -- those who have drawn up
the war against Iraq, Islam, and the Arab world on behalf of Israel -- are
overwhelmingly Jewish and/or in bed with the Jewish Lobby]
Neocons
like Goldberg, Reiland are imperialists,
by Bill Ravott, Pittsburg Live, March 31, 2003
"National Review’s Jonah Goldberg and his neoconservative
allies have not been shy about criticizing those on the Left who resort to
character assassinations against their opponents in an effort to stifle
debate. Yet, it is Goldberg & Co., whining like little schoolgirls, now are
using the 'anti-Semitic' card in an effort to intimidate those who dare
question the influence of Israel on U.S. foreign policy. Goldberg has
targeted four prominent Catholics — Robert Novak, Pat Buchanan, Chris
Matthews, and Rep. James Moran (one can only imagine his private thoughts of
the Pope) — who have suggested that one of the reasons the Bush
administration has targeted Iraq is for the benefit of Israel’s security
interests. Wherever one stands on this issue, it should at least be open for
debate. While attacking all, Goldberg’s ire is directed most toward
Buchanan and his so-called well-established 'Jewish problem.' Goldberg
charges Buchanan with blaming Jews for the war with Iraq with his attacks on
'neoconservatives,' a phrase Goldberg described as a code word for
'Jewish conservatives' ... Yes, there are many neoconservative Jews (and
non-Jews) inside and outside the Bush administration who, as Buchanan says,
'harbor a passionate attachment to a nation not our own that causes them to
subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption
that, somehow, what’s good for Israel is good for America.' Richard Perle
is the most passionate inside the administration and his ties to Israel
have been well known for over 20 years ... Norman Podhoretz, editor
of Commentary, seeks an 'imperial mission for America, whose purpose
would be to oversee the emergence of successor governments in the region'
and to 'find the stomach to impose a new political culture on the defeated'
Islamic world. Is this liberation? The neoconservatives have an utter
disdain for the sovereignty of other nations and believe they have been
granted the divine authority to utilize the U.S. military to tear down and
recreate the Middle East in their own image, as some sort of utopian
‘yes-man’ democratic colony. William Bennett, a day after 9/11, wanted to
invade Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and China. Goldberg, who
never got close to the military himself, thinks this of U.S. foreign policy,
'Every 10 years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy
little country and throw it against the wall just to show we mean
business.'”
For Israel Lobby Group, War Is Topic A, Quietly At Meeting, Jerusalem's
Contributions Are Highlighted,
by Dana Milbank, Washington Post, April 1,
2003; Page A25
"This week's meeting in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee has put a spotlight on the Bush administration's delicate dance
with Israel and the Jewish state's friends over the attack on Iraq.
Officially, Israel is not one of the 49 countries the administration has
identified as members of the 'Coalition of the Willing.' Officially, AIPAC
had no position on the merits of a war against Iraq before it started.
Officially, Iraq is not the subject of the pro-Israel lobby's three-day
meeting here. Now, for the unofficial part: As delegates to the AIPAC
meeting were heading to town, the group put a headline on its Web site
proclaiming: 'Israeli Weapons Utilized By Coalition Forces Against Iraq.'
The item featured a photograph of a drone with the caption saying the
'Israeli-made Hunter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle' is being used 'by U.S.
soldiers in Iraq.' At an AIPAC session on Sunday night, Israeli Foreign
Minister Silvan Shalom proclaimed in a speech praising Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell: 'We have followed with great admiration your efforts
to mobilize the international community to disarm Iraq and bring democracy
and peace to the region, to the Middle East and to the rest of the world.
Just imagine, Mr. Secretary, how much easier it would have been if Israel
had been a member of the Security Council.' A parade
of top Bush administration officials -- Powell, national security adviser
Condoleezza Rice, political director Kenneth Mehlman, Undersecretary
of State John R. Bolton and Assistant Secretary of State William Burns --
appeared before the AIPAC audience. The officials won sustained
cheers for their jabs at European opponents of war in Iraq, and their tough
remarks aimed at two perennial foes of Israel, Syria and Iran. The AIPAC
meeting -- attended by about 5,000 people, including
half the Senate and a third of the House -- was planned long before
it became clear it would coincide with hostilities in Iraq."
Why the Left and
Right Must Unite and Fight. The View from the Left,
by Neil Clark, Anti-War.com, April 1, 2003
"As the world's greatest democracy unleashes the full might of its military
power on the people of Iraq, Mahatma Gandhi's words have a special
relevance. One thing is for sure. The war against Iraq will not be the war
to end all wars. It will be followed by others, all fuelled by the
insatiable appetite for profits and power. Three years ago, the same forces
now executing Shock and Awe were dropping cluster bombs and depleted uranium
on civilian targets in Yugoslavia. In 2001, it was the impoverished Afghans'
turn to get the B-52 treatment, with over 5,000 dying in the process. And
two years from now we will no doubt be reading in the Wall Street Journal
of the danger Syria poses to world peace and how President Assad is the New
Hitler. After that it will be turn of Iran, Belarus and Libya.
The neocons and their liberal imperialist allies
appear unstoppable. They have hijacked the
major parties on both sides of the Atlantic. Large sections of the free
world's media are in their hands, and they have a whole entourage of
journalists, eager and ready to peddle their lies, acting, in the
words of John Pilger, as 'handmaidens of a murderous power' ... After some
initial squeamishness, conservatives and socialists, right-wingers and
Trotskyites, have been marching together, united in their desire for peace.
But encouraging as all of this is, it will not be enough. To stop the War
Party much more is needed. The antiwar alliance has to be put on a more
permanent and formal footing. And that means the Left making a bold and
historic step. If we really do want to 'give peace a chance‚' we need to
take off our beads, remove Joan Baez from our turntables, and start to
embrace warmly those at whom we have been hurling insults for the last forty
years. I write as a committed, and totally unreconstructed, Old Leftist. Yet
if Pat Buchanan announced he was standing for president again, I would be on
the next plane out to join his campaign team. But how many of my fellow
socialists would join me? Until the Left is ready in its hordes to link up
electorally with the Old antiwar Right, the brutal truth is that we have no
chance of defeating the Bush/Blair axis. With the black smoke clouds rising
above Baghdad, I believe it is now or never for the antiwar Left to answer
the call. In order to do so, and to make the 'Peace Party' work, the Left
needs to jettison some baggage and spruce up some of its thinking. Since the
1960s, we have picked up several false friends, who have done our cause no
good at all, lost us immeasurable support, and who have prevented us from
making the alliances it was in our interest to make ... Political
correctness, the biggest threat to free speech of our time, has plenty to do
with neo-liberalism, but precious little to do with socialism. It is time
once and for all to end what Eugene Genovese has referred to as 'the
irrational embrace by the Left of a liberal program of personal liberation'
and for the Left to stress, like [Pete] Seeger did forty years ago, its
positive conservatism. On the key issue of globalization, there is much
muddled thinking too. The anti-globalizers of the Left correctly point out
the destabilizing effects of unregulated capital flows and rail against the
nefarious activities of parasitical currency speculators like George
Soros. Yet at the same time, most also welcome the unrestricted movement
of people, which too can destabilize societies, as well as leading to the
unemployment and lowering of wage rates of indigenous workers. Next up, the
Left has to drop its traditional antipathy to organized religion and, in
particular, to the Catholic Church. The Vatican has always been
anti-Marxist-socialist, but it has, at least in some teachings, occasionally
been anti-capitalist too. Pope Pius XI believed liberal capitalism and
communism to be 'united in their satanic optimism.' Under the present Pope,
the Catholic social teaching has again been pushed to the fore and the
Vatican's criticism of hedonistic international capitalism has intensified
... Last, but certainly not least, the Left needs loudly and unequivocally
to declare its support for the increasingly endangered concept of national
sovereignty ... The War Party of course sees national sovereignty very
differently. If there is one issue that clearly demonstrates this and that
demarcates who exactly the Peace Party's enemies are, it is that of Kosovo.
The 'humanitarian' intervention, in which a sovereign state that threatened
no other was bombed for 78 days and nights for the way in which it
prosecuted its own "war against terrorism" brought all the imperialists out
of the woodwork for us to see in broad daylight ... For the War Party,
national sovereignty is a tiresome, outdated, and disposable notion that
gets in the way of their plan to globalize the entire world and, in the name
of democracy and human rights, eliminate all known dangers to the freedom of
operation of Goldman Sachs. The steps outlined above are ones I
believe the Left must take if an alliance with the Old Right is to stick ...
My instinct on passing any branch of McDonalds or Starbucks to search for
the nearest brick, however, is one I believe many conservatives would share.
On the most important issues of the day though, the issues that really
matter: globalization, war, the threats to national sovereignty, and the
seemingly relentless march of transnational capitalism, the Old Right and
Old Left are already, by and large, singing from the same hymn sheet. The
world of 2003, with its standardised shopping malls, skinny lattes, and
stealth bombers, is not the world any of us wanted ... By allying ourselves
with the Old Right, the Old Left has nothing to lose and much to gain. Far
from giving up our identity, we will, I believe, be reclaiming parts long
lost to liberalism. We will be able to get back to basics and start to
reiterate our core beliefs. Our opposition to the international rule of
money power and the idolatry of market forces. Our unequivocal rejection of
all forms of imperialism, whether they fly under a military, financial, or
human rights banner. And above all, our denunciation of war as the primary
method of solving international disputes. For the moment, the imperialist
bandwagon appears unstoppable. But if we on the Left can conjure up enough
courage to step into the unknown and embrace an old enemy, then the days of
the War Party will be numbered. What is lacking today is a permanent,
populist, broad-based political force to challenge the worldview of the
serial globalizers and the advocates of endless war. The Peace Party can be
that force."
Can We
Talk?,
by Eric Alterman, The Nation, April 3,
2003
"This war has put Jews in the showcase as never before. Its primary
intellectual architects--Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and
Douglas Feith--are all Jewish neoconservatives. So, too, are many of its
prominent media cheerleaders, including William Kristol, Charles
Krauthammer and Marty Peretz. Joe Lieberman, the nation's
most conspicuous Jewish politician, has been an avid booster, going so far
as to rebuke his former partner Al Gore and much of his own party. Then
there's the 'Jews control the media' problem. It's probably not particularly
relevant that the families who own the Times and the Washington
Post are Jewish, but let's not pretend this is so in the case of the
Jewish editors of, say, U.S. News & World Report and The New
Republic. Mortimer Zuckerman is head of the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Peretz is
unofficial chair of the American Arab Defamation Committee. Neither is shy
about filling his magazine with news Jews can use. To make matters worse,
many of these Jewish hard-liners--'Likudniks' in the current
parlance--appear, at least from a distance, to be behaving in accordance
with traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes. Much to the delight of genuine
anti-Semites of the left and right, the idea of a new war to remove Saddam
was partially conceived at the behest of Likud politician Benjamin
Netanyahu in a document written expressly for him by Perle,
Feith and others in 1996. Some, like Perle, apparently see the
influence they wield as an opportunity to get rich. What's more, many of
these same Jews joined Rumsfeld and Cheney in underselling the difficulty of
the war, in what may have been a ruse designed to embroil America in a broad
military conflagration that would help smite Israel's enemies ... A really
good conspiracy theorist would begin to wonder if the Jews are being set up
to take the fall when things go badly. A big part of
the problem in addressing the 'Jewish war' conspiracy thesis is the
reticence of almost all sides to broach the issue of Israeli and American
Jewish influence on US foreign policy. A few writers, most notably
Stanley Hoffmann, Robert Kaiser and Mickey Kaus, have raised the question
gingerly. But writing on the Washington Post op-ed page, New Republic editor
Lawrence Kaplan insists that even raising 'the specter of dual loyalty' is
'toxic.' Kaus noted accurately in Slate that the dual loyalty taboo is
'quite openly designed to stop people from raising the Likudnik issue.' And
it works. This is all very confusing to your nice Jewish columnist. My own
dual loyalties--there, I admitted it--were drilled into me by my parents, my
grandparents, my Hebrew school teachers and my rabbis, not to mention
Israeli teen-tour leaders and AIPAC college representatives. It was just
about the only thing they all agreed upon. Yet this
milk- (and honey-) fed loyalty to Israel as the primary component of
American Jewish identity--always taught in the context of the
Holocaust--inspires a certain confusion in its adherents, namely: Whose
interests come first, America's or Israel's? Leftist landsmen are
certain that an end to the occupation and a peaceful and prosperous
Palestinian state are the best ways to secure both Israeli security and
American interests. Likudniks think it's best for both Israel and the United
States to beat the crap out of as many Arabs as possible, as 'force is the
only thing these people understand.' But we ought to be honest enough to at
least imagine a hypothetical clash between American and Israeli interests.
Here, I feel pretty lonely admitting that, every once
in a while, I'm going to go with what's best for Israel. As I was
lectured over and over while growing up, America can make a million mistakes
and nobody is going to take away our country and murder us. Israel is
nowhere near as vulnerable as many would have us believe, but it remains a
tiny Jewish island surrounded by a sea of largely hostile Arabs ... Our
inability to engage the question only forces the discussion into
subterranean and sometimes anti-Semitic territory. If the Likudniks played
an unsavory role in fomenting this war (and future wars), and further
discussion will help illuminate this unhappy fact, then I say, 'Let there be
light.' If something is 'toxic' merely to talk about, the problem is
probably not in the talking, but in the doing."
In
Congress, sharp debate on foreign aid Some lawmakers want to punish nations
like Turkey and France while aiding Israel,
Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2003
"Unlike the aid to Turkey, the president's request for Israel - $1 billion
in military assistance and $9 billion loan guarantees - will likely zip
through the congressional process without a hitch. As Congress began its
deliberations, the most influential pro-Israel lobby in the country was
meeting in Washington. Fully half the Senate and a third of the House joined
more than 2,000 delegates of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) for its annual policy dinner on Monday evening. And the message from
the top Republicans and Democrats, was the same: Support for Israel is a
given. 'We will never abandon Israel. We will never abandon Israel,' said
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who addressed the AIPAC conference on
Tuesday. Still, speakers and delegates openly worried that the diplomatic
dangers for Israel will come after the war, when the Bush administration
begins patching up relations with the Arab world and the rest of the
'unwilling.' Already, British lawmakers are pushing Prime Minister Tony
Blair to use his clout with Washington to secure concessions from Israel in
the peace process and demonstrate an 'evenhanded' approach. 'When we see the
hysterical anti-Americanism being whipped up in the Middle East, we fear
that the way to patch up relations with the Arab world will be for the US to
force concessions from Israel,' says Herzl Melmed, an AIPAC delegate
from California. Other speakers warned of 'great danger' for Israel at the
end of this conflict and urged AIPAC members to provide the seed money to
build up pro-Israeli groups in Europe. While congressional support of the
aid package for Israel passed virtually without comment, the $1 billion for
Turkey raised more of a challenge."
The Jewish Lobby's plan for further invasion in the Middle East.
Israel,
Activists Train Sights on Syria Lobby To Focus On Preventing Missile
Transfer,
[Jewish] Forward, April 4, 2003
"Openly pleased with the Bush administration's recent warnings to Syria not
to aid Iraq, Israel and its supporters here have begun ratcheting up their
accusations against its radical neighbor in apparent hopes of widening the
rift between Damascus and Washington. Senior officials with the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee told the Forward that combating
Syrian and Iranian involvement in terrorism and their pursuit of ballistic
missiles and weapons of mass destruction was likely to be a major focus of
Aipac lobbying efforts in 2003. Aipac's executive director, Howard Kohr,
said the group intends to put pressure on the Bush administration to take
steps to stop the transfer of missile technology from Russia and North Korea
to Iran and Syria. The administration, which until recently had courted
Syrian neutrality in its campaign against Iraq, began directing threats
against Damascus last week, citing evidence that Syria was lending support
to the Iraqi war effort. Administration officials have also leveled
accusations in recent weeks against Iran's nuclear program, despite hopes
that Iran could assist in the anti-Iraq effort. The administration's new
accusations focused on Syrian supplies of relatively low-level weaponry,
including night-vision goggles and jamming systems for satellite-locator
devices. Israel this week raised the ante, charging that Syria might be
helping Iraq to hide weapons of mass destruction ... [D]elegates to the
annual Aipac conference in Washington were surprised — and, many said,
pleased — to hear Rumsfeld's warning repeated publicly by his more dovish
colleague, Secretary of State Colin Powell. Powell told Aipac that Syria was
now facing 'a critical choice' ... Powell also received a standing ovation
when he called on the international community to intensify its efforts to
curb Iran's support of terrorist groups and its efforts to acquire weapons
of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. The following day, Israel
upgraded the accusation by charging that Syria was possibly hiding Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction ... Itamar Rabinovich, a former Israeli
ambassador to Washington who is now president of Tel Aviv University added,
'you already have all those accusations that Israel is driving U.S. policy
in the Middle East, so the Jewish lobby shouldn't be pushing for U.S. action
against Syria and Iran' ... In a rare interview last week with the Lebanese
daily As-Safir, Syrian ruler Bashar Assad said he had warned Arab leaders at
an Arab League meeting in Cairo last month that several of their countries
could be next. 'You can be sure the Syrians will be worried about potential
U.S. intervention," said Richard Murphy, a former ambassador to Syria who is
now a senior Middle East fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations."
DIVISIONS DEEP OVER CLAIMS OF JEWISH INFLUENCE,
by James Rosen, Sacramento Bee, April 6,
2003
"On paper, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice run U.S. foreign policy and are responsible for the
war in Iraq. But in some circles Bush and his senior aides -- white and
African American Christians, one and all -- stand accused of having been
duped into attacking Saddam Hussein by a group of Jewish advisers whose
ultimate loyalties are said to lie with Israel instead of the United States.
The claim that an influential Jewish cabal is behind the war, made in recent
weeks by some mainstream politicians and columnists, has prompted
countercharges of anti-Semitism by prominent Jewish organizations. Rep.
James Moran of Virginia lost his Democratic leadership post last month after
telling supporters that 'the Jewish community' was responsible for the war.
Former Sen. Gary Hart of Colorado, who is mulling a presidential run,
outraged many Jews by raising the specter of divided loyalties. Columnists,
from Robert Novak to Georgie Anne Geyer, have made similar claims, while
left-wing protesters and liberal magazines such as the Nation and the
New Republic have followed suit. A sign at an anti-war demonstration
in San Francisco last month read: 'I want YOU to die for Israel. Israel
sings 'Onward, Christian Soldiers.' The assertions that the Bush
administration is waging war for the sake of Israel thanks to the influence
of Jewish advisers created a buzz last week at the annual convention of the
American-Israeli Political Action Committee, the country's most powerful
pro-Israel lobby group ... 'The idea that this war is about Israel is
persistent and more widely held than you may think,' New York Times
columnist Bill Keller wrote. 'It has interesting ripples in our domestic
politics. It has, like many dubious theories, sprouted from a seed of truth.
Israel is part of the story.' At the center of the controversy are a handful
of Jewish men: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith,
Elliott Abrams, David Wurmser. All the men are longtime
leaders of the neoconservative movement, which was founded on the idea,
championed by Reagan, that the United States had to confront the Soviet
Union aggressively -- and in recent years has changed its target to radical
Islam. All of the key figures hold senior positions in the Bush
administration -- at the Pentagon, in the State Department, at the White
House and, in Perle's case, on the Defense Policy Board, a key group
of Pentagon advisers. Most of the controversial Bush aides are strong
supporters of Israel's conservative Likud Party, now headed by Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon, and several have past ties either to Likud or
to Israeli companies. Perle, in fact, resigned as chairman of the Defense
Policy Board last week -- though he remained a member -- after published
claims by New Yorker magazine reporter Seymour Hersch, himself
a Jew, that a venture capital firm in which Perle is managing partner might
profit from the war ... In 1996, as Likud Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu prepared to take office, eight Jewish neoconservative leaders
sent him a six-page memo outlining an aggressive vision of government. At
the top of their list was overthrowing Saddam and replacing him with a
monarch under the control of Jordan. The neoconservatives sketched out a
kind of domino theory in which the governments of Syria and other Arab
countries might later fall or be replaced in the wake of Saddam's ouster.
They urged Netanyahu to spurn the Oslo peace accords and to stop
making concessions to the Palestinians. Lead writer of the memo was Perle.
Other signatories were Feith, now undersecretary of defense, and
Wurmser, a senior adviser to John Bolton, undersecretary of state. Fred
Donner, a professor of Near Eastern history at the University of Chicago,
said he was struck by the similarities between the ideas in the memo and
ideas now at the forefront of Bush's foreign policy. Donner noted that the
memo urged Netanyahu to move toward 're-establishing the principle of
pre-emption rather than retaliation alone.' Pre-emption -- confronting
perceived threats to the United States before they attack instead of
afterward -- appeared last year as the centerpiece of a new strategic
defense policy advanced by Bush. Donner said the ideological similarities,
along with the senior posts in the Bush administration now held by some of
the memo's authors, cannot be overlooked. 'There is a natural line of
connection here,' Donner said. "These people have prevailed upon other
people in the administration that this is the policy we should follow in the
Middle East." James Colbert, one of the eight men who signed the 1996
memo to Netanyahu, is now communications director of the Jewish
Institute for National Security Studies, an influential neoconservative
think tank in Washington."
The Israelization of America,
By Gideon Samet, Haaretz (Israel), April
8, 2003
"The events in Iraq can be seen as the Israelization of America. Close your
eyes for a moment, and you can imagine that the Marines in Karbala are
Golani infantry in Tul Karm. And it's not surprising that two political
camps in Israel with diametrically opposite views think something good will
come out of the war. For example, they look on with curiosity as American
soldiers there are blown up in suicide attacks and observe the reaction of
the army. After a taxi blew up, killing the soldiers who were coming to
check it, the Marines blasted the next vehicle, liquidating its civilian
occupants. Left and right are not especially interested in what the American
military is learning from the war. What intrigues them is the political and
diplomatic lesson that the White House will learn. Never has there been a
war in which Israel did not participate but which is expected to impact so
forcefully on its future. The reason for this does not lie in the comparison
Israelis typically like to make between their fate and the new American
effort in our tough neighborhood. The impact derives, of course, from the
Americans' need to operate intensively in the region after the shooting
stops ... Moreover, it is rash to conjecture that the attitude in America
toward embattled Israel will be improved in the wake of the war's lessons.
Even after its bitter experience, it will not coddle up, eyes moist, to the
Israeli generals who are pounding the territories. It is also too early to
believe that the enmity toward the Jews of the world, who support the
campaign, will soon fade. Politically, though, the United States will emerge
from the war as a different place ... Those who sent America into war with
Iraq - officials such as Donald Rumsfeld, for example - have always snorted
contemptuously at Palestinian national aspirations (in what the defense
secretary likes to call the 'so-called occupied territories'). So there is
an internal contradiction, whose overall results are still hard to gauge,
between the administration's aim to impose a new order in the region, and
the ideology of powerful figures in it who have no love for the Palestinian
cause. It is not too soon therefore to be concerned about the possibility
that the Sharon-Netanyahu-Rumsfeld-Cheney school of thought
will come out on top in the fierce struggle over an Israeli-Palestinian
settlement. It will be sufficient for the Sharon government if success is
achieved in the initiative - which is now being pursued vigorously under the
clouds of war - to obtain political backing from Congress for the Israeli
interpretation of the road map. This Israelization of the American
initiative seeks to replay the foot-dragging that has delayed any progress
toward renewed negotiations. Don't bet your money that it will fail."
Massive (and successful) Jewish efforts to drive out politicians who
criticize Israel are well documented (read former Congressman Paul Finley's
works about this subject, for instance. But to the Jewish Lobby, if you dare
to expose their efforts under the light, you're a "bigot."
Israel Comments
Dog Virginia Congressman,
Fox News, April 10, 2003
"Rep. James P. Moran, who suggested last month that American Jews had nudged
the nation into war, has offended some Jews again by suggesting a pro-Israel
lobbying group will finance an effort to unseat him. The Virginia Democrat
suggested at a recent party meeting that the lobbying group will raise $2
million in an effort to defeat him next year. Moran, a seven-term incumbent,
said the American Israel Public Action Committee (AIPAC) has begun
organizing against him and will 'direct a campaign against me and take over
the campaign of a Democratic opponent,' The Washington Post reported
Thursday. AIPAC spokeswoman Rebecca Dinar called Moran's comments
'ridiculous' and said the organization 'had no idea' what the congressman
was talking about ... David Friedman, Washington regional director
for the Anti-Defamation League, said of Moran's reported remarks, 'This only
confirms what we already knew: that Jim Moran is a bigoted man who
perpetuates age-old canards and stereotypes about Jews.' Moran has
acknowledged saying at a public forum March 3 in Reston that Jewish
influence had swayed the decision to invade Iraq. 'The leaders of the Jewish
community are influential enough that they could change the direction of
where this is going and I think they should,' he said."
Jewish pro-Israelism expands throughout government: in this case, more
fraud for "peace."
Foreign
Policy Scholars Criticize Pipes Nomination,
by Ori Nir, [Jewish]
Forward, April 11, 2003
"Foreign policy hands and Middle East pundits responded with surprise and
disbelief this week to the presidential nomination of Daniel Pipes,
an outspoken Middle East hawk, to the board of the United States Institute
of Peace, a federal institution dedicated to preventing, managing and
peacefully resolving international conflicts. Some scholars say that there
is talk of organizing an effort among academics to oppose the nomination,
either through a letter-writing campaign or congressional testimony.
Pipes, who heads a Philadelphia-based think-tank, the Middle East Forum,
is known as a sharp critic of American-backed efforts at Israeli-Palestinian
peace, including President Bush's 'road map' to peace. He espouses a theory
of conflict resolution that rests on the assumption that peace usually is
achieved only by one side defeating the other with military force or other
pressure, and only rarely through reconciliation or negotiation. He has also
drawn criticism for his calls for increased surveillance of Muslim
Americans, particularly soldiers and government officials. 'The U.S.
Institute of Peace is a federally funded institution based on American
democratic values, which is known for treading the middle ground,' said
Judith Kipper, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Pipes, Kipper said, 'has very
extreme views' 'They could definitely get a more objective person for the
job,' said the veteran Middle East scholar Don Peretz, professor
emeritus of political science at the State University of New York at
Binghamton. 'I don't think his views are conducive to the objectives of the
U.S. Institute of Peace, which are to work toward peaceful resolution of
conflicts.' Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations are urging the
White House to withdraw the nomination and, failing that, urging the Senate
to vote it down. One organization called on the institute to reject the
nomination, a suggestion institute spokesmen dismissed. Peretz's and
Kipper's views were echoed by numerous scholars in the academic and
think-tank community. When asked about the nomination, many experts on
Middle East and international conflict resolution used adjectives ranging
from 'bewildering' to 'preposterous.' Most declined to speak for
attribution, however, variously citing an unwillingness to engage in ad
hominem attacks, reluctance to criticize a presidential appointment and
fears of souring ties with the institute, an important source of research
grant money ... Pipes recently launched Campus-Watch, an initiative
dedicated to monitoring college campuses for alleged pro-Arab academic bias.
Some pro-Israel activists welcomed the initiative, while critics described
it a modern-day form of McCarthyism. Pipes enjoys the backing of
several major Jewish organizations. David Harris, the executive
director of the American Jewish Committee, said that his organization
'wholeheartedly supports the nomination of Daniel Pipes' ... Pipes
has achieved prominence in recent months with his frequently stated
contention that America's real enemy in the current struggle is not Islamic
terrorism, but militant Islam as the ideology that spawns terrorism. His
positions on extremism in Islamic culture, religion and politics have
provoked outrage among Muslim-Americans, who often label him a
'Muslim-basher' and 'Islamophobe.' No less contrary to liberal convention
are Pipes's views on conflict resolution, the core mission of the U.S.
Institute for Peace. Peace, Pipes explained to the Forward
this week, is possible 'when one side gives up its goals.' And that, he
argues, almost always comes as a result of utter defeat ... The institute is
a federal agency, established in 1986 to serve as America's academy of
peace. It has an annual operating budget of $16.2 million, wholly funded by
taxpayer funds ... The position is largely symbolic. Pipes will be
one of 15 members of the board, which meets six times a year, mainly to
approve applications for fellowships and grants for research in the field of
conflict resolution. Three members of the panel are ex-officio
representatives of the secretary of defense, the secretary of state and the
National Defense University. The Pentagon is represented on the board by
Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy affairs, who is
considered ideologically close to Pipes on Middle East-related
issues. Another board member is Harriet Zimmerman, a vice president
of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ... Some commentators see
the nomination of Pipes as a sign of the growing influence that
pro-Israel hard-liners wield in Washington. Hussein Ibish, communications
director of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee, blasted the
nomination as a 'sad, Orwellian, symbolic' gesture of an administration that
is heavily influenced by 'far-right, pro-Likud neo-conservatives and other
extremist'" in the White House and Pentagon. Similar criticisms of the
administration have appeared in the Arab and European press, most recently
over the appointment of retired Army general Jay Garner as the civil
administrator of postwar Iraq. In 2000, Garner went on a 10-day visit to
Israel, organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,
after which he endorsed a statement by the hawkish group praising the
Israeli military for showing 'remarkable restraint' in dealing with
Palestinian violence. Left-wing critics have cited the statement as evidence
that Garner is an ally of the pro-Israel lobby. Sources close to Garner say
the link is more tenuous than critics assert. Similarly, liberals and Muslim
leaders were critical of the appointment last December of Elliot Abrams,
another outspoken critic of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, to direct
the Near East and North Africa branch of the National Security Council."
Think
Tank Deliberates 'World War III',
[Jewish] Forward, April 11, 2003
"Senior politicians, academics and intelligence and law enforcement
officials gathered Sunday at the Waldorf Astoria in New York for the
launching of the Strategic Dialogue Center, a think tank affiliated with
Netanya College in Israel. The center organized a conference on global
terrorism and asked the panelists to provide an answer to the question: 'If
this is World War III, how do we win?' The privately funded center will be
opened officially in June and is planning to hold similar conferences and
publish policy papers. Formers The center's executive board is stacked with
'formers.' There are former heads of state — Mikhail Gorbachev of the former
Soviet Union, Abdurrahman Wahid of Indonesia, Frederik de Klerk of South
Africa — and former prime ministers: Ehud Barak, Carl Bildt of Sweden, John
Major of England and Mustafa Khalil of Egypt. There's even a former crown
prince — Hassan of Jordan — as well as an array of former top intelligence
and security officials such as former FBI director Louis Freeh and former
CIA chief James Woolsey. Professor Moshe Amirav,
former adviser on Jerusalem to Barak at the Camp David summit, will direct
the center. The president of the board is former Mossad boss Danny Yatom
— although, to be fair, Yatom was recently elected to the Knesset ...
Israel is worried that Libya has a nuclear program as advanced as
Iran's. 'We are watching Libya and Iran for nuclear programs,' a former
Israeli minister at the conference told the Forward. 'Libya and Iran
are as advanced, and Libya even maybe more than Iran.' The Israeli
assessment is that Iran will have a nuclear device by 2005 and a nuclear
weapon shortly thereafter. The official said the United States had privately
conveyed intelligence information on Libya to Israel a year and a half ago
according to which Muammar Gadhafi's regime was well advanced in developing
a nuclear weapons program. 'The Americans asked us to keep quiet about it,
and only three or four people in Israel knew about this,' he said. 'Then
[Assistant Secretary of State] John Bolton said it publicly and Sharon
repeated it.'"
Jews relieved as separatists lose to liberals in Quebec provincial vote,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 15, 2003
"Quebec Jews are breathing a collective sigh of relief with the defeat of
the Parti Quebecois following nine years of the separatist party’s rule. The
Liberal Party swept Monday’s provincial election in a landslide, taking 76
seats to the Parti Quebecois’s 45, with the Action Democratique du Quebec
party taking the remaining four. Canadian Jews tend to support the Liberals,
who they believe are more supportive of ethnic rights and more appreciative
of the Jewish community’s role in building Quebec economically. Liberal
leader Jean Charest, a lawyer who was raised in a bilingual household, has
many friends in the Jewish community. In contrast, the community has had a
problematic relationship with the Parti Quebecois. After a referendum on
Quebec independence was defeated in 1995, party leader and provincial
premier Jacques Parizeau blamed 'ethnics and the money vote,' which was seen
as a particular slap at the Jewish community. Parizeau resigned the next
day. His successor, Lucien Bouchard, resigned two years ago after an
incident where a PQ political candidate cast doubts on the Holocaust and
claimed that Jews were always whining about their lot in life.
Institutionally, however, the Jewish community has learned to adapt to
whichever party has been in power, even the PQ, according to the two major
Jewish organizations in Canada."
White House hopeful with Jewish ties advocates anti-war, Middle East ideas,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, April 14, 2003
"On a recent trek around the U.S. capital seeking support from pro-Israel
lobbyists and Reform movement activists, Democratic presidential candidate
Howard Dean may have been the only non-Jew in the room. But Dean, the former
governor of Vermont, should be used to that. It’s the same way in his own
home. Dean, a Congregationalist, has a Jewish wife, and both his children,
17-year-old Paul and 18-year-old Anne, have chosen to identify as Jews ...
But Dean, considered a long shot when he first entered the race, has made a
splash as of late, exceeding expectations in fund-raising in the first
quarter of the year. He has been aided by a key figure in Democratic and
Jewish politics, Steve Grossman, the former president of the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, the main pro-Israel lobby, and national
chairman of Democratic National Committee. Dean has also helped distinguish
himself by speaking out against the war in Iraq, a view that has not changed
even with the U.S. military successes. 'I believe this is the wrong war at
the wrong time, and I’ve said that repeatedly,' he said. 'I think that Iran,
Saudi Arabia and Syria are all more dangerous to Israel than Iraq. I also
think that North Korea and Iran are more dangerous to the United States than
Iraq.' Dean said he believed that U.S. oil policy is directly linked to the
terrorism and anti-American and anti-Israel sentiment in much of the Arab
world. He says oil-rich countries such as Saudi Arabia are supporting
terrorist groups like Hamas and preaching hate in the classroom, but the
United States is turning a blind eye\ ... At a meet-and-greet session after
the official festivities one night at the annual AIPAC policy conference,
Dean spoke to a capacity crowd in a small room, shaking hands for several
hours and progressing slowly to the exit, encircled by well-wishers ... Dean
believes the Bush administration should be giving Israel $4 billion in
military aid to fight terrorism, not the $1 billion it proposed last month.
And he says he is wary of international participation in the 'road map' for
a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but would not 'reject out of
hand' the United States partnering with the United Nations, European Union
and Russia. Dean’s name first made national headlines in 1999, when he
signed a law making Vermont the first state to recognize civil unions for
gay and lesbian couples."
Supreme Court reprimands judge,
Orlando Sentinel, April 15, 2003
"Broward Circuit Judge Sheldon M. Schapiro, notorious among lawyers
for using a push-button prop that sounds like a flushing toilet and scolding
them in a back room known as 'the woodshed,' will receive a public reprimand
next month from the Florida Supreme Court. The Judicial Qualifications
Commission, which monitors the conduct of state judges, recommended
disciplinary action after investigating complaints from local attorneys. The
judge admitted 'engaging in inappropriate behavior,' the Supreme Court said
in an eight-page opinion handed down Thursday. Such behavior is 'unbecoming
a member of the judiciary, brings the judiciary into disrepute, and impairs
the citizens' confidence' in the bench, the court said. The reprimand is
less severe than other disciplinary action Schapiro faced, including
removal from the bench. 'Were it not for Judge Schapiro's efforts to
participate in behavioral therapy, this Court could have sanctioned [him] in
a substantially more severe manner,' the court found. If he doesn't continue
with therapy and other terms of his reprimand, the court added, it 'will
severely sanction Judge Schapiro's misconduct.' Schapiro, who has
been on the bench for a decade, acknowledged his rude and intemperate
behavior and agreed to seek counseling in a letter to the Supreme Court in
November. He apologized to Broward County residents, expressed regret, and
blamed his actions on stress and personal problems. Under terms of the
reprimand, the Supreme Court also requires Schapiro to mail letters
of personal apology to several lawyers he was accused of mistreating."
Calls to Attack Syria Come from a Familiar Choir of Hawks,
by Jim Lobe, Project Against the Present Danger,
April 16, 2003
"Many of the same people who led the campaign for war against Iraq signed a
report released three years ago that called for using military force to
disarm Syria of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to end its military
presence in Lebanon. Among the signers are several senior members of the
administration of President George W. Bush, including the chief Middle East
aide on the National Security Council, Elliott Abrams; Undersecretary
of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith; Undersecretary of State for
Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky; and senior consultants to both the State
Department and the Pentagon on Iraq policy, Michael Rubin and
David Wurmser. Also signing were Richard Perle, the powerful
former chairman of the Defense Policy Board (DPB); Jeanne Kirkpatrick,
former United Nations ambassador; Frank Gaffney, a former Perle aide who
heads the Center for Defense Policy; Michael Ledeen, another close
Perle collaborator at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI); and David
Steinmann, chairman of the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (JINSA). The study, Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S.
Role, was co-authored by Daniel Pipes, who has just been nominated by
Bush to a post at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), and Ziad Abdelnour,
who heads a group founded by him called the United States Committee for a
Free Lebanon (USCFL). The study was released by Pipes' group, the
Middle East Forum. The USCFL, whose 67 'Golden Circle' members include
virtually all of the 31 signatories of the report, has been a major force
behind the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act
that was just reintroduced in the House of Representatives last Friday by
Reps. Eliot Engel, a USCFL member, and Ileana Ros Lehtinen.
The legislation, which had 150 cosponsors in the House last year, would
impose far-reaching economic and diplomatic sanctions against Syria until
the president certified that it has stopped all support to Lebanon's
Hezbollah militia and other groups that Washington considers 'terrorist,'
the government withdraws its estimated 20,000 troops from Lebanon, and takes
other measures long demanded by Washington. 'Now that Saddam Hussein's
regime (in Iraq) is defeated,' Engel said April 11, 'it is time for
America to get serious about Syria. The United States must not tolerate
(its) continued support of the most deadly terrorist organizations in the
world, its development of weapons of mass destruction, and its occupation of
Lebanon.' He said a companion measure, cosponsored by Democratic Sen.
Barbara Boxer and Republican Sen. Rick Santorum will soon be introduced
in the Senate. The action comes amid a two-week-old flurry of threats by top
administration officials against Syria over its alleged failure to cooperate
with Washington's military campaign against Baghdad. Those threats
culminated Sunday when Bush himself accused Syria of having chemical
weapons, although he did not specify whether they were home-grown or
received from Iraq for safe-keeping, as alleged by Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon earlier this year and repeated by senior Pentagon
officials. Last week, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld accused Syria of
harboring members of Hussein's regime, and, asked whether Damascus was
'next' after Iraq, replied that 'it depends on people's behavior.'
Intelligence officials told reporters last week that Rumsfeld had ordered
the drawing up of contingency plans for a possible invasion of Syria and
that Feith, the Pentagon's number three official, had begun work on a
policy paper about Syria's support of terrorist groups. 'There's got to be a
change in Syria,' said Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz last
Sunday on a TV network news program ... The USCFL, which lists Amin
Gemayel--who as Lebanon's president signed an aborted peace treaty with
Israel in 1983--as the top figure in the Lebanese opposition on its website,
appears to enjoy strong backing from both the Christian Right and far-right
Jewish neoconservatives, such as Perle, Ledeen, Steinmann,
Pipes, and Gaffney. While a handful of the Lebanese-Americans listed in
its 'Golden Circle' are Muslim, most, including Abdelnour, an investment
banker, are Christian. A plurality of 'Golden Circle' members appears to be
Jewish-Americans."
NYC Cuts
Workers, While Israel Grows Richer,
by William Hughes, Media Monitors, April 17,
2003
"In a 'doomsday' budget, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to cut
10,000 city employees, and close 30 to 40 firehouses, unless state lawmakers
bail out the municipal government. His draconian contingency plan calls for
$1 billion in cuts. Hardest hit will be police, fire, and sanitation
workers, after school programs, and even the closing of two of the city's
fabled zoos, one located in Queens, and the other in Brooklyn. Meanwhile,
the extreme right wing regime of Israel's Ariel Sharon is rolling in
greenbacks, thanks to the deep pockets of the heavily duped American
taxpayers. In the 'Omnibus Appropriation Bill,' passed on Feb. 13, 2003, the
U.S. Congress gave the Likudnik-dominated government $600 million in
economic aid, $2.1 billion in military aid, plus $60 million for something
called, 'refugee resettlement'. These freebees don't include the $10 billion
in loan guarantees and $4 billion in additional military aid, that the
Sharonists demanded in January, 2003. It's possible that even more moneys
for Israel could be filtered to it, via the $79 billion Iraqi War budget, in
a 'supplemental' anti-terrorism appropriation, or some other covert
budgetary device. Bloomberg is hoping to squeeze financial aid from
the state government in Albany to avoid the more drastic budget cuts. This
could prove extremely difficult, since New York State is running a $12
billion deficit. In order for the state to help out, it would itself have to
raise even more taxes. U.S. military loans to Israel, according to
Congressional researchers are 'converted to grants,' and eventually
'forgiven by Congress.' This is why the Israelis can boast that they have
never 'defaulted on a U.S. government loan.' Aid to Israel is also given in
a 'lump sum' at the start of the fiscal year, which leaves the U.S. to
borrow from future revenues to pay it off. Other countries, less favored,
receive their aid in quarterly payments. In fact, Associate Professor
Stephen Zunes of San Francisco U., pointed out, that 'Israel even lends some
of the money back through U.S. treasury bills and collect the additional
interest'. Despite all the aid to Israel over the years, Zunes said,
(01/26/01), 'We are less secure than ever, both in terms of U.S. interests
abroad and for individual Americans. There is a growing and increasing
hostility of the average Arab towards the U.S. In the long term, peace and
cooperation with the vast Arab world is far more important for U.S.
interests than this alliance with Israel. This is not only an issue for
those who are working for Palestinian rights, but it also jeopardizes the
entire agenda of those of us concerned about human rights, concerned about
arms control, concerned about international law' (WRMEA.com). Keep in mind
that Professor Zunes was writing all of this before 9/11 and the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq. Ironies abound here. No one suffered more from the 9/11
terrorist attack than New Yorkers, especially its brave police, firemen and
rescue workers, and their families. And, as Professor Zunes correctly
predicted, the increased Arab 'hostility' to the U.S., as a result of our
one-sided favoritism towards Israel, has made all of us 'less secure.' On
top of that, we now have the mayor of NYC, ready to layoff police and
firemen and to close fire houses in order to balance the municipal budget.
Yet, federal largess to Zionist Israel, in the billions of dollars annually,
continues unabated, without any real consideration of its justification, or
its consequences to our national well-being. Actually, things are worse than
they appear. According to Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist, aid to
Israel has really cost U.S. taxpayers, from 1956-2002, about $1.7 trillion.
This is more than $5,700 per person. ... Question: How much longer are the
American people going to put up with this gross distortion of priorities
that mocks our Republic?"
The Bum Frum,
By Taki, The American Conservative, April 21,
2003
"So you can imagine my surprise when in NR’s [National Review's] last issue
I found myself and my colleagues Pat and Scott listed as 'unpatriotic
conservatives' in 'a war against America.' Mind you, I was in excellent
company. Others accused were people like Tom Fleming, Llewellyn Rockwell,
Robert Novak, Sam Francis, Justin Raimondo, Joe Sobran, and Eric Margolis. I
was flattered until I saw the writer’s name. One David Frum. Now
let’s get one thing straight. Unlike Pat and Scott, and despite the advice
given to me by an NR higher-up, I will not take the high road. If this bum
Frum thinks he’s the only one who cannot see a belt without hitting
below it, he’s got another thing coming. From what I’ve heard, Frum
is a climber who fouls everyone and everything that takes him in, with the
White House being just one example. This buffoon was fired by the Bushies,
then went around threatening to sue if someone hinted that he didn’t quit on
his own. (You were fired Frum, and I welcome your lawsuit.) He is a
cheap Canadian careerist who jumped on the neocon bandwagon and is now using
anti-Semitism as a stick to beat us with. Mind you, to be called
'unpatriotic' and an 'anti-Semite' by this shameless publicity hound has to
be a compliment. I only met Frum once, at a Conrad Black party, where
he came up Uriah-Heep-like, actually looking more like the oily Peter Lorre
in 'The Maltese Falcon.' I know his kind. He will use anyone—including his
wife, which he did in spreading the claim that he invented the phrase 'axis
of evil'—in order to advance his career. Like his icon Sammy Glick,
Frum tries to make it by stepping on bodies, but he will end up like
Glick, a marginal fellow who tells tall tales about himself. He
reminds me of another David—Brock—both of them being ugly pipsqueaks who
specialize in telling without having kissed. We are now in a senseless war
that was promoted by the neocons. They have tried to
shut down debate by charging anti-Semitism. It is the oldest as well as the
cheapest trick in the book. The reason I’m so adamantly against the
war is because I believe it will have terrible consequences in the long run
for America. We should be looking inward and going after the Asan Akbars of
this world, most likely financed by the Saudi rulers. The rest is bunk, and
a punk like Frum can rant from here to Baghdad. It will not change
the truth."
Greenspan Says He Would Accept 5th Term,
Earthlink (froim Associated Pres), April 23,
2003
"Alan Greenspan, expressing appreciation for President Bush's
confidence, said Wednesday he would accept a fifth term as chairman of the
Federal Reserve. In a brief statement, Greenspan, who is now in his
16th year as head of the nation's central bank, said he would accept a
nomination for another four-year term. Bush in a surprise announcement on
Tuesday had said he planned to nominate Greenspan for a new term when
his current one expires next year. 'If President Bush nominates me and the
Senate confirms his choice, I would have every intention of serving,'
Greenspan said Wednesday. 'The president and I have not discussed this,
but I greatly appreciate his confidence,' Greenspan said in his
statement. 'I have been privileged to be appointed by five presidents to
various positions.' Greenspan, who took over as Fed chairman on Aug.
11, 1987, after being picked for the post by Ronald Reagan, had previously
served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Gerald Ford.
Greenspan was renominated for the Fed position once by Bush's father and
twice by Bill Clinton."
Here we have defined -- in David Horwitz's Front Page journal -- the
Jewish Israelization of America. America is increasingly hated because of
its Israel-based foreign policy and Judeo Centric arrogance.
Americans: The Jews of the World,
by Daniel Jennings, FrontPageMagazine.com,
April 23, 2003
"The popular 20th Century Jewish American novelist Edna Ferber once
wrote 'the United States seems to be the Jews among nations. It is
resourceful adaptable, maligned, envied and feared... its peoples are
travelers and wanderers by nature, moving shifting, restless.' Sadly enough,
recent events have proven that Ferber was right. The Jewish people
and the United States have a lot in common, both are successful,
resourceful, adaptable, highly creative, inventive and hated. Like the Jews,
Americans are increasingly the objects of hatred, fear, jealousy, bigotry,
prejudice, violence and terror from all corners of the globe and the
political spectrum. In particular, America and Americans are now the target
of a vicious, irrational, destructive, well-organized, well-defined, popular
and widespread campaign of hatred, prejudice and hysteria similar to that
directed against the Jews before World War II. Anti-Americanism has become
as popular and as widespread as anti-Semitism was in the 1920s and 30s and
its effects could be just as destructive and as tragic as the wave of
anti-Semitism that gave rise to Adolph Hitler and the Final Solution. The
historical analogies between anti-Semitism in the first half of the 20th
Century and anti-Americanism today are absolutely bone chilling. In the
early 1920s, all of the world's problems were blamed on the Jews. The Jews
had somehow started World War I, Jewish bankers had financed the Russian
Revolution, Communism was a Jewish conspiracy to enslave the world, the Jews
had somehow engineered Germany's defeat in 1918, Jewish artists and
intellectuals were responsible for the decline of culture and morality,
Jewish businessmen were responsible for all the problems of capitalism and
the troubles of the poor. This was nonsense but it was widely believed even
by the most educated and respected of people. Today, the problems of nations
and peoples all over the world are blamed upon America."
Campaign Confidential,
By E.J. KESSLER, [Jewish] Forward, April
25, 2003
"Does the presidential candidacy of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman
have a Jewish problem? Some folks seem to think so. The Hartford Courant
took its home-state senator to task last week for what it called his
'dismal' first-quarter contribution filing, saying there was a 'Jewish
wrinkle' to Lieberman's lackluster showing: The senator's centrist
values are out of step with the liberal Jews who give to Democratic
candidates, the paper reported. Problem is, many of the more conservative
Jewish Democrats who might give to Lieberman appear not to be
reaching for their checkbooks, either. 'Joe's natural big constituency is
sitting on their hands,' said one New York fundraiser and Lieberman
supporter who spoke on condition of anonymity. 'Many, many Jewish people do
not want a Jewish president.' The fundraiser said that many politically
conservative and centrist Jews 'are big fans of George Bush right now,'
especially because 'the Israelis are telling people that he's their best
friend' and "people do not want a Jewish president when relations with
Israel could become very tense." Lieberman also has caused some of
his own problems, the fundraiser said. 'People did not love Joe's last
campaign," the fundraiser said, referring to Lieberman's 2000
vice-presidential run. 'He's not 'good old Joe' anymore. He seems more like
a politician.'"
Headline: US subservience to Israel,
By Fauzia Qureshi, Hi Pakistan, May 2003
"The Americans may seem to be winning the war against Iraq but they have
already lost on the political, strategic and moral fronts. Was this war
necessary? Is it for the liberation of the Iraqi people or their
subjugation? How can a nation be liberated by being bombed indiscriminately?
Is a nation which is humiliated and devastated just a few years ago by the
same invaders suppose to welcome them? How unscrupulous a state can get to
farther its aims and goals? Is there a hidden agenda, a greater war design
and by whom? These are some of the questions asked by all. What the
Americans have failed to realize is not only the response of the Iraqi
people but the vital fact that they have triggered a sense of renewed
nationalism among the Muslims and an urge to unite as Muslim Ummah. The
Americans have basically done what years of labour by different Muslim
Organizations couldn't achieve ... The American aims in the Middle East seem
economic in nature. Not many Americans fully
understand the Jewish connection and the fact that their foreign policy has
been 'hijacked'. Presently, Iraq stood as the strongest neighbouring Arab
state and its disunion was absolutely necessary for the survival and
continuation of Israel. This war on Iraq is part of the greater plan
masterminded by Jews in order to achieve the ultimate goal of becoming the
World Power ... The current team of the so called "think-tanks"
around Mr Bush include Richard Perle (a Jew), who regarded "war on
terror" as "total war". He has pretented to be the first casualty of war and
has resigned. Though mission accomplished. Others include Dick Cheney
(VicePresident), Donald Rumsfeld (Defence secretary), Paul Wolfowitz
(Deputy Defence secretary), Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff),
William Bennett (Reagan's education secretary) and Zalmay Khalilzad (Bush's
ambassador to Afghanistan). All these are modern chartists of American
terrorism. The list also includes Douglas Feith (Under secretary for
Defence), David Wurmser (Special assistant to the Undersecretary of
State for Arms Control, John Bolton, who dutifully echoes the Perle-Sharon
line), Edward Luttwak (Member of Pentagon's National Security
Studies), Dov Zakhein (Assistant Secretary of Defence), Folbert
Satloff (National Security Adviser), Eliott Abrams (National
Security Adviser), Mark Grossman (Assistant Secretary of state for
Political Affairs), Lewis Libby (Personnel Manager of Dick Cheney),
Kenneth Adelman (Pentagon Adviser), Henry Kissenger (Pentagon
Adviser), James Schlesinger (Pentagon Adviser), Michael Chertoff
(Assistant Attorney General, Justice Department), Joshua Bolten
(First Political Adviser to Bush), Steve Goldsmith (Senior Adviser to
Bush), Richard Haass (Ambassador and Director, Political Planning at
the State Dept), Robert Zeollick (A government-level trade
representative), Ari Fleischer (Spokesman for the White House),
Mel Sembler (President of US Export and Import Bank), Bonnie Cohen
(Assistant Secretary of State for Administrative Affairs), Lincoln
Bloomfield (Assistant Secretary of State for Military-Political
Affairs), Adam Goldman (Link between White House and Jewish
community), Samuel Bodman (Assistant Secretary of Trade), Ruth
Davis (Director, External Corps), Joseph Gildenhorn
(Ex-ambassador and financial director and coordinator of Bush's electoral
campaign), and Christopher Gersten (Top official at the Children and
Families Department). These are the so called 'War Party Group' or
'Neoconservatives'. All of them claim that US-Israeli interests are the same
but it is not so. But who are the neoconservatives? Neoconservatives: The
first generation of neoconservatives were ex-liberals, socialists, and
Trotskyites, boat-people from the McGovern revolution who rafted over to the
GOP at the end of conservatism's long march to power with Ronald Reagan in
1980.All are intrventionists who regard Stakhanovite support of Israel as a
defining characteristic of their breed. Thus a passionate attachment to
Israel is a key tenet. Another name for them is 'Jewish conservatism.'"
Jews'
Role Murky As Rebel Banner Drops in Georgia,
By JEFF ZELL, [Jewish] Forward, May 2, 2003
"Thanks to a last-second compromise reached by lawmakers last week, the
state flag of Georgia is about to drop the notorious Confederate battle
emblem for the first time in nearly 50 years.. The deal — widely seen as a
rebuke of Republican Governor Sonny Perdue — came quickly, catching most
observers by surprise. But for Tyrone Brooks and other black state
legislators, it has been a long fight to remove the Confederate emblem — the
Rebel Cross — from the flag. Some black leaders have questioned why the
Jewish community has not taken a more public stand in that fight, but Jewish
leaders said they were working 'behind the scenes' on the issue ... What's
not as clear, it seems, is the role played by the Jewish community in the
debate. During recent months, some black leaders have observed that the
Jewish community generally stayed on the sidelines. But Judy Marx,
associate director of the American Jewish Committee's Atlanta chapter, said
her group was working against any efforts to bring back the 1956 flag. 'We
fought hard behind the scenes,' Marx said. 'We wrote every state
legislator making our opinion known, but we were not out in front in the
media.' AJCommittee helped create the local Black-Jewish Coalition in 1982
and underwrites Project Understanding, a retreat for black and Jewish
leaders."
[This apologist author -- Robert J. Lieber -- is Jewish, veiling again
the Israeli hand:]
The
Neoconservative-Conspiracy Theory: Pure Myth,
By ROBERT J. LIEBER, Chronicle of Higher
Education, May 2, 2002
"The ruins of Saddam Hussein's shattered tyranny may provide additional
evidence of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, but one
poisonous by-product has already begun to seep from under the rubble. It is
a conspiracy theory purporting to explain how the foreign policy of the
world's greatest power, the United States, has been captured by a sinister
and hitherto little-known cabal. A small band of neoconservative (read,
Jewish) defense intellectuals, led by the 'mastermind,' Deputy Secretary of
Defense Paul Wolfowitz (according to Michael Lind, writing in the
New Statesman), has taken advantage of 9/11 to put their ideas over on
an ignorant, inexperienced, and ;easily manipulated' president (Eric
Alterman in The Nation), his 'elderly figurehead' Defense
Secretary (as Lind put it), and the 'dutiful servant of power' who is our
secretary of state (Edward Said, London Review of Books). Thus
empowered, this neoconservative conspiracy, 'a product of the influential
Jewish-American faction of the Trotskyist movement of the '30s and '40s'
(Lind), with its own 'fanatic' and 'totalitarian morality' (William Pfaff,
International Herald Tribune) has fomented war with Iraq -- not in
the interest of the United States, but in the service of Israel's Likud
government (Patrick J. Buchanan and Alterman). This sinister
mythology is worthy of the Iraqi information minister, Muhammed Saeed
al-Sahaf, who became notorious for telling Western journalists not to
believe their own eyes as American tanks rolled into view just across the
Tigris River. And indeed versions of it do circulate in the Arab world. (For
example, a prominent Saudi professor from King Faisal University, Umaya
Jalahma, speaking at a prestigious think tank of the Arab League, has
revealed that the U.S. attack on Iraq was actually timed to coincide with
the Jewish holiday of Purim.) But the neocon-conspiracy notion is especially
conspicuous in writing by leftist authors in the pages of journals like
The Washington Monthly and those cited above, as well as in the
arguments of paleoconservatives like Buchanan and his magazine, The
American Conservative ... Alterman writes that 'the war has put
Jews in the showcase as never before. Its primary intellectual architects --
Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle (former aide to Senator Henry M.
'Scoop' Jackson; assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan
administration; now a member of the Defense Policy Board, an unpaid body
advising Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld), and Douglas J. Feith
(the No. 3 official at Defense) -- are all Jewish neoconservatives. So, too,
are many of its prominent media cheerleaders, including William Kristol,
Charles Krauthammer, and Marty Peretz. Joe Lieberman,
the nation's most conspicuous Jewish politician, has been an avid booster'
... Even in its less fevered forms, the neocon-conspiracy theory does not
provide a coherent analysis of American foreign policy. More to the point,
especially among the more extreme versions, there are conspicuous
manifestations of classic anti-Semitism: claims that a small, all-powerful
but little-known group or 'cabal' of Jewish masterminds is secretly
manipulating policy; that they have dual loyalty to a foreign power; that
this cabal combines ideological opposites (right-wingers with a Trotskyist
legacy, echoing classic anti-Semitic tropes linking Jews to both
international capitalism and international communism); that our official
leaders are too ignorant, weak, or naive to grasp what is happening; that
the foreign policy upon which our country is now embarked runs counter to,
or is even subversive of, American national interest; and that if readers
only paid close attention to what the author is saying, they would share the
same sense of alarm."
Pax Americana's cheerleaders. Canadian chorus urging Bush onward,
by DAVID OLIVE, Toronto Star, May 4, 2003
"David Frum recalls that on his last day as a Bush administration
speechwriter in 2002, he felt sad about leaving the White House. But 'I
could not deny it any longer,' he wrote in his memoir, The Right Man. 'My
work here was done.' That went down in Frum's hometown of Toronto as
one of the more self-important career assessments of a native son. But then,
Frum did co-author the 'axis of evil' centrepiece of the Bush
doctrine of pre-emptive intervention in the affairs of 'rogue states.' Two
things characterize a preponderance of intellectuals urging the United
States to embrace a gussied-up version of Pax Americana. In the main, they
are wholly untutored in real-world diplomacy and military strategy, except
for what they glean from each other's think-tank papers and broadsheet
jeremiads. And many are not native-born Americans. A surprising number hail
from Canada, a member of the 'coalition of the unwilling' in the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq. Or spent their formative years in other outposts of the
defunct British empire, the glory of which they seem determined to have the
U.S. revive under its flag. 'Our best hope is in American strength and will,
unashamedly laying down the rules of world order and being prepared to
enforce them,' says Charles Krauthammer, a prominent Washington
Post columnist and TV commentator who was raised in Montreal and
obtained his undergraduate degree in political science and economics at
McGill University. Other Canucks in the chorus include British-born
Barbara Amiel who, from her perch at the Times of London,
condemns the 'cowardice' of Europe and Canada in questioning White House war
aims in Iraq. Mark Steyn, also from Canada, and a columnist at
several U.S. and U.K. papers and Canada's National Post, cheers the
Pentagon's apparent rejection of a United Nations role in post-war Iraq ...
In a controversial New York Times Magazine cover story, Canadian
human-rights historian Michael Ignatieff implored Americans to
acknowledge that they have imperial duties that may be, 'in a place like
Iraq, the last hope for democracy and stability alike.' ... In a Slate essay
last week, war hawk David Plotz concurs with Ferguson that a
lingering, disciplining force is required in Iraq to make a success of
regime change there. 'It's not too late to enforce the occupation
ruthlessly,' Plotz writes, arguing that brute force is the only thing
Iraqi looters and other troublemakers will respect."
Neoconservatives. They emerged from behind the scenes politically to change
American foreign policy. But they've always been there, and Iraq is only one
of their goals,
By Dick Polman, Philadelphia Inquirer, May 4,
2003
"For seven long years, Bill Kristol agitated for a U.S. coup against
Saddam Hussein, and argued that America should remake the world to serve its
own interests. Few bothered to listen at the time. So how does he feel now?
In his office the other day, he grinned without smirking. That's how most of
the hawkish defense intellectuals - better known as neoconservatives - are
behaving these days ... The neocons - think-tank warriors and commentators,
all of whom cite Ronald Reagan's moral clarity - are hot these days because
they emerged from the political wilderness to alter the course of American
foreign policy. And Iraq is just the beginning, as Kristol cheerily
contended: 'President Bush is committed, pretty far down the road. The logic
of events says you can't go halfway. You can't liberate Iraq, then quit.'
The neocons care little about domestic policy; they think globally. They
don't believe in peaceful coexistence with hostile, undemocratic states;
rather, they want an 'unapologetic, idealistic, assertive' America (in
Kristol's words) that will foment pro-democratic revolutions around the
world, if necessary at the point of a gun ... Others talk darkly about a
'neocon cabal' that includes a media empire (Murdoch also owns Fox News),
policy shops (notably the American Enterprise Institute, home to many neocon
scholars and Kristol's Project for a New American Century), and
revenue sources (particularly the Bradley Foundation, which has helped
finance the policy shops). In a sense, it is tight-knit. The institute,
Kristol's Project for a New American Century, and the Weekly
Standard are all housed in the same Washington office building ... In
1998, the Project for a New American Century sent an open letter to
President Bill Clinton, urging that he overthrow Hussein; 10 of the
signatories now work for Bush. And when Bush spoke in February at the
institute (Lynne Cheney, the vice president's wife, is a board member), he
said that his team had borrowed 20 of its scholars. Neocon Richard Perle,
a Pentagon adviser, was an institute scholar; so was John Bolton, who now
has a key undersecretary post in the State Department. Today, the institute
still has hawks who were hawks before the neocon label became hip; witness
ex-Reagan Pentagon adviser Michael Ledeen, who, while puffing on a
fat cigar the other day, said: 'Americans believe that peace is normal, but
that's not true. Life isn't like that. Peace is abnormal ..."
Even a prominent member of the British Parliament who dares to
criticize the Jewish "cabal" is not immune from the Thought Police Squad and
its legal wrangling to veil the truth:
Anger
over Dalyell's 'Jewish cabal' slur,
by FRASER NELSON, The Scotsman (Scotland), May
5, 2003
"Tam Dalyell, the Father of the House, may be referred to the Commission for
Racial Equality after claiming a 'Jewish cabal' operating in both the United
States and Britain is driving the governments of both countries into a war
against Syria. Eric Moonman, the president of the Zionist Federation
in London, has said he believes Mr Dalyell’s remarks constitute a formal
offence - and that he is considering a formal complaint to the commission.
Mr Dalyell said that he now expects to be victimised because he raised 'a
whisper of criticism' about the influence which Jewish advisers hold on Tony
Blair, the Prime Minister, and George Bush, the president of the US. The
outrage was prompted by Mr Dalyell’s comments in Vanity Fair
magazine, where he said the ideas of hardline Jewish White House advisers
are being embraced by men of equivalent stature in London. He has named
Peter Mandelson, Jack Straw and Lord Levy as the trio
which influences Mr Blair in his foreign policy - and are ensuring that
Britain follows a "Zionist agenda" in the Middle East. When asked to explain
his comments, Mr Dalyell told The Scotsman yesterday he was not
anti-Semitic but felt the need to lay out his fears that Zionist ministers
may make Syria the 'next stop' after Iraq. 'A Jewish cabal have taken over
the government in the United States and formed an unholy alliance with
fundamentalist Christians,' he said. The members of this cabal, he said, are
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defence secretary, Elliott Abrams,
a member of the national security council, Ari Fleischer, the White
House spokesman, and John Bolton, the undersecretary of state. 'I was asked
[by Vanity Fair] what effect this has had on Britain and I said it
has fallen on fertile ground here. I mentioned Mandelson, Straw
and Levy as being fertile ground. They have all encouraged Blair to
go through with this terrible war' ... Mr Dalyell said he is aware about the
opposition his remarks caused. 'One is treading on cut glass on this issue
and no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism, but if it is a question of
launching an assault on Syria, then one has to be candid.' David
Garfinkel, the editor-in-chief of the London Jewish News, said Mr
Dalyell’s remarks introduced an anti-Semetic dimension into the debate - and
would send shock waves through the community ... Mr Wolfowitz and Mr
Abrams are usually named with Douglas Feith and David
Wurmser as members of the 'cabal.' All men are prominent figures of the
US neo-conservative movement."
Dalyell remarks on Jewish cabal may face scrutiny by watchdog,
By Benedict Brogan, Telegraph (UK), May 5, 2003
"Tam Dalyell, Labour's most senior MP, faces being referred to the
Commission for Racial Equality over remarks he made to an American magazine
which suggested Tony Blair was unduly influenced by Jewish figures in his
inner circle. Prof Eric Moonman, a former Labour MP and current
president of the Zionist Alliance, said he had consulted lawyers about
comments published yesterday that he described as 'highly inflammatory'. Mr
Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow and Father of the House, was alleged to have
accused the Prime Minister of 'being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish
advisers'. The remark, which was not a direct quote but claimed to describe
his attitude, appeared in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine
in an article to mark Mr Blair's 50th birthday. Mr Moonman who is a
former senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews,
described himself as a long-standing friend of Mr Dalyell but said his views
were unacceptable. 'It's the sort of insidious thing I would expect to see
in a poorly produced BNP pamphlet,' he said. 'It is bad enough for an MP to
start to use this language but it is much worse when he is Father of the
House. If he were to point out a cabal of black people, he would be referred
to the CRE.' Mr Moonman said he did not believe Mr Dalyell was
anti-Semitic. But he added: 'This sort of language is quite wrong and
ultimately will do him a great deal of harm. We will look very closely at
what he says in the future. I have taken advice from several lawyers and
will have further consultations on whether there is a case for a referral to
the CRE. I believe there is' ... Mr Dalyell, an opponent of the war against
Iraq, is said to have identified Lord Levy, the Prime Minister's
special envoy to the Middle East, Mr [Jack] Straw [Foreign
Secretary] and Peter Mandelson, whose father was Jewish. He denied he
was anti-Semitic. 'I am fully aware that one is treading on cut glass on
this issue and no one wants to be accused of anti-Semitism, but, if it is a
question of launching an assault on Syria or Iran . . . then one has to be
candid,' he said. Last night Mr Dalyell said he was worried Mr Blair was
being 'led up the garden path on a Likudnic-Sharon agenda', a
reference to Ariel Sharon, the hard-line Israeli prime minister and
his Likud party. He said he only used the word "cabal" in reference to
figures in the Bush administration. 'The cabal I referred to was in the US.
That is the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs,' he said."
Fury as Dalyell attacks Blair's 'Jewish cabal',
by Colin Brown & Chris Hastings, Telegraph
(UK) , May 4, 2003
"Tam Dalyell, the Father of the House, sparked outrage last night by
accusing the Prime Minister of 'being unduly influenced by a cabal of Jewish
advisers.' In an interview with Vanity Fair, the Left-wing Labor MP
named Lord Levy, Tony Blair's personal envoy on the Middle East,
Peter Mandelson, whose father was Jewish, and Jack Straw, the
Foreign Secretary, who has Jewish ancestry, as three of the leading figures
who had influenced Mr. Blair's policies on the Middle East. Yesterday Mr.
Dalyell, the MP for Linlithgow, told The Telegraph: 'I am fully aware
that one is treading on cut glass on this issue and no one wants to be
accused of anti-Semitism but, if it is a question of launching an assault on
Syria or Iran . . . then one has to be candid.' He added: 'I am not going to
be labeled anti-Semitic. My children worked on a kibbutz. But the time has
come for candour.' The Prime Minister, Mr. Dalyell claimed, was also
indirectly influenced by Jewish people in the Bush administration, including
Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy
defense secretary, and Ari Fleischer, the president's press
secretary."
[British Foreign Minister Jack Straw is of Jewish heritage.]
Straw
under fire for ignoring Israeli attacks on UK nationals,
by Chris McGreal, The Guardian (UK), May 7,
2003
"The father of a British peace activist left in a coma by an Israeli army
bullet has accused the Foreign Office of showing more concern at the
killings of Israeli citizens than investigating Israeli responsibility for
the shootings of Britons. Anthony Hurndall said he would press for a meeting
with the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, next week to express his
dissatisfaction at the government's failure to apply serious pressure to
Israel for an open investigation into the shooting of his son, Tom, 21, in
Gaza and two other UK citizens by the Israeli army in recent months. In
November, Iain Hook, who was working for the UN, was killed in the Jenin
refugee camp. Last week, a British cameraman, James Miller, was shot dead in
the Gaza Strip. In all three cases, the Israeli army has claimed the victims
were in the presence of Palestinian gunmen or caught in crossfire, despite
compelling evidence to the contrary. Mr Hurndall said Britain was allowing
an Israeli cover-up, despite having promised there would be a full inquiry
into the shooting of his son. He contrasted the UK's statement of support
for Israel after a British suicide bomber murdered three people in a Tel
Aviv bar with its reaction to the shooting of UK nationals by Israeli
soldiers. 'I have expressed to the embassy strongly my unease at the fact
that immediately following the bombing at the bar in Tel Aviv and the
killing of three Israelis, the British government jumped to give a statement
of support for Israelis and to freeze funds and make arrests. 'In contrast,
the almost passive reaction of the British government at the shooting of
three of its nationals in Israel is very disturbing,' he said. Mr Hurndall,
who is in Israel where his son is in hospital, also criticised the Israelis
for lack of reciprocity. The army has refused to allow him to meet officers
in command of the unit responsible for shooting his son. 'There's an
enormous difference between how the British reacted to British citizens'
involvement in killing Israelis and the complete lack of cooperation and a
complete silence over what happened to British nationals here,' he said. Mr
Hurndall is not alone in criticising the Foreign Office's failure to
vigorously pursue inquiries into the shooting of unarmed Britons. Six months
ago, Mr Straw and Clare Short, the international development
secretary, promised a full investigation into the killing of Iain Hook. But
the Israelis have since all but buried the inquiry and some of Mr Hook's
British colleagues have accused the Foreign Office of being less concerned
with exposing the circumstances of his killing than with not further
straining relations with Israel at a time when Tony Blair is viewed with
increasing suspicion for his promotion of Palestinian statehood. UN workers
complain that 'trigger happy' Israeli troops are rarely called to account
for the killing of civilians. Most victims are Palestinians, many of them
children. But critics say that it is a reflection of a lack of
accountability within the army that soldiers apparently believe they can
shoot foreigners with impunity."
More Jewish "analysts" pushing the U.S. government to decide what Iranian
citizens want: Coziness with Israel.
Analysts weigh options for change in Iran,
By Christian Bourge, UPI, May 7, 2003
"Analysts at key think tanks in Washington say the U.S. foreign policy
community is actively debating what steps should be taken to promote
liberalization and regime change in Iran following the Iraq war. Meyrav
Wurmser, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the
conservative Hudson Institute, said there is a sense of urgency surrounding
the future of Iran because of the wide impact the Iraq war has had upon the
region. Speaking Tuesday at a conference on the issue co-sponsored by Hudson
and the conservative American Enterprise Institute and Hudson, Wurmser
said U.S. policy for the region must focus on ridding it of the regimes
that aim to do harm to the United States and its allies ... Bernard Lewis,
an emeritus professor of Near Eastern studies at Princeton University and a
well-known expert on Islam and the Middle East, said that a major fear among
the ruling theocratic regimes in the Middle East, such as Iran, is that the
American effort to bring democracy to Iraq will be successful and spread
liberal ideas to their countries ... Daniel Brumberg, a visiting
scholar at the liberal-centrist Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,
told United Press International that although this would be a huge
embarrassment for Iran's mullahs, the drain on their power would not be
immediate. 'That long-term erosion (of power) will reinforce the moderates
but that is a long term project in five, 10 or 15 years,' said Brumberg
... Many analysts as well as external and internal reformers within Iran
have already become impatient with the country's slow drive toward political
liberalization. They argue that the United States must take a more proactive
role in the process. Lewis said that the fear of more direct American
influence in the region is already resulting in the kind of militant
behavior toward the United States that occurred in Lebanon. 'There is now a
really serious threat, the beginnings of which we already see,' said Lewis
... Judith Kipper, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies and director of the Middle East Forum at the Council
on Foreign Relations, said that the United States must do whatever it can to
reconnect with Iran and get its government to the table."
Dems face
ethnic rift in California,
By Peter Savodnik, The Hill ("the Newspaper for
and about the U.S. Congess"), May 7, 2003
"Hispanic voters, a cornerstone of California’s Democratic coalition, are
increasingly challenging liberal Jewish incumbents to turn over the reins
and make way for a new generation of leaders. The rift pits one of the
California Democratic Party’s fastest-growing groups against one of their
most influential and threatens party unity in that state and, possibly, in
Texas, Arizona, Colorado and elsewhere, Democratic Party officials say. The
split, as they see it, stems from an unfortunate confluence of events.
First, in the 1990s, term limits were imposed on elected officials in the
state Assembly and Senate. Many state legislators forced out by those limits
decided to seek higher office. Then, in 2001, the state Legislature redrew
California’s 53 congressional districts. The new political map channeled
many Hispanic voters into districts represented by Jewish officeholders. In
the view of some Democratic insiders, the problem was
further compounded by the large number of Jewish members of Congress from
Southern California districts. Seven of the 17 Democrats from the Los
Angeles area to the Mexican border are Jewish, seven are Hispanic and
three are African-American. 'I can see Republicans using the accident, as it
were, of many Jewish congresspeople to create a wedge issue against the
Democrats,' said Rep. Bob Filner, whose newly drawn 51st District
includes 340,000 Latinos, 53 percent of the electorate. 'That is,' the
Jewish Democrat continued, 'to try to get Hispanic support by claiming
there’s a Jewish conspiracy or something against them.' A California
Republican, one of 20 in the state’s congressional delegation, buttressed
Filner’s contention. 'In the Democratic Party you have the potential for
fratricide, because people are starting to kill each other off — Jewish
liberals and black liberals versus the immigrant Hispanics,' said the
member, who declined to be identified by name. Referring to such longtime
Jewish incumbents as Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman, the
Republican member added: 'They’re keeping themselves and their allies in
power. All of them were … [given] districts to make sure they were not
replaced by someone whose name is Hernandez.' Raoul Contreras, a San
Diego-based GOP political consultant and columnist, added that
poor Mexicans who have recently immigrated to
California often harbor anti-Semitic feelings that stem from their antipathy
toward wealthy Jewish Mexican businessmen. Further heightening
Hispanic suspicions of a Jewish conspiracy, both Republicans and Democrats
said, is the fact that Democratic consultant Michael Berman, brother
of Howard Berman, oversaw the highly contentious redistricting plan.
Those suspicions were reflected in a lawsuit filed by the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The suit, thrown out last June by a
three-judge federal panel, argued that the redistricting plan diluted
Hispanic strength to protect Democratic incumbents from Hispanic
challengers. Berman, an 11-term congressman whose district includes
much of the San Fernando Valley, called talk of a conspiracy 'nonsense.'
Some Democrats said the redistricting entailed shifting thousands of Latinos
from Berman’s 28th District next door, to Rep. Brad Sherman’s
27th. Democrats pointed out that Sherman, like Berman, is a Jewish
Democrat but, unlike Berman, a relative newcomer, in only his fourth
term ... But, as some Democrats said privately, tension between Hispanics
and Jews has been festering for years — or, at least, since 1998, when
Latino Richard Alarcon narrowly defeated Jewish former Assembly leader
Richard Katz in what was widely reported to have been a particularly
ugly contest in the state Senate’s 20th District, also in the San Fernando
Valley."
GOP Uses Remarks to Court Jews. Moran's Comments Cited in New Appeal,
The Washington Post, May 13, 2003
"Republicans have seized on the assertion of Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.)
that Jews are determining American policy toward Iraq as a new weapon in the
GOP's long-term effort to attract traditionally Democratic Jewish voters and
donors. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) told a group of more than
150 Orthodox Jewish leaders from around the country yesterday that the
Democratic Party 'appears to countenance remarks like those made by
Representative Moran in the past few weeks.' DeLay has been the driving
force in the Republican effort to capitalize on President Bush's strong
support of Israel and his leadership in the war on terrorism to weaken
Democratic support and financial backing from Jews. 'There are only a few
key pillars left holding up the Democratic coalition, especially financial
pillars, and if we can fracture one of them, they [Democrats] are going to
go into 2004 in big trouble,' a GOP strategist said. In states such as
Florida and New York, Jewish voters are a large enough percentage of voters
to play a crucial role in election outcomes. In presidential elections,
Democratic candidates depend on Jewish supporters to
supply as much as 60 percent of the money raised from private sources.
Any significant reduction in the financial support will weaken Democratic
candidates and the Democratic Party organizations. While Bill Clinton was
president, he received strong support from Jewish voters, many of whom
backed his efforts to negotiate a peace settlement in the Middle East. But
with the collapse of the peace process and the outbreak of violence between
Israelis and Palestinians, the GOP has sought to win support from more
right-leaning Jews who no longer view the Palestinian Authority as a
legitimate negotiating partner. Joining DeLay yesterday in his meeting with
representatives of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America was
another key figure in the Republican effort, Rep. Eric I. Cantor
(R-Va.). Cantor said Moran's comments were 'reminiscent of the
accusations contained in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' a notorious
Czarist forgery that fomented pogroms against Jews in 19th-century Russia.
Cantor, the chief deputy whip and the only Jewish Republican in the House,
said in an interview, 'Jews in this country may not be able to afford to be
Democrats. . . . One party [the GOP] is absolutely resolute in its
commitment to Israel.' The remarks by Cantor and DeLay drew sustained
applause and a standing ovation from the Orthodox Jewish leaders. 'On many
issues that are very important to the Jewish community, and especially the
Orthodox community that I represent, the Republicans are striking chords
that ring very true, and that's going to be reflected in future elections,'
said Harvey Blitz of New York, president of the Orthodox Union. There
is evidence that Republicans are winning defections among some moderate and
liberal Jews, as well. Late last year, two prominent Jewish leaders who
strongly supported Democrats in the past -- Jack Rosen, chairman of
the American Jewish Congress, and Michael Sonnenfeldt, former
chairman of the moderate Israel Policy Forum -- gave $100,000 and $10,000,
respectively, to the Republican National Committee. Dawn Arnall of
California, who has donated primarily to Democrats, gave the RNC $1 million
on Oct. 24, 2002. Polling data are more ambiguous ... Rosen said that
as long as the political agenda is dominated by terrorism and threats to the
survival of Israel, Republicans will have a strong chance to make gains in
the Jewish community. But if the agenda returns to domestic issues,
including abortion, prayer in school and minority rights, Democratic
strength among Jews will revive, he said. At a church forum in Reston
earlier this month, Moran said, 'if it were not for the strong support of
the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this.'
His comments were more ammunition for the GOP's contention that Democrats
who oppose a war in Iraq are insufficiently concerned about Israel's
security. For the past three days, Democrats have put on a full-court press
to try to limit the damage from Moran's comments, with a parade of
Democratic congressional leaders and presidential candidates denouncing his
comments. Six Jewish Democrats in the House, including Henry A. Waxman
(Calif.), Benjamin L. Cardin (Md.) and Sander M. Levin
(Mich.), yesterday called on Moran to retire in 2004, and if he runs again,
'we cannot and will not support his candidacy.'"
Economist
tallies swelling cost of Israel to US,
By David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor,
December 9, 2002
"Since 1973, Israel has cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If
divided by today's population, that is more than $5,700 per person. This is
an estimate by Thomas Stauffer, a consulting economist in Washington. For
decades, his analyses of the Middle East scene have made him a frequent
thorn in the side of the Israel lobby. For the first time in many years, Mr.
Stauffer has tallied the total cost to the US of its backing of Israel in
its drawn-out, violent dispute with the Palestinians. So far, he figures,
the bill adds up to more than twice the cost of the Vietnam War. And now
Israel wants more. In a meeting at the White House late last month, Israeli
officials made a pitch for $4 billion in additional military aid to defray
the rising costs of dealing with the intifada and suicide bombings. They
also asked for more than $8 billion in loan guarantees to help the country's
recession-bound economy. Considering Israel's deep economic troubles,
Stauffer doubts the Israel bonds covered by the loan guarantees will ever be
repaid. The bonds are likely to be structured so they don't pay interest
until they reach maturity. If Stauffer is right, the US would end up paying
both principal and interest, perhaps 10 years out. Israel's request could be
part of a supplemental spending bill that's likely to be passed early next
year, perhaps wrapped in with the cost of a war with Iraq. Israel is the
largest recipient of US foreign aid. It is already due to get $2.04 billion
in military assistance and $720 million in economic aid in fiscal 2003. It
has been getting $3 billion a year for years. Adjusting the official aid to
2001 dollars in purchasing power, Israel has been given $240 billion since
1973, Stauffer reckons. In addition, the US has given Egypt $117 billion and
Jordan $22 billion in foreign aid in return for signing peace treaties with
Israel. 'Consequently, politically, if not administratively, those outlays
are part of the total package of support for Israel,' argues Stauffer in a
lecture on the total costs of US Middle East policy, commissioned by the US
Army War College, for a recent conference at the University of Maine. These
foreign-aid costs are well known. Many Americans would probably say it is
money well spent to support a beleagured democracy of some strategic
interest. But Stauffer wonders if Americans are aware of the full bill for
supporting Israel since some costs, if not hidden, are little known. One
huge cost is not secret. It is the higher cost of oil and other economic
damage to the US after Israel-Arab wars. In 1973, for instance, Arab nations
attacked Israel in an attempt to win back territories Israel had conquered
in the 1967 war. President Nixon resupplied Israel with US arms, triggering
the Arab oil embargo against the US. That shortfall in oil deliveries kicked
off a deep recession. The US lost $420 billion (in 2001 dollars) of output
as a result, Stauffer calculates. And a boost in oil prices cost another
$450 billion. Afraid that Arab nations might use their oil clout again, the
US set up a Strategic Petroleum Reserve. That has since cost,
conservatively, $134 billion, Stauffer reckons. Other US help includes: • US
Jewish charities and organizations have remitted grants or bought Israel
bonds worth $50 billion to $60 billion. Though private in origin, the money
is "a net drain" on the United States economy, says Stauffer. • The US has
already guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel, and $600
million in "housing loans." Stauffer expects the US Treasury to cover these.
• The US has given $2.5 billion to support Israel's Lavi fighter and Arrow
missile projects. • Israel buys discounted, serviceable "excess" US military
equipment. Stauffer says these discounts amount to "several billion dollars"
over recent years. • Israel uses roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per
year in military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of US weapons, to
buy Israeli-made hardware. It also has won the right to require the Defense
Department or US defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or
subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the US gives to
Israel. US help, financial and technical, has enabled Israel to become a
major weapons supplier. Weapons make up almost half of Israel's manufactured
exports. US defense contractors often resent the buy-Israel requirements and
the extra competition subsidized by US taxpayers. • US policy and trade
sanctions reduce US exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year,
costing 70,000 or so American jobs, Stauffer estimates. Not requiring Israel
to use its US aid to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, costs
another 125,000 jobs. • Israel has blocked some major US arms sales, such as
F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40
billion over 10 years, says Stauffer. Stauffer's list will be controversial.
He's been assisted in this research by a number of
mostly retired military or diplomatic officials who do not go public for
fear of being labeled anti-Semitic if they criticize America's policies
toward Israel."
Defense Policy Board,
Center for Cooperative Research
Michael Ledeen is one of the Jewish "neocons" who may well
have hijacked America according to scholars.
The Unknown Hawk - Neoconservative Guru Sets Sights on Iran,
by William O. Beeman, Pacific News Service, May
08, 2003
"From 'creative destruction' to 'total war,' the guiding beliefs of the most
aggressive foreign policymakers in the Bush administration may originate in
the works of an influential yet rarely seen neoconservative. Most Americans
have never heard of Michael Ledeen, but if the United States ends up
in an extended shooting war throughout the Middle East, it will be largely
due to his inspiration. A fellow at the conservative American Enterprise
Institute, Ledeen holds a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy from the
University of Wisconsin. He is a former employee of the Pentagon, the State
Department and the National Security Council. As a consultant working with
NSC head Robert McFarlane, he was involved in the transfer of arms to Iran
during the Iran-Contra affair -- an adventure that he documented in the book
'Perilous Statecraft: An Insider's Account of the Iran-Contra Affair.' His
most influential book is last year’s 'The War Against the Terror Masters:
Why It Happened. Where We Are Now. How We'll Win.' Ledeen’s ideas are
repeated daily by such figures as Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and
Paul Wolfowitz. His views virtually define the stark departure from
American foreign policy philosophy that existed before the tragedy of Sept.
11, 2001. He basically believes that violence in the service of the spread
of democracy is America’s manifest destiny. Consequently, he has become the
philosophical legitimator of the American occupation of Iraq. Now Michael
Ledeen is calling for regime change beyond Iraq. In an address entitled
'Time to Focus on Iran -- The Mother of Modern Terrorism,' for the policy
forum of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) on April
30, he declared, 'the time for diplomacy is at an end; it is time for a free
Iran, free Syria and free Lebanon.' With a group of other conservatives,
Ledeen recently set up the Center for Democracy in Iran (CDI), an action
group focusing on producing regime change in Iran. Quotes from Ledeen’s
works reveal a peculiar set of beliefs about American attitudes toward
violence. 'Change -- above all violent change -- is the essence of human
history,' he proclaims in his book, 'Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why
Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries
Ago.' In an influential essay in the National Review Online he
asserts, 'Creative destruction is our middle name. We do it automatically
... it is time once again to export the democratic revolution.' Ledeen
has become the driving philosophical force behind the neoconservative
movement and the military actions it has spawned. His 1996 book, 'Freedom
Betrayed; How the United States Led a Global Domocratic Revolution, Won the
Cold War, and Walked Away,” reveals the basic neoconservative obsession: the
United States never 'won' the Cold War; the Soviet Union collapsed of its
own weight without a shot being fired. Had the United States truly won,
democratic institutions would be sprouting everywhere the threat of
Communism had been rife. Iraq, Iran and Syria are the first and foremost
nations where this should happen, according to Ledeen. The process by
which this should be achieved is a violent one, termed 'total war.' 'Total
war not only destroys the enemy's military forces, but also brings the enemy
society to an extremely personal point of decision, so that they are willing
to accept a reversal of the cultural trends,' Ledeen writes. 'The
sparing of civilian lives cannot be the total war's first priority ... The
purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another
people.'"
Toronto mayor Mel Lastman is Jewish, and he is from New York.
Lastman to lead
mission to Israel,
By RON CSILLAG, Canadian Jewish News, May
8, 2003
"Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman will lead the first-ever delegation of
Canadian municipal officials to Israel beginning May 10. Lastman and
his wife Marilyn will join a dozen other municipal politicians and
officials from Canadian Jewish Congress on the five-day CJC-sponsored
mission to meet with their Israeli counterparts and get a sense of the
issues they face. Also scheduled are meetings with Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon, finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu and industry and
commerce minister Ehud Olmert. The participants will also be briefed
on how municipalities cope with the threat of terrorism. There will be a
strong contingent from York Region, north of Toronto. Scheduled to go are
Thornhill Tory MPP Tina Molinari, who’s also associate minister of municipal
affairs; York Region chair Bill Fisch; Vaughan Mayor Michael Di Biase; and
Vaughan Ward 5 councillor Susan Kadis. The participants are slated to travel
to the city of Ramla in Israel, which has special significance for the City
of Vaughan. The two municipalities twinned a decade ago to encourage deeper
cultural and economic ties between them. Congress says it’s important to
sensitize these officials to Israel’s concerns because often, the municipal
level is a stepping stone to bigger things in politics. Also scheduled to
take part are Ken Boshcoff, the mayor of Thunder Bay and president of the
Association of Municipalities of Ontario; Scott Northmore, mayor of
Bracebridge; Frank Miele, York Region’s commissioner of
economy/technology/development & communications; Alex Munter, a city
councillor from Kanata; James Gordon, the mayor of Sudbury; and Toronto city
councillor Mike Feldman ... The junket’s purpose is to introduce 'one
more group of important Canadian decision makers and policy makers to
Israeli society and challenges faced by both government and people of
Israel,' says CJC Ontario region chair Ed Morgan, who will be
accompanied by region executive director Bernie Farber; political
action committee chair Rachel Turkienicz; CJC director of community
development Michael Soberman; and CJC national treasurer Cary
Green."
Our Jewish senators at the helm in debating Big Brother laws:
Senate
Widens Surveillance Law,
Fox News, May 8, 2003
"The Senate easily passed a measure Thursday expanding a powerful
surveillance law, used in spy and terrorism investigations, to allow U.S.
agents to wiretap lone foreigners who can't be linked to a terror
organization or government. Currently, U.S. law enforcement officers can get
warrants authorizing intelligence-gathering wiretaps from a secret court,
but only if they can establish a reasonable belief the target is an 'agent
of a foreign power' or group. The bill, which passed 90 to 4, would amend
the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (search) to remove that
requirement ... The bill, introduced by Sens. Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has become known in Washington as the 'Lone
Wolf' measure ... Senators rejected 35-59 an amendment by Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have given federal judges more
discretion when to approve such surveillance warrants against foreigners
believed to be acting on their own ... In a compromise reached last week,
the bill was changed to include a provision by Sen. Russell Feingold,
D-Wis., requiring that the Justice Department report to lawmakers how often
that 'lone wolf' provision is employed."
Beaucoup Jew coup:
U.S. Diplomats Decry `Military Coup',
by Sonni Efron, Hartford Courant, May 9,
2003
"Diplomats are paid to have cool minds and even cooler temperaments, but
inside the beleaguered State Department, plenty of America's elite diplomats
are privately seething. They are up in arms over what they see as the
hijacking of foreign policy-making by the Pentagon and efforts to undercut
their boss, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. 'I just wake up in the
morning and tell myself, 'There's been a military coup,' and then it all
makes sense,' said one veteran foreign service officer. The first two years
of the Bush administration has seen what the diplomat called a 'tectonic
shift' of decision-making power on foreign policy from State to the Defense
Department, one that has seen the Pentagon become the dominant player on
such key issues as Iraq, North Korea and Afghanistan. 'Why aren't eyebrows
raised all over the United States that the secretary of defense is
pontificating about Syria?' asked the official, who declined to be
identified. 'Can you imagine the defense secretary after World War II
telling the world how he was going to run Europe?' he added, noting it was
Secretary of State George C. Marshall who delivered that seminal speech in
1947. Leading conservatives and Pentagon officials say such comments show
the State Department's failure to grasp how profoundly global politics and
U.S. foreign policy interests have been redefined, especially after the
Sept. 11 attacks ... In public, Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld have friendly relations, and their policy differences are cordial,
if hard-argued. In private, Powell is said to roll his eyes at the volume of
'Rummygrams' routinely sent his way that offer the defense secretary's views
on foreign policy. However, at the day-to-day working level, midlevel
State Department bureaucrats say they are alarmed by
the ideological fervor of the Pentagon's civilian decision-makers,
and how they leave State out of important decisions, brush aside the
diplomats to get things done, or ignore tasks they do not want to perform
... A midlevel official complained that intemperate remarks by
administration hawks have damaged American interests. "Goodwill is an
element of national security - and perhaps one of the most profound elements
of national security," he said."
Neocons
dance a Strauss waltz,
By Jim Lobe, Asia Times, May 9, 2003
"Is United States foreign policy being run by followers of an obscure German
Jewish political philosopher whose views were elitist, amoral and hostile to
democratic government? Suddenly, political Washington is abuzz about Leo
Strauss, who arrived in the US in 1938 and taught at several major
universities before his death in 1973. Following recent articles in the US
press, and as reported in Asia Times Online This war is brought to
you by ... in March, the cognoscenti are becoming aware that key
neoconservative strategists behind the Bush administration's aggressive
foreign and military policy consider themselves to be followers of
Strauss, although the philosopher - an expert on Plato and Aristotle -
rarely addressed current events in his writings. The most prominent is
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, now widely known as
'Wolfowitz of Arabia' for his obsession with ousting Iraq's Saddam Hussein
as the first step in transforming the entire Arab Middle East. Wolfowitz is
also seen as the chief architect of Washington's post-September 11 global
strategy, including its controversial preemption policy. Two other very
influential Straussians include Weekly Standard chief editor
William Kristol and Gary Schmitt, founder, chairman and director of the
Project for the New American Century (PNAC), a six-year-old neoconservative
group whose alumni include Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon chief
Donald Rumsfeld, as well as a number of other senior foreign policy
officials. PNAC's early prescriptions and subsequent open letters to
President George W Bush on how to fight the war on terrorism have
anticipated to an uncanny extent precisely what the administration has done.
Kristol's father Irving, the godfather of neoconservatism who
sits on the board of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where a number
of prominent hawks, including former defense Policy Board chairman
Richard Perle, are based, has also credited Strauss with being
one of the main influences on his thinking. While a New York Times article
introduced readers to Strauss and his disciples in Washington,
interest was further piqued this week by a lengthy article by The New
Yorker's legendary investigative reporter, Seymour Hersh, who noted
that Abram Shulsky, a close Perle associate who has run a
special intelligence unit in Rumsfeld's office, is also a Straussian. His
unit, according to Hersh, re-interpreted evidence of Iraq's alleged
links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network and possession of
weapons of mass destruction to support those in the administration
determined to go to war with Baghdad ... Shadia Drury, author of 1999's
Leo Strauss and the American Right, says that Hersh is right on
the second count but dead wrong on the first. 'Strauss was neither a
liberal nor a democrat,' she said in a telephone interview from her office
at the University of Calgary in Canada. 'Perpetual deception of the citizens
by those in power is critical [in Strauss's view] because they need to be
led, and they need strong rulers to tell them what's good for them. 'The
Weimar Republic [in Germany] was his model of liberal democracy for which he
had huge contempt,' added Drury. Liberalism in Weimar, in Strauss's
view, led ultimately to the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews. Like Plato,
Strauss taught that within societies, 'some are fit to lead, and others
to be led', according to Drury. But, unlike Plato, who believed that leaders
had to be people with such high moral standards that they could resist the
temptations of power, Strauss thought that 'those who are fit to rule
are those who realize there is no morality and that there is only one
natural right, the right of the superior to rule over the inferior'. For
Strauss, 'religion is the glue that holds society together', said Drury,
who added that Irving Kristol, among other neoconservatives, has
argued that separating church and state was the biggest mistake made by the
founders of the US republic. 'Secular society in their view is the worst
possible thing,' because it leads to individualism, liberalism and
relativism, precisely those traits that might encourage dissent, which in
turn could dangerously weaken society's ability to cope with external
threats. 'You want a crowd that you can manipulate like putty,' according to
Drury .... 'Because mankind is intrinsically wicked, he has to be governed,"
[Strauss] once wrote. 'Such governance can only be established,
however, when men are united - and they can only be united against other
people.' 'Strauss thinks that a political order can be stable only if
it is united by an external threat,' Drury wrote in her book. 'Following
Machiavelli, he maintains that if no external threat exists, then one has to
be manufactured. Had he lived to see the collapse of the Soviet Union, he
would have been deeply troubled because the collapse of the 'evil empire'
poses a threat to America's inner stability. 'In Strauss' view, you have to
fight all the time [to survive],' said Drury. 'In that respect, it's very
Spartan. Peace leads to decadence. Perpetual war, not perpetual peace, is
what Straussians believe in." Such views naturally lead to an 'aggressive,
belligerent foreign policy', she added."
The British
neoconservatives,
by John Kampfner, New Statesman (UK), May 12
2003
"John Kampfner on a new alliance, comparable to Bush's backers in the US.
Many are from the left; others, though from the right, think Blair the only
leader worth influencing An intriguing new alliance is forming in British
politics. It lies beyond conventional party structures. It is based mainly
in the media, but is being watched approvingly by the government. It is a
coalition between conservative thinkers and their pro-war, pro-intervention
counterparts who hailed from the left. This new breed of militarist
Blairites believes it is in the vanguard of a progressive new foreign
policy. They are disdainful of their critics. They see the future as theirs.
Together with their new allies of the right, they form a first generation of
British neoconservatives." Who's who in the neo-con nomenklaturam, by
Tom Allen and Mat Smith, May 12 2003: ... David Aaronovitch, who
moved recently from the Independent to the Guardian/ Observer,
was once called Cherie Blair's favourite columnist. A former Communist Party
activist, he accuses his former comrades of being 'in denial' over Iraq and
of reneging on the left's international obligations to get rid of Saddam
Hussein. His columns resonate with despair at the left. In a recent column,
however, he hinted at a wobble if weapons of mass destruction are not found:
'I - as a supporter of the war - will never believe another thing that I am
told by our government, or that of the US ever again.'"
[The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
has 53 members. 18 members have likely Jewish surnames: Berkowitz, Byman,
Felzenberg, Ginsburg, Greenburg, Jacobson, Kaplan, Lederman, Lesemann,
Levitt, Marcus, Raidt, Rundlet, Scheid, Tobin, Wermter, Yerkes, Zelikow.
"Inquiries regarding Commission staff may be directed to Al Felzenberg,
deputy for communications, at (202) 331-4062."
National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States,
U.S. Government
EXAMPLES:
"Bruce Berkowitz: Consultant. Research fellow at the Hoover
Institution at Stanford University, and senior analyst at RAND. Began career
at the CIA. Author of several books, including The New Face of War and Best
Truth: Intelligence in the Information Age. Has also served on Senate
Intelligence Committee staff and as a consultant to the intelligence
community and Defense Department ...
Alvin Felzenberg: Deputy for Communications. Formerly at Voice of
America, after serving as communications consultant to Secretary of the Navy
Gordon England. Directed the Heritage Foundation's 'Mandate 2000' project on
the presidential transition process, and was editor of Keys to a Successful
Presidency. Held several senior staff positions with the House of
Representatives.
Susan Ginsburg. Counsel. Former senior official in the Treasury
Department's Office of Enforcement. Law clerk for the Honorable Judge A.
Leon Higginbotham, Jr., on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals and worked in
the State Department's Bureau of International Narcotics Matters.
Doug Greenburg. Counsel. Former litigation partner at Winston and
Strawn and a former staff attorney with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Former law clerk to the Hon. Alan E. Norris, U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 6th Circuit ...
Stephanie Kaplan: Special Assistant. Former assistant director for
international security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS) and a former associate with the Aspen Strategy Group, a policy
program of The Aspen Institute ...
Matthew Levitt. Consultant. A senior fellow in terrorism studies at
the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A former intelligence
research specialist in the FBI's International Terrorism Intelligence Unit."
The
Israel Lobby and the Left: Uneasy Questions,
by Jeffrey Blankfort, Left Curve
"Who Makes up the Lobby? It is important to note that the Israel lobby is
much more than AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee), which
primarily focuses on Congress and directs funding from Jewish PACs and
individuals to those politicians it considers to be deserving. Its other
more visible components are the biggest Jewish organizations, the
Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the American
Jewish Congress, but there are also a number of others, not the least of
which is the extreme right wing Zionist Organization of America, which at
the moment is extremely influential in Washington. All of these
organizations form part of the Council of Presidents of Major Jewish
American Organizations, whose current president is Mortimer Zuckerman,
owner of the NY Daily News and US News and World Report. Its job is to lobby
the President. At the grass-roots you have hundreds of local Jewish
federations and councils that cultivate the support of city councilors and
supervisors and select the more promising among them to run for Congress,
assured that they will be solid votes for Israel. While not officially part
of the lobby, since the establishment of Israel in 1948, the AFL-CIO has
been one of its most solid cornerstones. It has provided millions of dollars
for pro-Israel Democrats; it has blocked all international efforts to punish
Israel for its exploitation and abuse of Palestinian workers, and it has
encouraged its member unions to invest millions of dollars of their pension
funds in State of Israel Bonds, thereby linking their members' retirement to
the health of the Israeli economy. Over the past year, the lobby has
cemented ties with the Christian evangelical right, which gives it clout in
states where there are few Jews and access to hundreds of thousands of new
donors to Israel's cause ... Anyone who has the temerity to suggest any
Israeli instigation of, or even involvement in, Bush administration war
planning is inevitably labeled somewhere along the way as an anti-Semite.
Just whisper the word 'domination' anywhere in the vicinity of the word
'Israel,' as in 'U.S.-Israeli domination of the Middle East' or 'the U.S.
drive to assure global domination and guarantee security for Israel,'and
some leftist, who otherwise opposes going to war against Iraq, will trot out
charges of promoting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the old czarist
forgery that asserted a Jewish plan for world domination ... [A]rdently
pro-Israel American Jews are in positions of unprecedented influence within
the United States and have assumed or been given decision-making positions
over virtually every segment of our culture and body politic. This is no
secret conspiracy. Regular readers of the New York Times business section,
which reports the comings and goings of the media tycoons, are certainly
aware of it. Does this mean that each and every one is a pro-Israel zealot?
Not necessarily, but when one compares the US media with its European
counterparts in their respective coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict,
the extreme bias in favor of Israel on the part of the US media is
immediately apparent."
New
Front Sets Sights On Toppling Iran Regime,
By MARC PERELMAN, [Jewish] Forward, May
16, 2003
"A budding coalition of conservative hawks, Jewish organizations and Iranian
monarchists is pressing the White House to step up American efforts to bring
about regime change in Iran. For now, President Bush's official stance is to
encourage the Iranian people to push the mullah regime aside themselves, but
observers believe that the policy is not yet firm, and that has created an
opportunity for activists. Neoconservatives advocating regime change in
Tehran through diplomatic pressure - and even covert action - appear to be
winning the debate within the administration, several knowledgeable
observers said. 'There is a pact emerging between hawks in the
administration, Jewish groups and Iranian supporters of Reza Pahlavi [the
exiled son of the former shah of Iran] to push for regime change,' said
Pooya Dayanim, president of the Iranian-Jewish Public Affairs Committee
in Los Angeles and a hawk on Iran. The emerging coalition is reminiscent of
the buildup to the invasion of Iraq, with Pahlavi possibly assuming the role
of Iraqi exile opposition leader Ahmed Chalabi, a favorite of
neoconservatives. Like Chalabi, Pahlavi has good relations with several
Jewish groups. He has addressed the board of the hawkish Jewish Institute
for National Security Affairs and gave a public speech at the Simon
Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, and met with Jewish
communal leaders. Pahlavi also has had quiet contacts with top Israeli
officials. During the last two years, according to a knowledgeable source,
he has met privately with Prime Minister Sharon and former prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Israel's Iranian-born president, Moshe
Katsav. In another parallel to the pre-invasion debate over Iraq, an
intense policy battle is heating up between the State and Defense
departments over what to do in Iran. "The president, the vice president and,
even more so, the Pentagon support regime change," said a source who follows
the internal debate closely. 'But State does not want to meddle in Iran, so
you have a big fight right now within the administration.' As was the case
during the Iraq debate, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol
is leading the charge for a more aggressive policy on Iran. In the
magazine's May 12 issue, he wrote an editorial pushing for covert action and
other steps to trigger regime change in Tehran."
Pro-Zionist propaganda and disinformation
Top al-Qaida Harbored in Iran Source: New attacks ordered from there,
By Knut Royce, Newsday, May 17, 2003
"The United States has developed intelligence indicating that top al-Qaida
leaders operating inside Iran directed Monday's bombing attacks in Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia, and have ordered a terrorist strike in East Africa, according
to counterterrorism sources. Intelligence officials say that top operational
leader Saif al-Adil, who has been Osama bin Laden's security chief and is
hiding in Iran, is apparently under the protection of the country's
Revolutionary Guards ... A source who received a classified briefing on
Friday said the Bush administration now is in a quandary because it can't
ignore the intelligence but at the same time wants to continue pressing the
Iranians to stay out of Iraq. 'The subject of Iran harboring senior al-Qaida
people has suddenly been pushed to the top of the agenda' in the Bush
administration, he said ... There were some indications this week that the
United States may be ready to confront Iran over its hosting of al-Qaida
leaders. On Wednesday, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice told
reporters that the administration was 'concerned about al-Qaida operating in
Iran.' But she made no mention of any link between Iran and the Saudi
attacks. The following day, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, 'We know
there is senior al-Qaida in Iran.' He, too, did not elaborate. The Iranian
foreign ministry on Friday denied that Iran is harboring al-Qaida
operatives. U.S. intelligence sources said that other top al-Qaida leaders
believed to be inside Iran include bin Laden's heir apparent, his son Saad,
as well as Abu Hafs the Mauritanian."
Canada refuses refugee status for SLA man for role in `war crimes',
By Yossi Melman, Haaretz (Israel), May
18, 2003
"Canada is refusing to grant a Lebanese man the status of refugee, arguing
that he served as an Israeli intelligence agent, a country which they allege
'carried out war crimes, including murder and torture,' in southern Lebanon.
The decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada was exposed on
Friday in an article of the National Post daily, and has drawn sharp
responses. The government of Canada was quick to clarify that the decision
does not align with its policy vis-a-vis Israel. The identity of the
41-year-old man from southern Lebanon is confidential because of concerns
for his safety, and he has been simply termed, 'Mr. X.' He emigrated to
Canada some time ago, possibly through Israel or with its assistance. He
later requested permanent residency and the Canadian immigration board
examined his case. According to the board's report, the man said he had
served as a Mossad agent and had ties to the IDF surrogate militia, the
South Lebanon Army. He says he provided his controllers with the names of 40
Hezbollah operatives and details about their whereabouts in 1998-99, in
exchange for an $800 monthly salary. A number of human rights groups turned
to the board and demanded Mr. X not be recognized as a refugee, arguing that
he participated in war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the board's
report, it is stated it may be possible that as a result of the information
passed on to his controllers, Hezbollah men were arrested and tortured"
Schumerism.
The New York senator’s view that there’s no difference between law and
politics is at the heart of the judicial crisis,
City Journal, May 21,2003
"Everyone has commented on how unprecedented is the current Democratic
filibuster campaign against President Bush’s appellate court nominees,
Miguel Estrada and Pricilla Owen—well-qualified judges even according to the
liberal American Bar Association but anathema to Democrats because of their
opposition to liberal judicial activism. What hasn’t sufficiently been
noticed is that the filibusters rest on a new jurisprudential theory—call it
Schumerism, after the New York senator who is its most strident
proponent. Extremist and utterly contrary to the spirit of the Constitution,
Schumerism promises to wreak incalculable damage to our political
fabric as the battle for control of the nation’s courts widens. For two
years, Schumer has tirelessly waged a campaign to change the criteria
by which the Senate ratifies presidential judicial picks. For much of
American history, the guideposts the Senate has relied on to confirm judges
are those Alexander Hamilton laid down in The Federalist: integrity,
intelligence and temperament, and faithfulness to the rule of law—terms on
which Estrada and Owen pass with high marks. But instead of sticking with
Hamiltonian standards, Schumer says, senators must make their Number
One concern a judge’s 'ideology'—by which he means the judge’s private
political opinions, as well as the kind of political results his decisions
have led to in past cases and will potentially lead to in the future.
Further, judges whose legal and personal views on such hot-button political
issues as affirmative action and abortion are outside the 'mainstream'
should be disqualified from sitting on the federal bench, regardless of
their competence or integrity or respect for the law. As for how to find the
'mainstream' in this new scheme, that’s easy: Schumerism peremptorily
defines conservative views as 'extremist'—not even worthy of rebuttal, and
certainly deserving no place in the judiciary."
Jewish Leader Blasts
Austrian Chancellor,
Baltimore Jewish Times, May 22, 2003
"The head of Austria's Jewish community is accusing the country's chancellor
of malice toward the Jewish community over a funding spat for community
security. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel gives him 'the feeling that his goal
is the liquidation of the community,' a Viennese newspaper quoted Ariel
Muzicant as saying. The dispute arose after Muzicant warned that without
compensation for stolen property and government financial help the community
might go bankrupt, and Austria's few remaining Jews be forced to emigrate.
'If the Austrian government does not begin to pay compensation for the small
Jewish community, we may have to close our business by July 1,' Muzicant
told journalists Tuesday in Vienna. Schuessel's office did not respond to
requests for comment. The community has been fighting with the government
for years over assets that were stolen or destroyed by the Nazis during
World War II. Vienna's Jewish community, which numbered about 170,000 in
1938, was among the richest in Europe before the war. Today it numbers
6,710. The head of the European Jewish Congress backed Muzicant's stance.
'It's not because of mismanagement the that Jewish community is out of
money; it's because their assets were stolen,' said Michel Friedman,
a German Jew who is president of the European Jewish Congress. The issue is
'explosive,' he said, especially when the community has to spend more than
20 percent of its budget on security -- which Friedman thinks should be the
government's responsibility. 'You cannot blame the Jews when this small
community is threatened by anti-Semitism,' he told journalists. Mediating in
the dispute, sources say, is former U.S. Undersecretary of State Stuart
Eizenstat [also Jewish], who was the Clinton administration's
point man for restitution issues and who happened to be in Austria on a
private legal case. But another dispute has arisen over a comment Schuessel
reportedly made to Eizenstat explaining his refusal to pay for the
community's security guards, many of whom are Israeli."
THE
ROVING EYE. The masters of the universe,
By Pepe Escobar, The Asia Times, May, 22, 2003
"It may be instructive to learn what US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
and the 'Prince of Darkness' Richard Perle were doing last weekend.
From May 15 to 18 they were guests at the Trianon Palace Hotel, close to the
spectacular Versailles palace near Paris, for the annual meeting of the
Bilderberg club. Depending on the ideological prism applied, the Bilderberg
club may be considered an ultra-VIP international lobby of the power elite
of Europe and America, capable of steering international policy from behind
closed doors; a harmless 'discussion group' of politicians, academics and
business tycoons; or a capitalist secret society operating entirely through
self interest and plotting world domination. The Bilderberg club is regarded
by many financial and business elites as the high chamber of the high
priests of capitalism. You can't apply for membership of such a club. Each
year, a mysterious 'steering committee' devises a selected invitation list
with a maximum 100 names. The location of their annual meeting is not
exactly secret: they even have a headquarters in Leiden, in the Netherlands.
But the meetings are shrouded in the utmost secrecy. Participants and guests
rarely reveal that they are attending. Their security is managed by military
intelligence. But what is the secretive group really up to? Well, they talk.
They lobby. They try to magnify their already immense political clout, on
both sides of the Atlantic. And everybody pledges absolute secrecy on what
has been discussed. The Bilderberg mingles central bankers, defense experts,
press barons, government ministers, prime ministers, royalty, international
financiers and political leaders from Europe and America. Guests this year,
along with Rumsfeld and Perle (US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz is also a member) included banker David Rockefeller, as well
as various members of the Rockefeller family, Henry Kissinger, Queen
Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos of Spain, and
high officials of assorted governments. The Bilderberg does not invite - or
accept - Asians, Middle Easterners, Latin Americans or Africans. Some of the
Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend
Bilderberg, in their view, to polish and reinforce a virtual consensus, an
illusion that globalization, defined under their terms - what's good for
banking and big business is good for everybody else - is inevitable and for
the greater good of mankind. If they have a hidden agenda, it is the fact
that their fabulous concentration of wealth and power is completely
dissociated from the explanation to their guests of how globalization
benefits 6.2 billion people. Some of the club's earlier guests went on to
become crucial players ... This year, the Bilderberg meeting in Versailles
conveniently merged into the G8 meeting of finance ministers in Paris, a
20-minute car ride from Versailles, on May 19. The procedure is traditional:
what happens in the Bilderberg is usually a preview of what is later
discussed at the full G8 gathering, which this year will be held from June 1
to 3 at Evian-les-Bains in the French Alps ... An influential Jewish
European banker reveals that the ruling elite in Europe is now telling their
minions that the West is on the brink of total financial meltdown; so the
only way to save their precious investments is to bet on the new global
crisis centered around the Middle East, which replaced the crisis evolving
around the Cold War. According to a banking source in the City of London
connected to Versailles, what has transpired from the 2003 meeting is that
American and European Bilderbergers have not exactly managed to control
their split over the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, as well as
over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's hardline policy against
the Palestinians."
So the blood may spin in American eyes,
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz (Israel), May
24, 2003
"Ariel Sharon did not reprimand Benny Elon after the tourism
minister incited congressmen to oppose President Bush's road map. Sharon's
best friends in America have been given his blessings for their campaign
against the plot to give a prize to the Palestinian violence by dismantling
the illegal outposts that are a prize to Jewish violence. Sharon's
problem with Elon is that what AIPAC (American Israel Political
Action Committee) people are doing inside the pool, Elon insists on doing
from the diving board. Sharon's attack on the road map, like the
outpost attack he strategized, is being done through subterfuge. That's why
the Israeli public relations establishment enlisted the services of three
leading American experts on U.S. public opinion, in other words,
spinmeisters. Republican consultant Frank Luntz, Democratic
consultant Stanley Greenburg (who worked for Bill Clinton and on
Ehud Barak's peace campaign), and political consultant Jennifer
Laszlo-Mizrahi. Luntz was here last week to meet with the heads
of the Israeli government's public relations team, including Gideon Meir,
the Foreign Ministry's deputy director general for communications and
information, and the prime minister's media adviser Ra'anan Gissin.
He presented them with the results of polls and focus group studies
conducted by his company in Chicago and Los Angeles during the first 10 days
of the Iraq war. Meir says the wise recommendations provided by
Luntz and his colleagues have become the guiding lights of the Israel
and Jewish public relations effort in the U.S. The million dollar plus
research was paid for by Jewish donors. Luntz laid out his recommendations
in a lengthy detailed memo. The purpose of the document, he says at the
opening, is to help Israel supporters get their message across about the
best way to 'solve' (the quotes are in the original) the Israel-Palestinian
conflict, before the world's attention is drawn to the road map. 'There will
certainly be some people,' says Luntz, 'particularly those on the political
left, who will oppose whatever words you use, but the language that follows
will help you secure support from a large majority of Americans.' In places,
he provides verbatim speeches for pro-Israeli opinion makers. Some selected
quotes from the Luntz memo: 'The good news is that the American people
firmly believe that if the Palestinians want to demonstrate sincere
commitment to peace, they must abide by the tenants of the president's
soon-to-be-released road map. The not-as-good news is that they expect
exactly same from Israel and they demand it immediately' ... 'Link Iraqi
liberation with the plight of the Palestinian people. If you express your
concern for the plight of the Palestinian people and how it is unfair,
unjust and immoral that they should be forced to accept leaders who steal
and kill in their name, you will be building credibility for your support of
the average Palestinian while undermining the credibility of their
leadership ... Yes, this IS a double standard but that's just the way things
are. A little humility goes a long way. You need to talk continually about
your understanding of `the plight of the Palestinians' and a commitment to
helping them ... 'Democracy loves company. So far, one of Israel's most
effective messages has been that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle
East. It's time to take that message one step further. Emphatically state
that while you are proud of Israel's democracy, you would much rather be the
first democracy in the Middle East than the only democracy in the Middle
East ... 'Find yourself a good female spokesman. In all our testing, women
are found to be more credible than men. And if the woman has children,
that's even better ... Asking a question to which there is only one answer
is hard to lose. It is essential that your communication be laced with
rhetorical questions, which is how Jews talk anyway. (Luntz is
Jewish.)"
Bush unchallenged by media,
by LINDA MCQUAIG, Toronto Star, May 25, 2003
"When Stockwell Day arrived by skidoo in a wetsuit, Canadians laughed. When
George Bush arrived by fighter jet in a combat suit, Americans called him a
hero. That says a lot about the difference between Canadians and Americans
these days. Canadians aren't so easily conned ... Bush's fighter-plane
landing on the deck of a U.S. battleship earlier this month, and his
emergence from the cockpit in combat gear and mussed-up hair, was even more
stage-managed (right down to the soft-tone sunset lighting and the 'Mission
Accomplished' backdrop sign perfectly angled for TV viewers) ... Only an
administration supremely confident of the media's docility would have risked
staging an event like that, leaving Bush open to ridicule from any media
outlet that saw its role as more than simply being a chronicler of Tales of
Fearless Leaders. This media docility has allowed the Bush administration to
go largely unchallenged as it adopts the mantle of an imperial presidency.
Some of the administration's most rabid hawks have even come close to
realizing their dream — implementing the ultra-elitist ideas of an obscure
political philosopher named Leo Strauss. There's been a buzz recently
over reports that Strauss, who shaped the neoconservative revolution
from his post at the University of Chicago, is lionized by (among others)
Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, widely seen as the architect
of Washington's post-9/11 strategy. Media accounts have focused on Strauss'
advocacy of strong leadership, devoting less attention to his
anti-democratic leanings. Central to the Straussian vision is a
docile citizenry, kept uninformed and easy to manipulate through perpetual
fear of external attack. 'Deception of the citizens by those in power is
critical,' explains Shadia Drury, a University of Calgary political
scientist and author of Leo Strauss And The American Right.
Accordingly, a terrified American public was kept under the mistaken
illusion that Saddam Hussein had 'weapons of mass destruction' and would
soon strike America if America didn't strike first. Clearly, a vigorous,
questioning American media could throw a spanner into the best-laid plans of
the White House Straussians, or 'Leocons' as they're sometimes
called, but there seems to be little chance of that these days."
Back in Political Forefront. Iran-Contra Figure Plays Key Role on Mideast,
By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post, May 27,
2003; Page A01
"A cycle of disgrace and redemption has brought one of Washington's most
accomplished -- and controversial -- bureaucratic infighters back to the
center of U.S. foreign policy decision-making. When Elliott Abrams
stood in front of a federal judge in October 1991 and pleaded guilty to two
misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress, few imagined he
would ever return to government. At age 43, he had become one of the
casualties of the Iran-contra scandal, detested by Democrats for his
combative political style and mistrusted by human rights activists for
playing down the crimes of right-wing dictatorships in Central America.
Twelve years later, Abrams is helping to shape White House policies
toward many of the world's trouble spots. Appointed in December as President
Bush's senior adviser on the Middle East, his responsibilities extend from
Algeria to Iran. But nowhere is his influence more evident than on the
Arab-Israeli peace process. A self-described 'neo-conservative and
neo-Reaganite' with strong ties to Jews and evangelical Christians,
Abrams has become a flash point for the debate on how much pressure the
Bush administration is prepared to apply to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon to reach an agreement with the Palestinians ... Abrams's
supporters emphasize his formidable bureaucratic skills, and say his pro-Sharon
views will provide political cover for the administration in extracting
concessions from a reluctant Israeli government. His enemies depict him as a
partisan, ideological figure who pays a lot of attention to the pro-Israel
lobby, but has yet to reach out to Arab Americans. Abrams's
appointment raised a 'red flag for me and my community,' said Khalil
Jahshan, director of government affairs for the Arab-American
Anti-Discrimination Committee. 'If the president is serious about a
two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he picked the wrong
person to manage the policy for him' ... 'He is relentless in pursuit of his
agenda,' said someone who has clashed with him in internal administration
debates. 'If that means pushing people out of the way who disagree with him,
then that is what he will do.' The White House declined requests for an
interview with Abrams ... Administration rivals say Abrams
worked behind the scenes to rewrite the road map on the basis of critiques
drawn up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, a
leading Jewish American lobby group ... Much of Abrams's adult life,
beginning with his days as a Harvard Law School student during the
tumultuous 1960s, has been preparation for an important role in government.
In conventional political terms, he was a liberal, criticizing the Vietnam
War and the Cambridge police for using force to end a 1969 student strike.
... Abrams joined the neo-conservative aristocracy in March 1980
through his marriage to Rachel Decter, daughter of conservative
pundits Norman Podhoretz and Midge Decter. By the time Ronald
Reagan was elected president later that year, Abrams had become a
Republican ... Abrams also had problems with Congress over the
Iran-contra scandal. In 1991, he was forced to admit in court that he had
not disclosed his knowledge of a secret contra supply network and his
solicitation of a $10 million contribution for the contras from the sultan
of Brunei. He received a pardon from President George H.W. Bush in December
1992 ... As president of the Center for Ethics and Public Policy, a
Washington-based religious think tank, Abrams called for
reconciliation between Jews and conservative Christians. He also wrote about
the threats to the Jewish identity in the United States because of
assimilation and intermarriage, arguing that it is important for Jews to
understand that 'tomorrow's lobby for Israel has got to be conservative
Christians because there aren't going to be enough Jews to do it.' Under the
Bush administration, evangelical Christians have emerged as an important
source of political support for Israel."
Israel's America,
By B.A. Jeddy, Dawn (Pakistan), June 1, 2002
"With the help of a strong Jewish lobby within the corridors of power in the
US, Israel is well in control of the biggest and the baddest bully in the
world. Most people wonder why the United States of America treats Israel
like a spoilt child? Every year it gives Israel tremendous financial aid in
excess of three to five billion dollars, in the process supporting it
unreservedly in its policy of inhuman atrocities against the Palestinians.
America also uses its veto to block any adverse Security Council resolution
that might be against the interests of Israel. It also completely ignores
the fact that Israel reportedly has a deadly arsenal of over 300 nuclear
bombs. It is a well-known fact that most of the print and audio-visual media
that has an impact on the minds of the American public is controlled by
Jews. Just how tight this control is consider the following examples. A few
weeks ago an American free-lancer wrote in an English paper that after he
had published an anti-Israeli feature in a paper, which had previously
accepted all his work, he was told his writing would no longer be required.
Then there is the story narrated by a British General, Sir John Glubb,
popularly known as Glubb Pasha. He had commanded the Arab Legion in Jordan
from 1939 to 1956 and defended that country's borders against Israeli
incursions during the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some well-acclaimed books of
his experiences had already been published in England. After his retirement
in the sixties he wrote down the eventful story of his life and took it to
the US, hoping to find a bigger market. But the first question he was asked
by American literary agents was, 'Does it contain any material derogatory to
Israel?' On his affirmation it was rejected outright. On the 16th of March a
23 year old American peace activist' Rachel Corrie, was killed in cold blood
as she courageously tried to stop an Israeli bulldozer from destroying a
Palestinian family home. But the cruel murder of even an American citizen
received only muted publicity in the American press. Jews manage to control
the media by becoming the owners of most public impact papers and magazines.
They also acquire a hold on many politicians and legislators. Politics in
America is a game of big money. There is hardly a congressman or woman who
has not been financed by the American Israeli Public Action Committee, AIPC
for short. Even after being elected if anyone does not toe the line of the
AIPC, they are quickly surfed out by having buckets of sewage of past
misdeeds thrown at them in the papers."
The Strategist
and the Philosopher: Leo Strauss and Albert Wohlstetter, By ALAIN
FRACHON and DANIEL VERNET, Counterpunch, June
2, 2003 (Translated from an April 16, 2003 Le Monde article).
"Who are the neoconservatives playing a vital role in the US president's
choices by the side of Christian fundamentalists? And who were their master
thinkers, Albert Wohlstetter and Leo Strauss? It was said in
the tone of sincere praise: 'You are some of our country's best brains'. So
good, added George W. Bush, 'that my government employs around twenty of
you.' The president was addressing the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington DC on February 23 (quote from an article published in Le Monde,
March 20, 2003). He was paying homage to a think tank that is one of the
bastions of the American neoconservative movement. He was saluting a school
of thought that has marked his presidency, avowing everything he owes to an
intellectual stream whose influence is now predominant. He was also
acknowledging the fact of being surrounded by neoconservatives, and giving
them credit for the vital role they play in his political choices ... Where
do the intellectual origins of Bushian neoconservatism lie? The
neoconservatives must not be confused with Christian fundamentalists who are
also found in George W. Bush's entourage. They have nothing to do with the
renaissance of protestant fundamentalism begun in the southern Bible Belt
states, which is one of the rising powers in today's Republican Party.
Neoconservatism is from the East Coast, and a little Californian as well.
Those who have inspired them have an 'intellectual' profile. Often they are
New Yorkers, often Jewish, having their
beginnings 'on the Left'. Some still call themselves Democrats. They have
their hands on literary or political reviews, not the Bible ... George W.
Bush has brought the neoconservatives and Christian fundamentalists to
co-exist. ... [Paul] Wolfowitz is for his part a brilliant
product of East Coast universities. He has studied with two of the most
eminent professors of the 1960s. Allan Bloom, the discipline of the
German-Jewish philosopher, Leo Strauss, and Albert Wohlstetter,
professor of mathematics and a specialist in military strategy. These two
names would end up counting. The neoconservatives have placed themselves
under the tutelary shadow of the strategist and the philosopher.
'Neoconservative' is a misnomer. They have nothing in common with those
striving to guarantee the established order. They reject just about all the
attributes of political conservatism as it is understood in Europe ... As
idealist-optimists convinced of the universal value of the American
democratic model, they want to bring the status quo and soft consensus to an
end. They believe in the power of politics to change things ... As critics
of the Sixties' balance sheet who are opposed to Henry Kissinger's
diplomatic realism, they are anti-establishment. Irving Kristol and
Norman Podhoretz, the founders of Commentary and two of
neoconservatism's New-York godfathers, come from the Left. ... In the 1970s,
the Democratic Senator from Washington State, Henry Jackson (d. 1983)
criticized the major treaties on nuclear disarmament. He helped shape a
generation of young lions keenly interested in strategy, in which one comes
across Richard Perle and William Kristol. The latter had
attended Allan Bloom's lectures. From within the administration and
from without, Richard Perle would meet up with Paul Wolfowitz
when they both worked for Kenneth Adelman, another contrarian of
Détente policies, or Charles Fairbanks, Under-Secretary of State. In
strategic matters, their guru was Albert Wohlstetter. A researcher at
the RAND Corporation, Pentagon advisor and a gastronomy connoisseur
nevertheless, Wohlstetter (d. 1997) was one of the fathers of the
American nuclear doctrine. More precisely, he engaged in the early attempts
to reformulate the traditional doctrine that had been the basis for nuclear
deterrence: the so-called MAD or "Mutual-Assured Destruction". According to
that theory, as both blocs had the capacity to inflict irreparable damage
onto each other, their leaders would think twice before unleashing a nuclear
attack. For Wohlstetter and his students, MAD was both immoral--due to the
destruction it would inflict on civilian populations--and ineffective: it
would end up in a mutual neutralization of nuclear arsenals ... In Perle
and Wolfowitz's tracks, one meets Elliott Abrams, these
days in charge of the Middle-East at the National Security Council, and
Douglas Feith, an Under-Secretary of Defense. They
all share unconditional support for the policies of the State of Israel,
whatever government sits in Jerusalem. This unwavering support
explains how they have stoically sided with Ariel Sharon. President Ronald
Reagan's two mandates (1981 and 1985) gave many of them the opportunity to
exercise their first responsibilities in government. In Washington DC, the
neoconservatives have woven their web. Creativity is on their side.
Throughout the years, they have marginalized intellectuals from the
Democratic center and centre-left to hold a preponderant place where the
ideas that dominate the political scene are forged. Among their fora are
reviews such as the National Review, Commentary, the New Republic, headed
for a time by the young 'Straussian' Andrew Sullivan; the Weekly Standard,
once under the ownership of the Murdoch group, whose Fox News television
network takes care of broadcasting the vulgarized version of neoconservative
thought. Under Robert Bartley's charge, the editorial pages of the Wall
Street Journal have also fallen into neoconservatist activism without
qualms. Their hunting grounds are also the research institutes and think
tanks such as the Hudson Institute, the Heritage Foundation or the American
Enterprise Institute. Families play a role as well: Irving Kristol's
son, the very urbane William Kristol runs the Weekly Standard; one of
Norman Podhoretz's sons worked for the Reagan administration; the son
of Richard Pipes--a Polish Jew who emigrated to the US in 1939 to
become a Harvard University professor and one of the major critics of Soviet
communism--Daniel Pipes has denounced Islamism as a new
totalitarianism threatening the West. These men are not isolationists, on
the contrary. They are usually very well-educated, having vast knowledge of
foreign countries whose languages they have often mastered. They share
nothing with Patrick Buchanan's reactionary populism, which espouses a US
retreat to deal with its domestic problems. The neoconservatives are
internationalists, partisans of a resolute US activism in the world ...
Either by filiation or capillary action (Allan Bloom, Paul
Wolfowitz, William Kristol and so on), Strauss's
philosophy has served as neoconservatism's theoretical substratum.
Strauss hardly ever wrote on current political affairs or international
relations. He was read and recognized for his immense erudition of the
classical Greek texts and Christian, Jewish and Islamic scriptures. He was
feted for the power of his interpretive method. "He grafted classical
philosophy to German profundity in a country lacking a great philosophical
tradition", explains Jean-Claude Casanova who was sent to study in the US by
his mentor, Raymond Aron. Aron admired Strauss greatly,
whom he had met in Berlin before the war."
Anti-Israel German Politician Did Not Kill Himself: Friends,
By Khaled Schmitt, June 6, 2003, IslamOnline.net
"Friends of Germany's former deputy chancellor Juergen Moellemann, who died
Thursday, June 5, in a parachute jump, refuted media reports he committed
suicide to escape state prosecution over his pro-Arabs and Muslims and
anti-Israel stances. They asserted he intended to set up a new party and
called on Arab and Muslim communities to join up. One of the prominent
German politician's close associates added there was nothing that could have
possibly pushed him to commit suicide. A former advertising executive and a
vigorous self- promoter, Moellemann has enjoyed a high morale at recent
days, he said. The same argument was supported by an eyewitness who told the
NTV news channel the deceased handled his parachute easily and calmly before
his skydiving, excluding any possible suicide attempt ... Reinicke put three
possibilities for the death of Moellemann, a former economy minister and
deputy chancellor from 1991 to 1993 when the Free Democratic Party (FDP) was
junior partner in a coalition with the conservatives under Helmut Kohl. 'We
are of course investigating all possibilities. The range of possibilities in
such a case is very large. You can put them in three categories - an
accident, a suicide or sabotage, for instance manipulation of the parachute
by another person.' Vicious Campaign Moellemann recently came under a
ferocious campaign from the FDP and media outlets for his anti-Israeli
remarks and his sympathy with Arab causes. A lawmaker and leader of the
German-Arab Friendship Society, he was a combative maverick known for his
pro-Arab positions. Moellemann had complained of being victim of a witch
hunt after his war of words with leading Jewish members of the party and his
criticism of Michael Friedman, deputy head of Germany's Jewish community and
Israeli Premier Ariel Sharon. Although he gained the largest number of votes
in the last free elections, the prominent politician was ostracized from the
FDP in March allegedly because his popularity slump on his anti-Israel
stance. On Thursday, prosecutors searched Moellemann's home, office in
Muenster, western Germany, over charges of violating elections laws by
receiving Arab donations to finance a leaflet criticizing the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian territories during his election campaign. The
leaflet dubbed Israel an 'occupation state' and reaffirmed support for
Palestinian resistance attacks against Israeli targets. Moellemann had
stressed he would do the same should any country occupy Germany, accusing
Sharon of practicing state terrorism against armless Palestinians. He
was the first German official in the 1970s to establish strong relations
with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its chairman Yasser
Arafat. Moellemann is also known for his close ties with other Arab
leaders."
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