Hillary goes full neocon at AIPAC

Clinton used her speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee meeting, the gathering of some of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, to lambaste Donald Trump for saying he’d try to be neutral in heading up negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Donald Trump should be lambasted. He is wrong on everything most of every day. But, like a clock, he is right twice a day and this a point on which he is correct. The US cannot be an honest broker in the Mideast conflict if it is more Israeli than the Israelis, which it typically is. Palestinian negotiators over the years complained that they’d get an Israeli proposal, then go to the US to tweak it, and get back the same proposal fromDennis Ross or some other American partisan of Israel who had been put in a position to shape negotiations on the American side.

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AIPAC vs. the Neocons on Iran

A piece today in Bloomberg View headlined the fight between the Israel lobby and the Republican über-hawks as “Aipac vs. Pro-Israel Republicans.” But it would more accurately be called “AIPAC vs. the Neocons.” And we shouldn’t forget for a moment that the bankrupt ideology of neoconservatism is behind these efforts; the line between leading neocons and this obstructionism is too easy to trace—and too laughably reminiscent of their misadventure in Iraq.

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Neocons Who Brought You The Iraq War Endorse AIPAC’s Iran Bill

The neoconservative Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), the successor organization of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), has just published another open letter (reproduced below) to Congressional leaders that implicitly endorses what I have called the “Kirk-Menendez Wag the Dog Act of 2013,” known officially as the Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act of 2013 (S. 1881). I say implicitly, because it doesn’t come right out and urge support for the specific bill, which AIPAC and the Israel lobby, for which AIPAC is the vanguard, are flogging as hard as they possibly can. But the intention is pretty clear.

This letter — like PNAC, FPI is essentially a “letterhead organization” that issues manifestos, rather than a real think tank or grassroots membership organization — was signed by 72 “former U.S. government officials and foreign policy experts,” the vast majority of whom are easily identified as neoconservatives, as opposed to “conservatives,” the highly questionable term used by the Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin, who reported on the letter even before it was published on the FPI website to describe the signatories. (One wonders whether Rogin was given the letter on the condition that the authors be described as “conservatives” rather than “neoconservatives,” which really has become something of a dirty word over the past decade due to its association with the Iraq war and their enthusiasm over other ill-advised military adventures.)

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'NYT' and Post won't tell us why Dems are abandoning Obama on Iran deal

Writing in The Forward, former George W. Bush administration official and life-long neocon, Noam Neusner… [writes] They can’t support Obama’s Iran achievement because these Democrats are “the men and the women, after all, who are on a first-name basis with most of the board of AIPAC” and “they want to be in Washington long after Obama leaves the White House.”

Anyone who has any doubt about what Neusner is talking about should note his reference to the Democrats’ “first name” relationship with the AIPAC board. He doesn’t just refer to the lobby or to AIPAC in general. He certainly does not refer to Jewish American voters who tend to be part of the Democratic party’s progressive wing and are no fans of Netanyahu’s or his paranoid visions. No, he refers to the AIPAC board which is composed of AIPAC’s wealthiest members, the ones who decide who the lobby will support (or try to defeat) in November 2014.

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Neocon Pundit: The Israel Lobby Wants War With Iran

One of the standard defenses against criticisms of the so-called Israel lobby hinges on portraying its detractors as alleging that Washington's pro-Israel groups are "all-powerful." It's of course a caricature of most critics' position: no doubt some true conspiracy theorists buy into this (and should be ridiculed for it), but the criticisms of pro-Israel groups percolating in Washington don't. Dan Luban, a friend and former colleague, has persuasively described mainstream criticisms of the Israel lobby based only on the very reasonable contentions that the groups have "significant influence on U.S. foreign policy" and that this influence is often "pernicious." I use the term "Israel lobby" advisedly, because that's the term Max Boot used—with skeptical quotes—on Sunday in Commentary to attack the straw-man of a lobby that "insidiously controls American foreign policy." But Boot's post is hilariously off-base: its argument can't even be reconciled with the very information he presents. Let's start with his opening paragraph:

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Example of a Neocon Article Placement

In researching AIPAC, I remember running across an extensive account of how the organization used public relations methods that include letter-writing, placement of articles in media, and speeches in order to influence public opinion. This came to mind today when I noticed that my Google News (tailored to Western New York) had a headline reading "Hezbollah's terrorism a threat to upstate NY" in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Now this idea is so far out, meaning it is so nonsensical and exaggerated, that I clicked on through to inspect the contents. They are here. The article in this newspaper is written by Benjamin Weinthal who is from a suburb of Rochester named Brighton. Lo and behold, he's a "Research Fellow" of the neocon outfit I've mentioned before, namely, Foundation for Defense of Democracies. It's one of those William Kristol outfits that purports to deliver research and evidence, but instead specializes in scare tactics wrapped in a mantle of pseudo-objectivity.

Accurately evaluating Hezbollah and its activities in this hemisphere takes a lot more than this newspaper piece of Weinthal. The strongest allegation of a Hezbollah presence has been an accusation made by the House Homeland Security Committee Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations and Management. It claimed that Hezbollah was allied to the Mexican drug cartels, and it claimed a threat in the Southwest. However, high Mexican officials categorically denied that Hezbollah had drug cartel connections.

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Just in time for Netanyahu visit, neocon ad in ‘NYT’ attacks MJ Rosenberg and CAP

Just in time for the AIPAC conference and Netanyahu's visit to Barack Obama, the New York Times today features a full page ad from neoconservatives saying that liberals must support Israel. The ad attacks two Democratic Party-linked thinktanks, the Center for American Progress and Media Matters, for criticism of Israel. It names M.J. Rosenberg of Media Matters and says he is a bigot. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The ad has a scare image of a wolf, and features quotes from Alan Dershowitz and Spencer Ackerman (inaccurately characterizing the use of the term "Israel Firster"). It asks people to call the foundations that fund the two thinktanks-- notably the Pritzker foundation. The Pritzker family has supported Barack Obama.

‘Occupy AIPAC’ now has 100 orgs behind it (and neocons try to block its appeal to ‘Jewish liberals’)

This is interesting. More than 100 organizations are moving ahead to "Occupy AIPAC" at the beginning of March in Washington. It will be some party near the convention center-- a lot of coalition-building and consciousness-raising. "We are the 99 percent, from Cairo to NY, from Jerusalem to DC."

I can't wait to compare the average age of the AIPAC'ers to that of the anti-AIPAC'rs-- AIPAC's biggest fear. The dustbin of history.

One sign that Occupy AIPAC is working is that Commentary has launched a broadbrush attack on it and the Occupy movement generally as... anti-semitic. The neoconservatives are clearly worried that the boycott movement and the end-to-aid to Israel movement are gaining traction in American politics and what are they doing-- appealing to Jewish liberals to marginalize these movements.

Right-wing listserv targets Israel’s critics

The former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is shopping a 3,000-word trove of opposition research against bloggers critical of Israel to friendly neoconservative journalists.

I’ve obtained an email sent by Josh Block to a private listserv called the Freedom Community, in which he throws around accusations of anti-Semitism against liberal bloggers and calls on other list members to “echo” and “amplify” his assault and “use the below [research] to attack the bad guys.”

AIPAC Sends 81 NeoCON Congressmen To Israel

It is disturbing to me how Israel has so much control over our government. It was disturbing for me when so many of our Republican Candidates were going over to Israel to get Benjamin Netanyahu’s apparent blessing. Or when the recently dispatched Glenn Beck went to Israel to find out his next move was. Well now 1/5th of our Congress will be going to Israel for their summer break. With our economy is crashing, our men fighting senseless and endless wars and the fact we are broke, you would think our “representatives” would be visiting troops or out of work people in their districts. No, they are going to where the money and power is, Israel. If you want to know why the system isn’t working for you, look who controls it.

Chas Freeman's Defeat, a Neocon Win

As the neocons flexed their still potent muscles in media circles and think tanks, Freeman saw his approach to foreign policy decried as “realist” and his political support evaporate, a development he now addresses in a book, as David Swanson reports:

Whistleblowing takes many forms but almost always involves the disillusionment of an insider with the nature of what he or she is inside.

Leaking secret documents exposing dramatic crimes and abuses is one way to blow a whistle. Another, equally valuable approach, is to publish a lengthy analysis of your experiences in government service. This is what Chas Freeman has done with his new book, America's Misadventures in the Middle East, which he will discuss in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Chas Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council. However, a vilification campaign orchestrated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) blocked Freeman's appointment. As Freeman recounts:

House approves billions for neocon/AIPAC driven wars without debate

US House passes $725bn defense bill

http://www.presstv.com/detail/155938.html

Afghan war a waste of money

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEn7FRfKerE

US drowning in Afghan war

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuWSRI1NX_M

December Review: Neocon Driven Afghan War is a Failure

http://america-hijacked.com/2010/12/16/december-review-neocon-driven-afghanistan-war-is-a-failure/