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Rose By Another Other Name The Bush Administration's Dual Loyalties,
by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON, former CIA political analysts,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002 [IMPORTANT
ARTICLE!]
"Since the long-forgotten days when the State Department's Middle
East policy was run by a group of so-called Arabists, U.S. policy on Israel
and the Arab world has increasingly become the purview of officials well
known for tilting toward Israel. From the 1920s roughly to 1990, Arabists,
who had a personal history and an educational background in the Arab world
and were accused by supporters of Israel of being totally biased toward
Arab interests, held sway at the State Department and, despite having
limited power in the policymaking circles of any administration, helped
maintain some semblance of U.S. balance by keeping policy from tipping
over totally toward Israel. But Arabists have been steadily replaced by
their exact opposites, what some observers are calling Israelists, and
policymaking circles throughout government now no longer even make a pretense
of exhibiting balance between Israeli and Arab, particularly Palestinian,
interests. In the Clinton administration, the three most senior State
Department officials dealing with the Palestinian-Israeli peace process
were all partisans of Israel to one degree or another. All had lived at
least for brief periods in Israel and maintained ties with Israel while
in office, occasionally vacationing there. One of these officials had
worked both as a pro-Israel lobbyist and as director of a pro-Israel think
tank in Washington before taking a position in the Clinton administration
from which he helped make policy on Palestinian-Israeli issues. Another
has headed the pro-Israel think tank since leaving government. The link
between active promoters of Israeli interests and policymaking circles
is stronger by several orders of magnitude in the Bush administration,
which is peppered with people who have long records of activism on behalf
of Israel in the United States, of policy advocacy in Israel, and of promoting
an agenda for Israel often at odds with existing U.S. policy. These people,
who can fairly be called Israeli loyalists, are now at all levels of government,
from desk officers at the Defense Department to the deputy secretary level
at both State and Defense, as well as on the National Security Council
staff and in the vice president's office. We still tiptoe around putting
a name to this phenomenon. We write articles about the neo-conservatives'
agenda on U.S.-Israeli relations and imply that in the neo-con universe
there is little light between the two countries. We talk openly about
the Israeli bias in the U.S. media. We make wry jokes about Congress being
'Israeli-occupied territory.' Jason Vest in The Nation magazine
reported forthrightly that some of the think tanks that hold sway over
Bush administration thinking see no difference between U.S. and Israeli
national security interests. But we never pronounce the particular words
that best describe the real meaning of those observations and wry remarks.
It's time, however, that we say the words out loud and deal with what
they really signify. Dual loyalties. The
issue we are dealing with in the Bush administration is dual loyalties-the
double allegiance of those myriad officials at high and middle levels
who cannot distinguish U.S. interests from Israeli interests, who baldly
promote the supposed identity of interests between the United States and
Israel, who spent their early careers giving policy advice to right-wing
Israeli governments and now give the identical advice to a right-wing
U.S. government, and who, one suspects, are so wrapped up in their concern
for the fate of Israel that they honestly do not know whether their own
passion about advancing the U.S. imperium is motivated primarily by America-first
patriotism or is governed first and foremost by a desire to secure Israel's
safety and predominance in the Middle East through the advancement of
the U.S. imperium. "Dual loyalties" has always been one of those red flags
posted around the subject of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, something
that induces horrified gasps and rapid heartbeats because of its implication
of Jewish disloyalty to the United States and the common assumption that
anyone who would speak such a canard is ipso facto an anti-Semite ...
But an examination of the cast of characters in Bush administration policymaking
circles reveals a startlingly pervasive network of pro-Israel activists,
and an examination of the neo-cons' voluminous written record shows that
Israel comes up constantly as a neo-con reference point, always mentioned
with the United States as the beneficiary of a recommended policy, always
linked with the United States when national interests are at issue ...
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz leads the pack. He was
a protégé of Richard Perle, who heads the prominent Pentagon advisory
body, the Defense Policy Board. Many of today's neo-cons, including Perle,
are the intellectual progeny of the late Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson,
a strong defense hawk and one of Israel's most strident congressional
supporters in the 1970s. Wolfowitz in turn is the mentor of Lewis
"Scooter" Libby, now Vice President Cheney's chief of staff who was first
a student of Wolfowitz and later a subordinate during the 1980s
in both the State and the Defense Departments. Another Perle protégé is
Douglas Feith, who is currently undersecretary of defense for policy,
the department's number-three man, and has worked closely with Perle both
as a lobbyist for Turkey and in co-authoring strategy papers for right-wing
Israeli governments. Assistant Secretaries Peter Rodman and Dov
Zachkeim, old hands from the Reagan administration when the neo-cons
first flourished, fill out the subcabinet ranks at Defense. At lower levels,
the Israel and the Syria/Lebanon desk officers at Defense are imports
from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank spun
off from the pro-Israel lobby organization, AIPAC. Neo-cons have not made
many inroads at the State Department, except for John Bolton, an
American Enterprise Institute hawk and Israeli proponent who is said to
have been forced on a reluctant Colin Powell as undersecretary for arms
control. Bolton's special assistant is David Wurmser, who
wrote and/or co-authored with Perle and Feith at least two
strategy papers for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1996. Wurmser's
wife, Meyrav Wurmser, is a co-founder of the media-watch website
MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), which is run by retired
Israeli military and intelligence officers and specializes in translating
and widely circulating Arab media and statements by Arab leaders ... In
the vice president's office, Cheney has established his own personal national
security staff, run by aides known to be very pro-Israel. The deputy director
of the staff, John Hannah, is a former fellow of the Israeli-oriented
Washington Institute. On the National Security Council staff, the newly
appointed director of Middle East affairs is Elliott Abrams, who
came to prominence after pleading guilty to withholding information from
Congress during the Iran-contra scandal (and was pardoned by President
Bush the elder) and who has long been a vocal proponent of right-wing
Israeli positions. Putting him in a key policymaking position on the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict is like entrusting the henhouse to a fox. Pro-Israel activists
with close links to the administration are also busy in the information
arena inside and outside government. The head of Radio Liberty, a Cold
War propaganda holdover now converted to service in the "war on terror,"
is Thomas Dine, who was the very active head of AIPAC throughout
most of the Reagan and the Bush-41 administrations. Elsewhere on the periphery,
William Kristol, son of neo-con originals Irving Kristol
and Gertrude Himmelfarb, is closely linked to the administration's
pro-Israel coterie and serves as its cheerleader through the Rupert Murdoch-owned
magazine that he edits, The Weekly Standard. Some of Bush's speechwriters
including David Frum, who coined the term 'axis of evil' for
Bush's state-of-the-union address but was forced to resign when his wife
publicly bragged about his linguistic prowess have come from The
Weekly Standard. Frank Gaffney, another Jackson and Perle
protégé and Reagan administration defense official, puts his pro-Israel
oar in from his think tank, the Center for Security Policy, and through
frequent media appearances and regular columns in the Washington Times.
The incestuous nature of the proliferating boards and think tanks, whose
membership lists are more or less identical and totally interchangeable,
is frighteningly insidious ... Probably the most important organization,
in terms of its influence on Bush administration policy formulation, is
the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Formed after
the 1973 Arab-Israeli war specifically to bring Israel's security concerns
to the attention of U.S. policymakers and concentrating also on broad
defense issues, the extremely hawkish, right-wing JINSA has always had
a high-powered board able to place its members inside conservative U.S.
administrations. Cheney, Bolton, and Feith were members
until they entered the Bush administration. Several lower level JINSA
functionaries are now working in the Defense Department. Perle
is still a member, as are Kirkpatrick, former CIA director and leading
Iraq-war hawk James Woolsey, and old-time rabid pro-Israel types like
Eugene Rostow and Michael Ledeen. Both JINSA and Gaffney's
Center for Security Policy are heavily underwritten by Irving Moskowitz,
a right-wing American Zionist, California business magnate (his money
comes from bingo parlors), and JINSA board member who has lavishly financed
the establishment of several religious settlements in Arab East Jerusalem.
By Their Own Testimony Most of the neo-cons now in government have left
a long paper trail giving clear evidence of their fervently right-wing
pro-Israel, and fervently anti-Palestinian, sentiments ... A recent New
York Times Magazine profile by the Times' Bill Keller cites critics
who say that 'Israel exercises a powerful gravitational pull on the man'
and notes that as a teenager Wolfowitz lived in Israel during his
mathematician father's sabbatical semester there. His sister is married
to an Israeli. Keller even somewhat reluctantly acknowledges the accuracy
of one characterization of Wolfowitz as 'Israel-centric.'"
Thoughts
At The End Of A Tumultuous Year,
by Ed Koch (former
mayor of New York, 1978-1990)
Jewish Press, December 11, 2002
"We are now going through the most virulent anti-Semitic period since
Hitler and Stalin. Nearly 60 years after the end of World War II almost
every country on the European continent, including England, France, Germany,
Holland, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries, has seen major outbreaks
of physical violence against its Jewish citizens, and against Jewish institutions,
including synagogues and cemeteries. At the same time, open hostility
toward the State of Israel is at an all-time high. Only in the United
States have we seen a full acceptance of Jews as citizens and the Jewish
state treated as a friend and ally by an overwhelming number of fellow
citizens. In the U.S., Jews have been permitted to rise and fall based
on their individual talents, virtues and faults. In one elite bastion
after another, Jews have been selected to head institutions heretofore
seen as beyond their reach. Today the presidents of Harvard and Yale Universities
are Jews, as are recent former presidents of Columbia and Princeton. Having
been elected three times as mayor of the City of New York, I have been
the beneficiary of this country`s generosity and freedom from bigotry,
and I will be eternally grateful. Americans traditionally make New Year`s
resolutions. Before I list my own resolutions, I want to thank President
George W. Bush and his advisers, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National
Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice for their support of the State of Israel.
They could easily have jettisoned Israel as a liability in their efforts
to forge an international coalition against worldwide terrorism. I will
be forever grateful to them, and I hope that many other supporters of
the State of Israel will recognize and appreciate what they have done.
Fortunately for Jews and the State of Israel, American support of the
Jewish nation has been bipartisan ... France leads those countries in
the Security Council who are the enemies of the State of Israel. So too
is Mexico, joining as a consistent supporter of resolutions unfairly denouncing
Israel at the U.N. Security Council. I will not support National Public
Radio in any way. NPR`s reporters and management delight in unfairly attacking
Israel. I will no longer lend financial support to New York`s Channel
Thirteen public television station. That station recently showed a documentary
that was blatantly biased against Israel and has refused to acknowledge
the bias or to try to correct it. I will not watch ABC`s World News Tonight
anchored by Peter Jennings. For many years, Jennings has specialized in
vicious and unfair portrayals of Israel intended to injure the Jewish
state and lionize Palestinians. BBC News is horrifically anti-Israel and
I will shun it completely. Susan Sontag will occupy the Ninth Circle
of Hell for her outrageous assaults on Israel. I will no longer read her
works. Regrettably, there are many others whom I could include on this
list, but I will leave that for another day. I must confess I got enormous
pleasure from the defeat of [African-American] Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
and her father in the recent primary elections in Georgia. In my view,
both are anti-Semitic and anti-Israel. No longer able to feed at the public
trough, I doubt that either will make a comparable living in the private
sector."
Newest
Jewish member of the House makes an impact his first day on the job,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 7, 2002
"With 20 years of experience in national politics, Rahm (D-Ill.)
Emanuel [D-Ill.], 43, who took the oath of office Tuesday along
with his 434 colleagues in the 108th Congress, is far from your ordinary
freshman. For many Democrats, with their party in the minority in both
houses of Congress, the arrival of this Jewish rising star on Capitol
Hill comes not a moment too soon ... Emanuel steps into the Washington
spotlight as the only new Jewish member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
His father, a pediatrician still practicing near Chicago, immigrated to
the United States from Israel and spoke Hebrew with his son when Emanuel
was a boy ... Swiftly moving up the ranks of the Democratic Party in the
Midwest, he went on to fund raise and direct a number of successful Illinois
campaigns before assuming a larger national role with the Democratic Party’s
fund-raising apparatus. In 1991 he was drafted to join the nascent Clinton
campaign in Little Rock, Ark. Toughness and good political instincts earned
him Clinton’s respect at the beginning of his relationship with the president.
As a top aide on the 1992 presidential campaign at age 32, Emanuel
sparred with then-Gov. Clinton over the campaign schedule, urging
the candidate to focus heavily on fund raising rather than campaigning
in New Hampshire, say former Clinton colleagues. Clinton acquiesced, eschewing
the New Hampshire trail for much of late 1991 in favor of feverish fund-
raisers. Emanuel’s gambit paid off, with the money providing a
crucial cushion as the negative attacks hit Clinton hard later on. 'It
was that million dollars that really allowed the campaign to withstand
the storm we had to ride out in New Hampshire' over Clinton’s alleged
relationship with Gennifer Flowers and the controversy over his draft
during the Vietnam War, said Richard Mintz, a Washington public
relations consultant who worked with Emanuel on the campaign. Emanuel’s
knowledge of the top donors in the country, his rapport with the heavily
Jewish donor community and his sheer chutzpah made the difference, as
Clinton amassed a then-unheard-of $72 million, say those involved with
the campaign. 'He schmoozed many, many millions all over the country,
including money from traditional Democratic party
givers, who are disproportionately Jewish, and new Democratic givers,'
said Steve Rabinowitz, a political and public relations consultant
in Washington who worked with the White House throughout the Clinton administration
... Running for the House last year, Emanuel got his first glimpse of
politics as a candidate, and faced an immediate test. A nasty primary
battle included a rare public case of anti-Semitism when the president
of the Polish American Congress, Ed Moskal, who was supporting candidate
Nancy Kaszak, claimed that Emanuel was an Israeli citizen and served
in the Israeli army. Moskal also called Emanuel a 'millionaire
carpetbagger who knows nothing' about 'our heritage.' Emanuel had
served a noncombat stint as a volunteer in the Israeli army during the
Gulf War, but he never held Israeli citizenship. Emanuel
responded coolly, supporters say, bringing a coalition of Chicago clergy
together to denounce the incident ... A defining moment for Emanuel
during his White House stint was an event which touched his political
sensibilities and his personal ties to Israel: the 1993 Rose Garden signing
ceremony after the Oslo accord between Israel and the Palestinians. Rahm
directed the details of the ceremony, down to the choreography of the
famous handshake between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat."
Washington
Scene: Rahm Departs. Israel's Man in the White House,
Mid-East Realities (Monthly Magazine), October
1998
"Enter Rahm Emmanuel. Until 1978 a dual
Israeli-American citizen, and a former officer in the Israeli army
some allege (unsubstantiated), Emmanuel was an up and comer, a
Jewish money man, a political fixer. And he was essentially tasked by
'the lobby' to join the Clinton campaign in Little Rock. Emmanuel
had never met Bill Clinton. But alot of the big-boys in 'the lobby' had,
and they were increasingly putting their hopes, and their money, on Bill
Clinton not only to retire and replace George Bush, but to do their things
way in Washington. A few months later, during the campaign, the President
of AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee[, the main front-organization
in Washington of 'the lobby', was forced to resign after a recording of
his bragging about his group's tremendous clout was made public. 'We have
a dozen of our guys in Little Rock' the AIPAC head proudly proclaimed
one afternoon. 'And when Clinton is elected he's going to be our man in
Washington.' One of those men was Rahm Emmanuel, who after 7 years
at Clinton's side leaves the White House today, his job completed. Another
of those men was Martin Indyk, at the time an Australian citizen
heading up the lobby's think-tank in Washington. Indyk and many
many others remain on the job -- he is now the Assistant Secretary of
State for the Middle East ... Far more scandalous than anything relating
to Monica [Lewinsky], or anything relating to a few foreign
dollars in recent campaigns, Bill Clinton's near complete capitulation
and sell-out of U.S. policies and interests to the Israeli/Jewish lobby
is the scandal no one in the American political or media establishment
dares investigate, or even mention."
Jews
in the Bush Adminstration,
Jewish Virtual Library ( from the Republican
Jewish Coalition),
Jews in the Bush Administration:
Ari Fleischer White House Press Secretary; Josh Bolten Deputy
Chief of Staff; Ken Melman White House Political Director; David
Frum Speechwriter; Brad Blakeman White House Director of Scheduling;
Dov Zakheim Undersecretary of Defense (Controller); Paul Wolfowitz
Deputy Secretary of Defense; I. Lewis Libby Chief of Staff
to the Vice President; Adam Goldman White House Liaison to the
Jewish Community; Chris Gersten Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary,
Administration for Children and Families at HHS; Elliott Abrams
Director of the National Security Council's Office for Democracy, Human
Rights and International Operations; Mark D. Weinberg Assistant
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs; Douglas
Feith Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; Michael Chertoff Head
of the Justice Department's criminal division; Daniel Kurtzer Ambassador
to Israel; Cliff Sobel Ambassador to the Netherlands; Stuart
Bernstein Ambassador to Denmark; Nancy Brinker Ambassador to
Hungary; Frank Lavin Ambassador to Singapore; Ron Weiser Ambassador
to Slovakia; Mel Sembler Ambassador to Italy; Martin Silverstein
Ambassador to Uruguay; Jay Lefkowitz Deputy Assistant to the President
and Director of the Domestic Policy Council
Notorious
brothers brush aside scandal and crimes in race for power, Questions of
character matter little as Israeli political parties jostle for position
in the elections,
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), December
14, 2002
"The next Israeli parliament is shaping up as a rogues gallery, the
last refuge for scoundrels clinging to public power. That is the picture
that emerged when the political factions submitted their candidates for
next month's elections. The ability of some figures to survive scandal
and intrigue in the name of 'democracy' is perhaps best illustrated by
the Yatom brothers. Ehud Yatom, a self-confessed murderer
of Palestinians in custody, was barred from becoming parliament's sergeant-at-arms
but there is no legal impediment to him becoming an MP for the ruling
Likud party. His older brother, Danny, a former head of the Israeli
spy agency Mossad who made headlines when he organised a bungled assassination
attempt in Jordan, is set to become a Labour Party MP. Of the two, Ehud,
54, is remembered for his role as a member of Shin Bet, Israel's secret
police, in what became known as the Bus 300 affair, involving four Palestinians
who hijacked a passenger bus in 1984. After he retired from the agency
in 1996 he admitted in an interview that he killed two of the surviving
Palestinian terrorists, who had been taken into custody. 'I smashed their
skulls, on orders of [the then Shin-Bet chief] Avarham Shalom,
and I'm proud of everything I've done,' the newspaper Yediot Ahronot
quoted him as saying. He later denied having made the statement but few
doubted that he had been quoted correctly ... Danny Yatom has also
been prone to scandal. He resigned as head of Mossad in 1997, after he
ordered the assassination of the Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the Jordanian
capital, Amman. Mr Mashaal survived the attempt to kill him with a lethal
injection in a busy street. Two of the Israeli agents involved in the
operation were caught by Jordanian security forces, and Israel only secured
their release by agreeing to release Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the then spiritual
leader and founder of Hamas, from an Israeli prison. But Danny Yatom
survived the embarrassing affair and later became security adviser to
the then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Barak, who lost power to
Mr Sharon last year. This week he secured the safe 12th spot on
the Labour Party ticket, which, according to recent opinion polls, will
guarantee him a place in the next parliament ... If, as the opinion polls
suggest, Israel is moving to the right, other controversial names will
soon surface. One of them is Baruch Marzel, who has the No 2 spot
on Michael Klenier's right-wing Herut list. A discipline of the
late Rabbi Meir Kahane, who formed the now outlawed anti-Arab Kach
movement, he is now confined to Jerusalem under a court order. The Kach
organisation was banned after the 1994 massacre of 29 Muslims in the divided
West Bank town of Hebron by a Jewish settler, Baruch Goldstein.
After the massacre Mr Marzel, a resident of the Jewish enclave
in Hebron, was placed under administrative detention for nearly three
years."
The Hypocrisy of
Lott's Critics,
Counterpunch, December 13, 2002
"[Al] Gore ran his 2000 campaign with the unflagging support of the
pro-Israel lobby. For years, as discussed by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey
St. Clair in Al Gore: A User's Manual, Gore has pandered to the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), taken direction from rabid
Zionist Martin Peretz (whose New Republic has also come
out with a duplicitous condemnation of Lott), and steadfastly defended
Israeli settlement policy. Pelosi (whose rise to leadership is supposedly
indicative of a 'liberal shift' in the Democratic Party) has argued that
'Prime Minister Barak made a generous and historic proposal at Camp David
in 2000' ... [Senator Joseph] Lieberman has prided himself
over the last two years as being further to the right on Israel than President
Bush. Commenting on Colin Powell's 'peace mission' to Israel and Palestine
in April 2002, Lieberman stated, 'I believe strongly we should
not ask Israelis to stop their war against terrorists until they have
achieved greater homeland security.' Later that month, in a statement
of support for a 'Resolution Expressing Solidarity With Israel,' he argued
that 'in supporting Israel's right to protect itself, to defend itself,
we are supporting our own war against terrorism,' adding that we must
not 'lose our bearings and muddy the moral clarity with which we began
and are carrying out our campaign against terror.' This 'moral clarity'
quickly becomes opaque when we compare outrage at American apartheid with
support for Israel's version of 'Jim Crow.' The 'Jewish State' has achieved
a system of Apartheid that would make Strom Thurmond blush. From schooling
to housing grants, from police protection to simple freedom of movement,
Palestinians not only in Israel, but especially in the Occupied Territories,
face ever-increasing deprivations in the face of domination by 'God's
Chosen People' ... Both the United States and Israel were founded as racist
states, though Israel more overtly so. Where, at its inception, the US
did pay some lip service to pluralism, the entire idea behind the founding
of Israel was that there should be a homeland where Jews would have special
status. This special status, defended by the likes of Gore, Lieberman,
and Pelosi, was what Strom Thurmond sought to preserve for whites in 1948.
One would only have to look as far as these politicians' support for the
racist, segregationist State of Israel to see the hypocrisy of their horror
over the racist nostalgia of Trent Lott."
GMT Cherie remains
focus of newspapers,
BBC, Sunday, 15 December, 2002
"The daily diet of stories about Cherie Blair [the wife of the British
prime minister] and her dealings with the conman, Peter Foster, has, according
to the Independent on Sunday, led to her husband backing a new
anti-sleaze law. Worried at the mistrust of politicians being made worse
by the fortnight of intense scrutiny of his wife's affairs, the prime
minister apparently wants MPs to be made subject to the same anti-corruption
laws as other public officials ... The Sunday Express claims Mr
Foster was ready to sell secrets of his dealings with Mrs Blair to the
Israeli secret service, Mossad. Intelligence sources have told the paper
that Mossad was also interested in Mr Foster's girlfriend, Carole Caplin,
because - as Mrs Blair's so-called life-style guru - she has close links
to the family."
Lieberman
Mulls Run As Gore Steps Aside,
Yahoo! (from Associated Press), December
16, 2002
"Al Gore left the field of potential 2004 Democratic presidential
candidates in a surprise move that immediately raised the stakes for a
half-dozen others pondering a run for the White House. Sen. Joseph
Lieberman said Monday he'll announce early next month whether he plans
to run ... Potential rivals moved quickly to praise Gore, who still has
a considerable following among Democratic voters. 'I want to simply say
thank you to Al Gore for his leadership, for his service and for the opportunity
he gave me to be his running mate in 2000, which makes possible the decision
that I'm going to make in the next couple of weeks,' Lieberman
said late Monday morning. 'I said I probably would run if Al Gore doesn't
run and that remains the case.'
Players:
Eric I. Cantor. From Freshman To Deputy Whip With Choice of 2nd-Term Va.
Lawmaker, GOP Hopes to Attract Jewish Voters,
Washington Post, December 16, 2002; Page
A23
"You know you've made it in Washington when someone names a sandwich
after you. Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist and co-owner of the newly
opened kosher deli Stacks, is already preparing to name one of his offerings
after Rep. Eric I. Cantor, the Virginia Republican who will be
starting only his second term when the new Congress convenes -- but he'll
be starting it as chief deputy whip for the House GOP. Although Abramoff
hasn't decided on the exact sandwich, he's ready to put Cantor's
name on the menu along with that of former vice president Al Gore's 2000
running mate. "He and [Sen. Joseph I.] Lieberman will be
the first two," said Abramoff, who is sponsoring a fundraiser for
Cantor next month. After just two years in office, Cantor,
39, a Richmond native, has secured a place at his party's leadership table
and emerged as one of Israel's most prominent defenders. As the only Jewish
Republican in the 108th Congress, he's also at the forefront of the GOP's
efforts to woo the Jewish community, seeking both dollars and votes from
a group allied with the Democrats for decades. 'We have a great opportunity
to reach out to Jewish voters, and Eric's been doing that already,' said
incoming Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). 'Now he'll be able to speak
as part of the House leadership.' Blunt surprised many in Washington when
he tapped Cantor after only one term to be his chief deputy. ...
Cantor, who sits on the House Committee on International Relations
and heads the House GOP Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare,
is best known on Capitol Hill for his work on the Middle East. He has
taken a hard-line approach to the Palestinians, sponsoring two separate
bills cutting off all aid to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman,
Yasser Arafat ... Cantor has used his ties with the Jewish community
and business groups to pad both his campaign coffers and aid his Republican
colleagues. He raised almost $1.3 million for his reelection effort, more
than 10 times his opponent's total." [NOTE: Eric
Cantor also "serves as Vice Chair of the Republican Israel
Caucus."]
Likud
sees lead wilt as inquiry mounts into alleged vote buying,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 17, 2002
"Pundits say a police investigation into allegations of corruption
in the selection of its Knesset candidates could cost Likud enough seats
to lose the election. While the Labor Party is facing its own investigation,
analysts say the scope of the Likud scandal could be enough to swing the
Jan. 28 election to Labor. According to the Likud’s own internal polls,
the scandal — which broke last week with allegations that aspiring Knesset
members had been asked to pay for political support — already has cost
Likud two or three seats. Party insiders say the trend seems to be continuing
... A secretary for one candidate told Israeli television that her boss
had asked her to hint to Central Committee members that she would be willing
to have sex with them in return for their votes ... Two members of the
Central Committee were detained Monday and place under house arrest Tuesday.
The arrests, carried out by the Israeli police force’s fraud division.
Some of the money for this heavy-duty canvassing was believed to come
from underworld figures, some of whom recently joined Likud. Enigmatic
reports surfaced in the press about 'criminal families' having funded
campaigns of Cabinet ministers and Knesset members, and of 'current
or past criminals' who had hosted senior ministers at their homes for
lunch or dinner ... Chemi Shalev, an analyst for the Ma’ariv
daily, wrote that 'there always was and always will be corruption in politics,
but in a place where representatives of the underworld are elected directly
to the legislature, it’s only a matter of time before the pagan idol takes
over the temple from within' ... The Likud is seriously considering hiring
American spin doctor Arthur Finkelstein, master of the negative
campaign, who ran Benjamin Netanyahu’s 1996 and 1999 prime ministerial
bids. Labor is sure to keep the Likud bribery and corruption allegations
on the public agenda for as long as possible."
Poll
Analysis: Americans Are of Two Minds About War in Iraq,
by Susan Pinkus, Los Angeles Times, December
17, 2002
"More than half of the American public believe George W. Bush is
not getting a balanced view of whether to go to war or not from his advisors,
but rather a more hawkish view favoring military action in Iraq, according
to a new Los Angeles Times poll ... Fifty-one percent believe Bush
is only listening to the advisors who advocate war, rather than receiving
a balanced perspective (20%) or even a view opposing the war (11%)."
Arab
Nations Seek to Condemn Israel,
Associated Press (here at Earthlink), December
17, 2002
"Arab nations pushed for condemnation of Israel for the recent killings
of three U.N. workers and the United Nations urged the Israeli government
to stop using excessive force in civilian areas. Syria circulated a resolution
expressing 'grave concern' at the killings by Israeli troops after U.N.
Mideast envoy Terje Roed-Larsen on Monday strongly criticized Israel's
conduct at an open Security Council meeting and called for its defense
forces to behave 'with greater restraint and discipline.' Several council
diplomats said the resolution might get the backing of 14 of the 15 members
but the United States, Israel's closest council ally, was almost certain
to oppose it and would likely cast a veto if necessary."
The
political wing of organized crime,
by Amir Oren, Ha'aretz (Israel), December
17, 2002
"The how-to guide to making an MK [Member of Knesset, Israel's Parliament]
: Take all your relatives, friends, acquaintances and employees, have
them sign on as members of the Likud, use all your clout at the local
branch to be elected to the central committee, and proceed to wheel and
deal. It pays off. To gain election to the central committee from the
largest local branch of the party (in Tel Aviv) all it takes is about
50 registered members, and if you've covered their expenses, the NIS 3,200
you spent on their membership dues will soon be recompensed by Knesset
hopefuls ... In Labor, but mainly in Likud [the two major Israeli political
parties] , the primaries are tainted by criminal behavior - they might
better be known as 'crimaries.' Criminologists find parallels between
terror groups and criminal organizations, which pose a similar level of
danger to the foundations of the state ... Organized crime has spawned
a political wing, and is penetrating the government echelons. It is literally
taking the law into its own hands. Its influence will be felt in legislation,
votes (for the Judicial Selection Committee, the president - the vital
partner in the pardoning process - and the State Comptroller) and the
immunity granted from surveillance of home, office, car and telephones
registered in the name of an MK, unless a judge issues a permit ... No
longer a party [Likud] that has criminals in it, but criminals who have
a party. When three high-ranking officials of the Public Security Ministry
- the minister, his deputy and his assistant - were all subject to the
mercies of the central committee in the struggle over their places on
the list, very few organs of power remained outside the control of crime,
although perhaps in its sights - television (the "Broadcasting Committee"
of politics), the polling companies, and the Shin Bet - whose higher echelons
also were also clouded over early in the last decade by their over-closeness
to Aryeh Deri, who was then under police surveillance - which deals
only with political subversion. When the police investigations division
threatens the power of sources of criminal subversion, the latter enlist
their political partners to disrupt the investigators and the law."
The
new Latino-Jewish coalition?,
by Mica Rosenberg, Jewish Telegraphic Agency,
December 16, 2002
"... the organization [Rabbi Mark] Schneier heads,
the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding -- which has 13 years of experience
fostering intergroup ties -- is trying to expand its operations, especially
in the field of Latino-Jewish relations. So, too, is the Latino-Jewish
Leadership Council, which was created at the first-ever Latino-Jewish
Summit in March 2001. As the number of U.S. Latinos grows, members of
the council say it makes sense to link Jewish political experience with
Latino demographic influence. 'Hispanics and Jews have been working together
for many years, but only in an informal way,' says Dina Siegel Vann,
director of United Nations and Latin American affairs at B'nai B'rith
International. B'nai B'rith is one of the leading forces on the council,
which is headed by 15 board members ... The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
plans to open a Washington office by next summer to focus primarily on
Capitol Hill, working directly with legislators in the Hispanic and black
caucuses. Working together on a leadership level will allow Latinos and
Jews to mutually support each other on foreign policy concerns: Latino
leaders say they are willing to support Israel in exchange for Jewish
support for economic development aid to Latin America ... The goal of
the Council is to build a common agenda where possible, and to `find issues
which we can advocate together' said the AJCommittee's Ann Schaffer,
director of the Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Center for American Pluralism."
Jew Lichtinger Waisman behind eviction
of Zapatista settlements in Chiapas,
La Voz de Aztlan, December 17, 2002
"The Mexican Army was mobilized over the weekend to forcefully remove
Indigenous populations from the Lacandon jungle in Chiapas. The forced
evictions will effect eight indigenous communities, five of which are
bases of Zapatista support within the Montes Azules Biological Reserve.
The rich Lacandon forest of eastern Chiapas is under direct assault by
the Plan Puebla Panama. PPP is a gargantuan development project which
would open up the region stretching from Puebla, Mexico to Panama to facilitate
international business, including maquiladoras, oil extraction, genetic
prospecting (Mexico has 10% of plant species in the world, half of which
reside in Chiapas), logging, land conversion to plantations and ecotourism
for rich foreigners. This violent eviction is being implemented under
the guise of protecting the biological diversity of the region by Victor
Lichtinger Waisman, a cabinet level appointee of President
Vicente Fox. Lichtinger
is a Jew that heads La Secretarªa de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales,
SEMARNAT. The daily La Jornada of Mexico reported today that there
have been large caravans of yellow jeeps carrying foreigners and inspecting
the area. La Jornada was told that they were groups of tourists and that
each jeep carried the flag of their respective countries. However, when
La Jornada inspected photographs of the caravan this is what they
said (translation follows): 'Revisamos minuciosamente las fotografªas
y en los 38 vehªculos s£lo aparecen la bandera israelita y la mexicana.'
Translation: 'We reviewed in detail the photographs and noticed that in
the 38 vehicles only Israeli and Mexican flags were visible.' Vicente
Fox won the Mexican Presidency with Zionist money. Now it is time for
the Zionists to collect on their investment. (Read http://www.aztlan.net/foxfunds.htm)"
Australian Labour MP
Attacks 'Jewish Lobby,'
by Bernard Freedman, rense.com [from
Jewish News], December 19, 2002
"'You have taken on the most implacable, arrogant, cruel and powerful
lobby in the country.' -- media warning to Australia Labour Member of
Parliament
A scathing attack on 'the Jewish lobby' was launched by Australian Federal
Labor MP Julia Irwin this week. She charged 'the Jewish lobby' with being
responsible for a 'code of silence' forbidding parliamentary debate on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and quoted an email from an unnamed
'senior media commentator' warning her: 'You have taken on the most implacable,
arrogant, cruel and powerful lobby in the country', and advising that
she would be 'singled out for vilification and, if possible, political
destruction'. Asked why the commentator she quoted was anonymous, Irwin
told the Australian Jewish News she had promised not to reveal
the name because the commentator had 'felt the full force of the Jewish
lobby's fury a long time ago and had gone through hell'. 'Anyone speaking
or writing publicly on the Middle East can expect to be subjected to personal
attacks and to have assumptions made about their reasons for raising the
issue,' she said. Irwin -- who four weeks ago moved a private member's
motion attacking Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
leading to a vociferous debate -- told Federal Parliament she believed
her motion had broken a taboo on discussing the conflict. She said she
had received 'hundreds of messages', mostly supportive, following the
extensive media coverage of her motion, the debate it provoked and the
attempt by fellow-Labor (and Jewish) MP Michael Danby to have the
motion withdrawn. Her attack brought a swift response from Executive Council
of Australian Jewry president Jeremy Jones, who accused Irwin of
'conjuring up the bogeyman of a powerful Jewish lobby [that] might appeal
to antisemites, but certainly not to any reasonable observer'. 'She is
acting to protect herself from the criticism she deserves,' Jones
said. 'She puts her ignorance [on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] on
display and then complains about people who might point out her ignorance."
Bush
Administration to Propose System for Monitoring Internet,
New York Times, December 20, 2002
"The Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet
service providers to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring
of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal
is part of a final version of a report, 'The National Strategy to Secure
Cyberspace,' set for release early next year, according to several people
who have been briefed on the report. It is a component of the effort to
increase national security after the Sept. 11 attacks ... . While the
proposal is meant to gauge the overall state of the worldwide network,
some officials of Internet companies who have been briefed on the proposal
say they worry that such a system could be used to cross the indistinct
border between broad monitoring and wiretap. Stewart Baker, a Washington
lawyer who represents some of the nation's largest Internet providers,
said, 'Internet service providers are concerned about the privacy implications
of this as well as liability,' since providing access to live feeds of
network activity could be interpreted as a wiretap or as the 'pen register'
and 'trap and trace' systems used on phones without a judicial order ...
The new proposal is labeled in the report as an 'early-warning center'
that the board says is required to offer early detection of Internet-based
attacks as well as defense against viruses and worms. But Internet service
providers argue that its data-monitoring functions could be used to track
the activities of individuals using the network. An official with a major
data services company who has been briefed on several aspects of the government's
plans said it was hard to see how such capabilities could be provided
to government without the potential for real-time monitoring, even of
individuals. 'Part of monitoring the Internet and doing real-time analysis
is to be able to track incidents while they are occurring,' the official
said. The official compared the system to Carnivore, the Internet wiretap
system used by the F.B.I., saying: 'Am I analogizing this to Carnivore?
Absolutely. But in fact, it's 10 times worse. Carnivore was working on
much smaller feeds and could not scale. This is looking at the whole Internet.'"
U.S.
Vetoes U.N.'s Israel Condemnation,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December
20, 2002
"The United States vetoed an Arab-backed resolution Friday that would
have condemned Israel for the recent killings of three U.N. workers. The
U.S. ambassador called the resolution one-sided and not conducive to Mideast
peace efforts. Twelve other council members - including close U.S. ally
Britain - voted in favor of the resolution. Bulgaria and Cameroon abstained.
The resolution expressed 'grave concern' at the killings by Israeli troops
and demanded that Israel 'refrain from the excessive and disproportionate
use of force in the Occupied Palestinian territories.' It also demanded
that Israel comply fully with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva
Convention, which deals with the protection of civilians during war. But
the veto by the United States - one of five permanent council members
with veto power - means that the resolution was not adopted. The last
U.S. veto, in December 2001, was also cast against a Mideast resolution.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe, the only Arab member of the council,
rejected U.S. attempts to amend the resolution to eliminate the reference
to Israel's disproportionate use of force. The United States also wanted
to drop the demand for Israel to comply with the Fourth Geneva Convention
... Three workers for the U.N. agency that provides relief for Palestinian
refugees, known as UNWRA, were killed in recent weeks. Israeli soldiers
shot and killed Iain Hook, of Britain, on Nov. 22 during a gunbattle with
armed Palestinians in the West Bank. The army said its soldiers mistook
a cell phone Hook was using for a weapon and that gunmen had entered the
walled U.N. compound. The U.N. relief agency denies that gunmen had entered
the compound. Two Palestinian school employees working for UNRWA were
among 10 Palestinians killed when Israeli troops conducted a raid into
a crowded Gaza refugee camp on Dec. 6 hunting for militants."
Illinois invests in Israel Bonds,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 20, 2002
[This item is in the pop-up box at the JTA home page, "Breaking
News" column]
"The state of Illinois invested $10 million in Israel Bonds. State
officials attended a ceremony in Jerusalem at which a symbolic check was
turned over. Also present were Israeli Finance Minister Silvan Shalom
and Israel Bonds President Joshua Matza. Matza called the investment a
vote of confidence in Israel’s future economic development."
Lieberman,
Moving Fast, Eyes a Staff, Political Team Honing Message,
[Jewish] Forward, December 20, 2002
"Despite his public ambiguity, Senator Joseph Lieberman seems
to be moving full steam ahead in his candidacy for president, assembling
the core of a campaign staff and trying to answer the concerns of those
who feel his centrist politics are too far to the right to excite the
usually liberal Democratic primary electorate. Democratic hands say he's
doing well in what they call 'the invisible primary' — the scramble to
gather the small number of experienced troops who know how to wage a national
campaign ... Smith said he does not think that Lieberman's Orthodox Judaism
will be an issue for voters. 'As I've traveled the country, the only people
who raise the issue are members of the Jewish community,' said Smith,
a native of Arkansas. 'Nobody else brings that up. Voters vote for the
man, not the religion' ... Lieberman's spokesman, Daniel Gerstein,
told the Forward that it's too early to say what kind of platform
Lieberman might run on ... Jewish donors, who supply
a major share of the contributions financing any Democratic presidential
bid, had mixed things to say about the Lieberman candidacy.
Chemicals magnate Jack Bendheim, an Orthodox Jew who shares a pew
with Lieberman when the senator visits his mother-in-law in the
Bronx, said he found it exciting that Lieberman had met with so
little prejudice during his vice presidential run and predicted that Lieberman's
religiosity would redound to his benefit as 'the country looks to become
more faith-based.'"
Former
Judge Says Congressman Maintains Anti-Israel Stances,
Metropolitan News Enterprise, December 20,
2002 Page 6
"Former Los Angeles County Bar Assn. president Sheldon D. Sloan
— who was reputedly influential with Republican Governors George Deukmejian
and Pete Wilson and is said to maintain strong GOP ties — is engaged in
efforts to dump Dana Rohrbacher, a seven-term Republican congressman from
Orange County. Sloan, a retired Los Angeles Municipal Court judge,
accuses Rohrbacher of maintaining an anti-Israeli and pro-Arab policy,
which the legislator denies. In a recent letter addressed 'Dear Friends,'
Sloan wrote:
I seldom get as exorcised about a public official as I am about Dana Rohrbacher,
the long term Member of the House of Representatives from Orange County.
Congressman Rohrbacher is an embarrassment to the Congress of the United
States, to the President of the United States, to the Republican Party,
and to his constituents ...
Rohrabacher wrote to Sloan: I was saddened by your accusatory
letter sent to our fellow Republicans. It was both factually inaccurate
and unnecessarily derogatory in its tone. Perhaps you are unaware of my
record or you would not have suggested in your letter that I have voted
against the President and against Israel in all matters. Whoever told
you that is a liar of the first order and in the future you should not
be passing on information from that source without verification. On the
vast majority of votes concerning Israel I have been on the side of that
country, including votes condemning terrorist acts against Israel and
supporting efforts to prevent Israel or Israeli citizens from being targeted
by hostile forces. The outrage that has been pointed in my direction derives
from my votes in opposition to legislation concerning Israel when that
legislation is not also in the interest of the United States. But yes,
sometimes what is in Israel’s interest is not in the interest of the United
States, although that is difficult for some people to grasp. Unlike many
other Members of Congress, I do not feel compelled by political pressure
to vote for every bill supporting Israel, especially when that legislation
may be harmful to our country, the long term cause of peace in the Middle
East and damaging to the prestige of our President. Contrary to your letter
it was my vote supporting the position of the President of the United
States that has created such a stir. Even though my overall voting record
concerning issues regarding Israel remains at a high level. Your suggestion
that I coddle up to Arab interests certainly does not take into account
my strenuous efforts and leadership to defeat Islamic extremism and the
Arab enemies of the United States ...
Sloan retorted: I received your email of 12/6/02 with some
mild surprise.… [I]n your letter to me I find no expression of support
for Israel nor repudiation of what is generally referred to as the 'moral
equivalency' line, used mostly by the liberal press in supporting the
Palestinian position of terrorism against the State of Israel. Perhaps
it was just an oversight; if so, I invite you to correct it ... Privately,
you are alleged to: Equate [Israeli prime minister Ariel] Sharon
with Arafat, and view Sharon as a terrorist; Be unwilling to meet with
Sharon; Display an uncooperative attitude towards those who seek
to arrange for you to go to Israel, in order to attempt to educate you
on the living conditions ... Stop coddling up to the Arabs and look at
the situation from the point of view of Israel. Israel is the best friend
the United States has in the world, and there are very few issues wherein
the interests of the United States and those of the State of Israel differ.
The choice is yours; if a five term Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia
can be defeated in a primary election, so can an eight term Republican
Congressman from California."
Frist
Likely to Lead Senate GOP; Lott Out,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December
21, 2002
"It took Republicans little time to anoint Bill Frist as Senate majority
leader after Trent Lott's historic resignation over his apparent nostalgia
for segregation, and not long for critics to launch a scrutiny of Frist's
own history with race." [WHAT DOES FRIST THINK ABOUT ISRAEL?]:
Remarks
by U.S. Senator Bill Frist, M.D. to the Desert Caucus, U.S.
Senate, November 14, 1999, Speech Of Senator Bill Frist, M.D. US-Israeli
Relationship: "And there are few relationships more important to
America than the one we share with Israel. Friendship The United States
has shared a special bond with Israel almost from the moment of its founding.
America was the first country to recognize the new state of Israel – only
11 minutes after it was created. And over the last 50 years, that relationship
has blossomed into a strategic, economic, and political partnership that
is unique and precious. And there are good reasons for this: No people
in the world have more in common with Americans than the people of Israel
... And I believe every member of Congress should do all that he or she
can to ensure that nothing ever happens to change that relationship. These
things were never clearer to me than they were when I visited Israel in
1997. It was, in fact, my first foreign visit as a member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee. What I learned and saw there will remain
with me for the rest of my life. Together with my wife, Karyn, I visited
Jericho, Haifa and Tel Aviv. I traveled to the Golan Heights, spent a
night on a kibbutz, and stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. I met
with diplomats and military leaders, visited industries and hospitals,
and throughout it all I was excited by Israel’s economy and impressed
with its commitment to technological excellence ... Israel is much more
than its collected history, as the last five decades have decidedly proven.
It is a demonstration of what can be accomplished when a people are determined
to overcome every obstacle to freedom and self-determination ... And I
think its important to note, that while America maintains about 135,000
troops in Europe and spends about $80 billion every year on its defense,
no US troops have ever been required to defend Israel. In fact, when compared
to our relationships with many other countries, the US-Israeli partnership
has been very cost-effective. We benefit from joint military exercises,
intelligence-sharing, and the pre-positioning of materiel that will enable
us to respond to any future conflict in the region. In other words, when
we support Israel's vital national interests, we also support our own."
Many
Tools of Big Brother Are Up and Running,
New York Times, December 23, 2002
"In the Pentagon research effort to detect terrorism by electronically
monitoring the civilian population, the most remarkable detail may be
this: Most of the pieces of the system are already in place. Because of
the inroads the Internet and other digital network technologies have made
into everyday life over the last decade, it is increasingly possible to
amass Big Brother-like surveillance powers through Little Brother means.
The basic components include everyday digital technologies like e-mail,
online shopping and travel booking, A.T.M. systems, cellphone networks,
electronic toll-collection systems and credit-card payment terminals.
In essence, the Pentagon's main job would be to spin strands of software
technology that would weave these sources of data into a vast electronic
dragnet. Technologists say the types of computerized data sifting and
pattern matching that might flag suspicious activities to government agencies
and coordinate their surveillance are not much different from programs
already in use by private companies. Such programs spot unusual credit
card activity, for example, or let people at multiple locations collaborate
on a project. The civilian population, in other words, has willingly embraced
the technical prerequisites for a national surveillance system that Pentagon
planners are calling Total Information Awareness."
Move
against Arab party could spark crisis in Jewish-Arab ties,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, December 23, 2002
"Nearly two years ago, in Israel’s last elections, members of Azmi
Beshara’s Balad Party spearheaded the public campaign among Israel’s Arab
citizens to boycott the elections. Now Balad has taken a U-turn: It is
launching an international campaign against Attorney General Elyakim
Rubinstein’s demand to ban the party from running in the upcoming
general elections. Rubinstein’s request to the Central Elections
Committee to disqualify Balad relies on a recent amendment to the Basic
Law: The Knesset banning parties that negate 'Israel’s existence as a
Jewish state and express support for the armed struggle against Israel.'
At stake not is only the status of one Arab party: The attempt could impact
the already-fragile relations between the Jewish state and its Arab citizens.
The Central Elections Committee will have to define the thin line between
the political rights of the Arab population and the possible challenge
to the very existence of the state. In other words, it will have to decide
how Arab an Arab party can be. Rubinstein came to the elections
committee with a thick portfolio of documents — many of them from the
Shin Bet security Service’s secret archives — designed to prove that 'Balad
is putting on a mask.' In other words, the party, which claims to be a
legitimate political organ of Israel’s Arabs, actually is a tool in the
effort to destroy Israel as a Jewish state, Rubinstein claims."
Passionate attachment
to Israel,
by James J. David, Media Monitors, December
24, 2002
"Is there any criminal act that Israel can do without being protected
from criticism from the United States? If there is I haven't seen it.
And I haven't seen it from the Bush Administration or from the Clinton
Administration or from any administration before them. But when you consider
the influence of Israel's lobby and its political action committees and
the more than $41 million they've given to Congress and the White House,
is it any wonder Israel is shielded from any shame? For more than 54 years
the Israelis have committed acts that no other nation would dare get away
with. But even here in America, where it is not yet illegal to publicly
ask the wrong questions, any public figure that does so is subjected to
smears, intimidation, and the attempted destruction of his career and
reputation by Jewish organizations and by the very cooperative news media
... Although September 11th brought the fight on terrorism to the front
burner, it seems that the United States protects Israel from any criticism
here too. An Israeli instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed that two employees
received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center
two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks.
(Ha'aretz, December 20, 2002.) Is it possible that Israel had foreknowledge
of the attack? Could this be the answer why the 4000 Israeli employees
at the World Trade Center never showed up for work that tragic September
morning? If this is the case then the fact that Israel's government had
prior knowledge of the pending attack and not warned the Americans makes
them as guilty as our enemy. Whatever the case, our government must make
a complete and thorough investigation without any threats from Jewish
and Israeli interest groups. Shielding Israel from criticism and supporting
the Jewish state no matter what crimes she commits has caused the United
States the loss of respect around the world. In addition, Israel has cost
American taxpayers more than $120 billion in the past 40 years. Our one-sided
unbalanced Middle East policy has created the hatred of millions and the
primary cause of terrorism that has landed on our own soil. Criticizing
our government's dangerous policies and its submissions to the Jewish
lobby doesn't make anyone less patriotic or any less of an American. George
Washington said it best when he stated that 'passionate attachment to
another nation produces a variety of evils...the illusion of common interests
where no real common interests exist; adopting the enmities of the other;
and participation in the quarrels and wars of the other without any justification.
Still another evil is that such a passionate attachment gives to ambitious,
corrupted or deluded citizens the facility to betray or sacrifice the
interests of their own country.'" James J. David is a retired
Brigadier General and a graduate of the U.S. Army's Command and General
Staff College, and the National Security Course, National Defense University,
Washington DC. He served as a Company Commander with the 101st Airborne
Division in the Republic of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. 1967-1969
VIEWS:
US silent about Israeli nukes,
By Hassan Tahsin, Daily Times (Pakistan),
December 25, 2002
"International politics has a number of contradictions. At present,
we see the United States leading the world against Iran, Iraq and North
Korea because they allegedly possess weapons of mass destruction. We see
the United States at the same time approving the idea of Israel building
a new nuclear reactor. The new reactor will chemically process uranium
and will obviously increase the size of the Israeli arsenal. The world
is in general agreement with the United States about the necessity of
eliminating weapons of mass destruction. The existence of these weapons
which includes nuclear warhead threatens the entire world. It is not enough
to disarm the so-called “axis of evil.” All weapons of mass destruction
must be eliminated, including those of the superpower permanent members
of the UN Security Council ... If we look at Israel and its weapons of
mass destruction, we join many countries and governments which have wondered
why Israel is always an exception to rules that are scrupulously applied
to other countries. It is certain today that Israel possesses between
100 and 200 nuclear and hydrogen warheads of all sizes. This is confirmed
by published American satellite pictures and scientific reports. These
same reports also indicate that Israel is about to produce a neutron bomb.
Israel also has nuclear bombs which are designed for use from airplanes.
They can be used in battle without fears of side effects. Israel also
has spy satellites which can identify targets on the ground very easily.
In cooperation with the former racist government in South Africa, Israel
conducted nuclear tests in 1979 in the South Pacific. Further information
about Israeli weapons is not available though it is known that some were
used for the attempted assassination in Jordan of Khalid Meshaal, the
Hamas member. Closing the world’s eyes to Israel’s nuclear arsenal and
weapons of mass destruction can only lead to suspicion and rejection.
Since Israel was the first country in the region to possess these weapons,
it should be the first to get rid of them."
Overview of the Shank anonymous hate speech case,
American Civil Liberties Union of Florida,
"Lloyd Shank is a 73-year-old man who lives in Broward County. He
has a long history of arrests for distributing racist literature at the
Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. For years he has been
sending officials rambling letters decrying Jews and the federal government.
He served two years in federal prison for threatening President Ronald
Reagan. He served time in a mental institution. On August 23, 1999, Shank
sent an unsigned letter to six of seven Broward County commissioners –
all of whom are Jewish, except for one whose spouse
is Jewish – in which he made anti-Semitic comments and allegations.
In his letter, Shank attacked the Clinton administration and Christianity,
and he claimed that Jews promote hatred and murder. He blamed major terrorist
attacks on Jews, closing his letter: 'You Jews and puppets murdered 10,000
innocent people in those bombings. Federal, state, local judges are Jewish
gangsters and controlled by evil Jews. They are warmongers, terrorists,
hate-filled liars and perverts.' Recognizing Shank as the likely author
of the diatribe, detectives confronted Shank. He admitted writing the
letter, explaining that he left it anonymous because he thought he would
be prosecuted if he signed it. On September 8, 1999, Shank was arrested
and charged with a third-degree felony under Fla. Statute 836.11, punishable
by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, for sending an anonymous
publication 'exposing persons to hatred, contempt or prejudicial ridicule'
... On September 10, two days after Shank's arrest, the ACLU of Florida
sent a letter to Broward State Attorney Michael J. Satz and Broward Sheriff
Ken Jenne, calling the statute "plainly unconstitutional" and urging them
to release Shank from custody. The State Attorney's office reduced the
charge against Shank to a first-degree misdemeanor on September 17. The
decision to charge Shank has opened a debate on whether the 1945 Florida
law is unconstitutional."
The
Role of Politics in Contemporary Anti-Semitism.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. September
15, 1999
"That Jews control a disproportionately large share of the Russian
economy and Russian media certainly has some basis in fact. Between
50 and 80 percent of the Russian economy is said to be in Jewish hands,
with the influence of the five Jews among the eight individuals commonly
referred to as 'oligarchs' particularly conspicuous. (An
oligarch is understood to be a member of a small group that exercises
control in a government. The five oligarchs of Jewish descent are
Boris Berezovsky, Mikhail Friedman, Vladimir Gusinsky,
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Alexander Smolensky. The other
oligarchs are Vagit Alekperov, Vladimir Potanin, and Rem Vyakhirev.) Perhaps
the most famous (and simultaneously the most infamous) of the oligarchs
is Boris Berezovsky. In common with most of the other Jewish oligarchs,
Berezovsky controls industries in three critical areas: the extraction
and sale of a major natural resource, such as oil, as a source of great
wealth; a large bank (useful in influencing industry and transferring
assets abroad); and several major media outlets (useful for exerting influence
and attacking rivals). He also controls a significant share of the Aeroflot
airline and the Moscow automobile industry."
Fallen
Lott Urged Christians To 'Take Back' U.S.,
[Jewish] Forward,
December 27, 2002
"Senator Trent Lott told reporters this week that he had fallen into
the 'trap' of his political enemies who were happy to take aim at a conservative
Christian from Mississippi. But, according to a 1987 report in the Washington
Post, Lott eagerly compared his initial senate campaign to a religious
crusade. 'Conservative, God-fearing, hard-working Christian people make
a mistake by not being more aggressive,' Lott reportedly declared during
a Mississippi Right to Life convention in 1987. 'This is our country and
it's time we take it back.' The remark was brought to light last week
by the National Jewish Democratic Council, a day before Lott's resignation
as Senate Republican leader. 'Trent Lott's chronic problem of giving voice
to his exclusivist worldview is not just Trent Lott's problem — it's the
problem of many in the G.O.P., and especially its leadership,' said the
Democratic council's executive director, Ira Forman, in a December
19 statement on Lott's 1987 remarks. Forman also criticized incoming House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, for urging a crowd of Christian
Coalition activists during a pro-Israel rally in October to 'put people
in office who stand unashamedly with Jesus Christ.' 'The real problem
with these Republican leaders is not the occasional slip of the tongue;
it's that they speak honestly about their beliefs,' Forman said. 'And
until their exclusionist views change, it's going to be increasingly hard
for large numbers of Americans to vote with the Republican Party.' The
same day that the Jewish Democrats issued their press release, B'nai Brith
International became the only major American Jewish organization to issue
a statement calling on Lott to resign from his GOP leadership post."
'Misuse
of Canada's identity' questioned Israeli spy operation,
by Stewart Bell, National
Post, December 24, 2002
"A senior Cabinet official questioned the head of Israel's security
service about allegations Israeli undercover agents posed as Canadians
during an operation to assassinate a Palestinian terrorist leader, newly
released documents show. Although Ottawa has said publicly it was convinced
all along the spy claims were false, internal documents obtained yesterday
show the matter has continued to concern the government and has been the
subject of behind-the-scenes diplomacy. In a confidential report, officials
said they were concerned about 'other countries' intelligence services
misusing Canada's identity' and that 'such misuse endangers Canadians
travelling around the world and undermines the integrity of Canadian passports.'
Ronald Bilodeau, the Privy Council Office security and intelligence co-ordinator
and Cabinet assistant secretary, met on Oct. 1 with the head of the Israeli
Security Agency, whose spies allegedly used false Canadian identities
during the operation in Gaza ... Israel has denied the claims. But the
papers show Ottawa was worried about being linked to a spy operation and
a botched assassination that killed 14 bystanders, nine of them children.
The allegations surfaced in August, when Mr. Zatmeh publicly detailed
how he was lured into becoming an Israeli informant by agents who told
him they were Canadians and could help him immigrate. Mr. Zatmeh said
he was recruited by three 'Canadian' agents who brought him to the Canadian
embassy in Tel Aviv before coercing him into helping them, with doctored
photos that showed him with naked women ... Sept. 4 they were satisfied
the claims were false. However, hours after the Post report on Sept. 5,
John McNee, assistant deputy minister for Africa and the Mideast, discussed
the matter with Haim Divon, Israel's ambassador to Canada."
Report: Rendell
Still Has Knack For Recruiting Big Donors. Former Mayor Of Philly Sets
Up Club For High Donors, NBC (Channel
10), December 29, 2002
"As chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2000, Ed
Rendell set up a club for people who donated at least $100,000 to
the cause. That club was called the Jefferson Trust. Rendell, the
former mayor of Philadelphia, is now the governor-elect of Pennsylvania.
And it appears he hasn't lost his knack for fund raising. The Philadelphia
Inquirer reported today that Rendell appears to have had more
$100,000 contributors than all but two others who ran for office in the
United States this year. The Inquirer reported that at least 53 individuals
and organizations gave at least $100,000 to Rendell. Only California Democrat
Gray Davis and Texas Republican Rick Perry eclipsed that number. Both
were elected governor in their respective states."
[Enough kneeling to the Jewish Lobby. So where's the
"hate crime" legislation against the institutionalized oppression
of the Palestinians?]
VICE
PRESIDENT AL GORE REMARKS AT ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE, Welcome
to the White House ( http://clinton3.nara.gov ) May 9, 2000 (As
delivered)
"I thank you, Howard, for the warm introduction and also for the
tireless work that you do on behalf of the ADL. And to let me also be
quick to add, that I know that I speak for all of us here today when I
say that my hearts are with Abe Foxman (ph) and his wife, Golda.
I wish Abe -- now I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right. You
help me. Refua shalama (ph). Is that right? (APPLAUSE) A full and
speedy recovery. It's great to hear these inspiring stories and indeed
we have been allies and partners. One of the ways you can find that out
is by cataloguing the mutual enemies that we have. Some of the same groups
and people have condemned the ADL and me in the same breath and the same
sentence, which is one of the greatest honors I can possibly thank God.
(LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) And I am really grateful for it ... But we started
our family in Nashville, and, as many of you know, Nashville is the world
capital of country music and the capital of songwriting of all kinds.
And it's not just the music of the South, it is the music of America.
And to prove it to you, let me just share with you the latest hit list
from one of the many proliferating subgenres in country music, the latest
top songs on the Jewish country and western song title list. Number four
this week is: `I Was One Of The Chosen People Until She Chose Somebody
Else.' (LAUGHTER) Number three this week is: `The Second Time She Said
Shalom, I Knew She Meant Goodbye.' (LAUGHTER) And number two on the list
this week is: `I've Got My Foot On The Glass, Now Where Are You?' (LAUGHTER)
(LAUGHTER) ... I really am happy to be back with the ADL. I feel right
at home here. Since your founding in 1913, you have been an angel on America's
shoulder, summing us to our highest ideas. From your work to unmask klansmen
in the 1940s to your fight against McCarthyism in the 1950s -- and incidentally,
when my father went to the United States Senate, he had one request, Do
not assign me to any committee that has Joe McCarthy on it -- to your
efforts to monitor hate on the Internet today, in all these activities
and over all these years, you have kept a watchful eye on extremism in
every form ... Hate crimes are acts of violence, not just against the
person, not just against individuals, but against our ideals. It is long
past time for a national law to punish hate crimes and prevent them, once
and for all. I call for the passage of national hate crimes legislation...
(APPLAUSE) ... in this session of Congress. It is time. (APPLAUSE) There
is still time for Congress to take action this year and the lobbying that
you do on this issue can make the critical difference. We have to send
an unmistakable message: If you commit a hate-crime, we will find you,
we will punish you, that punishment will be swift, certain and severe.
So let us stand together and work together and tell Congress to make the
Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of our land."
The
Neocons and Nixon's southern strategy,
by Pat Buchanon, World Net Daily, December
30, 2002
"Lear's reflection upon ingratitude comes to mind as one reads of
the squabble among neoconservatives over who among them was first to stick
his nail file in the back of Trent Lott. Charles Krauthammer enters
a claim for the Kristol-Bennett crowd, while Jonah Goldberg
of National Review and cashiered Bush speech-writer David Frum
insist they, too, played supporting roles. Whether Lott may have been
innocent of any hate crime, or whether they might have had a moral duty
to step in to stop a lynching of one of their own – even had Lott blundered
– seem to be thoughts that never once intruded upon these tiny minds.
Yet their collusion in ruining Lott, their relish in the pats on the head
they are receiving from the left, confirm the suspicion: Neoconservatives
are the useful idiots of the liberal establishment. With Lott gone, Bill
Kristol is now collaborating with the New York Times in its
rewrite of the history of the 1960s, a decade of liberal debacles, to
credit racism for the Republicans' success. 'Lott is really virtually
the last of the products of Richard Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' to be
in major positions of power in the Congress,' Kristol assures the
Times. 'With his leaving, you will have cleared out people who ... have
a somewhat compromised image to the country as a whole.'"
Breaking
the Silence on the Israel Lobby,
by Jeffrey Blankfort
itszone, December 31, 2002 (originally from
Anderson Valley Advertiser, February 2002)
"On a Saturday in mid-February a little less than a year ago, I had
two experiences, one very positive and encouraging --the other negative
and disturbing. The first was at the Marin Community Center in Mill Valley,
across the Bay from San Francisco, where more than 200 ( 210 signed in)
people, and not what we refer to as "the choir" or "the usual suspects,"
turned up to hear Palestinian legal scholar Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian
professor Jess Ghannam, Stanford-based Israeli scholar Yael Ben-Zvi and
myself speak on the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... All of the
presentations were well received but the enthusiastic reception for mine,
in particular, was significant because my subject was the pro- Israel
lobby and its negative influence on the American body politic. I placed
much of the blame for the escalation of violence in the Israeli- Palestinian
conflict on the actions of the organized American Jewish community and
by individual Jews working independently who over the years have successfully
stifled, intimidated, and marginalized critics of Israeli policies. I
expected an uproar from the audience because, from my experience, Marin
had always been another 'occupied territory,' but even among the many
Jews there, none challenged by premise or my evidence. What they heard
and saw was factual and visual evidence of the power of Israel's supporters
over Congress and politicians at every political level and. equally damning,
their effectiveness in preventing the various anti-war and anti-intervention
coalitions over the years from taking any position that might touch on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, even one as mild as, 'US Out of the
Middle East." After I spoke and after the applause, a number of people,
Jews and non-Jews, and several students came up to me wanting more information
. Then I went over to Berkeley to the second day of a three-day conference
organized by Students for Justice in Palestine where the issue of the
Israel Lobby was nowhere on the agenda. I arrived during Phyllis Bennis's
presentation. Bennis, a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, a
Washington-based liberal think tank, is one of the left's more well known
talking heads on the Israel-Palestine conflict and can frequently be heard
on KPFA and other Pacifica stations. Over the years, like most of the
other 'experts, from the 'left,' with the notable exceptions of Columnist
Alexander Cockburn and Prof. Ed Herman, she has never recognized, let
alone been willing to discuss, the power of the Israel Lobby over US policy
in the Middle East, despite overwhelming and indisputable evidence of
its existence and of its influence. What happened when I arrived in the
auditorium was astonishing. Seeing me in the back of the auditorium where
I was sitting with a friend, totally out of the blue and raising her voice,
she interrupted her talk to blurt out, 'Congress is not Israeli Occupied
Territory!' ... Then I took the anti-war movement to task. Like every
other political sector of US society, I said that pro-Israel Jews within
its ranks and others who are fearful that raising the issue of the pro-Israel
lobby would provoke 'anti-Semitism, have not only kept the lid on that
issue, but have kepy the Palestinian cause isolated from the movement's
overall agenda. Whatever the reason, I emphasized, there are no excuses
for the silence of the movement on the issue of the lobby nor for it's
genuflecting to 'Jewish sensibilities' regarding the overall struggle.
Neither Bennis nor her co-panelist, a Jewish professor, said a word when
I finished. After the program, I went down to say hello to her, and jokingly
mentioned that she still had not yet understood the role of the Israel
Lobby. She was neither friendly or amused. 'The issue is dead and has
been dead.' End of conversation. What is disturbing is that her position
regarding the Israel lobby is that long held by Noam Chomsky, as well,
as by professors Joel Beinin of Stanford and Stephen Zunes of USF. Bennis's
position is puzzling since she is based in Washington, where, for the
politically aware, "the lobby's" power is a given.. To their credit, all
of them, and Chomsky in particular, have, through their writing and speaking,
have exposed American audiences to the history of the Israeli-Palestinian
struggle, but their refusal to acknowledge the critical domestic aspects
of the struggle are indefensible and can no longer be left unchallenged.
(In 1989, Zunes wrote an excellent piece on the power of the pro-Israel
lobby for The Progressive, but he soon changed his position, perhaps
when he realized that 'blaming the Jews' is the fastest way to get marginalized
in US academia. The facts and the quotes in his article, however, did
not change. In his recent book, Tinderbox, he writes that Arabs have mistakenly
blamed Israel for its problems and that Israel is actually a victim of
US policies. He would have us believe that Israel is forced to play the
same role for the United States that Jews played under feudalism when
they were the middlepersons between the lords and the serfs. This analysis
would have us believe that Israel and its Jewish supporters today are
somehow in the precarious position that European Jews found themselves
in several hundred years ago This is absurd. The first situation represented
Jewish weakness. Today, Jews have more than at any time in their history.
Zunes ignores the fact that Jewish supporters of Israel are far and away
the leading contributors to the Democratic Party and dominate every sector
of the media: movies, TV., radio, and the press. Since 1978, the amount
of money contributed by pro-Israel PACs alone is over $34 million, as
compared to Enron whose $6 million over 10 years given to many of the
same politicians is held up as an example of an abuse of the system ...
On the Mother Jones magazine website one finds the
leading individual contributors to both political parties in the 1999-2000
cycle. Eight of the top ten are Jews who contributed, with one exception,
exclusively to the Democratic Party ... Why is the Israel Lobby a taboo
subject among the left and the anti-war movements?"
Totalitarianism
nears. Without protest, Americans are giving up freedom,
by Glen T. Martin, roanoke.com, Thursday,
January 02, 2003
"Today, people of the United States have given up their rights through
the 'Patriot Act,' the 'Homeland Security Act' and the Pentagon's new
system of 'Total Information Awareness.' The astonishing thing about this
'land of the free' is that most Americans now have no effective rights
and do not care. As long as they are free to shop in department stores
and have traffic in the streets (with automobiles burning oil stolen from
dying Iraqi children), they do not care. And to a greater degree every
day, those few who do care about our liberties and rights are too terrified
of our government to speak out. The so-called 'Patriot Act' expanded our
government's secret search and wiretapping powers enormously. It empowered
racial profiling as a recognized police practice and allowed broad sweeps
of people of Middle Eastern or Asian origin. It effectively abolished
immigrants' rights, allowing noncitizens to be held in secret locations
on secret 'evidence,' without right to an attorney, for as long as the
government wishes. The government now has the power to enter your home
or your computer and secretly record whatever they find without ever having
to notify you. They do not even have to obtain a warrant from a publicly
accountable judge showing reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed
... The government will soon be amassing a file on every American that
includes every magazine subscription, credit card purchase, Web site visit,
medical record, library record, bank deposit or withdrawals, every airline
purchase, as well as judicial, divorce records, and so on. This will be
recorded in a central data base, not by a publicly accountable authority,
but by the Pentagon, which already operates in total secrecy from the
American public. Government intimidation for political reasons is real
and it has begun. Our government already is using its secret data bases
to harass American ... The government has begun harassing people maintaining
Web sites they consider politically objectionable. The Justice Department
announced a plan to use its newfound power to designate U.S. citizens
as 'enemy combatants' to place such people in concentration camps. Declaring
them 'enemy combatants' would strip them of their constitutional rights,
their access to the courts and allow the government to indefinitely hold
them without trial. This is identical in purpose to some of the Nazi concentration
camps. Do we citizens care at all about the future of our children or
the plight of the millions of citizens in this country of Arab descent,
or those who nonviolently oppose government policy? We have repeated for
so long the slogan 'it can't happen here.' But the darkness and terror
of totalitarianism is coming rapidly. Do we have the courage and integrity
to speak out now, before it is too late?"
Senator
Lieberman: Your Peace is Our Demise,
arabia.com, January 02, 2003
"US Senator and likely Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman
is touring the Middle East. His visit will most likely be described as
a success. And why not? Lieberman conversed with Ariel Sharon and
top Israeli leaders. He vowed time and again to stand by Israel in its
war on terrorism, and its right to self-defense. He managed to completely
ignore the elected Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, meeting instead with
Saeb Erekat, the former head of the Palestinian negotiation team. When
asked about who was to blame for a bloody two years of occupation and
bloodshed, he uttered, the blame goes on the terrorists, the Palestinians
of course. With that said, Lieberman managed to squeeze in a few
statements about the need for peace, and Palestinian reforms, and a Palestinian
crackdown on terrorism, and Palestinian willingness to negotiation and
a new Palestinian leadership, etc. To be fair, Lieberman did briefly
address the humanitarian needs of the Palestinians. But of course, it
was not Israel who received the blame for the growing humanitarian catastrophe,
but the terrorists. But once again, the trip was a complete success if
one considers official American policy in the Middle East; scolding and
blaming the Palestinians, pretending that there is no such thing as a
deadly Israeli occupation, illegal settlements or even occupied territories
(For now, according to Donald Rumsfeld, they are known as so-called occupied
territories). I followed the news of Lieberman's visit to the Middle
East, although I expected nothing out of the ordinary, no surprises, until
he visited Saudi Arabia, another leg on his tour, one mainly aimed at
building war alliances against Iraq. In an interview with Saudi Arabias
English daily, Arab News, on Dec 26 ... Lieberman's statement appeared
to subscribe more to the official Israeli viewpoint, and that of pro-Israeli
lobby groups in the US, than that of the US administration itself ...
But again, why should I even raise such an issue as if I indeed held any
expectations of the pro-Israeli Senator? On May 2, 2002, as the bodies
of scores of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank
were decomposing in the streets of Jenin, Nablus, Ramallah and elsewhere,
Lieberman rushed to the Senate, co-authoring a resolution (S. Res.
247). The urgent resolution didn't call on Israel to allow the Red Cross
to collect the Palestinian corpses or to allow water supplies to reach
Jenin or Nablus. Instead, it equated the US fight against terrorism with
Israels ruthless attacks on heavily populated Palestinian centers. The
resolution passed quickly, yet Lieberman's fight for Israel is
yet to fade. He continues to blame the victim, to fight for security for
the occupier, he wants to attack Iraq and he blames the UN for being too
harsh on Israel. True, Lieberman's actions are no surprise. They
are very much in tune with his political philosophy. After all, it was
no coincidence that he was the top recipient of pro-Israeli PAC contributions
during the 2000 election cycle. I only wish, however, that Lieberman
didn't tell journalists in Israel that his visit was aimed at fostering
peace and reviving the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinian
leadership. Lieberman defended Israel, blamed Palestinians and
called for war on Iraq. Such an agenda can hardly be argued to be that
of a peacemaker, although one can hardly deny that according to todays
standards of American foreign policy, the Senators Middle East tour was
a great success."
Speaker
Cantor? Eric Cantor, the quick-rising Virginia Republican, may be angling
to become the first Jewish House speaker,
Jewish Week, January 3, 2002
"When Rep. Eric Cantor was appointed chief deputy majority
whip for the 108th Congress, which opens next week, the hopes of Jewish
Republicans across the country fell on his shoulders. It’s a burden Cantor
— now the only Jewish Republican in the House — acknowledges and welcomes.
He says he is a bridge builder who can help his party cross the chasm
of distrust that has kept Jewish voters out of the Republican ranks. That
won’t be easy, he concedes, but Cantor insists that logic — and
surging support for Israel among conservative Christians — will eventually
change Jewish voting behavior. 'What I see all round the country are ongoing
efforts to forge relations between religious conservatives and the Jewish
community,' he said in a recent interview. 'There’s so much common ground,
especially on the Israel issue' ... Cantor is still in the early
stages of his career, but friends and acquaintances wouldn’t be surprised
to see him become the first Jewish speaker of the House ... Cantor
said his new job will add to the punch of his pro-Israel activism
in Congress. In his first term, Cantor sponsored several bills threatening
sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, including the Temple Mount Preservation
Act, which would cut U.S. aid if Palestinian authorities don’t stop 'unauthorized
excavations' from the Temple Mount. Cantor has also emerged as
a leading congressional critic of the United Nations Relief Works Agency
(UNRWA), the agency that provides humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees
— and which Cantor said has allowed refugee camps to become prime
breeding grounds for Palestinian terrorists. Cantor agreed that
Mideast-related legislation would remain a priority even though his new
leadership position will focus more on domestic matters. 'Obviously the
Israel issue has always been front and center of what I do politically,'
he said. “But this job is much broader than any single issue.'"
Israel
compared to Nazi Germany,
icwales, Wales, January 3, 2003
"A politician caused outrage today by comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
Labour councillor Ray Davies condemned Israel's 'apartheid regime' and
likened it to Hitler's occupation of Europe. The councillor, from Caerphilly,
said: 'Hitler's Nazi regime occupied Europe for four years only. Palestine
and the West Bank have been occupied for 40 years.' Speaking on BBC Radio
Wales, Mr Davies, who is vice chair of CND in Wales, refused to withdraw
his controversial comments, adding: 'I do draw that comparison because
(this is) one group of people who should understand what oppression is
and what it is like living under occupation.' Mr Davies urged Welsh business
minister Carwyn Jones and Tory AM Alun Cairns to boycott a trip to Israel
next week. The pair have been invited as part of a visit organised by
the Israeli government. Mr Davies accused the Israeli government of treating
the Holocaust 'like an industry' to justify its actions against Palestinians.
The councillor has himself been on a fact-finding trip to the occupied
territories but he said he had 'utterly resisted' an invitation by the
Israeli government. 'When they go out there they will be treated like
Lords and taken to the Holocaust museum to try to engineer as much sympathy
as they can and shown the bright side and the pleasant side and the sort
of life the Israelis are enjoying,' he said."
Ariel Sharon's Shakedown,
by Patrick Buchanan, American Conservative,
January 2003
"May we now expect the [Wall Street] Journal to call on Mr. Bush to reject
the $10 billion in loan guarantees demanded by Ariel Sharon? Don't
bet on it. Yet, Sharon's demand is astonishing in its audacity.
California and New York face huge budget shortfalls. The U.S. Treasury
is running a deficit nearing $200 billion. Yet, Sharon, who ignored
Bush when the president publicly called on him to pull his army out of
West Bank cities, is demanding that U.S. taxpayers fork over $4 billion
in new military aid and agree to pay off $10 billion Israel intends to
borrow should Israel decide to default. Why should we do this? What does
America get out of this? What has all the $100 billion in aid we have
shoveled out to Israel bought us, other than ingratitude and the enmity
of the Arab world? While Israel has a first-rate military, it is of no
use to us. In Desert Storm, Bush I had to bribe Yitzhak Shamir with
$5 billion in aid, $400 million in loan guarantees, and Patriot missiles
to stay out of the fighting, lest Israeli intervention dynamite our coalition.
Journalists and diplomats alike, returning from the Mideast, attest that
our almost-blind support of Israel is a major cause of the anti-Americanism
that is sweeping the Islamic world. When the price of Israel could be
paid in dollars alone, $3 billion a year, most members of Congress chose
to pony up rather than face the retribution of an Israeli Lobby that has
in its trophy case the scalps of two chairmen of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, J. William Fulbright and Chuck Percy. But now the price of
the Israeli connection has begun to rise. U.S. weapons technology given
to Israel has been sold to China. Only direct U.S. intervention prevented
Israel from selling Beijing AWACS technology. The Patriot missile, the
Phoenix air-to-air missile, the Lavi fighter, based on the F-16, have
all been sold to Beijing. In the Reagan era, Israel had the loathsome
Jonathan Pollard, whom it suborned into treason, loot our innermost
national security secrets, some of which are believed to have been traded
to Moscow. Israel refuses to return the roomful of documents it stole
and has pressured presidents for Pollard's release so he can be
brought to Israel where he is a hero. Now Mr. Sharon has handed
us Israel's bill for abstaining from war with Iraq while President Bush
is at maximum political risk. Not since 1957, when Dwight Eisenhower ordered
Ben-Gurion to get his army out of Sinai, has a U.S. president faced
down an Israeli Prime Minister. To his credit, the president's father
tried. In 1991, having driven Iraq out of Kuwait, with his approval at
70 percent, Bush I was asked by Shamir for $10 billion in loan
guarantees to bring a million Russian Jews to Israel. Bush assented, on
one condition: Shamir must not settle them on the West Bank and
must stop expanding settlements. Shamir rejected the condition,
and the Lobby went to work. Bush warned he would veto the guarantees.
An Israeli minister called him an anti-Semite. While Shamir was
defeated in June of 1992, Bush, his own election in trouble, eventually
gave in and gave Israel the loan guarantees. Who was the Housing Minister
who announced new settlements even as Bush I was denouncing them? Ariel
Sharon. Sharon now wants to repeat Israel's victory over Bush's
father by making the son give Israel $4 billion in hardware and $10 billion
in new loan guarantees as Sharon's price for permitting us to crush
Iraq while he holds America's coat. It is a shakedown: Ariel Sharon's
big sting ... If members of the Knesset can refuse to follow the suicidal
path of Sharon & Netanyahu, why is Congress so cowardly?"
An
Invisible Aide Leaves Fingerprints,
By Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, January
6, 2003
"Josh Bolten is the White House aide you've never heard of
who has his fingerprints all over President Bush's new $600 billion economic
plan, the legislation creating the Department of Homeland Security and
just about every other domestic policy concocted in his powerful little
corner deep in the West Wing. Mr. Bolten, 48, once made a lot of
money working for Goldman Sachs and grew up in northwest Washington
as the son of a Central Intelligence Agency officer who worked in the
directorate of operations, the agency's covert espionage arm. Perhaps
taking a lesson from his father, he declined to be interviewed for this
article, saying he liked his life undercover. Still, Mr. Bolten
can't hide his revealing title — White House deputy chief of staff for
policy — and a growing reputation as the hub of the administration's domestic
agenda, which is increasingly set by a small handful of West Wing aides
under the command of Karl Rove, the president's chief political adviser,
and Andrew H. Card Jr., the White House chief of staff ... Mr. Bolten
is the one who oversees the 45 minutes that Mr. Bush has scheduled for
'policy time' on most days the president is in Washington. Mr. Bolten
is in charge of parceling out those precious minutes, usually in the afternoons.
He decides what is discussed, when it is to be discussed and who is invited
... Mr. Bolten, who was the issues director of Mr. Bush's presidential
campaign, graduated from St. Albans, the exclusive private boys' school
in Washington, and Princeton and Stanford Law School. On Hanukkah, he
brought in dreidels and gold chocolate coins for the entire senior staff.
'He's the explainer of all things Jewish to the White House,' Mr. Rove
said ... When Mr. Bolten was growing up, he was instructed to tell
his friends that his father worked at the Defense Department, not the
C.I.A."
Letters [to the Editor],
Re: The Left and Israel, letter to the editor, Pat Martin, Jan. 3,
National Post (Canada), January 07, 2003
"I too am a socialist, a trade unionist and an NDP Member of Parliament,
but Mr. Martin does not speak for me. The starting point for any consideration
of the situation in the Middle East should be based on the principles
of international law. In this light, while the world's attention is focused
on Iraq's compliance with United Nations resolutions, the true double
standard is the fact that the Israeli government can repudiate and violate
United Nations resolutions on a continuous basis with impunity. The tragic
plight of the Palestinian people continues under the heavy weight of Israeli
military occupation. The imprisonment of a whole population denied food,
health care, employment and education is compounded by the daily killing
of civilians by Israel's military forces. And yes, it is plain to all
that oppression and occupation breed resistance and terrorism: Indiscriminate
killing of civilians on both sides must be resolutely condemned by all
of us looking for a peaceful resolution. Nor is the resistance only Palestinian.
The year 2002, according to Israel's former minister of education Shulamit
Aloni, 'was a year of moral degeneration during which we became an
apartheid state ... we transformed ourselves into barbarians, we turned
3.5 million human beings into hostages, we turned every town and village
into a detention camp' ... We are at a historical moment of crisis. Iraq
may be the focus but Palestine is the heart of the matter. The drums of
war are beating, and as usual, whole peoples are being vilified and targeted.
It is time for those of us who call ourselves democrats and defenders
of peace, justice and equality to act. Canada's entire reputation as 'the
peaceable kingdom' is at stake. Will history record that we were with
the warmongers or the peacemakers? Joe Comartin, MP, Windsor St. Clair."
Specter Junket
Fit for a Rock Star Tuesday,
Fox News, January 7, 2003
"Sen. Arlen Specter spared no expense on a junket last week
to Europe and the Middle East — ordering cases of Evian water, a driver,
a personal assistant, Boca Burgers and daily squash matches. During last
week's holiday tour, Specter's staff scrambled to rustle up people
for him to meet — even as they focused on plans for Specter (R-Pa.)
and his wife, Joan, to enjoy the finest dining, opera, theater and social
gatherings. Specter's team demanded that he get one meeting in
Berlin on Dec. 31 — but only one meeting so he could enjoy himself that
day. Joan Specter was to be shown parts of 'local cultural products'
and 'unique marketplaces & bazaars' wherever the couple went. Specter's
demanding travel needs surfaced this week after e-mails detailing his
Dec. 23 to Jan. 6 junket plans were obtained by the Washington Post.
One e-mail that said that when in Israel, Specter 'will want a
driver and escort — even for visit with his sister.' During the junket,
diplomatic types were warned never to schedule events in the evening,
since Specter and his wife 'like to do their own thing' at night, an e-mail
said. Specter also was to have a squash court reserved for him every evening
at 5 p.m. on the dot. 'This guy is a prima donna,' fumed David Williams,
vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste. 'This guy is no friend
of taxpayers.' After starting his trip in London, Specter's office
scheduled him meetings with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, Syria's Bashar Assad
and others. Mrs. Specter 'will want an escort at each country and
will likely be interested in sightseeing or shopping,' according to one
e-mail." [Note: former President Bill Clinton named Specter's
wife Joan to the National Council of the Arts].
New
Congress Has More Hispanics,
Washington Post, January 7, 2002
"[Mario Diaz-Balart] is one of a record 22 Hispanics who will be
sworn into the House, a gain of three from last year. Sixty women will
serve in the House – the same as last year – and an unprecedented 14 women
will be in the Senate ... There are no blacks or Hispanics in the 100-member
Senate. The House will have 37 blacks, one more than last year but fewer
than the record 39 who served from 1993-1995. There are no black Republicans
in Congress since Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts retired last year. Only 8.5
percent of the House is black and only 5 percent is Hispanic, even though
Hispanics and blacks each make up 12 percent of the U.S. population."
[Hmmm. If it's complaint time, and ethnic numbers are getting tossed
around, where is the article that notes that Jews are only 2.5% of the
American population and yet 11 of our 100 senators are Jewish -- an overrepresentation
of about 450%? And if fair representation of ethnic groups is what's at
root in this article, and we need to get the percentages all straightened
out, how come THAT's not news?] (There are also 26 Jewish members
of the House of Representatives)
Schumer
vows filibuster to fight renomination of Miss. judge,
Newsday, January 8, 2003
"Sen. Charles Schumer on Wednesday vowed a filibuster if necessary
to block the White House's renomination of a Mississippi judge accused
by Democrats and civil rights groups of being racially insensitive. Charles
Pickering, a U.S. District Court judge in Hattiesburg, Miss., has been
renominated for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals after being rejected
10-9 in the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee last March.
Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Wednesday he was willing to resort to
a filibuster to reject Pickering. 'To me, this is a moral issue,' said
Schumer."
Israel wants
more than total US foreign aid budget,
Financial Review, January 8, 2002
"A delegation from Israel, the largest recipient of US foreign aid,
has sought $US12 billion ($21 billion) in assistance at a meeting with
State Department and White House officials, Israeli officials said. The
request, covering the next three to five years, exceeds
the total $US11.6 billion budgeted last year by the US for
all countries. The request is to help Israel weather the Palestinian
uprising and a possible US war with Iraq ... Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
office said Israel was asking for $US4 billion in direct assistance and
$US8 billion in loan guarantees. A US official indicated before the meeting
that the US was open to the request. 'We always try to do what we can
to help our friend and ally,' the official told reporters. The meeting
was intended to focus on "Israel's current economic situation and Israel's
expected request for supplemental assistance", he said."
Bush
Decides Against New Aid Grants for States,
Reuters, January 7, 2003
"President Bush has decided against offering grants to cash-strapped
states as part of a $674 billion economic stimulus package he is to unveil
on Tuesday, the White House said. The White House had been considering
providing $10 billion to states to reduce budget woes but White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush had decided against
it. 'The goal of the package is to stimulate the economy, not transfer
money from one taxpayer-funded source in the government to another taxpayer-funded
source in a different government,' Fleischer said."
Israel: America's
Shame and Humanity's Stain,
by Mohamed Khodr, Media Monitors, January
9, 2003
"While the American people are fiercely proud, independent, and will
not submit to any nation or any person who dares stomp on the world's
sole superpower, they do submit willingly and unwillingly to the dictates
of a foreign nation, Israel, whose economy and political support is the
prime priority of Washington D.C., even at the expense of the needs and
lives of the American people themselves. Inquiring Minds Around the World
Want to Know: Why are the American people so loved and respected around
the world for so long (prior to Israel's founding in 1948) for their freedoms,
educational and technological superiority, their friendliness, generosity,
and respect for other people's beliefs and needs, are so naive to the
destructive influence of Israel's 'Jewish Power' upon their domestic and
foreign policies? Why are they so blind and uninformed despite having
the world's largest and most advanced educational system, the world's
largest media outlets, the ability to travel around the world freely,
the world's largest interdependent economy that sells to every nation
on earth, except to Israel where it loses on trade; a nation with more
military bases around the world than any other, a nation of immigrants
from around the world, a nation in possession of the wondrous law unavailable
to most of the world--the 'Freedom of Information Act--whereby a citizen
can seek governmental answers on policies, but doesn't when it comes to
foreign policy? WHY, WHY, WHY? Why has the world been engulfed in continuous
wars and conflicts in the Middle East ever since Israel was founded in
1948? Why did Islam suddenly become America's enemy immediately after
the collapse of Communism in 1991? Why 9/11? ... There is a reason that
Bush appointed Henry Kissinger, a powerful Pro-Israeli Jew to head the
Independent Commission but who later resigned rather than reveal his "conflict
of interest" nations. The reason is Israel and the answer as to WHY there
is new found HATE between the U.S. and the Muslim world is simple: Why
do THEY hate US? ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL Why do
WE Hate Them? ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL, ISRAEL Despite the
fact that most Americans, including our Government understand this truth,
America is too fearful to admit that Israel is the barrier between the
West and Islam, between perpetual war and peace, and between the interests
of the American people and the Pro-Israel politics of our Government too
greedy for Jewish money and votes and too cowardly to face the Pro-Israeli
Media backlash should they ever so slightly oppose the 'Israel First'
policy. There is ZERO TOLERANCE in America’s Media for any criticism of
Israel. The Political Unemployment line is filled with politicians who
fought for America's cause and independence from Israel and who sought
peace in the Holy Land. Among them are former Senators William Fulbright,
Charles Percy, Reps. Paul Findley and Cynthia McKinney. The American Government,
Media, Wall Street, Hollywood, and 'experts' on television are ensuring
through daily bombardment of intimidating sound bytes that the American
TAXPAYER, who is the ultimate VICTIM in this charade of 55 years of Israel's
democracy and 'special relationship' with the United States, will never
know the truth about Israel's grip on this nation or if he/she does, that
they will never have the courage to ever speak out publicly. THE ANSWER
MY FRIEND AS TO WHY MUSLIMS ARE DYING EVERYDAY AND WHY AMERICANS HAVE
BEEN KILLED BY ISRAEL (USS Liberty in 1967, Marines in Beirut) and will
continue to die around the world for Israel’s interests, not America’s,
especially in Israel's push for America to attack Iraq, and not North
Korea, IS BLOWING IN THE WINDS OF 'JEWISH POWER'."
Israeli
at US loan talks is implicated in massacre,
by Robert Fisk, Independent (UK), January 12, 2003
"Israel is asking the United States for $8bn (£5bn) in loan guarantees
– and has sent to Washington one of the former army officers implicated
in the 1982 Sabra and Chatila massacre of Palestinian civilians to persuade
the Bush administration to grant the money. Amos Yaron, who is
now director general of the Israeli Ministry of Defence, was the Israeli
military commander in Beirut when Lebanese Phalangist militiamen entered
the refugee camps and slaughtered up to 1,700 Palestinian refugees. He
ordered flares to be dropped over the camps, at the request of the Phalange,
and Israeli soldiers blocked the exits to prevent civilians from leaving
the area. Israel is pleading for the money – along with an additional
$4bn in military aid – on the grounds that a US invasion of Iraq will
provoke further attacks against Israel. It argues that some of the aid
should be given to anti-missile defence systems for El Al airliners. Al-Qa'ida
members tried to destroy an Israeli civilian aircraft with missiles at
Mombasa last year, but narrowly missed it. The Israeli delegation to Washington
is led by Dov Weissglass, from the private office of the Israeli
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who was found 'personally responsible'
for the Sabra and Chatila massacre by the Israeli Kahan commission of
inquiry in 1983. Mr Yaron was appointed to the post of Defence
Ministry director by the former prime minister, Ehud Barak. The
two men are accompanied to Washington by the Israeli Ministry of Finance
accountant general, Nir Gilad. The Israeli team is negotiating
the new loan with Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council but little
has emerged about their visit in the American press. The US response is
likely to be made public within a month – before the expected invasion
of Iraq. The State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher, has refused
to talk about the negotiations, save for a passing remark that 'we always
try to help our friends and allies to the best of our ability'."
[Since the following article is obviously perceived as outrageous in
Boston and the U.S., how about a deal? The end to medievalism: a Jewish
Argentine governor for an Arab, Muslim, or Christian prime minister of
Israel. Or even mayor of Tel Aviv. Or even head of an Israeli
phone company. OK, OK. How about an Arab policeman in the Jewish
side of Jerusalem?]
Argentine politician tests a provision,
Boston Globe (from Los Angeles Times), January
12, 2003
"Jose Alperovich has the credentials to become the next governor
of the province of Tucuman. He is a federal senator, rising star in the
ruling Peronist party, and protege to the current governor. He also is
Jewish. And that, a number of prominent voices here say, disqualifies
him from becoming Tucuman's chief executive under Article 80 of the provincial
constitution, which requires the governor to take a Christian oath. 'I
never thought, in the 21st century, we'd see something like this,' said
Alperovich, who leads most polls here ahead of elections expected
in March or April. He is challenging Article 80 in the provincial Supreme
Court ... Article 80 says the governor must swear fealty to 'God, the
Fatherland and the Christian saints.' Monsignor Luis Villalba, Tucuman's
Roman Catholic archbishop, launched the controversy just before Christmas
when he said the constitutional provision means the governor must be Catholic.
'We have to start respecting the law,' Villalba said on a local television
program. 'We must follow the constitution to the last detail. Our country
is falling apart because no one follows or respects the law' ... For many
in Argentina's 200,000-member Jewish community, the controversy is just
another in a long line of incidents with anti-Semitic overtones in a traditionally
Catholic country, where many people are not yet comfortable with a cosmopolitan
society. challenge to Article 80 ... Alperovich, 47, is the grandson
of Lithuanian immigrants who fled the violence of World War II. A successful
businessman, he drifted to politics in the mid-1990s and was economy minister
in the provincial government before becoming a senator."
The Beltway Revue.
Some Actors Are Behind the Curtain,
by Jim Moore, The
Etherzone, January 13, 2002
"I was particularly disturbed by Elisabeth Bumiller's article 'An
Invisible Aide Leaves Fingerprints.' It's a revealing piece about
Josh Bolton, a White House aide who 'has his fingerprints all over
President Bush's new $600 billion economic plan, (legislation creating
the Department of Homeland Security)---and just about every other domestic
policy concocted in his powerful little corner deep in the West Wing'.
That's a big fingerprint-and getting bigger. Bolton, an alumnus
of Goldman Sachs, has a growing reputation as the hub of Bush's domestic
agenda, which is primarily set by a small handful of his West Wing aides.
That, my friends, is power. Now, there are three things that trouble me
about Bolton with his hands on that much power. First, his secrecy. According
to Bumiller's report, Bolton's views about America's economy and domestic
policies are a mystery, as is the kind of advice he gives the president.
Second, his authority. He is in charge of parceling out time for meetings
of the president's Domestic and Economic Councils. He decides what's to
be discussed, and who gets invited. He, himself, attends all meetings,
regardless of the topics. Third, his loyalty. By that I am not referring
to his patriotism. For all I know, Bolton may be as loyal to America
as was Patrick Henry. But according to his boss, Karl Rove, 'He's the
explainer of all things Jewish to the White House.' I'm not sure why,
but that sounded a bit ominous to me, so I began to wonder just how many
Jews were in Bush's administration, and why the Man in the White House
has to have 'all things Jewish' explained to him, and what he did with
that information when he got it. Being a nosey sort, I immediately contacted
my friend Google and asked it to give me the names of the Jews in the
Bush administration. I must say, the roster I received looked like the
contents of an Israeli businessman's Rolodex. There are least 17 Jews
in the Bush Administration. And I'm not talking about people who sit in
the back row at meetings and take notes. These are all people at the highest
levels of government. People in such powerful positions that they literally
influence the foreign and domestic policies of the president, and thus
of the United States of America.itself. I list them here, and where they
work, so that you'll see that these are not people on the way up, but
people who are already on top. Paul Wolfowitz - Deputy Sec'y.,
Department of Defense Richard Perle - Ass't Sec'y of Defense for
International Security Policy; Ari Fleischer, - White House Press
Sec'y; Ken Melman - White House Political Director; Josh Bolton
- Deputy Chief of Staff; Jay Lefkowiz - Ass't to the President
& Director of Domestic Policy Council; David Frum - Speechwriter;
Brad Blakeman - White House Director of Scheduling; Dov Zakheim
- Under Secretary of Defense (Controller); Lewis Libby - Chief
of Staff to the Vice President; Adam Goldman - White House Liaison
to the Jewish Community; Chris Gersten - Administrator for children
& families at HHS; Elliot Abrams - Ass't Sec'y, Human Rights, International
Operations; Mark Weinberg - Housing & Urban Development for Public
Affairs; Douglas Feith - Under Sec'y of Defense for Policy Michaek
Chertoff - Head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division; Daniel
Kurtzer - Ambassador to Israel. As I listed these names, it prompted
me to connect some dots I had never before felt the need to do. And the
picture that emerged produced more questions of a troubling nature. One
question is, how and why did so many Jews manage to get themselves into
top-level positions in the Administration? Another question, what if anything,
does the Jewish influence on American policy have to do with our lock-step
relationship, and over-generous support of, Israel? Last question, if
the Jewish influence on our government is beneficial, productive, and
promotive of America's principles, why did our founding fathers make the
following statements---more than 200 years ago?"
[Israeli green light to kill Americans].
Israel
to kill in U.S., allied nations,
by Richard Sale, UPI, January 15, 2003
"Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the war on
terror that will include staging targeted killings in the United States
and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told
United Press International. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
has forbidden the practice until now, these sources said, speaking on
condition of anonymity. The Israeli statements were confirmed by more
than a half dozen U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews
with UPI. With the appointment of Meir Dagan, the new director
Israel's Mossad secret intelligence service, Sharon is also preparing
'a huge budget' increase for the spy agency as part of 'a tougher stance
in fighting global jihad (or holy war),' one Israeli official said. Since
Sharon became Israeli prime minister, Tel Aviv has mainly limited
its practice of targeted killings to the West Bank and Gaza because 'no
one wanted such operations on their territory,' a former Israeli intelligence
official said. Another former Israeli government official said that under
Sharon, 'diplomatic constraints have prevented the Mossad from carrying
out 'preventive operations' (targeted killings) on the soil of friendly
countries until now.' He said Sharon is 'reversing that policy, even if
it risks complications to Israel's bilateral relations' ... A congressional
staff member with deep knowledge of intelligence matters said, 'I don't
know on what basis we would be able to protest Israel's actions.'"
Defender
of the Jews, wherever they may be,
By Yossi Shain and Ze'ev Segal, Semit
Times
"In the current tense discussions both in Israel and in the Jewish
Diaspora concerning the new wave of anti-Semitism, politicians and commentators
alike have overlooked the legal dimension of kinship responsibility (in
the sense of kol Yisrael arevim ze laze) that exists in the Israeli
penal code. Section 13 of this code, enacted in 1994, enshrines in law
an express Israeli commitment to the Diaspora-homeland security nexus.
Section 13, part of a wider reform of the code, granted Israeli courts
jurisdiction over what is termed 'extra-territorial crimes,' that is,
crimes committed outside Israel. Section 13 is unique in the way it relates
to what is defined in its title as 'crimes against the state or against
the Jewish People.' Section 13 states that: 'Israeli criminal law will
also apply to offenses committed outside Israeli territory against: 1.
The life of an Israeli citizen, Israeli resident or public servant, his
body, his health, his freedom, or his property, because he is one of the
above. 2. The life of a Jew, his body, his health, or his property, because
he is a Jew, or the property of a Jewish institution, because it is Jewish.'
In this section, Israel defined in explicit terms the connection between
the Diaspora and the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people
... By enacting the section on the 'Security of the Jews,' the State of
Israel expressed its commitment to protect all Jews regardless of their
citizenship and their countries of domicile, as if they were citizens
of the state and as if the crimes committed against them were committed
within Israel's state borders ... According to this (weaker) principle,
a state may apply its criminal laws to those who harm its citizens or
residents when they are outside its territorial bounds. This principle
rests on the state's obligation to protect its citizens, even when they
are outside its sovereign domain. It is also based on the personal (kin)
connection to the state ... In 1994, when the Knesset added the 'Security
of the Jews' clause, it established a new extraterritorial principle,
an additional connection that makes possible the application of Israeli
criminal norms outside the borders of the state. The significance of the
clause is that the State of Israel sees the protection of all Jews as
one of its supreme responsibilities and considers every Jew, wherever
he/she may reside, to be covered by its legal protection ... The explanatory
remarks said: 'Likewise it should be emphasized that special protection
is granted in Section 13(b)(2) to the life, health, freedom or property
of a Jew, because he is a Jew, and that this is without any other connection
to the State of Israel ... This is an expression of the State of Israel's
existence as the State of the Jewish people' ... The practical significance
of the 'Security of the Jews' clause is that Israeli courts have jurisdiction
over acts committed by foreigners against Jews because of their Jewishness.
This means that from the point of view of the State of Israel, there is
no substantive difference whether anti-Semitic offenses are committed
inside or outside of Israel. In other words, in contrast to every other
offense committed against Israeli citizens or Jews outside of Israel,
and for which the court is not ordinarily empowered to judge, when an
offense is motivated by anti-Semitism, the court has full jurisdiction.
In addition, the conferment of judicial jurisdiction on an Israeli court,
and the treatment of the offense as if it was committed within the borders
of Israel, provides the State of Israel the authority to demand the extradition
of the offender ... To the best of our knowledge, the 'Security of the
Jews' clause has yet to be activated. This in no way diminishes the declarative
and ideological importance of this law. It cannot be seen as beyond the
realm of possibility that in the future, in certain circumstances, the
law will cease to be merely words and will become a living and breathing
reality. At this time when a foul wave of attacks is raging against Jews,
their property, their symbols and their institutions, attacks that have
reached such worrisome dimensions, it seems to us proper to create awareness
of this unique clause in the Israeli penal code and to encourage public
debate, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, regarding it." Prof.
Shain and Prof. Segal are on the faculty of Tel Aviv University.
Prof. Segal is Ha'aretz's legal affairs editor. Prof. Shain
is also a professor of government at Georgetown University.
[This article is a natural for the one after it]
Two YULA
Students Picked as Scholars,
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, January
17, 2003
"Having a conversation with Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA)
students Debra Glasberg and Tzvi Smith is like chatting
with two political experts being interviewed on CNN. These two high school
students are among the five Jewish teens chosen for the exclusive Sen.
Joseph Lieberman Scholars Program. Now in its third year, the program
is a joint project of the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs
(IPA) and the National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY). The goal
of the Lieberman Scholars Program is to educate and cultivate future
leaders of the Jewish community ... [Glasberg] will learn at a
yeshiva in Israel for a year after high school and then go to college
to study political science. Her goal is to become a political activist.
'I’m concerned about issues that affect the Jewish community and how we
can help American Jews and world Jewry in the political process,' the
Beverly Hills resident said. 'I think it’s extremely important that Jews
have a say in American politics' Like Glasberg, [Smith]
plans to study at a yeshiva in Israel before attending college. In late
November, Glasberg and Smith attended the United Jewish
Communities (UJC) General Assembly in Philadelphia. The conference provided
an opportunity for Jewish community leaders from across North America
and from Israel to meet and exchange ideas. The purpose of the event,
which is one of three major seminars the scholars will attend this year,
was to foster leadership in the Jewish community and promote Jewish awareness.
'Coming from an Orthodox perspective, I was fascinated how the whole community
could come together,' Glasberg said. 'We all had this uniting factor
in supporting Israel and learning how to bring community together to help
Israel.'”
[Jews are obsessed with monitoring their neighbors. And it is
a measure of Jewish Lobbying expertise, Jewish influence in the mass media,
and Jewish censorial control of public discourse that all of the American
electorate is not concerned about Joe Lieberman's loyalty to Israel. Despite
all the Jewish propaganda and censorship, apparently 33% of Americans
still know what's going on. Expect an avalanche of Jewish spin doctors
and propaganda fraudsters to publicly distance Lieberman from his Israeli
root. ]
Lieberman
pooh-poohs poll saying voters worrying about split loyalties,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 16, 2003
"Nearly one-third of Americans are concerned that a Jewish president
may have split loyalties vis-a-vis Israel, according to a new poll. But
the results may not necessarily be bad news for Sen. Joseph Lieberman
(D-Conn.), an observant Jew who announced his bid this week for the 2004
Democratic presidential nomination. 'What it suggests is, the question
about whether or not Jews are totally accepted as complete loyal Americans
is still up for grabs in some American minds,' said Gary Tobin,
president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, which commissioned
the poll. Asked about the findings, Lieberman said Wednesday that
polls he has seen say voters would not be dissuaded from backing him because
of the dual loyalty issue ... Polls taken by the Anti-Defamation League
also have shown that about one-third of Americans believe American Jews
have conflicting loyalties. Tobin’s poll also showed that 37 percent
of Americans believe Jews are responsible for killing Jesus — and that
Democrats are more likely to have anti-Semitic attitudes than Republicans.
Tobin attributed some of the anti-Semitism to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. 'Traditional anti-Semitic stereotypes have been incorporated
into the language of anti-Israelis,' Tobin said. Tobin’s
solution is more education and outreach. The poll results suggest that
Jewish groups should work with leaders of other religions to improve education
about Judaism and Israel, he said. Other findings in the survey may be
more debatable. The poll asked respondents to answer such questions as
whether Jews have too much influence on Wall Street, whether Jews threaten
the morality of the United States and whether Jews control the media.
On many questions, the survey found that Americans aged 18-34 are more
likely to hold anti-Semitic attitudes than are older groups, reversing
a trend since World War II, Tobin said. For example, roughly 24 percent
of respondents under 35 believe Jews control the U.S. news media. 'In
the wake of the Holocaust, social norms in the United States and elsewhere
in the world were more prohibitive of most overt expressions of anti-Semitism,'
Tobin said. “The constraints against anti-Semitism are weakening, and
the rise in anti-Semitic beliefs is part of that trend.'"
Crafting
a legacy in Morocco: Jews, officials share same goal,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, March 24
"Morocco's Jewish community, which stood at a robust 250,000 in 1948,
has dwindled to approximately 5,000 today; most of its members are older
than 50 ... Moroccan officials, once unwilling to mention the State of
Israel, now speak of their readiness to establish a direct Tel Aviv-Casablanca
flight if peace is achieved. `What is important is to share business,
joint ventures, large cooperation together,' said Andre Azoulay,
a former banker and the chief economic adviser to
[King] Hassan. Azoulay is believed to be the only Jewish
minister in the Arab world."
Democracy, not terror, must win, Giuliani says as he stumps for Israel,
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 22, 2003
"The former mayor of New York is drawing on his experience with terrorism
to help raise funds for Israel. Rudy Giuliani appeared Monday at two United
Israel Appeal fund-raising events aimed at the non-Jewish German public.
Israel’s is an 'outpost of freedom and democracy and the rule of law,'
Giuliani said Monday in a speech at Hamburg’s ornate town hall, and its
preservation is 'a key to world peace' ... Monday’s fund-raising events
in Hamburg and Berlin were organized by Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal
as part of a new campaign for the hearts — and pockets — of evangelical
Christians. Andreas Wankum, director of Keren Hayesod in Germany, told
the Hamburg audience that he had invited Giuliani 'because we wanted you
to meet someone who was directly affected by terrorism, who felt it in
his own body' ... Jewish leaders increasingly are willing to accept support
for Israel from Christian fundamentalist groups, said Rabbi Yechiel
Eckstein, founder of the Chicago- and Jerusalem-based International
Fellowship of Christians and Jews. The fellowship recently signed an agreement
under which Eckstein will assist Keren Hayesod’s efforts to reach out
to Christians in Europe. His first campaign in Germany is scheduled for
February. 'It has never been done before,' Eckstein told JTA, but it makes
perfect sense, since Christian groups gave $21 million to Israel in 2002.
During the past year, thousands of evangelical Christians demonstrated
for Israel in Berlin and in The Hague in the Netherlands. 'Jews have to
get it where they can,' said Israel Singer, president of the World
Jewish Congress and chairman of the Claims Conference. 'People don’t have
a choice when they are isolated. We need support from like-minded, Judeo-Christian
types.'”
An
Orthodox Powerhouse in D.C. Suburb,
[Jewish] Forward, January
10, 2003
"Neil and Fran Kritz are poster
children for Modern Orthodoxy. Fran, a reporter for the Washington
Post, won't take a call from any source on the Sabbath. Neil, who
is the director of the Rule of Law Program for the U.S. Institute
of Peace, travels to war-torn countries to help rebuild their legal systems,
yet he won't so much as drink a cup of coffee from a non-kosher restaurant.
Combining fast-track Washington careers with religious piety, the Kritzes
are models for a kind of Orthodox life that some observers have considered
to be on the wane. But the Kritzes are hardly anomalies in the
capital; they are part of a vanguard that includes the singles, young
marrieds and politicos at Georgetown's Kesher Israel Congregation and
the families, like the Kritzes, who are members of the suburban
Kemp Mill Synagogue. So successful have the two synagogues become in fostering
Modern Orthodox movers and shakers that some have even begun to talk about
the Washington area eclipsing New York as the incubator of Modern Orthodoxy's
national leadership. As proof, they point to the selection last month
of Richard Joel, international director of Hillel and an active
member of the Kemp Mill Synagogue, as the next president of Yeshiva University
... 'The people here are both Jewishly committed and really engaged in
the secular world — and not just as a place to make money," said member
Eliot Cohen, director of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's
School of Advanced International Studies. Last fall, President Bush let
it be known that he and his top aides were reading Cohen's latest
book, 'Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime.'
Indeed, the synagogue's membership list reads like a roster of boldface
names, including Dov Zackheim, the Undersecretary of Defense who
was also considered for the Y.U. position; Tevi Troy, special adviser
to the domestic policy council at the White House, and David Makovsky,
a contributing editor to U.S. News and World Report. Members work at the
State, Labor and Justice departments, high-end lobbying firms and Greenpeace,
the National Archives, Comptroller of the Currency and National Gallery
of Art. The synagogue, which was founded in 1990, functions according
to a mission statement whose cornerstone is an astonishingly quiet and
efficient — read: short — prayer service. Other
features included a passionate dedication to Zionism and an environment
that is unusually inclusive of children. A women's prayer group meets
regularly, classes are open to all and the rabbi only gives one sermon
a month — the other three sermons are given by lay members, both men and
women. One of the most significant parts of the mission statement, however,
is the mandate for active engagement with the non-Jewish world... In 1999,
a number of Modern Orthodox rabbis, including Rabbi Saul Berman
of New York and Kesher Israel Congregation's Rabbi Barry Freundel,
founded Edah, an organization intended to reinvigorate Modern Orthodoxy's
blend of religiosity and secular pursuits, deep-felt
Zionism and willingness to dialogue with non-Orthodox Jewish groups."
The
Half-Billion Dollar Shakedown. Record Amounts of Soft Money during the
1999-2000 Cycle,
Common Cause
"Special Interests Hand Over Record Amounts Of Soft Money To The
National Parties During 1999-2000 Election Cycle."
[REAL ESTATE: of the top five funders to Democratic and Republican
Parties, four were Jewish: Milstein Properties $1,084,389;
Stephen Bing, Real Estate Investor 685,000; Walter Shorenstein,
Shorenstein Co 675,698; Simon DeBartolo Group Inc 554,200; David
Steiner, Steiner Equities Group]
[It appears that the top seven Entertainment/Media political philanthropists
are Jewish, i.e., the Disney company, from Michael Eisner on down, has
become a significantly Jewish enterprise]]
Entertainment
and Media,
Common Cause
"Haim Saban, Saban Entertainment $1,551,363; Walt Disney
Co 1,205,033; DreamWorks SKG 873,000 News Corp 680,900; Vance
Opperman, West Publishing 596,712; Philip Levine, Onboard Media
567,665; Jeffrey & Jeanne Levy-Hinte, Post 391; 548,000 Michael
King, King World
The
Cheerful Giver. A businessman with a corner on publishing court documents
was also a master of political donations,
CNN, April 21, 1997
"Happy is the man who rules his market, especially one as lucrative
as Vance Opperman's. As president of West Publishing, the
quasi-official publisher of court decisions, he has earned a fortune.
And so when his empire was threatened in 1994 by potential competition
from, of all places, the Justice Department, he called in a little help
from his friends in Washington. Fortunately for him, he had a lot of those.
A major Democratic Party fund raiser, who with his father gave $195,000
in 1992-94, Opperman enjoyed a decades-old friendship with Al Gore
and served as campaign-finance co-chairman for California Senator Dianne
Feinstein in 1994. At a Democratic fund raiser that fall, Opperman
took the opportunity to collar Bill Clinton and, as Democratic officials
told TIME, asked him point-blank, 'Can you get the Justice Department
off my back?' Opperman recalls seeing Clinton but denies asking
for a favor. He remembers how agitated he was at the time over an announcement
by the Justice Department that it was exploring ways to help consumers
gain cheaper online access to court opinions--a form of legal research
that posed a threat to West's $800 million-a-year business. Clinton didn't
know the details but told Opperman he would have his counselor
Mack McLarty look into it. McLarty, who had had business dealings with
Opperman, met with him and White House lawyer Steve Neuwirth in
his West Wing office. The object, says White House special counsel Lanny
Davis, was to 'determine what if any response the White House might have'
to Opperman's concern. At McLarty's direction, Neuwirth made inquiries
at Justice, and learned of a complicating issue. The department's Antitrust
Division was investigating the online service industry West dominated
for alleged monopolistic practices. The White House quickly bowed out.
After years of cultivating politicians and federal judges -- West
regularly flew members of the judiciary to posh retreats -- Opperman
had other chits to call in. Judges, Congressmen and thousands of West
employees sent letters and made calls to Justice to plead Opperman's
case. In February the department formally abandoned any online plans that
would have undercut his company. Justice officials said cost and complexity,
not political influence, determined the outcome. West soon thereafter
won a $14.2 million contract to provide Justice with online legal research.
Not only that, but the department's antitrust investigation never seemed
to get off the ground. That wasn't West's only Washington coup.
Clinton had named Opperman in 1993 to an advisory panel that, among
its many tasks, would review the first government report to recommend
broad copyright protection for West's kind of reproduction of publically
available information. The idea was potentially a saving grace for Opperman,
whose franchise was considered to be threatened by a 1991 Supreme Court
decision stripping copyright claims from publishers who assemble nonoriginal
work, such as the phone book. By early 1996 the author of the report--Patents
commissioner Bruce Lehman--was promoting the Opperman-friendly
copyright measure and seeking to incorporate it in an international treaty.
The timing was terrific for Opperman, who was in the process of
making a deal to sell his Minnesota-based company for $3.4 billion to
Thomson Corp. of Canada. With its copyright protection more secure, West
would be able to preserve its bargaining position. The merger, like
others of its size, needed approval by the Justice Department. That decision
came amid an extraordinary convergence of events for West. In May
of last year, even as Lehman was presenting the U.S. treaty proposal
in Geneva, Opperman was co-chairing a $250,000 campaign event for
Gore in Minneapolis. The next month, Opperman attended a fund-raising
coffee at the White House with Clinton. Several weeks later he dined with
the Gores in Nashville, Tennessee. By that time, he had something to celebrate:
the Justice Department had conditionally approved the merger."
[What makes
the difference for the Jewish vote? Democrat? Republican? No. Jewish.]
Survey
Sees Historic Shift to the Right Younger Set Spurns Dems,
[Jewish] Forward, January 17, 2003
"American Jews may be poised on the edge of a historic shift to the
right in their political views, according to a new survey of Jewish opinion
released to the Forward this week. As they have for most of the past century,
Jews identify themselves overwhelmingly as Democrats, and liberals outnumber
conservatives two to one, according to the survey, which I conducted in
November and December. However, younger Jews are far more willing than
their elders to identify as Republicans and to approve of President Bush,
suggesting that the Democrats' advantage among Jews will shrink during
the coming decades. Republican identification also increases markedly
among the growing number of Jews who are in the highest income brackets,
something that has not been shown in previous surveys, including my own.
Most striking, almost half the Jews who voted in 2000 for Democratic presidential
candidate Al Gore over Republican George W. Bush are uncertain they would
make the same choice today. Jews in this sample supported Gore over Bush
in 2000 by a margin of 71% to 21%. The survey, conducted
when Gore was still considered the Democratic front-runner for 2004, showed
just 37% saying they would now vote for Gore, 22% backing Bush and 41%
uncertain. A Joseph Lieberman candidacy, however, would bring Jewish
support sharply back into the Democratic column. In a hypothetical Lieberman-Bush
match-up, 57% said they would vote for Lieberman and 14% for Bush,
with 29% uncertain ... The survey, conducted by a mail-back questionnaire,
included a statistically representative sample of 1,386 Jewish adults
nationwide, drawn from a consumer opinion panel of the research firm Synovate.
It was funded by the Jewish education department of the Jewish Agency
for Israel in cooperation with the Florence G. Heller/JCCA Research Center.
... There are indications, too, that much of the shift may be closely
associated with Bush's performance as a wartime president and ally of
Israel. Indeed, support for 'the way George W. Bush has been dealing with
Israel and the Middle East' was strong across the board, with 43% approving
and just 29% disapproving ... Indeed, this study showed almost no variation
in political measures as income rose from the poorest households to those
earning up to $150,000. However, at $150,000 a major break in political
preferences emerges. This most affluent group — amounting
to almost one-fourth of American Jews — expressed markedly more
support for Republicans, conservatives and President Bush."
[Power shift?:
Jewish Democrat out, Jewish Republican in.]
Coleman to lead
subcommittee that's rich in Senate history,
Star Tribune, January 18, 2003
"Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., was named chairman of the Senate's
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Friday, taking control of
a panel that has launched many political careers and provided some of
the most dramatic moments in Senate history. 'This is the premier investigative
subcommittee in all of Congress,' said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman
of the Senate's Governmental Relations Committee, who appointed Coleman
... 'It's a wonderful venue, because it really is a license to investigate
just about anything,' said Donald Ritchie, associate historian with the
Senate Historical Office. Collins said it was 'a tribute to his talent'
that Coleman was given the job in his first year. She noted that
it has often been headed by members of Congress with decades of experience:
Coleman's predecessor, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan,
was elected to the Senate in 1978. Collins, the last Republican to head
the panel, said that Coleman will have 'the strongest subpoena
power in the entire Senate' ... Coleman, 53, the 10th senator to
lead the subcommittee, will replace Levin, the panel's chairman
since 2001. Levin lost the position because Republicans took control
of the Senate in the November elections. That change in part resulted
from Coleman's victory over Democrat Walter Mondale, the former
vice president."
[In America,
the Jewish Lobby has covered all its bases -- it is illegal in the U.S.
to boycott Israeli goods]
Swedes
call for boycott of Israeli goods,
Ha'aretz (Israel) (from Associated Press),
January 19, 2003
"An archbishop, an ambassador and the leader of an ex-communist party
were among 73 Swedes calling for a boycott on Israeli goods from occupied
Palestinian territories Saturday. 'To buy and trade with Israeli goods
from occupied territories is to actively support the illegal Israeli occupation,'
said the authors of an opinion article in newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
The article was signed by Karl Gustav Hammar, archbishop of the Lutheran
Church of Sweden; Carl Tham, Sweden's ambassador to Berlin; Left Party
leader Gudrun Schyman and dozens of journalists, writers, economists and
politicians"
[Two-faced and loaded with Jewish "PAC" money,
Lieberman seeks to buy the Black vote]
The
Lieberman Coalition Guess who's coming to the support of his campaign?
by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard, 1/27/2003,
Volume 008, Issue 19
"It's odd to say the least --Joe Lieberman, first ever Jewish-American
presidential candidate, leading the Democratic field in support from black
voters. But according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll asking
black Democrats who they liked best from a list that included Al Sharpton,
that's exactly what is happening today. The first explanation most political
observers give for this popularity is also the most obvious: name identification.
A former vice presidential candidate gets a head start from having his
name on the leftover blue and red bumper stickers that still decorate
the rear ends of cars across the country ... And since the 2000 campaign
ended, even before he knew for sure he would run in 2004, Lieberman
spent time cultivating support among African-American leaders in Washington
and around the country ... Last spring, as he waited for Al Gore to decide
whether to make another bid for the White House, Lieberman telephoned
Eddie Bernice Johnson, then head of the Congressional Black Caucus, to
ask which caucus members he might support with his PAC. She gave him a
list of the CBC members thought to be most vulnerable, and Lieberman
contributed to almost 20 of them. Among his contributions was a $1,000
check to the reelection effort of Rep. Earl Hilliard of Alabama. Hilliard
had a long record of hostility to Israel. He refused to sign a resolution
in support of Israel's war on terrorism, and sponsored a bill, after September
11, that would have lifted sanctions on states that sponsor terrorism.
Columnist Cynthia Tucker called Hilliard 'a loose cannon, a dimwit, and
perhaps a crook' who 'gained a reputation for trying to persuade his colleagues
to vote against pro-Israeli initiatives.' Hilliard lost in a nasty June
primary in which his opponent solicited and received large sums from Jewish
Democrats. After the race, he warned of a 'future with a great deal of
conflict between African Americans and Jews in this country' and suggested
African Americans would seek 'retribution' for his loss. Lieberman's
advisers point out that the money was given in late March, several weeks
before the primary turned into a bitter referendum on the Middle East.
But the senator's critics say the Hilliard contribution is one example
of just how far Lieberman is willing to go to win support among
black politicians and voters. Another, they say, came last week, when
Lieberman blasted the Bush administration for filing a brief with the
Supreme Court opposing the University of Michigan's affirmative action
program. 'I am deeply disappointed by the president's decision today,'
Lieberman said. 'This was an opportunity for the president to demonstrate
his commitment to achieving real equality in education. Instead, he sided
with the right wing of his party, and sent a signal that equal opportunity
in higher education is a low priority for his administration.' It's a
shot that might be expected from any of the other Democrats running for
president. But Lieberman's own views on racial preferences in the
mid-1990s put him arguably to the right of where President Bush is today
... Lieberman went further. He infuriated many in his own party
when he said he would support California's Proposition 209--a 1996 statewide
ballot initiative that banned racial preferences--taking a step then Governor
George W. Bush would not ... [African-American] Representative Maxine
Waters said Lieberman must be 'vigorously opposed' because 'what he's
doing is dangerous.' A local Connecticut Democratic party chapter circulated
a petition to oppose Lieberman's efforts, and Jesse Jackson teamed
with the National Organization for Women to sponsor an anti-Lieberman
rally at Yale University, Lieberman's alma mater. Jackson also
fired off a four-page letter to Lieberman calling the senator's
remarks 'particularly irresponsible,' later adding that on affirmative
action 'Lieberman and Jesse Helms are indistinguishable.'"
[Same theme: Jewish money and Blacks at its mercy. Jews own the Democratic
Party; march to the Israeli drum or you're history.]
Sharpton
Will Seek Jewish Dollars, Says an Aide,
[Jewish] Forward, January 17, 2003
"Reverend Al Sharpton is seeking campaign contributions from the
Jewish community like any other presidential candidate, according to his
political adviser. Former Bronx Democratic Party chairman Roberto Ramirez
told the Forward that Sharpton's 'progressive, populist and clear
message' would attract Jewish campaign dollars despite his often dicey
relations with the community. The civil rights firebrand is anathema to
many New York Jews because of conduct many Jews viewed as inflammatory
during two local racial incidents: the 1991 Crown Heights riots and the
demonstrations that preceded the 1995 torching of a Jewish-owned clothing
store in Harlem. Eight people died in those incidents ... 'I would hope
and argue that in there lies a wealth of support,' Ramirez said in an
interview in his New York office Monday. Jewish
donors supply a vastly disproportionate share of the millions raised by
Democratic presidential candidates; the amount has never been measured,
but political operatives say that it is more than half. Ramirez
said that Sharpton, who plans on creating a presidential exploratory committee
later this month, did not need as much money as some others would ...
Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding
and a Sharpton confidant, said the minister would have 'limited' support
in the Jewish community. 'He has sought rapprochement with the Jewish
community,' Schneier said, but "the Jewish community at large is very
suspect and remains very much on edge when it comes to Al Sharpton and
his candidacy.'"
McDonough
urges U.S. to stop funding Israeli army NDP leader seeks role for Canada
in brokering peace. Critics say party too sympathetic to Palestinian cause,
Toronto Star, January 17, 2002
"Amid a swirling perception that the NDP is becoming too sympathetic
toward the Palestinian cause, leader Alexa McDonough says the U.S. must
stop financing Israel's powerful military. 'People are desperate to see
Canada take more responsibility to pressure our American neighbours to
stop bankrolling the military heavy handedness here,' McDonough said in
a telephone interview from Jerusalem where she has just completed a 16-day
excursion into Israel and the occupied territories on a mission of peace.
'Canada needs to be far more vocal in efforts to try to persuade the Israeli
government that in the name of fighting terrorism and seeking security
you can't trample human rights, human lives and human dignity. You contribute
not to security but to an escalation of violence that fuels terrorism,'
she said ... Former Canadian ambassador to Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, Norman Spector, has scolded the NDP leadership candidates
for defending Burnaby MP Svend Robinson's April trip to Ramallah to see
Arafat, in which he wanted to 'demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian
people' and was seen in an altercation with an Israeli soldier. Upon his
return, Robinson said Israel was guilty of 'torture and murder' and was
stripped of his duties as the party's Middle East critic. McDonough also
used the term 'terrorism,' referring to Israeli military aggression, before
softening her line and censuring Robinson."
Bush
wants Chertoff for appeals court,
Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18, 2003
"President Bush plans to nominate Michael Chertoff, a top
Justice Department prosecutor and former U.S. attorney for New Jersey,
to a seat on the Philadelphia-based federal appeals court, according to
the office of Sen. Jon Corzine (D., N.J.). The White House told the senator
that Bush intended to submit Chertoff's name to the Senate for the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ... Chertoff, 48, who was
New Jersey's top federal prosecutor from 1990 to 1994, took over the Justice
Department's criminal division in 2001. He has been a chief architect
of the criminal investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks and the government's
efforts to defuse the al-Qaeda network. Chertoff also took the
lead last year in shaping Justice's prosecution of the Enron Corp. debacle
and other corporate scandals. In that role, Chertoff and other
prosecutors at the department came under sharp criticism after indicting
the entire Arthur Andersen L.L.P. accounting firm for shredding documents
related to its Enron audits, rather than simply prosecuting the relative
handful of employees who actually destroyed documents. Critics said the
indictment caused thousands of people who had nothing to do with the Enron
audits to lose their jobs when the Andersen firm collapsed. Chertoff,
who has no prior judicial experience, could not be reached for comment
yesterday. The Third Circuit, which has jurisdiction for appellate matters
in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, is
one of the nation's most important appeals courts, and its legal scholarship
is held in high regard."
Bush's
Brainiest Hawk,
Time, January 19, 2003
"[J]ust four days after Sept. 11, [Deputy Defense Secretary Paul]
Wolfowitz urged Bush to go to war against Iraq. Wolfowitz's
presentation didn't persuade his colleagues. But he made a lasting impression
on Bush. After telling aides that the first phase of the war would be
limited to removing the Taliban, the President privately encouraged Wolfowitz—'Wolfie,'
as Bush calls him—to keep pressing his case. 'When he speaks, his intellect
is moving so fast that sometimes he's editing as he goes along,' says
a senior Administration official. 'But you always want to listen carefully
to what he's saying.' In public and behind the scenes, Wolfowitz
spent the following months laying out the case for taking the war to Baghdad.
In doing so, he cemented his reputation as the Administration's
most influential strategist. Since 1973, when he left his teaching
job at Yale to join the Nixon Administration, Wolfowitz has served
under every President except Clinton. Along the way, he has won some powerful
patrons—including Donald Rumsfeld, his current boss, and Dick Cheney,
who hired Wolfowitz as his No. 3 during the first Bush Administration.
Wolfowitz has built a following, thanks to his prescience. In the
1970s he advocated bolstering the U.S. military presence in the Persian
Gulf to deter Iraq from someday invading Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. He helped
shape the hard-line Reagan-era policies toward the Soviet Union that conservatives
credit with ending the cold war. In 1990 he called for pre-emptive strikes
against enemy states trying to obtain weapons of mass destruction—precisely
the shift in U.S. strategy that the Administration announced last fall.
But other proposals by Wolfowitz have been dismissed as reckless—such
as his suggestion during the first Bush Administration that the U.S. send
troops to Lithuania if Moscow tried to block the republic's secession.
Though often caricatured as Washington's most menacing hawk, Wolfowitz
is popular for his self-deprecating humor ... When Bush decided last fall
to push for the return of U.N. weapons inspectors, it was Wolfowitz
who insisted on the key U.N. demand that Iraq make its scientists available
for interviews outside the country. Bush, an aide says, 'wasn't totally
comfortable' when he first met his team's resident egghead. But like Bush,
Wolfowitz is driven by a belief that the U.S. should use its power
to promote freedom and battle tyrants ... Removing Saddam and building
a democratic Iraq would have a domino effect, he thinks, giving rise to
Arab democracies and defusing anti-American anger. It's a risky gamble,
but with each passing day, his boss appears more prepared to bet that
Wolfie is right."
Ari & I.
White House Press Briefing with Ari Fleischer,
Common Dreams, January 21, 2003
"Mokhiber: Ari, UPI reported last week that Prime Minister
Sharon of Israel has given the green light to Mossad, the Israeli intelligence
service, to engage in targeted killings in the United States and other
friendly countries. The report says that Mossad has in the past engaged
in assassinations in Belgium, Norway, and other European countries, but
never in the United States. Is the administration aware of this new Israeli
policy and has the administration agreed to it?
Ari Fleischer: That's the first I've heard of it, so I have no comment
to offer on it.
Mokhiber: Could we get comment from you?
Ari Fleischer: I'll see if there is something on it.
Mokhiber: You and the President have repeatedly said that Saddam Hussein
gassed his own people. The biggest such attack was in Halabja in March
1988, where some 6,800 Kurds were killed. Last week, in an article in
the International Herald Tribune, Joost Hiltermann writes that
while it was Iraq that carried out the attack, the United States at the
time, fully aware that it was Iraq, accused Iran. This was apparently
part of the U.S. tilt toward Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war. The tilt included
billions of dollars in loan guarantees. Sensing he had carte blanche,
Saddam escalated his resort to gas warfare -- graduating to ever more
lethal agents. So, you and the President have said that Saddam has repeatedly
gassed his own people. Why do you leave out the part that the United States
in effect gave Saddam the green light?
Ari Fleischer: Russell, I speak for President George W. Bush in the
year 2003. If you have a question about statements that were purportedly
made by the administration in 1988, you need to address those somewhere
other than this White House. I can't speak for that. I don't know if it
is accurate, inaccurate, but you have all the means to ask those questions
yourself."
Israel's New
Policy of Terrorism on American Soil,
Etherzone
"A recent UPI report outlined Israel’s new policy of assassinating
suspected terrorists on American soil. In other words, Israel is now going
to officially carryout terrorism on U.S. soil. Isn’t that what murder
is? As an American citizen you cannot murder, why should agents of a foreign
government have any such right in your country? The UPI report read, 'Israel
is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that
will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other
friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told United
Press International.' UPI claims to have verified this information with
a dozen informants. The report goes on to say that Israel will go forward
with this policy, 'even if it risks complications to Israel's bilateral
relations.' Such a policy by Israel that has no regard for the national
sovereignty of the United States requires a reevaluation of an existing
allied relationship. It is a callous disregard for not only the laws of
the United States, but also the security, safety, and rights of its citizens.
What Israel terms as targeted assassinations is really the commencement
of a low-grade war against its enemies. By carrying out acts of war on
American soil, Israel will be committing acts of war against the United
States. Bringing its war to America, Israel is endangering the lives of
Americans, including American Jews. Surely, as Israel’s campaign of terror
is carried out against its enemies, there will be retaliatory action in
the United States by Islamic militants. Are synagogues and Jewish schools
immune from such horror? They will likely be the first targets. While
less than three percent of Americans are Jews, and respectively three
percent are Muslims, do we want them battling it out in our streets? By
proclaiming its license to kill on American soil, Israel places itself
on the list of rogue nations diametrically opposed to the United States.
Terrorism may be acceptable in the third world. It is not acceptable in
the United States. This policy by definition is state sponsored terrorism.
Maybe there should be weapons inspectors taking a look at Israel’s nuclear
program next? How exactly do we determine the innocence of the murdered
victims? Since Israel now has no regard for the nation where it murders
perceived terrorists, it is safe to say that they would also have no regard
for the nationality of the alleged terrorist. What if some of them are
American citizens? Are we going to allow a foreign nation to murder U.S.
citizens too? The UPI report also says, 'Israeli hit teams, which consist
of units or squadrons of the Kidon, a sub-unit for Mossad's highly secret
Metsada department, would stage the operations'. If Israeli hit teams
are in place in the United States, what will prevent them from targeting
U.S. officials that aren’t willing to send billions of dollars in foreign
aid to Israel? Far fetched, not really when we’re talking about a nation
that is openly planning terrorism in the United States. Yes, openly, because
a story this sensitive would have never leaked unless it was meant to
be leaked. If Israel is going to have a policy of terrorism on U.S. soil
then it is not only plausible that it will kill American citizens that
it considers to be enemies, but it is also likely that they will attack
American targets and try to blame it on the enemies of Israel. It’s bad
enough that according to a PBS Transcript Senator Graham of the Select
Committee On Intelligence said that classified evidence reveals that foreign
governments were involved in the September 11th attacks. Now another nation
is threatening to expand its terrorism to America."
Too Many
Smoking Guns to Ignore: Israel, American Jews, and the War on Iraq,
by Bill and Kathleen Christison, former CIA political analysts, Counterpunch,
January 25, 2003
"Most of the vociferously pro-Israeli neo-conservative policymakers
in the Bush administration make no effort to hide the fact that at least
part of their intention in promoting war against Iraq (and later perhaps
against Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and the Palestinians) is to guarantee
Israel's security by eliminating its greatest military threats, forging
a regional balance of power overwhelmingly in Israel's favor, and in general
creating a more friendly atmosphere for Israel in the Middle East. Yet,
despite the neo-cons' own openness, a great many of those on the left
who oppose going to war with Iraq and oppose the neo-conservative doctrines
of the Bush administration nonetheless utterly reject any suggestion that
Israel is pushing the United States into war, or is cooperating with the
U.S., or even hopes to benefit by such a war. 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.
This is tiresome, to put it mildly. So it's useful to put forth the evidence
for the assertion of Israeli complicity in Bush administration planning
for war with Iraq, which is voluminous, as the following recitation will
show ..."
[First priority: American Jewry rides and/or influences the political
tide as it best benefits Israel:]
The
Jews and President Bush,
By Jamie Glazov, Front Page Magazine,
January 31, 2003
"In the last election, American Jews voted 80% for Al Gore and the
party that engineered the Oslo disaster. Since then, President Bush has
declared war on terrorism and identified Yasser Arafat and the Palestine
authority as terrorists. In the last year, moreover, there has been a
wave of anti-Semitism in the United States and abroad coming from the
left. One would think that these developments would affect the traditional
alignments of Jews with the left. Have they? And what is at the root of
the traditional Jewish attraction to the left? To discuss these and other
questions, Frontpage Symposium has invited Ken Weinstein,
Vice President and Director of Hudson Institute's Washington, DC office;
Mona Charen, a syndicated columnist whose new book Useful Idiots:
How Liberals Got it Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America
First will be published in February; Jeff Jacoby, an op-ed columnist
for The Boston Globe; Matt Brooks, the executive director
of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Marc Rauch, a multi-award
winning TV/film writer, producer, and director ... Brooks: There
is no doubt that the principled and committed support for Israel that
President Bush has demonstrated since taking office is having a profound
effect in the Jewish community. The leadership of President Bush and the
Republicans in Congress with regard to Israel provides a stark contrast
to the support offered by the Democratic party recently. It is this strong
contrast that is causing many people in the Jewish community to take an
open-minded look at supporting the Republican party and this is one reason
why we believe that there is a significant political shift taking place
in the Jewish community today away from the Democratic party ... Jacoby:
Without a medical degree and a lot of clinical experience, I wouldn't
presume to explain the psychopathology of an anti-Zionist Jew. There is
something profoundly sad about a Jew who has so internalized the hostility
of anti-Semites that he joins them in demonizing Israel. Profoundly sad,
and potentially dangerous. Charen: Anyone who wants to see any
nation destroyed is a moral cretin. I don't think there are very many
Jews who actively wish Israel harm, but there are alas a great many who
are capable of deluding themselves about the nature of the enemies with
whom Israel must contend."
[So how come the U.S., like a puppet, must always come to the aid
of Jewish tribalism? How come the U.S. is even understood by so much of
the world community as an expression of Jewish tribalism? The Jewish Lobby
uses America as a shield, a tool, a beast of burden, to protect Judaic
ethnocentric interests.]
Backlash
Vs. Jews Seen In Iraq War. U.S. wants European capitals to do more to
thwart possible anti-Semitic surge,
Jewish Week, January 31, 2003
"Even as it prepares for a possible war with Iraq, the Bush administration
is working urgently to avert what it believes could be a widespread anti-Semitic
backlash in Europe triggered by a confrontation with Saddam Hussein. European
Jewish communities that already have been hard hit by waves of new anti-Semitic
incitement and violence could be early targets of an anti-Israel, anti-American
backlash, administration officials have told Jewish leaders. 'Going into
Iraq will likely produce an anti-American backlash on the streets of Europe,
and the Jews are likely to bear the brunt of it,' said Rabbi Abraham
Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In recent weeks the State Department
has used a variety of diplomatic channels to send the same message: European
leaders have to do much more to prepare for and thwart the expected anti-Semitic
surge. But the results of those official efforts have been mixed, at best,
according to Washington insiders, in part because the expected anti-Semitism
surge will be closely linked to a fierce anti-American backlash that may
have the quiet acquiescence, if not outright encouragement, of European
governments. In recent meetings with leaders of the World Jewish Congress,
top administration officials indicated that they independently raised
the specter of a rising tide of anti-Semitism stemming from a possible
Iraq war with their European counterparts and urged them to develop pre-emptive
plans, said Avi Beker, secretary general of the World Jewish Congress
... 'There are extremists here who will try to portray the war as all
Israel’s doing, and we have to concerned about the growing anti-Israel
energy coming out of the anti-war movement,' said one community relations
activist. 'But it will probably be confined to the fringes. Under most
scenarios, there’s no real fear of widespread anti-Semitism.' If the war
proves difficult and costly, however, that calculus could change. Already
the nascent anti-war movement here is steeped in vehement anti-Israel
ideology. 'It’s a dangerous mix,' this source said. 'We have a bad economy,
a war that could go bad and an anti-war movement that seems willing to
tolerate real anti-Semitic expressions. So we’d be fools not to take seriously
the possibility of a backlash here."
[The field of "Jews" running for Democratic ticket is getting
crowded: Lieberman, Kerry, Clark. Any more championing a Jewish grandpa
or grandma and implicit Jewish "values" forthcoming?]
Gen.
Clark's Next War: Conquer the Democrats?,
[Jewish] Forward, Janury 31, 2003
"As President Bush beats the drums for war with Iraq and the Democratic
presidential candidates scramble to articulate their own foreign policy
visions, one figure on the national political scene is bringing military
credentials earned more recently than the Vietnam War era to bear on the
debate. That figure is General Wesley Clark, the supreme allied
commander of NATO during the Kosovo war and CNN military analyst, who
is increasingly mentioned as a 'draft pick' presidential candidate for
the Democrats. Clark prefers to refer to himself as a 'non-candidate,'
but in a wide-ranging interview with the Forward managed to touch
on the kinds of topics — his foreign policy stands, his views on the Middle
East and his little-known Jewish roots — that are bound to generate interest
in Democratic circles. An Arkansas-raised Rhodes scholar who ranked first
in his class at West Point, Clark is credited with helping stop the genocide
in the former Yugoslavia in 1999 by bombing Slobodan Milosevic's forces.
Since then he has emerged as one of the foremost military critics of American
unilateralism. He forcefully articulates a doctrine that boils down to
'in order to succeed against tyrants, you must have every ally on board,'
and casts a cold light on the actions of this and previous administrations
... Raised a Southern Baptist by his mother in Little Rock — his father
died when he was 4, and his mother remarried — Clark is the grandson of
a Jew, Jacob Nemerovsky, who escaped from the pogroms of Czarist
Russia in about 1894-95. He remembers his father, Benjamin Kanne,
a lawyer who served in Chicago's Corporation Counsel, as 'a happy man
who loved life.' Still, it wasn't until he was in his 20s that Clark learned
that he descends from 'generations of rabbis' from Minsk ... But he credits
his Jewish background with raising his consciousness to the civil rights
movement ... He also cited his Jewish background in relation to his feeling
'sick' that in 1994 the 'U.S. didn't encourage the U.N. to stop the genocide'
in Rwanda ... Clark would like to keep Israel out of the hostilities brewing
in Iraq. 'I don't think Israel needs to take any position in the war....
I would hope Israel does not get involved,' he said. 'I think Saddam Hussein
would like to widen the conflict but we'll be adroit enough militarily
to prevent him from striking Israel in any significant manner' ... Morton
Abramowitz, a State Department veteran with whom Clark worked in Kosovo,
called Clark 'a fighter, a determined battler' ... 'Undecided' is leading
the polls in the Democratic primary,' said David Pollak, chairman
of Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century, a political and public
policy organization for young Democrats in New York, under whose auspices
Clark spoke last month."
A
gift to criminal aliens,
Washington Times, February 1, 2003
"Doris Meissner, President Clinton's Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) commissioner, used her last hours in office to issue a directive
reminiscent of Mr. Clinton's criminal pardons. But while Mr. Clinton's
pardons targeted a finite group of criminals and sparked national controversy,
Miss Meissner's directive targets an open-ended class of criminals
and has gone almost unnoticed. [Meissner left INS Nov. 17, 2000]. That
day, she sent a memorandum to INS field leaders, including the chief agents
in the Border Patrol's 22 sectors nationwide. Titled 'Exercising Prosecutorial
Discretion,' the memo provided 'guidelines' encouraging field officers
to forgo enforcing a 1996 immigration law against some criminal aliens
who, under that law, faced mandatory detention during immigration proceedings
and almost certain deportation as a result of those proceedings. Eleven
days later, the INS published a 'fact sheet' explaining Miss Meissner's
guidelines ... For whom did Miss Meissner seek relief? Certain
aliens convicted of crimes that the immigration law defines as 'aggravated
felonies' (a category including rape, sexual abuse of a minor, transporting
prostitutes and alien smuggling) ... But Miss Meissner's memo pointed
to a loophole through which INS could slip criminal aliens past the law."
[More "emotional" Jewish roots.]
Search
for Kerry's roots finds surprising history,
by Michael Kranish, Boston Globe, February
2, 2003
"For years, US Senator John Forbes Kerry had sought to know the true
story of his immigrant grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry, the patriarch
who established the family in Boston and then mysteriously took his own
life. The senator searched phone books and the Internet and quizzed his
cousins, but he was only able to learn fragments of family history. The
story, it turns out, began in a small town in the Czech Republic that
once was part of the Austrian empire. Birth records there show that Frederick
A. Kerry was born as Fritz Kohn to Jewish parents, according to
a genealogy specialist hired by the Globe. Kohn changed
his name to Kerry around 1902 and emigrated to the United States in 1905,
eventually moving to Boston. In 1921, Frederick Kerry went to the
Copley Plaza Hotel, entered a washroom, and shot himself in the head.
It was front-page news. His filing in Probate Court listed him as practically
broke. While Senator Kerry said he knew his grandfather had committed
suicide, he said he knew no details until he was shown a copy of a 1921
article last week. 'How many times have I walked into that hotel ...'
said an emotional Kerry, his voice trailing off. He said it was the first
time he had talked publicly about the suicide. Kerry said he learned about
15 years ago that his grandmother was Jewish. That led to years of unsuccessful
efforts to learn more about his grandfather's roots and his own. 'This
is amazing; that is fascinating to me,' Kerry said, in reference to the
ancestral records. 'This is incredible stuff. I think it is more than
interesting; it is a revelation.' 'It has a big emotional impact, because
it obviously raises [questions]: I want to know what happened, why did
they do this, what were they thinking, what was the thought process, and
why, once they got over here, why they never talked about it,' he said.
As Kerry runs for president, he is in many ways on a voyage of self-discovery.
He said he had expected there would be intense interest in his life, going
beyond the usual curiosity about his Boston Brahmin maternal roots in
the Forbes and Winthrop families, two of New England's most prominent
clans. Kerry acknowledged that some voters in Massachusetts, the nation's
most Irish-American state, may have had the impression that he had Irish
roots. He said that he knew of no Irish ancestry and that he had always
tried to correct misstatements whenever he learned about them. Numerous
publications, including the Globe, have stated that Kerry is Irish-American...
He said he learned from a relative about 15 years ago that his grandmother,
born as Ida Lowe, was Jewish, a fact, he said, that had intrigued
him and that he had shared with dozens of people. But he said he had no
knowledge about his grandfather's origin, other than the vague idea that
he was from Austria ... Felix Gundacker, director of the Institute for
Historical Family Research in Vienna, was hired by the Globe
[EDITOR'S NOTE: WHY?] to examine the Austrian records, which he translated
from the original German. He found that birth records for Bennisch include
a notation for a person named Fritz Kohn."
[As usual, all the highlighted names below are Jewish.]
You're Ariel Sharon
and Life is Good,
by William Hughes, CounterPunch, December
3, 2002
"You're Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister. Your troops,
on Nov. 23, 2002, shot to death a British subject, Iain John Hook. He
was the highly respected UN project manager at Jenin, where your army
had previously been accused of committing war crimes against the Palestinians.
Hook was inside the UN compound, at Jenin, when the murder occurred. The
Israeli killers said Mr. Hook appeared to have 'a gun' in his hand. It
was actually a cell phone! I'm sure it was just another of those darn
'Israeli mistakes,' like the IDF's massacre at Cana, Lebanon, on April
18, 1996; and, the IDF's murderous attack on the USS Liberty on June 8,
1967. British P.M. Tony Blair will surely understand. Anyway, isn't he
George W. Bush Jr.'s lackey? Meanwhile, you're Ariel Sharon! What's a
little 'mistake' between friends? You even had to smile to yourself, when
you issued your latest lame excuse for reoccupying Bethlehem, one of the
holiest sites in Christendom. Your storm troopers closed the town down
and even kept the Palestinian Christians from attending Sunday Mass at
the ancient Church of the Nativity. No need to worry. Who really cares?
... In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing a gargantuan
property tax hike of 18 % for its residents. Meanwhile, your accountants,
Slick, Slash and Burn, are preparing a $10 billion shakedown of the American
taxpayers. It supposed to be a loan guarantee, but we both know, Israel
never repays it loans to the dumb Yankee goyim. This $10 billion will
be in addition to the yearly $7 billion handout. But, don't worry. You're
Ariel Sharon. Thanks to one of your favorite political hack, Sen. Joseph
I. Lieberman (D-CT), the U.S. now has a 'Homeland Security Agency,'
to watch over the 'home of the brave.' And, to further curtail the possibility
of any genuine dissent in the 'land of the free,' two more of your senatorial
boy-ohs, Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY),
pushed through, without a public hearing, the Bill-of-Rights'-shredding
'USA Patriot Act.' The duo are the godfathers of this scheme, which they
seeded in the mid-90s. They are so clever their fingerprints can't be
found on the law. You're feeling pretty safe now. Your name is Ariel Sharon.
In fact, on Oct. 3, 2001, when you barked at a Tel Aviv Cabinet meeting,
according to Israel Radio, (Kol Yisrael): 'I want to tell you something
very clear, don't worry about America. We, the Jewish people, control
America, and the Americans know it.' Well, you did go a little overboard
on that one. Even if you're right about the Jews controlling America,
I still think it was a real stretch to say, 'the Americans know it.' I
think if they did know it, you, and the other bad Zionists, too, would
be sent to your rooms, and forbidden to watch the 'Jerry Springer
TV Show!'"
[Jewish "dual loyalty" speads. Apparently wherever Jews
go -- including Israel -- sooner or later they think about slipping out
when reaction to their own exploitive deeds threaten them.]
Thousands
of Israelis seek European passports,
Jerusalem Post (from Associated Press), February
4, 2003
"Holding relatives' faded birth certificates and speaking a few choppy
words of Polish, dozens of Israelis line up daily at the Polish embassy
to reclaim the citizenship their parents and grandparents lost after fleeing
wartime Europe. Thousands of others are doing the same at German, Czech,
Hungarian and other embassies in Tel Aviv. They're not rushing to settle
in Europe, but want to obtain a second passport as an insurance policy
in troubled times. Worries about Israel's future have been fueled by more
than two years of fighting with the Palestinians. Some see the lines outside
the European embassies as a bad omen; the crowds are large, considering
Israel's population of 6.6 million. 'It is an indication that people don't
fully believe in the future of this country,' said Israeli author Tom
Segev. For decades, leaving Israel or applying for a foreign passport
was spoken about in whispers. Over the years tens of thousands of Israelis
did move abroad, but they were once widely scorned ... Exact totals are
not available, but the trend is clear: more than 2,300 Israelis sought
German citizenship in 2002, more than double the figure of a year before;
at the Polish embassy, which used to handle a few dozen citizenship applications
a year, as many as 400 people have showed up in a single day; inquiries
about Czech citizenship are up 75 percent. With
part of Europe's formerly communist east joining the European Union, Israelis
who reclaim citizenship in countries such as Poland will soon be able
to freely work and study throughout the continent."
[Jews love Israel, and despise France and Germany. Why? France is
moral and rational against the Jewish take-over of American foreign policy
and its "interests" on behalf of the Jewish state.]
Pentagon
adviser: France 'no longer ally',
UPI, February 4, 2003
"France is no longer an ally of the United States and the NATO alliance
'must develop a strategy to contain our erstwhile ally or we will not
be talking about a NATO alliance' the head of the Pentagon's top advisory
board said in Washington Tuesday. Richard Perle, a former assistant
secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and now chairman of
the Pentagon's Policy Advisory Board, condemned French and German policy
on Iraq in the strongest terms at a public seminar organized by a New
York-based PR firm and attended by Iraqi exiles and American Middle East
and security officials. But while dismissing Germany's refusal to support
military action against Iraq as an aberration by 'a discredited chancellor,'
Perle warned that France's attitude was both more dangerous and
more serious. "France is no longer the ally it once was,' Perle
said ... "It is now reasonable to ask whether the United States should
now or on any other occasion subordinate vital national interests to a
show of hands by nations who do not share our interests,' he added."
[Jewish Lobby's propaganda at work:]
A
Resolution (Georgia State House Resolution 50),
By: Representatives Wix of the 33rd, Post 1 and Teper of the 42nd, Post
1,
"... NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
that the members of this body support the State of Israel and its relentless
battle against terrorism and for all people suffering at the hands of
terrorism and realize that animosity stems against Israel for being representative
of western democratic values and urge President George W. Bush and the
governors of all of the states of the United States of America to remain
steadfast in support of the State of Israel and for all who battle and
are victims of senseless acts of evil and all forms of terrorism at this
critical time, not only as a continuing act of justice, but also as a
continuing and integral statement of principles for which we, as Americans
and Georgians, are now actively waging war."
race be the connection to Him, let the Asian side procreate. Delicious."
See also: Jews and Government, pt. 3
This
is only a taste of the story of Jews and government. The bigger picture
may be found HERE.
See also articles about the Jewish Lobby and the U.S.
invasion of Iraq. And here.
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