[PR] Untangling the Right's Web
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Right Web
News | February 10, 2005 Exposing the Architecture of Power Thats
Changing Our World http://rightweb.irc-online.org
Editor: Tom Barry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Week on the Right
A Meeting of Minds and Policy By Tom Barry (Excerpted from an
analysis published by Inter Press Service on February 7.
See Right Webs special report The Foreign Policy Disapora -- From
Jerusalem to Washington
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2005/0502sharansky.php)
for a full treatment of the Bush/Sharansky relationship.)
There is little doubt that George W. Bush and Natan Sharansky, a
Soviet imigri who is a top political official in Israel, share a
similar perspective about international affairs, especially in the
Middle East.
Following his inaugural address, the U.S. president said that
Sharansky's book The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to
Overcome Tyranny and Terror, published last September, confirmed
what he already believed. He added that the Israeli author's thinking
was part of my presidential DNA.
Sharansky and Bush appear to enjoy a mutual admiration society.
Sharansky, who is Israel's Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora
Affairs, praised Bush's June 24, 2002 speech on his new Middle East
policy -- which aligned Washington with the Likud party's agenda
-- as one of the two greatest speeches of my lifetime, the other
being former U.S. president Ronald Reagan's speech casting the
Soviet Union as an evil empire.
After perusing galleys of Sharansky's book, President Bush invited
the Israeli minister for a personal meeting at the White House on
November 11, 2004. The November session between Sharansky and the
president was not the first time that Bush had met Sharansky. On
an official visit to Israel in 1998, Bush, then governor of Texas,
met with then Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, and Industry Minister Sharansky.
According to Bush, who had dinner with Netanyahu and was personally
escorted on a helicopter tour of the occupied territories by Sharon,
Israel has got a tremendous amount of talent -- smart folks -- many
of whom have immigrated from Russia. Sharanksy, one of those
immigrants, gave Bush an overview of the existing U.S.-Israeli
business relationships and new opportunities, especially in the
defense industry.
In Israel and across the Middle East, Sharansky is widely regarded
as a right-wing Zionist and hawk, who positions himself to the right
of Ariel Sharon.
The coherence between the Likud party's agenda and that of the Bush
administration was clearly on display at the December 2004 Herzliya
Conference on National Strength and Security in Israel, which
featured Sharansky and Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Sharansky said that President Bush shared his own belief that there
could be no peace in the Middle East or resolution of the Palestinian
issue until the Arab world adopted economic and political reforms
in line with those promoted by the Bush administration and the Likud
party.
The United States and Israel have much in common, according to
Sharansky.
One of the links, he said in a speech at a forum sponsored by the
American Enterprise Institute, which was the basis for an article
in Commentary, the journal of the American Jewish Committee, is the
spreading scourge of anti-Semitism. Anti-Americanism in the Islamic
world and anti-Americanism in Europe are in fact linked, argues
Sharansky, because both bear an uncanny resemblance to anti-Semitism.
In his essay titled On Hating Jews, Sharansky writes: America
embodies a different-a nonconforming-idea of the good, and refuses
to abandon its moral clarity about the objective worth of that idea.
According to Sharansky, the Jews have long held that they were
chosen to play a special role in history, to be what their prophets
called a light unto nations -- not unlike the United States, a
nation that has long regarded itself as entrusted with a mission
to be what John Winthrop in the 17th century called a city on a
hill and Ronald Reagan in the 20th century parsed as a shining city
on a hill.
*Tom Barry is policy director of the International Relations Center
(IRC), online at http://www.irc-online.org. He directs the IRC's
Right Web program.
Featured Profiles
*Neocon Gladiator: Elliott Abrams embodies neoconservatism. Perhaps
more than any other neoconservative, Abrams has integrated the
various influences that have shaped todays neoconservative agenda.
Right Web Profile: Elliott Abrams:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/abrams/abrams.php
*A Perfect Fit: Although not part of the new right's militarist and
neoconservative camps, Zoellick's personal arrogance, his unilateralism,
and his loyalty to Bush and the Republican Party's new radical elite
make him a perfect fit for Bush's new foreign policy team.
Right Web Profile: Robert Zoellick:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/zoellick/zoellick.php
*Follower, Not a Leader. Rice is expected to realign the State
Department so that it reflects the directions set by the administrations
foreign policy team based at the Pentagon and the vice-presidents
office.
Right Web Profile: Condoleezza Rice:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/rice/rice.php
*Author, Activist, and Govt Minister: In Case for Freedom, Natan
Sharansky describes U.S. policy as a continuum involving many of
his closest friends and collaborators in the United States, including
Abrams, Perle, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, outgoing
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, and Cheney's
chief of staff "Scooter" Libby. "If you check their background,
most of them were connected either to Senator Jackson or to the
Reagan administration, or both," wrote Sharansky.
Right Web Profile: Natan Sharansky:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/sharansky/sharansky.php
Featured Analysis
Natan Sharansky and George W. Bush:
The Foreign Policy DiasporaFrom Jerusalem to Washington As Minister
of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, Natan Sharanksy advocates
thein-gathering of Jews in Israel. In a letter published by the
Israel Citizens Information Council, a project of his ministry,
Sharansky wrote:
In Israel there is no such thing as anordinary citizen. This country
consists largely of immigrants, but immigrants only in the sense
that they were born someplace else, just to return home, to Israel,
later. The community we have created -- a diverse, vibrant and
growing democracy -- is best represented by its citizens. Sharansky
describes himself asthe representative of the government and people
of Israel to the Jewish world.
Right Web Analysis:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2005/0502sharansky.php
Neocons and Liberals Together, Again The neoconservative Project
for the New American Century (PNAC) has signaled its intention to
continue shaping the governments national security strategy with a
new public letter stating that the U.S. military is too small for
the responsibilities we are asking it to assume. Their January 28th
letter advocates that House and Senate leaders take the necessary
steps to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army
and Marine Corps.
Joining the neocons in the letter to congressional leaders were a
group of prominent liberals giving credence to PNACs claim that the
call to act to increase the total number of U.S. ground forces
counts on bipartisan support. To the delight of the neocons at PNAC
and AEI, these liberal hawks share their vision of a world order
based on U.S. military supremacy and Americas presumed moral
superiority.
Right Web Analysis:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/analysis/2005/0502ally.php
Letters and Comments
(Editors Note: We encourage feedback and comments, which can be
sent for publication through our feedback page, at:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/form_feedback.html. Thank you.)
Re: Neocons and Liberals Together, Again
I would suggest that a very important element explaining why the
formerly "liberal" neocons came to be what they are is their sympathy
for Israel and how that nation became anathema to progressives
because of its persecution of the Palestinians. Related was the
enmity of the Soviet Union again partially engendered by the
antagonism of that country towards Israel and the emigration of
many of its Jewish citizens.
- Morton Brussel (bru...@uiuc.edu)
Re: Neocons and Liberals Together Again Great article on PNAC's
most recent letter to Congress. However, I take issue with your
claims that somehow Trotskyism played a roll in the formation of
this rightwing ideology. It is simply dishonest; in fact, the
original claims made to this effect were made by *conservatives*
whose ideological positions did not line up with the so-called
"neo-cons."
I would respect this website tremendously if it offered retractions
of this claim. A great place to start in unraveling the lies that
the neocons were "Trotskyists" can be found in this article, which
states: "The historical roots of neoconservatism: a reply to a
slanderous attack on Trotskyism," at
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/may2003/shac-m23.shtml
- Michael de Socio deso...@yahoo.com
(Editors Reply: No retraction. Most neoconservative forerunners
such as James Burnham and Irving Kristol, among many others, became
involved in politics as socialists who were anti-Stalinists,
anti-totalitarians, and members of Troskyite student organizations
and front organizations. They openly acknowledge this. And this
Trotskyite tradition continues in the affiliation of many neocons
with organizations such as Social Democrats/USA. Its true that the
traditional conservatives, mainly the paleoconservatives, frequently
point to the Trotskyite and later liberal origins of todays neocons,
but these charges are well-founded and result from having experienced
the takeover of the conservative movement by those whose political
origins found in left-center organizations and publications.)
Re: Robert Zoellick and Condoleezza Rice
What everyone else should know is that Rice is not the strong
personality the Republicans like to present her as being. She's
strongly emotionally dependent on Bush as a father/brother/husband
substitute. I read her early biography closely--an only child who
grew up under intense family pressure, especially the hand of a
somewhat narcissistic mother, groomed for black greatness, denied
a normal childhood and the kind of emotional nurture a girl needs
to succeed in love as an adult. The Bushes have been grooming her
(emotionally) for years, filling a void.Her religiously justified
neurotic sense of duty, to them as well as to her country, has
impaired her psychological autonomy.
I have considerable background in psychology. This is my interpretation
of the facts as presented by Antonia Felix. I refer you to the
Sunday (London) Times article, from 11/21/040:
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1367314,00.html
- Sharon Kass <Kas...@aol.com>
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Editor: Tom Barry, IRC Layout: Chellee Chase-Saiz, IRC
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