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Friday, May 16, 2008

Israel is not the 51st state....why should Barack Obama be running for President of Israel?
Posted by Jill | 6:01 AM
Cernig makes an interesting point about Captain Codpiece's speech before the Knesset yesterday. The conventional wisdom, even offered by Keith Olbermann last night, is that it was Bush injecting himself into the presidential race while speaking in another country. But Cernig thinks it's about something else:

Most American pundits want to see Bush's remarks as an attack on Barrack Obama but folks - it's not always about your country and your political races. For one thing, as Brian Katulis adroitly notes, if negotiating is appeasement then the Bush administration has done an awful lot of appeasement itself over the last seven years. And Brian doesn't even mention working with Sunni Awakening members in Iraq who not too long ago were terrorists attacking US forces! For another, if Bush's remarks were really intended to help John McCain, the latter wouldn't go shooting himself in the foot like this:

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’

Need I say that "Iran-Contra" and "appeasement" really do belong in the same sentence together?



[snip]

Bush, in his speech to the Knesset, signalled clearly that his administration will quietly support Israel if it decided to take direct action against Iran - as it did recently against Syria. It's worth noting that any Israeli attack on Iran would almost certainly have to transit Iraqi airspace.


It's no wonder that there are people in this country still muttering about the Jewish Lobby and the 12 Jewish bankers and Jew Jew Jew Jew Jew, when it often seems as if Israel is, in terms of Washington policy, not an ally like any other ally, but some kind of 51st superstate whose interests and needs (and paranoia) must by definition override all other foreign policy considerations.

It may be amusing to watch Tweety (who I notice is back to being Tweety again after correcting his recent red dyejob; perhaps he read He Who Must Not Be Mentioned and decided that he'd rather be Tweety than Gossamer after all) eviscerate the histrionic Kevin James (the radio idiot, not the stand-up comic) on national television (h/t):





...but leaving aside the fact that James seems to actually HAVE spent the last six years hiding under the bed with a roll of duct tape in one hand and a package of plastic sheeting in the other (and you'd also figure a pipeful of crack in his mouth, based on his demeanor), the level of hysteria on the right over poor, pitiful Israel -- the Hillary Clinton of nations in its ability to kick just about anyone's ass from here to Sunday when crossed, but which more useful to some people as a damsel in distress -- is profoundly disturbing.

Barack Obama's loyalty to this country is constantly questioned. I have even been asked by a friend whether I truly believe he's loyal to our country -- and the fact that she no longer wants to discuss the election with me means her wingnut friends sending her e-mails about how he's a secret Muslim terrorist have won that particular battle of the mind. His loyalty is questioned because of his funny name, the color of his skin, his African father and his hippie mother, and his ability to hold two thoughts in his head in the same time and see colors other than -- no pun intended -- black and white.

But lately it seems his loyalty to Israel is also constantly being questioned, because he doesn't follow the Official U.S. Line of Everything Israel Does Is By Definition Virtuous and Right -- a line that has done nothing to resolve the conflict in the area and which is an assumption that we grant to no other ally in the world. But more disturbingly, it seems as if pledging unquestioning loyalty oaths to Israel is a prerequisite for the presidency, in the eyes of the Republican Party.

It isn't about appealing to Jewish voters, either, though I'm sure that's part of it. But in a recent poll, only 23% of Jewish voters in the U.S. cited Israel as a top issue and fully 40% of Jewish voters regarded Israel as "extreme" -- a smaller percentage than regarded Iran, Hamas, or Hezbollah as extreme, but given the assumption that Israel trumps all in the minds of Jewish voters, it would seem that this No Questioning Israel litmus test is perhaps just a bit unreasonable.

Of course even as I write, Pat Buchanan is on Morning Joe insisting that Israel IS the most important thing on the minds of Jewish voters, so once again, it seems there is a disconnect between what's actually happening and what pundits say are happening.

Every four years we go through this assiduous courting of "The Jewish Vote", as if a group of the kind of polyglot, squabbling people that American Jews are, can ever be lumped together into one group. This year it seems to be even more ferocious, here at the intersection of Bonb Iran Lane Avenue and He's Really a Musliim Terrorist Lane.

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Blogger Yashmak said...
"Barack Obama's loyalty to this country is constantly questioned."

Leaving aside the valid point that Obama wasn't even mentioned in the Knesset speech, that the reference could have been to any number of politicians who have met with listed terrorist governments or organizations (including not just Obama supporters, but Pelosi, Carter, etc.). . .

Questioning the wisdom of meeting with such people is not the same thing as questioning the loyalty of the people involved in such meetings.
5/16/08, 10:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
You do realize that by even questioning whether the United States should back Israel in all things, you automatically mark yourself as an anti-semite-holocaust-enabling-enemy-of-humanity? The pro-Israeli groups in the US, while small, are vitriolic in their denunciation of anyone who questions Israeli policy.
5/16/08, 11:58 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...
Israel commits against the Palestinian people the same genocide that the Nazi - fascism committed against the Jews. USA should be shamed of supporting Israel.
5/16/08, 1:02 PM  
Blogger Yashmak said...
[i]Israel commits against the Palestinian people the same genocide that the Nazi - fascism committed against the Jews. [/i] - Omar

I'm sorry, maybe I'm rusty on my history. Did the Jews fire an unceasing string of rockets at the rest of the German populace? Did they unleash suicide bombers on other German civilians?

Was there a news item about Israel commencing the mass gassing of Palestinians that I missed?

Was that item I saw about the Palestinian population growing faster than ANY Islamic population in the world somehow mistaken? I mean, it's pretty hard to make an argument that Israel is committing genocide, when the supposed victim population is growing at a breakneck pace.

Muslims should be ashamed of backing organizations care nothing for the plight of the average Palestinian, except insofar as their use as a pawn to use against the Jews.
5/16/08, 1:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Israel has been the first state for decades. American taxpayers have subsidized Israel,at very near the per capita rate of the recent economic stimulus rebates given to Americans, every year for decades, costing hundreds of billions, and with no strings attached.

Fear of lost political contributions--the currency of votes--and fear of being branded an anti-semite keep the congress in line. Ironically, these are just the actions that lead to anti-semitism.
5/16/08, 2:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Yashmak


For your interest:

The Jewish World Council declared financial war on Germany in 1933.

This enhanced the conflict potential in those days; obviously it also supported sentiments against German jews.



To claim that Germany is solely responsible for WW II is cheap, false and hateful protracted war propaganda.

It is about as valid as the claim that the Palestinians being herded up in their own country are responsible; neither is Israel solely responsible.
5/16/08, 3:13 PM  
Blogger Yashmak said...
"To claim that Germany is solely responsible for WW II is cheap, false and hateful protracted war propaganda."

To claim I implied any such thing is cheap, false and hateful as well.

"The Jewish World Council declared financial war on Germany in 1933."

Yeah, I know. How surprising is that, really, when it's the same year Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany; a man whose governmental platform consisted in part of an institutional hatred for and oppression of Jews?
5/16/08, 3:30 PM  
Blogger Porlock Junior said...
Gee, even here that subject brings the loonies (not on one side only) out of the woodwork.

But what I came here to say is that Tweety clearly did his homework. I mean, it didn't sound like just some random question which he perceived the guy to be evading, so he pursued it. No, he knew that was the question that would nail the hysterical idiot. I'm curious how he knew, but in any case he shows up here acting like a journalist.

I still can't stand his fucking little fake laugh, though.
5/17/08, 8:49 PM  
Blogger Ben said...
From a Jewish-American perspective, it is offensive that figures in both parties only talk to us as Jews that will won over by Israel rhetoric. If it helps you to understand it, transpose the comparison to other ethnic groups or religions; it is completely outrageous. Health care, the economy, Darfur, Iraq, immigration -- these are issues that affect all Americans, including us. This tickle me Elmo, pull the cord, and out comes "It is good for Israel" stuff is insulting.

All Americans lose if we descend into tribal politics.

Ben Orbach
author of Live from Jordan
www.benjaminorbach.com
5/19/08, 4:10 PM  
Blogger Jill said...
Amen, Ben. I've often wondered why the kind of pandering that politicians do regarding Israel isn't regarded by more American Jews as insulting. I don't buy for one minute that most of these people feel any kind of strong kinship with Israel. It has always seemed to be more of a "Hey! These are voters with money and this is their issue!" kind of thing.
5/19/08, 5:02 PM  
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