Via Leftwing-Christian.netBy Richard Edmondson
Quiz:
1. What foreign lobby over the past three decades has consciously and deliberately allied itself with some of the most right wing elements in American society?
2. What foreign lobby has backed political candidates such as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor—rated 0% by the AFL-CIO for his anti-union voting record?
3. What foreign lobby pushed for the U.S. to invade Iraq and is now endeavoring to move us into a war with Iran?
If you answered the Israeli lobby to all of the above, congratulations. Go to the head of the class.
Most people view the Lobby as being principally involved in corrupting our country's foreign policy and give little heed or thought to the assumption that it might also have an adulterating influence on our domestic affairs. Certainly it is true the Lobby is concerned primarily with Israel and with perpetuating U.S. support for the Zionist state. Yet all Americans need to consider how this impacts domestic politics. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has long been viewed as one of the most, if not the most, powerful lobby in America. It can make or break the careers of U.S. politicians. AIPAC chooses which candidates to support, or alternately oppose, based solely on their positions on Israel. The candidate might love war, exalt corporations as the ultimate good, and hold deplorable views on the rights of working people to organize to improve their lives, but this would not matter. His or her position on Israel is what AIPAC looks at. Were AIPAC no more powerful than, say, the Greek lobby, this would perhaps be of little concern. But AIPAC runs Washington. Consider the House resolution on the Goldstone report, which passed in late 2009 following release of the finding that Israel been complicit in war crimes in Gaza. The resolution, which called upon the president and secretary of state to "oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration" of Goldstone, passed by a vote of 344 to 36, and at the time it was considered unusual that even a mere 36 had summoned the temerity to cross the Lobby.
If you doubt the extent of the Israel lobby's power, reflect upon the words of Congressman Jim Moran, his comments made in a 2007 interview with Tikkun Magazine: "If you cross AIPAC, AIPAC is unforgiving and will destroy you politically…Every member (of Congress) knows it's the best-organized national lobbying force…Most people that are involved in foreign policy especially look at a broad range of issues and consider a person's entire voting record. AIPAC considers the voting record only as it applies to Israel."
Moreover, voting records on Israel can actually be telling indicators of how politicians might vote on other issues, even in the domestic arena. Those inclined to feel sympathy or compassion for Palestinians are the very same public leaders most likely to place a high value on social justice. One would expect such officials to probably also cast votes in favor of taxing the rich or reining in the power of corporations. When AIPAC systematically weeds out such people from the political process, eliminating them from serving in Congress, the effect we see over time becomes quite dramatic. We end up with a more degraded and debased government, eventually becoming in the process a nation of dishonor.
In considering all this, it's also pertinent to ask if there really is a clear line of delineation between "foreign policy" and "domestic affairs," and if so, where that line actually is. This becomes relevant when we consider the complex interrelationship between U.S. and Israeli corporations, especially in the military-industrial-financial sector, a matter discussed by longtime Palestine solidarity activists Kathleen and Bill Christison, who say the Lobby functions essentially to sustain these corporate entanglements:
Israel and its lobby work hand in glove with the US arms industry to advance their combined, usually compatible interests. The relatively few powerful, wealthy families that dominate the Israel arms industry are just as interested in pressing for aggressively militaristic US and Israeli foreign policies as are the CEOS of US arms corporations. As globalization has progressed, so have the ties of joint ownership and close financial and technological cooperation among the arms corporations of the two nations grown ever closer. The relationship is symbiotic, and the lobby cooperates intimately to keep it alive; lobbyists can go to many in Congress and tell them credibly that if aid to Israel is cut off, thousands of arms-industry jobs in their districts will be lost. The lobby does not simply passively support the desires of the military-industrial complex. It actively twists arms in Congress and the administration to perpetuate acceptance of certain "national interests" that many Americans believe is wrong.
Given this interweaving and joint ownership of U.S. and Israeli corporations, it should perhaps come as no surprise that backers of Israel are now actively involved in promoting the Tea Party. Not only does the Tea Party express no opposition to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the economic interests that are at stake in these allegiances would also seem to fit nicely with the TP's pro-corporate/anti-union stance. All of which brings us, in a roundabout way, to Wisconsin.
The 800-pound gorilla
