Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy

So I basically finished this book, save for maybe one last chapter. But I was too anxious to get to the chapter on the Iraq War. Anyway, essentially, if Bush and Rice weren't so worthless, didn't cave into pro-Israel pressure all the time, and if Rice's trips to the Middle East weren't so futile, perhaps we could have avoided war in Iraq. Post September 11, we fought and won sort of in Afghanistan, although we did not capture bin Laden. Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak pushed for war in Iraq, giving the White House Israeli intelligence saying they found evidence that Hussein was building WMD and that he was supporting terrorist groups. When in fact he was not, and Israeli intelligence was only trying to provoke the US into war with a facade of protecting Israel (even though it does no such thing). And anyway, Israel is making its own WMD.

Anyway. I hope the neocons die. If I had a death note I'd probably kill them. I finished watching Death Note, this anime about a guy that picks up a note. If he writes someone's name in it they'll die of a heart attack in 40 seconds. Then people start to notice that criminals are dying of heart attacks, and the super detective known only as "L" tries to capture the killer. It turns into a psychological game essentially, with L and Kira (the killer's nickname) pretending to be friends, but L trying to get evidence of Kira's killings, and Kira trying to get L's real name so he can kill him. The first half is really good, then the second half isn't as good, but not bad or anything.

You can search Death Note here, like "Death Note 1" etc.

2 comments:

mirthbottle said...

sad

but why is the israel lobby so powerful anyway? just because of money? that doesn't seem to make sense.

I, Lynnbot said...

money is a big reason. apparently pro-israel groups will meet with candidates for the Senate or House, and if they establish that the candidate is an absolute supporter of Israel and Israel's security, they give the candidate a list of donors to call (members of pro-israel groups). So they provide candidates for Congress a substantial source of campaign funds, as well as neo-conservative and Jewish votes. Pro-Israel groups consist of Jews, neo-conservatives, and Christian Zionists and other Christian conservatives.

Also, every time someone says anything to support a two-state solution, pro-Israel forces immediately attack them and call them anti-Semites. Like Jimmy Carter wrote the book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" that was sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and suffering, and he was labeled an anti-Semite, and the book received a tremendous backlash. Howard Dean also once said we should consider a more evenhanded approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and he was immediately attacked by many influential neocons and pro-Israel people as anti-Semitic.

And Bush did try to push for a two-state solution, to his credit, but Congress refused to support him. So he caved.

Also, the pro-Israel lobby (which is composed of a number of different groups that may or may not be actually lobby groups, but that work for the same goal: to make sure US foreign policy is all for Israel) controls most of the national media. Like any columnist on the major newspapers, such as Washington Post or NYTimes, will likely be sympathetic to Israel, and will never critcize its actions. Nowadays, there is a bit more concern for Palestinian suffering, but that's a recent development.

Anyway that's mostly where their power comes from. Money, control over media, control over Congress.