Funny bit by Jon Stewart
Jon Stewat on AIPAC
And Obama, McCain & Clinton kowtow to AIPAC
Is this Obama's first sell out to the powerful lobbyists . Will there be more i.e. Big Coal, Big Oil, the Auto Industry -
Does Obama not see this as a sell out . Why should he support Israel unconditionally while Palestinian children are left to starve and to suffer and to do without proper medical treatment due to the inhumane draconian blockade against Palestine .
June 04, 2008
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel US lobby, has earned a reputation for professionalism.
Al Jazeera's Clayton Swisher looked behind the scenes of the lobby's annual conference, finding a staged press conference, rather than an arena for learning and debate.
Obama should pay attention to President Jimmy Carter and others who have spoken out about human rights violations by the Israeli Government or does Obama's sincerity and desire for change end when it comes to supporting Israel above all other countries and no matter what Israel may do.
If Israel drops a few nukes on Palestinians or Arabs or on Iran is that OK and permissible since Israel is so special . Is Obama buying into the Biblical view of Israel and therefore he is unable to use his reason and intelligence when it comes to Israel. Is he hoping that by protecting Israel he is doing God's will. Does he believe Israel must be protected to help bring about the Second Coming of Jesus. Is it a matter of the collective guilt that Westerners have concerning their lack of action during the rise of Hitler and his fanatical and deadly anti-semitism which led to the extermination of six million Jews while the world did nothing.
Now is it possible to convince Obama that unconditional support for Israel or any country is just plain wrong.
Jimmy Carter On Israel and Apartheid in Palestine
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Robert Fisk refers to the Western nations support of Israel as immoral and obscene given the human rights abuses of the Israeli government . Fisk further points out the West's blind spot when it comes to the rest of the Middle East and its reluctance to view the Middle East as more than just a matter of Israel's security. And of course the West is also interested in the vast oil reserves in the Middle East and will do what's necessary to keep the oil flowing . But if the the West wants to have better relations in the Middle East it should accept that the suffering of Lebanese and Iraqis and Palestinians is just as important as the suffering of the Israelis.
And the sad thing is that even Obama after all his promises and hope and talk of change he too buys into Israeli propaganda and one sided view of the issues facing the Middle East. So will America continue to play the same old game as previous American administrations.
The West's weapon of self-delusion:There are gun battles in Beirut – and America thinks things are going fine
By Robert Fisk
07/06/08 "The Independent" -- - -So they are it again, the great and the good of American democracy, grovelling and fawning to the Israeli lobbyists of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), repeatedly allying themselves to the cause of another country and one that is continuing to steal Arab land.
Will this ever end? Even Barack Obama – or "Mr Baracka" as an Irish friend of mine innocently and wonderfully described him – found time to tell his Jewish audience that Jerusalem is the one undivided capital of Israel, which is not the view of the rest of the world which continues to regard the annexation of Arab East Jerusalem as illegal. The security of Israel. Say it again a thousand times: the security of Israel – and threaten Iran, for good measure.
Yes, Israelis deserve security. But so do Palestinians. So do Iraqis and Lebanese and the people of the wider Muslim world. Now even Condoleezza Rice admits – and she was also talking to Aipac, of course – that there won't be a Palestinian state by the end of the year. That promise of George Bush – which no-one believed anyway – has gone. In Rice's pathetic words, "The goal itself will endure beyond the current US leadership."
Of course it will. And the siege of Gaza will endure beyond the current US leadership. And the Israeli wall. And the illegal Israeli settlement building. And deaths in Iraq will endure beyond "the current US leadership" – though "leadership" is pushing the definition of the word a bit when the gutless Bush is involved – and deaths in Afghanistan and, I fear, deaths in Lebanon too.
It's amazing how far self-delusion travels. The Bush boys and girls still think they're supporting the "American-backed government" of Fouad Siniora in Lebanon. But Siniora can't even form a caretaker government to implement a new set of rules which allows Hizbollah and other opposition groups to hold veto powers over cabinet decisions.
Thus there will be no disarming of Hizbollah and thus – again, I fear this – there will be another Hizbollah-Israeli proxy war to take up the slack of America's long-standing hatred of Iran. No wonder President Bashar Assad of Syria is now threatening a triumphal trip to Lebanon. He's won. And wasn't there supposed to be a UN tribunal to try those responsible for the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005? This must be the longest police enquiry in the history of the world. And I suspect it's never going to achieve its goal (or at least not under the "current US leadership").
There are gun battles in Beirut at night; there are dark-uniformed Lebanese interior ministry troops in equally dark armoured vehicles patrolling the night-time Corniche outside my home.
Obama should also take note that not all Israelis or American Jews agree with Israel's governments policies in relation to the Palestinians or to the Gaza strip or support the settler's movement which is an extremist group who wish to drive all Arabs and non-Jews out of Israel while holding onto the areas occupied by the Israelis during the six day war in 1967. The United Nations has insisted again and again that these occupied territories should be handed over to the countries to which they rightfully belong. But of course Israel like the United States only accepts rulings by the United Nations or or other International bodies when they rule in Israel's or the United States favor . Both countries have also rejected the Geneva Conventions so that they can torture and abuse enemy combatants and detainees. Both also believe that they have the right to use pre-emptive strikes and if they see fit that they believe they can use nuclear weapons on non-nuclear states.
New Jewish group aims to win US hearts and minds - 04 Jun 08
June 03, 2008/ AlJAZEERA
Several high profile policymakers and politicians, including Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the US presidential election, will address the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) conference this week.
But Aipac is not the only organisation competing for the hearts and minds of Jewish Americans.
A new group known as J Street has launched an ambitious effort to make alternative views on the Middle East heard in the US capital.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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