Israel's Chorus Sings Again
Less than total loyalty to Israel is un-American
By Philip Giraldi
August 15,
2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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Congress is on a
one-month summer recess. You would think that
given the recent turmoil over the bill to
eliminate Obamacare and the upcoming debate over
tax policy the nation’s legislators would be
back in their home districts talking to the
voters. Some are, but many are not. “More than
fifty” Congressmen are off on an
all-expenses paid trip
to Israel to demonstrate that “there is no
stronger bond with any ally we have.” Yes
indeed, a congress which cannot pass legislation
to benefit the American people finds that it has
only one voice when it comes to our troublesome
little client state that also doubles as the
leading recipient of U.S. tax dollars in the
world.
How
do they do it? They do it by relentless courting
of the congress critters and media talking
heads, all of whom know how to repay a favor.
Some readers might be asking how Congress
(spouses included) can accept these free trips
from a foreign government? The current trip is
estimated to be costing $10,000 per person.
Well, the answer is that they can’t do it
directly, which would be illegal, so the clever
rascals at the American Israel Political Affairs
Committee (AIPAC) have created an “charitable”
foundation that pays the bills. It’s called the
American Israel Education Foundation
(AIEF). AIEF is
a tax exempt 501(c)3 foundation that had income
of more than $80 million in 2015. As it is tax
exempt that means that its activities are, in
effect, being subsidized by the U.S. Treasury so
the congressmen are being “charitably educated”
while they are also being wined and dined and
propagandized in part on the taxpayers’ dime. A
couple of the congress critters hardly hit the
ground before they were singing the praises of
their hosts, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy
crooning “We have shared values! Shared security
interests! No stronger bond!” And plenty of
feel-good all around as Israel is “The Only
Democracy in the Middle East!”
Democratic House Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland,
who has had his head up the Israeli derriere for
decades, was also quick on the uptake, enthusing
how support for Israel is completely bipartisan,
“We are not here as Democrats and Republicans,
we are here as Americans who support Israel’s
security, its sovereignty and the safety of its
people.” And as if it is not enough to go around
bragging how one is subordinating U.S.
sovereignty to that of Israel, the gnomes are
hard at work back at home preparing to pass into
law the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which
will criminalize for many Americans
their First Amendment right to criticize Israel,
and a completely bipartisan bit of
new legislation
being pushed by the Israeli government that will
take away aid currently given to the
Palestinians as long as the Palestinian
Authority continues to provide subsidies to help
support the families of those individuals being
held prisoner by the Israelis. As most aid
actually goes towards training Palestinian
security forces that are intended to prevent
terror attacks against Israelis, the bill is as
wrong-headed as can be, but it just goes to show
how far Congress will go to punish Arabs on
behalf of Israel.
And
finally there has been a series of
Israel-centric attacks on leading members of the
Trump Administration. A month ago, the State
Department released its annual Country
Reports on Terrorism for 2016. The report,
as always, describes threats of violence in the
Middle East from an Israeli perspective, but it
was honest enough to also include
two sentences
that state that “Continued drivers of violence
included a lack of hope in achieving Palestinian
statehood, Israeli settlement construction in
the West Bank, settler violence against
Palestinians…and IDF tactics that the
Palestinians considered overly aggressive. The
PA has [also] taken significant steps…to not
create or disseminate content that incites
violence.”
B’nai
B’rith immediately blasted the report for
“parroting the false Palestinian narrative” and
the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)
demanded that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
resign because the report was “bigoted, biased,
anti-Semitic, Israel hating, error ridden.” ZOA
went on to praise the co-chairman of the
Republican Israel Caucus, Congressman Peter
Roskam for demanding that the State Department
correct the “numerous mischaracterizations” in
the report.
Tillerson
has long been a target of the American-Jewish
media because of the perception that oil company
executives are traditionally not friendly to
Israel. There have also been claims that he is
“less hard” on Iran than the Israel Lobby would
like. But what Tillerson is really experiencing
is the hard truth regarding Israel: that its
Lobby and friends in congress are both
unrelenting and unforgiving. Even when they get
90% of the pie they are furious over someone
else getting 10%.
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Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R.
McMaster has also been under siege for the past
several weeks and his “loyalty” to Israel is now
under the microscope. McMaster made the mistake
of firing
three National Security Council officials
that were brought in by his predecessor Michael
Flynn. The three – Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Rich
Higgins, and Derek Harvey – are all regarded by
the Israel Lobby as passionately pro-Israel and
virulently anti-Iran. It was therefore
inevitable that McMaster would take some heat,
but the “speed and intensity” of the attacks has
surprised even The Atlantic,
which failed to note in its thorough examination
of the development that while much of the anger
flows from extreme right-wing sources there is
also considerable pressure coming directly from
friends of Israel.
It
is interesting to note just how and by whom the
argument against McMaster is being framed.
Caroline Glick, an American-born Israeli
journalist who might reasonably be described as
extreme right wing, has led the charge
in a posting
that described McMaster as “deeply hostile to
Israel.” She cites anonymous sources to claim
that he refers to Israel as an occupying power
and also has the audacity to claim that there
once existed a place called Palestine. Oh, and
he apparently also supports the nuclear
agreement with Iran, as does Tillerson.
McMaster’s
other crimes consist of allegedly altering the
agenda of Donald Trump’s recent trip to Israel
in ways that are somewhat arcane but which no
doubt contributed to Glick’s sense of grievance.
What is most interesting, however, is the
unstated premise supporting Glick’s point of
view, which is that the United States national
security team should be subject to approval by
Israel. Her view is not dissimilar to what lies
behind the attacks on Tillerson and the real
irony is that neither Tillerson nor McMaster has
actually demonstrated any genuine animosity
towards Israel, so the whole process is part of
a perverse mindset that inevitably sees nearly
everything as a threat.
We
Americans are way beyond the point where we
might simply demand that Israel and its
partisans butt out of our politics. Israel-firsters
are literally deeply embedded everywhere in the
media, in politics at all levels, in academia,
and in the professions. They are well funded and
highly disciplined to respond to any threats to
their hegemony. Their policy is to never give an
inch on anything relating to Israel and their
relentless grinding is characteristic of how
they behave. The Israel Lobby controls Congress
and can literally get any bill it wants through
the legislature. And it also has its hooks in
the White House, though the unpredictable Trump
obviously makes many American Zionists nervous
because it is rightly believed that once the
president takes a position on anything he cannot
be trusted either to understand what he has
committed to or to stick with it subsequently.
So what is
to be done? To match the passion of the Israel
Lobby we Americans have to become passionate
ourselves. Do what they do but in reverse. Write
letters to congressmen and newspapers opposing
the junkets to Israel. When a congress critter
has a town hall, show up and complain about our
involvement in the Middle East. Keep mentioning
the pocket book issues, i.e. how Israel costs
the taxpayer $9 million a day. Explain how its
behavior puts our diplomats and soldiers
overseas in danger. The reality is that Israel
is built on a lot of lies promoted by people who
frequently cite the holocaust every time they
turn around but who have no actual regard for
humanity outside their own tribe. The hypocrisy
must stop if the United States is to survive as
a nation. Pandering to Israel and engaging in
constant wars to directly or indirectly defend
it, be they against Iran or in Syria, will wear
our country down and erode our freedoms. We are
already on a slippery slope and it is past time
to put our own interests first.
This
article was first published by
Unz Review
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The
views expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
opinions of Information Clearing House.
