Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?
Thebzp
Capuano and Kucinich Come Clean About the Lobby
Why is the Peace Movement Silent About AIPAC?
By JOHN WALSH
"AIPAC!" was the forceful one-word answer of Congressman Michael Capuano
when we asked him, "Why was the Iran clause forbidding war on Iran
without Congressional approval taken out of the recent supplemental for
the Iraq war funding?" I nearly fell out of my chair at his reply - not
because this was news but because of who had just said it. Capuano is a
close ally of Nancy Pelosi, her fixer and enforcer. That was last Friday
morning when a small delegation from Cambridge and Somerville, MA, were
visiting the Congressman, known for his bluntness, as part of the
nationwide UFPJ (United For Peace and Justice) home lobbying effort
during the Congressional recess.
Later that day, Dennis Kucinich made an appearance at Harvard, where he
was asked the same question, the reason for removing the Iran provision.
"AIPAC," I volunteered out loud. Kucinich looked my way and said,
"Exactly." Again my chair almost failed to contain me.
A few weeks earlier we had gone to the offices of Senators Kennedy and
then Kerry to discuss the war. (My intention was to call their attention
to www.FilibusterForPeace.org to which the Kennedy aide was sympathetic
and the Kerry aide predictably hostile.) I raised the question of AIPAC
directly with Kerry's aide, inquiring about its hawkish influence on
Kerry and other Senators. Suddenly the aide was quite engaged. Leaning
forward, he said: "That will never be discussed publicly. That will
never be discussed publicly." Clearly even Kerry's office is unhappy
with the pressure that comes from AIPAC.
It is widely acknowledged that the reps and senators are ticked at
AIPAC, and their hostility seems to be growing these days. With upwards
of 60% of their campaign contributions coming directly or indirectly
from the Israel Lobby, the Democratic congressmen are not free to
respond to their antiwar base. This opens them to an antiwar electoral
challenge on the Left or Right from forces not subservient to AIPAC. And
that could cost them their next election, a little thing which has them
very worked up. Capuano's cry of "AIPAC" was no simple outburst of
candor but a cri de coeur for his career.
So here we have even Congressmen and Senator's aides complaining
publicly about AIPAC. AIPAC is being outed all over the mainstream
media, largely thanks to the door opening work of Mearsheimer and Walt.
AIPAC is skewered routinely by Justin Raimondo on Antiwar.com and by
Alex Cockburn and many others here on CounterPunch. But there remains no
anti-AIPAC campaign within the mainstream antiwar organizations, like
UFPJ or Peace Action. (Even one supposed Congressional ally of the peace
movement was announced as a celebrity guest at the recent colossal AIPAC
meeting in Washington, where half the Congress shows up and Dick Cheney
is a regular speaker. What gives?)
I have been told by leaders of the peace movement that AIPAC is a
distraction from the main thrust of the antiwar movement. And so we
should not engage it; AIPAC is to be immune. But with all due respect to
the sentiments of that leadership, immunity for AIPAC is a prescription
for disaster. To use a military analogy, which I do not especially like,
suppose that we were trying to take a hill in Germany in 1944. And
suppose we said that we would not attack one pillbox, which kept
devastating our forces. Leave just that one pillbox alone! The result
would be devastating; we would be cut down with every succeeding attempt
at advance. So it is with AIPAC which campaigns relentlessly for war on
Iraq, war on Iran, war on Syria, war on Lebanon and the slow genocide of
the Palestinian people. AIPAC constantly puts the peace movement on the
defensive while it is free to be on the offensive all the time.
AIPAC is not just an issue for Jewish Americans or the Jewish wing of
the peace movement like Jewish Voice for Peace; it is a major force,
although not the only one, driving the U.S. to wars in the Middle East.
AIPAC is no less a force for war than is the Republican National
Committee. In fact it is worse, because it sinks its teeth into the
foreign policy establishment of both parties, perhaps the Dems more so
than the Republicans. If the peace movement is to be worth its salt,
then it must take action against AIPAC. (It is marathon season here in
Boston and my friend, Israeli expatriate Joshua Ashenberg, tells me that
the foregoing thought harbors a logical error. As he says: "A 'movement'
that does not work against AIPAC is NOT a peace movement by definition.
It will not help if I call myself a marathon runner, while I never ran a
marathon.")
In the Boston area, AIPAC appears to be especially powerful, and so we
have a special responsibility to take it on. At the recent AIPAC
conference in Washington, the delegates from Boston/New England were the
most hawkish toward Iran. Just before the last election a notorious ad
in the Boston Globe, cheering on the Israeli bombing of Lebanon, was
engineered by the Jewish Community Relations Council, an arm of AIPAC
here. Every major political figure in MA signed the ad, including our
"liberal" governor, Deval Patrick, and supposed peacenik Congressman Jim
McGovern. Only Conressmen Capuano and Delahunt withheld their
signatures. In addition AIPAC appears to raise a lot of money in our
neck of the woods.
So I have a modest suggestion. On Sunday, April 29, beginning at 6 pm,
AIPAC has its annual fundraising dinner at the Westin Hotel in Copley
Square in Boston. (Last year a good table for 10 went for a modest
$10,000.) Show up at 5 pm to protest the machinations of AIPAC. Which
peace organizations in our area will be there? Which ones will promote
the rally? And which will maintain their silence?
* American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
John V. Walsh can be reached at John.Endwar@gmail..om.
He urges one and all to sign and circulate the petition at
WWW.FilibusterForPeace.org. The Senate Dems have the power to stop the
war with 41 votes; tell them to use it.
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
Ed Debevic
wrote:
Peeler
nazi homo, FORGING as Ed Debevic, whined again:
> Only a free Palestine will bring peace to the Middle East
you disgusting gay neo-nazitard!
--
Loose Sphincter about his passion:
" I love eating the Shit out of Poor Helpless Dumb Goran Razovic! LOL"
MID: <ajftsc9mb16l8v86a...@4ax.com>
25B.Z969
>
> Only a free Palestine will bring peace to the Middle East
>
to the middle east.
Radicals are NEVER happy with what they've got.