Smears for Fears: Wes Clark Just Got Caught up in the Rigged Rules for ... Israel-Related Issues

[marmar]

from the American Prospect, via CommonDreams:


Published on Friday, January 26, 2007 by The American Prospect
Smears for Fears
Wes Clark Just Got Caught up in the Rigged Rules for Discussing Israel-Related Issues in America
by Matthew Yglesias

Retired General Wesley Clark is, like me, concerned that the Bush administration is going to launch a war with Iran. Arianna Huffington spoke to him in early January and asked why he was so worried the administration was headed in this direction. According to Huffington's January 4 recounting of Clark's thoughts, he said this: "You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers."

This, of course, is true. I'm Jewish and I don't think the United States should bomb Iran, but Thursday night I was talking to a Jewish friend and she does think the United States should bomb Iran. The Jewish community, in short, is divided on the issue. It's also true that most major American Jewish organizations cater to the views of extremely wealthy major donors whose political views are well to the right of the bulk of American Jews, one of the most liberal ethnic groups in the country. Furthermore, it's true that major Jewish organizations are trying to push the country into war. And, last, it's true that if you read the Israeli press you'll see that right-wing Israeli politicians are anticipating a military confrontation with Iran. (For example, here's an article about the timing of the selection of a new top dog in the Israeli Defense Forces; Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted as saying that the new leader "will have to straighten the army out, rebuild Israel's deterrence and prepare the defenses against threats, first and foremost, against Iran.")

Everything Clark said, in short, is true. What's more, everybody knows it's true. The worst that can truthfully be said about Clark is that he expressed himself in a slightly odd way. This, it seems clear, he did because it's a sensitive issue and he worried that if he spoke plainly he'd be accused of trafficking in anti-Semitism. So he spoke unclearly and, for his trouble, got … accused of trafficking in anti-Semitism.

James Taranto, who writes the hack "Best of the Web" column for the online version of The Wall Street Journal's hack editorial page, likened Clark's views on this to the notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Scott Johnson of the influential and moronic right-wing Power Line blog argued that "Clark's comments are not simply 'anti-Israel,'" and asked "s it a only a matter only of parochial concern to American Jews that they are now to be stigmatized without consequence in the traditional disgusting terms -- terms that used to result in eviction from the precincts of polite society -- by a major figure in the Democratic Party?"

Needless to say, Clark did not stigmatize American Jews. Indeed, he went out of his way to note that the American Jewish community is divided on the issue. Michael Barone's sneering attack on Clark also managed, almost incidentally, to reveal Barone's own understanding that Clark's remarks are substantially correct. Barone observed that it's "interesting to see a Democratic presidential hopeful denounce 'the New York money people,' people whom Clark spent some time with in 2003-04. ......(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0126-29.htm

[Benhurst]

1. Recommended #1

[redqueen]

2. K&R

*sigh*

[ShortnFiery]

3. I'm beginning to take a closer look toward voting for Clark.

It seems that this man, like Dennis Kucinich, is NOT corruptible to the corporate elite and guerrilla lobbyists. :thumbsup:

[ms liberty]

4. K&R...this is a subject we really need to deal with in this country...

I support Israel's right to exist, and their right to defend themselves against attack from other nations. But I don't like that our government supports them without question, even when it is against our own interests or the interests of fairness and justice. We should be trying to find ways to make a lasting peace in the middle east, not trying to kill or decimate anyone who disagrees with us or refuses to accept our dominance. I'm sick of the whole thing...and I blame all sides on this issue. They're all contributing to the tensions and making things worse. If they want to live in peace, they need to stop killing each other. An eye for an eye will make everyone blind...

[teryang]

5. Clark's words reveal the spin tactics of war advocates, who...

...happen to be the big bankers. This includes the private owners of the Federal Reserve and the big investment bankers. It's all about the petrodollar. Iraq stopped taking dollars. Iraq was invaded based upon a litany of lies. Iran talks of its new oil bourse, where petrodollars will not be used. Therefore, Iran faces attack.

All the above has nothing to do with anti-semitism, Clarks comments correctly link the US impulse to attack Iran to the crucial petrodollar. If the dollar isn't used for international oil purchases, it will collapse below important support and a financial panic will occur in the US. Saudi Arabia breached its OPEC obligations. Its intent was to lower the price of oil and bolster the dollar. This was a quid pro quo for the so called surge strategy in Iraq. SA and the Arab Persian Gulf states are intimidated by the complete breakdown of Iraq on their border and the emergence of a new center of Shia power.

Once the dollar was saved from a plunge below eighty by the January oil glut, the announcement of the new SPR purchases was made to keep the petrodollar rangebound. For the goldilocks petrodollar, oil prices cannot be too hot, nor too cold. The economic embargo (warfare) on Iran is a stopgap, hoping for a toppling of Iran's currently petrodollar hostile regime. If peaceful nuclear power works in Iran, and Russia and China developes Iran crude and natural gas, more foreign reserves will be denominated in other than petrodollars and Iranian economic strength will increase. This is the reason for those to advocate attacks on Iran.

The anti Israel, anti-semite issues are a smokescreen for the imperial objectives of the elite Anglo-American families who own the nation's huge accummulations of (paper) capital. Clark wasn't talking about "jews" he was talking about these bankers. If his remarks are interpreted as a referral to jews, the American Imperialist class can hide behind this spurious mischaracterization.

[Recursion]

6. American bankers are largely Anglican...

...European bankers were at one point largely Jewish. American bankers funded the anti-Semitism that ended in the Shoah and Medinat Yisrael.

Now, forgive some grandiloquent tinfoil haberdashery here, but I do think there is a fairly massive worldwide conspiracy to limit Jewish financial and politcal influence, and the creation of the state of Israel was a large part of it. But that's just me.

[teryang]

9. most are WASPs, that's what they call them in poly sci 101

i don't think there is any conspiracy to limit Jewish financial and political influence. We pay for the Israeli military, subsidized their wars, allowed them to have nuclear weapons, and veto anything against them in the UN.

[Burried News]

7. Might be of interest.

http://www.realnews247.com/featured_story_wesley_clark's_jewish_connection.htm
"The latest candidate with a Jewish connection to throw his hat into the ring is retired General Wesley K. Clark (photo, right). According to some Jewish news sources, the telegenic former NATO commander during the Bosnian War (who some have accused of war crimes) and a player in the deadly assault of the Branch Davidians in Waco proudly boasts of coming from sturdy rabbinical stock. "

Know nothing about the site ... first google hit.

[PATRICK]

8. By spiraling necessity

and an enforced moral tragedy from Hitler on to a divided world with israel in noman'sland, central and ever more secretive Israeli policy has been becoming what the farcical myths of hatred(from the same evil historical sources) have accused. Fear begets its own demons. The fault squarely rests on the degrading twist of America as guarantor of the world's best hope for securing peace and national integrity into darker realms than ever the "Elders of Scion" fantasy could trip into.

In war frenzy, whatever Clark said even if supporting Israel on everything but less than 100% the anti-Semitism card would be played. And now of course Israel really has, whatever its collusion with Bush, a very threatening crisis on its hands. So less than 100% means a lot. In fact to comment enters the realm of public diplomacy. Well Carter just got slammed for worse and Edwards for being too pro-Israel. No sidebar events or comments are enough. We ARE with Israel in a time of extreme crisis for which both, mostly Israel, will pay an enormous price.

It really is a time when no country or speaker can solve the problem. It is a world issue and the world has been shoved aside, having too many oil interests and other prejudices dividing it from any past success anyway. An immense spotlight. Peace. World support for rights and needs with no war and violence.
The despicable jockeying by players for sides and violence needs a lot more exposure and condemnation. Enough for everyone and ranking of who's worse or to blame will not bring peace. A world political solution. Sane voices are lost and the hollow crown pushes for a mad war Israel feels is tied to its survival. There are many foreigners dictating our foreign policy. Two, like the Saudis and Israelis are tied together for convenience to the power of American loons. They ALL should be honestly exposed. They have little now to do with honest lobbying or the interests of their people. The cause against anti-Semitism will not be helped by the war the power faction wants to get America involved in.

[AX10]

10. The right wing is "scared shitless" about the prospect of...

Candidate Clark. He could win 400 electoral votes and wipe the floor with the GOP in the congressional races.

The right wing smear machine is running well and has no plans of stopping!