Hillary Clinton Seeks Neocon Shelter

In seeking to put Sen. Bernie Sanders on the defensive over his foreign policy positions, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is embracing a neoconservative stance on the Middle East and gambling that her more hawkish approach will win over Democratic voters.

Losing ground in Iowa and New Hampshire in recent polls, the Clinton campaign has counterattacked against Sanders, targeting his sometimes muddled comments on the Mideast crisis, but Clinton's attack line suggests that Sanders isn't adequately committed to the positions of Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his American neocon acolytes.

Clinton's strategy is to hit Sanders for seeking a gradual normalization of relations with Iran, while Clinton has opted for the neocon position of demonizing Iran and siding with Israel and its quiet alliance with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states that share Israel's animosity toward Shiite-ruled Iran.

By attaching herself to this neocon approach of hyping every conceivable offense by Iran while largely excusing the human rights crimes of Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni-run states, Clinton is betting that most Democratic voters share the neocon-dominated "group think" of Official Washington: "Iran-our-enemy, Israel/Saudi Arabia-our-friends."

She made similar calculations when she voted for and supported President George W. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq; when she sided with the neocons in pushing President Barack Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan; and when she instigated "regime change" in Libya -- all policies that had dubious and dangerous outcomes. But she seems to still believe that she will benefit politically if she continues siding with the neocons and their "liberal interventionist" side-kicks.

On Thursday, the Clinton campaign put Sanders's suggestion of eventual diplomatic relations with Iran in the context of his lack of ardor toward defending Israel.

"Normal relations with Iran right now?" said Jake Sullivan, the campaign's senior policy adviser. "President Obama doesn't support that idea. And it's not at all clear why it is that Senator Sanders is suggesting it. " Many of you know Iran has pledged the destruction of Israel."

Actually, the Clinton campaign is mischaracterizing Sanders's position as expressed in last Sunday's debate. Sanders opposed immediate diplomatic relations with Tehran.

"Understanding that Iran's behavior in so many ways is something that we disagree with; their support of terrorism, the anti-American rhetoric that we're hearing from their leadership is something that is not acceptable," Sanders said. "Can I tell you that we should open an embassy in Tehran tomorrow? No, I don't think we should."

Standing with the Establishment

But the Clinton campaign's distortions aside, there is the question of whether or not the Democratic base has begun to reject Official Washington's whatever-Israel-wants orthodoxy.

Hillary Clinton seems to be betting that rank-and-file Democrats remain enthralled to Israel and afraid to challenge the powerful neocon propaganda machine that controls the U.S. establishment's foreign policy by dominating major op-ed pages, TV political chat shows and leading think tanks. The neocons also maintain close ties to the "liberal interventionists" who hold down key jobs in the Obama administration.

Clinton's gamble assumes that progressives and foreign-policy "realists" have failed to develop their own infrastructure for examining and debunking many of the neocon/liberal-hawk propaganda themes and thus any politician who deviates too far from those "group thinks" risks getting marginalized.

In other words, Clinton is counting on the establishment structure holding through Election 2016 despite the populist anger that is evident from the surge of support for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders on the left and for billionaire nativist Donald Trump on the right.