Congressional leaders inadvertently expose Israeli lobbyists behind letter to Obama
GOP House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) circulated a letter to colleagues this week urging President Obama to support Israel when moving forward with any Israeli peace process.
Trouble is, they forgot to delete the name of the lobbying group involved in the letter from the document.
Attached to the email message they circulated when seeking signatures from other members of Congress was the document, titled, "AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf."
The excuse from an aide of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer was, "The letter was discussed with AIPAC, [so] a staffer named it that."
Bullshit. AIPAC drafted it, and Stoyer, Cantor et al just obediently signed it. It wouldn't be the first time AIPAC has written letters and even legislation for Congress. Remember H.R. 362, which called for a naval blockade of Iran? Written by AIPAC, in line with Ehud Olmert's proposal to blockade Iran at a meeting with 12 members of Congress just three days before the resolution was introduced in the House. One of those 12 members of Congress just happened to be the same StenyHoyer who circulated the aforementioned AIPAC letter to his colleagues.
Same with Senate Resolution 534 of 2006, a "resolution condemning Hezbollah and Hamas and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense" during the Lebanon war -- written by AIPAC:
On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.
AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it. "They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC," said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. "They didn't prepare one."
Same with H.R. 34, "recognizing Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from Gaza, reaffirming the United States' strong support for Israel" during the recent Gaza massacre -- written by AIPAC.
Despite expectations that the Obama administration will pressure Israel to accept a two-state solution and implement practical measures, the U.S. administration has sent signals that aid to Israel will, in fact, be raised. At the same time, the budget also imposes harsh conditions on the Palestinian Authority in order to receive aid.
According to the Israeli daily, Haaretz, the budget proposed to Congress for 2010 includes $2.775 billion in aid to Israel, compared to $2.5 billon budgeted for 2009. This is more than a 10% increase in total U.S. aid to Israel.
The Congress might as well just stop pretending, hoist the Israeli flag and outsource its bill-writing to Israel. Do away with the red-white-and-blue, and just fly the blue and white.
"No words can express our gratitude to you for the years of your generous support, understanding and cooperation, which are all but beyond compare in modern history."
Yitzhak Rabin in a 1994 speech to the U.S. Congress
The Forward is worth checking out from time to time, in order to keep an eye on the machinations of American Jewry.
There would be enough members for a whole new minyan in Congress if all the Jewish candidates running for federal office were elected next month.
Regardless of the election outcome, Jews continue to be well represented, at least in terms of raw numbers, on Capitol Hill. Though Jews are only about 2% of America’s total population, Jewish lawmakers already represent nearly 10% of Congress. They include 29 Jews in the House and 13 in the Senate.
That means the Senate is 13% Jewish, since there are 100 members in total.
All but three — Virginia’s Eric Cantor in the House, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Norm Coleman of Minnesota in the Senate — are Democrats. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is considered an Independent, but he remains a registered Democrat despite his hearty support for Republican nominee John McCain.
That makes perfect sense in light of the fact that a full 50% of the Democratic party's political donations come from rich Jewish donors, as another article from the Forward reveals.
[Strategists] say that money from Jewish donors constitutes about half the donations given to national Democratic candidates (an extremely large pot of gelt long coveted by the GOP).
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh on Jewish money controlling the American political process, in an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now:
SEYMOUR HERSH: Money. A lot of the Jewish money from New York. Come on, let's not kid about it. A significant percentage of Jewish money, and many leading American Jews support the Israeli position that Iran is an existential threat. And I think it’s as simple as that. When you’re from New York and from New York City, you take the view of -- right now, when you’re running a campaign, you follow that line. And there’s no other explanation for it, because [Hilary Clinton is] smart enough to know the downside.
AMY GOODMAN: And Obama and Edwards?
SEYMOUR HERSH: I -- you know, it’s shocking. It’s really surprising and shocking, but there we are. That’s American politics circa 2007.
As for the Gentile majority in Congress, their pro-Israel dispositions are probably more attributable to AIPAC's deathgrip on the House and Senate than their philosophical positions and actual policy preferences.
It is widely acknowledged that the reps and senators are ticked at AIPAC, and their hostility seems to be growing these days. With upwards of 60% of their campaign contributions coming directly or indirectly from the Israel Lobby, the Democratic congressmen are not free to respond to their antiwar base. This opens them to an antiwar electoral challenge on the Left or Right from forces not subservient to AIPAC. And that could cost them their next election, a little thing which has them very worked up. Capuano's cry of "AIPAC" was no simple outburst of candor but a cri de coeur for his career. So here we have even Congressmen and Senator's aides complaining publicly about AIPAC.
More about AIPAC's influence on the Congress from an article at The Nation:
In early March, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its forty-seventh annual conference in Washington. AIPAC's executive director spent twenty-seven minutes reading the "roll call" of dignitaries present at the gala dinner, which included a majority of the Senate and a quarter of the House, along with dozens of Administration officials.
As this event illustrates, it's impossible to talk about Congress's relationship to Israel without highlighting AIPAC, the American Jewish community's most important voice on the Hill. The Congressional reaction to Hezbollah's attack on Israel and Israel's retaliatory bombing of Lebanon provide the latest example of why.
On July 18, the Senate unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution "condemning Hamas and Hezbollah and their state sponsors and supporting Israel's exercise of its right to self-defense." After House majority leader John Boehner removed language from the bill urging "all sides to protect innocent civilian life and infrastructure," the House version passed by a landslide, 410 to 8.
AIPAC not only lobbied for the resolution; it had written it. "They [Congress] were given a resolution by AIPAC," said former Carter Administration National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, who addressed the House Democratic Caucus on July 19. "They didn't prepare one."
Also see this letter from former U.S. Senator James Abourezk to Jeffrey Blankfort.
I can tell you from personal experience that, at least in the Congress, the support Israel has in that body is based completely on political fear--fear of defeat by anyone who does not do what Israel wants done. I can also tell you that very few members of Congress--at least when I served there--have any affection for Israel or for its Lobby. What they have is contempt, but it is silenced by fear of being found out exactly how they feel. I've heard too many cloakroom conversations in which members of the Senate will voice their bitter feelings about how they're pushed around by the Lobby to think otherwise. In private one hears the dislike of Israel and the tactics of the Lobby, but not one of them is willing to risk the Lobby's animosity by making their feelings public.
But AIPAC aside, there's a significant Shabbat goy component sitting in the U.S. Congress, many of them having been groomed, courted and ultimately converted by AIPAC's brainwashing operation, the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF).
Referring to the August 2007 congressional mass exodus to the Terror State, Paul Craig Roberts writes:
According to news reports, another 40 are following these two groups during the August recess, and “by the time the year is out every single member of Congress will have made their rounds in Israel.” This claim is probably overstated, but it does show careful Israeli management of U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Former Israeli Knesset Member Uri Avenim hits the nail on the head in the final paragraphs of his article The Best Senate Money Can Buy, originally published by Haaretz:
In the US Congress they talk, not only of granting Israel the money it asks for, but also of exciting initiatives of goodwill as, for example, the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such steps are bound, of course, to undermine the US position and prestige in all the Islamic states; but such considerations do not worry most Congress and Senate members overmuch, as their sole aim is to be re-elected.
The paying of donations to US administration officials is considered one of the most vital sections of Israeli expenditure. Once having paid these tributes to US officials, Israel is thus guaranteed, in return, huge sums of money in the form of US grants.
For the $4.25m Israel has paid to prime the US Congress, Israel will receive a US grant totalling $2.6bn. for its money, therefore, Israel will have struck the bargain of the century, receiving an interest of 60,000 per cent on its original investment. The extra grant to Israel will increase that interest even more.
Had it been possible to cure the Israeli economic disease with the flood of US dollars, there would have been no problem. The problem is that all this cash flow is to no avail for, according to many economic experts, such arrangements make the situation even more complicated.
One thing, however, is quite clear: Israel is not the 51st state of the United States of America, as some would like to think; rather, the US Congress is one of the occupied areas of Israel.
Update: There are now a total of 45 Jews in Congress - 32 in the House and 13 in the Senate - setting an all time record. See 'Record no. of Jews elected to Congress', Jerusalem Post, November 5.
