AIPAC Conference is Next Week

15 Comments

1. 

   cat on March 13, 2010 at 6:52 pm

   It will be uncomfortable for some I’m sure. Clinton, Biden, and the prez are all pissed at BiBi and everyone knows.  Can’t wait.  I think Hillary is supposed to speak to them.

   • 

     BooMan on March 13, 2010 at 7:37 pm

     oh, come now, we all know it was just a bureaucratic snafu; the underlying policy is A-OK.  

     • 

       shergald on March 13, 2010 at 10:07 pm

       It will still be an interesting speech. Hillary was always an AIPAC syncophant, only deviating from the standard shlosh as SOS. Look for a lot of Iran.

     • 

       seabe on March 13, 2010 at 10:13 pm

       Seen this?:

       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V313DqMGIjY

       He didn’t expect that one lol.

     • 

       Mattes on March 14, 2010 at 6:28 pm

       After all, they are so new to the political games.

2. 

   Salunga on March 13, 2010 at 8:54 pm

      We should have a contest rating the most nauseating suckup. The only rule is it has to be an elected member of the US congress. Could be a tough contest.

3. 

   Mattes on March 13, 2010 at 11:37 pm

   How Can The U.S. Support Israel When It Continues To Violate International Law? Helen Thomas

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jNXXlyjQuo

   • 

     Hurria on March 14, 2010 at 4:16 am

     After he finally got his bearings, the first thing he did was spew the standard bullshit that this is a conflict that has gone on for centuries. Wrong. This conflict is less than a century old, and is a direct result of the European Zionist colonization of Palestine with the intention of taking it over and turning it into a European Jewish state.

     • 

       seabe on March 14, 2010 at 5:20 am

       I usually send this to first timers or to the misinformed:

       http://www.gush-shalom.org/Docs/Truth_Eng.pdf

   • 

     Oui on March 14, 2010 at 7:03 am

     .
     Asking the questions and writing the opinions I would have made … Your Fix with Helen Thomas #1

     “We should find out what went wrong during the Bush administration, so we don’t make the same mistakes again.”
     “Obama should do what is best for the American people in his first term and don’t worry about his second term.”
     “We don’t need the opinion of Republicans in Congress after they had eight years to push people into the ground.”

     "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

4. 

   Mattes on March 13, 2010 at 11:50 pm

   Calling it how it is:

   It’s not only that Netanyahu is opposed to any meaningful Israeli-Palestinian talks; he and his neoconservative and Republican supporters in Washington regard Barack Obama as a threat to their long-term goal placing the Palestinian issue on the policy backburner and re-activating the strategy of the George W. Bush years under which Israel would once again serve as the regional deputy of the American hegemon in the Middle East.
   In fact, Netanyahu and his American buddies sense that Obama has been politically weakened (and you don’t have to be a political genius to figure that out) and have concluded that this could be the ideal time, coming only a few months before the midterm election to pick-up a fight with the Democratic White House occupant and press him to fall behind the current Israeli policies. Or else, he could find himself confronting the opposition of a powerful bloc of pro-Israeli Republican and Democratic lawmakers. At stake could be the open Congressional races in November, including the Senate races in New York, California and Florida, where the so-called “Jewish vote” could play a critical role.
   As I predicted a few weeks after Netanyahu’s election as PM last year, “Bibi” will probably “activate his old neocon troops, led by Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page and joined by Republicans on Capitol Hill” and “ask them to launch a major offensive against the ‘appeaser’ in the White House,” hoping to bring political pressure on Obama to demonstrate that he was not “anti-Israeli.”
   Indeed, perpetuating the myth that Obama is “weak” on Iran and hostile towards Israel will certainly be good news to many of those Republicans and others on the political right. It is a political narrative that could be embraced by the likes of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and become part of the campaign of those Republican presidential hopefuls who could challenge Obama in 2012.
   In a way, what Netanyahu and his American political allies hope is to do a repeat performance of what the members of the first generation of neoconservatives had done to President Jimmy Carter whose commitment to Israel and to protecting U.S. interests in the Middle East were challenged during his second run for the White House. And it worked.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leon-t-hadar/israel-self-goal-maybe-no_b_498115.html

5. 

   Hurria on March 14, 2010 at 4:10 am

   “You get to practice pronouncing Ah-mad-i-ne-jad.“

   Don’t you  mean MISpronouncing?

6. 

   Oui on March 14, 2010 at 7:38 am

   .

   US ponders denying Israel arms needed for conflict with Iran

   DEBKAfiles Our military sources report that the Barak arms list is tailored to a potential four-front offensive against Israel launched by Iran and its allies. It includes systems needed by the Israeli Air Force, certain types of missiles and advanced electronic equipment. During his last visit, the defense minster complained the list had been pending in Washington for more than three months and the sands for a possible conflict were running out fast. He stressed that it was essential for these items to reach Israel before a flare-up occurred. The urgency was such that he suggested that if they could not be supplied to Israel at short notice, they should at least be held ready meanwhile in the emergency stores of the US bases in Israel’s Negev.

   … Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his inner cabinet Saturday night, March 12, to discuss the spiraling crisis with Washington and his first response.

   American-Jewish criticism was led Saturday night by the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman, who issued this statement: “We are shocked and stunned at the Administration’s tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem,” he said. “One can only wonder how far the US is prepared to go in distancing itself from Israel in order to placate the Palestinians.”

   PM Netanyahu on US crisis: “Let’s not get carried away”

   (Ynetnews.com) – According to sources, both Peres and Barak believe that the incident with Biden was uncalled for, tasteless, and cause seriously damaged ties between the two countries. Last Saturday the defense minister held a number of conversations with Washington and his colleagues in Jerusalem in an attempt to lower the flames, but his efforts so far have proven to be fruitless.

   Obama and Israel’s QME Over Arab States

   ≈ Cross-posted from my diary on March 9 — Blahblah Biden Visits Netanyahu, Israel ≈

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

7. 

   Mattes on March 14, 2010 at 11:28 pm

   A major pro-Israel US lobby group has warned that recent US administration remarks about bilateral ties with Israel were “of serious concern,” and urged the White House to ease tensions.

   Remarks by President Barack Obama’s administration “regarding the US relationship with Israel are a matter of serious concern,” said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a statement issued Sunday.

   “AIPAC calls on the administration to take immediate steps to defuse the tension with the Jewish State,” it added.

   http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100315/pl_afp/mideastdiplomacyusaipaclobby

   • 

     BooMan on March 15, 2010 at 12:32 am

     Right.  We should defuse the tension.  It’s always on us.  The right-wing has been in power there for too long.  Far too long.