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Backlash For AIPAC
by Debs is Dead
I'm telling ya the backlash is a coming. The arrogance of AIPAC and it's attendant Zionist lobbies is unbelievable – it is just the sort of behavior that had the leaders of organised superstition right about "pride coming before the fall".
I totally recognise that it won't seem like that at the heart of empire – but the dismissal of the espionage case caused an amount of head scratching from the citizenry. That being followed so soon after by such blatant obeisance to a foreign lobby will be duly noted by the citizenry and it will come back to bite every AIPAC aligned pol on the ass sooner than most can comprehend.
If I was Jewish and and living in America I would be ceaseless in my haranguing of these megalomaniacs to stop now! – because when the shit does hit the fan it will be the average Jewish American who will bear the brunt of the community backlash. There is a delicate balance to be struck if one is living as part of a cohesive minority culture within a much larger host culture.
Some members of the smaller culture can be tempted to play the power game whereby the smaller culture concentrates 'power players' together in a way that rarely happens in the larger culture, where each 'person of standing' is dissipated for want of a better word, amongst the general populace. When this does happen, forms of nepotism, cronyism and a 'one hand scratches the other' accepted reality takes hold – eventually to the point where the players imagine that 'everyone is in on the game' and then they convince themselves that they are impervious to consequences.
Of course this model isn't confined to ethnicities – organised societies such as the freemasons can make this mistake; when they do and larger society finally catches up the price is high.
The masons are all but dead here now. The reaction from a larger society sick of jobbery and corruption, was to ensure that anyone believed to be associated with that organisation didn't get a promotion, didn't get the contract. No one wanted to let masons in lest they took the place over.
A mob of the old lodges, many of which are 'architecturally interesting' buildings have fallen into disrepair, torn down for a 'medical centre' or the carpark of a mall, or been sold as 'conversation piece' homes.
The freemason who told me this was really angry about it – not at the larger society's prejudice and paranoia although that was pretty over the top when I was growing up here, but at the short-sightedness of the greedy pricks who corrupted freemasonry for selfish ends.
A lot of these types didn't join a lodge to tickle the palms of the powerful, most masons probably joined because it was an established family tradition dating back centuries, brought here from Scotland. A place where men enjoyed the camaraderie of their fellow members a couple of evenings a month.
Some Hindu citizens of the subcontinent have been known to refer to Sikhs as 'the Jews of India'. Sikhs position within Indian society does parallel that of Jews in some western cultures. There are some very powerful Sikhs in the political and business elites of India but also within the military (Sikhs make up 10–15% of all ranks in the Indian Army and 20% of its officers, whilst Sikhs only form 1.87% of the Indian population, which makes them over 10 times more likely to be a soldier and officer in the Indian Army than the average Indian.- wikipedia), a situation yet to develop with Jews in America but the close integration between American forces and the IDF could change that.
Few in India would take issue with the numbers of Sikhs within the elite – except when the larger community forms an opinion that these powerful Sikhs are plotting together to gain advantage over the larger community. Then there is a backlash from the community. When that happens it is rarely the members of the Sikh elite who get chased by mobs and have their homes set afire. No it is the ordinary shitkicker Sikh going about his business that cops the wrath of the backlash.
The same thing will happen in America, very soon, probably after there is a major 'reversal' ie a defeat in Afghanistan with major casualties, and the wider community will be looking for a scapegoat.
Do the over-confident assholes of AIPAC really believe all those arrogant senators and congresspeople enjoy being made to show obeisance to them? Sure some of these pols will have lapped up the swill of Zionist propaganda – most pols like to have some easily accessible ideology to cling to as their rationale for the chicanery they get up to.
But most pols have formed their self-justifying hodgepodge of ideals snatched from the grab bag of 'acceptable' 'American' religious and political beliefs, long before they become powerful enough to pique AIPAC's interest. Those pols would prolly like nothing better than to see the current 'flavour of the month' ideology used to excuse their evildoing, cop its comeuppance.
Sure self preservation will make pols slow to act – most will wait until they are certain there are votes to be won from kicking organised Zionism in the nuts. Even so a few confident careerists will have a punt in one of those career making or breaking moves that if successful will have their peers cursing to themselves for 'not thinking of it first' as they leap onto the bandwagon.
The first sign of a backlash will most likely be from the same cabal of right wing blogs and facist shock-jocks that nutured the Zionist lobby into what the lobby imagines is its 'unassailable position'.
You see the Cheney roadshow won't get much traction, because getting to the right of Stepinfetchit particularly on America's militaristic imperialism, is pretty much impossible (Incidentally the asshole has just kicked yer constitution back out the door as he brings back imprisonment without due process less than two months after he 'promised' to be rid of it. Ha! another knee to the groin of the dkos and firedog lake peaceniks who imagined that a dem prez would restore the constitution and a digression) so when the die hard rethugs realise that being more militaristic than stepinfetchit just isn't possible they will hunt around for something to discredit the way that oblamblamblam goes about killing unwhite folks.
So a reversal on the battlefield, most likely Afghanistan will have rethugs looking for a point of difference between dem and rethug methodology. Not easy because you can't fit a rizla between the two on killing Muslims – except, the rethugs will say; "We didn't climb totally into Israel's back pocket" (yeah right) "No" they'll continue "lookit what we did when we found that Israel had gone too far and taken advantage of 'the special relationship' We charged them with espionage and what is practically the first thing these liberal wimps do? they let those foreign spies go free – that's what".
Now the first few times this is said it certainly won't be outta the mouth of a proper pol ie not a senator or a congressperson, it will come from a 'known hardline conservative' and all eyes will be on the larger population to see how they react. measuring 'buy-in'. There will be considerable buy-in while 'respected pols' try "this isn't about race it's about whether this administration's first loyalty is to the people of America or to citizens of a foreign country".
Followed up with "the reason we aren't making any headway in '…..'(I'm not going to use the current dehumanising nym for the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan but you know the term I mean -DiD) isn't the fault of our troops (dutiful pause while everyone metaphorically salutes the cannon fodder) it is because we aren't following our priorities, we are sacrificing those to the priorities of a foreign country." blah blah blah it will go on, and, if as is highly likely – especially from the politics is a game of football mob – this line does get neanderthal rethugs more animated than they've been since Katrina – it will be game on.
AIPAC will find out there is nothing truer than the saying one week a rooster – next week a feather duster. Meanwhile ordinary, normal Jewish Americans find themselves being asked to answer why it is that 'you people' put loyalty to a foreign nation ahead of loyalty to Amerika the nation which 'gave you people everything'.
It can't happen? Just wait and soon you'll see it happen.
Remember this. The one thing we can be sure of is nothing stays the same. AIPAC is currently at the top and that means there is only one way for them to move – DOWN!
[comment via email from Debs is Dead]
OK. Firstly I am well aware that a substantial segment of jewish amerikans don’t support the zionist project, which is why they should be at the forefront of reining AIPAC in, not because they are any more responsible for this mess than any one else, they aren’t, but out of self preservation, because like the ordinary middle class Sikhs have discovered from time to time in India, it is they that the rabid portion of the larger community turns on, anyone who is available and appears to fit the stereotype.
Honestly can you really see any other way this can end? AIPAC has become so arrogant and self assured in their despicable conduct, spying on their allies, chasing respected academics out of their jobs, persuading amerikans that the idealistic sons and daughters of amerika like Rachel Corrie were terrorists, that there can only be one conclusion to this ugliness.
Amerika now has a much bigger and richer aircraft carrier in the ME, Iraq, don’t imagine for one moment that some in the empire’s foreign policy engine room haven’t come to the conclusion that the biggest obstacle to imperial hegemony over the arab world is arabs’ belief that amerika is too close to israel.
Who knows how far the backlash against aipac will really go, but consider this. Some of the aipac bosses are fairly sharp and therefore must know that judeophobia is no longer a significant issue for most jews in the west. Knowing that they must also recognise the inherent danger of repetitively claiming that amerika and europe are still ‘anti-semitic’ as they like to call it. That is mainstream citizens will turn off and others, those who make up life’s natural bigots will turn against them claiming that “see the jews don’t even quit when they are ahead”.
In other words, at least some in aipac must recognise they have a bull by the horns and that their choices are limited and getting more so as time passes.
Unless aipac can be made to wither which is a big ask made near impossible by the insane attitudes of israel’s elected politicians, there will be a backlash and, as I said before, it is far more likely to come from the right than the left.
amerikans have been well trained to pay those on the left no mind no matter how well intentioned or rational what the ‘leftie’ says may sound to them.
The opposite is true of loony rightists who get the oxygen for propagating the most outrageous and egregious swill. Assassinate Chavez, nuke the iranians, all the sort of stuff which a rational society would dismiss outta hand as the ravings of a nutter, are seriously reported then debated, so just from a logistic point of view, the push against jews must come from the right.
And it will blow out to a generalised attack on jews no matter how it may start as an attack on corrupt lobbysits pushing zionism, because that is so much easier to sell to society at large.
It shouldn’t be but it is – because those old, probably instinctive fears of someone who is of a different culture are much easier to crank up to a passion than asking joe “I’m pissed my job has gone and amerika isn’t respected anymore” the plumber to rationally analyse the forces at work within amerika’s political process that allowed another nation’s priorities to be put ahead of amerika’s own.
We can all hope that amerikan jews won’t be put in the same spot as japanese or arab amerikans have been pushed – to have to prove a negative – that they don’t favour israel over their own country, but honestly who really believes that the crazy juggernaut which has every pol from the prez down kissing ass and sacrificing amerika’s best interests, can just be quietly wound down?
Historically these sorts of divisions between a local community’s best interest and minority support to sacrifice that for a distant ‘purer motive’ end with a bang not a whimper. The closest parallel I can think of was in england when a substantial chunk of the ruling elite wanted to go back to catholicism. Sure a few token elite catholics lost their heads but most of the blood that was split was that of the ‘true believers’ ordinary xtians whose belief system didn’t allow them to swap their allegiances around as if they were a pair of shorts.
Now I hasten to add I don’t believe for one moment that amerika is going to go through schism like that, but I do reckon that in both cases the minority opinion is too committed to just ‘back off’.
Politics may not follow the arc of a pendulum – swing that far to the right then neatly swing back to the left the same distance, but equally, no political position is ever in stasis.
The careerism which motivates professional politicians means that every strongly held tenet is eventually swapped for it’s opposite equally strongly held tenet, otherwise the same bludgers would stay in control for ever, and young dentally correct ‘up and comers’ with an easy smile and no scruples would never make it outta their law practice.
As soon as a political cause reaches it’s zenith it begins to wane. Why? because it’s purpose has been fulfilled. It has carried a mob of self serving assholes to the heights of power, and that means those that desire to replace those self serving assholes can only do so by singing a different tune.
I don’t reckon yer average middle of the road redneck rethug pol has ever been entirely happy with the zionist project anyhow. Sure it was a favourite amongst the bible bashing thickos that are needed to make up the numbers at the ballot box, but that same mob was just as happy voting for rethugs when they were reminded how the commie jews murdered jesus.
Of course practicalities come in to play as well.
aipac spread a mob of money round both sides of the empire party – so they got both sides to sing the song. Thing is now that times are tight, and the madoff mob have made off with a heap of the moola that financed aipac’s legislative payola, right when everyone is feeling the pinch (apart from the banksters that is, and their agenda is very different from aipac’s) it is gonna be tough to wet everyone’s beak next election.
So if the dems are still in the box seat at the ’10 mid terms, maybe aipac will have to get all pragmatic and point their now limited resources to the side they reckon most likely to win. Somehow I doubt they will be so silly as to cut all the rethugs off, but even so it is likely that a lot of pols are gonna get less in ’10 than they did in ’08.
Materialist types are weird about these things. You give a materialist nothing, ever, and the chances are he’s not gonna hate you as much as he dislikes the bloke who gave him $100 every week until he ran out of dosh. That is the bloke who is really gonna cop a materialist’s wrath, because Mr materialist had come to depend on that money and regard it as his – even before he got it. So now it doesn’t feel as if mr generosity had just turned off the tap – it feels like that asshole, who acts like he’s so good to me, has stolen $100 a week, straight outta my pocket.
Sure there is a lot of supposition here but it is informed supposition lol.
None of us have a crystal ball, but every time I think about the way the amerikan body politic has been captured by aipac, and consider where it could possibly go from where it now is, everything points to a backlash – As I reckon I have shown, there is simply nowhere else for it to go.
[end comment via email from Debs is Dead]
Posted by: b | May 16 2009 12:22 utc | 8
Shifts in Public opinion will follow shifts in elite opinion and that will only follow a shift in the Middle East balance of power. In other world, Iran acquires nukes, Russia and China challenge U.S. dominance in the region, Client states like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi start to waiver and defeat of American interests in Iraq and Afghanistan. The latter two being the more acute threat and the one which motivates any U.S. policy change right now. Add to that any military confrontation involving Israel that ends like summer of ’06 or worse.
As total support of Israel begins to extract a serious and obvious price denominated in U.S. regional control, you will see a serious shift in attitude in the minds of the military and intelligence elite. This will be especially true if Israel is perceived as the second most powerful regional player…after Iran.
Iran has all the potential to do this. A large and sophisticated, arable land, oil, natural gas and a Europe that is going to need both. Add to that a government that, however corrupt and undemocratic at home, seems committed to advancing national power.
First, watch where the price of oil and natty go in the coming years. Watch Europe’s reaction. How much pressure must the U.S. apply to keep Europe in step on Iran sanctions? Watch the relative global economic clout. Can the U.S. enforce its sanctions regime, or is its power eroding? Once that falls, Iran’s economy will experience astounding growth. Along with it will come military power and international prestige. Along with, the chance to gain influence in the anti-wester populations of the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Israel simply can’t maintain its current form if it is the region’s second tier power. There will be a serious crash in puppet credibility (Mubarak, Abdullah) and pressure from within to join the growing Iran.
In a world where the U.S. will find it increasingly difficult to compete and maintain its current lead over Russia and China, it will become too obvious that having Iran (and the Muslim world) on their side rather than against them will be too important to throw it all away for Israel’s sake.
AIPAC is very powerful. The media’s tendency to follow its talking points is strong.I do not underestimate that. AIPAC can get America to walk to the edge of the cliff. But it can’t make them take the final step. And with each step closer, as the cliff’s edge comes into view, the louder the voices of the Brzezinskis, the Howard Bakers and the Anthony Zinis become.
None of this is written in stone. It could be that the U.S. will be abe to maintain its hold on the region and global finance, etc. But I’m not inclined to bet that way. The aforementioned changes will happen as all great shifts do; gradually gradually gradually…then all of a sudden.
None other than the Israelis and their U.S. cheerleaders recognise this fact. Hence the extraordinary steps taken to ensure continued aggression toward Iran. The nuclear program is only partly the reason.
To illustrate this point, I leave you with the words of the great Charles Krauthammer on one of the rare occasions in which he has an actual, perhaps accidental, insight;
Israel’s Lost Moment
By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 4, 2006; Page A17
Israel’s war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel’s destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile. But even more is at stake. Israel’s leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous a military failure in Lebanon would be to its relationship with America, Israel’s most vital lifeline.
For decades there has been a debate in the United States over Israel’s strategic value. At critical moments in the past, Israel has indeed shown its value. In 1970 Israeli military moves against Syria saved King Hussein and the moderate pro-American Hashemite monarchy of Jordan. In 1982 American-made Israeli fighters engaged the Syrian air force, shooting down 86 MiGs in one week without a single loss, revealing a shocking Soviet technological backwardness that dealt a major blow to Soviet prestige abroad and self-confidence among its elites at home (including Politburo member Mikhail Gorbachev).
But that was decades ago. The question, as always, is: What have you done for me lately? There is fierce debate in the United States about whether, in the post-Sept. 11 world, Israel is a net asset or liability. Hezbollah’s unprovoked attack on July 12 provided Israel the extraordinary opportunity to demonstrate its utility by making a major contribution to America’s war on terrorism.
America’s green light for Israel to defend itself is seen as a favor to Israel. But that is a tendentious, misleadingly partial analysis. The green light — indeed, the encouragement — is also an act of clear self-interest. America wants, America needs, a decisive Hezbollah defeat.
Unlike many of the other terrorist groups in the Middle East, Hezbollah is a serious enemy of the United States. In 1983 it massacred 241 American servicemen. Except for al-Qaeda, it has killed more Americans than any other terror organization.
More important, it is today the leading edge of an aggressive, nuclear-hungry Iran. Hezbollah is a wholly owned Iranian subsidiary. Its mission is to extend the Islamic Revolution’s influence into Lebanon and Palestine, destabilize any Arab-Israeli peace, and advance an Islamist Shiite ascendancy, led and controlled by Iran, throughout the Levant.
America finds itself at war with radical Islam, a two-churched monster: Sunni al-Qaeda is now being challenged by Shiite Iran for primacy in its epic confrontation with the infidel West. With al-Qaeda in decline, Iran is on the march. It is intervening through proxies throughout the Arab world — Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in Iraq — to subvert modernizing, Western-oriented Arab governments and bring these territories under Iranian hegemony. Its nuclear ambitions would secure these advances and give it an overwhelming preponderance of power over the Arabs and an absolute deterrent against serious counteractions by the United States, Israel or any other rival.
The moderate pro-Western Arabs understand this very clearly. Which is why Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan immediately came out against Hezbollah and privately urged the United States to let Israel take down that organization. They know that Hezbollah is fighting Iran’s proxy war not only against Israel but also against them and, more generally, against the United States and the West.
Hence Israel’s rare opportunity to demonstrate what it can do for its great American patron. The defeat of Hezbollah would be a huge loss for Iran, both psychologically and strategically. Iran would lose its foothold in Lebanon. It would lose its major means to destabilize and inject itself into the heart of the Middle East. It would be shown to have vastly overreached in trying to establish itself as the regional superpower.
The United States has gone far out on a limb to allow Israel to win and for all this to happen. It has counted on Israel’s ability to do the job. It has been disappointed. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has provided unsteady and uncertain leadership. Foolishly relying on air power alone, he denied his generals the ground offensive they wanted, only to reverse himself later. He has allowed his war cabinet meetings to become fully public through the kind of leaks no serious wartime leadership would ever countenance. Divisive cabinet debates are broadcast to the world, as was Olmert’s own complaint that “I’m tired. I didn’t sleep at all last night” (Haaretz, July 28). Hardly the stuff to instill Churchillian confidence.
His search for victory on the cheap has jeopardized not just the Lebanon operation but America’s confidence in Israel as well. That confidence — and the relationship it reinforces — is as important to Israel’s survival as its own army. The tremulous Olmert seems not to have a clue.
Posted by: Lysander | May 17 2009 12:54 utc | 36
I don’t see any significant backlash against AIPAC or Israel coming. That’s just wishful thinking of a vocal but tiny minority, what is, with all due respect, the very definition of a lunatic fringe. On the contrary, the real growing backlash is against the anti-semitism, with more and more of the people in the world realizing that it is the anti-semites that are the threat and the source of the problem, not the Jews.
The reality is that the there has been virtually no significant support for the calls for boycotts and divestment against Israel. Not a single country supports it, at least none that haven’t been against Israel since it was founded. Israel is surviving this economic crisis pretty well, or haven’t you noticed? On the other hand, the global support for the blockade against the Gazans is still very strongly supported, with even Arab Muslim nations such as Egypt continuing to back it. (Think about that for a minute folks. Egypt borders Gaza. If there’s so much support for the Gazans, why doesn’t even Egypt open up their borders??? No one would stop them. The reason is they don’t trust the Palestinians or think they’re ready to live in peace more than anyone else in the world does.)
The reality is that in the last couple of years Israel has managed to destroy both Hezbollah and Hamas’ ability to wage any signficant military action, and is an excellent position. Both groups are now reduced to verbal attacks, and no one is taking them seriously. In fact, they don’t even have that much support in their own countries any more, after visiting so much destruction on their own people, but at at this point are pretty much dependent on Iranian support. It’s taken Israel 60 years, but it has managed to defeat all of its enemies, and no longer faces any significant military threats (altho, admittedly, even a lot of Israelis can’t see that). Sure, a few rockets and such, which are irritating and frightening, but nothing that poses any real military threat, not even close, and certainly nothing that even remotely compares to the threats its faced in the past. Iran is no threat. Any conflict between Israel and Iran, especially nuclear, would be mutual suicide, and the leaders of both countries know it perfectly well. It’s all talk and politics, huge piles of red herrings, but there’s no real threat of war at all. And someone should point out that this economic crisis gives both countries tons of reasons to avoid war. It’s the last thing either country needs right now.
The reality is that both Israel in particular, and Jews globally, are in the strongest position they’ve been in in their entire 5,000 year history. They’re the strongest they’ve ever been in military, economic and cultural power (by far), and have the highest standard of living ever, highest levels of education ever, longest life expectancy, are recognized by and trading with the most countries ever, and on and on. Nothing that the US, a rapidly failing and bankrupt state, does can have much impact. (As you folks yourselves continually point out, the US is so weak now that even a tiny nation one-hundredth its size can push it around. ;)) Popular mythology notwithstanding, Israel has never been dependent on US support, and isn’t now.
But if you folks want to delude yourself into thinking that the anti-semites are winning, go ahead and think so. It doesn’t matter. You have no real power. Jews aren’t frightened by words, and it’s really clear that that’s all you have, and all you ever will have. You all may talk tough, but there ain’t one of you that would ever pick up a gun and go fight. (And even if you did you’d get your butts kicked but good.) Heck, none of you would even donate money to buy the Palestinians weapons. Not a penny. You’re all talk.
But don’t mind me. Go ahead and dream on if that makes you happy. Shalom.
Posted by: mike | May 24 2009 7:05 utc | 56
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