Biden to appear at AIPAC

[oberliner]

Source: Politico

Vice President Joe Biden will headline the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference, which begins tomorrow in Washington, D.C., a source at the group said.

The announcement that Biden will speak Monday morning comes a day after a victory for the group and the pro-Israel community; the Justice Department decided to drop charges of mishandling classified information against two former AIPAC staffers.

The conference, a chance for AIPAC to flex its unmatched Beltway muscle, is expected draw 6,500 people, and a phalanx of top officials of both parties. Other speakers include Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, Newt Gingrich and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as congressional leaders Steny Hoyer, Dick Durbin, Eric Cantor, and John Kyl. The event typically draws more members of Congress than any outside a joint session or State of the Union.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/Biden_to_appear_at_AIPAC.html

[rateyes]

1. Puke

:puke:

[aquart]

4. Rateyes. Appropriate.

[rateyes]

22. Yep. AIPAC makes me sick to my stomach, and any politician

speaking there makes me :puke: Very appropriate.

[karynnj]

45. Shouldn't it depend on what is said?

The fact is if the US is to be a force for good in the middle east, they need to be trusted by both sides. This is an interest group that needs to be given reasons to take a less aggressive approach. The leaders speaking have as much ability to move those listening - many of whom are opinion leaders - as the AIPAC people have of moving the leaders.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Purveyor]

6. OH MY!!!

:fistbump:

[Lena inRI]

10. Rep. Jane Harman would be a more fitting speaker. . .

. . .what with her favored status with AIPAC now that the recent spy case is closed.

My only hope is that Vice President Biden has a trick up his sleeve. . .

give in a bit to the opposition (close spy case) before slamming down the gavel (insist on two-state solution of Palestine-Israel). . .

PLEASE, JOE. . . LET IT BE.

just sayin'.

:smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:

[oberliner]

13. Jane Harman is also speaking at the conference nt

[IndianaGreen]

16. Traitors of a feather, all flock together!

Perhaps they can all listen to the NSA wiretaps of Harman kissing the ass of AIPAC's spies and money men.

[LeftishBrit]

12. Isn't that a wee bit McCarthyite?

I don't like what I know of AIPAC; but calling political opponents 'un-American' or 'un-British', etc. is the first step down a very slippery slope.

There have been a few real spies (there were some real spies for Russia in McCarthy's time if it comes to that); but that doesn't mean that every AIPAC supporter/member is a spy or traitor - any more than every leftist was then.

[Name removed]

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[karynnj]

46. Great post

[buckrogers1965]

5. Why do we allow the AIPAC so much power?

Can you imagine how much a politician would be trashed for supporting a Chinese lobby group that had close ties to the Chinese government?

[defendandprotect]

24. Why have we given the right wing power everywhere? Did we????

I doubt we did ---

There is only one way that the right can come to power --

political violence and stolen elections --

The e-voting computers began coming in during the mid/late-1960's . . .

coincidentally just about the time we passed The Voting Rights Act!

Democrats may have been giving this some thought about the time of Watergate -- !!??

[mule_train]

35. AIPAC is the perfect lobbying/foreign aid feedback loop

taxpayer gives money to Israel

Israel gives money to AIPAC

AIPAC lobbys for more money for Israel

taxpayer gives money to Israel

Israel gives money to AIPAC

AIPAC lobbys for more money for Israel

taxpayer gives money to Israel

Israel gives money to AIPAC

AIPAC lobbys for more money for Israel

(and rest assured, the bailed out banks lick their chops when they study this political model)

[go west young man]

7. America continues to stumble forward.

Seems like not much has changed. At least the hypocrisy is plain for everybody to see these days. First the AIPAC scandal, then the Harman revelations, then the AIPAC spys get a free pass, then Biden goes and gives a we support you chat to AIPAC. America's foreign policy has always been it's Achilles heel. We need to change.

[Amiga500]

8. Lets hope he makes another slip of the tongue, bringing attention

to this sleazy group yet again.

:grr:

[Baby Snooks]

9. The more things change...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Name removed]

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[IndianaGreen]

15. Can American Jews unplug the Israel lobby? (Salon)

Can American Jews unplug the Israel lobby?

As Bush's unbalanced Mideast policies careen from disaster to disaster, people who don't toe the AIPAC line are beginning to speak out.

By Gary Kamiya

March 20, 2007 | Last week, a familiar Washington ritual took place: Leading American politicians from both parties lined up at the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to vie with each other over who could pledge the most undying fealty to Israel. As usual, much of Congress showed up -- half of the members of the U.S. Senate and more than half of the House, including figures like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, along with Vice President Dick Cheney.

It was a typical AIPAC parallel-universe extravaganza, marred only by partisan rifts that have begun to appear over Iraq. (Even some of the AIPAC crowd, who overwhelmingly supported the war at the outset, have begun to realize that it has been a disaster for both the United States and Israel.) Cheney got a standing ovation, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said via a video link that winning the war in Iraq was important for Israel, Nancy Pelosi was booed for criticizing the war, a fire-breathing Christian dispensationalist who believes that war on Iran will bring about the Rapture and the Second Coming was rapturously greeted, and Barack Obama took heat for having the audacity to mention the suffering of the Palestinians.

But AIPAC showed its true power -- and its continuing ability to steer American Mideast policy in a disastrous direction -- when a group of conservative and pro-Israel Democrats succeeded in removing language from a military appropriations bill that would have required Bush to get congressional approval before using military force against Iran.

The pro-Israel lobby's victory on the Iran bill is almost unbelievable. Even after the nation repudiated the Iraq war decisively in the 2006 midterms, even after it has become clear that the Bush administration's Middle East policy is severely unbalanced toward Israel and has damaged America's standing in the world, Congress still cannot bring itself to stand up to the AIPAC line.

The fact that AIPAC, which is ranked as the second-most powerful lobby in the country (trailing only AARP, but ahead of the NRA) virtually dictates U.S. policy in the Mideast has long been one of those surreal facts of Washington life that politicians discuss only when they get near retirement -- if then. In 2004, Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings had the bad taste to reveal this inconvenient truth when he said, "You can't have an Israel policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here." Michael Massing, who has done exemplary reporting on AIPAC for the New York Review of Books, quoted a congressional staffer as saying, "We can count on well over half the House -- 250 to 300 members -- to do reflexively whatever AIPAC wants." In unguarded moments, even top AIPAC figures have confirmed such claims. The New Yorker's Jeffrey Goldberg quoted Steven Rosen, AIPAC's former foreign-policy director who is now awaiting trial on charges of passing top-secret Pentagon information to Israel, as saying, "You see this napkin? In twenty-four hours, we could have the signatures of seventy senators on this napkin."

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2007/03/20/aipac/

[defendandprotect]

25. We can if we stop funding Israel's warmongering . . . !!!

Israel and US weapons production is also so closely intertwined that you almost

can't tell the difference between them!!! We give them $15 million a day in aid!!


When Nixon came to power there was a lot of concern because everyone knew he was

anti-Jewish. But what Nixon did was to arm right-wing, religiously fundamental Israel --

sound familiar?

That pretty much has buried the liberal, peace-loving Israelis.

I doubt that PM Rabin was working out very well for the US/CIA, either ---

coincidentally, Rabin was assassinated and Netanyou is one of the right wingers

suspected of being involved. I'd also imagine our CIA had a hand in it.

"Murder In The Name of God" --

This is another reason why organized patriarchal religion is so unhealthy for us all!!!

[IndianaGreen]

17. Haim Saban was the financier referred to in the Harman NSA wiretap

Interesting background on Wolf Blitzer, former AIPAC propagandist.

Why AIPAC Took Over Brookings

by Grant F. Smith / November 21st, 2007

AIPAC’s influence in the US news media leads to curious and generally unnoticed subsidiary alumni reunions. On June 14, 2007, following a Hamas takeover of Palestinian installations in Gaza, Wolf Blitzer invited Dennis Ross into the CNN situation room to give his perspective on the instability. Customarily, Dennis Ross’s new book and WINEP affiliation were mentioned; AIPAC and the pervasive Israel connection were not. Equally unmentioned were Wolf Blitzer’s former career as a reporter and editor of the Near East Report (AIPAC’s newsletter) in the 1970s or his authorship of a comprehensive apologia downplaying the damage caused to the US by Jonathan Pollard’s spying for Israel in his book Territory of Lies.9

Although WINEP’s media influence is growing, compared to other think tanks, AIPAC’s ability to place public policy messages in the news media through WINEP was comparatively limited until 2002. Thanks to a timely “acquisition,” AIPAC and WINEP can now count on broader promulgation of AIPAC policy ideas through the Brookings Institution, one of the oldest and most highly regarded public policy think tanks in the United States.

The Saban Center for Middle East Policy

Brookings Institution Middle East policy research was placed under the direction of former AIPAC deputy director for research Martin Indyk in May of 2002. In an Internet video presenting the Saban Center, Indyk vastly understates both Haim Saban’s biography and his contribution to Brookings by referring to it as merely the “generosity of a Los Angeles businessman.” In 2006, Forbes magazine more accurately described Saban as the 98th richest person in America and the “Egyptian-born, Israeli-raised, now-American cartoon king.”10Indyk does not, however, understate how assembling hand-picked researchers to produce tightly messaged policy research can be thought of as “a business” in his Saban Center introductory video.

Haim Saban, a, uh, businessman in Los Angeles, came to Brookings with a desire to see us do more work on the Middle East issue. On the issues of the peace process, and terrorism, and the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and energy issues. And, uh, was prepared to put up the funds to get the center started. Through Haim Saban’s generosity, we are now able to launch a much larger effort to promote innovative policies, research and analysis that brings together the best minds in the business.11

It is useful to carry Indyk’s “business” analogy a bit further. In 2003, Haim Saban led the $5.7 billion purchase of Kirch Media Group; in 2001, News Corporation and Saban sold Fox Family Worldwide for $5.1 billion. Saban was part of an investor group that won the bid for Univision, the biggest Spanish-language media corporation in the United States, in June of 2006. Financially speaking, Saban’s $13 million Brookings investment secured control over one of the most financially robust as well as influential policy think tanks. In 2005, the Brookings Institution’s net assets totaled $269,660,363.12 From Saban’s perspective as a savvy media player concerned with promoting the policies of Israel’s government, taking over Brookings Middle East policy by launching the Saban Center in 2002 was yet another sound and extremely timely business investment — this time, in the marketplace of ideas. According to 2002 research by media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Brookings led think tanks in total US media influence, measured by the number of policy analyst and report citations appearing in major US media.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/why-aipac-took-over-brookings/

[pyro858]

18. AIPAC is all about Israel

They couldn't care a less about America- they just want our money. And they get it. Sad our politicians are so spineless but most of them would and do put Israel before America. Obama and biden won't be getting my vote again.

[IndianaGreen]

19. Actually, no! AIPAC represents the interests of Israel's rightwing

not the interests of Israel, and Israelis as a whole.

After our politicians sided with the mortgage bankers against the mortgage holders, I expect nothing but the worse from them.

[KittyWampus]

38. No, AIPAC is all about a far-right group of Israeli NeoCons

[Babel_17]

20. Google search ftw

http://www.google.com/search?q=glenn+greenwald+AIPAC

http://www.google.com/search?q=eric+alterman+AIPAC

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[Jim Sagle]

23. AIPAC RRRRAWWWWWXXXXXXXX!!!!

:beer::party::toast::bounce::thumbsup::hi::pals::fistbump::headbang::applause:

[Name removed]

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[BunkerHill24]

26. AIPAC is the biggest threat to America's interest and national security

They should lose their lobbying license and their tax exempt status, period.

[Behind the Aegis]

27. ....

:rofl:

[Sezu]

41. Oh let him be. He obviously doesn't know that the

ELDERS are far more powerful!!!!

LOL

[IndianaGreen]

30. AIPAC should be registered as agents of a foreign government

and they do pose an existential threat to our sovereignty.

[Name removed]

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[harun]

43. Agree.

[wuushew]

28. Biden is so gaffe prone it doesn't even matter.

An undying American support speech will probably come out as a comical declaration of war.

[Name removed]

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[Dutch]

32. Good for him. n/t

[IndianaGreen]

33. BOHICA

and an utter embarrassment!

[Muttocracy]

36. will be interested to hear what Kerry says; Biden will be giving the administration policy. nt

[Demeter]

37. Hope He Counts All His Appendages Before He Leaves the Room

[IndianaGreen]

39. And checks his wallet

Not one of Biden's finest hours.

[jillan]

40. Biden has been very firm with Israel in the past but whatever he and Kerry say on Monday

will be the message of this administration.

[karynnj]

44. Biden yes, Kerry not definately so

Biden as VP is part of the administration, while Kerry is the top foreign policy person in Congress, an independent branch of government. By all accounts, he is close to both Obama and to Biden, but he can have a position that is different from the administration's.

I hope that Kerry uses this opportunity to speak frankly and openly to AIPAC, speaking both of the support that the US always gives to Israel but calling on them to ask Israel to step up to its own values. When Kerry visited the Middle East, he was among the first US officials to go to Gaza in years and he saw the overwhelming damage done. He also spoke to Israelis afterward asking why pasta was stopped at the border, resulting in that rule being changed. He has had a hearing of the SFRC on reaching out to the Muslim world. I am not saying he should condemn Israel, but that he should honestly address the problems and opportunity. The US does not help Israel by speaking completely uncritically. This was brought home to me recently at my synagogue.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a synagogue event where an Iman originally from Turkey spoke to us about the impact of the war in Gaza on Israel's reputation in the middle east and world. He was part of a group working on interfaith issues that my rabbi is part of. He has spent the last several years speaking to US Muslims trying to improve the relationship between Jews and Muslims. He had 3 talks scheduled early this year - and all were canceled because of the fighting. He told us their are mosques where he is no longer welcome. He spoke of how that war lost Israel it's friendly relationship with Turkey.

All this was said to a Jewish audience. Many were stunned that this had made things so much worse. He also spoke of how American Jews and Americans in general were less critical of Israel's actions than public opinion in Israel itself. In fact when someone asked for a good source of news that would better capture what was happening - he first recommended H'aaretz, which is Jewish. Among American Jews, people who support AIPAC are the most extreme in not wanting to hear criticism. I hope that Kerry, or anyone, tries to move this extreme group towards a more moderate stance. I am aware that anyone who does this will likely face a lot of flack, but at some point it needs to be done.

[jillan]

48. Biden has said it to them in the past, but if he dares to say anything like that this week

Obama definitely will move him to Antartica ;)

Both Kerry and Biden will be there to deliver Obama's message, which I believe (?) is pro Aipac.

My brother lives in an area that is heavily populated by Orthodox Jews, and he is so frustrated because you cannot even have a conversation with them about Israel.
I just hate that because of groups like Aipac, there is so much anti-semitism in the world.
That's like saying all Americans are like Bush.

I didn't know you were Jewish - so am I.

[karynnj]

51. Why do you think that Kerry wil be there to deliver Obama's message

The fact is that though Kerry was the main foreign policy surrogate for Obama last year, he has said many times that he will work with the administration, but that he does not work for them. It may well be that their positions might be the same, but Kerry really does have the right and independence to give his own view in his speech.

I have never read anything that Biden has said that is close to what I am meaning. He has actually questioned AIPAC's positions less than Kerry has. Kerry voted for the amendment on cluster bombs that they wanted defeated, while Biden voted against it.

I am lucky that I belong to a fantastic synagogue which has had many discussions on the middle east. In fact, that was wheer I learned about Brit Tzedak V'Shalom (Jewish alliance of Justice and Peace) - which advocates for a two state solution. (http://www.btvshalom.org/ )

[jillan]

52. I just meant that Kerry is going as chair of the SFRC.

I didn't mean to suggest anything.

We'll see what happens, and what is said.

You know what I love about you karyn? The way you have Kerry's back is the way I have Biden's back.
If anyone says anything about Kerry, you can respond with facts...just like I can about Biden.
No one better mess with Kerry when you are around :hug: I hope he knows what a great spokesperson you are for him.

[karynnj]

54. Thanks for the compliment, but here there was no need or intent to defend

Kerry, or for that matter, Biden. I did not take your comment as criticism and I hope that mine was not taken as criticism of Biden. Their roles are different and there is an advantage to each. What Biden says will be taken as the administration's position - a position that he had huge input into creating. If President Obama disagrees with a significant statement there, they will and should put out an official statement correcting it. That is unlikely to happen as the speech will be discussed and vetted. Biden's speech will be enormously important because I think it will be the first official speech concentrating on the middle east or a major, on the record speech on Iran.

Kerry's speech will not be seen as an official policy of the Obama administration, even though he is considered to be one of the people Obama respects on foreign policy. This gives Kerry the freedom to give a speech that is 100% his own view - and he has given several such speeches on foreign policy in the past on different issues. He also is at the start of a 6 year term and representing a state where he will likely have, if anything, an easier time getting reflected 5 and a half years from now than he had this time - getting 69% of the vote in the primary and 67% in the general election. This gives him the ability, if he chooses to do it, to speak truth to AIPAC even as he expresses support for the people of Israel just as he did at various times to the US government over our actions. The question is whether he could do so in a way where he retains the respect Israel has for him or whether acting as a lightening rod on this would move opinion and let the Obama administration move slightly in that direction without being attacked.

If he does, the reaction will be unpleasant. AIPAC has supporters all over the media - even as we both know they don't represent the majority of American Jewry. You no doubt have seen how Jimmy Carter is treated. (Opinions here on DU or DKOS are completely out of the mainstream. That is why every major politician in both parties has never really pushed on this. In 2007, those in the Presidential race seemed to compete for who could pander the most. Not to mention the DU/DKOS version of truth is likely far more extreme than Kerry's - so there is very likely little up side as the left will see it as too weak.)

[jillan]

42. FYI - Aipac is not a Biden fan - and here is why -

Sept 28, 2008
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2008/09/03/999557/biden-on-the-line
But the spiciest moment came when JTA's Ron Kampeas asked him about the Republican Jewish Coalition's efforts to highlight times when he broke with AIPAC on specific issues. "AIPAC does not speak for the entire American Jewish community," Biden said. "There's other organizations as strong and as consequential." Biden quickly added that his disagreements with AIPAC are always tactical, never about the big picture. Still, it's not the boilerplate stuff that you usually get from senators when you ask about the pro-Israel lobby.

[Jennicut]

47. Exactly. He has slammed them in the past.

[jillan]

49. I don't think he will be doing that this week tho.

He's there to deliver Obama's message & me thinks he'll be sticking to it ;)

[Jennicut]

53. True. This group is not on my favorite list however.

I hope the message sent is that the administration will not give into the right wing in Israel.

[karynnj]

50. slammed may be taking it too far

He has disagreed with them, but I really don't remember any comment that camd close to "slammed".