Re: [Peace-discuss] Barack Obama: "America’s First Jewish President" ??

[David Green]

AIPAC/WINEP is the liberal/conservative Democrat/Republican (mostly the former in each case) Zionist lobby. They're smart enough to know that publicly criticizing a deliberate and "even-handed" effort by Obama to make peace along the lines of 242 would be shooting themselves in the foot--they'd be exposed, possibly never the same. They've never really operated that way, especially not with a popular president. They're smart enough to know that spoiling Obama's honeymoon with nastiness is not the ticket, especially in relation to the youthful idealists, who are naive about Israel but not supportive, who don't go to AIPAC and would be genuinely shocked to experience the atmosphere at the annual convention of Stalinist discipline and blatant anti-Arab racism. But that's beside the point--Obama is their man, because he wants to be. Their power is to operate behnd the scenes in order to maintain the myth that they are pulling the strings, even while they're
 being pulled by BHO and HRC and the defense establishemnt. They would try to undermine diplomacy in less direct ways, especially given that AIPAC/WINEP is where diplomats like Dennis Ross go when they're on hiatus. Or perhaps they'll be directly involved in the diplomacy so that the "peace process" can go on and on for another 60 years. If Obama were to pull different strings (he won't, because he doesn't want to, unless public pressure convinves him that his political survival depends on it, then, maybe), they would continue to pressure behind the scenes, not in Obama's face, which would give Obama the opportunity to slam dunk them to resounding applause from the majority that supports a just peace. But again, he won't, because he doesn't want to, because he doesn't represent the majority. He will maintain the status quo in I/P, and the Lobby will maintain the myth of its power, and that a just peace is not "politically possible" because of--take your
 pick--Hamas, Netanyahu, Hizbollah, Iran, Afghanistan, the settlers, the GWOT, the Holocaust, etc. Or, it's just around the corner if only Hamas would stop firing rockets, blah blah blah.

DG




________________________________
From: Morton K. Brussel <brussel at illinois.edu>
To: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
Cc: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 5:14:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Barack Obama: "America’s First Jewish President" ??

This is truly hypothetical, but I wouldn't be so sure that Obama wouldn't be attacked (by AIPAC followers, for example) if he shifted his positions to favor the Palestinians and condemned Israel for its criminality against those Palestinians.  Some might keep their mouths shut; others would not. Crudely insulted? Depends on how crudely… 
--mkb 



On Dec 19, 2008, at 1:04 PM, David Green wrote:

From the Petras article:

"One can envision how quickly his Zionist colleagues would replace their plaudits with crude insults regarding his intelligence if he suggested Israel end its starvation blockade of Gaza… Needless to say the Zionists know their man, as they confidently proclaim, he is a cautious and prudent politician, who measures power before he speaks, especially as he has filled the White House, economic councils and security apparatus with Zionist zealots."

This is crude (and borderline anti-semitic) nonsense. Crude insults are inconceivable except from the Horowitz/Pipes far right. Again, Obama does what he does because he is at best willing to allow Israel to do what it wants. It is inconceivable that he would be crudely insulted by those who want to find favor with him--they don't want to in the first place, and it would backfire bigtime. Obama freely chooses his colleagues and his positions--within the limits that allowed him to be elected in the first place. He abides by those limits because that's who he is.
________________________________
From: Brussel Morton K. <mkbrussel at comcast.net>
To: peace-discuss Discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Friday, December 19, 2008 11:04:12 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Barack Obama: "America’s First Jewish President" ??

For those interested in Obama's allegiance to Israel/Zionism, read


http://petras.lahaine.org/articulo.php?p=1768&more=1&c=1

Barack Obama: "America’s First Jewish President" 
According to a nationally prominent Zionist spokesperson, former Congressman, Federal Judge, White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton and early backer of Obama, Abner Mikvner, “Barack Obama is the first Jewish President”.
The main criticism I have with Petras, who reveals an interesting history in his article, is that he ignores other strong influences/motivations of American policy—the desire to control the ME resources, the military industrial complex, imperialism, etc. . 
--mkb

_______________________________________________
Peace-discuss mailing list
Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/attachments/20081219/2c0cf193/attachment.htm