Archive: ‘AIPAC’ Category
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01
Oct
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by QuestionGirl • 3:45 pm
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Wow…….what a shock. This must be a first.
In a significant and highly unusual defeat for the so-called “Israel lobby”, the Democratic leadership of the US House of Representatives has shelved a resolution which called for President George W Bush to launch a naval blockade against Iran.
The resolution (HJ Res 362), was the top legislative priority for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and despite critics claiming it was tantamount to a declaration of war, it looked poised to pass virtually by acclamation last summer.
But an unexpectedly strong lobbying effort by a number of grassroots Iranian-American, Jewish-American, peace and church groups derailed the initiative, though AIPAC and its supporters said they will try to revive it next year or if Congress returns to Washington for a “lame-duck” session after the November elections.
“We’ll resubmit it [HJ Res 362] when Congress comes back, and we’ll have even more signatures,” its main author, New York Democrat Gary Ackerman, told the Washington Times, adding that the resolution currently has 270 co-sponsors, or some two-thirds of the House’s entire membership.
More at the Asia Times
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06
Apr
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by QuestionGirl • 3:52 pm
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Avi Lewis examines the powerful Israeli lobby and its affects on Capitol Hill.
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02
Nov
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by QuestionGirl • 4:31 pm
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I’ve wondered what was happening with this case. You never hear anything about it. I’m not real knowledgeable about legal matters. If the spies attorneys are the ones issuing the subpoenas, does this mean Rice and Hadley will be testifying in their behalf??
From Africasia.com:
A US judge ruled Friday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, White House National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, and other top officials can be subpoenaed to testify in a spying case against lobbyists for Israel.
Alexandria, Virginia federal court judge T.S. Ellis ruled to allow the request by lawyers for Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, to subpoena Rice, Hadley and 13 other current and former top government officials to testify in the case, according to court documents.
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28
Sep
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by QuestionGirl • 2:18 pm
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I’ve been wondering how on earth the Kyl-Lieberman amendment could have passed. Wonder no more……….
From the Asian Times, regarding the passage of the Kyl-Liberman amendment:
But its huge margin of approval, which some observers said was boosted by this week’s controversial visit to New York by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, helped demonstrate once again how responsive members of both major parties are to the so-called “Israel lobby“, which has made the sanctions bill its top legislative priority this year.
Rabbi Michael Lerner has a long article regarding Israel Lobbyists and their influence on the U.S. congress. From the article:
To take an example from these past few months of the Israel Lobby exercising its power, liberals in the House of Representatives in the spring of 2007 sought to include in the defense-funding budget an amendment that would require specific authorization from Congress before the Administration could use the defense budget monies for a military strike at Iran. The amendment failed. Most liberals in the U.S. today oppose preventive wars in general and a military strike against Iran in particular. So who supports such a move? The answer is: the right wing government of Israel and its champion in the U.S., the Israel Lobby.
At the meeting I was at, every Member of Congress tried to explain why Nancy Pelosi would never let me address the Democratic Caucus of the House (at that time, the minority caucus): House Democrats are too fearful of what AIPAC might do in response. I told these Members of Congress that I didn-t believe them; that I thought that House of Representative liberals were just pretending to be fearful of AIPAC in order to avoid a battle and stand up publicly for Tikkun’s middle path position. But then they began to tell me specific stories from their own experience of the threats they had received from the Israel Lobby people about being labeled as “anti-Israel.” They told me stories of it being impossible to convene a private meeting of Democrats who would want to challenge the Israel Lobby because when they had tried that they had found that every name of the attendees was in the hands of AIPAC lobbyists within an hour of the conclusion of that meeting and many of the attendees had been subject to immediate and intense pressure as though they had decided to abandon Israel (which they had not, nor is that what Tikkun calls for). Read the whole article here. It’s an excellent article that’s worth the read!
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17
Jun
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by QuestionGirl • 10:24 pm
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Crossposted from DailyKos
by Save Ohio Now
Sun Jun 17, 2007 at 01:40:48 PM PDT
As the drumbeat for a U.S. strike on Iran follows a familiar path, it is critical that we revisit the once encouraging beginnings of the 2006 Democratic Congress.
Save Ohio Now’s diary :: ::
Does anyone remember the relief felt when we learned this past January, as reported in USA Today,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress, a fresh challenge to the commander in chief on the eve of a symbolic vote critical of his troop buildup in Iraq. . .I do believe that Congress should assert itself, though, and make it very clear that there is no previous authority for the president, any president, to go into Iran.”
Then came March and the Annual AIPAC Convention. As a Reform Jew and supporter of a two’state solution in Israel, I want to make an upfront disclaimer: contrary to what many believe, AIPAC does not represent me nor a majority of thinking Jewish Americans. AIPAC”S beliefs are more in line with the far-right Israeli leadership than with Progressive Jews. Another way of putting it: Today’s AIPAC is to the Jewish majority as George Bush and the Neo-Cons are to most Americans. But with mainstream Jews remaining silent, AIPAC has come to represent us in the minds of most.
Back to Iran and Nancy Pelosi: March, 2007, AIPAC held its annual convention. John Hagee, the most noted Christian Zionist and founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI,) gave the opening keynote to multiple standing ovations. His promises of financial and ideological support of Israel have become as seductive to some Jews as was Mephistopheles bargain with Faust. Hagee is probably the least known yet most dangerous man in America. He wields enormous political clout, using his powerful connections to encourage nuclear conflict with Iran, all for the ultimate goal of hastening End Times. Don-t believe it? Read his best’selling apocalyptic prophesy, Jerusalem Countdown.
Days after the March convention, Congresswoman Pelosi, it seems, changed her tune. As reported in Sun Myung Moon’s uber right-wing Washington Times, “Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi received a smattering of boos when she bad-mouthed the war effort during a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and the Democratic leadership, responding to concerns from pro-Israel lawmakers, was forced to strip from a military appropriations measure a provision meant to weaken President Bush’s ability to respond to threats from Iran.”
Read more »
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15
Mar
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by QuestionGirl • 9:55 am
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2.4 Billion in aid to Israel in this budget. Why??? Are they not self sufficient? Can someone explain to me why we aid Israel???? Just asking……..
Pelosi stand on the war in Iraq bothers Israel lobby
But House speaker insists U.S. commitment to security of Jewish state is unshakable
Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
(03-14) 04:00 PDT Washington — Speaker Nancy Pelosi is widely recognized as a strong, second-generation supporter of Israel, but the scattered boos she heard during an appearance before the Israel lobby’s most committed activists highlighted their conflicting emotions over the war in Iraq.
The cool response from the nonpartisan American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which gathered nearly 6,000’strong Tuesday in Washington for its annual policy conference, came after she characterized as a failure a war many of them support.
Just minutes before, the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, had received a standing ovation from the same crowd when he defended the war as a key part of the global war on terrorism vital to the survival of the United States and Israel.
American Jews traditionally vote Democratic in overwhelming numbers, but on Iraq, some think withdrawal, championed by the Democratic Congress, would spread chaos in the Middle East and empower Israel’s mortal enemies.
Pelosi, who aides said was prepared for the mixed reception to her war comments, confined Iraq to a few paragraphs at the end of her 25-minute speech. The House speaker, just like the other politicians who annually address the group’s conference, lauded Israel, called the U.S.-Israel partnership unshakable, attacked the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and blasted the radical Hamas organization’s role in the Palestinian government.
And all the politicians pledged support for continued aid to Israel. President Bush has proposed $2.4 billion in aid to Israel in his budget for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Read more at SFGate.com
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13
Mar
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by QuestionGirl • 10:41 am
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This realllllllly makes me mad. I’m so sick of our congress being run by Israel. Obviously it makes no difference, Republican or Democrat…….. AIPAC rules them. So let’s not worry about our OWN country and the damage Bush could do by warring with Iran…..let’s not guide foreign policy that way. Noooooo……let’s worry about what Israel wants. WTF
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders are stripping from a military spending bill for the war in Iraq a requirement that President Bush gain approval from Congress before moving against Iran.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., and other leaders agreed to remove the requirement concerning Iran after conservative Democrats as well as other lawmakers worried about its possible impact on Israel, officials said Monday.
The overall bill - which requires that the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, if not earlier - remained on schedule for an initial test vote Thursday in the House Appropriations Committee.
Read more at YahooNews
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10
Jan
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by QuestionGirl • 6:56 pm
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In 1999 the FBI began an investigation of Steve Rosen, foreign policy director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Israel lobby’s Iran specialist, Keith Weissman. The two AIPAC wheeler-dealers were indicted on Aug. 4, 2005 under the seldom-used Espionage Act. Since then their trial date has been postponed several times, but now seems likely to begin in early 2007 in Alexandria, at the Federal District Court for Eastern Virginia.
Meanwhile, across the Potomoc in Washington, DC, another sensational case involving AIPAC has surfaced. According to the Oct. 20 issue of Time magazine, the Department of Justice and the FBI have an “ongoing” investigation into whether Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) and AIPAC arranged for wealthy donors to lobby House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (also D-CA) on Harman’s behalf, and whether in return Harman agreed to help persuade the Bush administration to go lighter on Rosen and Weissman.
Time described the Harman/AIPAC investigation as a “spin-off” of the investigation that led to the charges against Rosen and Weissman, as well as to a 12-and-a-half year prison sentence against Larry Franklin. The former Pentagon Iran specialist pleaded guilty to improper disclosure of classified information about the Middle East to the two AIPAC lobbyists, who in turn were indicted for passing it on to a journalist and to a foreign government-in the words of Time magazine, “believed to be” Israel.
Relations between the neocon-ish Harman and the House Democratic leader soured when Harman learned that Pelosi planned not to reappoint her to the House Intelligence Committee. As the committee’s ranking minority member, Harman stood to become chair if the Democrats won tFBhe House in the November elections.
The spurned Harman embarked on an aggressive campaign to persuade Pelosi to reappoint her. According to Time, the alternative LA Weekly reported that Harman “had some major contributors call Pelosi to impress on her the importance of keeping her as head of the House Intelligence Committee. These tactics did not endear Harman to Pelosi.”
Among those who called Pelosi on Harman’s behalf, according to Time, was billionaire Zionist Haim Saban.
Read more here
You can also read more about this here
H/T Patriot for sending this to me.
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