Is the Israel lobby doing more harm than good?
coaste...@yahoo.com
Comment / Is the Israel lobby doing more harm than good?
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent
Three years ago I was invited, along with 30 other guests - mainly
politicians and journalists - to a private dinner party given by one
of Britain's richest Jews at a Jerusalem hotel. After a mediocre steak
and some fantastic wine, we were addressed by our host. The British
media were a disgrace, he told us, "real Goebbels-style." Their
coverage of the Second Lebanon War had totally ruined his summer
holiday. And the British politicians, many of whom he had donated to
in the past, were with few exceptions "all pusillanimous hypocrites"
who had criticized Israel's "disproportionate" response to Hezbollah's
attacks.
What was needed, he said, was a new "crack team" of media specialists
to be based in London, to compile information, brief journalists and
prepare instant responses to all the mendacious lies issued by the
hostile press. He expected us all to applaud and congratulate him on
his visionary idea, which he assured us he was willing to fund
handsomely. Some did applaud, whether out of agreement or sycophancy,
but he was perplexed when he discovered that not all of us were so
certain that the war had been Israel's finest hour. How could we be
giving succor to Israel's haters, he asked.
The millionaire flew back to England on his private jet and to the
best of my knowledge his media attack team was never formed. "With the
price of a meal, he bought you as a captive audience for three hours,"
said a friend familiar with these events. "He does the same thing back
home every month and gives the same speech. The politicians all come
because they know there's a good chance they will get a check out of
it for their campaigns."
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Last year I saw it happening on British soil. I covered the
Conservative Party convention in Birmingham and attended a luncheon
organized by the Conservative Friends of Israel in a room packed with
senior party members and donors. Upon hearing I was an Israeli
journalist, the shadow minister I was seated next to launched into an
off-the-record attack on Conservative Leader David Cameron for being
"much too wishy-washy about Israel," instead of supporting it
outright. For all public and political purposes, my lunch companion is
a staunch Cameron ally, but he obviously assumed that as an Israeli at
a Conservative Friends event, that's what I expected to hear from
him.
Having had these and other brief glimpses of the pro-Israel lobby in
Britain, I was intrigued by the title of the documentary on Channel 4
this week - "Inside Britain's Israel Lobby" - and bitterly
disappointed after watching it.
You'd have to be particularly ill-informed to be surprised that well-
connected, pro-Israeli groups try to lobby the main British political
parties and that wealthy individuals connected to such groups donate
large sums to the parties and many members of Parliament. It's also
well known that they also fly many MPs over to Israel on fact-finding
visits and that some believe that this influences these politicians'
attitudes and their parties' policies regarding Israel and the Middle
East conflict. Hardly surprising.
Aside from this, the program's host and producer, Peter Oborne, had so
little new information he had to dedicate a third of the show to a
description of how pro-Israel organizations monitor the British media,
generating massive email- writing campaigns over any criticism of
Israel, often portraying these as anti-Semitic. Nothing really new
there, either.
Oborne used the classic follow-the-money tactic, but as he had to
admit at the end of the program, he'd failed to discover any evidence
of a conspiracy or illegality.
But the real problem with today's Israel lobby, in Britain and the
United States, is not with its finances and their lack of transparency
but with its entire mind-set. The basic fact is that by its actions,
the lobby is now causing Israel more harm than good. That's the point
Oborne almost totally missed. On every level - moral, political,
diplomatic, economic, military and religious - this country is being
rapidly corrupted and damaged by the continuing occupation of the West
Bank. By granting blanket support to all policies of whatever Israeli
government happens to be in power, and by branding critics of these
policies as either self-hating Jews or anti-Semites, they're
contributing to Israel's siege mentality and delaying the day when
Israelis will finally realize that there's only one practical and
ethical alternative.
In this sense at least, Oborne was right to make the connection
between the political lobbying and the relentless pressure on the
media which has totally blurred the lines between legitimate criticism
and real bias. These knee-jerk reactions to any form of criticism have
become so second nature to the Israel lobbyists that they're now
trying to stifle debate even within the Israeli media. Their shrill
reactions to the eyewitness accounts of soldiers who fought in Gaza
and were brave enough to say that the IDF did not always act there as
"the most moral army in the world" are a good example.
We are at a pivotal point. The rise of the right in Israel's last
election does not signal that the voters are opposed to territorial
compromise and a two-state solution. On the contrary, polls
consistently show a clear majority of Israelis favoring this outcome,
but they seem to prefer a right-wing prime minister to carry out a
leftist policy. In effect, Israelis voted for Benjamin Netanyahu
hoping that he'd go against his party's manifesto. All the signs point
to a prime minister on the brink of a decision. He could take the
plunge or he could retreat back into his ideological and political
comfort zone. International pressure will play a major role in
persuading him to make a necessary decision, but the message emanating
from the Israel lobby is that should he decide to hold out and play
for time, he will continue to receive their unreserved support.
Such support could prolong Israel's procrastination - with deadly
consequences.
Honest truth
> this country is being
> rapidly corrupted and damaged by the continuing occupation of the West
> Bank
But to you, this is good behavior
http://www.gamla.org.il/english/feature/lynch2a.htm
--
嚙踝蕭Of all the extreme fanaticism which plays havoc in man嚙踝蕭s nature, there is
not one as irrational as anti-Semitism. 嚙皺 If the Jews are rich [these
fanatics] are victims of theft. If they are poor, they are victims of
ridicule. If they take sides in a war, it is because they wish to take
advantage from the spilling of non-Jewish blood. If they espouse peace, it
is because they are scared by their natures or traitors. If the Jew dwells
in a foreign land he is persecuted and expelled. If he wishes to return to
his own land, he is prevented from doing so.嚙踝蕭
Lloyd George
Fish Supper
"Honest truth" <Honest...@Wisdom.net> wrote in message
news:43w604wq7vfb$.23wntjyy949l.dlg@40tude.net...
>
>
>> this country is being
>> rapidly corrupted and damaged by the continuing occupation of the West
>> Bank
>
> But to you, this is good behavior
>
> http://www.gamla.org.il/english/feature/lynch2a.htm
>
All your other zionist buddies have been unable to come up with a
justification for this inhuman, brutal behaviour by IDF thugs and keep
running away from it:
http://media-islam.or.id/2009/11/16/video-gaza-the-new-holocaust/ from
58seconds in.
Care to give it a go?
cornholio
> "Honest truth" <Honest_tr...@Wisdom.net> wrote in message
How many Jews are allowed to live in the Gaza Shite again Abdul?
How many synagogues are located in the Gaza Shite?
someone-who-knows
Fish Supper <li...@sea.com> wrote:
[...]
Hamas used hospitals as detention and torture centers
*****************************************************
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=35588
PA Health Ministry: Hamas using hospitals as detention centers
Ramallah . Ma'an . The Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry on
Saturday accused the Hamas-run de facto government's security
services of turning medical centers into virtual prisons.
According to a statement from the Health Ministry, Hamas has used
hospitals and clinics in Gaza as interrogation and detention centers,
where medical staffers have been expelled.
mose
"icono...@yahoo.com" <coaste...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:34d33131-3019-48fa...@j9g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> Comment / Is the Israel lobby doing more harm than good?
UK Israeli lobby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POtk6G7q4Bw
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23997.htm
US lobby http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukv85nc-VOA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7EB1FxENxQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuTQ6ystWrw
Dispatches: Inside Britain's Pro-Israel Lobby (the pro-Israel biased
'American' media would never broadcast such a documentary as we saw
how CBS '60 Minutes' refused to do a segment on the Mearsheimer/Walt
book!):
http://america-hijacked.com/2009/11/22/dispatches-inside-britains-pro-israel-lobby/
'60 Minutes' refusing to cover Mearsheimer/Walt book
Additional at http://AMERICA-HIJACKED.COM
Fish Supper
"someone-who-knows" <someone-...@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:heeedr$lu9$1...@pcls4.std.com...
lie, deflect, deny - zionism 101
comments on the video:
Fish Supper
"cornholio" <andx...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:87aae7ef-25b7-45c3...@h2g2000vbd.googlegroups.com...
***
I'll add you to the list of zionist pussys, shall I:
coaste...@yahoo.com
Why do you ask?
someone-who-knows
Fish Supper <li...@sea.com> wrote:
[...]
Deal with reality, you strange little thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWIDZ7Jpdqg
Hamas MP Fathi Hammad admits that the Palestinians use women
and children as human shields, adding "we desire death like
you desire life".
cornholio
wrote:
Because the Israeli apartheid you rant and rave about is nothing in
comparison to that practiced by your muslime fuck brethren in the
Gaza Shite.
Fish Supper
Lie. The translation of the arabic is corrupt and completely wrong and was
obviously done by a zionist.
Now, have a look at
http://media-islam.or.id/2009/11/16/video-gaza-the-new-holocaust/ from
58seconds in.
Nobody getting in the way of truth here.
coaste...@yahoo.com
Ah, the discrete charm of the bourgeoisie.
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