AIPAC Is Hurting Israel, Jews, and Middle-East Peace

[FORD]

August 23, 2007

AIPAC Is Hurting Israel, Jews, and Middle-East Peace

By SDrobny

At the risk of being called a self-hating Jew I have come to the conclusion that AIPAC is hurting the cause that it was supposed to advance when it was formed in 1953. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is an American special interest group that lobbies the United States Congress and White House in favor of maintaining a close U.S.-Israel relationship.

Describing itself as "America's Pro-Israel Lobby," it is a mass-membership organization including primarily Jews, but also non-Jews, Democrats, Republicans, and independents. AIPAC was formed during the Eisenhower administration, and since then has helped secure American aid and support to Israel. In 1997, Fortune magazine asked Congressmen to rank the "25 most powerful" lobbying organizations in DC. In 2005, the National Journal did the same. Both times, AIPAC came in 2nd - ahead of, for instance, the AFL-CIO and the NRA, but behind the AARP. In 2001, it came in 4th on the Fortune list.

All the good that they had done for Israel in their early days has now been offset by the power they have established in the D.C. community. As with any powerful lobby, there is a tendency for such groups to bully their way through the Congress to achieve its goal. And AIPAC is no worse or better than the NRA and other such self-interest groups. While AIPAC is primarily a Jewish organization, I am aware that most liberal Jews hate what they are doing and the tactics that they are using. Since over 70% of American Jews are liberal, I believe that AIPAC is not representing the views of most of the Jewish community. I have talked to many in Congress who are both Jews and non-Jews and they have all told me how difficult it is to deal with AIPAC. Most would vote for aid to Israel without AIPAC.

The fact is that the foreign aid that goes primarily to Israel and Egypt has almost unanimous support in Congress. Most of that is military. Unfortunately, AIPAC has blinders as to what constitutes real aid to Israel. And military aid is not the only answer either to Israel or Egypt. The money would be better spent on a more balanced allocation between military and economic development. Unfortunately, AIPAC has completely lost its objectivity about what is good for Israel.

My parents were immigrants from Poland where they suffered greatly due to anti-Semitism. Most of that anti-Semitism was caused by the anti-Jewish preachings of Christianity for nearly 2,000 years. It is only in the last 100 years that Islam has adopted the anti-Jewish position held by Europe as a result of the Zionist movement. And that movement was adopted because of the European oppression of the Jews, which caused Theodore Herzl to come to the conclusion that Jews would never be free in a Christian society. It is widely believed that Herzl was motivated by the Dreyfus Affair, a notorious anti-Semitic incident in France in which a French Jewish army captain was falsely convicted of spying for Germany. Herzl had been covering the trial of Dreyfus for an Austro-Hungarian newspaper. He also witnessed mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus trial where many chanted "Death To The Jews!", and in June, 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism."

Unfortunately, the movement to migrate Jews to Palestine created a geopolitical adversary in the Muslim dominated Middle East, which had also been oppressed by European colonialism. Unfortunately, the Allies after WW II refused to allow free immigration for over 500,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust and accordingly these displaced persons had no choice but to immigrate to Palestine. These so-called DP camps were almost as bad as any of the concentration camps that they survived.

It is true that Truman did recognize Israel despite the fact that he and his wife were anti-Semites. However, Truman's position regarding Israel was not so altruistic. He did not want or allow free immigration of the DPs of Europe. The Cubans after Castro took power were allowed free immigration into the U.S. for about as many as the Jewish DPs in Europe. That is another example of Western hypocrisy when it comes to the Jews.

The Jewish communities around the world have made wonderful contributions to civil and human rights. In addition, no community has a better record of standing up for and actively being involved in humane causes and opposing racism and intolerance throughout the world. That is why I believe that AIPAC is now advocating the very intolerance and violence that the Jewish communities have fought against for centuries. They have now become what most thoughtful Jews would describe as anti-Jewish bullies who even attack other Jews for having differences with them. It is time for AIPAC to understand that the only real help for Israel comes from the peace process and not fascist type tactics. AIPAC does not represent me or most of the views of the Jewish community.








Authors Website: novamradio.com

Authors Bio: Sheldon Drobny was the co-founder of Nova M radio and Air America Radio. He has supported many philanthropic causes and is currently involved in purchasing radio stations for liberal talk radio with his new company, Nova M Radio, Inc. Mr. Drobny specializes in business and tax matters and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court as a non-attorney. Less than 200 non-attorneys have been admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court since its inception in 1942. Mr. Drobny received a Bachelor of Science Degree in accounting from Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary fraternity recognizing acadamic achievement in colleges of business administration.


Link (http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_sdrobny_070823_aipac_is_hurting_isr.htm)

[GO-SPURS-GO]

What’s your position on this FORD? I think this the first time you haven’t commented on your own post. For the scriptures to come true, all nations must turn their backs on Israel. Let’s say you...

[FORD]

Originally posted by GO-SPURS-GO
What’s your position on this FORD? I think this the first time you haven’t commented on your own post. For the scriptures to come true, all nations must turn their backs on Israel. Let’s say you...

I believe in a two state solution - That Israel and Palestine both have the right to exist. I also believe that this solution was very close to reality in 1994 when President Clinton brought Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat together.....

http://www.sacarny.com/pix/blog/rabin-arafat.jpg

Unfortunately, the right wing extremist Likud Zionfascist psychopaths in Israel didn't agree, and they ensured that Rabin didn't live long enough to bring the peace to reality.

I believe that this murder's significance to Israel was comparable to that of the JFK murder here. A government planned and executed operation to prevent much needed progress and reform from happening. In each case, the extremist elements benefit directly from continued conflict.

As Mr. Drobny says, AIPAC was once pretty much like any other lobby, but now they have become a tool of these Likud Zionfascists who dominate not only Israeli politics, but our own foreign policy, by way of their client agency Project for a New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org) whose original membership reads almost exactly like the roster of Chimpy's 2001 cabinet.

Until these extremist warmongers are barred from access to power by the people of their respective countries, there will be no peace.

I don't believe that only the return of Jesus Christ can bring peace, but I will say that He would be pissed off to find out what kind of murderous hate was being carried out in His name right now.

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Originally posted by FORD

this solution was very close to reality in 1994 when President Clinton brought Yitzhak Rabin and Yassir Arafat together.....:lol:

Terrorists get paid to terrorize. The Palestinian suicide bombers were/are paid by countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iraq. If there was peace in the region than how are they gonna get money for their families. While Mr. Terrorfat was pocketing most of the aid the World/USA was giving them, his country was starving. That land they are fighting for was considered cursed for hundreds of years. The Rothchilds bought the land from Syria and gave it to Israel. Under Israeli ownership the land started producing milk and honey. So now they want it back. While the Arab kids spend their time in school learning to read the Koran backwards, front wards, upside-down and right side up, the Jewish kids are taught the Torah too, but they also learn a trade. Like carpentry. ;) When those same Arabs go to France for a new start, they look for a job but all they know how to do is read the Koran while standing on their head. They fall into poverty and they riot and burn the city. The Jewish kids grow up to be doctors, lawyers and our favorite singer. Before I had a heart problem, I was in the delivery business servicing the convenient stores. I drove a milk truck for Oak Farms Dairy and I met a lot of cool Arabs. I was working that morning of 9-11 and I saw and heard some things said to them from some Americans that I’m ashamed of. So I’m not a typical Arab basher, but my God we need to stop making excuses for them. I think you need to read/see the speech that The Grand Sayyid Ali Husaini Sistani gave in 1979 again. You’ll see the real reason why the Sunni Arabs hate the west. He talks about the “Great Satan.” The great Satan that partakes in immoral stuff like abortions, drugs, gay lifestyles, porn and our staunch support for Israel will burn in hell. Israel and Christians worships the false God YHWH and they worship the true God Allah.


Unfortunately, the right wing extremist Likud Zionfascist psychopaths in Israel didn't agree, and they ensured that Rabin didn't live long enough to bring the peace to reality.

It’s always the right-wings fault, huh FORD. Most of the left wing in this country/world/on this site is anti-Christian. :( What do you think about of that? Was God a member of the right-wing party when he divided the land for Isaac and Ishmael? :rolleyes:

I believe that this murder's significance to Israel was comparable to that of the JFK

His dad’s elite friends who gave him the job thought he was a liability, so they wacked him. The final straw came when he was openly screwing Marilyn Monroe and revealing too much stuff to her. You knew she was a CIA agent right? Come on....... you love some conspiracy theories don’t you? Oh.... I get it, only the right wing ones.

Project for a New American Century (http://www.newamericancentury.org) whose original membership reads almost exactly like the roster of Chimpy's 2001 cabinet.

And Clinton’s and GORE’s too! What was Gore doing running with a right wing extremist Likud Zionfascist psychopath Joe Lieberman? :confused:

Until these extremist warmongers are barred from access to power by the people of their respective countries, there will be no peace.

The republicans are USED for international affairs and the democrats are USED for social affairs. Didn’t the Jezebel Jenna Jameson say that her industry flourished under Clinton’s watch?:eek:


I don't believe that only the return of Jesus Christ can bring peace.

WHAT? :mad: You must be a Catholic! Catholic’s go against Christ’s teachings more than any other Christian denomination. I’m stunned that you said that. :(Remember FORD, that same book you get sayings like heaven, hell, peace and love. You get sayings like, only the Ah-Mashia'ah (The Messiah) can bring total peace.;) My God FORD, there are 6.6 billion people in this world and you think a mortal man can bring us to peace. You want peace in this world but you can’t even get along with BigBadBrain or TongueNGroove. :rolleyes:


but I will say that He would be pissed off to find out what kind of murderous hate was being carried right now.

Like Abortions?:o

[FORD]

Jesus said "Blessed are the Peacemakers".

He would never have said such a thing if it was impossible to make peace. And he didn't say "Blessed is Myself".

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Originally posted by FORD
Jesus said "Blessed are the Peacemakers".

I see you are “New-Ager.” :( I guess you don’t believe that he’s our ultimate redeemer either. Huh?:rolleyes: http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/New%20Age/new_age_agenda.htm

And he didn't say "Blessed is Myself".

then explain John 14-6/7.:confused:

I picked several fights with you on my loooooong previous post and all you give me is this little reply?:rolleyes:

[PlexiBrown]

Fuck Sammy Hagar.

[PlexiBrown]

All the great world religions have at their origin and scattered within their lineage some individuals who have had profound mystical experiences resulting in a fundamental transformation of their consciousness. Thus there is a mystical core in all religions that supports our potential to realize our true natures. However, most religions do not understand or acknowledge this mystical core, this experience of realization that is potential in everyone. Instead they deify and elevate only their spiritual icons such as Jesus, Muhammad, Buddah and Krishna.

By accident or design, these religions reinforce and then exploit our early development tendancy to project our soul's inate self-transcending intelligence outside of ourselves and onto others. Instead of guiding us to recognize our own personal relationship to spirit, they claim the spiritual authority we give away. They tell us who is holy and whose spiritual authority must be obeyed.

In accepting what we are told, we become disempowered. As the innate qualities of our souls are discouraged, denied or rejected, we unconsciously become angry and brittle. This revenge of the unconscious that results from the denial and suppression of our real selves shows up outwardly as emotional and psychological inflexibility. We advocate a categorical morality, rather than a deep moral sense, and we become controlling, self-righteous, judgmental and intolerant. The world beyond our own spiritual tribe becomes heathen, including sometimes our own children, and must be set straight or converted. To see ourselves in our original, innate wholeness and to appreciate it in others becomes nearly impossible. The Procrustean way of religion mutilates our inborn spirituality and substitutes a "mind made" faith. We become proponents of a culture of fear, insufficiency and survival without even realizing what has happened to us.

If we begin to take the perspective that our souls have the capacity for awareness, then we realize that, when we are aware of unhappiness, the aspect of us that is "aware" is not itself unhappy. When we are aware of fear, that "awareness" is not itself afraid. By learning to excercise the power of awareness in a different way, one that is not taught to us in school or by conventional religion, we change our hypothesis that we are defined by out threatening feelings or endless desires and instead become defined by the quality of our relationship with them. That we have the capacity for awareness is the spiritual essence of what it means to be a human being. This unlimited, unconditional awareness is the true self from which we can always begin.

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by PlexiBrown
Fuck Sammy Hagar.

Did you know Sammy Hagar is Lebonese? He should be over there protecting his ancestoral land from Hammas. The Wabborittas could just play Beruit and it would work like a chemical weapon making everyone puking ill.

[Jesus Christ]

Why do you not listen, My children??

For ye hath been told the truth, but ye still fail to understand.

Were My words in the Sermon on the Mount not sufficient?

What part of "Do Unto Others As Ye Would Have Them Do Unto You" is so hard to figure out??

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Originally posted by PlexiBrown
Fuck Sammy Hagar.

Ha Ha you did it again. ;) That makes more sense than your next post. :confused: I was gonna give you 5 stars for this quote, until you made fun of me with your next post. :p FORD and I were debating all by ourselves in our own little space until you guys messed it up.:rolleyes:

[Jesus Christ]

Samuel, the descendant of Abraham's handmaiden has his place in this world. He just hath no place in Van Halen, for Dad and I hath given that place to David, the chosen one.

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Originally posted by Jesus Christ
Why do you not listen, My children??

For ye hath been told the truth, but ye still fail to understand.

Were My words in the Sermon on the Mount not sufficient?

What part of "Do Unto Others As Ye Would Have Them Do Unto You" is so hard to figure out??

Since I’m a Messianic Believer(my mom’s maiden name is Cohen), lets talk in your own tongue which is Arabic. That Old English language that King James gave you just doesn’t cut it for me. I asked you one question in your own tongue and there is only one response that you can give me. What is it?


<a href="http://www.esnips.com/doc/b71b2d54-c145-4d09-bd98-3cf6ce8ec411/jeshua5/?widget=large"><img border="0" alt="jeshua5" title="jeshua5 on eSnips.com" src="http://www.esnips.com/widget/?objectType=docthumbstampped&amp;objectUUID=b71b2d54-c145-4d09-bd98-3cf6ce8ec411&resourceName=medium"></a>

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Oops.. It's Aramaic.:o I know a little about Arabic language too.

[GO-SPURS-GO]

Originally posted by Jesus Christ
Why do you not listen, My children??

What part of "Do Unto Others As Ye Would Have Them Do Unto You" is so hard to figure out??

Unfortunately Eesho, very few understand that quote. Like my friend, his name is FORD. Check out his hard hearted post on this other thread. Post #3 and 25. Come unto his heart so he won’t be a hypocrite anymore.
http://www.rotharmy.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=1224094#post1224094

[ddirvine]

AIPAC is a real threat to US democracy. The right wing Christian agenda plays hand and hand with there policies:

Zealous for Zion

John Hagee assembles the Amen Corner's Amen Corner.


by Michael Brendan Dougherty

Members of the Cornerstone Church Orchestra wet their lips for rehearsal, preparing to blow into their shofars, those curved horns used to mark Jewish feasts. In anticipation of the evening’s event, organizers arrange thousands of chairs, placing programs on each seat and covering them with flags—American or Israeli, alternating and sharply aligned. Tonight, Christians United for Israel will hold a celebration to supercharge thousands of Christian Zionists as they prepare to meet their senators and congressmen the next day on Capitol Hill.

In February 2006, televangelist John Hagee founded CUFI to “respond instantly to Washington with our concerns about Israel,” telling reporters to “think of CUFI as a Christian version of AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee].” In just over a year, Hagee, with help from charismatic pastors, is turning CUFI into the largest grassroots Christian political organization in the country. The second annual summit in Washington grew from just over 3,000 attendees last year to 4,500 this July.

CUFI brings together a stunning variety of Christians. While many of the female attendees wear modest skirts that cover even their ankles, others, sporting stiletto heels and form-fitting pants, could have stepped from the pages of Vogue. Not all believe in an imminent rapture, though many do. Some are Baptist, some Assemblies of God, others traveled from nondenominational churches. But they agree that the Bible commands them to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6), to “speak out for Zion’s sake” (Isaiah 62:1), to “be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem” (Isaiah 62:6), and to “bless the Jewish people” (Genesis 12:3). “When 50 million American evangelicals unite with 5 million American Jews,“ Hagee says, “you know it is a match made in heaven.”

The political goals of CUFI are, in some cases, quite modest. One presentation focused on encouraging states to divest their pension funds from corporations that do business with Iran. Others are more sweeping: the U.S. must cease pressuring Israel to give up land for peace and must encourage Israel never to divide Jerusalem.

The lure of a sympathetic crowd and the chance to trade pieties with the most popular televangelists in the nation attracted Sen. Joe Lieberman and ex-senator Rick Santorum. Each preached to the converted: Islamic-fascism is the most dangerous threat facing the United States, and Israel is the “frontline.” Even John McCain took time from his ailing presidential campaign to make an unscheduled appearance. Speaking of Iraq, the senator said, “The temptation is to wash our hands of a messy situation. To follow this impulse, however, portends catastrophe, for Iraq, Israel, and the United States.”

Hagee’s charisma extends beyond his 18,000-member Texas megachurch through the 160 television stations that carry his program into 99 million households. A scholarship football player in his youth, at 67, Hagee still retains a lineman’s girth and a coach’s booming voice. He counts Jews as well as evangelical Christians, the old and young, the well-connected and naïve among his devotees.

In the lobby of the Waldman Park Hotel, Harry Stern, a Holocaust survivor who emigrated from Czechoslovakia, heaped praise on Hagee, saying he watches his sermon every week.

Another fan, former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold, gave two speeches at the conference. When asked what benefit it was to Israel to build support in the greenest of the grassroots Christian community, he replied, “Look at what the Saudis are doing: expensive P.R. firms in the United States, calling for re-dividing Jerusalem. … I’m just giving a few speeches here.”

At a breakout session dedicated to youth, Dr. Robert Stearns invites college students on a trip called “The Israel Experience.” A video shows other students exhorting the audience to undertake this transformative journey. One participant, Elizabeth Wong, says with a disarming smile, “I feel like my destiny has been tied with Israel.” The presentation is followed up by a talk by Jeff Mendelson of AIPAC. “What happens to Israel will happen here,” he says somberly. As the students begin to file out to prepare for the night’s celebration, they are asked to volunteer to start pro-Israel groups on their own campuses. One from Missouri State responds to a question about the Palestinian Christians curtly: “They should go to Israel, and be all good.” Wong jumps in to correct any misunderstanding: “The so-called Palestinians, Arab Christians … whatever you want to call them, deserve our sympathy, too.”

James Tabor of Middleboro, Kentucky wears a Star of David tie, bright blue jacket and white pants. Despite his lack of formal education, he is proficient in the current events of the Middle East. But for all his ability to pronounce the name “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” he “still would like to see him wiped off that map.” Tabor, along with his 11-year-old daughter, Ashley, carries a hand-drawn sign with American and Israeli flags and the words, “Press on for Jesus.”

The image of thousands of conservative Christians from the heartland waving the flags of a foreign nation would have astounded anyone 50 years ago—except maybe George Orwell. In an essay on nationalism, he criticized G.K. Chesterton, the English writer, for romanticizing Latin countries, particularly France, on account of his Catholicism. Orwell called this “transferred nationalism” and argued that fixing upon another country allows one “to be much more nationalistic—more vulgar, more silly, more malignant, more dishonest—that he could ever be on behalf of his native country, or any unit of which he had real knowledge.” But Chesterton’s affinity for France was sentimental—and harmless. CUFI knits theology and politics to powerful effect: Christian Zionists support Israel because God commands them to do so.

Not every evangelical is pleased with Hagee or his conference. Pastor Chuck Carlson flew in from Scottsdale, Arizona to greet CUFI with giant yellow signs reading “Reject Apostate Christianity” and “Choose Life, Not War.” “We think up to 100 million people are influenced by the ideas of John Hagee,” he says. “We’re becoming a culture of war.” Carlson’s literature is theologically conservative, attacking Hagee’s gospel as “un-biblical.” He smiles as each bus pulls up, waving as if inviting visitors into his own home. “The way we’re going to work with the church for peace,” he says, “is to stand out in front of church and confront them.” The protest attracts plenty of attention and a few heated arguments, but no converts.

Inside the convention center, nearly every major star preacher from the Trinity Broadcast Network was present. Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Rod Parsley. Waiting with a somewhat bored expression on his face is Newt Gingrich.

Hagee’s address covers Biblical reasons to support the state of Israel. While some have criticized him and many of the other televangelists on stage with him for preaching a “Give-to-Get Gospel,” Hagee extends the logic to a “Give-to-Get” Zionism. Because Genesis 12 says, “I will bless those who bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee,” Hagee preaches that “as people, churches, and nations deal with the State of Israel, so God will deal with them.” He tells the crowd, with equal parts grin and gruff, “Get ready! Good things are getting ready to happen to you.”

But not all is brightness. “There are voices in the U.S. State Department calling for the city of Jerusalem to be divided,” Hagee says. The crowd shouts a drawn out “No!” unprompted. “Let’s make this clear!” Hagee continues. “There shall be one Jerusalem. Never divided. For any reason. Not now and not ever!”

Hagee has made Washington a focus of his efforts, but his mission is larger than politics. He is not as solicitous to Republican interests as Jerry Falwell was before him; he freely criticizes the president and cabinet members. A politician works on policy—a trifling thing compared to a preacher who reveals God’s prophecies. Hagee’s sermon rises into a call and response, “Shout it from the rooftops: ‘Israel Lives!’” then dissolves into a hymn before Gingrich approaches the podium.

With such a tough act to follow, the former speaker disappoints. In his bland, technocratic cadence, he relates that 91 percent of Americans believe the words, “Under God” belong in the pledge of allegiance. The congregation grows restless. They came to hear something more moving than agreeable poll numbers. But they rouse when he says, “We don’t have a peace process, we have a surrender process” and when he chastises the president, saying that if he were “serious, he’d move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem tomorrow.” Gingrich sits down, and the Cornerstone Church Orchestra picks up their cue.

Images of rabbis teaching in Israel flash across giant screens, as the crowd starts to rock and wave, lifting their voices, “Sing Us a Song of Zion.” A young man dressed as an IDF soldier appears on the stage. He appears to be hurt and remains on his knees. The music begins to fade. Another young man dressed as an American soldier comes over, lifts up his Israeli counterpart, and salutes him. The hall fills with the sound of the electronic keyboard and the crowd punctures the night air with waving palms and a smattering of “hallelujahs.” Some raise tear-streaked faces, others bow their heads in ecstatic prayer, all are resolute and ready for battle. They sing as the music lifts them higher: “Great is the army that carries out His Word.”

[FORD]

Hagee is a Zionfascist lunatic. And Parsley is a hardcore dominionist Nazi. He is literally calling for a theocracy in this country. How the Hell is that any better than what the Taliban or the Wahabbis want?

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by Jesus Christ
Samuel, the descendant of Abraham's handmaiden has his place in this world. He just hath no place in Van Halen, for Dad and I hath given that place to David, the chosen one.

Jesus. Abraham fucked everything that moved. Can I do that. Can I fuck our nanny? She's a young piece of ass from Mexico and is quite cute. Abraham did, so why can't I have a few concubines too?

[Nitro Express]

Originally posted by FORD
Hagee is a Zionfascist lunatic. And Parsley is a hardcore dominionist Nazi. He is literally calling for a theocracy in this country. How the Hell is that any better than what the Taliban or the Wahabbis want?

I about puked when I was channel surfing and John Hagee was fucking wearing a Jewish prayer shawl while reading the Old Testament. The fucker thinks he's a Jew.

[Nitro Express]

Hagee is a rapture pimp. He's selling a rapture comming soon to a town near you!

[Nitro Express]

Inside the convention center, nearly every major star preacher from the Trinity Broadcast Network was present. Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Rod Parsley. Waiting with a somewhat bored expression on his face is Newt Gingrich.


Newt worships the owl idol Molloch while wearing a druid robe. You got to love it. The dumb Christian right is licking the boots of bored pagan idol worshippers. But of course they are all Dull Care and who gives a fuck. Sheep to use to get more power and that is what the evil owl is all about. So fuck me up the ass and we will have a scotch and laugh it off at Low Jinx tommorrow.

[ddirvine]

Originally posted by FORD
Hagee is a Zionfascist lunatic. And Parsley is a hardcore dominionist Nazi. He is literally calling for a theocracy in this country. How the Hell is that any better than what the Taliban or the Wahabbis want?

agreed..........

[ddirvine]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
Hagee is a rapture pimp. He's selling a rapture comming soon to a town near you!


And with that you get a 5 vote.............

[ddirvine]

Here is another great article about AIPAC.

Not only do the destroy any debate on policies with "search and destroy smear campaigns" in the United States (although debate is something very alive in Israel). Some of their members are clearly not loooking out for American interests first:

AIPAC on Trial


The lobby argues that good Americans spy for Israel.

by Justin Raimondo

Is there a First Amendment right to engage in espionage? Dorothy Rabinowitz seems to think so. Describing the actions of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former top officials of AIPAC, the premier Israel lobbying group, who passed purloined intelligence to Israeli government officials, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist characterized them as “activities that go on every day in Washington, and that are clearly protected under the First Amendment.” If what Rabinowitz says is true—if passing classified information to foreign officials is routine in the nation’s capital—then we are all in big trouble.

On Aug. 4, 2005, Rosen, Weissman, and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin were indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with violating provisions of the Espionage Act that forbid divulging national defense information to persons not authorized to receive it. The indictment traces the treasonous trio’s circuitous path as they met in the shadows—in empty restaurants, at Union Station in Washington, on street corners. Rosen and Weissman sought out and cultivated Franklin, milking him for information that they dutifully transmitted to their Israeli handlers. According to Rabinowitz, however, they were merely “doing what they had every reason to view as their jobs”—which is true, assuming they understood their jobs to be spying for Israel.

The trial is scheduled to begin June 7. As the day of reckoning approaches, the Israel lobby is ratcheting up the rhetoric. So, too, is the defense: in a duet of hysterical accusations and frenzied rationalizations, the accused spies’ defenders have described the proceedings as a frame-up, the result of an intra-bureaucratic struggle within the government, and a plot by anti-Semites in Bush’s Justice Department to carry out a Washington pogrom. None of these flights of imagination are any more convincing than the Dream Team’s defense of O.J. Simpson. Yet the noise level continues to rise, as if sheer volume, instead of logical arguments, could overwhelm the copious evidence of the defendants’ guilt.

The indictment lists numerous acts of espionage, dating back to 1999, in which Rosen and/or Weissman acted as conduits for classified information flowing from Washington to Tel Aviv. The feds had been watching for a long time: the indictment makes clear that Rosen and Weissman didn’t make a move without the FBI’s counterintelligence unit knowing about it. This surveillance is how they happened on Larry Franklin, the Pentagon’s top Iran analyst, who walked in on a luncheon meeting in Arlington, Virginia, attended by Rosen, Weissman, and Naor Gilon, chief of the political-affairs section at the Israeli Embassy. The feds were listening in as Franklin—referring to a document dated June 25 and marked “top secret”—announced he had secrets to tell.

Tell not sell: unlike the majority of post-Cold War spies, the AIPAC-Franklin espionage ring wasn’t centered around financial gain but ideology. Franklin is a dedicated neoconservative, a minor yet key player in the neocon network, who served in the military attache’s office in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv in the late 1990s and was a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst with expertise in Iranian affairs working in Douglas Feith’s policy shop.

The counter-intelligence unit was hot on Franklin’s trail, and they watched his every move—his wholesale transfer of top-secret information on Iran, al-Qaeda, and other intelligence of interest to Israel to Rosen and Weissman, who funneled it to their contacts in the Israeli Embassy. The FBI gave Franklin enough rope to hang himself, and then moved in, showing up at his door and confronting him with his treachery. A search of his home and office turned up a veritable lending library of classified documents dating back years, all of which had doubtless been made available to the Israelis. Faced with the probability of a long prison stretch, Franklin agreed to wear a wire to his subsequent meetings with Rosen and Weissman. In the months that followed, the FBI built its case, recording conversations and following the AIPAC duo.

And they did a good job, apparently, because the government is making an unusual request: that some testimony and evidence be shielded from the public due to its highly sensitive nature. This wasn’t just a case of pilfering a few innocuous memoranda. It looks like team AIPAC made off with the family jewels and maybe even the deed to the house. Why else would the Justice Department risk having a conviction thrown out on appeal on account of such a rarely invoked legal mechanism?

The defense has protested proposed security procedures—magnetometers at the courtroom door, security sweeps of the courtroom itself, an officer of the court monitoring electronic surveillance while the trial is in session—on the grounds they would prejudice the jury against the defendants. They compare this to dragging Rosen and Weissman before the jury in prisoners’ uniforms and shackles. Yet these security measures point to the seriousness of the matter before the court, the depth to which the Rosen-Weissman-Franklin spy ring penetrated the government, and the ongoing breach they have opened in America’s national-security firewall.

While most of the more cautious elements in the Jewish community are staying well away from this case, the radicals, such as Rabbi Avi Weiss and his AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns, who have previously devoted their efforts to freeing Jonathan Pollard, have now turned their attention to Rosen and Weissman. Steven Lieberman and Anne Sterba, lawyers for the group, wrote in an amicus brief: “Trying these two men for disclosing critical ‘national defense information’ to foreign officials, without letting the public know what the alleged information was, will allow enemies of the Jewish people to exaggerate the significance of that evidence and will leave the press and the public to subsist only on rumors and speculation.”

The Weiss group likens the prosecution of Rosen and Weissman to the Dreyfus case—in effect positing the existence of a vast anti-Semitic conspiracy at the highest levels of the Justice Department. Not exactly a credible contention, offered, as it is, without evidence, but the defenders of Rosen and Weissman are getting more frantic as the trial date approaches. As a writer for the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz put it, “Does this trial really carry any resemblance to the Dreyfus trial? It’s a different era, a different country, a different system, a different accusation. Making this comparison demands some imagination, much ambition, and maybe a speck of chutzpah too.”

A recently unsealed defense memorandum details a Feb. 16, 2005 colloquy between Rosen’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, and Nathan Lewin, AIPAC’s legal counsel, in which the latter reveals that Paul McNulty—then the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia and chief prosecutor in the case—“would like to end it with minimal damage to AIPAC.” Lewin told Lowell, “He is fighting with the FBI to limit the investigation to Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman and to avoid expanding it.” This is hardly the behavior one would expect of contemporary anti-Dreyfusards in the Justice Department plotting to scapegoat AIPAC and the Jews.

Clearly the Rosen-Weissman defense team is involved in a bit of “greymail,” that is, forcing the government to disclose as much classified information as possible during the discovery phase of this case and hoping to derail the prosecution entirely as it weighs the effects of disclosure against the benefits of a possible conviction. As we go to press, Judge T.S. Ellis has ruled against the prosecution's proposal to shield sensitive testimony and evidence behind a veil of pseudonyms and euphemism, which could delay the begining of the trial.

Efforts to embarrass the administration go beyond accusing DOJ and extend to prominent figures such as Condoleezza Rice, who is accused by Abbe Lowell of leaking national defense information to AIPAC as Franklin did. Gen. Anthony Zinni is being targeted in a similar manner. Both have been subpoenaed, along with David Satterfield, deputy chief of the U.S. mission to Iraq, and William Burns, U.S. ambassador to Russia, to testify. If Rosen and Weissman are going down, the Israel lobby seems to be saying, then so are a lot of prominent people—some of whom, like Zinni, just happen to be their enemies.

This isn’t greymail, it’s blackmail. It was Zinni, after all, who said of the Israel lobby and the neoconservatives: “I think it’s the worst-kept secret in Washington. Everybody—everybody I talk to in Washington—has known and fully knows what their agenda was [during the run up to the Iraq War] and what they were trying to do.”

The intrigue thickened last October as word leaked that a proposed deal was dangled in front of Rep. Jane Harman: AIPAC would back her to become head of the House Intelligence Committee if she would urge the government to treat Rosen, Weissman—and AIPAC itself—with kid gloves. The Forward reported, “Several congressional sources confirmed that major donors to the Democratic Party have been lobbying Pelosi on behalf of Harman’s nomination to head the intelligence committee and that these attempts were not welcomed by the House Democratic leader.” Time named Haim Saban, the billionaire Hollywood producer and major AIPAC moneybags, as one of the supplicants. Pelosi didn’t fall for it, and Harman was rebuffed. Perhaps this was in the background when the speaker was booed as she addressed the subsequent AIPAC national conference, although Pelosi got back in the Israel lobby’s good graces after she stripped a provision from the military appropriations bill that would have required the president to go to Congress for permission to attack Iran.

The defense has fought to get the case against Rosen and Weissman thrown out on any number of grounds: the Espionage Act is unconstitutional, it doesn’t apply to their clients but only to government officials, and, last but not least, it’s a violation of the Israel lobby’s First Amendment “right” to betray classified information to its masters in Tel Aviv. Twisting and turning, threatening and spitting, delaying as best it can, the defense has tried to wriggle out of it every which way, to no avail. The trial is going forward, and the public spectacle of the biggest espionage scandal involving Israel since the prosecution of Pollard could deliver a body blow to the Israel lobby at a time when it has come in for public scrutiny and criticism as never before.

But that hasn’t prevented the lobby from brazenly defending the accused spies, in spite of the preponderance of evidence, and even hailing them as patriots. Writing in The Forward, Michael Berenbaum avers, “Instead of being grounds for prosecution, perhaps the influence Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman were trying to exert—making officials and the public aware of the danger from Iran—should be heralded.” And why should we hail espionage as laudable in this instance? Well, you see, because the AIPAC defendants were ahead of their time in citing the danger from Iran: “In Washington, as Rosen and Weissman are learning the hard way, the ‘crime’ is often not being wrong, but rather being right too early or at the wrong time, or being out of sync with the conventional wisdom, or pushing an inconvenient truth.”

In light of Judge Ellis’s recent ruling that in this trial the Espionage Act is going to be interpreted narrowly and that the burden is on the prosecution to show that the defendants knowingly harmed U.S. national security interests, the defense might be expected to make a pitch similar to Berenbaum’s—that, instead of prosecuting Rosen and Weissman, we ought to be pinning medals on their chests.

The AIPAC defendants weren’t spies, they were merely ahead of the curve, anticipating the day when a distinction is no longer being made between American and Israeli interests. That is the line we are hearing, as the curtain goes up on the trial of Rosen and Weissman. Whether the jury or the public falls for it remains to be seen.

[BITEYOASS]

Originally posted by Nitro Express
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And lest not forget, these fundies are the same ones over 20 years ago who wanted people to destroy their classic VH record collections! Now their trying to destroy the world, DON'T YOU PEOPLE GET IT YET?!?!?