Anyone who doubt's AIPAC's influence need only look at

[Mairead]

No bias there, nope, none at all.

[Kolesar]

1. Note that that image is from Tom Delay's website

yuk

[StandWatie]

2. Jihad Tom Delay

Crazy ole "Jihad Cindi" had to go because she basically felt like Palestinians were human beings with the right to govern their own affairs and she had to go like RIGHT NOW!

Tom has a frickin Israeli flag on his web site and is urging them to conquer Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza for God and he is completely sane.

[jiacinto]

3. Another Anti-Israel Post

God I wish that there were more balance on this issue here. I wish that there were more pro-Israreli people and less Palestinian extremists on this board.

[el_gato]

4. bull

I guess you an extremist if you point out Sharon's thuggish behavior.
hmmm.....

same arguement as "your unamerican if you criticize bush"

[jiacinto]

5. There is a lot of hatred for Israel

Just go to the I/P forum. There are some very anti-Israeli posts there.

[dfong63]

17. why do israel's apologists always try to change the subject to "hatred",

... when people are discussing Israel's atrocities against Palestinians? hatred is only an emotion that may or may not be acted upon. Israel's atrocities are real, often deadly acts.

and it's not as if this awful "hatred" were a crime committed solely by one side - there is at least as much hatred on the pro-Israeli side.

speaking of "the hatred" is such a red herring in this context. hatred (the emotion) is a completely understandable reaction to the actual crimes that Israel has committed against the Palestinians. Q: if the Israelis had stolen YOUR land, razed YOUR houses, killed YOUR unarmed children, expropriated your water, chopped down your olive groves, subjected you to constant humiliation at checkpoints, and built a Berlin-wall right down the middle of your property; turning your entire nation into a prison - what emotions would you feel toward them? love and admiration???

[tinnypriv]

18. Cite 'em

Or run along.

[HootieMcBoob]

6. are you being sarcastic?

I'm serious. I just can't tell. I kinda think you might be but if you aren't could you tell me how this is an anti-israel post.

[anti_shrub]

8. He's always like that

Anyone who doesn't genuflect to Israel is a hate filled anti Semite or something like that.

[JHB]

7. How so?

.

[StandWatie]

11. I've got as much sypathy for that..

as I do the "anti-south" whining. The similarities are endless.

[LoneStarLiberal]

13. Good Point

But I think that you can criticize Tom DeLay and AIPAC without being pro-militant on the Palestinian side.

DeLay is a crackpot fascist whose involvement in this issue is polarizing in all the wrong ways for sensible resolution. He and his fellow End of Days apocalyptic Christian crowd are a wart on the ass of any attempt at constructive peace in the Levant.

I am pro-Israel but anti-Zionist. The State of Israel is not going away today, tomorrow, or 100 years from now. The core problem that contemporary peace efforts face is that militants on both sides need to be reigned in; Zionist settlers and al-Aqsa splinters alike are just as culpable for destabilizing peace efforts. Sure there is a lot of historic anger at the many despicable things the Israelis have done to the Palestinians; but there is just as much anger at the many despicable things Palestinians have done to Israelis. Getting into historical tit-for-tat is precisely what is not needed in this situation because no one wins and everyone loses (zero-sum).

As Democrats we should offer a viable policy alternative so AIPAC doesn't have to whore themselves out to the God bothering Book of Revelations crowd. I feel the only reason they have done so is because of the left's failure to offer up anything as concrete as the support they receive (albeit in a weird psychosis sort of way) from the right. But at the same time this support needs to be balanced and not biased as it often is one way or the other. Balance!

[bodhisattava]

19. Instead of saying

"more Pro-Israeli people and less Palestinian extremists" try saying
more Pro-Israeli Extremists and less palestinian victims of Israelis
and you will be closer to the truth.

[Tinoire]

9. The Bias disgusts many US Jews too

Jewish leaders in row over Israeli fence...

A row has erupted between Jewish leaders in the United States over the 7.6-metre high security fence Israel is building around Palestinian areas in the West Bank.

The row, which has drawn in prominent politicians from the US and Israel, was triggered by a letter sent to President George Bush by Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire scion of the Seagram's drinks fortune and president of the World Jewish Congress.

Co-signed by Lawrence Eagleburger, secretary of state under president George Bush snr, the letter criticised the fence as a "separation wall", and said that the continuing construction was "complicated and potentially problematic".

They also urged Mr Bush to put pressure on Israel and apply "the same straightforwardness" with the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, as he had shown with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/10/1060454082463.html


This comment from the senior vice-president of the World Jewish Congress demanding that Bronfman must defend the government of Israel no matter what it does caught my attention.

'It would be obscene at any time for the president of the World Jewish Congress to lobby the president of the United States to resist policies being promoted by the Government of Israel.'
---

He ((Isi Liebler))wrote: "It would be obscene at any time for the president of the World Jewish Congress to lobby the president of the United States to resist policies being promoted by the Government of Israel. But on a security issue such as the security fence, one that impacts on the life and death of Israelis, your intervention . . . can only be described as an act of perfidy which will not be swept under the carpet."
(quote from your article

Where the hell is this guy, Isi Liebler, getting off?


Bronfman and Eagleburger’s unprecedented letter has ignited a firestorm among Jewish leaders. World Jewish Congress senior vice president Isi Leibler called on Bronfman to resign over the letter - another unprecedented act.

"By this, you have initiated an outrageous act that stands in defiance of the broad consensus of the World Jewish Congress constituency, unbefitting to the President of that organization. Without a doubt that broad consensus seeks to maximize its support of the policies determined by the democratically elected government of Israel during these difficult times.”

Liebler added: “You have in the past expressed other odd ideas about Israel, but your most recent foray is much more serious and has crossed every red line… your intervention - irrespective as to whether you formally used your presidential title or not - can only be described as an act of perfidy which will not swept under the carpet.” ((Liebler really has a thing about carpets!))

<snip>
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20030806195833742
---

(Excerpt)
Bronfman told The Jewish Week that he “deliberately” refrained from writing the letter on WJC stationary in order to make clear these were his private views.

“My purpose was simple,” Bronfman said. “Sharon was meeting the president and I wanted to make sure the president knew that the Jewish community is divided and is not all right-wing idiots.”
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=8300

((THANK YOU MR. BRONFMAN!))
--------------

(Excerpt)

Bronfman, who is spending the summer vacation on his Idaho ranch, said Israel and the Jewish community cannot afford a fight with the White House now. Bronfman is known as one of the harshest critics of the pro-Israeli lobby AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that are "dominated by the right wing."

Labor Party Chairman Shimon Peres and Justice Minister Yosef Lapid were among the many Jewish leaders and Israeli public figures who wrote Bronfman letters of support following the report of his letter to Bush.

WJC chairman Israel Singer yesterday slammed right-wing Jewish leaders, saying they are doing everything to destroy the political pluralism in the community and boycotting anyone whose opinion is different from theirs. He said public opinion polls indicate that some 80 percent of the Jews support the road map and the peace process and just as right-wing officials can express their opinions, so can the left-wing camp.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=326444&contrass
ID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
http://www.rense.com/general39/jleaders.htm
--

You can read the DU thread here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=5494#5609

[Kolesar]

10. I am so glad you wrote that

I know there is much oppostion to Israel's policies in the US Jewish community. I never searched it out though.

[Tinoire]

15. Tons of these organizations. Here are just a FEW AIPAC wants to shut-up

Americans for Peace Now

Bat Shalom

Bereaved Families Forum

http://brittzedek.org[/a/a" target="_blank" target="_blank">Brit Tzedek V Shalom: Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace[br />

Grassroots International

Israeli-Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace

International Solidarity Movement

Jewish Unity for a Just Peace (JUNITY)

A Jewish Voice for Peace

Jewish Voices Against the Occupation of Palestinian Territories (JVAO)

Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel

Gush Shalom

MADRE

Pax Christi International

Rabbis for Human Rights

Tikkun

Ta ayush: An Israeli-Arab partnership[br />



OTHER RESOURCES:

A historic wrong?
URL: http://www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/0112occupation.html
Description: Foreign Policy In Focus argues that the Israeli occupation is a historic wrong on the scale of slavery and apartheid, and that it must be ended in order to break the cycle of violence.

Americans for Peace Now
URL: http://www.peacenow.org/stand.html
Description: In their policy statement, Americans for Peace Now, the U.S. partner of the Israeli organization Shalom Achshav, compellingly argue that Israel has as much to gain from a Palestinian state as Palestinians do. APN believes that forging a lasting peace with the Palestinians is not only compatible with the Zionist position, but is necessary if Israel is to preserve its Jewish and democratic character.

Bitter Lemons
URL: http://www.bitterlemons.org/previous/bl070102ed1.html
Description: In this edition of Bitter Lemons, a weekly cross-fire produced and edited by Ghassan Khatib, a Palestinian, and Yossi Alpher, an Israeli, editorialists present Palestinian and Israeli views on the state of peace in the region. Although no consensus is reached per se, all contributors see the dead-locked peace process as the result of irrational mistrust and fear on both sides, as well as a failure to learn from past mistakes.

Brief History of Middle East Conflict
URL: http://www.mideastweb.org/BriefHistory.htm
Description: A summary of the history of the region from 2000 BC to the present.

Compassionate Listening Project
URL: http://www.mideastdiplomacy.org/clp.html
Description: The Compassionate Listening Project, a major initiative of the US-based MidEast Citizen Diplomacy group, brings together people from both sides of the conflict. By meeting and talking with the people they perceive as their enemies, participants begin to break down stereotypes and reconcile with each other.

Displaced Palestinians.
URL: http://peace.moveon.org/r.php3?redir=78
Description: One of the main obstacles in the way of the creating a lasting peace agreement is the question of whether displaced Palestinians should be allowed to return home. A good explanation of both Palestinian and Israeli views on this issue.

Effects of Israeli Occupation
URL: http://www.arij.org/paleye/
Description: Applied Research Institute's "Eye on Palestine" offers frequent reports on the regional effects of Israeli occupation.

Foundation for Middle East Peace
URL: http://www.fmep.org/
Description: The website of the Foundation for Middle East Peace contains articles and more comprehensive information on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The site publishes a biweekly settlement report, which according to the Foundation, is "known as the authoritative English-language source for information about settlements and the settler community" and "is used by diplomats, journalists, students and other interested parties in the Middle East, the United States and elsewhere for concise, accurate updates on this central aspect of Israeli policy in territories occupied in June 1967".

International Solidarity Movement
URL: http://www.palsolidarity.org
Description: "The International Solidarity Movement is a growing movement of Palestinian and international activists working to raise awareness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and an end to Israeli occupation. We utilize non-violent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront and challenge the illegal Israeli occupation forces and policies."

Israel and September 11
URL: http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/26/04/news1.shtml
Description: " 'For Israel, September 11 was a Hanukkah Miracle,' Israeli political and security officials recently told the newspaper Ha'aretz. Thousands of American fatalities are considered a godsend -- in this cynical world -- because their deaths helped shift international pressure from Israel onto the Palestinians, while allowing the Israeli government to pursue its regional objectives unobstructed. And indeed, in the past months, the United States has unfalteringly supported all of Israel's actions."

Israel and the War on Terrorism
URL: http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein.html
Description: The Israeli/Palestinian peace process has been basically demolished. Israel has appropriated the "war on terrorism" rhetoric of America to justify its actions against Palestine, while the States have remained a strong backer of the Israeli regime, despite its history of human rights abuses.

Israel Primer
URL: http://peace.moveon.org/r.php3?redir=77
Description: Learn about everyday life under Israeli rule, the reasons that Arafat rejected Israel's "best offer yet," and how the Oslo process has curbed the freedom of Palestinians in the West Bank. Plus, some thoughts about how to criticize Israeli policies while remaining supportive of Israel itself, and the vulnerability of these policies to Western pressure.

Jerusalem
URL: http://peace.moveon.org/r.php3?redir=79
Description: The city of Jerusalem, holy for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, may well be the key to creating peace in the Middle East. This article summarizes the historical and religious significance of the holy sites within Jerusalem to each faith, as well as the options being considered by negotiators for this extremely significant city.

Jewish-Arab Center for Peace Programs
URL: http://www.inter.net.il/~givat_h/givat/ctcfaqs.htm
Description: The Givat Haviva Jewish-Arab Center for Peace Programs runs the Children Teaching Children project, through which Israeli and Palestinian children learn to cope with the violence and conflict that are a part of their everyday lives, and learn to think more critically and realistically about the situation.

Jewish Peace Fellowship
URL: http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org
Description: Members of the Jewish Peace Fellowship are a diverse group of people, religious and secular Jews from all our traditions and all branches of Judaism. All believe deeply that Jewish ideals and experience provide inspiration for a nonviolent way of life. We see Jewish tradition as a continual calling toward peace, justice and compassion, a tradition whose goal is to bring all people to the consciousness that peace and not war is where we should direct our vision, energy and lives.

Jewish Voice for Peace
URL: http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/
Description: "A Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a San Francisco Bay Area grassroots organization dedicated to the human, civil and economic rights of Jews, Palestinians, and all peoples in the Middle East. Beyond our focus on the Middle East, JVP aims to build a community of activists working together on issues of social and economic justice."

Meretz USA
URL: http://www.meretzusa.org
Description: Meretz USA: for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace is a tax-exempt educational organization that works to support full and genuine peace between the State of Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East, including the Palestinian people. The agency supports full civil and human rights for all who live in the State of Israel, as well as the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights, regardless of in whose political authority they dwell. Meretz USA firmly believes in and supports those both within and beyond the borders of outside the State of Israel working for a fair and just society for all within Israel.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
URL: http://www.pchrgaza.org/
Description: The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) is an independent legal body based in Gaza City dedicated to protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and upholding democratic principles in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Prospects for Peace
URL: http://www.ariga.com/peacewatch/
Description: A compelling and thought-provoking analysis that portrays the peace process as doomed to fail as long as it remains inconsistent with the national goals and identities of both Israelis and Palestinians. According to this article, both sides see a continuation of the conflict as preferable to the painful compromises that might bring about peace.

Rebuilding Homes
URL: http://www.RebuildingHomes.org
Description: The Rebuilding Homes Campaign brings together Palestinians, Israelis and Internationals to rebuild homes in Palestine. In the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, this Palestinian and Israeli partnership is peacfully resisting the policies of Occupation by rebuilding demolished Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem, the West Band and Gaza.

Speaking Tours
URL: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ens/2000-026.html
Description: The 70-year-old-plus wife of a former American diplomat organizes speaking tours of America by Middle Eastern women through her small organization called Partners for Peace. These women relate their personal experiences of living with the fear, war, and violence in their homeland, in the hope that Americans will gain a better understanding of the situation and want to help. The speaking tours have been phenomenally successful.

Ta'ayush Arab-Jewish Partnership
URL: http://taayush.tripod.com
Description: A group of Israeli citizens, both Arab and Jews, involved in direct action in and out of the territories.

Time line for Israeli / Palestinian conflict
URL: http://www.mideastweb.org/timeline.htm
Description: A time line of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict from 1914 to 2001.

U.S. Involvement in Israel / Palestine
URL: http://peace.moveon.org/r.php3?redir=80
Description: 2006 will be the 50th year of American efforts to bring about an Israeli/Palestinian peace. The BBC's article on this coming anniversary summarizes these diplomatic efforts, and their failure thus far.

[Tinoire]

16. AIPAC and the shills can't stop these groups

They've even attacked MoveOn.org demanding MoveOn remove the Leftist Retard Peace links I gave you in my previous posts. Had dinner with one of the guys from Jewish Voices for Peace this week-end. Know what he had to say about AIPAC and their shills who are pretending to speak for all Jews? "This is now war". Anything we can do to help spread the word is appreciated.

This won't go away and they are going to make it a campaign issue.

Was at a talk by one of the Presidential candidates Saturday; he took a dozen questions before having to run off and catch a plane- 3 of them were about Israel (and I didn't even get a chance to ask my question!).

NJDC Criticizes MoveOn Peace Process Material
According to The Forward, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) “is seeking to remove what it considers ‘unbalanced’ material from the Web site of” MoveOn.org “a group it is calling ‘an important and influential progressive organization.’” The article states that the NJDC is “asking its members to contact MoveOn.org…about material it has posted about the Middle East ‘road map.’” The NJDC’s Executive Director Ira Forman stated that the material on MoveOn’s Web site is “totally slanted, biased, factually inaccurate and gives comfort to those who would say progressives are not pro-Israel…It's totally out of sync with the attitude and policy stance of the Democratic Party and its leadership.” The article also states that material “pins the failure of the 2000 Camp David summit on Israel's then-prime minister Ehud Barak, places the blame for the start of the intifada on Ariel Sharon's ‘provocative visit’ to the Temple Mount later that year and discounts the road map as ‘far from being a bona fide peace proposal.’ The bulletin also links to other sites that oppose the West Bank security fence and critique Sharon's policy on settlements.”
http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2003%20News%20archives/July%20/26%20n/Arab%20American%20News%20Focus.htm

DU discussion can be found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=6047&mesg_id=6047

[Kolesar]

12. Go straight to I/P Affairs forum, do not pass GO, do not collect $200

[Tinoire]

14. Nothing to see here folks..... Just move on

Nothing to do with Palestinians in this post but straight to I/P so it can get buried.

Nothing to see here folks. Just move on...

Topic will be locked in less than 2 minutes for not being based on a "recent news article". No elephants in this living room... Keep it moving folks...

[kcr]

20. Locking

Posts, per forum rules, cannot contain images.