Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
December 29, 2014

Congress Leader Benjamin Netanyahoo

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham on who leads Congress:

Graham (R-S.C.), who is expected to take over as chairman of the Foreign Appropriations Subcommittee when the Republicans assume control of the Senate in January, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Israeli capital on Saturday night.

Graham told Netanyahu that “the Congress will follow your lead” ...

Is it bribery or extortion that turns U.S. politicians into compliant fools?

Posted by b on December 29, 2014 at 18:54 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Since the US Congress officially declared that the USA maintains an "irrevocable bond with Israel", it is fitting that The US Congress will follow the lead of Benjamin Netanyahu.

Every sovereign state should make an irrevocable bond with another sovereign state. Like pen pals - or blood brothers.

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 29 2014 19:09 utc | 1

This sounds nothing but trouble.

Posted by: Shoes | Dec 29 2014 19:11 utc | 2

Graham is one of the biggest closet cases in Congress. Surely the Mossad has something incriminating on him.

"Nice Senate seat you've got there. It would be a damn shame if you lost it because a picture of you with a dick in your mouth surfaced."

Posted by: Scalawagger | Dec 29 2014 19:33 utc | 3

"Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran".

(but let's do Russia first)

What fun!

Posted by: L Bean | Dec 29 2014 19:58 utc | 4

It is neither bribery nor extortion but a shared world view that binds these two countries together or at least their Ruling Classes. There is bribery and extortion but it is after the fact to keep the ducks in a row.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Dec 29 2014 20:09 utc | 5

@Scalawagger #3:

Graham is one of the biggest closet cases in Congress.
I don't know how you know that, but my gaydar tells me that you are right.

@Wayoutwest #5:

a shared world view that binds these two countries together
So you accept the point that I made in the Open Thread, that the US is now Judaic rather than Christian?

Posted by: Demian | Dec 29 2014 20:25 utc | 6

Ambitious (who are looking forward to "upgrade" their political positions) must listen to the Zionist leaders, who can:
1- Support their future electoral campaigns.
2- Lobbying them in AIPAC ( also can be spelled I-PACK for packing pro-Israel politicians)

Corporatocracy,
Dear "b", don't ever dare to dream to be the US president, UNLESS:
a. join one of the two huge parties.
b. Be adopted by a lobby.
c. who contols lobbies? - bankers?

Posted by: M. Tomazy | Dec 29 2014 20:36 utc | 7

http://investmentwatchblog.com/members-in-us-politics-who-hold-dual-usisraeli-citizenship/

This is an older list and cannot confirm accuracy, but there are quite a few members of Congress and other highly placed fed officials who hold dual Israeli-USA citizenship. Is it any wonder that they pay fealty to Israel first?

It was a nifty smokescreen for the rightwing noise machine to make a big stink about Obama's (no fan; just saying) citizenship, birth certificate, what have you. Bigger issue is who's an Israeli citizen, imo, and where, exactly, do their loyalties lie?

Posted by: RUKidding | Dec 29 2014 20:37 utc | 8

Opportunism. Every single statement by Graham has been pandering.

Posted by: Inkan1969 | Dec 29 2014 21:21 utc | 9

Isn't Graham supposed to register as an agent for a foreign country? And doesn't that disqualify him as being a Senator in the United States Congress, him and all the rest of those who put Israel ahead of their country? If not, why not?

Posted by: Norman | Dec 29 2014 21:27 utc | 10

#10
No one from israel has to register just another perk from their puppets in office

Posted by: jo6pac | Dec 29 2014 21:48 utc | 11

@5 wayoutwest - shared view my ass... that is one of the bullshit lines that carried carted out whenever this conversation comes up.. the relationship with israel is a lose lose for the usa, and unfortunately the short sighted politicians who are bribed to think this are smart enough to know it is going to end, just hopefully not when they aren't holding the bag for future generations... the future generations are being sold down the river on a number of levels and this is another big one.. your viewpoint is constant bullshite.

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2014 21:51 utc | 12

A lot of American conservative Christians who support Israel have no love of Israel, its people or its policies, they just want to see the Temple restored so that Armageddon and the Second Coming can take place and fulfill their prophecies of doom.

It is almost all too sick to believe, but it is...

Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 29 2014 22:20 utc | 13

#13 - Oh yes, quite true. My rightwing fundamentalist family buys heavily into this tripe, which is peddled in various formats, most notably the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye meant to scare people into being Christiany Zionists. LaHaye was big on the Israeli circuit for a while; unsure of his status now.

I have a sibling who belongs to some kind of Messianic Jewish "church," where they basically study the Torah and the Old Testament but believe in the rabbi Jesus as the "savior" and then skip most of the New Testament except for the book of Revelations and grok on the End Times, where they'll be whisked to Heaven while the rest of us heathens will rot here on earth. Dibs on all their stuff!!

Posted by: RUKidding | Dec 29 2014 22:32 utc | 14

@RUKidding #14:

Thank you for sharing that. You have my sympathies. I was startled by premillennial dispensationalism when I found out about it. This obsession with the Old Testament is very strange to someone like me from an Orthodox/Lutheran background. Russian Bibles often don't even contain the Old Testament.

Also, Paul's letters are canonical, and dispensationalism utterly violates them. Paul makes very clear what is the relationship of Christianity to Judaism.

Posted by: Demian | Dec 29 2014 23:29 utc | 15

Its amazing that the American people put up with this bizarre shit.

We have a Congress bought and paid for with single digit approval ratings and voter turnout chasing that. Who can possibly call this sour puddle of shit "democracy"?

At this point it is just a game, the super-rich grabbing what they can before the ship goes down. Everyone else too absorbed in their favorite tv shows, completely unaware of what's about to hit them.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 30 2014 0:28 utc | 16

How far right has the national conversation gone when the "Mega-Liberal" Senator, Elizabeth Warren, is saying on publicly that Israel has every right to bomb schools and hospitals?

They should just fly an Israeli flag from the top of the capitol, and carve Sheldon Adleson's face onto the Lincoln Memorial.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 30 2014 0:36 utc | 17

With McKinney and Kucinich gone, I don't know of one member of the US Congress that would even dare to mildly rebuke Israel. Not a single one.

Though maybe they're just on media blackout.

Posted by: guest77 | Dec 30 2014 0:44 utc | 18

There was a kefuffle kicked up by teabaggers in SC regarding the Gay Lindsey Graham Cracker being a closeted gay anti-gay. (They didn't want no gay no how to reperzent 'em. They figgered he was closeted b/c he is.)

That kefuffle magically disappeared b4 it gained any significant media foothold.

The MSM reports that Bill O'Reilly is super popular in spite of being a bigot, homophobe, chauvinist, masochist and a pervert.

Few are aware of the court records, the loofah, the soapy tits, the falafel, and the owner of the tits and ass - Andrea Makris.

Posted by: fast freddy | Dec 30 2014 0:59 utc | 19

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17491/university_of_california_israel_bds

Encouraging.

Posted by: Eurasian | Dec 30 2014 1:32 utc | 20

the comment section here gives me some hope, and not the hopey changey thang that obama has come to represent.

@20 eurasian.. thanks for that.. i note in the article the following " In the past 15 months since Janet Napolitano became President of the University of California, she has not only criticized the academic boycott that 52 percent of Local 2865 members now belong to, but also reaffirmed a 2010 position on divestment stating that the University would only adopt it in the cases of genocidal foreign entities."

...genocidal foreign entities.. israel definitely qualifies.

Posted by: james | Dec 30 2014 3:10 utc | 21

Metaphor: "A metaphor is a figure of speech that identifies one thing as being the same as some unrelated other thing, thus strongly implying the similarities between the two."

Parasitoid: "An organism that, during its development, lives in or on the body of a single host individual, eventually killing that individual."

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN2XMyxAs5o

Phase II: Brain sting @ Congress... ("Graham told Netanyahu that “the Congress will follow your lead” ...")

Tribute: "A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of submission or allegiance."

Zombie instruction 2015(a): "Raise the $3b p.a. tribute to $4b p.a., and make it snappy, goyim."

Posted by: x | Dec 30 2014 5:25 utc | 22

US May Sanction Palestinians Over Statehood Bid


The State Department today angrily condemned the Palestinian proposal for statehood submitted to the UN Security Council, insisting it fails to account for Israel’s needs.

Palestinians officials said Kerry not only vowed a US veto, but threatened to impose US sanctions against the Palestinians for even trying to submit the resolution.


The USG has morphed into Ronald Reagan's imaginary Evil Empire ... and it looks like nothing will change until they've flown the USA itself into the ground.

Then, when the crash occurs due to their monstrous actions undertaken in obtuse servility to their viral Israeli cranio-phage, the whole world will breathe a sigh of relief ... those not actually dancing in the streets, that is.

Posted by: jfl | Dec 30 2014 6:56 utc | 23

jfl

If you sit and talk with expatriate Sephardim, the Kibbutznik first settlers, who were driven out by the later ex-Soviet Askenazim immigrants after the fall of the USSR, the so-called 'White' Israelis, Sephardim don't have bad feelings for that, only the tribal memory of being despised and harassed by their Palestinian neighbors. So even if you lay out the Likkud Right Wing assassination of Rabin and Sadat that drove the apartheid Israeli Occupation and Expansion dynamic, the Old Kibbutzim will still swear allegiance to Israel.

The Republican Right Red State South is exactly the same way.

Anyway, the Sephardim and Ashkenazim make up only 51% of the population of Israel, the rest are Jews from around the world, all of them trapped by a Parliamentary government system, just as Americans, Blue or Red, are trapped by False Dichotomy Winner Take All Federalism.

So you really have no justification for making any generalized H8 speech against Israel, or Jews, or against their bought-and-paids in the US House and Senate. McCain pushed for ASEAN trade liberalization because it opened up new territories for his Budweiser beer heiress wife, just as McConnell pushed for trade deals for his Taiwanese wife's shipping magnate family, caught smuggling $1Ms of cocaine into the US in their ships, with no arrests.

They're all just self-aggrandizers, and once you get away from the Group MindF*ck of the so-called 'Christian' life of passivity that numbs and rots, passivity that bled out the American middle class, you realize that the only reality is self-aggrandize, ... or die.

Israel will expand until it doesn't. The Bible predicts Jerusalem will fall a second time, and it will have nothing to do with your H8 Epistle. Now you best get to steppin'.

Posted by: ChipNikh | Dec 30 2014 10:01 utc | 24

I don't really see how there can be any confusion. US politics and politicians are unquestionably motivated by money. Israel, via AIPAC as well as via diaspora donors, is a huge money donation machine.

Posted by: c1ue | Dec 30 2014 13:18 utc | 25

@24 I thought the first kibbutzniks were mostly Ashkenazi jews from Europe....mainly Germany and the Sephardim came in the sixties from Arab countries especially North Africa. Russian Jews came later.

Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2014 14:33 utc | 26

For the uninitiated;

2 good and short vids explaining the grip the Israeli lobbies
have over zusa:

101 by Anthony Lawson
AIPAC 101 — What Every American Should Know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EJrBu5S31Q

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney talks with PressTV
about how the Israeli Lobby owns both the Congress and the Senate
and how AIPAC and the ADL took her out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_VNOk7Wv5A

Posted by: Luca K | Dec 30 2014 15:58 utc | 27

@DH(26)

Well, mostly the early zionist settlers came not from Germany,
but rather from Eastern Europe; Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Belaruss,etc.

Take a look at a list of israeli prime ministers;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Israel

Posted by: Luca K | Dec 30 2014 16:06 utc | 28

It is well-known within certain "circles" that Mossy has pics of Miss Lindsay doing things he oughtn't with underage-AA-males. It's not about his sexual orientation. That's a given. And frankly -- most Southerners have beloved family members who have similar proclivities. It's the hard evidence which places the Senator in real jeopardy of serious prison-time. Yes, they all have something to fear. Mossy has the goods on 99% of them. One almost feels sorry for them. For folks like Senator Lindsay Graham. He knows he's has forfeited his country to ZIONist interests. At this point he likely doesn't much care. Remember, last year he predicted a nuclear event in Charleston harbor. Wonder who told him to let that cat out of the bag???

Posted by: giddy | Dec 30 2014 16:15 utc | 29

@28 Right. A lot of Ashkenazi settlers were from Eastern Europe.

I thought this was interesting...

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21623796-some-israelis-yearn-new-lives-germany-next-year-berlin

Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2014 16:21 utc | 30

To 24: Oh dear. Does your BS really fool folks on this site?

Some years ago -- my children attended a very tony pre-school that all the Jews coveted. I didn't know (or care) about Sephardic vs. Ashkenazi. Had lots of Jewish "friends". One mother confided in me that the other Jewish mothers didn't like her because she was "Sephardic". And that her mother-in-law (who was Ashkenazi) hated her guts and didn't believe she "deserved" to be married to her son. This was a HUGE surprise to me. She was a very attractive gal. Loads of sex-appeal actually. Smart. Good mother to her sons. I asked another "Jewish" friend about her. This friends family was originally from Poland. She said there was indeed something "different" about the other gal. That although she was "nice-enough" -- she was not of the other Jewish mothers' "class". That said -- being a goyim -- I didn't realize that I was lower that Sephardic-dog-shit. Which is highly amusing today. NOW I understand. Sephardic Jews are REAL semites. Ashkenazi Jews are Khazars. And therein lies a WORLD of difference. If I were AZ, I'd hate the REAL Jews too. Cause they just might "out" me as the pretender to that shitty little country in the ME.

It's funny how lies and deceit always out themselves.

Posted by: giddy | Dec 30 2014 17:22 utc | 31

Posted by: dh | Dec 30, 2014 9:33:03 AM | 26, and 28, 30

Connecting Kibbutzes to Ashenazi or Sephardi Jews (as cultural differene) makes no sense.

Sephardim describes 15th century Spanish Jews and their - Spanish/Ladino - culture. Driven from Spain by Catholic bigots, they either became Catholic or had to emigrate - anywhere around the Mediterranean, but they went to Eastern Europe, too.

Jews were part of the Ottoman empire - including Palestine. Ashkenazi (Yiddish/German speaking) and Sephardi Jews migrated and traveled between the Ottoman empire and Europe - in both directions.

Zionism was more an Eastern European than a German idea. Germany - and Austria - until 1933 were comparatively good places to live for Jews, and there was a large immigration by Eastern European Jews to Austria, Germany and other Western European countries.

The Kibbutz movement was part of the secular (Eastern European/Austrian/German) Zionist nationalist project that included all types of political movements from communist to right wing groups. Stalin was a Zionist - for - you guessed it - geopolitical reasons. The - originally predominantly European Jewish Palestine Communist party - could not argue against that.

First Kibbuz was founded in 1910 by people from Belorus. A large part of the immigration to Palestine as part of the Zionist project has been from Eastern Europe, the fall of the Soviet Union sparked the last big wave.

ChipNikh 24's post is complete nonsense. Except that b.'s post does make sense either. When a military interventionist supports a nationalistic chauvinist shared self interest is evident.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 30 2014 17:41 utc | 32

@32 Doesn't make much sense to me either somebody. It was a big deal in Israel in the 60s though. I spent a few months on an Ashkenazi kibbutz. I got the impression Jews from Morocco (Sephardim) weren't welcome.

Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2014 17:53 utc | 33

Expect a veto in 3 2 1..
http://rt.com/news/218799-palestine-statehood-bid-submit/

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 30 2014 18:09 utc | 34

Oh. And one more thing. Not just to #24. He makes it too easy. It's annoying when "pretend-Christians" insist upon using selected scripture to "prove" current events. WTF? The second coming of Jerusalem? Really? Is that something you picked-up in Revelation 101 class? You must have skipped Luke 17. You know -- the part where Christ Jesus tells the Pharisees that "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation..." and that "...the kingdom of God is within you...". Uh-oh. If that's TRUE -- it means all REAL substance and salvation is WITHIN. Not person, place or thing. Through the CHOICES we make to DO GOOD. And that's where ZIONISTs fail themselves and mankind. In their CHOICES.

BTW. Did you ever consider that "God's Chosen people" are simply those who CHOOSE God. Not the other way around. Christ taught that man (aka all mankind) = children of God. Each of us choose. As such -- we are responsible. Period.

Posted by: giddy | Dec 30 2014 18:56 utc | 35

Everything you needed to know about Israel and Congress Bibi and the yo-yos. http://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2011/05/25/bibi-and-the-yo-yos/

Posted by: harry law | Dec 30 2014 20:27 utc | 36

Posted by: dh | Dec 30, 2014 12:53:55 PM | 33

Yes, there seems to be a problem

However, I would not blame the Kibbutz people. Sephardi do not really support the Zionist project. It is always painful to have to see reality contradict your ideology.

Ovadia Yosef, a former Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, said haredi Orthodox yeshiva students may have to leave the country to avoid being forced into military or national service. “There is a terrible edict hanging over our heads. G-d forbid, but we would have no choice but to leave the Land of Israel in order to ensure that the yeshiva students are not forced to fight," Yosef, spiritual leader of the haredi Orthodox Shas Party, said last week during a lecture in Jerusalem, according to Israel National News. "How will they be Torah scholars if they are drafted into the army?" He added, "We are in great trouble. This is the time for each and every person to commit to vote for the parties that support the Torah.”

Posted by: somebody | Dec 30 2014 21:12 utc | 37

@37 The kibbutz where I stayed/worked was one of the earliest ones. It had been established by young pioneer types. They were mostly Polish and German Jews. Many of them had fought in the Irgun.

There was a huge influx of young Sephardim from Arab countries in the 60s. They came to study Hebrew on the kibbutz. There was definitely a feeling of superiority in some way and they regarded the newcomers as lazy i.e. not willing to get their hands dirty. They'd had it pretty good in Casablanca. The kibbutzniks didn't let their daughters get too friendly.

Posted by: dh | Dec 30 2014 21:29 utc | 38

LIVE: Watch UNSC vote on Palestinian state.
http://rt.com/on-air/vote-palestinian-statehood-un/

Prepare for a veto or 2.

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 30 2014 22:08 utc | 39

Well, I guess technically "Senate Majority Leader" Nut'n'yahoo, but we may as well call him by his unofficial title, His Supreme Zionist Emperor of Planet America. Or something like that.

Posted by: Colinjames | Dec 30 2014 22:36 utc | 40

Security Council draft resolution on Palestinian question not adopted. Vote: 8 in favour; 2 (USA, AUS) against; 5 abstentions

Just ridiculous.

Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 30 2014 22:40 utc | 41

TheRealNews
Israel, Iran, and ISIS - U.S. Policy Towards Syria is Wrong says Wilkerson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY_D0R3y5Ck

Posted by: okie farmer | Dec 30 2014 22:44 utc | 42

Posted by: dh | Dec 30, 2014 4:29:28 PM | 38

I am pretty sure

There was definitely a feeling of superiority in some way and they regarded the newcomers as lazy i.e. not willing to get their hands dirty. They'd had it pretty good in Casablanca. The kibbutzniks Germans didn't let their daughters get too friendly.

would be true for the reception of Moroccon "guest"workers in Germany, too.

Posted by: somebody | Dec 30 2014 22:58 utc | 43

Breaking news … no surprise there!

Kerry Foils Jordan Arab Initiative for Palestinian Statehood @UN

Posted by: Oui | Dec 30 2014 23:18 utc | 44

Nigeria clearly had his arm twisted here ^^

Posted by: zingaro | Dec 31 2014 8:21 utc | 45

I wonder if some of those New Yorkers still feel they did "the patriotic thing" last week by going to see "The Interview"?

I'll answer that, they will probably never even realize that a disgruntled former employee was the lone gunman behind the Sony cyber attacks, along with all the other dumb sheeple that watched the movie for the same reason.

Posted by: Cynthia | Dec 31 2014 14:42 utc | 46

@ 46,

Sorry, I posted this comment at the wrong place.

Posted by: Cynthia | Dec 31 2014 14:45 utc | 47

best way for zionized Xtians to see Jesus - die.
try today. end of year and life special - receive 72 whores and a gay dude named lindsay

Posted by: 5 dancing shlomos | Dec 31 2014 18:29 utc | 48

Palestinians Join International Criminal Courts, Prompting Israeli Threats
State Dept 'Deeply Troubled' by Palestinian Membership


The move sets the stage for Palestinians to complain about the Israeli military’s commission of war crimes, and sparked a threat of retaliation by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insisted that ISIS carries out war crimes, and Hamas is like ISIS, and Abbas had ties with Hamas, so Abbas could face similar charges.

The US also opposed Abbas’ move, as indeed it opposes anything that might upset Israel, with the State Department saying they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of Palestine being an ICC member.

Posted by: jfl. | Jan 2 2015 5:19 utc | 49

jfl@49

The ICC only prosecutes African leaders and the losers of our Color revolutions so it is most likely that Hamas and IJ leaders will be arrested before any Western Israeli is brought to justice.

Posted by: Wayoutwest | Jan 2 2015 16:33 utc | 50

US Threatens Palestinians after Move to Join UN Crimes Court


Palestinians delivered documents Friday to join the International Criminal Court and other international treaties.

A senior official with the U.S. State Department stated on Friday that any further steps by the Palestinians to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) will have implications for U.S. aid to the beleaguered people.

"It should come as no surprise that there will be implications for this step, but we continue to review," said the official.

Under U.S. law, aid would be cut off if the Palestinians used membership in the International Criminal Court to make claims against Israel.

The U.S. State Department has previously attempted to use the withdrawal of aid in order to try to coerce Palestinians. In 2006, the U.S. suspended much of its aid after Hamas won parliamentary elections. Washington sends about US$400 million in economic support aid to the Palestinians every year.

On the other side of the revolving door : Louis Freeh’s Latest Investigation: Billionaire Businessman Accused of Bribing African Government.

Louis Freeh was the guy detailed to 'reconstruct' the FBI prior to 9/11. This, and cases like it, are payback for his fine work.

Posted by: jfl | Jan 3 2015 0:50 utc | 51

Written @BooMan - Returning to Nixon's 'Twin Pillar's Policy' and Regional 'Gendarmes'.

Posted by: Oui | Jan 3 2015 18:41 utc | 52

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