I got up early Monday to take a long ride to D.C. and try to cover the AIPAC Conference. That’s The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, www.aipac.organnual gathering for OpEdNews. It’s more than a little daunting to drive down, get credentialed and led through security and a maze of people to the Press Section of the Washington Convention Center and try to take it all in, (a three day political, social and cultural extravaganza), in one day. But here goes:
To begin with, over 7500 Jewish activists from every state and congressional district came together to get inspired, scared and prepared with marching orders to mount a successful assault on Capital Hill. The first speaker on the first day was Senator John McCain who would be followed on day three by both Senator’s Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader, Senator Harry Reid are also on the schedule as is Secretary of State Condolezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. It would be kinda like the ultimate name-dropping game if what all these politicians and a slew of others were talking about weren’t the future of the State of Israel, terror, Islamic fundamentalism and the nature and relevance of American foreign policy.
It’s easy to paint a target on AIPAC and assign it the responsibility for all the evils that have befallen the Middle East as “America’s Pro-Israel Lobby.” Noted professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt began a cottage industry with their recent paper and follow up book castigating “The Israel Lobby.”And I believe Nobel laureate and former President Jimmy Carter purposely choose an incendiary title for his 2006 bestseller; “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid,” a work that attacks the Israel lobby unsparingly.
There is simply no doubt that AIPAC is the 800-pound gorilla in the room and remains proud of it.
But how does an old fashioned Jewish liberal deal with the reality, read through the lines and make sense of what AIPAC actually does? To make all this even more confusing after many years and too many attempts there is a brand new organization formed out of many left leaning American Jewish groups called the J Street Project, www.jstreet.org, as an alternative to the right leaning AIPAC.
Additionally, the politics of Israel and Palestine involves two leaders who are characterized as weak, (Olmert who is withering under a series of corruption charges and as a result of his conduct of the War with Lebanon and Abbas whose peace platform remains hidden by his ascendancy as the heir to Arafat that had neither the economic or military power to hold onto Gaza in the face of the onslaught by Hamas). While these readings are too narrow they handicap not only the leaders but the future of any meaningful peace process.
The very nature of the exuberant Israeli democracy has necessitated the positioning of Prime Minister Olmert’s key rivals not only in the opposition, (Netanyahu), but within his own coalition government as both Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister, Ehud Barak. This is far from our American model. And even as President Abbas makes progress in the West Bank with his Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, (appointed in the aftermath of the Hamas victory in Gaza), it is telling that the most popular Palestinian is the jailed former leader of Fatah’s militant Tanzim faction, Marwan Barghouti.
There is also another 800-pound guerilla in the room named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has already managed to face down the UN, the US and the Middle East and is winning the battle to make Iran a full member of the International Nuclear Club. It is fair to say that he has no love for either Israel or the United States.
So without going through a detailed analysis of the speeches that I heard, does all this angst and complexity give AIPAC a blank check? I don’t believe so. To travel to Washington as over 7000 political activists did to hear American and Israeli leaders define the challenges for American Jews and the State of Israel is a good thing. So few of us pay enough attention to become engaged in the political struggle over a piece of legislation let alone the future of a people.
Israel was born some 60 years ago in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Today it looks around and hears the words of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and considers a future that is insecure. It has been an imperfect experiment in democracy that needs both our understanding and our assistance to transform into a vital partner with the Palestinians that together will adopt a secure and economically viable two-state solution.
Do the marching orders of AIPAC promote this outcome? I believe they do. I believe that deep in the Jewish heart there is a recognition of human rights for Palestinians, a recognition of the terrible costs of the occupation, a recognition of the weariness of the Israeli people and of its desire for peace.
I also believe that AIPAC is realistic about the impediments to any peace that include not only the rockets of Hamas and Hizbollah, but the ambitions of Iran, Al Qaeda and millions more believers in the Muslim Brotherhood. It is a tough neighborhood and to paraphrase the words of former Ambassador Dennis Ross: Far too often America has been inconsistent in its use of carrots and sticks in the Middle East. There is a role for AIPAC.
But I believe there is also a role for people of all faiths to work for peace and to build relations between Muslims, Christians, Jews and others here in America and in Israel/Palestine. It is this second track of dialogue and diplomacy between people that can help our nation and theirs to accept an “other” and begin meaningful reconciliation in schools and on the ground. It is through this person to person education that I believe together we can remake our communities and our world. If we don’t do this work, then AIPAC is left to defend the State of Israel against all comers and worse, America will rot from the inside out.
Larry Snider is the founder of New Hope for Peace, a dialogue and educational forum. He is a member of the Greater Bucks County Peace Circle and author of numerous articles on the Israeli/Palestinian war of attrition and the peace process. Larry has traveled extensively in Israel and the West Bank and is coordinator of the Delaware Valley Interfaith Delegation To Israel/Palestine in 2008.
Steven, while everyone gets their panties in a wad over Iran going nuclear, to me this is far less important than the germ warfare that is not being talked about.
Iran can do far more damage with germs than they ever could with nuclear weapons.
What I mean by this is simply that if Iran goes nuclear and uses one, they will only get that one chance maybe before they get smashed, but if they design and release all around the globe killer diseases that are not treaceable back to them, well I guess you know... far more damage than nuclear. And far easier and as of now no one cares to worry about germs all that much it seems...
Maybe it is time we start worrying about the bugs too.
KG
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Levin Sheridan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 174 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 11:13:39 AM
What is your solution? Kill every Iranian? Every Muslim?
If by snapping ones fingers, we could kill every member of the current Iranian government including the religious leaders, we would not end the threat of germ warfare from Iran or the region. A few people, not even necessarily connected to a government, can create a germ warfare lab quite easily.
Any use of these weapons is potentially suicide for the user and all of those for whom the user wants to advocate. That is the best deterrent against biological weapons.
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Steven Leser (189 articles, 35 quicklinks, 32 diaries, 1291 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 6:49:16 PM
SARS was supposedly leaked from a Chinese laboratory through an infected employee.
How will any deterrant prevent that?
I was not suggesting that only Iran would be involved in such things. I consider all nations involved in such things.
And those who would issue such germs would think they have the antidote for it to protect themselves from self eradication.
Anyone recall when the federal government released weapons grade milled down ANTHRAX on U.S. soil and U.S. citizens while the President and others were protected by the CIPRO anti-biotic.
This is typical of those who would use germ warfare. They do so believing they are protected.
And the deterrant is what? The truth is plain to see.
KG
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Levin Sheridan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 174 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 7:06:53 PM
Read Scott Ritter "Target Iran" Iran doesn't have bombs !!
I think you are too biased against Iran and rely on mainstream media. Can you get me a proof where Iran actually has nuclear bombs? That is a lie. Iran has nuclear electricity, not nuclear bombs. So my suggestion to you is to stop watching TV
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LincolnMarx (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 49 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 11:56:37 PM
I forgot to mention as I read this article... it sounds like propaganda to me:
"It has been an imperfect experiment in democracy that needs both our understanding and our assistance to transform into a vital partner with..."
Israel a democracy? Hilarious! Theocracy is more like it. I do not consider Israel a democracy and I do not live in a democracy here in America. I live in a REPUBLIC with a REPUBLICAN form of government.
Israel enthnically cleanses its stolen lands. Some democracy. Israel builds an apartheid wall to keep voters out. Some democracy.
Please do not even try to put this Israel is a democracy hooie over on us! It is laughable.
Democracy is the road to socialism. Democracy is a lie. Just look at Haiti. Democracy can not exist so long as bankers run things in secret. They are the ones who make democracy a lie.
The bottom line here is that this article is spewing forth the same old stuff without ever looking at the underlying problem. They don't want to look at the problem. They want the world to accept it as it is without changing it, but this will NEVER happen which is leading directly to the conflict we see today.
We all need to take a long hard honest look at exactly what the problem is and why we are maintaining it at such a cost.
Hopefully humans of the future will be wiser to let go of the anchors of the past that bind all of us to slavery called democracy. Maybe they will confront the real issues and deal with them better than we have.
Israel should indeed be quaking in their boots over there. What they have put out will come back upon them. It is the law of Nature.
A day of reckoning shall come and AIPAC and their efforts could all be for naught.
Hint, hint, the secret to the problem lays in the DIFFERENCES of thought that divide us. This is what must be dealt with to end the madness. Change in thought must come.
KG
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Levin Sheridan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 174 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 11:31:12 AM
Only a fool or a zealot could think Israel is a democracy...
Israel has several laws on the books that are blatently discriminitory against non-Jews. The government there subsidises poor Israeli families to move into an "annexed" foreign nation and live. But not only live there (google Israeli "outposts" and "settlements") but to harass, sabatoge, and even assult the Palestinians who have lived there for genarations.
Israel refuses to quit using cluster bombs; indiscriminate killers and maimers of children.
Israel used thousands of White Phosphorous warheads on the civilian population of Southern Lebanon. WP shells emit a WP gas that burns horribly and kills slowly and painfully any man, woman, or child that gets in it's way.
And Israel posseses over 100 Illegal Nuclear weapons as well as ICBMs to deliver them with.
You mean to tell me that this country that has a huge stockpile of illegal nukes, is worried that a country might get one? and then launch it at Israel?
Only a fool would buy that logic. Israel's retaliation would destroy any nation in the Middle east that launched a nuclear attack against them. it is a rediculous argument that any president would obliterate his own nation without even giving his target a black eye.
This is Likud Party propaganda and war mongering to create what Condi Rice called "the New Middle East". And you shouldn't bring such uninformed tripe to such an educated site as this. You should save it for Fox News.
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scott creighton (20 articles, 9 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 166 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 12:01:19 PM
"But I believe there is also a role for people of all faiths to work for peace and to build relations between Muslims, Christians, Jews and others here in America and in Israel/Palestine."
This is idealism. This is not reality. And this is not what is going to happen.
You may believe that all people should work together, but all people do not believe this.
There are those who do not care to get along or work in peace together. In reality what will happen is that one side will seek to destroy the other and this is the path we are on while trying to suggest otherwise.
This article carries with it the info of the conference along with the desire of the writer. It is a mix of fact and fiction. It is a mix of what is with what someone wants it to be and how to get us there only this will never happen...
Which is exactly why I said earlier a change in thought must happen on all sides before the madness can end.
The underlying problem has not been dealt with and no one wants to discuss it and any time I try to around here I get shut down, banned, censored, etc. etc.
A change in thought is at the base of my opinion. It must come. All sides must change the way they think in order to change the outcome.
As long as one side or another refuses to change the way they think then the conflict shall continue and this article never addresses the staunch stubborn stranglehold they have on rigid passed down thoughts.
As long as this situation exists nothing will change. Articles like this one show the futility of it all.
I see this as though I were on a sinking ship. Am I going to stubbornly go down with the ship even though I know it is sinking? Or am I going to save myself by changing my position?
Until certain parties take a look at themselves and address the causes of conflict instead of insisting on the world accepting as is... and then when the world shows they do not ,to try and pound them into submission comes next along with propaganda to sell it.
And for some of us it ain't working. I want change in thought now- today. Why is change in thought so dangerous to some? Some expect others to change while some will not.
Some of you may not know what it is I am referring to, and if you did you would understand... if I spoke it openly I would be shut down immediately.
Some do NOT want a change in thought and are perfectly willing to pulverize the world into submission to protect and defend those rigid passed down thoughts which cause conflict today and all throughout the years of humanity.
Thoughts must change... and they will one day... I just wished I could be alive to see it when mankind finally breaks free!
33rd degree honorary Free Mason President Ronald Reagan said that he believed "I know in my heart that man is good, and that what is right will always eventually triumph, and there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
Ronnie did not get to live long enough to see that day he dreamed of. Neither shall I or any of you.
When mankind finally frees themselves from the chains of the past, you will find that old thoughts are dead and gone forever and rightly so.
Maybe that is why it is so dangerous to some today- to know that their offspring shall live on, but not what they stood for.
Change is going to come. Thoughts must change...
In memory of Ronald Reagan and Manly Palmer Hall.
KG
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Levin Sheridan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 174 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 12:12:55 PM
This was an interesting read though I don't buy it. I am trying to picture all the earth destroyed by nuclear bombs.
If you changed your weapon from nuclear to germs, then you might be closer to it. Nuclear can only be used for pinpoint execution. Germs know no such boundaries. It would not be smart to destroy the earth with nuclear when germs could do it without damaging other life forms and property.
I would suggest the NWO crowd would try and kill us off with germs and not nuclear bombs. But that is just how I see it...
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Levin Sheridan (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 174 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:08:58 PM
He's making reference to a certain level of banker
and yes, banks that lend money to nations at a time of war, profit from it a great deal. They also profit from making weapons as many of them now have invested heavily in our "growth" industry. Would you like to explain how the banking industry has faired over the past 7 years? JP Morgan Chase, Bank America, Citybank? How are they doing these days?
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scott creighton (20 articles, 9 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 166 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 7:39:00 PM
"I believe that deep in the Jewish heart there is a recognition of human rights for Palestinians, a recognition of the terrible costs of the occupation, a recognition of the weariness of the Israeli people and of its desire for peace."
I believe that Americans have to stop listening to their Jewish hearts, their evangelical hearts, Muslim hearts, and so on and start listening to their American hearts.
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Robert McElroy (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 15 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 2:56:29 PM
If it wasn't for other self-hating Jews, we wouldn't know about the great Israel racket which has contributed so significantly to the Bush and Kissinger, etc. catastrophe, perhaps even 911. Neocons and other Zionist Jews with their dubious dual citizenship have made us all look dirty.
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John Hanks (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1029 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:06:30 PM
I believe that everyone in entitled to their opinion. I wrote about what I heard, saw and have learned over time studying the Middle East. As for interfaith, I took an interfaith group of clergy and lay leaders to Israel/Palestine in March and have learned and am still learning a great deal from our continuing interactions. I don't believe that tomorrow the lion will lay down witrh the lamb or that Hamas will revoke its Charter. But I do believe that there are Muslims and Christians and Jews in Israel/Palestine and many others who want to live in peace and prosperity and are willing to make concessions to have it. That's one line of a people to people initiative. A beginning....
Larry Snider
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Larry Snider (7 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 8 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:14:56 PM
Oh there are many Jews in Israel that want peace...
in fact, the agenda of AIPAC is not representative of most israelis, what what I have read.
Your article lacks one perspective; the Palestinian perspective. You talk about Hamas breaking up and the rockets from Gaza. Those "rockets" are homemade, and there remains line the storage bins of Likud Party enablers so they can prove Gava has "rockets". But they don't even blow up... that's why they are in storage.
Where as Israel uses attack helicopeters with Sidewinder Missles and cluster bombs in the most densly populated area in the world.
But no word of this from you. No word of a "democracy" that is walling off 2 million people in Gaza, to starve them out of existence, while it condemns anyone who speaks out about it as being anti-semetic.
The Leader of the Likud Party has stated that any agreement reached by Israel and Palestine right now will NOT be legal nor will it be honored by his Party.
And you write that Hamas is the problem?
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scott creighton (20 articles, 9 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 166 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 4:54:37 PM
"It is fair to say that he has no love for either Israel or the United States."
Wow. Slipped that on by me didn't you? Now he "hates our freedom" too huh?
Let me ask you this: what country was the first to step up and go into Afghanistan to help us oust the Taliban right after 9/11? Iran
How many soldiers did Israel send to help route the Taliban? Zero
How many people showed up in Tehran for the candle-lite vigil two days after 9/11? One million
and who said "We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon..." on Apr. 16th 2008? Benjamin Netanyahu Leader of the Likud Party and Featured Speaker at AIPAC this year.
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scott creighton (20 articles, 9 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 166 comments)
on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 7:53:19 PM
represents the Israeli right wing parties and push views and policies that are not necessarily representative of many American Jews and Israelis, Nothing wrong with that, it's a free country. Lobbying is as American as apple pie.
Of greater concern to me is having people in the country with dual nationalities that work in government. How can one be both an Israeli citizen and an American citizen, and make a decision that may adversely affect one or the other. Lets face it, Israeli and American interests can conflict. This is the larger issue.
Just look at this list of dual nationalities in government :
"Michael Mukasey Recently appointed as US Attorney General. Mukasey also was the judge in the litigation between developer Larry Silverstein and several insurance companies arising from the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.
Michael Chertoff Former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, at the Justice Department; now head of Homeland Security.
Richard Perle One of Bush's foreign policy advisors, he is the chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. A very likely Israeli government agent, Perle was expelled from Senator Henry Jackson's office in the 1970's after the National Security Agency (NSA) caught him passing Highly-Classified (National Security) documents to the Israeli Embassy. He later worked for the Israeli weapons firm, Soltam. Perle came from one the above mentioned pro-Israel thinktanks, the AEI. Perle is one of the leading pro-Israeli fanatics leading this Iraq war mongering within the administration and now in the media.
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz has been rewarded with a new position in the Bush administration which will allow him to oversee classified intelligence and inform policies on WMD issues.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. "We think he is well suited and will do an excellent job," said one senior official.
Former Deputy Defense Secretary, and member of Perle's Defense Policy Board, in the Pentagon. Wolfowitz is a close associate of Perle, and reportedly has close ties to the Israeli military. His sister lives in Israel. Wolfowitz came from the above mentioned Jewish thinktank, JINSA. Wolfowitz was the number two leader within the administration behind this Iraq war mongering. He later was appointed head of the World Bank but resigned under pressure from World Bank members over a scandal involving his misuse of power.
Lawrence (Larry) Franklin The former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst with expertise in Iranian policy issues who worked in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and reported directly to Feith's deputy, William Luti, was sentenced January 20, 2006, "to more than 12 years in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat" and members of the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Franklin will "remain free while the government continues with the wider case" and his "prison time could be sharply reduced in return for his help in prosecuting" former AIPAC members Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, [who] are scheduled to go on trial in April [2006]. Franklin admitted that he met periodically with Rosen and Weissman between 2002 and 2004 and discussed classified information, including information about potential attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Rosen and Weissman would later share what they learned with reporters and Israeli officials." (source: sourcewatch.com).
Douglas Feith Under Secretary of Defense and Policy Advisor at the Pentagon. He is a close associate of Perle and served as his Special Counsel. Like Perle and the others, Feith is a pro-Israel extremist, who has advocated anti-Arab policies in the past. He is closely associated with the extremist group, the Zionist Organization of America, which even attacks Jews that don't agree with its extremist views. Feith frequently speaks at ZOA conferences. Feith runs a small law firm, Feith and Zell, which only has one International office, in Israel. The majority of their legal work is representing Israeli interests. His firm's own website stated, prior to his appointment, that Feith "represents Israeli Armaments Manufacturer." Feith basically represents the Israeli War Machine. Feith also came from the Jewish thinktank JINSA. Feith, like Perle and Wolfowitz, are campaigning hard for this Israeli proxy war against Iraq.
Feith was investigated by the FBI under suspicion of leaking classified information to Israel, being that he was Larry Franklin's boss when Franklin leaked those documents to Rosen and Weissman of AIPAC. For that he was forced to leave the National Security Council. Feith was also investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee for sexing up 'intelligence' that was used to justify invading Iraq.
Edward Luttwak Member of the National Security Study Group of the Department of Defence at the Pentagon. Luttwak is reportedly an Israeli citizen and has taught in Israel. He frequently writes for Israeli and pro-Israeli newspapers and journals. Luttwak is an Israeli extremist whose main theme in many of his articles is the necessity of the U.S. waging war against Iraq and Iran.
Henry Kissinger One of many Pentagon Advisors, Kissinger sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle. For detailed information about Kissinger's evil past, read Seymour Hersch's book (Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House). Kissinger likely had a part in the Watergate crimes, Southeast Asia mass murders (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos), Installing Chilean mass murdering dictator Pinochet, Operation Condor's mass killings in South America, and more recently served as Serbia's Ex-Dictator Slobodan Milosevic's Advisor. He consistently advocated going to war against Iraq. Kissinger is the Ariel Sharon of the U.S. Unfortunately, President Bush nominated Kissinger as chairman of the September 11 investigating commission. It's like picking a bank robber to investigate a fraud scandal. He later declined this job under enormous protests.
Dov Zakheim Dov Zakheim is an ordained rabbi and reportedly holds Israeli citizenship. Zakheim attended Jew's College in London and became an ordained Orthodox Jewish Rabbi in 1973. He was adjunct professor at New York's Jewish Yeshiva University. Zakheim is close to the Israeli lobby.
Dov Zakheim is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2000 a co-author of the Project for the New American Century's position paper, Rebuilding America's Defenses, advocating the necessity for a Pearl-Harbor-like incident to mobilize the country into war with its enemies, mostly Middle Eastern Muslim nations.
He was appointed by Bush as Pentagon Comptroller from May 4, 2001 to March 10, 2004. At that time he was unable to explain the disappearance of $1 trillion dollars. Actually, nearly three years earlier, Donald Rumsfeld announced on September 10, 2001 that an audit discovered $2.3 trillion was also missing from the Pentagon books. That story, as mentioned, was buried under 9-11's rubble. The two sums disappeared on Zakheim's watch. We can only guess where that cash went.
Despite these suspicions, on May 6, 2004, Zakheim took a lucrative position at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the most prestigious strategy consulting firms in the world. One of its clients then was Blessed Relief, a charity said to be a front for Osama bin Laden. Booz, Allen & Hamilton then also worked closely with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the research arm of the Department of Defense.
Judicial Inc's bio of Dov tells us Zakheim is a dual Israeli/American citizen and has been tracking the halls of US government for 25 years, casting defense policy and influence on Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. Judicial Inc points out that most of Israel's armaments were gotten thanks to him. Squads of US F-16 and F-15 were classified military surplus and sold to Israel at a fraction of their value.
Kenneth Adelman One of many Pentagon Advisors, Adelman also sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle, and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor, who supported going to war against Iraq. Adelman frequently is a guest on Fox News, and often expresses extremist and often ridiculus anti-Arab and anti-Muslim views. Through his racism or ignorance, he actually called Arabs "anti-Semitic" on Fox News (11/28/2001), when he could have looked it up in the dictionary to find out that Arabs by definition are Semites.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Vice President Dick Cheney's ex-Chief of Staff. As chief pro-Israel Jewish advisor to Cheney, it helps explains why Cheney is so gun-ho to invade Iran. Libby is longtime associate of Wolfowitz. Libby was also a lawyer for convicted felon and Israeli spy Marc Rich, whom Clinton pardoned, in his last days as president. Libby was recently found guilty of lying to Federal investigators in the Valerie Plame affair, in which Plame, a covert CIA agent, was exposed for political revenge by the Bush administration following her husband's revelations about the lies leading to the Iraq War.
Robert Satloff U.S. National Security Council Advisor, Satloff was the executive director of the Israeli lobby's "think tank," Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Many of the Israeli lobby's "experts" come from this front group, like Martin Indyk.
Elliott Abrams National Security Council Advisor. He previously worked at Washington-based "Think Tank" Ethics and Public Policy Center. During the Reagan Adminstration, Abrams was the Assistant Secretary of State, handling, for the most part, Latin American affairs. He played an important role in the Iran-Contra Scandal, which involved illegally selling U.S. weapons to Iran to fight Iraq, and illegally funding the contra rebels fighting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. He also actively deceived three congressional committees about his involvement and thereby faced felony charges based on his testimony. Abrams pled guilty in 1991 to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service. A year later, former President Bush (Senior) granted Abrams a full pardon. He was one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the Reagan Administration's State Department.
Marc Grossman Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He was Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources at the Department of State. Grossman is one of many of the pro-Israel Jewish officials from the Clinton Administration that Bush has promoted to higher posts.
Richard Haass Director of Policy Planning at the State Department and Ambassador at large. He is also Director of National Security Programs and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He was one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the first Bush (Sr) Administration who sat on the National Security Council, and who consistently advocated going to war against Iraq. Haass is also a member of the Defense Department's National Security Study Group, at the Pentagon.
Robert Zoellick U.S. Trade Representative, a cabinet-level position. He is also one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the Bush (Jr) Administration who advocated invading Iraq and occupying a portion of the country in order to set up a Vichy-style puppet government. He consistently advocates going to war against Iran.
Ari Fleischer Ex- White House Spokesman for the Bush (Jr) Administration. Prominent in the Jewish community, some reports state that he holds Israeli citizenship. Fleischer is closely connected to the extremist Jewish group called the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidics, who follow the Qabala, and hold very extremist and insulting views of non-Jews. Fleischer was the co-president of Chabad's Capitol Jewish Forum. He received the Young Leadership Award from the American Friends of Lubavitch in October, 2001.
James Schlesinger One of many Pentagon Advisors, Schlesinger also sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor, who supported going to war against Iraq. Schlesinger is also a commissioner of the Defense Department's National Security Study Group, at the Pentagon.
David Frum White House speechwriter behind the "Axis of Evil" label. He lumped together all the lies and accusations against Iraq for Bush to justify the war.
Joshua Bolten White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Bolten was previously a banker, former legislative aide, and prominent in the Jewish community.
John Bolton Former UN Representative and Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Bolton is also a Senior Advisor to President Bush. Prior to this position, Bolton was Senior Vice President of the above mentioned pro-Israel thinktank, AEI. He recently (October 2002) accused Syria of having a nuclear program, so that they can attack Syria after Iraq. He must have forgotten that Israel has 400 nuclear warheads, some of which are thermonuclear weapons (according to a recent U.S. Air Force report).
David Wurmser Special Assistant to John Bolton (above), the under-secretary for arms control and international security. Wurmser also worked at the AEI with Perle and Bolton. His wife, Meyrav Wurmser, along with Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence, co-founded the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri),a Washington-based Israeli outf
