It is hard to believe that the lobby (call it the Israel Lobby, the Jewish Lobby or whatever) is going to oppose President Obama’s choice of former Senator Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense in the name of Jews.
And don’t kid yourself, when the lobby speaks, it is in the name of all of us.
I worked at AIPAC for four years. I worked in the House and Senate for 20. And at the State Department for three.
And I can tell you that when AIPAC (and its satellites like the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council Of Public Affairs, and the Conference of Presidents Of Major Jewish Organizations) lobby Congress and the White House, it is in the name of Jews. In fact, when AIPAC testifies before Congress, it states that it is speaking for all major Jewish organizations i.e, the Jewish community.
That is why the lobby has the power it does. And the ability to intimidate the government, the media, etc. The lobby claims to speak for the Jews.
And it’s a lie. Most Jews are not represented by the lobby at all. Most Jews are not members of any of the groups that constitute the lobby. Only about half are even members of synagogues.
The lobby does, however, speak for a few thousand single-issue Israel advocates with lots of money. It is those people Congress is catering to when it passes all those AIPAC-drafted bills bashing the Palestinians, sanctioning Iran, or cheering Israel’s attacks on Gazans. And it is those people, and only those people, that legislators and media hacks are sucking up to when they issue their denunciations of Chuck Hagel for not toeing the line.
None of this is new. This is who the lobby is and how it operates. And, thus far, as damaging as its efforts have been to Israel, to Palestine, and to America’s standing in the world, the reputation of American Jews in general has not been tarnished.
That could change if the lobby, speaking in our name, challenges the right of the President of the United States to choose a Secretary of Defense without the lobby’s interference. How, in God’s name, does any group dedicated to the interests of any foreign country have the right to tell a President who can be in charge of American security? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee does not, or it should not. Nor should all those other organizations which take their cues from AIPAC and the Netanyahu government.
To put it mildly, the lobby’s opposition to Hagel is utterly inappropriate. And it endangers the standing of Jews in the best homeland we have ever had: the United States.
It needs to stand down. Yes, it has the theoretical “right” to lobby against Hagel. And it has the right to line up GLBT and other groups to oppose Hagel so it does not look like it is just Israel’s cutouts who are trying to block a war hero from leading the Pentagon.
But that “right” should not be exercised unless the lobby and its acolytes and flunkies (particularly in Congress) make clear that they are acting not for the benefit of American Jews or even Israel but to serve a few thousand millionaires and billionaires whose continued campaign contributions they seek.
It may be the Jewish Lobby, but only in the sense that it is composed of the Jewish organizations (with their tiny memberships) and some Jewish millionaires. But it does not represent us, the Jews, who are overwhelmingly liberal, dovish on foreign policy issues including Israel, and not particularly Israel-centered.
According to every poll, only a few thousand Jews vote or give money based on Israel. And they certainly are not opposed to Chuck Hagel; in fact, he is the kind of Republican Jews like, in contrast to the evangelical types and right-wingers who rush to the barricades every time AIPAC or Netanyahu sound their trumpet. Unlike the lobby, most American Jews wants peace for Israel, support a Palestinian state and are not, in any way, loyal to Binyamin Netanyahu. (The last Israeli prime minister they were devoted to was Yitzhak Rabin and it was precisely because he sought peace with the Palestinians).
The bottom line is that the lobby should let the President have the Secretary of Defense he wants. A few thousand rich reactionaries (the Jewish 1%) does not have the right to make all of us look members of Team Netanyahu. The lobby’s opposition to Hagel is bad for Jews. Period. It should back off.
The Jews are to America what Americans are to the world: Americans have given the former, and citizens of the world the latter, the benefit of the doubt for far too long. It’s time Jews stood up and said this is not what our religion is about, it’s time Americans stood up and said this is not what our country is about. Now! Now! Now!
It appears that by choosing HAGEL Obama is (to an extent at least) backing away from war conducted with American troops. However, by proposing BREBBAN for CIA, he is choosing a big proponent of assassination-by-drone, torture, kidnapping (called rendition and often a prelude to torture), etc., all of Bush’s bad-practices, updated and expanded.
My take is that Obama wishes (for whatever reason) to reduce American war-by-troops and increase American-war-by-technology (drones as an example).
I promote HAGEL and decry BRENNAN.
Largely and ultimately, the Jewish Lobbies represent the interests of the Settlers – the Fundamentalists who are every bit as wild and insane (and stupid) as their Muslim and Christian counterparts but who wield, sadly, far more power. Israelis have told me privately that, in the event of two-state-solution, they would dread having Settler neighbors move in far more than Arabs!
The problem for American Jews who dissent from AIPAC’s extremism is that, if they do speak out, the social and career consequences can be catastrophic; to which Mr Rosenberg himself can likely attest – and life is otherwise so comfortable. Also, when talking to gentiles, Jews are brainwashed to believe that they must show solidarity – and so far this bastion is largely holding.
You’ve got that right; we should strive to relabel the lobby: it’s not the Jewish lobby; it’s not the Israel lobby; it’s not even the Likud lobby. It’s the Settler lobby.
Actually Jews or lobbies in America have become too powerful and too biast and look only the interest of Israel and not the americans and I would wonder if not the same thing happen in America like in Germany as that was not suddenly as Hitler used hatred against Jews.
I don,t follow if Jews were victim of Hitler why they repeat the stories with Palestinians. In fact I welcome the oüpposition of Chuck Hagel by Jewish lobbies as they will be punished one day as a minority is minority. Don,t forget others are also in America who are fighting for their rights will add to Jewish attrocities in the world as Americans are fighting for Jews in the middle east on wrong or false allegations.
I wish that Jews even try to bribe all senators and congress men to block Hagel.
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Actually Jews or lobbies in America have become too powerful and too biast and look only the interest of Israel and not the americans and I would wonder if not the same thing happen in America like in Germany as that was not suddenly as Hitler used hatred against Jews.
I don,t follow if Jews were victim of Hitler why they repeat the stories with Palestinians. In fact I welcome the oüpposition of Chuck Hagel by Jewish lobbies as they will be punished one day as a minority is minority. Don,t forget others are also in America who are fighting for their rights will add to Jewish attrocities in the world as Americans are fighting for Jews in the middle east on wrong or false allegations.
I wish that Jews even try to bribe all senators and congress men to block Hagel.
I can’t believe that AIPAC doesn’t represent all Jews,or at least the great majority of them.The American Jews who live in Israel voted 85%for Romney.The Israelis are also conquered by Bibi,the king of Israel.The J-street is not so far from AIPAC,so how much remain to be different.In Israel ,we will see sooner,the right wing is stronger and stronger.In fact always was the same but many mask their options under apparently ‘leftist” parties.like Labor.The actual chief of labor recognized that her party never was a lefty party.However,because the continue move toward extreme right who once was judged rightly as a “rightist”became a “leftist”:Ariel Sharon,Olmert,Livni.Bibi will be also a leftist after elections when Naftali Bennet will be known.Kaniouk,a writer of 82 age years called Bewnnet a nazy with kippa.
I don’t like it when a Rabbi tells non-congregants to support Israel.
I don’t like it when a Catholic Bishop tells non-congregants to deplore abortion.
Or even to advise arms-control (tho I support such advice when made by citizens).
I don’t like it when a Protestant Minister tells non-congregants to hate gays.
None of them speak for me. If I am a Jew (who is a Jew, anyhow?) AIPAC does not speak for me no matter what it claims. Its claim is a fraud. It is an antisemitic fraud. Probably no legal recourse for me, though.
This is part of the danger of the American system of governance which allows political speech by anyone even if they are not citizens acting in their own right. (Is that what all those Rabbis, Bishops, and Ministers are doing? Doesn’t seem so.)
BIG BANKS, BIG COAL, BIG OIL, BIG ARMS, BIG PHARMA do it too, as we all know. It is not only BIG-ZION and various elements of BIG-RELIGION. Political speech (electoral, issues, lobbying) belongs only to citizens and their PACs, not to corporations, and the annual cumulative per-person political spending of Americans should be limited. That’d take care of AIPAC, KOCHs, BIG-BANKS, etc.
As I gentile I do understand that American Jews are not a monolithic group, but it would also be good if more Jews took public stands against and exposing the lobby. I’ve seen too many synagogues with posters inside and out screaming, “We stand with Israel!” while touting all their charity work for the suffering people of Dafur. As long as the lobby controls the NYT and WaPo and Charles Krauthammer et al. are permitted to be the loudest voices in the mainstream, people have a hard time really believing that there are millions of Amer Jews who don’t agree with Likud b/c we never really get to hear them except for MJ.
That is a valid point Martha. I’m very vocal on certain platforms where I do use my name, and have managed to anger quite a few family members. I was also married to a Muslim from Pakistan for 5 years – some family members were not too happy about that.
But, aside from that, I do belong to several Jewish organizations that represent that view for a two-state solution, organizations that abhor the way that Palestinians have been treated for quite a while. Do you know of the two organizations Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Justice for Palestinians or J-Street? There really are millions of Jews who feel as I do.
What is interesting is that since I do believe in a two-state solution, I’m not right wong militant so hard-line right-wing Jews/Israelis don’t like me, and because I believe that Israel does have a right to be, a lot of arabs/Palestinians/Muslims call me a wicked Zionist. I don’t really care. I believe that everyone has the right to have a home, live in peace free of fear, and live a life with the possibility to improve.
Both J street andJVP are members of the Israel Lobby..may come as a surprise to some of you, but it is most certainly true…
The problem is not the “Lobby”, but the Congress and the Administration in Washington. They simply don’t have the balls to stand up and tell it to mind its own business.
It’s worse than that, harry shade. If it were just a matter of balls, some would grow a pair. Try two other B’s: blackmail and black-balling. You think the Lobby will sit down if Hagel stands up and tells it to mind its own business?
My response was to Rosenberg’s blog post, not what you wrote.
But how did we make it that the lobby speaks for all of us? I have never had a thing to do with the lobby. In fact, I belong to organizations that pretty vehemently oppose what the lobby stands for and says. I did not make it that way. Politics made it that way, and money – big money.
I completely and totally agree with you. As a Jew, I am ashamed of the lobby. And although I am sad about the comments Hagel made about the LGBT community, and I abhor them, it would also be a great thing to have someone as Sec of Defense who did not automatically bow down to the lobby. I’m really sick and tired of this BS. The lobby does not represent me or most other Jews I know.