Amazing, but typical Chutzpah: Israeli kikes now openly commanding American patsies

Apollonian

Guest Columnist
The tail wags the dog: Israel publicly upbraids the US on Iran

Editor

Link: http://www.redressonline.com/2013/11/the-tail-wags-the-dog-israel-publicly-upbraids-the-us-on-iran/

Israel has gotten so used to the United States being totally subservient to it that it seems incapable of tolerating the slightest deviation from its diktats by Washington.

For a country that swallows up some eight million dollars a day of American taxpayers’ money, one might expect some self-restraint, at least in symbolic gratitude for the largesse it receives from its increasingly economically desperate benefactors. But no.

In fact, the arrogance and hubris of the Israelis has reached the point where they feel totally at ease to publicly upbraid their American protectors for being disobedient.

“Jerusalem is ‘unpleasantly surprised’ that, as of Thursday afternoon [21 November], the Obama administration had not unequivocally condemned vicious anti-Israel statements made Wednesday morning by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” a senior Israeli official told the Times of Israel.

The official, Hilik Bar, who is deputy speaker of the Israeli parliament, was commenting on some truths uttered by Khamenei the previous day, when he said that Israel was doomed to fail and characterized it as the “sinister, unclean rabid dog of the region”.

In a statement that beggars belief, Bar demanded that US Secretary of State John Kerry and European leaders “issue condemnations in the strongest possible terms” – and “sooner rather than later”.

“I was disappointed to hear no strong condemnation nor any official censure whatsoever by the United States, the European countries, nor the EU itself.” he whinged.

However, it would seem that the Obama administration had had enough. According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), a top White House official warned on 20 November that Israel’s demand that Iran totally dismantle its nuclear capacity in exchange for sanctions relief would likely lead to war.

Given a choice between “total capitulation” and advancing toward a nuclear weapon, Iran would choose the weapon, the unnamed official said, adding that the Israeli position would “close the door on diplomacy” and “essentially lead to war”.

It’s taken it a long time, but at last the Obama administration is showing some backbone in its relations with the rabid dog of the Middle East. How long it can sustain this modicum if courage in the face of Zionist-lobby bullying and blackmail, and whether Obama would allow the Zionist pimp in Paris to scupper a historic chance for reconciliation with Iran, is anybody’s guess.
 
The Arrogance of Zionist Power: Openly Demonstrating that the Tribe Always Comes First

Apr 14 2020 / 1:18 pm

Link: https://councilforthenationalinterest.org/?p=5265

Democratic Majority for Israel 523c6

There are two recent stories that involve the arrogance of the Jewish community in the United States. The first involves a lobbying group in Washington and the second concerns a hospital in New York City. It has often been observed that some Jews of the Alan Dershowitz persuasion boast about how powerful Jews are in the U.S. When challenged, they would argue that the Judaization of American culture and politics has been a good thing, bringing with it liberal values that have particularly benefited other minority groups in particular. What is not discussed much is the quid pro quo, whereby Jews reward themselves for their goodness by allocating to the tribe top positions in high profile and richly remunerated professions where they are hugely overrepresented.

Much of the Jewish self-congratulation takes place behind the scenes, at events that are for Jews only or in discussions inside the Jewish media, but of late the empowering of Zionist and Jewish interests by President Donald Trump and the success in shutting down criticism of Israel has served to embolden those who like to boast of the tribe’s accomplishments. The latest bit of bragging rights in respect to Jewish power in the U.S. belongs to a group called the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI). The DMFI is a registered political action committee (PAC) that lobbies on behalf of the Jewish state. It was organized in 2019 by Democratic Party activists to counter what was perceived to be pro-Palestinian sentiment within the party’s progressive wing.

In 2016 the Democratic Party dodged the bullet on Israel by a cheap maneuver which included not permitting a floor vote on a proposed platform plank that would have expressed support for Palestinian statehood. Opinion polls do indeed suggest that half of Democrats who are aware of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement approve of it. Criminalizing BDS has been a principal target of Jewish groups in the U.S., to include both AIPAC and DMFI.

The DMFI has particularly chosen to go after Senator Bernie Sanders who, more than anyone running for the nomination to run for president, has emphasized the suffering of the Palestinians and has suggested withholding money from Israel until its behavior improves. On the morning after Sanders withdrew from the race DMFI president Mark Mellman sent out an email to supporters expressing his pleasure over the result. He also took some credit for the outcome “Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for president. That’s a big victory — one you helped bring about.”

Mellman also reminded his associates that the victory was only a first step in making sure that the Democratic Party platform continues to be pro-Israel, writing that “Extreme groups aligned with Sanders, as well as some of his top surrogates — including Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — have publicly declared an effort to make the platform anti-Israel. As a career political professional, I will tell you that if Democrats adopt an anti-Israel platform this year, the vocabulary, views, and votes of politicians will shift against us dramatically. We simply can’t afford to lose this battle.”

The destruction of Bernie Sanders by the Democratic Party establishment, to include DMFI, is eerily reminiscent of what was done to Jeremy Corbyn by similar pro-Israel groups in Britain. Mellman in effect admits that he has interfered with the electoral process of the Democratic Party on behalf of a foreign government, but no one is disturbed by it. That he is actively engaged in politicking from inside the Democratic tent to destroy one candidate purely because he is mistrusted by a foreign government appears to bother no one in the mainstream media, nor on the Democratic National Committee. Nor has the Treasury Department required Mellman to register under the terms of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) of 1938. In fact, no pro-Israel organization has ever been required to register under FARA in spite of the fact that they are clearly visible and quite open in their advocacy.

The other story is somewhat more bizarre and it involves Jews in Brooklyn receiving priority treatment at a taxpayer funded hospital. Maimonides Medical Center is Brooklyn’s largest hospital, and, in spite of the name, it is non-sectarian. Brooklyn is one of the epicenters of coronavirus and many of the patients are Hasidic Jews who refuse to comply with the government orders to stay at home and not attend large gatherings. A number of recent weddings and other celebrations have been attended by hundreds of people in New York and New Jersey, leading to sharp jumps in positive tests among the participants as well as among other local residents. According to Deborah Lipstadt, Jews are unwilling to forego large gatherings that endanger them and the people around them due to the “Holocaust.”

*(Hatzalah ambulances in New York. Credit: Chris Sampson/ Flickr)

New York City has an ultra-orthodox Jewish volunteer ambulance service called Hatzalah which is in part taxpayer funded and was founded due to “cultural differences” between extreme orthodox Jews and gentiles. Hatzalah has somehow managed to obtain 50 ventilators, which are used in the extreme cases of coronavirus to assist the patient’s breathing. It is projected that ventilators will be in short supply as the number of sick patients increases.

At Maimonides, Hatzalah has given the ventilators to the hospital but only under the condition that Jews will get first access to them. In cases where an elderly Jewish patient is dying and a gentile child might be able to recover using a ventilator, the Jew has to be allowed to retain his ventilator until he dies.

Jewish power is the real deal in the United States. It is well known in political circles that Israel interferes in U.S. politics more than any other country, though it is not considered safe to mention that fact if one is running for office. And it is also true that American Jewish organizations are active in that process, in this case working to eliminate a candidate for office solely because his views on Israel are considered to be suspect. And if you should happen to live in Brooklyn and become ill enough with coronavirus to need a ventilator, pray you don’t wind up in Maimonides Medical Center. Ventilators are Jewish-only.
 
Israel to Annex the United States

Ambassador predicts a “deepening connection”

Philip Giraldi • May 12, 2020

Link: https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/israel-to-annex-the-united-states/

As the Beatles once put it, “I read the news today, oh boy…” One might argue that the “oh boy” has been part and parcel of one’s morning media review ever since 9/11, but depending on one’s own inclinations, the daily content might well be considered particularly depressing over the past several years. As regular readers of Unz.com will already know, my particular perception is that the American “special relationship” with the Jewish state has been a disaster for the United States and for the entire Middle East region, to include even Israel itself. Israel has used the uncritical U.S. support it has enjoyed since the time of Lyndon Johnson to pursue unwise policies vis-à-vis its neighbors that have drawn Washington into conflicts that would have been avoided. It has meanwhile exploited the power of its formidable domestic lobby to bleed the U.S. Treasury of well over $100 billion in direct grants plus three times that much in terms of largely hidden trade and co-production arrangements approved by a subservient Congress and endorsed by a controlled media.

In return, the United States has wound up with a “best friend and ally” that has spied on the U.S., stolen its technology, corrupted its government processes and lied consistently about its neighbors to create a casus belli so Americans can die in pointless wars rather than Israelis. The Lavon Affair and the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty reveal that Israel’s government will kill Americans when it suits them to do so, knowing full well that the sycophants in Washington and the Jewish dominated media will hardly whimper at the affront.

Over the past three years Donald J. Trump has delivered on his promise to be the “best friend in Washington that Israel has ever had.” He appointed his own bankruptcy lawyer and arch Zionist David Friedman as U.S. Ambassador, a man who clearly sees his mission as promoting Israeli interests rather than those of the United States. Israel has illegally exploited an American green light to declare all of Jerusalem its capital and Trump has obligingly moved the U.S. Embassy to suit. The Jewish state, which has inevitably declared itself legally to be “Jewish” and no longer anything like a democracy, has also illegally annexed the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and is now preparing to assimilate much of the formerly Palestinian West Bank. Expulsion of nearly all remaining Palestinians, even the ones who are Israeli citizens, will no doubt come next and has in fact been called for by some Jewish politicians. The extreme Israel-philia embraced by the White House and Congress has, inter alia, meant unrelenting hostility towards both Iran and Syria, neither of which poses any real threat or challenge to the American people or to any genuine U.S. interests.

Friedman has even distorted the State Department’s use of the English language, the “occupied” West Bank is now referred to as “disputed” or “contested.” Friedman, who has disregarded existing U.S. law by contributing to Israel’s illegal settlements, has consistently served as an apologist for Israeli snipers shooting unarmed demonstrators in Gaza and for his much beloved rampaging settlers destroying the livelihoods of Palestinian farmers.

The record is appalling, thank you Mr. Trump, but, to return to the “news today,” an article that appeared last Thursday in the Jerusalem Post still had the power to make me spill my cup of coffee in disbelief. The headline read “Friedman: Second Trump term could take U.S.-Israel ties to next level.” I was not sure if I wanted to read the piece at all as I feared that it would probably mandate transferring the U.S. Treasury Department to Jerusalem and placing the Pentagon under the control of Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, we Americans would be required to cross through checkpoints when traveling between states and would only be able to find Untermensch work growing cabbages on a sprawling network of kibbutzes.

As it turned out, of course, the Friedman interview with Jerusalem Post journalists was all about Israel, not the United States, even though there was some vague nonsense about the Trump so-called peace plan munificently ending most conflict in the Middle East region and thereby benefiting Americans. Friedman began with “We need to maximize mutual benefits of the relationship in ways I don’t think have happened before. The only limits are one’s imagination as to where we can go.” If Friedman meant that the U.S. has not reaped any of the “mutual benefits” he is undoubtedly correct, but somehow I don’t think that was his intention. And there certainly has been a lot of imagination in the convoluted and often hidden Israeli Lobby schemes to bilk the American taxpayer over the course of the past 75 years.

Friedman characterized the situation before the Embassy move as “We were applying a double standard to Israel, relative to every other country in the world. We were telling Israel, you don’t have the right to choose your capital city… And it’s not just any capital; it’s Jerusalem.” Wrong, Dave. The problem with Jerusalem is that the Jewish state wanted its capital on land that it controlled but did not own under international law and through the agreements that led to the founding of Israel. Pretending that there is some special right through divine providence doesn’t change that one bit.

Friedman also had the interesting sidebar comment that illustrated just how warped the Trump view of Israel actually is. Apparently, Friedman and the president-elect had discussions on moving the Embassy prior to inauguration day “with some officials predicting that he was going to announce the move the same day as his inauguration on January 20, 2017. That didn’t happen, Friedman said, because first conversations were needed in all of the different government offices – State Department, the Pentagon and more.” That Trump was willing to highlight and promote a major pander to the Israel Lobby on the very day he was inaugurated is more than just telling, it is bizarre.

Symbols are apparently also dear to the heart of David Friedman. “Americans who support Israel understand the significance of Jerusalem. It’s what the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge are… Because America was founded on those types of principles, Americans profoundly understand the importance of Jerusalem to the State of Israel.” Friedman added that retaining symbols like Hebron, which is in the Jewish people’s “biblical DNA” is also an important element in the Trump “peace plan.”

Whoa, David, it’s convenient to cite the American experience to justify what Israel is doing but the United States at least ostensibly was founded on the principle that “all men are created equal.” Israel is by law an apartheid state based on religion. And when last I checked Hebron was a predominantly Palestinian city under military occupation to protect the settler interlopers who are working hard to drive out the original residents. It is the site of the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre of Palestinian worshippers carried out by Brooklyn-born Jewish fanatic Baruch Goldstein. Twenty-nine Palestinians were killed. Yes, “biblical DNA” seems to fit just right if one considers the fate of the Canaanites.

And Friedman had something to say about the planned July 1st Israeli annexation of “West Bank settlements, biblical sites and the Jordan Valley.” He provided a Trump Administration green light saying “We will be ready to address this issue if Israel is ready. Ultimately, as Secretary Pompeo said, it’s Israel’s decision. They have to decide what they want to do.” According to Friedman, the Trump administration’s “vision for peace” would allow Israel to directly annex 30% of the West Bank and exercise control over most of the remainder, which would include “all settlements and the entire Jordan Valley.” The Palestinians would have no control over water resources or even their own airspace. Mapping the precise details is currently subject to “judgment calls in Israel’s court.” Note that all the critical decision making is by Israel with the full backing of the United States. The peace plan has been rightly characterized as a complete surrender to Israeli interests with the Palestinians having no say in the outcome.

Friedman also described the importance of sending a clear message to the Palestinians blaming them for everything to include the denial of basic human rights, which is in fact an Israeli specialty. “If you tell the Palestinians that no matter what happens, no matter how recalcitrant you are, no matter how malign your activities are, no matter how you fail to observe basic human rights for your own people – with all that, you still get to veto the rights of the Jewish people and the State of Israel and their unquestionable capital… it’s just the wrong signal.”

And where to go from here? Friedman opines that “the equation of U.S.-Israel relations needs to be flipped. Rather than Americans seeing themselves as helping Israel, they must realize how much Israel can do for the U.S. – for example, by putting groundbreaking Israeli innovations on the market in the U.S. first.” Sure, steal the technology, re-engineer it, and then quietly arrange sweetheart trade deals through one’s co-religionists to sell it back to the suckers in the United States.

The Jerusalem Post interview concludes with Friedman’s prediction that “Should Trump be reelected, there will be many more opportunities for deepening the connections between the U.S. and Israel.” If that is all true, we Americans might as well surrender our sovereignty right now and save ourselves the pain of going through another corrupt presidential election.
 
US threatens ICC with ‘consequences’ if it acts on war crimes complaint against Israel filed by ‘fake’ Palestinian state

16 May, 2020 22:42 / Updated 17 hours ago
Reuters / Jerry Lampen

Arguing that Palestine doesn’t “qualify as a sovereign state” and that the International Criminal Court lacks jurisdiction over Israel, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened “consequences” for any “illegitimate” probes.

Following his trip to Israel this week, Pompeo issued a brief statement, denouncing the ongoing efforts by the ICC to investigate allegations of war crimes against Palestinians, including the use of live ammunition against protesters, the demolition and shelling of civilian homes and infrastructure, and forcible relocations as part of Israel’s settlement projects in the occupied territories.

“The United States reiterates its longstanding objection to any illegitimate ICC investigations,” wrote Pompeo, blasting the ICC as “a political body, not a judicial institution,” and arguing that it has no “jurisdiction over Israel, which like the United States, is not a party to the Rome Statute that created the court.”

We do not believe the Palestinians qualify as a sovereign state, and they therefore are not qualified to obtain full membership, or participate as a state in international organizations, entities, or conferences, including the ICC.

Also on rt.com Top IDF lawyer tells The Hague to back off, says Israel can probe own alleged war crimes
While Palestine has yet to achieve fully recognized statehood, the quasi-governmental Palestinian Authority was accepted into the ICC in 2015. The US signed the Rome Statute in 2000, but it was never formally ratified by the Senate. Israel, too, was an early signatory of the statute, but also never finalized its membership of the organization.

If the ICC continues down its current course, we will exact consequences.

Washington has repeatedly threatened the ICC with sanctions in the past as the US itself has also faced scrutiny in the investigation of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Afghan government forces, the Taliban, American troops and intelligence operatives.
 
U.S. is in Middle East ‘to protect Israel’ not for oil, Trump says

By Philip Weiss - September 12, 2020

 Link: https://mondoweiss.net/2020/09/u-s-is-in-middle-east-to-protect-israel-not-for-oil-trump-says/

Trump speaks in Winston-Salem, NC, Sept. 8, 2020. Screenshot from NBC news video.

Four days ago, Donald Trump said the U.S. isn’t involved in the Middle East for oil, but because we “want to protect Israel.” The comments have gone all but unreported in the mainstream press.

Trump made the comment during a rally in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Sept. 8, when he was bragging about America’s energy independence, which he said Joe Biden would undermine if he gets the White House (minute 47):

“I like being energy independent, don’t you? I’m sure that most of you noticed when you go to fill up your tank in your car, oftentimes it’s below two dollars. You say how the hell did this happen? Thank you President Trump! Look at your electric bills and everything else– these guys, your electric would go up four, five, six times. The Green New Deal it’s called the Green New Nightmare. While I’m president, America will remain the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. We will remain energy independent. It should be for many many years to come. The fact is, we don’t have to be in the Middle East, other than we want to protect Israel. We’ve been very good to Israel. Other than that, we don’t have to be in the Middle East. You know there was a time we needed desperately oil, we don’t need that anymore. We have more than they do, isn’t that nice? After years of rebuilding other countries, we are finally building our country.

The American Conservative’s Barbara Boland is the only reporter who seems to have picked up Trump’s remarks. No one else cares, evidently.

Do you remember all the arguments about Why are we engaged in so many conflicts in the Middle East? And why we are going to war in Iraq? And the mainstream default position is that it’s because of oil. Even though we lost concessions in Iraq.

These comments by Trump, the disrupter, tie into the long but shadowy pedigree of analysis from policymakers that we invaded Iraq to make Israel safer. Like the former head of the 911 Commission who said that the threat to Israel was the motivation for the war, but that was “the threat that dare not speak its name.” Or Colin Powell’s comment that we went into Iraq because the Secretary of Defense bought the neoconservative arguments of “the JINSA crowd,” referring to the Israel lobby group the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Trump touches on a larger realpolitik understanding of the creation of Israel, that it helped foster unrest throughout the region. As the State Department warned that it would do, in the 1940s. But don’t expect anyone in our media to consider such ideas…
 
Trump and Biden battle over who’s more pro-Israel, with Adelson and Saban squaring off

By Philip Weiss - September 22, 2020

Link: https://mondoweiss.net/2020/09/trum...o-israel-with-adelson-and-saban-squaring-off/

Melania Trump and Sara Netanyahu at the White House, September 16, 2020, for announcement of UAE and Bahrain deals.

Donald Trump keeps trying to inject Israel into the presidential race, but indications are that he’s not making a big impact on voters: polling shows that his many actions in support of Israel have moved Jewish support to 30 percent from his 25 percent support in the 2016 election. But Biden still wins 67 percent which is pretty close to the usual Democratic mark.

In a campaign ad aimed at pro-Israel voters, including evangelicals, Trump trumpeted the peace deals he cut at the White House last week, saying they were the first deals in “decades.” And Trump repeatedly mentioned Israel during his Rosh Hashana call last week to Jewish leaders.

“We really appreciate you, we love your country also,” he told them, according to the JTA.

Trump called Jared Kushner, whose family are keen supporters of Israel, “an unbelievable leader for Israel,” and said Democrats put Israel at risk.

f we don’t win, Israel is in big trouble… We’re in the Middle East because of Israel… This is really a time that’s very important in the life of Israel and the safety of Israel. And we will do a great job. If the other side gets in all bets are off. I think it’ll be a whole different story. I think it’ll be exactly the opposite.

(That’s the second time in a few days Trump said the U.S. is only in the Middle East because of Israel.)

The group “Democratic Majority for Israel” said Trump is trafficking in an antisemitic trope of dual loyalty used to persecute Jews for centuries. And he’s misrepresenting Biden’s record on Israel. Look at all Biden has done to arm Israel:

“Equally absurd is Trump’s suggestion that “Israel is in big trouble” if Democrats win in November. Thanks in large part to @JoeBiden‘s leadership, Israel now has the Iron Dome, its Qualitative Military Edge [QME], & the 10-year MOU, the largest US-Israel security agreement ever.

Biden surrogate Dan Shapiro says:

““[Trump’s] been trying every day for four years to turn Israel into a wedge issue with American Jewish voters, and he can’t even move it out of the margin of error.”

Nathan Hersh, an American-Israeli writer, says those older Florida Jews are different.

“[H]e only has to win over Jewish voters in Florida. Combined with Repub efforts to cast young House Democrats as antisemitic, this effort may have an impact. (And the normalization agreements are likely to continue, staggered, in advance of the election.)

Biden’s Israel lobbyists say he is the most pro-Israel nominee ever. But if Trump can get to 35 percent of the Jews in Florida, he could take the state, argues the Republican Jewish Coalition.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is posting stories that as VP Joe Biden lobbied Ukraine to vote against Israel in the UN Security Council in 2016, the famous resolution condemning Israeli settlements as a “flagrant violation” of international law. The Obama administration abstained on that resolution, allowing it to pass 14-0, even as Trump’s administration-in-waiting lobbied to defeat the resolution, which Kushner called a “disaster.”

Not just voters are at stake. The RJC is funded in part by Sheldon and Miriam Adelson, who have already given $50 million to Republican causes and are reportedly committing as much as $50 million to the Republican cause in the final stretch. The Adelson money helps explain why the Trump administration is acting bellicose toward the Iranians. Sheldon Adelson called on Obama to nuke Iran.

Meantime, Haim Saban, an ardent pro-Israel megadonor on the Democratic side, is all-in for Biden, because he trusts Biden on Israel. CNBC:

“Saban… said he and his wife [Cheryl] are backing Biden in part because of his track record on supporting Israel and its alliance with the United States. Saban, an Israeli-American, said he also sides with Biden’s support of a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Saban can raise a lot of money– surely including many Israel supporters:

“The Sabans, along with California Rep. Adam Schiff, hosted a virtual fundraiser earlier this month for Biden, with tickets at $500,000. The event raised $4.5 million.

Last year in the New York Times Magazine, Nathan Thrall reported that donor concerns — in Hillary Clinton’s behalf– caused the Obama administration to defer that 2016 U.N. resolution on settlements till after the election:

“[A] former member of the Obama White House, who asked not to be named, fearing professional retaliation, said that concerns about donors among Democrats dominated not just “what was done but what was not done, and what was not even contemplated.” …

“There is a reason the U.N. vote did not come up before the election in November,” the former official said. “Was it because you were going to lose voters to Donald Trump? No. It was because you were going to have skittish donors. That, and the fact that we didn’t want Clinton to face pressure to condemn the resolution or be damaged by having to defend it.” What worries establishment Democrats, the former official added, is that the partisan divide over Israel will concretize — with Republicans defined as pro-Israel, Democrats defined as anti-Israel — and that the party coffers will empty. Joel Rubin, a deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the Obama administration, former political director at J Street and a founding board member of the centrist Jewish Democratic Council of America, agreed: “The fight over Israel used to be about voters. It’s more about donors now.”

The Times echoed what we have reported before, that the scale of big Jewish donors to the Democratic Party is “gigantic” and “shocking,” and it makes Dems leery to touch the Israel question, on the — sadly practical — assumption that 95 percent of Jews support Israel.

“Of the dozens of personal checks greater than $500,000 made out to the largest PAC for Democrats in 2018, the Senate Majority PAC, around three-fourths were written by Jewish donors….

According to Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national-security adviser and one of Obama’s closest confidants, several members of the Obama administration wanted to adopt a more assertive policy toward Israel but felt that their hands were tied. “The Washington view of Israel-Palestine is still shaped by the donor class,” Rhodes… told me… “The donor class is profoundly to the right of where the activists are, and frankly, where the majority of the Jewish community is.” Peter Joseph, an emeritus chairman of the center-left Israel Policy Forum, told me that the views of major Democratic Jewish donors could act as a check on the leftward pull by progressive voters who are strongly critical of Israel: “I can’t imagine that mainstream Democratic Jewish donors are going to be happy about any Democratic Party that is moving in that direction.”

This explains why Biden crushed any reference to occupation even settlements as such in the Democratic platform this summer.

It explains why Democratic Congresswoman Elaine Luria, fighting for her political life in a swing district in Northern Virginia, was at the White House for the signing of the deals last week– a case of a Democrat campaigning on Trump’s coattails.

“It is an honor to be at the White House for this historic event commemorating the signing of the Abraham Accords. I am optimistic that this will mark a new era of regional security and cooperation in the Middle East, in which the Arab world works constructively with Israel. pic.twitter.com/pOu1AhO8kA
— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) September 15, 2020 Some Dems are running to Trump’s right on Israel. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, fighting for reelection in a swing district in Michigan, repeatedly criticized the UAE deal as “downright negligent” regarding Israeli security in a post on Medium last week:

“But reports that the United States committed to selling F-35s, our most advanced fighter jet, to the UAE to seal this deal, concern me. Reports that the President and Prime Minister Netanyahu made this deal without security experts on both sides reviewing the details together feels downright negligent, and definitely breaks with how these sales have been handled in past decades.

Slotkin threatened to try to block the deal in Congress. She touted her experience as a Defense Department official under Obama, saying she was in regular touch with the Israelis on security issues, including guaranteeing their military edge over other countries (QME). Notice the close identification with Israel:

“Unlike in the U.S., a single, significant strike on a country approximately the size of New Jersey could be catastrophic for the country, so they handle their security very differently than we do.

This is what makes news of the sale of the F-35 difficult to understand.

Republicans are also keen to show their pro-Israel credentials. Here’s Nikki Haley last week, praising Trump’s “unapologetic support for the Jewish state” — and that he “bypassed” Palestinians with the deals. And Mike Pompeo has of course been doing everything he can to show his pro-Israel bona fides, including a convention speech last month from Jerusalem.
 
The Israel Lobby’s ‘QME’ Scam

Link: https://original.antiwar.com/smith-grant/2020/11/09/the-israel-lobbys-qme-scam/

Arms Export Control Act subversion and amendment

by Grant Smith/ Posted on November 10, 2020

The United Arab Emirates bid to purchase F-35 multirole stealth aircraft caused a firestorm among Israel lobby operatives, pundits and congressional fellow travelers. They say the US has an obligation to maintain Israel’s "Qualitative Military Edge" if not Israel’s "Qualitative AND Quantitative Military Edge." QME is a doctrine that US war planners originally conceived to assess and counter the Warsaw Pact’s numerical troop advantage over US and allied forces stationed in Europe. The US was thought to need a qualitative advantage in military systems in order to counter the imbalance. Israel began insisting on QME for itself during tumultuous debate surrounding the Reagan administration’s sale of advance airborne radar systems (AWACs) to Saudi Arabia. Israel argued to protect its QME any such sale required additional and more advanced arms for Israel. Today, as the US offers additional advanced weapons to regimes successfully coerced to establish ties with Israel, someday those countries could stop obeying US marching orders and respond to popular demands for change, like Egypt during the Arab Spring. That is a problem, according to pro-Israel thinkers.

Cumulative Publicly Known US Foreign Assistance to Israel 1949-2020 (US $295.11 billion). Source: Congressional Research Service data adjusted for inflation.

Their latest solution for maintaining QME therefore involves giving Israel veto power over such US arms sales. The legislative solution introduced by representative Brad Schneider (D-IL) and supported by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is the "Guaranteeing Israel’s QME Act of 2020." The bill proposes amending the Arms Export Control Act by requiring the president to consult with the Israeli government before proceeding with any such sales. The president would then have to submit a report card to Congress on the degree to which Israel’s "Qualitative Military Edge" might be impacted. The AECA was already amended in 2008 and 2012 to require certifications that any sales would not "adversely affect" Israel’s military edge.

But it is ironic that the Schneider bill employs the Arms Export Control Act and presidential certifications as vehicles for inserting Israeli oversight into the US decision chain. After Israel’s illegal 1960s diversion of US weapons-grade uranium from the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) in Pennsylvania, Senators Symington and Glenn passed mid-1970s amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act. They banned US economic and military assistance, export credits and US support to countries that deliver or receive, acquire, or transfer nuclear enrichment technology when such countries do not comply with International Atomic Energy Agency regulations and inspections.

Since then, Israel has continued to be the Middle East’s leading state sponsor of nuclear proliferation due to its incessant top-to-bottom illicit trafficking in nuclear weapons related materials, know-how and technology from the US. Israel proliferated to regimes such as apartheid South Africa.

Symington & Glenn now reside in the Arms Export Control Act and require the president to notify Congress of any proposed US foreign aid to a known rogue nuclear state. Rather than comply with the law, the last four Presidents instead caved in to Israeli and its US lobby’s pressure not to uphold that particular section of the AECA. Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and Trump instead executed secret letters promising not to do so as reported by Adam Entous in The New Yorker. The National Archives refuses to release two of these letters. After a successful lawsuit was filed in 2011 to release damning US government information about Israel’s nuclear weapons production facilities, President Barack Obama even passed a 2012 gag order called WNP-136 forbidding any further releases. That has limited any informed debate about Israel, nonproliferation and related policies such as QME. Other legislation promoted by AIPAC, such as sections within S.2583, now mandate that the US withhold IAEA funding if the leading state sponsor of Middle East nuclear proliferation is ever "denied its right to participate in the Agency."

Publicly known cumulative US foreign assistance (excluding intelligence support and other covert funding) to Israel is on track to reach $295 billion in 2020. That is three times the amount spent to rebuild Europe after WWII under the Marshall Plan. Some $253 billion (86%) has been delivered since Symington and Glenn became law, while $116 billion has been delivered after presidents Clinton through Trump signed secret letters promising to subvert the AECA.

Analytical output from pro-Israel think tanks such as the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) outline even additional solutions beyond the Schneider bill – by showering more "free" US weapons on Israel and more US taxpayer money for Israel to purchase Israeli weapons systems. The US should also further explode its already ballooning deficit by advancing cash to Israel under a new "Deferred Payment Plan" for Israel to tap future "allocations" from the current $38 billion MOU and even "future MOU’s," says FDD.

Things were not always this upside down. A quarter century ago serious analysis about so-called "QME" centered on the core issue of deterrence necessarily factored in Israel’s nuclear weapons. The 1994 Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies paper "Israel’s Deterrence Strategy Revisited" performed an analysis of the impact Israel’s undeclared nuclear arsenal had on deterrence. It even speculated that Israel’s nuclear weapons might drive regional rivals to develop their own nukes or seek long range missiles with chemical weapons to "balance" Israel’s nuclear arsenal. The study also admitted that US silence on Israel’s nuclear weapons was "at odds with articulated US positions on nuclear nonproliferation." This last point is poignant. For a long time, the US has had little legitimacy in global nonproliferation circles largely because of Israel.

Today "QME" has become just another Israel lobby scam for extorting American taxpayers. It requires Americans fund billions in freebies to Israel for every US sale of advanced weapons systems to wealthy autocratic regimes in the Middle East. It is preconditioned on undermining nuclear non-proliferation. Americans would be much better served by the cancellation of all US arms sales to the region including the Israel giveaways, enforcing Symington and Glenn and restarting long dormant direct US diplomatic engagement with regional bogeymen such as Iran and Syria. A serious conversation about Middle East nuclear proliferation – and Israel’s central role – is similarly long overdue.

Grant F. Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington which is co-organizer of the 2021 Transcending the Israel Lobby at Home and Abroad conference at the National Press Club and 2020 IsraelLobbyConEXTRA!
 
Why Always Israel? Only One Country Matters to Congress and the Media

Philip Giraldi • February 4, 2021

Link: https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/why-always-israel-only-one-country-matters-to-congress-and-the-media/

Pandering to Israel as part of the political process in the United States has become part of the DNA of both major parties.

The job of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations must have some kind of curse on it as it seems to attract a type of woman who seeks to prove her suitability by running up a tally of how many wars she can start and how many people she can kill. One recalls fondly Bill Clinton’s monstrous Madeleine Albright, who famously declared the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as “worth it” due to the sanctions that Washington had imposed and enforced. And then there was Barack Obama’s darling Samantha Power, who was the spokesperson for the completely unnecessary slaughter of Syrians and Libyans to bring them democracy. And, most recently, we have had Nikki Haley, who didn’t start her own war but kept the ones ongoing during her watch on the boil while also taking on the task of being the most strident defender of Israel’s war crimes.

And now we have Honest Joe Biden’s nominee to be the U.N. ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield. She is predictably black and is a career diplomat who ended up as head of the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. Upon retirement in 2017, she took a position, predictably, with the Albright Stonebridge Group in Washington. The Albright in the name comes from Madeleine and the Group is where many Democratic Party establishment foreign policy types wind up. Thomas-Greenfield might not be a drama queen like Nikki Haley or evil incarnate like Albright or Samantha Power, but she demonstrated in her confirmation hearing before the Senate that she knows the lines she has to speak as well as anyone in Washington.

Thomas-Greenfield dutifully spouted the usual cant relating to the Palestinians, which means that she did not mention them at all and is completely indifferent to the gross violations of their human rights by Israel. In response to several queries from legislators about how she would work to fend off international criticism against Israeli policies, she unleashed an attack against the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S.) movement which criticizes Israel’s human rights record and urges people to support Palestinian rights by pressuring Israel’s economy through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. It deliberately eschews violence or punishing ordinary Israelis for the actions of their government and it’s economic approach is a tactic that was used successfully against the apartheid South African regime in the 1980s.

One assumes that Thomas-Greenfield, as a black American diplomat who was active when South Africa adopted majority rule, is fully aware of the fact that Israeli apartheid backed by an army of occupation that does not hesitate to shoot to kill is more pervasive than the South African version ever was. She may even be aware that what Israel does is driven by racism and amounts to genocide. Nevertheless, she told the Senators “[B.D.S.] verges on anti-Semitic, and it’s important that they not be allowed to have a voice at the U.N., and I intend to work against that… I look forward to standing with Israel, standing against the unfair targeting of Israel, the relentless resolutions proposed against Israel unfairly.” In short, Thomas-Greenfield sounded more than a little like Nikki Haley, who used to amuse the U.N. General Assembly with her homilies in defense of the Jewish state that culminated in U.S. withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, refugee agency (UNRWA), and its cultural organization (UNESCO) over claims that they all had an anti-Israel bias.

There should be no question but that the friends of Israel constitute the most powerful foreign policy lobby. It’s ability to shift policy in its favor in unmatched by any other organization that promotes the interests of a foreign nation at the expense of the United States itself. No other nation comes close to having the power to actually write legislation that is then approved by Congress while also influencing decision making in the White House. No other country avoids accountability for its actions either among politicians or in the media to anywhere near the same extent as Israel. If anyone doubts that that is true, it is only necessary to review the recent confirmation hearings of Biden appointees, where foreign policy discussions are limited to bashing China and Russia followed almost immediately by the question “And what have you done for Israel lately?”

Politicians are quite aware that giving the wrong answer on Israel can be fatal for one’s career. In many congressional districts the training of lawmakers begins early, with representatives of the hundreds of Israel Lobby affiliates interviewing potential candidates on their views relating to the Jewish state. In many cases, attempts are made to get possible candidates to sign statements affirming that they hold the correct views on Israel versus its neighbors. The sensitivity towards Israeli and Jewish issues must continue after one is elected, resulting in questions in public fora like confirmation hearings. It never hurts to advertise one’s loyalty to Israel early and often.

Questions about Israel inevitably also came up in the Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Blinken is Jewish, a confirmed Zionist, and now heads a State Department where his deputy and political affairs chief are both Jewish women hardliners who basically share his views. Biden, Blinken and company advocate policies in the Middle East that are definitely pleasing to the Israeli government, such as de facto continuing a hard line with Iran.

In a press statement last year Blinken confirmed the outlines of the Biden Administration relationship with Israel as follows: “You can count on Joe Biden to make sure Israel has what it needs to defend itself, to honor the bipartisanship traditions of U.S. support for Israel, to safeguard, not put at risk, Israel’s future as a Jewish, and democratic state. Joe Biden has spoken out strongly and stood strongly against the B.D.S. movement. He’s also been very clear that he would not tie military assistance to Israel to things like annexation or other decisions by the Israeli government with which we might disagree.”

In other words, Israel has a free hand to do whatever it wants and there will be no pushback from the Biden White House in terms of the only thing that matters – the billions of dollars in “military assistance” the Jewish state receives each year. Oh, and Blinken surely realizes that while Israel is Jewish by law it is ipso facto hardly democratic.

Blinken’s apparent first telephone call to a Foreign Secretary counterpart was to Gabi Ashkenazi of Israel. Their warm and fuzzy exchange was tweeted, with Blinken enthusing “Great speaking with @Gabi_Ashkenazi today to discuss the steadfast partnership between the U.S. and Israel. Our commitment to Israel’s security is sacrosanct, and I look forward to working with the Foreign Minister and others toward our common goals.” Ashkenazi replied “I had a warm call with @secBlinken & affirmed Israel’s commitment to the robust Israeli-US strategic partnership. I welcomed very much the POTUS commitment to IL security.”

The point is that pandering to Israel as part of the political process in the United States has become part of the DNA of both major parties. Trump was shameless in his gifts to the Jewish state all through his four years and Biden promises to deliver more of the same. But the really bad news for Americans is the fact that the wag the dog relationship with Israel ties the United States into failed policies in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. It is time for the federal government to stop focusing on doing favors for Israel and instead start talking about how the policies that mandate force projection in the Middle East to protect the Jewish state are not really working out very well for the American people. When that becomes clear to the public, change will come.
 
NBC pulls episode of ‘Nurses’ with anti-Semitic portrayal of Orthodox Jews

Scene has Hasidic man rejecting bone graft because it could come from a ‘dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman’; ADL calls on network to review its standards

Link: https://www.timesofisrael.com/nbc-p...with-anti-semitic-portrayal-of-orthodox-jews/

By TOI staff and JTA
25 February 2021, 3:04 am | 3 

 NBC has pulled an episode of its Canadian drama “Nurses” amid an outcry over an offensive portrayal of Orthodox Jews, the Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday.

The indignation was set off by an objectionable storyline in the hour-long drama, which follows a group of nurses in a Toronto hospital. In the episode, a young Hasidic patient is told he will need a bone graft to heal his broken leg, leading his devout father to recoil at the possibility of a “dead goyim leg from anyone. An Arab, a woman.”

The incident occurs in the series’ eighth episode, “Achilles Heel,” which originally aired on NBC on February 9. The episode’s initial US broadcast attracted nearly 2 million viewers, and NBC has also made it available for viewing on its website and its streaming network, Peacock.

Jewish organizing groups such as StopAntisemitism and JewishOnCampus had tried to mobilize online pressure campaigns against NBC for airing the episode, and the American Jewish Committee tweeted that the depiction was “disgusting.” The Anti-Defamation League called for NBC to pull the episode and “review their standards for approving dramatic content so that this doesn’t happen in the future.”

After the news was reported, ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt called it a welcome move from NBC.

“The representation in this episode was offensive and ugly, reinforcing antisemitic stereotypes. We appreciate this quick action after the ADL and others called for accountability,” he tweeted.

Allison Josephs, who blogs about Orthodox life as the founder and director of Jew In The City, also harshly criticized the episode.

“This is the malicious way @nbcnurses portrays Orthodox Jews. Read our response https://t.co/w7ifhHJIUy pic.twitter.com/nH8SD4cKFM ”

— Allison Josephs (@jewinthecity) February 23, 2021”

“The idea that such a surgery would be problematic in general or problematic because of where the bone came from not only is categorically false according to Jewish law, it is a vicious lie that endangers men who walk around with curled side locks and black hats,” Josephs wrote.

Some critics of the episode have also linked it to a controversial joke made on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, in which comedian Michael Che suggested that Israel has only vaccinated its Jewish residents. Although NBC produces “SNL,” it did not produce “Nurses”; the network acquired the series’ US broadcast rights as part of a broader international acquisition strategy from American television networks whose content mills have run dry due to COVID-19-related production difficulties. The episode originally aired on Canada’s Global Television Network in February 2020.

The show has already been renewed for a second season in Canada, where it attracted around 1 million viewers per episode.

Canada is home to an estimated 392,000 Jews, of whom around 44 percent affiliate with the Orthodox or Modern Orthodox movement, according to estimates from a 2018 joint study from the Berman Jewish Databank.

Requests for comment to NBCUniversal, as well as to a representative for the episode’s credited writer, Laura Good, were not returned.
 
Is Biden Reenlisting in the Forever Wars?

By Patrick J. Buchanan | March 2, 2021 | 7:48am EST

Link: https://www.cnsnews.com/commentary/patrick-j-buchanan/biden-reenlisting-forever-wars

Thursday, in its first military action, the Biden Pentagon sent two U.S. F-15Es to strike targets of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia just inside the eastern border of Syria.

The U.S. strikes were in retaliation for a missile attack on a U.S. base in Irbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which killed a contractor and wounded a U.S. soldier.

"We're confident that the target was being used by the same Shia militia that conducted the strikes," said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

But Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Chris Murphy want to know where President Joe Biden got his authority to launch attacks in Syria, where there was no clear or present danger to any U.S. troops.

Days before the U.S. strike, Kataib Hezbollah issued a statement denying any complicity in the Irbil attack: "We absolutely did not target Erbil or the Green Zone and have no knowledge of the group that did."

Iran has also denied any involvement in the missile attack on the Americans. On a visit to Baghdad, Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif called for an investigation as to who is initiating the attacks inside Iraq.

"We emphasize the need for the Iraqi government to find the perpetrators of these incidents," said Zarif.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian forces in Syria got only four or five minutes' notice that U.S. planes were on their way to a strike.

Bottom line: Those conducting these attacks on U.S. bases and troops in Iraq, provoking American counterstrikes, seek to ignite a conflict between the U.S. and Iran, and its proxies in Iraq and Syria.

And they are succeeding.

Biden broke with former President Donald Trump on the latter's decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and impose "maximum pressure" sanctions to compel Iran to negotiate a more restrictive deal. But Biden has yet to reveal his own strategy or goals in dealing with Tehran.

Is he willing to accept a return to the nuclear deal the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia negotiated with Iran in 2015? And if that deal is now no longer adequate, how does Biden propose to get Iran to negotiate and agree to a tougher deal?

The leverage we have are the sanctions Trump imposed. If Biden lifts those in return for Iran returning to the terms of the 2015 deal, he surrenders all of his leverage for a new deal covering Tehran's missile development and aid to Shia militias in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.

But if Biden refuses to lift the Trump sanctions, Iran is likely to revive its nuclear enrichment program, give up on the U.S. and elect a hardline regime this year that could adopt a policy of attacking U.S. interests and personnel across the region until the Americans go home.

Six weeks into his administration, Biden seems in danger of being drawn back indefinitely into the forever wars of the Middle East.

In Afghanistan, under the terms of the peace deal negotiated with the Taliban in 2020, all U.S. troops are to be out of the country by May 1.

Under that deal, not a single U.S. soldier has been lost in combat in the last year.

If the U.S. announces, as some believe is likely, that we are not going to withdraw all forces by May 1, the Taliban, who control half the country, are likely to begin targeting the remaining American troops in the country.

Biden could then be presented with this Hobbesian choice: Flee Afghanistan under fire, or send more U.S. troops to protect those we left behind. Writes William Ruger, a veteran of the war and Trump's nominee to be ambassador to Afghanistan:

"Keeping our troops in Afghanistan beyond the promised deadline is pushing them back in the Taliban's cross hairs and indefinitely continuing an ... unwinnable war, which has already cost more than $2 trillion and more than 2,400 American lives ...

"Anything less than a full drawdown means that Afghanistan will become President Biden's war. He will have to own the predictably terrible consequences of continuing a war that can't be won."

Looking at our 20 years of military intervention in the Middle East, since Osama bin Laden drew us in by bringing down the twin towers and hitting the Pentagon, what is on the asset side of our balance sheet?

Two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, yet the Taliban enemy we ousted in 2001 seems today destined to retake power when we depart.

Pro-Iranian Shia militia dominate the Iraq that we sent an army to liberate from Saddam Hussein. In Yemen and Syria, we bear major moral responsibility for two of the worst humanitarian disasters of the 21st century, and we are facing strategic defeats in both theaters.

In Libya, whose regime we helped to overthrow, Turks and Russians are fighting for control.

And China, which stayed out of all these wars we started — or into which we plunged — has prospered in these 20 years as few other nations in modern history.
 

Breaking: Kevin McCarthy Tells Jewish Group He Will Remove Anti-Semitic Democrat Ilhan Omar From House Foreign Affairs Committee As Speaker​

Link: http://www.womensystems.com/2022/11/breaking-kevin-mccarthy-tells-jewish.html

Women System November 20, 2022 0 Comments 0 comment


omar-1-600x420.jpg

GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy spoke at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s 2022 Leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
McCarthy told the Republican Jewish group that he will keep his promise if he becomes House Speaker and remove Ilhan Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee.
This comes after Ilhan Omar’s numerous anti-Semitic remarks and troubling anti-American statements.
Kevin McCarthy: “I promised you last year that as speaker she will no longer be on Foreign Affairs, and I’m keeping that promise.”
Under Pelosi’s leadership House Democrats removed Marjorie Taylor Greene from her committee assignments for statements she made years ago. And, of course, nothing MTG said can hold a candle to the toxic, hateful remarks by Ilhan Omar.

Speaking of Ilhan Omar — isn’t it about time Ilhan is brought up on charges for marrying her brother and committing immigration fraud?
 
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