Sometimes I hear from readers who complain that I lay too much blame on AIPAC for our one-sided and failed Middle East policies.
What can I say? I worked at AIPAC for almost six years (1973-1975, 1982-1986) so I know how it operates. Additionally, because I left AIPAC on good terms, I maintained friendships with its staff (no more!) and they filled me in on how the lobby was increasing its power over Congress. Of course, I saw that myself during 15 years as a House and Senate staffer. AIPAC runs the Middle East policy show on Capitol Hill.
Rarely am I surprised by anything AIPAC (or Congress, tucked securely in its pocket) does. But sometimes, AIPAC’s actions are so egregious, and those of Congress so supine, in promoting policies that are clearly against U.S. interests that I have to admit some surprise.
Take what AIPAC is doing this week. It is getting the House of Representatives to pass legislation it wrote that would impose the heaviest sanctions on Iran yet, (Here is AIPAC’s one minute video urging support for its bill).
Here is how the New York Times described the AIPAC bill on Thursday.
The legislation, if enacted into law and fully enforced, could basically eradicate what is left of Iran’s diminished oil exports by coercing its remaining customers to find other suppliers. Proponents of the legislation say that with 376 sponsors, it is expected to pass the House easily. It would then move to the Senate for consideration in September.
There is nothing surprising about that. AIPAC has been drafting and the House and Senate passing AIPAC’s Iran sanctions bills for years. They don’t accomplish anything except punish the Iranian people. After all, if they did “work,” AIPAC wouldn’t keep having to write new sanctions bills. Iran would have surrendered to Israel’s demands on the nuclear issue years ago.
In a sense, this is all deja vu except for the timing.
Again the Times:
But critics say the timing of the House vote has raised sharp questions about the kind of message it would send to Iran’s president-elect, Hassan Rouhani, before he takes office on Sunday.
Ya think?
A new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, takes office in a few days. He was elected as a moderate, the un-Ahmedinejad. Since his election he has made clear that his goal is to resolve the US-Iran stalemate over Iranian nuclear development through negotiations.
Of course, at this point, who knows? Maybe he is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
We will know soon but not until after he takes office on Sunday, which is why AIPAC’s preemptive strike is so appalling.
After all, there is not one reason for passing this punitive bill before the new president takes office, unless, of course, AIPAC’s goal is to insult Rouhani and the Iranian nation in order to push him toward becoming another Ahmedinejad.
Nothing pleased the lobby more than having an Iranian president who spouted obscene nonsense about the Holocaust and Israel, all the easier to convince the United States to go to war with him. But this guy is trouble. If he is a real moderate, AIPAC won’t get its war.
As to the question as to why Congress would go along with AIPAC on this, you know the answer. Members of Congress will do whatever it wants to collect campaign cash from donors associated with it. Even in a case like this, where the U.S. interest is so clear, dollars and cents point the other way.
The good news is that the administration has made clear it welcomes the new Iranian president and is eager to hear what he has to say. Of course, AIPAC’s legislation, once passed by House and Senate, could box him in.
This is why I write about AIPAC so much. There is no other lobby like it. Other countries are represented in Washington by registered foreign agents who are banned by law from any involvement in U.S. politics. AIPAC skirts that requirement by being an American lobby representing a foreign government. Neat trick! And it is the trick (funding politicians legally) that enables it to foist all these dangerous policies on the United States.
Last point: most of your favorite “progressive” Members of Congress are co-sponsors of the AIPAC bill, meaning they knowingly put U.S. interests behind their fundraising desires. Here is the list. Read it and weep, no, read it and get angry.
Rosenbergs’s war against AIPAC continues.No one is going to war with iran. The US continues to squeeze iran and squeeze them more until they decide to give up the nuclear weapons program. Israel is not the only one in the region who fears a nuclear Iran and no one wants to se a nuclear Hezbollah
Has AIPAC taken a position on the causes and effects of the 911 Terrorist attacks that has led to a Terrorist War on Terrorism causing the deaths and injuries of millions of people since then?
I notice that practically all of the sponsors of this bill signed the ‘Patriot’ and subsequent National Defense Authorization Acts that have trashed citizen rights and due process of law provisions in the US Constitution for balance of power conditions to the Military and Presidential command.
Doesn’t the US Constitution require Congress to declare war before they fund it?
Should Congress be held accountable for war crimes committed since 911?
We know the caused of 911. An extremest Islamic group decided that the hate western freedoms and liberties. The demand strict adherence to an extremest ideology that demonizes non believers, subjugates woman and imprisons gays and lesbians. To drive home their point, they flew 3 passenger planed into buildings in New York and Washington.
I’m wondering about the truth of the charges at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_fp5kaVYhk
Typical conspiracy theory site. It makes for goof fiction. I think OBL made it pretty clear why he attacked the US. You know, I also heard that Jews control the world media
I hope the US Congress and world citizens will be able to prove or disprove the truth of these charges of the terrible crimes committed on 911 and the effect it has had on the quality of life on this planet.
In the meantime, I hope the US Congress will not continue to wage wars without adhering to due process of law provided in the US Constitution, UN Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It appears to me that we all have a moral and legal obligation to know the fundamental truths about the war crimes committed since 911 and to prosecute those who have been instrumental in the commission of war crimes since then.
The internet has bene a real godsend for conspiracy theory fans.There is a long list of conspiracy theories regarding 911, the Sandy Hook massacre. the moon landing and of course the Holocaust. Pick your poison
Typical Zionist lies and hatred from Sid. Send him to the front lines….please!
Alice,
Weren’t you cited for making anti Semitic remarks before. Yes, here they are. I wil hang it out there for al to see for the pleasure of humiliating you:
Recognize this?
http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2013/05/27/65-years-post-holocaust-germany-is-the-worlds-most-popular-country-while-israel-barely-beats-north-korea/
“For centuries, Jews’ isolation within countries, their rapaciousness, and obsession with financial control have made them disliked in every country in which they have lived”
Sometimes when some people subscribe to the same notion /philosophy of certain crimes, then as if,they are the ones who have planed and executed them. As of, why they don’t see anything wrong with what has been committed against others, then they start projecting , to deflect the suspesion from the facts and realities which most people see pointing toward the real perpetrators. When you are made of the same Mud, then mud around you does not look nor feel like dirt. So,All other things do. As such, are the defenders of 9/11 and the war on terror , who wish to ride the train of deception and lies.
I think 911 was not investigated very well. How did Fox, CNN, and the rest know the day it happened it was Al Quaeda and Bin Laden? Some of the hijackers still alive in Jordan/ Egypt? Bin Laden died Decbwr 14, 2001 from Kidney disease? SH shooting on December 14 th? Crazy timelines and crazy things in our post 911 world. I don’t know what is true and what is a lie anymore about the world. Just a bad place I suppose and why do I keep having nightmares about a war with Iran. Pure evil unleashed in this world for sure!