{"id":1433,"date":"2006-08-08T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2006-08-08T10:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2006-08-08T10:15:12","modified_gmt":"2006-08-08T10:15:12","slug":"2006-8-8-the-nation-on-aipac-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/?p=1433","title":{"rendered":"The Nation on AIPAC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/docprint.mhtml?i=20060814&amp;s=aipacs_hold\">The Nation on AIPAC<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution &#8220;condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel&#8217;s exercise of its right to self-defense.&#8221; After <strong>House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging &#8220;all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure,&#8221; <\/strong>the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it<\/strong>. &#8220;They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC,&#8221; said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t prepare one.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Other choice quotes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that <strong>to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics.<\/strong>&#8220;<\/p>\n<p>. . .<\/p>\n<p>Former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross addressed a packed AIPAC-sponsored luncheon on the Hill, where, according to one aide present,<strong> Ross told the room: &#8220;This is all about Syria and Iran&#8230;we shouldn&#8217;t be condemning Israel now.&#8221;<br \/><\/strong><br \/>. . .<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, during the 2004 campaign Dean called on the United States to be an &#8220;evenhanded&#8221; broker in the Middle East. That position enraged party leaders such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who signed a letter attacking his remarks. &#8220;It was designed to send a message: No one ever does this again,&#8221; says M.J. Rosenberg of the center-left Israel Policy Forum. &#8220;And no one has. <strong>The only safe thing to say is: I support Israel<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>. . .<\/p>\n<p>By blindly following AIPAC, Congress reinforces a hard-line consensus: <strong>Criticizing Israeli actions, even in the best of faith, is anti-Israel and possibly anti-Semitic<\/strong>; enthusiastically backing whatever military action Israel undertakes is the only acceptable stance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s a problem here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related:<\/strong><br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/world\/na\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7255198\">To Israel with love<\/a> (Economist)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div data-src=\"v5\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/docprint.mhtml?i=20060814&amp;s=aipacs_hold\">The Nation on AIPAC<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution &#8220;condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel&#8217;s exercise of its right to self-defense.&#8221; After <strong>House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging &#8220;all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure,&#8221; <\/strong>the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.<br \/>\n<strong>AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it<\/strong>. &#8220;They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC,&#8221; said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t prepare one.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Other choice quotes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;When it comes to the Israeli-Arab conflict, the terms of debate are so influenced by organized Jewish groups, like AIPAC, that <strong>to be critical of Israel is to deny oneself the ability to succeed in American politics.<\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n. . .<br \/>\nFormer Middle East envoy Dennis Ross addressed a packed AIPAC-sponsored luncheon on the Hill, where, according to one aide present,<strong> Ross told the room: &#8220;This is all about Syria and Iran&#8230;we shouldn&#8217;t be condemning Israel now.&#8221;<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\n. . .<br \/>\nIronically, during the 2004 campaign Dean called on the United States to be an &#8220;evenhanded&#8221; broker in the Middle East. That position enraged party leaders such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, who signed a letter attacking his remarks. &#8220;It was designed to send a message: No one ever does this again,&#8221; says M.J. Rosenberg of the center-left Israel Policy Forum. &#8220;And no one has. <strong>The only safe thing to say is: I support Israel<\/strong>.&#8221;<br \/>\n. . .<br \/>\nBy blindly following AIPAC, Congress reinforces a hard-line consensus: <strong>Criticizing Israeli actions, even in the best of faith, is anti-Israel and possibly anti-Semitic<\/strong>; enthusiastically backing whatever military action Israel undertakes is the only acceptable stance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There&#8217;s a problem here.<br \/>\n<strong>Related:<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/world\/na\/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7255198\">To Israel with love<\/a> (Economist)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[59,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amrani.cc\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}